[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:07] Speaker B: Welcome to the Buzz, a podcast by Boone Electra Cooperative. The Buzz is a monthly message to our community celebrating what it means to be a member owner of your local electric cooperative, Boone Electric Cooperative, your co op, our community.
[00:00:26] Speaker C: Welcome back to the Buzz. I'm Zach Smith, communications specialist at Boone Electric Cooperative. And today we're speaking with one of our closer partners in the community and a massive resource for Boone and some of our surrounding counties. Central Missouri Community Action. Joining us today are Molly Carmichael and Ben Burgott. Molly, Ben, welcome to the program.
[00:00:44] Speaker A: Thank you. Good morning.
[00:00:46] Speaker D: Thank you, Zach.
[00:00:47] Speaker C: I think it's safe to say I don't want to jinx anything. I don't think I will. But I think we're in spring finally. We're in the warmer months. This is kind of one of those sweet spots when it comes to energy and electricity use, specifically the weather getting milder, bills are lower, and so the heat isn't here yet. It's a great time of year for us to talk about energy efficiency. Before we get into that discussion, though, I think it might help folks who aren't already familiar with the concept. Can you guys tell us in the simplest terms what a community action center is?
[00:01:19] Speaker D: Sure. I think predominantly it's we're here to eradicate poverty in our communities.
[00:01:25] Speaker C: My experience in the co op world with community action centers is that they're always one of, if not the first community partner that co ops, particularly in rural areas, but not limited to the rural areas, point to when members need that level of assistance, maybe with weatherization of their home or a program that people may have heard of, liheap, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. How do you all help folks through those programs? How do you determine if you're able to help somebody?
[00:01:52] Speaker D: A lot of it is we approach it with what's called a whole family approach. And so no matter what program a member comes to first, we try to identify what other programs they may be eligible for or really need.
Head Start is one of our big ones. So, you know, helping kids in school, it's not just a daycare program. Like it really is a school for these kids and something like that. So a Head Start teacher may identify that this family.
Yes, you're involved in Head Start, but hey, maybe you need, you know, financial coaching or weatherization, life, whatever it is. So whatever program you come to first, we really try to get them into all programs that could help them, you know, holistically as what it implies, the whole family approach.
[00:02:38] Speaker C: What are some of the other programs that.
[00:02:40] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean there's so many, but I'd say the big ones, Head Start, liheap weatherization. I'm also over housing development.
So that's another large one there. Women's business center that's also ran out of cmca. Financial coaching, life coaching, relationship building.
Show me healthy relationships.
[00:02:58] Speaker A: Healthy relationships.
[00:03:00] Speaker D: Another one. So that's just helping relationship building. You know, it's, it's the goal is just build quality structure in the family and get people into a good baseline where that they can help themselves come up and out of poverty.
[00:03:14] Speaker C: Okay. And so wherever they come into the programming, like you mentioned, Head Start for instance, but that may lead them into some of those other areas, correct.
[00:03:23] Speaker D: Financial planning or relationship building, whatever it is that family needs to succeed and
[00:03:30] Speaker A: that is the entire point of community action is to pull these families completely out of poverty and get them on a healthy, happy direction.
[00:03:40] Speaker D: And one of the bigger phrases that we use that is very true is we're offering a hand out, we're offering a hand up. And that's, that's probably the main goal and what we really try to embody.
[00:03:54] Speaker C: Tell me what the difference is between those two things from your all's perspective.
[00:03:57] Speaker D: From my perspective personally, you know, the handout is let me just give you money or give you this, you know, resource that it may only help you now compared to a hand up is how do I help you help yourself?
You know, so I think for me that's, that's the biggest difference. Weatherization is a great example of it. Yes, we're installing energy efficiency measures in your home and you do get that benefit but it's saving you on your electric bills, you know, your energy bills monthly. Which means all that money you save is what then you can put into other, you know, your medical needs, your food, things like that. Where yes, we give a hand up at first but then you're going to translate those benefits into your own life in many other ways later.
[00:04:46] Speaker C: I think people hear that and maybe don't understand exactly how that plays into the whole structure of what you guys do.
[00:04:54] Speaker D: Yeah, another one of them like housing choice voucher, you know, we offer voucher to just HCV participants and that's intended to be another hand up. You know, it's how do we help you with your housing needs now but then also slowly gradually move you towards market rate rental, market rate housing, you know, so that is another hand up.
[00:05:16] Speaker C: What are some of the things under the weatherization side of things that you all do or that you help with
[00:05:21] Speaker A: the purpose of Weatherization is to seal the home. I love it when they say work.
Your home is like an envelope. So we're going to seal it. So we're going to go through everything. So everything from air sealing to H vac insulation, so we just cover it all. And that is the point is to make sure that we are stopping the movement of air moving in and out of the house and making your home more energy efficient.
[00:05:50] Speaker C: Air loss is essentially what creates those huge swings in a bill.
[00:05:54] Speaker A: So the difference between what you all do and what we do in community action is you guys give your members the information that they need to go out and weatherize their homes themselves to where us we are income eligible. So our program is a free program and the client's eligible everything that our program says they need. So when we come in, do the energy audit, everything that's on that audit, we're going to do the entire thing for free.
So. But this isn't, this isn't for everybody. You know, they do have to be income eligible.
[00:06:31] Speaker D: Sure, yes, it is for the low income clients or Those that are 200% or below a federal poverty level. But everything we install that's not health and safety has to be cost efficient, meaning it has to have an SIR of 1.0 or greater savings to investment ratio, which means if we spend $10,000 in your home and energy efficiency upgrades, those upgrades over their lifespan have to save at least $10,000 or more. So the program works for low income help, but it's also fiscally responsible and it exists to decrease demand on the grid when we do have those really cold times, really hot times, and that demand on the grid is just skyrocketed. Weatherization is one that you're going in, helping people decrease their energy load, their energy burden. And at the end of the day, that also helps the grid as well. We're getting more people. We see it in housing development. You know, we the need for housing, the demand on the grid, you know, we're just adding population, we're not taking away. So with greater population, we're more housing. We need decreased demand on the grid or we have to constantly keep producing more energy.
[00:07:44] Speaker C: Well, yeah, exactly. In practical terms, I mean, if you think about it, sure, you're saving money ideally on your bill every month when you make those efficiency upgrades. But when you're using electricity and the folks next door are using electricity and the whole block is using electricity, I mean, we're generating electricity. And so the less generation that we have to keep up with on the utility Side, the less we have to keep up with demand, build more generation, basically, or increase the size of the grid, essentially. That keeps the rates lower for everybody. So it's all kind of a big cycle to keep things affordable and reliable.
[00:08:23] Speaker D: And we know we're going to have to increase energy, you know, production regardless. This is just another facet to, you know, address it.
[00:08:32] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Keep it, keep it on a manageable pace.
[00:08:34] Speaker D: Exactly. Yep.
[00:08:36] Speaker C: Mentioned that you're seeing more of it. How, how often do you all do these, these kinds of programs or how, how do you measure that?
[00:08:43] Speaker D: Typically we've done about 10 homes per month. You know, varies a little bit based on funding, but when funding's pretty steady, It's. It's around 10 to 12 homes per month.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: And we do, at the beginning of the program year, we set a goal for the team for the year.
So many homes in each county that we want to get done.
Boone County, Cole county, those are two really big counties for us. Audrain as well, Oage, Manitou, those are smaller counties.
And that's a lot of rural area.
That is one thing. It's like trying to get to those people and trying to let them know we are here to help. It's hard getting information out to rural communities.
[00:09:35] Speaker C: Well, 10 to 12amonth is, that's a lot. Especially you guys do have a big footprint in those eight counties here in the middle of the state. But that's still a lot of projects. What's kind of the bookends of the scale and what kind of projects you all do within the scope of 10 to 12amonth.
[00:09:51] Speaker D: It's all energy efficiency on them. And again, it's. We send out an energy auditor to the home, they do a full energy audit, they come back to the office and run it through a program called NEAT or mia.
And it's kind of what that program tells us we can do. And that's all governed by, you know, the federal regulations and expectations. And so it's really whatever that audit tells us that we're installing is pretty much what they're getting. And it even goes over and above energy efficiency upgrades. We also check for health and safety. So we're looking at your carbon monoxide in the home, general air quality. We install ashray fans, which are ventilation fans. And it's, it's above and beyond just a bath fan. It's a full like home ventilation fan. So we're, we're checking your furnace, you know, all the H Vac, even your oven if it's gas. And we're checking over high carbon monoxide, things like that. So there is a lot of health and safety aspects that we look at over and above the energy efficiency upgrades. Typically we see a lot of air sealing, LED lighting insulation. So we'll do attic floor wall insulation here and there. We'll replace H VAC systems if they're. If they're calling for replacement water heaters. Water heater blankets is pretty common.
[00:11:07] Speaker A: So that's those water heater pipe insulation.
[00:11:10] Speaker D: Yeah, the pipe insulation. That's. I would say that's probably the majority of measures we are typically installing in most homes.
[00:11:18] Speaker A: And another awesome thing that we got a few years back was called readiness funding. And that was that that funding is to help. So when we get to a home and we're like, okay, there are things that are outside of the scope of weatherization. So one would think that a roof would be part of weatherization, but it's actually not. But with our readiness funding, if there is a hole in the roof, if there is a complete hole within the siding of the home, that is all stuff that we can use our readiness funding for and get the home ready for weatherization. And these are all important things like, especially if we are doing attic insulation. And so you have that home that has a big hole in the roof. While we may not be able to completely replace the entire roof, we can fix that one spot that's going to stop the elements from the outside coming in, which is then going to allow us to be able to insulate the home, get rid of the mold so we're not adding to anything. Because if we were to go in and insulate an attic with a big hole in it, that's going to do nothing for sure. Our members. So that is great having that funding available for us so we can help multiple families get their homes ready for weatherization.
[00:12:34] Speaker C: Does CMCA have their own auditors or.
[00:12:36] Speaker D: We do.
[00:12:36] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:12:37] Speaker D: We currently have two on staff right now.
When funding was a little bit more steady, we had four. So we're hoping that kind of levels out again and we can get back up to fully staffed.
[00:12:49] Speaker C: Yeah, I bet that's a lot of work for just two people.
[00:12:51] Speaker D: It is a lot.
[00:12:52] Speaker C: You guys are partnered, I would assume, with contractors. There are folks who do the actual.
Once it comes to that point, after the auditors have their.
[00:13:00] Speaker D: We have multiple weatherization and H Vac contractors we work with. And then again, when funding steady, we also operate around crude.
[00:13:09] Speaker C: We talked a little bit about the weatherization side of it and the energy efficiency. How does Somebody who is interested in that thinks they might be eligible for it. How do they go about applying for that?
[00:13:18] Speaker A: Okay, so what they do is they just contact us.
A lot of times they're going to ask quite a few questions and then that's going to determine whether. Well, we ask quite a few questions that's going to determine whether or not they're eligible for the program. The biggest question that we're going to ask and which is the most important is their income because we are an income based program.
So once we verified that they would be income based, and really that is how many people within the home are 18 years and older and, and are working how much income is coming into the house. So we plug that address in that database goes all the way back so far to let us know when the last time that home was weatherized. So if that home has not been weatherized in the last 15 years, then we can move forward. They can always email us at WXMCA us and that email comes straight to us.
[00:14:15] Speaker C: What are the eight counties that you all serve?
[00:14:17] Speaker A: Okay. Audrain, Boone, Callaway, Cole, Howard, Monita, Cooper.
[00:14:26] Speaker D: No, Sage and Hill.
[00:14:27] Speaker A: Sage, yeah.
[00:14:28] Speaker C: If they're in another part of the state, there's a different community action center that serves that area. So for our members who would also possibly be in Randolph or Monroe counties, that is Northeast Community Action Corporation, which is based in Bowling Green. And you can visit them
[email protected] or their numbers. 573-324-2231.
[00:14:48] Speaker A: And they can always call us too.
[00:14:51] Speaker D: There's a community action that's serving all parts of Missouri. Yeah, and NAC's great. You know, our, our neighboring community action agencies, especially for weatherization, you know, for what we know of, for those programs, like, they're fantastic.
[00:15:03] Speaker A: They are.
[00:15:04] Speaker C: Even if you're aware that there is one, you maybe don't know the functions that it serves in the community or how much good that it does. Unless you've been the recipient of some of that.
[00:15:15] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:15:16] Speaker D: And they really are the kind of the frontline poverty. You know, our frontline staff are the ones, you know, they're meeting, they're trying to meet members where they are. They're the first ones attending to somebody coming in saying, hey, I need help with, you know, whatever it may be. And they're the ones kicking everything off saying, how can we help you?
[00:15:33] Speaker C: As far as liheap goes, I know that it's a program that every time the co ops, especially when they're on Capital Hill talking to Legislators. That is one of the perennial things that they're bringing up. Hey, we need you guys to keep supporting this because it's really important to our members back home.
How can folks who are already familiar with liheap are already receiving energy assistance through that. How can they also take advantage of weatherization? How can those two things kind of work together?
[00:16:04] Speaker D: That's a great question. Liheap is its help. Now, you know, there is typically a good waiting list. There's the energy crisis fund, sulheap, the utility shut off. You know, so there's a little bit different stuff there. But liheap helps upfront. If they would also apply for weatherization, we're gonna save you money every month and for 15 to 20 years down the road, every single month. So that's, you know, they can really work synergistically in that.
Let's help you save money on your utility bills. And then liheap will also help you cover what's left.
[00:16:42] Speaker A: And I think too, a lot of people think, oh, well, once I get weatherization, I still can't use liheap. That is not the case. Liheap is still available for you. It's just they're not going to be. Once weatherization is done, they're not going to need to use it nearly as much.
[00:16:58] Speaker C: Right.
[00:16:59] Speaker A: And the amount that they'll be using won't be such a huge cost on their bills. So they can spread that amount that they're getting throughout the year. They can spread that out farther. So great bill, which is so important for our clients or for our members. Yeah.
[00:17:15] Speaker D: You know, liheap isn't going to typically cover all of your utility bills all year. So weatherization would just help extend that out. And how long those light heat funds would cover utility bills because they're spending
[00:17:29] Speaker C: less, ideally through the weatherization, energy efficiency upgrades. Whatever has to go on in that residence that's going to lessen the need for those things down the road. Ideally, correct.
[00:17:40] Speaker A: We are 200% of the poverty level. So if a client comes to us or a potential member comes to us and it's just one household member, they need to make $31,920 or less a year. If they're a family of four, 66,000 or less a year, family of eight is $111,440. And then on top of that, if there's more than that, then it's an additional $11,000 per household member. So our income guidelines are a little bit higher, which allows us to help more People. So it's broader.
[00:18:22] Speaker D: We also, like I said, we do housing development and that those developments are either built for home ownership or rental. Everybody that we serve with those are 80% or less AMI or area median income, whatever that area is. We have a few developments going up right now. A 40 unit apartment complex in Jefferson City, Missouri and then here local in Columbia over by Kilgore, it's on North Providence. We have Providence Landing going up and that's 14 units that are going to be for homeownership and all of those will be subsidized and sold to families that are at or below 80% AMI. And with those homes, you know, these are looking for people who may have been renters and they're ready to transition to homeownership, you know, or just any first time homebuyer.
And you don't even have to be a first time home buyer.
[00:19:14] Speaker C: So you are still looking for, for
[00:19:16] Speaker D: folks for buyers for action. Yep. Okay, they're being offered for sale right now. Just reach out directly to our realtor and her name is Christy. Her email is
[email protected] and that is C H R I S T I at W E I C H er th o b dot com being brand
[00:19:41] Speaker C: new, they're probably all caught up on energy efficiencies and weatherization. But I know we wanted to mention what kinds of residences, folks who are interested in the weatherization program. What all do you cover?
[00:19:53] Speaker A: You do not have to be a homeowner, you can be a renter. Trailers.
We also do multifamily, so four units and below as well.
[00:20:02] Speaker D: It works for site built homes, mobile homes.
Some of our biggest, we do some apartment buildings as long as like what Molly said, it's four units or less per structure. If they're income qualified for liheap, they're automatically income qualified for winterization.
[00:20:17] Speaker A: And if anyone is ever in a pinch and they need like something quick to help, we have energy saving boxes. So we have little emergency kits to help clients. And that's going to be a light bulb, it's going to be rope caulking to go around windows. It's weather stripping to go around their door. And it's not. It's going to do one door, it's going to do one window, it's one light bulb. But it is a little starter just, just to help them until we can get in and help them more with weatherization. It's not, you know, not for everyone but if they're on the waiting list then we've got these kids to give them because one little thing can help.
[00:20:59] Speaker D: Sure.
[00:20:59] Speaker A: You know that that door needing weather stripping, that could absolutely save them $20 a month on their bill. And the amount of energy that, that we're going to be able to help per client is, is, is different. So you might have a home that is sealed up pretty well. And you know, we're, we're, we're going to be able to help them, but it's not going to be nearly as much as a home that needs a ton of help. And that's the client who's going to see a huge change in their utility bill. A huge change. You know, we come in and put 6 inches of insulation in their attic and we're able to seal, you know, go and caulk around windows and add
[00:21:43] Speaker D: weather stripping and save you on your utility bill. And also just the comfort in your home.
[00:21:49] Speaker C: That's where I was going to say.
[00:21:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:50] Speaker C: You're also just going to feel comfortable
[00:21:51] Speaker A: because weatherization isn't just about energy efficiency. It's also going back to health and safety. It is breathing better air. It is, it's eliminating the amount of time somebody, it helps eliminate the amount of time someone gets sick.
[00:22:08] Speaker C: So if somebody listening is interested in weatherization or some of the other programs that you all offer, where can they find out more about that?
[00:22:14] Speaker D: I think the best avenue is our email wxmca us.
[00:22:20] Speaker A: So you can also reach out at 573-443-8706 and that's going to get you to the main office and they will get you where you need to be.
[00:22:30] Speaker D: Or visit our at CMCA US and look for weatherization.
[00:22:35] Speaker C: Ben, Molly, thank you for that and thank you for taking the time to join us today speaking for Boone Electric. We're of course happy to work with you all on the energy level, but the community as a whole is very fortunate to have an organization like CMCA and doing what it does. So thank you all for the education and those valuable services that all of you working there provide. We really appreciate it.
[00:22:54] Speaker D: We appreciate that and thank you all
[00:22:57] Speaker C: for joining us on this episode of the Buzz. Be sure to come back next month for our birthday party and until then, we'll see you somewhere down the line.
[00:23:04] Speaker B: Thank you for tuning in to the Buzz, a podcast by Boone Electric Cooperative. To subscribe or for more information, you can find us on Facebook, Instagram X and LinkedIn. And of course, you can always visit us 24, 7@BooElectric Co op. Boone Electric Cooperative, your co op. Our.
