Four Mounds Sustainable Design Request
Officers
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4900 Peru Road • Dubuque, Iowa 52001 •563-557-7292
John Groner
President
Pat O'Neill
Vice President
Brian Houtakker
Treasurer
Mary Mulgrew Gronen
Secretary
Trustees
Elizabeth Adams
Jayne Banfeld
Christine Chapin-Tilton
Jennifer Clemens-Conlon
Eric Dregne
James Gronen
Doug Horstmann
Charles Huntley
Ann Michalski
City Appointed Trustee
Jim Mulgrew
Michael Toskey
Richard Weber
Management Staff
Christine Happ Olson
Executive Director
Marie FitzGerald
Inn ManageriJob Coach
Ron Fritz
HEART Manager/Job Coach
Tina Hamel
De velopment/Administrative
Jay Potter
Y.E.S. Manager/Job Coach
Ed Bauer
Summer Day Camp Director
Neil Winger
Wood Shop Job Coach
January 24, 2007
The Honorable Roy Buol
City of Dubuque
50 W. 13`1i Street
Dubuque, IA 52001
Dear Mayor Buol,
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Dubuque deserves congratulations on winning the award from the AIA that
allows us to engage in the Green Sustainable Design Assessment Team
(SDAT) study. It's exciting to see this kind of emphasis being placed on a
city of our size.
Green design begins with reuse of existing resources. There are no other
cities in Iowa with the concentration of historic resources that Dubuque has.
I have worked in the field of historic preservation across the Midwest and
few cities of this size offer the kind of assistance that we provide toward
retaining and revitalizing Dubuque's cultural and historic resources.
As chair of the Historic Preservation Commission, I supported an
application to the AIA for SDAT, partially because green design goes hand-
in-hand with preservation. But I am writing you today on behalf of Four
Mounds, which is a National Register Historic District and a City of
Dubuque Landmark Site.
Four Mounds has been working with the City's Engineering Department, the
Dubuque County Soil & Water Conservation Board, state agencies and local
volunteers to design an environmentally sustainable plan to minimize runoff
as we move ahead with a major road and parking project over the next few
years. Our site sits on top of a local watershed or divide, so rain gardens,
permeable parking, .and sensitively designed features will help deter erosion
and minimize runoff into the Mississippi River and the storm water system.
This is part of a larger focus our organization has had in the past decade to
move toward a becoming greener site. Projects like ecological restoration,
installing high efficiency furnaces, minimizing areas to be mowed on our
cultured grounds, and weatherization measures are all ways we've been
working toward this goal. It's our intent to improve our building and
operational systems in a way that makes sense for the environment and our
budget. Four Mounds has also partnered with public and private agencies in
recent years through the Responsible Redevelopment Initiative and HEART
to make a sizeable impact through large scale projects that revitalize and
reuse entire buildings. As I write this letter, we are installing a wood burning
furnace at our Barn/Garage, funded through grants from the DRA and
A Non Profit Foundation ® Preservation Education
DMASWA. This will not only save us over $3000 in fuel costs per year, but it allows
us to partner with local companies and utilize waste wood from our HEART site and
woodshop our in order to minimize negative contributions to our local landfill.
Because of our history with restoring the historic, cultural and ecological resources at
Four Mounds, we extend an invitation to the City and the SDAT team to involve
Four Mounds in the planning process and utilize our site as a demonstration
model. We would be pleased to have the opportunity to help out during this process
and also be involved as we move forward in the future to implement
recommendations.
Again, congratulations... we're excited to see Dubuque move forward with this new
initiative.
Sincerely,
f% -~
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~~iisti e Happ Olson
Executive Director
cc: City of Dubuque City Council
Kevin Eipperle, Durrant Group