Merrillville

offer snow disposal areas when you’re plowing parking lots in this part of the country.” Merrillville took a simple approach to the re- quirements for low impact development. Every acre of development needs 100 low impact development points. There is a list of different types of BMPs each worth a certain number of points. It’s easy for a developer to calculate and understand. Lake says, “If you want to up your standards, you could raise it to 200 points for every acre. But we made it attainable. A foot in the door approach. And it’s working better than we could have imagined. Other communities look at us as an example, because we took the first step and everybody’s usually scared to do that, especially politically. As it becomes more widely accepted, this will become the standard. It’s not just a theory, it’s in practice. You can see the benefits, and the cost to the town is zero.” Many communities put in a green corridor or rain gardens. Usually these are retrofits. But Lake says it’s important to get in on the front end. “You save money in new development when you’re designing at the front end. If you need to tear out a road, put in rain gardens as part of the greenspace and parkways, do un- derdrains and retrofit, it becomes expensive. Looking at every single development as an opportunity for low impact development im- plementation, that’s the big picture. That’s what needs to happen to achieve what the EPA and the Clean Water Act wants.” Merrillville’s efforts have been recognized by the State of Indiana through the Indiana MERRILLVILLE, INDIANA site work excavation & underground utilities construction n contractors Phone: 219-797-4004 Fax: 219-797-3008 2063 w. 1250 s. Hanna, in 46340 2063 W. 1250 S. Cell: (574) 876 -1416 Hanna, IN 46340 Phone: (219) 797 -4004 FAX: (219) 797 -3008 PREFERRED VENDOR n Delta III, Inc. michael.eaton@delta3inc.com Department of Environmental Management (IDEM). At the Indiana Association of Storm- water Flood Plain Management, Matthew Lake was named Stormwater Director of the Year. The town won the Governor’s Award for En- vironmental Excellence from then-governor Mike Pence. Lake concludes, “We are widely respected throughout the state and outside of it. For that, I’m thankful. But the goal is to have other communities replicate our efforts. We’re an open book, and we’ll share any and all information we have.We’re not in competition. We want to help the region, specifically north- west Indiana, and other communities to do something similar so they have good economic growth as well.”