WEST BRATTLEBORO — From 2010 to 2016, the town of Brattleboro's heating fuel costs rose by 16 percent, not including inflation.
With the methodology used to arrive at this figure, adjusting to FY2016 prices and FY2016 weather (in heating degree days), apples are compared to apples.
Said another way, the town, adjusting for weather differences between years, purchased 16 percent more heating fuel in FY16 than in FY10.
On Dec. 20, the Selectboard voted 3–2 not to include recommended energy-saving measures (ESMs) in the parking fund budget for the remainder of this fiscal year.
These ESMs were related to improving the Transportation Center through air sealing, switching to a wood pellet boiler, upgrading the system controls, and installing window quilts and insulating walls. They came as the result of a very thorough and very professional building audit, and they could have - based partly on the price of oil - resulted in up to $11,000 in yearly savings, with the changes effective for 15 to 50 years.
The town also lost an opportunity to lower use of fossil fuels. Using wood for heating also helps the local forestry economy and helps keep those forests healthy through use of the waste wood in them.
The Parking Fund had some accrued monies, enough to cover both the ESMs and the needed resurfacing of the Harmony parking lot, but not for needed resurfacing of the Harris and Preston lots at the same time. The alternative was to redirect these dollars toward resurfacing of all three parking lots this fiscal year and leave out the ESMs for the Transportation Center.
Selectboard Chair David Gartenstein and member David Schoales voted for a budget that would include the ESMs, while the other three Selectboard members did not.
Kate O'Connor and Dick DeGray - both of whom clearly work hard to better our downtown - opposed the measure, as did John Allen, whose service clearly shows he cares a great deal about the town.
O'Connor justified her vote by saying these funds should all go to parking lot maintenance/upgrades, not mentioning that a lot of these funds always go toward paying off the parking garage debt and other annual costs. The argument that upgrading the Transportation Center with the ESMs would save substantive money every year did not sway her vote.
Allen simply said he did not believe in wood heat. That the Brattleboro Area Middle School and Brattleboro Union High School have been heated by wood fuel for more than a dozen years, saving many thousands of dollars in the process, did not seem to factor in his thinking.
Was he also ignoring the 40-plus other schools throughout Vermont that are heated by wood fuel? And the state capitol complex and much of downtown Montpelier, and Middlebury College and Green Mountain College, to name just a few examples?
We've sent more carbon into the atmosphere in similar proportion to the increased amount of fuel we have consumed since FY10.
No matter which perspective worries you more, the Selectboard has voted to continue these trends.
Can we ask for a different decision next time, or will it keep being put off?