Lansing’s Eastside neighborhood has entered into a new partnership with Capital Area Community Services (CACS), which has $16 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds for four counties over three years.
Eastside folks will be able to come to the Allen Neighborhood Center (ANC), 1619 E. Kalamazoo St, to get help to qualify for free energy upgrades like attic insulation, furnace repairs, or setback thermostats.
While all neighbors meeting income limits ($29,140 for a family of two, or $44,100 for a family of four, for example) will be eligible, one section of 300 homes will be carved out as a demonstration project.
Joan Nelson, director of the ANC, is hoping the Board of Water and Light and Consumers Energy will assist in what she calls “aggressive data capture,” to develop baseline statistics to show energy and cost savings over the next year.
Public education will be a large piece of the project, including how-to workshops by the Greater Lansing Housing Coalition, and a Green Team to help older residents implement measures like caulking.
Ivan Love, director of CACS, is right in sync with Nelson, and dreams big.
“As we get this project under our belt, then we’ll find funds for other things like wind mills and solar panels,” Love says.
His agency did a one-house demonstration project on Lansing’s Westside two years ago. It spent $5,700 on energy-related improvements, saving $1,657 in utility costs a year. Upfront expenses were recouped in 3.52 years.
“If we did that all over the country, the impact on the environment would be huge,” Love says.
For more about the Eastside project, see Rick Kibbey’s paper on energy preservation. Kibbey is an urban planner who once lived on the Eastside and has studied the area for 30 years, Nelson says.
Source: Joan Nelson, Allen Neighborhood Center
Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.
All Photographs © Dave Trumpie
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