The Logansport City Council voted unanimously in a special meeting Friday night to close the door on the power plant project a majority of the council has supported since it was announced in November 2012.
Last week Mayor Ted Franklin said in a letter to the council that the company he’s been negotiating with since early April, SGP Energy LLC, was no longer interested in investing in the community. Earlier this month, attorney Jim Brugh, who has been appointed by the incoming administration as the attorney for the utility service board starting January 1, filed a motion with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management that would halt the test-burning of the pellets at the current generating plant. According to documents that accompany a Dec. 17 article in the Pharos-Tribune, LMU filed a request for a one-year extension of the January 31, 2016 compliance date on September 24, several days before a September 30 announcement by the mayor that agreements with SG Preston had been reached.
The Council and Utility Service Board held special meetings in October 2015 where they voted to approve agreements with S.G. Preston, but at the request of the company, the Board of Works held off on their vote on October 20. The council held a special meeting at 5 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 18, 2015. The mayor was not in attendance. Council president Joe Buck, who led the meeting in the mayor’s absence, said that Mayor Franklin was on an already-scheduled business trip.
Buck read the mayor’s letter to the council and Councilman Bob Bishop read a statement he had prepared, both citing Brugh’s legal challenges as reasons for terminating the project.
According to Resolution 2015-38, which the Logansport City Council passed unanimously on Dec. 18, 2015, the escrow funds were not deposited by the Oct. 15, 2015 escrow deposit date.
Over the last four years, according to figures obtained from the Clerk-Treasurer’s office, the City of Logansport had spent more than $2.3 million on consultants and legal fees as of March 31, 2015.
Per an April 7, 2015 press release from the mayor, “the City of Logansport is currently under contract to purchase its electric supply requirements from Duke Energy through December 31, 2018, and is not required to provide notice of future intent with regard to electric supply requirements until December 31, 2016.”
The Logansport Utility Service Board will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 22 for their monthly meeting. The agenda includes an update on the power plant project, under the Superintendent’s report. An executive session, which is not open to the public, is set for 6 p.m. and will continue after the meeting if necessary.
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