|
Alpharetta Council rejects stimulus dollars
|
City Council voted down 4-2 an application for a $252,600 grant that already was allocated for Alpharetta as part of the Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant through the U.S. Department of Energy.
In rejecting the request, Councilman Doug DeRito said this grant, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, doesn't create a single job. It also could create costs greater than the amount of the grant.
Grants Administrator Amanda Day said the city wanted to do an energy audit on the Wills Park Recreation Center and the Engineering/Public Works building, two of the Alpharetta's oldest government buildings. Less than $24,000 would be used for the audit, with the remaining funds used to correct any problems found. The city was not required to provide matching funds for the grant.
Engineering/Public Works Director Pete Seczwicz said his department's building has hot spots and cold spots, with some air conditioning units running all the time while others never seeming to turn on.
They know heat is being lost in winter, and cool air in the summer, but they don't know where that's occurring. Upgrading equipment and increasing insulation in appropriate places would be possible solutions that could be suggested through the energy audit.
DeRito wanted to know if getting an exhaust system for fire stations to vent fire engines would qualify for the grant. Without that system, firefighters have to leave bay doors open.
"Keeping those garage bay doors open, you are pretty much losing all of our energy," DeRito said.
Councilman John Monson made the motion to reject the application, with DeRito seconding.
"This particular case, is not something I see as a critical thing we need to do," DeRito said.
He said it wasn't definite what efficiencies the energy audit would promote, or how much more would be needed to spend on the buildings.
"I hesitate going down this path," DeRito said.
He worried that the energy audit would require more costly fixes than the remaining $225,000 in the grant could cover.
"I think 200,000 something dollars falls far short of what we need to support something like this," DeRito said. "I think this is a highly unusual use of money."
Letchas, who said this was part of the city's green initiative, supported the grant application.
"At some point we are going to have do something. Either get money from federal government or get from it taxpayers somewhere down the road," Letchas said. "[We're] going down the road where I don't want to double pay for this."
Council members Cheryl Oakes, D.C. Aiken, Monson and DeRito voted to deny the grant application request, while Letchas and Jim Paine voted in support of the grant. Councilman David Belle Isle was not at the meeting.
Tags: Alpharetta, Alpharetta City Council
| |
|
|
