In public comments at last week’s White County Board meeting, Affordable Solar was not on the agenda, but they had concerns about their upcoming project.
County Road 1300 North is the subject of the project. Representatives with Affordable Solar were in attendance via phone and stated that Carmi Public Work Supervisor Brad Attebury approved their Road Use Agreement; Attebury claimed the road is a City road, and the company suggested that no additional Road Use Agreement needed to be made.
Unfortunately for them, the County Board stated otherwise.
County Engineer Brian Ray explained the situation,
“It’s either a township road or a city road. It’s hard to know because that road was built to serve the subdivision on the west end of it, and I’m not sure anybody ever properly took that road over. However, we still have the problem of getting to that road, which is Possum Road. South Church Street from the city limits, so I don’t know what road number that is, 1300/1400. So there would still be limited road use on the county section of what I’m calling Possum Road.”
Board member Amanda Cannon asked the representative how they’d access 1300 North Road without using County Roads. The representative claimed they would have Road Use Agreements in place once the company set confirmation and construction routes, but that did not sit well with County Board members.
Cannon: “Yeah, we’re gonna have to have that, and you’ll have to be on the agenda for the next meeting.”
Pigg: “You’ll have to have the Road Use Agreement in place and then get on the agenda.”
Affordable Solar: “It would be really tough for us to figure out with a hundred percent finality what the Road Use Agreement would be because we don’t have a full construction route. We don’t have a contractor on board at this time, so it would really dictate that.”
South: “Come back when you do.”
Ray stated that Affordable Solar would need to include an agreement to damages within the paperwork and what type of payment or bond is acceptable before any approval would be given.
The White County Board ended the conversation and will await a proper Road Use Agreement for their December meeting.
Over in Hamilton County, Erik Larson and Zach Lawrie of the Mineral Springs Wind Project of Tenaska were present at the Hamilton County Board meeting to discuss their Met Tower projects.
The Met Towers provide data from the wind and weather through the turbines: wind speed, wind direction, temperature, humidity, etc. Lawrie explains,
“So they’re very vital to our project overall and the success of the project, but they’re temporary, so no concrete is involved. They are tilt-up structures, about 197 feet, give or take in total height, so they do not require FAA permitting, but we will adhere to FAA standards of safety and visibility, and with that, they will be banded orange and white, and there will be a light at the top of the tower. It takes about four to five people, one to two days to install one of these towers, and nothing more than a pickup truck.”
The company will need two to five years to gather the data they need from the towers.
The Hamilton County Board has established a committee to adhere to companies like Tenaska and will probably decide within the month. The board members’ main concern was the roads the company would have to use.
Lawrie seemed to put their minds at ease and also talked about the possibility of some being in White County in the future,
“Typically before we even start construction on these, we sign a road use agreement with the county, local townships, to make sure that any construction we do, any impact to the road systems, we take care of that.”
but an agreement will still need to be written up and signed.
