Monroe County Green Party Meeting - May 1, 2001 Place: Monroe County Public Library Meeting Room 1-B Bloomington, IN Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Attendance: Heather Drake, George R. Brooks, Julian Battersby, Lucy Battersby, Melissa Lorenzen, Allyson Shaidnagle, Steps to Freedom "Sean Bagley", Pamela Carr, Jeff Melton, David Ploskorko, Donna McNeely, Joseph Osborne, Chris Stafford, Milton Fisk, Danna D'Esopo Jackson, Isabel Piedmont, Peter Drake, Paul Colbert, Jason Flickner, Marge Steiner, Daniel Logan Facilitator: Peter Drake Secretary: Heather Drake The meeting began at 7:03pm. The agenda was approved with revisions. Peter noted that, in the minutes for 17 April, the election reform bill number is SB 329, not SB 321. The minutes were then approved. * Bluebird Tree Sit Donna McNeely, Dolphin's mother, attended the meeting to talk about the reasons for the tree sit. The site is a 54-acre tract. The 15-acre development on the land will be high-density housing. It has been called low-income by the developers, but the rate for a 950-square foot, 2 BR apartment will be $569/month. The 1 BR equivalent will rent for $469/month. A portion of the units will also be put on the market at full market rate of $769 for the 2 BR apartments. The development site is also a fragile natural environment with karst topography, 8 sinkholes, a spring, and at least one cave. The Environmental Commission made a recommendation not to develop the area, but the Monroe County Planning Commission approved the project against this advice. Their decision was legal, but questionable. At 4:30pm on May 8, the County Council will meet to decide whether they will give permission to issue a $10 million tax exempt bond that the developers say they need as their main source of funding for the project. This will be a preliminary vote. The final vote will be made on June 12. If the bond is approved, the developer can also apply for a $420 million tax credit for the project. Two of the council members seem to support denying the bond request and several more are swing votes. Donna urged people to turn out for the meeting and speak against the bond approval. In addition to the high rent, the apartments are also five miles from town and related services. There is a grocery store within walking distance, but you have to making a dangerous crossing of Hwy 37 to get there. No city bus service for this area is planned at the current time. This development looks very bad when compared to the Bicycle Apartments downtown. The original proposal before the council was also very different. All of the units were supposed to be low rent and the rents proposed at that time were lower. The tree sit is an Earth First direct action. Donna said that it will continue even if the council votes to approve the bond. The group agreed to issue a statement opposed to the development. The statement should try to be positive in tone by explaining how we would like to see Bloomington develop and then explaining how this project doesn't fit in with that vision. The statement should also tie our comments in with some of the Ten Key Values. It was also suggested that we make a direct statement in support of the tree sitter. Concern was expressed that it would be difficult to explain that we don't advocate all direction action (such as arson) without launching into a long discussion of when it is warranted. Steps volunteered to draw up a statement draft and send it to the discussion list so members can comment. If we hope to have the statement released to the media in time for printing before the council meeting, we should try to have it completed by Friday. Donna again urged people to attend the meeting on Monday, May 8, at 4:30pm in Room 315 of the courthouse. The county does have a choice in the matter and should be held accountable. It will probably be okay to come late to the meeting, too. * Yellowwood Tree Sit Mary's tree sit is to protest the logging of 66 trees in the Yellowwood State Forest that were sold for $106 apiece. Indiana has 13 state forests that are logged on. The Department of Natural Resources has a set of Best Management Practices (guidelines, not law) to assess each area for sale. Only 1-3% of the logging done in Indiana is done on state land. That small amount of supply could easily be done on private lands. For the moment, logging will not be able to occur until July 10 because of a clause written into the contract to protect habitat during bird mating season. The tree sit will continue even during the time when logging cannot occur. The idea of trying to turn the tree sit into a community tree sit with many participants is under debate right now. * Treasurer Report Isabel reports that we made $139.75 selling t-shirts and bumper stickers. (That's our total receipts, not profit.) We have already repaid Chris $100 towards the cost of the order. She recommended that we repay Chris another $100 and the group approved. That leaves about $60 left on our balance owed to Chris. * Technology Report After tabling efforts since the last meeting, our announcement list has grown to 116 members. The discussion list has 26 members. * Media Report None. * Legal Report None. * Announcements None. * Adopt-A-Road Isabel confirmed that we do have signs at 1st and 10th streets on Walnut. We share each sign with one other group whose stretch of Walnut connects with our own. The next clean-up was scheduled for Sunday, June 3, at 9:00am. Further details about training and meeting places will be decided at a later meeting. * TV Turnoff Peter reported that although attendance at our events was light, we did succeed in gaining some great press coverage and in making television a topic of discussion in town over the week. * Disorientation Organizers of the Student Disorientation are still trying to bring additional progressive student and campus groups together for planning events. The goal is to form a broad coalition who can coordinate events rather than compete with each other. Anyone who belongs to a group that might be interested in participating was encouraged to get in contact with Dave (ufdave1@aol.com). At this point, they have in mind producing a literature packet as well as several events at the start of the school year. Peter plans to attend the next organizational meeting on May 9. Details about the meeting time and location will be sent to the announcement list and everyone is welcome to attend. * Privatization A proposal to form a task force to study the privatization of the wastewater treatment plants is in progress and should be presented at the next Utilities Service Board meeting on May 7. Milton also mentioned that WFHB is trying to organize a forum for May 15 at 7:00pm at the Monroe County Public Library Auditorium. Panelists could include environmentalists, civic leaders, company representatives, and people from other cities who have been in the same situation. It was suggested that someone speak for the MCGP at these meetings to voice our opposition. Julie's name was suggested because she has attended several meetings, become educated on the issue, and spoken at the meetings in the past. It was suggested that we change the time of our next meeting to 5:30pm instead of 7:00pm so that we can attend the forum. Everyone agreed that this was a good idea. * Planning Retreat Heather suggested that we need to hold a day-long planning retreat to brainstorm ideas for what we need to work on over the next year and lay out some specific steps for achieving those goals. The group agreed that this was a good idea. The retreat will be held on Sunday, June 10, at the Drakes' house. Chris suggested that a rough agenda be prepared in advance so that people who could not attend the entire day could be sure to come for the parts that interested them most. * Election of Coordinators After the interim coordinators gave a brief description of what their jobs entail, the following Coordinators were approved for the following year: Secretary - Chris Stafford Treasurer - Isabel Piedmont Green Liaison - Steps to Freedom Technology - Peter Drake Media - Jeff Melton * Farmer's Market The Market begins this Saturday, May 5. Heather and Peter volunteered to table for the first weekend. Since meeting time was running short, the group decided to arrange for the following weekend over email at a later date. * Bush Protest at Notre Dame on May 20 Bush will give the commencement address at Notre Dame on May 20 at 2:00pm. A death penalty protest is being organized as well as several other actions. Planning is still in the beginning stages, but we should have more information at the next meeting and can organize our own efforts and coordinate transportation. * INDOT I-69 Public Meetings on May 7 Jason described a procession that is being organized by opponents of the new terrain route for I-69. The car caravan will swing through Bloomington to pick up additional members on the way to Martinsville. He will send details about the meeting place and time to the announcement list once they have been confirmed. The public meeting will begin at 7:00pm with a display of the GIS system and mingling. There will be a 30-minute presentation on the Need Statement. At 7:30pm, the floor will be opened for public comments. ************************************************************************* The next meeting will be held at 5:30pm (NOTE CHANGE IN OUR NORMAL TIME!) on Tuesday, May 15, at the Environmental Center (116 1/2 S College - above the dance studio). Heather volunteered to serve as facilitator. She will send a tentative agenda to the discussion list several days prior to the meeting date and post an announcement of the meeting at the Monroe County Public Library Bulletin Board. *************************************************************************