A number of buildings in Saugeen Shores could use an energy diet.
The Town authorized Ainsworth Incorporated out of Toronto to conduct an energy audit of their municipal properties.
The company delivered their findings to Council at Monday night’s meeting.
Ainsworth’s Municipal Account Manager Amanda Kusick says they looked through the annual utility bills for 17 of the Town’s facilities.
She says they determine how much the Town uses up in hydro, water, and gas from those bills.
Kusick says an engineer is brought in to see how the sites are operated and whether or not they can find energy and financial savings for the Town.
The report shows that there are nine facilities that could use some upgrades.
They are the Southampton Town Hall, the Southampton Coliseum, the Port Elgin Plex, both Port Elgin and Southampton libraries, the Southampton medical building, the Island Street Water Treatment Plant, the Lehnen Street Sewage Treatment Plant, and the Caroline Street Sewage Treatment Plant.
Kusick says if Council decides to proceed to the next step, Ainsworth will perform a two-month detailed feasibility study that gets to the nuts and bolts of the project.
She says they come up with a base year based on utility bills for the past 36 months and bring back a report on the cost savings and payback to the Town.
Kusick says payback is determining how soon the project can pay for itself once it is implemented.
She figures the projects would cost the Town 467 thousand dollars but the company is guaranteeing that the Town would recoup that cost within 6.9 years.
She says Ainsworth would write a cheque to the Town for the difference if it fails to meet the payback deadline.
Kusick says much of the work will be done by local contractors.
