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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSCMinutes_2012_01_23 Sustainability Council January 23, 2012 (AMENDED) A meeting of the Sustainability Council was held at 5:00 p.m. on Monday, January 23, 2012 at Brookings City Hall with the following members present: Donna Hess, Brooke Sydow, Bob McGrath, Arika Sanders and Ryan Carda. Absent: Justin Fjeldos, Jane Hegland, Laura Hennen, and Norma Nusz Chandler. Doug Raynie, SDSU Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability Committee and Todd Langland, City of Brookings Landfill were also present. Sanders called the meeting to order at 5:04 p.m. A motion was made by McGrath, seconded by Sydow, to approve the agenda. All present voted yes; motion carried. A motion was made by Hess, seconded by Carda, to approve the November 28, 2011 minutes as distributed. All present voted yes; motion carried. The February meeting is scheduled for Monday, February 27, 2012 at 5:00 p.m. New Business Item #5 Review and Action on the Annual Report. A motion was made by McGrath, seconded by Sydow to approve the Annual Report as presented. All present voted yes; motion carried. Item #6 Sustainability Guide update. Arika Sanders put up an older version of the recycling matrix on the projector. Todd Langland explained that both he and Laura Hennen had called the various business about what items could be recycled by the public. Laura’s version was emailed out to the Sustainability Council a few days prior to the meeting. The two matrixes were slightly different in the arrangement of businesses. Todd volunteered to organize the matrix by types of business and coordinate with Laura to get a final form by the next meeting. Arika Sanders put up the research on proper disposal of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment/devices that Ryan Carda had done. Ryan or Arika will send the research to Laurie Caruthers so it can be sent out to the rest of the Sustainability Council. The research appeared to be very detailed and extensive. Ryan also touched on battery recycling and informed the council about a web site called Batteryrecycling.com. Donna Hess passed out her research on Reusable/Recyclable Resources. Her handout was resources for recycling for primarily clothing. However, she also had gathered information on other items such as furniture, household items, silverware, tools, and knick knacks. The handout will be given to Laurie Caruthers to distribute to the balance of the Sustainability Council members. This item will be on the next agenda again. Item # 7 Acknowledgement of Subcommittee Chairs and Updates. None of the Subcommittee Chairs were present so no update reports were given. This item will be on the next agenda again. Item #8 How is our site? Do we need to add content? The site was discussed and it was generally agreed to add more content as it becomes available. A motion was made by Sydow, seconded by McGrath to open a Facebook site. All present voted yes; motion carried. This item will be on the next agenda again. Item #9 Grant Opportunities? Arika will be attending a conference call on Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 1:00 PM (our time) with Urban Sustainability Directors Network regarding Local Sustainability Matching Fund. The Local Sustainability Matching Fund will provide grants from $25,000 to $75,000 with a 1:1 local match. There are two funding cycles each year. The first cycle application deadline is March 5th. The Sustainability Council is interested in pursuing a grant in the second round of grant applications with a presumed deadline in September. The council would like to develop a project with SDSU if possible. McGrath suggested that a project be picked and the grant application be drafted as soon as possible; so that the application could be presented to the City during the budget process to obtain matching funds. Sydow is interested in working on this item but is concerned about professional and family commitments during May and June. McGrath volunteered to help Sydow with the grant application. If anyone has any ideas for the project email them to Sydow. This item will be on the next agenda for updates. Item # 10 Earth Day (April 22) collaboration with SDSU. Doug Raynie discussed ideas for “Earth Week”. The ideas included having a lecture series with speakers possibly from Extension or speakers that Jane Hegland might know of; exhibits at various locations on SDSU campus or in the community; a coordinated news blitz in the newspapers and radio; advertise a website called “Acts of Greenness”; and develop a project called “Keep Brookings Green”. The SDSU Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability Committee does not have funds to accomplish any of these ideas. Doug also mentioned that the book “No Impact Man” is being considered as one of the possibilities for the Common Read Program. The decision on which book is picked will be in April. A motion was made by McGrath, seconded by Sanders to co-sponsor the April 22, 2012 Earth Day events with the SDSU Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability Committee with a budget up to $500. Item # 11 Mayor’s Ride – Bike to work week is May 14-18, 2012. The members of the Sustainability Council that were present were not sure if this item was on the agenda simply to inform the council of the event or if some type of support was being requested. Therefore no action was taken. Old Business/Updates/Reports: Item #12 Highlights from SDSU Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability Committee’s meeting on November 29 from attendees. Doug Raynie brought up one of the highlights of the meeting. The SDSU committee is wrestling with the idea of developing a “sustainability fee” to be charged students in conjunction with their tuition fees. This type of fee is charged at other Universities. The fee would be used for sustainability projects on campus. The concept is to build up a revolving fund of approximately $500,000 and then discontinue the fee. An example of a project is replacing existing lighting systems with energy efficient systems and then the energy savings would be paid back to the revolving fund for next sustainability project. There are some practical problems to be resolved such as how to track the energy savings of an individual building. Members of the Sustainability Council are welcome at the next SDSU Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability Committee which will be on February 21 at 3:00 PM in USU (Student Union) room 271. Item #13 Flyer – Where to distribute? Arika Sanders passed out a sample of the Sustainability Flyer and asked for input about the format and information on the flyer. Everyone commented on how good they thought the flyers looked good. Arika said a table has been reserved at the Home Show for February 11th and 12th. The table does not need to be attended. However, if any one did want to work at the table and answer questions they can volunteer. The members of the Sustainability Council discussed possible locations to have the flyer displayed/given out. The following is a list of the locations that were mentioned: Home Show City Hall Landfill Chamber of Commerce Lowes Wal-Mart Public Library Junior Achievement Good Will Trends Register (PSA) Fine Arts Festival Safety Town (possibly a children’s version) Farmer’s Market Item #14 Update from Todd Langland regarding recycling containers. Todd informed the Sustainability Council that the Board of Health had met on Thursday, January 19th and had directed him to keep pursuing the idea of purchasing recycling carts for automated pickup. Todd described the cart as a 65 gallon container (the current garbage carts are 95 gallon containers). He stated that he had a vendor make a prototype container that was blue on the bottom with a yellow lid based on SDSU colors. There is potential to get a state DENR grant that would cover 50% of the cost of the carts. The recycling cart would cost about $65 each. Todd went on to explain that they have approximately 4,600 garbage customers and that 65-70% of the customers recycle. Not all customers recycle every week some put their recycling out every other week. Todd also expects more customers to participate in recycling once the carts are available. Todd noted that the most frequent informational call that the landfill receives is “Does the City provide a recycling container?” The landfill has received over 300 calls of this nature since April of 2011. Therefore he would like to get approximately 3,200 – 3,400 carts initially. The total cost would be $200,000 - $225,000. If the state grant was awarded, then the city cost would be $100,000 - $110,000. The automated recycling system would reduce labor costs on the recycling operation (2 men instead of 4). The two men would then be transferred to the collection of yard waste where there is a shortage of labor and would result in less overtime. This automation is another way of using technology to slow the need to add personnel as quickly to keep up with the growth in the community. Todd asked the Sustainability Council for advice on how to get public input about the recycling cart. Members of the council suggested an informational flyer be placed in the utility bill with a website and a telephone number that the public can contact with their input. It was further suggested that the informational flyer be bright orange with the words “DON”T THROW AWAY “at the top. It was a further suggested that a laminated sticker be placed inside the lid listing the items that can be recycled. Todd also passed out a handout comparing the 2011 and the 2010 tons of various items that are recycled at the landfill. The handout did include the traditional “single stream” recycling as well as less traditional items like compost, scrap metal, tires and wood/trees (wood chips). Other: Item #15 Announcements/Correspondence/Communications/Calendar SDSU’s Green State site. Sydow announced that “Recyclemania” will be from February 5th through March 31st at SDSU. Item #16 Adjournment Motion was made by Sydow, seconded by McGrath to Adjourn at 7:30 PM. All voted yes, motion carried. Submitted by Bob McGrath