Environmental Advisory Board Meeting

Ogden Dunes Environmental Advisory Board Town Hall - August 20, 2024, 5:30 p.m. Attendees: Frank Lani, Bianca Passo, Tom Davenport, Vicky Albritton. Karl Krizmanic also attended. 1. Review and approve agenda – any additions? Yes: disturbed bank at Pollywog Pond…beach clean-up day…meeting with Save the Dunes 2. July Minutes Issues – None 3. Follow up on Frank’s 09 JULY email on Pollywog Pond (PP) Damage Assessment Frank sent an email to Laura Brennan asking for her assessment of damage done by the car that rolled down the bank at PP and by subsequent inexpert attempts to clean the area and apply mulch. Karl reported that Laura said we might cause more damage if we attempt to remove the mulch, so we should just leave it. She would also like to see more of a structure to our work at PP. Tom pointed out that while we have a lot of new plants that died this summer, we also have many that lived. We need to know how many. Karl said that Jan Hunter would look at PP tomorrow. Frank emailed EAB members Jan’s map of what she planted. After her assessment tomorrow we can all compare. 4. Invasive Species Eradication at Polliwog Pond [Karl] More in September on the next possible clean-up day. 5. Discuss Frank’s PP Plan Draft [Frank] Frank sent EAB members a detailed plan of action for PP. Tom restructured the plan somewhat. He says we can apply for different grants for various parts. We should identify a complete of list of activities and projects that are needed for our PP effort, then collect a full list of available funding sources, then match funding sources to projects/activities. Once sources are identi ed, we can carefully develop speci c project plans before we ask for money. We will have a special meeting about this. 6. Septic: Ogden Dunes Requirements [Vicky] Frank noted that Septic Awareness Week is September 16th-20th. Vicky will get the awareness banner and materials out and posted in time. Karl proposed that we get new paper materials with updated info to leave in the town of ce. We discussed county requirements for septic systems. There are essentially none. OD has no speci c requirements. Karl asked if we could pass some sort of ordinance that might help regulate septic systems. But there is a law preventing any more stringent local rules than are already required. Tom wondered whether the town could require all maintenance workers (including septic clean-out crews) to sign in and describe what they’re doing. Then the town would at least have a record of when a house’s last septic clean-out and/or inspection was. Karl will talk to the building commissioner about this. 7. Monitoring Nearby Industries https://www.in.gov/idem/ resources/lake-michigan-sites-of-interest/ a. Cleveland Cliffs - Bianca: last inspection clean fi fi fi fi b. U.S. Steel Midwest - Vicky saw nothing to report. Tom noted that the EPA tends not to enforce inspections while an industrial site is up for sale. c. PreCoat Metals Bianca: no violations but no inspections because they have less oversight than the steel mills. Karl recently noticed that Boat Club Road dead ends into PreCoat’s parking lot. This road is our emergency safety route out. They have pallets stacked all over. It seems like it should be clearly marked, but it isn’t. We will consider this issue further. 8. Recycling (Public Works Dumpster status) [Karl] Karl: The dumpster has arrived! Still working on the recycling sign. Tom asked Karl to do an email blast to remind everyone to recycle. 9. Facebook activities – National Migratory Birds Month, discussion on existing postings Tom posted about turtles recently. Vicky posted about a recent article in the Smithsonian that covered conservation history in Ogden Dunes. 10. Additions to agenda: --Bianca reported that Save the Dunes contacted her and set up a meeting that included Katie Hobgood, program director; Harshini Ratnayaka, advocacy coordinator; and Betsy Maher, Executive Director. Save the Dunes is currently involved in multiple lawsuits over the permitting of Ogden Dunes to install break walls. They were trying to persuade the ODEAB to join them in advocating that the town remove the break walls. Bianca informed them that the ODEAB doesn’t have plans to get involved with this issue at the moment. --Beach clean-up: Vicky noted that National Beach Clean-up Day is coming up on September 21st. It appears that most of the EAB will be unavailable, so we will not do anything of cial this year. --Beach Water Quality Monitoring: Tom said that the street department put new locks on the beach water quality monitoring box so we could not change the water quality signs. Matt (street dept) has not yet responded. 11. Other: EAB 2025 composition, Memorial Day or Centennial I&E Table. Tom mentioned that we could put up an information table at the Centennial celebration. 12. Next Meeting(s) – 17 September 2024 Meeting adjourned at 6:35pm. Minutes taken and submitted by Vicky Albritton fi