SOUTH PORTLAND – The South Portland City Council talked this week about ways it could continue its environmentally friendly policies, including construction of a solar array on the former city landfill and the hiring of a new sustainability coordinator.
In addition, City Manager Jim Gailey would like to lease two new Nissan Leafs – all-electric vehicles – for city staff to drive, and purchase more recycling containers for use in city buildings. All three programs would have a total cost of nearly $65,300.
In a memorandum sent to the City Council prior to Monday’s workshop meeting, Gailey said the hiring of a sustainability coordinator was one of the recommendations included in the recently completed Climate Action Plan.
In order to move the climate plan forward, Gailey said it would be “imperative to bring this position on board early,” which is why he is suggesting the sustainability coordinator position should not wait to be funded in the fiscal year 2015-2016 budget.
He said another reason to bring the sustainability coordinator on board now is that no one on the city staff has the capacity or background to “effectively move implementation of the (Climate Action Plan).”
According to Gailey it would cost the city nearly $42,000, including benefits, to hire a sustainability coordinator for the second half of the fiscal year, Jan. 1-June 31.
To help cover the cost of all three green initiatives, he is suggesting that the city could use some of the rebate it will receive from ecomaine this year.
South Portland is one of the 20 communities in southern Maine to own and operate ecomaine, a waste-to-energy and recycling facility in Portland where the city disposes of its household waste, as well as its curbside recycling.
Last week, ecomaine informed its members that it would be providing a rebate totaling $1 million, and of that amount South Portland is set to receive nearly $128,000.
Last November, the City Council first approved funding for a feasibility study to look into installing a solar farm at the now-capped landfill on Highland Avenue.
According to a memorandum from City Planner Tex Haeuser, the landfill would be a suitable location for this new solar array. Under the feasibility study, which was conducted by ReVision Energy, the city would construct the array in phases.
The first phase would include construction of solar panels designed to generate up to 660 kilowatts of power, but all Haeuser is suggesting the city do, for now, is to fund the engineering design work necessary for the project, as well as to make sure that the new public works facility would include interconnectivity to the solar array.
That’s because of the high cost and long payback periods for alternative energy investments like this one. However, Haeuser also said that moving forward with the solar farm would “help South Portland meet its objectives for reducing the use of fossil fuels and limiting the release of greenhouse gas emissions.”
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