Citizen's Environmental Quality Committee

Dec. 30, 2022 Citizens Environmental Quality Committee Winona, Minnesota 55987 Dear Committee Members: The next meeting of the Citizens Environmental Quality Committee meeting will be held on Thursday, March 2nd, 2023 at 4:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers at City Hall. 1. Call to Order 2. Review of January Meeting Minutes 3. Community Garden Update (5 minutes) 4. Air Monitoring information (5 minutes) 5. Other Business (5 minutes) 6. Watershed Game Trial (45 minutes) 7. Adjournment Sincerely, John Howard Natural Resources Sustainability Coordinator CITIZENS ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE MEETING NOTES DATE: Thursday Jan. 5, 2022 TIME: Scheduled for 4:30 pm in the City Hall Council Chambers PRESENT: Sadie Neuman, Paul Schmitt, Madalyn Bollig, David Ruff and Dan Hall GUESTS: STAFF: John Howard, Abby Wickboldt (Community Forestry Corps) 1. Call to Order: Call to order at 4:38 PM by Dan Hall (Chair). 2. Review and Approval of Dec. 2022 Meeting Minutes: Motion by Paul, 2nd by David. Approved unanimously. 3. Amendment to Land Disturbance Policy: John reviewed the use of “non-native” vs. “introduced” in informational and scientific literature. It appears both are prevalent and synonymous. Given that the City’s attorney has reviewed and accepted the term “invasive” and it appears to be more widely known, John recommends using “non-native” in the code amendment. The plan is to have that code amendment go before the City Council in February. Dan asked about “noxious” and “invasive” having similar meanings. John said that noxious weeds are a narrower subset of non-native species. Sadie said noxious weeds tend to be the most aggressive. David added that noxious weeds are defined in a list by the MN Dept. of Ag. and require control. These tend to be pests for agricultural uses. 4. Community Garden Update: John stated that the plan for the City to apply for West side garden grants was tabled because Hiawatha Valley Mental Health is applying for the same grant for their location. The City Council discussed this at length and had reservations about pulling the City’s application for a garden, but ultimately the decision was unanimous. Dan asked some clarification questions on where this Hiawatha Valley Mental Health garden would be – John said it would be in their parking area behind their Sarnia Blvd. location and will roughly be the size of the East Rec. gardens. John said that the City intends to put out planter boxes in West side locations this spring to gauge interest and help determine the best locations. The City has received some comments from West Lake neighbors expressing concerns over having gardens there. John puts these comments into three general types: 1. concern over traffic and parking availability and 2. the garden would impact a wetland 3. preference to keep the area open for other uses. John hopes to have a public input session with the neighborhood to hear more about what people think. Abby asked about using the Madison School park area, as this seems like a very good location. John hopes some of the planter boxes could be placed there to trial that area. The challenge is that water access is not confirmed. Dan thought there were gardens and water access present at the school. That was true, but John believes the water piping to the park area was removed when the parking area for the school apartments was redone.  Dan asked about the timeline for the Hiawatha Valley Garden – John said they will be planning over the summer for a fall build, and be open for use for the 2024 season. Abby wondered if in ground gardens would be better for Madison, but Sadie said the soils probably wouldn’t be good. Abby said in ground beds would help by needing less watering. 5. CDP Score: Dan noted the City received a D, and wondered why? John believes a big part of this is the lack of formal plans for various topics, but the Sustainability Plan will help with those. Another factor is lack of monitoring data. Abby asked why monitoring data is lacking? John said there are a few reasons: data isn’t collected, it can’t be broken out to usable form, or isn’t available. Dan thought that having more goals formulated in a plan would help the score. Abby feels data would help inform these goals. Sadie asked about whether the 2007 comprehensive plan was the main plan considered for this score? John feels it is more about the implementation for the score, so the comp. plan isn’t a huge factor. David asked about the mitigation targets, and John replied that the City has a net zero by 2050 goal, which he feels should merit a better rating. Dan noted that D is the global average. Sadie feels more staff and resources are needed and should be assembled to do monitoring and data analysis. This is a gap that the City has been unwilling to fund. Abby asked if an AmeriCorps member could do this, and John said this is a possibility, although some data just isn’t collected such as air monitoring. Abby said there is a monitor in town that collects various information. Madalyn said it is through NOAA most likely. David suspects modeling is used to predict many areas. Abby feels the air quality has worsened over the last 5 years, so air monitoring would be valuable. Dan relayed some of his experience with air monitoring of VOCs. Sadie’s research shows that the nearest air monitoring location is La Crosse. John noted that the City had a temporary air monitor provided by the MPCA about a decade ago to analyze sand transport. John shared that last year the City had a C rating and a B rating in 2020, so he is not sure why the score went down. Dan doesn’t think any major changes occurred over that time. David asked where the biggest gaps are in our rating? John said climate risk and adaptation are maybe the biggest holes since we don’t have a climate plan, but the sustainability plan will have some information on this. David agrees this is important work. 6. Comprehensive Plan Interim Report: Dan said there are a couple opportunities for in-person comments and an online survey. John encouraged CEQC members to share their input and invite others to as well. Sadie said engagement has decreased since Engage Winona’s director is out on maternity leave, and she was leading those efforts. 7. Other Business: Sadie has two versions of the watershed game that could be used for education. The CEQC viewed the versions Sadie brought. Paul may have played this before. 8. Adjournment: Motion to adjourn David, second by Dan. All in favor. Adjourned at 5:28. Notes prepared by John Howard.  CITIZENS ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE AGENDA ITEM: 6. Watershed Game Trial PREPARED BY: John Howard DATE: March 2, 2023 The City’s will be hosting a session of the Watershed Game on Sat. March 4th at the Winona Library beginning at 10 am. A flyer is attached. Registration is here: https://winona.lib.mn.us/event/watershed-game/ In order to prepare for that session, the game hosts hope to do a trial run with CEQC members at the Thursday meeting. .