AMHERST - Hiring a social worker to assist Amherst homeowners and businesses in reducing their energy consumption and cutting down on the cost of their heating bills is a concept that will come before Town Meeting this spring.

A petition to spend $55,000 to hire an energy facilitation outreach worker to work with residents and commercial entities, and to make Amherst a more affordable community in which to live, is the brainchild of music teacher Kevin Collins, of Main Street.

Collins said his research indicates that creating this position could help the town offset the additional burden it is asking people to absorb by passing the $1.68 million Proposition 2½ override on March 23.

The property tax bill for an average homeowner, living in a residence assessed at $334,600, will go up by an additional $264 if the override passes.

"The idea is that this will more than pay for the override in the first year," Collins said. "This will help most the people who can least afford the override."

Collins said he wants to assist elderly, poor and disabled residents who are being forced from their homes by the high costs of heating.

Significant money is available from both federal incentives and state programs that would create jobs in the community as well as save people money, Collins said. An outreach worker would have the ability to tap into these resources.

Though there is an upfront cost, Collins said it would be worth it. "This will pay for itself in the first year," Collins said.

He was inspired to develop the petition after visiting Somerville, where he saw a bus with a billboard on its side offering up to $40,000 in free loans, through the city's housing office, to people making home improvements.

Collins said this could be a part of a larger change in the culture of Amherst. He estimates each household could save $77 annually if families didn't run the clothes dryer, but instead hung their clothes on outdoor clotheslines or put the clothes on drying racks inside their homes.