Attendees:
Ria Hull, Linda Stoll, Craig Moser, Catherine Neiswender, Roger Kanitz, Kathy Thunes, Dean Gazza, Mike VanDyke, Dick Gosse, Carol Kasimor, Elizabeth Schultz, Chris Miller and Jim Resick.
Next meeting was set for Thursday, March 20 at 3:00 p.m., Platinum Flight Center at Outagamie County Airport, including tour of this green facility.
Summary of Meeting Discussion.
Green Infrastructure Assistance Program Discussed.
K. Thunes passed copies of Green Infrastructure Technical Assistance Program and made a Request for Letters of Interest.
Discussion of Earth Week Information.
Discussion on Earth week event planning, actually Earth “Month” in length. E. Schultz mentioned candlelight dinner celebration to help explain sustainability. D. Gosse asked if group is interested in plastic bag replacement with businesses. C. Miller suggested campaign to have poster put up re: what plastic bags can be recycled. Group asked Chris to approach poster producer to share digital copy of poster with SCN. Group consensus that we would print posters as individual SCN members and distribute them to businesses already collecting bags, to post in prominent places. Find at plasticfilmrecycling.org. K. Thunes, E. Schultz, C. Miller and L. Stoll will coordinate for SCN.
Update on SCN Website Improvements.
R. Kanitz and K. Thunes reported on updated SCN website, which is more user friendly now. Shane Taylor has been volunteering his time on this the last several months. Comments and suggestions on website are welcomed, as it is a work in progress. See the non-live site http://arch.systems/ecos/wordpress/.
Other ideas brainstormed for the website by group include: • Posting of meeting minutes of member SCN groups • Post the results of 2010 Sustainable Policy Forum, including (highlighting) the best practices list generated • Stories and case studies eg. T. Menasha success tracking
Discussion of Community Wide Ordinance Reviews
Kanitz and Thunes distributed a review of sustainability ordinances in WI prepared by Roger. One possible use is to allow comparisons across communities, in preparation of model ordinances for our region. Ideas and suggestions for component language related to various ordinance topics can be vetted via the SCN website, to come up with a draft model ordinance.
Sharing by Committee Members of projects and accomplishments of the past few months.
Outagamie County
- County has mattress recycling program $10/mattress (Miller)
- $15K Sustainable Fund from recycled C&D materials (Gosse)
- Cool Choices and C. Appleton joint participation; grant of $1000 from W-E; wind energy assessment completed for landfill site (Moser)
Town of Menasha
- See attached “Town of Menasha Sustainability Success Tracking Sheet.”
City of Menasha
- C. Menasha: more collaboration on complete streets with T. Menasha
- Expanding E-cycling and looking at fabrics recycling
- Research project = River Generation for hydroelectric to power cars
- Neighborhood composting drop-off project
- Farmers market expansion
- Complete streets grant received
City of Oshkosh
- GHG inventory done
- Climate action steps next
City of Appleton
- Bronze Certificate from League of American Bicyclists for “bike friendliness” community.
City of Neenah
- Arrowhead Park plan includes water pervious pavement on new trails
Proposed 2014 Sustainable Communities Network Action Topics
Resick facilitated brainstorming of activities and learning desired by SCN members.
How to increase education on recycling – Tipping fees and tax bills – Appleton diversion rate evaluation results – Results of “recycling message” research in Brown County
Complete streets education campaign – eg. Neenah and Menasha – Messaging consistency – Bike/pedestrian access and lanes – Public transit/car/bike route safety – Health connection – Green Tier “categorization” effort
Tree canopy and resilience, heat islands, aesthetics – Oshkosh and Fox Valley canopy reports – Tree planning workshops for municipalities and homeowners – Kim Miller report on percent tree canopy coverage by municipality – evaluate annually – Taking” Tree City” to next level
Urban Agriculture as emerging issue – Selling homegrown vegetables vs home business restrictions in ordinances – Agriculture on urban fringe – Community Farm Incubator and beginning farmer effort
Conversion of fluorescent to LED lighting – Baseline comparisons by similar department or building categories – What are the incentives?
Respectfully submitted by Jim Resick.
S:\UWX\JIM\sustainable development\Minutes 1-9-14 of Sustainable Communities Network.doc
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