Selectmen Sign Solar Panel Contract for Town Hall

In a shorter-than-normal meeting on Monday at the Town Hall, the Board of Selectmen addressed a handful of items including solar panels at the Town Building.

Planning Director William Clark appeared before the Selectmen with a contract for a 27.88 KW solar panel system to be added to the Town Building's roof. Fall River Associates will be installing the solar panels and the service panel for $158,038.

The work, which will begin this month, was made possible through two grants. A $150,000 state grant the town received in the spring will take up the bulk of the bill, but $21,000 that was left over from an energy education grant allowed the town to replace an aging service panel.

Energy to the building will be shut down in the afternoon of September 10, the last half-day Friday of the year, to install the new circuit board. Clark expects the project to be complete by November.

As part of a public education portion of the project a 26-inch screen in Town Hall will display the energy benefits of the panels and eventually the town's wind turbine.

The Town Hall solar project is the latest in a list of such undertakings by the town.

"The High School has a solar panel system, we'll have a significantly larger one (at the Town Building) and the Collicot/Cunningham will have a significantly larger one than that, all through grants," Town Administrator Kevin Mearn said.