Board considers environmentally friendly jail

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

From a story on WKBT La Crosse:

The La Crosse County Board is looking into ways to make the new county jail expansion as environmentally friendly as possible.

On Monday, the board learned more about Wisconsin's Focus on Energy program, which could give La Crosse funding for the project if it uses energy efficiently.

Potter Lawson Architects lead the discussion, and told board members they could decide to use water more efficiently in the new jail, or to optimize its use of solar energy. These could eventually save the city 8 to 9 percent in operating costs.

The goal of the meeting was to learn about all of the different ways to use energy efficiently, and to start making goals for the jail project, which is still months away from construction.

Board members seemed optimistic about the possibilties.