GLENROCK -- Some contractors and subcontractors that have built wind farms have blown through central Wyoming faster than the currents their turbines are harnessing, short-changing local businesses in the process, Converse County Sheriff Clint Becker said Tuesday.

Becker wanted to know if Fortune 500 company Duke Energy will show the same disdain if it wins the permits to build the estimated $400 million, 200-megawatt Top of the World Windpower Project with as many as 133 turbines northeast of here.

"What kind of protection do you have for local merchants?" Becker asked Duke Energy representative Sean McCabe, who spoke to a standing-room-only crowd at the Glenrock Town Hall.

He cited the experience of another wind project subcontractor that went bankrupt and still owes a machine shop $60,000, he said.

Duke Energy attorney Jenifer Scoggins of Cheyenne responded such businesses can take legal action.

That answer made Becker press McCabe even more.

So Duke Energy, Becker said, won't back up its subcontractors' commitments. "If the subs don't pay you [local businesses], that's your problem."

That semi-sarcastic response prompted David Grogg, construction manager for Duke's Campbell Hill wind project in western Converse County, to outline the company's business philosophy and practices.

Duke signs five-year contracts with its general contractors, Grogg said. "They are in it for the long haul."

The company intends to be a good neighbor because its employees who will maintain the wind farm will live in the community, he said.

"Our reputation is paramount to us," Grogg said. "We pass that on to our general contractors."

Duke pays its contractors as they complete their work, and Grogg has the responsibility to see they pay their subcontractors, he said.

The company also has a no-tolerance policy toward bad behavior, he said.

During the construction of the Campbell Hill wind farm, an employee of a contractor was late and drove 55 mph in a 35 mph zone on Wyoming Highway 256 where children were present, Grogg said. "That guy was fired on the spot."

Becker thanked Grogg for the answer.

A local resident asked if Duke could require its subcontractors to be bonded to ensure merchants are paid.

The company could do that, but such an action cuts two ways, Grogg said. "I could throw that back, and it would exclude some local contractors who can't afford to bond."

After the meeting, Becker recounted his experiences with another company that said it would cooperate with the county but then balked when he couldn't persuade the employees of its subcontractors to obtain temporary license plates during they months they were working in Wyoming.

One of the subcontractors told local businesses his company would not buy their products or use their services if the sheriff kept insisting that his employees obtain temporary plates, Becker said.

Grogg has given him assurances Duke won't back down on its word, he said. "I have a concern, but all I can do is take their word for it."