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Date: 2/21/2023
EASTHAMPTON — The city of Easthampton received a $50,000 grant from the Department of Revenue’s Division of Local Services through the Best Practices Community Compact Program for its Climate Action Plan. It will serve as a roadmap for local businesses, residents and the municipal offices to achieve a cleaner, net-zero carbon emitting city; examining the work they have already done and identify what city offices, residents and local businesses can do next to make the most of the coming state and federal incentives to support these improvements.
Conservation Agent Cassie Tragert explained, “It was great news to hear. This is going to be such an important and hopefully impactful plan to get developed for the city. We’re really excited to move forward as soon as we can.”
The Climate Action Plan is a collaboration between the mayor’s office, the Planning Department and the Energy Advisory Committee to reduce the use of fossil fuels and carbon emissions in the city as a whole. Tragert told Reminder Publishing the need to pursue a project such as this has been known for some time. Specifically when the City Council issued their resolution establishing that there is a climate emergency for the city back in 2021. Tragert is working with the Energy Advisory Committee and the Planning Department to figure out what they can do reduce their climate impacts and what the city contributes to climate change. “This grant opportunity seemed like a perfect fit to help some of the funding we needed,” Tragert added.
This plan will evaluate and incorporate the numerous ongoing projects toward combating climate change already underway. This includes the Honeywell energy efficiency improvements, implementation of the Green Infrastructure Master Plan including improvements to Cherry Street and Emerald Place, the development of a citywide pollinator plan, and pursuit of conversion of the city’s fleet to electric vehicles.
Tragert explained, “Developing the scope was a big part of the process and making sure we knew what we wanted and identifying clearly what we want from a consultant who would help us.” She continued, “Then we identified a consultant, Weston & Sampson who we were in the process of finishing the contracting with them now, so hopefully we can get started.”
The project should take over a year to complete the plan and have it issued. The next steps would be finalizing the contracts with Weston & Sampson and getting started on developing the plan.
“We hope this will be a powerful tool for the city to use to pursue some of the funding opportunities that are coming down from the state and federal level,” said Tragert. “We want to make sure Easthampton is prepared to take advantage of those opportunities and try to implement some of these actions and get some of those funds working towards bettering Easthampton.”