Newspaper Page Text
June 20, 2024
Pickens County Progress
Page 3A
Civil War skirmishes
next topic at
historical society meeting
Next in the Historical
Society speaker series will
be author and historian Ger
ald Flinchum discussing the
civil war in North Cobb and
South Cherokee Counties.
The talk will be will be
Wednesday, June 26th. at
Pendley Creek Brewery on
Jasper’s Main Street begin
ning at 7p.m.
In 2008 Flinchum’s re
search showed these so
called “minor skirmishes”
were anything but minor for
area residents.
Civilians were caught in
the middle of the skirmish
es, the looting going on for
both sides of the war which
spread into North Georgia.
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PICKENS COUNTY AIRPORT AUTHORITY
for Pickens County Airport (JZP) - Jasper, GA
Subj ect: Regular Meeting of the
Airport Authority
Date/Time: 6/25/2024 - 7:00 p.m.
Pickens County Administration
Building
1266 E. Church St.
Jasper, GA 30143
TENTATIVE AGENDA
1.
Call to order
2.
Adoption of the meeting agenda
3.
Approval of previous meeting minutes
4.
Public input
5.
Committee & Authority member reports
6.
Treasurer’s report
7.
Airport manager’s report
8.
Airport engineer’s report
9.
Commissioner’s remarks
10.
Old business
11.
New business
12.
Adjournment
o
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Spread of solar farms in Georgia
about to face legislative scrutiny
By Dave Williams
Bureau Chief
Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA - Georgia
is the largest state east of
the Mississippi River, with
eight million acres of prime
farmland.
Yet, there’s so much
concern over the spread of
solar farms eating up huge
portions of that acreage with
vast fields of solar panels
that the state Senate has
formed a study committee
to explore what can be done
to save the most fertile land
for farmers.
“We’ve lost a little over
two and a half million acres
of farmland in the last 40
years,” said Sen. Billy Hick
man, R-Statesboro, who will
chair the Senate Study Com
mittee on the Preservation
of Georgia’s Farmlands.
“We’ve got to make sure to
protect our farmland.”
Other factors are playing
a role in the rapid shrink
age of farmland in Georgia,
including the construction
of housing subdivisions to
accommodate population
growth, warehouse-distri
bution centers and - most
recently - data centers.
But solar projects also
have cropped up across the
state during the last decade,
including some rooftop in
stallations on individual
homes and businesses but
mostly the larger “utili
ty-scale” deployments of
fields of solar panels known
as solar farms.
The industry operates on
two models. Farmers lease
their land to solar compa
nies, which build and op
erate the solar farms for a
set period of time. In other
cases, a solar company owns
the land and sells the power
to utilities.
For example, Nashville,
Tenn.-based Silicon Ranch
sells the electricity generat
ed at the solar farm sites it
owns and operates to Green
Power EMC, the renewable
energy supplier for 38 of
Georgia’s electric member
ship cooperatives. Green
Power EMC has more
than 40 community and
utility-scale solar projects
spread across about 10,000
acres.
As of last year, Georgia
ranked seventh in the na
tion in total installed solar
capacity, producing 5,936
megawatts, according to the
Solar Energy Industries As
sociation. One megawatt of
electricity is enough to pow
er 750 homes. The 250 solar
companies currently operat
ing in Georgia have invest
ed $6.5 billion and created
5,382 jobs.
Solar companies have
found willing partners in
Georgia farmers because
they offer security in an agri
cultural industry plagued by
uncertainty, said Jeff Clark,
president of Advanced Pow
er Alliance, a clean-energy
industry trade association
active in Georgia and 10
other states.
“(Farmers) are getting
killed by big corporate
farms and overregulation ...
commodity prices, and fluc
tuations in the weather,” he
said. “For them, it’s an op
portunity to diversify and
have a steady source of in
come. ... That’s why I think
it’s really taking off.”
“For the farmers, it’s a
hard opportunity to turn
down because the financial
opportunities are so great
it may allow them to con
tinue to farm other parts of
their properties,” added Will
Bentley, president of the
Georgia Agribusiness Coun
cil.
The state senate will investigate concerns that large so
lar operations will eat up too much traditional farmland.
spread of solar farms is the
huge amount of farmland
they take up.
“Southwest Georgia is
largely prime farmland,”
said Bryan Tolar, who pre
ceded Bentley at the agri
business council and now
runs his own government af
fairs firm. “Are we going to
take away prime farmland?”
Bentley said his chief
concern over solar farms
is what happens to the land
solar farms occupy when
the leases farmers enter into
with solar companies ex
pire, typically after 20 years.
“Is the land returned to
production or left a mess?”
he asked.
The General Assembly
sought to address that issue
this year by passing legisla
tion requiring solar compa
nies that lease property for
solar farms to restore the
land to its natural state after
the lease expires.
Restoration activities in
clude removing the founda
tions of solar arrays from the
ground to a depth of at lease
three feet, filling holes that
have been dug to accom
modate solar panels, and re
moving cables and overhead
power and communications
lines.
House Bill 300, which
takes effect July 1, also re
quires the companies to pro
vide financial assurance at
least equal to the estimated
cost of removing solar ar
rays and returning the prop
erty to its natural state.
“At the end of a solar
project’s life, that family
gets the land back, and the
project is removed,” Clark
said.
The Senate study com
mittee will hold its first
meeting next month in
Statesboro, with subsequent
meetings to take place in
Cornelia and two locations
in Southwest Georgia yet to
be chosen. The panel is due
to make recommendations
to the full Senate by Dec. 1.
“We won’t have all the
answers, but hopefully we’ll
learn a lot more,” Hickman
said. “It’s probably going
to be more about raising an
awareness of the need to
preserve farmland.”
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Think you
know
Pickens?
68
P
19
U
37
z
37
z
1
1 1
1?
The Pickens Puzzler is featured every third week of the
month in the Progress. The answers can be found on the
classified pages in the B section.
Across
I. Stampede; Talking Rock's new event for
Fords, not horses
4. At Talking Rock's park, can cook weenies
9. Georgia ; also southern summer ice
cream flav.
10. Hot as blazes
II. Pickens park, July 4 fairgrounds
13. Old Road; cows now, houses soon
16. Christian summer spiritual week, w/ furvor
18. Pickens road; can do in tents
19. When people hawk unwanted wares at home
Down
1. Diamond fields at Jasper's park
2. Commish's Tippens, Tatum same first name
3. ' the river;' southern way to beat the heat
5. Water body Pickens lacks
6. Done in creeks, rivers; ' ' boots
7. Green rind', red inside summer fruit
8. Pickens park poised for pool improvement
12. 'Good ' - Progress' summer feel-good
series
14. Scoops up summer treats on Main Street
15. First Mountain Truck Rally
17. sandwich; summer harvest fav.
w/tomato
The Pickens Puzzler is proudly sponsored by:
estate Farm
Alan Horne, Jr., Agent
95 Whitfield Drive, Suite F
Jasper, GA 30143
Bus: 706-692-2888
The downside to the
