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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018_09_12 Sustainability Collaborative Minutes Town of Mamaroneck Sustainability Collaborative Meeting Notes, September 12, 2018 Attendees: Mitch Green, Michele Lewis, Elisabeth Radow,Arlene Novich, Sue Odierna,Tony Gelber, Nancy Seligson, Frank Owens, Matt Thomas, Marc Karell, Colin Goldberg, Steve Moser, Katherine Pannell, Shannon Purdy, Kristen Andersen, Karen Khor, George Roniger, Beth Radow, Diane Neff,June Wallach, Elizabeth Poyet, new volunteers Maria Martinson and Mark Kramer,guests Melissa Grieco, Patti Capparelli, Lori Fontanes, Maryann Joyce and Steve Wolk Minutes of August meeting were approved. Introductions were made including, new volunteers Maria and Mark;guests from Rye, Melissa Grieco and Patti Capparelli who are interested in discussing leaf blower and gardening issues, Lori Fontanes from Manhattanville College and Maryann Joyce of Pelham's Sustainability Environmental Board. Steven Wolk of New Castle's environmental committee joined the meeting later. Comprehensive Plan Nancy reported that the Town Board is moving forward with a plan to update the Town's comprehensive plan. The update will only address the unincorporated area of the Town and will focus on land use, parking, recreation and sustainability. The process will include public meetings and residents are encouraged to participate.A request for proposals resulted in responses from three consulting firms. The planning process is expected to take approximately 10 months. The future scope of the plan has not yet been determined. Colin added that the Village of Mamaroneck will have a Comprehensive Plan meeting open to the public on Sept. 27th, location TBD, (Following the meeting,we were emailed the following information: The Village of Mamaroneck invites residents and all other interested parties to an"open house"style workshop for the Village's Comprehensive Plan Update on Thursday,September 27 in the Courtroom at 169 Mt. Pleasant Avenue from 4:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. People can drop in at any point during this time period.) Thank you Colin and Marc K. Nancy also announced upcoming Town events of interest: • International Coastal Cleanup Day on Sat.,Sept. 15th @ 10am at Hommocks Conservation Area • One Year Anniversary Celebration of Food Waste Recycling,Sat. Sept. 22nd @ 10am at Larchmont Farmers Market. Lastly, Nancy mentioned the NY State DEC grant opportunity for Food Waste Recycling that she,Steve and volunteers Karen and Kristen (VoL) will meet to discuss Fri.,Sept. 14th Beth/Community Garden and Food Justice Event Beth discussed her proposal for a community garden and provided a handout description. Beth added that she hopes within the comprehensive plan, a space will be made available for a community garden. She has already spoken to 10 residents who are interested in the raised beds she proposes for the garden. Beth introduced guest, Lori Fontanes, who invited everyone to attend Manhattanville College's "Second Annual Food Justice"event on Sat.,Sept. 29th at 2pm. There will be panels on hunger, networking sessions and even a buffet dinner, cocktail hour in the evening. Click here for details and registration info: http e//rnallcyhiiernp/75c flc he 2f5 /save-the-cute-fooc -ju iicy -201 -diinn r-and-a- tory- aturday- ptemb r-29-manhattanviillll -c olIll g 2 :::::0C 51747fcyd Healthy Yard Initiative The group reviewed the draft of the "healthy yard pledge". The draft plan has four parts: organization/education/research/outreach. Sub-committee members are actively working on goals and pledge cards to most effectively motivate residents to stop and/or decrease use of pesticides. Soft launch of project to be in spring 2019. Michele and sub-committee members are looking for ambassadors to get the word out to residents about initiative. Some of their ideas include a "Dear Diane"concept where residents ask gardening questions to our Healthy Yard Collab Expert Diane. Michele would like a website or FB page started, devoted to the tri-muni gardening/healthy yard topic. Colin suggested perhaps there could be a tri-municipal, centralized environmental Facebook page. (Is someone to look into this?) Matt and Diane mentioned they had seen the book "A Land Practice Guide"and thought it would be useful to hand out at various environmental events. Rye guests asked Collabs to consider attending the "Healthy Yards, Healthy Pets"presentation on October 16th at 5:30pm at Pet Pantry Warehouse. They asked the Town to promote the event as well. (Subsequently posted to Facebook.) Action Item 1: Michele to send pledge card to Sue to send to Collabs Action Item 2: Sue has"Land Use Practice Guide" books for use at future events(just call if you'd like to reserve some;we have hundreds of copies.) Noise/Leaf Blowers Marc K and George mentioned how impressed they were with Melissa Grieco's presentation to Rye City Council regarding leaf blowers. Marc asked if the Collabs could have a copy of the Rye legislation to potentially add them to the tri-muni proposed legislation and make this a four community draft law. George's latest draft proposal had been emailed to Collabs prior to meeting and circulated at meeting. Main changes include the proposal's chief complaint that blowers are a health hazard, not just noise nuisance,penalties for using leaf blowers have been increased, and the three municipalities would all have the law in effect during the same dates. Mitch suggested a line by line review of George's proposal at the October 9th Collabs meeting so the Collabs could have a draft to bring to the Town Board. Kristen offered feedback on the VoL's increased summer enforcement but said that the Larchmont Environmental Committee does not yet have data from this past summer. She requested delaying the proposal until the November meeting so that her committee can provide outstanding research and data. Kristen added the suggestion to change the violation from criminal to civil and that"Consumer Reports"magazine says electric blowers are just as efficient as the gas-powered type. Action Item 1: Collabs to review Leaf Blower proposal(see att.) prior to October Collaborative meeting. Send comments and edits to George to email final to Jeffery,as liaison to Town Board. Town Board to review at their October 17th meeting and determine process regarding the two Villages'input and potentially Rye's. Reusable Bag Initiative(RBI) New Castle Environmental Committee Co-chair Steve Wolk was our guest and he talked about New Castle's experience as the first Westchester County municipality to ban single-use plastic bags and place a fee on paper bags. Steve's Recommendations: • Need to have a long list of supporters preferably on many sheets of paper to present at a public hearing. Need to encourage many residents to come to public hearings and meetings and/or send emails to Town Board. New Castle had 1,000 signatures in a Town of 18,000 residents. Mamaroneck has 12,000 residents and only 300 signatures so far. Many more are needed. Food Industry Assoc(FIA)needs a plaintiff in order to potentially sue so ensure that the major stores (Stop and Shop, Trader Joe's, Walgreen's and CVS)are supportive of the RBI and that there is no plaintiff. Reach out to corporate heads of stores to get their support. • Get students and children involved in getting signatures, either door to door(like New Castle did) or at events. After the meeting, Steven Wolk sent the following additional advice email: "one thing I neglected to mention is that you should ask everyone in the (Collabs)group and anyone else that is supportive to thank all stores in town for supporting the Reusable Bag Initiative whenever they go to shop. Best to thank the manager and tell them that you really believe in being sustainable and appreciate their supporting it. But even if you thank someone at the register because people don't have time to speak with the manager,that is good. If they hear it enough, it will get through to the manager and then corporate HQ. You can do this even if you haven't heard that they support it yet.They likely will never say that they don't support it and if they do, then people should act shocked and dismayed (but not argumentative, just deeply disappointed as you would really feel). It will have an impact. And if they do say they're supportive,then they absolutely deserve the credit and your loyalty. Action Item 1: Sue will get contact information of corporate heads of above-noted Town chain stores. Katherine will contact schools regarding student volunteer ambassadors to help get signatures Action Item 2: Katherine finalizing Town Stores list—to be emailed to Collabs to see who has connections to specific stores and can visit with support letter in hand Action Item 3: Plastic-free company based in Pelham has offered us 1,000 cotton reusable shopping bags. Will be picked up in September and printer company to have student RBI artwork added.Sue getting price quotes.(Update, bags to be picked up 9/27 and delivered to print shop to have RBI artwork added. Bags should be ready by Oct.9th Collabs meeting and Sue will bring.) Meeting was adjourned at 8:30pm. The next Collaborative meeting will be Tuesday,October 9th,2018 at 6 pm at the VFW/Senior Center in the large dining room.