- We're going to go ahead and jump right into tonight's meeting. It is six o'clock on March 27th and
- we've got a lot of bodies at the table, which is very exciting. So let's go ahead and jump on into
- the roll call and then we'll take some time to actually talk to our new folks and introduce
- ourselves and all that.
- The first will go through the roll call. Yeah, Kerry Albrown. I'm here. Nadia Kane. Here. Matt Colby.
- Here. Casey Chapelle. Here. Adam Fudifer. Here. Shannon Gate. Here. Adam Martinez. Here. Mitchell
- Owens is not here yet. David Parker. That's everyone. I'm Rachel Johnson.
- Emerson, did you want to introduce yourself? I'm Emerson. I have some of you. I am a fellow with
- the Urban Green Space team here with Parks and Rec. So I get to work with Abby Garcia. She's gearing
- up for her big event on Saturday and her play event at Switch Yard. So I am here to, yeah, write
- support and report back to our page as well.
- Awesome. And then Ella Thompson is online.
- What was that?
- We should speak extra loudly so everyone can hear. You said Ella Thompson? Yes. Ella, did you want
- to introduce yourself?
- Yeah, I'm just an Urban Green Space intern here to listen in to tonight's meeting.
- Thank you. Perfect. Great. Well, our first order of business is our new faces, which is fantastic.
- Welcome. Thank you for being part of the EC. Can't wait to get to know you all more.
- So what we will do, first of all, as we go through tonight's agenda and all the talking points, I'll
- make sure to give as much context as I can, try and reduce the number of acronyms I use.
- And then as we go through our working groups and everything, we'll just take some time to make sure
- we're explaining everything, but feel free to let us know if you have questions as we go.
- Shout them out, raise your hand, say them to the end, whatever you want to do, but we welcome your
- clarifications and questions as you have them.
- So we have this nice, full, mostly full commission. So I would say, first, why don't we go ahead
- and have the two of you just introduce yourself, you can let us know sort of what had you
- interested in the EC, you can tell us about where you're at professionally or academically or just
- personally that brought you here.
- Sure. My name is Adam Fedeker. I've been a Bloomington resident for 13 years. I live in Parker, Jeece.
- I teach at IU. I'm a biologist, background in conservation, animals, primarily animals, and I'm
- also on the Environmental Resources Advisory Commission.
- I'm Casey, I've only been a Bloomington resident since 2021 when I was in my third graduate school.
- I'm also a biologist, primarily an ecologist. I'm a graduate student in the biology department. I'm
- also the water conservation outreach intern at CBU, on top of having other things I do.
- So, yeah, primarily wanted to get more involved in the city. I know Linda Thompson, so she
- recommended that I apply for this just based on my background.
- Okay, welcome. So I think we go ahead and take a moment and we can all introduce ourselves again
- you can share professionally academically personally kind of where you are right here so I think we
- go ahead and start with Rachel who. Yeah, so I met with both Adam and Casey gave them the ECU one
- on one presentation.
- I'm the senior environmental planner, I also serve as a city's public administrator. So I do those
- things environments, when it comes to private development, sometimes stuff in a public way, but
- mostly helping developers.
- My name is Narnia I'm a senior at IU studying environmental management and astrophysics.
- And I just found the commission by, I think I did a Google search.
- But, yeah, it's been great we've been working on bugs which I'm sure you'll hear about, and
- I'm Adam Martinez, I'm probably the least qualified person here but I
- think I'm an interest in sort of urban planning, that kind of thing. And I also really like birds.
- So this is kind of spot where I can affect both of those.
- I'm Shannon and I teach the English department at IU, and they run the environmental futures in the
- communities initiative there.
- I'm in person. I'm also a grad student and I'm over in SEA, and I am focused on food and farming
- sustainability but entering urban green space interests, which is highlighted in the Parks and
- Wildlife.
- My name is Matt Colley. I've been on the commission since 2017.
- No real science background just been engaged in certain citizens.
- And this is also our vice chair and treasurer and Adam is our secretary, so we appreciate their
- help too. I'm Carrie. I'm the chair of the commission for a while now and I work for a nonprofit
- that does funding and resource support for
- environmental educators around the world so mostly in the environmental education side of things
- but yeah definitely excited to kind of have this group of passionate women Tony and so that's it.
- David Parker.
- I was on this be a faculty for about 30 years starting in 1973.
- I was on this commission in 1974.
- I've been on for a while, and recently for about six years I guess my undergraduate degrees in
- applied medicine that's mostly what I taught in speed of this match.
- Um, we, so yeah we kind of cover all different grounds and again, I'm sure like you know that the
- publications to be on the EC are basically that you care about Bloomington's environmental quality
- and the different things that impact it so we're glad to have you
- again feel free to ask me any questions. So you got the EC 101 training, the handbook which we're
- currently in the final stages of I assume you both got the email of that or you can send them out
- there if I sent them the handbook but it's in today's packet,
- since it being revised. Yeah, yeah. And then we talked about with new commissioners, having you sit
- down within the first month or so with Rachel just to kind of get like a background in the one on
- one's probably effectively that, but also, if there are any commissioners who'd like to make
- themselves
- available to have some sit down and just talk about some of the history there's so much that has
- gone on and the one on one presentation there's a lot of kind of the, the documentation of the
- places we've been the projects we focused on but if you have any questions
- just how does this work or how do I get involved in this or what have we done, whatever. I'm open
- to that so commissioners if that's something that you're interested in your hand for feel free to
- communicate that otherwise you can just kind of do it as needed, but I think you're welcome to ask
- questions.
- Okay, well that is sort of that new business side of things we're going to actually talk about old
- stuff like last month's minutes they were in the packet so unless anybody has any additions to what
- was sent through already, we can consider it for
- the last month's meeting. Yes.
- Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
- I just want to say real quick, first time I did them, and you know, they were really, yeah, yeah,
- well, well done past everyone but they were so well done.
- You're going to start wearing a tie to these meetings.
- Okay, well we've got a moment for public comment so if there's anybody else that has joined, or
- literally walking in the door at this very moment.
- Yeah.
- Welcome.
- We have two new commissioners, which is super exciting. So, Mitchell is a saint because he actually
- drives down from Indianapolis for these, I mean, not for this means he's going home but he raises
- himself back from work so that you can get to these
- meetings which is really, really kind so if you want to choose yourself and maybe just get like a
- super just like the kitchen. Hi, I'm Mitchell Owens, I am
- an employee at IDEM in the Office of Water Quality and Water Quality Monitoring, also a PhD
- candidate at IU in the Department of Geography, do more water quality stuff there.
- I've been with the commission for two years now.
- I'm Adam. I've been in Bloomington for 13 years, and I have a background in animal conservation.
- I'm Casey, I'm a graduate student in biology and also the water conservation intern at CBU.
- Have we talked?
- Okay, well we just approved Adam's very first minute so we're all very excited about that.
- We're just taking a moment for public comment but it sounds like we do not have any additions. Okay.
- All right, sounds good. Well then we're going to go ahead and roll into old business.
- The first item here, there should actually be a pretty quick meeting tonight, which is great.
- The first item on the old business is the working group updates. And so basically working groups,
- also known as subcommittees are basically our chance to really specialize in some different themes
- that we think are important as far as what the EC can affect
- what our city might need what people should interest in. And so we have a list of different working
- groups here, there are actually a few others that exist and we'll talk about that a little bit
- later but there are other ones that exist that we just sunset from
- time to time or maybe it's just not as pressing at the time for me we just don't have the resources
- to have all the subcommittees active about all the same time.
- So we have a handful that we focus on, we typically ask our commissioners to be involved in at
- least one, and honestly maybe more than one might be a big ask depending on what your availability
- is but we really love for people to spend a little bit
- of extra time and energy, focusing on one of the projects that we really try and highlight.
- One of the things I, I have not emphasized enough but what we talked about at our annual planning
- meeting was having one working group or subcommittee sort of focus, the, or have a bit more in
- depth presentation at our monthly meetings.
- Okay, tonight it's the special projects group so cool, got it. But basically it'd be a chance to be
- a little bit more in depth about what that working group is doing, how it ties to the goals will be
- lined up for the year the sort of bigger objectives
- all that stuff so that'll be something that I will try and highlight for the months to come, but
- ideally it's just a chance for us to kind of spend a moment really sinking in a bit more like, what
- are we doing, is it having an impact
- on what we have what we need are the working groups, feeling like they've got the support resources
- or whatever so just really trying to make sure that we're making them with what we're doing,
- because there could be a lot just with spending, you know, we let it so.
- All right. Okay, so we're going to go through these, and so the person who is speaking for the
- different working groups, please just give like maybe a little bit detail on what your group
- focuses on who else is in the group and y'all can say
- about that where you don't have to you can wait and let us know later.
- But then also like right now what's the highest priority for your, for your group and that way they
- have an interest or other people have renewed interest, they can jump in.
- And that works for you all. I'm going to pass over to Adam, captain of our light pollution working
- group. Yeah, so the light pollution working group is the newest one.
- It's only me and that at the moment. We, like two or three months ago we started, I guess,
- officially, we haven't really done anything yet because we've kind of been focusing on eco heroes,
- different projects coming up.
- After April, I think we might start getting underway that the main goal is to just, it's kind of,
- to see what we can do to reduce light pollution and say, maybe we're working towards some sort of
- certification.
- I guess, in terms of updates, it's not really, but again, we're waiting till after the videos. Yeah,
- I appreciate that. Thanks. Then I'm going to move over to the water quality subcommittee.
- I haven't really done much this past month is kind of waiting for us to have more than two members
- because right now it's just me and Dave.
- But we have some more people in the commission.
- I was planning on the next week or two reaching out to utilities. If you're an intern there, do you
- know Evelyn? Yeah, I know she's been working on putting together like monitoring, plan, everything.
- I've been checking in, trying to help there where I can. So I was going to follow up because it's
- getting close to the sampling season. Same how that's going and if she needs any help or anything
- that we can do for support or PR or anything like that.
- So check in with them and see how things are going and then figure it out from there.
- Would you mind kind of sharing a little bit about the like considering a water quality report or
- something like that? Yeah, so the big goal that the water quality working group was one that I
- think previously been in Sunset but I kind of brought back because it's what I do.
- And I was interested in, as I was starting the environmental commission that actually had been
- doing air quality thing put together a report for like, what's the air quality and city what's the
- monitoring situation look like where is data being collected what's being collected.
- I wanted to do something similar for water quality so it's been a lot of pulling together the data
- that other organizations primarily like item or volunteer monitoring things like that have been
- collected and seeing what it says about the water quality
- and city but also as I was working on that.
- The folks at utility said that they were wanting to do some monitoring internally, because clear
- creek in particular and then listed for a number of impairments and trying to figure out where
- specifically in the watershed those were coming from that kind of stuff so holding off on the
- report for now to get.
- In terms of that monitoring what that data looks like because it's much more recent than anything I
- was able to find which is like 2016 for the highest quality data.
- So, yeah, I think this year, it's just kind of helping where we can with the ongoing project and
- then picking back up with the report probably next year once we have data.
- I have a suggestion for the city, wherever you have one of these
- sewer covers that says sanitary, the other type on on in front of that.
- So why the heck is it college called sanitary.
- We have been like in the water quality group.
- The water quality reports isn't the only thing we focused on like we work with storm water just
- kind of update and see what they're up to regularly but also kind of keeping tabs on like stuff
- like the streets we've been going like that kind of pollution
- issues or even one of the members of the issue that recently retired, Mike was very interested in
- focused on record buffers in the city and trying to go back and forth with the planning department
- a little bit on what how those should be measured and implemented
- in practice and trying to figure out those kind of water quality issues as well in addition just
- figuring out kind of the state of our waters.
- Yeah, and as we have these different reports are when Matt put together the air quality report, the
- goal is to have a document that we can then share with the public share with the council chair any
- other recommendations or additional takeaways
- that we think would be helpful for decision making, either by individual residents or at a city
- level.
- All right, thank you Mitchell. Next up is the biodiversity working group, Shannon.
- So we have not met.
- But the diversity working group has two projects really right now the first one is the city USA
- certification which I have some questions about I just want to check in about the other one is sort
- of the habitat and activity plan, and the mapping which
- we've been talking about or doing things with recently because the city is, yeah, what is that it's
- also sorting on class because it will be a big priority.
- Yeah, so, um, as for the city USA.
- I didn't send out any emails, because I'm very nervous about the conversation we had last time.
- So I didn't want to hold a meeting either because most of the things could be managed everything.
- So, a couple of questions I have some updates so. So first of all, I've been I continue to be in
- conversation with you and tangible and they're moving forward and that's going to.
- They're sort of on the same timeline we are I hope in terms of getting the certification.
- I need to complete the application, but really quickly realized that I need to talk to Rachel,
- because we need.
- Like, as probably city address on this and certainly so I just have a couple of questions from the
- other people on this with other people on the committee are match and carry and David.
- And I think one of you, this is okay not Smith was going to get this on the common Council has that
- happened.
- I have an update on that okay they want to have an error vote on account so on April 16 was that
- date or.
- version of the, yes, of the resolution. So basically all we have to do at this point is this
- application which doesn't sit down.
- Mr. Smith did ask for a memo and or a supporting document. And she has to submit that to the
- council attorneys by April 7, and if we can try to get it to romantic April 3 or April 4 so she has
- time to look at it before submitting it to the council attorneys.
- She wanted the email I think she just kind of wanted a synopsis of like why the city was important
- for the city to adopt.
- And she just needs more info and outreach.
- And, and we can't, again, I'm still so uncertain about this because I can't draft this, and then
- send it out to the committee to check it. If you draft it I can post it online.
- And then any comments can be sent to me.
- Or you can have a meeting where you have on a projector. Yeah, like a meeting that is announced
- publicly and project and work through it.
- Yes, so I would say definitely send it to reach them.
- There are some adjustments to how we do our communication to ensure we're providing and we're
- talking about the handbook today, too. Yes. Okay, because I have questions about.
- Okay.
- If anybody has any comments.
- I think for that and then maybe like post a new draft.
- So, does that seem fine with everyone.
- I know about why we're pursuing this step, and I wouldn't be surprised if they have language on the
- city website like kind of toolkit style language to that might be useful.
- Resolution itself kind of lays out a fair amount of the live but still we can put together a brief
- memo.
- This was a project that one of our former commissioners was Gary.
- And we might need the body or the habitat connectivity plan, are you familiar with that.
- How would you like to just describe it and maybe just say like where we are at.
- Sure, so there was a report that was completed around the time that I joined talking about
- connectivity kind of fighting fragmentation of habitat, encouraging people to plant natives remove
- invasives and somewhere along the line.
- We decided we should make it a math project where people can contribute.
- And what they did general location and we could also highlight some of the more important places to
- try to build a corridor.
- The map project was taken on by an intern, and it was not very good.
- So now we're enlisting the city to help us make a nice map.
- We I've met with the JS folks once, trying to just kind of lay out exactly what we're looking for
- but I let them know that we're hoping to do it over summer and that we're kind of really tied up
- being incoherent at the moment, but they may sound like it won't be too big of a lift.
- So, we will get back in those conversations and we can check in with them this week just to see if
- they have a progress update. They are continuing to work on it, they have not forgotten about it.
- So what's the goal is to find places that need to be filled in?
- I mean, I'm hoping that the map is going to be a major engagement tool, because we talked about the
- importance of, you know, planting natives and how, whether it's an actual corridor or just stepping
- stones, just any way to make it so that everything from the pollinators to the deer to everybody
- can move between, you know, good quality green space areas, just to strengthen biodiversity.
- But it's something that we talk about when we table that we kind of share with people a lot, but we're
- hoping that a map would really push people to want to make an impact, to want to put something on
- there to see what other people have done.
- Yeah, I mean, because the neighborhood level that might also be very encouraging, even if it's just
- little stuff to say, oh, I removed a calorie bear and planted a dark cherry tree or something,
- whereas other people might say it took out a quarter acre of turf and did all this, but every
- little bit counts as kind of what we're driving at.
- So we're hoping that the map makes it something that motivates people and kind of spreads the word
- of what we're looking for.
- In the map that was just there, the yellow, where it's missing.
- Based on 2017 report, which is I think using 2013 data, they identified those three areas that are
- green as the largest and most sensitive
- areas of habitat. And so they were looking at ways to connect them based on how stable and how
- sensitive they are. And yeah, Ben's attempts with the yellow circles to highlight some of the
- places where it was obviously missing or a big connection could go.
- The map is difficult to use, required you to be signed in on Google, did not have a clean link.
- And just basically people had a lot of questions when they saw most of the points, most of the
- markers on the map were put on by commissioners, so
- it left a fair amount to be desired but we're hoping to have a much nicer one through the GIS
- department that still preserves some amount of detail on where the major green spaces are but
- without the need for the yellow circles or any of the red dots or anything like that.
- And hopefully we can find maybe some kind of more recent canopy or green space data, because I know
- some of these green space areas change developments happen but we want to kind of have an idea of
- where those areas are so people can see not just what they're doing with their neighbors
- but what on the bigger picture, it's all connecting.
- That's the reason I found this helpful just to look at the show other people, as well as to get a
- sense in terms of development, where, where are those are the most fragile areas or the areas that
- we really need to maintain that connectivity and, you know, in the last
- couple years we were discussing this, the development this hundred forty acre development which is
- right smack in the middle of one of those green spaces.
- And it's just beautiful to see.
- Once we get a new map, we should show it to Haskell Smith, the urban forester and ask him to make
- suggestions too.
- And then it'd be a good resource to try and pull in on this in terms of even just trying to make
- like an overtime map of some sort of like here's what, and john especially specialized like old
- maps, but like early city versus like even the 2013 data versus
- some of them and show how connectivity has probably been lost in the game and lost and over time as
- well. One of the one of the difficulties with the project in general, over time to figure out here
- is just just how much detail we want to have on
- just how many layers. I mean, I don't, I feel like it'd be, you know, repetitive to duplicate some
- of the things that say, er I has done, or any of these other but but still we could have have
- layers that could be turned on and off that have certain things
- sensitive areas of the tree canopy or, you know, we want some level of detail but we don't want to
- try to create this mega math that's complicated either we didn't want people to be able to see what
- others have done and tag what they're doing.
- And that's one of the things we're like in our road like story map thing can be really handy as
- well like breaking those, having all the data in there but breaking it into very discernible pieces.
- Yeah, people make these maps know how to do this. Yes.
- I just realized that Anderson and if I was still online, I don't know if this is something that you
- all are familiar with or if it strikes any chords with any stuff that you're doing but I'm sure I
- know.
- I have a lot of fun with parks and recs with admittedly hasn't lived in since January but there's a
- huge push for updating like all data on field maps. So parks and rec is like actively naming and
- mapping every park assets so that will be like light bulls to planters to polygons of like formal
- landscaping.
- Part of what I'm working on is like mapping stormwater management too so good to know you work for
- utilities.
- But all that to say is really trying to have a more comprehensive data set online about everything
- that's being managed or at least owned by parks.
- Not just in like a large green space but also to provide maybe a bit more context of what an
- activity can look like in the urban central city environment.
- Anything else from the diversity.
- Okay, well there's a little glimpse into some of the things that we've got going on.
- Yeah, the last one is the special projects group special projects group basically arose because we
- started talking about grants we started talking about sort of city certification started talking
- about things are a little bit more administrative and then we, as we discussed it, trying to have
- that folded into each of these different working groups seem like it might be a little complicated,
- and perhaps having a committee that was there to sort of help power some of these things would be
- helpful.
- And so Mitchell and I have been holding strong on that special projects working group that we haven't
- done any grants yet last year we started to talk about them but then with the some of the other
- projects that coming up it was clear that was not the top priority but ideally the special projects
- group just helps with some of that that formalizing of things.
- And I think that one thing that's kind of on my mind for for this group is a little bit more
- talking about like the budget usage particularly between the EC and between eco heroes thinking
- through what are some of the things that we want to do when we're tabling when we're doing
- different kinds
- of public outreach when we are having these tools that we're trying to build. And then definitely
- when we have a big art contest that we want to make sure that we are, you know, bolstered with
- either prizes or materials or whatever.
- So just thinking about how we're using our budget which we haven't really done a whole lot of so I
- think that is probably the next round of conversations just figuring out what suggestions we'd like
- to have.
- So that was something that I sort of solicit from folks and then we can talk about if there's any,
- any different things we want to pursue.
- Like grants or any, you know, some of the certifications that we talked about that would make sense
- to roll up. Yeah, happy to give that push.
- The eco heroes planning so you may or may not have heard of say the word eco heroes about 40 times
- already tonight. I have some updates just on the process but with one of the other subcommittee
- members like just kind of describe the eco heroes.
- So, to the best of my knowledge, it is our contest and it's 14th year, I believe.
- Every year there's a different theme I know we've had a wastewater or not wastewater to stormwater
- related one.
- Plants have been a focus in the past this year it's bugs and bloom so like native bugs and how they're
- important to like our native plants or agriculture, etc.
- It was originally just for like school aged kids to submit art in any form they wanted so whether
- that's like something simple as a drawing to like I think we've had things like wood carvings and
- people like have created video games.
- Singing songs dances.
- But now it's open to all ages. And so the art is judged and age groups.
- And how many awards do we give out like how many is three, first, second, third place for five
- different categories of ages, I think.
- And then they get recognized at the Earth Day celebration that we put on.
- They get to take a picture with the mayor, or I'm not really kind of up in the air on that one, I
- think, for now. But yeah, and we get the prizes you get for winning are donated by like city
- businesses.
- So I think from like actual money to like a bachelor to go do something or like get a certain
- amount of food.
- So we reach out to local businesses and ask them for their donations to get enough prizes.
- That's great. Thanks for sharing that. The group is Adam, Nadia, Matt, and myself. And as we
- mentioned, it's a decent size undertaking just because it's a theme.
- There's a lot of coordinating beforehand. There's a lot of putting together things for educators
- and stuff like that and getting the word out and then things will follow.
- So I was going to just give an update since I have a Since We Last Saw You section in my notes,
- which means since the last meeting, we have sent out the educator messaging.
- So all these different teaching groups, MCCSE or homeschool groups or whatever, we sent out letters
- basically inviting them to participate.
- We have on the website a bunch of different resources for learning about bugs, teaching about bugs,
- things like that.
- We have some lists of ideas for things if you want to come up with something to submit. Our table
- of people cannot be part of the contest, but if you know anyone, young people, it also goes 18 plus
- or 18 plus category.
- Please feel free to participate because, yeah, the goal is just to get a lot of people involved,
- but we sent out the messaging there.
- We've got some graphics that I've seen on our social media account coming out so on Facebook that
- is coming out about it.
- And then the donations that I was talking about. Basically, we put together a donation request
- letter and have mailed those out. And at this point, I think we're hoping to hear back from
- everybody by Monday, and then if we have her back with them.
- But I did have a couple of quick questions for Rachel. So we have, we already have at least one
- donation, and they asked her want to pick it up.
- I was just wanting to ask about that too. So, if the city has formed a paper or like a form to give
- to donors, so they can use that broadly their taxes, so our office manager can provide that I can
- send it over email so if the donor wants to drop it off
- to the city hall or if somebody who seems to pick it up and drop it off to me, I think either one
- of those options for once we get that the city that letter can be emailed or picked up, depending
- on if they drop it off.
- I don't have thoughts on that. I'm kind of how we move through that process. I think we should not
- make them come here and drop it off since they're giving us something more than happy to go pick it
- up.
- Yeah, I agree that I think they're donating them having to donate their time to get it to us also
- feels like a bit of an ass. It can't be that far.
- It's true we mostly stuck to Bloomington. Okay, so we're going to say that for donations, the subcommittee
- will figure out how to pick them up and Nadia, if you're raising your hand for at least the
- beginning that'd be amazing.
- Okay. And then Rachel you said you will email them the donation form, and then we're saying that we
- need to also have any copy of the donation form. No, no, I don't think the donation form has to be
- sent, but if the donations are being hosted city hall.
- Well, I think it makes sense like once we received a donation that's going to send it out. So, I'm
- keeping track of like, what's being housed and being sent. Okay, gotcha.
- Okay, and that email probably come from Melissa Hurtsell, who's our office manager.
- Melissa Hurtsell, H-I-R-T-C-E-L. I think she's at the bottom of our agenda, actually. Yes, she is.
- Well, that's fun and hopefully we'll get some good donations. Usually we have a pretty good turnout
- and then at the event we put them on the website with their names on, you know, the slides at the
- event and things like that.
- But yeah, it's usually a pretty good turnout with different kinds of interpretations of the theme
- and hopefully with it being bugs and insects and spiders and all sorts of stuff, people are excited
- to express themselves in that.
- Is there anything else from the -- oh, actually, no, I have more things. I'm sorry. Speaking of eco
- heroes, we are going to be tabling at the Earth Day event, which is at Switchart Park, April 19th.
- I believe it's one -- no, noon to four. Noon to four. I think maybe set up starts at 11.
- So we will have a table for the environmental commission, which we typically have like some handouts
- about native plants and we typically have just sort of like the odds and ends that we can share
- just so people know we exist and we encourage them to come and visit with us or check out what we're
- doing on the website, stuff like that.
- So we will need, one, folks who are interested in volunteering for a shift. If you want to come for
- a shorter shift, then that makes -- gets everyone else a little bit freer, too, but if you're
- really excited and just want to hang for four plus hours, you are also welcome to do that.
- Hard to say what the weather will be. It's April, so it'll be kind of out there, but I would say if
- it is a 11 to 4 kind of window, and I assume that the tear down will be pretty quick, but I know
- that they're pretty committed to us staying through the entire event versus tearing down early.
- I would say that if we could have at least four people volunteering, we can kind of stagger them or
- at least have a buddy so you're not by yourself too much if you don't have to be.
- Are there any folks that know they will be around to help with the tabling?
- It is Saturday.
- Okay, so Nadia is showing interest, Adam, and which is now going to start quiet.
- I'm so sorry.
- Number one, first Adam.
- Easter is late this year.
- It's the day after.
- Well, thank you.
- You said you're interested. Awesome. I'm going to be there already for seeing you. So I can. So you
- can comment for sure.
- Nice. We get our tables next to each other. Yeah.
- I'll be out of town.
- That's it. All right.
- No, no, no worries.
- Thank you for coming, Nadia.
- That's great. Thank you, everybody who has offered to help. If anybody else finds himself with
- nothing to do, feel free to raise your hand and we'll make some space for you.
- Yes, absolutely. So I've been to go into the Earth Day. So I believe there are there will be
- another art like display there. I think it's artists for her. I think it's the nonprofits name. So
- those will both be displayed in the pavilion in separate corners. So there's no confusion.
- If there is a rain day, everyone will be in the pavilion. So it will be a little chaotic. But you
- the EC table will be near the office managers set office, because I will be dropping off the
- submissions that Thursday before.
- So then they can easily be transported from the office to the table. Will you also be able to bring
- the prizes. Yeah.
- I will not be able to go on Saturday, but I'm thinking of having anything there that Thursday and
- we have a meeting that Thursday so if there's anything Sean Marler, the office manager cannot store
- like big items so address comes that might be given to an EC member that Thursday evening.
- Thanks. That's a helpful update.
- Yeah, that's definitely, definitely one of the things I'm just gonna.
- I'm sure company. Um, so one of the things that we do is when we get these submissions, we have to
- cut off is the 11. But in that week between when the, when the cutoff is and when we have the event,
- we have to judge them get to judge them.
- So, that's basically open for anybody. What would be helpful is in the past we have had the liaison
- with the intern, basically set everything out kind of engage groupings and then we all have a sheet
- of paper where you have, you know, a through to
- the second third place, and basically what you do is you go through and you look at the submissions
- for that age group, and you just write down the ones that you think are that and then in the past
- the intern so we kind of shifted sort of responsibilities live in the
- past the interim with that take those and sort of figure out who would be within each category and
- then that would be how do the prices, we put together prices for based on what donations we have,
- and why don't we have to give away.
- And put them together. And then, I believe we would. I don't know what day it would be but notify
- the players to say hey you should come to the Earth Day event because you're going to get something
- and you know, everyone else thank you for getting this event.
- So we need to determine when we will have the judging.
- I don't know if we want to try and do it as a coordinated everybody comes in within like a three
- hour window within a 20 minute window of the course of the day.
- And that's been the intern that doesn't I know that's been a little bit different so I don't know
- if you put preference of how we do it this year to make it most effective for you and Fiona, they
- are being displayed in the some back tables in our office.
- I am typically in office a week but others obviously know that they're planning or eight years
- going on in the department so if anyone would be able to stop by during office hours, that would be
- very easy.
- If there was a certain day a certain evening that would work better that should be able to stay
- late.
- So they're coming during the evening time.
- Obviously, everything that we probably said visible but there's a certain day.
- I'm happy to stay late.
- Are there certain days of the week that you are officially in or not and Tuesdays and Thursdays are
- typically night in office.
- Okay, I don't live in Bloomington so usually it's a little bit of that.
- As far as just kind of thinking logistically, are there folks who would like to judge that no for
- sure I can definitely do it during the workday or I definitely cannot do it during that like nine
- to five will say, are there any folks who would like to judge it when I make their availability
- known.
- Sure.
- Yeah, are you flexible for Tuesday and Thursday during the day or is it better after 5pm.
- I'm flexible so I could do it. Okay, I'm good after.
- I'm good after four. Okay.
- Or in the mornings. I'm also if people are coming in throughout the day on Thursday at the
- nomination or the planning committee wants to meet Tuesday night and I can give everybody the forms
- for the determination, so that would allow a couple days for to contact the winners.
- Yeah.
- Yeah. Do you say, was it said Thursday versus Tuesday.
- So they were probably.
- Okay, any preference from anybody else for judging. I think it makes sense to do it. So like that
- Tuesday the 15th. So what if we did in for like Tuesday between like three and 6pm that were three
- Rachel.
- I think so. Okay, and going to a nature that day that day and helping out with parks, but I should
- be. Yes. I should be back by two or three if I'm not not people in the department know that you
- expect.
- Perfect.
- Between three and six. Yeah, that'd be okay. Yeah. Okay.
- And particularly Tuesday. This would be Tuesday.
- The after the 11th, whatever the 50th. Yeah. Okay.
- So judging tabulating things quickly. Oh my gosh, I know.
- To nominate one super computer to do that. Okay. Okay, so judging Tuesday, April 15, between three
- and 6pm. And then maybe Rachel I can just coordinate with you on if there's any like, just how we're
- set up and make sure of our forms and stuff like that and then once everybody's done their judging.
- The eco heroes crew, one of us can can tally there is that.
- And then yeah we would just contact because we have all the forms that they've submitted when they
- can get their pieces so within be able to contact the winners Rachel would it be possible for you
- to reach out to those folks on Wednesday if we have results at the end of the night.
- And then I should say, yeah, yeah.
- In a draft email, it just means that like you want from the category, you gotta be helpful. Yeah.
- Yeah, okay.
- Okay, and so the last thing.
- So one of the things that we're kind of shifting is just making sure that when we have subcommittee
- meetings that they go through the proper channels of being made public and taking place in public
- spaces so people want to balance it in they can.
- So, you know, we recently adjusted sort of how we do the cost of a parent for the working groups
- and for the, the main commission meeting so just trying to everything super super communicative.
- But it seems like for the eco heroes committee sort of one of the last things is figuring out what
- we're going to do about prizes, because we will be getting donations in, you know, through,
- hopefully the next week or so, we'll probably also have a window we say okay.
- What is the EC, or the eco heroes budget we want to spend on prizes from, you know, local
- businesses to because we're in the past we have just gone to like a random place and purchase you
- know items that were being adjacent as part of prizes so that would be something
- that we just need to meet up to chat about so we can do that.
- Okay, and before I switch over to an entirely different topic, talking to the eco heroes group, and
- you both are welcome to join any time.
- Are you all around for us to do a meeting sometime next week.
- If we want to do a little checking, give me the daytime, nighttime evening coffee in the morning.
- 31st through the fourth. Are there any days of the week that work best or not so great for either
- of you, or anything.
- I don't think I have anything.
- Flexible.
- Nice.
- Cool. Okay, well, how about, would either of you like to join before I just make a decision.
- Maybe not Tuesday, maybe not Tuesday. Well, how do we feel about Thursday.
- Rachel, would you help us have a meeting on Thursday, and don't like six o'clock is that to general
- for you.
- So basically when we decided the brand of the meeting, what's helpful is when Rachel was able to
- secure us a room in this building, it's nice public space easy to do. And if not, there's things
- like that and stuff like that.
- I'm happy to help. I talked to Rachel earlier thing, but I know she said that if there's five of us
- present, it's like forum for normal meeting, and if there's four of you guys, then that's why I was
- like, I'll stand back, because then it's like general
- forum.
- So that's why I was like, I'm not going to volunteer to show up.
- That was because we just set our new forum. So, um, and that would require it going through the
- like cats and would you have to be here for that would, would that be
- publicly noticed as an environmental commission full group meeting if it's meeting in DC forum.
- I think that's just the city's policy and preference I don't. I'm not sure if it's something or not.
- Like, like this meeting I think it's a courtesy that we open it up for a virtual option. Okay, okay.
- Well then, let's go ahead and proceed with the meeting as planned, and then we'll just enjoy having
- you as part of the bigger picture.
- Okay.
- Okay, so we're going to say, Thursday at six ish somewhere hopefully within city hall. Yes, I just
- reserved in the costy room which is, I think you guys met there.
- So you don't need any bad access assuming the front doors are working.
- So I will send out the public noticed, probably on one day.
- Yeah. Okay, I'm going to send a sudden meeting invites you all before I forget.
- Great. And did you want to meet the week of the seven.
- For any reason, just so I can get a reservation.
- I think we want to make do you want to preemptively plan a meeting for this week of the seven or
- that's like the last few days before the cut off of prices.
- I mean submissions.
- It's not a bad idea. All right, let's do that. We're gonna have something to talk about. We can
- always cancel. You can always cancel and have a sneeze. Okay, so I'm going to say you go here is
- meeting for that.
- Okay, and I'm going to add. Is it just that Thursday. Yeah, that works for everybody. That'd be
- great. Even if last year is not available.
- Well, I can pitch you the only bad access number so I can just ask facilities keep the door open.
- Yeah.
- Probably wait to send us them until after you guys meet next Thursday, just to make sure you all
- are going to be.
- Is there anything else.
- I can't remember what the thing I was going to say was, but I'm sure.
- Great. Great. Great. Great. All right. We've done it. We've made it through our bold business
- working group update.
- Now we're moving on to activity number seven on the agenda, which is the staff update. So this is
- where Rachel shares different updates, either from the team at the city or just things that we're
- doing.
- Yeah, so the first thing I have is the city council schedule update. You kind of already talked
- about it, but the council attorneys and.
- I have floated April 16 to hear the B-City U.S.A. resolution. And Ang Mo along from Susana, you
- also reached out today to Joe. I think he reached out to Heidi Schumacher, but I think he needs to
- reach out to Joe in the sparks. So I think we got that coordinated as well as me. So we're going to
- be kept in the loop as city points of contact for the campus city.
- So if I hear things on that, I'll report it back.
- Any questions about the council updated B-City stuff.
- The other item I have is the environmental commission handbook update. So I'll move back to the
- agenda.
- So I am happy to, but did not necessarily intend on walking through each of the 24 pages.
- But to give a quick synopsis, I track my changes. You can disregard the table of contents because
- it takes up some time.
- But the first change I made was to change the commission power and duties connect what we talked
- about with Title II.
- So I'm going to go through this pretty quickly just because I'm happy to let you know a lot of copy
- of this as well.
- And can you remind me, this was reviewed by the special committee that was doing all the
- adjustments?
- Not the specific handbook, but the Title II changes were.
- Okay. And so those are written in as we proposed them?
- The only thing that I think Commissioner Friedman-Smith added was that we did not talk about was to
- submit an annual rental report to the mayor and the common council, which was already in the bylaws.
- She decided that to be in Title II and not to be codified.
- I changed the fall patients and started the commission because that was part of Title II.
- Then added some COVID era regulation in there that Commissioner I think is 50% of the biggest
- person and may not extend more than a few consecutive meetings virtually.
- Carrie had passed around some of the chairperson's responsibilities earlier this year, specifically
- changing the treasurer position from the secretary to the vice chair.
- So I just updated that language based off your email.
- Change, small changes.
- Let's see.
- These are all COVID era requirements that were adopted I think by all city commissions in probably
- early 2021.
- I added that I distributed packets. I took out the use of email just based off what legal
- recommended.
- Standing working groups.
- I didn't know if each working group needed to be described in the handbook. So I did not remove
- anything at this point, but I didn't know if that should be a separate working or separate document
- describing each working group or that should be in the handbook.
- So I did not have a preference. I wanted to leave that up to everyone else.
- So we've done a couple different ways as far as how we distribute the sort of status of the
- different working groups or who's on the working groups or kind of going into detail on them.
- What do you all think about keeping them as part of our handbook, knowing that they may or may not
- be active, they may or may not be totally updated.
- Like the biodiversity one, for example, is it's one of our biggest working groups and it hasn't
- been the shortest description so knowing that that's not always going to be one to one.
- What do you all think about keeping it versus potentially creating a separate document that we just
- update from time to time that is that more in depth description that we can change, whatever.
- Yeah, separate document.
- Everybody else feel okay about that.
- Okay, okay, that's right with everyone I say yeah let's go and just extract that from the handbook
- and then just have a separate working document with the committees.
- Okay, um, with the current subcommittees, there are not a description or if you'd like to beef up
- your description.
- Is that something that can be worked on the coming months. We make that the working group homework.
- And there are other people in the biodiversity working groups isn't necessarily have to follow me
- Shannon, but maybe just making sure that each working group submits something to to Rachel that
- then we can include for next month.
- Yes, but so this is not enough information. That's the issues, I mean for the biodiversity working
- group is just like, it doesn't really give a lot of detail of like what we're actually doing it's
- kind of a generic like this is the concept of it but thinking about it as a separate document that
- actually reflects what the different working groups do as we would describe and like to new
- commissioners and things like that, because this isn't going to be in the document anymore this is
- going to be just a totally separate thing.
- In that would it be helpful to have descriptions of like pastor and active working groups as well,
- like their quality working group or something like that just so people can know like what has been
- done.
- Yeah, I really like that if somebody comes in with a specialty or like just to read passion for
- something and sees that we have done something that wants to. Yeah, and once they're resurrected
- for example, I think that's a great idea I know that we have a couple documents floating around of
- those, those past groups so yeah if each working group and just make sure that they've got whatever
- they want that to be written out and then share with Rachel, then I can see what I've got in mind
- it's super.
- Yeah, I can separate that out and whenever I'm kind of imaging that each description, maybe has.
- I mean I know what I know so I can include like the current members attached to each working group
- but if there are past members that you know that should be highlighted and also with their names
- and also like what reports have been completed just kind of keep everything centralized.
- I don't think we need to introduce until May or June, the back to do okay.
- Okay.
- It doesn't make sense to leave a lot of descriptions is somewhat generic looking are we trying to
- make it a history document or because I mean yearly plans are going to change just like groups are
- going to change so I don't know how, how much detail we feel that you do into.
- I mean I don't think we need to go into like researching old notes and things like that but I think
- if you're a member of the group that either knows what it's done, what it's working on, or what its
- goal is like like which is a great example where it's like, it's brand, it's just brand new and so
- there's a lot of aspirations, whether or not what you write up, you know, for this, this particular
- document will apply in a year from now.
- It's not a huge deal for us to go in and just update it because it's not a super formal document it's
- just a way for people to say, what is it that you're doing, or new commissioners to have a little
- bit more.
- I think this is the same as like a brochure.
- Yeah, we have to have like a full boat if a working group would just want to update their
- description, their vision area, just a paragraph or two. I imagine like for like biodiversity,
- highlighting like a standing long term project like connectivity flow or something.
- Since you can't co-work, do you want to write a little paragraph for the like, I'll write a little
- paragraph because it's a former air quality. Yeah, that'd be great.
- People should decide who's going to write what since we can't share.
- And I guess eco heroes is kind of. Yeah, eco heroes is kind of put off by itself but.
- We can bump it with the working group document. Yeah, definitely.
- I assume that's going to continue next year.
- Can I crank and go back to the email thing. Yeah.
- Do we strike this this way. I mean, so I mean, so my question is, you know, here it has this clause,
- however no binding vote shall be taken every email because this would be in violation of the window.
- Great.
- You know, that's, that's for him it's improving official actions in a non public setting. But so
- one of my concerns I mean we talked about this last time a little bit is that so much of the
- business is not even really business that we're doing we're not approving
- anything necessarily but just needs a quick like, send it out, it's done five minutes calling the
- meeting is a multi step process it has to be public and most of us don't have a lot of time for
- extra meetings.
- So is there no way that we can maintain some sort of very limited and email capability of you know
- and each other, other people in the group to deal with any sort of easy business, or that was just
- you said it was a recommendation of legal,
- how strong recommendation I get is it are they insisting on this like this is the question legal
- has informed me that any discussion about business is not okay.
- How do we find business.
- Yeah, I think we talked about the definition of business last time but
- I don't have to be sorry I mean, that's my thing.
- I think, I think the process of all of this is for a very wide reaching application across all
- boards and commissions and so the individual for this.
- Yes, I totally understand why we need to like not be doing things behind closed doors. I'm not
- familiar with issue but if there was a word doc that there's a link on the commission's website,
- that the public had access to the history,
- like a Google Doc. Yeah, it's my impression that that is not but I assume it's actually because of
- like the nature of the like live link, but you might know.
- The commissioner's sustainability just was told that they could not have any type of Google Drive
- or work on Google Docs in between, like, multiple commissioners could not make changes to the same
- document between meetings.
- So, they would have like I would have to submit a PDF of each individual change by each
- commissioner. So I think that was what we talked about earlier.
- We could do those things during working meetings, during these smaller meetings and whatnot.
- And so you still have to announce it. Or you send it to Rachel, she puts it up and says hey
- everybody go look at the website because there's a thing up that everyone needs to weigh in on.
- Subcommittees still need to be on CAS too.
- So I listened to that, that was my first, like I listened to it, the last one that you had was crazier
- than that. That was the first one I listened to.
- Thank you for being on the show. Yeah, very nice.
- I found that in the end of the note of what an official action is, and that includes discussions,
- deliberations, receiving information, giving information, as well as final actions including voting
- and decisions.
- I would not recommend any type of, you know, passing communication about official actions over
- email.
- And Shannon, this is out of the words of our city liaison and the legal department, they're saying
- they recommend that you don't.
- All they can say is they recommend that you don't. In case we get sued and then they're like, you
- were violating. What a heartbreak that would be if they're like, send me all of your emails, Nadia.
- No, I can't identify it like that. I'm trying to find the because his knees on sent me the letter
- that they received from legal.
- Okay, I don't I'm not mean to like rehash from last time even though I'm just like, I mean, it's
- intensely inconvenient like it's terribly inconvenient it doesn't make a lot of sense off the cuff
- and we're not doing anything that's hurting anybody.
- But at the end of the day, they're recommending, and there's a good.
- But violation of the law or policies may result in removal from the commission, or the wreck of
- snowing or intentional damage or destruction of public record is 11678.
- That's what he is told from evil.
- Okay, I don't mean to slow us down either I just when I was looking back at this seems reasonable.
- I don't think anybody here. Yeah, I think your intuition is a lot of us probably feel the same way
- which is this is a hugely inconvenient, especially when we have documentation that we are trying to
- hash out as quickly as possible.
- It's not, it's not convenient. And when you have a single question like I just needed to know what
- was the status with the city and is that you know I just wanted to, I guess I could have just, I
- couldn't, I couldn't ask you over email that.
- Yeah, if you go through Rachel Rachel.
- Yeah.
- Can we talk about city like I was talking about the city with tangible. Was that okay.
- I think so.
- If your parents or tangible or somebody who doesn't live here anymore, but if you email commissioners
- about it that's when it starts to get a little so we have to do all business in person basically,
- or in subcommittee original or through Rachel.
- And she talks for us, basically, to each other.
- And I wouldn't, you know, I would be just copying and pasting you know words that I'm not going to
- rephrase like everyone said but I can post like documents online, send out an email to all the
- commissioners saying the websites been updated.
- So if you're CC on that email.
- Legal is pretty firm about it. I'm not sure if I'm CC if that would be okay.
- And then they'll have to send it to you, and then it will go out to everybody, but like an exchange.
- Yeah.
- The ownership.
- Now, we're also like, I know.
- Okay, we can get back to this.
- I'm really sorry.
- It was absolutely.
- Yeah.
- And I think, I think a little bit of it is, it will always be something that doesn't feel quite
- natural compared to all the other kinds of communication we have as human beings, but I also think
- this last three months is very, very new to us, maybe in a year from now we will
- be able to communicate with each other a little bit more.
- And it will feel easier but right now it is outrageously difficult. I know.
- So,
- trying not to have levels that's my goal for 2020.
- I haven't heard that one yet. I tried to sit through the state code and I saw the possibility of a
- fine. Yeah, the second fine and what I can give you that Indiana code number.
- See, I changed citizens to residents because you know, the city does not like to move there.
- Orientation new members we kind of talked about this.
- So, you know, commissioners can feel free to add any part of this document I know this is
- how we want to onboard the commissioners.
- Commissioner explanation, I included the mayor's office and clerk's office, they like to send a
- thank you letter to you whenever you resign so they always ask, what is their address, and I always
- have to reach out again to make sure
- that the correct address is on file.
- And they, the controller's office also wants to know if anyone's pay, I don't think you know their
- commissioners are paid now some commission missions have paid these things.
- If that ever changes you don't think I know about it.
- We removed the fellow language from the bylaws, not to say that develop will never work on our
- mission tasks, again, just removing all of our department interest to be more well rounded for the
- entire department rather than having them siloed.
- Yeah, it's not these meetings anymore.
- The bike safety commission is not exists anymore the Transportation Commission recently absorbed
- that the standards template for outreach materials and publications, Office of the mayor has city
- design guidelines.
- So, I didn't change any of the language but I didn't know if that is something you want me to, you
- know, put in the use another box of bonds.
- They have certain colors so stuff to you all whether you want to adopt that or not.
- If we want to I'm very familiar with it because I've seen me you I've made out like a lot of bill
- inserts and everything like these exact guidelines and have them memorized so nice.
- Is there any mention of accessibility with documentation that we created.
- It has some digital accessibility. It's pretty in since I don't think it's like a one figure. They
- have several links on our knowledge base, but I can include that we added the link to it just to
- say that we recommend going through those just put out content.
- I appreciate you doing that for the part 1000.
- Maybe a template information being present, but also maybe just recommended.
- What does it say will use.
- I'm just, you know, the instance that we want to do a really flowery brochure for native landscaping
- or something. I like it being there because it's a resource. I don't like it being a.
- This is the only way for any type of document.
- Can you change the word, you see will use standardized templates to like, may recommend using
- something like these. I don't know, I didn't use any template, I mean, where those came from, but
- they definitely did not use the
- the same name uses.
- See, it doesn't mean everyone's dating or they reduce their schedule. So, I just say, because they're
- found their chamber every year.
- This history, Mike provided a document should pair all the history. So, again, does this need to be
- in the handbook or is it a document that should be separated.
- That's a good question. What do you think, especially some of the newer folks who received the handbook
- as a brand new source of information, does having Mike sort of historical, should be separate,
- separate.
- Yeah, I don't, I don't have a super smart, you know, where it's housed, I do like having it
- available on having access to it, but I don't know if it needs to be in handbook.
- The separate document is a little bit more comprehensive than the whole paragraphs, anyone that
- really wants to get into can have just a better document.
- Reference to it there. Yeah, like it's like, if you're interested, it's over here.
- These are also possible policies.
- This might have been a brainstorm by Linda that step in here.
- But this was in the most recent handbook document. So I didn't know, I'm not sure who was I assume
- she's a former commission member.
- But I don't know if this possible policies belongs in the handbook.
- Okay, no, this might have been somebody just adding notes to a document.
- So that's a summary of all the changes invested.
- I figured everyone should be able to sit down and read through this, even before a two day time on
- it and I think he was using it and pushing it so next time, if you want to go April or May or
- whenever. Yeah, there's so the working groups piece is not going into this document so our work
- long it takes us to get those things together.
- If folks are super busy you're not able to do it.
- So in this.
- It seems like we would be able to that there's not new stuff going into this that you need language
- for for us to vote next.
- Let's put on the agenda for next.
- If you have any comments or recommendations, you can send that to me like, at least a week before
- the meeting I know everything's around.
- It would allow me just to make sure I'm putting everything in the right place so we're building on
- a correct document.
- That would be the 15.
- That is everything.
- I do have one staff update that's not on the agenda.
- Yeah, yes be reached out to see. She does not have the capacity for air quality working group of
- sorts so she wanted to see the DC wanted to, it would be interesting.
- That she hopes to be see takes on, but she does not have the capacity to do. Would she be willing
- to come to one of our meetings to give us a little pitch for it. Yeah, I can ask her to
- ask questions and kind of think through if it's something that any of us are interested in making
- some time for.
- Yeah, the air quality piece is interesting because we've members of our team up with some of the,
- the climate action plan is big initially that they did the sort of heat island.
- Research that they did this past summer with it.
- So it's kind of moved more into the hands of sort of the estate DM because as much but the sort of
- more from from those folks perspective so yeah they shouldn't have a kind of aspect this way.
- I will move back to the agenda.
- Okay. Okay. All right. Well, this is a rounding third base as they say, with the agenda for the
- night we have our moment for updates from the different commissions and councils and things like
- that that are our commissioners
- sitting on or part of an Adam if you're on Iraq, then you and David can maybe like do reports in
- tandem, maybe, you know, save and save time but moving forward, feel free to work out how you'd
- like to do that.
- As for tonight, the last meeting I reported on our last meeting so because we write meets every
- other month so yeah so there's nothing new reporting tonight.
- All right, next month so high pressure women.
- Is there anything from commission or. Yeah, if you want to report on the next, next month.
- All right, commission.
- Very often when we're to commission meetings are mostly the urban foresters reports for the month,
- and that was true this time around.
- Haskell Smith reported to start with the street department is working through various removals.
- The street department takes out a tree and the tree commission asked them to really plant more
- trees than they take out and that usually happens.
- So far this year.
- The urban forestry group has taken out their Esperanto trees and probably in 2000 this year.
- They're just ramping up their planting they've done 150 so far this year.
- There is a tree assistance program. Haskell has $50,000 to assist low income homeowners with high
- risk treatment removal and pruning and so on.
- And the goal is to remove and replace, replace in case of removals.
- Again, assisted with the group called that did some planning at Crestmont.
- He's still working on a report called the urban forest master planning.
- Working on downtown square.
- Trying to get
- Actually, it's great in various places and those grades
- cost about $2,000 they're going to get people to
- pay for them and then have their names on them or have something
- more
- on them, you know, friends or whatever. There's a fall pre-evention appreciation event that they're
- working on
- at Fountain Square Mall.
- Cope financial has complained about some tree
- that was removed and they hope to replace it with more trees.
- At April 5th at Winslow's Forest Park.
- Foragers, forest girls scouts, I think, put out, put in 45
- fruit and nut trees.
- His staff is doing seasonal chainsaw safety training.
- And we are once again tree city.
- And apparently part of tree cities of the world and tree city growth floor.
- The next thing that happened was I reported on the Environmental Commission meeting so I won't
- repeat that.
- And then each time there's a report from Mia Williams who represents Indiana University at the Tree
- Commission.
- She's their landscape architect.
- And they got accreditation for tree campus higher education.
- And April 25, there will be an Arbor Day tree planting with students.
- And also another tree planting at Bayou Hospital.
- And then Julie, I forget her last name, wanted to talk about the canopy group.
- They put in 100 plus trees at Cresmont and another at Broadview and they've been doing neighborhood
- potlucks and they did a Trees 101 class at the library.
- It was well attended with 28 people.
- So, as I said, the next thing on our agenda is ERAC and I reported on that back in February because
- the ERAC meeting was before our meeting and there's nothing new from friends of Lake Monroe.
- Thank you, Dave. Thanks for the details on that one. I made a bunch of notes about the different
- events that are going on through Tree Commission. So, that's good.
- Any updates from BCOS attendees or watchers?
- Yes, I watched that meeting.
- BCOS stands for the Commission of Sustainability.
- While they were meeting, there actually isn't a lot to report on that one. Dave Relo gave council
- updates about the sunsetting of the Climate Action and Resilience Standing Committee, but not
- abandoning any of those causes.
- They just decided they didn't need the committee. Also discussed some of the similar things that
- are going on before the council.
- The commission referred to a kind of whiteboard style priority meeting like we do that they did in
- a working session meeting, so I didn't actually see that, but they established priorities and it
- seems like they're really leaning into education, outlook, and tabling type stuff, so that sounds
- pretty familiar.
- They wrapped up their meeting by electing officers and then adjourned.
- I know that when Don was on or was attending the BCoast meetings, he was very excited about the
- opportunity to work together and then just, you know, for a variety of reasons, we just hadn't
- really come up with a collaborative option.
- I don't know in what they decided at the working session once, so I guess I'd have to watch or read
- something about that. I still do get the impression that we really want to be communicating, and
- like Matt Austin occasionally mentions that specifically.
- But at the moment, I don't know if any projects that either commission is doing that will be really
- beneficial to have the other commission also.
- Thanks for the update. I think if there's any working group that feels like there's something they're
- doing that would make tons of sense for BCoast to be like a policing group or something like that
- that would make sense for us to try and collaborate on.
- I think it would make absolute sense to pop into their meeting as a member of the public and say
- like, hey, there's something we're talking about. If y'all are interested, let us know or something
- like that.
- I don't know if you all have any input on this, but I would assume that bringing a "are you
- interested" conversation to another commission or committee isn't something that we would need to
- talk about if it's not actually a solid pitch for anything.
- It's just saying, would you be interested in working together on something? If they say yes, we say,
- okay, what does that look like and decide as a commission?
- But what do you all think about that? As far as, you know, if Dave was at the Tree Commission, he
- said, oh, we've got a thing we're doing. Would you like to talk about potentially collaborating?
- How do you all feel about being able to approve that pitch happening beforehand or if it's okay to
- just kind of roll with it?
- Shannon, stop it.
- One member of the commission is going to another commission. I mean, it's not like a forum is being
- met at the EC, so there shouldn't be a problem with that.
- Yeah, so I don't know if you all have any sharp things like, no, I'd really rather know before the
- special projects, bring something up to another group.
- But I just want to kind of throw that out there in case folks are like, yeah, this sounds like it
- makes sense.
- Like, you know, we're talking about habitat connectivity and it makes sense to be in the Be Coast
- meetings just say, hey, we're working on this.
- If you have any folks who feel very strongly about, you know, that sort of thing, come to our next
- meeting. Here's when it is or whatever.
- Okay, great. Just wanted to kind of clarify that because we talked a lot about wanting to
- collaborate with other groups, but as you probably noticed, there's a lot going on.
- It's, you know, the fun thing that we're all doing as a generosity of our hearts and so we can't do
- everything so try not to overcommit that way.
- Um, MC Iris, anything from MC Iris? Yeah, so they are doing a tree replacement program for calloway
- pear and strawberry placement for Japanese barberry and burning bush. So the applications are live.
- We found on their website. They're also doing a similar but invasive tree removal assistance
- program. So first one is your replacement. This one's assistance for removal of calloway pear,
- white mulberry, and tree pebbin.
- Let's see if they have partners. They have discounts with Bluestone and Norman Arbor Pear for those
- invasive trees. Again, the application is live on their website. There's some weed wrangles
- sponsored by Parks. It's on the Park City website. They have a whole list of where they're going to
- be. They're focusing on a lot of multi-floor rows.
- That seems to be a part of the discussion. They're doing some luster calum dining work at Cedar Bluffs
- Nature Preserve. Let's see. They've been working with a couple of elementary middle schools on
- invasive removal.
- And then again, a large discussion is the planning for the native plant sale, which will be
- September 6th at Maiden's Building Esquiture Park, 730 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday. So all
- day.
- They are also doing -- I think ESD is doing a zero in Bloomington. I think there was a press
- release about this a few weeks ago.
- But there is -- it's an online platform that provides them to residents with customized
- recommendations to reduce emissions. So you can kind of track your way to -- or track your actions
- that reduce emissions.
- And MCIRS has an account on there. So there will be like a winner of that. Whoever is like tracking
- the emission reductions the most.
- And then they announce that the garden fair will be April 12th. Again, Earth Day will be -- the
- Earth Day celebration is April 19th.
- So yeah, they also have quite a few dates that were announced. Those were the dates. Yeah.
- Does MCIRS have suggestions for convincing your neighbors to take advantage of the calorie?
- I think they have, you know, a paper, like one page, and they also have door handles.
- And on September 12th, they will be having their annual native plant sale at Switchyard Park.
- September 6th. The 6th is what made the meeting notes.
- I thought it was September 12th. Let me see. I put it in my calendar. Maybe she made a mistake.
- This is an MCIRS, but since Parks is such a close partner, I will show that earlier this month they
- sent out letters to neighborhoods about encroachment with some other invasives like Blessed
- Valentine and things like that.
- So there was a mess. Letter put out. And there were interns in your room with some letter in their
- hours.
- Yes, thank you for that update.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, just like, just so you know, this is something that's terrible so you like the greenery. It's
- not great.
- In the past there's been the opportunity for the EC to go to a weed wrangle together, which I think
- is a great idea. I think last year the, I don't know, two years ago the original day, maybe got
- snowed out and then got rescheduled but that's something that we talked about learning to do.
- A lot of the weed wrangles happened during the day, like the work day so I think that that might be
- a complication for us but if folks are interested.
- Actually, if folks are interested, do you want me to just come up with a couple of dates and
- propose them at our next meeting? Okay. Do we have to announce that we are gathering for a weed wrangle
- as an unofficial meeting?
- I can check on that because I checked with legal about the field trips, and they said social outings
- do not have to be noticed. Let me see her language on that.
- I'm so sorry.
- Don't talk about E.C.
- I'll make a little side step. The thing from the eco heroes, photographer for the winners. In the
- past, Christy Lindbergh was our photographer but I don't know if we have anyone who's designated as
- that so
- one of us can obviously do it but.
- I take pictures of birds, I'm not sure how well the skills are.
- Well I have like smaller lenses too. Okay. I'd be willing to do it but I'm not like.
- If you're willing to help that would be amazing. I'll watch some YouTube videos.
- There might be a professional photographer there too so I can check on that at the next.
- Okay. Yeah, typically we do each winner with the mayor and then send it to them so it's possible to
- do that with professional awesome but if not, that'd be amazing.
- I think that I remember them saying that they had only
- planned for a photographer photographer to be there. The first half, which includes eco gears title
- that will check more pictures, the better though.
- Thank you. Sorry to interrupt the conversation is struck. As far as the field trips which may apply
- to be.
- Okay, so we need wrinkles and Dina has a median said that under the, you know, door lock a meeting
- does not include social gatherings, on site inspections but she bolded for the field trip, travel
- to meetings of organizations, caucuses or
- gatherings for orientations or administering, administering votes. This field trip is more like an
- on site.
- All right, well I will bring to our next meeting some suggested dates and might do a redrangle and
- then if a few of us are many of us are all of us want to participate and great.
- You want to announce that I'm happy to post a public notice in case you want to kind of gather
- people if not, if you want to put it on Facebook and also happy to do that.
- That's great.
- Okay, those are all the updates. I believe there's anything else. Sorry about that. There's nothing
- else from no serious. Okay. Awesome. Okay. Commission announcements. That's when we go through and
- just share anything that we would like to share with the group.
- We are on cats is for people to watch for years to come but feel free to share it can be
- professional non professional EC related, whatever you'd like to share.
- Two things one comment. This thing up here, the captioning on the captioning. When Rachel said Cal
- Repair, it translated as colored hair.
- And the other thing is, those of you who remember, Don, former member of this group. I see him
- fairly often pulling weeds and picking up junk in the southeast part, which we both live near.
- So I walked through there fairly often and he's pretty often they're working so dedicated. That's
- amazing. And he said, Don, I agree with the captioning said donut.
- Do this edition. Yeah, well I've got two events, I think, coming up that I just kind of found out
- about in May.
- People are interested in Hoosier River watch the volunteer monitoring program that the state kind
- of helps run administer and gives you supplies for and you can report data back to them. There's a
- training for that nearby in Spencer.
- May. 16, which is a Friday it's 10 to four which might make it a little tricky for folks with jobs
- that don't want to take time off.
- But it is a fun thing to get involved with and that's the closest training, I've seen to Bloomington
- so far this year that I've been aware of, you know, if it's 18 plus to do the training.
- Yes.
- The city put some on a station. Yeah, there's a bunch of people that are trained as trainers in the
- city. The one in Spencer is being done by Dylan Allison who's like from I don't know it's like that.
- It'll be a fun thing to be involved with if you want to be. And then the other event coming up in
- May, as I was catching up on work emails from fraternity leave the this year's Indiana Academy of
- Sciences Bioblitz got announced.
- And it will be an evil Marsh nature preserve in court way.
- I can leave on May 31 but I can't find that email it's not listed online anywhere so don't quote me
- on the date quite yet I can update that evil or evil, evil.
- Marsh is a video game level in many video games.
- There's a 24 hour period see how many kind of organisms of all kinds mammals plants birds bugs
- aquatic bugs there's like 15 different terrestrial bug groups that go out because they're all hyper
- specialized and how they collect things.
- But if you ever wanted to get involved in any of that kind of stuff.
- You don't have to have any kind of technical and practical experience just bodies are welcome and
- needed and if you're interested, I can send you the registration and relation everything.
- And if we went as a group, it's a fun trip, and so it is very much a social.
- Great. Those are great, great updates. Good one. So every year, this is an active in one on campus
- the Institute for Advanced Studies Kansas big symposium three days.
- This year, the focus is apologies, and it will be people from across campus and co convenient with
- actually a biology person Jim Lowe, and people from across campus talking about apology from
- different disciplinary perspectives Thursday through Saturday.
- It should be like Anna saying we probably have a bad, you know, that's very nice. So, that'd be fun.
- That's awesome. I want to chance book reading on her book which is titled.
- All the time you medieval.
- Yeah, it was happening. This is Thursday through Saturday. So the first two speakers on Patterson
- in conversation with David Stringer. So she's in biology he's in second language studies they both
- talk about words.
- So, from really different.
- So it should be the ideas of people from really different perspectives on ecology in conversation
- with each other.
- Other updates from commissioners.
- Speaking of birds. I think the DNR I think has reported a few hundred central cranes that died from
- bird flu.
- So it's just something that's happening in Michigan. Yeah. And to my knowledge there haven't been
- any moving cranes found, which is good because they're numbers are not very high.
- Okay, any other folks. Any updates.
- Otherwise we'll move on to the next and final portion of our evening which is social media posts.
- Yes, so Fiona, I sent her the email you passed along so she's going to post that on Monday.
- Sorry I didn't get posted this week.
- But it will be posted on Monday.
- So if there's anything that you'd like to see on their Facebook, feel free to email me and I will
- pass along to Fiona. Can we send the ESD zero Bloomington opportunity thing can we add that to our
- social feed.
- What's Facebook.
- Bless you for that.
- I have a question. Yeah, would it be possible to get the parts department to share our posts
- because I know they're pretty popular and social media. I can ask.
- Instagram.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, it'd be possible to share it or we could send them one of like the square graphics and then
- put it on. Just three years or every post.
- Okay. Well, our next meeting is coming up here in April, it'll be right before that.
- I'm going to bring some snacks. I love a good snack during a meeting in springtime. I feel like we're
- all going to distract with everything else going on. And so, is there anybody here who has any
- allergy or food exclusion?
- Tree nuts.
- Every nut but a peanut basically.
- Okay. All right.
- I'm vegan.
- Vegan. Perfect.
- Anything else?
- Shellfish.
- Shellfish. Oh my goodness. So I won't be bringing this.
- Okay. So no tree nuts and vegan. Oh, I don't know what I'm going to bring, but please feel free to
- bring stuff that people can snack on if they want to. My memory is that we don't have a lot to eat
- off of.
- So if you do feel like bringing something awesome, but maybe bring like some paper towels or napkins
- or troughs, whatever it is to distribute food, but I'm going to bring some something.
- Okay.
- Anything else or anybody have any big ideas about what we should do next?
- Move for you, Jeremy.
- All right. All right.
- Turn at seven, four to six. Thanks, everybody.
- (orchestral music)