From the BCCT.
District parting with green to go green
By CHRISTINA KRISTOFIC
Central Bucks School District saved more than $70,000 in utilities by having a four-day workweek over the summer.
And district officials hope that they will continue to save on utilities by implementing a new $19.8 million energy initiative, which includes the installation of equipment and software — computerized boiler controls, occupancy sensors for lighting, occupancy sensors for the heating and air-conditioning systems, and machines that shut off the vending machines at night — in all of the district’s 26 buildings.
The district will also improve insulation in many of its buildings, install solar-powered heaters at the pools at Central Bucks East and South high schools, and replace the lighting in some of its buildings.
District officials estimate that the initiative will save more than $18 million in utility costs in the first 20 years, after initiative-related expenses have been paid.
The initiative was approved unanimously by the school board last week.
“It’s so refreshing when we can put money and time and energy into something like this, that’s actually going to have such a great payback,” board President Geryl McMullin said.
“We’re trying desperately to become more green in the school district.”
McMullin said she’d like to take the money the district saves from the energy initiative and invest it into other environmentally friendly initiatives.
“We’ve got a lot of buildings. We use a lot of electricity and we use a lot of fuel. And we need to do our best to do our part,” she said.
District officials decided in June to close 21 of the district’s 26 buildings on Fridays for seven weeks over the summer. Superintendent N. Robert Laws estimated at the time that the four-day workweek would save the district about $53,000 in utility costs.
The actual savings turned out to be $71,554, operations director Scott Kennedy reported last week.
Johnson Controls Inc., an international company with headquarters in Milwaukee, Wis., is working with Central Bucks to install the new equipment and software over the next 14 months. The equipment and software will be installed in phases, and Johnson Controls and district staff are currently working on the schedule, Kennedy said.
The project will cost the school district $14.8 million up front; the district is making a down payment of $7.5 million and financing the remaining $7.3 million over 15 years at a rate of 4 percent. District officials estimate that — with loan interest, software licensing fees and training costs — the project will ultimately cost $19.8 million over 20 years.
Johnson Controls has guaranteed that the district will begin to see savings in utility costs after the equipment and software are installed.
District officials expect to see total savings over 20 years of $38.8 million.
After it has paid the $19.8 million in expenses, the district expects to have a total utility savings of more than $18.9 million.
Johnson Controls will also provide the school with educational materials — to be used in the classroom — about energy efficiency.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
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We've got our own lightbulb study going here in Morrisville. I apreeeshiate the volunteer aspect of it, and it must be really elaborate, because I think it has been about 6 months in the making, and nary a peep has been heard about it. When is this thing gonna see the light of day, so to speak?
But now that oil is safely back down to about 74 bucks a barrel, why bother? It'll never go back up again, and electricity will be so cheap, there'll be no need to even meter it. Good thing the board locked in at the IU group rate of $4.33/gallon for heating oil this year.
The $4.33/gallon oil at MR Reiter was not being burned or exhausted very efficiently yesterday - I heard that powerful fumes were present in the building. Can any eyewitnesses (nosewitnesses?) elaborate on this?
It's a good thing the board initially voted to evaluate the MR Reiter heating system. Oh wait, that's right, Bill Hellmann, CPA single-handedly dropped MR Reiter from the RFP before the vote. Only the Middle-High and Grandview boilers were part of the original vote at the July 15, 2008 board meeting. The vote to add MR Reiter to the mix came afterward, only after public comments urged it, and some normally loyal Hellmanite board members broke ranks to add it back in. Kudos to them on that, even though the whole process was again rushed and poorly handled and precludes us from getting any PDE reimbursement, shunning free money and hitting us taxpayers right in the wallet during painful economic times. It's amazing to me how folks that can be such sticklers about some rules can't seem to follow other rules.
Also, it seems Morrisville's school board may do Central Bucks not just one, but 4, better in its "go green" efforts. Morrisville's Board President Bill Hellmann, CPA and his loyal lieutenants seem headed towards implementing a zero-day workweek at the High School, not just over the summer, but year-round.
I caught some, but not all, of last night's borough council meeting on TV. Was a replacement for George Bolos' 3rd Ward council seat selected? I'd like to know. I don't like it when my ward is underrepresented on council.
That last 50% of that lightbulb study must be a doozy. The first 50% took 1 month, and the 2nd 50% has taken 7 months ..... and counting. The recommendations probably involve spending some short-term money to save more long-term money. That's very difficult to grasp, and does not compute when your programmed 1st directive is to spend no money at all. I guess payback really is a b****. Think how much longer it would be taking if Tim and everyone at the school weren't so cooperative. Can't we just send some 501(c)(3) dollars over there to finish it off? They can be used for almost anything, can't they?
From February 27, 2008 board meeting:
Eric Christensen, 105 W. Maple
Mr. Christensen outlined his professional experience and qualifications. He offered to perform an energy efficient lighting survey in the high school building at no cost to the district. He will be looking for energy conservation opportunities. Expectations are that there would be a 40% energy savings with a 2.5 year payback.
From March 26, 2008 board meeting:
Eric Christensen, 105 W Maple
I am about 50% complete on the energy efficient lighting study. I hope to complete the remainder by next board meeting. I have had tremendous cooperation from everyone at the school and I want to personally thank Tim and his crew for their help.
Something about Keith Olbermann's Special Comment last night on his Countdown show resonated with me, and made me think of Morrisville, especially the part about Dick Young. I've never heard of the guy, but I know quite a few like him here in town.
I have frequently insisted I would never turn the platform of the Special Comment into a regular feature.
But as these last two weeks of this extraordinary, and extraordinarily disturbing, presidential campaign project out in front of us, I fear I may have to temporarily amend that presumption.
I hope it will be otherwise, but I suspect this will be the first of nightly pieces, most shorter than this... until further notice.
And thus a Special Comment tonight about the last five days of the divisive, ugly, paranoid bleatings of this Presidential race, culminating in the sliming of Colin Powell for his endorsement of Senator Obama.
There was once a very prominent sportswriter named Dick Young whose work, with ever-increasing frequency, became peppered with references to "my America."
"I can't believe this is happening in My America"... -- "we do not tolerate these people in My America" -- "this man does not belong in my America".
His America gradually revealed itself.
Insular. Isolationist. Backwards-looking. Mindlessly flag-waving. Racist. No second chances. A million rules, but only for the other guy.
Dick Young died in 1987, but he has been re-born in the presidential campaign as it has unfolded since last Thursday night.
In that time, Governor Sarah Palin, Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann, McCain spokesperson Nancy Pfotenhauer, and Rush Limbaugh, have revealed that there is a measurable portion of this country that is not interested in that which the vast majority view as democracy or equality or opportunity.
They want only... control -- and they want the rest of us, symbolically, perhaps physically... out.
Governor Palin:
"We believe that the best of America is not all in Washington D.C.," you told a fund-raiser in North Carolina last Thursday, to kick off this orgy of condescending elitism.
"We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, very pro-America areas of this great nation."
Governor, your prejudice is overwhelming.
It is not just "pockets" of this country that are "pro-America" Governor.
America... is "pro-America."
And the "Real America" of yours, Governor, is where people at your rallies shout threats of violence, against other Americans, and you say nothing about them or to them.
What you are seeing is not patriotism, Governor.
What has surrounded you since your nomination, has been the echoing shout of mob rule.
Indeed, that shout has echoed to Minnesota, where the next day an unstable Congresswoman named Michele Bachmann added to the ugly cry.
"I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America, or anti-America. I think people would love to see an expose' like that."
For nearly two years, Ms. Bachmann, who made her first political bones by keeping the movie "Aladdin" from being shown at a Minnesota Charter School because she thought it promoted paganism and witchcraft, has had a seat in the government of this nation, a seat from which she has spewed the most implausible, hateful, narrow-minded garbage imaginable.
Well, Congresswoman, you have gotten that "expose'" you wanted, have you not?
Though not perhaps in the way you imagined.
Since giving voice to your remarkable delusion that there are members of Congress who are "anti-America," and the extraordinary tap-dance of sleaze and innuendo about Senator Obama which followed...
...the challenger for your house Seat, Elwyn Tinklenberg, has been inundated by donations -- 700 thousand dollars in the three days after you spoke.
Because the America you perceive, Congresswoman -- with its goblins and ghosts and vast unseen hordes of traitors and fellow travelers and Senators who won't ban "Aladdin" -- exists only in your head, and in the heads of the others who must rationalize the failures in their own lives and of their own policies as somebody else's fault -- as a conspiracy to deny them an America of exclusionism and religious orthodoxy and prejudice, about which they must accuse, and murmur, and shout threats, and cleave the nation into pro-America and anti-America."
And back it comes to the McCain campaign.
And Senator McCain's talking head, Ms. Pfotenhauer, who on this very network Saturday, and seemingly without the slightest idea that dismissive prejudice dripped from every word, analyzed the race in Virginia.
"I can tell you that the Democrats have just come in from the District of Columbia and moved into northern Virginia," she said. "But the rest of the state, 'real Virginia,' if you will, I think will be very responsive to Senator McCain's message."
Again, a toxic message...
The parts of the country that agree with Nancy Pfotenhauer... are real -- the others, not.
Ms. Pfotenhauer, why not go the distance on this one?
It was Senator McCain's own brother who called that part of Virginia nearest Washington "communist country."
Cut to the chase, Madam.
No matter the intended comic hyperbole of Joe McCain...
This is the point -- isn't it?
Leave out the real meaning of "Communism," Madam -- Joe McCain reduced it to a buzz-word; it has no more true definition right now than does "Socialism," or the phrase "a man who sees America like you and I see America."
It's about us... and them.
The pro-... and the anti.
Never mind, Madam, that the bi-secting of this country you would happily inspire, means taking a tiny crack in a dam and not repairing it but burrowing into it.
It is not enough that Senator McCain and Senator Obama might differ.
One must be real and the other false.
One must be pro-America and the other anti.
Go back and -- as your boss Rick Davis said today -- "re-think," Mr. McCain's insistence not to drag the sorry bones of Jeremiah Wright into this campaign.
And whatever you do, Ms. Pfotenhauer, allow no one enough time to think... about the widening crack in the dam.
And now all of this comes together to attack Colin Powell.
"Secretary Powell says his endorsement is not about race," writes Rush Limbaugh... the grand wizard of this school of reactionary non-thought.
"OK, fine. I am now researching his past endorsements to see if I can find all the inexperienced, very liberal, white candidates he has endorsed. I'll let you know what I come up with."
It is not conceivable that Powell might reject McCain for the politics of hate and character assassination, or just for policy.
In the closed, sweaty world of the blind allegiances of Limbaugh -- one of "us" who endorses one of "them," must be doing so for some other blind allegiance, like the color of skin.
The answer to this primordial muck, must be addressed to one man only.
Senator McCain -- where are you?
I disagree with you on virtually every major point of policy and practice.
And yet I do not think you "anti-America." I would not hesitate to join you in time of crisis in defense of this country.
Fortunately you did not echo this chorus of base hatred.
But neither have you repudiated it.
What is "pro-America", Senator?
Is it pro-America to call a man a racist because he endorses a different candidate?
Senator, you have based your campaign on many premises, but the foremost (and the most nearly admirable) of all of them, have been the pitches about "reaching across the aisle," and putting, as your ubiquitous banners reed, "country first."
So when Colin Powell endorses your opponent, you say nothing as your supporters and proxies paint him in this "Anti-America" frame and place him in Governor Palin's un-real America.
Senator McCain -- did not General Powell just "reach across the aisle?" Did he not, in his own mind at least, "put country first?"
Is it not your responsibility, Senator, to, if not applaud, then at least quiet those in your half of our fractured political equation?
Is it not your responsibility, Senator, to say "enough" to Republican smears without end?
Is it not your responsibility, Senator, to insist that, win or lose, you will not be party to a campaign that devolves into hatred and prejudice and divisiveness?
And Senator McCain, if it is not your responsibility... whose is it?
From today's BCCT.
Morrisville gets help with road salt
MORRISVILLE
State officials announced the release of low-cost road salt Tuesday to Morrisville and hundreds of other Pennsylvania towns after raising concerns about road safety this winter.
Salt prices have more than doubled in some areas, according to PennDOT. Officials agreed to release 82,000 tons of road salt from last year, rather than risk a shortage among road crews.
“It was either that or we'd risk some municipalities that just don't have enough money for road salt and that's a risk to public safety,” said Steve Chizmar of PennDOT.
Morrisville will receive 200 tons of salt at $76.95 per ton, for a total cost of $15,390.
City of Columbus, OH:
Road Salt Prices Rising
September 24, 2008 by johnwirtz
I’m sure nobody wants to think about winter yet, but the City of Columbus is, and apparently they are waiting for salt prices to drop before finishing their annual purchase.
Salt Prices Rising
By Nicole Franks - 610 WTVN
nicolefranks@clearchannel.com
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Several states around the country are ordering more salt for roads this year following a harsh winter stretched supply and made for slippery roads.
An increase in demand and higher fuel prices could mean an spike in costs, according to salt industry analysts.
Mary Carran Webster, assistant public service director for Columbus, tells 610 WTVN that the city will not order more than usual. She says they like to have 30,000 tons in the barn every year and they currently have 11,000.
“There’s plenty of salt to be mined, it’s really a matter of logistics,” Webster said. “The vendors can only mine so much salt at a time, they can only get so many trucks and rail cars moving at a time.”
Webster says prices fluxuations [sic] should determine whether or not the city will purchase the full 30,000 tons this year or wait until the start of next year.
The Public Service Department went to City Council Sept. 8 with an $742,000 appropriation to buy the remainder of this years salt supply.
Webster says at the time the price was $41.51 per ton, but could be higher depending on the price adjustment clause from the Cargill Cleveland Salt Mine, based on what the state pays for salt and what Franklin County gets for salt.
“Within the next week we should know what the money is going to buy us,” Webster said. “And then we will have to take a look at whether we want to, and can afford to purchase additional salt this year, or wait until next year.”
The Ohio Department of Transportation has about 500,000 tons of salt to use on Ohio’s highways and freeways across the state. Deputy Director Scott Varner says they know that salt prices have gone up, but that will not affect the way ODOT treats roadways.
So they are asking City Council for $742,000 and they need/want another 19,000 tons. That’s $39.05 per ton, which is less than the current price of $41.51 per ton, which may go up. Let’s hope for a mild winter.
Newbury, MA:
As road salt prices soar, town officials worry about the coming winter
By Angeljean Chiaramida
Staff writer
The salt of the earth — and the sea, too, for that matter — has risen 35 percent in price over the last year, putting those in the road-safety business in local communities in full winter worry-mode.
After going out for bids through the local salt-buying consortium this summer with 19 communities including Newburyport, Newbury, Merrimac and Rowley, Salisbury Public Works Director Don Levesque is facing a 35 percent increase over last year's price for solar (or sea) salt and a 30 percent increase for rock salt. The high increases represented the lowest of the six bids received.
"The best bid for solar was $67 per ton, and $63.83 per ton for rock salt," Levesque said. "Last year we paid $49.59 per ton for solar salt and $48.90 per ton for rock salt. We used 960 tons of salt last winter on the roads. You do the math."
Averaging the prices of last year's solar and rock salt together, 960 tons cost about $24,000. This year, those two salt prices-per-ton averages could mean a salt bill of almost $63,000 out of about an $80,000 snow budget, he said. Snow budgets are supposed to also include the cost of plowing and snow removal.
Bidding together gives more buying power for small towns through the consortium, Levesque said, but even that has its limits when salt prices are going up the way they have been. Newburyport's portion of the salt consortium buy is 1,850 tons; Newbury, West Newbury and Rowley get 1,500 tons, Merrimac 1,000 tons and Salisbury 900 tons.
Both solar and rock salt are purchased for road application during icy weather because Levesque, like some other public works professionals, uses a combination of salts. Solar salt melts fast but doesn't last on roads very long, while rock salt melts more slowly but lasts longer on roadways.
In Amesbury, although the city isn't part of the local salt consortium, the news is equally bad. The former two-year bid that got the city through 2007 was for $43.24 per ton for rock salt, said Amesbury's new Public Works Director Robert Desmaris. It's the only type of salt the city uses.
After going out to bid this spring, Robert Desmaris received a low bid for rock salt of $64.57 per ton; the highest was for more than $90 per ton.
"We had heard costs were going up," Desmaris said. "It's all related to higher oil prices because everything about mining and transporting salt uses fuel."
During the 2005/2006 winter Amesbury used 2,250 tons of salt, Desmaris said, but last year Mother Nature was not kind. The city went through 3,600 tons of salt.
"It was a bad winter. We went way over budget," Desmaris said. "The only thing that's going to save us this year is that in March we filled our salt shed (before the prices rose), and we didn't have any storms after that. So, we're going into the winter with a full salt shed."
When bad winters and rising prices force expenses to exceed budget expectations, the state allows towns to overspend their snow budgets. It's the only budget line item with that option. But money to cover the overages has to be paid eventually, Desmaris and Levesque said.
But, travelers don't care about budgets when on the road in icy weather, both men said. The public expects roads to be safe and cleared of ice and snow. Both men have also been frustrated by the tendency of budget committees hoping for mild winters and failing to increase snow budgets year after year after year.
"We've been level-funded for our snow budget for as many years as I can remember," said Desmaris, who has been with Amesbury on and off since 1993. "But the rising fuel prices are making everything go up, not just salt. We had to raise the hourly rate we paid our (snow removal) contractors by $3.50 per hour last year. They weren't going to come if we didn't. That rise was warranted; the cost of diesel (fuel) is up $1.50 per gallon. Gas may have come down significantly recently, but diesel hasn't."
With about 17 to 20 private snow removal contractors hired for major storms in Amesbury, when combined with needing more salt because of a bad winter, expenses swamped Desmaris' snow budget last year. Levesque's took a beating, too.
Just preparing for winter, getting the city's own 20-vehicle fleet ready, takes about 80 percent of Amesbury's entire $128,000 budget, Desmaris said. With salt increases this year, the cost to buy the same amount of salt could go from $156,000 to $232,000.
Over the border in New Hampshire the story is pretty much the same. Seabrook Selectman Bob Moore said the town's received notice salt is going up 30 percent.
Levesque's seen salt prices almost double since 2005, when the cost was about $37 per ton, considered scandalously high at the time.
Lancaster, PA:
Road salt prices spiking
PennDOT here says it can cope Intelligencer Journal
Published: Sep 23, 2008
By STAFF and WIRE REPORTS
A shortage of road salt and skyrocketing salt prices could mean slippery roads this winter in communities across the nation as officials struggle to keep pavements clear of snow and ice without breaking their budgets.
Nationwide, prices have tripled since a year ago. The salt industry says the increased demand and higher fuel costs are to blame.
In Pennsylvania, Department of Transportation officials say their prices have risen an average of 23 percent, but the state has been spared the severe shortages seen elsewhere in the country.
Greg Penny, a PennDOT spokesman, said Pennsylvania's southcentral region is in good shape with its salt reserves. He said PennDOT is in better shape than other state transportation departments because it puts in salt orders early and gets as much salt as possible at the end of winter, when prices are typically lower.
Prices this year range from $64.49 per ton for York County to $76.95 per ton in Perry County. Last year, the range was from $46.56 in York County to $52.32 in Franklin County.
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Penny said York County's price is cheaper because of its nearness to Baltimore, a port city.
Lancaster County is paying $65.76 per ton for salt this year.
Statewide, the new Department of General Services contract for salt calls for an average of $58.24 per ton, compared to $44.42 per ton last year, Penny said.
Because state agencies that maintain interstate highways receive priority from suppliers, smaller communities are the hardest hit by the shortage.
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Neshannock Township in New Castle, north of Pittsburgh, plans to use a special pretreated salt mixture that isn't as expensive as regular road salt. The township's price for salt nearly quadrupled, from $36.90 a ton last year to $145 for this coming winter.
Although there wasn't much snow in Pennsylvania last winter, Penny said the state experienced several ice storms that depleted salt supplies.
"It may not seem like you had to pull out the snowblower, but that doesn't keep us from burning (through) a lot of salt to keep ice off the roadways," Penny said.
In other states, heavy snow last year heightened demand for salt. Shortages this year could force cities to salt fewer roads, increasing the risk of accidents. Other communities are abandoning road salt for less expensive but also less effective sand or sand-salt blends.
The United States used a near-record 20.3 million tons of road salt last year, largely because areas from the Northeast to the Midwest had heavier-than-average snowfall. Parts of Iowa and Wisconsin, for instance, got four to six times their typical amounts. Vermont, New Hampshire and other areas set records.
This year, many states, including Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois, requested bids early, said Dick Hannemann, president of the Salt Institute, a trade group. Five states increased their orders by a total of 2 million tons over last year.
The rising cost of gasoline and diesel compounded the situation, Hannemann said. Road salt is transported by barge and truck from mines in Kansas, Louisiana and Texas. Some is shipped from as far away as Chile in South America.
Some officials insist salt prices have spiked more dramatically than fuel, and have called for government investigation.
Uh, did you notice that, despite the consistent reports of rising road salt prices, $76.95/ton is still pretty darn high? Some discount. All I know is that...
When I became of age my mother called me to her side
She said 'son it's icy out there, pretty soon
You'll take a ride'...
[Sings:]
And then she said...
'Just because you've become a young man now
(Man, now)
There's still some things that you don't understand now
(Son, now)
Before you take that wheel in your hand now
(My son)
Make sure your tires grip as good as they can now'
My mama told me...'you better shop around'
(Shop, shop around) a-whoa-yeah
You better (uh-huh) shop around!
(Shop, shop around)
Uh-uh-uh
'There's some things that I want you to know now
(Uh-huh-...ooo)
A just as sure as the cold winds blow now
(Uh-huh-...ooo)
The snowstorms come and the snowstorms go now
(Uh-huh...ooo)
Before you buy the salt that keeps you on the road now
My mama told me...'you better shop around'
(Shop, shop around) whoa-yeah
You better (uh-huh) shop around
(Shop, shop around)
'A-gotta get yourself a bargain son
Don't be sold on the very first ton
Sodium chloride comes a dime a dozen
A-try to find one who's gonna give ya true traction'
(Uh-huh...ooo)
'Before you take a ton and say I do now
A make sure that the costs are few now'
My mama told me
(You better shop around)
[Instrumental]
Oh-hey-hey-hey
(ooooooh)
'Try to get yourself a bargain son
Don't be sold on the very first ton!
(First one, first one)
Sodium chloride comes a dime a dozen
A try to find one who's gonna give ya true traction'
(Uh-huh...ooo)
Before you take a ton and say 'I do' now
Make sure that the costs are few now
Make sure that the traction's true now
I'd hate to see you feelin' sad and blue now'
My Mama told me
'You better shop around'
(Shop, shop around)
(Uh-huh 'don't let the first one get you')
(Shop, shop around)
On no, cuz I don't wanna see you now in debt you'
(Uh-huh shop, shop around)
Uh-huh 'before you let 'em spread it light'
(Shop, shop around)
A-yeah-yeah (shop around)
'Make sure the price is right'
(Uh-huh, shop, shop around)
'Uh-huh before you let 'em shake your hand my son'
(Uh-huh, shop, shop around)
'Understand my son'
(Uh-huh, shop, shop around)
'Be a man my son'
(Uh-huh, shop, shop around)
'I know you can my son'
(Uh-huh, shop, shop around)
I love it
(Uh-huh shop, shop around)
A shop around...
Jon appears to be VERY passionate about road salt.
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