With a $25,000 check from the state senate, the borough of State College may find it a little easier to be green.
Scott Conklin, D-Centre, presented the check to State College Borough Council President Elizabeth Goreham Monday morning -- a sum the borough hopes will kick-start its plans to build a "green roof" on the State College Municipal Building, 243 S. Allen St.
The borough expects to spend $80,000 on the project, with plans to have it completed by spring 2009, Public Works Director Mark Whitfield said.
"We'll let you know how well it works," Goreham told Conklin jokingly as she accepted the check.
Penn State and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have been working on green roof research since 2006, according to the Penn State Institute of Energy and the Environment Web site, psie.psu.edu.
Green roofs are defined as "vegetative covers applied to building roofs to slow, or totally absorb, rainfall runoff during storms," according to the Web site.
One goal of the Penn State-EPA research is to measure how green roofs can be used to enhance municipal storm water management planning.
Preliminary research also suggests green roofs effectively buffer acid rain, according to the Web site.
The borough's green roof, which will occupy 2,500 square feet of roof space above the building's community room, will be a "demonstration project" to illustrate the benefits of green building initiatives, Whitfield said.
The drought-resistant plants that will occupy the roof will help the building with energy conservation as well as retain and cleanse stormwater before it is returned to the borough's water supply, Whitfield said.
"Plants are one of the best ways to stop urban pollution," Conklin added.
The green roof initiative is part of the a resolution passed by the borough in August 2007, Goreham said, designating State College a "Climate Protection Community."
In the resolution, the council drew up a 16-point plan to limit the community's greenhouse gas emissions. The plan includes goals such as purchasing 20 percent of the borough's energy from green power sources by 2012, establishing a free transit service in the borough by 2015 and eliminating the use of incandescent bulbs in all borough facilities by 2009.
The municipal building's green roof will satisfy the resolution's 11th point, which requires the borough to "establish incentives for the installation of green roofs, rainwater cisterns and other best management practices to reduce urban runoff" by 2012.
