>MPAC-affected tax rates set off alarms for some residents, Pg 5 > Check out more Happening photos Pg. 6 > Grimsby air cadet earns distinction Pg. 7 > St. John students help GBF Pg 14 Thursday, July 20, 2017 Vol. 6 Issue 11
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$10 million and counting for biodigester Energy project triple its initial budget
All hands on deck! Some kids are a bit shy with an imposing fire truck - not these kids. Cali Lalonde scampered into the driver’s seat, followed closely by Adalyn Scanlin and Colton Lalonde. Jay Scanlin watches closely while holding daughter Mila. Williscraft - Photo
By Mike Williscraft NewsNow The rewriting of the still-brief history ofGrimsby’s biodigester rolled through another chapter at Monday’s night’s council meeting with a new cost projection of $10-million-plus being rolled out for the first time. Ald. Dave Kadwell noted that as recently as his personal tour of the Sobie Road project’s site that he was told by chairman of Grimsby Power Joe Panetta the projected cost was still $8.5 million. Shafee Bacchus, the chairman of Grimsby Energy told the packed council chamber costs - which were originally set at $3.5 million when the project was first set up, then bumped to $4.5 million - have soared past the $10 million mark and will still go higher. Bacchus’s presentation went all the way back to 2009 when he noted Niagara Power’s board of directors requested a study of alternative energy projects and a biogester
was chosen over wind and solar initiatives. The project has been dogged by major issues from the start. At the Mayor’s Breakfast in Fall 2015, then project manager James Detenbeck said the project would generate a $350,000 net profit for the 20-year span of its FIT contract. On Monday night, Bacchus said the net profit would $400,000 per year. This included $150,000 from “engine fees”, or tipping fees from haulers paying to pump their food waste into the biodigester system. This is a brand new component to the project which is still pending provincial approval. Regardless – since the clock started running on the fixed-term, 20-year FIT contract in November 2015 – by the time the biodigester produces usable methane nearly two full years of the contract will be exhausted. According to Bacchus’s numbers, that would leave 18 years or SEE BIO, Page 2