How are we going to pay our electricity and heating bills? Many of us are asking ourselves this question and it is currently obsessing the mayors of our municipalities. In one year, the price of gas has tripled and you can feel it when it comes to heating public buildings, schools, gymnasiums, even a municipal swimming pool.
A call to the government
In Montbard, Mayor Laurence Porte has done her accounts: it will make 120,000 euros more to come out this year, i.e. a heating budget up 20%, so she calls on the government: “The Association of Small Towns of France to which I belong asks for a financial boost, like the energy check that the government has been able to release for low-income households. We need to be accompanied to face this additional cost. In Montbard, we have done work to insulate our public buildings, we are vigilant about adjusting the heating, but even if we are good students, we will suffer this increase head on. If we spend 120,000 euros more on this, we will have to reduce other expenses. What will you need to trim? Culture, community life? communal facilities? We dare not imagine it yet.”
A cost that cannot be avoided
And yet, these new expenses must be included in the 2022 budget. A budget that each municipality must preferably vote before the end of March, and it is imperative to balance the accounts because the law prohibits municipalities from being in deficit. In Saint-Jean-de-Losne, Mayor Marie-Line Duparc also sees the heating bill soar: “We go from 22,000 euros to 55,000 euros. I can’t stop heating the school, we have to keep a decent temperature for the students. All this in addition when we are asked to regularly ventilate the rooms to fight against the health crisis” she recalls.
– Olivier Estran
Pay the heating bill or build a soccer field
In Genlis, the gas bill will go from 60,000 euros in 2021 to 180,000 euros this year, in short, an expense multiplied by three! We understood it well, impossible to cut the heating in the schools, but can we turn down the thermostat in public buildings? Here is the response from the mayor, Martial Mathiron: “One degree less in a room is a 7% saving. Two degrees will therefore make 14%, it is not enough to amortize this additional cost of 120,000 euros” he observes.
And suddenly, when preparing the budget, we ask ourselves questions that hurt: “If we project ourselves on the scale of our mandate, the increase in energy costs will cost us a million euros. It is therefore a million that we will not be able to spend on projects. For this price, we had the intention of building a synthetic football pitch. To pay the gas bill, we would therefore have to give up this new sports equipment.” The elected representatives of Genlis still have two months to find the right solution. “In any case, says Martial Mathiron, an increase in local taxes is excluded. It really would be the very last resort, and we don’t want to consider it right now.” A position shared by the other municipalities questioned here.
It will be better next year
Of course, this year the municipalities will have to make choices, but it’s a bad time to pass, because we still have good news. Through Siceco, the intermunicipal syndicate of Côte-d’Or municipalities, our 675 towns and villages are under contract with the Compagnie de Gaz de Bordeaux and if the year 2022 looks very expensive, the rates for 2023 and 2024 have already been negotiated. It’s promised and signed, we’ll find the 2021 rates next year, and the bills will be halved.
Waiting at Is-sur-Tille, from January 31, the town hall will cut off its public lighting between half past midnight and 4:30 a.m. There are 1080 streetlights, and for Mayor Thierry Darphin it will feel: “This will already save 17,000 euros over the year” he explains.
– Olivier Estran
On-demand lighting to split costs
A city in the dark, that does not scare Thérèse, 84, who remains connected to new technologies “No, I think it’s a pretty good idea” she assures, “Besides, I have seen cities on TV that are doing even better, where our mobile phones are used to activate the streetlights.” This is precisely the idea of the town with an app on its smartphone, we can turn on a lamppost for a few minutes simply by passing under it. Lighting on demand in a way. Suddenly the phase of extinguishing the lights would begin much earlier and the mayor took out his calculator: “With this system that we are going to adopt, it is estimated that we will save 54,000 euros a year. Not bad on a bill of 80,000 euros! And in addition it helps to fight against light pollution and better respect biodiversity “ welcomes Thierry Darphin.
Ten cities are already equipped in France, Is-Sur-Tille will be the first in Côte-d’Or, first test from March.
– Olivier Estran