Community solar project to shift from schools to City Hall
The City of Mercer Island is trying to find out whether there is sufficient investor interest among Islanders to fund a solar project that would place 245 panels on the roof of City Hall. The panels are expected to generate about 80,000 kilowatt hours of power every year.
The community solar project was initially supposed to be a joint effort between the city and the school board. The city would figure out the logistics and initial planning, and the district would provide the site – the south-facing roof of the high school gym.
“While they [the school district] were assessing the feasibility, we went to plan B,” said city communications manager Ross Freeman. “It would be amazing if there were two projects.”
School district superintendent Gary Plano said he is not recommending that the district proceed with the project.
At the Dec. 11 school board meeting, Dr. Plano said he felt that if the district pursued this, it would do so with school supporters instead of pure investors who might not otherwise have any interaction with the school district.
“At this time, the district will not be moving forward, given the myriad of projects and instructional issues we have before us,” Dr. Plano said. “In addition, our new projects will have a significant number of sustainability features in addition to generating clean energy.”
The city’s project would be entirely paid for from private funds. Investors need to be found soon for the project to progress and provide a payback, as state solar incentives – $1.08 per kilowatt hour – end in 2020.
City holiday closures
City offices will be closed on Dec. 25 and Jan. 1 for the holidays.
In addition, the Mercer Island Community and Event Center (MICEC) will close for its annual week of repairs and maintenance Dec. 22 through 26, and will also follow adjusted hours until Monday Jan. 5.
Mayor signs on to Governor’s climate action
Governor Jay Inslee announced a set of proposals on Dec. 17 to transition Washington to cleaner sources of energy and meet carbon pollution limits adopted by the state Legislature in 2008.
Mercer Island Mayor Bruce Bassett was among 35 regional elected officials to sign a letter supporting Inslee’s action on climate and clean energy.
Mercer Island was a founding member of a coalition of cities that supports collaborative solutions to reducing the region’s carbon fooptrint, and many strategies will align with the Governor’s proposal. This group, known as the King County-Cities Climate Collaboration (K4C) is developing a roadmap towards meeting shared climate targets in King County that will be announced in January 2015.
Inslee noted that taking action on the climate is “…the smart thing to do because we can make the air cleaner for our children, our businesses can lead the world in clean technology and doing so will bring good-paying jobs to Washington.”
Physician to speak on teen drug and alcohol abuse
The Mercer Island Communities That Care coalition (MICTC) is hosting a presentation by Leslie R. Walker, MD, on preventing drug and alcohol use by teens. The free event will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Mercer Island High School on Wednesday Jan. 7, 2015.
Walker is chief of the Division of Adolescent Medicine at Seattle Children’s Hospital and professor and vice chair of faculty affairs in the Department of Pediatrics at the UW School of Medicine.
She co-directs the Adolescent Substance Abuse Program (ASAP) at Seattle Children’s Hospital and is Director of the Leadership Education in Adolescent Health multidisciplinary training prog
The MICTC is a coalition of concerned parents, youth and community members who are joined around the common purpose of reducing the harmful effects of underage drinking and other drug use among Mercer Island youth.
