news-record.com

Guilford and four other counties in the region could get $11.4 million in federal stimulus money to weatherize low-income households if the U.S. Department of Energy approves a North Carolina proposal submitted earlier this week.

The money would go to Regional Consolidated Services, the Asheboro nonprofit agency that performs federally funded weatherization work in the county, as well as Davidson, Forsyth, Randolph and Rockingham.

Statewide, the Office of Economic Opportunity plans to spend $96.5 million weatherizing 24,224 homes over the next three years.

Tiffanie Wilson , the weatherization director for Regional Consolidated Services, said Tuesday she had not seen the state plan, but she initially expected the agency would add three to six employees to its 16-member team.

“It greatly exceeds our expectations,” Wilson said about potentially receiving $11.4 million. “We’re excited to receive these funds and to be able to work with more homes in our community and expand our staff.”

The energy department expects to approve state plans within 60 days to enable work to begin this summer. The N.C. Office of Economic Opportunity, which administers the program, will receive about $132 million for weatherization. Some of that will pay for training and technical assistance. That compares to the roughly $11 million the state received in federal funds for 2008-09.

Under the state plan, Regional Consolidated Services would weatherize 2,728 homes, the most of any of the 30 agencies in the state.

Altogether, the Office of Economic Opportunity plans to: 

• Spend an average of $4,000 per home;
• Weatherize owner-occupied and rented single-family homes, mobiles homes, multi-family dwellings, and homeless shelters;
• Inspect at least 10 percent of the energy audits and 10 percent to 20 percent of all homes during installation. Work at Regional Consolidated Services would be inspected in September of this year and March and September of 2010, according to the state application.

The office will consider hiring private firms either to help conduct the inspections or perform the work if existing agencies cannot handle workloads, said  Zack Hamlett , director of the N.C. Office of Economic Opportunity.

“We have not, as of this point anyway, finally identified how this is going to work,” he said.

Also unclear is whether President Barack Obama will meet his stated goal of weatherizing one million homes a year nationwide, or if a significant number of jobs will be generated through this program. The Office for Economic Opportunity did not address this specifically in its application.

Contact Morgan Josey Glover at 373-7078 or morgan.josey@news-record.com