Committee Meeting Notes – September 23, 2010

Ossining Green Committee Meeting Notes

Thursday, September 23rd, 2010 7:30pm

 

 

 

Attendees: John Bell, Dorian Burden, Andrea Kimmich-Keyser, Maureen Morgan, Melissa Prew, James Rather (Assistant Planner, Village of Ossining), Mark Reisman, Blake Rowe, Sharon Rowe, Ray Sanchez (Deputy Superintendant, Ossining Union-Free School District)

 

The meeting began at 7:35pm.

 

Ossining Climate Action Plan – Discussion of Waste & Water Resources Sector Recommendations

• James Rather began by giving a brief recap of the work that has been done to date on the Climate Action Plan to date. The Committee’s goal will be to complete work on one sector each month and to have a draft plan ready for review by the end of the year and to be able to start on implementation of the first of the measures in Spring 2011.

• Next, the Committee reviewed the draft Detailed Recommendations for the Waste Sector. The Committee felt that the Recommendations were solid overall and had a few comments and potential additions to add to them. Much of the discussion centered on fleshing out the Plastic Bags & Plastic Bottles Awareness Initiative contained within the Household Waste Management section of this sector. Given that there are still three additional sectors to complete, the revised Detailed Recommendations will be reviewed at a later date prior to release of the draft Climate Action Plan.

• The Initial Recommendations for the Water Resources Sector were reviewed next. The Committee had numerous additions to the Household Water Conservation and Stormwater Management sections of the recommendations, with potential ideas including having the Committee conduct an annual Arbor Day tree planting event, advocating for the benefits of rain gardens and green roofs, and working with local nurseries to make their customers aware of best practices in gardening and landscaping. Mr. Rather will incorporate the comments from the discussion into the Detailed Water Resources Recommendations, and these will be sent out to the Committee for their review within coming weeks.

• The Committee decided to focus on Transportation as the next sector for discussion, which will be followed by Energy, the 4^th and final sector.

Discussion of Ossining School District Green Committee Sustainability Forum

 

• Ray Sanchez, Deputy Superintendant for Ossining UFSD, presented information on the upcoming Sustainability Forum. The Forum will be held on Thursday, October 21^st from 6pm to 9pm at the Anne M. Dorner Middle School. The format for the Forum will be based on The World Café’s model of roundtable discussions and will pose the question “What kind of Ossining do you want to see in the future?” as a center point for discussion. The event’s keynote speaker will be Jamie Cloud of the Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education. Mr. Sanchez plans to invite the Ossining Green Committee to participate in the discussion, which will involve roughly 60-80 participants divided into small discussion groups.

 

Discussion of upcoming 350.org 10/10/10 Climate Change Awareness Events with Transition Westchester and Environmental Film Series

• John Bell provided a breakdown of the upcoming events sponsored by Transition Westchester. On October 10^th, Transition Westchester will host a cleanup and lecture at the Ossining Community Gardens at Cedar Lane from 12pm to 3pm, followed by a potluck dinner and book swap that will take place at Maureen Morgan’s house at 10 Ellis Place. Interested Green Committee members can RSVP at the 350.org website.

• Transition Westchester is also conducting an ongoing environmental film series at the Ossining Public Library. The next film to be shown is “End of Suburbia”, which will take place on October 15^th at 7:30pm at the Ossining Community Center.

 

 

Next Steps

 

• The Committee plans to meet again to discuss the Climate Action Plan and other agenda items in mid October, with the specific date of the meeting to be decided.