Sustainable Kentfield home captures LEED gold

Marin Independent Journal (San Rafael, CA)
July 22, 2012
Section: News

Janis Mara | Marin Independent Journal

IF KIKI GOSHAY has a weekend task list, it might go something like this: Shop for a new dress. Take the kids to the park. Water the roof.

Water the roof?

The Kentfield resident and passionate environmentalist is a woman who walks her talk, which in this case would mean watering her roof. Among other things, Goshay's home is topped with a luxuriant living roof complete with California poppies, bushes and grasses; heated by fluid from tubes sunk 300 feet deep in the earth; and lighted by electricity from solar panels.

"When I built this house, I knew I had one chance to create something that would be around for my children and my grandchildren," said Goshay, a film producer. "I wanted a zero-energy house that also reduced our impact on the soil, water and air."

Not only is the 6,500-square-foot house replete with sustainable features, it's visually stunning, thrown open to the outdoors on the first floor, where the dining room offers a view of Mount Tam unobstructed by windows or walls.

It took three years to build the house; Goshay and her teenaged son moved into the home in September. She is divorced and has four other grown children who live on their own. As for watering the roof, it's actually irrigated with rainwater and greywater recycled from the sink, tub and shower, as is the vegetable garden conveniently located next to the kitchen.

The home is one of approximately 700 LEED-certified single-family dwellings in California, the state with the country's highest number of such homes. There are at least a couple of other LEED-certified single-family residences in Marin.

While there are LEED-certified airport terminals — San Francisco International Airport's T2 is one example — as well as apartments and other commercial and industrial buildings, it's rare for single-family residences to get certified. This is because the rigorous standards of the U.S. Green Building Council, the awarding body, make it a time-consuming and expensive process.

"The LEED program is the council's measurement system for green homes," said Randy Potter, chair of the council's residential marketplace committee. "You accumulate points by choosing sustainable materials, systems and building methods. The more you use, the higher you get, and gold is the second-highest level," between silver and platinum.

"LEED is one of two programs we use here in the Bay Area," said Potter, whose contracting firm, Earth Bound Homes, is based in Santa Clara. "There's another system, Green Point Rated, for entry-level projects. The bar is way higher for LEED."

The home's basement — Goshay calls it "the brain" — reveals some of the details that helped win the certification. A series of seven white tubes connect to the geothermal pump that moves fluid from 300 feet deep to the house.

The pump uses the stable, even heat of the earth to provide heating and air conditioning. Underground, the earth is a constant temperature, warmer than the outside air in the winter, cooler in the summer. In the summer, the pump pulls the heat from the home and discharges it into the ground; in the winter, it moves the heat from the earth into the house.

The 110-gallon solar water heater and the three tanks for rainwater and greywater are also on the lower level. Inverters monitor energy use.

"We're not at zero energy yet. It's an ongoing process; we're working at reducing our energy use," she said. Zero energy means the solar panels are returning enough energy to the grid to zero out the energy supplied by PG&E.

Upstairs is the living roof, designed by Rana Creek, the firm that helped design the living roof on the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. The house was designed by San Franciso-based Hunt Hale Jones and Oakland-based zumaooh.

"The building materials are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council," said Jeff Jungsten of Mill Valley's Caletti Jungsten Construction, builder of the home.

"Kiki had a vision for every spot. Everything has a reason; it was all thought out," Jungsten said.

Goshay, a board member of Cool the Earth, a Marin County-based program that teaches children to reduce their carbon footprints, studied for seven years at the College of Marin and elsewhere to plan her dream house.

"I wanted to create a sanctuary for my family with the healthiest living environment possible utilizing all the gifts this site offers," said Goshay.

"This woman has done things that go well beyond the norm in what the ordinary green home has set as a standard," said Potter. "Anyone who is doing that is doing it for more reasons than being able to pencil out a payback or conserve some resources. They're doing it because they want to go the extra mile and do something extraordinary." 

Contact Janis Mara via email at jmara@marinij.com. Follow her at Twitter.com/jmara.

Novato's Pennies for Police Dogs seeks donations for narcotics training

Marin Independent Journal (San Rafael, CA)
July 18, 2012 
Section: News 

Janis Mara Marin Independent Journal

METZ THE police dog races onto the Novato High School baseball field at top speed, a brown streak with a bobbing tail galloping from side to side, nose to the ground. Suddenly he comes to a full stop and lowers himself to the ground, eyes fixed on his handler. The Belgian Malinois had located his handler's cell phone, hidden in the vast expanse of the field, in less than a minute. The feat, an everyday one to Metz, took place during training exercises Wednesday. 

Finding objects by scent is just one of Metz's many skills as a member of the Novato Police K-9 unit. The Pennies for Police Dogs fundraising campaign is seeking to raise $10,000 to expand the skills of Metz's two fellow canine officers to narcotics identification. 

"Training the dogs to sniff out narcotics will act as a force multiplier — the dogs can take the place of multiple officers in finding illegal drugs, as well as searching for suspects," said Police Chief Jim Berg. "We will focus on the most prevalent drugs we encounter, cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana and heroin." 

There are specific advantages in using police dogs for narcotics detection, according to the head of Novato's K-9 unit. 

"A dog can search a vehicle stuffed with clothes, bags and all the other garbage people carry around and find drugs in less than half the time it would take an officer," said Kevin Naugle, coordinator of the K-9 unit and handler of Ingo, one of Metz's canine colleagues. "Their sense of smell is so acute, they can smell drugs in a car with the windows rolled up by sniffing the seams." 

Already, Metz and his handler, Officer Jeff Ames, are certified in the detection of narcotics, Berg said. The department, the only one in Marin with a K-9 unit, was able to add a new dog, Lex, last year thanks to the efforts of Pennies for Police Dogs and now has three dogs, Berg said. 

Founded by Novato resident Toni Shroyer in March 2011, the organization raises money by any means necessary: Bake sales, including one planned for the Lucky supermarket on Grant Avenue in August; containers at local pet stores, including Novato Horse & Pet Supply; coins children pick up in the street; donations from local organizations such as Rotary; and just about anything else that's legal. 

"Last year in March my 9-year-old son and I were out for a bike ride and I saw a blatant drug deal right in the middle of the day at Diablo Avenue and Center Road," Shroyer said. "I told my son, 'We need another police dog for narcotics. 

"He said, 'I have two pennies.' And that's how Pennies for Police Dogs was born." 

"Prior to the formation of this organization last year, we had gotten donations from the public, but not to the same magnitude," Berg said. "It's (Pennies for Police Dogs) a grassroots effort that raised $11,500 for us to buy Lex and identify a trainer and get them sent to basic training." 

Now, Pennies for Police Dogs seeks to raise the money to train Lex and Ingo in narcotics detection. 

Like any seasoned professionals, the three dogs, Ingo, a German Shepherd Dog, Lex and Metz, both Belgian Malinois, keep their skills polished through on-the-job training. At the baseball field, instructor Zoltan Nagy of Fresno-based Heritage Canine, a school for police dogs, put Ingo and Metz through their paces Wednesday. Lex and his handler Kendrick Pilegaard were out working the streets together. 

When not on duty, the dogs chill out at their handler's homes. 

"My former dog, Kyto, once subdued a crowd of 100 people that would have taken six officers to get under control," Naugle said. "It was a party of young people three or four years ago that got out of control, with multiple fights. 

"I brought my partner (Kyto) in. He sat and barked and moved from side to side, backing people up — they didn't want any part of him. Soon he had cleared the room," he said. 

At the baseball field, Naugle issues commands: "Coucher," meaning, "Lie down." Since Metz is Belgian, it seems only logical to speak to him in French. 

"They are trained in French," Naugle said. When it's time to search for an item, the handler says, "Cherchez," as in "Cherchez la femme." 

When Ames and Naugle rap out a command, the two dogs fly off as one, halting about 10 feet away, then waiting at attention. 

"We've had such tremendous support from the community, and we really appreciate it," Naugle said. As if on cue, Metz, just told to stand down by Ames, lets out a bark and sits, wagging his tail. 

Contact Janis Mara via email at jmara@marinij.com. Follow her at Twitter.com/jmara. 

HOW TO DONATE to pennies for police dogs 

• Mail a check made out to "Novato Police Dogs" to the Novato Police K-9 unit, attn: Chief Berg, 909 Machin Ave., Novato 94945. 

• Drop the money into the container at Novato Horse & Pet Supply, 7546 Redwood Ave., in Novato. 

• In August, drop by Lucky's Supermarket on Grant Avenue in Novato and buy some baked goods from the Pennies for Police Dogs table. 

• For more information, call 892-3662. 

Novato interim police chief takes helm

Marin Independent Journal (San Rafael, CA)
August 13, 2012
Section: News 

Janis Mara Marin Independent Journal
Jim Berg, a 27-year veteran of Novato's police force and its new interim chief, took the helm in July amid a six-month crime decline, new law enforcement technology and a new crime-fighting team for the police department in a city where concerns about crime have persisted for years. There were 1,982 reported crimes in Novato in the first six months of this year, compared with 2,215 in the first six months of 2011, and the force recently debuted automatic license plate readers mounted on its police cars and a new four-person team focusing on street crime. 

The street crime team will use tactics including intervention and prevention, something that means a good deal to Berg personally. The 49-year-old interim chief wasn't always a model of law-abiding behavior.

"When I was 18, I liked to drive fast," he confessed during an interview at the 59-officer department's headquarters on Machin Avenue. "I was stopped by a Petaluma officer, Pat Parks. He made a deal with me that he would be less severe with the ticket if I went on a few calls with him."

After doing the ride-along, Berg decided to become a police officer.

"It just goes to show the effect you can have on someone's life. Sometimes you can turn a negative into a positive," Berg said.

And that's what he's hoping to do with the Novato Response Team. It's made up of two officers, a corporal and a management analyst, and will work with the schools as well as property managers at apartment complexes. The team, which launched in July, is funded for three years by a $1.1 million federal grant and for the fourth year by the city.

"If they work with individuals in gangs, they might be able to direct them to parks and recreation, for example, to break that cycle, similarly to how I was redirected," Berg said.

Kate Ruehle, a Hamilton resident who served as the neighborhood watch liaison for her neighborhood for years, said she feels reassured that the program is in place. Over the past year, she said, "I feel that things have really settled down."

At the same time, she said, "When you hear about a shooting in the parking lot of your local Safeway, you don't feel as safe as you used to feel," referring to a January 2011 incident in which two men were shot. While she believes the police on average have done a good job, she misses the force's crime prevention officer, a position that was cut because of budget constraints.

"When Liz Greiner was in that position, if there was a rumor going around, I could call her and get the real story. The more you know about what is really happening, the more empowering it is," Ruehle said.

"Any time we lose staff, our capacity to communicate with the public is decreased and it's incumbent upon us to fill the gap," Berg said in response. The chief plans to use social media such as Facebook to help inform the public.

Novato City Manager Michael Frank extolled Berg's accomplishments. "He has shown his work ethic, integrity and dedication to Novato time and time again. I have full confidence in his ability to lead the department during this transition."

Berg replaces former chief Joe Kreins, who retired and is currently an interim chief himself in Vallejo while that city looks for a full-time chief. Berg's interim position will be in effect up to six months; it is up to Frank to make the final decision on who will be the new chief. As to whether he's interested: "Yes, I'm interested in the position," Berg said.

Contact Janis Mara via email at jmara@marinij.com. Follow her at Twitter.com/jmara.