Solutions from the Green Economy

-an editorial from Green America-

Everyone now understands that the economy is broken.

While many name the mortgage and credit-default-swap crises as culprits, they are only the most recent indicators of an economy with fatal design flaws. Our economy has long been based on what economist Herman Daly calls “uneconomic growth” where increases in the GDP come at an expense in resources and well-being that is worth more than the goods and services provided. When GNP growth exacerbates social and environmental problems—from sweatshop labor to manufacturing toxic chemicals—every dollar of GNP growth reduces well-being for people and the planet, and we’re all worse off.

Our fatally flawed economy creates economic injustice, poverty, and environmental crises. It doesn’t have to be that way. We can create a green economy: one that serves people and the planet and offers antidotes to the current breakdown.
Here are six green-economy solutions to today’s economic mess.

1. Green Energy—Green Jobs
A crucial starting place to rejuvenate our economy is to focus on energy. It’s time to call in the superheroes of the green energy revolution—energy efficiency, solar and wind power, and plug-in hybrids—and put their synergies to work with rapid, large-scale deployment. This is a powerful way to jumpstart the economy, spur job creation (with jobs that can’t be outsourced), declare energy independence, and claim victory over the climate crisis.

2. Clean Energy Victory Bonds
How are we going to pay for this green energy revolution? We at Green America propose Clean Energy Victory Bonds. Modeled after victory bonds in World War II, Americans would buy these bonds from the federal government to invest in large-scale deployment of green energy projects, with particular emphasis in low-income communities hardest hit by the broken economy. These would be long-term bonds, paying an annual interest rate, based in part on the energy and energy savings that the bonds generate. During WWII, 85 million Americans bought over $185 billion in bonds—that would be almost $2 trillion in today’s dollars.

3. Reduce, Reuse, Rethink
Living lightly on the Earth, saving resources and money, and sharing (jobs, property, ideas, and opportunities) are crucial principles for restructuring our economy. This economic breakdown is, in part, due to living beyond our means—as a nation and as individuals. With the enormous national and consumer debt weighing us down, we won’t be able to spend our way out of this economic problem. Ultimately, we need an economy that’s not dependent on unsustainable growth and consumerism. So it’s time to rethink our over-consumptive lifestyles, and turn to the principles of elegant simplicity, such as planting gardens, conserving energy, and working cooperatively with our neighbors to share resources and build resilient communities.

4. Go Green and Local
When we do buy, it is essential that those purchases benefit the green and local economy—so that every dollar helps solve social and environmental problems, not create them. Our spending choices matter. We can support our local communities by moving dollars away from conventional agribusiness and big-box stores and toward supporting local workers, businesses, and organic farmers.

5. Community Investing
All over the country, community investing banks, credit unions, and loan funds that serve hard-hit communities are strong, while the biggest banks required bailouts. The basic principles of community investing keep such institutions strong: Lenders and borrowers know each other. Lenders invest in the success of their borrowers—with training and technical assistance along with loans. And the people who provide the capital to the lenders expect reasonable, not speculative, returns. If all banks followed these principles, the economy wouldn’t be in the mess it’s in today.

6. Shareowner Activism
When you own stock, you have the right and responsibility to advise management to clean up its act. Had GM listened to shareholders warning that relying on SUVs would be its downfall, it would have invested in greener technologies, and would not have needed a bailout. Had CitiGroup listened to its shareowners, it would have avoided the faulty mortgage practices that brought it to its knees. Engaged shareholders are key to reforming conventional companies for the transition to this new economy – the green economy that we are building together.

It’s time to move from greed to green.

--Alisa Gravitz

Canoefest meets Wednesday

An organizational meeting for the 2009 Canoefest will be Wednesday, January 21, at Ye Olde Shack. The meeting starts at 6pm, but come at 5:30 and order some dinner. This year, Canoefest meetings will be held in various local restaurants to help support Brookville and Franklin County’s economy.

Canoefest will be on Friday June 26 and Saturday June 27, with the races occurring on Saturday June 27. After such great success in 2008, we are looking to keep that momentum going in 2009, and hope to get many new volunteers for this year’s events. Canoefest is Indiana’s largest canoe race, with 205 boats entered in 2008.

If you have never volunteered for Canoefest before, this is a great meeting to get started. If you have volunteered before, bring a friend to the meeting. New people, and new ideas for events are very welcome, to keep making Canoefest a great event.

Please call Jim Suhre, 765-647-4116, or email jsuhre@fcnbank.com for more information.

Pipe line crosses Salt Creek

Pipe line crosses Salt Creek

The gas pipeline cutting its swath across the middle of Franklin County went under Salt Creek last night. According to one of the workers the crew had 24 hours to make the crossing. It went under the creek and they had to make it look like they’d never been there, he said. It took the crew until 1 a.m. to finish to finish.


I got the feeling talking to a worker in newish overalls and a hard hat, he was ready for more. He looked about 19, might have been 29. I talked with him and took these pictures from the road around 3:30 Monday afternoon, January 19, 2009. I got the feeling he was really proud of getting the job done, maybe standing up to a -7 degrees Indiana winter.

I wasn’t able to see what they’d done to the creek bed, but this would be a worthwhile spot to monitor to see if they lived up to the bargain.

Pipe Creek Bridge to get rehab

Alley Ford Bridge, Franklin County bridge #48 over Pipe Creek, is going to be renovated to the tune of an estimated $830,000. It will be funded with local and federal funds.
“The project will restore functionality and safety to the historical structure by replacing deteriorated members and installing a steel grid deck,” according to a legal notice filed by the Federal Highway and the Indiana Department of Transportation.
The highway and transportation people expect it to have no significant impact to wetlands in the project area. It is thereby exempt from what appears to be proving the project will not have a significant impact to the adjoining wetlands. Besides carrying Pipe Creek Road over the creek, low ag fields on the western side of the crossing which apparently was known as Alley Ford, are prone to flooding.
Alley Ford Bridge is a riveted pratt through steel truss, 105 feet long and was built in 1927. Clark Deitz, Inc. has been retained by Franklin County to provide engineering services for this project.
The bridge is currently closed due to structural failure. Among other damage the concrete on the southeast stanchion is cracked and the steel girders are rusted through.
Local residents are anxious to get the bridge back in service. The detour presently in place runs from Haytown Hill Road, along Pipe Creek to where it ends at Silver Creek Road, then along Silver Creek Road to Snail Creek, a distance of around five miles.
Anyone interested in either requesting a public hearing on the project or giving their opinion have until Wednesday, February 4, 2009 to do so. Franklin County Auditor’s Office has copies of the environmental documents and preliminary plans for public inspection. Their number is 765 647-4631.
The engineer to contact at Clark Deitz in Indianapolis is Kevin R. Loisell, P.E. Phone 317 844-8900 or email kevin.loiselle@clark-dietz.com.

Winter shots of MacLyn campus

High-speed Metamora

When I first arrived here in 2002, I had a Verizon cell phone on a plan called something like All Across America. Since I was in fact driving my VW Westy all across America, it was perfect for me. I remember getting a call from the lovely Lisa in California one evening while I was camping beside the Clearwater River just east of Missoula, Montana. My phone worked fine there, but when I got to Metamora, nothing. It was like Metamora was not part of the plan. So it is today when it comes to high-speed Internet access. Metamora is not part of the plan.
High-speed Internet access is something we need in Metamora, like immediately. When the purchase of the MacLyn campground and campus is complete some time soon, the Whitewater Canal Byway Association will not be able to operate anywhere near as efficiently without a high-speed hook-up. Since this is a five-county regional effort, it seems to me high-speed Internet will be needed for administration as well as promotion.
Business runs on high-speed Internet.
Shopkeepers in Metamora itself are operating at a disadvantage to their counterparts in towns which have high-speed Internet. While it will cost them more for the service, it is a legitimate business expense and if used — I was going to say ‘wisely,’ but just used is enough — it means business, more business, at least potentially. And that’s what shopkeepers in Metamora deserve and should be demanding, the potential of making more money with e-commerce.
It isn’t really that we should have, it is more that we have to have it. Today, traffic on the Internet demands high speed. It just assumes you have high speed. The axis has shifted in the past couple of years, a subtle change and for people who don’t use computers, an invisible one, but you see it everywhere on the Internet.
Here’s a quick tale of woe: Yesterday I tried to listen to a tutorial which was less than two minutes long and for every two seconds of sound, I got— something like:” Hi, I’m Bob Ga.” Gone! Twenty seconds later my land-line connection had gathered enough data to blurt out, “glione. I’ll be your.” Gone again!
By my figuring I needed 20 seconds to get two seconds worth of tutoring, which at that rate could honestly be called merely a ‘toot.’ The lesson was 114 seconds long. I’m not good at math but by my rough estimate that would have been way too long. With high-speed Internet access, tutorials happen in real time.
Since Metamora does not have high-speed Internet service available to its many computer users (‘many’ is more than ‘several’, I hope), Metamora cannot quite operate in that virtual world of real time. (Virtual real-time, passive-aggressive behavior, what an a-contradictory world we live in.)
But maybe the strongest point in favor of establishing high-speed Internet in Metamora is education. With it we, the people who live here, can take advantage of the vast and growing free library of educational opportunities available on the World Wide Web. I was too frustrated to finish that tutorial, therefore I am a living example of the power of ignorance over intelligence, ignorance, in this case, in the form of a 46567 bps, low-speed hook-up.
Not having high-speed Internet available is detrimental to the intelligence of our citizenry and to our ability to partake in the wild world of e-commerce. What it really comes down to is Metamora’s staying on par with Brookville, Batesville, Connersville and the rest of the ‘villes’ when it comes to technology.

The new Metamora momentum

The new Metamora momentum

Let me start off by saying, what follows is my opinion. It is admittedly incomplete, but who among us has the whole picture? About anything! But in this case about the purchase of the MacLynn property.
As you know the 33-acre campground and campus (that’s a high falutin’ way of including the restaurant, museum and excellent utility barn) is soon to become public property, sort of. Indiana DOT announced they would be kicking in $689,600 towards the purchase of the property by the Whitewater Canal Byway Association, a group headed by Candy Yurcak of Metamora.
As I remember it — I’ve been gone for almost three years — this was the result of a group of people with various interests in Metamora getting together and doing one of those Andy Hardy film things where Mickey Rooney jumps up and says “Lets put on a play!” But instead of a play this group decided to think even bigger, bigger than a play, bigger than a production to hold the play and bigger even than a single season, play or otherwise. They looked around, inventoried every conceivable opportunity and decided the best single-swoop effort they could make was to buy the moribund property across US 52 and churn it back to life.
Now, it seems, they can say, “We did it!” And I can say, “Congratulations!” As a property owner and citizen of Metamora, your success has made my life much more interesting.
Did I say this was a group from Metamora and Metamora being what it is, for anyone attempting a step forward, there is another one trying his or her best to anchor that offending leg. If momentum is any phenomenon with which to judge the economic vitality of a place, Metamora had little when these folks began to dream. By the success of their action, this group has worked mojo on that old Metamora momentum, which amounted to ‘a body at rest stays at rest’.
Things are now moving in Metamora. Like I said, I’ve been gone for several years and so I am seeing the town and the county from an outsider’s perspective. I remember things looking worse when I left in 2006.
So they started with not much more than a pipe dream and a head full of optimism for steam. They ran into obstacles, they ran into setbacks, they spent a lot of time spinning their wheels. But in retrospect those spinning wheels which may have seemed so frustrating when they were whirring away, were actually doing something. Those spinning wheels were sliding along trying to get a grip on that old momentum. And through their continued and determined effort they were able to slide over that tar baby ooze and put together, by a tally from the county commissioner’s minutes, $1,583,200. This is the big piñata!
Does that mean the old Metamora malaise has been conquered? Yes! Does it mean it is subdued? I doubt it.

The big news is that the purchase of MacLynn Campground is pretty much a done deal. If you’ve been to Metamora anytime in the last four or five years you’ve seen the big For Sale sign on the side of the buildings across US 52 from Metamora itself.
On November 14, 2008 Indiana DOT announced they awarded Franklin County $689,600 in Local Public Agency (LPA) funding. The money will be used to purchase the campground which includes 33 acres of land, including campsites and restrooms, a building which housed MacLynn’s auto museum and a restaurant which was used with the cooperation of the owners as a site for various activities to raise funds for this purchase.
The property will be used for the development of a visitor’s center, museum and interpretative center at the Whitewater Valley Regional Interpretative Park.
Two days before this announcement, on November 10, Franklin County Commissioners heard of the award and nominated Don VonderMeulen as the contact person for the grant.
But before they did they asked questions about matching funds and the county’s obligation. They were assured by their attorney the county would have no obligation for funding it. VonderMeulen reported that Franklin County National Bank (FCN) has made a commitment for $831,600. Other donors he mentioned included Steve & Shirley Beyer ($30,000) and Harold & Lyn McNeeley ($32,000).
The county will keep the budget item listed in the name of the Whitewater Canal Byway Association, a group comprised of area representatives from counties along the canal. As a regional park its managing board has interests beyond those of Franklin County alone. The park will then be promoted in these outlying counties and is expected to be a destination for area field trips as well as a boon to commerce in Metamora itself.
Yogi Gus Parnett