In an effort to improve community connections, River Church in Durango has partnered with a local nonprofit to install a solar panel system.

Replacing the recurring cost of an electric bill will allow the church to spend more resources on creating opportunities for children, supporting families and working on a homeless outreach program.

“I’ve had the conviction to put panels up for a while, but it’s kind of just been a personal conviction,” said Nick Carico, a teaching pastor with River Church.

Carico proposed the idea to the church last year and received approval to go forward.

Instead of paying an electric bill, the cost of that bill will instead be put into a community connection fund set up by the church for outreach programs. The fund will support projects in the community rather than specific church programs.

“We shot for a goal where even with a little loss in production and given some margins, it should wipe out our electric bill (for the most part),” Carico said.

Over the lifetime of the solar system, the church expects to save about $350,000 in electricity costs. After the church covers its expenses to get the system up and running, it expects to have about $285,000 to put toward community outreach programs.

In the first year of solar operations, the church hopes to put $12,000 to $15,000 into its community connection fund.

It takes about seven years to pay off the cost of installation. After that, any money saved on electric costs will go to the community connection fund.

Installing solar panels can be expensive, but by partnering with Solar Barn Raising, a local nonprofit, the church was able to save about half of its cost, bringing the cost to around $65,000.

John Lyle, founder of Solar Barn Raising, said about half the cost of installing solar panels is for labor.

He has developed a volunteer system in which homeowners and organizations looking to use their services can volunteer time for other community members, much like community barn -raisings done by the Amish community in Pennsylvania.

He said the key to the nonprofit is requiring participation throughout the process, including helping with two other installations.

The church and the nonprofit found each other because some church members volunteered on previous projects, Lyle said.

Carico expects the project to be complete within the next two weeks.

Fundraising started in April 2018 and took about a month. Efforts included talking to contacts Carico has made as a roofer, small businesses and people at Fort Lewis College.

“The fundraising was a big step to just build relationships with people,” he said.

Carico said the biggest “win” of the project is creating connections.

“There’s a lot of great people doing awesome stuff in this community,” he said.

bmandile@durangoherald.com