SOUTHAMPTON — The town on Thursday received its first official check for becoming a Green Community, some $138,000 that it will use to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions at an elementary school and town hall.
Southampton was one of four western Massachusetts towns to receive grants from the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources’ “Green Communities” initiative.
Directors of the Green Communities program met with town officials at Town Hall Thursday morning to present a total of $526,420 in the form of four giant cardboard checks — $138,595 for Southampton, $127,245 for Cummington, $130,170 for Chester and $130,410 for Hinsdale.
“We’re going to do everything we can do in Southampton here to leverage funds from the state into energy improvement, reduce our carbon footprint and reduce our energy consumption,” Southampton Town Administrator Ed Gibson said.
In Southampton, the grant will be used to install insulation in the Town Hall building, seal windows and make energy efficient upgrades to the William E. Norris school. According to Gibson, the school con sumes the most energy of any public building in town, and about $50,000 of the grant will be used to repair a furnace.
Cummington will use its money to install solar panels atop the now-defunct Berkshire Trail Elementary School to power other municipal buildings, Planning Board member Judi Bogart said. Other will go toward future energy efficiency upgrades.
To apply for grants that offset the cost of energy efficiency upgrades in public buildings, towns can sign the DOER’s community compact agreement and become a designated Green Community. The recognition comes with specially made road signs, the promise to reduce energy consumption by 20 percent, and access to future grants when targets are hit. If a community achieves a 20 percent reduction in energy consumption in five years, it becomes eligible for more money from the DOER.
“Those funds are only for Green Communities and are spent on energy efficiency projects in public buildings,” said Jim Barry, western Massachusetts Regional Coordinator for the Green Communities Division. Barry works with cities and towns in Hampshire, Hampden, Franklin, and Berkshire counties presenting and explaining the Green Communities program and encouraging municipalities to join.
Judith Judson, commissioner of the Green Communities Program, described the program as a win-win-win situation. Money invested in energy efficiency projects decreases energy consumption, lowers energy costs, and reduces the state’s carbon footprint.
“It has tremendous benefits for the local community, as well as tremendous benefits for the state accomplishing our goal of creating a clean affordable, resilient energy future for everyone,” Judson said. “The work you’re doing here adds up to a lot of savings across the Commonwealth.”
“The idea is to save up money for other projects,” said Jessica Ridlen, department’s communication director.
Since the first 35 municipalities were designated Green Communities in July of 2010, the program has provided more than $80 million to 210 participating municipalities, now accounting for 72 percent of the state. In December the DOER announced 25 more communities joined the compact, with Thursday’s grant recipients among them.
Sarah Robertson can be reached at srobertson@gazettenet.com.