NORTH SHORE — Four North Shore municipalities are taking steps to take advantage of SICO grants to improve energy efficiency on municipal properties. Volente, Lago Vista, Point Venture and Jonestown have all applied for and been deemed eligible for the grants, which were provided for by federal stimulus money designated for the state of Texas.
Lago Vista is eligible for the most money, as the grants are awarded based on population. Lago Vista is qualified to receive up to $35,000, with Jonestown, Volente and Point Venture eligible to receive about $23,000 each.
The Village of Volente will use the funds to make the heating, ventilation and air conditioning units in the town hall/fire station building more efficient. Mayor Jan Yenawine said Pedernales Electric Cooperative helped the village out by sending someone to perform an energy analysis.
“He looked at it right away and said ‘This is a slam dunk,’” Yenawine said. The village’s current system is more than 20 years old.
Village of Point Venture Mayor Richard Shinn said Point Venture had similar plans for their grant money.
“We want to put in an energy efficient HVAC system in the new fire station,” Shinn said. “That’s what it’s slated for at this time, but we have some other projects up here that we could use it for.”
Lago Vista had an energy audit and determined they could get the most out of the money by updating the HVAC system and insulating the roof of the city hall building with icynene foam. Estimates from the energy audit suggest the city could improve the efficiency of the HVAC system by 13 percent, the icynene insulation could improve efficiency 20 percent  and some miscellaneous additional weatherization could save an additional 7 percent.
Jonestown was advised to use the money to improve their municipal HVAC system as well, along with some insulation.
Lago Vista and Volente have both sent out their projects for bid, but neither municipality has chosen a contractor.
“We have four different contractors bidding at this particular time,” Lago Vista building official Linda Alger said.
Alger and Yenawine both have sent bids back because they weren’t  itemized. Doing so helps compare bids.
“We’re having to ask them to submit (proposals) in a broken down manner,  not (in a) lump sum. We need to understand each little facet in the cost of it,” Yenawine said.
He added that once they choose a contractor, the process will roll along quickly.
“The beauty of this is we won’t have to wait long for the money,” Yenawine said.
Jonestown is seeking additional grants for a wind energy project the city is looking to pursue that would use the technology of Jonestown-based wind turban company CM Energies. Jonestown City Administrator Dan Dodson said the project would be an attempt to make the city as a whole more efficient.
“We’re trying to improve our footprint here in the city in terms of electricity cost in things like city hall, street lights and the wastewater treatment plant and the variety of all the facilities that we have,” Dodson said.
He said the technology developed by CM Energies is  well suited to capitalize on the wind that comes off the lake in Jonestown.
“Their type of machine is one that doesn’t need a tremendous amount of wind to produce electricity,” Dodson said. “So, because of that situation we feel like with the wind that we have here, that we can get some money, get some of them manufactured, get them up and show how they work.”
The grant Jonestown is pursuing would give the city $1.8 million to get the implementation of the project off the ground.
Shinn said he invited a representative from Grant Government Services to attend the next Point Venture City Council meeting to discuss the village using the company’s service to seek more grant money. Shinn said a representative from the company said Point Venture could be eligible for $250,000 in additional grant money.