Green Island Ice Arena Negotiating Committee - Regular Meeting

Alright, everyone. Thank you for your patience. It's Monday, September 8, 04:02PM. I'll call to order this meeting of the climate action plan steering committee. We have Dorothy Casey online, myself, and Andrew Erickson here in person. Natalie Hennigan and Steph Hanna are excused, and, Adam Jacobson is absent. Think I got that right. Any item oh, actually, first, we need the approval of the minutes.

I will make a motion to approve.

Motion to approve by Andrew Erickson. Second by Casey Meehan? Yep. Any discussion? Alright. Seeing no discussion, please vote. All those in favor of approval, please say aye. Aye. A thumbs up online. Alright. That is unanimous. Thank you. Next, we have notices for items and discussion. Lewis, did you want to go first?

Sure. I was talking to Sammy about presenting at this meeting, and I did did not finalize that with her. But we were chatting via Teams. So we'll have something in October or via email. She wanted to provide a fall slash winter sustainability update and make a formal request for support to fund the compost bin distribution program.

Caitlin Weehy is working on a proposal that encompasses this and will reach out. And then she said yeah. So, yeah, I will follow-up with an update and then have a formal request for next month. On Thursday, there's going to be a press conference for the home energy assessment, program that we're doing with Green Homeowners United with the help of an energy innovation grant. Will be announcing that we're extending the grant to, moderate income residents as well, because the there's a state program that covers most of the low income, homeowners to do energy audits.

So that's nice for them, but it makes it difficult for our program. So the the office of energy innovation has allowed us to extend the program to moderate income individuals, so we'll be doing that and announcing it on Thursday. That's all I have for now.

Thanks, Lewis. I had a question on that for the Green Homeowners United press conference. Do you know when the money has to be allocated? Is there a deadline for that?

Yeah. The money has to be spent by the end of the year. However, Green Homeowners United has worked with the city of Milwaukee on a similar grant program and have been able to get extensions. In speaking with Kevin Kane from Green Homeowners United, he thought that perhaps we might be able we might have to request a six month extension, and that should be doable. We'll just, you know, keep in touch with the, office of energy innovation to, make sure that that goes alright.

Awesome. And then finally, the best thing we can do is get the word out. Right? So they get people calling them.

Yes. Yeah. If you can help spread the word, and there will be yeah. If you wanna amplify the whatever press coverage that we get on Thursday and any materials, I will forward them to you. Yeah.

I also have one other thing too is unrelated to that, but I went to the urban sustainability directors network central regional meeting in Saint Louis a couple weeks ago, and that was a very, good experience. And I can should've brought my slideshow for that, perhaps next meeting, but I turned one around pretty quick for my department so I can I can share that all with you either via email or, in a meeting? Maybe I'll I'll maybe take out less of my take out more of my sight seeing pictures.

That's awesome. I'd love to to see that. I know many who attended, and sounds like they're always great events. Any others with notices and discussion? Alright. I was going to mention the, press conference that Lewis mentioned. Hopefully, anyone who wants to join can be there as a public member. It's just gonna be at City Hall, I think, at 10AM on Thursday. Alright. If there's no other notices in discussion, then we'll move on to our agenda items.

That is 25 dash one zero nine zero, Bright Action engagement recognition, Tri College Green Exchange, and the FSPA Go Green program. I'll have Lewis introduce this item.

Yeah. Well, I this is sort of a half baked attempt at, you know, some recognition that we owe some folks for participating in our bright action challenges. As you know, last spring well, two springs ago, I would say, Viterbo did a challenge at their just within their university. And then last spring, they brought it, like, to the wider collegiate cohort with UWL and and Western. And so I wanted to recognize Cameron Kirsch for his work in bringing that, in making that a successful challenge and then also for success there.

I can the there I I attached a slideshow that I this is another present or this is the presentation I actually shared at the USDN meeting. We talked about gamifying sustainability, and the city of Dayton, Ohio and its county, Montgomery County, had programs where they would award or give credit for, you know, sustainability actions, mostly for businesses. But I was invited to speak about our carbon free challenge. And on that, there was a there is a slide towards the end. There's a slide about the other sorts of participation that we engaged in, including this and the head for TurboStats on their accomplishments.

So if you wanna if you have that agenda ready at your fingertips, you can take a look at some of the some of the Turbo stats over the last couple of years. And second, I wanted to also recognize Cassie Creason. She was the WSCORE slash Americor person for the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. As you know, this was a very difficult year for WSCORE and Americor programs getting their funding cut and trying to figure out how to support volunteers. WSCORE really stepped up, and so did the Franciscan sisters to keep both of to keep both of the FSBA's AmeriCorps members, and and Cassie was one of them.

And she worked with Carly at Bright Action to do to basically bring a digital platform to an audience that is not very digital. They so that was a really cool thing to learn about, and really glad to see her work doing that and and also that she was able to complete her term and get all of the credit for her service. So, yeah, unfortunately, I was kinda organizing this for August, but both Cameron and and Cassie had prior engagements today with, you know, school starting and Cassie's term ending in August and transitioning to new work. So, yeah, I just wanted to announce that I don't have, like, any sort of formal recognition or, like but just to, you know, tell you all about it and put it on the record.

That's incredible. Thank you, Lewis. I was unaware that FSPA had helped to keep these members going. That was quite a shock for the nature place to have to pivot like that while also have the, need still very much there.

Yeah. That's a very good point. I mean, the the FSPA wasn't the only organization that had WISCORE volunteers. The the Nature Place volunteers were affected, and I heard them, speak at an event about how the cuts and, have affected their work. And, yeah, very I mean, these the passion and motivation of of these young people are very important to the continued sustainability efforts of the city and the world.

Absolutely. You know, most local governments a lot of climate work leverages AmeriCorps members. So, certainly, that effort goes a very, very long way. Any comments or questions for Lewis? Okay. Alright. Let's move on then. 25Dash0843, recognizing the information technology department for earning the city a twenty twenty five EP purchaser award.

Yeah. I I believe I mean, while the it's an EP award, I I believe the city is has won this in the past, so they are a repeat award winner. So councilmember Mendel may have seen some of their sustainability awards on their wall as you enter the IT office on the 5th Floor, but, yeah, it's not not open to the public, unfortunately. But, yeah, our our information technology department has been very active in reducing waste and and being energy efficient. And I as I mentioned, they've won this award in the past, but I don't think I've shared that with all of you.

So I just wanted again, wanted to recognize, the work that, Jackie Greshner and her department have done to re reduce carbon emissions even if I don't know if it all gets measured in our GHD inventory, but this award is a a great, a great achievement for our city, and I I appreciate their hard work.

Thanks, Lewis. For those of you who may not know, does everybody know about EPEAT? I didn't know about it for a fair amount of time until I took those pesky sustainability credentials where you have to memorize a lot of things. And EPEAT is, I think it's an international yeah. It's a global electronics Council leads it, and it's a resource for identifying and purchasing sustainable IT products.

So you can go to their register and look up anything from tech computers, all sorts of different products, and it will provide you a rating to use. So you can Google EP, and it comes up. It's excellent that our city has been recognized multiple times. I know Jackie and our IT department do a lot, with sustainable purchasing. Any questions for Lewis?

Yeah.

I was gonna say you you may not you don't have to take the time to watch the recording of the awards, but I watched it. And I I'd say a lot of the award winners were corporations, so it's nice to see this and and probably bigger cities or big bigger counties. So it's nice to see lacrosse on the same stage as some major players.

Yeah. If you open the or if you just Google it Google the award, some of the award winners are, like, the LA Department of Power, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the state of California. Like, there are some really huge, players, and so it's it's pretty impressive that the city of La Crosse is listed there. Alright. Let's move on to our next agenda item.

We have 25Dash0841 request to cosponsor LaCrosse's week without driving.

This is a bit late in the request, so I apologize for not bringing it to you all sooner. I, I would say, though, we committee has been a sponsor of this event in in years past, and it's really just spreading the word and, know, yeah, spreading the word for the event rather than, like, monetary contributions of of that kind of sort. So I I I think it's worthwhile. And, yeah, if if you can show up to any events, I don't know if I shared the link, but, yeah, that's I mean, it's a good opportunity to it's a and low commitment.

Thanks, Lewis. I believe the council is always asked during the week without driving to schedule a time to be on the bus to talk to riders, and they always encourage each council member to not drive for the entire week so we can experience that, and then also hopefully advocate for better policies to increase use of, you know, alternate modes of transit. But there are many, many events, that you should be able to see online that hopefully you can engage in and also spread, on your socials whether you're with an organization or personally. So not a financial ask. The legislation well, the agenda does say request.

Do we need to do any formal approval, Lewis?

Yeah. If you would Okay. Please.

And we make a motion to approve. And just wanted to say, I think this is a really easy thing to support, and it totally works within our plan. And we're glad that a lot of other people are doing a lot of the hard work of it. So I think it's real appropriate that we support them. Thank you, Dorothy. Who makes the motion? Do I have a second? Second. Second by Andrew Erickson. Any last discussion? Oh, one thing I'd say Yeah.

I'm glad, you know, Dorothy mentioned. I mean, in the spirit of recognition, I'd like to thank, you know, Kathy Van former former, Climate Action Plan Steering Committee, Kathy Van Maeren, for bringing this to the committee and also, spearheading this event. So yeah.

Thanks, Lewis. We all know Kathy, and she's very, very dedicated to this event. Alright. Yeah. A big month of recognition. Let's move to the last agenda item. We need to Oh, sorry. We need to vote. We have a motion to approve, and we have a second, and there's no final discussion. Please vote. Thumbs up online or I if you're in person. I that is unanimous. Thank you. Alright. Next, we'll move to 25 dash one zero eight eight.

Participation in the Great Plains Institute Charging Smart program. Lewis, do you wanna overview that program?

Yeah. A fellow from the Great Plains Institute reached out to me about this charging smart program, which is, if you remember our SoulSmart program, but it's it's basically a series of benchmarks that communities can undertake to be more EV friendly, like in the solar SoulSmart, be more solar friendly. So, they're doing free technical assistance for this, and, I put together a letter of commitment. And I just wanted to run it by you all before I I bring it to the mayor for his signature. But yeah.

So, basically, this is gonna help us with our EV regulations. And I think it'll tie in very well with our zoning code update and align with, you know, the the shift in direction with this committee's implementation plan.

Out of curiosity, did you talk to this person at the USDN event?

No. This this is a outreach

from people before that. Yeah. I'm familiar with Great Plains, so I love the work that they do. Alright. So, that example draft letter of commitment is attached. So if you have any input on that for Lewis, we can provide that now. Lewis, what's the, like, time commitment? There's no, like, cost. There's no you know, is there a rough time commitment? Do you connect with them monthly? Or

I think it would be, yeah, a a monthly sort of connection, and then I'm not sure what it would take, in terms of my hours, but Mhmm. There's no cost. I don't think that there's, like, necessarily a deadline for the Great Plains Institute. And if there is,

they'll They'll tell you.

Yeah. They'll or they'll they'll be they'll be pushing me and and helping me to the finish line. So I'm I'm I'm not concerned, but, if you all are, we can I can, let you know, f I'll I'll follow-up with them, tomorrow and, email you all kind of more details as you want?

Sure. Alright. So if the committee supports it, we'll need a motion to approve, I suppose.

I make a motion to approve.

Motion to approve by Casey Meehan. Second by Andrew Erickson. Any last discussion? I certainly support this. I think it's great timing with updates that the city is doing. Can't wait to learn more. Alright. If there's no further discussion, please vote. Aye. Two thumbs up online. That is unanimous.

And related to ChargingSmart, one thing I wanted to share too, this is more of a notice and discussion, but and but sorta related to the financial uncertainty that's been happening around federal funding. But I've read a little bit more about the NEVI program and how that was being reviewed, but I think it's back. And I think that money is is available, and the quick trip on George Street had was supposed to receive that funding. And I assume they did because now they have EV chargers at that station. So things are looking up a little bit for at least that that program.

That's awesome. That was, I think, released that latest update was released just within the last three or so weeks too. Yes. So not everything is dead. Alright. Next meeting is the second Monday of next month. As always, if you have agenda items, please send them our way, and I'll have Lewis speak again.

Yeah. On the subject of the climate action plan and the zoning code update, This Thursday and Friday, the American Planning Association Wisconsin chapter is hosting its annual conference in La Crosse, and there will be a session on transit oriented development, which I plan on attending to get some best practices from across the state. So if you're at all interested in attending, let me know, and I'll see what I can do to at least get you into that session or share the share whatever, slides or information I can or recording.

Awesome. I hope to make it to that session. There are many really great sessions. It's Thursday and Friday, I think, for full day sessions. Of course, our fearless leader, Lewis, is also presenting. He would never tell you that online. So if you are able at all to go to the APA Wisconsin conference, we're lucky to have it in the city of La Crosse. Alright. We're at the end of our agenda. If there's any objection to adjourning, I see none. We are adjourned. See you all next month.

Thanks, everyone. See

you. See you later.