EAC Minutes – February 24, 2009

Attending were Phil Coleman, Nancy Crickman, Denise Disney, Susan Kelly, Gina Eberly, Julie Hagelin, Sheila Magee, and Melissa Lewicki.

Minutes for the January meeting were approved with minor amendments.

The group discussed plans for Little Crum Creek Park (LCCP). Susan Kelly met with the Street Trees Committee on February 3rd and found them to be very supportive of the EAC’s initiatives under the LCCP Master Plan. Susan also met with Jeff Jabco and Cuzzy Rowles at the park on February 17th. The three of them identified 12 trees and 6 shrubs that should be removed, as well as two trees that need pruning. Cuzzy’s crew will remove the shrubs and smaller trees, and Jane Billings will be contacted when they’re done and she will notify the company who has the bid for pruning and removal of the Street Trees to complete the rest of the removals and pruning. 18 native trees were envisioned as replacements. The source of these replacement trees may range from a grant from the Centennial Foundation to individuals’ donations (following notices in the Swarthmorean that Susan said she’d pursue), and/or a state TreeVitalize grant. Andrew Bunting has volunteered to help in any way he or his firm is able; the best use may be helping with installation. The current schedule is to have removals completed over the spring and summer season with installation of new trees in the fall.

Gina brought up the possibility of spraying to keep invasives down in the park this summer. She and others felt that this nontoxic spraying had worked well in the past. Sue said she would inquire about this with Jane Billings and Brian O’Neill, who conducted the spraying last spring.

The Harvest Grant to obtain funding for expanding the SmartPower solar project was not successful. Jane Billings reported that only one project in Delaware County was funded. Nonetheless, she wants to take a wait-and-see approach regarding future leveraging possibilities. Gina reported that SmartPower’s Andrew Voris had contacted her indicating that SmartPower wanted to close the books on the grant to us soon. Gina committed to getting back to him regarding a deadline for our decision and flexibility of installers (which they did not have as recently as a year ago) for the 1 kW system.

Denise reported that a homeowner doing a renovation in the borough applied for and received some reduction in permitting fees for implementing, among other things, greater ceiling insulation (R-36 instead of half that) on his project.

Regarding EAC communications, Denise indicated that she is pursuing the creation of separate e-mail lists for members, members plus associates, and “friends.” The group concurred with this general plan and Denise agreed to contact those currently with associate status to see if they wanted to remain connected at that level or essentially become “friends” of the council. She also indicated that she would digest and forward, as appropriate, e-mails from the PA EAC Network, as well as from the Crum Creek Sustainable Community (Don Kennedy’s local environmental group)

The Wallingford-Swarthmore Community Education Association is offering a two-evening workshop on accessing grants. Denise said that she was planning to participate and invited others to join her.

Melissa attended a green buildings workshop sponsored by the non-profit Pennsylvania Environmental Council. She talked about the important distinction between mandatory codes, which individual municipalities cannot pre-empt, and voluntary initiatives (such as the borough’s new offer to reduce permitting fees for green building), which are entirely permissible. She mentioned some other prominent efforts of this type, such as Babylon, NY’s loan program of up to $12,000 for energy efficiency measures, such as additional attic insulation or triple-glazed windows.

A calendar of EAC-related events was discussed. Denise committed to e-mailing the group regarding a 3/14 SE PA Environmental Advisory Council Conference. Denise would like to put together a calendar for the council that would include upcoming meeting speakers, work days, etc.

Julie showed an example of “wish lists” of other EACs and various non-profits. This could be a way of identifying welcome donations from townspeople, as well as a means to advertise our desire for help on workdays or perhaps getting something accomplished at the park that we don’t have time for.


Submitted by Phil