 |
Charlestown Township
|
Minutes were recorded for the meeting on February 13th, 2019 at the Great Valley High School Library, 225 N. Phoenixville Pike, Malvern, PA 19355. Meeting was held from 6:20 p.m. - 7:50 p.m.
Attendees were Pete Goodman, Carol Armstrong, Richard Findlay, Veda Maany, Daniel Walker, and Greg Nesspor.
The meeting was called to order at 6:20 pm with Pete Goodman as the Chair.
Minutes from previous meeting were approved by Goodman and Nespoor second the motion.
Regarding the Adelphia Gateway Project pipeline, Goodman reports that FERC has extended deadline on comments on EA due to government shutdown. Armstrong suggests we can all write a request for Environmental Impact study.
Armstrong & Walker deferred their update on education on single use plastics with PJ Whelihans’, the Office Bar & Grill, Dunkin Donuts. Snack bar @ Charlestown Park until next meeting.
Goodman & Walker announced that the PA Turnpike Sound Walls is officially a Pa nonprofit with an EIN ready to receive funds. They are currently working on sending out direct mailing and creating a website for donations. In the future may ask Charlestown EAC to play an advisory role, i.e. arrange a sound study.
Armstrong & Goodman updated progress on the riparian buffer grant for Pigeon Run on Brightside Farm. Due to some unforeseen issues, the timeline is longer than we hoped, and we may not make the April 10th deadline for a grant. We still need to get an aerial view to mark hay area and trails. Charles Buck, Garden Manager (allotments) offered space where we could propagate saplings. This is a good resource we will consider.
We discussed various future topics for articles to contribute to the quarterly newsletters. Articles due the 15th of the first month of the quarter – 4/15, 7/15, 10/15. Nespoor may write about runoff. Maany is working on article about littering.
We discussed a summary of the EAC-initiated project for next 6+ months: Brightside Farm Riparian Buffer Planting, Stream Naming (un-named tributaries), Adelphia Gateway Project monitoring, PA Turnpike Sound Wall Group and Charlestown Park Native Trees. Findlay is now a certified tree tender.
We can also offer the EAC to be an educational outreach for spotted lanternfly awareness, and offer to tour residential properties to remove eggs and larva. We can extend this invitation in the weekly emails during the crucial months of the egg laying and larvae activity. We will post information on the website as well.
Goodman reviewed our forms for reimbursements for EAC expenses. Reimbursement is to be presented to the EAC chairperson first to approve the expense prior to submitting to the Township Manager for reimbursement and budget tracking.
After brainstorming topics, we agreed to have the following presentations for our Community Education Series and the appropriate season:
Richard can present responsible salting (winter talk) and planting trees (summer/early fall)
Nespoor can talk about water (anytime)
Goodman to discuss stormwater and erosion (fall).
Find a speaker to discuss caring for streams on your property (anytime)- it would be nice to have this take place at The Mill.
Armstrong offered to identify a speaker to discuss helping residents transition to renewable energy-renewable energy options for residents (winter talk)
Armstrong can discuss plastics in fresh water in environment/microplastics (anytime).
Maany can discuss health and the environment (late spring- may)
Goodman suggests we do one lecture a quarter. We would provide an outline our talk first for EAC review. Then send the description of talk content and objectives to publish via Linda for weekly email, as well as post on NextDoor, parks and rec Facebook page, Charlestown Facebook page, and to the Historical Society. We need to identify the venue and times, as well as availability of AV equipment. Some venue choices could be the Pavilion at Charlestown Park, the Mill, the Grange, Charlestown Playschool, the choral room at GVMS. We are thinking 7 pm weekdays. For an hour. Armstrong will offer to do first talk and set a date. To get this rolling we will continue the discussion on an email exchange. Findlay will contact Linda about venue options. We also should consider costs involved and what whether we could provide treats and refreshments.
Goodman announced that Charlestown Day 2019 is scheduled for September 14th.
Goodman received an email from a Charlestown resident expressing interest to have EAC input about the stream on their property- This may be a good talk to have for our lecture series.
Maany will work with Linda to get residents engaged to volunteer for Earth Day - Clean-up April 6, 2019 - 9:00 a.m. to Noon. Linda has a list of areas of focus in the township that have in the past had consistent volunteers/groups and she will be keeping track of volunteers so everything should go through her. Linda also requests generating some other activities other than clean-up for volunteers to do.
Update on septic regulations: There is a need for education and outreach as there is a concern that there will be a crisis when the deadline comes. Chris Lawrence’s wife is the Commonwealth coordinator.
Nespoor would like to offer the EAC members a tour of an Aqua water treatment plant.
NEW
Armstrong proposes in the future to present to the BoS ideas around reducing the township’s carbon footprint through the use of renewable energy electricity to use the lights- this may be most relevant to new township building and its design. Armstrong would like to have EAC develop our relationship with the Planning Commission to engage together on discussions and planning on new or re-developments especially around stormwater issues and light pollution and noise. Walker will help bridge this relationship now that he is a member of both
Meeting was adjourned at 8 pm.