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August 2016

PY16 Policy Training

Thank you to everyone who attended the recent policy trainings in St. Cloud. Service Providers from around the state were well represented with 53 attendees at PY16 WAP Policy Training and 24 at the WAP Policy Overview. We appreciate you making these trainings a priority. Training materials are available on the Commerce website.

WA Archiving

Moving forward, Service Providers may proceed with archiving WA databases at your convenience, keeping at least the prior program year in your database (PY15). Contact Steve Loomis prior to archiving so he is aware when processing your next upload. Archiving instructions are found on the Commerce website.

Health and Safety

There were a number of questions around health and safety at the PY16 Policy Training. WAP policy 4.2.3 and DOE’s WPNs 11-6 and 12-9 offer the following definition of a health and safety measure (HSM):

Measures that are necessary to maintain the physical well-being of the occupants and/or weatherization workers where the actions MUST be taken to effectively perform weatherization work or the actions are necessary as a result of weatherization work.

The Allowable Measures Chart has been updated to provide details on when written justification is required to document how an HSM meets the above definition.

Website Updates

Many new or revised documents have been posted on the Commerce website. The following is a description of these updates.  Ensure that you are using the most recent versions of any of the revised documents.

Program Update Section: Hyperlinks have been replaced with the most recent version of the submitted DOE State Plan.  Once approved, the State Plan will be posted under Appendix A.

Policy Manual: The PY16 Policy Manual has been replaced since the training to correct a typo in policy 4.4.2.1.

Policy Manual – Appendix B:

• Duct Sealing Guidance: This document, previously posted under Appendix C, has been updated to include guidance for mobile homes.
• Mobile Home Site Assessment: Outlines the process for determining if mobile home moisture and installation conditions allow for weatherization.

Policy Manual – Appendix C:

• Allowable Measures Chart (AMC): The updated PY16 AMC. A redline version of the chart (pdf) is available.
• Fuel Switching Guidance: A description of the fuel switch request procedure and base criteria used to evaluate requests.
• MHEA Floor Repair Modeling Tool: This tool is required for calculating data used to model mobile home insulation and belly repairs. It replaces a previous version.
• Modeling Duct Leakage in MHEA: Describes the procedure for modeling duct sealing as a ducts and infiltration measure in MHEA.
• Multifamily Landlord Buy Down Guidance: Procedures for documenting landlord buy downs in WA and EA-QUIP, per policy 3.3.4.
• Multiple Fund Guidance: Procedures for WA data entry when two funds are used on a single measure.
• Reporting Crew Travel Expenses in WA: Instructions for documenting crew travel time in WA.
• Required WA Statuses: A list of required statuses and their meaning, to be used in WA.
• Weighted Average R-Value Calculator: One of the approved procedures for averaging the R value of an area with different levels of insulation. An alternate procedure.is available.

Policy Manual – Appendix D: The audit and standalone site visit and QCI diagnostic test documents have been revised.  A combined redline version of the changes (pdf) is available.

Training Section – PY16 Policy Trainings: This section was added and includes PowerPoints from the policy trainings held July 19-20, 2016.

Training Section – WA Guidance Tab: Some out-of-date documents were removed. Some of these will be updated while others were determined unnecessary. 

• eHEAT to WA File Transfer: This document was moved from Appendix C to this section.

Forms, Out-of-State Travel: The pdf form was replaced with a fillable Word document.

Fiscal Update

Thank you to everyone for submitting your PY15 financial closeout reports by the deadline.  Jana Dietering is processing the reports and will contact agency staff with questions as needed. Revised NFAs and a notification to enter budgets will be sent once all PY15 funds have been reconciled.

EAPWX A2106/CO2 funds end on September 30, 2016. Service Providers must spend out their entire allocation by this date.  If any budget revisions are needed, Policy 6.8 shall be followed. Contact WAP staff immediately with any concerns for a complete spend-down.

Training Update

Mechanical Training Update

On Tuesday, August 16 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at CAPRW’s mechanical training room, Commerce will host a small group of technical staff to gather Service Provider input on essential topics to include in a mechanical training. Space is limited so please email the WAP mailbox by August 10, 2016 if you are interested in attending.

Wisconsin Technical Exchange Fair—Final Call

The Wisconsin Technical Exchange will be held September 12-15, 2016 in Wausau, Wis. This year’s Technical Exchange Fair will include a number of national speakers as well as mechanical training. All agencies that have staff interested in attending should submit an Out-of-State Travel form.

To simplify the Out-of-State Travel Request for this particular training, note the following:

• Question 1: Indicate that the request is for the Wisconsin Technical Exchange Fair. No additional description or agenda is needed.
• Question 3: A justification for the training is not necessary.  We will contact you if we have questions about any of the staff listed under Question 2.
• Remaining questions: Complete as normal.

Federal Updates

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has released a number of Weatherization Program Notices (WPNs) and Memorandums (Memos) for Program Year 2016. WPNs, Memos, and other resources can be accessed on the Weatherization Assistance Program Technical Assistance Center (WAPTAC) website as well as DOE’s WAP Program Guidance website.

The following documents are particularly relevant for local Service Providers. As these WPNs outline some of the policy decisions needed to be made at the state level, refer to our current policy manual for areas Commerce has further defined.

• WAP Memorandum 015: This memo updates DOE’s WAP Financial and Procurement Toolkits.  A complete set of training materials is available.
• WPN 16-5: This WPN and accompanying Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) provides consolidated guidance on weatherizing multifamily buildings.
• WPN 16-6: This WPN and accompanying FAQ provides consolidated guidance on weatherizing rental units.
• WAP Memo 016: This memo describes the upcoming change, effective January 2017, for determining eligibility of buildings that are currently identified as eligible by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
• WPN 16-8: This WPN and attachments outline the energy audit approval process. While these procedures are used by Commerce when seeking re-approval for our energy audit process, guidance in the WPN and FAQ may be of particular interest to local Service Providers.
• WAP Memorandum 017: This memo announces the release of DOE’s new draft Health & Safety WPN. The draft WPN and attachments are posted on DOE’s public comment website. Service Providers are encouraged to review and provide feedback through DOE’s website, due by August 31, 2016.