While the community seeks answers, some officials don't have enough information to answer questions about a potential solar project around New Bloomfield.
The county assessor and New Bloomfield fire chief attempted to answer questions from citizens at a town hall Wednesday. However, the current response to many was "I don't know."
NextEra Energy Resources has expressed interest in a solar power project that would span approximately 600 acres in Callaway County, mostly focused around the New Bloomfield area.
In general, NextEra is looking to lease land from property owners -- mostly farmers -- to install solar panels. The panels would generate electricity to be sold to power suppliers in the area. It would generate an estimated 100 megawatts of energy.
The project could start as early as 2024.
New Bloomfield Fire Protection District Chief Travis Bell said he's lacking information to give the citizens an informed response on many factors.
The fire district is supported by tax revenue and run by 14 volunteers, he said. There's a station in New Bloomfield and one in Guthrie.
Bell said the district doesn't have the personnel to respond if a large-scale fire broke out at the potential solar farm. He's always accepting new volunteers.
However, he said, he doesn't know if the district has the equipment to address the fire if it did happen.
Essentially, Bell said, there's two types of solar panels and he doesn't know which kind NextEra would use if the project goes through.
"From what I am looking at, there's two different types of panels that get built," he said. "One type is chemical ... those are bad for the environment and bad for us. The other type isn't as bad."
He said standard response for residents in case of a fire like that would be either a hunker in place direction or evacuation to outside of a certain radius. However, that also depends on the type of panel used.
Bell also isn't sure what additional resources or revenue the district may need if the project goes through to be prepared in case of a fire.
"We are in the planning stage of this," he said. "We don't know what they'd bring so I really don't know how to plan for it. That's a big concern for us."
Another aspects residents have questions about is the potential impact on property values.
Jody Paschal, Callaway County assessor, said it's a complicated question to answer.
"There's not a lot of data right now to give you a percentage of what your property would go down," he said. "But I can tell you that if you're surrounded on three sides, your property value is going to drop drastically. I don't know what that's going to be, but that's what's going to happen because no one wants to live around the solar panels."
He said part of the reason there's not much data is because properties with solar panels aren't selling.
Its also hard to project what properties would be impacted.
For instance, if one corner of somebody's property touches the farm, it likely wouldn't have a large impact.
In terms of potential impact on revenue for the school district, Paschal said, most of the land being discussed is currently agricultural land.
As it currently stands, for example, somebody who owns 106 acres of agricultural land would pay about $275 in taxes. If a solar panel farm gets installed, the land would become commercial land.
At that point, the property owner would pay about $1,900 in property taxes.
The concern is, Paschal said, the property owners will fight in the Capitol to make that agricultural land.
Essentially, the best case for the school district would be for the land to be commercial, but the worse that could happen is it remains agricultural, he said.
However, if there's also homes within that land, those would decrease in value by "whatever we have to reduce them by," he said.
That would result in fewer tax dollars going to the school district.
"We don't know where those solar panels are going to go," Paschal said. "It's really hard to say what your home could possibly be worth since I don't know where those panel are going to go."