Palmer Township – EAC

Environmental Steering Committee            Minutes                         March 20, 2008     

 

Attendees: Rob Reese, Tom Ganssle, Nancy Nicholas, Tom Dittmar, Denise Veres, Cindy Oatis, Bob Lammi  

 

Meeting opened at:  7:05 PM

 

Guests: 

Robert Natkie  - J.P. Mascaro Representative

 

Terry Cooper – Ms. Cooper is a Palmer resident and is interested in joining Palmer ESC.

 

Chris Briglia – Mr. Briglia is an eight-year Palmer resident and is interested in joining Palmer ESC.

 

Jr. Girl Scout Troop 213 – Tina Sterner, Barbara Bajkowski, leaders

This troop is interested in community service projects and is reaching out to ESC for help.  They are looking for 6-7 hours of community service. Each scout spoke briefly about community service interests and then distributed a list of projects that they have worked on.  Some ideas they had  for helping environment:  planting trees, recycling in parks, park clean-up, clean up Jonathon Park, start a club in school for environmental awareness, put trash cans for litter problem.  Will choose a project out of these and any help/advise ESC can give, would be grateful.  Rob mentioned Great American Clean-up and April 14th tree (sapling) planting along the Bushkill.  Told to speak with Tom Adams about Palmer park clean-ups.

 

Re:  Recycling initiative in Palmer School.  Cindy O has been in contact with Chrin and they are in bidding now for a new contract with the Easton Area school district.  Cindy O. encouraged the Girl Scouts to take the initiative to set up a meeting with Palmer principal to propose putting out recycle containers and collect recyclables weekly, as it looks as though this will not be in the next hauling contract.   

 

Reorganization:

Election of officers for 2008. Bob L. opened nominations for Co-chairpersons.  Tom G. and Rob R. were nominated as Co-Chairpersons by Tom D., seconded by Cindy O and approved by all.  Bob L. opened nominations for secretary.  Denise V. was nominated as secretary by Nancy N., seconded by Tom D., and approved by all. 

 

Hauler Report:

Mr. Natkie distributed tonnage reports for February 2008 and noted that white goods were picked up in early March and that numbers were down.  The next white goods pick-up is in June.

 

 

Plastics #1 though #7.  The Mascaro contract is in the process of being amended to add plastics #3 - #7 to the recycling pick-up.  The addendum was shown to ESC members.   Bob L. suggested that when the amended contract is signed (within a week or two), a news release should go to Express-times and Morning Call.  Cindy O. will do this.  Cindy O. will also put this information in the next Palmer newsletter.   Rob R. asked if it mattered if the plastics were marked with the recycling number:  Mr. Natkie said that if it’s plastic, they’ll take it regardless if marked or not.  

 

Boy Scouts/Recycling Center:  Mr. Natkie received an e-mail from Tom Adams about Boy Scouts visiting Recycling Center and getting Mascaro give-aways to the Recycling Center for the boys, but he didn’t know the date.  Cindy O. will call to let him know when to get giveaways to Recycling Center.

 

Recycling Coordinator Report:

 

Expansion of Plastics Recycling:

See above.

 

E-cycling Event – May 3, 2008

Cindy O. has contacted all of the Two Rivers municipalities and all have it on their websites and are publicizing.  Bob L  received two e-mails from companies who want to sponsor.  Bob wants to start advertising and will talk to Brenda/Bob Ankiatis about this.  Bob ideally wants to have something in the newspapers every week to the event.  Bob will also prepare a flyer for each donor about positive effect making by participating in this event.  Complete price breakdown is on the website.  Nancy asked to push it in the schools.  It is listed on the Palmer calendar that goes home with each student. 

 

At next ESC meeting, will talk about task assignments and flow at the high school.   Will invite Jim Pokrivsak for a walk-through.  Cindy has day-glo vests and name tags.  Will need members – Easton wants to send volunteers.  Cindy mentioned posting the event on Service Electric and RCN community calendars.  Rob R. said Rebecca, aSAVE student, will take care of this.  Denise V. will take the old e-cycling sign to sign place (Banners?) to re-do.  Cindy said ESC has $150 for this.   Rob will have high school kids re-do dates and sign at high school and Shawnee.  

 

School Recycling Program:

Cindy O. didn’t know EASD hauling contract was out to bid.  To put changes in contract prior to bidding would have been a nominal cost to the school district.  No one told Cindy about the re-negotiation.  Now it is too far in the process to do anything about it.  Any hope for recycling at the schools will be students-initiated program.  Could have put single-stream recycling in place – more recycling, reduced cost.  Rob: will continue what each school is doing in the mean time.  Contract will be for 3 years with 2 options for 1 year after.  A separate recycling contract would not be cost-effective.

 

 Two Rivers cog:  Yard waste. 

The Berk St. yard waste site is over the limit and mulch and leaf waste is backing up.  Beth. Twp just purchased a tub grinder and land for yard waste.  Cindy spoke with John Hanna about Palmer sharing and not interested.  Bob L. said this still may be an option if Palmer rents from Beth Twp.  Cindy will publicize in the next newsletter that mulch is at Berk St. and is free.  DEP wants to know what we are doing to make yard waste center self-sustaining.  There is a possibility of charging for the mulch, although  at this point, can’t give it away.  A front-end loader will be available the first Saturday of the month for mulch.  Tom D said that in NJ, residents pay $25 and township would deliver on a weekend.  Cindy O said may be a possibility for Palmer, although mulch is not high quality.                                                                                                          

 

Old Business:

     

      Newsletter dates:

      Denise to check with Jo-Ann S. for dates of next deadline and e-mail to members.

 

Bike Path Map Update:

Tom Adams is in the process of updating the bike path map.

 

Bushkill Stream Conservancy:

Rob passed out pamphlets “How to Become a Stream Keeper” along with other info to notifying residents of contamination hazards of dumping in storm drains.  Streamkeepers are targeting the Village at Mill Race and Tatamy Hunt developments (350 homes) by hanging informational packets on doorknobs.  The plan is to do this throughout the watershed area. 

 

Denise V. will distribute an updated list of members.                                                                                           

 

New Business:

 

New Members:

Chris Biglia attended this meeting and expressed interest in joining the ESC.  Denise V. will draft a letter of recommendation to the BOS.

 

YPA 2008:

New Banners coming around 5/18 (Bob L.)

D. Veres going through list of YPA including composting seminar (Tom G, and Tom D.), Palmer Community Days booth (subcommittee: Denise, Nancy, Cindy, Tom G, and Tom D.), Palmer Environmental Fair (winter 2009), ESC addressing further development in Palmer (Bob L. mentioned new director of planning, John Kinney.  Bob would want to invite him to an ESC meeting), guided community bikes/rides on Palmer trail (Denise will initiate idea with Genesis Bicycles), Native Plant Ordinance (Rob R. needs another ESC member to help with this initiative), and energy audit for Palmer buildings and fleet (Bob L. will talk to BOS about this as possible budget item for 2009.  Members discussed slogan for Palmer being green.  “Palmer is growing greener” “Palmer is going greener” were possibilities.

 

Rob R. said that Rob Rizzolino is interested in hosting a native plant seminar for Earth Day or Arbor Day at Palmer Nursery.

 

 

Meeting Date Discussion

There are some members that have a difficult time with the Thursday.  New days discussed.  The third Wednesday of the month was decided upon.  Make motion (Tom G.) seconded by Tom D, all in attendance were in agreement.  Cindy will talk to Brenda about a room in the Municipal Center.  Next month’s meeting will still be on Thursday, April 17.  Denise will send an e-mail to Andy, Jo-Ann, John, and Ron to see if all are in agreement for the change. 

 

Recycling Tonnage Statistics

Bob L. explained that waste tonnage from last year was down from 531 to 525 ton, and recycling was up from 123 to 143. Palmer appears to be trending in the right direction.  Bob pointed out that an article in the Morning Call about Allentown’s recycling as “one of best recycling programs in the East Coast” at 3,200 tons.  Bob calculated that, population-wise, this is 0.3 tons recycled per person Allentown vs. Palmer, that recycles .11 tons per person. 

 

 

PA Great Clean-up:

The date for this year’s clean up is April 19, 2008.  Rob would like some volunteers from ESC to clean up along the Bushkill.  Call him.

 

Earth Week – Call Rob to help coordinate and/or plant a tree at a park.

 

Seedling Planting: Seedlings (250) are coming in on April 14th.  Will plant along the  Bushkill.. Need volunteers.  Call Rob.  3:00PM Penn Pump Park.

 

Next Meeting:

The next meeting is scheduled for April 17th, 7:00 PM, at Palmer Municipal Building.

 

Adjourn:  8:20PM

 

Minutes submitted by D. Veres