To the Editors:

Much about the City of Oberlin’s website is not nearly as useful, functional, flexible, or up-to-date as many to which your readers have become accustomed.  However, as City Council approaches its third and final reading on two ordinances concerning the City’s participation in AMP-Ohio’s proposed new power plant in Meigs County — one rescinding the October 2007 participation ordinance, the other modifying it — I think you will find a great deal of useful information there.

Go to www.cityofoberlin.com and click on “American Municipal Power Generating Station - Documents available on-line.”  (It’s right above “Oberlin posts Request for Proposals for website re-design” — Yippee!)   You will find a treasure trove of memoranda and reports, as well the text of the two ordinances that will be considered Tuesday evening.  You will also see there some guidance as to how to weigh in with your views by mail or email, if you do not plan to be in attendance Tuesday evening.

One of the documents was posted there just this past Tuesday, February 12:  it has the disarmingly intimidating title of “Feasible Baseload Generation Alternatives for the City of Oberlin,” but I think you’ll find it much more interesting and approachable than it sounds.  Please note that Concentric Energy Advisors, the preparers of this document, will give a presentation on their findings at a work session of City Council beginning at 6:00 p.m. Tuesday, in advance of the regular meeting scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.

Two other compilations of documents, links and references concerning the AMPGS issue as a whole (not just the City of Oberlin’s potential participation in it) can be found by accessing the Ohio Citizen Action website at www.ohiocitizen.org, and via the “Air” link on the homepage of the Ohio Environmental Council at www.theoec.org.

The Council meeting is Tuesday night instead of the usual Monday because of the President’s Day holiday for the City of Oberlin.  Unfortunately, because City Hall is closed on Saturday and Sunday anyway, that means it might seem difficult to review these documents in “hard copy” until the day of the meeting itself.  However, the Oberlin Public Library is open its regular hours on Saturday, Sunday, AND Monday; so if you don’t have ready access to a computer, you can go look at them there (on a screen at very least) any of those three days – and while I wouldn’t recommend printing out the whole Concentric report, etc., the good folks at OPL will help you print out any particular page you’d like for only a nickel (black and white).