Willington Housing Authority
Special meeting March 31, 2015
60 Old Farms Road – Senior Center
Willington, CT
MINUTES
PRESENT – Chairman Robert Campbell, Vice Chairman Wilbur Gangaway, Secretary Don Berg, and board member Laurel Millix. Also present were Selectmen Christina Mailhos and John Blessington.
1. Call to Order – The meeting was called to order at 5:07 p.m.
2. Present to speak – Selectmen Christina Mailhos and John Blessington were in attendance and withheld comments until old business was discussed.
3. Old Business –Button Hill senior housing – The PV system was discussed under new business
4. New Business- discussed monthly meeting dates with selectmen & the reason for this meeting.
Don Berg offered that the purpose of the meeting is to authorize the WHA (with Town line item funds) to pay performance assurance on 4 ZREC contracts (total )$1263.12. and complete and deliver the contracts to Eversource by April 2, 2015. Bob Campbell said that our intent is to make the units as net-zero as possible. Wilbur expressed his serious concerns about the project not providing savings as Don projected due to his constant revisions to his analysis and his errors on initially analyzing the roof areas. Don did ask Raj at Acorn Mechanical to verify some of his consumption and production assumptions.
HERs ratings and Energy Star ratings were discussed. Address change concerns were discussed and Bob offered that street name and/or number changes and should be accommodated by Eversource. A discussion on who will assign street, building and apartment numbering. John Blessington said zoning may establish the street numbers. All agreed this was not a big problem…and moved on. The new road name will be Senior Way.
Don discussed the delivery term start date (DTSD) chosen as 4/1/2016 (the furthest-out-date available), contract expiry dates (1 year after DTSD) & contract extensions. We could let this opportunity for ZREC contracts expire but there is no guarantee we would even be awarded this once-a-year opportunity next year, and no guarantee the price per REC (renewable energy credits) next year would be as good as it is this year (the value of a REC has decreased for the past 3 years). The contract is a fixed price per REC (or ZREC) of $80.97/REC (8.097¢/kWh), that Eversouce is paying to us for 15 years at that fixed price. Also discussed was the case of, if in the end we did not install PV, we would be defaulting on the contracts. If that was the case we would not get the performance assurance monies
returned to us. If we perform as contracted the performance assurance monies will be fully returned to us. The Town will get the money performance assurance monies returned to them.
John Blessington discussed monies paid to Eversource and why we ae asking selectmen for money, and Bob C. and Christina clarified that we have the money in our line item, we just need the selectmen to authorize us to spend that money. Bob and Don said we would replace the money in our line item when we get our mortgage (mostly waiting on the closing attorneys to arrange a closing). Likely that closing will happen this fiscal year. Chairman Campbell (Bob) said WHA/Button Hill only needs to close on one of the three funding sources (Putnam Bank, Federal Home Loan Bank and Department of Housing) to break ground, hopefully this May.
Discussion ensued about potential PV panel locations. Christina expressed concerns about the various potential solar array locations. Don offered that he met with PZC and ZBA and they were positive in their backing of the concept, of course official plans, applications and approvals will be needed.
Christina wanted to make sure the board was OK with spending our line item for these contracts because the money we were provided in the line item, to begin with, was for other purposes.
Directors and officers insurance was discussed and determined that the WHA will be able to pay their D&O insurance. We could prepay (or not) the D&O insurance before next fiscal year. We will likely be able to return these performance assurance monies to our line item by June 30th.
Christina, Bob and John Blessington discussed energy efficiency measures around town.
Christina asked about additional funding sources (for PV) and Bob C. responded that Dave Berto has said that there are sources that can provide some funding for solar.
Laurel Millix arrived at 5:50 PM and the Board reviewed some of the prior meeting information.
Motion made by Don Berg to accept the following:
To authorize Don Berg to sign 4 Eversource ZREC contracts for the benefit of The Willington Housing Authority dba Button Hill and to additionally include a (required) check with each contract made payable to Eversource for $315.78 per Eversource ZREC service contract (total $1263.12) to be for Eversource-required Performance Assurance in order to secure those 4 Eversource ZREC contracts by the Eversource ZREC contract deadline of April 2, at 5 pm.~~ This authorization is with the knowledge that the Eversource Performance Assurance monies to will be returned by Eversource to The Willington Housing Authority dba Button Hill if the PV systems are fully operational prior to April 1, 2017, or with a 6 month extension, by October 1, 2017 in accordance with the Eversource service contract and associated documents.~ Note: If The Willington
Housing Authority dba Button Hill cannot perform per the service contract requirements by the dates noted above, the performance assurance monies will likely be retained by Eversource in accordance with Article 13 (about Events of defaults; Remedies) of their document, Year 3 Tariff
Motion made by Don Berg to accept and seconded by Laurel, Wilbur discussed that it (PV) was a good idea but uncomfortable with the questions that will come up and the numerous corrections Don B. required in his analysis. No one else offered additional discussion. Vote was 3 yea, Wilbur abstained. The commission commented that Claudia mentioned via email that she was in favor of the motion (but she could not attend tonight due to personal reasons).
Christina wanted to discuss a project timeline. Christina said that the building official needs a letter that states there is a contractor of record and also wants a time line (knowing it is prone to slippage).
5. Correspondence-none
6. Adjourn – vote was taken to adjourn. All were in favor. Meeting ended at 6:04 pm
Respectfully submitted Don Berg, Housing Authority Secretary. Please note that minutes are posted prior to being officially approved – changes/corrections are provided in subsequent month’s meeting minutes. Don Berg
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