Mayor appoints green city coordinator

Mayor Dayne Walling appointed Steve Montle as "green city coordinator" to focus on acquiring environmentally conscious jobs, recycling and land planning Aug. 10.

Montle is working with companies with two to 150 employees, assuring them that Flint will be willing to work with them on green technology and innovative ideas. Montle says the city - climate is attractive to industries, from solar power to electric vehicles to landscaping.

Montle is working on a citywide curbside recycling program and private foundation dollars have been obtained to complete a feasibility study.

A city recycling program, missing for 12 years, has been implemented as step one of the project with step two being a partnership with the Genesee County recycling program to provide four recycling drop off locations around the city.

Montle said that the existing recycling center, CBC Recycling at 1801 S. Saginaw St. is not a prime location. Instead a mobile trailer could visit schools, churches and city properties closer to home and in places where citizens feel comfortable.

The ultimate goal of the program is citywide curbside recycling for as close to a zero dollar price as possible, Montle said it may be possible by offsetting costs with reduced landfill fees.

Land planning, with urban agriculture and forestry projects to reclaim carbon emissions, is another focus of Montle. He is working with the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate possibilities for existing lands. City "livability" would be increased with efforts to return the former Chevy-in-the-Hole site to green space with trails and a re-naturalized Flint River.

Montle is also reviewing changes to the city ordinances that forbid farming to allow people to grow and sell produce.

Montle said he was never clear on the concept of the "shrinking city" when asked if land planning was an effort to bulldoze and relocate homeowners in poor areas. He said land should be put to its best use and people should have the ability to decide what happens to their neighborhood.

Montle admitted that there are many properties that would be acceptable for returning to green space, but that removing city services from neighborhoods and telling residents to move "doesn't seem right."

Montle was the Flint River Watershed Coalition executive director from 2006 to 2008 and the Genesee Conservation District executive director from 2008 to 2009.