The Town of Montgomery board will host a public hearing on November 28 at 6:30 p.m. regarding a proposed moratorium for battery storage facilities that would stay in effect until the board feels these facilities become safer to implement and operate.

Councilwoman Kristen Brown was the first to suggest this moratorium during the town’s September 26 board meeting, explaining that many battery storage facilities in the county have erupted in flames and prove difficult for first responders to handle. The board agreed and currently seeks to prohibit all battery storage facilities until they no longer pose a danger to the community.

“There was the one fire in the town of Warwick specifically. And lately, you’ve seen, I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but time and time again, these batteries are catching on fire, and police or fire departments are having a hard time putting them out,” Brown said during the meeting.

“We would need to do a local law to remove it as an allowed use, and then let the engineers of the world inspect these batteries, figure out how to make them in the US, making them safer. So that way, if there’s a fire, they can put them out. Until that research is done, I really am nervous about there being any other future applications in front of this town,” she continued.