Ross seeks fourth term as supervisor

Grundy County Supervisor Jim Ross, a Republican who represents district one, has been re-elected twice before, but even he admits that this year could be his toughest test yet. On the heels of a yearlong debate over the construction and proliferation of wind turbines on farmland in the county, Ross has been the most steadfast supporter of such projects on the board, and he spoke to The Grundy Register about why he’s running for another term and where he stands on key issues.
           
Independent candidate David Strickler, who, like Ross, is a farmer living in the Ivester area in the west-central portion of the county (district one is comprised of Beaman, Conrad and the surrounding rural areas), filed paperwork to run in late August and has framed his candidacy on an anti-wind farm message. Ross, who was first elected in 2004, countered that he supports the wind farms on the basis of both tax revenue and the rights of private landowners to make decisions on their own properties.
           
“My stand on it is that I think it’s wrong for county government to take that opportunity away from the landowners. I think it’s wrong that just because if I don’t want to look at those, I can take your rights away as a landowner,” he said. “If you don’t want (a wind turbine), that’s fine, but if you do, the county shouldn’t be taking your right away to participate in this economic opportunity.”
           
The supervisors unanimously approved wind farm projects near Wellsburg and most recently at Ivester this year, and both decisions overrode earlier votes from the planning and zoning commission. Because Ross lives and farms in the Ivester Wind Farm area and has said that he would be putting at least one turbine on land that he owns, he refrained from voting on the matter in April, but those who are opposed to the turbines have attempted to use that fact against him.
           
“I’m not benefitting any more than anyone else would,” he said in response to those charges. “It’s not a conflict of interest.”
 
Read more in this week's Grundy Register.