MINUTES
SPECIAL MEETING
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at 8:00 a.m.
2nd Floor Conference Room
Town Hall, 302 Main Street
Chairman, Robert Fish, called the regular meeting to order at 8:00 a.m.
Members Present
Robert Fish, Chairman
Bruce Sherwin
Jerry Brophy
Members Present from Partner-Groups
Sara Keaney, Old Saybrook Land Trust
Janice Holland, Old Saybrook Land Trust
Susan Esty, Main Street Business Association
Land Use Department Staff Present
Christine Nelson, Town Planner
Sandy Prisloe, Environmental Planner
Kathleen Noyes, Recording Clerk
R. Fish asked B. Sherwin to give an update about web site content. B. Sherwin said the priorities are complete except for health and social equity. Health will be reassigned to the Regional Area Health District. Social equity will be reassigned to Youth & Family Services.
B. Sherwin reminded everyone that the content doesn’t have to be only type written articles. Videos and other digital media can be used as well. He said S. Prisloe has put several articles under environment as well as a video.
B. Sherwin said he has not received the reformatted content from Walter Smith regarding the priority topic of food. R. Fish is going to follow up with him on that.
R. Fish met with Heather McNeil, Director of Youth & Family Services, and she’s very interested in becoming a partner. She and Sue Consoli, the Social Services Director, are going to write on the topic of social equity.
R. Fish asked the group for input on setting up a regular meeting schedule, and this led to a discussion about Freedom Of Information Act requirements. R. Fish asked C. Nelson if this group has to meet FOIA requirements. C. Nelson said the FOIA applies if there is a quorum of any one commission. C. Nelson suggested that even though the group may not have to submit a yearly meeting schedule to be filed with the Town Clerk as an FOIA requirement, the schedule of meetings should be posted on the web site.
There was discussion regarding whether or not this group, Sustainable Saybrook, should remain part of the Conservation Commission or if it should become its own independent citizens’ group. Group members talked about the differences of a community run group versus a government run group as well as how funding and staffing would be impacted if the group were not part of the CC.
S. Esty suggested the group set a goal date, and at that point, they should go on their own, independent from the CC.
J. Holland suggested sending out feelers to see how much participation the group might have. She brought up the town of Canton, CT as an example. They had a kick off which took a year to plan. They had 135 active participants in their workshop.
R. Fish asked group members for their input as to whether or not this group is ready to launch. The group consensus was that the group is not yet ready to launch.
S. Prisloe said he’d like to see the group subscribe to Constant Contact, the e-mailing system. Group members agreed this was a good idea.
Group members agreed that they would like to gather partners, gather content on the web site, and work towards a schedule of independence. As soon as the new selectmen are in office, the group should make a presentation to them to tell them of the group’s intent and goals. It was suggested that the group make presentations to other commissions as well such as the EDC, P&R, Y&FS and the OSPD.
S. Prisloe said Maureen Hart, a national speaker in West Hartford, has a web site, Sustainable Communities, and she runs workshops on sustainability. He asked the group if they would like to ask her to come and facilitate a meeting to let them know what the pitfalls and successes are. Everyone agreed that this would be a great idea, and R. Fish asked S. Prisloe to contact Maureen Hart to arrange that.
B. Sherwin asked if everyone could contribute one or more articles under their topic. The priority descriptions have a template, but the articles are more free form.
S. Keaney offered to work on more Land Trust articles.
R. Fish asked S. Esty if she’d like to contribute a page to the economy section as a business owner. Possible topics could include waste management, parking issues for local Main Street businesses, and the importance of town spirit especially in relation to keeping the town clean and beautiful and in supporting and organizing such events as the upcoming Saybrook Stroll on Friday, December 2, 2011.
In summation, R. Fish will contact Walter Smith. C. Nelson will talk to Mary Jane Engle from the Regional Health District. S. Keaney will contact Diane Aldi from the Public Health Nurses’ Board. Members will begin to put together a presentation for the selectmen, and group members will come to the next meeting with ideas as to who to invite to be stakeholders and partners for each priority.
The group decided to keep the Sustainable Saybrook Committee as a branch of the Conservation Commission until June 30, 2012, the end of the fiscal year.
Respectfully Submitted,
Kathleen Noyes
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