DNR AWARDS ENERGY LOAN TO CAPE

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has awarded Cape Girardeau a loan of $130,092 to install energy conservation measures at the Municipal Airport terminal building and the waste-water treatment plant.

The city will use the 2 percent-interest loan to replace windows; modify lighting; and install high-efficiency pump motors, boiler-chiller controls and roof and wall insulation.

Tracy Mehan, director of the DNR, said the conservation measures will save the city more than $17,000 annually in energy costs.

"Money not spent on energy bills can be used to improve city services in other areas," Mehan said.

He said the DNR this year has approved about $1.5 million in low-interest energy loans to local governments in Missouri.

The loan program for energy conservation measures was authorized by the General Assembly in 1988, and is financed through funds allocated to the states by the U.S. Department of Energy from fines paid by oil companies for alleged over-pricing in the 1970s. The program is administered in Missouri by the DNR's Division of Energy.