Weatherization Success Story
This past winter, an elderly gentleman from Sargent, Nebraska called our Weatherization Specialist Sharon Jonak to ask for some help. He said someone from the gas company was just at his home and red-tagged his furnace and shut off the gas. The furnace wasn’t working properly and he had called the gas company to come out and repair the furnace. Little did he know that they would find cracks in the heat exchanger and soon he wouldn’t have any heat for his home. They told him to shut the water off, so the water pipes wouldn’t freeze, and to stay with family or friends, until he could come up with a plan to pay for a new furnace. He had no money to replace a furnace. Desperate, he called the CNCS Weatherization Department. Weatherization Specialist, Sharon Jonak told him she would call the gas company and get more details. She also told the client, he would have to income-qualify for the weatherization program. Application paperwork would have to be filled out and an inspection would have to be completed on his house as well. A call to the gas company revealed that there were bad cracks in the furnace heat exchanger. A letter would be needed from the gas company stating the fact. A letter was faxed to weatherization from the gas company, an application was completed with the client, he income qualified, a house inspection was completed by the weatherization crew and a furnace contractor was called. The contractor completed a check on the furnace and the bid was e-mailed to the weatherization department. The bid was approved and the contractor’s wife picked the furnace up in Kearney and delivered it to the client’s home where the contractor was removing the old furnace and getting ready to install the new one. Gene had heat by 7:00 p.m. the second night. It was a 36 hour turn around to get this gentleman heat. During the interim, Mr. Haswell had borrowed some portable heaters from family and friends and spent only 1 night in his home without a furnace. Needless to say, he was a very happy and grateful man.
