ROBERTSDALE, Ala. — At their Monday morning council meeting, The City of Robertsdale passed Resolution No. 008-11 authorizing an application to be sent to ADECA (Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs) for an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG).

Greg Smith, city engineer, explained to the council the purpose of the grant is to help improve the efficiency of lighting around the city and has identified a need to replace certain street lights and possibly traffic lights with more energy efficient LED lights.

“We would like to focus on the Hwy. 59 corridor going through Robertsdale and that involves about 120 fixtures. We would like to replace the traffic signals too but the state owns those and we don’t have any control over when they are replaced. We can request funding for that also but not sure if we can get it. The state has money allocated for that purpose and have replaced some in other towns. We will just have to see what we can do,” Smith said.

Cost for replacing the bulbs is around $750 a piece and the application is due on July 1, Smith said. The grant will pay 100 percent of the cost and the city will not incur any expenses except for material.

Right now, the bulbs are high-pressure sodium and by replacing them with LED’s, the city will save an estimated $12,000 a year. “These LED’s are the most energy-efficient bulbs out there and use about 60 percent less electricity than the sodium bulbs and last a lot longer too. That’s quite a savings,” said Mayor Charles Murphy.

According to the ADECA website, the EECBG is funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and is intended to assist U.S. cities, counties and states to develop, promote, implement and manage energy efficiency and conservation projects and programs. Their design is to:

-Reduce fossil fuel emissions

-Reduce the total energy use of the eligible entities

-Improve energy efficiency in the transportation, building and other appropriate sectors

-Create and retain jobs

Funding for these grants total $3.2 billion with $2.7 billion awarded through formula grants and $454 million allocated through competitive grants and can be used for energy efficiency and conservation programs and projects communitywide as well as renewable energy installations on government buildings.

Smith also talked about the Hazard Mitigation Grant program, administered by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) that provides grants to states and local governments for implementing long term hazard mitigation measures after a major disaster declaration.

“Since the whole state was declared a disaster area from the April tornadoes, we are entitled to funding and we have to have a letter of intent turned in to FEMA this week. This is a 75/25 grant meaning the federal government will pay 75 percent and the city is responsible for 25 percent coming from cash or in-kind sources. We are looking to acquire three new generators for our sewage plant so we will have plenty of backup if the power is out for an extended period of time during a natural disaster,” said Smith.

The cost of the generators range between $70-140,000 each and come in diesel and natural gas models, Smith said. Applications are due in September.

In other business, the council:

-Passed a motion to reappoint Jeremy King and Judy Ikner to the Industrial Development Board

-Passed a motion to approve a $1,000 sign request for the Robertsdale High School Bear Club. Two 3 x 5 signs will be displayed on the press box at J.D. Sellars football stadium.

-Passed a motion to approve a Memorandum of Understanding with the Alabama Department of Transportation. This agreement allows for the city to get reimbursed for debris removal following a tornado. Murphy said they would like to get it reworded so that it applies to all natural disasters from now on and would have to get City Attorney Ken Raines to take care of that at a later date.

Murphy also announced Art Camp and Baseball Camp were going on this week and they had 150 signed up for them.