Elbow Lake cutting energy costs

By Tom Hintgen (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Employees who work for the City of Elbow Lake work as efficiently as possible and make every effort to use city taxpayer dollars wisely. Always looking for ways to cut costs, they’re currently doing their part to make the city maintenance building on the east side of town more energy efficient.

Last week seven city employees — Darin Grosz, Bob Lohse, Gene Karger, Steve Baker, Bill LaValley, Greg Jacobson and Tim Hein — removed old insulation to make room for spray urethane insulation, a form of spray foam, scheduled for Wednesday.

The insulation spraying will be done by Universal Service Midwest, Inc., Ashby. After this is completed, city employees themselves will position steel panels on the inside of the building.

“We use propane, and felt we could save on our heating costs,” said Darin Grosz, a lineman for the City of Elbow Lake. “With all of us (seven city employees) pitching in, we decided to remove the old insulation ourselves and then position the inside steel siding once Universal Service is done with spraying the urethane insulation.”

Lower heating costs will be the end result — a benefit to city taxpayers — and also a way of helping the city join in energy-saving projects across the state of Minnesota.

Elbow Lake Clerk-Treasurer Jeff Holsen is proud of city employees.

“They know that city budgets, such as those in Elbow Lake, are tight and that we need to do all we can to hold down costs,” Holsen said. “Working themselves at the city maintenance shop in order to make the building more energy efficient is a good example. They are to be commended.”

In light of inflation and increased construction costs, Holsen said he’s pleased that the city council during the past 10 years agreed to upgrade 65 percent of the city’s streets and gutters — in addition to improving the city water system.

Holsen, a Fargo native, came from nearby Barrett to work for Elbow Lake city government in 1985. He said increased costs — with inflation cited in — are the main challenges these days.