Take a swing at energy savings and enter a drawing to win two tickets to a Seattle Mariners game by visiting learning about weatherization rebates on Chelan County PUD’s website.

The game is with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday, June 9. Seating is in Section 141 near the third baseline, and the prize includes a parking pass.

To be eligible, you must be a Chelan County PUD customer age 18 or older. The deadline to enter is noon Friday, June 1. One entry per customer, please. (PUD employees and their immediate family are not eligible for this drawing.)

Chelan PUD offers cash incentives to customers who add insulation and install energy-efficient windows and glass doors. Stay cooler in summer, warmer in winter, and save all year long on your energy bills by insulating and updating old windows in your home. 

Information and the ticket entry form is here. Questions? Call (509) 661-8008.

Add energy-saving insulation now -- it's no fun to be in your attic in August.

While you’re sprucing up your yard and home this spring, remember the stuff you can’t see. No, not the dust mites! Insulation! Extra insulation keeps your home cooler in the summer, warmer in the winter, and saves on energy bills.

Chelan County PUD makes it easier by offering homeowners a cash incentive of 25 cents per square foot of new or added insulation that improves the energy efficiency of a home. That means homeowners save 25 percent on the cost of insulating. And the savings continue — statistics show homeowners save about 10 percent on electric bills after sealing air leaks and insulating.

Do the work yourself or hire a contractor, but do it soon — it’s no fun to climb into an attic in August.

Details are available on the PUD website or by calling (509) 661-8008. If you’re in the market for new windows, the PUD has rebates for those, too.

Drought-tolerant Coreopsis in bloom

Are you paying through the hose to water your lawn and garden? You can have big, beautiful blooms without using lots of water. Begin now by choosing drought-tolerant plants to create your Xeriscape (low-water-use) garden.

Chelan County PUD publishes a full-color brochure featuring more than 70 flowering plants and grasses that grow well in our region. The brochure is available at PUD offices and at the Riverfront Park Demonstration Garden. The garden is a cooperative effort of the PUD and WSU Chelan County Master Gardeners, who design, cultivate and maintain this showcase landscape.

The PUD website includes a database of Xeriscape plants searchable by name, color and season. Once you’ve visited the garden you can plan your own using this guide.

Personal favorites: Check out festive Gay Feather, bright yellow Coreopsis, and the elegant Karl Foerster ornamental grass.

…a city lovely without trees.

Urban horticulturist Paula Dinius presents a seminar on “Trees and Urban Infrastructure” Thursday, May 10, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Rocky Reach Visitor Center theater. The session is geared to landscapers and arborists but open as well to people who just like trees and want to learn more about them.

As Dinius points out, a city without trees is hotter in summer, receives less rainfall, has greater runoff following storms, has fewer shoppers and is simply uninviting.  Trees are planted  to increase the “urban forest canopy,” she says, yet more impervious surfaces continue to be constructed, challenging the tree-planting efforts.  Dinius aims to give trees a fair shake, helping others understand tree architecture, urban soils, proper design of tree spaces and tree selection.

The fee is $10, and continuing education credits are available. Register through the WSU Chelan County Extension office, 400 Washington St.,  (509) 667-6540. Dinius can be reached at pdinius@wsu.edu or (509) 667-6540.

Pybus Public Market will encourage water conservation, local foods, recycling, paperless operations

Promoting sustainable enterprises that benefit local residents is a key component of the proposed Pybus Public Market. 

Mike Walker, owner of the Eagle Group companies, has committed to spending as much as $2 million to build the proposed market and run it for up to five years. The market that Walker envisions will have a strong sustainability component, he said. 

Working with the Chelan County Port District, Walker plans to convert the old Morse Steel warehouse at the foot of Orondo Avenue in Wenatchee to a year-round public market. Outdoors, it would become the permanent home of the Wenatchee Valley Farmers Market. Indoors, the building would be speckled with spaces for eateries, retail sales, community gatherings and live music. 

In an email, Walker elaborated on the plans.  

“While it’s early in the game and we don’t have all of our ducks in a row yet, we do have some specific goals in mind that relate directly to sustainability,” he said. They are:  

• Provide local food bank centers with fresh produce unsold during the daily markets.  Produce will be held in refrigerated cold storage at the market until distribution occurs.
• Create an infrastructure that makes nutritious food available, accessible and affordable to all, which encourages local production to replace nationally or internationally produced items.
• Offer a demonstration kitchen for cooking classes on the preparation and use of local fresh fruits and vegetables.
• Sell products that sustain people.
• Nurture our human capital.
• Encourage a paperless business model.
• Use our smarts responsibly to help people flourish.
• Establish rain gardens that allow rainwater runoff from impervious areas like roofs, driveways, walkways and parking lots the opportunity to be absorbed into the ground.
• Create mixed-use vegetable garden areas in landscape.
• Maximize use of indigenous plants in landscape design to conserve water.
• Repurpose 30,000+ square feet of concrete slabs remaining from building demolition into parking areas and space for the local farmer’s market.
• Sponsor a community solar project. 

Work on the building’s exterior is expected to begin in September, with space ready for tenants by next summer.  

Related
Eagle Group owner puts up $2 million for Pybus (Wenatchee World)