When you’re buying power, size matters

By Jason Dailey, Director of Public Works

Two years ago, Cranberry was paying an average of 7.68¢ per kilowatt hour for electric power. Last year it was 8.14¢. And, thanks to Pennsylvania’s slow-motion electric deregulation combined with the limited purchasing options available at the time, that trend seemed likely to continue.

Fractions of a cent make a big difference to Cranberry because, as the operator of a power-hungry wastewater treatment plant, 35 signalized intersections, and a number of good-size buildings, the Township spends hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on electricity. So earlier this year, we took a different path into the power market.

One complicating issue for us had been that Cranberry didn’t have just one electric bill; we had 83 of them. Most of them were tiny – a flashing light at an intersection, for example – and we were charged premium rates for maintaining them. Only a few of accounts were big enough to attract attention from the power company. So we decided to pool our electric purchases, not only within Cranberry’s own operations, but also with various local businesses, the Seneca Valley School District, and some neighboring municipalities as well.

Rather than following the power company’s guidance of locking ourselves into fixed rates from anywhere from one to three years – a risky idea in today’s volatile energy market – we worked through a broker who made strategic purchases for everyone in the pool at intervals throughout the year. Only this time, we had the leverage of a much bigger buyer. The result is that our average rate went down this year – to 6.89¢ – representing a savings of more than $82,000 over 2008. And we look forward to even more savings in the year to come.

Beating back bullying

By Lt. Kevin Meyer

Years ago, school bullies had to get up close and personal to intimidate their fellow students. No more. Now, with sophisticated electronic tools at their disposal, a new arena of bullying has opened. Cyber-bullying occurs when students use their cell phones or computers to coerce or harass other students, either in the form of text messages, emails, blogs or social media such as Facebook and MySpace. So parents need to be alert to those forms of abuse as well. But whether it’s the old-fashion schoolyard tyrant or the 21st century cyber-bully, the atmosphere of fear they create not only disrupts the educational process, it frequently results in lasting damage to victims.

So we were very pleased to learn that this past September, the entire Seneca Valley school system adopted the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, a program designed to identify risk factors, provide necessary adult intervention, and improve peer relations to create a positive learning environment. The Olweus program, which originated in Norway during the 1980s, has been refined and adapted to America where it is now in place at schools in every state. Members of the Cranberry Township Police Department were on hand for the program kick-off at both Haine and Rowan Schools to show our support for this important initiative.

As police officers and members of the Cranberry community, we know that the school environment needs to be a positive one for children to succeed. Bullying has no place in that setting. The Olweus program includes the formation of a coordinating committee and adoption of year-round, district-wide rules against bullying, as well as direct individual interventions. Schools which have adopted the program report a significant decrease in bullying among students, even within the program’s first months.

We look forward to working with school administrators, faculty, staff and students to see that this program is a great success here as well.

The salt bubble

By, Jason Dailey, Director, Public Works

News organizations that cover the economy frequently cite the housing bubble, the dot.com bubble, and the oil price bubble of 2008 as examples of the chaos created by rampant speculation in the market. But over the past year, municipalities in western Pennsylvania experienced a classic bubble economy of their own – one which broke this summer, causing prices to crash through the floor. I’m talking about road salt.

As recently as two years ago, there was a general balance between supply and demand. For local governments in this area, the delivered price for rock salt, which is mined most intensively in northern Ohio, was about $48 a ton. It varied somewhat from year to year, but generally within a fairly narrow band of pricing.

But then last winter, there was a price spike which caught a lot of communities off guard. Dry weather meant the rivers were low, so barges had trouble moving. Fuel costs for mining operations had skyrocketed. The previous winter had depleted the companies’ salt inventories. And so on. As a result, supply fell below demand and prices went through the roof. If a community was lucky enough to get a delivery at all, they paid the spot market price of $155 a ton. So a lot of municipalities made due with cinders and stone.

Of course, as soon as the price tripled, everybody in the mining business threw themselves into the act, so now there’s an oversupply and prices have crashed to around $50.

Cranberry was fortunate. We were able to salt away enough at $42 to hold us through the bubble and into this coming winter season. But just because it was cheap didn’t mean went through it recklessly; we made sure all the truck spreaders were calibrated properly and we kept a close eye on how much material was being used. Nobody knows where prices are headed going forward, but with our salt shed now holding nearly 6,500 tons – more than enough for an average winter here – we should be in good shape for the upcoming season.

Is Cranberry going nuclear?

In just the last week or so, I’ve had calls from several people asking whether it’s true that a nuclear plant is going to be built in Cranberry to power the Township’s electric customers. Apparently there was a story circulating at a recent meeting of a community south of us to the effect that there is a special hush-hush deal between Cranberry and Westinghouse to build a small nuclear power plant here. And the calls I was getting were trying to confirm that rumor.

Well, let me assure you that Cranberry has nothing but peaceful intentions. We do not pose a threat to Jackson or Seven Fields or our neighbors in Marshall. We do not seek a nuclear confrontation with Allegheny or Beaver counties. Nor do we plan to extract plutonium and become a rogue township – a pariah among municipal governments.

The fact is that no negotiations to locate a nuclear plant here have ever taken place. Nor are they likely to. And if they ever did, state and federal agencies would have been all over it. However, we have been in discussions with PennPower about building an electrical substation in the Township. And we hope to have more details on that later this month. We’re also continuing to expand our energy conservation measures. In the meantime, we’ll continue buying our power from plants far outside of Cranberry Township.

Growing Astroturf in Cranberry

There’s a term being used in Washington these days that refers to commercial efforts at creating the appearance of a grassroots movement when, in fact, it’s synthetic: Astroturf. Here in Cranberry, during the past few weeks, someone who apparently doesn’t like competition in the grocery business paid a firm called “SprawlBusters” to generate opposition to Shop ‘n Save’s application for a grocery store in Freedom Square. They did it using robocalls which were followed up with live calls – in each case claiming that the supermarket was unnecessary, that it was going to create traffic gridlock, and that it was getting a free ride from the Township by not paying for related improvements. I assume the goal was to pressure our Board of Supervisors into rejecting the company’s land development application to build a store.

Well, it didn’t work. And the reason is that it was a totally fraudulent campaign, full of misinformation, designed to anger local residents and make it look as though the Township was playing favorites with different businesses. The calls did succeed in upsetting some people who believed their claims. But nothing about the campaign was honest. For one thing, most people believe that competition between stores is actually good for consumers, although it’s the marketplace, rather than the Township, which will make that determination. But the developer of Freedom Square certainly didn’t get a free ride. Like every business that applies to develop here, they had to pay the Township hundreds of thousands of dollars in Impact Fees for improvements to accommodate the traffic they generate. Beyond that, the developer of Freedom Square had been required to make more than $2 million in improvements including new turning lanes, traffic signals, and so on as a condition of building there in the first place.

Cranberry Township approaches development differently than most. Our Board believes that development should pay for as much its own impact as the law allows, upfront. Many other communities end up ‘giving away the store’ to secure development. In fact, one of the most frequent comments we get from developers is how extensively we require them to mitigate the impact of their proposed development. They have a point. And Shop ‘n Save may be one of the best examples. But to say that they’re getting a free ride is ridiculous. It’s crabgrass.