Fairfield County Commissioners | Full Meeting | August 29, 2023

#FairfieldCountyCommissioners #IndustrialSolar
The full meeting of the Fairfield County Commissioners' weekly meeting for August 29, 2023. This week's meeting began with Public Comments and then County Administrative Update.

Public Comments ran through (29:00): Ray Stemen spoke about him being mentioned again in a negative light from an article published August 24th in the Lancaster-Eagle Gazette with comments attributed to Commissioner Jeff Fix during his State of the County address last week. Commissioner Fix later denied naming any person in particular and any such issues should be taken up with the newspaper. https://www.lancastereaglegazette.com/search/?q=state+of+the+county

Judy Stemen reiterated what Ray had to say and defended the sources and topics she and Ray have brought before the commission.

Melissa Conner asked the Commissioners for an exclusionary zone to prohibit solar farms within Fairfield County and to present citizen concerns before the Ohio Power Siting Board. https://opsb.ohio.gov/home

Betty Bennett spoke in opposition to solar farms citing they moved to this area since it was zoned rural residential.

Nick Bundren (sp) with the Land and Liberty Coalition spoke in favor of the solar projects using a property-rights argument and would generate tax income for the county. However, upon checking the address he gave, it comes back to an apartment in the City of Columbus, Franklin County with no owner listed. https://www.landandlibertycoalition.com/

Chris Synder also spoke in favor of solar projects and works for National Grid Renewables. He invited the commissioners to a current project site named Yellowbud in Ross County to see for themselves an operational solar site. https://nationalgridrenewables.com/states/oh/

Sherry Pymer spoke in opposition to the solar projects and presented 38-pages of signatures opposing industrial solar in Fairfield County.

Lastly, Barry Marshall spoke in opposition as well and pointed out the commissioners and other elected officials in the room are obligated to follow the wishes of their constituents and not those of special interests.

Agenda Links:
https://www.co.fairfield.oh.us/COMMISH/agenda/review-agenda-08.29.23.pdf
https://www.co.fairfield.oh.us/COMMISH/agenda/agenda-08.29.23.pdf

This is a recording off a public access Microsoft TEAMS Meeting. This will be an on-going series whenever possible to capture the regular meetings.

More information about the County Commissioners' meetings can be found at https://www.co.fairfield.oh.us/COMMISH/. We also encourage more online and most importantly, in-person participation. The meetings occur most Tuesday mornings at 9:00a at 210 E. Main Street, Third Floor, Lancaster, OH 43130.