Mayfield Heights Seeks Bids for Energy Conservation Projects

will seek bids for lighting, heating and cooling and other energy conservation projects.

City Council gave approval Monday to get bids for the work, which will be funded by a $436,900 federal grant. The grant, provided through the economic stimulus program, is being administered by the county.

Mayor Gregory Costabile said it's unclear whether Mayfield Heights will have to share some of the cost.

"We're just going out to bid at this point. We remain in conversation with the county about language of the grant and the question of whether matching requirement is 20 percent, which would be $87,000, or whether we can do additional energy conservation programs under House Bill 300 and use that (for the match requirement)," Costabile said.

"Even if that's not the case, we're going to get all the capital improvements we wanted and only paying 20 percent."

Council President Michael Ballistrea noted that city officials were talking a few years ago about paying $300,000 for the various energy-related projects. "So this is a welcome number," he said.

Costabile said it might be tough to start work on any of the projects this year, but they should get started in the early part of 2012.