Keep Gallup Clean and Beautiful Board

Draft - KEEP GALLUP CLEAN & BEAUTIFUL BOARD (KGCB) Keep America Beautiful Affiliate Training Meeting Minutes - Google Meet, October 20, 2020 4-5:15pm Mission statement: “To inspire and educate people to take action every day to improve and beautify Gallup” Quorum Members Present: Greg Kirk, Alice Perez, Elizabeth Barriga; by GoogleMeet phone call: Kara Smith & Cory Lebeck Guests: Mayor Mr. Louie Bonaguidi, Ben Welch Members Absent: John Ortiz What are KGCB’s next steps and goals? Tasks, what do KGCB Board members want to do? How can we bring our community together? Beautification? Waste reduction?, Partner with other groups?, Invite Volunteer Teams to complete the annual Litter Index? Greg mentioned let’s have quarterly Community Trash Clean-ups, since trash happens daily. To include New Mexico Clean & Beautiful (NMCB) grant funding, youth volunteer teams, with safe distancing, to rotate through different areas of town, such as all four Councilor Districts. One idea, is to use our new TrashDASH flyer event to include all areas of town. All a volunteer has to do is - call the City of Gallup (COG) SW Dept 863-1393 and we will sign out clean-up supplies to clean up a safe part of Gallup; report back - the areas/ miles cleaned, bags picked up, date & time of event + before and after pictures to showcase people’s successful events. Cory is still managing our KGCB Facebook page. Elizabeth will email her a TrashDASH flyer to place on our Facebook page. She feel everyone should be contributing to the page and can be accessed by all board members. Alice mentioned a catchy slogan to remember is: “All of Gallup is Your Backyard” Greg asked the Mayor if there is a COG dedicated staff member that cleans Gallup daily? Elizabeth said yes there is – the Parks Department dedicates one staff member daily to pick up trash. KAB was impressed by Gallup’s low Litter Index Total Score. One important reason is - that Gallup’s Park Dept staff cleans litter daily, during regular working hours. Mayor Bonaguidi mentioned that the BID helps support cleaning up downtown by sponsoring $3,500 annually. Mayor Bonaguidi mentioned the City of Gallup’s staff, since COVID started, has been cut 20-30%, which includes cuts to the Parks Department facilities and staff, Animal Control, Library, and El Morro, to name some departments affected. Vince Alonzo does a great job answering questions in a timely fashion. Greg asks if the Parks Department can expand their clean-up personnel and possibly have a COG trash brigade. The COG would be financially challenged to do so. The Navajo Nation has enormous trash challenges without regular trash pick-up, such as illegal trash pits on reservation land that needs cleaning on a regular basis. RE: Inmates – Greg talked to Judge Cynthia Sanders to please send their inmates, sentenced to 24 hours of community service, to help clean-up Hasler Valley and picked up one ton worth of trash. Elizabeth asked Greg to email her pictures of the before and after the clean-up and is impressed with his initiative work with the County staff and inmates to get trash cleaned-up. He asked if the City can also do this. First, we would have to consult with legal staff. Because the Pantry is covered with liability insurance, they can harness inmate help with community service projects, Elizabeth will research if the COG can also do this. The biggest challenge is to find funding for County Wardens to oversee the inmates. It is best to work with staff - Monday through Friday during working hours, 3 hours per week. It gives the inmates outdoor time, and a day off of required work. KGCB Volunteers cannot oversee inmates, only County Wardens can. They need two Wardens oversee inmates, and Greg can only ask for this service once a year, and must put in a request a month prior to the clean-up date. Alice suggests if we could put in a request for 8-10 workers with approximately 2 Wardens and have KGCB members work with them. COG clean-ups would have to be within City limits. Could this NMCB grant have funds to go to the County to pay for personnel? No, NMCB funds cannot be used for employment funding, mostly for supplies. Mayor Bonaguidi mentioned a customer complained of trash at the underpass located near El Sombrero. However, the NMDOT - Highway Department owns this property. The City has consulted with NMDOT, and we are still waiting for a response for NMDOT to clean it up. Greg would love to see KGCB UV resistant business window stickers (similar to what the Chamber of Commerce distributes annually). Have a new color to be displayed on their windows every year. KGCB can come up with 1 requirements such as picking up trash for 3 hours to earn a sticker for your local business as a “Badge of Honor”. Greg offered to help install large KGCB signs (that say something like: “Don’t Trash Gallup” and/or “Do Your Part” - to keep hitting the message home) that are bold, possibly - a turquoise color, fluorescent, to be place at major Highway locations and intersections, such as Hwy 66, Exit 26, 22, 20 and 16 on and off-ramps. He asked if we can purchase these with FY2021 NMCB grant funds. Elizabeth will researched this - this fiscal year 2021, our NMCB grant has $3 k worth of funding to do so, only at NMDOT approved signage + locations. How Can We Engage our Community in Next Step Efforts? Elizabeth is interested in improving communication & advertising clean-up events to garner more community participation and would like to create + advertise future PSAs, radio spots. Kara mentioned that messaging would be important for a Next Step task: how people can be involved, and what activities are in the purview of this organization, what are we encouraging citizens to do? Partner with other groups – there is a lot of potential for that, to share the work with interested volunteer organizations to accomplish successful clean-ups in their respective areas. Kara agrees with inviting New Stakeholders to get involved with greater KGCB ownership, and collaboration such as:  Elementary, Middle and High Schools, & Charter Schools; Middle-College schools, UNM & Community Colleges clubs; Navajo Chapter officials; Health Organizations; Chamber of Commerce; BID; Tourism – contact Jennifer Lazarz for ideas, Local Businesses; Next Generation of youth encourage involvement; Reward People > and look into the future > promote Beautiful Neighborhoods. Who would like to volunteer to do this, after restrictions allow clean-ups again? Homework for KGCB Board Members: a) identifying area/s that need clean-up attention - Exit 16 intersections are in need being cleaned-up. Last year Alice’s youth group cleaned up this area. Elizabeth ask for volunteers to complete the annual Litter Index for our community as a Keep America Beautiful priority, and asked who would like to do Focus Area Research & expand this Inventory. Greg + family members would like to participate. Greg asks if the COG can take a city vehicle insurance to cover extra KGCB Board Members who want to do the Litter Index Scoring. Maybe, contact Clay Foutz Insurance? Elizabeth suggests having a caravan of personal vehicles, with a minimum of two to three people driving behind each other, to accomplish the Litter Index Surveys together, keeping social distancing, and have a “Slow Vehicle” sign on the back of each participating vehicle. The lead vehicle would have three (3) people with a driver (who does not score), a moderator who tells the driver when to stop and go, and a scorer. We could accomplish this, and maybe - have a social distancing picnic afterwards? Possible volunteers could include: City workers such as Elizabeth, family members in a personal vehicle, a Solid Waste volunteer, a part-time Parks staff volunteer, and Greg + family in their own vehicle/s. Anyone else interested? Who would like to create any new KGCB Committees and Task Force and serve on one? No response at this time. It was recommended - maybe, contact and invite Ray Bradford to become a KGCB Board Member? Alice said she is busy at this time since the Pantry is also working on weekends and feeding 7,000 families per month which includes almost 600 families on weekends. She invites anyone who has a child attending GMCS public schools qualifies - to pick up free lunches at the Pantry. Obtaining Community Pantry Groceries is an incredible challenge with food prices that have risen 40-300%, and shipments delayed 8-12 weeks. Mayor Bonaguidi mentioned that busy, active people volunteers are usually the best volunteers. Action Items: 1. 8-25-2020 and 9-22-2020 KGCB Meeting Minutes were unanimously approved. 2. Meeting adjourned at 4:00pm. The next meeting will be Tuesday, January 19th @ 4-5pm. Date Approved: __January 19, 2021___ ________________________________________________ Kara Smith, KGCB Chairperson Elizabeth Barriga ATTEST: ______________________________________ Elizabeth Barriga, Environmental Program Coordinator 2