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Serving More Than h 33 33,000 000 H Homes & B Businesses i iin 4 C Counties ti
• Cardinal Stritch • Clay • Eastwood • Genoa • Gibsonburg • Lake • Northwood • Oak Harbor • Waite • Woodmore
Fire Museum See Entertainment A supplement to The Press Newspapers December 4, 2017
Jacob Plantz Cover photo: Genoa junior guard by Russ Lytle) p ((Press file photo
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By Larry Limpf News Editor news@presspublications.com
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After public forums in February and March and a third session last week, Guy Parmigian, superintendent of the BentonCarroll-Salem School District, says he’s getting a feel for how residents of B-C-S regard the district’s financial situation as Tuesday’s election nears. Voters will decide two levies: a 1 percent earned income tax and a 3.89-mill property tax that would generate about $1.98 million and $1.4 million a year respectively if passed. Both issues would be in effect for five years. Two levies on the same ballot requesting additional tax revenues is an anomaly for a school system that hasn’t hiked local taxes in about 18 years. “I think people understand the need as far as why we’re on the ballot. I think we’ve made that crystal clear to people,” Parmigian said last week. “There are people who understand the need and can’t afford it. Then there are folks who say we’ve had a good run with Davis-Besse, it’s time to pony up and pay more even though they don’t want to but they understand an investment in a strong school system is essential.” Even before FirstEnergy makes a decision on the future of its coal and nuclear power generation units, the B-C-S district felt the effect of change at the Davis-Besse station. With the recent devaluation of the station property, B-C-S is losing about $4.6 million annually – about a quarter of the school system’s operating budget. Then there is the loss of reimbursement payments from the state – about $300,000 annually – that started when the public utility tangible personal property tax was phased out. In late March, B-C-S officials learned Gov. John Kasich signed legislation including a provision allocating about $1.8 million for three years in special funding to the district. But the special “bridge” funding isn’t a cure for the district in the long term,
Pictured are Heather Pollauf, 13abc; John Melnyk, 2017 Person of the Year; Jodi Gross, 2018 Person of the Year and Yvonne Thoma-Patton, Eastern Maumee Bay Chamber director. See stories on pages 5-7. (Photo by Lacie Hayek/ www.facebook. com/wildandfreephotography. toledo/)
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We came to understand and appreciate the value of wetlands too late to save but a small fraction of what was. Art Weber See page 9
Power plant reimbursement OK’d By Kelly J. Kaczala News Editor kkaczala@presspublications.com Oregon City Council recently approved an agreement for reimbursement of engineering and construction costs for the Clean Energy Future-Oregon power plant project. Clean Energy Future-Oregon LLC is developing a 955-Megawatt capacity combined cycle power generation facility within Oregon’s municipal boundaries, which will require a supply of potable water from Toledo’s water treatment plant. Clean Energy Future-Oregon LLC entered into a potable water purchase agreement with Toledo and Oregon, which will require the development of new water infrastructure. Once it is installed, it will deliver up to six million gallons per day to the facility from Toledo’s water plant. In order for Toledo to be able to provide potable water supply services to the project, certain infrastructure improvements will have to be designed, permitted, and constructed by Oregon, which Clean Energy Future-Oregon LLC will agree to pay for under the terms of a master agreement for reimbursement of engineering and construction costs. Cooling water Last year, Oregon approved an agreement with Toledo and Clean Energy Future LLC to provide cooling water for the gas fired power generation facility as well as
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provide emergency interconnection between the two water systems. The agreement allows Oregon to supply Toledo water to Clean Energy Future LLC, the city’s second gas fired power production facility located entirely within Oregon on N. Lallendorf Road and Parkway Road. The facility requires potable water with an estimated average flow of 4.8 million gallons per day and a maximum flow of 7 million gallons per day. Since Oregon’s water treatment plant does not currently have the capacity to meet this demand, Oregon and Toledo reached an agreement for Toledo to supply potable water to Clean Energy Future Oregon LLC. Toledo water would be conveyed to the power plant by way of a dedicated main carrying only Toledo water with no comingling of Toledo and Oregon water. Under emergency conditions, valves at a connect-
ing point between the dedicated main and an Oregon main could be opened to allow water to be supplied from Toledo to Oregon or from Oregon to Toledo as conditions require. The agreement also permits the power plant to purchase water from Oregon if Oregon expands its water treatment plant in the future. Clean Energy Future-Oregon LLC will be located adjacent to Oregon Clean Energy Center, the city’s first gas fired power plant, which became operational last year. Backup “It really serves the interests of Oregon very well because it allows the new facility to get its water from Toledo, but anytime it wants to be a customer of Oregon, they will be our customer,” said City Administrator Mike Beazley. “So it provides for a connection and backup paid for by the new industrial customer, which will allow a connection that could backfill Oregon in the case of an emergency. From our end, it provides a redundancy we have long sought but never really had. This is very similar to the working arrangement we had in terms of the reimbursement process with the first project. So we don’t have costs associated with it. We just have some benefits and we kind of like it that way.” Public Service Director Paul Roman agreed. “This reimbursement agreement is very Continued on page 4