The Home Maintenance-Energy Conservation Workshop sponsored by WHN and the National Center for Appropriate Technology at Hamilton School on Saturday, February 25,1978 was greeted enthusiastically as everyone was anxious to find ways of cutting the costs of heating, cooling, and maintaining their homes. Even though the workshop was primarily for people in our neighborhood there was a surprising number of people from the County and Illinois who also attended.
Each workshop participant was given a package of information containing a variety of booklets, brochures, etc. loaded with helpful facts, tips, and pointers on energy conservation and do-it-yourself techniques that conserve energy and save dollars at the same time. Washington Heights gathered the material for these packets from a number of sources which included the Missouri Department of Natural Resources; the U. S. Department of Energy; the Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs; Union Electric; Laclede Gas: etc.
Armed with this arsenal of information people were able to view attractive displays by Union Electric, Earth Enterprises, Washington Heights, and Midwest Energy Consultants. Union Electric presented an excellent display on home insulation as it demonstrated the various types of insulation for attics and roofs as well as samples of doors and windows that would increase the energy efficiency of a home if installed.
The display by Earth Enterprises was an exciting array of energy saving devices and solar equipment that was especially appealing because of the effort that they made to present relatively low cost items that were energy efficient. There were three workshops in both the morning and afternoon. The morning sessions were:
1) Do-it-yourself Home Repairs: Four people from the Independent Contractor’s Association, Diane Gordon, Bruce McConnel, Rae Ann O’Neill and Rachel Alexander, exhibited several do-it-yourself techniques such as reapiring a roof, a broken window, mixing plaster, etc. They provided suggestions of cost saving methods and tools that can be used in doing your own simple home repairs.
2) Home Improvement Programs: This was a presentation by Mr. Dan Isom of the Residential Development Division of the Community Development Agency regarding the various home improvement assistance programs operated or coordinated by CDA, such as the 312 program.
3) Energy Conservation: Three people from Earth Enterprises, Ray Kern, Mack Mayfield and Don Palmer presented a variety of things we can do to lower our heating costs. They also discussed the feasibility of using solar heating and hot water in our homes, and demonstrated a number of pieces of solar equipment.
The luncheon session featured a slide presentation on Solar Energy by Gary Glenn, a St. Louis architect and Solar Energy expert. This was a very informative presentation on passive solar energy systems and how they work. The slides showed examples of a number of projects that have been done around the country, including some that Mr. Glenn has done himself in St. Louis.
The afternoon sessions were:
1) Home Improvements Programs. (same as the morning sessions)
2) Energy Conservation. (same as the morning program)
3) Historic District and Housing Preservation. This was an especially interesting session as differing viewpoints about the history and purpose of the concept of a “Historic District” were presented by Sue Tepas of the Skinker-DeBaliviere Historic District Committee; Sam Ritchie of the Hyde Park Historic District Committee; and Hanno Weber of the Washington University School of Architecture’s Community Design Workshop. There was an active exchange of views and questions over this important subject.
Those who presented the workshops [word missing in source] well informed, friendly, and eager to answer questions. The exchange of questions and answers between the speakers and audience in each of the sessions was very productive. The overwhelming feeling expressed by the participants in both the evaluation questionnaires as well as verbal feedback at the sessions was that they wanted to have other workshops that would concentrate on similar areas of concern for neighborhood residents.
This workshop was part of Washington Heights Neighbors Association’s ongoing effort to help residents find ways to make it easier and cheaper to maintain their homes.
We would like to give our special thanks to those who attended the workshop; to those who came as our guest speakers; to the Board of Education, Mr. Cleveland Young, and Mr. Lyles for their cooperation in arranging for us to use Hamilton School; to the National Center for Appropriate Technology for the grant that made this effort possible; and to the Washington Heights residents who worked so diligently to make this event such a success. Merle Douglas of Florissant won the door prize.
If there are any areas in which you would want more information, (possibly in the form of a workshop) or if you were not able to attend this time and would like a copy of the information packet, you can call Anna Busch at the SkinkerDeBaliviere Community Council office at 862-5122.
Originally published in The Paper, April 1978.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Archival transcription note: The printed “reapiring” and a missing verb before “well informed” are retained with a marker.
Original source: SD_Times1978_04.pdf, printed page(s) 1, 8; PDF page(s) 1, 8.
