News on the Palomino Solar Project was delivered at the weekly Wednesday meeting of the Highland County Board of Commissioners.

Matthias Weigel, new director of development at Innergex, which is overseeing the project, said it is “going along well.” He said Innergex is still waiting on confirmation from PGM for interconnection timing.

He said PGM is the local power balancing authority and that “basically” they are responsible for coordinating any grid interactions, especially ones involving high-voltage. He also said they determine aspects like what the project has to pay, the interconnection costs or other upgrades that are needed.

Weigel said Innergex is still working on its engineering. He said they have 15 percent of the engineering package finished and the IFC package should be expected by later this summer. He said that from a project perspective, Innergex is “very much” on schedule.

In another matter, commissioner Terry Britton said he thinks people are happy with the new dog pound.

Daniels said “operationally,” things are going well. He said the dog pound is taking care of the animals and “doing the best we can.” Daniels said they’re working with the Friends of the Highland County Dog Pound and some other rescues to move of the long-term dogs out that have been in their care for a while.

Julia Wise, executive director of Highland County Community Action Organization (HCCAO), was in attendance to discuss updates on the Healthy Aging Grant. She said they anticipate serving 41,076 meals to seniors this year following their projected deliveries after January.

Wise also said HCCAO has had to implement a waiting list. However, she said HCCAO will not remove seniors who are already in the program.

Highland County Health Commissioner Jared Warner was with Wise to discuss a new digital literacy program he is partnering with HCCAO on.

He said the first aspect of the program is an encouragement to use technology to access resources like finding better health information and accessing online groceries. Warner said the other piece of the program is trying to increase the “level and sense of connectedness” of the seniors with each other and their families. He said they plan to do some training sessions on how to set up an email, how to use social media, how to do video calls and also give some baseline technology information.

There will be seven of those training sessions at the following times:

* March 4 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Hillsboro Senior Center.

* March 7 from 5-6 p.m. at the Greenfield Library.

* March 18 from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the Greenfield Nutrition Center.

* March 30 from 1-2 p.m. at the Hillsboro Library.

* April 6 from 1-2 p.m. at the Leesburg Library.

* April 15 from 5-6 p.m. at the Lynchburg Library.

* May 4 from 1-2 p.m. at the Hillsboro Library.

Warner then said there will be a separate part of the training that will focus on online digital safety, where open office hours will be available for those with questions.

He said the training is for seniors under 300 percent of the federal poverty line. However, Wise also said that if there is someone there who is over the income, it’s not a problem. There is no registration and no fee is required.

Wise said HCCAO has tried to advertise for individual contractors for small jobs like for someone with experience to build a ramp or put in a bathroom. Britton said the board of commissioners could help them by putting together a list of references.

Reach Jacob Clary at 937-402-2570.