Keep Gallup Clean and Beautiful Board

Draft - KEEP GALLUP CLEAN & BEAUTIFUL BOARD (KGCB) Minutes Google Meet, January 19, 2021 4-5:15pm Mission statement: “To inspire and educate people to take action every day to improve and beautify Gallup” Quorum Members Present by GoogleMeet: Cory Lebeck, Kara Smith, Greg Kirk, Elizabeth Barriga; Guests: Tracy Lassiter, Bill Bright Members Absent: Alice Perez, John Ortiz John Ortiz called earlier today, to resign from the KGCB Board since he is too busy with work duties to attend. He will submit a formal letter about this. Elizabeth asked Ray Bradford, recommended by a KGCB Board member, if he was interested in becoming a KGCB Board member. Ray declined, and is grateful to be able to attend KGCB Board Meetings. Agenda Item 2) Approval of October 20, 2020 Meeting Minutes: The 10-20-2020 KGCB Meeting Minutes - were unanimously approved. Agenda Item 3) What are KGCB’s next steps and goals and engaging our community? Beautification? Waste reduction, Recycling, Partner with other groups? Volunteers to do Gallup’s annual community KAB Litter Index? No comment at this time. Agenda Item 4) Homework for KGCB Board Members: KGCB Board Members identify areas that need clean-up attention + Choose Clean-Up Signage designs & locations: Greg mentioned beautifying and cleaning up Aztec Ave, east of the Social Security building, heading towards Boardman (where the sidewalk is decayed, next to the bridge, behind JFK Middle School). An idea to beautify this area could be - repair and extend the sidewalk, add new Benches, and shrubs. Agenda Item 5) Discuss how to grow future Trash DASH, and/ or other clean-up events – Elizabeth sent emails to Board Members and KGCB meeting attendees about what type of End Litter Sign examples they liked best, choosing from a variety of sign examples. Greg led this conversation and agreed to create a draft – pick-up litter sign with text to include: “$500 littering fine”; possibly, to be located at the High Desert Trail, Pyramid Rock and / or other hiking areas. When Greg sees graffiti on signs he calls Vince. Elizabeth talked to Jason Grove, the Acting NMDOT Traffic Engineer, who recommends – for signage within State ROW and Highways - to follow uniform NMDOT design standards: called “Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Standards” (MUTCD) - which gives specific examples of the size the signs should be, color backgrounds, fonts to use, weight, and locations. Mr. Jason Grover does not recommend signs at Highway intersections or overpasses. If there are too many signs, people have a tendency to ignore all the signs, because of too much clutter. He asks KGCB to submit to the NMDOT examples and locations where signs would like to be located on State Hwy 66 – for review and approval. Trash Pick-Up sign comments included: Kara likes our existing KGCB signs that state – Do Your Part – Pitch In (Keep Gallup Clean & Beautiful) as an action statement. Ray mentions to keep the working simple and easy to read, while Greg suggests new signs be double the size, and make sign bolder compared to existing KGCB signs. Elizabeth emailed Board Members and KGCB meeting attendees, asking them which sample KGCB T-Shirt designs and colors they liked best. KGCB Board members are asked to vote for their favorite, finalized KGCB T-Shirt color, design logo. Please email your Sign and T-Shirt choices to Elizabeth, by our next KGCB Meeting - February 16, 2021 so we can order these favorite designs soon. Thank you! Elizabeth mentioned talking to the NM Tourism Department staff about clean-up events. Per current NMDH Covid guidelines, she was told that the State of New Mexico Tourism Department is not allowed to formally do group litter clean-up events; and, the COG would have to reallocate FY21 NMCB grant funding for Youth Empowerment and Increase Program Capacity to another supply or project. These new supply quotes must be approved first by the NMTD, and have to be related to one of these 5 subject areas below: 1) End Littering 2) Improve Recycling 3) Beautify Communities 4) Empower Youth 5) Increase Program Capacity Total to Reallocate = $ 9,000  Ideas suggested include: Recycling and Littering Education such as: educational booklets, future class visits, and advertisement. Examples - radio blitz on local channels, educational videos, and billboards. Advertising, an approved FY21 NMCB grant line item of $1,500, can be used for Advertising Litter / Recycling education PSA's. Kara offers to create a KGCB PSA. Employment of adult laborers, and fees to pay for a regular service are not allowed for this grant. Cory mentioned a suggestion from a Gallup citizen who would like more dog poo dispensers with plastic bags; possibly, locate these in city parks? Cory provided quotes for Elizabeth to research this with the COG Parks Director. Tracy mentioned it would be a good idea to place plastic bag dispensers next to a Trash Can. Elizabeth mentioned a successful NM city beautification project, approved in Rio Rancho, called a Tree Seedling Giveaway as a beautification idea for Gallup. Because this current grant requires copies of "Cashed Bank Checks" for reimbursement, this is an important reason we need submit relevant, current supply quotes to Elizabeth by February 19, 2021. From last years’ experience, there will be no grant deadline extension. It is not necessary for KGCB Board members to vote how to reallocate NMTD grant funding. However, Elizabeth strongly believes it is important to include KGCB Board Members and their ideas how to reallocate this funding. Formal supply quotes will be used to ask for NMTD's authorization first. Once the COG has NMTD approval to proceed, the COG can purchase approved items, which can take, on average, a month or longer. This is the reason we need to spend these funds with a fast turnaround. Elizabeth asks Board Members and attendees for ideas how to reallocate these funds, and asks members to email her current supply QUOTEs due by February 19th, 2021. Kara – would like to have KGCB Strategic Planning. During our next 2-16-2021 KGCB Meeting we can plan for this, as a 1.5 hour KGCB Strategic Planning Meeting Session. This KGCB Strategic Plan could be a guidepost that reaches 1-2 years into the future, mapping priority projects for our community. Elizabeth mentioned she is not a Strategic Planner, and asked Kara if she could you please lead the way on how to do Strategic Planning during a future KGCB Board meeting? Elizabeth would be happy to assist Kara. Agenda Item 6) Discuss ideas for KGCB Facebook page – “Facebook@kgcb505” Cory is continuing to manage our KGCB Facebook page. Cory feels everyone should be contributing to the page and can be accessed by all board members. Cory created a recent KGCB Facebook post she shared – “While out and about, take some time to do your part and clean up stray litter in your area of town. Every little bit helps…” Which is great encouragement to our local community members. Elizabeth ask for volunteers to assist and complete KGCB’s annual KAB Litter Index for our community as one project 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 has vehicle insurance to cover extra KGCB Board Members who want to do the Litter Index Scoring. Under the COG Auto Liability coverage, Board Members would be classified as permissive users. Under these requirements, such individuals would be covered subject to the City checking their driving record to be certain there are no conflicts with the auto loss control requirements, before they are allowed in a city vehicle. Once NM state restrictions are lifted, KAB Litter Index volunteers could include: KGCB Board members, volunteers, city workers, such as Elizabeth, a Solid Waste volunteer; and; possibly, based on availability, part-time staffing - Parks Dept staff. Action Items: Meeting adjourned at 5:15pm. Please attend our next meeting: KGCB Meeting Strategic Planning - Tuesday, February 16th @ 4-5pm. Date Approved: __February 16, 2021___ ________________________________________________ Kara Smith, KGCB Chairperson Elizabeth Barriga ATTEST: ______________________________________ Elizabeth Barriga, Environmental Program Coordinator