EC Minutes 10-24-20247800 Golden Valley Road 1 Golden Valley, MN 55427
763-593-8027 1 TTY 763-593-39681763-593-8198 (fax)1 www.goldenvalleymn.gov
Environmental Commission
REGULAR MEETING MINUTES
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October 24, 2024 — 6:30 pm
Remote Attendance: Members of the public may attend this meeting via Microsoft Teams by
calling 1-872-256-4160 and entering access code 587 275 181#.
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 Vice -Chair Drawz at 6:30 pm.
2. Land Acknowledgement
3. Roll Call
Commissioners present: Sarah Drawz, Ellen Brenna, Wendy Weirich,
Kari Cantarero, Paul Klaas, Tonia Galonska, Amelia Schultz
Commissioners absent: Debra Yahle
Council Members present: None
Staff present: Eric Eckman, Environmental Resources Supervisor;
Gunnar Laughlin, GreenCorps Member;
Carrie Nelson, Engineering Assistant.
4. Approval of October 28, 2024 Agenda
MOTION by Commissioner Weirich, seconded by Commissioner Galonska to approve the
agenda for October 28, 2024 as submitted and the motion carried.
S. New Member, Amelia Schultz
A. New youth member, Amelia Schultz, was sworn in and introduced.
6. Approval of August 26, 2024 Regular Meeting Minutes
MOTION by Commissioner Galonska, seconded by Commissioner Klaas to approve the
minutes of August 26, 2024 as submitted and the motion carried.
7. Old Business
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City of Golden Valley Environmental Commission Regular Meeting 2
October 28, 2024 — 6:30 pm
A. Haha Wakpadag/Bassett Creek 2024 Efforts
L Subcommittee Updates:
Clean -Up Event
1. Sub -Committee hopes to meet one more time before the end of
the year.
2. There would be more work and money involved if the City
sponsors/helps plan.
3. Possibly looking to tie this into Earth Day 2025 and just
encourage/educate/promote residents to clean up on their
own.
4. Could we partner with the One Good Deed group from the
farmers market?
2. Water Blessing
1. At least 100 people and sponsors attended.
2. There were at least 3 media outlets there.
3. The full $500 allocated by the EC was used for the event.
4. The EC would be interested in sponsoring again.
5. Location was great — Accessibility, parking, trail access, natural
amphitheater, pond/wildlife. This event may continue to travel
around the watershed to bring awareness.
6. One negative take away is the combining of the water blessing
with political campaigning (hearing from those running for
office). Might be more impactful and respectful keep these
activities separate.
Watershed Co -Naming Update
1. The Education Committee will meet on November 12 and vote on the
recommendations sent to them by the Sub -Committee. They will then
send them to the Watershed Commission for consideration.
2. The recommendation is to co -name as Haha Wakpadag/Bassett Creek.
3. The Commission will discuss if they would like to recommend
formalizing this with Council, as well. Possibly partner with the DEIC on
a recommendation.
4. The new co -naming will be on the Watershed map (hopefully approved
at Nov 12 meeting and available in the new year), public facing
documents, informational signs at road crossings and project sites, and
hopefully at parks and businesses (like Utepils), the Watershed website,
and Watershed letterhead.
5. Use Dakota artwork on signs and website.
6. Will not be changing the legal name of the watershed management
organization at this time, but dual naming will be incorporated into
anything not legally impacted.
7. We're not sure what other cities will be doing.
iii. Collaboration with DEIC
City of Golden Valley Environmental Commission Regular Meeting
October 28, 2024 — 6:30 pm
1. A sub -committee of the DEIC and EC worked together to create the
Environmental Justices Priority Areas Map.
2. One of the DEIC members spoke with Eric about getting together again
to collaborate on shared interests.
1. Co -Naming effort?
2. Paid Cultural Advisors Policy?
3. Updating the Environmental Justices Priority Areas Map?
4. Identifying a location with cultural advisors along the stream for
an education, cultural, natural, or art installation. It could be an
area for learning, reflection or healing.
i. Maybe add native plantings/medicine garden?
B. Energy Action Plan Progress Report
i. Staff and Commissioners discussed the draft report found in the 10-28-24
agenda. Once finalized, staff will work with Communications staff to
promote/publish the information on the website, social media, in the
newsletter.
ii. Focus Areas —1B — Educate Clients - Whose Clients?
1. Goes back to the Energy Action Team and the Energy Action Plan who
created the plan. Possibly came from the Xcel Reps. Not sure if this
can be changed efficiently in plan, but we can change it in progress
report.
iii. A lot to be proud of:
1. Ahead of schedule in a lot of areas.
2. Compare nicely to other counties/cities in MN.
iv. We are meeting and exceeding targets.
v. Bright Spots:
1. Supporting energy burden households
2. Home Energy Squad program
vi. The only area we seem to be struggling a little is in First -Year Energy Savings.
May not reach this one.
1. The Partners in Energy Team, made up of experts from the Center for
Energy and Environment, CenterPoint, Xcel, came up with the
numbers/goals based on what a community the size of Golden Valley
can expect to achieve.
2. The utility companies have said that when people are subscribing to
their programs and doing some of the improvements the utility
companies are aware of and reporting, a lot of the big -ticket
items/savings have already been done.
3. We'll need to see some much bigger first year improvements by
businesses.
4. Maybe the experts weren't quite right in their estimate of what they
thought the first -year energy savings would be or they figured more
businesses would be doing more investing early in the plan cycle. The
pandemic and inflation have likely impacted this effort as well.
City of Golden Valley Environmental Commission Regular Meeting 4
October 28, 2024 — 6:30 pm
5. We still have time to get a little more on track with this.
vii. It would be interesting to seethe graphs annually rather than cumulative to
match it up with residential vs business sign-ups so you can see where the
boosts are coming from.
C. Hennepin County 2024 Solid Waste Management Plan
i. The State of Minnesota put forth a new statewide plan earlier this year.
ii. The County is turning to the cities to ask how they can help achieve compliance
with state plan. Where can the County lead? Where can cities lead?
iii. Commissioners were encouraged to take the County's survey.
iv. Feedback collected through early September.
v. We could use the County's help on #23 — Banning (or charging fee for) single
use items.
vi. Excited to see #33-34 - Contracting for waste collection.
1. This whole process takes time. It may not happen when the city's
current recycling contract ends in 2026.
vii. Excited to see #10 — Put more effort/education into the Zero Waste Plan.
viii. Could #26 happen in Golden Valley? Maybe have a Second -Hand Sunday at the
farmers market? Each month could be a different theme?
ix. HERC — County board approved a plan for the closure of the HERC. Several
actions need to happen before initiating full closure. See information on
County website.
8. New Business
A. New GreenCorps Member, Gunnar Laughlin
i. The City's new GreenCorps member, Gunnar Laughlin, was introduced and
talked about what he will be focusing on. He will focus mainly on outreach to
multi -family residences about environmental and sustainability efforts.
B. Organics Tour & Composition Study
New ideas for education:
1. No plastic labels on top of egg cartons.
2. No glass!
3. No plastic bags — only compostable bags.
ii. Anyone can schedule a visit/tour at the Shakopee SMSC facility.
iii. The facility will be moving sites in 2025 and will be using a completely different
compost method. The new facility will have three times the capacity of the
current site and will be more efficient.
iv. They have a new piece of equipment that can take recalled food from stores
that is still packaged and separate the food from the packaging so all the
recalled food can be composted.
v. The threshold for rejected loads is 5% contamination. There can be no glass.
1. The facility will contact Republic about a rejected load and Republic lets
the City know about it. Republic will either pick the load up and bring it
City of Golden Valley Environmental Commission Regular Meeting 5
October 28, 2024 — 6:30 pm
to a landfill or pay the facility to do it. Republic pays the costs
associated with contamination, not the City.
2. Rejected loads aren't common. About 1-2 loads per year.
C. Home Energy Squad (HES)
i. Council approved the new agreement with Home Energy Squad. $5,000/year
over 2 years will go into the program for cost sharing.
ii. Hoping that more townhouse and condo units will apply. Also, more renters.
iii. Information about the program will go in the next newsletter, on social media,
and the website.
iv. Center for Energy and Environment had a booth at the Sustainability Day at
Market in the Valley.
1. Could they do a different day (not Sustainability Day) so it reaches
different people at key times of year? Maybe one early season and one
late season.
D. Council Updates
i. None
E. Other Business
L Work Plan:
1. Staff thinks we should have an annual work plan. We'll start working
on the 2025-2026 work plan in January to present to council in April.
There isn't clear direction yet on what the planning process and
approach will look like or how much Council & organizational priorities
will influence our work plan.
2. Can start thinking about a work plan. The downside is, we could get
direction from the City Manager, Leadership Team, and Council with
specific actions/priorities they want us to work on that do not match up
with what we've discussed.
3. Hoping for more answers soon.
ii. December meeting is December 16 (confirmed). We'll look at 2025 dates in
November.
9. Adjournment
MOTION by Commissioner Weirich, seconded by Commissioner Schultz to adjourn the meeting
at 8:18 pm and the motion carried.
ATTEST:
Carrie Nelson, Administrative Assistant
Debra Yahle, Chair