Episode 80 - Corey Kafka - Jester's Cards & Games

And to start with, we're going to start with Claremont as a whole.

And this is from the August 26th Claremont County Commissioners meeting.

So there were some questions raised in the public comments about possible development at the Zimmer site.

During public comment at the Claremont County Commissioner's meeting, a Batavia Township resident raised questions about what may be happening at the former Zimmer power plant site.

The resident said she had previously heard about the possibility of a Zimmer BESS solar project at the site.

She then said she now understood there may be a 629 megawatt natural gas plant.

with possible battery storage listed in the PJMQ and described it as being in the feasibility study phase.

Now, real quickly, PJM, from what I understand, it kind of controls how power is hooked up and distributed in about 13 states and Washington, D.C.

So again, I need to look into this a little bit more so I understand it a little bit better.

But from my understanding, if you wanted to put in like a power plant or something that was going to be hooked into the grid in a significant way, you have to first go through this PJM organization.

And because this will probably come up more and more, I will definitely dig into what PJM actually is.

But that's how this resident said she found out there might be a 629 megawatt natural gas plant.

She was looking at filings with PJM.

So importantly, those details were statements made by a resident during public comment.

Commissioners did not, I'll repeat, did not confirm that such a project exists or provide details about it.

The residents asked whether county commissioners had been involved in discussions concerning the Zimmer property or had signed non-disclosure agreements related to the site.

One of the commissioners responded that they do not sign NDAs, which would be a non-disclosure agreement.

And for anybody that doesn't know, a nondisclosure agreement simply means that you cannot talk about whatever kind of business deal is going on.

So if you sign an NDA, legally, you cannot talk about it.

She also asked whether residents of Moscow and Washington Township were being informed or involved in discussions about possible development at the property.

Commissioners responded that they had had no information about any new development coming to the Zimmer site.

The conversation also touched on previously raised air quality concerns around Zimmer.

Commissioners said the Ohio EPA and the Southwest Ohio Air Quality Agency had looked into those concerns, that results had recently been produced and were still being reviewed and finalized, and that finalized information would be shared with Washington Township.

When asked whether residents of Moscow and Washington Township were involved in that air quality matter, commissioners said that they were, noting that residents had been the ones who raised the complaints in the first place.

The resident closed by saying her goal was responsible development with community support and buy-in.