Project could save over $120,000 in energy costs

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

The City of New York Mills will be getting a bit greener thanks to a new project at the city hall.

During its regularly scheduled meeting last week, the NY Mills City Council approved a plan from West Central Initiative and Holsen Solar to install solar panels on the roof of the city hall building. According to the proposal, the city could save in excess of $120,000 in energy over the next 30 years.

Cedar Walters, from West Central Initiative, said the total project cost to install solar panels on the roof of the city hall was estimated to be $111,424. However, the city would receive a $60,000 grant from Otter Tail Power POP Rebate program, a 30 percent IRS ITC base credit for $33,427 and a 10 percent IRS ITC Made in America credit for $11,142. In all, the city will receive $104,569 in grants to offset all-but $6,854 of the overall project cost. 

According to numbers presented by Walters, the annual energy savings will be $4,800, less the maintenance agreement with Holsen Solar. In all, the city will save about $4,000 per year in energy costs by installing solar panels on the roof of city hall, which would total $120,000 in energy cost savings over the expected 30-year lifespan of the panels. The city’s portion of the project is expected to be paid off in just 17 months with the energy savings it is expected to receive. 

In order to help city’s like NY Mills complete solar panel projects, Walters said WCI is offering zero percent loans to cover the balance for the projects for each community. 

“Our goal with these projects was to ensure that no community we are working with has a repayment period for their solar project of greater than 24 months,” said Walters. 

According to a plan presented by Holsen, construction could begin as soon as August 15 and electrical generation will begin as soon as October 1.

The solar panels come with a 12-year panel warranty and a 30-year linear performance warranty (85 percent of nominal power output). 

As part of the contract, Holsen Solar will offer an annual service contract for $833.85 for the first year and could increase three percent every year. The contract will include annual inspections of the panels and cleaning the panels, if necessary, to keep them operating in an optimal fashion.

Ben Holsen, of Holsen Solar, who walked the city through the time line and project, said the city hall building uses a lot of power and the solar panels will cover about 24 percent of its electricity use per month. 

“The building uses a lot of energy, as you guys probably know, 256,000 kilowatt hours. Our solar generation is going to offset that at about 24 percent at 62,000 kilowatts,” said Holsen, who added that there would not likely be additional power generated and sent to the power grid.

Since the project relies on federal tax credits for green energy, councilman Jerry Nesland asked what would happen if the tax credits were eliminated in the future. 

Holsen said the tax credits the city will utilize were a part of the Big Beautiful Bill that was recently signed into federal law so the city will continue to receive tax credits to help fund the project moving forward. 

The city council approved moving forward with the solar project, which could be online as soon as this fall.

In other news

• Held a public hearing to establish an ordinance to establish a NY Mills Park Board. The board will be made up of seven voting members who are appointed by the mayor with the consent of the city council. Two of the members shall be members of the city council and are appointed on an annual basis. The remaining five members are from the general public with the requirement that only two of the five members may be non-city residents. Terms on the park board will be for three years apiece. 

• Approved, by a 4-1 vote with Richard Grotheer voting in dissent, increasing the starting wage for lifeguards at Legried Community Pool to $14 per hour and $14.50 per hour with WSI certification. Currently, lifeguards in NY Mills start at $11.50 per hour and receive a $.25 per hour raise with WSI certification. A fourth year lifeguard will receive a starting salary of $16 per hour and $16.75 for WSI certification. The increase brings the NY Mills pool more in line with pools in neighboring communities like Perham and coaching summer rec for NY Mills. The council will also allow the pool to be open on Sundays for open swim from 1-5 p.m. if enough lifeguards can be put on the schedule and demand shows a desire to be open on Sundays. Following the approval, Grotheer made a motion, which was approved to increase the wage for lifeguards for just the remainder of the summer season and will refer the wages to the personnel committee to discuss.

• Heard the monthly report from the Mills Liquor Store that shows combined gross sales for the month of June was down eight percent from last year and the total revenue the city has received from the liquor store before transfers is a loss of $9,341.69, compared to a profit of $3,961.76 last year. 

• Heard the monthly fire department report that showed 18 calls for service during the month of June, which included 17 medical calls. 

• Heard the monthly call report from police chief Bobby Berndt who stated the department responded to 173 calls for service in June, which included four citations, 29 warnings and three arrests. 

• Heard the monthly public works department report from supervisor Kyle Mattson who stated that Minnesota Rural Water assisted the city with searching for abandoned municipal drinking water wells with an electromagnetic spectrometer in conjunction of using Sanborn Maps of town. The search found two under the current water tower and the search was performed as part of the city’s Wellhead Protection Plan Schedule that is required by the state. The city also heard that Energy Economics performed calibration services on some of the large gas customers in town and determined all of the meters tested are within specifications. 

• Heard from city clerk Julie Roberts that the city has been working on two additional purchase agreements for Country View lots, as well as several grants like the one that brought a new emergency siren in the South Point development. 

• Denied a motion by a 3-2 margin with Eric Hammond and Jerry Nesland voting in favor and Marsha Maki, Richard Grotheer and Latham Hetland voting against the proposal, to make Juneteenth a paid holiday for city employees if the holiday falls during the regular work week from Monday through Friday only. Under the proposal presented by council member Jerry Nesland, employees would not receive a paid day off if the holiday falls on the weekend. All three people voting against the proposal said they would prefer to see the topic brought before the personnel committee. 

• Approved delegating the registration of retail sales of cannabis and lower-potency hemp edibles to Otter Tail County. 

• Approved a $350,000 general obligation equipment certificate for the City Center building. 

• Approved, by a 4-1 margin with Grotheer voting in dissent, to proceed with purchasing a piece of land. The council did not elaborate on where the property was located.