Warwick Buildings & Energy Committee Annual Report for FY 2014

The purpose of the Warwick Buildings and Energy Committee is to assess
town buildings and maintenance needs, research options for the select
board and Warwick citizens to encourage efficient energy consumption and
optimal maintenance of town properties, and encourage Warwick
townspeople's own efforts in renewable energy production and carbon
footprint reduction.
	
Members as of the end of FY 2014 are:
Janice Kurkoski '17 - chair	Dan Dibble '16	   Matt Sheldon '15     
Jack Cadwell '15
Steve Kurkoski '17- scribe	Kevin Smith (August-March)    Mary Humphries
(April -)	

Warwick Town Hall:  
Several more window sashes were rebuilt and installed. Winserts are
still needed in the main hall. There is insufficient hot water during
large events, especially during winter months. Pipe insulation is still
needed and perhaps re-install the 80 gal tank. 
Basement mess: A visit to the basement revealed boxes of papers piled on
the floor, some already wet from recent water entry. ALL departments
need to pull out old unneeded records (pre 19??) to make room for newer
ones, and a second set of shelves cold be built to make room for more if
needed. There is also a great deal of trash-like items that could be
re-cycled or re-organized. The new LED lights are wonderful!

Warwick Community School:
The WBEC continued to struggle with the idea that the school district
could somehow reimburse the town for energy saving capital expenses from
the proven savings within the annual operation budget. 
The snow melting pattern on the gym and stage roofs continues to prove
that warm air is leaking throught the roof panel seams (this was fixed
in FY15). Janice worked with the architect and UMASS Building &
Construction Technologies Extension Service to come up with a plan to
fix this. 
Huge ice dams continue to point to inadequate air sealing and insulation
in the main building. 
Proposed Agreement with PVRSD for energy saving capital projects:
Steve revised the Gill /Montague agreement with PVRSD and presented this
revision along with a letter of intent. This committee signed the letter
of intent and planned to bring these documents to the selectboard and
the finance committees in Warwick for approval.
Steve then planed to go before the energy committees in Northfield,
Leyden, and Bernardston, and if signed, the documents will then move on
to their respective finance committees and selectboards for approval.

Highway Dept: 
After many insulation options were considered at length, interior
insulations panels were decided to be the best option. Technical
drawings were created by Jack Cadwell. The labor only went out to bid in
late September but no bids were received. The hwy. Dept needed to move
materials from inside the building, and so they put a deposit on a metal
storage shed, which in the end did not materialize. The insulation
project is on hold until the Hwy. Dept can build it's own shed.

Library:
3 handsome winserts were completed and installed. Nancy reported that no
one had even noticed them, which she said is a good sign. She confirmed
that all the other windows could use them year round. They could be
built by volunteers. The library could pay for the wood, and North
Quabbin Energy would supply the film & foam for free out of the left
over materials from their National Grid grant. 
A blower door test was performed in April, proving that air sealing is
needed.


Fire station, Police station:
Building performance assessments are still needed to determine extent
and types of air sealing and additional insulation (especially in all
attics and library basement.) Winserts are still needed in these
buildings. Simple inexpensive things could be done here with some
initiatives taken by the tenants.

Misc. Items: 
Guardian Energy, who is a project expeditor for NGrid, conducted a
walk-thru of town buildings including the school. These audits are the
start of meeting one of the criteria for Green Communities. Estimates
were not provided by the close of the fiscal year.

Conservation and Solar Workshop - in May, Dan introduced a program on
energy conservation, and Steve and Janice covered aspects of Solar PV.

We continue to track oil and electric consumption using the MASS Energy
Insight on-line program. Tracking energy usage helps us decide where to
put our energy going forward. 

NOTE: The Warwick Community School continues to use more than twice as
much electricity as ALL of our other municipal buildings combined: