Charlie Baker Announces Statewide Green Communities Grants In Melrose

MELROSE, MA — Gov. Charlie Baker visited Melrose early Tuesday afternoon to announce roughly $6 million in grant funding for 51 municipalities across Massachusetts.

Melrose Mayor Paul Brodeur, State Rep. Kate Lipper-Garabedian and State Sen. Jason Lewis joined Baker alongside state Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Beth Card.

“We do believe partnership with our colleagues in local government matter,” Baker said, crediting local leaders in Melrose and throughout the state with work to bolster grant programs.

“This is one way we get everybody involved in this process,” he continued.

The Green Communities program dates back over a decade, doling out over $150 million since 2010, according to the state.

This round of funding is sending $500,000 to Melrose.

Speaking on Tuesday, city and state officials discussed plans to put that money toward efforts to “decarbonize” the Melrose Public Library as the library undergoes its major renovation project.

“It is sometimes a little bit daunting to think about how far we have to move,” Brodeur said. “That’s why this money is a critical addition to our effort to move this building and this project forward.”

Grant funded work at the library will build on work paid for through a city bond, the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners and the Melrose Library Board of Trustees, Brodeur said.

Decarbonizing the library will involve moving the new library away from use of natural gas. The library will also add new electric vehicle chargers and include a “solar ready roof,” according to Brodeur.

Lipper-Garabedian highlighted the diversity of funding sources for the library project, calling the library a "cornerstone" of the Melrose community.

She said the process of developing the library plan and now augmenting it with Green Communities grant funding has helped break silos between elements of state and local government.

"This is an investment that we’re making with local dollars, with private dollars and with state dollars," she said.

READ: Melrose Public Library Preps For Temporary Move

Communities looking to access funding under the Green Communities program first need to meet five criteria to join the program itself. Those include pledges to cut municipal energy use by 20 percent over five years, among other requirements, as noted on a state Department of Energy Resources about page.

A total of 280 communities across Massachusetts have joined the Green Communities program to date, making them eligible for future rounds of state funding.

Speaking on Tuesday, Baker cast attention to the future of the Green Communities program and larger state and local goals to achieve net zero emissions status in the coming decades.

"We all believe there's work to do here and there's a ton of agreement on what needs to get done," he said.