Village questions actions needed for state program

Trustees to review whether actions to determine the amount of energy usage can be certified under the state program.

Village trustees plan to review whether recent actions to determine the amount of energy usage can be put toward getting certification under the state Climate Smart Communities program.

The program was discussed during a Village Board meeting Monday, with Trustee Jeff Helmuth saying there may be too many actions to take for the status to be worth the time.

“At first blush I’m not sure it’s worth our while,” he said. “It’s quite involved (with) a lot of data mining ... research and so forth. We would need to sign a pledge, pass a resolution, and the overall goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

The program is part of state Energy Research and Development Authority efforts to reduce the amount of fossil fuel used in buildings and transportation. Completion of the certification will allow municipalities to qualify for grants.

Certification requires a municipality to conduct an inventory and choose from among several options for energy reduction activities that range from improving buildings, changing vehicles, and use of alternative energy sources.

“There’s a lot of work,” Helmuth said. “If we want to be involved ... we’d need a volunteer citizen.”

Mayor Bill Murphy noted some of the actions have already been taken.

“A lot of this stuff we did when we did ... our energy audit two years ago,” he said.

Trustee Terry Parisian, who broke out laughing, said some of the options for reducing emissions from fossil fuel use were amusing at best.

“I like (creating) ‘adopt and enforce an anti-idling ordinance,” he said. “How are you going to enforce somebody idling their car?”

Village officials they would meet with member of a town committee to determine whether the past actions can be used for the certification and whether the municipalities would have to act separately.