SR Green Meeting Notes

November 7, 2011

Present: Marilyn, Mark, Steve, Tamara, Tracy, Kevin R., Kevin J., Todd, Kathy, Renee, Marlene

1) High School Green Committee/Community Garden: The school garden plans are moving forward. High school representatives will soon be meeting with the food service company that is providing start up funds for the garden to discuss their vision for the garden. The school’s agriculture teacher has been researching grants to leverage garden funds and has found several options.

Group members discussed various community garden models and which one would work best at the school location. Mark mentioned that it might be nice to have someone from our group serve as the community garden liaison during the planning stages and beyond. Marlene said she is considering this role and might be able to take it on this summer. Todd said Pete E./Public Works is awaiting a formal request for the city fencing. Mark will write up a formal request and submit to Todd.

Mark reported that recycling at the high school continues to increase. The school is now using its big compactor for the accumulated recycling rather than trash.

2) Website/Facebook: Thanks to Michael, we now have a Facebook site. Mark will ask Michael to forward a page link to the group.

3) City Hall Update: Construction is progressing well. Marilyn asked if SR Green could have a presence (table/booth) at a City Hall opening event. Todd will check into this for us.

4) Recycling Bins at Park: This summer recycling bins were placed at Bob Cross and Municipal Parks. Todd said that according to Pete E. the bins were sometimes used for trash, which caused problems. Steve asked if the recycling bins were placed next to the trash bins to make people aware that one was actually for recycling. Todd said he would pass the suggestion on to Pete. Todd asked if there were other parks where we would like to see recycling bins. If anyone has suggestions, please pass them along to Todd or Pete E.

5) City Bike Path and Trails: Renee reported that there will be bike racks at the new city hall. She offered two ideas for our group to consider for increasing bike safety and awareness in our community – 1) work with the St. Cloud Times to publish a weekly bike safety/information sheet in the Times and 2) host a bike safety event this spring.

Todd said that there was a good showing of Sauk Rapids residents at the recent Mississippi River Trail (MRT) meeting. He believes that MnDOT will choose one side of the river for the designation. Comments can still be made at the MnDOT website: http://www.dot.state.mn.us/bike/mrtcontacts.html. Renee will ask that the MRT resolution of support be placed on the next city council agenda.

6) Tee Shirts: We are now up to eight contributors to the tee shirt fund. We will continue to take orders for tee shirts and revisit our total at future meetings. To recap, we need $192 to purchase 12 shirts at $16 (this equates to about 10 people contributing $20 – we are two people away from this goal) and $300 to purchase 24 shirts at $12.50 (this equates to 15 people contributing $20 – we are over halfway to this goal).

7) New Projects: None suggested

Next Meeting: Monday, December 5, 2011 starting at 5 p.m. at the Sauk Rapids Fire Station.