By Joan Crigger
February 11, 2008

The Women Mayors met as one of the first activities of the 76th Annual Winter Meeting of The U.S. Conference of Mayors. Bowling Green (KY) Mayor Elaine Walker, newly-elected chair of the Women Mayors, opened the meeting. Walker asked each mayor to introduce herself and then introduced several guests including former Kansas City (MO) Mayor Kay Barnes, the immediate past chair of the Women Mayors, and Congresswoman Melissa Bean of the Illinois 8th Congressional District.

Addressing the women mayors was Bobbie Greene McCarthy, Director of Save America’s Treasures at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In Walker’s introduction, the mayor asked McCarthy to speak to the Women Mayors because of Walker’s own interest in historic preservation, McCarthy’s expertise and the unique connection between preservation and sustainability.

Save America’s Treasures is a public-private partnership developed in 1998 as the centerpiece of the White House Millennium program and is now operated as a joint initiative between the National Trust, the National Park Service and the major federal cultural agencies.

McCarthy opened her remarks by stating that preservation has an active role in the energy crisis. She said that we cannot build our way out of the crisis and we must conserve with renewable resources. According to McCarthy, 48 percent of greenhouse gases are caused by construction and operation of buildings. She indicated that most new buildings take 65 years for positive energy results. “Old buildings can go green,” McCarthy stated, and despite the fact that most buildings built between 1950 and 1980 are not energy efficient, they can be rehabbed efficiently rather than torn down and new ones built in their place. A new sustainability initiative has begun at Save America’s Treasures in order to show the advantage of rehabilitation over new construction.

Walker then announced that she would appoint a Task Force to develop a “how to” to move into leadership and also indicated that she would ask the Task Force to discuss whether we should become an advocacy group for specific issues.

Conference of Mayors Executive Director and CEO Tom Cochran then addressed the Women Mayors and provided an overview of the meeting. He also indicated that the Conference would develop transition teams for the new President following the election in November.

Following the meeting, Walker brought greetings to all the mayors at the Wednesday luncheon.