BY ARIADNE WILL
The Pittsford selectboard will review several items of business at their regular meeting Wednesday, Aug. 4 at 7 p.m.
Items include a solar proposal from Encore Solar and the review of a grant application submitted by Pittsford Village Farm.
Town Manager John Haverstock said that Encore Solar is proposing a solar farm along and north of Kendall Hill Road, also known as “truck route.”
Encore Solar presented to the Pittsford Planning Commission at their July 22 meeting. Project Developer Jake Clark said at the meeting that upcoming steps include filing an application to the Public Utility Commission and submitting an application for the Certificate of Public Good.
According to Planning Commission minutes of that July 22 meeting, The Kendall Hill project is “a 2.2 megawatt project on 11 acres of Jim Buzzell’s property off Kendall Hill Road… The project will be about 6,000 or 7,000 panels mounted on driven steel posts. The low edge of the panel is 3 feet off the ground and the high edge is 9 feet. There is an agriculture style fence that will go around the project… The fence would be 7 feet high… It will require an extension of the power line of about 5 new poles to get up to the field (which currently produces hay) and there will be a transformer on the site that has a protective encasement that can hold 100% of the oil that is in the transformer with no risk of oil escaping.
“The company needs to file an application to the PUC… (which) will look at all the environmental considerations, aesthetics, and acoustics. The company needs from the local authority a determination if the project complies with the Town Plan… The project is in a long narrow field and will be visible from Kendall Hill Road.
“Mr. Clark provided a screenshare on Zoom of the site plan and advised the visibility is limited to the southern end of the project. They are planning to plant vegetative screening in that area to provide a hedge to break up the view of the project from Kendall Hill Road.”
Among other things, the selectboard will discuss whether the project compiles with the Town Plan at Wednesday’s meeting.
BLSG AMENDMENTS
Selectmen will also hear remarks from the BLSG Mosquito District Board.
“The district will inform the selectboard of plan(s) to amend the agreement among member towns to clarify the process to join or leave the district,” Haverstock said.
BLSG representatives came before the Pittsford selectboard last month and expressed irritation at Salisbury for deciding not to fund their portion of BLSG annual costs, particularly as it relates to the adulticide spraying. The mosquito district currently covers the towns of Brandon, Leicester, Salisbury, Goshen, Pittsford and Proctor.
OTHER BUSINESS
• Haverstock said the Pittsford Village Farm has submitted a “slightly scaled down” grant application. An earlier – and larger – application the farm submitted to the selectboard was denied at a previous meeting.
• The selectboard will discuss one more error and omission by the assessor’s office. The July 21 meeting saw corrections passed for seven errors and omissions, many dealing with name changes and the combining of land parcels — all considered routine corrections to changing records.
• The selectboard will also discuss the arrival of a new Kenworth tandem dump truck to be used by the Highway Department, the purchasing of a new body for the Highway Department’s F550 truck, and an update on Pittsford Day planning.
