Well then, we're gonna go ahead and move on to our next item. Hopefully we all have a chance to approve
the minutes, which were the exciting recap of our annual planning meeting. So I don't know if we'll
be receiving any edits, whether we're in the end of that. Is that a promise that's supposed to happen?
I believe that we approve the minutes of everything. Second. Thank you, Matt. Thank you, Shane. Yes.
Adam Budifer? Yes. Painting Guy? Yes. Adam Arquina? Yes.
David Parker, period, all right, motion passed. Excellent, well thanks, and thanks for being part of
our meeting. It was a lot of fun, and I'm super excited, and we all want super race. Great, okay, well
we've got, like I said, a couple of things happening at the beginning of this meeting, so we're gonna
go ahead and just jump right in. We have Dylan here who's gonna just talk just a little bit more about
the Hoosier River Watch program. I'm sure that some of the sort of more, kind of,
old school Indiana or even doing meetings with residents may be familiar with it, but it's a really
cool program. So I'll hand it over to you, Tom. Thank you very much. Yeah. I've sat, I mean, Dylan Allison,
the coordinator for the Hoosier-Ripawanna program. I've been in that position for a little over three
years and I worked alongside Mitchell Owens, you may know. And he actually talked to me when we were
here earlier in the year doing the Bloomington Bug Fest, which was my first time doing an event, incredible
event to be part of.
So definitely be coming back to that, but I just wanted to take the opportunity to talk about the program
as a whole and talk about how it can be used in the Bloomington area. And fortunately, we actually have
a lot of folks who are already involved in it in the city here.
There we are. So what is Hoosier River Water? It is a volunteer stream monitoring program. We have office
of water quality. We have staff that check the water quality of all of the state every single year.
But we don't have the staff to go to all of those stream miles. And that's where Hoosier River Watch
kind of fits in. It fills the gaps in data in water quality across the state.
We offer workshops to train individuals who are interested in learning about the techniques on the monitoring
there. And then once these volunteers go out into their neck of the woods, they can gather the data
and then send it back to us. And we have a database. And this program is actually turning 30 years old
next year. So we have three decades of data on water quality across the state. So it's a great opportunity
to see some trends in water quality.
And we're all about involving Hoosiers and I love this word stewards. We want everyone to show stewardship
of the water and really try to protect the water resources as a whole. So how did the Navy get started?
So back in the early 90s, there was actually another program that was under the DNR at the time. It
was called Hoosier River Peepers.
And it was more of a cleanup program. It was kind of a precursor to the about the stream. You might
have seen the signs still in different waterways. But they were about cleanup. They were pulling tires
out of the rivers. They were cleaning up the banks. In 1996, they added the river wash component, which
was really about actually testing the water and monitoring it. So between the two programs, you had
a cleanup side and you had kind of a testing side.
But they said that it's all kind of, you know, it's a miracle to have both of those. They kind of combined
it just in the Hoosier River watch. And they hired a coordinator with the Clean Water Act funds. And
that's actually still what funds our entire program today. It's Clean Water Act funds from the federal
government. SED-IDEM manages this program and then also offers a lot of watershed grants to put best
management practices in the place.
that goes to different market groups around the state as well. So that's all kind of coming from the
same cloud model there. And in 2001, we actually had a volunteer instructor training. And till that
point, one coordinator, in my role, would actually be in charge of training everyone who wanted to be
involved. And that's a huge, huge, huge profit to be a part of. So now we use the model of kind of a
train the trainer. So we have volunteer trainers around the state.
who will in turn put on those workshops. So it's not just myself leading those workshops. And by doing
that, we're able to really increase our scope overall. And in 2012, it went from the DNR to IBM. So
still within the state, but it jumped different agencies. And like I mentioned there in 2026, we have
our 30th anniversary there. So really we kind of built on first off the foundational knowledge, right?
program leads up into those concepts of watersheds and water pollution. And these are concepts that
are great for children. As you see here, I do a lot of outreach with schools there. I use like a little
tarp, and we kind of talk about the principles of watersheds and how the water flows across the landscape.
We talk about, we actually do sampling for macro invertebrates there. So the kids love getting their
hands wet and looking for little creepy crawlies in the water. But it's adults as well.
We do all sorts of outreach from kids or 12 college students and beyond. And, you know, sometimes you
think, okay, that's, you know, building that foundational knowledge with the young kids and stuff is
great, but sometimes I think even adults need a little bit of work pressure at times. I actually saw
this, this quote, it's kind of getting covered up there, but this is actually a quote at an UJER national,
I think it's Hardin Ridge. There is this interior sign,
overlooking a beautiful vista. And I'm a sucker for those signs. I love reading everything on this.
So I first went up to a server reading it, and it had this, a quote on there that talked about, over
half of the world's water originates in forests. I thought, conceptually, that is just false, right?
So why is that false? What's wrong with that? Over half the world's water originates in forests. I think
there's a lot of talking. True, certainly. Yeah, there are a lot of comments.
But I found troubled by the word originates, right? There's a water in it, it's swimming, right?
There is, what's the important point of the circle, right? It's all just moving, it's always kind of
moving through the environment. So I thought that that sign is a little bit of an update. So the forests
have the, you know, incredible role to play and filtering the water and allowing the red water recharge
and everything. But I wouldn't say it originates there, it just moves through it, right?
And that's one of the things we learned when we were in elementary school, the water cycle, right? We
learned how it moves around the globe. And I think there's, surprisingly, always something to learn
or new things being discovered. You know, even with the simple water cycle, in the last 10 years or
so, there's been discoveries of water trapped deep, deep, deep in the earth.
deep beneath our feet, 400 miles deep in the mantle of our planet. And it's bonded to a mineral down
there called ringwoodite. And through the pressure and intense heat at that depth, the water molecule
actually breaks up and binds to the mineral. And it actually becomes almost this fourth state. It's
not a liquid, it's not a solid, it's not a gas, but it's kind of bind onto the ringwoodite.
opens up, that discovery kind of opens up all these questions for, okay, is that water cycling up?
You know, has it been trapped down there for, you know, for a long time? You know, we're just starting
to kind of scratch the surface of that. So even a concept like the water cycle where we think, oh, simple,
we learned it in third grade, we're still learning stuff about how the water's moving across our globe.
And I love talking about this slide in particular, especially to the kids. It talks about the average
length of time that a molecule of water, a drop of water, is in all of these locations. So if we drop
water in the ocean, it could actually kind of bounce around and be caught in that ocean for 3,000 years.
And the atmosphere is much, much quicker, you know? It evaporates and condensation and falls back down
as rain. It's only there for nine days or so. Generally, ice caps, you know, could be a thousand years,
but there's been ice cores in Antarctica that are a couple million years old there.
So groundwater couple of months, lakes, 100 years depending, Great Lakes obviously more time than a
smaller lake, right? And the rivers are about three, two, three weeks or so. So I always point out to
the children when we do the outreach with them that no matter what span of time we're talking about
here, it's dwarfed by the amount of time that dinosaurs run when. So you killed that statistically,
almost every drop or every drop of water that you drink,
has actually worked its way through a dinosaur bladder, right? So I'll sell it in the case. You can
bring me a dinosaur feed, all right? And we talk about all watersheds as well. This is a map of watersheds
that I have identified. So you can see a name and a number there. Those numbers are confidential,
a unit code. It's how we identify our watersheds there. But it's just another part of that foundational
knowledge that we,
uh, kind of show off for our kids. But the next, hi, whose river watch is so well, so kind of important
for, you know, especially outreach and engagement with communities is the hands-on experience. Uh, so
of course, I didn't have a lot of colleagues who go out and monitor the waterways. Uh, but often times
they use fairly expensive equipment, data, saws and whatnot, which is essentially just a pro that they
toss out in the water.
It's attached to a handheld device and it will read dissolved oxygen and the pH and all these different
parameters that they're measuring. But it's quick and efficient and effective for our purposes. That
wouldn't be much fun for kids or for people who want to get out in the stream and spend time and connect
with nature, right? So the hands-on experience of the program is really something too. We actually are out there
catch the macro invertebrates, you know, we take meats out, like at the top left there. We, after we
catch everything, we try to identify it. We are using keys like this mother and her children there at
a tabling event. So we're getting hands on with the creatures in the streams and with our chemistry
tests. We're again, hands on with all of these. I'll talk a little bit about the tests that we use a
little bit later on.
know it's so crucial because clean water is important to us all right we need clean drinking water we
need it for recreation we need it for wildlife habitat and irrigation and certainly just the aesthetics
of it right so we we need to have these monitoring programs in place to kind of keep track of that because
there's a lot of uh challenges around water quality right we see issues with
sedimentation like here at the top left. A lot of erosion happens and if that sediment settles into
a stream bottom it starts to smother the gills of the aquatic creatures there. It starts to cover up
all the little spaces in the rocky kind of stream bottom there where these macron vertebrates like to
live. So sedimentation is a big problem. At the top right there we have invasive species. Those are
the silver carp
that when they get agitated, they jump out of the water there. It can be quite the hazard if you're
boating, right? So we have invasive species of different kinds. We have both litter, we have some litter
in that, but also it shows a little bit of algae, which itself is totally fine. But when you have an
excess amount of nutrients in the water, sometimes you get those algae blooms, and those can cause a
problem for the ecosystem there. And then on the right kind of shows this cattle pasture, which is a
common scene in much of the state, right?
And a lot of times these pastures will have some sort of drainage ditch leading right through perhaps
the cows. And anytime that cow will leave a cat patty behind, right? Next rain washes it down the ditch
and eventually it's going to make its way to electric water. And then you have issues with bacteria
in the water, like E. coli, right? So while we monitor, there's all sorts of reasons why we might want
to monitor, but we want to identify pollutants and where they're coming from.
If it's a site that has not been tested before, we can establish some baseline data. If it is a site
that's been tested before, like I said, you know, 30 years old, this program, so a lot of sites are
in the state, and we can actually document the changes in strands and water quality there. And we can
also measure the effectiveness of a best management practice, a BMP. So, those watershed groups that
I mentioned earlier, if they get a grant to put in
strips along the edges of agricultural fields to cut down on nutrient runoff. You can test before and
after those practices are put in place and see if it's really working. So when it comes to kind of what
we look for because there's all sorts of parameters what we can measure but I call it the big three
that we can look for. We look at the physical makeup of a stream that's going to be a habitat evaluation
We look at water chemistry and we look at the biology. So, IAEA actually has a fish crew and a macroinverter
crew. With future Overwatch, we just focus on the stream bugs, I guess you could call them macroinverters.
So, if you were to, you know, the first part there, the physical makeup and the habitat of a stream,
if you were to close your eyes and kind of imagine this pristine stream and you hear the water kind
of battling by and, you know, you're sitting in the shade under a tree,
And you can imagine what that looks like. Hopefully, it's going to look a little bit more like this
illustration on the left than on the right. There's a lot of characteristics that a really healthy stream
should have. It should have a meander in shape. We like to see that natural meander. And through the
meander, it's actually going to cause different depths within the stream. You're going to have some
deeper slender areas where we call it.
maybe get some more fish that like to sit in those areas where it's a shallow area that has a lot of
kind of the rocks breaking the surface and a lot of water kind of bubbling around that and getting oxygen
mixed in. Our macro invertebrates are going to like that area. We call those the riffles. So having
some variety in the stream, the physical make of the stream is actually going to help the biodiversity
of the stream overall. So we also want to have a lot
that riparian vegetation or riparian zone being the area just adjacent to the stream. We have there
the left soil because the roots hold onto the soil there. Now you're going to have almost a buffer strip
for any rock making its way towards the stream there as well. What you were imagining ahead, hopefully
it looks a little bit more like what we have on the left here as opposed to the right. Whenever you
get channelized,
and you try to straighten the stream out and kind of work against nature. The water moves very quickly,
so then you see more soil erosion issues, so then you have to put down different control methods in
place, like using riprap along the banks of that channel. You don't have, usually they'll have sort
of a buffer strip along those as well. So all, we're able to actually go into the stream and take a
look at some different
parameters and actually test and evaluate that physical or habitat makeup. And we're looking at the
substrate. What kind of rocky bottom is it, or is it just kind of mud, you know, that a lot of sedimentation
has happened? Is there places for fish to take cover and hide? Is that stream shaped natural and meandering?
What's the riparian area like? Are there different areas of depths and different speeds that the water
goes that kind of
offers that biodiversity later on. And we actually are able to, we have a data sheet, so we actually
physically scan there in the creek, we check boxes off as we go along and say, yep, it's got, you know,
a fish cover and it's got this type of substrate, and then we're able to score it at the very end and
give a habitat evaluation score to our stream. There's some other things we can
to evaluate the physical makeup and the other is flow or how much water is moving through a system.
And you can actually at the USGS site, you can actually find a lot of stream gauges online. And we have
quite a few in the state that you can actually find nearly up to date. It actually updates every 15
minutes. So it's nearly a lot, but it will give you the different flow or the height of the stream or
river that you're looking at there. So that's a neat tool to have.
to get out and use our a lot. It's great because there's a lot of STEM involved with this, so I like
doing this with the school groups as well. We just take all the measurements and plug them into an equation
so we're finding the different widths of the stream there at the top, multiplying that by the average
of the depths at nine different locations. We're actually measuring how fast the water's moving the
velocity using a floating item and
timing how long it takes to float down to a partner downstream. And we're plugging this onto equations
and we're essentially figuring out in cubic feet per second, how much water is moving through a system.
So this is a great one to do every day towards all ages as well. So when it comes to the chemical side
of things, there's actually quite a few, like eight different parameters that we can measure. And it's,
again, more of the,
hands-on techniques that we like to use that have been just thrown out, you know, a probe into the water
and reading off of our handheld device, right? So we're going to, you know, take water temperature into
consideration, and that's going to affect the dissolved oxygen, the pH of a system, and the phosphates
and nitrates. Those are the two nutrients that we measure as well. The turbidity, which is the clarity
of the water, and then we actually measure
was called the biochemical oxygen demand. It's a test that takes five days. It's essentially a dissolved
oxygen test, but it's tested five days later to see how much oxygen is being used up by the bacteria
in the water. And if there's a huge difference between day one and day five, it means you have a lot
more organic pollution, a lot of bacteria eating that up and using up oxygen as it does so.
And then the E. coli, we mentioned the bacteria earlier. So we have an E. coli test that you can
do as well. So we have a data sheet for this as well. So all of our hands-on tests can be done in the
stream on-site, except for the full hours takes, the 48-hour incubation period, and then of course that
five-day test with the oxygen test that we do as well. What's interesting about
our tests they have different units you know our transparency for example here we have this transparency
two we measure it in seven units right but that's a totally different unit than the parts per million
that we measure our dissolved oxygen in so how we compare apples to oranges is we have to convert every
answer that we get to what we call a q value and what's helpful to our volunteers is that every single
volunteer that goes through a training workshop gets
user Overwatch manual that is there. So take home and they can refer to it when they're out there in
the stream. And then it will have these charts and these graphs that you can see here that converts
their answer into a Q value. So all you do is simply find your results on the table and you can kind
of plug in the Q value there. This graph illustration here on the left is actually showing the Q values
for dissolve.
oxygen saturation and you might think more oxygen the better, but for this particular test, you can
see once it goes beyond 100% saturation, our Q value of 100 actually dips back down. So it's not a good
thing to have too much oxygen. Has anyone gone scuba diving before? Yeah, so has anyone heard of the
bends? So if you call too quick from diving, it has an effect on your
system, right, your body, right? Similarly, when the system in the water system is basically super charged
with oxygen, it has an effect on the critters that are living in that water as well. So that's why we
actually consider it not to be too good if we have more than 100% saturation. And, you know,
Mitchell Holmes, who sits on the commission here, he's actually in his testing has found
of streams that have had 200% oxygen saturation, mostly because the algae is photosynthesizing and pumping
it full of oxygen. They had an algae overgrowth at that particular stream. So for pH, we have assembled
test strips. Who's done the pH test strips before? Maybe it's been a while. Easy to do, hands-on. I'll
actually show this illustration
workshop participants because it's got a lot of items that you might find at home or in your own house
and where they fall in that pH range, right? So, of course, distilled water is right there neutral in
the middle, but, you know, lemon juice, watermelon, and then there's bleach on the other end here,
very basic. But down at the bottom there, there's different kind of bars there showing where those organisms
can survive, what range they can survive at. So, if you like to go
and try to catch catfish, for example, their pH, they're not really going to be found outside a six
to a nine and a half. If your pH is outside of that range, your fish are going to have trouble surviving
in that system. Whereas the bacteria, incredible organisms, right? There are some bacteria that can
actually live in lemon juice at two on the pH scale, and some that can actually be served in bleach.
And you're thinking like, okay, bleach is supposed to disinfect everything. But if you read the bottle, 99.9%
of bacteria, this can work. So it's talking about that, you know, bacteria can survive that. So that's
something that we can easily test at the stream site as well. And then we have a couple of nutrient
tests. Our nitrate test is also a test trend. Then we have a color comparator for our phosphates.
And it's similar to our dissolved oxygen test here. So with dissolved oxygen test, we actually have
these little glass, what we call ampules, and they have a reactant inside. So we actually snap the tip
of it in a little collection cup with our stream water and the vacuum inside. It sucks the water, mixes
with the reactant, and it starts to turn blue. And the darker the water, the more oxygen you have in
that water.
use a comparator like this one here. So we just simply hold our our annual up to these and see which
is the closest, right? And it just is an easy test to do, you know, kids, adults, everyone can do this.
You know, we're going to get pretty close to the same results overall. So our nutrients that we test
are the nitrates and the phosphates. And they can come from, you can see on the slide, they can come
from everywhere. They come from
a sewage system, or a faulty septic tank, or ag fields, or even your home lawn if you're spreading different
fertilizers in it, right? And whenever you get too much nutrients into an aquatic system, algae tends
to grow out of control because algae bloom. And when the algae dies, it starts to decompose and actually
sucks the oxygen out of that water. And then you get things like fish hens.
up on the shore. If you ever see anything like that, then it means that there's likely just not oxygen
in that water to survive. And that's actually a dead zone in the Gulf. That tells right where the Mississippi
leads out there. And the Mississippi River is such a huge drainage. A lot of our state actually makes
its way in the Mississippi River. The water is close to Indiana.
we contribute to the nutrient problem that the Gulf sees there. In fact, the Wadash River, beautiful
river, it's great for recreation and whatnot and songs over in the area, so it's an important waterway
here. It is notorious because landmass wise, it's only about 3 percent of the Mississippi River watershed,
which is a huge amount of land.
contributes closer to 12% of the nutrient load that ends up in the gulf there. Part of it is because
there's really no dams on the Wabash River, so a lot of the nutrients cling to sediment, and if that
water rushes down the Wabash River with nothing to slow and stop the sediment and have it kind of sink
out to the bottom, it just makes it to where it breaks the Mississippi eventually and down the gulf there.
And we contribute to the problem. And we actually have a task force for the state that is focused on
reducing our nutrient level that we contribute to this. But that's when we assess the health of nutrients
there. It's a big issue. I mentioned the turbidity. And I had to show off the turbidity too. We would
simply kind of fill this up with water. And we'd stare straight down. There's a little kind of a checkerboard
pattern right down at the bottom of that tube.
If it's very clear water, we would be able to hopefully see that pattern and we would know we got some,
you know, clarity to our water. But if it was very turbid or very cloudy, maybe you wouldn't be able
to see that, and you'd have to actually release water at a valve at the bottom until the water gets
to a point where you can see. And I've had some events after rain in particular, when you have more
soil erosion, where, you know, a typical stream
would be no problem having very clear water, but after a rainstorm it's, you know, 10 to 20 centimeters
of foot clarity just because of all the sediment that gets washed in there. And then on the screen there
you see different petri dishes there. Those are our E. coli tests that we can do. So we culture E. coli
and there is an incubation period of a couple days, but we can start to read that. And it can get pretty
tedious as you can see here where we would be
having the kind of violet or the dark blue. If you see pink dots, those are bacteria, but they're the
non-E. coli bacteria. So we pick out all the dark blue dots on there. And as you can see, some of those
would be a lot of counting, right? So that's one point where IM's technology could help. When I'm doing
E. coli testing, they simply push their results into this machine that counts them for them. Very easy for them.
volunteers have to do it, kind of the tedious man in there. But, you know, this is an issue that we
find across the state, E. coli in our waterways. So it's something that we definitely want to contribute
to the data being found there, because a lot of times you'll see DNR beaches, for example, a lot of
reservoirs around the state, the beaches have to close certain times of the year because of E. coli
in the water. And island is the testing to
basically make that, make that known to the DNR who then shuts the beaches down. And then the third,
the big three kind of categories that we look at are the macro invertebrates, the stream bugs,
if you will. So the chemistry is great. You can get a lot of information, but it's a very much a snapshot,
right? If you've been before and after a rain event, because the runoff that comes into a waterway,
your chemistry test could be
totally different, you need completely different numbers, because the macroinvertebrates are a little
more stable because they're in the waterways, they can't move very much, they spend their lives in the
water. And then the kicker is that they have different levels of tolerance to pollution. Some can handle
it and some cannot. And that's why we look after our macroinvertebrates. So we'll actually go out on
the stream sites, we'll take kick nets and dip nets,
This is a big part of Mitchell Allen's position with IDEM. He's an actor and very big crew. We try to
identify what we're looking at when we catch these little critters. We'll actually bring them out and
in our tips that we make available to our volunteers, we have these little white bus tubs or dishpans
essentially. We'll pull the critters that we find into the dishpans and we'll start looking through
the water and picking them out, looking at
very well magnifying glass. And trying to determine what we're looking at. And this particular dichotomous
key is a nice one because there's 50 or 60 different macros on here. And all you have to do is start
at the top and ask yourself one question at a time. And the top question says, does it have a shell
or no shell? Simply look at your critter. Answer, if it doesn't have a shell, you come down. Does it
have legs or no legs? And work your way further down and ask, how many legs does it have?
Does it have wings? How many tails does it have, if you can see any? So you can actually kind of narrow
down your search for when you're looking at your macro invertebrates from, you know, 50 or 60, well,
you know, five or six. So it's a big help for that. And I'm gonna show you a couple of things here because
the key that he uses for IDIDM isn't just nice one page, it's like a dictionary. Because he has to go
much further in tax open than we do. We go to the order level and he's looking for
genus, maybe the species of dogs. But once we know what we're looking at, we can see if it's intolerant
or tolerant of pollution, and that gives us a clue to the water quality overall, right? So the top group
here, group one, we love to see them. They're very intolerant of pollution, which means it has to be
clean water if we're finding them, right? Things like stoneflies and mayflies, water pennies. But as
you work your way down through the groups,
they get more tolerant of pollution. So if we find something down at the bottom, it's kind of cut off
here, but, you know, there's leeches in Group 3, for example. They're pretty hungry. They can survive
a lot of different waterways, even if the pollution, you know, is found there. Now, we don't necessarily,
you know, freak out and say, oh, we've got bad water quality if we find a leech, because even though
they can't live in polluted waters, it doesn't mean that they
can't live in theme water, right? So we're not really looking for whether or not these lower groups
are found. What we really want to focus on is can we find the top groups? And if not, there's an absence
of those, then maybe we have up to looted in Y1 here. And we're actually able to, just like the other
two sections, provide a grade for our waterway as well.
we actually give a little bit higher kind of a weighting factor to those clean water critters,
those Mayfly, Stonefly. So we count out the tax of that we find, and then we multiply by the weighting
factor, and we essentially get a score for our waterway. So it's a nice way to really get hands-on,
but then you're able to actually collect that data and get like a final results or grade right there
at the stream, and you don't have to
It doesn't take collecting the macro invertebrates. After we're done, Hoosier Riverwatch actually releases
everything back to the waterway. So it's a great way to sample and get real-time result right there
on the stream. So I mentioned the data. Whenever our volunteers collect these data points, they share
it with us. And we have a website, hoosierriverwatch.com, that has
space to interpret it. And then what's great is that it's publicly available. So anyone can go on to
visualreports.com and look up data for their waterways. They can search by watershed or by the name
of the river or county or their organization. If it's maybe like a school where we have a lot of teachers
who go through our workshops. So you can navigate them that way. And then instead of pulling up, you
can get a whole bunch of raw data tables there.
that you can export to a PDF or, you know, a CSV to follow up. But we also have a visualization program
built into the site as well. So you can start to see kind of the graphs and whatnot change in it. It
helps just kind of digest that data a little bit easier. So kind of our data visualizations for our
after invertebrates there. And you can see some of these, you can start to,
paying for the county you're looking at, getting the watershed, the time frame, you know, if you're
looking, I just want to know for the last five years, what has our macro and burger community done as
a decline, has it stayed the same? You can filter all that out with our visualization tools. So let's
have an overview of the program and share just a few slides on kind of the direction we're going overall.
We want to offer,
Over the course of 30 years of the program's been around, we have over 4,000 people who have gone through
a training. Every year since I've been here, we've had approximately 250 people become trained in Hoosier
Overwatch, monitoring techniques, and we want to be able to offer them a continuing education. We have
in place two what we call advanced workshops,
So our normal training, our basic training we call it, it's not nearly a full day thing. It's half a
day in the classroom, half a day doing the hands-on work in the stream. But we actually have two half-day
VIX workshops that people can take advantage of. We have an entire ECOBOT training focused just on that.
And then we have the macro and vertebrae training. It's brand new. I just loved the first one this fall
and it was great. We take out dissecting scopes and we look at these pairs up close under the scopes.
and really get to go further than the orbit level and the taxonomy. So we do have some additional training
that people can take part in. Weird training videos online, which are just for a reflection. If it's
somebody who's already done the training or if somebody who's thinking about their workshop and want
to see what it's all about, they can check out our videos to see if it's something that might interest
them. Right now we just have most of the chemistry tests.
But in the next year, we're going to be adding training videos on the macro invertebrates and the PATAT
evaluation as well. And then maybe the most exciting thing that's happened this year is that we've released
a Hoosier River Watch junior program. So all of these workshops that I've been mentioning are geared
towards the dentists. So we have a lot of teachers who will go through it and they'll turn and we'll
lead the monitoring events for their students
but the actual students haven't been through an official workshop themselves, which is why I wanted
to create something that our K through 12 students could participate in. So Hoosier Riddles Junior is
an activity guide with low to no cost activities. It's something that can be done any place in Indiana
and it invites teachers and educators to go out to these outdoor locations. It's not required.
A lot of schools don't come from Indianapolis and a lot of schools don't have this beautiful outdoor
lab or space to be going and exploring. But these activities can even be done in a classroom setting
and you still learn a lot of those concepts that we cover in our adult class. And they're all tied to
education standards. So that really helps when teachers need to kind of show that, hey, this is really
worthwhile. It's directly tied to the standards we're covering in class.
site as well. But if anyone has any questions about the program, I'm happy to take some questions. But
thanks for your attention. I just thank you. It's a great way for engagement in a community because
that's what it's about, right? It gets the community involved in the data gathering. So we've had quite
a few people go through the program. But we have generally workshops usually like April through the
end of October.
So if you have a golf course workshop, I'd definitely encourage you to do so. But if you have any questions
or anything else, there's more contact information, and please reach out. Thank you. Thank you. I know
that we've got a lot on the agenda tonight. Is there anything specific that folks want to ask the program
or about anything we've covered? It's Christine Lindberg, the CBU trainer. Yeah, sure. So we've had
a couple different in the building scenario.
Yeah, she's been in the program for years, so she's a very knowledgeable one. Oh yeah, her network's
at the city, so she's been in the city. Yes, yeah. Yeah, and she usually does at least one workshop
a year or two, so if you're interested in that, definitely talk to Chris. Thank you. So if you can do
it with a stream or river,
Great question, yeah. So, you know, we actually don't direct people to a particular area. We kind of
let them go wherever they'd like, which is a little different than some other programs. In the Indian
Atlas area, we have the White River Alliance, and they have their monitoring program, which is a little
different. They do a couple more chemistry tests. They don't do the macro invertebrates. They send stuff
to the lab, they get tested. But they're very like, go test here, go test there. Whereas, through the
RiverWatch is, we'll take data
wherever you're in the state. So it could be a stream that runs through your backyard. It can be your
favorite park. It's wherever you'd like, as long as you're following, you know, directions in the manual
that you get. So everyone's doing the same tests overall. So it's kind of that quality control built
in. You can send us data for more of it. All right. If that role has been interesting for you or someone.
So we've had some people certainly submit data for seasonal streams that kind of disappear in the summer.
Generally, we just ask that you make a comment like that if you know that it's generally not flowing
in the summer months. You could say, hey, this is flowing this time of year. All of our data sheets
are dated and whatnot. So if I see a site that has a high flow in the spring, but in the summer they're
telling me there's not a lot of water moving through,
You know, I know that that's an example of a seasonal stream like that. But again, we, I'll take data
from anywhere. If it's, if you follow the protocol and it doesn't have to be all of the data that I
mentioned today. You know, if you go out there and you just take a one dissolved oxygen test and send
that to me, as long as it's the same way out of the manual that everyone else does and you've kind of
done it correctly, that's good data. So we'll take it.
them for the pandemic. And as I was pulling some of the kits, take them to the river. Yeah. Then during
the pandemic, the kit moved to like a building that was blocked. There was nobody available. Everyone
started to block their houses. And sure, I've done a lot about it. Yeah. How do I get the kit anymore?
Yes. So on our website, we actually have a map of our instructors and our lunar kids. So if you're talking
about, we have different ways that we want to get
uh the equipment into the hands of our volunteers uh and that's through a loaner kit so you can go to
an office sometimes it's like a nature center or something like that so you can check out the map on
the idem river watch site and that'll tell you where those are at but all times we have uh educators
and teachers go for this program and if you are a school a non-profit or a government agency you can
actually get a grant kit so the learners are usually like maybe somebody keeps it for a couple weeks
a month or so and they go out once or twice but the
It's actually a two year period. So if you're kind of thinking you want to do it with like your group,
your school kids or something like that, you can actually do that kind of a longer term kit as well.
And we do all this, the workshops and the kits and all of this, it's always free. It's always that Clean
Water Act funds. And we really want to eliminate the barrier of costs that might be in the way for some
folks. So we want anyone who's interested in the program to be able to get involved.
Great questions. Thank you. Yeah, I really appreciate you coming down and sharing with them. Well, travel
safely on your way back. Don't get washed away. Who knows what that meant.
All right, well then we can keep proceeding through the agenda tonight. So as Matt mentioned, he is
here to talk a little bit about some of the conversations that have been cropping up as far as the residency
requirement. So yeah, feel free to join us and I'm glad to hear your thoughts. So yeah, this can be
like a very quick discussion. And what I'm curious to hear your all's perspectives on a question that
our council committee on process has been grappling with. And so that is the question of,
Most boards of commissions in the city have city residents with requirements. Some of the statutory
boards that are defined by the state, we can't change that. Of course, that's a given. But for our advisory
boards and commissions, which the environmental commission is one, that's something that we can't change.
And this comes up occasionally, I think, both in the context of folks not being aware of the requirements,
despite the fact that we asked about residency, like when they're applying. But that can probably be
improved from an administration perspective.
recently was from the Earth Commission basically making the case for wanting the ability to appoint
a non-city resident. A lot of folks can't afford to live in the city. There are other reasons why you
might want to bring in perspectives from urbanized areas or rural areas that are in the county, but
not in the city. We've been looking at that question and I can just share committees. I think our initial
thinking was,
probably do it uniformly. And I think we've actually moved away from that. We think some commissions,
it's probably best for them to be city only based on maybe funds they administer or the policy questions
they're looking at. And for others, there might be unique cases for involvement or the possibility of
a non-city resident being appointed. And so that conversation has mostly been narrowly-spoken
a little bit reluctant of opening that door, but open to it based on the case that our commission made.
And that would probably look like a maximum of one member in the Mount City resident or something like
that. We've also talked to the folks in the Office of the Mayor a little bit who have expressed some
mostly reluctance or resistance so far on the basis, I think, of administrative difficulty of tracking
that type of thing. And also, again, a question of if
Commission's administrative bonds, you know, is it suitable to have a non-city resident be part of the
decision making for that? And some of the questions, I don't know if the CEC does, but our commission
does, for instance. So basically, we're talking to a number of the advisory boards and commissions to
get their own input on what you think about this. And maybe what I mentioned is the Minerva
County Environmental Commission, of course,
Resiliency, I think it was the Environmental Commission, now it's the Resiliency Commission. There's
probably some overlap there. The Commission on Sustainability here in the city also has had two ex officio
seats, one appointed by the Monroe County Commissioners, which has included, you know, has, as a matter
of convention, then as someone who's seated on that, what was the Environmental Commission of the county,
and then also someone from the SustainIU. And that's all, like, I used to serve on BCAS, both as a staff
member and a forehand, and like, that felt like, okay, that's it.
those seats are unfilled. And, you know, it's been a little bit tricky to administer. So maybe our Resiliency
Commission, and that's all the, you know, interconnection you need. Maybe you see this case for this,
and that's really why I'm here, is just to, like, bring you the question for your input about
the Environmental Commission specifically. Do you all think you could benefit from the option of appointing
a non-CITIC to the Commission? Like, is there a unique case to be made for that? Or, again,
against that, also, if you feel like actually that's well covered.
should be the same, because that's our permit. So just put it for some discussion. And if it is beyond
the scope of what the agenda allows for today, you'll all be welcome to think about it, deliberate it
at a future session. And what I may recommend is if you are in favor of that, which would be a change
from the default in city code, probably formalize an ad request or position your resolution would be
a whole lot. But if you wanted to do that and think why,
it is some you know signal of like the commission decided we think this yes um if no change uh probably
no need for that because that's the status quo and just reporting maybe from the chair back to us on
what you know what you have concluded that you find here so that's all i got with happy answer questions
okay i was going to just double check does everyone understand kind of what that's describing or have
any questions on the concept that we're kind of going to dive into permanently does it mean just this
board or all the boards are
We're looking at a number of these rewarding commissions. I think about 10 or so of them, and I forget
how many there are total. And a few that I think you've already allowed for, you know, either whether
it's that's an ex officio seat, like because that I was describing, or I think there might be one or
two others that allow for non-city residents to serve. But the default in city code is city residents.
So for this discussion, it's just a minute here. Systems level question, great. But my real question
for you is specific to the city center.
that should be allowed up here. It seems to me, it makes sense occasionally to have a county person
on the commission who is looking at the sources of water that are coming from outside of the city, but
affecting the city or things like that. So occasionally a county person
you talk about like the watersheds kind of, kind of a, I think he, I think he said perhaps it's being
strictly on the city population. Oh, you, how do you come? Oh, no, I'm not sure. The part of the chair,
the process. Yeah, that. How do you come from people who are in those areas that are kind of being inargued
about being at next, whether they do well or not? Do they have a link in the address? Do they have a
link in water?
Good question. They are not city residents. They're not part of the corporate grant boundaries. Someone's
saying Bloomington is more of a postal convention than a municipal government voting constituency
perspective. And if any of those areas were ran up, then they would be so best at determining boundaries.
Just are you in the corporate city boundaries of Bloomington? Good question. Just had a question. So
what happens if someone is a resident when they come on the commission and then they move out?
side of. So that doesn't always happen. These things and so that's part of maybe some of the conversation
here too. It might have been somebody on the earth's portion was moving outside or. But, um, but yeah,
I don't know about that. So yeah.
Some cities have the ETJ, the five miles that three or other city limits where things happen. You know,
formal, there used to be the interning kind of annexation, which was like a sort of like a two-mile
fringe type of concept that's formalized anyway. So I don't think that the kind of work we do, I actually
think having, you know, a member that maybe is in the county enough, the city makes sense for the reasons
that, I mean, not that we need to mandate that, but we don't get out,
grants like the Arts Commission or other commissions. So it's not that the people on this committee
are making funding decisions necessarily. I mean, we make very few funding decisions, don't we? And
I think it's more like efficacy type work, which when it comes to the Monroe County level, we don't
do a ton of overlaps with them on a regular basis, but I think they have a pretty open relationship
as far as if there was something that came through
I can remember what it was, but we basically said this seems more like a county level decision to weigh
in on or whatever it was, because it was outside of the city limits. I do think that kind of starts
to blend that enough to our conversations then start going outside of the city as well, as far as things
that, you know, we're weighing in on or anything like that. I don't know if it's endorsements both ways
in that way. If we invite, you know, doesn't look within the city limits to our conversations, then
extend beyond the city of Bloomington and we'll
we're doing because we have our presentation board for the last day. So I would say that I don't think
advocating for going as far as to invite non-city residents to be part of the commission, but I also
personally don't see a problem with if someone were to move out of the city.
see how that would necessarily be a conflict of interest. And so that would be problematic for us. And
I understand how it could be, potentially, but. Well, it creates a flexibility if it's an option, but
it's not filled, and then someone does move out, then they don't have to resign and build their car.
Yeah. And that was the chair before me. Oh, gosh. I'm hearing his name. But he did. He bought a house
right outside of the city limits. And so it's just kind of a painting in the general counsel. So a while
ago, I had a dad.
So yeah, I think that that's a good point. And this is something that people can think about a little
bit. As Matt said, if we want to support that change, we can take a step, you know, that's perfect for
us to share that and be open to it. And if it's something that we don't feel is necessary for our group,
I think it's safe for them.
County Environmental Commission changed its name and a little bit of what it did. I kind of thought
it wouldn't make any sense to have someone from outside the city and because there was a comfortable
committee there. And I think we meet at the same time. So it wasn't even possible. You know, it was
what we tried to at one point and then immediately it was signed when he realized he couldn't be in
two places at once. Yeah, now that they have a little bit of a different scope
I suppose, be open to it. But I don't feel like we need to make any change at the time. That's just
my opinion. Or just the official decision. I'll appreciate your work. OK. Any of us have thoughts that
they want to make sure are full of their questions like that? What if I'm hearing short of anybody making a motion?
What I mean is open this to a slightly favorable orientation as an option, not as a mandate. And there's
some reasons having to do with the environmental boundaries for watersheds, airsheds, things like that
that are especially interesting. Sound about right. Okay. Great. I can report that. What are we doing
in a year? And keep you posted if there's any actual legislative proposals. So no guarantee that this actually
close their path is sort of slow moving, but we're getting there. And conversation again, and you're
reading and doing the very right. You get something else. I just want to note too, I don't, I didn't
want to like, uh, effect any discussion, but to Dave's point, if he, if this doesn't go through,
if you have, um, if you want to invite, I'm happy to reach out to the county, you know, representatives,
we're representing the watershed or friends of
whoever to come and work on that partnership with us. So I wanted to throw that idea out there as well.
Do we want to put discussion with this on next month's agenda just so that we thought about it in between
and we can kind of decide then if there's anything we want to throw there, right? Yes, I can. Perfect.
Great. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you again. Thanks for coming. Yeah. Good to see you all. Yeah,
you too. Thanks for your service. Good question. All right.
Well, thanks, folks. And yeah, keep thinking about it, and we'll get some time to circle back on these
in-house meetings. As we move through the agenda, we see old business. I said it was a bit dismissive,
but it's not. It's exciting in new business as well, but it's officially old business. I'm going to
push this little container and feed these past the group, because they are still hanging out. So please
help yourself. I make a motion to muster police. Literal motion.
So now we're going to jump into the working group updates. We've got a bunch on here, which is super
exciting. So I'm going to pass it to you. We'll see if you choose now. Headed up by Mateo. Biodiversity
did not meet. Even the holidays, I find it a little bit unlikely that we'll meet before the January
meeting as well. But we will get back going in the new year. Love it. And I think
I'm going to interject with the B city meeting. Is there anything that you want to share about that?
I think it was like a data. It was like a lunchtime meeting, so it was. Well, we were the B city committee
that that is kind of run through the parks department and it's first meeting and so there's kind of
a chance to chat with everybody and start to talk about what it will look like for the rest of the year
to be part of that partnership and start kind of
aggregating projects we're working on and things like that. Yeah. Yeah. So we're just kind of kicking
out. And I think we have our first official meeting in early February. That's sort of our kickoff, but
we'll get moving out of here soon. Great. Okay, cool. Next up is Ego Heroes. And we had a meeting, which
was super fun. So if anybody wants to chime in on what this meeting entailed, I welcome you to.
The biggest announcement is that the website now has language about the Eco Heroes event, if for no
other reason, because Matt wonderfully sent out an email to all the educators, kind of giving a heads
up on our plan for this coming year's art contest. And I know that, Adam, one of the things that you
had offered to do was kind of like put some thoughts onto what all we can do on the website, but it's
still very much open, but this is kind of the summary of the job.
what the theme is. People go to the website, they'll be like, make sense of it. But we've, we've, yeah,
yeah, Matt sent out the email that went to all the, you know, educators that we had emails for, basically
invited them to start thinking about the theme and gave some language to that. And then we have a plan
for a meeting, I think, early in January to really solidify some of the other details for the next stage of
sharing flyers that we can put up, handouts that educators can give to kids to take home or put in their
rooms, some of the different resources and ideas that we can provide for people to start thinking about
it and then start making some progress on what outreach looks like. Because outreach for participation
in the Eco Heroes Art Contest and also outreach for donations and
support that we could get from businesses in the area. So we started to kind of dip our feet into that
in our last meeting and then our plans to sort of solidify that. That meeting is January 6th, 5.30,
is that right? Yep, looks good. January 6th, 5.30. I don't know if we know where it's at. McLaughie.
Are there any other updates from Ecovirus folks that I missed or that you'd like to enthusiastically
shout out? I have an update, okay. So, not an update, I don't think anybody really wants to be here.
So, any matured office of the mayor had their communications director speak to planning and transportation
earlier this week. And so, basically it was just
I think the status is given to all board information being given to the directors and other departments
as well. For website updates and kind of what we're putting out for the media and whatnot, moms would
like to review it. So there's just, so whenever you're distributing materials or please plan for an
extra, I don't know what their review timeline would be, but you know, it's an extra time just to get
that review going.
and please be open to suggestion. Do you have a sense of what all that means? Like our native landscaping
handouts, like what we put up, like stuff like that, or just like those things that we want on the website
or from our social media? I think the brochures and stuff will be infected. As far as like the website
and social media, definitely. Can I answer the first part of your question?
I think you asked about brochures and something else. Yeah, brochures, like, yeah, flyers. Yeah, like
the materials that we table with, things like that. Yeah, I think most of the stuff is going to be fine.
Does it need to be reviewed now, even though we've had it forever, or does it need to be reviewed? We'd
say probably, but I can, I'll look through the outreach materials box and that stuff up to columns and
see what they have to say.
This is something that you're able that if we send it to you, you will just get to that. Yeah. So I
was creating a list of resources. I'm not sure. That will go on the website. Yeah.
Education. Okay. So it's just regarding nature at night. Okay, here's some information about bats in
Indiana or constellations that you can find. Yeah. Yeah, we're talking about the fever like it's so broad.
Do we try to give people ideas of how to narrow it down? It's like, I think it's helpful to give them
some place, but yeah, like giving them lots of different options, I think is a fun way to think about
the theme, so yeah. Hello, anything else from the e-government response? Great news. Okay, so we're
gonna move on to the ECPC. Rachel, is there something you want to update on? I'm insured of that one, I guess.
I think the gray star at 503 North Rogers and I know it was the board of zoning appeals tonight. So
the letter was included. Obviously, I don't know how that meeting is going currently. But it was received,
I believe the letter will also be sent to the commission member. So I think it'll go in January.
Um, so that has fun. I did want to ask, um, before we, there was another, whenever we met, um, a few,
there was a last speaker the week before, um, recently, it was a snowy day, um, that another property
was discussed at 2511 North Dunn. It was basically a four acre lot, I believe, um, that's going to be
subdivided, um, with some common area lots and lots eligible for, um, to felt like single family housing.
I wanted to ask, no one has been written at this time that the ECPC wants to meet in a scheduled meeting
to write a letter. What is the time for any of the sounds like, wildly fast? I think it's coming up,
I think it's the 29th. Let me see what I, I think I put it in the email, but I can't remember off the
top of my head. I think it's the 29th of this month.
For many people, it's the holiday season, which makes it just inconvenient and also difficult to have
time to get together. So I will defer to members of the ECPC for how we will handle that. Okay. So for
that property, it's going to go to claim commission on January 12th and the Board of Zoning and Field
from January 22nd.
We, Planning Transportation, can share comments with the petitioner before the final revision deadline
of December 29th, which is the Planning Commission's revision deadline. So let's see. So if you would
like to have the petitioner to have it, having a letter prior to December 29th so they can maybe incorporate
those changes, that's an option that you
don't necessarily need to do that option, but you just want a letter submitted to Planning Commission,
we would need that. I wrote January 2nd on that. And then if we want to just take it with us to be heard?
Yes, that's an option. You can make a public statement after the meeting and read your letter. Is that
the 22nd? Planning Commission's January 12th.
in the 27th or two meetings. They will be getting a plan approval as well as variances. So that's why.
Do you know with the last letter we submitted, so I believe we got that to petitioner. Yes. Did anything
happen with that? They modified their petitioner statement. I think they addressed
each of the four options or recommendations for the tree preservation. And I believe they said something
about the soil remediation. From what I remember, they were more, I think there's something else happens
that I think I recommended recommendation three, from what I remember, they were going to do
They're going to do something like that, but I think they were going to stick with what they have proposed.
So, um, and they wrote some sort of response and that was included in the PTA packet. What was the address
again? Um, for the upcoming one, 2511. You said it was being subdivided for to what do we know?
Yeah, so there'll be, I think, two to three common area lots where most of the trees in the stream is.
But it's going to be, I think, single family homes, the fifth of the development. There's a question
from a member of the public. Are we answering that? Yeah. Go ahead. Chris, what it's now? Is it woods now?
Yeah, partially good. I don't have the calculation off the top of my head. So it's being proposed with
the variance is needed because the tree removal and the exceedance of what our standards allow. So it
is partially good. And then there's a stream on the western part of the property. Yeah. And there's
no longer any cycle.
Oh, so an example has been removed. That was also not part of the tree canopy population. So what do
folks think about wanting to get together to potentially arrest something after this? Again, the deadlines
are the 29th of December is the day to get it to the petitioner. And then by January 12, right? The
planning commission. Um, let's see. January 2nd.
Yes, we would need it by January 2nd. The packet will go out January 2nd. So it's a tight timeline.
And if you submit it on December 29th, that's fine. The petitioner doesn't really have time to make
changes. So we would need it before the 29th if you would like the petition changes. What do folks think?
holiday season makes that one really challenging. I would kind of like to see what their plan is just
you know really agree but um and then after that I can decide if I feel motivated to try to write. Yeah
I will say PC does have Bobby's at the plan. Yeah this is the one that I think has maybe been up for
a couple months now right? Yeah. Is it the one that's been considered in the past? I don't know I'm
sorry that that this is the first time it's being thought out. Okay.
But I did send out on December 2nd, just kind of summarizing names. What do you think, Adam? This was
the one at the launch time, right? Yes. And Daniel Butler. Yes. Fire name. Not the fire name. No, it's
not the fire name. The exit. Yeah, thank you, sir. I didn't find it very egregious personally, and that
combined with level
I wasn't at that meeting, so I hadn't seen it. But if my fellow commissioners who were at that meeting
say it's not worth trying to write something over the holidays, that's okay with me. I'll take you guys
if you were. So, Rachel, would you be able to resend to Matt the materials that the ECAC has? And then,
Matt, if you look at them and then decide that we want to
set a meeting to write a letter then. Yeah, it's a silly time of the year. If it isn't pretty egregious,
I'm pretty happy to let this one pass, but I would like to see it since I wasn't able to attend that
meeting. So thank you. All of these teams should ask their feedbacker to say if there's a variance.
That's another question. So I believe where we landed was environmental variances are after requested.
So whenever there's an environmental variance, I'm usually in the loop on it. If it's pretty substantial,
that's when I bring it to ECPC. If it's something that I'm not feeling like it's not warranted for like
a staff presentation with ECPC, that
I don't necessarily offer it, but it is included on packets. It's always included either in the hearing
officer or VBA packet, and that's open for anybody to get all those downloads. And so public comments
can be received in those meetings. If you like, bring certain filters to the environmental commission
just to get more feedback or? I think it's just in the interest of the environmental commission. I think
others can...
other than speaking about the history of it a bit more than I can. But it seemed like the EC had a role
in development in the past. And then because of that role of development, environmental regulations
were baked into our code. Though I think that's why the department let it briefly die, because they
felt like some of the administrative burden as well as the recommendations EC was providing was already kind of
baked into the code, but I think they were still interested in doing more than what they took. Is that
pretty reflective? I think that sums it up pretty well. We used to be involved in just about all of
them, and now I think that would be excessive. So we appreciate Rachel bringing us the ones that are
significant so we can decide if we want to weigh in, knowing that it's just an advisory board trying to
nudge people towards feeling a certain way about environmental features so we're not going after every
every single issue but the significant ones. And do you think our opinion matters with the developer
to the people approving the development variants? Like who does it matter most to? Ultimately they have
to get approval from zoning so I guess I would say those are the people we're trying to influence the most.
And again, I'm not looking at it as anti-development or anything in any way. I mean, sometimes people
say there's, we want to clear every single tree on this lot. And, you know, that's kind of extreme.
So we, we would have feelings that we would hope would influence those individuals, but that it's, we're
just choosing to be engaged in this process. Even if it's a note that says pretty, please carry up trees.
And I do think that, that.
meant a little bit different now is that previously when we were weighing in on lots and lots
of developments, and sometimes it was just little things. It was like, oh, more natives, just little
things. I do think the fact that it is a much more selective group of developments or variants, request
things like that, that we are weighing in on, I think it does increase the significance of us saying
we took time out to really look into this, to really think about what we're concerned about, the solutions
we consider,
to share with you, I think that that gives it a little bit more weight now than maybe food or rain on
every development. Yeah, before if it was true. How could you do rain on every development? It was chaotic.
It was about, yeah, the administrative burden, as was mentioned. But yeah, it became pretty repetitive.
It became, you know, these canopy standards are important because these impervious surface standards
are important because, and so I think now by
selectively chiming in on some of the either the ones that are the largest or the ones that are the
most extreme variances is um is prudent for us yeah kind of echoing what's been said having the same
lawyer provided to every meeting to the bca it kind of loses i mean i don't want to speak for the bca
but sometimes that can lose the important the importance of what's being said so having a very select
like putting in a lot of thought and and review and recommendations into this
a selected development that does have strong environmental implications. I think maybe those words are
a bit a little bit more. And also separately, because the new way that we're doing the memos is coming
from just the ECTF. It's not coming from Rachel. Rachel is weighing in as an environmental planner.
And then there's a separate body of our group that are also weighing in on our community.
increase in the number of places. And instead of it being previously through the environmental plan,
it would automatically come through. And sometimes it was like primarily driven by the planter because
our community couldn't meet as much or something like that. So it kind of, I feel like the splitting
it out, while it is additional time and energy from our wonderful one for commissioners who were dissipating
in it, I think it does build up the strength of what we're saying back. That's all the update. I have
any other questions about DCPC?
Okay, I will hear from you Matt and just look at the entire separate networking group if you think of
trying to get to me. Okay, now we're on to light pollution, which is our friend over here, Edda. We
have not met, but now that it gets dark, so do we really not look this one on me again?
You're looking up at 6 p.m. and it's dark, but I can't see the stars. I know there's been so many things
happening in the skies lately. Sure. Do you want to consider trying to schedule a meeting for January?
Yeah, I was going to say, I'm going to reach out sometime in January. I was watching a movie the other
night, and I thought it felt like solution working group. The movie was set in a pretty urbanized town,
and there are so many stars in the sky, and I thought that's so unreal.
Okay um so moving on we're now to the outreach and education uh working group. Shannon so we just met
we made a plan for the next month we're going to share the website um then we're going to go through
you. Super fun thank you uh special projects we have not met or taken any next steps on some of the
grants that we talked about those are
I'm just continuing on. And I got an update from Mitchell. Does anybody have any water quality details
to contribute? I don't think we do. Okay. All right then. Thanks for the updates, everybody.
Moving along, we've got we are on to number six, which is our time for public comment. So members of
the public, you have five minutes to use as they like.
James, have you been hanging out with us or anything you'd like to share? Sounds good, sounds good.
Thank you. Of course. All right. And now we are onto the staff update, which are two items that I will
pass over to Rachel. Okay. I've put together, it's not as pretty as last year's, and I'm starting having
trouble figuring out how to do it. Is this how you do it, Al? Okay.
It's plenty pretty. Last year, I put working group updates for each meeting. Really didn't follow that
this year, so I removed them. I'm happy to add them back with you. I also forgot to add the annual planning
meeting to the November meeting. Still going to be happening.
draft schedule I'd like to propose to you all. There are two dates that are not on the third Thursday,
that's March 26th, I think that's on the fourth Thursday, and June 11th, and that's on the second Thursday.
So, proposing that, and then I also wanted to kind of get a sense of, this year we canceled the July
thing, and then last year we canceled the December being
I kind of made the executive decision about the Seminole-Washington reform, but I'm so sorry about that.
I think we heard that communication stuff out. And then this year, it seemed like December has kind
of been not as high of attendance as what we previously had in other months. So I'm gonna throw the
idea out there of having a summer with your recess with the caveat of
Maybe those are months where it's more working group heavy because December is right after the November
meeting. So I thought I'd have time for working groups to meet at the time that's available for that
group to assess what the goals were based off November, planning for 20 for the next year.
And then summer, it seems like either June or July is a little bit chaotic based off vacations and whatnot.
I'm happy to keep all fall on the calendar, but I also wonder if there are any sets of ideas out there.
I'm thinking about kind of the arc of our activities. I have a tech and activity plan and biodiversity
stuff a lot of times spring-heavy. We obviously know the eco-hero stuff is in the spring. Are there
any other major events that we can consistently have on our books? The bug fest we table at,
which is what, summer? Early fall. Early fall.
And you also do a spring or fall recess, and that's better. You know, if March, if it's like, that's
the year's time, we're spending so much time into that, we can do March and then kind of subsequently,
maybe October, we can prep for it, then November meeting. Rachel, is it challenging for you if it was
more based upon whether it's gonna be a life agenda or a lot of absences? Like, is it definitely easier to plan
a recess in advance or is it not too heavy of a lift? I mean, I can cancel the meeting, but yeah,
it's more, so, I mean, this is part of my job. You guys are all volunteers, and so I want to be cognizant
of your planning to be here and if you're, I guess the cost benefit analysis of making other plans to be here.
So I start like, answer your question. I don't want to like, the plan book said, I think it's supposed
to let me know 10 days before our meeting of whether you're going to be here or not. I don't enforce
that. I mean, things happen, things come up. And so I don't, you know, I'm not reaching for it in a
day. So that's the only problem I have. Okay.
What do other folks think? Folks that are in academia or have family obligations, stuff like that, are
you looking at this calendar to have any clear plans? I would say we just leave them all scheduled and
then, yeah, we can decide at the month before if we don't have a lot to do. I do appreciate that folks
have been pretty clear about, if they've got something they're going to be going next month or in two
months or whatever, and that we can start to see it down the road that that will be getting around.
That's been nice.
I will get everything on the calendar then and set up according to the schedule. And then the outreach
and education group will meet at 530 on these dates as well. Unless there's another time you all would
like to meet. Does that have anything to say about that? I think that's all. Any other comments about
this? I was going to chime in really quickly. Then do we have the dates?
popping up here. So last year we talked about having some different presentations, like the ratchet
you're kind of like feeling today tonight. I know Adam, we talked about if you want to do like a little
share about, you know, invasive animals or whatever it was that you want to, that would be fun for one
of the regularly scheduled meetings. We talked about having Joe Cottle from DNR talk about state,
you know, deer issues. We talked a little bit about following up on the lawn,
guidance or something like that that Norma's been talking about. I think we talked about maybe having
some fancy iris or somebody come in. So there are a few. Oh, and then we also discussed potentially
if we wanted to have like a twice yearly, bi-annual, twice year conversation sort of schedule about
UDO changes and specifically maybe doing like one, you know,
some of the environmental sections of the UDO, and then, you know, six months later, whatever, covering
another section, because it's a pretty intense document, and so maybe do some of the break it down and
intentionally add it ahead of time. That'd be helpful for us. I had notes on that, so I kind of wanted
to see what
You mentioned video changes in January. I invited our senior zoning planner to talk about the video
changes that are going to be brought to council in February. Okay, great. So January's booked. Yes.
Would it be possible to also have like a sort of, not a key schedule, but a schedule of like eco-hero,
to add the dates, like eco-heroes and bugfest and things like that. But, I mean, do we know like the
dates? I mean, eco-heroes we know.
or when we give out the prices. But I just think that we'll be in a similar situation to be able to
put that in my schedule now as it's starting to come up. So I think that's the same thing. Administratively,
I could add, you know, maybe not just in form. I can't add it to the environmental commission calendar
because then I have to notice it. And then it's not necessarily like eco heroes, things like that Earth Day,
and I don't know how like minutes work, but like because I'd be putting it on our calendar. Yeah, but
I can't be on the day. Okay. Wait, can we, we can't put it on the day? I think we can put it on the
day, yeah. Just like, put it on the day. But not on the official day. Yeah. This calendar or whatever,
I don't think we can share. Yeah. Okay.
I think the months that you proposed meeting in a different time make sense. I appreciate you putting
the document together. This doesn't require a commission vote, does it? No, I don't think so. As far
as the events that you think for, so Eco Heroes, BudFest, or some other events, would you like the NCIRs,
like Angel of the Nightingale Trail over there?
Um, yeah, because I can make it. Are there any other events that would be helpful just to have like.
A reminder about these things coming up. Yeah, they don't sneak up on us. We know about them months
in advance. I don't worry about them for now, but if there's events.
that you know that are coming up for next month or two, please shoot me an email or find me and I can
put it on you just as a reminder for everybody. Okay, the sixth calendar. Oh, secondary about the calendar.
For working groups, if you all, it would be great if working groups had like a monthly standing meeting
or every other month, whatever, and we could easily cancel, but then I can reserve rooms and whatnot
and sign up for a public notice we sent out.
You can make an effort when we start meeting in January to see if there is a set time to project in
the future. I know that every month will work out. Basically, none of the working groups but outreach
have that planned yet, but we can aim to. I think UCPC and outreach, they both are good for 2026.
Can you remind me of what the terms are for having a virtual aspect for a working group meeting? Yeah,
so the virtual aspect, the biggest thing is I have to be there. Okay. So then I would need to ask if
it has to be recorded because this is publicized by CAPS. So then,
there's new state laws on putting those recordings up on our website. Right now, all of our recordings,
you don't necessarily have a section for like recordings on our website right now. And then what is
that? So there's just a lot of more administrative things to work out rather than, I guess, having that
virtual option in general. So the department has said as of right now, like for the ECPC lunch for the
main bowl,
That's the one sessions that they're all in person is that I know that when we did that, there were
multiple people who are doing in with that before the rules came up the staff. So the the numbers have
to be in person about training the presentation. Oh, yeah.
Someone had told me the other day about the Residence Academy. And I did a tour of the water treatment
plant and the wastewater treatment plant. And I could ask about that. I did a tour about a month ago.
I don't know about the Residence Academy though, that's on the left one.
I think that the Housing and Labor Department hosts that. I think it's, I don't want to say incentive,
but the multi, like, non-week introduction of Wilkinson. And it's not necessarily just environmental
stuff, it's like all sorts of things. Right, yes. Yeah. That's an interesting idea, just like getting
along comfortably with this thing. Kind of like we did our own Weed Rangle, you know, if we had a tour
arranged for admission, that'd be cool.
Before we move on, just a quick check. Adam, I know I threw your name up. Do you want to do a presentation
for us with that? Sure. Do you have a preference of any month in particular? After January. I really
don't care. If I saw you for March, would you do it for March? I think so, yeah. Okay. I'll keep it
to 15 minutes. Okay. Got it.
March, someone remind me. Okay, great. Any other thoughts or questions about the schedule? Cool, then
moving on to attendance requirements, the most fun and interesting part of this meeting tonight. So,
in our handbook, I don't have a handbook pulled up right now, but in our handbook,
I think the attendance requirements are mostly about the COVID error rules, like how often you need
to come in person versus a virtual meeting. I have since learned there's actual rules in the clinical
medical code. And so I do have that pulled up. So there's something about you cannot miss three consecutive years.
You can be removed if you miss three consecutive meetings or four regularly scheduled meetings within
an eight hour period. So there have been a couple of issues. And whenever I do this, I'm obligated to
report to the appointing group, whether that's council or office. So I wanted to provide something about
it. I wanted to bring it up to everybody that this is a rule.
And Perry mentioned, you know, having this in our handbook. So I wonder if we'll check on if this would
be helpful to have in our handbook. And it's not because we're adopting it as our language, because
it is what it is. It's more putting it in the paperwork that all of us have access to when we're onboarded.
It's in, you know, I reference the handbook all the time for just random questions. So it'd just be
more incorporated into that document. I feel generally supportive of putting it in that document. This
is always accessible, too, but no one's
going to go digging. So I think it'd be good if our documents reflected this. The question is, it's
removable for cause. Is it required or is it something that someone, a commissioner, can be removed
for a cause? And this is an example of a problem. It's up to the expression of the mayor or the common
council. So I think I also want to ask if we can fit in a handbook because
The guidance that I received from the court's office was the EC kicked somebody off. So I don't know
if that being in the handbook would be like an EC rule, like that's misleading with that, the EC has
that power, I guess. So I do, I just wanna make, I'm happy to add it and I'll propose that change in
January if, I don't think we're allowed to do that. I think it would be in the same section of
if you're attending virtually this is this is how it is and we're not going to kick you off anyway it's
always just going to go back to it it's not it's not saying that we'll do it it's saying you can be
removed for cause here's what that is i do think that would have some value you know within our document
i think it's helpful too just because when life gets busy and you start to see what you can come to
and not it starts to become a little more important if they start right yeah so just
except for appointees who serve at the pleasure of the mayor. So if you serve at the pleasure of the
mayor, this doesn't apply? It's up to the mayor's discretion. Because like half of us, we don't have
the mayor of it? It's all the doughnuts before that. That would be very strange if you were appointed
by the mayor first. I mean, it's too massive. It's just like administrative. I think this is really
saying the mayor's office and the mayor
She can remove for any cause. But then maybe other, like the council maybe has specific causes. So,
two mayors will determine many, many causes.
I think everyone knows that I'm not the expert on the municipal code. I'm happy to ask questions, but
I can only say what the code says. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. It's been years since
we've had an issue with it, but we have had issues before regarding attendance. I do think having the
municipal code reflected in our document is probably a good idea, or at least a paraphrased version
of that that's applicable.
Basically, it boils down to, you can't miss, what is it, four? Four within a year. Four within a year.
Three in a row. Three in a row, or you can only attend two virtually in a row. The third time you attend
virtually in a row is a problem. And you have to attend more than half of the year in person. Right.
So it's a few of those things that, you know, you start to kind of
you know, and, and, and genuinely believe it's like, life picks up, you know, people's health comes
and goes, weather comes and goes, vacation's coming, like all those things. So I think any level of
transparency that we can add to our existing handle will be really helpful in the long-term future.
I also want to add administratively, this is not going to be traffic. So, um, these are, these aren't
rules that I'm creating. So, um, I appreciate you all for seeing and acknowledging that.
I did want to also remind everybody about the name tags. We've had one commissioner turn them in. I
don't know who else has them, but if you do, please turn them in. I probably won't remind anybody in
the future. That is all I have. Great. Thank you everybody for laying on the stuff and asking your questions
and being ready to figure it all out.
We are at the point of our evening where we talk through reports from various other groups that are
represented by EC members. So I'm going to jump right in to David. Do you have any updates you'd like
to share? Yeah, well, street commission meetings usually start with, unless there's business about things
that the street department wants to do,
moving trees around and stuff that we want to talk about. Usually, Haskell Smith was the city foresters
meeting off by giving us a progress report this year, or this last meeting this past Monday. He mentioned
that in the past year, he had pruned about 1,800 trees
It's remote 308 and it's 786. This inspection on inventory has, I'm not sure what exactly what this
number is, 5,692. There's an additional 1,361 trees in the inventory. And that's pretty punchy.
total trees worked on or inspected were 1,665. Overall, we've hit almost all our goals in the third
quarter, still letting catch up on the tree planting. Overall, a great year with sound staffing issues
and equipment issues. Then he mentioned that he has
$50,000 received for ash tree management, and there are 16 applicants for tree assistance. We then moved
on to, um, now, Mayor Williams, who's the new representative there. They will have a tree inventory
out soon for IU.
And they had plans to plant new trees in the athletic district, but that is told to be careful not to
get in the way of tailgating. Julie Roberts and the people of Newton had no report. And under new business,
George Higman came up with the possibility of tree tags
that we would make available for new trees. I think this is likely to happen. It's going to be $500
to $600 lost. I'll pass around this list of three possible tree tags. And my other piece of pre-commissioned
business is this thing. I wouldn't have to do it anymore.
Is there anybody who would like to be in the presentation? This has the disadvantage or the advantage
for a retired person. The meetings typically last one hour and not longer than that. They start at 9.30
in the morning on the third Monday of the month.
on that commission, we plan to be able to go to those Monday meetings. This is the third Monday of the
month at 930s? Yeah. Are they here and selling? No. Up until now, they've been up on every office of
the city forestry, which is up by a row ship cemetery, but I think
They've just decided they can't do that anymore. And they're going to start meeting in the city hall.
So somebody else will take it over. I would appreciate it. OK, that question, when is the next meeting?
Do you remember? January 19. Oh, thank you. OK, so January 19. I assume that's not the holiday.
Which it is. Yeah, usually they're on the
Monday, but on sometimes because of. It's not my commission. Because of all the days, the various sorts
that we looked at other dates, but. The next meeting, I think it's going to be on the second. The second,
okay. I believe that they fought back a week.
Okay and then if anybody thinks about it like typically 930 on the third Monday of the month but the
January the second line so the folks are interested you should reach out to maybe Rachel to verify the
location of it and Dave thanks for being the tree
mission representative for so long. I really appreciate how much I've put into it. Okay, do you have
any, are there any updates for ERAC or the others? ERAC met last Wednesday, the week from yesterday.
And we met in the Manifer Community Center, where I had never been before.
It's out on West 7th Street, and apparently it was once a black school. A funny building, and it was
not met up on the fourth floor. I misplaced my notes, but I have a few things left in my head.
Deer this year, deer hunting.
Last year, they got 35. I think this year they got maybe 49. They got more deer in the deer hunts this
year than they did last year. There was a report on, I forget what the plant was.
not doing better than it has in the past. And they think that's because they were nearer than they have
been in the past. Let me discuss the report on the treatment of the actual water. Oh, that's right.
Yeah. Yeah, there was a report on actually the treatment of the water.
really like. I didn't bring my notes either. Things are going well, right? And they're going to continue
treatment for a non-native micro-imperibrate, or actually it's a plant. It's a plant. Plant, yeah. I
forget which plant it is. InvisPlan, yeah. Studying it. I don't know. Yeah, it's going well. Right.
And then I have to leave early, so I missed the last part, which is important. Or there's developments
that I don't know anything about. And Bernd, you said nothing new. All right. Perfect. Thanks for the
updates and thanks for the year additions, too. As far as because goes because, Matt,
a week earlier than usual, and I was caught off guard by that and had a kind of crazy week last week,
so I will watch it and report on it next. All right, so MC Iris is the next one on the list, and I think,
Rachel, you've been trying to touch those meetings, is that right? Yeah, I was at the Urban Forest Tree
Symposium from DNR during that time, so I was not able to attend the MC Iris meeting and
and Jay Park did not pass along the magnets. She's usually really good about it, so something came up.
She wasn't able to pass them along right after the meeting. And then the Clean Community Program under
the Mitchell often weighs in on this, but, Rachel, are there any updates for that? Oh, good question.
Let me see. I think Christine Lindbergh sent an update that we are one submission away from the silver status.
So we're really posting feeds and verging all the trees to try to get them something so we can get that
status for the city. Okay, so that's all of the different reports. We've moved along to commissioner
announcements. Norm's not here tonight, so we can skip him on the list. Are there any announcements
from any other commissioners that they'd like to share?
The Monroe County Christmas bird count is happening on Saturday. What does that entail? Five thirty
six. And you went to the goose. Okay. All right.
lot of good birdings that apparently you've been to. I was excited to see, I can't remember exactly
when, but sometime in the last few weeks that our urban forester Haskell has planted some trees in my
neighborhood. It was something that I've talked to him about well over a year ago and it was supposed
to happen like last fall or something and I would
I was joking with the friend that I feel betrayed, but then, you know, one day it was driving home,
like, oh my God, these are nice and they're in more than just this one person's yard. So I bet you it
was the city's doing. So that was a cool surprise earlier this month. Anything else? Yeah, that's great.
All right. Well, I believe that brings us to the end. Our next meeting is going to be January 15.
6pm. If you can't make it or you think you may not be able to, please reach out to Rachel and myself.
Let us know. But otherwise, that's that. Motion to adjourn. Second. Excellent. All right. 7.52. You
have seven and a half minutes to do whatever you have in mind.