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HomeMy WebLinkAboutKMB 10/20/2016'Ofidd RE CEI V a iQ 1= OFFJC 1111 A W IIIA eCnv.6 ut TiwuniE "Empowering residents, businesses, andgoverninen&I FEB 23 A 1' 40 make Mansfield a greener, cleaner place to live, work, and plcy'k i, t,e ,` �.. , M 019— F Meeting Minutes for Jj TI -- October 20, 2016 7:00 pm Town Hall, 2nd floor Attendees: Nancy Wall, Neil Rhein, Pat Colbert, Mike McCarthy, Jason Dodd, Martha O'Connell, Jeff Ward, Dan Gugliehni Absent: Erik Bednarek KEEP MANSFIELD BEAUTIFUL Welcome & Call to Order: 7:00 - Nancy Meeting called to order at 7:08. Minutes accepted from previous meeting. Treasurer's report 7:05 - Mike • The current balance is $11,013.57. This is as of October 71h, when Mike dropped off the bill for Patrick Lyons for the mums. • The Downtown Flower Barrel Project resulted in a net cost of $279.36 ($2720 in revenue and $2859.94 in expenses). • The Pole Mounted Barrel grant of $2,500 still has a balance of $1,180.30. • Jay Barrows' Together We Can organization donated $1,000 to be used for education. • Year 2016 showed a net gain of $1,846.27. • The following was provided by Mike and is the summary of our finances: Year 2008 Calendar $100.00 $0.0 $100.0 2009 $17,872.06 $15,780.92 $2,091.1 2010 $15,113.07 $9,741.31 $5,371.7 127 2011 $12,841.00 $10,174.74 $2,666.2 2012 $10,455.00 $13,359.42 ' -$2,904.4 2013 $10,733.00,$13,755.82 -$3,022.8 2014 $11,860.00 $10,898.7A $961.2 2015 $11,301.06 $7,396.91 $3,904.15 2016 $12,32100 $10,476.731 $1,846.2 Total 1 $102,598.19 $91,584.62 $11,013.57 Select a member for the Downtown Revitalization Committee - Committee • The minutes from the Downtown Strategy Workshop were distributed, read by everyone, and signed by Pat. • A new Downtown Revitalization Committee was formed at the workshop. There are 10 slots and represent different organizations throughout the town. Nancy Wall will be a member representing the Industrial Development Committee. Erik was elected to represent Keep Mansfield Beautiful. Updates We Noticed Award - Jeff Jeff presented Rockland Credit Union the "We Noticed" award to branch manager Matt Taylor. The picture was placed in the Mansfield News, Sun Chronicle, and social media. Matt was very enthusiastic to participate in our cleanup events. He expressed interest in cleaning up Copeland Drive. We are hoping Rockland Credit Union will become a Great American Cleanup of Mansfield sponsor. Neil will include them in the annual fundraising letter that is distributed in February. PR- Neil • Neil has placed "We Noticed" information in Mansfield News, Sun Chronicle, and on social media. • Keep Mansfield Beautiful has 653 Facebook followers. • Neil publicized the Fall Littah Cleanup in Mansfield News and on social media. He sent an email to everyone on our distribution list. • Neil will be on Cable T.V. discussing the Fall Littah Cleanup. Existing/ongoing Projects Flower barrels - Pat and Nancy • Pat produced a Downtown Flower Barrel Project Plan. Neil will place on Google Docs. • Mums were planted successfully on September 23rd. Nancy and Pat needed to replant 2 damaged mums, one at Carman Cafe and one at Mansfield Shredding. • Nancy continues to send out water reminders. • The date of removal will be sometime in November. The date will be based on how they are looking and people availability. Adopt -a -Spot - Martha • There are 15 Adopt -a -Spot locations. • The Lance Buick area was cleaned up and mums were planted. The site looks wonderful! • Guerrini weeded the Route 106 overpass area. • Guerrini planted mums at the Mansfield Green. • We noted that Car Wash Pros is doing a nice job maintaining the flowers in front of their business. Perhaps they should become an Adopt -a -Spot participant or become a "We Noticed" award winner. • We discussed whether to provide a'Best Adopt -a -Spot" award next year. We could allow the voting to be done online by providing pictures of the spots. • On September 25th, Martha sent out an email reminding participants to prepare the gardens for winter. She also provided tips on how best to winterize perennials and flowers. On October 17th, Martha sent out a link to Kerry Ann Mendez's website Perennially Yours (http://pyours.com/subscribe-to-my-newsletter. Kerry recently spoke at the Mansfield Garden Club and offered tips on how to "right -size' a garden for minimal maintenance. Girl Scout leader Diane Richardson is looking for an Adopt -a -Spot location, preferably in West Mansfield. Pat told Martha to contact the Girl Scout Troop who maintains the Mansfield Green site to determine if they will be maintaining the area next year. Pat heard that this was going to be there last year participating in the program. If this is the case, perhaps Diane's troop could take over this site. Litter Busters - Jeff • We discussed the definition of the Litter Busters program. It is composed of the following two things: One, individuals, groups, or businesses can adopt an area to keep litter free throughout the year. Two, multiple times during the year, groups will go out to clean up targeted areas around town. The fall and spring cleanups are not considered part of the Litter Busters program; these are annual town cleanup events. • Jeff is going to reinvent Litter Busters and call it Clean Your Block. He will send out an email to everyone who is currently signed up to be a Litter Buster and see if they are still interested. He will then provide Neil with the necessary information for recruiting new members. Neil will place this information in our e -Newsletter and on social media. • Once people are signed up under the new "Clean Your Block" program, Jeff will send out periodic email reminders for them to go and cleanup their area. He will also request that people let him know if they can no longer participate in the program. • Jeff will also organize targeted litter cleanups throughout the year. • We discussed a possible winter cleanup, called the Polar Bear cleanup. Not sure if this will be a new annual winter cleanup or part of Clean Your Block. Painted barrels - Pat At the MMAS festival in September, 12 people signed up to participate in the Trash Can Be Beautiful program. Pat emailed them and told them the program will start up again in early March. Pat needs to contact Jay to get an inventory of the number of painted barrels and the number of un -painted barrels. The goal is to have every barrel in town be painted. There are also some painted barrels that need to be replaced because they are rusted or damaged. Depending on the number of available un -painted barrels, will determine how we implement the program next year. Ideally, Pat would like to be able to have the DPW building available for painting the first two weekends in March, like we did when this program was first implemented. This makes it possible for people who do not have a location for painting. Neil is going to send Pat the most up-to-date list of painted barrels. The Adult Center has requested another barrel. We currently have 2 barrels available for painting. Pat will deliver them a barrel in November. On/Off Ramps - Jason • The On/Off ramps do not look that bad, but Jason will call again to put us on the list before winter. Jason calls Taunton/District 5 to get this done. Tree pruning/replacement - Neil • Neil reported that DPW did cut down some dead trees, but there are more that need to be removed. One is near our sign on the South Common. Nancy will contact DPW to determine the plan. • We need to check with Erik on whether he has been contacted to determine the best type of tree to plant. New Programs/update of existing programs Fall clean-up- Nov 4-5 - Neil • Neil sent out an email to our entire distribution list. • Pat emailed all the community groups. • Precinct leaders should email their volunteers from the spring. We have found direct emails are effective in increasing signups. • The event is listed in the Mansfield News, Patch, and social media. • Precinct leaders should assign routes according to the priority list Neil emailed everyone. • Neil will give all members access to the Fall Cleanup registrations. • Nancy will double check that Mark will be picking up the bags on Monday morning. We need to make sure we tell Mark the routes and where the bags are located. • Neil would like to track how many trash bags were filled. He will provide the Precinct Leaders with the same form he did in the spring. • We will offer recycling bags, but volunteers will need to place the bags in their own recycling barrel since we do not have Xfinity Center picking up the recycling bags for this cleanup. Qualters School Council -Dan • Dan will not be doing this as someone else already signed up. Butterfly garden- Erik and Martha • It was discussed if the $1,000 Jay Barrows donated for education could be used for the Jordan/Jackson Butterfly garden. Martha was going to come up with a budget for this project. • Martha provided me with the following written update: Initial Assessment: Erik and Martha met initially on September 30th to walk the J/J campus and propose a possible location for the milkweed garden. They had a follow-up meeting on Wednesday, October 12th with the 5th grade teachers, Lee Tighe and Karen Slavan, to discuss the proposed site and our recommendations. Below is a brief outline of what they proposed and presented to the teachers based on our assessment. Location: Site proposed is a natural habitat near an existing student garden currently tended by Bob Cody's students. The adjourning location is set up with benches for the students and we are told that tables will also be erected in the spring for student use. In short, we think this proposed project site would be a natural extension to an existing location where students are already engaged. Plant bed size: A plant bed border approximately 40' long and 3' wide would be located along the site's existing vegetation. The new planting bed would be a well- defined edge to the existing vegetation making it easy for the school grounds crew to MOW. The following next steps were suggested based upon the school's anticipated time line, if agreement is reached on the location, and if the teachers gain appropriate approvals from school officials. Fall 2016 Step 1: While a small project, Erik will run proposed plant bed location by the Conservation Commission since the work will be conducted near an adjacent stream/drainage ditch. Step 2: Paint out bed location, prune back any small branches of impinging vegetation, and prep ground by applying round up this fall. Spring 2017 Step 3: Till the plant bed area. Step 4: Acquire and install a loam/compost soil mix - approximately 3 yds. Mr. Cody does have some compost that may be available for use on site. Step 5: Procure milkweed plants from New England Wetland Plants (30-40 plugs shipped). Cost TBD. Step 6: Install/plant 30-40 plugs plants and add mulch - approximately 1 yd. Step 7: Install wire mesh fencing around plant bed (optional, but would help protect the area from accidental mowing until it is well established). Step 8: Water a minimum of 3x per week (potentially once per day) until new plants are established. Note: There is established access to water at this proposed site. We will need to have another meeting once all necessary approvals are granted to discuss the particular work tasks, assignments and costs. Inventory of unnecessary/outdated signs - Neil • This is on hold. Cigarette butt project - Pat and Nancy Pat and Nancy would like to start a Painted Cigarette Can program. This would involve painting small cans to be used for cigarette butts. We would like to start with Catman Caf6. Nancy is going to talk with the owner to see if he is interested. Expansion of green areas downtown - Pat and Nancy • The public parking lot next to Mansfield Bank has 3 new areas in need of beautification. DPW planted trees in each spot. These could be Adopt -a -Spot areas or areas the Downtown Business Association maintain through the use of a professional landscaper. • Pat and Nancy identified areas downtown that need to be cleaned up. We need to determine if these areas are privately owned or town property before coming up with a plan on how to proceed. • Pat mentioned that she would like to see the downtown green areas be maintained by a professional landscaper. This could be accomplished by annual fees from the business owners or some other revenue generator. • Martha mentioned that the DPW has $500.00 to spend on flowers. Nancy will follow up on whether or not we can use these funds. Train Overpass on Route 106 • The graffiti at the overpass was removed quickly by the DPW! Great news by all! • We discussed the weeds at the overpass. Nancy will contact DPW to determine if there is a plan to remove. Outdoor Recycling Bin Opportunity - Neil • Neil wrote a grant for 20 outdoor recycling bins for the schools. He received support from Mr. Connelly, the High School Principal. Keep Massachusetts Beautiful signs - Neil Neil would like to have signs indicating we are an affiliate of Keep Massachusetts Beautiful. These signs could be attached to existing signs. The locations of the signs are to be determined. Recycling Event - Dan and Neil Dan mentioned he was at a town yard sale in Westford. All the items that were not sold were removed by the Salvation Army. Dan thought this might be a nice yearly event. Neil expanded on this idea and suggested we have an annual recycling event around November 15th (America Recycling Day). We could work with the D.E.P. to collect hard to recycle items. Neil also mentioned that 6% of trash is textile and we should start promoting recycling of textiles. We were all interested in pursuing something like this for next year. Annual Cheng Du dinner - All Normally we have our annual Cheng Du dinner in November. We all agreed to postpone the dinner until January/February. The date of the event will be determined at our next meeting. Action Items Leff 1. Contact Rockland Credit Union about the Fall Cleanup. Also, determine if they would be interested in being a sponsor for the Spring Cleanup. 2. Work with Neil on the Clean Your Block advertising/communication. 3. Send out a Fall Cleanup email to all Precinct participants from the Spring Cleanup. Nancv 1. Contact Mark and get information about tree removal, tree plantings, $500 downtown flower money, weeds at overpass on Route 106, installation of pole mounted barrels, and beautification of the 3 new areas in the downtown public parking area (next to Mansfield Bank). 2. Contact Catman Caf6 owner to see if he would be interested in a Painted Cigarette Can to determine if it would reduce the cigarette butts outside his business. Neil 1. Give members access to the Fall Cleanup registration. 2. Contact Caitlin Barrows to make sure DPW will clean up after the Halloween Parade. 3. Give Pat the lasted up-to-date list of painted barrels. 4. Give members access to all documents on Google Docs. ason 1. Send out a Fall Cleanup email to all Precinct participants from the Spring Cleanup. 2. Contact Taunton/District 5 to place Mansfield on list for on/off ramp cleanup before the winter. Pat 1. Contact Jay about inventory of painted barrels and discuss March event. 2. Deliver primed barrel to Adult Center. Martha 1. Obtain a picture of Lance Buick's Adopt -a -Spot to put on our website. 2. Contact Sue Francis to determine if her troop will be maintaining the Mansfield Green area next year. If not, contact Diane Richardson to see if her troop would like that spot. 3. Follow up with the Jordan/Jackson teachers about the Butterfly garden. 4. Work with Erik on the Butterfly garden budget. Erik 1. Work with Martha on the Butterfly garden budget. 2. Congratulations on being the Downtown Revitalization member representing Keep Mansfield Beautiful! Dan 1. Install pole mounted barrels downtown if approved by DPW. Next meeting date: Nov 17.2016 Meeting Adjourned at 9:25 Minutes approved on: J /nVI-411 le Z4 a°/ at % " Secretary signature;