SCHOOL BOARD SPENDS $1000 TO MAKE $10 -GOVERNMENT COMMON SENSE

Psssst . . . .  I’ll let you in on a secret that the
Northampton Area School District doesn’t want you to know. 

The School District wants to lease 6 1/2 acres of the
grass/field at the Lehigh Elementary School in Cherryville,
Lehigh Township, Walnutport, to a power company to install a
large solar power plant.  The lease would be for 20 years. 
There would be over 5,000 large panels -- nearly 13 feet tall
-- surrounded by a fence just as high.  This solar farm will
cover most of the remaining recreational play area on the
school grounds.  Many of the students will be confined to the
macadam and what remaining grass and drainage fields are left.

The plan is to let the power company generate electricity on
the leased public land and sell that energy to the school at a
reduced rate.  In reality, this is a tax loophole so that the
energy company and its subcontractor who would actually install
the farm can get the tax credits and grant money from taxpayers
through the federal stimulus bill, without having to own land
or pay property tax.  The project is estimated at $14 million
dollars and the school is guaranteed to receive $2 million in
reduced energy costs over a 20-year span.  Most likely, the energy company would
receive what are known as SRECs, Sustainable renewable Energy Credits, which
can total another 8 million dollars or more over the 20 year life of the system.
 In many of these
instances, the installer will get the rights to the 20 years of
maintenance needed for the upkeep of the system.  With an $81.5
million school budget, it hardly seems worth it for the
taxpayer or the School District to enter into such a long-term
risky agreement, losing any future use of the land should
expansion need to occur in the township.

Betcha didn’t know that.  And betcha didn’t know we heard it was
awarded through a no bid contract.

Until recently the School Board has kept the project under
wraps, we believe, so as not to alert the public and avoid prying questions
from those pesky parents curious about the unknown health risk
to the nearly 700 students at Lehigh Elementary.  And then
there’s those troublesome taxpayers worried about property
values and asking about a myriad of other questionable
practices, such as subleasing public land to a power company in
a for-profit business venture. 

Did you miss the groundbreaking ceremony for the project on
October 20?  School and power company officials were there.  So
was Congressman Charlie Dent, Julie Harhart,
and Secretary Hanger (Department of Education).

Whoops!  They broke ground before securing the proper permits
and getting approval from the Township  since this
requires a conditional use hearing.  The School Board will
finally get around to filling the Township Board of Supervisors in on
its little secret Tuesday night (October 26), 7PM at the Lehigh Township
Municipal Building in Walnutport.  I urge you to attend this hearing and help
us learn the details.  But don’t tell them where you heard it.

-Concerned citizen of Lehigh Township