NEW SCOTLAND — A decision about a solar vendor for municipal energy is expected in the next few weeks, and the proposed town water-well law is still on tap, according to town board members.

Solar

The town is poised to make a decision about municipal solar power, Councilman Daniel Mackay told The Enterprise this week. Although he described the presentations by several solar companies to the town board as “not a bidding situation,” the town has taken its time over the last year about whether or not to install solar panels either across several buildings or in one area, he said.

“Since Monolith first appeared,” he said of one solar company, “some of the incentive programs and regulations have changed,” Mackay said. “We’re looking at a consolidated facility where the panels will all be in one place.”

A second company, Enlighten Power Solutions, told the town board in November that a 200-kilowatt system on three-quarters of an acre would offset 90 percent of the town’s needs and meet New York Energy Research and Development Authority guidelines. Enlighten asked the town board for a letter of intent, but town board member Patricia Snyder did not agree.

“Why do these agreements all have to be for 20 years?” she asked at the November meeting. “A lot of things change.”

Town attorney Michael Naughton said that the terms in Enlighten’s presentation were good, but that the board should discuss a contract in executive session.

Last week, Mackay said that the board is looking for “the best financial agreement for the town: What’s the return? What’s the best arrangement?”

The town has moved from the idea of many solar arrays at several facilities, he said.

“We were a little wary of that format for this,” Mackay said. “As the industry has evolved…the delay has led to a potentially better solution here.”

The town does not want to wait much longer, he said, as continued changes in financial incentives may not be in the town’s favor.

“A long-term trend is that energy costs are increasing,” he said. Locked-in savings on electrical costs mean “the benefits are both fiscal and environmental,” he said.

Reiterating Snyder’s concerns, Mackay asked, “Are we comfortable making a 20-year commitment?”

Water-well law

Mackay weighed in on the proposed water-well law that had members of the town and planning boards in a heated public discussion last month about a first draft of the bill. Some members contended that the law would harm local farmers and longtime residents, and others cited a moral obligation to provide safe water to taxpayers.

The draft of the water-well law required those who subdivide properties, or improve their existing homes, to put in new wells.

The bill came after expensive homes were built in New Scotland without adequate water; tests certified by well drillers had proved unreliable. A suggestion by Building Inspector Jeremy Cramer to require well drillers to have town licenses that could be revoked might eliminate much of the boards’ dissension over the proposal.

Mackay thought that the discussion was “unnecessarily heated,” and said, “We welcome input. Please tell us how to further improve this. There is a need for a law that protects purchasers of properties and purchasers of homes [regarding] adequate water supply,” Mackay said. After “significant public input, we’re going to come back with a better version of the law,” he said.

“We received some appropriate comments from the planning board,” said town board member William C. Hennessy Jr. this week.

The town board is still waiting for comments from both the zoning board of appeals and the town’s water committee — an ad hoc group made up of town residents, Hennessy said. Public comments are being accepted by the board at any time, he said.

At the town zoning board meeting on Tuesday, Chairman Adam Greenberg said that the board members had not been asked for formal comments about the proposed law.

“We should all look into it,” he said.

Zoning board and planning board attorney Jeffrey Baker said that one intent of the law is to create an obligation for the boards to review proposed subdivisions to see if newly created lots would affect existing neighbors. Well tests approved by the Albany County Department of Health do not account for how drawing from a lot’s water supply might affect a neighbor, Baker said.

In New Scotland and surrounding areas, unreliable water sources have caused some property owners to both drill in a traditional way, which can affect the level of a local water table, and to use hydraulic fracturing, which can cause neighboring water supplies that were previously safe to become contaminated with gases like methane.

According to the first draft of the water-well law, the subdividing property owner must drill for water on the hoped-for lot, and must also bear the cost for the drilling. Baker, a real estate attorney, said that the property owner could transfer the cost to the purchase price.

In the case of families lopping off lots for relatives, for whom a drilling cost could be a burden, Baker said, “Once you’re creating a lot, you’re creating a lot that can go to anybody. Before you start carving up lots, know if it’s doable.”

“I would commend the town board for looking into such a law,” Greenberg said.

“Clearly, we will have at least one public hearing, if we do pursue it after these comments,” Hennessy said of the bill this week.