HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017_04_04 Sustainability Collaborative Minutes TOM Sustainability Collaborative
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Town of Mamaroneck Sustainability Collaborative
Meeting Notes, April 4, 2017
Attendees: Nancy Seligson, Lesley Seymour, George, Roniger, Mitch Green, Marc Karell, Frank Owens, Sue
Odierna, Michele Lewis,Tony Gelber, Steve Moser, Kristin Anderson (VOL),Victor Tafur (VOM),
MHS Senior Henry Harwood
Minutes of March 7, 2017 meeting were accepted.
Quality of Life and Sustainability—Sheldrake Spring Festival/Raking and Rain Barrel promotions
Michele passed around "Rake" printouts to promote raking as an alternative to leaf blowing. George, Sue and
Michele all volunteered to work shifts. Festival runs from 11am—3pm. Nancy, Sue and Henry will be at Town
Cleanup until 12pm. Suggestion made to Lesley that we also have a petition regarding "Reusable Bag Initiative"
at Sheldrake table. Will have printouts of various TOM "green" initiatives at Sheldrake as well as List of
Landscapers who mulch.
Action Item 1: Purchase rakes and sell at Festival on Saturday,April 22nd (Earth Day)
Action Item 2: Sue to email schedule so Collab volunteers can sign up for slots
Action Item 3: Sue to coordinate with Lesley on petition draft to have at festival. Sue to coordinate with
Highway Dept/Steve A. in getting rain barrels to festival.
Action Item 4: Henry to talk to YES office about having kids register there as available rakers for residents to call
and hire.
Quality of Life and Sustainability—Leaf Blowers
Continued discussion about how to reduce the use of leaf blowers by encouraging mulching and/or using quieter
leaf blowers and by establishing a minimum fine amount. Marc K. drafted a letter to the Town Board to be
presented at tomorrow night's meeting. Main recommendation is that Board changes Leaf Blower Law to
require decibel limits of 65 decibels or lower at 50 yards. Suggestions are that the current leaf blower law also
be changed to: a) make the minimum fine$150 for the first offense; b) remove a judge's ability to reduce the
fines; c) consider progressively higher mandatory fines for further violations; d) consider placing the names of
"repeat offender"gardeners on the TOM website; and e) consider a "three strikes you are out" provision so that
repeat offenders face a fundamental consequence to continued flouting of the law. Kristin Anderson noted that
the effort should be to encourage people to mulch leaves or allow only electric battery powered leaf blowers in
Town.The Town feels it needs to take small steps first, towards this ultimate goal.
Action Item 1: Marc K and George to present to Town Board on April 5th . Update: Marc and George presented
to the TB. Several question were raised by TB. George responded after the meeting and the TB is still waiting for
Steve Altieri to provide other violation fee information.
Quality of Life and Sustainability--Reusable Bag Initiative(RBI)
Lesley met earlier today with Nancy, Sue and MHS student Henry,to discuss next steps in the RBI. It was decided
to create a flyer for an RBI contest as a first step.The contest would be to create a short video or slideshow
depicting plastic bags in a humorous or serious way to educate residents about the effort. The Sustainability
Collaborative would choose the top three entries and award cash prizes to them. All agreed that we need to get
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AP Enviro teacher Sophia Andrews and Video teacher Liz Dumbroff on board to help get word out to students.
Lesley to create flyer. Contest will then be posted to Town website, FB pages and promoted on LMC-TV. Henry
thought it would be great to get the flyer out by Earth Day,April 22nd. Update: Lesley has created a draft of the
flyer. Discussion about how to get petition "out there." Should students go door to door?
Action Item 1: Nancy to contact MHS teachers to see if they'll get involved. Both Sophia Andrews and Liz
Dombroff are interested.
Action Item 2: Sue to draft a petition. Petitions were used at the Earth Day events.
Action Item 3: Henry has agreed to work at Town as part of MHS spring internship program. He will work May 1
—June 8th and focus on RBI with Lesley.
Quality of Life and Sustainability--Biking Safety
Steve M. gave an update on Mike Flynn's "Draft Preliminary Recommendations" presentation from February.
Steve M has been in touch with Mike re: moving forward and sent us the next revision of the bike route plan.
Victor mentioned he'd like VOM to piggyback onto our bike routes to extend them. The recommended first
routes are Palmer Ave and Chatsworth with the goal to have "paint on the ground" by springtime. Mike Flynn
received the parking regulations along these routes. Next step would be for the Bike Routes proposal to go to
Traffic Committee for their input, hoping they could endorse the plan. Following that,the proposal would go to
the Town Board, idea being that the new bike routes plan grows out of the "Complete Streets" project. Dates
were discussed as to when Steve and Mike Flynn could appear on LMC-TV's "Local Live." Steve M. to coordinate
with Mike and get back to us/LMC-TV. Below are ideas discussed at March Collabs meeting regarding further
steps in promoting the new Bike Lanes to residents. Need to determine which steps will be initiating and by
whom:
• Press Release
• Robo-calls and/or door to door visits to residents on affected streets
• Using some marketing materials that Safe Routes to Schools uses to promote benefits of biking/bike
lanes
• Homeowner Associations
• "MHS Info"
Solid Waste--Increase Recycling Efforts/Creation of a"Recyclopedia"
Nancy and Sue reported for Neha that she is finalizing the Recyclopedia guide. Neha has been meeting with
Steve A. weekly and would like to present guide to interested Collabs in a separate and short meeting later this
month.
Action Item 1: Neha will present to the Collabs at a special additional meeting in April and then,to the Town
Board at the end of April or beginning of May. UPDATE: Recyclopedia presentation scheduled for Monday,
April 17th at 5pm at Town Center. Nancy,Sue,Steve A.and several Collabs to attend. Neha will format the
Recycicopedia.
Action Item 2: Sue 0 and Neha will consider how to publicize the TOM "Recyclopedia," including in educational
programs at the schools, and how it might be featured at spring 2017 Environmental Events.
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Water Quality Issues Update from March meeting
a. Sanitary Sewer Evaluation Study—(SSES) sewers have been smoke tested, cleaned and televised in New
Rochelle and Larchmont,TOM needs to be completed. Michele L and Frank 0 suggested visuals would
be very helpful in showing the sewers.
b. Town Center parking lot renovation is underway;to be completed in June. Contractor to give us
landscaping plan.
c. Nancy travelled to Albany to lobby for clean water efforts as the Federal environmental budget has been
severely cut. The NY State budget has$2.5 billion in it for water infrastructure projects.The Town will
be applying for a grant in the spring.
d. Sustainable Westchester re Municipal Solar Buyer's Group (MSBG)—the Public Service Commission
changed guidelines for Municipal Solar projects so this now does not look like it will happen.
e. Healthy Yard Initiative—Rye Sustainability Committee has residents complete a yard checklist to qualify
to be a "Healthy Yard" and receive a sign (coming May 2017). There was serious interest in this program
for the Town.The Larchmont Garden Club is interested in supporting this effort.
Action Item 1: Is the Collaborative still considering having an outreach event in conjunction with the smoke-
testing of sewers? (i.e.: "Smoke-out," potential field trip w/AP students)
Action Item 2: Sue has details on how Rye ran their Health Yard program. Nancy and Sue have discussed having
a MHS intern help with this program during the MHS Spring Internship program and continue with a summer
intern.
Action Item 3: Contact Larchmont Garden Club.
Action Item 4: Need to talk to Steve Altieri about getting video of sewer lines
Other discussed items:
Victor of the VOM and Kristin of the VOL mentioned the idea of a tri-municipal meeting between the three
environmental committees (VOL,VOM,TOM) this September. TOM Chair, Mitch G agreed this would be an
effective idea.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:40pm.
The next meeting will be Tuesday, May 2,2017 at 6pm at the VFW.
2017 Priority Initiatives—Task Force Leaders
• Air&Noise Pollution George R Renewable Energy&Local Energy Frank 0,Marc K,Mitch G
• Walk-able,Bike-able TOM Stephen M Near-Zero Waste Community Steve A,Neha D
• Improve Water Quality Nancy S,Michele L,Beth R Education&Awareness Michele L,Beth R
• Maintain&Improve Infra Steve A,Frank 0 Climate-Smart,Zoning&Codes Nancy S
• Community Preparedness Tony G
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