Neighborhood Districts

District 5 Neighborhood Meeting August 3, 2023 agenda and linked items available at provo.org>Community>Neighborhood District Program>District 5 under the link for this date Roll showed 11 neighbors signed in, and 5 on zoom. Board members in attendance were Art Occon, Sariah Hillam, Shannon Bingham, David Harding, and Laura Leavitt. Leo Lines, Maria Winden, and Jason Ream joined on Zoom. Art Occon conducted the meeting at Laura’s request. 1.Department Topics A. 200 N 200 E Mini Roundabout Vern Keeslar, Traffic Manager for Provo City, presented a plan for widening the roundabout that exists now at 200 East and 200 North. They want to experiment and widen it out 6’ to make a bigger difference in getting traffic to slow down and be more careful going through it. Neighbors there say it is always dangerous. The downside to the expansion is that large truck will be unable to maneuver around it, though they should be able to go up and over the expansion if needed. There may also be issues with snow removal, as the plows may not be able to see the extension under the snow and so they will likely be damaged. They are going to try it out for 6 months and see if it works and how they feel about it. If it turns out well they will make it more permanent after that time. B. Wildland Urban Interface Program Chief Scofield spoke about the Wildland Urban Interface Program. Our downtown neighborhoods are not at as much risk as those up on the East Bench, but there is still a good argument to make us aware of defensible space, particularly anywhere wildland comes up against urban development. High winds can send embers up to 70’ in the air and can travel up to 5 miles. The principles of defensible space help so that if a fire breaks out in one building it will be less likely to spread to the next. The graphic for this shows having 30’ of clear space around a home with trees trimmed at least 10’ to reduce fire spread, firewood piles and propane tanks moved away from structures, and the further 70’ or to property lines having thinned trees, removed ladder fuels and space and maintain fire-resistant plants and shrubs to prevent fire from spreading. from the ground. Chief Scofield showed the movie “Why We Need Defensible Space” (embedded in the linked presentation above) showing how quickly fire spread from one house to the next in the Melody Lane fire, discussing how fires burn much more quickly upslope than level or downslope. It takes an average of 5 minutes to get water on scene, at which point the fire had spread to about five houses in that scene. The next slide showed “The Million Dollar Stop”, which was an area last year where their teams had cleared out brush to make a firebreak just two weeks before a wildfire broke out, and you can clearly see how the fire burnt right up to the break, but avoided continuing up the hill into the mountain, which would almost certainly have cost $1,000,000 to fight up there. He mentioned that he is a fan of life and would much rather have fences on a cliff than ambulances in the valley. To this point, their fire mitigation crew works through the summer clearing out brush undergrowth throughout and around the city and will work with neighborhoods to do home analysis. If a need is seen in a target area, they can help with work and come through with a chipper to help dispose of the cleared out brush. You can sign up at alerts.utahcounty.gov to be notified of dangerous fires; it is the same avenue they used to get out flood information this last summer. Susan Kreuger-Barber asked if water-wise landscaping is ok, and Chief Scofield said yes, and that it is important to clean out whenever living becomes dead vegetation.  C. Recycling & Sustainability Bryce Rolph spoke next on recycling and sanitation. They are trying to get the word out on what is and is not recyclable to bring down the contamination rate. A full quarter of what goes into Provo’s recycling bins is costing us extra money. Provo has been able to get it down to 25% from a high of 42%, but that means we are still paying $140/ton to recycle trash that would only cost $38/ton if it was put correctly into the black bins instead. Provo follows the Super 6 standard for Utah, which all cities participate in. This includes cardboard, paper, food boxes, aluminum cans, steel cans, and plastic containers. Cardboard is any kind of corrugated fiberboard, unless it is contaminated with oils the way the bottom of a pizza box would be. Many pizza boxes now have perforated sides so you can remove the uncontaminated top and sides and recycle them while putting the oil- marked bottom in the trash. Staples and plastic windows and glossy coatings are okay, but oil is not because the cardboard is mashed up into pulp and staples and plastic will float but oil will float on top and gum up the machinery. The same goes for paper—even the spiral binders are fine to leave on because they can be easily removed. These are some of the easiest and cheapest to recycle because there are local processing plants. Paperboard also recycle well—cereal and shoe and other boxes—and is actually a product made from the recycled cardboard. Tissue boxes are great, but the used tissues are trash. Shredded paper is recyclable at the transfer station, but do NOT include shredded paper in the bins—it gets everywhere and gums up the machinery during sorting. Metal cans they do ask you to clean or rinse out, but they do not have to be scrubbed down. Pop cans just need to be emptied so that the liquid doesn’t contaminate other materials in the recycling bins. The #1 contaminant is plastic bags. Definitely do NOT bag ANYTHING in plastic bags, big or small, clear or colored. Not only do the bags get stuck in the cogs of the machinery and have to be cut out, but the people processing them cannot tell what is inside without opening them up and possibly contaminating an entire conveyor belt. So anything bagged up is thrown out as trash. Plastic bags can be gathered together and disposed of in special recycling bins at most grocery stores, but this is not an option for our blue bins. Glass is another huge contaminant. It shatters in the trucks as the recycling is compacted and contaminates an entire load with glass shards. Glass bottles are recyclable in the big bins in the Smiths parking lot on Freedom. They used to need to empty the glass recycling every couple months, but now it fills within a week or two. Glass is also processed locally at Momentum Recycling. It is ground down into powder that goes into making Owens Corning fiberglass. They do need to have lids OFF the glass bottles, and they cannot take pane glass because it usually has an aluminum frame. They cannot take bags or cardboard boxes in these glass recycle bins because they get stuck in the machine that processes the glass. Only plastics marked #1 and #2 are recyclable in Provo’s blue bins. #3-#7 are not. Lids on liquid containers are often a different # than the recyclable plastic bottles, but they can be easily sorted out if left on. As with metal cans, make sure that the bottles are empty before placing them in the recycling bin. The reason #1 and #2 can be recycled is because there is a market for them and they pay really well—even better than cardboard. The industry is market driven, and the products from the others don’t meet the cost of recycling them. This includes another major contaminant, Plastic #6 Styrofoam. The infrastructure overseas fell out for HTPE, PET, and other plastics. It is a growing market but not as rich as would like. #1 and #2 plastics are still sent overseas for recycling, thought there are groups trying to build out the infrastructure in the US to recycle them here. Shannon Bingham asked what % of our recyclables are shipped overseas. Mr. Rolph said it is only 7-8%, which is made into products that are essentially sent back over here. 50% of what is in Provo’s bins are cardboard, which is recycled locally. Some major recycle plants are as close as New Mexico and others are looking at building more here in Utah. 30-40 years ago there were only 20 cities participating, but now everyone is doing it, so there is much more supply going into a market with the same demand. When Provo started recycling, it turned a profit. Now we pay out for recycling, but feel it is important enough to keep the blue bins less expensive because it can really reduce the need for a second black trash bin at a house. A lot of the bulky recyclable stuff that would fill up a heavier black bin weighs less (which somewhat evens out the blue bins higher cost per ton) and is then processed for reuse. 2. Public Comment Tanner Bennett mentioned that he is running a campaign to get hygiene products for the Food & Care Coalition as part of his city council campaign. Apparently they had almost run out of these supplies to give to the homeless. If people are willing to donate, they can bring the items to him or just to them, or he also has an Amazon wish list link. He will be running the hygiene campaign for a week or so and then pivot to food needs. (See attachments) They prefer large, full sized containers of lotion, conditioners, etc. 3. Additional Topics A. Service project wish list for YServe Community Cleanup YServe has a new guy who is looking for ideas and asking neighborhoods to contact him with ideas of yards/streets/trails that could use some help. Contact a member of the District 5 board or Neighborhood Coordinator Rachel Breen at rbreen@provo.org to make a list and give to their group to see what they might be interested in doing. B. Matching grants Matching grants will give up to $5000 to improve and beautify neighborhoods. Tanner Bennet mentioned that there is a sidewalk completely deteriorated/dissolved at 620 North between 800-900 East. Shannon Bingham mentioned that there are several street trees in Timpanogos neighborhood that need pruning. Some on 500 N near the Recreation Center on the south side need to be replaced. As an aside, at last year’s tree planting event they didn’t have enough shovels for all the students who showed up. Rachel Whipple noted that Provo Power would want to trim and take down the old trees. Shannon replied that they only have two guys to do the take down and they have trees that have been on the list for years now and are dangerous, dropping large limbs. Rachel Whipple asked her to email members of the city council and they will report them too. Rachel Breen mentioned that Hanna Parson will be presenting next month and has worked on the 1000 trees project. Shannon said she had worked with her last year. Susan Kreuger-Barber suggested that we do some traffic calming projects such as zebra sidewalks. We should go through Vern Keeslar to coordinate with the city. Lee Sands suggested doing an audit of neighborhoods’ needs. Susan Keller offered help in organizing. Susan Kreuger-Barber suggested it would help to have a photo and location of each noted place, and Tanner Bennett noted that the GIS school at BYU is always looking for things to document. They have the programs to stand at a place to log it together with any comments. He suggested reaching out to Professor Jackson. Art Occon mentioned that we could tie this into fire risk in conjunction with the fire department. It was noted that if we wanted to do another tree planting project, the trees would be free through the 1000 trees initiative and the $5000 could be used as part of a project in a focus area. In terms of spreading out the funds between the different neighborhoods in our district, we could have a running list of needs/wants from different neighborhoods that we could decide to pick from and do sooner/later depending on what else is on the list. There was discussion of how expensive sidewalks are—all four sides of one block can cost $1,000,000 with all the required handicap modifications. Shannon Bingham said one of her ideas is to think of areas that will benefit all, such as entrances to the city, Recreation Center, and schools. Creative crosswalks where people will notice them. Susan Kreuger-Barber said that she had read many studies and found that creative crosswalks are pretty but do not prove to be safer, though zebra striping does seem to help in that. They are great at placemaking though. Dave Harding noted that the best way is to work with the school district and individual schools’ Community Boards through the Safe Walk to School initiatives. Lots of hoops but good to get on lists to tap into the funding.  Tanner Bennett asked if there was any possibility to purchase into the solar farm to help the main streets, etc. He wasn’t sure if there was a grant available to use, and was told to talk to Provo Power. Art Occon mentioned that if ideas come up, to please communicate them to the board. A neighbor suggested that moving forward we should have this as an agenda item. Rachel Breen clarified that any resident can apply for a matching grant. The applications go to the board members to decide. If a project isn’t approved for a given year, the information has been gathered together to be suggested for future years. The program requires that all your matching hours and in kind donations are due by May 1 because the project has to be finished and all money paid out by June 30. C. Voter Engagement Discussion Tanner Bennett thinks most students don’t know that they can register to vote after they have lived here 30 days. He has been going door to door and has a link on Instagram to voter registration. Dave Harding was on the city council for a few years and was surprised when they were running a campaign for a bond that the strategic planning thought it was a waste of time to campaign downtown because other parts of the city have higher voter turnout. Something our district could do is work on voter engagement and turnout of informed voters. Ty suggested having a poster with a QR code at the Farmers Market and on banners near schools. Tanner mentioned that if someone has a Utah Drivers License, they can register online, but otherwise need a paper application. Dave Harding said he was willing to contact people door to door with anyone else willing to, and suggested that we talk to others too to coordinate getting the word out. It was recommended that we have information at event gatherings like the Festival LatinoAmericano over memorial day. People here for fun but can register while there and get information on the candidates. The primary on August 15th was pushed to September 5, and the election will be November 21. Laura Leavitt asked if this was an opportunity for a matching grant but Rachel Breen said that has to be used for something physical and permanent, though we do have a $1000 budget for events. Laura mentioned we could reach out through strategic marketing. She does design and software and thinks social media ads could be useful. Lee Sands mentioned that there should be a Town Hall for the Candidates. Rachel Breen said that there will be a Q&A with existing council members next meeting. A Meet the Candidates Night would have to come from the neighborhood. Locations for a meeting were discussed and it was noted that Pioneer Park is first-come first-serve and anyone else coming there for something else could also be invited to participate. Dave Harding said we need to pick a date and hope candidates can come. It was noted that most of our District area will only vote city-wide this time. Ballots will not be sent out until 3 weeks before the election. Art said we can figure out details later and asked for a vote of those generally in support. 6 were in favor and none opposed. D. Provo Library Outreach Program and Mobile Van Tour Mariah Lucas mentioned that they have been taking the Library Mobile Van to preschools, day cares, senior centers, assisted living centers, and just finished the summer park visits. The summer reading program just finished and had almost 4 million reading minutes logged. You can check out AV equipment, Neighborhood Art Center pass, VR, record podcasts, and more all free at the library. There will be a big Romance event with 20 romance authors in August. There is an embroidery club and a new Magic mornings for people to gather to play Magic the Gathering. Upcoming there is a folk dance class and an interactive family movie. In August the library takes a break from their usual programming to prepare for September and the new school year. Stories at the Park has finished for the summer, but they will have a Special Story Time with the Mayor on August 10. There will be a Spanish Farewell to Summer activity. The mobile van is available to come to neighborhood events by contacting Desert Mulford at desertm@provolibrary.org or Mariah Lucas at mariahl@provolibrary.org. All attendees were invited to come outside to look at it and get a free book and sticker. The library would love to hear ideas on how to get better. The next meeting will be held September 14, 2023.