Rochester ECC meeting July 10, 2014

Attendance: Stu, Angela, Chris, Steve, Hank, Ben, Tim, Ian & three guests (Melissa, Colin and Vicky)

 

1. Call to Order: 7:06pm

 

2. Open Space Inventory proposal – Larry (report via email)

-Angela will request a copy of the final grant submission from Larry

 

3. Business and Logistics

-Minutes review and approval from June 12meeting. Approved.

-Expanding membership of ECC. Do we want more than 9 members?

-Hank is in favor of expanding the number because we have a growing interest in the ECC, unlike towns like Wawarsing (only 5 members). This will allow us to have better representation at events and efforts that we want to focus on.

-There is a concern that if there are too many people involved, it could diffuse our efforts. When there are 30 people at firehouse meetings, it makes it a little hard to vote. Larry DeWitt is a good example of why we don’t have to increase the maximum amount of members. If someone has a good idea, or an interest in participating, they can get involved, but without a vote. Nonvoting members can be involved but they don’t have the same commitment as voting members.

-What about our alternate members? How many can we have? Could we create a class of members that gives people a desire to participate without them being voting members, like community rep member, for example, or task forces? This week is invasive species week; we could have a subgroup on that.

-Hank moved to table the discussion until Laura is in attendance and until we get further information about other ECC maximum membership. The vote passed.

-Steve interjected some Roberts Rules of Order.

4. Reports

a. Rail Trail (Steve): Progress is being made. There are steel I-beams across Kripplebush now. Steve posted pictures on the Ulster County Advisories page. Steve was appointed the chair of the Rochester Rail Trail Task Force, which is why he is stepping down from the ECC.

-The primary mission is to close the gaps in Accord: Lucas Avenue and near Town Hall. The corrections department has also signed off to allow the trail through the jail property in the Town of Warwarsing. There are also spots to complete in Kerhonkson, so we could become the only hold up on the trail progress if we don’t move on progress quickly. The county has become interested in helping because they want it all to be connected from the Nevele all the way to Kingston. It has been a bit of a struggle to keep the trail mowed near Town Hall.

-Kingston at the Rail Trail Hub: The Green Line Project has received approximately $6 million to connect all of the trails coming through Kingston.

-Steve will keep us informed on volunteer opportunities, and will try to get a member of the Rochester ECC to attend his meetings.

b. Water Quality (Angela): There is a large range of fecal matter in the Rondout, and she is looking into why it is varying. Normally it would be deemed unacceptable to swim with 100ppm, and sometimes it goes up to 3,000ppm. So we are looking into why the fluctuation is happening. The data is also recorded with time, date, rain fall, storm systems.

– This can be caused by a variety of things, from livestock farms to ducks. When there isn’t a large riparian buffer, there is no ability for filtration. We are encouraging people to plant on riparian zones.

-Members of the public and ECC members are encouraged to help with sampling. We have six testing areas.

-How do we identify the sources? Riverkeeper is helping with optical brighteners, which will show whether the source is coming from septic tanks because the test makes detergent glow. A glow would indicate that a septic system is overflowing into the Rondout. Hank talked about the prevalence of E coli in water in Wawarsing, even in bottled water.

-Creek Week is September 13-21 this year. We are discussing a theme to get more volunteers involved. We are planning to collect more garbage again from the Rondout. This is different than the Riverkeeper Sweep. We discussed what the vision for this event can be. We are thinking that the best date is Saturday, September 13. Angela will draw up a description of the event and will pass it around.

-We can have a garbage regatta to get people involved. Soap Boat Derby.

-Are there paddling clubs? Angela: Yes, there are a few, and she will reach out to them.

-Tim suggested that we also work on the rail trail on the same day in case some people don’t want to get in the water.

-Feeding people always helps. We would like to have a BBQ/pizza party behind the youth center.

c. EMC report (Tim): When he went to attend the meeting, it was a different meeting happening. Hank will share more info with Tim to help him get up to speed with the meeting schedule.

d. Mapping (Hank): He found a Wawarsing Natural Resource Inventory map in his house. It is a one-page map with overlays. He also has a CD with this information. He would like to see if there are maps that we can get for free. Chris: There are many free maps that we can get. Hank wants to talk to Amanda at EMC about what we can get for Rochester. Chris will set up a meeting between Hank, Laura and Chris in his Rosendale office in the coming weeks to look at the Rochester NRI maps and the Wawarsing NRI maps that are on disk to see what we can print out for the ECC group.

-Hank has a map from 1904 that shows the area where the flooding is now happening from the Rondout Reservoir. He also has a map from 1946, before the reservoir was completed, and neither of them have any evidence of Lippman Pond, so he asked where did all of the water come from. It must be the leaking aquifer.

5. New Business

a. Grants. DEC mini-grants for watershed and wetlands mapping. This is what Larry just applied for to get funding for Rochester Open Space Inventory.

b. GMOs-Event: Hosting a film and discussion panel (Barbara): Angela reported that the new director of the RVGA is interested in GMO issues, so we may be able to work with them on an event. We will revisit this next meeting.

c. Green Certification (Laura): This was tabled for a future meeting when Laura can spearhead the discussion. Tim explained the idea to the guests at the meeting. It’s a way to show what local businesses are up to environmentally. We may want to research where else this is being done.

d. Extra Food Distribution: Angela explained.

6. Old Business

a. Angela announced that she has invited school youth to attend some of our meetings. Tim suggested that we reach out to the WISE program in the Rondout Schools.

b. Letter to Steve Rice, thanking him for his service from Laura Finestone.

 

7. Action Item Review

8. Adjourn: 8:10pm.