At its Monday meeting, the Edgartown select board unanimously approved a request by energy committee chair Alan Strahler to allocate $132,000 of recently secured grant money toward a green community initiative that aims to increase overall energy savings and reduce the impact of climate change.
Strahler said the town had been formally accepted into a Green Community Program as of June, and is now tasked with preparing a spending plan for the grant that comes with the acceptance. The process, Strahler said, has taken a number of years. “Finally, it’s beginning to come to fruition,” he said.
The plan presented to the board followed comprehensive energy audits for 11 town buildings and facilities, including Town Hall, Edgartown School, Edgartown library, police and fire stations, and wastewater treatment and water department facilities.
Through findings of the audit, Strahler said, the energy committee has come up with 42 energy conservation measures that collectively would save the town nearly $83,000 per year.
Actions range from providing the school with both demand-controlled ventilation and dimmable LED light fixtures to replacing a handful of aging compressed air pumps at the town’s wastewater facility.
“Looks like we’re making considerable progress,” select board member Arthur Smadback said.
In other business, the select board was given an update on the town’s municipal harbor management plan by marine advisory committee member Ed Handy.
Handy said per the state’s requirements, the management plan calls for the creation of a more inclusive harbor committee, consisting of representatives of various boards and committees.
Town administrator James Hagerty explained that ideally, the harbor management committee would consist of reps from the planning board, shellfish committee, Memorial Wharf committee, and marine advisory committee in efforts to “help steer the plan” to align with the new Island-wide climate action plan, “The Vineyard Way.”
The select board voted to authorize Hagerty to reach out to town committees in order to pull in a wide array of representatives to contribute to the overall goal of the harbor management plan.
