City commissioners are ready to make the city a little greener.
Commissioners at their weekly meeting agreed to formally create the new position of Sustainability Coordinator.
The new job will be shared with Douglas County, and will draw a salary of about $60,000 per year, commissioners were told.
The new employee will be responsible for helping the city and county figure out how to save energy, reduce the community’s carbon footprint and look at green issues like locally produced foods.
The city will pay for the first $100,000 worth of costs related to the program with a grant the city received as part of the federal stimulus program. After the grant money is exhausted, the county will pay for 60 percent of the position’s costs and the city will pay for 40 percent.
One of the first jobs for the new position will be administering a project to improve energy efficiency of the lighting and heating and air conditioning systems at the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vt. That $550,000 project also will be paid for with federal stimulus money.
Comments
John Hamm 7 years, 10 months ago
Another $100K a year down the bureaucratic drain. Oh yes, you're right, it's Federal Stimulus money the first year but then whose? And where did the FSm come from in the first place?
cowboy 7 years, 10 months ago
seems a rather large waste of dollars for skills that should already be present in the administrative staff for building operations maintenance and the city engineering services. If our current position holders are not up to speed perhaps they should be replaced with currently competent staff rather then increasing overhead and adding positions. Most vendors of major HVAC and lighting systems have their own staff that can evaluate and present these projects much less manage the installations.
Practicality 7 years, 10 months ago
Sigh
This seems like a waste of money. So what is this person going to do? Walk around and make recommendations about how to save energy? And where will the money come from to do the recommendations?
I am sure there are plenty of people currently on the pay roll who could do this job already, and I doubt that they are soooo busy that it couldn't be added to their duties. But heck, where will all the funds come from for the changes?
Sigmund 7 years, 10 months ago
"The new job will be shared with Douglas County, and will draw a salary of about $60,000 per year, commissioners were told."
The first job will be to see that the tax dollars for their salary is sustainable.
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