DALTON, Mass. — The Green Committee is looking to improve its relationship with the Central Berkshire Regional School District. 

 

School Committee member Richard Lacatell agreed at the last committee meeting to be the its point person as it considers green initiatives that have the potential to help the school district, including but not limited to solar array options and electric buses. 

 

Central Berkshire's building and grounds manager Jason Dion and Director of Finance and Operations Gregory Boino also attended the meeting to clarify district funds and green initiatives. 

 

One thing the Green Committee is interested in reviewing is the data that shows the district's energy usage for its buildings in Dalton.

 

Although the district is not an outlier it is "pretty close" to where it needs to be for its energy usage, Dion said, adding it has a list of initiatives it has tried to accomplish to be more energy efficient. 

 

During the discussion, committee members asked school officials whether they would be interested in exploring the development of a solar array on any of the schools, most notably Wahconah Regional High School. 

 

There are a lot of unknowns surrounding the implementation of a solar array including the cost, benefit, and development route, school officials said. 

 

Depending on the route the district would choose to take there could be a cost that would require the district to go back to the towns for another debt project, Dion said.

 

The district has a couple roofs that are in need of repair so there is a potential opportunity to partner the two projects together but there are a lot of moving parts with that, he said. 

 

They would have to work with the Massachusetts School Building Authority to get back in the queue for the roofing project at the state level. 

 

Green Committee members noted that there are also grants for green initiatives that the district can apply for. 

 

In addition to that there are other options that would be at no cost to the district, Antonio Pagliarulo said. If the district decides to work with a developer, they would develop the property and own all the costs, similar to the Warren Landfill Project. 

 

The downside of this route is that the cost per watt and recovery of any profits is greatly limited, Green Committee member Todd Logan said. 

 

The Warren Landfill is selling its electricity and Warren farm gets its money from the lease agreement it made with Citizens' Energy Corp. If you have a Power Purchase Agreement you may get 10 percent below Eversource, Green Committee member Thomas Irwin said. 

 

"They have a real power advantage. If Dalton were to go ahead and create a municipal light plant for the town, then that would change the dynamics completely," Irwin said. 

 

"And yes, we will for bond issue but the money that we would get would more than cover everything."

 

During the meeting Boino and Lacatell also clarified that there isn’t $2 million of "leftover funds" for the high school project as was listed in the Green Committee's agenda. 

 

The topic was added to the agenda due to a comment made by a community member expressing thoughts on how those "leftover funds" could be used for green initiatives, Green Committee Chair David Wasielewski said. 

 

Boino clarified that the $2 million was how much the district was anticipating being under budget for the project. So, the district will bond only for funds that were actually expended.

 

The district has started the final audit with MSBA, which can take up to a year to complete, Lacatell said.