CANTON — The selectmen will hold a special town meeting Dec. 28 at 6 p.m for residents to vote on a moratorium for solar farm projects in town.
Selectmen plan to meet Tuesday to prepare the warrant for the special town meeting, they said during their Select Board meeting last Thursday.
Selectman Chair Brian Keene said that the idea to have a moratorium and create an ordinance for solar farms in town came up “all of a sudden, and because we don’t have any restrictions (for solar wind farms) here, there is a few people getting concerned.”
The selectmen reviewed the town of Peru’s solar farm moratorium. All of the board in attendance, including Keene, Carole Robbins, Michelle Larrivee and Kristi Carrier, liked what Peru’s rules said. Selectman Rob Walker was absent from the meeting.
“A moratorium will definitely give us time to get an ordinance in place. And I also liked how this moratorium was written geared toward a bigger solar farm versus if somebody wants to put a couple of solar panels on their roofs, it wasn’t a moratorium on that,” Larrivee said.
Keene told the board that he would send a copy of Peru’s solar moratorium paperwork to their own town attorney so that he can approve it before the town votes on the ordinance Dec. 28.
Currently, there is one solar farm on Edmunds Road in Canton, but there are “at least three other possible (solar farms)” interested in having their businesses in town, Keene said.
Planning Board Secretary Diane Ray noted that the solar farm on Edmunds Road is 14.3 acres and generates 4.8 megawatts of direct current. The business is currently installing solar panels on fixtures, Ray said.
In other business, the town has been notified by the Federal Emergency Management Association via email that the Bog Brook area, a river that winds through the town by Campbell Road, has been identified as a site where two endangered species, Atlantic salmon fry and the northern long-eared bat, are located.
In early May, Campbell Road was completely washed away when the road’s culverts flooded during a severe rainstorm. The discovery of the two endangered species was made as the town is working with FEMA disaster relief mitigation staff to receive funding to repair the road.
The Bog Brook area in Canton has been identified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a protected area for the endangered species Northern Long-eared bat as well as for small fry Atlantic Fish, said Selectwoman Carole Robbins at the select board meeting on Thursday. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources via AP, file photo
“There is only a very limited amount of time that we can do the (road and culvert) work because of the potential baby salmon. We have 18 months (to complete) the work done, but we only have a really limited window that they’ll allow the work to be done because of the (Atlantic salmon fry),” Selectwoman Carole Robbins said.
She said that the town’s next step will be to consult with the town of Jay, “because they are dealing with the same thing on Hutchinson Drive, which also (has an Atlantic salmon waterway).”
The two towns could decide to work together for permitting resources, Robbins said.
There is a possibility that the town, “as part of the mitigation program we can possibly raise the (Campbell) road a little bit from (Route) 108 to the brook so maybe it won’t flood all of the time,” Robbins said.
The selectmen also appointed Aaron Lashua of Peru as Deputy Clerk. Lashua began his duties as clerk last Monday, Town Clerk Angela Varnum said.
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