Brent Nees, senior project manager with Summit Carbon Solutions, told Worth County supervisors that the company has new leadership and a statewide community benefits agreement and outlined options for landowners and counties affected by the proposed pipeline.

The presentation, given during a county meeting, said the company will hold public open houses in November and has expanded easement payment options beyond a one-time lump sum. "Every year the pipeline is in operation, you'll get this annual payment," Nees said, describing an annual payment that will start at $0.25 per linear foot on a landowner's property and scale to $0.50 per foot as the project secures more voluntary easements. He also said landowners can choose to receive payments over multiple years or roll easement payments into an investment with Summit, receiving distributions if the company pays investors.

Nees described other elements of the community benefits agreement intended to address landowner and county concerns. The company will provide a $500 payment for voluntary surveys (or for survey work required by statute) and commits to at least 72 hours' notice before surveying. Summit also reiterated that it will follow an agricultural impact mitigation plan and industry best practices.

For local emergency response, the company offered a lump-sum grant and per-mile payments. Nees said the emergency-responders grant is $50,000 plus $1,000 per pipeline mile; for Worth County, which the company calculated as "19 and some change," that yields an estimated $69,000 payment to first responders. He said the grant is intended to let counties purchase equipment or other items the county decides are a priority in addition to equipment Summit already provides.

Nees said Summit plans to make annual payments to counties as well. He described a starting county payment of $0.125 per linear foot, which Summit presented as a baseline amount that would scale up to $0.25 per linear foot; the company estimated that baseline would translate to about $13,000 per year for a county while the pipeline is operating.

Nees also announced open-house dates for the public to meet company leadership: a session listed for Garner on Nov. 11 from 4:30 to 6:30 and a Charles City session on Nov. 12 from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., and said landowners may attend any session. He identified Joe Griffin as Summit's incoming leader for the project and said Griffin has roughly 40 years of pipeline-industry experience.

Nees added that Summit filed an amendment to its docket roughly six weeks earlier to reflect route changes prompted by landowner preferences and other operational updates, and that those changes relate to prior IEC final-order routing requirements.

The presentation concluded with an invitation to county officials and landowners to review the full community benefits agreement and to contact Summit staff (Nees and Kylie Lang were listed in materials) with questions.

Summary of company commitments and locally cited figures: Summit lists annual landowner payments starting at $0.25 per linear foot and scaling to $0.50; a $500 payment for surveys; a $50,000 emergency-responders lump sum plus $1,000 per pipeline mile (Summit estimated $69,000 for Worth County); and county annual payments beginning at $0.125 per linear foot (Summit estimated about $13,000 per year at baseline for the county).