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Tilly Foster Farm Moves Slowly Toward Electricity-Generating Solar Panels
Corporate Sponsorship of weather station at farm being mulled to help pay for panels
by Margaret Sternberg
The focus of most of the May 3, 2007 meeting of the County Legislature's Physical Services Committee was an update on the possible installation of a Photovoltaic System at the Tilly Foster Farm. The system would use solar panels in order to generate electricity and is expected to be a cost-saving measure in the long-term. The system would cost $134,500, 63 percent of which ($84,000) would be paid for through a State grant. In-kind services would account for $15,000, and $35,000 would be paid out by the County.
Legislator Dan Birmingham said the project could be a "win-win for everybody," adding that he had first been skeptical of the project and had doubted its appropriateness for Tilly Foster, but after speaking with the Farm's Board, he had changed his mind.
Talk then turned to paying for the solar panels, and Legislator Tony Hay suggested the possibility of corporate sponsorship of a weather station at Tilly Foster. Committee Chairman Vinny Tamagna said he thought that was a great idea and would be a way to get advertising as well as a way for "someone to sponsor something people would tune into every single day." Although the implementation of a weather station would cost more (about $55,000 total,) he felt it would be easier to raise the larger amount with the draw of the weather station, than the smaller amount of $35,000 with no weather station.
The committee did not take any action on approval of the panels pending Deputy County Executive John Tully making inquiries concerning funding and possible sponsorship opportunities.
In other business, Tamagna and Tully got into a contretemps over Tamagna's request during the April meeting for detailed backup on minor renovations that require either the committee's or the committee chairman's approval for funding. Although Tamagna had expected the backup to have been available for the evening's meeting, it was not forthcoming, which precipitated a small argument between Tamagna and Tully on why the information was missing.
Following a lengthy discussion in which capital projects, for which a total amount is approved by the full legislature during the yearly budget process, were distinguished from the smaller projects requiring committee approval, Tamagna concluded that the discussion had been productive in sorting out those items requiring committee approval as well as learning what was involved on the Administration's part in providing the requested documentation.
An update was also held on Kent Manor, and legislators were asked a number of questions pertaining to any steps the County could take to assist in possibly taking over the property or assisting in a contemplated legal action. Although residents appeared to be pressing for a commitment on the part of the County, the committee, while supportive and forthcoming with answers when they knew, was unable to give a guarantee of definitive support to the residents on the part of the County.
During a very open-ended discussion of various projects planned for the county, a $145,000 renovation to the kitchen at the Putnam National Golf Club immediately drew questions from Legislator Hay; however, the money for the work had been projected for in capital projects for 2007, but the Committee requested to see the Request for Proposal ("RFP") on the work before it was sent out for bid. Hay also requested to look at the RFP for the horse boarding operation at Tilly Foster Farm before it goes out, and ascertained that a background check would be done on anyone who would be considered for running the horse boarding operation at the farm, due to past issues.
The June meeting of the Physical Services Committee will be posted on the PCN&R's website as soon as it becomes available.
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