More solar

Another solar farm is on Jay County’s horizon.

Jay County Council approved a 10-year abatement Wednesday with Hodson Energy for development of New Jay Solar, a renewable energy farm planned just east of Dunkirk’s city limits.

The company is planning a solar farm on approximately 220 acres in Richland Township, including the area around The Andersons Grain Elevator. It’s the fourth renewable energy firm to formally pursue constructing a solar farm in Jay County. Other prospective solar farms planned for the future are Skycrest Solar from Invenergy, Rose Gold Solar from Leeward Renewable Energy and Sun Chief Solar from Scout Clean Energy.

According to its website, Hodson Energy was established in 2019. Since then, the company has reached into 10 different states and currently has 40 projects in development for a total of 3.5 gigawatts of power-generating facilities. The company has offices in Ohio, New York and Virginia.

County attorney Wes Schemenaur explained the company had met in executive session with council and Jay County Commissioners in November to propose a tax abatement for the project.

Originally, Hodson Energy asked for a 10-year declining property tax abatement, which would deduct taxes at a decreasing rate starting with 100% in the first year and decreasing by 10 percentage points each year over the decade. Schemenaur said the corresponding economic development payments made to the county with that abatement would have been about $500,000 over four years after construction is completed. 

Instead, county representatives negotiated a different abatement in which the company would have 100% of property taxes abated over the entirety of the 10-year period. (Hodson Energy will save $4.4 million in property taxes with the abatement, which is about a $1.9 million difference from the declining abatement’s figures.) As part of the negotiation, the company agreed to provide $2.516 million in economic development funds to the county over four years — about $629,000 each year.

“Depending on how this all shakes out, those are the broad numbers right now,” explained Schemenaur. “Instead of a declining abatement like we’ve approved in the past, we had that discussion about how do we get more bang for the buck, so to speak, and so, bigger incentive means bigger potentially economic development payment.”

Brandon Dickinson, a legal representative for the company, noted council was solely approving the abatement Wednesday, with the corresponding economic development agreement to be approved by commissioners later.

Council approved a resolution to move forward with the abatement, with council member Randy May opposing. The next steps in the process will include a public hearing and final resolution approval, along with economic development, road use and decommissioning agreements. 

In related news, Schemenaur also updated council on Rose Gold Solar, a $150 million, 150-megawatt Leeward Renewable Energy project planned on about 1,430 acres just north of Dunkirk. The company signed a property tax abatement with the county in 2021, anticipating to begin construction as early as 2022. 

Because of delays with the PJM Interconnection — it’s a regional transmission organization coordinating wholesale electricity movement across 13 states and the District of Columbia — construction start dates were pushed back to fall of this year, and now could be as late as spring 2025. (PJM Interconnection has revamped its analysis process for new services joining the power grid, leading to delays across the country for ongoing energy projects.)

Schemenaur explained legislation regarding the electricity wholesale has been constantly changing, making the process a waiting game for companies waiting to tie into the grid. He said Leeward will be attending a meeting in January to seek revisions to its agreements specifically relating to the construction timeline.

Delays are also expected for Scout Clean Energy’s Sun Chief Solar, which had planned to finish construction on the 1,200-acre facility near Redkey by 2025 but now may not be completed until 2026. 

Invenergy’s Skycrest Solar, however, was “grandfathered” into the old analysis process with PJM Interconnection. As of September, project developer Hannah Pawelczyk said the company had signed its final interconnection agreement with PJM Interconnection, and its next steps included engineering studies and project design for the 2,500-acre facility in Penn and Jackson townships. Construction on Skycrest Solar could begin sometime in 2024.

Also Wednesday, council tabled a decision to release $35,000 in opioid settlement dollars to Jay County Drug Prevention Coalition, which is working toward creating a sober living facility. (Commissioners approved the request Monday.) Jay County Drug Prevention Coalition recently placed an offer on a home in Redkey. Its purchase is contingent on conducting a feasibility study — plans are to pay RQAW for the procedure — and pursuing other grants to help pay for the building and renovations. 

Nearly 20 Redkey residents attended the meeting Wednesday to speak on the matter, and council president Jeanne Houchins suggested council take more time to consider the decision. She also told the Redkey residents if they would like to speak at the next meeting in January about the facility, they would need to request to be placed on the agenda.

Council also approved a $76,400 contract with Ritter Strategic Services to provide a study on radio needs for local emergency responders. Approved Monday by commissioners, the study will include looking at what kind of equipment would meet the county’s needs and a land survey to determine whether the county needs more radio towers to deal with dead zones. 

In other business, council members Faron Parr, Harold Towell, Matt Minnich, Dave Haines, Cindy Bracy, May and Houchins:

•Heard meeting recordings are now available to view at jaycounty.net. Council and commissioners meetings are live streamed on the website — an icon to view the videos is located on the homepage and under both council and commissioners’ corresponding webpages — and archived online.

•Made the following additional appropriations: $13,000 for part-time wages, $4,000 for meals and $1,800 for gas, lube and oil at Jay County Country Living, with Towell opposing; $10,000 for over-time pay at Jay County Sheriff’s Office; $5,000 for court-appointed doctors and $2,000 for transcripts at Jay Circuit Court; $3,500 for repairs to equipment for Jay County Surveyor’s Office; $2,000 for part-time custodians at Jay County Courthouse; $386.28 for fees associated with the annual state grant awarded to Jay Emergency Management Agency; and $140 for pauper counsel in Jay courts.

•OK’d several transfers, including $59,257.22 for wages at Jay Emergency Medical Service, which has been down two paramedics this year; $47,769.29 for wages at Jay County Jail, which is also looking for more employees; and $19,500 from commissioners’ group health insurance fund to the juvenile detention fund.

•Approved the 2024 salary ordinance.