June 18 event

Comments

[Rocky]

Thanks for your help Jon.

[jon edwards]

Forum panelists have the following backgrounds

John Dyer- White Mountain Community College

"In the North Country, John Dyer helps firms connect with White Mountains Community College in Berlin. This college offers classes to educate the public on various businesses."

Morris Pierce- Northeast District Energy.
"Communities in several northeastern states are interested in developing new district energy systems using renewable resources such as biomass, solar and waste heat where available. These systems can serve entire communities (as it very common in Europe) and deliver the following objectives:

* Increase efficiency of energy production, distribution, and consumption
* Transition from imported fossil fuels to clean, local renewable resources
* Transition from electric-driven cooling to thermally-driven cooling to reduce demand on strained electric grid in the Northeast."

Chris Recchia-Biomass Energy Center
"MONTPELIER, VT, April 8 - The Biomass Thermal Energy Council (BTEC) today
announced that Christopher Recchia, executive director of the Biomass Energy Resource
Center (BERC), has been elected to the board of directors. Recchia brings to the board
deep experience in environmental conservation and a broad understanding of the impact
that biomass thermal energy can have on reducing carbon emissions and increasing
energy security."

Joe Short: Northern Forest Center

"Joe first came to the Center in 2003 as a Doris Duke Conservation Fellow, and he joined the staff full-time in 2004. Joe helped coordinate the initial work of the Center’s policy program, convening regional dialogue and developing consensus strategies for public policies focused on community, economic, and conservation needs in the Northern Forest. The Center’s Sustainable Economy Initiative was a direct outcome of this work, and in 2005 Joe became program manager of this new program. In this role Joe manages the Center’s work to create a sustainable economic development strategy for the Northern Forest—a two-year initiative that will deliver a quantitative assessment of the region’s natural-resource economy and strategies for economic revitalization tied to continuing land conservation. Joe has an M.S. in Resource Ecology and Management from the University of Michigan and a BA in Biology from Carleton College. Earlier in his career he worked for four years for The Nature Conservancy, first in Nebraska and then in northern California."

Sara Smith UNH Cooperative Extension

"Sarah Smith joined UNH Cooperative Extension in 1989 as the Forest Industry Specialist. Prior to that Sarah work for many years in the lumber business and even spent a few years as a public school teacher. "I feel this position brings together my education, experience and interests to serve NH's forest industry." Sarah provides information and educational programming to the state's sawmills, loggers and greater forest-based business community. She also updates the forestry community on current forest industry market conditions as well as many other logs to lumber topics.

Educational Background

* Bachelor of Science in Forest Management, UNH 1978

* Masters of Occupational Education, UNH

Program Specialty Areas

* Provide information and educational programming in the area of wood products: safety, processing, procurement, grading, quality control, and marketing.

Bill Gabler-Clean Power Development

"This biomass company proposes to construct a state of the art biomass facility that has the appearance of a working farm that would be located surrounding the wastewater treatment plant. The plant would potentially provide synergies to Fraser (steam) the city of Berlin (district heating) and the north country forest(through sustainability practices.) Bill Gabler is the project manager for Clean Power Development. Clean Power appears to be able to coexist with Noble's wind farm without expensive upgrades to the coos loop. This company would provide needed jobs to the north country directly employed by the biomass facility and indirectly providing loggers with demand for low grade wood."

[Wing Nut]

Jon Rocks! You are an asset to the community. By the way, I may not be able to attend. I need to find a baby sitter! I hope that somebody can take detailed minutes of the meeting and summarize the discussion around some of the key points, namely;

1.) Is 66MW too large to be supported by a local Biomass supply?
2.) Can the Coos Loop handle 66 additional MW if the wind farm is built?
3.) Do Biomass plants belong next to residential neighborhoods & parks? What are the health & quality of life ramifications due to such a close proximity (if any)?
4.) What is the definition of Biomass grade wood?

Thanks,
WN

[Jonathan Edwards]

...my first thought after a quick glance at the front page of today's paper was whether or not this was the Sun's April 1 edition. "Millions in funds to clean up blighted properties, potential to regain the sewer contract with the prison...and possibly a casino in downtown Berlin."

In an effort to remain positive on all front page news it is good to see the city is back on track with the Federal prison sewer contract and was wise in reaching out for significant blighted housing funds that can make a big difference in Berlin.

I might suggest, however, that these blighted housing funds be capitalized on and not used for "money pits" that will exhaust too much of a good thing (money) without enough return. Though I understand Mr. Caron's panel has identified three main areas of concern in Berlin to invest in, I question if any of these areas will provide a high return on the investment of this "gift" of 4.3 million.

It also appears that Mr. Caron's list can be changed in the next thirteen months as things have changed with the city since this list came about. For example, does it make sense for the city of Berlin to throw hundreds of thousands into some of the dinosaurs in this city when we have the potential of a casino moving in where investors will be found to utilize their own money for some of these money pits?

The city, in my opinion, should focus on a numbers game of improving as many properties and as many areas as they can without overdoing it on any one property or specific area. Spending the city's "gift" money on just one archaic Main Street property could eat up millions alone. By the same token, I wonder if investing a huge chunk of this "gift" into the Notre Dame High School clean up will impact Berlin's economic revival as much as face lifts to properties in more high exposure locations. Though I understand that the lower east side, Granite St. and the Notre Dame High School are eyesores (and eyesores in close proximity to properties I own) I can think of many more places that would more effectively impact the city's curb appeal.

This 4.3 million is a once in a life time opportunity for Berlin to move forward. Investing a million into demolishing 27 properties is one thing, but using the remaining 3.3 million to focus on buildings that aren't economically worth saving or building new structures in a city that has surplus housing might not be as valuable as cleaning up a number of others and creating "green space" which leads to higher assessed values city wide to offset the loss of demolition value significantly. The city should stay away from new home construction and concentrate on its existing stock in my opinion. After all, it was affordable housing through the construction of Berlin Housing Authority apartments that moved most of our elderly tenants out of our housing stock which lead to the downward spiral of these tenement buildings in the first place. We don't want or need to repeat what has damaged our housing stock in the past. We need to improve upon it wisely.

As to the Casino in downtown...inevitably would mean a change in lifestyle for sure, more people on Main St. and the absence of an ugly block of buildings.

[V.]

Dont gamble on that Casino becoming a reality.... ha ha ha ha ha...... actually this casino bill is the only one ever written with even a slight chance of being approved. A downtown economic initiative for the former Rite Aid block. I think I promoted that idea 7 years ago, in fact I know I did, April Fools or not, that will be one foolish idea I will be wishing comes true.....

[ralph]

I hope the casino gets built and for alot of reasons, not the least to change the attitude of the locals. Maybe we can join the 21st century.

[jillian]

I think the casino should go on the mill property instead of a power plant.

[V.]

Of course Jillian, if we had a choice, a choice is that gift that history never gave us..... The Rite Aid block is the only choice for such a project.... The only place the political stomach of New Hamshire could stomach.... A downtowne revitalization project....

[Jonathan Edwards]

from today's Concord Monitor:

June 11, 2009 - 12:00 am

"A plan to put 33 wind turbines on forested ridgelines in Coos County won unanimous approval yesterday from the state panel charged with reviewing new renewable energy facilities. Members of the Site Evaluation Committee added a long list of conditions to its approval, many having to do with the turbines' effect on the environment."

Readers of this blog should really go to the Concord Monitor on line site and read the entire article. The article clearly shows how much happens before such a project reaches approval and why there is such a tremendous pull in both directions on every one of these proposals. It is a preview of what Laidlaw would face if it filed an application. It also shows how much NH is pushing for Clean Energy.

[V.]

Am I right in reading that merchants downtowne are already complaining that the casino would be to big and make the downtowne too busy? As if such a thing would be a burden for a Downtowne...... No wonder.......

[ralph]

Can you imagine, too many people downtown? Sometimes I think we're nuts!

[jon edwards]

Having attended a master planning meeting pertinent to the final draft of the city's master plan last night I have to admit that I am at wits end with my failure to understand how a master plan can possibly be valuable the way Berlin's is heading. This particular master planning committee of which I am part of has a very mixed group of opinions pertinent to biomass on the Burgess mill site. Yet one of the key pieces of the master plan is Not to have heavy industry on the site, and that key piece of the master plan is not being argued by pro Laidlaw supporters. How can a master plan call for an end result of light industry on the Burgess mill site by the year 2030 when a proposal to save a heavy industry boiler for heavy industrial biomass power generation is currently being proposed? What am I missing here? Laidlaw's assumed failure?

[Jonathan Edwards]

Page 8 — THE BERLIN DAI
LY SUN, Friday, June 12, 2009BERLIN — With two biomass plants proposed for Berlin and vari-ous district heating projects in vari-ous stages of development around the county, biomass is the new buzzword in the region. To provide the public with an oppor-tunity to learn about the topic from experts in the fi eld, a free informa-tional session has been put together for Thursday, June 18 at 6:30 p.m. at White Mountains Community Col-lege. The session is hosted by the Busi-ness Enterprise Development Corpo-ration (BEDCO) and The Plymouth State University Center for Rural Partnerships. Panelists include John Dyer of WMCC, Bill Gabler of Clean Power Development, Morris Pierce of North-east District Energy Corporation, Chris Recchia of Biomass Energy Resource Center, Joe Short of the Northern Forest Center, and Sara Smith of UNH Cooperative Exten-sion. Bill Andreas of BEDCO and Thad Guldbrandsen of PSU Center for Rural Partnerships will serve as moderators. For more information con-tact Thad Guldbrandsen at tcguldbrandsen@plymouth.edu and 535-3276 or Bill Andreas at 752-3319.Biomass meeting scheduled for June 18BERLIN

[Timothy Gordon]

Jon,
Could it be that planning itself is the issue. History has shown that planning has not big on the list of things to do. This is a very reactive community vs. say a proactive community. I guess it is like asking what people what they are planning to do this weekend and they will have a detail answer for you, but if you ask what they are going to do next September 7th, there will not be an answer, and god forbid ask what they are planning for next March. This is also not unique to Berlin, it is an issue with mostly blue collar communities, because their future is tied closely to employement.

[Jonathan Edwards]

I'm not sure Tim. The thought process is nothing I've ever experienced before. I'm not really sure it's a thought process and I'm not really sure what it is. To base an entire city's master plan on the premise that this Burgess mill is planned for light industry by the year 2030 is not right in my opinion when heavy industry is currently being endorsed by some of these committee members and certainly a percentage of the population within the city. I suppose I could take the easy way out and silently say to myself...ahh the master plan is entirely against Laidlaw...but I understand that if failure is part of the city's equation to eliminate Laidlaw, failure is never something to base a master plan on.

[Timothy Gordon]

Jon,
This is where I get ugly, or so I am told. The mere mortal man, or woman, has not the slightest clue as to the inner workings of anything more than there own stomach.
The Master Plan should not take into consideration anything more than the City itself. City Infrastructure, building maintenance and obsoleteness. The future of the City should be handled by the citizens itself, and I would add, in a perfect world. The citizens tell the council and mayor, we want a pool, the council acts on the addition of land, construction, staffing and allocating the money for the capital improvement and yearly operation.
I feel the entire budget process is handled incorrectly, and is designed to keep the citizens out of the process. Instead of this is the amount that we have come up with, and come in and make comments that will have nothing at all to do with the process, they should come up with a budget that funds everything that is wanted, then the citizens should have the yeah or neigh to what items get funded or not. If you want all of this your tax bill will be this amount, if you want a lower Tax bill, come in and comment on what item you feel is too high. The previous elected officials have done a great job to take the citizens out of the equation. “Councilor Goudreau responded to a previous statement about Berlin becoming a Town vs. a City. It would not work in Berlin since people do not attend meetings. There would be no one in attendance to make decisions.” Why would anyone make an effort to attend knowing that their input and or issues land on deaf ears? There are so many comments that are made with out thinking that speak volumes as to the attitudes of councilman.

[Jonathan Edwards]

Some good news to keep our paper mills alive and good reason for these biomass companies to offer district heating?

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) biomass thermal amendment was unanimously approved by the senate energy committee. The amendment provides escalating renewable energy credits to biomass power that achieves higher levels of efficiency (i.e. capturing heat associated with biomass combustion and making use of that heat in facility processes or producing steam for sale to a third party etc.). The premise of the amendment is to address the inherent inefficiency of converting biomass to electric power, which tops out at about 25 percent efficiency. Sen. Shaheen asserted that unlike wind and solar, biomass is a finite (albeit renewable) resource and that striving for efficient use of this finite resource is important for existing and new users of biomass. The Shaheen amendment affords 1 renewable electricity credit for biomass energy that is at or below 50 percent efficient. That credit increases to 1.1 if the facility operates between 50 and 70 percent efficiency and increases again to 1.25 RECs for efficiency between 70 and 90 percent. Anything over 90 percent efficient would receive 1.5 RECS. This amendment may also produce significant benefits to the pulp and paper industry, since most mills operate between a 50 and 70 percent efficiency range through deployment of combined heat and power systems.

Note – finite and also note that straight electric tops out at 25% efficiency. Bubbling fluidized beds are actually on the lower end and will usually operate in the 18-20% efficiency range.

[Jonathan Edwards]

Here come the educational opportunities for locals to learn prior to forming conclusions (for a change.)Not only should this area's population attend the biomass forum but also attend the Success forum.

A Community Forum on

The Future of Success Township

Hosted by the
Androscoggin Valley Chamber of Commerce
The Conservation Fund
Mahoosuc Initiative
Appalachian Mountain Club

Will be held

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 from 6-9 pm

at the White Mountains Community College

The gathering will take place in the cafeteria where
Pizza and Beverages will be Served
Please RSVP so we may provide adequate refreshments.

You are invited to join a conversation about what Success means to you,
your community and the region and what your vision for this special area would be for the future.