Cumberland Conservation Collaborative – General Meeting

Meeting Notes – September 15, 2014 – Cumberland Valley Visitors Bureau, Carlisle

 

Rick Rovegno welcomed the group, and the meeting began with “for the good of the order.”  Attendees are listed at the end of these minutes.

 

• Around the Room:

• Ben Mummert: The Turnpike Commission is discussing paying Carlisle Borough for the right to dump road construction debris on the Cave Hill park property.  Ben will send clarifying details in an email when available.

• Rick: We have received notice from the Department of State that the organizational name has been changed from the Coalition for a Sustainable Future to the Cumberland Conservation Collaborative.

 

• CCC Speakers Bureau.  Currently there are twelve presentations offered from five of our member organizations.  Invitations have been sent to County school districts, churches, and civic organizations but to-date no requests have been received.  Discussion centered on the likelihood that such organizations have already scheduled their speakers for the next six months to a year and will not likely be planning beyond that for some months. 

 

• Fall cleanup.  Only three groups are participating this time.

 

• DCED grant fulfillment.  Shireen Farr agreed to head a committee to oversee our completion of the requirements of the DCED grant.  In that it is a tourism grant, we need to be able to show a tie between our activities and County tourism.

 

• Financial sustainability.  We may want to reapply for the DCED grant.  But the CCC needs to reexamine what we can and need to be doing.  In other words, how can we be useful and sustain the Collaborative in the process?  For example, perhaps we can assist municipalities on how to meet and report on environmental compliance regulations and be compensated for such work.

 

• GIS student projects.  Rick reminded the group of Jim Ciarrocca’s offer to engage his Dickinson GIS students in projects supporting CCC mapping needs.  Jim can be contacted at ciarrocj@dickinson.edu.

 

• Agriculture preservation.  There is a request from the Agricultural Land Preservation Board to the Cumberland County Commissioners for $500k for 2015.  Historically, at least $250k has been allocated each year from the general fund for this purpose.  This request opposed by the Commissioners of Hampden Township with the argument that it is an unfair subsidy of a single industry – that does not benefit Hampden taxpayers.  Hampden has no eligible agricultural property remaining.  The consensus of the group was that the CCC supports Rick addressing this issue with the Hampden Commissioners.

 

• Thomas Au from the CAB presented a overview of his organization and the status of air pollution in Cumberland County.  His presentation will be posted on the web site.

 

• The next meeting was scheduled for Monday, November 17, 2014 in the CVVB Conference Room.

 

 

9/15/2014 Attendees

 

 

Au Thomas             Clean Air Board thomxau@gmail.com

Farr Shireen           CVVB shireen@visitcumberlandvalley.com

Mummert Ben         Central PA Conserv. mummertb@gmail.com

Richards Susan       Capital RC&D srichards@capitalrcd.org

Rovegno Rick          CCC rlrovegno@comcast.net

Schmidlein Bob       CVRTC bobspatc@comcast.net

SchneiderBill          CSF apache5007@aol.com

Weigl Herb             LeTort Regional Authy herbweigl@gmail.com

Wilkes Jerry           CCC jwilkes100@gmail.com

Williams Stephanie CC Planning Dept. sjwilliams@ccpa.net

Witwer Gail            Part. for Better Health gwitwer@ForBetterHealthPa.org

Zeph Paul              Audubon PA pzeph1@verizon.net