June Meeting Minutes

Waste Management Update (Brenda O’Reilly)

Automated Trash Pick up will be discussed for the first time in Service, Utilities, and Equipment Committee Meeting scheduled for Monday, June 21^st, 6:30 PM at City Hall, open to the public. According to the Solid Waste District, automated trash pick up generally doubles recycling when it is adopted. Please plan to attend the meeting, ask questions, and show your support. The SWD District provided a grant to the City to purchase 24 indoor/outdoor recycle bins for public places. The Service Center has ordered the bins and expects them to be delivered by the end of June. They should be available to use for recycling at Bay Days. The group discussed the possibility of having a “zero waste” event in Bay Village. Barb Caskey will check to see if a LENSC would be interested in doing this at an event that they are hosting.

Communication/Environment Update (Lori Sprosty)

* Daniel Krieg gave a “Tree City” update to the group. Bay has the “Tree City USA” designation. Although there is no immediate risk of losing this honor, there is currently no budget to plant new trees. The city could lose a number of trees in the next few years due to Emerald Ash disease. Re-establishing a budget to plant new trees is an activity that the Green Team would be very interested in supporting. Dan is going to see if he can get more information to share.

* Bay High Project Earth hosted the 3^rd annual waterway clean up on May 15—in addition to collecting debris, the group pulled 300 pounds of garlic mustard (awesome!)

* The Abitibi paper retrieval bin information has been updated on the Recycle pdf that is on the city website. The Green Team encourages residents to recycle ALL of their paper—at the Abitibi paper bins or at the City Service Center. Please spread the word.

* A Green Scene message will appear in the Mayor’s quarterly newsletter in early July.

* The Green Team has a grant from the SWD to print and mail postcards that promote recycling to all residents. The mailing and grant reimbursement application needs to occur by Thanksgiving. We will work with the city to create the most appropriate message based on where the City is with the review of Automated Trash Pickup.

Community Garden Update (Bob Shields)

The garden was opened on Memorial Weekend—61 plots are leased, 34 are planted. We have 2 churches interested in plots to grow produce for persons in need. This is a response from the community that is way beyond our expectations and we are extremely excited. The deer fence and water are installed thanks to the City Service Department. Bob Shields is planning to create demo beds (with 16 varieties of tomatoes). Many thanks to Lori Sprosty, who led the opening week for the Green Team, with support from Nancy Clark, Mackenzie Clark, and Laura Crabb. Articles about the Community Garden are in EcoWatch Journal and the Westlake/Bay Village Observer.

Events Update (Brenda O’Reilly)

* Warren Remein updated the group on a Compost Bin Seminar and Sale that he has been able to arrange with the Solid Waste District. The FREE event will be on July 21^st at the Bay Community House (Cahoon Rd) at 6:30 PM. More information to follow.

* The Bay Day’s Booth is ready to go for Saturday, July 3^rd. We will set up at 11 am, and open from Noon to around 6 PM. A volunteer sign up sheet will be circulated.

MAKE A DIFFERENCE—GET INVOLVED!

JOIN US AT OUR NEXT MEETING

TUESDAY, JULY 13^th AT 6:30 PM—BAY VILLAGE LIBRARY

Brief Business Meeting at 6:30 PM

“Bottlemania” Book Discussion led by Pam DeFino 7 PM

February Meeting Notes

Thirteen BV Green Team members braved the wind, snow and frigid temperatures to attend February's monthly meeting held on the 9th. The evening began with a PowerPoint update to city representatives Dwight Clark (Council at Large) and Dan Galli (Director of Public Service), reviewing our history and current initiatives.

The initiative to Super Charge the Effort to Reduce Waste was discussed. Some ideas included:

1. Dwight indicated that his committee would be looking at the option of automated trash pick up for 2011--many neighboring communities have adopted this. Recycle Bank was one program mentioned that gives residents "recycled credits" which rewards households for expanded recycling.

2. Dan is interested in involvement from the Green Team to assist in expanding recycling in city buildings--what is the best way to set up recycling for paper, including confidential documents, etc.

3. The Mayor is looking into grants to fund a number of bins for a pilot program to recycle in public places. The actual containers that the green team and the Service Center were considering cost approximately $100 each with additional instructions added through a label which the Green Team has requested as part of the teams grant submission to the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District (CCSWD) for informing residents of bin content by landfill vs. recycling stickers.

4. The BVGT has submitted a grant application to the CCSWD that would fund an awareness postcard promoting recycling to all Bay residents and create landfill vs. recycling labels for the bins in public spaces.

5. The Service Center is looking at establishing a rain garden, per Dan. This is something that the Green Team could assist with. More on this in the future.

The community garden was also discussed. A meeting between the city and the school board to discuss the community garden was held in February with some decisions needed around the insurance, water and funding for start-up costs, including approximately $1500 for crucial deer fencing.

A special thanks to February's guest speaker. Dan Norris spoke to the Green Team on the topic of Organic Lawn and Landscape Care. (See the Feb 17 posting on this site for a recap).

Join us at our next meeting Tuesday, March 9th @ City Hall beginning at 6:30. Make a difference and get involved!

January Meeting Notes

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The Bay Village Green Team's first meeting of the year was held on January 12th and attended by 16 members. Beginning with updates on current initiatives, a brief summary was given on each activity which included: BAYarts - Shades of Green Festival happening this August, rain barrels for residents, recycling bins in public places, BV Middle School LEED EB update and the community garden. The remainder of the meeting was dedicated to 2010 goals and how to maximize the BVGT's impact within the community. The team reviewed its mission statement and original high level goals from Oct. 2008 noting a number of accomplishments over the past 2 years. The group discussed ways to maximize its impact in 2010. Some of those suggestions were:

• focus on the few initiatives that have the biggest impact
• super charge the efforts to reduce waste while looking for ways to increase recycling in the community
• look at "Safe Routes to School" programs
• incorporate sustainability objectives in city policies and practices

One additional note... Don Landers, the Operations Manager of the Service Department, reported that a record amount of leaves were picked up this past Fall. Which in case you didn't know, gets composted and is diverted from the landfill - a BIG win for all of us.

The next Green Team meeting will be on February 9th at city hall with Dan Norris as our guest speaker. Dan is a member of the Westlake watershed group and will be speaking on organic gardening (a timely topic). All are welcome.

Make a difference, get involved!