Committee for a Better Environment

Approved: July 27, 2020 Committee for a Better Environment Via Teleconferencing through GoToMeeting June 22, 2020 7:00 PM Members Present Absent Suchitra Balachandran X Alexa Bely X Pablo deOliveria X Chunyang Ding X Matt Dernoga X Oscar Gregory X Alan Hew X Todd Larsen X Andrea McNamara X Nikki Pancho (a 7:12pm) X Cameron Thurston X Daniel Walfield X Caroline Wick X Also Present: Janet McCaslin, City Liaison; Sheryl DeWalt, Contract Secretary The meeting began at 7:05pm by Todd Larsen, chair. 1. The agenda was reviewed. Ms. Wick motioned to accept the agenda. Mr. Walfield seconded. Motion carries 9-0-0. 2. The May 18, 2020 minutes were reviewed. Mr. Walfield made a motion to accept with suggested changes. Ms. Wick seconded. Motion carries 10-0-0. 3. City activities: a. CBE will have a budget of $6,475.76 once the $1,000.00 for GAT Traps are deducted. b. After being told that College Park was not eligible for the Sustainable States Energy Challenge, Ms. McCaslin received an email that the City is eligible for the challenge and has been submitted to participate. c. Solar panels are being installed on the landscape garage at DPW. d. There will be an LED conversation on 25 light poles on 53rd Avenue. e. Due to Covid-19, Mayor and Council have extended the committee member terms of offices until July 31, 2020. New terms will begin as of August 1, 2020. Committee members should be receiving notification from the City Clerk’s office in July. 4. The CBE Project Drawdown seminar was held on May 30 with 38 people and 10 were from College Park. 5. GAT traps. Mr. Hew and Mr. Ding discussed the information they researched: a. University Park has 95 GAT traps. College Park is bigger and the committee should take under consideration to purchase more traps. b. Traps need to be clustered and each household has two traps. c. Mr. Hew is waiting to hear from the University of Maryland on the most current research. Also, it would be helpful to have a researcher. d. Discussion on charging $5 per trap. Mr. Ding indicated that University Park charges $15 per trap. Discussion by committee members as to whether or not residents should be charged. No final decision was made. e. Mr. Hew reminded the committee that follow up takes a team and an effort. f. Mr. Larsen made a motion to spend $1000 on additional GAT traps. Mr. Gregory seconded. Motion carries 10-0-0. Ms. McCaslin will place the order. 6. Reviewed three designs on car magnets. The committee thanked Ms. McCaslin for assisting in the design and researching printing companies. The costs are: 100 magnets - $186; 200 magnets - $296; and 300 magnets - $397. The committee had previously allocated $400 towards purchasing magnets. Mr. Larsen made a motion to allocate an additional $600 towards purchasing magnets for a total allocated cost of $1000. Ms. Bely seconded the motion. Motion carries 10-0-0. 7. Ms. Bely is handling some small edits in the Sustainability Survey. Once she has completed the edits, the survey will be ready to be reviewed by City staff and then for translation into Spanish. 8. With regards to plantings at the Permaculture Garden, Brenda Alexander, City Horticulturist stated that the plantings should wait until the fall. 9. The City has both energy efficiency meters and thermal leak detectors. It should be advertised to the residents that they are available to use and return back to the City. The committee discussed the idea of having workshops on weatherization and energy efficiency. 10. Reviewed GAP Analysis. After discussion, Mr. Larsen made a motion to approve the documents to send to Mayor and Council. Ms. Wick seconded. Motion carries 9-0-1. 11. Mr. Ding stated at 8:33pm that he had to depart the meeting and that this would be his last meeting. He is moving to Chicago. 12. Two nominations were made for Green Awards:  a. Kathy Bryant. Ms. Bely made a motion for Kathy Bryant to get a Green Award. Mr. Gregory seconded. Motion carries 8-0-1. b. Scott Wilson. Mr. Larsen made a motion for Scott Wilson to get a Green Award. Mr. Gregory seconded. Motion carries 8-0-1. 13. Mr. Larsen made a motion to change the maximum CBE members to 16 (it is presently 25). Ms. Bely seconded the motion. Motion carries 8-0-1. 14. TLB update: a. Plan to submit an updated tree permitting recommendation document to the Council for another work session with the hope to get on the Council's agenda either in July or August to discuss updated recommendations. b. The City of College Park has made a dedicated "Trees" webpage: www.collegeparkmd.gov/trees with plans to add more tree-related resources to this page. The TLB is requesting input or suggestions from the CBE on information to make the page even more useful to CP residents. 15. The committee will be scheduling a Rain Barrel event for either the third or fourth week of July. 16. The next virtual meeting is scheduled for July 27, 2020 at 7:00pm. Instructions will be sent out via email prior to the meeting date. Mr. Larsen motioned to adjourned. Mr. deOliveria seconded. Motion carries 9-0-0. The meeting adjourned at 9:00pm. Respectfully submitted by Sheryl DeWalt, contract secretary.