City Utilities Should Look At The Save Maumee Organization For Rain Garden Development
Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 5/27/08 @ 9:26 am - Filed Under City Council, Featured
I think today’s JG editorial about the rework needed for city utilities’ rain garden program was right on the money:
A contract that would put more gardens in the ground and fewer public dollars in consultants’ pockets should be the goal.
If city utilities would only look to an organization in their own backyard then they might actually find a solution everyone can live with. Derek Reuter, coordinator of the Save Maumee Grassroots Organization, has offered up their services in developing the rain garden program. The other coordinator from the group, Abigail Frost, has received high praise for her previous efforts to clean up the rivers.
Reuter’s proposal would include partnering with other local organizations to try and leverage the city’s money across the county and possibly receive federal grant dollars. From Reuter’s original comment here at FWP:
Save Maumee Grassroots Organization is perfect for the job, with our large volunteer force and being charitable, should be able to stretch that dollar out the most. At minimal we should be able to put in place at least 200 rain gardens along with having a good education and outreach program to educated the public to help propel understanding and the green paradigm. We would supply and hire locally, get citizen involvement at all levels. We could even possibly work this into a 319(h) grant from IDEM “A large grant system put in place by the Clean Water Act and funded by federal legislation,” and get a 60% match for the 420,000 the City throws at us putting it at 1 million going into rain gardens here locally, 60% of it coming from the fed which is in sense an economy boost.
I know councilwoman Liz Brown had suggested a similar approach of sharing resources across local organizations so Save Maumee should contact Liz Brown and the other councilmembers immediately…
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7 Responses to “City Utilities Should Look At The Save Maumee Organization For Rain Garden Development”
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Somewhere on her site Abby says this something to the effect that this is her calling, or maybe something she was born to be involved in, so it would be great to see this energy channeled in a positive way and to the benefit of the city.
Agreed! In the hands of passionate and committed volunteers, this money could do wonders to improve our waterway. Fort Wayne, with its eagerness to listen to anybody from far away and to pay handsomely for the privilege, with great restaurants, nationally ranked parks, the Zoo and most reasonablly priced fine arts events must be a coveted market for consultants. Let’s learn to “DIY” and grab the biggest return for our dollars.
I also agree.
This has been handled poorly by the City and our City Council did a good job of delaying this project.
Hopefully the City will come up with something much better then paying big bucks to yet another consultant.
Mike Sylvester
They do have a growing collaboration of ‘earthy’ people who are eager to volunteer to help, as well. It is, indeed, their calling. They are members with the Heartland Community, as well.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=189530831
http://www.savemaumee.org/
I am pretty sure they aren’t following this blog.. Councilmembers should follow up on this…..
No, they sent out a mass email linking to two posts on this site and talking about the possibilties. I sent them back Liz Brown’s email and phone if they didn’t already have it.
Last I knew they hadn’t been aware. I must be behind a few days. Glad they got the forwards!
We are indeed moving forward. I had some discussions with Utilities and City Council members yesterday. Save Maumee was given the forms for the Request for Proposal.
Today we plan to look over the proposal requirements and start formulating one based off our abilities, capacity, and methods.
The council members I talked to are excited and happy to hear about us stepping up to the plate and being the ones to implement the city’s rain garden project.
It is City Utilities that are the gatekeepers. Currently they are making no decisions in till they meet and discuss their next plan of action on Tuesday. In which it all most likely depends on Kumar Menon’s thoughts and choice.
Kumar Menon has previously stated all through out the planning of this previous proposal that he favors an inclusiveness program which is where you let the money pool and sit and let the public apply for 100 dollar rebates for rain gardens. There is steam behind these plans for I suspect City Utilities expected this formal proposal not to pass.
My thoughts on the inclusiveness program are that it is extremely passive. It isn’t going to help snowball a green paradigm shift but there might still be some funds for people to utilize 50 years from now. It is economical because of nearly no running costs, just apply and receive which would in essence get most all the dollars into the consumers hands. But I don’t see Allen County getting 40,000 rain gardens either, or industrial or commercial businesses bothering to apply which are the bigger pollution/run B off contributors. Not to mention the average home owner might not be able to actually recognize what the rain garden is for. Rain Gardens aren’t just some flower bed that is recessed instead of mounded; it is a temporary gathering pond for stormwater and pollution run-off. Will all the home owners getting this small stipend be able to choose good site locations and properly plant the material?
In our case, we would implement this programming at the grassroots level and with hands on work.
If someone showed up in offices or on your door step saying, hey see this run-off here, and this low land there? How would you like a rain-garden free of charge? Working fairly successfully. Not to mention we could reimburse and further the program through contributions, grant matching, sponsors, and other nonprofits.
Skilled ecologists, scientists, landscaping and design professionals, naturalists, and certified master gardeners with in Save Maumee and the program would be able to recognize environmental critical areas of concern and strategically placed the gardens to be functional and properly planted.
There aren’t any high costs due to most of the work being done in-kind and at cost. The last proposals said 28,000 for 1000 brochures that in sense they already have designed and have a template for. LoL We “Heartland Communities & Save Maumee,” have currently in 08 have distributed 5000 flyers/brochures at a cost of 50 dollars. Granted that’s a lot of trees but we could upgrade to hemp or rice paper and still keep the costs down.
Just some food for thought. Thank you for all of your support, it helps. With some luck, intelligence, and community ethic, maybe City Utilities will look our way to implement the rain garden program.