Raymond and Windham go green with electric vehicles, cutting costs and contributing to energy efficiency

Many municipalities across Maine and beyond, including
the towns of Raymond and Windham, are incorporating
electric vehicles for town employee use. The cost savings
are vast, benefiting taxpayers in more ways than one. Seen
here is the Town of Raymond's new Chevrolet Bolt.
SUBMITTED PHOTO  

By Lorraine Glowczak

“Electric, steam and internal combustion engines were all in contention as a means to power early automobiles,” said Raymond Town Manager Don Willard, who enjoys historical trivia. “It was the internal combustion engine that became the preferred power source. Can you imagine where we would be today if the electric option had been selected back then and developed for the past 100 plus years?”

Willard’s discovery seems correct. According to the Federal Department of Energy, the first small-scale electric engine was invented in the 1830s, rising to popularity in the early 20^th century “accounting for a third of all vehicles on the road” in the United States. But it was the mass production of the Model T Ford that made the gas-powered internal combustion engine more affordable, causing the attraction to the electric car to wane.

Fast forward 100 years and the tide is turning once again. But this time around, the more affordable mode of transportation is the cost-efficient electric vehicle (EV). Many municipalities across Maine and beyond, including the towns of Raymond and Windham, are incorporating the EV for town employee use. The cost savings are vast, benefitting taxpayers in more ways than one.

The Windham Town Council approved a three-year lease of a 2017 Nissan Leaf on April 25, 2017, purchasing the vehicle on July 16, 2020. 

“This was a project identified in the Town’s Energy Plan adopted in May 2011,” said Windham’s Environmental and Sustainability Coordinator Gretchen Anderson. “The Nissan Leaf utilizes a 30-kWh lithium-ion battery with an estimated mile range average just over 106 MPG, dependent on driving style and outdoor temperature.”

Anderson said that the Town of Windham estimates operating savings ranging from $2,000 to $5,000 annually based on an analysis prepared by the Greater Portland Council of Governments at the time of Council approval. “Actual savings fluctuate within that range based on the cost of gasoline and the number of miles driven,” she said.

While Windham has been utilizing the cost savings of an EV since 2017, Raymond has recently purchased their first EV approximately three weeks ago and are looking forward to the same cost savings.

“We purchased a new 2020 Chevrolet Bolt at the first of February,” said Raymond’s Communication Director, Kaela Gonzalez. “The car will be available to all town employees in any department to take trainings or run town related errands thus reducing our mileage reimbursement costs which is done at the Federal rate. The cost to charge the car is estimated to be roughly $500/year according to the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).”

Gonzalez also said the average gas mileage of Raymond’s current fleet of light vehicles is around 12.5 mpg. “If the Bolt were to be driven 3,300 miles per year replacing our current municipal vehicle miles, we would save enough money on fuel alone to offset the operational costs of the Bolt for the entire year.”

Another positive regarding Raymond’s recent purchase is the resale value down the road.

“We have a saying in Raymond that we seek to achieve revenue neutral solutions when providing services,” Willard said. “The Bolt acquisition will actually be revenue positive for us. We were able to purchase the Bolt at a very low cost due to the rebates offered by Efficiency Maine and incentives offered by Chevrolet,” Willard said. “The original MRSP for the vehicle was $39,895 and after incentives the cost was reduced to $16,562.75. After four to five years the residual value will be between $21,000 to $22,000. The town will thereby recover the initial purchase cost and perhaps $4,500 to $5,000 more in addition to benefiting from transportation cost savings.”

The purchase of an EV is beneficial to the residents of both towns, not only monetarily but in terms of environmental sustainability as well.

In Anderson’s research that is based on EPA’s latest fuel economy and emission rate data, a gasoline vehicle emits more than 5 tons of carbon dioxide per year. “That’s four times as much as carbon emissions as an EV using power from the electric grid,” Anderson said, reflecting on her inquiry. She also said that, overall, driving on electricity in Maine produces the global warming emissions equivalent to a gasoline- powered vehicle that gets 102 miles per gallon.

Additionally, both towns are invested in pursuing other environmentally sustainable projects with the incorporation of LED streetlights and the use of solar panels in Windham.

“The Windham Town Council considers sustainability and the environment a priority, with the utilization of an electric vehicle being one of many projects the Town has pursued,” Anderson said. “The Town is reviewing additional alternative energy vehicle procurement through Efficiency Maine and factory rebates.”

Willard and Gonzalez are also grateful for the generous incentive provided by Efficiency Maine and see this as a demonstration project to highlight the viability of electric powered vehicles. The longer-term plan is to turn the after-use sale proceeds of the Bolt into the purchase of an EV pickup truck or SUV for full-time use by the Code Enforcement Officer.

Both towns have an electric car charging station at their respective town halls, and they are open to the public. Along with Windham and Raymond, charging locations can be found on Efficiency Maine’s Charging Station Locator.

If Windham residents are interested in the energy efficiency work being completed in Windham, consider volunteering for the Town’s Energy Advisory Committee. Applications can be found on the town website.

If Raymond residents would like to learn more about electric vehicles and the town’s other energy saving projects, Willard invites them to call his office at 207-655-4742 ext. 131.

“We now are at the Model T stage of the electric car,” Willard said. “And it is only going to improve from here, both economically and environmentally.” <

Managing the 90 Year Crop: Sustainable Forestry in Raymond’s Hayden-Murdock Memorial Forest

Hayden-Murdock Memorial Forest

By Briana Bizier

Have you ever looked at a stretch of forest along the shore of one of our beautiful lakes and wondered how long it would remain undeveloped?

This tree was removed because it showed signs of damage.

For the Hayden-Murdock Memorial Forest on Panther Pond, the answer is forever. Owned by the Maine Woodland Owners as a land trust, this 100-acre parcel on Panther Pond is a working forest managed sustainably by the forestry company Timberstate G. to encourage tree health and growth. The Maine Woodland Owners currently own more than 5,000 acres of land, all of which is open to the public, sustainably managed and permanently protected from development. Although they are a non-profit organization, the Maine Woodland Owners chooses to pay property taxes out of the proceeds of their timber management.

This forest property contains 1,000 feet of lake frontage which will never be developed, and the entire acreage is open to the public for hiking, hunting, or nature walks. The property is also crossed by an existing snowmobile trail for winter access to the woods.

On a recent beautiful, sunny Wednesday, Greg Foster of Timberstate G. gave me a tour of the property to explain how sustainable forestry works. In the 1800s, the lot which eventually became the Hayden-Murdock forest was a sheep farm. As Foster and I walked through the woods, we found several crumbling rock walls, evidence of the land’s past as a working farm. The sheep fields reverted to forest in the 1920s, and the land was donated to the Maine Woodland Owners in October of 2000. 

Since then, the Maine Woodland Owners has held several meetings and demonstrations on the property, including inviting members of the Portland Water District to discuss past and future forest management and its impact on the watershed.

“The objectives of long-term forestry are very compatible with long term environmental goals,” Foster said as we began our walk in the woods.

Sustainable forestry, he explained, involves a careful inspection of every single tree on the lot. The larger trees are the most profitable, but size isn’t the only concern when a forester marks a tree for cutting. On the Hayden-Murdock acreage, the current timber harvest is being managed for maximum sustainability. This means any tree which shows signs of insect damage, disease, or rot is removed, even though those trees are not the most valuable. Clearing those trees, Foster explained, opens the forest to more sunlight and air flow.

“Sunlight is the only thing we can control,” he told me. Removing the larger trees allows more sunlight to penetrate the canopy and reach the forest floor, encouraging the growth of the most valuable tree in the forest: white pine.

Maine’s famous white pine has been highly valued since the 1600s, when it was used for the masts of the great ships of England’s Royal Navy. Many of the original white pines in Maine were marked with “The King’s Broad Arrow,” a pattern of three hatchet slashes forming an arrow pointed toward England. It was illegal to cut a white pine with the King’s Arrow, a law which fueled the simmering resentment toward England which eventually boiled over and created an independent United States.

These days, foresters use bright orange spray paint instead of hatchet marks to indicate which trees will be removed from a forest. As we walked through an area of forest which had been logged several days earlier, I was surprised to note how many large white pines remained standing.

“We’re doing what’s right for the forest,” Foster explained, “and leaving the best quality trees.”

The hemlock, white pine, and hardwood trees taken from this plot of woods will travel all over New England. The largest and highest quality wood will be sold to lumber yards, where it is destined to become boards, furniture, decorative trim, or even tongue and groove planks. The tops of the trees, which tend to be smaller and knottier, become pulp logs for paper mills, or are processed into wood chips and sold to mills or power plants to generate electricity. Remaining tree limbs are returned to the forest, where they will decompose naturally.

“If a landowner can get good returns on selling timber, they’re a lot less likely to sell their land for development,” Foster said. “The forest is like an investment. You can’t have a better long-term investment than high quality fiber from a forest.”

Lily the forestry dog on a recently felled white pine 

This acreage, Foster elaborated, will probably be logged every fifteen or twenty years. Cory Jordan of Jordan Tree Removal, the loggers who are currently removing trees in the forest with high tech machines like feller bunchers, explained that he and Foster had logged the Hayden-Murdock Memorial Forest fifteen years ago.

“There was a lot more rotten pine then,” Jordan said, explaining how the sustainable forestry practices of fifteen years ago had led to healthier trees for this harvest.

I noted that sustainable forestry was a bit like farming, only on a very large time scale. Jordan laughed.

“Instead of a ninety-day crop, we’ve got a ninety-year crop,” he said.

As Foster and I walked through sections of forest which were marked for logging and sections holding stacks of trees that had just been felled, chickadees flitted over our heads and an enormous pileated woodpecker flew between the trees. Foster explained Maine state regulations recommend foresters leave one standing tree per acre to remain as a “wildlife tree,” although his practices of thinning the forest to maximize white pines left significantly more than one tree per acre.

I also noticed many white pine saplings lining the forest floor. Some of those trees barely reached my knees, and some were almost as tall as me. Foster explained that white pine seeds germinate quickly after a logging operation, especially along the trails which have been disturbed by logging equipment.

He told me the saplings which now reach my shoulders may be ready to harvest in a hundred years.

We won’t be around to see them when they are harvested, but the Hayden-Murdock Memorial Forest will remain a forest for the next hundred years, open to the public and echoing with the sounds of chickadees and woodpeckers as the white pines stretch toward the sun.