We believe Edgewater’s new Civic Center can be built sustainably.
We are bringing together fellow citizens who share our concern about the current plans for this building that do not reflect the values of our City.

The following timeline demonstrates some of our concerns:

August 18th:
The City held an Open House where citizens were shown an early model of the building. At this time, two citizens of Edgewater who are also employees of the National Renewable Energy Lab noticed this initial model did not reflect the enthusiasm for sustainability that was being discussed by Council and City employees. Based on the current plans, the building will cost $41,000 annually in utility expenses to heat, cool and run the building with primarily coal fired power.

November 8th:
82% of Edgewater citizens voted for 2B allowing our City to construct a new Civic Center including the library, city offices, police station and rec center without raising or imposing new taxes. In other words, the tax revenue from our marijuana industry has made this project possible.  

December 21st:
The City sent the Request for Proposal (RFP) out four days before Christmas on December 21st asking for proposals from architects based on this initial build model with a deadline of January 13th. This happened despite the Edgewater Echo's timeline post and being informed by Mayor Kris Teegardin that the RFP would be sent out in January.

January 5th:
At this City Council meeting, it was announced that the RFP had been sent out on December 21st with a deadline of January 13th. (Industry average for RFP’s are 4-6 weeks, rather than 23 days over a holiday season.) This was the first time citizens saw the RFP.

February 2nd: (Coming this Thursday- join us to state your concerns there!)
The City Council will be meeting at 7pm to consider and possibly award the Architect for this project based on an RFP without guarantees for energy efficiency, and without community input or a public vote from Council.

The selected firm will create the first 20% of the project. During which time, the community will be allowed to give feedback.  However, the RFP already sets the most important design goals for the Civic Center. Sustainability should not be an afterthought, but an up front goal for our Civic Center.

We all share the desire to see the Civic Center built, however the RFP does not reflect an effort to construct a building that starts with our community’s health and the environment in mind. Upgrading efficiency later in the project is a costly mistake that will lead to future retrofits. 

Energy efficiency in buildings is already a popular cost saving strategy for tens of thousands of other public buildings. Why not ours!?

Throughout this timeline, a few citizens have been in touch with City Council and City Management through both individual meetings and public Council Meetings. 
On January 29th, they sent this letter to Council which details more information.

Our efforts are not enough, the City needs to hear from more voices.
The City needs to hear from YOU!   
If you believe in this, stand up for Edgewater and make your voice heard.

By signing this petition, you are asking City Council to put sustainability guarantees into a new and revised RFP.