worker
Hancock Shaker Village keeping our series on Berkshire County and say we're
going to be talking about two different phrases
BYOB and math solar both which means something completely different here
in Great Barrington in Berkshire County and join me to talk about that I have
mark prevent he was on great
Barrington's boorda help and Chris rumbled with the town planner for Great
Barrington
gentlemen thank you so much for joining me this afternoon
that will start with you mark so talk to me BYOB
means bring your own bad great brington it means bring your own bag
a are plastic bag ban
went for fact this past Saturday and I so far has been a great success
sup aren't there the band started March first
so this is pretty innovative for Great Barrington because you're the first one
in Berkshire County in really the other towns that have implemented that
kinda further eat you guys are here kinda at the forefront out this
yeah first-hand in Berks County and forth in the state
and we're hoping that you know what will be a
success story in hopefully a mile to some other communities
I we're gonna come back to you in get into a more detailed about how stores
are adapting to this change but
Chris let's talk to you about Solarize mass what exactly
is the project people are familiar with it Solarize mass is a great program
that's
made possible through the state's Department of Energy Resources
and Clean Energy Center and what they do is provide some funds to local towns
like Great Barrington
so that residents and business owners in those town can
can benefit from balk purchasing of solar power for themselves they can save
money on their electric bills
by going solar seems like you both
both initiatives are very on that heading ads
have you gotten resistance or negative feedback from people who didn't want to
switch over
a we've had a little bit of pushback
from a few residents and and mice if you i mean literally like
to be the business community really embraced it
it was a great collaborative effort from
you know the the community the a the business owners the school
Chamber of Commerce everyone tanking together and and really
push this forward to innocent person UK implemented something that maybe even
other
surrounding communities have it back in the 90's you guys implemented at the
on-site from
right we have a little experience with this so 1990 very very early on we we
ban styrofoam in
on it's been extremely successful so this is
on I guess our next hopefully successful effort
and we're were you guys are trying to get that thing tepid enthusiasm when it
comes to you
solar energy for local resident anything
difficult though 4p I mean change is always difficult on
you probably think that with the passing back yet but is it difficult for
consumers to really
ambery that change in like just go with it you know this
this isn't easy program for people to get behind
it's really whether it makes economic sense for them company comes out
assesses their roof to the get enough Sun to the use enough energy
is going to save them money and if it makes economic sense for them
they can sign up there's no obligation so really this is a
this is a dollars and cents choice for them and were hoping for
for a great success it's been wonderful in other towns in the Berkshires so
we just talked that we can save our residents money till with the most
difficult part
the process I am I think
I your the most difficult part is probably just getting people over the
initial
up outlay love have money to purchase a solar system for the but the wonderful
thing about
the solar installer for Great Barrington as they also offer
a no money down lease option
so you have to put any money up front you can just sign up and somebody who
actually rent your route and you agree to by
cheap electricity and there you go you're off and running
so there there's a great way to overcome for some it seems like me
be a win-win situation it it really can be
I mean people can start saving money as whenever the sun shining
how about businesses is this the same win-win situation a lot of times if
somebody might complain multipet regulations on me it's gonna cost me
money and
you know that's not good for business that then there was some concern about
that early on
you know a we really our approach to this was to
really encourage businesses and residents
Chinese shoppers for an hour in great brington to not just simply replace
paper
sorry classic with paper but to bomb
really bring their reusable cloth canvas bag long life bags with them
so the do you feel like the get the residents seem like they'd
it was like easier for residents to get on board because obviously there's no
there's not much event output from than the store for the 100-year all the
changing over
but the businesses you feel are just as on board as the president
I think they've been extremely cooperative
you know that there are selling their expense somewhat by the ten-cent
bag fee on there was a voluntary effort but
you know that is one additional step that will encourage people to bring
campus reusable bags without
she has been fire from now passing bag this are you guys ready they're kinda
implement something up on the cutting edge of
caring for the environment not that important thing ever
are to let you know he's I well a great initiative that people are actually
concerned about the environment and the world they're living in
and it seems like Berkshire County somebody you know in a little town in
Berkshire County is really making
step that really even other towns are we're definitely try
that's all you can do. hey thank you so much crap and Mark from great barrington
coming