“Cool Community”

Carrick named North's first 'Cool Community'

   Pittsburgh City Council today, Tuesday, April 22, will issue a resolution
recognizing Carrick as the City of Pittsburgh's first "Cool Community" and
acknowledge the leadership of the collaborators to find new mechanisms to promote Pittsburgh's urban forest and save energy, too.

   "Cool Community" is a national recognition program for strategic tree
planting for energy conservation purposes that promotes such planting to cut home energy bills. The U.S. Department of Energy recently recognized Carrick Works Planning Forum efforts in neighborhood greening and energy savings, the first such designation north of the Mason-Dixon Line.

   Sunday, April 27 will be "Carrick Goes Green:  Tree Planting and Beautification Day" in Pittsburgh according to the City Council resolution.  Next Sunday, all Carrick residents are invited to join in a tree planting and 

beautification project along Brownsville Road from 1-3:30p.m. Volunteers will meet at the Union Baptist church, 2019 Brownsville Road for their assignments.

   Twelve "balled and burlaped" trees, sugar maples and flowering cherries, will be planted in a four-block area of Brownsville and an additional three Chanticleer Callcary pear trees will go on the Concord Elementary School grounds.

   The neighborhood's major community groups:  "Carrick Community Council,
Carrick Business Association, Carrick Athletic Association, 29th Ward-Carrick Block Watch and the Friends of the Carrick Library are involved in the project through the Carrick Works Planning Forum.  Kevin White, who heads the forum's Beautification Committee, has coordinated the effort to get everyone in the neighborhood involved.
 
   Last year, Conservation Consultants, Inc., a South Side-based nonprofit environmental education and service-oriented organization, selected Carrick as Pittsburgh's first Green Neighborhood.  The program involved the entire 

community in the application of sustainable principles to preserve natural resources for future generations. Planting trees to provide shade is one more way of saving energy.

   A number of local, city and statewide organizations and agencies are cooperating in the April 27 tree planting.