PARIS — The Paris Board of Selectmen approved, Monday, a one-year lease option for the town’s 37.1-acre capped landfill site on Kilgore Road during its regular meeting.

The lease option does not lock the town into pursuing any particular project. It will only allow for the Asheville, North Carolina-based company, Paddle Energy, to ask Central Maine Power Co. to conduct a study to evaluate potential infrastructure upgrades that may be necessary to plug a future solar project on Kilgore Road into the grid.

Richard Jordan, a developer for Paddle Energy, explained that the company needs to show “right, title, and interest” in the property before CMP will consider a study.

An analysis is required before the company can move forward with the solar project. CMP will come back to Paddle Energy with an estimated cost for system upgrades and the solar company will “sort of horse trade with them,” Jordan said, to come up with the most efficient way to sell power back to the grid.

“That could take a year to three years at best,” he said.

After that, the company would begin the permitting process for the project.

Usually CMP charges about $1 million per mile for the kind of infrastructure upgrades that would allow the type of solar energy project Paddle Energy is proposing to plug into the electrical grid, he said.

Paddle Energy will pay the town a holding fee of $4,000 for a lease option on the property for the first year. The town and Paddle Energy can then reevaluate at the end of the first year and possibly extend the option for up to two more years. Paddle Energy would pay $5,000 for the second year option and $6,000 for the third year, Jordan said.

After the lease option ends, Paddle Energy, if it decides to move forward with a solar project, could negotiate a longer term lease with the town. Paddle Energy would pay an annual fee of $1,600 per acre, which would increase by 2.0% each year of the lease. The initial lease term would be for 20 years, but could be extended for up to 15 more years, Jordan said.

The project site would take up approximately 15 acres on the 37.1-acre property, and the town would be paid according to the finalized project area.

The site is ideal because Paddle Energy knows the landfill was capped properly and it can install solar panels on top, Jordan said. It is also near three-phase power. The site consists of two capped landfills on either side, with a wooded area in between.

Jordan also outlined plans to install battery backups on the solar facility site in order to store and ultimately use more renewable energy by storing any excess on the battery arrays.

“The goal of battery storage would be: all day we’re creating all this solar energy, and all night we’re creating a bunch of wind energy. Maine produces more energy than it uses. The goal of the backup storage system is we’re taking some of that solar energy that is surplus on the system, we’re storing it for when we need it,” Jordan said.

Paddle Energy is already preparing for construction of a separate solar facility on the former town landfill site at Hathaway Road and Gravel Pit Road, Jordan said. The town signed a lease for that property last May.

“It’s going really well,” Jordan said. “That project is going to get built.”

When asked her opinion on the proposal, Town Manager Natalie Andrews told the board “it deserves your signatures to explore this further.”

Also on Monday, the select board denied a request from Thomas Tomczyk to run a metal-detector on town property until a policy defining parameters concerning the activity is implemented. 

“If he finds something, he’s going to be digging it up,” Andrews said. “I would suggest you not allow this activity until you have a policy to govern it.”

select board Chair Christopher Summers said he has seen people in the park on his way to work doing metal-detecting.

“I applaud him for asking,” Summers said. 

Selectperson Scott McElravy expressed concerns about people going onto town land “at their own risk” and said the town should draft a policy “with some written description of what is allowed.”

“The things that you can find in the ground are just amazing,” he said. “You don’t want someone digging up a hole big enough to bury a Volkswagon and you don’t want it rooted up like there’s a thousand wild hogs there.”

The select board approved Eva Pizza, LLC, doing business as Yianni’s House of Pizza at 155 Main Street, for a liquor license Monday.

The new owner, Govindbhai Patel, said he took over the shop on May 29.

“The reason that we’re doing this is that it’s a new owner with a new license,” Summers said. “I have been in since he took over…they still make a very good pizza.”

The town office will be closed June 28 to residents for end of fiscal year work.

Paris will hold its annual town meeting at the fire station at 6 p.m. June 17. The next meeting of the Paris select board is scheduled to be held at the town office at 6:30 p.m. June 24.

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