I'm going to call to order the town of Andover town meeting the special town meeting public hearing for Thursday March 13 2025 we're starting at 7:17 the electors and citizens qualified to vote in town meetings in the town of Andover are hereby notified that the special Town meetings and a public caring for the town of and will be held at the end of our elementary school Big Five School Road Andover Connecticut on Thursday March 13 at 7 p.m for the following purpose to discuss an act on the proposed solar array project for Andover Elementary School rout and then to adjourn so the first order of business is to choose a moderator for said meeting does anyone have any nominations Carol Bart does I have a second for that one second Julia hav are there any other nominations no okay turn the volume up a little I think that's just
me I apologize wall meeting is not you okay second item is to discuss the act upon the proposed solar array project for the endover elementary school group who going to speak to this hi for those of you who don't know me my name is Kate Greenhouse I am the board chair for the Board of Education I have been for kind of a short time this solar project on the school roof has been something that we've been in Cycles to apply for a grant for it's been in the works for two and a half years now I believe Steve fuss who is no longer on the board was the person who actually started the interest in trying to get solar on our roof and trying to save us money in electricity cost so it's been a long time coming we did apply for the grant I believe two cycles before we got approved and since we got it we've been you know in talks with green guys
this entire time and there have been obviously a lot of modifications and questions along the way but we're really excited to bring this forward and to try to save our town and our school some money in in the cost savings that we'll have associated with the solar and energy and then I'd like to induce introduce Ryan he's here from Green SK tonight he came up here from Essex he has been at several Board of Education meetings so if you guys want to review any of those they're all posted on our website for the Board of Ed as YouTube videos but he's here tonight to just kind of give a quick overview of the project and then we can answer any questions that people would have thank you Caitlyn I appreciate it so I have only 15 hard copies of so should I give them to they've all seen him they've all SE okay all right so why don't I I'll introduce who green Skies is and give you a quick quick explanation of how this solar project works and how the Contracting took place so so GRE SP is based out of North aen Connecticut we install solar on top of the RO of municipalities throughout the state we're on about 35% of Municipal buildings in the state so whether that's police stations Town Halls school buildings what we do is we install the solar at our cost we then sell the power back to the building and whoever is paying the utility bill will receive usually it's around a 50% discount on their on their energy bill so that's essentially the business model is green guys owns it there's no out of pocket cost to the town and you sell the power at a cheaper
rate than what you're currently buying it for the way we're able to do that is through an incentive program R new state communicare and it's a competitive auction that we have to apply for it took us as kayn said two years to to finally secure that grant that was in the spring of 2024 when we secured it since then after securing the grant we were able to begin engineering the project evaluating the utility room the structural Integrity of the roof to ensure that it can handle the the added weight solar on top of it fortunately Clos yep fortunately after all of our engineering work was completed which was completed recently we were able to determine that the structural Integrity using a third party structural engineer confirm that the additional wave of solar could be installed on top
of this group most groups in New England are built tougher than down south because they have to account for the snow Lo already so there's usually a significant amount of additional weight that could be added to the we also had to look at the electrical room to ensure that the interconnection of the additional power going to the utility meter here would not create any issues we were able to solve for that situation and the electrical engineer signed off on our inter connection and ever also confirmed that it was an acceptable interconnection so right now we are proposing I believe it's it's a close to 180 kilowatt project it set to offset close to around 60 to 70% of of the annual electricity demand at this building the current design and I don't know if you have current design but it's essentially taking up all of the newer roof space here this roof I believe was installed around 2016 I don't have the exact date
but the warranty on your roof expires in 2046 and the manufacturer is through Carlile Carlile has done millions of schools throughout the country we work with them often to ensure that after the solar is installed your warranty will remain in place so the solar will not negate the warranty greens Skies will not build the project unless the warranty remains and that is on green Skies to make sure that we go through the punch list with the manufacturer and ensure that everything is built properly after the solar is installed there will be a post inspection with the manufacturer's rep from the warranty and they'll sign off or they'll ask for us to make Corrections and afterwards they will sign off on the warranty we know how important it is for schools and townships to install a roof and how expensive that cost is and we understand
that the warranty is essential to remain in place and we you know again will not would not build the project without without that place so I could go through quickly just Milestones of what we've accomplished so far and then happy to answer questions so we green skies in order to submit an application to State to apply for that incentive we have to sign a power purchase agreement with the Board of Education because they're the ones who pay for the for the power of the school so we signed a power purchase agreement with the Board of Education and submitted for a incentive 2 years
later we were finally granted that that incentive which is a very difficult thing to accomplish on its own that gave us the ability to start spending money to engineer this project and get it to the point where it is today so at this point we're essentially in a position where we would go for permits the project is is very close to being fully engineered we're at about 50% TRS at this point we ideally would like to try to pull permits by the end of this spring and would like to start construction this summer when there's less going on at the building construction would take maybe at maximum 30 to 60 days it would be a relatively quick turn around and we like to try to do our installs when the students are in the building so I'm happy to answer any questions if you like so how much weight are we putting on our schoola from Square yep so it's usually about lound per square foot of additional capacity but we again we that's all through our third party engineer who stamps the drawings and confirms that that additional weight could be applied when accounting for snow speak a little louder please can't hear so our our warranty stays in effect absolutely both the considerations for snow and s p and it's a no cost in town did I right it's no cost in the town that's correct than does that cover the inverters too
the inverters are paid for by Green Skies the the inverters are paid for and owned by Green Skies our warranty on the inverters are 10 years and our warranty on our panels is our is 20 years this is a 20-year contract so greens Skies makes a business decision as to whether to buy the 20-year warranty on the inverters or the 10e we tend to choose to go with the 10e because we we bet that the inverters will last longer go ahead as the structur ones near licens in the state item 4 a of the warranty 30-year warranty for the root it says this this warrant should be null and void if we penetrate the roof for solar panels without first obtaining written authorization you also mentioned that engineering drawings are at this time 50% complete you're at the stage where you've submitted the exact detail of each penetration for their sign off on it and they approved each to Big devils in the detail each penetration has specific C it goes through mechanical flashing that goes around they have to approve it so the warranty is not scw have you gotten to the point where you've submitted engineering drawings to proove each penetration approv so we received the roof warranty recently we have not submitted this to the manufacturer yet our drawings so the answer is no we have not gotten sign up from carile yet but that is essential to before we can start this project or even consider building I a couple questions you want to do them one at a time sure first one is keep
saying you're going to car car that actually in your contract you going to get manufactur the road address at all so if you can do this all the time and you always have to do it why is not in your contract so why is it not in in our power purchas agreement contract in your contract for the installation why isn't it saying there that you're going to protect by making sure that they have a one the the Reon the reason why I wanted to be in there is because if we if we build this project and harm your grout we would be held liable for that without cooperating with carile if anything it's it's on us because we would we would have to essentially redo your entire room so we work with car to protect you know ourselves but also the town
and we would make a decision to not build this project without their sign off if anything to say this is yeah it's an assurity on on our end because these roofs are very expensive can you put it in contract sure all right so that's one two I didn't not see a wind study though the roof our Engineers do have to do a wind study so I don't know if it was provided I don't know if you have the material in hand but because we did just receive the the warranty we now know what type of racking to install which does impact the the the W study well the warranty doesn't tell you no type of racking and so that's not really true the warranty just tells you that get get permission of car you guys should have figured out what you're instead of is this Ty of install is going to be probably the most embal it's not be going be extra weight it it depended on what who the manufacturer was on this Ro car does some loud mechanical attachments yeah they're going to basically be a mechanical attachment 10 10 GRS wherever the structure will be this but some manufacturers do not allow penetration some do when we found out that it was carile a couple I think it was a week ago that allows us to start engineering what type of racking we could install car fortunately does allow it which B of systems are great but that's a different conversation it it is yeah they're heavier and they also have the
the the wind issue issue with B so that everyone in the audience understand is that when they do a ballast install they're really just doing a rack and they're putting a cinder block on it different different locations to help keep it from lifting the wind problem is with ir wind it comes off the back there where everything is open and because it needs to be facing that way the back of the panel is going to be like an airplane wind facing into the wind it's going to want to literally lift those systems and so as the wind turns on and off it's going to it's going to roll on that roof and if you've ever had anything sitting on your carpet or whatever that little movement is SL can wear itself right roof structure so Carl was probably going to ask them to put some type of mechanical Fasteners in the system somewhere but they're also going to requir them to put probably pads underneath the rocket so it doesn't wear through on the corners that sharp corner where everything comes together get the issue but in order to do that you corly need a wing study which again IE and see
I think the other thing I'm concerned about is you said 15% save right we got a hand out here Town from our town administrator and said you know something s here that we're paying 26 K it's going go down to 12 and that me we save about half the current cause but that's not true because so I think your 15% number is probably a little closer it's probably be closer to 10 and I'm just give you just over very clear I have solar on my house and I love it but I bought mine didn't rent it relas it my concern in this case is that I think there's a misunderstanding about how this works when you explain power to the to the the groove we don't pay the delivery fee if we're producing at that moment so in the middle of the day when you get a lot of sun and we're using power right we're also producing and so we get a net against what we're using at that moment but right now dark outside there's no sun lights are on gym is being used
whatever is going on at school or in January and February when there's solar when is there's snow on the panels again even in the middle of the day you're not producing so you're going to have times in the year where you're actually in in session the SCH in session you're not getting power production and you're still paying the delivery fee so it'll be 11212 or whatever it is right 112 and then we'll still have the delivery feed which we all know unfortunately now the state of Connecticut is about 2 2/ thir of our bill so you're still going to have that it's going to be probably closer to a 10% saing so what is the school's bill on either monthly or yearly basis so the way that we factor in the production of the system is on an annual basis using the PB CIS software with historical weather data dated back 20 years in order to finance a project like this we have to show the banks accurate weather data so the production that you see here is what we're expecting in its production that we have to have another third party Engineers sign off on that the
production is is going to be at least a 90% chance curing year that will'll hit those production benchmarks so what we're showing in in this analysis is close to 200,000 kilowatt hours a year being produced by the project alone and what's the schools us that's what I don't have any that offand but what I do know is it's it's nowhere near at 100% of of your existing energy demand in your original you said 60% what yeah it's it's I would expect it to be close to 60% the panels do degradate every single year by 50% c% sorry. 5% not 50% yes I mean be honestly solar to that's actually not true that's the warrant is what the warrant said they allow to reduce but they actually get more efficient as time goes on yeah my panels have got increase about 3 or 4% every year I I would appre
yeah so but that's how we in our when we're showing savings to the town we show it going down by Happ Point sure only because it's that's that's what's guaranteed so that's what you're bearing your production to production to about 60% of the production but not all of that even 60% of that production isn't going to be offsetting the power delivery feed the other times night when we're drawing or when there's snow on the panels in January and February May December right right in the summer time we're going to be over producing here and N me it back so what is your cost savings actual savings dollar amounts of the school 16,000 in year one $16,000 approximately yep and then a total cumulative Savings of close to half a million dollar over the 20-year term yep so that's a dollar okay that seems so I guess my other question would be when you're when you're putting these projects again who said it's a grant and what is that Grant actually paying for so it's not a grant I ipoke on that it's it's called a enr non-residential Energy Solution program what this is a mandate this is a mandate for the state of Conneticut that requires that the the Public Utilities in the state which is United Illuminating in every Source they have to purchase x amount of their power through renewable sources so it's not a grant what you're saying is you apply to a program that allowed you to sit this solar p on a roof you do these with municipalities because municipalities if they want it you don't have to go through the city council president you
were doing this as a commercial project you have to go to a city council in Connecticut and they have to decide whether your project is approved or the city council is for projects over one megga size this is one0 that size our three guys does go through the side Council often on larger ground Mount projects 7 we do but this would yet just be a local we would look to blackor building ELC cids and and do the F Department but that that would not so my last question is now bring this up because I've been in long enough my been through a 38 in storm although we've had great the last four Winters listen I'm not complaining we've had great Winters and not a lot of stuff right but I think most of you remember back in 2013 I've got video if you don't piling 38 in on Drive guys there is no accommodation in your drawings for snow removal if we get a heavy snowstorm and most schools would go there Lally snowbow or some other type of removal equipment and our school did when that storm hit and clear off the roof so that it doesn't collapse so what happens when you get a crazy snowstorm like that how how does schools address so I I don't want to speak out of line because I don't know what the what the structural engineer Ed used for their SS it's 110 lb that's the
standard in the state of United what what was that 110 lb right or I guess I'm saying what this a one in 100e storm one in 500e storm I don't know well this is a one in 14e storm because we're not why yeah but there I'm not an engineer and I can't speak to what the access load is available at this building but what I do know is we would if Wen even close or remotely close to not having struction capacity we would not build this project so if a storm like that were to ur and we thought we were on the edge we would not build this project if there was any sort of Jeopardy in the structural Integrity of this with the actual mechanics of physically who who's removing snow and what green Skies would likely do on a on a oneof type of situation is we would evaluate this storm when it's coming in look at all of our current assets within this area which we have dozens of like Columbia Horse border schools Scotland bunch of schools in Willam Mantic cantbury we have a lot of rooftop solar projects in this area so when a storm if a storm were to occur we would handle that on a Case by case basis so two other quick questions one you said you only do 10e warranties on your inur but I just want to be clear I'm trying to help you here actually you are responsible for the system for the whole 20 years so I don't really care if
there it's 10e warranty or onee warranty you're buying any new one if it goes back right we're buying ourselves we we're not p no okay so there's there's your there's your your cookie so the next question is was this project considered for offsetting any other town build because we literally had a communting center in another building next door and I actually I look at numbers I'm going to tell you that your numbers are really low for your production I'm going to tell you that because we don't actually get four and a half hours of production Sun here in the endover with the clearance that we have I can tell you I get about 6 and 1/2 hours a day of the sun my system is only evaluating from 11.4 Kow and I actually did 27 last year so it's really not about your numbers will probably a shoot and the question is why wasn't it taken into account that other buildings like why didn't there n time there literally right there because that would heat up that would heat up the excess during the day that you're producing and so then everybody get advantage of that of that power purchase agreement when you're not CH to deliver to and then at night you know way G on the own so yeah it's the nres program is one meter per project we can't split up the projects but we can do behind the meter rooftop or ground down projects to offset those other buildings at no cost of the Town through a power purchase
agreement this this opportunity came through the for Education we were working directly with them on the NRS application for the meter at this building so we were sort of just focused on that with the rooftop and the meter in the same building it definitely enables us to lower cost for interconnection if we have to trench on the ground to get to another meter from this roof it it is very expensive so usually it's the cheapest possible in order to have the lowest pbaa rate we have to build the project at that building and offset that meter of that facility that's usually the the best way
for everyone to save money I'm not told you was actually cond oh there I didn't know that that's all institutional knowledge and that's why there's a little frustration on this project is that unfortunate school did the project getting proud on parts of the town we would have been able to help with those types of things so well there there is excess room space so we could build a second project thank you what happens to the exess if you L on the exess Excess power production yeah you over produce so because the state of Connecticut has in De eing we we're allowed to overproduce for example the summer months we probably will when it's probably F here here at this building what that does is it credits your the this the school's Bill the F so you'll receive a a essentially Zer dollar bill in August and July we produce a significant amount of power in a lot of States that's not there are no
penalties no as long as we don't produce more power than this building needs on an annual bases there are penalties and as the gentleman was saying we're we're probably close or as I was saying probably close around 60% of the annual offset at this building so we we're not not going to we're likely not going to hit those or over produce ever the rule is to try to stay at about 85% of the buildings load cuz some some years you might have a really sunny year and you might over cred so I can answer this I have an electric bill and we the school usually uses about 30,000 kilowatt hours per month on average which is 3 360 kilowatt 360,000 kilowatt hours a year which is way above what this system is going to produce what's that what the school to go it's 28,000 to 30,000 kilow hours what's what's the cost for December was $ 4,435 I another question sure have you act did you actually look at placing the solar panels on the ground versus on the roof and are there any advantages to
this range to we actually did look on the ground at this on this property there there does seem to be a lot of recreational use of this land so we we try to stay away from that if if if there's a newer roof with a long warranty it it definitely is the cheaper way to install there and using essentially useless real estate that you can't really where the kids AR playing you know soccer outside there's Woodland out there as well we try not to you know cut down trees if we don't have to site work is pretty expensive there so we also do carport structures as well but in this case you know carports are very expensive so it everything sort of just kept going back to the we try to evaluate all all options when when we're looking at an opportunity and just because you have a you have a lifespan on this roof till 2046 this solar project will only be on here till 2045 it just it just sort of made sense these are something I I'm sorry how do you hand that like sa one break have someone that had this chemical you got kids here hasard as chemicals in the solar panels yeah so we actually have to purchase our panels now as of a couple years ago everything has to become come be purchased domestically so there likely could have been hazardous material in solar panels that were sourced from other countries that we're not aware of we have to buy all of our material domestically and that has a lot of regulations on it in terms of
what type of what's in there to be consider for Expos so the panel itself yeah yes but I guess what I'm saying is we're not going to be there's no liquid substance that's going to be leaking you know into the onto the roof if a panel does break it's we do own it and we have to remove that panel from the roof and replace it it's I I don't because there's not a lot of trees around this facility we're really not expecting tree branches to be falling on it it's not a shoreline town so we don't have to deal with the seagulls and you know dropping shells and everything on it so fortunately we're in a relatively good spot here from I guess a low maintenance location do they require cleaning periodically and do you handle that yes so in Connecticut we actually don't really need to clean as much as
what are some of our projects in Southern California it's dustier it's sandier and we do have to wash the panels in Connecticut we have rain often enough where you know in the springtime we might have pollen that accumulates on it but the rain usually washes those panels off so we don't really we don't often times pay for cleaning them but we do maintain them about three times a year we would look through the permission of the bo of Ed gain access to the property and do corre do preventive maintenance on the system usually prior to the summer time to make sure that it's ready for higher higher producing months and then in the winter time to get it ready for any you know weather that that may occur how did you come up with the buyout cost so the bio just has to be fair
market value or higher according to the the investment tax credit regulations at the federal government which we would be taking advantage of here so in the power purchase agreement it has to be at least fair market value or high so we could ask for fair market value as a change in the contract fair market value or or high yeah so we could ask us change so ask your buyout schedule is a little crazy to be honestly $300,000 for a 20-year-old system could be like kind stupid so could we ask for changeing the contract that said that you only pay fair market value you said fair market value I'm sure it's something that our attorneys would look at you if that Amendment would like to be sent to us we happy to review it thank you so I'm curious about Eric had written up something that talks about if there's a leak in the roof who pays the so I'm concerned about taxpayers and what the timate cost of
the taxpayer is you get a question yeah you asked if there was a leak in the grot yes what is the ultimate cost to the taxpayer how does that affect the taxpayer y So currently if you had a leak in the room I assume that your the warranty or the The Local rment Company who installed this is under warranty to to fix that I think at least that's the way any roof that's under warranty should should be handled when solar is installed your warranty will remain in place so they are is still responsible for for the leak even if the leak if the leak is because of us we're responsible for the leak absolutely so the taxpayers won't have to pay for the removal of the panel and then right if if it's through green skues negligence that that that would be our responsibility what happens if there's a dis read size and we do the solar as to what caus the for instance we have a big issue here so if there's a Bast issue that go through if you don't no that's not mine and they say it is then what yeah so prior to installation we have to come onto the site with the manufacturer they're going to walk with us and look at every single detail on this road if there are current issues for heat installation they need to fix those after the installation they come back out they look at every single one of our racking posts make sure that they're they're perfect and then they sign off on it when they sign off
on our installation and maintain its warranty it's back to business as usual with your current current situation so can answer my question there's a disagreement right if there's a disagreement green Skies we'll we'll discuss it with the manufacturer so okay so that's not okay so I don't know how how connected Eric was to this but Eric's statement was that in the case of a leak the contractor would charge the school the cost to remove the solar system the energy the energy the system would have produced while the system was removed and the cost to reinstall the system so that's not ever going to happen so so long as the issue wasn't caused by the town I guess you know if the town did something up there that created the leak then the manufacturer would probably say that's you know the town's fault but I guess if someone's working on the HB units up there and that were even her you'd sort of be in the same situation so it would have to be something that the town the town did so there's there is a likelihood of a person needing to work on the roof for something and something
could happen I guess that's my concern is is the ultimate tax liability for yes and and that's what we we try to make sure that there's absolutely no liability for the town we can't control though of course everything what someone might be doing on the roof at any given time the in be replac at some point if your new generic drawings take that into account the ones that were originally posted on the SCH website did not so there was some handc to just that went across that roof that would need to be removed for that roof to be done through the new plans address that so that that's not an issue anymore can you I was actually going to bring that up tonight the which which roof is that the farthest roof that's the tallest one that was the one roof I was on the roof project to the school got so that was the one roof that we didn't address at the time and we gave it at that time a 15 to 20 year time frame you know so where 10 years in so basically in the middle of this project that roof is
going to need to be done some point so how has that been addressed in you know with the conduit and some things that were coming out but in the C that were going over how was that addressed in your drawings and your old drawings that wasn't addressed at all that was a concern that that was a that was actually an issue we were discussing as soon as we Sol the group that it only covered the non I think it's a loose Stone up there yeah that's that's on top of the So currently you're operating under no morrant on that from what I understand no there's a there's a it's a validated system so it's a stone system as you mentioned there's no warranty there but my point is we know that Ro is going to need to be replaced and it it would take the next 10 years your project is a 20-year project your panels will still be in the way and so were your Mechanicals so how is that addressed in to work around that roof so it can still be replaced because according as Liz just brought up if this roof was done right we're good that roof is not B your Mechanicals are in the way the system would have to be disengaged
we'd have to pay for power it's not producing as your contract notes how would you address that to make sure that you don't have that problem yet we prefer to not build on roofs that W without a right at least 20 years panels in your design are mechan across that then that's something that would need to be adjusted and that's why has been addressed engineering program designs that are 50% no no so that needs to be addressed yep yeah and you know 10 years left is good information to know to understand that there there might be a new moof at that location in 10 years there's definitely a the B hasn't been addressed in at least 15 that I right so it's yeah we no that and I was
hoping that might just been a baled section that was newer not even close right you but that's that's very helpful information usually that's something when we go to try to pull a perment that's something that's discussed directly with the town to understand exactly so your s Engineers never looked at that and said hey by the way we should probably work around this look at bance proof and know how old it's just mod as soon as we saw the warranty was the first question because you know we weren't sure that the date on that the warranty excluded that location of the RO and then you know that they actually discussed all that Y what we've done and not done okay I got one question sh if the to meeting was willing to approve the project would green Skies having any problem with laying out some of the contingencies the resident sat there and identified such as you know adding the town to the agreement because the agreement has signed was town of andela Board of Education that actually have secondary agreement that sits there and includes the town of B over on the
project also sitting there and writing down in this agenda to the contract of the preservation of the 30-year warranty on the AES roof identifying the buyout of the system will be fair market value plus let's say a dollar right and then I do think the last Point by Adrian regarding the roof replacement and Co codifying that or codifying that so that if that if there's Mechanicals or or solar panels on the older roof that the town is not held to any negative monetary point for having to remove those items to replace that when green Skies be okay if we approved it if those contingencies and then work Board of Education and work with green Skies to get the end of the
contract I absolutely think that all of these questions were valid and I don't think any of them would be an issue in the structure of our power contracts I guess the the process of having the town part of the power purchase agreement is just is is confusing only because their for ofed is is buying power does the town want to buy the power too or well we would probably like to if we could but we only okay well I I think that's an internal Town decision that I you know don't want to stand in the way of true I mean I'm asking I'm asking if we make a motion that puts these contingencies in place will green scy be okay with it just asking you you will evaluate those if those are the conditions that the town meeting puts in place yes y anybody have any more questions for something in the warrant does it mention anything about any pration or depreciation of the product where would be a discounted coverage in the warranty or in the power production the warranty yep so the the warranty goes right back to the way it is R the way it is currently rain and this is just a product of that
manufacturer having to get used to it's probably been 10 years of significant Solar Development on top of their roofs where their tenants or the you know their customers want solar so they had to accommodate that I'm not talking about the roofs I'm talking about the solar panels oh okay cell issue is it 100% coverage for the war tweet for the solar panels yes for 20 years and we have to use a manufact solar banel manufacturer that is Bloomberg tier one rad which is me makes them financeable so yes they're they're 20 year and then burd are are
tell what happens if green Skies goes out of business if green Skies weren't go to out of business our our lender would then look to find another manager of the asset so they would go and take care of it the lender though would have to step in the shoes of of green skies and then they would have to manage the asset and then eventually sell it to an operator who could continue to to bage the the so is that written into the contract the that circumstance and and all it yeah whats and yeah it's it's if you have trouble sleeping at night you can read that it's very boring but it's important it it's very important yes it's it's actually a significant part of the our contract where where the lender can take over if if we're in Bri my question do you have any other
towns where the town as well as the board of education is a signer on the PPA that is for a project on school oh where the for a school town yeah for school building you have any other towns where the town as well as the board of education is a signer on the PPA contract I would I would have to think about that i' never seen the town be party to a to a to a to a school project so I I I don't think so but it depends you know it's whatever the charter I is here that we would have to Green
SK is okay I I believe you said that the panels would be domestic manufactured domestically the paper that we picked up tonight says that they will be made by Shanghai Aerospace is that I don't I don't think that's our solar manufacturer we we have to purchase domestic content I don't I I just don't know what what you're looking at yeah yes that company is a domestic manufacturing other Chinese part their domes manufactur they actually bu Wisconsin Jeff you want to pick Mo wait I I'm not sure if we're ready cuz I still have questions about that what's the I mean you might be looking at Eric stock it's Eric stock it's Eric stock you got to remember Eric before he became Town Administrator spent five years working in the Solar industry so he was writing a document as reviewing the information so but he named a specific company Shanghai Aerospace automobile and he sat there adj because Adrian's information is that they're a domestic manufacturer they they set up facilities in the United States okay I you not he that all right thank you any other [Music] okay so the resolution States resolve that the voters of this town meeting of
the town of andon are subject to Prior subsequent execution of a second amendment to solar power Services agreement by authorized representatives of each party green Sky energy the town of Andover and Andover board of education do hereby approve Implement implementation of the duly proposed and notice solar array project for the Handover Elementary the school roof with the following School room such Second Amendment shall include at a minimum the addition of the town of hand over to the agreement the preservation of the 30-year warranty on the AES rout the buyout of the system will be based upon fair market value plus $1 and green Skies will make every
effort to avoid the heru area that has less than a 20year life xpectancy someone willing a second that would you state your name to the l i okay you've all heard the motion made second it when you came in the door you got a group of ballots this is ballot number one either vote yes or no on the question that's been asked is this a vote on the resoltion this is what Jeff this is vote on the resolution they have to we have to follow all the contingencies in the resid okay all right point of order you actually have ahead C added there I don't know if other people are saying this is really should andar not way I don't think this is the only motion raise I would like to raise motion on this more you can vote on this motion and vote the motion down if you don't agree with the motion that was presented he does not want the town included in the document in the agreement he wants it solely between the Board of Education and green SP so this is discussion on the motion he wants disc discussion on the motion go ahead discussion on the motion Scott I would genuinely agree with you except here's the problem first the town owns the building that's one two given the number of questions I had alone obviously the school did not have the technical ability to look through this project ask the right questions I I appreciate the fact that he had someone here that can answer some of the questions but some of the stuff never should have gotten where it is all those things should have been addressed by
whoever was representing the school boards in those conversations the warranty should have been hded to them on day one when they showed up on the project the fact that that other roof hadn't been done and the condent was cutting across it an issue the fact that there's no wind study should have been a conversation there are too many things that were left and I don't fault this Bo they simply don't have the technical skill that's the why when te projects are done in town every other town and including this one up until our current superintendent would form a capital committee to do the project like the school roof was you get one person from the board of Finance one person from the board of of of Selectmen two people from the Board of Education and then you get committee members that are from the from the community in this this case we got Mike Russo we got a couple other guys that are used to running projects at the ukom that have this skill set AB don't even ask these types of questions that wasn't done in this case instead the project was run by a couple people on the board and there was no no no person in that group that had technical knowledge so if we're going to do this at the very least we need someone involved in the project that has a technical skill to say hey by the way we asked all these questions at the meeting but none of that's still
been addressed so we shouldn't be going forward yet somebody needs to be able to say yes or no and have the technical knowledge to be able to answer that question correctly that's my point resolution thank you I agree 100% anyone else on the motion in discussion they even said that the towns don't usually work with the with is they're going with the school they deal with the board of egg not with the tenant and this is a project on the school it should be run by the board of EV the town can have some input but I think when it comes to signing it should be the board of ev anything further just so you guys all know we don't want this to be contentious as the Board of Ed we ask for a town meeting for this because we want everyone to be informed and granted this has been a subject on almost all of our agendas for the past eight or nine months if youve come to a board ofed meeting if you've ever listened to them you have heard us talk about this project so we really appreciate that people are here tonight and asking critical important questions
please don't think this is contentious a power purchase agreement between the school who's buying the energy right and the company who's providing it that's that's what a that's what that agreement is it's a it's an agreement to buy energy so I'm I'm a little bit confused on adding the town to it only because the town is not buying the energy unless you guys are going to start paying our electricity bills that's my tax the scho no that's not what I'm saying listen listen listen we're all one the school is signing on the board of education signing on the project the town will also sign on the proct we're co-signers we're not taking anyone's Authority away we're not we want to work together it's all listen so if you don't like it I I can tell you we can we can have a legitimate debate about all of the physical assets the town owns and who owns it I am telling you this the school this school is owned by the town and it is rung by the Board of
Education you don't have to get into a real debate you're doing a project on a building that the town owns we're not telling to know we're not giving you a problem we just have some items that we would like address in the contract that's it if you don't like it vote no that's all I can tell you the motion's on the floor I would like to call the motion right now so second motion someone ask that who seconded to discuss the motion it was like a second you want to call the question I do that's a go all those in favor of ending debate signify by saying I I those oppos debate is over you have your battle the first battle that you were given Martin yes or Mark no and they will come around and collect the B if no one Minds we're going to move right into the next part of this meeting we have to we have to go through this again so I'm going to skip that we're we're here to discuss to determine if the town will approve financing to the Fire Department Squad vehicle and a public hearing on the following proposed ordinances to discuss determine that the town will adopt an ordinance controlling dog waste on time Recreation Fields plane fs and school grounds an ordinance to update replace and nullify the current tax abatement program for the Handover volunteer fire department and to start the meeting we need to appoint or choose a moderator do I have
nomination for said moderator anybody else no all right we're good W here you go thank you were all when you came in the door handed a piece of paper about the financing for the fire truck the truck was approved over two years ago and it's still in construction but it's due to be delivered this summer and there are three options that were presented in regards to the financing explain the documents that you guys all have in front of you related to financing there were three financing options there was a 5-year option a 10-year option and a 15-year option just letting you know that the 10year option is what we have budgeted and planned to budget the board of finances approved those dollars that will cover that so going to give you back to the moderator to ask any specific questions but that's the information that you have in front of you the 10-year option is the one that has been budgeted and the one we can afford question Andre W the board of finance and the board of Select And to clarify I think this document repeats that but I just want to be 100% so this is an easy goote we've planned for this for a long time money's in the budget it's already budgeted so it's not going to change taxes if we go the 10-year plan the money is not in the budget the money is in a fund the fire engine equipment fund that you for it for 4 something, it pays for for 125 years or four years right concept is from the board of Finance to finance that fund as they have in the past so they'll continue to fund it and the what 25 level which will pay off the
truck so it has planed no real changes to the taxes everything that we've been working on for years is coming into play correct if we do the 10 year correct okay thank you question comments motion when you came in again you were given a packet of ballots this is the one that is set official ballot number two yes or [Music] no so w is pass to me and discuss the ordinance that's in front of us everybody should have been able to pick this up the door it's a it's a town ofand over dog Waste Control Ordinance B of selectman has been getting complaints of residents and non-residents allowing their dogs on the field the Veterans Memorial Field down on Long Hill and a significant amount of waste being left on the field so previously we have passed an ordinance that allows the town
to establish fines for items like this and what we're attempting to do is to sit there and identify fi locations within town that we would like the the pet owners to clean up their their waste and dispose of it so that is the ordinance if anyone wants to have any questions related to the ordinance feel free how are you going to enforce this my we actually have a new system in place where we what call this is Town attorney Dennis O'Brien he's going to sit there and explain to you the specifics as to how we would go through and implement this now listen the implementation of identifying who is there and intentially ticketing them is is a an issue but what our attempt to do is to allow everyone to know that there is a potential for a fine if you you you have bad behavior will we always enforce the fine that's a different question how we do it I'm going to let the attorney explain okay I thought I'd never get a chance to speak thank you chff anyway I'm Dennis O'Brien the town attorney and I was asked to put together an ordinance for this particular problem about dogs going on playing fields and you know doing their business and making problems we have that same problem where I work in Little League in will man could have this all the time and this is you know somewhat of a deterrent this is meant to have a a deterrent effect just like in
will manic I I always tell our police chief that you know you guys are more of a deterrent than anything else and they are and it works okay so this under this ordinance I think they there was a prior ordinance it didn't carry a fund and it didn't have any so what I tried to do is put teeth into this thing and I made it so that any anybody that violated it could be fined and if they were fined they'd have to pay the fine and although they'd have a chance to appeal to find to our new system of we we have a hearing officer system now citation sign a citations hearing officer it's only been used once in a blight case and it worked out really really well Mr rizley is the hearing officer he's very very good
and I'm sure that he can handle any case under this this rule but the the ordinance was written with it in mind that we needed something that would U be enforceable and the only way to do that would be to to impose a fine state law allows you to find but you if you do find you have to give notice in advance to the person that they may be fined that they violated I chose rather than to have a town employee running around chasing people all over town giving them notice hey if you do this again you're going to be fine I I chose to to go with putting signs up around the fields where the where the where you want to keep the dogs off in instead and I I thought that would be adequate notice under the law my opinion so you know again if somebody's if somebody I guess dog soils the fields and it's not picked up and put in the proper receptacle that's $100 fine just for
be just for the dog being on the field is a $50 fine okay those fines could be higher but I know you know I know I've been around long enough to know that if it made the fine higher it probably wouldn't pass town meeting I don't know whether it'll pass anyway but I hope it does and I hope if it does I hope works and I hope it does help to keep your beautiful athletic fields and school Fields clean of dog waste and I I have to say to be honest all right I'm done any questions any questions yes oh oh he's all right back in the room so I understand Field playing field but at Long Hill there is the walking Track This is saying all Town owned properties does that mean I can not walk my dog with me on that walking Track around Long Hill are you going to clean up after your dog yes I'm a responsible pedo then then no one is going to bother you thank you but it does say it it it it does say that would have to be judicial overreach and I don't think you're going to find anyone on this board that wants to do that why does why say that i' like to see property is Town property take it out now certainly all of us all of us with dogs walk with our little bads and do take care of that stuff but to ban dogs from property with the plane field just to let our dogs run on occasion if we're not responsible picking up the appication if they do that is serious overreach and I I think it's Dennis as usual you're an overreach than a guy
then I really really can I can I read I'll read it just so everybody can understand it it says public property the plain field area of any recreational field plain Field School grounds or playgrounds bone leased or maintained by the town of IND so so to go back to your question in the back that would not be considered the plane field well that's why I said that's okay plane field but it says all Town yeah it says it says plain field area but it's around I know but playing field area is where you're going to have a soccer game let's say in that that area so inside the track if you want to be specific 10 ft on the inside of the TR I mean come on listen this is not us trying to sit there and create something that we don't want I have a dog as well I hope my dog goes in the woods Mr Denley used to have a Woods next to his house no longer there it's a beautiful house that pays a lot of property taxes and I'm very happy it's there but I remember one time he wrote an editorial about his dog not being able to go into that nice area to do its business this is all this is about this is attempt by a board to sit there and try to remove waste from a plane any public property I told you to not have a fine or signs about not having your dog there just about clean up the $100 fine is fine but make it about clean up and not about the dog
presence made a motion yeah I like that idea cleaning up your dog not about everybody shout at once please second Scott okay Scott you made a motion to amend this is there a second second Adrien mandaville second thank you discussion on the amendment great idea great idea can Julia well I think you need signage number one because if you're not telling people that an ordinance was applying to this public property whether it's a field or a playground it's there they deserve a sign and I would think you did you mention putting a receptacle for the bags there no okay well that's something they could handle themselves by taking it along with them when they leave the Lan Fields you don't want them stacking up on the edge of the river or you know so kind of things that might happen just to clarify just so I Scott your your motion Adrian you it says no dogs allowed on public property you want that moved correct and you want the $50 fine related to dogs on
the public property REM correct okay I don't have a problems let's go further comment think that's a reasonable reasonable request comment yes ma' off we don't have we don't have police in the town of Andover we we only have individuals anyone could sit there and make a a notice of citizens arrest you can you can contact the Town Administrator and the Town Administrator may go down to the to the recreational field and and and stake them out is really the only way we're going to do it we're we're just trying to sit there and put in an opportunity for us to control a problem that has been brought to our attention let's do lat we vote on we're voting with the amendment okay cross out we're crossing out this whole section and we're taking out the $50 F okay we're leaving the $100 fine in right $100 fine stays in
for not picking up not up that was your motion St 50 you're good work with them excellent let's go okay more questions ballot number three I'm sorry I feel back my but after every game that place is there's clothes there's trash there's food if we're going to make an EV something about dogs we need to be after the people who are down there before making a mess I no longer want my dogs down there because of the lior bottle because of the track that is the problem so Gage is not just dog species it's people being slopped down there to and I think that needs to be addressed as much as the dogs I've seen a lot of people f
can we add an amendment to this to say to make the littering as well understood and we will sit there and take that up in a different times but but you're not long but you got to remember there's there's very there's less frequent events down there right now you we must right no do we don't don't no because the organizations that were using it were required to bring their own TR they were supposed to handle it so yeah I know I got you here anyway this is related to one specific item it's and it is it is amended as you sit there and see so you're voting on you amended item of Crossing out sections of no dogs on public property and removal of the $50 fund you want me to vote for okay kids wait a second the town attorney tells me I need to make a motion no you need to votee on the amendment yeah on the amendment okay so all those in favor of the amendment I okay great oppos okay you have the call L please back to the original ballot as amended question number3 and we'll pick the ballots up count I I don't have a of the wording of this thank you everyone voted EX all right if you don't mind we will move on to the next item and we'll let you know the outcome once we get County what next update for placei the current tax abatement program the
endover volunteer fire department coordinance what PID for 73 yes to no oh on what that was on the payment for the squad 73 to call on Chief you'd like to come up here please and speak to the ordinance changes we can be out of here in five minutes if you guys want to make it quick okay do it so the the tax am mement basically is in place right now for the members of the fire department based on years of service and certifications they had state of Connecticut couple years back allowed it to go up to $2,000 for a maximum which is based on 10 of service and certifications there again being a fire figer one EMT we started what about 20 years ago near in endover and at that time it was the the top amount was $11,000 for 10 plus years of service so you had to be in the department for 10 years to get
$1,000 tax payment and when we put it in play it's based on percentage of calls that you make a year so members have to make 15% of calls they don't just get it automatically they have to get up get out of bed go to fire calls go to annuals calls do all the necessary stuff to make the ABAB so it's not L like come down fill out an application we vote you in tomorrow and you'll get a $1,000 in bement you know you got to work for it the certifications the EMT is up to 200 hours firefighter 1 is 180 now I believe right so I mean did these people have to work to get certified to get that money and they also have to get out of bed and come to calls and serve the community we're asking to double it up to what the state allows as a recruitment thing the wants applications I'll get you one tonight and also as a retention aspect of it because the people that are doing it now have been doing it for a long time and it's kind of a thank you to them to say hey we're going to get you a little bit more money for what you're doing that's kind of in the nutshell I know questions we have anything in place I know some other Town doing also pay for call we have well we we have a cost recovery system that's through the fire commission's budget and it's based on number of calls and how many calls you make and it averages out I'll tell
you for myself it averages out to like $600 every 6 months based on the number of calls I make if I don't make as many calls it's less money we're not really doing anything special this time don't bring right right it's it's it's well I mean it's you're doubling what the members are meeting now if you approve this which is like I said it's it's more or less a thank you for your job and please keep doing it as a retention aspect of keeping the people we have that we have now hopefully it'll help the recruitment when the word gets out that we do this but you know like I said it takes a lot of time effort to get certified and do this training to try to bring new people in off the street want that are doing it
now they need to stay this is why I want to try to keep from here is this going to include the person that doesn't live in the town going to be able to get the abatement so all right here's the miscommunication that was in the chronicle also in the chronicle said that there was a person that doesn't live in town and gets it now that person is me I live in Columbia I served the fire department for 42 years and since this has been in play I have to qualify I mean I qualify but I don't get because so you're still not getting it so I'm still not getting it today to be honest with you I don't really care if I get it or not that's not why I do the job to what's that town I I made one of these
days anyways who knows so move back to town I started in town that's why I've stayed in town so with the change that would come in this yes I would qualify for it and we have currently we have three other members that are all or two two members that are junior members that live in Hein CU for a while Hein wasn't taking any 16-year-old members we work so and you know we're like we'll take whatever help we can get and the only way they would qualify for this is if they have a motor vehicle registered in their name because they don't have a property tax in the town of Andel and they would qualify if they have a vehicle registered that's it so if they have a junker car that's worth you know $200 in taxes and say they qualify for five they only get $200 they get for Jun Rec car taxes PID for so it's not like it's going to cost a lot more money the average per year and if you got the the informational stuff that was sent out there over the last couple years got the's put it all together pretty good you know just going back to 20 2018 it's never been over $20,000 a year so I mean you're talking it say 20,000 which this year was just just about
18,000 so you're talking 18,36 sounds like a che you know like I said it's a thank you to the membership for what they do the ones that are there currently and hopefully it gets us some new people interested in saying hey maybe I'll go join the fire department and you know Jeff said he was putting an application in tomorrow I need the tax credit valid the word what is that the old find the old one get the old right the old one that was written up years ago and put this new one in place so you put a fulltime fire and everything you're probably talk 50 60,000 a year and one firefighter doesn't do the job you need to have at
least two or three of so how volunteer firefighters do we have in the town of and right now there's currently about 32 on the roster 32 right but not every one of those qualifies for this that's that's the important thing is that it's the people that put in the time the effort that qualify and and they may qualify this year and not qualify next year due to work complications family complications health issues so it it that's why it changes every year one year it could be 18 next year it could be 20,000 if everybody's Super Active and they show up so was that 32 firefighters plus their's EMS workers no that's all together we're all one big group firemen EMTs is all one group so I guess my question was how many firefighters do we have how many EMTs do we have you'd have to ask that firefighters I'm going to just spit all the ballparks because I don't have them in front of me without my list to look at probably about 10 or 12 that are firefighters certified and the EMTs Mindy how many how many certified EMTs we have right now AC or roster on I certified maybe 16 of them and some of them are firefighter and emgs so they're
certified in both aspects of it okay so okay thank you would this happen to extend to the families if something God forbid happen the fire no it never has in the past either for the past 20 some OD years it's it's strictly for the act of firefighters right any other ight you need to have a motion made motion call need a motion to vote on make a motion to vote on the fire you're making a motion that the town adop the Ed up I'll second second good okay so the question is in call your final ballot of the night number four when you've all been waiting for please mark yes and no and we'll pick up the oh I did not announce the numbers for the animal control the amended ordinance the numbers are yes 62 no 13 so that pass on the ordinance update Place nullify the tax of big program for the Handover volunteer fire department ordinance 73 yes one no someone will make a motion to a Jour motion to a joury there a second second all in favor the meeting is adjourned thank you so the final votes for tonight's activities I'm going to wrap up for the evening since I missed the first one the solar energy project with amendments passed 53 yes 24 no the fire truck funding was 73 yes 2 no the doc waste ordinance also with amendments was 62 yes 13 no and the adjustment to the abatement for Andover volunteer fire department was 73 yes and one no