The City of Perry works with the state of Iowa on projects quite often, currently they’re participating in the Iowa Energy Bank program, taking advantage of a low interest loan to replace downtown lighting and HVAC systems.

City Administrator Butch Niebuhr says now they’re looking to participate in a program where the state will be taking a look at the City’s energy usage.

“So we’re going to do some baselining or bench marking of some of our buildings and other electric meters.  It’s going to give the state of Iowa a chance to take a look, and I think they’ve got 20 different communities doing it now but Perry will be another community and we’ll be turning stuff into them in the next week or two.  They’ll have access to our billing, they’ll be able to contact Aliant Energy and MidAmerican on the gas side.  They’ll be able to have access to our bills so they can track our building and some of our meters at like our airport, the disposal plant and other things” says Niebuhr.

Niebuhr says the goal is to see how much Perry is saving, what they’re doing and what is working well.

“They’ll be able to share that with other communities in the state of Iowa on what works.  You know, what’s the low hanging fruit, how can you save your city funds and then where does the funding come from?  Where do you get the money to be able to do that.”

He says their current agreement with the state gives them access to a one percent interest loan, which will be paid off through energy savings with the new and more efficient LED lights downtown.