Environment & Sustainability

Companies come together to find green solutions

Dog park open for games of fetch

Not every Kalamazoo County Park specifically prohibits digging. But that's rule No. 7 for dogs whose owners take them to the Kalamazoo area's latest dog park. Prairie View County Park now has six acres of Kalamazoo County park land devoted to dogs and their owners open to the public and their pooches.Volunteers who helped make the park a reality are expected to bring their dogs to the ribbon cutting and related festivities on opening day, June 17.Demand for the park emerged in two different planning processes: one during the overall master plan for Kalamazoo County Parks; and the second a plan for Prairie View, says David Rachowicz, director of parks and recreation. Since June 17 is a free day at all county parks, including Prairie View, Rachowicz may be too busy to bring Rory, his Brittany, to check out the park. The dog will have to wait to sniff out a five-foot fence surrounding the property. It encompasses three acres that are wooded with trails and three acres of open fields. Amenities include drinking water, dog waste bags, shady areas and benches. Dogs can run without leashes in the park, though they must be leashed from the car to the park entrance and as they are exiting the park.Dogs must be accompanied by an adult age 16 or older and parents should note children younger than age 8 will not be permitted in the fenced-in area as a safety precaution.The park is open year-around from 7 a.m. to sunset.Writer: Kathy JenningsSource: David Rachowicz, Kalamazoo County Parks

Inspectors learn how to recognize oil tainted seafood

Battle Creek's International Food Protection Training Institute (IFPTI) is working with two federal agencies to train food inspectors who soon will be seeing sea food tainted with oil from the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.Already 20 inspectors have gone through the training in Pascagoula, Miss., another 20 are being trained there this week, and additional classes are being organized to take place in Baton Rouge, La.The training in "sensory detection" teaches inspectors to identify through sight and smell sea food tainted by oil. Training covers identification of taint in shrimp, oysters and finned fish.Inspectors will need skills in seafood safety monitoring so that food protection officials can take proper regulatory response measures, including issuance of advisories on opening and closing of fisheries.Inspectors from five states -- Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas -- have been asked to take the course in anticipation of the need for a larger pool of people with such training.IFPTI is reimbursing  attendees' travel expenses to overcome the limited funding for training and tight travel budgets that would otherwise have prevented these food protection officials from getting the emergency training.IFPTI was asked by the University of Florida to develop the special training as a result of previous training the Institute had put together on recognizing decomposition in sea food. The institute coordinated and funded the training. The IFPTI is a leader in delivering food protection training to state and local food safety officials. Initial funding for IFPTI has been provided by a grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.Writer: Kathy JenningsSource: Joan Bowman, International Food Protection Training Institute

Benton Harbor Safe Summer 2010 offers jobs and more for young people

Programs in Benton Harbor could provide as many as 5,000 summer opportunities for young people in the community.An initiative called Safe Summer 2010 is designed to improve economic and job development opportunities for youth and young adults throughout the summer.More than $250,000 in reallocated or new program funding has been identified for these programs. Funding is made possible through various state and federal programs in addition to local donors.Partners in the initiative are Harbor Shores Community Redevelopment Inc., Michigan Works!, the Consortium for Community Development, Whirlpool Foundation and Whirlpool Community Relations, the Boys and Girls Club of Benton Harbor, Cornerstone Alliance and many others. "As we are working our way through rough times," says Benton Harbor Mayor Wilce Cooke, "activities to engage young people in both recreational and job training will set the stage for future opportunities for them as individuals, as well as for the economic development efforts underway for the community as a whole."Safe Summer 2010 will include programming for recreational activities, such as summer youth sports and transportation to Jean Klock Park, job training and workplace experience.Michigan Works! will provide opportunities for local youth to gain summer work experience and prepare them for their future careers. "Today's employers are requesting skills and talents that come from specific experience, training and education. For six years, our Youthworks! Summer Jobs program has provided these opportunities. This year, despite funding challenges, we've enrolled nearly 200 Benton Harbor youth into the program." said Todd Gustafson, Executive Director of the Michigan Works of Berrien, Cass and Van Buren counties.  The Benton Harbor Area Schools announced its summer lunch program and the locations and times for serving meals to area students. "This program helps to provide students a healthy diet, which is an essential part of their development and well being," said Dan McGinnis, President of the BHAS School Board. Writer: Kathy JenningsSource: Jamie Balkin, Cornerstone Alliance

Battle Creek saves money with innovative software

Printed pay stubs are a thing of the past for City of Battle Creek employees.They were eliminated as part of a money-saving effort."Like so many cities out there, we are looking at a deficit and budget cuts in 2010, so we are taking a close look at our processes and services to find better ways of doing business," says Linda Morrison, finance services manager for Battle Creek. The city is saving time and money by using New World Systems' eSuite to eliminate printed paystubs. "By empowering our employees, we are also freeing up time that would normally be spent processing paper or fielding calls for personnel information," says Morrison.Michigan-based New World Systems has more than 750 customers comprised of more than 1,500 public sector agencies across the United States.New World Systems, a public sector software company in Troy, has provided software solutions for public safety and public administration organizations since 1981. The Company designs, develops, markets, supports and implements the fully integrated Logos Public Administration Suite for local governments and the Aegis Public Safety Suite for Law Enforcement, Fire and EMS. Writer: Kathy Jennings Source: Linda Morrison, City of Battle Creek

The Golf Club at Harbor Shores to host Senior PGA Championship

Communities that host a Senior PGA tournament typically realize an average of at least $22 million economic benefit from the event. So there were a lot of happy people when Benton Harbor and St. Joseph heard they would host the event in 2012 and 2014.The prestigious event will take place at The Golf Club at Harbor Shores, an 18 hole public Jack Nicklaus Signature Course, located in the Benton Harbor-St. Joseph area. Whirlpool Corporation's KitchenAid brand will serve as presenting sponsor of the Senior PGA Championship from 2011 through 2014.The announcement, made as a part of the 2010 Senior PGA Championship, was shared locally via a live feed with local officials and the media. "We look forward to the chance to have the eyes of the world on our communities," says City of St. Joseph Mayor Bob Judd. "It provides us the opportunity to share the many amenities that make our community and the entire region Michigan's Great Southwest." Harbor Shores is a 530-acre mixed use real estate development with an estimated 20 year build out. Plans for Harbor Shores include  a variety of distinctive neighborhoods with varying residential product totaling nearly 720 residences. The plans also call for a wide array of recreational amenities, including a town center, deep water marinas, retail shops and restaurants and recreational trails.In addition to the projected economic impact, Cornerstone Alliance Chairman of the Board Ken Kozminski says hosting such a prestigious event creates endless opportunities for Cornerstone's ongoing economic development efforts.  "This gives our community and the entire state the opportunity to showcase the community to new investors and job providers as we work to grow jobs in the area. New companies locate in communities that have a vision for positive change, that is what we have here," Kozminsk says.Writer: Kathy JenningsSource: Jamie Nilson-Balkin, Cornerstone Alliance

The idea behind 4th of July barbecue is serious entertainment

The Boiling Pot Music Festival is about fun. It also has a mission.In its first year, Kalamazoo's newest outdoor celebration will bring together at least 40 musical acts, 30 artists and a full complement of forums designed to get people talking about areas of importance to the community -- agriculture and food security, energy, education, housing, human security, green space and transportation. Spiritual, mental and physical wellness also will be addressed. The July 3-4 festival is at the Arcadia Creek Festival Place in downtown Kalamazoo. Matthew Lechel, event coordinator for the I.D.E.A. Association, says the festival can capitalize on what's already happening in the local music and arts scene. "We want to harness the social capital that's already being created as the community comes together and then take it to the next level," Lechel says. Boiling Pot also is a play on words for organizers trying to stir the pot of ideas regarding where creative energy needs to be focused in Kalamazoo.On white boards displayed throughout the festival community members will have a chance to "map" organizations and projects already happening in the community within eight identified sectors. Natural partnerships will be identified and information on a long-term project involving the community is expected to emerge. Art projects from seven previous events sponsored by the I.D.E.A. Association will be on display at Boiling Pot and eight new pieces will be made in the pavilion by those attending the festival.And because sustainability is important to the organizers a greening team has been assembled to make sure no paper, plastic or food from the public or vendors at the event ends up in a landfill.The Boiling Pot Festival is presented by The Strutt and The I.D.E.A. Association. Ticket prices, a schedule of events and a list of artists are available here.Writer: Kathy JenningsSource: Matthew Lechel

Golf course, $80 million project gets national focus

Benton Harbor is driving toward the future with the help of Jack Nicklaus and golf, reports USA Today.A coalition of public and private entities is intent on cleaning up manufacturing brownfields, stimulating tourism and creating jobs. The key component of the work and the centerpiece of a $450 million redevelopment effort over the next 20 years is Harbor Shores, a 530-acre beach and golf resort community that features a Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course, as previously reported by Second WavOn August 10, Nicklaus will be joined by former rivals Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson and Johnny Miller for a charity Skins Game at The Golf Club at Harbor Shores.Excerpt: "The event is a great opportunity to highlight how golf is being used as a vehicle for social and economic revitalization," Nicklaus says. "The area needed to be cleaned up, and as a result, create a stimulus for the area, for the community, for the town, for tourism and for jobs. It did a lot of really good things."Nicklaus, 70, a renowned golf course builder with nearly 350 courses worldwide, faced a tough task when called on in 2005 to transform acres of diverse land along the St. Joseph River and Paw Paw River, dunes that rise up to 100 feet above Lake Michigan's beaches, and acres of long forgotten factories, toxic waste dumps and a Superfund site."We had to have a golf course designer who was sophisticated enough to deal with lots of empty buildings, roads, power lines, a railroad track, two rivers, a lake and a public park," says Mark Hesemann, managing director of the Harbor Shores Resort.Nicklaus, he says, had to change the course routing nearly 20 times.For more on the project, read the entire story.Source: USA Today

Studio 246 invites fans and new friends to support theater

Some theaters invite patrons to fundraisers with champaign and chocolate covered strawberries. Kalamazoo's newest theater plans a tailgate party. The party, June 6 at 4 p.m., is part of four days of shows Studio 246 has planned raise money for needed renovations and improvements to the space. The weekend also is a celebration of the completion of the first season at Studio 246. To mark the event, Crawlspace Theatre Productions, Kinetic Affect and Fancy Pants Theater plan a series of shows titled Fancy Affection in the Crawlspace.On the first weekend in June, the theater troupes will fill the studio space with spoken word poetry, original theater works, improv and sketch comedy. Performances will include some favorite work from this past season, along with pieces getting their debuts. The actors hope to raise at least $5,000 over the four days of events for such projects as a highly visible mural that patrons of events in the Arcadia Festival Site will notice, new signage out front, improvements to the lobby and air conditioning that will allow the space to be used during the summer."Studio 246 is not satisfied with being Kalamazoo's best kept secret," says Dann Sytsma, Artistic Director for Crawlspace Theatre Productions. "We're aiming to enhance the aesthetics of Kalamazoo by improving our facility.  Studio 246 is a storefront theater, and our storefront needs some attention.  The leadership of Studio 246 wants to enhance the North end of the Kalamazoo Walking Mall with proper signage, an enhanced building front that exclaims 'the arts are growing in Kalamazoo.'"The studio at 246 N. Kalamazoo Mall has chosen to be "the theater for those seeking less traditional expressions of art," Sytsma continues. "Spoken word poetry, non-traditional plays, homegrown comedy, are just three examples of what you'll see in this space.  Studio 246 celebrates the performing arts in its rawest form.  It is not so much a theater as it is an incubator of ideas."   For showtimes and ticket information visit the Crawlspace Productions Web site.Writer: Kathy JenningsSource: Dann Sytsma, Crawlspace Eviction Productions