Ice cream weather is upon us again. Time for early morning grass cutting and wide-brimmed hats, and all of this also means that utility bills can only be headed up, but there are ways to help stay cool and reduce those bills.

The Community Action Agency has plenty of slots open for residents who would like to have their homes weatherized, and for free.

The agency’s weatherization coordinator William Anderson said that as of the end of this month the agency has weatherized over 300 homes.

“In eight months that’s amazing,” said Anderson. “We are the most efficient agency in the state of Alabama and in the Southeast. We’ve been cooking.”

Homes across the nation have been sealed and stuffed through the programs, insulating them from the devastating air leaks that rob the homes of their ability to keep out extreme temperatures and jack up those utility bills. The program is largely funded by stimulus money, but that will end on March 31, 2012.

“We go back on normal funding then, and we’ve had so much interest in the program, and we’re doing so many houses, that when we go back on normal funding it going to be really tough to get I the program then,” said Anderson. “The window of opportunity is closing.”

Sealing any air leaks in the home is the first priority of the agency. Instruments are used to detect air leaks in the house, and once found workers can then address what they call the “pressure boundary”. The second priority is the thermal boundary; attic and sidewall insulation.

“Generally somewhere around there the money is going to get low,” said Anderson. “After that we’ve got a few more items that we can address”.

Piedmont resident Wanda McFry is happy with the work the agency did on her home. Window caulking, insulation and a brand new heating and air unit all contribute to her lowered utility bills. As for how much she’s saving, she said it is difficult to tell. “I may have to wait until winter gets here to see,” said McFry.

Typically the purchase of a new heating and air unit is not something that the agency can do, but it can happen. Each home is allocated around $6,500, and the majority of that money goes towards sealing air leaks and installing insulation in attics and walls.

“Generally somewhere around there the money is going to get low,” said Anderson. “After that we’ve got a few more items that we can address”. In the case of Bailey’s home, that meant a new heating and air unit, and some homes have benefited from new windows through the program as well.

“We try and do a year’s worth of work every month,” said Anderson. “The Department of Energy looks at it as reducing our dependency on foreign oil, and our agency looks at it as helping people, so we have two different missions here in weatherization. We try to make them work together as best we can,” said Anderson.

Anderson has taken a position with the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs which will have him traveling all over the state training other weatherization programs and helping to increase their efficiency. A native and current resident of Piedmont, he believes that if people in Piedmont understood how much they could save on their utility bill they would all rush to fill out an application.

“We do a lot of good for a lot of people,” said Anderson. “For most people, we cut their electric bill and their gas bill in half.”

An application for the weatherization program can be picked up at the Community Action Agency Center at 206 Lea Street in Piedmont. The agency can be reached at 256-447-6563‎.