Green Team

Minutes Morgantown Municipal Green Team February 6, 2016 Meeting Attending: Jim Kotcon (facilitator), Luis Caceres (city engineer and City liaison), Alex Davis (IAC), Seth Distefano (Protect WV Coalition), Hari Jammulamadaka (IAC), Joseph Kanosky (NETL), Pam Kasey (visitor), Doug Milbrand, Holly Purpura (FODC), Jenny Selin (City Council), Jing Zhang, and Pam Cubberly (note taker) I. Introductions The team introduced themselves to visitors and vice versa. Seth represents the Protect West Virginia Coalition, which “opposes further harmful budget cuts” in West Virginia and wants to “connect West Virginia values to the state budget priorities.” Pam Kasey is a freelance writer who has published in local media, including Morgantown magazine. II. Approval of Minutes The team approved MMGT minutes from the January 9, 2017, meeting. III. Special Presentation: Protect WV Coalition (Seth Distefano) Seth Distefano of the Protect WV Coalition described its work and asked the team to join the coalition as a group or as individuals. In short, he said, state cuts in business taxes—intended to attract business to the state, create jobs, and increase revenues to support government services—had not worked. As a result, the state has been forced to cut or consider cutting increasingly basic government services with significant impacts on citizens, especially working people. His PowerPoint is available from Pam Cubberly (pamela@cubberly.net) and the organization’s website is http://www.wvpolicy.org/protect-west-virginia. Individuals can easily get more information and/or join this effort at http://www.protectwv.org/action/?vvsrc=%2fPetitions%2f960%2fRespond. Action: The team agreed to consider whether the team should join the coalition at its March 6th meeting. Pam offered to send brief information on the coalition and relevant URLs to the wider Green Team. IV. Old Business and Updates A. Report from City Liaison (Luis Caceres) City Liaison and Engineer Luis Caceres briefly reviewed answers to team members’ questions from the January meeting, which he had previously sent out by email (see attached) to regular members of the team. He noted that, as a new city employee, he was on a learning curve on many of the topics discussed by the team. 1  February 10, 2017  City grant writer. The City does not now have a grant writer the team could tap for application for recycling public education funds from the state. A new city engineer, Alex Stockdale, was currently writing a couple grants, but another half-time grant writer hired had already left.  City recycling data. Luis supplied a table showing yearly recycling totals broken out also by month (see attached). The year 2015 had the highest total at around 900 tons of recycling. He did not know why the total had decreased in 2016 to about 860 tons.  Priority City engineering project list for 2017. Luis’s handout included a list of 56 projects his department has been tasked with accomplishing. [Note: It was later noted that a number of items (e.g., 11, 12, 20, 33, 44, 46, 47, 50, and 56) might be worth discussing from an environmental standpoint. This will be added to the March meeting’s agenda.]  Implementation of upcoming IAC report. Although city engineers could start on the least expensive recommendations from the report draft, Luis said city engineers would need the final report in order to put together a budget request for the rest of the recommendations. City engineers had a lengthy list of projects for the coming year (see attached). Jim asked about the one about replacing the Woodburn furnace (#33). If this was to happen soon, adjustments to save energy would not be necessary, he noted. B. IAC Update/Decisions Discussion continued on how to complete the IAC report so the City could start implementing and budgeting for its recommendations. Various members agreed to coordinate on the following actions to get all remaining data needed for the report, ideally by the time of the winter energy audit. Action: Alex, Luis, Jim, Hari, and Jenny will coordinate in different ways to identify missing meter numbers and bills so Alex can input complete, accurate data into the report. Action: Hari, Alex, Dr. Gopala, Jim, and Luis, with Jenny as backup will attend IAC’s March 2nd winter energy audit to replace data estimated in last summer with accurate winter energy use data in the report. Dr. Gopala had asked Hari and Alex to also do thermal imaging of the buildings to identify areas of heat loss. As part of Pam’s meeting earlier that day with City Communications Director Krista Baker (see section II-B), they discussed City publicity on the IAC report and recommendations, as well as any other related advances on energy efficiency in the City. She agreed to promote two efforts directly involving the City:  The IAC report when it is presented to the City Council for more impact, giving media opportunities to take video on city engineers implementing some of the recommendations  The City/Mainstreet initiative, this spring, to replace High Street streetlights with LEDs, again encouraging media to take video of the installation. Pam and Krista agreed that other groups’ energy efficiency efforts worth reporting on could be mentioned to media interested in more in-depth reporting, such as Morgantown magazine, etc. Action: Pam will send Krista email addresses and phone numbers for Joey, Jim, Hari, Alex, and Dr. Gopala as sources of information for any news releases she develops. Krista noted that, as the team is an advisory board to the City, she was not sure but would think about whether actions such as Green Team support of local solar coops could be publicized through the City. C. Recycling New City Recycling Intern. No one had responded to the announcement submitted to the main WVU channel for internships earlier in the semester. The team agreed to make an even stronger effort to recruit an intern, even mid- 2  February 10, 2017 semester, who could work into the summer in order to meet the July deadline for a state recycling education grant. With City and Green Team assistance, his/her main task would be to research and fill out the state application for a recycling grant, primarily for public education on proper recycling but possibly also for downtown business recycling. Jim noted that Amanda Stoner would be back from her overseas trip and may be available to help transfer her previous research to—as well as guide and train—any new intern. Action: Holly agreed to send Jim a variety of additional contacts who could publicize the internship more broadly through the university community. Action: Jim agreed to get the job description out promptly at the university through previous and new email addresses. Green Team involvement in selection process for trash hauler. The team asked Jenny whether a Green Team representative could participate in the selection process and/or review any proposed contract. Jenny noted that Republic Services had filed with the Public Service Commission for exclusive rights to the contract with Morgantown. The PSC must rescind this status before the City can seek another hauler or even set up its own trash collection. This would require legal intervention by the City. She said it would be great to have the Green Team represented; the team needs to come up with a list of requirements in the contract. Her suggestions included:  Educational materials on recycling, such as magnets, stickers, etc. with accurate info on what can and cannot be recycled (latter info already developed last year by team)  Trash and recycling pickup on the same day in each neighborhood  Regular pickup of trash and recyclables hauled out from behind the Morgantown Lock and Dam  Regular pickup of recycling at schools  Regular pickup of recycling at businesses, especially downtown, including the Waterfront, churches, shopping centers, etc. Action: Jenny will check to find out where things stand on Republic’s “exclusive right” and will explore opportunities for team member participation in the process (Holly volunteered). Due to lack of time, Pam had not discussed with Krista Baker (see section II-B) a coordinated effort on recycling publicity. Action: Pam will work in the future with Krista on publicizing this and other green City efforts, especially as the team continues to focus on recycling and the City begins negotiating a contract for a new trash hauler. V. New Business A. Long-Term Planning by the Green Team Jing and Pam had met twice since the January meeting to work on a draft long-term strategy planning process for the Green Team. Joey attended their second meeting; they agreed to propose a long-term strategy workshop before the March 6th regular Green Team meeting (to be held upstairs at Panera’s), which Jing would facilitate. Jing and Pam had started to develop some materials to assist the discussion at the workshop. Pam was completing an Excel sheet that compared the objectives and strategies of the Environment Section in Morgantown’s Comprehensive Plan with results of Green Team activities from 2007 on with the apparent objectives and strategies the team has pursued itself (e.g., considerable public education and the urban agriculture initiative, neither of which are in the comprehensive plan). This comparison made clear that the team has focused on 2–3 objectives of the comprehensive plan, whereas the city and other groups or city commissions have addressed others (e.g., tree board on the urban tree canopy; FODC and others on water quality; etc.). In short, Jing and Pam explained the tasks of this team planning process as follows:  Review and revise the Green Team’s mission statement 3  February 10, 2017  Review how the Green Team has worked toward the environmental goals set by the Comprehensive Plan  Establish key general objectives based on the Comprehensive Plan  Annually establish a set of strategies to work toward those objectives for review at a yearly planning meeting  Provide the team with a vehicle to review progress and set reasonable annual goals. The goal is to generate the following revised or new documents for the benefit of (1) the new city manager and a productive relationship with the team; (2) new team members so they can choose where they wish to focus their talents; and (3) City Council, other boards/commissions, and the public.  Green Team Mission Statement  Green Team History and Accomplishments, 2007 to present  Morgantown Comprehensive Plan  Green Team Objectives and Current Strategies  Annual Gantt Chart on Green Team Projects/Activities Jing proposed a Green Team Planning Workshop to be held well before the next team meeting on March 6th, at 5:30pm (Panera’s) for all interested team members. If the process leads to agreement on the above documents, the team would look for input by the new city manager and city council and possibly the public at a future date B. Meeting with City Communications Director Pam met with Krista Baker around 4:00pm that day as a first meeting on how the Green Team and City Communications Office have interacted and supported each other in the past and to discuss future collaboration. [Note: Pam later added Krista as an administrator of the City-sponsored Facebook Group “Green Morgantown” as her predecessors have been.] Krista said the City was moving to a new website system in the near future. She asked that the team review relevant webpages and communicate any changes or corrections directly to her. This mainly includes the Green Team page under advisory boards, the Sustainable Morgantown Initiative pages, and the Year to Go Green pages. Action: Pam will send print outs of the pages to Joey, Holly, and any other team member who might want input on Green Team–related webpages. Please contact Pam if so. In addition to the points made above, Krista asked the team to feed her suggestions for publicity or other communication work on an ongoing basis, rather than submitting a long list of ideas. She said this would be a more productive way for her to assist the team. She was quite open to working with the team on publicizing green City and Green Team activities in the future. C. Relocation of Team Meetings Pam asked the team if they were willing to relocate their meetings to the Public Safety Building conference room so she could Skype into meetings when she began a year of travel, starting as early as May. She still needed to find out if that conference room had Wi-Fi but it did have a screen for presentations. Note: Pam later found out there was no Wi-Fi in the PSB. She asked the library about their second-floor conference room, which has strong Wi-Fi and a wall-mounted television for presentations. Some team members preferred to see if the team could use a hotspot for Wi-Fi at the PSB conference room. Pam and Holly will do a test run to see how well it works. VI. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 7:15 pm. The next meeting will take place on Monday, March 6, from 5:30pm to 7:00pm at a location TBD. 4  February 10, 2017 VII. Attachment: Report from Luis Caceres, City Engineer and Green Team Liaison Item #1: Recycling: There is no City grant for recycling to help businesses in town; you need to communicate to business owners so they can complete the state grant application and meet with the recycling companies to check other options. Note: Alex Stockdale is the Assistant City Engineer and right now is not any part time employee to write grant applications. Below are the latest tonnages on recycling. Item #2: Industrial Assessment Center Energy Assessment Report City engineers will need the final report to make a scope of work and to be sure about the total amount of money we need to request to budget for this project. Then this needs to be approved by the City Council. I talked to the City Garage Manager about the openings at the Exit door, the Air leaks and Reduce Air Compressor’s Set Pressure. The city employees are going to seal the infiltration at exit door and make the air leak repair. Item #3: High Street, Pedestrian head Light: This project will start this Spring. 5  February 10, 2017 Item #4: List of Projects for City Engineers in 2017: Project Description 1. Woodburn School Playground Steps 31. Wayfinding 2. 2017 Paving Project 32. Wharf Boat Dock FDC Update 3. Building Inventory/Assessment/Maintenance Plan 33. Woodburn School Furnace Replacement 4. Caperton Trail Entrance in Wharf District 34. Woodburn School Pave Parking Lots 5. City Document Storage/Scanning 35. Woodburn School Repoint Façade 6. City Garage Fuel Tank Replacement 36. Woodburn School Roof 7. City Garage LUST 37. 8th Street Trailhead 8. City Garage Roof 38. City Boundary Map 9. City Hall Council Chambers 39. Engineering Dept. Standards and Procedures Update 10. City Hall Façade 40. Off Street Parking Standards 11. City Hall Fayette Street Windows 41. Street/Traffic Sign Inventory/Database 12. City Hall HVAC 42. City Hall Wi-Fi 13. City Hall Parapet Walls 43. City Garage Stormwater Pond 14. City Hall Security Update 44. City Hall New Carpet 15. City Hall Sewer 45. City Hall Plaster Water Damage 16. City Hall Spruce Street Sidewalk 46. Decorative Streetlight Takeover from Mon Power 17. Dorsey's Knob Slip 47. HVAC Service Contract 18. Downtown Signal Project 48. Deckers Trail Repaving 19. GIS System Consultant 49. 705 Multi-Use Path 20. High Street Streetlight Replacement 50. Deckers Creek Ped Bridge 21. High Street Tree Grates 51. Pleasant Street Streetscape 22. HRM Amphitheater Erosion Project 52. Suncrest Elementary School Sidewalk 23. Landscape Dept Building at Valley Crossing 53. Walnut Street Streetscape 24. New World Replacement 54. White Park - Caperton Trail Connector 25. Norwood Fire Station Roof 55. Trail Slip 26. Pietro Street Retaining Wall 56. Foundry Street Lighting 27. PSB Roof 57. 3rd Street Streetscape 28. Roadway Condition Assessment 58. City Hall Exercise Bathroom Update 29. Stewart/University Stormwater/Landscape Project 59. Spruce Street Trail Connector (Decker's Ave) 30. Traffic Calming South Park and Wiles Hill 6