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Sustainable Worthington Projects
Community Gardens in Worthington
25 enthusiastic people came to our first meeting on January 30th to explore the idea of a community garden at the United Methodist Children's Home (UMCH)!
If you
would like to be added to the Google Group for community gardens in Worthington, please Contact Us.
For more information about the United Methodist Children's Home please visit www.umchohio.org.
Demonstration Rain Garden in Worthington
Rain Gardens are shallow basins planted with native plants that catch storm water before it flows into
storm sewers during a rain storm. They allow rain water to soak into the ground (rather than flowing over roads,
roofs, driveways and lawns directly into the river), and they filter pollutants that would otherwise run
directly into the rivers. If numerous rain gardens were installed in Worthington, it could prevent
storm water from overflowing the capacity of our storm sewers.
The Worthington Rain Garden will be installed on the north side of the intersection of Worthington
Galena Road and Highland Avenue on September 6, 2008. This is a joint project of the
City of Worthington
and Sustainable Worthington. The City of Worthington will provide labor and machinery to install the
rain garden. Sustainable Worthington will provide volunteer labor, interpretive signage and the plants
for the garden. If you would like to contribute to the cost of the plants/signage, help
install Worthington's first demonstration rain garden, or if you grow native plants in your yard and
would like to contribute plants for the garden, please Contact Us.
Based on priorities established at our January 8, 2007 meeting, the following sub-groups were formed at
our January 31 meeting. It is clear we should work with other organizations whenever possible.
Note to members: being a member of Sustainable Worthington does not automatically make you a member of any sub-group.
Contact us to be added to one or more of the email
lists for the various sub-groups.
Additional areas of interest include:
Sustainable Worthington - List of Ideas
This is our "full list" of ideas. This list of ideas is a work in progress. Additions, corrections and comments are welcome!
- Build on the success of the Worthington Farmers' Market (year-round, more often)
- Click here for information about the Winter Farmers' Market
- Staff a booth at the Winter Farmers Market to provide support to the Market manager and outreach
to customers about sustainability
- Work with the Worthington Farmer's Market manager to develop Winter Farmers Market beginning in November 2007
- Develop and implement a survey about a winter market for both customers and farmers with the
Farmer's Market Manager (completed June, 2007)
- Help find a location for a winter's market (found the Griswold Senior Center in May, 2007)
- Encourage Community Supported Agriculture (CSA's) serving Worthington
- Encourage local restaurants to use local foods (ex. Worthington Inn uses local foods)
- Explore the idea of a co-op
- Learn from other co-ops (Clintonville Community Market, Bexley, Oxford, etc.)
- Explore resources from Ohio Cooperative Development Center (ocdc.osu.ed)
- Explore the idea of community gardens with Healthy Worthington
- Community garden at Linworth AP
- Look into community gardens in association with school lunch programs
- Work with Local Matters when appropriate
- Get a grocery store back in downtown Worthington!
- Possible location: NE corner of North and High (old CVS)
- Prefer a local store (like Hill's Market, Raisin Rack, Weiland's, etc.), but other possibilities are national stores like Trader Joe's, Wild Oats, Sunflower, Fresh Market
- Encourage stores with day-to-day necessities such as a bike store, shoes, books, basic clothing (like socks and underwear)
- Encourage eco-friendly stores like REI or Patagonia
- Explore the idea of a community exchange of tools or services
- Look for a retail real estate agent to provide advice on how to attract businesses
- Work with city of Worthington, Worthington Chamber of Commerce, Old Worthington Association and Old Worthington Business Association
- What can we learn from other communities such as Grandview?
- Get more local restaurants
- Restaurant with community meeting space and healthy food
- Ethnic restaurants (Chinese, Indian, Middle-Eastern, etc.)
- Northstar Café
- Influence the Worthington Square development project
- Possibly work on a "bike to Worthington Square" event
- Conduct a survey of Worthington residents?
- Work with the city of Worthington to establish a Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee or a broader Sustainability Committee
- Become familiar with the Worthington Comprehensive Plan (www.worthington.org search for Comprehensive Plan)
- Encourage Worthington Schools to participate in "Safe Routes to School" (www.saferoutestoschool.org)
- Attend and report on appropriate city meetings (Municipal planning commission, Architectural Review Board, City Council)
- Encourage the city to make all agendas and minutes available online
- Influence CVS development at SE corner of North & High (where Jubilee was)
- Write letters to the editor of the local newspapers in support of specific issues
- What are the plans for the 270 interchange? Make sure includes bike/ped bridge that's easily accessible
- Do plans for developing passenger trains and COTA transit centers include ways for passengers to walk or bike to them?
- Find out about resources available via MORPC and Franklin county government
- Learn from AIA Columbus Livable Communities project - www.columbusrewired.org
- Pedestrian-Friendly
- Are there streets where sidewalks are needed?
- Walking guides (with Healthy Worthington and/or the Worthington Historical Soc.)
- Bike-Friendly
- More bike racks. For example: Worthington Square, the post office, the hardware store, Kinkos/CVS/DQ, city parking lots
- Can we get the bike routes in the Worthington Comprehensive plan established?
- Maybe follow the Berkeley California model of high visibility on street routes
- Look at MORPC info on "best practices"
- Could we get more visibility for biking with one or more special events (ex. "Pedal Instead" to the farmer's market or the arts festival)
- Bike route links to other communities
- Bike maps
- Bus-Friendly
- Talk with COTA about increased frequency and a route across 161
- Explore possibility of intra-Worthington routes (maybe Saturday AM's to start)
- Improve bus stops (for example the one in front of Guernsey Bank is nice)
- Add benches, bike racks and rain shelter
- Create "bus hub" (with restrooms, pay phone, bus schedules, bike parking, etc.)
- LED exit signs for all businesses and public spaces in Worthington?
- City building energy audits
- Residential energy audits (with city promoting such a program)
- Group purchase of energy rehab
- Learn from other cities
- Westerville's solar energy projects might apply to Worthington
- Ask Worthington mayor to sign the Mayor's Climate Agreement or explore what it would mean to follow Kyoto protocols in Worthington
- Ask Worthington to adopt Peak Oil resolution
- Promote "green" (L.E.E.D. ) building and remodeling
- Promote conservation and alternative energy use (especially solar and wind energy)
- Solar grant possibilities?
- Group purchase of solar energy?
- Expand this group to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle?
- Improve the recycling and composting rate of residents and local businesses
- Look at examples (new city of Columbus pilot project for downtown business, Winchester MA)
- Market for recycled goods?
- Advice from SWACO
- Support the Worthington City Schools recycling initiative
- Bigger recycling containers or sticker system?
- Educational program in schools to see what happens to what we recycle
- Arrange tour of 752 High Street building (done Feb 2007)
- Restore as "green" building (ideally L.E.E.D. certified). Any grant possibilities?
- Community center with space for public meetings and small historical and art displays
- Home for extended local foods/farmer's market (especially winter and mid-week) - does not appear to have appropriate infrastructure
- Bus hub (especially for intra-Worthington routes)
- Public rest rooms
- Winter events (local concerts - like on Village Green in 752 building)
- Traffic calming at 161 & High (ex. All traffic stop for pedestrians crossing)
- May 31, 2007 - Chris Hermann Worthington Comprehensive Plan, Worth. Lib. Mtg. Rm.
- Sustainability 101 powerpoint presentation
- Specific program ideas:
- COTA short term plan
- "Life before the disposable era" - get local residents from the Griswold Center/Historical Society to talk about their experiences growing up prior to World War II
- "The Worthington Watershed" - ask Friends of the Lower Olentangy Waterway (FLOW) www.olentangywatershed.org if they'd help us develop a program. Maybe as a bike tour? Definitely include Rush Run and Rush Creek. FLOW has a great map with the flood plains and other cool info.
- Some sort of recycle awareness to support SWACO collection in October
- Appeal to younger people (high-school age)
- Maybe a t-shirt design contest?
- Curriculum ideas
- Book list, reviews, maybe a book club
- Lecture series (ask Worthington Libraries if they'd be interested)
- Earth Institute classes (www.simplyliving.org) - Voluntary Simplicity, Global Warming
- Alerts about events in our community and central Ohio
- Home energy audits (with John Robbins or other expert)
- Directory of local businesses with a sustainability perspective
- Include map with pedestrian and bike routes, bike parking locations
- Asked Prof. Maria Manta Conroy's OSU class on sustainability to study Worthington as their class project (They have done studies of Columbus, Weinland Park, OSU and Yellow Springs, which should be available online soon.)
- Heidi Ballard's Urban Sociology class at Otterbein (Spring 2007)
- Work with Linworth AP or other Worthington School students
- Ideal is corner grocery within ˝ mile of EVERY resident
- Linworth as a possible community hub (note: Linworth is not all in Worthington)
Copyright 2008 Sustainable Worthington. All Rights Reserved.
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