MINUTES
SPECIAL MEETING
Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 8:00 a.m.
2nd Floor Conference Room
Town Hall, 302 Main Street
Chairman, Robert Fish, called the special meeting to order at 8:00 a.m.
Members Present
Robert Fish
Bruce Sherwin
Partner Group Members Present
Sara Keaney, Old Saybrook Land Trust
Janice Holland, Old Saybrook Land Trust
Sue Consoli, Youth & Family Services
Land Use Department Staff Present
Christine Nelson, Town Planner
Sandy Prisloe, Environmental Planner
Kathleen Noyes, Recording Clerk
R. Fish brought in the newspaper article on Sustainable Saybrook by Becky Coffey that was published in “The Harbor News” on 2/16/12, and he shared the article C. Nelson submitted for the upcoming March issue of “Saybrook Events” magazine.
B. Sherwin reported that there is now a link from the Conservation Commission web site to the Sustainable Saybrook web site.
J. Holland has written an article about the Sustainable Saybrook web site on the Old Saybrook Land Trust’s web site, and she has provided a link to the SS web site as well.
Tom O’Dell, Chairman of the Westbrook CC, and editor of “The Habitat”, the CT Association of Conservation and Inland Wetland Commissions newsletter, has asked the CCOC to submit a 1,000 word article on Sustainable Saybrook for “The Habitat.” The article has to be submitted by the end of the month. The group agreed this would be a good idea, but they may not have enough content for a 1,000 word article at this point. R. Fish said he would contact T. O’Dell and ask him if they could submit a shorter article.
R. Fish would like the group to compile a list of action items and next steps for moving forward and formulating goals. He asked the group for their thoughts about ways of contacting the public about Sustainable Saybrook.
J. Holland suggested a “kick off event.” She said there are other communities in Fairfield County that have sponsored these types of events, and that it would be helpful to have some professional guidance. She offered to contact them to find out what they are doing and how they are doing it. She suggested that perhaps the group could hire someone to act as a community moderator or facilitator running the event. The group could brain storm about ideas, partners’ goals, etc. to find out what the community’s vision for sustainability is.
B. Sherwin asked what this event should be and who should be invited. He also suggested that there should be another article published either in “Saybrook Events” or “The Harbor News” inviting people to this event.
S. Prisloe said Chester was trying to get a sense of the community’s view on sustainability. At a community event, people were given Monopoly money, and there were paper bags with labels. Using the Monopoly money, people could vote on the priorities that were most important to them.
S. Prisloe added that he felt a kick off event might be premature at this point. He suggested that first the group hold a workshop with a facilitator to help formulate goals and set up a group structure.
R. Fish said the group’s next action item should be to set up a group meeting with Sustainable Saybrook’s partners and a facilitator to formulate a plan.
B. Sherwin said in addition to the facilitated discussion, the group needed to gather information from the public. He said this group has a set of partners who each have their own area of expertise. He suggested the group create a trade show type experience where the partners are all set up in booths or tables to talk about what they do. The individual partners could submit a report after the event, and the group could use that information to see what the public’s priorities are which would help the group determine how it should improve its web site.
C. Nelson suggested a head person for every pillar. Each person could solicit “vendors” to set up the booths. She also asked the group to think about how Sustainable Saybrook should be structured. Should there be a board? Who is in charge? For events, should someone be in charge of each priority for a certain period of time to help distribute the workload?
S. Prisloe suggested having people in charge who are not necessarily involved in town government, but people who are out in the community with interest and expertise in the priority topics.
S. Consoli talked about the economy and its effect on local businesses. She said it might be a good idea to get the word out to people who shop at North Cove Outfitters, which has recently announced it’s going out of business, about sustainability and how it might help the town from losing local businesses in the future. She said that since many of the people who shop at North Cove Outfitters are kayakers, hikers, fishermen, etc., they often are people who are interested in the environment and sustainability. Perhaps this would encourage them to become involved in Sustainable Saybrook.
The group felt that although this might be a good idea, this would not be the right time or place.
R. Fish asked the group what they should focus on between now and the next meeting. The group agreed the focus should be on organizational structure, priority leaders for each priority, and an event chairperson for any type of upcoming “fair”.
S. Prisloe added that mass e-mails can now be sent using Constant Contact, and he would like to send out sustainability tips, so he asked the group to contribute ideas.
S. Consoli suggested setting up a Sustainable Saybrook Facebook page. She said this would improve the web site’s search engine relevance. However, B. Sherwin said the expectation is that the Facebook page would be updated on a frequent basis, and someone would have to commit to that. Potentially, young people in town could get involved in this through their schools, and they could help in updating the Facebook page regularly.
S. Consoli offered to follow up on contacting kids through Y&FS and the high school.
R. Fish talked about Public Safety. He recently contacted Chief Spera to ask him how he’d like to have the topic of public safety incorporated into the Sustainable Saybrook web site’s priorities. He said he hasn’t heard back from Chief Spera yet.
C. Nelson and S. Consoli noted that public safety often fits under other priorities such as culture, health and housing.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathleen Noyes
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