Elgin’s ‘green’ loan program flawless

Daily Herald Editorial Board

Newspapers are often criticized for being too skeptical, of being critical of everything. Consider the old City News Bureau maxim: “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”

So it is with no small measure of surprise that we admit we can’t find anything wrong with a program in which the city of Elgin employs federal stimulus money to feed a loan program that helps people make their homes more energy efficient.

Here’s how it works:

The city allocated $250,000 out of more than $1 million in federal stimulus money it received for neighborhood revitalization to establish a revolving loan fund. Other cities have established similar programs but with one-time grants.

The city of Elgin takes applications from homeowners and assesses the value of each project based on the results of an energy audit that analyzes how much money the homeowner could save with new windows, new doors, better insulation, a new boiler, etc. And once a loan is made, it is paid off with the difference between the homeowner’s old utility bills and the lower, post-improvement bills.

In a story earlier this week, Staff Writer Tara Garcia Mathewson wrote about a couple of the projects.

James Halik and Jim Armstrong are basically getting a no-interest loan for almost $40,000 from the city. They live in a big old Victorian on historic Douglas Avenue that, like most homes of that vintage, whistled and creaked. But with new storm doors and windows, more insulation, foundation caulking and a new boiler, the couple expects to save more than $6,000 a year on their energy bills.

They will return that savings to the city for six years to pay off the loan.

Halik and Armstrong have the most expensive project, but there are 12 others being funded through the revolving loan fund program. Only five will be completely funded by the loan; in the other cases homeowners will be on the hook for part of the cost, because there is a 10-year limit on the payback.

We like this program for myriad reasons.

First, it’s not a handout. Residents must research the improvements to be made, and the energy audit ensures the work done is necessary and effective. Second, since residents pay off the loans with savings from utility bills, the fund replenishes itself. Third, it helps people in tough times to further restore some of the grand Victorians for which Elgin is known. The annual historic house tour is arguably the city’s biggest tourist attraction. And beyond that, it encourages energy efficiency, and it puts contractors to work in a down economy.

It would behoove other towns that get neighborhood revitalization funds to consider Elgin’s model.