A next-generation water meter
The village’s $1.5 million energy efficiency project should be completed no later than the beginning of April, say village officials.
Last month’s letters to 200 customers who hadn’t yet installed water meters, urging them to make an appointment or face loss of service, seem to have done the trick; there are only 70 left to install from a total of more than 1,400. (Compare with the town, which still has 400 left to install from its 2013 replacement project in Glasco.)
Also still left to do: replace the lights in the historic village streetlamps with LEDs and some windows in village buildings.
The village contracted with Milwaukee-based company Johnson Controls last year for those projects as well as the replacement of all windows and most doors in the village-owned buildings, whose oil heating systems were also replaced with natural gas. The company did an audit outlining the potential savings and provided equipment and installation.
Johnson Controls estimates the village will save $38,000 or 27 percent on its energy bills and reap $14,000 in additional revenue from the new water meters, which are more sensitive to flow. If the savings are not reaped in year one, the company will make up the difference for that year, but not future years.
Village Mayor William Murphy said he has no reason to believe the savings won’t be reaped.
“The project is about 80 percent complete,” Murphy said. “They still need to switch out the street lights, but now that it’s getting warm they will be doing that in the next week or two. And the only changes that have been made have been made at the request of the trustees when we saw that we would be saving money in some areas.”
Water Department Superintendent Mike Hopf said weather has slowed the project down a bit. Village employees will handle the remaining meter installations.
“We’re happy with the work the company did in installing the meters, and with the cooperation we received from residents,” Hopf said.
“As far as savings go, we don’t know yet and will have to wait for the project to be completed,” Hopf said. “Once it is, Johnson Controls will come in and do measurements on all the equipment they installed, and we’ll see.”
So far trustees have paid Johnson Controls $1,449,917 of its $1.5 million contract. The remainder will be paid when the work is completed.
The project is being funded through a May 19, 2014 vote to issue $1.7 million in short-term five-year bond anticipation notes (BAN). At the end of the five years, trustees can look to refinance the BANs debt or decide to issue longer-term bonds. They expect it will take 20 years to pay off the project.