Thirty Seven farmers that leased their land for the Grandview Solar Project, in Spencer County, Indiana ended up with Mechanics Liens on their farms.
These farmers are not the first ones in America to end up with Mechanics Liens on their property due to signing leases with Solar Developers.
However the Grandview Project is a bit different then most projects.
It all started in 2016, when the Town of Grandview Indiana was approached by a salesman representing a small solar development company out of California named ORION Renewables.
It seems that Orion was originally started by THREE men from California and originally they were trying to develop Commercial Wind Farms.
From there, they decided to change over to Solar Projects.
Now, I must say that I could not find any record of them ever developing a project in California or actually building a wind or solar project anywhere.
What I did find out is, they seem to send sales people into other states and get farmers to sign leases that will allow a wind or solar development to be built on their farmland.
All of this signing of leases is kept very quite. The farmers are told not to disclose how much they expect to get paid per acre, because it seems that “going rate” depends on how important the location of a particular piece of farmland happens to be at any given time.
Before getting too involved in acquiring leases, they reach out to a local boards and see if they would be willing to consider the “establishment of an economic revitalization area and personal property tax abatement” for the area where they want to build the Solar Project.
Once they think they have enough landowners to “START” a project, they will attend a meeting with a local board.
By this time, they usually know how many votes they have in their favor and if there is any opposition.
In the case of the Grandview Project, the citizens like myself, had about 10 business days to find out what a “Solar Farm or Project” was and what it might entail that would be positive or negative.
No one I spoke with, knew anything about a solar project or farm. At that time, even places like Google had almost NO NEGATIVE INFORMATION about solar projects or farms.
However, I was able to find information from other countries, court documents and insurance reports to learn enough to know that I did not want to be fenced in and surrounded on ALL FOUR SIDES of my home.
Regardless of my complaints and a those of some family members, the project was approved.
The following year, Orion Renewables got approval from the county for another 19 parcels of farmland, so they could expand the size of the solar project.
Shortly after that, Orion SOLD the project to some attorney from Washington D.C. that is rich enough to reportedly have “green energy” lobbyists on his payroll.
This new “developer” had been involved in setting up solar installations on rooftops and “may” have just started getting involved in Commercial Solar Developments.
All seemed to be coming together for the solar industry when “someone” apparently actually READ the Grandview Town Ordinance OR the Spencer County Ordinances and discovered the Town of Grandview NEVER had the legal authority to approve the construction of any type of project outside their Corporate Limits.
I MUST INTERVENE here and mention the fact that Indiana has a state law allowing towns to control a TWO MILE area outside their Corporate Border. However, in order for that to happen, the town MUST apply to the county and get their approval. They must also allow one or two additional board members to sit on the board and represent the citizens that live within that two mile buffer zone.
It turns out that Grandview, Indiana never officially received that permission from the county or ever allowed additional members to be elected by county residents.
As such, Donna Borrows, the Secretary/Treasurer at the time of the original board approval of this solar project, told me at a town board meeting that since I did not live inside the town, I had no right to speak at their board meetings.
Since that day, I had created at least half a dozen anti-solar and wind websites and around 20 anti-solar social media sites.
So, when this newly found information became available, it changed everything.
Another vital difference now was that citizens of Spencer County Indiana had discovered that Orion Renewables was attempting to lease an additional 12,000 acres of farmland in our county and convert it over to solar.
So, I purchased around 600 “Stop Solar Farms” yard signs and with the help of others, distributed them all over the county. Several of us also bought and distributed 4 foot by 8 foot Anti-Solar banners in the county.
Now that everyone was able to see all the negatives aspects of Commercial Solar taking over farmland, we started packing the county and town board meetings and voicing out opinions.
That helped us get a strong anti-solar ordinance passed for all future projects by the county. However, it did not have an effect on the Grandview Project.
Now, it turned out that Grandview still had one final item they had to approve, before the construction of the solar project could begin.
This time, on July 12, 2023, when the board voted, it was moved to a larger facility and was filled to standing room only, including police and Television media.
I would say that other than the people representing the new solar developers, SolSystems from Washington D.C., around 98% of that audience was against solar.
Luckily the board voted AGAINST making the final approval needed for the construction to begin.
That should have been the end of it.
But Yuri, the CEO of SolSystems, is a fighter and wasn’t going to simply give up. So, on July 31, he filed a $30 million lawsuit against a small farming community with a 2024 population of 681.
That population seems to be constantly declining because in 2010 there were 749 and in 2020, it was only 697 residents. Yet somehow the people running the town have not figured out how to attract new people instead of pushing them away.
This next part, is pure speculation, based on logic and some facts.
As I mentioned above, on July 31, 2023, this lawsuit was filed against the town of Grandview. However it was filed in the town of Vincennes, Indiana, which is 92 miles north of Grandview.
The Town of Grandview has insurance that helped pay for an outside attorney to handle the case. So, on August 28th, a motion was granted to have the case moved closer to Grandview.
It ended up being transferred to a neighboring county where the courthouse was only 24 miles away in Boonville, Indiana.
On 9/19/23 Judge Miskimen was appointed as a new judge.
By now, Yuri must have realized it was not going to be as easy or fast, as he may have expected.
On September 28th, 2023, the Judge signed an “interlocutory order” and “Mandate to the Town Zoning Administrator” compelling him to issue the ILP, which was the final signature needed for the construction to begin. THIS WAS JUST A TEMPORY ORDER
On the next day, September 29th, the Ames construction company, who had been contracted by SolSystems to perform the construction, signed a $9 million lien on all 60 parcels of farmland that “may” have signed leases to allow solar panels on their property. But they were NOT filed yet.
Here is where the speculation comes in.
The original project approved 37 parcels. But the town did NOT have the legal ability to approve them.
The additional section for 19 parcels was approved by the county, that had the legal authority to approve it.
Back when I went to school, before they started using the “New Math” that would have come to a total of 56 parcels.
But this lien was for 60 parcels of land. So either someone was trying to add some additional property to the solar project without any paperwork OR the contractor is trying to pull off something shady.
October 31, 2023
The attorney representing the Town of Grandview filed a Notice of Appeal, to the Appellate Court.
Tuesday, November 20,2023,
Yuri, the CEO of SolSystems, offered a BRIBE (my words not his) of $650,000 to the town board of Grandview, to use for anything they wanted, AS LONG AS IT WAS APPROVED by YURI.
But the catch was, they would NOT get the money all at one time. They are supposed to get it in installments.
However it was enough to warrant the Town of Grandview to approve the construction of the solar project they KNEW they did not have the legal right to approve.
After accepting this money from Yuri, 99% of the board members voted to approve the construction. There was ONE holdout that would not vote in favor of it and that person has received many threats since that day, but is still against allowing the solar around so many residents.
November 21, 2023
Parties are advised that Judge Miskimen has been granted an indefinite leave of absence and the parties may wish to select a new Special Judge to be appointed by the Court.
November 29, 2023
Attorney for the Town of Grandview filed a Motion for Voluntary Dismissal asking the appeal be dismissed without prejudice.
Since the Town Approved the construction, the Mechanics liens filed by Ames Construction were removed.
So, were the mechanics liens simply a ploy to get the town to approve the construction or was SolSystems simply so poor, where they did not have enough money available to pay the money they owed to Ames Construction?
Either way, it sounds like the combination of SolSystems and Ames Construction should not be trusted.
I might also mention here the President of the Grandview Town Board blamed the Spencer County Commissioners for not intervening, supporting or giving the town guidance.
I will also mention the Spencer County Commissioners REFUSED to help the residents and would not even let them speak about SOLAR at the board meetings as this was all coming to an end.
At the time of this writing, there are no lawsuits against Spencer County YET.
December 4, 2023
Order Received from the Court of Appeals, granting dismissal of the Appeal.
February 2, 2024
Seventy Nine Citizens living within Three Miles of the proposed Grandview Solar Project, filed a lawsuit against Grandview Solar Project LLC, Town of Grandview, Indiana Board of Zoning Appeals, Town of Grandview, Indiana Town Council and the Town of Grandview, Indiana Zoning Administrator
February 23, 2024
No one representing the Town of Grandview or Grandview Solar Project LLC have responded to the lawsuit yet.
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