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Commissioners approve road-use and decommissioning bonds for Celestra solar project; ordinance revised
Summary
The board approved a road-use bond for Celestra and a first-year decommissioning bond based on a consultant estimate; commissioners also amended a county ordinance to update per-mile bond rates and removed a chip-seal line item.
Glenn Carnell, representing Celestra, told the Gibson County Board of Commissioners that the company agreed to updated per-mile figures for road-use bonding and sought approval to post the required bond for a planned solar project. "Specifically, it's 200,000 for paved roads and 30,000 for gravel roads," Carnell said. Based on previously approved road mileage, Carnell said the total road-use bond amount would be $3,016,000.
Carnell also described the decommissioning (reclamation) plan prepared by the special engineer Kimberly Horn. Exhibits submitted with the plan put the estimated full decommissioning cost at about $13,678,114. Under the county's ordinance referenced in the meeting, the year-one bond requirement is 25% of that amount; Carnell said the year-one posting would be about $3,419,528 and asked the board to approve posting that bond.
Commissioners said they had reviewed the bond documentation and, after confirming the drainage plan and the other listed conditions, approved the road-use bond and the decommissioning bond. One commissioner confirmed the remaining contingencies referenced in the drainage board meeting; staff said they would provide documentation showing the conditions have been met because the minutes would not be approved until the next meeting.
Separately, the board considered an amendment to the road-use bonding ordinance (referenced in the meeting as "20 15 dash 1"). The draft change removes a chip-seal line item and applies paved-road replacement figures to roads previously classified as chip-seal for the purposes of bond calculation. Commissioners voted to suspend rules and pass the revised ordinance at the same meeting (transcript references the passed ordinance as "4 20 25 dash 4").
A county staffer and commissioners confirmed they would record the approvals required for the project's permit file and return any outstanding documentation to the board as needed.
