Swarthmore Environmental Advisory Council
Meeting Minutes for June 23, 2009
LITTLE CRUM CREEK PARK
A work day is scheduled for July 11. We will start at 8:30 or as soon as people can get there. Sue Kelly
has received enough donations to purchase 20 new street trees to be planted along Yale Ave. We hope
to be able to do the planting in October.
We plan to have another LCCP work day on Saturday, Sept 26 in celebration of Natural Public Lands
Day.
SMART POWER PV INSTALLATION UPDATE
The photo-voltaic installation on Borough Hall will have its public unveiling on July 13 before the
Borough Council meeting.
MULTI-MUNICIPAL PLAN
A bike trail between the member communities has been suggested. Jane Billings feels that this may be
a fairly easy thing to achieve. Colin Purrington, a professor at Swarthmore College, was suggested as
someone who might help with this effort.
NEW BUSINESS
Anne Murphy of the Chester-Ridley-Crum Watershed Association was a guest at the meeting. Anne
wanted to make us aware of the Riparian Corridors Best Management Practices Report that was
recently completed by Swarthmore professor Art McGarrity.
Anne also suggested that we explore the possibility of presenting a rain barrel workshop for the
community. She reported that with a bulk purchase we might be able to bring the cost of the barrels
down from $300 to around $100.
We had two additional guests who reported on a Greenhouse Gas Inventory that they are conducting for
the Swarthmore community. Chloe Maher (cmaher@temple.edu) is a Temple Ambler graduate
student who has previously worked on GHG inventories for Upper Dublin and Montgomery
Townships.
Joining Chloe at our meeting was Swarthmore College student Hannah Jones who will be assisting in
gathering data on the Borough’s energy consumption. The pair will be compiling baseline data for the
period from 2005 to 2008. They hope to identify the top sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the
Borough in an effort to target reductions.
Chloe suggested that joining ICLEI may be more productive than being part of the Cool Cities
initiative. She reported that ICLEI has updated the tools it makes available to communities including
sample ordinances, sample action plans, and workshops.
Submitted by Sheila Magee