LYNN — The City of Lynn officially became a Green Community on Monday morning, after the state Department of Energy Resources presented Mayor Thomas M. McGee with a symbolic gigantic check, plaques and a designation signed by Gov. Charlie Baker in a ceremony held outside City Hall.
“This is a great accomplishment for Lynn,” said Neal Duffy, Northeast regional coordinator at the Green Communities Division, who represented the Department of Energy Resources (DOER).
The DOER’s Green Communities Designation and Grant Program, which started more than 10 years ago, supports communities’ investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. Nearly 87 percent of the commonwealth’s population currently resides in 280 designated Green Communities, according to the Green Communities Division website.
Lynn was designated a Green Community and awarded a $495,030 grant by the Baker-Polito administration in February 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic postponed the official ceremony. The designation required a commitment to clean-energy goals to reduce energy consumption and lower emissions. All Green communities commit to reducing municipal energy consumption by 20 percent each over five years and to meeting four other criteria established in the Green Communities Act.
“It has benefits all around, beginning with the financial one. It is bringing revenue into a cash-starved community,” said Ward 1 Councilor Wayne Lozzi, who is the chair of the Green initiative committee and who originally proposed the city’s participation in the program. “It also is so good for the environment and becoming a Green Community has a meaning behind it, adopting measures that are going to clean up our act (carbon footprint).”
The city has invested the grant money into such energy conservation measures as LED lighting; building automation system improvements; heating, ventilation and air conditioning controls; and new boilers with fuel conversion in various facilities including the Broadway fire station, Fayette Street fire station, Lynn police station, Lincoln-Thomson Elementary School, Lynn Woods Elementary School, City Hall, and Department of Public Works.
Lynn has also received $100,461 from National Grid as an incentive. Total investments into energy-conservation measures are nearing $655,000, said Andrew Young, a project manager at the city’s Inspectional Services Department, who was also present at the ceremony.
Under the program, the state pays 25 percent of the funding upfront. The city is in the process of submitting a final report of all projects associated with the grant with all invoices and documentation and will receive the other 75 percent upon final inspection from DOER.
“It is an important step,” said McGee. “Now we are eligible for more grants, and now we are starting to see the results.”
The city is hoping to continue the energy-conservation measures by applying for another grant in the amount of $200,000. Upon approval of the new grant, the city is looking to move to phase two for the Lynn police station and City Hall as well as target five schools for improvements. Next would be all the fire stations, said Young.
State Sen. Brendan Crighton (D-Lynn) and state Rep. Peter Capano (D-Lynn) also attended the ceremony.
Funding for Green Communities grants is available through proceeds from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and Alternative Compliance Payments paid by retail electric suppliers that do not meet their Renewable Portfolio Standard compliance obligations through the purchase of Renewable Energy Certificates.
Alena Kuzub can be reached at [email protected].
