NEBRASKA CITY - Ernest Chad Neubauer filed as a write-in candidate for First District county board even before incumbent Commissioner Jim Thurman announced he would not accept re-election and long before the county writes its next chapter in electrical generation.

Neubauer grow up in Otoe County and still farms near Dunbar. He attended K-8 country school and high school at Syracuse. He earned his degree in agricultural science at the University of Nebraska and returned to farming.

When news broke that NextEra Energy Resources announced its plan for a 120-megawatt wind project with up to 38 wind turbines, each taller than the 400-foot state Capitol, Neubauer knew something did not sit right with his neighbors.

Neubauer: “There’s some environmental hazards with the wind turbines. They are detrimental to wildlife. People just don’t like to look at them. It’s what I found out talking to people. There are a lot of things that people are just not interested in right now.”

He said he is open to the idea of solar generation and understands the need to keep energy costs down.

Neubauer: “I’m not against renewables, but they have to be … first, people have to want them. The public has to support them and we didn’t have support for the wind turbines, but, yeah, someday we’re going to have to move forward and look at something else.”

He said the idea of lower costs includes county expenses and taxes.

Neubauer: “I mean people in Otoe County have become accustomed to certain services. We want roads, we want sheriff’s office, we want the county courthouse to run and it all costs money. We have to try and balance it all out going forward. It’s not getting any easier with fuel costs and everything going up this year.”

Neubauer said the taxpayers should see decent roads for their dollars and he wants to make sure the county bridge program does not take a step back.

Neubauer: “Concerns for district 1 and probably most of the county are roads, bridges and taxes. They want to be able to drive on the roads, they want have good bridges. They want to be able to move stuff around, especially the farmers. I was talking to a farmer yesterday. He was concerned that equipment is getting bigger  and the bridges need to stay at the same level as what the equipment is.”

 Neubauer said he has considered a role in county government ever since he graduated from college and current events gave him the motivation to file as a write-in candidate.