WEBVTT 00:00:00.226 --> 00:00:07.217 - Welcome to the Environmental Commission meeting for Thursday, September 17th, 2026. I'm Karl Geiser. 00:00:07.217 --> 00:00:14.277 - I'm the Vice President. Carrie couldn't make it tonight. This is the first time I'm running a meeting 00:00:14.277 --> 00:00:21.475 - like this. So if I am doing something wrong, please call it out. I welcome the correction. I think what 00:00:21.475 --> 00:00:27.358 - we need to start with based off of our typical conduct of business is the roll call. 00:00:27.906 --> 00:00:36.628 - I can ask Rachel, our liaison, to do that. OK. Harry Albright is absent. Heidi Brown, here. Matt Caldy, 00:00:36.628 --> 00:00:45.266 - here. Adam Martinez, here. And I think Mitchell Owens is on his way. We will introduce him. He's here. 00:00:45.266 --> 00:00:53.905 - Carl Feiser, here. And Justin Mischer is absent. Adam 92, Adam Martinez. OK. I'm sorry about that. And 00:00:53.905 --> 00:00:55.582 - I'm Rachel Johnson. 00:00:55.970 --> 00:01:03.636 - Excellent. And so the next word, business, I'd be happy to entertain a motion to approve the agenda 00:01:03.636 --> 00:01:11.686 - or to change the agenda if anybody has any thoughts. Second the motion to approve. It sounds like you're 00:01:11.686 --> 00:01:19.812 - making the motion. Oh, so you're making a motion. I won't make a motion. I will entertain motions. That's 00:01:19.812 --> 00:01:23.262 - my understanding of how the president works. 00:01:25.538 --> 00:01:32.620 - of the person who doesn't make motions? Not usually. Not usually, yes. I mean, I guess if I had, we 00:01:32.620 --> 00:01:40.197 - won't stand here forever, I suppose. Do we have, under new business, the social media one that has Kerry's 00:01:40.197 --> 00:01:47.420 - name next to that? Do we want to strike that, or do we have anyone else who's willing to present that 00:01:47.420 --> 00:01:54.572 - one? Anyone who presents it. OK. I move we approve the agenda. Second. OK. Would you mind throwing a 00:01:54.572 --> 00:01:55.422 - call again? 00:01:56.834 --> 00:02:08.478 - Penny Brown. Matt Colby. Yes. Adam Martinez. Yes. Carl Weiser. Yes. OK, next we have our approval of 00:02:08.478 --> 00:02:20.929 - the September 17, 2026 agenda. I would entertain a motion. That's what we just did. Oh, I'm sorry. Approval 00:02:20.929 --> 00:02:25.310 - of the July 17, 2026 meeting minutes. 00:02:26.978 --> 00:02:38.704 - Move approval of minutes. Second. Just a second. Matt Hardy? Yes. Martinez? Yes. Geyser? Yes. Brown? 00:02:38.704 --> 00:02:50.314 - Yes. Motion passes. OK. Looks like the next thing we have on the agenda is public comments. Anybody 00:02:50.314 --> 00:02:55.422 - in the room or on a line that would like to 00:02:55.970 --> 00:03:07.477 - Uh, speech, uh, limit five minutes per person, 20 minutes total. Seeing no one in the room. Anyone on 00:03:07.477 --> 00:03:19.773 - a line? Okay. I'm seeing nobody on a line. Um, so I guess we move on to reports. Um, let's see. Commissioner 00:03:19.773 --> 00:03:24.286 - reports. Does anybody have any walk on? 00:03:24.482 --> 00:03:32.658 - walk-in items that they would like to present. I viewed Bicos's last meeting on the 8th. They had a 00:03:32.658 --> 00:03:40.997 - guest presenter, Meredith Katz, who was CEO of RetroCycle. They made a really cool product called the 00:03:40.997 --> 00:03:49.254 - Colorado Cup, which is cutting down on single-use disposable waste in Breckenridge, Colorado. It's a 00:03:49.254 --> 00:03:54.078 - plastic cup that replaces reusable cups in the way that it 00:03:54.402 --> 00:04:01.271 - works is they charge an extra $2.50 upfront. And then they can swap it for another one any day they 00:04:01.271 --> 00:04:07.590 - come back. And they eventually close out and return it if they don't keep it as a souvenir. 00:04:07.590 --> 00:04:14.459 - They get a $2.50 credit. She gave a really cool presentation on the amount of waste that's cut down 00:04:14.459 --> 00:04:21.465 - on over there and the way that they've started the program. And I guess she herself is an IU grad and 00:04:21.465 --> 00:04:24.350 - wants to bring something similar to here. 00:04:24.546 --> 00:04:31.758 - So that was a really cool presentation and I hope to hear more from them down the road. Then the commission 00:04:31.758 --> 00:04:38.436 - approved a letter to the office of the mayor concerning plot cameras. They approved a letter to the 00:04:38.436 --> 00:04:45.448 - city council concerning proposed tree preservation changes to the UDL and they advanced a second reading 00:04:45.448 --> 00:04:49.054 - resolution to protect significant and heritage trees. 00:04:53.858 --> 00:05:01.121 - Excellent, thank you for that report, Matt. Do we have any other business? Dr. Adams? I went to the 00:05:01.121 --> 00:05:08.530 - blood shirt and pants tour, should I mention that? Yeah, it's very cool. We have it as an agenda item 00:05:08.530 --> 00:05:16.011 - later on. Okay, we can hold off then. That's a good idea then. Okay, moving on, I'll see if anyone has 00:05:16.011 --> 00:05:21.822 - any objections. Staff reports, financial and transportation department reports. 00:05:22.018 --> 00:05:28.889 - Yeah, so Adam Fugger was the former seat for the EC on the Environmental Resources Advisory Council. 00:05:28.889 --> 00:05:35.828 - So their liaison reached out to me to see if there was any interest of an EC member taking that seat. 00:05:35.828 --> 00:05:42.699 - Whenever we looked at their bylaws, it's kind of similar to the tree commission. The EC just has the 00:05:42.699 --> 00:05:49.706 - power to appoint somebody. So it doesn't necessarily have to be in person on the commission. So I just 00:05:49.706 --> 00:05:50.590 - wanted to... 00:05:51.010 --> 00:06:03.038 - see if there's anybody interested. I'm not sure. What was this for? ERAC. ERAC. That's another board, 00:06:03.038 --> 00:06:14.830 - right? Yes, another board. Let me see what they need. Just for the benefit of the commissioners and 00:06:14.830 --> 00:06:20.254 - the public, what does ERAC do? I can pull up. 00:06:20.642 --> 00:06:36.917 - their link. It looks like they meet on the second Wednesdays of the month in the evening. So here's 00:06:36.917 --> 00:06:48.798 - a synopsis of what they do. They are under the Parks Department. So they 00:06:48.898 --> 00:06:56.701 - work with park commissioners in policy matters pertaining to the operations of city natural areas or 00:06:56.701 --> 00:07:04.504 - facilities. They assist with the formation of policies related to the use and protection of the park 00:07:04.504 --> 00:07:12.616 - instead of the natural areas. So my decision is to have it be made tonight. I went into Heidi Schumacher 00:07:12.616 --> 00:07:17.406 - who stacks that council. So if there is interest from the EC, 00:07:17.666 --> 00:07:25.936 - Please let me know. We can bring it into the commission meeting. Otherwise, I wanted to touch base to 00:07:25.936 --> 00:07:34.125 - see if the tree commission process of reviewing applications went well for the group. And if that is 00:07:34.125 --> 00:07:42.557 - kind of a similar process of how you want it to be wrapped. So if there's any thoughts, welcome to hear 00:07:42.557 --> 00:07:47.422 - it. Otherwise, I'll follow the tree commission out of that. 00:07:48.770 --> 00:07:58.815 - Do you have any thoughts at this time? Well, if we come up with anything, we can also reach out. Yeah, 00:07:58.815 --> 00:08:09.152 - if you could also email the whole commission just so that some people are ready, it would be appreciated. 00:08:09.152 --> 00:08:13.150 - And then hopefully we can figure it out. 00:08:20.322 --> 00:08:29.979 - And whenever there is an open seat like this for e-recurricular commission, do you all like seeing kind 00:08:29.979 --> 00:08:39.451 - of the application of why they're interested and why they're qualified, or would you rather just have 00:08:39.451 --> 00:08:48.830 - a staff recommendation for that? I don't have any strong feelings. I don't have any strong feelings. 00:08:49.282 --> 00:08:55.138 - I kind of wouldn't mind both. Staff recommendation is, of course, very insightful, but it's also cool 00:08:55.138 --> 00:09:00.649 - to have a complete picture as well. It kind of puts us in kind of an awkward position sometimes 00:09:00.649 --> 00:09:06.389 - of recommending. You don't want to influence you all. I don't want to influence you all because you 00:09:06.389 --> 00:09:12.188 - have a certain feeling. But I know other boards of commission make recommendations, so I just wanted 00:09:12.188 --> 00:09:17.182 - to open the floor. So if that's something you prefer, I can definitely give it a site. 00:09:17.474 --> 00:09:26.725 - I personally would be open to having your recommendation. You do have valuable input inside, so I don't 00:09:26.725 --> 00:09:35.887 - know how other members feel. OK. Thank you. Sounds good. So that's that update. I also wanted to bring 00:09:35.887 --> 00:09:44.782 - up the website materials and resources. Whenever the accessibility guidelines came out earlier this 00:09:44.782 --> 00:09:47.006 - year, IT has recommended 00:09:47.362 --> 00:09:54.289 - and accessible documents come off the website. I'm actually almost here now. So those were removed, 00:09:54.289 --> 00:10:01.216 - they're still retained. So if there's any materials that you all need for the interim, I'd be happy 00:10:01.216 --> 00:10:08.212 - to print those out. I've been working on updating some of the documents. I still need to review them 00:10:08.212 --> 00:10:14.238 - from a prior to the number I left to make sure they're all in our facility guidelines. 00:10:14.658 --> 00:10:21.210 - For things like the brochures, they need to be updated. I think Karen was working on some update. She 00:10:21.210 --> 00:10:27.762 - has copies of everything. So I guess connect with her on what you would like to have updated if you'd 00:10:27.762 --> 00:10:34.185 - like to be part of that project. I don't think there's a staff hand list to update them, but I will 00:10:34.185 --> 00:10:39.966 - check for accessibility stuff. Are there any questions about that? And I should probably. 00:10:40.450 --> 00:10:46.864 - This is for kind of this page on the natural landscape. There used to be several brochures here. I had 00:10:46.864 --> 00:10:53.588 - a question. Yeah. I assume stuff that we're handing out physically that we print out has probably different 00:10:53.588 --> 00:11:00.376 - requirements than something we post on the website. Because PDFs are kind of a nightmare to make accessible. 00:11:00.376 --> 00:11:06.665 - Yes. Yeah. So I was thinking maybe some of the brochures and stuff, we could make it. It's easier to 00:11:06.665 --> 00:11:09.342 - make them accessible physically, probably. 00:11:09.538 --> 00:11:16.172 - So some stuff maybe we just hand out physically and then we have like a non-PDF version on the website. 00:11:16.172 --> 00:11:22.997 - Sure, I can ask ITS what they think about that. We haven't, as far as I'm aware, we haven't been providing 00:11:22.997 --> 00:11:29.694 - guidelines for accessibility for physical documents. So it's more so the digital accessibility. So we've 00:11:29.694 --> 00:11:36.073 - been kind of encouraged to use Google Docs for kind of the digital platform. So if that information 00:11:36.073 --> 00:11:39.326 - exists on a Google Doc, it'll still be decorative. 00:11:39.746 --> 00:11:47.213 - But I'll ask about that. OK. I just wanted to ask, even if we end up with a standard for the physical, 00:11:47.213 --> 00:11:54.825 - for the brochures that are handed out, that technically isn't until April, right? I mean, like, we could 00:11:54.825 --> 00:12:02.148 - hand out existing brochures. We could print more of existing brochures. Is that right? India has the 00:12:02.148 --> 00:12:09.470 - next deadline, April, 2027. It seemed like they extended it a year. Oh, for the accessibility. Yeah. 00:12:10.210 --> 00:12:18.111 - It's, I thought it was January of 2017. Okay, that I, true, yeah. Like starting in the beginning of 00:12:18.111 --> 00:12:26.249 - the new year. Okay. But I can definitely confirm that and then email you. Okay. And then you can email 00:12:26.249 --> 00:12:30.910 - them. Cool. Any other thoughts about the documents online? 00:12:34.018 --> 00:12:42.189 - Just a reminder that there's a required Boarding Commission member training. The next one is September 00:12:42.189 --> 00:12:50.202 - 30th. I emailed those that had not completed the training yet. So please register. If you are unable 00:12:50.202 --> 00:12:58.293 - to make that day, contact General Costly. And then passing it off to the legal department. Thanks. So 00:12:58.293 --> 00:13:02.974 - as you all may have seen, I know this is a little hot talk 00:13:03.170 --> 00:13:11.558 - talk about farming. We've been going back and forth. So legal has finally decided, it's more 00:13:11.558 --> 00:13:20.849 - like interpretation that's been going back and forth, that it is the number of those currently serving 00:13:20.849 --> 00:13:30.229 - not the total seats in your calculation. So your bylaws are fine. And that's it. OK. Thank you for that 00:13:30.229 --> 00:13:31.582 - clarification. 00:13:32.802 --> 00:13:42.064 - Can you provide the basis by which we both made that determination? So yeah, from our preparation council. 00:13:42.064 --> 00:13:50.720 - Did she provide any? No, there's not a lot of detail. I mean, that has always historically been our 00:13:50.720 --> 00:14:00.414 - reading. There's been some confusion, and there is more than one attorney. And how is that interpretation made? 00:14:01.730 --> 00:14:09.988 - How is it named? Yeah, right. It's made through our Louisville municipal code. Does that make sense? 00:14:09.988 --> 00:14:18.164 - Exactly what you guys have been saying. So it's just from a plain reading of the statute? It's just 00:14:18.164 --> 00:14:23.806 - a plain reading of the statute. And it's a statutory. OK, thank you. 00:14:33.090 --> 00:14:43.396 - Do we have any further questions, clarification? Is there any additional comment from Sayulevo? 00:14:43.396 --> 00:14:54.239 - There is not, thank you, I'm happy to be here. Thank you for the update. Yes, thank you, I got that. 00:14:54.239 --> 00:14:59.070 - So now I suppose we'll move to new business. 00:15:00.418 --> 00:15:09.540 - So Carrie sent along some materials to me about, also we received kind of an audio complaint, so I'll 00:15:09.540 --> 00:15:18.751 - try to speak up for those online. For the Bee City committee, they are having the bio-list this month, 00:15:18.751 --> 00:15:27.963 - so she wanted to propose a vote for a couple of social media images. Let's see. This is the email that 00:15:27.963 --> 00:15:29.662 - was in the packet, 00:15:30.850 --> 00:15:39.818 - So there were quite a bit of information. I think each of these could be a separate post. I put them 00:15:39.818 --> 00:15:49.141 - all under one vote. If somebody would like to have them broken up into separate votes, we can definitely 00:15:49.141 --> 00:15:58.020 - do that on motion. So I'm happy to leave this up on the screen if those haven't been able to review 00:15:58.020 --> 00:16:00.062 - the packet beforehand. 00:16:00.162 --> 00:16:11.396 - to read those, and then this was a flyer also proposed to be posted. Any questions about the material? 00:16:11.396 --> 00:16:23.393 - I don't have a question about this specifically. Going forward, starting in January whenever, does everything 00:16:23.393 --> 00:16:30.046 - we post on social media have to be digitally accessible too? 00:16:30.626 --> 00:16:38.489 - I can ask. I am under the assumption that yes, it does, but I can ask to confirm. So that could theoretically 00:16:38.489 --> 00:16:45.352 - limit what we could share from other sources if they didn't make it accessible? I think so. OK. 00:16:45.352 --> 00:16:52.286 - But again, I will ask to confirm. I'm not super particular about this, though. I'm just curious. 00:17:07.938 --> 00:17:16.518 - But given that this one in particular is a lot of information and dates and events and whatnot, if one 00:17:16.518 --> 00:17:25.097 - we vote to approve it, will any specific action be needed to approve specific posts or any posts drawn 00:17:25.097 --> 00:17:34.093 - from this? It would be in the clear. I'm just trying to figure out how this actually works as a multi-page, 00:17:34.093 --> 00:17:37.342 - text heavy document. Yeah, so I agree. 00:17:37.570 --> 00:17:43.983 - I listened to previous meetings from when I was on leave, and I think there was a discussion of how 00:17:43.983 --> 00:17:50.525 - social media can work, maybe if somebody, the easy to designate somebody, right, to make these social 00:17:50.525 --> 00:17:57.195 - media posts, or you could approve kind of the general theme of the posts. So I would probably work with 00:17:57.195 --> 00:18:03.993 - Carrie, or if there's another person tonight that wants to kind of take this on, to draft specific social 00:18:03.993 --> 00:18:06.494 - media posts. That's how I think of it. 00:18:07.202 --> 00:18:15.451 - I think that makes a lot of sense, much the same way as when we decide when something needed printed 00:18:15.451 --> 00:18:23.701 - or not that a treasurer approves. We designate someone to approve so long as we as a commission have 00:18:23.701 --> 00:18:32.114 - okayed the subject matter. It makes a lot of sense to me. So yeah, I guess I move that we approve both 00:18:32.114 --> 00:18:36.606 - the flyer and this information for social media posts. 00:18:38.274 --> 00:18:56.478 - Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. 00:19:09.570 --> 00:19:19.079 - on, I guess the next discussion would be my item of the proposed reduction of environmental commission 00:19:19.079 --> 00:19:28.588 - seats. So let's see, how do I reduce this? So essentially, the city council, the council on commission 00:19:28.588 --> 00:19:38.558 - processes is proposing a resolution to reduce the number of environmental commission seats from 12 to nine. 00:19:38.818 --> 00:19:46.596 - Although the precise numbers still kind of being debated in council, but essentially that's the proposal 00:19:46.596 --> 00:19:54.004 - on the table. And essentially, I would like to get your thoughts on this and perhaps we can provide 00:19:54.004 --> 00:20:00.745 - feedback to council regarding this, you know, what we think just so that they are informed 00:20:00.745 --> 00:20:06.078 - by our perspective. Does anybody have any thoughts? We've got to start. 00:20:06.850 --> 00:20:17.089 - I'm not sure technically how the motion works. Do I move to suspend the rules to allow public to participate 00:20:17.089 --> 00:20:26.952 - in this agenda item? Do we have to move to suspend the rule? I think that would be fine. I think there's 00:20:26.952 --> 00:20:34.654 - probably a different motion we could use, but I would be fine if we use that one. 00:20:35.394 --> 00:20:42.221 - Or, I mean, I guess we have... I'd love council member Stossberg to be able to introduce this and give 00:20:42.221 --> 00:20:49.048 - us her thoughts, but I also, if anyone else wanted to chime in who is present online, I'd welcome that 00:20:49.048 --> 00:20:55.477 - as well, which is why I thought opening it, like this agenda, the public made sense as a motion. 00:20:55.477 --> 00:21:02.106 - To query, are you moving motion, making a motion? Yes, that's what I intended, yeah. Okay, I hear a 00:21:02.106 --> 00:21:04.094 - motion and a second regarding 00:21:04.290 --> 00:21:13.638 - that we suspend our rules for the purpose of this item so that we can have public comment and help me. 00:21:13.638 --> 00:21:23.076 - Would you please roll call or is there any discussion rather on this topic? Seeing no discussion, would 00:21:23.076 --> 00:21:27.614 - you please roll call, Rachel? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. 00:21:31.778 --> 00:21:41.543 - Okay, with that, would we like to allow Commissioner Stossberg to join the conversation if we can unmute 00:21:41.543 --> 00:21:51.030 - her and let her speak and we can have maybe a dialogue back and forth. Hi, good evening. This is Hope 00:21:51.030 --> 00:21:57.726 - Stossberg. Can you guys hear me okay? Yes. Great. Thank you. Thanks for 00:21:57.858 --> 00:22:05.722 - I'm glad that this conversation is finally able to happen. I started working on this legislation, 00:22:05.722 --> 00:22:13.908 - I think, and I don't even know when, maybe April or May. And I was unable to get to your July meeting 00:22:13.908 --> 00:22:22.254 - because of my own schedule. And then last month you didn't have a meeting. So the legislation is pretty 00:22:22.254 --> 00:22:27.550 - simple to cut the seats from 12 down to nine. And that would not, 00:22:28.482 --> 00:22:36.359 - Eliminate anybody's current seat who is currently serving. So it doesn't affect current members in any 00:22:36.359 --> 00:22:44.082 - way. And the rationale is because there's some long standing conceits on the commission. And then in 00:22:44.082 --> 00:22:51.959 - addition to that, it's just kind of better to have an odd number of commissioners. And so that's about 00:22:51.959 --> 00:22:57.694 - it. And I'm just here to hear your discussion, to see what you guys think. 00:22:58.018 --> 00:23:05.093 - Um, and, uh, answer any questions that I might, might have. Thank you, Commissioner Stossberg. Um, it 00:23:05.093 --> 00:23:12.030 - opened the floor. Does anybody have questions for Commissioner Stossberg or any thoughts on the, on 00:23:12.030 --> 00:23:19.105 - the proposal in general? Yeah, I guess, yeah, not a specific question, just a part of, um, commission 00:23:19.105 --> 00:23:23.614 - discussion here. Um, just kind of want to think aloud about the, 00:23:23.714 --> 00:23:32.361 - the purpose of boards and commissions and the reasoning for any particular number of seats. I know we've 00:23:32.361 --> 00:23:40.679 - been going pretty much since COVID, it's been difficult. We've not been at 12 for long, but there've 00:23:40.679 --> 00:23:49.078 - been lots of times at 10 and 11. And I guess my concern is that should it be reduced and then there's 00:23:49.078 --> 00:23:52.702 - a lot of interest, there's no seats. So my, 00:23:53.218 --> 00:23:59.743 - just thinking aloud is do we want the number of seats to be such that there is demand or a queue or 00:23:59.743 --> 00:24:06.595 - anything for participation in a commission or do we want the number of seats to be so that should enough 00:24:06.595 --> 00:24:13.251 - people become interested or enough people move to town or enough people with expertise suddenly after 00:24:13.251 --> 00:24:20.364 - time that they're able to join a commission as readily as they can be appointed by either the administration 00:24:20.364 --> 00:24:22.974 - or council. So I guess I just wanted to 00:24:23.682 --> 00:24:32.154 - to apply and allow it about art. Obviously, the number of vacancies we've had for a couple of different 00:24:32.154 --> 00:24:40.300 - periods here are problematic, but are vacancies in general something that is bad? Just to the room. 00:24:40.300 --> 00:24:49.179 - I had a question. So the seats that would be eliminated, would they be council seats or mayoral appointments 00:24:49.179 --> 00:24:52.030 - or both? I have the same question. 00:24:54.530 --> 00:25:06.072 - The three seats would be eliminated right now. The proposal is two mayoral seats and one council member 00:25:06.072 --> 00:25:17.392 - seat, leaving five council member appointments and four mayoral appointments. Any other comments? How 00:25:17.392 --> 00:25:21.054 - long have we had this vacancies? 00:25:21.890 --> 00:25:34.221 - Some of them have been going on two years. Some of them have been much more recent to big mix. I just, 00:25:34.221 --> 00:25:47.031 - seeing your additional comment, I guess I'll chime in now. Would you be opposed to, are you set on keeping 00:25:47.031 --> 00:25:51.102 - the number nine versus, you know, 00:25:51.202 --> 00:25:59.284 - Moving up to 10, perhaps. I know you like the odd number, but would you be open to considering a different 00:25:59.284 --> 00:26:06.913 - number, up or down, depending on, I don't know, just kind of throwing that out there, I guess. Well, 00:26:06.913 --> 00:26:14.617 - I didn't create this by myself, right? This was a collaboration, you could say, with the Committee on 00:26:14.617 --> 00:26:19.678 - Council Processes. Sure. And so the Committee on Council Processes 00:26:21.250 --> 00:26:27.139 - proposal is nine. And part of the reason why I'm the one sponsoring it, you could say, is that this 00:26:27.139 --> 00:26:32.556 - is bundled with a transportation commission thing. And so I was really interested in making 00:26:32.556 --> 00:26:38.445 - the transportation commission thing. And every time we changed code, it cost something. And so when 00:26:38.445 --> 00:26:44.393 - this came up, it was like, oh, it seems like a natural thing to bundle these people together because 00:26:44.393 --> 00:26:50.046 - they're both talking about commissions. And so then, I mean, in a lot of ways, I'm indifferent. 00:26:50.434 --> 00:26:56.840 - Uh, but I, the, the administration counter proposal actually wants to move it down to eight to keep 00:26:56.840 --> 00:27:03.374 - four and four with, uh, mayoral and council appointments. And, um, I don't, I don't want to just move 00:27:03.374 --> 00:27:09.908 - it down to eight. At the time I started this, that would have actually meant eliminating somebody who 00:27:09.908 --> 00:27:16.507 - was actually seated. And that seemed really wrong. So, um, I, I guess 10 is certainly, uh, not off the 00:27:16.507 --> 00:27:20.222 - table and this is not a decision that I would make alone. 00:27:22.562 --> 00:27:30.707 - Just out of curiosity, is this only an issue for the Environmental Commission, or have other commissions 00:27:30.707 --> 00:27:38.852 - and boards been having these kind of vacancy issues? Are any of the other ones in line for getting seats 00:27:38.852 --> 00:27:47.230 - reduced as well, or is this just an us situation? So, if I'm remembering correctly, we reduced the seats on 00:27:47.394 --> 00:27:55.638 - commission last year at some point, because the cap commission also has issues with vacancies. There's 00:27:55.638 --> 00:28:03.801 - a couple boards or commissions that have specific vacancies that are hard to fill seats. But this is, 00:28:03.801 --> 00:28:12.285 - I think, the one that's been most longstanding. This is the one that's been pointed out to us by Jennifer 00:28:12.285 --> 00:28:14.206 - Crosley, who really has 00:28:14.338 --> 00:28:21.579 - her finger on the pulse of what's going on with boards and commissions. I think Historic Preservation 00:28:21.579 --> 00:28:28.963 - also has had some vacancies lately, but they're a state statute board, so there's not necessarily local 00:28:28.963 --> 00:28:36.701 - power, you could say, to change the makeup of that particular board. It is not personal to the Environmental 00:28:36.701 --> 00:28:42.878 - Commission. I know that you guys have been through the wringer a little bit this year. 00:28:43.138 --> 00:28:50.348 - Um, with different things, uh, and that is, that is not, uh, at least on my behalf, that's not where 00:28:50.348 --> 00:28:57.701 - this is coming from at all. And I also, uh, the environmental commission is actually one of the larger 00:28:57.701 --> 00:29:05.054 - commissions, um, in terms of the, uh, uh, advisory commission. So. Bringing up that other boards have, 00:29:05.054 --> 00:29:09.694 - uh, specific vacancies that have been difficult to fill. I know. 00:29:09.922 --> 00:29:17.621 - At least some of that will be an issue as well if we have our board reduced because we have vacancy. 00:29:17.621 --> 00:29:25.320 - We hold positions on the Tree Commission, URAC, spots like that that have been at times difficult to 00:29:25.320 --> 00:29:32.943 - keep from because of the turnover or the lack of new blood on the commission. So I feel like having 00:29:32.943 --> 00:29:39.422 - the seats is helpful on that front as well because more people have to do more work. 00:29:39.554 --> 00:29:45.810 - That's an interesting point. I would be interested in knowing exactly how many of those sorts of appointed 00:29:45.810 --> 00:29:51.949 - positions you need and knowing for sure if in your bylaws, you can, sounded like earlier in the meeting, 00:29:51.949 --> 00:29:57.854 - you could appoint somebody outside of the commission to do some of those appointments. And I'll just 00:29:57.854 --> 00:30:03.876 - point out right now that that actually happened with the plan. That happened with the plan commission. 00:30:03.876 --> 00:30:05.630 - And there's several different 00:30:05.954 --> 00:30:12.955 - appointment for planning commission members on other boards and commissions. And that gets to be a bit 00:30:12.955 --> 00:30:20.227 - much. And then transportation commission got added and nobody could really do that on planning commission. 00:30:20.227 --> 00:30:27.092 - And so planning commission actually appointed an outside person who is not on planning commission to 00:30:27.092 --> 00:30:32.190 - represent to that particular appointment. So that is always an option. And 00:30:33.154 --> 00:30:40.576 - That's something that I think that Rachel mentioned that there are sometimes applicants for those different 00:30:40.576 --> 00:30:47.517 - positions that you could look through. But sometimes you might just know someone that then you could 00:30:47.517 --> 00:30:54.871 - recommend to your peers or somebody else from the community might show interest in those different things. 00:30:54.871 --> 00:31:00.094 - So there are some options with that in terms of spreading out the workload. 00:31:04.354 --> 00:31:11.436 - I kind of did provide my opinion a bit on this last night. I'll kind of just rehash it a little bit. 00:31:11.436 --> 00:31:18.448 - It echoes Mitchell's point. And that the Environmental Commission does, you know, is in charge of a 00:31:18.448 --> 00:31:25.530 - lot of these joint, or these special appointments, tree commission and the like. We also do a lot of 00:31:25.530 --> 00:31:32.542 - community outreach involvement. I brought up, we have Budfest coming up. We're going to be tabling. 00:31:32.674 --> 00:31:40.858 - We have, you know, usually something for our first day, our day, we do, here's our contest. And I'm 00:31:40.858 --> 00:31:45.278 - not going to lie that these, these community outreach 00:31:45.474 --> 00:31:52.089 - events are very gratifying and fun, but they're also a lot of work. And what I worry about when we have 00:31:52.089 --> 00:31:58.576 - a reduction in the numbers, and I realize we don't have the numbers now, but when we have a reduction 00:31:58.576 --> 00:32:05.063 - in numbers is that's either going to cause members to be a little bit burned out or they're going to, 00:32:05.063 --> 00:32:11.614 - you know, want to cut a lot of the community and outreach that we do. So for that reason, I kind of do 00:32:12.386 --> 00:32:21.600 - I like the idea of being able to include more members of the community into the commission. So I just 00:32:21.600 --> 00:32:31.446 - reiterate that point for the benefit of the commission tonight. And I just want to point out that commission 00:32:31.446 --> 00:32:39.486 - member Arillo made a good point in that the environment is a very broad topic and nobody 00:32:39.618 --> 00:32:47.262 - can be an expert in all the areas. We have, just on commission now, people who are expert in stream 00:32:47.262 --> 00:32:54.983 - or water science. We have experts in tree science. We have advocates for animals and light pollution 00:32:54.983 --> 00:33:02.627 - and all these disparate interests that all are encapsulated under the environment. And it can often 00:33:02.627 --> 00:33:09.278 - be helpful to have a broad range of perspectives that we can draw upon, because again, 00:33:09.442 --> 00:33:17.126 - Any one of us is in no way we can know everything about everything. So I would kind of, again, I do 00:33:17.126 --> 00:33:24.887 - appreciate where this resolution is coming from, truly, but I'm sad that we might have fewer people, 00:33:24.887 --> 00:33:32.648 - I guess. So that's kind of my comment, my two cents. Matt. Yeah, I just want to express, I know this 00:33:32.648 --> 00:33:37.950 - was a whole committee decision, not just a Hopi decision, so I'm not 00:33:38.530 --> 00:33:46.736 - This isn't directed at you, but as someone who's now on his 10th year on this commission, we've had 00:33:46.736 --> 00:33:54.942 - more than nine people for a large share of that. So my feeling is, yeah, there's ups and downs. And 00:33:54.942 --> 00:34:03.312 - to be honest, the last two years has not been a fun time to join the EC, our last member to roll off. 00:34:03.312 --> 00:34:08.318 - One of his reasons was it was too hard to get anything done. 00:34:08.706 --> 00:34:16.509 - put his energy somewhere that doesn't have some of the obstacles we were facing. So if in an environment 00:34:16.509 --> 00:34:24.238 - when it becomes easier to fill the seats again, we suddenly have filled seats, we can do more. However, 00:34:24.238 --> 00:34:31.818 - if the opinion of the committee is that this commission is too large and has been too large and we're 00:34:31.818 --> 00:34:34.270 - right sizing it at nine, I don't 00:34:34.434 --> 00:34:42.340 - agree, but I understand. So I guess that's kind of why I made the comment that I made earlier about 00:34:42.340 --> 00:34:50.641 - just about how hard it is to, sorry, I lost my train of thought a little bit. But there's, yeah, there's 00:34:50.641 --> 00:34:58.705 - a lot of work potential that can be lost if we remove those seats when we've spent a lot of time over 00:34:58.705 --> 00:35:04.318 - that number of seats. So I guess that's my main line of thinking here. 00:35:09.890 --> 00:35:16.627 - Yeah, even without 10 years of experience, but when did I join Colby? 2021, 22? Something like that. 00:35:16.627 --> 00:35:22.897 - Four years of experience on the board. I think even the majority of that time we've had nine, 00:35:22.897 --> 00:35:29.567 - 10 plus members. It has been a very recent, like, not even past two years, but like past year and a 00:35:29.567 --> 00:35:36.904 - half, if that. No, I just worry about a scenario. It's like the recent issues with, yeah, having productivity 00:35:36.904 --> 00:35:38.238 - and working groups. 00:35:38.466 --> 00:35:44.629 - being able to do anything has been challenging. And I know that's caused a lot of burnout and extra 00:35:44.629 --> 00:35:50.854 - turnover. As I poorly articulated, like I do expect demand to tick back up at some point. And if the 00:35:50.854 --> 00:35:57.079 - reason for a certain number of seats, like if we want people who'd say, oh, I'd love to join that. I 00:35:57.079 --> 00:36:03.550 - want to find a way to get involved, but it's full. Okay. Like that's, I just, I don't actually know how, 00:36:04.034 --> 00:36:18.100 - a right size for any given border commission is determined. So I guess that's where my main thought 00:36:18.100 --> 00:36:27.102 - experiment is here, is what should that be? Any other thoughts? 00:36:31.042 --> 00:36:40.715 - And again, we also open this up. If any member of the public would like to speak, I would entertain, 00:36:40.715 --> 00:36:50.962 - just raise your hand on Zoom or in the room. This is Justin Vassel. I can't find or raise the hand button, 00:36:50.962 --> 00:36:59.102 - but I've got a few comments if you'd allow it. Please continue. Great. Thanks. Yeah. 00:36:59.266 --> 00:37:06.130 - I've been doing some, some thought on this for the, for the past couple of days. And I dug into the 00:37:06.130 --> 00:37:13.131 - data a little bit just to try to, you know, the vacancy, the vacancy data on the, on the EC to try to 00:37:13.131 --> 00:37:19.995 - understand a little better, you know, what the, what the impacts would be, you know, certainly long 00:37:19.995 --> 00:37:27.614 - standing vacancies is an issue and it's, you know, it's good to address that issue and try to resolve it. And, 00:37:28.034 --> 00:37:35.223 - what's the right way to resolve it can be kind of a tricky question. One of them is that you reduce 00:37:35.223 --> 00:37:42.485 - the total number of seats, right, to a level that's more sustainable. But I think as you're thinking 00:37:42.485 --> 00:37:49.674 - through, how do we right size this? Is nine the right number or is something else the right number? 00:37:49.674 --> 00:37:56.935 - Looking at what the mission of the commission is and sort of what its purview is, the first question 00:37:56.935 --> 00:37:57.726 - is, can we 00:37:58.498 --> 00:38:05.849 - Can we actually effectuate that mission with that number of people? That's number one. Another way to 00:38:05.849 --> 00:38:13.272 - get at it is to look at what have we done in the last couple years? Pick a timeframe. Would we be able 00:38:13.272 --> 00:38:20.695 - to maintain that level of activity with a different number of folks? And if so, then great. That means 00:38:20.695 --> 00:38:27.902 - you can maybe be a little more agile, work a little more efficiently in getting those same results. 00:38:28.162 --> 00:38:34.886 - Some people were mentioning that it kind of feels like, you know, for the past couple of years, the 00:38:34.886 --> 00:38:41.745 - level's been at about 10 people or something like that. And I think the data backs that up. You know, 00:38:41.745 --> 00:38:48.536 - I pulled the last 10 years of seat history from onboard. And if you just ask on an average month for 00:38:48.536 --> 00:38:55.260 - the past 10 years, how many seats are filled, it's like 10.2, I think. So if it were to switch down 00:38:55.260 --> 00:38:57.950 - to nine, you know, that would mean that 00:38:58.338 --> 00:39:04.587 - you know, best case scenario going forward a couple of years, on average, you could expect nine best 00:39:04.587 --> 00:39:10.961 - case scenario, probably a little bit lower than that because there will always be maybe a vacancy here 00:39:10.961 --> 00:39:17.272 - and there. So maybe, you know, call it eight and a half. So that would be a reduction in capacity for 00:39:17.272 --> 00:39:23.893 - sure. Doesn't necessarily mean it would be a reduction in productivity. You know, things get reconfigured. 00:39:23.893 --> 00:39:28.286 - Sometimes efficiency levels change. So but it's one way to look at it. 00:39:29.026 --> 00:39:35.511 - And there are other levels that levers that could potentially be pulled to get at the vacancy problem 00:39:35.511 --> 00:39:41.996 - as well. It could just be that a lot of folks in Bloomington aren't aware of this and they don't know 00:39:41.996 --> 00:39:48.417 - that the environmental commission exists or what it does and they don't know how to get involved. So 00:39:48.417 --> 00:39:55.029 - potentially there's a way to increase the demand side of the equation rather than decreasing the supply 00:39:55.029 --> 00:39:58.526 - side of the equation. So those are just a few thoughts 00:39:59.170 --> 00:40:07.334 - I'm always happy to chat about these things. Thank you. So again, just balancing off what Justin said, 00:40:07.334 --> 00:40:15.418 - I am interested in, and I brought this up previously in our commission meetings, I am very interested 00:40:15.418 --> 00:40:23.423 - in increasing our internal efforts to do recruitment. I've done a bit of that myself on the side, as 00:40:23.423 --> 00:40:25.246 - I mentioned yesterday. 00:40:25.762 --> 00:40:32.415 - I think there's still more we could be doing. And, you know, I would like that opportunity to kind of 00:40:32.415 --> 00:40:39.198 - get more applicants in before we make this reduction. You know, that would be my preference. But again, 00:40:39.198 --> 00:40:45.982 - actually, Matt, I understand the logic and I appreciate the consideration that, you know, you're trying 00:40:45.982 --> 00:40:52.504 - to get the commissions to be operating effectively and, you know, right sized. So I guess that's my 00:40:52.504 --> 00:40:54.526 - final maybe two cents on that. 00:40:54.690 --> 00:41:02.137 - Let's just think of something else. But adjacent thought that I might leave unfilled now, but you would 00:41:02.137 --> 00:41:09.656 - know the answer to this. Does the county still have their EC equivalent? I was looking at that the other 00:41:09.656 --> 00:41:17.031 - day and I couldn't remember. It became a commission on resilience. It's adjacent, but not as literally 00:41:17.031 --> 00:41:18.750 - adjacent as before. OK. 00:41:23.938 --> 00:41:32.746 - All right. Any additional topic? I'm sorry, go ahead. Yeah, I'll just say in closing that I just really 00:41:32.746 --> 00:41:41.300 - appreciate y'all's feedback and discussing this and kind of asking some questions about capacity and 00:41:41.300 --> 00:41:49.854 - that kind of thing. So thank you very much. Thank you, Commissioner Stosper. What about meeting next 00:41:49.854 --> 00:41:52.734 - month to discuss ways to recruit? 00:41:52.930 --> 00:42:00.312 - Do you have a plan for that? I think that's a great idea. I personally think that even, regardless of 00:42:00.312 --> 00:42:07.549 - what happens with this particular resolution, that we should be doing that anyway. It would be good 00:42:07.549 --> 00:42:15.003 - to have our commission at the forefront of people's minds. But I guess we can maybe discuss that later 00:42:15.003 --> 00:42:21.950 - or now if the commission would be applied. What about doing one of the posts on Facebook? Yeah. 00:42:22.210 --> 00:42:34.410 - Yeah, that's a great idea. Any further thoughts or comments before we move forward with our agenda? 00:42:34.410 --> 00:42:46.732 - I think technically before we do anything post-wise, we need it to be approved by the commission. So 00:42:46.732 --> 00:42:50.270 - do you want a motion that we 00:42:50.946 --> 00:42:58.097 - to sort of a recruitment social media post? Were you wanting to say that for next month or go ahead 00:42:58.097 --> 00:43:05.248 - and do it now? And maybe we should figure out the content of it first before. Fair enough. Just ask 00:43:05.248 --> 00:43:12.686 - them before we move on to finish business. Sure, yeah. I'm always ready to entertain motion. So we can, 00:43:12.686 --> 00:43:14.974 - if you want to decide this now, 00:43:15.106 --> 00:43:22.148 - If we want to think about it and submit something substantive to next month's packet, that would be 00:43:22.148 --> 00:43:29.402 - up for us to decide. But we need to hear a motion for that if we want to do that. I think it'd be good 00:43:29.402 --> 00:43:36.726 - to sit on it and think of just pondering for the first board. OK, we don't have to decide it in, right? 00:43:36.726 --> 00:43:43.134 - Yeah, we can do that. We're going to go back and the post is going to be about recruiting. 00:43:43.650 --> 00:43:53.474 - Okay. What was the timeline on the council? So it's going to a second reading and so it could go in 00:43:53.474 --> 00:44:03.790 - motion as soon as the next city council meeting or it could be pushed to later dates. No, we don't know. 00:44:03.790 --> 00:44:12.926 - As a point of information, the next regular session city council meeting is not for a month. 00:44:13.122 --> 00:44:23.361 - So I think it's October 14th. OK. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Stosberg. OK, I think we've, unless 00:44:23.361 --> 00:44:33.404 - anybody objects, I think we can probably move on to the next item on the agenda. Hearing no objection, 00:44:33.404 --> 00:44:41.790 - no other inputs. I guess the next topic is discussion on BUGFest, which our president 00:44:42.626 --> 00:44:50.209 - Albright was, this is her action item, but I think due to Bugfest being next week, it is still probably 00:44:50.209 --> 00:44:57.865 - worth the discussion to talk about it. My understanding is that we need to print materials, specifically 00:44:57.865 --> 00:45:05.302 - Bugbingo, and then I believe we also have staffing figured out, but generally if we can kind of begin 00:45:05.302 --> 00:45:11.646 - the discussion of talking about Bugfest, and maybe Rachel has some more input as well, 00:45:11.810 --> 00:45:18.296 - on this topic, so. You really covered it, so. Okay. Just the only tip that I have to add is just let 00:45:18.296 --> 00:45:24.974 - me know how many materials you would like to be printed, what materials, kind of what size. The process 00:45:24.974 --> 00:45:31.973 - of that would be I would request a quote from our office manager who reaches out to vendors and I coordinate 00:45:31.973 --> 00:45:37.880 - with whoever's requesting that and then that request ultimately gets sent to the treasurer, 00:45:37.880 --> 00:45:39.550 - which is Carl. Yes, okay. 00:45:40.738 --> 00:45:47.649 - Personally, I don't know how much materials we need. If we want to discuss this now or if we can, or 00:45:47.649 --> 00:45:54.492 - maybe I can prefer to carry later. Might as well, at least briefly. I mean, historically, bug bingo 00:45:54.492 --> 00:46:01.540 - is very popular for the adults, the natural landscaping and deer resistant plant fact sheets. Also the 00:46:01.540 --> 00:46:08.862 - creating habitat ones get some significant use. So I think the main thing is knowing what we have or need. 00:46:08.962 --> 00:46:15.315 - in each of those documents and also ensuring, I know that Carrie's done some like scheduling organizing 00:46:15.315 --> 00:46:21.546 - for which of us will be there when, but I don't know how we're actually getting the tote of materials 00:46:21.546 --> 00:46:27.655 - and table cloth and all that stuff too. So I think logistically, that's the other missing piece. So 00:46:27.655 --> 00:46:33.764 - getting the materials and then literally getting the materials to the event. First for keeping tabs 00:46:33.764 --> 00:46:38.590 - on how much materials are needed, it's been about like on the above a thousand 00:46:39.010 --> 00:46:45.217 - people coming through the past couple of years, like last year was 1,200 or something like that, and 00:46:45.217 --> 00:46:51.486 - it keeps kicking up. So if I remember right, we are either out of Bug Bingo or basically out. I think 00:46:51.486 --> 00:46:57.816 - we're basically zero currently. I think you're right. I don't know in the other brochures, but I think 00:46:57.816 --> 00:47:04.023 - we're in through Bug Bingo. Yeah. What about our KrootNet flyer at the Bug Bingo table? There's some 00:47:04.023 --> 00:47:06.174 - negative comments about if they're 00:47:07.138 --> 00:47:14.773 - In the past, we've talked about a QR code to the vacancy application thing on the site that we could 00:47:14.773 --> 00:47:22.483 - just have sitting on the table. But I don't know if that's worth creating take-home material for when 00:47:22.483 --> 00:47:30.345 - we can talk about it during the event, too. When we're discussing things with the adults while the kids 00:47:30.345 --> 00:47:33.822 - touch the bugs. Who signed up for that table? 00:47:34.146 --> 00:47:42.502 - I'm going to be in Texas. I know I'm doing it. I was about to pull it up. So I'm brand new to the event. 00:47:42.502 --> 00:47:50.619 - If you guys have any idea on hard numbers, we're expecting numbers. I'm sure if we print too many, we 00:47:50.619 --> 00:47:58.736 - can use it again at some other point. We should definitely print more than we want. Yeah, I agree. It 00:47:58.736 --> 00:48:02.238 - would be kind of unfortunate if we ran out. 00:48:02.882 --> 00:48:08.957 - full printing discount, a couple thousand bookings. In terms of logistics, like picking up the tote 00:48:08.957 --> 00:48:15.092 - and stuff, do you know how that's done, Rachel? Do you have any, like how did we do this in previous 00:48:15.092 --> 00:48:21.653 - years? We've been porting that outside of the meeting, I think. It's just logistics for the public outreach 00:48:21.653 --> 00:48:27.970 - event. I will say I have not checked that it's out. I haven't checked the tote. Was the tablecloth ever 00:48:27.970 --> 00:48:32.830 - returned from a previous outreach event? I think that was the one thing before. 00:48:33.218 --> 00:48:41.150 - Yeah. I'm not sure if the tablecloth ever brings me back here. I think usually it's just someone takes 00:48:41.150 --> 00:48:49.082 - the tote home, the meeting before the event, and just brings it with them. Well, possibly Carrie knows 00:48:49.082 --> 00:48:56.936 - more. She probably doesn't know a lot more about this. So maybe we can follow up with her. If we need 00:48:56.936 --> 00:49:02.558 - to, I can show up here at some point before Budfest and grab it. I know. 00:49:02.850 --> 00:49:08.762 - Yeah, I don't think I didn't hesitate with this year because I couldn't do it. It didn't seem like anybody 00:49:08.762 --> 00:49:14.343 - else could. So if you guys want a stack of the aquatic macron workbook posters that we get out every 00:49:14.343 --> 00:49:19.868 - year, I can slip you guys a box. As far as I know, we have an infinite supply. That was all printed 00:49:19.868 --> 00:49:25.393 - off in 2000 and we just cannot get rid of it. They keep showing more. If they're actively trying to 00:49:25.393 --> 00:49:29.758 - get rid of materials, I'm sure we can find a space on the corner of our table. 00:49:31.874 --> 00:49:40.647 - But yeah, I think that pretty well covers Budfest. OK. That's fine. We'll have to do some follow-up 00:49:40.647 --> 00:49:50.034 - then, just to make sure we're all squared away. And then moving back onto old business. We want to discuss 00:49:50.034 --> 00:49:59.070 - the Binghamton Commission Sustainability Environmental Commission Special Session. It's on our agenda. 00:49:59.746 --> 00:50:07.488 - Essentially, all I have to say about that is, you know, we passed the, you know, the light pollution 00:50:07.488 --> 00:50:15.844 - resolution in conjunction with the Commission on Sustainability. I think it was very helpful and informative 00:50:15.844 --> 00:50:23.740 - and I really enjoyed working with the Commission on Sustainability and Resiliency and I appreciate the 00:50:23.740 --> 00:50:25.886 - collaboration and the inter 00:50:26.274 --> 00:50:33.733 - communication that our commissions have, and I look forward to working with them in the future. But 00:50:33.733 --> 00:50:41.341 - that's all I really have to say, so if anybody has more comment. I would add that I agree. I think it 00:50:41.341 --> 00:50:49.173 - was a really well-run session. I think it was fun to collaborate, and I'm looking forward to next steps. 00:50:49.173 --> 00:50:51.262 - Yes. Okay, now Heidi, next. 00:50:51.586 --> 00:50:57.862 - order of business, the modern mineral water treatment plant tour. If you were any other member that 00:50:57.862 --> 00:51:04.389 - went, I did not grow. So I went last year as part of the Residence Academy, and I thought it was really 00:51:04.389 --> 00:51:10.791 - cool. But if you guys want to talk about your current trip, that'd be welcome. You took notes, right? 00:51:10.791 --> 00:51:17.192 - Took a few notes. I thought it was a great tour. Justin did a great job explaining everything. It was 00:51:17.192 --> 00:51:20.958 - really interesting. It was fun. It was really hot that day. 00:51:21.282 --> 00:51:29.968 - They built the treatment plant in 1967, I believe. They treat an average of 14, 15 million gallons a 00:51:29.968 --> 00:51:39.084 - day for all the residents of Monroe County. And I think Ellsville, too, and maybe a few other surrounding 00:51:39.084 --> 00:51:48.114 - cities. They've also got, I guess what's it, a grant, a resilience grant to upgrade the backup generator 00:51:48.114 --> 00:51:51.038 - system. So that was good to hear. 00:51:51.298 --> 00:51:58.033 - If we lose power, we don't lose water. That was a great tour. I highly recommend the public go on the 00:51:58.033 --> 00:52:04.768 - tour. Tell all my friends about it. Tell my son about it. Are you going to make a video? Is it in the 00:52:04.768 --> 00:52:11.502 - media school? Could it be a good documentary? Yeah. Last year when I went, it was really, really cool 00:52:11.502 --> 00:52:18.105 - to see how the city operates a water treatment plant. It's incredible how much technology goes into 00:52:18.105 --> 00:52:20.350 - it. And it's really, really cool. 00:52:21.538 --> 00:52:27.820 - All right, any other thoughts on the topic? Yeah, I mean, I also took the tour. I also want to say props 00:52:27.820 --> 00:52:33.803 - to fellow commissioner, to Justin for doing a great job running the tour. I'd be very interested in 00:52:33.803 --> 00:52:39.786 - seeing it different times a year, too, because they mentioned that as you look in different places, 00:52:39.786 --> 00:52:45.769 - things are different colors or different levels of fall or whatnot. But it was cool, I think, to be 00:52:45.769 --> 00:52:48.222 - on what they called the inaugural public 00:52:48.450 --> 00:52:57.063 - tour, so the non-residence academy folks. Yeah, highly recommend if they keep doing it that people check 00:52:57.063 --> 00:53:05.267 - it out in the future. Okay, moving on to permission announcements. If you have anything exciting in 00:53:05.267 --> 00:53:13.470 - your personal life or out in the city or, you know, whatever you want to bring up, now is the time. 00:53:13.470 --> 00:53:17.982 - We'd love to hear anybody that wants to say something. 00:53:18.210 --> 00:53:25.029 - Oh yeah, I was gonna say, this might have, it's a little bit of an update from earlier. I'm guessing, 00:53:25.029 --> 00:53:31.914 - did you talk about the community stuff that are? Okay, yeah, big update on the Clean Community program 00:53:31.914 --> 00:53:38.599 - that we're, the city is doing with IDEM. We have officially obtained silver status, which means, so 00:53:38.599 --> 00:53:45.886 - the way this program works, you get bronze for signing up. So good job, you took the first steps. Silver is, 00:53:46.274 --> 00:53:52.971 - For all communities, depending on the size, you have to do so many projects. For Bloomington, we had 00:53:52.971 --> 00:53:59.734 - to do six. And then gold is you do another, the same number of projects, which for us will be another 00:53:59.734 --> 00:54:06.828 - six. So we have officially gotten certified and did all the paperwork and approved for doing six projects. 00:54:06.828 --> 00:54:13.790 - The list that Evelyn sent me that we have done is community resiliency becomes a strong ready community. 00:54:14.178 --> 00:54:21.298 - Community Resiliency Become a Tree City USA Certified Community Resiliency Conduct a Greenhouse Gas 00:54:21.298 --> 00:54:29.129 - Inventory Land Use Conservation Implement Green Infrastructure Environmental Management Pass Local Ordinances 00:54:29.129 --> 00:54:36.605 - Improving Stormwater Management and then Waste Management and Reduction Host Community Talks Away Events 00:54:36.605 --> 00:54:40.734 - and she said we're also working on getting a program or a 00:54:41.538 --> 00:54:48.337 - approved for a project that we did for implementing food waste reduction through the City of Akashi 00:54:48.337 --> 00:54:55.272 - composting program. I think Bee City might be one of the things that we can get approved for on here. 00:54:55.272 --> 00:55:02.478 - Oh yeah, Bee City is one that is currently working on getting approved as well, so good job of us helping 00:55:02.478 --> 00:55:03.838 - contribute to this. 00:55:04.802 --> 00:55:11.599 - So that'll get us to eight submissions once we get to all of those. And I'm sure we've got more things 00:55:11.599 --> 00:55:18.197 - at the works. So I don't think we can get the distinction of being the first to gold. I think Beech 00:55:18.197 --> 00:55:25.060 - Grove beat us to that. But we can still be one of the first to gold. And then maybe we can do a victory 00:55:25.060 --> 00:55:31.725 - lap around everyone else and keep racking up the projects after that. Because people seemed hyped on 00:55:31.725 --> 00:55:34.430 - that idea, making new levels above gold. 00:55:35.650 --> 00:55:42.915 - just to dunk on everyone a little bit. That's all I have on that front, I think. Yeah, if anyone has 00:55:42.915 --> 00:55:50.108 - any questions or if I get other updates, I'll let you guys know what's going on. That can always be 00:55:50.108 --> 00:55:57.588 - something where we could, if we wanted to at some point, review the list of projects and see if there's 00:55:57.588 --> 00:56:04.062 - anything else we could help with or that we know we have covered already or anything, so. 00:56:04.802 --> 00:56:12.050 - Yeah, we've been mentioning that a couple of times. We're trying to get to silver, so it's cool to hear. 00:56:12.050 --> 00:56:18.953 - Anyone else? I was going to say, far less exciting and less informative announcement. I just really 00:56:18.953 --> 00:56:26.063 - like late season flowering plants. Like the goldenrod right now, the asters, there's a number of them. 00:56:26.063 --> 00:56:32.414 - It's really cool, even while it's as dry as it is outside, and most flowers seem to be well 00:56:32.610 --> 00:56:39.336 - well past their prime. I like watching the active pollinators on the late season bloomers. So check 00:56:39.336 --> 00:56:46.465 - them out where you can see them while they're last. One of my favorite late season flowers, it's a little 00:56:46.465 --> 00:56:53.191 - usually more of like wet areas, but jewelweed, touch me not. Like it's fun if you haven't seen that 00:56:53.191 --> 00:57:00.119 - before. It's got little seed pods and you touch them and they explode. It's a good time. And they have 00:57:00.119 --> 00:57:00.926 - very pretty 00:57:02.242 --> 00:57:08.464 - It's like a very on-board sidekick. I have something. So the Bloomington Bike Party is hosted every 00:57:08.464 --> 00:57:14.997 - month, the last Friday of the month. It's just a very easy bike ride with a bunch of people just hanging 00:57:14.997 --> 00:57:21.218 - out. It's very relaxed. They make sure no one gets left behind. It's very slow paced. And it's just 00:57:21.218 --> 00:57:27.689 - fun hanging out with people. So I recommend everyone check that out. It's the last Friday of the month, 00:57:27.689 --> 00:57:31.422 - I think, 7 PM at Building and Trades Park. Cool. Beautiful. 00:57:31.682 --> 00:57:38.651 - And also, we're in the middle of like third migration right now, so we're going to turn the outdoor 00:57:38.651 --> 00:57:45.690 - lights off. Yes, unless light pollution is impacting the birds right now. That's it. I was surprised 00:57:45.690 --> 00:57:52.729 - that there were light pollution on the map submitted by one of the public as much as any of us is in 00:57:52.729 --> 00:57:54.750 - intensity. It's a green net. 00:57:58.114 --> 00:58:07.341 - I don't personally have any updates. I'm just kind of keeping busy because I'm looking forward to BuckFest 00:58:07.341 --> 00:58:16.050 - and continuing today to meet with you all. Our next upcoming meeting is October 15th, 2026 at 6 p.m. 00:58:16.050 --> 00:58:24.760 - in this room, Hooker Conference Room at Wilmington City Hall. I'll be on Zoom with Katz at this time 00:58:24.760 --> 00:58:26.398 - unless there's any 00:58:26.562 --> 00:58:33.303 - additional business, I would entertain a motion to dismiss. Just saying, that's actually one of the 00:58:33.303 --> 00:58:40.246 - only ones the chair can actually do. You can just... Oh, is that true? Yep. Okay. Well, I guess I have 00:58:40.246 --> 00:58:42.942 - the power, so I will motion to dismiss.