Special Meeting Tomorrow Afternoon (4:30 pm), Visioning Saturday

Dear People: Tomorrow night (Friday, the 11th), Council will be holding a special meeting at 4:30 pm, in the Bryan Center, in order to discuss a proposal, from a local and a regional group, requiring the Village's participation, that might 1) bring in stimulus dollars and 2) help reduce our energy usage. We welcome your thoughts, input, and attendance at the meeting.

I would also remind everyone that the next round of Yellow Springs / Miami Township Vision is Saturday morning:

Goals and Values Workshop

Saturday, December 12 / 10:00am to 12:30pm / Yellow Springs High School Gym

Dreams were shared in the Round 1 Idea Gathering Workshops. Now Let’s build the ideas into goals for the future in Round 2.

(Obviously, I will be at this meeting, not in my normal office hours on Saturday!)

Here's Mark Cundiff's memo about the energy efficiency grant proposal, and below that is the agenda of the special meeting:

"One of the funding programs under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (AARA or “Stimulus Program”) is a grant program called the Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant (EECBG). The EECBG program’s goal is to develop and implement projects to improve energy efficiency and reduce energy use and fossil fuel emissions. An ETF member, Pat Murphy, who also is the Executive Director of Community Solutions, brought up the idea of the Village, in a partnership with Community Solutions and a private firm out of Miami County, submitting a grant application to the EECBG program at the ETF’s regular meeting on November 24^th. At that meeting, several questions were raised about the program. Subsequently, it was arranged for a representative of the private firm to come to Yellow Springs to meet with the ETF at their next regular meeting that was held on December 7^th.

The grant proposal, which is still being developed, calls for the development of a pilot program to make energy efficiency through retro-fits more affordable. The grant money would be used in the development of a replicable energy audit and retrofitting process that would efficiently evaluate a structure for energy inefficiencies and make the necessary retrofits in a very cost effective manner, and for some “on the ground” testing of the model. This system could then be transferred to communities all over the United States for implementation, providing opportunities for the start-up of new businesses to do the energy retrofits while reducing energy usage.

The grant application needs to be submitted by a unit of local government or by a non-for-profit organization authorized by and on behalf of the unit of local government. I made it clear in the meeting that the Village did not have the administrative capacity at this time to submit the grant application, let alone administer the program should the project get funded. Pat Murphy indicated that Community Solutions could provide this administrative capacity and would be willing to do so.

The deadline for submitting applications to the EECBG Program is December 14, 2009 at 11:59 p.m. There is $63.68 million available under this grant program, which is open to all Formula ineligible local units of government (municipalities under 35,000 in population and counties under 200,000 in population) in the United States. The maximum grant award is $5.0 million, and the minimum grant award is $1.0 million. The program is being administered through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and they anticipate awarding 15-60 grants. Communities receiving EECBG grants will be notified around March 15, 2010, with the grants being awarded around May 15, 2010. The performance period for these grants will be 36 months, but funds will need to be obligated within 18 months of the effective date of the award.

After hearing about the grant proposal and having the opportunity to have questions answered and have a dialogue about the proposal, the ETF passed a motion to recommend that Village Council authorize Community Solutions to submit on behalf of the Village an EECBG application.

The Village’s participation is needed since a unit of local government is needed to apply for the grant. This authorization is only for the submittal of a grant application. Future authorizations from Village Council will be required to enter into any grant agreements. It is anticipated that any in-kind Village contributions of staff time will be minimal and there will be no expenditure of Village funds on the development and submittal of this grant application."

Stay warm!
Lori

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Clerk of Council <clerk@yso.com>
Date: Wed, Dec 9, 2009 at 11:42 AM
Subject: FW: Special Council Meeting Materials

COUNCIL OF THE VILLAGE OF YELLOW SPRINGS

SPECIAL MEETING AGENDA

IN COUNCIL CHAMBERS @ 4:30 pm December 11, 2009

CALL TO ORDER

ROLL CALL

PUBLIC HEARINGS/LEGISLATION

Resolution #2009-47 Authorizing Community Solutions to Submit an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Application

EXECUTIVE SESSION

Personnel

ADJOURNMENT

“The Village of Yellow Springs is committed providing reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. The Council meeting is wheelchair accessible. Any person requiring a disability accommodation should contact the City Clerk’s Office at 767-9126 or via e-mail at clerk@yso.com for more information.”