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Home My WebLink About07-14-2023 Fairhope Environmental Advisory Board Meeting MinutesFEAB July 14th, 2023 FEAB MEETING MINUTES July 14th, 2023 3:00 p.m. in the Fairhope Public Library, Board Room Member Attendees: Gary Gover, Amy Paulson, Nigel Temple, Jim Horner, Ben Frater, Carole Tebay, Jennifer Foutch Members not in attendance: Steven Scyphers, excused absence Anna Miller, excused absence City of Fairhope: Mayor Sullivan, Daryl Morefield, Water and Sewer Superintendent; Christina LeJeune - Planning and Zoning Department, Nicole Love- grant writer City Council: None Honored Guests: Cynthia Rush, Michael Herzog, Monica Nargassans, Ashley Campbell Minutes taken by: Christina LeJeune Amy called the meeting to order at 3:00 p.m. FEAB Minutes: June minutes were approved as written. Jim 1st , Nigel 2nd, unanimous. Summary of Meeting & Action Items: 1. A motion was unanimously approved to elect Amy Paulson as new chairperson. 2. FEAB celebrates the announcement of the GOMESA funding, and commends the City for its efforts to secure this outstanding opportunity for our citizens and their environment. 3. FEAB will assist MBNEP / Baldwin County in identifying appropriate locations to site watershed identification signs. (FEAB will publicly announce the project on FB as a COF Env Topic.) 4. A FEAB representative will be attending all City Council Work Sessions (as opposed to Council Meetings) to serve as a reference during relevant discussions and assist Councilman Martin as needed. 5. FEAB will be posting timely, relevant Environmental Hot Topics to the COF Facebook Page approximately monthly (POC Nigel Temple). Introductions: 1st time attendees were introduced: Monica Nargassans,has acquired ADEM certification and has a general interest in FEAB: Amy encouraged her to attend as active participant. Michael Herzog, Resort manager at the Grand Hotel and has a general interest in FEAB: Amy encouraged him to attend as active participant. City updates: FEAB July 14th, 2023 Mayor Sullivan: The City of Fairhope was the recipient of GoMESA funds. $620,000 will be utilized for the Fairhope Magnolia beach renourishment and to help resiliency and recreation with the boat ramp. In partnership with MBNEP, $2,740,000 will be utilized for the Fly Creek stream restoration project. Upcoming restore projects will include the improvement to infrastructure (headworks) at the treatment plant and generators added to lift stations. Water Conservation Plan: Mayor Sullivan: There are 3 phases to the Emergency Water Conservation Plan: 1. Phase I: Voluntary 2. Phase II: Mandatory; Irrigation allowed on certain days 3. Phase III: Mandatory; Irrigation prohibited The City’s water usage averages 6 million gallons per day. Irrigation is the main source for excessive usage. Currently phase I: voluntary is in place. There is a consideration to start enforcing fines to the individuals in violation of Phase III: Mandatory. The city will be drilling for another well that should be ready in 6 months. The last well dug was 15 years ago. There are plans in place for upsizing water lines and testing for additional wells.it is estimated that 2 years from now there will be 2 million more gallons of water usage per day. Water quality: Nicole will be meeting with Chris Warn with ESA to discuss potential source tracking in Fly Creek. Bay Keeper has noted some hot spots for coliform around J. V. Cummings Drive off Parker Road, and ESA would provide science-based water quality data, including presence/source confirmation. Mayor stated in the past the city has reached out to homeowners through letters. Financial assistance was even offered for those willing to get off septic and to tie into city sewer. The city did not receive response of anyone interested in doing so. Watershed Management signs: Ashley is currently coordinating watershed sign placement as part of the ESWMP. The Mobile Bay National Estuary Program will be funding the signs. She would like FEAB to work with Kim and Christina on locations. Kim mentioned adding the sub watershed name to signs. Ashely said it will be an extra cost but instead adding the creek name which will be less expensive. Ashley: MS4 requires cities/ counties to manage the release of their stormwater. The watershed signs would be a way to help meet required goals from ADEM. She also suggested doing an outreach educational article on social media to help people learn about watersheds. Ashley: this will be a great opportunity for the Eastern shore MS4 to work together. Amy agreed this would be a good environmental hot topic for facebook. Ashley will send Amy the electronic version of their existing announcement; Nigel will revise as appropriate to post on our FB site. Butterfly garden: Amy: asked for grant updates on the butterfly garden. Nicole: If grant money is awarded for the project the city will budget $3,000 a year for maintenance to upkeep. Nigel: Gena Todia came and looked at the current butterfly garden. Park brochure update: Kim submitted a final rough draft of the park brochure. Amy: If FEAB members have any additional comments they can direct to Kim and add them to google drive. FEAB July 14th, 2023 Council meeting: Jim recently attended a council meeting work session, where several people discussed the triangle property plans. He said he got more information out of it than just the regular meeting itself. Jim thinks the work session will be a good opportunity for a FEAB member to be able to comment to council on important topics. Nicole suggested attending to comment on resolutions. FEAB will contact Lisa ahead of time if they need to discuss any issues. Amy took a vote, and a motion was passed to use the existing rotational schedule to attend work sessions instead of official Council Meetings. Sewer facility: Gary attended the recent City Council meeting where there was a discussion on the headworks at the wastewater facility. The City accepted the grant award for financial assistance from ADEM for the clean water state revolving fund project in the amount of $1,154,696.00 from the State of Alabama’s American rescue plan act fund. Nicole: projected cost is around 5 million and the City will need to come up with the rest. Social media posts: Nigel: WBNERR posted about a living shorelines workshop that the city reshaped. There were 25 participants in the class which was at capacity. Nigel asked FEAB if they had interest in social media post’s on hot topics. Nicole: suggested sharing a list of city projects. She also stated that septic tanks need educational outreach. Nicole: making monthly posts unless there was big news to share. Nigel: there should be less write up but more pictures. Nicole: members can draft up something and then Nigel will prepare and share with the Mayor, Paige, and Courtney. Amy: Carole had ideas to share on native planting and birds in the area. Amy: Nigel will coordinate posts. Amy will work with Nicole and COF to paste additional information (including list of 2023 focal items and other details) into the FEAB COF web page. Meeting adjourned at 4:15p.m. Next meeting: Friday, August 11th @ Fairhope Municipal Library, 3 p.m. FEAB CONTACT INFORMATION: Chairperson: Amy Paulson amy.paulson@yahoo.com (251) 654-7401 Members: Gary Gover govers@bellsouth.net (251) 990-8662 Ben Frater ben.frater@gmail.com (404) 314-8815 Jim Horner none (251) 928-9722 Nigel Temple 757nigel@gmail.com (757) 803-3589 Jennifer Foutch Foutch.jennifer@gmail.com (618) 318-0354 Steven Scyphers sscyphers@southalabama.edu (334)-701-8864 Anna Miller anna@keenliving.pro (251) 279-0395 Carole Tebay cftebay@gmail.com (850) 466-6592 CITY CONTACTS: Corey Martin, City Council corey.martin@fairhopeal.gov Nicole Love, Grant Coordinator nicole.love@fairhopeal.gov FEAB July 14th, 2023 Kim Burmeister, Planning and Zoning Department kim.burmeister@fairhopeal.gov Christina LeJeune, Planning and Zoning Department christina.lejeune@fairhopeal.gov