Agendas and Minutes

Conservation and Climate Outreach Committee (View All)

Conservation Commission Monthly Meeting 06/24/09

Agenda
Wednesday, June 24, 2009

 
ASHLAND CONSERVATION COMMISSION
MINUTES
6 p.m. – June 24, 2009
CommunityDevelopment Center

CALL TO ORDER
Vice-Chairperson McGinnis called the meeting to order at 6:00 pm.
 
Attendees:
Risa Buck, Russ Chapman, Stuart Corns, Jim Hartman, Shelley Lotz, Jim McGinnis and David Runkel were present.
Ross Finney, was not present.

City Council Liaison and Chair: Kate Jackson
Staff Representative: Dan Cunningham, Mary McClary not present.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Vice-Chairperson McGinnis asked for approval of the minutes for May 27, 2009.

Vice-Chairperson moved to approve the minutes for May 27, 2009 and Commissioner Lotz seconded the motion.
Voice Vote: All Ayes. The motion passed with a unanimous vote.
 
PUBLIC FORUM
Julie Norman spoke to the Commission raising her concerns regarding herbicide and
pesticide use by the Parks and Recreation Department. She passed out material and wondered if any Commissioners were interested in this issue.
 
One of Parks and Recreation goals for 2009 is to review the pesticide policy. She reviewed a database with the Commission that was created to track usage, in two different formats:
1) by park and which chemicals were used
2) by chemical. Pesticides can include herbicides, algaecides,
    insecticides, and spongicides.

Julie is hoping that the Parks Department will adopt the City’s policy of 1996 to help reduce the use of pesticides.

Huelz Gutcheon spoke highly of Dick Wanderscheid’s presentation to the Planning Commission and wondered
if he could present to the Conservation Commission.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Next Meeting- July 22, 2009

Commissioner Lotz has tickets for the Green Expo, if any Commissioners would like to go.

Commissioner McGinnis announced they could use any help with their 4th of July float, Transition Town.

OLD BUSINESS
Green Business Report
   Commissioner Lotz reported that Robbin is working on
   Certificates, Web Site, decal and letters for the qualified
   businesses of 2008. There will no longer be a green business
   sub-committee through the Conservation Commission, because
   Green Business has now become a part of the Conservation
   Department.


Commissioner Compost Class Sign Up
   Recycling Center –Time-10-12.
   June 20-- Jim Hartman---Gave a summary of the class to the
                 Commission and discussed different ideas to help
                 improve the class.
   July 18---Jim McGinnis
   August 15—Ross Finney
   September 19---Russ Chapman

Air Quality
           
Commissioner Buck reported together with Robbin Pearce they will submit three times a year to the City Source about burning leaves/plastics. Progress is being made.


NEW BUSINESS

Sub-Committees
 1. Sustainability/Strategic
     Commissioner McGinnis
     Commissioner Lotz
     Councilor Jackson
                       
Commissioner Lotz gave a brief summary of their meeting. Commissioner McGinnis proposed using the Natural Step and making that available to City Staff/Administration. Objectives include:  researching other cities, doing a sustainability survey and baseline study, educational outreach, citizen involvement and posting information on the City Web Site.

Vice-Chair McGinnis suggested that each of the sub-committees report at the next Conservation meeting their goals or action items. Commissioner Chapman has been appointed by the Mayor to represent the Commission for advisory committee on the Croman Project.

Commissioner Buck suggested that we align our goals with the Commission’s goals in efforts to unify and increase productivity.

2.  Green Building
      Commissioner Lotz
      Commissioner Runkel
      Commissioner Corns
      Councilor Jackson
                       
Commissioner Lotz reported that communication between different committees and the Council would be helpful in order to see the bigger picture and not duplicate efforts. Objectives: a
survey about energy efficiency for all buildings, to help with a public survey, checking with othercities and education for Ashland citizens.
 
They suggested training volunteers to help the Conservation Department with forms for rebates and suggested initiating a fee to help pay for Green Business certification.
Commissioner Hartman remarked about the zero net energy homes project being built in Medford.
                                                           
           
3. Local Energy Production
   Commissioner Hartman
   Commissioner McGinnis 
   Commissioner Finney
   Councilor Jackson

Commissioner Hartman went over highlights of their meeting. For the City of Ashland’s electric needs to be met with solar energy, it would require 2,122 panels of generation like in the Solar Pioneer II Program. Their focus would be with appliance rebates, duct system analysis, installation rebate, windows, cfls, residential and commercial.

Commissioner Runkel remarked about long term benefits for conservation and educating the banking/loaning system in the importance with the production/remodel of homes.
 
4. Water Quality and Storm Runoff
    Commissioner Buck
     Commissioner Runkel

Commissioner Buck remarked that Robbin Pearce met with them and gave them a lot of information about water conservation, issues and quality. The City is required to identify storm drains and are working toward that goal. Some objectives will be to educate the citizens and communicate with the employees of the City that work with these programs to help generate new
ideas or ways of moving forward.

5. Climate Change Initiatives
   Commissioner McGinnis
   Commissioner Hartman
   Commissioner Corns
                       
   The Commissioners will arrange to meet.

Memo
Vice-Chair McGinnis read the memo from Dick Wanderscheid to the Commission regarding sub-committees to give notice to the public and record summary minutes.

The Commission wanted clarification by the next meeting on the number that makes up a quorum for the sub-committees. 
 
 
ASHLAND SANITARY & RECYCLING UPDATE
Commissioner Buck updated the Commission for the month. 
 
The Bottlemania Event is now posted on the Ashland Sanitary website.
 
4th of July--Master Recyclers will have a booth explaining wste reduction from 11-6pm.  A soccer girls team will be checking the clear stream container and coordinate with the Master recyclers to help divert plastics and they will then retain any earnings from retrieving the plastics.
 
ClearMax-Moving the one in the Plaza to in front of Reds Threads.
 
AOR conference--Commissioner buck summarized the conference's main concerns, waste diversion (composting organics) and construction debris.  The City of Eugene received a grant from the department of environmental Quality for a video. 
                                       
Worm Bin—Worked out a deal with the company to sell them at the municipal rate.

SOU-Plastic bottles and graduation---Their hope is to continue with these efforts at future graduations.
 
Pilot project-diverting compostable eat ware—students set up with Rogue.
 
 Eric Ditmars Environmental Studies class is always “hands on” with community Projects.


COMMISSION ITEMS NOT ON AGENDA
           
Commissioner Chapman moved to buy Dennis Morely’s gift certificate in the amount of $150.00 from The Grange Coop for his work with the Compost Classes. Commissioner McGinnis seconded the Motion.
Voice Vote: All Ayes. The motion passed with a unanimous vote.
 Commissioner Hartman moved to Ashland High School up to the remainder of the budget, $128.55 for The purchase of 9 Rain barrels. Commissioner Lotz seconded the motion.
Voice Vote: All Ayes. The motion passed with a unanimous vote.
 
The City Source has the wrong time for the Commission meetings, and it needs to be changed from 7pm to 6pm.

ADJOURNMENT
7:55 pm.


In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, if you need special assistance to participate in this meeting, please contact the Community Development office at 541-488-5305 (TTY phone number is 1-800-735-2900). Notification 72 hours prior to the meeting will enable the City to make reasonable arrangements to ensure accessibility to the meeting (28 CFR 35.102-35.104 ADA Title1).
 

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