Meeting Minutes: October 18, 2023

Oct 24

Ambler EAC

Meeting Minutes October 18, 7pm

Meeting held at Ambler Borough Hall

Attendees:

Members: Nancy Roecker-Coates, William Nassau, Wes Pipitone, Hannah Lloyd, Mark Setman, Kirsten Puskar, Matt Walker

Guests: Judy Baigis, Owen Baim(presenter), Dottie Beacham

Welcome to members and guests (7:00pm)
Attendance and Approval of Minutes

All motioned to approve

Presentations: Owen Baim, Ambler Resident

Ambler local eager to learn more about working and volunteering in sustainability
Studied block chain technology and how this could lend itself positively towards sustainable initiatives.
Interested in exploring ways to work with Amblers thriving downtown business district and create more growth towards ongoing environmental sustainable practices.
Other Ideas:

Green restaurant certifications / social media highlighting
Assistance helping local take out restaurants with compostable &/or reusable containers

Old Business/Committee Reports

Policy Discussion: (Matt)https://docs.google.com/document/d/13nO3vjxFKsCTzpMezLIjAJHGwdx2JFbVJf1QHRD2z2I/edit

Discuss policy priority goals for 2024 - all ideas listed below

CCA for PA: Community Choice Aggregation
Energy Efficiency and codes
LEED certifications (leader in energy and design)

Focus on: new builds, renovations, commercial building, vacant lots, etc.

Shade Tree Protection Ordinance

Goal: Establish a Shade Tree Commission
Public comment: Mature trees have exponentially more benefits as compared to young newer planted trees.
Public comment: Develop a list of arborist and tree resources. (Could this go on Ambler EAC’s website.)
Focus on education over approval? Write this in? Nancy
Public question: Does Ambler have an ordinance on planting new trees to replace ones taken down? (Reference made to Upper Dublin policies). A: New projects need to show a project plan including plantings for their property surrounding.

RF100 revisitation: incentivise municipal vehicles switching to electric vehicles
EAC to discuss further which of the above to focus on, how many to focus on etc.

Wes: List out our options alongside the amount of energy / time each will need, who will need to be involved, what impact the project will have, etc. in order to decide which to focus on
ALL: Please visit the above list and come to November's meeting ready to make a vote.

Can be opportunities to apply for financial aid from the Federal Government to assist.

Code / Energy / Insulation initiatives: can these go to the planning commission for their agenda. Matt
Discussion took place about the future of the EAC’s initiatives and what affect that could have on the Borough.

Treasurer’s Report (Wes Piptone)

Budget Request: asking for an increase on last years

6.5 thousand total

Tree planting budget request (Spring & Fall)
Park signage budget 2024 request
Knight park native tree plantings
Small & Misc (such as website fee, memberships, conferences, etc.)

Keep Ambler Beautiful (Chair: Nancy Roecker Coates)

1. Cell phone recycling - 51 cell phones and one tablet have been collected since May. The total cell phones collected so far is 204.

Shade Tree Committee

Make Ambler a Shade Better tree planting (Kirsten Puskar/Mark Setman)
Street Trees (Kirsten Puskar)

Street Tree Concerns: Advisory Report

Discuss/plan tree protection ordinance

Discussed above in 2024 policy focuses

Community Garden Tree Planting (Jill)

November 4th
Tools
Volunteers
Planting pawpaws and a peach tree
Identifying potential tree locations in public parks

Mark Settman and Matt Walker visited a few Ambler local parks to identify possible future tree planting locations.

Each location would need approval
Tree plantings would come out of EAC budget

Climate Action Committee

(Chair: Wes Pipitone, Members: Matt Walker)

Social Media (Nancy Roecker-Coates)

No updates

Could use help with content creation.

Park Signage (Nancy Roecker-Coates and Hannah Lloyd)

Hannah presented first drafts and gathered feedback.
Hannah: Please email out these drafts as well as goal dates for actionables.

November 1st: Please have all visual revisions to Hannah via email.
December 1: Anyone who is writing copy: please have all written copy to Hannah.

Question: How to properly cite sources on these signs?
Be sure to have these signs distributed for final approval prior to order.
- Suggestion: make full scale print outs to check final scale of visuals & text.
William Nassau and Jill to provide copy when ready for tree identification and wildlife sections.
Sign size options - Low Rise with basic T base

36x24 (most common) $295-$320 Base $575
24x18 $250 base $520 - this is the size of signs on the Green Ribbon Trail
42x24
48x24

Content
Sign #1: Brief introduction to the park and its history(Susan Curry), local wildlife highlights(foxes, woodpecker, yellow bellied sap sucker, and lightning bugs), native trees in the park carbon sequestration and identification(sweet gum, hornbeam/American muscle wood and tulip poplar. Jill will write the tree piece and William the wildlife section
Sign #2: Riparian Buffer system, stream information with side highlights on litter and pollution side effects on the waterway Hannah will write this section

I. Ambler Borough Park

Borough Council Update

A complaint was made about the plant population in the park being overgrown and having decreased visibility into the park.

Kirsten: Can check in with Red Tail Restoration on a monthly basis.

Attending neighboring EAC Meetings(Judy Bagis)

Whitpain EAC: Meetings are usually the 2nd Wednesday of each month at 5:30 PM in the Whitpain Township meeting room. But the dates sometimes vary, like our November meeting is set for November 1.
Hatboro EAC has also expressed interest in hearing from us.

New Business