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Tuesday, February 23,2021 barnesville.com Barnesville, Ga. 30204 HERE’S THE SCOOP VOTE ★ ★★★★ Early voting underway Early voting got un derway Monday in the March 16 special elec tion. On the ballot are the ESPLOST referendum and the vote to choose a successor to late chief magistrate judge Karen Rhyne Henson. Advance ballots may be cast daily at the elec tions office in the court house annex through June 5. Hours are 8 a.m. -12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. - 5 p.m. As of press time Mon day, elections superinten dent Anita Reid and her staff had served 23 early voters and mailed out seven absentee ballots of which none had been returned. Clear signs with Lyon College SEE PAGE 6A Cc BLACK HISTORY MONTH Three generations of educators and midwives SEE PAGE 7A Subscribe. Your name goes on the label in this box County array commission okays solar panel on Crawley Rd. near Milner WALTER GEIGER news@barnesville.com After hearing concerns from a room full of opponents dur ing a long, contentious public hearing, the Lamar County commission voted 3-1 Feb. 16 to approve a solar farm on 132.61 acres north of Milner. The commission granted a special exception to the current AR (agricultural-residential) zoning to allow the installation of ap proximately 83,000 solar panels. Commissioner Ryran Traylor cast the lone dissenting vote. The site fronts Crawley Road and is bisected by Cot tage Road. It lies east of the railroad line and off Old Hwy. 41 near the burned out Lighthouse Restaurant location. According to tax records, the land is owned by TMJ Investments, LLC. The registered agent is Theresia Hall of Pine Mountain, Ga. TRAYLOR The opponents detailed concerns about loss of property value, erosion, pollution and the loss of the rural nature of the property. The project was presented by developers Mark McCook and Chris McCook and solar installation consultants Dennis Zabala and Christopher Powell. They displayed a model panel at the meeting and said the project will involve a $30435 million investment. They hope to sell electricity to Georgia Power but needed the zoning out of the way in or der to apply for a program the giant utility offers. The pollution concern in volved cadmium which was pre viously used in panels. Commission chairman Charles Glass said he had researched cadmi um prior to approving two other solar farms in recent years. Neither of those projects were built out and no GLASS THRASH one at the meeting knew why. “Cadmium is not an issue,” Glass said. Noting that zoning is the hardest thing commissioners do, Nancy Thrash said she had researched the project thor oughly. “People have the right to utilize their property to the fullest extent. No one (at the hearing) spoke of Mr. McCook’s right to utilize his property,” Thrash said. She also said McCook had agreed to conditions, including fencing and buffers. “1 don’t see a reason to deny him the right to do this on his property,” Thrash added. Commissioner Bennie Horton was worried about heat genera tion. There is none in modern arrays, the de velopers said. He also was concerned about clean-up at the array’s HORTON end of life. “What else are we going to tell Mr. McCook he can’t do with his property,” com missioner Bob Heiney asked? He noted Mc Cook could put in a subdivision or trailer park which would be worse. “This project has no noise, no traffic and, once the trees (on the buffer) grow, you won’t even be able to see it,” Heiney added. Traylor suggested the trees be planted now to speed up hid ing the project. The array was approved with conditions. The entire site must be fenced and buffers established with trees planted by Jan. 1, 2022 where there are currently no trees. The LLC must also return the site to its current state if the solar farm is not developed or falls into disuse in the future. HEINEY THE HERALD GAZETTE/WALTER GEIGER State tournament basketball action here tonight Star Tamya Blasingame (12) and the rest of the Lady Trojans will host the Swainsboro Tigers in the first round of the Class AA state basketball tournament here tonight. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. The Tigers (10-9, 6-6) are the number three seed from Region 2AA. LC (17-5,10-2) is the number two seed from Region 3AA. The Lady Trojans are ranked #7 in the latest Sandy’s Spiel poll. Swainsboro is unranked. The winner of tonight’s game will face the winner of the Putnam County-Early County game in round two. Early County is ranked #1 in the state. Chief magistrate candidates tell views at Milner forum ENGLISH KUNST MASON WILLIAMSON KAY S. PEDR0TTI kayspedrotti@gmail.com Editor's note: Due to our commitment to thoroughness, this story is extensive. It has been broken into two parts. This is part one. Part two will be published in the March 2, 2021 edition. At a recorded forum Feb. 20 at the Milner library, the four men running for the office of Lamar County chief mag istrate judge told personal backgrounds, stated reasons why they should be elected, honored their opponents with compliments and maintained a low-key, civil atmosphere. The candidates are Jeff Mason, Gordon Police chief and professor; Shannon Williamson, Lamar County sheriff’s deputy and lead evidence custodian; Arthur (Brutz) English, former lawyer and city of Barnesville code enforcement officer, and Paul Kunst, local businessman who opened his law practice four years ago. Milner City Council member Michael Floyd organized and chaired the forum, at which the Herald Gazette was present; but the event was not open to the general public. Floyd said the entire proceedings were “live-streamed,” and will be available on the Lamar County discussion page on Facebook. Here are the questions and the candidates’ answers. (Note: both may have been condensed but unchanged in purpose or meaning.) Floyd opened the discussion with a brief synopsis of the role of chief mag istrate judge, which may cover both criminal and civil proceed ings. Question 1: For voters who may not know you all, please state your name, work history and educa tion background. Jeff Mason, 53: work in both law enforcement and education; resident of Georgia since com ing here with the Army at age 17; married, four children; FBI Academy graduate; law enforce ment career spans 31 years and includes courtroom experience; all experiences were helpful in obtaining a master’s degree in public administration and then becoming a teacher and instruc tor. Shannon Williamson, 46: Lamar County resident since 1984; honor graduate of military police academy and have been in law enforcement for 22 years, 17 of them in Lamar County. Married to Reba Williamson 25 years, two children, 21 and 23. SEE MILNER FORUM 5A ©2021 THE HERALD GAZETTE, BARNESVILLE, LAMAR COUNTY, GA 30204, 770.358.NEWS