Municipal Live Wire

Bracketology

2010-03-16T16:59:32Z

Forget Worldchanging and Jetson Green at lunch this week baby! It's March Madness and the brackets are out so I'm reading Joe Lunardi and Peter Tiernan. Here are a few good articles on upsets and strategies for filling out your bracket.

A couple of tips that I always follow:

1. Never follow the former player's picks unless he did post-grad studies in statistics.

2. Look for the dorkiest guy on television and go with what he says.

The reason. If the guy was able to overcome his lack of athletic ability and looks to actually get on television that means he's probably been crunching numbers since last year's Final Four to figure out who's taking the crown this year.

Good luck!

Fayettevill-age

2010-03-16T16:21:20Z

...or something like that. There's a great new website that Sarah House is pulling together that can serve as a clearing house for all things green and sustainable in Fayetteville. She's just now getting started, but if you have content that can be added or if you're looking for info on Fayetteville's "green scene" then hit it up.

Lake Fayetteville Cleanup

2010-03-15T18:17:11Z

Great American Clean Up for Lake Fayetteville to be held on saturday, April 10th

Fayetteville, AR - The Lake Fayetteville Watershed Partnership will hold their annual Spring Lake Fayetteville Clean Up on Saturday, April 10th, starting at 9:00 am. The Lake Fayetteville Watershed Partnership is again working with the City of Fayetteville by hosting this clean up as part of the Great American Clean Up sponsored in part by Keep Arkansas Beautiful and Keep America Beautiful.

Registration for High School students will begin at 9:00 am at the Lake Fayetteville Environmental Center located at 511 Lakeview Dr. in Springdale. Adults and others need to register at the Lake Fayetteville Marina by the softball fields located just off Hwy 71. The clean up is open to the public and lunch will be provided for all volunteers. Volunteers are needed and encouraged to bring sturdy boots and long pants for clean up activities. Canoes and Kayaks are welcome to participate. For more information please call Kevin at 751-1840 or Brian at 718-7685 or e-mail at bpugh@ci.fayetteville.ar.us.

Root Elementary A Litter Free Zone

2010-03-15T16:51:58Z

Last year I was invited to attend a Root Elementary Green Team meeting by Council member Adella Gray and City staffer/Proud Parent Chad Ball. It was a 7 a.m.appointment so I was not exactly thrilled, but I scraped myself out of bed nonetheless.

When I finally made my way into the classroom I was shocked by the number of parents and students as well as their level of enthusiasm. They were spouting off ideas right and left, talking about the finer points of recycling, and whether the native flowers would get ran over by the mowing crews. The really incredible thing was that each idea, project, etc was something they fully expected to take on themselves.

A couple of months later Root Elementary was back at it with a contest to rename the "Unnamed Tributary of Mud Creek." Three classes researched the stream and its history and then voted on the winning name. Ultimately, "Niokaska Creek" an Osage name for Children of the Middle Waters was decided upon. The students held a press conference and naming ceremony at Root Elementary and then presented in front of City Council. The whole thing was really impressive.

And now, instead of resting on their laurels, the Root kids are back at it again. On Wednesday they will be listed as A Litter Free Zone by the Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission.

Keep it up kids!

Fruit Trees

2010-03-11T19:40:07Z

Thanks to my friend Jaime Miller for forwarding this great article about how cities are beginning to plant fruit trees in their public spaces. Be on the lookout for an apple tree near you!

Earth Day 40

2010-03-11T15:25:29Z

Subject: March Events/Announcements from Green Drinks

Hi Everyone,

Earth Day is drawing near, and there are many exciting local events on
the calendar for Earth Day (Thursday April 22nd) and the surrounding
weeks. In an attempt to highlight these previously planned events
while honoring the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, a group of
Fayetteville residents have volunteered to create and publicize a
Schedule of Events and Participating Businesses. The Schedule will
take the form of an Eco-Passport, which will feature the Schedule of
Events and map of participating businesses on one side, and a
to-be-determined design on the other side. All businesses are invited
to participate - they are simply asked to feature local, healthy,
organic eats and drinks and offer a small discount on these items in
honor of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. If you are aware of an
event that should be added to the Eco-Passport, a business that would
like to participate, OR if you or someone you know is interested in
submitting a design that could end up as THE official design of an
annual Sustainability Festival in Fayetteville, please visit the
'Fayetteville Earth Day 40' Facebook page. Deadline for design
submittals is Monday, March 15th, and the deadline for businesses and
events is Friday March 19th.

All participating events and attendees of all events will be invited
to create an Earth birthday card to commemorate the 40th anniversary
of Earth Day. All 'BEarthDay Cards' are asked to include one Earth Day
Resolution, or sustainability goal for the coming year. All cards will
be posted on the glass walls and partitions inside the East Square
Plaza building (old Bank of America building) for public viewing on
Fayetteville's downtown square. We hope you are able to join us for
the first annual Fayetteville Earth Day Festival!

As for the Green Drinking....

We now offer 2 Green Drinks events each month for you to attend at
your convenience.

We will meet in Fayetteville this Thursday, March 11th from 5:30-7:00
PM at our new Fayetteville home, Greenhouse Grille. This month's event
will benefit the American Red Cross' disaster relief effort in Chile
and Haiti. Happy Hour has been extended to accommodate all Green
Drinkers with $1 off all drinks. Our gathering this Thursday will be
co-hosted by the Bicycle Coalition of the Ozarks, so if you're
interested in their activities and opportunities for advocacy please
consider joining us.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=greenhouse+grille,+fayetteville+ar&sll=36.288286,-94.184074&sspn=0.123977,0.217323&ie=UTF8&hq=greenhouse+grille,&hnear=Fayetteville,+AR&ll=36.060687,-94.164548&spn=0.014675,0.027165&z=15&iwloc=A

Green Drinks Benton County will meet Tuesday, March 23rd from 5:00 -
7:00 p.m. at The Prime Bar at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Rogers. This
month's event will benefit the NWA Emerging Leaders Sustainability
Workgroup.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=ruth's+chris+steakhouse,+rogers+ar&sll=10.228437,-95.712891&sspn=56.152358,66.09375&ie=UTF8&hq=ruth's+chris+steakhouse,&hnear=Rogers,+AR&ll=36.288286,-94.184074&spn=0.180154,0.388985&z=12

Please stay tuned for more exciting updates, including a special
day-after-Earth-Day Green Drinks event on Friday, April 23rd, hosted
by Clubhaus Fitness, a new LEED registered gym on Dickson St in
Fayetteville. Co-hosted by the local U.S. Green Building Council
chapter, the event will feature complimentary free local food and Hog
Haus beer. Fleet Feet will be hosting a 5K fun run, and Clubhaus will
offer tours of their facility.

We hope you can join us for all of the above!

Cheers,
GD

Appraisals & Energy Efficient Homes

2010-03-10T20:51:54Z

Interesting article on how energy efficiency is not necessarily accounted for in home appraisals.

When my wife and I first moved to Fayetteville we searched and searched for a lot in the Washington-Willow or Walker Park neighborhoods to build a 'super green' home. I was so pumped about the prospects of being involved in the design and construction using sustainable materials, energy efficient features, etc.

We were willing to pay greater costs for these features recognizing that they would pay off in the long run, but when it came time to get financing we faced the same issues that are brought up in this article. Because energy efficiency and sustainable materials don't "add value" to the home, and because we were willing to build such a home in Walker Park the appraised value of the home would immediately drop below what we actually spent. This would have forced us to pay a $50,000 down payment. Insane.

So we ended up buying an old home on Washington Avenue and remodeling it to be energy efficient. We put $40,000 into the home for new windows, insulation, new plumbing, new electrical, new hot water heater, and some aesthetics like paint, moving some walls and uncovering the hardwood floors. When we received our appraisal it was EXACTLY the same as what it appraised for when we bought the house.

It's a good thing we're planning to raise our kids in that house.

Regional Economic Development Poll

2010-03-05T22:04:13Z

If you're living in Northwest Arkansas please complete this online poll. The Northwest Arkansas Council has hired Market Street Services to develop an economic development plan for the region and they are seeking public input.

Energizing Arkansas

2010-03-05T20:47:22Z

The University of Arkansas' Division of Agriculture puts out a really good publication called Energizing Arkansas that describes many of the research and development initiatives in the area of renewable energy.

This edition features an interview with Dr. Alan Mantooth who serves as the Director of the National Center for Reliable Electrical Power Transmission (rolls right off the tongue). Dr Mantooth is one of the true all stars on campus. He travels all over the world securing partnerships for NCREPT and still finds the time to help the Fayetteville Public Library with the Solar Test Bed Project.

Take a look at Energizing Arkansas.

DOE Quick Response

2010-03-05T17:49:40Z

I know the Fed comes under fire for being slow on a lot of things, but the Energy Block Grant program does not fall into that category; at least in the dealings that I've had with them in Fayetteville.

We submitted our grant application in June 2009 w/ the actual deadline listed in August. We received notification in September and had access to funding in October. Using the Department of Energy's (DOE) ASAP website we have almost immediate access to the funding as we need it. So if I get an invoice from a contractor today I go out to ASAP and submit a wire transfer request which will have it in our account within a matter of hours.

A big concern for local entities all over the country were the reporting requirements; including Washington County which cited this as the reason for not receiving the no-match grant from the Fed. The DOE created the PAGE website which allows me to report on our projects every quarter and submit everything electronically. Ultimately, the difficulty of reporting comes down to how complicated the program is that WE (the City) devised. In short, the mechanism is there for reporting and the onus is on the recipient to develop a program that is not complicated.

Finally, a contractor recently submitted a quote that included a product that is made overseas. Per Energy Block Grant regulations the City has to follow the Buy American Act on all purchases which seems easy enough, but in the Act there is a reference to international treaties that allow certain countries to qualify so it gets very confusing. The contractor and the actual company manufacturing the product felt that it should qualify given the fuzzy language and I thought they were correct in the interpretation of the language.

Because it is made in a foreign country I requested an opinion from the DOE contact on the matter just to be safe. The DOE team, including Colin Colverson, Shirley Vogel, and Kay Brown from the Oak Ridge office had an answer to me within 24 hours.

So far everything has been pretty seamless and straightforward. I know this could change as I get into the revolving loan fund portion, but ultimately that is on me because I included it in our grant.

Cheers.

Energy Block Grant Update

2010-02-20T02:03:52Z

My consistent one or two readers have recently commented on how my entries have slacked considerably during the month of February. After an in-depth analysis of past posts it really leads to only one explanation: I canceled my cable in late January.

That's right. My readers have always mentioned that my best posts included sports updates. Now I've always chosen to believe that it's the mood I'm in while watching sports that leads to a good post and not the fact that they're really just interested in updated scores, but who's to say really.

Since canceling cable I no longer have access to ESPN so I've been watching a lot less TV and therefore have posted much less as well. With the Olympics on this week I stand ready to get back in the groove. C'mon, that was a little funny, right?

ANYWAY, there's still a lot happening at the City of Fayetteville including some great projects through the Energy Block Grant.

GHG Inventory - The first grant money allocated was $4,000 to the University of Arkansas' College of Business for MBA student, Danny Franklin, to develop the City's greenhouse gas emissions inventory according to the recently released Government Operations Protocol. The GHG inventory will help City officials better understand where our energy dollars are being used and where to target energy efficiency projects. With so much talk about carbon trading, this protocol will also put the City in good position if/when we are eligible to trade credits as well.

Light Emitting Diodes - The next two projects pertain to LED lights on Scull Creek Trail. We inked a deal with King Electric to install 21 LED lights in Scull Creek tunnels for a little over $19,000. These LEDs will actually provide more light in the tunnels while reducing energy consumption by almost 60 percent AND lasting at least five times longer.

The second project is 32 LEDs on the section of Scull Creek between Maple Ave and North Street. This section of trail is currently unlit so this will be a much needed improvement. The bids will open on March 5th for these lights. Currently several samples are being tested by our Transportation Department to determine their reliability under various conditions. We expect similar savings and life as compared to the tunnel lights being installed.

Future LED projects will include a section of Frisco Trail between Spring Street and Maple Avenue and the Block Avenue street project currently under design. If enough funding remains we will likely retrofit the Walton Arts Center parking lot with shoebox LEDs.

District Court Solar Panels - Yesterday I sent a purchase order to BP Solar in Maryland for 40 BP170 panels to install on the District Court Building. BP Solar is about to open an office in Northwest Arkansas and the City, along with the Fayetteville Public Library and the Arkansas Research and Technology Park, has been able to take advantage of the situation to get good deals on panels for our three renewable energy projects. The 40 panels cost a little over $16,000 including tax & freight and will provide 6.8 kW of energy; enough to power two average American homes. Currently, I'm waiting on quotes from local firms for the installation of the panels.

Municipal Energy Fund - The next project is hiring an architecture and engineering firm to perform energy audits on City facilities and assist in implementation. In January we issued a request for qualifications and received nine statements from firms all over the country including four local firms. On Monday a review panel made up of one council member and five City staff will review the firms and most likely short-list for interviews or potentially select the winning firm.

The project will mostly be made up of lighting, heating and air conditioning, and weatherization improvements, but it would be nice to push the envelope a bit as well. We'll see what comes out of our discussion on Monday.

Community Energy Fund - Finally, we've been chasing down language in Title 14 of the Arkansas Code to determine if enabling legislation exists to allow us to do what is called a PACE program or property assessed clean energy projects. This is a whole blog post in and of itself, but essentially it would allow us to access much more funding to provide energy retrofits for homes and businesses in Fayetteville.

If this doesn't come to fruition, we will push forward with the previous plan which was creating a small revolving loan fund for non-profits in Fayetteville.

For transparency's sake I will continue to provide updates on how we are spending our Energy Block Grant funding from the US Department of Energy. Future posts will also include the signed documents from companies we are contracting with to show the exact transactions that are taking place.

And Bode Miller just took the silver medal in the Super G! The end.

Global Weirding - Tom Friedman

2010-02-19T14:36:32Z

Global Weirding Is Here - Thomas L. Friedman - NY Times

Of the festivals of nonsense that periodically overtake American politics, surely the silliest is the argument that because Washington is having a particularly snowy winter it proves that climate change is a hoax and, therefore, we need not bother with all this girly-man stuff like renewable energy, solar panels and carbon taxes. Just drill, baby, drill.

When you see lawmakers like Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina tweeting that "it is going to keep snowing until Al Gore cries 'uncle,' " or news that the grandchildren of Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma are building an igloo next to the Capitol with a big sign that says "Al Gore's New Home," you really wonder if we can have a serious discussion about the climate-energy issue anymore.

The climate-science community is not blameless. It knew it was up against formidable forces -- from the oil and coal companies that finance the studies skeptical of climate change to conservatives who hate anything that will lead to more government regulations to the Chamber of Commerce that will resist any energy taxes. Therefore, climate experts can't leave themselves vulnerable by citing non-peer-reviewed research or failing to respond to legitimate questions, some of which happened with both the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Although there remains a mountain of research from multiple institutions about the reality of climate change, the public has grown uneasy. What's real? In my view, the climate-science community should convene its top experts -- from places like NASA, America's national laboratories, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford, the California Institute of Technology and the U.K. Met Office Hadley Centre -- and produce a simple 50-page report. They could call it "What We Know," summarizing everything we already know about climate change in language that a sixth grader could understand, with unimpeachable peer-reviewed footnotes.

At the same time, they should add a summary of all the errors and wild exaggerations made by the climate skeptics -- and where they get their funding. It is time the climate scientists stopped just playing defense. The physicist Joseph Romm, a leading climate writer, is posting on his Web site, climateprogress.org, his own listing of the best scientific papers on every aspect of climate change for anyone who wants a quick summary now.

Here are the points I like to stress:

1) Avoid the term "global warming." I prefer the term "global weirding," because that is what actually happens as global temperatures rise and the climate changes. The weather gets weird. The hots are expected to get hotter, the wets wetter, the dries drier and the most violent storms more numerous.

The fact that it has snowed like crazy in Washington -- while it has rained at the Winter Olympics in Canada, while Australia is having a record 13-year drought -- is right in line with what every major study on climate change predicts: The weather will get weird; some areas will get more precipitation than ever; others will become drier than ever.

2) Historically, we know that the climate has warmed and cooled slowly, going from Ice Ages to warming periods, driven, in part, by changes in the earth's orbit and hence the amount of sunlight different parts of the earth get. What the current debate is about is whether humans -- by emitting so much carbon and thickening the greenhouse-gas blanket around the earth so that it traps more heat -- are now rapidly exacerbating nature's natural warming cycles to a degree that could lead to dangerous disruptions.

3) Those who favor taking action are saying: "Because the warming that humans are doing is irreversible and potentially catastrophic, let's buy some insurance -- by investing in renewable energy, energy efficiency and mass transit -- because this insurance will also actually make us richer and more secure." We will import less oil, invent and export more clean-tech products, send fewer dollars overseas to buy oil and, most importantly, diminish the dollars that are sustaining the worst petro-dictators in the world who indirectly fund terrorists and the schools that nurture them.

4) Even if climate change proves less catastrophic than some fear, in a world that is forecast to grow from 6.7 billion to 9.2 billion people between now and 2050, more and more of whom will live like Americans, demand for renewable energy and clean water is going to soar. It is obviously going to be the next great global industry.

China, of course, understands that, which is why it is investing heavily in clean-tech, efficiency and high-speed rail. It sees the future trends and is betting on them. Indeed, I suspect China is quietly laughing at us right now. And Iran, Russia, Venezuela and the whole OPEC gang are high-fiving each other. Nothing better serves their interests than to see Americans becoming confused about climate change, and, therefore, less inclined to move toward clean-tech and, therefore, more certain to remain addicted to oil. Yes, sir, it is morning in Saudi Arabia.

Streamside Protection Workshops

2010-02-18T20:37:12Z

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 18, 2010

CONTACT: Karen Minkel
Strategic Planning and Internal Consulting Director
(479) 575-8271
kminkel@ci.fayetteville.ar.us

STREAMSIDE PROTECTION EDUCATION AND INPUT WORKSHOPS

FAYETTEVILLE, AR - The City of Fayetteville will host two public education and input workshops on streamside protection on March 6 and March 10, 2010. The Nutrient Reduction Plan, completed in April 2009 as part of an Agreement with Beaver Water District and the City of Fayetteville, recommends the development and implementation of a streamside protection ordinance. This ordinance is part of a series of recommendations designed to reduce pollution in all the City's waterways, which will improve the health of the City's streams and reduce the costs of treating drinking water.

The workshops will include an educational presentation, a policy discussion and followed by a short fieldtrip to College Branch, a local stream located at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Razorback Avenue. Some of the questions City staff will ask attendees include:
1) What streams should have some sort of buffer protection?
2) What activities should be allowed or prohibited in the protected areas?

Attendees will need to provide their own transportation to the stream site and should wear appropriate clothing for walking along a stream bank. The presentations will be held at the City Administration Building located at 113 W. Mountain Street in Room 111.

Date: Saturday, March 6
Time: 10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Place: Room 111, City Administration Building

Date: Wednesday, March 10
Time: 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Place: Room 111, City Administration Building

E-Waste Round Up - Arvest Ballpark

2010-02-18T16:43:19Z

NWA E-Waste Roundup

Washington County Environmental Affairs & Boston Mountain Solid Waste District are going to host the Northwest Arkansas E-Waste Roundup. This event will be an opportunity for residents, business, non-profits and schools to dispose of their old electronics for free. All items collected will be sent to UNICOR to be dismantled and recycled.

We do need volunteers to help with the collection of the e-waste brought in.

The event will be April 15-17th at Arvest Ballpark in Springdale.

I have attached the Volunteers Needed and Business Fliers if you know anyone that would be interested in participating in the event of volunteering please forward these to them.

Thank you,

Robyn Reed
Environmental Affairs Director
Washington County, Arkansas
479.444.1725
www.co.washington.ar.us/EnvironmentalAffairs

FPL Green Your Life Series

2010-02-17T15:56:47Z

Part two of the Green Your Life Series is this Saturday at the Fayetteville Public Library. Beaver Water District reps will discuss water quality and water conservation - 10 a.m. to noon