The Red Hook Town Board on May 13 rejected noncompliant bids for a second community solar project and authorized a bond to move the project forward, voting unanimously on measures to re-solicit bids and to authorize borrowing for construction. The board identified the resolution that rejects the bids and a separate bond-authorizing resolution; both passed with all members voting in favor.

Supervisor Robert McKeehan said the town received some bids with contingencies (including tariff contingencies) that made them noncompliant; those bids were disqualified. "We had a bidder who had some contingencies based on tariffs... unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. You have to tell us what you're going to," he said. The board voted to reject the noncompliant submissions and to re-solicit bids with a new submission deadline set for May 27 at 1 p.m.

The board also approved a bond authorization for the project. McKeehan said the town budgeted roughly $2 million as a planning upper bound, and that the town does not expect to borrow the full amount. "We don't think we would need to borrow more than $1.82 million for this," he said, noting the expectation of substantial rebates and grants that would lower the net cost to the town. The town already has $275,000 in grants toward interconnection study and upgrades, and officials said the municipality is eligible for federal direct-pay benefits under the Inflation Reduction Act (about 30% direct pay) and possibly another 10% for qualifying low- and moderate-income participation.

Board members said the project aims to serve roughly 80 to 90 additional households at a reduced electricity rate. The town compared prior results: community solar subscribers to the first project by the firehouse paid a combined delivery-plus-supply rate of about 11.6 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared with roughly 19 cents per kWh from Central Hudson over the prior 12 months.

With the rebid schedule and the bond authorization in place, staff will post the rebid documents and accept sealed proposals by the advertised deadline. The board instructed staff to notify parties who had already pulled plans and to extend the submission window so vendors have adequate time to submit noncontingent bids. The board also authorized moving forward with bond documents to keep the procurement timeline on track.