Stormwater Committee Minutes
October 6, 2005

ATTENDEES

Ann Hoffnar
Ed Murtagh
Kathy Michels
Alison Gillespie
Jane Osburn
Jenny Reed
Lauren Wheeler (guest; Jenny's partner on this project)
Daryl Braithwaite (guest; Acting Director of Public Works, Takoma Park)

Raingarden in Takoma Park

Jenny presented her Landscape Plan for Forest Park to the committee. She explained that it was conceptual and imprecise because we still want to get comments from the City of Takoma Park and from people in the park's neighborhood. We agreed that we would like to do the park in two stages; one this fall and the other next spring.

Daryl said the City was happy with the plan in general and that she would take a copy to show the others involved, to get their comments.
Takoma Park can contribute approximately $2,000 from their Stormwater budget. Most of the money would be spent purchasing plants and materials. (The plants need to be rather hardy because the raingarden is near a play area and watering the plants might prove difficult during a drought.)
Friends of Sligo Creek will provide, in addition to the technical support, the labor and enlist neighborhood help.
We will set up a meeting as soon as possible with the local community association, or at least with nearby neighbors. We will ask Robert Goo to take the lead. It is his neighborhood. Robert has pointed out that the neighbors are very proud of the park and the work they did recently to restore it. We want to assure them that we are not going to change anything they have in place. Ann will talk to Robert.
We will want educational signage, which we expect MCDEP will provide (MCDEP originally indicated that they will provide educational signage for the first rain garden project. We need to follow up to confirm if DEP is still committed to providing the signage).
We expect any soil needed for the berm to be donated by a construction crew happy to avoid paying tipping fees. Lauren and Jenny will check their points of contacts about possible sources.
Currently, the "forest" in the park is made up of a few older trees in compacted soil. The committee members would like to use this project to create a healthy ecosystem in the site. The committee members were interested in incorporating new tree plantings in the project and retaining the fallen leaves to create leaf litter. By retaining rain water at the site, we hope the trees and new plants will be healthy and thrive.

Advocacy Issues

The letter we wrote to Berlage commenting on the Forest Conservation Bill is on our web site.
Ed pointed out that we need to develop a position and sample legislation on stormwater issues. We want to make it easy for staffers to use our ideas
Ed and Kathy have set up a lunch meeting with Blair Ewing on the 10th, to get his ideas on how to approach the county and the public. They invited others to join them. We want to push the County on environmental policy-- to move toward sustainability.
We want to reward outstanding public servants, such as Anja Caldwell, by asking the County Council and the School Board to recognize those County Employees who were involved in implementing an innovative LID stormwater practice at Northwood High School (first green roof on a Montgomery County public building). The Stormwater Committee would also like to suggest that the County formally support the Green Schools Focus program and their efforts to incorporate sustainability in public buildings through a Resolution.

Other Items of Interest

There is a potential natural resources conservation project at the Sligo Creek stormwater ponds above University Blvd. Ed has been in contact with MC-DEP, MNCPPC, Northwood High School's Environmental Sciences Academy, and AWS about this potential project. The joint DEP and MNCPPC project at the ponds originally was only to dredge the University Blvd Stormwater Facility. AWS has approached FoSC and Northwood High School about using this project to include a planting area of native wetland plants. The details are still being worked out, but in brief the project includes the following: First, MNCPPC will create a shallow 10 foot wide shelf along two sides of the pond closest to the hiker/biker trial during the dredging phase of the project. This coming spring students (perhaps with FoSC volunteers) will plant a pilot plot. The pilot area (about 20% of the available planting site) will test various wetland plants. The pilot project will also test a proposed anti-goose barrier. Students or FoSC volunteers will observe how well the pilot plantings work. The plantings will be expanded once the pilot project phase is over. Jill Coutts from Northwood High School was asked to prepare a grant to fund the natural resources conservation phase of the project.

Notes prepared by Ann Hoffnar and Ed Murtagh

Stormwater Committee MinutesOctober 6, 2005

ATTENDEES

Raingarden in Takoma Park

Advocacy Issues

Other Items of Interest

Stormwater Committee Minutes
October 6, 2005