I attended the Great Bend City Council meeting on 7/15/2024. I am dumbfounded and acutely suspicious of one item of business. The council nonchalantly passed a bill to allow a company that stores solar panels and windmill blades to lease 9.6 acres right by the airport and county fairgrounds and Fuller Brush. They are leasing it for 300+ dollars per acre. For that small amount of money, they are exposing the airport, Fuller Brush, and the city and citizens and their children of Great Bend to some very toxic stuff.
I knew they were storing turbine blades, but I didn’t know solar panels were being stored there. That changes the game. You CANNOT dig a pit and bury damaged solar panels or windmill blades on your own land. The landfill WILL NOT accept any of that material. In the event of a tornado, large hail, or big wind – that toxic debris will be spread in our city, schools, businesses, and land. It would probably shut down the airport.
Airport lease raises concerns