On Monday, March 8th, the Wautoma Common Council passed a motion to approve a solar lease with Wisconsin Power and Light and Alliant to lease 111 acres of land for a proposed solar farm at the Wautoma Municipal Airport. The city has been working on this proposal for the past two years and after a phone conference with Andy Dahlert, project manager, explaining the solar farm to the council, the council voted to approve the lease.
Dahlert said the Public Service of Wisconsin will review this solar farm with five others proposals. He said the farm would consist of acreage owned by the City of Wautoma at the airport location on Hwy. 22 and Cottonville. The panels are 3 foot wide by 6-7 ft. tall set at an angle with a mile access road. The panels are connected to a collection system with inverters and collected underground through connector lines to a sub-station. It will be enclosed with an 8 ft. deer fence.
The solar farm proposed for this site would generate enough electricity for 15,000 homes. Now that the city has approved the land lease it will be reviewed along with other proposals by the Public Service Commission and will take 10 to 12 months to review, bringing it up to February 2022. The lease agreement during this phase is $35 per acre and at this time the city can continue to lease the land to a farmer for $50 an acre. Please note this is in the preliminary stages and the site may not be approved. If the site is approved, the city will be paid $650 an acre on a 20-year lease.
The proposed project will not interrupt the Wautoma Municipal Airport and those that use it as the panels are non-reflective. The lease does not include the runways or hangars, just the surrounding land owned by the city which is 111 acres. (See diagram on page 4).
Dahlert said, “Providing power to 15,000 is a good reason for a solar farm at the Airport. It is a beautiful thing and a great endeavor and I look forward to it.”
Thomas J. Leuker, President of the Land Service Company, Madison, attended the council meeting and is working with Dahlert on the solar farm proposed project at the Wautoma Municipal Airport.
In other business Tommy Bohler, City Administrator, reported to the council on correspondence he received from the Town of Mount Morris expressing appreciation for the Cares Grant assistance. He also said the city has received a $5,000 in grant assistance from the Center for Tech and Civic Life for COVID election expenditures.
Bohler had met with Alliant Energy and MSA engineers regarding the Airport Layout Plan in accordance with the potential solar panel project. He also said they submitted a payment of $29,983 to the Wautoma Area Fire District for annual operations. Bohler added that if the city had their own department it would be a much larger ticket item.
Mayor John Nixon informed the council that there will be a meeting at City Hall on Wednesday, March 24th to discuss the 2021 Open Air Market.
The next regular meeting of the Wautoma Common Council will be held on Monday, March 8th at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall.
