An agreement with Siemens Building Technologies, Inc. was approved at Tuesday night’s city council meeting.

At the city council meeting, Siemens Building Technologies, Inc. gave a presentation about the upcoming investment grade audit.

Siemens will be doing a full-scale report of the city’s properties to propose what can be done, the cost of it, and the expected pay back, Inyart said.

Of the four initial proposals that the city received, the council felt Siemens proposal was more in line with the city’s budget and they felt more comfortable with the projected outcome.

From this second report, the city can chose what it wants done by Siemens, what it wants to do itself, or what it feels does not need to be fixed.

“We will be looking for technical, economically viable city improvements,” said John Marley, project developer of Siemens.

At this point in the process, Siemens has ideas for potential energy saving improvements. Some possibilities include heating, ventilation, and air conditioning upgrades at City Hall and the Police Department, geothermal options for fire stations one and two that would replace the heating and air systems currently in place, infrared heating at Public Works, which will help utilize lower temperatures requiring less energy, solar-thermal heating for the Rotary Pool, and different upgrades for the Wastewater Treatment Plant.

It will take approximately 10 to 12 weeks for the audit to be completed and for the proposal to be drawn up. After a review of the proposal, the city will take measures to start on the improvements.

“This is a more formal analysis phase with a formal report in the end,” city manager Scott Smith said.

Smith hopes to start the renovations by October of this year.

To help pay for upgrades, “the City has applied for and received a grant from the Illinois Clean Energy program for the replacement of lighting in the Police Department, Training Center, and the two fire stations to a more efficient fixture that will pay for itself in just a few years,” Smith said.

“That work has been completed and was not a ‘part of’ the performance contract with Siemens but is a part of our overall comprehensive plan for the conservation/reduction of energy and hopefully some added savings on our electrical bills,” Smith continued.

The city is also planning to apply for additional grants that would be a part of the performance contract. They are working with Siemens on specific project items that could qualify for grants or financing offered by the State of Illinois.

In other action, the council passed an ordinance modifying the way the city deals with tall grass and weeds.

Eight inches is the limit that a property owner can have grass. If it reaches that or higher, the council must go to the court house, find out who owns the property, send a certified letter, wait seven days from when the owner gets the notice, mow the yard, bill them, and put a lean on the property if the bill is not paid.

With the new agreement, the city would put a sign in the yard when the grass gets eight inches tall. The sign would tell the owner to mow the grass and after seven days, the city would mow the yard, find out who owns it and send them the bill.

“It cuts down the amount of time staff spends researching who owns properties that are in violation down to probably less than 20 percent of the time uses now on this type of complaint,” city planner Jeff Finley said.

“Secondly it cuts down the time it takes to get the grass cut from 25 days to about 8 days,” Finley said. “It cuts out the need for a letter to each complaint we get, saving postage, letterhead, envelope and time.”

Every year, city officials hear hundreds of complaints about yards with grass exceeding eight inches. With this change, the staff has a cheaper and more time efficient method of providing services to the public, Finley said.

Ashlei Maltman can be reached at 581-7942 or at anmaltman@eiu.edu.

Project Developer of Siemens Building Technologies John Marley speaks to the Charleston City Council Tuesday evening. The City Council approved Siemens to develop a report that would improve the city. (Robbie Wroblewski/The Daily Eastern News)

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