Barbara Kuhl and I Have an Idea.

Barbara and I were talking this morning about my new solar panels.  (Can I call this electric power-generating arrangement my solar system?)  I pointed out how remarkably money-saving Andrew Olis said was the solar system on the next block, and my July 20-August 20 FPL bill that I got by e-mail this morning very strongly suggests that my solar system, too, will be very money-saving.  I lowered my 7/20 to 8/20 bill about $34 from last year to this year, and I only had the panels for the last week of this past month.  On the other hand, my 6/20 to 7/20 bill this year was about $40 lower than last year, and I don't know why.  So I'm really waiting for the 8/20 to 9/20 bill to come next month.

Anyway, Barbara pointed out the obvious, which has been mentioned before, and which is that the Village should have its own solar system.  The two most obvious municipal structures, because they have good-size roofs, and not much, or any, tree cover, are the recreation building and the administration building.  The Village could save a ton of money with extensive systems on those two buildings.

But solar panel systems aren't free.  They're not even cheap.  Although...I was just reminded recently that I will get a 30% tax credit (not a deduction, where an amount of money is subtracted from my taxable income, but a credit, where an amount of money is subtracted from the tax I would otherwise have to pay) for what I spent for my solar system.  So I might even have to reconsider my statement that solar panel systems aren't cheap.  Maybe they sort of are, considering that they wind up not costing that much, after the tax credit is factored in, and they very considerably lower the electric bill.  But of course, the question still remained: where would the Village get the money for solar panels?

Barbara suggested that we already have a small surplus, and maybe that would help.  David Hernandez came along while Barbara and I were talking, and he, too, wondered where a few dollars could be scared up.  But I was thinking about something else.

I assume (desperately hope) you know the Arlo Guthrie song, "Alice's Restaurant."  If you don't know it, and you don't have youtube (which of course you do), you're welcome to come over any time, as often as you like, and I'll play it for you.  It is one of the greatest songs ever written.  But don't be in a hurry, because it's 18 minutes long.  I have this song in two places.  One is an Arlo Guthrie CD.  The other is on a casette tape I got for supporting one of the public radio stations (I no longer remember whether it was the one in Miami, or one of the two in Boston).  Arlo Guthrie was in town giving an interview, and he played his famous song.  But in the public radio studio version, he added a joke.  He was talking way back then about the Nixon tapes, and the fact that something had been erased.  He said the erasure had removed 18 minutes of something, and he took the liberty to wonder what Nixon might have been listening to, that accounted for 18 minutes, and that he didn't want anyone else to know about.  It was a very good joke.

But here's the thing.  My little solar system happened to cost $18K.  It will be 30% less than that when I get my tax credit on my 2019 taxes.  Do you have any idea what we are currently and highly atypically spending for Tracy Truppman to get constant legal attention from her girl, Rebecca Rodriguez, and Rebecca's lawyer girlfriends?  You wouldn't guess around $18K, per month, would you?  Our normal legal expense, when we have normal Commissioners, is about $7K per month.

Let me know if you want to come by to listen to "Alice's Restaurant."  And let me know if you want to hear the regular studio version on CD, or you want me to try to locate the casette tape with the funny joke about the lost 18 minutes.