ENERGIZE Clinton County

This coming Monday January 25 at 6PM there will be a public meeting officially releasing the Green Enterprise Grant (GEG) Program and introducing the members of the Green Enterprise Development Council (GEZDC). The meeting will take place in the Community Room at the Municipal building.

This will be the inaugural year for the grant programThis coming Monday January 25 at 6PM there will be a public meeting officially releasing the Green Enterprise Grant (GEG) Program and introducing the members of the Green Enterprise Development Council (GEZDC). The meeting will take place in the Community Room at the Municipal building.

This will be the inaugural year for the grant program which was included in the ordinance which established the Green Enterprise Zone this past summer by the City of Wilmington.

The window for applying for the GEG is currently set as 1/25/2010 through 3/19/2010. Businesses and non-profit corporations located within city limits are eligible for the program.

According to the GEZDC, the objective of the GEG and the GEZ is to:

1. Increase energy and material efficiency at new and existing structures within the City of Wilmington either through retrofits or the implementation of new energy technologies.

2. To promote and support job-training initiatives aimed at energy and material efficiency and new energy technologies.

3.  To build local capacity and expertise in energy and material efficiency and the development and implementation of new energy technologies.

The appointed members of the GEZDC are tasked with reviewing applications and administering the GEG Program and also providing up to date information on available incentives and programs from the local, state and federal levels to the community. Members of the GEZDC are: Laura Curliss (City of Wilmington); Christian Schock (CCPRC); Mark Rembert and Taylor Stuckert (Energize Clinton County); Rob Jaehnig (Wilmington City Council); David Bailey (CIC); and Dana Dunn (DWCIC).

Attendees at the meeting will have the opportunity to learn more about the program, ordinance and the GEZDC.

Mark & Chris Schock checking out the residential solar unit installed by Roger Kelly at his home outside of Blanchester

Yesterday, history was made in Clinton County as the Clinton County Commissioners entered into an agreement with Gaia Energy USA to place solar panels at the Clinton County jail facility. This project marks the county’s first solar project, the first renewable energy project for the Wilmington Green Enterprise Zone, and it will make the Clinton County jail one of the first (if not the first) solar powered correctional facilities in the state of Ohio.

Work on the site is set for early April, and you can be sure that we will be providing ongoing information and coverage of the project as it unfolds.

We are, of course, very excited about this development, and are extremely proud of the work of the county commissioners, economic development director Mark Brooker, county construction manager Ron Mahaffey, director of the Clinton County Regional Planning Commission Chris Schock, and Gaia Energy for all of their hard work in putting this project together.

We look forward to it being the first of many renewable energy projects to take form in the county over the coming year.

This New Year, get energized towards a healthy and active 2010. Join us on New Years Day at 1:00pm for the Energize Clinton County Regift — Reuse — Recycle 5K Walk/Run at the Clinton County Family YMCA. All proceeds from the event will go to support the work of Energize Clinton County to serve the community by providing support and building capacity for projects such as the Buy Local First Clinton County campaign, the Clinton County Green Alliance, the Clinton County Farmers’ Market, and the Wilmington Green Enterprise Zone.

In the spirit of holiday giving and making the most of what we have, ECC will be hosting a post-race Green Holidays Regifiting Festival. Bring a gift to give–like that poster which doesn’t quite fit with your decor, or that CD you already own–and get a gift in return!!

WHAT: Energize Clinton County Regift — Reuse — Recycle 5K Walk/Run

WHEN: 1/1/10 @ 1:00pm

WHERE: Registration and pre-staging in the Clinton County Family YMCA. Race begins on Elm St. in front of Herman Court

REGISTRATION: $15 per participant (includes your souvenir race day shirt). Pre-register (until Dec. 28th) ON-LINE at Active.com or download and print a registration form and send it with cash, check, or money order to:

Energize Clinton County
120 W. Main St.
Wilmington, OH 45177

Participants can also register on race day for $20 per participant.

AWARDS: Awards will be given for the men and women winners and runner ups in the following divisions: 12 and under, 13 – 22, 23 – 34, 35 – 49, 50+

REGIFTING: Its easy! Bring a gift, get a gift. Don’t buy anything (the point is to reuse), so be creative. Not required, but we encourage participating for extra fun.

BECOME A SPONSOR: Sponsor the event and support Energize Clinton County! This opportunity is open to both individuals and businesses to additionally support the work of Energize Clinton County. With your $100 sponsorship, we will feature your generous contribution prominently on the race day t-shirts, in all on-line and print publicity materials for the event, and on energizcc.com.

Energize Clinton County is a organizational-member of the Clinton County Foundation, a 501(c) 3 tax-exempt foundation, and is tax-deductible.  Energize Clinton County would greatly appreciate your sponsorship of this race and the contribution that you make to our work in community development.

If you would like to sponsor the event, or would like more information, please don’t hesitate to let us know at (937) 728-0048 or info@energizecc.com.

Thanks to Paul Hunter–our local wind advocate–we have an updated wind map for Clinton County. As has already been discussed, the State Rt. 72 corridor that runs through the northeast quadrant of the county provides a compelling site for wind power projects.

Download the hi-res map here.

Once again, thanks to Mike Knutson and the Rural Learning Center Blog for connecting us with “Rural Economies Must Change or Die,” a very challenging letter from Karl Stauber to President Obama about the future of rural economies.

The letter from Karl Stauber–former under-secretary at the USDA–challenges President Obama to enact policies at the federal level that would give rural issues the priority they deserve. He also cuts right to the core of the problem, pointing out the rural communities and people have found themselves in the middle of the battleground over the “Old Economy,” the “New Economy,” and “No Economy.” He also points out that rural places once had to reinvent their competitive advantage every 50 – 75 years, but now they must use their limited capacity to reinvent themselves every 10 – 15 years.

In his argument for a rural focus in Washington, Stauber treats Rural America as a broken minority group that can only be saved by government intervention.  While we agree with Mr. Sauber’s call for reinvestment strategies based on places, not canned solutions, we feel that two key pillars of the growing rural discourse were missing from his argument.

First,  Stauber’s argument did not highlight the significant, yet often overlooked, assets that rural communities hold for the country. If we are to have a robust discourse about rural communities, we must frame it in terms of these assets, and the new economic value that reinvestment can create. For example, if the national movements around local food and alternative energy are to be successful, the land and farming assets of rural communities will have to be a part of the strategy.  Rural communities also continue to provide a high quality of life those who seek alternatives to urban life, and they continue to maintain high levels of social capital.  As rural advocates, we believe it to be our responsibility to ensure that our urban neighbors understand our assets and how they relate to their own values.

Second, Stauber’s argument assumes that the “Urban Consensus” is valid, and doesn’t challenge the presumption that rural communities serve no purpose because urbanization will increase and sustain indefinitely. This assumption may be the defining assumption for our generation, and could have dire consequences if it is wrong. We believe that there is potentially great risk in accepting a vision in which the entirety of our population and economic activity is consolidated in 100 cities, all built around a single understanding for how society should be organized. If urbanization does reverse, rural communities will have to be prepared to handle repopulation.

David Orr, professor of Environmental Studies at Oberlin College, identifies five forces that could stop or reverse the trend towards urbanization in his essay “Re-ruralizing Education” from the collection Rooted in the Land (a must read for anyone working on community economic development in a rural context):

1. The end of the era in which we can burn fossil fuels cheaply and ignore their ecological costs
2. The vulnerability of concentrated populations to new diseases such as AIDS and ebola and the return of old diseases such as tuberculosis in more virulent form
3. The decline of ecological resilience worldwide, which will reduce the surpluses that provide cities with food, materials, water, and waste cycling
4. The unmanagability of all cities beyond some scale
5. The preferences of a persistent majority of people who say that they would rather live in small towns or rural areas were it economically feasible to do so.

He goes to say, “The question, I think, is not whether the urban tide will ebb, but when, and how rapidly, and whether by foresight or happenstance. In other words, the choice is whether those returning to rural areas in the century ahead do so, in the main, willingly and expectantly as “homecomers” with the appropriate knowledge, attitudes, and skills or arrive as ecological refugees driven by necessity or perhaps desperation. If large numbers of people reinhabit rural areas as ecological refugees, the results will be awful in every way.”

If we are to move the rural discourse forward, we must do more than framing rural communities as a broken minority deserving help. The rural question is not just about rural communities, it is about the entire country and the crossroads at which we stand. We must therefore take on the difficult challenge of engaging our urban neighbors as partners, relating our assets to their values and in doing so build a collaborative relationship for reimagine the role of rural communities in America.

Photo credit: R.P. Piper – flickr

We need your help. Interest is growing in Clinton County around creating new green businesses to provide energy improvement services to home and businesses. In order for us to assist these local entrepreneurs, we need to begin capturing data on the local demand for energy related home improvements.

PLEASE, take 5 MINUTES to complete  our Home Energy Improvement Survey. Your response is invaluable in helping us better serve the community, so fill out our easy on-line form, and then e-mail it to your friends, family, and neighbors.

Last Tuesday night, the Ohio Treasury Green Listening Tour at Wilmington College featured some great conversation, so we want to provide a brief recap for those who were not able to make it, and talk a little about our next steps.

First, we’d like to thank everyone who came out (and wore green) in support of green initiatives in Clinton County. It was a great sight from the panel up front, and we felt that it really demonstrated that in Clinton County, we are serious and committed about green development issues.

As for the discussion, the main focus was on the Ohio Treasury’s new ECO-Link program which partners with participating banks to reduce the cost of financing for homeowners investing in energy related improvements. ECO-Link is one of a growing number of state and federal programs working to stimulate energy investment by addressing the issue of financing. While it may not seem like these types of programs can have a huge impact, developing financing mechanism that allow homeowners to pay back investments with the energy savings realized by the investment can really make investing attractive for homeowners.

But there are a lot of moving parts to get green investment going beyond financing, which is what the conversation settled on. Two of our most important local challenges are: (1) a lack of certified weatherization contractors and energy auditors in Clinton County & (2) unquantified local demand for energy improvements.

In the coming months, ECC will be working to confront these issues head on. But we’ll need your help.

First, we’d like to begin working to help get interested contractors Building Performance Institute (BPI) certified. BPI is national standard for weatherization certification, and is recognized by the state of Ohio for its weatherization related programs. To get things moving, we’d like to have a meeting for all contractors or individuals interested in learning about energy related contracting jobs, and what certifications are required. We have tentatively planned the meeting for Thurs. Nov. 12th, so please help us spread the word to your friends and neighbors who might be interested. We will be providing more details as the event approaches.

Second, we have prepared a Home Energy Improvement Survey to help us collect data on the local demand for energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements. Capturing this data is an essential step in getting the ball rolling on green business and job creation in Clinton County. Please take five minutes to complete this survey HERE and forward it to your friends.