GLEN SPEY, NY — Lumberland officials, who have devoted considerable time to alternative energy sources, voted on August 8 to consider a move to delay any solar farm proposals.

They scheduled a September 12, 7:05 p.m., public hearing on a proposed moratorium on solar farms. The action came amid questions as to whether power companies would continue to buy back excess output from these farms.

The Pew Charitable Trusts (www.pewtrusts.org) reported in June of 2016 that “the practice of requiring utilities to pay solar energy customers retail prices for electricity that they produce but can’t use is under attack in multiple states.”

The New York Times reported in July that traditional utilities have been lobbying heavily against so called net metering, a practice allowing private solar customers to sell excess power back to the grid at the retail price, arguing that it “can be unfair to homeowners who do not want or cannot afford their own solar installations.” A passage later in the article explains that the alleged “unfairness” consists in the fact that utilities feel they will have to charge non-solar customers higher rates when they have to spread the costs of running their conventional plants across a smaller pool of users.

In other actions at last week’s 45-minute meeting, the town announced that the state has approved a 45 mph speed limit on Haring Road and 40 mph on VanTuyl Road.

Ellen Dart, whose board of assessment review (BAR) appointment runs out August 31, tendered her resignation to allow the town time to recruit a replacement.

The board issued its annual proclamation in recognition of the 27th anniversary of August 24, 1991 declaration of Ukrainian independence

The board discussed but took no action on the ongoing issue of records storage. Lumberland uses a combination of paper—having added a new storage shed recently—and electronic storage. “Our IT advisor says the current system is OK. Paper is not going to go away,” town clerk Laurie Terry said.

In other resolutions, the board accepted $100 donation for Circle Park from Virginia Dudko, approved a grant application for the justice court and approved purchase of an upgrade for building department software.

Separately, Terry said that after a lengthy search, Lumberland now has three applicants for two open zoning board of appeals (ZBA) slots. The ZBA was tasked to review the applications and recommend appointments for the town board’s September meeting.