By Neena Strichart
Many story ideas come across my desk that we deem worthy of publishing. Sometimes the information comes to us by email or fax, other times we receive it the old-fashioned way— by mail carrier or phone. Some items make it and some don’t. Lots of times they don’t run because we just don’t have the space, or because the info is “old news.”
In too many instances, we get the details long after our deadline is passed, and we just don’t have time to rearrange the pages to make room. Lately, we’ve been running a lot of news that we believe our readers won’t find anywhere else. We’re very proud to be able to offer a unique reading experience for our customers and appreciate those advertisers who make it all possible.
Although I’ve been known to write about Signal Hill happenings quite often, today I am featuring information in my column that pertains only to Long Beach residents who are interested in winning an energy efficiency home makeover. I garnered the information from both a press release sent to us from the City of Long Beach as well as from the City’s website!read below for a heck of a great opportunity.
The City of Long Beach [recently] announced an Energy Efficiency Opportunity Drawing whereby Long Beach homeowners can enter to win energy efficiency makeovers for their home.Â
One grand-prize winner and one runner-up prize winner will be chosen in each of the nine City Council districts. Nine grand prizes will be available, worth $5,000 each, and nine runner-up prizes will be available, worth $800 each.
The Energy Efficiency Opportunity Drawing is designed to encourage Long Beach residents to save energy and money and to provide visibility and best practices for residential energy efficiency installations.
The application period will close on Friday, Nov. 19, 2010. To enter the opportunity drawing, applicants will need to take a free home energy survey online and fill out a brief application.
To be eligible, entrants must be Long Beach residents, SCE customers and homeowners. Entry forms and a step-by-step process are available online at sustainablelb.com.Â
This Energy Efficiency Opportunity Drawing is a partnership between the City and Southern California Edison (SCE), as a result of the City’s Local Government Energy Efficiency Partnership, which was started in January 2010.Â
Winners will be selected and announced the week of Nov. 29, 2010. Grand-prize winners will choose which energy efficiency measures they want to install based on the results of a Home Energy Survey. Runner-up prize winners will be able to pick from a predetermined list of devices, which includes a variable speed pool pump, an Energy Star refrigerator, an Energy Star room AC or a whole house fan. The awards for grand and runner-up prizes will cover both materials and labor.
Each grand prize and runner-up prize winner will be required to participate in a completion survey, which will be included in a case study about the Energy Efficiency Opportunity Drawing, the individual projects and the results. This case study will include a description of which energy efficiency measures were installed, quotes from homeowners, photos of installations and a map including the winner’s addresses. The City will send out press releases about the case study and the program’s success, will recognize homeowners at a City Council meeting, and will be using the case study to produce a television segment with LBTV.
For more information, visit sustainablelb.com or contact Meredith Reynolds, Sustainability Coordinator, at Meredith.Rey—nolds@longbeach.gov
or (562) 570-6396.
