A proposal for what to do with Springfield’s power plant could be announced in November. The plan would follow a report from the spring recommending the city shut down three of its four coal generators.
Springfield residents from wards 5 and 6 asked questions about crime, homelessness, the future of City Water, Light and Power, and Pillsbury Mills at a meeting Monday night.
Terry Young, with the Trevi Garden homeowners association, said he attended to ask what city officials are doing to address homelessness and what the plan is for the coal plant.
“It’s always been about the number of employees that’d be displaced [at the coal plant],” he said. “The sooner they can come up with a plan to put those employees in other jobs without displacing them, and allowing attrition and retirement to take care of the headcount – I think that would be a move in the right direction.”
CWLP Chief Engineer Doug Brown said because of environmental regulations that are set to take effect over the next few years, it’s not a matter of if they’ll shut down the coal generators, but when.