Energy Efficiency

CITY HALL ? Vending machines have become the latest target in the city?s quest to reduce energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. City officials gathered in the City Hall lobby Tuesday to watch the first installation of a new Glendale Water & Power program, which will install 1,000 energy-saving devices in snack and beverage vending machines across the city. The utility has committed $180,000 to the program. ?It goes along with the city?s move to be a much greener city,?

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — Glendale Community College officials are gearing up to offer a new training program in green technology education after receiving a $100,000 state grant to develop an online curriculum. Administrators will use the funds to craft online distance-learning courses that will help students prepare for jobs related to renewable energy technology as part of the state’s pilot program to put more people to work in what is expected to be a growing industry, interim President/Supt.

On Tuesday, the City Council is tentatively scheduled to hear a report on the Planning Department’s practices for reviewing window replacement applications. The Planning Department currently follows guidelines developed in accord with the Design Review Boards, reviewing each application on a case-by-case basis and referring those found to be incompatible with the subject house and neighborhood to the commissions. On Tuesday, the City Council asked planning officials for a report on these practices, apparently in response to complaints from residents whose window replacement applications have been denied or sent to design review.

GLENDALE — In the burgeoning age of eco-minded consumerism, it’s not hard to find energy efficient gadgets and appliances. But Glendale Water & Power wants to make it even easier — and cheaper — for local residents. The City Council on Tuesday approved a 2 1/2 year, $13.6-million budget for the utility’s public benefit programs aimed at reducing energy use through conservation incentive programs. And now that the budget has been approved, one of the first things on the agency’s to-do list is getting at least one energy-saving compact fluorescent lightbulb in every Glendale home.

GLENDALE ? Glendale Water & Power is using the content of a brand new website to spell out its efforts to make the city more environmentally sound, and to tout its goal of having the city running on 20% renewable energy in the next 10 years. "We've been working hard in several areas ? in energy efficiency, renewable energy and reductions in CO2 emissions," Power Management Administrator Ned Bassin said. "All of that is to benefit the environment and reduce global warming." In working toward energy efficiency, the utility company has spent about $20 million over the past several years, Bassin said.

ON THE AGENDA The following items will be considered at today's G lendale Unified School District Board of Education meeting: TOBACCO USE PREVENTION The board will vote on submitting an application that would procure $28,099 for tobacco-use prevention education. The grant would focus on prevention efforts with students at Toll and Roosevelt middle schools. The Los Angeles County Office of Education would allocate the grant money. The scope of the grant includes students creating and distributing a CD demonstrating the activities of a program called Project Analyze, Beware, Create, Disseminate (Project ABCD)

GLENDALE — Ignacio R. Troncoso, the director of Glendale Water & Power for the past six years, announced his retirement on Tuesday, citing the need to spend more time with family in Texas. "Unfortunately, I was an old guy when I got here," said Troncoso, who leaves a department recently ranked among the top publicly owned utilities in the state in terms of energy savings. Troncoso, 60, has a home in his native El Paso, Texas, and the constant traveling was wearing on him, he said.