Town of Rochester Environmental Conservation Commission
Meeting Agenda August 11, 2016

Facilitator: Laura
Recorder: Chris

Attendance: Laura Finestone, Judith Karpova, Angela Dorris, Chris Hewitt, Rick Jones
Guest: Larry DeWitt

I. Call to Order: 6:05pm
II. Business and Logistics
A. Minutes approved. Unanimous.
B. New members. We could use some new members, so feel free to make suggestions.
III. Reports
A. Natural Heritage Plan report/ECC. Laura
a. Not a lot to report at this time. There was a second meeting about prioritization of tasks and direction. Looking for continuity between what the county priorities are, the Wawarsing priorities, and ours (based on the inventories). We’re going to be doing Google Earth training; first one is this Saturday. The last Thursday of the month (August 25) at 8am is the next meeting at town hall. We can make our next ECC meeting focus on the Natural Heritage Plan and have John Michelson and Dave Church come do a report and gather input. We would like to run regular business for a half hour (6-6:30pm), and then do this. Voted. Approved.
B. EMC. Judith
a. Judith sent out the minutes to everyone last week. There’s a website in the first paragraph that has more information. The Hudson River Valley Ramble site also talks about all of the Creek Week events happening throughout the region, and ucenvironment.org. They talked about Climate Smart Communities. If listed on the county site, it’s one step closer to getting funding. MannaJo Greene is chairing the committee. Olive is becoming a CSC, and will soon be having a Trash Fest in a similar way that Town of Marbletown did. The county would like a list of all the towns that have Open Space Plans. There’s an electric vehicle week in September. The Hudson Valley Greenway Trail funding application is now open. They also talked about the Solar Zoning Law. The county planning board is creating legislation on this for the whole county (boiler plate, but towns have authority to change it). Pace University has information about residential and commercial solar. Another topic was Walkable Streets; the DOT is going to do a presentation about getting around without cars. The county has a nonmotorized community plan.
C. Planning Board Report. Larry
a. Discussed solar zoning. Long and short is, after taking some months to separate small parcels from large ones, there is now discussion of creating legislation that cover both.
D. Riverkeeper. Angela
a. Big news: Riverkeeper filed a formal report with the DEC and Health Department for polluted site below Yashiva Camp. This recently happened, so Angela will keep us posted on further progress. In other news, Riverkeeper has started to focus on source tracking. For the month of August, we’re doing intensive sampling of tributaries to Wallkill and Rondout. Deep Hole at Towpath Road has failed sampling, at 1300 (60 is failing) during wet weather, but 63 during dry weather. David Lawrence hole is 2,430 wet and 230 dry. Rochester Creek is 2420 wet and 146 dry. Rochester Creek is 2420 wet and 146 dry. North Peters Kill (past Lucas) is 1553 wet and 1414 dry (this is the only one that doesn’t show dramatic differences between wet and dry).
E. Climate Smart Communities. See EMC report.
a. Judith and Angela plan to get together to make progress on this for TOR. The requirements to become CSC are not extreme. We can make this happen, but we will have to meet with Carl about it. The ECC can secure grants for this.
F. WAVE training and Boat Brigade for Creek Week.
a. Angela will coordinate volunteers for our sites, and Laura will work with her to get Sarah Underhill (Wawarsing ECC) involved. Put in at Accord and monitor outflows down to Alligerville Bridge (could pull up some tires too while there). There is parking at the old Alligerville Store; John will get permission from MaryJane to park there. Shooting for September 19, but will depend on WAVE volunteers. John will connect with Dan Shapley from Riverkeeper to let them know that it’s happening.

IV. New Business
A. Organic golf
a. The Hudson Valley Resort has been spraying toxic fertilizers that are wafting into surrounding neighborhoods. When Chris called to ask about what they were spraying, they denied spraying anything. Everyone suggested that he call again and talk to a manager about what they use and what permits are required. Then talk to the DEC or Health Department. There was a strong organic golf movement on Long Island, and there was a lot of push back from golf owners until they realized that it’s comparable in price and quality. Groups like Citizens for Local Power are good at bringing communities together to make progress. Another spraying issue can be the new owner of a portion of Saunderskill Farm; they cleared a patch of trees and neighbors are smelling noxious sprays.
B. Some discussion of new potential solar projects, like a large array at the town transfer station that could bring down electricity costs for the whole town.
C. EMC representative from TOR ECC
a. Amanda LaValle requested a formal letter of request for Judith, and a CV. The process is even more complicated, but Judith and Laura are making progress on this.

I. Old Business
II. Action Item Review
III. Adjourn: 7:10pm