In response to Tony Fyden’s Feb. 26 letter to the editor [“Hadley Select Board makes mockery of transparency“] I wanted to bring some facts that were omitted from the letter. First, the town’s agreement with a solar company for a photovoltaic project on the town’s closed landfill is a letter of intent which is a non-binding agreement that doesn’t obligate the town to do anything or incur any expenses other than $950 to join an organization that vets any company we are negotiating with. It will be the obligation of any developer to perform all the engineering, permitting, and installation of a solar system. This will not only save the town millions of dollars in expenses, but also reduce any future liability associated with maintaining and removing a system. With only a small investment from the town, we can generate over $4 million of revenue on what is essentially a pile of garbage.

How did we get to this point? Thanks to The Big Beautiful Bill, the federal incentives for solar are being phased out. With their elimination, the path for a municipally owned solar system has become problematic, given the town’s current financial situation. The best alternative forward is to have an outside company develop the project. At this point, it does not make sense for Hadley to spend resources on civil and mechanical engineering documents or the millions of dollars on installing and maintaining a system. 

When the town does decide on a developer, it will be the developer’s responsibility to go to the Planning Board, Conservation Commission, and any other agencies to get their approval.

I want to stress that this agreement is non-binding  It allows the town to discuss agreements and gives any developer the motivation to move forward with generating plans for a system. The town can still decline to move forward if it so chooses. There is still a great deal of work to be completed before the town makes any agreement. This is just the start of a very long process. 

I welcome the residents of Hadley to be part of this process as it moves through its phases. I also want to make it clear that this is a huge win for Hadley financially if it does move forward based on the projections. The income generated by this revenue will help reduce the tax burden on residents and create an income producing assets with great value. 

Shardool Parmar

Hadley