Charlestown Township
Environmental Advisory Committee (EAC)
Meeting Minutes
Monday, June 10, 2024

Armstrong opened the meeting at 7:09

Attendees:
Carol Armstrong (Chair), Meg Solomon (Secretary), Pete Goodman, guests: Jill Green, Jeff Hawley

May minutes approved.

Place Holders

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

New Business

  1. ChesCo Municipal Waste Management Plan for 2024-2033; request from township for EAC to provide comments. We must submit our comments to the township by July 30th. Document review was divided up among 3 EAC board members to be submitted to Armstrong who will consolidate comments and provide to the township.
  2. Chester County Committee will be developing a plan for Swiss Pines under the leadership of Thomas Committa. BoS recommended Dan Walker to be on the planning committee.

Ongoing Business

  1. Single Use Plastics Ban Ordinance – The ordinance was revised and will be reviewed again by PC on June 11th.. The revised version is a compilation of best practices from other townships who have approved such an ordinance including feedback from Penn Environment.
  2. HOA practices regarding pesticides, trash and recycling. – No positive progress.
  3. WeConservePA EAC Gathering conference – happening in fall. Armstrong discussed hosting a meeting. We don’t have the resources to do this right now. EAC membership in WeConservePA-BoS may be interested in the township EAC having a membership. No update. Goodman to revisit in September.
  4. EAC Membership Recruitment – No update. Armstrong will ask Von Hoyer about his HOA.
  5. EAC Logo – Goodman showed the EAC several different versions he has created. Goodman sent all of suggested versions to the EAC for review and Armstrong sent an additional one to the EAC. Goodman showed the committee his proposed revisions to the logo. No final decision.
  6. Recycling/Composting of Food and Waste in Charlestown – Solomon having trouble getting in touch with Charles Buck who is in charge of composting/waste at the community garden in Brightside. Rubinfield volunteered to contact Charles Buck to see if he could get a response. Rubinfield contacted Charlie Phillips. Solomon will contact Dan Mount to see if he is aware of any news about Buck.
  7. Adoption of Charlestown Road, cleanup for PennDOT – No update.
  8. Nature News topic for July – topic is again going to be about Food Sustainability, specifically waste in the kitchen.
  9. Bird Town program – Motel, Goodman, Walker, and Allen checked all 15 bird boxes that they installed in Charlestown. Goodman gave an update on what they found in each box.
  10. Beyond Pesticides, Parks for a Sustainable Future – BoS asked Heleniak to discuss with the sports associations about the possibility of working with them to encourage sustainable parks, and to solicit their possible interest in participating in managing their fields organically. No discussion has occurred yet. Armstrong suggested to him that the Beyond Pesticides offers a grant which could be an incentive.
  11. Township Newsletters – (due dates are 1/15, 4/15, 7/15, 10/15.) July submissions - Armstrong to write an article on Native Species day. Walker to write one about the road cleanup and Goodman will write one on the progress of the birdboxes.
  12. Riparian buffer maintenance – Goodman, Armstrong and Byrne McLaughlin did some caging and additional plantings in the phase 1 buffer to replace shrubs that died. Armstrong to send out another request for a planting day. Armstrong ordered 25 trees from Keystone 10 million trees project. The option to get free native trees and planting infrastructure from Keystone10M program is expected to end in 2025.
  13. Battery Collection – time to pull the Devault post office box for mailing. Armstrong and Green to pick up. Armstrong will mail.
  14. Information for PC on increasing stream temperature – Armstrong working on this, ongoing.
  15. Community Education – Ideas include invasive species, speaker from Bird Town. Armstrong suggested a presentation on effects of microplastics in animals. Date tbd.

Meeting adjourned at 9:05.