Council hears plugs for fireboat, solar energy

 

February 1, 2023



On a cold, wet January night, the La Conner Town Council embraced a sunny outlook.

The panel last Tuesday approved payment for a $100 membership fee and joined the Skagit Valley Clean Energy Co-Operative, organizer of the new Solarize Skagit program, whose goal is to make it easy and cost-effective to install solar panels.

The commitment includes providing Co-op and program information on the Town website and perhaps monthly water bills.

Solarize Skagit is the main initiative of the co-op, which incorporated last year in La Conner. Its founders include Councilmembers MaryLee Chamberlain and Mary Wohleb and resident Terry Nelson, a longtime solar advocate.

Chamberlain abstained from the vote. Wohleb was absent from the Jan. 24 hybrid meeting.

Nelson has promoted solar energy since his days at Nelson Lumber & Hardware in the 1970s.

“Terry has been talking about this for years,” said Mayor Ramon Hayes. “These technologies are now affordable. It’s not about getting rid of coal or whatever. It’s about the fact that technologies are changing.”

Solarize Skagit is a partnership with Olympic Community Solar, which has been active in Thurston, Pierce, Lewis and Mason counties.

Greg Whiting, a Weekly News contributor, outlined the SVCEC and Solarize Skagit missions.

“One of the advantages of a co-op,” said Whiting, “is it offers bulk purchasing options. This is a big opportunity for people to put solar on their roof at a more affordable cost.”

Whiting said the game plan is to promote group purchasing rates from late February to July 4 followed by installations.

La Conner resident Bob Raymond, another SVCEC founder, said the co-op intends to approach other municipalities and community agencies.

They can only hope their proposals are as well received elsewhere as they were here, with the Council not hesitating to provide its stamp of approval.

The Council was also receptive – minus a specific timeline – endorsing its fire department's purchase of a new fire boat, estimated at $400,000, including add-ons.

The department does not have a fully operational vessel equipped to fight blazes along the town’s waterfront or in marinas.

“We don’t have an operational boat,” said Aaron Reinstra, fire chief and code enforcement officer. “We have no protection for the waterfront. There’s no protection for the marinas.”

The department’s Adam Avery offered a detailed presentation on its research over the past six months into vessel designs best suited to meet La Conner’s needs, both for fighting fires from the water and responding to boaters needing emergency aid. He said the goal is to obtain a cost-effective boat easy to operate and maintain.

Ideally, said Avery, the department would like to have boat in service in a year, which a Sedro-Woolley manufacturer has indicated is possible. Most firms, he said, are on a three-to-five-year manufacturing schedule.

The Sedro-Woolley company can build a dual propulsion boat with a fully enclosed cabin for $387,000, he said.

Avery said once the Town commits to its purchase, he can find corporate and private sponsors to help defray the cost.

“There are donors who would put a significant amount of money into this,” he said. “I’m not talking about $5,000. I’m talking $30,000.

“The Town has to make the first step forward,” he stressed.

Town Administrator Scott Thomas said the Town will pursue a variety of grants to secure the necessary funding.

“It’s not in the budget,” Thomas said of the fire boat proposal, “so we have to come up with a funding source.”

Hayes, who termed Avery’s presentation as “excellent,” said purchase of a fire boat ranks as a key priority – along with completion of mandated upgrades at the wastewater treatment plant and replacement of aging water lines.

“Any one of them is enormous,” Hayes said. “All three of them together is huge.”

Hayes agreed with Avery on the sense of urgency regarding the fire boat issue.

“I don’t know that it’ll happen this year,” he conceded. “I know you want it to happen this year. I want it to happen this year. But we’ve got to be prudent.”

 

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