Alan Poushter is amazed how his new parking lot, at Ra-Lin discount store in Syracuse, soaks up water.
Poushter, the President at Ra-Lin discount store, said, “It is unbelievable how much it absorbs the water, and what a great job it does.”
Now when it rains, he doesn’t have to worry about puddles, flooding or ice because it simply disappears. Poushter says he has Onondaga County to thank for that.
“Yeah they paid most of it. We had to pay for some of it, but they paid the vast majority of it,” Poushter said.
Only a portion of the west side of the parking lot was re-done, and that’s simply because it was just more affordable to do it that way. So when it rains on the older parking lot, the water will run down and collect in the new parking lot, preventing it from going into the street.
Tom Rhoads, the Onondaga County Commissioner of Water and Environmental Protection, said, “This improves the city of Syracuse. Improves the private property and also it satisfies our concerns to stop combined sewer overflows and that improves Onondaga Lake and that improves Onondaga Creek.”
The county contributed over two hundred thousand dollars from the Save the Rain program’s green improvement fund to help Ra-Lin’s pretty up their property.
“Besides it holding the water well it looks it looks very nice. It kind of beautifies the whole area,” Poushter said.
A water free parking lot, a win-win for this business, and the community it calls home.
The county is still looking for commercial properties in the city to install porous paved parking lots. If your business or non profit is interested in this shared cost project click here.
