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- The CACJ is a nonprofit focused on restorative justice,

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a system of criminal justice

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that focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders

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through reconciliation with victims

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and the community, it's justice with the goal

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to heal rather than punish.

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Our five programs are pretrial supervision, youth aid panel,

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the youth counseling pilot program, mediation

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and community conferencing.

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Our program Save taxpayers over $400,000 per year,

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empower individuals

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and groups to resolve their own conflicts and are affordable

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and accessible to the community.

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- I'd like to call the September 16th, 2026

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meeting of the Spring Creek Watershed Commission

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to order at six 30.

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Maybe we could do a Roll Call

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and I'll go down the, the list from Beon.

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We have, John is here, right? Yep.

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- Here. - John Eaton Benner. David Robert Alternate.

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Benner Township College.

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- Gretchen Brant College. - And I see Lee's here as well.

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Ferguson, I'm here.

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And I don't know if we have folks in

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the remote.

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- Yes, we have Olivia Lapovsky from the RO is on online.

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- Okay. - Someone iPhone. That may be Doug Mason.

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Not sure. Okay. And then Jen, Don Brosky from Clearwater.

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Just joined. Okay.

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- And then Harris. Chris Morell. Chris Morell's here.

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Patton. I believe that both Susan

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and Doug will not be able to attend tonight.

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Spring Township. David or Mike?

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No. And State College. Olivia you said was online?

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- Yes. - Okay. And then anyone from

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Potter or Walker?

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- Okay. - I think that gives us a quorum, right?

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There's little old me. Oh, I'm sorry.

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- Loren now - Was half, boy, how did I miss that?

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Halfmoon Township, Copa Mepa Loren is here.

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Yes. I

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- Dunno. He said he was gonna join

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- By phone, as is our practice.

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Item three on the agenda is any Public Comment

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or written correspondence that would like to, anyone

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that would like to address the commission?

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We got one. No. Okay.

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Moving on then.

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Review and approval of the

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previous meeting minutes from July 15th.

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- I'll make that motion. Eaton,

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- I'll second.

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There's a motion and a second.

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Any comments

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or questions about the minutes from July 15?

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All right, in that case, I call the motion.

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All those in favor of adopting the July 15 minutes?

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Say aye. Aye. Aye. Those that are opposed, say aye. Okay.

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Minutes are done. New agenda items.

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Anyone that would like to propose an addition

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to the agenda, either here in the room

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or online?

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Okay. Hearing none, we will go to number six.

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Report by officers and committees.

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And the first one

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on the agenda, six A, the executive committee.

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We met what the fourth, we tried

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for the third Wednesday of August

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in the even numbered month,

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but it ended up, I believe, being the fourth.

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So that would've been August 26th.

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We met, and I believe Chris

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and Elise and David

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and I, the

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much of the meeting on the executive committee meeting was a

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follow up to our Public Hearing at SLO

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in July that was focused on the future

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of Rockview lands.

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And so we talked about the comments

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that had been made

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and reviewed the follow up memorandum that

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we had put together to kind of summarize the Public Hearing,

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we included, it included receiving

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written comments from Cliff cans who couldn't

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make the Public Hearing,

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but many of you may know, cliff, he was a regional

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and State College Borough planner for a number of years,

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and he submitted comments.

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Anything else from the executive committee, Chris

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or David that I didn't cover,

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or that won't be covered later?

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- No, I think just kind of really trying to focus on

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what we're gonna talk about in the second half

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of the meeting, which is kind of what our,

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what our focus is moving forward.

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- Okay. Yeah.

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- Yes, it, it really did continue

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to focus on the important issue of rock view

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and the possible turnover

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of, of state lands to, to whoever,

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which is sort of unknown at this point.

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So it's an effort to kind of get ahead of that a little bit.

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- And would it,

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would this be an appropriate time in your mind, David, to

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maybe cover item nine on the agenda as it relates

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to rockview?

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That's where we do a round table about watershed related

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news from member municipalities. David had a

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- Certainly yes.

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Thank you report. So I am the Benner Township

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representative, and I went to the Benner Supervisors meeting

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last week on Tuesday,

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and there was an agenda item on their meeting of,

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to discuss a possible

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conservation overlay to be placed on the rock view lands.

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And this was a letter that was sent to them from the

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Ben Township Planning Commission that recommended that.

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And a little bit of the background to

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that recommendation was to, to, to my understanding,

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representative Benninghoff had had expressed

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interest to, to have some kind of a protection of the,

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of the rock view lands.

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And this really follows

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a past effort that was made a successful effort when Rock

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View lands were divested what following the, the,

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the construction of the Interstate 95

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and where the site that's now, spring Creek Canyon

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and the Spring Creek Trail

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and so forth became, turned over

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to I think Fish and Boat Commission. There were

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- Four local partners, fish

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and Boat Commission, game Commission, Penn State

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and Banner Township.

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- So these four entities received different portions of

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that land that was, that had been previous prison land.

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It was kind of separated from them within the

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95 construction.

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So that gave the opportunity to open up that canyon

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that had been restricted from public asset access

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for about a hundred years.

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Yeah. So that was a very positive development.

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And you know, there was a, an overlay that was put into

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that area, kind of a conservation overlay.

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And so this overlay then would help to connect

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that, that a proposed rock view overlay would help

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to connect the Spring Creek Canyon with the Rock View lands

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and then the Nittany Valley Conservation area.

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So there was discussion about that there.

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Counsel Mr. Beard

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described the proposal from the,

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from the planning Commission as to go over the entire site.

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And then that would be require,

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of course, public hearings, Public Comment.

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And that would open up a,

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a broad discussion about the Rockview property.

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So the Council for Inner Township, you know,

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explain to them that they could put a whole overlay on there

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and then come back later and modify it if need be.

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And, and, but the, the,

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the Supervisors were pretty receptive to that.

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I think that they were very open to input on that.

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They, they talked about the need for advisement, the need

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to have some technical advisement about what's there on the

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site and what areas would need to be protected.

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So that is a very forward moving idea.

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They're going to be discussing

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that further in the coming months.

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So that's pretty much where that is at right now.

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I know that there are some people in the public area

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that are also interested in having some sort

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of a conservation like that.

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So, so the commission is very open to hear from public on

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and municipalities and all partnership

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and all partners on this issue.

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- Thank you. It's not been

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that common in my memory that

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conservation, or excuse me,

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overlay zones are implemented.

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When I was on the Ferguson Township Planning Commission, oh,

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maybe 20 years ago,

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we did an overlay zone on down

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to specific parcel levels on the Tussie Ridge

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because we wanted,

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after studying development proposals, we wanted to kind

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of put it out there and make it part of the Ordinance that

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the lands associated

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on the side of the ridge were not

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always particularly stable.

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A lot of spring sinkholes, a lot

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of closed depressions, a lot of waterways.

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And so the Township put an overlay zone that

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alerted property owners that if they intended to

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bid, that there were certain suggested requirements

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that they come in and meet with the Township

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and be alerted to what

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was at play there.

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And Harris subsequently did a similar thing

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a while later, but that's very interesting to hear

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and something that I think we

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wanna talk about further.

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- Yeah, I would just would like to add that Randy Moya,

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the chair, had stated a couple times that regardless

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of whether an overlay is implemented

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or not, that in the long run there,

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he expects probably about 5,000 acres or, or more

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or thereabouts would, would need

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to be conserved no matter what.

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- So thank you - Again.

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I do, I would like to mention also, you know,

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it's not only Benner Township, that, that, that

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College Township has quite a few acres on that site as well.

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So anything that would take place would,

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would certainly weren't discussion among those two partners.

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- Right. As it splits out in the mapping that we've seen,

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it's about two thirds

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of the land lies in Better Township

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and about a third in college.

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So yes.

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- Diane, - This sounds very good to me.

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The Better Township is in the

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- Meeting.

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Would you like to come up and so everyone can hear you?

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- I'm Joanne. - Yep. Yeah, we can.

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- I'm Joanne Tosi Bey.

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I chair the NIT Valley Joint Planning Commission.

264
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This sounds very good to me.

265
00:15:44,867 --> 00:15:49,033
The commission is meeting tomorrow evening at six

266
00:15:50,367 --> 00:15:51,233
- Six or six 30

267
00:15:55,066 --> 00:15:55,834
- At six o'clock.

268
00:15:57,100 --> 00:16:00,100
We have not had anybody from Benner attend the

269
00:16:00,100 --> 00:16:01,233
meetings this entire year.

270
00:16:02,133 --> 00:16:03,700
Robert, could you come

271
00:16:03,867 --> 00:16:06,767
and repeat what you just said this evening at

272
00:16:06,767 --> 00:16:08,333
that tomorrow night so that,

273
00:16:08,433 --> 00:16:12,133
because we, when we have these meetings, they come up

274
00:16:12,433 --> 00:16:14,734
and people ask what's going to happen to Rockfield?

275
00:16:14,867 --> 00:16:16,233
At least having some information,

276
00:16:16,367 --> 00:16:18,767
I think will make people feel good. Yeah.

277
00:16:18,767 --> 00:16:19,767
- What, what time is the meeting?

278
00:16:19,900 --> 00:16:22,100
- Six o'clock and it's in the Banner Township six

279
00:16:22,100 --> 00:16:23,367
o'clock building. Oh,

280
00:16:23,367 --> 00:16:24,367
- Right in Banner.

281
00:16:24,367 --> 00:16:27,066
Yeah. Yes. I'll go. I'm gonna make

282
00:16:27,300 --> 00:16:28,066
- Make Great. Thank you.

283
00:16:28,533 --> 00:16:33,100
- Thank you, Joanne. Any other comments on that?

284
00:16:33,867 --> 00:16:37,767
Okay, then moving to six B on the agenda,

285
00:16:39,033 --> 00:16:41,634
the financial report

286
00:16:41,934 --> 00:16:44,700
or treasurer's report since July,

287
00:16:45,634 --> 00:16:50,500
and As it,

288
00:16:51,367 --> 00:16:53,300
I think people have come to understand that

289
00:16:54,133 --> 00:16:57,367
Clearwater Conservancy acts as the fiscal agent

290
00:16:57,700 --> 00:16:59,467
for the Watershed Commission

291
00:17:00,100 --> 00:17:02,467
and they maintain on our behalf

292
00:17:03,000 --> 00:17:05,300
two different custodial accounts.

293
00:17:06,133 --> 00:17:10,133
The primary one being a general administrative account that

294
00:17:10,333 --> 00:17:12,500
as of August 30, the balance

295
00:17:13,100 --> 00:17:17,066
was $35,090 and 61 cents.

296
00:17:19,734 --> 00:17:24,734
The second account is a phase three account that was

297
00:17:25,867 --> 00:17:27,867
re-designated back.

298
00:17:28,266 --> 00:17:33,100
It's now been three years ago, using money

299
00:17:33,133 --> 00:17:37,834
that was generated to conclude the step two

300
00:17:38,233 --> 00:17:42,066
or phase two plan of the watershed stewardship plan.

301
00:17:42,367 --> 00:17:46,300
And it was decided then that by the Watershed Commission,

302
00:17:46,367 --> 00:17:49,066
that those monies should be renamed

303
00:17:50,900 --> 00:17:53,266
the phase three account.

304
00:17:53,667 --> 00:17:55,066
And we have

305
00:17:56,867 --> 00:17:58,834
$2,150

306
00:17:59,100 --> 00:18:04,000
and 63 cents in that account with regard to approval

307
00:18:04,066 --> 00:18:08,066
to pay since our meeting

308
00:18:09,266 --> 00:18:14,100
two months ago, invoices from Elise

309
00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:16,700
as watershed coordinator for the months of July

310
00:18:16,700 --> 00:18:19,233
and August at 27 50.

311
00:18:19,634 --> 00:18:21,300
And then the legal notice

312
00:18:22,934 --> 00:18:27,100
for the July 15th meeting in public notice in the

313
00:18:27,367 --> 00:18:28,834
CDT for 180.

314
00:18:29,734 --> 00:18:34,000
I will put the

315
00:18:35,166 --> 00:18:38,867
notice for this meeting at our November meeting.

316
00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:45,867
And just a footnote, so that everybody is current as far

317
00:18:45,867 --> 00:18:50,333
as the 26 budget goes, the commission

318
00:18:51,033 --> 00:18:53,300
has over the last few years had

319
00:18:56,467 --> 00:19:00,300
10 or 11, sometimes 10 and a half members.

320
00:19:00,867 --> 00:19:03,767
But I wanted to make clear,

321
00:19:04,033 --> 00:19:08,634
as I've done throughout the year, that we have two

322
00:19:09,900 --> 00:19:11,634
members to date

323
00:19:11,867 --> 00:19:15,634
that their contribution in 2026 is pending.

324
00:19:16,100 --> 00:19:19,767
That's Walker and Potter Townships.

325
00:19:20,166 --> 00:19:23,300
They had indicated in 25 that

326
00:19:24,133 --> 00:19:28,000
they were gonna not withdraw

327
00:19:28,233 --> 00:19:30,533
but Coast for a while.

328
00:19:31,233 --> 00:19:35,567
And leading up to this evening's meeting, we were approached

329
00:19:35,734 --> 00:19:39,834
by a gentleman from Walker Township

330
00:19:40,266 --> 00:19:43,934
and interacted with him, provided him with the agenda.

331
00:19:44,100 --> 00:19:46,533
He's interested in talking

332
00:19:46,734 --> 00:19:51,133
to Walker Township about potentially being named a

333
00:19:51,133 --> 00:19:52,333
representative from Walker.

334
00:19:53,033 --> 00:19:56,500
And I had hope that maybe he would make it tonight,

335
00:19:56,667 --> 00:20:01,634
but he's not on the remote.

336
00:20:02,533 --> 00:20:04,000
- Okay. No, Bob Igo is though.

337
00:20:04,333 --> 00:20:08,567
- Bob Igo is welcome, Bob. But that's my report.

338
00:20:09,467 --> 00:20:11,734
We're working on things with Walker

339
00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:14,300
and we'll get back to it.

340
00:20:14,767 --> 00:20:19,533
Another conversation with Potter as well. Any questions?

341
00:20:22,066 --> 00:20:22,233
- Okay.

342
00:20:29,667 --> 00:20:32,567
- Item six C.

343
00:20:33,133 --> 00:20:34,700
Elise Watershed Coordinator.

344
00:20:35,700 --> 00:20:38,233
- Yes. - So some

345
00:20:38,233 --> 00:20:40,266
of my updates are further down in the agenda,

346
00:20:40,433 --> 00:20:44,066
but things that are not in there, ag Progress days

347
00:20:44,867 --> 00:20:47,567
happened in August, so I attended that.

348
00:20:48,300 --> 00:20:50,700
I do what I like to call reverse tabling.

349
00:20:50,700 --> 00:20:53,934
Those tables are pretty expensive, so I take brochures

350
00:20:53,934 --> 00:20:55,734
around and talk to all the partners that are there

351
00:20:55,734 --> 00:20:57,300
and do some networking the other way around.

352
00:20:58,467 --> 00:21:01,066
So that was good to do. Had a great conversation with

353
00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:04,233
deps Small Business grant program

354
00:21:04,367 --> 00:21:06,333
for sustainability for the second year.

355
00:21:07,634 --> 00:21:09,133
So working further

356
00:21:09,266 --> 00:21:11,300
to establish our partnerships in that world.

357
00:21:12,700 --> 00:21:15,233
I also attended the Congressional Ag Summit hosted

358
00:21:15,233 --> 00:21:18,133
by Glen Thompson to just learn about some of the issues

359
00:21:18,133 --> 00:21:19,634
and resources that are available there

360
00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:22,367
and represented the watershed commission at the government

361
00:21:22,367 --> 00:21:23,934
and industry luncheon.

362
00:21:25,667 --> 00:21:28,233
Other projects that I've done a couple weeks ago,

363
00:21:28,266 --> 00:21:32,166
Clearwater Conservancy organized a day to go out

364
00:21:32,266 --> 00:21:33,433
to Tally Rand Park

365
00:21:33,533 --> 00:21:35,500
and help do some invasive management

366
00:21:35,634 --> 00:21:37,000
of the buffer that's there.

367
00:21:37,433 --> 00:21:41,300
So I attended, so did Lee Lee Ricks from the Conservation

368
00:21:41,734 --> 00:21:43,500
District and Clearwater Conservancy.

369
00:21:44,133 --> 00:21:46,300
So we helped get a handle on some

370
00:21:46,300 --> 00:21:47,634
of the loose strife that was there.

371
00:21:47,867 --> 00:21:49,634
And also Lee

372
00:21:49,634 --> 00:21:52,700
and I did kind of a joint interview with Clearwater's

373
00:21:53,533 --> 00:21:56,300
communications person, Lee about,

374
00:21:57,133 --> 00:22:01,033
or Leah, about how all of these partnerships come together

375
00:22:01,033 --> 00:22:04,066
and how all of the people that were helping the project on

376
00:22:04,066 --> 00:22:07,767
that day helped contribute to successful implementation.

377
00:22:08,100 --> 00:22:10,934
And then share some of the resources for other people

378
00:22:10,934 --> 00:22:14,166
that would want to help get a handle on their buffers

379
00:22:14,166 --> 00:22:15,433
or establish new ones.

380
00:22:17,667 --> 00:22:19,300
We've also been continuing

381
00:22:19,300 --> 00:22:21,700
with the two deck regenerative stormwater project.

382
00:22:21,900 --> 00:22:23,033
So our grant agreement

383
00:22:23,066 --> 00:22:26,100
with the Susquehanna River Basin Commission is finalized.

384
00:22:26,100 --> 00:22:27,900
Kevin, Abby and I have been working on that.

385
00:22:28,767 --> 00:22:32,033
It has been approved. I met with

386
00:22:33,033 --> 00:22:35,934
Iona Borich from the Sustainable Communities Collaborative

387
00:22:35,934 --> 00:22:38,266
to talk more about how we can work with her program.

388
00:22:39,133 --> 00:22:42,100
They filled up their classes for this fall semester,

389
00:22:42,033 --> 00:22:46,667
but if we identified a concrete project scope that we wanted

390
00:22:46,667 --> 00:22:49,634
to work with them on, we could potentially get in

391
00:22:49,634 --> 00:22:50,700
for the spring semester.

392
00:22:50,900 --> 00:22:54,000
But the watershed commissions engaged them in the past

393
00:22:54,100 --> 00:22:55,700
and they're very eager to work

394
00:22:55,700 --> 00:22:58,066
with us again any semester in the future.

395
00:22:58,333 --> 00:23:00,133
So continuing that relationship

396
00:23:01,066 --> 00:23:03,767
and also having some assistance from a guest

397
00:23:03,767 --> 00:23:06,300
that you'll meet on navigating that relationship.

398
00:23:08,100 --> 00:23:09,266
The last update I have is

399
00:23:09,266 --> 00:23:12,000
that the Watershed Cleanup Day planning committee has been

400
00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:15,133
meeting, I co-chair that committee

401
00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:17,533
with Bella Petita from Clearwater Conservancy.

402
00:23:18,066 --> 00:23:20,367
And traditionally they would start kind

403
00:23:20,367 --> 00:23:22,166
of meeting a couple months prior to the event,

404
00:23:22,266 --> 00:23:23,867
but we've changed it so

405
00:23:23,867 --> 00:23:25,367
that it can be productive year round.

406
00:23:25,500 --> 00:23:28,667
And we have bimonthly meetings to focus on

407
00:23:29,500 --> 00:23:31,767
identifying new sites, getting a handle on our outreach

408
00:23:31,767 --> 00:23:33,266
with the Public Works departments.

409
00:23:34,300 --> 00:23:37,066
I am meeting with Ty Coral

410
00:23:37,300 --> 00:23:39,734
and Mimi from the Centre County Refuse

411
00:23:39,734 --> 00:23:41,033
and Recycling this Friday.

412
00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:45,934
The county actually has a program called Keep Centre County

413
00:23:45,934 --> 00:23:49,033
Beautiful in the big spring cleanup.

414
00:23:49,133 --> 00:23:50,100
All of that reporting goes

415
00:23:50,100 --> 00:23:53,033
to keep Pennsylvania beautiful on the PennDOT level,

416
00:23:53,333 --> 00:23:55,467
but our county actually has a smaller program

417
00:23:56,500 --> 00:23:58,233
that they've been trying to expand on.

418
00:23:58,500 --> 00:24:00,533
So all of our cleanup efforts are gonna be

419
00:24:00,533 --> 00:24:01,567
counted towards that.

420
00:24:01,867 --> 00:24:05,100
And it also covers all of our trash disposal for anything

421
00:24:05,100 --> 00:24:07,000
that we do throughout the year,

422
00:24:07,133 --> 00:24:08,867
not just on the spring cleanup.

423
00:24:09,500 --> 00:24:12,500
So that committee meeting is coming up again in this

424
00:24:12,734 --> 00:24:14,700
September, but if anybody wants to get involved

425
00:24:14,700 --> 00:24:16,000
with Watershed cleanup day

426
00:24:16,100 --> 00:24:18,100
or has sites that you think need

427
00:24:18,100 --> 00:24:19,533
to be cleaned up, please let us know.

428
00:24:19,533 --> 00:24:22,567
We're really trying to overhaul our site list.

429
00:24:22,700 --> 00:24:24,500
We've broken a hundred sites

430
00:24:24,734 --> 00:24:26,734
and we've had over 800,

431
00:24:26,734 --> 00:24:29,033
almost 850 volunteers this past year.

432
00:24:29,133 --> 00:24:31,367
So it's a huge program and initiative.

433
00:24:31,567 --> 00:24:33,233
So any feedback from the commission

434
00:24:33,233 --> 00:24:35,266
or the town shifts is greatly appreciated.

435
00:24:36,867 --> 00:24:40,100
- Question, is there discussions with

436
00:24:41,166 --> 00:24:45,000
to you about doing the fall cleanup?

437
00:24:46,100 --> 00:24:47,467
- Yes, I'll briefly mention

438
00:24:47,467 --> 00:24:49,700
that under conservation and stewardship. Okay,

439
00:24:50,066 --> 00:24:51,066
- Great.

440
00:24:51,900 --> 00:24:53,300
Any questions for Elise?

441
00:24:54,166 --> 00:24:55,767
I'm sure other things will come up

442
00:24:55,867 --> 00:24:57,066
as we move through the meeting.

443
00:25:00,100 --> 00:25:01,834
Okay. Six D Atlas.

444
00:25:03,233 --> 00:25:07,567
- Our Atlas meeting will be the first one

445
00:25:08,033 --> 00:25:10,567
about three months will be

446
00:25:11,567 --> 00:25:15,066
this Thursday at Patton Township Building meeting room

447
00:25:16,500 --> 00:25:21,300
one to 3:00 PM a big part,

448
00:25:22,467 --> 00:25:26,000
you know, following on the, the second part

449
00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:29,266
of today's meeting, we're also going

450
00:25:29,266 --> 00:25:32,367
to have a discussion about how we're

451
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:35,033
structuring atlas's efforts.

452
00:25:35,367 --> 00:25:38,000
- Okay. - From here on make sure that

453
00:25:38,700 --> 00:25:40,533
we aren't overlapping.

454
00:25:41,100 --> 00:25:42,266
- Okay. - Okay,

455
00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:44,000
- Great.

456
00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:45,066
So tomorrow at one

457
00:25:45,467 --> 00:25:46,467
- One to three.

458
00:25:46,734 --> 00:25:48,367
Okay. Patton Township meeting room.

459
00:25:48,634 --> 00:25:49,934
- Right. Okay.

460
00:25:53,100 --> 00:25:56,033
Six E, the Conservation and Stewardship Committee.

461
00:25:57,133 --> 00:25:58,934
- Yes. So our Conservation

462
00:25:58,934 --> 00:26:03,000
and Stewardship committee just met a couple weeks ago.

463
00:26:04,367 --> 00:26:05,500
One of the best things about

464
00:26:05,533 --> 00:26:08,066
that committee is the round robins that they do

465
00:26:08,066 --> 00:26:09,100
to share information.

466
00:26:09,133 --> 00:26:12,333
So we have the Centre County Conservation District,

467
00:26:12,467 --> 00:26:16,567
Penn State Extension, occasionally members

468
00:26:16,567 --> 00:26:19,700
of the Senior Environmental Corps all coming together

469
00:26:19,934 --> 00:26:22,500
to share what the conservation partners who are doing,

470
00:26:22,567 --> 00:26:25,233
doing work, what they need, what they're working on.

471
00:26:26,467 --> 00:26:28,133
So those conversations continue

472
00:26:28,133 --> 00:26:30,467
and it's really great to see the resource sharing

473
00:26:30,767 --> 00:26:33,433
and assistance that comes out of those.

474
00:26:34,066 --> 00:26:36,634
We did have a new member join our

475
00:26:36,634 --> 00:26:38,333
conservation and stewardship committee.

476
00:26:40,300 --> 00:26:44,567
It is Stacy Hall. Hall. Stacy Hall,

477
00:26:44,734 --> 00:26:46,934
- Right from Benner Township Planning Commission.

478
00:26:47,033 --> 00:26:48,133
- Yeah. So she joined

479
00:26:48,333 --> 00:26:52,634
and she is representing the State College Land Trust

480
00:26:53,066 --> 00:26:54,533
and is also a member on the Benner

481
00:26:54,533 --> 00:26:55,634
Township Planning Commission.

482
00:26:55,834 --> 00:26:57,333
So this past meeting was just a little bit

483
00:26:57,734 --> 00:27:00,567
of an introduction, but we're hoping to work closer

484
00:27:00,634 --> 00:27:01,634
with her in the future.

485
00:27:02,333 --> 00:27:05,834
- That's great. - And then the Educational Sign

486
00:27:05,834 --> 00:27:07,867
Project continues.

487
00:27:08,100 --> 00:27:11,700
So we are still working on developing educational signs

488
00:27:12,066 --> 00:27:15,066
for throughout the watershed to communicate the importance

489
00:27:15,066 --> 00:27:18,533
and relevance of different stewardship projects on the

490
00:27:18,533 --> 00:27:20,634
preservation of our water resources.

491
00:27:21,166 --> 00:27:24,300
We did a couple for Tally Ram that are finalized

492
00:27:24,367 --> 00:27:27,033
and we're just waiting for the whole bunch to get finished

493
00:27:27,100 --> 00:27:29,266
so that we can send that off to the sign company.

494
00:27:31,533 --> 00:27:33,700
Then Kevin kind of foreshadowed

495
00:27:34,300 --> 00:27:37,266
Trout Unlimited every fall they do a red count,

496
00:27:37,467 --> 00:27:40,233
which is basically counting the trout spawning areas

497
00:27:40,300 --> 00:27:42,634
throughout the stretches of Spring Creek

498
00:27:43,934 --> 00:27:45,066
for the past two years.

499
00:27:45,133 --> 00:27:48,567
We've partnered with that event to add a cleanup level to it

500
00:27:48,700 --> 00:27:50,000
so that all

501
00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:53,100
of the volunteers in the stream can help collect trash.

502
00:27:53,467 --> 00:27:57,700
And we also send some designated groups of volunteers

503
00:27:57,934 --> 00:28:00,367
to drive around to like fishing access sites.

504
00:28:00,433 --> 00:28:02,834
And some of the places along the stream that we don't hit

505
00:28:03,467 --> 00:28:05,533
either don't hit on watershed cleanup day

506
00:28:05,533 --> 00:28:07,467
or need more than once a year cleanups

507
00:28:07,467 --> 00:28:08,500
like East College Avenue.

508
00:28:10,100 --> 00:28:12,300
So last year we even had some TU volunteers

509
00:28:12,300 --> 00:28:16,467
that walked the entire stretch from Millbrook Marsh up

510
00:28:16,467 --> 00:28:18,867
to Walnut Spring, which was really cool.

511
00:28:19,133 --> 00:28:20,734
They got a lot of good stuff out of there.

512
00:28:21,934 --> 00:28:24,867
We get a couple hundred pounds with that event.

513
00:28:25,133 --> 00:28:28,467
So we're gonna have a subcommittee meeting in the next

514
00:28:28,467 --> 00:28:30,834
couple weeks to finalize our planning for that effort.

515
00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:33,467
Clearwater Conservancy,

516
00:28:33,567 --> 00:28:35,867
middle Susquehanna River Keepers Association

517
00:28:35,934 --> 00:28:37,867
and the Conservation District help us market

518
00:28:37,867 --> 00:28:40,000
that event last year.

519
00:28:40,867 --> 00:28:42,533
The number of cleanup volunteers

520
00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:45,100
actually outnumbered the number of red count volunteers.

521
00:28:45,734 --> 00:28:47,100
And so that's one of the things

522
00:28:47,100 --> 00:28:49,367
that's really important about this is that a lot

523
00:28:49,367 --> 00:28:50,700
of people wanna do cleanups

524
00:28:51,233 --> 00:28:54,066
and we make them sit through the lesson on reds

525
00:28:54,133 --> 00:28:56,300
and why it's important and why they should do that.

526
00:28:57,300 --> 00:29:00,133
Even last year they're like, can't we just get cleaning?

527
00:29:00,133 --> 00:29:02,467
And it's like, Nope, you gotta go listen to Bob Carline.

528
00:29:03,133 --> 00:29:04,834
So, yep. Yep. We're kind of,

529
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:07,100
it's a little bit educational twist on that one

530
00:29:07,133 --> 00:29:08,133
and it's a good partnership.

531
00:29:08,333 --> 00:29:10,000
So that'll be happening again.

532
00:29:10,100 --> 00:29:11,100
I don't have a final date

533
00:29:11,300 --> 00:29:13,000
for the red count this year, but Okay.

534
00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:16,367
Typically it is the Sunday before Thanksgiving.

535
00:29:17,100 --> 00:29:19,100
- Okay. And I know that

536
00:29:20,567 --> 00:29:25,266
in the springtime following the Earth Day

537
00:29:25,367 --> 00:29:29,700
or circa Earth Day watershed cleanup, a lot of people

538
00:29:31,133 --> 00:29:33,867
on the commission had been approached by folks

539
00:29:34,033 --> 00:29:35,533
that either didn't get a chance

540
00:29:35,834 --> 00:29:39,734
or had family related conflicts.

541
00:29:40,066 --> 00:29:44,133
So what we decided then is that any

542
00:29:44,133 --> 00:29:49,033
of those folks to will direct them to Elise and Lee

543
00:29:49,667 --> 00:29:54,533
and get present that opportunity for them

544
00:29:54,667 --> 00:29:57,066
to be involved with a fall cleanup.

545
00:29:57,834 --> 00:30:01,867
So if anybody asks you about watershed cleanup,

546
00:30:02,033 --> 00:30:05,266
it's ongoing and there's another opportunity coming.

547
00:30:05,667 --> 00:30:08,000
- Yep. They've gotten over 6 million pounds

548
00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:10,066
of trash in the watershed over the years.

549
00:30:10,166 --> 00:30:13,233
- Alright. So, okay.

550
00:30:16,133 --> 00:30:20,367
Number six F the government's committee update.

551
00:30:22,333 --> 00:30:26,467
- So I met with Shane Adams,

552
00:30:26,467 --> 00:30:28,033
who's the new chair for that committee.

553
00:30:28,467 --> 00:30:31,100
Shane is the, he has a new title now,

554
00:30:31,100 --> 00:30:32,634
but he, he's the GIS Director

555
00:30:32,634 --> 00:30:35,700
with College Township, GIS Wizard.

556
00:30:35,867 --> 00:30:38,500
I like to call him. So he's been on

557
00:30:38,500 --> 00:30:39,767
that committee for a long time.

558
00:30:41,300 --> 00:30:42,500
He's a really great guy.

559
00:30:42,867 --> 00:30:45,066
We're very happy that he was able to take over

560
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:48,033
for Kemp Baker, but I was able to sit down with Shane

561
00:30:48,033 --> 00:30:50,867
and Bella Petita from Clearwater Conservancy to talk about

562
00:30:51,734 --> 00:30:54,000
what do we really need this committee to be

563
00:30:54,033 --> 00:30:55,934
and what is his vision for it.

564
00:30:56,567 --> 00:31:00,100
And we're really gonna be using this as a platform

565
00:31:00,100 --> 00:31:02,567
to help support the partnership of

566
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:05,533
under the MS four permits.

567
00:31:05,567 --> 00:31:07,567
Both Clearwater and the commission are an item

568
00:31:07,667 --> 00:31:09,266
to help facilitate some of the outreach.

569
00:31:09,634 --> 00:31:12,000
So we're gonna make that a good channel

570
00:31:12,166 --> 00:31:16,500
for the Township engineers to be able to collaborate

571
00:31:16,500 --> 00:31:18,300
with the conservation partners so

572
00:31:18,300 --> 00:31:20,133
that our efforts are just a little bit more aligned

573
00:31:20,133 --> 00:31:21,300
with what they want and need.

574
00:31:22,033 --> 00:31:24,000
And then also just creating more of a tone

575
00:31:24,033 --> 00:31:25,634
for sharing information

576
00:31:25,834 --> 00:31:29,533
and helping to identify projects that they need help with.

577
00:31:30,934 --> 00:31:34,700
So that'll be good. They are gonna talk about possibly

578
00:31:35,100 --> 00:31:37,934
renaming it, the engineering committee, just to kind

579
00:31:37,934 --> 00:31:40,033
of reduce some confusion on that end.

580
00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:43,100
But yeah, they canceled the last meeting,

581
00:31:43,166 --> 00:31:46,767
but they will be meeting again

582
00:31:46,834 --> 00:31:50,100
for the first time under Shane's leadership on October 15th.

583
00:31:51,266 --> 00:31:53,867
- October what? 15th. 15th. Okay.

584
00:31:57,867 --> 00:32:01,066
That's great. And then finally,

585
00:32:02,266 --> 00:32:04,233
six G, the authorities committee.

586
00:32:05,433 --> 00:32:09,066
- So similarly, I sat down with the chairs

587
00:32:09,033 --> 00:32:10,500
of the authorities committee.

588
00:32:11,166 --> 00:32:14,333
Those chairs are Ray Delina from Centre County Planning

589
00:32:14,333 --> 00:32:17,333
Office, and Pam Adams from the Centre

590
00:32:17,333 --> 00:32:18,567
Region Planning Agency.

591
00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:20,033
They co-chair that committee.

592
00:32:21,100 --> 00:32:24,066
Pam is pretty new to the committee this year

593
00:32:24,033 --> 00:32:25,266
and leading there.

594
00:32:25,367 --> 00:32:28,367
Right. Has been doing it for a few years now.

595
00:32:29,166 --> 00:32:30,767
And we sat down to just talk about

596
00:32:30,867 --> 00:32:33,100
how could we make this more beneficial

597
00:32:33,233 --> 00:32:35,100
for the water authorities that are in attendance.

598
00:32:35,700 --> 00:32:38,033
We don't wanna just talk to them and share information.

599
00:32:38,066 --> 00:32:40,834
We wanna make it, again, a more collaborative space

600
00:32:40,934 --> 00:32:42,266
for information sharing.

601
00:32:43,100 --> 00:32:48,000
So we decided that we're not gonna meet in September,

602
00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:51,700
but we're gonna meet in November on

603
00:32:52,767 --> 00:32:56,100
November 18th, kind of splitting the difference between the

604
00:32:56,734 --> 00:32:58,066
September and December meetings.

605
00:32:58,834 --> 00:33:01,266
December meetings are not historically well attended.

606
00:33:01,567 --> 00:33:05,133
So we wanted to, I'll be having another meeting with Pam

607
00:33:05,233 --> 00:33:08,266
and Ray to just strategize and think about what we wanna do.

608
00:33:08,333 --> 00:33:10,100
But we're hoping to have a discussion

609
00:33:10,100 --> 00:33:13,333
with the water authorities in presence to just see Okay.

610
00:33:13,333 --> 00:33:15,066
What they really want to get out of the committee

611
00:33:15,100 --> 00:33:16,367
and how we can help them better.

612
00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:21,066
- Good. I know that when we left the last

613
00:33:21,300 --> 00:33:24,467
committee authorities committee meeting,

614
00:33:24,467 --> 00:33:28,533
there was discussion about having

615
00:33:30,100 --> 00:33:32,634
Pam and potentially Jenna Argo come in

616
00:33:32,634 --> 00:33:37,033
and talk about the regional comprehensive plan.

617
00:33:37,867 --> 00:33:40,266
And I'm sure that's in the works

618
00:33:40,667 --> 00:33:42,000
as something that could be covered.

619
00:33:43,100 --> 00:33:44,567
- So we did discuss that.

620
00:33:45,033 --> 00:33:48,000
Pam pointed out that she's going to these water authorities

621
00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:49,100
to give that presentation.

622
00:33:49,433 --> 00:33:51,100
Okay. And she didn't want redundancy.

623
00:33:51,900 --> 00:33:53,934
So we were brainstorming with Ray

624
00:33:54,100 --> 00:33:57,033
how we could have a more specific conversation about like

625
00:33:57,634 --> 00:33:58,934
the septic systems

626
00:33:59,333 --> 00:34:01,867
or different components of the growth boundary

627
00:34:01,867 --> 00:34:04,233
that could be more of an area for discussion so

628
00:34:04,233 --> 00:34:06,066
that they're not getting a original presentation.

629
00:34:06,567 --> 00:34:10,300
- Okay. Great. - Please.

630
00:34:12,567 --> 00:34:14,934
- Well, in now since you have an engineering committee,

631
00:34:18,033 --> 00:34:20,000
I am, I'm, I'm, I'm,

632
00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:24,700
the discussion that you're gonna have

633
00:34:24,700 --> 00:34:28,100
with the authorities committee really will be dependent on

634
00:34:28,033 --> 00:34:32,000
the quality and the how current

635
00:34:32,166 --> 00:34:36,133
that engineering, you know, I, you know,

636
00:34:36,266 --> 00:34:39,066
it'd be wonderful if everybody had

637
00:34:40,066 --> 00:34:44,367
the A GIS wizard and every municipality.

638
00:34:45,166 --> 00:34:49,634
Yep. It's almost like now, you know, is this,

639
00:34:50,100 --> 00:34:55,033
is this something that we can make more of a watershed

640
00:34:55,500 --> 00:34:58,834
wide effort?

641
00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:05,467
I mean it's, we don't have any funding vehicle for it,

642
00:35:06,066 --> 00:35:10,233
but it's almost the, without the GIS mapping

643
00:35:10,567 --> 00:35:12,900
and those, and the growth boundaries

644
00:35:12,934 --> 00:35:15,834
and locating those facilities

645
00:35:15,934 --> 00:35:19,900
and the assets, you're,

646
00:35:20,433 --> 00:35:23,834
we're sort of having a roundabout discussion about where's

647
00:35:23,834 --> 00:35:26,000
my territory, where's your territory?

648
00:35:26,300 --> 00:35:30,333
Right. So, I mean, if, if we can meld,

649
00:35:31,734 --> 00:35:33,834
I'm not saying put the two committees together,

650
00:35:33,934 --> 00:35:35,834
but make those two committees work.

651
00:35:36,433 --> 00:35:38,300
Yeah. So that they,

652
00:35:39,100 --> 00:35:42,033
they can leverage the information from each other.

653
00:35:42,433 --> 00:35:43,433
Yeah.

654
00:35:43,834 --> 00:35:48,367
- I recall that discussion with the governments committee

655
00:35:48,734 --> 00:35:52,333
and Shane had been Shane Adams.

656
00:35:52,367 --> 00:35:56,934
Now the chair had been real involved with outreach

657
00:35:57,166 --> 00:36:01,033
amongst the MS four

658
00:36:01,033 --> 00:36:02,467
partners, I believe.

659
00:36:03,066 --> 00:36:06,133
Didn't he tell us, Elise, correct me if I'm wrong, that all

660
00:36:06,133 --> 00:36:09,033
of the MS four four partners are using it.

661
00:36:10,433 --> 00:36:13,934
- Yes. - And that includes Spring Township now.

662
00:36:15,133 --> 00:36:20,000
So it is an appropriate thing to keep talking about.

663
00:36:21,033 --> 00:36:22,700
- When you say they're using it,

664
00:36:23,500 --> 00:36:24,500
- The, I'm sorry.

665
00:36:25,133 --> 00:36:26,367
The GIS

666
00:36:26,900 --> 00:36:27,533
- Oh, okay. Yeah.

667
00:36:27,533 --> 00:36:31,567
- Program that Shane worked with others,

668
00:36:31,900 --> 00:36:35,133
but to, what was the first part of it?

669
00:36:38,100 --> 00:36:40,834
- Well, to make sure that we are all right.

670
00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:44,100
Everybody has that current Yes.

671
00:36:44,166 --> 00:36:48,066
- And it's what I was struggling for the name

672
00:36:48,133 --> 00:36:49,634
of the GIS oh

673
00:36:49,834 --> 00:36:54,467
- RGIS - Well it's a, it's Art View GIS, but he updated it.

674
00:36:55,033 --> 00:36:59,133
Maybe you recall the name that he used.

675
00:36:59,533 --> 00:37:01,533
- I can give a little bit of context. I'm not quite sure.

676
00:37:01,533 --> 00:37:05,066
Yeah. But whenever the Watershed commission was working

677
00:37:05,133 --> 00:37:07,500
and is still working on their public project viewer,

678
00:37:08,166 --> 00:37:09,700
the Storm Water Work group,

679
00:37:09,867 --> 00:37:11,033
and for those who don't know,

680
00:37:11,033 --> 00:37:14,634
the public project viewer is a shared GIS map

681
00:37:14,634 --> 00:37:16,066
that HRG developed.

682
00:37:16,166 --> 00:37:18,333
And we have like the growth boundary, the

683
00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:22,100
sewer service areas, the water authorities service areas.

684
00:37:23,266 --> 00:37:24,367
We've been kind of trying

685
00:37:24,367 --> 00:37:27,567
to compile on a watershed level within the delineated

686
00:37:27,567 --> 00:37:29,533
watershed boundaries, that information,

687
00:37:29,700 --> 00:37:34,100
and then also input projects that have occurred over time so

688
00:37:34,100 --> 00:37:35,834
that it can be a bit of a project planning tool.

689
00:37:36,266 --> 00:37:40,033
And when the stormwater work group looked at that item,

690
00:37:40,500 --> 00:37:44,133
and they were very interested in understanding where

691
00:37:44,900 --> 00:37:46,500
stormwater infrastructure was,

692
00:37:46,767 --> 00:37:48,500
where outfalls are, all those things.

693
00:37:49,500 --> 00:37:51,934
So Shane came into the stormwater work group

694
00:37:51,934 --> 00:37:54,734
and gave a presentation about something he's done.

695
00:37:55,500 --> 00:37:59,467
He developed A-G-I-S-A whole workflow for it. Right.

696
00:37:59,533 --> 00:38:01,700
That all of our local MS four partners use

697
00:38:01,834 --> 00:38:04,634
to record their stormwater BMPs.

698
00:38:04,867 --> 00:38:08,634
Right. And his work was so good

699
00:38:08,634 --> 00:38:10,767
that it's actually highlighted as a case study

700
00:38:10,934 --> 00:38:12,367
by ARC GI by Esri.

701
00:38:12,367 --> 00:38:13,700
Right? Yes.

702
00:38:14,033 --> 00:38:16,066
So that is something that we don't necessarily

703
00:38:17,233 --> 00:38:19,734
get the information for, but we do know that it's happening

704
00:38:19,734 --> 00:38:21,634
and we have somebody that understands

705
00:38:21,634 --> 00:38:23,233
that work flow available.

706
00:38:23,700 --> 00:38:27,634
- Right. Yeah. I'm just saying that moving

707
00:38:27,734 --> 00:38:32,033
beyond storm water, you know, just the Right, the, the,

708
00:38:33,166 --> 00:38:37,333
the, the, the sewer and the water service Yes.

709
00:38:37,467 --> 00:38:39,767
Areas. Yes. Not only just the boundaries,

710
00:38:39,867 --> 00:38:43,700
but also where the lines might be so that we

711
00:38:43,700 --> 00:38:44,700
- Can That's a good point.

712
00:38:44,900 --> 00:38:48,033
- So that everybody can move forward smartly.

713
00:38:48,867 --> 00:38:50,767
- Yeah. - That's the,

714
00:38:51,333 --> 00:38:52,333
- Okay.

715
00:38:52,333 --> 00:38:56,033
Anything else on authorities? Okay.

716
00:38:57,066 --> 00:39:01,634
Moving to old business, we wanted to include

717
00:39:02,634 --> 00:39:05,266
reference to the July

718
00:39:06,533 --> 00:39:07,700
adoption of the budget.

719
00:39:08,133 --> 00:39:12,533
And earlier this week, I sent

720
00:39:12,567 --> 00:39:16,033
to all the watershed commission members,

721
00:39:16,867 --> 00:39:21,467
both the elected and appointed members, as well

722
00:39:21,667 --> 00:39:26,066
as to our member municipal offices, a

723
00:39:27,500 --> 00:39:29,100
budget transmittal letter,

724
00:39:30,867 --> 00:39:35,300
and then the budget that was adopted in 2027,

725
00:39:35,500 --> 00:39:37,066
or excuse me, in July.

726
00:39:37,433 --> 00:39:38,934
This is for next year's budget.

727
00:39:39,500 --> 00:39:41,266
And then also a

728
00:39:43,033 --> 00:39:45,500
questions had come up in our presentations

729
00:39:47,000 --> 00:39:48,934
for the 2026 budget.

730
00:39:49,433 --> 00:39:50,700
We also sent a

731
00:39:54,133 --> 00:39:56,233
municipal contribution spreadsheet

732
00:39:56,367 --> 00:40:01,100
and where we've been at since 2022 when we were at

733
00:40:01,433 --> 00:40:02,767
10 cents per capita.

734
00:40:02,900 --> 00:40:05,233
And then two years, 24

735
00:40:05,567 --> 00:40:08,467
and 25 at 15 cents,

736
00:40:08,867 --> 00:40:13,634
and then 26th the current year at a quarter 25 cents.

737
00:40:14,166 --> 00:40:17,033
And the budget adopted in July kept

738
00:40:17,066 --> 00:40:19,233
that 25 cents per capita.

739
00:40:19,233 --> 00:40:21,467
So that was part of the

740
00:40:23,834 --> 00:40:25,033
information that went out.

741
00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:30,634
And I can report that last night

742
00:40:31,233 --> 00:40:36,000
I was at Ferguson to review the budget

743
00:40:36,033 --> 00:40:38,033
and get comments from them.

744
00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:42,133
So everyone, just in the context

745
00:40:42,500 --> 00:40:44,467
of the watershed commission in relation

746
00:40:44,734 --> 00:40:46,133
to our municipal members,

747
00:40:47,033 --> 00:40:50,000
we adopt our 2027 budget early,

748
00:40:51,500 --> 00:40:54,233
I think relatively speaking in July.

749
00:40:54,667 --> 00:40:59,567
So that, but at this time, as municipalities are

750
00:41:00,467 --> 00:41:04,066
starting to AMAs

751
00:41:04,500 --> 00:41:08,066
and hold work sessions to prepare

752
00:41:08,100 --> 00:41:12,033
for their 2027 budget, they have the information

753
00:41:13,066 --> 00:41:14,300
from the commission.

754
00:41:15,100 --> 00:41:19,867
And as it's been

755
00:41:20,033 --> 00:41:22,000
a practice

756
00:41:23,166 --> 00:41:27,100
that individual members from the

757
00:41:28,066 --> 00:41:30,100
watershed commission, whether elected

758
00:41:30,700 --> 00:41:35,300
or alternate appointees, will reach out

759
00:41:35,934 --> 00:41:40,700
to their municipality to say, the Watershed Commission.

760
00:41:40,700 --> 00:41:43,100
You got information about the budget, do you want

761
00:41:43,100 --> 00:41:44,367
to put it on a public meeting?

762
00:41:45,066 --> 00:41:49,233
If so, we'll come and make a presentation or talk about it.

763
00:41:50,100 --> 00:41:51,533
The idea being that

764
00:41:54,767 --> 00:41:59,266
we're trying to feed our budget information

765
00:41:59,867 --> 00:42:04,000
into the existing budget development process.

766
00:42:05,133 --> 00:42:09,700
So any questions about any of that?

767
00:42:12,066 --> 00:42:15,734
Normally what we do in the timeframe is once

768
00:42:18,100 --> 00:42:22,033
there have been from early September

769
00:42:22,467 --> 00:42:26,934
until October times to interact

770
00:42:26,934 --> 00:42:30,100
with municipal members, then we will look to

771
00:42:32,467 --> 00:42:33,834
develop invoices

772
00:42:34,100 --> 00:42:38,467
and send out municipal contribution invoices

773
00:42:38,767 --> 00:42:40,000
for the 27 budget.

774
00:42:40,567 --> 00:42:43,367
And that usually happens in quarter number four

775
00:42:44,934 --> 00:42:46,166
toward the middle of October.

776
00:42:49,100 --> 00:42:52,700
- Yeah. We, we budget season

777
00:42:53,033 --> 00:42:54,033
has just started.

778
00:42:54,533 --> 00:42:56,266
So Right. The initial

779
00:42:58,300 --> 00:43:00,066
conversations are happening.

780
00:43:00,100 --> 00:43:03,333
So it's timely to send it out at this time. So Right.

781
00:43:04,333 --> 00:43:09,133
Having just survived the first finance

782
00:43:09,133 --> 00:43:11,233
committee meeting of budget season.

783
00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:13,100
- Yes. Yes.

784
00:43:13,700 --> 00:43:16,133
Well, and Belmont Borough Council,

785
00:43:16,100 --> 00:43:17,500
you have two new members, right?

786
00:43:18,700 --> 00:43:20,133
- Yes, we do. Yeah. Yeah.

787
00:43:20,533 --> 00:43:23,900
- So there's alerting curve there for

788
00:43:24,767 --> 00:43:25,767
- Yes, yes.

789
00:43:28,000 --> 00:43:32,233
Yeah. To vests and Marissa.

790
00:43:32,233 --> 00:43:36,100
What's Mariah Kessler? Mariah Kessler. Good.

791
00:43:36,166 --> 00:43:37,867
- Yeah. - Thanks Joanne. Okay.

792
00:43:39,333 --> 00:43:43,834
- And John informed me this evening that with

793
00:43:44,300 --> 00:43:48,700
Randy Brack Bills stepping away from the Watershed

794
00:43:48,700 --> 00:43:50,133
Commission and Borough Council,

795
00:43:50,867 --> 00:43:55,467
that John is the designated rep from Borough Council.

796
00:43:56,000 --> 00:43:59,433
- Yes. And Zach Kelly will be our alternate. That's

797
00:43:59,433 --> 00:44:00,433
- Great.

798
00:44:00,734 --> 00:44:03,066
Yeah. Anything else about the budget?

799
00:44:05,500 --> 00:44:08,133
Okay. Next thing on old business

800
00:44:09,100 --> 00:44:12,000
is an update on the rock view lands

801
00:44:12,000 --> 00:44:14,934
and things that have been percolating

802
00:44:15,900 --> 00:44:17,900
since the Public Hearing.

803
00:44:20,100 --> 00:44:23,233
And I understand, Barbara, you'd like to

804
00:44:25,367 --> 00:44:27,100
share your viewpoints.

805
00:44:27,100 --> 00:44:28,900
Please come up to the,

806
00:44:29,567 --> 00:44:31,133
- Where is it that I should do - This?

807
00:44:31,000 --> 00:44:32,066
Here. I'll take care of the podium.

808
00:44:33,000 --> 00:44:35,100
I can't hear right over here. Over here. Okay.

809
00:44:37,300 --> 00:44:41,100
I have some books to give to the, okay.

810
00:44:41,066 --> 00:44:45,500
I'll take care of that. Can go talk. My name is

811
00:44:45,767 --> 00:44:50,734
- Barbara Fisher and I'm a resident of State College since

812
00:44:51,300 --> 00:44:53,033
1965.

813
00:44:53,567 --> 00:44:55,233
- Wow. - I come

814
00:44:55,266 --> 00:44:59,634
before you this evening as a veteran of

815
00:45:00,734 --> 00:45:04,133
several major issues in our watershed.

816
00:45:05,433 --> 00:45:10,033
And the rock view issue

817
00:45:10,867 --> 00:45:12,834
has me completely spellbound.

818
00:45:14,333 --> 00:45:18,033
It is an incredible opportunity of a lifetime

819
00:45:18,934 --> 00:45:23,867
to have this many acres of open space between two

820
00:45:24,934 --> 00:45:29,333
thriving growing communities of Beon and State College.

821
00:45:29,734 --> 00:45:31,467
A cushion in between is just

822
00:45:32,133 --> 00:45:34,867
an amazing situation.

823
00:45:37,000 --> 00:45:40,834
I am hearing from people that with a sense

824
00:45:40,834 --> 00:45:45,767
of remorse from them, that the people feel

825
00:45:46,567 --> 00:45:49,567
that the land will not be honored

826
00:45:50,834 --> 00:45:52,567
and that they have no voice.

827
00:45:54,533 --> 00:45:59,000
I feel differently. I feel we have a strong case

828
00:45:59,333 --> 00:46:01,634
of making a significant difference.

829
00:46:02,433 --> 00:46:05,033
We have all the ingredients to do so,

830
00:46:05,567 --> 00:46:10,300
and the will to do so in order

831
00:46:10,300 --> 00:46:12,066
to do it, we've gotta figure out

832
00:46:13,233 --> 00:46:17,266
how can we have a strategic plan to make it happen?

833
00:46:18,834 --> 00:46:23,000
And we need to figure it out in a very,

834
00:46:23,066 --> 00:46:24,333
very serious way.

835
00:46:26,467 --> 00:46:31,033
The first step as I see it, is to have professionals

836
00:46:32,100 --> 00:46:34,467
evaluate what is on the rock view land.

837
00:46:35,100 --> 00:46:36,300
What are their assets?

838
00:46:37,300 --> 00:46:40,133
Where are their, are there very outstanding

839
00:46:40,734 --> 00:46:42,066
agricultural soils?

840
00:46:44,066 --> 00:46:47,767
Is there significant water resource in the groundwater

841
00:46:48,166 --> 00:46:51,467
that could be used for the future needs of our watershed?

842
00:46:52,667 --> 00:46:54,000
What are the threats to it?

843
00:46:55,233 --> 00:46:58,467
Is, is Interstate 99 a major impact?

844
00:46:59,867 --> 00:47:02,634
What are its vulnerabilities? Where is the level?

845
00:47:03,100 --> 00:47:04,500
Have we exceeded the level

846
00:47:04,734 --> 00:47:07,734
of recharge already in covering up our land?

847
00:47:09,567 --> 00:47:12,266
How can all this impact Spring Creek

848
00:47:12,467 --> 00:47:15,233
and our fishing tourism attraction?

849
00:47:16,567 --> 00:47:20,467
So once those assets are, are

850
00:47:21,133 --> 00:47:25,100
carefully assessed, then I also feel

851
00:47:25,100 --> 00:47:27,767
that these professionals should interpret

852
00:47:28,533 --> 00:47:30,634
what they are to the rest of us.

853
00:47:31,233 --> 00:47:34,834
And that should be our guideline in everything that we do.

854
00:47:35,367 --> 00:47:40,066
So that the land comes first and its integrity comes first.

855
00:47:40,900 --> 00:47:44,100
And by having that as our highest priority,

856
00:47:44,667 --> 00:47:47,700
then we can come to more easily

857
00:47:48,700 --> 00:47:50,033
consensus of what to do.

858
00:47:51,667 --> 00:47:55,000
The second thing is, I think we need to have a base of a,

859
00:47:55,166 --> 00:47:58,000
of a, a foundational base

860
00:47:59,066 --> 00:48:01,300
and a candidate for that could be the Department

861
00:48:01,300 --> 00:48:03,333
of Conservation and Natural Resources.

862
00:48:04,266 --> 00:48:08,033
That's their role to protect resources.

863
00:48:08,700 --> 00:48:11,066
We would need that help from the government

864
00:48:11,133 --> 00:48:13,033
to really make this work beautifully.

865
00:48:14,266 --> 00:48:18,300
And also within the Department of Natural Resources,

866
00:48:18,367 --> 00:48:22,767
conservation Natural Resources is a section for parks.

867
00:48:24,700 --> 00:48:28,066
So the third part of this would be we,

868
00:48:28,133 --> 00:48:30,100
we are missing a table in a sense of

869
00:48:30,100 --> 00:48:33,000
where we can all get together and figure this out

870
00:48:33,000 --> 00:48:34,133
and work together on this.

871
00:48:35,100 --> 00:48:38,033
And so the third part is we,

872
00:48:38,100 --> 00:48:40,133
I see an initiative starting now

873
00:48:40,667 --> 00:48:44,367
with having a work committee trying to figure out how,

874
00:48:44,634 --> 00:48:45,634
how to go about this.

875
00:48:46,133 --> 00:48:48,634
And that's, that could be the genesis of a council,

876
00:48:48,867 --> 00:48:50,300
or whatever word we want to use.

877
00:48:51,867 --> 00:48:56,233
I, it's very imperative that we have a,

878
00:48:57,066 --> 00:48:59,867
a group, a council, a group of people that,

879
00:49:00,100 --> 00:49:03,367
that are pulling together all types of interests

880
00:49:03,934 --> 00:49:08,100
and a diversity of people in a way that, that they can be

881
00:49:08,900 --> 00:49:10,934
delegated to what needs to happen.

882
00:49:12,133 --> 00:49:15,467
And if you could use the analogy of an orchestra,

883
00:49:16,233 --> 00:49:19,467
and an orchestra has a conductor, well,

884
00:49:19,467 --> 00:49:22,333
we can have the council be a group of conductors,

885
00:49:23,066 --> 00:49:26,934
but then in the orchestra we've got a section for the, the,

886
00:49:28,100 --> 00:49:30,767
the strings and another section that,

887
00:49:30,767 --> 00:49:32,934
that does the brass and so forth.

888
00:49:33,500 --> 00:49:35,734
So that's the way it is in our,

889
00:49:35,734 --> 00:49:39,100
that's why we have this terrific strength and potential.

890
00:49:39,500 --> 00:49:44,266
We have all these different categories of willing partners

891
00:49:44,634 --> 00:49:48,133
that can enter into working together on making

892
00:49:48,533 --> 00:49:49,533
rock view a dream.

893
00:49:50,867 --> 00:49:54,000
Examples of some of those categories are the agricultural

894
00:49:54,000 --> 00:49:58,734
groups such as the d the different

895
00:49:59,567 --> 00:50:01,567
people at Penn State working on

896
00:50:04,367 --> 00:50:05,634
my mind is blanking, right?

897
00:50:06,133 --> 00:50:09,500
But, okay, that's one group is the agricultural people like

898
00:50:09,500 --> 00:50:11,100
the Conservation District

899
00:50:11,667 --> 00:50:16,367
and the Ag extension is another,

900
00:50:16,634 --> 00:50:18,734
you know, those are people that could play with that.

901
00:50:19,033 --> 00:50:22,834
And then there's also groups like in in,

902
00:50:22,834 --> 00:50:24,567
in our planning commissions and,

903
00:50:24,834 --> 00:50:27,700
and our, our governmental groups could all lend a hand.

904
00:50:28,166 --> 00:50:31,033
And then there are the nonprofits

905
00:50:31,433 --> 00:50:34,033
and there's the tourism industries and so forth.

906
00:50:34,033 --> 00:50:36,100
Everybody can play their part.

907
00:50:36,567 --> 00:50:40,233
But if you could have this, the conductors tell

908
00:50:41,233 --> 00:50:46,033
specifically what tasks each group should do, it,

909
00:50:46,033 --> 00:50:50,467
it, it won't be as difficult to pull the whole thing off.

910
00:50:51,467 --> 00:50:56,133
And one of the tasks that I see that could happen would be

911
00:50:56,834 --> 00:50:59,100
to have a communications network.

912
00:50:59,634 --> 00:51:03,634
So there could be a site on the computer

913
00:51:04,033 --> 00:51:08,700
where people could, could share their ideas for rockview

914
00:51:09,133 --> 00:51:10,467
and we could collect them.

915
00:51:10,900 --> 00:51:12,767
And then, like we did

916
00:51:12,767 --> 00:51:15,934
with way back when we had the people come from all over the

917
00:51:15,934 --> 00:51:17,033
country world to help us

918
00:51:17,033 --> 00:51:19,300
with our Spring Creek watershed years ago,

919
00:51:19,533 --> 00:51:23,367
what they did is they took those, those ideas

920
00:51:24,100 --> 00:51:26,233
and they found where there was consensus

921
00:51:26,900 --> 00:51:28,233
and then they went back to the people

922
00:51:28,233 --> 00:51:29,734
and said, well, which do you rate?

923
00:51:30,133 --> 00:51:31,233
Which do you want the most?

924
00:51:31,700 --> 00:51:36,100
So this is building a chorus within your orchestra of

925
00:51:36,467 --> 00:51:40,467
who wants what we want as, as in a consensus way

926
00:51:40,500 --> 00:51:41,634
of what we wanna do.

927
00:51:42,000 --> 00:51:45,100
But it should always be tempered with the integrity

928
00:51:45,834 --> 00:51:48,300
watching out for the land itself.

929
00:51:50,166 --> 00:51:54,100
Okay. So principles in running this whole thing should be

930
00:51:54,100 --> 00:51:58,033
that no one group should be the dominant force that we all

931
00:51:59,000 --> 00:52:01,033
seek to work together as a team.

932
00:52:02,367 --> 00:52:06,033
What are some ideas of how this, this could happen?

933
00:52:07,433 --> 00:52:09,767
What, what, what are some ideas of a view?

934
00:52:10,166 --> 00:52:14,467
Well, I see as being like trifold, one would be

935
00:52:15,133 --> 00:52:19,767
a park, two would be an, an extensive use

936
00:52:19,767 --> 00:52:21,266
of the agricultural land.

937
00:52:22,734 --> 00:52:24,033
All kinds of ways.

938
00:52:25,467 --> 00:52:26,867
Pollinator gardens

939
00:52:27,066 --> 00:52:31,934
and gardens that would teach us how to,

940
00:52:33,100 --> 00:52:37,634
to work with, with organically gardens where people,

941
00:52:37,634 --> 00:52:42,100
different groups, we not, not me, can come in and,

942
00:52:42,333 --> 00:52:44,066
and have 50 acre tracks

943
00:52:44,066 --> 00:52:46,834
and grow food for the hungry gardens,

944
00:52:46,834 --> 00:52:50,367
where the prisoners could also help work on their land.

945
00:52:50,367 --> 00:52:54,133
And one of the task forces could be an economic task force

946
00:52:54,333 --> 00:52:58,634
that could show how we can actually save type taxpayers

947
00:52:58,634 --> 00:53:01,367
money by doing all these different types of things.

948
00:53:02,100 --> 00:53:06,500
So in addition to the agriculture, the third part,

949
00:53:06,734 --> 00:53:09,934
which is sort of maybe a newer part, is

950
00:53:10,000 --> 00:53:13,634
to have it be a learning ecological learning center

951
00:53:14,266 --> 00:53:17,233
where we could actually have people

952
00:53:19,066 --> 00:53:22,300
do research as well as learn how to have,

953
00:53:23,834 --> 00:53:25,033
make the best of, of their,

954
00:53:25,634 --> 00:53:29,567
their own home gardens like Doug Tmy suggests.

955
00:53:30,000 --> 00:53:32,533
And this could be a showcase for our state.

956
00:53:32,934 --> 00:53:34,634
We could bring in tourism to see

957
00:53:34,634 --> 00:53:36,500
what this learning center can show,

958
00:53:36,500 --> 00:53:40,333
because we've got all this wonderful research and, and,

959
00:53:40,367 --> 00:53:42,867
and energies at, at Penn State

960
00:53:43,333 --> 00:53:45,634
that the sustainability initiative

961
00:53:46,100 --> 00:53:48,367
and all the students we could, there's

962
00:53:48,433 --> 00:53:50,767
so much material here we have to work with.

963
00:53:51,166 --> 00:53:53,133
So I think it's extremely exciting.

964
00:53:53,166 --> 00:53:55,000
And I have a book for each of you

965
00:53:56,066 --> 00:53:59,100
from Doug Talley's latest book called

966
00:53:59,767 --> 00:54:01,233
Nature's Best Nature.

967
00:54:01,500 --> 00:54:05,300
What is the Nature's Best Promise? Nature's Best Hope. Yes.

968
00:54:05,900 --> 00:54:09,033
And he, he could, he could, he could be one

969
00:54:09,033 --> 00:54:11,233
of the projects on this learning center

970
00:54:11,567 --> 00:54:15,700
that could really take us really up at a high level.

971
00:54:17,266 --> 00:54:20,767
I just wanna share with you that today my van driver,

972
00:54:21,834 --> 00:54:23,000
I asked him, what do you,

973
00:54:23,000 --> 00:54:25,066
what do you think should happen with Rockview?

974
00:54:25,500 --> 00:54:29,133
He said, it should be environmental, that we should work

975
00:54:29,300 --> 00:54:33,066
with the land and that we should learn how to care for it.

976
00:54:33,500 --> 00:54:37,266
And then he said, I wanna walk with my son.

977
00:54:38,100 --> 00:54:40,834
I wanna hike with him, whether it is

978
00:54:41,000 --> 00:54:43,033
where it could be of real beauty.

979
00:54:43,667 --> 00:54:44,700
That was his wish.

980
00:54:46,133 --> 00:54:50,033
So I feel that you are a significant

981
00:54:51,500 --> 00:54:55,634
potential for us, you the commission in playing a very,

982
00:54:56,033 --> 00:54:58,734
very important role in bringing

983
00:54:59,934 --> 00:55:03,500
a very amazing scenario to fruition

984
00:55:04,066 --> 00:55:08,100
because you have the, the commitment

985
00:55:08,100 --> 00:55:11,033
through stewardship and you have the skills of leadership.

986
00:55:12,634 --> 00:55:17,233
I think it would be wonderful if when we

987
00:55:18,066 --> 00:55:21,667
in the future drive by Rockview

988
00:55:22,934 --> 00:55:27,166
and we see treetops not

989
00:55:27,367 --> 00:55:30,734
rooftops, we see fields of green

990
00:55:31,533 --> 00:55:34,934
that beckon to us to come

991
00:55:35,700 --> 00:55:40,100
and rekindle our love of nature. Thank you.

992
00:55:41,033 --> 00:55:42,033
- Thank you, thank you.

993
00:55:46,033 --> 00:55:50,000
- I think that at our Public Hearing at slo,

994
00:55:51,433 --> 00:55:56,033
Barbara's comments stimulated a great amount of

995
00:55:56,900 --> 00:55:58,634
thought and inspiration.

996
00:55:59,934 --> 00:56:03,867
I know that probably everyone in this room has had

997
00:56:04,000 --> 00:56:06,166
conversations with family

998
00:56:06,467 --> 00:56:10,133
or neighbors since that Public Hearing.

999
00:56:11,333 --> 00:56:12,634
I can report that.

1000
00:56:14,333 --> 00:56:17,500
The letter that was sent by Clearwater

1001
00:56:17,867 --> 00:56:20,700
and the 12 stakeholder groups to the governor

1002
00:56:21,100 --> 00:56:23,066
and tried unlimited senate letter.

1003
00:56:23,634 --> 00:56:28,233
We sent a letter conversations amongst all of those

1004
00:56:30,066 --> 00:56:34,934
entities are ongoing about how to formulate

1005
00:56:35,734 --> 00:56:37,834
the community

1006
00:56:40,834 --> 00:56:43,266
task force that you're referencing.

1007
00:56:43,634 --> 00:56:47,233
And that was included in those letters to the governor.

1008
00:56:47,900 --> 00:56:51,000
So those discussions are ongoing

1009
00:56:51,867 --> 00:56:56,233
and there has been meaningful progress.

1010
00:56:57,467 --> 00:57:02,066
I'm not really at liberty to get too far out front on

1011
00:57:02,700 --> 00:57:03,734
those discussions,

1012
00:57:04,066 --> 00:57:07,634
but I think everyone should be aware that they're going on

1013
00:57:08,333 --> 00:57:13,100
and that there's work underway

1014
00:57:13,367 --> 00:57:17,300
to start to formulate along the lines of

1015
00:57:19,767 --> 00:57:21,033
your suggestions, Barbara,

1016
00:57:21,567 --> 00:57:25,133
that community task force.

1017
00:57:26,667 --> 00:57:30,867
- Thank you. - Any other comments about Rockview

1018
00:57:31,000 --> 00:57:33,634
or things that we should be paying attention to?

1019
00:57:35,066 --> 00:57:39,233
David's comments from earlier about the discussions ongoing

1020
00:57:39,233 --> 00:57:41,233
at Benner are most significant

1021
00:57:42,166 --> 00:57:46,066
and Yes, Gretchen.

1022
00:57:46,734 --> 00:57:47,367
- Yeah. I

1023
00:57:52,233 --> 00:57:56,734
I I guess I'm, I'm wondering since I'm a rep from college

1024
00:57:57,433 --> 00:58:02,266
and a third of the land is in college, I,

1025
00:58:06,100 --> 00:58:08,767
I just wonder what role

1026
00:58:10,100 --> 00:58:11,934
the Township can play

1027
00:58:13,133 --> 00:58:17,867
and just don't want there to be an opportunity

1028
00:58:18,000 --> 00:58:22,033
or opportunities where we could have done something

1029
00:58:22,033 --> 00:58:24,133
that might have made a difference

1030
00:58:24,133 --> 00:58:27,033
and then somehow we didn't see it in time or,

1031
00:58:27,500 --> 00:58:31,100
because I mean, there's, there's

1032
00:58:32,367 --> 00:58:37,333
definitely, I I can say unanimous desire amongst the council

1033
00:58:37,567 --> 00:58:41,533
to good do everything, you know, that, that we can,

1034
00:58:41,867 --> 00:58:44,867
to make Barbara Fisher's words come true.

1035
00:58:46,133 --> 00:58:50,934
The question is, you know, for those who are

1036
00:58:51,500 --> 00:58:55,033
experienced and experts in local government, how do we,

1037
00:58:55,033 --> 00:58:57,033
how do we actually make this happen?

1038
00:58:57,467 --> 00:59:00,533
And it's, it, it's, you know, kind of

1039
00:59:02,133 --> 00:59:03,333
seen into the future

1040
00:59:04,133 --> 00:59:09,066
and then seizing on those opportunities that maybe aren't

1041
00:59:09,066 --> 00:59:11,467
that visible, you know,

1042
00:59:12,100 --> 00:59:14,367
to, to most people.

1043
00:59:14,900 --> 00:59:19,834
Right. So anyway, I I,

1044
00:59:20,000 --> 00:59:23,100
I, I, because I haven't really gotten a lot of straight

1045
00:59:23,567 --> 00:59:25,767
answers from people

1046
00:59:25,767 --> 00:59:28,467
that I've asked about process, process, process.

1047
00:59:28,867 --> 00:59:31,100
'cause that's normally my default. Yes. Yes.

1048
00:59:32,000 --> 00:59:35,367
And I, I just kind of feel like

1049
00:59:35,367 --> 00:59:38,700
what I would normally do would be to follow the process.

1050
00:59:39,467 --> 00:59:44,066
Yes. And usually that produces good outcome, right.

1051
00:59:44,066 --> 00:59:45,867
That everybody is okay with

1052
00:59:45,867 --> 00:59:47,066
because they were a part of the process.

1053
00:59:47,300 --> 00:59:51,333
Right. This time with this particular instance, lots of,

1054
00:59:51,500 --> 00:59:55,100
I hear lots of references to the Spring Creek Canyon project

1055
00:59:55,834 --> 00:59:58,500
and there that those references were made again tonight

1056
00:59:58,500 --> 01:00:01,133
about that and sort of to mimic that

1057
01:00:01,233 --> 01:00:03,133
or di ditto that to do that again.

1058
01:00:03,233 --> 01:00:07,066
Right. So I wasn't around for that back then,

1059
01:00:07,100 --> 01:00:12,033
but just as, as a rep from college, I wanna say I want

1060
01:00:12,033 --> 01:00:13,367
to do whatever I can do.

1061
01:00:13,867 --> 01:00:17,033
Yep. In my role as a rep from college,

1062
01:00:17,734 --> 01:00:20,066
I'm just not exactly sure Right.

1063
01:00:20,100 --> 01:00:21,867
How to execute that. Right.

1064
01:00:22,100 --> 01:00:24,367
But I definitely, from anybody

1065
01:00:24,367 --> 01:00:28,834
that knows more than I do about it, would love to do that.

1066
01:00:31,100 --> 01:00:33,066
- If I could. A good comment, if I could comment

1067
01:00:33,066 --> 01:00:34,100
on that just a little bit.

1068
01:00:34,867 --> 01:00:38,100
I think everybody's kind of on that, in that situation,

1069
01:00:38,900 --> 01:00:42,834
the state as well as the municipalities don't know what

1070
01:00:42,834 --> 01:00:46,100
to do with this because things have been done

1071
01:00:46,066 --> 01:00:50,567
where there's been prison sites closed in the state before,

1072
01:00:51,000 --> 01:00:55,066
and then they were given over to perhaps to the Department

1073
01:00:55,066 --> 01:00:57,867
of Natural Conservation and natural resources

1074
01:00:57,900 --> 01:01:00,567
or some other uses, but they were, you know,

1075
01:01:00,567 --> 01:01:02,066
maybe 25 acre sites.

1076
01:01:02,266 --> 01:01:04,567
This is almost a 6,000 acre site.

1077
01:01:04,567 --> 01:01:06,100
It's a whole magnitude difference.

1078
01:01:07,000 --> 01:01:11,834
And so that's one of the problems is, well some,

1079
01:01:11,834 --> 01:01:15,934
something that I've heard is in discussions is a suggestions

1080
01:01:15,934 --> 01:01:17,634
that everybody needs to come to the table.

1081
01:01:17,900 --> 01:01:20,000
But the problem is there is no table,

1082
01:01:20,667 --> 01:01:22,233
so the table needs to be formed.

1083
01:01:22,433 --> 01:01:25,867
Right. And this is kind of a first step towards Right.

1084
01:01:26,133 --> 01:01:30,033
That towards getting together at least a, you know,

1085
01:01:30,133 --> 01:01:33,300
a local vision for so we can show a local vision.

1086
01:01:33,433 --> 01:01:34,467
Yeah. You know, and,

1087
01:01:34,667 --> 01:01:39,500
and you know, the, the idea

1088
01:01:39,500 --> 01:01:43,000
of the conservation overlay that was talked about earlier,

1089
01:01:44,634 --> 01:01:48,266
it really kind of, it, it doesn't prevent

1090
01:01:49,266 --> 01:01:50,500
future development,

1091
01:01:50,500 --> 01:01:52,834
but it does put kind of a little pause on it.

1092
01:01:53,467 --> 01:01:58,233
And, and as far as the municipal wherewithal

1093
01:01:58,233 --> 01:02:02,000
to, to do something with the lands, no,

1094
01:02:02,033 --> 01:02:05,266
there is existing Zoning that's, that is applicable.

1095
01:02:05,266 --> 01:02:09,066
Right. So, you know, a lot of the land is zoned

1096
01:02:09,066 --> 01:02:11,734
for agriculture of forestry and so forth.

1097
01:02:12,033 --> 01:02:15,567
Yes. There is some that's zoned commercial. Right.

1098
01:02:16,333 --> 01:02:18,834
So you know that that's already in place.

1099
01:02:19,934 --> 01:02:22,634
And so it's kind of looking forward a little bit to,

1100
01:02:24,000 --> 01:02:26,066
you know, preventing pre, not preventing

1101
01:02:26,100 --> 01:02:28,100
but presenting a vision, I

1102
01:02:28,100 --> 01:02:29,100
- Think.

1103
01:02:29,100 --> 01:02:30,033
Yes. Why

1104
01:02:30,100 --> 01:02:32,133
- Can to the Zoning issue

1105
01:02:33,333 --> 01:02:36,033
that has been brought up to me before,

1106
01:02:37,700 --> 01:02:40,767
and I was speaking with Paul AKs office

1107
01:02:41,233 --> 01:02:44,367
and they said Zoning, Zoning, Zoning.

1108
01:02:45,133 --> 01:02:47,133
That that's, that's the key.

1109
01:02:47,867 --> 01:02:50,934
And so I, I know that there's Zoning

1110
01:02:51,567 --> 01:02:53,100
existing already, but Right.

1111
01:02:53,166 --> 01:02:55,266
If the Township,

1112
01:02:56,567 --> 01:03:01,066
and here I'm speaking as one of five, if the Township were

1113
01:03:01,033 --> 01:03:06,033
to need to change the Zoning in order

1114
01:03:06,166 --> 01:03:11,033
to prepare for an overlay or,

1115
01:03:11,333 --> 01:03:14,300
or whatever would be positive

1116
01:03:15,066 --> 01:03:19,100
to make these goals be achieved, then

1117
01:03:20,333 --> 01:03:23,000
I would think it would be a good idea to start working on

1118
01:03:23,000 --> 01:03:25,033
that sooner rather than later. Right.

1119
01:03:25,467 --> 01:03:28,000
- And - I, so, and I'm not a Zoning expert Yeah.

1120
01:03:28,233 --> 01:03:33,066
But just as a member of the commission. Yes. Okay.

1121
01:03:34,066 --> 01:03:37,734
Anybody who knows a lot about Zoning

1122
01:03:38,166 --> 01:03:43,033
and sustainability may, may wanna come and talk to me.

1123
01:03:44,066 --> 01:03:47,500
- Yes. Well I can reassure, reassure both of you that

1124
01:03:48,133 --> 01:03:52,000
in the discussions that are underway about the formulation

1125
01:03:52,834 --> 01:03:57,100
of a community group

1126
01:03:57,667 --> 01:04:00,066
to move forward, Benner

1127
01:04:00,066 --> 01:04:03,000
and College Township will be active members.

1128
01:04:04,266 --> 01:04:06,066
That is a given.

1129
01:04:06,834 --> 01:04:10,066
And those discussions are underway now.

1130
01:04:10,166 --> 01:04:12,133
So I think that it's

1131
01:04:15,233 --> 01:04:16,367
not too far in the future.

1132
01:04:16,533 --> 01:04:18,367
There will be more information about that.

1133
01:04:19,133 --> 01:04:23,367
- Yeah. And I was also told by Paul Teaks office that

1134
01:04:26,367 --> 01:04:29,133
That route of using Zoning

1135
01:04:30,000 --> 01:04:34,233
to help achieve these goals is pretty solid

1136
01:04:35,133 --> 01:04:39,300
in that, according to them, the people that I talked

1137
01:04:39,300 --> 01:04:42,533
to in his office, the state will not go against

1138
01:04:43,333 --> 01:04:45,667
local Zoning.

1139
01:04:46,066 --> 01:04:48,133
They will not do that. And so,

1140
01:04:48,033 --> 01:04:51,667
but if it's already in place Right, then it's solid.

1141
01:04:52,033 --> 01:04:55,066
But if it's like, oh, we'll talk about that later. Right.

1142
01:04:55,166 --> 01:04:57,266
And then I know everybody's saying it'll take years,

1143
01:04:58,133 --> 01:04:59,300
but it's kind of like travel.

1144
01:04:59,667 --> 01:05:00,734
Right. You know? Yeah.

1145
01:05:01,066 --> 01:05:04,000
You rush, rush, rush, rush, rush to wait. Yeah.

1146
01:05:04,266 --> 01:05:07,667
And so I'd rather rush, rush, rush

1147
01:05:07,900 --> 01:05:09,900
to have something established Yes.

1148
01:05:11,433 --> 01:05:16,300
In, in terms of Zoning than to wait until we hear, oh,

1149
01:05:16,367 --> 01:05:20,066
this is gonna be decided in this state committee tomorrow,

1150
01:05:20,066 --> 01:05:22,867
state legislative committee tomorrow or Right.

1151
01:05:22,867 --> 01:05:23,867
You know, I I, right. You know,

1152
01:05:23,867 --> 01:05:25,233
that's a hypothetical, but Right.

1153
01:05:25,367 --> 01:05:28,066
Anyway, yeah. The, the i I know that the Zoning

1154
01:05:28,734 --> 01:05:30,567
is really key. Yeah,

1155
01:05:30,867 --> 01:05:31,867
- It is.

1156
01:05:31,867 --> 01:05:33,767
It is. Anything else?

1157
01:05:36,367 --> 01:05:39,767
- I had like to just add a little bit more clarification on

1158
01:05:39,834 --> 01:05:44,567
the work group and that approach, the watershed commission,

1159
01:05:44,567 --> 01:05:48,567
we have our storm water work group, which was self-organized

1160
01:05:48,867 --> 01:05:50,133
by the Fish and Boat Commission

1161
01:05:50,266 --> 01:05:52,233
and the Susquehanna River Basin Commission.

1162
01:05:52,867 --> 01:05:56,000
And they operate on a work plan so

1163
01:05:56,000 --> 01:05:57,300
that they can identify projects

1164
01:05:57,333 --> 01:05:59,700
and kind of move more agilely than a,

1165
01:05:59,734 --> 01:06:02,834
than a traditional committee that's not necessarily ruled

1166
01:06:02,834 --> 01:06:04,934
by one one organization.

1167
01:06:05,467 --> 01:06:09,300
And so we had discussion on the rock view work group at the

1168
01:06:09,300 --> 01:06:11,934
last meeting and then it was discussed again in the

1169
01:06:12,133 --> 01:06:13,767
executive committee meeting.

1170
01:06:14,100 --> 01:06:16,066
And so we're going to proceed

1171
01:06:16,000 --> 01:06:18,867
and just so the commission knows kind of the strategy,

1172
01:06:18,867 --> 01:06:20,500
because it is a huge issue

1173
01:06:20,634 --> 01:06:23,100
and it's easy to get really big really fast

1174
01:06:24,367 --> 01:06:25,734
throughout the spring.

1175
01:06:25,867 --> 01:06:30,367
We have had educational sessions throughout the community,

1176
01:06:30,367 --> 01:06:31,867
we've had the public hearings

1177
01:06:32,233 --> 01:06:35,000
and the primary partners that have been a part

1178
01:06:35,000 --> 01:06:38,300
of those initiatives include Clearwater Conservancy,

1179
01:06:38,333 --> 01:06:41,100
the Centre County Farm Bureau, College Township,

1180
01:06:41,133 --> 01:06:44,066
Benner Township, the Chamber of Business and Industry

1181
01:06:44,266 --> 01:06:45,700
and Mountain Knee Conservancy.

1182
01:06:47,000 --> 01:06:51,066
And so one of the first steps

1183
01:06:51,000 --> 01:06:53,634
to just getting this conversation off the ground

1184
01:06:53,734 --> 01:06:57,000
and building that table for people to sit around is

1185
01:06:57,000 --> 01:07:00,100
that we are going to organize an initial kind

1186
01:07:00,100 --> 01:07:03,734
of kickoff meeting with those partners in those initiatives

1187
01:07:03,734 --> 01:07:05,000
that have been sending these letters

1188
01:07:05,333 --> 01:07:08,300
and part of the campaign to begin with.

1189
01:07:08,900 --> 01:07:11,033
And then they can kind of think about the strategy

1190
01:07:11,233 --> 01:07:15,066
and the work group and as one cohesive work group,

1191
01:07:15,133 --> 01:07:17,467
we can then think about how are we going

1192
01:07:17,467 --> 01:07:19,634
to then synthesize the community's vision,

1193
01:07:20,133 --> 01:07:22,100
how are we gonna communicate, you know,

1194
01:07:22,100 --> 01:07:23,934
the best practices for this situation.

1195
01:07:24,467 --> 01:07:26,033
So that will be coming up

1196
01:07:26,467 --> 01:07:29,300
and any input that you have into the conversation,

1197
01:07:30,166 --> 01:07:32,100
we need any input that we can get

1198
01:07:32,166 --> 01:07:33,533
or feedback that we could get.

1199
01:07:33,667 --> 01:07:36,467
But that's kind of just a little bit about the strategy for

1200
01:07:36,467 --> 01:07:37,734
how we'll get things off the ground.

1201
01:07:38,300 --> 01:07:40,567
- Right. - Well if I can ask a, just a quick question.

1202
01:07:40,567 --> 01:07:42,100
Are you talking about an additional work group

1203
01:07:42,100 --> 01:07:44,033
that we're looking to form or are you talking about the work

1204
01:07:44,033 --> 01:07:45,133
group that's existing

1205
01:07:46,233 --> 01:07:51,066
- That's under discussion about how it would be organized

1206
01:07:51,100 --> 01:07:54,834
and not, there's a, there is agreement

1207
01:07:55,066 --> 01:07:59,066
that there shouldn't be one local entity that controls it

1208
01:07:59,834 --> 01:08:04,567
and it's, which makes it

1209
01:08:05,100 --> 01:08:07,300
a little bit more challenging to organize.

1210
01:08:07,834 --> 01:08:11,700
But all of

1211
01:08:11,834 --> 01:08:15,467
what Elise mentioned is at play

1212
01:08:16,033 --> 01:08:18,867
- And, but kind of talking about the groups that are kind

1213
01:08:18,867 --> 01:08:20,834
of loosely speaking right now.

1214
01:08:20,834 --> 01:08:24,233
Right. Not talking about a duplicated effort. Right.

1215
01:08:24,300 --> 01:08:25,367
- Yeah. Right. Yep.

1216
01:08:25,734 --> 01:08:29,100
A singular effort that will mobilize folks

1217
01:08:29,333 --> 01:08:33,767
and have a sit down so that many of the ideas

1218
01:08:34,000 --> 01:08:37,066
that Barbara suggested suggested with

1219
01:08:39,867 --> 01:08:43,567
experts in certain areas associated with

1220
01:08:44,667 --> 01:08:49,367
the land, the water, the forest, the recharge, as well as

1221
01:08:50,934 --> 01:08:55,100
governmental involvement, as well as understanding

1222
01:08:56,700 --> 01:08:59,634
the need for a communication network, how

1223
01:09:00,433 --> 01:09:04,734
information can be spread, all of those things are being,

1224
01:09:05,634 --> 01:09:07,133
they're part of those discussions.

1225
01:09:07,867 --> 01:09:09,066
Yeah. Yeah.

1226
01:09:09,867 --> 01:09:13,033
And I can reassure you, I've been involved in a few of them

1227
01:09:14,500 --> 01:09:19,433
with a lot of the organizations that are working

1228
01:09:19,533 --> 01:09:20,900
to try and pull this together

1229
01:09:21,300 --> 01:09:25,533
and the commission is one of the organizations that's

1230
01:09:26,533 --> 01:09:29,000
urging this to come together.

1231
01:09:29,634 --> 01:09:32,734
- Yeah. - Okay.

1232
01:09:35,133 --> 01:09:37,033
- I just would like to thank Barbara again

1233
01:09:37,100 --> 01:09:40,133
and when she speaks about rock view, I kind

1234
01:09:40,133 --> 01:09:41,934
of envision this jewel and,

1235
01:09:42,033 --> 01:09:43,767
and when Barbara describes it's a, some

1236
01:09:43,767 --> 01:09:47,000
of the facets on the jewel, there are many facets here

1237
01:09:47,634 --> 01:09:49,934
and we need to bring this to light.

1238
01:09:50,500 --> 01:09:52,033
- Yeah. - Yeah.

1239
01:09:55,066 --> 01:09:59,300
- Moving back to the agenda, I know we've got conversations

1240
01:10:00,634 --> 01:10:02,533
for the second part of the meeting.

1241
01:10:04,166 --> 01:10:07,033
Seven C, the county action plan,

1242
01:10:07,734 --> 01:10:09,300
the sub-award program.

1243
01:10:11,000 --> 01:10:15,767
- Yeah. So this is a, a grant program I, that is facilitated

1244
01:10:15,767 --> 01:10:17,700
by the Centre County Conservation District

1245
01:10:18,166 --> 01:10:21,734
and HRG Engineering, they have a sub-award grant program.

1246
01:10:22,000 --> 01:10:23,066
It actually ends today.

1247
01:10:23,533 --> 01:10:28,000
But I just wanted to give an update that Kevin Abbey

1248
01:10:28,000 --> 01:10:30,700
and I were able to do some outreach with Ferguson Township

1249
01:10:30,834 --> 01:10:33,066
so that they could apply for the grant program.

1250
01:10:33,567 --> 01:10:35,266
So I know it is closing,

1251
01:10:35,567 --> 01:10:39,133
but it's great that this conversation has resulted in

1252
01:10:39,634 --> 01:10:41,934
help being able to help with more applications.

1253
01:10:42,066 --> 01:10:44,100
So one of the contenders

1254
01:10:44,100 --> 01:10:47,700
for the program will be an expansion of Lawn

1255
01:10:47,700 --> 01:10:51,000
to Meadow conversion at Two Deck Park. Right

1256
01:10:51,100 --> 01:10:54,734
- On the Township owned portion of two Deck Park.

1257
01:10:55,000 --> 01:10:57,266
Yes. Yep. That's under discussion. Yep, yep.

1258
01:10:57,834 --> 01:11:00,100
- And there's a couple other applicants where even

1259
01:11:00,734 --> 01:11:04,000
the HRG coordinators are kind of sharing the awareness

1260
01:11:04,033 --> 01:11:06,667
for whatever maintenance is the barrier

1261
01:11:07,066 --> 01:11:09,700
to why people aren't applying our acres.

1262
01:11:09,834 --> 01:11:12,000
My work crew is able to come in

1263
01:11:12,000 --> 01:11:13,734
and help reduce that barrier

1264
01:11:13,734 --> 01:11:15,100
through the establishment phase,

1265
01:11:15,100 --> 01:11:16,333
which we'll talk about in a minute.

1266
01:11:17,100 --> 01:11:20,867
- That plays right into seven DI know you wanted

1267
01:11:20,867 --> 01:11:25,567
to make sure everyone was aware of the

1268
01:11:27,900 --> 01:11:32,700
activities from the summer with the My Work program

1269
01:11:33,300 --> 01:11:38,133
and Ethan is here so we want to acknowledge Ethan Baldwin.

1270
01:11:38,300 --> 01:11:39,500
Yes, go ahead Elise.

1271
01:11:40,033 --> 01:11:43,000
- We'll whip through this presentation quickly as a team.

1272
01:11:44,100 --> 01:11:47,033
But the, just a refresher, we hosted a My work

1273
01:11:47,834 --> 01:11:49,767
crew this past summer through Acres.

1274
01:11:50,133 --> 01:11:51,700
The students get paid by the Office

1275
01:11:51,734 --> 01:11:53,433
of Vocational Rehabilitation.

1276
01:11:53,834 --> 01:11:55,433
We don't contribute, we just host it

1277
01:11:55,433 --> 01:11:56,700
and develop the work plan.

1278
01:11:57,066 --> 01:11:59,000
So this crew was able to go out

1279
01:11:59,066 --> 01:12:01,700
and help all of the different community partners with

1280
01:12:02,166 --> 01:12:06,133
successful implementation of watershed stewardship projects.

1281
01:12:06,767 --> 01:12:09,266
So I'll let Ethan also introduce himself.

1282
01:12:10,266 --> 01:12:13,066
- Hi, I'm Ethan. I am currently serving

1283
01:12:13,300 --> 01:12:14,867
as a full-time AmeriCorps member

1284
01:12:14,867 --> 01:12:16,367
for the Keystone Water Resources.

1285
01:12:16,567 --> 01:12:19,033
But as at least had mentioned, I was hired

1286
01:12:19,133 --> 01:12:21,934
as an acres job coach for this my work crew.

1287
01:12:22,433 --> 01:12:25,300
So this slideshow here is gonna go over

1288
01:12:25,300 --> 01:12:26,533
some of the stuff that we did this summer.

1289
01:12:27,333 --> 01:12:28,333
That's my crew.

1290
01:12:29,533 --> 01:12:32,934
- Yeah, we have Owen Lu. I'll go left to right. That's me.

1291
01:12:32,934 --> 01:12:35,467
You probably know me. I'm Elise Owen Ludwig.

1292
01:12:35,767 --> 01:12:38,500
We had Chris Aiden and then Ethan is on the right.

1293
01:12:38,533 --> 01:12:41,433
So this was our work crew and we had a whole lot of fun.

1294
01:12:43,834 --> 01:12:45,433
- These are the partners that we worked with

1295
01:12:45,834 --> 01:12:47,700
for the projects over the summer,

1296
01:12:47,734 --> 01:12:49,233
including Centre County Cap.

1297
01:12:54,667 --> 01:12:58,166
Here are the projects that we did just very briefly,

1298
01:12:58,300 --> 01:13:00,066
we're gonna go through these.

1299
01:13:01,033 --> 01:13:04,767
So this is out at Calvary Church Managing Invasive Species.

1300
01:13:05,467 --> 01:13:10,100
This is part of the CAP program maintaining the nurse crop

1301
01:13:10,000 --> 01:13:14,066
as we tried to establish a native meadow out there by the,

1302
01:13:16,000 --> 01:13:17,634
forget the name of it, but it's the bike park

1303
01:13:17,634 --> 01:13:18,700
that's at Cal Church.

1304
01:13:19,066 --> 01:13:20,266
- Yeah, I think it's the Hamer Bike.

1305
01:13:21,000 --> 01:13:22,300
Mountain Bike Trail that's right

1306
01:13:22,734 --> 01:13:25,100
between Calvary Church and Climb Knee. It's

1307
01:13:25,000 --> 01:13:26,000
- Right there.

1308
01:13:26,000 --> 01:13:28,300
- This is the Calvary Church in Harris Township. Yep. Yep.

1309
01:13:30,100 --> 01:13:33,100
- These are trees lining the Hamer bike park.

1310
01:13:33,700 --> 01:13:37,066
These, these little tubes at the base of the trees.

1311
01:13:38,066 --> 01:13:41,300
We were trying it out. It's a way to effectively water them

1312
01:13:42,100 --> 01:13:44,000
throughout basic the week.

1313
01:13:45,066 --> 01:13:49,066
This is currently, well this photo was taken maybe two weeks

1314
01:13:49,066 --> 01:13:51,233
ago, but this is currently what it looks like right now

1315
01:13:51,233 --> 01:13:55,133
after the work we did this summer to establish this meadow,

1316
01:13:55,734 --> 01:13:58,033
maintain it, make sure that it's thriving

1317
01:13:58,934 --> 01:14:00,233
and from

1318
01:14:00,233 --> 01:14:02,634
what we've heard people are loving the do right now.

1319
01:14:03,133 --> 01:14:05,066
- The feedback is that it's a wonderland.

1320
01:14:05,834 --> 01:14:10,066
And also I sit in on the Centre County Cap monthly meetings

1321
01:14:10,066 --> 01:14:12,934
as a partner and they have multiple

1322
01:14:12,934 --> 01:14:16,567
of these projects throughout the, the watershed

1323
01:14:16,634 --> 01:14:18,100
and other watersheds in Centre County.

1324
01:14:19,433 --> 01:14:21,834
The Calvary project was the only one, this was the pilot

1325
01:14:22,000 --> 01:14:23,567
for getting our, my work crew involved

1326
01:14:23,567 --> 01:14:24,700
in the establishment phase.

1327
01:14:24,700 --> 01:14:27,333
And when they were through showing the status updates

1328
01:14:27,333 --> 01:14:30,333
of the various project, they went through all of them.

1329
01:14:30,500 --> 01:14:33,133
Some of them had some issues here or there or whatever.

1330
01:14:33,367 --> 01:14:35,834
And they pulled up the calvary one

1331
01:14:35,834 --> 01:14:37,033
and they said this is what an

1332
01:14:37,033 --> 01:14:39,233
establishing meadow should look like. Yeah. So

1333
01:14:40,033 --> 01:14:41,033
- That's great.

1334
01:14:41,500 --> 01:14:44,300
- And then also building on the watershed cleanup day, we

1335
01:14:45,000 --> 01:14:47,000
threw the right in the ring on like

1336
01:14:47,000 --> 01:14:48,066
their first week of work.

1337
01:14:48,066 --> 01:14:53,033
They helped organize and supervise 60 volunteers from St.

1338
01:14:53,033 --> 01:14:54,233
Joe's down in Philadelphia.

1339
01:14:54,367 --> 01:14:56,500
They were up for a Penn State camp. Wonderful.

1340
01:14:56,700 --> 01:14:59,333
So they did some cleanups along the roads

1341
01:14:59,867 --> 01:15:01,533
and then also helping out in Bald Eagle,

1342
01:15:01,533 --> 01:15:02,867
which does need more attention

1343
01:15:07,367 --> 01:15:09,133
- On West Whitehall Road.

1344
01:15:09,367 --> 01:15:12,266
In Ferguson Township there's Windy Hill Farm,

1345
01:15:12,634 --> 01:15:16,367
there's a riparian buffer running alongside a stream on

1346
01:15:16,367 --> 01:15:18,033
this farm.

1347
01:15:18,367 --> 01:15:20,834
We went out there and replaced a lot of the tree tubes

1348
01:15:20,900 --> 01:15:23,634
that are currently closing,

1349
01:15:24,033 --> 01:15:26,100
establishing trees in that buffer.

1350
01:15:27,900 --> 01:15:30,367
- That one's worth mentioning. Ethan.

1351
01:15:30,767 --> 01:15:35,333
This is a, a conserved property that sits

1352
01:15:36,133 --> 01:15:39,634
just across Route 45 from the Musser gap.

1353
01:15:40,100 --> 01:15:43,233
This is the home of Brandt and Cindy Pasquinelli

1354
01:15:44,133 --> 01:15:48,934
and it's got a huge wetland area

1355
01:15:49,233 --> 01:15:53,133
and slab cabin run flows through Windy Hill

1356
01:15:53,467 --> 01:15:57,467
and it has been in the system.

1357
01:15:58,000 --> 01:16:01,033
There's a beautiful spring at Windy Hill

1358
01:16:01,066 --> 01:16:03,133
that has been monitored by

1359
01:16:04,734 --> 01:16:08,934
the data collection in the watershed for 25,

1360
01:16:09,266 --> 01:16:10,533
maybe even 30 years.

1361
01:16:11,033 --> 01:16:14,033
It's immediately adjacent to, yeah. Right. Yep.

1362
01:16:14,133 --> 01:16:15,867
At your pointer is the spring

1363
01:16:16,133 --> 01:16:17,233
and this is immediately,

1364
01:16:17,634 --> 01:16:21,634
this property's immediately adjacent to the greenway

1365
01:16:21,734 --> 01:16:25,500
that goes from Musser and comes up to Whitehall Road

1366
01:16:26,000 --> 01:16:28,000
and to the new regional park.

1367
01:16:28,266 --> 01:16:30,467
Thank you. Yeah. So

1368
01:16:32,033 --> 01:16:36,000
- This is the Tom Tig Monarch Butterfly Way station

1369
01:16:36,000 --> 01:16:39,133
that our group constructed this summer.

1370
01:16:39,767 --> 01:16:42,500
Right there it was just a patch of grass

1371
01:16:42,700 --> 01:16:44,367
and now it is mulched over.

1372
01:16:44,867 --> 01:16:47,533
We planted milkweed in there.

1373
01:16:47,900 --> 01:16:51,033
Very specific kind of milkweed that monarch butterflies

1374
01:16:52,100 --> 01:16:55,634
only go for when it's that turn for their lifecycle.

1375
01:16:56,500 --> 01:16:57,734
It's coming along very nicely.

1376
01:17:01,634 --> 01:17:06,033
In Ferguson Township we worked with HRG

1377
01:17:07,300 --> 01:17:09,834
using maps that they provided with RJS.

1378
01:17:10,066 --> 01:17:13,767
We placed these MS four storm drain medallions

1379
01:17:15,033 --> 01:17:18,000
at, I'm gonna say just shy

1380
01:17:18,100 --> 01:17:22,000
of 200 different drains and two work days

1381
01:17:23,266 --> 01:17:24,867
- That the feedback on that one is

1382
01:17:25,500 --> 01:17:27,634
the work crew always outperforms the work

1383
01:17:27,767 --> 01:17:30,066
that they're handed and so they were blowing

1384
01:17:30,066 --> 01:17:32,066
through placing these medallions.

1385
01:17:32,500 --> 01:17:34,834
- That's great. They couldn't give us the maps fast enough.

1386
01:17:35,000 --> 01:17:39,467
- No. - This is a sneer butterfly

1387
01:17:39,834 --> 01:17:44,266
satellite garden at the U-U-F-C-C church

1388
01:17:44,900 --> 01:17:46,300
off of West Whitehall Road.

1389
01:17:48,033 --> 01:17:51,133
I believe it's adjacent to the yards out there. Yeah. Yeah.

1390
01:17:51,133 --> 01:17:55,033
We cleaned up the garden, allowing them

1391
01:17:55,033 --> 01:17:56,634
to land new stuff in there.

1392
01:17:58,634 --> 01:18:00,266
- Our work crew also got trained in how

1393
01:18:00,266 --> 01:18:02,634
to use dissolve oxygen meters and so they went out

1394
01:18:02,634 --> 01:18:05,333
and did some dissolved oxygen assessments and then also

1395
01:18:06,033 --> 01:18:08,033
provided some much needed extra feet in kicking

1396
01:18:08,033 --> 01:18:09,867
around the stream, finding temperature loggers

1397
01:18:09,900 --> 01:18:11,533
for Keystone Water Resources Center.

1398
01:18:16,266 --> 01:18:17,266
- This was July?

1399
01:18:17,734 --> 01:18:19,667
- Yeah, this was the July commission meeting tour

1400
01:18:20,300 --> 01:18:22,033
that they attended. Yeah.

1401
01:18:22,033 --> 01:18:25,166
- We attended a a FAC UHAA facility tour

1402
01:18:27,634 --> 01:18:30,233
tour of the facility, learned a lot about water treatment,

1403
01:18:31,133 --> 01:18:33,333
and I would say I was incredibly

1404
01:18:33,333 --> 01:18:34,500
impressed with the facility.

1405
01:18:34,834 --> 01:18:38,133
And so was Owen. He, he was pretty into it.

1406
01:18:39,000 --> 01:18:41,500
- That's what getting through all of these different

1407
01:18:42,367 --> 01:18:44,500
projects and getting the exposure, like, yes,

1408
01:18:44,533 --> 01:18:46,634
it's helping successfully implement projects

1409
01:18:46,634 --> 01:18:49,100
and it's also contributing so hugely

1410
01:18:49,100 --> 01:18:53,500
to workforce development of underserved populations.

1411
01:18:53,700 --> 01:18:55,033
So I'm so glad that they were able

1412
01:18:55,033 --> 01:18:56,100
to get all this different exposure.

1413
01:18:56,233 --> 01:18:58,467
We were able to be agile and respond to what they wanted.

1414
01:18:59,567 --> 01:19:01,266
And I had a great time working with the crew.

1415
01:19:02,100 --> 01:19:03,900
On one of my lunch breaks, I brought my cat

1416
01:19:03,934 --> 01:19:05,634
to two deck park and we walked him around.

1417
01:19:06,000 --> 01:19:07,900
So again, we had a lot of fun.

1418
01:19:08,133 --> 01:19:10,233
- Yeah. It's much needed. Very important work.

1419
01:19:10,834 --> 01:19:14,266
- So by the end of the summer, we ended up with building

1420
01:19:14,266 --> 01:19:16,467
that reputation where we had a lot of different people,

1421
01:19:16,467 --> 01:19:18,100
like be font burrow, coming to us

1422
01:19:18,233 --> 01:19:19,867
with things that they needed help with.

1423
01:19:20,266 --> 01:19:21,634
We even ran out of time

1424
01:19:21,634 --> 01:19:23,066
before we could get through everything.

1425
01:19:23,233 --> 01:19:24,734
'cause you know, towards the end everyone was

1426
01:19:24,734 --> 01:19:25,900
like, wait, no, we need this too.

1427
01:19:26,500 --> 01:19:29,700
So we already have a wait list of projects

1428
01:19:29,767 --> 01:19:31,133
for this program next summer.

1429
01:19:31,133 --> 01:19:32,867
So if anybody else has any ideas,

1430
01:19:33,000 --> 01:19:34,700
it's never too early to share them.

1431
01:19:36,100 --> 01:19:39,700
- That's wonderful. Thank you Ian. Ethan, you're

1432
01:19:39,700 --> 01:19:40,700
- Very welcome.

1433
01:19:40,700 --> 01:19:44,834
- Yeah. The, the only question I have, the, the,

1434
01:19:45,100 --> 01:19:47,000
the medallion that you're placing,

1435
01:19:49,767 --> 01:19:52,166
would it be possible to make that like a regional,

1436
01:19:53,634 --> 01:19:58,166
regional medallion at, like,

1437
01:19:58,166 --> 01:20:01,033
when I'm out in the Pacific Northwest,

1438
01:20:01,700 --> 01:20:03,900
it's like everything is for the salmon.

1439
01:20:04,133 --> 01:20:05,834
So every time you see a drain

1440
01:20:06,000 --> 01:20:07,033
or anything, the,

1441
01:20:07,166 --> 01:20:10,000
the little medallion says protect the salmon.

1442
01:20:11,266 --> 01:20:15,100
And, you know, yeah, there's, we come up with a cute, yeah,

1443
01:20:15,533 --> 01:20:18,767
cute little logo for our medallion,

1444
01:20:19,133 --> 01:20:21,567
for within the, the watershed,

1445
01:20:23,100 --> 01:20:24,467
- It would be an item for discussion.

1446
01:20:24,467 --> 01:20:27,066
Yeah. With these medallions, I will say they were purchased

1447
01:20:27,133 --> 01:20:29,500
by the Township as part of the MS four permit.

1448
01:20:29,867 --> 01:20:31,567
Right. For them to get credit for.

1449
01:20:31,667 --> 01:20:33,000
So they are quite expensive

1450
01:20:33,734 --> 01:20:35,533
and so they were kind of sitting in the closet

1451
01:20:35,567 --> 01:20:38,100
and they didn't have the manpower to install 'em.

1452
01:20:38,100 --> 01:20:41,133
So we were able to get them out

1453
01:20:41,133 --> 01:20:42,934
of the closet and into the field. That's

1454
01:20:42,934 --> 01:20:43,934
- Great.

1455
01:20:43,934 --> 01:20:46,000
Okay. But now you're, now, now you're out of medallions

1456
01:20:46,000 --> 01:20:47,333
and you got more places to go.

1457
01:20:47,834 --> 01:20:49,567
Yeah. Yes. Okay.

1458
01:20:50,100 --> 01:20:52,634
- Okay. - I've seen some medallions on campus

1459
01:20:53,066 --> 01:20:55,266
and I think they key into the ches,

1460
01:20:55,567 --> 01:20:57,066
the water scale, Chesapeake Bay.

1461
01:20:59,634 --> 01:21:04,533
Okay. Could I ask now we've talked about the work group for,

1462
01:21:04,634 --> 01:21:06,934
for Rockview, but I don't think we've ever,

1463
01:21:06,934 --> 01:21:08,734
we haven't officially established it.

1464
01:21:08,734 --> 01:21:11,100
Do we need to do that now or?

1465
01:21:11,734 --> 01:21:13,300
- Well, the, the discussions

1466
01:21:13,333 --> 01:21:18,266
that are underway in the community, I think,

1467
01:21:18,834 --> 01:21:21,567
take immediate precedence.

1468
01:21:21,900 --> 01:21:23,367
It's not something we will own.

1469
01:21:24,033 --> 01:21:28,066
So it isn't something that we need to implement.

1470
01:21:28,634 --> 01:21:30,000
We will be part of it.

1471
01:21:31,734 --> 01:21:34,333
So I think that's

1472
01:21:34,934 --> 01:21:38,567
to come up when we hear back from our partners.

1473
01:21:39,266 --> 01:21:41,000
- So it's not one of our typical work

1474
01:21:41,000 --> 01:21:42,266
groups. This is a different,

1475
01:21:43,066 --> 01:21:45,033
- At the moment it's not different

1476
01:21:45,033 --> 01:21:46,033
- Thing.

1477
01:21:46,033 --> 01:21:46,100
Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

1478
01:21:47,133 --> 01:21:49,266
- Interesting. I do just wanna chime in as somebody

1479
01:21:49,266 --> 01:21:52,533
who rides up at Harvest Fields a lot, it's awesome.

1480
01:21:53,300 --> 01:21:55,066
Like, you guys did a heck

1481
01:21:55,066 --> 01:21:59,467
of a job up there seeing it from years past to, you know,

1482
01:22:00,100 --> 01:22:02,066
I think two weeks ago was probably the last time I rode out

1483
01:22:02,066 --> 01:22:03,700
there when it looked like that.

1484
01:22:04,000 --> 01:22:06,767
It's awesome. So great work.

1485
01:22:07,433 --> 01:22:11,567
- That's great. Okay, moving to new business,

1486
01:22:12,734 --> 01:22:15,367
you wanted to announce our, we've selected

1487
01:22:16,000 --> 01:22:20,033
our 26 27 AmeriCorps member,

1488
01:22:20,166 --> 01:22:21,266
Alicia McIntyre.

1489
01:22:22,100 --> 01:22:24,133
- Yeah. We interviewed five candidates

1490
01:22:24,433 --> 01:22:25,500
and we're very excited

1491
01:22:25,500 --> 01:22:28,533
to have Alicia start on the 25th of September.

1492
01:22:29,100 --> 01:22:32,133
She will be hosted in the Ferguson Township building, so

1493
01:22:33,000 --> 01:22:35,634
we've got the keys made up for her waiting for her arrival.

1494
01:22:36,100 --> 01:22:37,333
Her desk will be right next

1495
01:22:37,333 --> 01:22:39,834
to Ethan Baldwin Keystone's AmeriCorps member.

1496
01:22:39,934 --> 01:22:41,533
So there'll be close collaboration there.

1497
01:22:42,233 --> 01:22:44,000
But she is extremely eager.

1498
01:22:44,700 --> 01:22:46,700
She has such a passion for this work.

1499
01:22:47,066 --> 01:22:49,000
She's a mother and she's just ready

1500
01:22:49,000 --> 01:22:52,033
to really get out there and make a difference. Yeah.

1501
01:22:52,100 --> 01:22:57,033
- Good. And then finally

1502
01:22:58,033 --> 01:23:00,100
under new business call for projects.

1503
01:23:00,667 --> 01:23:02,000
- Yeah, I think we can kind

1504
01:23:02,000 --> 01:23:04,834
of bundle this into the educational topic,

1505
01:23:05,000 --> 01:23:06,100
but just to set Okay.

1506
01:23:06,634 --> 01:23:08,333
A, I guess make a comment

1507
01:23:08,567 --> 01:23:11,300
and feel free to pitch in when we get to the next item,

1508
01:23:11,567 --> 01:23:14,867
but we really would like to see some input

1509
01:23:14,934 --> 01:23:17,500
of potential projects from each municipalities.

1510
01:23:18,000 --> 01:23:21,500
We want to create a, a list of different projects

1511
01:23:21,500 --> 01:23:23,500
that we could have throughout the watershed.

1512
01:23:23,700 --> 01:23:26,300
So anything that you can do as representatives

1513
01:23:26,300 --> 01:23:29,834
of your townships or your community, if you see

1514
01:23:30,100 --> 01:23:32,100
or identify a potential project

1515
01:23:32,100 --> 01:23:35,000
or a potential pitfall that could use our help,

1516
01:23:35,100 --> 01:23:37,066
we really could use your help in identifying them.

1517
01:23:38,634 --> 01:23:42,367
- Okay. Yeah. - Any you're,

1518
01:23:42,500 --> 01:23:46,467
- You're saying for the Spring Creek Watershed commission

1519
01:23:46,934 --> 01:23:48,834
or are you saying for like the,

1520
01:23:50,166 --> 01:23:52,266
with the acres students and

1521
01:23:54,100 --> 01:23:55,233
- Both. Yeah. But

1522
01:23:56,066 --> 01:23:57,066
- I think Okay.

1523
01:23:57,066 --> 01:24:01,033
- Once projects come forward, we can figure out the best way

1524
01:24:01,133 --> 01:24:02,767
to link them in.

1525
01:24:03,100 --> 01:24:05,133
- Okay. Yeah. - Acres is one tool that we have

1526
01:24:05,233 --> 01:24:06,467
to make it happen.

1527
01:24:07,166 --> 01:24:09,000
- Okay. - Okay.

1528
01:24:09,000 --> 01:24:13,467
And then number nine are around the robin about

1529
01:24:14,433 --> 01:24:17,367
watershed related news from member municipalities.

1530
01:24:18,166 --> 01:24:20,333
Anyone have something they'd like to share?

1531
01:24:23,634 --> 01:24:25,533
- Yeah, I went from Benner Township.

1532
01:24:26,333 --> 01:24:28,634
There's been, you know, a number

1533
01:24:28,634 --> 01:24:32,934
of discussions ongoing there about some potential

1534
01:24:34,000 --> 01:24:39,066
Zoning changes that could, you know, we impact the water.

1535
01:24:40,667 --> 01:24:42,467
One of them is, is development of a,

1536
01:24:43,000 --> 01:24:44,867
a data center Zoning Ordinance.

1537
01:24:45,333 --> 01:24:46,634
And that's, that's ongoing

1538
01:24:47,000 --> 01:24:50,300
and that is going to be probably brought up

1539
01:24:50,367 --> 01:24:53,100
for public review and comment in the next few months.

1540
01:24:56,166 --> 01:25:00,834
Also, there looking at an agritourism Zoning

1541
01:25:03,467 --> 01:25:07,467
to, I'm not sure exactly, you know, what,

1542
01:25:08,033 --> 01:25:10,066
what the overall reach of that is,

1543
01:25:10,133 --> 01:25:14,634
but, you know, they are looking at, you know, local tourism

1544
01:25:15,467 --> 01:25:18,834
and it would, you know, basically help

1545
01:25:18,867 --> 01:25:22,333
to control just access and things like that and,

1546
01:25:22,867 --> 01:25:24,934
and manage any kind of like, you know,

1547
01:25:25,066 --> 01:25:27,133
tourist tourist festival or something.

1548
01:25:27,300 --> 01:25:32,000
Okay. And then as we, as we already discussed, looking at

1549
01:25:32,867 --> 01:25:36,734
potential conservation overlay map right

1550
01:25:37,066 --> 01:25:38,100
onto the rock site.

1551
01:25:39,433 --> 01:25:41,467
- Thanks. - Yeah. Anyone else?

1552
01:25:43,233 --> 01:25:45,033
- I'm, I'm gonna ask Joanne,

1553
01:25:45,033 --> 01:25:48,066
do you have anything from the planning side for Beon?

1554
01:25:55,433 --> 01:25:57,266
- The reason John is asking me

1555
01:25:57,266 --> 01:26:00,133
to do this is I chair the Ordinance ad hoc

1556
01:26:00,133 --> 01:26:01,767
committee for the Borough.

1557
01:26:02,834 --> 01:26:07,467
We just finished and have sent out proposed

1558
01:26:09,233 --> 01:26:13,233
Ordinance updates on fees in lieu of parks so

1559
01:26:13,233 --> 01:26:15,467
that we can help improve our park system

1560
01:26:16,667 --> 01:26:21,533
and improving the planning for

1561
01:26:22,634 --> 01:26:24,066
traffic impact studies.

1562
01:26:24,533 --> 01:26:26,734
When we looked at the both of those sections,

1563
01:26:26,734 --> 01:26:28,767
they were both one sentence long

1564
01:26:28,767 --> 01:26:33,033
and didn't give any clear say what we were going to do

1565
01:26:33,033 --> 01:26:34,033
or how we're going to do it.

1566
01:26:34,500 --> 01:26:36,533
It's now about 10 pages long,

1567
01:26:38,333 --> 01:26:42,000
but that's, they were just sent out last week

1568
01:26:42,000 --> 01:26:44,834
for the 30 day review to the municipalities

1569
01:26:45,433 --> 01:26:48,367
and to the NI Valley Joint Planning

1570
01:26:48,367 --> 01:26:49,734
Commission and to the county.

1571
01:26:49,934 --> 01:26:52,033
All three groups are looking at it right now.

1572
01:26:54,133 --> 01:26:57,934
I wanna thank Elise for giving us

1573
01:26:58,834 --> 01:27:00,066
coming walking around.

1574
01:27:01,433 --> 01:27:05,233
Krause Park with us, the Spring Creek Watershed Commission,

1575
01:27:05,333 --> 01:27:07,233
and I don't know if it's Keystone Resources

1576
01:27:07,433 --> 01:27:09,333
or Keystone Water Resources Center.

1577
01:27:09,834 --> 01:27:11,033
Okay. They're going,

1578
01:27:11,033 --> 01:27:13,233
we have a Krause Park at the very end comes

1579
01:27:13,233 --> 01:27:15,300
to a very narrow tip

1580
01:27:15,634 --> 01:27:18,634
and we've been losing a lot of land to AR erosion.

1581
01:27:19,500 --> 01:27:22,767
So she agreed for the next two years we're going

1582
01:27:22,867 --> 01:27:25,867
to be actually marking to see how much land we're doing

1583
01:27:26,033 --> 01:27:28,567
and figure out how to mitigate this problem so

1584
01:27:28,567 --> 01:27:30,066
that we don't lose more of the park

1585
01:27:30,066 --> 01:27:31,634
that's right into the stream.

1586
01:27:32,467 --> 01:27:37,367
- That's wonderful. - And you spoke of data centers.

1587
01:27:37,500 --> 01:27:40,834
The Ordinance ad hoc committee in Bellon has for the last

1588
01:27:42,100 --> 01:27:45,700
three months or so, has just kind of a general overview

1589
01:27:45,700 --> 01:27:48,300
of what's going on, how's this happening, what's happening?

1590
01:27:48,734 --> 01:27:50,133
At our meeting last week,

1591
01:27:50,667 --> 01:27:53,100
we actually started looking at model Ordinance

1592
01:27:53,100 --> 01:27:55,700
and saying, this is what we can and can't do.

1593
01:27:56,000 --> 01:28:00,300
Knowing that, that within each region

1594
01:28:01,066 --> 01:28:03,567
you have to be able to have a used put somewhere.

1595
01:28:04,100 --> 01:28:08,100
So we're looking at what Beon can do without hurting

1596
01:28:08,166 --> 01:28:09,634
our citizens and businesses.

1597
01:28:10,367 --> 01:28:12,033
And one of the things

1598
01:28:12,333 --> 01:28:16,066
that the NI Valley Joint Planning Commission is tomorrow

1599
01:28:16,500 --> 01:28:20,767
is looking at an inter municipal agreement to talk about

1600
01:28:21,100 --> 01:28:24,533
how we share uses and have it put in official language.

1601
01:28:24,533 --> 01:28:26,367
Right now we say we do it,

1602
01:28:26,433 --> 01:28:29,000
but there's nothing there to, to say

1603
01:28:29,000 --> 01:28:30,100
that we should be doing it.

1604
01:28:30,100 --> 01:28:31,767
Right. So that's gonna be a discussion

1605
01:28:31,767 --> 01:28:32,834
at tomorrow night's meeting.

1606
01:28:34,133 --> 01:28:37,734
- Thank you. That's a topic of conversation at a lot

1607
01:28:37,734 --> 01:28:41,033
of the member municipalities last evening.

1608
01:28:41,266 --> 01:28:44,033
Ferguson is looking at

1609
01:28:45,700 --> 01:28:48,867
following the model that college developed in terms of

1610
01:28:51,100 --> 01:28:54,834
making data centers a

1611
01:28:56,266 --> 01:28:59,734
conditional use so that any

1612
01:29:00,100 --> 01:29:03,133
that were presented would have direct involvement

1613
01:29:04,467 --> 01:29:06,533
of the decision makers as you go forward.

1614
01:29:07,934 --> 01:29:11,033
But yeah, lots going on there

1615
01:29:11,734 --> 01:29:15,567
and a lot of discussion for some

1616
01:29:15,567 --> 01:29:19,100
of these things came out of the authorities committee when

1617
01:29:20,500 --> 01:29:23,233
Cory Miller, along with Ray Linas

1618
01:29:23,367 --> 01:29:27,100
and Pam Adams talked a lot about what's out there,

1619
01:29:27,166 --> 01:29:30,233
what can be done, what does the NPC allow

1620
01:29:31,533 --> 01:29:33,567
Municipal planning code in Pennsylvania.

1621
01:29:34,000 --> 01:29:38,867
Yeah. Anything else on around the watershed?

1622
01:29:40,867 --> 01:29:45,266
Okay. If not, let's move to item 10.

1623
01:29:47,000 --> 01:29:50,900
And it's my understanding that rather than have

1624
01:29:52,634 --> 01:29:55,133
a educational topic from outside,

1625
01:29:55,834 --> 01:29:58,133
there was interest coming out of

1626
01:29:59,166 --> 01:30:02,100
discussions at the Watershed Commission about

1627
01:30:04,000 --> 01:30:08,500
talking a little bit about the format, the history

1628
01:30:08,500 --> 01:30:11,266
of the commission, and where it might go in the future.

1629
01:30:14,133 --> 01:30:16,367
I can give just a brief intro.

1630
01:30:17,900 --> 01:30:19,834
Many people in this room know this,

1631
01:30:21,300 --> 01:30:26,033
but if you're newer on the scene, you might not recollect

1632
01:30:26,100 --> 01:30:28,333
or remember, but in the,

1633
01:30:30,934 --> 01:30:34,433
the Spring Creek Watershed Commission came out of

1634
01:30:35,033 --> 01:30:39,000
and was created by Centre County back 30 years ago.

1635
01:30:39,767 --> 01:30:43,433
And it resulted from an international

1636
01:30:44,367 --> 01:30:49,266
contingent of folks that came to the watershed, worked

1637
01:30:49,767 --> 01:30:53,233
with Clearwater Conservancy, Centre County,

1638
01:30:53,467 --> 01:30:54,934
the Conservation District,

1639
01:30:56,000 --> 01:30:58,834
Western Pennsylvania Conservancy was involved,

1640
01:30:59,000 --> 01:31:01,133
I think the Pennsylvania Environmental

1641
01:31:01,500 --> 01:31:02,900
Commission was involved.

1642
01:31:03,567 --> 01:31:07,834
And what was decided in the mid nineties was

1643
01:31:07,867 --> 01:31:11,834
that there should be a government oriented

1644
01:31:13,066 --> 01:31:16,266
entity, the Penn, the Spring Creek Watershed Commission,

1645
01:31:17,066 --> 01:31:20,166
as well as a citizen group,

1646
01:31:20,433 --> 01:31:24,000
which became the Spring Creek watershed community.

1647
01:31:24,834 --> 01:31:28,000
And they worked hand in hand for many years.

1648
01:31:29,333 --> 01:31:32,834
After 10 years, the county went to

1649
01:31:33,567 --> 01:31:37,734
local government and said, this is what's been accomplished.

1650
01:31:38,233 --> 01:31:42,166
During that first 10 years, the model Ordinance

1651
01:31:42,333 --> 01:31:44,000
for stormwater that was known

1652
01:31:44,000 --> 01:31:46,900
as the Spring Creek watershed Ordinance,

1653
01:31:47,467 --> 01:31:48,900
was developed in the county

1654
01:31:49,033 --> 01:31:53,834
and was adopted by many municipalities within the watershed.

1655
01:31:54,266 --> 01:31:57,634
And the county went to member municipalities

1656
01:31:57,867 --> 01:32:01,266
and said, we think this bird has fledged

1657
01:32:01,867 --> 01:32:04,500
and it's time if it's gonna continue,

1658
01:32:05,133 --> 01:32:07,567
that the municipalities take it on.

1659
01:32:08,433 --> 01:32:12,700
So in 2007,

1660
01:32:14,066 --> 01:32:17,867
there are a total of 14 municipalities

1661
01:32:18,333 --> 01:32:21,567
that have some small large

1662
01:32:21,867 --> 01:32:23,500
footprint in the watershed.

1663
01:32:24,233 --> 01:32:28,100
And 12 of those 14 municipalities

1664
01:32:28,834 --> 01:32:30,567
decided this is a good idea

1665
01:32:31,000 --> 01:32:34,100
and created under state law

1666
01:32:35,333 --> 01:32:37,867
the Spring Creek Watershed Commission.

1667
01:32:38,333 --> 01:32:40,533
And it was part of the

1668
01:32:42,500 --> 01:32:47,100
intergovernmental cooperation law that allowed

1669
01:32:47,734 --> 01:32:49,500
municipalities to come together

1670
01:32:49,834 --> 01:32:52,066
and formulate this group in

1671
01:32:53,467 --> 01:32:55,033
2007.

1672
01:32:55,233 --> 01:33:00,066
So next year will be the 30th overall anniversary

1673
01:33:00,567 --> 01:33:04,867
and 20th of the watershed commission made up

1674
01:33:04,934 --> 01:33:07,000
of individual and municipalities.

1675
01:33:09,333 --> 01:33:14,133
That has been a very useful charter document

1676
01:33:14,667 --> 01:33:17,500
or enabling legislation, if you want to call it that.

1677
01:33:18,700 --> 01:33:22,266
It came with, and the commission developed bylaws.

1678
01:33:23,166 --> 01:33:26,834
Those bylaws were last reviewed

1679
01:33:27,000 --> 01:33:30,867
and revised three years ago when it became apparent that

1680
01:33:32,133 --> 01:33:37,100
the executive committee

1681
01:33:37,133 --> 01:33:39,634
and leaders on the watershed community

1682
01:33:40,033 --> 01:33:44,867
or commission should not strictly be elected officials.

1683
01:33:45,467 --> 01:33:49,634
The first, what would've been 16 years,

1684
01:33:50,867 --> 01:33:53,100
the person sitting in this chair

1685
01:33:53,467 --> 01:33:55,000
and the vice chair, Chris

1686
01:33:55,867 --> 01:33:58,000
under the bylaws had to be elected officials.

1687
01:33:59,100 --> 01:34:03,734
And when we saw that in 23, we were looking at

1688
01:34:04,367 --> 01:34:08,300
a situation where we didn't have elected officials that

1689
01:34:09,734 --> 01:34:11,500
were active and prepared to do that.

1690
01:34:12,066 --> 01:34:15,634
We revise the bylaws amongst other things to

1691
01:34:16,533 --> 01:34:20,033
allow an alternate member of the commission to be

1692
01:34:22,300 --> 01:34:24,100
a chair or vice chair.

1693
01:34:24,567 --> 01:34:28,567
And Bob Igo, if he's still with us,

1694
01:34:29,033 --> 01:34:32,467
was the first alternate from Harris that served

1695
01:34:32,567 --> 01:34:33,867
as vice chair.

1696
01:34:34,100 --> 01:34:38,133
And then when Randy stepped down, I stepped forward in

1697
01:34:40,367 --> 01:34:42,033
July to be the chair.

1698
01:34:43,000 --> 01:34:46,367
So that's sort of how we got here.

1699
01:34:47,867 --> 01:34:52,467
And in the last

1700
01:34:52,667 --> 01:34:55,033
few years, Milberg has stepped back

1701
01:34:55,100 --> 01:34:58,133
and said that they don't want to be involved anymore.

1702
01:34:59,367 --> 01:35:02,133
That left 11 Potter Township

1703
01:35:02,333 --> 01:35:06,767
and Walker were active until Potter

1704
01:35:07,133 --> 01:35:10,033
until 2025.

1705
01:35:10,634 --> 01:35:13,533
They stepped away or told us that their

1706
01:35:15,433 --> 01:35:17,467
on pause during this year

1707
01:35:17,834 --> 01:35:20,734
and Walker also this year.

1708
01:35:21,133 --> 01:35:24,367
But there's continuing discussions about how

1709
01:35:24,433 --> 01:35:26,734
to reengage them.

1710
01:35:27,834 --> 01:35:29,500
So Elise,

1711
01:35:30,000 --> 01:35:31,000
- Yeah.

1712
01:35:31,000 --> 01:35:31,500
So thanks Kevin

1713
01:35:31,667 --> 01:35:34,300
for just giving us a refresher on the history.

1714
01:35:35,000 --> 01:35:37,033
I know I've been involved with the Watershed Commission

1715
01:35:37,066 --> 01:35:40,834
for almost maybe even four years now, so I can speak

1716
01:35:40,834 --> 01:35:42,033
to it in recent years.

1717
01:35:42,133 --> 01:35:44,467
And I think there's been a really massive beautiful shift

1718
01:35:44,467 --> 01:35:46,367
that's occurred historically.

1719
01:35:46,367 --> 01:35:48,333
There's been so much planning that's happened

1720
01:35:48,367 --> 01:35:49,634
with the Watershed Commission.

1721
01:35:49,867 --> 01:35:51,233
There's phase one, two,

1722
01:35:51,333 --> 01:35:53,066
and three of these plans

1723
01:35:53,133 --> 01:35:56,033
that you can find on our website under stewardship plan.

1724
01:35:56,567 --> 01:35:58,700
And a lot of time, energy

1725
01:35:58,734 --> 01:36:01,133
and money has been inspe invested into,

1726
01:36:01,467 --> 01:36:04,367
on a watershed level looking at what are the threats

1727
01:36:04,433 --> 01:36:06,834
to Spring Creek, what are potential solutions,

1728
01:36:06,900 --> 01:36:08,233
what are potential strategies?

1729
01:36:09,634 --> 01:36:13,033
And now with phase three, we're in the implementation phase

1730
01:36:13,266 --> 01:36:15,100
of the, we need to do things phase.

1731
01:36:17,100 --> 01:36:21,266
So that's great that we're now focusing on implementation

1732
01:36:21,333 --> 01:36:25,100
and we have all of those experts that have pitched in on

1733
01:36:25,300 --> 01:36:27,634
what it is that we need to implement in a, in order

1734
01:36:27,700 --> 01:36:29,000
to protect for Creek

1735
01:36:29,133 --> 01:36:31,100
and what are some of the threats that

1736
01:36:31,634 --> 01:36:33,000
we should be paying attention to.

1737
01:36:34,000 --> 01:36:36,467
One of the things that I have noticed in

1738
01:36:37,300 --> 01:36:39,700
probably the past two years is a big tone shift

1739
01:36:39,767 --> 01:36:42,066
with the community and the conversation.

1740
01:36:42,333 --> 01:36:44,634
And now some of being able

1741
01:36:44,634 --> 01:36:48,700
to bring together the partners in a watershed thinking lens

1742
01:36:49,066 --> 01:36:52,000
where you're looking at an integrated system

1743
01:36:52,033 --> 01:36:54,734
of the water authorities and the government and the business

1744
01:36:54,934 --> 01:36:58,133
and you know, all of that on one cohesive level so

1745
01:36:58,133 --> 01:37:00,233
that there's again, a shared table to be able to,

1746
01:37:00,500 --> 01:37:01,700
to tackle these issues.

1747
01:37:02,100 --> 01:37:04,233
Some of the management practices in the plants don't

1748
01:37:04,233 --> 01:37:05,700
necessarily need to be things

1749
01:37:05,700 --> 01:37:07,700
that are put in by the commission.

1750
01:37:07,734 --> 01:37:10,500
Like Clearwater, they've got a beautiful repair buffer

1751
01:37:10,500 --> 01:37:12,467
program, how can we support them?

1752
01:37:14,033 --> 01:37:15,367
There's so many things we can do

1753
01:37:15,467 --> 01:37:18,500
and even in the most recent past year, I've been seeing

1754
01:37:19,133 --> 01:37:22,467
community members and partners start to come to us

1755
01:37:22,667 --> 01:37:25,367
or our committees and say, you know, here's something

1756
01:37:25,533 --> 01:37:27,500
that we need help with or here's what we're doing.

1757
01:37:28,166 --> 01:37:30,100
And then we're able to figure out how we can,

1758
01:37:30,700 --> 01:37:33,066
as the watershed commission working across the

1759
01:37:33,066 --> 01:37:36,300
municipalities and across the organizations, bring

1760
01:37:36,300 --> 01:37:39,033
that successful implementation to fruition.

1761
01:37:40,934 --> 01:37:43,867
So those are some of the biggest things that I have noticed.

1762
01:37:44,033 --> 01:37:46,634
There's numerous things in our plans

1763
01:37:46,734 --> 01:37:49,000
that I feel like we have made progress towards,

1764
01:37:49,100 --> 01:37:50,033
like assessing

1765
01:37:50,033 --> 01:37:53,834
and collecting resources, identifying the best practice,

1766
01:37:53,834 --> 01:37:55,000
getting out into the community and,

1767
01:37:55,033 --> 01:37:56,266
and educating, you know,

1768
01:37:56,266 --> 01:37:58,834
we're not a regulatory agency at all.

1769
01:37:59,033 --> 01:38:01,700
We are volunteer municipal teamwork.

1770
01:38:02,100 --> 01:38:05,133
And so being able to get out

1771
01:38:05,133 --> 01:38:07,133
and kind of educate on the issues of Spring Creek

1772
01:38:07,634 --> 01:38:09,033
and spark those conversations

1773
01:38:09,100 --> 01:38:10,100
is something that's been ongoing.

1774
01:38:11,867 --> 01:38:14,100
And then also, I know that the watershed commission's

1775
01:38:14,100 --> 01:38:17,300
looking towards, you know, gradually increasing capacity so

1776
01:38:17,300 --> 01:38:18,734
that we can have time to look at more

1777
01:38:18,734 --> 01:38:20,033
of these things more holistically.

1778
01:38:20,500 --> 01:38:21,533
So those are some

1779
01:38:21,533 --> 01:38:24,066
of my observations from the past couple years

1780
01:38:24,133 --> 01:38:25,634
of the Watershed Commission and,

1781
01:38:25,867 --> 01:38:29,033
and where we've been at in transitioning from all

1782
01:38:29,033 --> 01:38:32,000
of this planning into successful implementation.

1783
01:38:32,700 --> 01:38:35,333
And I think that we have such a great group

1784
01:38:35,333 --> 01:38:37,000
of resources at the table now,

1785
01:38:37,100 --> 01:38:40,233
and now, you know, Chris agrees it's a good time

1786
01:38:40,367 --> 01:38:43,567
to have a discussion about where we get to go from here.

1787
01:38:44,033 --> 01:38:45,066
'cause it's not, you know,

1788
01:38:45,233 --> 01:38:46,767
us just saying, here's what we should do.

1789
01:38:46,867 --> 01:38:50,367
It's, it's a, it's an ongoing collaborative conversation.

1790
01:38:52,767 --> 01:38:57,033
- Yeah. So I'll chime in here with kind of my view

1791
01:38:57,033 --> 01:39:01,233
of it having just joined the commission in January

1792
01:39:02,100 --> 01:39:06,133
to kind of, you know, bouncing off some of the things

1793
01:39:06,133 --> 01:39:07,533
that Kevin said where, you know,

1794
01:39:07,533 --> 01:39:11,100
over the past few years we're starting to lose some

1795
01:39:11,100 --> 01:39:13,867
of our members looking at what the,

1796
01:39:14,367 --> 01:39:16,700
what makes this organization vital?

1797
01:39:17,033 --> 01:39:19,000
Like, you know, if we're losing members,

1798
01:39:19,233 --> 01:39:20,934
I think there's a lack of vitality

1799
01:39:21,567 --> 01:39:24,033
that we show the public in what we do.

1800
01:39:24,133 --> 01:39:27,367
And I think that's, you know, maybe just kind

1801
01:39:27,367 --> 01:39:28,567
of the public facing of it.

1802
01:39:29,066 --> 01:39:30,300
You know, the baseline, what we have,

1803
01:39:30,300 --> 01:39:32,000
the Atlas is a fantastic project.

1804
01:39:32,834 --> 01:39:35,100
The monitoring that we do is a fantastic project.

1805
01:39:35,166 --> 01:39:36,767
And I think one of the things that we're starting

1806
01:39:36,767 --> 01:39:41,100
to do a lot better is fostering partnerships really

1807
01:39:41,100 --> 01:39:42,367
for the good of the watershed.

1808
01:39:42,500 --> 01:39:46,033
And what I see as being an opportunity right now is for us

1809
01:39:46,033 --> 01:39:48,100
to really get together

1810
01:39:49,100 --> 01:39:52,000
and focus on what it is we do,

1811
01:39:52,166 --> 01:39:54,000
why we do it, and how we do it.

1812
01:39:54,166 --> 01:39:57,700
And I feel like this is something that was really kind

1813
01:39:57,700 --> 01:39:58,700
of missing when I came in

1814
01:39:58,700 --> 01:40:01,066
and through the discussions with executive committee,

1815
01:40:01,100 --> 01:40:02,367
you know, really trying to figure out,

1816
01:40:04,233 --> 01:40:05,767
you know, what is our focus?

1817
01:40:05,867 --> 01:40:09,133
And I think it's to really preserve, protect

1818
01:40:09,734 --> 01:40:12,367
and promote very specifically the Spring Creek watershed

1819
01:40:12,367 --> 01:40:16,767
and to be a partner for the municipalities to come

1820
01:40:16,834 --> 01:40:17,834
to with their ideas.

1821
01:40:18,066 --> 01:40:20,333
I think at no point should we ever necessarily dictate,

1822
01:40:20,333 --> 01:40:21,533
but I wanna be a trusted partner.

1823
01:40:22,300 --> 01:40:24,000
I wanna make sure that, you know, kind of

1824
01:40:24,000 --> 01:40:26,033
what Elise was saying, you know, calling for projects

1825
01:40:26,033 --> 01:40:29,567
for from municipalities, ways that, you know,

1826
01:40:29,567 --> 01:40:31,500
if we have the expertise, if we have,

1827
01:40:32,033 --> 01:40:33,767
if we can connect the dots.

1828
01:40:33,900 --> 01:40:35,533
And I know there's a lot of other organizations

1829
01:40:35,533 --> 01:40:37,033
that are doing that same work as well,

1830
01:40:37,033 --> 01:40:40,133
but I think if our focus is very specifically the Spring

1831
01:40:40,133 --> 01:40:44,934
Creek watershed, letting that be where we spend our effort,

1832
01:40:44,934 --> 01:40:48,300
where we spend our time, I think there's really a lot

1833
01:40:48,300 --> 01:40:50,066
of opportunity there for us to grow.

1834
01:40:50,000 --> 01:40:51,066
And you know, another thing

1835
01:40:51,066 --> 01:40:53,533
that really got me very specifically

1836
01:40:54,767 --> 01:40:57,333
interested in this conversation is looking at our budget

1837
01:40:57,433 --> 01:40:59,233
for next year where we do have a shortfall

1838
01:40:59,500 --> 01:41:02,500
and we're looking at, you know, I think

1839
01:41:02,500 --> 01:41:06,000
as an elected official, I don't think you can keep tapping,

1840
01:41:06,734 --> 01:41:11,333
you know, more per capita, you know,

1841
01:41:12,500 --> 01:41:14,066
I don't wanna say donations, that's not what it is,

1842
01:41:14,066 --> 01:41:15,266
but we can't keep asking

1843
01:41:15,367 --> 01:41:17,867
for more from the member municipalities.

1844
01:41:19,133 --> 01:41:23,266
I think what we do need to do is really start to invest in,

1845
01:41:24,000 --> 01:41:26,300
you know, a list of projects that we have kind of ready

1846
01:41:26,300 --> 01:41:29,767
and on hand looking at grants, looking at capacity grants so

1847
01:41:29,767 --> 01:41:33,367
that we can actually fund Elisa's work, which would free up

1848
01:41:34,166 --> 01:41:36,233
the money that we get from municipalities

1849
01:41:36,367 --> 01:41:38,867
to do work specifically within the municipalities.

1850
01:41:38,867 --> 01:41:42,133
Looking at upstream, downstream, looking at some

1851
01:41:42,133 --> 01:41:44,700
of the municipalities that have dropped recently

1852
01:41:44,734 --> 01:41:48,033
and showing them, you know, we have projects that we can do

1853
01:41:48,266 --> 01:41:50,333
that are in your region.

1854
01:41:51,133 --> 01:41:53,033
This is how we become a vital partner.

1855
01:41:53,333 --> 01:41:56,066
And, you know, really looking at the momentum we have

1856
01:41:56,634 --> 01:42:01,066
with the stormwater work group in identifying, you know,

1857
01:42:01,066 --> 01:42:03,133
really kind of, I don't wanna say easier projects,

1858
01:42:03,133 --> 01:42:08,000
but projects that are doable by a smaller organization

1859
01:42:08,467 --> 01:42:12,634
and really starting to stack those wins as we, you know,

1860
01:42:12,734 --> 01:42:15,834
get the capacity to take more on, we can start

1861
01:42:15,834 --> 01:42:17,133
to match grants that come in.

1862
01:42:17,266 --> 01:42:20,033
We can start to really make a difference across the

1863
01:42:20,300 --> 01:42:21,333
entirety of the watershed.

1864
01:42:22,066 --> 01:42:25,066
And I mean, for me, I think that's, that's the kind

1865
01:42:25,100 --> 01:42:27,567
of organization I would like

1866
01:42:27,567 --> 01:42:30,033
to see the watershed commission be like all serving

1867
01:42:31,100 --> 01:42:34,634
specifically the health of the Spring Creek watershed.

1868
01:42:34,700 --> 01:42:36,333
So again, that's kind of just what I've

1869
01:42:37,266 --> 01:42:41,100
synthesized over the past nine months or so.

1870
01:42:41,133 --> 01:42:43,333
And I'd be interested to hear from people that have been

1871
01:42:43,667 --> 01:42:45,000
around here longer

1872
01:42:45,133 --> 01:42:48,834
or you know, even the, the newer members, you know, kind of

1873
01:42:48,867 --> 01:42:51,100
what you've seen, what you see

1874
01:42:51,166 --> 01:42:53,700
or you know, just that's me kind of spouting

1875
01:42:53,700 --> 01:42:55,767
what I see moving forward.

1876
01:42:56,100 --> 01:42:57,100
So

1877
01:42:57,266 --> 01:43:01,000
- If I might, just, in our founding documents,

1878
01:43:01,133 --> 01:43:05,867
it was anticipated that as the commission started

1879
01:43:06,100 --> 01:43:10,000
to do projects that they,

1880
01:43:10,734 --> 01:43:15,500
the commission would define a

1881
01:43:15,500 --> 01:43:16,834
project or a program

1882
01:43:17,834 --> 01:43:22,367
and communicate to the municipalities where

1883
01:43:23,867 --> 01:43:26,000
the question would become, are you interested in this?

1884
01:43:26,333 --> 01:43:29,100
Is this one that you might like to participate in?

1885
01:43:29,634 --> 01:43:33,834
And the, it speaks to the fact that municipalities would,

1886
01:43:34,367 --> 01:43:36,000
you know, raise a hand and say, yeah, well

1887
01:43:36,033 --> 01:43:38,767
that sounds interesting, give us more.

1888
01:43:39,266 --> 01:43:42,100
And then the format is that

1889
01:43:44,266 --> 01:43:47,934
the commission would then formulate a specific budget

1890
01:43:48,867 --> 01:43:51,266
that would cover the cost of doing

1891
01:43:51,834 --> 01:43:53,467
that program or that project.

1892
01:43:54,233 --> 01:43:57,500
And for the, let's say three

1893
01:43:57,934 --> 01:44:02,934
or five municipalities that were interested there would,

1894
01:44:02,934 --> 01:44:05,300
they'd be presented with a budget

1895
01:44:06,000 --> 01:44:10,000
where the commission would propose, here's the partnership,

1896
01:44:10,000 --> 01:44:13,066
here's the project, this is how it could work, this is

1897
01:44:13,133 --> 01:44:14,367
how it would get funded.

1898
01:44:14,667 --> 01:44:19,233
And then go back to those municipalities to,

1899
01:44:20,000 --> 01:44:23,333
apart from their administrative contribution,

1900
01:44:23,867 --> 01:44:28,467
look at a specific project and decide yay or nay.

1901
01:44:29,900 --> 01:44:34,000
My share of let's say $5,000, 10,000,

1902
01:44:35,066 --> 01:44:39,867
fill in the blank suits our municipality

1903
01:44:40,066 --> 01:44:41,000
and we'd like to go forward.

1904
01:44:41,667 --> 01:44:45,867
So that was laid out in the documents 20 years ago.

1905
01:44:46,367 --> 01:44:50,767
And it was used in the development of the

1906
01:44:51,367 --> 01:44:54,066
developing the phase two plan.

1907
01:44:56,166 --> 01:45:01,033
The, after the initial phase one was done in 2003,

1908
01:45:01,500 --> 01:45:04,567
then we went back out to the commission, went

1909
01:45:04,567 --> 01:45:08,133
to municipalities and said, phase two is gonna cost this.

1910
01:45:08,834 --> 01:45:10,634
Are you interested in participating?

1911
01:45:11,667 --> 01:45:15,834
There were private sector participants, some

1912
01:45:15,834 --> 01:45:18,033
of the municipal authorities threw in money

1913
01:45:19,033 --> 01:45:23,066
and I'd be hard pressed to remember the number,

1914
01:45:23,667 --> 01:45:27,634
but the account that gets reported

1915
01:45:28,266 --> 01:45:32,467
every two months at now that it has $2,100,

1916
01:45:33,066 --> 01:45:36,533
that's the remnant from doing the phase two plan.

1917
01:45:37,100 --> 01:45:40,934
So to your point, it was

1918
01:45:42,533 --> 01:45:45,500
envisioned that the commission would do this,

1919
01:45:45,900 --> 01:45:48,033
and here's kind of the protocol.

1920
01:45:49,066 --> 01:45:50,066
Yeah.

1921
01:45:50,667 --> 01:45:52,934
- When I kind of see the moment that we're at right now,

1922
01:45:53,033 --> 01:45:56,367
it's, it's time to do it.

1923
01:45:56,634 --> 01:45:59,467
Yeah. And you know, again, seeing the, you know,

1924
01:45:59,467 --> 01:46:01,467
us going a little bit over budget next year,

1925
01:46:01,567 --> 01:46:04,533
like it's Right, I see freeing up the funds to start

1926
01:46:04,533 --> 01:46:08,000
to do the projects, to get us back to a, you know,

1927
01:46:08,000 --> 01:46:10,300
really a, at least a break even.

1928
01:46:10,567 --> 01:46:14,367
Yes. If not, you know, starting to stockpile a little more

1929
01:46:14,467 --> 01:46:17,300
so that if we do find a project where we need to draw funds,

1930
01:46:18,266 --> 01:46:19,734
we can support that.

1931
01:46:21,133 --> 01:46:24,634
- And one other thing, just as a footnote, the

1932
01:46:25,533 --> 01:46:28,934
watershed commission, with the exception of doing that,

1933
01:46:29,333 --> 01:46:31,133
to my knowledge, with the exception

1934
01:46:31,133 --> 01:46:35,867
of doing the phase two plan, has always been all volunteer

1935
01:46:36,367 --> 01:46:41,033
until we started to bring in an AmeriCorps

1936
01:46:41,634 --> 01:46:46,000
with Elise and others to have help.

1937
01:46:46,734 --> 01:46:51,367
So, and you know, our,

1938
01:46:52,166 --> 01:46:53,734
we've been very frugal

1939
01:46:54,867 --> 01:46:59,634
and while we have a small budget, I think your,

1940
01:47:00,166 --> 01:47:04,066
your point's well taken that it's a good time to

1941
01:47:05,033 --> 01:47:06,367
start looking to do more.

1942
01:47:06,734 --> 01:47:09,000
- Well yeah. And especially having asked, you know,

1943
01:47:09,100 --> 01:47:11,734
raise the municipal share from 10 cents over, what,

1944
01:47:11,734 --> 01:47:12,734
four years ago to,

1945
01:47:13,500 --> 01:47:16,266
- It was - 25 now. Six, six

1946
01:47:16,266 --> 01:47:17,266
- Years.

1947
01:47:17,266 --> 01:47:17,834
2022. It was

1948
01:47:17,834 --> 01:47:18,734
- 2022. Yeah.

1949
01:47:18,734 --> 01:47:20,567
- Yeah. It was 10. Yeah. - So four years ago,

1950
01:47:22,100 --> 01:47:23,100
- That's five.

1951
01:47:23,100 --> 01:47:27,233
- Is it, it's 2026 right now. - Right? 22, 23, 24, 25.

1952
01:47:27,467 --> 01:47:31,133
- In any case, in any case, you have to come here knowing,

1953
01:47:31,133 --> 01:47:33,133
knowing that we can go back to the municipalities

1954
01:47:33,333 --> 01:47:34,533
and say, this is what you're getting

1955
01:47:34,567 --> 01:47:35,634
for your increased chair.

1956
01:47:35,634 --> 01:47:38,300
Right. I think that's, that's really a position of strength

1957
01:47:38,300 --> 01:47:40,066
where we can come in

1958
01:47:40,066 --> 01:47:41,767
and really again, prove that we're vital.

1959
01:47:41,767 --> 01:47:45,934
Maybe invite some of the lapsed members back in. Yes.

1960
01:47:46,300 --> 01:47:50,867
- Yeah. And the budget letter that I sent out tried to

1961
01:47:52,300 --> 01:47:56,467
characterize what's been going on in 2026,

1962
01:47:56,467 --> 01:48:00,867
because when we went through the budget process last year,

1963
01:48:02,233 --> 01:48:06,233
a number of municipalities, college, Benner, Ferguson,

1964
01:48:07,367 --> 01:48:10,867
all said, make sure you keep us up

1965
01:48:10,867 --> 01:48:12,266
to date on what you're doing.

1966
01:48:13,000 --> 01:48:14,066
And so that's in there.

1967
01:48:14,533 --> 01:48:17,066
- Yeah. And it's a good letter, so I appreciate that. Yep.

1968
01:48:19,000 --> 01:48:21,700
- Yeah. If I may speak a little bit about the history.

1969
01:48:22,367 --> 01:48:25,467
So, you know, that international group that came in,

1970
01:48:26,333 --> 01:48:29,100
you know, it also involved the Chesapeake Bay Foundation

1971
01:48:29,300 --> 01:48:32,100
and, you know, there were scientists that came from Europe

1972
01:48:32,634 --> 01:48:35,033
that came from different states, came from Maryland

1973
01:48:35,133 --> 01:48:37,233
and so forth, all came here to study this

1974
01:48:37,767 --> 01:48:42,500
because they, they, they recognized the significance

1975
01:48:42,634 --> 01:48:47,433
of this watershed and they found that,

1976
01:48:48,266 --> 01:48:50,000
that there was a need for a commission

1977
01:48:50,000 --> 01:48:53,700
because there's such development going on.

1978
01:48:54,133 --> 01:48:58,467
And that was kind of the push that,

1979
01:48:58,467 --> 01:49:01,700
that needed somebody to be looking at the watershed

1980
01:49:01,700 --> 01:49:02,900
and keeping an eye on things.

1981
01:49:04,367 --> 01:49:09,266
And so, like I say, out of that came plan development,

1982
01:49:09,634 --> 01:49:11,166
you know, there's these different documents.

1983
01:49:11,166 --> 01:49:14,467
We have the phase one plan, phase two plan that have,

1984
01:49:14,500 --> 01:49:19,233
have established goals, metrics, you know,

1985
01:49:19,266 --> 01:49:22,233
that we can't lose sight of either, you know, and,

1986
01:49:22,266 --> 01:49:26,634
and a lot of that has already identified these threats that,

1987
01:49:26,634 --> 01:49:28,934
that need that we need to keep our eyes on.

1988
01:49:29,433 --> 01:49:32,700
So, you know, one thing that we can do is kind of revisit

1989
01:49:32,700 --> 01:49:35,300
that a little bit and refresh ourselves on some of

1990
01:49:35,300 --> 01:49:38,500
that basic, you know, it was a lot of hard work.

1991
01:49:39,033 --> 01:49:42,533
I was on one of the technical committees that was looking at

1992
01:49:45,433 --> 01:49:46,533
did we have enough data

1993
01:49:47,934 --> 01:49:50,467
or do we have gaps that we need to fill and so forth.

1994
01:49:50,533 --> 01:49:51,934
Well, there were some gaps,

1995
01:49:52,066 --> 01:49:55,100
but overall, you know, this is a very,

1996
01:49:55,300 --> 01:49:59,033
very well studied watershed, so there's no lack of expertise

1997
01:50:00,066 --> 01:50:02,266
and the commission has that role to bring

1998
01:50:02,266 --> 01:50:03,533
that expertise together.

1999
01:50:04,867 --> 01:50:08,834
And I think that there was some struggling to do that

2000
01:50:10,266 --> 01:50:13,934
until we finally hired some staff, you know,

2001
01:50:13,934 --> 01:50:16,066
because up until that point it was all volunteer

2002
01:50:17,066 --> 01:50:18,066
and that's difficult.

2003
01:50:18,333 --> 01:50:20,700
You know, you have municipal members who have their,

2004
01:50:20,700 --> 01:50:23,467
their duties, you have private citizens, you know,

2005
01:50:23,467 --> 01:50:25,066
we're just trying to contribute their time.

2006
01:50:25,867 --> 01:50:30,500
So that was really the shift in the whole drive

2007
01:50:30,567 --> 01:50:31,767
of this commission when,

2008
01:50:31,767 --> 01:50:34,300
when finally started hiring some help.

2009
01:50:34,634 --> 01:50:37,100
Yeah. And you know, that's our watershed coordinator,

2010
01:50:37,233 --> 01:50:38,500
that's our AmeriCorps member.

2011
01:50:39,033 --> 01:50:41,934
And you know, we,

2012
01:50:42,066 --> 01:50:45,000
we do now we are facing some budget shortfalls

2013
01:50:45,100 --> 01:50:46,367
because of that need.

2014
01:50:47,000 --> 01:50:50,500
And we do have the cushion to allow this to continue.

2015
01:50:51,133 --> 01:50:54,033
And we need that staff to help build

2016
01:51:00,100 --> 01:51:01,133
grant request and,

2017
01:51:01,233 --> 01:51:04,300
and look at, you know, money streams and so forth.

2018
01:51:04,500 --> 01:51:07,100
So it's not something we can just do as volunteers.

2019
01:51:08,033 --> 01:51:12,500
So I guess, you know,

2020
01:51:12,634 --> 01:51:15,066
I I, I've seen the change in the commission

2021
01:51:15,233 --> 01:51:19,133
and I, I think it's, it's, it's a, it very good direction

2022
01:51:19,867 --> 01:51:21,867
and continuing this direction, I think

2023
01:51:21,867 --> 01:51:25,100
that we can really help protect the watershed as,

2024
01:51:25,266 --> 01:51:28,100
as Chris is saying, should be our goal.

2025
01:51:28,133 --> 01:51:30,033
- Yeah. I think, I think it's just very important

2026
01:51:30,066 --> 01:51:33,100
to really stress that this is an opportune time to strike.

2027
01:51:33,066 --> 01:51:34,767
I think, you know, the work that Elise does is incredible,

2028
01:51:35,133 --> 01:51:36,367
and I think it's going to allow us

2029
01:51:36,433 --> 01:51:39,767
to do much more than we've done in the past.

2030
01:51:40,000 --> 01:51:41,667
And I don't want to be like, you know,

2031
01:51:41,667 --> 01:51:43,100
I'm sounding the alarm, oh my God, we need

2032
01:51:43,100 --> 01:51:44,433
to get our budget in line.

2033
01:51:44,667 --> 01:51:47,500
I think we can sustain a few years of this to make sure

2034
01:51:47,500 --> 01:51:48,567
that this is something we can do.

2035
01:51:48,700 --> 01:51:50,867
But I felt that it was important

2036
01:51:50,867 --> 01:51:52,033
that we have this discussion.

2037
01:51:52,033 --> 01:51:55,133
So that's actually front of mind for everybody

2038
01:51:55,133 --> 01:51:57,867
that's on this commission, that we are really trying

2039
01:51:57,934 --> 01:52:02,066
to pivot right now to a project

2040
01:52:02,500 --> 01:52:06,467
and grant funded organization.

2041
01:52:06,767 --> 01:52:08,700
So really starting to find the projects

2042
01:52:09,333 --> 01:52:11,233
that we can work on across the watershed.

2043
01:52:11,233 --> 01:52:14,734
And I will say, you know, with development being, you know,

2044
01:52:14,734 --> 01:52:16,033
really the major threat

2045
01:52:16,100 --> 01:52:19,066
and with stormwater runoff being a major threat, looking at

2046
01:52:19,066 --> 01:52:22,033
that as being kind of a, a focus right now

2047
01:52:22,033 --> 01:52:25,734
because we do have the stormwater work group, knowing that

2048
01:52:25,867 --> 01:52:29,533
that's a problem that needs to be solved across the entirety

2049
01:52:29,533 --> 01:52:31,667
of the watershed, and finding projects

2050
01:52:31,667 --> 01:52:33,233
where we can really make

2051
01:52:34,266 --> 01:52:37,033
differences one location at a time.

2052
01:52:37,166 --> 01:52:40,100
I, I do think it's an opportunity to again, show

2053
01:52:40,100 --> 01:52:43,300
that we are a vital member of the,

2054
01:52:43,867 --> 01:52:45,066
of the conservation community.

2055
01:52:46,634 --> 01:52:49,500
- And one of, I'm sorry, one of the things that,

2056
01:52:49,500 --> 01:52:53,000
that Elise talked about was that pub, what was it?

2057
01:52:53,000 --> 01:52:55,867
The public, public project viewer.

2058
01:52:56,333 --> 01:52:59,634
So that's a, you know, helps to

2059
01:53:00,867 --> 01:53:03,066
put us in the spotlight a little bit, you know, show

2060
01:53:03,066 --> 01:53:04,000
what we're doing and all.

2061
01:53:04,000 --> 01:53:09,066
But, you know, Barbara had made the suggestion in her when,

2062
01:53:09,066 --> 01:53:13,266
when she addressed the, the commission here that

2063
01:53:14,567 --> 01:53:17,567
we need to really involve the public a lot and,

2064
01:53:17,667 --> 01:53:21,033
and perhaps, you know, have more of a a,

2065
01:53:23,867 --> 01:53:27,033
some of these projects and so forth shown on the website.

2066
01:53:27,533 --> 01:53:31,734
I believe that. That's right.

2067
01:53:32,133 --> 01:53:35,133
So anyway, enough

2068
01:53:36,166 --> 01:53:38,033
- Want, again, kind of get looking at the projects

2069
01:53:38,033 --> 01:53:39,767
and the call for projects specifically

2070
01:53:39,767 --> 01:53:41,166
that Elise, you are looking for.

2071
01:53:41,667 --> 01:53:45,100
You know, can the elected officials on this board

2072
01:53:46,266 --> 01:53:50,133
just get something out in your community newsletters?

2073
01:53:50,033 --> 01:53:51,734
I know like Harris does send out the newsletter,

2074
01:53:51,734 --> 01:53:53,100
just put out a call for Yes.

2075
01:53:53,000 --> 01:53:56,033
You know, do you, what do you see in the watershed?

2076
01:53:56,033 --> 01:53:59,900
Put it out to every citizen that receives an e update. Yep.

2077
01:54:00,100 --> 01:54:00,567
You know, like we're looking,

2078
01:54:00,634 --> 01:54:01,867
that's a really good suggestion.

2079
01:54:01,867 --> 01:54:04,066
We're looking for, we're looking for projects

2080
01:54:04,900 --> 01:54:07,667
and you know, don't just go to the electeds

2081
01:54:07,667 --> 01:54:09,567
or go to the planning, like put it out to the public,

2082
01:54:09,734 --> 01:54:13,033
say like, we are looking, we're looking for work.

2083
01:54:13,634 --> 01:54:17,367
And as we can amass, you know, a list, then we can start

2084
01:54:17,367 --> 01:54:21,533
to match, you know, find a grant, say this project,

2085
01:54:21,567 --> 01:54:22,634
this project, this project.

2086
01:54:23,533 --> 01:54:26,266
And it kind of gives us a little bit of momentum

2087
01:54:26,433 --> 01:54:28,433
to start, you know, moving forward. Yeah.

2088
01:54:28,700 --> 01:54:31,867
- Ethan, - Building on top of that,

2089
01:54:33,100 --> 01:54:36,500
- I, - I think in the role that I serve

2090
01:54:37,033 --> 01:54:40,100
as an AmeriCorps member with the Keystone Water Resources,

2091
01:54:40,300 --> 01:54:44,533
I, in a very small capacity, could potentially help you

2092
01:54:46,000 --> 01:54:47,033
find new projects

2093
01:54:47,033 --> 01:54:49,066
and add to that list of projects that you want to do

2094
01:54:49,133 --> 01:54:50,734
that concerns the health

2095
01:54:50,734 --> 01:54:54,367
and the integrity, integrity of the Spring Creek watershed.

2096
01:54:55,667 --> 01:54:58,767
So more specifically, just for contact's sake,

2097
01:55:00,300 --> 01:55:03,700
it's gonna be my responsibility to carry out the Water

2098
01:55:05,000 --> 01:55:08,166
resource monitoring project that Keystone executes

2099
01:55:08,333 --> 01:55:11,500
by going out into the watershed, going into streams,

2100
01:55:12,133 --> 01:55:15,367
collecting water samples, accumulating data, processing

2101
01:55:15,367 --> 01:55:17,033
that data and publishing it.

2102
01:55:17,634 --> 01:55:20,233
But while I'm out there in the actual physical watershed,

2103
01:55:20,634 --> 01:55:22,734
I am the eyes

2104
01:55:22,734 --> 01:55:27,000
and ears on the ground taking note of

2105
01:55:27,667 --> 01:55:30,000
the health of the waters in the streams itself.

2106
01:55:30,500 --> 01:55:33,166
If I noticed an impaired

2107
01:55:33,300 --> 01:55:37,367
or eroding stream bank, such as the one in Tally Park,

2108
01:55:38,233 --> 01:55:40,734
I can be there to take note of that, document it

2109
01:55:41,000 --> 01:55:45,834
and, sorry, I believe she brought it up and bring that up

2110
01:55:45,834 --> 01:55:48,467
and make it aware to the attention of the commission

2111
01:55:49,500 --> 01:55:51,100
as was mentioned before, I'm gonna be

2112
01:55:51,734 --> 01:55:53,100
in the next desk right.

2113
01:55:53,100 --> 01:55:56,634
Over from the Commission's AmeriCorps member. Right.

2114
01:55:56,634 --> 01:55:59,066
You know, I'll be working very, very closely. Yeah.

2115
01:55:59,567 --> 01:56:03,033
And it's a, it can be a collaborative thing, while

2116
01:56:03,667 --> 01:56:05,300
the things I'll be noticing will be

2117
01:56:06,033 --> 01:56:07,700
directly from the streams.

2118
01:56:08,700 --> 01:56:12,634
You may want a larger scope of different projects.

2119
01:56:12,734 --> 01:56:15,000
That's just one area that I can be of help to.

2120
01:56:15,233 --> 01:56:16,367
So I just wanna put that out there.

2121
01:56:17,066 --> 01:56:19,233
- Thank you. That's fantastic. That's great.

2122
01:56:20,300 --> 01:56:22,100
Everybody pitching in. Yep.

2123
01:56:23,700 --> 01:56:26,233
- I mean the, the information

2124
01:56:32,500 --> 01:56:37,433
Township Supervisors and Borough councils are like waves

2125
01:56:39,066 --> 01:56:43,867
and so what, how, how, how,

2126
01:56:45,033 --> 01:56:47,266
how they balance and how they think

2127
01:56:48,700 --> 01:56:50,300
can change every two to four years.

2128
01:56:50,333 --> 01:56:51,333
- Sure. Yeah. Yeah.

2129
01:56:52,300 --> 01:56:55,266
- And so, you know,

2130
01:56:57,500 --> 01:57:00,066
the, the collecting the information

2131
01:57:01,467 --> 01:57:05,133
and thinking about

2132
01:57:05,634 --> 01:57:09,834
those possible projects is also one of those things.

2133
01:57:10,000 --> 01:57:11,900
So you have to wait for the time

2134
01:57:11,900 --> 01:57:14,033
that you have the receptive audience

2135
01:57:14,133 --> 01:57:15,133
- Correct.

2136
01:57:16,266 --> 01:57:18,834
- And the given community.

2137
01:57:20,867 --> 01:57:25,367
So it is, I-I-I-I-I,

2138
01:57:26,133 --> 01:57:30,867
I do like your idea of making the observations

2139
01:57:32,000 --> 01:57:36,033
and then coming back to

2140
01:57:36,900 --> 01:57:41,834
the commission and we have been having the opportunity

2141
01:57:42,734 --> 01:57:44,900
at that, at that point Yeah.

2142
01:57:45,266 --> 01:57:49,533
To say, do we think we, we have a program

2143
01:57:50,367 --> 01:57:54,000
and do we think that we have the interested communities?

2144
01:57:55,867 --> 01:58:00,133
Because that's, as I say, it's always a wave

2145
01:58:01,233 --> 01:58:06,033
and that sometimes that that project is going

2146
01:58:06,033 --> 01:58:09,500
to go and maybe sometimes you're gonna have to wait for two

2147
01:58:09,500 --> 01:58:10,533
to four years Yep.

2148
01:58:11,133 --> 01:58:13,533
When that project does go. Yeah.

2149
01:58:14,734 --> 01:58:19,133
- Well I think that starting that dialogue was part of what

2150
01:58:20,333 --> 01:58:23,033
Elise brought to me was that

2151
01:58:26,333 --> 01:58:29,100
it's a process and we need to start talking about it now

2152
01:58:29,634 --> 01:58:31,834
and working toward it so that

2153
01:58:33,100 --> 01:58:36,567
we can start putting projects on the table that we

2154
01:58:37,900 --> 01:58:40,066
put a call for projects in the agenda.

2155
01:58:40,934 --> 01:58:42,467
I think the committee meetings

2156
01:58:42,467 --> 01:58:47,100
that go forward are gonna have that implementation focus so

2157
01:58:47,100 --> 01:58:49,834
that while we can talk about

2158
01:58:51,767 --> 01:58:55,867
other things, the idea of partners coming forward

2159
01:58:56,100 --> 01:58:59,100
and pitching in to move projects forward

2160
01:58:59,867 --> 01:59:01,266
is at the base of everything.

2161
01:59:02,500 --> 01:59:03,500
Yeah.

2162
01:59:05,834 --> 01:59:07,700
- I would just like to add, you know,

2163
01:59:07,700 --> 01:59:11,100
there's been talk about, you know, a lot about storm water.

2164
01:59:12,934 --> 01:59:15,934
One of the biggest concerns of mine is base flow

2165
01:59:16,934 --> 01:59:19,567
and, you know, base flow, you know,

2166
01:59:21,567 --> 01:59:22,934
it needs protected as well.

2167
01:59:23,567 --> 01:59:25,834
And they do go somewhat hand in hand

2168
01:59:25,834 --> 01:59:29,100
because, you know, storm water flashing is generated from

2169
01:59:29,133 --> 01:59:32,667
impious surfaces and impious surfaces reduced base flow.

2170
01:59:33,133 --> 01:59:36,867
So a lot of it is just focusing on reduction

2171
01:59:37,033 --> 01:59:38,834
or control of impervious surfaces.

2172
01:59:39,467 --> 01:59:43,033
So we are way beyond the tipping point.

2173
01:59:43,066 --> 01:59:46,333
The normal tipping point for a watershed like ours

2174
01:59:47,000 --> 01:59:51,233
and our base flow is what has saved us up to this point.

2175
01:59:54,066 --> 01:59:56,734
- My favorite statistic, not, not that it's a great thing,

2176
01:59:56,934 --> 01:59:59,934
but most trout populations crash over

2177
02:00:00,000 --> 02:00:02,834
after nine to 11% impervious surface.

2178
02:00:03,033 --> 02:00:06,433
And our watershed has exceeded that since 1995.

2179
02:00:07,133 --> 02:00:10,233
And so it's just that, that steady stream of,

2180
02:00:10,767 --> 02:00:12,467
of groundwater coming outta the ground,

2181
02:00:12,533 --> 02:00:15,100
but it's still declining, like base flow's declining.

2182
02:00:15,233 --> 02:00:17,734
And one of the things mentioned in our watershed planning

2183
02:00:18,433 --> 02:00:21,734
eras is identifying the recharge areas.

2184
02:00:22,000 --> 02:00:24,066
And I do think one of the great things

2185
02:00:24,066 --> 02:00:25,433
that we've done is working

2186
02:00:25,433 --> 02:00:27,233
with the Susquehanna River Basin Commission,

2187
02:00:27,500 --> 02:00:29,033
bringing Graham Markowitz in talking

2188
02:00:29,033 --> 02:00:31,133
with the Centre Region Planning Agency,

2189
02:00:31,033 --> 02:00:34,133
and making sure that those blue zones of critical

2190
02:00:34,667 --> 02:00:37,634
recharge areas are identified and protected.

2191
02:00:37,634 --> 02:00:39,734
And I know that's something we've been really pushing into

2192
02:00:39,734 --> 02:00:41,233
the rock view conversation as well.

2193
02:00:42,000 --> 02:00:44,266
- And it's been a nice connection with Clearwater as well,

2194
02:00:44,266 --> 02:00:48,166
because it fits right into how they look at properties

2195
02:00:48,166 --> 02:00:51,433
that they should be trying to help

2196
02:00:52,333 --> 02:00:53,500
owners conserve.

2197
02:00:54,100 --> 02:00:57,634
- Yep. - Yeah. But is there, okay, I'm, I'm, I'm gonna,

2198
02:00:58,100 --> 02:01:00,367
I'm gonna put on my little understanding

2199
02:01:00,467 --> 02:01:04,266
or probably go in the, on the edge

2200
02:01:04,300 --> 02:01:06,133
of what's really knowledge,

2201
02:01:07,066 --> 02:01:08,367
but is the rock,

2202
02:01:08,634 --> 02:01:12,000
is the rock view property really the recharge area

2203
02:01:12,700 --> 02:01:17,266
as opposed to what's out beyond Ferguson, Patton

2204
02:01:17,700 --> 02:01:19,333
and Half Moon Township?

2205
02:01:19,867 --> 02:01:21,867
- There's several throughout the watershed.

2206
02:01:22,066 --> 02:01:24,867
So the Scotia Barons is a big one.

2207
02:01:26,033 --> 02:01:28,834
The forested canopy is one of the things that contributes,

2208
02:01:28,834 --> 02:01:31,000
there's a lot of different things that go into that layer.

2209
02:01:31,567 --> 02:01:33,100
One of it is, does it have trees

2210
02:01:33,333 --> 02:01:35,133
and you know, is it already forested?

2211
02:01:35,133 --> 02:01:37,367
And so that makes it one of those blue zones.

2212
02:01:38,033 --> 02:01:40,867
It's not gonna say like, once it's been developed on,

2213
02:01:41,166 --> 02:01:44,033
those maps aren't gonna show it as a recharge area anymore.

2214
02:01:44,100 --> 02:01:46,367
Even if it was one of them, you'd have

2215
02:01:46,367 --> 02:01:48,333
to dive down deeper into the layers of it.

2216
02:01:48,500 --> 02:01:52,333
But Rockview does have critical recharge areas on it.

2217
02:01:52,667 --> 02:01:54,066
- Yep. Okay. Alright.

2218
02:01:54,100 --> 02:01:57,634
Yeah, I mean I'm just being from Mont, you know,

2219
02:01:57,734 --> 02:02:00,133
we always look at what comes out of the big spring, so.

2220
02:02:00,767 --> 02:02:02,734
- Understood. It's important. Yeah.

2221
02:02:05,300 --> 02:02:07,834
Anything else that we haven't covered?

2222
02:02:07,934 --> 02:02:11,000
Anyone from the audience that wants to contribute?

2223
02:02:11,300 --> 02:02:13,867
Thank you Ethan. Appreciate you being here.

2224
02:02:14,433 --> 02:02:16,133
Welcome as an AmeriCorps,

2225
02:02:16,467 --> 02:02:17,834
we look forward to working with you.

2226
02:02:18,333 --> 02:02:19,767
- Thanks for having me. - Yeah.

2227
02:02:20,867 --> 02:02:22,233
- We didn't even ask you, where are you from?

2228
02:02:22,233 --> 02:02:23,834
Ethan? Rhode Island.

2229
02:02:24,066 --> 02:02:27,867
- Rhode Island, - Okay. Okay.

2230
02:02:28,934 --> 02:02:31,333
Very nice. Yeah. Hope you didn't like the sea.

2231
02:02:33,734 --> 02:02:38,567
- It's, it's Been

2232
02:02:38,567 --> 02:02:42,567
an exciting time At Ferguson Township.

2233
02:02:42,734 --> 02:02:46,433
We have a new manager and a new public works director.

2234
02:02:47,000 --> 02:02:49,934
And so having the AmeriCorps members

2235
02:02:50,367 --> 02:02:52,100
in building six at

2236
02:02:53,133 --> 02:02:56,000
Ferguson has been pretty exciting.

2237
02:02:56,767 --> 02:03:01,700
So, well, if there's nothing else, I guess we have

2238
02:03:02,333 --> 02:03:06,634
a couple matters of, let me get back to my agenda here.

2239
02:03:07,900 --> 02:03:10,934
I didn't mean to put it away, but matters of record.

2240
02:03:11,634 --> 02:03:15,133
Thank you. Always.

2241
02:03:15,767 --> 02:03:18,734
Our event calendar, we try to maintain that.

2242
02:03:19,567 --> 02:03:23,333
Item 11, our next regular meeting will be our last

2243
02:03:24,900 --> 02:03:26,634
regular business meeting of the year.

2244
02:03:26,734 --> 02:03:28,066
That's November 16th.

2245
02:03:28,867 --> 02:03:33,834
And our friends from Penns Valley Conservation Association

2246
02:03:34,266 --> 02:03:36,066
are gonna come and present.

2247
02:03:37,634 --> 02:03:42,133
As John indicated earlier, Atlas meets

2248
02:03:42,934 --> 02:03:46,133
tomorrow at from one to three at Patton.

2249
02:03:46,000 --> 02:03:47,834
And then again October 15th.

2250
02:03:49,734 --> 02:03:52,867
- That was just old habit Atlas is now meeting bimonthly.

2251
02:03:53,033 --> 02:03:54,867
Okay. So they're only gonna be meeting

2252
02:03:56,233 --> 02:03:57,667
in September, like tomorrow.

2253
02:03:57,734 --> 02:04:00,066
Okay. And then, so basically they're every Thursday

2254
02:04:00,066 --> 02:04:01,266
after watershed commission

2255
02:04:01,266 --> 02:04:02,266
- Meetings.

2256
02:04:02,266 --> 02:04:03,100
So it would be September 17th

2257
02:04:03,066 --> 02:04:05,467
and then November 17th. Correct.

2258
02:04:05,667 --> 02:04:08,667
- Okay. - At Patton one to three. Yeah.

2259
02:04:09,166 --> 02:04:10,266
Government committee.

2260
02:04:10,467 --> 02:04:15,266
October 15th is going to be here in College Township 11

2261
02:04:15,367 --> 02:04:19,133
to noon conservation and stewardship committee.

2262
02:04:19,500 --> 02:04:21,433
November 10, three to four 30.

2263
02:04:22,066 --> 02:04:24,867
And they do that at the Willowbank building room

2264
02:04:24,934 --> 02:04:27,133
1 44 in Bellmont.

2265
02:04:28,233 --> 02:04:30,467
And then the authorities committee

2266
02:04:31,233 --> 02:04:34,467
is November 18th from one 30 to two 30.

2267
02:04:35,033 --> 02:04:39,133
That's in the be font Borough offices.

2268
02:04:40,166 --> 02:04:45,066
And the, is there a, give me the update.

2269
02:04:45,767 --> 02:04:50,533
What do I call the former armory as compared

2270
02:04:50,567 --> 02:04:53,834
to the, what was always the Beon Borough building?

2271
02:04:56,433 --> 02:04:59,133
- I'm, I'm gonna defer to Joanne. Joanne

2272
02:04:59,133 --> 02:05:00,567
- Is - I always,

2273
02:05:00,834 --> 02:05:01,834
- What should I call it?

2274
02:05:01,834 --> 02:05:03,233
Armory building. Which one are you talking about?

2275
02:05:03,433 --> 02:05:05,066
The The former armory

2276
02:05:05,100 --> 02:05:07,333
that we had two of 'em, that's why I'm asking.

2277
02:05:07,667 --> 02:05:09,934
Oh, okay. The one on Spring Street right across from

2278
02:05:10,233 --> 02:05:11,266
where you have your meetings.

2279
02:05:11,567 --> 02:05:14,000
It's called the Borough Building. The Borough Building now.

2280
02:05:14,133 --> 02:05:17,834
Okay. Thank you. And that meeting is one 30

2281
02:05:17,900 --> 02:05:21,100
to two 30 in the oak room on the second level.

2282
02:05:22,266 --> 02:05:25,767
That's the first floor. Okay. First floor.

2283
02:05:26,467 --> 02:05:28,533
That's also a debate that's being settled. Yeah.

2284
02:05:29,900 --> 02:05:33,467
Depends which ready you go in. Yes. Anything else?

2285
02:05:34,000 --> 02:05:35,100
- And if you go to Bellon

2286
02:05:35,433 --> 02:05:37,300
and ask somebody where the Borough building is,

2287
02:05:37,367 --> 02:05:39,133
you're better off saying The armor rebuilding.

2288
02:05:39,767 --> 02:05:43,467
- Understood. Yeah. It's 3 0 1 North Spring Street.

2289
02:05:43,467 --> 02:05:47,367
Everybody a motion to Adjourn?

2290
02:05:48,300 --> 02:05:52,066
- I'll make that motion. - Second Chris? Yeah. Okay.

2291
02:05:52,533 --> 02:05:56,100
Alright. All in favor? And we're adjourned. Thank you.

2292
02:06:29,467 --> 02:06:32,100
- Sponsorship for this program is brought to you in part

2293
02:06:32,000 --> 02:06:33,934
by Town and Gown Magazine.

2294
02:06:34,300 --> 02:06:36,000
If it's happening in Happy Valley,

2295
02:06:36,634 --> 02:06:38,033
it's in town and Gown Magazine.

2296
02:06:39,667 --> 02:06:41,433
- Underwriting support for this program,

2297
02:06:41,934 --> 02:06:44,166
provided by the Centre County Gazette,

2298
02:06:45,066 --> 02:06:46,433
we cover what's important to you.

2299
02:06:53,667 --> 02:06:56,300
- The League of Women Voters was founded almost a hundred

2300
02:06:56,300 --> 02:06:59,100
years ago with the right to vote for women.

2301
02:07:00,500 --> 02:07:03,133
Not only the right to vote, but an informed vote.

2302
02:07:04,033 --> 02:07:07,667
- You need to know everything about that candidate.

2303
02:07:08,133 --> 02:07:11,000
You need to be able to ask that candidate questions.

2304
02:07:12,433 --> 02:07:15,634
- I think that the organization is going to continue

2305
02:07:15,667 --> 02:07:18,033
to attract a diverse membership,

2306
02:07:18,066 --> 02:07:21,367
and I think that that will help us in working toward the

2307
02:07:21,367 --> 02:07:23,700
goal of better representation for everybody.

2308
02:07:24,033 --> 02:07:26,500
- There's a wonderful opportunity here for people

2309
02:07:26,634 --> 02:07:28,133
who are younger to come

2310
02:07:28,133 --> 02:07:30,734
and learn from women who have been part of social movements

2311
02:07:31,000 --> 02:07:32,500
for years and years.

2312
02:07:33,266 --> 02:07:37,100
- It's our job to be a mentor to the newer members

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because they're the ones

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after all that are going to be carrying the banner

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of the league into the next a hundred years.

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We stand for the non-partisanship that we should all have

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as leaders in our democracy today.

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- Give thanks for literacy.

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Literacy means a life of increased safety achievements,

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and community participation.

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For more than 50 years,

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Mid-State Literacy Council has empowered thousands

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of residents with literacy skills,

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improving their family's lives.

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Literacy builds our community.

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Help us celebrate literacy

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and support Mid-State Literacy Council by volunteering

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02:08:31,066 --> 02:08:34,133
or donating to our Give Thanks for Literacy campaign,

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www dot mid state Literacy Council.