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Sahuarita saving money, going green

By Philip Franchine, The Sahuarita Sun

Published: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 12:39 PM MST

Sahuarita is going green — with a vengeance.

Town management analyst Debbi Al-Houssni asked all departments to make efforts to become more energy-efficient, and compiled a two-and-half-page memo outlining the results.

Efforts range from modest: staff collecting plastic bags to use at dog parks, to expensive: the purchase of hybrid cars, which get twice the mileage of Ford Tauruses and three times the mileage of Crown Victorias.

Among other efforts:

The Parks and Recreation Department acquired its own weather station and uses data to adjust irrigation at parks, saving staff time and water costs.

The town’s monthly newsletter switched from paper to online-only this summer, saving paper and thousands of dollars.

Parks are making increased use of electronic timers to control lights.

Recycling bins have diverted tons of paper and cans from the landfill.

Two-sided memos greeted Planning and Zoning Commissioners at their Aug. 3 meeting, and the town clerk’s office is using the back sides of unneeded one-sided documents for internal drafts and scratch paper. The town clerk’s office also eliminated two of the three locations where town council notices used to be posted, leaving only Town Hall.

Everybody helping out

The Parks and Recreation Department has compiled a list of measures, including energy-efficient lighting and timers, an approach that won a governor’s award in 2005 at Anamax Park and that has been employed at Anza Trail Park and North Santa Cruz Park.

The weather station is a device located at a town facility that measures wind speed, rainfall and evapo-transpiration, the rate at which moisture evaporates from the ground.

“The weather station allows us to reduce water use. Instead of having to manually reset irrigation levels each night” when there is rain, Parks official Brian de Breceny said, the system adjusts and reduces irrigation times.

The weather station, in concert with a computerized irrigation controller, automatically changes irrigation times seasonally, and has a cutoff when there is a break in the water line, which happens once or twice a year, and in the past resulted in flooded athletic fields.

Water harvesting is being used to fill the Sahuarita Lake Park and to irrigate some plants at Quail Creek Veterans Memorial Park and drip irrigation has been stopped for mature trees around the Lake Park. Parks restrooms have switched to electric hand dryers from paper towels and toilet paper dispensers have been changed to prevent easy spinning.

Many of the town’s green efforts combine some environmental goal with savings or safety features.

The police department, which is getting 47 mpg from its Toyota Prius hybrid electric cars, plans to buy more, possibly for detectives, acting Assistant Town Manager John Harris said. Harris, who is also police chief, is on loan to the town administration.

The hybrid cars cost about $22,000, or $6,000 more than the ones they replaced, but at the three-year mark their fuel economy should offset the purchase cost and they should yield substantial savings to the town for another two years, Harris said.

Lead-free bullets

Sahuarita police still pack copper-covered lead bullets when on patrol, but on the practice range officers fire 20,000 to 30,000 rounds of bullets a year, and for the past two years, they have used lead-free rounds.

The old rounds could ricochet off targets and off rocks in outdoor ranges and hit officers and they also subjected officers to a great deal of lead exposure, especially at enclosed indoor practice ranges. The new rounds are composed of tiny copper granules and basically disintegrate on impact, presenting no ricochet danger. Plus, officers do target shooting at a range on Park Corporation land near an old mine and Harris said, “We don’t want an environmental issue at the mine by shooting lead into the ground.”

Police have also replaced old chemical flares, which subjected officers to noxious fumes and required ignition, sometimes near fuel spills, with LED flares that initially cost more but last almost forever, Harris said.

Four bike patrols were out for last week’s National Night Out event and are deployed throughout the summer, savings fuel costs and allowing officers to improve community contact.

pfranchine@sahuarita.com| 547-9738


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