By: Rebecca Miller
During the General Session at 9:20 a.m. of the Williams County Commissioners held on Monday morning, March 16, 2020, there were no Resolutions but Commissioners Lew Hilkert and Terry Rummel who were present:
•Signed OJJDP Mentoring Youth Initiative Grant
•Signed MVPO Job Certification Summary Letter of resignation from Williams County Job and Family Services
•Approved Minutes from March 12, 2020
•Approved the bills as submitted by the Auditor
Due to some technical difficulties, the meeting was recorded on a cell phone. Back in Session at 9:28, Commissioners welcomed Dalton Carr from APEX in regards to a proposed solar project which would be built just south of the Holiday City line, on both sides of the train tracks, adjoining a planned First Energy substation.
Also present to hear the presentation were three gentlemen, representing two of the three land owners. The third owner could not be present but all three owners approve of the idea of leasing their land to APEX if the county approves the project.
Commissioner Hilkert announced that on the speaker phone they had John Leutz from the County Commissioner’s Association of Ohio who advises counties on projects.
Mr. Carr shared a little about who APEX is, gave an overview of the “Montpelier Solar Project”, spoke of a Study Plan, goal and considerations as well as the local benefits. The company has wind and solar projects all over the country.
They are a ten year company who has done predominantly Wind Projects but are now moving into solar energy projects. The company has a large team in Ohio with a local office in Bellevue.
He is located in Toledo and is hoping to get to work with this project that will be entirely in Jefferson Township. The size is 49 megawatts which would provide power for 10,000 homes. The anticipated land would be 250-500 acres and if approved they would aim to be completed by April of 2021.
The current plan includes: Archaeological and architectural studies, Wetland delineation, Eagles nest survey, Mussel Assessments, USFWS (US Fish and Wildlife Service) presence or absence survey for bat species, geotechnical assessment and preliminary design and constraints mapping.
All of these will be done to assure that wildlife are not disturbed or harmed.
Carr shared with the commissioners that his goal in presenting to them was to “quickly craft an ordinance or approval process, or adopt a pre-built ordinance, developing the conditions that must be met for a permit.”
He also wants to be sure that it is approved before they invest time and energy into the project, in his words, that there is a “certainty of process.” A framework for the county to review it is needed.
He explained that generally the route that counties take is to draft an ordinance, so he shared some specific solar ordinance considerations which they would need to take into account, which included clearly defined setbacks, a site plan, vegetation or screening for the neighbors, collection lines and decommissioning of the project when the time comes.
The Local benefits would be:
•Enough power for more than 10,000 U.S. homes
•Forty year of annual tax revenue for the county
•Taxpayers are protected against decommissioning costs and new taxes
•Existing high voltage power lines limit the need for new infrastructure
•Reliable source of income for participating landowners.
An Alternative Energy Zone was suggested by Mr. Carr but following his presentation, Hilkert asked some questions on how that works and Mr. Leutz advised that the Commissioners not go that route as, according to Leutz, that would “mean anyone could come in and plop one down. I like the project by project basis which gives everyone a lot more flexibility.”
Commissioner Rummel commented that he personally loves the idea and thinks that this is a good time to get the county as a whole involved. He hopes that the public will get involved as they hear about it and get back to the commissioners with their opinions. “I like putting it out there before we move forward so we will get the feedback on the good and the bad.”
With no questions from anyone else, Carr said that he would be available after the meeting to speak with anyone who wanted to, and the meeting was adjourned until 11:03 when they regrouped in regards to Ditch Petition #739 the Coolman Ditch.
The meeting was with Williams County Ditch Superintendent Brian Fritsch and Williams County Engineer Todd Roth. The Preliminary hearing was heard for the #739 Ditch petition filed by John Coolman on December 3, 2019.
He hopes to be able to improve the tile “rom the catch basin on County Road 1-50, located approximately 400 feet south of County Road S, then traveling southeast to a good and sufficient outlet into open ditch/tile 253, about 625 feet in length to that ditch. This petition was viewed on March 2, 2020, and no amendments have been filed.
Fritsch explained that they are petitioning to go under permanent maintenance, but that he has not been able to see enough problems with the ditch to warrant that. He went into great detail about what has been seen and said he could have more details if they want them.
Commissioner Hilkert asked Fritsch if “since the petitioner is not here, if we continued this for thirty days, would that give you an opportunity to go out and talk to the petitioner and maybe run a camera in that tile to see if you can see anything?”
Fritsch said yes and it was agreed to meet again for a hearing on Monday, June 15, 2020 at 11 a.m., due to the uncertainty of life with the virus rulings coming down from federal and state government.
At 11:40, the Commissioners were back in session and voted to approve Resolution 83 – Supplemental Appropriation on behalf of Williams County IT in the amount of $1,390. The meeting adjourned with plans for a Special Session at 8 a.m. on March 18, 2020.
Rebecca can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com
