FREEPORT – Most of the 26 income-eligible Freeport residents whose homes have been made more energy efficient with the help of a town-secured grant live in mobile homes, Town Planner Donna Larson says.
Joan Plourde’s home on Durham Road is one of them. Contractor Mark Poirier of The Heat Doctor in Portland recently conducted an assessment of Plourde’s home, then filled cracks on the main floor and in the basement. Plourde, a retiree who lives alone, said she expects to save significant money on her oil bill this winter.
“I’m on a budget plan,” Plourde said. “I pay $218 a month for 10 months. I think it’s really good. I think it’s going to help a lot.”
Larson said that as a yardstick, a family of two is income-eligible for the energy audit if it earns $49,500 a year or less.
Plourde, 82, said that Poirier and his crew were in her home for about two hours, locating cracks along the chimney, basement beams, electrical outlets and elsewhere, and filling them with a foam-like substance that dries. They knew what they were looking for, and got the job done, she said.
Plourde, who volunteers at Freeport Community Services, said she learned of the energy audit from Julie Fraser, the grant coordinator, while the two were at the Freeport Community Center one day. Fraser is still taking applications from people, who must meet low- to moderate-income guidelines.
Larson said that about a third of the $17,700 Community Development Block Grant money has been spent, with Poirier charging $600 per home.
Plourde said she is “holding her own” financially, partly because she doesn’t have a lot of needs and doesn’t travel too far.
The work on her home “will help with the fuel bill,” she said. “A lot of people could use the help a heck of a lot more than I could, but I was glad to have it. I’m just happy being here.”
Joan Plourde, at the kitchen table of her mobile home on Durham Road in Freeport, points to an area where a crew sealed an area around her chimney recently during an energy audit that came free of charge, with the help of a town-secured grant. Send questions/comments to the editors.
