North Andover has been designated as a Green Community by the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources.
The town received almost $169,390. Officials said the ceremony that it will use the money to retrofit LED street lights and may purchase an electric car, according to The Eagle Tribune. The site reported that more than half of the municipalities in the commonwealth are Green Communities. That covers 64 percent of residents.
The story says that a big step toward winning the designation was the adoption of the Stretch Energy Code.
Communities increasingly are seeking green alternatives. It’s good for the environment and the bottom line, two things that officials at the local and state level like on their resumes as the next election approaches.
Last autumn, New York’s Five Cities Energy Plans initiative offered $5 million in funding for energy projects in Yonkers, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany and Buffalo, according to a story in Westfair Business Publications.
Nineteen municipalities and schools in Vermont in the Windham Solid Waste Management District were invited to use net metering credits that flowed from a proposed 5MW solar array that is planned for the district’s closed and capped landfill. The story initially was posted by the Brattleboro Reformer on January 1.