County Plans Green Nursing Home

By Tim Damos, Baraboo News Republic

January 8, 2008

Ten years from now, an elderly resident at the soon-to-be-built skilled nursing facility in Reedsburg might be able to charge the battery of her electric car in the parking lot.

Plans for a $16 million county-run nursing home likely will include environmentally friendly and energy-efficient features. And a county committee voted Monday morning to spend an extra $70,000 to have a organization certify the facility as green.

To qualify, the county must incorporate things like bike racks, indoor air quality management plans and landscaping plans that enhance natural vegetation. All those things would earn points on the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system, which is used by the nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council.

"A lot of these things are already part of the building process," said Tim Stieve, Sauk County's facilities manager. "More and more designs these days are incorporating these things."

Stieve said additional measures will be needed to get LEED Silver certification, but because final plans haven't been drawn up and specific features haven't been selected, the cost for including them is unknown.

The county's $863,000 contract with Minneapolis-based architecture firm Horty Elving & Associates includes $25,000 for including efficiency measures into the project and monitoring them in the building process. The additional $70,000 would only pay for the application and certification process, Stieve said.

The county hopes to go for Silver certification, which requires fewer points than Gold or Platinum.

Critics of LEED certification say it's easy to take advantage of the system, and builders are more likely to choose the cheapest features to get the rating they desire, rather than the features that are best for the environment.

"Installing a $395 bike rack is worth the same under the LEED checklist system as installing a $1.3 million environmentally sensitive heating system. Which is the cynical builder going to choose?" wrote author Daniel Brook in a Sunday op-ed piece in the Dallas Morning News.

Brook also said the cost of the certification process — which would be about $70,000 for the Reedsburg facility — usually is better spent on additional features.

Terrence McCormick, an Architect with McCormick & McCormick in Baraboo, said he's heard those criticisms.

"Is there star quality that goes along with it? To some extent, yes," he said.
But overall, McCormick said, the LEED system is worthwhile as a way to get builders to start thinking about conservation.

Eventually, he said he expects LEED will become obsolete and everyone will be required to build green. Those requirements will eventually be incorporated into the Universal Building Code, which is used as a template by many states.
The certification would demonstrate that Sauk County is willing to take a leadership role in conservation, said Health Care Center Building Projects Committee member Joan Fordham.

"It's saying that the county feels that this is important to do," she said.
About $50,000 of the $70,000 certification cost would pay for an independent commissioning agent who would be responsible for coordinating the certification process. Fordham said that's also important.

"That gives us another set of eyes to say, 'Hey, have you thought of this? You could do this,'" she said.

Administrative coordinator Katherine Schauf said the certification verifies conservation efforts have been made, sort of like getting a degree from a university.

Someone could read all the necessary books to get a college degree, Schauf said, "But if you don't do it through an accredited university, you don't get any credit for it."

The one-story 73,000 square foot facility will have 82 beds and will be located adjacent to the Madison Area Technical College campus in Reedsburg.
Schematics for the project are in their final stages, and work on detailed blueprints will begin soon, Steve said.

County Board members will vote on the certification at their Tuesday meeting.

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