MINUTES
ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
Tuesday September 27, 2022. By Zoom
- Call to Order
The meeting was called to order by Chairman James Kole at 6:01 PM
- Roll Call
Council member James Kole, Vice chair Kyla Clark, Jimmy Rogers, Janice Blitz, Barbara Robinson were present as were Laura Christoplos and Mike Leszcz.
- Approval of Minutes from July 26, 2022, meeting
The minutes were approved as written
- Report from Environmental Programs Manager
Ms. Blair was not in attendance, so Ms. Christoplos gave a short update. The Blink charging stations are moving forward. So far, they will be in 3 locations: Municipal Center, DiPietro Center, and 312 Main Street.
The Bee City email is live, and the bee city page is up on Green Living.
The lot at 378 Main Street will be used for Main Street Trick or Treat on October 28.
- Reports from Sub-committees
- Website
Vision for Webpage
Ms. Clark would like clarification of the process to put things on the website.
She will email Chair Kole and staff with suggestions for layout and content to give it a fresh look and reorganize things.
Chair Kole asked staff to find out whether the administration would prefer updates to be made on the web page or set the committee up witha social media site for posts.
Monthly posts
Previously Ms. Clark would put together about 6 months of posts and submit them to the chair. Then the Communications Department would post them on social media.
Pictures of committee members
Ms. Clark would like to have a “about the committee members” section with a very short bio and picture. Ms. Clark would be happy to standardize anything sent to her.
Marketing Plan for EAC
The marketing plan has been mostly social media, the webpage, promotions, and events. Ms. Clark will work on something. She would like to see the City’s marketing plan.
- Bee City
Recap of Sustainable Saturday.
The event was a big hit. It met requirements for having a pollinator event this year.
There were 2 sub-committee volunteers helping at the table. Twenty-one people signed up to volunteer for Bee City at the event.
Mr. Rogers stated that Laurel Bee City doesn’t mean anything to people without context. Most people wanted to know about native plant gardening and about native pollinators.
The Chair of College Park Bee city came by. Allen Hew was interested in organizing a regional Bee City summit.
Mr. Rogers sent a follow-up email to everyone who signed up.
The Laurel Independent interviewed Mr. Rogers at the event.
Chair Kole had a follow-up meeting with Parks and Recreation about replacing some dead bushes with plants that are attractive to native pollinators.
Next steps: Garden plan feedback
Chair Kole said that the committee can recommend that straight species are used whenever possible (vs. cultivars). There was general agreement, but a vote was not taken. Both Chair Kole and Mr. Rogers have sources for native plants.
Mr. Rogers pointed out that two of the plants in the plan (purple coneflower and bluestar) are not native to this area, and he would like to replace them with similar ones that are.
There were concerns about the safety of having beehives in the park. Relocation to another area was suggested, or at least a barrier to keep children away.
Larry T. Smith activities: cleaning up the existing bed and placing stones
Next step is getting ready for planting. The focus is going to be on the front bed around the sign. Cleaning it up and putting edging around it to define the space. There is no date set yet for the cleanup. Cleaning and prepping is not date sensitive, and planting will happen in the spring.
Winter activities
Mr. Rogers would like to start working on the materials that will go on the website for education. His focus will be on what to plant and vendors for those plants. He also wants to do myth busting and advice.
He will get more input at the next sub-committee meeting.
Staff will get clarification from the administration of how input to the new email will be handled, and what the procedure will be for collection, storage, and output of information, and volunteer contacts.
- New Business
Opt out options for advertising flyers
Staff did not research. Will have it for next month.
Bike racks. How to make Laurel a more bikeable city.
Mr. Rogers would like to see bike racks on Main Street. ECD had some plans pre-pandemic.
The Main Street Committee will be coming back. Chair Kole will also look at the Mayor’s plan for a more bike friendly Laurel.
Chair Kole talked to the Sierra Club about the City’s plastic bag ban. They did research on trends before and after the ban. They would like to see a mandatory charge for single use bags. They would like to see Ms. Blair go out to do more education with businesses to find out how things are going, are they charging for bags, do they know they have the ability to charge for paper bags, etc.
Chair Kole would like to see some posts put out about reusable bags and reminding people about our current legislation. He will report back after Ms. Blair has a chance to go out and talk to people.
We are still having problems with compliance.
Mr. Rogers brought up right of ways and confusion about regulations governing what can be planted in them. Chair Kole is meeting with Director Love from ECD about some landscape related items. He is currently focused on tree legislation but will be looking at other landscape code recommendations in the future.
Chair Kole asked Mr. Rogers to find legislation from other jurisdictions that specifically call out that area and send it to him. Mr. Rogers said he would send over what Kate from DPW sent to him
- Next Meeting – October 25, 2022 Virtual
- Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 6:44 PM