FAYETTEVILLE -- The city is projected to save $7 million in electricity costs over 25 years with a new solar array project the City Council voted to support on Tuesday.
Council members voted 5-1 to approve an agreement with Entegrity Energy Partners with an office in Fayetteville to get the ball rolling on a third solar array to power municipal facilities. The city already has solar arrays at each of its wastewater treatment plants.
The location of the third solar array likely will be somewhere in the River Valley. Chris Brown, the city's public works director, asked the council to approve the agreement before Sept. 30, when a new state law will take effect.
The law has to do with the value of credits the city will receive for excess power generation. Right now, electric companies give credits to solar users for excess power generation, and the value of the credit is the retail rate of the power. The new law will change the value of the credit to wholesale rates, which are about 5 cents less per kilowatt hour.
However, the law includes an exception for any solar projects that have agreements in place before Sept. 30. If the city can get an interconnection agreement with Southwest Electric Power Company in place before then, its rates will be "grandfathered" in.
The project is scheduled to be complete by October 2024.
Much of Tuesday's discussion centered around the relationship between a city staff member and an Entegrity employee. Peter Nierengarten, the city's environmental director, is married to Meredith Hendricks, vice president of sustainability with Entegrity.
The council included an amendment to the resolution by a 4-2 vote that names Nierengarten and Hendricks and discloses their relationship. The amendment also says the City Council is aware of the relationship and that the contract is in the best interest of the city.
City Attorney Kit Williams said state law requires any financial interest, direct or indirect, of a city staff member to a company the city contracts with to be fully disclosed. That's why the amendment he provided included names, he said.
Brown said he will lead the project and Nierengarten will not be involved at all. Flint Richter, business development executive with Entegrity, said Hendricks also will not be involved.
Council members Mike Wiederkehr and Scott Berna voted against the amendment.
Wiederkehr said he didn't like naming people in a government document to say they had done nothing wrong.
Berna said he wanted to review a second proposal from another company the city's selection committee considered along with the Entegrity proposal before he could say it was in the best interest of the city. He praised the project overall.
Berna cast the sole no vote against the final amended version of the resolution. Wiederkehr, D'Andre Jones, Sarah Moore, Sarah Bunch and Teresa Turk voted in support.
In other business, the council voted 6-0 to support a resolution asking the U.S. Postal Service to keep its processing operations in the city.
The service announced last month that it could move some mail processing operations out of Fayetteville to Oklahoma City. The move could save the service about $2.5 million per year, according to the service's figures.
The Fayetteville processing center employs about 180 people. The service has said 13 jobs would move to Oklahoma City from Fayetteville with no layoffs anticipated.
Council members on Tuesday said the proposed move made no sense to them. Berna sponsored the resolution, saying he wanted to show support for the city's postal workers, and the move could adversely impact mail service in the region.
Mayor Lioneld Jordan said he was concerned about the potential job loss for the city. A presentation the service held earlier this month at the Fayetteville Public Library about the proposed move was too brief to be informative, he said.
Council members Bob Stafford and Holly Hertzberg did not attend Tuesday's meeting.
Other business
Fayetteville's City Council met Tuesday and approved:
A $5.3 million change order with Flintco for demolition, grading, utilities, concrete and other work associated with construction of Fire Station 2 at North Street and Woolsey Avenue.
A $203,075 contract with TSW for design work associated with planned improvements at Walker Park.
A budget adjustment of $41,340 to reconcile federal and state forfeitures the Police Department received through Oct. 31.
A $40,365 grant through the state to buy a TruNarc Handheld Narcotics Analyzer for the Fourth Judicial District Drug Task Force.
Source: Fayetteville