An agreement is in the works for Rochester’s participation in the Southeastern Regional Planning & Economic Development (SRPEDD) Community Aggregation, a multi-municipality “bulk-buying” Costco-of-sorts’ way of locking-in the lowest electricity rates for citizens of the now 20 towns in the group.
Rochester Town Meeting voted on May 20 to join the community electricity aggregation (CEA).
Rochester Town Administrator Suzanne Szyndlar told the Rochester Board of Selectmen on July 1 that she and town counsel are reviewing a draft service agreement provided by Good Energy, the consultant in charge of what Good Energy employee John O’Rourke once said does all the “heavy lifting” in setting Rochester up in the CEA and ultimately putting bids out on behalf of Rochester and the other 19 towns to lock-in the lowest electricity rate.
Szyndlar said she anticipates having the agreement ready for selectmen’s signatures at the next regularly scheduled meeting.
“After that agreement is all set, I’m going to schedule a hearing … at a future [Board of Selectmen] meeting as one of the requirements,” said Szyndlar.
The agreement will then be made available for the public to view during a mandated two-week period to review the plan.
All residents are automatically entered into the CEA and will not notice a difference in their electric service, aside from the lower electricity rate and will still receive just one bill from Eversource. The only information that would be different on the bill would be the name of the electricity provider. Eversource will remain the distributor and still be in charge of metering, billing, and maintenance of the power lines.
The CEA is an “opt-out” program, meaning residents who do not wish to participate are allowed to withdraw without any penalties at any time simply by calling Eversource to inform them.
O’Rourke told the selectmen back in March that the other 19 municipalities of the CEA comprised of 434,461 residences have cumulatively saved about $14 million between 2016-2019.
In other matters, Selectman Greenwood “Woody” Hartley gave vague reference to a recent resignation of an Old Rochester Regional School District employee and after the meeting identified that employee as the district’s business administrator, Paul Kitchen.
Hartley said the circumstances surrounding the resignation, which he would not elaborate on, are “very disturbing at the district level,” considering an unspecified situation as being “incredibly incompetent business management.”
“He’s gone?” Selectmen Chairman Paul Ciaburri asked Hartley surprisingly.
“I’m very concerned where that leaves us and I’m very concerned why, and I think we all should be,” Hartley said.
In that follow-up with The Wanderer after the meeting, Hartley would only say that he heard about the news from people speaking about it at a local Tri-Town coffee shop.
The Wanderer was unable to reach a representative from the Old Rochester Regional School District to confirm the resignation and for further details before this week’s early Monday night deadline due to the July 4 holiday.
The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Rochester Board of Selectmen is scheduled for July 15 at 6:00 pm at the Rochester Town Hall.
Rochester Board of Selectmen
By Jean Perry