Last week, the newly created Alternate Energy Committee of the Township Council met for the second time this year. This committee, comprised of myself as Chair, Councilwoman Fran Siddons and Councilman Nat Abbe, are charged on investigating the use of alternate energy for our municipality, moreover, solar and wind power. As previously noted, late last year, the Council approved a shared service agreement with Central Regional to participate in a joint feasibility study on solar power.
The draft report identified the use of solar panels on our municipal building, police station and solar canopies in the municipal parking lot. Just this alone, would generate 167,000 Kilowatts of power that would generate $10,000 a year in savings to power our municipal complex. That’s a good first step. During the discussions at this meeting we will be looking into ways to increase that output by adding more solar at our recreational areas and more importantly, the possibility of a solar farm at our old municipal landfill. Our annual electric bill for 2010 was $322,300. This includes all township owned buildings and the lighting costs associated with our recreational facilities. In addition we spend $536,000 a year for the cost of our street lights. When implemented, we are looking to substantially reduce or totally eliminate these bills. With the cap implemented we are looking at every expenditure to find alternate means of revenue to offset these costs. Alternate energy if done correctly with the right plan can achieve this. As the Chairman of this Committee and a member of the Finance Committee, we want to continue what the Council accomplished in 2010 and 2011 with no municipal tax increase. We are optimistic this will be one way to reduce costs.
The Route 9 Revitalization Committee continues to meet to enhance and clean up the Route 9 corridor. As you know, the 3 nodes as part of our plan endorsement town center process are all along the route 9 corridor. In addition to advancing those initiatives, we will be looking to inventory the vacant parcels of land along Route 9 and look to assist these property owners in finding good clean ratable's that will provide jobs for our residents while not burdening our schools with additional children or putting a strain on our essential services. Our goal is to increase ratable's to lower taxes and provide employment oppournuties for our residents without impacting the special quality of life we currently enjoy.
Lastly, the Ad-Hoc - Shared Services and Consolidation Committee has met with Central Regional and has a scheduled meeting with the Berkeley School Board. This AD\HOC committee which is also the Finance Committee consists of Council President Karen Davis, Councilman Nat Abbe and I. The Three of us all have experience because we all served on a School Board. This committee will continue to look for ways to assist and continue with shared services with the long term goal of making a K-12 school district. We have our work cut out but we are all determined on making this happen. Shared services with the ultimate goal of making a K-12 district will save a considerable amount of taxpayer’s dollars by reducing and eliminating the duplication of services. In addition to saving taxpayers dollars it would provide our students better educational continuity.