Renovo Energy Center on Track; October 2017 Construction Date Pursued
RENOVO — The mood and reports were upbeat at Wednesday night’s open house/public information meeting on the proposed Renovo Energy Center, an $800 million gas-fired electric generating facility planned for Renovo’s old rail yards.
Speakers included Rick Franese, REC project manager. He drew a round of applause when he said project backers, once the project is built, plan to pay full real estate taxes rather than seek relief from a tax abatement program. While he did not offer specifics as to what the mammoth project might produce in real estate taxes, it is expected to generate hundreds of thousands of dollars for the three benefitting taxing entities, Renovo borough, Clinton County and the Keystone Central School District.
Franese reported that if the project stays on schedule, construction would begin in October of 2017. He said that is some three to six months behind the original schedule announced a year ago; he said environmental delays resulted in the later startup date.
Franese and representatives from the state Department of Environmental Resources provided the project update at the Western Clinton County Recreation Center. Franese said he was “very confident” the REC project will receive all the needed state permitting approvals.
It was a year ago REC backers held their first public meeting at the same rec center. One year later, Franese said, “I am very pleased with the progress in the last year. There are still challenges ahead, but there is nothing to stop us from continuing.”
Prior to the DEP-conducted hearing, a hundred or so community members circulated among some eight work stations situated in the meeting room. One informational placard said the construction time frame will now be some 34 months, as opposed to 32 months as envisioned a year ago. The same placard said there will be 900 or more workers building the mammoth facility during the height of its construction phase, estimated to be some 18 months after work begins.
