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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCB Minutes 2013-06-06 Town of Ithaca Conservation Board June 6, 2013 7:00 p.m. Final Minutes Members present: James Hamilton, Kristine Shaw,Jon Meigs,Andy Goodell, Susan Perri,Vladimir Micic Absent: Tony Ingraham, Eva Hoffmann, Ellie Stewart, Nirav Patel Staff: Mike Smith Persons to be heard: none. Members Concerns: James expressed concern of Mr.Rich Schoch (Parks Maintenance Manager) with regards to the current condition of the East Hill Recreation Way [portion between Mitchell and Maple Streets]. Besides being concerned about the condition of the trail's surface Mr. Schoch asked James to stress the importance of maintaining the pedestrian infrastructure,especially in times of significant cutbacks in maintenance funds for this type of work. James proposed contacting Herb Engman (Town Supervisor) to see if he can figure out some way of making the maintenance of the extensive pedestrian infrastructure one of the priorities in the annual budget.James also said that in the meantime we could at least try to make this specific section of the trail safer. Kristine supported James'proposal and added that some type of budgetary provisions should be made for quick repair of the Town's damaged trails. Kristine also volunteered to write an email to Herb pointing out the liability issues that may emerge in case somebody is injured while biking over that specific section of the trail. Chair and Coordinator reports: Chair: Kristine reported that Nirav's recent absences from the Board's meeting are related to the fact that he is currently out of the country and doing his postgraduate fieldwork. In his email reply, Nirav offered to become an associate member until the end of July when he plans to return to Ithaca and resume regular attendance. The Board decided not to recommend altering Nirav's current membership status and will wait until Nirav is back in August. Kristine also mentioned that the Tompkins County Environmental Management Council (EMC) is currently organizing a plastic bag ban initiative.James initiated a resolution stating the Board's support for the EMC's efforts to ban plastic bags in Tompkins County and the rest of the Board supported the resolution unanimously. Mike will send a copy of the resolution to the County EMC. Coordinator: Mike informed the Board that the rebuilding of the Cornell Plantations Botanical Garden is going to be on the agenda for the June 18th Planning Board's meeting.The new garden will be similar to the old one with the addition of some new walkways and benches. Mike also noted that recently discussed payments (as a monthly amount) for CB members are not going to be introduced at this time. This means that any future payments to Board members could only take the form of a regular financial reimbursement similar to those that were processed previously for any other expenses accrued by Board members while performing Board-related activities. Such reimbursement requests could be submitted and processed quarterly. 1 Mike also encouraged CB members to sign up as note takers at future Board meetings. Approval of Minutes from 05/06 2013: Jon referred to a sentence in last month's meeting minutes (members concerns section) which states that he will help the Depalma family with their concerns about the health of the woods adjacent to the Commonland Community. He stated that he referred this issue to the chairman of the Natural Areas Commission (who is familiar with this area) and that the chairman did not get back to him yet. Jon also inquired whether there has been any change with regards to the Town's decision to transition from the printed into an electronic version of the Town's newsletter. Mike noted that the Town did not consider any changes to this decision. Kristine and James mentioned a certain email correspondence with the Town's officials that confirms that Town residents could always request delivery of a hard copy of the Town's newsletter if that is the format with which they feel more comfortable. Discussion of the Town of Ithaca water conservation efforts: Kristine suggested that we should perhaps focus on checking that the Town is doing everything in order to conserve water,focusing on the Town's internal water usage levels,and high usage areas specifically,but at the same time that we should continue communicating with Bolton Point. Andy asked whether there is a breakdown of the water usage per each department so we can see which department is using the most water and offer suggestions for improvements. Mike indicated that water bills for both of the Town's buildings should show the quantity of water used by each facility. James suggested that the largest savings would occur if we could patch up the leaking pipes.James also suggested that having more of the Town's representatives on the Bolton Point Commission would help our conservation efforts,but he expressed concern that our message was not clear enough during the meeting that Herb attended. Kristine proposed finding some local allies on this issue and perhaps reaching out to Cornell Professors with a shared interest in water conservation issues,and asking them to help us understand all the impacts and complexities of different water conservation programs and schemes. Vladimir and Jon expressed concern that our water conservation message did not come across clearly.Jon said that people are less likely to respond to a proposal for more water conservation in an area with an abundance of water sources,but that people would be more responsive to that message if they knew that their water consumption is impacting the level of CO2 in the air. Andy proposed that our water conservation message should clearly state that we are saving water because we want to push less of it up to the hills. James proposed distributing more billboards and flyers with such a message around the Town and especially in the T-Cat buses. Kristine confirmed that our message should be refined so it clearly communicates the reasons for water conservation and might be taken to design and movie-making professionals who know how 2 to make it even more effective. Kristine also suggested contacting the Ithaca College faculty(Mara Alper) that attended one of the Board's recent meetings. Susan proposed using online platforms for micro-volunteerism that help people from local communities find experts (for free) in the area in which they require professional expertise. One such platform is called"Sparked"and another one"Catch a Fire." James reminded everyone that all these solutions sound good,but that we should continue to remind Herb and our Bolton Point Commissioners that this is important.James also proposed contacting the commissioners from other municipalities that are serviced by Bolton and reminding them about the importance of this issue. Kristine concluded that we should then try the multi-pronged approach and see what could be done in order to coordinate our water conservation efforts. Kristine said that she would be willing to attend a Bolton Point commission meeting and speak out about why we think that Bolton Point should focus on this issue. She will look into dates for those meetings and invite anyone from the board who is willing to go with her. Kristine also said that we should look into the mechanisms of water pricing in order to figure out whether we could organize multi-tiered water pricing in the Town ourselves and without any help from Bolton Point. (Vladimir volunteered to check the Town's water pricing structure and to contact Town of Dryden about their water rates, as it appears that they have already implemented some type of multi-tiered water pricing scheme). Kristine also said some Board members should contact Prof. Mara Alper from Ithaca College with regards to the effectiveness of the message we want to send out and contact Nick Goldsmith to try to find other allies from the area who are interested in this issue (Susan volunteered to contact Professor Alper and James volunteered to post something about this on the CB's Facebook page). Regular reports and updates Environmental Review Committee: Andy reported that the committee did not meet Scenic Resource Committee: In Tony's absence James reported that the View Sign is unfortunately not emplaced yet.James also requested the copies of the scenic tour guide to be printed so he can place them in the nearby Visitor's Center as their availability in the local Visitor's Center is noted on the View Sign. Communication Committee: James briefly reported on the Fischer Award Tree planting Ceremony and mentioned that a story about this event was featured in the Cornell Daily Sun,the Ithaca Journal and in the Cornell Plantations'Newsletter. Conservation Zone Committee: Jon noted that the Conservation Zone (CZ) Committee held a public information session that was attended by some residents whose properties are located within the proposed Southwest Glens and Creeks Conservation Zone. He reported that families Steenhuis, Alberta and Pierce had some reserves with regard to the proposed CZ borders and that the committee had met with the Steenhuis and Alberta family subsequently to hear about those concerns.All families were worried that the proposed conservation zone would limit their ability to 3 build additional units on their property and had asked for slight adjustments in the proposed CZ border. Jon informed the Board that the proposed border adjustments were reviewed at a separate CZ Committee meeting and were found not to have a major impact on the proposed CZ as a whole,as most of the properties at question were located at the edge of the CZ border. Jon presented each border adjustment to the CB and the CB accepted the changes to the proposed CZ borders unanimously. Tompkins Count,: no report Six Mile Creek Volunteer Monitoring Program: James reported that on June Sth in the Caroline Town Hall,the Community Science Institute (CSI) had organized another What is in Your Watershed forum,with presentations on the sediment in Six Mile Creek,stream bank erosion,and BMIs.The next sampling of the creek is scheduled for June 19th. CSI is also helping the Science Center with a BMI workshop for kids and some of the Six Mile Creek volunteers will be helping with that by showing how to identify the organisms living in the creek. City of Ithaca Natural Area Commission: no report Cornell Plantations Natural Areas Academy: James reported that the Park Park has placed its most valued trees in cages in order to protect them from beavers as their impact on local flora is felt more heavily lately in this area. James reported that he also went to the workshop on Reading the Landscape that was led by Robert Wesley on South Hill,and that weeding of invasive species continues on a regular schedule. Community Energy Action Plan Advisory:Andy reported that the transportation subcommittee met on June 6,and that they were working on a list of ways in which Town residents could reduce greenhouse gas emissions.Andy said that he is mostly involved with the transportation group,but that other groups are working on the project with the same goal in mind.The subcommittees meetings will continue through the summer with the hope that in the end there will be a comprehensive plan in place by late summer. Other Business: Jon referred to the brochure of NYSACC news and pointed out that the most recent issue looked like a very useful resource.Jon wondered whether the resources that were outlined in the brochure were being used by anyone in on the Board,especially because some of the resources seem to deal with the locations of threatened species or unique natural areas. James said that he will send another draft of the Town of Ithaca Conservation Board Brochure as he is working on the revised draft right now. Kristine confirmed that the July 4th meeting is canceled and that the next meeting will be scheduled in August. Kristine also encouraged the board members to identify possible allies that could possibly come in at the next meetings when we are scheduled to touch base on water conservation efforts. The draft Minutes written by Vladimir Micic 7/21/13 4