Charlestown Township
Environmental Advisory Committee (EAC)
Meeting Minutes
Monday, April 14, 2025

Armstrong opened the meeting at 7:02.

Attendees:
Carol Armstrong (Chair), Meg Solomon (Secretary), Jill Green, Pete Goodman, Faith Talnack, Sarah Pickering, visitors; Tamru Taye, Lou Rubenfield , Keith Parsons (Willistown)

March Minutes approved.

Place Holders

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

New Business

  1. Welcome Sarah Pickering- approved as alternate board member.
  2. Township road salt management- Waiting for Kevin Kuhn to give feedback on his meeting with Philip Sexton, an expert on road salt usage. House bill 664 addresses road salt excesses. It proposes a best practices manual for salt use and will be created by PADOT and PA DEP. It might need more detail added to meet the township needs.
  3. ChesCo Planning Commission Sustainability Division support of EACs. Cory from the Sustainability team is reaching out to EACs in the county. There is a Chester County sustainability conference on May 17th in West Chester.
  4. EAC Committee membership change - Soundararajan has resigned as a full-time member. She would like to be an alternate. She would like to come back in the future as a full member. Armstrong approached Sarah Pickering to see if she would be interested in becoming a full-time member. She is interested. We will put before the board. Tamru Taye was asked if he might be interested in being an alternate member. He seems interested as well. Armstrong to send his application to the EAC.

Old Business

  1. Earth Day – Road Adoption and township cleanups review. Three people showed up to do the cleanup on the 12th which was considered part of earth day. It was a miserable weather day. The waste was almost all plastic. Next year we need to be more proactive in planning for Earth Day.
  2. Review of BoS, PC, P&R meeting highlights – (Green - BoS, Walker - PC, Armstrong - P&R)- No updates.
  3. Bird Town Update and review of policy regarding mowing of fields at Brightside Farm Park- Township (BoS) approved $9500. for security cameras and a Kestrel bird box camera at Brightside Farm Park. A couple of additional Barn Owl and Kestrel boxes were installed making a total of 22 boxes. There is a plan to expand the community garden. Goodman contacted Dan Mummert to see if this would be a problem for the bird boxes. Armstrong brought up the need to have a standard policy and calendar for mowing Brightside. We will bring this up at the next BoS meeting during public comments.
  4. Creation of EAC Events calendar, Social media subcommittee of EAC – Green will share the calendar of EAC activities (those that are known for 2025) on the Charlestown Township website. Also Green to put the calendar on the Charlestown Facebook Page.
  5. Charlestown HOA Sustainability Plan – Talnack will attend next board meeting of HOA to see if she can connect with them regarding sustainability.
  6. Swiss Pines Preliminary Master Plan – Comitta presented findings of the township resident survey to BoS. Preliminary master plan was approved by BoS. Next step- putting the approved prelim plan on the CT website and conducting an accurate survey of what exists on the site. Will probably be done in stages.
  7. Kwiamwis Siputët Signage – interpretive sign vs PA historical marker debate (maybe both). P&R is ok with us posting a sign. Armstrong received feedback from the Lenape Tribe, and they are in favor of the historical marker. We missed the very early January deadline for submission of the application for a historical marker. Armstrong will be attending the next Charlestown Historical Architectural Review Board meeting in May. She had a talk with Nancy Long who is interested in the Lenape presence in Charlestown. This will help us decide about the usage of a PA historical marker vs interpretive sign and we will apply in January, 2026.
  8. Status of EAC membership in WeConservePA. They need support and help with future events. Goodman got approval from Kevin Kuhn. We are now members. Will be funded via the EAC budget.
  9. Nature News topic for May – the future of sustainability - what advances are being made.
  10. Township Newsletters – (due dates are 1/15, 4/15, 7/15, 10/15.) Soundararajan wrote an article on the single use plastic ban ordinance, Armstrong wrote an article on Beech Leaf Disease and Goodman created an EAC activity bulleted list that will also be provided.
  11. Riparian buffer maintenance at Brightside and Charlestown Parks – we received the PA Outdoor Corp team for 4 days starting April 28th.. This will be free for the township this year.
  12. Stream Warming – Armstrong making final edits on the thermal pollution report that includes Suggestions. It will be submitted soon. When completed, Armstrong will share with the EAC for feedback.
  13. Publication of talk on Microplastics in our Bodies – Armstrong indicated that it won’t be published online. However, she gave the EAC permission to distribute selectively. Armstrong will ask Heleniak to give us access to township Dropbox.
  14. PA Native Species Day will be 5/20/25; Discussion of activities and proposed expansion of Children’s Art Contest - Charlestown Elementary, Playhouse and other kids in the township. Goodman to research buying bird feeders or birdhouse kits as awards for the kids. Armstrong to bring information sheets on native and invasive species. We also have brochures and lots of materials.
  15. Beyond Meat – smell has caused complaints among nearby residents. The EAC recommended that Rubinfeld ask the HOA to submit a request to the township to do an air quality assessment and also find out what polluting emissions the plant’s PA DEP permits. Dan Wright will try to get the Beyond Meat DEP permits for monitoring and emissions. No update this meeting.
  16. EAC Logo update – Some ideas were passed around but no update.
  17. Willistown Environmental Sustainability Commission – Keith Parsons gave us an overview of what they have been doing. It used to be a recycling committee. Local climate action plans (LCAPS) - they are researching this. They had a presentation from PSU about LCAPS. He is interested in collaborating and pooling resources for all of the EAC/ESC work with the Great Valley School District (4 townships). They are Malvern borough, Willistown, E. Whiteland, Charlestown. LCAPS - std process for how to measure and manage your carbon footprint. Step 1 - looking at current emissions from PECO bills. 2. Set reduction target. 3. Develop an actual climate action plan. 4. Implement the plan 5. Monitor and measure effectiveness. PSU can provide support using students – contact Peter Buck.
Meeting Adjourned at 9:12.