KSU Group Visits Greensburg to Partner on Eco-Home

KSU Professor Gary Coates and his architecture students scope out potential sites for the Eco-Home they are collaborating on with Xtreme Homes & GreenTown.

Students from Kansas State University's College of Architecture, Planning and Design, led by Professor Gary Coates, paid a visit to Greensburg on September 15. The students shared a PowerPoint presentation with GreenTown staff and local residents which outlined the ideas and values they'd like to incorporate into the design of their Eco-Home. Citing themes of "Rethinking the Way We Live" and "Do More with Less", they presented ideas for a home that will incorporate the values and preferences of the local community. Key concepts include affordability, modest size, user-friendly design, and flexibility. The architecture class is also interested in helping with the overall design and feel of Greensburg’s neighborhoods, and solicited feedback from the assembled group as to what qualities are most important. GreenTown is grateful for KSU's vision and enthusiasm for this project, and we will keep readers updated as the Eco-Home takes shape.

Visions of Greensburg...

On Monday, September 15, students from the KSU College of Architecture, Planning & Design, accompanied by Professor Gary Coates, will come to Greensburg to meet with local residents. They will be working on an overall vision for the neighborhoods and want to get feedback from folks about how they want the community to look and feel, long-term. We'll meet at 2 p.m. Monday at 530 East Wisconsin (NW corner of Wisconsin and Olive). Please call Daniel Wallach with any questions about this meeting: 620-549-3752.

KSU is also involved in developing a design for one of GreenTown's Demonstration Eco-Homes. More on that project soon!

Viega Brings Gifts to Kiowa County

Viega team members present the Manabloc plumbing system to local community representatives on August 7. Left to right: Jeff Courtney, Viega Project Manager; Daniel Wallach, Director of Greensburg GreenTown; Bob Dixson, Mayor of Greensburg; Christian Geisthoff, Viega Vice-President of Marketing; Steve Hewitt, Greensburg City Administrator; and Adina Barnes, Viega Director of Marketing.

A vanload of folks from Viega (pronounced Vee'-guh) North America rolled into Greensburg on August 7, bringing a substantial donation to the County. Viega is a plumbing and heating company founded in Germany in the late nineteenth century, which has its North American headquarters in Wichita and its manufacturing plant in McPherson. They are inspired by the local green rebuilding effort and are excited to participate. They have committed a gift of 300 Manabloc systems to people in Kiowa County who are rebuilding.

Click to read more ...

Thank a Donor Today!

For you Greensburg area folks who've received gifts from our generous contributors, following are their mailing addresses if you'd like to drop them a note. The donors who have already received acknowledgment report to us how much it means to them to hear how their donations have affected people's lives.

Click to read more ...

A Beautiful Gift of Recycled Glass

GreenTown is the conduit for yet another generous gift to the community. A nonprofit group located in Georgetown, Ohio called The Glass reFactory creates handmade sun catchers from 100% recycled glass. Last week we received a very generous shipment from these folks, who want to share their bounty.

Click to read more ...

USDA Bestows Special Recognition

On Saturday, June 28, GreenTown was presented with a Certificate of Award by USDA Rural Development State Director Chuck Banks and Housing Program Director Tim Rogers. We are recognized as an "outstanding nonprofit partner by demonstrating leadership and introducing innovative residential housing concepts for the Greensburg Community Self-Help- Housing Program". The recognition occurred during a groundbreaking ceremony celebrating phase two of the Mennonite Self-Help Housing Program.

Given the inclement weather, the event was held in the garage of one of the residents whose home is being built through this program, and a faux groundbreaking on the concrete floor was staged for the cameras. The USDA folks have also honored the City of Greensburg and the other partners who have worked together as a team to reduce costs for families who are rebuilding their lives after the tornado. At this ceremony, USDA also announced that they will provide enough funding for 50 of these affordable homes to be built locally. This is great news, and we applaud and thank USDA Rural Development for all their dedication and hard work.

Greensburg's Green Rebuilding Highlighted at St. Louis Conference

The Heartland Chapter of the US Green Building Council (USGBC) sponsored its conference June 22-24 in St. Louis. Four representatives from Greensburg were invited to share information about the Green Initiative at a panel presentation: City Administrator Steve Hewitt, School Superintendent Darin Headrick, former Mayor John Janssen, and GreenTown Executive Director Daniel Wallach. At the start of the session the 5-minute trailer from the Discovery Network for the "Greensburg" series was shown to audience; the footage from the tornado's aftermath visibly moved many in the audience. Each speaker gave a summary of the rebuilding from their perspective and then took questions.

Click to read more ...

GreenTalk Radio Interview

Daniel Wallach, Executive Director of Greensburg GreenTown, was recently interviewed by Sean Daily, host of Green Living Ideas on Green Talk Radio. You can listen to the interview or read the transcript here.

GreenTown the Recipient of Generous Gifts of Land

GreenTown is deeply appreciative to several Greensburg residents for gifts of land to Greensburg GreenTown. Ki and Kim Gamble gave two building lots to our organization. Susan and Roger Staats gave adjacent building lots which together provide an entire end of a block where we will anchor the Demonstration Homes Project.

When asked about their donation, Kim said, “Ki and I want Greensburg to be a great place to live for our kids and grandkids. If there’s something we can do to make that happen, we should do it. I hope everybody will look at their situation to see what they can do, either in little ways or big ways, to help the community.”

Susan, Roger and their daughter Connor have been active supporters of the Green Initiative and the lot they donated which faces Main Street, was in perfect condition, already groomed with the foundation removed and filled in.

These gifts are significant in many ways but the most impact is the result of well respected local citizens stepping up and tangibly supporting GreenTown and the Green Initiative.

Greensburg Cubed Project Built by KSU is on Display

Students from KSU’s College of Architecture and Design completed their project to design and build several 10’x10’x10’ modular buildings (in the shape of cubes), which are on display at the Green Town lot just off the highway in town. Each cube has both a practical function, and serve as “education station's” informing users about green technology and products.

The following are now available for touring:

* ICE CUBE - a source of drinking water for residents and workers during the rebuilding process, with a cooling feature in summer. This cube educates users about water conservation techniques, and serve s as a rain water collection station. (designed by Jacob Henley and Melody Meek)

* GREEN HAUS - a cube depicting models of various types of sustainable building materials and techniques; it includes a LEED checklist.

* RECYCLING BIN - serves not only as a portable collection site, but educate s users about the recycling process with an interactive learning system. (designed by Laura Wilke)

* Watering Can- a restroom featuring a composting toilet and a shower using recycled water.

KSU Professor of Architecture Larry Bowne and his students worked long and hard to realize the vision of these great learning tools and fun displays Greensburg. Special thanks to students including; Adrienne Stolwyk (Greensburg Community Liaison), Aaron Vanderpool (PR Director), Malcolm Watkins (Construction Manager), Jessica Williams (Materials Sourcing Director), Sally Maddock, Melody Meek and Laura Wilke.

The Cube project is in part funded by Waterlink, a program of the Kansas Department of Health and the Environment, whose mission is to improve water quality through partnerships between universities and local communities.

Visit their creative and upbeat website here.