Slay the Beast!

I am intrigued and impressed with the resiliency of businesses and educational districts to respond to the daunting economical monster that continues to take a bite out of yearly budgets. Once again, good ideas are being implemented to counteract the dwindling cash flow of America.

I refer to an item I read in an online article in the St. Petersburg Times. In reference to saving money in the school district, the article said in part "in the maintenance department, director Ken Hill and his staff have been looking for savings. A new pilot program will have waterless urinals at Fox Chapel and Parrott middle schools. The urinals save about 250,000 gallons of water a year per school, Hill said, and that also lowers water bills. During the summer, Challenger K-8, the last school that did not have energy-saving light controls and sensors, had them installed. Powell Middle School and Eastside Elementary School each had 20 air-conditioning units installed. Letting in-house workers do the jobs instead of subcontractors saved the district about $40,000 to $50,000, primarily in labor costs. During the summer, maintenance employees worked four-day weeks for six weeks, saving the district about $100,000. Classroom air temperatures have been adjusted one degree, saving $70,000."

Looking to the future, it seems obvious that the way to go is to purchase and install more energy-efficient equipment, to cut costs by consolidating work days for shorter more productive work weeks (See the blog Out of the Norm) and by thinking intelligently. With these moves put into place we will slay the economical monster that is attempting to bring us to our knees!