Jul 11 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - James Mayse Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.


When Owensboro signed the "Cool Cities" declaration last year, the city joined almost 1,000 others that pledged to reduce energy use and carbon emissions.

The declaration called on Owensboro to meet a standard set out in the Kyoto Protocol, to reduce carbon emissions to 7 percent under 1990 levels by 2012.

Lelan Hancock, deputy public works director for Owensboro, said Wednesday the city is ahead of the "Cool Cities" schedule.

"We've already met the Kyoto standard, and we'll continue to improve," Hancock said.

The city did a yearlong energy audit, which was submitted last month to ICLEI, an organization of about 1,100 cities and towns that works to promote sustainable development. The audit included information about the number of city employees and square feet of building space, electricity and natural gas usage, the number of street lights and information about every vehicle in the city's fleet.

Hancock said the city has replaced less-efficient light bulbs with fluorescent or LED lights, installed digital thermostats in buildings along with temperature sensors to better control heat and air-conditioning usage and placed motion detectors in offices that automatically turn off lights if no movement is detected for a period of time.

"Your buildings are huge users of energy," Hancock said.

The city has also worked to reduce engine idling in city vehicles, and it attempts to purchase products that are not energy intensive to produce, Hancock said.

While some of the steps, such as purchasing LED light bulbs, are costly up front, the city will save money in the long run through reduced energy costs, Hancock said. With an LED light "you can get a 20-year to 50-year life span," he said. "It's a ... savings in energy and maintenance as well.

"The city has really had a progressive approach," Hancock said.

The Sierra Club approached both the city and Daviess Fiscal Court in January 2008 about signing the "Cool Cities" agreement. Although Fiscal Court did not sign the declaration, the county has been working for years to save money by reducing energy use, county officials said.

"Every year when we do the budget, we look at areas where we can save on energy and fuel," County Administrator Tony Sook said. The current court has installed energy efficient windows and lights in the county courthouse, consolidated many county departments in a new, more efficient operations center, and made improvements to the judicial center, Sook said.

The county is now tracking fuel use of each county vehicle and has begun purchasing smaller vehicles for departments when a four-wheel-drive truck is not needed.

"We do it as we go," Sook said. "If we can institute some fuel savings or energy savings, we ... are actually tying it back to a cost benefit."

County Project Manager Nate Pagan said a consultant did an energy audit on the county courthouse last year to determine what changes could be made to reduce energy use.

"In our (case), they said we've done the majority of items to capture the cost savings," Pagan said. The courthouse "has been the primary point of emphasis, because that's the oldest facility we have."

"We're not (on) a formalized program that's all-inclusive," County Commissioner Jim Lambert said. "Each year since we've been here, in the budget preparation, we've looked at ideas and concepts to save fuel, save energy and be more efficient in our operations."

The county has eliminated equipment that was less efficient, such as outdated mowers, and taken down fences that required crews to cut grass with weed eaters almost daily, Lambert said. The decision for the road department to go to a four-day workweek was partly to save fuel costs driving equipment to and from work sites, Lambert said.

"Every time at budget time, we're trying to look at every avenue we can look at to be more efficient," Lambert said. "We don't have a plan or fancy name on it."

James Mayse, 691-7303, jmayse@messenger-inquirer.com

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