Mayor of Gretna, La. Tours StalwartBuilt Homes

June 1st, 2008

Mayor Ronnie Harris of Gretna, La., was recently in Panama City, Fla., telling Bay County leaders about what it's like to have a Category Five hurricane hit his city.

Mayor Harris toured Callaway Corners, a StalwartBuilt community. The homes by Stalwart Built Homes can withstand up to a Category Five storm, and they're also affordable.

The City of Gretna plans to build hundreds of new homes in neighborhoods devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Harris said he understands the StalwartBuilt methods and technology when it comes to wind resistance.

A StalwartBuilt home has dramatically more fasteners than ordinary homes. Computerized equipment and pneumatic tools drive fasteners to precise depths, for tight, plumb seals for additional strength. Precision built means less materials. Stalwart Built homes are built to 130 MPH wind loads and can be engineered to withstand up to 200 MPH winds.

"Making sure that it's safe for people to come back. Make sure the business infrastructure is in place. Make sure that you have a place for relief agencies to come into the area. If your community is struck, yet you can provide service for the area, you need to step up, and I believe that's what our community did," Harris said.

It's been almost three years, but it's difficult to forget the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Communities all along the gulf coast are still recovering, including Gretna, a New Orleans suburb. Gretna is a city of more than 17,000 residents and had more than 300 homes damaged by flooding after Katrina.

StalwartBuilt Homes constructed the first LEED Platinum; zero-energy home in the Southeast at Callaway Corners. Features of the systems-built designs incorporate such elements as solar panels; a "desuperheater" providing free hot water; geothermal unit for heating and air; spray foam insulation; specially engineered Honeywell air filtration system; low-E windows; low VOC paint and interior finishes, including bamboo floors.

The LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating SystemT is a feature-oriented rating system that awards buildings points for satisfying specified green building criteria. The six major environmental categories of review include: Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality and Innovation and Design. Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum levels of LEED green building certification are awarded based on the total number of points earned within each LEED category. LEED can be applied to all building types including new construction, commercial interiors, core & shell developments, existing buildings, homes, neighborhood developments, schools and retail facilities.