The Montgomery City Council voted tonight to approve an agreement between Montgomery Public Schools and the City of Montgomery regarding bringing back middle school athletics. This agreement will allow the City of Montgomery to better support middle school athletics programs in schools. What that means is that the city will assist in finding coaches for these programs, and they will help fund certain athletic positions as well.
Another topic that came up – solar farms. About two dozen residents from the Hope Hull area in South Montgomery County came to voice their concerns that more than 4,500 acres of land in Snowden & Hope Hull will be covered in solar panels. Currently, there are no regulations in place that would safeguard the surrounding neighborhoods and farms from potential problems like fires or environmental issues.
Hope Hull resident Karin Bolinger spoke for the group saying, “We want to work together with the city. We just want to be able to express our concerns and put environmental safeguards around what’s happening with solar, and we don’t have a voice, we don’t have a voice at city council, we have no vote into the city of Montgomery, yet we all have to pay police jurisdiction tax and a Montgomery city tax. And solar farms are not going through appropriate zoning, they’re going through an appeal as a natural resource…the 1970s was when the last zoning ordinance was written and clearly that appeal was intended for natural resources of lumber and not for solar. So we’re just asking for a moratorium to be put in place to stop all these solar companies from coming forward to the planning commission and getting approved without any safety (issues) being looked at.”…