This transcript features the **Oakdale Environmental Management Commission (EMC)**. Based on the context provided and the flow of the meeting, here is the formatted transcript with speaker names. *Note: "Hannah" refers to the Staff Liaison (likely Hannah Rybak, though not on the initial list, she is the primary staff contact for this commission).* *** [00:00] **Chair Gerding**: Well good evening everyone. I'd like to welcome our community to the February 10th, 2025 meeting of Oakdale's Environmental Management Commission. We will begin this evening by... do we [have] any call to order? [00:15] **Chair Gerding**: Chair Gerding? [00:16] **Chair Gerding**: Present. [00:17] **Commissioner Anderson**: Present. [00:18] **Commissioner Brendan**: Present. [00:19] **Commissioner Yang**: Present. [00:20] **Commissioner Lash**: Present. [00:21] **Commissioner Fener Maker**: Present. [00:23] **Chair Gerding**: Great, thank you. Next up on our agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance. So if we can all rise and recite. [00:30] **All**: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [00:45] **Chair Gerding**: All right, moving right along. Our next item on tonight's agenda is the approval of the agenda. As everybody was sent it in advance, I'm looking for a motion to approve the agenda as presented for the February 10th, 2025 meeting of the EMC. [01:00] **Commissioner Anderson**: So moved. [01:01] **Commissioner Lash**: Wait, a second. [01:02] **Chair Gerding**: Second. All in favor of approving tonight's agenda for February 10th, 2025, say "I." [01:05] **Commissioners**: I. I. I. [01:07] **Chair Gerding**: Opposed? Awesome, thank you. Passes. Next up, approval of minutes. These are from our November 18th, 2024 EMC meeting right here in council chambers. You were all sent a... so are there any comments, questions, amendments? No? Hearing none, I would ask for approval of the November 18th, 2024 meeting minutes of the EMC. [01:30] **Commissioner Brendan**: So moved. [01:32] **Commissioner Yang**: Second. [01:33] **Chair Gerding**: In favor of—all in favor of approving the minutes from November 18th from the EMC meeting, say "I." [01:35] **Commissioners**: I. [01:36] **Chair Gerding**: Opposed? Great, thank you. Now we've reached the point in the meeting where we invite the community members present to step forward. I'd open the forum now. Anybody present? All right, hearing none, seeing none, open forum is now closed. Moving on to the EMC Environmental Management commission review. First item is the EcoFair update. Hannah, take it away. [02:00] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Thank you. The EcoFair is about 3 months away, and I just wanted to provide the Environmental Management Commission with an update since we haven't met since November. The EcoFair was discussed at the June and October meetings, so in your packet, you'll find the memos from those meetings as well as the minutes from those meetings just to refresh yourselves on the discussions that were had. We're currently in the process of securing and finalizing vendors, and communications and promotion of the event will start to ramp up shortly. This meeting is another opportunity for Commissioners to discuss the event and share any communications ideas for reaching a wide audience. The event has already been shared in the Oakdale Update newsletter that is sent to households, and then starting soon we'll use social media to promote the event and we'll also consider sharing the event through the school district's family communications platform. But if Commissioners have other ways to spread the word about the EcoFair either generally or to specific groups, please share. We'd love to have as many communications channels as possible. So I'll open up the floor for discussion if anything has come across your mind in the last two months about the EcoFair. In March, we'll be just about a month away, and then we'll discuss assignments. And now please let me know if any Commissioners are unable to make the event just so that we can plan accordingly. [03:45] **Commissioner Yang**: Yeah, I have an idea. Well, I do a lot of community engagement and, you know, we have a lot of different ways—social media and then the paid advertising—especially about how do we advertise for people to come to our events. Because I work for MnDOT [Men-DOT], right? A lot of it is career fairs and job opportunities. Since I'm there to talk on behalf of MnDOT and why I promote people to work there, one of the things I started asking them was, "Well, how did you know about this event?" And, you know, social media—everything's great—but one of the things that we always try to do at the events with MnDOT is we just stick a road sign along the side of the road basically saying the event is this way. And then we have other signs saying it's this way because sometimes truck stations are kind of hidden. Is that something that's possible for us to do? I know we're not supposed to be in the way of MnDOT right-of-way, but you know, you stick it there on Friday, and they're not going to take it down because MnDOT doesn't work on the weekends unless they have to. [04:45] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Yep, our Recreation Department uses yard signs for their farmers markets or the indoor market on city streets. So that definitely is an opportunity and I know they put those out there not just on the day of the event but leading up to the events. So that's certainly something to consider. [05:00] **Commissioner Yang**: Well, you know, since it's the same time as the Arbor Day, we can put it up there too. [05:05] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Yes, there definitely will be a plan for some sort of sign since they're only a block away. Anyone who's picking up a tree at the Arbor Day will know about the event just down the road. [05:15] **Commissioner Lash**: I had some ideas. One was the local chamber—will they be notified? [05:20] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Yes. [05:21] **Commissioner Lash**: Okay. I was thinking churches. I thought about the Fire Department—like are there groups within the city that maybe do their own e-newsletter or something to people? So I was thinking that. WCCO and KARE 11 news always have a calendar of events that we could get on maybe. And I was wondering about Washington County—what do they do? Do they have a calendar of events page or an e-newsletter or something? I know they have a variety of things that go out, so I was thinking about that. [05:50] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Yeah, I can certainly reach out. The County and the food scraps pickup program will be a vendor at the event, so I'm sure it'll be a good opportunity to promote their presence as well as the EcoFair. [06:05] **Commissioner Lash**: That's cool. I know it says... I was trying to think about for the youth that might be coming, right? We're trying to focus on some of them too. I just watched this video before I came—it's called "Composting 101 for Kids." I don't know if you've seen that or not. [06:20] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: I don't think I have. [06:21] **Commissioner Lash**: Anyways, it was great, it was really cool. This person used a 2-liter bottle and had cut the top off and then just had, you know, kind of the brown and the green and the different stuff. She had eggs and leaves and the composting dirt and whatever. It was just—I don't know—it was maybe all of 15 minutes, but it showed literally the benefits first, then how to do composting, and then she talked about the benefits of it. I thought it was really cool and I thought, "Wow, we could have somebody do this!" And maybe you do it a couple... throughout the time period that we have. Maybe she can do it three times with three different groups or something. I say "she," but that's who the person was doing it. It was an easy demonstration and I can get you the link to that. So I thought that was kind of cool. And then the only other question that I had was about the one food truck. Are we only doing one food truck? Does that make sense to do one? I was just wondering if there was just one... [07:15] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: We specifically haven't talked about quantity of food trucks yet. I always envisioned one. [07:22] **Commissioner Lash**: Okay. I just didn't know like if we had... I think the question maybe a dessert one and then you had a main one, you know? One that does two or three different types of foods. [07:30] **Commissioner Anderson**: Can I ask what the hours are for the fair? [07:33] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. [07:35] **Commissioner Anderson**: I think the question with the food truck has to do with how many people are we expecting. [07:40] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Right. That's a great question. Since it's the first one, it's kind of hard to ask... [07:44] **Commissioner Lash**: Oh, is that okay? This is the very first one? Okay, gotcha. [07:47] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Okay, I don't... it depends how many of these other things we can get. I'm happy to help too with any reaching out communication-wise. [07:55] **Commissioner Lash**: Yes, so let me know. Sounds good. [08:00] **Commissioner Yang**: I have one more thing with the communication stuff, because I did attend a training on community-based outreach and actually getting out to the community. One of the things we talked about was being more intentional on communicating in ways that how the communities communicate. A lot of it had to do with the Asian community and the small communities that were around here. Part of it was, well, you know, with social media everything is shared, but a lot of it was they get a lot of their news through the radio, especially the small radios and the Hmong [Mong] radio. Is that something we can look into? [08:35] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Yeah, absolutely. Something to explore. [08:38] **Commissioner Lash**: And can I just give one more idea on a kids project thing that we could do too? Just thinking about the young people because they are what's coming up behind us. I was thinking you we could do making bird feeders, you know, just out of nature products—pine cones, peanut butter, string. Real simple but fun. Those are my ideas. [09:00] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Yeah, I can talk with the Recreation Department; they are going to organize some kids activities, so I'll see if that's an option. And then we'll also look for other partnerships, maybe the library or the county. At this point, it's whether people are available, just with Earth Day being on that Tuesday and Arbor Day on the Friday—there's... it's kind of a heavy event week. So just seeing what organizations have capacity and availability. [09:30] **Commissioner Lash**: Well, if you need somebody to do the composting, I can watch the video again and then I can do the composting if you'd like. I can be the designated kid composting person. [09:40] **Chair Gerding**: Yeah. Hannah, I've seen some fun confirmations come through over email in terms of, you know, vendors that have moved from "prospect" to "confirmed," for instance. How are we feeling generally? I know we're like 9 or 10 weeks out, but how are we feeling now? And then is there anything that this commission can do? [09:58] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Feeling pretty good. We've had some organizations say that they're unable to because they've got other events going on, but we're slowly getting yeses. So I think we're looking pretty good. [10:10] **Chair Gerding**: Okay, great. Good. Other comments from Commissioners on our first ever formal EcoFair? [10:18] **Commissioner Brendan**: I can't remember, is this event outside or inside? [10:20] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Inside. [10:21] **Commissioner Brendan**: That's great, thanks. [10:22] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: The food truck will be the only thing outside. [10:24] **Commissioner Lash**: You never know if April... [10:26] **Commissioner Yang**: Yeah, you don't [know]. [10:27] **Commissioner Lash**: It's right there. There's a church right in the same parking lot or right next door to Castle Elementary School too. What is it? Hope? [10:35] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Hope Church, I think. I mean, that's another person to maybe get the information to. Great. [10:40] **Chair Gerding**: Well, we know it's a lot of work to organize an event for the first time, so thank you. You have partners in your corner as commission members, so thank you for helping us see this one through from vision to implementation. [10:55] **Commissioner Lash**: One more question. Do we have flyers or are we going to have flyers made up? [11:00] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: We will be working on flyers. When our communication specialist is on maternity leave, I've tried to draft one. But if it's not done by the time she returns, she'll help get that finished up. [11:13] **Commissioner Lash**: So I was going to say, you know, there's boards like at Buger's and Cub and things like that—we could all say we're going to hang a few up around. [11:21] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Burger's is in Woodbury, but it's okay. [11:23] **Commissioner Anderson**: Have you guys figured out what you're doing as far as like the kid and family-friendly activities for the EcoFair? Have those been decided yet or still figuring all that out? [11:32] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: That piece is a little bit not quite as worked through at this point. We're just trying to kind of get the vendors lined up and then we just know the Recreation Department will organize some activities. [11:42] **Commissioner Anderson**: Gotcha. So you can get in on it though? You could make the nature... [11:45] **Commissioner Lash**: Bird feeder! I love it. Yep, I'm all about that stuff, so cool. [11:52] **Chair Gerding**: All right, any other comments about the EcoFair? Great discussion, thank you everyone. Moving on to... I think new business. It is February at our meeting, which means it is election time, and we are going to be looking for an election of a Chair and Vice Chair. I believe it's an annual process? [12:12] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Yes. In your packets, there are ballots and the process for the election of Chairperson and Vice Chairperson positions. For the ballot portion, we asked you to write in your choice. First, we will nominate. [12:28] **Chair Gerding**: All right, so people can make nominations for a Chair and Vice Chair. [12:35] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Somewhere in your packet, if you keep going, there's kind of the process. Number one, it states how you can make that motion and you can just insert a name for whoever you would like to nominate for Chair or Vice Chair. And then once there are no more nominations, we will close the nominations and then move to using the ballots. So right now we're on step one. [13:00] **Chair Gerding**: Got it. No second is required? [13:03] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: For verbal nominations, no second is required. Correct. [13:07] **Chair Gerding**: Shockingly, nobody ever wants to go first. All right. [13:13] **Commissioner Anderson**: Yeah, I'll go. I motion to nominate Commissioner Gerding for the position of Chairperson. [13:20] **Chair Gerding**: Oh, thanks. More pens? Good pens. Do we ask if anyone has an interest in these positions, or does anyone have an interest in being the Vice Chair? Contesting for Chair? [13:35] **Commissioner Lash**: Is the Vice Chair somebody who is going to serve like "Miss America" if you are not able to serve, or what's the difference in duties? Yeah, we're new so we don't really know, right? [13:48] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: That's essentially it. Yeah. [13:51] **Chair Gerding**: In function, that's what it is. We are missing a commission member—he is still eligible to be nominated and elected for any position. I just wanted to point that out. Commissioner Doolittle. [14:05] **Commissioner Lash**: Commissioner Doolittle was also somewhere warm tonight. Is Mr. Doolittle the one who's been your Vice Chair? [14:11] **Chair Gerding**: Correct. Yes. [14:12] **Commissioner Lash**: Okay, that's what I thought. And as far as you know, would that commissioner would like to be Vice Chair again? Do you have any sense? [14:18] **Chair Gerding**: I do have a sense, but I don't know if that's my place to say. [14:22] **Commissioner Lash**: I would like to move that Commissioner Doolittle be nominated for Vice Chair. [14:28] **Chair Gerding**: Are there any other nominations for Chair or Vice Chair? Can anyone make the motion to close? I'm so new at this. No? [14:38] **Commissioner Yang**: I make a motion to close the nominations. [14:40] **Chair Gerding**: And the motion does require a second. [14:42] **Commissioner Lash**: I second. [14:44] **Chair Gerding**: Okay, great thank you. Now we move to formal ballot? Is that correct? [14:49] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Because there was only one nomination for each position, we can verbally... [14:52] **Chair Gerding**: We can verbally? Really? [14:53] **Commissioner Lash**: You really want to? I mean, we have the pens. [14:55] **Mayor Zabel**: The pens were passed out already here. [14:57] **Commissioner Lash**: Do you want us to write it down or do you want us to... [14:59] **Chair Gerding**: It's totally verbal. Verbal is totally fine. Okay, so we have a motion to elect Commissioner Gerding for the position of Chairperson of the EMC for a period of one calendar year commencing with the February 10th, 2025 meeting. And we—my apologies—do we do one at a time? And we have a motion to elect Commissioner Doolittle for the position of Vice Chair of the EMC for a period of one calendar year commencing with the February 10th, 2025 EMC meeting. We need to... do we need to... [15:35] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Yes. [15:36] **Chair Gerding**: Is was there a motion? You made it. Is there a second? [15:40] **Commissioner Brendan**: I just asked if I could second it. [15:42] **Chair Gerding**: Oh, I'm sorry, I totally missed that part. Is there a second? [15:45] **Commissioner Brendan**: I second. [15:46] **Chair Gerding**: All in favor of the motion as presented for electing Commissioner Gerding for the person of Chairperson and Commissioner Doolittle for the position of Vice Chairperson, say "I." [15:55] **Commissioners**: I. [15:56] **Chair Gerding**: Opposed? Great, thank you everyone. Thank you, staff, for your excellent help. [Laughter] [16:04] **Chair Gerding**: Next up on new business is our 2025 adopted drain schedule. There's a memo presented by Hannah. You want to walk us through that? [16:13] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Yes. At the beginning of each year, the EMC determines the schedule for clearing three drains that the EMC adopted in the City Hall and Walton Park parking lots. This is done through the Adopt-a-Drain program. The proposed schedule in your packet will help ensure that there is regular clearing of leaves, trash, and other debris. The level of commitment per month for each commissioner is low; all that is needed is volunteering maybe 15 minutes a couple times during your assigned month to collect and remove leaves, trash, and debris from the drains and kind of the immediate area. And then it would be great if Commissioners, after their month, at the next EMC meeting share their experience and estimate how much debris they cleared. So taking a look at the schedule, do any Commissioners have conflicts with the months that have been assigned? I just moved down the list and started over once everyone was assigned. [17:15] **Commissioner Lash**: I have a question. How frequently during your month do you clean them? And maybe somebody who's done it could you just say what that process is? I mean, you said you clear it—do you put the debris in a composting bag? I just don't know what the process is. [17:30] **Chair Gerding**: Sure, I'm happy to speak to it. So the drains that I've... we adopt three drains, and as you can see from the map, generally what I find is limited to no compostable items. So it's a lot of like plastic bottle caps, plastic bottles that are crunched and driven over, cans—those kinds of things. There is some sediment and leaves, if you will, and just maybe some tar chunks or something. But in terms of supplies I use, I bring gloves of course and a Grabber if I have one if I get really in there. But really, it's a pretty simple process—gloves and a light broom and maybe not plastic bags, but something to dispose of the items in safely. And depending on the month, I will add that as it's proposed, Commissioner Gerding—I have the duty of Summerfest—which the city does a great job of cleaning up, but these three drains do get some action I'd say May, June, July, and August because we have a lot of points of entry to our city and great activities and events that are happening. So it's the only thing to monitor. But yeah, I don't know if that helps answer the question. [18:40] **Commissioner Lash**: It did. How far down do you go? Is it just kind of the... [18:44] **Chair Gerding**: Oh, it's surface. On the surface entering the drain. You don't reach into the drain. [18:48] **Commissioner Lash**: Okay, that requires very long grabber gloves, a license... yeah. Okay, probably wasn't sure. Yeah, okay got it. [18:56] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: You can, if you are really into it, you can go every week, but I think maybe twice a month is really all that we're expecting. But feel free to do more if you have time if you're so inclined. [19:10] **Chair Gerding**: I will [add] that the drain in the roundabout—the west drain by the first field—I have found over the last few years does not have as much debris as the drain adjacent to City Hall and the parking lots up front. Full disclosure: I've done once a month on that other drain, but twice a month for the other two drains by the skate park and the tennis courts because I'm just here more often. [19:40] **Chair Gerding**: Any other questions on Adopt-a-Drain? This one needs no vote; it's a voluntary thing. We love doing it, thank you for putting together the schedule. Moving on to the next new item of business, we have our 2025 EMC Environmental Commission's communication strategy discussion. [20:00] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Yes, again at the beginning of each year, the EMC discusses the environmental communication strategy plan and develops an editorial calendar. It's a flexible strategy that can be rearranged; things can be added if something is more relevant or timely. So it's certainly not set in stone. In your packet, I included the 2024 editorial calendar. Many of the themes and the months that go with the themes can be repeated in 2025; however, we can also veer and mix things up if there's a desire. So I did not put together a draft 2025 plan. I figured we could just discuss 2024—what we want to carry over, what we want to stay the same, if there are completely new ideas or new resources that people have come across. I know April of last year, that's when the food scraps pickup program was rolling out to Oakdale, so obviously that's not happening in 2025. But we could make April just a food scraps pickup program... we can still keep that as a theme for the month, or if there's something else that people think would make more sense in April, we can switch it up. But I will open up for conversation—I just don't want to get too complacent with just repeating the same calendar year to year and not digging into it. [21:25] **Chair Gerding**: Well, looking ahead a little bit to April, I know that this year we have our EcoFair event. That may be something we want to market, probably earlier in the month if it ties into a theme. [21:38] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Yep, we will start advertising the EcoFair more probably before April, but we can certainly have a concentrated effort for that month to really drive it. [21:48] **Commissioner Anderson**: Yeah, or maybe it could be even... one other idea could be even February just because recycling is a theme and it seems like some of the vendors we're prospecting towards May may have a recycling bend to them. [22:04] **Chair Gerding**: Do we... and so even... well strike that, never mind. We are in February. I was looking at January, my fault. Are we going month by month? [22:15] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Yeah, at the first meeting when we do this, we look generally over the course of the year, and then each subsequent meeting we kind of look a quarter ahead at a time. [22:25] **Commissioner Fener Maker**: How would we feel about potentially moving water conservation to like May or June? Potentially, just driving around the city, the amount of water waste I see with sprinklers going off... maybe promoting timed sprinklers or humidity sensors on sprinklers so that if it already rained, you don't have those sprinklers going off at all all hours of the day. Just, you know, limiting water usage throughout the summer as well. [22:52] **Commissioner Lash**: I like that. Might be a good opportunity to remind people of our odd-even process that we have. I don't think anybody actually uses or follows that rule. Good reason to promote it, right? [23:05] **Commissioner Yang**: Yep, and I'm with you. It's really irritating when you see people... one, when sprinklers are going off and it's raining or whatever, and two, when they're doing it at 3:00 in the afternoon in the heat of the day. I'm like... good idea. [23:22] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: So when did you want to propose that for? Did you say May? [23:25] **Commissioner Fener Maker**: Either May or June. I think probably May because, you know, people are excited about their lawns and getting everything nice and green for the year and kind of forget proper etiquette with that. [23:40] **Chair Gerding**: Looking at July—just thinking of visual content surrounding plastic. Single-use plastic and plastic bag recycling. How does that stream look? If somebody were to follow that stream, you know, where does that plastic bag go if someone brings it to Target and leaves it? [24:00] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Or like when we go to the Environmental Center, we have our plastic bags of plastic bags and we drop them off. I personally don't know much about that, but kind of like what was done with the composting years ago. Didn't the EMC put together a video that showed the journey of the compost bag? We can see if the County has information on what happens to plastic bags when they go to the Environmental Center. One good resource—and not for plastic bag recycling specifically—but six of the seven Metro Counties have this "Recycling Exists" campaign that's currently going on to kind of break down the myths that when you put something in the recycling can, it's not being recycled. I wonder if that campaign has any good information on it. [24:50] **Commissioner Lash**: What's the campaign called? [24:52] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: "Recycling Exists." [24:53] **Commissioner Lash**: I did see that. I did see that. [24:55] **Chair Gerding**: Yeah, we definitely wouldn't have to recreate any wheels here if there's already content or copy that's out there with any visual assets. We could reshare and frame them. [25:05] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Yep, absolutely. [25:10] **Chair Gerding**: And I think when we talk about this in February as a commission, I believe August we've always held just open for anything that's topical. That's why it's "miscellaneous"—that has been the strategy behind it. [25:25] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Yep, intentional vagueness. [25:28] **Chair Gerding**: Any other comments on the content calendar or editorial calendar, excuse me? In April, are we highlighting the food scraps pickup program again? [25:38] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: We can. April it's not rolling out, so it doesn't have to stay there. EcoFair will probably end up being the theme for that month since the event is at the end of April. We'll probably be doing some big pushes, so I'm guessing there might not be a ton of social media room for other things unless something timely comes up. We could always move food scraps to August. [26:05] **Commissioner Brendan**: Where did we move bicycling and walking? Some of these themes line up with days in the month, I think. [26:12] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Okay, May is National Bike Month, but we can also have multiple themes if Communications has room in the social media calendar. We can promote multiple themes throughout. [26:22] **Commissioner Brendan**: Gotcha, because we're going to do sprinklers and biking, right? [26:25] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Yeah, and the food scraps pickup program is just something that's ongoing. We want to continue to boost our participation numbers for sure. [26:35] **Commissioner Yang**: Well, one of the things I thought about instead of having a call-out with the EcoFair was "Sustainability," because that's not on the list yet, right? [26:45] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Yeah, general sustainability. [26:47] **Commissioner Yang**: Plus, I'm working with the Sustainability and Public Health Office in Transportation, and I know they have a lot of communication [resources]. [26:55] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Okay, great. [27:00] **Chair Gerding**: I know that for the month of October, we talk a lot about energy efficiency. Having just gone through at our house a home energy audit, I'm wondering—how would Commissioners feel about sharing that maybe in like June? [27:18] **Commissioner Anderson**: I think that would be better. Because, you know, I know fall is when people start thinking about it, but they really should be doing it ahead of time before it gets cold. Also, I mean I think of like air flow and flow rates; people also close up their house and turn on their air conditioning too. So there may be another opportunity to market or educate on the program. [27:42] **Commissioner Yang**: Also, the rebate program is going to end, correct? At some point? [27:48] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: No, there's still money, and the contract with the Center for Energy and Environment still has over a year. [27:54] **Commissioner Yang**: So it has a time limit though? [27:55] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Yes. [27:56] **Commissioner Yang**: The sooner we tell people again, the more chances people use the money. So I think June's a great time. [28:05] **Chair Gerding**: Okay, any other comments on the communication strategy calendar? [28:10] **Commissioner Lash**: Do we do anything here—and maybe this was what happened at the Cleanup Day—do we do any type of cardboard recycling? Like if a person has just moved or a person wants to move and needs boxes? Do we do anything at the city with cardboard? [28:25] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: The County and the Environmental Center would be the place that we direct people to bring cardboard. I don't know if their free product room or their reuse room has... [28:35] **Commissioner Lash**: Right, I was just wondering how that worked. If they break down the boxes and put them there in case people want to come and get boxes. [28:42] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Yeah, I don't know if the County and the Environmental Center do that with cardboard boxes or if they just simply put them in the recycling. But the two environmental centers—the one in Forest Lake and the one in Woodbury—would be the place that we direct people or would tell them to call if they want to bring large amounts of cardboard. [29:05] **Commissioner Brendan**: I don't know if anybody's moved recently, but I think Nextdoor and Facebook are where everybody goes for boxes and where everybody gets rid of their boxes. You know, people just show... "If you need boxes let me know, they need to be gone." And the next person says "Yay!" and picks them up. So I don't know if anybody actually just throws them in the recycle versus doing that. Because most people don't take them apart; they'll show you pictures and they're all ready to go and they'll just say "Come get them." So again, I don't know percentage-wise how many people do that versus not, but that seems to be the way to get a box these days. [29:45] **Commissioner Yang**: I usually go to Hy-Vee and ask, and go in the morning when they've just done their fruits and vegetables. Then you get the best boxes. But I was just curious if we did anything with them. [29:55] **Commissioner Lash**: The liquor store's good too, probably. [29:58] **Commissioner Yang**: So yeah, I mean, the bigger issue is people with Amazon getting so many boxes versus moving. I think it's when you're buying something and it's being shipped to you—that's where I think there's cardboard galore. [30:10] **Commissioner Lash**: And then there's also the shipping boxes that are coming with the stuff that you can't recycle inside the box, right? The styrofoam stuff—the TVs and stuff. [30:20] **Commissioner Yang**: Yeah, and that's where I'd go down to Woodbury though with like the big styrofoams and stuff. [30:25] **Chair Gerding**: Any other comments on the editorial calendar? Great. Well as always, thank you Hannah for preparing this comprehensive annual snapshot of what we're going to be sharing this year. Any other themes or ideas? I think it's safe we can just get them to you as we digest all this, right? [30:45] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Yes. [30:46] **Chair Gerding**: Moving to the next section in our EMC meeting, we have staff liaison updates. Starting with Community Development, Hannah? [30:55] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Yes, I just have a few. Metro Gold Line—you already heard about this at our work plan discussion prior to the meeting. Service for the Gold Line BRT begins March 22nd. So there will be opening day activities, and as I hear about them or am informed of them, I will pass information along to you if you want to participate in those Opening Day activities. There's also a new shared ride service through Metro Transit Micro Mobility: "Metro micro." I don't know if you've heard about that; we promoted it on Facebook a few weeks ago. Through this service, you can book a ride from wherever you are within a designated service area, and then an ADA-accessible minibus will pick you up and drop you off anywhere within that same designated service area. The Metro micro recently started operating in parts of Woodbury, Oakdale, and Lake Elmo, and they already had service areas in North Minneapolis and the Roseville area. The Woodbury service area includes many schools, parks, park-and-rides, clinics, and retail areas. So if you Google "Metro micro Woodbury area," there's a web page dedicated to that service area. It shows a map and has lots of answers and questions. Just wanted to share that that is a new shared ride service in our area. And then also, the 3M PFAS priority-to-settlement money—the DNR finally opened that RFP up. I don't have the timeline right in front of me, but we've been talking about that over the past couple of years. So City staff is going to meet and I'll review previous ideas and conversations that the EMC has had around that money. But just wanted to let you know that that's finally open after many, many months of hearing that the RFP would open soon. Some news to share. [33:10] **Chair Gerding**: Great, thank you Hannah. Moving to Commissioners of this group—any updates from anyone here? No? I will put a plug in again—I did let the cat out of the bag—but we went through the home energy squad audit and it was delightful. It took functionally probably three and a half hours because of their thoroughness. I was astounded; every inch of the house they checked with a heat gun, and they taped everything off. They were clean and nice, and they respected our animals and respected our kids' rooms. It was really, really intentional. So if anybody has yet to do it, it is mind-blowing—pardon the expression—when they tap into your HVAC system, but it's really neat to do and it gives you a wonderful report in terms of things you can think about and how to prioritize these investments. Because so many of them have rebates that we've talked about here at this commission. So it's a great experience for us as a family to go through. Updates? All right. Well, another update we have here tonight is our esteemed Mayor, our liaison Mayor Zabel. The floor is yours. [34:25] **Mayor Kevin Zabel**: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair, thank you Commissioners. I want to make a plug on that home energy audit. So if you're watching from home and you want to learn more or take part, go to the city website—just search for "home energy audit" and the information will pop up. The City picks up 50% of the cost of it, so... and the other 50%, I think it's just $50, right? $100 total—we pick up half, the resident picks up half. But the half covered by the resident is a tax deduction; the feds will give you that as a tax credit for doing home energy audits. So go to the city website—lots of great information. I've done it myself. I agree, very thorough. I also appreciated just the laundry list of suggestions and "here are the credits to go pay for it." They do all the legwork for the residents to make those important improvements on your homes. As for the City, we typically start each year a little quieter. You know, we have two new council members, so we like to ease them in and not scare them. And so typically it would just be kind of our organizing items—you know, getting our commission assignments, figuring out where the bathrooms are, all that good stuff. But the interest from developers has belied that a little bit. So we have fielded a number of development requests—so many so that we had to have a special workshop last week to meet with a few developers. So development is still hot; housing is still off and running. Willowbrooke is quickly wrapping up, which is great, and so developers are looking at other areas of the city which is pretty exciting. So we continue to work our way through those development applications with our Planning Commission. So a big thank you to them for their work on that as well. Otherwise, big things going on in the city: the first walls went up at the new Public Works campus today. So that is very exciting to see that building materialize. As far as I know, they are still on track to complete construction this fall, and then they will be moving in. Very excited about that. The other big development at the city council level is our Park system update. We've been working on that for... Hannah, a year? [37:15] **Hannah (Staff Liaison)**: Yes, close. [37:16] **Mayor Kevin Zabel**: And it's been a very methodical process going through every single one of our 28 parks in this city. 27? 28 now? 29 with Willowbrooke Commons? Yeah, this is growing. But residents may have seen public engagement opportunities over any number of months. We have compiled all of that feedback from our residents, incorporated it into a Park System Master Plan, and then Council is starting to look at the dollars and cents associated with doing a lot of that work. So in the coming month or so, we will button up that plan, get it adopted, get it out for the public to see, and then over the next number of years we'll be slowly implementing all of those changes into our city parks, which is pretty exciting. Everything from getting rid of some unused turf grass and making it native pollinators, to new playground equipment and everything in between. So it's pretty exciting, but definitely a long time coming. There's been a lot of really great public feedback along the way, a lot of great feedback from our commissions as well, so thank you. And now we need to put it into action, which is pretty cool. So with that, I am happy to answer any questions you may have. Also, Keegan, welcome you—glad to have you here. [38:40] **Chair Gerding**: What do we got? Question about the Public Works building? [38:43] **Commissioner Lash**: Yes, only because it's less than 10 blocks from our house. [38:47] **Mayor Kevin Zabel**: In terms of... it means your roads will get cleared first. Did I say that out loud? [38:52] **Commissioner Lash**: I would like the record to show that Mayor Zabel... [Laughter] [38:55] **Mayor Kevin Zabel**: If you're next to the plows where there are parks, you know, that's just how it works. Order of operations, exactly. [39:02] **Commissioner Lash**: How is the city thinking about landscaping, erosion, water things, any other kind of environmental investment that could be a showcase for Oakdale at the new Public Works campus? [39:15] **Mayor Kevin Zabel**: Yeah, so a full environmental and landscaping plan was designed when the building was designed. Obviously, with site constraints, you know, the PFAS cleanup was a big endeavor that had to take place before construction, so that was all taken care of. Fortunately/unfortunately, we pretty much had to clear out all the trees—a lot of them were just scrub trees anyways—so it really did give us a clean slate to think about 30-year environmental happenings on that site. So all of that has gone through the bidding process and the design process. It'll be something pretty cool once the building is open, but obviously with big vehicles going in and out of there, that does limit the size of trees and all those types of things. I know one area of focus for the Tree Board—and this commission has talked about it in the past—is having the brush drop-off site so residents can go and dispose of their unwanted brush. So that was something incorporated into the site as well. In terms of storm runoff or storm water runoff, I don't think there will be much because we tried to limit the asphalt and concrete as much as possible. There is still green space and a buffer around the building as well, so hopefully that limits it as well. And then things like the salt storage—those are going to have enclosed, confined spaces for that to live. Anybody that's been to the current Public Works campus knows that's a challenge because it's right next to a wetland. [40:48] **Commissioner Lash**: Well, as land settles it... [40:50] **Mayor Kevin Zabel**: Yep. So that will be a huge improvement at the new campus. [40:55] **Chair Gerding**: Thank you. Any other questions? All righty, well thank you everybody. Thank you, Mayor. Well Commissioners, it brings us to the end of the February 10th, 2025 meeting of the EMC. Our next regularly scheduled meeting will be held on March 17th, 2025 at 7:00 p.m. here in council chambers at City Hall. I will look for a motion to adjourn tonight's EMC meeting for February 10th. [41:25] **Commissioner Anderson**: [Motion]. [41:26] **Commissioner Yang**: Seconded. Is that what you say? No? [41:30] **Chair Gerding**: You can move to accept the motion, and then I will look for a second, please. [41:34] **Commissioner Yang**: Second. [41:35] **Chair Gerding**: Awesome, there we go. All in favor of adjourning tonight's February 10th EMC meeting say "I." [41:40] **Commissioners**: I. [41:41] **Chair Gerding**: Closed. Awesome, thank you everyone. Thank you.