Callicoon solar project dead

‘Petty politics’ charged

By FRITZ MAYER

JEFFERSONVILLE, NY — The Callicoon town board voted along party lines on April 13 not to accept the final bid for a solar installation at the town barn. The two Democrats voted in favor, and the three Republicans against it. The installation would have provided electricity to the town. With the vote, the project is now considered dead. Supervisor Linda Babicz said at this point she does not think it would be possible to revive the plan.

Gone, too, are the funds that would have paid for the project: about $81,00 from a grant from Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther, and about $125,000 in incentives from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).

Councilman Tom Bose said it would not be fiscally responsible for the town to move forward at a time when the state is in such tight financial straights, but the NYSERDA money will now be spent on green energy projects in other locations in any case, and the grant money from Gunther will also be spent on a project elsewhere.

Bose reiterated in a phone conversation that solar power is not an efficient use of technology in this area, and that the state money for the project would best be spent in other ways.

Babicz said, “The decision of the board had nothing to do with fiscal responsibility and everything to do with petty politics.” It’s a charge that has been often repeated by town residents in the eight months the board has been discussing the matter.

Bose and other council members have brought up numerous objections to the various solar projects that had been put forward. A proposed installation at the town hall would have been vulnerable to an errant baseball from a nearby baseball field. There was a question of whether either roof, at the town hall or at the town barn could support solar panels. There was also the charge that solar panels are too expensive right now, and the cost will come down in the future.

Proponents of the solar project dismissed these objections as stumbling blocks put up by the board members to prevent Babicz, a Democrat, from seeing the completion of a project that she had initiated and pursued with much determination.

At a meeting on January 12, the board agreed to a compromise that would significantly downsize the project from two installations, one at the town barn and one at the town hall, to a single one at the town barn. The panels, moreover, would not be mounted on the roof, but rather on a rack system on the ground.

At a special meeting on March 23, the solar critics insisted that a guardrail be placed around the installation and other modifications made. Those were worked out, and going into the meeting on April 13, Babicz thought the board was going to approve the project.

After the vote, she said all the discussions about the details of the project were “basically a bluff; they never intended to do it.”

The tense relationship between Babicz and members of the board dates to November 2007, when Babicz beat longtime supervisor Gregg Semenetz in the election for the office. In one of its first moves in 2008, the board moved against Babicz’ wishes and created a new position of assistant code enforcement officer and Semenetz was hired to fill it.

Gunther released a statement saying, “After many months, the Town board has made their final decision. The funding which has been available can now be allocated to another group.”