Town of Rochester Environmental Conservation Commission

Meeting Minutes January 14, 2016

 

Facilitator: Laura

Recorder: Chris

Attendance: Laura Finestone, Colin McDonough, Chris Hewitt, Angela Dorris, Stu Dorris. Guests: Judith Karpova, Melissa McDonough, Larry DeWitt.

 

I.      Call to Order: 6pm

II.    Business and Logistics

A.    Minutes approved

B.    Stu and Colin are renewing their membership on ECC. Judith Karpova is sending in a letter to be an ECC member. There’s still one space available; Laura asked for suggestions.

III.   Reports

A.    Rail Trail Report-Stu

-The group has not had any meetings recently.

B.    OSI grant report- Larry/Laura

-Angela proposed doing a presentation to the ECC about where the grants stand. Should we invite John Michelson? Maybe not because he would charge us to attend. Committee is Mike Baden, Angela, Larry, Laura, Steve Fornal.

C.   OSP report

-RFP for the plan was completed today. This is a joint project with Warwarsing. We will work on an intermunicipal agreement. They will put in $5,000 and so will we, in addition to the $50,000 grant. Posting on NYS website, and the suggestions that Laura Heady gave to us.

 

IV.  New Business-

A.    What is our next event? Earth Day is coming up soon. Discussed difference between just a garbage pick up and a post pizza party. It’s a nice event, but it’s a large investment of time and energy. Last year we had about 25 people, and the year before we had about 75 people. When we do have events, it attracts new people to the group. If we have a topic and a presenter that’s worth throwing an event for, we can plan an event. Larry mentioned that he hears more feedback from friends when we get articles and photos published in local papers. Lea, marketing person from Riverkeeper, can help us get into the Kingston paper and Shawangunk Journal.

B.    Take on commitments and accountabilities for next year

·         Riverkeeper events. The Sweep is in May.

·         Earth Day. We like the idea of a garbage clean up without after party.

·         Creek Week. Boat brigade. This is in the fall.

·         RVHS relationship. Rosario Agastaro, superintendent, spoke with Laura about moving forward on this. Angela will reach out to Meg, RVHS teacher, about anything she would like to work on with us.

·         Composting and recycling-inter-municipal. There’s a woman in Stone Ridge who approached Laura about this. She’d like to bring composting and recycling to the forefront. Zero Waste is becoming popular as a topic. We should keep in touch about this and see where it leads. This is also on Carl Chipman’s radar.

·         Plastic bag ban-inter-municipal

·         EMC. Tim is away for three months. Larry attended the last meeting. Steve Nobel is resigning because he found another job.

·         There was a discussion about whether there should be a Department of the Environmental. Angela was told in response to her letter that there wouldn’t be an issue with this, but this may be changing. Larry posited that this is an important group to keep going, and we should be a part of trying to do that. We can talk to Amanda LaValle about this. Larry would also like to go to the next EMC meeting. Judith is considering attending as our official EMC rep.

C. Riverkeeper volunteer appreciation party at Keegan Ales. January 26 at 6pm. We have to RSVP for it. Another Riverkeeper item: Dan Shapley wants to do a presentation on a report (results of water testing), so he would like another intermunicipal meeting. Laura suggests a meeting in February.

 

V. Old Business

-Larry asked about the small grant that we approached about for planning. Regional Economic Development Council. There’s been a big effort by the group in Rosendale, Residents for Community Power, to get this funding and haven’t gotten it.

-Laura recommended that we go to Omega in May for Service Week as the Rondout Creek Watershed Alliance. It’s free if they accept the application. Angela said that she’ll submit the application.

-Does anyone want to take over the Earth Day coordination? There’s about 10 steps. Signage, pick dates, write press release and distribute to local papers. Chris will take this over after talking with Laura about all of the required tasks. Chris will work with Colin and Melissa on the tasks.

VI. Action Item Review

VII. Adjourn: 6:54pm