If you want to cash in on Colorado Springs Utilities’ appliance rebate program, pull up a chair.

You’ll have to provide proof of purchase, date, cost and other information about your old appliances.

Oh yes, you also must prove you’re a U.S. citizen. You do that by producing a driver’s license, military ID or Native American Tribal document and signing an affidavit avowing your citizenship.

Why the third degree?

“The form is required for all rebate applicants in compliance with Colorado House Bill 06S-1023, which prohibits providing funding for illegal immigrants,” Utilities spokesman Dave Grossman said.

“We hate to have our customers do the affidavit, but I believe it’s a legal requirement of that legislation,” he said, noting the city has had no indication that illegals have attempted to cash in on the program.

Despite the extra hurdle, the trouble is worth your time, officials say. The city pays up to $125 for a low-water toilet, $200 for insulation and air sealing, $200 for windows, $150 for an energy-efficient furnace and $75 for a low-water clothes washer through its Get The Green Back program.

Payments for residential rebates in 2006, 2007 and so far this year have exceeded $1.7 million.

The most popular is the clothes washer rebate; 6,116 customers filed for it since 2006, nearly half of the 12,611 who’ve participated in the Green Back program.

And interest is growing. Through June this year, 3,405 residential customers have sought rebates, a pace that, if it continues, would make this year’s program the largest so far.The resource savings has been sizeable – nearly 30 million gallons of water, for example, has been saved since 2006 through water-efficient appliances, Utilities said.

That’s enough to fill 45 Olympic-size swimming pools.

“The rebate program is designed to save money for program participants and to keep rates low for all customers by delaying the need for additional infrastructure investments,” Grossman said.

For more, go to http://www.csu.org/residential/rebates/16878.pdf.

A little levity

Just because the Springs City Council members are wrestling with some heavy issues, such as a $23.3 million shortfall next year, doesn’t mean they don’t have a funny bone.

Amid a recent discussion about borrowing $26 million to build Venezia Park and two fire stations, Councilman Jerry Heimlicher wanted assurances the money wouldn’t go toward moving the flapper-era downtown fire station to an island on Pikes Peak Avenue at Weber Street.

The idea is to let a contractor move the old building a block north and convert it to a restaurant or bar. The developer would pay moving costs.

Heimlicher, who reads a stack of newspapers daily, including this one, picked up on a little item out of Peekskill, N.Y., where a 108-year-old firehouse collapsed Aug. 21 as it was moved to make way for a highway.

Heimlicher said the building contained asbestos, complicating the cleanup, a point that underscores his skepticism of the Fire Department’s plan to move the downtown station.

“That means you have to move 100-year-old mortar and bricks on a slab,” Heimlicher said. “Are you sure it will move?”

Deputy Fire Chief Steve Cox said a report is due to the council this month.

“I’m sure they won’t use the same moving company,” Mayor Lionel Rivera joked.

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Contact the writer: 636-0238 or pam.zubeck@gazettedev.gazette.com

Phil Duhon stands on the back porch at Oscar’s on Tejon Street Tuesday, June 20, 2006. Photo by The Gazette File

HUNTER MCRAE