BBGC Meeting Minutes 7/27/09

Kelly Flynn stated Tire recycling/collection scheduled for Wedneday September 9th. This year tire collection has been expanded to unlimited amounts and not confined to only Custer County. Computer recycling/collection occurs at all times for a specific fee. There is a possibility of a free collection program in the works. Paper shredding is currently not done at the recycling center, but there is consideration of a grant to obtain a shredder. WasteCap NE is considering setting up a compact fluorescent recycling center in Custer County. Under the proposed program residential CFL’s would be free to recycle and commercial fluorescents would be recycled for a small fee. Kelly Flynn also mentioned that cell phone and rechargeable batteries can be recycled at the recycling center as well. Prescription bottles can also be recycled.

Denise Russell mentioned that at the Custer County parade barbeque this year there will be plastic water bottles, and wondered whether recycling recepticles could be placed to collect all of the empties so that they could be recycled by Kelly Flynn. Grants for permanent or semi-permanent recycling containers in place at the city square were discussed. Kelly Flynn mentioned that he would prefer to purchase the recycling recepticles outright rather than write a grant for it given the fairly minimal cost of these recepticles. The city empties the trash from the square generally on Thursdays, and possibly would be willing to remove the recycling from the recepticles. Many people mentioned that the recepticles would be misused for regular trash by people unwilling to walk to regular trash cans or those not paying attention to the recepticles. It was thought that proper labeling or smaller opening to the recepticles would encourage people to use them appropriately.

Discussion then turned to possibly trying with next years barbeque to use recyclable or biodegradeable plates and utensils as the current plates are styrofoam and the utensils are plastic. Donations are not allowed at the free barbeque and so the issue of who would pay for these upgrades is still up in the air. Joan Birnie then mentioned that Mac McMeen had made clear that he wanted the focus of the Broken Bow Green Coalition to remain weatherization and efficiency programs for homes and residences in Broken Bow. It is currently unknown whether the results of the recent income survey will qualify Broken Bow for federal aid.

Discussion then returned to the barbeque. Joe Shea wondered whether we could encourage “bring your own table settings” for people to bring plates and utensils from home. Plastic plates were noted not to be recyclable unless they were #6 plastic and were clean.

Questions regarding greenbrokenbow.org were discussed including links, hits, and popularity. Keith Gautreaux mentioned that work on the website has stalled due to lack of time to work on it. Dave Birnie opined that sandhillsexpress.com counted visitors instead of just website hits to try to differentiate true human visitors instead of search engine spidering or automated web crawlers.

Vicki Hohlfeld then discussed issues regarding Becton-Dickinson and mentioned that their focus recently has been biodegradeable cleaning supplies and the carbon footprint of BD as a company. Most companies are not required to meet certain practices in order to specify themselves as “Green”. Shaleah Jones mentioned that for household cleaning supplies there are consumer guidance websites that will help pick cleaning products with truly reduced environmental impact. She did not remember the URL’s for these sites but did mention that she would post to the website with links to these resources.

The City of Broken Bow does not have a city-wide directive for environmentally friendly or sustainable practices. Joan Birnie will attempt to make this a city wide directive if costs can be mitigated.

Custer Public Power will have a booth at the County Fair discussing issues regarding energy independence. Within the next couple of weeks a decision will be made whether the wind power site east of Broken Bow will be implemented. A request for proposals is currently out for per business renewable energy implementations by Nebraska Public Power

Most farms can provide some of their own power using such systems and reduce costs significantly.

The Broken Bow Farmer’s Market was then discussed. The weather has slowed some of the attendance at the most recent farmer’s markets. It was mentioned that the hours of operation for the local farmer’s market are hurting the attendance. Denise Russell noted that the hours used to be set because it was more convenient for BD employees, however, since BD now has 12 hour shifts this is not currently an issue. Most people cannot attend the farmer’s market because of the current hours. A campaign was proposed to consider changing to evening hours so more people could attend. In the past this has been rejected because the vendors feel the produce would be sitting out for too long. No resolution to this issue was met.

Denise Russell thanked the volunteers for helping with the Keep Broken Bow Beautiful litter survey. The city is now in good standing with Keep Nebraska Beautiful and received several litter recepticles as a thank you for completing the survey. Kelly Flynn mentioned that he could probably arrange for a few similar recepticles to be placed in the square during the barbeque. It was recommended by Dave Birnie that the Broken Bow Green Coalition attend a county supervisor’s meeting and encourage the hire of additional labor to help Kelly Flynn complete his directive to improve the recycling programs of Custer County. The county supervisors meeting to discuss this is scheduled to occur in the middle of August and letter of support for increasing the recycling program budget was proposed. Any letters should probably be sent the county clerk, but Kelly felt that the county supervisors board understood his situation and was sympathetic to his requests. Discussion then turned to federal economic stimulus money that might be available to help hire additional labor for the recycling center.

Kelly Flynn noted that mandated public service for some current jail residents improves the efficiency of the recycling center but that this labor cannot be counted on to be consistent.

The next meeting of the Broken Bow Green Coalition is scheduled for August 31st, 2009. The meeting was then adjourned.