A not-your-everyday feature on Monday’s Marion Energy Management Committee agenda was the Town Administrator’s Energy Reduction Plan.
Only without agenda author Christian Ingerslev – the chairman was away and unable to attend the November 27 meeting – the committee was at a loss to define the item. However, rather than bypass it, a lively banter ensued as to whether this might mean the Energy Reduction Plan submitted to the state when the Town of Marion first joined Green Communities or a new one to be composed now that Marion has reached the state-prescribed, 20% energy-reduction goal.
“We have gone from top to bottom with just a few exceptions that didn’t seem like the right thing to do, and we’ve done new (initiatives) … We’re eligible for more grant money,” said EMC member Bill Saltonstall, further noting that he and Marion Facilities Manager Shaun Cormier recently met with Energy Source to discuss the utility company’s involvement in energy upgrades to the town’s Wastewater Treatment Plant. Those will include heat pumps and new computer/operating systems. “I expect them to write a proposal similar to the one in the (original) paperwork.”
Saltonstall reported that Cormier would also like to install heat pumps at the Police Department instead of gas heat. “I expect they will come up with a request for money for that,” he said.
The committee also revisited solar projects, but Saltonstall said there is no grant money forthcoming for those. He expects Energy Source to write up information on the projects that would be eligible for grant funding over the next three or four months.
EMC member Eileen Marum asked if the town administrator is thinking about going through buildings the town has renovated in order to “get them tighter.” She also identified the Town House elevator and shaft as energy-leaking areas.
“Whenever Shaun’s got time, they’re taking on another room or two (in the Town House) for interior modifications … right now, most of the rooms in the building are uninsulated,” said Saltonstall, estimating that the town paid between $300,000 and $400,000 for window work at the Town House. “I think it’s a lot better than it was.”
EMC member Alanna Nelson, presiding over the meeting in Ingerslev’s absence, said that an endowment to the Music Hall paid for an audit of that building’s energy profile performed by DG Services. She said they produced a good idea of what an energy-reduction plan should look like.
The Cape and Vineyard Electric Cooperative (CVEC) is representing Marion in negotiations to establish the long-planned, capped-landfill, solar project at Benson Brook, but the EMC membership that has worked so long in trying to make this happen is ironically sitting outside the information highway where it concerns hard financial figures for a power-purchase agreement on a lease program and the project’s current status.
In an update on the Department of Public Works operations center, Saltonstall, whose son Will Saltonstall is the lead designer of the new approved for Benson Brook, told the committee that while he has heard a little about the project, he thinks “they’re still haggling out budget problems.”
The EMC would dearly love to see a solar array on the new DPW’s roof, and the designed is meant to make that possible. Solar, however, is not in the construction budget and is not funded via the state’s Green Communities program.
DPW funding was approved in a May 9, 2022, vote to authorize the town to borrow $3,000,000 toward a $4,500,000, three-building headquarters that would include repair bays and office space in one building, covered parking in another and the salt shed in a third. That plan has since been consolidated to one building for operations and storage and a second structure for the salt shed.
According to Saltonstall, solar projects below a 15kw capacity, which includes most single-family homes, move with far greater ease through the bureaucratic process and get a grid connection. Therefore, the EMC has directed its attention toward smaller projects first, and the best of those is the Police Department building off Route 6 across from Benson Brook Road.
Police headquarters was described as “a nice, clean building” with ample “dead space” that would make a solar array “easy to wire” and with “enough roof space to go up to (the 15kw) limit.”
The committee is still looking at the Cushing Community Center roof and obviously, the DPW roof, as places for solar panels.
“PowerOptions wanted to make a proposal on all of these things … I’d love to see some proposals, but the first one is the Police Department,” said Saltonstall. “How much further we can go, I don’t know. We’re going to have to get a lease agreement.”
Saltonstall is working with EMC member Tom Friedman on the lease agreement, and Nelson agreed that the Police Department “is the hot spot.”
Nelson senses more progress with CVEC than Saltonstall has had with PowerOptions and Friedman with Blue Skies. The members want meetings and information that would inform their next steps.
Nelson said the town would give the CVEC a list of Marion projects and dimensions, and in turn the CVEC would come up with estimates so Marion could put work into producing bid documents.
“Because interconnection pricing is already taken care of, they should be ready to roll,” said Nelson, who added that the costs are frequently absorbed by the CVEC before it rolls around and comes back to the town. The immediate objective is to learn what the town would have to pay and when. When Nelson acquires that information, she will report back to the EMC.
As for the solar array at the Benson Brook landfill, remaining delays can be traced to lease agreements. Nelson and Saltonstall agree that for the town to approve a lease agreement, the committee needs to know more information. The town is waiting on others.
What the committee would really like is for Maria Marasco of CVEC, Lisa Sullivan of Green Communities and Town Administrator Geoff Gorman to meet with the committee and help the members tie up loose ends.
“We used to have people come all the time. I think we should overtly invite them,” said EMC member Jennifer Francis, attending the meeting remotely.
Friedman suggested that this may extend beyond draggy processes but include pullbacks and attempts to renegotiate.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if this is falling into that same black hole as offshore wind … approved by the state at a certain rate, then withdrawn as unacceptable because of the perception that they can do better,” he said.
Saltonstall said it has become easier to track the status of township vehicles because the vehicle identification number for every registered vehicle has become more accessible. Even if a vehicle is moved to another department, it has to be more energy-efficient than the one it replaces.
Saltonstall told the committee he was ready to give the Green Communities report by Tuesday, the day after the EMC’s public meeting. Friedman suggested linking to the report via the committee’s page on marionma.gov and said he would inquire on the matter with Town Clerk Lissa Magauran.
The committee will hear from Arnie Johnson, the proprietor of the Fieldstone store on Route 6. Johnson will attend the EMC’s January 22 meeting and talk about his expansion plan. Marum suggested that Ingerslev, Saltonstall, Friedman and Francis can make recommendations, given they all have solar panels on their houses.
The next meeting of the Marion Energy Management Committee is scheduled for Monday, January 22, 2024, at 6:00 pm at the Police Station on Route 6.
Marion Energy Management Committee
By Mick Colageo