Environmental Commission - Regular Meeting

It is 7 o'clock and I will call the meeting of the environmental commission to order. Um here on October 7th at the Twinsburg Government Center. Uh we'll start down with Helen. If you could just say your name and let everybody know you're here. Ellen Munning's here. Michael Wamp here. John MacArthur here. Uh Jonah Bashette here. Gina here. Sean here. Virginia Schmidt here. Patrick Jeffers here. David Post here. All right. Thank you. Uh, next we move on to the approval of the minutes. Uh, are there any changes that need to be made to the minutes? Seeing none, I would make I'll make a motion that we approve the minutes as submitted. Is there a second? Second.

Seconded by Gina. All those in favor, please say I. All oppose, please say nay. The minutes have been approved. Uh, I don't think there are any presentations this evening. We do have an audience, but I don't believe there is audience participation. Should you answer? Um, no. No. Okay. He is too locked into the iPad. Yeah. All right. So, uh, next we move on to commissioner reports. Um, let's see. We'll start with with Virginia. We'll go to my right this time.

Okay. All righty. The only thing I have to report is that the Twinsburg Native Habitat Association is having a presentation on Tuesday, October 21st at 6:30 at Christ the King Lutheran Church right down the road about the uh Kyhoga River Gorge Dam removal project. It's been a long time coming. The dam was built in 1908 for hydro electric power and it's important to have it removed to restore the natural functions of the uh Kyhoga River. So, I have a a flyer for everyone. And then, um, whenever Gina does her report, I wanted to ask about, uh, status or conversation about, um, the little likeformational bits that maybe were going to go in the city newsletter, you know, just get some educational stuff out to the community members.

So, we can jump to Sean or we jump right to to Gina. Yeah, I don't have anything yet. All right, so we'll we'll jump right to Gina. Thank you, Shantu. So, Virginia, that is great. Would you like something like this in in like I I haven't p I didn't do anything. I have to admit I didn't like check with um Shannon or or anybody how I think what we if I recall um we were saying that we wanted to get something in the mayor's um together twinsburg. Mhm. Um yeah, tell me what I should ask.

This um Mark Powski is a member of our group and he's going to do something with this particular thing topic. Yes. Yes. But yeah, I mean I think if we kind of maybe come up with different like topics or you know three four sentences things to like have a you know a well of those and then you know have them inserted as room. I think that you're right that sounds like really a good plan. Um, so if anybody has some things you want to include or if you want to think on that and we can come back to this, I don't know, whatever.

I I know last meeting we talked about um and and Councilman Post brought it up. We talked about having and the mayor's together twinsburg um showcasing the Good Neighbor Award winner of this year. Um I I have not reached out to the Good Neighbor Award winner, Steve. I have not reached out to see if he'd be okay with that. nor have I reached out to the mayor in telling him about Councilman Post's great idea. Um, but you know, we we could still pursue that. There's still time left in uh 2025. And so I really don't think it'd be problematic to wait even a little bit more to say here was 2025's winner.

You know, nominations will go live for 2026 on this date. And so if we could maybe see if Mayor Scabe is willing because I I cannot force him to do anything. That is all his mailor is his choice. Um but if he's willing, you know, that'd be wonderful. If not, that's also okay. We can find some other way to program with the community. If um if I'm understanding this correctly, issue two is winter. The issue four I have like I I just put them in here um is summer. So does that mean he does this seasonally? that there's one there's four a year. Is that how the printing of the Together Twinsburg has come out? So there is fall coming up. I don't know.

Yeah, I think they've been trying to do them quarterly. Okay. So fall is on its way and then um we should check on what the timing of that is. Yes, absolutely.

Absolutely. Gina, do you have anything else? Uh, no, just a shout out to um Mike um who had the presentation at the library for the cert um and that uh it was just really informative. A lot of good people there uh and lots of good questions and I thought that was really cool that um you're multi-talented. Um so that was there and this week uh or tomorrow is the open house and there'll be um the uh fire and police and also your you guys will be there will be there as well. Yeah. So that'll be neat. Awesome.

Um I'll skip over me because I I have just three bullet points that are going to be a little longer. Um so we'll go to John. No report to see. All righty. Michael, no report as well. All righty. Helen, the only thing I would say is that um I saw a YouTube video or a video put out by the environmental science teacher over at the high school and how she took that area in front of the high school and turned it into like a native plant pollinator garden and how she must have done it like last spring and then into the summer. So, she had like two grades of kids doing it and I thought that was pretty interesting. I give her a lot of credit for doing that. Cindy Kurt. Cindy, it is Cindy Kurt does that.

And then she took the students in there. Looked like they were there in the fall, maybe in the spring and the fall, the video, and they were looking for butterflies and native um insects and plants. And thought that was pretty interesting. So, kudos to her. She does a lot. She's at all of the Earth Day Arbor Day events we host. She is um you know, always doing different things like that at the high school. She she's always doing something uh to show the students, you know, how to be environmentally conscious. I love it. I I'm glad you saw the video because I saw it and I was like, "Oh my god." Yeah, that was really it was really very uh enjoyable to watch. Absolutely. Anything else for Fort Wise? No, that's it.

All right. Um so for mine, just three quick things. Uh the well three things, one quick. Uh the first one is there is a spooktacular event. I don't know if you've seen this on maybe the parks and rack. um Facebook page or social medias or or even the city's social media, but there's a spooktacular event uh at Glenn Chamberlain Park on Saturday, October 18th from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Uh Director Bentonson of the Parks and Recck Department had asked if we'd be willing to participate. Um and I I said absolutely. We we I'm sure at least I'll be willing to participate on behalf of the commission. Um and so we're going to be doing a trunk or treat uh sort of event. You know, we I'll pull up my my Equinox, open the trunk. I bought a little like a farm cutout so we could go farm theme for it. I figure everybody has jeans and you could go flannel and that could be your sort of theme for the the trunk or treat to pass out candy there. Um, but that's 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and and if you're able to stop by, that'd be fantastic. I'm going to bring a a I we overbought it at Sam's Club. We have a bunch of chip bags. So, it's not just candy. We have like 84 packs of those little chips. So, I'll bring those. And I have at least a couple bags of candy I can bring.

Um, do do they want any kind of like educational light educational? She did not say anything about that. It just sounds like it's a fun uh event, Halloween event at that. So, you know, I I could always clarify if we want, but it doesn't sound like it's an educational event. It sounds like it's more of a a trunk or treat, pumpkin candy or or snacks event. And it's a great way for us to just be out there. And yeah, you know, again, I I I did make that uh decision on the farm theme because I figure everybody's probably got food. If we wanted to change it, absolutely. We could change that. I could be there because my husband's going to be there for the wreck. So awesome. Are we Are we okay with that farm theme? I I Okay, that sounds fun.

Okay. I just had to make sure I can't make decisions without you guys. So Well, you don't want anything like too scary and

Exactly. I wanted something everybody could participate in. And so again, I'll just decorate the back of the Equinox. It'll have like farm animals, stuff like that, and I'll wear flannel, blue jeans, and boots. It's it's kind of easy there. Um, but I wanted to make sure we were aware of that because that is coming up pretty shortly here. Um, the second thing I wanted to mention is is coming up a little quicker. It's the Good Neighbor Award. At our last meeting, we talked about the Good Neighbor Award. Um, we discussed, do we want to add more awards? Do we want to add just keep it at one? and and Councilman Post uh sort of ended that meeting on the note saying, you know, think about how how one award sometimes really means a lot and if you keep adding more, it may dilute um what it stands for. I'm paraphrasing a little bit, but

it's it's roughly what Councilman Post had said. Um and so I'm going to I want to see what our thoughts are as a commission. Do we want to keep it at one award? Do we want to open it up? Um, personally, I think one award for a second year is still the smart decision. You know, we only had five or so five people nominated last year. Yeah. Yeah. So, I think keeping one award for a second year is probably the best decision and if we it blows up the second year we have 100 nominees, then maybe year three we could look at expanding. That's my personal opinion. Yeah, that that makes that makes sense. You know, you're it's new, so you're trying to iron out the kinks. You don't want to like make it bigger than

what we can handle. You wanted to catch on before we start scaling it. Absolutely. I just I remember last meeting we talked about scaling and I wanted to see where our thoughts were cuz we all all sat on that for a while. Plus and you know and on top of it we don't want to dilute the message here.

Absolutely. And that that's where my brain went. I I tended to agree with on that one but I I wanted to see what we thought. So, um, our timeline last year for this, we kind of put it together, I don't want to say last minute because we planned it for quite literally years in advance, but it it seemed very rushed, but at the end, I think it worked out really well. Uh, we had nominations open in February, they closed in March. Um, and then in March, a subcommittee had looked over all of the the nominees, scored them against a rubric, presented the the top two scoring candidates to the commission for a final vote in the April meeting. In that April meeting, the council had or the commission had voted on who they want to be the good neighbor award winner. And then we presented to that council uh the following meeting with permission from the council president. And so that was our timeline last year or this year. Um did we want to keep that same timeline knowing that it did work and knowing how it works now?

Keep it the same. I say keep it the same. The same keep it the same. Okay. Um we don't have to pick who's on the subcommittee yet. We could easily wait till our spring meeting. That's we we don't have to worry about doing that yet. Um but that would mean applications or nominations would go live uh February and so I will reach out to uh Mark Katowski, you know, before February to make sure they're live and posted as they were last year if that's okay with everybody. Yeah. Sounds great. Yeah. Any objections? No.

No. All right. I will make sure I do that. I'm going to make a note to myself so I don't forget. Okay. And then our last thing is or my last thing is Earth Day Arbor Day um event and and the date for this after talking with Director Benton and seeing when she's able to accommodate us space-wise, it would be April 25th. Uh timewise, I think we have some flexibility. It's just April 25th, 2026. But I think there's some flexibility on time. Last year it was 9:00 a.m. to 11. And I know we had thoughts on the time last year and so did we want to try to move the time around, keep it the same?

Yeah, I think you know around people started coming around 10 10:30. So felt a little short. If we could like do it later so people can come after eating breakfast and you know it's okay. Do we want to try 10 to noon then? Maybe I think a lot of these like like the spooktacular is 11 to 2. Okay. Um, I think a couple other things the city has done has been like like that 11ish time. Um, it's still get so you get people that are like coming after breakfast, maybe they had some morning practices or whatever and then you still get if you do it till like 11 to 2,

you still get some people that maybe had a game in the morning or something cuz if you're talking April, there's spring soccer, there's probably baseball, um, track track meets. Now, our event was 2 hours last year. We we shrunk it down from previous years just because we had never needed to be there for 4 hours. You remember the Earth events and 4 hours was always too much. You want to keep it 2 hours or like 11 to one? 11 to 1. Yeah, 11 to1. I think that would work. Chunk of time. Yeah, I I could I will double check to make sure that's feasible. Uh is that when they'll start also?

That would be when the entire event would start. So, I'm going to make sure that that's feasible for uh Director Benson to give us the space. I'm going to I told her, "Let's plan for the inside, and if April allows us to be outside, then we could be outside." But I think planning to have and use the inside is probably better than planning to be outside, right? I can't because April is in Ohio. It's in Ohio. Yeah, you you could also do half hours. Doesn't have to be exactly two or exactly. Absolutely. You could do 11 to 1:30 or 10:30 to 1 if you feel like 2 hours. If it was 4 and you felt like 2 hours was short and you feel, you know, you could do 2 and 1/2 hours. Absolutely. You know, don't don't want you feel like it has to be.

No, no. I I think the 11 to1 is is good. I think two hours was a a good amount of time. I think we saw everybody we were going to see. Um they just all showed up last year within a 1 hour window. So, if we spread that that 1 hour window out, then they could get done with practice. It was a little I just think of like I I mean I'm at the pool at 9:00 on a Saturday and there's swimming lessons and there's you know like I said there's soccer and all this other stuff but you get that like at least for the little kids a lot of that sock that stuff is kind of winding down by like 11ish and you go until one you still get some of those later later scheduled stuff.

Okay. So I will reach out to director Benton to see if 11 to one is feasible for the space this year. She said that she wants essentially our commission to take the entire lead um on planning it and and that is entirely fair. It's been our event for years. Last year she just helped us combine them and and she did a lot of the reaching out. Um that's not a problem. I could reach out to all the the individuals. I could reinvite them back. That's that's something we've done for years. Do you have a list or could you come up with a list of because I was not there last year.

Yeah. So last year we had the uh Twinsburg Native Habitat Association, Twinsburg Garden Club was also there. We had a a local beekeeper um Cathyuma was there. Uh we also had the Metrop Parks um waste uh what I watershed wershed partners rainarrel rain barrel workshop they also presented um I think her environmental science class was there. Miss Kurt's environmental science class took up two rooms um with activities and various different things. And then we pivoted to that scavenger hunt activity because of the rain. Okay. The rec department was there and and the parks and recreation department was also there. Yeah. What was the scavenger hunt? I don't remember. We instead of us Got it. Yeah.

We were originally going to do a scavenger hunt where you go look for naturous things and instead we said, "All right, go to get stamps at the table. Go stamp get a stamp at like a beekeeper table." Okay. It did work. people ended up going to every station. It just we had to pivot last minute because we were we were inside instead of outside. So, it worked. I like that idea though. But it because it everybody had it kind I don't want to say it forced everybody but kind of did. If you want to participate then you got to go see the beekeeper and you got to go to the environmental science class and you got to go to the park people. Did we like the stations last year? Like I I very much love stations as a teacher. I'm a big station guy. Yes. I think a lot of people just think like that. Okay. I mean, perfect.

Did they have to have like a clue or find something at the beekeepers for example? They they had to write Well, the clue I gave on the scavenger hunt, I think, was something is buzzing about and they would go there and they would write down I think something they learned. Okay. Um and and that was it. It was very simple. It wasn't too arduous, too complicated to fit a lot of age ranges. Okay.

But it was a last minute adjustment we made. You know, a thought might be uh I I I agree with Helen that by doing it with all the tables, it makes all the tables feel like there's value, whereas people won't go, I don't really want to talk to that table, but it'll it'll build up more for all the tables. But maybe to make your life easier, whoever's in charge of the scavenger hunt, maybe ask the person at each table to come up with a question for the scavenger hunt, and then you don't have to think about it. they can do it for you, right? And their question might be more meaningful because they know what their table's about,

right? One important thing about your table or your right group or whatever. So, just it'll make it easier for you and more meaningful in the scavenger hunt. Proof have to spend a whole lot of time there. No, that that's that's my my third sort of bullet point here. So, we're fine with stations 11 to one. Um, and then activity-wise, do we want to stick with the scavenger hunt for us? I It sounds like we liked it, so we want to keep doing the scavenger hunt. Giving up pants and stuff. That was that was nice. Yes, we gave away a lot of swag. We have some extra. Um, but we want to stick with the scavenger hunt.

Um, I could reach out like Councilman Post suggested, have the group pose a question. No, that that's a very good idea. Yeah, that's a good idea. Okay, that would make everything easier when I reach out to them. Yeah. And you won't have to create scavenger hunt on your own. Absolutely. It was just a last minute adjustment we made. Actually be maybe more meaningful. Oh my goodness. Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. Um and last year the theme was just Earth Day. I mean it was just an Earth Day Arbor Day event.

Do we want to try to theme it this year? And what I mean by that is do we want to say, you know, it's it's water conservation, um environmental mindfulness. We want to have a theme around it where we tell stations or tell these groups coming, hey, we're focusing on, you know, water conservation or our big focus while still related to the environment. If you could maybe bring something related to water conservation, that'd be great. It's just an idea. That's something to think about. You could kill my idea if you you don't. I think it's a good idea. I can't think of anything right now. Okay. Of a theme, but I think it's a good idea. Wow.

So, the only thing that my initial thought that popped into my head right was um people are very familiar with the the term Earth Day. And if if you move away from that, you it'd still be an Earth Day event. Still call it Earth Day and Arbor Day event. individuals walk in though and all the stations are themed around, you know, maybe water conservation or

Well, for example, last year apparently um according to this website, it was our power, our planet. So, you wouldn't be taking anything away from each station, but just how do you kind of fall under that umbrella? invest in our planet, restore our earth, protect our species, um environmental and climate literacy. So, I think they're already like I I think Earth Day um has kind of worked this out because I only have up to 2025. So, I don't know what 202 Earth Day Incorporated or whatever.

Wait, Planet versus Plastics. Yeah, I saw that for 2024. 26. Oh, is 26 they liked it so much? Is it coming back? I don't know. At the moment. Planet versus plastic. Potentially be something that uh Yeah. So, it we can talk more about that. We'll um flesh it out a little, find out what some choices are. So, still be Earth Day. Yes. Yeah, it would still be Earth Day. It's the Earth Day event. We're not changing the name or anything because people know Earth Day. I was just thinking maybe instead of hey bring bring a station related to Earth Day, you could maybe say, you know, if you can bring a station related to XYZ, not keep it Earth related

and let them figure out the the ambiguity of that. But that was just a suggestion. If you're looking for other ideas for themes, um, summit soil and water, um, conservation district also has a annual theme that they put together each year for a little bit more storm water related stuff, but um, they have a they have an annual theme each year. I forget what what it is this year, but on the their website they have a theme that they run each year. Okay, that's perfect. That's awesome to know. Thank you. Um, and this is April, so we have our our February meeting. we can flush all the final details out. But I do want to reach out to all these groups now and and get the ball rolling if that's okay with you guys

so they can put it on their calendar. Absolutely. Because I I plan months in advance. I want to make sure you know they they don't you know come out and and or can't come out because they're busy. Um well if there's a list you can we can all help. I mean, I I was just gonna send them all I was just going to send one email to everybody who came last year and say, "Hey, put this on your calendar. Put this on your calendar station details to come and you know, was there enough business that it seems worth it for them to come back?" I don't know. I was I was there, but I wasn't there the entire time. Maybe more people came after.

I I think it was beneficial from from I wandered around. I I I couldn't have the our table would not have been staffed without a commission there. But I wandered I floated to every other station group. It seems like everybody from what I could tell found value in the people who came and people who came found value in the stations present and I think the groups like to support our group just like we support them for different events.

It's a very symbiotic relationship between the commission and many of these other groups. The only one I think didn't wasn't really well attended was the um the rain barrel. Looks like there was extra rain barrels out in the parking lot. And I I wonder if it's just because of how Twinsburg is and there's all those HOAs. Like you can't have a rain barrel. And so it's a great idea. I had one in our previous house. I mean we used it to water all our outdoor stuff. But I think like where my son lives, I don't think they can have a right barrel and they did have to you had to sign up in advance, right? So I noticed like that didn't seem to be very well attended. Okay.

Nobody seemed to do that. So I I don't know who did that. That was the water twinkers water partners. But they did hand out a bunch of kits to people. There was a lot of people they were in the corner. Were they? Yeah. Inside they had Well, maybe it was the the rain barrels that were there. or maybe those people like they anticipated people wanting to come and get a rainarrel and they didn't. But the kits you saw in the investigation. Yeah, I did see like at least four or five people get kits. Okay. I also had a signup sheet if you couldn't take one that day.

And they also um offer to go and help you at your house if you're out. So if you were a senior citizen and you couldn't. But something else really neat is the rain barrels are recycled from the Coca-Cola plant right in your house. Right. Right. So, I mean, you're winning on a lot of levels, right, for that rain barrel I had was from a an an olive oil distributor in Greece or something. I don't remember. So, um yeah, they were just getting it right from here and washing it themselves.

Yeah, it has to be food grade whatever where you know, but all right. So, I will reach out to all those groups, ask them, put on their calendar, let them know it's a station activity. There might be a theme. Um, I'll give them more details later. I will I will add more finesse to my wording than that, but uh I will let them know all of those details. Um, I'll let them know it's going to be at the same location up at the community center. Um, that will tentatively plan for indoors, but if it is a a miraculous April in Ohio and we're able to be outdoors, we that is something we could just pivot day of or week of um and just make that call. Um, but again, last year it was downpouring as as bad as tonight. So, I I think planning for inside is probably just the best.

So, that's I wanted to just kind of go through all of these because I I want to make sure I'm able to keep all these groups up to date, keep us up to date. Um, and that's all I have there. Um, that brings us to our council report. Councilman Toast, what good news did you bring us today? Uh, I don't know about necessarily good news, but the at the last meeting we talked about you all mentioned how you have paperless billing on the sewer bill, which I did not even know was an option. So, I looked at my bill again and I there's nothing on there that says go paperless. So, I don't know how you guys knew to do that unless you went online or something and just happened to see it. So, I did after our meeting talk to Nate over in the sewer treatment plant and I told him I said, "Are we able to write that on there?" He goes, "Our program's very specific where we can write things." I said, "All right, well, you have the the blanks printed somewhere, right, at a printing shop before you can feed him through the printer." He goes, "Yeah." I said, "Well, the next time you have to do a print, build onto the print, you know, go paperless." and then so it's not going to be where the lines are and I told him I said we'll end up um you know less paper and less postage cost and um he's he was seemed all about it. Um so I just didn't we did talk about that so I just want to let you know I did follow up with Nate about that and um hopefully the next time we need to buy those things. He said there's not that much left, so we will have to buy them. And so hopefully we'll start seeing that and people will will save money in the city and save some paper.

Did you say that you did sign up for it then or you I haven't yet. Okay. Um where do where do I you I don't even know where I would do that? I don't even know either. I still get we still get a paper bill. I still get a I don't even know where I'd go to sign up for It's been at least 10 years or more that I've had it bill. So you've not seen a bill in 10 years? It's up to $6. I don't remember off the top of my head where I signed up online, but I don't even get a paper bill anymore. Just it is all online. So, I just like I get a statement saying it's I'm guessing you know. Yeah, I did. No, I did the same thing you did. I got my bill and I'm like, "Oh, we talked about this and I couldn't find anywhere to to go pay for this either." I tried to look online and I I couldn't find

I will find it. Send it out to all of you because I I know I know where it is cuz I signed up. Maybe that goes in and Cal Post, thank you for doing that, following up with that. Anything else? I don't have anything else, too. Uh going around with the going along with the rain barrels. uh Tinker Creek Watershed Partners uh had done a uh series of art classes at the the middle school here in Twinsburg and brought a bunch of rain barrels over there and had a art club over there, decorate a bunch of rain barrels and I think we're going to be getting one to display in uh the city hall lobby over here just kind of have a FYI to go along with the rain barrels that you guys were speaking of.

Awesome. Are you going to auction them? Are they going to auction them off or I think they were trying to get a bunch of them to be set up at different businesses and government uh buildings and whatnot within Summit County and uh they're going to display one here in the in the the lobby as a kind of a educational thing with some signage. That's awesome. Anything else from you too? No. All right, that moves us on to unfinished business, new business, miscellaneous. I have nothing at this point for once. So, commissioners, do we do we have anything else miscellaneous to have? I do not. No, no, no. Going once, going twice.

Sold. Okay. Um, we have no absent members. It was great seeing all of you. Um, our next meeting date is February 3rd, 2026. I I remember our last meeting we talked about our our November meeting and I apparently lost my mind and we all collectively did it seems we have never met in November. Um I I even emailed Shannon Collins and I said hey can we move our November meeting and and she said sure all the way to February. She said you she said you guys don't meet in November. I said yes we do. We meet three times in spring, three in the fall.

And she said no you meet four times spring, two in the fall. That's how it's always been. and I said, "I'm so sorry for wasting your time." Um, so I I I don't know what we were all thinking. I'll take the blame. Um, I don't know what I was thinking, but our next meeting is February 3rd, 2026 at 7 p.m. And Councilman Post wants to say one more thing.

One more thing. Since this is the last meeting of the year, uh, next year I will not be on this commission because every year, I mean, I might be, but every year we rotate as you guys are aware. So, I just want to if I'm not back, I want to thank you all for allowing me to jump in and and um be part of this group. I really think that this group I you know, I've seen lots of groups. I I really think you guys do a great job. And I say that because there are groups like planning commission, uh BZA and things like that where the work comes to them. You guys go out and find it and do it, which is different, right? It's a different mentality and you guys are really good at doing that. And so I I just want to thank you all for everything you guys do in the city because it really does make a difference and I know that you know we only reach a small group of people but if we keep reaching small groups of people that it eventually becomes a big group and and word spreads. So good job for everything you guys do and you know I am going to sign up for it again next year uh because I really like this commission. Um I'm not here though. Until next time.

Thank you, Council. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Anybody else? Any miscellaneous? All right. Then I will adjourn the meeting at 7:32