{news} Joshua Broekstra in Meriden Record-Journal

[David Bedell]

Joshua appears to be the only candidate opposed.

http://www.record-journal.com/articles/2005/11/02/news/news01.txt

Was Meriden power plant a mistake? Incumbents stand by their decision

By Bill Yelenak, Record-Journal staff

MERIDEN — A majority of City Council candidates believe that the half-built 
power plant on Cathole Mountain will be completed and, despite the project’s 
problems, the plant has benefited the city.

During interviews this week, all of the candidates who were on the City 
Council in 1998 said they still support the decision to amend zoning 
regulations to allow the power plant.

Mayor Mark D. Benigni and City Councilors Joseph Ferrigno Feest, Brian F. 
Kogut, Michael S. Rohde, Walter A. Shamock Jr. and Anthony D. Tomassetti all 
supported the zone change.

At large City Council candidate Joseph J. Marinan Jr., who was mayor at the 
time, also still believes it was a good idea to have the Power Development 
Co. of Boston and El Paso Energy of Houston build the 544-megawatt plant. 
But he has not been involved since those two companies sold the plant to 
power giant NRG Energy Inc. in 2001, he said.

“When NRG bought out PDC, my involvement with the whole plant ended,” said 
Marinan, who called himself “one of the individuals that was key to bringing 
it to the city of Meriden” during the 2001 mayoral debate. “I had no role in 
the current deals.”

Benigni, during the same mayoral debate, said the power plant “obviously is 
a great deal for the city of Meriden.” The mayor stood by those comments 
this week, because of the more than 300 acres of surrounding land to which 
the city is entitled and a $111-million tax agreement between NRG and the 
city.

“The city’s recouped over $11 million in tax payments, and we’re 
anticipating a significant land donation,” Benigni said. “I think someday, 
because there’s a need for energy and power, I do see someone coming in and 
utilizing that property and that structure as a power plant.”

NRG spokesman Jay Mandel said this week that additional equipment was being 
moved off the site as part of the sale of the power plant’s turbines.

“It’s just the equipment that’s being sold with the turbines,” Mandel said. 
“I don’t have specifics on what the actual equipment is.”

NRG remains committed to the project, he said.

Kogut and Feest, along with Majority Leader Stephen T. Zerio, make up the 
City Council’s ad hoc power plant committee.

“We’ve gotten a significant amount of tax revenue, and we’re going to get a 
significant amount of land for the taxpayers,” Kogut said. “Two or three 
years from now, we expect an operational plant.”

The plant’s owner is current on its taxes and the state attorney general is 
leading a court battle to have transferred the more than 800 acres promised 
to Meriden and Berlin.

“If Enron did not happen, the city of Meriden would have a power plant 
working up on top of that mountain,” Feest said. “The only thing that would 
be different is the power plant would be up and running. We’ve gotten all 
the money we’re supposed to get up to date.”

Others on the council at the time — Rohde, Shamock and Tomassetti — all 
still believe the plant is beneficial for the city. Shamock called the deal 
a “home run.”

“If (a plan) came to the council again to obtain $11 million from any 
business, I’d definitely vote for it,” Shamock said, referring to how much 
money the city has received under the tax agreement to date.

“I eventually see it online and being a major taxpayer in the city,” Rohde 
said.

Tomassetti only wishes the plant had been completed before the energy market 
collapsed.

“It’s too bad we didn’t move quicker on it in the beginning and the thing 
would have been up. That’s history. You can’t move backward, you’ve got to 
move ahead,” he said.

Clermont, the only council incumbent who wasn’t on the legislative body when 
the zoning regulations were changed, said he did not think the power plant 
was a bad idea, but he is unhappy with its location near Meriden’s Hanging 
Hills.

“To compromise that much open space and to compromise the view of the hills 
for the tax revenue just doesn’t seem worth it,” he said.

His opponent in Area 4, Democrat David Salafia, wants to make sure the city 
receives the land it’s owed.

“We need to recapture the land that’s owed us, that’s for sure. That’s in 
litigation now,” he said. “We need to fight for it and do everything we can 
to get those acres. We really need to get that.”

At large candidate Trevor Thorpe has a special connection to the project, he 
said, because he lives near the site. The transfer of the surrounding land 
is imperative and, if elected, he will do everything in his power to make it 
happen, he said.

“It’s the last big tract of land in the city of Meriden; one of the last, 
but probably the biggest,” Thorpe said. “It’s really, really important to 
have that for open space.”

Both of Kogut’s opponents in Area 3, Republican Daniel Brunet and 
petitioning candidate Diane Morenz, don’t necessarily disagree with the 
decision by Kogut and the council to change the zoning and allow the power 
plant. Brunet believes the plant still has a future and thinks “every effort 
is going to be put forth in the council to do something with (the power 
plant) as quickly as possible.” As the other candidates, Morenz believes the 
transfer of the land around the plant should be the city’s highest priority.

“I think we should most aggressively go after the land,” Morenz said. “We 
should have that now.”

Petitioning candidate David Parian, a Republican, would like to see the 
plant operational.

“It would generate jobs, it would generate electricity, it would generate 
tax revenue,” he said.

Green Party candidate Joshua Broekstra differs from the others. Broekstra 
said he never would have voted to allow the plant. “I honestly feel it 
wasn’t something Meriden needed at the time,” he said.

The two other Area 1 candidates, Republican Todd Harwood and Democrat Hilda 
Santiago, both said they haven’t really looked into the power plant issue. 
Harwood, however, believes the city should help find a company to take over 
the project. “It would be a boost for the city,” he said.

Santiago said she would have to explore the question. “Hopefully, it would 
be something that does come to fruition and be something that would have to 
be good for Meriden,” she said. “But at this point it’s difficult for me to 
comment.”

While Benigni believes the power plant eventually will be built, he said the 
property could serve other uses. He could see the property cleaned up and 
used for other things, including passive recreation, he said. Because it is 
in a Planned Development District, almost anything is possible when thinking 
about what could occupy the site if the power plant falls through, City 
Planner Dominick Caruso said.

“It’s a mixed-use zone; almost anything’s allowed,” said Caruso, who 
believes the district is the city’s most flexible zone. “The best 
development would be a comprehensive approach.”

City Manager Lawrence J. Kendzior said legal proceedings on the land 
transfer are ongoing. The next pretrial meeting is set for Nov. 7.

But city officials still hold out hope that one day, the power plant will be 
completed, and the structure will help the city for years to come.

“There’s a definite need for additional power on the Connecticut grid. At 
some point in time, it’s going to make sense for someone to build that plant 
and complete it,” Kogut said. “At that time, the tax dollars are going to 
start rolling back in.”

byelenak at record-journal.com

(203) 317-2231