Schools race clock to spend energy money

Three school districts in Flathead County are in a race against the clock.

The Bigfork, Kalispell and Olney-Bissell districts have been granted about $527,000 for energy-related projects. The money is distributed through the state Department of Commerce and is part of the stimulus package Montana received in the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

State legislators designated $15 million of the $900 million in Montana stimulus money for Quick Start Energy Grants - money to help schools complete energy-related projects that otherwise likely would go undone or require additional taxpayer support through voted levies.

But there is a catch to the Quick Start grants: Districts have until Sept. 30 to complete their projects. Any unfinished work after that must be paid for out of district coffers.

Several local school districts have applied for Quick Start grants, according to program manager Joslyn Hunt with the Department of Commerce. Her department has received about 100 applications from districts across the state, a number that grows daily.

To apply for a grant, districts must have had an energy audit within the last five years, Hunt said. If a district's last audit was more than five years ago, school officials may apply for an energy audit, which is also funded by Quick Start grant money.

About 200 school districts across the state have applied for audits, Hunt said. The state has used about $2 million of its allotted $15 million for energy audits.

Locally, the Bigfork, Cayuse Prairie, Columbia Falls, Creston, Fair-Mont-Egan, Helena Flats, Marion, Olney-Bissell, Smith Valley and Whitefish school districts applied for energy audits or reviews, she said.

As of Thursday, only Bigfork and Olney-Bissell's subsequent applications for energy improvement projects had been approved.

Bigfork was awarded a $73,838 Quick Start grant, clerk Eda Taylor said. The money will be used to replace single-pane windows in the high school with more energy-efficient double-pane glass. That includes replacing windows in a couple of doors with double-pane glass, Taylor said.

The district has awarded the bid to Shepard's Glass in Kalispell, she said.

"The window portion is going to be a major challenge" to finish before the end-of-September deadline, she said. "But the contractors who are going to bid on that know that."

The district had applied for an additional $86,000 to build an arctic entryway in the high school, Taylor said, but the Department of Commerce denied that part of the request.

The decisions are made by a team of people at the department, Hunt explained.

"We are just trying to provide projects that the schools will see energy savings from, and also help both the smaller schools and the larger schools and spread the wealth," she said.

Olney-Bissell is a small school that expects to reap big benefits from its Quick Start grant. The district was awarded $167,623 to install a new geothermal heat-pump system at the school, according to district clerk JeAnna Wisher.

An additional $2,500 grant from Lincoln Electric Cooperative also will go toward the project, she said.

Several schools across the state have applied for geothermal projects, Hunt said.

Boiler replacements also have been popular, she added.

Kalispell Public Schools plans to use some of its $285,878 Quick Start grant to put in a high-efficiency boiler at Elrod Elementary School, director of facilities and transportation Chuck Cassidy said.

At Russell Elementary School, the district plans to replace single-pane windows with double-pane glass and build a vestibule, he said.

The grant "wasn't everything we asked for, but it was most of it," Cassidy said.

"We are moving very quickly at the two elementary schools to get the designs done," he added. "We hope to have those out on the street in the next week or so."

Bids on those projects will be opened July 28, he said.

"We're hoping to get board approval that evening" at a special meeting, Cassidy said. "That gives us 60 days to get the work done."It won't be easy to finish projects by Sept. 30, Hunt acknowledged, but she said districts and contractors alike are working furiously.

"Everybody's working very hard. Everybody's implementing projects. Everybody's been put to work," she said.

Districts have until Sept. 1 to submit applications, but the money might not last that long. In addition to the $2 million granted for audits, the state already has awarded about $12 million of the $15 million allotted for Quick Start grants, Hunt said.

"We're very near the end of our money, and we still have a good 20 applications this week" to review, she said.

The department will continue to take Quick Start applications until it runs out of money, she said.

On the Net: http://commerce.mt.gov/QuickStart/

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com