Energy Committee Minutes for April 12, 2010

ENERGY COMMITTEE MEETING
Monday, April 12
Town Hall Basement

Present: Jeff Brooks, Jim Forrest, Karen Haynes, Christa Patterson, Ann/Roger Sweet&Bob Switzer.

ARRA funding
On March 17, OEP notified Sullivan that its application for the efficient wood boiler had been approved.  Unfortunately, as confirmed by OEP notice March 18, the library grant had not been approved.  Since the latter application contained, per advice from TRC, the insulation for the garage, the committee is faced with the need to find money for insulating the garage.  The $9670 estimate for that includes:

 Carpentry  $2000 for labor  $1610 for materials
 Insulation    $  900 for labor   $5160 for materials

Lively discussion followed with ideas for raising the needed funds:
 Some from the Land Use Change tax
 Sale of extra roadside wood  (Treehuggers?)
 Funds from the town’s general funds based on evidence that the town will recoup the money from the effects of the insulation in 5 years. (Could SDES  do the estimate in the 45 minutes we have left on account?)
 Donations (at least discounts) from suppliers (Hamshaw or Perkins)
 Space out work for more than one year
Further exploration of funding awaits arrival of contract and a call to TRC to see whether there might be extra funding from that source.

Newsletter
Describe: 
 garage award and the need for funding of insulation
 unsuccessful application for library retrofitting and speak of the need to rally resources to make the library more energy efficient
 smaller efficiencies needed in other town buildings (e.g., exterior motion detector lights; capping exterior lights ; programmable thermostats)

Upcoming workshops
 Wednesday, April 28, 6-8:30 p.m. at Antioch to discuss how region can reduce its energy costs.  Jeff, Karen, Roger, Ann, and Bob will attend
 Saturday, June 19, 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m. in Concord’s Grappone Center to learn about resources for local energy committees.

Notes by Ann Sweet