Recently in Fuel Savings-Local Category

The Citizen Wednesday, October 8, 2008

MEREDITH — The second meeting of the Lakes Region Energy Alliance is scheduled for Oct. 22, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Meredith Community Center.

The Lakes Region Energy Alliance is an informal collaboration of Local Energy Committee (LEC) members, municipal staff, and concerned citizens working to improve energy efficiency in the region. The LECs expressed the need for a regional approach to energy efficient planning; as a result the Alliance was conceived. The regional approach will encourage energy efficient improvements across a wide range of categories, including transportation, the built environment, natural resources, human resources, and economic development by facilitating communication with other LECs.

The meeting, which is open to the public, will be driven by discussion and will provide an opportunity for LECs to share ideas and needs. An agenda is available on the LRPC website at www.lakesrpc.org. Please contact Erica Anderson at the LRPC with any questions, eandersonlakesrpc.org or 279-8171

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Union Leader    September 21st, 2008

The day a tornado tore through his town this summer, Barnstead road agent Chris Carazzo finally convinced selectmen to join a statewide public works mutual-aid network he'd been pushing.

Within days, crews and equipment from Bow, Farmington, Loudon and Seabrook were helping his own workers clear trees and debris from the 20 roads affected by the storm. "It worked flawlessly," Carazzo said.More than 100 communities have joined the Public Works Mutual Aid compact, administered through the University of New Hampshire's Technology Transfer Center. The agreement allows them to share equipment and personnel with other towns during emergencies such as flooding and other natural disasters.But such cooperation is no longer confined to emergencies. A growing number of New Hampshire communities are setting aside their traditional Yankee independence and looking to cooperative agreements to save taxpayer dollars and improve services.

Among them:

-- Three towns surrounding Lake Sunapee now share an assessor and assistant assessor.

-- Five towns in central New Hampshire recently created the Suncook Valley Regional Association; they already have saved money purchasing health insurance and are looking into other joint projects.

-- The city of Dover maintains and repairs vehicles for several surrounding communities and nonprofits, producing revenue for Dover and cost savings for the rest.

-- Four towns in the ConVal School District do cooperative purchasing for public-works contracts, equipment and fuel oil.

-- Temple and Greenville share a police department.

Unlike some regions where strong county governments provide centralized services,......

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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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The Meredith News   September 25th, 2008

LAKES REGION — A local group is working with Millard Fuller, founder of Habitat For Humanity, to field a program in the Lakes Region through which homes of elderly, poor families would be winterized in order to lower their heating costs. This might include cleaning their furnace, re-glazing windows or installing storm windows, or even insulating one or two rooms to provide a warm haven for the winter. The work would be done without cost to the families, but with the request that they give back a donation, monthly according to their ability to do so. The Fuller Center for Housing, established by Millard and Linda Fuller in 2005, has created a program called The Greater Blessings Box founded on the observation of Saint Paul and based on

the words of Jesus “In everything I did, I show you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Acts 20:35. An assisted family would receive the help at no cost or lien on their property. In return they will have a conversation with the Lakes Region Fuller Center about what they are able to contribute back into the fund to help others. Each family would be given a Greater Blessing Box with a limited number of monthly contribution envelopes to share the experience that it is more blessed to give than to receive. The local group seeks to establish a Lakes Region Fuller Center for Housing Partnership. To test the waters and discover if there is local support, they are seeking to raise $7500. Miller Lovett and several other local citizens, at their own expense, are considering going to El Salvador from Nov. 17-21 to work with Linda and Millard Fuller to build 16 houses for the poor. Of the money raised locally, $5,500 will pay for one of the El Salvador houses. More volunteers to go to El Salvador are needed. Two thousand dollars of the $7.500 goal will start a revolving loan fund for the Lakes Region winterization project. More will be needed to finance the initial pilot

project of assisting one to six local families this year. The local co-chairs of the Provisional Lakes Region Fuller Center Partnership are Kathie Thorndike and Miller Lovett. The local effort is provisional and dependent upon raising the $7500. For more information, call Kathy Thorndike at 279-4360 or email: bluehill@metrocast.net. Contributions should be sent to Miller Lovett, PO Box 1669, Meredith, NH 03253.

Checks should be made out to the Fuller Center for Housing and are fully tax deductible.

More on the Fuller Center is found at www.fullercenter.org

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The Citizen   August 19th 2008

The idea of a four-day school week as a way to save energy costs has little support on the Inter-Lakes School Board. The issue was briefly discussed at last Tuesday's meeting of the Inter-Lakes board as a possibility discussed by other school districts. Other school districts, such as the Governor Wentworth School District and Shaker Regional School District, have previously discussed the possibility of extending the school day for extra time and having a four-day week in hopes of saving money with high fuel costs. ..

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Editorial   The Citizen   Friday, August 8, 2008

The Governor Wentworth Regional School District is floating the idea of cutting a day out of school week during wintertime as a way to save on fuel costs. The district, which serves six communities on the east side of Lake Winnipesaukee, including Wolfeboro, has scheduled a meeting for Aug. 18 to get the public's reaction to this idea along with another to lower the thermostat setting in schools by as much as 10 degrees.
Other school districts are having serious discussions on how they will deal with the serious challenges higher fuel prices put on their budgets. The Newfound Regional School District, for example, figures it will need to find $300,000 in savings in order pay for the higher cost of energy and still live within its budget.
The underlying message of this trial balloon is one that is worth heeding. School districts, like other arms of government, face serious challenges as energy prices continue to rise. The proposal of extending the school day one hour and going to a four-day-a-week from December through March again directs attention to the need of coming up with ways to deal with the cost of heating homes, schools and businesses this winter, and helping those who can least afford it deal with high transportation costs. The idea is that shutting schools will save on heating costs and save workers the gas used to commute on the fifth day. On the other hand, fiddling with the established weekly schedules in schools means a great number of people would have to shift their daily lives. Working parents who find their children out of school an extra day would have to deal with finding and paying for more child care. Schools would have to figure out how to meet the minimum number of school days mandated by law. It's much easier to point out the obstacles to making an idea work than to come up with a fresh approach toward dealing with a tough problem. A four-day school week might prove to be impractical for many reasons, but the idea goes beyond the usual focus on how we pay our most immediate bills. No matter the ultimate outcome of such proposals, school districts deserve credit for being willing to look at bold moves to deal with a daunting and serious issue. There is little prospect for oil prices coming down anywhere near the level that we've enjoyed in the past. That means we all need to look at how we can change the way we live to cope with the changing world of energy

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In response to a request from the MCA askng if  the Moultonboro school district had similar plans to reduce the school week or propose other energy saving ideas, Superintendent Lancor responed as follows via email:

The topic “Potential Governor Wentworth Calendar Changes” will be on the Moultonborough School Board agenda for Tuesday, August 12.  Any changes made to the Governor Wentworth calendar impact Moultonborough Academy students who attend the Vocational Education Center associate with Kingswood High School.

Mike Lancor

Note from the MCA: A copy of this article will be sent to Bill Blackaddar, Moultonboro School Board Chair for reaction and SAU 45's plan to address this issue. The School Board next meets in Moultonboro August 12th at 7pm, Town Hall.

MCA

The Citizen      Saturday, August 2, 2008

It's going to cost a whole lot more — nearly double — to fuel municipal boilers this fall and winter. On Friday, City Purchasing Specialist Jonathan Gardner opened three bids for No. 2 heating oil and the apparent low bidder, at $3.995 per gallon, is the Fred Fuller Oil Co.The Irving Oil Co. bid $4.285 and Strafford Oil, $4.495 per gallon.
Subject to verification, the winning bid from Fuller was $1.63 higher than its winning bid from 2007 of $2.335 At the time, the 2007 Fuller price was a good deal given that the average price of heating oil in Central New Hampshire last August was $3.207 per gallon, while the high was $3.249 and the low $3.15. Fuller's 2007 bid, in fact, was six cents per gallon lower than what the city paid for oil in 2006. Those relatively good times are gone, however, and going into this year's bidding process Gardner said he had heard that prices could be twice as high. Fuller is expected to provide the city with 39,300 gallons of oil during the 2008-2009 fiscal year, which includes 3,000 gallons for emergency delivery in 100-gallon allotments to city welfare recipients.
Twenty of the city's municipal buildings are heated with oil, including city hall, the police station, the community center, Laconia Public Library, Goss Reading Room, all park houses, the public works garage and all water department buildings.