Charlestown Township
Environmental Advisory Committee (EAC)
Meeting Minutes
Monday, September 11, 2023

Meeting was held at Township Office 11 General Warren Blvd., Suite 1. Armstrong opened the meeting at 7:08.

Attendees:
Carol Armstrong (Chair), Dan Walker (Vice Chair), Meg Solomon (Secretary), Pete Goodman, Anu, Guest– Jill Green

August minutes approved.

Place Holders

(Reminder of EAC-initiated projects for next 6+ months):

New Business

  1. 2024 EAC budget planning – Armstrong will send out 2023 budget for comparison.
  2. Charlestown Day EAC table – Jill has time in the afternoon to man the table. Anu will check her schedule to see if she can help. Goodman, Walker, and Solomon will not be able to attend. Richard Reynolds from Gardeners Nursery as well as being a resident of Charlestown Township offered to help as well as donating plants for native/invasive exchange. Armstrong will take things from the storage closet to take to Charlestown Day. Everyone will send Solomon hours they can be at Charlestown Day.
  3. EAC membership – Yocum and Piatak have resigned from the EAC board. Armstrong to ask Csete if she will send solicitation email to the HOAs once again. Each person should try to come up with ideas of how to get the word out. Suggestion was to post on Charlestown Township private Meta page.

Ongoing Business

  1. WeConservePA - See September EAC agenda for the WeConservePA EAC meeting details.
  2. Storage Closet (in township meeting room) Shelving – Shelves are in so people can store things as needed.
  3. Riparian Tree Planting in Charlestown Park and Pickering Creek – on hold until we find out if Stroud got their grant. Will be moved next month to Placeholders.
  4. PA Dept. of Transportation Road Adoption Program – final preparations underway. Walker to get supplies. Walker to send a graphic to Csete. Flagger Force is lined up. Volunteers to meet at Charlestown Mill, 7:00 AM.
  5. Stream Naming of headwater tributary at Charlestown Park – perennial stream that starts near Charlestown Park. Jeremy Johnson sent a proposed name, Kwiamwis Siputet (Hawk Creek). Armstrong sent it for approval to the USGS. They responded. Asked for a letter of support with all the names and tribes we have contacted. They also need letters from the BOS and our county commissioner. Armstrong to send.
  6. Single Use Plastic bags/items ban – Anu S. presented to BoS and they were very receptive. Anu will use Uwchland Township’s ordinance as a template for banning single use plastics. She is working with the Single Use Plastic coalition and also with Down to Earth Composting company. We need to come up with a list of items to include in the ordinance. The EAC needs to identify all businesses in Charlestown and subsequently interview them about the proposal and the next step of writing a new ordinance. Goodman, Armstrong volunteered to help Anu with collecting this information.
  7. Nature News topic for October – definition of Sustainability, possibility to focus on one area of sustainability.
  8. >Battery Collection – Walker will pick up the box at Devault P.O. and take to FEDEX distribution site.
  9. Invasives Replacement Project – so far 2 nurseries have committed to donate plants for Charlestown Day invasive plant replacement project. Notification is in Charlestown Newsletter. Solomon will send out 2 emails between now and Sept. to our mailing list about qualifying for the give-away. Gardener’s nursery and Sam Brown’s nursery are donating.
  10. Township Newsletters – (due dates are 1/15, 4/15, 7/15, 10/15): Update on EAC activities from Charlestown Day and all other EAC activities. Everyone needs to write a paragraph on activities they are chairing. Goodman to write an article on what to do if you hit a deer.
  11. Community Education Other ideas include:
    1. Bird Town programs
    2. Tour of invasive species in township
    3. Watershed friendly property certification - have meet-up in a restaurant or pub.
  12. Riparian buffer maintenance - Update - mowing of lanes between trees and shrubs in riparian field below community garden planned for late winter. Johnson grass growing in satellite clusters. Mile a minute growing where hedgerows were removed. RES needs to take care of these. Goodman to send email to Heleniak about Brightside invasive issues and he will also ask about Deerfield discussion at June BoS meeting. Seeding planned for November. Armstrong to maintain riparian buffer in Brightside in late Oct, early Nov. She needs 5-foot cages and stakes. She will order online.

Meeting adjourned at 9:06.