PEAT Peaks Environmental Action Team

Bill Oliver
Howard Pedlikin
Jubal Kessler
Justin Palmer
Karen Friedman
Mary Anne Mitchell
Sam Saltonstall
Steve Demos
Vinnie Demos

Kirk Goodhue will make a donation to help with printing. The PIC will reimburse PEAT for some or all of the remaining expenses. Several people recommended going to Dale Rand on Washington Ave for printing.

Vinnie will make some new and hopefully cheaper designs once Earth Day is out of the way.

A side conversation about where to post copies of the brochure revealed that the bulletin board for the now defunct Peaks Island Neighborhood Association might be available to PEAT. Vinnie will contact Gerry Garman and inquire.

Application was due on April 13th, and Mary Anne has sent it.

Jeff came out to talk about excessive cutting. He said that mowing and dealing with invasives are two different issues which should be dealt with separately. He suggested that there should be a map with guidelines for cutting . There will be a meeting with PILP, PIC, PEAT, and Jeff to discuss the back shore and start a plan.  Hopefully there will be a joint collaboration with all these groups, who can suggest limits as to where and how often it’s okay to mow. Jeff wants the map out by May, and wants our input - not just about cutting, but also about replanting.

Mary Anne requested help with removing more knotweed around the parking lot, and more cleaning/sweeping in that whole area, which they thought reasonable.

Jeff expressed reservations about the suitability of the rugosa roses on the hillside, since they make it hard to clean and weed.

A new trash can has been installed next to the Gull.

Movies on Saturday night are My Neighbor Totoro at 6 and Plastic Planet at 8.

Clean-Up is all day Sunday. Steve will run it, but would welcome company.

There were various suggestions about contests to collect and/or predict greatest number of cigarette butts on sidewalks, gutters and beaches. Unfortunately it’s supposed to rain, so we’ll wait until the last minute and then wing it, weather permitting. Nevertheless, let it be recorded here that the prize-winning mantra for the day was designed by Bill Oliver:

"You don’t have to be a contortionist to stick your butt in your pocket!"

Cynthia Cole is coming out in the late morning to see her new tree. It would be nice if all who are free could drop by the Café and join her for a sandwich or snack.

The tree will be dedicated at two o’clock.

Sam described this volunteer oufit headed by Frank Mondo of Rockport and running out of the Unitarian Church there. Window Dressers

Sam has coordinated the island churches, PEAT and PITEA in an effort to provide low or no cost re-useable interior storm windows for islanders by using the WindowDressers measuring expertise later this summer, and then holding workshops at which we will assemble the pre-cut storm windows that they fabricate.

It’s time to replace the year-round bottle bin down front, which has never fully recovered from the damage sustained when someone tossed a stick of dynamite into it a couple years back. Discussion ensued about whether to request funding from the PIC or the Portland City Council.

Howard asked again that we consider how to get the city engaged in testing old dump sites for contaminants. This is supposed to be done regularly, but has not. Peaks has an above-average number of cancer cases, which makes this a priority.

Mary Anne observed that the Island Fellow application included development of a study to track the incidence of cancer on the island.

Sam brought this up, saying that there appears to be an attempt going on to get piecemeal permissions for the pipeline (smaller segments taken one at a time), thus avoiding the larger environmental questions such as climate change.

• June 4th will be at Howard’s house.
• October 8th will be at Sam’s.

PEAT Meeting March 5, 2012

Attendees:

Howard Pedlikin
Karen Friedman
Jubal Kessler
Marie Ann Mitchell
Justin Palmer
Steve Demos
Vinnie Demos
Sam Saltonstall (for the last few minutes)

The group voted unanimously to endorse Mary Anne’s application to the Island Institute for an Island Fellow. Vinnie will find the form for supporting organizations and forward it to Mary Anne.

Mary Anne will contact Jeff Tarling about getting us a northern red oak for the parking lot and state our preference for planting it on Earth Day. This means asking him to arrange for a hole to be dug ahead of that date and making sure all knotweed has been removed in that area. Vinnie and Steve will stake out a spot for the hole and also make some kind of sign for the tree.

Vinnie has gotten the original of the Peaks Island brochure from Lynne Richard, but needs someone with Pagemaker to open it. (Forgot to ask Justin about this). It was originally published by the PIC. Vinnie will try to get a printing estimate in the next few days and then Mary Anne will ask the Council to consider including it in their new budget. (Lynne says that Kathie Schneider was in charge of storing and distributing the last edition. She may have some left.)

The group agreed to change PEAT's meeting time to once every two months, starting on Monday April 9th. At that time we will draw up a calendar and a roster for the year so that members have time to schedule ahead. Each board member will sign up for a turn at hosting, planning, running and taking minutes for a single meeting. We will continue to post the minutes on the website. However, the group agreed to establish a presence on Facebook as well. More about that in April.

Footnote: Summer water for the Community Garden has made it into the Portland budget for the fiscal year, which begins July 1st. If all goes well, work would begin after that time!

Minutes from January 2, 2012

Attendees:

Howard Pedlikin
Sam Saltonstall
Bill Oliver
Mary Anne Mitchell
Steve Demos
Vinnie Demos

Island Fellow news

Howard provided the following checklist for us to consider while planning for the forthcoming year and for consideration in our application for an island fellow. We began by discussing what could be eliminated, combined, added and prioritized. The group eliminated #8, #10 & #15 and added #18 #19 & #20.

PEAKS PEAT Environmental/Ecological Issues

1. Shoreline Management

   We looked at a slide show prepared by Lynne Richard nearly two years ago following our first meeting with the Portland DPW about excessive cutting on the back shore (see attachments). Although those of us who attended the mtg thought it had been at least partially successful, the cutting has continued and is, if anything, more extreme. Jeff Tarling, who seemed willing to cooperate with us at that time, has more recently stated (see the Jan Island Times) that he approves of the current mowing practices. Howard said that AJ had checked with homeowners along Seashore Avenue, most of whom approved of removing the bushes. We believe that he also consulted PILP before mowing. So far both parties have disregarded the fact that the removal of this shoreline barrier against erosion is illegal. He seems not to have solicited the support of any other islanders so we have no way of gauging the sentiments of this larger group. Mary Anne read the letter of an occasional visitor to Peaks who recently walked along the back shore and was dismayed to see the loss of so many shrubs, particularly the roses. We will forward this to the Island Times. It might be good if those of us opposed to the mowing were more vocal and public about our concerns since the sampling of opinion so far appears to be slantedin one direction.

   Vinnie will take the following steps:

   1. Find out whether rugosa roses are, in fact, considered to be invasives and consult the Extension Service about best practices for keeping them healthy and controlled

   2. Investigate the complexities of creating a shoreline management plan
   3. Write a letter to PLIP expressing our concern and asking whether they have any intention of creating such a plan and whether they could use our help. Perhaps it would be good to solicit the support in including this in our possible agenda for the island fellow.
   4. Print some display copies of Lynne’s slides and find a place to display them

2. Old dumps closures maintenance/sample drilling and testing

   There are at least five previous or current dump sites on the island, and most of them may well be polluted. The city had promised to do sample testing every 2 years and make the results public. This has never been done.

   There is some concern that Peaks has a higher than normal frequency of cancer among full time residents.

   1. Howard will write to Mike Bobinsky to ask that testing be done.
   2. Mary Anne will inquire about the removal of toxic waste on Long Island to find out what lead up to this action and how it was paid for.

3. CMP building ownership/maintenance/contamination status

   Sam will try to find out why and how, since our community was told the site was so contaminated as to be unusable, the building is now being renovated for office use by the power company.

4. Old (leaking or abandoned) cars removal

   Mary Anne has made some progress on this front, but was dismayed to find that the police had no information about the exact process for removing cars and had no mechanism for even ticketing them consistently due to the frequent change in police coverage every day or so.

   The PIC has asked that we repeat our announcements in the Star and Island Times about how to get an unusable car towed off the island.

   1. Vinnie will do this, after consulting with Paul Bridges about how the process should work.
   2. PEAT will go back to the PIC and ask them to work with the city and the police to establish a protocol for ticketing cars in the parking lot and other public spots where people have overstayed the published number of days or hours posted.

5. Joe Payne briefing – TEIA on 7/31/2012

   The TEIA has this event on their calendar for next summer. PEAT should support them by advertising this event when the time comes. Vinnie suggested that we get information about a man named Tucci or something close to that who wrote a book about maintaining lawns organically. Perhaps he would be an additional resource. Vinnie will check for his correct name & address .

6. Project Canopy – tree management

   This is part of the Tree City USA program, in which the city of Portland participates: http://www.maine.gov/doc/mfs/projectcanopy/pages/resource/TCUSA.htm

   They run, for instance, the Maine Registry of Big Trees. That’s something we might consider entering or, more likely, replicating on a community level as an activity with school kids.

   They offer a variety of resources, including help with initiating a tree survey. See the attached brochure for more information.

7. (Cancer on Peaks and relationship to contamination sources)

   See #2

8. City water availability for citizens to drink and fight fires

9. Energy efficiency projects for homes – insulation, windows, etc.

   Sam will keep us informed about possibilities at a later date.

10. Brush hazards – fire, woods walks

11. (Erosion of shoreline)

    See #1

12. Litter issues – trash, cigarette butts, etc.

    Ongoing. We need to press the city to have public works guys spend more time cleaning & sweeping the parking lot and gutters down front where toxic refuse is likeliest to wash into the ocean.

13. (DEP (State and Federal) involvement in these issues)

    See #1

14. City responsibility for Peaks issues

    We should urge the PIC to work on this

15. "Swap shack" at transfer station

16. City DPW and Peaks DPW responsibilities for Peaks issues

    Similarly, this is an issue for the PIC.

17. Dealing with invasive species – swallow tail vine, bamboo

18. New edition of the island brochure

    Vinnie will get a copy of the one originally created by Lynne Richard for distribution to visitors and summer renters and work on doing a new one.

19. Guidelines for the use of chemicals & pesticides

20. Water & Soil qualities

The group agreed that numbers 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 19, 20 and possibly 12 would be the beginning of an agenda for an island fellow when we get started on the formal application.

Attendees:

Sam Saltonstall
Justin Palmer
Mary Anne Mitchell
Steve Demos
Vinnie Demos

Garden report

The T.E.I.A. has awarded the gardeners a $200 grant to help with the expenses of getting a summer water line to the garden. An application to the Peaks Island Fund for the same use was denied at this time, but they encouraged us to reapply for the next regular funding round in summer.

Sam will now inquire whether the city has included the garden water line in its budget for next year.

Gas powered leaf blowers

Karen Friedman suggested that PEAT initiate a ban on gas-powered leaf blowers due to their noise pollution. Mary Anne commented that a number of communities in California had successfully banned them, but that the law was infrequently enforced. Same would probably be true on Peaks.

More discussion followed about the next steps.

Island Fellow suggestions

My order of preference would be:

1. A weatherization and energy efficiency effort
2. Effort with youth related to protecting the Peaks environment and tied to the school’s curriculum and after school enrichment program (could include 4-H idea or something similar)
3. Tree protection including research into related laws and an inventory of trees on public rights of way

Old business

• Junk mail: CatalogChoice.org and DMAchoice.org are good resources
• Cynthia’s tree: Mary Anne is on this, and Jeff Tarling will deliver a tree in the spring.

Tree cutting restrictions separate from those in Portland

Before starting on this, we should all make ourselves familiar with the existing legislation about street trees in Portland: http://www.portlandmaine.gov/publicworks/ordin.asp

Mary Anne will research to see what , if anything, other communities have done to prevent cutting trees on private property.

Treasurer's report

Howard phoned to say that nothing had gone on since his October report.

Trott Littlejohn status

Vinnie noticed that, in a letter he wrote to the Island Times, Ted Haykal mentioned Trott Litlejohn as a possible site for parking fuel trucks. Is this a serious option?

Is the wisteria filled area on the other side of Upper A part of Trott Littlejohn? Somebody thinks Jubal knows about this.

(from Jubal) The wisteria parcel kitty-corner from the T-J entrance is owned by the city, but not zoned "Recreation/Open Space" and not part of T-J to the best of my knowledge.

Wind

In what is probably his final wind report, Sam said he would suggest to the wind group that the remainder of their funds be added to PEAT’s general expense budget.

They have stopped meeting, but still plan to send comments to Efficiency Maine as to how they could incorporate more useful information into their final report.

Cutting on the back shore

Mary Anne suggested that, since much of it has been done in the winter & early spring months, this would be a good time to revisit the issue.

Although we met with a bunch of people at the city last year, it had little effect. She suspects that A.J.. who was at the meeting, failed to pass on any of what transpired to his crew. They continued to cut enthusiastically!

PEAT MINUTES FOR OCTOBER 3, 2011

Attendees:

Mary Anne Mitchell
Bill Oliver
Howard Pedlikin
Steve Demos
Vinnie Demos

Coastal Cleanup Rehash

The cleanup effort was a success, due mostly to the efforts of students and teachers from the Aucocisco School in Cape Elizabeth, who came a week earlier and hauled an enormous amount of debris up to the road all along Seashore Ave. We will write and thank them. It was difficult to enlist the efforts of our own school or other kids’ organizations. The group felt it would be important to contact the school much earlier next time, perhaps even late this spring. Mary Anne volunteered to go now and follow up with more info about this year’s cleanup and how it might tie in with curriculum. She will also get in touch with the head of King Middle School in hopes of involving them next year since some of their students are from Peaks. Vinnie mentioned that the author of Tracking Trash, a copy of which we gave to the library, might be a good speaker at the school or at the Peaks Island Lecture series.

Garden report

Mark Hall has started milling lumber for the garden shed siding and the gardeners plan to resume their construction efforts as soon as he’s done.

The gardeners have come up with what promises to be a more workable solution for coordinating with the island food pantry next year.

The indefatigable Justin Palmer has earned another $115 selling his t-shirts to benefit the garden.

The mix-up at the insurance company has been resolved and everything’s set for another year to the tune of $501.

Idling

Mary Anne has the name of someone in Portland, who’s in charge of reducing idling. He reports that some but not all of the bus companies are on it to some extent. Mary Anne talked with some of the drivers, and they said their employers had requested that they not idle. Other companies are not so proactive. Could we go in there and take photos or record license plates of idling buses? Time Warner has something built into their trucks that allows them to work while the engine’s not running. If they can do it, why can’t the police cars??

Junk Mail

Mary Anne suggested that we investigate ways to reduce household junk mail and then publish contacts on both email lists.

Vinnie will investigate further, but if you want to make a start right now, go to

http://volunteerguide.org/volunteer/fifteen/junk-mail.htm

and follow their various links.

Maine Tree Club

Cynthia Cole forwarded information about the Maine Tree Club run by the extension service at the University of Maine. Mary Anne took it home to look over and if she thinks it useful, PEAT will buy her an individual membership. The institutional membership, a more costly option, would allow us to attend field trips as a group. This doesn’t seem a likely activity for us., but would be great for families. To read more about it, go to http://extension.umaine.edu/mainetreeclub/MTC.htm

Mary Anne

Everyone should be aware that Mary Anne Mitchell is running for the Peaks Island Council. Among other things, she hopes to get the city to be more active in cleaning up in areas where cigarette butts and other refuse can wash into Casco Bay and in preventing unnecessary idling of tour busses and other vehicles.

We should all be aware that, due to our tax exempt status, PEAT cannot support her or be involved in any way in her election campaign. So be sure that any help or publicity you choose to give her is clearly on an individual basis!

Meeting time and place

The group decided to try out meeting at the community room in hopes of attracting more attendees. It seems that it might be less daunting to sample a meeting in a space where it’s possible to look in the door before you decide whether to go in, Vinnie will talk to Denise Macaronis to see whether we can arrange to do this at our usual time on the first Monday of each month.

New board members

Karen Friedman will be joining us after November. There was some discussion of whether or not Rachel Conly had agreed to rejoin PEAT. Mary Anne thought not. Vinnie thought she was willing to give it a try again. Perhaps meeting at the community room will be helpful to her.

Remaine

Justin Palmer dropped by with a brochure for his new business, remaine, which makes tables out of driftwood and other recycled materials. At our suggestion, he donates a portion of his proceeds to the Ocean Conservancy. His website, when completed, will be www.remaine.org

In the meantime, get in touch with him if you want a brochure.

Tree planting in parking lot

We will definitely put off planting the parking lot's red oak until next spring. Mary Anne is in charge of prodding Jeff Tarling to deliver it. Vinnie will take charge of making a permanent plaque for it.

Treasurer’s report

Howard brought a draft copy of this month’s report. If you want to look at the final one, email him for a copy. In general, PEAT has a tiny bit of money, the garden has a lot, and the wind group is winding down its account.

Other Items

What next? Not many members, no new projects, but very good reputation & name recognition How about a cider press???

As we toil away on less glamorous projects like cleanup, recycling reduction of runoff into the bay and less pollution from idling vehicles, it would be nice to have some other stuff happening to keep us in the public eye.

Bill will consult Brad Burkholder about making some kind of bicycle powered machine that we could demonstrate at PeaksFest next year.

Vinnie hopes to write a grant application for money to buy a cider press so that we could organize some community activities around the enormous number of untended and unharvested fruit trees around the island.

Wind report

The wind group is winding down its operations, having received a final report finding that we simply do not have enough wind on Peaks. First, however, they plan to push for a more useful document than they found the report to be in its current form.

Attendees:

Vinnie Demos
Jubal Kessler
Sam Saltonstall

Due to the holiday and more particularly to Vinnie’s incorrect date on the original emails, we had a meeting of three people tonight. So we covered just the essentials and went home.

Coastal cleanup

Sam will sign us up with the Maine Coast Week group as Peaks Island shoreline. Vinnie will attempt to do the same with the Ocean Conservancy group.

We will set up an area on Sterling Street beside the community room in which to collect refuse all week (Sept 17 to 24). We will put down a tarp to define the area and then put out spackle buckets and trash cans labeled for a variety of different items such as rope, plastic, cigarette butts, etc. We will make posters to go on the side of the building as well as some kind of display to hang up under the covered area outside the library.

We will send out notices on the email lists at the beginning and at about mid-week.

We will put a sandwich board down front and posters on the boat and at the terminal. We hope to have some volunteers to man a table down front on Saturday the 17th.

Vinnie and Steve will drive around the island several times during the week to pick up any heavier items people leave by the roadside.

Since the final day conflicts with the Common Ground Fair, we will attempt to wrap things up in the morning hours.

Please contact Vinnie to help:

• set up display
• make posters
• man a table down front
• do truck runs
• plan music & pr for the tally on Sat morning of the 24th
• take photos to send to Maine Coast Week website and for our own use
• do some hours of cleanup during the week
• contact somebody at the school & childrens’ workshop

Cynthia Cole’s tree party

Sam will have a potluck at his house on Sept. 15 (or whatever Thursday we can arrange after that) at 6:15 so Cynthia can just come off the boat to Sam's. He will coordinate with her son to be sure she gets on and off the island on the correct date and time. We will give Cynthia a mockup of the sign which will eventually go on the oak tree we plant down at the entrance to the parking lot. As well as PEAT board members, we will invite Jenny Yasi and Albert Presgraves, and the Joe and Susan Kane. The party will be short but with lots of food, which she always likes. It would be nice if we could plan a way to include extras for her to take home and have later!

Please contact Vinnie to:

1. sign up to come and bring food so Sam and Linda have a head count
2. work with Jeff Tarling & A.J. to get the tree planted
3. take Cynthia back to the boat and ride across with her, or even drive her home

Garden Report

The new insurance policy, which runs from October 1, 2011 to September 30, 2012, will be $501. Howard needs to send a check for that amount to Noyes Hall and Allen Insurance.

Jubal and Sam agreed to prorate the insurance payment for the wind group from August 27th to the tune of $45. Since no money actually changes hands, Howard needs only to change his spreadsheet to reflect this agreement.

Jubal has learned from Jeff Tarling that the city has its own standards for doing water lines, and that we must work through them to get one for the garden. To that end, he is now in contact with Troy Moon and Mike Murray, and will prepare information about the two sites recommended by the city on Brackett Street and Upper A streets. The two drawbacks to the Brackett site are that the line must run uphill and that PILP may object to its placement.

Wind report

Shortly after the tower was removed, Sam got a report from the University of Maine that our site was not viable. He forwarded that to Lawrence Mott and Mick Wormsley, who had slightly differing takes on the wind results. The core wind group will meet with them to discuss it all and decide whether to fish or cut bait.

PEAT meeting July 14, 2011

Attendees:

Bill Oliver
Justin Palmer
Mary Anne Mitchell
Sam Saltonstall
Steve Demos
Vinnie Demos

Coastal Cleanup

Vinnie will make a plan, simplified from last year, to encourage islanders to collect plastics (especially cigarette butts) from the shoreline. Perhaps we could choose one centrally located drop-off spot where people could leave stuff all week. Then have a counting/tallying party with music at the end. How about if Denise and Priscilla would allow us to fill up the little slot behind the community room or next to it on Sterling St. We could make a banner to mark the spot and also give info about plastic in the ocean?

Parking lot cleanup

Sam will contact Sandy? and Mary Anne will speak to Desi about strategies for knotweed control or even eradication. Then next week they will establish a protocol for attacking the knotweed in the parking lot down front:

How to control it
Where to stack it for pick-up
Who picks it up and when

Parking lot oak tree

We will arrange for a red oak to be planted in the fall and dedicated to Cynthia Cole. Steve will research bronze plaques and order one approximately 8 1/2” x 5 1/2” to be made asap so that we can show it to Cynthia and have a little presentation/going away party for her this summer.

Cigarette butts

Vinnie will prepare single short messages about cigarette butt/plastic damage in the ocean and email them once a week to Sam, who will post them down front on his sandwich board. We will attempt to make them short, interesting or even amusing, and regularly posted in hopes that folks will begin to notice them and look forward to the next one. We will figure out the best way to publicly thank those businesses who have agreed to put out butt containers and keep them emptied.

PeaksFest Tree Show

A good number of islanders contributed art work and, thanks to Sam’s participation in the parade as a walking tree with a poster for the show, it was well attended. The library continued to display most of the pictures until this week and Priscilla reports that folks enjoyed it a lot. Next year we plan to dress up as knotweed plants and march in the parade as an advancing army of invasive species. Perhaps more PEAT members could attend with shovels and pickaxes and we could stage a mock battle!

Community garden report

The garden shed is progressing slowly but steadily and now has the framing up for three walls. The new waist-high herb garden, which is wheelchair accessible, has been completed and planted as well as five hand-made self-watering containers made of spackle buckets. The garden is looking good. The Brackett Church is including it in their island garden tour on July 30 from 10 to 3.

Wind report - what happened at Tuesday night meeting about wind ordinance in Portland

Sam attended the meeting and reports that not many changes were made from the original draft of the ordinance, which would limit turbines to a height of 160 feet in some recreational and open-space areas. He said, though, that it would b e possible to appeal for a variance in special cases. For residential areas, the zoning height limit of 45 feet – although an improvement on the first draft proposal of 35- pretty much makes it an impossibility.

All terrain vehicles at Trott Littlejohn

Teenagers have been riding an ATV around the community garden and through the area recently torn up by the logging operation. Vinnie spoke with them and pointed out that it would be helpful if they rode elsewhere once the area was reseeded so that it wouldn’t become a complete dustbowl. They seemed amenable to that idea and said they could ride at Battery Steele. On the other hand, as Stephen pointed out, the park location is eminently suitable for this recreational use because it’s away from houses and traffic...

Art on the Porch – NOT

Too much going on in the next month for Vinnie to participate, but she hopes to plan ahead and do a table next year for selling various PEAT publications.

Peaks Island Fund grant for operating expenses

The Peaks Island Fund has awarded us $300 to use for operating expenses. The hope is that, by eliminating the need to spend personal funds on stuff like printing, postage and lamination, we can more easily attract younger members as well as those on fixed incomes. With a larger member base, we might be able to do a single annual even to cover such expenses in future years.

Proposed change of meeting date -  once again!

The group decided to move back to our original meeting time of the first Monday of every month. There will be no August meeting since it would come up so soon. Instead we will try to arrage a field trip to visit Mark Shain’s micro farm and chat about permaculture on Peaks. Sam volunteered to set this up.

PEAT Meeting Thursday June 9

Attendees:

Cynthia Cole
Demetri Demos
Howard Pedlikin
Justin Palmer
Mary Anne Mitchell
Steve Demos
Vinnie Demos

Art on the porch: cards, postcards, bumper stickers & booklets from PEAT?

Vinnie suggested participating in Art on the Porch at the Fifth Maine as a way of getting PEAT in the public eye. Most if not all of the material we’ve published at various times were of her design, which would qualify us to have a table. She would be willing to produce enough stuff to sell if PEAT would pay for printing supplies plus the $25 registration and members would agree to take turns sitting there and talking about PEAT on Sunday, August 14th from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Garden report

The garden is fully subscribed and doing well despite some discouraging weather early on. The new shed is under way and we put up the first wall last week. Vinnie got an additional $500 from the Island Institute for its completion. Justin got $150 seed grant from the Cumberland County Master Gardener Association.

Grant Proposal for Peaks Island Fund due by June 20. Any ideas?

We discussed three possible ideas:

• money for miscellaneous expenses of running PEAT. While projects we sponsor, such as the garden or the wind tower, are able to generate grant money and contributions, our day to day expenses for postage, paper, ink and so forth are less glorious and tend to be shouldered by individual members. It would be nice to have a hundred dollars or so of unearmarked money.

• money to have a professionally written survey about environmental priorities of Peaks Islanders as well as stipends for some island teenagers to circulate the surveys and compile the results

• money to research and deseminate information about island-wide control of invasive plants, especially Japanese knotweed

Vinnie will take a stab at #1 and #2, and Mary Anne will tackle #3. They both plan to solicit feedback from everyone.

Logging Trucks

Jubal is concerned about restoration of the meadow area at Trott Littlejohn where the logging trucks have been working. He soke with Lynne Richard who forwarded his concerns to Mike Murray. We expect to hear back from Mike and/or the State Forester about plans for that area.

Update: Mike Murray replied on June 17th and said the forester, Rene Noel of Southern Maine Forestry Services Inc., will be doing some re-seeding. Jubal asked Steve Bushey to call Rene to provide additional guidance on restoring that part of the park.

Plans for PeaksFest: Tree Show, Parade? Dock Day?

Vinnie & Judi Clancy are working on the Tree Show. Not too late to send one of them stuff to be included! It will start out near the Community Room and possibly move down to the dock after the library closes. No word yet about a parade.

Party for Cynthia Cole: When? Where? Present from PEAT? (personal island bike rack? plaque of some sort? mayoral proclamation?

This was removed from the agenda when Cynthia appeared unexpectedly for the meeting. We did talk a bit after she went home. Demetri suggested planting a tree in her honor and we agreed that, whatever party plans emerge, this would be a good gesture, and one she would appreciate.

Sam and Mary Terry both wrote and offered to help on a party. Sam suggested writing a poem about her activities as an environmental activist on Peaks. She will be moving out of the Island House by July 1st.

Treasurer’s report

PEAT	$23.18
Wind	$411.22
Garden	$2047.22

Trees for down front

Mary Anne contacted Jeff Tarling about the trees as follows:

Someone from PEAT contacted you a while ago about getting three oak trees for down front in the parking lot on Peaks. We are sorry we are so delayed on this but we had someone in the group that has been having medical problems so things got put off. I spoke with AJ about digging holes for the trees and he wanted to know how big they would be. Can you still do this for us? We would need some time again to do other preparation so just let me know. Thanks.

Mary Anne

and received the following note:

From: Jeff Tarling
To: Mary Anne Mitchell
Cc: AJ Alves; Mike Murray; Troy Moon
Sent: Fri, June 10, 2011 3:22:47 PM
Subject: Re: Trees for down front

Hi Mary Anne -

Red Oak was the request, we can see what is available, good to get the planting done before July.

Jeff

Wind report

Sam says, "Nothing much to report about wind -- the results continue to be marginal. Tower comes down late August and we'll decide what, if anything, to do next after a full year of data is assembled. We have to pay a full insurance payment, most of which will be rebated. If PEAT cannot handle it, I'll front the money."

The group agreed to use money from the garden account to make up the difference between what wind has ($411.22) and the full insurance payment. Sam should forward the bill to Howard.

PEAT meeting April 14, 2011

This being the annual meeting, we re-elected the entire board of directors and added Rachel Conly to its number:

Many thanks to our outgoing President, Mary Terry, for her tireless service!

The treasurer’s report revealed the following amounts in the bank:

Garden             $1127
Wind               $607.97
PEAT              $22.86

The PIC still has money belonging to PEAT. Mary Anne can account for it and arrange that it go to the city for the Big Belly trash compactor.

The Fifth Maine also has money belonging to PEAT: $229.03. We will ask Carol Kinney to deal with it.

The Community Gardeners are holding a work day on April 30, to which everyone is invited. Thanks to the efforts of Vinnie and Jubal they have received two grants from the Healthy Portland Fund, $715 for the Waist-High garden project and $750 for a shed and gardening tools. Those checks are expected within the next 3 or 4 weeks.

The remainder of this brief meeting was devoted to plans for PEAT’s Earth Day celebration on Saturday, April 23. The poster, listing activities,  is attached to this email. Steve is in charge of coordinating Island Clean-Up. Mary Anne is doing the seedling give-away. Bill is making buttons to give those who participate in the Clean Up. Vinnie is running the Earth Box Raffle. There was some discussion about an oak tree from the city, which we had originally planned to plant that day down by the parking lot. Since Jeff Tarling has not yet given a final delivery date for the tree, we chose not to include it in the list of events. Jubal will try to get in touch with the city and arrange for its delivery as soon as possible. Vinnie will try to coordinate with  AJ and Pattie about agreeing on an exact spot and possible assistance in digging a hole. There were several suggestions about people to include in the tree planting event, once a date is chosen: Pam Richards, Stan Newell, Jim Lausier, Syd & Jane Gerrard.

We urge everyone to attend the second movie in the community room at 8 o’clock that evening,  A Man Called Paul. Maybe we could bring some nibbles and call it a party.