Story by Rodger Nichols for Gorge Country Media:
Tough news at last night’s Goldendale City Council meeting from KVH’s Jonathan Lewis about the long-planned microgrid that would tie the hospital and the high school together with a solar array. It was awarded funding from the Building Resilience Infrastructure and Communities or BRIC program back in 2022.
07 08 25 Lewis 1 :24 “That was moving forward. We got it to 100% design. We were transitioning from the design phase with FEMA to the construction phase, when we were notified all the BRIC funding was cut, and reinforcement and rainwater stormwater retention, all these building resilience infrastructure projects that people had been working of for years and years – all those were just done.”
He said the project had spent nearly a million dollars getting to that point, and had been reassured the grant would finish paying for the design study, but would stop there.There was a small silver lining, though.
07 08 25 Lewis 2 :18 “We did have a matching grant from the Department of Commerce for that project. So FEMA was putting $9.8 million and Commerce was then putting in $1.54 million. We’re working with Commerce to change that from a matching grant to a solar only grant, so we can move forward with the solar piece.”
He also mentioned a heat pump proposal for the hospital.
07 08 25 Lewis 3 :15. “Representative Mosbrucker helped us get this grant and develop these goals and study, and they determined that bringing in a ground-source heat pump would reduce our need for natural gas by 93 percent and save us tens of thousands of dollars of fuel costs.”
In other news, Police Chief Mike Smith said the department had answered 299 calls for service last month, and made 10 arrests. Fire Chief Noah Halm said the Fourth of July had gone well, with only one fire at World War II Park that was quickly put out.