HomeMy WebLinkAboutSCMinutes_2018_12_12Sustainability Council
December 12, 2018
A meeting of the Sustainability Council was held on Wednesday, December 12, 2018 at 4:00 p.m. at
Brookings City & County Government Center with the following members present:
Norma Nusz Chandler, Nels Granholm, Shelly Brandenburger, Bob McGrath, Mike Lockrem, Jane
Hegland, Betty Beer, Jennifer McLaughlin, Caleb Vukovich and Paul Peterson. New member Robin
Buterbaugh also present.
Stephanie Aure was absent.
Others present: Shari Thornes
Chair Nusz Chandler called the meeting to order at 4:02 p.m. A motion was made by Betty, seconded by
Jennifer, to approve the agenda. All present voted yes; motion carried.
Minutes of the previous meeting were not available for approval. Tabled until January.
Nominating Committee: The nominating committee consisting of Shari Thornes, Bob McGrath and
Norma Nusz Chandler, met and brought forth a nomination of Jennifer M for incoming Chair and Shelly
B as incoming Vice‐Chair. The floor was opened for additional nominations. No additional nominations
were made. Betty moved, Paul seconded to close nominations and accept the nominations on the floor.
Motion passed.
Spring 2019 Meetings. It was discussed that we will keep the same time. These will be the 2nd
Wednesday at 4pm starting January 9th. We will need a recorder for each meeting to take minutes as
this is no longer provided by the City. And minutes need to go to Angie Ritter now:
ARitter@cityofbrookings.org
2018 Annual Report. We will need to put together a 1 page summary of 2018’s accomplishments that
may include pictures. This is due to be adopted at the January meeting as it is due to the City in
February. Shari will find some pictures of our events. Norma & Bob will summarize 2018. Jennifer &
Shelly will lay out 2019 goals.
Briefly discussed some goals for 2019:
1. Energy issues such as the City is looking at electric charging stations for vehicles at the City
buildings similar to what Einspahr’s and one of the hotels in town has. Can we assist the
City in this work? We also discussed the new school buildings/expansions plans such as BHS
additions and whether sustainable energy is being incorporated there. Energy is a topic the
Council would like to work on.
a. We discussed that there could be some challenges here as the school land is owned
by the County, not the City. Bob also brought up the issue of the Brookings Utilities
and Basic Electric contract that says Brookings can’t create its own energy so that
may play into all this Betty attended a meeting on the additions recently and the
Principle said that alternative energy use was not discussed.
2. Other areas of interest for the committee include local foods, waste, public education on
sustainability and policy recommendations.
2019 Goals and Committees: The Council discussed that we need to narrow our focus areas to some
more achievable set of goals. To that end, Jennifer proposed some subcommittees for 2019 (see
separate document with the proposed subcommittees and their areas of work). Members volunteered
for subcommittees as follows:
1. Communication & Education: Mike, Nels & Jennifer
2. Local Foods: Robin, Shelly, Caleb & Jane
3. Energy: Robin, Nels, Betty, Paul, Jennifer & Norma
4. Waste: Norma, Paul, Bob, Jane
Those subcommittees will connect after the Holidays and we will ask Stephanie what subcommittees
she’d like to work on.
Standing Committee reports:
Local Foods.
Shelly reported that she and Shari met with Paul Briseno, City Manager to discuss the idea of a
Food Co‐Op in Brookings. The concept would be similar to the bike plan where the work could
begin as a project of the Council but then become an independent entity/coalition. Shelly also
reported that the Local Foods committee will need to resume its work on looking at / addressing
barriers in the City Ordinances for local foods production.
Green Drinks
We will plan to move forward with a January Green Drinks event. We will be revising our
approach to Green Drinks in the communications/outreach subcommittee.
Liaison reports:
Friends of the Big Sioux River
Nels reported on the Smithfield case in Sioux Falls and how the Argus Leader reported that 1/3
of facilities in SD haven’t had their water permits evaluated by the DENR (including Smithfield).
Bob reported that only 1 employee is assigned by the state to monitor all the discharge permits
in the state and the state policies are very old. Counties can enforce stricter rules but would
have to fund their own inspector and there are some issues with the federal government not
approving the state’s plan which ties things up. Nels wondered if we could write a letter to the
state expressing concern on some of these things. Tabled for 2019.
Bicycle Committee
Mike reported that they are still working on things and nothing new to report at this time.
Announcements:
City Budget: operates on the calendar year. We need a 2020 Budget ready for approval by the
April meeting.
Adjourn
Meeting adjourned at 5:35 p.m.
Submitted by Shelly Brandenburger