ARRA: Lighting retrofit grant

The City of Washington was awarded a $259,979 grant to complete an energy efficiency project on seven municipal buildings. With the award, the city will begin transforming its facilities into sustainable buildings that operate efficiently, reduce energy consumption and emissions, thereby reducing utility expenses and retaining jobs. The second goal is to stimulate the economy by creating jobs in the local area as much as possible. Priority will be placed on contractors/subcontractors with employees living in the city and/or Beaufort County.  With these goals in place, the City of Washington is confident that all tax payer dollars are going towards stimulating the economy and promoting energy efficiency conservation.

Washington’s Energy Efficiency Project will require the following equipment and technologies be used:

·         Retrofitting T12 lamps with high efficiency T8 lamps with electronic ballasts and incandescent and mercury vapor to fluorescent.

·         Retrofitting Incandescent lamps to compact florescent lamps (CFLs) and LED Exit Sign Retrofits

·         Installing direct fired gas air heating system to replace the existing hot water heating system.

The following buildings will be including in the project: The Impressions Building; City Hall; Brown Library; Communications Center; Civic Center; Peterson Building; and Susiegray McConnell Aquatic Center; These buildings are owned by the city.

An RFP will be made available over the next 30 days to begin the search for qualified contractors.