BBGC Meeting Minutes 2/23/10

Joan Birnie began the meeting at 7:07 p.m. by thanking everyone for participating in the Farm and Home Show. Early reports are that there has been no increase in the number of reusable shopping bags used at the local Bow Food Pride despite giving away all of the resusable shopping bags. The recycling receptacles were used by a number of people. Exact numbers of plastic and aluminum containers collected are unknown at this time. A summary of the Farm and Home Show will be published here at greenbrokenbow.org at a later date.

Publicity from the Farm and Home Show has resulted in a couple of invitations for Joan Birnie to speak at Off-Broadway and the United Methodist Women’s Group. There was also an invitation to write an article for the Kearney Hub. Sylvester’s bar in Broken Bow has also shown interest in recycling their glass containers.

Joe Shea has done some preliminary work about obtaining recycling receptacles for the baseball fields. Early estimates are that they would cost $3,000 and various ideas were put forth regarding ways to procure the recycling bins more cheaply or apply for a grant to cover the cost of the recycling bin. Lonnie Koepke mentioned that his students may be able to work on the bins as a project. The BBGC would cover the cost of the materials and the students would build the bins. The bins would have to be approved by the Park Board per the new policy regarding gifts to the city. Joe Shea will research this project in depth for the next meeting.

There was a formal motion made for Nate Bell to open a checking account at Custer Federal Savings Bank for the use of the Broken Bow Green Coalition. The chief reason for this would be to collect old electronics to be sent for refurbishing or recycling. Please see the previous minutes for the details. Proposed sites for collection bins would be Becton-Dickinson, Red Line Equipment (Verizon), and possibly one other site.

Grant possibilities were then reviewed and the deadlines were debated. It was suggested that the deadline was probably April for Custer County Foundation grants, and Keep Nebraska Beautiful is providing a grant for $100. The deadline is June 1st.

Kelly Flynn noted yet again that WasteCapNE is planning to make Broken Bow a site for fluorescent light recycling. No further discussion of this topic was undertaken.

Joan Birnie then reviewed the Nebraska Sustainability Leadership Workshop that will occur on March 11th and March 12th, 2010 in the Custer county Courthouse Supervisor’s Room. The registration form can be found at http://www.nslw.org/registration. Further invitations for this will be forwarded to interested parties via email but there is an open invitation for registrants, although registration is limited to 15 attendees.

Cheryl Taylor outlined an upcoming CPPD program that allows people to plug an ampmeter or watt-meter into an outlet to measure electricity draw so people can perform self audits of their electricity usage.

Denise Russell noted that Keep Nebraska Beautiful and Keep Loup Basin Beautiful will take part in the Keep America Beautiful Great American Cleanup. She also noted that three picnic tables made of recycled tires have been purchased for placement in the park to be used during the annual Custer County Fair barbecue. These will be installed this spring with a plaque indicating that they have been donated by the Broken Bow Chamber of Commerce.

Lonnie Kopeke mentioned the success of the previous educational program at the school system. The amount of paper recycling after the elementary education program compared to before was 311%. The overall increase in recycled materials collected was 150%.

Kelly Flynn presented the figures for the recycling program for the calendar year 2009 and $44,000 worth of landfill space was saved last year due to the recycling program. This is an aggregate figure for all recycled materials in the last year. Stay tuned for an upcoming post reviewing all of the data from the recycling program for calendar year 2009.

Cheryl Taylor noted that Custer Public Power District and the supplier for power to the City of Broken Bow, Mean Electric, offers rebates for efficient appliances, heat pumps, and CFL replacement. With an eye to concerns about the recent rate increase for electricity for the City of Broken Bow it was recommended that the City consider providing home energy audits for customers with high energy needs who might be most adversely affected by the rate increase.

The next meeting of the Broken Bow Green Coalition will be 3/30/10 at 7 pm at the Broken Bow Public Library.