- By Dan Veaner
- Around Town
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"We'd like to do something with Ludlowville, Lansingville and Myers," says Gay Nicholson, "three hamlets where it's feasible to go door to door, and where there are clusters of people. Our strategy for the door to door work is to identify community leaders, to get them trained, and then hand it off to them."
| Nicholson works half time through Cooperative Extension on a grant from New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) as Regional Energy Smart Coordinator. NYSERDA is funded from the systems benefit charge on our electric bills, which generates $150 million into the program annually. The money is used to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy with incentive programs. In Lansing she is working with Town Council members Bud Shattuck and Connie Wilcox, Gladys Brangman of the Office for the Aging, and Reenie Sandsted of Bakers Acres. Last August a group of representatives from the Cooperative Extension, DSS, Catholic Charities, Tompkins Community Action, Human Services Coalition, Catholic Charities and a Legal Aid attorney met to coordinate a list of all the programs that are available for energy assistance. The next step is for local groups to work in their own communities at the grass roots level. Cooperative Extension Executive Director Ken Schlather test drove the concept in Freeville, where he lives. He gathered together the mayor and a few other people who made a commitment that anybody that needed help installing weatherization would get it." Schlather estimated around $30,000 could be saved this winter if Freeville implemented all the energy saving measures residents hadn't yet taken. The Lansing group will be attempting this on a larger scale. They are starting with the hamlets that have densest population, but are also reaching out to churches, the Food Pantry, North Lansing Auxiliary and similar groups to help identify residents who need assistance. Two free two-hour "Save Dollars, Save Energy" workshops are being held in the Town Hall on March 20th at noon and April 4thstarting at 6:30. Participants will learn about low and no cost methods and will get a goody-bag of energy-saving items. Sub-groups of LEGS are already forming. John Greenly and Dan Broadway are volunteering to work with Nicholson in Ludlowville, where she has lived for 27 years. They have begun the door to door survey and are recruiting others to help with the project. Another group is being formed in the Myers neighborhood. Nicholson has bigger dreams for Ludlowville's future energy needs. "I've been wanting to talk to people about our energy needs as a hamlet," she says. "Back in the '80s we fought off a Syracuse developer who wanted to put a hydropower plant in the waterfall there, and divert the water away from our swimming hole and run a big electric line over our park where the kids play, and take all the profit. We'd get nothing except the negatives." "But I know that as energy supplies tighten," she continues, "people are going to have an interest in all energy sources, including hydro. Now there are smaller turbines that are less disruptive to stream flow. I feel very strongly that in terms of upstate New york we're going to be looking at distributed energy. We have a lot of regulatory laws to change in order to do this so that communities can get together and own their own mix of power sources." While the local initiative focuses on low and no cost measures, it gives the group an opportunity to tell residents about assistance programs that may be available to them. "As we do this the people who need some serious things like a new furnace, we'll make sure that they're on the Weatherization wait list if they income-qualify," Nicholson says. "If they don't we'll let them know about assisted home performance with NYSERTA which requires 80% of the median income as opposed to 50%. That is a 60% grant. So if you needed $3,000 worth of insulation and a new furnace and you made 80% or less for your household size, then $1,800 of it is free." Meanwhile similar groups are being organized in Newfield, Jacksonville, the Town of Caroline and Brooktondale. Nicholson says the purpose of the program is to take care of problems before they happen. "We are focusing our attention on fixing them. Otherwise those are the people who we have to spend the money on for heat and emergency services. It's just pouring it out the window." |
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