County Council OKs first step to solar farm

RUSSELLVILLE — Montgomery County’s loss might eventually become Putnam County’s gain.

However, county officials are not trying to get ahead of themselves in what promises to be a long process.

For now, though, it’s safe to say that the Putnam County Council seems favorable to the idea of utilizing tax abatement to bring a 200-megawatt solar farm to 2,300 acres of Russell Township in northern Putnam County.

During its July meeting, the Council approved a resolution declaring an economic revitalization area encompassing 22 different parcels of land in Russell Township for the proposed Cold Spring Solar LLC, a project of Arevon Energy Inc.

This was a step not taken by the Montgomery County Council back in June, when it voted against declaring an economic revitalization area in southern Montgomery County. The original vision for the project was two-thirds in Montgomery County and just one third in Putnam.

However, Montgomery council members were not open to the idea of farmland going to other uses.

Putnam officials are taking a different approach.

“My opinion is that we can either dictate the path we take or we can be dictated to,” Council President Dave Fuhrman said. “Power has to come from somewhere.”

The declaration of an economic revitalization area is only the first step toward granting tax abatement to industries.

For most projects, the granting of abatement can follow one month after the approval of an economic revitalization area, but that will not be the case for this project.

This is due to the complexities of agreements between counties and power companies, particularly when wind or solar is involved.

Greencastle/Putnam County Economic Development Director Kristin Clary noted that the next step will be negotiations between county officials and those from Arevon and Tenaska, the power development company representing Arevon in this process.

These discussions will involve the length and nature of the proposed abatement — to wit, whether it is the traditional “tax phase-in” that Bill Dory used to tout when he was economic development director or a 100-percent abatement, whereby Arevon would pay no taxes for a set amount of time.

Clary noted that the company’s business model requires abatement to make it work financially, thus why discussions in Montgomery County stopped immediately.

None of this is to say there won’t be money flowing to the county in the event of the farm coming to fruition.

The other side of the finances is the matter of an up-front economic development payment with the county, as well as a road use and drainage agreement, basically the developer paying the county to repair roads damaged by the extra traffic during construction.

Finally, a decommissioning agreement must be struck so that a plan and funding are in place for what happens to the equipment once it is no longer in use.

In such agreements, there are even safeguards in place should the owner be out of business at that point.

Clary noted that developers have already secured lease agreements for more than 1,600 of the 2,296.33 acres. The leases will be for 35 years.

The big, unanswered question remains when that 35 years would start if abatement is granted.

Besides the length of negotiations, one other variable is how quickly the new source is granted access to the energy grid by MISO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator). The good news is the site lies along a Duke trunk line, meaning it won’t be physically difficult to get access.

Another, like so many problems in today’s economy, hinges on supply chain issues. Arevon actually has four other solar projects in Southern Indiana, but none are online due to delays in procuring the solar panels.

The declaration was ultimately approved 5-0, with Danny Wallace, Jay Alcorn, Furhman, Larry Parker and Stephanie Campbell all voting in favor. Keith Berry and Phil Gick were not present.

In discussing abatements, the Council took its annual vote on the ongoing compliance of two companies with existing abatements — Scorpion Coatings and Spear Corp.

Discussion of Scorpion centered on its employment numbers, which were estimated to go from 13 to 25 if abatement was granted. At this point, Clary noted, Scorpion employs 16.

“They have the work to hire three or four people tomorrow,” Clary said. “They just can’t find those people. Their workload has ticked up.”

She also noted that Rockstar Window Tinting, another Putnam County industry, is actually a spinoff of Scorpion, and took four or five employees when it was founded.

Presented with those arguments, Fuhrman made the motion to approve Scorpion’s compliance statement, going against his normal practice of not making motions as council president as well as past votes against Scorpion due to the lack of new employees.

“I’ve been their negative for three or four years. I will make the motion,” Fuhrman said.

The move was approved 5-0.

The approval for Spear came with less discussion, as business has been booming for the pool manufacturer since its two warehouse expansions in 2014 and 2016.

The statements were approved 5-0.