Litter Committee Minutes
November 8, 2005

In attendance were Jane Barrett, Ed Murtagh, Debbie Veliz, and Jennifer Kefer at Wendi Schnaufer’s house. We are fortunate to have Debbie come – she is also a key player in the litter initiatives for the Izaak Walton League and introduced the skimmer to FOSC.

Wendi reported on the possibility of having someone from the M-NCPPC pilot program on athletic field use in 5 area parks speak at a program meeting. She spoke to Ronnie Gathers who said it was probably too early to assess and Wendi will follow up with his recommendation to talk to Bryan Woodward for further networking/information.

Agenda items addressed:

  1. Outreach to major litterers:
    We discussed athletes’ use of the park and how to get the word out to them. The next step is to contact key folks at Casa de Maryland. Because they help organize games, they could be the ticket to getting the word out. Ed noted that a cleanup with them was scheduled in the past and so there is an opening to make fresh progress. Debbie will contact them about a cleanup, perhaps in Long Branch or Takoma BranchThe following 2 items were more for the Outreach Committee and we moved on.

    • Outreach talks to assemblies in elementary, middle, and high schools
    • Contact MC school boards/superintendents/principals plus PTAs and discuss litter crisis caused by students and also the teams showing up to play on school fields
  2. Install grates over major storm water drainage sites in neighborhoods
    Ed noted that because of the maintenance issues for the Dept. of Public Works and the heavy stormwater runoff it would be better to not pursue this avenue of keeping street debris and litter from getting into the Creek in the first place. A better option is education, such as a tip in the “10 Things You Can Do to Help Sligo Creek and the Greater Watershed.”
  3. Install more fences in front of stormwater outlets
    Ed concluded that 3 more fences throughout the Creek would be a good goal. Wendi will ask stewards/section leaders to identify low-flow stormwater drains in a narrow portion of the Creek with easy access where these may be feasible. Ed recommended a higher-gauge chain link than what has been installed in Section 9.
  4. Install more skimmers
    We will install one more that is already made, but Ed advised waiting to see how the Wheaton pond prototype that he and Debbie installed functions before pursuing this method in a big way. We are waiting for a big rain!
  5. Get more trash cans and also recycling receptacles into the park
    Although the cans are not-user friendly, Jane suggested that the closed design keeps out animals. We decided not to pursue recycling receptacles at this point but first focus on getting “all” the trash cans back and identifying places where they are still needed. Wendi will email stewards/section leaders to identify these and then we will pass that on to the Parks Dept. She will also research trash can designs, looking for something more user-friendly yet animal-proof.
  6. Get bilingual signs for park and request that permit office has strict regulations about cleanup after activities
    This was discussed in conjunction with outreach to major litterers. The consensus is that the Parks Dept. does not enforce and so we will need to address how to approach this lack of enforcement. We discussed where to put signs, such as on the back of the new FOSC literature boxes, but nixed that idea.
  7. Figure out how to recycle bottles, cans, metal from our cleanups rather than having it all go to a landfill
    At the next cleanups, we can mention that people can carry 2 bags – 1 for recyclables and 1 for garbage, and we can also have a recycling bin at each section, but the thinking was that it was too messy to deal with post-sorting.
  8. Schedule another cleanup for Dennis Ave. stormwater ponds
    Debbie is discussing this in conjunction with home-schooled families and MOM’s, at Dennis Ave. or another location. Because of the holidays, it might not be until spring. We do have section leaders for this area.
  9. Ideas from previous meetings
    • taking photos/videos of trash hotspots to circulate to county officials – Ed noted that these have been circulated before to no effect
    • Adopt a Path initiative – Jennifer will follow up with Lynn Vismara to start
    • supplying bags for dog poop – consensus was that these just turn into litter complaining to county about garbage truck fallout and rejects from recycling bins tossed – did not get to that item.