Iola’s Take Charge! Challenge team gained some ground on its competition Thursday night after 60 people listened to USD 257 Superintendent of Schools Brian Pekarek lay out his vision for making Iola schools as energy efficient as possible.
The challenge, hosted by the Climate and Energy Project and the Kansas Energy Office, is a competition among 16 cities in four regions of the state to see which can do the most to save energy and promote energy efficiency. Each regional winner receives $100,000 to be used for a renewable energy or energy efficiency project. The competitors get credit for offering informational seminars to the public.
Pekarek, hired by the district in February, was named the Kansas Association of Conservation & Environmental Education 2011 Rising Star; so it was mutually beneficial to bring the new community member in to share his experiences with the community, said Becky Nilges, Iola’s Take Charge! Challenge team leader.
While superintendent of schools at the Clifton-Clyde school district, Pekarek helped bring a wind turbine, compost tumblers and solar panels to USD 224.
“We do these things, not because of green energy, it’s because of jobs,” Pekarek said, citing a study conducted by former Lt. Gov. Troy Findley indicating one in every six Kansas jobs will be tied to green energy by 2025.
Nilges said the informational meet and greet session not only gave the community a chance to hear Pekarek’s vision, it added to the team’s point total in the competition.
“We got points for everyone who came, and it was encouraging to see such a diverse group,” she said referring to the wide age range in attendance.
As of today, Iola is in third place behind Chanute and Fort Scott, according to the Take Charge! Challenge website, but Iola does lead in the community engagement category.
If Iola is able to move into first place by Sept. 30, Nilges said the $100,000 prize would be used to make recycling something that’s easy for the community to do. Currently, Iola residents have to travel out of town to recycle anything other than aluminum cans and newspapers.
Although not set in stone, the city has a fluid plan to spend the potential prize money on recycling trucks, trailers or balers to sort recyclable material to help with recycling accessibility.
Take Charge! Challenge gets the word out
