03/01/1978 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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Future efforts will be directed toward cooperation with the Federal ~ Department of Energy to examine other ways a municipal government can .., use capital investment to recover heating costs, and also to examine procedures for cooperation of energy conservation in the commercial and industrial sectors of the city. St. Petersburg, Florida, and Rochester, New York, are the two other cities involved in this study. Mr. Obie referred to last year's concern in energy conservation, with reductions affecting the swimming pools and ball fields in the city. He wondered if that program would be so great this year. Mr. Page said the amount of energy saved in the ball field lighting was one-tenth of one percent of the total electrical consumption. It has been decided for this year to go back to the 1976 schedule. Manager noted that as of today, the Downtown Development Board had re- ported that all office areas in the Parcade had been leased, noting this would increase the power consumption in that building, and would add to the total energy consumption. Mr. Page added that assessments of energy consumption would be directed at the designs of the new civic center and the new wastewater mantainance facilities. In response to a question regarding swimming pools, Mr. Smith said they do consume more power than the rest of the City combined as based on BTU; however, with the use of natural gas it is less expensive. There would be continued efforts to recover the heated air, and scheduling of hours for pools would be looked at more closely. However, all pools ... will be open. .., Mayor Keller questioned the large energy consumption from street light- ing and wondered if there was anything in the future to help the City reduce that amount. Mr. Page said the two ways available were (1) technical, and (2) social consideration. He said the technical aspect has gone about as far as it can, and now it is up to convincing citizens as to their perception of whether or not street lighting is necessary for safety. Don Allen, Director, Public Works, noted one problem regarding street lighting had been in the past the energy conserving lights had been unacceptable to the public. However, he said now they were being installed without seeking public acceptance. Regarding the drought, he noted that in the last year's maintenance of the sanitary sewers, the drought did cause more extensive root penetration in the sanitary systems which became a greater maintenance problem. Mr. Lieuallen wondered if there yet had been developed a technical process for auditing energy consumption. Mr. Page replied investiga- tion was being conducted into ways with which the City could cooperate with EWEB in auditing commercial and industrial customers. EWEB is now doing an extensive audit in the private sector. Mayor Keller reminded Council that the community will have be kept aware and conscious of energy conservation for a long period of time ~ in the future. He felt the City was well on its way to doing its 3/1/78--4 I~~