S.D. goal: Weatherize 2,327 homes with stimulus funds

Weatherizing may be far from the minds of some South Dakotans who’ve been enjoying an unseasonably warm fall, but colder weather and higher heating bills could arrive at any moment.

The anxiety of that moment’s arrival is being eased somewhat this year by a much-enlarged pot of weatherization-assistance money from the government.

Thanks to the federal economic stimulus legislation, South Dakota’s Weatherization Assistance Program has nearly $25 million to spend during the next two years. Prior to this year, the state program’s typical appropriation from Congress was less than $2 million annually.

State and local officials who administer the program hope to weatherize 2,327 South Dakota homes with the stimulus money.

Last year, 565 homes were weatherized with the program’s pre-stimulus level of funding.

In addition to the higher funding, new program guidelines have raised the maximum household income for program participants from 160 to 200 percent of the poverty level. That means the maximum income for a family of four, for example, is $44,100 instead of $35,280.

Deb Cahoy, executive director of the Rural Office of Community Services in Lake Andes, is excited about the opportunity to expand the program’s reach.

“We’ll be able to do houses that we’ve never been able to do before,” she said.

Cahoy’s office is one of the four in South Dakota that receives the federal funds from the state and carries out the weatherization work. The other three offices are Inter-Lakes Community Action in Madison, Northeast South Dakota Community Action in Sisseton and Western South Dakota Community Action in Rapid City. Each group has its own service area, and all of the state’s 66 counties are covered.

Though the federal stimulus legislation was approved by Congress in February, the weatherization money for South Dakotans was not made available until last month. Applications are being processed rapidly, and weatherization crews are at work throughout the state.

Applications are made to the four community-action groups. Virtually any type of residence is eligible, as long as the occupants meet the income guidelines, but preference is given to the elderly, handicapped and families with children.

Once a household is approved, the agencies send out workers to conduct an energy audit. Based on the results of the audit, projects such as window repair or replacement, furnace repair or replacement, weather stripping, caulking or insulation may be recommended to the property owner.

With the property owner’s approval, the agency then carries out the work free of charge. Afterward, the property owner completes an evaluation.

If any of the work is unsatisfactory, the agency will return to the residence to fix it.

Though the agencies do not conduct any long-term follow-ups to determine the amount that program participants save on heating and cooling bills, Cahoy said her agency receives “a lot of positive feedback.”

“Even when families are filling out the evaluation sheet immediately after the work is done, we get a lot who say they’ve already noticed a difference in their electric or heat bill,” she said.

Nationally, nearly $5 billion in stimulus money has been allocated to states for weatherization programs. The goals of the effort include the reduction of heating and cooling bills and the creation of jobs. As of earlier this fall, Cahoy said the stimulus money had created nine new full-time jobs for energy auditors and weatherization crew members associated with the ROCS in Lake Andes.

States will lose any portion of their stimulus weatherization funding that they do not spend, but Cahoy said there is enough interest in the pro gram to believe that all of South Dakota’s funding will be used. related program that helps pay heat ing bills has also been popular.

“Right now, having enough homes to weatherize is not the problem, she said. “Having enough time to get to them is the problem.”

Tags: news, local, weatherize, stimulus