03-10-20211
Chanhassen Environmental Commission (EC)
Regular Meeting – Zoom Online Meeting
6:00 pm
March 10, 2021
Members Present: Bill Chappell, Kristin Fulkerson, Jeff Harken, Greg Hawks, Don Vasatka, and
Markus Fischer.
Members Absent: None
Guests: Bill Fouks, Carver County; Lucy Rehm, City Council liaison
Staff Present: Jill Sinclair, Environmental Resources Specialist
Minutes: February minutes were approved with spelling corrections.
Virtual Tour of Carver County Environmental Center (CCEC): Bill introduced himself and told
the commission that the building that the CCEC is housed in was purchased in 2002. Before that it was
a heating and air conditioning manufacturing plant. The CCEC was started as a standalone facility to
address problem materials such as household hazardous waste (HHW), recycling, scrap metal, and yard
waste. The county used to have a mobile trailer and collection events but the cost and mobilization
issues kept increasing over the years. The 7500 sq. ft. building sits on 5 acres, of which 2.5 ac are
wetland. The county will be creating a pollinator garden with education signage out front where once
there was a composting display. Inside there’s about 5500 sq. ft. of warehouse and 2000 sq. ft. of office
and meeting space. The county hosted the Master Recycler classes at the CCEC in the past. The
building has a Product Reuse room where materials are diverted and offered for free to the public. The
room has been closed during COVID, but the county plans a phased re-opening starting April 1.
Vehicles drive up under the canopy, which was installed in 2011, and identify where they’re from and
what items they’ve brought. With the pandemic it’s been necessary to have individuals unload their
own items. The back yard is stocked with roll offs and the drop offs are self-service. Unfortunately
there are no loading docks. In spite of being closed for 11 weeks, 2020 was still one of the busiest years.
The CCEC can quickly collect 400,000 # of cardboard. They have 4 roll offs dedicated to that material.
They have outgrown their facility. Having only one way in and out makes it very hard to accommodate
large amounts of traffic. A drive-thru facility is needed. They can see 350-500 cars on a busy 4-hour
Saturday. Inside the warehouse, the CCEC does light segregation of electronics which saves them
money. They collect about 4000 appliances annually which go to a recycler in Savage. Batteries are a
big concern due to the possibility of fires from lithium batteries. Some producers say that the batteries
can be thrown in the trash but then lithium batteries inadvertently get tossed instead of recycled. There’s
lots of embedded batteries in products. The CCED is seeing a rise in number of batteries and damaged
batteries. The CCEC can handle about 25,000 customers per year. Over that number there are issues
with traffic inside and outside the facility area. Collection of cardboard has increased from 4K CY in
2017 to 6770 CY in 2020. They collected 11K gal of oil. A few things the CCEC would like people to
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know before they come to the facility – call ahead to check whether or not the item is accepted, secure
your load, and know what’s packed in your load – anything sharp or dangerous. The CCEC started
taking sharps a year and a half ago and it’s going well. They would like to try to collect car seats and
are trying to find a vendor to work with on that. The most common thing that people bring that isn’t
accepted is unrecyclable plastics such as totes. 60-70% of the visitors are from Chaska/Chanhassen.
The scrap metal and paper/cardboard markets are coming back. It would be beneficial to everyone if
haulers went back to weekly recycling collection.
2021 Recycling education ideas: Kristin suggested that each commissioner share what they learned
about the CCEC and then postings can be created for Fb. They could be added once a week to create
awareness and education for the CCEC. Each commissioner agreed to write a learning moment. The
commission looked at the communications calendar. Kristin has added an Earth Day promotion that
uses DemCon’s 2-part video on recycling. One video could be posted in late April near Earth Day and
another in early May. Pictures of the CCEC could also be posted with links to their website. Maybe
they have a video? Jill doesn’t think so. Another idea is to create information on specific recycling of
plastics, like #1, 2 and 5. The commission discussed the fact that it’s not that easy to explain what is and
isn’t recyclable. It would be great if local restaurants in town could offer compostable or reusable
containers. For the parks display board perhaps the commission can talk about choosing items that can
be reused, promoting recycled content products and avoiding single use plastics. Don shared that Target
has entered into the US Plastics Pact and will be making progress on reducing plastic waste. Greg
shared that Scott County has a Waste Navigator that Chan residents can use. He also confirmed the
DemCon trailer for 10/13, 3-5pm.
City updates:
• The new Chanhassen city manager starts Monday, March 22. Laurie Hokkanen was
previously the assistant city manager at Chanhassen a few years back.
• The community gardens are fully rented and there’s a long waiting list. The city is looking
for a second site south of Hwy 5 to open next year, hopefully.
• The city will be applying for a Shade Tree Bonding Grant to ask for funding to remove
public ash trees and replant the locations with different species.
• Waterwise rebates are available this year for purchases of toilets, washing machines, and
smart controllers that replace existing products. They have to be WaterSense or EnergyStar
certified products.
• There will be a summer intern at the city who will spend part of their time on water resources
and environmental issues.
Onboarding packet: The commission noted changes to make in the document: update Park and Rec
Director information; update list of accomplishments. Bill will work on the accomplishments list.
Kristin suggested that mentors be hooked up with any new commissioners next month. She will help
organize that.
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GreenStep Cities: Jill shared that the city continues to be at a Step 2. To advance the city will need to
make progress on 5 major best practices. Jill suggested that this topic be added to a future month with a
light agenda to discuss in more detail. The commission decided to add it to the June agenda. Jill will
send a link to the GreenStep Cities website.
General Discussion:
• Regarding the Earth Hour promotion, Jeff has not been able to contact anyone at Paisley
Park. He will try to contact the director. Bill has reached out to the school district a number
of times and has not received a response. The commission will promote it on social media.
The Earth Hour website may be a source of social media templates.
• Watershed update – Claire Bleser and B Lauer have both resigned from the district. There
was a closed meeting on 3/9 to discuss an interim director as well as the St Hubert
application. The district may start a water conservation promotion called My Water Pledge.
The Hennepin County Climate Action Plan will require the district to implement strategies to
meet the plan.
• Interviews – Jeff gave an update on the interview process. The council asked about having a
youth appointed to the commission. This topic should be added to the joint meeting. Jeff
wants feedback from the commission on the new interview process. The council would like
questions from the commission for applicants for the next time. The commission decided to
add that to the June agenda.
Meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm
Minutes prepared by Jill Sinclair