HOWLAND, Maine — Swings. Vegetable gardens. Small fountains. People who want to see amenities in the proposed public recreation area at the former Howland tannery site should bring ideas to a meeting next week, Town Manager Tracey Hutton said Thursday.

The Planning Board, Board of Selectmen, Community Enterprise Committee and advisors on the multimillion-dollar effort to transform the site into a centerpiece for town economic and social life will meet at the Town Office at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 10 to collect ideas from residents, Hutton said.

She called it “the scoping meeting.”

The meeting’s goal, Hutton said, is to allow residents to help project engineers and architects “devise a good strategy for that site in terms of trails and amenities for what will work on that site and still meet the [economic development] goals of the community.”

“Once we get the input from residents, we will put together a plan and get a contractor out there to implement what [residents] want out there,” Hutton added, “so by the fall, we hope to have a site that reflects what everybody wants.”

Formerly the site of the town’s largest employer, the tannery building complex was razed this past summer after decades of effort at redevelopment. Only part of one small building remains to be cleared this spring. Town leaders have called the large site near the town’s center the key to revitalizing the small town’s economy.

The tannery site is part of the Penobscot River Restoration Trust’s plan to build a fish bypass, seed some tannery land and dig a channel for the bypass in a project designed to open nearly 1,000 miles of habitat to Atlantic salmon, alewives and other sea-run fish now blocked from migrating upriver.

As part of the Howland project, town officials hope to develop once-contaminated land not occupied by the bypass. A $150,000 community enterprise grant will pay for the landscaping of that land, which will be handled by Copeland Associates of Bar Harbor and project engineer CES Inc.

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• Image: Chris Zimmer

On the whole, Clevelanders get all Brothers of the Night’s Watch in winter, enduring inclement conditions with a stony, martyr-like resolve (and lots of booze and layers). But guess what? WINTER DOESN’T HAVE TO SUCK. It can be full of community-oriented merrymaking, like putting snow in other people’s underwear and pelting children with ice-cored snowballs.

Or. Or! Transforming our blighted ice fortress into a winter wonderland, thanks to the cool folks at Kent State’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC).

CUDC just launched COLD (Center for Outdoor Living Design), an initiative that aims to curate and implement urban design projects adapted to the demands of a cold-weather city. According to the project’s organizers, there’s a myopic and limiting warm-weather bias in the field of urban planning, even in cities (like Cleveland) that only enjoy it for, oh, four months out of the year. As the program’s website argues:

Representations and design strategies in architecture and urban design are often dominated by idealized imagery from warmer seasons, marginalizing the unique design opportunities that winter weather cities present. As a result, creative approaches to improving urban livability during winter are left unexplored, reinforcing common perceptions that public life can’t survive outdoors for much of the year.

To kick things off, COLD is hosting COLDSCAPES, a sick new witch house band multidisciplinary cold-weather design competition. Designers, architects, and artists are encouraged to submit their ideas for workable public art, landscaping, urban design, or architecture interventions to improve wintertime livability and create inviting public spaces in cold-weather urban environments. Three winners, selected by an as-yet undisclosed jury of artists and designers, will receive a $1,000 award this summer, and a larger number of entrants will be featured in a public exhibition in downtown Cleveland next November.

“We’re trying to create a cultural change, a shift in perception, where we address this challenge and turn it into an asset, into something you celebrate,” says CUDC associate director David Jurca, who hopes the competition will prove a productive first step in inspiring people to make ours a “great winter city.”

“This isn’t a knock on urban agriculture, but it seems like we’re more aware of strategies for extending the growing season for food than we are about having a dialogue about extending the living season for humans,” Jurca observes.

He counts exemplary “winter cities” abroad as inspiration, explaining that temperate western European cities like Paris, as well as Scandinavian and Canadian metropolises that are covered in snow for much of the year, are ahead of the game in embracing their “winter identities.”

While the standard design solution to the challenges presented by colder climes has tended to focus on keeping people indoors—hello, skywalks—Jurca and his colleagues believe that designers and city planners should instead combat winter doldrums with vibrant outdoor built environments and lively civic spaces. Strategies to encourage outdoor community activity could include anything from art (public installations that foreground the beauty of snow and ice) to outdoor markets and events that extend beyond the holiday season (like Cleveland’s Brite Winter Fest) to urban design (wind protection and snow-removal strategies for city pathways, illumination tactics for dark nights, solar radiation technology for heat and sunlight penetration, installation of awnings and heated patios for restaurants and businesses).

Most promisingly, these climate-sensitive innovations don’t have to be expensive, disruptive, or labor-intensive projects. Outdoor light displays, for instance, are an easy fix that instantly suffuse urban streets with a warm, cozy glow. Jurca also suggests warming huts (“Think of it as a nicely designed, sculptural bus shelter,” he explains), bike- and pedestrian-friendly pathway maintenance and lighting, and sunlight-maximizing streetscape elements.

With temperatures (slowly) creeping up, we’ll have to wait till next year to enjoy the fruits of COLD’s labors, but you can check back in this summer for the COLDSCAPE winners (or submit ideas yourselves this spring).

Or we could just turn Playhouse Square into a weird Times Square-meets-The Fifth Element vaudeville megalopolis with a “chandelier spectacular” and LED displays. Whatevs. Grown-ups be cray cray.

{ story.summary|safe|escape }

• The TAFE Illawarra entry won over the judges at the Royal Easter Show. Pictures: ADAM LUCAS

TAFE Illawarra landscaping students have won the 2013 TAFE NSW Landscaping Challenge at the Royal Easter Show for the second year running.

Students from the Yallah campus battled it out against teams from Northern Sydney, South West Sydney and Western Sydney institutes and took out the top prize for landscape construction and landscape design.

Yallah TAFE landscaping teachers Craig Conway, Travis Butler and Daniel Herbert guided the students to victory at the challenge, which was the centrepiece of the Great Aussie Backyard exhibit at the show.

Mr Butler, acting head teacher of horticulture, said the event gave students an insight into the challenges faced by professional landscapers, including working to tight deadlines.

“The event also exposes students to communicating with other students and teachers about their designs and products used in their displays, which is an incredibly important skill to take into the workforce,” he said.

“We are thrilled to have won this challenge for the second year in a row. It’s a testament to the students’ skills in construction detail, workmanship and meeting brief criteria.

The theme for the challenge this year was “Big Ideas, Small Spaces”.

The Illawarra team’s efforts certainly impressed the judges, who included TV gardening personality Jody Rigby.

TAFE Illawarra floristry students earned a highly commended award for the 2013 TAFE NSW Floral Display.

If you’re going to build it, they want you to come.

The Lewis Clark Home Builders Association (LCHBA) will present its eighth annual Home Show this weekend to offer help to area homeowners looking to repair, remodel or build anew. The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Kiwanis 4-H Ice Center at 709 Whiting Drive.

“We put this show on as a service to the public,” said Tim Frohreich, the show’s committee chair. “It’s for anyone wanting to do home improvements — whether it be landscaping, kitchen or bathroom additions — or looking for ideas for building a new home. There’s just a wide array of different things.”

The Home Show will feature booths from approximately 50 businesses, most of which are from the Yankton/Vermillion area. Exhibits and demonstrations will cover the newest trends and products in many areas, including construction, windows and doors, gutters and siding, floors, lighting and electrical, heating and cooling, sunrooms, fencing and decks, closet and garage organization, fireplaces and             finances.

“We’re getting the vendors out in front of people so they can see what is out there,” Frohreich said. “They can come to one spot and talk to a multitude of different people and businesses in the community and around the area to see what they have to offer.”

He added that the show has picked up numerous vendors compared to the last few years, which he attributed to recent economic recovery.

“I think you have more people that are comfortable where they’re at financially,” Frohreich said. “They’re looking at their houses and wondering, ‘What can I do to my house to make it better?’ or, ‘Do I want to build new?’”

In addition to having more home improvement vendors, this year’s Home Show will offer a new area containing items such as children’s books, jewelry and purses, said LCHBA executive officer Judy Studebaker. Members of the South Dakota Housing Development Authority and the South Dakota Attorney General’s Office will also be on hand to answer consumers’ questions, she said.

“I’m really excited because we have so many people coming this year,” she said.

Several door prizes will be given away at the Home Show, including a pond from NatureScaping Designs in Yankton as the grand prize.

Admission for the event will be taken at the door. Those who bring a non-perishable food donation for the Yankton Food Pantry will receive $1 off the admission price.

Frohreich encourages everyone to attend the show and to take advantage of a rare opportunity to talk to several experts at once.

“Rather than having to go to Sioux City or Sioux Falls or Norfolk or Mitchell, you can come here and see all the new things that are out there and get some ideas,” he said.

You can follow Derek Bartos on Twitter at twitter.com/d_bartos

Four students hope an initiative by former U.S. President Bill Clinton will help launch their plan to use landscaping to remove contaminants from vacant lots in St. Louis. Another wants to make inexpensive prosthetics with a device almost small enough to fit into a backpack. Two others want to launch a smoking quit line in China.

All have proven that their ideas are viable enough to participate in an unusual gathering at Washington University this weekend.

A thousand students representing all states and 75 countries will take part in the sixth annual Clinton Global Initiative University, aimed at tackling such global challenges as education, public health, environment and climate change, and human rights.

The agenda includes a session Saturday night between Clinton and Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report.” Panels involve people such as Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter, and Muhammad Yunus, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to eliminate poverty.

The event will conclude Sunday with a volunteer project at Gateway STEM High, a magnet school in St. Louis that emphasizes science, technology, engineering and math education. There, volunteers will paint and do other improvements to the grounds. Later, 100 solar panels will be installed on the school’s roof to reduce energy costs and provide a renewable energy teaching tool.

“I especially like doing things in and around schools that have a community impact,” Clinton said in an interview with reporters Tuesday. “I like Gateway STEM because it’s committed to raising the level of STEM knowledge and involvement among kids that often get left out and left behind.”

This weekend’s meeting is an outgrowth of the William J. Clinton Foundation, which Clinton began in 2001. The foundation, based at Clinton’s offices in New York, has a number of initiatives aimed at domestic challenges such as job creation and childhood obesity, as well as global issues such as climate change and worldwide poverty.

The event will have an emphasis on empowering women and girls worldwide, preventing prescription drug misuse and promoting STEM education. Chelsea Clinton will moderate one of the panels.

The three-day event is modeled after the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting, a nonpartisan convention held each fall of global, business and philanthropic leaders to work on solutions to world problems in areas such as the environment, energy and health. The university version takes place at a different campus each year. Last year it was held at George Washington University in Washington.

To take part, students needed to pitch action plans. The Clinton Global Initiative selected the students based on their projects.

Washington University Chancellor Mark Wrighton said the conference fits well with the school’s focus on community service. “This is a conference that is not only stimulating great ideas about how to address the world’s problems, but, most important, it is a venue to learn how to implement these great ideas,” he said.

Of the students taking part, 200 are from Washington University, including Ian Smith, an undergraduate and Iraq war veteran whose portable 3D printing device could potentially provide 3 million amputees worldwide access to artificial fingers and limbs.

Funmilola Oladini is a pre-med student whose plan is to educate health advocates in her Nigerian hometown about diabetes and hypertension — diseases that are increasing as fast food restaurants proliferate there.

Both see the weekend as a chance to tap into networks and funding that could otherwise be out of reach.

“This is huge,” Smith said. “I consider myself lucky whenever I can contribute to the world or society at large.”

This year’s program in St. Louis will include more than $400,000 in available funding for students to carry out their commitments, through a network of 32 colleges and universities that have provided seed money.

“There will be a lot of interesting ideas that if other people with more resources and a bigger network would take up it could literally have a profound impact on the world,” Clinton said.

In 2010, a group of Vanderbilt University students pitched their idea at the initiative’s meeting at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla. One of them, Kyle McCollom, a graduate of St. Louis University High School, laid out a plan to start a custom T-shirt company that would employ former criminal offenders from a halfway house in Nashville, Tenn. Three years later, Triple Thread Apparel has created more than 30 jobs and job-training opportunities and sold over 20,000 shirts, McCollom said.

To host the meeting, Washington University needed an action plan of its own. The university will invest $30 million over six years to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, Hank Webber, the university’s executive vice chancellor for administration, announced last week. The aim is to scale emissions back by 22 percent by 2020, reverting to 1990 levels.

The cuts would come through better waste management, new heating and cooling, and greater energy efficiency. It would pay for itself in eight to 10 years.

“This takes what we’re doing to the next level,” Webber said.

Clinton said his hope for the initiative is that students leave the meeting believing they can make a difference in areas they feel strongly about.

“Having all these young people come to CGIU, it may be more inspiring for them to be around each other than to have me there,” Clinton said. “I want them to imagine that they can actually have an impact, that their ideas count, that their deepest concerns are things they can actually act on.”

Kevin McDermott of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

Lewis and Clark County and the Helena Chamber of Commerce are hosting a Green Business workshop Thursday, April 4, at 10 a.m. to educate business people in the community about sustainable landscaping options.

Dennis Flynn from Valley Farms will explain the benefits of commercial landscaping, the most inexpensive form of advertising and biggest hello to customers. He’ll offer ideas for reducing water and pesticide use.

The green business workshops are offered the first Thursday of each month in 2013 and are associated with the Green Business Program, a free certification program in the tri-county area that recognizes businesses for their sustainability efforts. To learn more and get your business certified, visit www.greenbusiness

mt.com.

Water districts throughout western Riverside County will play host to the 11th annual Community Water Conservation Festival on Saturday, April 6.

The free event will be held at the Big League Dreams Sports Park, 2155 Trumble Road in Perris.

The festival will run from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. A landscaping workshop begins at 11:30 a.m. and the first 100 people in attendance will receive free water-saving items.

During the event, residents can learn about retrofitting outdoor irrigation equipment to become more water efficient and about water-wise landscaping ideas, among other topics. A number of master gardeners will be on hand.

Presentations also will be given on smart controllers, high-efficiency toilets and drip irrigation systems.

Each participating district will have information about rebate programs available to customers and a raffle will be held.

There will be many activities for children throughout the event. A puppet show will be presented at 11 a.m., and there will be face-painting and caricature booths. “Dewie the Dragon,” “Zoie” and “Admiral Splash” will be in attendance to help entertain and educate children.

“This is a fun, community-based event for the whole family,” said Stacy Rodriguez, EMWD’s conservation program supervisor and committee chairperson for the event. “Our hope is that families come out, learn how to be more efficient with their water usage and take those ideas home to help them save water, time and money.”

The festival is presented by Eastern Municipal Water District, Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District, Rancho California Water District, Western Municipal Water District, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Bureau of Reclamation, the State of California Department of Water Resources and the County of Riverside’s “Only Rain Down the Drain” pollution prevention program.

For more information on the program, go online to www.iewaterfestival.com.

Officials said the county’s 158-bed Juvenile Hall isn’t well-suited for that purpose.

“This is a more hopeful place,” said Patty Hill Thomas, assistant chief executive officer for the county, who led a tour of the facility last week. “There needs to be a safe place to do these programs, and finally it is here.”

In June, the county will move boys and girls who are court- sentenced into the 60-bed center, which has classrooms, a culinary training kitchen, occupational training rooms with computer hookups, a gymnasium and recreation yard.

The 47,000-square-foot center adjacent to Juvenile Hall is enclosed by a tall fence with razor wire. But the units to house groups of 15 or 30 juveniles are designed to soften the institutional environment.

The center will house teens ages 14 to 17 who are convicted of crimes such as assault, burglary, auto theft or drug violations. They will be placed in the center based on their criminal history, maturity and program needs, officials said.

Jill Silva, the county’s chief probation officer, said most of the youth offenders will spend six months to a year in the commitment center. The state requires them to spend part of that time learning math, reading and other subjects taught in schools.

They will put on baking hats to learn cooking skills in the culinary training kitchen. The county spent $516,000 to equip the center with ovens, mixers and other commercial appliances. Officials hope the teens acquire job skills they can use to work for catering services or restaurants.

The Stanislaus County Office of Education will run the occupational program. County leaders want to know if it’s feasible for the teens to take over the food preparation serv-ice for the commitment center and Juvenile Hall.

Silva said her department is looking for community partners to develop occupational training in other fields. Two ideas are computer repair and landscaping. The center’s training rooms have versatile workstations with outlets for computers or other devices.

Visiting in the gym

Another feature of the center is a multipurpose gymnasium, which also will serve as the family visitation center for minors in Juvenile Hall and the commitment facility. Staff will screen visitors in the lobby and then escort them to tables in the visitation area. The system should prevent contraband from being passed to minors, officials said.

By reducing the population in Juvenile Hall, the county plans to move 28 staff positions to the new center. Juvenile Hall also is used for overnight stays for young offenders who are arrested and others who are waiting for court dates.

At one time, a minor with multiple convictions for car theft could be sent to a state youth detention center. But youth offenders are now the responsibility of counties, except for those found guilty of the most serious crimes such as murder or rape.

Silva said the county has sent some minors to out-of-state group homes if the court has ordered them separated from their families and they couldn’t be placed in local group homes. Some of them could be returned to benefit from services at the new commitment center.

The Stanislaus center will house up to 45 boys and as many as 15 girls in separate units.

To design and build the center, the county was awarded $18 million from the state and used $6 million in local matching funds. The project was completed more than $2 million under budget.

Bee staff writer Ken Carlson can be reached at kcarlson@modbee.com or (209) 578-2321.

By Susan Schrock

sschrock@star-telegram.com

ARLINGTON — Senior housing, a grocery store, sidewalk improvements and banners that celebrate the New York Avenue area’s history and international diversity are among ideas in a draft plan aimed at revitalizing east Arlington’s “downtown.”

Last year, Arlington approved a $131,000 contract with consultants to identify redevelopment opportunities and infrastructure improvements designed to lure new private investment along the New York Avenue corridor.

After hearing from a 20-member advisory group and local stakeholders the past few months, the consultants have drafted a vision for the aging area that outlines economically feasible residential and commercial projects for the area as well as aesthetic and safety improvements, such as landscaping and better sidewalks.

“It’s been really evident and clear that this has truly been a community-led project. We’ve got a lot of really great feedback,” said Alicia Winkelblech, the city’s transportation planning manager. “Our consultant team is trying to be true to the things we heard in that vision. It’s an exciting project.”

An Arlington City Council committee is scheduled to begin reviewing recommendations Tuesday, though the full council is not expected to vote on the final corridor plan until September. A final public hearing on the draft strategy before it goes to Planning and Zoning Commission and council is set for June 1.

Increased property values

Efforts are being focused on the area bordered by Abram Street to the north, Arkansas Lane to the south, Browning Drive to the west and Sherry Street to the east. That area, considered by some as east Arlington’s downtown, serves as a key north-south link between Interstate 20 and the entertainment district, Great Southwest Industrial District and General Motors Assembly Plant, project manager Douglas McDonald said.

Besides improvements that include landscaping, street trees and a new sidewalk along the eastern edge of New York Avenue, the consultants have recommended installing banners or flags that highlight both the international diversity and the community’s heyday in the 1950s and 1960s after the opening of the General Motors plant.

Consultants have also identified three areas for possible redevelopment that, if realized, could add an estimated $75 million to the property values in the area.

Possible projects at the corner of New York and Abram include a new grocery store and loft apartments with retail and office space on the ground floor. That area has some mid-century homes that have been converted into commercial use.

“All of the uses identified have very strong backing from consultants doing market analysis. They have really looked at the market,” Winkelblech said.

New housing recommended

At New York and Park Row Drive, the consultants have suggested more mixed-use development that would include residential space as well as restaurants, shops and doctors’ offices. This area has also been identified as a good location for the proposed combination of the east Arlington branch library and the Hugh Smith Recreation Center, a project the city is considering.

Stakeholders have also said they would like to see town homes marketed for older residents in this area, replacing some of the existing apartment complexes. At New York and Pioneer Parkway, consultants suggest building new assisted-living senior housing and making improvements to the existing shopping areas by attracting new businesses and improving building facades.

“A lot of the residents have lived there since GM opened up. They have been there since the ’50s and ’60s. They want to stay in east Arlington, but there are no options for them,” McDonald said.

Luring that private development, though, may require to the city to invest $1 of public funds for every $5.50 spent, the consultants wrote in their report to the council.

This report contains material from the Star-Telegram archives.

Susan Schrock, 817-709-7578

Twitter@susanschrock