Sustainable Environmental Advisory Commission — Skokie, IL
Date: 2022-12-27

Village of Skokie
 Sustainable Environmental Advisory Commission
 AGENDA

 December 27, 2022
 7:00 pm
 Village Council Chambers
 Also live streamed at www.youtube.com/user/thevillageofskokie
 Public Comments: sustainability@skokie.org


  I. Approval of minutes

 II. Guest Speaker: Meredith Gioia, Village of Skokie Communications Manager –
 New Sustainability Website

III. Old Business
 a. Sustainability Plan implementation and budget update
 b. SEAC’s role in the plan
IV. New Business
 a. Refuse and composting update
 b. Educational seminars at the library – update from Charlie Saxe


 V. Public Comment

VI. Next meeting

VII. Adjournment

Memorandum
TO: Sustainable Environmental Advisory Commissioners

FROM: _______________________________________________________________________
 Andrew D. DeCanniere, Commissioner, Sustainable Environmental Advisory Commission

DATE: January 10, 2023

SUBJECT: December 27, 2022 Sustainable Environmental Advisory Commission (SEAC)
 Meeting Minutes

Meeting was called to order at 7:04 PM in the Council Chambers at Skokie Village Hall. This
meeting was also streamed live on YouTube. A recording may be viewed online by visiting
the following web address: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_YGhpJ20Rs

Present: Vice Chair Jim McNelis, Commissioners Christopher Buccola, Andrew DeCanniere,
Michael Gershbein, Alma Likic, Rick Moskovitz, Emily Okallau, Robert Render, Charles Saxe,
Trustee Liaison Ralph Klein, Director of Public Works / Staff Liaison Max Slankard, Assistant to
the Director of Public Works / Staff Liaison Elizabeth Zimmerman

Also Present: Meredith Gioia, Village of Skokie Communications Manager

Absent: Chairperson Jennifer Grossman, and Commissioners Lisa Gotkin and Olivia Mahoney

I. Approval of Minutes

Minutes from the November 29, 2022 meeting of the Sustainable Environmental Advisory
Commission were unanimously approved.

II. Guest Speaker: Meredith Gioia, Village of Skokie Communications Manager -
 New Sustainability Website

Vice Chair McNelis proceeded to introduce Meredith Gioia, Communications Manager for the
Village of Skokie, to the Commission. She then went on to say that she is in attendance to speak
to us about the Environmental Sustainability Plan and its presence on the Village website. She
said that she is the Communications Manager for the Village, and has been in the position for
approximately three months. Prior to that, she spent 15 years at DePaul University, where she
managed communications for the College of Education. Working for the Village of Skokie, her
main responsibilities are handling the social media content and strategy, handling the website, as
well as video production. She said that we may be familiar with the “Building a Sustainable
Village” video series that the Village has been putting out for the past couple of months. It is a
series of short videos about sustainability that the Village of Skokie has been pushing out via
their social media channels, and they will be continuing it into 2023. If any Commissioners have
any ideas, or if we would like to collaborate on a video, we are welcome to reach out to her and
let her know.


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Ms. Gioia proceeded to give her presentation on the new Sustainability section that is to be a part
of the Village of Skokie’s website (www.skokie.org). Among other things, she went over the
importance of identifying the intended audiences of a website (in the case of the Sustainability
section of the website, the main audiences would be Village of Skokie residents, Village Boards
and Commissions, Village employees, and other municipalities), as well as the purpose (in this
case it would be to inform the public and other entities about the Environmental Sustainability
Plan; to update stakeholders as to our progress towards our sustainability goals and actions; to
hold Village employees accountable; to inspire individuals and businesses to make more
sustainable choices utilizing Village programs; to provide additional resources for those who
wish to do and learn more). She noted that the new Sustainability section will be accessible
within the “Our Community” menu on the Village website. For ease of use, this Sustainability
section will also be accessible via a short URL, such as www.skokie.org/sustainability. Note
that the short URL that is ultimately chosen may differ from the example provided here.

She then went on to review the Sustainability section landing page, which includes some
information regarding the history of sustainability in Skokie, and how the Environmental
Sustainability Plan came about. Most of the information provided is taken directly from the plan.
As we can anticipate that not everyone will go through the entire plan, the idea is to provide an
overview of the plan on this page. For those who do wish to read through the plan in its entirety,
there will be a link to the Environmental Sustainability Plan as well. On the top right-hand corner
there will be a section labeled “Latest Sustainability News.” She said that leaders of each of the
plan sectors have been tasked with providing regular news updates to both Ann Tennes, the
Village’s Director of Marketing and Communications, and herself. There are many different
channels that may be used to share those updates — such as on the Village website, in the
Village’s weekly electronic newsletter (SkokieNews) and the Village’s quarterly print newsletter
(NewSkokie), as well as via social media.

Additionally, there will be “What Can You Do?” buttons that can be found through the
Sustainability section, as we do not want to just tell visitors about the work that we are doing, but
we also want to encourage residents and businesses to engage in their own efforts to help us.

Scrolling down the page, one will notice that all of the various sectors of the plan are listed.
Those will be live links, and when you click on any of those links, you will be taken to a separate
page for that sector. Each sector has an individual page with information that pertains only to that
sector. Towards the bottom, one will notice that it once again stresses that “Implementation is for
everyone.” That point continues to be stressed throughout, to anybody visiting the website.

At the bottom, if someone has questions about the Environmental Sustainability Plan, there is a
message that asks them to send an email to sustainability@skokie.org. That email will then be
directed to the appropriate individual, who can then respond to their question.

Ms. Gioia then presented one of the sector pages (Transportation & Mobility), to give
Commissioners a better idea of the design/layout. On every sector page, there will be links to the
other sectors on the left-hand side of the page, so that it is easy to use and visitors can jump to
other sectors without having to go back to the landing page. Each sector page also has an
explanation of what the sector is, and then there is a section for news relating to that sector. In

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this example, there is a section for news that specifically relates to Transportation & Mobility.
Whereas, on the landing page, there are the two most recent news items from any of the sectors,
the two most recent news items featured on a sector page will be specifically related to that
sector. Once again, the idea that “Implementation is for everyone” is reiterated on the sector page
as well, complete with a “What You Can Do?” button, sending people to learn more about what
they can do. Scrolling down, you can see all of the strategies. Every page has all of the strategies
listed. If you click on a strategy, it opens up and displays all of the actions from the Sustainability
Plan.

She noted that we will notice that all of them are listed as “future actions,” because the rollout is
in its infancy. As time goes on, they will be broken down into “In Progress,” “Future,” and
“Completed” actions. These will be updated quarterly. The Sustainability Action Team has an
internal document that they will be updating, and she will be checking in with them about every
three months to see where progress has been made, and then she will make the necessary
updates.

If a visitor clicks on a “What Can You Do?” button, it takes them to the “What You Can Do”
page. She noted that they are probably going to have a separate link for businesses, because
businesses and individuals have very different needs. One of the issues with the Village’s website
is that information can be found in a variety of different places. We have recycling information in
the Public Works section, health and safety information in the Department of Health and Human
Services. So, there is no one place for people to get all of that information. That’s what this
“What You Can Do” page is going to aim to be. If someone wants to know about all of the
various sustainability related efforts within the Village, such as recycling, they can go to this
page and find that information. It will all be listed right there, so they don’t have to search around
the Village’s website. She will be working with all of the different departments, to make sure
they have all of the information. The other benefit is that if this information changes, then this
information does not have to be changed in two different places on the website. This is an
important step in making sure that we are getting accurate information out to residents.

Finally, there is an “Additional Resources” section which, she noted, is where she will need
assistance from Commissioners. As far as additional resources go, there is tons of information
out there on the web. Scientifically supported information, however, is a little bit harder to come
by. Anyone with a computer can create a website. Therefore, making sure that we have
legitimate, understandable information for residents that want to learn more is important. She
said that they are looking for videos, websites, printable materials. She is also aware that
reaching out to the schools and incorporating environmental sustainability into the education is a
big part of the Environmental Sustainability Plan. If there are educational resources that we are
able to provide, that teachers can then use, that sort of thing would be welcome as well. She said
that she would welcome any and all of it, and they could then share that on the Additional
Resources page, so that residents can know that they have trusted resources that they are able to
use as references. A question-and-answer session followed.

Commissioner Render said that he thinks that this is a great start. She already answered what was
going to be his first question, which was going to be about links to the plan and the updating of
information as we accomplish items within the plan. He went on to inquire as to whether we will

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be able to have some input in terms of content. He also suggested that, when it comes to
additional resources, we ought to take advantage of videos that may be available to us from our
recycling partner, Lakeshore Recycling Systems (LRS). For instance, there should be some video
available depicting their materials recovery facility (MRF) in action. Perhaps we could work
with them to come up with an edited version of that, which is not too long, because he is
guessing that the majority of people who reside within the Village have no idea as to what a
MRF is or where their stuff ends up. People just don’t trust that their stuff is actually going
somewhere to be recycled. If we can address some of that through such videos, then that would
be great. He also inquired who will be reviewing any additional resources that she may be sent in
order to decide whether they are based upon trusted/respected science or whether they are not.

Commissioner Gershbein stated he is a former librarian who has been involved in the creation of
a number of websites over the years, and he therefore is aware of what it takes to create one. He
knows that once you start doing these “additional resources” things, you can end up with an
extremely long, useless page of resources. Therefore, his suggestion would be that we are very
selective in terms of what we include. He went on to say that the other thing is that the Solid
Waste Agency of Northern Cook County (SWANCC) will already have a whole bunch of stuff
that is out there, and we do not need to redo what the SWANCC website already does.

Ms. Gioia concurred, and stated that is why she has said that she could use our help when it
comes to this. She said she doesn’t know if this is something that we could work on. She is not
looking for the public to send in resources. She would like to restrict it to Village employees and,
perhaps, this Commission. We could then provide information that we think would be beneficial.

Commissioner Gershbein reiterated his feelings that any list of resources should be kept focused
towards Skokie, and toward area resources that could be of help to us.

Ms. Gioia said that perhaps if there is some simple information about things like greenhouse
gases and why greenhouse gases are bad, that would be one example of something we might
want to include. Simpler is better, especially for somebody looking for a two-minute overview.
Perhaps we can also talk about what information people need, and then find resources to fulfill
those needs.

Commissioner Okallau said she’s glad Ms. Gioia brought that up, because that was going to be
her comment. She thinks we need to determine which resources actually are useful and
informative. She concurred that it would be better to provide simple, easy to understand, short
videos, rather than providing links to lengthy articles such as those found on JSTOR. Those
kinds of articles would not be particularly helpful for this purpose. She said that she thinks that
information needs to be interpreted in order for it to be useful, and so she wants to make sure that
we are staying on that side of it, making sure that the information we are providing actually is
helpful.

Ms. Gioia noted that the other thing that is nice about websites is that they are fluid. It’s not like
printed material, where you edit something, print it, and then it’s done. As things progress, and as
we find out more about what residents need to know, or more about what we need to be sharing,
tweaks may be made along the way. She went on to note that, going back to what Commissioner

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Render had said, the first video she did in the Village of Skokie’s new “Building a Sustainable
Village” video series (which is also available via the Village’s YouTube page) is from when they
toured an MRF. It’s quick and to the point, showing what should go into residents’ recycling bins
and where their recyclables end up.

Commissioner DeCanniere stated that he feels that the new Sustainability section of the Village
site looks really good. He went on to say that one idea that he had, when it comes to pushing
things out via social media, is for the Village to push out some sort of infographic illustrating
the progress that has been made toward the goals set forth in the Environmental Sustainability
Plan. Such an infographic could be pushed out at about the same time that the information
regarding what progress has been made is posted/updated on the website. For instance, the
infographic could illustrate that such-and-such percentage of the Transportation and Mobility
goals have been reached, and so on and so forth for the various sectors of the plan.

Ms. Gioia concurred. She said that during the Sustainability Action Team meetings, they have
been talking a lot about reporting, and how they will be reporting to each other, as well as the
frequency of when they will be reporting. So, for instance, if it is going to be on a quarterly
basis, they will definitely be looking at the information that they have and how best to get that
information out, and that it certainly will be on the Village’s social media and there will be some
sort of graphic.

Commissioner Buccola said that he wanted to share some information with Ms. Gioia and will
speak with her later. He is working with another organization, and there are some resources that
he can share with her. He went on to ask if there is a Dropbox for us to be able to share things
with her. She said that there isn’t something currently set up, but she’d be happy to set something
up.

Commissioner Moskovitz introduced himself and suggested that he can help her connect with the
green business community in Skokie. Ms. Gioia welcomed any such connections, and said that
will actually be very helpful when they are building out the “What can businesses do?” part of
Sustainability section.

Commissioner Saxe noted that, in terms of additional resources, the Environmental
Sustainability Plan itself has quite a few references included within it. That could be a good place
to start.

Ms. Gioia noted that she hopes to have the draft version of the main webpages within the
Sustainability section of the webpage done by the end of January.

III. Old Business

 a. Sustainability Plan implementation and budget update

 Staff Liaison Zimmerman stated that she wanted to share the working document that is
 being used to implement the Environmental Sustainability Plan, also referred to as an
 implementation matrix. This consists of the different sectors of the plan. All of the action

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items are listed, along with the phase listed within the plan. Different teams have begun
to fill out the lead responsible for particular action items, and they will soon be filling out
more of the budget numbers for each of the items being worked on for the upcoming
year. She noted that they have been meeting regularly.

Staff Liaison Slankard and Assistant Village Manager Nick Wyatt are in charge of the
different sectors, and each of the sectors has a key Village staff person who is in charge of
developing a work plan of the next year. They are looking to Boards and Commissions,
including this one, to take a look at the Environmental Sustainability Plan and then letting
them know what we may be interested in helping with — particularly when it comes to
action items that are not typical for staff jobs. For instance, there will be things in there
that involve adding things to contracts. That kind of thing will be a staff item. The same
goes for things like budgeting, code changes and the like. Staff can take input on some of
those kinds of things but, for the most part, staff has to do that type of work. However, as
one goes through the plan, there are a lot of action items beyond staff’s normal scope of
work, and those are the items that they could use a lot of help with. Examples may
include outreach to schools, outreach to businesses, etc.

She went on to say that she is aware that, during the November meeting, Staff Liaison
Slankard asked Commissioners to take a look at the plan and identify some of the things
that we wanted to help with. She wanted to check to see if anyone has had that chance to
review the plan and may have some initial thoughts in terms of what they may be
interested in working on.

Commissioner Saxe asked whether Staff Liaison Zimmerman could explain what the
spreadsheet we are being presented with is.

Staff Liaison Zimmerman said that this particular spreadsheet is not going to be available,
as it really needs to be the staff’s working document, as they are going to be changing
things on the spreadsheet constantly. It is not something definite. It is a work plan, and
there are going to be changes. However, every sector has this work plan. These
spreadsheets are being filled out by the leads for each sector. The phases are also
provided within the plan. They are starting to look at “Phase 1” items, but they also
have to read through the whole plan, because there may be a “Phase 3” item that will take
eight years. Additional explanation and discussion of the spreadsheet ensued.

Staff Liaison Zimmerman noted that there is a cost column for projected budget costs,
and as they go through the budget process, they have set up extra line items in the budget,
under the various departments, for these various costs. They haven’t gone through the
process of funding yet, but this is just the first step in determining some of these costs.
They still have to go through the budget and try to find funding for some of these items,
but this is the first step in identifying how much it is going to cost to plant trees, or print
flyers that are needed, or for an intern to do some work, etc.

Commissioner Okallau asked if they are including staff time in the cost, because it is
important to recognize that on many levels — not to discourage those types of activities,

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but she said she is very conscious of that these days, and does feel it is very important
that information be included. She suggested that there could be another column for staff
time or staff resources. Discussion ensued.

Staff Liaison Zimmerman went on to note that within Public Works, they just created an
Operations Manager position. It is somebody who is extremely mechanically inclined and
tech savvy, and who has a very strong interest in moving the needle on sustainability
within Public Works got the position. Positions such as these are extremely critical to
help move the make progress on some items, such as those related to electric vehicles
and facilities. They are starting to try to incorporate the plan into Village positions.

b. SEAC’s role in the plan

Commissioner Saxe noted he has a blank spreadsheet we could use. There could be a
column for which subcommittee of SEAC may have a particular interest in oversight
of an item. It was also suggested that we might identify community partners, such as the
Skokie Chamber of Commerce or another group that would be involved, along with other
local entities such as the Park District or School Districts that could participate in some of
these things.

Staff Liaison Zimmerman reiterated that when it comes to items that have to do with
residents/businesses and outreach are things that they could use help with.

Additional discussion ensued.

Staff Liaison Zimmerman also noted that the Village did one of their first zero waste
events, which was one of their holiday parties, as we may have seen on social media.
Collective Resource provided service free of charge, as part of their agreement with
the Village, and there was an educational component as well. She went on to say that
Village employees were really engaged.

Commissioner Saxe said that there is a lot of material to review and it is pretty dense, but
it is organized in a straightforward manner. They have the sectors listed, and then they
have the strategies. He said that he thinks the thing to do is to get familiar with the
sectors, then look at the strategies. If there is something in the strategies that is of interest,
we can look at the individual actions. That way, we will not have to digest the whole
thing at once. However, he thinks that becoming familiar with the sectors and what the
strategies are will be helpful for understanding what is in the plan.

Staff Liaison Zimmerman said one great example of an item somebody could take on
independently and do a bunch of research on is the one about styrofoam: “Research
options and advocate collection of Styrofoam blocks for peletization (reuse) and/or
extrusion (recycling or disposal).” They could just do research on the subject and see
what opportunities are out there. She said that’s not really in the realm of what staff
is doing right now, and it is really hard to add on action items such as these.
Commissioner Render said that this item is something that he would know a lot about.

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 Staff Liaison Zimmerman asked if he would like for her to assign this particular item
 to him. Commissioner Render agreed. Staff Liaison Zimmerman said that if there are
 any action items listed that any of us would like to work on, we should feel free to email
 her about it, and she will add our name to the spreadsheet for that particular item.

 Commissioner Render then went on to ask whether the styrofoam action item was for
 industry and residential, or residential only. Staff Liaison Zimmerman said it does not
 specify which, so anything that helps the cause would be fine.

 Staff Liaison Zimmerman said that for the next meeting, Commissioner Saxe will
 provide the blank implementation plan spreadsheet, and we should feel free to email her
 as we identify action items that we would like to work on.

IV. New Business

 a. Refuse and composting update

 Staff Liaison Slankard said that they met with the Village Manager’s Office staff and with
 Ms. Gioia to talk about the once per week refuse transition, and to begin lay out some
 thoughts regarding the time sequence of that transition. There obviously is a bit that goes
 into it, as has been discussed with this Commission. As we’re aware, there is an element
 of simplicity in that the Village is reducing a service versus expanding one. By the same
 token, there are still some logistics that must be thought through as they begin to make
 this transition. That would include topics such as making sure that there are extra toters
 available for those who will need them. Things need to be thought through in terms of
 what is the right time period in which to do this, from a scheduling and weather
 standpoint, to implement the service? Additionally, when does the leadership of the
 Village have a goal of implementing the service? Also, what is the the public information,
 education and outreach like in the lead-up to this service change? They did meet before
 the Christmas holiday to begin reviewing that, and they are working through the logistics
 now, in order to get locked in on a target date, so that they can plan public
 communications in advance of making this change. He noted that they had a good
 meeting with Ms. Gioia to discuss this. They also want to be able to coordinate their
 messages about why the reduction in service is taking place, but they also want to
 provide education on recycling, education on food waste and food scrap composting,
 and other things that residents can do and learn about how they can change some of their
 habits and learn about how to be more environmentally responsible, particularly for those
 who feel as though this might be a challenging transition. They are actively working on
 this, and will have more information to offer very shortly.

 Related to that, they are working on the framework of the recycling RFP (Request for
 Proposals), but in that regard they have also had conversations with Lakeshore Recycling
 Systems (LRS) about the recycling marketplace, their current contract, and what
 opportunities may exist for an extension or new arrangements with them. He expects to
 receive additional information from them this week, in terms of what those opportunities
 may look like. That is an active discussion with them. They also talked about some of the

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renewals that they have recently done with some of the North Shore communities, where
the recycling marketplace is going, as well as some of the state legislation that is out
there with respect to Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR).

Commissioner Render said it is basically a tax on a specific type of packaging or
whatever it may be, and then that money is collected, and then the question is who
gets to decide what happens to the money. The idea, theoretically, is to build the
infrastructure for recycling collection. He is aware there is EPR legislation that
has been proposed, and some of that has been for carpet, which may be something
we want to discuss in terms of the Sustainability Plan.

Staff Liaison Slankard noted that there are a few things that are in play, legislatively,
in Springfield that may have an impact on the recycling market. They are not necessarily
impacts that will alter the market in the next year to two years, but they may be factors
three years down the road. Those are some of the discussions that they are having with
LRS, which are active and ongoing, and they will have more to report back to the
Commission by the next meeting. He went on to note that, as Commissioners are aware,
one element that was related to the Village Board’s recent action with respect to this
service transition to once-a-week refuse collection was enhanced food scrap options.
Staff Liaison Zimmerman will be providing an update with respect to the food scrap
composting and, in particular, the development of the drop-off program.

Staff Liaison Zimmerman said that a lot of good progress had been made where the
food scrap drop-off program is concerned. She noted that she went to Evanston to
take a look at the City’s food scrap drop-off site at Robert Crown Community Center.
She also took a look at a site in Glencoe. A number of people have sent some photos of
some larger drop-off sites as well. When she visited the sites in Evanston and in Glencoe,
those were simple. There were toters with some great signage, indicating what could be
composted and what could not be. She subsequently reached out to the Skokie Park
District, and they have indicated their interest in being a partner. They are finalizing the
details regarding anywhere from four to six sites within the Village of Skokie, in terms of
precisely where those sites will be. The Village’s Engineering Division is able to
incorporate some concrete pads within the concrete contract this spring. She went on
to say that they just have to do an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with the Skokie
Park District to work out some maintenance-related items. She’d expect they can get
this rolling in late spring, after the concrete can be poured. She does not know whether
we will need to wait for new funds, or whether they are able to accommodate a month
or so within this budget, but things are progressing well. She said she does not see
obstacles to rolling that program out.

As far as the incentive aspect of the curbside program, she said that she reached out to the
Village’s purchasing agent, and he is currently reviewing the Village’s franchise
agreement. They just have to make sure everything is legal. We will not be able to offer
incentives if it is found that doing so would violate the law. The Manager’s analyst did
some research on countertop composters. The thought is that they’d run some sort of
program where they would give away some sort of countertop composters.

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 People would sign up and perhaps would get some sort of incentive for signing up that
 day — either at the Farmers Market or at various Village events. They think one of the
 barriers is that people just don’t take the time to sign up for the composting program.
 They just have to wait to hear back from the purchasing agent to determine if there are
 any issues with this plan.

 Vice Chair McNelis asked whether they had spoken with Collective Resource about
 the potential incentive.

 Staff Liaison Zimmerman stated that, in spirit, they are very on-board with scaling
 up. She did speak with them about potentially incentivizing people to sign up for the
 program, and anything that we can help with would be great, in order to get customers.
 They just need to double check the contract, and they will likely have more information
 in January.

 Vice Chair McNelis inquired as to the timeline for transitioning to once weekly refuse
 collection.

 Staff Liaison Slankard said that they are still working on what the timeline will look like.
 He would anticipate that this transition will occur sometime in late spring, before we get
 into the summer months. They also want to make sure that all of the various forms of
 communication from the Village are in-sync.

 Vice Chair McNelis asked whether that means that we can anticipate that this transition
 will happen during the first half of 2023. Staff Liaison Slankard suggested that we could.

 Commissioner DeCanniere noted that he has also been at work on an updated version of
 the “Village of Skokie Recycling & Disposal Programs” brochure, in which he intends to
 include some information regarding the transition to once weekly refuse collection.

b. Educational seminars at the library — update from Charlie Saxe

 Commissioner Saxe said that during the November meeting he had mentioned that
 we have the Citizens Utility Board (CUB) coming to the library to do a presentation
 on decarbonization and making your home energy smart. This presentation will
 occur on January 25th. We also had talked about creating a regular series of programs,
 either at library or some other facility, that would be public information, workshops or
 the like, that are related directly to the sustainability plan. He put together a spreadsheet
 of some potential ideas and shared that with the Commission, in order to solicit ideas.
 He would like to continue to work on this, but he conceives of these events as being
 held on a quarterly basis. This would also present an opportunity to provide the
 community with updates on where things stand in terms of the Environmental
 Sustainability Plan and what kind of progress is being made toward the goals/objectives
 that have been set forth in the plan. People have already sent a couple of emails with
 some ideas. He would like for Commissioners to look through this spreadsheet and
 see which ideas they might have an interest in, and then help out / take some ownership

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 for that particular event. For instance, they could identify a particular speaker or contact
 somebody who could do the presentation. We could then work together on determining a
 location and date. Another idea he had, given the upcoming changes in waste collection
 and composting, is that one such session could specifically focus on those changes.
 He thinks that Staff Liaisons Slankard and Zimmerman would be the people to
 present on that particular topic. If they are open to doing something of this sort, he could
 then coordinate with them on that. Obviously, the timeline for the transition to once-
 per-week refuse collection is still to be determined. He said that he will share the
 spreadsheet of the ideas that he has for workshops, and Commissioners can take a look at
 that and see what they may be interested in.

 Please note that the CUB presentation will be held at the Skokie Public Library on
 January 25, 2023 at 6:30 PM in the Radmacher Room.

 Commissioner Saxe noted that it will be a hybrid event, with those interested in attending
 able to do so either in-person or via Zoom.

 Staff Liaison Zimmerman stated that, if desired, she thinks that the Village can
 advertise the event on their social media. She asked if Commissioner Saxe has
 a contact at the library who has an idea as to whether spots are available. She
 doesn’t want to advertise the event if there aren’t any spaces left. Commissioner
 Saxe stated that the sign-up for the event does not begin until January 2nd.
 That said, the room is pretty substantially sized, and he thinks that it is able
 to accommodate about 50 people.

 Commissioner DeCanniere said that, as an avid reader, one idea that piqued his interest
 is the idea of an environmental book club. He feels as though this could be an interesting
 ongoing partnership with the Skokie Public Library. It could be even better if we could
 link this to some of the specific sectors, goals or objectives within the new Environmental
 Sustainability Plan.

V. Public Comment

No public comments were received.

VI. Next Meeting

Based on the expected availability of Commission members, the next meeting will be held on
Tuesday, January 24, 2023.

VI. Adjournment

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 8:18 PM.




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