A local council of governments whose mission is the renewable use of materials is entertaining proposals from a pair of energy firms for leasing land it owns for a solar project and for potentially strip mining coal.

The Intermunicipal Relations Committee, which operates recycling programs for Altoona, Logan Township and Hollidaysburg, and which has a compost facility with lots of extra, unused ground near the Buckhorn, has been working for the past year and a half with a firm that is hoping to install a solar array; the committee also this week agreed to allow a coal mining company to conduct exploratory drilling in hopes of finding coal there that it could strip mine.

A consortium of two firms with an option to construct the solar farm is working with Penelec on an interconnection agreement.

The proposal for the solar farm would involve up to 37 acres of the approximately 475 acres at the Buckhorn site — of which the compost facility occupies only 22 acres.

The plan is for the consortium to make a lease payment of $1,600 per acre.

The committee would also receive a share of revenues earned by the consortium from selling electricity to the grid.

This week, the committee granted an option for a lease on a different section of the Buckhorn tract to RES Coal of Clearfield, which had initiated contact with the committee.

The area was previously mined, and the company wants to find out whether it would be worth remining to extract additional coal left behind, presumably using better technology than was available before, according to committee solicitor Dan Stants.

RES (Robindale Energy Services) will have 180 days to do the testing.

If RES determines that actually remining the ground is worthwhile, it would require a new

agreement with the committee, according to committee Executive Director Brock Bryan.

The committee would be entitled to 8% of the market value of the coal extracted, because it owns both the surface and the subsurface mineral rights, Bryan said.

The committee is not charging RES for the exploratory work.

The solar consortium has no problem with the possibility of coal mining nearby, according to Bryan.

The firms might even share an access road, eventually, Bryan said.

Other business

The committee agreed to sell a pair of 1995 packer trash trucks that the committee would lend to member municipalities for spring and fall leaf collections, until about five years ago, by which time all the municipalities had their own trucks.

“They’re just sitting at the Buckhorn rusting away,” Bryan said. “They’re not doing us any good.”

They’ll be placed on Municibid, a government auction website, along with items that Logan Township plans to sell, at the suggestion of township Manager Tim Brown.

Bryan estimated the trucks could fetch $5,000 to $10,000 each.

“They weren’t used hard,” said committee Chairman Jim Patterson.

The trucks might be attractive to trash haulers who work in the IRC municipalities, where packers are a requirement, Bryan suggested.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.