Page 4 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • April 25, 2012 Mahwah Police academy parking lot to get solar panels by Frank J. McMahon The parking lot at the Bergen County Law & Public Safety Institute on Campgaw Road in Mahwah will soon be covered with a canopy of solar panels that are expected to offset the cost of energy at the training facility by 40 percent. The 82-acre property includes the county’s police, fire, and emergency medical services academies, where public safety personnel and quasi-governmental, corporate, and non-profit agencies train under expert certified instructors. The institute’s high-tech facilities include the life safety complex, the 32-position outdoor firing range, and the confined space facility and smoke tower. John Cascone of the Bergen County Department of Public Works and Vincent DeMeis, an electrical engineer for Concord Engineering, which prepared the plans, recently described the project to the Mahwah Planning Board. Cascone, who is the construction supervisor for this project, advised that the anticipated $1.3 million cost will be covered by a federally funded Energy Efficiency/Conservation grant. He said the panels will generate 250KW in energy and will require virtually no maintenance. According to the plans, three rows of panels will be elevated on posts stretching from the entrance to the parking lot to the curb near the rear of the lot. The solar panels will be installed on a raised canopy that will allow parking below. No parking spaces will be lost as a result of the project. Each row of panels will be elevated up to 14 feet above the ground to allow trucks to pass underneath, and the panels will be tilted about seven to 10 degrees to permit rain and melting snow to run off the panels. The first row will contain 364 panels, while the second row will contain 429 panels. The third row will contain 520 solar panels. Construction is expected to begin by the end of April, Cascone said, and the project will take about six to eight weeks to complete. The approval of the township’s planning board was not required because it will be on county property, but the concept was described to the board as a courtesy. Planning Board Chairman Todd Scherer thanked Cascone and DeMeis for their courtesy and wished them well with the project. Good sports A Harlem Wizard recently visited the George Washington School in Mahwah to promote the Harlem Wizards versus the Mahwah Thunder game, which was held April 21.He showed off his skills and got the kids excited about the big game.