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Commission Minutes June 2022RICHFIELD COMMUNITY SERVICES ADVISORY COMMISSION DRAFT MINUTES UNTIL APPROVED BY THE SC REGULAR SUSTAINABILITY COMMISSION MEETING Thursday, June 23, 2022 Virtual Meeting PRESENT COMMISSIONERS: Jeremy Barthels, Adam Burnside, Amy Utley, , Santwana Dasgupta STAFF: Rachel Lindholm, Roxanne Nelson LIAISONS: None ABSENT Ben Whalen (City Council), Jenna Hanson (CSC), Amanda Kueper, Craig Heinen, Logan Thein Call to Order Barthels called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm. Approval of Minutes/Agenda Barthels moved to approve the agenda and previous minutes, seconded by Utley, approved by all. Public Comment None Staff Reports Organized Collection Nelson presented a summary of the findings on Richfield Organics Audit conducted on the three haulers: Aspen, Republic, and Waste Management. The purpose of the audit was to get an understanding of what residents are composting to provide necessary and relevant education to ensure a successful program. The key points were: The contamination percentage was less than 5% across all three companies. While Republic had the most, it also has the largest number of houses allocated for collection. Almost 97% of the materials were compostable. The key contaminant was non-BPI certified food boxes that often look as if they are compostable. Other items included materials that belong in the recycling bin, food in plastic bags, tissue paper, tissue paper, paper plates, wax paper and molded fiber products. Edible foods made up a large portion of the waste and this included whole fruits and vegetables, heads of lettuce and cabbage, pizza, loaves and slices of bread, rice and others. Please review the attached full presentation for details. Overall, the audit was a resounding success. Bridging Bridging ( http://www.bridging.orgwww.bridging.org) is a nonprofit organization primarily serving the Twin Cities, provides donated furniture and household goods to families and individuals transitioning out of homelessness and poverty. They are offering a large discount to haul away large furniture items and is cheaper than other haulers. Contacting Bridging to haul away furniture is a good alternative to having the items end up in landfills. Education on energy efficiency The city is holding a webinar on June 30th on residential energy efficiency. This will be recorded and then loaded onto the city’s You-tube channel and website. Adopt-a-Park There are requests from Richfield residents for cleaner parks and the city is looking into doing more frequent clean ups. If commissioners are interested in volunteering for this, please contact Lindholm. Community gardens Lindholm presented the city’s current work on setting up three community gardens across Richfield. This is in the preliminary stages and the current goal is to open the gardens by Mother’s Day 2023. The question was raised whether there would be a small fee to book a plot. Lindholm will look into this. Priority for allocating plots will go to people who do not have access to yards. Discussion Items Burnside brought up concerns about Waste Management’s performance and how it relates to what has been observed in other cities. The city is watching this closely and if a hauler is in breach of contract, appropriate actions will be taken. To date, the complaints have not been overwhelming nor outside the boundaries of normal route related issues. Lindholm shared an update from Thein, who spoke with a contact about pollinator/wildflower planting along 62. The contact mentioned that MNDot has a bunch of premade seed mixes that might be available to Public Works depts.. Lindholm said that she connected Thein with the right staff member at Public Works to discuss this. Barthels presented his draft table of contents for creating a document that can be given to new and existing Richfield residents with resources to integrate sustainability into their daily lives. The members reviewed and gave feedback on including additional items. Three categories emerged – integration of sustainability into one’s life indoors, outdoors (parks, farmers market, etc.) and as a member of the community. Lindholm said that the city has resources for formatting the final document into an attractive PDF. Barthels asked other members to choose items and do the write up for inclusion in the document. Lindholm and Barthels will create a google doc where people can contribute additional feedback with a due date being selected sometime after the fourth of July. The goal is that by the end of July, items will be assigned to different people for doing the write up. Action Items None Committee Reports Tree Planting Richfield liquor stores will be conducting the “round up to the dollar” program from July 1st through September 30th to raise funds to buy more trees. July 4th Red, White and Blue Days are planning for July 4th events and information is available on the city’s website. Bike and Skate Park Extensions Plans for both will be presented to the City Council at a work session the week of June 27, 2022. Other/Next Meeting/Adjournment Next Meeting: <Thursday, August 25, 2022. The committee does not meet in July. Adjournment: < Motion to adjourn by Utley, seconded by Burnside. Meeting adjourned by Barthels at 8:10 pm.