Outreach Meeting – January 9, 2014

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Date of Meeting recorded: January 9, 2014

Next Scheduled Meeting of this Committee:

Date: February 13, 2014 at 8:30 AM

Location: Fifth Avenue Committee’s Offices

Agenda:

  • Review options for logo and tag line
  • Discuss web site statistics and review web site content
  • Discuss quarterly community outreach meeting

Agenda of January 9, 2014 Meeting:

6:30 – 7:20 PM: Member Updates

  • Facilitation committee process report – Patrick or Doug
  • Branding discussion – tagline and logo design ideas?
  • Josh – Website report (content updates, translation features, committee posts, training sessions)
  • Ariel – Materials report (Timeline, additional fact sheets, children’s material?)
  • Sabine – Video report (Youtube video of EPA ROD meeting)
  • Other Updates – TBD

7:20 – 7:45 Newtown Creek CAG Best practices discussion

  • Conversation with Leah Archibald, Newtown Creek CAG member and Executive Director of the East Williamsburg Valley Industrial Development Corporation

7:45 – 8:00PM: Other Business

  • 2014 CAG Meeting Calendar
  • Set Next O&E meeting date
  • Quarterly Community Outreach meeting
  • Action items?

Meeting Participants, January 9, 2014:

CAG Members

Sabine Aronowski
Michelle de la Uz
Stefan Doering
George Fiala
Rafael Gomez
Louis Kleinman
Ariel Krasnow
Eric McClure
John McGettrick
Josh Skaller
Bette Stoltz
Phaedra Thomas
Additional Participants
Leah Archibald (Newtown Creek CAG)
Natalie Loney, EPA
Terri Thomson
Pat Tallarico (Facilitator)

Updates

Meeting Minutes Template

The template for posting meeting minutes from full CAG meetings and Committee meetings is being finalized. The group had hoped to coordinate with the Facilitation Committee process, but that process is still under development. When the template is in place and notes are posted, they should be posted to the appropriate Committee page and linked to the calendar.

Action: Pat will coordinate with Ariel and Josh after the meeting to get the most current template. Pat will use that format for the notes from this meeting and provide them to Josh when finalized for posting to the CAG website.

Action: The O&E Committee will present the notes template and the O&E notes as an example to the full CAG at the January meeting. They will get feedback from the CAG and determine next steps for disseminating the template to all the Committees based on the feedback received.

The group briefly discussed the approach for posting materials to the website. Because meetings are open to the public, it was generally agreed that meeting minutes can be posted to the website. The O&E Committee has been focusing on getting materials posted that are otherwise publicly available before exploring other content that may require more debate by the full CAG.

The links to websites for those organizations represented on the CAG were provided to Josh. Josh still plans to incorporate these links into the website where these groups are listed.

Action: Josh will update the CAG website to incorporate the links to member organizational web sites. Louis sent the list to Josh in the fall and will resend if needed.

Website Status

The domain registration for gowanuscag.org expired in December without notice. Josh renewed the site and registered the gowanuscag.com site name as a backup. Josh has been paying for site registration directly and will let the Committee know if this becomes burdensome.

Branding

After reviewing the Newtown CAG website and in developing the Timeline factsheet, the Committee recognized that it would be helpful to have a tag line and logo for the CAG. Maryann was asked to start gathering feedback from the CAG on tag-line ideas (e.g., “Dishin the Dirt – Gowanus CAG”, “Understanding the Abbreviations”). Rafael volunteered to work on the logo and agreed to coordinate with Maryann to see if any progress has been made on the tag line. The Committee also agreed that it would be helpful to get input from the whole CAG on the tag line and the logo.

Action: Pat will ask Doug to forward a note to the full CAG seeking their suggestions on the tag line and logo. Suggestions should be provided to Maryann and Rafael.

Action: Rafael will develop options for the logo based on feedback received and provide options to the Committee at a future meeting.

Materials

The Committee reviewed the most current version of the timeline. It was updated since the October meeting to make it clearer that the document was a CAG product. The group had the following additional comments:

  • All the bold items should be linked to the appropriate places when it is posted on the website.
  • The reference to contacting EPA for more information at the bottom of the page should be removed to ensure that it is clearly a CAG document.
  • The current phase of the project should be highlighted so that people can easily see where the project is now.
  • Add “Canal” to the Gowanus CAG reference at the bottom to read Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group.
  • Add a reference to Gowanus Canal CAG to the top of the document.

Action: Ariel will make the changes to the document and the Committee will present it to the CAG at the full meeting in January.

Video from the ROD Release

Sabine filmed one of the sessions that EPA held for the release of the ROD and will be posting it to the CAG’s YouTube site.

Other Updates

  • FROGG has selected the Technical Assistance Grant recipient. The TAG is in the process of being awarded, and it will be announced when all of the paperwork is complete. The CAG should discuss the relationship of the TAG awardee to FROGG and the CAG at the next full CAG meeting.
  • The group discussed the fact sheets provided by one of the candidates for the TAG – one on PCBs and the other on the Superfund process. The PCB factsheet is not relevant for the Gowanus. The other factsheet contains information available through EPA’s website, so the Committee should feel free to use the information contained in it as appropriate.

Conversation with Newtown Creek Representative

Leah Archibald joined the group to share insights from the Newtown Creek CAG. The Newtown Creek CAG has about 20 members from both Queens and Brooklyn. The CAG has monthly meetings that alternate boroughs. They also have occasional phone calls. They have co-chairs that meet between CAG meetings and serve as spokespeople for the CAG when needed. There are no committees. The group has a common goal of having a clean industrial waterway.

The Newtown Creek Site is in the early stages of the Superfund process. Unlike the Gowanus, it has not been the subject of as many analyses. There are also a number of other differences between the Gowanus and the Newtown Creek site, including:

  • The industrial lots along Newtown Creek are significantly larger than those along the Gowanus.
  • Residents are generally separated from the Creek by these industrial sites, so there is less immediate connection to the contamination and its associated impacts.
  • There is much less residential development pressure along the Newtown Creek than there is along the Gowanus.
  • The CAG emerged from the Newtown Creek Alliance as opposed to the more open process that was used to form the Gowanus CAG.

CAG members asked the following questions:

  • How was your website developed and who manages it?
    • It was developed and is managed by the contractor that provides facilitation support for the CAG.
    • What kind of turnout do you get at meetings?
      • Turnout is generally not very high. Most residents are new and may not be as interested/aware of the issues.
      • What roles do DEP and DEC play?
        • Because the cleanup is primarily focused on the sediment for now, they have played less of a role. There are CSO problems, but they have not been a primary topic at meetings. DEP hired someone to represent them on the CAG. The city is a PRP, but they haven’t opposed the process.
        • What are your primary mechanisms for communication?
          • Members give constituents email updates regularly.
          • The CAG has the website.
          • Some members develop summaries of issues and send them out to their constituents in newsletters.
          • The Newtown Creek Alliance is also very good at communicating.
          • How many of Newtown constituents use the waterway?
            • Fifteen actually use it.  They have a lot of concerns, especially related to the impact of the cleanup process. There is a very active boat club that uses the creek on a daily basis.
            • How did the Newtown Creek CAG arrange for the DOH study?
              • Leah agreed to provide more information to the group about the DOH study.

Leah posed the following questions to the Gowanus CAG members:

  • How have you been able to wade through the large volumes of information generated for the Gowanus site and share that information in a way that is meaningful?
    • The dialogue with EPA has been excellent and open – everything has been transparent and easy to obtain.
    • For the Gowanus, EPA put a TASC contract in place. The contractor sifted through the RI/FS documents and distilled them into more manageable ones – a short factsheet and a five-page paper. Some of the community meetings that discussed these technical issues were still difficult, but because Gowanus residents had been engaged in contamination and cleanup issues long before the Superfund site, they were already fairly knowledgeable.
    • How do you get a TASC or TAG grant?
      • The TAG is a 50k grant. Wanda Ayala is EPA’s TAG coordinator for the Region. To get a TAG grant, a group must be a 501c3, it must advertise the grant opportunity, it must complete all relevant paperwork and ultimately manage the grant.
      • The TASC contract is managed by EPA but can be a vehicle for accessing technical assistance for the group. EPA maintains control of the contract and manages the work.
      • Below is a link to a fact sheet from EPA Region 2 that describes these programs: http://www.epa.gov/region2/waste/dupont_pompton/pdf/tag_v_tasc.pdf

Future O&E Committee Meetings

The group agreed to meet next on February 13th at 8:30 AM. George suggested that the group consider meeting at local business establishments as a way to promote more connection to the community.

Pat will ask Doug to think about the 2014 calendar of meetings for the full CAG and discuss that at the next full CAG meeting in January.

Announcements

There will be a Bridging Gowanus meeting on January 16th at 6:30 PM at PS58 (330 Smith Street). This is an opportunity for groups working on environmental issues in the neighborhood to connect.

The TedX Gowanus will be held on January 26th. It will be a day-long seminar on all things Gowanus.

Summary of Actions

Action: Pat will coordinate with Ariel and Josh after the meeting to get the most current template. Pat will use that format for the notes from this meeting and provide them to Josh when finalized for posting to the CAG website.

Action: The O&E Committee will present the notes template and the O&E notes as an example to the full CAG at the January meeting. They will get feedback from the CAG and determine next steps for disseminating the template to all the Committees based on the feedback received.

Action: Josh will update the CAG website to incorporate the links to member organizational web sites. Louis sent the list to Josh in the fall and will resend if needed.

Action: Ariel will make the changes to the timeline document, and the Committee will present it to the CAG at the full meeting later this month.

Topics for Full CAG meeting

  • Discuss call for tag line and logo ideas
  • Share timeline and demonstrate how it has been posted to the website
  • Share meeting summary template and show how the O&E meeting was posted to the CAG website
  • Discuss 2014 CAG meeting schedule

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