Kudos to the City of Mount Vernon for extending their solar power options.
Years ago, Lisbon and Mount Vernon went with an offering from Red Lion Solar to install solar panels on a few city buildings, and at the back of most Lisbon council packets it reflects the amount of energy those panels are offsetting for the city properties where they collect energy.
Most of those panels are on roofs or places that aren’t more obvious, however, so even though the cities have made that investment, it’s something you might not know about if you weren’t looking for it.
With the panels at the Lester Buresh Family Community Wellness Center, the City of Mount Vernon will be making a statement about the importance they see in saving electricity for the city with these panels.
A chunk of the panels at the Buresh Center will be ground mounted panels. They’ll double as partial shade for some cars lucky enough to park under them as well as generating solar power that will offset the costs of some of the electricity utilized at the fitness center, which offers members almost around the clock access.
Yes, there are questions and concerns that are still being worked on by the board of adjustment and the city attorneys, those fine line dotting of I’s and crossing of T’s, but as council members Stephanie West and Scott Rose noted – this is a plan that makes sense and reiterates the importance of renewable energies and does so in a very public way. That effort to expand the panels to more city properties should be commended, even as the city squares that with trying to make this look aestethic and serve dual purposes.