Authority's suitor buffs image

By Tracy Agnew (Contact) | Suffolk News-Herald

Published Monday, January 26, 2009

New York-based ReEnergy Holdings has ramped up a public relations campaign in search of support for its rejected bid to buy out the Southeastern Public Service Authority.

Company officials have met directly with city officials in Portsmouth and Franklin and county leaders in Southampton to fill them in on the company’s offer. And they have promised to do the same for SPSA’s five remaining member communities.

On Monday, they announced the launch of a new Internet site designed to help them build support and get out their information about the proposed buyout.

The Web site, www.sellSPSAnow.com, contains key points of the buyout plan, details about ReEnergy, contact information for mayors of the member communities and a link to an e-mail form for comments.

“We decided to support this initiative to create a venue for communication about our proposals and, probably as importantly, the process that the communities should be going through as they address the situation they find themselves in,” Larry Richardson, executive officer of ReEnergy Holdings, said in a phone interview Monday. “This Web site was set up just to be a communication venue for issues, and for facts.”

ReEnergy offered in December to buy the beleaguered trash disposal authority and all its assets, offering a purchase price that it said would allow SPSA to pay off most of its debt.

Under the company’s plan ReEnergy then would privatize regional trash disposal, entering into new contracts with all of the member communities, and taking on the liabilities related to the Suffolk landfill.

“We certainly believe that this is a very, very attractive option for all eight communities to consider,” Richardson said.

The offer would allow the member communities predictability and stability in the tipping fee, Richardson said, a fee that SPSA has raised several times over the years and proposes to more than double, to $245, in a vote tomorrow.

That new rate would be the highest in the nation for garbage disposal.

Richardson is attempting to reach all eight member communities and meet with them in the next two weeks, he said. He met with Franklin and Southampton County last night.

“We definitely feel that there could be a pretty wide sentiment among the citizens here in the region that they are interested in taking a different approach to solid waste management,” Richardson said. “Creating this Web site really does create a venue for communication of the issues.”

SPSA rejected ReEnergy’s proposal last month after closed-door discussions and no public hearing, saying it would impact current negotiations to sell the waste-to-energy plant.

SPSA, Hampton Roads’ regional waste disposal authority, was formed in the 1970s for the cooperation of the region on trash disposal.

A proposal is on the table at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow at the SPSA meeting at 723 Woodlake Drive to raise the tipping fee from $104 per ton to $245 per ton. Suffolk pays no tipping fees because it hosts the landfill.

---

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SHARE THIS STORY?

---