Letter from Mary Pemberton in response to this opinion piece.
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My, Oh My! How quickly fortscott.biz and Concerned Citizens changed from being a place where you could get news about local happenings and people could share stories and opinions about a variety of topics, to a personal soapbox for Mark Shead (all others will be “moderated”).
Let me refresh your obviously biased memory, Mark. November 13, 2023 the county commission was presented with contracts for Hinton Creek Solar development, which they quickly voted and signed. Was there prior discussion or notification with the public about this development? Were the neighboring homeowners notified or consulted for their feedback on real or perceived health and safety issues (or even told about the project)? NO, there was none of that. Commissioners did not negotiate the contracts, Rob Harrington with REDI “negotiated” for them. The same Rob Harrington who promotes solar developments across the U.S. for The Center for Infrastructure & Economic Development which is a subsidiary of (funded entirely by) NextEra Energy, who also happens to be the developer for the Hinton Creek Solar project. No conflict of interest there! He did the best he could when he managed to get a 25’ setbacks from the property line! Half the average “donation” (aka PILOT) that other counties receive was as good as Bourbon County could get! No need to mention fire protection or training in the contracts, we will just let it burn for a week or more until it extinguishes on its own, after all, chances are it won’t spread to that neighbor 25’ away!
It doesn’t sound like the Commissioners were “fully engaged, carefully understanding any potential side effects, finding ways to address concerns, balancing risks”. It sounds like they took a money grab without thinking about any potential effects or making any attempt to address concerns or risks. Do some of the people who have spoken or posted articles about detrimental side effects exaggerate the danger, whether knowingly or unknowingly? Yes, but you, Mark, are doing the same thing by refusing to acknowledge there is any risk whatsoever! Do you really believe there is not an increased risk of fire (compared to other power generation systems)? Do you really believe there is no risk of the structures not being removed at end of life when the contracts are written to give the developer 10 years before they have to put up security for the removal (in Bourbon County’s case, our commissioners agreed to NextEra providing a piece of paper stating that they have enough funds to cover decommissioning, not that they actually put aside the money into a fund for that purpose). A little-known fact (but easily discovered if researching) about solar is that certain components (such as inverters) only have a lifespan of about 12 years, at which time the owner or developer can choose to terminate the facility or “repower” meaning replace those components. Which also means they get another 10 or even 15 years without having to put up decommissioning security and get a new round of government subsidies and property tax abatements. It is very likely that Bourbon County will never see any or at most only a year or two of the huge windfall property taxes that the project would bring in after the 10-year abatement expires.
Then recall, Mark, that on October 31, 2024 the commissioners made a last minute amendment to their meeting agenda to sign new contracts with the solar developers (funny how it became a last minute need when the developers’ representatives were told and made airline reservations two weeks prior so they would be there for the signing). When originally signed in Nov 2023, Commissioners Harris and Beth and Counselor Meeks did not provide the third commissioner a copy of the contracts prior to the meeting in which they were signed; in 2024 the third commissioner was not emailed a copy of the contracts until after he was at his full-time evening/night-shift job, knowing he wouldn’t have time to read them thoroughly prior to the commission meeting (then they refused to delay the vote to give him time to read them). Also, recall the original Hinton Creek Solar contracts were terminated and the “donation” money was diverted to a non-profit organization hand-picked by one commissioner and to two schools which are entirely or largely out of district of the project. Not saying that the non-profit is not a worthy organization, but it shouldn’t be up to one or two commissioners to decide to give away what should be considered tax funds. It left the County NO monetary benefit whatsoever and will actually cost the County money or will leave us in worse shape than without the project (ex. the agreements do not require the developer to maintain roads, that is left to the county to fund).
The urgent, lame-duck, behind the scenes manipulation of the contracts and donations is what caused the lawsuit. Do I need to remind you how many times Former Commissioner Harris told citizens “FILE A LAWSUIT” when they simply asked for their opinions to be considered? He even said it again immediately after signing the revised contracts on Halloween (perhaps the SCARY date was chosen on purpose). If the former commissioners, counselor and economic development director had truly been looking out for and taking into consideration the best interests, opinions and desires of all the citizens of the county, or had done their research on the issues rather than relying solely on the attorney for the developer, then more than likely none of this fiasco, including the lawsuit, would have happened. Alternative energy projects are controversial in all counties; most counties deal with the controversy in a public manner (town hall meetings, zoning meetings, and other public forums where information is disseminated and opinions can be voiced) and it never comes to a lawsuit. Should Bourbon County forever be a pawn in the hands of a few people who happen to hold power at the time a decision needs to be made and who choose to make decisions based on their own personal benefits (or opinions or retributions) rather than the betterment of the county or wishes of the majority of residents? Should the new commissioners roll over to the fact that their lame-duck predecessors tried to contract away their power to protect citizens (which is not only immoral and unethical, it is illegal)?
So, Mr. Shead, rather than asking my current commissioner to continue taking part in the “good-old-boy” system and ignore his duty to the citizens of the county, I ask everyone reading this who subscribes to fortscott.biz or the Concerned Bourbon Co. Citizens Facebook page to unsubscribe from these. Perhaps someone else will start an actual news-based “paper” or website to fill the void that you have created.
Written and Submitted by Mary Pemberton
I too was told by Mr Harris to “take us to court we’re not afraid” when I asked him to come to my property to view a septic issue that staff he directed did not understand, yet had closed the case. Eventually I proved the county was in error and the neighbor was given notice….1-1/2 years later!!!! Long story short – An adjacent neighbor alleviated his septic problem when he buried a solid 4” pvc sewer filled pipe(not perforated) dumping approximately 30’ on my property prior to me buying and when previous owner fought dementia for years and the house was “vacant”. When a dye test was done by the county after “the case was closed”, the dye showed up on my property hours after administering.
If you know anything about septic systems
that means when they flushed the toilet everything but the solids were dumping on my property without any treatment/soil absorbing processes happening. Yeah, gross. The county, and especially Mr. Meeks, treated me as the trouble maker.
There is no requirement for soil testing prior to installing a septic system in Bourbon county. There is no test required to verify if a septic system will work prior to install. Yes, that’s correct, no test to verify soil permeability. “If it(400’ of laterals) doesn’t work you’ll have to add more”, said the county assessor when I asked what you do if 400’ doesn’t work.
When Susan Bancroft(her name at the time) asked Mr. Meeks why we(Bourbon county) don’t require them?….he replied, “we wouldn’t be able to sell land in (he named half a dozen areas I cannot recant – the names were not from when I grew up here)”….. Mr. Meeks would have to tell you or possibly Susan.
I spent well over $10,000 remediating the damage done by a neighbor who lied to the county and was just given another chance. I received no help whatsoever from county or state in enforcing state laws. I was told it’s civil and I would have to go to court.
Lawyers told me I’d win, but it would cost be $10,000 to be right. Kansas limits you to a max of $4000 in civil court. And in Bourbon county, the most patriarchal county they knew, they said I’d be lucky if I got any retribution.
I told Mr. Meeks that I would publicly state the above if he did not get the code upgraded. After years of waiting he has not made any upgrade to date, hence my letter.
I also told him I would inform the citizens that the inspector had been on the job almost two years with no training in this field. He did get him training 3 days later – after 2 years of inspecting what exactly?
David Beerbower and I discussed this prior to him winning the election and I feel confident he will pursue upgrading the septic code to the state minimum and to include a soil permeability test as does literally almost every county in the nation.
Respectfully, Kevin Schafer