Heat is on for nonprofits
Churches and theaters worry about 30 percent higher fuel oil prices
Article published Oct 26, 2008
Barre/Montpelier Times Argus and Rutland Herald

By BRENT CURTIS Staff Writer

It promises to be a more difficult winter than usual for nonprofit organizations, churches and other groups.

Directors of galleries, theaters, churches and nonprofit groups around the state say they are consolidating services, buttoning up their buildings or simply turning down the thermostat to save money on fuel this winter.

However, most groups haven't taken the drastic step the Chaffee Art Center in Rutland has: Officials there announced in September they will close for the winter.

Oil prices have dropped recently from the peak rate of $4.65 per gallon in July to $3.39 per gallon as of Oct. 20. Even so, Vermont Department of Public Service officials predicted last month that fuel prices from October through March would be about 30 percent higher this winter than last.

At the Church of our Savior in Killington, communications minister Anne Brown said her congregation locked in a purchase price of $3.90 per gallon for heating fuel this winter. The church paid $2.79 a gallon last year.

"It's a very real issue and it's going to be tough to deal with this year," she said. "We've decided we're going to use less fuel one way or another this winter."

Vermont Catholic and Episcopalian leaders said individual churches pay for their own heating bills either out of operations budgets or through heating bill collections. Many church officials plan to cut heating expenses this winter by minimizing the use of their large, drafty buildings.

At St. Mark Episcopal Church in Springfield, the Rev. Sherry Osborn said the vestry decided two months ago to move services from the sanctuary to the parish hall in mid-November through Palm Sunday, which falls on April 5 next year.

"We have the typical cathedral ceilings in the sanctuary and it's a much larger space to heat," Osborn said. "The parish (hall) is always being heated anyway so it made sense to consolidate into one building to conserve."

Father Yvon Royer at St. Mary Catholic Church in Newport said the church's fuel bill will increase $36,000 this year. The parish is making weatherization improvements to the building, converting some heating systems (it has installed a number of electric heaters) and implementing conservation strategies that include a call to parishioners to bundle up this winter.

"We're going to keep the heat lower in the church so people will need to sit closer and dress warmly," Royer said.

Churches aren't the only nonprofit groups worried about high fuel bills this winter.

At the Chandler Music Hall in Randolph, executive director Becky McMeekin said booked shows must go on as scheduled throughout the season, but she said her group, which leases the theater from the town, might raise the rent for anyone looking to use the theater between shows.

For next year, McMeekin said her group is thinking about shifting performance schedules to reduce heating costs.

"It's an unfortunate reality," she said.

At the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Burlington, executive director Andrea Rogers said her group has done all it can to make the 1,450-seat theater more energy efficient. While the organization has a fuel surcharge clause in its lease contracts that would allow the theater to charge renters for the heating bill, Rogers said the theater doesn't intend to exercise the clause.

Rick Winston, co-owner of the Savoy Theater in Montpelier, said there's not much more he can do to insulate the 130-seat theater, and curtailing hours would cost more than it would save.

The directors of the Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Montpelier and the Rutland Free Library said keeping their doors open is a civic duty.

"All of us are on shoestring budgets … but in difficult times, libraries become so important to people," said Hilari Farrington, library director for Kellogg-Hubbard. "We do our best to stay open so that people who can't afford the Internet can have access; so people have a warm place to go for a few hours or just a book to read if they can't afford to buy them."

Paula Baker, the executive director of the Rutland Free Library, held the same opinion: "We serve the community in so many ways that it would be counterintuitive to reduce services."

One local nonprofit group has been asked to help others conserve fuel.

Rutland County Boys & Girls Club executive director Larry Bayle said his group was asked to keep a satellite club at the Forest Park subsidized housing complex open longer so parents could cut back on fuel usage.

"These parents are worried literally for every extra hour they need to keep their thermostat up," Bayle said.

Unfortunately, Bayle said his group is unable to keep the club open beyond the 7:30 p.m. closing time.

Contact Brent Curtis at brent.curtis@rutlandherald.com.