Green Governance

Mayoral Candidates Discuss Their Sustainable Approach

A new propane fuel fill port was installed near the regular fuel tank on one of the Chevrolet Colorado pickup at the city’s Transportation Division’s garage Wednesday afternoon. The city’s Fleet Operations Division is converting several vehicles from gasoline to propane to fight rising fuel costs and protect air quality.

A new propane fuel fill port was installed near the regular fuel tank on one of the Chevrolet Colorado pickup at the city’s Transportation Division’s garage Wednesday afternoon. The city’s Fleet Operations Division is converting several vehicles from gasoline to propane to fight rising fuel costs and protect air quality.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

— Dan Coody and Lioneld Jordan have plenty of green feathers in their caps.

Both candidates can rattle off long lists of environmental achievements from their tenures as mayor.

Coody hired the city’s first full-time sustainability director in 2007. He said at the time the position would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save the city money.

Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series of stories related to the race for Fayetteville mayor. Mayor Lioneld Jordan is facing a challenge from former Mayor Dan Coody. Jordan defeated Coody in a 2008 runoff election. Coody served as mayor from 2001 to 2008. Early voting for this year’s Nov. 6 general election begins Oct. 22.

“Sustainability means that we don’t use our resources faster than they can be replenished,” Coody said in a recent interview. “When you reduce waste — wasted energy and wasted material — you’re also reducing wasted money.

“To not consider sustainability in all aspects of life is just pretty wasteful and short-sighted.”

Fayetteville has seen several environmental firsts with Jordan in office. The city became Arkansas’ first to enact a streamside protection ordinance and adopt 2009 International Energy Conservation Code standards for residential home construction. The National Wildlife Federation recognized Fayetteville in June as the first Community Wildlife Habitat in the state.

“You have to have air to breathe and clean water to drink,” Jordan said. “We owe that not only to ourselves but to our children and our children’s children.”

Coody and Jordan have both made efforts to promote their green credentials leading up to the Nov. 6 general election. Both have supporters who said their candidate is the best person to lead the city to a more sustainable future.

“I’m just pleased that both candidates are selecting this as an issue,” said Gary Kahanak, a home energy rater with Viridian, a sustainable building consulting firm with offices in Fayetteville. “I think it’s something that leading communities across the country are doing.”

Coody’s Contributions

The city’s Sustainability Department is one of several green initiatives Coody said he is most proud of. The department has grown from one employee to three in the past five years. John Coleman, the city’s first sustainability director, launched a successful campaign to get city employees to reduce their energy consumption. Coleman spearheaded energy retrofits in seven city buildings and pushed for more light-emitting diode fixtures around town.

Initial construction on the citywide trails program began in 2005. Trails now extend more than 20 miles, according to trails coordinator Matt Mihalevich, another person Coody hired.

Coody said a citywide sewer improvement project that cost residents tens of millions of dollars more than initial estimates was successful in building a new treatment plant and repairing decades-old sewer pipes that had leaked raw sewage into local waterways. The former mayor signed an agreement in 2006 with the Beaver Water District that committed $1 million over five years to a range of water quality projects in exchange for not having stricter discharge limits at the Noland Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Coody said his administration was also responsible for implementing the city’s pay-as-you-throw recycling program and helping to ensure the public library would be the state’s first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified municipal building.

“He always had the environment — the immediate environment — at the forefront of his agenda,” said Moshe Newmark, one of Coody’s friends and campaign supporters.

Newmark and his wife Hamsa have owned Nature’s Water, a water purification business on East Huntsville Road, for 20 years.

Hamsa Newmark mentioned a solar-powered house Coody and his wife, Deborah, built atop Mount Sequoyah. According to energy ratings, the house generates significantly more electricity than it consumes. Coody said he buys produce from a Community Supported Agriculture farm in the area and has always bought highly fuel-efficient cars.

“The difference between (Jordan) and me is this,” Coody said. “I’ve been doing this for 40 years, and I have an understanding of it through my research and through experience that few elected officials have. This isn’t just about changing light bulbs and calling yourself green. You have to have a more deep understanding and holistic view about how things work.”

If elected in November, Coody said he’ll support ordinances that would permit permanent fruit and vegetable stands around town and allow residents to capture “gray water” from their sinks and drains to water plants. He said state legislation is needed that allows electric companies to buy back energy from people who produce more than they consume. And he would like to see electric charging stations and fueling stations for alternative-powered vehicles added in the city.

At A Glance

Mayoral Debate

The next mayoral debate between Dan Coody and Lioneld Jordan is scheduled from 6 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, 123 W. Mountain St.

Kyle Kellams, KUAF news director, has agreed to moderate the event.

According to Curtis Northcutt, chamber manager for communications and governmental affairs, all questions were developed by members of the chamber’s government affairs committee and Steve Clark, president and CEO. The candidates will both be given a chance to review questions in advance of Wednesday’s debate.

Northcutt requested that attendees RSVP for the event by calling him at 479-521-1710.

Source: Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce

Jordan’s Job

Jordan said there’s no question a wealth of green projects began when Coody was in office.

But he said his administration has also taken action.

“We don’t just talk it folks,” Jordan told residents at a mayoral debate last month. “We live it, too.”

The city’s building codes require builders to construct energy efficient houses in Fayetteville. Beginning in March, builders will have to display stickers showing the results of a home energy audit on each new house. The idea is home buyers will be able to estimate a house’s utility bills in much the same way people can compare different vehicles’ fuel economy when shopping for a car.

Jordan co-sponsored the ordinance that set the new requirements with Ward 2 Alderman Matthew Petty and Ward 4 Alderwoman Sarah Lewis. The changes are expected to add about $2,200 to the price of a 1,800-square-foot house and decrease monthly utility bills by between $22 and $28.

Jordan said a group of area home builders, architects and energy auditors who looked at the changes also considered stricter 2012 International Energy Conservation Code and Energy Star Version 3 standards. He said the up-front cost of those changes would have been too great and the city risked implementing standards builders weren’t trained to build and inspectors weren’t trained to inspect.

“When you set goals, they have to be attainable goals,” Jordan said. “If you can’t get what you want, get what you think you can.”

The mayor said more tradesmen are being trained in sustainable building practices at NorthWest Arkansas Community College’s Center for Excellence. NWACC received about $1.3 million in federal stimulus money in 2010 to develop new courses and certification programs, such as energy auditing, home weatherization and heating-and-cooling system maintenance. Jordan said he was part of a local delegation that lobbied state and federal officials for the funding.

The mayor also mentioned continued trails expansion, the conversion of several city vehicles to propane and a pilot glass recycling program on Dickson Street as major environmental achievements.

Terri Lane, a member of the city’s Environmental Action Committee, remembered approaching Jordan two years ago with the idea of certifying Fayetteville as a Community Wildlife Habitat.

“As soon as I started talking, he cut me off and said, ‘We’re in,’” Lane said. “He didn’t need to be convinced at all. He just immediately got it.”

The city achieved Community Wildlife Habitat by getting a certain number of homes, schools and businesses to provide basic elements, such as food, water sources, shelter and nesting sites, on their property.

Lane said Jordan took a genuine interest in the program. He came to assemblies at all nine schools that were certified and was one of the first homeowners in Fayetteville to certify his own yard.

Jordan’s commitment to sustainability goes beyond “warm and fuzzy” issues, Lane said. She noted his support for the 2011 streamside protection ordinance, saying “Even when there’s controversy around it, he understands that it’s something important for the greater community.”

The streamside protection ordinance angered some residents, because it limited a range of activities for property owners within 50 feet of local waterways. The ordinance attempts to preserve natural buffer zones along streams, lakes and rivers to slow water runoff and prevent contaminants from entering them.

Jim Laubler, a West Fayetteville resident, opposed the ordinance.

Laubler said Thursday he isn’t against ecologically sensible initiatives.

“Trails, I consider a good use of parks and recreation funds,” Laubler said. “Recycling is not a problem for me unless it creates more pollution and expense than the recycling saves.”

Laubler said any sustainable programs the city takes on must be based in sound science and must make economic sense.

Jordan said if he’s re-elected, his administration will look into zoning designations that would allow agricultural uses in urban areas. The mayor said he would further investigate a system of mixing recycled paper with Portland cement and sand to create “papercrete,” a housing insulation material.

He also said he would work with officials in Fort Smith and across the state to procure funding for the deepening of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation system. Deepening the river would allow for larger and heavier barge loads. More containers could be loaded onto trucks or rail cars in Fort Smith and transported to and from Fayetteville and other cities in Northwest Arkansas, Jordan said.

According to a study by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, one barge can carry the equivalent of 16 rail cars or 70 truckloads of material. The same study indicated that inland barges produce about one-quarter of the carbon dioxide per ton of cargo they move as compared to trucks.