By Suzanne Hodgson
Staff Writer

Kennebunk Selectmen voted to provide support for a proposed federally funded energy- efficient loan program.
Less than a week after a workshop between the Kennebunk Energy Efficiency Advisory Committee and selectmen, the board unanimously voted to tell legislators they support the program and are interested in participating in the program.
The loan program, Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, is part of an energy bill being reviewed in Augusta.
Administered by Efficiency Maine Trust, the PACE program is waiting for a $75 million grant in federal stimulus funds to set up a bond fund for towns across the state. Money would be loaned to residents for energy savings improvements in homes and businesses.
Residents would pay loans back over 20 years through an annual assessment on their property tax bills.
Committee Chairman Sassy Smallman said Maine residents have some of the oldest houses in the country. The average Maine home uses 900 gallons of oil per year, the most oil per capita consumed by any state, according to the state Department of Energy.
“Maine residents have high energy bills and weatherization can reduce them significantly,” Smallman said.
During the Jan. 19 workshop, the committee discussed ways to weatherize and winterize homes in Maine.
Smallman showed the board a $20 wooden window frame with a plastic covering that could be manufactured at schools in Regional School Unit 21.
The committee is working to find inexpensive ways to keep people warm during the winter, especially in homes where the family may need help paying heating bills. It has asked selectmen for a maximum of $2,500 from either the heating fund or selectmen’s contingency fund to help pay for improvements.
“Our intent in the winterization would be targeted to the same group of people that the assistance fuel program helps,” said committee member Sharon Staz.
“I support what these people are doing by saving money and saving energy, but it all stems from global warming hysteria,” Selectman Al Searles said.
Searles also had problems with the committee’s requests to change building codes in Kennebunk, which may be mandated throughout the state.  The building codes would require more energy- efficient houses.
He said new codes would make houses more expensive and keep people from being able to buy their first home.
Committee member Jennifer Niese told Searles that the new codes were more concerned with conforming building codes across the state.
A public hearing on the issue will be Feb. 24 at town hall.

Staff Writer Suzanne Hodgson can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 233.