Hagerstown Town Council has renewed talks with an electric company about building a solar generating station.
The council met last week with representatives from American Electric Power, which sells power to the town. The company had expressed interest in building a solar array on town-owned land in 2016. By consensus on Sept. 12, the council agreed to continue discussions with AEP.
The town explored the idea in 2016 because of potential savings to the Hagerstown electric utility. Power from the solar array would be less expensive because there would be no transmission cost for getting it to the town.
The town considered several sites for a solar array and settled on land north of West Lawn Cemetery. Then, some neighbors told the council they did not want solar panels there. The council dropped the project.
Although that land is still a possible location, the council made no decision last week.
“We are just in the beginning of a feasibility discussion, so (there are) no hard facts to report,” Becky Diercks, council president, said in an email to Western Wayne News.
Following the public work session, council met in a closed-door executive session with a candidate for building commissioner, Terry Ford. Council expects to confirm him on Oct. 2.
That meeting will also include a public hearing on the 2024 budget and discussion of a $90,000 planning grant from the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs.
The next regular meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 2, in Town Hall, 49 E. College St. The public may attend. The meeting will be streamed live and rebroadcast later on WGTV community television.
A version of this article appeared in the September 20 2023 print edition of the Western Wayne News.