About a third of the state’s solar energy is collected in East Windsor, and another facility could be coming.

Neighbors have been airing their concerns about more solar in town. Gov. Ned Lamont toured a facility on East Road with lawmakers and people who live in the neighborhood across the street to hear some of those concerns on Tuesday.

“I love clean, renewable power that’s also affordable, but I also love open space, protecting open space, and I don’t think we have that balance right now,” Lamont said. “We’re taking open space, we’re taking fields and commercializing them. In this case with solar, I think that’s going the wrong direction.”

Neighbor Amanda Berube described a constant humming coming from the facility.

“We built our home prior to the solar array going in, and we had built it for the peace and quiet that the area offered up, surrounded by farmland,” she said. “We deal with a ringing noise that comes from this facility from sunup to sundown. And it’s extremely loud, and it just permeates through our home if we have our windows open.”

Berube also told the governor about a fire that started from one of the transformers on the facility’s property last March.

“If the wind had been blowing in a different direction that day into the panels, we don’t have the support apparatus to put that out,” East Windsor First Selectman Jason Bowsza (D) said. “We can’t use PFAS.  We don’t have fire hydrants out here.”

East Windsor and Ellington State Representative Jamie Foster backs a bill that would upgrade fire reporting. She said she’s confident it will pass.

“There’s no plan for when there’s been an incident on a solar field, and there’s a fire,” she said. “Who determines the point of safety? It certainly shouldn’t be just the developer on their own who gets to say, ‘yep, safe. I’m turning it back on.’ They obviously have a financial incentive to turn it back on.”

Plans for a proposed solar project called Saltbox Solar would build arrays across from Berube’s neighborhood, throughout East Windsor, and in Ellington. It would produce 160,000 megawatts of energy annually, according to the project’s website.

John Hoffman, the owner of Hockanum Valley Farm, said the proposed site for Saltbox Solar is prime, meaning it can produce food year-round.

“It drains well, and we are in a 45-inch rainfall zone in this state,” he said. “And you can grow, especially food. So, vegetables and corn silage or hay for dairy cows. And we have a big concentration of dairy cattle to be fed right in this area.”

Flat land near transmission lines is ideal infrastructure to build solar arrays, which is why companies drift towards East Windsor.

Saltbox Solar has not yet been considered by the state siting council, which approves solar projects, such as the recently approved 150-acre expansion of Gravel Pit Solar in East Windsor.

Currently, municipalities lack representation on the siting council. The governor said it was too early to announce his support for a bill that would implement local representation, but he admitted there needs to be a change.

“I will say we ought to make sure we have legislation in place that guides the Siting Council and DEEP towards what we think are our broad interests,” he said.

DESRI, the parent company of Saltbox Solar and Gravel Pit, was unavailable for comment.

The WNBA world was shook up over the weekend when the Connecticut Sun announced it has reached an agreement with Rockets owner Tilman J. Fertitta’s company, Fertitta Entertainment, to move the franchise to Houston.

Under the the agreement, plans are relocate the Sun to Houston and bring back the historic Houston Comets name. Pending league approval, the franchise is expected to begin play at Toyota Center for the start of the 2027 WNBA season.

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And now, the Sun have their first front office hire as the Comets with the addition of ESPN analyst Kevin Pelton, as per Alexa Philippou of ESPN.

Pelton is expected to join the Comets’ front office in full-time capacity once the relocation from Connecticut to Houston is completed in time for the 2027 WNBA season. His official role with the franchise will be assistant general manager and vice president of analytics.

A major change could be coming to Milford schools. The district is looking to reduce the number of elementary schools to improve the student experience. It’s not the first time this has happened in our state.

Meadowside Elementary School has been a fixture in Milford for about 70 years, but its time may soon be up. The district is looking at closing it for good. One parent with a third-grader there says he’s worried about disruptions.

“There’s going to be a lot of transitions going on, and I know that can be very disruptive to a child and his development,” Richard Cudy, a parent, said.

Milford Superintendent Dr. Anna Cutaia says the district wants to reduce its elementary schools from eight to six by closing Meadowside and Calf Pen Meadow, but that wouldn’t happen for a few years.  She says it’s due to declining enrollment and the need for more modern facilities, with every elementary school built in the 50s and 60s unable to host all the programs, students, and parents may want.

“We share the gym with the lunchroom and assembly room. We have spaces that are not conducive to music instruction,” Dr. Cutaia said.

Milford is not the only district closing or combining schools. In Wallingford, the district is merging its two high schools into one to address declining enrollment there and operational costs, and in New Haven, two schools are consolidating to once again deal with fewer students in the classroom, but also because of how close they are to one another.

Declining enrollment is a statewide issue with data showing that in the 2016-17 school year, there were about 539,000 public school students, compared to this school year, where that number dropped to about 498,000.

Quinnipiac University education professor and former Branford superintendent Hamlet Hernandez says enrollment numbers and the cost of maintaining buildings are the big factors districts should consider.

“We want those dollars to go to students and not necessarily to keep buildings at 70, 80% occupancy,” he said.

Hernandez says while closing or combining schools doesn’t happen often, it does need to be considered if the town or city sees a population change. He understands it can be disruptive for students.

“They may be now on a different bus route. They may have different students that they are riding the bus with,” he said.

Parents in Milford recognize that the elementary schools need updating and say they’ll support the decision as long as their kids can learn and the district has a plan.

“All we’re concerned about is ultimately their success as a student,” Cudy said.