DAYTON — The Agle farm was established in the early 1900s and is preserved by the landowner and the Tecumseh Land Trust. The land is protected by the landowner wants to make sure the land is only used for farming.
Bill Agle, who owns Beaverdale Farms, said, “I was raised in this house, and after my parents passed away, my wife, Polly, and I remodeled the house, and we’ve been here for 13 years.
As reported on News Center 7 at 5:30 p.m., Taylor Roberston said farming is all Agle, and his family knows.
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“There are some things you can’t put a price tag on, and you know, my family’s been here for generations, and I want it to be here for my grandkids, their kids. So, I’ve chosen to preserve our land so hopefully they have the same opportunity I did,” Agle said.
Several years ago, Agle told News Center 7 that he heard talks about a possible solar farm, and wanted to make sure the future of Beaverdale Farms didn’t include becoming a solar farm.
“I’ve chosen to put our farms into farmland preservation, and we’ve worked with Tecumseh Land Trust, and we’ve got our farms preserved where they can’t ever be anything but a farm,” Agle said.
Kimberly Flax, who is also a farmer in Clark County, is opposed to the solar farm, too. “My husband’s a fourth-generation farmer and our kids plan to farm,” Flax said.
She is also looking to preserve her land.
“We bought the land along Thomas Road several years ago with the intent that we were going to farm it, you know. Forever essentially,” Flax said.
She told News Center 7 that one of her concerns with the solar farm is drainage issues, flooding their crops. Invenergy, the company proposing Sloopy Energy Center, told News Center 7 that they are taking the concerns of the public seriously.
Ryan Vanportfliet, Director of Renewable Energy at Invenergy, said, “We can’t allow for any adjacent neighbors to be negatively impacted, especially in terms of the heavy rain events.”
The Power Sitting Board ultimately has the final decision as to whether this solar field comes to Clark County.
That decision is still months away.
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