Over its last two meetings, Lexington City Council has discussed aspects of the construction of a new building for the Rockbridge Area Department of Social Services, including the plans to put solar panels on the building and a contract for an engineering firm to do special inspections for the project.
At its June 5 meeting, Council held a discussion on whether or not to continue with plans to put solar panels on the roof of the building as originally planned given that a federal tax credit for solar panels is slated to be eliminated as part of the proposed budget bill currently being considered in the U.S. Congress.
Currently, the payback period for the $340,000 cost of installing solar at the DSS building is 18.7 years including consideration of incentives in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which will be eliminated if the budget bill passes in its current form. Without that credit, the payback would be closer to 29 years. Bonds for the DSS project were issued for 25 years and the expected useful life of the building is 50 years.
Council decided to not remove the solar panels from the plans for the DSS building. Prior to the discussion and decision, Council heard comments from two members of the public, both of whom were in favor of solar panels on the building.
“It’s so much cheaper to do it now than to retrofit it, and in the long-term it will pay for itself in savings,” Katherine Haber said. She also noted that having solar panels on the building will “give a good example to other communities for building buildings with solar panels.”
Stephen Trimmer also encouraged Council to put solar panels on the building, noting that he had solar panels on his house and that the investment was “worth it, financially as well as environmentally.”
“Fossil fuel power plants, as you know, cause all kinds of air pollution, but also water pollution – things that impact our health here, but also in other communities,” he said. “Many of our coal plants in Virginia are in areas where there are more people of color than other communities, so they are more heavily impacted by the pollution from these plants.
“Your support for these solar panels – and the support of our partners in this project in promoting the solar panels – is helping us as a community, as individuals in this community, offset our responsibility for those pollutions,” he added.
At its June 26 meeting, Council considered a resolution to contract with Schnabel Engineering to conduct special inspections and testing services for the project, including testing soil compaction, testing concrete and inspection and testing of steel couplings.
The city sent out a request for proposals for these services in May and Schnabel Engineering was the only firm to respond by the June 13 due date with a total fee of $106,600. The project budget included $75,000 for special inspection services and the remaining $31,600 will be taken from the project contingency. The project has a budgeted contingency of $781,000, of which around $500,000 remains, City Manager Tom Carroll reported to Council.
Council member Leslie Straughan moved to approve the resolution to contract with Schnabel Engineering, with Council member David Sigler providing the second. The motion passed in a 5-0 vote, with Council member John Driscoll not in attendance.
