Meet the Candidates: Jeff Shearer | News

(Hamburg) — With less than a month until Iowa’s June primary, KMA News is launching another series of “Meet the Candidates” reports, profiling the candidates competing in key races in next month’s elections. Our first report features the challenger for the Republican nomination for Fremont County Supervisor, Jeff Shearer.

A resident of Fremont County for more than 60 years, Shearer graduated from Farragut High School in 1973 and earned an associate’s degree in automotive technology from Iowa Western Community College. Shearer operated a successful trucking business in southwest Iowa for more than 40 years. Currently, Shearer and Debbie, his wife of 46 years, live on the southern edge of the county, in the Hamburg school district. Speaking on KMA’s “Morning Line” Tuesday morning, Shearer said one of the reasons he’s running for supervisor is the lack of representation in his part of the county.

“We have three supervisors,” Shearer said. “Two live in Sidney, one lives in rural Tabor. And they all live there, by the Loess Hills. And we have no representation in the southern part of the county, nor in the eastern part of the So I want to bring more diverse representation to the board and I want to fight for the concerns of people who are not represented at the moment.

An opponent of wind turbine projects, Shearer believes the county’s current wind energy ordinance is inadequate.

“The ordinances that they have established just don’t work for people who own their own property without owning the farm,” he said. “So they live on these acreages – 7 to 10 acres, and the ordinances say they can put these wind towers within 1,600 feet of their house – not the property line, but the house.”

Shearer calls for at least a one-mile setback from wind turbines.

“I live a little over a mile from the wind turbines on the Missouri line,” Shearer said. “Friday night, a week ago, after the storms passed, I opened my bedroom window and the first thing I hear is these generators running – and it’s a mile away from there twice I came out of my garden, working in my yard, and heard them walking away, so 1,600 feet is way too close.

Shearer also wants stricter standards for decommissioning and disposal of turbine blades. Although an existing solar energy ordinance is in effect, he believes the county should restrict any development of solar projects. You can hear the full interview with Jeff Shearer here: