The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Asks group to return in six weeks
By Aimee Eaton
The Gunnison Valley Housing Authority in collaboration with ColdHarbour Institute and Gunnison County is working with locally operated Lotus Engineering and Sustainability Group to develop a program that when implemented would reduce energy costs for financially vulnerable residents in the Gunnison Valley.
Emily Artale, principal engineer and co-owner of Lotus, spoke on behalf of the collaboration at a Mt. Crested Butte Town Council meeting and requested $5,000 in support to launch the program.
“Energy use in this valley is really high,” she said. “People in Gunnison County use 44 percent more energy than anywhere else in our region. We want people to not spend more than four percent to six percent of their budget on energy costs. Fifty percent of households in the upper valley spend six percent to nine percent of their income on energy costs. Valley-wide it’s 12 percent.”
Artale said because area energy rates are in line with the standards, the high energy bills point to inefficiencies in housing. She labeled residences with these inefficiencies as “substandard” and told the council that they are largely inhabited by those living in, or close to, poverty despite likely being part of the workforce.
The collaboration’s program would seek to help these households by conducting energy assessments of the residences to identify inefficiencies and then perform retrofits to address the problems. Only retrofits covered by rebates from energy companies and other agencies would be performed, and any cost outside of those covered would be addressed by the collaboration.
“There would be no cost to the residents, and both renters and owners would be able to participate in the program,” said Artale.
Artale told the council she had applied for two grants to get the program off the ground, one of which required a match of $18,000 to qualify for the full amount of $85,000. The $5,000 request to the council would go toward that match, she said.
Because of the nature of the program, the $5,000 would need to come from the town’s housing fund, but of all the funds the town currently balances it’s one of the most precarious. Money in the housing fund comes through a tax on development projects in town, and it’s never a given whether new projects will happen.
“We’re not at a point today to know how much money we have and where these other projects are going to happen,” Mt. Crested Butte town manager Joe Fitzpatrick told the council after Artale’s request. “There’s money in there, but not a whole lot.”
Fitzpatrick also noted that the council had recently agreed to up its annual contribution to the Gunnison Valley Housing Authority by about $20,000. “With $58,000 a year to the housing authority the fund is going to empty pretty fast.”
Councilman David O’Reilly told the council he would be uncomfortable funding the program at the requested level.
“We have a tendency to really let the money go quickly and we have given a lot of money to the Housing Authority,” he said. “Maybe at a little later date we would be able to help out in a way. … I would go on record as not supporting $5,000.”
While O’Reilly was the most adamant member of the council, several other councilmembers agreed that funding the program at this point was not in the cards.
“I think there’s a lot of potential for us to be part of this in the future,” said councilman Ken Lodovico. “But I have to be fiscally responsible. I’m all for energy efficiency, and all for workforce housing but I have to be fiscally responsible.”
Mayor Todd Barnes asked Artale, “Do you have any idea how much of the outrageous energy bills are just bad habits?”
John Cattles, who has been working with Artale as a Gunnison County representative, responded.
“There are always going to be outliers who just waste energy, but we had master’s students at Western look at the whole energy use of valley,” he said. “We found our county is really inefficient: 40 percent more than rest of the state, 30 percent more than regions with similar climates. The numbers are really compelling. We have a real problem here with efficiency and substandard housing.”
Gunnison County commissioner John Messner, who has also been part of developing the program, said the county has put forth $5,000.
“The idea of this is to hopefully become a financially supported program through the housing authority and grants,” Messner added, noting that right now, however, they just needed to get the program off the ground. “There is no plan or desire for this to be a burden on the municipalities.”
Barnes then told the group that while he was in support of learning more about the program he thought it wise that the council hold off on providing financial support until after the start of the new fiscal year. At that point, he said, they should have a better understanding of what housing developments are in the pipeline.
With a general consensus around the table, councilwoman Janet Farmer said, “I think we’ve all expressed that it’s a great project but the timing is not good for us.”
The council asked Artale to come back in August and provide an update on where the program stood and to discuss funding options.
“We’re 7-0 in favor of this project That’s a good start,” said Barnes in closing.
