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The city’s beloved Old Town holiday lights may stay dark this winter because no one is sure who will pay to install and illuminate them.

The three groups that have historically footed the approximately $75,000 annual bill haven’t yet figured out where they’re going to get the money this year, and city officials say they may have to scale back or keep the lights dark.

“I think everybody loves them, and we just have to have the conversation,” said Marty Heffernan, the city’s director of community services. “It’s been a three-way partnership, and things have been tough with our other partners.”

The Downtown Business Association and the Downtown Development Authority have typically contributed to the lights in Old Town, but both organizations are reassessing their financial commitment in light of their own budget problems.

Fort Collins has budgeted $30,000 for the lights this year and is currently interviewing possible contractors to install and maintain the lights, should the entire funding come through.

“We don’t know where the DDA and the DBA are at, and what they can contribute this year,” Heffernan said.

The DDA’s board has decided the lights should be a lower priority than in the past, and the DBA’s finances are still struggling after a bad fundraising year in 2010.

Heffernan said it’s possible the city may be able to contribute more than $30,000, but said that’s not a given. He said bids coming in from contractors will help determine the costs for this year. The city has asked for bids on about 182 trees in the core Old Town area and for an expanded area with another 159 trees.

Some Coloradoan readers say the city should consider seeking corporate sponsors or asking for volunteers to put up the lights.

“We needed some more information before we work the whole thing out,” Heffernan said. “We could always scale back, ask for additional money. We’ll just talk that all through.”

Bechtel has achieved a major milestone at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, NV: substantial completion of the Terminal 3 building. Retailers, airlines, and airport services are now fitting the completed building with finishings prior to the new terminal opening later in June. Bechtel is managing the $2.4 billion expansion project for the Clark County Department of Aviation. The new terminal will increase capacity of the airport to 53 million passengers per year as compared with the 2007 peak of nearly 48 million passengers.

"This was the biggest expansion project ever undertaken at McCarran and it has probably been the most challenging one. Bechtel's detailed planning, regular communications, and problem-solving ability have helped to ensure the success of this project, and we are delighted that Terminal 3 can soon welcome even more people to Las Vegas," said Randall H. Walker, director of aviation for Clark County.

"Building Terminal 3 while the rest of the airport was still operational has been challenging, but our longstanding partnership with the Clark County Department of Aviation has been instrumental to our completion of this project on schedule," added Don Wright, Bechtel's project manager at McCarran International Airport.

Bechtel has been managing the design and construction of the Terminal 3 program at McCarran since June 2005. In order to accommodate growing numbers of passengers, the airport had to increase its number of aircraft gates, ground transportation access, and egress points, as well as its passenger security screening capacity. The new 1.9-million-square-feet terminal building will open with 14 additional gates, a new parking garage for approximately 6,000 cars, a revised road access system, and an underground automated tram system. Additional baggage handling capacity and access to the other existing airport concourses have also been added, allowing passengers to get more quickly to and from both new and existing gates.

Operational facilities provided include an aircraft apron in front of the Terminal 3 building, including wet and dry utilities; a jet fuel system; taxiway lighting and apron lighting; and a new central utility plant. Two new electrical duct banks from offsite Nevada Energy substations were also completed to supply Terminal 3 with power.

The remaining Terminal 3 work is primarily baggage handling system testing and fit-out activities to accommodate the airlines, retail spaces, restaurants, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Transportation Safety Administration, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Replacement of an apron around the existing D Concourse must also be completed to allow aircraft access to the new terminal.

Terminal 3 will serve both domestic and international carriers and is scheduled to open June 27. Bechtel has been working with Clark County Department of Aviation, managing the modification, upgrade and expansion of McCarran International Airport, since 1981. Previous work included the expansion of the original Terminal 1 building; the addition of two multi-story parking garages; and construction of the C and D gates concourses, including automated tram systems; new runways and roads; and new baggage handling facilities.

The Brush Area Chamber of Commerce welcomed CSU Extension Community Energy Coordinator Tim Edgar during their monthly luncheon at the Bunker Hill County Club on Wednesday.

Edgar addressed the topic of energy retrofit grants to those in attendance and spoke about cash rebates that are available to businesses, non-profits, municipalities and churches in Xcel territories, as well as presented individual energy users good news about rebates offered through the Morgan County Rural Electric Association.

Edgar began by addressing the fact that the City of Brush is in Xcel Energy territory, making most business owners in Brush qualified to save energy with Xcel, specifically by replacing and retrofitting long-tube fluorescent light bulbs.

"If you have the 4 or 8 foot-long fluorescent bulbs in your business, you've probably had the same bulbs up there for some 30 years," began Edgar. "For many, the fluorescent bulbs can provide relatively good light, but they flicker and are by no means the greatest source of light. Many business owners are left wondering how to save money rather than keep throwing money at their energy consumption and how to have it better affect their bottom line."

With more and more businesses coming on to Xcel, the greater Xcel's energy consumption is going to be. Therefore, if Xcel can fix businesses energy consumption, the company won't have to grow its own energy demand so much and can hold fast to their good reputation, he explained.

In 2012, Xcel implemented a different version of their fluorescent lighting rebate, so that others might take an initiative to save money on their energy bill and thus save the amount of energy consumed.

Through this rebate, Xcel has given business owners the ability to save upwards of 40 percent on energy bills by simply replacing the long T12 fluorescent bulbs and ballasts.

"Simply take out your old light bulbs and old ballasts and purchase new electronic ballasts then put them in place," Edgar explained. "You can use your same fixtures if you want or get new fixtures if needed. We even have a video to show how you can do it yourself or you can get a contractor to do it."

In Brush alone, Edgar has seen replacements in business such as Brush Dental, which has just six lights, all the way to Eben Ezer which has several thousand fluorescent lights to replace.

"So it doesn't matter how many light fixtures you have," said Edgar. "You just have to spend the money up front and have lighting fixtures retrofitted out, then Xcel gives you significant rebates on them." 

Right now, Edgar reports that rebates are at 130 percent of what it is actually listed at and dependent on fixture sizes, that could be anywhere from 75 to 50 percent of the fixture cost.

"If it costs you $30 to retrofit a fixture, which is about right," noted Edgar, "and you get $15 to $20 of that back in rebate, then that is quite an opportunity."

Edgar also notes that the retrofit can make a business' lighting bill more efficient and can save upwards of 40 percent for each fixture that's changed out.