HomeMy WebLinkAboutCFE Meeting Summary 02132023 Orange County Commission for the Environment
Meeting Summary
February 131h 2023; 7:00 pm
Hybrid Meeting
Present: Veronica Penn Beattie, Kristie Mather, Geneva Gray(via Zoom), Mark Randall,
Regina Baratta, Reade Oakley(via Zoom), Jessie Birckhead, Kim Piracci, David
N. Mcnelis (via Zoom), Jane Harris
Absent: Ian Morse, Kim Livingston
Staff: Wesley Poole, Chris Hirni, Amy Eckberg, Kalani Allen
I. Call to Order
Veronica Penn Beattie called the meeting to order at 7:05 pm.
II. Additions or Changes to Agenda
None.
III. Approval of DRAFT Meeting Summary—January 9', 2023
Motion to approve by Mark Randall; seconded by Regina Baratta; all in favor; none
opposed; motion passed.
IV. FY 2023-24 Orange County Outside Agency Application
The CFE reviewed an application from Piedmont Wildlife Center for County funding and
provided ranking via the Orange County Outside Agency Application Scorecard. The
application scored 93 out of 100 available points. The CFE recommended funding but
would like to encourage intentional communication and outreach to diverse populations.
Motion to approve recommendation by Kim Piracci; seconded by Kristie Mather; all in
favor; none opposed; motion passed.
V. CFE Recruitment and Candidate Review-Discussion
Jessie Birckhead would like to invite current and new CFE applicants to attend a CFE
meeting in person or virtually as an observer, then follow up with them to gauge interest
for future consideration. Veronica Penn Beattie plans to have a recruitment handout for
review at the next CFE meeting. Jessie Birckhead plans to have a CFE member bio-sheet
ready for review soon in order to highlight member expertise; she also wants to create an
applicant review template so she asked CFE members what it should include and they
provided suggestions. Chair/Vice Chair will decide CFE applicant review schedule
according to available meetings throughout the year.
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Orange County Commission for the Environment
Meeting Summary
February 13Ih 2023; 7:00 pm
Hybrid Meeting
VI. Sub-Committee Breakouts
The CFE broke out into committee assignments and discussed goals/projects for the
year. Afterwards, subcommittees came back together and reported information discussed
to the overall CFE (see below).
Sub-Committee Breakout Meetin,-Summaries
Air& Energy Resources Subcommittee:
Present: Geneva Gray (via Zoom), Kristie Mather, Reade Oakley (via Zoom), Veronica Penn
Beattie, David N. Mcnelis (via Zoom)
Absent: Ian Morse
Staff: Amy Eckberg
• Update from NC clean technology on Agrivoltic at Breeze Farms
o Veronica, Amy, David, and Geneva will schedule a meeting with Steve Kallad
• Address the List of CAP Measures (rest of time full time)
o Assigned timeframe for reviewing CAP measures
■ Comments on spreadsheet by next Monday (2-20-23)
■ Geneva will give summary to Amy on Wednesday (2-22-23)
Water Resources Subcommittee:
Present: Mark Randall, Kim Piracci
Absent: None
Staff: Wesley Poole
• The Water Resources Subcommittee continued to discuss the issue of PFAS in the water.
Is it in the local water supply? The Triangle Area Water Supply Monitoring Project, a
group of local governments, will be studying this issue beginning in 2024.
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Orange County Commission for the Environment
Meeting Summary
February 131h 2023; 7:00 pm
Hybrid Meeting
• The group wondered if there was current information available so Kim Piracci agreed to
reach out to the local environmental health department and Mark Randall agreed to
reach out to Emily Sutton, the Haw Riverkeeper.
Land Resources Subcommittee:
Present: Jessie Birckhead, Regina Baratta, Jane Harris
Absent: Kim Livingston
Staff.- Chris Hirni
• The Land Resources committee met and continued to review the Forest Canopy Policy
document. The committee will present out on this project at the next CFE meeting as a
next step towards moving the policy forward for consideration by the BOCC.
VII. Updates and Information Items
• Amy Eckberg introduced her UNC intern, Bladen Currier, then gave the CFE a status
update on the Climate Action Plan. They are currently advertising the survey(in
different languages) along with advertising the four upcoming focus groups.
• Amy Eckberg gave the CFE an update on the Solarize the Triangle campaign. They
are currently looking at applications for assessments to begin in May.
• Amy Eckberg stated that they are doing a lot of work to get the word out about
Orange County's Climate Action Grants in hopes of getting more diversity in next
year's applications.
• Chris Hirni notified the CFE that Earth Evening would be coming up on April 281n,
2023. Veronica Penn Beattie said that it would be discussed at the next meeting how
the CFE would like to participate, so be thinking about it.
• Chris Hirni presented the Eden View Subdivision review that he was involved with
due to the conditional district rezoning application; he also discussed the Lawrence
Road Development plans.
VIII. Adjournment
Kim Piracci motioned to adjourn the meeting at 9:06 pm; seconded by Mark Randall; all
in favor; none opposed; motion passed.
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