Deliberating Possible Energy Project

The Chautauqua Lake Central School District Board of Education and administration are in the process of deliberating the viability of an energy project for the school district.

The cause for this deliberation is the availability of a new category of state aid known as EXCEL (“Expanding our Children’s Education and Learning”). This aid has been made available by New York State for building projects in five specific areas, including:

• Health and Safety
• Accessibility
• Physical Capacity Expansion
• Education Technology
• Energy

It is the last category — energy — that interests the district. As many may recall, the district seriously considered the installation of wind turbines, to be used as a long-term solution for controlling electrical costs.

With this new aid option, the district is once again giving consideration to wind turbines. In addition, the Board of Education and administration are evaluating what options might exist for use of solar power for the same purpose. If the evaluation determines that one or more energy alternatives will lead to a cost savings, it may be possible to use the available EXCEL Aid, combined with the current building project aid ratio, to submit to district voters a proposed energy project that has no local tax increase.