Warner town officials are hoping this will be the year voters warm to the idea of building a solar array.
Town administrator Jim Bingham said a warrant article authorizing the construction of a 100-kilowatt-capacity solar array for $348,705 will go before town voters again this year. A similar plan was did not receive the 2/3 majority of votes needed to pass last March when residents voiced concern that the array would not yield enough energy savings and would prove costly if federal grants and a $75,000 rebate from the Public Utilities Commission did not come through.
Not much has changed from the previous proposal, aside from a cost difference: this proposal would cost about $20,000 less than last year’s proposal, according to town documents. Bingham is hoping residents this year will be encouraged by savings seen in Warner’s Village Water District, which approved an array of similar size and cost in March.
The array, which offsets the electrical operating costs of the Warner Village Water District, has dropped monthly energy costs from $1,800 to $180 since its midsummer construction, Bingham said. The cost of the array was offset by USDA Rural Development grants, and Bingham said Warner would also be eligible for state grants.
If approved, the array would be built near the highway garage and would directly impact that building’s meter. Bingham said the array would also serve as a revenue stream because Eversource would purchase excess energy.
Otherwise, there is little new in the drafted 2017-18 operating budget, which is projected to increase around 1 percent from last year’s budget of just below $3.04 million.
It’s a figure that is in line with the town’s previous increases, Bingham said. Since he became administrator in 2013, he said, the operating budget has increased around 1 to 2 percent each year. This year’s budget is 2 percent higher than 2015’s $2.9 million budget, according to town documents.
Insurance, a line item that is seeing increases around the state, will stay relatively flat this year after having switched insurance carriers last year, Bingham said. He said the town was facing a $35,000 increase in premium costs, but changing carriers meant insurance costs increased by 3.4 percent this year instead. Costs have also been kept low by the town having a good public safety record, meaning lower worker compensation rates, Bingham said.
Investments in the town’s electricity usage has also yielded results. Bingham said the town put LED lighting in three of its most-used buildings – the town hall, the police building, and the highway garage – which he said has dropped electricity costs by a few thousand dollars.
The budget committee will meet at 7 p.m. on Thursday at the town hall.
(Caitlin Andrews can be reached at 369-3309, candrews@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @ActualCAndrews.)