Holland Wisconsin and Ranger Power Part 1

[Save Our Farmland]

Original Post Made By: Facebook User Ellie Hud, in the Facebook Group: Stop Solar Farms
3/17/20

The Most Important Thing You MUST Do To Protect Your Property and Communities From Mega Solar Farm Installations:

I offer this information because I learned this the hard way.

You must pay attention to your local government. I wasn't and got ambushed by Ranger Power.

In fact I think these solar energy companies count on the fact that most people do not keep an eye on
what goes on at their monthly Town Board Meetings. I think Board Members count on it too.

In Dec 2018 Ranger Power executives flew out from NYC, attending the Board Meeting and formally
told the Board of their intention to explore the idea of building a 1000 acre solar farm in our township.

Our Town of Holland has a website. They post what is on the Agenda for every upcoming meeting
24 hours in advance. In Wisconsin, the law states the meeting date and time MUST be posted at least 24 hours
in advance although the Board can give as little as 2 hours notice.

We are watching our Township website like hawks because we think our Board is perfectly capable of doing
something like this so they can take a sneaky vote.

I don't remember what state this happened in but one Board member was resisting a mega solar farm installation.
The other Board members were for it. What did they do? They posted a meeting notice, didn't give much warning,
the one opposing Board member knew nothing about it-she didn't see the post nor was she told about it by the
other Board members. The remaining members, because they met the legal definition of a quorum, scheduled a
meeting in the middle of the night and passed approval for the solar farm installation.

Moral of the story...if you can't or don't want to attend your monthly Town Board meeting PLEASE...you
MUST go online and read the minutes as soon as they are posted.

By time I got that knock on the door by a Ranger Power rep twelve months had gone by.
They had been working secretly in my community for twelve solid months before I found out
and had locked in land leases for 40 years.

Never assume your Board has your best interests in mind. I asked our Board why they didn't
post a box ad in our local newspaper notifying the general public of Ranger Power's interest in our our land.
They said, "We aren't legally obligated to that."

[Save Our Farmland]

Dale Frankhouser Posted a Comment

We've found that farmers had signed these leases more than two years ago, before they come in
for application.
We must be vigilant and have township/county protection long before.

[Save Our Farmland]

Ellie Hud Posted a Response

Wow--two years in advance. I find that shocking. This is what I hate the most.
We think we live in a democracy until something like a mega solar farm installation
lands on our doorstep and we discover we've been deliberately cut out of the process

[Save Our Farmland]

Dale Frankhouser Posted a Response

Ellie Hud, Some were over three years ago. Yet they had already worked everything out with the power commission,
right of ways approved BEFORE application to township -- all going on quietly behind our backs and then
govt says nothing we can do because of a mandate from the Commonwealth. Be diligent.

[Save Our Farmland]

David Herman Responded

I am working on a story for our website where the farmers signed paperwork 3 years before
the zoning board ever pushed the zoning through against objections.