Dear Community,
Since receiving funding from the 24CP, the Acadiana Rain Garden team has initiated the following tasks:
1. Successful receipt of funding from donors to the UL Lafayette 501 c3 fund.
2. Initiated conversations with LCG Environmental Quality diviison
3. Initiated conversations with Project Front Yard regarding their goals to create 10,000 rain gardens
4. Confirmed locations for installation with Girard Park (Parks and Rec) and the fountain at City Hall (LCG)
5. Completed an 811 survey of the Girard park site for underground cables (i.e. call before you dig)
6. Obtained blue prints of drainage for fountain site at City Hall
7. Met with Engels & Volkers who expressed interest in us creating educational materials for home owners on rain gardens and water management.
Our next steps and new goals include a charette with several landscape architects for mid-November. At this work session we will design the layout of the rain gardens. After the charette, we will price and purchase plants, and any additional materials necessary for successful implementation of the two proposed rain gardens.
We are still on track to our original timeline and plan to install the rain gardens in Spring 2018.
As far as ‘lessons learned’, our project depends on the same 3 pillars of real estate: ‘LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION’. We are lucky to have found two sites that meet our project goals: 1. they are subject to high saturation and water runoff and 2. they are in public spaces with high traffic.
Thanks,
Taylor Sloey