HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - MGG - 01-09-2012GY01)s COY
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JANUARY 9, 2012 MINUTES [APPROVED]
Date: January 9, 2012, 6:30 - 8:10 pm
Place: Birmingham Fire Station #43, 750 Hickory Flat Road, Milton, GA 30004
Attendees: Jack Lindon, Cindy Eade, Francia Lindon, Jon McPhail, Kathy Johnson, Amy Peters, Julie
Pinckney, Angela Thompson, Bruce Langston and Gordon Hunter.
L Agenda: It was posted on the City's web site.
II. Approval of Minutes: No minutes were approved.
III. Announcements & Updates:
• Crabapple Form Based Planning Meeting, January 19, 2012 - The meetings are open to the public
and are held in City Council chambers. There are 20 people are on the committee headed by Kathy
Fields. Jack was named to the committee after he asked to be on it and pointed out that Lynn Tully
had recognized MGG as a stakeholder before she left.
• Bring One for the Chipper — The estimate is that 827 trees were collected. Getting a hard number is a
little difficult because the boy scouts were bringing in the trees by the truckload and some came in
after the event was closed. Those collected from Milton and deposited at Home Depot weren't
accurately counted. This was the first event held with the Young Men's Service League volunteer
help. The Alpharetta Rotary Club (contact is Wayne Robinson) donated good-sized redbud and
dogwood saplings. They want to be notified of this event next year. The one glitch in the planning
came at Scottsdale Farms. Because trees were deposited throughout the previous week, on the day of
the event all the space had been taken up. There was no room for more trees and the chipper had to
be dispatched to that location first. We were lucky that the Casey Tree crew was at the High School
and could be moved quickly. Also need to make sure directional road signs go out ahead of time and
the sponsors are thanked.
Gordon was asked about how to identify locations for planting trees around the town. Contacting
HOAs was suggested. Timing for planting, during the dormant season, is critical. MGG could
coordinate planting with different volunteer groups once locations have been identified. There were
questions about digging so many holes, getting utilities marked, providing amended soil. It was
suggested MGG just be involved in distribution of saplings.
• Green Communities Certification — Cindy and Michele went to the ARC to talk about moving
forward, wanted to understand what they are capable of achieving from this point. Right now we
have identified about 90 points out of 165 that we have already. The suggestion is to get together
with City Council in a workshop setting to reintroduce the idea, show where we are and what
ordinances might need to be changed. Bruce thinks communication with the government is a good
idea because this definitely has to come from a commitment at the top. There has to be buy in and
suggestions need to be specific such as a green roof on a park building, rainwater collection systems
at community centers, LEEDs certified school buildings, energy audit done on 101yo of City owned
buildings, request a second pad for recyclables on commercial buildings, etc. Jack, Cindy and Bruce
had a meeting with City Councilman Bill Lusk who has agreed to be sponsor of any resolutions that
might be needed. Cindy will e-mail spread sheet out when she's finished on where we are on this
and is taking a course to get accredited as green certified.
• Earth Day Festival (April 2151) — Angela Thompson was introduced as the City's new event planner.
Committee planning meeting scheduled tomorrow at noon. Kathy Johnson will be chair but won't
have a lot of time for this until after February. She's taking the Bar Exam Feb. 28 in Environmental
Law and will be studying until then. Jon committed to getting more environmental builders as
Milton Grows Green Committee Meeting Minutes, Januanj 9, 2012 [APPROVED]
ALL MILTON GROWS GREEN DOCUMENTS ARE PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER WITH AT LEAsr 35% POST - CONSUMER CONTENT.
vendors this year, wants a small node "Sustainable Village." Bruce will help him. There might be a
way to tie in the builders who will be involved with the Crabapple Form -Based planning to have a
role in Earth Day. We also might be able to get points for adding such things as electric car
recharging stations. Jon wanted to get in touch with them within the next 10 ten days. Also want to
encourage good food and music for people to have a good time. All but one food vendor didn't
charged for food last year.
• Solid Waste Collection — Cindy now has all of Matt Marietta's files. Amy is willing to help on this.
Cindy is going to send a letter to the haulers introducing herself and talking about recycling
provisions in the ordinance. She's also working on setting a base line. Some circumstances such as
long driveways make sending two trucks difficult. Homeowner could meet hauler half way by
getting recyclables up to the mailbox. Two haulers haven't paid any of the franchise fees last year in
violation of conditions for their permits.
We need to come up with a creative way to balance the needs of free enterprise with the desires of
the community to minimize noise, smell and impact on roads. We need to better understand the
business from the hauler's point of view. Does the revenue from recycling offset other expenses?
There are maybe 7 residential haulers licensed by the City, 11 if you count those that do commercial
only. We have talked about establishing some incentive program to encourage recycling such as a
portion of the profits go to a charity of the resident's choice such as the Red Oak model. The other
side is to increase recycling by the hauler with some incentives because there is no way to monitor
the haulers. Jack wants to set up a meeting with Charlie Slade or Vic Knight, Amy and Cindy.
Charlie's new single -stream recycling plant just over the line in Forsyth might provide new and
creative ideas.
• Paint Recycling Day with Boy Scout Troop 3000 — Walter Dean is interested and has arranged to do
this February 11' as a fundraiser for the Boy Scouts. MGG will provide publicity and some volunteer
help on that day. They're doing it with Williams Paint Recycling and will charge $15 for the first 10
cans. The Boy Scouts get to keep 407o of the money collected plus any donations.
• Adopt -A -Road — Twenty-seven roads out of the 41 available had been adopted last year. And this
year a letter is going out to see if they want to continue and see if they have scheduled a cleanup. Jon
wants the available roads publicized on the City's web page. So far we haven't had to solicit
participation. It's strictly a volunteer effort. Roads have to be local roads. State highways have to go
through the state. Jack asked about large orange kite -like caution signs to put up when the cleanup is
being done. These could also be used when we do the Rivers Alive event.
• Bulky Trash Amnesty Day (Spring) — Has been scheduled for March 34'h with Roswell.
• Arbor Day (March 17' for Milton) — Mark Law is planning a planting possibly at the Bethwell
Community Center. Jon suggested a privet pull along the Little River in Birmingham Park, as privet
is an invasive species taking over the area.
• Waste Management Grant for Earth Day — Vic talked to Cindy and sent a grant application for
$5,000 available for recycling or cleanup education. It could be used for Earth Day for the
educational tent. He has to submit it to the company.
Meeting adjourned at 8:10 pm.
J
ATTEST: B—il
Jon B. McPhail, Co-chair Francia Lindon, Secretary
Milton Grows Green Committee Meeting Minutes, January 9, 2012 [APPROVED] 2