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Photo by Eric Engman

Fairbanks City Council is taking spring cleaning to a whole new level after a review of the 2008 utilities budget showed city energy expenses had gone up 23 percent in the last year.

Utilities cost the city more than $547,000 from January to April.

In comparison with the same four-month period in 2007, the city spent $444,499.58. Overall increases in the city budget amount to $102,901.33 or a 23.15 percent increase.

And the city still has seven months to go.

In order to keep up with the costs of energy, City Council members will need to re-evaluate this year’s budget.

Fairbanks City Mayor Terry Strle and Public Works director and city engineer Michael Schmetzer implemented several immediate solutions to cut energy costs.

The city began by re-insulating portions of City Hall, repairing weather seals on leaking older windows and lowering the thermostat as well as minimizing air conditioning units throughout the building.

Public Works installed energy efficient light bulbs and motion detector lighting in low-traffic areas such as restrooms and hallways.

The City Hall building was built in 1934 and consists of three stories of reinforced concrete.

The school once stood as the Main School but was boarded up and its heat turned off in 1993, which resulted in significant water and frost damage.

The building was reopened in 1994 but has only undergone basic renovation.

The building is on the National Register of Historic Places but has been an energy auditor’s worst nightmare until recently.

Like many local business and home owners, making small adjustments has made a big impact.

“The city government isn’t run much different than how we run a household,” Strle said.

Strle made note of the many considerations city workers are taking, such as keeping lights off in empty rooms and minimizing the use of city vehicles whenever possible.

Public Works is in the process of constructing a 17,600-square-foot warm storage building for public works and emergency response vehicles.

“During winter months, we will not have to plug in our equipment and our daily start up (mobilization) time will be significantly reduced as men won’t have to clear snow and ice from vehicles and the time (and gas) required to warm up a vehicle will be eliminated,” he said.

In addition to energy housekeeping, Public Works crews are going to a 10-hour workday, five days a week during the winter to remove snow and four days a week during the summer to accommodate road construction and maintenance work.

“Our primary reason to switch to the longer duration workday is that during both summer and winter months a major limitation on our production is the time required for mobilization and demobilization,” Schmetzer said.

Last winter, snow removal crews tried the 10-hour workdays and found an increase in productivity of about 40 percent.

In past years, snow removal crews only worked eight-hour days.

“This summer we expect to see similar increases in production,” Schmetzer said.

But Strle is aware that a little housekeeping won’t be quite enough to accommodate the soaring increase in expenditures.

“We have to save energy and also invest in the future,” Strle said.

She’s pulling together experts to research energy-efficient additions and to figure out if they will work during the notorious Interior winters.

“We are in the process of developing an energy task force at the request of the mayor,” Schmetzer said in an e-mail.

The task force will include several city personnel and four or five residents with expertise in those areas.

“The primary mission of the task force will be to evaluate city operations and facilities and identify areas and methods where we can reduce energy consumption and operating costs,” Schmetzer said.

The task force should be under way by mid-June and will have recommendations for the council this fall.