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HomeMy Public PortalAboutMarch 2014 SAC MinutesStormwater Advisory Committee minutes March 20, 2014 4:00 pm @ DPW In attendance: Ernesta Kraczkiewicz, Chris Hayward, Steve Magoon, David Stokes, and Anita Roy Dobbs (guest). Absent: Nancy Hammett, Mary Haley I. The February 20, 2014 minutes were accepted as submitted. II. Brief Reports A. Stormwater Ordinances, Status of Town Council Review: The submission of the ordinances to the full Town Council will be delayed until a Town Engineer has been selected. B. Status of DPW Hiring: Applicants for the Administration and Finance position are being interviewed, and interviews for the Town Engineer position will be scheduled shortly. Status of SAC appointments: The Town Public Works Subcommittee has not yet scheduled interviews for Anita Roy Dobbs (for the vacant position) and Nancy Hammett (for re -appointment). C. Ethics Commission Mandatory Education: The Committee members were notified of the requirement to complete the online training program and to forward the Acknowledgement of Receipt and Certificate of Completion to the Town Clerk's Office. D. Status of Information for MWC Inventory of SW BMP's: Chris Hayward has started a list of stormwater management practices associated with developments in Watertown. Anita has had no response from MWC on whether they still want this information and what they need. Action Item Chris will continue to add detail to his list. E. 604(b) Grant Application: It was agreed that it is important to apply for this grant program in the current round, as competition is likely to increase greatly when the new EPA Permit comes out. The draft application was discussed and the proposed scope of work supported by the Committee. F. NEWEA conference — Nancy Hammett attended this conference and distributed notes to the SAC members. This will be discussed at the next meeting. G. MyRWA/MAPC: Anita Roy Dobbs and Ernesta Kraczkiewicz attended this program which presented "Case Studies of Stormwater Retrofits in Metro Boston Area." It was very educational, showing many examples of green infrastructure both at the neighborhood scale and in larger projects. Citizens involvement was critical to educate the community about options and benefits, and to garner support and help in maintaining the infrastructure. Benefits of these projects included reduced flooding and heat island effects, improved water quality and aesthetics, and public support for green infrastructure. Continuing challenges included coordination among silo'd agencies, construction supervision and oversight, post construction monitoring, scaling up from demo projects, and funding. III. Public Education Program — A. Website - Anita Roy Dobbs presented her work to date, and led a discussion of the purpose, protocol and content for the WatertownStormwater.org website. For the protocol, it was agreed that all material to go on the site must be vetted and approved by the Committee. To purchase the domain name and hosting service at BlueHost.com, Steve Magoon suggested that she ask Joe Mahoney for a Purchase Order rather than paying the $164 and being reimbursed. Ernesta Kraczkiewicz noted that this month the SAC meeting was not posted on the Town Calendar, and no Notify Me notices were sent, although these had been done the previous month. Action Item: Anita Roy Dobbs will continue discussions with Joe Mahoney. Chris Hayward will look into how the posting on the Town Calendar and the Notify Me notices are done. B. Student Involvement in Public Education and Outreach: David Stokes and Anita Roy Dobbs presented some preliminary ideas for involving Watertown High School students next fall in critically assessing stormwater outreach materials from programs around the country, particularly focusing on a Science Assessment Pilot Project and a Media Literacy Pilot Project. They have met with the Grade 6-12 Science Coordinator who was enthusiastic; they will next meet with biology teachers and the Media Literacy teacher. The Committee was very supportive of these proposals, and suggested that a similar program would be beneficial also in the grade school level. C. Other priorities: A proposal (outlined in an earlier memo by Nancy Hammett) to meet with neighboring towns to discuss common stormwater interests was endorsed, and it was agreed that it should be presented to the Town Council Public Works Subcommittee. Meeting adjourned at 6:OOpm.