WILLMAR –– There are currently 40 hot-burning, overhead light ballasts in the Kandiyohi County jail that are on 17 hours a day, seven days a week.
Every year it costs nearly $10,000 to keep those lights burning - and that does not include extra electrical hosts of air-conditioning to offset the heat generated by the lights.
Now those bulbs will be replaced with 20 LED lights that will provide the same amount of light as the 40 old bulbs and will save the county nearly $9,600 a year in energy payments.
The $5,200 cost to retrofit the bulbs will be paid for in six months.
The county is always looking at ways to “save energy and be creative financially” to meet the infrastructure needs, said County Administrator Larry Kleindl during the County Board meeting Tuesday.
Kleindl, who gave credit to the maintenance personnel at the Law Enforcement Center for researching the energy-saving options, said a similar retrofit was done a couple years ago at the recycling center.
“These are things we’re always looking for,” Kleindl said.
The county will now start looking at ways to replace parking lot lights to reduce energy costs there, he said.
In other action this week, the County Board of Commissioners:
• Agreed to participate in a program to create a geological atlas for the county. Part of the project includes site locations for every well in the county.
• Awarded a bid of $1.99 million to R & G Construction of Marshall for a grading and aggregate base project on County Road 5 south of Willmar. Their bid was nearly 20 percent under the $2.47 million estimate and the lowest of three bids.
• Awarded a bid of $284,609 to Duininck Inc. of Prinsburg for grading and aggregate base on a two-mile stretch of County Road 75.
• Recognized Lilbon Clark for winning the 2015 “Hope for Tomorrow” award from Safe Avenues and Karl Klaphake for winning the award in 2013. Both men are probation officers with the county and work closely with domestic violence cases.
• Agreed to allow the Sunburg Commercial Club to use county property to host a farmers market throughout the summer.
