Edgartown moves forward with solar energy plan

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Edgartown selectmen will meet next Tuesday with town water department commissioners to explore further the creation of a solar energy facility on water department land. Two 12-acre parcels would be needed to house an array of solar panels capable of powering all town buildings, town officials said.

At their regular Monday meeting, town administrator Pam Dolby told selectmen to expect a presentation with preliminary site locations and cost estimates.

The project, funded partly by the Cape and Vineyard Energy Cooperative, calls for selling leftover electricity back to the cooperative. “If this thing happens, it could be huge,” Ms. Dolby said. “It could cut our electric bills by six figures,” selectmen Art Smadbeck said.

In other business, the Edgartown affordable housing committee proceeds with plans to develop two parcels of land between 6th and 7th Street, committee chairman Janet Hathaway said told selectmen.

Ms. Hathaway said her committee is thinking about creating five lots out of the two parcels, which total 2.4 acres.

Also Monday, selectmen voted to sell two tiny parcels of town-owned land off 6th Street to abutting landowners. The sale will raise revenue for the town and return the parcels to the tax rolls.

The assessed value of each lot is $14,600.

The town also plans to extend 6th Street to provide access to the property and clean up junk that was dumped there illegally.

In other action: selectmen voted to advertise two vacancies on the affordable housing committee; appointed Alan Gowell as the affordable housing committee representative to the community preservation committee, and Margaret Serpa as the selectmen’s representative to that committee; and approved a pared down community development strategy used to secure federal home improvement and child care grants.