Environmental Advisory Council

EAC April 16, 2024 Minutes Members in Attendance: George Mullikin, Grant Alger, Steven Nelson, David Reidel, Dan Ford, PR West, and Building and Zoning Director Karyn Hyland. Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 6:32 pm. Approval of Minutes March 19, 2024: Minutes were approved. Reports Earth Day (Dan): The logistics have been finalized, including the event layout at Broad Commons Park. Discussions were held on placing various organizations for the event day, ensuring a well-organized and engaging Earth Day celebration. Farmer’s Market/Outreach & Communication (Dan): No report DCAP (Steve): Progress is happening; the community survey will launch on Saturday, April 20, 2024. A fee is associated with a software program used for the modeling of $1,200. The subcommittee believes the software is necessary and requested that it be renewed for a year. Steve motioned to recommend that the Borough Council renew the ICLEI membership, taking as much money as possible from the EAC budget. Grant seconded the motion, and discussion took place on where the money would come from and which other commissions and councils could potentially contribute if necessary. Steve withdrew his original motion and made a motion to recommend that the Council increase the EAC budget by $600 to allow for the cost of the mapping software for the DCAP. The motion passed unanimously. Bird Town (Grant): Grant has an educational sign to set up in the lobby of Borough Hall regarding bird strikes. It will stay there for two weeks as the migration begins. Comprehensive Plan Update (P.R.): The Planning Commission is continuing to make progress to establish the framework for the plan. Lynn Bush has done a phenomenal job of putting the Commission’s ideas into words for the framework. It will contain six themes with six initiatives under each theme. The strategic theme relevant to this group is the Sustainable and Environmentally Responsible Community. It will begin with a historical review of the Borough’s sustainability efforts. This will introduce a summary of the climate action plan. The DCAP will be woven into the Comprehensive Plan. The next meeting will be on April 23, with regular business addressed. This meeting will address the Comprehensive Plan; however, the Planning Commission may not be ready to have the County consultants return to the meeting. The joint EAC and Planning Commission is tentatively scheduled for May 28, 2024. Index of Open Areas (Dan): No report Old/New Business: Under New Business, a resident had questions regarding recycling, specifically household batteries. She was advised that Staples does accept household use, such as watch batteries. She thinks education would be helpful in this topic since it does not seem widely known. She was also directed to the County Planning Commission’s website, which has a lot of recycling resources. Doylestown Borough is not equipped to accept household batteries for recycling purposes. The County PC has scheduled events on their calendar. Also, under New Business, the Mayor proclaimed April 20 Earth Day. Steve accepted the proclamation on behalf of the EAC. Councilman Livrone had some very nice words to say about our group. Adjournment: With no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 8:13 pm. Respectfully Submitted by: Erika Fellman Minutes Secretary