Environmental Advisory Committee - Regular Meeting

Well, welcome everybody and I'd like to call to order the January 14th, 2026 monthly EAC meeting. And I know that John had sent out the agenda obviously in the meeting, the minutes from December. Um I assume everybody got them. Not one, you did get them. Um any edits, objections? Um anything from the committee? Okay. Can I have a motion to approve those minutes? I move to approve minutes. Second, please. I'll second. Thank you. All in favor?

Any public comments? Um, seeing there are none, we'll move on. So, with that, let's do some introductions. Um, and we have some time this evening for introductions, for explanation of current projects, of questions for current projects, and then maybe, you know, talk about what we're trying to achieve in 2026. But it's not a heavy agenda. So, it should be really heavy on on introducing you to the to the committee and introducing you to the members. So, I am Jeff Petro. I'm the And that's Jenna. Hi, Jenna. Um, current chair and I came on in 2023. Um,

now have a member of the audience here for a minute.

Maybe public comments. I think great. Um I came on in 2023, retired in 2022, came on in 2023 with um the sort of the task of getting us reertified for gold standard sustainability. And we'll talk a little bit about sustainability in a few minutes, but that's what I was brought on to do. Having no subject matter expertise in it, but having a business background, I said, "Well, let me take a look into this." So, I came on in 2023. I became the vice chair in 2024 and then the chair uh later on in 2024. So I am I am about one year and two months as chair. And um I'll go to I'll go to Ken next.

I'm Ken Ols House. Um I'm one of the original people on EAC. I've successfully avoided being chair. My background is originally to have a degree in forest science and been on the American Chestnut Foundation board for a number of years and so forth. Um so the environment and everything is something that um it's part of my life so to speak. Um you know project wise I'm I'm in charge of quote unquote in charge of deer management. Um also I've been trying to build trails in in Wall Park. We have one rudimentary trail there. Um there's a lot of hurdles when you go to do things when there's flood plane and so forth. Um so that's pretty much what my involvement is. Um you know, and if you want to go for a walk and see the parks, let me know. I'll be more than happy to to guide you through.

Thank you. Well, I'm Dale Moss. I'm I'm retired for two years. I was a chemistry teacher for 33 years. Um um I'm a passionate cyclist. Um if if you on my off I'm like every other day I'm I'm out I go long distances. I like to go north towards Zely and you know I do a lot of road cycling and um that's really my passion and um I it it does fit in with the environmental because I want to see more people use the outdoors um on a recreational way. Um, always I I like gravel riding and um, Sickley is excellent for gravel riding. There's a few gravel roads out there and there's some trails and um, I'd like to make our community more bike friendly. Um, it's not very walkable. Um, and that's that's an issue I'd like to see amendable. Um, unless you have a car, you're really kind of I mean that's it. Um, it's it's really dangerous. I I feel I feel for those people walking on the sides of the roads because it's it's it's a big danger. Um I see a lot of roadkill so I know it's a big danger. Um but uh that's that would be my passion. I'd like to see us make mechanless and more well like we there's a tr there's a trolley line that goes through here but it's not like like we have rails of trails in the city but wouldn't that be nice to open up that trolley line um to for for cycling or hiking or biking

you know I there's some sections that are open but it's not um not entirely there but that's what I'd like to see I like to see us use use our outdoors um in in a in a way and also to protect um our green spaces I think is is um very valuable. Thank you. Thank you.

Well, most of you probably know who I am already given the news, but my name is Jack Hickerson. I'm councilman for Macanas Ward 4. Um if you don't know where Ward 4 is, it's located in the southwest corner of McCandless. Actually, Dale Dale lives there. Um CCAC North's in there. Chinese church is in there. Three Rivers Baptists, that area. Um, I've always, so one of the reasons why I requested EAC, well, there's two reasons. Um, one, when I was door knocking, a lot of people asked to do something about the um, and I figured, you know, I should, I think my best position to help in that, you know, situation people have is, you know, be on the EAC. And the second part is like I do genuinely care about nature. I come from a family who cares about nature. Um, I'm an avid hiker. I love hiking. I've been doing it ever since my dad refused to carry me when I was little. Um, but overall, I do enjoy it. And, you know, I I'm with there. I would like to see more trails here and I I do like the Brandt Trail. Um, I do hike it when I can, but I also enjoy North Park. I try to go there regularly in the summer season for exercise and, you know, just disconnect from the world. Um, but overall I'm I'm very excited to be here and thank you for the welcome.

Right. Uh, I'm John Bajarski. Uh, I'm not actually on the EAC. I'm just the staff member who helps the EAC, but I'm the public information officer for the town. Been here for about 10 years. Um, I've actually worked for the EAC since it got started when Ken was here, too. And, uh, it's a really great committee if you haven't followed it for long. It's a lot of action, a lot of fun. Everyone gets along. Everyone has lots of good ideas. So, for all the new people, you're really going to enjoy it. Of course, the members who've been here for a while know this already. Uh I am leaving in about a week and a half, so I'm going to miss it, but you know, it's been a really great ride. We'll miss you. Thank you.

Hi everybody. I'm Jenna. I'm one of the junior members on the EAC. I came here first, I believe in November was my first meeting. And it's actually funny that you mentioned that because I am also I do competitive mountain biking. I spend a lot of time in North Park for both practice and just for for fun. Um I really my focus thus far has kind of narrowed into park connectivity because I think that it's important for young people to be able to have access to green spaces. So right now I'm working on sidewalk connectivity from neighborhoods to the park so that people can walk there and bike there without having to use cars. So pretty much everything you said, you like took the words right out of my mouth. So welcome. But yeah, I'm really excited uh for everybody to be here. I really think that you guys will have a great time. Yeah.

Uh Nadia, I am the other junior council person. I'm from North Alagany. Uh I live like literally two minutes up the road from here. So did a lot of north parking especially during CO, a lot of hiking. Uh got like an inflatable paddle board. Did a lot of paddle boarding especially during CO cuz that was one of the kind of things that you could do social distancing which was nice. Um I'm looking forward to doing some uh research on water quality in the local area and some education too within the schools. Um and that's all just getting started. So I'm excited for that.

And I'm Audrey. I moved here about two and a half years ago. So from Indiana and before that I was in Houston for 18 years I think. Um so my background is in genetics and I work in research compliance. Um but mainly my interest in the outdoors is when I lived in Houston is there's almost no green space and you know you're walking along the side of a road um if you're in a in a park. And so when we moved to Bloomington, it was really nice to be able to we had a rails to trails program. We could bike to like the outdoors farmers market and just tons of nature. The national forest was right there. It was beautiful hiking all over the place.

Um and moving here, it was super frustrating to be like 5t from North Park and I can't get there without my car. Um cuz I live just up the road up grubs. So, um, but I was really big into native plantings at my house in Bloomington and trying to rew my front yard, which the next person who bought the house ripped out. Um, but being pollinators and birds and natural foods for them with native plants is kind of where I'm interested.

All right. Hi, I'm Joanna Cameron. Um, I've been on the EAC since fall of 2024. Um, my work background is that I'm a pediatric speech therapist. Um, but what that means for here is that I love doing things that have to do with communication and working with kids because that is a big component of what we do. Um, but I have a lot of other passions as well that are very outdoorsy. I don't like to be inside a house. So, I'm a avid gardener. I'm very much into native plants, very much into pollinators and I've been part of a lot of um citizen science projects and really getting into what the native plants are at the area. Um I also have a strong background with uh scouting both uh girl scouts growing up and then later on I was in a community service fraternity that was associated more with Boy Scouts. So I was working with both of those. So I I like establishing things with the different scout groups in the area. Um, and then when I stepped onto the committee, um, there was a lot of places where I could fill in where I was building volunteers, community service, and then, um, building off of my native plant knowledge and that kind of thing.

Hi everyone, my name is Melissa Winston. I've been on the EIC since summer of 2024. I think July is when we were officially appointed. Uh Joanna and I started at the same time, but my background professionally is in sustainability. I've done a lot of work uh with strategy development, rolling out initiatives, data measurement, and reporting. And so that's part of what initially drew me to this particular group. Since joining, I've sort of just been involved in a lot of little things. I haven't adopted a set project for myself. Um but I'm helping everybody with different things here and there. It's a really, really great group of people. Um, like all of you, I also love the outdoors and nature, and we all have that in common. So, it's a great place to be. And then we have Bernie, who we cannot forget about.

You're one, Bernie. Melissa, you cut yourself short. You know, Melissa was a sustainability person for Disney. I mean, you have a lot more you could have talked about that, you know, again, you're just way too shy about it. Um, so but yeah, I I I bow to your street cred on sustainability and and water systems as well.

I'm Bernie Lynch. Um, been in Macanas since 2013. Prior to that, I was in Mount Washington for 33 years and grew up in Baldwin. So, I've kind of done the south, the city, and the north now. Um, I've been on the committee for a couple of years. Um, I was an unexpired term appointee. Uh, my interest has always been more in the sustainability realm. I earned a living as a sustainability consultant doing strategic planning, you know, for sustainability about 30 plus years ago. Uh since that time I've been working with early stage startups because a lot of sustainability was the invention of things that didn't exist to create more sustainable environments. So a lot of the work I did was with Carnegie Melon University startups and getting them to scale. Uh the last 5 years I've been focused on critical mineral recoveries out of waist streams which nobody knew what that was 5 years ago. Oh, and now everybody understands the term critical minerals. So I feel like my day job is still working in the realm of sustainability and you know how you can totally beneficiate waist streams. um on this committee. I mean my interest has been um really keeping the everything in the context of a sustainability framework um which is how do humans, the environment and economics continue to uh live together and and how do we make decisions you know using that as a balance point. Um, and you know, my primary focus has been the development

of a tree program, but I care deeply about things like light pollution, air quality, and uh, resiliency in kind of the municipality itself, you know, infrastructure systems, um, kind of a universe of many things. But for now, you know, I'm trying to stay focused on the tree program and how that fits into the context of sustainability. Thank you. Thanks, Bernie. Well, wonderful. Welcome everybody. So, um the next portion you can see on your agenda is going to be um junior EAC member updates. Anything for us, Nadia?

Uh yeah. So, me and Melissa talked about because we had the two ideas. One was the polyyrene in schools, but we kind of decided that that would be a bit more bureaucracy and it probably it would involve reasonable material cost to the school and they most likely would not go for just knowing how they do what they do. Uh, so we ended up going more for the water quality approach, which is what I was a bit more interested in anyway, but I was worried that there wouldn't be as many like material ways to implement that in like a helpful way. Like I feel like it would be interesting to me, but I don't know how well I would be able to contribute to that. Um, we talked about the um the name catch.

Catch basin. in the catchph something tangible who can relate to this. Yes. Um and I learned a bit about that. There was some materials that she sent me and I researched that a bit on my own and I think that would be a neat way to do that. But I also know that what the last member still has all the materials. Think we got it. I have them all. All right. Yeah. So I I have them all back. James did he actually did I'll give you a quick update. He actually did a hundred of them. Okay.

Um him and a couple other students at the end of the year, end of his term. Um, so I have probably material um actual you might see them on your street. You may they might not have been placed yet, but um you you get the the decal, we have the glue, um the safety glasses, the gloves, and for sure Melissa shared with you, which is on our SharePoint site. Um you know, the the video instruction on how to

We looked at the video instruction. I still have to talk to Matt to learn for myself. Okay. I haven't learned how this program works yet. Well, so the good news is is that, you know, it's winter and they haven't released a 2026 paving list yet. Okay? So, the 2025 paving list is on the Macandas site, the 2026. And I talked to Brad of DPW and it's not been released yet. So, we'll look at that. You have some time. Okay. But I think that's certainly that's certainly the right direction. No doubt about some decals on on the wastewater where they I wish I would have brought.

Yeah. Uh, and I was also looking into doing some water quality testing in like the public school buildings and also like lake streams like North Park Lake. Um, and on that note, we were actually going to ask Jack, our new council representative, if uh we can have you help us connect Nadia to somebody who might be able to help with information about any type of water quality testing in Macandless or even just a tour of water treatment facility, something along those lines. The old Northern Area Environmental Council, I'd given you the uh report they did. Yes, that was very neat. And if you can hook up with those people, um, they have access to what you need to do and and all that.

Okay. Um, cuz they did that and I I think that stuff that I gave you has has names on it that you can Yeah, it have the name. I'm not sure. I don't remember if it had the emails, but I read through that. It was interesting. And I'll see that that just they just did that in the park. So you you know I I thought you know that the logical progression of that is coming up. Yeah, I agree. And I would I was just thinking about it actually talking about my paddle boarding and my kayaking. I would be happy to go out into the lake, see if there's litter, see if there's any test that I could do. Uh but I would have to learn a bit more about that. And and we should get you to look at the water quality of Potter Park, too. Yes. Which I don't think anybody really knows anything about. So that would be an interesting one.

Nadia is going to then take all this information and for the Mc Cryer article that she's going to do. And as well, uh the school does a lot of video morning announcements thing. It's like every morning they do like a 20 minute thing and they'll a lot of times have some kind of guest person talk and I was hopefully going to I have um I have a friend who's one of the people who produces that and I was going to see if they would allow me to do that because I'm not too sure process how they pick what goes on there but I don't imagine that's too exclusive to find out and follow up. That's exciting. Great, Jenna.

Yeah. So, um, basically my project had a little bit of like a lag over break just because I was on vacation and I wasn't like really talking to Mr. Wall about it, but I know last time we talked, I had that grant request read into the record. So, that's been done. Um, for everybody else, too, I'm working on getting a sidewalk from the bottom of Saratoga, which connects to uh to Ingamore. Ingamar right over here and then would bring us down to North Park. So it's about a mile stretch of road that would connect that entire area of neighborhoods behind Saratoga which includes where I live and also where Nadia lives to uh North Park and to Develin here which would be super helpful and getting all of that neighborhood access by either walking or biking to the park. Um I got an email from Mr. Well, shortly after he read it into the record to say that there were going to be some challenges with implementing it exactly as it was written and then we've kind of been back and forth about that and just trying to figure out because obviously that is like a more again bureaucratic process. So there's some things that I have to like practically go to or go through to get there. But um altogether like it's just kind of a a push forward through that. And then also, I know um you said you're leaving, but I do want to push for the social media still. And I think like being the new year is a good time to kind of get that up and running. Um so, whatever contact is going to be most helpful for that or any situations.

Oh, well, the new assistant manager will be helping out EAC in the future. Okay. So, she starts next week. Awesome. And then just this afternoon, I posted my current job for people to be hired for it. So combination of that, probably Diane in the back as well. Okay. So I'm gonna kind of start to launch that as the year starts to progress and hopefully we can get that up and running. That's great. Good work.

Thank you, Jenna. Thank you, Nadia. Cute. Okay, let's move on to project updates. Um, and you know, this is a time that we want to actually bring the new members up to speed and you know, sort of the origin story of of these. And Ken, you're up first with deer deer program, deer control.

Yeah. Um, there's a couple of handouts that just take one as it goes through and I'll explain what's on them. um a large lot large large part of our mechanis um when I've lived here for my whole life all 72 years. So I've seen everything grow up and the deer at this point we have way way way too many deer and it's more than being too many deer the ecological damage that they do. They've wiped out all of our uh native wild flowers and plants. there's no regeneration of trees and so forth. So what we have done the one sheet is is uh about what this this sheet is about uh we have a program where we have archers that hunt on private property. Um they're you know that the lander owner has allowed them to be there. Um they're there to shoot more than one deer. They're not trophy hunting. they're trying to harvest mature does. Um so you can see over the course of several years how they've been doing on their harvest. The second page with the mechan from the mechanist to police department um is basically how we're how we can benchmark how we're doing on reducing the deer population from wildlife management. When you have too many deer in an area, if you have an area that could support a 100 deer and you have 200 deer like we do now, you need to take it down to 50 deer for 5 to seven years for things to recover. And so once once we can get the deer population somewhat under control, we can then get back into our parks um and reestablish the native uh plants and things that the

deer eat now. And so they're gone. Um, partly too, we're trying to establish an enhanced program. Um, talking with Jack just before the meeting, that's hasn't been fully put through. So, I'm not going to discuss it any more than than we would like to do more than what we're doing with just the archery program. Um, but as far as like with Bernie's tree program, with trying to get our native wild plants and flowers and pollinators and at my house with the bird feeder in the winter time like the like the weather we're going to have, I would have to fill my feeder every day. And now it's every 3 days because the deer the deer have redone the whole landscape to the point that there's fewer um birds wintering here. You I don't have the the cardinals and such. So deer is a really big big issue to uh that we need to really get under control. And any of the deer that are harvested by u the the the suburban white tail management um those are all the the meat from that the venison is contributed to the share of the harvest which then goes out to all the food banks. So nothing's wasted that that all feeds there's many thousands of of meals that are generated from the deer that we harvest here. It's not wasted. Um, from the police report, you can just imagine, you know, each each deer car accident is going to be about $5,000. So, you can imagine what the cost is there on on uh just in public safety and and so forth uh with the deer. So, do anybody have any questions?

And I am assuming on here Big Daddy is a vehicle and not a nickname for somebody on the police department. Big Daddy is the company. Yeah, it depends. Okay. Okay. Just me. Sorry about that.

When the deer get hit and they're just laying on the side of the road. Um, one that would attract raccoons and fox and coyotes and everything there. Um, and besides the smelling disgusting and all that. So the township pays Big Daddy to go out and and that report that we have for McCandless on Deer. What that Big Daddy is picking up is just on township roads. It does not include Mcnite and it does not include Route 19 as those are state roads.

The chief um Chief Hawk also will tell us, you know, how many will give us a deer report every month when um during town council meetings. And you can Ken if I could add. So you know this was something that you know the township found to be fundamental in the beginning of 2025. And so there was a push and Kenny was involved in it way before any of us but there was a push to bring you know like sort of an education to the to the resident. Not that you needed to. Everybody was on board. Uh and they wanted the EAC to participate and to have an opinion on it. And we were unanimous. The committee was unanimous in our support of expanding the program. And so there were um you know there were some you know there was a lot of information John put out constant um you know information through the town crier through McMah on deer. So it was one of those things where you just keep sort of building it and building and building the story and then um Ken hosted with um Janine Fil from the whitetail biologist for the game commission uh came and did a presentation. We had I think there's 47 people there. get a room full room full over here and so

and that's that should be that should be on the uh on the website to be able to view that because we videoed that. Um but she answers a lot of you know a lot of those wildlife biology questions on deer reproduction and and so on and so forth that I can answer for you too. But um that's all there and I don't I didn't think I needed to get into that kind of detail. So, and and so at that point after that then council did approve the expanded deer call. Um and so now we're just waiting for it to you know sort of be finalized and hopefully in the next season. Um you know that'll be that'll be significant.

That is the goal. Um I did talk to Nick Geetti a while back and he says they part of the wait was for approval from game commission for various things and it they run a snail's pace unfortunately but you know that is the goal for this year. Okay it's and it's a common goal. I'm sorry. Oh no I I just had a question. I I don't understand. Um it said here there was uh nine deer taken for 2025. One is highway report and the other is a hunting report. Oh, okay. So, this is just for highway. Okay. And this is for the hunter hunters. Correct. So, the hunters took 65 deer this year so far.

Okay. Where the the hunters took nine or I mean I mean so the highway took nine and there were nine taken part with the game commission when it was originally submitted. They actually returned it saying that we gave them too much information. So they had to resubmit it. better than too little.

They haven't gotten anything back yet. Um but what the enhanced program is uh one of the requirements for that is we needed to leave the public areas Wall Park and Potter Park open to public hunting. And so nine deer were harvested in Wall and Potter Park this last year by general citizen. You to rent to hunt in Wall Park or Potter Park, you needed to stop down at the police, show them your hunting license, your driver's license. They would do a quick search, make sure that you're not something wild and then allow you to hunt and you had to report any any harvest that you have. Is that number added in anywhere on here or is it a separate another nine?

It's not that would be in addition to these in addition. And there's no totals for December and January just because they don't have them yet. Correct. That's this was you know the November report. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm looking at that right now. I'm slow on the uptake. Noted. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Any other uh any other questions for Ken?

Thank you, Ken. And just one last comment is is that um with all the still grass and barberry and everything those are things that one the stilcrass I haven't found anything that eats it you know whether it's groundhogs deer uh rabbits I haven't found anything that consumes it and with the barberry it's a very important part of the uh tick uh life cycle they the larvae uh like the barberry to hang out in and the only reason you had the barberry is because the deer have wiped out all the other uh brushy plants that normally would be there. So, um this also involves tick which is public health too.

Yeah. And and you know I I've said this before and I and I think um you know so I mountain bike too and you know in Deer Lakes, Boyce um you know Hartwood all these other pl you might see one or two deer. You might see one or two deer in North Park. I'll hike and I'll I'll see 40 deer, 50 deer easily. They're just they're just here. Some reason they're here. And it must be the acreage in North Park. But

no, it's when William Penn came to Pennsylvania, we we have a hundred times more deer than when William Penn came because that was climax forest, which isn't deer habitat. Suburbia is prime deer habitat. They have little woodlocks to go hide in during the day and then they have beer garden and flowers and shrubs to eat at night. So this is perfect whitetail habitat. Um that's deer population will double every 2 to 3 years. Um so even though we're harvesting these deer with archery and with cars, um our population is still increasing. I've had conversations um with some county council members about potentially, you know, doing something about it in North Park. Um but they've just been conversations um just during ideas.

The county has had a free program similar. It's called white tail hunters in the county parks that's been ongoing for over 20 years.

Um part of the issue we get into is they're hunting in the park. So they cross the road and come over here into McCandless and the plan up above here won't let anybody archery hunt behind them. So the deer just move away and and so you get issues like that. Um the North Park is 3200 acres of North Park is in in Macandless. It's a major segment of Macanas, but we don't manage that. That's county. and the longtime director of the county parks retired 18 months ago and they haven't replaced him with a full-time person yet. So, I haven't uh there's a Friends of North Park meeting on September 20th if you're interested at the cabin which is on Ingamar Road before you get to the before you get to the cannon.

January 20th. January 20th at 7 PM. Okay.

Um but so it's it's um you have Ross, you have Fox Chapel, the city of Pittsburgh have been doing enhanced deer management programs for a while now. Um so we're but as far as getting the county to do that in the parks, I think would be extremely difficult unless we have a very strong uh director of the county parks. Okay. Okay. Um, thank you, Ken. So, moving on then to sustainability. Um, I will kick it off with, you know, again, we're um, whenever I started in 2023, I started working with John and we worked to reertify. So, Pit, so, so PCAS was originally certified a gold standard community in 2019. Let me actually get the dates here. Um it was um October of 2019 certified gold that expired in December of 2023. Whenever I came on at the beginning of 2023, um John and I worked together. We worked through 181 different questions. Um we certainly met the percentage needed for gold. We met the the um the number of points needed for gold. But there was one final. So question number 181 was we needed a communitywide greenhouse gas inventory. So we partnered with Penn State University's cohort program um to have that done. And as I sent everybody today and I apologize not on agenda I did not include you in this and I and I should have. Um we were as of to so so the last meeting the December meeting the students delivered that inventory to us. They uploaded it to us on um Monday and

I uploaded to the system and we were certified gold today. Yes, that is that is the culmination of two years three years of work for John and I. So um you know John I want to applaud you. I want to recognize you for all the work that you've done for the EAC to help us get to the right answers. Um, and you know, I I was the taskmaster, but John did all the heavy lifting. He really really did. So, I really appreciate Thank you for leaving. Good work. It was a lot of fun.

That was it was great. So, we are we are a gold certified community. Um, and now, uh, beginning as early as tomorrow, I'm having a meeting and Melissa will join me, um, if she can and for a little while on on our local climate action plan. Do you want to comment about that? So these students who helped with the greenhouse gas inventory dur they have a whole year worth of class to do the greenhouse gas inventory portion was performed in the fall but during the spring they help to develop a climate action plan or another document and strategy or guide to help the community that they're partnering with. And so we'll be working with them to sort of let know what we're hoping to get for it. We still have to have the discussions and I know Bernie had expressed interest in joining as well. So we need to make sure that

okay we're thank you.

And then um we basically are thinking that it's very important that they look at the different programs that we're a part of. So for example we are gold sustainability certified right now but we do want to aim for platinum in the future. So we need to take a look what that entails. We also have another organization Birdtown USA that we're a part of which you'll hear a little bit more about later. Uh so combining the different elements of both of these programs just to incorporate everything into one place so that they can build out this strategy plan for us to follow and it's going to be pretty exciting. Basically a fun little road map that we'll be able to use to help showcase all the great work that we do for the community.

Any questions around that?

Okay. Thank you. Okay, Bernie, we're going to turn it over to you on the um uh the tree canopy. Uh thank you. You know, I did copy in my notes to everybody for tonight. Uh I downloaded the 2019 sustainability plan which is what guided the first um you know I think it guided the work of this committee. I think that helped form this committee and I think this committee played a heavy role in that sustainability plan. So, it is a uh um you know a PDF uh that I downloaded and you know just I I shared it with everybody so you could take a look at you know what was done before and how all of the programs of the EAC kind of fit into that plan you know today you know up to and including the tree program. Um because at the time what was started was a tree planting program and uh so John are you gonna share or am I gonna share or are you sharing?

I mean if you'd like to share it might be easier from your computer since you have it on hand. If you'd rather I do it let me know here. Let me see which one I have it pulled up um here. Hold on. I wasn't ready to be the one sharing. Uh, but hold on. I can share any mode if you'd like here. Hold on. Uh, well, it's saying it's not turned on. You can let You can do it now. You can do it now.

All right. But that'll probably be nuts if I say share my screen because you guys are all on it right now. Hold on. Let me find the file. Here we go. Uh, okay. Um, me kind of what I'll just play it from the slideshow. Um, so I I did a combination of um I had a really shorter report for tonight, but because of the new members, I kind of decided to overview a little bit more of um you know, this is really, as these guys know, every month I do a new slide deck. I update, you know, where we are uh just by being able to share this. Um why is it not letting There we go. So you know presupposition uh Macan list is 16.6 according to Wikipedia square miles. Um 29,79 population as of 2020 with 12,265 households. According to that stat, North Park only consumes 15% of the land mass. um you know in my view it always looks more than 15% but you know I uh just kind of take a look at this as a sense of measure and assumptions. Um so the problem statement about the tree canopy is from 2015 to 2020 Macandless lost 226 acres there. That's 6% of the 4,000 acres that were lost in Alageney County in that 5 years. And so we're one of the worst. So we made the

Alageney County top 10 worst uh communities uh for tree canopy loss. The uh Tree Canopy Alliance is supposed to do a new uh map from 2020 to 2025 that should be out soon and it would tell us what that loss would have been. So right now that's what we're trying to obtain is the new data for uh the updated years. But due to that in a tree canopy alliance um was formed. They just in the last year received $8 million in federal funding um originally to serve just as 40 communities. That language was clawed back uh from this administration, but they're still still trying to serve Alen County communities that are are more in need than let's say you know McCandless Um so part of the question uh what that I was asking back then is do we track through our local planning department you know tree acorage or loss and that's part of one of the things that we hope to do. Um so from this problem statement we developed a solution statement which was let's spend I wanted to take 5 years and do this tree canopy challenge where we do uh 50,000 new trees planted and to bring a restored um tree canopy you know back to Macanless um tree Pittsburgh who I had been one of the many organizations s I did discovery and research with encouraged me to extend it over more of a 10-year horizon and to seek to do the 50,000 native

trees shrubs in the township with the idea being not that this committee is going to go out and get shovels and put 50,000 trees in the ground, but rather we would do this as a action with the residents, businesses, and the governance. Um, so that's kind of where we were. So the plan right now is to launch this year tied in with the 175th anniversary event which is in March. Um, and we'll drive that 50,000 tree canopy goal. Um uh the primary mission is in fact to educate the public and encourage them develop what we call tree champions and kind of do a lot more work in that regard. I would say 2025 was a planning year to get some starter activities. We did do a tree tender training. Um so we have a you know developed group of about 50 folks. We gave away at the tree adoption event 100 trees in October, the same day we did the tree tender six-hour training. Um, and we will continue to recruit for monthly tree meetings. So, uh, Jeff Petro and I met with the mechanist staff. That was really the first time I feel like the full staff attended um, absent the township manager. Um uh we have a subcommittee. I have two co-chairs, Archie and Julie. Archie attended the Franklin EAC meeting to learn about the remarkable tree program, which is something we propose to do this year as part of the 175th activities. Um, we're going to be filming some tree tips

for YouTube videos. Um, upcoming in March on our speaker series. We have a tree talk with Archie at the library, Northland Library. Um, March 7th, this just happened. There's a group of municipalities in Alageney County, shade tree programs and other tree pro programs. Uh on the last meeting in Oakmont, I said I would host it. So I just got uh confirmation with the library that we're going to host it the afternoon of Mar March 7th. um and then just start the regular meetings and then do uh when I met with the staff last Thursday. Um it was suggested that part of the 175th anniversary event that we could potentially do 175 trees for adoption. So right now we're trying to work that out with Tree Pittsburgh. It's about a week prior to when they wanted to let trees go. Uh, but we're working with them to see if that can happen. It looks pretty good. Um, so this is all part of the year, but if I were to recap last fall, just this is a list of some of the things that we did as a committee. Um and uh and a lot of the EAC members were heavily involved with the tree tender training with the adoption event helping to do the setup um and and we have all kind of opportunities upcoming for things that are going to happen um this year. Uh so this is kind of a schedule and I also sent this separately but that was kind of our schedule of uh what events we have, what tasks we're doing, you know, things we plan on

communicating and what number of volunteers we're looking for for some of these activities. Um and then uh some notes where we haven't finalized certain things but wanted to keep them in mind. um really uh because it's tree plantings, you know, most of our activities are spring and fall with summer off. Uh but we'll be doing the kind of the messaging and communication throughout the year. So, this is just a list of things that, you know, were on our original engagement list. We're actually making progress on them. Um, for example, doing an actual pre-inventory of the township was something the new town planning director said he would be interested in working with us to do. Um, that could help provide what I would say the, you know, the assessment for, uh, what would be the possible, you know, best planting to suggest people plant. um you know by being being able to know what we have, what do we need, and kind of h how we encourage people to do that. So there's kind of a lot more going on. Um I don't think I need to say what the environmental and human benefits are um of planting trees. Uh but they're significant and I think everybody on this uh committee understands these things. And uh and then here's just some links for some of the background uh that kind of got us to this point. Thanks. Any questions, comments?

So Bernie, we'll have to um we'll have to really sort of tighten it up before March and make sure that the communication is out there and that we get people to actually pick up 175 trees. So, um, we'll have to put the the the press on, um, soon.

Yeah, that's not confirmed yet, but yes, I I would agree. Um, and there were windows of time in that communication as to, you know, the window to adopt would only be two weeks, but we can pre-promote. And you know I see the sequence though is um you know if we have a library event the EAC speaker series doing it jointly with the library the library already wants to make a poster you know they have a graphics person they'll make the poster for that we can get that poster you know hit the streets with that and for people that room can hold 60 people and I think for you know to the extent that we can fill that room with 60 people interested in hearing about trees. You know, it can be a nice group of 60 people who again we would hope to sign up and communicate with in the future in addition to the mailing list we already have. So, but I agree. I mean, I think getting the word out to plant trees um you know, the native trees that we're recommending, you know, is an important uh part of what we hope to to achieve. Thank you. Anything else for Bernie?

Yeah, the new members, I don't know what your opinions are on trees, but if you'd like to get involved, we have a lot of room for uh you know, for uh even if it's just doing the you know, some of the work on some of the project days. uh I'd love to get you involved you know say at the speaker series event on March 5th or you know joining uh uh any of the other programs in March um April we'll be launching the remarkable tree program which I didn't outline here but it's part of our regular activities we have planned for this year okay thanks

thank you Bernie thank you Bernie Okay. Joanna Rainor. Sure.

Um All right. Well, in 2010, um the first four rain gardens were built in collaboration between the town and the Avon Society. Um and they are located uh just on the other side of Devon Park. So, if you know where the parking lot for the Heritage Center is, along the back side of the parking lot, there's a creek, but right before that, there are actual rain gardens that are built into that to help prevent uh the water from running off the parking lot and immediately flooding the creek. So, it's a nice place for all the water to go. And plan was for it to be taken care of. And um the water could go in there, it can soak down. You have the native plants there that can help absorb all the water and prevent some flash flooding events. Um in uh 2017, they built a fifth one. It is much larger. So altogether, there are three Yeah. 3,000 square ft of rain garden over uh on town property. Um, in a single rain event it can hold a total of 29,750 gallons of water. Um, so annually that means about 680,000 gallons of water are stopped from running off into Pine Creek and are said supposed to be absorbed by our rain gardens. I'm working on making sure it does it as well as it can. Um, so with that, um, since I stepped onto the EAC, um, this is a project that was kind of handed down to me because there we have a couple things that are out there that have existed for a while. Someone started, it wasn't quite finished or it just this is one that needs constant maintenance. It needs constant

management. And um they there were some volunteer events, but they were having a hard time finding finding volunteers and parts of it kind of fell more into disrepair. Um the part by the Heritage Center is a little bit better kept where the ones like as you get down towards the sidewalk going into Templan Park, those were not looking so great uh when I got there. Uh lots of invasive plants. Um there a few things that needed just like the back wall to be fixed and that kind of thing. So um since taking it over um I have held a couple different events um trying to help repair it, try to get rid of some of the invasive species that are in there. Um the main one that has been the thorn in my side has been um Japanese nutweed. Um, Japanese notweed is um, it is tall. It is hard to get rid of. It basically it is the plant that comes up first after a volcano. It does not die easily.

It It's a lot. Yeah, it's in the buckwheat family. Technically, you can eat it. It's supposed to taste like rhubarb. Um, it is incredibly difficult to kill. Incredibly difficult. It doesn't have a root system. It has risoids in it. Yes. And all you need is little chocolate.

Seven millimeters of one of the risoids for it to just sprout right back. So, some people have the idea, well, if you just continue to cut it and cut it and cut it, it's going to run out of energy. But that's I I wanted to believe that. and I read a bunch of scientific articles on it and I'm like, "Nope, that's not true." Unfortunately, we had to use herbicide on it. So, we did have a chopping event. Um, that was the first thing. So, we went out there and just chopped a bunch of it down. That's the first thing you have to do because you have to, you know, wait for it to get to a certain height and then chop it back. So, it has to come back and spend a lot of energy and then come about 6 to 8 weeks later, you go out and you spray it and that should take care of about 90% of it. Um, there are other invasive species in there. I am well aware of that. That was the number one priority of the one to start eliminating because that's something you don't want on your property. I don't want it spreading around Macanas and it is already. There's plenty of places around Macandas. It's already spreading. Um, fun fact about it, if you get Japanese knotweed on your property in the UK, you can not uh sell that property like you're unable to get a mortgage.

Oh. Um, so it is that terrible part of get in mechanises is that the notweed part of it will be on a rightway that mechanis can maintain and and mow and and spray. But then the other parts on private property and so you we can't really come up with it if that landowner doesn't want to do a management program with it. It's just propagates. Right. Right. So and it also those ryomes it is capable of cracking concrete. We had bamboo. It has a similar pattern to bamboo.

It is a 10year fight and it's coming back.

Yeah. It's not fun. Um, but it got me thinking along those lines. So, part of the plan eventually as we knock things down and we get things beautified and um, we will continue to have to do maintenance. There's going to have to be continued spreading of mulch in the spring, I'm going to continue to seed the area with native plants um, as much as possible. And um eventually I would like to be able to have this so this isn't something where it's like one person with a shovel from the EAC out there doing it. But I think it's a great place for education. I think it's a great place for the town to showcase native plants and different management capabilities of natural things for taking care of water on your property because there's a lot of people who have water issues. And I think more rain gardens could be used, but we have to showcase it and not just have it look like a weed pit.

There's a number of water gardens in in North Park. Um, and the master gardeners for the most part try to take care of them. although most of them were getting fairly overrun also.

Mhm. So that is kind of where I am with that. I um as far as what's next for it, planning that next uh workday and then collaborating with others on okay so if I'm doing this work say with Japanese notweed, where can that knowledge that I've gained from that be useful elsewhere in the town and that kind of thing? Um, yeah. And come springtime, um, I'm happy to take people out there for tours. Right now, it just looks like muddy pits in the ground, so not as exciting, but, um, it eventually is filled with really cool flowers and trees and has a lot of really cool biodiversity. And, um, lots of pollinators like to use it, and it's really interesting. I love that the town has it. Um, and I want to help promote it however I can. We had one tree of heaven that grew in there and that's where your one of the prime attractors of lantern flies.

So I took care of that. That was before I was on. I think it was just like as I was coming. Any other questions for Joanna?

Okay, moving on to community outreach. So, we just, you know, every year we go through the cycle of um and Ken and I, well, other other people have as well the um uh garden to park um down in North Park and then we go into community day and then we go into or national night out first, then community day and then Winterfest. So, we just finished up that cycle. Um so, nothing on the horizon. Um, however, whenever I first started, um, there used to be an EAC, a regional EAC meet and greet. So, it would be Hampton, Franklin Park, Ross, McCandless, uh, and Pine. And so, we would get together, say, at Hampton's community, community center, community park, and we talk about projects that we're all working on or initiatives for the new year. And that was very, very helpful. Uh, and we learned a lot from that. And so it really hasn't gone on for two years, I think, now.

Two or three.

Yeah, two or three years. So, um, I decided I was going to try to reboot that. So, um, with that, I've gotten a gotten I've had confirmation from Pine who who's been all in, Ross, Franklin Park, actually talked to Hampton, who had their EAC meeting this past Monday, who said they'd get a hold of me Tuesday morning and let me know, and I've heard nothing. So, I'm going to table that for right now and come back and wait for Hampton, but then come back on the next meeting and I have it on topic for next meeting to actually put together a date for that. And we'll have the first one will be right here in Devlin Park and it'll be in April or something like that where, you know, it's acceptable to be outside and we'll have some cookies and, you know, soft drinks and things like that and and we'll share ideas.

It's a great great way to network and something that somebody else has already figured out how to do. We don't have to recreate the wheel. um they know of grants that are available for like trails and so forth. So it it's it's a really good networking uh event that every that everybody gets a little bit out of. Yep. So we'll work on that. Um that'll be moving this thing along. So we we do have a speaker series every year and we try to put on at least two maybe three speakers and it's going to be you know tree centric this year. you know, we we saw that Bernie has, you know, March 5th. Um, we we're going to have a a tree tenders class again and on October 17th. Um, and we talked about maybe having somebody come in and talk about bees or pollinators.

Um, so we're going to do that this year hopefully. And then the other one is, and this will this will just sort of fold right down into open initiatives. Um we are now the 96th Pennsylvania municipality who has been accepted as a PA bird tone and um so we'll have a bird tone then autobond western Pennsylvania autobond speaker come in and talk about bird town PA. So that would be on our agenda as well. So, so then moving down into open initiatives. Um I, Melissa and Ken um attended a Bird Todd orientation on January 7th from the Ottabon Society where they accepted us um as a green certificated Bird Town community and um we will be officially presented as that bird community on February 9th, the council meeting on February 9th. Everybody is invited to that. There'll be the the trip will be there. There'll be a plaque that's you know where you know something given to us and we'll all stand there and get our picture taken and it'll be in the trib um you know sort of sort of you know you know talking about that achievement and um you know that'll be something that Macandless will you know be a moment that we shine and the EAC will shine as well. So that was a lot of work to get there but but we got there. Anything to add to that Melissa? So part of being the bird town municipality means annual report. They're changing the way that it works. So if you go to their website right now, it will show an outdated report mechanism, but moving forward, they're going to be focusing more on storytelling components. So we already do a lot of really great work here and we'll be able to take everything that we do and tie it all together for that end of year report that will help us build up within their system and become gold or platinum. I forget their exact levels, but you cannot step up from green until one year of being a bird town. But we're already we're already on their next tier technically.

Good work.

Yeah. Thank you. And there's gonna be some signs. So there'll be, you know, one of those signs that says Autobond Society recognizes McCandless as a bird time. We have these signs that'll go in Potter Park or or, you know, or uh or, you know, on Branch Trail or something like that. So, you know, we'll we'll get those signs. Um so the EAC um have have given the council an annual report every year of you know our our current status of the project and then the new initiatives for the next year. I'm hoping that this this is the new report. So once we do this um I'm thinking that just you know this will be something that will just present to council as opposed to me sitting there and you know you know fumbling around in and you know some document that I'm messing up. And with LTOY, we've got a lot of people that are very active with all this to help us.

Right. Right. Lottomy is part of North Park. And one one other note from Bird Town, they do send out various information like newsletters. They did ask us to check with those of you on this committee to see if anybody else wants to be added to the distribution list. So if so, just let Jeff or myself know. You can add me. Okay. You can put my council email address on there. Mhm. I'd like to be added as well. Great. Yeah. Add me. I'm already on it. Jack, Audrey, Ken, Bernie, anyone else? I might. It's new. It's brand new. I'll take it. Yep. Yep. Joanna. Okay. Um

can I uh Jeeoff before you move on um the bird town in addition to your EAC networking um that March 7th event that Macanless EAC tree program is hosting for all the other municipality tree programs. Um

many of them are already bird towns. the woman I'm, you know, uh, who kind of is helping to guide me in setting this up. She runs the bird town for Forest Hills. So, I keep, you know, we're running into all these other programs with the other municipalities. So, you know, I don't know what that means other than, you know, back to don't invent the wheel and, you know, learn lessons learned. So, I I said to Pat, I have a feeling Jeff would love to talk to you about that. So, if you're interested, you know, um probably she and a few others that are existing bird towns,

if you feel the need to cross talk with some of them, I'm happy to introduce you some of the ones I'm finding on the tree side and I'll be there on March 7th. So, that I plan on being there to to meet them. So, that's great. You can meet Pat is her name, but you know, yeah, we won't necessarily be talking bird town, but yes.

Okay. Okay. Good. Um, wonderful. Thank you, Bernie. Um and so um you know the next topic is EAC dedicated web page and and John I'm going to lean on you a little bit more and I know and and certainly on Katie when she starts but you know Pine has because they're a Bertton community and and on their EAC page they have sort of a second page that talks about their Berton accomplishments and I envision us to have some more landscape you know some more some more space on the municipal site that would be EAC related that will talk about our tree program talk about bird town achievements talk about other things that we're working on sustainability is that does that cost a lot of money what is the reality of that

so the reality is if it's part of the town of mccandless.org or you know domain. We can just do anything we want. We can add on as many pages, subpages we want to the existing site. Um as far as what we want to do with the current EAC site, it already has a little bit more than most the other committees because of the public nature of what it does. So if we want to sort of revamp that, maybe change what's on there, we can do that pretty easily. Whoever has access to the web page can do that.

Okay. Okay. So, why don't we why don't we put on the um topics for next month that we're going to further this um with Katie, our new, you know, our new liaison from from the staff um and then just really start to get her early. That's a good idea. Yeah. Yep. Okay, good. Everybody agree that that's a good idea? We should move forward on that.

Great. Thank you. Um okay, next one is the achievement announcement. So, um, our Burton status, we know that that that's going to be covered on, uh, February 9th meeting. The trip will be there. Sustainability was just announced. We don't, John Schwin, the township manager, doesn't want to do them both at the same time. Let's maximize our exposure. Um so I would I would guess that the gold standard sustainability will be a March um you know another another achievement announced for McCandless and and EAC in March. So we're going to split those two and those two things are going to be um publicized. Okay. Um the next one is something that I came up with, you know, in one of those when I'm walking around North Park talking to trees. um liaison discussions. So I I thought about, you know, Bernie talking to Tree Pittsburgh and Ken with a white tail. Um Joanna, you know, I'm just just throwing this out, but I just had this idea of, you know, instead of everybody um sort of saying, well, you know, this is going on that maybe we could take responsibility for interfacing with certain, you know, people that connect with us in the community and then somebody could just report that to the group. Not that there's a mixer going on at, you know, you know, northern tier brewery or something like that, but hey, North Park or or Alageney County Stewarts just planted um 459 trees in North Park. That would be of interest to all of us. Uh Lottomy is holding an invasive species class or they're holding a day of removal of invasive species. Okay, this this is of interest to everybody. Um you know, um the library is doing this or Penn State Extension is doing this. um PA sustainability is doing this and so I just want to throw this off to the group and and and think about you know is that

an idea for this group is that something we can we should think about to have individual members be liaison and be responsible for bringing in information that is you know important to the full group. I would think rather than assigning people to set things, maybe we just have an open item every month where if somebody has information like that to share, they can share it. Just like I was sharing at Friends of North Park meetings, you know, on the 20th at the cabin. Yeah. Rather than specifically assigning people. Okay. So then should we throw on It could go under miscellaneous on

Yeah. miscellaneous and we'll just say information to share that type of thing. Yeah. Okay. Okay. like regional activity update like yeah we all stumble across different things as we go into our own areas so yeah I'd have lots more like native plant type things but

everybody has access to different information Okay. Okay. Next up is um in miscellaneous um the February McMill tip and Bernie, you will um and and and this has worked out really really well, but you'll you'll add your um you know your February tip

and then we will we will add on to that. Yeah, I mean we always have a you know um and and thank you for I saw that was on my list when I was updating today the wish list of being able to do a tree tip every month. So yeah, Archie, you know, he already has these pre-written. So John, I told him today that we need to get them to you the latest Wednesday of next week. Does that work? Yeah, I think that sounds good. Yeah, I'll try and get it even by Friday. uh because I know he has them. All right.

Okay. And um what do we what do we do in any thoughts for historically? We've had for February water sustainability topics, home and garden tips, waste and waste. Um does Jenna did last month. Does anybody want to volunteer for February in particular? Any topics of passion or I don't know if we need to stick with any of those for February. They don't seem that in the theme of Okay. So, so let's think about this a little bit differently really quick. Is everybody here aware of what a McMail tip is? No.

Okay. Well, I would I would first of all, I would urge you to sign up for McMail. So, go on the municipal I actually uh we actually had a volunteer come in um through the the website and said, "Hey, I want to volunteer on EAC activities." Um, and and so I said to her, I said, "Well, the first thing to do is to sign up for McMail." So, it's on a website and it will say, you know, sign up here and it will be and and I think it's I think it's almost mandatory if you're on here because you're going to want to see what other people are writing and and we get we get real estate every month on those things. So, you know, maybe we could think a little bit outside of the box this month and maybe we can start to um start to Should we start to promote the roadside cleanup? Should we talk about

I would hold till March for that. Okay. People don't remember two months ago. Yeah. Okay. Um the bird tone um sustainability. Traditionally, I think we did this is when we would talk about people pruning their uh apple trees and things like that in dormcancy when you want to prune your your oak trees because Yeah. And we could, you know, honestly that was supposed to be this past month and uh

you know, I think that Archie opted to do um was it the uh protecting your um you know, your trees from wildlife. Uh, but I I think that was up on the agenda. I mean, if you want, we could do more and just make it, you know, um, you know, a little bit more in length on, you know, what you could be doing with your trees in the winter. That sounds great. It's a It's when you should be pruning your apple trees. It's when you should be pruning your oak trees. I mean, it's it's pertinent and people need to be aware of that.

That's right, Bernie. It's all you. Yeah. And I I mean our MC mail tips, general pruning tips were last month. Dormant tree pruning is actually this month. Um and then tree planting guidance selection is next month. Mulching the the month after. So yeah, we kind of have them scheduled by season. So I think if we can just have all 300 words, that'd be great. All right. Thank you. Wonderful. Wonderful.

Okay. Next up is um the the 175th MCAS 175th. I did send the uh minutes from the last meeting and the goals for the next meeting and I think where it relates to EAC is um the the uh tree you know the what do we call it Bernie? The um the remarkable tree program. Yeah, the remarkable tree program is where is where we fit into that. So um you know that that continues on. So, moving on from that, um, air quality monitor, we were sort of kicking that around. Um, John, do you know where that stands? Do we do we buy it? Do we The air quality monitor is on my desk. I'm leaving it for the next person.

Okay. It needs to be installed. Yeah. Okay. It's It's ready. Is DPW do that? I am not sure, honestly. They could. It probably would be easier for someone here to do it as well. It's I'm going to again let the next person figure out what they want to do with it. Okay. Be pretty easy install at the end of the day. Okay. So So you will pass it on to Will you pass it on to Diane? Diane or John probably. Okay. Because I know John had one in his last municipality. So

Okay. Go ahead. Yeah. If you would do if you'd follow through on that one and then we'll get that. Um, you know, I know that that's uh, you know, that that is certainly something that Bernie speaks about and it's and it's, you know, it is important and we want to make sure that we, you know, we we supported that purchase. Um, the municipality came through with that purchase and we want to make sure that we do this for the for the residents. Is there like a location where we're planning on putting this? It probably would be somewhere overview. So, it would be in the um township building pro I believe would be right outside. Okay. for basically local air quality. Since we have new individuals here, uh if Bernie, if you could just give like a quick one to two minute overview of what this is and why.

Yeah. I mean, John, is it the um is it related to the purple air? It's the purple air. It's the purple air wonder.

Yeah. So, if you went on to a website called purple air, um it's it's kind of citizen science. It's folks just, you know, put these monitors up and you can see, you know, where what the air quality is all around the world. Um, so I was stating that I mean my home is currently the only one in Macandless and I thought it would be great if the township kind of sponsored a monitor right at the town hall. So, um, so apparently you got one. Um, you know, it's not difficult to install. Oh, I don't know. I think it's more about a location. Like, it doesn't have to adhere to a building, but you know, if you've got a place that you can lay it. I mean, I'd be happy to help determine where, but it does have to have access to Wi-Fi and uh so that it can work. But that's what it is is it's a air monitor. And

what does it monitor? What does it monitor? Oh, uh, parts per million, you know, of, uh, you know, small, uh, cell small cell particles. I'm getting it wrong. Uh, the PM2, it's like an EPA. it it's the sensor picks up um essentially you know small particle uh in the air and then you can se down select you know how you want that reported based on whose parameter like the EPA's or you know some other global standard so there's a drop down of about 10 different ways that that measurement can be made in terms of whose rating system you know is that uh that your sensor system is falling onto. But you know I I mean mostly our our air quality is good but we have a good number of bad quality days. Um so I just think it's a great service for the community to say if you want to know what your air is outdoor, you know, go there. I I wanted to see maybe some indoor monitors put in for but I'm guessing John you didn't get indoor monitors right

as far as it's just outdoor for now. Yeah. All right. That works. Thank you. If you go back 25 years ago, there were only three monitoring stations in Alageney County. Um they were by the old coal power plant in New Kensington by the Claritton coal works and where the P bus is idle down at the point. Um when I brought up are you trying to have bad air. Um the basic long and short of it was is if we had bad air we got access to more federal funds. Um, and so

strategic plan was 25 years ago. And I'll just leave all that. Toss that monitor on top of the old steel mill. Okay. Next is um the uh report from town council. Jack.

All righty. So, one of the things that I wanted to mention is that sorry, I'm just pulling it up. Um, a couple days ago I received an email from the Department of Conservation Natural Resources. Um, one of their grants is opening for the community conservation partnerships program. And I already told John um I also told um Councilman Babage because grants is kind of our our thing. Um, one of the thing we're going to apply for it, but we also we want ideas for what we want to do with this. Um, we're all ears. So what is it specifically?

So specifically it's um the grant can cover the following programs. Community parks and recreation, land conservation, steward stewardship, trails, rivers, communities, wasteland and sorry uh watershed forestry with I'm going to jump in and talk about trails. Um that's something that we've been trying to do is is to connect um you know Wall Park to Potter Park to Vestal Park which and then when you get into the old Harmony line a lot of that's privately held and we have some issues getting access through um certain areas but trying to make connectivity all the way into North Park and and to the other parks. also looking at going from Wall Park into Franklin Park into their park system. And in Wall Park, we need to do much more there. The issue gets into there is the wetlands with the creek and bridges. So, um, I can get people in, you know, from Rachel Carson Trail and things to lay things out and then we can get volunteers to build it, but there's costs particularly with the bridges in in the uh, you know, in Wall Park and you need to get the uh, township uh, engineer involved in all of that. That's something I've been working on for a long time and every time I get to a certain point, it seems to go into a into a black hole. So, if you can get grant money to support that and get council to support uh building those those trails, I can get it done.

Okay. The current currently this is very preliminary. It seems there's there are interests in seeing what we could do with this money for Potter Park, but it is just preliminary. I'm not saying that it's we have the new seven well Potter Park um had a 17 acre addition to it last year. So that's currently what you know this but this is very preliminary. Um we're just we're talking about it. We're looking into it. Um the deadline for the application is April 30th. So we got plenty of time, but I would still I still want to get this in way before the deadline.

I'll put it for open initiatives to discuss as a group next time to think. Hey Bernie, is this the same one that um that that the email that we got that that Abby came back or or somebody came back and talked about was it?

Yes, this is the one that for three years I have said I wanted to go after for tree programs and have not been able to get the township's attention. So in this case, yes, I in the meeting we had last week, you know, I said that I wanted to be able to, you know, make the request for grants and uh I've been following the DCNR grant again. This is my third year. Um and yeah, Abby said they already have plans for it. So she told me, you know, kind of no room at the end again. Uh third year in a row. So I'm not saying Abby turned me down for three years. I'm saying I have not been able to get the time and attention of McCandless Township for 3 years to want to submit something related to uh you know supporting the tree program.

Okay. Me and Nathan um Councilman Babage are also are very interested in this grant. So, and it he's he and I are very interested in pursuing it. Um I'll throw it around for the other council members. John John and Abby also seem very interested in it. John especi John S um seems especially interested in it. So, um I'll keep you guys posted.

Yeah, I mean we qualify for this. The one that we would qualify for out of DCNR, well, we actually aren't permitted to do tree vitalize separately. That's now kind of a joint grant by the county. But um but I I do think there's very few things that you know the the tree program can qualify for. Uh and this one you know is one of the ones I've had my eye on each year. Okay. Um and any anything else, Jack?

Um that's about it. Um this was a actually a development after the meeting. It was actually an email I got and after verifying it was legitimate that I figured it's of interest so I sent it to relevant people. Okay. And and I believe um you can verify that Katie don't how do you say Katie's last name could be the new township assistant manager? Um I yeah I think it's stringent or something. String I have she is going to be our That's what I've been told. Yes.

Yeah. And um and the other thing too is that Diane Roman asked that um that we provide her. She said that people are always interested in things that come out of this meeting uh within staff and she wants to just send out like little cliff notes or something like that. So I'm going to ask Katie to actually do that. Um you know, so she can follow up and say, "Oh, these are the these are the five takeaways from uh the meeting or you know, and sort of give those to Diane." So that'll be uh that'll be something we start with with uh Katie. Okay. Anything else? No, that's it.

Okay. Topics for next EAC meeting. I'll start with the first one, and I didn't have it on here, but is certainly the April 25 April 25th cleanup that will be added to the project list. Um, and it will be, you know, it'll it it's uh it will grow and grow and grow. Um, it'll be a a uh a real focus of ours up until that point because what we're going to do is we're going to put 150 people out on the streets. There's a lot of coordination with that. So, we'll look for every member to have input on that. Um, you know, support that. We'll look for council in full to support that. I know you were there last last year, Jack. You're right there on the uh

on the website. You're you're right in her crazy outfit. Um, so you know my stance on the clean up. picture so you don't have to worry about me. Yeah. So, we'll we'll uh we'll we'll ask everybody to be involved in that. We'll ask for um municipal staff to be heavily involved in that uh which I believe they will and we'll make that one of our priorities um at the next meeting to have that conversation that so everybody understands uh everything that's involved in that. So, I will add that to topics. When's the date for it again? April 25th. Okay. Thank you.

I've already contacted um Chief Hawk. So, I have five police overtime details, DPW building. We'll confirm that. Uh, but I've already talked to Brad and we we we've secured the building. Um, and so we'll just keep moving forward. And then I have a meeting the morning after the our next meeting. So, February 13th, uh, at 8:30, I have a meeting with Diane, Katie, Abby, um, and you know, anybody else that can that can join. Um, that will sort of move this thing forward within the the bureau. Okay. let me know if you need anything.

Okay, appreciate that. Um, also for next meeting will be the March McMail tip. Um, hopefully I will have or we will have a list of um, street pavings for 2026. So, we'll bring in the catch basins. We'll discuss the catch basins. We'll we'll further that conversation. Um, I hope to have a regional EAC date. Um, and then I have here local EPCAP uh climate action plan topics and hopefully we'll have something to talk about there. Anything else? That would be final deer.

Final gear. Okay. Any other any other thoughts for topics? Something not held to them right now. Um, hey Jeeoff, could we do a master calendar? Um, now that we've got folks doing lots of stuff in many directions, could somebody create kind of a master list? I like that idea.

Yeah. And that way, you know, we could just even update that. I was I was thinking of just adding that onto our um agenda like as a attachment because it is starting to get quite confusing. There's so many things but it's all talked about in different places. So we could just compile it all there as a starting point. Where is there just on the agenda if we just add to it at the bottom of the page the whole year events or or well we could set we could set up an actual calendar too. I guess that um EAC email address account is there like a shared calendar that we use through that can figure that out. Okay.

Because there is like the shared box. It's really just for people say hey EAC because I have we can try to figure something out. I'm sure we can add that for next month. Our dedicated page and yeah can I just make a suggestion on the note of the agenda? you know, could there be a link always to the SharePoint site in addition to the volunteer signup site so that those links are always in front of us every month? Would that be achievable? Yeah, that's easy to add. Is it? Yeah, because it's not for me. So, I I can put it on the online version. Yeah, very good. I'll just I'll get that added there for you.

Okay. Any other topics for the next meeting at 9:00? Okay. Um, can I have a motion to adjourn? Second. Very good. All right. Thanks everybody. It's nice.