Gary's City Hall may have a gray limestone facade, but soon it may reap green benefits, along with others areas on its northeast side.
With $250,000 from a 2014 Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Shoreline Cities grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Gary plans to trap rain water off City Hall to keep it from washing into sewers and contaminating Lake Michigan. In addition, improvements will begin at City Centre Plaza, a green space south of City Hall where the Sheraton Hotel once stood.
Brenda Scott-Henry, director of the city's Green Urbanism/Environmental Affairs department, said a couple rain gardens will be created to capture rain water from the downspout disconnection at City Hall.
She said the building's parking lot on the south side will be reconfigured with a rain garden placed where cars are now parked. Construction is expected to start in August.
Meanwhile, workers from the U.S. Geological Survey are setting up a baseline monitoring system that includes 20-foot wells and a weather station outside City Hall so they can determine how effective the green infrastructure is working once it's installed.
Ryan Adams, of the USGS, said the weather station contains sensors to show how water in the parking lot is collected. The four wells being installed will show how the water table is affected. "We should see higher levels," he said.
The 10-foot tower will track barometric pressure, rainfall and solar activity. Information from the installations will be beamed to geologists to a website.
The monitoring will continue for three years, until the grant expires.
"We want to keep water out of the storm drains," said USGS project director Dave Lampe. "The EPA has tasked us to look at how effective it will be. We'll get a baseline now and then measure again."
Lampe said he hoped the installations would be up and running this week.
Similar projects have been undertaken in Detroit and Cleveland.
The city has combined its $250,000 EPA grant with $83,000 from the city's Redevelopment Department and a $168,000 grant from the Cleveland Botanical Garden to undertake "Vacant to Vibrant" projects in 15 city-owned parking lots in the Aetna, Emerson, Miller and Horace Mann neighborhoods.
It's trained about 10 residents to install bioswales, rain gardens, and permeable pavement to capture and filter stormwater before it reaches the city's sewer system.
The city is planting 21 trees along the eastern side of City Centre Plaza to serve as a border.
Scott-Henry said she's still looking for funding to finance the plaza's second phase that includes an amphitheater, public safety memorial garden, a walking path and benches.