Solar foe eyes Hartland town board run
Mar. 15—GASPORT — Margaret "Peggy" Zaepfel, beef rancher and vocal opponent of industrial solar siting on farmland, is contemplating another run for Hartland town office as the June primary election approaches.
In 2021 Zaepfel ran an unsuccessful write-in campaign for a town board seat after losing a court battle over the validity of her designating petition. In the spot indicating the position she was running for, Zaepfel wrote "Town Board" and not "Hartland Town Board" and her petition was tossed out by the county board of elections.
Zaepfel said Hartland town residents are demoralized as the 350-megawatt Ridge View Solar Center slowly takes shape, threatening the rural way of life they've come to love, and they feel helpless because their local government doesn't hear them. Currently the town board is holding public hearings on proposed local solar siting and battery storage laws that the members hope will mitigate some of the potential effects of hosting a utility. The board has been criticized for not doing more, as in, fighting the development generally.
"This is the way things are done in this town," Zaepfel said, adding that her own situation is proof of that.
An 11-year member of the town Zoning Board of Appeals, Zaepfel was due for reappointment to her five-year post in January 2022. The town board has neither reappointed nor replaced Zaepfel, leaving her as a "holdover" who can be replaced at any time instead.
"(Zaepfel) is on the zoning board until someone new is appointed," the town's attorney, Dave Haylett, confirmed.
Interestingly, because Zaepfel is a "holdover," Haylett said she is not entitled to an explanation, or a hearing, if the board decides to replace her.
To Zaepfel this seems ridiculous. She has been attending the ZBA meetings and has been paid by the town, and to her that means she should be given a proper hearing if and when she is booted off the board.
And she said as much, openly, at the March 9 town board meeting:
"I served for ten years on the zoning board and last year I heard that (town supervisor) Ross (Annable) was not going to reappoint me but Ross never said anything so I continued to serve."
Over the past four years, Zaepfel said, she has attended every town board meeting that she could get to, and shared her thoughts about about Hartland's farm town identity, and Annable didn't like what she had to say.
In a Wednesday interview with the Union-Sun & Journal, Zaepfel said a "difference of opinion" is no reason to kick a person off the ZBA. She'll keep attending the meetings, and doing her job, until it isn't hers anymore, she added.
"I'll do what has to be done until the position is filled and (Annable) appoints someone else," Zaepfel said.
