Vol. 37, No. 8 3 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2019
3
ONE DOLLAR
Celebrating
Seeger State
tournament
bound
Page 10 Page 35
w w w .W V T I M ESON L I N E . c om
Valley
Central
seat to
remain
vacant
Two solar farms proposed in Crawford
By LAURA FITZGERALD
[email protected]
Cypress Creek proposed two community
solar projects in the town of Crawford at a
planning board meeting on Feb. 13.
Both projects are community
distributed generation, which means any
resident within the district can sign up
to receive power from the plant. While
bills would still be issued by residents’
utility company, residents would receive
a discount on their energy bill.
The power from the project feeds
directly into the energy grid, allowing
anyone to access the renewable energy
without having to install panels on their
own property.
“Instead of having the panels on
your home, we have the panels,” project
associate Charles Grady Mecay said.
Mecay said the expected lifespan of
the projects are 40 years.
Svenski Solar is a two-megawatt
project with 20 acres of panels on Route
17K, near Collabar Road. The project has
the capacity to power between 400 and 500
homes in the Orange and Rockland Utility
district.
The projects sits in a 70-acre parcel
Cypress Creek purchased.
It will require five acres of tree
clearing. The ground underneath the
panels will be planted with native grasses
and pollinator habitat.
Several residents brought up concerns
over noise generated by the facility. Mecay
said while the panels themselves do not
make any noise, inverters that convert
the variable direct output of the panels
do.
At 30 feet, inverters are about the
volume of a normal conversation, Mecay
said. At 150 feet, the inverters cannot be
heard. The two inverters in the project
will be about 175 feet from the property
line at 17K.
The Dubois solar project is a two-
megawatt facility with approximately
15 acres of panels on Dubois Road, off
Route 52. It also has the capacity to power
between 400 and 500 homes in the NYSEG
district.
The project will require minimal tree
clearing at less than half an acre.
By TED REMSNYDER
The Valley Central Board of Education
will continue to be down to six members
until the upcoming spring election, after
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P olar P lungers
Photo provided
Members of the Wallkill Fire Dept. participated in the Special Olympics Polar Plunge Saturday in Fiskill raising close to $4300 for Special Olympics.
SERVING CRAWFORD, GARDINER, MAYBROOK, MONTGOMERY, PINE BUSH, SHAWANGUNK, WALDEN AND WALLKILL