MERIDIAN COMMERCIAL RECYCLING GROUP (MCRG) MINUTES

February 25,2008  Draft

Present:Paul Brake,Asst.Township Manager,Tina Kahn,resident and chair, LeRoy Harvey,Meridian Township Recycling Coordinator, and Dennis Louney, Delta Dental. Neither Malinda Barr, nor Larry Parsons,Neil Parsons, nor Jerry Richards could attend.

What is becoming a tradition, the reading of our goals, at every meeting, ocurred. The minutes were reviewed and read by the group.

Leroy Harvey ,the new recycling coordinator, was introduced to the group.He offered to add a link to the Township’s website for the MCRG. Mr. Delouney indicated that we would need to give him some suggestions for the site, and Mr. Brake indicated that we would  need fresh,current info for it and that we would need to update it periodically. The group agreed to put this on the agenda for our next meeting.He also made the group aware of the Greater Lansing “Go Green!” Initiative and encouraged us to link up with them in some manner.

Paul Brake explained that 2 members of the DDA had indicated interest in attending one of our meetings. Mr. Brake explained that the DDA (Downtown Development Authority- Okemos) is a 9 member Board appointed by the Township Board for the purposes of redevelopment, for economic development. Tax dollars are available for physical improvements to the downtown Okemos area.The DDA area extends from Mt. Hope to Grand River where Meijers is located, has an area of 131 acres, and is composed of 24 small businesses and citizens. They meet the 2^nd Monday of the month. It was agreed that Ms. Kahn would invite them to the next meeting.

The WRAP awards nomination forms and April 18^th luncheon was reviewed and put on the agenda for next month,as was the email from Neil Parsons clarifying the Granger policy. Larry Parson’s email about Best Buy was reviewed, and it was agreed that we wanted to know if they would have a recycling day for electronics, and that we needed to follow-up on this question.Ms. Kahn agreed to contact him.

The group discussed the possibility of the DDA funding seed money for a recycling demonstration project.Dennis Louney then presented what he and Malinda Barr and the graphic artist from Delta Dental had come up with for the “ green star” recognition  program the MCRG is proposing. Mr. Louney had asked the artist to incorporate the 3 arrow symbol for recycling into the logo, and we reviewed 3 drafts. We also discussed the possibility of a 3-tiered decal which is for a bronze,silver or gold star, with each one for a different recycling level. It was agreed that we wanted to kick off this program with a press conference on April 22(Earth Day) and that way we can also give press to the April 26^th drop-off event. Paul Brake offered the services of one of his staff to draft a press release.We scheduled the press release event for 11 a.m. on the 22^nd of April. Both Paul Brake and Leroy Harvey will work on the coordinating some of this… hopefully we can have the Township Board in attendance as well.

The next MCRG meeting is scheduled for March 24^th at 2p.m. at the Township meeting room.

Submitted by Tina Kahn