DES MOINES, Iowa – (Feb. 3, 2016) – With the completion of the Highland wind farm in O’Brien County and the Adams wind farm in Adams County, officials with MidAmerican Energy Company say they’ve wrapped up work on two major projects adding more than 1,200 megawatts of wind generation capacity for customers.

The Highland wind farm, which was placed in service on December 3, 2015, is the fifth and final piece of MidAmerican Energy’s Wind VIII project – the company’s largest wind project to date, and one of the largest economic development projects in Iowa history. On January 30, MidAmerican Energy completed its 153.4 megawatt, Wind IX project when the Adams wind farm was placed in service. The 67 new turbines represent a $280 million investment. The project marked the first time a concrete tower was used. Normally, the towers are constructed from steel.

Together, Wind VIII and Wind IX bring MidAmerican Energy’s total wind generation capacity to nearly 3,500 megawatts, an amount that represents about 42 percent of the company’s installed generation capacity.  Mike Gehringer, vice president, renewable energy, said the completion of the two projects marks a significant milestone for MidAmerican Energy, which owns and operates more wind turbines than any utility in the nation. Gehringer said “Today, wind makes up the largest share of our generation portfolio, and we project that by 2017, we will generate an amount equal to 57 percent of our total retail load with clean, non-carbon energy from our wind projects in Iowa.”

Officials say construction of MidAmerican Energy’s wind projects has spurred economic development in the state, creating thousands of construction jobs and almost 200 permanent jobs in rural Iowa. Over the next 30 years, the company’s wind projects will generate more than $1.5 billion in lease payments to landowners and property tax payments to schools, cities and counties.

House Republicans have unveiled their own plan for using million of dollars in sales taxes that are currently reserved for school infrastructure. Governor Terry Branstad wants to tap into that fund to pay for millions of dollars in water quality projects. House Republicans propose letting schools keep all the infrastructure money, for use on a variety of other school-related needs.

Representative Ron Jorgensen, a Republican from Sioux City who is a former school board member, says “I’m an education individual and I know what the needs are of the education community.” He is now chairman of the education committee in the Iowa House. Jorgensen is advancing a bill that would extend the one-cent sales tax for schools that’s set to expire in 2029 for another 20 years and all the money would still be dedicated to some sort of school use.

Jorgensen doesn’t sound convinced by Branstad’s idea to divert some of that money to water quality projects.  “It just has come up on us so quickly. There’s just a lot of information that we need to have before we could warm up to something like that,” Jorgensen says. “…With the governor’s proposal, there’s still a lot of information we would need to understand before you could even say: ‘Yeah, let’s do this,'” Jorgensen says. The governor says he looks forward to working with legislators on their ideas.

(Radio Iowa)

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Several Nebraska schools, businesses and institutions have remained closed a second day as workers try to reopen snow-covered roads. Authorities said Wednesday that motorists are still barred from several stretches of Interstate 80 and other highways as snowplows and road graders scrape pavement and push aside ice, slush and snow from a massive storm that developed across the state Tuesday.

The National Weather Service reports that more than 18 inches of snow has been recorded in Grand Island and nearly 16 inches in nearby Hastings. Both cities are in south-central Nebraska. The northeast Nebraska communities of Verdigre and Wayne had 16 inches of snow, with 14 inches reported in Norfolk.

Utilities report that electricity has been restored to almost all of the more than 20,000 customers who’d lost power.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – A 27-year-old woman has been given two years of probation after taking a plea deal in an Iowa sex-with-a-teen case. Court records say Jessica Pritchard was sentenced Monday in Pottawattamie County District Court. She’d pleaded guilty to enticement of a minor and dissemination of obscene material to a minor. Prosecutors had lowered the charges in return for her pleas.

The Daily Nonpareil also reports that Pritchard was given a deferred judgment, which means her two convictions will be removed from her record if she successfully completes probation. She must register for 10 years as a sex offender. Authorities say Pritchard now lives across the Missouri River in suburban Omaha, Nebraska. She was arrested in July in Alliance, Nebraska.

The driver of a pickup suffered possible/unknown injuries during a single-vehicle accident Tuesday night, in Union County. The Sheriff’s Department says 20-year old Bryce Still, of Creston, was transported by Ringgold Ambulance to the hospital in Creston, after his pickup went out of control in the 2500 block of Pole Road, at around 9:15-p.m., Tuesday. The 2004 Dodge R-15 truck spun out on the icy road and came to rest in the east ditch. The vehicle sustained about $7,500 damage. No citations were issued.

One, non-injury accident was reported Tuesday, in Atlantic. Police say vehicles driven by Glynn Westphalen and Misty Wehrli, both of Atlantic, collided at around 11-a.m. in the 800 block of East 17th Street, as Wehrli was backing out of a private driveway. Westphalen, who was traveling west on 17th Street, was unable to get stopped in-time, and struck Wehrli’s vehicle in the right rear tire area. Damage from the collision amounted to $2,700.

(Update 2/9/16) – Police Chief Steve Green says Wehrli was given a warning for unsafe backing.