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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-EC-1982-10-21 MINUTES ENERGY COMMISSION CITY OF ITHACA. NEW YORK REGULAR MEETING COMMON COUNCIL CHAMBER THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21 , 1982 PRESENT: Nancy Potter, Carolyn Peterson, Benjamin Nichols, Gerald Messmer, Harold Jones, Jeanne Fudala, Doug Dylla, Ernest Bury, and Staff Liaison John Clynes. Elva Holman and Lindy Elkins had telephoned Doug Dylla that they were unable to attend the meeting. The meeting was called to order at 7:40 p.m. by Doug Dylla. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: The minutes -of the September 16, 1982 meeting were approval unanimously. ANNOUNCEMENTS: D. Dylla announced that Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services, in conjunction with Cooper- ative Extension, was in the middle of a six-session series of Wednesday night workshops covering the topics of weatherization, insulation, solar heating, wood stoves and super efficient furnaces. He also stated that INHS had received a $20,000 grant to superinsu- late a low-to-moderate-income three-unit apartment house. The project is designed to reduce heat load to one-tenth that normally expected. N. Potter announced that Extension was also sponsoring two workshops on energy saving window treatments, October 27 and November 3. All workshops were bing held at the Ex- tension building. COMMUNITCATIONS: J.Fudala summarized the Municipal Questionnaire being sent by the Commission to other cities to ascertain their energy saving programs and reported on the two responses she had thus far received from Elmira and Buffalo. Both cities have done some conversion to High Pressure Sodium street lighting. Elmira has a staff engineer assigned full time to controlling city energy consumption. She asked for specific suggestions as to where to direct further letters; some suggestions were offered. Ms. Fudala also distributed copies of "Allocation of Hydroelectric Power" received from the PASNY officials who had made the presentation at the September meeting. The copies were dated 7/81 . Ms. Peter- son noted that according to a letter she had seen, the books were updated to 6/82 with some changes (see below). PASNY FOLLOW-UP: C. Peterson reported that the County Planning Board had received letters from PASNY dated June 7, 1982 and September 21 , 1982. A letter had also been received by the County from the Municipal Electric Utilities Association of New York State dated July 15. County Planning Director Frank Liguori has also informed her that a letter had been received from the City of Auburn announcing a November 10 conference to be held there on the PASNY hydro proposal and a recent court decision, subject to appeal , in favor of the municipals. Referring to "Allocation of Hydroelectric Power", C. Peterson expressed concern about two points not mentioned in the PASNY presentation, namely criticism by PASNY of municipal electrics and the large amount of PASNY power going to industry. Regarding the first, PASNY had stated that the municipals were receiving too much of the cheap PASNY power in proportion to their percentage of the population and that because this power was so much cheaper were tending to be profligate in its use. Ms. Peterson then quoted from the let- ter from the Municipal Electric Association challenging PASNY's consumption figures and expressing concern that the Dyson redistribution plan would result in an inequitable re- distribution of power from upstate to downstate New York. E. Bury supported C. Peterson's concern about the amount of PASNY power going to industry stating that con'trary' to the claim that this helps keep jobs in New York State, the in- dustries, especially aluminum which receives much of the power, are not labor-intensive. D. Dylla re-ordered the agenda to allow the Incentives Committee to report first as Nancy Potter had to leave the meeting early. INCENTIVES: N. Potter stated that she and H. Jones had met with J. Clynes to begin planning a work- shop for maintenance and custodial staff. Cornell Ag Engineer Bruce John will assist. It is hoped that the workshop will be held in mid-November. Serious consideration was being given to inviting County maintenance personnel as well ; something for which Com- mission members expressed support. Topics will include boiler maintenance, lighting, general housekeeping, and general conservation. Feedback is being awaited from the Personnel Administrator on the incentive program. In response to a question from D. Dylla, J. Clynes stated the Mayor"s budget should be ready in a few weeks but would contain no allocation for the Incentives program at this time until details are worked out. TARGET APPLICATIONS: R. Lacey reported that he and D. Dylla had met with Bill Szabo. Mr. Lacey had presented heat loss calculations for city buildings based on square footage to Mr. Szabo for com- parison with the latter's figures which are based on percentage of heat loss by area of the buildings. The results were similar for City Hall and the Tin Can but a major dis- crepancy in their respective calculations of the payback period occurred with the Central Fire Station. That project was shown to have a very poor payback of 28 years, partly because the Station's windows already have thermopane glass, and, was consequently re- moved from the list of priority capital projects. E. Bury stated that perhaps a higher energy cost escalation figure should have been used in the payback calculations rather than the straight inflation rate which had been used. Mr. Lacey further noted that energy costs for the Streets and Facilities garage through September of this year were already almost equal to the entire 1981 costs for the garage. C. Peterson provided further verification of this. J. Clynes suggested that the items with short paybacks be given immediate priority so that plans could be in place by January. Priority items will include Tin Can insulation, the Streets and Facilities conversion, insulation and other work at Southside and the Build- ings and Parks Facility. Commission members with other suggestions should forward them as soon as possible to R. Lacey. B. Nichols suggested that the plans for these buildings be shared with the people who will attend the Incentives workshop and that their input be solicited. ACCOUNTING: C. Peterson reported that H. Jones and G. Messmer had gone out with a light meter to measure lighting levels on various West Hill streets. Mr. Messmer reported that the lighting dis- tribution was generally good, between .17 and .2 foot-candles on most streets and as high as .3 on through streets; these figures are in line with recommended levels. D. Dylla asked E. Bury if he would be willing to supervise the Lighting subcommittee of Accounting, Mr. Bury consented, adding that he felt there was an inconsistency in NYSEG policies on low pressure sodium and that there needed to be a clear definition of just what street lighting was for--traffic safety or pedestrian security. This was so it could be determined what kind of lighting arc pattern was desired, and thus which kinds of light- ing would be most effective. Mr. Dylla asked Mr. Bury to prepare a summary sheet comparing high and low pressure sodium for the next meeting. He noted that changing lighting standards after 40 years would be - 2 -- very difficult. B. Nichols stated that another factor to be considered in this was who is responsible for lighting private residential property lots. C. Peterson stated that her committee would attempt to hash these out. G. Messmer stated that he would bring a low pressure sodium meter to the next meeting. C. Peterson concluded by reporting that the Green Street Parking Ramp had had energy sav- ings of $500 for June 1982, $853 in July, $895 in August, and $805 over the same months the year before. She added that she has given all her information to Bill Szabo who is doing a good job of cost accounting. ENERGY TASK FORCE: J. Clynes stated that specific forms have been adopted for tracking energy costs, especially the ten "energy hogs Evaluations of the capital program had shown that improvements to City Hall as well as Central Fire Station may not yield a good payback. Mr. Clynes en- couraged the Commission to recommed alternatives. A lighting research and development program has been proposed for the S&F Garage comparing regular fluorescents, energy saver fluorescents and energy saver fluorescent with solid state ballasts. E. Bury stated that according to the publication Energy Users News, energy watt-saver fluorescents were not saving as much as they were supporsed to and, in addition, were causing premature ballast failure. Mr. Clynes responded that the City had received a similar warning from the State. D. Dylla requested that Bill Szabo be asked to review the ten-hogs list to see if there are other buildings with energy cost overruns. He added that Mr. Szabo's role should be formalized. J. Clynes responded that funding was being provided in the Mayor's budget to give Bill Szabo some training. He announced that the City, like the County, had received a letter from Auburn regarding the PASNY hydro meeting of November 17th. NEW BUSINESS: Stenographer Mr. Lacey stated that most of the advisory groups he had observed had a stenographer to take and write meeting minutes rather than a member having to do so. The Commission should consider doing this even if it meant taking money out of its budget. D. Dylla noted that J. Fudala did a "superb" job on the minutes but that it was perhaps an unfair burden. B. Nichols stated that consideration ought to be given to what to expect from a stenographer since it took an understanding of the subject material to make a judgment as to what was important rather than writing a verbatim mishmash. J. Fudala stated that she felt the minutes took too much of her time, time she would rather devote to committee work as well as reducing her participation at meetings to writing. Mr. Dylla asked Ms. Fudala to check around and come up with some options for the next meeting. ALTERNATIVE TO PARKING LOT: D. Dylla then stated he had talked with people interested in developing alternatives to the proposed parking lot on East Hill such as a railway system or electronic bus to make runs up the hill . He asked if Commission members were interested in having this group come to present their ideas at the next meeting. There was consensus on this. KEROSENE LAMP CONTROVERSY: D. Dylla distributed copies of an extensive article that had appeared in Consumers Union entitled, "Are Kerosene Heaters Safe?" There had also been a dispute on the radio between a design and environmental analyst at Cornell and the City and Couny fire coordinators on this issue. In light of these conflicting viewpoints regarding kerosene heater hazards, Dylla suggested the Commission hold a 30-45 minute session on this at some future meeting, to which the public would be invited. There was general agreement on this as well . On a motion, the meeting adjourned at 9:25 p. m. -- 3 -- NEXT REGULAR MEETING: T ursday, November 18, 1982 7:30 p.m. -- Council Chamber AGENDA: pâ–şppproval of Minutes nnouncements orrespon ence Presentation-of Alternatives to East Hi arking Lot Old Business Committee Reports: Target Applications Accounting/Lighting Incentives Energy Task Force Stenographer Report Responses From Other Cities to Questionnaire (if any) New Business