The Reporter

www.stetsonreporter.com Thursday, March 18, 2010 World's First "Green" 7-Eleven Opens in DeLand by Suzanne Reffel The world's first "green" 7-Eleven opened adjacent to the university a few weeks ago. The store, located at 319 N. Woodland Ave. at the intersection of Ohio Ave. The building has been built according to U.S. Green Business Council's (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards. Paperwork has been submitted to the USGBC to request LEED certification for the new store. In order to qualify for LEED certification, this new building must satisfy specific green building criteria in the areas of sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental design and design innovation. Jonathon Pauls, construction manager for the project, is a LEED-accredited professional and has been involved with this project since the inception of the program. According to Pauls, "Green means that it is a more efficient and environmentally responsible building." Many different aspects of the buildings construction were modified to meet this standard. First, the building site itself was considered with environmental concerns in mind. "The site was previously developed and was covered one hundred percent with asphalt, meaning that none of the ground was impermeable," Pauls said. "Now, the site has been reconfigured so that the land is thirty-five percent permeable which is better for watershed." Additionally, these areas have been landscaped with native, drought-tolerant plants to further this goal. According to Pauls, this building also requires less water to operate. This has been accomplished by installing low-flow fixtures and efficient lavatories to reduce water usage. Also, in landscaping drip irrigation and drought-tolerant plants reduce irrigation needs. The building is also more efficient in terms of electricity usage. "This 7-eleven also has skylights; no other 7-eleven has skylights," Pauls said. This helps to save on electricity because the electric lights are dimmable and can be lowered when natural light provides enough light for the building. Additionally, the building materials and resources were chosen with environmental concerns in mind. "[This building] was built using materials that are local to the South East region," Pauls said. "The building materials are also chosen because they less harmful to the environment and are more environmentally responsible that standards require." Environmental responsibility and efficiency have been considered in many aspects of this building's construction. These "green" construction choices are often more expensive, but Pauls is not worried about the business's success. "The store is hitting budget so far," Pauls said. "There are some cost increases in doing green building, but we plan on recapping those costs in the first three years of business." This is good news for university students because the opening of this 7-Eleven provides a new option for shopping close to campus. When asked if this business plans to cater to students, Pauls said, "Absolutely. There is outside seating that we hope students will take advantage of while they're studying or having a coffee between classes. We tried to keep it as open as possible. This 7-eleven is open 24-hours which is a great benefit to students." "We also plan to market the kind of food that students would be interested in with quick, easy and inexpensive foods that students can grab on the way to class or eat on the go," Pauls said. "In general, 7-eleven is a very college-friendly store." The DeLand community is also a priority for this new store. "The response from the community has been awesome," Pauls said. "It's a very supportive and open community. Hopefully, 7-eleven will bring more traffic into town without taking customers away from local business." There will be a grand opening for the community on March 27 from noon until 2 p.m. There will be free 7-Eleven food and beverage samples and prizes, like donuts, Big Bites, Slurpees, Big Gulps, taquitos and coffee. There will also be special appearances by WJRR Real Rock 101.1 FM and Snip It the Clown. "They will be giving out free stuff and letting the community know what it's all about," Pauls said Opinions What does SGA do? Page 5 Residents' Relationship with Fraternity Row Turns Sour by Suzanne Reffel Vandalism occurred at the home ofDr. Ron and Mrs. Maggi Hall, located across the street from the fraternity houses. On the morning of January 19, a car in their drive was damaged, the sunroof of smashed in with beer bottles; this incident is currently still under investigation. Then in mid-January, the most recent incident of vandalism to their property occurred. While the Hall's daughter was visiting, the sunroof of her car was smashed in with beer bottles on the morning of January 19. This incident has not been authoritatively linked to the fraternities. However, Maggi Hall did experience a confrontation with one of the fraternities in the days leading up to the incident. According to Maggi Hall, on Sunday evening January 17th the Pi Kappa Phi hosted a loud, unruly party until after 4 am the next morning. "We were unaware of this because my husband uses noise machine [to help him sleep]. [However,] our daughter and granddaughter were visiting from out of state and in the guest room. They didn't sleep that night. The following morning she complained to me but didn't wake me because she thought there was nothing I could do about it," Hall said. According to Hall, the next night they started up again with an illegal bonfire and outdoor drinking. "By 7:30 they were in high gear so I walked over to caution them, something I've done in the past," Hall said. Before doing so Hall made sure to call security and complain about the noise the night before. "When I got to the circle of fire, one kid ran into the frat brat house and turned down the music knowing full well why I was there," Hall said. "A student slightly taller than I - very dirty, dark hair, and funky hat - asked what I wanted." Hall told him that their party the previous night had kept her daughter from sleeping. She let them know that she had called security, complained and told them about the current partying. "I don't want to have to call security again because Please See "Resident," Page 3 Life Daria was the best cartoon, ever Page 6 Life Portugal The Man sets fast pace for self Page 8 Sports Baseball takes two of three from ODU Page 10