By JEFF EPSTEIN
[email protected]
WEATHERSFIELD, Vt. — The select board on Monday unanimously approved the official warning for the special town meeting and vote. The town meeting will be held on Monday, May 20 at 7 p.m. at the Weathersfield School, with voting by Australian ballot the following day.
Article 1 is to be voted during the town meeting, not by Australian ballot. It will read as follows: “Shall the voters of the Town of Weathersfield dissolve the Fire Commission?”
The ballot the next day, Tuesday, May 21 will have two articles.
Article 2: “Shall the voters of the Town of Weathersfield approve the expenditure of $171,048 for the support and operation of fire services for the Town, which shall be raised by property taxation, allowing the Select Board to set the appropriate tax rate.”
Article 3: “Shall the voters of the Town of Weathersfield appropriate the sum of $17,000, to be deposited into the Fire Equipment and Gear Reserve Fund?”
A fire department discussion preceded the select board’s vote, with no consensus reached about how to proceed next on the subject of two fire departments. However, no board member or other person advocated in favor of the fire commission. West Weathersfield Fire Chief Josh Dauphin said he refuses to attend any new fire commission meetings if they are held.
Other business
The select board discussed the newly updated audit report that no longer has an adverse opinion from the auditors. Town Treasurer Steve Hier will be present at the next meeting to answer select board questions, and representatives of the auditing firm will come to a meeting on May 6.
The board also reviewed proposals for solar panel installations on town property. After hearing from Green Lantern Solar at a previous select board meeting, it reviewed two other potential vendors: Norwich, Solar and Aegis Renewable Energy. Both companies laid out some options for the town to consider, including leasing the installation sites from the town.
All three companies provided proposals assuming three separate locations and projects: the town public works garage property at Stoughton Pond Road in Perkinsville, the transfer station property at Route 106 in Perkinsville, and the so-called sand pit at Connecticut River Road.
Green Lantern said it would make an annual lease payment of $10,000 for each of three 500-kilowatt projects, and $3,500 for a 150-kilowatt project. It also offers a discount for net metering (10 percent off the Green Mountain Power electric bill) and a 20-year lease term with three 5-year extensions.
Green Lantern also offered a second option in which it would “offset 100 percent of the town’s applicable electrical load that can be applied to net metering, which is approximately $16,000 a year, for the life of the project.” In this scheme, Green Lantern would pay a total of $14,000 in lease payment, spread across all three projects, assuming they are all 500 kilowatts. If one of them is 150 kilowatt, then the total payment would be $7,500, according to the company document.
Norwich Solar offers an annual lease payment of $11,000 for each 500 kilowatt project and $3,500 on a 150 kilowatt project. It offers a 12 percent discount for net metering and 25-year lease.
Neither of those company scenarios involves any upfront payment from the town. However, Norwich also described a second option in which the town would receive $40,000 per 500 kilowatt project and $20,000 for a 150 kilowatt project, and the town would receive “5 percent of output” in lieu of an annual lease payment.
Aegis Renewable Energy offered a similar plan as its only option: $40,000 per 500 kilowatt project and $10,000 for a 150 kilowatt project, with a flat lease payment of $5,000 for a kilowatt project and $1,500 for a 150 kilowatt project. Aegis offers a 10-percent net metering discount and 25-year lease with 5-year extension options at the end of each lease.
Aegis also would offer the Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union (of which the Weathersfield School is a member) the option to purchase discounted net metered kilowatt-hours from the arrays, and include a “STEM educational curriculum opportunity for Weathersfield School, should the supervisory union be interested in purchasing discounted power from the arrays.”
However, warned Aegis, the offer was time limited: “On July 1 2019 there will be a negative net metering rate adjustment. Unfortunately, due to this negative adjustment we will have to reduce the lease payment and NMCA discount offered in this proposal if town approval transpires after May 10. Once we submit our 45 day notice and we are approved you will be locked in at the proposed lease payment rate and the current net metering rate.”
Any vote taken on this subject occurred after the Eagle Times’s deadline.
Clarification: the vendors propose to lease the properties from the town, making payments to the town. Also, the original version of this story had incorrect days of the week for the town meeting and vote. The town meeting is on Monday May 20, the vote on Tuesday May 21.
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