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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022_07_12 Sustainability Collaborative Minutes Town of Mamaroneck Sustainability Collaborative 2022.0712 Collab Meeting Notes Town of Mamaroneck Sustainability Collaborative Meeting Notes July 12, 2022 Attendees: Karen Khor,June Wallach, Robin Nichinsky, Sue Odierna, Mark Kramer, Nick Zuba, Kevin Crowe, Elizabeth Poyet, Allen Reiter, Karin Weisburgh, Marc Karell, Mark Kramer, Michele Lewis,Judy Caputo, Sebastian Gold Co-chairs June Wallach and Karen Khor asked to approve the Notes of the June 2022 meeting and notes were approved. They welcomed everyone to the meeting. June announced Denise Dunn and Mark Kramer had been approved as appointed members of the Sustainability Collaborative by the Town Board at the last Town Board meeting. June noted their many accomplishments starting with Denise initiating the Town applying for Electric Vehicle Charging Station grants and continuing her volunteer work with the Town's application for Climate Smart Certification renewal while Mark has been a main player(and now leads) the food scrap recycling initiative and has been an active volunteer with Collab events including Compost Give Away days, the Repair Cafe, and Farmers Market Saturdays. Pollinator Garden Tour—Elizabeth (Libby) Poyet Libby gave a rundown of the Pollinator Pathway Garden Tour held on June 26r". She reported that as many as 250 attended the garden tour. She reported that Kevin did a great job of getting volunteers, about 30 participants, including those opening up their homes. There were 19 homes featured on the tour and several on the tour labelled their plants. Libby announced that September 24r" will be the Native Plant Festival at Constitution Park in Larchmont. Comprehensive Plan Update Karen reported on Existing Conditions which will be included on the Town's website with the online survey to get resident input through August. The plan for the fall is to put out "Draft Policies"and then have more community events. Questions were asked about communication with the Village of Mamaroneck regarding working together on the comprehensive plan and there was some concern about not getting the survey out to enough residents. Update: Click here if you would like to read the "Existing Conditions" in the Town (located on Town website homepage) https://www.townofmamaroneckny.org/DocumentCenter/View/5006/Existing-Conditions- Assessment-as-of-J uly-12-2022-PDF?bidld= The survey is also on the homepage, has been posted to FB pages and a press release will go out to all media in September. Click here to view and take the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/YMSXMDG Climate Smart Communities(CSC) Sebastian reported that Denise Dunn and Judy Caputo from the CSC team had submitted 11 actions in July 202Z most of which were about to expire this year and a few of which were re-submissions on actions for which the Town sought to fulfill requirements to receive points not awarded in previous submission. One new, major priority action that Denise submitted is the Town's operations Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report. The Town's bronze recertification status, which was secured in March 2022 lasts five years, so it is valid through 2027. To reach the silver certification level, we need to submit more actions(six priority vs three for bronze)and reach 300 points instead of the 120 required for bronze. Sebastian also provided an update on his progress interning in the Town 1 Town of Mamaroneck Sustainability Collaborative 2022.0712 Collab Meeting Notes Supervisor's office for several weeks this summer working on the Town's actions in the Climate Smart Community program. Before Sebastian finished his internship, he organized his work, including: 1. Documenting recycling bins in government buildings 2. Documenting Recycling bins out in public places, such as parks in the Town 3. Updating the Town's Energy Use Benchmarking on the Collabs page of the website 4. Creating an intern orientation guide for using EPA's Energy Star Portfolio Manager platform to update the Town's energy use benchmarking. CPACE—Nick Zuba Nick reported that he met with Jaine and Meredith (along with June and Karen) to talk about the CPACE program. They had a positive response, but Nick feels the sticking point to the Town is that there's a third-party agent in place and the Town is concerned about liability. Nick reported that Jaine and Meredith were to speak to the Town Attorney and would circle back to him. Update: The Town Attorney reviewed documents provided by Nick and there is no change in them from the documents previously rejected by the Town Board. Jaine spoke to Nick, and they agreed that he would contact the agency to see if documents are negotiable. Tree Team Update June reported that she,Arlene, and Karen met with Liz Aitchison, Environmental Planner for the Town. The goal is to plant 40 trees this year. Nick will be looking into grant money(as will the Town's grant writer)for the tree budget. June also spoke about the Town's "Trees for our Town"program. Donations of$350/tree are desired, or people can donate an amount they choose to pay for a portion of a tree. June suggested to Liz that the Collabs help by launching a campaign to promote this program. Once the donation is made and the tree is purchased, the Town pays to plant and maintain it. Repair Cafe Karen thanked George Roniger(not in attendance)for initiating the Repair Cafe idea a few years ago and helping to lead the Cafe of 2021 which was the first Repair Cafe after the 2020 event had to be cancelled due to COVID-19. Karen also mentioned that Kevin Crowe and Mark Kramer would lead the effort for this year's cafe to take place in October at the Mam'k Senior Center. Kevin and Mark gave a brief explanation for those who didn't attend of where they are at in the planning process. The expectation is that there will be similar fix-it stations to last year's cafe. This year's event will be co-sponsored by the Villages who will help with volunteers and any expenses. Flyers (Spanish and English) to be ready in the next few weeks. There will bean email address for prospective volunteers to reach out to with questions. They requested from Sue any files with statistics on types of repairs done, number of customers, etc. Update:Town of Mamaroneck Repair Cafe, co-sponsored by the Villages will take place Sunday, Oct. 161"from 1pm—5pm. Wheelabrator Tour This was sponsored by Federated Conservationists of Westchester County(FCWC)and was held on July 91"and attended by volunteers from various conservation advisory councils and environmental groups across Westchester County. WIN Waste Innovations is the private waste management company that operates the Wheelabrator on land leased from the County. Z250 tons of trash are burned per day, or 11 million tons of trash are burned per year. The intent of this so-called "waste-to-energy"process is waste management. 11,000-12,000 tons of metals are recovered from the trash per year and production of steam is a byproduct of the incineration of trash which is used by White Linen Company in White Plains as a source of energy. The Wheelabrator staff highlighted that this waste management approach is the EPA-preferred means of disposal of trash, and it provides net climate benefits. Wheelabrator staff claim that ash from incineration is not hazardous. 2 Town of Mamaroneck Sustainability Collaborative 2022.0712 Collab Meeting Notes FCWC had sent a 40-minute "Wheelabrator Teach-In June 21, 2022"video (see linkJ put together by Westchester Alliance for Sustainable Solutions(WASS) to participants of the Wheelabrator tour. This video provides a starkly different perspective on the wheelabrator. From WASS'perspective, incineration is worse than landfilling and the ash from incineration is toxic. Upcoming Events/Additional Information Larchmont Day is September 17" Larch/Mam'k Continuing Education—June and Karen would love suggestions for popular sustainability program topics so Collabs can, once again, give classes once the school season begins. June thought it might be nice to host a program on the outdoors/hiking/biking. June mentioned how great it is that the Town offices(Town Center, Senior Center, and Maxwell Avenue Recycling Center)are participating in the energy/money-saving program, Grid Rewards. Mark Kramer reported that in 202Z to date, residents served by the Joint Sanitation Commission have recycled 381,224 lbs. of food scraps(190 tons)and that this is 15%of the County's food scraps! The meeting was adjourned at 8:10am. 3