BARRE – Town Supervisor Mark Chamberlain said he is just learning this week about Apex Clean Energy’s new plan for a 200 Megawatt wind energy project focused in Barre and stretching into Elba, Albion and other neighboring communities.

Apex made the announcement on Wednesday. The company sent a letter to Barre town officials earlier this week, requesting a meeting to discuss the project.

Chamberlain said he hadn’t heard any talk of the project until this week.

“This is the first that the community has heard of it,” he said this afternoon. “This has all come very quickly and very fast.”

Barre was considered for a wind energy project about a decade ago, but the developer backed off after concerns turbines would be sited too close to the Pine Hill Airport.

Chamberlain said the Apex project appears to be away from the airport, with the new focus apparently in southeastern Barre.

Apex is proposing a project in Yates and Somerset that would include up to 71 turbines that would peak at 620 feet high. Those turbines are about 200 feet taller than the ones proposed in Barre a decade ago. Apex hasn’t detailed the size of Barre turbines.

There is a big change, compared to a decade ago, with the new “Heritage Wind” project proposed for Barre: the Article 10 process. That gives the majority of the siting power to state officials.

“It takes town input out of it,” Chamberlain said.

Apex said today it will have many public meetings with officials and residents in Barre, Albion and the rest of the project area.

“This is a process that has just begun, and we are reaching out to various stakeholders simultaneously, including officials with the Town of Barre, the Town and Village of Albion, Orleans County, and many others,” said Cat Mosely, Public Affairs manager for Apex.

ALBION – The Village Board adopted a $6,633,734 budget for 2016-17 that will reduce taxes, slightly, for village property owners.

The village’s tax rate will drop from $17.75 to $17.66 per $1,000 of assessed property. The amount of taxes to be collected will also drop 0.4 percent from $2,497,252 to $2,487,946, which is a $9,305 reduction.

Mayor Dean London and the board unanimously approved the budget on Wednesday. London said department heads deserve credit for presenting “realistic numbers” and working with the board to prevent a tax increase.

London said the village is “thinking outside the box” to try to bring down taxes. Albion Police Chief Roland Nenni, for example, also serves as Holley’s police chief in an agreement that brings in revenue for Albion. Other village personnel also work with Holley’s sewer plant, and Elba’s water and sewer.

The budget also stops a downward slide in overall assessments in the village. After several years of a declining tax base, Albion grew by $190,060 to $140,880,321. That represents only a 0.13 percent growth, but it wasn’t a decrease, village officials noted on Wednesday.

Other good news in the budget, according to Clerk/Treasurer Linda Babcock: the village is only using $193,000 from reserves or its fund balance. She thinks that is the lowest level in many years. In the 2015-16 budget, the village used $248,000 from its fund balance, which was down from the $300,000 in fund balance in 2014-15.

Photos by Tom Rivers – The County Administration Building on Route 31, behind The Villages of Orleans Health and Rehabilitation Center, could have an addition to make room for relocated county offices.

ALBION – Orleans County legislators are expected to vote this afternoon to hire a firm to look at putting on an addition to the County Administration Building.

The county may shift several offices to the addition, including the Board of Elections and Public Health Department, which is leasing space from Comprehensive Healthcare Management Services. Comprehensive purchased the former county-owned nursing home for $7.8 million in January 2014. The county has been leasing space from Comprehensive for Elections and Public Health because those offices are part of the nursing home complex.

Public Health leases space next to the former Orleans County Nursing Home on Route 31 in Albion.

The county could also shift information technology (currently in Treasurer’s Office), the legislative chambers (in County Clerk’s Building), the county’s administrative office (also in Clerk’s Building) and create large multi-use rooms to accommodate training for large groups, conference rooms and offices.

A resolution at today’s 4:30 p.m. meeting calls for paying the Wendel firm $30,000 for a feasibility study for an addition to the County Administration Building.

David Callard, the Legislature chairman, said the feasibility study will look at many options with a goal for improved efficiency in county operations.

He said moving Elections and Public Health from leased space will free up money that could go towards the addition, perhaps making the project cost neutral to county taxpayers.

Board of Elections uses part of a wing in the former county-owned nursing home.

Callard said he and county offices have looked at existing buildings, including sites in Albion’s historic downtown, but those sites wouldn’t improve efficiency of the county government operations by being “in remote locations.”

Moving out county staff from space owned by Comprehensive could allow that company to add services, Callard said, suggesting assisted adult care.

If the Legislature and its staff also move to a new addition at the Administration Building that would free up space for the Real Property Tax Services Department to move from the building’s basement to upstairs, Callard said.

If the Legislature leaves the Clerk’s Building, an iconic historic structure next to the courthouse, Callard said the community can be assured the building will remain well cared for by the county.

“We aren’t letting that building go, ever,” he said.

He said nothing is set with the addition and which offices might go there.

“There’s all sorts of variables,” he said. “We’re just exploring the possibility of consolidation.”

Apex Clean Energy – Apex has identified Barre and its surrounding area for the focus of a wind energy project.

BARRE – Apex Clean Energy announced today the company is looking at a second wind energy project in Orleans County that would be focused in Barre and spread out in surrounding towns, as far northeast as Fancher and south into Elba.

The project would be called Heritage Wind and would represent a private investment by Apex “in the hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Apex said it’s too early to say how many turbines would be in the project, but it said is looking at a 200 Megawatt project, the same as the proposed Lighthouse Wind in Yates and Somerset.

The company will be actively meeting with landowners, community leaders and the public in the next several months, Apex posted on a website for “Heritage Wind.”

“The Heritage Wind project would provide an opportunity to help address New York’s growing electricity demand with clean, homegrown energy, while diversifying Orleans County’s economy and supporting jobs in the local community,” the company states on the website.

Apex is working on Lighthouse Wind, a project with about 70 turbines in Yates and Somerset in those two towns along Lake Ontario. The project has faced community opposition and is going through the state Article 10 review process.

Apex Clean Energy is based in Charlottesville, Va. It sees several positives with a project in the Barre area, including: verified wind resource, existing high-voltage power lines, expansive private land, and proximity to state highways.

The existing high-voltage power lines and highways would limit the need for new infrastructure, the company said.

Apex said Heritage Wind would create hundreds of jobs and significant local spending during construction, and up to 10 full-time local jobs for operations and maintenance.

The company would pay “millions of dollars” annually over 30 years to county and local landowners.

“Apex has spent the last few years working in Orleans County, and we’ve talked to hundreds of local people who are interested in bringing more wind energy to their county,” said Mark Goodwin, president and COO of Apex Clean Energy in a news release. “Orleans County is blessed with a very strong wind resource, and we look forward to working with the people of Barre to bring the benefits of wind energy to their community as well.”

For more on Heritage Wind, click here.