Volume 19, Issue 29
Serving Durham, Middlefield and Rockfall
Hennick resigns from BOE By Stephanie Wilcox Town Times Durham resident Tom Hennick resigned from the RSD13 Board of Education. Hennick was a member of the board for 10 years and served as chair for the last five. Last month, board member Kerrie Flanagan was unanimously elected as chair. Superintendent Susan Viccaro said, “He certainly has done a great job as board chair for the last five years. He has exhibited leadership and
looked at issues from multiple perspectives. He was pretty even-handed. I think he did a good job.” “On a personal note,” Viccaro continued, “I will miss him.” The reason for his resignation is unclear. A town meeting must be called within 30 days from the date of resignations to elect a successor to serve until the next general election, at which time a successor shall be elected to serve any unexpired portions of such term.
TownTimes.com
Friday, July 20, 2012
Church participates in mission trip to Kentucky Members of the United Churches of Durham’s annual Summer Mission Trip to Eastern Kentucky were treated to a special BBQ dinner at the Magoffin County Health Department in Salyersville, Ky., recently. The dinner marked mark the 10th anniversary of their mission work with LINKS (The Low Income Housing Coalition of East Kentucky) and was cohosted by members of the board of directors of LINKS, including John Rosenberg, Esq., Ned Pillersdorf, Esq.
The 45 members of the 2012 Mission Trip in front of the Durham Building - named in honor of the United Churches of Durham - at LINK’s Bonanza, KY VolunSee Mission, page 11 teer Center.
Going solar was natural next step for Durham family By Stephanie Wilcox Town Times
Lynn Hettrick says her husband, Doug, calls her Captain Planet because of her recycling efforts. Yes, she is very earth-friendly. In addition to recycling as often as possible, she started a compost bin last fall, has grown a small vegetable garden the last three years, changes out incandescent light bulbs for LED lighting and uses high efficiency appliances. She uses reusable canvas bags for shopping — never plastic bags — buys local food as much as possible and purchases products made from recycled material. She’s even drastically reduced her consumption of red meat. It was only a matter of time before the Durham family installed solar panels on the roof of their home — the next step in going greener. “I’m very interested in doing my part to help the planet and reduce my impact on the environment,” said Lynn Hettrick. “That’s always been very important to me, and I knew at some point I wanted to use solar panels and renewable energy.” She had looked into solar panels a
Photo submitted by Lynn Hettrick
Solar panels are installed at the Hettrick house. few years ago, but Doug wasn’t quite convinced. But after last year’s Storms Irene and Alfred, the Hettricks were out of power for almost a week each time. “That was the tipping point for my husband,” Hettrick said. “Either we look into solar panels or get a generator. When we were getting low on gas and no stations were open, we
were thinking generators were not the way to go. That’s what finally convinced him.” So in May, the Hettricks had 36 solar panels installed on their southfacing Hellgate Road home. In early June, the power company switched their meter, and after a month of being officially solar, Hettrick said her family “notices nothing at all” about
the switch. Except for their most recent electric bill. Where once the bill was around $170 a month, this time it was just $18 — $16 of it is a small fee to be connected to the grid as a customer; the other $2 is electricity they used last month. “I think we used the air conditioner,” she said. The law in Connecticut says that utility companies have to buy back the power your solar panels produce. During the day, most homeowners are not home to use the power, so the energy flows back to the utility grid for someone else to use, and you get a credit. At night, you aren’t generating any, power so you are buying the “kilowatt hours” from the company. Every month, the utility company looks at what you sold them and what you bought and then bills you on the difference. On a monthly basis, it generally nets out. “It’s kind of a credit, a trade thing,” she said. “If we end up producing more than we use in a year’s time, we get a refund.” Another perk to going solar are the rebates and tax credits. Connecticut’s rebate is about 50-60 per-
See Solar, page 5