“Teaching & Helping will be fielding teams of Mentors and volunteers on October 10 to weatherize and insulate as many homes as we can. We expect to be able to simultaneously do 6-10 homes, train 15-30 volunteers, and reduce annual energy use at least $150 and CO2 production by at least 1500 pounds (probably more). We will be doing some combination of weatherization, insulation, and window replacement, depending on the houses’ needs.

On October 10, you can participate, regardless of your income. If you own your own home and are of modest income (See below), we have a County grant to cover the cost of the Mentor and overhead. You pay for the materials. If you have more income, you can still take part in October. The Mentor and overhead cost will be about $300 +/- as well as the materials. Someone will inspect your house in September and give you a closer estimate of the total cost. (Weatherization involves caulking, sealing, and/or weather-stripping outlets, switches, plumbing penetrations, light fixtures, doors and windows.)

Also, if you meet the County’s requirements (See below), we are looking for two homes to weatherize where we can train some of our experienced volunteers to be team leaders on October 10. An experienced Mentor will lead a small volunteer team to practice the special techniques we are developing for efficient weatherization of older homes.

If you are interested in finding out more — either to include your home in the project, or to participate as a volunteer and learn yourself and help others — please contact me at 795-3413 or tres@sustainabletucson.com.

Tres English

Tres

Tres English
Empowering Local Communities, Inc.
129 S. Irving Ave • Tucson AZ 85711
(520)795-3413

———————- Please pass along ————————

Special chance to save energy and money — and do a little good in the world

Don’t miss this special chance for you or a neighbor to cut your utility bills by $100 to $200 (or more) per year at a cost of less than $100. And you can give volunteers the chance to learn how to weatherize their own homes, in the process.

The Teaching & Helping program is looking for two families who want to make their homes more energy efficient. (To qualify, they must own their homes and have limited income.) During September, we will organize a small team of volunteers and an experienced Mentor and weatherize your home in one day on either the weekend of September 11-12 or 25-26. The host family (you?) will pay for the materials and the labor is provided under a grant from Pima County.

Even if you don’t qualify by income, you can still be a part of the 10-10-10 Climate Action Day on October 10. That day, Teaching & Helping will be upgrading as many houses as we can with weatherization, insulation, and/or insulated windows. If you qualify for the County grant, you will only have to pay for the materials. If not, there will also be approximately $300 cost for the Mentor and overhead to lead the volunteer team.

We are also looking for volunteers who want to learn how to weatherize or insulate their homes or windows, and also help neighbors and Tucsonans in need. Maybe YOU would like to join us on 10-10-10?

If you are interested, please contact Tres English, 795-3413 or tres@sustainabletucson.com. If you can pass this on to your neighbors, possibly thru your neighborhood newsletter or contact list, PLEASE DO.

Thanks for you help.

Tres
Tres English
Empowering Local Communities, Inc.

Teaching & Helping is a program of Empowering Local Communities, a local non-profit corporation dedicated to developing tools for Tucson”s long-term sustainability.

Income limits for County grant assistance
$32200 (1 person) $36800 (2 people) $41400 (3 people) $46000 (4 people)”

In attendance were the some of the City staffers that were there last week at the first dialogue in Ward 3 (at the NW Neighborhood Center). Councilmember Nina Trasoff and City Manager Mike Letcher did the welcomes. The format was the same, with six break out tables of residents discussing the same questions I wrote about in my previous blog “Let the Dialogues Begin” on 9/28/09.

Neighbors/activists I recognized participating tonight: Paul Mackey, Les Pierce, Don Ijams (Neighborhood Support Network), Colette Altaffer & Ruth Beeker (Neighborhood Infill Coalition), Robin Gomez, Bill Dupont, Mary DeCamp (candidate for Ward 3 council seat), Joanie Sawyer (Pro Neighborhoods), Alice Roe, Tres English.

Again, there was a promise at the end to post these comments and suggestions on their website, www.tucsonaz.gov/dialogues. But again there was no consensus on what are the City’s top budget priorities and what areas need to be cut. I wonder how the City Manager & his staff will weed through all these suggestions to come up with “key services” that should be prioritized for the City’s budget. Otherwise, these public dialogues may become mere “discussions”, with no solutions.

There are still five more City dialogues to attend in case you’ve missed the first three.

Coming up tomorrow night is the one in Ward 4 at Desert Sky Middle School, 9850 E. Rankin Loop, at 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Be there to express your opinion on how the City of Tucson should prioritize their budget, but I wonder what the final outcome after these 8 dialogues will be. Stay tuned.

7 tables of about 10 residents dialogued with each other and a facilitator in answering these initial questions, followed by brief welcomes from Councilmember Karin Uhlich and City Manager Mike Letcher. A budget analysis disclosed that the discussion tonight was to concentrate on the 32% of discretionary funds of the City’s budget.

Then the same tables were asked these questions: 1) What City services do you use? 2) What City services would you maintain or cut, and why? 3) What new resources, revenues or efficiencies should be pursued by the City? 4) What services should the City invest in for our community’s future?

I recognized several activists present at the meeting: John Kromko, Tres English, Dick Bayse, Judith Anderson (Pro Neighborhoods), Jim Murphy (PCOA), and Ben Buehler-Garcia, candidate for Ward 3 Council seat. About 15 City staffers (including TPD officers) were available as resource persons.

No consensus was reached or vote was taken in answering these questions, but records of each table’s discussion with lots of creative, varied responses will be collated and put onto the City website at: www.tucsonaz.gov/dialogues. I question whether these comments won’t just be a compilation of anecdotal responses from all 8 dialogues/ meetings, without any clear mandate from the participants. Let’s wait and see since the website says that the goal of this process is “working together to set city budget priorities”.

The calendar for the upcoming meetings are listed in my previous blog and by clicking on the link above. The next meeting will be on Sat. 10/3 at El Pueblo Neighborhood Center, 9 to 11 a.m. Questions/comments can be directed by email to dialogues@tucsonaz.gov, or by calling 520-791-4204.