Cass County, Nebraska may soon be home to as many as 54 wind turbines. On Tuesday, two companies will present the Cass County Board with their preliminary proposals to build a wind farm.

One of those companies is Midwest Energy based in Chicago. They want to put up between 34 and 54 wind turbines on a ridge that runs between Murray and Nehawka. Midwest Energy would then sell electricity to Omaha Public Power District.

If the wind farm is eventually built, it could be up and running as early as next year.

Wind turbines transformed the landscape near Rockport, Missouri last year. Plenty of wind and easy access to nearby high power lines made the area attractive to developers. Phil Vogler lives right next to the turbines. He says the gentle swooshing sound doesn't bother him.

"There's very little noise,” Vogler says. “I live right next to the highway, and compared to the highway traffic, you don't even notice them."

Two of the turbines sit on Vogler’s land, so he gets $5,000 a year for each one. They also have increased the Atchison County’s property tax base. He says they've changed the area for the better.

"I think it's been a very good thing for the county,” says Vogler. “John Deere has financed the operation. And of course a lot of the farmers here are heavily invested in John Deere. And it's been a good economic boom for our county."

The turbines tower over the countryside. Each of the turbines’ three blades is 100 feet long. The size of the structures concerned some of the area residents when the project began.

Vogler says, "People were pretty apprehensive when they first came up with the idea of having a permanent structure out on our farmland. There were a few people that were against putting them up just because it was going to change the way things look around here."

The jury is still out on whether this hillside looks better or worse than it did before. But the big white turbines can draw a crowd.

"Now that they're up,” Vogler says, “it seems to be a huge draw to the county. An awful lot of people stop and take pictures. And so some are sightseeing here now."