Cite 3 reasons for and 3 reasons against rebuilding Greensburg as a “green town.
We gathered up over there in the corner of the basement. And it really -- a lot of
debris started flying around. And I said well I think maybe the house is coming
apart. And I thought, you know, meaning we were losing shingles and stuff like
that. Hello, I'm Lonnie McCollum. I'm a former resident of Greensburg. Once I got
up into our kitchen area it was -- I could see the sky. So I knew this is not good.
>> Tornadoes are like hit and miss. One house good. One house gone. This house
is find not touched. No, no, no, no, no. This was a war zone. My name is Steve
Hewitt. I'm the city administrator for Greensburg. Before the storm I think we had
put ourselves in a position that we're trying to look at new ways to be a better
town.
One of the things we began to look at was being more efficient, more effective,
less, you know, less waste in our materials and what we do. Unfortunately we
weren't building many new buildings and new construction wasn't happening in
this small town out in rural America out here in Kansas before the storm.
After the storm you have a blank canvas. New direction needs to happen. How can
we take it?
>> In the end we lost three homes and about three businesses. Three homes and
three businesses. I'm Elana, and I'm a Greensburg resident. We didn't question it
much as to whether we were going to leave. We wanted to stay here because we
loved the people. We loved the community for what it was. About two weeks after
the storm the mayor at the time, Lonnie McCullum said that the city was going to
rebuild green. That was kind of the definite yeah we're going to stay in
Greensburg. We want to be pioneers of this green city and help them rebuild it. I
had gone to a lot of meetings after the tornado, to be there to see what was going
on, voice my opinion when it was needed. And I was just really pleased at the way
things were going.
>> You know, I think it's exciting. Where are you going to go in rural America that
you have a brand new town? I'm Pharrell Allison, and I'm a Greensburg resident.
To have brand new schools. Brand new city buildings. Brand new museums. Brand
new dealerships. Brand new homes. Where can you go, you know, with -- you
can't go anywhere. When you build a -- a town's destroyed like this one, you know,
why not do it the best you can? Why not, instead of going with an 85% efficient
furnace, why not go for the best because it's a few, you know, a few dollars more.
You know, you just have -- you know, I think it's the right thing to do.
>> It never was given to us as a choice whether we wanted our town to go green or
not. I'm Janice Hayne. I'm a resident of Kiowa County and our address is
Greensburg. They'd hold these town hall meetings and they'd all want you-all to
come, but when it was time to actually have any comments they shut you down
and just like walk away like we don't want to hear what you people have to say.
>> I never felt like the community ever felt like we had to have a massive vote.
How many people would say what does green mean? So no, no. Education had to
happen. What we had to do was have a series of events where people could come
in and give their input. I need to know what you want to see in your community. I
mean, what's your future look like? How do you feel about parks? How do you feel
about energy? How do you feel about your buildings? How do you feel about your
schools and your hospitals? Those kind of meetings had to happen. If you wanted
to be involved about your community you had an opportunity to be involved. And
if from that, then the city council then could then vote on exactly what the people
were telling them. And they voted that we're going to go green. We're going to go
sustainable. And then they went another step forward. They said, you know what?
We're going to show the world we're not just talking about going green, we're
going to implement that. And they passed a resolution that states every single
facility that the city builds is going to be the highest sustainable level you can go
I just don't believe in some of the decision making has been what we really
truly needed. We should be more concerned about getting downtown businesses
put up. That actually has -- going to support our tax base. Instead of, you know,
we're worried about well we don't have the funding for this platinum green
building. We don't have money for that one. I don't think at this point we should be
worried about that. And everybody says oh, you're just being negative. Well, I
don't know. Is it being negative or is it being realistic about the situation that's
upon us? I worry about, you know, are we going to be able to afford the taxes on
our land because they're going to tax us so high because they are putting things in
that -- at the same time is it really necessary at this time to do it like that?
Cite 3 reasons for and 3 reasons against rebuilding Greensburg as a “green town.
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