Diane Walden is reporting for The Columbia Paper the Copake Town Board focused the bulk of its July 9 meeting on Hecate Energy’s proposal to locate an industrial-sized, 60-megawatt solar facility with 200,000 solar panels on 500 acres near the intersection of State Route 23 and County Route 7, mostly on the south side of Route 23 in Craryville. The project is called Shepherd’s Run Solar. More than 40 people attended the Zoom meeting. Hecate Energy Project Developer Alex Campbell presented the project and vowed to listen, to be the public’s conduit to the Department of Public Service and answer questions and concerns. At least 15 local residents spoke during the July meeting, asking questions about: the project’s effects on real estate values, the exact location of the solar panels, the dangers of possible lithium battery storage, why more people had not received notification postcards, the reasoning for the project size and location in a scenic rural area, visual impact and firefighting considerations and more. Copake Deputy Supervisor Richard Wolf took Hecate to task for skipping two scheduled open houses on the project before the company filed its documents with the Public Service Department. Campbell agreed that small group meetings were a good idea and that he would think about how to schedule those along with an in-person meeting in the fall. Public comments can be submitted at www.shepherdsrunsolar.com/open-house, by email at openhouse@shepherdsrunsolar.com or via phone at 877-772-0822. Read the full story in The Columbia Paper.