Usually receiving large sums of money in a back lot is a dubious move for a mayor to make, but not when that money is coming from the governor.
As the Legislature hammered out the details of the energy bill Wednesday, Gov. Peter Shumlin was across the street at the state’s biomass heating facility behind the Department of Motor Vehicles where he presented a $1.75 million check to Montpelier Mayor John Hollar.
The money is intended to help Montpelier pay for renovations to the heating plant. While the state is responsible for an efficiency upgrades to the plant, the city of Montpelier plans to run pipes from the plant that will heat downtown buildings that house many of the city’s businesses.
The $20 million project is roughly split between the federal government and state sources. The Capital Bill allotted $7 million along with $1.2 million of in-kind services from the state’s Department Buildings and General Services.
“This plant and this project is unusual,” Shumlin said. “It is a project between municipal, state and federal government, and the best example of what we can do together to ensure that we have a clean, green, energy future that creates jobs for Vermonters.”
Federal funding is coming mainly from the Department of Energy, which has budgeted $8 million to the project, but money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), funneled through Vermont’s Clean Energy Development Fund (CEDF), will also benefit the project.
All of the $1.75 million is coming from the CEDF – a $1 million grant (the last CEDF grant out of $22 million in federal stimulus money) and a $750,000 loan. Montpelier voters also promised $2 million to the project.
Andrew Perchlik, executive director of the CEDF, said he would like to see the fund take on the role of facilitator in renewable energy projects like this one.
“Not only did we provide some funding,” he said, “but we played a critical role when the project was having some problems: The state and city were able to come to the CEDF and the CEDF board and say, ‘We need a little more funding here, some other help.’ But we played a role that I hope that we play more which is kind of a coordinating role.”
Hollar said the money would help Montpelier serve as an example for other communities to follow.
“We think Montpelier can be a showcase for other communities in the use of renewable energy to heat its downtown business district,” he said. “It’s also a very fitting use of federal stimulus money. Our downtown business owners have the opportunity to benefit for decades to come from a stable, low-impact source of renewable energy to heat their buildings.”
The plan is still under review by Montpelier officials, who are in the process of finalizing cost estimates for the project, but Hollar said the city would go ahead with the plan unless the estimates came in unexpectedly high.
The city plan to add in-ground piping from the plant to Montpelier buildings has already been scaled back. It originally included Montpelier High School, west of the biomass plant, Hollar said. With most of the project expanding the plant’s reach east, the city deemed the high school expansion wasn’t financially viable.
