Members in attendance
Maria Ocasio, Tinku Khanwalkar, David Melman Dieter Kretschy, Jess Bice, Matt Tuerk, Holly Edinger,
Jon Stanley
·
·
·
Welcome and Introductions
June Minutes were duly approved
Old Business
·
2021 Goals Reports
1. Waste Minimization/Food Waste – Holly Edinger/Maria Ocasio
a. Maria has a list of food sources and food recipients which needs to be checked with the
map of Allentown to confirm they are all within the City boundaries.
id=5f01d828998448f49272fda2bac8be91
b. Intern is doing work with our congressmen and will not be joining us to work on this project.
Will consider looking for a new intern from Muhlenberg in the fall. Maria will continue to lead the project
2. Micro-mobility – Jennifer Swann/Tinku Khanwalkar
a. Challenge for the next intern is funding.
b. Jess Bice is working on completing a report and collating the documents to pass on to the
next intern
3. Climate Action Inventory and CDP Questionnaire
a. Subgroup (John, Stanley, Maria, Deiter and Tinku) met once and will meet again – goal is to
generate an inventory of those things the City has implemented or is in the process of implementing,
those things being considered for implementation, and those things that have not been considered but
should be.
b. Most on the inventory came from a variety of sources including Allentown’s previous
responses to various questionnaires and the Allentown Vision 2030.
c. Allentown is in the process of completing its response to the CDP questionnaire. It is a very
detailed questionnaire that may be useful in driving climate actions and informing the public about all
that the city is doing related to climate change.
4. Park Spark Project – Jennifer
a. Progress is being made
b. Educating the public to use it properly is the issue
5. Litter Removal Project at 401 Cleveland -- Tinku and Jennifer
a. Finally obtained the lease agreement for the property – specifies it is leased to the city for
one dollar a year (if Trout Creak Association asks for it).
b. Lease requires the property to be used as a park or a playground. Current use of the
property as a dump without City enforcement against it is in breach of the lease. Under Paragraph 7
Allentown is responsible for the clean-up which Allentown has periodically done. However, Allentown
has failed to generate community buy-in to stop the dumping. Allentown give written notice if they
intend to get out of the lease.
c. Holly noted that the City of Philadelphia had a dumping problem and put a split rail fence
around it which deterred people dumping there. Should the EAC recommend this to the City?
d. Following extensive discussion the decision was made to wait until the new administration is
in place and to see what they would like to do. Matt Tuerk advised that we continue to press for action.
City has a department for outreach that should be addressing it.
e. David will draft a letter to the city of Allentown advising that the city follow its obligations
under the lease. We will review and finalize at the next meeting. And send a copy of the letter to the
