Nanticoke City Council denies development of solar energy facility

NANTICOKE — Facing a crowd of dozens, city council unanimously denied the development of a solar energy generation facility within the city’s limits at their meeting on Wednesday night.

The public comment portion of Wednesday’s meeting, at least in comparison to that at last month’s meeting, was fairly subdued. At last month’s meeting, city residents expressed their concerns with the development of the facility, which they feared would create noise and environmental damage to the proposed building site. The proposed site covers over 40 acres of land near a housing development on South Hanover Street.

The lone public comment before the council’s vote on Wednesday was a plea for the measure to be denied. The members of the council, ultimately, agreed with the anti-measure public sentiment that had been building over the past month.

An exuberant cheer from the crowd erupted within Nanticoke’s municipal building upon the final vote being cast to kill the proposed project from moving forward.

The developers of the proposed solar facility, Susquehanna Solar, did not offer any comment on the council’s decision at Wednesday night’s meeting. However, the presence of Susquehanna Solar may not be totally off future agendas for Nanticoke City Council. Talk of a judicial appeal in the Court of Common Pleas to council’s decision almost immediately followed the crowd’s jubilation.

“We will fight them,” said council member Kenny James to the audience, in response to any appeals that may be lobbed the city’s way from Susquehanna Solar.

Further, the crowd questioned whether the city will enact a law to keep similar solar energy projects from being developed in residential areas of the city.

City solicitor William Finnegan indicated that such a law is in the works, and the matter will be discussed in future public hearings. Finnegan clarified that some future implementation of solar energy within the city’s borders “can’t be excluded altogether, but there will be significant limitations.”

Other matters discussed at Wednesday’s meeting included:

• Luzerne County Transportation Authority’s (LCTA) new microtransit system , which will partly serve the City of Nanticoke and its surrounding areas. Members of LCTA’s administrative team were on hand at Wednesday’s meeting to offer a presentation to attendees and council members, in which they described the microtransit system and its functions.

• The Connecting Autism & Communities event, which will take place at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 28, at Nanticoke’s city hall at 15 E. Ridge St. Olivia Dougherty, the daughter of council member Joe Dougherty, said the event will allow those with autism, or those on the autism spectrum, to connect with each other.

State Rep. Alec Ryncavage, who was in attendance at Wednesday’s meeting, was complimentary of Olivia’s efforts in bringing the event to life, saying she “did all the work.”