Green Team

Minutes Morgantown Municipal Green Team November 7, 2016 Meeting Attending: Joey James (chair), Karen Kalafat, James Kotcon, Jing Zhang (MMMPO), Jenny Selin (Council), Joseph Kanosky (NETL), Hari Jammulamadaka (IAC), Holly Purpura (FODC), Doug Milbrand, and Shannon Dowling I. Old Business and Updates A. Approval of Minutes The team approved the MMGT minutes from the October 7 meeting. B. Urban Agriculture Jing Zhang shared his research on model urban agriculture ordinances and programs from other cities in other parts of West Virginia and other states in a very detailed chart. After reviewing these other programs, his conclusion is that the proposal for Morgantown reflects a good balance of the characteristics shown in the other ordinances. There is a civil suit pending on the urban agriculture issue in Morgantown, and it may be wise to wait and see how the court responds to the dispute. Action: Jenny Selin will organize a meeting with the city attorney and those involved in drafting the original ordinance to discuss what the intentions were with the various sections. Action: The team has agreed to utilize the December 5 MMGT meeting as an opportunity to promote a wider positive vision of urban agriculture to the public and specific stakeholders. Joey will develop an invite list of interested parties for the meeting. C. WVU Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) and City of Morgantown Energy Assessment Joey presented the context of and results from the study to City Council at the October 25th Committee of the Whole meeting in a general presentation of 2016 team work for YTGG. The recommendations included potential city savings and new fiscal budgeting. Pam is now editing the October 20th version of the IAC report so that IAC can simply update or add data before a final report is submitted to City Council. Action: Joey will send an email to the City Council as a follow-up to encourage implementation of “low- hanging fruit.” D. Green Business Coalition 1  November 20, 2016 Holly reported there have been 31 completed checklists so far, 60-plus more in process. Information on these efforts can be found on the Facebook event page. The team would like to look into developing an official city/county certification, and possibly using the YTGG logo. E. Republic Contract Negotiations Jenny Selin reported there is no update yet on negotiations with Republic Services. F. Hydropower on Mon River Joey is following the status of the new Rye Development proposal, which is currently licensing for hydropower on the Morgantown Dam. The latest version of the proposal does not appear to have any impact on the rail trail beyond an occasional vehicle crossing. Although the new station will likely impact existing fishing at the dam on the Mon River, the proposal includes adding a new platform for fishing. It is expected that any perceptible noise generated by the new station will be muffled by the existing noise of the water release at the current dam. G. How2GoGreen Workshop Series Pam sent in a report on this series in honor of the YTGG. The first workshop on composting by Cheryl Brown received moderate attendance but discussion on various aspects of composting, including vermiculture was good. The second workshop for the Northeast West Virginia Solar Coop was well attended with at least four households represented that had not yet joined the co-op. Note: The third and final workshop of the fall series had to be cancelled due to the illness of Rich Courtney. No workshop has been rescheduled at this time. II. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 7:00 pm. The next meeting will take place on Monday, December 5, from 5:30pm to 7:00pm in City Council Chambers, 389 Spruce Street. (Thanks to Karen Kalafat for taking notes and putting together these minutes.) 2