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(RCAC July 13, 2006 meeting minutes attached; e-mail with questions)
RCAC next meeting:
Date: August 10, 2006
Place: MSD Central Maintenance Facility
3050 Commerce Center Place
Enter by the Big A in the Commerce Center located on Cane Run Road
Between Bells Lane and Algonquin Parkway.
5:30 – 6:00 Light meal
AGENDA
6:00 – 6:05 Welcome / Introductions
6:05 – 6:10 Vision, Mission, Ground Rules, Minutes
6:10 – 6:20 Open Mic – Community Related
6:20 – 6:30 Open Mic – Plant Related
6:30 – 7:15 Program: “Transportation Safety: On the Right Track;” (Roger Huff, Federal Railroad Administration)
7:15 – 7:25 Student Member Discussion
7:25 – 8:00 Special Events
MEETING MINUTES - RUBBERTOWN COMMUNITY ADVISORY COUNCIL
DATE: July 13, 2006 TIME 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. PLACE: MSD Central Maintenance Facility
Community Members PresentSherman Biddix
Peggy Bolton
Martha Gammons
Earl Hartlage
Joyce Korfhage Rhea
Kenneth Madison Judy Nielsen
Barbara Paulin
Betty Reesor
Joe Wagner
Gordon Welker
Jerry Woolridge
Shakaa Zulu /
Community Members Absent
Samuel Bate
Monica BurkheadJennie Chiba
Christine Embry
Ann Hagan
Terri Humphrey
Denis Linehan
Rich Springston / Guests
Joni Jenkins
Reginald Meeks
Facilitator
Dan Hicks
Minutes
Barbara Franzell
Companies
ASRC
Arkema Group
Hexion Specialty Chem.
Carbide Industries
DuPont
DuPont Performance Elast.
MSD
Noveon
OxyVinyls
Poly One
Rohm and Haas
Zeon / Company Reps
Rich Robinson
Cheryl Farr
NoneRick Poynter
None
None
Sue Green
None
None
Karen Finn
Jana Zigrye
Tom Herman / Key Managers
None
Steve Erhardt
NoneNone
Mike Sanchez
Bob Singleton
Alex Novak
None
Kent Lindsey
None
Jane Bowen
None
RCAC Meeting Minutes July 13, 2006 MSD Central Maintenance Facility
Agenda
6:00 – 6:05 Welcome / Introductions
6:05 – 6:10 Vision, Mission, Ground Rules, Minutes
6:10 – 6:20 Open Mic – Community Related
6:20 – 6:30 Open Mic – Plant Related
6:30 – 7:30 “Politics and the Environment” (Joni Jenkins, Reginald Meeks)
7:30 – 7:40 Break
7:40 – 8:00 Special Event Participation – Evaluation, Planning
Welcome / Introductions
President Gordon Welker called the group to order at 6:00 p.m. There were introductions, then Gordon read the Vision, Mission and Ground Rules. Gordon asked for comments on the June minutes. Dan had one correction. Mike Callahan misspoke saying the sirens are not sounded for tornado warnings. Mike Brown notified Dan the sirens are sounded for tornado warnings. The minutes were approved with this change.
6:10 – 6:20 Open Mic – Community Related
· Joyce handed out year-end results showing remarkable scholastic improvement in All Care Community Center’s children. This information came off the Jefferson County school system’s website. A big part of this was from the Every 1 Reads program. She would like to solicit help again this year. The Zoeller Company gave money to paint the fence. Joyce needs an engineer licensed in the Sate of Kentucky who will say the fence will withstand ninety-mile-per-hour winds. Rohm and Haas can help out with this.
· Earl Hartlage - St. Denis is having their church picnic on Saturday, July 15. It starts at 4:00 p.m.
· Shaaka Zulu – SOCKS has a gym full of products: shampoo, hair color, massage lotion, etc. Anyone is welcome to pick up some products to give to people who really need them. He’ll bring some to the next RCAC meeting.
· Dan – There was an article in the Courier Journal about an Environmental Justice Tour Group coming to Louisville on Friday, September 29, highlighting environmental justice issues. The sponsor is REACT. They will take a tour of Rubbertown, look at railcars storing toxic chemicals, etc. Jim Bruggers has a blog at http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/bruggers/blog.html that contains information about this event.
6:20 – 6:30 Open Mic – Plant Related
· Jane Bowen – Rohm and Haas – Jane met with Jim Bottom and Mike Brown about the RCALL System. They made a few changes to the procedure for getting messages onto the system. They are planning to, and have already, implemented a system where they will test the system to make sure it is working. We are to follow up with phone and fax numbers. Messages will be deleted after 24 hours. They are still looking into another system we could call and record messages. This would cost a lot of money.
· Bob Singleton - DuPont Dow Elastomers – DuPont Dow Elastomers was to cease operations by the end of first quarter 2007. This was all dependent on a project at the Pontchartrain, Louisiana site. This project is taking longer than originally planned, so we may run a couple months longer than the planned date. Feel sure we will shut down in 2007.
· Tom Herman – Zeon Chemicals – On June 29, in the early morning, during thunderstorms, LG&E had some loss on the system; Zeon lost power to their entire complex. We are powered by two main sources; one came up rather quickly, the other was out 3-½ to 4 hours. Ten reactors were in service at that time at various points in their reaction. One had just been kicked off. One reaction could not be stopped sufficiently, over-pressurized and could not be contained. One hundred sixty-five gallons of material got away. Total loss Total loss included ~500 lbs. of butadiene and about the same amount of acrylonitrile. Residual latex was flushed to the industrial sewer for pretreatment. We are working to improve the systems in the event of future outages. The RCALL system was not functioning at this time.
· Mike Sanchez – DuPont – Now has a new two-year contract with the Steel Workers.
6:30 – 7:37 “Politics and the Environment” (Joni Jenkins, Gerald Neal) Joni Jenkins represents the 44th House District and Senator Gerald Neal represents the 33rd District.
· Joni Jenkins – The STAR program was thoroughly researched, there was much public hearing on it, and on the state level we try not to micromanage what the local government does.
· Gerald Neal - This is about people, people who live in the neighborhoods, people who work for companies and have the abilities to provide for their families. A company has to be a good neighbor. A good neighbor is more than providing jobs, its providing jobs plus. You can’t provide jobs then put pollutants in the air and not take responsibility for it. The debate that took part over the STAR program boiled down to a technical debate. People came to him and asked about it. He told them it was a local issue and should be handled on the local level. Gerald doesn’t know the ‘technical’ stuff. You have to have people in government who will say we have to find the balance. That balance has reasonably been struck. Saw businesses around the table, advocates for environment, and government. Interaction was taking place. When it got down to the bottom line, it was how people perceived their interest being affected. We did what we thought was right and just have to see where it goes.
· Joe Wagner – Q: What does STAR have to do with future economic development and other companies locating here? You don’t hear what GE and UPS put out. Why don’t we do it across the board? The companies here are going to say “we’ve done all we can do” and leave. A: Gerald Neal: It is clear people are affected with what comes out of Rubbertown and other places, out of tailpipes of cars. In terms of economic development, and talking with the mayor’s office, I can’t see a mayor wanting to run business out of the community. It has to be ‘give and take.’ Corporations don’t go to a lot of places because of this, that and the other. Have to trust people who make the decisions. Rubbertown is not going any place. If it does leave, it won’t be because of the STAR program.
· Mike Sanchez – It remains to be seen what Rubbertown industries stay in Rubbertown. We are talking about environmental things, labor things, lots of pressure is being put on old industries. Although the STAR Program in itself may not take any industry, it is the cumulative effect over time versus people we are competing with around the world. A business was supposed to come to Louisville, but didn’t. They looked at 18 different locations. At the end it was the uncertainty of making an investment around the environmental situation here. With STAR we really didn’t have a good process. There have been no improvements since STAR.
· Gerald Neal – For every example you give, I can give you three examples where it did not prevent that. You are in a competitive environment. The sins of our past have visited themselves upon us now and at some point there has got to be a push back. There is no way around it.
· Tom Herman spoke for Alice Simpson of Noveon – Noveon lost an expansion in Louisville to Atlanta due to issues of STAR. Alice is there now assisting in the start up.
· Jane Bowen – It is unfortunate we had to go to Frankfort to get attention with STAR. Thought the STAR Program was a good thing; Rohm and Haas put a lot of time, effort and money into it, but at the end of the process it was hijacked. We went directly into regulations. The process crashed. We went to Frankfort and it got attention. We need a good relationship and need to work with the city.
· Gerald Neal – It is the companies’ and mayor’s responsibility and districts’ responsibility to get this straightened out. It is not my responsibility. This should be resolved in the local community. I’m confident you can get this done.
· Tom Herman – New data coming out shows improvements a number of Rubbertown companies have made.
· Rich Robinson – What is going on with Health Care? What can be done at the State level?
· Joni Jenkins – Have a new program that covers children. Package of legislation to make health care more accessible to small businesses. There have been some cuts in the Medicaid population that will affect a lot of people. Local government does a very good job with health clinics, etc.
· Gerald Neal: Bottom line is we have not provided sufficient leadership in terms of funding programmatic responses to health care needs. We are behind what we should be obligated to do.
7:37 – 7:45 Break
7:45 – 8:00 Special Events Committee Report – Circulated a sign up sheet for the event.
· West Louisville Appreciation Festival July 29 and 30, Shawnee Park
o Jerry Woolridge, Ann Hagan, Alex Novak and Rich Robinson, Gordon Welker, Shakaa Zulu
o A sign up sheet was circulated
· Could anything have been done better at the last two events (Shively Festival and Farnsley-Moreman Ice Cream Social)? Alice Simpson will organize a committee to improve the process.
o Need a banner to identify ourselves – why we are there and who we are
o Improve the display (Alice and committee)
o Lids for solo cups when making slime (Gordon Welker)
o Someone should be at the plant display to explain what the companies do
o Need two company reps per shift?
o Need Wally Wise Guy at the events (if not too hot)
· August 19 from 9 a.m. until 12 p.m. Lake Dreamland Fire Department, Cane Run Road, celebrates their 75th year as a Fire Department serving this community. They invited companies to set up a booth. Gordon Welker, Joyce Korfhage-Rhea and Martha Gammons will participate.
The meeting adjourned at 8:00 p.m.