OREGON – The Ogle County Board last week approved extending the moratorium on new solar developments in the county for another six months.
At its Feb. 19 meeting, the board agreed to again address the issue in August. The moratorium was initially put in place in August of 2018.
Board Chairman Kim Gouker said the purpose of the moratorium is to give the board a chance to take a long-term look at the process of solar development in the county. He said he is looking to create a committee of board members to delve into the issue.
But Board member Lyle Hopkins said he didn’t believe the county still needed a moratorium.

“Looks to me like we are just trying to chase money away from Ogle County,” he said of the tax revenue that solar developments could generate.
Board member Ben Youman said the tax benefits are not clear to the board at this time.
“I don’t think we’ve had enough time to talk about it,” he said.
At a special meeting in January, the board did suspend the moratorium for a few hours to vote on solar projects that had completed the process then in place.
In other business:
The board approved $83,000 to purchase the house at 105 S. 7th St. in Oregon. The home will be then leased back to the current owner for two years, and the rent is that the owner will pay the property taxes for those two years. Gouker said owning that land is part of the 50-year plan for the county. He said it would be used during construction of the new jail. Ground should be broken on the jail project in April.