Charlestown Township
Environmental Advisory Committee (EAC)
Meeting Minutes
Monday, August 12, 2024

Armstrong opened the meeting at 7:10.

Attendees:
Carol Armstrong (Chair), Dan Walker (Vice-chair), Meg Solomon (Secretary), Pete Goodman (remote), Jill Green, Anu Soundararjan

June minutes approved.

Note: There was no meeting in July.

Place Holders

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

New Business

  1. EAC Fall Gathering (October 5th) – If anyone is interested in giving a 5 minute presentation about the Charlestown EAC and the projects we work on for the southeastern EAC, submit an entry to cgrayshaw@weconservepa.org. Presentations can be online or in person at Temple University’s Ambler Campus. Submit an entry by August 29th.
  2. Application for Pennsylvania Outdoor Corps for 2025 – application submitted and Heleniak approved paying the fee for the work we need done on the riparian buffers. We (township) pays ½ and DCNR pays half. Possibly students from the Student Conservation Association. Someone from the EAC will be there for the 4 workdays (during week in spring 2025). Also requested someone from Audubon to provide some education for the workers on birds.
  3. Beech Leaf Disease- FYI – kills Beech trees 90+ % of the time over a few years. Destructive Nematoads in the leaves and roots. No treatment/solution for saving them. Armstrong will send info to Csete regarding this disease for inclusion in Newsletter and to send an informative email to HOAs.
  4. Proposal to create a schedule of EAC events for posting – Green will start working at this and present at our next meeting.
  5. Community education presentation “There’s Plastic in Our BloodWhat?” – Narberth, October23, 7PM at SHIFT, 252 Haverford Ave. mainlineshift.com/event/theres-plastic-in-our-blood-now-what Put the link (in the agenda) – ask Linda to put link on the website FYI (link in the agenda).
  6. Swiss Pines – Chester County Steering Committee will be developing a plan for Swiss Pines under the leadership of Thomas Committa. Walker is on the committee.

Ongoing Business

  1. ChesCo Municipal Waste Management Plan for 2024-2033; request from township for EAC to provide comments. Goodman, Solomon, Armstrong reviewed and provided feedback to Armstrong for consolidation. Armstrong provided consolidated opinions to the township, and it was well received.
  2. Single Use Plastics Ban Ordinance – Armstrong and Soundararjan will ask Heleniak if lawyers and township have reviewed ordinance yet. East Whiteland is also trying to develop such an ordinance and asked for our help.
  3. EAC Membership Recruitment – Solomon will send Hawley an email soliciting his interest in joining the EAC board.
  4. EAC Logo – Green to mockup an idea she has.
  5. Adoption of Charlestown Road, cleanup for PennDOT – road adoption sign - Walker reached out about the sign but has not heard back. Walker will determine when the next cleanup will be and then we can move forward with planning. Potentially on October 19th. Flagger Force now requires a min of 6 hrs of time which increases the cost by 50%. Walker will look for other companies who do this kind of traffic control. Walker will create a task list with dates/times and send to the EAC.
  6. Nature News topic for October – sustainable packaging. Suggestion to find reputable data on what is considered sustainable packaging. Look at the PA DEP for data on waste. Put a note in NN about Beech Tree disease.
  7. Bird Town programs – article in newsletter (Goodman, Motel).
  8. Township Newsletters – (due dates are 1/15, 4/15, 7/15, 10/15.) Armstrong to write an article about Beech Leaf Disease.
  9. Riparian buffer maintenance – Armstrong did put together cages and they are ready. She ordered 25 trees from 1 million trees program. Conservation district backed up our plan for Brightside buffers. Requested more funds from township to continue our efforts. Charlestown is required to maintain grant-based tree planting.
  10. Battery Collection – Very successful program. Requires action when boxes are full and ready to be taken to FEDEX.
  11. Community Education – see new business.
  12. Stream Warming – temperature of our streams is increasing. Armstrong is working on an extract of the data from the Stroud Water Research Center to present to the planning commission as education about the scientific issues resulting from stream warming.
  13. Charlestown Day – September 28th, 11-3 in Charlestown Park. EAC members who are able and willing should dig up one or more native plants from their garden, pot them, and bring them to CD that we can use as giveaways.

Meeting adjourned at 9:05.