The longtime Chicago mayor has vowed to make his city the greenest in the nation.
Contributed by Julie TaraskaDaley has been working for years toward his oft-stated intention to make Chicago the greenest city in America, no small matter given its size and industrial past...The most remarkable aspect of Daley?s consciousness-raising green crusade is that, after stumbling into it, he has committed major resources to developing a holistic approach to greening the city. >Link
JAZZ MASTers
Friday, June 25, 2004
6:00pm - 7:00pm
Headwaters Park - West
From theory and now into practice, youth from across Fort Wayne will be performing a variety of blues and jazz at Headwaters Park - West. Under the instruction of Ed King II and Kevin Drew, students of MASTer Camp have studied the art of improvisation, the history of jazz, and what made the "Greats" great.
Come enjoy the sounds of Coltrane, Gershwin and other timeless tunes performed by our next generation of -- Jazz MASTers!
Headwaters Park - West is located directly across N. Clinton from the tented pavilion area. Paid parking is available at the corner of N. Clinton and Superior. Free parking is available to the west of the performance area.
6 p.m. June 17, 2004 at the Pontiac Branch Library, 3304 Warsaw St., Fort Wayne, IN. All ages welcome. For information, call 260-421-1350.
Environmental study for route through the city set for next two years. By Kevin Leininger of The News-SentinelAfter more than two years in bureaucratic hibernation, preliminary environmental work could begin next year on a high-speed rail line passing through Fort Wayne.
The Indiana Department of Transportation is expected to spend about $2.6 million in 2005 and 2006 to identify possible environmental problems caused by the proposed route linking Chicago and Cleveland, said Geoff Paddock, the governor's appointee to the Northeastern Indiana Regional Coordinating Council, a transportation planning agency. A series of public meetings also will be scheduled next year to listen to concerns and establish a construction timetable. >Link
Actual construction will have to wait, however, until Congress and the affected states fund the project - and that hasn't happened yet. Developing the Chicago-to-Cleveland route is expected to cost at least $1.12 billion, and the entire cost of the nine-state area covered by the Midwest Rail Initiative is at least $5 billion.
The Midwest project would create 3,000 miles of track for trains capable of traveling 110 mph. The federal government would pay 80 percent of the cost. Other high-speed lines would link Chicago and Detroit and Chicago with Indianapolis, Louisville, Ky., and Cincinnati.
The state announced in late 2002 the Chicago-Cleveland route would pass through Fort Wayne, rejecting an alternative route through South Bend. But concerns about terrorism and a weak economy, among other factors, have delayed progress, Paddock said.
Completion of an environmental study is a key first step, however, because it will identify possible problems with the route, such as environmentally sensitive areas, historic markers, and the number of people and buildings that would be displaced. Those problems must be identified and addressed before actual costs are known and construction can begin.
The state believes a high-speed train between Chicago and Cleveland could generate 1 million passengers by 2015, with 150,000 coming from Fort Wayne alone. Revenues from fares could exceed $55 million in 10 years, Paddock said.
The federal government could provide $300 million within the next year for environmental clean-up, perhaps in 2006 and 2007. Construction could begin later this decade, Paddock said.
The Fort Wayne area is ripe with resources and qualified individuals that simply need a venue in which to teach -- MASTer Camp provides this needed venue and the support to deliver this incredibly large selection of enrichment courses.
MASTer Camp is a unique enrichment opportunity sponsored by the FourD Education Foundation. Courses offer exploration in the disciplines of Music, Arts, Science and Technology.
Six unique week-long adventures in creativity and learning have been planned for your child. They will find themselves immersed in captivating academic thought and hands on activities designed to peak interest and create enthusiasm for learning during each course they attend.
The vision -- "let every child get ahead" -- focuses on creating an 'ageless classroom' where every child is taught at his proficiency level. Interests and passions of each child are identified and nurtured, making the experience of learning fun.
In addition to six weeks of MASTer Camp, we are pleased to announce two additional activity-packed weeks. Camp Invention, a summer program of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, offers one week of 'Discover' in June and a week of 'Create' in July. Students entering grades 2 through 6 will find themselves immersed in hands-on adventures requiring creativity, teamwork, inventive thinking skills, and science literacy. Experience an education where imaginations run wild!
Request a brochure and learn more about MASTer Camp at: http://www.mastercamp.org/
By Tim Knauss Staff writer - The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY)As soon as Joe Cummins learned that a diesel car could be modified to run on a restaurant's used vegetable oil, he just had to have one.
"It made so much sense," he said.
For one thing, vegetable oil produces less air pollution than petroleum diesel. And it's a renewable fuel, which helps reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.
But for crying out loud, don't overlook the obvious: The stuff is free. >Link
To fuel his 2002 Volkswagen Golf, Cummins picks up 5-gallon containers of waste vegetable oil from the ABC Cafe in Ithaca, near where he lives. He strains it through a filter into a barrel in his basement and - voila! - motor fuel.
"The minute I saw that a car could run on vegetable oil that you got for free, I knew I had to do it," he said.
Interest in veggie cars, as they are sometimes known, has been slowly growing during the past couple years among back-yard tinkerers and Green Party types, but there still aren't many such vehicles on the road.
Greasecar Vegetable Fuel Systems, of Florence, Mass., which manufactures the conversion kit in Cummins' car, has sold just 400 since its inception in 2001. Its primary competitor, 3-year-old Greasel Conversions, of Drury, Mo., reports sales of about 2,000 kits.
But if gasoline prices keep rising, Cummins might soon have plenty of company. "We're absolutely just buried" with recent orders, said Charlie Anderson, founder of Greasel.
For help making his car run on vegetable oil, Cummins turned to Seth Mead, 27, a high school science teacher and the founder of Liquid Solar Inc., a veggie car company in Ithaca.
Mead has degrees in natural resources and teaching from Cornell University, but no background in mechanics or engineering. Nevertheless, the first time he saw a car converted to burn vegetable oil, it brought out the tinkerer in him.
"I thought, "I could do that,"' he said.
Two years ago, Mead installed a second fuel tank and a second set of fuel lines in his Ford F-250 pickup truck so that, as soon as the truck warms up on regular diesel fuel, Mead flips a switch and it starts burning vegetable oil.
In the two years since then, Mead has installed Greasecar kits in a dozen cars around Ithaca. His business partner, Scott Hannan, has converted a dozen others.
As interest grew, they sensed a business opportunity. Six months ago, they founded Liquid Solar Inc.
In addition to converting cars to run on vegetable oil, they are preparing to launch a business selling waste oil to people who don't want to collect their own from restaurants.
Perfecting filter technique
Mead is working with Cornell University engineering students to perfect techniques for filtering the waste oil, and he says he has an agreement with a local store to sell the oil in 5-gallon containers. Mead hopes to begin the fuel sales by the end of summer.
Liquid Solar is the only company in New York that installs Greasecar systems, according to Greasecar founder Justin Carven.
Here's the arrangement: The customer buys a conversion kit from Greasecar for about $800. Mead and Hannan charge $40 an hour to install it, which usually takes 12 to 15 hours, for a bill of about $500 to $600.
With gas and diesel prices near $2 a gallon, it would take 650 to 700 gallons to pay for the conversion - just over a year's worth of driving for the average consumer.
The risk for car owners like Cummins, whose vehicle is still under warranty, is that car manufacturers typically void warranties when the fuel system is modified. Whether dealers honor warranties for components unrelated to the fuel system may depend on the dealer, Mead said.
Must heat the oil first
What's involved in the conversion?
To explain, Mead opened the hatchback on Cummins' Golf. In the well intended for a spare tire sat a cylindrical 15-gallon fuel tank. Lines from the tank run under the car to the engine.
The fuel lines leading to and from the vegetable fuel tank are bundled with other lines carrying hot engine coolant. The hot fluid heats the veggie oil to reduce viscosity, the key to making it ready for the engine.
"The rest of it is all switches and electronics," Mead said.
Mead jumps into the car to show how it works. He starts it under diesel power to give the veggie oil time to heat up. He drives around the corner from his house and heads for Route 13. About a minute after starting the car, while accelerating up a hill on 13, he hits a switch on the dashboard and switches to veggie oil.
There is no difference.
"As you can see, the car functions just like it's supposed to," he said.
After driving awhile, he heads back to his house. At the curb, Mead lets the car idle for about 30 seconds in diesel mode to cycle the vegetable oil out of the engine. Then he shuts the car off.
Simple enough, but will the motoring masses cotton to vegetable oil?
Jenna Higgins, of the National Biodiesel Board, doesn't think so. Few are as dismissive of "straight vegetable oil" aficionados as their cousins in the renewable fuel business, the biodiesel industry.
"People using straight veg-oil and promoting it give us heartburn," said Higgins, whose group represents biodiesel refiners. "We worry about there being confusion over straight veg-oil versus biodiesel."
One key difference is this: Straight vegetable oil is still grass roots. Biodiesel is becoming big business.
Chemically, the difference is this: Biodiesel is made from vegetable oil - usually soybean oil - but alcohol and lye are added to separate out glycerin, the stuff that makes oil thick and sticky. That's why biodiesel doesn't have to be heated before use; it can be used in conventional diesel engines without modification.
Biodiesel is usually blended with 80 percent petroleum diesel to achieve a mixture called B20. Even B100, or 100 percent biodiesel, can be used in most diesel engines without any modification.
Production of biodiesel has increased from 500,000 gallons in 1999 to 25 million in 2003, Higgins said.
Biodiesel is far from free. B20 typically costs about 20 cents a gallon more than diesel; B100 costs about $1 more.
Biodiesel must meet standards set by the American Society for Testing and Materials. It is recognized as a motor fuel by the Environmental Protection Agency. Every gallon can be expected to be the same.
Perfecting the process
That cannot be said for veggie oil, the quality of which varies depending on the source and how well it is strained.
Mead said he is working with Cornell students on perfecting Liquid Solar's refining process for recycled veggie oil to ensure consistent high quality.
The case for straight veggie oil is not far-fetched, says Carven, 27, whose Greasecar company evolved out of his senior project as a mechanical design student at Hampshire College. After all, he said, Rudolph Diesel ran his first engine on peanut oil.
Carven said veggie cars are a grass-roots response to the lack of innovation from the automobile and petroleum industries. He contrasted the homegrown research into veggie cars, which already work, with the millions that big industry is pouring into hydrogen fuel cell cars, which face major technological hurdles.
"We're just trying to make it available to conscious individuals who are looking for an alternative and are sick of waiting around for one to be handed to them," Carven said. "Major auto manufacturers are not going to get behind this unless infrastructure was created and money could be made."
Should veggie oil be taxed?
The notion of recycling restaurant oil to power a car is so new that arguments rage over whether it should be taxed.
Mead argues that since EPA doesn't recognize veggie oil as a motor fuel, it might be exempt from the state and federal excise taxes on diesel and gasoline that are collected at the pump. Those taxes add about 41 cents a gallon.
Tom Bergin, speaking for the state tax department, disagreed. Although he couldn't be definitive, Bergin said he thinks Mead will have to charge both sales and excise taxes when he starts selling waste oil as motor fuel.
"This is all kind of fluffy," Mead said. "There are really no hard (rules). If we force the issue, great. It'll give us more legitimacy, and then we can move on."
Copyright 2004 Post-Standard, All Rights Reserved.
The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY)
Saturday, June 5, 2004
11 a.m.-4 p.m.
Headwaters Park
Visit TasteofFW.com for ticket info and a list of sponsors and participating restaurants.
Saturday, June 5, 2004
10 am - 4pm
One Summit Square - in the Heart of Downtown
FREE ADMISSION!
DIDFest is a community wide event that brings the whole community to the streets of Downtown Fort Wayne to celebrate our arts and culture community! >Link
June 5th is National Trails Day. So, get out and use the trails!
The Greenway Consortium is busy planning for this special day. For more information please contact: Rivergreenway Consortium, Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation Department, 705 E. State Blvd., Fort Wayne, Indiana 46805 or e-mail: Kathy.pargmann@ci.ft-wayne.in.us . The Consortium acts in an advisory capacity to the Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation Department and lends support to the establishment of future sections of the trail. Learn more about the rivergreenway and area trails here.