The Town is touting its efforts to reduce energy waste in municipal buildings. This year, $250K in improvements were made in Town facilities. The efforts were funded through the state’s Green Communities program. More projects are slated for the coming year.
[Editor’s Note: This is just one of several accomplishments the Town is proud of this year. Stay tuned for another post rounding up highlights from Town departments.]
Three of the four projects were for weather stripping, air Sealing and insulating of Southborough schools. The details are in the announcement below.
Southborough Takes Action To Address Climate Change.
In 2016, at the urging of Southborough’s Green Technology committee, the Board of Selectmen and Town Meeting took action to have Southborough certified as a Green Community by the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources. Meeting the five (5) criteria for qualification made Southborough eligible for clean energy grants. The grants are provided to help communities lower energy consumption; reduce carbon emissions, and shrink operating costs associated with municipal buildings. Since certification, Southborough has received a total of $392,865 in funds through the Green Communities program.
Southborough’s Director of Faculties, John Parent, has actively promoted Southborough’s participation in this program. In 2018, Mr. Parent submitted application for and received $250,000 in competitive grant funds on the town’s behalf. These funds were used toward financing four (4) energy saving projects that are projected to provide annual savings of $14,374. As three of these four projects were carried out within Southborough’s schools, Mr. Parent wanted to express his sincere gratitude to Bryan Fantony, Facilities Manager for the school side of operations in Southborough, and his staff for the assistance that they provided during project implementation.
The four 2018 projects completed are:
Project 1: Weather stripping, Air Sealing and Insulating of the Southborough Trottier Middle School (Total Project Costs: $62,860.74)
Project 2: Weather stripping, Air Sealing and Insulating of the Southborough Neary Elementary School (Total Project Costs: $78,034.62)
Project 3: Weather stripping, Air Sealing and Insulating of the Finn Elementary School (Total Project Costs: $99,696.11)
Project 4: Premium Efficient Motor Replacement and Installation of Variable Frequency Drive at the Southborough Library (Total Project Costs: $9,713)More projects are on the drawing board for 2019 further helping the town to reduce energy consumption.
Would you like to get in on this act and save money and energy at home? There is a similar program called Mass Save that helps homeowners evaluate the energy efficiency of their residence. You can contact them at (https://www.masssave.com/en/). Sign up for a free energy assessment of your home. They have programs to deal with energy loss issues found during the assessment. Don’t be cringing every time you hear the heat kick in.
