The city depends on the $615,131 in taxes the plant provides yearly.
Mount Tom Power Station along the Connecticut River in Holyoke.
HOLYOKE -- Mayor Alex B. Morse has asked the state for help if the coal-burning Mount Tom Power Station closes and an official said the state has a task force for just that purpose.
This comes after it was learned the plant, which has slowed operations in recent years, will be taken off line for one year in 2016.
Environmental protection groups might be welcoming the plant's slowdown, but Morse said in a March 7 letter to Secretary Richard K. Sullivan Jr. of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs that the city would suffer in loss of tax revenue and jobs.
The city also would face the tasks of clean-up of contaminants and redevelopment of the plant site, at the city's northernmost point near Easthampton, he said.
"As I'm sure you are aware, the plant's closure would present significant impacts to Holyoke ...," Morse wrote to Sullivan.
In November, City Treasurer Jon D. Lumbra and Chief Assessor Anthony Dulude said the plant provides $$615,131 in taxes each year.
If the plant were to close, the city conceivably would continue to get the $267,282 in taxes based on taxation of the plant's 60 acres, which is valued at $6.9 million. But the $347,848 the city gets in tax revenue from the plant's personal property and equipment, which is valued at $9 million, would drop if the plant closed, they said.
Morse requested help similar to what the state did for Salem, where a reuse study was done on the Salem Harbor Power Station, which is set for conversion to a natural-gas plant.
Sullivan is chairman of the Plant Revitalization Task Force that was formed to help communities deal with and redevelop such plant sites, spokeswoman Mary-Leah Assad said Wednesday.
"We are committed to working with communities to ensure that they have a seat at the table and that local concerns are addressed in the recommendations," Assad said.
Several groups have scheduled a public meeting to discuss the future of the plant April 3 at 7 p.m. at Holyoke Heritage State Park Visitors’ Center, 221 Appleton St.
The groups staging the meeting include Neighbor to Neighbor, Nuestras Raices, Sierra Club, Holyoke Municipal Employees of SEIU 888 and United Auto Workers 2322, according to a press release.
ISO New England accepted a proposal known as a “dynamic de-list bid” from the plant’s
owner, GDF Suez, meaning the plant will not be expected to run or to receive any payments from the Forward Capacity Market.
The Forward Capacity Market is the annual process under which ISO New England projects how much electricity to power the region three years in advance and then conducts an auction to purchase resources that will meet that demand. Electrical suppliers that are selected in the auction are then required to provide power or curtail demand when called upon by ISO New England.
Built in 1960 as a coal-burning electric power generating plant, Mount Tom Station was converted to oil-burning in 1970 and converted back to coal-burning in 1981.
It has been criticized as a polluter and blamed for worsening asthma rates in Holyoke, but officials have said it abides by state and federal emission laws.
In 2009, GDF Suez installed pollution control equipment that the company said cost $55 million.
In August, a spokesman said that the plant was running only six to eight weeks a year because of the poor economy and that it employed 25 people.