Memorial park has a couple of new features following the construction there this summer, including a parking lot and garden. During a sunny day these features are great to look at and useful, but they really shine when it starts raining.

The reason is that the garden is really a rain garden and the parking lot is made of a special asphalt that soaks drains water through its surface. These are just two of several rain water management elements the City installed as part of a Nonpoint Source Program grant from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

The grant provided the City with funds to install several Low Impact Development, or LID, elements at Memorial Park and the new Public Services and Utilities Building (PSUB) site as demonstration tools. The funding provided the added benefit of allowing the City to save money while completing some much-needed projects.

At Memorial Park, access has long been an issue for what is otherwise a large, beautiful public space. The parking lot provides fifteen spaces, plus two handicap-accessible spaces greatly improving the ability for residents to stop by and use the park. As part of the project, a small segment of sidewalk was also constructed, linking the sidewalk on Centerville road to the parking lot.

The parking lot and sidewalk are constructed of porous asphalt and concrete respectively. The mixes have space between the paving materials that allow water to drain through the surface, and down into the ground to filter and infiltrate. It will completely drain a five gallon bucket of water dumped on it in a matter of seconds.

The rain garden is designed to accept rain water from the park and the neighborhood to the north. Storm drains now empty into the garden, which is designed with special soil and plantings to hold and then quickly drain water, filtering it along the way.

At the PSUB site, several LID elements were implemented to handle the rain water runoff for the property and new building, including a water re-use tank and demonstrative green roof. The grant funding received for the LID elements off-set the costs of installing traditional storm sewer on the site.

The green roof on the PSUB covers a small portion of the facility and is a simple vegetative covering that helps to absorb rainfall, reduce runoff and heating costs, and extend the life of a roof. The reuse tank, another element of the site's overall system, collects rainwater from the remaining roof area for use irrigating onsite landscaping, including the green roof.

More information on the project is available at sturgismi.gov/information_lid. A video tour of the PSUB site and more detailed article on the project are availabe at the links below:
VIDEO TOUR
LID ARTICLE