*Note: This is reader-submitted. Opinions and letters to the editor can be sent to news@crawfordcountynow.com

A plea to the commissioners for mercy, peace, and the families that call Crawford County home. As many of you may know, our home was the site of a battle ground and great divide in 2022 when alternative wind energy was defeated in a 74.54% landslide that protected our county from commercial wind turbine development for 10 years. We the people of Crawford won that battle by vote, but only 1 small battle because the war on wind turbine development will resume at the end of 2032 if I’m not mistaken.

We are told the children are our future, and if our children are gone there is no future. I bring up this old adage because many of you may not be aware of the solar field developments targeted at Our home. If you haven’t traveled St Rt 602 south of New Washington in the last 12 months you probably don’t know about the cancer that is currently spreading south of New Washington. I call it a cancer because it is my belief that as this alternative energy cancer spreads through our county it will kill the body of Crawford by driving away the kids of the families that call it home. I fully believe if this cancer spreads far and wide enough, the children born now will be the last generation that will want to call this place their home. because as adults they won’t want to continue living among thousands of acres of wind and solar fields. We are told renewable energy will generate lots of tax revenue for the schools and surrounding communities, but what good is it if the schools start closing because there just aren’t enough kids left to justify having the few country schools we still have.

It’s not possible to convey through words how depressing it will be to live among a sea of solar fields with wind turbines towering over everything else. The only way the people of Crawford will understand is to take a drive from old 30 north on 602 to New Washington. Pay attention to when you are surrounded on both sides of the road by solar panels. Let that moment sink in and if it hurts your sole to see our land turned into a county wide industrial energy site then do us all a favor, take 5 minutes to write a polite email to our commissioners. Tell them who you are, where you live, and in a few short words, let them know you want to see a ban on all future wind, solar, and battery energy storage facilities, because that will be the next battle once we block wind and solar. These are the people we elected to protect our home. Tim Ley (timl@crawford-co.org), Larry Schmidt (larrys@crawford-co.org), and Jeff Price (jeffp@crawford-co.org). It’s time to let them know we want to use our voting power again to protect our home and our future.

It’s my opinion solar panels belong only in a few places, the tops of hundred acre warehouses and the desert, not on the ground we use to feed our people and raise our families. I don’t believe solar panels are the solution to our energy woes, but on behalf of my family I can say for certainty that gamble isn’t worth destroying our home for future generations.

My name is Josh Strain, I live in Crawford County, Auburn Township. I wasn’t born here but my wife and her family were and we call it home. I believe if our commissioners can stop the cancer permanently, I’m confident this will be a place our kids will want to call home too.

Josh Strain

6197 Dickson Rd.

New Washington, OH