Lincoln County may be home to greener residents in the near future.
Lincoln County Commissioners recently approved using Mickelson and Company of Sioux Falls to apply for a grant from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program, which is part of the Obama stimulus package.
More than $2.7 billion in grants are available to various government entities across the U.S. for local projects that increase energy efficiency or reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.
Lincoln County has been allocated up to $110,000, based on its population, Ryan Pidde of Mickelson and Company told the commission at its June 9 meeting.
That grant money is virtually guaranteed for the county as long as it submits an application by the June 25 deadline, Pidde told the board. Once in, the application could be revised to fit projects the U.S. Department of Energy, which is administering the grants, would like to see.
“Once we get it in, we’ll get it,” said Pidde.
Commissioner Jim Schmidt said he had met with Pidde and thought the best use of the money in Lincoln County would be energy audits and improvements for homes and businesses.
The audit would show residents how they could improve the energy efficiency of their buildings. Grant money could then also be used to provide revolving loan funds or grants for people to make those changes.
“Then they will know exactly what they would need to do to upgrade themselves and become energy efficient for cost saving purposes,” said Schmidt.
Pidde said the state received $8.9 million from the grant program and may decide to offer some of those funds to programs like the one Lincoln County is proposing.
Executing and marketing the program would be the county’s responsibility, but organizations like the South Eastern Council of Governments could help the county with those tasks, Pidde said.
Schmidt said offering a financial incentive program was a great use of the stimulus money.
“That, I think, is putting taxpayer money back to the taxpayer,” said Schmidt.
“The only limiting thing on that, the way it looks, is our creativity,” said Commissioner Dennis Weeldreyer.