07/16/2007 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Minutes of the Combined Caucus/Council Meeting 7-16-07 Page 4 Section 3- On May 30lh he and the Village architect met with Alan Frasz of Dovetail Solar and Wind who has met with Council before and discussed solar and wind options. They discussed the cost of putting the solar panels on at the new Village police station. Mr. Fadel who is a resident of the Village owns a company and is proposing that he front the costs or a portion of the costs and then sell the electricity back to us over the next five years at which point we would purchase the equipment back from him. Because the Village cannot take advantage of either the depreciation or the federal income tax credits because we don't really do depreciation and we don't pay taxes, it would be a win-win situation for the Village and Mr. Fadel and Jemm Properties, LLC whereby he would be able to write off the depreciation expenses as well as the tax credits and we would be able to defer a good portion of the costs and in the meantime realize the savings from operational expenses. This is just a preliminary discussion with Mr. Fadel. Ron and he both agree that it looks like it is a pretty workable deal and it makes sense. Mr. DiNardo added that next month at the Council meeting they will be providing us with a presentation. They will have all of the figures worked out. They could not do it for this month because it is the solar expo. That should help answer a lot of the questions. Mr. Brett advised that the sheet given to Council is updated as of last Thursday. Mr. Marrie pointed out the comment in the memo that we would gain approximately $75,000.00 over six years going this way. Mr. Brett said we would if you calculated the operational savings as well as everything else. He is assuming an interest of 6% which is a little bit on the high side, but again, because we can't take advantage of those particular savings and he can as a private citizen, it makes sense. Mayor Rinker added that the other thing we are all mindful of is what has been sort of illuminating in all of this. What we are learning is something that we have been reading about or heard in different areas, green design actually pays. It is not just that we axe being thoughtful citizens, the fact of the matter is it is very practical and pragmatic. It is encouraging that the more we orient this area and learn from it, we are learning a lot and it is something that we can educate the public as well as ourselves in the long run. Section 4- Notes concerning Expanding the WiFi -- When we had the first go-around with putting up the WiMax canopy, we found that the technology was not quite what we expected and that we were not able to achieve the penetration that we had hoped for with the set up with OneCommunity. Mr. Brett talked with some people from Proxim Wireless and attended one of their webinars. It would seem that we have the capability now of spreading that signal in a wider range and have it work as we had anticipated in the first place. Mr. Brett would like to go in front of the IT Committee for their review and perhaps have theSe gentleman from Proxim give a presentation or do a neighborhood pilot program on the neighborhood south of the municipal center here. That would only be a first phase. This way we would get an idea of what it could do and what the penetration would be like. If that works successfully then we can look at expanding it. It would be a natural four-step process but if it does not work on the first step, we would not proceed forward with the rest of the steps. This is nothing written in stone. We can point this in any direction we want. He would like to have the IT Committee look at this and give some thoughts on that. Mr. Marrie stated that a meeting will be set up. Mr.