![]() ![]() “There are a lot of unanswered questions,” said Reynolds. What is this going to do to us, our community, our neighbors?”Ĭounty Commissioner Bill Schumann, whose Precinct 3 is where Big Elm Solar will be built, pointed out to the audience that the commissioners went far beyond state law requirements in notifying nearby residents.īrian Reynolds, whose mother will be surrounded on three sides by solar panels, also had concerns about the process. We are going to be surrounded on three sides by solar panels. “I’m a cancer survivor and have a heart condition. We were notified only thirteen days ago,” said Mark Wolf. “What concerns me and my wife is the misinformation. Though the project has been underway for some time, many residents only learned of it recently. “It will be about a $195 million investment in the community.” “We have put over a year of work into this project,” Monty Humble, managing director of High Road, told the commissioners. The companies are seeking millions of dollars of property tax reductions from Bell County and Troy ISD. The companies have about 3,000 acres under lease in Bell County, and solar panels will be placed on about 1,400 of those acres. “It isn’t about right and wrong.”īig Elm Solar is a joint project of High Road Clean Energy in Austin and Apex Energy from Virginia. “This is all about the money that Clean Energy is promising the county and the school district,” said Robert Fleming, whose property would be affected by the solar farm. All but a couple of the 20 plus speakers were opposed to the creation of a reinvestment zone by the commissioners, the first step in the process of giving tax abatements to the project known as Big Elm Solar. Social distancing protocols meant attendees were spread out in the courtroom, the hallway, and in an overflow room across the street.īut that did not stop many of the attendees from presenting their objections to the solar farm. Austin, TX, About 60 local residents “crowded” into a Bell County Commissioner’s Court public hearing Monday in Belton to learn more about a proposed solar farm west of Troy, about 30 miles south of Waco. ![]()
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