The developer, in this case BQ Energy, must either pay taxes to municipalities and school districts or sign agreements to pay a sum in lieu of taxes, or negotiate separate payment schedules.
At issue is an earlier agreement between BQ Energy and the city that leaves the schools out of a 15-year payment plan. That still does not sit well with Paul Hashem, superintendent of schools at the time the deal was negotiated.
He felt, and still feels, the district was deliberately left out of negotiations when Lackawanna Mayor Norman Polanski signed the original Steel Winds deal.
The controversy began with the eight wind turbines occupying the grounds of the abandoned steel mill. Steel Winds I generates up to 20 megawatts of electric power and per the original agreement, signed Dec. 19, 2005, developer BQ Energy pays Lackawanna - the only benefactor of the agreement - $100,000 tax-free every year for 15 years.
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