Weatherization Is One Stimulus Program Getting Results

Craig Brown points to some caulking (it will dry clear) his crew has done on the side of Sarah Rutherford's Blue Mountain home. He says her heating and cooling costs will drop dramatically after weatherization.

So far, Mississippi has received almost $25 million in stimulus funds for weatherization. As MPB’s Cari Gervin discovered, the projects are finally getting going, house by house by house.

Craig Brown is crawling around under a house, drenched in sweat under his white hazmat suit. He’s spraying what he calls “two-part foam” insulation.

“What this is, is this is where the drain pipe and the water pipe is going through the floor. Well there’s a hole in the floor.”

Brown is plugging up that hole – and quite a few others – as he weatherizes the Blue Mountain home of Sarah Rutherford. She’s one of almost 5,500 people in Mississippi getting things like insulation and a new heater, courtesy of the federal government.

“Well it means a lot. Glad to get it.”

Rutherford is 83. She’s lived in her home in Tippah County for 65 years, since the home was first built. She says her gas bill last winter averaged $300 a month. But the house never got very warm. Weatherization will fix that, says Craig Brown.

“She’s going to see a significant change in how much cooler her house is gonna get, and how much easier it is to warm and heat, because of the insulation in the attic. We seal around her air conditioners – just anywhere that, you know, air can come in, we try to stop that.”

The Weatherization Assistance Program isn’t anything new. There have been state funds to insulate houses for the low-income elderly and disabled for years. But Sollie Norwood says the scope of the stimulus funds project is something else entirely.

He manages the program statewide at the Mississippi Department of Human Services. Norwood says the program isn’t just helping people, it’s helping the environment.

“We hope that it would drive down energy consumption. And if we drive down energy consumption, we hope that would free up useable income.”

And it’s also helping builders like Craig Brown, who’s hired three new employees.

“Until they started this .. I’m gonna say, three months there, we were setting – I was wondering if I was going to have to start mowing yards or something, you know. And I’ve been in business for, you know, 22 years.”

Mississippi is set to receive another $24 million for weatherization from the Department of Energy, meaning builders like Craig Brown will stay busy for months to come.

For MPB News, I’m Cari Gervin.