May 11, 2022 Ambler EAC Meeting Minutes

Attendees

Members: Jill Sanchez, Wes Pipitone, Hannah Lloyd, Nancy Roecher-Coates

Guests: Judy Baigis, Kirsten Puskar, Tiffany Guma 

• Call to Order / Introductions (7:00-7:10)

  1. Introductions made around the table. 

• Presentation: None

• Public comments (7:10-7:20)

  1. Earth Fest was well received and much larger than expected. 

  2. Tiffany has a new non profit and would like to get involved and support the EAC. 

     1. Non Profit: Montgomery County Wellness Workshop.

• Ways to Get Involved (7:20-7:25) 

  1. Team Up to Clean Up - Saturday May 21 from 10am-12pm

  2. Community garden meetings on most Sundays - check their Facebook events page for more information on meeting dates 

  3. Tannery Run Brewery - Dine and Donate charity event for Wissahickon Trails. Portion of all dining sales goes to Wissahickon Trails. 5/12  4pm-10pm (happened the day after this meeting). 

• Formal approval of minutes: NO EAC meeting in April/Earth Fest Meeting

• EAC Updates (7:30-8:00)

  1. Held Earth Fest on April 30

     1. Reached out to 4 people who are interested in getting involved

     2. Reached out to several people who were interested in a rain barrel

     3. Raised $1000 for Ukrainian Relief charities 

     4. What worked well and what should be done differently?

        1. Contact food vendors earlier. 

           1. Now we know what amount of people we expect to show up and can present this to potential vendors.

        2. Have signage calling out that there are both indoor and outdoor spaces.

           1. Have a map made of where all the vendors and exhibits are.

        3. Banner for over a street to advertise next year? 

           1. Where and who to give permissions? 

        4. Adirondack chairs and tables were well used and received. 

        5. It would be great to have music again. This really made the event feel like a festival. 

        6. Closing an additional street was positive and useful. 

        7. Start gathering business cards from potential food and potential exhibitors to keep in mind for next year. 

        8. Communicate to the vendors and attendees parking guidelines on our website and other online media. 

           1. Also use signage for the day of. 

           2. Maybe add parking to the event map.

        9. Hannah- Post names of the Tote Bag Winners along with a picture of the kid winning the tote bag. 

  2. Council read the first draft of the Plastics Ordinance on May 3

     1. Both positive and negative feedback with constructive suggestions and concerns voiced. 

     2. A few businesses are vocally opposed. 

     3. Look to who else is doing similar actions and see what is working for them for inspiration.  

     4. “We should want to be an inspiration not just a follower.”

     5. Some vocalized opposition to charging guests for bags. 

        1. What suggestions could be made to help alleviate this? 

        2. Work the cost into the price of the food? 

        3. 15 cents minimum charge. Reasoning:

           1. This creates a mind set on bringing your own bag so people remember this and the habit catches on. 

           2. 10 cents is too little, 25 was too much but studies showed that 15 cents was the sweet spot. 

     6. There was a point made that since Ambler Borough recycles plastic why do we want to ban it?

        1. This is a good point to formulate some educational material on. 

        2. Could be a good reason for the EAC to take a field trip to the recycling facility.

        3. Just because it can be recycled does not mean that it is ultimately being recycled - for multiple reasons. 

        4. Plastics still get in your food, liquid, environment etc. 

     7. Plastic straws and utensils would need to be requested, they are not being banned outright. 

• EAC Membership (8:30-9:00) 

  1. Two open seats on the Ambler EAC

     1. Potentially need three more people.

  2. High need for new membership and continuous volunteer effort

  3. Will continue to discuss ways of finding members

  4. Ideas: 

     1. Hold an EAC meet and greet at a local brewery

     2. Take a walk with the EAC members on the Green Ribbon trail

     3. Combine both above! 

        1. Ambler EAC Meet and Greet hike and brews. 

     4. To happen on a Sunday. 

        1. Date to be determined.

     5. Girl scout project involvement. 

        1. Must be a sustainable long lasting project. 

           1. September - June would be the timeline of the actual project work. 

        2. EAC to come up with ideas to pitch, 5-10 ideas. 

     6. Reach out to local churches  

     7. Could the EAC have a table at some of the Ambler fests? 

        1. Wes to reach out to Liz at Ambler Main Street 

     8. Litter dog walk meet up on a local trail

     9. Meetup.com 

• Committee Chairs (8:00-8:30) No new updates from Climate Action Committee, Open Space Committee, Creek Monitoring on Rose-Valley Creek. 

• Education and Outreach Committee (Shelly)

  1. absent

• Treasurer (Wes)

  1. Please be sure to add any and all EAC expenses that were part of Earthfest to the latest reimbursement sheet.

  2. As soon as all expenses are added, it will be submitted to the borough for reimbursement.

  3. Hannah still has reimbursements to submit. 

• Keep Ambler Beautiful Committee (Nancy) 

  1. Team Up to Clean Up - Saturday May 21.

     1. Ambler Borough Council and Ambler EAC will partner up for this

        1. Each park should have one council member and one EAC representative (can be a member or volunteer). 

     2. Sign Up Genius on the website.

     3. The Facebook event is live.

     4. Press release sent out to Gazette, Patch and Around Ambler. 

     5. Flyers ordered. 

     6. Jill and Nancy will organize the clean up supplies on hand. 

     7. Nancy sent an email to Borough Council asking them to share the event. 

        1. Places to put flyers: Weavers Way, El Limon, Cavalier lot kiosk, Ambler Flower Shop, playground message at parks, Pickering Field by the snack bar.    

     8. Event on the Ambler Borough Council website.

     9. Nancy will create a volunteer match and write to Weavers Way to gather volunteers. 

     10. Jill will forward this to Alaina and Chloe to try to gather more volunteer effort. 

     11. Nancy will coordinate with Mary on pickup locations for the litter. 

     12. Make sure volunteers count bags of litter before they are picked up. 

     13. Hannah will make five boxes for supplies for Nancy. 

     14. Will put one sign on the fence at Knight Park for the event. 

  2. Litter/Trash ordinances - 

  3. Plastics Ordinance business outreach 

• Shade Trees Committee (Jill) 

  1. Ambler Tree Tenders partnered with Upper Dublin Shade Tree Commision and Upper Dublin Tree Tenders to plant over 100 trees in UD on Saturday and Sunday April 23-24

  2. Relaunch the adopt a tree program to include the new trees that were planted in fall 2021

  3. The next tree sale will be in August 2022

• Climate Action Committee

  1. Single use plastic ban. 

     1. Spoken about above.

• New business (8:30-8:35)

• Updates from Borough Council: 

• Closing Thoughts (8:35-8:50)

• Next meeting: Wednesday June 15th, 2022 at 7:00pm (8:50-8:55)

Adjournment (8:55-9:00)