Community Divided: A Tight Vote and a Trail of Unanswered Questions on Pomfret's Solar Project

Did Residents Get the Full Picture? Today, I’m taking a closer look at Pomfret’s July 7, 2026 solar vote—an approval that came despite key details being withheld from the public ahead of the decision. The outcome passed by a narrow margin, with unusually high turnout and significant opposition. If anything, the numbers make one thing clear: Pomfret voters are willing to show up when given the chance, and full-day referendums are essential to ensuring broader participation.

If you follow me on social media, you know this was a very frustrating experience, to say the least. I do not know why it's so difficult to answer our questions or to share pertinent PUBLIC information with the public, but for our town administrator and First Selectman, it seems impossible.

From the start, we've requested information on the official RFP (request for proposals) and the lease agreement. To date, the RFP has not been shared (despite me being told it would be at a Board of Selectmen meeting back in early

June), and the lease agreement still appears to be an incomplete draft on the town's website, even watermarked with 'DRAFT' all over it. There is no detailed information for a decommissioning bond in the agreement. Are they required to get the maximum coverage? Minimum coverage? Middle-of-the-road coverage? Why do the lease payments stay the same for 20+ years? Why did it take so long to share the DRAFT lease with the public? Why were we told we needed to have a lease signed by July 5th, but then everything was extended to July 7th without issues? SO MANY questions, so few answers...

Why was our Fire Chief advocating to our entire fire department instead of putting out neutral information about the vote? He did this on multiple occasions even after I called it out. Who gave him his quoted guarantees of 10% of the revenue??? Residents would still like to know...

Why did our town's official Facebook page delete and shut down comments on this topic and most future posts after receiving some questions about how this was being handled and when citizens shared their opposition respectfully?

If our town's attorney really advised the First Selectman and our paid town administrator that they could schedule the petitioned referendum at a Special Board of Selectmen meeting called BEFORE the scheduled Town Meeting, why did a judge agree to an emergency hearing, and why did the town's attorney advise our First Selectman to agree to extending the date of the referendum from July 2 to July 7?

Why is our First Selectman always trying to hide information from our minority representation Selectman? The email above was sent to me as a reply-all on a FOIA request I made, but appears to have been meant for the town's attorney.

Why are meeting rules not followed when a Pomfret Democrat wants to interrupt a meeting to speak? They aren't even required to state their name or address in a lot of recent cases, and they are allowed to be rude and threatening. Here's the Pomfret Democrat Town Committee's chair at a recent Board of Selectmen meeting:

Why were we gaslit when asked about battery storage? It was clearly brought up multiple times, even by the most recent developer that we are working with, as you can clearly hear in the meeting videos:

How in the world did 370 people feel they had enough information to vote on without seeing a finalized lease, the official request for proposals, a single example of ONE other solar development producing this much revenue in any town in our entire state, and why were we not allowed to know who our negotiated distressed municipality partners are???

Nearly a month after the Board of Selectmen stated the RFP would be made public, it still has not been released. I formally submitted a Freedom of Information request on July 8, and as of today, it has not even been acknowledged. That request was sent to the First Selectman, Town Clerk, Town Attorney, the paid Town Administrator, and another Selectman.

This screenshot of my email shows it has been opened multiple times over the past week, including twice this morning—yet I have still received no response:

How can our First Selectman seriously write testimony against people using FOIA when she flat-out refuses to follow through with their word AND has been leaving requests ignored and unfufilled for months?

To conclude, the solar lease referendum in Pomfret was decided by just 77 votes: 370 YES to 293 NO, out of 663 ballots cast. With about 22.7% of our approximate 2,924 registered voters participating (up from 15.8% turnout and 462 voters in the May budget referendum), this was not a quiet, uncontested mandate. Instead, nearly half the voters who showed up opposed locking the town into a 25‑year solar land‑lease deal, sending a clear warning to the Board of Selectmen that a large and growing share of residents are watching closely, expect transparency, and are prepared to organize against big projects they believe are not in Pomfret’s best long‑term interest. Great job getting out the vote, Pomfret! Hopefully we will see things handled with more transparency & attention to detail as we push forward.