Meeting Minutes

Sept 24th, 2024

Attending: Jeanette, Jessica, Charlie, Sue, Ellen M, Ellen N, Michele

Evaluation of TASTE East Aurora: Weather excellent, location further away than desired, excellent to have Brad for Aurora Solar Savings present all day with large visual and handouts for the public, “Climy” in costume (thanks, Sue and Mandela students), proactively meeting the public out in the street by Jessica and Claudia, good handouts on pesticide-free lawn care drew in passers-by. Bottle return went well. Set up started later than planned, but looked great. Thanks to Claudia for the tent. Climy and volunteers made it into Aurora Advertiser. Three new community members signed our interest clipboard. Suggestions for next year: Have a description of role(s) for volunteers ahead of time; offer (if allowed) a lovely food/snack per Charlie, as incentive for participation in eco efforts (eg. QR code for Community Solar campaign, etc.)
Jessica offered a number of suggestions. One was ACES piggybacking on to the Garden Walk. Brainstorming this later as a possible partner in a Green Festival. Jessica described the “Bike Bus” effort where Parkdale El. children meet (Thursdays) to bike to school from Wallenwein’s Restaurant, a very visible activity which has grown to include about 150 students. Again, could this group be highlighted in an Aurora Green Festival? Finally, a short video for our table at TASTE to draw in attendees, was suggested by Charlie. Charlie also suggested polishing the website and mentioned that Facebook posts can be easily linked to Instagram. Can and Bottle of Hamburg- Sue delivered the recyclable containers for processing, very impressed at the organization and speed of processing. Many expressed interest in visiting the operation together. Note* Bike Bus is looking for volunteers to help with their route and safety measures. They bike year round, when it’s passable. The importance and benefits of traffic calming measures and bikes as transportation were touched upon.
Board reports

Sue: New environmental education venture, “Wildwood Nature” requested we share their information. See our website directing those interested to their link. Received a newsletter from East Aurora UU Church indicating they’re making nice strides working on the Community Garden. Received an invitation from Darcy Sowyrda to host the ACES Oct. meeting at the Sowyrda home. The response was enthusiastic; more details to come. Received an email from John Szalasny, Sierra Club, regarding the bi-partisan state level clean energy projects, including styrofoam cooler ban, which is on Governor Hochul’s desk. Finally, Sue indicated ACES’ website update is due on Oct. 29.

Michele: Attended a portion of Assemblyman DiPietro’s town meeting in S. Wales with Steve Bjella on Sept. 21. Generally DiPietro refuted the very basis for electrification efforts outlined in the implementation and wants electrification efforts to be slowed down.

Ellen M: We considered, briefly whether to again visit area restaurants using the Bring Your Own Container survey to get an update of participation. No specific plan yet determined.

Ellen N: Considered the Orchard Park Garden Club’s request for us to present to the Sprouts group. The opportunity is now open to someone interested in doing so may offer them a topic.

Jeannet: Asked ACES whether the group would like to consider a contribution for utilization of Mandela School, where we meet regularly. Two different proposals in the amount of $500.00 and another for the amount of $200.00 donation were suggested. Majority vote resulted in a decision to contribute $200.00 to Mandela School. Ellen Neumaier will take a personal check for that amount to Treasurer Anita Conron to deliver to John Newton, Mandela School. Discussed upcoming Advertiser articles, with Sue Russel writing the Oct. column on Facts and Myths of Smart Meter installation. Sue also offered an update on Green Burials possibly for November. Next meeting we’ll revisit a possible article to coincide with the Audubon award to be given to Doug Tellamy. Finally, it was determined that ACES with students will not be providing trash collection for Carol Cade.

Treasury: Balance from 8/16/2024 remains unchanged on 9/13 at $856.35.

Respectfully submitted,

M. Bjella