Town of Rochester Environmental Conservation Commission
Meeting Minutes February 9, 2017

Facilitator: Laura
Recorder: Chris
Attendance: Laura Finestone, Rick Jones, Judith Karpova, Chris Hewitt, Angela Dorris
Guest: John Michelson, Nick DePalma

I. Call to Order: 6:06pm
II. Business and Logistics
A. Minutes approved
III. Reports
A. Natural Heritage Plan report. John Michelson
-John came to present the updated Natural Heritage Plan. Discussed actionable items, which can be incorporated into code (there’s a variety of protection strategies, including code). Three things are important for progress to happen: Educated and engaged populace, elected officials, and policy makers. Our ECC represents the voice of the populace. Whatever we propose needs to be adopted by the town board. John reviewed map overlays of the Plan. John recommends that we start testing for nitrogen or phosphorous, in addition to entero, in our Riverkeeper testing (this would require us to work on developing relationships with local farmers so they don’t feel threatened, in addition to our existing relationship with the RVGA). Bob Burnstein puts together farms that are at risk with people who have the money to support it. Rick talked about an idea that interests farmers: agritourism that allows guests to stay on the farm. This source of income can open them up to talking with the ECC about riparian protection. Laura Heady has a library of model wetland laws that we can check out. Pace Land Use Law Center also has models. Rick suggests that we recommend to the town board that more overlay maps be included in our existing Comprehensive Plan. Wednesday, March 1 will be a meeting at the Marbletown Municipal Center about the Greenway Corridor. John continued to review the Natural Heritage Plan resources section. John will be offering a third Google Earth training in the near future.
-Discussed reinvigorating the Rondout Watershed Alliance. The Hudson River Watershed Alliance can help us with this, potentially. Laura and Angela have talked with them.
-In a meeting that Judith and Rick had with John earlier, they discussed naming unnamed streams in order to get additional protection for them.
B. EMC. Judith
-Judith received lots of fliers about birding from Mark Dadaya, who spoke about the 300 species of birds that live in Ulster County throughout the year. She took detailed notes from the meeting and will share them with us all. For example, Indian Point is being closed down, the Long Island wind farm is moving forward, net metering, Ulster County $261,000 grant to boost composting, EV charging stations, infected ash trees, and why the EMC doesn’t get out more to do projects. Then there was a go around when attendees updated the audience on what their towns are up to.
C. Planning Board Report. Rick
-Only two major items on the agenda. One has to do with the project behind Bob Gaydos; it’s a small project but neighbors were concerned. There was some concern about whether there are contaminants in the ground. The testing was taken care of. Two: The Rondout Valley Golf Club may stop offering golf, and may change to an upscale hotel with a variety of rental options and a catering venue, in addition to the existing restaurant. The 12-unit subdivision that the RVGC is proposing, which sits right on a designated wetland, received a lot of discussion. Most of the discussion revolved around alternatives since this proposal seems dead in the water. This is the biggest proposal to come before the Planning Board in years. As the project moves forward, most likely in a different form, Rick recommends that members of the ECC start to attend the meetings.
D. Omelet. No report.
IV. New Business
A. Climate Smart Communities. Angela
Angela reviewed the Climate Smart Certification Program and shared what progress we’ve made already. In order for us to move forward quickly, we will need to create a committee to make it happen. Laura suggested that Europa McGovern from Clean Energy come talk to us about the Clean Energy Communities Program. We should wait until we have a couple of new members to create this committee. Chris suggested Erin from Long Season Farm as an ECC member. Angela knows her and will reach out to her to see if she’s interested in joining the ECC. Judith also met a woman from Oregon who moved here recently who would be a great member: Sherry Stahl. Angela is going to continue to send us all info about our progress on Climate Smart, in addition to the document that she sent today about the progress that we’ve already made.
B. Solarize. Chris Hewitt
-Our volunteer recruitment event will be on March 16, 6-9pm at the Marbletown Community Center. We are collaborating with Marbletown, Wawarsing, and Olive. We approved $150 to put toward this event. Christine Atkinson will be catering the event. The goal is for us to get five volunteers to participate in helping the campaign for the duration of the campaign, about four or five months.
C. Earth Day planning. Chris
-We are planning our event for Saturday, April 22 at the Youth Center after the morning clean up. It will be the kick off of the Solarize campaign. Chris will call Carol at the Youth Center to find out about their plans and which days they’ll be doing their cleanings and celebration. He will also update the signs and banners and place the order with PDQ. Angela will handle the educational components of our celebration, aside from the Solarize materials and a 20-minute talk from John Wackman. For example, our signs and brochures and info from Riverkeeper.
D. Brainstorming ideas for this year-
a. Composting
b. Signage
c. Climate smart
d. Plastic bags
e. Billboard
f. Newsletter
g. Septic
h. Liaison to historical society
E. NYS Association of Conservation Commissions. Laura
-They’re having their annual conference in Kingston. Laura is forwarding their latest newsletter so we can have the details about the conference.

I. Old Business
II. Action Item Review
III. Adjourn: 7:37pm