Town of Rochester Environmental Conservation Commission
Meeting Minutes February 11, 2016

Facilitator: Laura
Recorder: Chris
Attendance: Laura Finestone, Colin McDonough, Chris Hewitt, Angela Dorris, Stu Dorris, Judith Karpova
Guests: Melissa McDonough, Larry DeWitt, Brian Lennon, Danielle Dubord

I. Call to Order: 6pm
II. Business and Logistics
A. Minutes approved
B. Discussed new members: Judith and Rick Jones. Danielle is interested in being a student member of the ECC
III. Reports
A. Rail Trail Report – Stu
-The group has not had any meetings recently. The group hasn’t been meeting, but Carl and Steve are working it. There are some issues with landowners, which are being worked out.
B. OSP report
We’re working on our intermunicipal agreement with Wawarsing.
C. Earth Day Prep – Chris

IV. New Business-
A. Take on commitments and accountabilities for next year
• Earth Day. -Chris will all Carol Dennin to coordinate a date. Should be around 16th or 23rd. The 23rd is Passover, so talk to Carol about which date works better for them. Mettacahonts is our typical clean up location. Youth Department already has the date. Chris will find out what they’re planning. We’re leaning toward the 23rd. Although we discussed other roads (like Main Street, Berme Road, or Queens Highway) we are thinking about sticking with Mettacahonts. Chris and Melissa will work together on this year’s signage. We have the metal sign holders for the signs, but we’ll need to get updated signs. Barbara Fornal may have signs from last year, so Chris will reach out to her to see what she has. Danielle will put our fliers around the high school. We have a budget for some lawn signs, but we will try to make larger handmade signs with paint. We want to get all info out at least 10 days before the event. Chris will update the press release and run it by Laura before sharing it with CWN, Blue Stone Press and Shawangunk Journal.
• Riverkeeper events. Laura has talked to Dan Shapley. We got a lot of traction from our last Riverkeeper events. Last year we brought the ECCs of different towns together to see how we can work together on water quality testing and Creek Week. Last year we worked on the Boat Brigade and WAVE training for Creek Week. Our waters are a common asset that is worth working together on. Some dates were proposed. The meeting can be at Rochester Town Hall or the Lucas Avenue joint town halls of Rosendale and Marbletown. We discussed inviting the public to the meeting.
• Creek Week. WAVE results came in. Sites from Kerhonkson to Accord were inconclusive. As far as macro invertebrates, the water is healthy. If there’s a high matter of fecal matter in the creek, it isn’t good for humans but not necessarily bad for the ecosystem. Water testing starts again in April. Stu said there can be a training day for new people who would like to help with the testing. Angela and Stu will let everyone know about a potential training date.
• RVHS relationship. Laura emailed Rosario to have a brainstorming session. Danielle is going to mention this to Rosario. How can the high school participate in environmental efforts?
• Composting and recycling-inter-municipal. Haven’t made progress on this recently.
• Plastic bag ban-inter-municipal. This has been tabled. When the idea was presented to the Marbletown Town Board, it didn’t move forward.
• EMC. Larry attended. Steve Noble has been the chair for over six years, but now that he’s mayor of Kingston they are looking for a new leader. The group is looking for new members as well. There is a lot of potential with the EMC, and the goal is to be a county-wide, grassroots, collaborative organization that updates the county legislature. Most of the members come from the town ECCs, but there are positions that can be appointed to community members. Meetings will continue to be at SUNY Ulster at 6:30pm. Larry would like to attend the next meeting, but suggests that an ECC member attend.
• Pilgrim Pipeline: Larry mentioned that we haven’t discussed this, but people throughout the region are talking about it a lot. Is there any recommended action that we should be aware of? Larry suggested that we talk to Jen Metzger, Rosendale council member, about what we can do to help.
• Solar project: Larry has been talking with Carl about the potential for a large scale solar project, potentially to power town buildings. A shift in law recently made it more possible to create a solar project on the ground instead of a roof, which can be done as a group project, with neighbors, for example. Danielle mentioned a WISE project that her friend is doing that is exploring alternative, green energy. Discussed how large-scale solar projects that go up on farms take land out of food production or open space, and this cancels the agricultural tax break on that portion of land.
• HV Current Anchor communities. Chris shared information about the local currency system and the new Anchor Communities that are being created. Town of Rochester has a high concentration of Current members, and Carl is intrigued by the idea. The Current is good for the environment because it keeps products local and reduces the need for long distance delivery transportation. Chris would like to do a full presentation for the town board and wondered if the ECC would support the project idea. Larry suggested that I also propose a presentation to the EMC.

VII. Adjourn: 7:03pm