The building that houses City Hall, Chandler Community Center, Chandler Police Department, and Chandler Brownsboro Chamber of Commerce is more than 13,000 square feet. Paul Bryant Photo CHANDLER — A $23,000 grant could be used to replace the roof on City Hall this year as part of a Texas State Energy Conservation Office program, city administrator Jim Moffeit said.

"We started looking around to see what we could do with this grant. It could be used on air conditioning and heating, lighting, or a number of other things. But I think the best thing for us to do is the roof on this building."

The city's electric bill each month is about $15,000. Ten percent of the cost comes from operations at City Hall.

"We could reduce that by 25 percent with a new roof," Moffeit said.

Chandler's cut of the money comes from the Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Direct allocations to "entitlement" cities and counties is $163,121,800. SECO's allocation is $45,638,100 for cities with populations under 35,000 and counties with populations less than 200,000.

SECO provides a list of over 200 items on which its grant money can be used, Moffeit said. Friday is the deadline for counties and municipalities to submit their paperwork.

Moffeit said lighting at Winchester Park must eventually be replaced and that although the energyconservation grant could be used on the project, the cost to replace each fixture would exceed the $23,000 allocation.

"It's not going to cover it," he said. "At some point, we've got to think about the lighting out there.

“We will work in our budget over the next couple of years to do that.”

One option, Moffeit said, might be to use BASF's Elastospray, a polyurethane roofing system with a 20- to 30-year life.

City Hall, which also houses the Chandler Community Center, Chandler Brownsboro Chamber of Commerce, and the Chandler Police Department, is 13,500 square feet.