Central Cambria, county owe millions

Overassessment of power plant forces repayment of $5M

EBENSBURG -- Overassessment of a power plant in Jackson Township has led to county and school officials owing millions of dollars to Competitive Power Ventures.

According to a tax appeal settlement, Cambria County must repay more than $2 million to CPV Fairview Energy Center over the next three years while Central Cambria School District owes more than $3 million.

County controller Ed Cernic said the county contracted an outside company -- Resource Technologies Corp. -- to complete an appraisal of the power plant in January 2020.

"There's (only) one or two of these types of electrical generation plants built. We had nothing to base that on, and that's why we hired a professional appraiser for that," he said, adding he couldn't give further details due to potential legal actions that could be taken over the misappraisal.

"We're not taking it lying down," Cernic said. "We want to be fair to the taxpayers, but we also want to be fair to the company (CPV) also."

County commissioners immediately paid $946,538 out of its reserve fund to CPV Fairview Energy Center, according to the settlement.

The county's 2024 budget does not propose a tax increase to pay off the remaining costs.

In November, the Central Cambria School Board authorized Eckles Construction Service and DRAW Collective to conduct a study costing up to $30,500 to determine the feasibility of integrating classroom space or consolidating buildings at the elementary level.

At a school board meeting Monday night, Jackson Township supervisors presented school directors with a petition opposing the closure of Jackson Elementary School, one of the district's smaller schools.

Superintendent Jason Moore said there are no current plans to close buildings. He said the board thought completing the study was a good idea to see whether there are any potential cost savings before raising taxes.

"There may not be, so we'll have to look elsewhere," he said. "The last thing the board wants to do is burden taxpayers. We have to exhaust all options before we do that."

Since the district doesn't know how long the study will take to complete and the 2024-25 budget must be approved in June, Moore said the board will also look at trimming areas of its budget that will impact students the least.

Moore said once the district became aware that CPV Fairview was appealing its assessment from the county, the district immediately placed 25% of its collection into an escrow account, which he said is "typically more than enough anytime that there's any challenge to an assessment."

"It's a pretty conservative figure because there's never really this much discrepancy," Moore said, adding the board also decreased taxes as a result of the revenue from CPV Fairview by eliminating the per capita tax on residents.

According to a list of frequently asked questions on the district's website, if board members raise the tax millage rate by 7.25%, the average taxpayer would see an increase of $108.

"I can't imagine this being a quick thing," Moore said of the study being completed by June. "It's not something that's going to be rushed. That's for sure."

State law requires school districts to hold a public hearing at least three months before a public vote to close a school building, should the district decide to go that route.

While there are no current plans to close buildings, he said the district plans to eliminate some administrative positions through attrition -- not replacing employees who quit or retire -- to also offset costs.

"Regardless of whether there's one building or two, we'll likely need fewer teachers going forward," Moore said. "That's just a reality of declining enrollment in Cambria County."

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.