By Chris Frost
EAGLE TIMES NEWS EDITOR
CLAREMONT, N.H. — The Claremont City Council unanimously is seeking a $450,000 energy efficiency and conservation block grant.
During Wednesday’s Council meeting, members specified that local taxpayer funds will not be used as matching funds.
The motion was introduced by Councilor Spencer Batchelder .
Planning and Development Director Nancy Merrill said they’ve talked about solar energy and what they wanted to do with it, and thought the grant was a good opportunity.
“A concept paper was written that was reviewed by the Department of Energy, and they’ve asked us to submit an application,” she said.
The concept paper looks at all city-owned property to determine where solar would or wouldn’t work. Merrill asked the council to consider how the grant application could be framed
“Would this be part of community power, or would this be a private sale or private/public and give a master plan on how to do this?” she said.
Mayor Dale Girard said the grant does not have a labor match .
“Our intention is not to use city funds for the match,” Merrill said. “They’re allowing our staff time to use this match, and I spoke with Clean Energy New Hampshire to see if they would put staff time into this by holding public hearings and education, and they said absolutely.”
If the grant requires funding, she said the city will seek money from another source so it wouldn’t come from city taxpayers.
Councilor Jonathan Stone asked if the city usually specifies whether taxpayer funds will be used when a grant motion gets approved.
“I don’t anticipate we’ll be using city tax dollars for the match,” Merrill said.
Stone said he doesn’t want a bait-and-switch technique to happen that gets the city on the hook, and then someone comes back with a request for money.
Councilor Nicholas Koloski suggested they alter the language of the application.
“If we were to do that, would that affect any of the elements of accepting this grant?” Stone asked.
“We’ve already asked if we can use time as a match, and it was approved,” City Manager Yoshi Manale said.
O’Hearne suggested putting into the motion that no taxpayer money gets used.
Merrill said a match is typically 20 percent.
“In this case, they wrote the concept paper with $50,000,” she said. “It [the match] is in time. They’ve talked about it, and it would be staff time. If we’re in front of the City Council or Conservation Commission talking about this project, it can be their time, as well as Clean Energy New Hampshire, if they help us with public meetings. It’s everybody’s time.”
For more information, contact the Planning and Development Department.
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