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EC Agenda 8-28-2023REGULAR MEETING AGENDA Remote Attendance: Members of the public may attend this meeting via Webex by calling 1- 415-655-0001 and entering access code 2453 165 1685. Questions/Comments: Members of the public who have questions about the commission or any items on the agenda should contact the staff commission liaison – Eric Eckman, Environmental Resources Supervisor, eeckman@goldenvalleymn.gov, 763-593-8084. 1.Call to Order 2.Land Acknowledgement 3.Roll Call 4.Approval of Agenda 5.Approval of July 24, 2023 Regular Meeting Minutes (5 min) 6.Old Business A.Cooling Centers (5 min) B.Land Acknowledgement - Ȟaȟa Wakpadaŋ/Bassett Creek and BAEGV Forum (5 min) i.Special/joint commission meeting with DEIC ii.Upcoming regular meetings 7.New Business A.Outdoor Lighting Code (60 min) i.Discuss potential subcommittee B.Program/Project Updates (5 min) C.Council Updates (5 min) D.Other Business 8.Adjournment August 28, 2023 – 6:30 pm City Hall Council Conference Room REGULAR MEETING MINUTES Remote Attendance: Members of the public may attend this meeting via Webex by calling 1-415-655- 0001 and entering access code 1773 93 4642. Questions/Comments: Members of the public who have questions about the commission or any items on the agenda should contact the staff commission liaison – Eric Eckman, Environmental Resources Supervisor, eeckman@goldenvalleymn.gov, 763-593-8084. 1. Call to Order The meeting was called to order by Chair Hill at 6:30 pm. 2. Land Acknowledgement 3. Roll Call Commissioners present: Dawn Hill, Debra Yahle, Wendy Weirich, Tonia Galonska, Sarah Drawz, Paul Klaas, Kenna Brandt Commissioners absent: Ellen Brenna, Rachel Zuraff Council Members present: None Staff present: Eric Eckman, Environmental Resources Supervisor; Ethan Kehrberg, Sustainability Specialist; Carrie Nelson, Engineering Assistant. 4. Approval of July 24, 2023, Agenda MOTION by Commissioner Weirich, seconded by Commissioner Galonska to approve the agenda for July 24, 2023, and the motion carried. 5. Approval of June 26, 2023, Regular Meeting Minutes MOTION by Commissioner Yahle, seconded by Commissioner Drawz to approve the minutes of June 26, 2023, as submitted and the motion carried. 6. Old Business A. Land Acknowledgement – Exploring Ȟaȟa Wakpadaŋ / Bassett Creek i. Last year we hosted Crystal Boyd for a discussion with the EC about the Ȟaȟa Wakpadaŋ / Bassett Creek Oral History Project. It’s now wrapping up and will be available soon through the Hennepin County History Museum. July 24, 2023 – 6:30 pm City of Golden Valley Environmental Commission Regular Meeting July 24, 2023 – 6:30 pm 2 ii. From the oral history project came an idea to bring people together, build relationships, and explore the use of the Dakota name for Bassett Creek. iii. Eric and Tonia attended the first Community Gathering at Valley Presbyterian Church and summarized what they learned. 1. Watershed attended the event. 2. Book Recommendations 1. What Does Justice Look Like? The Struggle for Liberation in Dakota Homeland 2. Spirit Car 3. Braiding Sweetgrass 3. Crystal Boyd mentioned they are excited about the EC’s work and involvement. 4. They are interested in informally using the Ȟaȟa Wakpadaŋ name verbally and in print, as well. Print it as Ȟaȟa Wakpadaŋ / Bassett Creek. 1. Could we make a statement of support for this? 5. The Mississippi Park Connection may be ready to host a joint creek clean-up next spring if we would be interested in working with them. Crystal can help set this up. 6. There is a language dictionary being put together online to help people pronounce indigenous words. Also, a short pronunciation video for the creek will be online. 7. The relationship and what the names mean is really about nature and the connectiveness and being connected to everything in nature, plants, trees, animals; all are relatives. 1. Mississippi River - Dakota name translates to Falls River 2. Bassett Creek - Dakota name translates to Falls Creek 8. New naming policy in the City News – Naming new community assets – Parks/Buildings/Streets – and possibly renaming existing community assets. May be a movement away from naming community assets after people. The community is being asked to provide input and ask questions. 9. There is a long process to rename a MnDNR public waterbody, like renaming Lake Calhoun to Bde Maka Ska. 10. 70 different community groups were asked to attend the community gatherings. What’s being asked right now is to think about how to incorporate the Dakota name verbally or in writing. Maybe update maps and signs to include both names? 11. Do we want to invite Crystal back to present on this new idea/topic? 1. Maybe this should be a joint meeting. Maybe bring 2-3 commissions together to talk about it. 12. There are nine communities in the Bassett Creek Watershed. The majority of Golden Valley – about 95% is within the Bassett Creek Watershed. The other 5% is in the Minnehaha Creek Watershed. Maybe GV will be a leader and say within our City limits our signs will acknowledge we are on Dakota lands. Or maybe we City of Golden Valley Environmental Commission Regular Meeting July 24, 2023 – 6:30 pm 3 might say we’ll do something within our City border to recognize the Watershed and the Creek and use the Dakota name for Bassett Creek. 13. Who do we think should also be involved? 1. Commissioner Weirich will connect Crystal with Three River Park District. 2. Commissioners to forward materials to anyone they think should be involved. 14. Open Space and Rec Commission is heading up the naming policy. 15. Maybe EC is tangentially related to this because we care about the water itself? Maybe renaming and using it in print feels bigger than us? We’re tied in with the relationship we have with the water? The health of land, water, and wildlife is extremely important. We’re all connected. 16. The European concept is that we are stewards of the environment (and that we own land and have water rights in some areas). The Indigenous people are relatives to the environment. 7. New Business A. Annual Energy Report i. Staff member Kehrberg reviewed the City Energy Report attached to the agenda. It focuses on what we’re doing as a City. ii. The City started tracking its energy usage in the Minnesota B3 Benchmarking program in 2005. Our new baseline for data is 2019 consistent with the community’s energy action plan. 1. 22 active buildings in the City being tracked. iii. All B3 data is public so we can look at and compare with other cities. Is the energy usage in other cities going up, too? iv. City Hall is the least efficient City building and is significantly less efficient than other similar sized public buildings in MN. 1. We had RETAP come out and do an assessment of City Hall last year. 1. City Hall is currently getting a new, high efficiency boiler installed. 2. Installing programmable thermostats. 3. Insulated our water heater and pipes. v. We have done a lot of upgrades in the last few years with a combination of City funds, federal and state grants, and private partnerships. vi. Brookview is constructed to meet bronze level LEED certification. The City has to pay an annual fee to be certified. The Commission discussed and recommended not paying for the certification and plaque a few years ago. vii. Golden Valley does not participate in any utility subscription programs to buy energy from solar or wind. A few years ago, Council said they weren’t interested in spending more to pay for renewable energy sources constructed outside of the community. viii. Xcel Energy tracks energy savings as 1st year savings. They can’t count it one year after someone makes an efficiency improvement. People likely will not undo a change they’ve made, however, so the savings should continue for years. There should be much more savings than reported. City of Golden Valley Environmental Commission Regular Meeting July 24, 2023 – 6:30 pm 4 ix. Plan to publish the Energy Action Plan Progress Report on the website annually. x. Ethan will hopefully hear from CPE in August and hopes to have a report for the September meeting. B. Work Plan Prioritization i. Prioritize looking into City-contracted waste hauling after the new council starts in January 2024. ii. Prioritize exploring rooftop solar options at Brookview. 1. This may be more of a priority in order to take advantage of available tax credits and grants. iii. Prioritize working with emergency management to identify public warming and cooling centers in the City. Add poor air quality alerts to this, as well. iv. Prioritize working to address climate change related impacts, improving the environment, and reducing energy consumption/costs. 1. Address community-wide outdoor lighting changes/light pollution. 2. Work with the Planning Commission to change the lighting ordinance? C. Program/Project Updates i. Hennepin County’s Stop Food Waste Challenge starts in August. ii. The updated composting ordinance went to Council for its first reading on July 18 and was approved. It will go back on August 2. D. Council Updates i. None E. Other Business i. No current watering restrictions and no planned restrictions staff are aware of. 8. Adjournment MOTION by Commissioner Galonska, seconded by Commissioner Drawz to adjourn the meeting at 8:32 pm and the motion carried. ATTEST: ________________________________ _______________________________________ Carrie Nelson, Administrative Assistant Dawn Hill, Chair G:\Environmental Commission\Memos Date: August 25, 2023 To: Environmental Commission From: Ethan Kehrberg, Sustainability Specialist Subject: Cooling Center Information Staff has been working with emergency management staff to identify public cooling centers and to develop a communications plan. Staff aim to share information about cooling centers located in or near Golden Valley, along with other resources for community members during extreme heat and air quality alerts (as experienced multiple times this summer). Hennepin County has some good information on their website, like a map of nearby cooling centers and banners with active alerts. However, staff wants to make this information easier to access on our website so Golden Valley community members can be aware of active health advisories in our local area. Staff are considering simply relaying the information from Hennepin County or posting more localized data and alerts. One announcement identifying local cooling centers was posted on the website news feed and social media channels for the week of August 21, when temperatures were nearing 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Staff is exploring different methods of sharing these alerts and information with the community (including in multiple languages) so that community members who do not frequently visit our website or social media will also be made aware of health advisories and safe areas to shelter. G:\Environmental Commission\Memos Date: August 25, 2023 To: Environmental Commission From: Eric Eckman, Environmental Resources Supervisor Subject: Environmental Justice - Land Acknowledgement Actions The Environmental Commission’s work plan includes working on environmental justice and land acknowledgement actions in our community. In 2022, the EC hosted a speaker and discussed the Ȟaȟa Wakpadaŋ/Bassett Creek Oral History Project. Learning about the project, Indigenous people in the community, and their stories increased awareness and understanding and provided the Commission with additional context and perspective as it works to protect and improve the environment and human health in Golden Valley. The Oral History Project is wrapping up now and will be available soon. Building on the priorities identified in the Oral History Project, an effort emerged to bring awareness about the Dakota name for Bassett Creek, Ȟaȟa Wakpadaŋ. Commissioner Galonska, Commissioner Klaas, and staff recently attending a second community gathering to learn, build relationships, and discuss how to begin using the name Ȟaȟa Wakpadaŋ (materials from the second community gathering attached for reference). The EC discussed this effort in July and suggested hosting a special/joint meeting with other commissions this fall to hear a presentation and discuss this effort and the upcoming BAEGV forum honoring Indigenous people and culture. Staff will help facilitate a brief discussion about the upcoming joint meeting and regular meetings this fall. - 1 - Diane Wilson Narrator Kasey Keeler Valley Community Presbyterian Church and the University of Wisconsin Ȟaȟa Wakpadaŋ / Bassett Creek Oral History Project Interviewer Interview Conducted by Zoom June 16, 2022 SPEAKERS Diane Wilson - DW Kasey Keeler - KK SUMMARY KEYWORDS Minnesota, Dakota, Lakota, Native, Golden Valley, community, language, Bassett Creek, Spirit Car, American Indian, Christian, church, boarding school, Rosebud, stories, identity, Ȟaȟa Wakpadaŋ, Haha Wakpadan, Valley Community Presbyterian Church, land acknowledgment For information on permissions, including reproduction, please contact Hennepin History Museum. This publication was made possible in part by the people of Minnesota through a grant funded by an appropriation to the Minnesota Historical Society from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. Any views, findings, opinions, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the State of Minnesota, the Minnesota Historical Society, or the Minnesota Historic Resources Advisory Committee. Additional funding and support provided by Valley Community Presbyterian Church, the University of Wisconsin, and Hennepin History Museum - 2 - KK: Good morning. I am here today with Diane Wilson for the Ȟaȟa Wakpadaŋ / Bassett Creek Oral History Project. Thank you, Diane, for joining me today. DW: Thank you for the invitation. KK: To begin, would you please say and then spell your first and last name? DW: Diane Wilson, D-i-a-n-e W-i-l-s-o-n. KK: Thank you so much. We've had a few minutes to chat already, and you've shared a little bit about this, but would you please share with us when and for how long you have lived in the area around Bassett Creek and in Golden Valley? DW: My family moved to Golden Valley in—I think it was right around 1954, 1955, right in that area. So, we maintained that house. My parents lived there after my siblings and I moved out. I had three brothers and a sister. And my parents lived in that house until— I think we sold it in 2011 after my dad passed, so quite a long period of Golden Valley’s emergence. KK: Almost fifty years! Wow. So much has changed over time, too, that you must have witnessed. DW: Yeah. KK: When your family arrived in Golden Valley in the mid-to-early 1950s, what brought you to that area? DW: They were living in the city, I think South Minneapolis. They were renting places. And I was the third child. They needed more space, so they bought an acre lot. Because at that point, the neighborhood that we moved into was in the process of just being sold as lots, empty bare lots from what was a farmer's land. So we had an acre lot, and they had a little rambler built. A little three-bedroom rambler. It was a great place to grow up as a child, to have the room and [a] place to roam, and lots of other young families moved in within the next few years, so we had lots of kids to play with. KK: A one-acre lot today sounds really big for Golden Valley. DW: Yeah. And it was adjoining all these other acre lots, and nothing was fenced, so as kids you could just roam all over the place. That to me, that’s kind of an idyllic way of growing up. Just exploring the world. There was a big pond nearby that froze in the winter so we could go ice skating, and we were just up the street from what is now the Arts High School [Perpich Center - 3 - for Arts Education]. And there was always a piece of woods that was nearby the Arts High School. There were all these natural areas to explore, which I loved. KK: So when your family sold the home in about 2011, was it still the full acre? DW: Yeah. KK: Wow. DW: Yeah. A lot of mowing. (Both laugh) KK: I'm sure it was probably a push mower too, right? DW: In the beginning I'm guessing it was! I know my dad always had a garden because I helped him with it. And he planted all the trees on the lot. As you can imagine, by the time we moved, then, these little seedlings were now mature, very tall, beautiful trees. KK: Right. Wow. It does sound like a beautiful place to grow up and being able to spend that time outside isn't something a lot of kids have access to today. DW: Yeah. KK: You mentioned that there were a lot of kids in the neighborhood that you were able to play with. And new families were moving into the neighborhood because it was a new neighborhood. Did you know any other Native families in the area? DW: No. No Native families, no Black families. I knew two Asian children, and they were both adopted. So it was an almost entirely white neighborhood and area and school. KK: Where did you go to school when you were in Golden Valley? DW: I went to Golden Valley High School, which I think is now— KK: Breck [School]. DW: Yeah. It turned into Breck [School]. I have my fiftieth-class reunion (laughs) coming up! Which is kind of amazing. Shocking, really. Our class was about a hundred, [or] a hundred and twenty people. It was a very kind of stable area, so these were kids that I knew from kindergarten, and we went all the way through high school together. - 4 - Being in high school—1968 is when I was a freshman, and you can imagine. 1968 to me is one of the really significant years in terms of what was going on socially. Just observing what was happening with civil rights, what was happening with the Vietnam War, what was happening around emerging feminism. Because the early 70’s, so much got started. The first Earth Day. I remember being out on the road picking up trash as part of the very first Earth Day. And just being, at that age, so wide open to these immense social shifts that were happening. And part of that was hearing about the takeover at Alcatraz [Island offshore from San Francisco, California], about the American Indian Movement. But at that time, [I was] not putting together, not making the connections, really, between my own family [and the American Indian social movements]. What I knew about my mom's history [was limited]. She was Lakota, enrolled out on Rosebud [Rosebud Indian Reservation]. She grew up in South Dakota, and she did not like to talk about it. So we knew that she spent six years at the Holy Rosary Mission school on the Pine Ridge Reservation, and that her sisters—her four older sisters—went to the St. Francis Mission school on the Rosebud Reservation. But, you know, that was like saying she went to the moon. Because no one in my family knew what boarding schools were for. No one knew why they were going there. So while I was in school, I wasn't making the connection yet about the fact that we weren't being taught any of that history. We didn't have any books about [Native history]. There were just those little references to Dakota [people] and Indigenous history, and it was always referential to, Well, this is the past; this is what happened; and now this is the way things are and always will be. So it was kind of that way that you observe what's happening. You take in the impact of it, and then your questions arise later as an adult. Why was that? Why weren't there any books about Native people? Why was the history that I was taught—[missing these details]? I don't remember learning about the 1862 Dakota War at all. But, you know, it could be I'd forgotten. And then the removal afterwards. This was something that, in so many conversations in the years when I became an adult and was doing the research for my family history, that this [experience] was across the board, that Dakota people did not grow up learning about the 1862 Dakota War. So to understand later just how fully that history had been repressed, and that that was certainly true of my school [and] the neighborhood where I grew up as well. KK: I mean, I would say the same thing growing up and going to school in the 80s and 90s on the north side of the Metro [area of Minneapolis-Saint Paul]. I don't think we ever learned about the US-Dakota War either. DW: Yeah, I think it's fairly recent. Especially when the 150th anniversary [of the US-Dakota War of 1862] rolled around, then there came a much greater interest in providing that perspective. But, you know, even when my memoir [Spirit Car] came out in 2006, it was like this big shock to people that they hadn't been taught about this history. So they were learning it - 5 - as part of reading that memoir and realizing that was a shared story of growing up without knowing your history. KK: Right. I'm sure you have so many of the same experiences when you're teaching about [Dakota history]. We work with these college students, and in our classes, they're always like, "Why didn't I learn this? Why have I not learned this until now?" It really is unfortunate that they're not getting more Native history [in school] that they really want and are eager for in the K[indergarten] through [grade] 12 system. DW: Yeah. And especially in rural areas. I still hear from parents about their children being in schools where they don't have any books in the library written by Native authors. I feel the momentum around that starting to change with so many more Native writers and scholars emerging and publishing books. I think that's going to really help shift the balance, and [make it so] that our children [and] our grandchildren are going to grow up, hopefully, with knowing this history as a child. KK: Right. It'll be exciting to see how that changes so many things for a Native young person, growing up and knowing that history and feeling comfortable about it. DW: Yeah. KK: And comfortable talking about it as well, not like it's a burden that they have to carry or hide. DW: Yeah. It's so funny in this conversation with you—it's like I didn't realize that I don't talk about the fact that I grew up in a suburb. (laughs) Because that era, the 50’s to the 60’s, was so transitional on so many fronts. And I just think of what that experience [meant]. So my mother, the one story that she told us kids when we were growing up was about going home one day from boarding school when she was about 14 [and finding that her family had moved away]. And this [story] is in my memoir [Spirit Car], about [my mother] being left at boarding school. And I think that for her, the suburbs and marrying my dad, who was of Swedish heritage, represented safety and stability. Because they moved there [to the suburb of Golden Valley] in whatever it was, [19]54 or so. And they never [left]. And that's where she passed, at home. They put deep roots down in that place. And for her, that was very healing for the turmoil and challenges of her own childhood growing up in South Dakota where they were so poor. But then I think about, what did that cost her, too? KK: Right. The separation from community. DW: Yeah. - 6 - KK: I'm so appreciative of you and the other folks participating in this project sharing their stories. And so many of the participants have shared stories about coming to the suburbs for education, for home ownership, [or for] I think, stability. And when I think about my own family's history, my parents are of your generation. But with my mom leaving the reservation [Tuolumne Me-Wuk Reservation in California in her twenties] and being the first and only one in her family [to move outside of the reservation]— Her parents went to boarding school. And I was raised in a suburb. But we also had access to homeownership there [in Coon Rapids], and that stability. It's interesting, again, hearing you speak, [and] reflecting on my own experience— And after us kids were old enough and done with school, my mom has now since returned back to her tribal community. DW: Yeah. KK: Something about living in the suburbs also gives you the access. More privilege. The education. The safety. DW: Yeah. It gives you tools to bring back [to your family or your community], provided you don't get lost. Because I think of the suburbs and where my mom was at, and it's like you're right at the doorway to not holding this [Native] identity at all anymore. Just assimilating. KK: Right, right. DW: Yeah. KK: We [Native people] have to be very deliberate, I think, to stay culturally connected when you're in the suburbs. And for me, that was learning Dakota and Ojibwe history and becoming comfortable with those communities. But I also never have lived on my reservation and likely never will. That huge disconnect from my own community. DW: Oh, yeah, I get you because I'm enrolled on Rosebud [Rosebud Indian Reservation]. I'll never live there. I rarely ever make it out there. And so there's this weird disconnect of saying who you are. There's the government identity of where you're enrolled. But when I introduce myself, I say I'm a Bdewakantonwan Oyate descendent because that's where my family came from, and it's a way of acknowledging then the diaspora that followed [due to the US-Dakota War] is how we ended up in South Dakota, and that's why our enrollment is there. But I really identify as Dakota because this is where I grew up. And that's where my family began. So it becomes a really complicated question around identity. KK: Right, and Indian identity is never straightforward. (laughs) Lots of politics. - 7 - DW: With lots of people ready to point that out for you! (laughs) KK: When your family was in Golden Valley, did you have any other family in the area? Any extended relatives? DW: My mom was one of nine. KK: Wow. DW: Yeah. Pretty much most of her family settled either in the [Twin] Cities or [the] surrounding area. So, [where they settled] could be a little bit outstate, like Mora, Minnesota [or] Prior Lake [or] Mendota. You know, like I said— KK: Dakota places! (laughs) DW: (laughs) All Dakota places! Which is so funny when I look at that now. They just gravitated to those places. And then, the one boy who—he was the youngest of the family; just think of what hell his life must have been with eight older sisters! (laughs)—he escaped as soon as he turned eighteen into the navy and ended up in Texas. So, we did have family around. And it was interesting later when we would talk about their boarding school experience and hear how different it was for each of my aunts, based on their personality and their temperament, how they responded to that. So we all acknowledge that we were Indian. We were part Indian, is how [it was framed]. Because there was always the conversations growing up as a kid, "Well, what are you?" And it was kind of like this mystique. "Oh, we're part Indian." (laughs) That's what we knew. And then they’d just kind of look at you like, "Hmm. That's different." They didn't know what to make of that. KK: So your family also attended Valley Community Presbyterian Church for a time, and your brother was baptized there? Do you have memories of that? DW: I don't remember about the baptism, or which brother. I don't remember any of that. I remember going to Sunday school. I remember Bible camp because my dad was Lutheran, [and] my mother was Catholic, so Presbyterian was the compromise. (Kasey laughs) So we did Bible camp. This was mostly my dad's initiative. Bible camp in the summer for a few summers. Sunday school when we couldn't fake our way out of it on Sunday morning. (Kasey laughs) And then I forget what the prop[per term is], but is it Communion or something [Confirmation]? You know, where you do the study—when you're about in ninth grade. - 8 - KK: I think it must be Communion. I will be no help. I was not raised Christian either. But my husband is Catholic. So now we have these faith conversations. We have a one-year-old daughter. DW: Right. This is when the conversations get interesting because what are you going to teach your kids? KK: Yeah. DW: So what I remember is, we went through whatever that was. The Communion or something where you had to memorize a bunch of stuff [Confirmation]. That would have been in the 60’s, when so much was happening. And even at that age, well, none of us had any interest in being part of the church community because it didn't feel relevant. And I remember questioning, even at that age, about the patriarchal nature of the stories. And the gender pronouns. Everything's "he." And if women had any role at all, well, it was glossed over. And that was just to me—in an era when feminism was emerging, when civil rights were changing the world around us—I just had no patience for that kind of [thing]. You could look around you out the window and say, Well, the way world operates is through male and female, equally, in creativity. And that creation, if you observe and respect what creation is doing all around you, then you know that those stories are human made. This [patriarchal] understanding comes out of an agenda that raises up a dominant gender. And so after ninth grade, we all stopped [attending church] because Christianity did not feel relevant. (laughs) And I still believe that today. These were not things we talked about with my parents. We weren't a family that discussed things. But with my mother, it was so much all done on an intuitive level. We used to call it signals. It’s like we had a way of communicating with each other, my siblings and my mother, that my dad didn't understand. (laughs) KK: Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure her experience going through boarding schools—church-run boarding schools, it sounds like by the name—why make her children participate in religious indoctrination? Knowing that it probably was not good for her. And then by ninth grade, you're also old enough to make your own decisions. DW: Yeah. And that was the era of, Question authority. Question everything. And church was one of those authoritarian places that felt so out of touch with what was going on. And for my mother, her spirituality was private. She didn’t talk about it with us. And a lot of things, we were allowed to figure it out for ourselves. - 9 - KK: Right. I feel like there’s a new generation of Native folks growing up without feeling like they need to participate in Christian religious groups. I didn’t, and I always felt kind of like an outlier growing up when my friends were going [to church]. DW: Oh, I know. Everyone else was. Yeah. KK: Right. They were going through their [church-based] classes. Similarly, when I would visit my grandma, we had to go to vacation Bible school in the summers. And I was like, "What are these stories? I've never heard them before!" DW: (laughs) They’re good stories! Like, Wow, David and Goliath? That's [an] awesome story. (laughs) KK: But it is! It's just a different way of being. Now that we've grown up, realizing that it's different, it doesn't always match up with your identity, right? DW: No, no. And the older I got, the less patience I had with something that felt wrong. Do you know Clifford Canku by any chance? He's up at Sisseton [South Dakota]. KK: I don't know him, but I recognize the name. DW: He’s a retired Episcopalian minister and a traditional spiritual leader. That was a baffling combination to me for many years. So I asked him about that. I said, "How can you reconcile what churches did to Native people through boarding schools and other assimilation practices? How can you reconcile that with being a spiritual leader in Native communities?" And he said, "At its essence, Christianity and Native spirituality are the same. When you look at just the spiritual aspect and teachings, it's all spirit-based. It's when you look at what human beings have added, the dogma that they've put around it [organized religion], and then used it to further certain social and political agendas, then that's the church. That's not the faith." So that helped me reconcile those two. So I can maintain a respect for people who truly honor the teachings of Christianity and act in a way [that's] in accordance with them but not what you see out of all that Evangelical [religion], the teachings and the way that they practice it. That's truly frightening to me. KK: It's very extreme. DW: Um-hm. [Agrees] - 10 - KK: It is interesting, thinking about just this project coming out of a church and knowing that your family attended the church. DW: Yeah! KK: From what I've learned about Valley Community Presbyterian Church is they're trying to do good work. DW: Yeah. KK: Maybe "progressive" is a term that could be used to describe the church. There's so much going on. Not all churches are the same. Not all branches of Christianity are the same. But it is interesting to hear your family's story in relation with Valley Community Presbyterian Church in particular. One of the other participants in this project, Grant Two Bulls—he's Oglala [Lakota] and went to Breck for high school, and his dad is an Episcopalian priest. Robert Two Bulls, I believe. DW: Oh, sure! Yeah. KK: And he's in the [All Saints Episcopal] Indian Mission in Minneapolis. DW: Yeah. KK: [He is] another Native person who's Episcopalian, but I think also probably has to do very similar work in reconciling that identity. DW: Yeah. KK: And being involved with the [Christian] faith like that. DW: And I find that really interesting especially when Native people but [also when] churches are willing to really interrogate that history. And then to look at how that can shape the work that they're doing in community. When I was at Dream of Wild Health [the nonprofit organization where she served as Executive Director], we had actually a really strong relationship with the Sisters of Carondelet over at St. Kate's [Saint Catherine University]. KK: Okay. DW: And so, working very closely with people of very devout Christian faith whose values and actions in the world were in alignment with the work that we were doing. I think there's huge - 11 - potential if communities are willing to do that work of interrogating their role in the past, knowing their history, and really committing to change, social change. KK: Right. When this project was starting, I had conversations with folks on the task force who are leading the initiative about boarding schools. You know, even though Valley [Community Presbyterian Church] was founded in the early 1950s and they did not engage in the boarding school assimilation projects, the larger Presbyterian Church did. So, I brought that to their attention [and they were already researching that history and considering its relation to this oral history project]. What if these stories come up? How are we going to handle that with the participants? We've been fortunate to have Darlene St. Clair and Brenda [Child] act as cultural advisors [to the project]. And given the nature of the interviews, they [difficult boarding school histories] haven't come up. I think you and I having this conversation is probably the most discussion about boarding schools. But I think you do have to be open to that history. You can't kind of cherry pick and sugarcoat what conversations are had, and kind of push other ones under the table if you want to do good work and build relationships. DW: Yep. And you’ve got to look at that deep history. It's not enough to throw your hands up and say, "Well, we didn't do it." We're all immersed in this cultural context that has come out of a boarding school history in which many of the churches played a really significant role. KK: Right. Absolutely. DW: And that's why this work, this project, is really exciting and interesting to me because the land acknowledgement—which I am happy to see that as a step towards understanding, a step in this direction—but the land acknowledgement can be used almost like a checkbox, like, “Oh, we did it! Okay. Back to business as usual.” KK: Right. Yeah. Again, I think this project in particular can be a model [for other organizations and institutions doing land acknowledgments]. DW: Yeah. KK: And I know that the church wants to do more. After we're done with this oral history project, what are the next steps [for Valley Community Presbyterian Church]? DW: Yeah. KK: Shifting focus a little bit. When you think about Bassett Creek [and] the Ȟaȟa Wakpadaŋ region in Golden Valley, how do you feel you relate to that area as a Native person? Either when you were a youth growing up or today, if at all. - 12 - DW: You know, I guess I feel like I escaped it and then really didn't look back. My parents stayed there throughout their lives, so I always had a connection there, back to my old neighborhood. I appreciate growing up there because of the stability it gave my family and being in a really beautiful, natural area and having that privilege as a child to be able to run around and explore. But it's not a place that I've stayed connected to at all, especially after my parents were gone. Then, yeah, no connection [to the Golden Valley community she grew up in]. KK: When you were young, did your family have conversation about that being a Dakota place? DW: No. My grandmother, my mom's mother, lived in a little cabin after her husband passed. When they [the State of Minnesota] put the freeway through [Interstate 35W] and uprooted so many families of color in South Minneapolis, her family was one of them. So she moved into a little cabin out on Medicine Lake. KK: Oh wow. DW: Yeah, and we’d go and visit her there, and I always thought, I wonder if she knew [she was living in a Dakota place]? Because we just didn't talk about anything like that. We didn't talk about being Dakota or what the history of the area was. KK: But again, your mom and her mom were of that generation where they probably were working to protect you [by not telling the children of their Native identity]. DW: Exactly. Silence. To be silenced. Later on I was working on the memoir [Spirit Car] with her and talking about when they were in South Dakota and how hard it was to find work. You know, my grandpa had nine kids, and South Dakota is such a poor and really racist state. So to be an Indian was— You didn't get work. You didn't get hired. He had more my coloring, so the brown hair, and he had blue eyes, and he was the reason we ended up enrolled on Rosebud [Reservation in South Dakota] because that's where his family, the Dions, were from. He stayed silent to get work to support his kids. And then when he couldn't support his kids, then they sent them off to boarding school. So I think that that's where they learned it was not safe to be Indian, or to acknowledge it, or to talk about who you were. KK: Right. And again, at that time when your family had arrived in Golden Valley, the early 1950s, you also kind of had to be white to have access [to the suburbs]. DW: Yeah, you did. You had to be white to be in that area. Because I do remember in high school a Black family wanting to move into our neighborhood and all the discussion there was - 13 - around that. That was a big community conversation around whether or not Black families could move into Golden Valley. KK: Right. DW: So it's interesting to hear that the other woman, the Ojibwe / Black woman [who was interviewed as part of this oral history project, Tawnya Stewart], came in— What decade was that? KK: The 1960s. DW: The 60s? Yeah, so that's when that conversation was really a big topic because that's when the big fear was blockbusting. [The fear was that] a Black family would move in, drive the housing prices down, and then it would become a Black neighborhood. KK: And we know that Native people were considered "anyone that's not Caucasian." They fell under that [ideology] in terms of the race-based covenants that were across this area and this community. DW: Yeah. Yeah, completely. KK: So kind of on the flip side of that question, you've spoken a little bit about this, but how has growing up in a suburb informed your identity? DW: I think that's what initiated my relationship with land. And the fact that as kids we spent our time outside, and you could roam throughout all the neighbor yards and in the wooded areas, and you were free to explore, and you just had to be home for dinner. So the fact that I had that opportunity as a child to really just wander and pay attention to and become accustomed to how it feels to be outside all the time. And be around birds and insects and snakes and salamanders. We were kids who liked to catch salamanders or fireflies and put them in jars and observe them and have all of our own little experiments. And then gardening with my dad, that he really had a love of connecting to land that way. And then my grandmother living out on Medicine Lake. So yeah, the land, it's my land relationship. I think that was one of the most significant [things]— that and feeling safe where we grew up. KK: So growing up, did you and your family participate in any cultural activities? I know there was a growing urban Indian population in Minneapolis by the 1960s. Did you go there for any cultural activities or return to your reservation community at all? - 14 - DW: No. My mom, she didn't want anything to do with it [being Native]. I think that the trauma of being left [at boarding school] shaped the rest of her life. For her, it was all about safety, keeping her kids safe and not having have us go through what she went through. But when we were older, and there were family reunions, we would get together with families that were more connected [to their tribal communities]. Families that came from Rapid City [South Dakota], for example. So meeting those cousins and hearing some of my other aunts talk more freely about boarding schools and their experience and make jokes and laugh and, you know, the way aunts do. And there would be the occasional Lakota word. My one aunt could still say the Lord's Prayer in Lakota, which is pretty amazing. So there were just these little, like, they're almost like breadcrumbs. Breadcrumbs back to this community and this identity, if you chose to do the work it would take to follow them back. So we didn't participate. We didn't go [to cultural activities] until my siblings and I got into, I think— Maybe out of high school, then we started going to powwows. KK: Okay. Just a different time. And it literally was safer for you to do that then. DW: Yeah. Yeah, and the gift, like you were saying. My mother's generation, growing up around so much trauma, and then raising us in a place that was physically safe, where we were given an education and tools. And then that meant that when we became adults, we had the ability then to bring that back. I grew up with a "full belly” is the way I put it. I didn't experience hunger in my childhood. I knew what it was to grow up with two parents in one home. And that level of stability gave me the opportunity then. Like you, I'm the first college generation in my family—my siblings and I—and then we had tools that we could then make choices about what we were going to do and what direction we were going to go. I don't know if you see a lot of this, but I see in mixed families like mine, people go in different directions. Like some are fine to live a life that is just assimilated. They don't disown it [their identity], they just don't make an effort to be connected. KK: I agree. I think being in the suburbs [as a Native person], you really do have to make that effort to be connected. DW: Yes. You had to work at it. It has to be a choice. Which to me was one of the real anomalies to come out of assimilation, [because it seems] where your cultural identity [comes from] should be something that you're born into, and the language that you're raised up with, the spirituality, and the values, and the traditions that you're taught. You're born into who you are. But with assimilation, we're born into almost a limbo or conflicting messages. And then identity becomes somewhat more of a choice. And to me, it was also a political choice because once you understand the history, then to remain silent was—to me, that was a way of siding with the perpetrators of assimilation. So that's that political science background. (laughs) - 15 - KK: You mentioned your mom's family growing up in South Dakota, having nine kids and the struggle for work, and then your experience in Golden Valley, having access to homeownership, growing up with a full belly. Did both your parents work when you lived in Golden Valley? DW: My dad always worked. My mom mostly worked at home with five children. (laughs). KK: That's nice that she was able to do that. DW: It really was. That, to me— KK: It is a lot of work! As a relatively new mom myself, it is a ton of work. DW: Imagine five! KK: I know. DW: She had four of us under five [years old at one time]. Imagine that. Yeah, I can't. And then we had the youngest [who] followed some years later. So yeah, a ton of work. But what a gift because she was an incredible human being. And it wasn't until much later [that she shared her background and stories] because I always thought, Well, she wasn't a storyteller [and] she didn't really have the words or the language or the ability to tell us. Because even when we started [working together], when I was working on that memoir [Spirit Car] with her, I would go out and do the research and write a story and bring it back to her. And then she would read it, and she'd say, "Well, this is right. That's not right. This person was really more like that." So it’s like she couldn't articulate it. That habit of silence, of generations who had been silenced, was so deeply ingrained that it was like that became what my generation could do, was gather those stories and bring them back and give voice to earlier generations who had been silenced. So I feel like that was my generation's— the door that we could open because of the gifts we'd been given growing up. The stability. And yeah, I forgot [where the initial question started]. I wound around in so many circles I forgot where the question started. (laughs). Sorry. KK: Oh, no [it’s okay]. I mean, I asked about your parents working. DW: Oh, yeah! KK: But your mom was able to stay home with all of you. DW: Yeah. She tried a couple [of occupations outside of the house]. Her family had a dry- cleaning business when they first moved out back to Minneapolis, so she worked in a dry cleaner one summer. But she would have to walk maybe two miles [or] a mile or two each way because - 16 - they didn't have a second car. So, it only lasted a short time. But otherwise, she was home with us. KK: And that was a real gift. DW: It was a gift to be home. Yeah. She was just an exceptional human being. Oh, I know what I was starting to say—this was one of the circles—is that it wasn't until much later that I realized that despite the fact that she didn't speak her language and she couldn't articulate the stories, she raised us—being home with us every day—she raised us in a Dakota way. It's really hard for me to say what that was, except that it wasn't done by telling us what to do. It was done in a really peaceful modeling as an example, [and] living, just her way as a good person. And we all understood that. We understood what we were supposed to be doing, and one look out of those eyes, it was like, "Oh,” you know, “I’m in trouble." But it was a Dakota way of being raised. Not yelling. She didn't spank. I was able to recognize that later. KK: That sounds like such a nice childhood growing up. DW: It had its challenges, but it was overall very good. KK: Shifting gears again. This project, the Ȟaȟa Wakpadaŋ / Bassett Creek Oral History Project, really is working to emphasize the Dakota history of place and Dakota claims to place in this region. What do you think about the role and importance of language in place names, particularly in these predominately white settler spaces? DW: Oh, critical. It's funny. I was just reading about this in a book. Have you read Trace [Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape]? KK: No. DW: Of course, can I remember her name? Lauret. I think it's Lauret Savoy [Lauret E. Savoy]. It's a memoir about history, memory, race, and land. When you think about what naming does, it creates a relationship with a particular place, and it also says something about that place. It's an identifier. And then when explorers and settlers came in and overlaid a name on top of that [original, Indigenous name], it was an act of erasure. Or took that name and then adapted it to more of an English interpretation and pronunciation. So I feel like in that renaming, that was a very deliberate and intentional way of erasing Indigenous [people and presence]. The point that Lauret was making in her book was that those early explorers needed Indigenous people and knowledge in order to understand where they were and how to live there and how to survive. But once they had that, once they extracted that information, then they overlaid their own name on it, which was a way of erasing Indigenous presence and asserting claim to it. The dominance of it. - 17 - So, to bring back the Dakota name for Bassett Creek, Ȟaȟa Wakpadaŋ, that's a decolonizing step. That's a beautiful reclamation and acknowledgement of Dakota presence, the Dakota homeland. So I think it's critical. KK: Right. I think what you're saying too, is the power in naming. And that's also why we see so much resistance when there is a name change, like with Bde Maka Ska, right? There's just so much aggressive, forceful opposition. DW: Yes. KK: Because some folks feel like they're losing their power. DW: What's next? They want the land back? KK: Actually, yes. (laughs) DW: (laughs) Well, but yeah! Yeah. KK: This project, in addition to reimagining a Dakota landscape, also grew out of a land acknowledgement process. What do you think about land acknowledgement statements broadly? And then, what do you see as really essential next steps? DW: Well, land acknowledgement—it's a good step, provided it doesn't end there. So that it doesn't become this sort of glib lip service to what needs to be a much deeper interrogation of what the history—the real relationship and history—of that organization has been with Native people since the time that, let's just say the church, came to this homeland. And I forget—I heard this kind of funny characterization of land acknowledgments, and I wish I could remember where I heard it so I could attribute it—but they described it as it's like someone stole your bike, and then they tell you they stole your bike, and then they ride away on it. So if a land acknowledgement is only that, [if] it's just saying, "Oh, yeah, this is Dakota homeland," but it doesn't go any further to address what has been done through history—and again, especially with boarding schools—then why bother? But to take it as a step, and then to go and to use that process to open up these larger questions and to actually be intentional about restructuring or redirecting the energies of your organization, or the way you are in the world, the way you create an inclusive organization, for example, the way you make amends for historical wrongs, the way you help raise up that history, so that it is known and acknowledged and remembered? Then it's a good first step. - 18 - KK: Another question about the Ȟaȟa Wakpadaŋ / Bassett Creek watershed, and this is kind of taking an environmental turn, so what do you think about environmental stewardship of the Ȟaȟa Wakpadaŋ / Bassett Creek watershed today? And are there any particular changes or initiatives you'd like to see to improve the watershed itself? DW: You know, I have been gone [away from Golden Valley] so long, I'm not familiar with what's happening with the watershed. KK: I have learned through this project it is very polluted [based on conversations with participants in this project who live nearby and are familiar with the run off and the creek]. DW: Ah. Yeah. Well, then, we have a responsibility to clean it up. That's water. Maybe that's one of the places that the church [Valley Community Presbyterian Church] could take a role, in collaborating on the cleanup of that watershed. Because water is sacred. And that doesn't have to be just an Indigenous teaching. That's something that we all, as human beings, need to believe and to support and to respect and honor the water. Because the church has resources, you know? KK: As an ally and an advocate. DW: And they have a network of people. You’d think they could be in a leadership role in helping to address the water. What a great, practical project. So often when I'm doing book events, if people say, "Well, what can we do?" I think, well, start in your backyard. Look in your backyard at what's going on, not way out there. You don't need to go and fix things for other people. But what can you do to address what's going on around you? And to do some healing work around the water would be— What be a beautiful way of building community, too. KK: Yeah, I've thought a lot about the watershed and Golden Valley and the West Metro throughout this project. And this is just a very small institution, the church itself. But if we were to think about if this could be a model to something like Honeywell [International Inc.]— DW: Yeah! KK: —which is located in Golden Valley, with real, serious, serious resources. Or General Mills is located within the watershed. These huge companies that could really spark real change. That would be so powerful. DW: Oh, and what a beautiful way then of moving from land acknowledgement to direct action. KK: I’m all for it. - 19 - DW: Yeah, I’m with you. KK: I was talking to a student recently who drew my attention to that. [It] was when I think about the West Metro area, I think about these Fortune 500 companies. [The student asked,] “Do they have a land acknowledgement statement?” I was like, "Oh, that's a good question." To my knowledge, no. DW: And that's an interesting question about, then, how are they also giving to this community? And acknowledging— I mean, if they do have the land acknowledgement, then how are they translating that into direct action? KK: Right. Gotta keep the pressure on. DW: Yes. Yeah, I feel that way out here in the rural cornfield environment [Diane lives in a rural area of Chisago County, Minnesota]. KK: With that, is there anything else you would like to share or something we may have missed that you'd like to speak on? DW: I just want to thank you for taking this role, and leading this research, and making it happen, and pulling it together, and for reaching out. It's illuminating to me to see the suburb experience for Native families being explored. And then that connection you're making to policies, and just to hear about other Native families' experience growing up in suburbs. And your own [experience]. It was really great to hear your own experience. I just want to thank you for that. KK: Well, thank you so much. I'm very appreciative of your time and being able to share so many stories today. I'm excited for where this leads. Like you, I'm excited to learn [about] so many other people's experiences and know that I just wasn't the odd woman out growing up. DW: Yeah, that's what you felt like, didn't you? Like, okay, it's just us [living in the suburbs as Native people]. I was convinced, Well, our family made all these choices, and we're the ones that screwed up, and everybody else has it together. But then you find out [you're not alone in feeling that way]. KK: I've thought about living in a suburb in my time kind of as a process of the seasonal rounds, in a very modern-day sense, where our family took us to where the resources were in a capitalist system. DW: Yes, true. Yes. And they made camp. (laughs) - 20 - KK: For a long time. (laughs) DW: Yep. They put roots down, which is what agriculture allows you to do. So please let me know when your book comes out. I would love to hear how your work progresses. KK: All right. I'm going to stop the interview. Exploring Ȟaȟa Wakpadaŋ: Listen & Learn with Dr. Kasey Keeler Tuesday, August 15, 2023 at 6:30pm Virtual on Zoom here Before the event •Listen to Diane Wilson’s interview here on MNCollections.org •Or read the transcript attached to the email During the event •How did the interview make you feel? •This allow us to own the truth. •What was new or surprising for you? •This helps us to recognize that new truth has been found. •Why is it hard for people to know and believe these truths? •This guides our reflection in our own obstacles to owning the truth. •How can we be good relatives? •This prepares us to take action. Thank you to Vance Blackfox for shaping these questions, which can be used in a variety of learning situations, and to the ELCA Boarding School Initiative for sharing them. Also to Roxanne Gould for suggesting the last question. Questions? Contact Crystal at crystalboydconsulting@gmail.com Themes – Diane Wilson What themes did you hear? Relationships With the land With ourselves (identity) With each other “Water is sacred. And that doesn’t have to be just an Indigenous teaching. That’s something that we all, as human beings, need to believe and support and to respect and honor the water… And to do some healing work around the water would be… a beautiful way of building community, too.” (page 18) “[Being connected to Native identity in the suburbs] has to be a choice. Which to me was one of the real anomalies to come out of assimilation. [Because it seems] where your cultural identity should be something that you’re born into, and the language that you’re raised up with, the spirituality, and the values, and the traditions that you’re taught. You’re born who you are. But with assimilation, we’re born into almost a limbo or conflicting messages. And then identify becomes somewhat more of a choice. And to me, it was also a political choice because once you understand the history, then to remain silent was—to me, that was a way of siding with the perpetrators of assimilation.” (page 14) “I do remember in high school a Black family wanted to move into our neighborhood… That was a big community conversation around whether or not Black families could move into Golden Valley… [The fear was that] a Black family would move in, drive the housing prices down, and it would become a Black neighborhood.” (page 12 – 13) Themes – Diane Wilson What themes did you hear? Power Stability & turmoil Suburbs & boarding schools Indigenous place names & colonizers Institutional racism “[My mother attended boarding school] and I think that for her, the suburbs and marrying my dad, who was of Swedish heritage, represented safety and stability. Because they moved to [the suburb of Golden Valley]… They put deep roots down in that place. And for her, that was very healing for the turmoil and challenges of her own childhood growing up in South Dakota, where they were so poor. But then I think about, what did that cost her, too?” (page 5) “When explorers and settlers came in and overlaid a name on top of that [original, Indigenous place name], it was an act of erasure… So, to bring back the Dakota name for Bassett Creek, Ȟaȟa Wakpadaŋ, that’s a decolonizing step. That’s a beautiful reclamation and acknowledgement of Dakota presence, the Dakota homeland.” (page 17) “My grandmother, my mom’s mother, lived in a little cabin after her husband passed. When [the State of Minnesota] put the freeway [Interstate 35W] through and uprooted so many families of color in South Minneapolis, her family was one of them. So she moved to a little cabin out on Medicine Lake.” (page 12) “That habit of silence, of generations who had been silenced, was so deeply ingrained that it was like that became what my generation could do, was gather stories and bring them back and give voice to earlier generations who had been silenced.” (page 15) Themes – Diane Wilson What themes did you hear? Responsibility Going beyond land acknowledgement Individuals, organizations Truth telling “So often when I’m doing book events, if people say, “Well, what can we do?”, I think, well, start in your backyard. Look in your backyard at what’s going on, not way out there. You don’t need to go and fix things for other people. But what can you do to address what’s going on around you?” (page 18) “Well, land acknowledgement—it’s a good step, provided it doesn’t end there… But to take it as a step, and to go and to use that process to open up these larger questions and to actually be intentional about restructuring or redirection the energies of your organization, or the way you are in the world, the way you create an inclusive organization, for example, the way you make amends for historical wrongs, the way you help raise up that history, so that it is known and acknowledged and remembered? Then it’s a good first step.” (page 17) “…when I became an adult and was doing the research for my family history, [I learned] that this [experience] was across the board, that Dakota people did not grow up learning about the 1862 Dakota War. … But, you know, even when my memoir [Spirit Car] came out in 2006, it was like this big shock to people that they hadn’t been taught about this history. So they were learning it as part of reading that memoir and realizing that was a shared story of growing up without knowing your history.” (page 5) “I think there’s huge potential if communities are willing to do that work of interrogating their role in the past, knowing their history, and really committing to change, social change.” (page 10 – 11) Themes – Diane Wilson Resources Spirit Car by Diane Wilson (book) Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape by Lauret E. Savoy (book) Dream of Wild Health (nonprofit) G:\Environmental Commission\Memos Date: August 25, 2023 To: Environmental Commission From: Eric Eckman, Environmental Resources Supervisor Subject: Outdoor Lighting Code The Environmental Commission’s 2023 Work Plan includes an item under Climate Action to “Continue working on actions and metrics to address climate-related impacts, improve the environment, and reduce energy consumption and costs.” One of the ways to improve the environment and reduce energy consumption is to review and evaluate (and potentially update) the City’s outdoor lighting ordinance. The issues of light trespass and light pollution are increasingly impacting human health, wildlife, and the night sky at both a local and global level. In addition, new technologies have emerged that are not specifically addressed in the current lighting code. The City Resilience and Sustainability Plan specifically mentions lighting in Goal 2: Improve Energy Efficiency in Buildings, Lighting, And Infrastructure - Energy efficiency improvements will decrease costs and lower energy-related emissions over time. At its July meeting, the EC reviewed and discussed its 2023 work plan priorities and this item was selected as a high priority. Commissioner Paul Klaas has completed some research around the topic of outdoor lighting and has offered to begin the conversation by presenting information about light pollution and the City’s current code, and helping lead a discussion to identify issues, needs and questions to answer over the coming months. Staff will be on hand to help formulate a process and milestone schedule for this work. Commissioner Klaas provided the resources below to help commissioners prepare for the August meeting. • Golden Valley outdoor lighting ordinance • Plymouth exterior lighting ordinance • DarkSky International | Protecting the night skies for present and future generations • Starry Skies North PROGRAM/PROJECT UPDATES – August 2023 GREENCORPS PROGRAM Mars finished their service term on August 15th. The city will have another Minnesota GreenCorps member join them later in September to work on similar projects like energy action, recycling education, Emerald Ash Borer planning and outreach, GreenStep Cities reporting, and other sustainability initiatives. They will be introduced to the Environmental Commission at a future meeting. WATER AND NATURAL RESOURCES DeCola Ponds SEA School-Wildwood Park Flood Reduction Project The SEA School-Wildwood Park flood storage phase of the project will be wrapping up in September. Restoration and planting will take place immediate after the flood storage is created. The DeCola Ponds D and E storm sewer outlet pipe replacement phase of the project is set to begin this fall. All of this work with help lower flood levels, reduce flood risk and increase community resilience to a changing climate. WASTE & RECYCLING Updated composting ordinance – City Council approved the ordinance updating the compost section of city code to expand composting opportunities beyond just single-family homes. Stories were featured in the Star Tribune and CCX highlighting the change. Organics recycling videos – Staff was working with the MN GreenCorps member and city communications team to develop a series of educational videos about organics recycling. They will continue on this project with the new MN GreenCorps member to develop more recycling education. Organics recycling letter – Staff is drafting a letter about organics recycling that they will send out in the fall as another method of educating the public about waste sorting and encouraging them to participate in the organics recycling service. Sustainability Day at the Market – Staff shared recycling and energy resources with attendees, gave a brief speech outlining the key goals of our Resilience & Sustainability Plan and Energy Action Plan, answered questions, and connected with other sustainability groups who had a presence at the event. MPCA PUBLIC INPUT The MPCA is looking for input from Minnesota residents ahead of the 2024 legislative session. They are asking for input on almost anything environmental or climate-related, including a potential name change for the agency. They want ideas, proposals, and recommendations that will ensure every Minnesotan has healthy air, sustainable lands, clean water, and a better climate. Ideas and feedback can be submitted at this link before September 4 (comments will be public): https://www.pca.state.mn.us/about-mpca/share-your-ideas-for-the- 2024-legislative-session