===== PDF PAGE 1 ===== [Extraction: embedded PDF text] C I T Y O F WEST CHICAGO W H E R E H I S T O R Y & P R O G R E S S M E E T ENVIRONMENTAL COMMISSION Wednesday, November 20, 2024, 7:00 p.m. City Hall Council Chambers, 475 Main Street AGENDA 1. Call to Order & Establish a Quorum 2. Approval of Minutes a. Environmental Commission Meeting Minutes of October 16, 2024 3. Public Participation/Presentations a. None 4. Items for Consent a. None 5. Review and Discuss the Commission Priority List a. Current List i. Sustainability Plan – Subcommittee Update ii. Holiday Lights Recycling Event – November 29, 2024 to January 17, 2025 1. Location: City Hall, New Hope United Methodist Church, Murphy Ace Hardware, Water Treatment Plant, Library, The ARC Center 2. Flyer (Enclosed) b. New Additions i. Adopt-A-Highway Clean Up Event, TBD 1. Meet up location: Water Treatment Plant, 1400 W. Hawthorne Lane, West Chicago 6. Other Business a. Pumpkin Composting – 1.32 Tons i. Church signage request ii. Collection dumpster box liner b. Cool DuPage Partner i. https://www.dupagecounty.gov/government/departments/environment_an d_sustainability/cool_dupage.php c. Kane County’s Recycling Drop-Off d. Green Power Community – Municipal Aggregation Program Interest (Enclosed) e. December 18, 2024 Environmental Commission Meeting Cancelled 7. Adjournment ===== PDF PAGE 2 ===== [Extraction: embedded PDF text] Draft MEETING MINUTES ENVIRONMENTAL COMMISSION October 16, 2024, 7:00 P.M. 1. Call to Order Establish a Quorum a. Dave Shah, Staff Liaison, called the meeting to order at 7:07 P.M. b. Roll call found Chair Nazree Williams (via telephone), Commissioner Bob Blaus, Commissioner Tyler Kesler, Commissioner Victoria Burris, and Commissioner Allen Rodriguez present. c. Aldermanic liaison present included Alderman Christopher Swiatek. d. Staff liaison present included Assistant Director of Public Works, Dave Shah. 2. Approval of Minutes a. Environmental Commission Meeting Minutes of August 21, 2024 i. Rodriguez made a motion, seconded by Blaus, to approve the Meeting Minutes. 1. Voting Yea: Williams, Burris, Kesler 2. Voting Nay: None 3. Public Participation/Presentations a. None 4. Items for Consent a. None 5. Review and Discuss the Commission Priority List a. Current List i. Sustainability Plan – Subcommittee Update Discussion: Kesler mentioned that the Subcommittee met and recommends comparing the results from the community survey conducted in 2024 and cherry-picking from the Priority Strategies from the list already provided from the previous endorsement of the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus’ Greenest Region Compact, which was adopted by the City Council under Resolution No. 17-R-0007, instead of coming up with a new sustainability plan altogether. This would be in line with neighboring municipalities. Kesler further stated that the long-term sustainability plan could still be considered in the future. The Subcommittee will continue forward and create projects from previously adopted Priority Strategies. ii. Pumpkin Composting – November 2, 2024, 9am-1pm 1. Location: New Hope United Methodist Church, 643 E. Washington St., West Chicago Discussion: Shah provided an update on the ongoing coordination with Groot and the Church. Shah to share the Event flyer with the Commission. iii. Holiday Lights Recycling Event – November 29, 2024 to January 17, 2025 Page 1 of 3 ===== PDF PAGE 3 ===== [Extraction: embedded PDF text] 1. Location: City Hall, New Hope United Methodist Church, Murphy Ace Hardware, Water Treatment Plant, Library, The ARC Center Discussion: Shah discussed the ongoing coordination and explained the process of collection of lights. Rodriguez was interested in partnering with Jewel Osco in West Chicago for the 2024-2025 Holiday Lights Recycling event. Rodriguez elected to coordinate with the Manager at Jewel Osco and follow up with Shah within two weeks so that the event flyer update and additional bin can be coordinated. b. New Additions i. Adopt-A-Highway Clean Up Event, TBD 1. Meet up location: Water Treatment Plant, 1400 W. Hawthorne Lane, West Chicago 6. Other Business a. Commission’s FY 2025 budget request (Attachment) Discussion: Shah mentioned that the City Staff reviewed the Commission’s request and the Commission’s budget request will be included in the FY 2025 Proposed Budget for the City Council’s approval. b. Greenest Region Compact (Attachment) i. Framework: https://mayorscaucus.org/wp- content/uploads/2018/04/GRC2-Framework-Booklet_PDF-FINAL-4- 2018.pdf c. 2018 Adopt-A-Highway Resolution – 18-R-0067 (Attachment) d. Adopt-A-Highway Application & Agreements (Attachment) i. Tentatively scheduled for October 7, 2024 City Council Meeting Approval Discussion: Rodriguez made a motion to adopt an Adopt-A-Highway site on Hawthorne Lane from Harvester Road and Powis Road and provide authority to Willimas to sign the needed agreements and application form, which was seconded by Blaus. The motion was unanimously approved by voice vote. e. Commission email addresses request follow-up Discussion: Shah followed up with the Commissioners regarding the City’s email policies, which were reviewed by Staff and eventually decided against providing email addresses to commissions in the City. The factors that led to this decision included licensing requirements, security, and accountability. Shah further stated that the Commission can use the Staff Liaison’s or Public Work’s general email address for outreach. Commissioners were displeased with this response and stated that this was not a good practice by the City. Williams was disappointed and stated that this was demotivating. Willimas discussed that she would follow up with the Mayor regarding this matter. f. Attendance Discussion: The Commissions generally discussed lack of attendance and time commitment issues for meetings on the third Wednesdays of the month due to work-related conflicts. Rodriguez made a motion to move the regularly scheduled meetings to 6:00 PM on the third Thursdays of the month starting in FY 2025 with the first meeting on Thursday, January 16, 2025, which was seconded by Burris. The motion was unanimously approved by voice vote. Page 2 of 3 ===== PDF PAGE 4 ===== [Extraction: embedded PDF text] g. Recruitment Discussion: Commissioners generally discussed recruitment to assist with meeting quorum. h. Other Discussions: i. Burris attended Batavia’s Environmental Commission’s meeting and provided information on their initiative on bag tax they implemented recently along with their sustainability goals, including wildflower walks, water street studios, natural landscape, pesticide uses, clean earth challenge, air quality, etc. ii. There were general discussions between the Commissioners on how bag tax could be implemented in the City of West Chicago. Swiatek mentioned that there has not been any discussion regarding this topic at the City Council level when asked by Rodriguez. Swiatek further discussed that the bag tax initiative would be a long process and would take input from community stakeholders such as City staff, residents, business owners, elected officials, and volunteers. Swiatek further stated that due diligence has to be completed by the Commission and staff prior to the recommendation for implementation of the bag tax. Rodriguez mentioned conducting a community-wide survey in FY 2025 regarding bag tax to get the community’s opinion. It was generally discussed and agreed upon that further research on bag tax is required prior to recommendation and implementation. Swiatek stated that this would not be a ban on bags, but a tax on bag usage. Williams, with her background in literature searches and reviews, will research the adverse effects of the plastic bag tax and provide information to the Commission so that efforts are backed up with facts. iii. The Commission was generally interested in the annual Earth Day proclamation starting in FY 2025. iv. Commissioners unanimously voted to cancel the December 18, 2024, Environmental Commission Meeting. v. Rodriguez stated to Swietek and Shah that he would like the Mayor to recognize the initiative and the events of the Environmental Commission during City Council meetings. 7. Adjournment a. At 8:32 P.M., Kesler made a motion to adjourn, and Rodriguez seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously approved by voice vote. Respectfully, Dave Shah, PE Assistant Director of Public Works Page 3 of 3 ===== PDF PAGE 5 ===== [Extraction: OCR (rendered-page OCR)] WEST CHICAGO Strands of incandescent and LED holiday lights, and extension cords, may be dropped off at designated bins at the following locations from Friday, November 29 through Friday, January 17. West Chicago City Hall | 475 Main Street New Hope United Methodist Church | 643 E. Washington Street Murphy Ace Hardware | 319 S. Neltnor Boulevard West Chicago Water Treatment Plant | 1400 W. Hawthorne Lane West Chicago Public Library District | 118 W. Washington Street The ARC Center | 201 W. National Street ===== PDF PAGE 6 ===== [Extraction: embedded PDF text] MC2 Special Aggregation Program – Sustainability, Efficiency, and Savings Effective May 2025 through May 2027 – Two (2) Year Term Electric Aggregation 2.0 Program Highlights (Draft) ▪ Monthly Civic Grant provided by MC2 to the municipality for Sustainability, Energy Efficiency, and Low- Income Economic Support including the following potential uses by the municipality to administer: o Offer free grants to homeowners for energy efficiency measures enacted by the homeowner (i.e., maybe “up to $500 per homeowner” to offset costs incurred) o Offer free grants to homeowners for renewable generation installations (roof-top solar) o Use to install new EV charging stations within municipal facilities for residents to use at city hall, libraries, downtown parking facilities etc. o Use to pay for energy efficiency measures at municipal facilities – lighting and HVAC upgrades o Use to offset cost of new, renewable distributed energy resources at municipal owned facilities o Use funds to offset sustainability coordinator staff position(s) o Use funds to provide low-income utility payment assistance programs (free grants) ▪ Free Electricity Supply from MC2 for qualified Low-Income (PIPP) Residents within aggregation program o Based on ComEd’s PIPP (Percentage of Income Payment Plan) designation within the aggregation customer-list, MC2 will supply these low-income residents with no cost electricity supply during the term of the program (subject to regulatory review of IL statutes and tariffs). ▪ Community Solar Guaranteed Savings Program – Residential Outreach by MC2 o MC2 will mail community solar savings program postcards once a year promoting Community Solar Savings Program with participating project owners (municipality to provide mailing list) o Minimum 10% Guaranteed Savings to Community Solar Subscribers o Community Solar Generation Credits placed directly onto the monthly ComEd invoices o Opt-in voluntary program regulated by the Illinois Power Agency’s Illinois Shines Program ▪ Green EV Charging Power Supply Program – Special Offer from MC2 o MC2 Time-of-Use (TOU) rate structure with special, low “Off-Peak” power supply rate to promote charging overnight and during the weekends to reduce net power supply costs o Opt-In supply program for EV owners with no early termination fees applied by MC2 o Backed by 100% Green-E® Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) to participating residents ===== PDF PAGE 7 ===== [Extraction: OCR (rendered-page OCR)] The proposed Municipal Aggregation program in West Chicago would create around 25,000,000 KWh of clean energy. That would be equivalent to ry YF 3- WIND TURBINES RUNNING FOR A YEAR = a aes ka: 3,619 TONS OF WASTE RECYCLED INSTEAD OF )LANDFILLED 2 a 2,481- GASOLINE POWERED CARS DRIVEN FOR ONE YEAR 172,338- TREE SEEDLINGS GROWN FOR 10 YEARS INFORMATION GENERATED FROM EPA.GOV AND ASSUMES A 10% OPT OUT. try oF