The city of Springfield got official word this week of the grant it received under the state’s Green Communities program.
The city—one of 35 municipalities across the state to share a total of $8.1 million from the Mass. Dept. of Energy Resources program—will receive just under $990,00 “to improve the energy efficiency of boilers and vending machines and for five energy management systems,” according to an announcement from the governor’s office.
The city’s Special Committee on Green Initiatives had earlier recommended that at least part of the grant money go to renovation work at the Clifford A. Phaneuf Environmental Center, in Forest Park, home to the city schools’ environmental education program, ECOS. Plans are in the works for a major retrofitting of that building to make it more environmentally sound. Ferrera told the Advocate he envisioned the greener building as a place to educate school kids, hold community meetings and serve as a model of green-building techniques.
While Mayor Domenic Sarno has voiced his support of a retrofitting of the Phaneuf Center, Ferrera says he’s since heard from the administration that the project does not fit the criteria for the Green Communities funds. Instead, the money will go to improving the energy efficiency of other city buildings.
That’s a worthy project, Ferrera said. “We’re comfortable with anything that’s going to save the city energy, anything that’s going to ramp up efforts to be a green city,” he said. “That’s our main goal, obviously.”
But going forward, Ferrera hopes that future grants for the program will be earmarked for projects like the ECOS building. “Let’s start looking at some other things besides the same-old, same-old,” he said. “Let’s be more creative.”
