Controversy Brewing in Elk River over the Energy City Progam

As I mentioned in a previous post, the City decided to forgo putting the "Energy City" logo on the water tower when it was recently repainted. That "saved" the City $10,000 or so dollars. (I put saved in quotations because it wasn't on the tower to begin with.)

However, now the Energy City program itself is in financial trouble.

For those of you unaware of what this means, I will give you some background. And, tomorrow, I will go more in depth as to what the cuts are, how the program might be save and who the mayor is asking for support from to save the program.

Energy City was a designation that the City developed and was designated as in 1996.

The City has been proactive in promoting this designation in a number of ways including sponsorship of an annual Energy Expo and launching the Project Conserve program, which teaches people how to conserve electricity, water, gasoline and heating fuel. There is also a program to educate the public on how to reduce garbage.

The other part of the equation is that Elk River is also home to a number of energy projects such as a wind turbine along Highway 169 and a plant at the Elk River Landfill where gas produced by decomposing garbage is used to generate electricity. Those projects and others are popular with international visitors who tour Elk River’s energy sites.

There are also three energy companies that have facilities with the city limits - tConnexus Energy, Great River Energy and CenterPoint Energy, and they have representatives on the Elk River Energy City Commission.

Tomorrow I will outline the plan that the mayor has put forth to save parts of the Energy City designation and the Energy Expo.