Decatur County creates $352,225 expense fund and hires Commonwealth for battery storage reviews

The Decatur County Board of Commissioners voted to establish an expense fund and to contract with Commonwealth to perform plan review and on-site inspections for a proposed battery storage facility.

Doug Westerfeld told commissioners the fund would cover vendor proposals and related costs, listing a fund deposit of $352,225 and a legal-fees cap of $25,000. "Fletcher Power is paying for all of the site review, all of the planning and everything on that side of it," Westerfeld said, explaining the county fund will be used to pay invoices for third-party reviewers and attorney work. A motion to adopt the expense fund agreement carried.

The board then approved a master service agreement with Commonwealth, the third-party company that will conduct technical review and inspections. After brief questions about how the figures were calculated, Westerfeld said the numbers were based on proposals from the vendors involved, including ESRG for emergency planning and Christopher Burke for storm-water excavation analysis. Commissioners voted to approve the Commonwealth contract.

Why it matters: The expense fund and vendor agreement ensure the county can pay for independent technical and legal reviews of the battery storage project without using general operating funds, and Fletcher Power’s agreement to cover specific technical costs reduces direct county exposure. The contracts include a cap on attorney fees and require vendor billing to flow through the designated expense account.

What’s next: County counsel will finalize signature pages and the county will receive the signed vendor documents; inspections and plan-review work by Commonwealth will proceed under the adopted agreements.