By HOLLY GASKILL
According to multiple reports, Wells County Commissioners have received threats of violence regarding how they vote on solar energy issues.
Commissioners Jeff Stringer and Mike Vanover declined to comment on the specific claim. Asked directly if he had received death threats, Vanover replied, “I have received every kind of communication that you can imagine and they were all handled with the attention they deserved.”
Paul Mills, Bluffton, told The News-Banner that in a group conversation in early September, Stringer stated he had received death threats regarding solar energy development in Wells County.
The group had reportedly met to discuss solar issues — Mills has signed a solar land lease for approximately 330 acres in northern Wells County with AES Solar. Also present were Mills’ son, Tony Mills, who lives on the family farm, Don Avey of Ossian, who has leased about 1,300 acres, and Ben Vollmer, representing AES. Tony Mills and Don Avey both recounted the same details of the conversation.
The three men independently recalled Stringer mentioning a phone call in which his life had been threatened. He reportedly did not identify the caller but said it was someone the men wouldn’t have expected.
“We all (were) surprised and astonished, and he really didn’t go on any more,” Tony Mills recalled. “We asked if he pursued it as far as with the authorities. And no. That’s about all that was said.”
Paul and Tony Mills stated that Vollmer reported having a similar conversation with Vanover about threats of violence regarding the solar issues. Vollmer did not respond for comment at the time of publication.
“I wish I had been more specific about asking him (Stringer) about the particulars,” Paul Mills said. “Because this affects me greatly. He and the two others (commissioners) are going to decide on a project I’m involved in, and they both (Stringer and Vanover) have death threats.”
“I’m sort of torn between this,” Avey said. “I don’t want anybody to get death threats over this stuff. It makes me wonder, what kind of world are we living in now?”
The Wells County Commissioners have not voted on any items specific to the AES project, but received a significant public response on a zoning petition from Paddlefish Solar, a project in southern Wells County. They did not vote on the matter before it was informally withdrawn by Paddlefish representatives, and formally rejected in June due to inaction.
Sheriff Scott Holliday said he had not heard of any recent death threats to the commissioners, but was aware Stringer had received threats earlier this year around the Paddlefish zoning decision. Holliday said in an unrelated incident two years ago, Stringer’s mailbox had been “blown up” and the culprit was not found.
Commissioner Blake Gerber was not mentioned regarding threats and did not respond for comment.
holly@news-banner.com
