- project leader
- Lois K
- location
-
21 W Church StreetNew Jersey
- latest update rss
- The Dig is on! Thursday, May 26th; Planting on May 27th
the project
Help make us “Green and Envied”
This past fall, Joyce Kilmer’s 16 member "Science of Soil (SOS)" club evaluated soil quality on our campus. We were quite surprised to find the quality of soil as FAIR given the predominant “bald spots” on our fields. It turns out our problem is soil compaction! Given the field’s heavy use, and poor drainage, rain creates extended periods where students cannot use the field for gym or recess. Much of the precipitation ends up further eroding our sloping front yard and running off into the street where it pushes fertilizer and chemicals into the water basin.
We want to do our part to help sustain our piece of earth through a series of “Green with Envy” initiatives. Our first goal is focused on redirecting water in the front of the school back into our school garden. Specifically it would help in our dream to build a small but strategically placed rain garden. An analysis by Rutgers Cooperative Extension indicates that an 1,100 ft bio retention system placed in front of our school could redirect 110,631 gal of storm water captured and treated each year. A double win for Milltown’s storm basin as well as the students of Joyce Kilmer!
the steps
- Rent tilling equipment and secure rain garden materials (rocks, piping, mulch, plants)
- Coordinate community volunteers to work with students to build garden
- Prepare signage campaign to redirect foot traffic
why we're doing it
The primary cause of the pollution, flooding, and erosion problems is the quantity of impervious surfaces draining directly to local waterways. New Jersey is one of the most developed states in the country. Currently, the state has the highest percent of impervious cover in the country at 12.1% of its total area (Nowak & Greenfield, 2012).
Based upon the 2007 NJDEP land use/land cover data, approximately 40.9% of Milltown Borough has impervious cover!
Milltown Borough can reduce flooding and improve its waterways by better managing stormwater runoff from impervious surfaces. One relatively inexpensive step we can take is to build a strategically placed rain garden in front of Joyce Kilmer school. This impervious cover assessment is the first step toward better managing stormwater runoff. Will you help us?
budget
Updated budget:
Estimated Cost: The rain garden on the property is priced at $5/ft2 based on analysis completed in November 2014 by Rutgers Cooperative Extension Water Resources Program. This will fund a 1,000 ft2 garden at the front of the school on West Church Street.
| RAISED = | $4,617.00 |
| less ioby Platform Fee | $35.00 |
| less ioby Donation Processing Fee (3%) | $133.46 |
| TOTAL TO DISBURSE = | $4,448.54 |
Original budget:
Estimated Cost: The rain garden on the property is priced at $5/ft2 based on analysis completed in November 2014 by Rutgers Cooperative Extension Water Resources Program. This will fund a 1,000 ft2 garden at the front of the school on West Church Street.
| SUBTOTAL = | $5,000 |
| ioby Platform Fee | $35 |
| ioby Donation Processing Fee (3%) | $150 |
| TOTAL TO RAISE = | $5,185 |
updates
The Dig is on! Thursday, May 26th; Planting on May 27th
Posted 05/18/2016 - 1:51pm
Wow! Its been a busy couple of weeks. Milltown Boro, Rutgers and our facility manager, Cyril Boco have set the date of May 26th for our garden dig. The following day, students from our Green Club will join Rutgers interns to plant our perenial garden. We hope to have our garden in place just before the 8th grade dance!
On the crowd funding front, a big thanks to the many donors who helped us reach our goal to receive the full $2,000 matching grant from PSEG. This coupled with an extremely successful HATJAMA day (hats and/or pjs) held at both Joyce Kilmer and Parkview Schools raised another $550! Relaxing in PJs at school was for a very good cause.
Feel free to stop by and check out our new garden in early June!
Hats off to all the help!
Posted 05/04/2016 - 9:47pm
As we enter the final week of our PSEG matching campaign, its amazing to see help coming in from so many channels. Members from our business community have been generous with money and in-kind donations. School fundraisers at both Joyce Kilmer and Parkview showed school pride and an appreciation for our environment.
Our Rutgers engineers were by this week to scope out the plans for our new cistern. This water storage system will help keep our vegetable and rain garden hydrated this summer. Too bad we didn't have it in place this week given our weather! Milltown Boro is coordinating with Rutgers for our "dig".
Stay tuned for further details on installation dates!
Rutgers and Milltown DPW join forces!
Posted 04/07/2016 - 9:29pm
Rutgers Cooperative Extension and Milltown's Department of Public Works have signed on to help "Green and Envied" become a reality. Representatives from Boro, Rutgers and Joyce Kilmer met recently to outline plans for a rain garden to be installed on the West Church Street side of the school. Rutgers will train Boro DPW employees as well as volunteers how to build the garden for future installations. Additionally, a cistern will be installed to collect rain from the school's roof which will be redirected to our existing garden.
Our yard will truly be the talk of the town!
Won't you consider joining our team through a financial donation while our dollar for dollar grant with PSEG is still in effect? The deadline of May 6th is just a month away. Your help would mean so much to Joyce Kilmer students and the community.
Way to Go Milltown! Won't you join our team?
Posted 03/15/2016 - 1:19pm
Its March ...and with the brackets posted ...don't you want to be part of a winning team? Please consider donating to Green and Envied!
After just two weeks, "Green and Envied" is off to a fantastic start. Thank you to our early contributors for your generosity. In addition to the postings now noted on-line, we raised $200 at our March Madness event. Look for buckets to donate at our Variety Show performances this coming weekend.
A special shout out to those families who forward on our request to their co-workers. Helping reduce stormwater runoff helps more than the students of Joyce Kilmer - this project truly is helping our community
photos
This is where photos will go once we build flickr integrationdonors
-
Anonymous
-
MPS
-
Anonymous
-
Anonymous
-
Anonymous
-
Karen Y.
-
Francesco restaurant
-
Allison Mulch
-
Milltown Pharmacy
-
Milltown PTA
-
Borough of Milltown Fourth of July Committee
-
HHP Enterprises LLC
-
Big Country LLC
-
Kelly & Company
-
Milltown Public Schools Student Activity
-
Nicole W.
-
School Fundraiser
-
Darks Corporation T/A Legends
-
Sally Miller LLC
-
Crabiel Funeral Home
-
The Yatsko Family
-
Milltown School Fundraiser
-
Christine L.
-
Kristen L.
-
Laura B.
-
Catia S.
-
William P.
-
Kimberly M.
-
Anonymous
-
Jodi C.
-
Emily R.
-
March Madness
-
Christina O.
-
Renyldo T.
-
Andrea and Michael C.
-
Penny L.
-
Collen C.
-
P. Paladino
-
Marianne and Mathew T.
-
Diane C.
-
Melissa and Theodore V.
-
Sheryl and Lawrence C.
-
The Reed Family
-
Bergondo Family
-
Ryan Family
-
Shawna Hastings
-
Margaret O.
-
Cathy P.
-
Diem Family
-
Kathleen M.
-
The Rathmill Family
-
Proud Resident of Milltown
-
The Viola Family
-
The Abrams Family
-
Barbara Santoro
-
Abby and Charlie Johnson
-
Jaclyn C.
-
Dr. Brown
-
Mrs. Wright
-
Friend of Science of Soil Club
Conversation
03/07/2016 - 9:12pm lkraus project leader