Yesterday, at approximately 11.30a, The ARTech greenhouse team placed a call to Polytex and ordered the greenhouse. They said there will be about 2 weeks of preparation time for them to get everything ready, and then we can go pick it up. This is the beginning of the end, of the beginning.
Also, the building permit for the City will be sent in on monday.
Peace
-Arlo
After countless discussions and almost two years of work, the completion of the greenhouse is at our doorstep. We kicked off the school year with an awesome meeting where we gained two new student members, Andrew Wilson, and Mariama Jallow, officially hired Andrew Ehrmann as our farmer in residence, and finalized the positioning of the greenhouse on the south side of ARTech. These steps mark the beginning of the end because once we order the structure and apply for the building permit it’s a waiting game till we can start hammering stakes into the ground. Its been a long, long process, but it will all be worth it to the group and to the school once a beautiful 48 foot greenhouse neighbors the solar panels on our southern lawn.
Artech students at one of St. Olaf's greenhouses
Looking for something fun to do on a Friday evening this summer? Love to listen to live music? Then we have a concert for you! On Friday, June 18, there will be a concert by Bret Hesla and Linda Breitag at the Haslett-Marroquin family farm, Finca Mirasol, to benefit ARTech’s own greenhouse project! The show starts at 7:00 pm, and there is no admission fee; free will donations are encouraged.
The ARTech greenhouse project was started in February of 2009 in order to plan for and eventually construct an organic, solar-powered greenhouse at the school. Since then, we’ve come a long way. The only thing holding us back from building the greenhouse is a $1700 gap between what we have and what we need. Other sources of funding are secured, including grants from the Northfield Union of Youth in partnership with the Healthy Community Initiative, and from the Minnesota Clean Energy Resource Teams. We plan on having the greenhouse built and ready for use by students by the time school starts, but we need your help! Join us on the 18th for a great concert and a chance to help make ARTech a better place to go to school.
Well, Tuesday night was The Night.
At 7:00, Todd, Danny, and I were among the audience sitting in the City Council Chambers down at City Hall. The council was going to vote on whether or not we could be issued a conditional use permit with a variance on top.
As I’m sure you gathered from the title, the city council voted unanimously to allow us both documents. So what’s next? Fundraising, that’s what, which I know you’ve noticed contains the word “fun”. We have $1700 to raise and just about 2 months to do it. Watch out for an upcoming event you can attend to benefit our project in the near future. Until then, hold tight, and have faith in our ability to forge online documents.
Things at ARTech are getting more and more hectic as the quarter draws to a close. On May 20th, classes will close and we will switch to a May term. While not much new may be posted, rest assured that work will still be continuing!
Last Thursday, Todd and I took the conditional use permit down to City Hall with a check for $1550 and seven copies of the site plan, among other things. So now that very large step is finished. We should have approval by early June.
Fundraising is coming along smashingly! According to our calculations, we have between $1400 and $2400 left to raise, depending on which greenhouse will be purchased. (Which of course also depends on how much money we raise).
Also, I’m working on getting a photo or six of the model greenhouse we made for Earth Day for either the blog header or a pretty-looking post. Keep checking back!
Artech Greenhouse Project 