greenbrokenbow.org Articles

BBGC Meeting Minutes 7/27/10

Sun, 08 Aug 2010 18:20:59 GMT

BBGC Meeting Minutes 7/27/10

Members present:

Joan Birnie

Keith Gautreaux

Cheryl Taylor

Teresa Lott

Nate Bell

Shaleah Jones

Joan Birnie began the meeting at 7:06 p.m. with discussion of the recent funding for recycling containers at the new baseball complex. Specifically, information about funding was discussed. Time for a photo opportunity was discussed for attaching to a press release about the recycling containers. The press release had previously been published in the Custer County Chief.

The Broken Bow Green Coalition won an Award of Excellence at the Keep Nebraska Beautiful annual award luncheon at the Lied Center in Nebraska City on 7/1/2010.

Nate Bell discussed the recycling program and the finances of the Broken Bow Green Coalition. The electronics recycling program accounted for $24.05 of revenue for the month of July resulting in a total balance of $193.74 in the account, but accessible only through the Custer County Foundation. A proposal was made to expand the program to place electronic recycling containers at computer stores and at the Broken Bow Chamber Office. This plan was approved and a press release will be published listing the types of items accepted. Kelly Flynn will accept the batteries not accepted by the electronics recycling program

Discussion then turned to the hazardous waste collection that occurs yearly in Broken Bow. Concern was expressed that the city of Burwell was recently reported to the EPA for allowing antifreeze dumping into the water system. Kelly mentioned that very few businesses accept oil or antifreeze for safe displosal and it is often expensive. Kelly Flynn believes that households are allowed to dispose of antifreeze but businesses cannot dispose of it in any way but those approved by the EPA. This is not collected during the hazardous waste collection. Grant money was procured for continuing the hazardous waste collection but no official dates have been announced for this collection. It usually occurs near Labor Day.

Joan Birnie noted that no further progress has been made on the issue of home energy audits. Grant money is available for “innovative projects” for utility companies. The deadline for these grant submissions is 8/15/2010 and $10,000 to $50,000 is available for implementing these projects. Currently this proposal will be introduced at the next City Council meeting. The next City Council meeting will be 8/9/2010. Scott Kleeb will give a presentation next Tuesday, 8/3/10, about his company Energy Pioneer Solutions that specializes in partnering with homeowners and utility companies to institute energy saving measures in the home and amoritize the cost over several years of utility bills.

A suggestion was made that Dave Birnie and Keith Gautreaux collect information regarding the cost of energy audit equipment and present this at the next City Council meeting.

Kelly Flynn will again be placing recycling containers in the park during the free pit barbecue for the Custer County Fair.

Recycle Bank is a company that weighs recycling output and gives families points that can be redeemed at hundreds of retailers online or in person. This has increased recycling 100% in several communities but is not available in Broken Bow. Discussion then turned to integrating recycling into the City trash pickup. The most popular proposal was to have the City sell bags to hold recycling to fund the additional pickup.

Nate Bell noted that he is the only signatory on the Broken Bow Green Coalition checking account. A proposal was made to add Joan Birnie as a signatory and approved.

The New Belgium brewery grant application window is opening again and has grants available for water conservation, bicycle related programs, and youth education in conservation. The best of these options seem to be a bicycle related grant to accompany the proposed city bike path, but no consensus was met. With that the meeting was adjourned.

The next meeting of the Broken Bow Green Coalition will be 8/31/10 at 7 pm at the Broken Bow Public Library.

BBGC Meeting Minutes 4/27/10

Wed, 05 May 2010 16:09:52 GMT

BBGC Meeting Minutes 4/27/10

Members present:

Joan Birnie

Dave Birnie

Keith Gautreaux

Denise Russell

Cheryl Taylor

Lonnie Koepke

Kathy Larocque

Rick Nelson

Teresa Lott

Mac McMeen

Dan Anderson

Joan Birnie began the meeting at 7:06 p.m. by following up on the Nebraska Sustainability workshop from the previous month. Correspondence with the operators of the workshop about doing a follow-up “mini” workshop indicates that this is currently not a flexible time but in the future the UNL extension office would like to offer this service. Mac McMeen briefly discussed his desire to adopt this model for the operations of the City of Broken Bow, but admitted that there would be some roadblocks.

Joe Shea was not in attendence but he had provided information about recycling receptacles for the baseball fields, estimating that the cost would be $550 per unit that houses three receptacles. Lonnie Koepke reviewed the bill of materials for these recycling units. Joan Birnie has completed a grant application to the Custer County Foundation for $600. The extra $50 would be appropriated for paint. Dan Anderson mentioned that we should ensure there is adequate concrete pad space at the ballfield in order to avoid having to place the recycling receptacles too far away from the stands. The Diamond Youth Organization indicated that they would be willing to pitch in to remove the recycling collected at the baseball fields.

Next item of business was the discussion of the presentation to the most recent City Council meeting to certify a city utility worker to perform home energy audits. Dave Birnie presented the details of the proposal including the rough cost estimates of around $8,000 for the certification process. The City Council initially seemed very interested in pursing this, but at a subsequent City Utilities meeting a representative of MEAN energy, which the city buys its energy from, indicated that this would be a vast underestimate of the actual costs involved. MEAN energy has offered to to provide energy audits to the community but this would only be within a short 2 week window in the winter months. Following the meeting Joan Birnie did some additional fact finding towards BBGC filing grants to help the city provide this service. The time window for tax credits for some weatherization measures expires after the 2010 tax year so having the program in place in time for people to implement the suggestions from the auditor would be prudent. Additionally, there appears to be some disparity between the cost of equipment presented by the representative for MEAN energy and the equipment costs encountered in preliminary research. Mac McMeen stated that he felt it was a matter for the city and not necessarily the utility board. Public interest would be the limiting factor for whether pursuing this is ultimately feasible. He also noted that MEAN energy did a good job of energy auditing several city buildings.

Related to the discussion of energy auditing it was reiterated that Central Nebraska Community Services does offer weatherization funding for houses of families with incomes within 200% of the poverty level. For a family of four this is $44,100.

Next discussion moved to the cigarette litter prevention program. The grant for this was approved at several receptacles were procured and assembled by Dan Anderson. These were placed at U.S. Cellular, in front of the firehall, downtown in the city square, in front of the Post Office (pending approval), and (pending approval) in front of the Courthouse. The receptacles stood up to the recent windstorm impressively.

Custer Public Power has donated two “Kill-A-Watt” meters to the Broken Bow Public Library which can be attached to appliances to measure the wattage draw. These can be excellent tools to measure, and hopefully decrease, wasted energy draw by various in home appliances.

A brief review of income sources, focusing mostly on grant applications, was then undertaken. Nate Bell is still pursuing grants through the New Belgium Brewery. New Belgium has grants for bicycle advocacy. It was agreed that the proposed bike path at Melham Park might benefit from some of these bicycle focused grants for trail amenities. BBGC now has $200 in funding available Joan Birnie announced, thanks to a recent donation from another environmental group.

Teresa Lott reviewed the electronic recycling program at BD and noted that the current bin is full and many more electronic devices have been promised. Focus then turned to actually mailing these items to the electronic recycling company which has not yet occurred. Nate Bell is heading up this program and will be contacted to mail these items.

Rick Nelson reviewed the ENERGY STAR loan program offered by the Nebraska Energy Office. This program provides a 2.5% interest rate loan up to $417,000 for ENERGY STAR compliant homes. Those are homes that meet or exceed the state’s energy code by 30% or more and are independently verified by the Enironmental Protection Agency. More information available

Kenneth Sisson has completed his Eagle Scout Project recently, which was pouring three concrete pads in the city square for placement of the reccycled tire picnic tables recently purchased by the City of Broken Bow. This project is nearly complete and the tables should be in place by the end of the week.

The next meeting of the Broken Bow Green Coalition will be 5/25/10 at 7 pm at the Broken Bow Public Library.

BBGC Meeting Minutes 3/30/10

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:44:28 GMT

BBGC Meeting Minutes 3/30/10

Members present:

Joan Birnie

Dave Birnie

Keith Gautreaux

Shaleah Jones

Kelly Flynn

Denise Russell

Cheryl Taylor

Lonnie Koepke

Deb McCaslin

Rick Nelson

Teresa Lott

Joan Birnie began the meeting at 7:06 p.m. with a report about the Sustainability Leadership Workshop hosted in Broken Bow March 18th and 19th 2010. The edeucation materials revolved around planning for any project to provide sustainability of utilized resources. The workshop was attended by Deb McCaslin, Joan and Dave Birnie, and April Gross from Custer Public Power District. Most of the speakers were from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and gave talks about local Farmer’s Markets, Grocery Co-op’s, and Energy Efficiency. Deb McCaslin gave a recap of one particular talk which reviewed the concept of “peak oil” and how the creation of an Energy Auditor position could create several jobs. First, the job of the auditor. Second, the job of a contractor who would perform home upgrades. Third, the job of the manufacturer of the upgrades and lastly, the creation of future technologies to replace fossil fuels as the energy medium of choice.

A thought experiment was conducted at the Sustainability Workshop to imagine plans for revitalization of the Broken Bow City Square. Ideas proposed included solar power, rooftop gardens and creation of sustainable, energy efficient apartment buildings as affordable rental properties. Everyone who attended the workshop felt it was incredibly helpful and provided great insight into how to manage sustainability projects.

Other attendees included city staff from Loup City and Callaway as well as USDA staff from Kearney, and several members of the staff of the City of Broken Bow.

Discussion then turned to writing for a Custer County Foundation grant in order to purchase recycling receptacles for the new city ballfields. The expected cost of these receptacles will be around $3,000 for materials and is supposed to be assembled by shop students at Broken Bow High School. General consensus was that we apply for the grant as quickly as possible to make the April 30th deadline and qualify for grant consideration.

Kelly Flynn mentioned that plastic recycling mass has increased significantly recently and he has been making a bale of plastic a week which is much more than typical. The plastic collected has been relatively clean and non-contaminated which has been pleasantly surprising. He commended the people of Broken Bow and surrounding communities.

The Sandhills Scenic-Byway Interpretive Center has taken some steps to improve their use of recycling, reducing their paper usage, removing styrofoam cups from use, and planting native grasses for landscaping around the grounds.

Denise Russell spoke briefly about the cigarette recycling program. We qualify for five of these receptacles and need to decide where they will be placed. The catalog of these was circulated so the committee could choose the best model. No obvious consensus was reached, but Keep Nebraska Beautiful will be meeting with Denise Russell at the beginning of April to discuss the order.

Rick Nelson then spoke briefly about the “Wind Energy Export Bill” in the Nebraska State Legislature. Currently the bill is on the docket but was not discussed today because the legislature was discussing gambling. The Nebraska chapter of the Sierra Club has blessed the bill but has concerns about the enforcement of the law. Rick Nelson noted that he felt adequate protections were in place for enforcement of the law should it be passed. Several companies including NPPD have expressed significant interest in creating wind farm projects in Custer County.

Denise Russell noted that Vicki Hohlfeld had already created the plaques for the recycled tire picnic tables to be placed in the square. The tables should be installed soon with the plaques in place.

Rick Nelson reiterated the the Custer Public Power website has an energy calculator that one recent customer was able to use to calculate savings from a geothermal heat pump. The savings averaged around $170 a month. Custer Power provides rebates for insulation installation, heat pump installation, and energy efficient appliances for Custer Public Power customers.

Deb McCaslin noted that her MEAN energy audit at the Custer County Chief was disappointing and lamented the difficulty with home energy audits provided by the city. Various solutions were put forward to improve the recommendations from the home energy audit staff, or at least make them more useful and available to homeowners in the City of Broken Bow. Bill Butler has expressed interest in pursuing LEED certification for providing energy audits and providing “green” contracting services. Dave Birnie put forth a plan to bring it up at a City Council meeting on April 12th in order to make it a matter of public record. The city recently completed a housing study showing many grants are available for weatherization in addition to those provided through CNCS and many people could take advantage of this.

Keith Gautreaux noted that a reporter from the Kearney Hub, Kris Williams, contacted Joan Birnie about doing a story in the Kearney Hub detailing the work of the Broken Bow Green Coalition.

The next meeting of the Broken Bow Green Coalition will be 4/27/10 at 7 pm at the Broken Bow Public Library.

BBGC Meeting Minutes 2/23/10

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:22:01 GMT

BBGC Meeting Minutes 2/23/10

Members present:

Joan Birnie

Dave Birnie

Keith Gautreaux

Vicki Hohlfeld

Shaleah Jones

Kelly Flynn

Kathy Larocque

Joe Shea

Dan Anderson

Nate Bell

Denise Russell

Cheryl Taylor

Lonnie Koepke

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.

BBGC Meeting Minutes 1/26/10

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:31:11 GMT

BBGC Meeting Minutes 1/26/10

Members present:

Joan Birnie

Dave Birnie

Keith Gautreaux

Shaleah Jones

Kelly Flynn

Kathy Larocque

Joe Shea

Nate Bell

Denise Russell

Joan Birnie began the meeting asking about a report for the preparations for the Farm and Home Show which will be Wednesday, February 10th. Joe Shea and Dave Birnie noted Bow Food Pride has committed to several hundred reusable shopping bags to be given out. The Grocery Kart will also provide reusable shopping bags, as will Pamida and possibly some other merchants. There should be plenty of resuable shopping bags available for distribution.

Joan Birnie then discussed additional handouts on energy efficiency and recycling that are being provided by MEAN (Municipal Energy Association of Nebraska) and LBRC&D (Loup Basin Resource Conservation & Development) for handing out at the Farm and Home Show. Discussion then turned to fundraising and bookmarks were suggested as a handout to people in exchange for donations. At the Farm and Home Show Pamida will donate a portable grill and MEAN will donate some clocks that run on water. The plan is to give away these items in a drawing at the Farm and Home Show.

Further discussion regarding fundraising options included application for grants through the New Belgium Brewery grant program, which is currently closed but will open in the spring. Nate Bell noted that BBGC can apply for grants from the Custer County Foundation even though it is under the umbrella of the Custer County Foundation. Through a program called Recycling Fundraiser, organizations can exchange small electronics, inkjet cartridges, cell phones, and laptops for cash. Donations to the Broken Bow Green Coalition can be made to the Custer County Foundation and will be directed to BBGC by writing BBGC in the memo line on the donation check. Instructions are available on the donate page and further questions can be directed to the Custer County Foundation.

Kelly Flynn then updated the group about the plans for recycling containers at the Farm and Home Show. It was estimated that the amount of recyclable material would be minor but it would be worth placing recycling receptacles next to the garbage containers. He will also bring sheets detailing the items accepted at the recycling center. These will be placed in the reusable shopping bags for educational purposes. The sign up sheet for staffing the Farm and Home Show was then distributed to the group.

Kelly Flynn then mentioned that in the next few months he will be meeting to learn about recycling compact fluorescent bulbs and electronic waste including computers.

Keep Loup Basin Beautiful is willing to take over the reins of the Keep Broken Bow Beautiful campaign. The first proposal under the new management was to complete a grant for cigarette receptacles placed throughout the community. Debate about the placement of the cigarette receptacle placement was undertaken and several possible sites were mentioned. Consensus was that public places would take preference over private businesses if the grant was completed.

The plan for recycling receptacles at the new ballfields was then reviewed. No price estimate or plan was currently in place. Joan Birnie requested a large photo of the recycling receptacle proposed to be displayed at the Farm and Home Show booth.

Dave Birnie suggested that BBGC further promote the energy audits provided by the city, given the recent increase in electrical rates proposed by the City of Broken Bow. It was also proposed that the BBGC reach out to the new director of the municipal utilities to try to promote the energy audits and any grants available for weatherization or other energy efficiency measures that can cushion some of the blow for people paying increased electric bills.

The next meeting of the Broken Bow Green Coalition will be 2/23/10 at 7 pm at the Broken Bow Public Library.

Home Energy Audit

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 04:54:59 GMT

Home Energy Audit

This week Doug Staab from Broken Bow Municipal Utilities was kind enough to come out to our house and conduct an energy audit for us. This is a free service available to all Broken Bow residents. The energy audit conducted by the city is a relatively basic one. They use a thermal sensing camera to find areas of your house that are losing excess heat (or cool air in the summer months). More extensive audits also evaluate the efficiency of your heating and cooling systems, as well as ways to save electricity and hot water. While these issues are not addressed in our local audit, you can basically address those issues with a self audit. Make use of the expertise of your local heating and cooling vendors as well as hardware personnel to get yourself educated on efficient systems for your home. Also check out EnergySavers.gov for easy instructions on performing a self audit.

Here is what we learned from our brief audit (total process about 45 minutes).

First, we were happy to find out that the newer, double paned windows in our house were well installed and keeping heat in nicely. On the other hand, our achilles heal is our basement. It is an old, unfinished basement, that we basically avoid going into at all costs. Because of our tendency to avoid it, we have been ignoring some important (and easily remediable) sources of heat loss.

This opening to a no longer functional chimney is a great example of an obvious problem that we simply never thought to look for. We hardly needed the camera to put a hand inside and feel the draft go by. A few dollars on a metal cover from Ace Hardware, and problem solved!

Helpful hint: if you can see daylight, you are losing heat! A $6 can of spray foam from Ace fixed that. The thermal sensing camera helped us identify some less obvious sources of heat loss. After seeing the cool spots between the basement ceiling and walls, we plan to tack some extra insulation on there to keep in the heat and keep out the cold.

The camera also showed one of our three doors to the outside was quite drafty underneath. We chose a simple draft stopper to remedy that. Hardware stores also offer lots of barrier options for drafty windows and doors.

As mentioned previously, the Broken Bow Utilities auditors do not make assessments regarding heating and cooling systems, nor do they offer official suggestions on how to fix the problems they identify. Nevertheless, just taking the time to walk around our home we were able to identify several easy to fix energy wasters as noted above.

We would also like to remind families with low incomes that many of the homes in our town will qualify for free weatherization through federal programs. Simply contact Central Nebraska Community Services to find out if you qualify.

We strongly encourage all Broken Bow residents to take advantage of the free energy audit offered by Broken Bow Municipal Utilities. You might be surprised by the simple things you can to to reduce waste in your home.

More information available at the following links:

Broken Bow Municipal Utilities

Central Nebraska Community Services

U.S. Department of Energy

BBGC Meeting Minutes 12/29/2009

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:53:54 GMT

BBGC Meeting Minutes 12/29/2009

Members present:

Joan Birnie

Dave Birnie

Keith Gautreaux

Kelly Flynn

Kathy Larocque

Joan Birnie announced that the agreement with Custer County Foundation has been signed and the initial $40.00 investment and $50.00 Custer County Foundation management fee had been kindly donated by Dave and Joan Birnie and Nate and Lisa Bell respectively.

Dave Birnie discussed reusable shopping bags and announced that Bow Food Pride has agreed to donate free bags to be distributed at the Farm and Home Show in February. The group will need to create advertising for the Farm and Home Show booth prior to the show. Recycling receptacles at the new ballpark will be the focus of the group’s current fundraising efforts and will be promoted in the advertising and at the Farm and Home Show.

Next, discussion turned to handouts for the Farm and Home Show. It was noted that handouts for compact fluorescent bulb recycling was available, but not known if this would be useful.

Mean Electric, the company that performs the energy audits, is currently training an employee to perform energy audits. Mac McMeen had investigated residential energy audits and reported to Joan Birnie that currently the city has on loan an infrared camera for enhancing the thoroughness of the energy audit. The camera will be available through 1/8/2010.

Kelly Flynn mentioned that several nearby communities do not sort their recycling well and he will attempt to address this individually and at the Farm and Home Show.

It was recommended that items made from recyclable materials be available at the Farm and Home Show Booth to give attendees an idea of what can be created using the recycled materials collected by Kelly Flynn.

Kathy Larocque mentioned that there should be a recycling receptacle at the Farm and Home Show Booth in order the facilitate recycling. Kelly Flynn proposed that we also distribute recycling receptacles throughout the Farm and Home Show venue.

Kelly Flynn noted that the grant proposal for the paper shredder has been put on hold until at least September of 2010. This is due to the recycling center being overwhelmed by volume currently and not allowing any additional time to complete grants.

People who wish to donate to the Broken Bow Green Coalition may send checks to the Custer County Foundation with Broken Bow Green Coalition in the memo line to direct donations to the BBGC.

The next meeting of the Broken Bow Green Coalition will be 1/26/10 at 7 pm at the Broken Bow Public Library.

BBGC Meeting Minutes 12/1/2009

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:52:57 GMT

BBGC Meeting Minutes 12/1/2009

Members present:

Joan Birnie

Dave Birnie

Keith Gautreaux

Mac McMeen

Kathy Larocque

Joe Shea

The meeting was called to order at 7:10 p.m. by Joan Birnie. The first order of business discussed was regarding establishing a relationship with the Custer County Foundation. The consensus vote was yes. Discussion then moved to financing the Custer County Foundation dues which were determined to be $40/year.

Ideas for the Farm and Home Show were discussed. Most of these revolved around distributing educational materials at a booth at the Farm and Home Show. Dave Birnie suggested a questionnaire to elicit opinions about possible projects for the BBGC. Joe Shea reviewed the plans and options for recycling receptacles at the new baseball fields. The current hope is to have several baseball and softball tournaments at the new facility.

Joe Shea recommended that we approach the two grocery stores in town about subsidizing reusable grocery bags in exchange for advertising printed on the bag. These could be distributed at the Farm and Home Show. Kathy Larocque mentioned that some stores will gave a $0.02 discount for each plastic bag saved. It was decided that Dave Birnie and Joe Shea would contact the grocery stores regarding this plan. Limit two per family.

A seperate committee was proposed to execute the ideas proposed for the Farm and Home Show. Joan Birnie, Kelly Flynn, and Kathy Larocque formed the Farm and Home Show committee. They will also arrange a method to promote donations to the BBGC.

The city energy audit service was discussed next. Keith Gautreaux mentioned that he tried to arrange an energy audit for his house and was unsuccessful. Mac McMeen noted that he would determine the problem and try to streamline the promotion and execution of the city energy audit service. Mean Electric is the company that provides the electricity to the city and also provides the energy audit service.

Focus then changed to providing paper shredding for businesses in town. Kelly Flynn is in the process of submitting a grant for a paper shredder.

Discussion then turned to potential projects that funds could be raised to support. Suggestions were as follows:

1.) Pay $20 a month for the current web hosting.

2.) Promote energy audit service.

3.) Wind Turbine project.

4.) Weatherization project.

5.) Business recycling program.

6.) Business energy audit service.

7.) “Turn out your light night.”

8.) Subsidize power meters.

9.) Allow chickens within city limits. This was vetoed by Mac McMeen.

10.) Publish numbers from city energy usage, etc…

11.) Public event recycling bins.

12.) Petition restaurants to get rid of styrofoam.

The merits of these various options were discussed briefly, but no consensus was reached. Eventually it was decided that the recycling receptacles in the park would be the best project to focus on in the short term. These projects might be promoted through the radio, the Farm and Home Show, and in the paper.

The next meeting of the Broken Bow Green Coalition will be 12/29/09 at 7 pm at the Broken Bow Public Library.

BBGC Meeting Minutes 10/26/09

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:32:51 GMT

BBGC Meeting Minutes 10/26/09

Nate Bell

Lisa Bell

Dave Birnie

Norm McCaslin

Deb McCaslin

Joan Birnie

Keith Gautreaux

Shaleah Jones

Rick Nelson

Cheryl Taylor

Nate Bell, Lisa Bell, and Norm McCaslin introduced themselves and outlined the possibility of a “passthrough” system where people could donate to the Custer County Foundation and specify that the money be set aside for the Green Coalition. It would be a separate equity account and contributions would be tax deductible. Account balance greater than $2,700 would earn interest. It would essentially be a tax exempt savings account. This would avoid a 501c3 for the Green Coalition.

It was mentioned that the Custer County Foundation could be listed as requesting funds from the New Belgium grants rather than the Green Coalition thus avoiding the 5013c issue. The Custer Foundation has approximately thirty other passthrough accounts. Bulldog Education out of Sargent was one example. Lisa Bell stated she would approach the board regarding this issue.

Deb McCaslin mentioned that the confidence that most people have in the Custer County Foundation would be more beneficial than any individual effort by the Broken Bow Green Coalition. Norm McCaslin mentioned that BBGC would need to determine at what monetary donation level “thank you’s” should be sent out and how may checks were expected in a given year.

The consensus was that further information would be required from the Custer County Foundation Board in order to work out the details of this arrangement. Rick Nelson questioned what the downsides of this arrangement might be, but none could be enumerated at the present time. Norm McCaslin noted that most of the investments made by the Custer County Foundation are in low risk CD’s and Savings accounts which are very low risk even in the current economic climate.

At this point Norm McCaslin and Deb McCaslin left the meeting.

Joan Birnie mentioned that Lonnie Koepke was interviewed on the radio in Indianapolis at the FFA convention and mentioned the upcoming recycling education and highway cleanup.

Rick Nelson and Cheryl Taylor reported that a few weeks ago it was Nebraska Public Power week and over 1,000 incandescent bulbs were replaced with compact fluorescent bulbs. That means that 6,000 bulbs have been replaced by Custer County. This would be about equal to taking 12 houses off of the grid.

Custer Public Power will be exhibiting at the Farm and Home Show in February 2010 giving out reusable shopping bags and replacing even more lightbulbs. Dave Birnie noted that perhaps the BBGC should have a booth at the Farm and Home Show and the group asked for ideas to be brought to the next meeting.

Kelly Flynn arrived at the meeting and reported that 3-7 plastic could still not be recycled due to a very depressed market, but the recycling education program is still scheduled to take place 11/4/09 at Broken Bow Public Schools.

There was brief discussion about applying for grants to buy the recycling program a second pickup truck and Shaleah Jones volunteered to write this grant proposal.

Finally, it was mentioned that the City Utility will do home energy audits and it was recommended that interested parties contact the city.

Assignments for next meeting include ideas for Farm and Home Show exhibit, finding a more accurate carbon footprint calculator, and ideas for possible projects needing funding now that a plan is in motion to accept tax deductible donations through the Custer County Foundation.

The next BBGC meeting is scheduled for 12/1/09 at 7 p.m., location to be announced. Follow @greenbrokenbow on Twitter for location updates.

BBGC Meeting Minutes 9/29/09

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:42:01 GMT

BBGC Meeting Minutes 9/29/09

Members present:

Joan Birnie

Kelly Flynn

Lonnie Koepke

Denise Russell

Keith Gautreaux

Cheryl Taylor

Deb McCaslin

Mac McMeen

Kelly Flynn gave a report about the recent recycling events and distributed literature enumerating what could be made with the recycled materials, specifically the tire recycling. Two semi-trailers worth of tires were recycled within the first hour. An estimated 90 tons of tires were collected at the Broken Bow pickup alone. There were no figures available for the Lexington Landfill hazardous waste recycling effort, but reports indicated that the collection was significantly behind schedule because it was so successful. This only occurs once a year but there are more frequent collections in Kearney and Grand Island.

Lonnie Koepke then spoke about the upcoming Broken Bow School System recycling and conservation education. This will be scheduled at a later date but plans are in the works for creating a program for teaching the children to sort recycling.

Kelly Flynn noted that 3-7 category plastics are no longer being recycled. Only 1 and 2 category plastics will be accepted at this time. Category 1 will only be accepted in bottle form. No large mouth containers are accepted, i.e. the neck must be smaller in diameter than the base. It was recommended that this information be distributed through the website and through local media. It was suggested that examples of the types of plastics might be more helpful than simply reiterating the numbers. There is also plan to update the signage to better indicate what types of recyclables are collected.

Mac McMeen noted that the municipal building is now recycling as well as several other businesses around town.

Joan Birnie then discussed applying for non-profit status for the Broken Bow Green Coalition and Nate and Lisa Bell have agreed to research what this would entail. There also may be grants from the Fat Tire Brewery in Colorado for undertaking some projects but you must be a 501-C-3 non-profit entity. Suggested projects included a magnet to distribute to children for information on sorting the recycling, implementing and official business recycling program, or more community recycling bins. It was also suggested that the funds may be used partially for keeping the proposed biking trail that the city is to build clean and free of debris and with recycling bins. Kelly Flynn suggested looking into an environmental trust. Mac McMeen noted that the city is in line for a large grant for biking trails but could not be beholden to a group outside of the authority of the city.

Denise Russell demonstrated the chamber recycling bins, but they were deemed too small for use at events. There was expression of a need for a small recycling trailer placed at the new soccer and baseball facility to catch recycling during these events. Lonnie Koepke mentioned that a contest was held at a BBHS football game which resulted in collection of quite a few recyclable plastic bottles in exchange for a raffle ticket. It was suggested that the Nebraska Environmental Trust might be willing to fill a grant to purchase a couple of small trailers for use at these events.

Joan Birnie mentioned the the Central Nebraska Community Services weatherization program has been replacing drafty windows throughout Central Nebraska, but the funding does not cover the window framing if that is rotting or otherwise in disrepair.

Deb McCaslin noted that her husband sits on the Custer County Foundation Board and there is a possibility that the Broken Bow Green Coalition could establish a source of revenue under the Foundation’s umbrella. Deb’s husband Norm McCaslin will attend the October meeting and provide more information.

The next proposed meeting of the Broken Bow Green Coalition is Monday, 10/26/09 at 8:00 pm at the Broken Bow Chamber Office.