MINUTES
March 8, 2007, 3:00 p.m.
City Hall, Room 604
Members Present: Gary Delveaux, Ian Griffiths, Rich Krieg, Derek Lord, Andre Jacque, Bill Lockery, Weissbach, John Miller, Christine Fossen-Rades, Veronique Van Gheem, Mike Keil, Robert Laskowski and Ray Jansen of WPS, Luann Rudolph, Mary Haupt
Gary Delveaux called the meeting to order at 3:00 p.m. New members were introduced; Luann Rudolph, Community Assistance Planner with Baylake Regional Planning Commission. She holds a Masters Degree from UWGB in Environmental Science and Policy, and Mike Keil of WPS, who works in the Project Controls Group and will assist with the overall schedule and track the projects as part of the Implementation Team. Introductions were made to the new members.
Mr. Delveaux opened discussion and comments regarding the final report. Derek said Andre had made changes to the report that were approved at the last meeting and received comments from two people, which was basically wording throughout. Gary mentioned that in the Implementation Plan, there were only projects listed from one area and Andre was going to look at listing projects from each area. Ian suggested removing reference to Solar Mining in the Energy Report, since this company does not exists in the same capacity. Following the news conference on March 27th at 2:00 the report will be available to the public. The first projects will be talked about at the press conference.
Discussion on the news conference: City Council Chambers was decided as a location for the news conference. Ideas included a poster “plugging” Earth Week, and having a strong visual such as light bulbs, rain barrel or parking sign for hybrid cars, and/or Nature Wise things from Chip Bircher. Gary Delveaux said the Mayor would probably be talking about the executive summary and the first key projects. He stated that he and Ian will be meeting with the Mayor next week and will finalize the plans for the news conference and it will be emailed to committee members. Bill Lockery said the pharmaceutical pickup is set for during Earth Week, possibly Tuesday or Wednesday. It was decided to have poster boards with visuals of the key first projects, and announcing that the City is purchasing 10% of their energy from renewable resources, if this is in place at the time. Bob Laskoswki will provide the number to Derek and Andre for the cost of the renewable energy. Other suggestions included the Mayor changing a light bulb and having a case of bulbs present. Bob Laskowski said an energy audit of all city buildings has been done and he will provide Derek with the result of the city hall audit. It was agreed to re-word installing a solar system at Joannes Pool, to investigating the feasibility of installing renewable energy equipment at Joannes. (This is on page 15, #3)
Derek reported on the Implementation Committee stating that they have met a couple of times and first talked about how they thought each of the goals for 2007 would be implemented, on a macro level because they haven’t worked out all the details and done all the research on the topics yet. WPS put together a schedule and some plans for each thing that needs to be accomplished in 2007 to reach the ultimate goal of implementing the proposed project as well as a timeline to follow. He stated that the four members could not do this alone and suggested coming up with subcommittees. Mike Keil distributed and explained a draft plan broken down by each subcommittee and their short-term plans that they were going to implement, according to the Executive Summary. He said the tasks are simply examples and said they are going to expect the subcommittees to come up with the real activities and the duration for the activities. He said when he receives this information, he will draw up a revised plan and the Implementation Committee can monitor the progress and project completion dates for each of the implementation plans. Derek said once the subcommittees are formed and hold a first meeting, they will have a better idea of what the steps are that need to be taken to implement this.
Discussion on the subcommittees meeting on a regular basis and then the whole group meeting again. Ian expressed concern that the group not be so focused on implementing the ideas that we have and not coming up with new ideas. Derek said they were thinking the individual subcommittees would need monthly meetings with the Implementation Committee and the full Task Force meeting quarterly. It was brought up that some of the projects may not take long, with Mr. Keil stating that a group may be given a question to run with and when they come back with an answer, they may be told that it’s just not feasible. Bob Laskowski said he asked Mike to put some structure to the plan so it doesn’t fall by the wayside. Derek said some of the projects may only have the planning and research done in 2007, such as the rain barrels and the storm drain stencils. Andre stated that citizens are offering help as they hear about the sustainability initiative, like planting trees at the 54/57 interchange and landscaping the Arnie Wolff Soccer Field.
Derek suggested contacting the members of the Task Force that are not present and asking for a recommitment to a subcommittee, or to give them an out if they do not wish to continue since the report is completed. Ian Griffiths agreed that the Mayor may be open to welcoming new members who would bring new ideas. A sign up sheet was passed around for members to sign up to serve on one or more subcommittees, and to indicate if they would like to chair a committee. Mary Haupt will contact members who are not in attendance to gather this information. Andre suggested not having too many committee members in the same career area and to have business representatives, such as Paul Linzmeyer of Bay Towel replacing Kelly Wolff, if Mr. Wolff needs to step down and possibly inviting developers from Brown County or a representative from the Brown County Homebuilders. The suggestion was made that the Mayor could ask for volunteers at the time of the press conference. It was recommended to send a letter of thanks to Josh Arnold and Connie Lindholm, outlining where we are, and thanking them for their participation.
Andre said we will have easels with graphics and poster boards at the press conference. Christine Fossen-Rades shared logo ideas from her art project class and the committee agreed on a logo, which will be shared with the Mayor for his thoughts. Questions arose about the status of this committee being an official committee. After brief discussion, it was agreed to continue this committee with it’s current status like the Mayor’s Beautification Committee and Hispanic Advisory Council, rather than having committee appointees going through Council. Andre said we will make the City Council aware of the Sustainable Task Force report. Derek inquired if the Mayor would consider getting on a ladder and changing a light bulb as he did at his home. Andre thought the Mayor would be agreeable to doing this and shared an initiative that the Mayor covered in his State of the City Address, called the Porch Light Initiative, where the City will provide coupons for $2 off CFL and will ask citizens to keep the lights on from dusk to dawn, adding that we could have something at the Press Conference about this program with a president of one of the Neighborhood Associations being present. Gary Delveaux again confirmed that the press conference to announce the Sustainable Task Force Report will be held on March 27th at 2:00 in City Council Chambers. Andre suggested possibly another site that is relevant to one of the key projects. He will email members if the location is changed and with details of the press conference.
Derek said once all committee members have been contacted regarding their interest in continuing to serve on this committee, a meeting will be set up by the end of March and they will share their thought on implementation with the subcommittees and the committees can work from there. The suggestion was made to allow the chairperson of each subcommittee determine how many people they want to have on their committee. Andre said the website link to the City’s website should be up and running by the time of the press conference
Discussion on communication and if a separate subcommittee is needed for this purpose. It was agreed to have people sign up to serve on this committee, information and communication such as getting the tip of the week to the Press-Gazette, etc. Suggestion was made to recruit an advertising professional from the community such as Leonard & Finco or Arketype to assist with the communication portion. Anyone who has a connection with such a firm was asked to contact them.
It was decided that the subcommittees would be meeting by the end of March and the full committee would meet in approximately two months to receive an update. Members will be notified of the next meeting date.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary Haupt