2023-05-08

Green Saves Green Meeting

5:30pm Pasquotank Co Library

Present: Emily Beamon, Karl Brandspigel, Felix Buabeng, Nita Coleman, Linda Davis, Rodney Johnson, Charles Jordan, Bill Kruse, Sue Kruse, Chip Lewin, Maris Mandis, Anna Montero, Dana Parker, Jane Plough, Julie Robinson, Faye Sawyer, Mack Sawyer, Jane Snyder, Cheryl Squire, Jared Tardiff, Tim Tolson, Steve Van Giesen, Ruth Wells, Adam White, Robin Zinsmeister. 

1. Chair Report (Nita Coleman)

  • Welcome, Introductions

2. County Litter Management Plan (Charles Jordan)

  • County commissioners appreciate GSG efforts and are eager to help.

  • Roadside Trash is not being collected before mowing by DOT, trash is getting shredded, harder to collect.

  • GSG should get more of the community involved in what we are doing. Churches?

  • Prisoners are not able to help pick litter up due to staffing and budget.

  • County supports and supplies funds, but cannot clean the county alone.

  • Member Comments: Dangerous curves/swamp land cannot be safely cleaned up by volunteers.

  • Get more information out about littering.

  • Adding more trash cans to playgrounds or public areas.

  • Engage local businesses in promoting Please Don’t Litter campaigns to their customers.

3. COA Demonstration Farm (Robin Zinzmister, Felix Buabeng)

  • Agribusiness Technology program, 2 year program with transfer benefits.

  • High School Pathway with certification: online and face to face classes.

  • End of March Agribusiness field day with middle/high schoolers.

  • Expose students to various aspects of agriculture, and experience how it is applied in the real world. 

  • Conduct workshops for the community for how to control diseases and pest and production in Agriculture.

  • Working with the Food Bank, use what the farm produces.

  • Need volunteers to help cleaning, weeding, setting up irrigation, weeding, planting, watering, and harvesting.

  • Preparing second greenhouse, thorough cleaning and setting up irrigation lines.

  • Homeschool groups, boy/girl scout troops, or anyone else willing to help.

4. Brief Project Updates

 

Goat Island restoration (Gavin White, Adam White)

  • Got a lot done on the first workday.

  • Overgrown vegetation has been cut back.

  • One camping platform is completely renovated.

  • Estimate one more workday needed, not scheduled yet. 

  • Ribbon cutting??

Kids Clothing Swap (Anna Montero)

  • Goal: reduce clothing waste. 81 lb of clothes per person are sent to landfill annually, they take 200 years to decompose. 25-30 attended the clothes swap. Bring any old clothes, and pick up “new” clothes, all free. 

Fowler Alley Improvements (Dana White)

  • Litter removed and weeding done.

  • Happy Daisy donating pollinator plants 

  • Adams Landscaping donating rock and mulch.

  • Port Discover plans a downtown litter cleanup including Fowlers Alley. (June 10th 9am)

“What I Saw” Community Art

  • 200 art kits for the community.

  • Over 70 paintings displayed at AOA.

  • YMCA distributed about 85 kits.

  • More kits being made. (available at COA, AOA, or YMCA)

Knobbs Creek Nature Trail (Rodney)

  • Entrance in bad shape, if the dead tree falls on the wooden bridge the wetland area won’t be accessible. 

  • Parks and Rec has limited staff and funding, has concerns about costs, risks, and continued upkeep -- restoring wetland trail is not a current priority. 

  • Possible plan B: ADA accessible path built from Rec Center parking lot to baseball field,  and then back to Knobbs Creek. 

Albemarle Watershed Watch (Rodney)

5. Spring Campus Cleanups

  • ECMS and Sheep Harney have borrowed our litter sweep kits and plan to use them throughout the month of May. 

  • COA Earth Protectors Cleanup of Missing Mill Park scheduled. 

6. Other Business

Emily Beamon, Teacher Central Ele School: Courtyard Project

  • Former garden in Courtyard area at Central Elementary is overgrown and needs care.

  • Goal: Involve students in creating a community garden for the school in the courtyard.

  • Help students feel connected to the school and each other.  

  • Pollinator Garden? Each student paint a rock?

  • Starting next school year so students can be there for the whole process.

  • Volunteers from GSG, scout troops and schools.

  • Who will care for it during the summer?

Next Meeting:

Monday June 12, 5:30PM