What's Up, Waveland? July 2020

Waveland Alderman Jeremy Burke shares details of a recent energy audit; sad news about the annual Fourth of July fireworks; and the next Food Truck Friday.
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Waveland's annual Fourth of July fireworks display has been postponed to Labor Day.

Waveland Saving Money on
Electric Bills
 
Last year, the Waveland Board of Aldermen retained PATH Company, an infrastructure-solutions firm out of Jackson, MS, to complete an energy audit of the City’s buildings. The goal of this exercise was to present a project that would help Waveland capture energy savings while tackling additional capital projects. PATH and its team of engineers have since spent months combing through the City’s annual utility budgets and investigating areas of opportunity within Waveland’s municipal-owned buildings.
 
With guidance from the City’s administration, PATH focused heavily on the HVAC system at Waveland’s Lili Stahler-Murphy Ground Zero Hurricane Museum (Waveland Civic Center). 
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Additionally, PATH’s auditors identified substantial savings related to the City’s owned street lighting on Highway 90 and the interior/exterior lighting within five of Waveland’s municipal buildings. These three opportunity areas (Civic Center HVAC, City-owned street lighting, and building lighting) were presented to the mayor and aldermen at the June 17 meeting.
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The Ground Zero on Coleman Avenue was cited as needing an HVAC upgrade. (file photo)

 
The highlights of PATH’s final project proposal centered around their evaluation of the City’s current energy profile, as well as the efficiency solutions identified. PATH explained that, for the most part, the City of Waveland’s municipal buildings were performing moderately well from an efficiency standpoint. The Civic Center was experiencing indoor air quality issues and consistently generated a higher than normal utility bill.
 
PATH proposed a redesign and replacement of the HVAC system at the Civic Center in order to solve the existing issues and to allow for greater utilization per the building’s current uses. Additionally, PATH proposed replacement/retrofit of the interior and exterior lights to utilize LED technology within five of the City’s buildings as well as a conversion of 200 City-owned streetlights to LEDs. By implementing the HVAC fixes and the new LED lighting, the City of Waveland could use the savings generated to not only pay for the HVAC upgrades at the Civic Center, but it could also return dollars back into the budget. PATH explained that the project would generate around $60,000 in gross annual savings which, when coupled with the cost of the project, would result in roughly $2,500 in net budget savings for the City.
 

Photo courtesy City of Waveland

 
Waveland Fireworks Postponed
 
In an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus, the City of Waveland has decided to postpone its annual Fourth of July fireworks display at the Garfield Ladner Pier until Labor Day weekend.
 
City officials say they have looked into other alternatives, but in the end, postponing the event was the responsible choice. Waveland cannot responsibly hold a large 4th of July gathering until the threat of the coronavirus has substantially decreased. Waveland is following the advice of the healthcare community.
 
An official announcement from the City of Waveland regarding Labor Day weekend fireworks will be conveyed at the appropriate time.
 
Waveland Food Truck Friday 
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