Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Good evening everybody. Uh let's get started. I'm calling this meeting to order. I want to welcome everyone to the uh March 17th meeting of the city of Minnetonka Sustainability Commission. This is our 20th in-person meeting and second one of this year. [clears throat] The commission generally meets every other month on the third Tuesday of the month. The schedule and tenative agenda can be obtained by contacting the city's planning division or by visiting the city's website at minnotonkamn.gov. Residents can provide input on tonight's agenda via email or provide input tonight during this meeting if so desired. The Sustainability Commission's first meeting, believe it or not, was May of 2021. Since then, we have accomplished a significant number of useful and practical actions for city residents. Areas of review for the commission include air, water, energy, land and ecological resources, recycling, which includes organics collection, which is fairly new in the city, waste management and other related sustainability areas not addressed by city code or another city advisory group. The sustainability commission has a unique role here, [clears throat] excuse me, in Minnitonka as we serve both as an adviser to the city council and as an ambassador for the city programs. As an adviser to the city council, the sustainability commission makes recommendations on city plans, policies, procedures, programs, practices, and proposals that relate to sustainability and conservation of our natural resources. Final decisions are then made by the city council. As an ambassador, the sustainability commission attends events to promote city initiatives with the public. With that, I will move to agenda item number two, the roll call. Miss Southerntherland, would you please call roll? >> Uh, Chair Golib, I'm gonna call roll tonight. So, I have a >> Susan, thank you very much. >> I have a task. Thomas, thank you. >> Uh, Commissioner Carr is absent. Commissioner Ingram present. Commissioner Ingraham is absent. Meyer >> present. >> Uh, Commissioner Norman is absent. Uh, Commissioner Patine >> present. Uh, Commissioner Sheer, who I'll talk about later, is absent. Uh, Commissioner White >> present. >> And, uh, Chair Gol >> present. >> Thank you. There are, uh, one, two, three, four, five of us here tonight. Thank you very much. Uh, next is approval of tonight's agenda, [clears throat] which is item agenda item number three. Miss Thomas, do you have anything to change for tonight's agenda? Miss Southern? No. Okay, very good. So, since there are no changes, would someone one of my I should say, will one of my fellow commissioners make a motion to approve the agenda? Is there a motion? >> I'll motion. >> Thank you, commissioner. Is there a second? >> I second. >> Very good. Um, Miss Thomas, would you pull the commission members, please? Bingham, >> yes. >> Meer, >> yes. >> Norman is not here. Uh, Patine, >> yes. And Chair Gol, >> yes. Thank you. [clears throat] Motion passes. We will next, I should say, is item number four. We need to approve the U January 20th, 2026 meeting minutes. Does anyone have any changes to those minutes? I'm looking at my fellow commissioners. No one indicates that. I also looked it over very carefully. Didn't see anything wrong. >> So with that, I will look forward for a motion to approve the minutes from the January 20th, 2026. Is there a motion? >> I'll motion. >> Thank you. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you. Miss Thomas, would you pull the commission members, please? >> Ingram, >> yes. >> Mayor, >> yes. >> Norman is absent. I apologize. >> Patine, >> yes. White. >> Yes. >> Chair Golub. >> Yes. Thank you. Motion [clears throat] passes. Next, we have our agenda items, which is a significant uh topic for tonight. And before we start, I'd like to just briefly go over a couple of quick uh rules or procedures, I should say, not rules. Um I will ask staff, in this case, Miss Sutherland, to present their report to my fellow sustainability commissioners. >> [snorts] >> I will then ask all of my sustainability commissioner members to ask clarifying questions to staff. If no one is registered to comment at at I should say at the end of our Q&A session, if no one is registered to comment, I will then open and immediately close the public input portion for this agenda topic. If an agenda topic isformational or we simply provide feedback back to staff, then no vote is required by the commissioners and we'll simply move on. That's a kind of a simple straightforward procedure tonight. And with that, I will turn over the meeting to Miss Southerntherland. Thank you. Let's see. There we go. Wonderful. Thank you, Chair Gulib and commissioners. Um, exciting item tonight. This is our sustainability um m well sorry sustainable minnotonka award selection where we'll be reviewing all the applicants that we have received this year. So uh few staff recommendations. The first is to recommend one business and one resident receive a special recognition award for each category. So you may recall that we have four um highle categories. So energy, landscape, water um and waste reduction. And each of those categories specifically are split between residents and businesses. Um so we'll be recommending at least one business and one resident receive that recognition award for each category. And then if remaining applicants exist within each category for those um either businesses or residents, we recommend that all remaining applicants receive that nominee award. And we'll we'll go through these details in a little bit here, but just as just a quick overview. Um also wanted to note that this is all at the discretion of the commission. So there will be an opportunity if the commission for example does not feel that um any of the applicants um would be eligible for the sustain or sorry the special recognition award the commission could seek to just um nominate everyone receive a nominee award. Um I don't necessarily envision that happening but just so you know that that is within your uh discretion. And then we also um will have the commission follow a structured scoring process. So we'll go through all of that. So just be rest assured that um there'll be some structure that you're following tonight. So quick overview. Um first we'll talk about the program background. We have some new commissioners on staff and it's been a year since we last did this process. So we'll just go through that background. We'll talk about the 2025 and 2026 updates to this program. Um, as a refresher, I'll show uh the table of all applicants that have been received, just a highle summary, and then we'll go through the summary of the voting process. So, if you have any questions, that's the time to ask that. Um, there that that's a process that just began last year, so it's fairly new to everyone. And then lastly, after we finalize that voting process, we will go through the applicants. Um, and I'll just give a brief summary for each applicant. And after I provide that summary, after each uh summary, you'll then have an opportunity to score that application. So, that's what we're going to be doing tonight. Um, but we'll have more opportunities for questions as we go on. So in terms of background, this program began in 2022, so shortly after the commission was formed. Um, the program purpose has evolved over time, but currently it is to award projects that either promote resilience by mitigating and adapting to Minnesota's changing climate to protect and enhance the natural environment and or um promote community adoption of sustainability and conservation's best practices. So, this aligns with our climate action and adaptation plan. This also aligns with the council's uh city council's strategic priorities. So um there's a lot of different I guess programming that this is um aligning with if you will not just within the planning division but even more broadly within natural resources and water conservation um staff people here. So um and then we also have broadened the program purpose to not only recognize these highly notable and large scale projects but also to recognize these smaller everyday commitments that are happening um from just residents in either a single family home or an apartment complex or as you'll see young young adults. So, we're trying to expand it to be not just an award basis, but also just general recognition for um commitments to these sort of actions. We also not only are awarding and recognizing the project, but we also want to take that success story and then share it out to the public so that we're inspiring other residents. And um I will say that's that's a piece that we've been really trying to hit on within our promotions over the last couple of years. And I'm sure commissioners that you've experienced this too if you've helped to promote the program at a table that a lot of people are um a bit hesitant and they don't necessarily need or want the award themselves. But when they hear that oh that their story could help inspire their neighbor to also take similar action. That's where we're getting more of the motivate motivation um factor. So um we've tried to kind of steer the program a bit more to that. And then lastly, businesses, residents, and then young adults either working in Minnetonka, owning a business, living in Minnetonka, or going to school in Minnetonka are eligible um for an award. And just a couple pictures of some of our early application um or awardees, I guess you could say. So, in 2025, um we made some revisions. One is that now we recognize one resident and one business for each category. So before we were looking at all applications received for the energy topic together and that means that meant that we were choosing between a resident and a business and in some cases it was just not apples to apples and really challenging um to choose one over the other. So now we look at just residents and just businesses separately for each category. Um we also updated promotions. So you can you can see some of the new graphics that we had made. We updated the application process to elicit more data oriented um responses. So quantifiable metrics were requested. Uh we also updated the staff review process too. So we expanded it to allow more staff internally to review and make comments. We also defined the special recognition a award evaluation criteria. So before it was more of a discussionbased decision. Now we actually have scoring criteria that we'll review again tonight that um helps the commission just feel a bit more confident that they know how to score a project. And that was all developed by the commission in the past. And then lastly, we also created the nominee award last year. So before we had multiple applicants and only one person would receive an award. Now we have a special recognition award assigned for that most notable project based on the scoring that we utilize. And then everyone else that has submitted award that has been deemed or sorry submitted an application that has been deemed eligible by a staff review is then um given an award a nominee award. So, everyone essentially that has made it into the commission packet will get an an um a nominee award tonight so long as the commission is in favor of that. And then for 2026, we further continue to align it with the climate action ad adaptation planning goals. We wanted to elicit more applications related to electric heat pumps and geothermal technology. So I went through our permitting software to see who had completed those projects over the last two years and we directly mailed letters to those folks. So um that was really fun. We had probably trying to think how many letters we sent out upwards of 30 letters collectively I believe and we did get several applications um from those letters. So that was just another way of doing that direct outreach. In 2026, we received 17 applications, which is a record high. And I think it I I think that that is from um that new promotional language. I think it it really showcases how people are excited to help inspire others. And so I think that's why we're receiving more applications. Um I think Minnesota nice can be a real thing. and people are hesitant to just put their name out. I think also the direct mailings um they basically said, "We are aware that you did this project and we invite you to apply." I think a personalized invitation was really powerful. So, um that's maybe why we're seeing some new or more applications this year. Um, so we received three business applications, 11 residents, one young adult group, and then two children's applications, which is new this year and really exciting, and I'm seeing really big smiles. So, everyone's excited about that. Um, I will note that currently it's actually not children are not really considered eligible at this time. However, staff are recommending that the commission do consider um recommending either a nominee award or special recognition award for these children and that is because so they they go to school in Minnotonka. So at fundamentally they're eligible in that sort of way. Um they've also done really great work and I think it absolutely aligns with our climate action and adaptation planning to you know inspire children. They're our future so there's a lot of benefits there. So I think this is a really exciting um change for the program and it could really I think expand this program in future years by allowing this. So that being said now there are six uh categories. We have energy as one category and you can see that we had uh two business applicants and four resident applicants within that category. Second category is waste or waste reduction. We had one business and one resident. So you can see there isn't necessarily competition between those. [snorts] Um for landscape we only received resident applications. So we have two. For water again only resident applications we received four. For young adult we received one group application. And then for children we received two. And then in terms of the packet what was included in the application packet is um what was submitted to the city. So staff didn't go through and edit anything. It was essentially just a copy and pasting process. And in some cases the the um photos had to be limited to a certain amount. Um but otherwise everything was as submitted. So for the scoring process um first I'll start out by briefly summarizing each application. And I will say I've printed out um a packet of applications for you all. and I will summarize it from a highle summary. Um, you know, some of these are very detailed, so I'm not going to read every single detail. If you'd like, um, I can tell you what page I'm looking at and perhaps after I, you know, go through it, you can also just reference that page if you'd like to see a little bit more data. But in in terms of my slides, I tried to pull out the most important um, and I guess uh, useful information from that application after. So, I will present one application and after that one summary, then I'll ask the commission to score the application. And so, you also have score sheets on your in front of you that looks like these. You can probably tell which ones they are. Um, you'll find the one that matches with the the name of the applicant and it should be in order as we go and you'll score that applicant um at that time. So, the scoring criteria there's there's four different types. So, one is the project scale and impact. Second is the quality of the quantitative data provided. The third is the effort to educate others. And the fourth is uh just images provided. So you can score either a zero, one or two. And these are private scores. You actually don't even need to put your name on the top of these sheets. So it's all just kind of up to you and how you feel like you would score it. So again, um we do have categories with a single applicant. And in those cases, we're actually not going to do the scoring um because there's no one to score against. So instead, um we'll just do a motion. So the commission could choose to do a motion for special recognition for those individual applicants or you could do a motion for a nominee award. So those ones are the easiest. And then then we go on to the categories with multiple applicants. And I'll try to walk through this more simply. So I'll present the application summary. Then we'll move to score each applicant. So again, you just circle, you know, the the score of each line. And then after that, please um add all your scores together and then put a total score at the bottom. And then I'll continue on and I'll give a summary of the next applicant. And then after that, you'll score that applicant. And again, put the total score at the bottom. And then once we complete all um applicants within that particular category, so this example is the energy category. Um, then you'll circle the applicant with the highest score. So, in this case, it's applicant 2. I did want to just do um a caveat. So on your sheet, the icon didn't print out well. You'll notice it looks like a little I don't know, a odd C. But um if as an individual you think no one should get the special recognition here and that everyone instead should just get nominee awards that there's an opportunity for you to say that. Again, I don't really foresee that tonight, but in the in the case that that that happens tonight or any other time, there's an opportunity for that. After you um complete that first sheet, so these are all individual sheets. Um Susan over here will collect the ballots and then she'll count out or count up who received the most top scores. So, um I think that's that's the scoring process. I'm going to pause here to see if there's any questions. >> What would we do in the event of a tie? >> Great question. I deleted that uh bullet point because I figured [laughter] it probably won't happen. But if it does, um last year what we did is we said that we would count the total points. So it's possible that maybe if there is a tie one one received more points than the other, but I don't think it's likely that that will happen. But if it does, that's what we'll do. Great question. Any other questions? We can also answer questions as we kind of practice within the first round. Good. Okay. Awesome. Okay. So, in that case, we're going to start with reviewing the applications. Um, the first is going to be the children's awards. And I don't think our application or applicants are here tonight. I moved this to the top because we were maybe going to have one of the children attend. Um, don't think they did, but that's okay. But for next year, I think we'll probably continue with this process just to, you know, homework and bedtimes are a thing. So this year we've received two children candidate um applications, Shupang and Winston Heg. And so just to confuse things a little bit, um because this is a new children's category, we have an option to either continue following the same process that we evaluate all the other categories on or we could consider this, you know, a different type of category. Oh. Oh, here we go. [laughter] We have our children applicants or one of um we so we could continue with the same scoring process where we you know provide one special recognition um award and nominee awards for the other or the commission could choose to provide nominee awards for all applicants and not to choose a special recognition award or the commission could consider providing both applicants special recognitions awards. I think um children's category just gives an opportunity to think outside of the box. Maybe there's a different way we want to do things. Um what we do tonight might be what we is maybe different than what we do in the future because this is a new process. But whatever the commission chooses to do tonight is is up to you there. So just wanted to give that note. So um we'll start with the first applicant. So Shupang is a third grader at Scenic Heights Elementary School. He loves playing hockey. He wondered how hockey rinks affect the environment. And so he researched how hockey rinks use energy and water and then wrote a paper. He created a tri board to teach students and families about hockeyy's environmental impact. He shared ideas about using solar panels, natural sunlight, LEDs, and cold outdoor air to reduce energy use at hockey rinks. and ultimately he just wants to help people think about ways to make hockey more sustainable. So that is Shu Pang's um application. So we're going to pause there. The commission has the evaluation scoring sheets in front of them. Find shoe pangs um chart. I have pens out there available for you too. So independently rank your score. And if the I will say if the commission at the end of this decides that we want to give a certain type of um award maybe not comparing these two applicants against each other that's fine but for now just score the applicants I would say. And I see folks turning their their packet. If you want to see Shu's complete application, it's on page 30 of your packet. >> I have a clarifying question. Yeah. >> Um since one of the categories that we're to evaluate is quality of quantitative data >> and it's I can see the trifold poster boards but not in good detail. >> Sure. >> Um can you share [clears throat] if if there was quantitative data provided? >> Great question. Thank you for the question. Um page 30 in that packet is Shu's full application. So that is everything that was submitted. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Um in the photo of his paper, I can see some quantitative data. It says that there's um a million kilowatt hours of electricity per year that an ice rink uses and 10,000 gallons of water to make and maintain the ice. I can just see that by >> I was gonna say it. Yeah, >> I could zoom, but I don't think it's going to let me. >> Yeah, >> sorry. Thank you. Let me close it off. All right. We good? Okay. All right. Winston Heg um believe he's in the audience. Thank you for coming. Um he is a Minnitonka resident and student and he was inspired by the eco experience at the state fair in August of 2022. He started by adopting two storm drains at that time and then since then he's designed and built a modified bike trailer with a bin pictured here um to expand to two to eight storm drains within a half mile loop of his home. He clears leaves, grass clippings, litter, and fine sediment from the storm drains. On average, he removes 20 to 25 pounds um of debris from or sorry, per each cleanup. He's expanded to about 18 cleanups through 2025. And um he's often stopped by neighbors who ask what he's doing. He's involved his siblings in this work. And he's also shared the idea at school with others. So, and with the applicant being here, um we're going to have the commission now score this and then after that we'll ask if the applicant is interested in making any comments. If not, that's totally fine. [laughter] So, Chair Gallop, do you have any questions? >> I have actually a comment for my fellow commissioners. [clears throat] Um it's not a question. I'm exceptionally impressed with both of the applicants. I hope that my fellow commissioners will agree with me. We do not want to stifle innovation or creativity. They are both very different from one another. I read over the applications several times and I'm, as I said, I'm impressed with both. And this is just my opinion as the chair and all my fellow commissioner members are certainly able to disagree. Um but it I was thinking about this uh and and I had mentioned this to uh Miss Sutherland earlier today that I would like to change our our thinking a little bit and rather than award one of them a special recognition award and the other would be a nominee award because they are so different from one another. I think they both should receive a special recognition award. If that's the case, we could probably not we can hand in our scores, but they wouldn't need to be uh tallied up. And so, I'm thinking we would both issue a special recognition award reflecting two outstanding projects. Uh, Commissioner Patine. >> Yes. Might I add to that? Um then I also have a a quick question. But um I would also just second what you were saying if we were going to turn that into a motion just um just to note that. But additionally um I would also say um that one also seemed very particularly a little bit more focused on energy and I know like we have separate categories as is for the adult categories and the other one was a little bit more focused on um I feel like outdoor almost landscaping and so a little bit more environmental focused um outdoors I guess and so to me that makes more sense as well even because they're more category specific. Also Mr. Mr. H, thank you so much for joining us tonight. Um, well, the young Mr. Hey, thank you. Also to the older Mr. Heg as well [laughter] um for joining us tonight. We appreciate you coming out. I did have a question for you. Is that okay? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Wonderful. Do you do you mind standing up by the microphone so everyone who's on can hear you? Is that okay? Thanks for joining us. I saw in one of your pictures it looks like there you have some friends with you. Is that accurate? Um the uh yeah, I have some friends. The the one in the middle is my brother's friend. The one all the way on the right holding a broom is my sister. And the one slightly to the left of her is my older brother. >> Nice. So it looks like that you have expanded this into like a family activity it looks like as well and gotten some friends involved. >> Yes. >> That is wonderful. I hope you know how much we appreciate that because part of what we hope for is that people will share their love for sustainability and things of that nature to with those that they love. So, I was very impressed by this project. I think something that I was most impressed by with your project is how that long that you've been doing this project and I appreciate that you you know it looks like you started it at the fair. Was it the state fair in 2022? >> Yes. >> That's a long time ago. So for you to continue to do this project over such a great period of time, I hope you know how much we appreciate seeing your work. >> Thanks. >> I I'd simply simply like to add Winston, we uh we do appreciate your hard work very much. So you you you've done a great job. Thank you. Thank you very very much. I think we all feel that way. >> I also wanted to second the recommendation for special recognition award. um and to thank you for your education because uh doing this task pro takes a lot of hours and ingenuity and creativity. Um but then when you take the next step forward by educating your neighbors, your friends, family, um that's when we can move the whole city and state and country in a sustainable direction. So, thank you. >> Any other questions for Miss Southerntherland or for our applicant? >> I turn it back to you. >> Uh, Chair Gul, it sounds like there was a motion that um could potentially go to the floor. So, if someone wants to make that motion and second it, we'll do roll call. >> Is there a motion? >> I'll motion. >> Okay. And I'll second. >> Could you state the motion just for the record? >> Um, I'll motion for both of them to be recognized for special recognition. >> Perfect. And I'll second that motion. >> Very good. Uh, should we pull the commissioners? Yes. >> Uh, Ingam, >> yes. >> Mayer, >> yes. >> Patine, >> yes. >> White, >> yes. >> Chair Golup, >> absolutely. Thank you. Motion passes. >> Wonderful. Thank you. Um, okay. So, now we're on to the energy awards. Um, you can flip your evaluation sheet to the next. And >> can we also, excuse me, can we also add that the recognition award evening will be at city council? >> Yes. Yep. So, um, April 13th, uh, you'll receive your special recognition award from the mayor and city council. We'll take some photos. So, um, and a few of our commissioners will be there as well. So, again, thank you for your work. Awesome. Okay. So, for the energy awards, now we're looking at our business candidates. We had two applications received. It is the Veil Apartments and Ridgedale Library, which is technically actually um the Ridgedale Service Center um owned by Henipin County. So, the Veil Apartments are located at 11816 Weisetta Boulevard. It's an apartment complex of 197 units. They opened in July um July 1st of 2025. And um while they did submit multiple details in their application, which if you would like to reference it, it's on page two of your packet. Um I asked for verification of some of the information that they shared, such as the energy efficient appliances. Um and I also asked if they had done um some energy assistance planning with the utilities. the property manager wasn't able to provide that information to me. Unfortunately, sometimes it takes other people being involved like their development teams to provide that. And since I wasn't able to verify that, um I would recommend that the commission considers this project as just their efforts to install 10 electric vehicle charging um charging stations. So, that being said, um they installed 10 vehicle uh chargers, which is really cool. So um that essentially is their project and and these are for their residents too. So it's in their parking garage. So with that I will let the commission um score according to that information. And if you could look up when you're done, then I will know when to move on to the next. Cool. Okay, going to move on to the next applicant. Um, this is the Ridgedale Regional Center, um, owned by Henipin County. It's located at 12601 Ridgedale Drive. This is the Ridgedale Library and County Service Center. So, I believe there's the courthouse there, offices, uh, you know, where you renew your driver's license, those those sorts of services. Um, this project was driven by Henipin County's climate action, um, plan that has a goal of meeting 10% of the building's energy, each of their facilities energy needs by on-site solar by 2030. Um, so you'll see down at the end of the slide, this actually meets 28% of their building's electricity use. Um, they installed 309 kW of solar, which was actually 562 solar panels. So very large structure. Um, it generates enough electricity to power roughly 12 homes energy use per year or um could consider that also to be equivalent to 21 gas powered vehicles being removed from the road. Uh that application is on page three of your packet. If you'd like to see everything that was submitted, if you could score that and then look at me or raise your hand once you're done. >> Oh yeah, great. Yeah, great question. Um I decided to not showcase the videos for the applicants. I think there was two that provided videos. the city does have that and can use that if we ever wanted to, you know, make some sort of publication about it. Um, but as I was creating the PowerPoint in an effort to just kind of speed up our presentation, um, I did not include them. They also were very similar to the information, the other pictures shared. So, in this case, it was essentially what we're looking at, but at another time, if you want to see it, it's very cool. [laughter] Can I ask a question um to the commissioners? Have we talked and I don't know that there this was on so this is obviously a county building. Have we had we county buildings are have same standing to enter this as as do not as do uh private entities. I don't know that we've had one enter uh a public I guess organization, county organization enter before. >> I'm not sure that we have the way [clears throat] >> or just has it been discussed. I'm trying to just I just want to process out loud as we're >> I think to answer your questions, I don't think it has been and I don't think we've really had to face this decision in the past. I mean the way that Miss Southerntherland structured this is we have two under the uh business category and you could consider you could consider Henipin County as a nonprofit business um versus a profit business and Veil Apartments is a for-profit business. I appreciate that. And I know that we could break out businesses into a million different categories for something that is >> just the access to resources that a county entity, a government entity has versus a private. To me, I know we have small businesses that enter this. We've had small business winners before versus a county. I just want to be mindful or just at least address that fact that we're considering a business that is technically a county entity entity in this So, I just wanted to at least voice that. >> Yeah, I understand Commissioner Patane what you're saying. We may want to consider another category in the future perhaps for public sector submitts as opposed to uh >> chair. It wasn't necessarily that. I just I felt like it needed to be said if we're vote as we're vote. I just felt like it needed to be said just that we this is the county and our library like that. I just felt like it needed to be said that that there needed to be some disclaimer of sorts to be said that we're voting on an entity that or that we allow entrance or that I don't know that we've even considered that factor in the past or if it's something that we maybe should consider when we're for the competition in the future. So, not that anything needs to change right now, but and it's we can table this for later, but I wanted to it to at least be addressed in the moment. So, >> I understand your concerns. I mean, one one could say that uh [clears throat] perhaps we should not even be voting on Henipin County since we are potentially receiving grants from the county and we're supportive and the county is supportive of our actions, but just in the in the merits of the project, I think we need to focus on just the merits of the project. >> Yeah. Um I agree with Patine though that maybe next time we should update the what qualifies as a business because something that's um as you said funding us maybe not maybe should not be included in under the business section for um the awards. >> Has someone considered that like not to be I hate to be that person but did some did anybody consider this with the city and our and like whether or not they should be receiving award from the city of Minnotonka? >> Yes. Thank you chair and commissioners. I appreciate the discussion. I think we had similar thoughts and questions um internally. First off, this is your program. So, whatever the commission feels most comfortable doing tonight or in the future, it's completely at the commission's discretion. Um I would agree that Henipin County isn't a business. Um it's more of a business than a resident perhaps. So, that's why it fell into the business category. Um I think so. There's a few thoughts I have, but again, this is your program, so what I'm saying now is just my own personal thoughts. Um, I think um, so I I see Henipin County as potentially an institution, if you will. Um, so that means we could also be receiving like a school applying perhaps. Um, trying to think of other maybe maybe like a watershed district. I don't know if we have any other facilities of that sort within our um yeah like a religious facility um as Thomas is saying or nonprofit. So yeah, there's a whole host of non-b businessiness business applicants that we could get. Um, one reason I personally like the idea of awarding them, um, is first off, when we're talking about they fund us, um, at least personally, we don't we don't have any grants right now in the sustainability department that's funding us. Um, and it doesn't fund the sustainability commission. So, I don't really see a direct conflict of interest there. Also, the county could choose to not support solar. So, if they're helping the city of Minnetonka reach our communitywide climate action and adaptation plan goals, I think that is awardw worthy. personally. Um the other the other aspect of our climate or um this this program that we're trying to shift towards is trying to um make it more recognitionbased so that everyone feels that there is value in participating because that's how our climate action and adaptation plan goals are written. It's on a per capita goal. So that means every single person whether you're a person or a business is technically included in that. And so that means Henipin County is included in that. It means all school districts are included that all city of Minnotonka buildings are included in that. Um and so essentially we want everyone to participate. So that those are kind of my thoughts. Um, however, yes, it's possible we could make an institutions category or public facilities category, but I think um, Commissioner Patine raises a really great point that we could have a very large commercial property and a very small business. And so those are both businesses. What how do you compare? Um, last note I wanted to say is I think when we were creating the scoring criteria and it's been over a year ago now, so it's been a while, but I believe that we tried to create the scoring criteria to account for those um, organization type differences. So if you look here, the project scale and impact I think we included because that is inherently a part of a project. But the other three in theory are kind of make it like a level playing field if you will. Um you know quality of quantitative data whether whatever type of entity you are large or small you could provide good or bad data to us. Same thing with educating others large or small you could do that. Um and then just images. In the past we had applicants not provide any images. now um it's required but when we think about the education of others and what this program really is meant to be the the better images you provide the better we can tell your story so I know that was kind of a long rant but those are those are things that I had been thinking about um so take those with what you will but again it's it's up to the commission to decide and if if you want to do something similar like we did for the children's awards where we gave both entities that that's a possibility, too. But I'll end with that. >> Go ahead. Go right ahead. >> In my opinion, I think we should still vote and I think we should pick one, but I think we should just keep in mind the the different levels of capability that come with being a large institution such as a county versus a private business. And I think as long as we're taking that into account, I think it's fair to count both of them still in the running. Any other comments or questions? >> I just I appreciate uh the conversation around it. The more that I think about it though, I think uh for this year I'm going to abstain from this c voting in this category. >> Um commissioners with that that would mean that we don't have a quorum. So I don't know if commissioner Patine if you still want to stick with that. I'm not going to vote just because we don't have quorum with me not voting. And I apologize for putting the other commissioners in a bad position, but yeah. Yeah, that's fine. So, what does that mean? That no one gets an award. >> No, I I think um commissioners choliv the next ballot uh or the next item on the ballot. Score that one. >> Oh, I'm talking about the So, this is for the energy category for businesses. >> And how many do we have? >> Who gets what? Yeah. Yeah. It's it they're voting for. So you're talking about you don't want to vote for either of them. >> Correct. I'm abstaining from this category. >> Yeah. So that's why I'm saying I don't think this category would get any awards then. I think that um without a quorum here, I think that again because this is a an award situation that and again now um now Ally and I are just um ruminating out loud. I think that you could certainly give both a nominee award. >> That's what I was that's what I was going to suggest. Um in lie of a special recognition and essentially a first and a second place. Um we could certainly give each a nominee award reflecting the fact that uh >> they do care about >> Yeah. Yeah. Sustainability. >> That makes sense because um internally staff has reviewed these and so anything included in the packet essentially could receive that nominee award. So we could we could do that. >> Sound good? >> Okay. >> Commissioner Patine. So, >> does that seem reasonable to you? >> Yeah, that's reasonable. I Okay, I just I was not going to vote on that. Like, and that's not to say I won't vote next year if there's another institution. I have to sit with that and think about what that means. And this and at present, I'm not going to vote on that. >> We understand there there's one statement here somewhere that Miss Sutherland wrote that's saying um we we can um make an award at the discretion of the commission. So we have that flexibility. >> And with that, would someone, one of my fellow commissioners like to make a motion for both of these candidateies to receive the nominee awards? >> Sir, I'll motion. >> Is it second? I'll second. >> Very good. >> Yes. Meer, >> yes. >> Patine abstains. Uh, White, >> yes. >> Golo, >> yes. >> Great. All right, moving on. So, this is the Energy Awards um resident candidates. And before we move on, um I also wanted to note as you're thinking about potential changes you want to see next year, please share those. Um because we'll review the minutes and then I was actually thinking at our next meeting that would be a great time to consider 2027 changes, which is pretty crazy. It's been that long. So um so Energy Awards resident candidates, we received four applicants. Paul Stok, Peter Lond, Jim Colonace, and then or Colisease and then Eric Winter. So Paul Stork, he installed um sorry 10,680 kwatt hours of solar um which was accounted for 22 panels. So um he also installed a geothermal furnace which heats and cools his house and is also connected to a hot water heater. He has an electric vehicle charge or car that uses um geothermal and solar to power that vehicle. And then he also has done a series of building envelope um improvements such as improving his um windows like new windows, insulation, what have you. And then he also installed a solar tube light, which now I've learned what a solar tube light is. Um, if you see in the top right corner of this PowerPoint, he installed this light. It's essentially a tube that reflects um, sunlight through a series of mirrors. And so it's all natural sunlight um, in that bathroom. And then he didn't specify how many credits that he received, but he just stated that he received full tax credits or f sorry federal tax credits and Excel Energy credits. So um if you could vote for Paul Stork or score his application and his application is on page 14 or four I believe if you want to see he included a lot of details. And maybe a comment that I would like to make in case this maybe influences the the information that I provide in the slides is what I feel very comfortable with saying um is verifiable. Um, for example, Paul Strick mentioned something about that he added the geothermal furnace to make the house 100% electric. I don't have a way of necessarily verifying that. So, I call the certain information out on these powerpoints to say this is what I think the C or the commission could um use in order to do your scoring. So that's why in some cases I'm not including some of those details because um we don't necessarily have a way of verifying that we can only do so much. So if that helps you make your decisions, I would say yes, there's a lot of information here. I would focus on the slides if you can. [snorts] Okay, I think most are done. Moving to the next Peter Lond um page five or sorry six in your packet. Let's see. He installed 9.9 kilowatts of solar um which was 30 panels of solar. Um he also had a home energy audit and then after that he installed a dual fuel hybrid cold climate heat pump system. A lot of words. Um essentially it's both electric and gas powered. Um it's a high efficiency furnace which is 97% efficient and these units use electricity majority of the time and um it's they're very common to have in our climate whenever there's a backup heat needed that's when the gas power um clicks in. So while environmentally having full electric would be best based on our um the the grid being um more comprised of renewables, it's not exactly feasible and it's very very common to see these dual fuel hybrid heat pump systems being installed. That's what I've learned. So if you could score the applicant Good for the next one. Okay. Jim Colloy today. Sorry, I don't know how to pronounce his last name. Um, he also installed a dual fuel heat pump. High efficiency, which is 96% efficiency. similar very similar to what I just explained for the last applicant. Um he stated that he experienced a 22% energy savings annually since I believe it was 2023. So you could look at his application on page oh um sorry page 8. He um showcased how his electric bills had gone up but his gas bills went down and overall savings that amounted into a 20% energy savings annually which I thought was a really cool analysis that he was able to do. Um he also subscribes to solar gardens and he provided very detailed information on rebates. So he shared five different rebates that he received for a total of $4,800. And um just to kind of preface that, that's the kind of data that I think we really want to see with these applications cuz that's how somebody else can say, "Wow, you know, they got all of these rebates from these different sources." I just I think that's really helpful. So you can score that applicant. One comment, excuse [clears throat] me. One comment I wanted to make regarding the what's being called the dual fuel. >> Sure. >> Um is that from looking at the previous candidates um models um it appears that it's actually a separate Dykon gas furnace and a totally separate cold climate heat pump with a converter. um to communicate between the two modulating um [clears throat] and that's from an educational perspective I think that's important uh difference to to look at um and the question comes up especially going forward as our electric grid becomes um more renewable energy and less carbon um the goal would be to uh promote all electric and to eliminate unnecessary fossil fuel investment. Um the electric um heat strips can be an excellent backup at about a fifth of the cost of what a gas furnace backup would be. And um there is um higher cost when it's utilized, but cold climate heat pumps can go down to minus15 degrees. And if we're looking at um maybe 5 to 10 days out of the winter where we're below minus15 that the electric heat strips would go on then the cost additional cost of energy um would be compensated by the lower upfront cost. So just for um educating Minnitonka residents, I think looking at the overall savings and um to optimize the goal of trying to u be as sustainable as possible. They're they're good projects in um meeting the goals of um decreasing uh energy utilization and utilizing a more energyefficient system and the heat pump would do the bulk of the work and less fossil fuel. But >> thank you, Commissioner Meyer. I I think you're right. There's a a scale and a range of these projects. um you know, gas furnaces being the least renewable, least sustainable, if you will, um and then the full electric heat pumps being the most sustainable, and there's going to be a range um in between there. And there's going to be a range of costs. And so, I would say these projects are probably maybe in the middle towards like the top tier, but they're not the full electric options as Commissioner Meyer is saying. So, I think that's good context. However, I also have recently talked to um Electrify Everything. It's a cohort um ran by CE and other local governments and I was surprised to learn how even that entity is promoting dual fuel as an option which I was surprised about because their title is everything electric or electrify everything. So, um, yeah, I I think there's a lot to talk about there, but it just kind of goes to show there's a range of options for these these efficiency projects. Okay, I think we're okay on the next. So, we're going to go to Eric Winter. Um, page seven or sorry, eight, nine, nine in your packet. Um, he installed a geothermal heating and cooling system. They have an electric water heater that uses the geothermal waste heat. He explained that he had an eight-year payoff and there was some initial um or sorry midyear replacements that he had to do which is maybe why it was a little longer than expected. Um but he also received energy rebates from XL Energy and the federal tax rebates. So you can see the information he provided to the city on page nine, but this summarizes the majority of it. and then that applicant is going to be the last of the scoring within that category. So after you're finalized with their score, if you could circle the applicant that had the highest score and pass your ballot into um Miss Thomas, it'd be great. They're all the same. >> Oh, very cool. All right. we've received all the or all the scoring. Um Paul Stor received the highest score unanimously. So in that case I would look for a motion to um recommend special recognition for Paul Stok. And um I it could be a separate or same motion to provide a nominee award for the remaining applicants. >> Thank you Miss Sen. Is there a motion from one of my fellow commissioners? >> I motion to do the spe special recognition for Paul Stok and then the I would also say the special nominee for the remaining uh participants. >> Very good. Is there a second? >> I'll second that. >> Thank you. >> Ingram? >> Yes. >> Meer? >> Yes. >> Patine? >> Yes. >> White? >> Yes. >> Gol? >> Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. >> Wonderful. Thank you all. All right, we're on the next two should be fairly easier in terms of we don't have to score them necessarily. Um, so the next is the waste awards. This is for the business candidates. We received one business applicant which was Abbott Minnetonka. Abbott Min. Oh, sorry. Question Commissioner. >> Oh, did I? Yeah, we don't have to vote. >> Oh, correct. Sorry. Yep. So, there's no scoring. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Um, so Abbott Minnotonka is located at 14900 Mitanka Industrial Road. It's a campus of four manufacturing buildings for medical devices. uh they have over 700 employees on this campus and they've increased waste diversion from the landfill from 40% in 2018 to 89% in 2025. um they've done this through education programs for composting requirements and then as well as um significant recycling efforts and some examples they provided were precious metal collection for the off-site recovery plastic bag and nitro glove collection for off-site repurposing. You can see that they provided if you go to page 10, 11, 12, 13, they provided a lot of pictures. um they have multiple staff members that are dedicated to this work there. So, oh actually page 14 too. Um so you can see they they have a lot of time and capacity and resources for this work. Um and it's it's very very impressive. Um actually to give some context, the state of Minnesota has a recycling goal of 75% of their we want to recycle 75% of our waste and that's a very very tough goal to reach. Most counties are only at around like 55%. So for their facility to reach 89% is pretty incredible. So but that's um we don't have to score. So uh it's actually just a motion for the commission to decide if you want to do special recognition or nominee here. So I'll open it up for chair to make >> Michael. Uh >> I'll motion for a special recognition for Abbott. >> Is there a second? I would second. >> Very good. >> Ingham, >> yes. >> Meyer, >> yes. >> Patine, >> yes. >> White, >> yes. >> Chair Golov, >> yes. Motion passes. One just personal comment. Um, I think the uh information submitted from Abbott Minnotonka is uh extremely well done. Having been in a role like that in the private sector, I can appreciate the level of effort and I think they they they definitely deserve it. They're they've they're doing a great job and their data demonstrates that. All right. Next is the waste awards. This is a resident candidate. Uh we only received one and these are for the residents of Ridge Point Senior Living. So uh Ridgeoint Senior Living is located at 1260 Marin Marian Marin Marian Lane West. Um it is a senior living facility with 220 residents. This was a residentled project. So that's why it falls under the resident category. Um the a group of residents noticed that there was a lot of residents that were generating plastic bag waste. Um the project started as a plastic bag mat weaving project. So one of the residents was working or was collaborating at her church to do this project and she wasn't receiving much support from her church um friends. Um and so she brought the idea to her um neighbors at the senior living facility and they all immediately got on board. And so now it's spiraled into this very large project. They um have created 20 or sorry 34 mats. Each mat takes 500 bags to make. Um they she I talked to her on the phone for about half hour and got a lot of details on this project, but she was explaining how they take a plastic bag, they cut off the handles, they cut off the bottom, and then they take the square, the middle square of the plastic bag, and they make strips. Um then they tie those strips together. They make a giant yarn ball of plastic bags. And then they take a loom that one of the residents built and you can see they string together these mats. Um they're two layers and then they deliver them to people experiencing homelessness in Minneapolis. Um and that started with one of the uh people that go to that woman's church. apparently he goes down to Minneapolis once a week delivering uh sandwiches to homeless people and so they're still connected with him and so he's the one then delivering these mats and they were saying that the mats go almost immediately. So um yeah, it's a very very involved project. I believe the the person that submitted this is a a member of our senior center here. So she's even started talking to the other seniors here. Um, but there's a lot of lot of information here that was really fun. So, I have to say I thought this was an incredible upycling um, uh, project and I was so impressed because the volunteer hours and the production were put in as well as the ingenuity um, and all the hours to implement it. So, I definitely would move for special recognition for Ridge Point senior living residents. Uh, as you all know, um, waste is my favorite area of sustainability. [laughter] It's my favorite. They laugh our audience member because it is my I say this every meeting. Um but anyways that so I was really excited to see this and then also it reminds me that um no matter what stage of life that we are in um we can all make an impact in sustainability and then not only did they do this they they upcycled it and then saw how they could help their community further and just this this project is like a a full circle project and so I just think that's really beautiful and um really amazing. I'm really excited about this project, a project like this. Number one, because it was resident led and um you know, the resident said, "I see something. I see a need in the community. How can I help?" And then brought it back to people within her smaller community to get them to help. But also, I hope that other people see like, "Oh, there apparently this is a need." I know that you said that these go right away um when they're brought to the people who are experiencing homelessness. And so perhaps more people can see that this is a project that um is uh number one it looks like you know relatively easy to do or accessible to people of all um ability levels um to help their community. So I uh second your motion and that's a very long-winded way of saying that I second your motion but um also that this was just touched my heart for sure. >> Uh are you ready for the role? Okay. Yes. >> Meyer. >> Yes. >> Patine. >> Yes. >> White. >> Yes. >> Chair Golov. >> Absolutely. Motion passes. Um I'm also spent many many years doing environmental consulting focusing on waste solid waste management. So this is another outstanding example of what individuals can do to improve the environment and to take uh product and reuse it. It's a it's excellent. >> Thank you for all the comments. Uh now we're on to the landscape awards. We have two resident candidates, Peter Gosman and Katherine Malotki, Peter Peter Gosman. Um, he converted 100% of his turf grass to native landscaping since 2020. His lot is about one uh half an acre. He's planted over 120 native grasses, sedges, and flowers. He's received grants from the watershed district jointly with his neighbor, which I thought was quite unique. Um he also received two other additional grants he noted and he's also purchased dozens of um bales of mulch from the city of Minnotonka site. So I thought that was another um cool opportunity to kind of see a closed loop there if you will with our products that we're providing. Um in the on the bottom row here, this is his before picture of his front yard and this is his after picture. So you can kind of see the expansion. Um yeah, he provided a lot of really beautiful photos and then his application is on page 17 and 18. Uh he provided cost data too if you wanted to note that which I thought was of interest. But um if you could score his application that'd be great. Oh yeah. All >> [snorts] >> right. [snorts] Going to move on. That's okay. All right. So, Katherine Malotki, she um so this this application was actually submitted by 9M Creek Watershed. So, this is going to be Oh, sorry. Do you have a question? >> No, sorry. >> Oh, it's okay. Go ahead. >> Wanted to make sure. Um, so Katherine Malotki, um, I just wanted to note she's the first of, I believe, five applications that were submitted by 9M Creek WHED. Historically, um, Elizabeth Boore, which I've learned, I believe she was she was >> previously on the commission. >> She was on the commission. Yes. >> So, she's well known around here. Um, she is the one that actually wrote all of the the next five applications. um she works very closely with all of these different applicants on their projects. Historically, I believe she's picked one application to submit and um kind of like maybe the best of the best. And I told her, you know, we're actually moving more towards a recognition program in a way and we'd love to hear all the great work that residents are doing. And I came in the next day and there were five applications. [laughter] So I was like, you know what, you deserve an award, Liz. Um, so maybe there's another category for us, but um, anyway, just wanted to kind of make a note of that that uh, Katherine was nominated by Elizabeth Bor at the 9M Creek WHED, which is one of four wersheds that we have in the city of Minnetonka and our engineering water resources staff work very closely um, with them uh, and respect their work greatly and we collaborate very much with them. So, that being said, Katherine improved landscaping and um captured water runoff on her property through this project. Uh she installed 430 square ft of permeable pavement to direct storm water off of her property. She installed 261 square ft of storm water swale, which is over here, to capture water and add native plant, sorry, sorry, native pollinator habitat, which was over 150 plants in that area. Um, and I also thought it was really of interest is that her property is actually located very close to Lone Lake Park, which is a known rusty patch bumblebee location. And so that's why she was motivated um to install that native pollinator habitat and also why um Elizabeth Boore submitted this for the landscape um category even though there are storm water benefits to this project. But she in her write up says something specific to that this is um that like the the drive of this project was the landscaping and the protection of um native pollinators. Um, so if you could score her application. Um, and then after that, circle your top candidate, pass in your ballots. again. They're all the same. You guys are making it easy for us. We have uh unanimous vote again um for Peter Gosman. So, uh, if you want to make a motion for special recognition based on that, you you can. >> Is there a motion? >> And it could also include the nominee award for Katherine Madki as well. >> Um, I'll motion for special recognition for Peter and nominee for Katherine. >> Is there a second? >> A second. >> Uh, Ingam, >> yes. >> Meyer, >> yes. >> Patine, >> yes. White. >> Yes. >> Chola, >> yes. Motion passes. Thank you. >> Okay, we are back to scoring again. Um, water awards. This is for the resident candidates. All of these were submitted by 9M Creek Wershed District again. So, we have water edge homeowners association, Andrew Schneider, Sandy and Mike Rusevald, um, and Glenn Atrium Condominium Association. So, Wat's Edge Homeowner Association, um, it's a Shady Oak Lake Shoreline Restoration Project. So, if you're familiar with Shady Oak Lake, it's all single family residents around it. Um, this group or homeowners that are part of that homeowners association of just private single family residents. Um so their area was battling um invasive buckthornne and they wanted to remove that. So that they went through a removal process. Apparently it had very very steep slopes which was quite unique and there was a lot of erosion they were experiencing. They fully restored their shoreline. the entire association was on board which if you go into some of the details on page uh let's see sorry let me just make sure I'm on the right page page >> 21 um that's no small feat I don't know if she included how many properties but I think it was several um so you know that includes going to a board and giving everyone on board so I think that's a really impressive um collaboration there they applied for several grants. Um they planted over 3,000 native plants and then they had three different phases of this project. So this has been happening for a while. Um phase three I I'm not going to read the the sizes, but you can see on the screen that they had pretty substantial plots of land that they were um revitalizing. And you can you can see in the pictures that you know these aren't just small little strips along. These are pretty substantial areas. Okay. So, if you want to move on to scoring, if you haven't already, you can do so. in in an effort to stay on time. Um, if you could give me a little nod or thumbs up. I like chair Gul did a thumbs up. That works. All right, gonna move on. Um, Andrew Schneider installed a rain garden on his personal residents property, residential property to protect water quality. Um, there's a quote in here that says, "I'm deeply committed to environmental sustainability and excited to excited about the opportunity to install a rain garden on my property. My primary motivation for this project is to improve improve local water quality by reducing runoff and helping groundwater recharge. So very very motivated for the environmental aspect of this project. Um this project allows the water to infiltrate into the groundwater instead of flowing through the storm drain directly to Shady Oak Lake. He installed 85 uh native pollinator plants and 90 square ft of rain garden. So you can see his kind of design down here. Um and then this whole area. And I I thought this was kind of unique because oftentimes I see rain gardens um near a road. [gasps] >> So I don't know. I'm not a storm water professional, but I was surprised to see it along um kind of where you would see normal landscaping. So that was new to me. But so if you want to move on to scoring and give me a thumbs up once you're done. Sorry. His application is on page 23, too, if you wanted to take a quick peek. All right. Going to move on to Sandy and Mike Roosevald. Everyone's ready. Good. Okay. All right. Page 25. Sandy and Mike installed a native shoreline buffer along their property. You can see a map aerial that was uh provided. Um this was to increase pollinator habitat and nutrient removal from Wing Lake. Their shoreline was eroding from muskrat tunneling. So that doesn't sound very fun. Um they installed new coconut core logs and native plants stabilizing the shoreline. Over 900 native plants were installed. And the shoreline buffer was um 117 ft by 16 ft. I'm going to score theirs. All right. All right. Move to the last applicant in this section. Um, Glenn Atrium Condominium Association is located at 14601. I'm actually not certain what type of housing this is. I I don't know if Susan is or not. It's >> okay if you don't. >> Yeah. A chair. It It is a a condominium association primarily for older adults. >> So, it's just like a multif family building of sorts. Okay. So, um uh Lizzie Boore, she mentioned that this was completely residentled. So they installed a shoreline buffer around the pond, previously neglected and disused, overgrown with buckthornne and um other invasives. They restored this to be like a multi-use park-like oasis. So it's not even just for their own residents. It's for the the homeowners there, but also neighboring uh children and seniors of adjacent care centers and all their neighbors, which I thought was pretty unique. Um, it took over 10 years, sorry, they removed over 10 years of buckthornne growth. So, I'm not exactly sure how long they participated in it, but sounds like a lot of work. Um, they mentioned that there was the waist high weeds that they were removing and then also invasive non-native plants. Um, it was done to protect the water quality and pollinators and wildlife. and they installed 400 native plants, two large native trees, and the shoreline buffer of 100 ft by 8 ft. So, I think this just represented, you can tell by the pictures, uh, another great example of pretty immense collaboration between residents and some education pieces you can see in in the photo. Um, not only are these neighboring people using it, but they're also, as Diane mentioned, using this opportunity for education, too, which is pretty great. [snorts] So, if you want to finalize the scoring for that project, circle your top applicant, and then pass your ballot in um to Susan, that would be great. the winner. Okay, we had a few different votes. I think however um the majority was Glenn Atrium Condominium Association. So that last project had four of five votes. Um so if a commissioner wants to make a motion to recommend special recognition based on that score, you may do so. Um could also consider doing nomine or recommending nominee awards for all remaining applicants. I would like to make the motion to provide the special recognition award to Glenn Atrium Condominium Association and nominee awards to the other applicants. >> Is there a second? I'll second that. [clears throat] Very good. >> Uh Ingram, >> yes. Mayor, >> yes. >> Patine, >> yes. White, >> yes. >> Chair Gol, >> yes. Motion passes. Thank you. >> Wonderful. Thank you, commissioners. Uh, one last application. This is for our young adult awards. We had one application received that was for the from the Vantage program and it was a high school team uh rel I guess doing work on a a project with Demcon. So um if you're not familiar this uh Minnetonka High School has a program called the Vantage program. Um it's a project based learning opportunity for students. they often pair with um local businesses or even you know the city for example to do project- based learning. There's a specific class called global sustainability. Um I believe we've had past young adult applicants from that program submitted in the past and this one was particular to a waste reduction project. Natalie Berg, Lydia uh Cameron Camden Fowler and then Stella Wesley were the students a part of this project. They collaborated with DemCon which is a local um MURF actually a material recovery facility located in Shakape and the students had an implementation charter um which they have since completed and it was to do market research and analysis on recycling of polycoded fibers so PFC's or sorry PCF packaging um in the United States they wanted to identify current and future end markets for that they evaluated ated current practices from major brand owners and they wanted to develop a strategic public and industry education plan for adoption. So my understanding is that they completed all of those project charters. They had a presentation that they shared with me um the the PowerPoint of that. I included some slides that I thought captured majority of their work. They did a bunch of survey um well they they completed surveys and presented the results. They came up with some conclusions. You can see they also were going on site um but their teacher um actually nominated them for this award. So if you want to see their full application, it's on page 28 and 29. And I guess I apologize, we're not doing scoring for that. This is just based on a nom uh a motion. So, if someone wants to make a motion for either a nominee or special recognition award, you can do so. >> I'll motion for special recognition. >> Is there a second? >> I'll second that. I'd also like to note that um in the future, I'd love that the teacher recommended that. And I'd like to for us to be mindful of how we can better communicate this uh competition, I guess, if you will, to uh more of our educational leaders so that they can potentially um nominate more of their students in the future because I love that. Um but that was my second as well. >> Great comment. Thank you. >> Uh Ingam, >> yes. >> Mayer, >> yes. >> Patine, >> yes. >> White, >> yes. >> Chair Gul, >> yes. Motion passes. Thank you. [clears throat] >> All right. That concludes this item. Um, so Chair Golb, if I don't know if you want to have any other additional discussion on this item, but that's all from staff. >> One comment I think I'd like to to make just kind of in in in conclusion, we have when I first re reviewed the U applicants, I I said to myself, "Wow, [clears throat] I'm impressed. The number of applications has grown. the uh scope of the applications in terms of what people have thought of has grown and I think we have a lot to be proud of and I'm I'm humble I'm humbled by the applications and the quantity and the ingenuity of what people are how they're improving the environment uh through our work. So, it's uh it's great to be associated with this uh program and especially tonight since we're focusing on this uh our awards program. It's it's it's very uh humbling and it's and it's great. It It's fantastic work. I want to thank all of the applicants. If you're some of you are watching now, thank you very much. For those of you that are watching, there are some really creative, caring people in our community. So, we want to give them a big big thank you. >> And with that, I think we'll move on to uh >> Yeah. >> Item number six. >> And really quick, I just wanted to make No, it's okay. I just you reminded me I I should make a last note that the award ceremony will be held on April 13th at the city council meeting at uh 6:00 p.m. and it'll be one of the first items. I believe it is the first item under special matters. Um so we'll host that ceremony. Award plaques will be given to all nominees and special recognition awardes. So um if you are watching and you were an applicant, stay tuned for a follow-up email. I actually sent one today with some of those details, but we will be reaching out again shortly. So, thank you for applying or nominating. >> Yeah, thank you, sir. Um, >> we can move on to the next item as Chair Gallup mentioned. Uh, so general staff updates. Um, just mentioned the last one, so the city council meeting. Um, related to that, any of the commission can come. If you would like to attend, you are encouraged to attend. It's a really fun um opportunity to see all the applicants being awarded. In the past, we actually had some children join, you know, their families. So, it's just a really really cool and inspiring event. We do take photos, so if you would like to be in those photos, you're welcome to as well. Um and again, that's at 6:00 p.m. So, if you are interested in attending, please let me know um by email and we can confirm. On Wednesday, April 22nd, we've confirmed that there is going to be the boards and commission appreciation dinner. So, um you should have most likely received an email from Sarissa today um our administrative staff um on that. Uh but you are all invited to that. So, um if you are coming, please respond to Sarissa and let her know. Uh Tuesday, May 19th. Let me just make sure there isn't something. Oh, okay. We'll talk about these dates and then there's more dates at the bottom. Um, zipping to May, that's our next commission meeting. So, May 19th is a Tuesday, so we won't meet for a little bit. Um, however, if you are part of a subcommittee, which I believe all of you here are, um, I believe two of our groups are actually meeting tomorrow. So, the reuse, um, not ours, Brian. [laughter] So, there's three groups. We have um a tours group which has actually met twice already. Um they're overachievers at the moment. Um soon to be followed by others, but the tours group has actually morphed into a learning group. So upon uh conversations, we've decided that, you know, we should talk about presentations that could be made to the commission and on-site tours. So, we're having really good discussions about that. and I really appreciate the the oneoff um meetings that we've been having outside of the commission. I'm really uh looking forward to doing that. So, thank you for that. Um the reuse group and then the everything electric group, we have it scheduled to meet tomorrow. Um >> can I ask who's on tours? >> It is Dave Carr and Brian. >> Brian. All right, cool. That's I got good representation there. Love Dave, too. Love Dave, too. And Commissioner Patine, if you wanted to join, you could. >> You just said they've met multiple times. Have you seen my calendar? >> During the day, too. >> Multiple times. I knew Brian was on there as soon as you said that. I was like, who is it, Brian or Diane? Which one? >> It's one of those two. [laughter] >> Me and the kids are busy, right, guys? >> Right. >> Yes. So, we've had some fun conversations and uh probably we'll have more soon. So, yeah. So, the reuse and everything electric meetings are tomorrow, so stay tuned for those. Um, CAP update, just wanted to share some um more exciting updates. So, I've submitted a lot of grant applications recently. Um, still waiting to hear back about those. One of them was for support for a green cauter program where we could subsidize um energy efficient or electrification equipment. So, we're waiting to hear back about that. that's from the or it would be supported by the state of Minnesota, so the pollution control agency and uh submitted some other as well. There's a Minnesota green core application out as well. So, we will be uh submitting for that too. Um so stay tuned. You know, we just kind of have to wait and be patient. I think every grant I've submitted for has extended their deadline out. You know, they say they're going to get back to you by a certain time, but almost all of them have pushed it out for another month. So, we just kind of wait and see. Yes. >> When is the potential uh decision date for the green core? >> Um for the actual like person. So, so when >> well when we would be awarded >> Oh, okay. I just I asked because previously it was supported by the federal government >> and so last year there was funding issues and they decided that they are no longer supporting Americanore programs and green core is one of them. So then the state took it on. Um the state actually agreed to host it again this year which is amazing. I will say with less host sites. So I think before there was maybe close to like 80 if I recall. Now there's more like 50 and I think it's due to budgeting. Um but my understanding is the application is due on the 24th. I think they do phone call interviews in April. Um and we probably would hear back by May if we were selected. the person would not start until August or September and it is a 9-month period. >> That's fine. Thank you very much. >> Yeah. So stay tuned for those. If we're successful with any of the grants that we complete, uh we will let you know or grant applications we submit. I'll let you know. Um we've also received updated greenhouse gas emission data for the city. Um, so I'll be s I'll be sharing an update more specifically on that in your Friday enem, we'll bring it to probably one of our next commission meetings to go over that information. Um, you can find the data. It's already published online at regionalindicatorsmn.com. If you search, um, if you find here, actually, I could pull it up if that's okay. >> I'm on the edge of my seat. I was like, "Just tell us. Just tell us. Give it to me. Is it Is it looking >> There's a There's a lot of information." >> Dian was typing. I was like, "Commissioner Meyer, what's it looking like? Are we looking bad?" >> Yeah. >> It's looking good. We're trending in the right direction. >> I would say it's uh good news overall. It's just a lot of information to share. So, that's why I don't want to get into too much detail because we could be here for a while. But, uh, we previously only had up till 2021. So, 22, 23, and 24 have since been added. and it's absolutely trending in the right direction. >> So yeah, I I was quite surprised by this. I I you know, we didn't have the data and the rebounding effects from pre or postcoid. >> So naturally, you would think that there would be some rebound. I'll be um bet shorter than um what it was. But yeah, so this is >> this is going down in um a really great way. Um just give a really short recap. This is broken down by three different sector sectors. Energy sector, which is our um built environment, so building energy use. Travel, which is vehicle miles traveled. And then our waste um energy, our energy grid is consistently getting cleaner. So energy is really holding us down right now. You can see travel is still significantly less than it was precoid. It's moderately trending up but impressively much lower than precoid still. And then waste is a bit higher. We're not necessarily certain here. However, I have learned the way that they calculate this is actually um not necessarily specific to Minnetonka. It's more like I believe there's um more of like a regional uh data set that's developed by the counties and then it's divided by your population. So it's not necessarily like this is the waste data particular to Minnotonka. It's more like I would I I think it I I see it as more of like a trend of the region and more of a subset of what that looks like for our population size. But we'll have a wider discussion on this. Regional indicators provided a whole series of city slides. They are by far the data experts on this. So this is again this is a public website. Um you scroll down to here to find Minnotonka. You might need to zoom out a little bit. Um scroll down here to the white arrow. Scroll up here. So the it's a little confusing. um to these various slides and they go into more detail on what is happening and what the data means. So I'd love to spend more time on this. We just received this. I believe it was last week or the very end of the week prior. So this is very new to all of us here, but very exciting and and nice to have this data finally available. So, >> Miss S, is is this re is this information developed by the Metropolitan Council? >> Great question. Um, I'm going to go back to the main slide. Um, so here's a list. So, the project lead is LHB. They're an I don't know how they necessarily define themselves. I think they're an engineering firm of sorts. um they list it somewhere on here, but they are a firm that specializes in this sort of greenhouse gas data. I actually think that they're an architectural firm. >> Okay. >> Um if I'm remembering correctly, so there's all these different sponsors, you know, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Great Plains Institute, Metropolitan Council, um the state of Minnesota Department of Commerce, US Department of Energy. They have contributors. I'm not sure necessarily how they're divided, but it is um a collective effort to say the least. And actually one of their slides, I believe it was this slide, 87 communities receive climate data through this initiative. So it's not unique to Minnotonka. It's very widely used. Um they described some background and they said in 2007 when the green set cities initiative was created, cities wanted to know how to track and collect greenhouse gas data. And so this initiative was born from that. Um and so it was a learning process, but actually Minnetonka, I've learned, was one of the founding cities to receive data for free at that time. Um, so we actually are very fortunate in that our data goes all the way back to 2007. Um, where some cities or counties, you know, you can see that theirs does not. And so that also is why it only goes back to 2007. Um, so if you're wondering why that it's it's that, that's because that's when this initiative was founded. So again, we could talk for a while about this. I think it's really really exciting. I'll share these links in the um Friday e-news with the commission. If anyone watching wants to play around on this very interactive data table, you can go to regionalindicatorsmn.com/city-summary search for Minnotonka and you can play around with this. So stay tuned for more information, but very exciting update. Um, and then lastly, ambassador opportunities. Um, we have a few coming up. So, actually tomorrow or no, Wednesday. Oh, I think I have that date wrong because it actually is tomorrow. So, I think it's the 18th. Um, and I also have the day wrong. Sorry about that. It's Wednesday, March 18th, um, at Ridgedale Library Switch Together event. So, if you recall, we talked about Switch Together before. Henipin County was supporting this. Um it's a group buy effort to reduce the cost of solar panels. So the more people that buy into these programs um economies of scale just reduces the cost per person. So if you're interested, this is kind of like the second round. You can go and learn more. Um if you search Switch Together event at Ridgel Library online, you'll you'll find the information there. But if any of the commissioners wants to attend that um for information learning and then report it back to the commission, you're welcome and encouraged to do that. We've we've talked about the 2026 commission work plan having these training opportunities that the commission said that they would complete. That would be an example of one that you could go and learn more and kind of report back to the commission if you want. >> Do you know what time that is? Um, it's been I I've shared it on our Signup Genius page. Okay. Um, so I don't have it off the top of my mind, but if you're interested, I can send you the link for that or you could go back to our Friday E-News last week and follow that link and I have the link on there. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Mhm. I could maybe just in case people are watching, let's maybe just do a quick search and see if we can find it. Um, switch together. Um, here we go. Oh, it is the 19th. Okay. So, it is Thursday. So, if you go to register here, Thursday, March 19th, 6:00 to 7:30 at um Ridgel Library, Minnetonka Switch Together, Solar 101. Solar United Neighbors is the the group that supports that. Apologies, lost my slide now. Okay, that's an opportunity. Um, Saturday, April 18th, Bridgdale Library Earth Day event. We have two tables. In the past, we've hosted an organics recycling table and then I think we also have it open for um just a general climate action and adaptation plan table that the commission can kind of choose. Oops. Um, what you want to host. I think one of our last farmers markets we did an electrification table. So, home electrification. So, if you want to attend that, again, that's on the Signup Genius for you to sign up. And then lastly, our Earth Day clothing swap, which is really exciting. That's on the following Sunday, April 26th, so the week of Earth Day. Earth Day is actually on that 22nd, the same day as the boards and commissions appreciation dinner. So, if you're willing to help out at that event, we could certainly use your help. I think last year we had 12 people helping and we needed every bit of those hands. This year it's actually going to be held at the community center too. Um the the marsh was really great but it just wasn't quite big enough and there was a bit of concern with um the steps that people were required to take. So while I would like to host potentially a smaller event there again um because it was really fun being a part of that marsh community and getting some of their um patrons to attend this year. We're going to try it at the community center again. All right. Oh, yep. Yep. Sorry. If I could add just uh one thing, [snorts] Chair Gallup, just to inform you about a new uh commissioner you'll have joining you. The planning commission um selected their representative uh to this body. Her name is Greta Shear. She's a new planning commissioner um to Minnetonka, but she has some background in uh commission work. She served on the Minneapolis Planning Commission uh in the past. She's a obviously a resident of Minnitonka. She's also a small business owner uh here in Minnetonka and has said she's very passionate about sustainability uh work and is very excited to join uh this body. She unfortunately was out of town this week, so couldn't be here at her first meeting, but she'll join you uh in May. >> How do you spell her last name? >> S H E R. I will note she's actually already volunteered for um joining a few of these events that you see posted. So, she's very excited. Um and I'm happy to I'm happy to see that she's interested in volunteering. [snorts] Okay. Um so, with that, I'll hand it off to you, chair, for the next item. >> Thank you. Uh item number seven is a report from my fellow sustainability commissioners. Does anyone have anything that they'd like to report. Um I'm Commissioner Meyer. Thank you. >> Yes. Um [clears throat] Rew Rewiring America is um has been providing a free intensive course on electrification of homes particularly for residents. Um and they've had uh 10 cohorts of this education series over the past three years. educating over uh I think it's 1,500 people. Um and I've started this course um and it's enlightening. It's very good um review um and detailed um information about electrification decision making that residents would need to make for heat pumps, induction stoves, um heat pump, water heaters, dryers, um and the insulation and um energy audit in the beginning to try to be more energy efficient um and helping residents make the decisions of upfront cost, long-term energy utilization. Um, and it's um, it's been a fascinating course and I'm just in the middle of it right now, but hope to be able to share that at our tableabling events and maybe for a presentation at some point. >> Thank you, Commissioner Meyer. [clears throat] Anything else that you my commissioners film commissioners would like to share? >> Oh, I don't know. I was just going to comment on what Commissioner Meyer said. Um, first of all, I didn't know if when you said it was has been enlightening if that was a pun. If so, I appreciated it. Um, second of all, I do hope you do a presentation on it once you finish it because I I think that, you know, I do appreciate the presentations and so I think it creates greater access to our community, our Minnetonka community. So, if you could bring that back to us, that would be appreciated. >> Thank you. Anything else? I I have one note or one item I'd like to share with my fellow commissioners. Um this was from the BBC. This isformational only and it does not represent my opinion, but I think it's it's directly relevant to what we do here. And it says Trump revokes landmark ruling that greenhouse gases endanger public health. And I'm going to read just a couple of sentences here. The United States President Donald Trump has reversed a key Obama era scientific ruling that underpins all federal actions on curbing planet warming gases. The so-called 2009 endangerment finding concluded that a range of greenhouse gases were a threat to public health. It has become the legal bedrock of federal efforts to rin in emissions especially in vehicles. The White House called the reversal the largest re re deregulation in American history saying it would c make cars cheaper which it may. Environmental environmental groups say the move is by far the most significant roll back on climate change yet attempted and are set to challenge it in the courts. So we'll have to stay tuned to see what happens. But it was very disheartening to see that. But that uh is the federal government. Anyway, that's the only thing I wanted to add. It was it's purelyformational. With that, um that concludes item seven and I'd like to uh move to uh item eight, which is other business. Um if there no if there's no additional business and uh Miss Southern says there's not, I'd like to move to item number nine, which is adjournment. And would anyone like to make the motion to adjurnn tonight's meeting? >> A motion. >> Thank you. Is there a second for that? I'll I'll second. >> Thank you. Uh I think we can simply say all in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Motion uh passes. We are adjourned. Thank you all.