Evidence of the Tri-Town’s good fortune in brilliant citizens, mostly retirees, who cheerfully volunteer their talent and time to think their communities into a better future was on display July 28 when Marion Energy Management Committee gave Lisa Sullivan of the state’s Green Communities Program a projects tour.
“I just go out to put eyes on it,” said Sullivan, whose eyes are on 85 municipalities as the state’s Southeast Region coordinator for the program. “Marion is a very engaged community and has a very engaged Energy Management Committee. … They stay in touch with me regularly, come up with ideas. They’re very engaged in the process and really want to be a leader.”
The 250-foot-tall wind turbines that can be seen from Route 25 help provide Marion electricity at a reduced cost. Involvement in that project driven by the EMC was foundational to the town’s Green Communities status.
“The committee is responsible for this town becoming a Green Community,” said Christian Ingerslev, the chair of the EMC. “This committee is entirely voluntary; we don’t get paid a penny. We’re all keen on energy… We can’t say we manage energy, but we try to persuade…”
As Marion’s Select Board makes many decisions considering recommendations put forth by the Finance Committee, the Capital Improvement Planning Committee, and fund-raising entities like the Historical Commission and the non-government Sippican Historical Society, the EMC identifies needs and proposes energy-reduction projects incentivized by grant funding.
In joining Green Communities three years ago, Marion is trying to reduce energy consumption by 20 percent over a five-year period. Ingerslev says the town’s reduction in energy use is at approximately 15-16.5 percent after three years.
“We’ve still got to come up with some more ways to save energy,” he said, noting a plan to apply for a grant later this year that would result in another reduction.
There is no penalty for not reaching the 20-percent threshold within the five-year timeframe. “It’s a target. We are trying realistically to do it,” said Ingerslev. “It might take six or seven [years to hit the mark].”
The July 28 tour took Sullivan, Town Planner Gil Hilario, Marion Facilities Manager Shawn Cormier, and four members of the six-member EMC, Ingerslev, Eileen Marum, Bill Saltonstall, and Alanna Nelson, on visits to five locations beginning with the Cushing Community Center.
There, Sullivan and the attending EMC members got their first look at the community center’s new electric heat pump system and attic insulation.
Next stop was the main water pumping station just north of Route 195 off Thomas Lane, where the town has replaced an old oil furnace with a propane furnace. At the Music Hall, Marion has added insulation in the basement ceiling and in the attic. At the Silvershell pumping station on Front Street, an oil furnace has been replaced with a gas furnace. The tour finished at the Elizabeth Taber Library, where the group viewed the installation of window inserts between the panes of the building’s existing windows.
According to Hilario, the total payback for the toured projects is 19.7 years and will save the town $5,475 annually.
The effort to take advantage of Green Communities grand funding began with the town’s 2018 application; Marion was awarded its first grant in 2019. Having applied under the solar energy category, Marion met the bylaw/requirement and was designated a Green Community in 2019.
The Green Communities Program dates back to 2010, and 280 of Massachusetts’ 351 municipalities are Green Communities. Rochester became a Green Community in February 2020, and Mattapoisett is working toward joining the program.
“We’ve been making a lot of progress, especially in the (state’s) southeast region,” said Sullivan, whose job is to educate, facilitate, and then visit the sites. There, she inspects the work, discusses the projects with town officials, and takes photos.
At the bookkeeping end of the process, towns submit invoices and proof of payment to the state.
Towns apply for Green Communities grant funding on any of five broad criteria: renewable or alternative energy, generation (wind), manufacturing, or research and development. They are awarded a permit within a year and establish an energy-use baseline to address the 20-percent reduction goal.
At the outset, buildings, water treatment, water and sewer-related pumping, and fuel all are evaluated for potential projects that would result in reducing energy consumption. Other areas to pursue can include a fuel-efficient vehicle policy that would reduce energy on a town’s fleet via hybrid or even fully electric vehicles or adopting the state’s Stretch Energy Code that increases energy efficiency requirements in new construction.
The 2019 “designation projects” that resulted in Marion being awarded initial Green Communities grants included completion of new LED lighting and demand-control ventilation at Sippican School, and a new gas boiler at the fire station. The 2019 projects resulted in annual savings of $22,027 with a six-year payback time.
Grant funding applications are an ongoing and overlapping process, and this is Marion’s first year of participating projects in the competitive round.
Altogether, the Green Communities program has saved Marion $27,502 on an annual basis; those savings will project out over a total 25.7 years in “payback time.”
Given Green Communities’ potential for long-range solutions and badly needed modernization of aging municipal facilities, the EMC is on the constant lookout for qualifying projects that would solve immediate problems or address long-range concerns.
“We think that climate issues are something that the town has to pay more attention to,” said Ingerslev.
Marion Energy Management Committee
By Mick Colageo