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Home My WebLink AboutKMB Comm 05/03/2017I E xl KEEP AMERICA BEAUTIFUL AFFILIAIL "Empowering residents, businesses, and government to make Mansfield a greener, cleaner place to live, work, and play" Meeting Minutes for May 3th, 2017 7:00 pm Rm MBC, Town Hall N11,vG 29 P 12.: 48 Attendess: Nancy Wall, Neil Rhein, Pat Colbert, Mike McCarthy, Jeff Ward, Jason Dodd, and Erik Benarek Absent: Dan Guglielmi and Martha O'Connell KEEP MANSFIELD BEAUTIFUL Welcome & Call to Order - Nancy Meeting called to order at 7:05. Minutes accepted from April meeting and signed by Pat Colbert. Treasurer's report - Mike • The current balance is $15,971.36 plus $500.00 from PayPal. • We received over $8,000 from the Fundraising letter. • The cost of 500 t -shirts was $1984.00. • We have not received the bill from Patrick Lyons for the 89 pansies and 13 bags of soil. Pat will follow up with Patrick Lyons. Existing/ongoing Projects 7:20 Cleanup Wrap-up - Neil • It was another successful year for the cleanup. • The trash pile was a huge success. It is actually easier for Waste Management and Xfinity Center because they only need to go to one location to pick up the trash and recycling. We will do the trash pile again next year. • There were 5 needles reported to Neil. Neil found them all, but next year wants to identify the location of the needles by using flags. • Erik suggested we purchase cones and signs for dangerous areas. We all agreed this was a great idea and should be done for next year. • We need to come up with a better way to handle no-shows. We suggested doing what Patricia Holiver has been doing for years with her precinct, which is to let people know their cleanup routes ahead of time. The hope is people will feel more responsible and take ownership of the location, making it more likely for them to respond if they cannot make it. Pat did this method this year and it worked out well for her. • Neil would like all Precinct Captains to let him know who did not show up this year. • We received a $500.00 gift card to Home Depot from Toyota. Nancy has the gift card. T Q • At the picnic, 45 people signed the Bottle Bill and Neil sent it off to the State. • We discussed how many businesses have lots of trash surrounding their properties, such as The Store, Erin's Center, National Lumber, etc. Pat mentioned that Mike Healey would like to be involved with working with local businesses to properly maintain their areas. Mike will be invited to our next meeting to discuss this new initiative. Flower barrels - Pat & Nancy • Flower barrels were prepared at the DPW site. • Nancy and Pat worked with the DPW to move all the barrels from the DPW to the Downtown locations. This process takes the entire day, from 7:00 to 3:00 and required 4 DPW workers. • Pansies were planted in record breaking time during the school vacation week. We started at 7:00 and finished by 10:00. • The pansies are doing great. The rain and cool weather has been perfect for them. • We officially have 84 flower barrels downtown. • We plan to remove the pansies and plant the wave petunias the second week in June. Adopt -a -Spot - Martha • Martha can report on Adopt -a -Spot next month as she was not at the meeting. Martha was at the Garden Wonders event at the Robinson School. She prepared and taught a lesson on Butterfly Gardens, which is the program she is working with the Jordan/Jackson on implementing this year. Painted barrels - Pat • Jeff received his barrel for his girls to paint. • The 6 barrels that were delivered back in February have not been completed yet. They should be coming in soon and Pat will work with DPW on placement. We Noticed - Nancy • Sherman Jackson Funeral Home will receive the award this spring/summer. New Programs Collaboration with the Garden Club on some garden areas - Nancy • Due to fewer and older members, The Garden Club is having a difficult time maintaining all of their gardens. They would like to work with us on maintaining these gardens. We all agreed these gardens should be part of our Adopt -a -Spot program. The Garden Club needs to give us a list of the gardens and we can publicize their Adopt -a -Spot availability. Recycle Day - Neil • This project has become more about communicating, educating, and publicizing the Mansfield Recycling Center. • The plan is to have Recycling Day be at the end of October. It would be promoted as a "fall house cleanup', with the Recycling Center being opened for the entire weekend. We would still like to have Savers come and collect the textiles. • Neil has already produced a comprehensive spreadsheet of things that can be brought to the Recycling Center. It can be found on the town's website. • Neil is going to write up a project plan and assign committee members specific tasks. International Mansfield Clean-up • This international event is scheduled for June 9th. Our planting of the summer wave petunia flower barrels coincides with this event and will be our way of participating. Veteran Memorial markers -Martha • Martha is working on this project and will report on its progress next month. Anti -litter program - Jeff, Mike, and Neil • We voted on using the "Litter -Free Zone, Police are watching" sign to use for our first anti- littering campaign. Neil will work with the Mansfield Police to see if they will follow up with a fine. The signs are being donated by Cubby Kiley from Atlantic Broom. • Neil is working with Karen Reardon on the final design and will send along for approval. • The first sign will be placed at Spring Street on June 1st. We will be doing a one-month before and after comparison of the area. • We continue to discuss creating an anti -litter postcard. We will wait to see how the anti- littering sign works on Spring Street before determining how to move forward. State owned litter areas (on/off, highways, etc.) - Jason • The state on/off ramps and highways are filled with litter and a growing concern. • Jason received an information packet on different ways to address cleaning up these areas. • One way is to approach businesses to adopt parts of a highway. This is something that we want to pursue and might become part of the project of working with local businesses on cleaning up their own areas. • The other way is for individuals to cleanup areas. The state requires special permitting to be filled out. They will also provide hard hats, grabbers, bags, etc. We agreed we are not comfortable cleaning up the on/off ramps or the major highways, but are agreeable to cleaning up Route 140 with proper safety procedures in place. • Jason is going to fill out the permitting application. He will need help from Erik on providing Ariel shots of Route 140. Notice Board near police station - Nancy • No news to report. Keep Massachusetts Beautiful news - Neil • Neil is heading up a full publicity campaign to target the Styrofoam cups used by Dunkin Donuts. • Neil did a follow-up interview with Fox News addressing the litter on the state highways and roads. Over 100 communities in Massachusetts are having a spring litter cleanup. Redesigning Downtown - Erik • Erik wanted approval for him to present his downtown redesign to the Board of Selectmen. He would like to raise awareness of his plans for a Complete Streets approach for the Downtown. We all agreed. • Nancy suggested Erick should present his design to the Downtown Committee who might be influential in making it happen. Next meeting date: Wednesday, June 7th Adjourned at 9:45 Minutes approved on: '-Z -� tl' at 7 QST Secretary signature: