solar energy

Solar talks resume in North Canaan

NORTH CANAAN — The Board of Selectmen has reopened discussions for establishing a solar panel array at the Transfer Station.

A previous arrangement with CTEC Solar to develop a solar farm for the town fell through due to the inability of the company to secure grant funding. First Selectman Brian Ohler described the situation as “a blessing in disguise” because the plan would have involved burying a transmission line through dense, native forest.

Solar talks resumed this spring after consultant Kirt Mayland contacted the selectmen with an offer to plan a new project. Around the same time, John Bunce, owner of the property just north of the Transfer Station, reached out to express interest in partnering with the town on such a project.

Mayland, who worked on the 13-acre array in Norfolk, began drafting an RFP (request for proposal) to present a new solar plan to the North Canaan selectmen. A special meeting of the BOS to review Mayland’s proposal is expected to take place in late May.

Ohler said the goal is to maximize megawatt output while minimizing cost to the town and impact on the environment. Instead of a buried transmission line, he said the new plan involves continuing three-phase power lines along West Main Street to the Transfer Station.

If a five-megawatt array is built, Ohler explained, the potential revenue to the town could be approximately $50,000 per year.

The consultant and infrastructure costs could be covered by the future revenues, meaning potentially “no out of pocket cost to the town,” Ohler said.

As of May 12, no special BOS meeting with Mayland had been scheduled.

solar energy

Latest News

Angela Derrick Carabine

Angela Derrick Carabine

SHARON — Angela Derrick Carabine, 74, died May 17, 2025, at Vasser Hospital in Poughkeepsie, New York. She was the wife of Michael Carabine and mother of Caitlin Carabine McLean.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated on June 6 at 11:00 a.m. at Saint Katri (St Bernards Church) Church. Burial will follow at St. Bernards Cemetery. A complete obituary can be found on the website of the Kenny Funeral home kennyfuneralhomes.com.

Revisiting ‘The Killing Fields’ with Sam Waterston

Revisiting ‘The Killing Fields’ with Sam Waterston

Sam Waterston

Jennifer Almquist

On June 7 at 3 p.m., the Triplex Cinema in Great Barrington will host a benefit screening of “The Killing Fields,” Roland Joffé’s 1984 drama about the Khmer Rouge and the two journalists, Cambodian Dith Pran and New York Times correspondent Sydney Schanberg, whose story carried the weight of a nation’s tragedy.

The film, which earned three Academy Awards and seven nominations — including one for Best Actor for Sam Waterston — will be followed by a rare conversation between Waterston and his longtime collaborator and acclaimed television and theater director Matthew Penn.

Keep ReadingShow less
film screening

The art of place: maps by Scott Reinhard

The art of place: maps by Scott Reinhard

Scott Reinhard, graphic designer, cartographer, former Graphics Editor at the New York Times, took time out from setting up his show “Here, Here, Here, Here- Maps as Art” to explain his process of working.Here he explains one of the “Heres”, the Hunt Library’s location on earth (the orange dot below his hand).

obin Roraback

Map lovers know that as well as providing the vital functions of location and guidance, maps can also be works of art.With an exhibition titled “Here, Here, Here, Here — Maps as Art,” Scott Reinhard, graphic designer and cartographer, shows this to be true. The exhibition opens on June 7 at the David M. Hunt Library at 63 Main St., Falls Village, and will be the first solo exhibition for Reinhard.

Reinhard explained how he came to be a mapmaker. “Mapping as a part of my career was somewhat unexpected.I took an introduction to geographic information systems (GIS), the technological side of mapmaking, when I was in graduate school for graphic design at North Carolina State.GIS opened up a whole new world, new tools, and data as a medium to play with.”

Keep ReadingShow less
exhibit