Solar Panel Project Will Go Out to Bid, Again

The township council voted unanimously Tuesday to seek new bids for the installation of solar panels at the former French's Landfill site.

In November 2010, the council awarded Pinelands Development, of Island Heights, the contract to turn the former Superfund site into a solar farm.

The initial lease agreement called for Pinelands to own the solar panel system for five years, with the township having the option to purchase the operation at the end of the fifth year. If the township did not exercise its purchasing right, it would have continued to receive 20 percent of the profits of the energy generated at the site for the following 10 years.

But officials said Tuesday that the market has changed since the original bids were solicited last year, and more companies could now have an interest in submitting bids. Pinelands, for its part, will be able to submit its bids again, said Council President Brian DeLuca.

"I'm more comfortable going out to rebid on this, personally," DeLuca said.

"With the current company involved versus what else is out there, I feel that by advertising it a little more aggressively, we might be able to get larger companies that have more experience in brownfield or solar projects," said Councilman Dan Toth.

Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis said Pinelands was planning on using a subcontractor, Aztec Solar, to install the panels. That company had been behind many similar, large-scale projects, he said.

"I don't want anyone to get the wrong impression" about the company that had previously been selected to lead the project, Acropolis said. "I don't want to give anybody the impression that this company wasn't large enough or big enough."

DeLuca said any fees owed to Pinelands will come out of an escrow account held since the initial bidding process, and taxpayers won't be on the hook for any extra costs related to re-bidding the project. Acropolis said taxpayers should benefit in the long run.

"As we move forward, we hope we get the best deal, and we hope we get more money," Acropolis said.

The landfill, a former Superfund site located between Sally Ike Road and the Garden State Parkway, operated between 1946 and 1973 as a community garbage dump owned by the Shoreland Corporation. In December 1973, the township bought the property and operated it until 1979, when officials closed the site and covered a portion of it with two feet of soil. Remediation of the property began in 1983, but the township wrangled with the state and federal governments for years on the final cleanup plan. On June 23, officials gathered at the site to before the solar panels can be installed.