Someone Made a Movie About Dirt? Why??

The Center for the Environment at Catawba College and Salisbury’s Bread Riot will host a screening of “Dirt! The Movie” followed by a panel discussion on Thursday, March 1, at the Center facility on the Catawba campus.

Bread Riot, a non-profit food advocacy organization dedicated to “facilitating a supply of locally produced food utilizing sustainable farming practices,” will offer a “tasting” of local foods at 6 p.m. The movie will begin at 6:45 p.m.

“Dirt! The Movie,” an award winning film directed by Bill Benenson and Gene Rosow, was inspired by William Bryant Logan’s acclaimed book “Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth.”

The film looks at the history and current state of soil. The movie’s website notes that dirt “recycles our water, gives us food, provides us shelter and can be used as a source of medicine, beauty and culture.” While destructive methods of agriculture, mining practices and urban development have endangered the natural resource, the film points out that visionaries throughout the world are coming together to repair the soil.

Panelists will discuss the movie after the screening. Those on the panel include Jim Graham, farmer and former Davidson County commissioner; Amy Hoffner of Hoffner Farms, a certified organic dairy in Mount Ulla; Aaron Newton, local food system program coordinator for Cabarrus County; Dennis Testerman, manager of Cabarrus County Soil and Water; Sarah Moore, farmer and student environmental leader at Catawba; and facilitator John Wear, executive director of the Center for the Environment. Click here to register.

County Offers Community Garden Space

Need a Garden Space and Maybe Assistance to Show You How?  Rare opportunity available for adults interested in developing and participating in new community garden at Cabarrus County’s Elma C. Lomax Farm. Potential participants are asked to meet Wednesday, February 22, 1:30 p.m. at 3445 Atando Road, Concord, 28025 at farm office. Proposed community garden co-located with commercial program at incubator farm with full-sun  10’ x 10’ garden plots to grow vegetables for non-commercial production. Lease price $32 for 32 weeks which includes: initial tillage if requested; irrigation; fence for deer protection; opportunity to network with other gardeners; access to restroom; and being a part of Elma C. Lomax experience.  For information, contact David Goforth, Horticultural Extension Agent, N.C. Cooperative Extension-Cabarrus County Center at 704/920-3320 for email djgoforth@cabarruscounty.us.

Cooperative Christian Ministry Celebrates 30th Birthday

Last Friday night Cooperative Christian Ministry held a birthday party at Hotel Concord to celebrate 30 years of service to residents in Cabarrus and Southern Rowan Counties. The first office that CCM opened was in Kannapolis on Main Street in 1985 . Churches in Concord and Kannapolis came together to create the ministry in an effort to meet the needs of those in the community who asked churches for help during challenging times. Not only have churches partnered with CCM but so has the Salvation Army through the Soup Kitchen and the YMCA and Independent Tribune through the Empty Stocking Fund at Christmastime. CCM was instrumental in providing assistance to those who lost their jobs because of the Pillowtex layoff in 2003, the largest such layoff in the history of North Carolina. As fate would have it, one of the employees that lost their job during this time, Mr. Ed Hosack, would end up as the Executive Director of the organization. Ed is a Kannapolis resident. The ministry has branched out into other programs like My Father’s House; providing families with temporary emergency housing; the Teaching House program, providing transitional housing; and Mothers & Children Housing Ministry providing temporary housing for mom’s and small children at high risk for losing their homes. The City of Kannapolis has also partnered with CCM in the revitalization project in the Carver Community. A.L. Brown and Concord High School students support CCM by way of their canned food collection competition held prior to the teams annual meet up on the gridiron. CCM’s involvement in Kannapolis Kares Day is one of the reasons the event has been a success.

If you have free time and would like to help improve the quality of life for those in our community who are less fortunate, click here to contact them and see where your talents can be of service, or stop by their office at 246 Country Club Drive, Concord. CCM has truly made a difference in the lives of many of our area residents through Ed’s leadership, great staff members, many dedicated and caring volunteers and generous financial supporters. Congratulations Ed and CCM!

Summer Air Quality Study Results Released

Dr. Cindy Hauser of Davidson College discusses information accumulated during the air quality study conducted this summer covering seven counties. Dr. Hauser worked in conjunction with the Center for the Environment.

If you have been a subscriber to this blog for a while, you know that I have written several posts about our air quality and here is another one! Why do I keep harping on air quality? The primary reason is that it affects our health in ways many people don’t know about.

For instance, there is a direct correlation to incidences of asthma and other lung ailments if you live close to a congested and well traveled part of town like a busy intersection or near an interstate. When the summer Olympics were held in Atlanta, the course for the runners was closed to traffic for weeks prior to the event to basically clean the air. Statistics showed that people living in the route area who suffered from breathing maladies experienced substantially less trips to the ER than the same time the year before.

Ever driven through a roundabout? Most people in the US do not like them because they are foreign to us here, but, not only do they reduce the incidence of wrecks involving T-boning incidents but they improve air quality because drivers don’t have to stop and idle their cars and idling is one of the main causes of poor air quality. (Please cut off your engine if you have to sit for more than 10 seconds!)

Dr. Cindy Hauser from Davidson College addressed over 100 people in attendance at the Center for the Environment on Thursday night to share her findings from air quality data taken during the summer by a few of her students and volunteers from the Center.

The Center's Director, Dr. John Wear, moderates the panel discussion with Dr. Chris Magryta, Robert Van Goens, Dakeita Vanderburg-Johnson, Rebecca Yarbrough and Dr. Hauser.

Mecklenburg and Rowan Counties are sites for NC Division of Air Quality ozone monitors and these counties have some of the worst ground-level ozone in the nation, as determined by the American Lung Association. The study wanted to determine if the surrounding counties without monitors had comparable air quality. Sample collectors were placed in York County, SC along with Gaston, Iredell, Davidson, and Cabarrus counties. The results showed that ozone levels were similar if not higher than in Mecklenburg and Rowan. That means that if I live in Iredell County and hear on the news that it is an ozone red alert day for Charlotte, I need to understand that I should heed that warning as well and not assume that only Mecklenburg County is affected.

Representatives from five government entities were present-Gaston County, Salisbury, Cabarrus County, Kannapolis and Concord, to understand how the air quality study findings impacts their areas. Charles Davis, ozone chemist for the NC Division of Air Quality in Raleigh, was also in attendance.

After the presentation by Dr. Hauser was complete, a panel took questions. The panel consisted of Dr. Chris Magryta of Salisbury Pediatrics, Robert Van Goens of Rowan WORKS and the Salisbury-Rowan Economic Development Commission, Dakeita Vanderburg-Jackson of Healthy Cabarrus and Rebecca Yarbrough of the Centralina Council of Governments.

Dr. Magryta spoke about the toxins that we breath in as a result of poor air quality, especially particulate matter. He recommended that people eat fresh fruits and vegetables, organic if possible, to combat the environmental toxins that enter our bodies. Van Goens addressed how poor air quality impacts site selection when companies are looking for property.

One audience member asked about the many coal burning plants we have regionally and how that impacts our air quality. Another gentleman spoke incredulously about how poor his air quality was in Davidson County.

Air Quality Discussion at the Center for the Environment

Sadly air quality in Rowan, Cabarrus, Iredell, Davidson, Mecklenburg and Gaston counties in North Carolina and York County in South Carolina are comparable to those around interstates and businesses. Most people are shocked to know that the Charlotte-Gastonia-Salisbury region ranks 10th in the nation for the worst ozone pollution, as stated in the 2011 State of the Air Report released by the American Lung Association.

From the American Lung Association website: Ozone is a powerful oxidant that can burn our lungs and airways, causing them to become inflamed, reddened, and swollen. Children, teenagers, senior citizens, and people with lung diseases like asthma, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and others are particularly vulnerable to the health effects of ozone. Ozone exposure may lead to shortness of breath, chest pain, wheezing and coughing, increased risk of asthma attacks, and even premature death.

If you want to hear more about our air quality, plan to attend a presentation at Catawba College’s Center for the Environment at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 19, entitled “Air Pollution in our Backyards.”

A panel discussion involving the medical community, local government and educators will follow a presentation by Dr. Cindy Hauser of Davidson College. The event is free and open to the public. To register click here.

In August the Center hosted Dr. David Peden, a UNC Chapel Hill professor of Pediatrics, Medicine, Microbiology/Immunology and Toxicology, who directs the university’s Center for Environmental Medicine, Asthma and Lung Biology. To read more about his presentation on how poor air quality impacts our health directly, click here.

The Center has been a leader in educating residents about air quality and have partnered with schools, businesses and other organizations to get the word out about how to make it better. Their gas cap check initiative is about educating car owners that under-inflated tires, loose gas caps and improperly tuned engines impact gas mileage along with the air we breathe.

Last year the Center’s Sheila Armstrong worked with Kannapolis Middle School teacher Michele Pitts on an air quality study at the school focused on how idling while waiting to pick up students diminishes the air quality surrounding the school. Pitts is a charter member of the City’s Environmental Stewardship Commission and is the coordinator for the academically and intellectually gifted program at the middle school. Armstrong, leading the Center’s Campaign for Clean Air, supplied a  “No Idling Toolkit” for Pitt’s students to use.

Her students determined that cars idled for over six minutes each. They also worked in concert with science teacher Josh Clemmons. Fortunately, what they were doing with air quality fit nicely into the state’s science curriculum and analyzing the data fit well with the math curriculum.

Pitts thinks it is most important to implement the no idling study each year and expose other students to the concerns about our air quality. “The education of our children is imperative to changing the mindset,” she said.

Clean Out Those Old Electronic Items and Paper Files

Did you receive a new phone as a Christmas present? Purchase a new DVD player with Christmas money? Wondering what to do with the item you replaced? I have good news for you!

Clean up after the holidays and recycle those old electronic items during Kannapolis’ E-Cycling Day on Saturday, January 14. Drop off electronic items at the Old Kannapolis Post Office on the corner of Vance St. and Dale Earnhardt Blvd. from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Electronics have been banned from North Carolina landfills and aren’t picked up by curbside recycling, so don’t miss this chance to properly dispose of bulky electronic items. Visit the city website for a complete list of electronics that can be recycled on Jan. 14.

The City will also provide paper shredding free of charge along with electronics recycling.

Time Again for the City’s Citizens Academy

2011 Citizens Academy Participants

If you are interested in learning more about how your city operates, you should complete an application for the City of Kannapolis’ Citizens Academy. The academy gives city residents the opportunity to hear presentations from department heads about the nuts and bolts of managing their departments. Participants walk away with a better understanding of city operations. Sixteen residents will make up the class of 2012. At present the class is over half full. You have until January 9 to submit an application. Click here to find the application on-line and to read more details about the academy which begins Tuesday, February 7 and lasts for eight weeks. You will also find photos of last year’s academy presentations. A free evening meal is included as part of the academy which convenes at 6 p.m. and lasts for two hours. You may contact me at rgoodnight@cityofkannapolis.com or 704-920-4311 with any questions.

City Offices Holidays and Garbage Collection Schedule

City Hall and all other city offices will be closed on Dec. 23, Dec. 26 and Jan. 2 to observe the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. There will be no change to the garbage, loose leaf and yard waste, and recycling collection schedule.

A Glimpse Back

If you are a history buff, I have two things of interest for you….

First are films that offer a glimpse back into the Kannapolis of 1941 shot by Mr. H. Lee Waters. Mr Waters traveled around the south during the Great Depression filming the daily lives of people in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee. Fortunately he stopped in Kannapolis giving us a permanent account of a day in the life way back when. The films are in two parts: click here and here to view both.

Kannapolis, A Pictorial History is again on sale. The book is over 300 hundred pages containing more than 500 black and white images spanning over 100 years of Kannapolis history.  You may purchase a copy at the Customer Service Center located at 234 Dale Earnhardt Blvd. for $30.00. It makes a great Christmas present!

Global Hunger Research in Kannapolis

Dr. Mary Ann Lila, Director of the N.C. State University Plants for Human Health Institute, received a $100,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help with her research that combines fruit nutrients with flour. “So this technology allows us to take the fruits, take the other grains put one inside the other with our process and make an ingredient that’s easy to make and deliver to the rural villages,” explained Dr. Lila. The vision for this process is to help feed undernourished people in third world countries with important nutrients that are often absent from their diets. For more details about the new technology, click here.