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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - MGG - 01-08-2015I LTON ROWS PREEN MILTON GROWS GREEN COMMITTEE JANUARY 8, 2015 MINUTES [ACCEPTED] Date: January 8, 2015, 6:30 PM-8:15 PM L) ORIGINAL Place: Executive Conference Room, Milton City Hall, 13000 Deerfield Parkway, Milton GA 30004 Attendees: Kathleen Field, Jack Lindon Co-chair, Teresa Stickels, Co-chair, Jon McPhail, Francia Lindon, Barbara Peck, Jennifer Griffiths, Margaret Lamb, Kathy Johnson, Joe Lamp'l, Margaret Lootens, Julie Pinckney, Michael Plets and Charlie Fisher who is new to the committee and interested in land use. I. Agenda: It was posted on the City's web site. IL Minutes: No minutes were approved. November 2014 minutes would be distributed and voted on electronically. III. Updates & Old Business: Bring One for the Chipper. Five hundred forty-five trees were collected and chipped from the two sites manned by MGG, Alpharetta Rotary Club and YMSL volunteers. Pretty sure of this number. Didn't include any that went to Home Depot although our flyers directed people there. Need to get word out to trash haulers to contact their customers about the program rather then just tossing them into the back of their trucks. WM has robo call system to notify customers. There was a problem with trees left at Scottsdale after the event's end. Between 2:55 and 3 PM about 25 trees came in (not included in the final count). The event needs to be shut down on time. Also need to be sure any plastic bags are taken off the trees before they are mulched and that no flocked trees are included. We do not know if the flocking material is biodegradable. Scottsdale first agreed with us to not include flocked trees if we indicated this on our flyer. Then they wanted the flyer changed saying only they would accept flocked trees. The Monday, after the event, they called saying that they didn't want the mulch after all and could we get Casey Tree back to pick it up. Casey wanted $400 to return. Jack resolved the problem by directing two people he knew who wanted mulch to go to Scottsdale. It was agreed that we needed to reconsider the arrangement with Scottsdale and perhaps go back to using the Fire Station #43 for the event site. Earth Day: Target date is Saturday, April 18'. rain date not decided. Teresa and Margaret Lamb offered to act as Earth Day co-chairs. Kathy will be in charge of the kids crafts tent. Courtney Spriggs is the city's new outreach coordinator working with MGG on this. She will also be spearheading the Craft Beer and Wine Festival on May 2"d, two weekends after Earth Day. Kathy Field said the city was planning one event per month and that Courtney was only doing special events. The Craft Beer and Wine event was going to be held at the new picnic pavilion in Crabapple. Planning for the Earth Day event will be done jointly with City staff. Some concern was expressed about the help MGG would receive during our "crunch" time given the close scheduling of the two events, the fact that one was entirely new and that Courtney was new to the job. Jack committed to doing logistics again. Jennifer and Francia will work together on publicity, marketing and graphics. Jon is interested in getting green builders to participate this year Milton Grows Green Committee Meeting Minutes, January 8, 2015 [ACCEPTED] ALL MILTON GROWS GREEN DOCUMENTS ARE PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER wrM AT LEAST 35% POST — CONSUMER CONTENT. either as sponsors or vendors. Jack was hoping city statt would commit to getting vendors and giving budget updates. MGG wanted final say on who the vendors would be. There was an extended discussion about the event's venue, Friendship Park vs. Birmingham Park. It's not an easy decision. Was not resolved but was decided that a decision needed to be made very soon. Birmingham Park Pros & Cons: • Not as risk averse, can withstand inclement weather better • More of a nature -centric setting, less of an urban environment • Allows for expansion • Some vendors prefer venue • Appeals to a more active older demographic • Not ADA or MDAC friendly • Question of legal ownership • Needs work to repair vandalism Friendshiv Park Pros & Cons: • Easy for ADA and families with kids in strollers to get around — different demographic • Some vendors prefer venue — smaller space means they will get more traffic • Visible from a busy main street • Risk of cancellation due to inclement weather day before or day of is high • No room for expansion • Park grounds get much more use, are not in the best of shape, has poor drainage • Scheduling problems due to school and PTA use It was universally accepted that another cancellation would doom future events. The "Extreme Weather Conditions" criterion was not met when the event was cancelled in 2014. Jon said that he knew of vendors that would not participate unless it was held at Birmingham. You can have lots of things that involve "Nature." Jack talked about how Birmingham could be setup to accommodate handicapped parking and get golf carts to shuttle people who couldn't handle uneven terrain. Another event was held at Birmingham last year with the City's approval without a problem. Jon thought the committee should decide and then reach out to the handicap community and ask them, "What can we do to make it easier for you?" Jack to pursue looking into whether or not we can even use Birmingham and then make a decision. Can poll members by e-mail for a vote. Bulky Trash: Young Men's Service League volunteered again. 220 Milton residents and 379 for Roswell participated. Septic System Educational Meeting: Thirty-three residents attended. Two speakers from UGA gave presentations and 1 local septic system vendor, Banks, answered several questions from an engaged audience. Homeowners from different parts of the country may not be familiar with septic systems. Francia was asked to send out copies of the maintenance pamphlet to all committee members and to Jennifer to include it on the MGG/ City web site. Also the meeting was video taped and is available on the City's web site. Milton Grows Green Committee Meeting Minutes, lanuaru 8, 2015 [ACCEPTEDI Adopt -A -Stream: Members who had been previously certified needed to recertify. EverGREEN Schools Partnership: Margaret is being included at our contact person. A new edition of the newsletter was just accepted last night. Lots of good information and cool things are being done in the schools. Moved away trying to get teachers to come in to learn things and towards providing relevant information that teachers can access on their own time. The certifications process has changed to define "category" of effort for the Evergreen School so the identification sign remains fixed. There is money in the Community Development budget for grants to fund Milton Schools' environmental projects as an incentive. At times different schools have been certified but certification isn't continuous without continued efforts. Margaret was going to see that everyone on the committee got a copy of the most recent edition of the newsletter. New MGG Webpage: The entire web page has been updated. Jennifer asked if anyone saw any places where additional changes needed to me made. There is even a video there now. The City is revising its web site so that its format is more flexible and it is more interactive. We are waiting until the new site is up and running before we revisit it. If there is information we need to add, Jennifer asked that it be emailed to her. She will forward it to Jason. Committee members agreed to look at it again. We might want to add links to things people can do for Earth Day not related to our Festival or a link to America Recycles Day. Anything on YouTube is free of copyright to "grab" for interactive content that would be helpful. Kathy suggested that we produce our own little videos for posting on our different activities. "What does Earth Day mean to you?" was one suggestion. It was also suggested that we tap into Michael's talents before we loose him to college in August. Also little videos of environmental projects at schools. Household Paint and Chemical Collection: Because Bell Memorial Park is under construction, it can't be used as a collection site. Two other locations were Home Depot or Cambridge H.S. Jack would look into whether or not Cambridge could be used. Kathy Graham from YMSL has already indicated that they have 20 volunteers lined up to help. We need to get bids before setting a date. We're looking at late February or early March. Need to have time for advertising and the pre -registration. Also need to take into account all who signed up, didn't show up. Last time 20 people who signed up, didn't show. The City is charged for the actual amount collected but amount needs to be close to what is anticipated for the effort to be worth while for vendor. The sign-ups will be cut off when our budget limits are reached but we should consider increasing the signups by a certain percentage in anticipation of no shows. Discussion followed on how to design the sign up web sight to be more precise as to amounts and types of waste. Jennifer suggested using Survey Monkey for the purpose. Meetings between City Manager and City Council: Jack reported on meetings with Chris and Joe Lockwood after Cindy's departure. A meeting of MGG Board members with Chris Lagerbloom and Kathy Field is scheduled for Feb. 6 to discuss who in City Government would be our support contacts for various projects. A City Council work session was suggested for the meeting with City Council and MGG board. This would be a public meeting thus any other members of the committee can attend. Need a better understanding of what our role would be in influencing policy? How can we further our mission with regard to policies such as those on land use? This has always been an area of interest to MGG but not one much acted on. Meeting Adjourned at 8:05 PM lack indon, Co-chair ATTEST: ka Francia Lindon, Secretary Milton (,rows (,reen Committee Meeting Minutes, lanuaru 8, 2015 [ACCEPTED)