The principal partner from the company hoping to build a $20.5 million anaerobic digestion facility on city-owned land is scheduled to touch base with Ansonia officials this week.
Chris Timbrell, of Greenpoint Energy Partners, will pow-wow with Chris Tymniak, who is Mayor David Cassetti’s chief administrative officer, during a meeting scheduled for Wednesday (July 30) in Ansonia.
Back in January 2013, the city hosted a public forum during which Timbrell and his business colleagues explained, in great detail, their plans for the anaerobic digestion facility, which, if approved, would be built on city-owned land next to the Ansonia sewage treatment plant on North Division Street, not far from Stop & Shop.
The facility would accept up to 50,000 tons of food waste from the area per year, break it down in the plant, and recycle it as energy for the city to use.
Click here for a good explainer story from the CT Mirror.
Here is a Valley Indy video from 2013 where Greenpoint representatives explain what they want to do in Ansonia:
Click here to download and read a transcript from that meeting.
Since then, the company has been securing financing for the project.
Greenpoint was of five companies to qualify for a loan from the state’s Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority. Back in September 2013, the Greenpoint project was approved for a loan up to $4.5 million.
Timbrell said last week Greenpoint had recently started the permitting process with the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
Public discussion of the project locally, though, hasn’t happened. The 2013 plan called for Ansonia to lease the land to Greenpoint for $1 a year for 25 years.
Ansonia would benefit from cheaper electricity rates and taxes collected on the facility once it is built.
Timbrell said he hopes to bring Tymniak up to speed as to where Greenpoint stands on the project and where the project will go in the next six months.
The Greenpoint project was brought to Ansonia under former Mayor James Della Volpe’s administration.
Timbrell said he talked to Tymniak in March about possibly having another public forum to bring residents up-to-date with the project. That topic will likely come up again Wednesday.
“They (city officials) were very keen about having another public hearing to update the public on the project and to make sure there is still support by the public for the project,” Timbrell said.
Timbrell also said the application has to be approved by the Connecticut Siting Council, the group that traditionally considers cell tower applications.
Formal public hearings will have to be scheduled by the siting council as well.
Tymniak said Mayor David Cassetti still wants to have another session between Greenpoint and the public, similar to the forum in 2013.
The city has a list of questions they want Greenpoint to answer about the project as well, he said.
