Ok, I haven't been sleeping on the job, just too busy with the family, the holiday and work to pull together the focus it requires to keep up with this blog. A new year's resolution is to keep this up-to-date.
Just a few items of note:
Ad Hoc Facilities Committee documents can be found here. The December meeting was cancelled due to snow so there isn't an update on any progress. The next meeting is Tuesday, Jan 6th (weather permitting!)
The 28 students on the Monona Grove Varsity Math Team won FIRST PLACE in the Madison math competition earlier this month. When will academic teams be greeted with the publicity and accolades of athletic teams?
At the last board meeting we received the report from the auditor for the 2007-8 fiscal year. The district received an "unqualified opinion": that is accountant speak for a positive review of the accuracy of district's accounting system. Mary Ellen VanValin deserves credit for managing a very well run financial system in the district.
McKinstry report a list of potential energy saving infrastructure investments totalling $2.7 million with an estimated payback period of 12 years. McKinstry would guarantee that the energy savings would exceed the costs of the repayment over a period of 15 years.
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
Business Services meeting
The agenda for Wednesday's meeting can be found here.
The committe will review a proposal from Alliant Energy to provide the district with a low interest loan to fund energy improvements in the district. The loan is based on Alliant's estimates of savings from the energy efficiency investments made in the Glacial Drumlin School, and can be used to fund some of the energy saving work we hope to do in other buildings. The idea is to make the improvements self-funding, with the utility savings being sufficent to cover the loan payments. At the same time the committee will get an update from the Energy committee concerning proposed capital projects.
Most importantly we will receive and review the results of the 2007-8 budget year financial audit.
The committe will review a proposal from Alliant Energy to provide the district with a low interest loan to fund energy improvements in the district. The loan is based on Alliant's estimates of savings from the energy efficiency investments made in the Glacial Drumlin School, and can be used to fund some of the energy saving work we hope to do in other buildings. The idea is to make the improvements self-funding, with the utility savings being sufficent to cover the loan payments. At the same time the committee will get an update from the Energy committee concerning proposed capital projects.
Most importantly we will receive and review the results of the 2007-8 budget year financial audit.
Doug Wood posts on his blog:
This budget reduction would impact coverage of district as well as city meetings and events and has special significance now that Charter is no longer required to carry the PEG channel on basic cable.
Charter tried to drop PEG from the analog service last year and Andy expects they will try again next year. THe nearly 50% of Charter customers with analog only cable would be faced with the costs of upgrading to digital cable and digital tuners to receive the PEG channels. Internet streaming would help reach those constituents who don't have cable or might lose it because they only have basic analog cable. I think the connections between local government and citizens are tenuous enough already and we should seriously consider these upgrades as essential to good government.
Alderman Wiswell also proposes to eliminate the entire $7,700 amount in the CATV budget for 'new transmission methods'. That funding was proposed by the committee to pay for live web streaming and start up cost for the LPFM radio station (basically a low-cost, low-powered community radio station for Monona and immediate environs). I give the committee big kudos for this proposal that improve communication between the government, schools and residents and amongst the residents directly.
This budget reduction would impact coverage of district as well as city meetings and events and has special significance now that Charter is no longer required to carry the PEG channel on basic cable.
Charter tried to drop PEG from the analog service last year and Andy expects they will try again next year. THe nearly 50% of Charter customers with analog only cable would be faced with the costs of upgrading to digital cable and digital tuners to receive the PEG channels. Internet streaming would help reach those constituents who don't have cable or might lose it because they only have basic analog cable. I think the connections between local government and citizens are tenuous enough already and we should seriously consider these upgrades as essential to good government.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
