By Kim Siebert MacPhail
Because the Green Communities program has increased his department’s workload by about eight hours a week, Facilities Director Richard Jones received approval from the Selectmen Monday night to enter into an agreement with the Town of Arlington for a shared, part-time Energy Manager.
Bedford became a Green Community in the spring of 2010 when the town adopted five energy-saving criteria, including the building Stretch Code, an energy-efficiency program that targets commercial and residential design and construction. When Bedford became a Green Community, it received a grant of just over $148,000 from the state for energy-related projects.
The Energy Manager will work one day in Bedford and two days in Arlington each week. His/her duties will include: collection of data to fulfill Green Communities grant reporting requirements; collaboration with town and school building occupants to identify energy saving strategies; monitoring energy use; tracking fuel prices; looking for more grants or savings opportunities; and preparing for the next increase of Stretch Code and Green Community requirements.
“The Green Communities are entitled to apply for follow-up grants,” said Director Jones. “The Energy Manager could put together and file the application for that….I’m looking for a generalist, an administrative-type person, someone who will help us implement the energy-savings plan. Arlington is looking for a person with the same skill set.”
Jones says that he is comfortable with the technical aspects of energy efficiencies. He adds that the utilities companies are helpful with technical resources. For these reasons, he is not looking for either an engineer or technical person.
Bedford will get a say in who is hired, but the Energy Manager is technically Arlington’s employee.
The total cost to Bedford for this shared employee is $24,406.49. The Schools will absorb 70% and the Town will cover the remaining 30%. On the Town side, the portion of the Energy Manager’s salary will be covered by an expected $16,210 in savings from projects to be completed over the next few months. The project with the most significant savings involves retrofitting of energy efficient lighting at the DPW building on Great Road.
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It absolutely does not mean that. Richard’s efforts so far have resulted in energy cost savings that far exceed the cost of this employee. That doesn’t even account for the grant that Bedford was awarded after becoming a green community. This seems like a small investment to make to achieve a huge financial savings. This is not only beneficial in terms of the environment; it is a smart financial move. Richard has already gone above and beyond to save the town money, in addition to of all of his other responsibilities. I’d prefer to pay someone a small amount to continue to save the town money so I don’t have to pay more property taxes, or see cuts to the schools or some other important town resource to support unnecessary energy costs.
Does this mean all the energy savings we were expecting to get already will then be used to pay for this person? I would think that are DPW and Facilities staff are already familiar and paid to ensure we spend our money for energy most effectively. Did any one let the town know that when they went for Green Program status that the work load would cause us to hire someone just to fill out paperwork for other agencies?