Green Island Ice Arena Negotiating Committee - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon. It is Monday, April 14, 04:02PM. I'll call to order this meeting of the climate action plan steering committee. We have all committee members here in person. Adam Jacobson is absent excused, technically. Excused. First off, I need an approval of last month's minutes. Motion to approve by Natalie Hennigan. Second by Second. Casey Meehan.

Any discussion on the minutes? Seeing no discussion then, all those in favor of approval of the minutes, please raise your hand. Or, actually, just state aye. Aye. Aye. That is approved unanimously. Next up, items for notices and discussion. Lewis,

would

you like to offer any notices and discussion first?

I will defer to the committee members while I pull up notes.

Sure. Any committee members? Andrew.

If you're looking to celebrate Earth Week plus at UWL, I have the answers for you. On April 25, we will be celebrating Arbor Day. That is from 12:30 to 2PM. We'll be meeting outside near Morris Hall. We will have some speakers, refreshments, free themed refreshments, a tree planting, and launch of our Hinukwah's tree trail.

We also have Earthapalooza that day, which is our flagship Earth Day event at UWL. That is from three to 7PM on the Union Lawn or inside depending on the weather. And then we are pulling together some UWL folks for the Marsh cleanup, which has been a program that's been run by Friends of the Marsh for many years, and we're trying to do our part to predict the Marsh. So we'll be meeting at Luth Park for our portion.

And

then we also have the Campus Thread Fashion Show on April 30. And the camp and the fact Campus Thread is a, yeah, closed closet on campus. And so this is their description. Join us for a nostalgic fashion journey through the decades from the roaring twenties to the nineties and beyond featuring your fellow UWL community members. Again, that's April 30 from five to 06:30PM. Sounds pretty fun. Yeah?

Will you be wearing that mustache along?

This is this is not this is true to my body.

It's not about body hair.

This this mustache is mine. Thank you.

I got some. Casey. Alright. So on behalf of Sustainability Institute, we've got the Earth Fair coming up, and that's also part of Nature Place, on April 27, that's Sunday, from 11AM to 4PM at Myrut Park and the Nature Place. Andrew already beat me to the punch with the marsh cleanup, which is happening on Saturday, the twenty sixth.

And, also, we've got the green goose chase happening right now, starting actually the seventeenth. So it's the seventeenth through the twenty seventh. That's from the Sustainability Institute. It's our fifth annual green goose chase, so it's a mission based, scavenger hunt that's free to play. Check it out on Sustainability Institute website. And also a plug in for Earth Day at the Riv Rivoli. On the twenty second, there is a environmental film fest happening there that I believe is free, although RSVPs are required. Ticket tickets are required, but free event. And I think that's at five.

Excellent. Thank you. Natalie.

The agenda could just be, like, April events.

Oh, seriously.

Lacrosse housing week is coming up April 28 through May 3. And if you would like to see not one but two of your fellow CAPS steering committee members, Andrew and I will be, co presenting at an event called Room to Grow, which is all about the overlaps between zoning and the environment. And this is on April 30 at the Nature Place at 10AM, and we're very much looking forward to a conversation. As Andrew and I were saying just today, neither of us are zoning experts, but we are zoning enthusiasts, bringing our expertise in housing and sustainability together for a great conversation.

Excellent. You all are making me smile really big smiles today. Yes. You may.

I assume that I'll see you all there and for all of our fans online to see see you there as well. I think a event run by Natalie and I is gonna be some pretty high energy. Right? It's gonna be memorable. Alright? I yield.

I expect nothing less. Alright. I only have one update until Lewis can really steal that show. Just to note that our resolution, directing funds to claim elective pay or direct direct pay was approved last week. Yay. Take it away, Lewis.

And to follow-up on that, the mayor signed the contract, so we'll be moving ahead. I'm meeting with, Baker Tilly, our tax consultant, to, answer questions, and then we're working with Johnson Controls on that. So it's about it's gonna be about at least a four month process, but that's not terrible. Better than never. Just to go over some of the updates from last month's agenda, the community foundation and Casey are both assisting with doing events for the youth climate action fund.

So that's been good. And then I've submitted a interest, form for the Great Lakes Environmental Justice Thriving Communities. That money is available, as far as they had responded. And I need to correct my minutes. I see.

The yeah. I think that's kind of it from at least last meeting's agenda.

Excellent. Alright. Thank you all. Let's go on to our agenda items 25 dash zero four two seven, youth climate action fund microgrant application review and selection. I'll hand it back to you, Luis.

I was really pleasantly surprised to receive the number of applications that we did. By by the seventh, we had eight. By last week, there were four more came in, but I you know, those can wait to be reviewed until next month. Of those eight that came in, one was somewhat disqualified because it was out of the city limits. But, fortunately, the La Crosse Community Foundation can probably find funding for that project.

So that's a nice turn of events. I had some few a few questions on whether supplies and materials count towards the sort of capital and equipment, limit. So that's why the delay in reviewing the applications was. So I met with Adrian. He's our helper from the Bloomberg Foundation.

I met with him Wednesday to go through those issues, and he didn't he felt like, the supplies and materials did not count towards the capital equipment. So all the all those seven were, ready to be reviewed. I sent them to you all except for one that I realized I had not sent. So I that's now in the folder. I sent those Wednesday, and I I apologize for the time crunch.

Some of you were able to. Others were not due to, you know, being busy, being out of town, being on vacation, all that stuff. So, I've only gotten a few reviews, but, I think I I reviewed them all for eligibility, so they're all eligible. There are a few issues or sort of direction I would give to the applicants, but I will let the committee discuss, their thoughts on the applications first.

Thank you, Lewis. Any initial comments on the applications that you all reviewed, Casey?

Yeah. So, no, just sort of a a thank you to Lewis, especially for clarification. I had a few of them that I wasn't sure, budget wise, if they met that 50% outreach or or not. So the fact that these all that that you sent them on is a signifier that, budget wise, they're fine? That Yeah. And then I I yes. Yes. Okay. Cool.

And I think and I think for some of them even, like, for example, there was one where a sign counted was in the other category, which I would maybe consider that a capital expense. But it's from a the same organization that's doing the training, so they could swap out those funds. So I think there's some flexibility in some cases.

Other questions, comments on the review?

I have questions on the process, but not necessarily Sure. Why don't you

ask Can

we ask those now? Absolutely. Okay. So question number one is, Lewis, what is your, what is your plan or what what do you envision for rolling these out as far as I know that there has to be, like, an announcement on Earth Day for some of them, is a requirement. Is there a plan yet to do that, or could I make a suggestion about doing it at the Rivoli, for the for the environmental fest?

Sustainability Institute will be there, so if you want, we can handle that, or you come on down and do it, but I think you'd have a built in audience, and one of the last year's winners will be previewing their film or showing their film there. So and there's I think there'll probably already be media there, so it might be a good and easy way just to announce a a few of the winners, without a whole lot of work on on your end.

We got some guidance from Bloomberg, but I assume it's open enough where that would be a that would fit in really well. And, yeah, I just the my only concern is just, like, time to turn that around, but I think it's doable.

Okay. So we we can touch base after and sort of figure out how how that's gonna happen. And then the other question I had with with two you know, with sort of the next round is, I guess, how many how many names or how many of these projects do you wanna announce on the twenty second? Because then there's another avenue to do that at EarthFair with, again, sort of built in audience and media already down there if you want another round of of launching of announcing more projects then, or is it is the plan just to announce everything that's approved today on Earth Day?

For ease, I think it would be best to just do it at once. I mean, there could be another announcement. I don't think we need to do two rounds of announcements. I think there's gonna be more to talk about in May. But there's likely a way we can tie in Earth Fare, some kind of announcement at Earth Fare. I I just don't think it needs to be Yeah.

And it's separate. It's not a not a problem if if there isn't. I know there is going to be a block at Earth Fair that's devoted to the environmental film. They're gonna show that, and then there's gonna be a few of the other past award winners with their projects that are gonna be set up at Earth Fair as well. And then finally, just to keep everyone in sort of on top of the how how we've been thinking about this through Sustainability Institute and the Cross Area Community Foundation, on the on May 7, we're gonna be hosting an event at Western Sustainability Institute and across area community foundation will.

And that's going to be not quite sure how to how to bill it yet, but I think it'll be for any projects that have come in that are a little bit questionable or might need a little bit of guiding their work. Like, so it might be, we're not quite sure about this project, but a little bit of help and a little bit of guidance, and we can get there. So there's an event on May 7 to do that, and then also just in conjunction with that May 7 event sort of happening, probably in the same room as anybody who still has an interest in putting forth a project that hasn't yet. We'll have some technical experts there, you know, from across the area community foundation and maybe some nonprofits that are looking for partnerships. So just keep that, in mind for your networks as well.

And I would say too, I mean, depending on how the conversation goes today, if there's, if there's some applications, even the ones that are successful today that need guidance or help or some kind of more specificity to their grants, that ideation program may be beneficial for them as well, and we can reach out to them to promote that as a way to also connect. There's already at least two projects that are fairly similar or fairly related. So, yeah, that could be a good opportunity for even awardees to connect.

Excellent. Thank you. Lewis, do you can you share I know the agenda says and selection. So what process would you like to us to follow for selection selection of this round?

I

Or to add you know? So the next round this round of funding is double the last round. So how many selections will we be able to make?

I believe it's 18. Let me take a look. Let me do the math quick. Yeah. It's it's about 18. I mean, assuming each one assume assuming each one

Asks for the full

the full $5,000.

I know some of them didn't. So okay. And then I assume you want us to select in this round, and then when applications come back again, do another round of selection. Right? Yes. Okay. Any questions?

How many are we supposed to select?

We can do all of them for

a lot.

Yeah. We could do all of them. Okay. Alright.

We could select all, yes, from this round. Alright. Andrew.

Question for Lewis. There were two where I thought that one was about kind of painting crosswalks, another about restoring the shores. And I thought they were both very exciting, but I just thought that there might be complications with city stuff. So I guess, like, do you have any concerns about feasibility? And, I mean, is it okay if we approve it and it just kinda doesn't work out and we can recoup the funds and approve it to something else? Or what are your thinking thoughts on that?

Yeah. Good points. I mean, I'm I'm really really appreciative for the reviewers who made that who commented on that, especially for the shoreland because I was like, oh, what a great project. But I forgot, you know, it's a flood floodway slash could be floodplain. So that there could be some issues with that with with the DNR. And if it's Mississippi River facing, that might also be a Army Corps of Engineer issue. So that could be some serious bureaucracy bureaucracy to go through.

But

I think, you know, we're not giving away all the money today, or there's not enough applications to all give the money away today. So it's not to say that they couldn't come back. I thought the let me take a look at my review. I I also was a little bit concerned about weather being cooperative, like, especially, like, where the high watermark is during the summer. So that could be a a factor for the shoreline.

So that that one's a little bit challenging. For the crosswalk painting, I have seen there there is past legislation where the board of public Works has approved intersection painting by schools as sort of a traffic calming measure, but I don't think that a crosswalk design is possible. So I would encourage that applicant to reach out and then probably come back next month just because I'm I'm concerned that it wouldn't get approved. Like I said, though, intersection painting intersection murals have been approved before around school so that there's at least some precedent there that that could be a alternative. The other issue with that one too is, like, while the applicant applicant sites increasing or, you know, the the strategy around transit, I don't think it's really related to that.

It's more about improving comfort and walk or comfort of biking and walking in the city. So I would say it is generally associated with that strategy. There aren't any real specific actions that talk about artistic crosswalks. So, from that standpoint, I mean, either they or I could do some more research about, like, hard facts about how painting crosswalks or, you know, if we can't do that, how, intersection painting does have measurable impacts on comfort of walking and biking.

Yes.

Thank you for that, change a little bit as they learn more and they get into the weeds of implementation. Certainly, project that I submitted changed because they didn't wanna put as many bike posts in Riverside Park as I wanted to. That's okay. Right? So, like, for instance, maybe this Restore Shores, maybe the Army Corps of Engineers is involved and they're like, no, no.

Or maybe then we can do something in the marsh. I don't know, you know? So I guess I would be open to, rather than slowing this down, especially with the projects that I think were really cool, like I think both the painted sidewalks and restored shores is kind of give them the money and say, we like the vision. You might have to adjust as needed.

Honestly, that was going be my question. You know, oftentimes, in other legislative items, we approve contingent on, you know, being approved by other steps and departments and processes. So I was honestly walking into this meeting inclined to approve, knowing that once we approve it, it might shift based on the existing policies in place. So I guess I'd be interested in your thoughts on that, Louis. On the I will say on the on the crosswalk painting, I was extremely excited to see that one.

I know Justin R Lewis and R you all know that we are in the 2024 Lead for Cities cohort. Multiple cities in that cohort did that project, and it was extremely successful and really exciting. So I was pretty excited to see that maybe our city could benefit from a project like that. But yeah, mean, at the core, I'd be interested in approval contingent on process. Yep.

I tend to agree to fund them all, but I also want to keep in mind that these are youth, and let's set them up for success as much as possible, right? So like, funding a project that could have just literally years of red tape with DNR and Army Corps possibly and all that, is that being fair to the applicants necessarily? Again, their youth and given that this is not their life's work. So, you know, I I think with some of them, it might be more sort of heavy handed guidance of, like, well, that's that's really not a path maybe we can go down, but suggest this instead or resubmit with this instead.

Yeah. That's what I was going to say. Maybe we just ask them to check with the authorities or whoever might just give them an idea that, hey. This might be something that you might need to check with this organization. So perhaps maybe they have checked already. That's the other thing. Maybe we don't know that they've checked already. Just give them some ideas.

Lewis, do you have a sense for if this sort of these two items, these two applicants, if we could check internally with city staff or departments or if we should sort of set them in the pool of projects that might need a little fine tuning.

I would say, I mean, if they can wait until May, they can that would probably be best just because I mean, the other thing too is, like, most granting organizations don't like it when you return money. It's not like Bloomberg is gonna be may or may not be doing the the youth climate action fund in the future. But if we're returning funds and, we want to get money from them in the future, they'll be like, well, you didn't use all the money last time. So, and that was an issue a little bit in the first round as well. So, I but maybe they may be for for a little bit more forgiving because we are working with young people who may not have the budgeting background.

So I think that it that's a factor. But I would say, like, yeah, the floodplain stuff is really a a big obstacle. And then also, I think Public works may also be have very, yes, no guidelines as opposed to we like your idea, we'll work with you. It's either this fits with what we're doing or it doesn't fit. So that's that would be my concern with the the crosswalk painting.

So I would I would have them talk to the the kind of the permitting people before so they know they can actually get those permits.

Okay. I think that's valid. That all sounds valid.

And I'm a little less worried about the crosswalk one just because the person who submitted that is also I think he's a county supervisor.

Mhmm.

So he he knows the ins and outs of local government, right, and sort of who to ask and and how to get that done. But the the other one with the floodplain, that one, I think, is Bigger? Yeah. A little bit bigger and and one that I'm would be a I think just more hesitant to Sure. Outright fund.

Okay. Dorothy?

Yeah. Didn't seem like anybody was that loud. Yeah. I do have a question on paint on pavement. Okay? And and I'll tell you. Twenty years ago, we got it so that we weren't painting the, you know, the yellow Yep. On the curb. And that took a little work, but we got that. So we weren't going to do that anymore. And, actually, the police department was really for not doing it because they do not ticket to the yellow curb things. They're there just kind of as a courtesy to remind people not to park there, and that was considered by everybody to be kind of a blight on water. You know, that it just it doesn't stay. Right? They have to go out and paint it every once.

So where do all those chips of paint go? So I just wanna make sure. And at that time, we looked into marine grade or, you know, what would be there was nothing that wasn't considered harmful to the environment. So all that stuff, as much as I love I love the murals in town that people have been doing and stuff. So I like the artistry of it. But just to make sure we're not doing something in the name of sustainability, sustainability, and it's actually harming the water supply. So it's just something to consider.

Sure. That's valid. Okay. So at this point, I think we need to probably make a motion for what to select. Is that right, Luis?

Right. I I have a few more.

Oh, my apologies. Go ahead. That's okay.

Just going in order of submission, Carissa's application or the the application from the gateway scouting. The service area of gateway scouting is much larger than the city of La Crosse. So I'm not super concerned about it not being only focused in La Crosse. The headquarters is in La Crosse, but that's just a thought is that, yeah, it's a it's a large geographic area.

Let's see. So, Louis, with that one, we could just follow-up with the program requirements to ensure.

Well yeah. I mean, I think it's gonna largely still yeah. We'll just have to ensure that or, you know, make it more explicit that this is the the people participating or the young people participating are in lacrosse, from lacrosse. I mean, it it certainly can the kits can help people outside of La Crosse, but I guess that the youth involved are in the area. The and then the short film, again, sort of city limits quest or concern is that the Ora Trail Farm is not technically in the city limits.

It's right on the border. But the fact that they're focusing on other trails, I think that's tolerable. Or, you know, we could either say, like, mostly focused on the city and not just the trail farm. And then there was a we discussed with the Bloomberg helper about indirect costs, so I might get back to them. They have 12.5% for indirect costs, and I think we're looking at maybe no more than 10%.

And then for the the resiliency bags for homeless, the applicant did mention that re creating resiliency hubs would be a would be a good next step. But I think that should maybe be like, if you're working with a bunch of faith based organizations that have space, that that might be that should maybe be the focus of the conversation rather than, giving out backpacks for people to weather the storm and say, here you go. So that's I I but I yeah. So those were my main concerns. I think the other I think most of them were pretty good.

I would say the, yeah. Yeah. That was most of my concerns.

Sure. Go ahead, Casey.

Luis, can you just say more about that last one? I just wanna make sure I understand the resiliency or the the kits for unsheltered.

Yeah. So the the project name is Surr Thrive, like as in survive, but thrive kids. And my impression is that it's the climate focus area is improve community adaptation capacity through strengthen social support networks and support existing community networks and connections towards, for vulnerable populations. And then the project would be assembling kits with helpful items for extreme weather, such as flooding, air pollution, heat, or freezing temperatures. So from my understanding, these would be, like, kits for people to take and use.

I I don't know that they would be, like, say, a library where you're necessarily returning them when you're done, but that could be clarified. But, yeah, it's working through the universal Unitarian Universal lists and other faith based organizations. So, yeah, I think I think it's okay. From a scale perspective, I I think those organizations that are could potentially be involved in this might also be interested and, like, just have their own kind of not not kits to give out, but just, like, rather than you know, say it's an extremely cold night, rather than being like, here's a thermal blanket, a reflective thermal blanket, being like, well, here's space in our facility where you can weather the storm as it were. So I I guess that's just my it's more of a conceptual change than, like, yes, certainly, people need resources, and they may not want to spend time in a resiliency center or resiliency hub.

But I think folk or thinking about it from a resiliency hub perspective might better help think about a long term, what does what could a resiliency hub look like at at faith based organizations.

Also to add, I know that staff and elected leadership have discussed at length our struggle with the sheer amount of trash we spend money on cleaning up. So we wanna just kind of have that in our book of things that we're weighing. Also, though I mean, resiliency hub is something that's in our climate action plan for things that we want to come up with. So if we could adjust it or just maybe talk to them about the goals that the community has in general and talk about how we could achieve that through this process, that would be interesting interesting or not. I'm I'm open to what the committee thinks.

Natalie, did you wanna add to that?

I I really liked how this applicant I agree with you, Lewis. Like, the the utilizing space versus utilizing resources seems like a better focus, or perhaps what places of worship could be encouraged or worked on or worked towards. But I liked how this application actually feels like a step towards that. Like, a church won't go from zero to a 100. And using them as, you know, centers or or like what's the wheel metaphor I'm thinking of?

Like, that's where A hub. Thank you. That's the word we've been using. Like, to be a distributor of material and then potentially, through that process, consider what resources would it take for us internally to become that resiliency hub for and maybe I read between the lines, but I thought that's kind of what the applicant was getting at. But perhaps there's also some specific feedback we can provide to say, like, we'd really love for you to be encouraging your partners through this to consider what that long term goal is, not just the immediate short term, you know, distribution of supplies.

I'm gonna make a motion. I'm going to motion to allocate funds. Or would you prefer a motion to approve? Alright. I'm gonna make a motion to allocate funds to Adams, which was the Girl Scout one. Thompson, which is a film. Piggish, which is the sun thrive. Gauger, that's the grow equipment. And Creason, which is the Karuna food garden.

Do we have a second?

I'll second.

Dorothy Leonard will

second it. K.

Discussion. Andrew, you have the floor.

I think so I I kind of the ones that were not the painted sidewalks and Restore Shores because we talked about those being a little complicated, and they should probably touch base before they move forward. I think these other ones, there's there's less of that kind of hold up. I mean, again, these are youth they have quite a wide range of youth ideas. And, just, like, let them go for it. And I think, again, I'll reiterate that it it's the concept. The implementation may change a little bit, and that's totally cool. That's just kind of the process of these things.

Yeah.

Thanks. Others, questions, comments on the motion on the floor?

So does that mean then the other two, the shore restoration and the and the sidewalk or the crosswalk painting, we reach out to and just say, rethink that with maybe some feedback, rethink this, and resubmit?

Yeah. I would think so. We should at least have them confirm with internal departments or permitting bodies whether or not that would even be possible and then have them come back during the next round.

And if not, maybe it can be tweaked or redirected to something else that someone knows as a project that's similar but would be more doable or whatever. Mhmm. Mhmm.

Alright. So the motion on the floor is to approve the all of the selected app the of the applicants except for the shore restoration and the sidewalk art proposals. Those two proposals will move to the next selection round. Alright. Any other discussion? Any final discussion? Okay. Seeing none, then please vote. I.

I.

Any opposed? I see none. That motion passes unanimously then. Thank you, Lewis, for all of your work putting those together, and, also, thank you to Sustainability Institute and La Crosse Community Foundation for assisting. It's a pretty huge project there. Alright. I'm gonna pull back up my agenda here. Next, we have 25 dash zero four five four, request to use funds for the La Crosse carbon free challenge reward swag.

Last month, we discussed how there's gonna be an intercollegiate challenge between Viterbo, Western, and UWL students and maybe staff. I don't know. Staff as well. And Bright Action was looking for things we could

give

away, and one of the ideas was, you know, branded merchandise. So what we were looking at was, water bottles. And so they were looking at 25 water bottles for about $600, and that amount account amounts to, like, 23, 24 ish dollars a piece. I think they're I believe they're the metal, aluminum kind. So that's that was kind of the main swag item.

They were also looking at tote bags, but the amount that would be required the, like, the minimum amount required to buy was, very large, so, we did not consider that. So I'm asking for $600 to buy water bottles.

Any questions on that? Sure, Casey. So is this

is this for the the Tri Campus challenge? Yes. Okay. So I guess two things. I know Western's already donated water bottles to them for swag, and there's nowhere close to 600 people participating. I think we're 20 people participating total. Like, it's very, very small. So I don't know if that would be a great idea, I guess.

I think it was $600.

Yeah. Oh, $600. Okay.

But even but even so, like Yes.

Like, that would be a A lot. A lot for I mean, that would probably just be if you participate, get a water bottle at this point.

Sure. The you bring up a good point, Casey, that that you're already contributing water bottles. I think maybe I would also like, that's the specific request. But, if you want to set a general budget amount to spend on swag and maybe some ideas that we can work with. So if water bottles aren't the best idea, what are some other ideas that we could work with, and what is the dollar amount we could work with?

I asked. I was like, well, should we look at spending $500, $1,000, $5,000, which are all you know, that's affordable or that's in within the budget that we have available. So I guess it's up for you to debate or discuss ideas, but that's what I've got off the top of my or that's what we've considered so far.

Casey, go ahead.

One thing that I think we might wanna consider is, especially in the name of sustainability, is no more stuff.

Yeah.

Right? And so can we do experiences instead? So one thing that we've moved to at Western, what I try to do is state park passes or state bike bike trails passes or or things like that that get people out. And it's an experience and not a thing. And I don't know if that's something that the city can purchase or not. I don't know the rules behind that.

I had my light on to We might want to consider

same thing. You know, experiences or something, you know, rivoli tickets or, you know, something but did we need to have something with our name on it? Was that the idea with Swag?

Not necessarily. I think you both bring up very good points that doing less stuff is probably better. And then, also, there could be things that, you know, giveaways from other city departments, like that like, if parks has an activity or something or, like, you could get a free

pool Oh, pool pass that Casey just sent in. Yeah. Those things are gold these day.

Could also look at

like,

I don't know enough. We have a Drift board member here, don't we? Some sort of some sort of, you know, bus passes. I don't know how exciting that would be for some people, but I think that's bus passes. Because they get them for free. They get them for free. That's a good yeah. Or Drift access or something like that. Downtown businesses, whatever we would wanna support.

I I yeah. I I had Carly reach Carly from Bright Action reach out to Jacob Ciames about how what what Drift could hand out because I know Jacob likes doing giveaways. So or and we greatly appreciate that.

So do you want to have, like, a when is the deadline? Obviously, we're not probably looking at funding some water bottles, but do you want, like, to us to approve a certain dollar amount, or do you wanna come back with something, or do you want us to give you direction?

I mean, in in some cases, you know, you could say, allocate a certain amount of funding, and then anything over that, it would have to come back to the committee for approval. So that could be probably the one one way to handle it, and I would prop and I would just try to keep it under that amount so we don't have to come back. And I would generally go with your suggestions. I I think those are all really good. Trail passes, those can be used, you know, when students aren't on campus, so that's really good. Pool passes, bike passes, stuff like that.

And I'd throw in for the Rivoli, you know, for students. Movie passes are always very used and appreciated.

Yep.

And they've been very good with the environmental groups of sponsoring for free our events. So

Andrew, go ahead.

I think at least for the context of this lacrosse carbon free challenge, we've got the swag covered. We've got the things. So and I'm open to allocating a portion of funds to these kind of giveaway type things. But for this particular agenda item with funds for the La Crosse Carbon Free Challenge, I'm going to make a motion to deny.

Sorry. We have a second on the motion.

If you want to if someone wants to second just to hear what Andrew has to to say, you can do that. You don't have that doesn't mean

you Yeah.

I'll I'll second it so I can hear what Andrew has.

Okay. Andrew, you have the floor.

I'm open to giving funds for, you know, these experiences that we're talking about, and we can bring it up at the next meeting and talk about it. But I just don't think that for this specific lacrosse carbon free challenge, we are gonna need more stuff right now. And I think that we've got all sorts of ideas we can regroup next month and and figure out what that dollar amount would be.

And to somewhat along those lines of having plenty of things, I I'm sure even our MTU has giveaways that we could access easily. Parks might have stuff we already have. So there might already be things we already have that we can do. So

I would say that, maybe check back with the folks from Carbon Free Lacrosse Challenge just to make sure that they've got enough. I think they should because I know, like, UWL donated some stuff. We donated some stuff. Viterbo did as well. So it might be that they're in a situate a place now where they don't need anything. But if they do, maybe it maybe the move is to like, you were suggesting, Lewis, see what the city already had. Right? Maybe MCRDA has something to to give away so there there doesn't have to be a dollar amount allocated to this particular thing.

Yeah. And, yeah, good point. I'm gonna add one thing that's maybe complicates things, adds a little bit of a sense of urgency, but I'm depending on what is given away that could entice people to sign up for it. So I think thinking about or having having those incentives known early earlier is better than later to hopefully encourage participation too. So that's another consideration.

Lewis, can you remind us the date of this, like, general event or maybe maybe it's going on right now, so there is a sense of urgency.

Are the things we're giving away intended forgive me if you said this, intended for winners or a fraction of people who hit a certain threshold in the challenge?

Yes. I mean, I don't know the exact yeah. It's it's kind of dependent on how much stuff there is. How many yeah.

Alright. Andrew, go ahead.

I'll note that the it it goes from March 31, so it already started to April 18. So we're likely not gonna see a a major increase in people. Right? Yeah. So Got it.

So four more days left. Okay. I'll just state I appreciate Lewis bringing forward this request. I definitely support offering incentives to people to increase their engagement in items like this. So I, yeah, I appreciate Lewis bringing this forward.

It certainly brought a lot of good conversation too and opportunities for the future. So the motion on the floor is to deny, and, I'll ask one more time if there are any last bits of discussion or question. Alright. Seeing none then, please, all those in favor of denial, please say I. I. Any opposed? One, no. One, two, three, four, five yeses. The motion passes. The item is denied.

25Dash0170. This is our lead for cities program update. I will say I do not have any updates this month that are specific unless Lewis and interns have any updates. Okay. I'm happy to take questions, though, if you have, like, specific questions you want me to bring back to address.

We're working through our waste data and tying up the other categories such as transportation and land use, water efficiency, quality of life, and some other items. But if you have specific questions, yeah, let me know,

and I'm happy to bring that forward. Based on Dorothy's excellent comment about the painting, and you mentioned that you have other people in the cohort who have done this. It would be awesome to know how they've addressed that concern, what products they've used, that sort of thing.

Yeah. Thanks. I appreciate that. The city of Coral Springs has a really like, a nationally renowned sidewalk art program. They actually have a massively popular public art fund where a certain percentage of every single building permit goes to fund public art throughout the city and climate action.

And I think it's a very, very popular program, so they definitely address all things sidewalk paint. Who knows? Maybe that will lead us to looking into our actual paint used in sidewalks. I'll also state that I mean, city engineering doesn't love painting sidewalks, because they disappear, and then we just repaint them. So there is some debate, although paint is everywhere and although we're not gonna be Sherman Williams painting the earth like that terrible logo.

I think that, you know, there's discussion to have with regard to to to painting sidewalk sidewalks or, you know, pavement in general. So I'll check into that for sure. I think that's a great question. Any other, like, questions or specific data you want me to bring to you that you're dying to know? Andrew?

I mean, I I just wanna as you're kind of coalescing all this data, like, I wanna know about what you're finding with land use and transportation. Right? So I I mean, you did share some of that, like, the amount of VMTs per day per person, which is I have nightmares about. But yeah. I mean, this is this would be great stuff.

Yeah. Absolutely. So, you know, as you all know, we're working towards certification, but Lead for Cities is very much about policy implementation and implementation plans in general. So the findings of our Lead for Cities application actually, like, tell us about what gaps are in our climate action plan in our city in general, and then also what steps we should prioritize in our implementation plan. Specifically with the transportation and land use category.

That's gonna be looking at compact mixed use, complete streets ordinances, obviously, like VMT, how we can decrease VMT, what policies we should prioritize. And so I would love to be able to present to you all in this body the findings also of each of the categories to to talk about where the gaps are within the city and where to go next.

Lewis.

I just have some food for thought for the housing week discussion. There are, you know, very pro housing council members. However, I I think there needs to be some consideration for how we accommodate a lot of different things, additionally. So for those of you who know the sort of origins of urban planning, we're in public health. And based on sort of being packed in in tenements and and the spread of disease through those through those buildings.

So the so in response to sort of smaller lots and, smaller units, there needs to be an equal consideration for, public amenities, well, both private and public amenities. And one particular rezoning case came up recently where the developer had micro units that were between three hundred and four hundred square feet. And while those number of units are your increasing housing units is great, There was a real lack of consideration for indoor space, for individuals, indoor space for gathering, outdoor space for gathering, and outdoor or sorry. Outdoor sort of private space on the lot and then outdoor public space, so, like, parks nearby. So while we're thinking about how we can add more housing units, we also need to think about how we're adding more park space and, trees and just things that, help offset that density.

And that is the same thing for parking minimums. While, certainly, we don't want we're trying to, you know, discourage car use, we need to do a lot better about funding bike lanes, pedestrian infrastructure, and transit if if we're gonna, cut down on on, parking spaces. So while not any individual solution is going to solve any problems. We need to think of a whole host of things and supporting solutions. And I think, you know, we're we're trying to do that in our climate action plan, and we need to do that in in all areas.

Thank you, Lewis. I feel like that perfectly speaks to the holistic nature of lead and lead for cities. Many times, people think of lead as just, like, high performance buildings, but we're looking at all aspects, so very holistic approach of cities. We're looking at transportation, land use, natural resources, conservation, lighting, resilience planning, efficiency, where the water goes, storm water management, smart water systems. We're looking at waste, how much we're emitting, how we're getting waste to where we need it to go, power, grid harmonization.

We're looking at quality of life, access to green spaces, environmental justice, housing, transportation, affordability, educational opportunity really, the entire package of the urban space. And how they overlap. And how they overlap, exactly. Maybe why don't I send you, actually, the guide so that you can actually look at the guide. I don't like saying application.

It's like a one and done. But the guide so that you can kind of see the overlapping. And I think that can also help field some solution finding. The guide includes solutions and global best practices and then sort of goes down from there as the next best item. So that would be excellent.

And then, you know, the Lead for Cities findings really should be overlaid with what's coming for comprehensive rezoning. And going through comprehensive rezoning is going opportunity to make sure we have things in place that are inside of our climate action plan and included in the goals that we have for the future. Like, for example, light pollution reduction, Those things can be be added into the other processes that we're doing and not just in a siloed climate action plan. We need to be institutionalizing across departments and across the whole organization and city. Alright.

Feel free anytime to reach out with questions with regard to Lead for Cities to myself, Lewis. If you have specific things you want to know, or data you want us to be looking at, please do reach out, and we're happy to give that to you. Alright. So let's move on then. 250052 and engagement.

I don't really have much to add other than our discussion previously. And then, also, you should have all received the newsletter, from Paul last Friday. So that's kind of what I've been working on. And any questions or comments or suggestions for additional things to cover, I'm open to those. And then I think there is enough funding in in the in our operating budget to do, perhaps a small workshop this year with, Paul with our, commercial energy efficiency or renewable energy or just just commercial sustainability.

So that's something to think about and suggest as well.

Thanks, Lewis. Any ideas, thoughts, questions on what Lewis just shared? It's good to note about the workshop. Do you have a sense for timing with that? If we know that, we could really

No. I I I haven't given it much thought. We did one I think we did two last year, one in the spring and one in the fall, and we worked with Western. Mhmm. And we sort of I think our first one we did was very general and holistic, and then we kind of heard a lot of interest in renewable energy, and I think and and energy efficiency and focused on those two at the next one.

Can you remind us, is it gonna be focused on the commercial sector or a specific sector?

Yeah. I mean, I think that's from our green oh, well, from our greenhouse gas inventory and our emissions, our building emissions, commercial and industrial uses far surpass residential. It's gonna be a tough not to crack, but it's something worth working on. The there's gonna be a new executive director for LADCO, so that's a new opportunity to collaborate on how industrial and and large commercial users could we could work with them to be more energy efficient and also just promoting some of the programs that Excel Energy already uses and and focus on energy already has available. Yeah.

Excellent. Sounds like a lot of good opportunity there. There. Okay. If there's nothing specific then on that item, let's continue that conversation on and, connect one on one outside of the the meeting too with specific ideas. Alright. 250295, climate action plan implementation update.

I don't have very much to share, but I did, based on committee feedback, include, the peer cities that were used as the sort of sample or example that we used in our climate action plan. So I reached out to Northbrook, Illinois about increasing bus frequency, and they're kind of in the same boat that we are, but we're in the process of, you know, scheduling a meeting to see how like, what different aspects of pale blue dot plans we're we're taking on and and where we can learn from each other.

Andrew, are you on MTU board? Do you

have

any sense of what the biggest obstacles are?

I I also mentioned that we have another MTU board member in the meeting of mine. I mean, it seems it's hard to figure out where to make motions because it's a very structured program. Right? It's guided by all these federal regulations. There's I think a desire to not do something unless they know they can maintain it, which is kinda hard to do with of low levels of support, right?

So it's just not that much opportunity to change operations, right? I think that there are small things and Lewis and I have talked about like, could we be more engaged with big events? Like we talked about Oktoberfest. Maybe there are opportunities there, little smaller things. I did also see that kids were able to break through and get some good progress. Southern Bluffs Elementary School, they worked with the MTU to extend the one of the bus lines or will be extending. So there there's room. It's just yeah.

Yeah. And Tim Sprain from the school district has has some really great ideas about incorporating transit into middle school and high school curriculum. I would say too, after I talked a little bit with Adam about concerns about federal and state funding, and, you know, that's a challenge as Andrew alluded to. So there are some things to think about. And then from a zoning code perspective, there are there are things we can do to benefit, transit use.

And just as an aside, so we're working on updating our zoning code, and I combed through the actions suggested in our climate action plan. And there were about 30 recommendations. And one of them was to enable guidance for transit oriented development. So that's the type of housing, building orientation sort of design standards for encouraging both, primarily walkability and, orientation towards transit facilities. I believe also there was I don't know if I talked to Andrew about this or otherwise, but there was also a interest in a youth climate action fund project for a bus stop.

So there's I think there's some good potential engagement there. So I and I would say too, I think there is also engagement opportunities with the DOT planning for Highway 53 through town to better to improve transit use along that corridor. I advocated heavily for, you know, transit considerations along along Highway 35, which is George Street, Lang Drive, and West Avenue. I don't know that that'll pan out. I think, you know, thinking about transit should maybe take priority on those routes.

But the more comments on that, the merrier.

Andrew, did you have anything to add there?

I did have something about the bus stop. There is a great project that a UWL student did and presented to La Crosse Area Planning Committee. Basically, they had mapped out all of the bus stops in the city and even into Onalaska, I believe, and looked at what services were not being provided. Is it just a sign? Is there a bench? Is there a trash can? Is there a shelter? And so we encourage them to apply for a Youth Climate Action Fund grant to do something about that and maybe showcase what a really beautiful bus stop could be.

There's some standards in the lead for cities guide for that as well, and I'm glad that you brought that up because I've been one of the things I was wondering, I have been asked to join the LAPC Vision Zero plan. And, Lewis, are you aware? Are they working on the regional transit authority feasibility? I'm also gonna be

Yes. Those are parts that's part of the I think it's from the same funding source.

Alright. Well, knowing that I am now being placed on that, both of

those, please do keep me in the loop with regard to any ideas you want me to bring forward.

Alright. Let me grab my agenda. Is there anything else on CAP implementation?

I can I can quickly go through some of the other stuff too? Scrolling down to the home energy audits. So, you know, we've got a grant from the energy innovation from the Office of Energy Innovations' energy innovation grant program, and have a quarterly report due tomorrow. Had a an announcement last month about it and are starting slowly to get their the workers are starting slowly to get their feet wet and and getting going. So we have about 10 houses completed.

So that's good start. And as I mentioned earlier, the letter of intent or interest for the, Great Lakes thriving communities program to do the elevates energy efficiency or efficiency navigator. And then oh, the, solar group purchase, is moving ahead. The, steering committee selected Ethos Solar Cooperative for the contractor for the group pie. They are a large sponsor of the Earth Fair, so they will be probably in the nature place, lobby area tabling.

So feel free to talk to them. I'm also looking at volunteers to talk about their own solar panels to, you know, encourage others during their solar power hours. So these are sort of educational opportunities for people to learn more about in getting solar solar panels and and that and the like. Just scrolling down through the other ones.

While you do that, I will add myself as a volunteer of people who have solar panels who are willing to talk about their experience. Lewis, can you remind the committee? I feel like you've talked about this before, but you have no help needed finding strategies to emulate an Ann Arbor Solarize toolkit. For example, a fund for sustainability.

I yes. I'm sorry. I did get some help on that, but I have not had time to follow-up on that. Sure.

That's no worries. Ann Arbor is a huge, like, success story. I believe they want a referendum to fund their climate action, though, so I wondered if this was separate. And we can talk about this later too, but I wanted to just ask since it was up.

Yeah. There are yeah. There's still questions of that I need help answering or could use help answering. Most of my time is focused on grant writing and or pursuing and the outreach and engagement work. But

Absolutely. Okay. Well, we can look into that again because it's it would be interesting to see how we can emulate something like that. Alright. Thank you so much, Lewis. That is a lot of implementation plan progress. Slides sometimes don't do the justice, but there's certainly a lot of actions, next steps, and assistance that we can partake in. So thank you for putting that together. Alright. Any last questions, comments? Alright.

Oh, I'm sorry. I remember what I was gonna say. I had referred to a greenhouse gas inventory earlier. We got there was a bit of a delay working with Anders to to no fault of his own. Just challenges estimating, city travel, yeah, city travel emissions.

And we finally wrapped that up, so we'll have a greenhouse gas inventory ready to report in in May. I will be sending that to you all later this week. And if you have any comments or questions, Anders is gonna be available next month to respond. And if you have any, you know, comments you want corrections prior to that, that would be great too.

Excellent. So we'll receive that greenhouse gas inventory then soon. Thank you. Alright, everybody. Thanks for holding in. We are at the end of our agenda. If there are no objections, I'll adjourn the meeting. Seeing and hearing no objection, we are adjourned. We will see you all next month.