MAMAKATING — The Town of Mamakating’s electric bill could go down, according to Independent Contractor Art Meier of Meadow in Callicoon, if Mamakating enrolls in a local solar farm. He also stated that residents will get an up to 5% discount on both the supply and delivery portions of their electric bill should they enroll.

Town Supervisor Michael Robbins emphasized that this offer was open to the Town of Mamakating residents as well as the local government.

“There’s about 1,600 solar farms in New York. Most likely it’s coming from that area to here [in Mamakating],” stated Meier, when asked about local area solar farm involvement.

According to a flyer handed out at the meeting, the program is part of NYSERDA’s NY-Sun initiative, which encourages New Yorkers to participate in solar energy without needing to install any panels on their own property.

“When the solar farms are built they give electric to the electric company the same way other energy supplies do like gas, hydro, [whatever] it is,” Meier later told the Democrat. 

He stated that when one enrolls in this solar farm (as NYSERDA set it up) the electric company is mandated to share their savings with the consumer.

“If you enroll, it is guaranteed savings on your electric bill,” Director of Meadow  Dan Green told the Democrat. 

For enrollment, one can contact Art Meier by phone at 845-500‑1135, or by email: meierenergymanagement@gmail.com

Robbins explained to Meier  that the board was going to discuss the matter some more but invited interested attendees to talk with Meier more about his programs following the meeting.

Another Flea Market?

Beacon Flea Market organizer Emma Dewing looked back on Mamakating’s recent 5-week Flea Market run last month, particularly describing the weather as “fantastic.”

Dewing stated that she liked vendors coming up from Beacon under the goal of making it look like a “viable point of destination.”

“Towards the end of the five-week period, I was actually getting vendors coming out from the local area, which is really exciting,” noted Dewing. “Everyone was very keen and said ‘Wow, we really need something like this.’  They all seemed to know somebody who had a barnful of stuff.”

Dewing was really “encouraged” and plans to possibly do this again next year with further discussion as she’s all in, to which Robbins agreed.

“I think the board feels the same way. We had no complaints and no problems. [Everything] was left clean and spotless,” stated Robbins. “Everyone we’ve heard from said it was great to have fun seeing a lot of stuff. I know we talked about some questions about next year’s contract and we will take care of all that stuff. It would be great to have you [Dewing] back.”

Robbins’ remarks were met by collective applause from meeting attendees.