November 17, 2021 Meeting Minutes
Ambler EAC Meeting Minutes
November 17th, 7pm In Person Meeting
MEETING HELD IN PERSON AT BOROUGH HALL 131 Rosemary Ave, Ambler, PA 19002
in the Borough Council Room
Attendees:
Members: Hannah Lloyd, Wes Pipitone, Jill Sanchez, Nancy Roecker Coates
Visitors: AJ (wissahickon student), Judy Baigis
Excused: Liz Rosencrans, Shelly Grinar-Boyd
Call to Order / Introductions (7:00-7:10)
Presentation: Hannah presented a brief lesson on how to use Squarespace. (This took place at the end of the meeting).
Public comments (7:10-7:20)
What is a keyhole garden?: what is this and is this something that the EAC should look into for future projects?
Made of concrete pavers in a 6 feet wide circle with a notch for compost/sediment. This creates a system of self watering the plants in the system, creating nutrient rich soil through compost and water purification.
Ways to Get Involved (7:20-7:25)
Tree Planting November 20
Will be touched on later in the meeting more.
Formal approval of minutes from October 20th, 2021 (7:25-7:30)
All motioned to approve.
EAC Updates (7:30-8:00)
Weekly GAG Meetings
No new updates.
Discuss EarthFest in January
Can we start talking about it sooner?
At least pick a date?
Guest speaker / book reading?
Nancy reached out to a Philly anti-litter advocate who just wrote a children's book about speaking and/or reading his book.
They agreed - just need a date for when we will have this.
Guest speakers have not always worked well at past Earth Fest events due to competition with the other vendors.
Maybe a night before event with drinks instead?
Or a kids reading event with music outside.
The book reading could be paired with a raffle and/or book give away of their signed books. - top idea.
Table / display ideas:
Guess the amount of cigarette butts?
Back to Earth Compost?
Zero waste initiative table.
The EAC should send a list of initiatives that the EAC plans to do for Earth Fest along with the projects the EAC would like to do but aren’t able to take on to the student club. Then, the students could decide if they want to take over any of the ‘wish list’ items.
Hannah - email a ‘poll’ to ensure all members would vote to have an Earth Fest this year and ALSO will be willing to commit to having a role
Date for event: Saturday April 23?
Earth fest 2022 is Friday April 22.
EAC will have a decision on whether or not there will be an Earth Fest and the date by end of year 2021.
Membership updates
There is currently one open seat.
There will be one more open seat soon.
If interested in becoming a member, please contact the EAC.
Ideas on how to recruit members:
Have a meet and greet in town at a local brewery.
Projects that create visibility that draws attention to EAC involvement. (Such as litter and cigarette butt clean ups).
Events with food and music / festival type events draw crowds.
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)
No general updates on this Committee - Shelly absent
Student interests for involvement opportunities (as shared by AJ - student visitor)
Clean up events
Outdoor projects (such as building outdoor learning centers)
Climate Action is a hot topic for highschool students
Treasurer (Wes)
November reimbursement submitted
Three Memberships Paid
New Table Topper
Approx $170 through vista print
Hannah will submit the visual file for this.
Tote bags?
Seek out another vendor.
Jackets and things?
Minuteman Press?
Wes will look into these options.
Nancy - purchase signs.
Also some more litter grabbers.
Keep Ambler Beautiful Committee (Nancy)
Anti-Litter signage
Will order signage this year.
Post the signs themselves in ‘22.
MLK day family clean up day?
Nancy could create a social media event for this.
Wayside signage for Ambler Borough Park
History and education on the natural environment of ABP.
This could give the park importance as a park space and help prevent litter.
Nancy has reached out and gotten information on where to source signage as well as spoke to the park information representative from DCNR on advice.
Create a mock up first to present for buy in.
Then purchase with our budget or a parks budget.
Could have fun ‘trivia type facts’ on the signage that most people won’t know about the park. (Such as, who it was named after, how it formed and etc.)
If this does well for ABP, maybe this is something we could do for other parks (in future years).
Shade Trees Committee (Jill)
TreeVitalize
In need of volunteers for Saturday.
Set up for 6 volunteer groups
Each group should have 3-4 people
One group has four trees to plant so it would be nice for that group to have 6 volunteers.
Hannah will post to the trees instagram
Nancy will reach out to volunteers to see if we can get help explicitly with water and mulch around 11 am.
Nancy- Pay to boost the volunteer post into the Philadelphia area to gather more volunteers
Jill- reach out to local pastor for possible congregation assistance.
Hannah - reach out to local synagogue.
AJ - will reach out to more students to see if they can come out and volunteer. Saturday and maybe even Friday.
Stormwater Committee (Jill)
Growing Ambler Greener
Rain Gardens 38/75
Riparian Buffer Planting (3)
Rain Barrels 111/250
DSP 30/60
Permeable Conversions 10/22
Planning initiated on Steep Slope
New business (8:30-8:35)
Hannah - please seek out and share with Jill the list of volunteers who have participated with us so we can seek out volunteers for downtown rain barrel winterization.
Updates from Borough Council: none
Closing Thoughts (8:35-8:50)
Ideas were shared for the resources page development of the website.
Next meeting: Wednesday December 15th, 2021 at 7:00pm (8:50-8:55)
Next meeting will be a social event at a local pub / restaurant.
More information to be announced later...
Adjournment (8:55-9:00)