Carbondale trustees hear Garfield Clean Energy update; staff seek 5% membership increase

At a Carbondale Board of Trustees work session, Garfield Clean Energy (GCE) staff operating under contract with CLEAR gave an update on countywide energy programs and asked the town to consider a roughly 5% increase in its membership contribution as staff draft the 2026 budget.

The presentation, delivered by Morgan Hill, associate director at CLEAR, and Dovah Zilli, CLEAR’s mobility program manager, covered four GCE focus areas: energy efficiency and electrification, locally produced renewable energy, clean transportation and multimodal mobility, and clean-energy workforce development. Hill said GCE is a government collaborative of nine member governments formalized through an intergovernmental agreement and that CLEAR operates several of GCE’s programs under contract.

Hill described Reenergize Garfield County, an income-qualified, one-stop residential efficiency program launched in 2022. “A resident or a family can apply for Reenergize, and then we get them from the application to $4,000 worth of energy efficiency measures for their home,” Hill said. The town has allocated $49,600 to the program since 2022, Hill told trustees, and participants report savings as large as $100 a month on energy bills.

CLEAR also operates an Advanced Energy Management (AEM) service that monitors interval utility data for town-owned buildings. Hill said Carbondale facilities tracked in the program, including town hall, the recreation center and the water and wastewater treatment plants, show a downward trend in energy use from 2024 to 2025. The wastewater treatment plant’s energy use fell notably after equipment upgrades, Hill said.

Zilli summarized clean-transportation initiatives. CLEAR helped Carbondale win two state grants for EV chargers — five Level 2 fleet chargers for the police department and five public Level 2 chargers for the downtown area — and ran two EV outreach events and an EV ride-and-drive that drew about 200 participants. CLEAR has also distributed 90 e-bikes to income-qualified Garfield County residents through a two-year program and provided $200 accessory vouchers for child seats and trailers.

Hill flagged upcoming items the town should expect, including a solar-production report GCE will share at a November meeting and the state’s Impact Accelerator grant opportunity. Hill said the grant application requires both a policy and a project component; the program’s vision budget can award up to $5,000,000 and the “standard budget” is about $2,000,000 per entity depending on state decisions.

Trustees and staff discussed a separate memo in the packet that requests an approximate 5% increase in Carbondale’s member contribution to GCE. Several trustees expressed support for keeping the request in the draft budget, citing demonstrated local benefits through Reenergize and AEM tracking data. Trustee Colin noted the AEM data’s value for capital planning, saying the monitoring has identified aging solar arrays and equipment that may need replacement.

The trustees did not take a formal vote; staff said the membership request will be considered as part of ongoing budget work and that trustees would be asked for final direction during the budget process.

The presentation materials and program details provided by CLEAR were the basis for the trustees’ questions and remarks.

Ending

CLEAR and GCE asked trustees to consider the membership contribution increase when staff finalize the town budget. Trustees requested the solar production report in November and signaled general support for programs that deliver direct, measurable savings to town facilities and residents.