Green Island Ice Arena Negotiating Committee - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. We'll get started. It is 04:02PM, Monday, June 9. I'll call to order this meeting of the climate action plan steering committee. We have all members of the climate action plan steering committee here in council chambers except, Adam Jacobson, Steph Hanna, and Andrew Erickson is on his way and is expected to be a little late. First up, we have the approval of the minutes. If there are no questions on the minutes, I would entertain a motion. If you could speak that into your microphone. Motion to approve. Motion to approve by Dorothy Leonard. Second by?

Second.

Second by Casey Meehan. Any discussion on the minutes? Seeing no discussion, the motion on the floor is to approve. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. The motion passes unanimously. Any items for notices and discussion?

Perhaps we can come back to this if we have time at the end.

Absolutely. We'll bring that to the end of the agenda. We do have lots of items to take care of today. So first agenda item is 25 dash zero four two seven, youth climate action fund micro grant application review and selection. Louis, could you just, like, briefly overview this before we get to the selection? Also, if you could add the remaining funds or the number of projects we estimate we can fund?

Sure. So last fall, we got $50,000 from Bloomberg Philanthropies to give microgrants between a thousand and $5,000 per youth applicant. That's, people between the ages of 15 and 24. And we were successful in that funding round, so they gave us another $100,000 to, do microgrants in the spring. Same criteria, fifteen to twenty four year olds, getting a thousand to $5,000 with the help or with in collaboration with a community organization.

So far or we we opened up applications in, I think, the beginning April and have given away one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten grants so far, for about $46,862. So we have about $38,698 left, because we're using some money from for administrative things and, with the help of the Lacrosse Community Foundation. We've got about, one two three four five twelve, applicants, that we're looking at applications that we're looking at, that we've looked at over the last week and we'll be reviewing today. Unfortunately, for the applicants, there is more money requested than is available, so it's likely that we won't be able to fund all the projects. I guess, so for the everybody here, the community members, filled out a scoring metric and, had some questions about that.

So I've invited, the applicants here today to, answer any questions, as available, and then I can also, share questions that were posed by some committee members that for you all to discuss, for the applicants that are not here. I got a request from Karina, to be bumped up in the agenda because, she has to work. So, if there are any questions for her, application, we can maybe start there. And then since, I know, last month, we kind of the committee approved applications as they as you went. I would say since there's more money requested than available, we probably have one motion to approve everything rather than going one at a time.

Yeah. So take it away, and we can wait for Andrew to to have a seat.

Yes. Excellent timing. The fashionably late. Andrew Erickson is here. Just kidding. He was very busy at UWL. Okay. So where it stands now, and, yes, make sure that's on the minutes that Andrew has arrived at 04:07. We will be reviewing the applications that were provided to you before the meeting. You all went through your scoring rubric, and we'll have the opportunity to ask questions to the applicants right now.

We'll make our recommendation, have a motion that is a single motion, and vote given that we cannot award all the applications. As Lewis mentioned, Corina Dunn is online and has to work, so we will, I'll ask the committee of their questions for Corina before we move forward. Any questions? Casey, go ahead.

You bet. Hey, Corina. Thanks for joining us, and thanks for your application. And I'm curious about I think it's it's really cool you're gonna be running some type of a camp with the lacrosse food coop. I'm wondering how many kids do you estimate will be able to attend the camp.

Yeah. We have it planned for about 20 youth to be able to attend the camp. Registration spots will be awarded to students who are able to attend the full length of both of the days just because, we wanna make sure the youth are having the most opportunities that they can, but it'll mostly likely be 20 youth just because we have to have a certain number of counselors or to pay those counselors. So that's kinda all that we can have because of the amount of administrators we have to have to be watching the youth.

And how long is it each day?

It'd be 08:15 to three each day with lunch and snacks provided.

Okay. Thank you. Yeah.

Any other questions for Karina?

I have a question actually for Lewis on this. And I guess it sort of goes for all of the proposals that were put in. Have these been vetted with the community foundation as far as budgeting? And does the budget seem Okay with what they're allocating funds for? So for example, is it Okay to be using those funds to pay for camp counselors?

And maybe we can get some clarification from Karina. But I I guess it sort of depends on the age. Like, if there are young people doing the counseling or what that that should be okay. The issue pointed out in, like, ineligible cost is honorariums, and that was kind of that that came up in a few, applications that we'll that we'll be looking at today is just, like, having a, like, a expert come in and and do work. Like, that's not really, something we can do, but, I don't know if Carina wants to describe, like, who the, like, what who the counselors are and what their role would be.

That might help.

Sure. Carina, are you able to answer the age range of the counselors that you're working with?

Yeah. We're hoping to have high school and college students between the ages of 15 and 25 be counselors, because that falls in line with the grant requirements.

And so, incentivizing or just, like, yeah, incentivizing youth participation is is an eligible expense. So, yeah, in that case, that would be good.

Any other questions? Sure, Dorothy.

Yeah. So it sounds like a really great and fun project, so good ideas. And I've run a lot of youth events in my time. It always gets down to, like, who's gonna be legally responsible. And I didn't know because there's so many, fingers in the pie kind of in this situation, like insurances and things like that. If you're transporting young people, if you're vetting camp counselors, all those kinds of things that have to be done when you have a camp. Who's going to be doing all that, and has that been run by anybody? Like, is the city responsible?

I guess from

It's the unfun stuff I know, but it it always comes up.

I would say

I discussed I discussed this with so with the People's Food Co we have one full day at People's Food Co op. Yeah. And then we're having, you know, someone from Larson's come in and give a little demo just because we do want the youth on location there because People's Food Club does have liability insurance, and everything is covered by the food club for that first day. And then the second day, when we're yeah. When we go to the community farm as well, all the insurance, all the liability costs are covered when we rent out the farm for that day. So everything is covered at the farm as well. And then we're not gonna be busing youth at all. Okay. Parents are responsible to transport the

youth to the farm.

Yes. Great. And way to be one step ahead on that. That was my big question.

Any other questions? Okay. I'm not seeing any. Thank you so much for being on the call. We appreciate your time and your application. So at this point Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. At this point, I welcome any other questions about any of the applications. We do have some folks here online, in person. So go ahead with questions.

So, yeah, it looks like we've got some people from the farmer's market. Was that Naomi?

Mhmm.

K. If yeah. So if you had any questions for Naomi, we could knock those out. And then Erica is also from the farmer's market, and then San Sadie is also from the farmer's market. Mhmm.

Andrew, go ahead.

I do have questions about the farmer's market. So, Naomi, if I could ask you a couple of questions. You can come up to the stand.

I know, it's so It's

very overwhelming, it's superficial.

Okay,

I was just wondering if you could give us a little overview on the project. I was just getting a little confused and it's maybe just because I don't know the world of farmer's market and But there was EBT, so food stamp related things, and then double dollars. And so can you just give an overview and maybe dumb it down to Yeah. A 25 year old's level

I can

definitely on how this thing works.

So I'm actually the EBT coordinator for the Farmers Market, so that is my main job with the market. And so kind of just like a starting basis, we have, like, a machine that we can, like, swipe their EBT card in exchange for market tokens that are only usable on EBT approved items. And the double dollars that is mentioned in our proposal is something that we had a couple years back, and that is targeted with the EBT tokens as well. So in the past, we have usually, like, a certain amount of tokens is allocated for each, like, transaction, however much they want to take out on their EBT card, and we match it dollar for dollar. So if they were to swipe for, like, 15 EBT tokens, they would also get fifteen fifteen more EBT tokens to add on to that to just raise more accessibility for, like, fresh produce and community and stuff like that.

Katie, did you have anything? To

just kind of clarify, so the tokens that Naomi's referring to, the EBT, are all EBT items, but the double dollars will be we don't have the tokens yet. It's part of our budget proposal, but just a separate fund that would basically double back in. She was mentioning a limit we've discussed between 10 and $20 family per market. But the separate double dollars would go only towards produce. So it wouldn't be all EBT, but just local produce.

Any follow-up, Andrew? Any other questions for them?

Could you so in your application, I think you had a bunch of stuff that was listed for how it relates to the climate action plan. And what makes me a little nervous about that is when you have like a million things, like what's the actual focus? Like what are you actually focused on with climate change?

So we really want to promote local food. So this is where we started, and Beth approached us with this. We want to get local food out. This is something that the community wants. Using what we have with the EBT system, building on that, just wanting people to come.

So making the market as accessible as possible in every aspect. And as we were going through the the bullet points of the sustainability actions, I mean, we noticed that we can cover a lot of ground in just pulling in, you know, the bike bike on the north side, the wrench and roll for a bike tune up, a free bike tune up, drift, you know, getting those local services. We've, in the past, had a $20 fee, like a tabling fee, but we're really wiping that out this year mostly just to really hammer in the sustainability stuff that's already going on in La Crosse. Kind So of we're just seeing ourselves as like a really central hub with the capability in Burns Park. It's a really nice location, so that's where we're going

with that. Thank you. Any follow-up questions, Casey?

Yeah. Just one more, and I guess this is another one just for the committee to think about that. I'm curious, would this project happen or be funded if it weren't for Naomi, right? So like is this something that the farmers market was going to do anyway and it just so happens that there's somebody, a youth, you know, so where's the youth leadership, guess?

Sure, okay, yeah. Good question. So Naomi is the EBT coordinator. I'm the market manager, but we work side by side. And since this is my first year, but Naomi's been with for three years, she's really given a lot of driving force to what's already out there, who we should pull in.

We're actually at risk of maybe not having an EBT coordinator position, so we're really hoping to boost this program to keep her and to bring in, and this was also in our proposal, but just educating. We noticed that this year, the EBT use is just slightly less. Maybe it's the location or just the kickoff of the season. But last year, we're averaging five, it would go vary between 3 to $800 in EBT transactions per night.

Any other questions for these two?

Sure. Natalie.

Thanks for this application. I have two questions. First of all, could you share you're saying there's there's a there's a slight dip in EBT transactions, but now we're also offering this additional benefit of of the double dollars. What are your plans for marketing this resource to the community? And also within that, like, the market's going already. Do you have sort of a timeline overlaid on the weekly markets to to help get the word out about about this offering?

Yeah. I guess so far, just because I'm kind of in charge aspect of it, I've been doing as much reaching out as possible to other groups. I reached out to Madison to see if we could set up kind of a learning, you know, moment from them. They seem to have a really solid year after year double dollars program. And then just interacting with around River City, explore La Crosse, the local groups.

We have about 2,000 social media followers. We have another 1,000 email group members. So we're just hoping to build on that by engaging with people, with other groups that are on the ground already.

Any follow-up?

A separate question actually. Thank you for that. I'm just looking at the budget, the $2,000 youth vendor health department licensure. Could you just explain what that is? Sure.

Okay. So we proposed being able to support youth in their licensure and selling like well, with the health department, there's many different like transient. I honestly am learning a lot. So the fees can for your initial fee, from what I understood, is $200, and that's to sell anything that would basically require refrigeration or any hot food. So there is a law that's called the cottage law that allows baked and only baked goods, but we know, for example, Mia's kitchen, her brothers are wanting to do juice.

If they grow the produce, they don't need this license, but if they purchase the produce, they would need the license. So we would like to educate and help you know, fund those licenses.

I have a follow-up to that. So in terms of the youth leadership question that was brought up earlier, it sounds like bringing in youth vendors is a big component of this. So the youth vendors would be between that 15 and 24 age range that's required here. That was one of my questions. You know, we need to fund projects that, have opportunities for youth, and so I wanted to kind of hear from you how the project is focused on that group, like, age group.

So we had kind of this was actually one thing we really wanted to get more families, more, you know, the more you feel welcome and that kids are welcome, I think the more people will come. And it's a big learning point for some youth. So just based on what we had read in the grant, community feedback, some vendors have participated in like Viroqua's youth market. Just there was really a call for getting youth in there. So this was an existing kind of call based on your this grant, the age range.

But as we were pitching at SU, we saw many young kiddos. I have young kiddos myself, and we just kind of discussed, this probably could be even extended. The age limit could just kind of be dropped and just see what is out there. We have three, and then actually, Mia is going to attend one of the nights, but we do have three youth vendors already approved.

Excellent. Thanks for answering that for me. Any other questions from the committee or staff? Okay. I'm not seeing any yet. Okay. Thank you so much. Okay. We also have Kieshia here. Some folks online that we're able to ask questions to. Sure. Andrew, go ahead.

I did have a question for Kishia. So there are two grants where Kishia is the financial sponsor, one from Fixa Yang and one from really? Oh, they're two different they're different organizations? Oh, really?

So Minan is planting our story. Planting our story with Minan is Kishia.

Oh, okay. Got it. Got it. Got it. Okay. I don't have question.

I have one. I know this was funded last time. It was very successful. I believe even Minan was featured in the global Bloomberg Philanthropies video, so it was awesome. And I had one sort of, question that may also be a little bit for Lewis. I noted, I believe, is the garden the garden in city limits? Okay. Can you turn your microphone on? Sorry. You wanna just put your microphone on? Sorry, Jess.

Hi. My name is Jess. I work with Minan who wasn't able to be here, but she asked me to come, and I will do my best to answer your questions about the proposal. So this is a separate project from the one that we were funded for in the first round, which was about providing ginkgo trees to the community. And, yes, we were also really excited to see Meenan's work featured.

This proposal is to support City of La Crosse youth in going to garden space that's been loaned to us. It is not in the city limits. As you are probably aware, there's not a lot of rentable farmland within city limits. So we do have a farmer who has donated some land for us to use for this project. We also have, like, a small garden plot back behind our building on the North Side Of La Crosse where we'll do some growing.

Got it. Thank you for that clarification. And, yeah, Lewis, if you could just address, like, it's being used by City of La Crosse youth. Does it matter that the space is not on city property or city limits?

This issue came up with Aditi's application earlier in the year where her tree planting project was gonna be at Summit Elementary School, which is in the which is in Campbell. It's in it's in the school district. And I think our the committee's decision was that, you know, if it's young people I mean, ideally, it it would all take place in La Crosse, and it'll benefit citizens of La Crosse. But as long as citizens of and especially youth members in La Crosse are benefiting from it, they can learn and then take that take the take what they learn back home. So it's a little indirect, but I think and and similar to the Carina's project, I mean, some of it's in the city, but you can't there's not a lot of necessarily farmland in the city.

So it's it it benefits residents, even though it's not taking not completely taking place in the city. Okay. Thanks. Any other questions for Jess? Okay. Thanks so much.

Alright. Other questions on other applications?

And then, yeah, and then Juliana's on the up there as well.

Oh, out here. Online? Okay. Yes. Julianna Dunn's application. Are there any questions on that? I know there are a lot of applications. Thanks to the public for being patient as we flip through them. Any questions? Sure. Natalie. Thanks, Giuliana,

for your application. I'm curious in terms of understanding the need for this type of work or intervention. You speak broadly about loss of biodiversity and the, you know, power of pollinator plants. Could you speak to, you know, this particular savannah in Hixson Forest? What is the need for additional plantings, in this space?

As I understand, this is just like my general citizen knowledge, is that some of these spaces are actively cared for by a variety of groups, Friends of the Blufflands and things like that, Aura, etcetera. Could you explain, you know, what's what's sort of new about this, this project idea in this particular location?

Thanks for the question, Natalie. I believe too we have Patrick Wilson from Friends of the Blufflands who may want to address this as well. Go ahead, Patrick, if you'd like.

Okay. Yeah. This is this Savannah, we have been trying to create a Savannah by clearing out the buckthorn and other invasive species, And we've reached the point where we've cleared out the invasives, but to encourage the savannah to become a natural savannah, which is even savannahs are rarer than prairies are in La Crosse at this point compared to, settlement times. But, now we need to have plants that are normally found on savannas there. So this is the next step is to get seeds and plants and put them out in the savannah so that, we can encourage the formation of a real Savannah there.

Any follow-up, Natalie? Yeah. I have a follow-up, and Julian is welcome to respond to these as well. From a financial side, we had a council planning session, talking about the maintenance and restoration of some of the Bluff land. Mister Wilson was there and overviewed, you know, the challenges and opportunities that they have to deal with in maintaining in in supporting and partnering with the city and maintaining this.

I'm wondering if you could speak sort of like we've asked others. What would not or what would not occur if this wasn't funded? And, also, maybe this is for Julianna, speak a little bit more about the youth leadership component of this. Thanks.

Is Juliana connected? She's not moving.

She may be frozen. Juliana, if you can hear, you could turn your video off and turn your audio on instead of using the video. Otherwise, will she

there you go.

Thank you.

And, Patrick, feel free to dress while Julianna gets that settled as well.

Yeah. I was, not real. As far as the part of the grant request, she was going to have, I don't know where the other part came in. I would I didn't see it before it was I haven't seen the grant request, actually.

Sure. So in terms of, like, the financial request, though, like, if we did not fund the purchase of the plantings and the process of, you know, watering and marking those those plants, I'm just wondering if, like, Friends of the Bluffland or existing city projects would cover that. Juliana, you look like you're on now too.

Yeah. And just were.

Yeah. Just unmute yourself.

Sorry. I didn't catch all your question. Could you repeat the question? I was, like, disconnected still.

Sure. No worries. So my question was, what would happen if this fund this project wasn't funded? Would the plantings still occur? And the second is what's the or say more about the youth leadership aspect of the project.

Okay. So for the like, would it occur? It probably would not occur. And the reason is mostly for maintaining a savannah, which is 10 to 30% of covered area. And if not, it would the invasive species would continue to, like, take over and not maintain that savannah. And, also, this kind of this area, it goes from a savannah into a prairie that shows, like, the bluff line. So just showing that. And then the youth engagement, a lot of it is having youth help watering, planting, like, learning about the natural species in that area. And

yeah.

Excellent. And then, the financial consideration is without this funding, you would not be able to plant and continue to develop that savannah. Is that right? Yes. Correct. Okay. Patrick, did you wanna also respond? I see you're off mute.

Yeah. I oh, yeah. I we would do the best we can. I let's say everything helps here. But without this funding, let's just say it would not happen as fast and especially without the the labor also.

Thanks, Patrick. I know that Friends of the Bluff do a lot with basically nothing, so everything helps. I just had to to ask that question. Thank you. Any other questions for this group? Casey?

Yeah, Juliana, thank you so much for putting in an application. I'm curious to know a little bit more about the youth, and who exactly would be involved with this? How would you select so it looks like you're planning on 10 people participating because there's a $100 payment that goes there per person. Who would those people be, and how do you choose them?

So mostly, it is through the Mormon Cooley four h club, which is also who the funding is going through. So we would be using youth from the that club. And then if we couldn't get enough, probably also, like it's not sending out, like, an application, but more of, like, I don't know. Having, like just, like, showing it to other clubs around the area that are in the four h. Also, like, our youth leaders club in the lacrosse that I'm the president of, like, showing it to them and asking, like, if there's any youth from other clubs, but mostly from four h clubs in the area.

Cool. Thank you.

I have one other question. I noted that one budget request had to do with creation of the sign and then printing posters. We do not love printing as a climate action plan steering committee for obvious reasons, but could you just simply address the use of those posters? Thanks.

So we're we were gonna do one, like, natural poster that was made out of, oak that would be made by, like, a wood farm in the area. That'd be a temporary sign just while we're doing it. That that's gonna be just showing, like, what we're doing, like, who's helping with the project, like, specifically while we're working on the bluff so people can see what we're doing and stuff like that. And then the posters, we're still, like, kind of, like, figuring that out, but it'd probably mostly be, like, give this, like, at a youth leaders meeting, be like, can you give this your club that kinda just shows, like, the outline, like, what we're gonna be doing and just kind of the general information, like, to hand out and distribute to different clubs to get the youth involved.

Thank you. Any other questions for this group? Okay. I'm not seeing any. Thanks so much. Alright. Let's see who else we have. Other questions for other applicants? Andrew, go ahead.

I have a couple of questions for Lewis. One, you seem to have discussed this before I got here. So that made me sad that I missed it. But I did the calculation, and the net ask if you were to approve everyone is 56,152, and we have how much left?

38,700.

Okay. Okay. That was the first question. And then next question, it was on Christina Merkin's application two. That was the video, which I think the idea is fantastic. But you had mentioned something about the kind of hiring of people and that might be challenging. Is that correct? Yeah.

I would say that one especially just because it's it's a pretty large dollar amount and not as very specific. And, unfortunately, it would be compared to the Lacrosse Film Academy's application where, you know, there's youth involvement. They're, you know, working with mentors, and and they're kind of itemizing the expenses. So I have the impression from that one that it's more like the professionals doing most of the work or is getting most of the grant funding. So I I'm a little bit concerned about that.

Andrea, follow-up questions on that or others?

Just a clarifying question. This we have to approve or deny everything this meeting. Is that correct? Or what's the

The money has to be distributed by the end of the week.

So you said that. You said yes. Pretty much. Okay. Very good.

In other words, it wouldn't be an opportunity where we could go back with recommendations for how to change because it's a little bit too close. Yes. And Oh, go ahead.

Paying professionals is, you know, a kind of sticky situation too because previously, we had talked about a student group, related to Viterbo, doing a mural. And initially, they had said we're gonna have a muralist do it. And then I said, well, we really don't wanna just pay a muralist, and that's that's not an eligible expense. And, they're like, well, what if we have them, like, you know, work with the youth and sort of do an outline and then the young people, you know, do a pay by numbers kind sort of project? And, initially, I thought that wasn't gonna fly.

But after reviewing some of the FAQs, that looks like a potential eligible expense too. So while that wasn't on the matrix or scoring matrix for this month, that is also a ineligible project too. There and then I I'll just go over a few that I noticed, and maybe we can just generally discuss some of this you all can generally discuss some among some of the stuff amongst yourselves. Aspen's application had a a $660 consult or, like, fee for a consultant, I'm thinking that may not be eligible. Again, in some cases, I feel like, where there are situations where you're paying a professional.

Like, I think there was another example where, like, if it's a small enough dollar amount, there may be an opportunity to use that money to cover something else, and then and then the organization can then do the professional stuff or, like, sponsor that part in kind. So that one is that one's an issue. But, yeah, anytime there's, like we're gonna have a consultant or a professional come in, it's like, that's not really something this funds.

So for Christina Merkin's application one, it states that, in the budget request, $1,850 will cover the cost of Kish and Son's electric to install the solar lighting unit. That will not be eligible. It's tip it's difficult. I know.

Yeah. It I mean Obviously For example, I wouldn't have Andrew, like, out there with a jackhammer or, like, installing his own bike racks. So I I think

It might be easier to justify if we had electrician apprentices in that age range working with them.

Right. Or just I think if it's, like, if it's a technical thing, then I think a a professional might be warranted. If it's a creative thing or as like, they they point out, like, speaker honorariums, that kind so when there's, like, a I don't know. It's tough. And, like, for example, the the farmer's market too.

I mean, I wouldn't necessarily call a training an honorarium, but I think a training is good. I mean, counts as something. So that's so it's it's challenging. The I guess, maybe to look at it differently, I think the solar lighting project seems like primarily a capital improvement almost rather than a a lot of youth engagement. So, I mean, I would maybe consider that aspect of it before considering, like, whether or not having an electrician install a solar panel as a eligible expense.

I know we have a couple folks online who may or may not be involved with this project, specifically the phone number that doesn't have a name attached to it. Just wanna make sure Christina is not listening and has the answers to our questions. Can you remind me, are you attached to a project too?

That's Sam. Okay. It's Sammy from the

Sammy. Thank you. Okay. I'm not seeing anyone chime in. Other questions on other applications?

I've got a question on the Drift application the application from Drift. Yes. And my main question was, is this really a youth led project, or is it simply an operational expense that Drift would do anyway? So it's putting in another station at Viterbo, and it just so happens that the manager of Drift is under the age of 25. And so I'm not sure if it's necessarily a youth led project as much as it's just something that Drift wants to have done, which is cool.

I mean, I'm a big supporter of Drift, but I don't know if we've got all these other projects in line and we don't have enough funding for all of them. That to me seems like one that maybe shouldn't get funded because the organization's probably going to do that anyway.

Can you state the name attached to the application just so I can reference it? I know No, there were

Shailin. Okay.

All right. And then there was another one, if I'm not mistaken, that involved a turbo and bicycling. Louis, do know the name of that one off the top

of Isabella. Isabella. Well, the main applicant there. Okay.

And that one to me is more creative. I mean, that's actually engaging more people because it's looking to get Spanish speakers involved with Drift, right? I mean, I've got a little bit of a question just on the timeline because they're not going to be doing a whole lot of work until September, and the Drift season's almost done by then, right? But that one to me seems more fundable than putting in a station that's yeah, I've got real questions about the youth ledness of Shalen's.

Is anyone from Shalen's application here? Okay. I'm not sure we can get those answers, unfortunately, if that person

No, I mean, nothing else, I just wanted to bring it up for the committee to talk about. I mean, we're going have to make some decisions here. And so I just want to put that on the table, as that's something I think we should need to consider if we're not going to be able to fund these all.

Okay. Are there any applications we have not explicitly discussed? There are a couple. Questions on those? We did Minan, Juliana, Shailin.

We've not talked about Meg's.

We have not talked about Meg's.

Composting one?

Not talked about Warner. Not talked about the last couple. Okay. Let's go with Meg's application. Any questions on those to make sure we have those answered?

This was scraps to soil, Lumen Campus Ministry. Any questions? Yep. Natalie.

I think, similarly, I think it's a great project and a well done application, but I'm uncertain of the more of the impact for youth too. Like, 30 households will receive composting bins. And maybe I'm forgive me. There's so many. Forgive forgive me for, like, keeping it all straight. But I I I do think this one had less youth led components and impact as well. Again, just a point to bring up as we're trying to

prioritize here. Their application for youth engagement says youth will play a central role in every stage of this project from initial planning to post project evaluation. Young people will take the lead in organizing, coordinating, executing project activities, including writing the grant proposal, designing promotional materials, preparing educational handouts, managing logistics of the workshop, coordinating with guest speakers and participants, purchasing composting bins, and handling distribution, and conducting post event surveys and follow-up interviews. So I guess the question there would be, like, is that enough of youth engagement, or do the recipients of the compost bins also need to be youth? Lewis, that might might be for you.

No. I don't think the recipients necessarily have to be youth. But

Okay. Yeah. Other questions on that one?

And Is there And I

Oh, sure.

Go ahead. Think my my understanding I haven't talked to Meg a little bit about this one. My understanding is that, really, the youth playing a central role is Meg. Like, I don't know if there's I don't know if there's a team necessarily involved.

So I think one

of the oh, go ahead.

So I just think one of the differentiating features, because it's gonna be hard to choose, right, is, again, Meg's a youth. So depending on how many other youths she gets with her, she's still a youth doing this project. She's not hiring a bunch of people to help her do the project, you know, that are professionals. So when we're looking at the projects, maybe the least amount of professionals that have to be brought in, electricians, things like that, maybe that's how we can decide, you know, where there's it's really done by a person of youth.

Is anyone with that team here, Meg or Lumen? K. Other questions or comments on that one? You can always come back. The Warner application.

I could pull that up quickly. Thanks everyone in the audience also for being patient. This was the Cooley Region Youth Action Board mini garden project sponsored by the YWCA, Cooley Region Youth Action Board. Questions on that one? Any questions? Lewis, were there any on your side?

No. Not at the moment. I'm doing some

You're doing all the math?

I'm doing some tabulations. As I mentioned, the committee members reviewed the proposals and and scored them. Mhmm. And we're working on them diligently up to the last minute, much like I was, so no no problem there. So I was just kind of seeing if there was way to go by those scores.

I think there's still even with some of the higher scores, I think there's still some concerns. Mhmm. So it's so I could maybe you can keep discussing, but I can maybe, like, figure out the the the top scores and that fit in the budget and propose them to you, and then you can see if there's any to swap in or out. And, yeah, we'll go from there.

Alright. If there are no questions on the Werner application, then we have or. I don't know is here. And we talked about the Carina application, I believe. Unless I'm and then the Isabella application, which is the other bicycle, the turbo project.

Any question on those applications? First one is the honoring tradition building climate resilience project, and then the other is the Spanish speaking, project Ride and Thrive, expanding drift expanding drift cycle access for the Latino community. And that is sponsored by Viterbo and not Drift. Questions on either of those? K.

Let me just make sure I don't either. K. Alright. Any other questions about any of the applications? I know it'll be difficult to whittle these down. Sorta have to give the parameters for how to identify those. Yeah. Yeah. Come on up. We have a person in the audience who'd like to make a note on the MEG application. Go ahead.

Well, Megan introduced herself to me after soup. I'm just kind of hearing what our pitch was about, and she thought bringing her project to our location would be really nice. And just based on her text message conversation with me, she was planning on bringing a a speaker, having a pre informative event on campus, but then using the Farmer's market as a place to do, like, a hands on activity that's geared for everybody. But this the information is really like, the verbiage is really taught for youth to understand what is composting. I just wanna add that because I thought the project was really sweet.

Yeah. Thank Yep. We appreciate it. Other questions and comments while Luis works on some of that tabulation. So for me, the MINAN application achieves all of the requirements. There were a couple others that, well, like, clearly achieved all of the requirements.

K. I can give you some a little guidance. Okay. Based based on the scores, and then we can sub them out because I I mean, even I mentioned some of the some score high, but there were issues with eligibility. So just going down in order of submission, Vixa's, Karina's, Isabella's, but we were I mentioned you know, had the discussion about that one.

Meg, Aspen, Warren, and then Christina's second one. But I would as I mentioned before, I would kinda maybe reconsider that one. So if so the remaining ones are the though we didn't discuss it today, the the mural from Viterbo, Juliana's, Naomi's, and Christina's solar panel one, which, again, I thought was kind of maybe a more of a capital improvement than a engagement project.

I don't suppose you added up the numbers in terms of funding requests.

The ones I gave or, like, total are just the ones I gave you.

Well, those are the highest

The highest

scoring. Right?

The high yeah. Those are that's up to 41,000. So that would have put that would have put yeah. That would have put you over, but by cutting out the, like, lowest one, it or it'd be between 36. So if you if you cut out Christina's, which was the of of the top, that was the lowest scoring when it'd be 36. So there'd still be, like, 2,000. So there's a little bit of a it doesn't it isn't a perfect fit.

Okay. Questions on what Lewis just delivered to you all? Yeah. No questions? Comments? Go ahead. Go ahead, Casey. So

I would I would recommend removing the Drift one and and move know, taking at least one of the other ones then because that's 5,000, I think. Right? Another 5,000. So, I mean, remove if we remove that one and the Christina Merkin two off the list, that gives us a little more you know, we can maybe look at some of those other the other two.

Then there'd be room for Juliana's would put us back up to 36,000, and then Naomi's would put us over 41,000.

Alright. So of all of those discussion. Noting that there may be some ineligible

expenses within those, yeah. So we could there's probably ways to Finesse. Finesse it.

Comments? Yeah.

Yeah, so don't know. Louis, you're gonna not like me about this.

That's

okay. Because I'm also wondering about the Christina Yeah, which one was the one with the video? Was that two? That was two. Oh, okay. That's such a unique project, and that's one that I hear is so necessary from anyone who I talk to about public transportation. They say a video like that will go so far, and so I struggle a little bit nixing that. I understand that $4,000 of it is going towards a professional videographer. Is there a way to maybe make that does it have to be a professional videographer?

Yeah. That's what I was gonna say. There's enough young and up and coming in the film academy, people who might do that and become part of it, and especially if someone's in their early twenties. Or something.

I'm just thinking about all the like, all the other projects, that's that's one that's fairly unique out of all of them. Right? A lot of them have to do with food and Yeah. Which is great, but this is a project that's different than that

And it

and is needed from what I hear among public transit folks.

In terms of increasing ridership, I think that this could be something that has a really solid impact toward driving the increase of ridership.

It's that good point. There was a a really good application that came from a Holman student, and it was all set in Holman. And when talking with the Lacrosse Community Foundation, they're like, well, it's not eligible for this one, but it would be eligible for the community foundation's grants. So I'm thinking with Christina's, I think both of her applications aren't really seasonally specific. When you're talking about planting things, farmer's market, that's a little bit more within our realm.

I think the next application cycle for the community foundation is mid September to mid October. So I would say I I guess it would be too it would warrant a discussion with Lauren from the community foundation, but I I think we we I or any anybody else in the community that wants to help out or even the MTU, especially for the video, we could put together probably a a a pretty solid application for the community foundation. So that's that's my only thing. It's just, like, it's a it's a good idea. It isn't necessarily seasonally specific.

So I I I think there's some hope for funding through the community foundation.

Okay. So without the Shalin application and without Christina two application, we are at 41,000, so we need to decrease by three. Right? Or no? Just well well By 3,000. That is to clear. Yeah.

And, I mean, I can if you want to give me some direction, I mean, I would maybe say I have to go back through these and and cut out the ones that, you know, have an honorarium type app thing, redo the math, and then I could work with the farmer's market and Juliana perhaps to figure out a way where we could split those funds where they may not well, maybe that was a good question. If you guys like, if we you could ask them. If we didn't fund all of your project, is this something that could still go forward? And yeah, that would be a discussion question for the applicants.

Yeah, that was a question I had. So we know that there are some ineligible expenses. We could go through those knowing that they might just make it to that 38,000 limit. If there's just a few $100 for each project or a $100 for each project, would that, like, make it impossible for you to go ahead or no? Or, like, for example, could we remove the printing costs? Yes, please. And turn that microphone on. We'd love to hear it.

Hi. Jess from Kishia. I think we had a thousand dollars in honorariums in ours, and we could fund other funding for those.

Thanks, Jess. Any others would like, yeah, shortening budget items here and there?

Yes. I'm just pulling up our proposal. Our funding, not it would not be an honorarium. I just wanted to clarify in case because I wasn't quite sure. But Naomi is the person who would receive the pay for training at the maybe the BGC or YMCA or whatever groups we can become involved with. There are some materials that are necessary, like the tokens. We do need a physical you know? The permits, we could go less on. We just would be able to sponsor less vendors. So

What about, like, the sorry. Maybe Andrew was gonna ask this. What about the marketing and promotion $200? Like, things like that. Would that be, like,

a Sure.

Can't go forward?

Well, we we could go forward. We just we have sandwich boards that are from Cameron Park. Sandwich boards. Sandwich boards. Got

it.

So we have the boards. We just don't have signage.

Okay. Yeah. Andrew, did you have a question? That cut you off.

Not not a question. It was more a a thought.

Think away.

Well, okay. So, you know, either we could kind of, I'll say, punish the folks who showed up in person and be like, yeah, we're gonna cut you. Or could we make a motion to approve those applicants? And in that motion, and Lewis, you need to find that 3,000 you need to cut 3,000 from those projects and you just do that.

Lewis? I can yeah. I can do that. I'll I'll do my best and try to I'll I mean, if you I'd I'd say to cover your butts, like, do it as equitably by the score in the metric Mhmm. That you gave me to say, like yeah. I I I think that's doable. I think we can we can do that. Also, I think I can talk to the community foundation if, say, there's need for funding in the funding in the future that we can that we can maybe tack that on later or we can, yeah, we can figure it out. So

Louis, could you, before someone makes a motion, just state the applications so that everybody knows who they're

Okay. So we've got, Karina Dunns, Isabella Britton, Minans minus the thousand dollar for the honorarium, Juliana's, Meg's, Aspen's, Naomi's. Yep. That's it. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. So don't yeah. Vixen and Warren would then yeah. Sorry. Vixen and Warren as well. Sorry about that.

Okay. Cool. Good. I'm glad looks like everybody had the same bit. Okay. With that then, I need a motion on the floor. Go ahead, Andrew.

One more question. So those combined was how much?

40 now it's just a little over 40,000. So let me let me do the math spreadsheet math. So the difference is $1,453.47. So I think we can yeah. Yeah.

And is that nine applicants then? Is that about

the numbers? It is.

Nine? Okay.

Yeah. Yes. Good.

All right. I'm going to make a motion to approve Karina, Isabella. Is that yeah. Isabella, Minan, Juliana, Meg, Aspen, Naomi, Fixa, and Warren Werner's app applications with the direction to Lewis to cut $1,450.34 in an in an equitable way based on the scoring in the spreadsheet.

Do we have a second? I'll second it. Second by Dorothy. Leonard, are there any questions on the motion on the floor? Nat, Natalie.

So we've mentioned the thousand dollars in minans, which would be nearly all of the proposed cuts that are needed. However, I think that's a really, really strong application, and those honoraria are highly valuable to the project. How are we like, what does equitable mean in in cutting that thousand some dollars?

Sorry. Working with the applications on the lower end of the of the scoring metric and seeing what we can do there. I again, there was a I I can't remember which one had the $660 for a a speaker, but that was one. So that'll

It was the Aspen.

Okay. Yeah. That'll take care of some of it. My the the 1,400 left, that's with the already out. So I I it's so I think what I'll do is is scrutinize a little bit more about, like, the eligible expenses, and then, hopefully, we'll get a lot closer. And then from there, yeah, figure it out. I mean, another thing we could do is if, you all want to, we could cover the difference with, cover that 1,400 or, you know, whatever is eligible with climate action plan steering committee funding. So I'm I'm sorry for I didn't bring that up earlier. I just thought of that.

Thanks, Lewis. Follow-up question. Is the motion still fine? We don't have to make any adjustments there, Lewis?

If you if you want me to use climate action plan steering committee funds, you'd probably want to amend it Okay. To say that.

Okay. So if we want to do that, I need an amendment.

Stretch in your parliamentary procedure.

Mean, can can we can we use climate action steering committee funds and approve that at the next meeting, or does it need to be all wrapped up?

Very good point, Andrew. I would say that's I would I would I would go that way where where we can figure out the climate action plan funds

And then come

back. Next month.

And we could fund some of the other projects with climate action steering committee funds.

Yes. Oh, but you I mean, what I would say too is I would also have to check with finance. Even though these are, like, climate action related, maybe some of the things aren't, like, audit, like, auditable in in that sense. So, yes, I bring it back next month is is a better text. So thank you for that suggestion. I will not

budge on my motion.

Okay. Thank you. Is there any other discussion than the motion on the floor as stated? Okay. Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Thank you all applicants here in person on and online for holding out. That was, definitely, you earned your application award. Thank you so much. We appreciate your time. And we have Sammy here, who we also should thank for sticking around. There you go. And I thought you were an applicant, so tsk tsk.

Take that as an extreme compliment

to my youthful look. Yes. So this is agenda item 25 dash zero six four eight, a presentation discussion about the park's seasonal sustainability programs with Sammy Meyer. Lewis, if you don't have anything to add, we'll just have Sammy. You have slides?

Sammy sent me a slide. I emailed me. So K. Get those slides. I'm I'm working on it. She'll she's just gonna have to fill some

space. Fill some airspace Okay. Ahead of the slides. So I'll use my words from the title slide to get going. Hi. I am Sammy, Sammy Meyer. I work for the Parks and Recreation and Forestry Department as the outdoor recreation coordinator. Part of that role is facilitating our sustainability program. So, Lewis had mentioned that there was possibility to partner with the climate action plan steering committee, some of these projects eventually in the future, and it would just be good to get here and share with you all, what we are doing in the parks department to sis support climate action here in La Crosse. So quick overview of our current sustainability programs.

Three of our four sustainability programs were started in the fall slash 2021. The first one being, we actually started with our leaf it program, so encouraging folks to mulch leaves on their lawn, followed by Nomo May and then the Salt Smart campaign. So that was a fall, spring, and then winter initiative. We skipped over summer for a few years. After 2021, Beautify La Crosse was formalized in 2022 in an effort to Beautify, add some native plantings, aesthetic what started as aesthetic value and then kinda quickly crept into it can have environmental benefits to some of the more overlooked green spaces in the city.

So traffic circles, boulevard spaces, park parks that have excess turf grass that may benefit from having some native plantings in there all are an opportunity to beautify those spaces for citizens. Soak it up was added last summer, which was in partnership with our friends at La Crosse Area Waters and Habitat for Humanity La Crosse, piggyback on their already established soak it up award. So focusing on, storm water and runoff pollution, preventing that and teaching folks how to, establish sustainable practices to soak it up in their own yards. And so I can keep going. I don't I don't need slides.

I can I can be entertaining with my voice? I can tell. Please do keep going.

I'll attach

them to the minutes. Sorry.

That's okay. You won't have my pretty photographs, some of which I also took from partner organizations just kind of illustrating the participation that we've had in some of these programs and some of the fun activities that we've gotten to do. So, grow green is what we now call Nomo May. So Nomo May started in 2022. Specifically, I thought it it started prior to my time, but in my eyes, I viewed it as a simple way for people to have some sort of agency in their own property and that they were doing something for the environment by simply not mowing their lawn for the entire month of May, providing some foraging wildlife habitat spaces for our local species.

After some more research and and this program has developed throughout the state of Wisconsin and the The United States as a whole, we decided to forego the Nomo May, because that was seen maybe as just an opportunity, in some cases, to leave lawns long, and and that's not always, as beneficial as it may have been intended. So moving to grow green and really exemplifying all of the different ways that people can take action in the springtime, leaving your leaves a little bit longer in the spring, not trimming your lawn as frequently, reducing the frequency of mowing, adding native plantings to your yard, things like that. And so we started last spring as well doing kickoff events to increase some of that engagement rather than just putting all of this out on social media and trusting press releases to get this information out. I wanted to make a goal to invite people in person to interact with us directly and talk to us, ask questions in person, get their hands on some fun activities to, tie those learning pieces together. So last spring, we started our kickoff event series with Nomo May.

We did activities. We had a present presentation, seed bomb native seed bomb activities where they got to kind of put some native seeds together and throw them out in their lawn, directions on how to convert lawn to we had a presenter from a company named Flawn, Flowering Lawn, come in and share his expertise, and we had some native or master naturalists speaking about native plants and how to prevent invasives in their yard. So that is a little bit about Nomo May, which is now Grow Green. We repeated that event this spring as well. And I'll talk a little bit more about Habitat in in La Crosse Area Waters.

We started with them doing Soak It Up, but a lot of their programming overlaps with much of what we do in our other sustainability programs too. So they joined us in Nomo May this spring as well, and a lot of the things that we do throughout the season correlates with the work that they're already doing. So moving on to soak it up. That program, like I said, started last year in 2024. Major partnership with La Crosse Area Waters.

I will not do an explanation of their organization justice, but, they partner with, I think is municipalities? 10 municipalities, on stormwater education. So as part of their MS four permit through the DNR, or sorry, municipalities permit, they are required to provide education to the communities. And so La Crosse Area Waters kind of act acts as that bridge entity to provide that education. So they have been well established in the storm water world and educating community members on that.

And so we had a gap in some of our sustainability programming. Just so happened, they approached us and said, would you like to partner in in some effort? So we've been working together and expanding those partnerships over the course of our sustainability programs. I don't have enough nice things to say. They're really wonderful.

So last year, we did soak it up, teaching people simple ways to soak up rainwater, stormwater runoff in their own yards, simple as diverting your downspout into your lawn or going to an actual car wash instead of washing your car and your lawn to prevent those chemicals from washing down the drain. They actually get washed down a specific drain at a car wash. This is a shameless plug. Go to a car wash because they get washed and processed and and prevent some of those chemicals from going directly into our lakes, rivers, and streams. Also supporting folks by providing some rain barrels.

So rain barrel education, we did a part of our kickoff event was hosting a rain barrel DIY. So we acquired some rain barrels and the supplies to completely outfit one of the 50 gallon barrels with a spigot, cut the top off, and have it completely implementable by the time people got to take it home. So we were able to give away I think we gave away four of those last year, and we are going to be doing an eight rain barrel giveaway this June this season. So that event is you are invited to come. Consider this your formal invitation, Wednesday, June 25 from four to 6PM at Myrick Park Main Shelter.

We will be there. We have also, looped in the library, their tool library as well, to show folks where they can rent tools if they don't have access to them and so that they can still implement some of these actions even if they don't have, the permanent tools in their possession to make make that happen. Moving on to Leaf It. It's our fall initiative. It's focused on fall lawn care. Mostly, it was focused on mulching your leaves, leaving them in the yard, and the environmental benefit that can have. In 2025, one of the goals that I have is to expand that program to focus a little bit more on composting as well. And so there is a program. I believe they're out of Wisconsin. Their rain barrels are or not rain barrels.

Excuse me. Compost bins are produced in The United States and then sold at a discount to only municipalities and nonprofits as part of a group buy. And so that would be a goal of mine to implement and have something similar to the rain barrel demonstration we do in the summer, but for fall and compost bins and teaching people, educating on how to either compost leaves or food waste, kitchen waste in their own backyards, and then repurpose that in other places or what they can do with it if they don't have a need for that compost. Give it to a neighbor. Everyone loves good compost, especially if it's good quality, and you know where it comes from.

So we've not hosted a kickoff program for the leaflet program yet, but hoping to do that in the fall. And then our last seasonal sustainability initiative is our winter initiative, which is Salt Smart. That one is quite expansive as well. There are multiple municipalities. Statewide, there is a winter salt week hosted by I can't remember the specific organization, but they do a wonderful job when we piggyback

Salt wise?

It is salt wise. Yes. Wisconsin salt Wise. We piggyback off of a lot of the programming that they do as well. Again, La Crosse Area Waters has a lot of that information and education out there that ties in nicely with that. So this winter, our kickoff event consisted of a brine making workshop. So, again, those hands on aspects to get people actually practicing these things. So if they don't get to win the brine to take home, they actually know how to do it and and source those materials on their own. So we hosted that at the Black River Beach Neighborhood Center. There was heat there.

We didn't do it at the Mayerich Park Center. We did that in January, and folks did some nutrient testing as well. So we were able to chip through the ice and get a a water sample from the Black River, and do some nutrient testing to see kinda compared to some of our our control tests, what the nutrient levels in that body of water look like and how, excess salt can impact that. We also, as part of that program, deliver we don't deliver. It is deliverable, but people come and physically pick it up.

They are 12 ounce cups that they can use too if they are going to do salt application appropriately. That 12 ounce cup is enough road salt to cover approximately 10 sidewalk squares or a 20 foot driveway. So that is another tangible thing we try to get out there for folks. And then in addition to all information for these programs, I've been working on getting guidance documents out for them. So if you're not able to attend some of these programs, you're still able to page through those documents and see ways that you can help.

If you don't have a lawn, participating in the Beautify Lacrosse program is is a way that people can get involved or just giving people the tools to have that ownership over their urban environment and find ways to get involved even if you're living in an apartment or you're living in a duplex, you're renting where, you may not have the opportunity to do those things like you would on private property. So other programs, I kinda mentioned already, the Beautify Lacrosse program, goal that I would have for that, this year. We're hoping to revise that program, make it a little bit more accessible to people, in terms of approval process. Right? So currently, there is an application and plan required, and then that goes to our park board.

So sometimes that doesn't always end up as the the appropriate season, and so we wanna make that maybe a little bit alter those guidelines so that if there is kind of a standard that we can ensure is gonna be appropriate for some of those spaces, they can move through an approval process a little bit faster. And then lastly, we started a sustainability e newsletter just this month. So that went out on June 4, and that was to get these programs directly into the hands of people who are interested and have opted in to receive more information about our sustainability programs. And so, currently, that mailing list came from past participants of our Nomo May program. They've all opted in to receive sustainability updates at some point in their participation in those programs, and so we were able to send that out to 392 recipients.

We have links to sign up on all of our sustainability pages, and then we had a 60% open rate for this email. So if you know anything about email statistics, that is a great open rate. We are very proud of that. And I think, yeah, that kinda covers everything. I'm impressed I got through without the crutch of my presentation. So if you have any questions, I'm here still

to answer them. Outstanding. Thank you, Sam. Thank you. That was impressive. Yes. Questions, Yeah. Sami, thank you for all of

your work. It's super impressive. What can we do as a committee to help support you in the work that you're doing?

I think that will evolve with time. And as these programs evolve and the needs of the sustainability initiatives kind of get bigger and broader, right now, probably the most impactful thing is helping get the word out. So if you see something on Facebook or or some platform where you're like, that's easy to share, or I know someone who'd be interested in that, or even maybe you wanna come, that is incredibly supportive. I love seeing familiar faces at these events and showing off what we do. And then, if any of these programs are ever something that would pair well with some of the climate action funding, we would definitely wanna use that to I don't know.

They pair they pair well together. So not just use it, but use it in a in an effective manner and and make sure they go that those funds go to places that are gonna show some impact. So, like, for example, when we get if we get the compost bins up and running, that'll have some front end cost associated with it. And there's not necessarily a line item for all of this right now. It's just kind of grown and expanded, and we pick up the pieces where we can, with our current operating budget. But if there's ever room for it to be supplemented by some of those funds that are that are earmarked for these type of projects, that would be helpful also. We're not there yet, but I might come back.

Any follow-up, Casey? Okay. Yeah. I think Yeah. Go

ahead. I I've been talking to Sammy a lot over the past few months just about, like, what are ways that I mean, she's already doing great out outreach and education work about sustainability programs, but just, like, how does that align with our climate action plan? And then how can we support that and and make, the work that she's doing, bigger and better?

Natalie. Thank you so much. This is excellent. Sort of in that vein, and maybe this is a question for both you and Lewis, but how are you thinking about these programs evolving into policy implementation? And what can we do as a committee to encourage or advance or support policy recommendations around more sustainable activities?

That's a really good question. I think in terms of the, spring program, we there are recommendations in the climate action plan about having, you know, sort of pilot projects of native prairie restoration. So any way we can, work with parks to have really good demonstration project, really good demonstration projects, I think, is helpful. And then also, working with parks and then, like, Coolie Region Ecoscapes and saying, like, well, where are they where are they butting heads with our yeah. Our our well, I was gonna say our weeds are, but I don't think that's quite the best word to put it.

But when I say that, I mean, like, the the the height of the of the lawns, not anything else. So, that's, I'd say, one option. Salting is tricky, I think. Composting policy is is something we're thinking about and working with other organizations, but I I think yeah. Thinking about how we can systematize, these things rather than just making them sort of feel good activities.

I'm gonna add on to we all know it's it's much bigger than us and the people in this room too, and there's a lot of other departments and and people who play with policy and enforce policy, and it and not everyone's receptive to current policies or changes in policies. So I think Lewis kinda mentioned it too, but, yeah, taking a pulse for the community too and meeting them when they're where they're at. Seeing them, there's, like, some of the Beautify Lacrosse things. Like, people have these wonderful landscapes, but they've not yet applied for the permit. And so, technically, are they outside of the ordinance requirements?

Yes. But we have this policy in place, and so we have to jump through some of these processes and approvals. And so making some of those things a little bit easier to access is something to keep in mind. And then not always and not applicable to everything, but sometimes incentivizing people. So it doesn't always have to be, like, an order to correct policy or a policy that has, like, negative reinforcement.

Right? We want some positive reinforcement here. So that's where kind of the idea is to give things away to people kind of comes in like, we want to get involved, but we've never really had the gusto or the finances or the real interest. But I see you're giving something away, and I have an opportunity to get my hands on it and actually interact with it before I decide I wanna do and implement those strategies. So some kind of, like, positive reinforcement are also things to consider.

Then I've been using the climate action plan and and speaking at other communities, what they've got going on too. And Fitchburg is a really good example of community that's got great sustainability policy, I I think, or some parts and pieces of it. We don't wanna recreate the wheel, but there's some good stuff already out there. And so if it fits with what we have and what we're able to implement here, I think that's a good place to start.

Gosh. There's just, like, so much there. In terms of policy, do you know if our city fleets just dump salt, or are they using brine?

I know a little bit. We do have I think we have multiple brine trucks. The idea is that they sort of pretreat the streets before an expected snowstorm, so ice isn't allowed to form. So when it it does come to salting, they'll have to put it put out less. I haven't had many conversations with them recently, but I've I mean, we've had workshops here with Wisconsin Salt Lives, and I think, our streets department is, onboard.

I I would say it always takes, you know, reminders, but I I think my impression is that we're we're doing pretty well.

Excellent. Thanks. Yeah. I mean, honestly obviously, rather, any areas that we can cut costs is going to be easier to get all city departments on board with. And so I think it is often cost savings measures when it comes to sustainability.

So, I like to see those sorts of ideas put into policy. There are a couple others too. You know? Like, so one of the bigger topics of the week in terms of council is the stormwater rate increases that are coming at us. And I was talking to the department today, and I thought, how do we decrease our water bill?

And we just waited for a second and then smiled, and we said, we decrease our water usage. And it was a very obvious moment where, you know, like, this connects really well. So if we had the resources and, like, the ability to organize quickly, we could leverage this opportunity to decrease our water consumption and also talk about some of the ways you could save money on your stormwater fees. And so, I mean, there's so many ways that what you're doing and what Lewis is doing is, like, just really complimentary, and I I'd love to see us, you know, be able to support that in whatever way we can. Other policy things I was have been thinking about, I don't know if this body knows a lot about how tree planting is funded here.

Tree planting is a struggle. And then also, like, stewarding the tree to grow is also a struggle. So do you have any policy ideas for

increasing our tree canopy? We are in the parks department. We recently received a grant from this Wisconsin DNR, urban forestry program to, edit slash rewrite some of the sections of our tree ordinance right now. And so it's not necessarily planting more trees, but it's preventing the removal of perfectly healthy trees. So maintaining, right, is the first step before we can add more.

So that one is going to be focused on some things like tree protection zones when we have new developments coming up. What are the requirements from developers, contractors, people like that to keep trees and preserve trees, specifically in boulevard spaces because that's where our comfort level is right now enforcing those city owned areas and city maintained trees, and then getting some education out there for how people can plant more and and add more. So we do currently have our boulevard tree planting program. To plant a tree on your boulevard, you have two options. You can approve or request a permit from us.

So you provide us your species and and preferred location, and we say, yes. That looks good. It it meets all the current requirements for being far enough away from utilities, and it's not an invasive species, etcetera. And we stamp our approval, and then you can go plant your tree. Or you can request to us from it is a CIP item.

We get approved to plant trees. And so some of that comes from an operating line of just our general forestry expenses, which are also, like, the removal of hazardous trees. Just general forestry maintenance, there's a lot more that goes into it. So, we can't use it all for tree planting, unfortunately, but we've been able to be really successful with the the parts and pieces of it that we can. And then the CIP, we can also retake some of those requests.

So, again, similar process, but you're not the one planting the tree. You come to us and you say you have the opportunity to say, this is a species I would like. And if it is, an approved species or species that would thrive in the space, our arborists come take a look. If it's away from utilities, there's enough room for it to grow. Those are all, things that we look at, and then, we do that in the spring and the fall.

So I really meant to look up a number for you to have here tonight, but I don't have one. I think last year was a really impressive number. I wanna say it was, like, over 300 trees planted in the year, which some of that we contract out, some of that our our very own arborists do. And there's there's three of them, and they maintain 20,000 public trees in between the parks and the boulevard spaces. And I don't think that includes some of the trees, like in Petty Bone or or out in the marsh, where sometimes they do have to go out there as well. So

their scope is very broad. I'm so excited about that tree preservation policy because we all know it's really easy for, like, developers or the state to just come down and chop trees. And I think when La Crosse Street was redone, it, like, really shocked a lot of people. I mean, when a lot of the ash trees were taken down, it I think it shocked a lot of people because it was really obvious. But La Crosse Street kind of opened my eyes and others on, like, how impossible it was to protect those.

There was a recent workshop that I attended on tree preservation ordinances held by the Midwest Climate Collaborative, and I am making a mental note to get you that information. A few municipalities in Dane County area, and also in Minnesota created an open source app to have citizen scientists or citizens, like, mark what tree they loved and mark the species instead of, like, going through, like, mapping the trees yourself in the entire city as a way to build buy in and, like, stewarding principles with the general public. It also was a way for the community to partake in protecting the trees and, like, monitoring its health and stuff like that. And I also found out that the state historical society has been undergoing a mass digitization of Wisconsin trees across the entire state. And so this open source app links to those maps and pulls from, like, hundreds and thousands of trees no matter what age.

And what's really awesome about that is they're starting to think about ways that they can preserve trees from that standpoint. And it brought me to another policy that I'd love to talk to you more about and you may be really interested in, and it is the concept of heritage tree preservation designation. And so there's a lot more in terms of tree preservation I had never ever ever thought about as well as some model ordinances by you know, like, you would not be allowed to cut a tree of a certain diameter, of certain sequestration value, things like that. So can't wait to hear what comes out of that and hope that you connect with our group too as as you start to build that out.

Yes. I would love to see what you have. That's that's absolutely very exciting process. Cool. Anything else for Sammy?

I'm sure we could go on forever. Thank you so much for being here and for presenting with us. We'd love to to collaborate. And, also, maybe I don't know. Lewis has probably communicated with you about this, but I feel like the parks department does an amazing job of social media and, like, posting out to networks that seem to pay attention to the parks department. So anytime that we can collaborate with sharing out our blogs that way or, you know, the newsletter, it would be just great to amplify voices. It

probably has a good home in our sustainability themed e newsletter is what I'm thinking. Yeah. Absolutely. Cool. Thank you. Thank you all.

Alright. If there's nothing else on this item, then we will move ahead to a topic all of the people on this committee love. And that is 25 dash zero six five zero, a review of zoning actions recommended in the climate action plan and any other additional comments on the implementation plan. So you all know there is a land use section of our climate action plan and many bits that can be incorporated into our zoning update. So first, maybe, Lewis, if you could just remind everybody of the zoning update that's happening, sort of, like, timeline, And then, yeah, any other information you'd like us to know.

Well, last month, I I sort of or, well, Andrew introduced the idea of addressing the zoning recommendations in the climate action plan as sort of the focus of this year's implementation plan. So I I thought that was a great idea. I had reached out to our consultants about around 30 recommendations in the code that were that were zoning related and reviewed them a little bit prior to this meeting to kind of give you so it's not actually 30. It's actually a lot of them are dupe duplicative. But yeah.

So that's that's that. But right now, I think there's a survey out there, and there was just a newsletter sent out today. So if you're not signed onto the newsletter, it's you can you can sign up for it at forwardlacrosse.org. There are a few meetings, zoning code one zero one at the UU. I'm assuming that's with the Wagon Hogan Neighborhood Association and then another zoning code one zero one at on June 23.

So I'm sorry. The the former one was June 9. This one's June 23 at First Congregational Church also. So so what what's happening is Tim and Jenna are going to the neighborhood associations to talk to them about the zoning code update. I think the timeline is about eighteen months from, yeah, launch.

So I'm I'm thinking 2026 will be good to go. But, yeah, just I would say probably the biggest and most not necessarily complex, but biggest opportunity and and focus for me is just transit oriented development. There are about six of the actions that are zoning code related are around transit oriented development in one way or another, like having affordable housing near transit stops, having, you know, good accessibility in general, having fifteen minute cities as well. There are also recommendations around design review and then, conservation, zoning districts, and tree planting, flood plan a little bit. So I think those are the biggest opportunities.

Some urban agriculture. But to Sammy's point, I'm glad she clarified that they're focused on public tree preservation because I think the zoning code update could address private tree preservation. So when a new development gets built, we're making sure that we're preserving those trees as well.

Thank you, Lewis. And I know Natalie and Andrew talked about zoning just a month ago during the housing week. But, yes, I'll open the floor. Any suggestions or recommendations you all have and wanna share right now? This is the time.

Yes. So in terms of looking at our climate action plan and just reviewing the the actions recommended in the climate action plan. So just a brief review. If you go to lacrosseclimateactionplan.org, you can pull up the plan on your computer and go to section 11 climate actions and implementation. You know, just like a few that explicitly mentioned zoning were LH three, LH four, but it you know, there are items within many categories that could be referenced in our zoning update.

I would say too, in the past, we were kinda looking at actions that commissioners were interested in and wanted to pursue. Like, for example, Andrew helped me find good examples of design standards for private development that would that included enclosed bike parking. So looking at, you know, other cities like Seattle, Minneapolis, Denver maybe. I don't know. Any a few different cities, and we were able to kind of put together a a memo that we would send to our consultant saying, like, here are the here are here are the model ordinances that we're looking at.

One one thing that's nice about that is anything that comes from a city is open source or not covered by copyright, so we can model it as as we see fit. And then saying, well, from this from these models, these are kind of the highlights, or these are kind of the things we wanna make sure that we hit in our ordinance. So that's sort of the approach I'm thinking of is if if we can look at cities that have good examples of of certain or certain ordinances, we can use those as as examples.

City of Middleton Luis, I don't know if I told you this. City of Middleton just completed their zoning update, and they modeled their zoning update off of the results of their lead for city certification, included anything that was, like, a glaring gap into their zoning update. One of them was bird friendly glass and lighting ordinances to make sure that it is reducing light pollution and also just, like, not wasting money lighting up the sky when you really aren't walking in the sky. So there's some great examples out there of how other communities have included certain climate actions in in their zoning updates.

And I believe Middleton spoke during housing week too about their

Yes. Daphne did, I believe. Right? Yeah. Good reminder. I was depressed. I couldn't couldn't attend. Others. Natalie.

Well, Daphne's presentation recording is on the La Crosse Housing Week website. I think also, you know, when Andrew and I put together a presentation, a goal was really to get people who are already very active in city processes processes and, like, policy and, you know, hot issues of the day, but focused around conservation. Getting those folks to think about zoning and the civic engagement around this issue as something that relates very deeply to the things they already care about, and, like, leveraging their commitment to community in this process because zoning can be so, like, what? You know? Or it's, like, very often in the context of housing or neighborhood, you know, that sort of thing.

So I think that in addition to seeking other you know, I think looking at other communities for good policy models is a great, you know, thing this committee or this body can do, but also leveraging our, you know, any public facing things we do, potential educational opportunities or messaging to support zoning and really getting people who care about climate, to also care about zoning and speak up during this public engagement process to, yeah, just just act in support of, necessary reforms that, yeah, just promote a healthier community because they already do. It's just how how does this also relate to those things

that you already care about. Absolutely. Andrew, do you wanna add on to that?

I get I can only say one thing in our in our to Natalie's point, in our zoning code update conversations, I mean, the development community is the one is is the the the player in the game. The city is the referee. So if we don't like the game that they're playing, we can change the rules. So that's maybe that's one way I like to put it is, like, we make the I mean, if you don't like what you're seeing, you can change the rules. So that that's sort of the approach.

I think, the the friends of the Marsh have been really interested in zoning, when there are are parcels in the marsh that are zoned heavy industrial and are very adamant they should be conservation. So that's, you know, a big issue. I mean yeah. Yeah. I was I was a little bit naive to think that, with the sort of other complexity with the zoning code is you've got the floodplain and then, shoreland wetland preservation that, you know, certain parcels like, certain like, development on certain parcels would be fine, But there's still a lot you can do.

And, this yeah. That's all I'll say about that.

I think I was just gonna mention that another big challenge that there always was with zoning is that La Crosse is really weird in that we have all sorts of ownership of other entities in the city. So something that you might think belongs to the city is really the county. You know? And it is the weirdest I mean, I can't imagine those conversations back in the day when people were sitting around dividing up properties and fighting over it. You know, there's well, the McDonald's out by the mall.

Half of it's in the city, half of it's in on Alaska. I mean, it's just goofy stuff like that. And there's, you know, where the cinema, movie theater, things like that, that whole area from these are arguments from a long time ago, so this this hasn't been a new topic to argue about. But, you know, all the way from, Losey Boulevard over to West not West Avenue, Ward Avenue over by the cinemas, that's county. You know?

So it's I mean, it's just weird, weird properties. So then when you get into the marsh too, the ownership of that is not all city, so it's always been problematic. So I I don't know if they can ever, you know, try to you know? The mall the mall belongs to the city, though that was a big fight years and years ago. They won that one. But so, you know, you get into it's just not working with city. It's working with entities because you're surrounded by city in a in a spot in the county. The big billboard in town by Losey in La Crosse Street, that is not the city. We fought to keep it out of the city, so they came along and they put it where the county property was. So

Lewis, can you speak to what will happen after the new zoning update is approved? It just means that there are new rules. So it doesn't change the existing zoning necessarily.

It well yeah. So, like

because that's the sort of questions that we're gonna get. And so

Yeah. That is a I mean, even when we were doing the ADU code, people were like, every house like, imagining that every property is gonna suddenly build an accessory dwelling unit in their backyard. There's a lot of other factors besides zoning. It's just what is allowed to be built. So, I mean, the plan commission, most recently, I had a rezoning petition where a, bar was zoned single family for single family residential.

So I think one of the things to do is is to fix that situation. So when I'm like, in this case, the bar was a what's called a legally nonconforming use. So they could improve their property up to 50% of the value without rezoning or yeah. So they would have to rezone to do that. Those kinds of limitations make it make it difficult to make improvements on existing buildings.

So it's what you're trying to encourage and or discourage in the future. There's a lot of properties, say, along Rose Street in Copeland that are zoned because we had envisioned that they would that this would be a, you know, a more continuous commercial corridor. But if it doesn't come to fruition, it just remains housing, and that's that's perfectly fine. So it's just kind of again, to go back to my analogy about, you know, making rules and, it's more future oriented. So, like, things don't change immediately.

Like, you don't if you're, yeah, If your building gets sewn something else, it's not like you have to immediately use it for something else. It's in the future. And and that's likely not gonna happen. I think what we're at least my hope is that a lot of the legally nonconforming uses get, up to code or, like, they're the the zoning district changes so those properties can be improved.

Any questions from the committee? Lewis, what okay. So last month, Andrew talked about, like, in terms of the implementation plan, we should focus our efforts on zoning. So what do you envision we can do over the next year to really, like, take opportunity of this moment because it's a really critical moment. We're actually doing a zoning update, and we I personally wanna make sure that we get everything, you know, possible into this zoning update while we have this opportunity, to make sure that we make some serious progress.

Not just the climate action plan, but, like, in a broader sense. Although I also wanted to be with the climate action plan.

Well, I mean, my approach is kinda like I said, is just gathering good examples from other communities and and sharing them with our consultant, you know, showing that this is not only recommended in the climate action plan, some in some instances, also recommended in the comprehensive plan, which is even better. But, you know, I think Natalie has a good example of me that's maybe not everybody. My my my approach maybe isn't everybody's approach, so encouraging people that already care about climate to come to these meetings and speak up is is is another is very important as well. So maybe that's more of a discussion for the committee to discuss decide is, like, what what do you all want to do in terms of, or how do you wanna approach it? Because, I mean, I have my way that I know that works for me.

It may not work for everybody, and there may and there's a lot of, ways to get to the top of the mountain.

I also hope you as staff will tell us what you wanna see and bring it to us so that we can ask questions and, like, further develop on those things because, obviously, you're the expect the expert in this room.

Well yeah. I mean, anytime I I'll I'll try to do my best to give to put together memos so, you know, I can work with you all if there's something you're passionate about. But getting getting that additional support at at the public hearings and and public meetings is is is good too because my Yeah. You know, stuff that I memos that I slip in might just get buried amongst everything else.

So Mhmm.

Any every approach that you can use to to for advocacy is good.

Thanks. One last question. Who is the consultant for the zoning update? Couldn't find it on the website.

MSA. MSA. Okay.

Alright. Any last questions? Okay. We're at the end of our agenda. So if there's no objection, I'll adjourn the meeting. Seeing and hearing none,

we

are adjourned.