SJVGreens Minutes
Minutes of St. Joe Valley Greens
Minutes of St Joe Valley Greens
January 6, 2003, Kathleen Kaiser, Recorder
PRESENT: David Kaiser, Victoria W., Kathleen Kaiser, Pat Sawyer from River Quest, Jeffrey Sutter, Lance Howard, Tom Brown and David Vollrath.
1. OPENING AND CALL TO ORDER - The meeting was called to order at 7:10.
2. READING AND APPROVAL OF MINUTES - Please refer to website for last month's minutes and recommend any changes to co-coordinators within the next two weeks.
3. TREASURER'S REPORT - Lance reported that he has not received the account transfer forms from previous acting treasurer.
4. REPORTS OF DELEGATES AND OFFICERS - Kathleen reported that she received an e-mail notifying the group of Don Brubaker's resignation from the St. Joe Valley Greens. Tom suggested that Don may be a useful resource for consulting regarding CSO issues.
5. NEW BUSINESS
Pat Sawyer, coordinator of River Quest, a campaign to raise awareness/appreciation of the St Joe River, spoke to the group about the history of River Quest as well as Paddle Fest. This is an event featuring his mission to paddle the length of the St Joe River as well as other activities around the weekend of June 29, 2003 including races at St Patrick's Park and on the river.
River Quest hopes to coordinate this event with river clean-up events sponsored by the Friends of the St Joe and the Isaac Walton League. The group discussed how the SJVG could participate in this event to either raise awareness of the SJVG and/or to raise funds. The SJVG would need to contact St Patrick's County Park, the Isaac Walton League and the Friends of the St Joe to determine how the SJVG could participate in Paddle Fest.
6. OLD BUSINESS
Discussed the upcoming vote by the South Bend Common Council on the sewer rate change substitute bill 88-02. Some of the points that were raised in the discussion:
(1) The mayor is reportedly considering putting a team together to study the rates. We need to find out who will be on this team.
(2) Why did the city pay for the Crowe Chizek cost of service study if the common council was going to reject the recommendations.
(3) Can we get a coy of the Crowe Chizek study
(4) Common council is compromising the city's finances by proposing revenue bonds to cover the water treatment facility's capital budget.
(5) If the study by Crowe Chizek recommended a fair and equitable rate increase, why does the common council choose a course that decreases the funding for capital improvements (most importantly, from our standpoint, taking CSO's offline) and, with revenue bonds, costs more overall and shifts this cost to ratepayers.
(6) Has the council shifted a detrimental increase for big users to revenue bonds which in effect shifts the burden of the increase to ratepayers?
(7) David will make a formal presentation on behalf of the SJVG demonstrating the detrimental effects of sewage overflow and the city's reticence in addressing the problem immediately.
(8) If the capacity of the system is fixed and every time the capacity is exceeded, we have a CSO event, doesn't it stand to reason that the large users are the entities that are most to blame for CSO events.
(9) Link the ordinance to clean water and equitable rates and hold the council to the city's agenda for fixing the CSO issue.
(10) Good government would ensure that sewer rates were fair and equitable, CSO's were taken off line and that the capital improvements were funded by the lowest means possible.
(11) Kathleen will call Jack Dillon to find out about obtaining a copy of the Crowe Chizek study.
7. NEXT MEETING - Special meeting Monday, January 13, 2003. 5:45 Fiddler's Hearth in South Bend. To gather and prepare for South Bend Common Council meeting.
St. Joe Valley Greens, South Bend, IN