Peterborough and the Monadnock region can’t solve problems such as the planet’s fossil fuel problem alone, said Bob Haring-Smith of the Peterborough Renewable Energy Project, but they can still make contributions.

Ways in which parties with different interests have collaborated to make those contributions was the theme of “Crossing Divides – Solving Problems,” a Community Conversation sponsored by the Monadnock Center for History and Culture and the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript and held at the center Wednesday. Bill Frantz chaired the discussion, which included Haring-Smith, PREP’s co-chair, along with Joel Huberman of the Peterborough Community Power Committee and Peterborough Affordable Housing Committee Chair Bonnie Tucker.

Huberman focused on the bipartisan work in the state Legislature that ultimately led to community power. It started in 1996, when New Hampshire had some of the highest electricity rates in the country, due in part to utilities owning and operating generating facilities, a condition that the utilities, ratepayers, businesses and legislators knew needed to change.

“There were perfect conditions for collaboration,” Huberman said.

The first efforts were laws requiring utilities to sell their generation facilities and allowing municipalities to “aggregate” their residents to form larger groups and seek better rates. However, the aggregation was on an opt-in basis, and not enough people were signing up. Therefore, a 2019 law allowed municipalities to establish plans where everyone using a utility’s default plan would automatically join the aggregation plan unless they opted out. In 2021, stakeholders and legislators worked out a compromise that saved a bill proposed by Epping Republican Michael Vose to help aggregation move forward while reducing risk.

Since then, Huberman said, community power has expanded rapidly.

“At least for community power, the two parties accomplished a great deal working together, and still are,” he said.

PREPping for the future

In 2021, Peterborough Town Meeting voting with a 74% majority to commit the town to transition to 100% renewable sources of electricity by 2030 and for all other energy needs by 2050. Select Board members established the Peterborough Renewable Energy Planning team to research and write a plan for meeting that goal. That group is now called the Peterborough Renewable Energy Project – still abbreviated PREP – and Haring-Smith said it is focusing on providing information about renewable energy sources and ways to finance them.

“It’s not cheap to replace your heat system,” he said. “It’s not cheap to install solar arrays.”

PREP is a small, enthusiastic group, Haring-Smith said, that has to work with the town and organizations such as Monadnock Sustainability Hub. In addition to co-hosting energy fairs with PREP, the hub is organizing a group of energy coaches who can help people considering energy upgrades. Dori Drachman, one of those coaches, said she sees it as a listening exercise and a way to help people who may not know what to do.

“It’s complicated. It has lots of different organizations to reach out to,” she said. “The technology is complicated, and the financing is complicated.” 

Peterborough and Harrisville have also combined for a HeatSmart+ campaign that recently kicked off in the two towns. Funds came from a $700,000 grant written by PREP members to the U.S. Department of Energy, and the campaign is offering rebates to qualified households for energy upgrades and supports courses for people pursuing careers in installing heat pumps or energy efficiency.

Haring-Smith said NH Saves is another organization people should look to.

Working together to increase housing

Tucker said the Affordable Housing Committee’s mission is to “engage, educate and advocate.” Part of that work was getting all the relevant town boards and committees to develop a shared statement on the desire to increase affordable housing, which Tucker said is “the one thing that really stuns people” when she speaks in other towns.

Tucker said committee members felt they understood the housing problem in the area, but they didn’t “deeply understand,” so they reached out to stakeholders, including employers. At any point in time, she said there are more than 200 open positions in town due to people not being able to find housing.

“We have quite a few large employers in this town, but we really didn’t know what they thought,” she said.

The committee also formed partnerships with businesses, so when Catholic Charities’ 96-unit Vose Farm Residences project came up for approval, they came to the meeting to speak on its behalf.

“It was a very powerful experience,” Tucker said.

After hearing from community members who said they weren’t sure if there should be more housing, the committee decided it was important to communicate what workforce and affordable housing were. To do so, they worked with the ConVal Theatre Arts Program and got a grant from New Hampshire Housing to create and record a play on the importance of developing workforce housing. 

Peterborough Community Theatre hosing a premiere screening of the play, which also included a panel with representatives from Microspec and American Steel, Catholic Charities, a town employee who lives in workforce housing and the student who directed the play.

In addition, the committee collaborated with local organizations on panels about accessory dwelling units.

“It was very well attended, and created a lot of interest,” Tucker said.

When an audience member asked how they’re working to reduce the number who don’t support affordable or workforce housing, Tucker replied, “It’s a work in progress,” and that it helps to show who the people are who will be living there.

“By and large, these people are working and active, productive citizens of the community,” she said.