Elgin Sustainability Commission December 2024 Meeting: Haikus, Trees, and Climate

The Elgin Sustainability Commission met on Tuesday, December 10th at the Edward Schock Centre in downtown Elgin. The following issues were discussed by commissioners on December 10th and cheerfully shared with you by Erik & Tia after the fact: 

• Tia did not attend the ESC meeting, so she hosted this episode
• Not enough commissioners thought attending the December meeting was important, so the meeting lacked a quorum and the "people's business" could not be done. In other words, there was just a lot of talking (which is kinda par for the course with this group)
• The mayor's wife showed up as a concerned citizen to offer comments about the proposed removal of the Kimball Street Dam and weigh-in on the commission's city council recommendation about single use bag fees (or possibly a ban)
• Elgin Parks Superintendent Greg Hulke spoke for a long time about the city's parkway tree planting program
• Commissioners chatted about the city's Climate Action Planning process
• The lack of advanced event planning for the 2025 Elgin Earth Summit was discussed and there may be two volunteers willing to engage on this question sometime after the holidays

In the "deep-dive" segment of this episode, Erik & Tia unpack some of what is happening with the consultant facilitated Climate Action Planning process. They spent some time talking about the assessment phase. Specifically, the consultants are asking the community to engage in a mapping tool exercise. 

• Here is a link to an overview of the process:  https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/8f125e0f2d3745aaba550fb92e3da76e
• Here is a link to the City of Elgin’s Interactive Climate Action Map where YOU and YOUR NEIGHBORS are encouraged to provide pre-planning feedback:  https://elgincap.mysocialpinpoint.com/

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