Council Moves Forward with Investment Grade Audit of Town Buildings

In a split vote, the town council approved the start of investment grade audit of all town and school district buildings with energy services company (ESCO) Honeywell, at its Tuesday meeting. 

After the audit of Tolland's energy use in its municipal buildings is complete, the council and school board would have to decide if they wanted to enter into a contract with Honeywell to make energy efficiency improvements and complete capital projects over a period of up to 20 years.

The improvements are supposed to be cost-neutral to the town, since funding would ultimately come from energy savings.

Council member Mark Gill, who was one of two councilors who voted against starting the audit, said that he doesn't want to move forward without a more detailed facilities plan from the Board of Education.

"I think you need to have a long-range plan before you begin," he said.

According to town officials at the meeting, the school district buildings comprise about 75 percent of the square footage and energy consumption of the Town of Tolland property. 

At the school board meeting that took place Wednesday, it was determined that a study examining student enrollment, space needs and the town's current facility capacity had last been completed before the new Tolland High School was constructed. 

The town council also approved a contract with Celtic Energy to oversee the Honeywell audit and to act as a third-party watchdog throughout the ESCO contract process.

Honeywell's investment grade audit will cost $32,000 on a prorated basis, according to the council agenda, while Celtic Energy's work during the audit will amount to $75,000. These charges would be paid by energy cost savings if the town decided to enter into an ESCO contract with Honeywell when the audit is completed.

Click here for a more details on Honeywell's proposal for energy savings. 

Financial Woes for the WPCA

The council also heard a report from the Water Pollution Control Authority, which serves about 80 customers on its sewer system in Tolland.

Due to some accounting misunderstandings, the utility no longer has any reserve for capital improvements, but needs to make critical repairs at its Gerber Road pump station that will cost about $50,000.

The council set a public hearing on the appropriation of those funds from Capital Improvement Unallocated Fund for Jan. 8.

The volunteer-run utility was told that it had about $600,000 in its reserve fund for capital improvements, Werbner said. He explained that deposits had been placed into the account whenever the town sold property at the Industrial Park, before he was the town manager. The rationale for these deposits, which were a portion of the sale price, was to pay off the installation of a sewer line in the Industrial Park.

Werbner stopped the payments when he began working for the town and realized the sewer had been paid off, he said.

Although the WPCA believed that approximately $600,000 was in the reserve, the WPCA was not aware that most of that money was tied up to pay off bonds issued for various sewer projects. The utility recently learned that it only had about $100,000 in the account that was unallocated. 

According to WPCA minutes included in the council agenda, the WPCA was advised to keep the $100,000 in the reserve to cover unexpected expenditures.

The utility will be holding a public hearing to raise its user rates to $10.52 per 1,000 gallons at its Dec. 18 meeting, according to the agenda.

THS Athletic Field Update

While the management plan for the artificial turf and lights project at THS has yet to be finalized, the council listened to a financial projection concerning field rental fees at the meeting.

Town staff projected that given a flat rental fee of $120 per hour to let outside groups use the field, the athletic field would generate about $83,000 in one year. If costs such as a field supervisor, portable toilets, marketing, lighting and a contribution to the field capital fund were taken into account, the field would still create about $28,000 in profit its first year, according to the agenda.

This scenario gives the schools use of the field between 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday and from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. The football team was also allotted an additional 10 hours a week in the fall; soccer 10 hours a week in the fall and spring; and lacrosse hours a week in the spring.

Werbner said it is possible that the artificial turf and lights could be in place by next fall.

The council meets next on January 8 at 7:30 p.m. in council chambers.