County engineer outlines methodology behind $6M construction projection for Jersey Valley project

County Engineer Aaron Martinez told the Lander County Commission that staff developed two spreadsheets to estimate municipal impacts tied to the Jersey Valley Solar and Storage Project: a two-year construction-period projection and a 20-year projection intended to cover the full abatement period.

"We looked at the construction period being within 2 years... and so when you're looking at the 2 year projection cost, it was to assume that the construction period and that impact that comes from that construction would occur across that 20 year spectrum," Martinez said. He said the two-year construction impact used in the analysis was approximately $6,000,000, and that the county extrapolated that figure across the longer horizon because no agreement with the applicant limited the project's duration.

Martinez said the construction values were based on typical contractor rates that the county sees when hiring outside firms. Staff made the two spreadsheets—one capturing the two-year impact and another showing the longer-term projection—available to the commission and offered to provide copies to members of the public digitally or in hard copy on request.

Commissioners used Martinez’s methodological explanation as the basis for findings later recited in a motion that referenced two-year and longer-term county cost figures during a vote to deny the tax-abatement application.