Green Team

Minutes Morgantown Municipal Green Team June 4, 2018 Meeting I. Attendees: Karen Kalafat (interim facilitator); Pam Cubberly (team secretary); Jim Kotcon (energy chair); Jing Zhang (planning chair); Joe Kanosky (NETL); Andrew Stacy (City Communications Director); Jenny Selin, Mark Brazaitis, Barry Wendell, and Bill Kawecki (City Council); and Jared Bartrug (WVU Engineering). II. Updates  LED study report (Joe Kanosky) Joe reported that he expects to receive the written report from Abby Cayton on her 2017 summer internship on LEDs and her energy audit of the county health department building shortly so the team can think about next steps and presenting a proposal to the City Council.  CAP consultant (Jim Kanosky) Jim reported that he had received serious interest from a WV conservation group for funding of a CAP consultant to draft a City of Morgantown climate action plan (CAP). He hopes the City will receive the funding this summer so a City/team-selected consultant can get right to work. III. New Business Communications  Presentation by City Communications Director Andrew Stacy Andrew has served as the City Communications Director since October 2017. He was happy to report several City initiatives of interest to the Green Team and achieving its goals:  A new City employee newsletter now regularly publishes tips on how employees can work sustainably, based on the Morgantown Energy Policy Guide,1 which an earlier generation of Green Team members had put together.  Production of Morgantown Minute videos to be accessed on the City website. He is looking for good ideas for short snappy videos related to environmental sustainability. He welcomes ideas or video contributions from Green Team members. He also hopes to encourage schoolchildren or teens doing their own short videos and the best to be used on the City website. 1 GT members can find on Google Drive > Green Team > MMGT Past and Current Docs.   A third Solar Co-op may be in the works for 2018–19, in association with Solar United Neighbors of West Virginia (WV SUN). The Green Team is welcome to get involved as it had with the first two, in promotion of the new solar co-op.  The new City e-cycling program, in which by appointment, Republic Services will pick up “for special collection of electronic waste including televisions, monitors, computers, DVD players, radios and VCRs.” The team then discussed several issues/topics with Andrew, including the recent mailing by Republic Services of a trash/recycling compliance brochure to residents/businesses that included one side taken from the Green Team’s proposed brochure. It was noted that information provided by the team in the brochure was based on a one-page flyer approved by Republic’s past single-stream recycler Greenstar in 2016 and re-approved in June 2017, so may not reflect current requirements of Republic’s new singlet stream recycler. Andrew also discussed the feasibility of the City Grant Writer Robyn Hess to take on the application for WV funding for recycling education and other items. At the time, Robyn had told him she would be free to try to get the grant ready for the June 31, 2018, deadline. [Note: In a meeting with Jim and Pam, she said she had decided we should apply next year in order to do a good job on the application.] Action: Jim and Pam will contact Robyn to set up a meeting with her to explore the options.  Green Team Communications/Initiatives (Pam Cubberly) Pam briefly described her work on the team’s Google Drive folders to simplify and make them more useful to the team. When asked, team members said they did not often go into these folders, except Jing and Pam who have worked on the long-term strategy and Pam in keeping folders up to date with new files organized often by current team projects. Several of the folders contain or will contain documents worthy of archiving for team members in the future, particularly as documents from the early years of the Green Team were very useful in the team’s long-term strategy development in 2017. She also noted changes that she and Andrew Stacy have worked out to several team-relevant pages, including “The Green Team,” “Recycling,” and the former “Year to Go Green” pages. She asked if the team would approve of a title change for the latter page to “Go Green in Morgantown!” She hopes this page could cover all efforts (with links) to organizations, initiatives, etc. focused on public education on sustainable living and possibly helpful documents. The team agreed with the title but noted that it was important that this webpage not require frequent updating so all City pages present accurate and current information. Actions: Pam will make sure that all current members and regular attendees have access to the Green Team folder and subfolders. She will continue to maintain any folders that serve as archives for team work, including historic files since 2007. She will develop draft text for the proposed “Go Green in Morgantown!” webpage, so that it does not easily go out of date (especially by deleting the current calendar), while encouraging a spirit of a “we’re all in this working together” among the City, County, organizations, and companies in moving toward sustainability based on behavior change and simple household/business improvements. Green Space 2   Haymaker Forest purchase by City (Mark Brazaitis) Mark said that the next day the City Council would conduct its first reading and vote on the proposed $5.2 million acquisition of the Haymaker Forest (about 40 acres located between Courtney Avenue and Southpointe Circle on one side, Dorsey Avenue and Rosemary Drive on the other, and East Oak Grove Cemetery to the south) in the 1st, 2nd, and 6th wards. Describing Haymaker as “this magical urban forest,” Mark said the purchase is a major step in creating a green belt of natural areas around the city, comprises a large untouched natural forest that was otherwise likely to be developed if the City did not approve the purchase. A second reading and vote was to take place two weeks later. Jim moved that the Green Team should support the acquisition of Haymaker Forest as part of a broader green space plan. Jing seconded the motion, and the motion passed unanimously by a quorum (6) team members present. Action: Mark agreed to send Pam a packet of information for her to forward to all regular team members. Action: Team members were encouraged to attend the two City Council meetings in June to support the Haymaker purchase. Jim said he would present a brief statement of the Green Team’s support. Action: Jim agreed to draft and submit a letter of support for a taxation ballot question to be presented to the voters at the next regular election in April 2019. Public Education  WVU Engineering Challenge Jared Bartrug, WVU Engineering Department, described the West Virginia Engineering Challenge, a summer program for high school students who study and propose solutions to real-life engineering problems. Jared asked for one or more Green Team members to serve as resource persons on the afternoon of Wednesday, June 27, from noon to 4:00pm. Action: Jenny Selin, Jing Zhang, and Jim Kotcon volunteered to help. Proposed Team Outing Karen Kalafat proposed a team outing this summer or fall to tour the Ohiopyle State Park’s LEED-certified Gold Visitor Center. She suggested that they also combine it with some rail-trail recreation or rafting the Youghiohenny River. Anyone interested should contact Karen by email at karenkalafat@gmail.com. IV. Next Meeting(s) The next regular monthly meeting will take place Monday, July 9, 5:30–7:00pm in the Morgantown Public Library’s second-floor conference room. Pam recently firmed up dates for fall Green Team meetings with the Public Library. Please contact her with any questions. All meetings continue on a first Monday, unless delayed a week due to a holiday in the first week of a month. Location continues to be Conference Room B: September 10th (due to Labor Day on September 3rd); October 1st; November 5; December 3rd 3