Meredith may form voluntary energy commission

Note from the MCA: We applaud this effort by Meredith. You may ask why not have a similar effort in Moultonboro? Well. citizens have suggested to the Selectmen to form such a committee and offered to volunteer. The answer........still waiting. We guess that only a crisis will force action.

MCA

The Meredith News  September 25th, 2008

SARAH SCHMIDT

SSCHMIDT@SALMONPRESS.COM

MEREDITH — The Town of Meredith is looking into the possibility of forming a voluntary energy committee to explore methods that would save energy and improve efficiency. Bill Bayard of the Capital Improvements Committee requested that the selectmen consider the establishment of such a committee. The Town of Meredith passed a warrant article in 2007, going on record to support actions by the federal government to

address climate change. Among the actions in the article, residents asked selectmen “to consider the appointment of a voluntary energy committee to recommend local steps to save energy and reduce emissions” in a vote of 127-96. “There is quite a bit of activity on the regional side,” said Bayard, referring to residents active in regional energy meetings. “The state is very active in updating their energy plan, and there’s a lot of overlap. I assume whoever is elected (to the Presidency) will be active in energy policy.” Bayard told the board that residents and a few members of Town staff were already involved in a number of dif-ferent ways of looking at energy use in the town. A committee could investigate energy analyses of each town facility, introduce anti-idling policies, and look at the town’s carbon footprint.,While noting that the,price of fuel had been coming down as of late, Bayard said that it was far more expensive than at this time last year. An energy committee could start looking at economies in saving fuel, he said. “There is a variety of different ways of doing things, some fairly inexpensive,” said Bayard. “I believe this will pay back pretty quickly - there are a lot of opportunities to save on energy.” Community Development Director John Edgar noted that with the Master Plan and census coming up in a few years, energy would likely be a new element in the plan itself. Edgar noted that both he and Town Planner Angela LaBreque served on about six different committees, but still believed that this would be an important one for their input. “Is this important enough for us to tag team?” asked Edgar. “The answer is clearly yes. There would be a staff component.” Bayard said that Meredith likely had a lot of varied expertise among its residents, and encouraged selectmen to begin advertising for volunteers for the committee. Selectman Bob Flanders said that the idea was a good one, but that the first action should be a charter to establish ground rules. He suggested that Edgar and Bayard come up with a draft charge to present to the selectmen. Moving along from energy conservation to energy demand, Flanders told the board that he was concerned about an increase in structure fires this year, with people looking for new and different ways to heat their homes and save money on fuel. He encouraged anyone considering a new heating source who had questions to check it out with the Meredith Fire Department. A danger also existed in the possibility of carbon monoxide poisoning, with certain types of heating mechanisms. “People are almost in a panic (over fuel costs),” said Flanders. “The fear is that there will be structure fires and body bags filled.”

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