Energy Comm Feb 06

The Energy Commission met this past Monday. The usual host of items were on the agenda: energy management (such as turbines at CHS and the pool), clean energy and increasing public awareness of both. (Btw, there's a really good article in the Herald this week about the Energy Commission's hard efforts over the past couple of years to save both energy and money. Definitely check this out: LINK DISCONTINUED)

Specific items discussed at the meeting:

1) There was a bit more discussion about the Bethany/Cheshire clean energy competition. So that is still moving forward. The current idea is "the winning town is the first town with 3% of households using clean energy." Cheshire has 9500 housholds or so. Bethany has about 2300.

2) (If you're a parent, you may already know...) Our schools are having some serious heating problems... both Norton and the CHS library have had serious problems recently. But considering that proper fixes cost mucho dinero and take time to implement, hopefully with winter's official end in less than three weeks, we'll soon have warmer weather at hand and have the summer to address these problems appropriately.

3) The pool was an item of discussion. State Rep. Mary Fritz recently suggested to the Council that it put a hardtop (a building) over the pool. She indicated that she may be able to get some state funding... for recreational purposes... similar to the possible funding for the artificial turf. (http://www.cga.ct.gov/2002/olrdata/env/rpt/2002-R-0198.htm see "special act grants") The Commission's concern was primarily the energy bills related to the pool. And if you hadn't heard this one... the analogy I heard was that the bubble is the equivalent of a one-pane window. Could you imagine your home heating bill if your house was entirely made of a one-pane window? The most interesting thing here though was that this discussion led to a broad discussion on "how do we improve the pool?" And part of the answer was a dialogue with Park & Rec. And from what I understand... Park & Rec was talking about the pool last night. So the Energy Commission is talking about it, the P&R Commission is talking about it... I'm wondering... could there be something afoot here??

Well... if there is, I think it's good. We've got to do something. We need to try to move the pool closer to being self-sustaining... and it's nowhere near there now.

4) The town joining the "Energy Star" program was another topic. The basic ideas are to save money & energy and to increase awareness of energy-saving opportunities. (http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=government.bus_government)

Other notes:

The Energy Commission normally meets the last Monday of every month at 7pm in Town Hall. For more information on the Energy Commission, see: http://www.cheshirect.org/energy/default.html

For details on various federal tax credits that may be available to you, see: http://www.doe.gov/taxbreaks.htm

For details on the state sales tax holiday that applies to certain home weatherization products, see: http://www.ct.gov/drs/cwp/view.asp?A=1514&Q=307396

To sign up for clean energy, go to:
www.cl-p.com/clpcommon/pdfs/companyinfo/publications/new_choice_clp.pdf

Tim White
Town Council, Energy Commission Liaison
TimWhite98@yahoo.com