Climate Action Plan Standing Committee

Climate Action Plan Standing Committee April 21, 2021 Members Present: Hilary Lindh, Karin Hilding, Ben Davis, Kate McMahon, Casey Lewis, Robin Paone Members Absent: Ryder Delaloye, Joe Page, Liz Records, Guests: David Donaldson, Ella Kobelt AGENDA A. Call to Order The meeting called to order at 5:33pm by Hilary Lindh, Committee Chair. The meeting was held online. B. Approval of Minutes from March 17, 2021 Meeting Kate moved to approved March meeting minutes. Karin seconded it. March minutes approved by all. D. Public Comment Ella Kobelt guest with the Sustainable Tourism Campaign Kate McMahon - introduction: Sustainable management tourism plan approved in 2019. A committee was created and did a public input process. Kate was brought on as a consultant to finalize plan. Key focus areas: community development, transportation, and also environment and conservation. Ella Kobelt: She works on PR team for Explore Whitefish. In the fall worked on the Community Values statement and helped create the logo “Be a friend of the fish”. This logo was used in the COVID safety campaign. They have further developed this statement and will be using this going forward with other initiatives. They have also developed a set of Community Values “Be a Friend of The Fish Community Values” flyer presented. There are six tenets of the values. Their hope is our local community will be inspired to act on this and be a part of the program. Categories most relevant to our group are probably environment, land management, and tourism. Plans are in the works for educating locals on the sustainable tourism plan. Also they are incorporating the community values into the brand guidelines for Explore Whitefish. Plans for May and June: 1. Video that educates the on the sustainable tourism plan: “Destination stewardship. 2. Develop 15-20 minute training for service professionals in our community - how to communicate with visitors in our region. 3. Be a Friend of the Fish checklist created. It will be available at hotels and restaurants and other venues in town. Suggestions like walking/biking, plan ahead, and give back while they’re here. 4. New city street banners will be put up to message on community values, including sustainable visitation. Karin suggested there may be some collaboration on transportation. There is a real need for a transit shuttle at the airport. Hilary question: anything on conserving water? Ella says their organization is open to messaging on this. Discussion on how WF is already messaging this and it could be shared for any training. Also recyclables information could be shared. Karin mentioned the Whitefish “Roadmap to Resilience” brochure as a resource for Ella. C. Committee Status Updates WSD Adult Programming and Potential Instructors List David Donaldson, Whitefish School District. Reviewed potential courses that could be offered for adult education. Karin and Hilary put together a draft course listing with feedback from Casey and Robin. Schedule for courses is Summer: June, July, and August. David would like to publish course listing by mid-May. These classes will likely be held online. David is checking to see if some other classes such as fly fishing could be held outside in person – he is asking for some guidelines from the school nurse. Next steps: CAP committee checks with the potential instructors to see if they are interested. Let them know the district will pay the instructors about $25/hour. Then CAP committee member provides and online introduction to David. Then David can take it from there on the planning. This is a beneficial program for businesses. It creates follow-on business. David says he’s open to any new ideas. He said he feels their organization is underutilized and there could be so many business-led courses. Feel free to contact him with your ideas. He said they can come up with really creative ideas for naming the classes to draw attention. Hilary will distribute the draft listing of the training ideas discussed. C. Committee Status Updates (continued) CAP Steering Committee Support for the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (EICDA) Andy Feury and Dana Smith were contacted regarding the CAP committee supporting a municipal resolution endorsing EICDA. The consensus is that it is not the role of this committee to make a statement of support. C. Committee Status Updates (continued) Earth Day The Whitefish Earth Day Proclamation is official and is posted on the on the Climate Smart website with other city proclamations. They also have earth day activities calendar online. Karin and Richard Hildner will interview the Spiveys about their Earth Day volunteerism. The interview will be recorded, edited and posted online. C. Committee Status Updates (continued) Public Works: Budget Priorities Karin This committee has to be the one who will make the request for a sustainability officer. A request letter is due June 1st for the 2022 budget. Karin will draft a letter prior to our next meeting and in it put in the justification for this position. The letter will be shared with the committee for comment. Recycling update: staff recommendation is for curbside bin recycling. Craig will be preparing an ordinance for the city attorney to look over then there will be a public hearing. This will be a huge change because we will not be building a new recycling site. Composting is on hold for now. Transit update: for the new pick up/drop-off service is not yet ready for more customers. They still need to get requesting/routing software in place. Their current process is burdensome. Underpass update: Should be ready in May in time for the Farmers market. The only thing that won’t be complete it artwork. City Beach traffic concerns: plans to put in stop signs to help. New stops will have flags for noticeability. City is working on grant application for alternative funds for removing barriers on via-duct. The city is getting ~$2M Federal rescue plan funds. Dana is working to get more direction on how the funds may be used. This committee might should put some ideas forward. Ideas: Additional electric car charger could be funded, offset costs of solar panels at the snow lot or wastewater treatment plant, demonstration gardens for native plants. C. Committee Status Updates (continued) Other Climate Smart Glacier Country - Casey Zero Waste seminar going well. First event had 40 participants. Next one is on composting and will be held April 28th. Earth day community calendar is online. Earth day proclamations on their website: Bigfork, Columbia Falls, Whitefish, and Kalispell Discussion on homes being torn down or remodeled but there’s so much construction waste. It would be a topic of interest. E. Adjournment Meeting adjourned at 6:41pm Respectfully submitted, Robin Paone