WEBVTT 00:00:00.482 --> 00:00:20.614 - Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. 00:00:20.614 --> 00:00:26.654 - Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. 00:00:26.754 --> 00:00:32.057 - All right, well, with past last month's events, thank you again, Adam, for always being on top of those. 00:00:32.057 --> 00:00:36.350 - I know we cover a lot of the ground, especially in some of those pre-event meetings. 00:00:36.642 --> 00:00:42.636 - So at this point, we'll move on to our public comments where members of the public can come in and if 00:00:42.636 --> 00:00:48.690 - they have questions, if they want to talk, if they just want to listen, we'll give them an opportunity 00:00:48.690 --> 00:00:54.566 - to do that. And so if you're interested in introducing yourself, you're welcome to share something. 00:00:54.566 --> 00:01:00.561 - Sure. Yeah, my name's Steve Stanford. I've been graduated from Miami Jail. I'm still on 85. I've been 00:01:00.561 --> 00:01:05.086 - in jail for 32 years. And then eight years ago, I moved into the wastewater. 00:01:06.114 --> 00:01:13.296 - I'll send a license channel on this and I'm a certified wastewater operator. I hope this utility is 00:01:13.296 --> 00:01:19.833 - with the industrial customers. We make sure everybody's, there's no problem for any of us. 00:01:19.833 --> 00:01:27.015 - I'm from Dalton, Hazel and my home is still there, right? I live here five days a week and then I'm 00:01:27.015 --> 00:01:33.982 - home on the weekends. But my family's saying I'm moving down here. I'm digging, being back here. 00:01:34.562 --> 00:01:40.642 - Well, great. Well, thanks for joining us in our meeting. We've got a couple of different subcommittees, 00:01:40.642 --> 00:01:46.606 - and one is specifically about water quality. And so whether or not you've met Mitchell already, or if 00:01:46.606 --> 00:01:52.569 - he's a native, you might hear a little bit more. We're definitely working on some opportunities to do 00:01:52.569 --> 00:01:58.474 - more with stormwater, and just sort of understanding sort of the health of Ianoir, specifically down 00:01:58.474 --> 00:02:00.286 - here in Numa County. So great. 00:02:00.674 --> 00:02:05.806 - Great. Well, feel free to chime in and give me questions, thoughts, and hi to you too. You're always 00:02:05.806 --> 00:02:11.040 - welcome to raise a hand if you've got thoughts or ideas. All right. So any other members of the public 00:02:11.040 --> 00:02:16.426 - in the Zoom call? Nope. Sounds good. Well, then we are going to move on to the new business of the night. 00:02:16.426 --> 00:02:21.507 - In the packet, there was a piece that was written by Norm. So Norm, I'm going to give you the floor 00:02:21.507 --> 00:02:26.741 - to just kind of talk through a little bit of what you put together, kind of what you're hoping to hear 00:02:26.741 --> 00:02:28.062 - from us and before. Sure. 00:02:28.258 --> 00:02:44.779 - Why don't I just shoot these, okay? Sounds great. A whole bunch over here, and here it's on the other 00:02:44.779 --> 00:02:54.174 - side. This is a graph for discussion. Perfect, thank you. 00:02:55.714 --> 00:03:07.377 - To give residents an opportunity to practice the management of Earth's rising temperature, this proposal 00:03:07.377 --> 00:03:19.485 - is that we encourage people to think about how often they're cutting a grass. This could be for introduction 00:03:19.485 --> 00:03:25.150 - next, late next, let next one be before the grass. 00:03:25.314 --> 00:03:35.921 - cutting season begins, possibly as a flyer of some kind that could be distributed somehow by the city. 00:03:35.921 --> 00:03:46.425 - The whole idea, as you'll see, is that out of habit and custom and wanting to keep everything looking 00:03:46.425 --> 00:03:54.046 - perfect, many of us with homes and lawns like to routinely cut the grass, 00:03:54.882 --> 00:04:05.865 - For discussion is the idea that you don't really need to cut it every week to keep it looking good. 00:04:05.865 --> 00:04:17.288 - You'll see in this draft discussion some findings from Princeton University about the effect of running 00:04:17.288 --> 00:04:21.022 - a lawnmower for an hour producing 00:04:21.794 --> 00:04:31.348 - As it says here, as much air pollution as driving a car 500 miles. So it's a serious producer at home 00:04:31.348 --> 00:04:40.995 - of greenhouse gases that we have some control over and possibly can put into place without much effort 00:04:40.995 --> 00:04:50.456 - at all and just a slight change of attitude, doing something different every week instead of cutting 00:04:50.456 --> 00:04:51.486 - the grass. 00:04:52.034 --> 00:05:01.696 - This draft is for your review and I'm discussing as the possible contents of a flyer, continuing the 00:05:01.696 --> 00:05:11.357 - work of the commission and helping residents to do stuff at home that can really affect the air, the 00:05:11.357 --> 00:05:20.062 - quality of our air. That's my intro. Great. Thanks, Ron. Thanks for putting this together. 00:05:20.258 --> 00:05:26.306 - So kind of just to summarize the goal of this conversation, it's really just kind of chat through what 00:05:26.306 --> 00:05:32.178 - we think of what you've put into the flyer, what we think about the idea of having a flyer and then 00:05:32.178 --> 00:05:38.167 - kind of maybe distribution ideas. Is that what you're? Yeah, absolutely. All right. Well, the floor's 00:05:38.167 --> 00:05:44.098 - open. I see there's more on the back about what concerns me is people like my next door neighbor who 00:05:44.098 --> 00:05:45.918 - has a contract with the group. 00:05:46.242 --> 00:05:52.625 - Yeah. Wants to mow once a week and he does, whether he needs it or not. So how do you work with these 00:05:52.625 --> 00:05:58.945 - contractors? Sure, good point. They need to make money and pay for their mowers and all that. Right. 00:05:58.945 --> 00:06:05.641 - Missing from this draft is that very consideration, which is very important and has to be included because 00:06:05.641 --> 00:06:12.087 - many of us, including where I live and our condo development on the southeast side, you know, the guys 00:06:12.087 --> 00:06:14.590 - come through every week no matter what. 00:06:14.882 --> 00:06:26.336 - and cut the grass, and they don't need to. So we have to, and I have suggested to Kerry that we bring 00:06:26.336 --> 00:06:38.239 - in for discussion a contractor to address these very points, so that they can be made part of discussion, 00:06:38.239 --> 00:06:44.190 - because it's very important to include the business. 00:06:44.354 --> 00:06:53.645 - in this business. And I think it can be worked out right so they don't lose any business, but they just 00:06:53.645 --> 00:07:02.668 - do business differently. We'll see. Other thoughts or questions to the chair of NAR? So what uses, I 00:07:02.668 --> 00:07:12.049 - haven't read it yet, but what uses the most gas in blowers or just the mowers? Mowers, blowers, anything 00:07:12.049 --> 00:07:14.014 - that burns gas. Yeah. 00:07:14.210 --> 00:07:20.895 - So if you have electrics, I guess you can give it as relaxed, except the electricity comes from a power 00:07:20.895 --> 00:07:27.323 - station over on the wall there. So what would happen with this? What do you think you would do with 00:07:27.323 --> 00:07:34.008 - this? This text with our work and your approval would be given to the city. I don't know how that would 00:07:34.008 --> 00:07:41.014 - work for printing as a flyer, you know, three page flyer, illustrated, nice looking. It could be distributed 00:07:41.014 --> 00:07:42.750 - maybe with the water bill. 00:07:42.882 --> 00:07:51.267 - I don't know if that's possible or not, but distributed somehow. I wonder if the city is currently doing 00:07:51.267 --> 00:07:59.413 - anything with this kind of education? I think there must be some, and we're all probably aware of it, 00:07:59.413 --> 00:08:07.639 - because you've walked down the street and seen in front of houses that stood the grass in front that's 00:08:07.639 --> 00:08:12.510 - let to grow wild. Yeah. There are a few of them around town. 00:08:13.282 --> 00:08:20.280 - You've seen them. That's all I can think of to bring up. I don't know the answer to that question. I 00:08:20.280 --> 00:08:27.416 - think it's really well written. So I have a couple of quick thoughts. One is, so in thinking about it, 00:08:27.416 --> 00:08:34.413 - I typically try and think like, okay, what subcommittee does this kind of fall under? Like, well, so 00:08:34.413 --> 00:08:40.926 - we're kind of keeping our buckets under control. And my assumption is that it would either be 00:08:41.122 --> 00:08:46.296 - Um, maybe the air quality working group or, which is kind of some of our, our working groups kind of 00:08:46.296 --> 00:08:51.932 - get a little quiet, sometimes get a little more active other times. The air quality or maybe the biodiversity 00:08:51.932 --> 00:08:57.055 - working group. And I would typically try and think, is there any city department that this would be 00:08:57.055 --> 00:09:02.331 - a good fit with as well? Or to Adam's point, is there anyone who's already starting anything like this 00:09:02.331 --> 00:09:06.686 - where conversations about how do we reduce resident, you know, usage of, of, or, or. 00:09:06.914 --> 00:09:12.894 - usage of their own or hired mowers. So that might be something to check in on to just reach out to a 00:09:12.894 --> 00:09:19.111 - couple of the different department representatives and ask if there's anything that they're doing that's 00:09:19.111 --> 00:09:25.032 - already in the works that we could then help create some supplemental materials. And then the third 00:09:25.032 --> 00:09:30.302 - thing that I'm thinking about that would be a little bit further down is in talking with 00:09:30.882 --> 00:09:35.849 - getting this into residents' hands. And something that I'll bring up in a little bit is talking 00:09:35.849 --> 00:09:41.023 - to neighborhood groups about the Habitat and Activity Map. And so it could be that those things tie 00:09:41.023 --> 00:09:46.301 - together. If we are talking to neighborhood associations, bringing this conversation to that table as 00:09:46.301 --> 00:09:51.527 - well, maybe not at the same time, but getting in the routine of us connecting with more neighborhood 00:09:51.527 --> 00:09:56.856 - groups, because neighborhood associations oftentimes have residents who are interested in doing what's 00:09:56.856 --> 00:10:00.478 - good for their local area. So this could be a great fit for that too. 00:10:00.802 --> 00:10:06.559 - It's also possibly an easy thing to list as like, here's something that you could add to your pledge 00:10:06.559 --> 00:10:12.374 - for the connectivity plan. Oh, yes. What a great idea. That could be part of that. Less mowing counts 00:10:12.374 --> 00:10:18.473 - as protecting habitat. Oh, well, if you're not mowing and you're letting a more natural landscape develop, 00:10:18.473 --> 00:10:24.288 - maybe that's a herbage in. I mean, connecting them in a dosis of a can is a- So when I read it in the 00:10:24.288 --> 00:10:28.734 - packet, I didn't know what the intention was exactly, but it read to me like, 00:10:28.834 --> 00:10:34.724 - a guest column, which historically we've sent a lot of guest columns into the, um, to the HT. Yeah. 00:10:34.724 --> 00:10:40.613 - Um, uh, left on a number of them over the years. And if, uh, if you wanted to coordinate, you know, 00:10:40.613 --> 00:10:46.503 - if you wanted to know how to do that or have me help you do that, I have kind of their, um, I don't 00:10:46.503 --> 00:10:52.451 - remember what to call it, but there's essentially a disclaimer text, say written by so and so of the 00:10:52.451 --> 00:10:58.046 - EC, but not the formal opinion of the city or whatever. There's, there's texts that they want. 00:10:58.146 --> 00:11:06.487 - I thought it, not knowing the background, not knowing the context, I thought I read a lot more like 00:11:06.487 --> 00:11:14.828 - a guest column than say a pamphlet. And while we do have plenty of resources to distribute at times 00:11:14.828 --> 00:11:23.336 - that we do table, I think ultimately we only end up in front of so many eyes and it's very, it's text 00:11:23.336 --> 00:11:24.254 - heavy, not 00:11:24.514 --> 00:11:32.029 - and it's good content, obviously, but I'm not sure. My personal knee-jerk reaction here was that I'm 00:11:32.029 --> 00:11:39.544 - not sure as much as a pamphlet goes, but I would very much encourage it done as a guest column to be 00:11:39.544 --> 00:11:47.282 - able to get in front of more eyes in that way, probably more than we'd see at any tabling event anyway. 00:11:47.282 --> 00:11:53.086 - So as long as it fits in their word limit, which I can find here in a minute, 00:11:53.794 --> 00:12:01.159 - I think that'd be a really good direction to go in personally. So I'll put that out there. Thank you 00:12:01.159 --> 00:12:08.451 - for that. Is there any way to get the research on how much we would say somehow quantify if we stop 00:12:08.451 --> 00:12:15.962 - knowing this much to the Republic need? Well, it'd be great to be able to state that. I think it would 00:12:15.962 --> 00:12:22.014 - be complicated and pull a lot of variables like how many people are participating. 00:12:22.658 --> 00:12:28.759 - Yeah. And how many, how long are they using their machines and look at it and so on that stuff. Sure. 00:12:28.759 --> 00:12:35.040 - It would be great to be able to quantify it. Yeah. It might be, it might be worthwhile to say, you know, 00:12:35.040 --> 00:12:41.022 - running a push mower for one hour, you know, uses or emits this amount running a leaf blower for an 00:12:41.022 --> 00:12:47.004 - hour or whatever. And maybe, and then kind of doing like sort of setting up that map for someone to 00:12:47.004 --> 00:12:51.550 - say, instead of doing my lawn every week for two hours, I'm going to do it. 00:12:52.418 --> 00:12:58.306 - twice a month for two hours. So, and just being able to kind of like quantify for yourself, like, okay, 00:12:58.306 --> 00:13:04.250 - well, I typically use it for this long. So I know that I'm no longer producing these emissions. So maybe 00:13:04.250 --> 00:13:09.911 - just like a really basic estimate of what things produce over a period of time. Or maybe a distance 00:13:09.911 --> 00:13:12.062 - in June. We started that. Yeah. Yeah. 00:13:12.930 --> 00:13:22.395 - When I look at Austin, I think they had an electric motor program. They weren't changing it at that 00:13:22.395 --> 00:13:32.049 - time. Here's an example of what the city has done. I didn't know about the electric motor program. Do 00:13:32.049 --> 00:13:42.366 - you remember, is it the department that is in charge of all cycle law maintenance equipment for Bloomington? 00:13:43.842 --> 00:13:50.510 - Do you all remember because I know that they're in the, in the climate. Was it the climate action plan 00:13:50.510 --> 00:13:57.048 - that they're like, subbing out the, as they retire the older appliances? Yeah, that they, thank you. 00:13:57.048 --> 00:14:03.910 - They, they'll be using more energy efficient things. So whoever it is that does that, that would probably 00:14:03.910 --> 00:14:08.830 - be a good department to check into. What department sound am I better with? 00:14:09.026 --> 00:14:21.230 - Sorry, it's public works. No, I don't think. Yeah, you can reach out to Sean Nia. She's a primary contact 00:14:21.230 --> 00:14:33.088 - for all things of the Climate Action Plan. Her name again? Sean, S-H-A-W-N. And then last name is Nia, 00:14:33.088 --> 00:14:35.966 - M-I-Y-A. M-I-L. M-I-Y-A. 00:14:36.226 --> 00:14:44.889 - M-I-Y-A. Yeah, she is the, what is it, director of, no, no, the assistant director of sustainability. 00:14:44.889 --> 00:14:53.467 - Okay. The buses that are becoming electric. Yeah, yeah. So there's a lot of things in the work, so I 00:14:53.467 --> 00:15:01.961 - feel like this could very potentially land in a place with lots of other complementary initiatives. 00:15:01.961 --> 00:15:04.254 - Exactly. Yeah. And if you, 00:15:04.930 --> 00:15:10.252 - I mean, what do you all think about having some sort of contractor, and I don't know if they need to 00:15:10.252 --> 00:15:15.732 - actually come into the EC meeting or if you would just meet with them, but to think through how to make 00:15:15.732 --> 00:15:21.106 - that a productive conversation. So we're taking into consideration the impact that this will have on, 00:15:21.106 --> 00:15:26.270 - you know, individual's businesses or livelihoods or anything like that that does get a little bit 00:15:26.978 --> 00:15:34.352 - you know, more touchy when we're really suggesting something change up like that. Well, a couple of 00:15:34.352 --> 00:15:41.725 - things. I could speak to the contractor who does the lawns where I live. But also, I think it would 00:15:41.725 --> 00:15:49.467 - be good to invite a contractor, one who wants to come in, to come in and talk to us about how this would 00:15:49.467 --> 00:15:54.334 - affect the business. Because this draft suggests that landscapers 00:15:54.818 --> 00:16:00.210 - says are responding to the reduced frequency of lawn cutting by expanding to include other services. 00:16:00.210 --> 00:16:05.763 - I don't know what those services are. We need to know more about it. And if people, if contractors lose 00:16:05.763 --> 00:16:10.834 - homeowner business, are they going to be able to pick it up doing other things for homeowners? 00:16:10.834 --> 00:16:16.440 - I don't know. I'm not sure. Yeah. Nowadays it's trending towards just landscaping. So they'll also mulch 00:16:16.440 --> 00:16:22.046 - through other things. And then the winter season will shovel snow. So they'll keep something year round. 00:16:22.690 --> 00:16:29.011 - Um, yeah, I was going to ask what exactly we were trying to gain by having, say, one contractor. And 00:16:29.011 --> 00:16:35.396 - if we're trying to get an industry opinion, I feel like it might be good to reach out to quite a few. 00:16:35.396 --> 00:16:41.780 - Or if we know that there is one individual or company or something that is enthusiastic about cutting 00:16:41.780 --> 00:16:48.226 - emissions, that might be the type of person that'd say, okay, let's have them come speak to us and how 00:16:48.226 --> 00:16:52.670 - this worked for them. But I'd be hesitant to take just one opinion in. 00:16:52.866 --> 00:17:05.443 - In general, I'm a student that represents the local landscaping industry. Yeah. OK. I live next to Sherwood 00:17:05.443 --> 00:17:17.322 - Oaks Church. Sherwood Oaks, as you know, has huge acres of grass. And it looks beautiful because it's 00:17:17.322 --> 00:17:20.350 - regularly cut every week. 00:17:21.314 --> 00:17:28.030 - whether it needs it or not, depending on it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's a matter of thinking anew about 00:17:28.030 --> 00:17:34.551 - how often we're cutting the grass. Well, keep an eye on what we're going to put. Yeah, I think that 00:17:34.551 --> 00:17:41.398 - sounds great. And I think that Matt's idea of putting something together that would potentially be fifth 00:17:41.398 --> 00:17:47.984 - of the Herald Times, I think, is a great idea. Their guest columns are limited to 600 words. I'm not 00:17:47.984 --> 00:17:50.462 - sure what this draft is currently at. 00:17:50.786 --> 00:17:58.184 - But I'd imagine during the ballpark that it probably wouldn't take much editing. I can't speak to how 00:17:58.184 --> 00:18:05.003 - people actually react to any of them, but I've felt really good about previous guest columns. 00:18:05.003 --> 00:18:12.546 - Guest columns, yeah. And I have ideas for more that I just haven't taken the time to write, but I think 00:18:12.546 --> 00:18:19.582 - this is a no-brainer of something to try to fit in there, 600 word limit, and then have them run 00:18:19.714 --> 00:18:29.598 - What do you think about timing. I mean, this is the ball where all this is stopping them guest concert 00:18:29.598 --> 00:18:30.942 - early spring. 00:18:31.906 --> 00:18:37.303 - Yeah. March, I don't know, right before it would matter when it has already started to matter. Yeah. 00:18:37.303 --> 00:18:42.540 - So yeah, early, early spring, late winter. Yeah. I think like March is when people start getting, 00:18:42.540 --> 00:18:48.364 - you know, the itch to get outside. There's also a way to know just how fast they'll run. Like I've submitted 00:18:48.364 --> 00:18:53.761 - some in the past that literally went on the website the next day, but then there've been other times 00:18:53.761 --> 00:18:57.502 - where it's taken a couple of weeks. So it's not something completely. 00:18:57.890 --> 00:19:05.302 - Reliable. Yeah. A couple of times, some of the ones get burned by them taking too long to publish it. 00:19:05.302 --> 00:19:12.568 - Maybe early 2026. Maybe talk to a contractor and find out at what point they make their feedback to 00:19:12.568 --> 00:19:19.980 - the people. That's a good point. Yeah. Great. So we'll leave it at that. Are there any other thoughts 00:19:19.980 --> 00:19:25.502 - or info that folks want to share with Nora in this moment about this draft? 00:19:27.970 --> 00:19:33.019 - Great. Norm, do you feel like you've got some good next steps in place? Thanks so much. All right. Thank 00:19:33.019 --> 00:19:37.828 - you for contributing this. Norm is only a few months into being on the ECN already. I love that you 00:19:37.828 --> 00:19:42.925 - jumped in with those feet. I love it. It's great. The next thing I want to do is just share, we've talked 00:19:42.925 --> 00:19:47.830 - a little bit about some additional outreach for the Habitat connectivity map. And we'll talk a little 00:19:47.830 --> 00:19:52.542 - bit more about that later on too. But I have, I don't remember where the other one is, but there, 00:19:52.706 --> 00:19:58.473 - I basically put together just like a few new kinds of flyers, just knowing that we have a lot of pamphlets 00:19:58.473 --> 00:20:03.971 - that we are handing out at different tabling events. But I think part of what I'm hoping, and I think 00:20:03.971 --> 00:20:09.899 - the biodiversity working group is hoping for, is that people will be drawn to not just the tool functionality 00:20:09.899 --> 00:20:11.678 - of the habitat connectivity map, 00:20:11.906 --> 00:20:18.411 - but also the idea of what it means and kind of what they can do. So I put together this flyer and I'm 00:20:18.411 --> 00:20:24.979 - very open to any edits or suggestions or input that folks have on it. This is one that is kind of like 00:20:24.979 --> 00:20:31.357 - a one sheet kind of flyer style. And then I think the other two things I have was this was just for 00:20:31.357 --> 00:20:37.861 - the table that the folks at Bugfest had, which is more or less a scannable code that takes you to the 00:20:37.861 --> 00:20:39.902 - Habitat Connectivity Plan page. 00:20:40.162 --> 00:20:45.633 - where the map is found front and center. And then the last one. So this is its own single page as well. 00:20:45.633 --> 00:20:51.051 - I'm basically just trying to like get your attention. But one of the things that I was thinking about, 00:20:51.051 --> 00:20:56.364 - which is why I'd love your thoughts on it if you have any, is we talked about different ways that we 00:20:56.364 --> 00:21:01.624 - might use our budget to kind of supplement some of the things we're doing. And so I've been really, 00:21:01.624 --> 00:21:07.358 - I was gonna say really stuck on the idea, but a bit of wordplay with thinking of like stickers that we could 00:21:07.458 --> 00:21:12.796 - have at our tables as well, so if people go through the process of going onto the map and adding their 00:21:12.796 --> 00:21:17.978 - home and what they're doing to improve habitat fragmentation, then we have these stickers that say, 00:21:17.978 --> 00:21:23.367 - thanks for adding your place, here's a sticker, put it somewhere that makes you feel proud or whatever, 00:21:23.367 --> 00:21:28.653 - but something that's a little bit more interactive and a little bit like the, you know, just a little 00:21:28.653 --> 00:21:31.710 - nudge to encourage people to get in the map and add to it. 00:21:32.226 --> 00:21:37.905 - So those are just a couple of things and we've got more stuff that we're talking through, but I figured 00:21:37.905 --> 00:21:43.475 - while the biodiversity working group has been working on it, I wanted to get in front of you all too. 00:21:43.475 --> 00:21:49.264 - Any input or major issues that you have with this that we should definitely note now before we go forward 00:21:49.264 --> 00:21:54.888 - with anything else? First normally thought I have right now is I like the sticker, but if you're going 00:21:54.888 --> 00:22:00.459 - to, and I think that design would work well as a sticker, but maybe change like map to pledge because 00:22:00.459 --> 00:22:02.206 - that's more like I did a thing. 00:22:02.402 --> 00:22:08.717 - Oh, that's a nice idea. I like that thinking. The stickers would be specifically for people who did 00:22:08.717 --> 00:22:15.285 - it right on the spot. Only if you do it. You have to do it. Or you show us your, you know, you're like, 00:22:15.285 --> 00:22:21.979 - oh, I did do it. I live right there. We planted this tree over there. But yeah, not hand out to everybody 00:22:21.979 --> 00:22:28.926 - because that's not the kind of budget we're working from. It's an eye-hogan stick. Yeah, it is. Yes, exactly. 00:22:30.050 --> 00:22:36.111 - Any other thoughts from folks on, on any of this or anything that you think is missing from the, from 00:22:36.111 --> 00:22:42.291 - the folks that are watching us? Yeah. I think that one is a lot more digestible than the other bloggers 00:22:42.291 --> 00:22:47.757 - we have. I feel interested in actually reading that one. It's not just like a wall of text. 00:22:47.757 --> 00:22:53.759 - I think for me, kind of like just trying to imagine what people, when they hear habitat connectivity 00:22:53.759 --> 00:22:58.334 - math or what the heck, or when they get to it, what the heck does that mean? 00:22:58.626 --> 00:23:03.880 - For me personally, I think that that box that says actions you can take is the thing that my brain is 00:23:03.880 --> 00:23:09.186 - looking for first, which is, I don't even know if what I'm doing counts. I don't even know what you're 00:23:09.186 --> 00:23:14.388 - talking about or if I could do it. And these may or may not be the right examples. I don't know. But 00:23:14.388 --> 00:23:19.179 - trying to give people kind of a jumping off point for what they can be doing. And there's so 00:23:19.179 --> 00:23:24.536 - many interpretations of each of these things that I don't know if you all have any ideas of things that 00:23:24.536 --> 00:23:27.678 - are missing that are really obvious or if you'd like to have 00:23:27.874 --> 00:23:34.202 - Adjusting. Yeah. Are there other groups working on the habitat plan or is it just the same? Yeah, 00:23:34.202 --> 00:23:40.852 - it's we, we worked with the city to get it onto the website and Matt can probably elaborate a bit more 00:23:40.852 --> 00:23:47.374 - on that. But yeah, I was going to say that the, not really the environmental commission came up with 00:23:47.374 --> 00:23:53.895 - the map based off of the plan, which they had done actually right around the time that I started. So 00:23:53.895 --> 00:23:56.478 - the plan itself was fairly old, but we, 00:23:56.866 --> 00:24:03.155 - Um, previous liaison, Linda Thompson and I thought that it was important to push a map just because 00:24:03.155 --> 00:24:09.507 - of its ability to, to increase engagement, to get people to participate and get excited about it and 00:24:09.507 --> 00:24:15.985 - share it. Um, because otherwise the plan is just a document that maybe no one reads. Um, and so we had 00:24:15.985 --> 00:24:22.526 - a previous attempt that an intern had worked on that was not aesthetically pleasing or the most usable. 00:24:22.850 --> 00:24:32.470 - It was a big ask. Recently we got the city GIS to help and for them it was a very easy project. Now 00:24:32.470 --> 00:24:42.283 - we have a much more visually appealing map. It's about getting it in front of people, particularly in 00:24:42.283 --> 00:24:51.326 - certain areas that we want to connect priority habitat. Is it part of the comprehensive plan? 00:24:51.810 --> 00:25:00.695 - Want to consider adding open space to the plan and future is obvious. I don't believe it's formalized 00:25:00.695 --> 00:25:09.406 - in any of their the city's documents. I don't think so. They not to in the climate action plan, but 00:25:09.570 --> 00:25:15.207 - Um, as far as the compliance with that, I don't know if they, you know, if it's anywhere in there, but 00:25:15.207 --> 00:25:20.954 - I don't believe it is. Good question. I don't think so. I know that it's been utilized, but I know Parks 00:25:20.954 --> 00:25:26.482 - mentioned that they've looked into it. We're deciding where corridors should be. Um, so there, there 00:25:26.482 --> 00:25:32.065 - is perhaps a small, um, appreciative audience, but generally we're just trying to, trying to get some 00:25:32.065 --> 00:25:37.538 - public momentum at this point. Yeah. And it just started. Yeah. And sort of the make, the made over 00:25:37.538 --> 00:25:39.454 - version was just released in July. 00:25:39.650 --> 00:25:45.004 - Maybe. Yeah, it was early summer. Yeah. And so I guess the press release went out at that point. But 00:25:45.004 --> 00:25:50.675 - this is kind of on the newer end. So we're really working through how to best get this in front of people. 00:25:50.675 --> 00:25:56.082 - And it is meant for residents of all kinds. So yes, it used to be more geared towards landowners. But 00:25:56.082 --> 00:26:01.488 - with students renting, how does it? I mean, there's plenty of opportunity to do things that are going 00:26:01.488 --> 00:26:06.948 - to be helpful for the insects and animals and everything. So yeah, just trying to figure out different 00:26:06.948 --> 00:26:09.598 - ways to get in front of people, make sense of it. 00:26:10.466 --> 00:26:17.434 - I think, Adam, even though the suggested things like local shops, like the hardware stores or the greenhouses 00:26:17.434 --> 00:26:23.833 - and things like that, at places where people who are investing in their space might be interested in 00:26:23.833 --> 00:26:30.231 - these. Exactly. Interested in these types of things, giving them, that seems we can have a flyer up, 00:26:30.231 --> 00:26:37.073 - but also maybe even like something that could be given to people who are interested, check out or whatever. 00:26:37.073 --> 00:26:38.910 - So yeah, working through it. 00:26:39.234 --> 00:26:44.612 - But yeah, this is just kind of one of the takes on how we might talk about it. Is there any other feedback 00:26:44.612 --> 00:26:49.839 - that people would like to give at this moment? You can always follow the afterwards as well, but I just 00:26:49.839 --> 00:26:54.966 - wanted to put a training. Well, it's, I see the underline, how to have pledge. So then that goes with 00:26:54.966 --> 00:26:57.630 - stickering and you see those words again, you start. 00:26:57.730 --> 00:27:03.997 - And when you click on that QR code, the first thing that happens is there's a pop-up window that says, 00:27:03.997 --> 00:27:10.324 - take the Habitant Activity Pledge, and that's what gets you to where you can add your space to the map. 00:27:10.324 --> 00:27:16.530 - If you don't go through the pledge, though, you can't add your items in the map. So it's really like, 00:27:16.530 --> 00:27:22.675 - it's trying to get folks to understand the pledge is the big, the door that opens into adding to the 00:27:22.675 --> 00:27:25.534 - map, but the map is going to exist either way. 00:27:25.826 --> 00:27:31.597 - And that's the case with the touch, what happens if they get a regular email once a month or something, 00:27:31.597 --> 00:27:37.146 - it reminds them, like, do you want me to clean it, or is it like one and done, never thinking about 00:27:37.146 --> 00:27:43.029 - it? Nothing like that. No, we're not there yet. We've been like five years from now. Yeah. At this point, 00:27:43.029 --> 00:27:48.633 - we're trying to kind of make sure that the ability to add something works well in a way that's like, 00:27:48.633 --> 00:27:54.238 - I don't know, I don't know what language reason, kind of a sort of semi-anonymously so that it's not 00:27:54.530 --> 00:27:59.684 - You don't have like a login to the map where you go in and put your stuff. It would just be like adding 00:27:59.684 --> 00:28:04.888 - to it. So that sense of like, how do you, can you edit your listing or do you just go in and add a whole 00:28:04.888 --> 00:28:09.844 - new one? So kind of talking to the GIS team to start figuring out what's the right level of privacy 00:28:09.844 --> 00:28:14.899 - and, and sort of access to it. But I think the idea of having there be sort of like an email that you 00:28:14.899 --> 00:28:19.856 - get added to, that then you can be potentially contacted about like reminders or this is the season 00:28:19.856 --> 00:28:23.870 - for planting this thing. Or like, here's when you might be seeing these natives. 00:28:24.002 --> 00:28:30.035 - pollinators or whatever. I'm not sure people want to suddenly be on email lists and there's no, you 00:28:30.035 --> 00:28:36.068 - don't submit your email or anything when you bank the pledge. Yeah. Yeah. But I think that, I think 00:28:36.068 --> 00:28:42.644 - that kind of trying to think like, is there anywhere that people can sign up for an email? Is that something 00:28:42.644 --> 00:28:48.798 - that we as a commissioner are actually able to do? Cause that might be a big question too, is do, is, 00:28:49.538 --> 00:28:57.472 - Are we able to have like a mailing list that we can contact people? But I really like the idea. So. 00:28:57.472 --> 00:29:05.486 - I know people don't like it more email that if it was once a month. I have an instrumental question, 00:29:05.486 --> 00:29:13.420 - but only from my info. Are we represented at the weekly farmers market? Is one of us tabling at the 00:29:13.420 --> 00:29:15.166 - farmers market? Yeah. 00:29:15.458 --> 00:29:21.459 - I don't know, we used to do that years and years and years ago. It's a great question. Because, I'm 00:29:21.459 --> 00:29:26.980 - never at your standard, you know, I'm just a P.D. bar, that's a great place to... If, Norm, 00:29:26.980 --> 00:29:33.040 - I'll be honest, if you're interested in tailing the farmers market, I think that would be wonderful. 00:29:33.040 --> 00:29:39.281 - Because of the number of things that we work on, I think that a lot of folks... I have to leave. Sorry. 00:29:39.281 --> 00:29:43.902 - You started coughing and I don't want to sit here and cough, so I apologize. 00:29:44.322 --> 00:29:48.872 - Thanks for being here. Feel free to add yourself to the Zoom if you wanted to sit there and watch or 00:29:48.872 --> 00:29:53.467 - anything like that. Thanks, Adam. But yeah, I mean, I think it would be great, especially with things 00:29:53.467 --> 00:29:58.107 - like this, that we have something we're trying to get out of the puddle. If folks want a table, that's 00:29:58.107 --> 00:30:02.702 - definitely happening. I don't know how one gets a table at the farmers market. They just show up, and 00:30:02.702 --> 00:30:07.342 - they have a little, like, the Parks Department has a little booth, and you just say, hey, I'm here for 00:30:07.342 --> 00:30:11.892 - the info alley, is what they call it. You just show up that morning. Yeah, you just show up. Yeah, a 00:30:11.892 --> 00:30:12.478 - table there. 00:30:12.738 --> 00:30:18.335 - Fairly often for a different thing. And you can just show up and it costs like $10, I think, which I 00:30:18.335 --> 00:30:23.987 - assume to cover my budget. Yeah. And I do wonder if because we're part of the city, they might. Yeah, 00:30:23.987 --> 00:30:29.583 - they might. I was going to say, pre-pandemic, we did somewhat regularly, like once a month, table at 00:30:29.583 --> 00:30:35.180 - the farmers market. I don't remember it costing anything. And it was in foe alley. Yeah. It might be 00:30:35.180 --> 00:30:40.776 - different. Well, if it sounds like it's worthwhile for some of the things we're talking about. I had 00:30:40.776 --> 00:30:42.494 - the foe leaguer the other day. 00:30:43.010 --> 00:30:55.893 - It's up to people's availability and desire. The farmer's market goes on for what, another like three 00:30:55.893 --> 00:31:09.029 - weeks? Is there an info alley inside? Technically, yeah, but it gets like really crowded. Another thing 00:31:09.029 --> 00:31:11.934 - to prepare for spring. 00:31:12.098 --> 00:31:18.299 - Yeah, okay. I will put it on our list of things to chat through and we'll plan for next year. Thank 00:31:18.299 --> 00:31:24.873 - you for offering that. Okay, great. And I like the idea about the mailing list. I'll see if we can figure 00:31:24.873 --> 00:31:31.136 - out like what it would take us long to do something like that, to figure out logistically if we can, 00:31:31.136 --> 00:31:37.337 - because digital communication is very complicated for us. And so figuring out the right channel for 00:31:37.337 --> 00:31:41.182 - that might be a little tricky, but I think it's a great idea. 00:31:41.890 --> 00:31:47.264 - All right. All right. Are folks comfortable with us moving on to the old business working group 00:31:47.264 --> 00:31:52.973 - conversations? Great. OK. So we have all these different subcommittees. We encourage folks to be part 00:31:52.973 --> 00:31:58.683 - of at least one of the subcommittees. You can be in more than one. But we have sort of a limit on how 00:31:58.683 --> 00:32:04.504 - many people we try to have in each one just to kind of keep things spread out and also not accidentally 00:32:04.504 --> 00:32:10.270 - tip into a full environmental commission meeting at a subcommittee meeting because the count of quorum 00:32:10.370 --> 00:32:16.126 - starts to become an issue. So we typically try to have some between two and four people on each of the 00:32:16.126 --> 00:32:21.882 - subcommittees. So we're going to start with water quality. And since we have a new commissioner, would 00:32:21.882 --> 00:32:27.862 - you give us just a quick little, there's kind of a focus on? The water quality group is one that I revived 00:32:27.862 --> 00:32:33.450 - when I joined the environmental commission, because that's like all of my work. So I like doing it. 00:32:33.450 --> 00:32:39.262 - But a lot of stuff we've been focusing on over the past couple of years, been trying to get a handle on 00:32:39.650 --> 00:32:46.054 - The biggest thing is trying to get a handle on what the water quality in the city looks like. Building 00:32:46.054 --> 00:32:52.272 - off of something that air quality group isn't up there, but Matt was leading that. And when I first 00:32:52.272 --> 00:32:58.490 - joined the commission, he and the air quality group had just finished putting together a big report 00:32:58.490 --> 00:33:04.894 - looking at what air quality data was available in the city, where things were monitored, what it said. 00:33:05.154 --> 00:33:10.911 - I've been the monitoring as I remember one of the big findings was the singular air monitoring station 00:33:10.911 --> 00:33:16.501 - that I didn't have. Little City is probably the jankiest one in the state. I think they've replaced 00:33:16.501 --> 00:33:22.147 - it. I think I remember hearing, I've worked down the hall from the air monitoring people and I think 00:33:22.147 --> 00:33:27.737 - I remember hearing them say they were replacing that kind of stuff. But yeah, trying to do that for 00:33:27.737 --> 00:33:29.246 - water quality in the city. 00:33:29.538 --> 00:33:36.869 - Just looking through, like, what all day has been collected in the past. I get an idea of what the state 00:33:36.869 --> 00:33:44.059 - of. Even just the state of knowledge and the water body in the city is seems like we found some really 00:33:44.059 --> 00:33:49.854 - big gaps, but also been working with the storm water in the city utilities office. 00:33:50.370 --> 00:33:57.201 - to kind of get an idea of what they're doing, how we can help them, and just kind of keeping each other 00:33:57.201 --> 00:34:03.967 - up to date on what's going on. And that's actually the big update for water quality right now is I got 00:34:03.967 --> 00:34:10.667 - Liz Carter and Evelyn Gordon, the intern. Liz Carter is the coordinator for the stormwater group, and 00:34:10.667 --> 00:34:17.433 - they will be coming to the next water quality meeting on October the 2nd at whatever room Rachel looks 00:34:17.433 --> 00:34:20.126 - for us when she gets back from vacation. 00:34:20.610 --> 00:34:28.602 - We just got everyone on board for the meeting this week. So we'll get some updates. The stormwater group 00:34:28.602 --> 00:34:36.213 - was trying to do some intensive city-led monitoring this year. So kind of hopefully getting an idea 00:34:36.213 --> 00:34:44.281 - of how that went because field season is kind of winding down. See how the big changes in the legislature 00:34:44.281 --> 00:34:47.934 - have impacted things with stormwater this year. 00:34:48.098 --> 00:34:54.790 - Um, and also hopefully Eric, can you make the second? Okay. Uh, also looking at potentially trying to 00:34:54.790 --> 00:35:01.678 - apply for some grant money for the city for, um, non point source proof and remediation, rehabilitation, 00:35:01.678 --> 00:35:08.633 - things like that. Um, so should be a fun meeting. I haven't had a meeting in a while because there hasn't 00:35:08.633 --> 00:35:15.390 - been a whole lot going on in the holding pattern for a little bit because I've been wanting to see how 00:35:15.490 --> 00:35:24.892 - The monitoring for this year went before doing a lot more. So, yeah. What kind of control do eyes or 00:35:24.892 --> 00:35:32.990 - resident have over water? It's not necessarily going to make a huge amount in like the 00:35:33.314 --> 00:35:40.609 - huge amount of difference in the, like, bigger streams and rivers that have a lot more flowing into 00:35:40.609 --> 00:35:48.049 - it. But, uh, even stuff like you're kind of saying, like mowing your lawn less will have an impact on 00:35:48.049 --> 00:35:55.490 - stormwater that runs from, uh, your lawn, um, or planting more trees, bushes, shrubs, instead of just 00:35:55.490 --> 00:35:57.022 - like turf grass. Um, 00:35:57.410 --> 00:36:08.567 - Because turf grass basically works like asphalt in terms of like water runoff. Or that you report the 00:36:08.567 --> 00:36:16.990 - non point source reporting. Yes, there's a the stormwater group in town has. 00:36:17.602 --> 00:36:23.831 - reporting mechanisms, it's called viewer report. And I think you can get to it through the city website 00:36:23.831 --> 00:36:30.000 - of just like, if you see something that's like someone's discharging pollution that they shouldn't be, 00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:36.230 - or your, the limitations on construction stuff have been, um, sharply curtailed by our state government 00:36:36.230 --> 00:36:42.279 - this year. So there's not as much, uh, as many construction projects that you can report on. Like if 00:36:42.279 --> 00:36:47.550 - you see them doing some things they're not supposed to be, or just like leaving bags of 00:36:47.714 --> 00:36:56.086 - like piles and piles of unguarded hair by a stream bed or something like that. If it's a project that 00:36:56.086 --> 00:37:04.458 - is greater than one acre, you can report it. Does it have to do with what's flowing into Lake Monroe? 00:37:04.458 --> 00:37:12.830 - So Lake Monroe is an interesting case study because nothing we do in Bloomington impacts Lake Monroe. 00:37:13.090 --> 00:37:19.105 - None of the water that comes from the city. We get all of our water to drink from the city, but none 00:37:19.105 --> 00:37:25.239 - of the water that flows out of the city goes into Lakeland Road. We get all of our drinking water from 00:37:25.239 --> 00:37:31.373 - the lake, but nothing goes in. That's interesting. All of the water from Bloomington either flows into 00:37:31.373 --> 00:37:37.388 - Peer Creek, which merges into Salt Creek downstream of the dam. Just below the dam. Or it flows into 00:37:37.388 --> 00:37:41.854 - Bean Blossom Creek, which then goes into the west fork of the White River. 00:37:42.242 --> 00:37:49.677 - So we're affected by Brown County. Brown County. Brown County. Yeah. Clowning Monroe, just not city 00:37:49.677 --> 00:37:57.113 - limits. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of Eastern Monroe County and Brown County is where most of the water 00:37:57.113 --> 00:38:04.846 - for like Monroe comes from. I agree. I think that's a great update. And then the last thing I was going 00:38:04.846 --> 00:38:11.166 - to have you add is the Hoosier River Watch option? Yes. Hoosier River Watch, we have 00:38:11.490 --> 00:38:20.125 - been discussing, like bringing people in to come and chat and share expertise with us on things. I talked 00:38:20.125 --> 00:38:28.760 - with Dylan, the Hoosier Riverwatch coordinator, who, if you went to BuckFest this week, he was co-running 00:38:28.760 --> 00:38:33.566 - the booth with me. He was the tall one. And he said he had 00:38:33.666 --> 00:38:40.001 - be more than happy to come talk to us and anyone in the community. We wanted to drag out to learn about 00:38:40.001 --> 00:38:46.274 - Hoosier River Watch in our December meeting, whether I think currently it's Pennsylvania for the 19th, 00:38:46.274 --> 00:38:52.365 - but I don't know if we have frequently bumped the December meeting up a week because of final exams 00:38:52.365 --> 00:38:58.517 - and the semester and stuff. So he said it would be good for, it's all his thing about bumping it up. 00:38:58.517 --> 00:39:03.390 - But yeah, he will come and talk to us about volunteer water quality monitoring. 00:39:03.682 --> 00:39:10.460 - how to do it, how you can learn to do it, what that data goes to, how you can access that data. Tell 00:39:10.460 --> 00:39:17.170 - me some of the stuff that would be cool to go into. But yeah, there's a lot of data there right now 00:39:17.170 --> 00:39:23.880 - that's actually really cool to look through. So even just learning how to access that kind of stuff 00:39:23.880 --> 00:39:30.658 - is very neat and interesting. So yeah, it should be a cool presentation. And if December sounds good 00:39:30.658 --> 00:39:33.342 - to you guys, then you can go with that. 00:39:33.954 --> 00:39:41.434 - Cool. Great. Well, thanks for the update. The ECPC is the environmental commission planning committee, 00:39:41.434 --> 00:39:48.768 - and it's basically our opportunity to talk through any development plans or variances in Bloomington 00:39:48.768 --> 00:39:56.030 - that have environmental impacts associated with them. So Rachel will sort of flag anything that has 00:39:56.322 --> 00:40:04.401 - a decent environmental element to it. And then this subcommittee will sit down and kind of talk it through 00:40:04.401 --> 00:40:12.026 - and potentially come up with a memo that we'd like to send to be considered with that, like with the 00:40:12.026 --> 00:40:19.878 - BZA or whoever it is that's hearing that request. So the meeting for the same Remy, Remy, Remy project, 00:40:19.878 --> 00:40:25.918 - that got pushed to the next meeting, right? So no meeting on that at this time. 00:40:26.754 --> 00:40:33.405 - What was it that happened with that? I remember looking at the email, but I haven't looked at the documents. 00:40:33.405 --> 00:40:39.507 - I saw they did some wetland delineation, but not enough. Do you know what's going on with that? I'm 00:40:39.507 --> 00:40:45.670 - not sure what Billy used to do. Okay. Because I know, I remember Rachel said that they had submitted 00:40:45.670 --> 00:40:50.430 - some documentation, but they were unhappy with what had been submitted. Okay. 00:40:51.778 --> 00:40:57.834 - And so part of the idea is that we would be able to say before it's in its final stages, here's what 00:40:57.834 --> 00:41:03.830 - we're concerned about, or here's what we think are opportunities, and then potentially adjust their 00:41:03.830 --> 00:41:09.945 - proposal. So yeah, it's kind of a nice way to be aware of what's happening in the city too. The light 00:41:09.945 --> 00:41:16.001 - pollution working group. I'll pass it over to Adam. Oh yeah, so the light pollution working group is 00:41:16.001 --> 00:41:20.318 - pretty new. As someone found earlier in this group, they've said it off 00:41:21.250 --> 00:41:27.888 - pretty self-explanatory thing. We're just kind of looking at where light pollution's coming from in 00:41:27.888 --> 00:41:34.725 - the city and what we can do to reduce it and that kind of thing. We haven't met in a while, so I don't 00:41:34.725 --> 00:41:41.363 - have much of an update, but while data is here, camera away, I wanted to ask about some language in 00:41:41.363 --> 00:41:48.134 - the UDO, if you don't mind, that I found annoying. Perfect. So this is, like I said, in the UDO, this 00:41:48.134 --> 00:41:50.590 - is the section about light trespass. 00:41:51.042 --> 00:41:58.217 - Says all light fixtures shall be installed so that light trespass from any property line except a property 00:41:58.217 --> 00:42:05.392 - line abutting a public street shall not exceed one foot candle. To me, that sounds like the light trespass 00:42:05.392 --> 00:42:12.165 - regulations only apply if the light is like not on the other side of a street, which would imply you 00:42:12.165 --> 00:42:19.742 - could shine as much light as you want across the street into your neighbor's house. Yeah, that's pretty much it. 00:42:19.906 --> 00:42:26.232 - I just didn't know if you have any thoughts on this, because it seems kind of absurd to me. And I think 00:42:26.232 --> 00:42:32.924 - I can show you this later, too. Yeah. I have not encountered this. Since I've been here, I've not encountered 00:42:32.924 --> 00:42:39.311 - issues of like, best pass. Yeah. Another thing, the regulations are kind of weak. So I think they should 00:42:39.311 --> 00:42:45.516 - be restricted. My interpretation of this is that there's basically no regulations on like, across the 00:42:45.516 --> 00:42:49.470 - street. Only people who like, share your article if they saw it. 00:42:49.794 --> 00:42:57.633 - Yeah. You know, we had one enforcement case where neighbors were complaining about a property that had 00:42:57.633 --> 00:43:05.548 - a lot of issues, including a lot of environmental issues. One of them being super bright outdoor lights 00:43:05.548 --> 00:43:13.539 - that they can use to shine in their party area. They didn't issue a violation, and they did. It actually 00:43:13.539 --> 00:43:15.518 - applied to the Americans. 00:43:16.002 --> 00:43:23.124 - But that's the only times that I've been here in a year and a half that we've had light trespassing. 00:43:23.124 --> 00:43:30.387 - That was a UDF issue. But I wasn't aware that there were the street sort of bumps. The main issue with 00:43:30.387 --> 00:43:37.579 - it, I think, is streetlights, like along the street, because those typically are on the property line 00:43:37.579 --> 00:43:45.406 - above the public street. So that would mean the streetlights could shine any amount of light on your property. 00:43:45.794 --> 00:43:52.341 - it would still be within the standards of the UDO. So I think if I'm reading this right, in order to 00:43:52.341 --> 00:43:58.887 - do anything about streetlights, really, this would have to change. And that's, are you familiar with 00:43:58.887 --> 00:44:05.628 - the UDO or kind of what that? Unified development ordinance. I was gonna, David, yeah, I was gonna say, 00:44:05.628 --> 00:44:12.174 - I don't know, David, if you kind of want to put into words sort of how we think about the UDO, but I 00:44:12.174 --> 00:44:13.406 - was thinking about 00:44:13.634 --> 00:44:19.816 - our role in proposing if we'd like to see some change in language or we see a bunch of hate. Would you 00:44:19.816 --> 00:44:25.878 - mind just kind of describing how we think about the UDO kind of just as a planning department? Sure, 00:44:25.878 --> 00:44:32.060 - UDO, inside development ordinance, is our zoning ordinance and our subdivision ordinance combined. And 00:44:32.060 --> 00:44:38.061 - so it is the document that directs all development on property and all use of property. So it tells 00:44:38.061 --> 00:44:40.222 - you if you're building a structure, 00:44:40.386 --> 00:44:47.256 - setbacks required, how high architectural guidelines, things like that. And then it also dictates what 00:44:47.256 --> 00:44:54.060 - you can and cannot do on property. That's a nutshell because it's super long and super complex and at 00:44:54.060 --> 00:45:00.797 - times contradicts itself. And we're always in the process of refining it and trying to, it's kind of 00:45:00.797 --> 00:45:07.134 - whack-a-mole because as soon as you not take care of one thing, another five problems crop up. 00:45:07.554 --> 00:45:15.244 - But one of the things that I think this group is helpful for my department is to advise on environmentally 00:45:15.244 --> 00:45:22.503 - oriented requirements, restrictions, regulations that can be fine-tuned, improved, made better. So I 00:45:22.503 --> 00:45:29.690 - think Anna brings up just the sort of thing that we want to hear from the Environmental Commission. 00:45:29.690 --> 00:45:36.446 - Typically, we have an omnibus set of amendments to the UDO once a year, and sometimes there's 00:45:36.674 --> 00:45:43.538 - half a dozen changes. Sometimes there's almost a hundred changes. And so we would fold in the 00:45:43.538 --> 00:45:51.424 - EC recommendations into those, into that basket of amendments that we take first to the planning commission 00:45:51.424 --> 00:45:55.294 - and then to the council ultimately for ratification. 00:45:55.458 --> 00:46:01.567 - What's, I can't remember the timeline for when they sort of do the internal collection of those ideas 00:46:01.567 --> 00:46:07.795 - then get to the planning commission. We keep a laundry list and then we grow it all year long. And then 00:46:07.795 --> 00:46:13.784 - I think we start in earnest looking at what we're going to take in the spring. And then sometime by 00:46:13.784 --> 00:46:19.832 - summer, hopefully we have our whole set of them in front of the decision makers. So does the legless 00:46:19.832 --> 00:46:21.150 - ordinance only affect 00:46:21.410 --> 00:46:29.496 - Residential areas or those businesses there? Well, there's different standards for different zones in 00:46:29.496 --> 00:46:37.662 - the city. So residential zones have a different standard than the commercial zones, which is different 00:46:37.662 --> 00:46:45.907 - from downtown. But I think most of it is controlled with sound. I'm guessing also that the Public Works 00:46:45.907 --> 00:46:49.950 - has a manual, a guidance manual they're using too. 00:46:50.786 --> 00:46:57.409 - This is treating light as a potential nuisance. It's more from a zoning perspective. But I imagine there 00:46:57.409 --> 00:47:03.780 - are other guiding documents that, if you ever had a chance to talk to Chris or Nalek. So I've talked 00:47:03.780 --> 00:47:10.277 - with, oh man, I'm blanking out your name, someone on the public works specifically about streetlights. 00:47:10.277 --> 00:47:16.584 - That would be Chris. Yeah, OK. Kind of the problem I ran into was this line in the UDR because most 00:47:16.584 --> 00:47:19.486 - of the streetlights are on the public street. 00:47:20.130 --> 00:47:27.568 - you know, panel limits, what you can do in that respect. But they do have standards that are stricter 00:47:27.568 --> 00:47:35.079 - than what is in the UDO for the most part, at least for the public stuff. And David, is this on? Seems 00:47:35.079 --> 00:47:42.445 - like we used to also have a noise pollution group. Did we not? And what happened to that? And that's 00:47:42.445 --> 00:47:48.862 - related to the mowers and things and the leaf blowers. It seems to me we have suggested 00:47:49.506 --> 00:48:00.379 - that the EDL make at least gasoline-powered leaf blowers illegal. Now, we've suggested that to the city 00:48:00.379 --> 00:48:11.148 - council and it hasn't come, I think, but we have suggested that as this group in the past. So, I don't 00:48:11.148 --> 00:48:19.198 - know if we actually had a noise pollution group, but it seems we would have. 00:48:19.426 --> 00:48:25.703 - Formally had one of the time that I've been on. I know it's been proposed and I know we had a speaker 00:48:25.703 --> 00:48:32.165 - come talk to us about the two stroke, uh, gas leaf blower specifically. Um, I know we had a conversation 00:48:32.165 --> 00:48:38.319 - about, man, can we at least cap the hours? So someone isn't doing that while someone else is trying 00:48:38.319 --> 00:48:44.596 - to sleep or something like that. But I don't remember any actions, um, formally put forwards. I think 00:48:44.596 --> 00:48:46.750 - one of the bigger concerns was no. 00:48:46.850 --> 00:48:55.598 - enforcement mechanism, who's gonna respond to calls if they're using their gas-powered blower after 00:48:55.598 --> 00:49:04.346 - seven, or whatever it would be. So I remember conversations, but at least in my years on, there was 00:49:04.346 --> 00:49:13.182 - never an attempted action. Okay, I was reminded of this by listening to Living on Earth last Sunday, 00:49:13.182 --> 00:49:14.494 - and there was, 00:49:14.722 --> 00:49:23.611 - Their specialty that day was talking about noise pollution and the difficulties for people's health 00:49:23.611 --> 00:49:32.677 - as a result, and also wildlife reacting to noise. They were interviewing a guy who had written a book 00:49:32.677 --> 00:49:41.566 - called Flemur, which I recommend to anybody who would be an interesting book about noise pollution. 00:49:42.082 --> 00:49:49.747 - Yeah, that's a good note. And Matt, to your point, the idea of enforcement, I think that's always a 00:49:49.747 --> 00:49:57.642 - really helpful thing for us to keep in mind is anything that we are asking for there to be some change 00:49:57.642 --> 00:50:05.306 - to the ordinance or any kind of regulation on things, knowing that the flip side of that is someone 00:50:05.306 --> 00:50:09.982 - has to enforce that being done or not done. And that is this 00:50:10.082 --> 00:50:15.689 - Something that we are asking of our city services, which at this time are spread very, very thin. And 00:50:15.689 --> 00:50:21.295 - there are a lot of places that need a lot of things. And so kind of keeping in mind, if there's stuff 00:50:21.295 --> 00:50:26.957 - that we're asking to say, you know, if somebody's doing this, it's breaking this rule. So you need to, 00:50:26.957 --> 00:50:31.134 - you can call and tell us and we'll go find them. That is an important tool. 00:50:31.394 --> 00:50:37.095 - to be able to access, but also knowing that that's something that if we cut it to a thousand pieces, 00:50:37.095 --> 00:50:43.248 - that's a lot of, a lot of requests of the city's services. Right. There are other issues, both environmental 00:50:43.248 --> 00:50:49.175 - and otherwise, that we're having the same problem with that enforcement of whether it's someone agreeing 00:50:49.175 --> 00:50:55.045 - to plant trees at another site in order to reduce canopy below a certain percentage. And I'm just never 00:50:55.045 --> 00:50:59.166 - following up and planning with another site or agreeing to, to our UDOs. 00:50:59.618 --> 00:51:07.007 - agreed upon plant lists of native trees, and then they just bring in their landscapers and they plant 00:51:07.007 --> 00:51:14.323 - whatever. Well, the trip commission and the city foresters keep a watch out the back. Yeah, but I've 00:51:14.323 --> 00:51:21.712 - heard as recently as earlier this week, conversations involving council members and others about some 00:51:21.712 --> 00:51:29.246 - of this stuff. Invasives ended up being put in and we don't have an enforcement arm for certain things. 00:51:29.602 --> 00:51:34.901 - But it is, it is helpful when it seems like, like what happens bringing up words like, can we just change 00:51:34.901 --> 00:51:40.150 - the language altogether of how we think about how things are structured and those kinds of things. Yeah, 00:51:40.150 --> 00:51:45.199 - those make a lot of sense. And versus yeah, when a development happens and two years from now, some, 00:51:45.199 --> 00:51:50.448 - you know, their natives die. And so they plant something that is, you know, not a great choice and who's 00:51:50.448 --> 00:51:55.497 - going to be the one that stumbles past that location and says, Hey, that's not what we agreed to six 00:51:55.497 --> 00:51:58.846 - years ago or whatever. It's really, yeah, it's really complicated. 00:51:59.874 --> 00:52:09.145 - Yeah. Adam, other things you want to share? A couple follow-up questions. So the language in the media, 00:52:09.145 --> 00:52:18.149 - if I wanted to sort of get the correct interpretation of that, is there someone specific I can go to 00:52:18.149 --> 00:52:27.241 - to ask? Yeah, that specific language. Yes. Yeah. I would say send me the email, and then I'll send it 00:52:27.241 --> 00:52:29.470 - to one of our preeminent 00:52:29.570 --> 00:52:39.993 - And then if we did potentially want to change any language in the UDOS, how would we start that process? 00:52:39.993 --> 00:52:50.118 - Probably it's going to be, what would be ideal is to craft something close to what you would consider 00:52:50.118 --> 00:52:51.806 - better language. 00:52:52.418 --> 00:53:00.122 - And then we'll forward that to Eric Grulick, who is the keeper of our laundry list of things that we're 00:53:00.122 --> 00:53:08.048 - going to be looking at, which you can send out to me. That's all I had. I don't know if you had something. 00:53:08.048 --> 00:53:16.049 - It gives us a lot of time to consider better video. Maybe that'll be one of the topics of our next meeting. 00:53:16.049 --> 00:53:21.086 - OK, well, thanks for the updates. Biodiversity working group, well, 00:53:21.698 --> 00:53:28.900 - Matt, do you want to share anything about anything in particular before I kind of just bulldoze some 00:53:28.900 --> 00:53:36.101 - other things? Shannon is typically kind of like the point person on that working group. So Matt's at 00:53:36.101 --> 00:53:43.303 - our service. I was going to say, we just kind of what happened. We did carry especially presented in 00:53:43.303 --> 00:53:49.150 - front of the city council and they approved our BC to USA resolution. So pending. 00:53:50.178 --> 00:53:56.883 - acceptance from the Bee City folks. We will officially be a Bee City, which is cool because that is 00:53:56.883 --> 00:54:04.192 - the conclusion of a project that a former commissioner who graduated in winter and rolled off the commission 00:54:04.192 --> 00:54:10.964 - that really wanted to see us become the Bee City. That also includes the Parks Department. The Parks 00:54:10.964 --> 00:54:18.206 - Department is going to handle a lot of it. It turns out that they were independently trying to work towards 00:54:18.562 --> 00:54:25.256 - the exact same thing as us, we just didn't realize we were both on that path. But yeah, fortunately 00:54:25.256 --> 00:54:32.083 - we coordinated with them and Joanna Sparks is going to handle a lot of the stuff that's good that the 00:54:32.083 --> 00:54:38.776 - city should handle just because you know, boards are commissioned to volunteer and there's turnover 00:54:38.776 --> 00:54:45.470 - and it's good to have someone within the city handling things like a report or initiating meetings. 00:54:45.666 --> 00:54:52.052 - We also discussed in a biodiversity meeting, the Mayor Monarch pledge is something we had done in the 00:54:52.052 --> 00:54:58.376 - past. They've changed their criteria and we were going to try to determine as a group at some point, 00:54:58.376 --> 00:55:04.762 - whether that was something we wanted to pursue. And I signed up for the updates. It's been closed for 00:55:04.762 --> 00:55:11.148 - the 2025 year. And so, yeah, we should get an update whenever they open the application. Yeah, you're 00:55:11.148 --> 00:55:14.654 - glanced at it. And it looks like they take applications 00:55:14.754 --> 00:55:23.851 - from December through March, like it's an early year thing and you have to state at least three actions 00:55:23.851 --> 00:55:32.772 - from their list of 30 actions that you intend to do and then you have to do them and submit an end of 00:55:32.772 --> 00:55:36.446 - year report saying what you did. Which my 00:55:37.314 --> 00:55:44.455 - Again, my gut reaction as a city that's doing a lot of great stuff to support monarchs and all the native 00:55:44.455 --> 00:55:51.395 - insights, that feels like a lot of work to get a certain accreditation. But I'm not going to make that 00:55:51.395 --> 00:55:58.266 - call. We and also the city can decide whether that's something we want to pursue based on who's going 00:55:58.266 --> 00:56:02.174 - to handle all that, the applications, reports, et cetera. 00:56:03.650 --> 00:56:12.279 - That is sort of where we stand at the moment in biodiversity, as far as I know. How did Bugfest go for 00:56:12.279 --> 00:56:20.572 - you guys? Bugfest was great. We needed to print a lot more Bug Bingo in the future. Oh, good news, 00:56:20.572 --> 00:56:28.949 - good news. It was very popular, whereas the other pamphlets were hit or miss. The insects were very 00:56:28.949 --> 00:56:30.206 - popular again. 00:56:30.370 --> 00:56:37.668 - We let people touch the bugs at our station, so it was a big hit with the kids. But yeah, trying to 00:56:37.668 --> 00:56:45.258 - send them off with the homework assignment of bug bingo, finding these bugs in their yard or apartment, 00:56:45.258 --> 00:56:53.067 - whatever it is, was great. I remember at least one parent saying, fill that out and I'll get you a reward. 00:56:53.067 --> 00:56:55.038 - He didn't say what it was. 00:56:55.170 --> 00:57:01.662 - I wonder if we can use the bug bingo sheet to sort of spread more information about it. This is what 00:57:01.662 --> 00:57:08.154 - you can do to get more data both. Have you had trouble finding a bingo? Yeah. You guys have any luck 00:57:08.154 --> 00:57:14.902 - getting people to sign up for the Habitat 2.0 Play Store? I definitely had some people scan the QR code, 00:57:14.902 --> 00:57:21.394 - but it's tough to know since everything has to run through GIS. And if they did the pledge, it might 00:57:21.394 --> 00:57:24.158 - take days to appear. So it's inconclusive. 00:57:24.418 --> 00:57:31.879 - Yeah, a couple people kind of enthusiastically took the pamphlets, a couple people maybe more reluctantly 00:57:31.879 --> 00:57:39.622 - took the pamphlets. If they were down on some people scanning the QR code, I think from a tabling standpoint, 00:57:39.622 --> 00:57:46.942 - the big QR code and visuals are a plus. Cool. Hey. I was going to add one extra thing about the habitat 00:57:46.942 --> 00:57:49.758 - activity plan that I alluded to is that 00:57:49.858 --> 00:57:55.421 - Yeah, the farmers market on October 18th is the Blooming Neighborhoods Celebration Special, which is 00:57:55.421 --> 00:58:01.038 - like all the different neighborhood associations getting all these different tables in this big group 00:58:01.038 --> 00:58:06.546 - and then you can walk around and find yours or stock others, whatever you do with that information. 00:58:06.546 --> 00:58:12.164 - But Matt and I were talking about how the websites that the city offers and also the various websites 00:58:12.164 --> 00:58:15.358 - that each of the associations have are really outdated or 00:58:15.650 --> 00:58:21.511 - completely defunct or don't exist at all. But these organizations obviously are getting together, or 00:58:21.511 --> 00:58:27.372 - these groups are obviously getting together because they're fee-delaying and they're meeting and all 00:58:27.372 --> 00:58:33.175 - that. So I'm planning to, if anyone wants to join me, you're welcome. But I'm planning to make some 00:58:33.175 --> 00:58:39.036 - time to go to that farmer's market and talk to different tables just about our group doing some kind 00:58:39.036 --> 00:58:43.678 - of information sharing about the Habitat Connectivity Plan and that and pledge. 00:58:44.034 --> 00:58:48.977 - so that at some point in their conversations and meetings, they can say, hey, here's something that 00:58:48.977 --> 00:58:54.068 - the city is trying to help make happen. So in our area, if you have the ability to plant these things, 00:58:54.068 --> 00:58:59.110 - if you have the ability to add a birdhouse or whatever it would be, those conversations are happening 00:58:59.110 --> 00:59:04.052 - in smaller groups and groups of people who know each other, might wanna work together, that sort of 00:59:04.052 --> 00:59:09.143 - thing. So I stumbled across that and was super excited just because getting in touch with neighborhood 00:59:09.143 --> 00:59:13.246 - associations is really, really hard in this town because they're all so spread out 00:59:13.410 --> 00:59:20.514 - not easy to find. So October 18th, it's the universe making it a little easier. But yeah, I'll be happy 00:59:20.514 --> 00:59:27.686 - to show up and chat with some folks. Okay, the last thing on here is special projects. And I'm actually, 00:59:27.686 --> 00:59:34.653 - one of the things that I will do for this next meeting is share with you all some proposals for a new 00:59:34.653 --> 00:59:41.278 - tablecloth. And also the other thing, oh, a presentation board. We talked about having more like 00:59:41.442 --> 00:59:47.056 - a board that has all the ECs, you know, little things that we're doing and examples and stuff versus 00:59:47.056 --> 00:59:52.670 - just being like a pile of flyers that we hand out. So doing something that's a little bit more showy 00:59:52.670 --> 00:59:56.894 - and interesting. So I'll share that with you all next time we get together. 00:59:57.250 --> 01:00:02.955 - The ego heroes awards are going to be here before we know it and it always feels like we are behind 01:00:02.955 --> 01:00:08.888 - the ball on this. So I wanted to share that with everyone and say, or is there anyone who knows they're 01:00:08.888 --> 01:00:14.935 - interested in helping to plan the theme or wanting to pull together ideas for like resources and outreach 01:00:14.935 --> 01:00:16.190 - and things like that. 01:00:16.418 --> 01:00:23.040 - for this coming year. The Eco Heroes Awards happen in April. It's typically the big award ceremonies, 01:00:23.040 --> 01:00:29.986 - typically around Earth Day. And we invite little tiny children all the way up to college students, adults, 01:00:29.986 --> 01:00:36.673 - retirees, anyone in the community who wants to submit some kind of art expression. It's Eco Heroes Art 01:00:36.673 --> 01:00:43.295 - Contest, artistic expression around the theme that we have for the year. And so last year it was Bugs 01:00:43.295 --> 01:00:45.502 - in Bloom, how native insects help 01:00:46.562 --> 01:00:52.791 - Bloomington Thrive or something. I forget what the really, really long subtitle was, but it was about 01:00:52.791 --> 01:00:58.959 - native insects. And so we put together the theme, we put together some imagery, we do a call out, we 01:00:58.959 --> 01:01:05.066 - send things to teachers, to educators, to different education groups. And we also ask for donations 01:01:05.066 --> 01:01:11.234 - or support from different businesses in town. And then all of this comes together over the course of 01:01:11.234 --> 01:01:13.310 - the first few months of the year. 01:01:13.474 --> 01:01:18.742 - We typically do a big ceremony where we announce the winners of the different age groups. And it's a 01:01:18.742 --> 01:01:23.957 - very exciting moment for everyone. But coming up with this theme turns out to be one of the hardest 01:01:23.957 --> 01:01:29.277 - parts of all of it. So I am inviting anyone who is interested in being in that conversation to let me 01:01:29.277 --> 01:01:34.492 - know. And I will also reach out to folks who aren't here right now to see if they want to be in it. 01:01:34.492 --> 01:01:39.759 - I was just going to say, I already have a first donation picked up. Oh, yes. Good for cooks. We were 01:01:39.759 --> 01:01:43.358 - a little late this last year, but we'll get it happening. I love it. 01:01:43.522 --> 01:01:52.758 - Hopefully it's not food related. It's like a little bag of cookies. It's like going to be a rough next 01:01:52.758 --> 01:02:01.904 - spring. Matt, thank you as always. Awesome. All right. Is there anybody else who is certain that they 01:02:01.904 --> 01:02:11.139 - want to be in the subcommittee for planning anything? You can always join later. All right. Well, stay 01:02:11.139 --> 01:02:12.574 - tuned for that. 01:02:12.962 --> 01:02:19.687 - Excited to get that off and running early because it always gets a little wild at the end. Yeah. Okay. 01:02:19.687 --> 01:02:26.413 - Last thing on the old business is presentation schedule. We talked last month about potentially having 01:02:26.413 --> 01:02:33.203 - people do different presentations on things and I just wanted to run through the notes I have from last 01:02:33.203 --> 01:02:39.928 - month so you all kind of know what's out there. We don't have any official presentations scheduled for 01:02:39.928 --> 01:02:41.822 - this coming October meeting. 01:02:42.178 --> 01:02:47.245 - But in November, we talked about Nadia, who's one of our commissioners. She said she was going to, I 01:02:47.245 --> 01:02:52.613 - think have her maybe senior thesis that she wanted to, she would need to be presenting for school purposes 01:02:52.613 --> 01:02:57.731 - a little bit, like maybe a couple of weeks after our meeting. So she wanted to have a chance to share 01:02:57.731 --> 01:03:02.848 - her work with us in the November meeting. November is also our annual planning meeting. So we'll talk 01:03:02.848 --> 01:03:07.614 - a little bit more about that and make sure everybody's ready for that. But that's typically a, 01:03:07.714 --> 01:03:13.262 - a big kitchen, sort of dinner and snack situation. And we spend the majority of that meeting talking 01:03:13.262 --> 01:03:18.920 - about what we want to do in 2026. So it's usually just kind of a, it's a much more casual meeting. Our 01:03:18.920 --> 01:03:24.414 - agenda doesn't have many of these points at all, but it'll be nice to hear from Nadia and then have 01:03:24.414 --> 01:03:30.127 - a brainstorm sesh. We also have some notes about Cassie who is doing a project on something with solar. 01:03:30.127 --> 01:03:34.686 - I can't remember what it was specifically, but she's one of our commissioners too. 01:03:34.786 --> 01:03:41.085 - So she was hoping that she could present her work that she'd been doing probably in the beginning of 01:03:41.085 --> 01:03:47.757 - 2026. We've got Dylan from Hoosier River Watch who will potentially be our December person once we confirm 01:03:47.757 --> 01:03:54.243 - that meeting date. Nadia does work with the DNR deer hotline. And so she had suggested getting in touch 01:03:54.243 --> 01:04:00.604 - with Joe Caudill who was the state deer biologist to talk to us a little bit about sort of the status 01:04:00.604 --> 01:04:02.974 - of deer in Indiana, kind of like the, 01:04:03.298 --> 01:04:09.568 - deer management, deer impact side of things, maybe in like February or so next year. And then Adam had 01:04:09.568 --> 01:04:15.717 - suggested that he'd be happy to talk about invasive animals and their impact in Bloomington, which I 01:04:15.717 --> 01:04:22.048 - think is super interesting. So we'll find a time that he can give a little presentation on an area that 01:04:22.048 --> 01:04:28.197 - he's specialized in. And then if we end up having something more than we want to do about the mowing 01:04:28.197 --> 01:04:32.702 - stuff, that can be something to make time for too in the early next year. 01:04:32.930 --> 01:04:38.586 - I forgot Adam had suggested that one or I didn't know about it, but on that kind of thing, would it 01:04:38.586 --> 01:04:44.525 - be useful to have, try and get somebody from like MCIRs to come out and do invasive plants or something? 01:04:44.525 --> 01:04:50.464 - This idea? Oh yeah, I'm sure they'd be happy to do that. That's a good idea. Okay. On the list and then, 01:04:50.464 --> 01:04:56.403 - I think Rachel usually goes to the MCIRs meetings, right? So we can, oh, do you normally go to the MCIRs 01:04:56.403 --> 01:05:02.398 - meetings? I don't go. You do not go? No, Rachel goes. Okay. So I'll see if Rachel wants to bring that up. 01:05:03.010 --> 01:05:09.222 - Okay. Great. Anyway, those are the things sort of on the horizon down the road. So I just wanted to 01:05:09.222 --> 01:05:15.433 - keep you all up to speed on all these notes. Staff update, we received this email. David, would you 01:05:15.433 --> 01:05:21.645 - like to share this email that we received? Yeah, I don't have much to add about it. Rachel received 01:05:21.645 --> 01:05:28.478 - it on September 8th from Michaela Owens, Communications for Marketing Contact from Indiana University Cinema. 01:05:29.698 --> 01:05:37.209 - showing a documentary called Seeds. She can read the little capsule and middle paragraph there about 01:05:37.209 --> 01:05:45.017 - what that's about. And Michaela is asking if the Environmental Commission reviews such a media platforms 01:05:45.017 --> 01:05:51.486 - to note this movie presentation and send out some information about it. And that's it. 01:05:52.194 --> 01:05:58.151 - Sounds good. Does anyone have any? So typically, we have a Facebook page for the EC. So typically, if 01:05:58.151 --> 01:06:04.109 - there are things people want to post on our social media account, we'll send them through Rachel, who 01:06:04.109 --> 01:06:10.358 - will then make sure they get posted. So does anyone have any strong thoughts on including or not including 01:06:10.358 --> 01:06:16.257 - this in our social media feed? I have no objection to sharing it. Yep. OK, I feel the same way, too. 01:06:16.257 --> 01:06:21.630 - OK, great. Well, then we'll make sure that Rachel gets the note that, yeah, we're happy to. 01:06:22.018 --> 01:06:29.482 - Have them share. Thank you for putting that up there, David. Okay, this is where our team now reports 01:06:29.482 --> 01:06:36.800 - on meetings that they went to of other groups in the city. Some are permissions, some are different 01:06:36.800 --> 01:06:44.338 - organizations, but they're mostly relevant to what we're doing here at TC. So I'll pass it over to Mr. 01:06:44.338 --> 01:06:50.046 - David Parkhurst for TC in Iraq. Yes, the True Commission met this past Monday 01:06:50.690 --> 01:07:00.810 - Usually our meetings start with what we're doing right now, reports from other groups. And so we start 01:07:00.810 --> 01:07:11.224 - with the city forester's report. And this time, instead of a city forester report, he gave us a quarterly 01:07:11.224 --> 01:07:19.870 - tree risk assessment and reporting document. And just to pick a few things off of that, 01:07:20.130 --> 01:07:39.062 - his progress report for 2025. He's pruned a few more than 1,000 trees, removed about 100 from along 01:07:39.062 --> 01:07:49.854 - the tornado damage. Lidded 142 trees, inventoried 3,500. 01:07:50.914 --> 01:07:59.685 - and added 1,100 plus trees in the inventory that hadn't been seen before, I think. And that's most of 01:07:59.685 --> 01:08:08.371 - what he reported. So I'll then go on to other parts of the two commissions meeting. The next part is 01:08:08.371 --> 01:08:17.056 - for me to tell them about what the environmental commission had done in its last meeting, so I don't 01:08:17.056 --> 01:08:19.550 - need to tell you about that. 01:08:20.610 --> 01:08:35.344 - Then Mia Williams, who's the Indiana University landscape architect and is a member of the Tree Commission, 01:08:35.344 --> 01:08:50.078 - gave us a report. They removed lots of calorie pairs in Tree of Heaven. They looked again at Bradford Woods 01:08:50.594 --> 01:09:03.181 - It's some more inventory at Bradford Woods. And there are now some new plants in the bypass area, 01:09:03.181 --> 01:09:17.310 - she says. And recently we've started adding reports from Julie Roberts, who's on canopy Bloomington, I think. 01:09:18.146 --> 01:09:29.686 - She talked about their fall planning schedule will be October 18th, October 25th and November 8th and 01:09:29.686 --> 01:09:41.339 - then use people to volunteer to help with their tree planting. And they have two movies coming out and 01:09:41.339 --> 01:09:46.430 - she didn't tell us more about that. What up? 01:09:47.714 --> 01:10:02.090 - New business. Oh, our, our chairman of the commission is a fellow named Neil Fong, who's from Malaysia, 01:10:02.090 --> 01:10:15.774 - I think he is. And he's now looking for, I don't think he has a job that's continuing in the city. 01:10:16.770 --> 01:10:26.839 - Oh, IU won't sponsor this visa anymore. So he's looking for jobs elsewhere in the US and in Canada. 01:10:26.839 --> 01:10:37.210 - Oh, and then we talked about a project that the city of Wilmington Utilities, which we often do, where 01:10:37.210 --> 01:10:44.158 - they are planting trees and we try to tell them what trees to plant. 01:10:44.962 --> 01:10:55.747 - And they're usually pretty successful with that. They gave us a brief description of some project at 01:10:55.747 --> 01:11:06.745 - 8th Street and Fontland Drive. And I didn't get the gist of what that was all about. They talked about 01:11:06.745 --> 01:11:11.550 - some tree plants that we would affect there. 01:11:12.034 --> 01:11:23.283 - There's something about urban forestry in the city on December 9th, the 10th, that people could get 01:11:23.283 --> 01:11:35.095 - involved with. I'm not sure what that is. And then they talked about that, that Ryan Park has now become 01:11:35.095 --> 01:11:40.382 - an official Arboretum. And they recently had a 01:11:41.122 --> 01:11:52.166 - meetings that introduced that change, the upgrade. So that was the tree condition. Next on the list 01:11:52.166 --> 01:12:03.210 - is ERAC, Environmental Resources Advisory Council. I wasn't able to make the last meeting, and Adam 01:12:03.210 --> 01:12:09.726 - Fudekar goes to those meetings too. He told me he would do 01:12:09.954 --> 01:12:17.645 - give the report that I usually give last month, and he didn't make the meeting last month, and he had 01:12:17.645 --> 01:12:25.638 - to leave tonight, so we won't get to hear more about the ERAC. I don't have anything to report on Friends 01:12:25.638 --> 01:12:33.178 - of Lake Monroe. Thanks, Dave. Thanks for all the details on that. I thought that there's a lot that 01:12:33.178 --> 01:12:35.742 - the Tree Commission's been up to. 01:12:36.034 --> 01:12:43.573 - Yeah, I watched that meeting. They talked about attendance and other policies. Council member Rallo 01:12:43.573 --> 01:12:51.414 - spoke about how the budget hearings had been going in the City Council and possibilities for maybe BCOs 01:12:51.414 --> 01:12:59.180 - to weigh in in the future, not this go around. They're pretty much wrapped up. But then the main thing 01:12:59.180 --> 01:13:04.382 - that they did during their meeting was they adopted their resolution 01:13:04.578 --> 01:13:11.823 - which was to increase urban forestry budget. Basically, it's been steady for a whole lot of years, but 01:13:11.823 --> 01:13:18.928 - because of inflation, that means it's being devalued, so they're lobbying for it to not be devalued, 01:13:18.928 --> 01:13:26.103 - for it to keep up with inflation, so that it's going to go to the council at some point, and that was 01:13:26.103 --> 01:13:33.278 - what happened in WECOS's meeting. All right. MC Iris, yeah, I believe Rachel typically attends those. 01:13:33.442 --> 01:13:40.421 - I'm guessing she'll update us on that when she's back. And then the Clean Community Program, Mitchell. 01:13:40.421 --> 01:13:47.196 - Well, we do actually have an update. We have gone, Christy just emailed earlier this week saying we 01:13:47.196 --> 01:13:54.039 - have moved from four projects that are getting approved to five. The newest one is we just doing the 01:13:54.039 --> 01:13:59.934 - paperwork for it. We have passed local ordinances for improving stormwater management. 01:14:00.066 --> 01:14:09.141 - So one more and then we get to go to silver status. So the clean community program is a state department 01:14:09.141 --> 01:14:18.562 - of environmental management run program kind of recognizing. Cities and counties and I guess other municipal 01:14:18.562 --> 01:14:24.094 - governments for doing environmentally friendly things. So it's. 01:14:24.610 --> 01:14:30.718 - based on how big the city is, how many projects you have to do to get recognition. You get bronze just 01:14:30.718 --> 01:14:36.826 - for signing up for the program and saying you'll do it. And then silver is, the city has done and been 01:14:36.826 --> 01:14:43.052 - recognized for doing six of this, like they've got a pre-made list of projects that you can get approved 01:14:43.052 --> 01:14:49.338 - for pretty easily, but then there's also stuff that like if you've gone above and beyond and cool things, 01:14:49.338 --> 01:14:51.710 - you can get approved for those as well. 01:14:52.674 --> 01:14:59.153 - Bloomington, we have to do six to get to silver status and 12 total to get to gold status, which only 01:14:59.153 --> 01:15:05.504 - one city in the state has gotten to gold so far. We weren't first, but we were a little slow on the 01:15:05.504 --> 01:15:11.919 - draw to joining. I think Beech Grove is the first gold one, and they were one of the first cities to 01:15:11.919 --> 01:15:18.398 - join the program. But yeah, we've almost got silver status, which is cool, which is something that we 01:15:18.722 --> 01:15:25.000 - Literally just started on earlier this year. It's neat that we just had all this kind of in the change 01:15:25.000 --> 01:15:31.096 - that ready to go. Just had to do the paperwork on it. So I know that's like a process to go through 01:15:31.096 --> 01:15:32.254 - the administrative 01:15:32.546 --> 01:15:38.101 - you know, channels, but it is really cool. And there's so many things that we've been doing as a city 01:15:38.101 --> 01:15:43.548 - that are, that immediately qualifies for these different programs. It's just kind of making through 01:15:43.548 --> 01:15:49.103 - this, you know, going through the steps of, of qualifying to be for the clean community or be city or 01:15:49.103 --> 01:15:54.550 - whatever it would be. So yeah, it's nice. Great. What are some examples of the things we've done to 01:15:54.550 --> 01:16:00.105 - get superstated? So far the five projects we've got in the system are become a storm ready community, 01:16:00.105 --> 01:16:01.630 - which I think is a kind of, 01:16:01.762 --> 01:16:08.762 - recognition, things sort of like Tree City or Bee City. Tree City certified as one of those, conduct 01:16:08.762 --> 01:16:15.693 - a greenhouse gas inventory, implement green infrastructure. I don't know specifically what they put 01:16:15.693 --> 01:16:22.554 - in for that, but that's the category that it fell under. And then the local ordinances, stormwater 01:16:22.554 --> 01:16:26.366 - management, which was a big overhaul of the stormwater 01:16:27.810 --> 01:16:34.455 - what's the word, ordinances, I guess, uh, last year. That was one of the big things that we got to learn 01:16:34.455 --> 01:16:41.099 - about in the water, uh, during the working week. So, yeah. Um, yeah, I've got other things, like I said, 01:16:41.099 --> 01:16:47.554 - I think we've got enough to get us almost all the way to 12, just already done. It's just a matter of 01:16:47.554 --> 01:16:54.073 - getting things lined up and the paperwork done correctly to get recognition for it. And I think on the 01:16:54.073 --> 01:16:56.414 - item end, it's just like one person, 01:16:56.770 --> 01:17:01.933 - doing it for all of the cities in the state. So it's like, however fast she can respond to questions 01:17:01.933 --> 01:17:07.044 - and process all the paperwork and everything. I like, I imagine all these people are like, come on, 01:17:07.044 --> 01:17:12.207 - you're going first. That's great. OK, that's awesome. And I know that, yeah, you all are doing great 01:17:12.207 --> 01:17:17.677 - and moving along. OK, well, this is the time in our evening where we move into commissioner announcements. 01:17:17.677 --> 01:17:22.839 - These are typically like semi-environmentally related, but they don't have to be. They could be just 01:17:22.839 --> 01:17:26.622 - like a personal announcement that you're excited to share with the group. 01:17:26.850 --> 01:17:32.327 - So yeah, I was going to share, because I'm already talking, that once again, there's a debate about 01:17:32.327 --> 01:17:37.969 - renaming the Indiana State flower. There have been a couple of organizations that were pushing for it. 01:17:37.969 --> 01:17:43.610 - And then the Indiana Named Plant Society, I think, has kind of given it another shove to go from being 01:17:43.610 --> 01:17:49.197 - the peony to a species of milkweed. And because there's so much conversation around monarchs and that 01:17:49.197 --> 01:17:50.238 - just kind of like, 01:17:50.498 --> 01:17:54.958 - Rebuilding those populations. Yeah, they're really pushing for mobility with a safe flower. 01:17:54.958 --> 01:17:59.952 - So we'll see. It's not the first time. This is a thought, but I like that it's got renewed excitement. 01:17:59.952 --> 01:18:04.994 - So we'll see. And then I also saw there was a press release earlier this month in the city about what's 01:18:04.994 --> 01:18:10.084 - about the Hopewell development. We talked before about how there's some areas that need some remediation 01:18:10.084 --> 01:18:15.029 - because of I was thinking this one, things like that, but that they were kind of working through what 01:18:15.029 --> 01:18:15.902 - was necessary. So 01:18:16.002 --> 01:18:21.581 - I just happened to see that and it gives some details on areas that are just going to be as they are 01:18:21.581 --> 01:18:27.160 - for now and other areas that are getting developed on and what that looks like. So it's in the press 01:18:27.160 --> 01:18:32.739 - release section of the Wilmington website, which I thought was interesting. Other updates from other 01:18:32.739 --> 01:18:38.428 - people? I have a bunch of native plant seeds in my bag, if anyone wants any. What? Native plant seeds. 01:18:38.428 --> 01:18:40.638 - Seeds? Yeah. Do you know what they are? 01:18:40.770 --> 01:18:54.881 - There's a ton of them. Yeah, there's a big list on the back here. I got too many stuff. That's it. 01:18:54.881 --> 01:19:01.438 - That's it. Any other announcements from both? 01:19:02.562 --> 01:19:07.818 - Okay, well, we have a meeting coming up in October. We already talked about November being the planning. 01:19:07.818 --> 01:19:12.874 - You'll get a reminder about that before it happens. But again, it's kind of a pitching situation. So 01:19:12.874 --> 01:19:17.879 - wrap your brain around that. And then December or December meeting, we already kind of have an idea 01:19:17.879 --> 01:19:22.935 - of having a presenter, which means your attendance would be wonderful. So, as you're looking at your 01:19:22.935 --> 01:19:25.438 - calendar and what your holiday season looks like. 01:19:25.570 --> 01:19:31.739 - We will very possibly move our meeting up by one week earlier in December, but that was something we 01:19:31.739 --> 01:19:38.336 - talked about in that meeting. So just kind of keep an eye on what your books of life in case it's something 01:19:38.336 --> 01:19:44.871 - you want to share. And with that said, I suspect we've brought the end of our agenda. A motion to adjourn. 01:19:44.871 --> 01:19:49.086 - All right. Well, it's 727 and let's call this a wrap. Thank you all.