Rural landscape changing, even without solar farm

After reading the article in the City Times, about the opposition to the planned solar farm in the town of Rome, I felt a strong need to respond to that opposition.
My understanding is that this opposition is coming from a group of people who, for the most part, may have retired and moved to the township from someplace else. They were seeking an area that provided rural character, wildlife and beautiful natural areas. Unfortunately, in the process, purchased property, cut down trees to build homes on, established a network of roads and trails, created businesses to service their needs, to include large expanses of land with golf courses.
All this has been done as though it would not disrupt the rural character of the landscape, wildlife habitat, and natural beauty of the area. Now they want to stand in the way of a solar farm that they say will “… impact property values, wildlife habitat, and the area’s rural character.” Seems to me that they have already done those things on their own.
My wife and I moved into this area in 1982, now living here longer than most of the residents of the town of Rome. We moved here for jobs, and were lucky enough, over the years, to be able purchase some property in 1990, just outside of Wisconsin Rapids.
Since then, we have worked to make our property and residence more environmental friendly and efficient; insulating our old farmhouse, adding a geothermal livestock water tank, replacing our old hot water heater with a heat pump, and as part of our effort to be more environmentally proactive we installed our first 10 solar panels. Since 2011, we have added additional panels that now number 34. While this does not take us off the grid (we are still connected), over the years it has helped us produce, through our solar arrays, 106.3 MWh of electricity that went into the grid, offsetting some of the 60.19 MWh we’ve use since 2011. I mention this not because it makes us special, but to let the reader know that we have some background in solar.

Recently, in talking with colleagues from work that bought property on Lake Arrowhead and built a home there, we heard how much the area has changed in recent years, to the point where they sold their home on Arrowhead and moved back to Wisconsin Rapids. They were disappointed in the amount of development that has come to that area, and with the development of the numerous golf courses, the area can hardly be called rural in the sense of relatively remote homesteads.
Don’t get me wrong, as someone who sought and won a seat on my county board some years ago, I think it is fine when citizens are interested enough in their communities to get involved in their local governments. However, what raised my concern in this instance was the stated purpose of the ad hoc committee. It was not “ … research, letter-writing, organizing and meeting with officials,” which would be a great use of their concerns and energy, but with the purpose “ … sole(ly) on opposing the solar farm.” So much for approaching the problem with an open mind.
To me, this effort seems selfish, and without concerns for the larger community that needs to be concerned about the environmental impact of each and every one of us. Having lived here now for over 40 years, observing the development of the town of Rome, I would guess that most of the people who moved to this are retired, looking for an area that can provide them with a great place to spend the rest of their days, however long that may be.
What is disappointing to me, is that my guess is that most of those who oppose this project are around my age (78), and, like me, won’t be around here 10-15 years down the road. We should be thinking about what is good for our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, instead of ourselves.
Most of the tourists that come here, do so for the same reasons you did years ago, and will never see this solar field unless they go looking for it. How many, for instance, have seen the large solar field just south of Highway 73 in this area? Probably not very many.
Mark Holbrook lives in rural Wisconsin Rapids and served on the Wood County Board of Supervisors from 2018 to 2020.