Brief thoughts on some of the events making news from around Franklin County and the North Quabbin area:
And when spring arrives, dairy farmer Peter Melnick of Deerfield says, he’ll be thrilled to be spreading a liquid fertilizer from a new $5 million electricity- and heat-producing waste digester.
The sustainable system will turn manure and waste food into methane gas that will fuel a 1-megawatt electricity generator and heat his Bar-Way Farms, and produce fertilizer and bedding for 500 Holsteins. The food waste fuel that will supplement the farm manure is the result of the state’s ban on large-scale commercial organic waste at landfills.
This sustainability marvel was made possible with a heavy dose of government encouragement and about $735,000 in grants.
“I used to import my fertilizer and buy oil for heat,” said Melnick, who’s already planning a greenhouse to use some 3 million BTUs of heat an hour to take advantage of what won’t be needed for farm buildings or to run the digester. “Now I’ll be able to make all my own. That’s what sustainability is all about. And we’re taking care of the waste locally and using it for a lot of good things.”
Montague town officials are applying to a state program that would designate part of Turners Falls as a cultural district in hopes of attracting more tourists, artists and grant projects to the area.
The town applied for the designation in 2011, but the request was denied by the state because the district proposed was too large.
But the new plan is more refined. The district runs from along Avenue A and Third Street with certain portions included because of cultural landmarks like the Shea Theater, Carnegie Library, Unity Park, Great Falls Discovery Center and the Canalside Rail Trail.
The state designation of a cultural district does not come with any grant funding but does allow for additional grant opportunities if the state does bestow the designation.
Greenfield and Shelburne Falls have cultural districts, and we look forward to Montague gaining the same recognition and benefit.
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has opposed an electricity rate hike sought by Eversource, saying it represents a “fight against unjustified utility profits at the expense of customers.”
Her statement comes following the company’s Jan. 17 filing with the state Department of Public Utilities for a rate hike totaling $36 million in Western Massachusetts to achieve 10.5 percent in shareholder profits.
Eversource has 15,000 electricity customers in Franklin County as part of its former Western Massachusetts Electric Co. territory.
According to the company, proposed rates in western Massachusetts would add roughly $11.64 to the monthly bill of a typical customer using 550 kilowatt hours of electricity, the company said, addressing a revenue deficiency of $35.7 million in that service area.
Company officials said the planned rates incorporate costs associated with capital investments geared toward improving service reliability, and are based on “actual operation and maintenance cost deficiencies for a test year ending June 30, 2016.”
But Healey is willing to challenge that assertion on behalf of the region’s consumers.
“As a regulated public utility, Eversource is required to justify why the state should permit it to raise electric rates on residents and business customers,” Healey said. “Our initial evaluation shows that Eversource should be returning profits to customers as savings, not raising rates. We urge the DPU to reject Eversource’s request for a rate hike.”
So do we.