12/4/23 Meeting Agenda

6:30 pm Zoom

Updates (6:35 - 6:55)

  • Clean-up and vine cutting event (Holly and Pauline, Jock and Stosh)

  • Sturgis Moore garden and signage (Cheryl)

  • Water quality sampling demo with Chesapeake Alliance (Scott)

  • Corridor center development, community meeting and letter writing campaign (Jimmy)

  • Ending USGS Bee Lab native plant nursery and knotweed eradication programs (Brian)

  • James Kole - new roles and opportunities in City council (James)

  • New City notification system to enhance transparency and engagement, and unauthorized sustainability planning (Brian) 

  • Forest restoration, American legion and Sweitzer gardens - all good for the season

L4P 2024 planning - continued conversation (6:55 - 7:30)

  • Continue to maintain 4 public native gardens and forest restoration project and do litter clean-ups 

  • Website and communications - can’t be a shared duty

  • Few to no festivals

  • Rotation of bi-monthly meetings - members can choose to plan and lead meetings, following a specific template 

  • Promoting and facilitating genuine expertise in sustainability and environmental practices and planning in the city of Laurel (Brian)

12/4/23 Meeting Minutes

Attending the meeting – Jess Bolz, Brian Coyle, Carl DeWalt, Cheryl Dyer, Pauline Apling, Jock Haight, Holly Hoglund, Heidi Hess-Webber, James Kole, Scott and Holly Lilienthal, Mike McLaughlin, Kate Wright, Jimmy Rogers, Dave Everett, Liz Humes

Clean-up/Vine cutting – fifteen people participated in our event on November 18th.  Pauline, Holly, and Jock and a few volunteers pulled down vines east of the pool near the new trees and picked up trash.  It was a good turnout for the pre-Thanksgiving weekend.

Sturgis Moore Park – Howard EcoWorks planted in the new pollinator garden at the park.  They will be coming back to tidy up.  We are waiting on approval by Department of Parks and Recreation for a sign for the garden.

Water quality sampling demo with Chesapeake Alliance – the cost to do our own sampling along the river is $600 for equipment and $200 for an annual fee.  Scott is observing the water quality sampling process on December 18th.  That is the first step if we should decide to do our own water sampling.

Corridor Center development – L4P sponsored a great community meeting with Tom Dernoga and Kate Wright in November.  The presentations were very instructive.  Jimmy is putting together draft documents to educate our citizenry and encourage a letter-writing campaign.  He will meet with Jess and Brian to finalize the documents which will include a letter template for citizens and a fact sheet.

Volunteer activities being terminated – Laurel for the Patuxent will be shutting down our nursery at the Bee Lab due to a lack of available volunteers to do the work at the nursery.  We will also end the knotweed eradication project.  It has required a huge time commitment and money investment.  Vine cutting will continue.

Laurel City changes – City councilman James Kole will be serving on the Planning Commission.  City councilwoman Kayla Clark will serve on the Environmental Affairs committee.  A new city notification system is being proposed to our new administration and City Council.  The email notification system would reach out to interested citizens and organizations to give early notice of a variety of meetings, issues coming before the Laurel government, etc.  There will be opportunities for citizens to engage with the city in January.

L4P gardens – The gardens are in good shape for the winter.  The chronolog will be placed at Sweitzer Park’s garden shortly.

L4P 2024 planning as follows:

1)      We plan to continue forest restoration and garden projects.

2)      Jess is willing to maintain the website, email and Facebook.  Jimmy is willing to be her backup.

3)      Jess is also willing to be the Director for purposes of legal documentation.

4)      A discussion ensued regarding festivals.  The festivals require a considerable amount of planning and coordination.  We don’t have the manpower to oversee them so the recommendation is to discontinue our involvement.  It was suggested that the festivals are a key way that we engage with the public, getting volunteers and doing educational outreach.  Perhaps we could limit our participation to only two festivals . . .

5)      A discussion ensued regarding how to manage the administrative responsibilities of the organization.  The suggestion was made to rotate who plans and leads our meetings.  Triangular leadership is one idea.  Jimmy suggested that we have elections to cement in responsibilities.  Heidi suggested creating positions that match people’s interests.  Liz suggested more informal votes on positions, not requiring a formal election.  This conversation will continue in January.