Meeting Date: March 24, 2021 6:30 pm
Town of Olive
County of Ulster
State of New York
Wednesday, March 24, 2021
Minutes of the Public Hearing of the Town of Olive Town Board, held Wednesday March 24, 2021 6:30 pm via ZOOM link.
Members Present: Jim Sofranko, Supervisor
Drew Boggess, Board Member
Scott Kelder, Board Member
David Edinger, Board Member
Victoria Read, Board Member
Recording Secretary: Dawn Giuditta, Town Clerk
Others Present: Simon Strauss, CAC; Matt Kovner, CAC; Chester Karwatowski, CAC; Jac Conaway, CAC; Amanda Winne, Deputy Town Clerk; Christopher Winne, Fire Chief
There were 25 residents in attendance.
Town Supervisor Jim Sofranko called the meeting to order at 6:33 pm, and had the Town Clerk, Dawn Giuditta read the legal ad for the Public Hearing which was in the March 15, 2021 issue of the Daily Freeman.
Supervisor Sofranko read the Local Law #1 of 2021 Community Choice Aggregation Program to the residents in attendance and then opened the meeting for comments.
Zach Hilty liked the new program he thought it was idiot proof and told the Board to sign the agreement.
Jac Conaway agreed with Mr. Hilty and stated it seems like a no lose for everyone in the Town of Olive.
Cynthia Nikitin stated it was an amazing opportunity and co-op ‘s saves everyone money. She wanted to know if we get to choose and will the Town be running it?
Supervisor Sofranko stated a third party administrator will be running it and introduced Glen Weinberg from Joule Energy.
Mr. Weinberg works for Joule Energy a third party administrative company and they administrative about 38 communities throughout NYS. They have 14 communities in Central Hudson territory. He also stated that the program will largely be looking at hydro, wind and maybe some locally site solar farms.
Matt Kovner agreed that this program is a great way to lower energy cost and use renewable energy.
Board Member David Edinger commented that there is no guarantee that it will always be lower than Central Hudson.
Board member Kelder expressed a concern that if they passed this now would it have any effect on the Ashokan Pumped Storage Project application. Supervisor Sofranko stated he didn’t think so because the Ashokan Pumped Storage Project uses a lot of energy and it is for storage.
Chester Karwatowski applauded the town for looking into this.
Christopher Winne expressed concern that not everyone knows about this Local Law and that some just found out after it was posted on Facebook. He was concerned about the Town choosing for everyone and the opting out policy. He felt residents should be able to choose to opt in instead of having to remember to opt out.
Chester Karwatowski agreed with Mr. Winne that reach out about the program should be well advertised and shared.
After all residents that wanted to comment had been heard the Town Board on Boggess/Read motion closed the public hearing at 7:38 pm.
Aye: Boggess, Kelder, Edinger, Read and Sofranko Nay: Absent:
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Dawn Giuditta, Town Clerk