Long Branch is hoping it’s better late than never with regard to joining a county solar program involving multiple municipalities and school districts.
During the Oct. 11 City Council meeting, council President Michael Sirianni announced publicly that the city did, in fact, apply to join the Monmouth County ImprovementAuthority’s (MCIA) Solar Renewable Energy Initiative.
“We have not gotten the confirmation, so that we did not go public with it,” he said. “We have all spoken about this and we are working on this.”
The MCIA has pitched the solar panel project to other municipalities and school boards throughout the county, including the Tinton Falls Borough Council, the Middletown Township Committee and the Middletown Township Public School District, in which all the entities join together to realize the cost benefits of a large-scale project. Under the MCIA program, the city would enter into a 15-year power purchase agreement with a developer who would own, operate and maintain the system.
City Business Administrator Howard Woolley Jr. said in an interview last week that the city is hoping to discuss plans with the county further.
“We submitted our data to the consultants for the Monmouth County Improvement Authority,” he said. “They should be contacting me to discuss the plan.” The application to the county is a change from the city’s previous position, since officials had planned on doing their own solar project.
In June the City Council adopted an ordinance approving a $250,000 bond that would have paid for the planning process for the solar project.
City Planner Pratap Talwar, of Thompson Design, gave a lengthy initial presentation to the council at the Feb. 22 workshop meeting, where he suggested that the city look at the many solar options available to reduce the city’s $750,000 expenditure on electric power each year.
Talwar said the city has many options for places where solar project could be located, including City Hall, schools, firehouses, housing authority buildings, public buildings with large rooftops, private buildings with large footprints, and a few vacant sites.
He told the council that of the $750,000 a year the city spends on electricity costs, $500,000 is for streetlights and $250,000 is for city buildings.
Woolley said that while the city thought about doing its own project, it is no longer possible, even if the MCIA doesn’t accept the city’ application.
He also said the city had planned to partner with other entities on a solar project but the major partners went on their own with a project.
“The school board and Monmouth University had already undertaken their own projects by themselves,” Woolley said. “We had partners in the sewage authority, the housing authority and the hospital, but the big square-footage area was no longer there with the schools and Monmouth.”
He said that some of these partners might be able to join with the city for the county project.
One advantage for the city is that the county has hired Birdsall Engineering, the city engineering firm, as consultant for the solar initiative.
“I would think it would help,” Woolley said. “They know the town a little bit.”
The city will also not have to pay for an energy audit if accepted into the program, since the county provides the audit.
As for the bond ordinance, Finance Director Ronald Mehlhorn Sr. said in an interview that the city has yet to spend any of the funds and the council could rescind the ordinance at any time.
“We just haven’t gotten a firm commitment from them to participate in the county solar project,” he said. “We can cancel it. If it’s just not used, we’ll cancel it.”
Woolley said the council has the option to rescind and can also reallocate the funds to fund another project.
The topic of joining with the county’s solar initiative has been discussed at several meetings since the council passed the bond ordinance, with one resident consistently bringing up the subject.
“Since June 28 I’ve been up here repeatedly talking about the county and the improvement authority and this program,” Vincent LePore said. “We could have used their consultants, which is Birdsall, who we use quite frequently and had within two months’ time their energy audit.”
Over the summer, others questioned the city’s large-scale solar project plans and the price tag for the consulting fees.
Contact KennyWalter at [email protected].