On Feb. 23, the Hadley Select Board initiated a 25-year agreement with a solar company for a photovoltaic project on the town’s closed landfill. Members unanimously accepted the recommendation of a subcommittee formed more than a year ago to publicly consider landfill solar. They congratulated the subcommittee and lauded its work. The problem is, the “work” was done almost entirely in secret.

The subcommittee held an introductory meeting in February 2025, with no substantive discussion. They held one meeting in April 2025, where co-chair Michael Docter reported major challenges. Nothing was heard from the group for almost a year, until they met on Feb. 10, for about 30 minutes, with co-chairs saying their work was complete. Notably, they did not appear to have a quorum (only 3 of 7 members present).

Their presentation included a memo explaining that they had “requested and reviewed” proposals from solar developers, determined that leasing the landfill was viable, and selected a company. All of that was supposed to be deliberated in public, so residents could raise concerns or offer insight. That didn’t happen. What about open meeting laws?

In addition, Docter and co-chair Shardool Parmar conceded that they had not confirmed that there are no zoning, wetlands, environmental, hazardous waste or other site problems that might prohibit the project. All of those are listed as “first steps” in the state’s official guide to developing landfill solar. Our team bizarrely skipped these steps and signed an agreement. Laughably, Molly Keegan said it made sense not to consult the Planning Board now, because they might have “30 questions” that the solar group was not prepared to answer. That’s kind of the point.

The subcommittee failed in its most basic function: to publicly and openly consider an important project. Because of the lack of transparency, we have no idea whether this is a beneficial project or not. Sorry, Select Board, “trust us” is not a substitute for democracy. We have a leadership problem in Hadley.

Tony Fyden

Hadley