WATSEKA, IL. (ECWd) –
This article provides an update on the Ford-Iroquois Public Health Department’s solar panel project. We reported on this bid-rigged project in April of last year (click here), and recent forensic audit results confirmed it (here). From the Paxton-Record, an outstanding local newspaper that is quickly becoming the go-to source of factual news in Ford and Iroquois Counties through their in-depth investigative research into actions of local public bodies…
PAXTON — When the Ford-Iroquois Public Health Department installed solar-panel systems on its offices in Paxton and Watseka in winter 2011, the agency’s administrator said he expected the savings on electricity bills to “completely pay off the cost of each system” in “just seven to eight years.”
Nearly 2 1/2 years later, the agency has realized some benefit from the “green” energy, but it has a ways to go to reach former Public Health Administrator Doug Corbett’s goal.
A Paxton Record analysis of electricity bills for each of the health department’s offices from January 2010 through December 2013 shows the agency was billed a total of $18,974 in the two years after the solar panels were installed, compared with $25,992 in the two years prior.
If the department continues to see a $7,018 savings every two years, it would take 17 more years to recoup the $67,000 price it paid for the solar panels. The agency obtained a $60,000 state grant to cover the rest of the $127,000 project.
Iroquois County Board Chairman Rod Copas, who also serves on the board of health, said the health board in February made its final $30,000 payment on a loan it received to pay for its portion of the solar panels’ cost.
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