Sustainable BC Committee

City of Battle Creek Sustainable BC Committee 150 N. Kendall St Room 204 Battle Creek, MI Wednesday, June 1, 2016 4:00 p.m. Members Present : Comm. Helmboldt, Tiffany Welsh, Comm. Flores, Comm. Faris, Sarah Kelly, Kathy Antaya, Kurt Tribbett, Christine Kosmowski Members Absent : Michael Myszka, Susan Anderson Others : Alicia Sackett, Deputy City Clerk; Ernesto Reyes, Assistant City Manager Call to Order : Comm. Helmbolt called the meeting to order at 4:04 PM, noting a quorum was present. Public Comment : There were none. Approval of Minutes : A motion was made by Christine Kosmowski and supported by Comm. Faris to approve the minutes from April 6, 2016. All yes none opposed. Minutes approved. Additions or Deletions to the Agenda : There were none. Member Updates/Reports: City Energy Efficiency : Kurt Tribbett stated the propane fueling station is up and running, currently two buses are running off of the propane. Also another 17 vehicles will be purchased this year and will run off of propane fuel. Also at the Water Plant we have a piolet program to collect pump data to check efficiency of the motors, in a week or two we should be able to share some data. The City is look at the Wastewater Treatment Plant and ways to consume less energy. Environmental Programs Update: Tiffany Welsh shared that currently we have an 80% participation rate with the new recycling program, so far we have recycled 85 tons more than we had this time last year. The internal City facilities will be switching from Republic to Waste Management beginning in July, however Republic will continue to service the sludge from Wastewater. Ms. Welsh stated some elderly expressed wanting the orange tote instead, they can talk to Ms. Welsh to arrange that, however if they decide they would like the 96-gallon cart back in the future they will have to pay a delivery charge. Ms. Welsh stated the recycling event with the City and County was a great success, 56 thousand pounds of electronics and 735 pounds of Styrofoam were collected. Ms. Welsh noted the Children’s Water Festival went great with roughly 1000 students attending. Also the Rain Barrel sale is continuing through this week, we have only sold 15, but we are still trying to get up to 35 to avoid delivery charges. Comm. Flores has had some concerns in the Post Addition area with recycle pick up not being timely with the regular garbage pickup or being completely missed. Kathy Antaya shared that some residents have noted debris coming out of the bins as they are being dumped. Ms. Welsh stated this is being addressed with Waste Management and by educating the public. Ms. Welsh noted that a booth will be set up at the Cereal City Festival promoting the new recycling bins as well. City Commission updates : Ms. Antaya wants to know if anyone from the City has contacted the DEQ to allow them to come in and do a regulatory audit. Asst. City Manager Reyes stated that he will follow up on this. Old Business : Asst. City Manager Reyes presented some information on the discussions of a mission and vision statement, sharing some examples. Noting that some are more geared to sustainability than others this is not an all- 1 inclusive list just a draft for ideas. Some areas were left out that were not environmental. Asst. City Manager Reyes also shared a draft of the sustainable plan that he is working on. The Committee discussed the information shared by Asst. City Manager Reyes. Christine Kosmowski would like to see us expand on water conservation, storm water, drinking water protection and water conservation. Ms. Welsh shared asked if a sustainability web site would be a different page on our City web site or its own web site. Asst. City Manager Reyes stated every performance measure will have an associated target associated with it once the Committee decides what categories they are interested in. Comm. Faris shared that Dr. Harris has a sustainability plan in Grand Rapids with great ideas available working towards some of the same goals. Mr. Tribbett asked if it could be prioritized showing the order we want to tackle and when, also what have we already done. Comm. Flores stated we should build one our strengths. Asst. City Manager Reyes stated a significant amount of discussion has happened around assessments and we are already doing some of those things. Asst. City Manager Reyes will put together some information to help the Committee to move forward. Ms. Antaya suggested that the Committee start to have official meetings monthly. Comm. Helmboldt stated that if we have more official business to conduct in the future we will look at making that change. Member Comment/Announcements: Sarah Kelly shared that a Household Hazardous Waste collection will be taking place in Marshall this weekend. Committee Comment /Announcements : Next Meeting : The next meeting of the Sustainable BC Committee is scheduled August 3, 2016 at 4:00 p.m. at the Department of Public Works in Room 204. The work group session will be July 6, 2016 at 4:00 p.m. at the Cricket Club. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 5:26 PM. 2