OUR NEW DISCOUNTED NOPEC ELECTRICITY GENERATOR (SUPPLIER) IS

GEXA ENERGY

If you received a letter from First Energy, DON’T BE CONFUSED, and IF YOU WANT TO RECEIVE THE DISCOUNT, DON’T DO ANYTHING. DO NOT OPT OUT.

First Energy will still deliver it through the wires, and bill you, and maintain the power lines and provide emergency service. But the actual electricity will be coming from Gexa, and their rates for the supply portion of the bill will be lower than if you stay with First Energy as supplier. 

But only if you don’t “opt out.” If you have opted out already, during that 21-day window, because you didn't understand the ridiculously confusing letter, you can opt back in, at no charge, at any time.

If, for some reason you want to continue to have First Energy both generate and deliver your power, then you can opt out, but you need to do it within 21 days from the date on the letter you received, and you will pay more. If you wait until after the 21 days to opt out of the NOPEC deal, you’ll pay a $25 exit fee.

For MORE INFORMATION AND ANSWERS, go to
www.gexaenergy.com/NOPEC/

Or you can call Councilwoman Goodman at 216-291-0442.

NOTE: Gexa Energy gets a portion of the electricity it supplies through WIND energy, a source that is not only clean but renewable, as opposed to dirty, polluting and non-renewable coal (there is no such thing as “clean coal.”) Ohio, especially northeast ohio, is developing a major industry making the turbines and steel poles for wind energy, which is already starting to bring green jobs to the region and will make us the center of this new industry. If we can make cars, we can make wind generators. So staying with NOPEC and Gexa is supporting green jobs in northeast Ohio!

SUPPORT OUR HOME-BASED BUSINESSES

South Euclid is a home-based-business-friendly community, and I mean to keep it that way. We have so many hard-working, talented people in our city, and with the economy barely moving, it's important that we help people prosper. I started HomeBase, the Homebased Business Association of South Euclid, to help people do business with their neighbors.

We have artists and writers, landscapers, appliance repair people, painters, Mary Kay ladies, accountants, party planners and PR people and so many more professions! 

I need your help! I want to promote your business. Do you have a home-based business you'd like your neighbors to patronize? Download the form from http://www.homebizsoutheuclid.com and send it to me, fax it to 216-291-4323 or put the information in an email to janegood@jgoodworks.com and we'll get you in the directory!

RAINBARRELS!
CLICK HERE for a list of places to get recycled plastic drums.

NINE MILE CREEK WETLAND

CLICK HERE for info and a pictorial progress report on the Langerdale Retention Basin project.

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SUSTAINABILITY SUMMIT SETS STAGE FOR A NO-WASTE FUTURE

Imagine a world where every single thing thing that's made can either be recycled or composted, and where any "waste" or byproduct is actually the raw materials for another product or process. Nothing is waste, and since this loop is endless, and closed, we don't have to drill or mine or dig for nonrenewable resources. And we're not using up those resources so that they aren't available if future generations need them. That's the vision of sustainability. The traditional definition is: "to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

I spent three days at the Cleveland 2019 Sustainability Summit last week, working with 700 other people from all kinds of backgrounds and businesses to fashion a ten-year plan to make Greater Cleveland the country's leading green, sustainable economy. That means a whole slew of new jobs building, installing and maintaining alternative energy systems as small as a treadmill-powered TV and as large as a windmill farm on Lake Erie. It means a local food system that doesn't rely on shipments of goods from other continents to meet our basic needs all year 'round. It means new technologies and tech jobs devising fuel efficient transportation systems, energy monitoring meters and all kinds of innovative packaging and delivery systems. Imagine the possibilities.

 I was at the Summit to see what other local governments were doing to bring these new ideas and new initiatives to their cities. I found that there were only a few elected officials present, and it turns out that South Euclid is, indeed, leading the way. One of the most important points made there was that sometimes governments' best strategy to move things forward is to get out of the way and allow innovation to happen. That's what we did with rainbarrels and pervious paving...we removed the obstacles in our building and housing codes to allow these best practices.

So, of course I'm going to nudge the folks at Coral Co. to include all possible sustainable practices in the new Cedar Center, and I'll be introducing legislation to add provisions for wind-generation of energy on both the small and large scale, so if someone wants to install a wind-generation system they don't have to jump through hoops, we'll be ready for that (and solar, too.) Stay tuned!

CEDAR CENTER...MORE THAN JUST A SHOPPING CENTER

Tonight at Council meeting we passed a measure giving Mayor Welo the go-ahead to sign the development agreement with Coral Co., finally setting in motion the redevelopment phase of the project. That will start the clock on getting preliminary site plans for where buildings and sewers and power and water and such will go. Then come the design plans, and the planning commission review period and architectural review board and public hearings (which require advance notification times) and in the meantime the site gets decontaminated and readied for building.

It's really exciting, not just because we'll have neat new restaurants and retail, greenspace and such, but because of what this development will do to make the whole southeast corner of our city a magnet for new residents looking to be part of a revitalized neighborhood and city, and a reason for longtime residents to stay.

We usually think of economic development as only having to do with commercial projects or office space, and the actual CC property will lead with those elements.

But the financial investment and incentives being directed toward green building and sustainable housing and energy projects like the ones we're gearing up to bring to the neighborhoods north and east of CC provide a fantastic opportunity to make updating our housing stock and our neighborhoods a new economic driver.

People want roomier, more convenient homes than what we have in "bungalowville." We can make those houses not only more user-friendly but also greener, more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly, all of which make them more marketable.

So when I say I want to improve our neighborhoods, this is one of the ways I mean to do it – green updates and community gardens and elbow room to spread out a little. I think we could make this area the place to go to see all the new green technologies and materials and designs. And as the work gets done, contractors learn and train workers in green jobs, putting up solar cells and installing geothermal heating/cooling systems and rooftop windcatchers.

The timing couldn't be more perfect, now that CC is gaining speed just as the demand for sustainable housing is starting to take off.

I know, it seems like we've been at this Cedar Center project a while. We have been. Previous Councils and administrations have been, too. There was a lot of groundwork to be done to get us just to this point. It also seems like you can't take one step forward without first passing some seemingly-disconnected legislation that the state or county or federal government requires us to have in place that gives us the legal right to take that step. In other words, a lot of the legislation couldn't be passed until we first passed other legislation – designations, declarations, it's mind-boggling.

And, of course, if you want to use OPM (other people's money) for basic infrastructure improvements, and we do, there are more forms and layers of legislation that have to be on our books before we can go to this funder or that agency for money to pay for things like removing asbestos or cleaning up contaminated soil where a dry cleaner's use to be. Buying the properties, negotiating with dozens of owners, took years. Waiting for tenants to find new space took more. Careful demolition, environmental cleanup and site prep, going on now, takes more. But you can see, it's happening.

The new Cedar Center might not be as grand as our grandest wishes for it were a few years ago, when the market and the economy were robust. And it won't all happen at once, as it might have done back then. Under the current economic circumstances, it will come in phases, first restaurants and retail, and residences will come last. It will give us time to work on the neighborhood revival. Time is on our side.