Danville City Council members have failed to generate sufficient votes for a solar array project next to Aqua Illinois Water Company’s treatment plant. The Council would have had to suspend its rules to reconsider an earlier vote rejecting the project. Some neighbors had claimed the project would devalue their property along North Logan Avenue and Westwood.
Rich Baltimore, Project Manager for Sol Systems, LLC urged the council members to approve the project….
Alderwoman Brenda Brown argued against suspending the rules saying there was no emergency. She pleaded with the City Council not to move the project forward. Alderman Bob Iverson agreed that suspending the rules – in his words – ‘’puts us on a slippery slope.’’
But Alderman Steve Foster noted there are other companies waiting to do solar projects in Danville. He said one is larger and he wonders what impact rejecting this project will have on those.
Aqua had said the solar project would save the company an estimated $100,000 per year. Aqua Area Manager Bob Ervin had also said the project would help keep the company out of the rate hike arena since all of the power generated by the solar panels would have been used at the water treatment plant.
