West Central Reporter

Edgar County Watchdogs recently called out a fee schedule posted on the Morgan County website related to the Apex Clean Energy application for the Lincoln Land Wind Project after County Planning Commission Director Dusty Douglas said that part of the application did not need to be made public. 

Edgar County Watchdogs reported that the contract is worth at least $100,000 to the landowner, with payments of $85,557.95 for the set-back waiver, including $15,000 for a pre-construction payment and $2 per linear foot of entrenchment containing underground facilities. Additional payments may be made for damage to crops and livestock and compaction of soil during construction.

"We removed the application for a bit from the site.  Apex had disclosed some financial terms, on their part that they asked us to remove, and in order to remove those,  we had to break the link for a while.  It has nothing to do with the application, it is their interactions with local landowners, and frankly that’s not something we get involved with," Douglas said in a statement to WLDS. 

"The unusual thing in this case is, the particular document that’s referenced online, to my understanding, is called a setback waiver, but that’s a misnomer. That is a fee that they pay for underground wiring with this gentleman. The number looks huge because instead of going over the usual 30-year period of time, this gentleman wanted the money upfront.  So the dollar number looks pretty staggering, but that really has nothing to do with the county’s interaction with Apex, and frankly, when they get into their leases and property dealings with local landowners, that’s really none of our business. So I didn’t feel that it needed to be in the application and, not really willing to apologize for that.”          

Apex Clean Energy is working with local officials, private landowners and key stakeholders to explore the possibility of constructing Lincoln Land Wind, a 300-megawatt wind energy project. The power generated by this project will be delivered to the Illinois power grid, helping the state achieve 25% of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2025.  

The amended document can be found on the Morgan County website.