Carl recently
emailed to inquire about how the City of Elyria is addressing energy
costs. Here is what I explained to him. The
City of Elyria has entered into two cooperative purchasing agreements with
North Shore Energy. The first agreement was entered into in 2012 to
purchase electricity for our larger consumers like wastewater treatment
and the water plant. This agreement saved the City $36,000 in 2012 and is
expected to save the City $903,935 through 2015.
I signed a
second agreement last month with North Shore Energy for cooperative purchasing
of natural gas. The intent of this agreement is to lock in a cost for the
City for three years, as the price of natural gas is expected to rise. Forecasters are expecting natural gas prices
to increase as Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) is exported and Compressed Natural
gas (CNG) is used for truck fleets and other purposes. In addition, new electric power plants are
being constructed that run on natural gas.
This will create a huge demand.
By the City fixing the price for an extended period, we can remove the
risk of volatility and allow for better budget planning. While an analysis found that the City is
likely to save $5,650 over the next three years – which is not much, without
price-fixing we could see a much greater risk of escalating costs based on a
historic look back at Natural Gas Commodity bare prices.
More Summer Fun in Downtown Elyria
While the
summer is winding down, the fun in Elyria Square continues in downtown
Elyria. Mark your calendars for the
following upcoming events:
-
August 15: Summer Concert from 11:30am – 1:00pm featuring Rich Gallo
- August 30: An Evening of Bluegrass Music featuring local bands – 5:00pm - dusk
- August 31: Warm-Up Music followed by the Cleveland Pops Orchestra – 5:00pm - dusk
- September 1: St. Andrews Jazz & Blues festival – 1:00 – 7:00pm
- September 20 – 22: Elyria Apple Festival
City of Elyria Employees Going Above
& Beyond
Elyria
citizens have recently called or email me to tell me about the following
employees who have gone above and beyond to provide outstanding service to
them. We are very proud to have these
individuals as part of our team.
Cindy called to tell us that she is a
lifelong East Pool user and she wants us to know how awesome the lifeguards
have been this year in managing the growing number of children and youth using
the facilities- especially guards Tyler,
John, Melissa and Ivy!
Rena called to thank the City and Kevin Brubaker for the aggressive
approach on the housing demolitions in her neighborhood. She said: “I cannot begin to express the
tremendous physical relief I feel throughout my mind and body to look at open
space and lovely trees instead of trash and disrepair.”
Dennis and Patricia wrote to thank Safety Service Director Mary Siwierka for her help in getting a
guardrail installed. “After 20 years of
living in Elyria someone at the top extended a hands-on approach to this
matter. You have been helpful in other
ways too, thank you again,” they wrote.
Wes wrote to compliment the fire department. “Saturday morning I was awakened to a fire in
my attic and the fire department was here in two minutes and saved my house
from total loss and saved my life as well.
They even stopped by today to see if I needed any help. My
hats off to our safety forces. A job
well done.”
Bryan, a resident of Westlake wrote to
express his appreciation to an Elyria
firefighter. Here is what he had to
say. “Over the weekend I was at a
restaurant on the Vermilion River having dinner with my wife where I eventually
passed out due to heat exhaustion from being out on the lake all day
fishing. When I came to, I saw a man
hovering over me helping me through the situation with his wife. He said he was a fireman from Elyria named Rick and his wife Lisa was a nurse. They both proceeded to monitor me until the
EMT’s showed up and moved me to a hospital for further testing. My wife and I are extremely grateful for the
help from Rick and Lisa.”
Many more to
come……
Here are a few photos I took at some recent summer events downtown. As always, if you can't see the slideshow, click below to view the whole album.
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| Summer Activities |
