Cambria commissioners take steps toward solar project at prison
The board approved two letters of intent – one with Virginia company Madison Energy Infrastructure for installation of net-metered solar arrays, and another with New Jersey company Solar Landscape for a land-lease agreement of solar arrays.
'This is one of the first things I started when I got in office, was to try to reduce the cost, the footprint of the prison,' Commissioner Keith Rager said. 'This is just the first step.'
The jail on Manor Drive operates on a roughly $15 million budget and was also identified for a solar project because of the hundreds of acres of nearly flat land on the property.
Annually, the prison has an energy bill of roughly $300,000 and consumes about 3 million kilowatt-hours of energy, for which the county is paying a rate of around 11 cents per kWh.
President Commissioner Scott Hunt said once the project is complete, the county is estimated to save around $150,000 per year.
The letter of intent sent to Madison Energy calls for a rate of 5.6 cents per kWh for both the prison and several surrounding structures.
Hunt said that may include the courthouse and parking lot, former domestic relations building, solid waste building and motor pool building.
The letter of intent for Solar Landscape was defined as solar arrays on 35 acres at a rate of $9,960 per megawatt collected at the site.
Cambria County began exploring solar energy around a year ago, and Commissioner Thomas Chernisky said the group pursued the project the right way in his opinion, with a request for proposal.
'We definitely took our time to make sure we got it right,' Hunt said.
Alex Ashcom, county chief clerk, said the purpose of Thursday's actions was to identify the best proposals. Solar Landscape and Madison Energy were two RFP respondents.
Now, the county will begin contract negotiations with those agreements expected to be awarded in June.
Ashcom said the timeline for the project to start is flexible.
In other business, the commissioners awarded $626,000 to East Taylor Township from the Act 13 Restricted Highway Use funds for the Hunt Road bridge project.
The structure that crosses Hinkston Run near the reservoir dates to 1938 and was shut down unexpectedly in summer 2024 because it was determined to be unsafe.
The commissioners lauded the effort to help the township repair the bridge citing the negative impact the closure has had on emergency services.
Jacob Zerby, Cambria County Planning Commission transportation planner, said the response time for emergency services has 'slowed drastically' because of this closure.
Hunt Road is one of the few in that valley that connects Hinckston Run and Benshoff Hill roads. Waterfall and Kepple roads being the others, but the bridge on Waterfall has been closed for decades and to use Kepple is a seven mile detour.
Ricky Price Jr., East Taylor supervisors board chairman, said the assistance from the commissioners was a great help.
'Without that, there's no way we would have been able to afford to do something like that,' he said.
The more than $600,000 award will cover the complete cost of the Hunt Road bridge replacement.
Price said the supervisors will work with the planning commission on how to move forward and the bridge replacement, possibly this year.
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