CCS Awarded $50,000 Energy Efficiency Grant
Town of Charlotte Awarded $25,546
by Nancy Wood
April 8, 2010, page 1.....

CCS will receive a $50,000 energy efficiency retrofit grant, and the Town of Charlotte, a grant of $25,546, according to the Clean Energy Development Fund’s (CEDF) March 29 announcement. CEDF awarded a total of 147 grants to schools, towns and cities for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects across the state.
Lynne Jaunich, chair of the CCS Board, said that the $50,000 energy efficiency retrofit award, “will be used to improve the proposed lighting plan for the 1949 building beyond what the $2.8 Bare Necessities would allow. The grant will allow for an energy efficient lighting and control system to mesh with the actual occupancy of the building. This grant is in addition to the $5,941 incentive amount that Efficiency Vermont will offer us toward the energy-efficient lighting plan.  This was offered based on their estimate of our project costs and the associated energy savings. One step closer (in a very long journey) to increasing efficiencies in the school and looking for alternative funding other than the property tax.”
The town was awarded an energy efficiency retrofit grant of $25,546. The town Energy Committee, with the approval of the Selectboard, wrote the grant proposal. According to Suzy Hodgson, chair of the Energy Committee, “The grant for the town will be used to weatherize the Town Hall including improving the building envelope and the building controls with energy savings of at least 20% (according to the recent energy audit).  This is a great opportunity to make energy reductions, reduce greenhouse gases, and save the town money in building operating costs.”
The grants require a 10% match, which can be in-kind, according to Hodgson.
The CEDF was created under Act 74 by the Legislature in 2005 to increase the development of renewable energy and combined heat and power technologies. In 2009, Vermont received $31.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy under the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) for Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants (EECBG) and State Energy Program (SEP) grants.
Nine other communities in Chittenden County will share a total of $243,000 in EECBGs distributed by the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission. The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program in the U.S. Department of Energy was created by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) as part of the 2007 energy bill.