MINUTES

Sustainable Green Bay Task Force

Thursday, 2/21/2008

City Hall, Room 604

3:00 PM

 

MEMBERS PRESENT:  Co-Chair Gary Delveaux, Mayor Jim Schmitt, Andre Jacque, Annette Weissbach, Christine Fossen-Rades, Derek Lord, Jeff DeLaune, Luann Rudolph, Mark Foht, Debra Lindgren, Doug Meek, Erik Hoyer, Nick Reckinger, Crystal Osman, Mary Haupt

 

 

1.      Introduction of new members and choice of subcommittee.

The meeting was called to order by Co-Chairman, Gary Delveaux at 3:05 p.m.  New member, Crystal Osman was introduced and welcomed. She is a student and works for Downtown Green Bay, Inc.

 

2.      Discuss Mayor’s article in Company Magazine.

A copy of an article in Company Magazine was distributed. The article was written by Jeff DeLaune and will be published in a series of four articles.  The article is entitled: Saving Energy: How You Can Make a Difference.  Mayor Schmitt stated that this is a relatively new magazine and the circulation may not be as large as we would like.  He stated that the article should be sent to the Press-Gazette and they should be printing a monthly article which could tie into the neighborhood articles that they are currently running.  Derek stated that he had contacted the Press-Gazette last year with Luann offering to write an article each month on sustainability, but they were not interested.  Derek said we should contact them again and have the committee members each write an article and put it on a disc, and they could pull an article each week for a year.  Christine said she has contacts with the education people and Paul Srubas at the paper.  The Mayor said his office will follow-up with the Press-Gazette.

 

An updated copy of the Task Force contact list was distributed. Members were asked to let Mary Haupt know if there is any inaccurate information and to advise which subcommittees they are interested in serving on.

 

3.      Update on goals/accomplishments from subcommittees and identify subcommittee chairperson.

Energy - Jeff DeLaune said there was not much to report.  He stated that he sent an email inquiring who would like to be on the committee. Currently Doug Meek, John Katers, Bob Laskowski and Deb Lindgren are on the committee with him.  He said they need to schedule a meeting in the next couple of weeks.  Jeff said Sen. Rob Cowles is interested in attending a meeting.  He was invited to this meeting, but was in session in Madison and unable to attend.  Sen. Cowles will be notified of the next meeting date. 

 

Transportation – André said the city is including funding for the west side trail in the bonding request and are working on the acquisition with the railroad.  Part of the timeline will depend on how quickly they respond; everything is on schedule.

 

André updated on a project discussed last year which is activating the swing bridge across the River that would connect to the Fox River Trail. He said discussions are proceeding well and it looks like an excellent possibility; we would be able to remotely control that bridge through our bridge tenders and have it open on the hour or half hour. The bridge is owned by the DNR and so far, no red flags.  He said assuming completion of the west side trail we would be able to connect it to the Porlier Pier and the Fox River Trail.

 

André said research is still being done on the rubberized asphalt concrete mix for road projects.  He said it has been used in cold climates and he is attempting to gather information from some of the projects where it has been used.

 

André said there hasn’t been any movement on biodiesel; still no certified provider.  Chris Phelps, Transit Director will probably be updating the committee at their next meeting on where we are in terms of putting that consortium together to make it feasible cost-wise for them to obtain the certification at the Farmers Co-op.

 

André said we are on the recommended funding list for the City Deck for the upland landscaping portion and said anything we can do to increase public access and activity along the waterfront and connect it to the trail system is good. 

 

André reported that FEECO International has the ethanol drawing process and he recently submitted a letter of support for that project.  He said there are a lot of transportation things coming which they can get involved in.  On another note, André stated that Tom Lesperance is working on setting up a wind power ordinance for the City, and said it wouldn’t have too much application in Green Bay and would probably only be effective on the far east-side of the city.  He said we’ve had contact from a citizen who is interested in putting one up on his own property. At the same time, the City needs to look at modernizing our own ordinance, adding that we’ll look at that and make sure we do it right and encourage it where it makes sense.  He stated that their subcommittee should schedule a meeting in the next couple of weeks.

 

Derek stated that the County will have the bike trail map finished by April and released for sale. He said the Sustainable Task Force financially supported the map and worked on the cover design and the logo of the Task Force is on the map, adding that the timing is right for that.

 

Land Use – John Miller said their committee needs to meet in the next couple of weeks and follow up on a couple of things that they bumped into at the Home Expo Show.  One thing is apparently there is a Realtors organization moving toward certifying green homes or energy efficient homes in the area.  He said they call themselves Green Realtors and he understands there are one or two that are certified as such.  He indicated that his group needs to sit down with them and figure out how they can pool their efforts.

 

John has been in contact with Norman Christopher and Cortland Overmyer in Grand Rapids, Michigan and he’s working on getting them here in late March or early April to talk about their experiences with bringing sustainability to Grand Rapids.  He said they have an active program in place and an interesting presentation on how they went about developing community and corporate buy-in into that program and said they would be beneficial to us and to the people in DePere.  Luann said DePere wants to work with us in this venture. John will follow-up and set something up with these gentlemen.

 

Doug Meek said he is not familiar with the Green Realtor program and John Miller was not familiar with this program either until Jamie Herber of Micoley stopped at the Home Show and talked about it and said they’re starting to organize.  Doug will follow up on this program. Mayor Schmitt discussed an educational fair that was mentioned last year where we would invite other municipal leaders, Councilmen, Mayors, etc and asked if we have enough to share with them and said bringing the two speakers John mentioned could be part of it.  The Mayor said our commitment when we first got together was to do something and then to share and said he mentioned this in his State of the City address last year.  John said the Land Use committee needs to remobilize in the next couple of weeks and will talk about getting the speakers here and decide what we would want them to talk about. The Mayor would like the committee to work on having the fair and incorporating the speakers from Grand Rapids, possibly in late April or May.

 

Water/Air – Luann reported that primarily things are focused on Earth Week with four events: April 18 & 19 a Pharmaceutical collection will be held from 8 am to 1pm on both days; a location to be finalized.  They are submitting a $25,000 grant application to EPA to support the collection.  If they are awarded the money, they would pay Wes Damro for some of the Sheriff’s Dept. and disposal fees and utilize some of the funds for advertising.  She indicated she budgeted $10,000 for advertising.  Luann said they will know by March if they are selected. She said the collection will be held with or without the grant money and this will be an ongoing biennial collection, which should make us competitive for the grant. 

 

On April 19th there will be a forum on the Great Lakes Compact in conjunction with UWGB and the Isaac Walton League.  Peter Annin, author of Great Lakes Water Wars  will be at the forum and said he is an incredible advocate of preserving and conserving the Great Lakes waters.  Luann indicated that they are going to talk to Cong. Kagen, Sen. Cowles and other National and local leaders to come and talk about their support for the compact. She will also contact someone from Sea Grant or the DNR to talk about the scientific and ecological ramifications of the Compact. This forum will be held at UWGB.  On April 26th there will be rain barrel and composting demonstrations at Triangle Hill from 1-3pm as well as a rain garden demonstration at Christa McAuliffe.  Eco Jam will be held on April 26th.  On April 27th a bear hunt will be held on the Isaac Walton League property in Bellevue.  Many events will be held during Earth Week; brochures will be shared with the committee when they are printed. Discussion ensued regarding holding the educational fair during Earth Week, with the decision being to hold it at another time as people may get burned out that week since there is so much going on.

 

Derek reported that they will be starting on their storm drain marker program in late spring or early summer in conjunction with the neighborhood associations, adding that DPW budgeted for the stencils.  Derek will be sending an email in the next couple of weeks with a list of accomplishments for 2007, including photos. He’s  asking for feedback from the committee when they receive this information.  Derek reported that the Home Expo was a very successful event and thanked Doug Meek for sponsoring the booth and for all volunteer members who worked the event.  Derek said the Task Force has been invited to join the Real Estate Expo in DePere March 7-9th  at no cost.  Brief discussion ensued including a short time-frame to prepare for this, asking for help from the DePere group, and that the target audience would not be as good as it was for the Home Expo, and not seeing much additional value to having a booth at this event. The consensus was not to be part of this event this year.

 

Christina mentioned a Sustainability Forum at St. Norbert College on February 27th  at 7 pm, at the Cofrin Basement. Leaders from DePere were invited as well as civic and clerical leaders.  They will invite attendees to join and form a committee. The forum is open to anyone who is interested.

 

Marketing – Derek said Nancy Nabak was not able to attend but wants to work on a Business Plan. Interested members can contact Nancy to work on this plan. 

 

Derek said Annette sent an email regarding recycling at special events, which is not being done now. Apparently Artstreet had small recycle bins this past year, next to the garbage cans.  Annette said people are not interested in doing this; the general population doesn’t care.  Discussion ensued with Mayor Schmitt stating that we could make recycling a part of special event permits.  Lengthy discussion regarding having water bottles that could be refilled, advertising with signs on buses, selling reusable water bottles with our logo and having a water truck at special events to refill, adding that City water ranked in the top 5 in a taste test.  Suggestion to place a spigot on fire hydrants, with Mayor Schmitt stating that he and Andre will contact Bill Nabak.  Andre suggested selling the trail maps to get money to purchase water bottles.  Mayor Schmitt suggested finding the ultimate drinking container that people would like, putting 10 sustainable tips on it with the Task Force logo and finding a sponsor, also suggested personalizing the bottles.  After further discussion, it was agreed to keep this item on the table and to start with recycle bins at special events and to place these bins right next to the garbage bins.

 

4.      Potential for grants to help accomplish mission.

Mayor Schmitt said that the U.S. Conference of Mayors is supporting The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG). He said the purpose of this program is to reduce energy use, to improve energy efficiency in the transportation, building, and other appropriate sectors.  The area he is most interested in is that the Grant can be used to retain technical consultant services to assist in development of such strategies.  Mayor Schmitt said this is what the committee was discussing; developing an office of sustainability and funding a person for this office.  He said the estimated dollar amount for Green Bay is $611,297 per year for five years. He said it’s a significant amount and we need to talk to Cong. Kagen and said he has met with Sen. Feingold’s staff.  He indicated that the President likes this grant but didn’t fund it. He added that this is a big deal to Mayors right now. The Mayor asked members of the Sustainable Task Force to submit letters to their congressmen in support of Green Bay receiving this grant.  He stated that the money isn’t there yet but the concept is there.  Mayor Schmitt said the Conference of Mayors has a strong lobbying group, adding that Sen. Hillary Clinton has been very supportive of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.  The Mayor said this is a bill that needs to be funded and encouraged committee members to talk to their congressmen and to write them, asking them to find funding for at least a portion of the amount.  The information on this grant will be scanned and emailed to all Task Force members.  Gary Delveaux said WPS will write a letter in support of this grant.

 

5.      Miscellaneous discussion on pertinent Sustainable Green Bay topics.

Derek said the Energy subcommittee may want to include in their goals, working with Tom Lesperance on the wind turbine ordinance. Jeff DeLaune said it’s kind of a health and safety kind of thing and didn’t know how much the energy group could contribute. Derek offered that the group could get involved in helping research and guide the city in writing other ordinances.

 

Doug Meek said an Energy Efficiency products class will be held on Monday and Wednesday nights for three hours a night, the last week in March and first week in April.  He indicated that they will be covering a large range of topics.

 

Erik Hoyer stated that he is working on a Conference being held at Lakeshore Technical College on March 27th which will focus specifically on agricultural solutions.

 

Luann shared that the WAPA Conference is holding a one day conference on sustainable development in Madison on March 27th, cost is $85.

 

6.      Date for next meeting.

The next meeting of the full Task Force will be held on Thursday, March 20th at 3:00 p.m. in Room 604 of City Hall.