Huntingburg Council: Considers new solar park locations
The City of Huntingburg is considering new locations for a proposed solar panel park after nearby residents expressed concerns over it being placed near their homes.
During energy superintendent John Reutepohler’s presentation, Mayor Denny Spinner announced that the city has listened to public input from local citizens on the location of a proposed Solar Park and have slowed the process down on selecting the land on the north side of the city, near the substation.
The citizens who spoke up in the public meeting last week on the issue convinced the city to look for other locations for the solar park and Mayor Spinner announced last night that two other locations are being examined as possible sites for the park.
Indiana Municipal Power Agency energy efficiency manager Dan Worl presented the concept of a solar park to Huntingburg in January as part of their efforts to place a significant number of solar parks in municipalities around the state to add to their power generation portfolio.
According to Worl, IMPA has resolved to create about 50 megawatts of solar generation from 1 to 2 megawatt fields around the state. Huntingburg had been considering placing a 1-megawatt field comprised of 4032 solar panels over about five acres of a 20-acre city-owned parcel of land near the city’s north substation located at Chestnut Street and Phoenix Drive.
Spinner said that IMPA would re-examine the currently selected site along with the two others to see which would be the best, given the circumstances.
About a dozen citizens showed up at the Council meeting last night and expressed their gratitude to the city for taking another look at other possible locations for the site. [hr]
Reutepohler also reported that the new Ambulance Service Bay is completed and that it officially opened Wednesday for emergency crews to move into.
He told the council that as of Thursday, the cost for the renovating the former gas utility garage through the department was around $145,000.00, much less than the original estimate of $269,000.00 from outside contractors for the same work.
In a review of the expenditures to upgrade the building, Reutepohler showed consistently lower costs although a few items were more costly than he expected.
The council passed Resolution 2015-10 authorizing the $1.00 per year lease of the building to Memorial EMS – who is responsible for utilities, insurance and routine maintenance on the building.
External work on and around the building will be completed once warm weather sets in.
The council commended Reutepohler for his department’s work on the facility.[hr]
The council also accepted the donation of 1.57 acres of land during Thursday’s meeting.
Dubois County Community Foundation CEO Brad Ward appeared at the Huntingburg Common Council meeting Thursday night and gave the city 1.57 acres owned by the foundation.
The land, just west of 19th Street, was gifted to the Huntingburg Foundation several years ago to do with as they wished. According to Ward, the land is something the foundation has held onto awaiting the appropriate time in which it might serve a dutiful purpose.
Ward said the property became unrestricted asset after the merger of the Huntingburg and Dubois County foundations.
The time was right, according to Ward, to pass the small parcel of land to the city to help with implementation of the Stellar project. It can be used for connectivity and walk ways as the city implements the Stellar Community projects.
The council accepted the gift of land in the form of a resolution 2015-08 and Ward said he would deliver the signed deed to the property this week so that the city could add it to its list of city-owned property.[hr]
The council passed the Knox Box ordinance (2015-07) that passed first reading in the previous council meeting. Council member Glenn Kissling asked the council to wait until this meeting before voting on the final adoption of the measure to give the public extra time to comment on the ordinance. The ordinance passed last night unanimously.[hr]
They also approved a fire and police protection contract with the Dubois County Airport Authority for $3,500 per year for two years.[hr]
Finally, Clerk-Treasurer Tom Dippel presented annual bad debt write-offs for 2014. The amount was $14,292.26 from 54 renters and two homeowners. He noted that the amount was up from 2013, but down from 2012. City Attorney Phil Schneider said that writing off the debt does not forgive the debt, but takes it off of the city books. The motion to approve the write-off was passed.