Energy Efficiency Improvement Grant

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – The Muskingum County Commissioners were informed of a grant from the State of Ohio that helps local governments improve the energy efficiency within their facilities.

Muskingum County Community Development Director Kyle Dunn shared some of the details of the grant process that was discussed during his meeting with the commissioners.

“We found out there was some funding available for… to update our energy systems in the county,” Dunn said. “So whether that be HVAC, or lighting, or windows, there’s some funding available for government entities and actually, a wide variety of entities to the State of Ohio to make buildings and systems more efficient. And so we’re looking at the first steps of doing that.”

The grant application window will open in September for 90 days to allow local governments to assess their infrastructure and have an energy audit performed to discover how much savings the energy saving improvements can generate. 

“Of course, we’re always trying to reduce costs for the county and we have a lot of old systems here; HVAC, heating, cooling that we are looking into replacing. A lot of them are original. If we can get new systems in, that would cost less over the course of time. And if we can get it in for a grant and at no cost to the county or the taxpayer, then we are certainly interested in applying for that and getting it done,” Dunn said.

The state has appointed multiple contracting firms per region to conduct the energy audits and the findings must show that the energy improvements will save a minimum of 15 percent reduction in order for the project to be eligible for the grant.