Curiosity about the route for a high-voltage energy transmission line from Spearville to Hays prompted Ford resident Mike Demuth to seek more information about the project.
Demuth joined the crowd at ITC Great Plains' open house Tuesday night in Spearville to learn more about the company's plans for the transmission line.
He said that his questions about the project had not been fully answered yet, since the exact route for the line has not been decided.
"If they take the purple route that they're talking, that won't affect me," Demuth said, pointing to a map with potential routes outlined in various colors. "It doesn't look like it, anyway. But the red one will."
He said the route outlined in red, which is not the preferred route, would run directly through his property.
About 200 people attended the open house to seek more information about ITC Great Plains' plans for the line or to support the Topeka-based company.
The company plans to build one segment of the high-voltage transmission line from Spearville to a spot just north of Hays, then build a second segment that would stretch from Hays to Axtell, Neb. The Spearville open house focused mainly on the segment from Spearville to Hays.
Another open house will take place tonight in LaCrosse.
Nina Froetschner, who lives just north of Spearville, said she attended Tuesday's open house to show support for ITC Great Plains and the project.
"I think it's needed," she said. "We know we want to add on to the wind farms here and in order to do that, we're going to have to have transmission lines."
Don Hornung, who owns property in the Spearville area, said he believed the project was crucial to the area's development. But he added that he was concerned that the preferred route could affect plans for the second phase of the Spearville wind farm.
"The property that the preferred route cuts across land that we have is also slated to have additional wind chargers put on it," he said. "And my concern is, I don't want the transmission line to interfere with the prospect of getting the wind chargers on the same property."
ITC spokeswoman Kimberly Gencur Svaty said the company has not yet discussed the route for the transmission line with enXco, which operates the Spearville wind farm. But she said that the line is unlikely to interfere with plans for the wind farm's second phase.
"In general, there are ways you can route transmission lines around existing turbines, or where turbines can be routed around existing transmission," she said. "We just need to sit down and have the conversation."
The company will take information from the two open houses and use it to prepare a siting application, which will outline the proposed route for the transmission line and the number of landowners who will be affected.
ITC will submit the application in February to the Kansas Corporation Commission, which has 120 days after receiving the information to select the route.
Reach Eric Swanson at (620) 408-9917 or e-mail him at eric.swanson@dodgeglobe.com.
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