Dodge City ? The Ford County Commission has approved a conditional permit for a disputed ethanol plant, and opponents said they will decide soon whether to go to court over the issue.

Developers want to build a $185 million plant that will produce 110 million gallons of ethanol per year. The developer, Boot Hill Biofuels, said it hopes to start building the plant a mile east of Wright in July 2007 and have it running by September 2008.

The conditional permit allows the industrial development in an area zoned for agriculture. Now, developers must seek an air permit and begin an equity drive for the plant, said Gary Harshberger of Boot Hill Biofuels.

“I feel very good about it,” commission Chairman Kim Goodnight said after the meeting. “Like one of the other commissioners said, we support new ventures. We want to be proactive. I want to wish them a lot of luck.”

The commission had to vote unanimously Monday to issue the permit because residents had filed a formal petition with more than 200 signatures against the development.

Commissioner John Swazey said he supports having an ethanol plant in the county, but he doesn’t necessarily agree with the site.

“It needs to be in the right place and run by the right people,” Swazey said. “I’m not totally convinced (of either), but this is a free-enterprise country. If they want to spend their money and build the plant, that’s their choice.”

The plant would be managed by Seward County-based group Conestoga Energy Partners, which also will manage plants under construction in Seward and Finney counties.

Developers indicated they would seek a tax abatement that starts at 90 percent and declines by 10 percent annually, meaning property taxes paid on the development would grow from 10 percent the first year to 100 percent in 10 years.

Swazey said he would oppose that request.

“They’re overbuilding as usual, whenever they do something like this,” he said. “They say it can pay for itself in three years, so they don’t need a tax break, particularly when they can get a 51 percent rebate from the federal government.”

Rodney Helfrich, an opponent of the plant who owns land next to the proposed site, said the opponents will meet in the next few days to decide whether to go to court.

“We’ll visit with the people it affects most and try to decide what to do,” Helfrich said. “They’ve kept ignoring due process.”