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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-08-2009 Regular MeetingFEAB Meeting Minutes July 8, 2009 9:00am Attendees: Gary Gover, Ron Heveran, Elaine Synder-Conn, and Lisa Adams City of Fairhope Representation: Nancy Milford City Council Members: Rick Kingrea, Honored Guests: Anna Keene (Alabama Coastal Foundation), John Carlton In Jim Horner’s absence, Ron Heveran called the meeting to order at 9:00am. Introductions: Minutes from June 10, 2009 meeting were approved. Gary Gover discussed a letter, regarding environmental training of the utility workers, that was prepared to Rhonda White, Gregg Mims, James Gellespi, and Mayor Kant. Gary would like to invite them to attend the August 12 meeting and will take a copy of the letter to Jim Horner when he returns. Lisa Adams asked if the letter is going to the Mayor, shouldn’t she as Vice Chair of the Committee sign the letter? John Carlton attended the meeting to let the FEAB members know that he now does training for Thompson Engineering. He say the notice that training was a topic for discussion and he want to let the board members know that they can provide an ADEM Certification Training Course. Thompson has offered this course to the Mississippi Home Builders Association and to Alabama and Mississippi DOT as well as many other clients. He said that their course could be customized for utility workers. One of the members asked how would they customize the training. John said the course is currently geared toward ADEM inspections. Thompson could change the course to be a ½ of a day long and focus on the type of tasks that utility workers perform. John said that the ADEM training covers many types of erosion control that may not be specifically applicable for utility workers. Ron Heveran announced that they are proposing to offer a course through ESIL regarding environmental issues related to the City of Fairhope. Nancy Milford suggested that the FEAB members be careful as to how they approach something like this and to first investigate the ethics related to getting paid for a course they would be presenting as Board Members. Ron Heveran said he understands Nancy’s concern. He briefly went over a list of potential subjects and asked the group to come up with additional topics. Elaine said the success of the course may depend on how the course is advertised. She suggested reframing some of the course outline, such as “ Why are City streets flooding.” Reframing the subjects to be relevant to property owners will draw a larger audience. Lisa added resources as a topic. Alabama Coastal Program, Weeks Bay, and some of the other organizations. There are other topics that could be considered under the other organization such as Conservation, Reports for waste and recycling, and composting. John Carlton said that Thompson Engineering is doing some legwork to update the Baldwin County Environmental Handbook which is a valuable resource. Ron suggested that the group make notes and time frames for courses for the next meeting. There was some discussion about the City Sketches and the group adding some articles about environmental topics, such as the benefits of mulching and liming (liming also helps with heavy metals). There could be an article in City Sketches regarding the Best Practices for the yard with out chemicals. Native Landscaping was another suggested topic. Master Educators would be a good resource for this topic. The Board could offer a class for children. Gary Gover said that Debbie Quinn recycle committee is up for appointment and that it would make some sense to merge the recycle committee into the FEAB. Gary also mentioned that there is an area east of Greeno Road where the power line crosses the creek. According to Gary, there is a group of invasive species present and Gary wanted to see if the City addresses invasive plants. He said the City workers need to clean their mowers and to control invasive plants. Sometimes there are small grants available through the Invasive Species Council. They also provide the best management practices. Gary Gover reported that at the last Planning Commission meeting, Smart Coast pitched “Complete” Streets. Various uses of the streets are to be given consideration and they would like these design uses to be considered in the Highway 181 widening. Smart Coast is trying to draw up support for the policy that this policy would 1. Support the pedestrian goals of the comprehensive plan and 2. would allow ALDOT to implement the possibility of including the vrious uses of a complete” street” on the Highway 181 project. Gary said there is a tie to environmental health and Elaine said that storm water may also need to be considered. Water Reports: Elaine Synder-Conn brought up a concern regarding the water reports. They don’t seem to relay adequate information. She said they do not address testing techniques and flows. There detection limits appeared to be flawed. Ron Heveran suggested that some of the members sit down with Dan McCrory to discuss some of the various concerns. Garland Sims announced the “Sun going down Event” on the Fairhope Pier on May 18th and July 28th. It is the only time that the sun going down aligns directly at the end of the Fairhope Pier.