The fire that destroyed the Kewanee Boiler office building Saturday night should have no impact on plans to develop a solar farm on the Boiler property.
EnPower Solutions of Homewood, Ala., plans to cover 17 acres, a little more than half of the Boiler site, with solar arrays.
Miles Walding, director for community development for EnPower, said Tuesday that he had spoken with Mayor Gary Moore and Kewanee Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Mark Mikenas about the fire.
“That’s awful, man,” Walding said of the fire. But he added, “That’s not going to affect the (solar) project at all.”
The fire has, however, impacted the plans to build a monument to Kewanee Boiler Corp. near the site of the factory.
Walding said EnPower has given the Kewanee Preservation Society permission to remove any materials from the old office and use them in creating the monument.
Unfortunately, the part of the building the preservation society wanted most — the concrete archway over the main entrance to the office — was destroyed in the fire.
“I just hope that they can still salvage stuff for that monument,” Walding said.
He said EnPower has been waiting for the state to act on the company’s application to the Illinois Adjustable Block Program, which creates incentives for developing new solar projects.
EnPower hopes that the state will act by mid-December. If that happens, Walding said, there should be time to get started on clearing the rubble, brush and scrub trees from the Boiler site before winter halts the work.
He has said EnPower hopes to hire local people — perhaps including the FFA chapters at the local high schools — to do some of the work of clearing the site.
The City Council earlier this year approved a special use permit allowing the solar project to go forward.
