HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - MGG - 10-11-2011Milton 01UGINAL
�►. MILTON GROWS GREEN COMMITTEE
OCTOBER 11, 2011 MINUTES [APPROVED]
• Date: October 11, 2011, 6:30-8:10 pm
Place: Birmingham Fire Station #43, 750 Hickory Flat Road, Milton, GA 30004
Attendees: Jack Lindon, Francia Lindon, Cindy Eade, Jon McPhail, Kathy Johnson, Amy Peters, Vic
Knight and Charles Slade.
Agenda: It was posted on the City's web site.
I. Approval of Minutes: No minutes were approved.
II. Announcements & Updates:
Milton Roundup (Oct. 15, 2011) - Francia produced 4 posters for the MGG booth: watersheds in Milton,
the Clean Water Campaign, How Drought Is Affecting GA and Milton Is Recognized as a Tree City.
The themes of MGG booths this year were the Clean Water and Clean Air Campaigns. Employees from
the Clean Air Campaign will also be attending with a smog balloon. We also need volunteers to
demonstrate the EnviroScape. Vic confirmed that seedlings were difficult to get. No one is giving them
out for free anymore. Charlie Slade, Community Waste Services offered to supply recycle bins.
There was a discussion on the State legislature passing a law (SB 122) allowing for public/ private
partnerships to develop new regional water reservoirs and the implications this has for the Coosa River
Basin. Concerns are it will encourage speculators to come up with expensive and environmentally
destructive reservoir projects then pitch those projects to local governments that have access to the new
state money and the power to condemn property. Because private developers are involved, the process
might not be transparent. Already controversial efforts have been initiated in Dahlonega.
Rivers Alive (Oct. 22, 2011) - Jack talked about going around Milton where every stream crossed every
road and identifying appropriate sites where there was some trash. He is assembling packets with
maps of the best sites. He expressed concern about some being too dangerous for volunteers to work
on. He talked to Alan Tart about this. Alan said he'd look into getting some police escorts where there
was no safe shoulder. Jack was going to characterize the sites with regard to safety so the assignments
were appropriate for a specific age group.
The Beta Club, the French Honor Society and the Environmental Clubs from Milton High School and
Northwestern M.S. have committed. Vic Knight offered a Waste Management dumpster. All the junk
collected will be brought back to Bailey Farm and Gardens so there will only be one site needing a
dumpster. Vic was going to give us a collapsible bag to capture the recyclables. Tires will be placed
separately because the need to be handled differently. Bill Bailey will check with local tire vendors to
see if they will take them.
Harry's Whole Foods will be providing food for lunch. Starbucks will provide coffee and food for early
morning. The fire department will be there. A question was asked as to whether or not we had waivers
of liability.
Clean Air Campaign_- Cindy will set up a meeting with City employees to tell them what the
program is about. There was a discussion of the press coverage for the program and the one comment
we got from a citizen saying we shouldn't be wasting money on this but should be putting in
sidewalks and bus service. Francia pointed out the Clean Air Campaign costs the City nothing. Milton
is 20 square rural miles. Sidewalks would cost a lot.
Milton Grows Green Committee Meeting Minutes, October 11, 2011 [APPROVED]
ALL MILTON GROWS GREEN DOCUMENTS ARE PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER WITH AT LEAST 35% POST — CONSUMER CONTENT.
Adopt -A -Road - Julie Pinckney gave a brief report, there are 41 segments of road in Milton to adopt.
Twenty-nine have been adopted, 2 are in the process. There was some discussion about involving
HOAs in adopting roads within their own subdivision.
North Fulton Evergreen Schools Program - Kathy talked about participating at the first Evergreen
meeting held at the Chattahoochee Nature Center. Applications to become an Evergreen Schools are
due at the end of the month. The Evergreen School program is making a big positive difference in
helping Kathy. She is able to expand the program with their organization, resources and materials.
Not all of the grant money we made available for environmental projects has been used. Cogburn E.S.
didn't respond at all despite several attempts to contact them. Each school is different with respect to
what emphasis they give to environmental education. Jack said he'd talk to Donna Libidor to see if
she'd be interested in helping Kathy and Cindy with the program.
Better World Books - Birmingham Falls E.S. is getting a bin that Kathy arranged with Steve Ward. He
said they had been installed at Crabapple E.S. and Northwestern M.S. He didn't have any feel yet on
how quickly the bins are filling up. Better World Books really doesn't want to redesign its collection
boxes. Currently 10% of the net proceeds is returned to the schools. If the bins are approved for use
within the City, the current proposal is for schools to get the full 15% for those bins on school
property and 10% for those off school property. The other 5% would go to MGG for educational
programs. Bins placed around the city would go primarily on commercial property if the business
agrees. Steve Ward spoke with City Council discussing the how the program works to benefit local
literacy initiatives.
Bring One for the Chipper - January's event is scheduled on the same day, the 7th, as the Keep Georgia
Beautiful event. We're going to have everything picked up the day after the event. Todd (Casey Tree)
has agreed to do it again this year for us. We need to contact the fire marshal. Terry Porter,
Alpharetta, has agreed to let MGG join them at the Milton Home Depot site. We will advertise this
site, along with the High School on January 7. Scottsdale Farms will collect trees ongoing until that
date. A discussion followed regarding volunteers, the loss of Marc Arrington's organizational skills,
the boy scouts fund raiser, hang tags for trees and the possibility Kings Ridge might want to do it
again. Jack will be following up with Milton HS and Kings Ridge. We will need a volunteer at each
site if we want a tree count from Milton residents.
Rain Barrel Workshop - The next one is scheduled for November 2, 6:00 at the Bethwell Community
Center. There is a signup sheet to capture the information.
The MGG Data Base - A lot has been done on it to get it so information can be communicated among
computers. Jack and Jon now working on getting data entered. We're trying to refine the information
we collect to identify the specific interests of people willing to volunteer.
Pharmaceutical Drop-off Date - Cindy had preliminary discussions with the Police Department on
this and agreement to host in the spring (if DEA is sponsoring again). It may be combined with paint
collection.
Keep Georgia Beautiful Affiliation - Cindy, Jon and Jack have gotten together to try to decide on an
organizational structure that will allow us to form a foundation, Milton Grows Green, Keep Milton
Beautiful and a 501(c) 3 - "Foundation X." Keep Georgia Beautiful is pushing for us to keep
everything under the Keep Milton Beautiful banner using their logo. We're going to decide our own
structure then present it to KGB.
Meeting adjourned at 8:20 PM.
Jon B. McPhail, Co-chair Francia Lindon, Secretary
Milton Grows Green Committee Meeting Minutes, October 11, 2011 [APPROVED] 2