Hyattsville Environmental Committee Minutes for April 9, 2009
In Attendance:
Jim Groves, Alan Mattlage; Tony Mulkey, Director of Recreation and the Arts; Nicole Hinds, John Alexander, Pat Yenke, Robert Croslin; Alicia Joseph
Alan Mattlage opened the meeting with introductions.
Review of Agenda – “Outreach to other groups” was tabled until the May, 2009 meeting.
Topic One: Parade Preparations – Jim Groves gave a brief review of the letter sent to the City. Tony Mulkey provided committee with a list of actions the Recreation Department is taking based on the Committees recommendation.
1. Recycling – Will provide recycling containers as well as notices as to what can be recycled.
2. Vehicles In Parade - Invitations have already been sent out to participants stating a car will be available. However, participants will be encouraged to walk or take alternative means, such as a bike.
3. Energy Saving – Pollution reducing tips will be provided to all drivers, such as coasting down the hill or shutting off the engine when idle for two minutes. Members suggested that the time should be 1 minute and 20 seconds. That is, when it appears that drivers will be idle for over 1 minute and 20 seconds, they should turn off the engine of the vehicle. Turning on a car produces an additional amount of Co2, so just turning off the car and restarting it after a few seconds does not accomplish anything. Using the time noted above would have a decrease in Co2. Additional research shows that it is better to shut the engine off after 10 – 20 seconds.
4. Carbon Offsets – The City does not have a direct mechanism to purchase carbon offsets for the event. What the City will do is a post event promotion to elicit citizens/organizations to purchase the offsets after the event, e.g. “after reviewing the parade/festival details, our carbon footprint was $xxx, will you help purchase the offset?”
5. Establishment of “Green Team” – provide information to residents at the festival. Contact Sierra Club to see if they can set up a table that HEC can sit at as well.
6. Vendors – It was too late in the process to require no Styrofoam/plastic to be used by the vendors. The vendors will be asked to bring paper and recyclable containers if possible and the City will look into making this a requirement next year.

The Committee thanks Mr. Mulkey for being so attentive to the matters and look forward to working with him on the Parade/Festival this year and in the future to make it a greener event.
Topic Two: Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan – Alan spoke to our efforts with the Cool Cities campaign and ICLEI. There was discussion on the current status of the ICLEI Carbon Measurements. The City intern who is compiling the data will be asked to attend the next meeting to report on progress. He will also be asked to come with the laptop so that the Committee can view the software and see how it works.
Alicia Joseph asked how the software measures and if it is checked for accuracy. Jim sent Ms. Joseph a power point showing how the software works. Ms. Joseph suggested that we check Federal Plans through the EPA and consider using that as the baseline. The Committee will look into this, but stated that we had already purchased the ICLEI software and it is a widely used system. John Alexander volunteered to assist with the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan.
Topic Three: Public Events
Alan spoke about the upcoming event on April 14 with Alison Gillespie. It was decided that a reminder needs to go out to other groups/communities to remind them of the meeting. Alan Asked about what other ideas are out there for public events. Robert Croslin spoke about a program for teens where they would learn about landscaping. Jim spoke about getting Ellen from Urban Solar Solutions to speak. Jim will speak with Ellen about a speaking event. It was suggest that Elizabeth Arnold contact the Anacostia Watershed Society.
Topic Four: Renewal and New Committee Member – HEC members were appointed two years ago with terms of 2 years. Council will need to reappoint and to find others who are interested.
Topic Five: Next Agenda:
a. Pursue connecting with other groups in and around Hyattsville.
b. What green construction can be done to your house – City/County Code – that could impact environmental construction?
c. Green House Gas Inventory
d. Budget Items - Get a list of items that can be added to budget that meet HEC Goals.
e. Think about training/education for Committee members.
f. Jim to contact city about grant writing.


Next meeting will be Wed, May 6 at 7:30pm at the Hyattsville Municipal Building.


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Hyattsville Environmental Committee Minutes for March 11, 2009
In Attendance: Takeyah Young; Rachel Rosen (Sr. Student/Sierra Club Intern); Tony Mulkey, Director of Recreation and the Arts; Jim Groves; Alan Mattlage; Nicole Hinds, Bill Gardiner, Elizabeth Arnold.
Alan Mattlage opened the meeting with a brief history of HEC for the new people in attendance.
Rachel Rosen from Sierra Club (intern) spoke briefly about what the Sierra Club can do for HEC. She said that they have a list of people who are Sierra Club members (46) who have emails for and that they will send out a blurb about HEC or HEC events to those folks. She also had phone numbers for many local people and if we wanted we could use their phone banks to call people about HEC or HEC events.
Takaya asked what has been done to broaden our base. Jim & Alan explained the outreach through the Wiki and HOPE Listserve. There is a lot more that can and will be done. The Committee will also be sponsoring periodic presentations on various environmental issues facing Hyattsville. It is hoped that people attracted to the sea presentations will become interested in joining the Committee. Rachel said that she has looked at what other municipalities have been doing and they are having meetings on Environmental stewardship (e.g. How to Green Your House). This fits very well with HEC’s plans of having a speaker’s series around environmental subjects.
There was discussion about Cool Cities. The next step is to get the Mayor to sign onto the agreement. Rachel discussed what the Sierra Club had to help and offered to work with us to get the Council to agree to signing onto the Agreement. At that point, Mayor Gardiner came to the meeting and explained that he wanted to have a “Climate Action Plan” after the ICLEI study is done. The Mayor wants a document that says we need to do “a, b and c” over the next xx years. Something of substance and not just light language that can be ignored. If HEC can put together a Climate Action Plan using data we feel most likely will come up from the ICLEI study that would suffice. There was then a discussion about everything that has been done so far as far as environmental initiatives go:
1. Adopted Green Vehicle Policy – Done
2. Energy Analysis of Muncipal Building – Underway
3. Possible Bike Race in the City – Exploring
4. Hyattsville one of the first to get Single Stream Recycling – Done
5. Possible 1 per week trash – Exploring
6. Leaves going to greenbelt, mulched and back to us – Done
7. Bike/Ped Committee – done
8. Environmental Committee – Done
9. Sidewalk policy – Done
10. Tree ordinace – Done
11. Tree USA – Done
12. Mary Pringle Cleanup – Done
13. community yard sale– Done
14. electronic recycling – Done
15. Signed the Trash Free Potomac treaty – Done
16. Segways for police – Done
17. DPW looking at Bio-diesel - Exploring
18. City building switch to natural gas vs. electric HVAC (Rachel to see if that makes a difference) - Exploring
19. Prohibits more than 25% of front yard to be pavement - Done
20. Storm water management? Exploring
21. Adopted native garden language - Done
22. Bonus for employees who live in the City - Done
23. Presence of two metro stops – Done
24. Commuter transit of employees who work for the City - Exploring
Presentations to other Groups: There are lots of organizations within the City of Hyattsville that we can contact. Have not done a lot work what the presentations would be – what is the purpose – 1) Recruiting new members 2) Promote what it is that we do 3)To be a resource for other groups .
There was discussion about moving HEC meetings to first or third Wednesday of month – Jim to talk with Michelle from the City to see who the other groups are that are meeting and to find a time when there is not a conflict of dates.
There was a question about Recycling at the City Building – agreement with County yet? Send email to Lee Henry to find out.
Parade – An email was sent to see if HEC wanted to do anything. Committee looking to be a presence at the end of parade. Suggestions for the parade: Recycling containers, stand by the garbage and tell people what is and isn’t recyclable; send a letter to the City requesting several green things to do. Jim will prepare and send to HEC for editing.
Topics in doing presentations – Organize at least one presentation pretty soon. Alan saw a presentation by Alison Gillespie called attracting animals to your garden that he thought would be good. Will contact and copy Jim in order to get a date and room.
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HEC YES February 11, 2008

Attendees: Bill Gardiner, Alan Mattlage, Nicole Hinds, Lee Henry, Becky Schaaf, Elizabeth Arnold, Jim Groves.

Agenda Review
College Park Cool Cities debriefing to be done via listserv. One, two, four, and five are prioritized items.

Selection of Officers
Responsibilities identified in the last meeting were reviewed and accepted. Jim Groves nominated to be chair. Additional role: outreach liaison (Elizabeth Arnold). Accepted by consensus.

Speaker Series
Alan volunteered to arrange a speaker series on environmental topics to be held on a different day than our monthly meetings and used as community education and outreach. Other members recommended identifying contacts with environmental/civic groups in Cheverly, Greenbelt, and College Park to draw more attendees. Urban Solar Solutions was brought up as a possible presenter and topics such as ‘greening your home’ or ‘cutting your energy bills’ were discusses. Possibly include door prizes.

Recycling Outreach
Report from Elizabeth and Becky
· Tabling at summer jams and other summer events to show recyclable items with a special focus on items now included in the expanded program.
· Table top display to be available at various City events. To be vetted through City Staff and Administer.
· “Recycle me” stickers
· Posters for smaller groceries
· Education about composting = another idea for summer events
· Recycling at city building and city events, collection bins have been provided by the County. Working to establish two pick up sites for County Contractors’ recycling pick up – municipal building and Magruder Park. Outdoor recycling bills will be separators, available in various parks; these bins have been ordered. Recycling bins will be provided in key locations inside city buildings. There is an existing paper recycling program. Recycling is free, but you have to pay tipping fees for trash! Hoping to start April 1.
· One page insert in Hyattsville Reporter. Elizabeth talked to Karen about cost - $719; very interested in collaborating. Two sided in English and Spanish. Can come out of communication budget. Look into using the County’s flyer; most recent brochure only has the yellow bins, not the blue toters.

Code enforcement issue on business and multi-family housing recycling. Jim Chandler may be able to work with UTC, Shops at Metro, etc., or maybe code enforcement.

Signs on grocery stores – “bring your own bag.”

Priority List For Budget Cycle
· Intern money for continuing ICLEI work (administration)
· Money for big street trees, watering bags, and other urban forestry supplies (in DPW budget under urban forestry)
· Environmental education funds (suggested for communications budget)
· City of Hyattsville totebags (marketing)
· Speaker series funds, giveaways

There has been some movement on City of Hyattsville tote bags. Colleen gave them out at volunteer appreciation day.

Next Agenda:
Presentations to Other Groups
Information on City Actions
Cool Cities Presentation
Update on City Recycling and Committee Recycling information campaign

Next meeting: March 11, 2009, 7:30

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January 14, 2009 Minutes: Official minutes posted below. Brief recap can be found under main HEC YES page.

Minutes HEC Meeting Jan. 14, 2009
Attendees: Jim Groves, Alan Mattlage, Elizabeth Arnold, Michael Helta, Lee Henry, Nicole Hinds

Agenda review: reorg of listed items.

Select Officers: Charged with having a Chair or Co-Chair. Items that we need to run administratively: Room reservation (Jim), distribute agendas (listserve and paper) (Alan), send meeting reminders (Jim), facilitate meetings (Alan), record minutes (Becky), city liaison (Nicole Hinds from the Council and Lee Henry from City Administration). Decision not to elect co-chairs until we have a larger attendance. Ensure that those who regularly have attended are aware that we will be voting.

Lee’s suggestion, make a request through Nicole to the Mayor to have absent members replaced. Can have up to 15 members. Our two year terms almost are up, so we’ll need to re-establish who is a member. State rules for voting.

To do: add Lee Henry to the HECYES listserv.

GHG Inventory: Intern Michael Helta reported to date he has made contact with other MD jurisdictions who have done inventories (Chevy Chase and Annapolis) and received a helpful booklet from ICLEI, he expects to complete the citywide inventory in February and start the community side in March. Deciding between 2002 and 2006 as baseline years for input.

Outreach:
Neighboring cities: Get contact information for people in neighboring committees in ICLEI and Cool Cities. Identify people who are active, and invite everyone to a joint meeting.
Hyattsville groups: Check with Jim Chandler for additional community groups. Be sure to ask for help in the invitation/presentation.

Implementation ideas:
Recycling info and summer jams
Green consumers guide?
May parade

Budget cycle starting now, decided by May, approval in June, goes into effect July 1. Think about priorities to propose to the City. “Requested priority list.”

Elizabeth’s report back from last meeting’s to dos: Stuart Eisenberg interested in helping with previous accomplishments but wants to know the scope. Also recommends using Scott Wilson, who has been contacted and is also willing. Alex Hirtle willing to address the Council on Cool Counties – 15 minute limit presentation. Jim will email Lee to identify dates. College Park will be presenting their inventory to their Council soon.

Next Agenda:
Select officers and vote on decision procedures
Brainstorm speakers
Put together a presentation about the committee to other groups
Finalize implementation plan for recycling outreach
Requested priority list for budget cycle
Identify the scope of what we’re looking for in past actions from Stuart Eisenberg and Scott Wilson
Follow up on Alex Hirtle/Cool Cities/Counties presentation
Attendance for the College Park presentation

Future meetings: second Wednesdays of the month, 7:30


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July 19th Meeting Minutes: Bill Gardiner spoke about the new Recycling program. While not a done deal it is very promising. Also there will be a flyer about the recycling. Request flyer in English and Spanish as well as a .pdf so that it can be put out. Put info in stores as well. Nicole and Alan spoke about the “big sweep”. Electronic/computer recycling – 3 dates – funds come in to make signs and to help publicizing. Open to Hyattsville residents – drop off at DPW (magruder?) – up 8 items. More details to come. Other municipalities also got grants. $12,000 to cover three recycling dates. Learn from first one. Nicole – biodegradable paper ware at City Events, recycling bins at the city building. Alan – Anacostia watershed trash reduction strategy – use this as a blue print to the suggestions to the council. Organize a “big sweep” = possibly on Mary Prangley day. Third objective – education and improving knowledge. Contacting the workers in the area. City of Hyattsville tote bags. Sold for cost or discounted? Business association? Lots of info about recycling, waste and natural foliage. Create an accessible webpage for basic education and outreach. Targeting schools – is there a program that can be used?? Fines for littering? Need more gargage/recycling cans. Inventory – where are the trash hot spots. Both small (bottles and stuff) and bigger dumping. Contact DPW as well as Police. Support the bottle bill. Need residents to come out in support. Talk to local business to see if they will step up. City to make it a priority. Council/administration/citizens. Hot spot Trash spot. Recycling bins with every trash can. Education as well as list of items. Next meeting August 9, 2007.



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Hyattsville Environment Committee Meeting Minutes June 28, 2007 The meeting began at 8:10 PM. Present: Nicole Hines, Elizabeth Arnold, Joanne Mood, and Alan Mattlage (Recorder) Topic One: Agenda Review The Committee reviewed the agenda and adjusted it in light of the sparse attendance. Topic Two: Committee Work Review The committee brought Nicole up to date on its activities to date. Topic Two: Cool Cities Gathering Elizabeth Arnold reported on her experiences at the gathering of persons and groups interested in the Sierra Club’s Cool Cities Campaign.

• The International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) has available software that will assist the City in assessing its carbon footprint and discover ways to reduce it.
• Breakout sessions included renewable energy, energy efficiency, and transportation

The groups attending the gathering intend to make this an ongoing effort. Elizabeth will monitor the listserve that was set up for this purpose. Alan Mattlage reported that Daniel Mote, president of the University of Maryland recently signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, pledging to reduce greenhouse gas emission 80% by 2050. Alan will monitor the progress of this on campus to see if Hyattsville can gain from the University’s research and experience. Topic Three: 2nd Annual Potomac Watershed Trash Summit Nicole Hines and Alan Mattlage reported on their experiences at the Trash Summit sponsored by the Alice Ferguson Foundation. Nicole participated in the roundtable discussion “The New Rules of Trash – Legislation to Address Regional Trash Issues.” Important points emphasized in this discussion were code enforcement (including fines) to promote environmental protection, the availability of biodegradable plates, cups, and utensils, and a State mandated bottle bill. Alan participated in the roundtable discussion “Wake Up and Smell the Trash – Regional Public Education Campaign.” The discussion resulted in an endorsement of a regional public education campaign against littering with costs to be shared by local governments and businesses. Alan also described “The Big Sweep” a city clean up program that elicits non-profit organizations to clean up the city while raising funds for the non-profit. The Committee agreed that this would be a valuable addition to Hyattsville’s semi-annual volunteer clean up activities. Finally, Alan distributed copies of the “Anacostia Watershed Trash Reduction Strategy” sponsored by a task force formed by the Council of Governments. The Strategy may form a useful guide to the City’s efforts to reduce trash. Pop Up: The Committee discussed composting and noted that the City has compost bins free for the asking. Joanne will attempt to advertise this in the Hyattsville Reporter. Next Meeting: The Committee agreed to make its practice of meeting every third week routine. Therefore the next meeting will be on July 19th in the Prangley Room of the Municipal Building. Joanne will attempt to reserve the Inner Conference Room on the third floor of the Municipal Building for all subsequent meetings (August 9, August 30, September 20, October 11, November 1, November). Joanne will also acquire an official list of the appointed members of the Committee. The meeting ended at 9:20 PM.

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HEC Meeting April 26, 2007

In attendance - Don McClausen, Jim Groves, Tracy Clark, Joanne Mood, Alan Mattelidge, Becky Mattelidge, Elizabeth Arnold, Councilman Bill Tierny.

I. Review of Charges to Committee – Alan – Cool cities Charge, Potomac River Trash Treaty, Urban Plants and tree Coverage, Catch-all Charge. Becky – Rather than a Catch-all – policy and planning rather than everything. How do we address?

Committee decided to review first charge we called Tree Coverage and Park Maintenance:

1. Tree City USA – Arbor Day Foundation – gives cities that title when they meet certain requirements. Established a tree board and having trees available for curbside planting. Tree planting.

Questions: Does City have list of who needs trees? Yes, Karen Robinson has the list. By address. **** Find out about list****

1. Tree canopy maps – tree inventory of large trees.
2. List of where trees go in the rightaways.
3. Trees available! Find out how and what the determination was on how trees are planted.

***DEFINE – Make a process on how list is taken, who gets them, where they come from, when they are planted and type of tree.

Don brought up the CASEY Tree Foundation whose mission is to enhance the tree canopy coverage. He will get information on them for the next meeting. Q – For new building, what about green space and trees. Talk with Planning Committee. City does have list of trees.

***DEFINE - For new building/construction. What is the requirement for tree planting/environmental concerns.

***Q**** What does City already have, what are they already doing? No need to recreate the wheel. What resources are available?

DEFINE: Quality of Parks – Trash issue. Native Plantings/Evasive Plant removal.

A. Speak with Colleen Aistis about Native Plantings / Evasive Plant Removal – seasonality of removal. B. Friends of Magruder Woods?? Friends of Gallatin Park??

DEFINE: Friends of **** Park – Ask on HOPE list – who lives near park. Expand Native Planting Local Nursery’s sponsoring planting – city / Dr. Imlay to decide. GreenFest – Display cases in Hallway.

***Get map of Hyattsville with Parks outlined / highlights. (ask Elaine as well Matt)

Talk with HBU about program being used to map out Hyattsville.

a. Inventory of trees (has this been done?) b. where are the park cleanups necessary c. where are the plantings/removals needed

***Contact MNCPP as well. ***DPW – What can DPW do or what are their thoughts on Trash. Have a meeting on this Charge only and invite local experts and all the citizens interested to come. Still have regular meetings with subcommittees to work on other charges. What is “Improve quality of Parks” – What should Parks be used for. Playing, Dog Park, Plantings, Community Gardens. Walkable communities tour idea. What don’t you like and what is good? May 17 next meeing. - Get MAPS - Ask Code Enforcement - DPW – Lee Henry - Colleen Aistis – Volunteer coordinator - Don to talk to Casey. - Joanne Mood – Recreation Meeting adjourned at 9:00pm. Minutes Taken by Jim Groves ***********************************

Environmental Committee Meeting Minutes April 5, 2007 Present: John Aquilino, Thomas Aquilino, Elizabeth Arnold, Tracy Clarke, Jim Groves, Soren Huber, Alan Mattlage (note taker), Ryan McAllister, Anthony Patterson, Becky Schaaf, Scott R. Wilson The meeting convened at 8:10. Members introduced themselves. Alan Mattlage volunteered to take minutes. Topic One: Communication The group determined that we will communicate using the HEC-YES @ yahoogroups.com listserv which will remain open to anyone to join; however, when the Committee reaches a stage at which it will write formal proposals an more limited medium will be employed. Everyone was encouraged to join the HEC-YES listserv. Topic Two: Brainstorming Activities The group decided to conduct a brainstorming session using post-it notes to develop a list of activities that the Committee could or should do. After posting notes, the group grouped the ideas into categories including: City Planning and Policy, Recycling, Events, Plants. [Note: I think at least one other category was created, which I don’t have in my notes]. Topic Three: Next Steps Members of the group decided to divide transcribe the ideas and send them to Jim Groves who would compile them and post them to the HEC-YES listserv. Members would review the ideas and compare them to (1) the twelve action items in the U.S. Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement which can be found at: http://www.seattle.gov/mayor/climate/PDF/Resolution_FinalLanguage_06-13-05.pdf. (2) the action items included in the Potomac River Watershed Trash Treaty which can be reached from: http://www.potomaccleanup.org/trash_initiative/trash_index.html (3) the Hyattsville Environment Committee Charge. At the next meeting, the Committee will discuss how the generated ideas can be worked into proposals to the Council. The next meeting was set for Thursday, April 26 at 8:00 PM. Jim Groves volunteered to arrange for the meeting space in the Prangely Room in the Hyattsville Municipal Building. The meeting adjourned at 9:10 PM. Alan Mattlage Note Taker