Port Jervis school board approves environmental review clearance and awards contract for solar field

PORT JERVIS, N.Y. — The Port Jervis City School District Board of Education approved an environmental‑review clearance and voted to award a construction contract for a planned solar field during a special meeting called to meet statutory timing requirements.

Speaker 1, an unidentified speaker in the record, told the board the special meeting was required because two resolutions tied to the environmental review must be spaced at least 30 days apart. "The first one was November 18, and our next board meeting was December 16. So therefore, we didn't meet the 30 day criteria," Speaker 1 said, and noted that notices had to be sent to the Town of Deer Park, Orange County planning authorities and the DEC before the district could finalize a construction contract.

The board voted to approve the environmental‑review resolution (Item a) by voice vote with no opposition recorded. The approval satisfies the timing requirement the board identified and clears the way for the district to contract for construction of the solar array.

On Item b, the board voted to approve a contract with a company identified in the meeting as Renova Solar (the record also refers to the name "Renovus"). Speaker 1 described Renova as an experienced installer, saying, "They did the big field that's twice as big as ours up at Main," and noted Hunt Engineering of Rochester had previously been approved as the project's engineer. The speaker said the effort to advance the project had taken nearly two and a half years.

The motions on both the resolution and the contract were moved and seconded in the meeting; the record names Bill and Michael in association with the SEQRA resolution motion and Joe and Donnie in association with the contract motion. The votes were taken by voice and were recorded as "Aye" with no opposing votes noted; no roll‑call tally was recorded in the meeting transcript.

The board closed the special meeting and scheduled its next regular meeting for Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, at 7 p.m. in the Board Meeting Room at 150 Pike Street. The meeting adjourned at approximately 5:19 p.m.

Notes: The transcript refers to the environmental review as "SECRA"; this article uses the standard local-government term State Environmental Quality Review (SEQRA/SEQR) to describe the statutory review process typically required in New York. The contractor name appears in the record with two variants; the district record should be consulted for the official contract name and spelling.