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Home My WebLink AboutCAC-11/05/2025 �agUFF®��O Carol Brown,Chairperson Town Hall,53095 Route 25 Lauren Standish,Secretary ,�� P.O.Box 1179 At Southold,New York 11971-0959 Fax(631)765-1823 Telephone(631)765-1889 CONSERVATION ADVISORY COUNCIL TOWN OF SOUTHOLD MINUTES Wed., November 5, 2025 4:30 PM Conference Room and Zoom Online Platform A meeting of the Southold Town Conservation Advisory Council was held Wed., November 5, 2025 in the Town Hall Conference Room and via Zoom. Present were: Carol Brown, Chairperson Inga Van Eysden, Member Maggie Merrill, Member Nancy May, Member Burke Liburt, Member Barbara Friedman, Member Brian Mealy, Town Board Liaison Lauren Standish, Secretary Guests: Anne Murray Alexa Annunziata Trevor Fitzgerald Jade Blennau, PEP Margaret deCruz (via Zoom) Absent: Liz Gillooly, Board of Trustees Liaison Yan Albaladejo, Student Member CALL TO ORDER Chairperson Carol Brown called the meeting to order at 4:35pm. 2 ANNOUNCEMENTS There is a Resolution on the Town Board Agenda today to appoint Alex Annunziata to the Conservation Advisory Council. The appointment of a student member is pending. Carol Brown announced that the LI Sound Partnership will be hosting a 2-day virtual meeting. She will provide the details via e-mail. APPROVAL.QF MINUTES Moved by Burke Liburt, seconded by Maggie Merrill, to Approve the Minutes of October 8, 2025. REPORTS Nancy May attended the Board of Trustees meeting held on Wed., October 15, 2025. The meeting was business as usual. The application made on behalf of 380 Lupton Point Road, Mattituck was denied. Carol Brown and Nancy May will attend the next meeting scheduled for November 12tn CLIMATE SMART COMMUNITIES PROGRAM-UPDATES Carol Brown and Inga Van Eysden attended the Town Board work session on Nov. 5th and reported to the Town Board that the CAC is ready to go with some completed pledge elements. Moving forward with other pledge elements, Carol informed the members that they will be getting their assignments (today). NEW AND CONTINUED DISCUSSIONS/UPDATES Re-Wild Community Garden Program — Inga Van Eysden and Carol Brown met with the Town Board on Nov. 5th to request permission to apply for a Rewild. Community Garden Program Grant. Inga and Carol will meet with Supervisor Krupski and Erick Haas, DPW next week and look at possible locations for the garden at Town Hall. Leaf Blowers — Barbara Friedman revised a letter, written by Inga Van Eysden to the Town Board for review by the CAC, asking the Town Board to consider taking steps to ban the use of gas-powered leaf blowers in the Town of Southold, and ultimately eliminating the use of gas-powered blowers by all commercial landscapers in the near future. The CAC agreed to add the education component of mulching leaves to the lawn care poster. Burke Liburt suggested the CAC host an informational session at the Community Center in January and February and send the flyers to the landscapers. He will put together an agenda for review at the next meeting and create a plan. The CAC will review and send to the Town Board along with Burke's plan for the informational session. 3 REPAIR CAFE Maggie Merrill provided a brief update on the Southold Town Environmental Expo Featuring a Repair Cafe, co-sponsored with the North Fork Environmental Council Repair Cafe. The proposed date will be Spring of 2026 at the Southold Recreation Center. RESIDENT'S GUIDE The Resident's Guide is almost ready to send to the Town Board for their review. The draft was e-mailed to the CAC members today. Carol asked the members to review the guide and submit comments before the next monthly meeting. GUEST SPEAKER Jade Blennau, PEP —2026 Work Plan Carol Brown invited Jade Blennau to the meeting to assist the CAC in defining their mission and how to prioritize and categorize. The town does not have an Environmental Dept. and the CAC is the only environmental committee in the town, therefore they should have a sub-committee just for Climate Smart Communities, which will only be looking at CSC. Carol suggested expanding the CSC program to include outside volunteers to help move it forward. The question Jade asked the council members was, "what do you want to accomplish" and what are the goals for 2026. How to Prevent Mission Drift. Jade conducted an exercise with the group using specific categories: Advocacy to Town Board, Climate Smart Communities, Project Implementation, Public Education, Raising/Identifying Funding, and Land Preservation Priorities. The members wrote down their specific priorities on cards, which were then placed in the appropriate category. This exercise assisted the group with their direct actions for 2026. Goals for 2026 should also include a bi-annual schedule to update the Town Board on the council's project and goals. It was agreed that the number one priority is public education. Carol Brown and Inga Van Eysden will meet with Jade within the next week and work on breaking down the priorities for 2026. In the meantime, the members were asked to start thinking about how they envision moving forward and "what are we champions of." The next meeting of the Conservation Advisory Council is scheduled for Wed., December 10, 2025 at 4:30PM in the Conference Room. 4 There being no further business to come before the Council, the meeting was adjourned at 6:45 PM. Respectfully submitted by, a&U,AL,, —M. �9 . '`. Lauren M. Standish, Secretary Conservation Advisory Council