HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes 7-10-06City of Falcon Heights
Environment Commission
Meeting Minutes
July 10, 2006
Present: Peter Lindstrom, Jim Kielsmeier, Debbie Tretsven, Frank Meah, Linda Smith, Deb Jones, Greg Hoag, Gretel Keene, Justin Miller
The meeting was called to order at 6:30 PM.
Introductions were made. New Commissioner, Gretel Keene told the commission her background. Justin Miller, new city administrator also sat in on this meeting.
Motion was made to accept the minutes from the last meeting. Motion was seconded, minutes were approved.
Peter Lindstrom handed out and reviewed the initial feasibility study and said that at the city council goal setting workshop, one of the goals is to research the possibility of having
a community garden in Falcon Heights. Each commissioner who was assigned an area or areas to assess gave a brief report on the sites. See “Draft Community Garden Feasibility Study”
for detailed information. In general, our discussion led to focusing on two areas as potential sites, Community Park (the lease is to be renegotiated in 2007) and City Hall’s front
yard (which may change considerably in the next year as the parking lot will be reconstructed).
One additional potential land area that was mentioned is the area behind Hermes. Linda Smith agreed to make contact with Hermes to see if there is any potential partnership there.
Motion: Of the sites we have researched, the commissioners recommend further analysis of the community park location as the site for the community garden.
The motion was seconded and approved.
The commissioners seemed to agree that we will need a draft budget to add to the feasibility study, before presenting this to the council and making any sort of recommendation. Commissioners
agreed that it would be beneficial to contact Sarah O. (the East Metro Coordinator for GardenWorks) to see if she has some insights on how to do some cost analysis and help us make a
solid presentation to the council. Debbie Tretsven has agreed to make contact with Sarah, and or Ila Duntemann to set up a meeting if possible. We would also like to ask GardenWorks
representatives about possible grants or other funding streams to help in the set up of the garden. We also hope to put together a draft of “garden rules” to add to the feasibility
study.
The commission hopes to be able to make a recommendation to the council on Sept. 27th.
We also discussed the fact that we will need a lot of resources to get the garden started, soil prepared, etc. It would be our hope to do some of the initial work this fall. One suggestion
was to ask for volunteers at the ice cream social. It was also suggested that we have a table at the social to generate and see about community interest. Linda Smith agreed to create
a short flyer/questionnaire. Some of the questions we thought would be helpful are:
Would you like to see a community garden in Falcon Heights?
Would you be interested in leasing a plot?
Would you be interested in volunteering or helping with the garden set up?
A place for the persons name, address, and phone number would be needed too.
Jim K. and Linda S agreed to staff the table at the social on July 27th from 6-8 PM. Peter L. will put together some type of poster or pictures for the table.
Peter agreed to write something for the next newsletter to inform residents about the potential community garden. Perhaps a tear off, mail in postcard for those who are interested?
Jim K. agreed to contact Northern Gardner to see if they might have giveaways that we could have at the table for the ice cream social.
Deb Jones agreed to talk with Lisa about getting a table set up for the commission at the ice cream social. Deb also agreed to get some arial photos and maps of the community park
location.
Frank Meah said he could contact a professor at the U to get some information regarding soil tests.
Greg Hoag stated he could be responsible for gathering initial soil/core samples to see where things are at right now. Greg will also make some initial calls to get estimates on tilling,
compost hauling, soil, etc.
Justin agreed to talk with the city attorney to check into any liability concerns or potential insurance costs.
Linda Smith raised the issue of more city park recycling programs. Greg H. stated that in the past, recycling in the parks has not been very successful. Greg did say he would try
to get recycling set up for the night of the ice cream social, as it was done last year. Deb Jones suggested that the environment commission might try to facilitate and promote recycling
programs in apartment buildings in the future.
Motion was made and approved to adjourn at 8:30 PM.
Minutes submitted by Deb Tretsven