Charleston Green Team

GREEN TEAM - NOVEMBER 19, 2025 Meeting called to order at: 12:08pm Quorum established In-Person Attendance: Quenton King, Patti Hamilton, Emmett Pepper, Shawna Phillips, Samantha Nygaard, Linda Frame, Andrew Earley Via Microsoft Teams: Nancy Bruns, Rowan Zoeller, Stephanie Hysmith, 304-348-8179 1. Welcome 2. Adopt the minutes from meeting on September 17, 2025. Motion to adopt minutes from last meeting by Linda Frame, Seconded by Patti Hamilton. Vote is unanimous and motion to adopt minutes is accepted. NEW BUSINESS 1. Recap from Charleston Municipal Investment Fund Event - ICLEI (November 5) a. Event was focused on energy efficiency and solar opportunities in Charleston. It was a 4-hour event. The City Manager and Staff were there. There was a tour of City Buildings for potential retrofitting. One of the Goals of meeting: working together. b. Next steps for Green Team: sustainable strategies, Google form for involvement, community feedback document, what buildings do you think the city should focus on? Most people at the event were not Charleston locals so community feedback on this is needed. Quenton will share the form he got so we can distribute to our networks; citizens are welcome to complete the survey. 2. Inviting and scheduling speakers for December Green Team meeting a. Potential Speakers i. Anna Forbes, Beautification (December) ii. Chris Higgins, City Arborist iii. Someone from the City Event staff iv. Nicole from Kanawha County Solid Waste Authority 3. December Election for 2026 Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary a. Need Green Team Members to consider these roles, Vice Chair and Secretary are not termed out, Quenton is Chair and termed out; no official nominations, brief discussion about potential nominations to consider. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 1. Street Crossing Survey Discussion a. Quenton shared document for everyone to look at street crossings b. Meeting with Council Member Mary Beth Hoover: there is no unified process; Need to clean-up document. Discussion on how to organize the document and ultimately decided to break the list by Ward and provide our suggestions and recommendations accordingly. Discussion on  strategy and updates to the list continued. Quenton noted that Green Team should share this to City Council members by December, be sure to Bcc Council Members. c. Need to select a date, perhaps sometime in February for a walking survey in the lead up to spring road improvements. COMMITTEE REPORTS 1. What to Do with Stuff Committee (Patti Hamilton) - Op-Ed in the Charleston Gazette-Mail - What to Do with Stuff Flyer is popular and needs to be made into a pamphlet. 2. Kanawha County Solid Waste Authority (Emmett Pepper) - Discussion about Foam Cycle, a New Jersey based company that recycles styrofoam to material that can be used for park benches and foam frames on cruise ships. There may be an opportunity for a styrofoam recycling drop-off location in Kanawha County. - Emmett met a representative from Waste Management who expressed that the transition has been smooth and the potential for Waste Management to provide recycling information - still can’t recycle glass, however there is still plastic bag contamination, which jams up the machines. 2. Communications (Linda Frame, Patti Hamilton, Sam Nygaard) - Holiday themed social media posts, including an encore request of recycling videos - Creation of Google Calendar for Green Team, which would include presentation and tabling opportunities, as well as speakers at Green Team meetings - Look into getting Green Team materials in the City Hall lobby display stand. - Look into creating Green Team Business Cards, which would include QR code and Green Team Email, Facebook - Sam working on Green Events Guide, first draft will be ready by end of December so that we can provide to city Jan/February - 2025 End of Year report: We would like Quenton to present to council 3. PODA (Linda Frame, Andrew Earley, Quenton King) - None 4. Nominations Committee (Quenton, Sam, Nancy) - None. Updates: 1. City Council Environment & Recycling Committee (Council Member Burton) - Absent 2. Charleston Dept. of Public Works (Director Webster) - Absent 3. ICLEI Municipal Investment Fund - Included in the top of agenda 4. East-West Connector - None Noted that updates on the Solid Waste Authority (Emmett Pepper) will become a standing agenda time. Announcements ● E-Day at the WV Legislature is Monday, Feb 23. There will be a networking event on Sunday before the event.  ● Note that there is an RFP for solar rooftops in the pipeline. ● Brief discussion about signage in the city; there is only one Tree City USA sign . It would be great if these were at all the entrances into the city. Also noted that Charleston, WV is the “leafiest capital city in the country” according to a recent report released online. Next meeting: 3rd Wednesday is December 17, 2025 Adjourn Motion to adjourn by Linda Frame. Meeting adjourned at 1pm. Respectfully Submitted - Samantha Nygaard / Secretary, Green Team