HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - MGG - 08-08-2012MILTON GROWS GREEN COMMITTEE [1 ORIGINAL
AUGUST 8, 2012 MINUTES [ApPROVED]
Date: August 8, 2012, 6:30 to 8:00 PM
Place: Executive Conference Room, Milton City Hall, 13000 Deerfield Parkway, Milton, GA 30004
Attendees: Jon McPhail, Julie Pinckney, Ken Hughes, Justin Smith, Stacy Smith, Rebecca Smith (from
Environmental Club at Cambridge HS), Amy Peters, Cindy Eade, Jack Lindon, Francia Lindon, Kathy
Johnson, Teresa Stickles and Bruce Langston.
I. Agenda: It was posted on the City's web site.
II. Approval ofMinutes: Explanation of "Livescribe," how the minutes were being recorded, was given.
January 10, June 16 and July 11,2012 minutes were unanimously accepted.
III. Updates:
• Adopt-A-Road -Julie Pinckney: A total of 29 road segments have been adopted. A letter was sent out all
adoptees and they have heard from 3 after follow-ups so the signs were removed. One also responded that
he was almost hit while cleaning up a section by Freemanville Rd. We talked about getting portable caution
signs that can be put out when people were doing their section. Also want to eliminate segments that may
be too dangerous. Jack will check with Carter about getting signs.
• Evergreen Schools -Kathy Johnson: Cindy and Kathy working again this year with The Evergreen Schools
of North Fulton. Schools that applied to be an Evergreen School and completed the requirements were
Birmingham Falls, Crabapple Crossing and Hopewell. Summit Hill and Northwester also participated. As
recognition they will get a plaque to display at their school. North Fulton PTA Environmental chairperson,
Lillianna Brenner is going to be working with Cindy and Kathy this year on environmental education
through the PTA. This will facilitate some of the lesson projects.
There is an Evergreen Resource Fair at the Chattahoochee Nature Center September 5th at 4:30 -6:00 PM.
There will be 25 to 30 different environmental vendors. Jack will be there to see if some would be
appropriate for Earth Day. Ken is going to have a demonstration on vermiculture. Hoping Rebecca can
make it, as ifs a good single source for more environmental information.
Recycling program at Cambridge HS -waiting to hear from Waste Pro whether or not they'll do it for free.
Hope is to set up a recycling program similar to others being done in local schools. Fulton County has not
been willing to pay extra to do recycling. The Cambridge principle needs to get directions from someone in
the school who is familiar with how to set up the program and will take the lead. We're going to hope the
environmental club can be this source with help from Kathy and Cindy.
Earth Balloon from Roswell has tentatively been approved by the principle of Birmingham Falls. Jon and
Jack are going to meet with someone from Keep Roswell Beautiful and will talk to him about getting a
break on the $600/ day charge. The gym is the only room in the school large enough to house the balloon as
ifs 40 ft. high. Kids can get inside and love it. Works for all grades.
Cindy has requested $1,500 from the City for school grants for small environmental projects. And another
$500 for signage related to the Evergreen Schools.
We're recruiting people to help Kathy with this program. They operate on a very low budget. Has a
newsletter.
• Earth Day Festival-Jack: Just to introduce it to the new MGG members, ifs our biggest event. It's been
held at Birmingham Park. Have kids activities, environmental vendors, music and free food. Big
community event for our little committee. Will be held on April 20, 2013.
• Solid Waste & Recycling Survey -Cindy: A survey link was sent out via the City's e-blast at the beginning
of July and resulted in 375 responses. Got some good suggestions. Are going to use the information to
tuque the solid waste ordinance. Ultimately we'd like to reduce the number of haulers servicing each
neighborhood and using our roads. Example is Amy's neighborhood, which has 8 haulers for 15 homes.
City requires recycling at no extra cost but ifs not enforced. Recycling requires two separate trucks. Long
Milton Grows Green Committee Meeting Minutes, August 8, 2012 [APPROVED]
ALL MILTON GROWS GREEN DocuMENTS ARE PRINIED ON RECYCLED PAPER WITH AT LEAST 35% POST -CONSUMER CONTENT.
driveways pose a problem for large trucks to pick up at the door, concierge service. Kathy's whole
neighborhood got a big discount, $30 per quarter, for everybody signing up with a single hauler. Waste
Management by far the largest with 48% of the homes. If anybody wants to be involved in looking over the
ordinance and making suggestions, this is going to happen pretty quickly. Haulers are going to re-sign up
with the City in November. There are four issues that need to be corrected:
o Haulers don't offer recycling, although the City ordinance requires it
o Some hauiers don't pay the required infrastructure maintenance tees due quarterly
o Some haulers are not reporting the tonnage they collect
o There are haulers operating within City boundaries that aren't licensed
• Community Wildlife Habitat Certification Project -Francia: To become certified, Milton needs 450
points. So tar we have 8U residence worth 1 point each and 5 schoots worth 5 pOints each. As resource
materials, we have 3 different PowerPoint presentations and flyers available for aI!fone interested in
giving a presentation to their HOA. Wildlife Federation meetings will fallon the 3 Wednesday of the
month at 7:00 PM.
• Rivers Alive -Jack: October 2~h is the tentative date. Julie Zahner Bailey has been involved with this
cleanup program for many years and usually the staging area is on her property by Little River. Last year
Jack identified all the places in the City where a road crossed a stream that needed to be cleaned. We
worked from this list. This year he asked for help, dividing up the list and checking to see if the sight's
conditions and if it has any safety issues. Police helped in this area last year. We usually have a good
turnout especially from high schoolers. Kids have fun with this because at the end of the day there is an
enormous pile of trash with all kinds of surprises.
• Milton Roundup -Cindy: October 20 th Traditionally MGG has had a booth at this. This year we are having
THE booth, a 20x20 ft. tent full of green activities for kids sponsored by the Milton Herald. There's going
to be a lot of fun family activities, not commercial. Possibilities include, worm composting -tempura
painting of fertilizer molded into shapes; toilet toss; birdhouse building (HomeDepot); newspaper hats
and seedling pots; NWF Wildlife Habitat info and signup; bee demonstration; could advertise
environmental club at Cambridge. We're open to ideas for the tent. Young Men's Service Oub will be
volunteering.
• Household Hazardous Waste Collection -Jack: Have a request in from the City for $12,000 and hoping to
do it in February or March. Estimated cost is $50/ car. So there would have to be a pre-signup with limits.
Need a very large staging area. Cindy was going to talk to her contact at Veri zan.
• ARC Green Communities Certification -Cindy: Resurrected this spring. Got response from ARC and it's
very particular and demanding. Deadline is October 5th • She thought it was a long way off. Going to be a
lot of work but she's going to give it her best shot. Talked about good location for community garden
corner of Deerfield and Webb Rd. Community needs to request this from City Council to get it moving.
Site would need water. We'll be very close to the bronze requirement of 185 points.
• Adopt-A-Stream -Jack: Plan to set up a training session in the spring and get more people involved.
MGG Meeting adjourned at 8:00 PM.
Francia Lindon, Secretary ~ir
Milton Graws Green Committee Meeting Minutes, August 8, 2012 {APPROVED] 2