May-July 2014 Newsletter

May 29, 2014

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Orange-Chatham Group (and Selected Other) Events

Executive Committee Meeting

Monday, June 2, 7 p.m.
Carolina Meadows

All members are welcome to join the Executive Committee in the discussion of issues and projects. Contact Judith Ferster (see below) for further information.

National Trails Day Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

Saturday, June 7, meet at 9:40 a.m.
Meet at Morgan Creek Trail parking lot, Chapel Hill (see directions below)

This non-Sierra Club public event is a ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating the completion of the trail project that connects the Fan Branch and Morgan Creek trails at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 7. The Town of Chapel Hill event coincides with National Trails Day.

The ceremony will take place at the new tunnel under Culbreth Road. The event will be led by Jim Orr, director of the Parks and Recreation Department, with Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt, Peter Calingaert, chair of the Morgan Creek Trail Concept Plan Committee, and Chris Berndt, chair of the Greenways Commission. A hike to Merritt's Pasture will follow the ceremony.

The Morgan Creek Trail Phase 2 project connects the existing Morgan Creek Trail on the north side of Morgan Creek to the existing 1.6 mile long Fan Branch Trail on the south side of Culbreth Road. The $1.5 million project creates the longest paved trail in Orange County at 2.4 miles.

The relatively short section of new trail has big impacts. It includes about 1,000 feet of trail, two bridges, and a pedestrian underpass of Culbreth Road. The southern end is located at the Dogwood Acres Drive parking lot in Southern Community Park, while the northern end is at a parking lot just east of Kingswood Apartments off of highway NC 54. A side trail provides access to the Merritt Pasture open space.

The total land area of Chapel Hill is 21.3 square miles, and about 11 percent is dedicated to parks and open space. The Town is working to complete more than 28 miles of greenways and trails that will allow pedestrians and bicyclists to access every part of town. The Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation Department provides numerous opportunities for self-enrichment, adventure, fellowship and quiet reflection.

To Attend the Ribbon Cutting
Join the group at the Morgan Creek Trail parking lot off NC 54/Fordham Blvd. at 9:40 a.m. Saturday. The group will walk or bike about a half mile from the parking lot to the site of the ribbon cutting off Culbreth Road. Plan on a 15-minute walk to the ceremony site.

If the Morgan Creek Trail Parking Lot is filled, check for alternative parking in the gravel parking lot across the street from Merritt's Store on South Columbia Street (but please leave by 11:45 a.m. to accommodate their lunch rush) or use the street parking in Southern Village or park at Southern Community Park. If you are walking from the Southern Community Park, allow for about 25 minutes of travel time.

View the Trail Map at tinyurl.com/oywsc2v.

More information: contact Bill Webster, Assistant Parks and Recreation Director at 919-968-2819 or bwebster@townofchapelhill.org.

NC Wilderness Act 30th Anniversary Celebration

Thursday, June 12, 5:30-8 p.m.
NC Center for Architecture and Design (14 E. Peace St., Raleigh)

See the official event listing for more information.

More on wilderness, and why it matters:

Annual Picnic

Saturday, June 14, 12 p.m.
Wilson Park, Carrboro (located on Williams St., near the intersection of Estes Dr. and N. Greensboro St.; Google Maps)

Join us for some good food, stimulating conversation, and networking opportunities at the OCG Sierra Club annual picnic. We'll provide burgers, veggie burgers, hot dogs, and drinks. Please bring sides and/or desserts. Wilson Park has ample parking, a great picnic shelter, tennis grounds, children's playgrounds, open play areas, restrooms, and hiking trails.

Before the picnic, meet our Outings Chair, Jae Furman, who will lead a Pre-Picnic Hike. Enjoy a 30 to 40-minute hike along the banks of Bolin Creek that provides a peaceful escape from life's complexity as well as a brief physical/mental challenge requiring well-placed steps to avoid getting wet. Sturdy non-slip hiking shoes are a must as well as a dry pair of socks, just in case. No pets. Hike starts at the Wilson Park parking lot, near the restrooms, 11 a.m. We will have a sign-up sheet/waiver at the start.

New Outings Leader Resource Page

Check out and bookmark the new NC Chapter Outings Resource Page. This page provide useful information for new and aspiring outings leaders.

Political Endorsements and Results

In the May 6 primary, the Sierra Club endorsed Mark Marcoplos for Orange County Commissioner District 2, Barry Jacobs for Orange County Commissioner At Large, Bethany Chaney for Carrboro Board of Aldermen (special election), Diana Hales for Chatham County Commissioner District 3, and Robert Reives II for NC House District 54. Marcoplos did not win his race, but Jacobs, Chaney, Hales, and Reives won theirs. Chaney has already begun her term on Carrboro's board, while the other three now proceed to the general election in November.

We are proud to have supported these candidates and congratulate them for campaigns well run.

Activists' Corner

Time for Clean Energy is Now: Sign-up period for Solarize Carrboro ends on May 30

Submitted by Olga Grlic, Orange-Chatham Group Co-Chair

The beautiful oak trees in front of our house make any photovoltaic solar installation uneconomical, according to Austin Crumpler, Energy Specialist with Yes! Solar Solutions, the Cary solar installers chosen by Solarize Carrboro as one of their two contractors. On the other hand, our neighbors' large garage roof is just the right size and has the right exposure for a solar array that will help lower their utility bills, increase the value of the property and reduce their carbon footprint. Our neighbors were lucky that Solarize Carrboro also includes some of Chapel Hill post codes in its program, for example 27510 and 27516.

There are many benefits of going through Solarize Carrboro. They include advice on financing, a group discount on installation, and help with optimizing NC and federal tax credits that can offset up to 65% of the cost and can be staggered over several years. The average outlay for a 4kW array used to be around $19,000. With help from Solarize Carrboro, the cost can be brought down to less than $7,000. This opportunity is open both to residential and commercial properties.

If you've ever thought about going solar, whether it was in order to lower your utility bills or reduce our dependance on dirty fossil fuels, now is the time to ask for a free solar assessment. The sign-up period ends on May 30.

Remember the recent Dan River coal ash spill? Many more ash ponds in NC are in the same precarious state and other reservoirs of drinking water are in danger of contamination. Our continuous reliance on coal-generated electricity will only exacerbate the situation. Generating some of your energy with your own solar array will reduce the need to build more costly power plants. The highest demand for electricity is on summer afternoons when people come home and hike up their air conditioners, that also happens to be the time when the sun is shining brightly.

For more detailed information check: http://www.solarizenc.org/howitworks.

Local Solar Initiatives

by Judith Ferster, Orange-Chatham Group Conservation Chair

On March 19, members heard three speakers on solar power in North Carolina. Two represented local attempts to promote solar by making it financially easier for the owners of buildings to install it. The "Solarize" model started in Portland, Oregon, and has spread to many communities in the country. Before the programs described here began, there were 1700 rooftop systems in North Carolina generating 350 megawatts of electricity.

Rob Pinder presented Solarize Carrboro, an effort to place solar panels on many houses using advantageous financing. The financing works because NC has good tax credits for solar installations and pools customers for two selected solar installers, Southern Energy Management and Yes! Solar Solutions. Partnerships with the Town of Carrboro and the NC Solar Center also help. Each homeowner who signs up before May 30 gets a free evaluation, a customized plan for the installation, and installation with all permits obtained and savings maximized. Renters can participate, too, by joining a community solar project that puts panels at a public or nonprofit site. They can also join NC Green Power to offset their conventional power use. Given the discounts gained by the program and the state and federal tax credits, the average homeowner can see the cost of going solar reduced from $19,000 to $6,798.

Connie Leeper presented Solarize Durham, a program by NC WARN, the energy nonprofit, with similar, goals, helping homeowners use the available tax credits to add solar to their houses. By the time the program was closed to new applicants on April 15, 2014, 380 homeowners had received free evaluations of their home. As in Carrboro, Yes! Solar Solutions was a chosen installer. It offers both photovoltaic panels and solar hot water heating. You can see some of Yes! Solar's residential installations here: http://www.yessolarsolutionsnc.com/nc-solar-energy-projects/residential-installations/

Solarize Durham also had funding partners to help finance solar installations: Admiral Bank of Boston and the Self-Help Credit Union.

When 12 homeowners participate, the price of the smallest system (3Kw) goes from $14,170 down to $11,760. Taking into account the 30% Federal tax credit and 35% NC tax credits, the cost goes down to $4,116.

Ms. Leeper pointed out that states like California that allow third-party solar have made faster progress in installing solar in residences. Policy matters.

The third speaker, Michael Youth, an environmental lawyer, is the Counsel and Policy Director of the NC Sustainable Energy Association (NCSEA), an organization that advises the state government about the laws that govern renewable energy. He explained that no matter how great the strides made by local "Solarize" programs (not only Carrboro and Durham but also other places like Asheville, Raleigh, and Chatham County), the movement is being held back by the state's (and country's) largest power company, Duke Energy, which is explicitly trying to weaken the net metering program for rooftop solar. That program requires power companies to buy excess power from owners of solar panels. Duke is currently trying to reduce the amount it pays homeowners, protecting its monopoly on the generation of electricity by "making solar power a bad deal for its customers" even though the price of panels is declining (http://www.oursolarrights.org/state-campaigns/nc).

Youth recommended that audience members sign this petition to support our solar rights: http://action.votesolar.org/page/s/stop-duke-s-power-grab-in-nc

What's at stake is continuing the gains that solar has made in NC, where in 2013 it produced 2,422 jobs, contributed $1B to the economy, and made the state the country's fifth largest in solar power.

Orange-Chatham Group Leaders

Executive Committee Members

Note: Each member's term ends in December of the year in parentheses.

  • May Becker (2015) Group Co-chair tomatocutter "at" yahoo.com 969-7439
  • Olga Grlic (2014) Group Co-chair and Calendar Sales Representative olgagrl "at" duke.edu 968-4318
  • Dave Keesee (2014) Treasurer dskeesee "at" bellsouth.net 933-4879
  • Melissa McCullough (2015) Secretary melissamccnc "at" gmail.com
  • Judith Ferster (2014) Conservation Chair judith_ferster "at" ncsu.edu 929-6648
  • Max Felsher (2015) Newsletter/Web/Listserv max.felsher "at" gmail.com 617-599-0669
  • Jason Baker (2014) jason "at" jasonbaker.us 442-8278

Other Group Leaders

  • Jae Furman Outings Chair and Membership Chair SeeingTrees "at" gmail.com
  • Loren Hintz Transportation Chair ldhintz "at" bellsouth.net 933-8987

Note: All phone numbers are in the 919 area code unless specifically indicated.