Lake Station is reaching for the sky with a team effort from city employees and a connection with Purdue University to create a project that is not only helping residents but also the environment.
The collaboration has created a rooftop garden on city hall that helps feed those with limited resources and pollinators.
Jack Daniels, Lake Station director of communications, said that it was constructed with a flower garden on the roof when the city hall was designed.
“The rooftop garden, for a long time, has been a resource that has been wasted,” Daniels said. “It has sat barren for years. With everybody’s help, we’ve been able to take something wasteful and turn it into something that is not only supporting Lake Station, but we are also cutting down on waste and inefficiency to the building.”
Over the years, the idea was pushed to the side and never cultivated until recently with the help of Purdue University Grants Content Specialist and Community Wellness Coordinator Terri Saltzman.
“Terri reached out to us and offered Lake Station an opportunity to pursue and engage with these grant initiatives that Purdue University is doing,” Daniels said. “Lake Station is eager to work alongside those that are wanting to help us educate and promote growth.”
During former Mayor Christopher Anderson’s administration, Saltzman contacted the city as part of a wellness initiative. Three years ago, Saltzman obtained a grant for Lake Station to begin a community garden at the Lake Station Senior Center. That garden has been increasing every year with about 300-400 pounds of produce being grown, equal to about 1,200 servings.
Clients of the senior center and neighborhood residents are welcome to the community garden. The area is considered a limited-resource area.
The rooftop garden was mentioned to Saltzman in passing, but the idea did not come to fruition until Purdue University received a large donation of vegetable plants. Saltzman contacted Mayor Bill Carroll, who moved forward with the initiative by adding new soil, preparing the rooftop for a garden, and purchasing flowers from local florists and farms. Saltzman and the city employees worked together to plant a garden with a variety of flowers and vegetable plants. The vegetables include kale, tomatoes, and peppers.
“My job is to guide them on how to take care of it,” Saltzman said. “I also have them donate that produce to people who can use it or need it because Lake Station is in a food desert.”
Daniels applauded the collaboration of the city and Purdue University.
“It’s a much safer space for pollinators. We have wanted to promote pollination. It is something that a lot of people have been tackling and discussing,” Daniels said. “We thought that wildflowers on the rooftop garden would be a fantastic way to start that.”
The garden will improve air quality, increase stormwater management, moderate the urban heat island effect, and encourage ecosystem life cycles. Plants absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen back into the air. Rooftop gardens reduce rainfall runoff, reducing the amount of water that runs back into the storm system. It will also work to attract bees and butterflies.
Saltzman works to mitigate food desert challenges. The rooftop is one of the steps Purdue University is taking to combat the food desert challenge in Lake Station.
“Purdue University is allowing me to stay involved with the project moving forward. Next year we will increase the capacity of it,” Saltzman said.
Although no grant funding was used for the rooftop garden because Lake Station already had the foundation for the garden, Saltzman anticipates additional grant funds or donations to expand the project.
Carroll and the city are looking at future collaborations that would benefit the city and greenspaces. Daniels said the rooftop garden is the first step in furthering that initiative.
To discover more about what is happening in Lake Station, visit https://www.lakestation-in.gov/.
