Greeley looks into energy efficiency upgrades to city facilities

Jan 8 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Analisa Romano Greeley Tribune, Colo.

Following a report that Greeley's aging city facilities need more than $25 million in repairs, city officials are mulling an energy efficiency program that would pay for energy-smart improvements with utility cost savings.

While Greeley City Council members said at a work session Tuesday the program sounds promising, they also said some things about the program give them pause. They requested more information about other cities that have done similar programs before giving the OK.

The upgrades, identified in an audit that was paid for through an energy block grant, would mean $1.7 million worth of improvements to lighting, ventilation, pool pumps and other utilities in seven Greeley buildings, said Joel Hemesath, Greeley's director of Public Works.

The buildings include the Union Colony Civic Center, the Recreation Center, the Family FunPlex, police headquarters and secondary headquarters, the Greeley Senior Center and the Lincoln Park annex building.

By entering into an agreement with an energy service company, Greeley could repay the cost of installing the upgrades through the money it saves on utility bills, meaning the city will pay the same amount of money as it does now until the project is paid off.

Hemesath said it could take up to 12 years to pay off all of the projects, assuming utility costs rise by 3 percent each year. The city budgets for an 8 percent rise in utility costs, so that's a conservative estimate, he said.

Even so, Mayor Tom Norton and other council members questioned the life of the equipment that would be replaced, saying they are reluctant to go into any kind of debt if there is a possibility the city won't save on utility costs for very long.

Hemesath said the program would allow the city to use the $700,000 budgeted for building repairs each year on additional projects, which would help alleviate the burden of sharing facility repair funding with funding for road maintenance.