An overflow crowd showed up at the Tuesday, March 5 York County Commissioners meeting to discuss the solar zoning regulations.
York County Press Release
YORK COUNTY – It was a momentous day in York County, as the majority of the York County Commissioners’ meeting was dedicated to new zoning regulations pertaining to solar field projects – and so many York County residents showed up, the board room was full, there were people lined up in the hallway outside and many were ushered to the training room in the courthouse basement where they could watch the proceedings via Facebook Live. There was a situation, however, around 9 a.m., when Facebook was suddenly out of service – all over the world, not just in York County – and the feed was interrupted. That just prompted more people to gather as close as possible to the board room, as this very important conversation continued. There were several different segments of the meeting dedicated to the topic. The public forum was held, during which members of the public have the ability to talk about different topics. Later, Javier Fernandez, CEO and president of Omaha Public Power District (OPPD), the entity pursuing the K Junction Solar project near McCool, addressed the county commissioners and took questions. And in the end, the county commissioners further discussed the proposed solar field zoning regulations which will ultimately be adopted yet this spring. During the public forum, many people had something to offer. Most of them were wearing buttons declaring they were against industrial solar energy projects. David Begley was present. He said he is an attorney in Omaha who is consistently against these types of projects. “I wanted to give you some insight. I wanted to say how two people on the OPPD Board of Directors live for green energy. I’m against it because it is expensive and unreliable. I was at an OPPD board meeting and was told I’m disrespectful. I said their statutory duty is to provide low cost and reliable power. The OPPD board is completely lawless. You need to send a message to them, hold their feet to the fire and hold them in line. A lot of people in your county do not like this. Nebraska is the Cornhusker State, not the Chinese Solar Panel State.” Roger Morris of York, who sits on the county’s planning and zoning commission, said he had been by several solar projects in other locations, during winter weather situations, “when they weren’t active for 10 days. If we rely on solar for power, that’s not good. We don’t need 2,800 acres of prime farmland used for that purpose.” Gary Karnopp, of rural McCool Junction, said “this solar project is going into an area where bad weather things have happened. West of me will be a whole section of solar panels. In the 1970s, I was hit with hail four times and the crops had to be replanted. In 1990, a devastating tornado went through there – when the fire department arrived at our farm, they had tears in their eyes when they saw we were still alive. Two years ago, another went through there and took the pivots. I’d like to point out, with the weather events that happen in this area, what if these solar panels go up in the air? Who will clean it up? York County has the finest farm ground in the world – to tear that up and put solar panels on there, I can’t see it.” Gene Jackson, a resident of the Hayes Township, where the proposed K Junction Solar project would be located, provided handouts to the county board members, saying he had pictures of “big box batteries they will put in front of my house. I want to thank the planning and zoning committee for the strong setbacks they are recommending.” Ray White, of rural McCool, said he “has a series of questions I think need to be answered. Where are the solar panels manufactured and purchased from? Who builds them? Where is the money coming from for this project? What is OPPD’s incentive to do this and why here? How do they intend to control weeds, noxious weeds? What will be the impact on our county roads during construction? I can’t even guess how much more heavily-loaded traffic will be on our roads. Who is putting these up? Will they hire from around here or will they bring in people from the outside? How does our community benefit? Why are they here? What happens to the mineral and water rights with these very extensive leases? There is a lot that can go wrong.” Brian Soukup, also from rural McCool, said he wanted to “thank the zoning board for their time and effort on the proposed setbacks. And thank you to the county board for allowing us to speak. For the future of York County, we are in favor of the half-mile setbacks. If we are too lenient, we are going to get flooded with these types of projects. York County will no longer be an agricultural county, it will become an eyesore. The new jobs will be for people who come in, put this up and then they will be gone. It’s their (OPPD) bad talking point. Less than 10% of the panels out there are recycled when decommissioned. When it comes to efficiency – look it up. And yes, decommissioning is a huge part of it – there has to be money for that, up front. I have nothing bad to say about OPPD, but they are doing this for their own benefits, there is no benefit for York County. Let’s adopt the zoning regulations the planning/zoning commission put in place.” Pat Wagner, a McCool resident, said she’s attended several meetings on this topic. “The jobs will be temporary at best. We have a strong community with businesses and our farmers cooperative and our school. We are an ag-based community. This would have a huge impact on McCool if the farmers no longer need products and services from the co-op, which would affect the other businesses as well. And all for solar panels which would bring nothing to our community or York County as a whole, which is now ag-based. Let’s leave it that way.” Diana Johnson of Henderson said, “The Green New Deal is not good.” She encouraged attendance at a land right meeting scheduled for later this month. Willard Peterson of rural Bradshaw said, “I got irate at the last meeting, as I’ve been accused of being both for and against solar.” He quoted the United States Constitution and former presidents. Patti Morner, who noted her rural York County property is located in the McCool Junction School District, said she has “questions as to how this will affect property tax revenue. I know there have been discussions about that and now a government entity (OPPD) is involved. How will that affect the school district? And how will it affect other taxing entities in the county? Is there a way for us to have specifics? We have no concrete answers on something so important. And is there a limit to how many acres in the county can be used for this, so they can’t take huge swaths of farm ground off the tax rolls? And has anyone on this board actually traveled to, themselves, to see large solar projects that already exist? Kick the tires on the car before you buy it – it’s that type of thing. It might be worth it.” Jim Jackson of Hayes Township talked about the high quality of soil that exists in York County. “As it sits, 99% of this project is currently on irrigated land. OPPD has an 11-county territory – why do they have to come to York County get their solar power?” “This is really important to me,” said Grant Jackson of rural McCool. “I have young kids and I guarantee they won’t stay here (as adults) if this solar project goes in. This is an industrial project – put it in Douglas and Sarpy Counties. They are coming in the back door saying forgive us later. And if you overturn the planning and zoning commission’s recommendations, you won’t have a zoning board left.” With no others from the public stepping forward to make comments, York County Commissioner Chairman Randy Obermier closed the public forum portion of the meeting, in order to move on to the next portions dedicated to this topic. Writer’s note: Due to the length of the hours-long conversation, this story will continue in installments. |
