Wawasee Looks At Various Ways To Reduce Its Operating Expenses
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By John DeGroff-
The Wawasee Community School Corp. is no exception, and made news last spring by announcing various budget cuts that were deemed necessary.
On Tuesday, the corporation's board, in special session, looked at yet another way in which the school system could save money: reducing energy costs.
"As I reported to the board, energy costs to the school system have been running $1,100,000 to $1,200,000," said Jim Evans, Wawasee's financial officer. "An average of $1,150,000 would probably be accurate."
Evans said that figure represents utility use systemwide, including Wawasee High School facilities (including the transportation facility), Wawasee Middle and North Webster and Milford schools.
Prior to the meeting, Superintendent Dr. Tom Edington said, "We're asking these people to make these presentations not necessarily to make any decisions. We're not looking at specific companies, as much as concepts. If this is a concept you'd like to pursue, then we can take the next step to look into specific details."
David Glessner, of Energy Education Inc., Dallas, Texas, discussed various options that could see a net saving of $3.6 million over a 10-year period. His presentation was informational, dealing more with generalities than specific cost reductions.
The next three presentations were given by representatives of Performance Services Inc. This is a design-build engineering and construction firm out of Indianapolis and Oakbrook, Ill. Their area of expertise includes wind turbine installation and geothermal energy.
Tim Thoman discussed two wind turbine programs that could actually be revenue-generating options for the corporation. One program, called Community Way, would have a turbine located somewhere within the community. Potential payback over 10 years would be $5.8 million.
The second program would involve the corporation with Performance Services Windpark in West Lafayette, and could potentially generate $12.4 million over 10 years.
Dale Bozell and Bob Wede then discussed the geothermal option with the board. This is an entirely different program in that it's aimed at on-site utilization of that energy source. It's implementation is also structured differently.
"A year ago, we applied for what is known as clean renewable energy bonds," Evans said. "These are part of the stimulus program, and are very low-interest bonds that we can get an allocation for. We would use that allocation in this case to purchase geothermal installations for two of our buildings, Wawasee Middle School being one and North Webster Elementary being the other.
"We have the authority to issue the bonds. The board would have to make the determination that they actually want to go ahead and do that, and use that money to install the geothermal system."
Evans said the board only has authority to issue such bonds for three years.
Geothermal is estimated to offer potential savings of $75,000 per year for the corporation.
The final presentation, by Jon Rowe, of MSKTD & Associates, and Doug Ahfeld of Denali Sales, dealt with the installation of smaller on-site wind turbines. A 250 kilowatt turbine could generate revenue of $5,320 monthly, and a larger 650-kilowatt unit would potentially bring in up to $13,829 monthly. This presentation was also for instructional purposes, and no specific recommendations were made.[[In-content Ad]]In other business, the board granted permission to advertise for bids on the Wawasee High School renovation project.
Wawasee board members are Mike Wilson, Rebecca Linnemeier, Dallas Winchester, Mary Louise Dixon and George Gilbert.
The Wawasee Community School Corp. is no exception, and made news last spring by announcing various budget cuts that were deemed necessary.
On Tuesday, the corporation's board, in special session, looked at yet another way in which the school system could save money: reducing energy costs.
"As I reported to the board, energy costs to the school system have been running $1,100,000 to $1,200,000," said Jim Evans, Wawasee's financial officer. "An average of $1,150,000 would probably be accurate."
Evans said that figure represents utility use systemwide, including Wawasee High School facilities (including the transportation facility), Wawasee Middle and North Webster and Milford schools.
Prior to the meeting, Superintendent Dr. Tom Edington said, "We're asking these people to make these presentations not necessarily to make any decisions. We're not looking at specific companies, as much as concepts. If this is a concept you'd like to pursue, then we can take the next step to look into specific details."
David Glessner, of Energy Education Inc., Dallas, Texas, discussed various options that could see a net saving of $3.6 million over a 10-year period. His presentation was informational, dealing more with generalities than specific cost reductions.
The next three presentations were given by representatives of Performance Services Inc. This is a design-build engineering and construction firm out of Indianapolis and Oakbrook, Ill. Their area of expertise includes wind turbine installation and geothermal energy.
Tim Thoman discussed two wind turbine programs that could actually be revenue-generating options for the corporation. One program, called Community Way, would have a turbine located somewhere within the community. Potential payback over 10 years would be $5.8 million.
The second program would involve the corporation with Performance Services Windpark in West Lafayette, and could potentially generate $12.4 million over 10 years.
Dale Bozell and Bob Wede then discussed the geothermal option with the board. This is an entirely different program in that it's aimed at on-site utilization of that energy source. It's implementation is also structured differently.
"A year ago, we applied for what is known as clean renewable energy bonds," Evans said. "These are part of the stimulus program, and are very low-interest bonds that we can get an allocation for. We would use that allocation in this case to purchase geothermal installations for two of our buildings, Wawasee Middle School being one and North Webster Elementary being the other.
"We have the authority to issue the bonds. The board would have to make the determination that they actually want to go ahead and do that, and use that money to install the geothermal system."
Evans said the board only has authority to issue such bonds for three years.
Geothermal is estimated to offer potential savings of $75,000 per year for the corporation.
The final presentation, by Jon Rowe, of MSKTD & Associates, and Doug Ahfeld of Denali Sales, dealt with the installation of smaller on-site wind turbines. A 250 kilowatt turbine could generate revenue of $5,320 monthly, and a larger 650-kilowatt unit would potentially bring in up to $13,829 monthly. This presentation was also for instructional purposes, and no specific recommendations were made.[[In-content Ad]]In other business, the board granted permission to advertise for bids on the Wawasee High School renovation project.
Wawasee board members are Mike Wilson, Rebecca Linnemeier, Dallas Winchester, Mary Louise Dixon and George Gilbert.
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