Solar panels installed on the Hartford, Maine town hall roof through a Community Action Grant with the Center for an Ecology-Based Economy as a Service Provider. (Courtesy photo)
Maine Invests in Rural Communities
Renee Igo
Since Maine launched its Community Resilience Partnership in 2022, the Center for an Ecology-Based Economy (CEBE) has been contracted by the state to work as a service provider to assist western Maine towns with program enrollment and help them compete for Community Action Grants. “Many of these towns lack a town manager, and often, their only paid staff are responsible for everything from dog registrations to tax collection. They simply don’t have the capacity to apply for state funding,” said Claire Emrick, CEBE’s Community Resilience Coordinator. CEBE, a climate justice nonprofit located in Norway, Maine, steps in to help fill these gaps. By working with interested municipalities to engage citizens in the enrollment process, CEBE helps local governments identify funding priorities ranging from safe streets planning to heat pump installation, solar arrays, and more. CEBE supports each town in submitting its first Community Action Grant to the state. Since 2022, CEBE has helped bring over $900,000 into the region for climate resilience projects in twelve towns, with four more currently in the enrollment process.
The Town of Norway received their first Community Action Grant in May 2022, $50,000 to start a coordinated climate plan for the community. The project involved conducting a community vulnerability assessment and an infrastructure vulnerability assessment, and forming a climate committee. In 2023, the town received their second grant of $48,526 to install solar panels on the roof of the police garage and conduct an energy audit. With CEBE’s support, the town received an additional $100,000 in 2024 through the Energy Efficiency Priorities Grant to expand on-site solar to the town office’s roof. “As a small rural town in the western foothills of Maine, we are incredibly fortunate to have a strong partnership with CEBE,” said Sarah Carter, member of the Norway Select Board. “They have provided insight, expertise and patience throughout our Community Resilience Partnership. From conducting vulnerability assessments to planning and implementing projects, they have helped us navigate through the entire process.”
Weatherization of municipal buildings and installation of heat pumps have been some of the most popular projects among the towns that CEBE has worked with, providing financial savings to taxpayers as well as more predictable electricity costs for budgeting than volatile heating oil costs. Towns have also chosen to use funds for energy audits, forming resilience committees to support project implementation and further grant-seeking, feasibility studies for heating and cooling centers, watershed protection awareness, lighting upgrades, appliance upgrades, and active transportation planning. The list of priority actions eligible for Community Action Grants includes over 70 different projects across eight strategy areas, but the greatest interest so far has been on the low-hanging fruit of energy efficiency upgrades.
The public engagement process of enrollment in the Community Resilience Partnership is key to the success of each project. CEBE has been a trusted community partner since 2013, completing projects and conducting outreach in the region. Engagement meetings allow citizens to voice their own observations of how the weather has changed in their community while they’ve lived there, and CEBE provides western Maine-based data on changes in precipitation, temperature, and ice-out dates for a local lake. These nonpartisan forums allow for discussing climate change and focus on identifying solutions, yielding fruitful discussions about future projects and goals for each community. Ultimately, residents and elected officials need not agree on the specifics of climate change to move forward with cost-saving measures like weatherization. CEBE staff facilitate a participatory decision-making process to rank priority actions, emphasizing the nonprofit’s role as a facilitator rather than a decision-maker. Staff then support elected officials in collecting quotes for project budgets and writing grants.
At CEBE, staff believe in the ripples of these projects as viable demonstrations in rural communities. When they are voting or registering a vehicle, town residents see solar panels and heat pumps in their municipal buildings, perhaps lessening resistance among those unfamiliar with these products or opposed to climate action. Additionally, these town halls and fire halls have gained the ability to become cooling centers with the installation of heat pumps, as most lacked air conditioning previously.
One of the challenges of this work that CEBE continues to strive to address is project management once a municipality receives a grant. Just as these small towns lack the capacity to apply for grants, they often can struggle to implement and report on the grant-funded project, especially for longer-term projects. Additionally, while a well-implemented grant may save the town money, it doesn’t necessarily add to the town’s capacity to apply for future grant opportunities. CEBE continues to explore other funding sources to provide more thorough wrap-around services to be able to respond to requests for support that fall outside of particular grant requirements. For 2024-2025, a Maine Service Fellow through Volunteer Maine will help fill these gaps.
As an organization that emphasizes equity while working for a just transition, CEBE sees their work with rural towns as crucial to equitable distribution of state funding. Without intentionality in the design of programs like the Community Resilience Partnership, and without outside intervention like a Service Provider, CEBE has often observed grant opportunities going to places that already have the resources to apply for them, creating feedback loops that exclude rural and vulnerable populations. These investments in western Maine will help residents adapt to and thrive in a changed climate.
Renee Igo is CEBE’s Communications and Project Coordinator. Renee raises sheep and writes in western Maine.
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