Energy audit reveals millions in potential savings

The city spends more than $1.32 million annually in energy and maintenance costs and $91,000 in operational costs at its facilities, which include the City Building, municipal garage, wastewater and treatment plants and the Robert “Sonny” Hill Community Center.
I thought we just did the upgrades at the Community Center....

The Perfection Group, a Cincinnati-based consultant on energy efficiency, evaluated nine city-owned buildings from Feb. 11 to March 15 and found that with certain upgrades and preventive maintenance, Middletown could save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Rob Vollrath, a representative of the company, said by addressing the needs immediately the city could save more than $1.7 million by avoiding inflation and future capital costs.

City officials could take advantage of a 2008 state law (House Bill 420) that allows governments to money “relatively cheap” and repay it “without affecting the borrowing capacity.”
Yes sir we can just put a few more million on the old City Hall credit card.
If money is now soooo cheap is City Hall going to put the 150 to 200 million needed for the separation of the sewers on this same credit card?

According to the Perfection Group, the city could potentially save upwards of $35 million over 15 years, if the city borrowed $21.9 million to make potential upgrades and repairs. Under that scenario, the city potentially could save nearly $13.6 million over the life of that loan, according to the group.

Public Utilities Director Preston Combs said city leaders could use the “guaranteed” energy savings to pay back the loan. But some Middletown City Council members said they aren’t sure borrowing that kind of money is a good idea.

Councilman Josh Laubach said the city would essentially be financing upgrades with money it doesn’t have. He said he would like to see more specifics on such a proposal.

“If it’s worth the risk, is it worth going into debt?” Laubach said.

Councilwoman Anita Scott Jones said it seems like the city is “not going to realize a substantial amount of money for some time” based on the Perfection Group’s presentation. She said she is not willing to go into debt without more information, or the city pursing alternative funding options.

“I wager there may be some other grants out there, some other money out there, some other funding out there,” Scott Jones said. “We have to be prudent, and we have to think things through.”
Hmmm...I remember City Hall did get an ENERGY GRANT and every council person voted yes for the money to be used for the "Bike Path" to add to the "Downtown Dream"....and now you want to borrow money for energy upgrades.

Combs said the city could have saved thousands of dollars of costs at the wastewater treatment plant through preventative maintenance.

“We’re quite a bit behind in electrical upgrades, and we have identified about $10 million in electrical upgrades,” he said. “Had we been doing some of those upgrades years ago when we should have, we would not of had to come to you (City Council) with those emergency repairs of several hundred thousand dollars. We probably could have done that replacement for a third of that cost.”

But saving money for future replacement needs or potential repairs is a luxury many governments can’t afford, Vollrath said.

“Most municipal governments have a lot of capital projects that need to be addressed, but on that same token, there’s not a lot of capital available to address these issues,” Vollrath said. “So the legislation allows you to utilize the savings to pay for the debt.”

Vice Mayor Dan Picard said there is benefit with a preventative maintenance approach to city government.

“If we don’t do any of that, then we’re stuck with operating the way we always have — where we only replace things when they finally break down, or we finally have a problem, and we scurry around, and we try to figure out where we’re going to try to get the money to take care of this new problem,” he said.
We operate the way we always have because City Hall can not keep their hands out of the funds that have been set aside to solve the future problems of the our city.

Energy audit savings

The Perfection Group presented its findings after evaluating at nine municipal buildings the city’s utility costs, maintenance and repair costs, and capital projects needed to help reduce future costs. Here’s what they found:

Annual electric and gas costs: $1.23 million; potential savings: $163,377

Annual operational costs: $91,253; potential savings: $41,169

Needed capital improvements: $17 million; potential capital cost avoidance savings: $1.7 million

Source: Perfection Group report