The Birdseye Solar project sidelined in January after PILOT talks failed is back on the discussion table.
Thursday, the Town of Sharon voted to move ahead on One Energy Renewable’s offer of $45,000 for the first year of a 15-year PILOT—payment-in-lieu-of-taxes—with five percent increases every year.
Monday, Sharon Springs Central School did the same.
“It’s back on the front burner and moving forward,” said Sharon Supervisor Sandy Manko. “We’ll see what happens.”
The offer still needs approval from Schoharie County supervisors’ Finance Committee and the Board of Supervisors, where it will likely go later this month, and then a formal resolution must be approved by the town, school, and county.
When talks stalled, One Energy Renewables had offered a “highest and best offer” of $30,000 for year one of a PILOT, a figure that included about $7,000 worth of free electricity.
It wasn’t close enough to County Treasurer Bill Cherry’s “absolute bottom line figure” of $45,000, still far less than what the project, which is estimated to be worth about $4 million, would have been paying in taxes without a PILOT, $164,000 a year.
Ms. Manko said she’s cautiously optimistic that the deal will be finalized by the end of June.
Ms. Manko pointed out that the project won’t impact local roads or the school and is going on land not really viable for anything else.
“I always wish it was more,” she added.
Because the project will be the first commercial farm in the county, Ms. Manko also pointed out that Sharon’s setting the standard—and wants it to be high.
The12-acre property owned by Westley and Joyce Hayes and located across Route 20 from the former Belvedere, will remain on the tax rolls at $10,251 a year; the PILOT is based on the solar farm’s added value to the property.
The first PILOT payment would be made January 2018 and the split would be: SSCS, 54 percent for $24,599; county, 27 percent for $12,296; town, 15 percent for $6,746; Sharon Springs Fire District, 2.35 percent for $1,057; Sharon Springs Free Library, .67 percent for $300.
The PILOT would begin at $45,000 and reach $89,097 in the 15th year.