The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Replacing old incandescents with energy efficient models
With Earth Day around the corner on Sunday, April 20, the Crested Butte Town Council decided to spend $5,000 to become a little bit greener. The town set aside the money to retrofit incandescent light bulbs in town-owned buildings with more energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs.
Town Council member Billy Rankin urged the Town Council to consider doubling the amount to $10,000 to retrofit most of the town’s bulbs.
“There is definitely going to be savings if we change $10,000 in light bulbs,” Rankin said during a meeting on April 7, noting the Town Council has set a goal of being environmentally focused. “We’re green leaders and we still have incandescent bulbs in this town.”
Town manager Susan Parker said she supported the action but cautioned that the town was just starting to see the effects of winter on its properties. She pointed out that there may be a lot of roofs and windows to repair this summer and she’d have to draw on building and maintenance funds to do so.
Originally, the Town Council had hoped to use monies generated by its newly instituted REMP fund, which charges fees to homeowners who want to install non-energy efficient elements like hot tubs and heated driveways and sidewalks. However, that fund has yet to generate any income. In order to do the project, the town would have to borrow money from building and maintenace funds.
Town planner John Hess said it would cost $10,000 to replace all of the town’s bulbs and noted it would cost approximately $60,000 to replace the town’s outdated lighting fixtures with more energy-efficient models.
Town mayor Alan Bernholtz said that the town had budgeted $5,000 for the project and urged the Town Council to maintain that amount for now, with hopes that the project can be concluded next year. “If we have $5,000 budgeted, let’s use that,” he said.
The Town Council unanimously agreed. The new bulbs will be installed at the Town Hall, the town’s office building near the Fire Station at Third Street and Maroon Avenue, the Marshal’s office and KBUT, the Center for the Arts and the Town’s Shops.
The Town Council had hoped to install the new bulbs themselves on Earth Day, April 20, with other volunteers but the project will likely wait for later in the spring.
In an interview this week, Rankin says he hopes the lighting project is the Town’s first step in developing an overall energy efficiency plan in the coming months. The Office for Resource Efficiency (ORE) is planning a countywide energy summit for September that will help all entities in the valley plan their energy futures.
“This will be the first step toward a bigger, greater project for town,” Rankin says. “Because before you put in a solar field, you have to have light bulbs.”
