HAMILTON — A goal of net zero emissions is often more like a dream than reality for many businesses, communities and homeowners.
But Hamilton is well on its way to showing carbon neutrality is possible with its major renovation project to Town Hall. The stately 128-year-old building is being turned into an accessible, net-zero carbon footprint center for town government while preserving its historic character.
Town officials say it will be the first historic town hall in Massachusetts to be carbon neutral.
The idea had begun to percolate among town officials well before the pandemic.
They were starting to talk about updating Town Hall in other ways as well: Building ground-floor handicap access ramps and an elevator for handicap access to the second-floor meeting hall and the offices there; strengthening the meeting hall floor to accommodate more people; reconfiguring the interior to better suit today’s uses; and, over time, finding more ways to reduce power and heating costs.
As they began to research the availability of outside funding to help finance the burgeoning list of projects, they realized that a significant percentage of the costs might be covered by sources such as the Community Preservation Act, state grants and federal incentives.
Since many of these grants and incentives were intended to promote energy efficiency and carbon-neutral projects, officials began to discuss incorporating multiple elements into the project that might ultimately save the town money and contribute to preserving the environment.
During those years, three proposals, each broader and more extensive than the last, were presented to Town Meeting and each rejected until finally, in September 2024, the most ambitious and costliest got a go-ahead from the town.
In December, the project, with an estimated price tag of $10.5 million, finally got underway. The bulk of the project costs will be covered by $6.4 million from the town’s community preservation funds — the remaining money the town will contribute is previously approved free cash and does not rely on additional expense to Hamilton taxpayers.
At the heart of the restoration is Town Hall’s enormous meeting room on the second floor with its domed ceiling. The room extends nearly the entire length of the main building, and town officials wanted to strengthen the structure supporting the floor to increase its seating capacity.
The engineers, explained DPW Director and site supervisor Tim Olson, planned to reinforce the floor supports, but once they got into the space, they found that much less work would be required than they initially thought.
On a recent walk-through of the work zone, most of the first floor of the building looked like it had been gutted, reconfigured, and reframed. HVAC systems — ducts, vents and fans had been installed in many of the ceilings; larger, similar metal boxes were standing in the floor, awaiting installation.
The entire building, when complete, will be handicapped accessible, and the installation of five major energy systems will enable it to achieve a net-zero carbon footprint.
The first system is the geothermal heat pump system that will provide heating and cooling to the building via underground water pumped in a continuous loop through two wells. As of mid-March, roughly three months after work began, the two deep wells had been bored to support the system.
Vicky Masone, head of the project’s energy component for the town, said the underground water — which maintains a constant 155-degree temperature — is pumped up from the 1,100-foot well, through two geothermal heat pumps with variable refrigerant flow heating and cooling equipment, then back into the earth via the 1,000-foot well.
This, together with a heat-recovery ventilation system, is expected to maintain a comfortable year-round inside temperature at Town Hall without requiring any non-renewable energy source or outside electricity.
A 36-kilowatt solar array, which will be built on the roof of the DPW garage behind Town Hall, will provide about 60,000 kilowatts of electricity needed to meet the energy requirements of the renovated building, including the geothermal heat pump system, explained Olson.
It will also support a full LED lighting system, and an advanced building management system that will improve air quality, minimize energy consumption and enable building automation.
The solar array will also power the building’s other electricity needs — its computers, communication system and other miscellaneous power requirements.
The new power system will not have a battery backup.
“When solar production is high, the solar array will be generating more than the building needs, and the excess power will be fed back into the grid, Masone said. “When solar production is low the building will take what it needs from the grid to meet the building’s demand.
“We are estimating that what we feed the grid during times of overproduction will equal what we take from it during times of under/no production — nighttime, cloudy days, etc. — and the net annually will be zero.”
“At its core,” Town Manager Joseph Domelowicz said, “this project aims to preserve the building’s historic character while significantly reducing its environmental impact.
“It is a testament to our commitment to a sustainable future. By investing in energy-efficient technologies, we are not only reducing our carbon footprint but also saving taxpayer dollars.”
The $10.5 million project is being funded from various sources, according to town officials. In addition to $6.4 million from the CPA — which was first adopted by Hamilton voters in 2005 — there’s a $500,000 grant from the Department of Energy Resources’ decarbonization fund, National Grid contributed $150,000 through its Mass Save program, and $270,000 came from federal incentives for the geothermal and solar components.
Additionally, some of the costs, such as the well drilling, the solar array and the handicap accessibility projects were previously allocated and or paid from earlier grants.
The project is scheduled to wrap up in mid-2026.