RRCAB Meeting

May 11, 2005

Members Present: Cindy Strecker; Laura Routh; Dickie Heckler; John Craft; Kevin Dobbs

Staff: None

Guest: Steve Stewart, Fleet Manager, City of Lawrence, Central Maintenance Garage

  1. Steve presented information about the City’s environmental progress in the vehicle area. The facility provides maintenance and repair for police, fire, solid waste vehicles. They do not do the maintenance on buses. The shop uses a waste oil furnace, and of 3400 gallons recycled last year, 2200 gallons was burned. Antifreeze is also recycled by a contractor onsite(490 gallons last year). By recycling, the city saves $1.30 a gallon. Batteries are sent for recycling and accepted at the garage from citizens, as well. The garage manages all SW department tires (approximately 20/week); these go to a facility in Leavenworth. All City truck tires are re-capped at BANDAG. A while back, the City participated in a pilot project to remove mercury switches from all vehicles. Switch removal is now protocol for all vehicles before they are scrapped. The garage and offices also have a routine recycling program for paper and cans. Magazines and catalogs are recycled through the Wal-mart because the city does not offer collection for these items. Aluminum cans and scrap metal are taken to Lonnie’s metal recycling in Lawrence, and they also use a box at 12th and Haskell Bargain Center. They share a cardboard recycling box with Park and Rec.

For energy savings in the coming year, they intend to buy a new, bigger waste oil furnace, and have replaced overhead doors with insulated doors. In the last 2 years, they saved $7000 in energy costs by replacing the heaters and thermostats in their building. They did a pilot program using re-refined oil, but discontinued it because they were unable to find oil that worked. Lighting (fluoro bulbs) are recycled. The department has been looking at alternative fuels (i.e. biodiesel) but are not ready to make the leap yet. All vehicles currently run on E-10 gas.

Miles per gallon is not always considered in new vehicle purchase. Inspectors and the City manager currently have access to hybrid vehicles. The City tries to choose smaller vehicles where possible but purchasing dollars are not currently available to switch the whole passenger vehicle fleet over to hybrids. Steve was able to test drive the new GM/Chevy hybrid truck—which came with 110 plug-ins (a hugely valuable feature). Unfortunately, the truck I not yet in full production, and the purchase price am too high for the city to consider at this time. The city has its own fueling station, and is allowed to spend 5% over the normal purchase price for environmentally preferable products. In 2004, 45,000 gallons of diesel and unleaded were purchased and used in city vehicles. The city uses more diesel than gas; the sanitation department and the Fire Department are the two biggest users of fuel. Street department is 3rd. Steve has looked at several areas to try to reduce fuel usage, including routing and location of vehicle refueling stations (near work sites is better). He has also considered electronic software that tracks the idling time of trash trucks, so that after a few minutes, the trucks shut down if still idling. Additional area of possible savings included tire inflation, driving behavior, tune-ups, and a hydraulic drive unit and electric/hybrid utility trucks. The permadrive unit currently under consideration would reduce fuel usage on truck starts and stops, estimated 30% fuel reduction. This technology would be installed on trash trucks, primarily.

  1. Minutes of April meeting were approved. Motion: LR, Second DH. Unanimous.
  2. Earth Day Recap: DH notes that there was a good turnout, but maybe next year we should lobby to have booths set up on Mass. Street, 9th and Mass, by the bank, to get more interest in the fair. DH proposes closing Mass. Street for next year’s parade. Discussion of Mass.Street as a pedestrian mall ensues. RRCAB members agree that next year, we should consider a street fair, and perhaps a poster contest. We also request that staff get poster out for distribution earlier. Question for Staff: are there thank you cards available for RRCAB members to thank sponsors and volunteers?
  3. Subcommittee Updates:

Recycling subcommittee has not met; Jeff Severin is getting married; meeting will occur after wedding and honeymoon.

Energy subcommittee: CS talked to Bruce Flanders at LPL and he was supportive of having a LEED educational display as part of the new library. John Craft reported that the energy code passage looks good at this point; the workshop that John hosted was attended by 20 people, but not as well attended by builders as John would have liked. Attendees included architects and city officials. They will try to host another workshop in the future. It was suggested that John try to have one as part of the energy fair.

Misc.

Brainstorm: RRCAB members propose the creation of an award to be given to a builder whose work emphasizes energy conservation. The award could be used to solicit contractor interest in energy issues, and we could advertise the award in the LHBA newsletter. This idea will be raised again at the next RRCAB meeting.

Laura has volunteered to create a hotmail web email account for the RRCAB to use to solicit comment and feedback from Citizens. She will bring the address and password to the next meeting, and has committed to maintaining the account for the RRCAB. Objections to this should be forwarded to the group as a whole. Target deadline for account creation is Monday, June 6th.

Meeting adjourned 6:15 PM.