“It’s a great relief,” Jay said of reaching the finish line for the solar project. “It's been a two-to-three-year process to get to this point and it's pretty amazing. I'm excited to see that it's going to allow us to do more.”
The rest of the community will benefit too, including the Lions Club, Scouts, and other service organizations that meet inside the Vic Geary Center.
“To see that we're offsetting our electrical usage every day, and we're actually creating more electricity than we need — so we get to bank that, and we can use that in offseason when the sun isn’t as bright or high in the sky — it will help keep our electrical costs much lower,” Jay said. “Even over the summer, it looks like it's going to be a net wash. We won't have an electric bill for the foreseeable future.”
Now, the board envisions having more financial flexibility to plan future building upgrades and add more exercise classes or educational presentations.
“There are seniors that are still isolated in the community, and we want to try to get them out and come to the center,” he said. “This will give us a little more of a footprint to get out there and get more seniors to come out, socialize, and be more active in their communities.”
Christine Rice, who coordinates activities at the center, said she visited a few years ago to play Bingo and kept coming back. And she’s excited to imagine new programs that the center could offer, thanks to savings from the solar project.
“It is so important for seniors to socialize because it does help prevent isolation,” Christine said. “It helps with dementia. It's good physically and mentally. So, the programs are designed to get them to come out and just talk — have a good time.”
This article was published in the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund’s 2025 annual report.