The thinktank that is the Marion Energy Management Committee met on Monday night via Zoom to discuss myriad challenges, circumstances, and concepts. Even ideas were batted around as the town seeks opportunities to help establish itself as a Green Community eligible for additional grants to fund projects that will meet needs both short and long-term.
While Marion is engaged in various stages of projects ongoing and planned, how it goes about achieving building and repairing of facilities and properties is something the Energy Management Committee constantly ponders, discusses, and researches. When its members come together, it’s a round-the-table, round-the-world visitation to subjects that may have near or far-ranging potential impact.
Almost all of the ideas and revelations that come forth from the EMC could potentially contribute to a five-year goal being monitored by committee member Bill Saltonstall, who reported that Marion has reduced energy use by 14.3 percent in the last three years. The town needs to reach a 20-percent-reduction goal over the next two years.
“I think we have a fighting chance to get to our 20 percent,” said Saltonstall. Marion must achieve 20 percent in energy savings over the five years ending in 2022 in order to continue the grant program “so it’s important we get there.”
Part of the immediate challenge is sorting through apparent distortions in Marion’s electricity bills.
“For some reason, it appears on our street lights (that) a couple of accounts were left out of our records, so it looks as if (right after Marion installed LED bulbs on street lights) that we tripled our expenses,” said Saltonstall, who suspects that certain accounts are missing from the town’s profile.
After Marion had installed energy-efficient bulbs, Eversource was still charging on sodium bulbs, but Saltonstall told the committee that situation has been fixed.
Posing a challenge to further progress, the Community Center, previously owned by the VFW, now receives heat and electricity from the town, constituting added energy use. “No way we can shake that, it’s a Marion facility now,” said Saltonstall.
On the other hand, the town’s recent sale of property on Atlantis Avenue takes that energy expenditure off the books.
EMC Chairperson Christian Ingerslev openly hoped that energy spent at the Community Center will be offset by the reduction at Atlantis Avenue, “but heat pumps may help us also.”
Saltonstall cautioned the meeting that, while the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a sharp reduction of electricity and gas at Sippican School in the spring, that consumption will increase in the fall. It is hoped that insulation and LED lighting throughout the school will help. He also hopes a grant will come through to install storm panels on Taber Library windows.
Now that the Town House is no longer the leaky old building it was prior to recent renovations including weather-stripped windows, it has gotten “stuffy” according to Saltonstall, who thinks there is an affordable solution. A heat-recovery ventilator that would be installed separately from the building’s heating system is designed to suck out stagnant air and replace it with fresh air. Installation requires minimal invasion to the building “so it’s a pretty easy system to put in,” he said. The question will be available funding.
“We want to provide makeup air so we can have a fresh atmosphere in there,” said Saltonstall in a follow-up call.
Town Manager Gil Hilario reported having applied last week in the $11,000 grant category for a net-zero feasibility study for a new DPW facility at the site of the town’s wastewater treatment plant.
Saltonstall envisions a new, 10,000 square-foot building with waters available for a ground-source heat pump, a roof large enough to support solar panels, and a radiant floor. “We’re not trying to make this fancy, we’re just trying to make it less expensive to operate,” he said.
Ingerslev estimates that the additional costs of a ground-source heat pump (geothermal system) are returned in 5-10 years, and the life of the system is approximately 25 years.
Marion’s initiatives toward Green Community status will focus on the wastewater treatment plant itself. Citing the next round of grant funding, Hilario reported having met with DPW Director David Willett and said he would like to conduct a walk-through of the facility with Eversource, which surveyed the site on June 14. It would seem the town has come to accept the limitations on solar panels not to expand to the slopes of the Benson Brook landfill due to its steep sides.
Green Communities grants award information is expected later this summer. Existing awards must be spent by next spring, according to Hilario, who expects any awarded projects to be completed in January.
The committee agreed to recommend the parking area across Front Street from the Music Hall at Island Wharf for a vehicle charging station. The Board of Selectmen will need to approve in order to pursue a grant for installation.
Saltonstall asked whether the public would be assessed fees for usage. Hilario said Assistant Town Administrator Judy Mooney would need to determine a fiscally responsible course of action.
Committee member Eileen Marum asked what has happened to the charging stations that existed on the property formerly owned by the town on Atlantis Drive. Hilario said he will inquire. Ingerslev asked him to address the matter at the committee’s next meeting.
Police cruisers were discussed as a potentially untapped area for energy savings. Saltonstall reported that Marion saved 6,000 gallons of gasoline in 2017 by leasing hybrid vehicles (from 32,000 to 26,000 gallons). “Those are big numbers, but a police cruiser, if we could possibly get a hybrid for that purpose, it’s supposed to save 2,500 gallons of gas a year,” said Saltonstall, who told the committee he had seen several Ford Interceptor police cars bearing “Hybrid” signs while driving last week to Brunswick, Maine.
In addition to general fuel savings, hybrid cruisers, said Saltonstall, would avoid burning gasoline while idling at construction sites. Hybrids cut off when the battery is fully charged and come back on, extending engine life. Saltonstall said the hybrid cruisers will be just as hot and well equipped as traditional gas-powered cruisers. A $5,000 incentive grant he thinks would probably make up the difference in price. Saltonstall estimates that Marion buys one police cruiser per year and typically keeps them in service 5-6 years.
Citing cost as an obvious concern, Hilario said he intends to further discuss their potential with Town Administrator Jay McGrail and Chief of Police John B. Garcia.
While the four Mitsubishi Outlander SUV (seven-passenger) hybrids use substantially less gasoline than a normal SUV, Saltonstall said the vehicles were not popular with the people using them. “They’re not all-electric. You get a much better grant if you get them all-electric. That’s kind of where it stands. In another year and a half, there will be better ones more suitable for our purposes,” he said.
According to Saltonstall, Marion has no local gas stations that sell Ethenol-free gasoline. He said no local gas station thinks it will sell fast. Also called “pure gas,” Ethenol-free gas is known to work more efficiently with small-engine equipment like lawnmowers and trimmers. It is generally priced the same as high-octane.
Robert Fisher is trying to establish for the committee a database on what category of vehicles people drive in Marion, especially to establish the number of electric and hybrid cars in town. Hilario said that more data helps the town plan and that a report “perhaps every other year” would suffice.
Members of the EMC mused about the potential for a carport at the Community Center parking. The concept is that such a construction could at once support a photo-voltaic solar array (panels atop carports), give vehicles shade, and potentially offer charging stations as the town shifts toward electric-powered vehicles.
Aspiring committee members Alanna Nelson, Alex Roy, and Tom Friedman attended Monday night’s meeting but only as guests without voting privileges. It was explained to them by Ingerslev that, while the Board of Selectmen did not reject their applications to join, they did hesitate to endorse their addition without a subtraction to maintain an odd number of voting members.
After meeting with McGrail and committee member Jen Francis, Ingerslev said the most appropriate solution is for Francis make herself an alternate (non-voting) member and all new members to become full members. The completion of that process will go to the selectmen for vote. Then the new members will be sworn in at the Town House.
The next meeting of the Marion Energy Management Committee is scheduled for Monday, September 28, on Zoom.
Marion Energy Management Committee
By Mick Colageo