Press Release June 9, 2025

The Town of Westwood is very pleased to announce that it has received an incentive of $5,054,655 from the US Federal Government. This incentive is being paid to Westwood by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) per the provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to help offset the costs of the Geothermal system that has been installed at the Pine Hill School.

Westwood’s Pine Hill Elementary School incorporates in its design nearly every design needed for sustainability and the environment. The school has thus been awarded Gold level status by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The IRA incentive results from one of the state-of-the-art energy efficiency measures that were included in the school design.

Pine Hill has approximately 60 geothermal wells, which circulate water from below the earth’s surface. The water is circulated through the grounds’ constant temperature (isothermal) layer and absorbs heat in cold periods and sheds heat in warm periods to efficiently heat/cool the school. This system is the one that is being incentivized under the terms of the IRA.

The work to get this incentive took almost two years of effort on the part of many individuals on the Town staff and several of our consultants. Under the direction of Tom Philbin, the Town’s Energy Manager, the effort was initiated by a suggestion of Rob Fitzgerald of Dore and Whittier, the design firm for Pine Hill. This was followed up on by Philbin, who investigated what it would take to get such an incentive. Numerous sources were checked, leading to the identification of Energy Tax Savers of Long Island as a firm that was attempting to tap this source of funds for many municipal clients. The process was further clarified through seminars on the subject sponsored by Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey in early 2024. This was the beginning of regulations that allowed direct payment of funds to municipalities instead of tax credits, which could not be used by nonprofit institutions.

Philbin then needed to get and verify detailed data on every expended expense on the project. This information came in great detail from Chin Lin, the Owner's Project Manager for the Pine Hill Elementary School project. Through the Westwood School Department's Director of Finance, Lemma Jn-Baptiste, funds were made available to retain Energy Tax Savers, and the consultant was issued a purchase order, and the work began in earnest in May 2024. Numerous meetings were necessary to ensure that the data to be submitted was accurate and complete.

Numerous permissions and authorizations were then needed from the Town for the filing. Chris Coleman, Stephanie McManus, and Kathy Foley signed the many necessary filing documents and arranged for a direct payment of any potential incentive from the IRS to Westwood. The application was filed on September 9, 2024. Payment was expected by December 30, 2024. However, during this period, significant changes occurred within the Federal Departments. In addition, a status check in January identified a filing error on the part of the IRS. This error was rectified, and the IRS was contacted regularly regarding the payment status.

Finally, on May 30, 2025, after almost two years of effort, the Town received an incentive payment of $4,880,889 plus $173,766 in interest for the delay, totaling $5,054,655. This payment represents the culmination of a Town-wide effort on behalf of its residents.

The funds will be used to fund the balance of the Pine Hill Elementary School project, eliminating the need for approximately $5 million in additional borrowing and saving money for the taxpayers of Westwood.