- 1916. 1976. Hi, I'm Nadia. I've been a commissioner, I think for like a year, maybe just a little over, I haven't actually done that. I'm Adam Martinez. I've been a commissioner for also a little over a year, something like that, and I'm the secretary.
- I'm Casey Chappelle. I've been a commissioner since January. I think my first meeting was February. Hi, I'm Norman Cranston. I've been more or less official at 5.30 this afternoon. Say hello. Shannon Guy. I've been a commissioner for two plus years.
- Maybe three? I think two. It's the same as- We started the same meeting. Hi, Mitchell Owens. I think two-ish seems right. Matt Pauley. I was appointed in the summer of 2017. I'm the vice chair and also treasurer. I'm Carrie. I'm the chair and I've been on the commission this time around since, I think, 2022. Yeah, but I think you and I are actually on the commission
- like 15 years ago or something, a really long time ago, so. Oh, that's right. Yeah, yeah. So we all come back, do we? But glad to have you, Donna. Well, great. Well, then, while we're at it, I would love to just take a quick second, Norm. If you want to just tell us a little bit more about yourself, you'll kind of get to know us over time, but it'd be great to have a very quick get to know you spiel from you if you don't mind. Sure. Well, very briefly, I'm a Chicagoan. That's how I grew up.
- After graduating from Northwestern, I was a reporter at the Strava Sun Times and then did a bunch of other stuff, including working at the American Public Works Association as secretary of the Institute for Solid Waste, which was an important part of the APWA. During that time, I wrote a book titled Complete Trash. It was a guide to
- recycling, which was just coming in. I'm talking about the eighties and so on, and early nineties. And it was the result of that book that caught the attention of the legislature here when it was forming the Indiana Institute on Recycling that was created in about 1989.
- And I was the first director, the only director. It lasted 10 years. We went out of business by our own decision around 2001 because we felt the work had been done, that people knew how to recycle, and that understood the importance of reducing waste. And since then,
- We moved first to Green Castle and got to know Bloomington when we lived there because we came here for fun. There wasn't too much fun in Green Castle. It's a fine town though. My spouse and I have lived here since 2006 and we live on the southeast side of town in Copper Tree, Copper Tree condominiums, which as you know, we're right next door to that huge church, the Sherbrookes Church. So that's where we are.
- And because I was interested in volunteering, I went to the city website and found where there are listed, you know, opportunities to volunteer. That's why I'm here. Well, so glad to help you. Can't wait to have you get more involved with kind of what the EC is like here in 2025. And yeah, I really appreciate your insights and dedication in the Bloomington community. Thank you.
- All right, well, we've done our roll call. So let's take a quick moment to review the June minutes. I don't know if any edits have come through since they were sent out, but if there isn't any additional comments. Okay, very all right.
- Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
- Perfect. Thank you. Now, we've got a spot here on the agenda for public comment. I know we have Joanna here, but I suspect that you will be part of the next piece of our agenda, our old business talking about these three resolutions. So I'll go ahead and move us along to that. It's been a long time. Oh, yeah. Thank you, Preston.
- Yeah, so I can pass it over to Shannon if you'd like to kind of lead the charge on this piece or we can pass it to you. Sure. Either way, any of us can talk about it. Here you have, I believe, the revised resolution. Thank you, Rachel, for entering those revisions at some point. We're planning on us going before the City Council September 3rd and I believe
- one of us will need to make a presentation there. We talked a little bit about that. For those of you, we've been talking about this for months, but for Norm and others, this is basically a resolution that we're setting forward to have Bloomington certified through the Bee City USA program as a Bee City, which basically just celebrates
- and endorses a lot of the work that we're already doing for pollinators, but it also puts us on a national map as well and gives us lots of resources so we can continue to strengthen our work in cultivating or encouraging people to cultivate native species, remove invasives, and create pollinator-friendly habitats. Maybe I'll turn it over to Joanna. Joanna is going to be our
- city contact point on this. And do you want to say anything? Sure. I'm Joanna Sparks. I'm the Urban Green Space Manager. I work in the Parks and Recreation Department. And basically, this is my job is to create, to remove invasives, to create areas, and to create wildlife habitat. That's the fun part of my job. So this is wonderful. This is something that the Parks Department is actually exploring independently.
- at the same time. So thank you, Dave, for pointing that out to us at the Environmental Resources Advisory Council meeting last December. So I'm thrilled for us to be able to combine our efforts and work together on this. And yeah, thank you all so much for doing all this legwork up to now. Basically, you guys are doing the hard part, and my job is to just manage, I hope you can see these days on for the Recipe Committee and
- manage the committee. Be responsible for it. Manage is not a good word. Be responsible for the committee and our annual report and reporting to you all. And yeah, just keeping keeping us on track with our our goal. So really excited to.
- and so we should pass and move forward with our application and so we appreciate the environmental commission's willingness to support us, the city, financially with the annual fee and just know that we do add a fiscal statement to our resolution. I acknowledge that and that the parks and recreation department is, there's a backup. Should there ever be a shortfall
- Yeah, we value this immensely. We actually expend a lot of resources on staff training, which is very costly. That is basically duplicating what the Xerces Society is offering us as far as pollinator education and
- integrated press management plans and just yeah, lots of things that are relevant to managing the urban green space here in Bloomington. So I got very excited to be here and thank you all so much for what you do and supporting our networks. Do we need to look at some of the things that we present to the council and just sort of make sure that everyone is on board?
- I put it in the pocket. I was just reminded by Rachel, thank you, that we did add a fiscal impact statement to the memo this morning. I just missed that somehow. That is new in the memo, which basically says exactly what Joanne has just said. There's a fee, it will be covered by us, but they're the backup. Then we talk about the possible
- cost reduction for staff training and things like that. So that's a new addition. And then we have the slides, which I guess Matt will be maybe. I don't know about that. Okay. We're not sure who's going to be presenting this, so I guess we should leave.
- We can go first. What can you say? I would very much prefer to be there as moral support and assistance in answering questions than being the main presenter. I just don't know. I'm not sure I can be there that night. I should be able to attend. I'm hoping that Carrie would like to be there. If I tell Isabel that both of you will be in attendance, that's sufficient. I think Jane will be there. Yes. Okay. I do have a question. I thought we're sitting with City Council persons that the initial plan that this is brought before them is basically just
- informative, they review and say, this is going to be out, we're reviewing this, and I hope you have the follow-in meetings agenda. For my interpretation, this didn't require two readings, it just has a one and done. Good job, Rachel. Whoever. These are the slides that we put together at the meeting on Tuesday, basically. Cover slide.
- There's not much there. This slide is taken directly from the Xerxes Foundation, and that's one of the things they suggest, although the formatting is- The PowerPoint was fine. It was converted to PDF. It's a little funky. Yeah. Just like why do we need to do this? What are some of the drivers is the next slide. Then what can we do about that? Well, become obesity USA.
- And here's, let's see, if you could go back to that question, we put this together. So first one is the big grass heap. We're helping to ensure the survival. But then some more specific things related to our particular context celebrates our ongoing work, but also joins other certifications and partnerships of the habitat conservation plan. And I use recent certification as well.
- Worth pointing out, this is all about wild bees and not honeybees, which are imported from Italy a long time ago and not native to the US. Yeah, so we might get some questions about that, so that would be worth noting. Then what we're responsible for doing if our application is accepted, and then the fiscal impact, which is also in that memo.
- It's pretty straightforward. We just talk through what are the basic questions they'll probably have about the rationale, about their sensitivities, and so forth. Do you all have any suggestions for these slides? I don't know when we need to submit these to. I was going to send them during the meeting tonight. Unless there are comments. The final, the hard deadline is Monday at noon.
- No problem. All right. Isabel asked for the memo with the fiscal impact statement and the resolution, and then a presentation seemed optional but encouraged. So those were kind of two or three things, and you guys provided that, so I think we're good. Does the fiscal impact statement
- Did you get the sense that she wanted that separate from the mill, or is it OK? She said that was fine to me in the middle. OK. Yeah. Well, we don't need to vote on this, do we? I put it as a voting. The resolution, we have to decide on things. We're fine. Is there a motion? Yeah. I move that we approve the resolution.
- Okay, Nadia Cain, Matt Colby, Casey Chappelle, Danny Guide, Adam Martinez, Lauren Cransell, Mitchell Owens, David Parkers, Kerry Albright. Motion passes unanimously. It would be so good to get this. We've been working on this a very long time. Thank you, Joanna. Thank you so much. Long stretch.
- Oh, great. Yeah, really excited to get this passed. And there's a lot of excitement for it beyond just our organization. So exciting move forward with it. The next thing on the agenda is to follow up from the downtown gardens discussion. So as you know, months ago, we talked a little bit about the proposal from Dave the cuber to use the space sort of the plot between Forth and Kirkwood off at Washington.
- to choose a sort of little downtown garden, urban garden area. So I shared our questions and these are the responses. They're in the packet, so hopefully you're able to see those. I just wanted to follow up on that. I know, Rachel, there's a short exchange that we had about what the potential of this is, so I wanted to. Yeah. First off, did anybody have any questions about the follow-ups that were received?
- Well, that's sort of the point that we talked a lot about the dogs. Yeah, they're like, I don't know. Yeah. So, um, the city's stance on it from my understanding, at least David pedals, uh, the director of transportation's response has been, um, that the city's not interested in taking on this project right now.
- As we are in budget season, with the new legislation inserting a great deal of unpredictability into municipalities' traditional revenue streams, and with the new priorities-based budgeting system being implemented internally for the first time with the budget season, the consensus at least throughout other departments is that now is not the time to dedicate funds and resources to the conversion of one small green space into a small but better green space. So we're happy to take comments on that and pass them along.
- I'm trying to remember. It's been, I want to say three months since I saw the first solid presentation when he gave it to Biko. So it seemed like most of the funds were secured anyway. Is this really something the city would have to cover much of? It's not a question for you so much. It just makes it seem like they already have almost all the funding required secured. I can see how it might be to the city.
- headache to think about another thing, but it doesn't seem like it'd be a revenue strain. I have to look at the presentation. I think it was included in a previous environmental commission packet. I believe they were relying on ARFA funds, and I don't know if those were secured. I think they were trying to pursue some e-cost revenue streams, maybe a grant or something through e-cost, but
- I don't think anything has been promised at this time. That's a good point, though, that I do remember seeing in the plans that there had been a note about some secured funding. Also a note about the suggestion to be in touch with the First United Methodist Church. They said that they've done some work in that property already, so they might be a potential partner for funding some of this. It sounds like as far as the potential of this project,
- If the funding is not coming from city budgets and commission report and all that stuff and it's coming from other sources, it's still possible that this would be something that is pursued or is there a hard stop on it for more administrative purposes? I am not sure planning doesn't maintain public spaces like that and I don't think there was approval of
- at the time from public work, the Department of Public Works to maintain it. I don't think there is approval from Parks and Recreation to maintain it. I can speak to that. Yes, that'd be great. The biggest struggle that we struggle with in Parks and Recreation, whenever we create something new, is not finding the funding and the will to create something.
- having funding to maintain it, staffing, resources, you know, costs and just we rely a lot on volunteers to help us with as much as we can, but volunteers are very fluid entities and people, you know, there are lots of reasons people come to volunteer and they leave and then
- We have inherited numerous gardens throughout the city that volunteers created. They're wonderful. But we don't have resources to keep them up. And our responsibilities keep expanding. We just open Hillball Commons. And of course, the Charred Park. And yeah, we're already stretched. We're kind of not in their custody with our maintenance responsibilities.
- That is, I will just say that the number one thing that we look at, even before having the costs to implement a project is how we're going to be sustainable moving forward. How can we maintain this investment? Where might it be again?
- The quarter forth in Washington, I believe. Yeah, where the bus station used to be a quarter from the old post office. Yeah. We just currently moan turf. Yeah, and there's an art piece there that has been managed by one of the north department and parks. We shared different pieces of that corner.
- Yeah, and one of the responses that we had, I think maybe the first question actually about maintenance, it was also a little bit nebulous too of who will be responsible for maintaining it. And so David mentioned about Master Garden Association, community service, that sort of thing. So it does seem like it's possible there's some ideas for maintenance, but not necessarily an arranged plan for what that maintenance looks like. So yeah.
- I mean, I think that's a really valid thing for us to also be thinking about as there are different community projects going on is how amazing they might be. And even with some of these different certifications and things like that, understanding that getting them going is a big lift and really something that takes a lot of time and energy. But the ongoing maintenance, especially in this wonderful university town where there's lots and lots and lots of change in the makeup of our community,
- thinking through what is the 25-year plan for this, because the last thing we want to do is create something, and then eight years from now, when we cycle through the majority of the people who are here, it dies off or becomes an eyesore, becomes actually a problem area that was once something thriving, because we just didn't have a long-term plan. So it is hard to balance that passion for what we can do, and also remembering to build out the sustaining plan for our team.
- Was there, where was this discussion meant to go? I know that initially he was looking for funding, but also support. And while I understand the city's stance, I still feel generally supported this project. We were just never going to admit funding. So if he's looking for our commission, which I say, that sounds great. I'd be all in favor of that, but I don't know where this discussion ended.
- I get the impression that we're basically receiving this information. We can follow up as we will and help follow up as things get into their next stage or looking for support, even if it's just a letter of support. It sounds like the funding will be his biggest hurdle, as I believe our funds have to be committed by the end of this year. Yeah, and there's definitely no indication that we're going to be able to provide funding. There was a big discussion on whether native plants are required to be used.
- I don't, he provided, you know, a list of previous projects, Andrew Narse, I believe this is his name, overtook, and a lot of those projects were not native plants, so we had pretty lengthy conversations about that. So I've been working with other departments, including Joanna and the Parks and Recreation, on what kind of, what policies are about native plants. Would native plants be less
- maintenance in the long run. I thought in our initial conversation you're talking about like there would be like a little bit of maintenance at first but then it would kind of just manage it so was the goal if I remember from months ago yeah
- Native plants are widely reported to be lower maintenance and, you know, plant it and walk away. That is not the case with anything anywhere. I mean, there is no such thing. That's just like the plastic. And especially in some UK established native plants that are relatively, you know, stable and don't need a lot of maintenance if they're in a natural setting, the urban heat
- So we expect that we are planting in downtown. I mean, if you've noticed over the years, we've cycled through numerous manifestations of native plantings. And they do provide, they do educate people, but they take an incredible amount of portable water to sustain. And during this time of year, we are literally watering them every day. I mean, we're basically asking them to grow in an oven.
- So it's, yes, native plants. And I think the only way to go about it, that is the best route possible moving forward from the agricultural field. But the challenge is to plant. It's just too much to ask the plants to survive when they're surrounded by concrete and horrible soil. And yeah. The cactus garden.
- Yeah, that's a really good point, though, that the native species being able to survive Indiana climate is one thing, but having to be in the middle of the down to air where they're not actually touching the roots of other plants because they're in the middle of the street median or something that's that's a really good point that.
- Even the native plants can't just make up survival. You'll notice on the urban forester, our fruit tree list also does include a few non-native species specifically for that reason, because some trees just cannot survive downtown. So not invasive, but also not sensitive.
- Thanks for sharing, Jim. Thank you for your comments. I just, I sort of also want to say I like the idea of, I think I support the idea of doing something there, but it does feel like there's too many issues at this point. I also would like it to still be considered to, you know, plants and trees or a tree, a big tree, if that's possible.
- garden to provide shade because there's almost no shade in that area and it would still work potentially with you know the dogs. Yeah, is that something you can pass on to everybody else? Yeah, I can also speak to that a little bit but Pascoe and I have been on the specific, bigger house, Pascoe Smith, you're a forester and
- One of the big, if you're familiar with this, one of the big limitations with planting trees in urban spaces is utilities and right of way. So just think about everything that's going on underneath the ground. The whole ground is dead. So that's a great constraining aspect of that site. I'm not saying it's impossible, but I do know that the utilities are in front of us.
- What do you have to say about that? Large canopy trees can be at least 10 feet away from underground utilities. And then we're currently having conversations with Duke about how far, we're just kind of reforming our relationship with them on how far away large canopy trees, particularly tree trees, have been compromised. I hadn't heard that near that.
- I'm kidding. Thank you so much for sharing on this. This is really helpful too because I know we all want to keep promoting things like this, but I think the reality is how it actually is going to be feasible in the long-term to perform. Thank you for sharing. Like I said, this is just the feedback that we received from Dave and I know that
- I suspect if things move forward with this, we'll hear from him again on what kind of support they might be asking for. But in the meantime, I'm going to keep moving us through our agenda, which brings us to the working groups, I believe.
- All right, so the working group updates. We kick off the film light pollution group. And, Norm, these are, as you may recall, these are, you know, all of our different subcommittees that we have. And some of them come for certain periods of time throughout the year, like Eco Heroes, and other times we have long-standing subcommittees. But the light pollution is a brand new one. So I'll pass it to Adam.
- I can't remember if we've had a meeting since then, but I met with Christina Smith, I believe, in Public Works, and I talked to her a little bit about street lighting and asked her questions about how do we decide where to put them, how do we decide how bright they should be, temperature, color temperature, that kind of thing. After talking with her, so I found most of the streetlights
- are a color temperature that is like perfectly fine, at least they're supposed to be. And she also, I talked a bit about the UDO, there's a section in there about lighting, strangers, that kind of thing. And she says that Duke controls the lighting. It's at least through, it's kind of like the city,
- pays Duke to put the lights on their utility poles, and Duke only manages it. They say it just gives them money to do that, is my understanding. They may have that wrong, but Duke does not have, they use smart lighting, so they can't adjust the color temperature, the brightness. It's basically just a light sensor, so if it gets to a certain level of darkness, they come on, that's pretty much it. I did notice,
- after meeting with her, which is in Hildesheim. Our UDO has a weird line in it about this, about a light trespass to light going onto other people's property. It says, all lighting fixtures shall be installed so that the light trespass from any property line except a property line abutting a public street shall not exceed one foot candle. And the way I interpret that is if you're
- you could theoretically just shine a light across a street into your neighbor's yard, and that's perfectly up to board. The way I interpret that is accept a property line abutting a public street, and then nowhere I could find does it say if it is abutting a public street, then this limit applies instead. So I think as it is, there's kind of no limit on what light you can shine on someone else's property as long as that property line is
- next door screen, the diploma grant. I know we have enforcement cases in our department for inviting us past. I do not oversee those, but I work closely with the people that do. If you send me questions, I can pass the admission, or you can meet with them, but to kind of not make you meet the bands I'm planning, feel free to send me questions and I can pass them on to that team. Yeah, I will do that. Other than that,
- I mentioned to her that sort of in my anecdotal experience, there's a lot of streetlights kind of just shining in people's yards and into their windows and stuff. And she mentioned that, like you just said, there's a process to get that figured out. But I was wondering if there'd be a better way to just sort of kind of blink it, prevent that from happening. It's not supposed to already not happen. But yeah, that's kind of just what I'm at at the moment, trying to figure out what to do.
- Yeah, I'm really hoping I'm wrong about the UDO line because that seems kind of strange. Like if I could just shine a light in my neighbor's window as long as they're across the street. And it's not a pure white. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's lumen-based. Yeah, well, they use it by Campbell's, but that's just like the US version. OK. Yeah. But yeah, it says, yeah, it's full Campbell-based.
- except the property line above in the public street. That part about it is confusing me. I also reached out to tell you information from campus. Suzy Johnson directed me to Mia Williams, who said their main concern is safety, but then they also tried to do energy efficiency because it aligns with
- sustainability goals, but they're aware of the dark sky principles and they work to integrate them where they can, but always balancing the need of safety, historical campus aesthetics and available funding. So I got an okay answer that was also somewhat of a, this is what it is. This is how it read to me from the campus side. And that's as much exploring as I've done.
- Yeah, I think that's about it. Awesome. Thanks for the update. Any questions for the light pushing group? Any questions? So I guess it just kind of sounds like if we want to pursue dark city stuff, we'd probably end up having to work with Duke in some capacity. Yeah, because I got the, she mentioned the thunderous. It's like the city owns like one or 200 of the lights, like streetlights. And then it's like 2,000 that Duke owns in the city.
- These things, the right word, yeah. And again, they are beholden to the UDO. So they are supposed to follow the rules in the UDO. I don't know that that's happening at the moment. I bought a light meter. So I'm thinking about just walking around some people's houses, not going to build a building. Can I come here at like 10 PM? Stand one meter across your property line.
- One thing that showed up in what Matt just said and also in what you said is that safety is a concern. But Google suggests to me that research doesn't actually show that better lit streets actually increase the safety of the streets. I wonder if that part of the conversation needs to be around the questions of,
- of safety and they make us feel safer, right? That's definitely true. Yeah, but it's a sort of an activity. You would know people's parents freaking out. Yeah. They were down. It's the same kind of thing. Yeah, we're not even necessarily trying to remove all the lighting. The dark sky principles that you alluded to, things like you should only use the light when you need it. You should use it where you need it. Only as much as you need. That sort of thing. Sheable. Yeah. So it doesn't go off. Not turning it off, just putting it on a dimmer switch. Even that would be nice, yeah.
- I wonder if you could do an educational thing like with the Kirkwood Observatory. I'm like, I'm part of the astronomy department, so I could help with that if you'd be interested. But just having like a, like, obviously you can't view things if it's a lot of light pollution. That's always been a big problem. And that observatory is no longer used for like groundbreaking research for a variety of reasons, plus it's really old. So you can always do something like that and just kind of, you know,
- continue to educate people on the fact that they don't need to have their lights on all the time. And it's my leaders that they push light on all the time. It's like, I don't understand. Yeah, we mentioned at our meeting that outreach, I think, is going to be a big and vulnerable one to do. I think we'll do it. I wish we could get the whole city to do like a dark night.
- Adam, is there anything that you would, that you need from the EC as like support or anything? Not that I can think of at the moment. Still kind of just, we kind of just kind of figure things out I think and what needs to be done. Well, this is really exciting. I'm eager to see how this comes along. We debug through an annual EDO update, so there's specific suggestions on like the EDO.
- No, it's me. I can connect you with people in lighting. Yeah, Christina mentioned that Dave Rollo was sort of the one who pushed public works into changing the color of the lights. So I was wondering if anything needs to be done, maybe he would be a good little person. Of course, there
- rural places where the sky is pretty dark and you can actually see the stars. That's nice. Just nice. Yeah, I grew up in a rural area, so it ended up a little bit better. It was kind of depressing, which is boring. Thanks. Anything else for the light pollution subcommittee? Right. Okay. Well, then we've got the biodiversity list here.
- a few things. Does anybody from the university working group want to jump in on this one? So the habitat connectivity map is published. The city did a press release. The IEDS covered it. We have, I don't know, it looks like maybe a couple dozen dots on the map. Almost half of them are us. But I think the challenge moving forward is going to be
- Getting it in front of more people, deciding how from an outreach standpoint we want to do it. If we want to target specific neighborhoods that are in kind of important corridor areas. If we want to walk people through it on a laptop or on their own phones when we table at events such as bugfests. I think just moving forward, we're going to have to talk about how we get it in front of more people because I do not think very many people just keep an eye on city press releases. So, um,
- Got a little work to do moving forward, but I'm excited that it's out and I hope that people spread the word. Are we allowed to put like flyers in people's mailboxes or is that not something? I don't think we're allowed to put anything in mailboxes. Could go to a door. Could do door hangers, could do that type of, it all becomes a fair amount of money. But yeah, legally you can't put anything in a mailbox.
- I have a couple of quick questions. Can the city share about the habitat mix that we plan throughout their social media platforms? I can't remember if the Parks Department did. I think the Parks Department, through one of their social media, shared about the habitat mix. Yes. I thought I saw some things. Yeah, our pretty slow Pestlaw Wildlife Corridor project is based on the original habitat mix. Yes. I thought so.
- I have a lot of weird faces on Monday and something else. Awesome. And I care if the city of Bloomington itself is able to share about this, but I would love if we could put it in our quest to have them also get the word out about it. Yeah. As far as outreach goes, I do think that, yeah, having some of these major parties, you know, talking about it because it is more than just our commission. It's meant to be for the community to engage.
- Yeah, I'm not feeling particularly discouraged or anything at the moment. I just think it's one of those things that as you get it in front of more people, they'll get it in front of more people. We just have to figure out how to get some momentum. I'm mostly just happy that it's published and it looks good and we'll figure out how we're going to
- get it to more eyes. I think that because it's the summer still or we're getting further into the summer, I think people are thinking about their gardens, their yards. They're in it right now versus in December, January, February when we're all just staring at bare trees and leafless things. I think now is a good time to act on it, but yeah, I don't want to stress or anything. Yeah.
- Please share if you don't have access. I think the press release and the ideas article are linked in the packet. So please share them with your family and friends. This is a cool thing that we're doing and the more people we have engaging will be great. You can do it on your phone. We talked about how at the Bugfest, which is also on the list today,
- that that would be a great time to introduce it to people, whether it's something that they scan and we're standing with them while they do it, talk through with them what it looks like to add their property, their commitment that they've put into action onto the map should be pretty easy. So hopefully people will feel comfortable jumping in and doing it, but maybe as to just get some momentum behind it.
- Anything else about the map? Well, okay. Mayor Monarch Pledge. I can take this. I think I asked this. Matt was present whenever I talked about this during the city stuff. But whenever we were going through the review stage for the V-City USA Resolution, Zolki-Mussman asked, wasn't there something about the Mayor Monarch Pledge a few years ago? I think
- Matt, did you look online to see if Bloomington was still part of it? I feel like somebody did. We were not listed on the National Wildlife Federation. Yeah, so we weren't listed. So I reached out to the organization and they revamped their MARP pledge. I believe in that.
- where they now require something kind of similar to BCDUSA, where city or municipalities have to reapply every year and create an annual report. So our pledge was essentially expired. I'm not sure if the official paperwork was ever sent in at the time. So we are currently not under the Myanmar pledge. So if that's something we would like to pursue,
- We currently are not one, but I just wanted to clarify that question for everybody. Do you or anyone who's looked into it have a deeper understanding of where literally the mayor comes into this picture versus the city, which is like a council resolution, they can pass some things like that. Does the mayor have a role in this process? Well, for the resolution, the council would pass it, but the mayor, I think, has a sign up on it as well. I think this would just be
- similar to an executive order. That's probably kind of the wrong term we use here, but something to a similar effect. It sounds like the question is, do we want to pursue this and see, if nothing else, see what the process looks like and how it should have been enacted based on what the requirements are. I think it'd be worth looking into what the requirements are. And if it is not,
- I don't know if it's not a heavy lift. Sure. If it is, I think the city's already doing a lot of great things and that it might not be worth a bunch of yearly reporting. We think we should look into it, maybe put it on next month's agenda. Nothing. The good news is we can't even apply until next year anyways according to their website. The pledge period is closed for 2025.
- So we have some time. Is the Biodiversity Working Group looking into this? Yeah. So we've got one more thing under Biodiversity Working Group. I do think it'd also be smart for us to go ahead and plan the next biodiversity meeting because there's a lot of things to cover. So before we do that though, the next thing on here is Bug Fest, which again, I believe is September 13th.
- Um, last month we talked about, oh gosh, I hope I'm not saying. Yeah. Okay. Um, last month we talked about, um, potentially Cassie, Adam F, Adams M, Matt and Nadia being available to help with the tabling. And I think Rachel, you said that you, did you communicate on our behalf about the BuckFest? Uh, I reached out and I did not hear back from the County Parks. I can follow up. Okay. I'm gonna request something then.
- you are getting the charge on that. I can send you like a Google form they have for just signing up for table. Yeah. Well, transparency, I would be on vacation at that time. So if there's any type of last minute correspondence, I won't be checking my email. I would know that because I'm still going to be going. OK. So you could communicate.
- Yes, we just have to make sure we're on, because we'll probably get the stamp again. It seems like that just rolls over unless people don't appear. And then we need to prepare our supplies before you go on vacation. Yeah. We'll be fine. Speaking of which, I reached out to former Commissioner Megan Murphy, and she believes she could get some specimens for us. And then she has some other table, but she's not sure. We're going to touch base again in closer to. But you will send me the Google form for that? Yeah.
- I don't have a computer, but I can send it to you tomorrow. Thank you. Yes, so whoever is tabling, you can send me the items that you want. I can just give you the total of what we have. If there's anything special, let me know. Maybe a couple of weeks prior, since I will be out the week before that. Okay, so it's super simple. Three weeks. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay, so what I will do,
- I'm going to do this when our meeting wraps. What I will do is I'll send an email to schedule A, just like check in with the folks who said that they're going to be available on that day. I don't know what the setup window looks like if it's like 9 a.m. and then the last person leaves at 2.30 or something like that. The events tend to, right? So setup starts at 9 and then be gone by three.
- I think I said last meeting that I was potentially confirming that that was Linda's South Carolina trip that I'm going on, and it is, so I will not be there. Oh, okay. Well, you can send us photos from your trip with Linda. Okay, so Cassie is not there. No, I didn't have the dates yet, but it is that exact day we'll be on a flight. All right. All right. Okay. Well, I'll follow up on that, and then I will also
- um, reach out to Rachel about, uh, materials. Okay. And just because I was on this, it doesn't mean that somebody can't pick up the materials that we, that can have it, you know, set up for, uh, in front of the patient so they can pick it up closer to time. Okay. And then as far as the habitat connectivity was just like the outreach plan and kind of getting everything, um, figured out for that, um, for the folks on the Biodiversity Working Group who right now
- It's Shannon, Matt, myself, Dave, and anyone else who wants to join the Biodiversity Working Group because it's a fun and wonderfully fulfilling subcommittee. I would love to propose a time to meet right now just while we're in this conversation. So if you're able to, I don't know if you've got a quick glance at your work available, but I would say sometime like maybe two weeks from now, three weeks from now. I'm going for most of September. Okay.
- Um, do you not matter? Do you feel comfortable? If we meet without Shannon, did you feel comfortable? Yeah. So I know you're super, super, super busy, so it's okay. It's just see the two weeks from now would be. I also know.
- It's five people coming first in. That's a form for the full EC. It has to be publicly noted as such. So four is probably the master of looking group. Sorry. No, no, no. Work group. That's great. Or an active meeting for work group. Yes. Yeah. The other people can just stand outside in the hallway. Yeah. But Matthew, have any company availability or not availability in the month of September?
- It should be pretty flexible. Okay. Dave, would you be there for an evening meeting in the second week of September? What day of the week? Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday? Yeah, that's a problem. Well, I'm going to set up a tentative invite unless Shannon you're- Yeah, I know the second and third weeks. Okay. Would you like us to try and meet the first week of September?
- Why don't we're going to talk about the- That's the same week that we're doing the city council presentation. Yeah. You just meet without me. Okay. So I'm going to go- That Thursday to do that. I mean, so Tuesday, the 9th to the 10th. Okay. So can we do the September 9th? Is there a room that we can find? I think so.
- And then if anybody decides they would like to join this subcommittee, that'd be great. But just depending on who's attending, you may have to just sit in the parking lot now. I'm just kidding, we'll figure it out. The one on the floor. That's right, just under the table. If we don't see you, I'm just kidding for the record. Let's find if you want, put five to six speakers at all. You can have it in full speed, it's five to six.
- sustainability needs on the ninth at six o'clock. But I can move to a different room as well. I know that should be easy. What is a different room? I'm sorry. I was going to say. I can look for a different room. We won't need a big room. We won't need a big room. No. It's just not what we're going to ask. Well, let's consider that in the works of figuring that detail out. In the meantime, I'm going to go ahead and bump over to the water quality working group.
- Um, nothing really going on right now, but since it is nearing the end of summer, I should probably start buzzing or bugging Liz and Evelyn again to see how field season went, how field season was going, um, get a real rundown on what they were feasibly able to accomplish. And, uh, whenever I can rifle them, probably set up our next meeting for that. And then we should probably do another water quality special projects meeting at summer soon to start them looking for.
- Um, the funding. Yeah, it's 3.19 funding. Yeah. And those could be the same meaning, those could be two different meanings. People do whatever makes sense. Okay, send an email to get that ball rolling. Yeah. And we'll also be there. Bye. Great. Wonderful. Thanks, Mitchell. All right, special projects. Um, there's nothing at the moment, but, uh, we, I'm going to bring up budget stuff in just a little bit. So I will,
- scooch that over to a later part of our meeting. And then the last one here is the ECPC. So as you might remember, the ECPC was a subcommittee that was quite active in the past and then has not been active in the last several years. It's our opportunity to look at new developments and variances that are
- that are proposed here in ViewMason and identify if there's any concerns about the UDO being followed properly or any suggestions that we have for additional considerations for environmental impacts that go along with those plans. So it's something that we haven't done recently for a variety of reasons, but I met with Rachel and David Hittle and Jackie Scanlon to talk about what it could look like to
- resurrect this working group, what it would require to resurrect this working group, and what that would look like for our commission to do that. And we identified that there are a few different things that would probably make more sense than the way we did in the past. In the past it was that the environmental planner would, on a bi-weekly basis,
- pull out all of the proposals that had come through, go through all of them. We would consider what needed to be suggested. She would write up a memo. The memo would then get approved by the ECPC, then go to the developers for revisions, then come back to her. We'd meet two weeks later, go through. And so there's a lot of meeting, a lot of writing things and revising things. And a lot of times it happened either during the day or with just really quick notice.
- My understanding from this commission is that you all are wonderful and amazing, but that the ability to show up that frequently all hours of the day may not be as simple for us. And so we talked a little bit about some alternatives. I don't know if you want to kind of explain kind of what we talked about as far as
- When things are when we talk about things. But yeah, so the Board of zoning appeals and Plan Commission is on a pretty, you know, strict schedule on when petitions are due when revision deadlines are due when the packet goes out. So those are usually reset. I think the meeting schedule goes out January in December or January for the rest of the year. So if we.
- were to meet, we would need to, the department's preference would be to have pretty set dates that we did schedule throughout the year that coordinate with those pretty firm deadlines. And if there was nothing to bring to ECPC, we would just cancel the meeting. But just for public noticing and trying to avoid coordinating last minute, those dates would kind of be reset. And then as far as what we would bring to ECPC,
- It would be developments that have large environmental impacts. There is one which we still aren't intending to meet with those interested. We need a proposal and that's a proposal that's requesting several environmental variances. We think that that nature
- It wouldn't necessarily be everything that, say, there's a development requesting a normal variance that they want to build a porch within zone three of the riparian buffer. That's not something I would necessarily bring to the ECPC. However, for things like that, you are welcome to be on the listserv for a planning commission, BZA, and other development or other commissions.
- If the ECC sees something that they want to comment on, you are still able to provide that comment, provide that letter. There just wouldn't be a planning staff presenting that proposal to you. It would just be up to ECC to review the packet and write that letter. Does that cover what we talked about? Yeah. Basically, what we discussed was that theoretically, if there's something of
- major environmental impact. Rachel's going to flag it, and it would be then brought into that conversation that she was just saying we'd get kind of on a schedule basis. And we would address it, we would write whatever memo or vision you're necessary. This is the way Linda Thompson used to do it, right? This is, except Linda brought the ECPC in
- for all of the planning proposals. And so it was a lot more sort of small scale impacts or things that weren't necessarily like, oh, it'd be great to plant more natives. Things like that, which were really wonderful to add, but for the amount of time that it took to do that through everything and for the volume of substantive changes that were made, I think at this point, I don't think we can account for that.
- So the goal would be to focus on things that have like major environmental issues. And then if you want to opt into being on the mailing list, you can, you can get all of it. You can say, hey, this, I know it's not major, but it really stands out to me. And that's totally fine. That's absolutely something that we can address. The goal is basically to think, to be able to affect things that are directly in front of us and the big things Rachel would bring to us. But I think the more important thing is what we mentioned, how the UDO gets updated every year.
- And historically, we've talked about the ECPC being a major part of what led to some of the changes in the UDO because we were raising these environmental concerns over and over again. And over time, those concerns that we were raising were less and less major because the major things were being incorporated. And my question sort of to David and the team was, so
- If we're not doing the ECPC anymore, how do we make sure that those things are being raised as the EC? I'd love for us to have a partner. I mean, Rachel is an environmental planner, but she's the one human being, and it would be wonderful to have this diverse collection of experiences and passions and all of that. So what we talked about was really being more intentional about how we are raising suggestions for changes to the UDO. And so that is something that
- We would need to kind of factor into our schedule of when we have our monthly meetings. What are the things I'm going to talk about? And one thing that I suggested was potentially having kind of a
- almost like a training session on what things have been considered in the past, because not all of us are city planners, not all of us know all the ins and outs of floodplains and things like that. So it may be helpful for us to get a little bit of exposure to how we think about these things so that we can apply our knowledge that we have, because I know each of us come from all sorts of helpful backgrounds. So the goal would be to, one, get us all familiar with some of the things that we're looking at.
- to identify anybody who would like to be in those regularly scheduled meetings. And we talked about trying to do like, I think as late as I think six o'clock was like the cutoff, maybe seven o'clock was the cutoff. So it could be at like the nine to five work day, if that helps people. And then also more intentionally fold the UDO revisions into our annual plan.
- Fast talker, are there any questions of the things that I just covered as I zipped through all of that? Yeah, I think it's great that the ECPC would exist again in some form, even if it was just the highest profile and most environmentally sensitive cases. I would be interested in being on that and also potentially the list serve like you mentioned, just in case I wanted to look at some of the others or if I want to. You too. Okay. Great. Okay. Matt and Dave,
- Dave, did you want to be on the Listserv to get the e-mails or to be in the face-to-face meetings or both? Both. Both. Okay. We'll miss Mike. I know. Oh my gosh. Maybe we can sneak Mike in. Does anybody else want to be either on the Listserv or be part of the planning for when these meetings happen? Adam and Mitchell? Okay. No, it's on the Listserv. Just the meetings. Okay. Adam, would you like to speak on the Listserv? Just the meetings. Okay.
- So Adam and Mitchell are meeting only. Okay. And we'll say, you know, staff availability after hours is pretty limited, which I know you said Tuesdays weren't great. Tuesdays it's working the best for staff or evenings. I can.
- Tuesdays was bad during field season. The rest of the year I can. Okay. Then for an official meeting, at least two people have to be in person. That's just something that you can. Another thing to note is that realistically, this isn't in every month. No. I think it's fine. I think another shift from whenever Linda left the EC, was that I believe she worked in the host and the EC kind of signed on on it.
- Um, that would be shifting to the EC's responsibility. You guys would be voting the memos and submitting that to me for me to include in that packet or either commission. Okay. And the packets are usually sent out.
- a week before the meeting. So that Thursday, I guess that would say before whatever meeting. I think planning commissions on Mondays, BGAs, the people on Thursdays, a week and a day before whatever meeting. That's when I would need to send the, that would be the latest I could be able to send the notes that happened. And those days will be clearer when the actual conversations are happening. So, so yeah, but that's the timing of it is very delicate, which is where the previous ECPC was a little,
- As somebody who was on it a long time ago, it just felt a little chaotic. It was just like, meet, talk, memo, approve memo, revision, back to the memo. It's just like a lot, which it felt really great to be part of these conversations, but it's also a lot. And we have, we're in a lot of different directions with our subcommittees. So I want you to respect that. Thank you. Are you interested in being on that? I'm interested. Let's serve in meetings. Let's do both. Okay. Let's do both for now. No. No.
- Okay. Perfect. Then for the people interested, this would be primarily for the state reading case and reporting to you. Can we schedule a meeting quickly? I have Eric, the development services manager. He and I are both available Tuesday, September 2nd.
- uh, for an evening meeting, um, and then, you know, hit or miss during the work day, during like the work shower or something. Um, and then two people come in the diversity and also open it up for like a virtual option. I think I can do that day, anything. I think. Well, no, but two people are there and I can follow them.
- That's my last day. If you email me comments, I'm happy to write those comments. If they get the wetland stuff, I'll have thoughts. We are currently waiting for wetland termination as well as a treatmentory. They have the deadline, I think, at the 28th. So if they do not get items to us by the 28th, we will be canceling the meeting or they will be continuing to off it.
- I'll keep everybody in the loop, but the September 2nd work for anybody else, work for that and your big carries. You're good. Okay. What time works best? Any time of the year. Yeah. Okay. After 5.20. Okay. If I say 5.30 to 6.30, does that work? Probably fine. Okay. Thank you. And then,
- I will work with the zoning planners to see what day works best in the evenings and maybe some consistent launch times or something to see if what we can work out for October and beyond. Perfect. And then yeah, we can kind of figure out how we would do like maybe more of an overview of how we think about the
- recommendations and UDO revisions and things like that. I think it's super important that we just all feel comfortable with what we're talking about and feel like we're getting some information and education on it too. So I'll think about that. Okay, we've done it. We've made it through our first hour. Don't worry, we're chugging along. So the ECPC is all wrapped. We're gonna go ahead and move to the new business piece, the annual goals.
- That was something I mentioned last time we met was taking a moment to double check what things we committed to, what things we thought would be important for the year. And I'll talk a little bit about how we're using our budget. At the end of our last meeting, there were a few suggestions for folks who might have come and speak with us. And I know that was one thing that we talked about was doing some sort of like training or education or even just sharing what our own areas of expertise are.
- Adam F had suggested doing a presentation on invasive animals and their impact on the environment, which I thought was great. Adam's not here, so I'm going to volunteer him for next week if he does. But I think that that would be a great presentation. We also talked a little bit about potentially trying to bring in someone from Riverwatch. And also Joe Cottle, I think we talked about potentially coming to talk a little bit about the deer situation. So I wanted to follow up as folks
- I'm sure I've been thinking long and hard about this over the last two months, but wanted to see if this is still something that we'd like to try and make a priority. I know that if we're asking someone to come from out of town, it would be potentially something that we would have to pay them for, which I think is an okay consideration for how to use our budget. We haven't used our budget a ton in the last several years, so it'd be great to have that as a consideration. But I want to hear what people thought as far as if we want to prioritize any of those guests or anyone else to do a presentation in the coming
- in the coming months? I'm going to start working for the deer hotline again in a week. The hunting season, the thick of it is really in November. I don't think bringing him in in the next few months is probably the best time of year. The best time of year is definitely February to where we're at now.
- Um, so I think that one should probably wait, uh, cause then not only will I be back in business there, um, but it also just won't be like super hectic because he'll be, you know, with his dad for the next few months. I think so. Would folks be interested in trying to schedule? I mean, and I don't know what.
- his availability is anyway, so it may be the same six months from now is actually perfect timing to book something like that. What do you folks think about that trying to do at the beginning, you know, one of the early months of 2026 to have the state dear biologist come and speak to us? Yeah, sure. Nadia, would you feel comfortable having that conversation with him at some point? Yeah, he's very nice. Oh, fantastic, then he's definitely welcome. Yeah, if you're going to kick off that chat and just say, you know, we're hoping to
- to lock it in so that we get it in motion, but at the same time that the rush is not any time soon. Yeah. Perfect. I can update next month at that. Yeah, that'd be great. Thank you. I can talk to the research people as well, because that'd be free, because he'd be on work time. Yeah. And yeah, just depend on what is said. I don't know when Dylan has workshop schedule right now, but I can just
- tell him what our meetings are and see what would work for him. And put it on my to-do list for tomorrow. Sarah, thanks. And our meetings are on the website. So yeah, if you just want to flip through them and just say the news is for you, that'd be great. Great. Thanks. Are there any other ideas of things that you would like to have presentations on or that you would like to share with our group? It doesn't have to be an hour or anything. It could just be like 20 minutes.
- I'm starting research at the O'Neill School, like really, like next week. So I'm going to be working on large scale solar projects with my advisor. And I feel like in a little bit, I'm going to want to talk about it with you guys. I love it. Give me a little time, though. All right, Cassie will present her research. I'm also doing my honors thesis this semester on clean air act enforcement. So if you want to film a practice presentation, I'd talk to you about that.
- What is the timeline for that? So my thesis has to be done by the middle of December, so I should have it pretty much squared away by mid-November.
- Let me get it done, please. Perfect. It'll be a nice break up to the eight-minute planning meeting. Yeah, I was going to say one. Yeah. It'll be the entertainment. Perfect. Related to the production of greenhouse gases, which is a concern, you might consider bringing in one of the commercial lawn cutting companies in this town. Another thing we can do is suggest that people stop cutting their grass as often as they do.
- We have beautiful lawns in the city of Bloomington. We're all very proud of them. But we produced an awful lot of greenhouse gas cutting our grass. And do we have to do it weekly? Someone might look into that and suggest, no, why don't you skip a week? Do it every other week. It's not going to look that terribly bad. And it would reduce your personal production of greenhouse gas running that lower.
- That's a great point. Do you know if there are any organizations in town that are actively working on that level of residential greenhouse gas production or talking to any of the commercial lawn care facilities? Do you know if there's any groups that are actively doing that in Bloomington? I do not. I live in a condo development and we have the guys come in and cut.
- Well, the 60 or 70 acres of grass, we have to do it regularly and we insist on it. It's got to look good. It doesn't have to be done every week, but it's just a consideration because those mowers produce an awful lot of greenhouse gas. My next door neighbor has a commercial
- Outfit that comes in and waste in both once a week, whether it needs it or not. Whether it needs it or not. Yeah. Yeah. It's just something to consider. It's a bit during dry weather, it hardly needs to be, so. Yeah. It's their business, that's fine. Yeah, exactly. It's a lot of noise pollution to them. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's a great point to consider there.
- Any other thoughts on any presentations or guests that you want to consider as we're moving through the year? OK. And then part B of that is budget usage. So I did allude to the fact that there might be a need for a budget for a guest, depending on who it is. But I wanted to also that if there are things that people would like us to consider flushing out, budget items that we would need to put in our request for.
- My name is Brooke, a new tablecloth for the Eastern United. We have a beautiful hand-painted tablecloth that has been ruined many, many, many, many, many, many times. And I would love to suggest that we basically get a new tablecloth that has our logo on it and maybe even the website or something like that on the cloth as well.
- Great idea. That sounds like a good idea. Awesome. Love it. OK. Are there other thoughts on anything that you would like to have considered? And it could be something that we just research for next time, but to kind of verbally commit to? No ideas at this time. I'm trying to think if we could have just a set display with the information for the habitat connectivity now.
- that we could like print on a kind of like a board. Like a board that we can just like, like a nice quality board with like the general information, like a QR code. That's a great idea. So that we could actually just bring it back in a set. And even if it's just on a standing board, but like easy for tabling, for getting a new beautiful pop, we might as well have a beautiful sign. I love it. Thank you. Okay. I love that. So yeah, basically like a,
- what you call it, presentation board, kind of thing. Yeah, something like that. Board or app. Just something to stand up or something at a table so people can use it. I think it is. I think that's a great idea, because I do know that getting things out and putting things back in, it's like they're getting worn down a little bit, so having something that is kind of locked in as it is. That's great. Great. Well, when the biodiversity working group meets, we'll plan some ideas for that. As some of these examples are coming through, do we need to vote on specific
- line items for our budget, or is there any requirement, you know, I have to look at the rules that I don't think there is. It's probably most transparent to them enough during a full group meeting, but I don't think there's a requirement to do so. Great. Well, great. Well, another thing I think, if you remember,
- Nonny, you were the one that suggested having like native seed packs that we created. And there's an article that I will, I guess, share with you to share with the group that came out. But basically, yeah, it was just from a city that, where was it, that basically did like a similar thing. And I think they had like their natural resources at State Department or something put it together. But basically it was just like, yeah, little facts that you can hand out that are
- appropriate native seeds that you can do with what you want, stuff like that. And I think that that'd be a pretty handy sort of souvenir from our booth. That could be something, even if, like, for the booth it's good, but also in the future you can do it as a larger permanent, like, partner with the library, because they've got the seed library. Yes. That's a great idea. Partner with the library would be cool. I love the library. And our kind of public library is the best, for the record. Okay. That's a great idea.
- So- And that's also like kind of a popular program already and being able to put our name on it. You see some extra recognition in town, a little explosion. Yeah. Would you feel comfortable with me reaching out to the library? And a couple folks there that might be good ones to talk to about that and just kind of see what sort of likes it means that it might have. That would be great. Okay. We'll reach out to the library. Okay.
- Any other thoughts on budget usage or ideas that you want to make sure they're thinking about as we're moving through the year? All right. Well, feel free to raise them if you have them. Yeah, I mean, might as well. We're doing all sorts of fun stuff. Might as well make sure that we have the supplies and materials and everything to make sure it's happening. I know we talked over time about doing maybe like yard signs or business cards or things that have a tact activity plan. So I think that that's in
- considerations to be. And if you have ideas, today I'm on a Tuesday morning, feel free to email me whenever I open it on my agenda notes for probably the November meeting for the next year's discussion. I'll be thinking now. May I add one more thing? You mentioned the library, which is, as you know, is a terrific resource.
- You know this book, I'm sure. This is from the Monroe County Public Library. This is my personal copy. First, I took it out of the library, and then I bought one. It cost 30 bucks delivered. You can order it at Amazon. This, as you know, is a Bloomington production by the ERI, and it is a rich, rich resource of info and suggestions.
- for planning and acting, so I just wanted to show it to you. That's how I prepared to come to this meeting. I love it. We'd have a book talk. I feel like that should be the next subcommittee is things that we should be reading and sharing. Thanks, Mark. Okay. Well, that was really the stuff I want to talk about for the new business. Is there anything else people want to add in before we move to the staff update section?
- Well, let's move along. OK, let me scroll down the bottom of our packets. OK. OK. Hopewell, Brownfield's update. There was a article that came out May-ish. So I got an update from legal and engineering.
- So it's a lot of information, including what I received in the packet. They are planning on cleaning up, obviously. But they wanted to emphasize that one of the naturally occurring elements is arsenic. So the legal team wanted just to transparently say arsenic is found in India soil in general. So it wasn't a surprise to have that found. And then since this swath of land had a contained railroad track,
- on it with coal storage near it. There was, you know, other contaminants found as well. I think the question that the article kind of brought up was the underground storage tanks. So I asked people to kind of designate where those underground storage tanks were found. And Hopewell is, you know, sectioned off into different areas. So they gave us an op system
- you know, where the store kings are and what they're doing with identity for it. So I am happy to take any questions and pass them along to the engineering department, legal and housing neighborhood development. I think there might be a couple of other departments as well. It's a very big, you know, conversation with the city that they're taking seriously.
- I hope we all vote very well. Also, the engineering department wanted to say that we have thousands of pieces of paper. I asked them for the synopsis because I didn't want to give you 1,300 pages to look through. But if you are so inclined, I think everything is public through the iGEM virtual bio-contactment.
- So any questions on the brownfields? If you ever start trying to look things up on VFC and immediately get overwhelmed by it, let me know. I can help you figure out how to search it because I have to upload it sometimes. And it's interesting. I guess the other question I had, because the other concern that I remember when I brought up with this was
- making sure this kind of stuff gets communicated to us so we don't have to find out about through Times articles? Did they have any, when you talk to people, did they have any thoughts on that or? No, they invited me to meetings though. Sorry. No, I should have been invited to meetings to begin with. They were like, oh, we didn't know this was part of your job.
- Once I find things out, I'm happy to pass that along. OK, so it sounds like a good workout. Yes. OK. OK. What is next? Is that the last thing I had in the packet? September meeting? Yes, September meeting. So I will be, like I said, out of office during our September meeting.
- Director David Piddle is going to be leading the meeting to kind of prepare David to lead the meeting. I'm gonna meet with him, give him like all my information, but I will probably be reaching out a little bit earlier than normal on agenda items, just so I can prepare him to the best of my ability. So if there's last minute agenda items, I don't know if it will make the agenda, you know, up to him to watch out the agenda and set out that public business stuff.
- these races with some flexibility for September, but I just wanted to give a heads up for that. And I'll also be working with a biodiversity group about the best, you know, getting those materials. What do you do? I'm sorry. I'll tell you offline. I don't want to publicize through Zoom. Yeah. So there's that. Any questions about how to prepare for September? Okay.
- trees systems program. So the parks department is, I think they just launched it, but there's a new tree systems program where the city is providing funding to residents with hazard trees. So for work to be conducted in spring of 2026, applications opened on August 1st and are open until October 1st. So,
- There is an application online, and I included that link in the packet. I'm sure you can also call into the Parks Department and receive a physical application. But they will be prioritizing high-risk tree removals, high-risk tree mitigation, and also tree replanting. So I believe part of the condition is if you are getting a tree removed, you have to plant a new tree. That tree is compliant with the Unified Development Ordinance as well.
- and part of the application asked about income, and this is so there is some prioritization for low-income residents. So, as Haskell-Smith, our urban forester, is leading this program, but I am part of the review committee. There is somebody from the Housing and Neighborhood Development on the review committee, Sean Mia,
- economic sustainable development is on there. And then also somebody from the Tree Commission is on there. So we have a variety of people that will be reviewing applications early in October. So any questions about the Tree Assistance Program? Dave, do you have anything to add about it? There's $50,000 available. I did get word that it won't be as,
- Funded next year is one of the budget cuts for the 2026, but it's $50,000 to be available for, I think, spring 2026, if not even fall 2026. Is there a definition of high-risk trees in there anywhere? What qualifies as that? I think internally, I don't think there might be one on the application. What we talked about internally is
- you know, trees that are a hazard to a person or a structure. Let's see. I have to sign in with a personal email account for this system. It does not like city email accounts, so I'm sorry I can't get into it right now. But if there's any questions about this, Haskell Smith is the right staff member. But you know, always ask me, and I can do my best to answer or reach out to Haskell. Can you share that with your,
- Facebook page, yeah. Farmers Association thoughtfully. So I included the link here.
- and it will be on Saturday, September 27th. And there are a few speakers. Let's see, it's at ID Tech Community College at Shreve Hall. There is a $15 fee that they will be talking about landscape design, native plants, gardening for pollinators, and gardening for votes. So again, the link is in the mapping. And this is for anybody, not just people in that master class. Yes, for anybody.
- And I think that is the last of my place. Does anybody have any questions for me? All right, Dave, you're up with the Tree Commission update. Well, the Tree Commission, like ours, starts with reports from other groups. And that's all that came up.
- In this meeting, there was no new business and no old business. It was about the shortest meeting I've been to. It was held last Monday. This past Monday, we started with the Urban Forester's Report, Haskell Smith. We talked about
- The street department was working through various removals at Butler, Ryan, Linestin, the rail trail, and Rose Hill. Concluding the season of planting, there have been about 142 or thereabouts. There's agreement with
- a group called Birth Images to replace five trees that hope well. You just mentioned the tree assistance program, which Nestle mentioned as well. There's a request for tree planting vids in there.
- two bits that have come in so far. They're funny new trees that have been planted downtown. The Bloomington branches event is scheduled for September 6th from 3 to 6 p.m. and that's to celebrate the arboretum.
- coming in at Brian Park. And the last thing that Haskell mentioned was, there's a zigzag soft life that's been confirmed in Bloomington. And it produces in young leaves, little zigzag patterns. And it's fairly hard on bum trees, but not quite as bad as the thing that gets to,
- Oh, well, once, once it's been for you. Yeah, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll
- July, so it didn't matter that I missed it. Then we have the report from Mayo Williams, Indiana University Landscape Architect. She mentioned that the campus tree inventory is completed by students. There is also some inventory done at Bradford Woods. And they've been removing some trees off campus.
- So that was basically on me. Thanks for the updates. As far as your act goes, were you in attendance on that one? I was not able to go. Adam Footecar was going to go and report to us back tonight, and he's not here. I'm not sure we can catch up with what's happening. And then friends of Lake Monroe,
- Is there any update from them? No. Okay. Great. All right. Well, thanks, Dave, for the updates on the tree commission. As far as the B-coast goes, we have met twice in the time that we've met. There, July meeting, they talked about a little bit of Indiana General Assembly stuff, and then there was a food resilience presentation, kind of the importance of local agriculture,
- volatility and risk. I mentioned there was going to be a resolution about it in their next meeting and then their next meeting. Here in August, they had a city presentation about conflict of interest and just the importance of knowing before any vote if you have some interest in a thing, just so that public knows and if it's strong enough to matter and possibly abstain from such votes.
- and to just take a cautious approach on that. If there's ever anything in the vote that you say, I have mistaken this, I sell wildflowers, that's why I want this garden to happen. Just tell people right before the vote. After that, they went into some resolutions. I guess the chair seems to have made a template
- for resolutions to the City Council that they were talking about might benefit other boards and commissions, and I agree. I hope they share that with other people. But they adopted a resolution for adopting a scalable chicken flock size model so that if you have more land, you can have more chickens. They advanced a resolution to their next meeting calling for an increase in the city's urban forestry budget,
- Then they adopted a resolution to recommend the urban agriculture language to the UDL. That was that. I think you talked about that, even though they talked about the Open Bureau laws. Yeah. Back in July, there was a discussion about, I can't remember what the language was.
- Special sessions, I guess the way that it makes me think of city council, how years ago before they changed it to the way they do it now, they'd have like session of the wall and then they'd have other meetings. But it seems like because kind of does the same thing that they have regular meeting and they have special work session meetings, and I think.
- There is guidance that those are going to have to be recorded and uploaded to their site as well. And I could not get a good read on exactly the definitions of those were like, I don't think it means that'd be the case for our working groups, but I technically don't know for sure. So if a council member is present during their working group, it has to be reported. So if you're inviting a council member to a working group, please let me know.
- the meeting and report it so it can be published. If it's not, if a council member is not coming, it doesn't necessarily have to be recorded. It doesn't have to have a virtual option. It still has to be publicly noticed. I've talked about another one of the July 1st changes was that everyone's names and terms are on all of our public notices now.
- Those are a couple of the changes, but I heard that's bringing up earlier, so that's why I know them now. So just please let me know if there's Council Member coming to a parking group meeting. So if, you know, since Council Member Rallo is in favor of the ECPC, if we get him into something, we'd have to record such a meeting. So that's all from the BCO students. Awesome. Thank you for attendance.
- The next item is MC Iris. Yeah, I would not extend the meeting. I did look at the minutes. I looked at the agenda in the minutes. And basically 100% of the meeting was dedicated to the plant sale because that was coming up on September 6th. It'll be at the Spishard Park maintenance building for 9-8-1. 9-8-1, yeah. Last year they had lots of nice, unique plants.
- And I clean community. Um, didn't have any meetings, but Christie Lindbergh gets an update recently that we have gotten for projects like uploaded and, uh, I don't know if that was approved or about to be approved. They are approved. I'm so sorry. On their way to be. Yeah. Yes. So.
- They're in the system at least, which means they should be approved without too much issue, because that was exactly what they were asking for. But it was, let me get that email back up, sending in our storm ready city certification, our tree city certification, sending in greenhouse gas inventory that the city's done before, and proof of green infrastructure in the city. And getting four approved gets us two thirds of the way to Silver, because we have to do six projects to get bumped up to
- next level and then six more to get to the world. We unfortunately won't be able to become first build city because I think beach growth beat everybody to that level. Oh, we're cheaters. But otherwise things are making progress and this is all stuff that's just been previously done that are needed to lock out. I think we'll have a bunch more of those like I know but
- subgroup that I'm in hasn't met to talk about anything yet. So as all the groups may look through what we've done, it should not be too hard or take too long to get all the way through everything, which is cool. Yeah, just progress. Thanks for the update on that one. It's exciting. It feels like there are a lot of things where
- has been doing, making changes and doing good things. And there are all these different recognition programs or, you know, that type of thing that it's just sort of putting things in the right bucket and making sure that it's all in order. But that's great. I mean, we're doing it. So it's good to have that recognition and validation for continuing to prioritize it. Validation is fun. All right, we're now at the time of our meeting where we go through and
- there are any commissioner announcements. So if anyone has anything that they would like to share, please feel free to shout it out. Yeah, look at you. Okay, so since the semester is starting up, there's all sorts of stuff happening in the Environmental Arts and Humanities, and some of which I think you'll be interested in. So the first is an exhibition that opens, it's the first
- Friday of September called No Incent Landscape, which is about disturbed ecologies in southern Indiana. It's Max, some of you, you've worked with, and then Meg Legatsky, who's a painter and multidisciplinary artist here. Meg has also put out, she's going to be putting on a group show that's taking over the Waldron in October. It's just called Forest. It's all in celebration, commemoration of
- Indiana Forest Services is some anniversary. I don't remember what that is. So there's that. And then there's, so our theme this year for the IU Environmental Arts and Humanities is plant worlds. So it's going to be lots of intersections with the things we're doing. But also Ethan Tapper is coming. I have nothing to do with this, but who he wrote this book called Cowbell of the Forest, which is all about environmental management. It's a beautiful little book. I didn't agree with him entirely, but he's going to be here on the
- And it's free. It's at the library. So, um, I think I'll stop there. There's lots of sort of- Where was the thing that- That's at the Cooke Center at Maxwell Hall on campus. So right now the sample books is at the community center. There's going to be a reception on the 5th. And yeah, all sorts of things going on. So.
- Okay, so the Nodes of Landscape, September 5th at the Book Center. Yeah, and that will go through October 31st. Awesome. And then the Paddle of the Forest will be at September 4th at the Library. Yeah, so 6 o'clock. I think it's ticketed, but it's free. Okay. And then the Forest Exhibition. And then the Forest Exhibition is the wall drawing, and that's all October. And it has a bunch of different people contributing that to it. Well, that's great.
- Lots of stuff to do in Bloomington. Lots of good options for date nights and birthday parties and all the things that you want to do that embrace some of that, yeah, nice intersection of art and environment. Great. Yes, Peter. Yeah. News from IDEM that just came out in the past day or two with a press release. Apparently the state is working on, and this is something that applies to us and probably this is one, but the state IDEM is working on updating the state's, well,
- is currently the solid waste management plan and updating that to a carbon feed materials management plan. Because I guess the solid waste plan had been around since like kind of almost saying like the 80s and had been touched in 30 something years. So they're working on updating that. I'm assuming it will be
- of a comment on that, but in the near future, they're doing a series of like open house presentations to give the public information on what's going on and what this update mean and what is the material management plan because that sounds very ambiguous. I don't know, that's a definite branch. So, but the,
- Badness is the closest options for the open houses to us are either Seymour on Wednesday, August 27th. Was that next week? Two to six or Whiteland on Wednesday, September 3rd from three to seven.
- I'm assuming that you don't have to be there for the whole time. I think it's kind of more of a drop in situation. But yeah, they're doing the open houses, but we have to go there. And I can send the press release for this to pass around. Great. Other updates or announcements from the group?
- I was going to share that I saw or received a care number or potentially sign up for something through Purdue, the Center for Food Conservation and Waste Reduction. It's basically like an Indiana Hospital food management study. And they're just looking for people to sign up to go through giving them some data on what they do as far as their home habits, how they use food, how they waste food, how they manage it in between. And it just looks really interesting.
- I'll send that to Rachel to share with you all. I send it because I love giving my data to researchers who are helping with the things that I care about. I just think it might be an interesting one to see, Erica. There's some virtual conversations, but there's one on-site thing in a couple of different states of the Bloomington. It'd be something that you would go face-to-face for a piece of it, but it seems really interesting. Other announcements or updates?
- nothing all right sure the songs no editorial cartoon that's totally fine i move we adjourn second all right well then let's wrap 744 thanks everybody for all your time and attention and enthusiasm