Environmental Services Division - Regular Meeting

Stop. My god. Yeah. It's over here. Alright.

I think we're ready to start. So I'll go ahead and call today's meeting to order. It is September 18. We'll start with roll call. We can start with Rebecca. Rebecca Paley Williams.

Joe Chandler.

Shannon Blair. Keller Romero. And we are missing Sue Barnes and Eric Lachelle. All right, cool. We'll move on to agenda item number two, public comment. As a reminder, this section of the agenda is reserved for comments from the public on items that are not otherwise included in this agenda. Do we have any public comment in chambers? Doesn't look like it. And do we have anybody online, Angelica?

Chair, we don't have anyone online to make public comment.

Alright. Sounds good. We'll go ahead and move on to item number three, which is approval of today's agenda. Do I have a motion to approve?

I move to approve the agenda of August 20 fur no. September 18. September 18.

Alright. Do you have a second?

I second. Okay.

We can just do, like, hands, I guess. All those in favor? Aye. Yeah. Aye. Okay. Cool. Alright. So today's agenda approved. We'll go on to item number four, which is approval of minutes from our 08/21/2025 meeting. Any corrections or anything that we need to make? Okay. Do we have a motion to approve minutes from the August 21 meeting?

I move to approve the minutes from the August 21 Environmental Sustainability Board minutes.

Miss, second? I second.

Alright. All those in favor? Awesome. Okay. Cool. So we can move on to our first agenda item on board business, which is possible action and presentation on the artificial turf study. So maybe just a little bit of background on this. At the Parks and Rec board meeting last Thursday, they were given the same

presentation and recommended that ESB have the opportunity to review it and take notes or comments or anything. So

we do probably have a deadline to get comments back to them. Their chair asked me, I think, around October 3. So we can we can include that in whatever recommendation we end up making. But yeah. So I'll go ahead and hand it over to the individuals on the screen. Thank you guys for joining us.

Thank you very much for having us. My name is Anya Pastushevska. I'm the project manager from NV five on the artificial turf feasibility study. And I would like to introduce my colleague, Lisa Gavioli, who will conduct today's presentation on the reports that we've put together. And with me here today is also Todd Smith, who's a civil engineer and who is our, on our team, advising, throughout the study. So, without further ado, Lisa, take it over.

Thanks, Anya. So I'll go ahead and share my screen, see if I can make this work. Is that presentation showing for everyone now?

Yes. We can see it.

Okay. Great. Well, thank you for having us this evening. We're thrilled to be able to stand before you and present an overview and summary of the artificial turf feasibility study. As Anya mentioned, she presented a version of this presentation to the Parks and Rec advisory board a couple of weeks ago, or that was just last week.

Just last week. And we are here tonight with a with a slightly modified version of the the presentation, really tailored towards sustainability and how that is a theme that's woven throughout the report. So just to introduce our team, again, Anya Pastushevska is was the lead project manager on on the the project. I also am a project manager with n b five. Shasta Meehan and George Radnovich are landscape designers from Site Southwest.

They really did the heavy lifting on the the the site layout, reconfiguration, conceptual plans that you'll see. And, again, Todd Smith is here with us from R and R, as our civil engineer. So the study was commissioned due to increasing demand for high quality multiuse athletic fields capable of supporting a growing number of teams, leagues, and year round programming at North Mesa Sports Complex in Overlook Park. And I really want to just emphasize that that we really only looked at those two facilities. We're not looking at the totality of of sports fields that are under the purview of Los Alamos County.

The key goals of the study included identifying opportunities to improve field improve field safety and playability, addressing maintenance challenges, and importantly, exploring options for optimizing site layouts and extending field usability through artificial turf installation where appropriate. So our recommendations, really revolve around field realignment, synthetic turf products and installation options, maintenance and management, and site improvements. And included within site improvements are things like accessibility, site and field amenities, alternative energy use, and lighting. And we'll go into more detail about that later. The intention of this study is to guide future decision making regarding the use of artificial turf and other facility improvements at North Mason Overlook.

And, again, I want to emphasize that that this study is not meant to be a master plan and does not commit the county to any future decisions. It's really just meant to inform and guide decision making in the future. So an overview of our process and what our deliverables are. We did an assessment of existing conditions looking at the existing site and field conditions at both North Mesa and Overlook Park. We engaged in an extensive community and staff engagement process.

That process really revolved around questions about field user experience, desired improvements, benefits and drawbacks of artificial turf, and then we responded to and addressed questions and concerns that came up through that process. The study produced conceptual site plans and recommendations, cost estimates, and phasing plans, and the outcome has been the comprehensive artificial turf feasibility report that you have before you. So our community engagement process, as I mentioned, spanned five meetings from starting in October and going through May. We also conducted interviews focused with Los Alamos Public Schools, and that primarily was athletes and coaches, as well as Los Alamos Youth Youth Soccer League as those those two groups we felt really had had specialized needs that we wanted to drill down on a little further. We also conducted a community survey that closed on February 7, and we received over 200 responses to that survey.

And that was a really great tool to allow us to reach, a lot more people than our community meetings were reaching, and really gain, feedback, perceptions, preferences from a larger, swath of the community. We also did a follow-up feedback survey, following the presentation of the the conceptual site plans, and that received over a 140 responses as well. We engaged with Los Alamos Little League, Youth Lacrosse, the Softball Association, Los Alamos Extreme, which is youth youth football, athletes, parents, supporters of youth, high school, and adult sports, dog park users, and residents of both, Los Alamos County and as as well as Espanola, Poway, Santa Fe, Nambe, and surrounding areas. The team created a dedicated project webpage on the Los Alamos website to post relevant updates so that there would be current information available to the public at all times, and we had a dedicated project email for direct communication with the public about the project. So in the report, we summarize what we heard in the appendix.

You've got, detailed data that we were that collect we've collected through, surveys as well as notes that were taken during each of the public meetings. Again, field user experiences desire and desired improvements were two primary focus areas of of feedback that we we we generated through those meetings. Field user experiences, we heard concern about injuries and conditions on the fields. We heard particularly about gopher damage and that there didn't seem to be enough fields in a good enough shape to accommodate the variety and number of sports that are being played on these facilities. In terms of desired improvements, we heard a desire for flex or multiuse fields, dugout improvements, batting cages, changing rooms, restrooms, storage.

We we were very, very much focused on questions around colocating baseball and softball game fields to be more convenient for families, to increase attendance, and create more opportunities for new programs, tournaments, concessions, fundraising, and and things of that sort. We also talked about parking and circulation, sort of pedestrian and vehicle conflicts at both facilities, and a variety of other things. Additionally, we, you know, as as the title of the study indicates, we spend a lot of time talking about potential drawbacks and benefits of artificial turf and really gaining, an understanding of what the perceptions in the community are, for artificial turf. We heard that artificial turf could potentially extend playing seasons, and that would be a high priority, among the community. We heard that safety of players is an utmost of utmost importance, and a lot of folks in the community felt artificial turf would do a lot to reduce injuries that they've been seeing.

They feel that artificial turfs are appealing and inspiring to players, and that they've been well received at at Los Alamos public school facilities. They create, again, an opportunity for tournaments. They're more competitive, especially with other other competitor teams having such facilities. Let's see. There is a desire for reduced travel for players in the colder months because, again, competitor teams often have artificial turf fields that can extend the season.

And so, Los Alamos and White Rock players often travel quite frequently in the colder months. In terms of potential drawbacks, there we there we heard perceptions that, artificial turf is really not the complete answer to all of the issues with the fields, but that it could be a part of the solution. That artificial turf would make fields more desirable but could also lead to more competition for use, so that would also require a management component as well. Artificial turfs fields do get hotter in the summer months. Players can't eat sunflower seeds on artificial turf fields.

We did hear a lot about that. There was a concern that where there would be more abrasions and skin infections with artificial turf fields, although there is a little bit of a gray area about that, that I'll address a little bit later. There's definitely a strong desire to retain a large amount of natural turf fields. So there's no suggestion from county staff or in our report that the county consider replacing all fields at North Mesa or Overlook Park with artificial turf. That there is a strong desire to retain natural turf fields, and and certainly that is part of our recommendation as well.

And, additionally, there's there were concerns expressed about environmental and human impacts due to fears about toxicity of materials, and I will go into a little bit more of that later in the presentation. So our analysis, went into further sorry.

Our

analysis identified multiple factors that the county should consider when making future decisions about whether and where to utilize artificial turf or natural grass at North Mesa and Overlook Park. And these factors are discussed in detail in the report and grouped into categories, the categories listed here. So sport type, intensity of use, public perception and safety, climate conditions, cost to install and maintain, blended and hybrid approaches, and facility management. And, again, I'm I'm not gonna go into to all of the detail that's included in the report. I'm just calling attention to that is how we sort of structured our analysis.

Our analysis went into further detail comparing the maintenance and management requirements and considerations for artificial and natural turf. And table 3.2 in the report summarizes this comparison. For instance, synthetic turf can be used year round and requires no rest between games, whereas natural turf, natural grass use is limited in freezing or wet conditions and needs to recover to avoid overuse. In terms of sustainability, synthetic turf may have higher embodied carbon depending upon the product selection and recyclability, whereas natural turf may support green goals. Although, again, there is a gray area, when it comes to this.

On the other hand, natural turf requires high water use and high pesticide and herbicide use, while artificial turf has a much lower water demand and does not require the application of those kinds of chemicals. And so I want to emphasize here that our report doesn't take a strong stance in favor of artificial turf. Our intention really is to just provide the necessary information so that county can make informed decisions moving forward. And so now I'd like to go into a little more detail about the specific concerns that were raised around the human and environmental impacts during the community engagement process. We took great care to go into further detail in our analysis about these issues, and I wanna I wanna stress that there were concerns raised both about artificial turf and about natural turf.

And this slide sort of summarizes what those concerns were. So in terms of artificial turf, of course, the presence of PFAS or forever chemicals in the materials was expressed as a concern, the potential for microplastics in the environment, life cycle or recyclability of the materials, increased temperatures during warm warmer months, water use needed to cool down artificial turf, and this perceived risk of abrasions and skin infections was expressed. When it comes to natural turf, the concerns are high water use to maintain grass, pesticide and fertilizer use, and and subsequent runoff that would then carry those into further afield into the environment. Gophers creating both safety hazards for athletes and pest management challenges for county staff. Maintenance demands that that we heard over and over really do exceed the the current staff capacity.

And grass fields need needing more resting time than they currently get leading to overuse, which is a condition that we saw frequently throughout the complexes. So how did we address these concerns? Our our approach, and and I I want to emphasize here that we did not ourselves conduct research into these issues, but we did compile and consult third party research by subject matter experts, which we posted on the project web page, and we've included and elaborated upon these these things in the final report. We've included a list of resources in appendix g that we consulted. And so this third party research really informed our analysis and recommendations, and we made an effort to sort of summarize what we felt were the best practices and the industry industry improvements and standards that are out there right now.

In particular, our report recommends cradle to cradle certified products, which have, of course, a lower impact, a lower environmental impact. And we we recommend really relying on recognized standards for health and environmental stewardship, and we've made an effort to summarize those standards that the county should keep in mind when making decisions about products and systems when when it comes to that point, calling attention to table 4.1 here. Also in our report, table 3.3, I want to call attention to that because in this table, we really have made an effort to distill the third party research we reviewed into a myths and facts table, which is intended to highlight common perceptions and to inform them with the latest data on current materials and products. We recommend in the report that the that at the time that the county undertakes design and decision making about the use of artificial turf, that current research is consulted in the selection of turf systems as as I previously previously mentioned. So So a couple of things I wanna highlight here, some of the perceptions that we heard and concerns that we heard about artificial turf, is that artificial turf contains dangerous chemicals at harmful levels that PFAS and turf are the same as most harmful PFAS compounds, and countering those with some information that that just puts it into context.

So while synthetic turf contain can contain trace amounts of substances like PFAS or heavy metals, the levels are generally far below regulatory limits and are often lower than in everyday items such as cosmetics, food packaging, or cookware. And of 10,000 PFAS types, only around 30 pose health concerns. Artificial turf typically contains far fewer and at much lower levels than than many commonly, than many common household products. So I think it's important just to, just to put those concerns into context, not to minimize the concern or to diminish the importance of the concern, but to put it into context. And to emphasize that the industry has made great strides, especially in the last ten to fifteen years to really reduce the quantities of dangerous chemicals in the materials and to be able to reduce the degree to which those end up in the environment.

So, another perception that we heard is that artificial turf sheds large amounts of harmful microplastics into the environment. From the research, we looked at most microplastic release is preventable through proper maintenance and field design. And so that, we do make some recommendations about maintenance and how to prevent that microplastic release. And also, again, putting it into context that that the levels, in the materials are comparable to things like textiles, tires, packaging materials, things that we handle on a daily basis. There is a perception out there that natural grass is always better for the environment.

We also think it's important to, reveal that there that natural turf does have hidden costs as well, hidden impacts as well, including requiring significant water use, fertilizers, pesticides, and fuel for maintenance. Whereas artificial turf needs minimal irrigation, no chemical treatments, and supports more hours of use year round. And so this is these are just examples. And, the last one I wanna, draw your attention to is the perception that artificial turf is not recyclable. In fact, a 100% recycling options now exist in the industry, and some products meet cradle to cradle standards with no end of life waste, and this is a recommendation in our report.

I also want to, before I move on from this slide, go back to the perception of artificial turf increasing infection and abrasion risk. And the studies that we looked at show that bacteria like staph can survive longer on natural grass than on artificial turf. And that, in fact, artificial turf's higher surface temperatures, although they feel very hot for players in the in the warmer months, also reduce microbial survival. So we can we can circle back to this if there are questions, but I'll move on through the rest of the presentation now. So sustainability issues and standards, as previously mentioned, are interwoven throughout the recommendations of the report.

Although the study was focused on the feasibility of utilizing artificial turf at North Mason Overlook Park, our scope covered a broad range of related topics, including accessibility, pedestrian and vehicular access, lighting, maintenance and management, renewable energy use, field and park amenities, and field realignment and reorientation options as as I previously stated. So we've got a summary table of our recommendations. I really wanna draw your attention to that. That's both in the executive summary and in in section five of the report in table 5.4, as you see on the screen. The table, summarizes recommendations, and we'd be happy to respond to any specific questions about these recommendations.

These are intended, again, to to inform future decision making and master planning for North Mesa and Overlook Park and are not intended to themselves constitute a master plan for these facilities. So included in our recommendations are some conceptual site plans that really focus on the field realignment and reorientation layout, that we have been exploring for each of the sites. These these framework plans, as we're referring to them, also show potential options for, for amenities like playgrounds, concessions, and restrooms, food truck parking, EV parking, batting cages. Importantly, I wanna draw your attention, to this cloverleaf layout here. This not only creates some efficiency in terms of site layout and and fitting all the fields into one location, but also creates much better safety conditions for the players and spectators, separating pedestrian spaces from vehicular spaces.

And I just wanna flip back and forth to the existing conditions now at North Mesa. And as you can see here, you've got and you guys are, I'm sure, much more familiar with these sites, but there are there's parking and circulation vehicular circulation throughout the fields, creating a lot of moments where, pedestrians and vehicles can can be in conflict with one another. And so our conceptual plan really just provides some some ideas that the county can explore in future master planning, for really optimizing the site and addressing desires for improvements. In at North Mesa Sports Complex, we are recommending that Lou Caviglia And Bomberfield be, considered for synthetic turf should the county, go that route. And that it really the purpose of that is to provide a game field for high school baseball and a game field for high school softball, as well as maintaining little league and tee ball options as well.

And our overlook park conceptual framework plan is shown here. Our the reorientation and layout changes are really focused on the north part of the park here as you'll see with a a formal parking lot, proposed reconfiguring the parking lot down here, creating this pedestrian throughway with an opportunity for concessions and restrooms on the north side of the park and a little playground area as well, really connecting all of these spaces, in ways that vehicles and pedestrians don't don't conflict as quite as much. I'll also draw attention down here to Field what was Field 4, and I can flip to the existing condition. So the north part of the park exist existing conditions here, and, drawing attention down here to Field 4. We heard frequently that Field 4 was an underutilized area, and that there was a need to if if artificial turf is placed on Dara Jones soccer field, as is our recommendation, that there will be a need to to create a new dog training area because dog, dogs and artificial turf don't really mix.

So and we we took the opportunity to to suggest that the dog park could be expanded in this area and that a separated dog training area could be designated in that space. We also are were are responding to a request for basketball courts at at Overlook Park, and so we've we've fit those elements into that area. But in general, here, the synthetic turf fields that are being proposed are Hope Field as a high school softball game field, X. Lovato as high school and adult softball field option and Dara Jones as the soccer field option. So in terms of the next steps for our for our report, we are hoping we are asking for your recommendation, to the Parks and Rec advisory board this evening.

We we do plan to go back to the Parks and Rec advisory board on October 9, then we hope to be able to make any suggested revisions before that time. And we are aiming for the October 28 county council meeting where the final report will be presented for consideration and approval. And I'm sorry for that long the long windedness of my presentation, but we do stand for questions at this time.

Thank you, Lisa. So before we take questions, I just want to read the suggested motions. We can kind of tailor this discussion around that. So our the suggested motion in our packet, and it's at the end, I think, after well, I'm not sure what page it is on, so have fun flipping through. No.

I have it too. Yeah. It's so the Environmental Sustainability Board moves to authorize Chair Blair, so myself, and staff liaison, and Helica to collect comments from the Environmental Sustainability Board and submit them to the Parks and Rec Board no later than 10/02/2025. So this is a ton of information to digest, And the expectation is not that we will go through everything this evening, because I think that we all probably need a little bit of time. But I do think if anybody has questions or anything that they want clarified, now is a good time to do that.

And then the October 2 date does come as a request from the Perks and Rec Board because that will give them time to add our comments to their comments, and then they can prep for the next meeting that they have. So with that, does anybody on the board have any questions or comments?

I do. I saw on one of the slides, like early on, there was a mention of disinfection with the artificial turf. Could you kind of explain what that process is? What kind of disinfection procedures are used and what kind of disinfectant would be used?

I'm gonna look over to Todd as our resident expert.

Okay. Yeah. Fortunately, there isn't much need in our climate because it's so dry and because of the sun. Other parts, they do do some disinfection in the Northeast where it's really moist.

So

okay. So But

it's it be like same thing. They use the same thing.

Sorry. Go ahead.

Almost nobody does it in the Rocky Mountain region in the in the arid West because there's just they're they've all the testing shows that because it's so dry and and so much sun, whatever it was that might be there died right away, and there's nothing.

Okay. Thank you.

So I guess, quick question. You did a really good job of laying out some of the concerns and everything there. Did you have a budget that you were working with for kind of these reconfigurations and these, know, hey, if we're going to change it, here's all this stuff that's baked into it. Because it seems like it gets larger than just a question of turf at the end. And so can you help me break this down into what are just kind of the turf questions, or is this like a complete overhaul? And and how to how do we separate that, or is it all just conjoined?

Well, we do provide, detailed cost estimates in our report, and they do address not just the application of artificial turf, but also other site reconfiguration opportunities that we have have suggested in our conceptual site plans. The the the cost estimates are phased so that the in such a way and we were guided by by county county staff suggestions in that regard. But the the the cost estimates are phased such that, the county could can can acquire funding for different pieces at different moments. And so, those decisions can be made. And and they're broken out, we hope, in such a way that that you can kind of quantify different elements, and it looks a bit like a menu of options.

But again, I want to stress that that master planning would would also be needed, that this this study sort of lays out the framework and provides the information that will that will that can guide a master planning effort that would then be used to obtain funding.

From I mean, from the research you did and everything, perspective, should we be viewing this from environmental considerations? Or is this really a question about financing and costing that we should be taking into consideration on this particular item, in your opinion?

Is that question directed to me?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, after doing the research, right, like, is this something, like, if it goes forward, this is really about, like, maintenance costs and, like, implementing this and and creating these opportunities? Or is this, like, you know, what what have you kinda gathered as you've walked through it?

Well

I'm pushing my job onto you. I know it's really, like,

a firearm. So Well, what our report tries to do is, again, provide all the information that would be needed to make make informed decisions. That said, it it really becomes a balance of what is desired versus what the cost is. And I and I would say that that, there are pros and cons to whether you use artificial turf or retain all natural grass. And, we're we've we've been directed to make recommendations for, you know, I think total of five artificial turf fields out of out of all of the fields that we looked at between the two facilities.

And so the cost of, and I may ask Todd to speak to this more more directly. The cost of installing our artificial turf and maintaining it over the years versus installing, natural grass and having to re sod as you see as you have seen recently, the resodding that's taken place and then maintaining those, those facilities has to be taken into consideration as well.

Is there

anything you would you would add about that, Todd?

Yeah. In the big picture, we were not given a budget other than after, you know, our as Lisa said, the original was, hey. If we did up to five synthetic fields, which ones would make more sense? And as we got into that, we started hearing, you know, I really have a problem. You know, one kid plays over there and one kid plays over there.

Maybe we should look at a little more reconfiguration. So it kinda became both on, what would be most needed. And if we could move some fields, or if they did, what what makes sense to be next to what and what's missing, like some of the ADA accessibility and more restrooms and that kind of thing. And then the budget part came later when it was, okay. We're not gonna nobody's gonna do all of this at once.

And so we were asked to phase, what if you had, you know, 3 to 5,000,000 to spend at a a time that wouldn't start for a few years from now because the master plan would really need to be gone through? Okay. Where would you spend 3 or 5,000,000 at a time in what phasing? So that that's how it kind of evolved.

Yeah. And to add to that, you know, the the report captures the community's desires. So it's it's almost like a wish list. And then our cost estimates priced that wish list, which now can be used to set a budget for what could be afforded and what could be provided for the community in the future.

Okay. Thank you.

So we provide phasing plans that give a visual representation of that $3,000,000 $5,000,000 chunks, for lack of a better word, so that each phase would be, in a manageable budget to do at a single time. And and and not just budget, but also logistically in terms of grading and and just what makes sense to do at the same time. So that is where our phasing plans help to illustrate what the cost estimates bear out.

Kelly?

I think

I mean, I think I'll add to that too. So as our role as the environmental sustainability board, I think the biggest and most important thing is for us to be looking at this through that lens. Of course, price is also important, so we can you're welcome to give feedback on that as well, but just keep in mind, like, our lens that we're trying to see this through.

Okay. I guess I have I don't know. Not really questions, more just comments. I really I really appreciate the effort that went into reconfiguring everything. I the way the fields are is kinda crazy.

It feels like they're just kind of haphazardly put together, so I I very much like the the effort that went into this. I am a former athlete who hates turf. So I find it I mean, that was ten years ago, but it is difficult to play on, and it's not as comfortable. And I do I am curious, like, some of the other environmental impacts may be more specific to Los Alamos, like we water all of our fields with reclaimed water already. And so and I haven't dived into the report, but I would be curious about looking at that.

And then remember this from playing on turf, but also just from reading about it, that in particularly hot days, turf gets significantly hotter than the surrounding environment. And I just feel like, you know, as our summers get hotter, how much access is that really giving us? If, you know, if it's over 100 degrees on the turf, can we really be playing throughout the day? I don't know the answer to that, but I do think that's something to consider. Yeah. But thank you all for all the work that went into this. Kele, do you have any comments? No. Okay.

So I just wanted to add from our standpoint that there are quite bit of things that would be concerning. The biggest thing is that you guys are incorporating pets, and that's huge because we're a big pet community. But my concern, first of all, as a pet owner is, like, if my dog, let's say, eats some turf because dogs aren't perfect, that might be a concern. And that also goes with small children too. I know they tend to put things in their mouth, and so we're now at a point of, like, my kid is eating turf. And I also wanted to go into on the days that it's really hot and now it's really hot, are we using more water to cool it down for everyone? So are we even offsetting what we're saving that we're not using the other times? So that would just be something else that I would think about too.

Alright. Any other questions from the board?

Yeah. I'm also a former athlete who didn't like a turf. But but I'm curious. I mean, obviously, we haven't had a chance to really dive into this much, but have there been any, surveys done of the student athletes on what they prefer? And, yeah, I guess, if they have if you wouldn't mind sharing, what that general consensus was.

We did have a a focused interview with Los Alamos Public School high school athletes and coaches. And, the resounding universal sentiment in that room was support for artificial turf and enthusiasm for artificial turf. And that was a variety of different, there were a variety of different benefits that were called out by by that group. The level playing surface, which is a continual problem, due to gopher, infestation at the fields. So artificial turf would would potentially solve that problem.

Artificial turf would allow particularly baseball and softball to seasons to begin much sooner than they than they do currently, which gives them a playing advantage in terms of training and being ready for the season. Again, they they feel they felt that artificial having some artificial turf game fields would really allow them to be competitive with their with their, the other teams that they compete with, both in terms of just attractiveness of the field and also playability. What else am I missing? I think extending the playing the playing season was a huge one for for Los Alamos public schools as that's a continuous problem for them.

Mhmm. And that resting period, that turf wouldn't require as much as grass. So having a reliable surface.

I guess

Yeah. I do wanna also mention that that, again, we're just recommending that there be one artificial turf field for base baseball and softball at each facility or at one or the other facility, and that there would also be natural grass fields available so that they wouldn't all be artificial turf.

I guess one thing I'm missing too is, like, when I think of turf, it's more from my childhood, and I'm sure that technology and turf has evolved leaps and bounds since then. There some Like, considerations that we're missing on that? Like, is there a way that they're prepping the field and putting this down to make it feel better, have better effect? Like, you know, is there something that we're not getting through our head? I am. I'm that old. So, like, I just you know, I don't know. Like, is there something that a lot of people are probably not getting when we talk about turf these days, right?

In terms of how it feels?

In terms of how it feels, how it behaves, the materials they're using in it, like the toxicity, like

Mhmm.

You know? Yeah.

I would love to direct Todd to address that question, perhaps. He is our he Todd has extensive experience in designing these systems and installing these systems throughout the Rocky Mountain region, and so that's why we keep directing our attention to Todd.

I actually, yeah, all over The US for first synthetic turf I did was in '81. And I I yeah. Hearing all those things and seeing those in the big picture, can tell you that from about 2000, till now, but really a big push till about five years ago for all the turf manufacturers, was, all the chemicals and all the processes and all the get all that out of there and, you know, get it so that, you can eat it, you can sleep on it, you can do whatever, get all those chemicals, out or at least way, way, way down where it's not gonna hurt anyone. And the last five years, they've concentrated on two things. One was the recyclability, trying to get cradle to cradle and trying to get it so that they don't go to landfill.

The infill doesn't go, the fiber, the backing, all that recyclability. The other part was they've really honed in on what level of play, you know, what length, what density, what infill for what type of sport so that they can better match what athletes expect. So does that I don't know if that, tried to take a big picture approach. Does that answer what your question was?

Yeah. I think that's helpful.

And there's also a significant amount of this report is public comments and feedback, so it'll be good to read through and see what the community said.

Cool. Alright. Any other comments from the board? No? Okay. We'll open it up for public comment then. Yeah. Go ahead. And we'll keep it to three minutes, and I'll just time you on my phone and then tell you when you have, like, thirty seconds left. Does that work?

Sounds great. Can you hear me? I'm Dina Pessenson. I live at 1355 45th Street. I've been on both boards before, so I appreciate both boards taking the time to consider these. I know these are hard to weigh all the sides and the amount of work and money that goes into these studies. I do want to point out that on staff here we have some not really questioning, not a lot of talk back and forth. I apologize to the presenters. But these are kind of questionscomments. You have a specialist on installing turf. Do you you don't need to answer it. I'm thinking out loud. Is there a specialist who has done this successfully with integrated pest management? And how did that work? I mean, to me, this study does not look like it's looking at both sides.

It has not quoted money on both sides. It says, we recommend one to two fields. Okay. They're $1,500,000 each. Have we spent 1 and a half million dollars on integrated pest management? You said in your things that maintenance is exceeding staff capacity. I'm sure it is. Those are extensive fields. Gophers are difficult. It's dangerous for the kids. Those are ongoing problems. But integrated pest management is relatively new to this community, and I do not think it's been given the resources and the chances it has. And I don't see this study showing somebody who has and knows more about it as to how to potentially make that work. Or maybe it doesn't work, but that would be great to know too. We just have the artificial turf specialist.

And I do not think that's reasonable. The school is going to jump on the artificial turf if they're told it's safe. We're told it's recyclable. How much of the high school field was recycled when it was removed within six years when we were

told it was going to

be ten years? Right? It only lasted six years, but we're told eight to ten. None of it was recycled. And we know here, we're environmental board, we know how difficult it is to recycle our materials up here. A lot of the things we put in our recycled bills are not recyclable. They're ending up in trash. We can't afford to find places that buy them or actually recycle them. So recyclable should really, really be qualified when it's quoted in a decision making process like this one. It's not fair to say it's recyclable and cradle to cradle when we know we can't recycle half the stuff we're collecting and we can't afford to recycle it. And then we can't afford a whole of the trash. 40,000 pounds.

Sixty seconds.

40,000 pounds, right, to remove the field. Every sixty years every six years, we're removing sick 40,000 per field. Where are we putting it? We have less than three years left with our current trash. Right? We're paying more and more to haul it farther and farther. How does that work? To say that you can sleep in it is really unfair, Todd. I'm gonna totally use your name. I'm so sorry. Manufacturers are not required to release any of the ingredients, let alone most. Your own links on the study show that you cannot say

these are

safe materials because you cannot study these materials. They're not required to be released. That's not fair to the environment. That's not fair to the kids. We worry about them with gopher holes, I do worry about that. But I'm really worried about cancer and I'm really worried about their hormones. And we have problems with that all the time. Not to mention environmental problems. So I do think this study is not a one Thank thousand you for your time.

Thank you, Dina. Alright. Anything else before we make our possible recommended action? Okay. So I'll read this again, and then we can I don't know what page it's on? It doesn't have a page number. It's yeah. Okay. So and we can edit this if we need to. We can discuss it.

So the Environmental Sustainability Board moves to authorize Chair Blair and staff liaison Angelica Gruelay to collect comments from the Environmental Sustainability Board and submit them to the Parks and Rec Board no later than 10/02/2025. Thoughts, feedback, questions? That gives us about two weeks to make our comments, read through everything.

And it's a little less because we'll have to compile them and then give them to them by the second.

Okay. So we maybe need, like, a day or two to compile. Mhmm. Okay. So plan to submit maybe to Angelica and I by, like, the thirtieth? K. So September 30.

Everyone Do we wanna see how much circulated and connected that or we just wanna collect

So, I I mean, I think we can read them, and then if there's overlap or, like, we can condense things, yeah, which I feel like is somewhat implied in this. So yeah. Alright. So I think if everyone is good with that, we'll we can move forward with a motion. So if anyone wants to do that. Yeah. Who wants to make a motion?

All right, I'd like to go

ahead and make a motion.

I move that the Environmental Sustainability Board moves to authorize Chair Belair and staff liaison Angelica Aguirre to collect comments from the Environmental Sustainability Board and condense them as needed to then submit to them to the parks and rec board no later than 10/02/2025.

Alright. Do we have a second? I second. Alright. All those in favor? Let's see. Alright. Great. So that is what we will do moving forward. Thank you everybody for your comments and your feedback, and thank you everybody online, for joining us. We really appreciate you all taking the time out of your evening to to come talk to us.

Thank you for

having us. We really appreciate it.

Cool. Alright. Awesome. So next thing on our agenda is to go over our county council update. So we started this last time, and then everybody was asked to provide with comments. So, hopefully, everyone did that. And then we are presenting to council on October 21. Twenty first. Yep.

Okay. I can talk through these. Okay. So so the goal tonight really is to provide final comments and then Shannon and I will make final revisions before the meeting and then submit it to counsel for our presentation on the twenty first. So so we were planning to take a photo but we were missing Sue and our new board member Eric Lochelle so we'll reschedule for another date.

Hopefully in the next couple of weeks. I can herd you all into convince you all to come take a quick photo for that meeting. So one suggestion and I'm gonna make edits here tonight. So on paper. So one suggestion was to delete the b city item just because it's really not something that we're working on. We get we we do receive updates, but we're not actually contributing to that. So we're okay with that.

I think that makes sense. K.

And then so there was a little bit of mixed opinions on this, I think. Shannon said too, maybe I misunderstood you, but you said maybe the list who served on which committees, and then Sue Barnes said to take them off. So

I think I just said that because the plastic bag one didn't have anybody listed. So I was just suggesting we be consistent. I'm fine if we just wanna remove people. I think that's okay. It's up to you guys, but I think that's okay.

I mean, it kinda shows that it does take a lot of effort. You know? But I'm I think either way is fine.

Okay. Did Sue give you was it just to, like, shorten up the bullet points?

I don't know. She didn't explain. She just said remove.

We could always I mean, we we don't have to read everything that's on here too. We could just Right. We could just say that. Let's just say it in the presentation. She said Usually with bullets

Usually with bullets, I would say the less text, the better because then they're more likely to listen to what you're saying than sit there trying to read.

So maybe delete?

Yeah. Less is more.

And then we can say tell counsel who's on what. Okay.

Okay. That's easy. ESB events. So Joe added the site visit of the brain, which I have already forgot about. So thank you. I didn't put that in red. And then we have the LAHS youth climate summit, which was fun science fest, and and that's that was that. So I don't know if we have any others. We could have, but I think they're pretty up to date. And then after our last meeting, we had our update from Herman about the bicycle working group and then tonight the artificial turf study.

Cool. So that brings us current. So Lassa and what that group is doing, the only suggestion was was to add outreach for climate action. So this will be completely removed. And then our proposed work plan or our future challenges, I think I don't know if they need to be changed, but there really wasn't much input.

This was really like a like the bones from last year. So I'd like to spend a little bit of time on this and see if if we're comfortable with this or if we wanna make any changes. Because now it's it's really our opportunity to let them know, like, what do we plan to do as a board this coming year.

Do we wanna add, like, contribute to plastic bag ban fee study as as research, yeah, as counsel asks? Sure. Okay. I don't know if that would be new or ongoing.

Well I guess, I'm not going We can reframe this too. It could just be, like, what are it could be new or ongoing.

Yeah. I mean, so far I mean, by next month, it'll still be kind of ongoing, and it is a big chunk of what we're doing.

Yeah. So

Yeah. So maybe add it to ongoing. So add that. Yeah.

I mean, it's it's weird just because, like, last year where everything was is a completely different world than this year now. Like, I think one of the things that's gonna be leaned on for the council is just an interpretation of where things are going at the federal level that nobody knows right now.

Do you know?

We're trying to make sense of it. But, I mean, that's that's really what I see is it's like, look, like, the the grants, the loans, the the programs, the approvals processes, like, all of that's changing. And certainly, like, if you're on the council, you're not gonna be able to track that. And I think that's gonna fall to this board. And so giving probably the council, like, that heads up, like, hey. The processes that we've gone through in the past might not apply for the next three years, five year, what whatever it is or how long this goes. But, like, things are getting a major overhaul in the staffing that people used to be able to have for interface points. Like, the staffing is very changed up. And so the the way things look is completely different.

So do you think that's that is something that, like, is a priority for ESB, or is that something that we should wait till we get direction from counsel to investigate?

Good question. I mean, I think it's gonna be one of those things. Like, as we find out stuff that's pertinent, I think it's gonna be rolling it down.

Yeah.

And if they run into, like, here's something that we're looking at, and in the past, we we might have to go do some digging just to find these connections for them.

Well, maybe we can say, like, work to implement council priorities, including all of that stuff and keeping a pulse. That's not the right phrase, but and keeping a pulse on the changing federal and state Monitoring. Monitoring. Yeah. And and monitoring federal and state climate landscape, something like that. Okay.

That sounds pretty good.

Okay.

Off the cuff.

Yeah. Also, the a period at the end of under the nail to match all the others.

Oh, at the end of charging plane. Okay. Yeah. I I think that's fine because that gives it a little bit of free range of, like, if they ask us to investigate something or if we notice something, we can bring it up.

And maybe it's not new. It's these kind of all fall under ongoing.

Yeah. Yeah.

Or I could just take them out. We could list them as priorities instead of say they're ongoing priorities.

Yeah. I think that's fine. Yeah.

I mean, I I don't know. I I think it's gonna be a new way of communication around it. Like, even though you might be prioritizing something, way that you communicate it out might be completely different now from what you originally state to get it through filters and whatever else.

We could just say we could just say priorities then. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. K. Cool. I think that's a good addition.

Community education, that's a top priority for us. Research, update, and modify items in line with community priorities. That just seems very general.

Looks like there's an extra space after board of public utilities and the department.

Well, it's kinda saying that they're electrifying the fleet vehicles and that's more of a county initiative. So it's not just them that's implementing measures to electrify their fleet, the entire county is doing that. But that's kind of covered in the the first bullet for the fleet conversion plan. We get

Some of that's paid for with federal dollars, though, isn't it? No. It's all state.

The federal changes that have been made are have not been impacting us necessarily.

Okay. Good.

Yeah. We haven't received because we don't qualify as the justice forty community, we haven't been eligible to receive many of the federal grants.

Okay.

So the grants that we have received are from the state.

Okay.

We could just take that out and say strengthen relationship with the board of public utilities and the department of public utilities as they implement priorities from climate action plan. Just, like, make it broader. Because those came from the cap, I think.

I think they were kind of the first to start electrifying, so maybe that's why.

Oh, okay. Or we could just say as they implement sustainability and climate Well, they're doing a lot.

They're expanding their the, you know, the carbon free.

But if we just take that those specifics out and just, yeah, broaden it.

So take out so strengthen relationship with the BPU and Department of Public Utilities as they implement priorities from the climate action plan.

Yeah. Or something. Yeah. Okay.

Like, strengthen or collaborate. Or Yeah. Because we did do some of the rebates from MNerd. I didn't know you guys don't like being called that. Right? That's what I heard. Okay. So we did try to get out some of that information about state rebates and things. So strengthen and collaborate?

Or

I would just I think just collaborate because strengthen implies that we have a weak relationship with them, and I don't necessarily think that's true. Well, it's evolved over the years. So But let's just say, I think collaborate.

Okay. I like that. We're past strengthening.

Yeah. Yeah.

So it's pretty strong. Alright. Thank you. I I like that feedback. Okay. So contribute as appropriate to the implementation of the municipal food composting program. So I think this is still important that we keep this Especially with Eric coming. On our I wanna know. Yeah. It's important. Okay. Investigate and advance additional topics in sustainability, like the use of plastics and alternative energy sources for use in the county. So that's interesting because plastics, we added the bullet for it, and then alternative energy sources kinda falls under the whole DPU.

Collaborate with BPU and DPU. So maybe delete it. Or just say investigate and advance additional topics and sustainability as assigned. As requested. Yeah.

We do get some, like, special projects from council or so right. So K. I think that feels better. Are we missing anything that's important to the board that you think we need to add? Think about it.

If you get a brilliant idea before now and, like, a week or two from now when we've completely but, I mean, for the this is fundamentally, like, everything that's going to be in there. So there shouldn't be any significant changes. But if, you know, if you wanna add something, please let us know. Cool.

Sounds good. Is that it? Mhmm. Oh, awesome.

Oh, that is not it. Okay. Was like, I think there's a Sorry. There's a few more. Okay. Challenges. So actually Oh, you wanna go back? We don't

have anything just, like, directly mentioning the cap oh, yes. We do. Never mind.

The topical one. Yeah. Yeah. No

comment. Think you're cute with me. And I I mean, I could list what they are for the first two years, like the but a lot of them fall under, you know, like, the

You could add that as an appendix maybe for, like, an additional slide.

I would just talk on it.

Oh, that works too.

I'll just talk on it.

Yeah.

Yeah. Like, you know it. You can bring it up.

Yeah. Yeah.

And I hope you all will attend that night. It's nice to have the board support

Which night?

Good way to October 21. And that'll be

It's in White Rock, though, with the fire station. Right. Yeah.

Okay. So we went over priorities. So challenges and opportunities. So this is a good opportunity for you to say, like, these are some of the roadblocks we're facing or hurdles or areas where, you know, we might We could add

what Joe was just talking about about, like, the changing Right. And uncertainty at the federal level and how that will potentially trickle down. We could add that as a challenge. Okay.

Like, uncertain.

It's changing the capital stack that's required on some of these projects in order to get them done. A lot of this stuff. I mean, it doesn't sound like it hits us, but I'm just the other communities.

Yeah. Or when we should be supporting our yeah.

So

Right. And also, like, is is that impacting, like, federal funding going to the state that then they deploy? So that could potentially

For both. Right? Like, it's Okay. I mean, that's the thing is

There's more

to it than just experience. Communities for what they can apply to to bring in from other sources to do it. So that's gonna put actually more emphasis on us if we're doing a project. You're the role model. And if it doesn't work here, other people aren't gonna get a second chance. So that's the other thing. It's like less projects everywhere else.

Right.

Things still going on here. All eyes are gonna be here on how it's done, how it happens, the the metrics that that are used, like

chat. Give me the chat GPT version of that.

You must do good work for cheap prices very quickly.

And be a good model

Yes.

For all other communities to

follow. No pressure.

So uncertain

how do we say that diplomatically? Uncertain federal and state

I mean changing sustainability landscape Yeah. Potentially impacting the manner and financing for how projects get done.

Also, like, I think we could extend that to say support too. Like

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because what's weird like, you know, solar and wind are getting hit pretty hard, but geothermal and and other ones actually still have good support. So just the ability to pivot or retool yourself to what priorities are to still allow advancement in fields.

Mhmm. Yeah. Keeping flexible. Yep. That sounds good.

Yeah. And it's hard to adjust so quickly too, like, for us. Right? Yeah. We had this windfall of money, and we're barely getting our feet under ourselves for that, and then it completely changed again. Yeah. So okay. So I read I wrote and we can wordsmith this, Shannon. Uncertain changes in, like, environmental sustainability landscape may impact what level of financial support is available for new projects or programs, I guess.

Yep. Sounds good to me.

So let's start from the top here. Yes. So the challenge is implementing recommendations from the climate action plan and ensuring alignment with community priorities. Priorities. So do we feel do we still feel like that's a I mean, I guess so with some of the things like EVs, sometimes the community may not think that's a priority. We do get feedback on that. Like, the new EV chargers we put in, we have heard opposition. Mostly support, but there has been some opposition.

I mean, that's that's part of the question. Right? It's like, with stuff changing at the federal level, has that actually changed anything within the community in terms of their priorities or the way that they're viewing stuff or how things roll out? Like, it's hard to keep a pulse on that because it's kind of a pendulum.

And I think one of the things that BPU is doing is or DPU is a community survey. Like, one of our big goals as a county is to phase out natural gas by 2070. So I think that's one of the surveys they're putting back to the community and saying, is this aligned with your priorities? You know? So

The surveys are some of the hardest ones to understand. Like, lot of love to them, but, like, going through that.

Yeah. But I think it's important. Right? Because this was a it started as a BPU goal and then it you know, council adopted the goal as well, but now they're going back and saying, is this still a priority? Is this still something that you support? So I just wanna make sure that we're able to, you know so if this still stands true. So we can leave it, sounds like. Increasing educational initiatives across the community to raise awareness of important environmental concepts and practices. So do we think that's a challenge?

Did they ask us to include challenges and opportunities? They did. Right? Okay. I just like I'm like, this is I feel like all of these are opportunities.

We could we could

Well, we could just say that. Like, all of these are challenges, but they also present opportunities for us to do, and that's fine.

Did we ever land that on what the educational initiatives are?

So we did we selected a vendor, and we're working through the contract process right now. But they are going to be hired so they can help with that. So we'll create a, you know, a whole plan with the board's input. You're welcome to participate in that as much as you want. So events and outreach and education and all of that.

But is there, like, a that's what I like, is there a design curriculum that is selected, or is the vendor preparing? Like, that's

Yeah.

They'll have to prepare it, and it'll be focused off of what's in the climate action plan. So energy efficiency.

But the actual materials they use, like, are we gonna approve that before it goes out, or is that gonna be handled internally between the contractor and

So right now, as it stands, his staff will have approval, and Sue Barnes is sitting on that committee to for as a board member. So they they are planning, though, as part of it to present their approach to the board. Okay. Okay. Bridge bridge the gap between environmental quality goals and practical cost proposals for implementation.

So to Joe's point tonight. Right? How do you balance those or at least bring awareness to to that need? Okay. And then the anything else there with challenges slash opportunities?

No. Looks good to me. Okay. Opportunities exist for more collaboration between the board and county council to report on progress, engage the community's pulse on sustainability topics. Topics.

So this came up, I think, during the the board interviews and just how we can how your board how this board can engage more with county council. And one thing that has changed since we made this report last time is that I'm giving sustainability updates to council quarterly. So it'd be an opportunity if the board wanted to submit a slide and then, like, co present or I could present what the board is doing at that time, but that would be an opportunity to report progress on what we're doing and to have that interface. So I don't know if it still exists, but, I mean, it doesn't hurt to mention and if we want to piggyback off those quarterly sustainability updates.

I think we could leave it, and then we could just say, like, right now, our plan is to do exactly what you said. Okay.

Yeah. Cool. Potential to use the board to help secure additional grants or funding to implement proposals. So it is an opportunity, but it takes a great deal of effort, and people are busy. So I don't know if we wanna include that. It might be something for sure to

delete. What does that involve? Like, I guess what

I guess it would involve, yeah, like, actually helping to, like, look at grant opportunities and perhaps even helping to draft or contribute to the proposal process.

I have never written a grant, so I don't know.

Yeah. There's a bunch of I mean, it just varies.

So are you gonna

Right now right now, there's a backlog waiting of what money's gonna get free. So it's kind of like the pool's really dry right now, but, like, once they get initiatives, once they get some staffing in there, I think their priority is, like, there might be, you know, a slug that moves through the system.

So you so you think we should leave it?

Different areas. But yeah. I mean, I would I would leave it in because I think you're the only sustainability person up here. Right? Mhmm. So, like, I would

That's lot

of I would make ourselves available to you. Mhmm. We can help you if you need it. Like, let people know that you you have it. You can lean on.

Sure. Okay.

Okay. Work to identify common sense initiatives and implement proposals without polarizing the community.

That's a challenge.

But it's also an opportunity.

Put it in both.

Okay. So we're okay with everything? Yeah. Great. So we just added a bullet. Okay. What would the county council like help with? So that's a fun picture of us picking up trash last year.

Do we have one from this year?

We picked up trash today, but there wasn't any board members present. So I'm not sure if we wanna

No. That's okay. We'll leave it as is.

Yeah. Okay. And then I'll probably change this last picture just

so it's

not pixelated. Any other comments or suggestions to add?

No. I think it looks good.

Yeah. Good. K. Well, thank you all for contributing. We did get comments from some of you.

So we do have a motion for this since we do need to approve it, and I'll just read it again. I move that the Environmental Sustainability Board approve the annual ESB update to council as presented and authorize chair Blair and staff liaison and Helica Gruelay to make final changes. Does that sound good to everybody? Okay. Anyone wanna make a motion? They can give you this to read so you don't have to dig through.

I'd love to make a motion. I move that the environmental sustainability board approve the annual ESB update to council as presented and authorize chair Blair and staff liaison, Angelica, to make any final changes needed before presentation.

Anyone second?

Sure. Go ahead. I second. Alright.

All those in favor? Awesome. Cool. Well, then, Helka, and I will finish that up. Awesome. Okay. Let's see here. Alright. So we will move on to item number six. So we'll start with chair report.

I did I have a few things, I guess. So we do still have an open vacancy, yes, on the board. So if you know anybody, please let them know to apply. It's just the application is listed on the boards and commissions website and encourage them maybe to come to meetings too so they can get a feel for what's going on. So I think maybe you were gone. We yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. That's right. Yeah. And

then we did get a few, like, public comments, I guess, today to our emails regarding the artificial turf study that we just got. So I just wanna flag those, make sure you guys read them, and maybe, you know, consider it as we review everything in the report. And then, yeah, I think that's it. You'll talk about well, there's cleanupless almost day on Saturday if you didn't participate today. And yeah.

Cool. I don't have anything else. Okay. So next is board of public utilities. I was unable to attend the meeting last night, but Sue did send us a update on the September 3 meeting in our inbox. So if you haven't taken a chance to read that, please do. We don't have anybody on T Board right now. If anyone is interested in being the liaison to T Board. Wait. Are they what days?

First I think first Thursday of the month.

And you can always, like, you know, join remotely or just watch the recording after the fact too.

Or have your Zoom, like, AI Yeah. Companion attend for you and then take a note.

Is that what you

that too.

Isn't that cool? I've heard people doing that. I haven't done it yet, but I might.

I feel

like you're

so in the middle.

I am so interested in AI. That's for sure.

Alright. So parks and rec board, I mean, we kind of got the spiel that they got last week about the TERF study. So health council, I feel like we can remove this since Jill is no longer on the board. But in Did I not

I'm sorry.

I think we didn't say that. That's my fault. I should have included that. So Jill stepped down. So that's why we have a vacancy. Oh, no. Yeah. That makes sense.

Sorry. Great.

Yeah. Sorry about that. So and then Eric Lachelle got was appointed by counsel, but he's not here tonight. So yeah. But we still have a vacancy, to be clear. So lots of moving parts. Yeah. I don't think I mean, unless people feel very strongly. I also we do get updates from the health council at the boards and commissions luncheon, so we could always just, like, give an update from that if people wanna know what's going on. So okay. So I think we'll remove that.

Alright.

Rin, do you have any updates for us? I do. Okay.

Hello. Good evening Chair and Commissioners. We had a meeting this week on Tuesday the sixteenth. It was a work session and there were a number of presentations and proclamations of most interest. We had a presentation from Ted Wyka of NNSA.

He said that budget remains steady and they feel they can weather any budget problems that may come up And they will be hiring about 900 people this year. The tritium release is happening, as you probably know. The first container was depressurized on Tuesday. No off-site impacts. And then according to the New Mexican this morning, they were going to try again today for the second one.

It's all weather dependent. But that seems to be going well, which is good. Waste shipping continues, and they are really focusing on the safety of the commuters and increasing carpooling and that sort of thing. I just saw that the county has actually started ticketing people with the cameras now. So just putting that out there, everybody.

Keep that in mind. Let's see. We also had great presentations from planning and zoning and from personnel board. Other interesting items introduction of an ordinance for the purchase, sale, and development for the affordable and market rate housing down on DP Road. They call it A8A Parcel first. So any questions?

Were the barriers for the concerts?

Yeah. Oh, okay.

It kinda came up after the New Orleans

Got it. Car

Yeah.

Incident. Ramming. And and we just felt like that was a very important thing, safety wise to have. And so many people complained about how ugly they were, you know. And it's like,

what do you do? It's a trade off.

And they were borrowed from the Department of the DOT. So it wasn't like we could decorate them or anything.

So

they have some plan for next year.

Right. Yes. Yeah. What was that?

I said it diminished the aesthetics of the food trucks. Indeed.

Yes. So something to think about. Cool. Any other questions?

Great. Thank you. Thank you.

Actually, sorry. I do have one. Yeah. With the tritium release, I know it's not really the county, but will there be more information? I mean, I for me, I felt like I didn't hear a lot about what when it would be released, and I was just wondering if there'd be, I guess, wider

publicized You know, I've actually gotten my information well, other than mister Wika reporting Tuesday night, I've gotten most of my information from the Santa Fe New Mexican. They've done a pretty good job reporting on it. I'm not sure really how how much the Daily Post and reporter have have covered it. I I know it's been in there, but the New Mexico has done a great job about Mhmm. Daily reporting on it. So you could you could sure check there. But Yeah. You know,

Nothing within our county, though. Just with the

I think I did see something on the daily post.

I'm I'm sure they're

And maybe they're like, what's it boom

dad.

Boom town too. Yeah. And NMED is posting or, yeah, NMED is posting on their social media. I follow them on Instagram. Okay. And they're doing, like, daily updates on it. Multiple updates a day.

Okay. So That's good to know.

And they're just short little blurbs, but it's really helpful.

Yeah. Just wanna know what area is going. I mean, being pregnant, it's, you know, definitely at the top of my mind.

We chatted about it at length today when we were picking up trash. And, you know, most of the scientists I know that know a lot about tritium, including my husband, just say it's a, you know, it's a nonissue. But it it certainly is is interesting and has gotten a lot of publicity. And

I think, yeah, I think I I could be slightly wrong on this, but I believe it the dosage was something like an X-ray, like, going to the doctor. Yeah. And Everything It's not concentrated. So you know? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if that helps, but I'm sure I'm sure those articles had some of that too, I think.

Yeah. I just wanna find Yeah. Helpful to know a few resources on when it will be. Sure.

Totally. Yeah.

Makes sense. So I think it was a two week window. It started this past Saturday.

Yeah. They only have

So what where Angelica, where did you say you're getting your info?

So New Mexico environment department, And today, they say so this posted. This was their latest post. So today at five, they posted this. NMED received an update from NNSA on the flanged tritium waste container treatment. NNSA reports a productive day prepping equipment, evaluating operations, and incorporating improvements from successful completion of the first FTWC depressurization.

Preparations to continue operations and a plan to begin the second FTWC on Saturday. So that's the twentieth. NNSA plans continue operations Sunday to depressurize the third container, and then no FTWC depressurization operations will be performed tomorrow. Any changes to the weekend plans will be posted. So the first one that they they started to vent, I think there was actually a postponement because of one of the local tribes.

They had, like, a feast day or something. And then so they moved it. So they've been sharing all of that live on an MED. It's been really helpful to follow.

That's super helpful. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Great. Thank you. Thank you.

Thanks, Rin.

Alright. Next is inclusivity task force, but I don't think we have Hokyoung or Zeph online.

Sorry. Which one are we on?

Inclusivity task force.

Oh, that's right. We don't have chair. No. We don't. We have our b city coordinator online, though, to give an update. Okay. So keep moving down the list. She's number four Oh, okay. For number five. Yeah. Oh, it might have got mixed. So I'm sorry if we wanna have whatever.

I moved all my papers around and Okay. So we'll do Los Alamos Sustainability Alliance. Sue or Rebecca, do you all have a update? I guess I'm just not here.

Yeah. I wasn't able to I also can't attend those meetings, so I'm I'm Oh, be worth someone, you know Okay. For if anyone wants to attend then. But I'm fully on with childcare at this time.

Absolutely. Okay. Alright. I guess, Inalgo, you gave an update on the education outreach work group that we're just waiting for, basically, to kick that off, it sounds like. Right. And then any updates on the community wide EV study working group?

So in October, they'll be presenting their draft to our board, to county council, and to the board of public utilities. And then we'll also be having a community meeting to share some of the information that we've gathered so far and and recommendations that the consultant's making. So I think I invited you all, for that on the twenty third. If not, I will send you a calendar invite and hope you can make it here or to the online, version. So so we're getting closer to the end.

And right now, we're just doing a lot of project projections and and learning about how they're making those projections. So in terms of, like, where they're where they would recommend EV charging for the community and things like that.

Alright. Sounds good. So next thing is the plastic bag working group update. So we I don't have any formal thing in our I think it was our July meeting. We are working with Josh in environmental services.

So Sue's idea and then Josh really, like, ran with it. Informal survey from this from most of the. Obviously, that's not in, you know, gonna or anything like that, but in a really good idea. So potentially expecting a waste said that and that could also give us an of what our potential contamination is. Sound like Anhelica thinks that's gonna happen. So we'll just have to wait and see if they

just say that because they haven't done a waste audit in all these years. Yeah. So it's been, like, many, many years. Yeah. Right? And it takes a lot. Right? They're shutting down the plant to just sort our waste, and that's that's a loss of time and money for them. Yeah. So

We also confirmed that we're at we're still at about a 17% contamination in our recycling stream, is what said. And then Josh provided additional information that they charge us about $46 per ton of disposal. So we can I I didn't do any math, but we could probably look at our recycling, take 70% of that, and then multiply it out to see how much it it's potentially costing us? I also found something that said the national average for recycling contamination is about 25%, And I think that was a study from the EPA, if I remember correctly. But so we are slightly lower than that.

I'm not sure what that means if we just consume less recyclables. I don't I don't know what that means, but something to consider. And then something else I wanted to flag, kind of separate but related, when we were talking to Armando and Josh, Armando did state that they could potentially use help with education regarding cardboard recycling. So, you know, really encouraging people to use the designated cardboard recycling boxes that are at the eco station. And then there's one at the fire station in White Rock.

I don't know if there's ones up here, and then there's also one at the transfer station in White Rock. So that's not the same, but I think as a little related, potentially, we could do, like, an article or something. I think that'd be relatively easy. Actually,

just on that. I mean, we talked a long time ago about, like, the Amazon deliveries up here and, you know, thinking about all the cardboard boxes. And if there's a way to connect, like, education on disposing of those.

Yeah. That's a good idea. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I I'm gonna plead ignorance here. I genuinely didn't know that you weren't really supposed to put cardboard in the curbside. Me too.

You it's

not a rule. Okay. It's just It's just easier.

Better if you put it in the cardboard dumpster because we receive higher revenue. That's why.

Okay.

And, also, it's overfilling the recycle bins. Yeah. Some people just stuff them to the gills, and then it's hard to empty.

Okay. Cool. So yeah. So I think kind of the question is, like, how do we and we don't need to do anything formal because we didn't include that in the agenda, but, like, how do

we move

forward? I initially thought that it would be a good idea, and I think Rebecca agreed and and as well as Herman that we wait until we get that waste audit back. But if we're not gonna get that back until Thanksgiving, I don't know if we wanna present to counsel and just kind of, like, give them our findings and say, you know, ESB doesn't feel like we can provide a recommendation yet, but this is this is what we found.

Yeah. Relying on the waste audit, think it may or may not happen, but also they're not sorting. So they're sorting on very specific categories. They're sorting for for cardboard, for plastics one and two, and then three through seven, for metals, for aluminum. That's what they're sorting for. So the the trash category is going to be all trash. It's not gonna differentiate from plastic bags.

Okay. And I did. I also I I probably I mean, I spent, like, an hour last night trying to find any research that says, like, what what the typical recycling contamination breakdown is because I've heard a lot of people say that plastic bags is, like, the number one, but I couldn't find anything that supported that. So I'd I don't know if that data just, like, doesn't exist. Because to your point, it sounds like it's quite an undertaking to do a waste audit like that. So And

we did a waste audit, but I don't recall us looking at that. Remember? It was we were trying to see what was left. No. I guess it was for trash. That was a trash waste audit, and we were trying to see what was left. What people were still putting in their trash cans, which was yard trimmings at the time. So that helped to support the yard trimming Yeah. Developing that program, but it wasn't specifically looking at bags.

Okay. So, I mean, what what we what we can do, I feel like and maybe Angelica can push back on this if I'm wrong, but I think we'll have the information from our informal survey from clinical ophthalmologist day. So maybe we can present back to ESB on in October with that information and the additional research that we've kind of done, and Sue's been sending a bunch of stuff too, and then potentially present to counsel in November, or do you think we need to move that up?

Well, I think they're planning for you to present something in October. Okay. Or at least we could

Well, we have I mean, our October meeting is the sixteenth, and then there's the meeting on the twenty first, so we could do it on the twenty first.

Right. That was like, the thought was Okay. As part of the ESP's update, I think, to give an update on the plastic bag.

I think that's okay because that still gives us time to

together spend a year.

Yeah. And then incorporate feedback. Yeah. Does that work for everyone?

Incorporate feedback into the annual update or just separately?

Or Into our plastic bag. Right. Yeah. Not the update. Yeah. Got it. Yeah. I think that'll that'll be good. Okay. Sounds good. Cool. Thanks, everyone. Okay. Last report. I think Britton's on from Bee City.

Yes. Sorry. Hello. I wanted to give you an update because we were really busy in the last several weeks with Bee City. We hosted a cleanup day in the Pollinator Demonstration Garden on August 30, and we had about eight volunteers, but that ended up being really productive. And, we cleared out a a bunch of the, weeds and other other overgrown plants in the garden. And on September 10 was the one year anniversary of the dedication of the Pollinator Garden. So I had a little birthday party and more volunteers came, did a little more cleanup, and it was in the daily post. It was nice. Kirsten Lasky featured us for that.

And then yesterday, we had we're working right now with the golf course to help with some areas that were slated for improvements within the context of their, the improvements that they had been doing on their irrigation systems. So there's a couple of areas that they are no longer going to maintain as, turf, as golf course. And so, BCity has been invited to partner with them. And yesterday, we sowed there's about 15 volunteers, and we sowed and raked in, a native wildflower seed and native grass seed mix to the area so that it can hopefully become a pollinator pathway, in the middle of the golf course. It's if you're familiar with the golf course, it's in the area that, people call the Bermuda Triangle between, like, the 3rd And the fourth fairway, I think it is.

And there's a we'll do some more maintenance helping getting that going. The, golf course will water it, though, for the upcoming two years to help it get established. And then there's, another tract of land on the other side of the road, by the I think it's the 13th And 14th Fairway that, is also they've asked for Bee City to partner with them to help sow wildflower seeds and native grass seeds in the spring, so that that can also become a reclaimed or rather improved area for, pollinator habitat. So I just wanted to let you guys know that's what we've been up to recently.

Awesome. Thank you. Any questions? Comment? Awesome. Cool. Well, thanks for joining and giving your update. Alright. We can move on to staff report and helica.

Alright. So sustainability our sustainability newsletter in September highlighted ways to live in harmony with local wildlife which included like not feeding the animals, is the most important thing we can do. And then also just if you're having problems in your compost piles, which I think the bears have moved on from trash bins to compost piles is what I've been hearing. So shared some information from Game and Fish as well. Let's see.

So the municipal building parking lot, the EV chargers, we were waiting from our vendor. We heard today, so they're they need volts to put the electrical equipment in. So they don't even wanna start the project till they can get those, and we learned today that the volts will be here in about a month. So hoping to have a a schedule soon for the project, but knowing it won't start until about October 18. Let's see.

So we also applied for the NMDOT DC fast charging grant, and we did receive the official notification. So we're currently working on designing doing the ADA design and the electrical design to install two DC fast chargers at Mesa Public Library, and both of those items are going to council for approval on the thirtieth. So we had to request we had to pass this a resolution of support for that and then also accept the grant agreement. Fleet conversion plan, I gave you an update on that when it'll be coming to you all. Education and outreach, you got an update on that as well.

So the next thing I'll be focusing on is developing a scope of work for energy audits and what that might look like for our residents, especially, like Joe said, without all the a lot of the rebates that they can get federally, but perhaps there's still state rebates that you all are working on. Love to talk with you about that, like the here and the her and the all of those.

So we did get get information today that HearHer is being rolled out to other states. We were one of the leaders on that. And so that's a good sign that it's going to continue. So that federal funding stream for the home energy appliance and that program is still going strong and still has kinda got the green light because they're expanding it across all the other states that had been in a holding pattern, and that was announced today. So good news for you there.

Yeah. Thank you.

Really no updates on food composting. The ECO station right now is going through their twenty year permitting process. So as a transfer station, you have to have a permit. And the state is questioning a lot of the things that they're that they're doing, like concrete recycling that we've been doing forever and the yard trimmings. And the the biggest concern is that these materials are being stored on the cap, like the old landfill cap, and they're concerned that there might be damage to it.

So we're working through some of those concerns and letting them know, you know, this was approved in our interim permit and, you know, we're not penetrating the cap. There's a there's a geosynthetic clay liner that goes that's on top of the entire cap and then about two feet of dirt on top of the liner. So they want assurance that that we're not impacting that geosynthetic clay liner. So on top of that, our municipal food composting, just another layer of, you know, red tape. So we're hoping because our plan was Josh and I have been working on an alternative.

You know, we we had asked to do an amendment to our lease to do aerated static piles like they do down at Reunity Resources. So we were pivoting and developing a proposal to do more of just the in vessel, which is in compliance with our lease. And then all this started, so we're in a little bit of a holding pattern as well. Thank you to all of our volunteers who helped at Farmers Market and then the Bear Festival and cleanup Los Alamos day today. And then we have a customer fair week on October 8 here at Municipal Building.

So I've I've signed up for a booth. I'm not sure what we'll be doing yet, but just wanna make sure sustainability is on people's radars. So if you're interested in helping, it'll be about two hours on it's a Wednesday. And then our last I think it's our last farmer's market of the season on October 9. So and then as always, we'll end with the sustainability report, which trash was slightly down in August, yard trimming was as well, and recycle was, I mean, slightly slightly up.

We are hauling waste to Valencia Landfill, and it's increased the cost to transport and tip waste significantly. So

And, Hoke, I do have a question. Sure. So the numbers there, like, yard trimmings, one a 112.94. Are those tons? What is

the Tons. Tons? Okay. Cool.

Because I'm gonna use this for well, we can use it to figure out the recycling diversion contamination thing for the plastic bag.

Yeah. I did a quick back of the number calculation, but I'm here to help with all of that so we can schedule time to work

on that.

Cool. Sounds good.

And that's all I have for you.

Awesome. Do you

all have questions about any of that? I know it's a lot.

No. Okay. No? Cool. Alright. So item number eight, preview of upcoming agenda items. I know next month, we will have the plastic bag update, and then we also have the EV study update from NHALCA. From our consultant. From the consultant with the support of Inhelka. Yes. Alright. Cool. I think we can adjourn then. Thanks, everyone.

Hey, we did good. Two hours, not bad.