Green Team

Minutes Morgantown Municipal Green Team December 5, 2016 Meeting Attending: Joey James (chair), Karen Kalafat, James Kotcon, Jenny Selin (Council), Rachel Fetty (President, First Ward Neighborhood Association), Damien Davis (City Engineer), and Pam Cubberly I. Old Business and Updates A. Approval of Minutes The team approved the MMGT minutes from the November 7 meeting. B. City representation/assistance to Green Team Damien Davis attended the meeting in the place of Luis Caceres, a staff engineer that Glen Kelly, the interim city manager, has assigned to attending Green Team meetings every month. Glen preferred this arrangement to having Krista Baker, the new communications director, serving as City liaison. Instead, Krista can attend as appropriate and needed. Pam asked if the City had hired a grant writer yet, whom the team could approach for assistance in applying for the State of West Virginia grant on recycling education etc. that 2015–16 City Recycling Intern Amanda Stoner had researched. Jenny suggested that the team email the city manager to request this assistance. Damien noted he had been working with Mainstreet Morgantown on their initiative to install LEDs in street lights on High Street. The timeline was not yet clear, but after some technical issues are resolved, the LEDs could be installed by springtime on three specific blocks of High Street. The team discussed how it could help publicize Mainstreet’s project, e.g., a news release congratulating them for the project or mentioning it in news releases about the IAC-City collaboration on City recycling and other efforts as a report on the Year to Go Green. Action: Pam volunteered to call Mainstreet Morgantown and to talk with Krista Baker about coordinating publicity in some way, for example, to encourage media, such as the Dominion Post, to write a more in-depth article about this and other energy efficiency efforts in the city. C. Update on IAC Report on City EE Alex had integrated comments from Joe Kanosky (NETL) and sent the report to Pam who had begun an edit that she said she would complete over the holidays. The intention was to have a version in the new year that had undergone thorough technical and editorial review by the team and formatting as a finished report. Then, Alex and/or Hari would need only to insert updated data from winter energy assessments by IAC to confirm previous 1  January 6, 2017 estimated data on various city buildings and, soon after, the report would be ready to present to City Council by the IAC and Green Team. In terms of implementation, Joey and Jim suggested that they send Damien and Luis the latest draft of the IAC report highlighting what they consider “low-hanging fruit”—actions the City could take immediately at little cost using existing staff and equipment. Regarding possible funding to implement other measures, Jenny noted that the City had begun initial steps on the city budgeting process. The City Council will vote on the budget in March. Action: Pam will send Joey and Jim the current version of the report so Damien Davis can begin their implementation by city engineers. D. Urban Agriculture The team then began a review and discussion on all efforts in the past couple years to encourage urban agriculture in Morgantown. After relating the history of the effort to those at the meeting who had not been involved, the team compared the original ordinance with later ordinances proposed. The intention was have a version that the team considered a better choice should other versions be proposed by the City or others. II. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 7:00 pm. The next meeting will take place on Monday, January 9, from 5:30pm to 7:00pm in the first-floor conference room, Public Safety Building, 300 Spruce Street. 2