From Mayor Bill Finch:
City of Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch is urging City Council members to take action on a solar energy project at an old landfill site in the state’s largest city. This announcement comes in advance of tonight’s City Council meeting, where the issue will be addressed.
“We have an opportunity to turn a sin of our past into a shining example of our city’s future,” said Mayor Finch, who also serves as co-chair for the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ climate change task force. “By doing so, we can power thousands of Connecticut homes with smarter, cleaner, renewable energy.”
The location for this clean energy project–announced in October 2013–is an old landfill in Bridgeport’s Seaside Park, which has been largely unused, and viewed as an eyesore for several decades. In an effort to continue spurring development of Bridgeport’s green energy economy, Mayor Finch has been working with United Illuminating on the plan to install solar panels at the nine acre dump site.
The project calls for up to 9,000 solar panels at the old landfill, and the site will produce an estimated 5 megawatts of power. Thousands of Connecticut homes can be powered by the zero emission energy produced by these solar panels. And the installation of solar panels would generate a projected $7 million in revenue over 20 years, and create green jobs for the city.
“This is a no brainer,” said Mayor Finch. “Through this project, we can create green jobs and power thousands of homes through use of an emission free energy source.”
In February 2014, the Bridgeport City Council’s Contracts Committee approved the solar panel project. This was followed by the City’s Parks Commission approving the project in March 2014. The next step will take place tonight, when the City Council is set to vote on approval of the contract with United Illuminating.
Across Connecticut, solar companies currently employ approximately 1,100 people, according to the Solar Energy Industry Association. And last year, $143 million was invested in the Constitution State to install solar for home, business, and utility use. This represents a 154 percent increase over the previous year, and is expected to grow again in 2014.
Here is the real no brainer–vote no on the contract that puts the financial future of essentially self-insured Bridgeport into potential bankruptcy and go back to UI and have them convert the coal plant into the cleanest, most efficient biomass energy producing facility as was just accomplished in bankrupt Stockton CA.
www .pennenergy.com/articles/pennenergy/2014/03/dte-completes-conversion-of-coal-fired-power-plant-to-biomass.html
“Blood on our hands of aircraft victims” at Sikorsky and now “sins of the past” at Seaside Park?
What is going on in Mayor Finch’s mind? And those of his advisers? He is talking about situations or conditions that have lasted for decades before his fingerprints showed up. And we are talking about activities that need authorization because we are not yet a dictatorship. But Sikorsky is an example of “a done deal” that looks more like “a spun deal” that is in the process of unraveling. And the solar AND FUEL CELL at Seaside are parts of “a sun deal that is a done deal” but not quite (even if the City Council agrees by whatever type of majority). And he is sowing more questions with every move … and the budget is coming? … and the revaluation is not? … and taxes will once again increase (because they cannot increase in 2015 if he chooses to run again)? Time will tell.
Sin of the past is electing Bill Finch. Redemption starts with clean and beneficial contracts–this isn’t one of them.
This contract/land lease is faulty and flawed, if this landfill is not in Seaside Park borders, then why did the Parks Commission have to vote on it for a second time?
And if this landfill/solar farm and solar cells are within Seaside Park borders, then it’s within a historic district and landmark, and the Parks Commission dropped the ball. Again!
I wish the media would inform the people the City hired a park planner, Rickter and Cegan who recommended a nature preserve with walkways on this location, Finch and Grabarz ORDERED a subsequent park planner, Sasacki, to scrap the nature preserve plan against Sasaki’s recommendation and include a solar panel array instead. That would be the best plan: retain what has become a nature preserve and install a lineal park on its summit, the best view between Boston and New York.
We do have a dictator here in Bridgeport. Tell me the last time the council or a sitting board and/or commission voted against something the mayor wanted. I call that a dictatorship. To Godiva, sorry to be negative but YOU damn it tell me something positive.
This lease with UI is a farce, just what the hell is UI responsible for? Hey Dictator Bill, really outside of building this bullshit plant what full-time jobs will be available to non-UI employees? Tell me, damn it!!!
People, if you want to see what relying on the state DEP gets you, ask the workers who worked on the power plant in Milford who suffer from cancer, depression, seizures and like illnesses. There is a major lawsuit working its way through the courts and it involves millions and millions of dollars. Will that happen here? I hope not but the powers that be don’t give a shit. Remember, brownfield reports can be written to say anything the buyer wants them to say.
Tonight’s vote is a done deal. The council will vote even though this contract is heavily against the city’s interest. Just one example, any UI employee who becomes ill because they worked on this project becomes the city’s responsibility thus opening us up to civil suits.
I believe the following council people will vote NO on this project:
Rick Torres
Patricia Swain
Robert Halstead
Michele Lyons?
Mary McBride
Richard Salter
There are only 5 and possibly 6 no votes on the council. The rest have sold us into green hell.
Four out of the six are right, Torres, Swain, Halstead and Lyons voted no. I don’t know who the fifth is. I would bet it was Salter.
Why would Sue Brannelly vote yes here? She went on record in the Post stating she reconsidered and now she goes directly and deliberately against what the people in her district were asking her to do. Why would she do that? Isn’t she supposed to represent her constituents and put her own personal feelings aside? Boggles the mind.
Bond Girl, why would you expect anything else? How many times have you heard Sue say directly to her constituents “I hear you,” “I hear what you are saying,” “I understand where you are coming from.” She said it on the budget and on the tax increase and she said it on the city employees on the city council issue. She hears what her constituents are saying but her problem is she does not listen to them. She only listens to the people who are pulling her strings. So as soon as you hear Sue say “I hear you,” you know she has already had her mind made up by someone else and she is getting her big ol’ rubber stamp inked up. You are going to hear it all again in a few weeks when the new budget comes up and the mil rate goes up yet again. She will hear us, but continue to ignore us. You gotta love Rubber Stamp Sue, at least she is consistent.
Sung to the tune of Runaround Sue:
Here’s my story, it’s sad but true
It’s about a girl who I once knew
She took my tax money then ran around
With every hack and crony in town
I should have known it from the very start
She will leave you with solar panels, state of the art
Now listen people what I’m telling you
A-keep away from-a Rubber Stamp Sue, yeah
I don’t miss her and the promises she makes
A touch of her pen and the taxpayers’ backs she breaks
So if you don’t wanna cry like I do
A-keep away from-a Rubber Stamp Sue
She likes to travel around, yeah
She’ll tax you up and she’ll pull you down
Now people let me put you wise
Sue raises taxes to limits of unknown size
Here’s the moral and the story from the guy who knows
I fell for it and my tax bill still grows
Ask any fool who ever voted, they’ll say
A-keep away from-a Rubber Stamp Sue
Yeah, keep away from this girl
I know, know what she’ll do
Keep away from Sue
She likes to travel around, yeah
She’ll tax you up and she’ll pull you down
Now people let me put you wise
Sue raises taxes to limits of unknown size
Here’s the moral and the story from the guy who knows
I fell for it and my tax bill still grows
Ask any fool who ever voted, they’ll say
A-keep away from-a Rubber Stamp Sue, yeah
Stay away from that girl
Don’t you know what to do now
Keep away from that girl
Don’t you know what to do now
That is brilliant!
Sue Brannelly is a windbag who has you people in Black Rock fooled. Sue Brannelly does what Mayor Finch and/or Adam Wood tell her to do. Sue has to protect a job she got for a family member in labor relations. You want to see a dog and pony show, you have got to come to a Budget & Appropriations hearing. She is unbelievable at these meetings. She is fresh and a bitch towards the people who want to talk to her. Remember, you people in Black Rock fell for her BS.
Actually Andy, it was ONLY the AB’s that got her elected. It’s impossible to get into the towers with 100+ AB’s without a key from the city.
Thank you. These damn absentee ballots have gotten more rotten politicians elected than I care to count. Jen, someday drive by all these senior complexes and look in the parking lots and garages. They’re full, meaning these lazy asses who vote absentee are just that, lazy asses. This statement is not directed at those who actually need absentee ballots. I wonder what percentage who take absentees need them.
We should have a portable voting booth that is taken to each high-rise for early voting. This would also eliminate certain groups allowed in the building to campaign and other groups refused entry. In reality the only ones who should have absentee ballots is the military and college students.
Andy, Colorado votes only by mail, and CT is one of the few states to require cause for absentee voting. I would welcome voting reform in this state–early voting, by mail and online. The Election Day cost and gauntlet we have to run to vote is something I find very ridiculous.
Jen: Too many bad people have won elections here and in every section of the state because of absentee ballots. Many people will say it’s not the ballots it’s the people sending them out (campaigners). Well that might be true but it’s still a messed-up system. Elections in Bridgeport are won this way every election.
Maybe one or two of our seven state reps and senators can put forth a bill getting rid of or changing the AB ballots. I know that is a dream as only Hennessy and Grogins really do anything in Hartford, the rest take up space.
*** IT WAS A RUBBER-STAMP DEAL! ***