Huntingburg mayor pushes back on claims linking water rates, solar project
Elkins said claims that Huntingburg's water hike was tied to Crossvine are false, pointing to public rate hearings and higher Patoka Lake wholesale costs.
Mayor Neil Elkins used an official city Facebook post to reject claims that Huntingburg leaders gave Crossvine special treatment or used the solar fight to justify higher water bills. Opponents on the No BESS in Dubois County page have tried to link the city’s water-rate increase to the battery-and-solar project.
At public rate hearings, city officials cited higher costs to buy water from Patoka Lake Regional Water and Sewer District. The council held a public hearing on Water Rate Ordinance No. 2026-15 on May 12, then adopted the measure. Bills rendered after July 1 reflected the increase, about 8.9 percent, or roughly $3 more a month on an average 2,000-gallon residential bill. Huntingburg’s water utility serves more than 2,400 accounts and is staffed by seven full-time and three part-time employees.
The Crossvine dispute has intersected with city land-use decisions since late last year. Huntingburg unanimously approved a solar-development moratorium on Nov. 26, 2025, but city attorney Phil Schneider said that moratorium applied only to solar panels within the city’s planning and zoning jurisdiction, not the battery energy storage system outside city control. The city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction extends to County Road 800 South, County Road 500 West, the Patoka Township line and County Road 100, and the ETJ portion of the Crossvine project had already been approved in August 2023.
Crossvine is a 100-megawatt AC commercial solar and energy-storage system west of the Huntingburg Airport and east of Holland. About 1,600 acres are leased, with roughly 265 acres planned for the solar system. On May 13, the Huntingburg Common Council unanimously approved a settlement with Crossvine AES after special counsel Joshua Claybourn warned that litigation likely would fail and could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
That agreement added a six-foot berm or vegetation screening, 100-foot setbacks from property lines, 250-foot setbacks from residences, monitoring equipment for the BESS and emergency-services equipment, trucks and training. Residents still have raised fire-risk concerns and have asked how they would be warned in time to evacuate, especially with the site less than two miles from Holland Elementary School and Hummingbird Daycare and about two miles from Huntingburg Elementary School, Southridge Middle School and Southridge High School.
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