OBSERVER file photo No plans have been announced for the former Dunkirk power station, now owned by Genover.

Dunkirk’s planning and development director reiterated that Genover has no firm plans yet for the former NRG power plant property it recently purchased.

However, Vince DeJoy announced that he and Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency Director Mark Geise were to meet with Genover representatives to “kind of just throw out things and just discuss what could be there.”

DeJoy spoke at a Common Council meeting this week. He was asked about NRG’s sale of its city property by Councilwoman Natalie Luczkowiak, who called it “respectable news.” The property hosts a power plant that NRG no longer operates.

“It has been a number of years that there have been several planning studies that have occurred, looking at potential reuse of the power plant,” DeJoy said. “We recently completed one last summer…. Basically what’s happened since then, is NRG has been actively marketing the site. We’ve had several site selectors that inquired about it, including Genover — but after their inquiry about two and a half years ago, we really didn’t hear anything.”

DeJoy continued, “We knew there was some type of sale that was going to happen — we meaning myself and Geise. We were introduced to Genover’s team about three weeks ago… Genover has been doing due diligence for nearly six months on the site. They don’t have a firm project to propose at this time.”

The planning and development director said talk of a Payment In Lieu Of Taxes (PILOT) agreement for the “is premature. Because PILOTs are project driven. Actually, the assessment and taxes would remain the same, because nothing has changed.”

DeJoy added, “There’s probably $100 million worth of environmental liability, given the nature of what happened there.”

He and Geise had a meeting planned with Genover officials “for an initial meeting, and kind of just throw out things and just discuss what could be there.”

Genover is associated with developing data centers in other states, a fact pointed out by resident Melissa Zastro earlier in the meeting. “We would not be interested in any type of crypto mining operation,” DeJoy said.

However, DeJoy spoke positively of the economic investments that large, established companies such as Microsoft make in their data centers.

The New York State Legislature has just backed a one-year moratorium, which awaits Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature to become law, on approving new data centers that consume 20 megawatts or more of electricity. The power-sapping centers are at the center of a national debate about their environmental and quality-of-life effects.

DeJoy concluded with a saucy message: “All the speculators out there, have at it and have your fun.

“But there’s nothing that is firmly proposed. You know, we’re going to do our best to get the best and highest use out of this project. To be honest, that’s about all I know at this point.”