February 10, 2021
Article by Vicki Adams, Sierra Club Maine volunteer.
Energy efficiency is a goal that has been bubbling up in Kennebunk since the 1990s. At that time, various committees worked to install more efficient street lights and advocated for sustainable resources. Progress was slow, but then Town Manager Barry Tibbetts took notice and in 2006 formed the Kennebunk Energy Efficiency Committee. Its hallmark has been working with others.
The Committee partnered with the Kennebunk Light & Power District and the non-profit Window Dressers to hold workshops on creating plastic storm window kits as well as providing low-cost window insulation for town buildings. They also produced informative fliers and hosted films, like Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” which attracted a standing-room-only audience in the town’s large auditorium.
Committee members have approached the Board of Selectmen over the years with several plans that affected the entire town. A no-idling auto policy was discussed at length then finally adopted in 2009. Members also worked with the Public Services Dept. and Efficiency Maine to upgrade the town’s recycling efforts. Town officials were open to the idea of making energy more efficient, according to Sharon Staz, Chair of the Committee. But going from ideas to action was a slog, taking well over a year to reach agreement on a particular issue. And then, local students arrived on the scene.
The headline maker in 2016 was a 5th grade student, Bella Rossborough, who had learned about the harm plastic bags can do to animals, especially in the ocean. The Committee had attended Board meetings for a year or so on this issue while Bella was working on it with her 5th grade class. People were understandably concerned about how this would affect small businesses in town, according to Staz. But when Bella and her classmates made a presentation to the Board, the rest was history. She worked with the Committee to write and finally get an ordinance passed banning single-use plastic bags. News of this victory spread throughout the state, and Bella received not only an award but a trip to Washington, DC.
More help for ocean wildlife came from another student. Will Jones, of Kennebunk High School, worked on his own and with the Committee educating people about protecting marine mammals. Aware that animals can be choked and starved by eating balloons, he wanted to ban them. This also was a years-long struggle. Will’s first attempt was defeated, but he succeeded in 2019, championing an ordinance prohibiting outdoor use of balloons in town.
While the students were on to plastic, Committee members’ visions ballooned from local to international. They wanted Kennebunk to join the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy. The town of about 12,000 did not have a mayor, but the desire to do something about climate change was strong. The Committee did the ground work of educating town officials ahead of time, and then made a successful case before the Board. Town Manager Michael Pardue signed a letter of commitment to the Covenant in 2018, the second town in Maine to do so. As a result, the town and Committee just completed the three-year process to develop a Greenhouse Gas Inventory (GGI).
Students from The New School, a small private school in Kennebunk, helped collect data for the GGI, and their teachers developed new curricula inspired by the Global Covenant. Committee Chair Staz wrote a proposal hiring a UNH Fellow to create a report on the GGI findings. She and another member worked with the Fellow to finish the report in 2020 despite the Covid 19 pandemic. Its recommendations will help the town move forward on addressing local carbon emissions.
Again with Kennebunk High School students, the Committee encouraged the town to go electric in purchasing new vehicles, and as a result, the new Fire Dept. command vehicle is all electric. The Police and Tax Departments have purchased hybrid vehicles and plan to continue replacing old vehicles with hybrids if they perform well. With Kennebunk Light and Power, the Committee is also researching the potential for more solar array installations. And coming full circle back to street lights, members are now working on a transition to efficient LED lights.
Other towns throughout Maine also have committees working on energy efficiency, but so far they haven’t had an organized way to connect with each other. Making that connection is on Staz’s short list of things that need doing.
Kennebunk Energy Efficiency Committee 2021
Global Covenant: Sharon Staz, Chair, Maggie Bartenhagen
Solar and efficient electricity: Joe Wolfson
Streetlights: Sharon Staz, Anthony Dater, Tom Rist, Nick Bartenhagen, Scott Negley
New member: Ashley Poirier
Lower Village: Patti Sass Perry