To the Editor,
The holiday events schedule for Mount Vernon was recently released by Experience-Mount-Vernon and we were surprised to see that Open Road Renewables is the primary sponsor.
This is surprising because Open Road Renewables (ORR) is not a local company.
It is a utility-scale solar development company based in Austin, Texas which is currently locked in contentious battles to construct an 840-acre solar facility on prime farmland in Southern Knox County and a 2,000-plus acre facility in Licking County.
Both developments are being opposed by a significant portion of the citizens in those areas.
ORR started quietly laying the groundwork for a utility-scale solar facility in Knox County before March of 2020, but many Miller Township residents did not know about it until March of 2023.
In the case of the proposed Licking County facility, most residents there had no knowledge of it until the first public information meeting that ORR was required to have by law, which greatly restricted the time the residents had to organize any opposition.
ORR also mailed out what they call “Good Neighbor Agreements” to residents living near the proposed facilities.
These agreements offered the residents money in exchange for them supporting or being silent on the proposed facility with this stipulation, “The Neighbor [meaning the resident to whom the agreement was being offered] agrees that the Neighbor either supports or expresses no opinion about the Project.”
In addition, ORR has sent employees to every Miller Township Trustees meeting since May of this year.
This has discouraged people from speaking up or attending and kept the citizens of the township from having direct unchallenged conversations with their Trustees.
Every time someone has tried to bring up a legitimate concern, an ORR employee has attempted to “debunk” it.
This has served to limit and filter the access of citizens to their public officials.
That a company like Open Road Renewables would attempt to use the holiday season in a cynical effort to polish their public image and that Experience-Mount-Vernon would allow them to do so is disheartening.
This sort of mercenary cashing in on the holiday-spirit is something we should all decry.
It’s a shame that the holidays in Mount Vernon are for sale to the highest bidder.
It is even more of a shame that the highest bidder this year was an out-of-state utility-scale solar development company.
Ben & Sarah Dean
Mount Vernon, Ohio