| Meeting #23, May 6, 2010 |
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Sustainable Stockton Meeting Minutes
Meeting Minutes. Minutes of meeting were accepted as written. Town Park Presentations. After review of the town survey results we all completed at the beginning of the year, interviewing local residents, and walking the designated Town Park area; Professor Melissa Baker’s Park Planning Class has developed several proposals for park improvements. Five 15-minute presentations will be given on May 11 at UWSP, Room 320. The public is invited to attend. The students would be delighted to see Stockton folks at the presentations. Poultry Farm Tour. Our group is still working to set up a tour of a local poultry farm, possible this August. Sue Anderson will talk to Rose Ross about touring her farm. A suggestion was also given to invite John Pavelski to participate in the question/answer session. Poultry Zoning. Discussion following the “Mad City Chickens” documentary included the question of whether residents with an R1 zoning could raise chickens. Sue Anderson and Mary Maller have since met with Jen Steward (Portage County Extension Office) and Chris MrDutt (Planning and Zoning) and reported the following. R1 zoning does not allow for poultry raising, except with special permitting. Any changes would be made at the county level, and would also require the approval of the various townships within the county. Some counties, such as Manitowoc, and cities, such as Madison, have made amendments to allow for chickens. These amendments typically include restrictions as to the number of birds, distance from property lines, slaughtering of birds, keeping of a rooster, sales of birds/eggs, etc. Currently Mr. MrDutt is working on a proposal to be presented at the May 24 county level meeting. He is considering restrictions of 10 birds/home, no roosters, 100’ from lot lines, and no slaughtering. If anyone has concerns/input they would like to have considered, please contact Sue. She will pass along the input to Mr. McDutt. If zoning is changed, our group may want to hold some educational meetings/presentations on this subject. Lake Management Planning Update. Over the last year Nancy Turyk, UWSP Water Resource Scientist, and others have been working with communities and citizens in Portage County to develop lake management plans. On April 6th the initial planning meting was held at the Old Stockton Town Hall to discuss plans for Adams, Bear and Thomas Lakes. Folks who live on the lakes and in the surrounding watersheds were individually invited to attend as well as any other interested residents. Presentations were given comparing historical and current data in the areas of water quality, algae, rooted aquatic plants, shoreline vegetation, critical amphibian habitat, current and historic land use, and groundwater within the watersheds. If you are interested in obtaining a copy of information presented, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Additional planning meetings will include setting up committees to address plans for each lake and presentation by professionals to further discuss groundwater levels, flora/fauna, etc. You’re welcome to attend the next meeting to be held on Tuesday, May 4th. Grant Recap. The two grants of $500 each that Mary Maller and Sue Anderson received at the Midwest Regional Collaborative for Sustainable Education workshop were used to: • Create a CSA contest in which two winners would each received $250 certificates to be used toward the purchase of a Community Supported Agriculture farm share. This was a short essay contest. Eleven applicants were pared down to six, of which two were names were drawn “out of the hat.” One winner, Harley Altenberg, gave his voucher to his sister, who has recently become a mother for the first time. She chose Dave Pederson's CSA, Maplewood Farm, as the place where she wanted to spend her voucher. Her family gave her the money needed to supplement the voucher for a full membership. The other winner, Rick Opperman, chose to spend his voucher at Larry and Sarah Raikowski's CSA. Both winners were very happy to receive their award. • The second grant was used to support community discussion groups using both books and films, with the money being spent to purchase copies of the books and one film. The film series was co-sponsored by Sustainable Stockton and the Midwest Renewable Energy Association and supported by the League of Women Voters. The book series was sponsored by Sustainable Stockton and focused on topics such as voluntary simplicity, climate change, the effect of our food production system on climate change and ways to foster a deeper appreciation for the natural environment in our local communities. All films and copies of the books will be held at the Environmental Education Library on campus at the University of Wisconsin--Stevens Point for loan by people who participate in future discussion groups and/or for general use. If anyone would like to help organize a future book or film discussion group, in your neighborhood or at your church using these materials, please contact Mary Maller at 592-4051.
Website Update. The UWSP students have completed their updates to our website and it’s up and running. A reminder to all, anyone can view the entire site without registering onto the site. You only need to register if you are adding an item to the Goods and Services Directory or participating in the Forum. And for those who may have lost their Find It In Stockton Directory and wish to get a copy of the Goods and Services table, you can get an up-to-date “printer friendly” version of the table on the website. Simply go to the Goods and Services Listing and hit “printer friendly” at the top right side of the screen. A printable table will appear on the screen. Choose to Reuse Project. The town of Grant, working with Wis. Rapids, has held some “Choose to Reuse” days which allows folks to bring in good used items for the taking prior to being dumped. It was proposed to combine a Choose to Reuse Stockton event with the annual May Clean-up Day. The question of Town liability concerns was raised and would have to be answered before going ahead on this project. Plans are to find out more details and target to do in May 2011. For those who would like to see what the Town of Grand Rapids did, check out the following website: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1299105234713&ref=mf Local Organic/CSA Farm Offering. The question was asked whether we should identify produce available for purchase at our local CSA in the newsletter. It was decided a better option may be to let folks know how to get on the various e-mail lists for local CSAs/markets such as Whitefeather Organics, Malek Farms, and Raikowski Farms.
Respectfully Submitted,
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