The Grant County Area Plan Commission has formed a solar application committee intended to work toward the creation of an application process for industrial solar companies.
The committee is comprised of Randy Atkins, Ed Hartman, Dr. Bob Bothwell and Todd Glancy.
Atkins said that he, Hartman and Bothwell volunteered to be on the committee at first and that another APC member suggested having a representative who is concerned about industrial solar and a representative who supports industrial solar join the committee.
Atkins said the committee posted the opening in the newspaper and on the APC website and that Glancy contacted him about being the member who is concerned about solar, but that nobody contacted him about being the member in support of solar.
When asked if that position on the committee was still open if someone expressed interest in it, Atkins said he could not make that decision.
“The official advertisement of that has passed. I mean, here again, that would be back to the commission’s decision as to whether they wanted to open that door again,” Atkins said.
Atkins said one individual has since approached him about the committee who missed the initial posting and asked to join. Atkins told him the APC would have to make that decision, but that he would make sure to personally invite him to the committee meetings, including the meeting from a few weeks ago on May 22.
In that meeting, Atkins began by saying that he wanted to hear from everyone in the audience and that people could come up to the podium and speak without time limits and other restrictions.
“We need to have an actual application,” Hartman said in the meeting. “One that actually looks into a few things that might not be seen otherwise, like: Who is this company? Who owns it? Who’s the board of directors? Is it publicly or privately held? Are these people in litigation over other solar farms? Have they failed to complete other solar farms? Have these people declared bankruptcy before? We need to know a lot about who we’re going to do business with.”
Members of the public who spoke in the meeting echoed some of Hartman’s questions, especially regarding the disclosure of investors and any conflicts of interest.
Other suggestions included putting the issue up for referendum, requiring a timeline for the project and disclosure of any shell companies.
Glancy said that if the projects are being considered solar farms, they should have requirements that are just as stringent as those for CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations).
Atkins told everyone at the meeting to email him a list of their ideas and suggestions for solar applications.
“The people have an interest in knowing just what and who the company is, with some background information that’s going to come into Grant County for the next 25, 35, 45 years,” Atkins told the Chronicle-Tribune. “That’s what I got from [the meeting]. And what I offered is [for] community members to send me their input, and I did collect it, and I’ve got it in a file. And you know, I’m prepared for the next meeting, which we haven’t sent yet. I’m ready to address at the next meeting, we will be addressing the input that the community has given us.”