BRATTLEBORO — The Selectboard voted to approve the town's participation in Vermont Energy Investment Corporation's (VEIC) Quick Start program until Dec 30. The Selectboard will reassess the program after December and decide if it wants to continue the program.
PACE, Property Assessed Clean Energy, allows individual and commercial property owners to pay for energy improvements through property taxes.
Establishing a PACE district require a town-wide vote.
Selectboard Chair Dick DeGray said he and other board members felt “trepidation” over the implications of joining PACE.
Selectboard member Martha O'Connor said, “I'm concerned we're joining something with a list of questions we can't get answers to without joining [the program].”
According to Town Manager Barbara Sondag, the statewide Quick Start program is designed to help municipalities decide how to structure PACE to meet their communities' specific goals and requirements.
Answering the Selectboard members' questions would be part of the Quick Start program, said a representative from the Town Energy Committee.
“It's [Quick Start] a longer process because it's new. The policy is there but the procedures are missing,” said Sondag.