MONTPELIER, Vt. -
Wednesday was the second vote for Montpelier City Council on a plan to have a wood fueled heating system for portions of downtown. The no vote last week came as a surprise to supporters. The city had until the end of the week to make the decision and after some revisions to the plan, it passed five to one.
After some careful revisions, "I think the city's risk has been greatly reduced by the changes and I'm glad to vote for the project tonight," said councilor, Andy Hooper.
"Montpelier is going to be a model not just for the state but for the country as well," said Ben Walsh, a clean energy advocate, with V-PIRG and a huge supporter of the district heat project.
The project would upgrade the city's wood fired boilers, to pump the extra heat into several places around Montpelier, "into city hall, Union Elementary and a number of other city buildings and local businesses," said Walsh.
It's essentially an agreement between the state of Vermont and the city of Montpelier, and under the new revisions the city will build the first phase at the corner of State and Elm streets, with room to grow.
Why the sudden change in a week? City Manager William Fraser says, the project was initially voted down because the city didn't want to just write a blank check.
"Under this plan, they are saying ok, we will commit to a small portion of it but we are open to doing the rest but we want to see the bids," said Fraser.
The size of the project will be determined after the construction bids are in and that will most likely be sometime in November.
