Environmental Conservation Commission Meeting Minutes

Environmental Conservation Commission Meeting Minutes

May 8, 2014

Present

xDouglas Adams, Town Board Representative

Anissa Bejaoui

Matthew Bradford

Paul DiGrazia

xEric Krieger

xPeter Lamerson

x Marcy London

xHallie Schwab

1-Review/accept minutes from April 2014 meeting ( 5minutes)

Minutes were reviewed and unanimously accepted.

2-Interview and vote new member. ECC Commissioners (20 minutes)

Hallie Schwab was interviewed for the position of ECC commissioner, and was then recommended by unanimous vote of those present, (with an additional electronic vote by a member unable to attend) to the town as a new ECCCommissioner. Hallie was theninvited to participate as a new member in the remainder of the meeting’s agenda.

3-Recruitment update ( Anissa) ( 5 minutes)

Tabled until next meeting.

4-Founders Day. Birds of Prey update.( Anissa and Hallie) (10 minutes)

AnissaBejaoui has been communicating withAnnie Mardiney of Rosendale, a DEC certified wildlife rehabilitator and a USFWS migratory bird rehabilitator, and an assistant at Ravensbeard, who is permitted to bring birds of prey, including a screech owl and red-tailed hawk and possibly some nestling birds, from the institution to schools and other venues foreducational presentations. Per Anissa, Annie is available on July 26 and can participate in the Town’s Founders Day event in High Falls as a presenter, but she needs further information about the venue (indoors, outdoors), and the duration of the presentation, etc. Hallie Schwab offered to follow up with Annie on behalf of the ECC and discuss the various logistical and presentation questions, including whether a table would be helpful to show the birds to visitors,the best times(s) for demonstration(s), etc.

5-Planning and Zoning Committee. Marcy ( 10 minutes)

Marcy London and Doug Adams have been attending bimonthly meetings for the Planning and Zoning Committee, which aims to create recommendations to amend the town’s zoning laws. The in-progress work of the Planning and Zoning Committee provides an important opportunity for the town to integrate open space, environmental and farmland protections, includingrecommendations in the Town’s Farmland Protection Plan, into the overall effort to amend the code. Marcy distributed “Appendix C: Zoning Codes” from the Town’s Farmland Protection Plan and requested that ECC members familiarize themselves with the document, which includes a summary oftown’s zoning district types, town zoningmaps andobservations and recommendations for improvements to the town’s zoning laws. This review was done by Katherine Daniels, NYPF in 2008. The ECC may want to amend these recommendations to reflect more current conditions and thinking.

Marcy stated that Town Board member Pat Clarke is pursuing a grant of $15,000 from NYS Farm and Agricultural Markets, available to towns which have Farmland Protection Plans,and Zoning recommendations based on a zoning review. The grant would help towns write new zoning which would incorporate farmland protection. A new review would be solicited prior to submission of the grant application. Marcy may invite Pat to attend an upcoming ECC meeting to describe the objectives of the grant, its status, and work items which will be requested from the ECC. Marcy asked that members review “Appendix C’”s recommendationsprior to our next meeting, so as a group we can decide how we would like this review to be amended.

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6-Organizational; (all)

1-Organization: ( all) (30 minutes)

A-Create an email address for ECC. (all)

B-Use of Social Media. (all)

C-Build a data base with email addresses of citizens interested in ECC. (all)

D-Officers update. (all)

E-Time Commitment ( Marcy) ( 15 minutes)

Eric Krieger suggested it would be helpful if the ECC had its own town email account.Its purposes: (1) to facilitate ECC business related communications to persons outside the ECC (new members, presenters. etc.) without having to resort to use of personal email accounts, (2) to provide a target address for communications from town citizens.

Peter Lamerson suggested that direct participation of the town’s citizens in the ECC meetings would also be useful, and Marcy reiterated her request that the ECC meeting schedule be added to the Town’s web site.

Doug Adams agreed to take the two aforementioned items to the Town Clerk and/or Deputy Clerk for action.

Marcy suggested that members review their time availability for ECC work, as a way of realistically setting goals. Past practice has been that ECC Commissioners were able to devote a minimum of 4 hours to ECCbusiness each month, in addition to attending monthly meetings. She suggested that this discussion take place with the rest of the ECC members present.

2-Goals: Each Commissioner asked to come with three goals. ( All) ( 25 minutes).

Table until next meeting.

7- Bylaws update ( Eric) (10 minutes)

Erichas been working diligently to compile the town’s ECC official bylaws from 2004, subsequent bylaws revisions from2005, and a current proposal from the ECC fornew bylaws from 2012. After a final discussion in a future ECC meeting, discussion of possible amendments to the 2012 draft proposal,and avote on the new proposed bylaws, the entire package will be sent to the Town Board for consideration, and request for new bylaws.

8- New Business (all) (5-10 minutes)

Peter had two brief items of new business for the next meeting, and has asked for 15 minutes time be reserved on the June ECC agenda for them:

Item 1: Peter will distribute machine readable attachment article from the May 7thDaily Freeman for review by the ECC prior to next month’s meeting. The report states that the Town of Esopus will begin work this fall on a $3M, 1-megawatt solar energy array, comprised of 5,200 solar panels, which to be located at the town’s transfer station on Floyd Ackert Road. The project will be entirely funded and owned by the contractor until paid for by town electric bills, and ultimately turned over to the town’s ownership. According to a town official quoted in the article, the town anticipates it will spend less on electricity then it currently spends, and substantially less than anybody’s forecast for future electric costs, as a result of the project. Peter has requested a vote by the ECC to send the article to Town Supervisor Mike Warren, with a request that he speak to Esopus Supervisor John Coutant at his convenience to see if a similar arrangement might be considered in the future by Marbletown and Rosendale, on a much smaller scale, to provide solar energy to the new Town Hall building.

Item 2: Peter also requested a short discussion and vote in the next meeting as to whether the ECC should invite pollinator subject matter expert Maraleen Manos Jones back to the ECC to complete herpresentation of her Pollinator Friendly Town initiative, and to describe its benefits (and any costs/obligations),were the Town Board to vote to adopt it.

9-Motion to end meeting.