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Minutes of 1/5/2024

January 8th, 2024

Carroll Energy Commission Minutes
Minutes of January 5, 2024

These minutes of the Town of Carroll Energy Commission have been recorded by a member. Though believed to be accurate and correct they are subject to additions, deletions, and corrections by the Energy Commission at its next meeting when the Commission votes its final approval of the minutes. They are being made available at this time to conform to the requirements of the New Hampshire RSA 91-A:2.

Minutes recorded by Vernon Amirault, Member.
Commission members in attendance: Member Vern Amirault, Member Brian Mycko, Select Board Representative and Member John Greer, Vice Chair Imre Szauter (via Zoom), Chair Bill Vecchio.
Member from the public in attendance: Jules Marquis.
The meeting was called to order at 4:02 p.m. by Chair Vecchio.
Chair Vecchio invited all attendees to rise and join in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Chair Vecchio opened discussion and stated as Member Greer had requested this meeting that he has the floor.
Member Greer thanked the Commission members for meeting on such short notice. He then proceeded to explain to the attendees why he wanted this meeting as we are approaching certain deadlines for the warrant article. He stated he had only presented the recommendations of this Commission to the Select Board the previous Tuesday and he apologized stating he probably should have approached them sooner. He stated there was some concern from the Board members on not having enough information about the two options, Networked and Non Network and why the Commission had endorsed the Networked option. He then asked if there was any more information from Eversource pertaining to possible lower energy rates or other savings, except by turning off fixtures. Chair Vecchio responded with his frustrations of not getting any more information from Eversource pertaining to rates, or the Town of Bristol on how the Networked system was working in that town. Member Greer stated there was a member of the Board who felt the Commission should have put more research into the two options prior to the warrant article recommendation. Member Greer again complimented the Commission on how much work they have done on this. After more discussion Member Greer stated he had five reasons why he would not now recommend the warrant article as written:
1: He does not think the article will pass as written.
2: Too expensive.
3: He does not support shutting lights off at 4 in the morning, or any time.
4: New technology, untested, not the way to go.
5: No employee has stepped up to manage the lights under the Networked Option.
Member Greer stated he would be making a motion to recommend changing the wording on the article from 93K to 57K and if that doesn’t pass he will try to change the article at the Deliberative session. If neither of those recommendations pass the warrant article will go to the voters without the support of the Select Board. He then proceeded to make a motion to change the wording in the article from 93K to 57K. The motion was seconded by Member Mycko.
Chair Vecchio then opened the motion to discussion and recognized Member Amirault. Member Amirault, addressing Member Greer directly, stated he supported his motion but not necessarily for the reasons he gave. Member Amirault explained that he had been in contact with people from many communities in New Hampshire, and a select few in Maine, that had converted the street lights in their towns to LED. He said that all of the people he spoke with praised working with Affinity and were extremely happy with the savings in energy cost they were seeing. He then spoke of two communities in Maine where he was able to speak with the town managers, Newport and Boothbay. Both of these communities elected to go with the Networked option and they both shared their misgivings for their decisions. They stated that the Networked system comes with rather confusing software that is difficult to understand by the average employee. More importantly they stated that it was very difficult getting support from Verizon. Member Amirault then shared his personal feelings of the difficulty he has had recently with Verizon. He reminded attendees that Verizon sold the land line business in the three northern New England states in 2007. They still have wireless but he has noticed a very poor response in service there too. When making a call to complain about his cell service Member Amirault was told by the service representative that she, the service rep, was unable to put in a service request ticket for him because her computer would not recognize it due to where he lived. With this information, especially being able to talk to communities that elected to go with the networked system, Member Amirault stated he fully supports Member Greers motion.
Member Myko stated he also sees a potential problem with service and support from Verizon. He stated with his experience he is seeing Verizon having all sorts of problems in the North Country with equipment. He stated he supported the original warrant article in the hopes that the Networked option would provide additional savings going forward but now sees that is not the case.
Chair Vecchio asked Vice Chair Szauter if he had anything to add. Vice Chair Szauter supported what Member Amirault said about the difficulty in getting any response from Verizon and Member Mycko’s concern about what technology Verizon will be using. He shared his efforts in getting in touch with someone from Verizon to respond and the frustration of not getting a timely response. He stated with all this latest information and the negative response from the communities that chose the Networked System he supports going with the Non Networked option.
Member Mycko stated that from his experience he feels that Verizon is overwhelmed with problems with the rate of new technology and doesn’t appear to have the people to handle it.
Jules Marquis shared an experience he had with new technology at a firm he worked at. He stated it caused a lot of problems and he recommends it may not be a good time to go with the Networked System at this time.
Further back and forth discussion centered on why the Commission chose to go with the Networked option with the information we had at the time hoping more information would come in from Verizon, Eversource, Networked communities, etc. Member Mycko stated we have gained more information now than we had two weeks ago.
Member Greer spoke of the importance to get this project completed and recommended that after a year we publish for the public’s benefit what the savings were.
Chair Vecchio thanked Member Greer for requesting we get together to iron out the issues and come up with the best solution for the town. He also spoke on his frustration of the problem being not only Verizon but Eversource and his frustration of not getting feedback from his request from Eversource.
After further discussion Chair Vecchio requested we act on the motion on the floor. He stated he believes we will keep the wording as written and only change the amount.
Chair Vecchio asked Member Mycko to read what the new warrant article will say.
“To see if the Town will vote to appropriate, not to exceed, the sum of $63,402 (Sixty-Three Thousand Four Hundred and Two Dollars) for the purpose of installing energy efficient non-networked LED street lights and to partially fund this appropriation with a rebate through Eversource in the amount of $6,250 (Six Thousand Two Hundred Fifty Dollars). The net amount to be raised from taxes will be $57,153 (Fifty-Seven Thousand One Hundred and Fifty-Three Dollars). If approved, this installation will produce savings that should result in a full payback within 4.2 years.
Note: The actual wording will be ready for the upcoming budget meeting on January 9, 2024.
With no additional items under Other, Chair Vecchio entertained a motion for adjournment. Member Amirault made a motion to adjourn. Chair Vecchio seconded the motion. With no additional discussion, the motion passed unanimously and the meeting adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Vern Amirault, Member

Town of Carroll, New Hampshire ®2024