PEAT Peaks Environmental Action Team

Minutes from January 2, 2012

Attendees:

Howard Pedlikin
Sam Saltonstall
Bill Oliver
Mary Anne Mitchell
Steve Demos
Vinnie Demos

Island Fellow news

Howard provided the following checklist for us to consider while planning for the forthcoming year and for consideration in our application for an island fellow. We began by discussing what could be eliminated, combined, added and prioritized. The group eliminated #8, #10 & #15 and added #18 #19 & #20.

PEAKS PEAT Environmental/Ecological Issues

1. Shoreline Management

   We looked at a slide show prepared by Lynne Richard nearly two years ago following our first meeting with the Portland DPW about excessive cutting on the back shore (see attachments). Although those of us who attended the mtg thought it had been at least partially successful, the cutting has continued and is, if anything, more extreme. Jeff Tarling, who seemed willing to cooperate with us at that time, has more recently stated (see the Jan Island Times) that he approves of the current mowing practices. Howard said that AJ had checked with homeowners along Seashore Avenue, most of whom approved of removing the bushes. We believe that he also consulted PILP before mowing. So far both parties have disregarded the fact that the removal of this shoreline barrier against erosion is illegal. He seems not to have solicited the support of any other islanders so we have no way of gauging the sentiments of this larger group. Mary Anne read the letter of an occasional visitor to Peaks who recently walked along the back shore and was dismayed to see the loss of so many shrubs, particularly the roses. We will forward this to the Island Times. It might be good if those of us opposed to the mowing were more vocal and public about our concerns since the sampling of opinion so far appears to be slantedin one direction.

   Vinnie will take the following steps:

   1. Find out whether rugosa roses are, in fact, considered to be invasives and consult the Extension Service about best practices for keeping them healthy and controlled

   2. Investigate the complexities of creating a shoreline management plan
   3. Write a letter to PLIP expressing our concern and asking whether they have any intention of creating such a plan and whether they could use our help. Perhaps it would be good to solicit the support in including this in our possible agenda for the island fellow.
   4. Print some display copies of Lynne’s slides and find a place to display them

2. Old dumps closures maintenance/sample drilling and testing

   There are at least five previous or current dump sites on the island, and most of them may well be polluted. The city had promised to do sample testing every 2 years and make the results public. This has never been done.

   There is some concern that Peaks has a higher than normal frequency of cancer among full time residents.

   1. Howard will write to Mike Bobinsky to ask that testing be done.
   2. Mary Anne will inquire about the removal of toxic waste on Long Island to find out what lead up to this action and how it was paid for.

3. CMP building ownership/maintenance/contamination status

   Sam will try to find out why and how, since our community was told the site was so contaminated as to be unusable, the building is now being renovated for office use by the power company.

4. Old (leaking or abandoned) cars removal

   Mary Anne has made some progress on this front, but was dismayed to find that the police had no information about the exact process for removing cars and had no mechanism for even ticketing them consistently due to the frequent change in police coverage every day or so.

   The PIC has asked that we repeat our announcements in the Star and Island Times about how to get an unusable car towed off the island.

   1. Vinnie will do this, after consulting with Paul Bridges about how the process should work.
   2. PEAT will go back to the PIC and ask them to work with the city and the police to establish a protocol for ticketing cars in the parking lot and other public spots where people have overstayed the published number of days or hours posted.

5. Joe Payne briefing – TEIA on 7/31/2012

   The TEIA has this event on their calendar for next summer. PEAT should support them by advertising this event when the time comes. Vinnie suggested that we get information about a man named Tucci or something close to that who wrote a book about maintaining lawns organically. Perhaps he would be an additional resource. Vinnie will check for his correct name & address .

6. Project Canopy – tree management

   This is part of the Tree City USA program, in which the city of Portland participates: http://www.maine.gov/doc/mfs/projectcanopy/pages/resource/TCUSA.htm

   They run, for instance, the Maine Registry of Big Trees. That’s something we might consider entering or, more likely, replicating on a community level as an activity with school kids.

   They offer a variety of resources, including help with initiating a tree survey. See the attached brochure for more information.

7. (Cancer on Peaks and relationship to contamination sources)

   See #2

8. City water availability for citizens to drink and fight fires

9. Energy efficiency projects for homes – insulation, windows, etc.

   Sam will keep us informed about possibilities at a later date.

10. Brush hazards – fire, woods walks

11. (Erosion of shoreline)

    See #1

12. Litter issues – trash, cigarette butts, etc.

    Ongoing. We need to press the city to have public works guys spend more time cleaning & sweeping the parking lot and gutters down front where toxic refuse is likeliest to wash into the ocean.

13. (DEP (State and Federal) involvement in these issues)

    See #1

14. City responsibility for Peaks issues

    We should urge the PIC to work on this

15. "Swap shack" at transfer station

16. City DPW and Peaks DPW responsibilities for Peaks issues

    Similarly, this is an issue for the PIC.

17. Dealing with invasive species – swallow tail vine, bamboo

18. New edition of the island brochure

    Vinnie will get a copy of the one originally created by Lynne Richard for distribution to visitors and summer renters and work on doing a new one.

19. Guidelines for the use of chemicals & pesticides

20. Water & Soil qualities

The group agreed that numbers 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 19, 20 and possibly 12 would be the beginning of an agenda for an island fellow when we get started on the formal application.

Attendees:

Sam Saltonstall
Justin Palmer
Mary Anne Mitchell
Steve Demos
Vinnie Demos

Garden report

The T.E.I.A. has awarded the gardeners a $200 grant to help with the expenses of getting a summer water line to the garden. An application to the Peaks Island Fund for the same use was denied at this time, but they encouraged us to reapply for the next regular funding round in summer.

Sam will now inquire whether the city has included the garden water line in its budget for next year.

Gas powered leaf blowers

Karen Friedman suggested that PEAT initiate a ban on gas-powered leaf blowers due to their noise pollution. Mary Anne commented that a number of communities in California had successfully banned them, but that the law was infrequently enforced. Same would probably be true on Peaks.

More discussion followed about the next steps.

Island Fellow suggestions

My order of preference would be:

1. A weatherization and energy efficiency effort
2. Effort with youth related to protecting the Peaks environment and tied to the school’s curriculum and after school enrichment program (could include 4-H idea or something similar)
3. Tree protection including research into related laws and an inventory of trees on public rights of way

Old business

• Junk mail: CatalogChoice.org and DMAchoice.org are good resources
• Cynthia’s tree: Mary Anne is on this, and Jeff Tarling will deliver a tree in the spring.

Tree cutting restrictions separate from those in Portland

Before starting on this, we should all make ourselves familiar with the existing legislation about street trees in Portland: http://www.portlandmaine.gov/publicworks/ordin.asp

Mary Anne will research to see what , if anything, other communities have done to prevent cutting trees on private property.

Treasurer's report

Howard phoned to say that nothing had gone on since his October report.

Trott Littlejohn status

Vinnie noticed that, in a letter he wrote to the Island Times, Ted Haykal mentioned Trott Litlejohn as a possible site for parking fuel trucks. Is this a serious option?

Is the wisteria filled area on the other side of Upper A part of Trott Littlejohn? Somebody thinks Jubal knows about this.

(from Jubal) The wisteria parcel kitty-corner from the T-J entrance is owned by the city, but not zoned "Recreation/Open Space" and not part of T-J to the best of my knowledge.

Wind

In what is probably his final wind report, Sam said he would suggest to the wind group that the remainder of their funds be added to PEAT’s general expense budget.

They have stopped meeting, but still plan to send comments to Efficiency Maine as to how they could incorporate more useful information into their final report.

Cutting on the back shore

Mary Anne suggested that, since much of it has been done in the winter & early spring months, this would be a good time to revisit the issue.

Although we met with a bunch of people at the city last year, it had little effect. She suspects that A.J.. who was at the meeting, failed to pass on any of what transpired to his crew. They continued to cut enthusiastically!

PEAT MINUTES FOR OCTOBER 3, 2011

Attendees:

Mary Anne Mitchell
Bill Oliver
Howard Pedlikin
Steve Demos
Vinnie Demos

Coastal Cleanup Rehash

The cleanup effort was a success, due mostly to the efforts of students and teachers from the Aucocisco School in Cape Elizabeth, who came a week earlier and hauled an enormous amount of debris up to the road all along Seashore Ave. We will write and thank them. It was difficult to enlist the efforts of our own school or other kids’ organizations. The group felt it would be important to contact the school much earlier next time, perhaps even late this spring. Mary Anne volunteered to go now and follow up with more info about this year’s cleanup and how it might tie in with curriculum. She will also get in touch with the head of King Middle School in hopes of involving them next year since some of their students are from Peaks. Vinnie mentioned that the author of Tracking Trash, a copy of which we gave to the library, might be a good speaker at the school or at the Peaks Island Lecture series.

Garden report

Mark Hall has started milling lumber for the garden shed siding and the gardeners plan to resume their construction efforts as soon as he’s done.

The gardeners have come up with what promises to be a more workable solution for coordinating with the island food pantry next year.

The indefatigable Justin Palmer has earned another $115 selling his t-shirts to benefit the garden.

The mix-up at the insurance company has been resolved and everything’s set for another year to the tune of $501.

Idling

Mary Anne has the name of someone in Portland, who’s in charge of reducing idling. He reports that some but not all of the bus companies are on it to some extent. Mary Anne talked with some of the drivers, and they said their employers had requested that they not idle. Other companies are not so proactive. Could we go in there and take photos or record license plates of idling buses? Time Warner has something built into their trucks that allows them to work while the engine’s not running. If they can do it, why can’t the police cars??

Junk Mail

Mary Anne suggested that we investigate ways to reduce household junk mail and then publish contacts on both email lists.

Vinnie will investigate further, but if you want to make a start right now, go to

http://volunteerguide.org/volunteer/fifteen/junk-mail.htm

and follow their various links.

Maine Tree Club

Cynthia Cole forwarded information about the Maine Tree Club run by the extension service at the University of Maine. Mary Anne took it home to look over and if she thinks it useful, PEAT will buy her an individual membership. The institutional membership, a more costly option, would allow us to attend field trips as a group. This doesn’t seem a likely activity for us., but would be great for families. To read more about it, go to http://extension.umaine.edu/mainetreeclub/MTC.htm

Mary Anne

Everyone should be aware that Mary Anne Mitchell is running for the Peaks Island Council. Among other things, she hopes to get the city to be more active in cleaning up in areas where cigarette butts and other refuse can wash into Casco Bay and in preventing unnecessary idling of tour busses and other vehicles.

We should all be aware that, due to our tax exempt status, PEAT cannot support her or be involved in any way in her election campaign. So be sure that any help or publicity you choose to give her is clearly on an individual basis!

Meeting time and place

The group decided to try out meeting at the community room in hopes of attracting more attendees. It seems that it might be less daunting to sample a meeting in a space where it’s possible to look in the door before you decide whether to go in, Vinnie will talk to Denise Macaronis to see whether we can arrange to do this at our usual time on the first Monday of each month.

New board members

Karen Friedman will be joining us after November. There was some discussion of whether or not Rachel Conly had agreed to rejoin PEAT. Mary Anne thought not. Vinnie thought she was willing to give it a try again. Perhaps meeting at the community room will be helpful to her.

Remaine

Justin Palmer dropped by with a brochure for his new business, remaine, which makes tables out of driftwood and other recycled materials. At our suggestion, he donates a portion of his proceeds to the Ocean Conservancy. His website, when completed, will be www.remaine.org

In the meantime, get in touch with him if you want a brochure.

Tree planting in parking lot

We will definitely put off planting the parking lot's red oak until next spring. Mary Anne is in charge of prodding Jeff Tarling to deliver it. Vinnie will take charge of making a permanent plaque for it.

Treasurer’s report

Howard brought a draft copy of this month’s report. If you want to look at the final one, email him for a copy. In general, PEAT has a tiny bit of money, the garden has a lot, and the wind group is winding down its account.

Other Items

What next? Not many members, no new projects, but very good reputation & name recognition How about a cider press???

As we toil away on less glamorous projects like cleanup, recycling reduction of runoff into the bay and less pollution from idling vehicles, it would be nice to have some other stuff happening to keep us in the public eye.

Bill will consult Brad Burkholder about making some kind of bicycle powered machine that we could demonstrate at PeaksFest next year.

Vinnie hopes to write a grant application for money to buy a cider press so that we could organize some community activities around the enormous number of untended and unharvested fruit trees around the island.

Wind report

The wind group is winding down its operations, having received a final report finding that we simply do not have enough wind on Peaks. First, however, they plan to push for a more useful document than they found the report to be in its current form.

Attendees:

Vinnie Demos
Jubal Kessler
Sam Saltonstall

Due to the holiday and more particularly to Vinnie’s incorrect date on the original emails, we had a meeting of three people tonight. So we covered just the essentials and went home.

Coastal cleanup

Sam will sign us up with the Maine Coast Week group as Peaks Island shoreline. Vinnie will attempt to do the same with the Ocean Conservancy group.

We will set up an area on Sterling Street beside the community room in which to collect refuse all week (Sept 17 to 24). We will put down a tarp to define the area and then put out spackle buckets and trash cans labeled for a variety of different items such as rope, plastic, cigarette butts, etc. We will make posters to go on the side of the building as well as some kind of display to hang up under the covered area outside the library.

We will send out notices on the email lists at the beginning and at about mid-week.

We will put a sandwich board down front and posters on the boat and at the terminal. We hope to have some volunteers to man a table down front on Saturday the 17th.

Vinnie and Steve will drive around the island several times during the week to pick up any heavier items people leave by the roadside.

Since the final day conflicts with the Common Ground Fair, we will attempt to wrap things up in the morning hours.

Please contact Vinnie to help:

• set up display
• make posters
• man a table down front
• do truck runs
• plan music & pr for the tally on Sat morning of the 24th
• take photos to send to Maine Coast Week website and for our own use
• do some hours of cleanup during the week
• contact somebody at the school & childrens’ workshop

Cynthia Cole’s tree party

Sam will have a potluck at his house on Sept. 15 (or whatever Thursday we can arrange after that) at 6:15 so Cynthia can just come off the boat to Sam's. He will coordinate with her son to be sure she gets on and off the island on the correct date and time. We will give Cynthia a mockup of the sign which will eventually go on the oak tree we plant down at the entrance to the parking lot. As well as PEAT board members, we will invite Jenny Yasi and Albert Presgraves, and the Joe and Susan Kane. The party will be short but with lots of food, which she always likes. It would be nice if we could plan a way to include extras for her to take home and have later!

Please contact Vinnie to:

1. sign up to come and bring food so Sam and Linda have a head count
2. work with Jeff Tarling & A.J. to get the tree planted
3. take Cynthia back to the boat and ride across with her, or even drive her home

Garden Report

The new insurance policy, which runs from October 1, 2011 to September 30, 2012, will be $501. Howard needs to send a check for that amount to Noyes Hall and Allen Insurance.

Jubal and Sam agreed to prorate the insurance payment for the wind group from August 27th to the tune of $45. Since no money actually changes hands, Howard needs only to change his spreadsheet to reflect this agreement.

Jubal has learned from Jeff Tarling that the city has its own standards for doing water lines, and that we must work through them to get one for the garden. To that end, he is now in contact with Troy Moon and Mike Murray, and will prepare information about the two sites recommended by the city on Brackett Street and Upper A streets. The two drawbacks to the Brackett site are that the line must run uphill and that PILP may object to its placement.

Wind report

Shortly after the tower was removed, Sam got a report from the University of Maine that our site was not viable. He forwarded that to Lawrence Mott and Mick Wormsley, who had slightly differing takes on the wind results. The core wind group will meet with them to discuss it all and decide whether to fish or cut bait.

PEAT meeting July 14, 2011

Attendees:

Bill Oliver
Justin Palmer
Mary Anne Mitchell
Sam Saltonstall
Steve Demos
Vinnie Demos

Coastal Cleanup

Vinnie will make a plan, simplified from last year, to encourage islanders to collect plastics (especially cigarette butts) from the shoreline. Perhaps we could choose one centrally located drop-off spot where people could leave stuff all week. Then have a counting/tallying party with music at the end. How about if Denise and Priscilla would allow us to fill up the little slot behind the community room or next to it on Sterling St. We could make a banner to mark the spot and also give info about plastic in the ocean?

Parking lot cleanup

Sam will contact Sandy? and Mary Anne will speak to Desi about strategies for knotweed control or even eradication. Then next week they will establish a protocol for attacking the knotweed in the parking lot down front:

How to control it
Where to stack it for pick-up
Who picks it up and when

Parking lot oak tree

We will arrange for a red oak to be planted in the fall and dedicated to Cynthia Cole. Steve will research bronze plaques and order one approximately 8 1/2” x 5 1/2” to be made asap so that we can show it to Cynthia and have a little presentation/going away party for her this summer.

Cigarette butts

Vinnie will prepare single short messages about cigarette butt/plastic damage in the ocean and email them once a week to Sam, who will post them down front on his sandwich board. We will attempt to make them short, interesting or even amusing, and regularly posted in hopes that folks will begin to notice them and look forward to the next one. We will figure out the best way to publicly thank those businesses who have agreed to put out butt containers and keep them emptied.

PeaksFest Tree Show

A good number of islanders contributed art work and, thanks to Sam’s participation in the parade as a walking tree with a poster for the show, it was well attended. The library continued to display most of the pictures until this week and Priscilla reports that folks enjoyed it a lot. Next year we plan to dress up as knotweed plants and march in the parade as an advancing army of invasive species. Perhaps more PEAT members could attend with shovels and pickaxes and we could stage a mock battle!

Community garden report

The garden shed is progressing slowly but steadily and now has the framing up for three walls. The new waist-high herb garden, which is wheelchair accessible, has been completed and planted as well as five hand-made self-watering containers made of spackle buckets. The garden is looking good. The Brackett Church is including it in their island garden tour on July 30 from 10 to 3.

Wind report - what happened at Tuesday night meeting about wind ordinance in Portland

Sam attended the meeting and reports that not many changes were made from the original draft of the ordinance, which would limit turbines to a height of 160 feet in some recreational and open-space areas. He said, though, that it would b e possible to appeal for a variance in special cases. For residential areas, the zoning height limit of 45 feet – although an improvement on the first draft proposal of 35- pretty much makes it an impossibility.

All terrain vehicles at Trott Littlejohn

Teenagers have been riding an ATV around the community garden and through the area recently torn up by the logging operation. Vinnie spoke with them and pointed out that it would be helpful if they rode elsewhere once the area was reseeded so that it wouldn’t become a complete dustbowl. They seemed amenable to that idea and said they could ride at Battery Steele. On the other hand, as Stephen pointed out, the park location is eminently suitable for this recreational use because it’s away from houses and traffic...

Art on the Porch – NOT

Too much going on in the next month for Vinnie to participate, but she hopes to plan ahead and do a table next year for selling various PEAT publications.

Peaks Island Fund grant for operating expenses

The Peaks Island Fund has awarded us $300 to use for operating expenses. The hope is that, by eliminating the need to spend personal funds on stuff like printing, postage and lamination, we can more easily attract younger members as well as those on fixed incomes. With a larger member base, we might be able to do a single annual even to cover such expenses in future years.

Proposed change of meeting date -  once again!

The group decided to move back to our original meeting time of the first Monday of every month. There will be no August meeting since it would come up so soon. Instead we will try to arrage a field trip to visit Mark Shain’s micro farm and chat about permaculture on Peaks. Sam volunteered to set this up.

PEAT Meeting Thursday June 9

Attendees:

Cynthia Cole
Demetri Demos
Howard Pedlikin
Justin Palmer
Mary Anne Mitchell
Steve Demos
Vinnie Demos

Art on the porch: cards, postcards, bumper stickers & booklets from PEAT?

Vinnie suggested participating in Art on the Porch at the Fifth Maine as a way of getting PEAT in the public eye. Most if not all of the material we’ve published at various times were of her design, which would qualify us to have a table. She would be willing to produce enough stuff to sell if PEAT would pay for printing supplies plus the $25 registration and members would agree to take turns sitting there and talking about PEAT on Sunday, August 14th from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Garden report

The garden is fully subscribed and doing well despite some discouraging weather early on. The new shed is under way and we put up the first wall last week. Vinnie got an additional $500 from the Island Institute for its completion. Justin got $150 seed grant from the Cumberland County Master Gardener Association.

Grant Proposal for Peaks Island Fund due by June 20. Any ideas?

We discussed three possible ideas:

• money for miscellaneous expenses of running PEAT. While projects we sponsor, such as the garden or the wind tower, are able to generate grant money and contributions, our day to day expenses for postage, paper, ink and so forth are less glorious and tend to be shouldered by individual members. It would be nice to have a hundred dollars or so of unearmarked money.

• money to have a professionally written survey about environmental priorities of Peaks Islanders as well as stipends for some island teenagers to circulate the surveys and compile the results

• money to research and deseminate information about island-wide control of invasive plants, especially Japanese knotweed

Vinnie will take a stab at #1 and #2, and Mary Anne will tackle #3. They both plan to solicit feedback from everyone.

Logging Trucks

Jubal is concerned about restoration of the meadow area at Trott Littlejohn where the logging trucks have been working. He soke with Lynne Richard who forwarded his concerns to Mike Murray. We expect to hear back from Mike and/or the State Forester about plans for that area.

Update: Mike Murray replied on June 17th and said the forester, Rene Noel of Southern Maine Forestry Services Inc., will be doing some re-seeding. Jubal asked Steve Bushey to call Rene to provide additional guidance on restoring that part of the park.

Plans for PeaksFest: Tree Show, Parade? Dock Day?

Vinnie & Judi Clancy are working on the Tree Show. Not too late to send one of them stuff to be included! It will start out near the Community Room and possibly move down to the dock after the library closes. No word yet about a parade.

Party for Cynthia Cole: When? Where? Present from PEAT? (personal island bike rack? plaque of some sort? mayoral proclamation?

This was removed from the agenda when Cynthia appeared unexpectedly for the meeting. We did talk a bit after she went home. Demetri suggested planting a tree in her honor and we agreed that, whatever party plans emerge, this would be a good gesture, and one she would appreciate.

Sam and Mary Terry both wrote and offered to help on a party. Sam suggested writing a poem about her activities as an environmental activist on Peaks. She will be moving out of the Island House by July 1st.

Treasurer’s report

PEAT	$23.18
Wind	$411.22
Garden	$2047.22

Trees for down front

Mary Anne contacted Jeff Tarling about the trees as follows:

Someone from PEAT contacted you a while ago about getting three oak trees for down front in the parking lot on Peaks. We are sorry we are so delayed on this but we had someone in the group that has been having medical problems so things got put off. I spoke with AJ about digging holes for the trees and he wanted to know how big they would be. Can you still do this for us? We would need some time again to do other preparation so just let me know. Thanks.

Mary Anne

and received the following note:

From: Jeff Tarling
To: Mary Anne Mitchell
Cc: AJ Alves; Mike Murray; Troy Moon
Sent: Fri, June 10, 2011 3:22:47 PM
Subject: Re: Trees for down front

Hi Mary Anne -

Red Oak was the request, we can see what is available, good to get the planting done before July.

Jeff

Wind report

Sam says, "Nothing much to report about wind -- the results continue to be marginal. Tower comes down late August and we'll decide what, if anything, to do next after a full year of data is assembled. We have to pay a full insurance payment, most of which will be rebated. If PEAT cannot handle it, I'll front the money."

The group agreed to use money from the garden account to make up the difference between what wind has ($411.22) and the full insurance payment. Sam should forward the bill to Howard.

PEAT meeting April 14, 2011

This being the annual meeting, we re-elected the entire board of directors and added Rachel Conly to its number:

Many thanks to our outgoing President, Mary Terry, for her tireless service!

The treasurer’s report revealed the following amounts in the bank:

Garden             $1127
Wind               $607.97
PEAT              $22.86

The PIC still has money belonging to PEAT. Mary Anne can account for it and arrange that it go to the city for the Big Belly trash compactor.

The Fifth Maine also has money belonging to PEAT: $229.03. We will ask Carol Kinney to deal with it.

The Community Gardeners are holding a work day on April 30, to which everyone is invited. Thanks to the efforts of Vinnie and Jubal they have received two grants from the Healthy Portland Fund, $715 for the Waist-High garden project and $750 for a shed and gardening tools. Those checks are expected within the next 3 or 4 weeks.

The remainder of this brief meeting was devoted to plans for PEAT’s Earth Day celebration on Saturday, April 23. The poster, listing activities,  is attached to this email. Steve is in charge of coordinating Island Clean-Up. Mary Anne is doing the seedling give-away. Bill is making buttons to give those who participate in the Clean Up. Vinnie is running the Earth Box Raffle. There was some discussion about an oak tree from the city, which we had originally planned to plant that day down by the parking lot. Since Jeff Tarling has not yet given a final delivery date for the tree, we chose not to include it in the list of events. Jubal will try to get in touch with the city and arrange for its delivery as soon as possible. Vinnie will try to coordinate with  AJ and Pattie about agreeing on an exact spot and possible assistance in digging a hole. There were several suggestions about people to include in the tree planting event, once a date is chosen: Pam Richards, Stan Newell, Jim Lausier, Syd & Jane Gerrard.

We urge everyone to attend the second movie in the community room at 8 o’clock that evening,  A Man Called Paul. Maybe we could bring some nibbles and call it a party.

PEAT Minutes for January 13
Bill Oliver, Howard Pedlikin,  Jubal Kessler,  Mary Anne Mitchell,  Sam Saltonstall,  Steve Demos,  Vinnie Demos
 
NEW BUSINESS:
How I Know I’m a Bean  - Vinnie displayed a copy of Justin Palmer’s new little picture book for young children about fruits and vegetables. She proposed to give it to the library or the Children’s workshop with a book plate from PEAT. Bill Oliver suggested sending a copy to the chef, Jamie Oliver, who is a big proponent of education schoolchildren about options for healthy eating. In the meantime, anyone who wants a copy can order one at www.lulu.com. Its ID number is 9555951.
 
PIC - What is our relationship with them? Several people have observed that, without the Peaks Island Council as a backup, we have very little clout when negotiating with the city. It remains to be seen what will happen with the new group, but their laid back approach to island affairs is not reassuring so far. We had extended a last-minute invitation to tonight’s meeting but nobody was able to attend. The group agreed, until further discussion, to send them minutes of our meetings and to try and forge a relationship. In the past the PIC has been our conduit for gaining support for environmental issues. Our impression is that the city will not give them serious attention until they agree on a formal meeting place and time that will encourage participation of city officials.
 
Renewal of domain for greenerpeaks.org -  We agreed to pay $10.60 to renew the domain for greenerpeaks.org. Jubal will forward the bill to Howard.
 
Summer water for the community garden  - The Community Gardeners would like to extend the summer water line on Upper A Street for use at the garden. Lynne Richard has advised us as follows: Re: water---  You do need to check with public services, because someone needs to 'own' the water lines- and since it's city property it seems logical that they would be the customer.  They would need then to submit to the PWD for an extension of the line- and yes, metering would occur and water use would be billed to the city.  I'm sure Mike Bobinsky knows how to proceed. Mike Bobinsky has not yet replied. Jubal will now try Mike Murray. Sam inquired whether, and Jubal hoped, the city would be asked to bear the expense of this improvement.
 
Volunteers for PEAT activities via Chris Hoppin – Mary Anne In December Chris Hoppin wrote to inquire whether any island organizations would be interested in volunteer help from the community. Mary Anne would like to ask for volunteers to serve as street stewards, who would maintain high environmental quality of specific areas (e.g. pick up cigarette butts and other trash from gutters and sidewalks lest they wash into the bay). She has already spoken with some business owners about sweeping up such material. The ice cream store and Take a Peak have agreed to do this. Hannigans has refused. She has yet to ask the business on lower Welch Street. She will contact Chris Hoppin and ask whether his project is viable and could accommodate our needs.
 
OLD BUSINESS:
 
Bottle Recycling - Vinnie suggested that, having gotten the recycling containers in place, PEAT should bow out and get an independent contractor like Marty Mulkern to take charge of emptying them in return for the profit. Mary Anne feels that we have an obligation to the Peaks Island Fund, who gave us funding with the understanding that island non-profits would be able to make moneyby collecting and returning the contents of the bins. Sam pointed out that we’ve been unable to coordinate this for the last two years and that it may be time to go back to the PIF and admit defeat, Vinnie suggested that we give the business to Marty with the understanding that any non-profit group interested in raising money could ask him to reserve particular bins for their fundraising activities for specific periods of time. We agreed to wait and find out the fate of Gail Kelly’s teen group before talking with Marty about the upcoming season.
 
Car emissions on Peaks - Without active support from the PIC this doesn’t stand a chance so PEAT will not pursue it. However, we are still concerned about cars idling down front – particularly police cruisers. Technically, they are exempt from the law, but we should still ask them to stop setting this bad example. How to do this? Talk to Portland’s sustainability coordinator. Who will do this?
 
Community room energy audit - This is now covered by a grant obtained by the city. WE can drop it from our agenda.
 
Compost bins – Do we want to sell them every year, or alternate years? We will sell them on alternate years only. This year, however, we will advertise the city program and offer free delivery from the dock to people’s houses. Stephen & Vinnie will take care of this.
 
Containers for cigarette butts - Ron Sinicki offered to buy one, possibly two, of them in the spring. Vinnie will remind him. Take a Peek will buy one. Steve pointed out that Hannigans doesn’t own the sidewalk in front of the grocery store so we could buy & install one in that area.
 
Friends of Trott-Littlejohn - Jubal reports that this is low key, but ongoing and important. He is still focused on getting bollards at the entrance to the park and on getting the area surveyed. We agreed to invite Steve Bushey to attend the next PEAT meeting that he finds convenient.
 
Interfaith Power & Light - Sam extended an invitation from that group to attend a fundraising night at Flatbread Pizza on February 22. Their invitation describes it as an evening of thinking globally and eating locally! For more information go to www.meipl.org or call 207-721-0444. PEAT would do well to follow suit and arrange a fundraiser of our own at Flatbread. Sam says that it takes about 16 months' lead time, and requires us to fabricate an outdoor sign for the restaurant and do our own advertising for the event, Perhaps a PEAT member would be willing to take that on soon.
 
Mowing on back shore - We will write a letter to Mike Bobinsky and get others to sign it: Lynne Richard, Garry Fox, for a start. Vinnie will draft a letter.
 
Peaks Island lecture series - Mary Anne gave all the material to Scott Kelley, who will arrange to have the Casco BayKeepers do a presentation at the Peaks Island Lectures series, hopefully concurrent with Earth Day.
 
PeaksFest & Earth Day - We will continue to plan activities for both these events, starting in February or March.
 
Tool library - The group decided to defer any plans for a tool library, particularly since a newcomer to the island is embarking on a similar venture. Perhaps at a later time a tool library could complement his business in ways yet unseen.
 
Tree planting, tree stewardship - This remains tops on our agenda for 2011. A good starting point would be to encourage planting of new trees. Mary Anne would like to plan a way to distribute seedlings at Earth Day and/or PeaksFest. Later, we can initiate some education about the need to protect trees we already have in order to prevent erosion and other damage, and broach the idea of curtailing the needless destruction of existing trees. Vinnie would like to resurrect our old idea of holding The First Annual Joyce Kilmer Tree Symposium in late winter/early spring. She will explores venues and dates.
 
Treasurer’s Report - Howard said that the garden and wind groups were in good shape with $947 and $607 repspectively. PEAT, itself, is right at the edge of insolvency, but we don’t need much except enough to renew our website. Howard has a check from the Maine Communities Foundation for grant money, which we will immediately make available to the Island Transportation System. Vinnie will contact Tom Bohan to arrange this.
 
Truck committee - The group decided, particularly with an eye on the difficulties of the Peaks Island Taxi group, that it would be unwise for PEAT to own and insure any kind of vehicle at this time.
 
Website activity - Jubal and Vinnie will correspond about ways to keep the website up to date and more compelling to readers outside our membership.
 
Wind - Will we pursue anything smaller after the tower comes down? Despite discouraging reports about wind velocity at Trott-Littlejohn Park, islander Rand Gee has volunteered to get equipment up at the transfer station for a second anemometer. Sam explained that regressive analysis would allow them to synchronize and compare findings at the two sites, even though the second tower will be lower. Also, he pointed out that, although lower, the transfer station site is much opener. Lawrence Mott, who recently moved to Luther Street with his wife, used to work with Northern Power in Vermont and is now with a Scottish firm doing offshore wind. Sam hopes he will become active in our wind group. Jubal wanted to know whether, ultimately, we could put all the raw data on our website. Sam, who continues to collect it weekly on his laptop, doesn’t have the capacity to do this, but says that we own some software called WindSock, which might do the trick. Jubal thought he could figure something out when the time comes.
 

PEAT Agenda for Thursday December 9

Mary Anne Mitchell
Bill Oliver
Cynthia Cole
Mary Terry
Howard Pedlikin
Justin Palmer
Steve Demos
Vinnie Demos
Judith McAllister
Sandra Lucas

Cigarette butts
Mary Anne spoke to Nick Mavodones at CBL, who said that the trash containers already had little trays on top for cigarette butts. Mary Anne says that’s not sufficient.
Steve feels this is a Casco Bay issue, not anything specific to Peaks. He wants to know whether our drains have interceptors that sift out stuff in the catch baisins before they run into the bay, and who maintains them.
Mary Terry thinks that those are a federal rather than state mandate and that we may not have them yet.

Energy conference on Dec 14
Sam Saltonstall says that someone from ILAP will be attending and could report to us about what happened. It was suggested that we forward the info to Suzy Kane.

Fiscal sponsorship for island taxi
Howard was hesitant to take this on without more specific information about increased book-keeping. Others pointed out various benefits and inadequacies with the taxi as it now operates, but Steve pointed out that the fiscal sponsorship doesn’t require our approval or involvement - just our willingness to channel the money to them. The group agreed to go ahead with this if Carol Kinney would negotiate a format for disbursal that would require minimal bookkeeping on our part. Vinnie will contact Carol about this. (update: Carol spoke with Tom Berg, who assured her that it only entailed our accepting the money and then writing them a single check. We will proceed as soon as Tom provides us with a copy of their grant.)

Garden
Justin is preparing an application for us to participate in the Whole Foods Monthly 5% Day, which could give us a sizeable boost if he’s successful.
Justin spoke recently with Bill Zimmerman, who will be sending PEAT a $500 check for use at the Community Garden. Bill also donated a book, How to Grow a School Garden, to the garden library.
Justin has made a fair amount of money for the garden by designing shirts and selling them at PeaksFest and then at the ice cream store down front. Now he wants to get back the unsold ones so that the Café can try to peddle them as Christmas presents. Vinnie will write a letter to Ron Sinicki about making this transfer.

Vinnie has collected $238 in fees from next year’s gardeners, which she turned over to Howard.

Letter to Troy Moon
Mary tried more than once to talk with Troy Moon about runoff and cigarette butts, but he was never available. She left a message with Doug (?), who will push it, and also forward a message to Troy. We concluded that it would be best to speak directly with Mike Bobinsky.

Letters from website
Tom Feeny and Lawrence Mott have both contacted us via the website to say that they would be interested in coming to our meetings in the year to come. Mr. Mott, who will be moving here with his wife for the winter, has a background in renewable energy – mostly wind power.
Mr. Feeny is building a house near the ice pond and will be milling his own lumber. He has offered to give us some for the garden shed if he has extra. We should get him in touch with Mark Hall, who made a similar offer last year.

Peaks Island Council
The PIC still has some of our original grant money for purchasing a second Big Belly compactor. We need to be sure that’s still in place. Mary Anne says that the money could go directly to the city right now since they will be ordering and maintaining it.

Peaks Lecture series at the inn
Mary Anne spoke with Scott Kelley about having the Friends of Casco Bay do a presentation as part of that series. She had originally wanted to get Joe Paine as a speaker because he’s experienced and has good visuals. He could do it on Earth Day as the final presentation of that series, which stops in the summer. Now she is thinking of having it in May and making a big push to get all the island contractors to attend.
There is also a woman at that same organization who does stuff about runoff and drainage. Perhaps she could come this summer and speak at the T.E.I.A. when there are more summer folks around.
Also, Portland now has a staffer in charge of discharge drains.

Tree box
We discussed the fate of the resource materials assembled by Vinnie for teaching and learning about island trees. She had consulted Tricia Erickson about getting a grant to make a series of similar collections about the island environment. Because none of the teachers are at all familiar with the island and because the administration is in flux, she felt that the only way to have field trips using these materials would be to run them ourselves and, as well, to key all our materials to the Maine science curriculum grid. Vinnie is not interested in working directly with children any more and, so, will abandon the idea of expanding the project.
We decided to ask The Children’s Workshop and the Girl Scouts, to use the current collection, and will discuss with them how best to store and maintain it.

Trees
Diane Richiotti has chosen a location near Battery Steel, where she’d like to plant a small orchard to provide fruit for the food pantry. There is an organization called the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation (www.ftpf.org) which is a good place to get seedlings. For larger trees we should continue to work with Jeff Tarling or the state forestry department. Howard warned that, if the site is part of the Land Preserve she may have difficulty getting permission to plant there. Steve suggested that, if this were the case. She might be able to carve out a space at Trott-Littlejohn.
Vinnie and Steve looked at Trott Littlejohn to see what had become of the white oaks presented to the park by Jim Lausier at its inception. They took some photos, but were not sure they were looking at the right trees. Vinnie will write to Larry Niskanen, who actually planted them, and see whether he can make a positive identification.
The three apple trees given by the city and planted last year by the Girl Scouts near the Community Garden are still alive: two thriving and one in trouble. We will continue to monitor them. Diane reported that the soil there was unsatisfactory and that there was no provision to improve it before the trees arrived. We would like to get additional apples trees in the same area, but this time dig the holes in advance and fill them with compost. There needs to be an overall plan for placement of future trees. Perhaps the Community Gardeners would take this on. It would be nice if they could investigate the possibility of bees as well. Mary Terry tried to find the exact protocol for tree planting via the city of Portland. Jeff Tarling was hard to pin down. It might be better to pursue this via Mike Bobinsky.
Mary Anne is still trying to get in touch with Taylor Norton so that we can have the results of the tree research he did last year as part on his service project on Peaks
A tree committee was formed to make a strategy for what we want and how we will do it. Mary Anne, Diane Ricciotti, Steve and Howard volunteered to be on it.

Wind
The wind group has not yet tabulated the quarterly results from the tower at Trott-Littlejohn. After they do so and if the results are positive, they plan to take the next step, which is to try and get an anemometer in place at the transfer station. Although it will be lower than the first one, there is a table of multiples that will enable them to calculate the wind speed at higher elevations.