Community Voices - Jerry Anderson
Jerry Anderson is the owner of Watson???s Hardware, located at 26 South Main Street in Oberlin. He believes in making full use of available materials.
Q: What words/images would you use to describe Oberlin?
A: Coming from your point of view, zero carbon.






Peter Comings is a resident of Oberlin who grew up in town and came back a few years ago with his family because of the positive, forward-thinking mindset he sees here. One of his hopes for Oberlin is that people come to see themselves as important parts of the sustainable, progressive actions Oberlin is taking.
Mrs. Janet Haar, the director of the Oberlin Business Partnership, likes to call her business a ???three-legged stool???. The OBP combines a chamber of commerce, main street organization, and visitors??? bureau all into one. Haar followed son Blake New (men???s soccer coach for Oberlin College and owner of Slow Train cafe and the Local) to Oberlin after he implied that her work was needed in Oberlin. He was right. Janet Haar has done a great deal for the community. She is constantly thinking about the future and what would benefit her business in the long-run. Economic and environmental sustainability plays a key role in not only her professional life, but in her personal life as well.
Marleen Watling is a librarian at the Oberlin Public Library. When the weather allows, she bikes all the way to and from her home in North Ridgeville 3 days a week. Biking has become a real positive force in her life, as a way of not only reducing her energy use, but also of feeling healthier and more connected to the environment.
Robert Q. Thompson is a chemistry professor at Oberlin College. He has invested time, money, and effort into installing solar panels in his home and has created an energy-efficient and green household. He has lived in Oberlin and worked at the college for thirty-two years. 


