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One of the major sources of greenhouse gases in a city is home energy use — and with an aging housing stock, Dayton has a lot of inefficient homes.

That's why the city recently approved $3.3 million in additional funding for its Office of Sustainability’s three home repair partner networks.

The two-year grant will go toward weatherizing, repairing and improving over 400 low-income homes.

This story is part of Climate Solutions Week. For this initiative, WYSO is joining NPR to tell stories about climate solutions on the local level.

From solar and geothermal energy systems, to hybrid vehicles, to educational programs, the Sisters of the Precious Blood in Trotwood are working hard to find their own climate solutions and share them with others.

Anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 tons of trash are brought to the Montgomery County Waste Transfer Station south of Dayton each day. And the county’s most recent data from 2014 shows that textiles, like clothing, make up 8% of that waste. 

Kelly Bohrer, a program specialist with the Montgomery County Solid Waste District said nationally, waste management districts and recycling companies are aware it’s an increasing problem.

“But there's just not the infrastructure yet, especially here in Montgomery County, for that textile recycling that forms it right back into new clothes,” she said.

As the fashion industry produces clothes faster, cheaper and in larger quantities, it also creates more pollution. Like Borher described, in the U.S., fabric isn’t often recycled – 2018 EPA data finds 85% of textiles are either sent to landfills or burned.

But a group of University of Dayton students are spearheading an initiative to prevent that fate by keeping clothing in circulation among the student body.

Once everything’s assembled at the Ohio factory, the whistles are packaged and shipped off to Walmart, Amazon and Dunham Sports stores all over the country.

“I would just imagine they're sold to any official, or a teacher, a police officer or just somebody that's really super bossy."

When Kettering Mayor Brian Suddith took office in January, he became the city’s 12th mayor.

Suddith said he became interested in the position during his two years serving on city council. He called former long-time mayor Peggy Lehner a friend and mentor and said he’s working hard to fill her shoes.

This is part of WYSO's Mayor Series. If you have questions you'd like us to ask your mayor, feel free to either comment or DM us with your question and city because reader feedback drives what we ask.

A state senator is spending the days leading up to and including the weekend walking from Dayton to Columbus. And it’s not because he can’t drive from his home district to work in the state’s Capitol.
 
Sen. Willis Blackshear (D-Dayton) is walking a 107-mile trek from his home in Dayton to the Statehouse for one reason: “I’ve been thinking about doing it for a long time. I like walking. But specifically, I wanted to walk for a particular issue.”

The issue he chose is to raise awareness for mental health needs, especially among kids.

NCCJ’s annual Pride Rocks festival is returning to Levitt Pavilion Dayton on Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., bringing together thousands of people for a day focused on LGBTQ+ suicide prevention, mental wellness, and community connection.

What began six years ago as a small gathering of 25 high school students painting rocks with messages of hope has grown into a large community festival expected to draw around 4,000 attendees this year.

Organizers said the event was created in response to disproportionately high suicide rates within the LGBTQ+ community and to create a space where people feel supported and seen.

The Urbana City Council has started the process to roll back zoning changes that had made it easier for data centers to be built there.

The resolution approved on Monday, May 4, follows a moratorium on new data centers passed in March.

The hobby is gaining popularity with kids too. Baron Jacobs, a 13-year-old from Orrville, Ohio, was participating in a student-led birding expedition through the marsh. He stopped to gaze at a yellow warbler.

“It’s a tiny bird and it has these pretty red stripes on its breast, the males at least,” he said.

The animal fascinates him, but he likes the camaraderie birding provides too.

“Did you know that when you bird in a group, it releases all four happy hormones?” he asked. “Serotonin, oxytocin, dopamine and endorphins.”

Last year, a group of archivists took CDs and reel-to-reel tapes out of a dusty closet at Central State University’s radio station in Wilberforce.

The HBCU Radio Preservation Project spent months digitizing and restoring the recordings from WCSU as part of the organization’s nationwide effort to protect radio history at historically Black colleges and universities.

On Wednesday, those sounds are coming home. They won’t be sent in a cardboard box or via email. Instead, the organization is hosting a homecoming celebration at WYSO in Yellow Springs.

HBCU radio stations are critical parts of communities, said Phyllis Jeffers-Coly, the project’s assistant director of administration and outreach.

“They document what's there, they contribute to what's there, they're woven into those Black communities all over the country,” she said.

For more than 40 years, the Artemis Center has assisted survivors of domestic violence. Now a two-year grant from the state of Ohio will enable it to help survivors of sexual assault.

Jane Keiffer, Artemis executive director, said survivors need compassionate, trauma-informed support. The state has awarded the center $135,000 each year. With the grant money, Keiffer will hire two advocates. They’ll create a sexual assault response team, offering counseling and connecting survivors to community resources.

The Dayton Foodbank is adding a community building, which will open with a block party on June 25. Nonprofit leaders hope the building will let them better address the root causes of food insecurity.