ECC Minutes January 2013

Meeting Minutes for January 10, 2013
Present:  Laura Finestone, Joe Britt, Steve Rice, Jorge Gomes
Meeting called to order 7:07 PM
  • Commission position changes
  • Laura informs group that John Messerschmidt had officially resigned his position on the commission due to work conflicts.  
  • Shelley Tran has been officially appointed to the commission, but that still leaves 3 empty seats.  
  • Members need to be recruited.
  • October  minutes not submitted
  • Laura didn’t receive minutes from John prior to resignation
  • Jorge shares brief summary of his notes from October meeting and offers to type up minutes
  • Plastic bag/single stream discussion
  • Laura – Carl Chipman is interested in finding out how to keep plastic bags out of regular waste and recycled properly at transfer station
  • Joe – all major supermarkets are required to accept plastic shopping bags for recycling
  • Laura – need to look into recycling options for all types of bags, i.e. stove pellet bags
  • Rondout Valley Business Breakfast
  • Steve attended and reports to group
  • Mike Hein,guest speaker, promoted casinos in Ulster County, specifically at Nevele Resort
  • Mr. Hein also stated that he wanted to make a the county a world class trail destination for all types of trail users
  • Rail Trail Report – Steve
  • If Nevele casino developed, rail trail connection will be opened and rehabilitated by casino developer.  Developer owns 3 miles of rail trail.
Steve spoke with Scott Carlson and the Town of Wawarsing is moving forward with opening section of rail trail between Rte 44/55 and village
Waiting for hard freeze to do some exploratory digging at future bridge crossing site on rail trail to repair drainage
  • ECC liaisons to other groups
  • Hank is already Town of Wawarsing’s representative to EMC.  Laura asked for someone to represent Rochester ECC at monthly EMC meetings.  Jorge volunteered, but will need to be officially appointed by town board.
  • Joe considering becoming liaison to planning board
  • Is our primary function to reach out to and engage town residents?
  • What about the possibility of formalizing the positions within ECC?
  • Plan calendar for 2013
  • Take time over next few meetings  to work on goals/direction
  • ECC meeting facilitator schedule
February – Steve
March – Hank
April – Joe
May – Bob
June – Shelley
  • RCWC – Laura
  • Final report submitted
  • Potential use of closed Rosendale Elementary as private nature based school ties in with RCWC principles of Education and Outreach.  Private school plans only in preliminary stages.
  • Future ECC events
  • Steve would like ECC to host a town wide event focused on outreach to residents about  of making the last few rail trail connections
Invite local farmers to April meeting to discuss potential of regular farm market in Town of Rochester.   ECC can work with farmers to work help launch this and help with logistics, but farmers will need to take on bulk of responsibilities.
Earth Day- put discussion of what to do for Earth Day on March agenda.Future ECC events
  • Questions from public at meeting
  • Larry Dewitt asks if agendas can be posted online so public knows what will be covered at meeting.  Also asks if the ECC had ever looked into Climate Smart Program.
  • Mr. Dewitt also asked if the ECC could provide guidance or recommendations for actions that he and his and neighbors may take to address concerns about increased algae presence in Stony Kill.  
Meeting adjourned 8:24 PM
Minutes respectfully submitted 1/27/13 by Jorge Gomes