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Former mayor questions city on solar project
VINELAND -- Former mayor Perry Barse attended Tuesday's City Council meeting to share more concerns he has about the city's effort to build a solar field at the Landis Sewerage Authority. He attended a meeting in February to raise similar concerns based on how the Vineland Municipal Electric Utility decided to work with Conectiv Energy on the project, which is about halfway complete at the South Mill Road facility. Barse referred to the seven Requests for Proposals, or RFPs, the city received that were originally for a simple-cycle generating unit. He added he was familiar with this RFP process as it started and ended under his administration. "There was no mention in any of those seven RFPs about solar panels," he pointed out. Joseph Isabella, director of the Vineland Municipal Electric Utility, followed Barse at the podium in Council Chambers to respond to Barse's statements. "There were seven proposers. We brought in five of them to discuss areas we were interested in, and the areas we were interested in were" renewable energies, he said, adding he commends Barse's administration for structuring the bid notice "to be flexible enough" to make that possible. Isabella said Conectiv was not the only one to propose renewable energies: "They just proposed the best renewables." He said it is a $20 million project the city puts zero dollars into. He added the solar field is just the beginning of renewable projects for the city. "This project is 4 megawatts," Isabella said. "I envision for the future of Vineland to have 15 or 20 megawatts of renewables." Barse said a city has the right to supplement or amend an RFP. But he felt this administration's decision to choose a company for a project the RFP was not originally for is disingenuous to city residents. "This is a $24 million project that was basically decided on by two people," Barse said of Mayor Robert Romano and Isabella. "They made a selection on their own, and I don't think that's right." He said that "sends a very, very bad message" at a time when contractors are looking for work. |