On her east-central Texas farm that’s been in her family for more than a century, Joni Gross has relished the serenity that comes with being rural. It’s understandable the retiree wasn’t sure what to think when all the heavy equipment and trucks first began rolling down her county road for what became an extended stay.  

For months from her tranquil digs near the 1,700-resident town of Mart, she watched sprawling acreage across the road get transformed into a sea of solar panels dubbed “True North,” a 238-megawatt-AC (MWac) (321 MWdc) project by Avangrid, a leading energy company. As Avangrid’s largest solar effort to date, it’ll create vast amounts of electrons for a planned Texas data center for technology company Meta and bolster the state’s power grid reliability and resilience. 

Skeptical at first, the 69-year-old retired state systems analyst initially told a member of the crew: “I hope we can be good neighbors.” Yet over time, the project orchestrated by Black & Veatch won over Gross — enough that she did something she seldom does.  

She put pen to paper. 

In a letter to Ted Andry, a Black & Veatch senior vice president and grid execution leader for distributed infrastructure, Gross gushed about the company’s professionalism, courtesy and attention to detail in its work on the project completed in early 2025. She singled out crew member Samuel Hegarty for the job he did as the company’s self-appointed liaison with her.  

She commended how the company kept truck traffic attentive to posted speed limits. The loather of litter recalled the crew swiftly corralling paper and cardboard after it once “flew everywhere,” writing “it speaks volumes that your folks didn’t litter. I love that.” An avid walker, she lauded how “your guys would watch for me and pull over,” as they also did when she ventured out for a drive into town. Yet to Gross, the finished project’s crowning moment perhaps was when the roads were left graded and packed — “best they’ve ever been in many years.”  

The woman once anxious at project’s onset ultimately told Hegarty — one of the last remaining workers at the location — she “would actually miss them being there.”  

Andry, the letter recipient, was touched by the accolades and shared them with Hegarty, calling Gross’ correspondence “a testament” to Hegarty and his team. “For someone to take the time to write a letter is rare, and it shows the heartfelt compliments given.” 

 And Andry offered warm thoughts of his own to Gross, thanking her for reaching out.