CentreWorks will host a second public forum on Thursday, June 23 for Boyle County residents who want to learn about and discuss issues related to utility-scale solar energy production in the county. The forum will begin at 7 p.m. at CentreWorks in Suite 300 of 236 West Main St. In Danville.

The June 23 forum will include a 30-minute panel discussion with Brooks Lamb from American Farmland Trust (AFT) and Danville Attorney Mark L. Morgan. The panel discussion will be followed by 30 minutes of discussion with attendees.

As Program Associate & Special Assistant to the President at AFT, Lamb works on programs and projects across the nation – including issues related to solar power in rural communities. For example, Lamb has studied and written about “agrivoltaics,” or farming and producing solar energy on the same land area. He also grew up on a small family farm in Tennessee.

Morgan has been active in past local initiatives related to energy and natural resource policy, and will discuss regulatory issues related to merchant solar  production facilities that include the work of the Kentucky State Board on Electric Generation and Transmission Siting. He received his undergraduate degree in Environmental Policy from Duke University and worked for the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund of Kentucky, Inc., a private non-profit law firm commonly known as “AppalReD Legal Aid.”

CentreWorks Co-Founders and Executive Directors, Andrea and Anthony Margida, will guide the discussion among the speakers and welcome questions from the audience.

“The response to our first public forum on May 25 showed a real interest among county residents in gaining a better understanding of and discussing local questions related to utility-scale solar power production,” Andrea Margida said. “The panelists for our second forum will bring additional perspectives on farming and the current regulatory structure.

Centre College established CentreWorks in 2020 to work with the city of Danville, Boyle County, and a seven-county region to establish resilience and enable growth within Kentucky’s Bluegrass region. CentreWorks’ programming, available to the entire region, has been custom-designed to provide collaboration, ideation, education, mentoring, skills enhancement, and investment opportunities.