Stormwater Committee Meeting
Feb 2, 2009

Members Attending:
Ed Murtagh (Chair)
Ann Hoffnar
Wendy Bell
Kit Gage
Jenny Reed
Catherine Tunis
Jim Fary
Neel Teague

Outreach to Homeowners/We watched Ed’s PowerPoint presentation
Ed’s presentation is geared to informing homeowners about the problems created by stormwater runoff and what the County and individual homeowners can do to help on their own property. The presentation runs about 20 minutes and can be adapted for use in individual neighborhoods. Ed has used it in talks to community associations. All agree that it is a good basic template. He starts with a quick “what is a watershed,” explains the hydrologic cycle and the effects of development, and moves to potential solutions. So far the response has been positive.

What about Commercial Property?
We all agreed that the FOSC Stormwater Committee has not addressed commercial properties and that this is a segment that has a major impact on Sligo’s water quality. Neel Teague, who is in property development and a new member of our committee discussed a Takoma Park property he is interested in improving with stormwater retention/infiltration, perhaps in phases. Neel is also interested in getting stormwater outreach to the owners of commercial properties in the area. The City of Takoma Park and the County at this time are time unable to support Neel’s efforts (The County did not even return his phone calls). Perhaps through the City’s MS4 permit we could find a way to get the city involved with Neel’s property. We will contact DEP to see if they would be willing to help Neel with advice on coming up with possible solutions. Jenny is going to provide contact information to an engineer familiar with hydrology. We will also look into the possibility of including Neel’s property in the Army Corps of Engineers report on the Anacostia Watershed Restoration.

Montgomery County
Pam has a new employee, Ann English, who comes from the Low Impact Development Center. She will be working on the RainScapes Rebate Program. This should help the Rainscapes Program with it’s backlog. Pam told Ed that she wants to have an implementation meeting in February.

Update on Raingarden Work
Ed asked the Stormwater Committee to get confirmations from homeowners/churches if they are still interested in installing a raingarden this spring.

It is time to start compiling our plant list so we can make a plant order for the various raingardens we have coming up this spring. Kit will start a plant list and send it around for committee members to add to.

Grant from the Takoma Foundation
The Takoma Park Green Team has been busy. They have planned a community meeting for March 19th at the Community Building in Takoma Park. Catherine Tunis is doing press alerts and emails to lists. Ann explained that this outreach effort needs to be coordinated with the outreach committee and Kit Gage promised to contact Sarah Leach, Friends press contact. Other work:

–Daryl Braithwaite has indicated that the City may pay for soil-mix and some plants for the raingardens and will deliver to sites.

–The group is talking with CASA

–They will redo Ed’s presentation

–They have decided the Cleveland Park rain garden can serve as a demo. If we use Forest Park, we will need to do some maintenance work this spring.

–They will develop a mini list of gardens to suggest visiting in April.

Greening Wheaton CBD
While the Takoma Park Green Team is working in Takoma Park, Kathy Michels, Beth Chaisson, Leah Haygood and Ed Murtagh will be meeting with the Wheaton Redevelopment Staff on Feb. 9 to discuss greening the Wheaton CBD. One of our goals is to use this effort to jump start a greening efforts in the surrounding communities. We are interested in following the efforts in the City of Takoma Park and replicate if possible some of the outreach efforts.

CBT Grant Update
There is no final word about the grant we submitted to the CBT for watershed outreach and technical support. Kit updated us on her conversations with CBT regarding the grant. They are very interested in our proposal and the prospects of getting a significant portion of the grant are promising. Letters of support have been submitted to CBT. Once this grant comes through, we can start focusing on implementing the grant in our focus communities.

minutes by Ed Murtagh and Ann Hoffnar