The two changes to be made are: 

• Flagstaff First petition to the City Council agenda has moved to Tuesday, March 26th – item 6D on the January 25th minutes.  

• Fix-It Clinic weekend rescheduled to Saturday February 24th - item 7 on the January 25th minutes. 

Sustainability Director Nicole Antonopoulos noted Chair White served the full terms allowed with 3 consecutive appointments (6 years) and stated it was a pleasure and an honor to have had Chair White serve. 

Sustainability Coordinator Tia Hatton also gave words of appreciation. 

Commissioner Konkel suggested a happy hour celebration after Spring Break. A quorum notice will be posted. Date and time TBD.

Fiscal Year 2022-2023 Neighborhood Sustainability Grant Final Project Presentations (presentations attached) 

1. Executive Director of Flagstaff FLYRS (Youth Riders), Tyler Nelson, presented the Puente de Hozho Bike Park project. 

• The project was completed in August 2022 with a partnership between FLYRS, FUSD, and Flagline Trails. 

• The bike hub area has a storage container for bikes, which are available for members to use, and they added a sustainable picnic table, bike rack, teeter totter and wood rollers. Volunteers removed invasive weeds and provided maintenance to the bike park 

2. Flagstaff Foodlink Board Member Melissa Eckstrom presented, “Building Community Through Food.” 

• Workshops/community events included Marketing for Growers, Seed Swaps, Seed Growing, Fruit Tree Gleaning Day, Harvest Festival/Indigenous Farmer’s Market at Colton Community Garden, and apple processing. 

3. Gina Goegan, Greenhouse Manager at The Arboretum, stated the project goal was to grow more plants/diversity of plants to counter monoculture.  

• They partnered with Michael Moore medicinal garden to grow many plants, using grant money to purchase sterile soil, organic pest control and fertilizer, pay horticulturalists and other staff.  

4. Gayle Gratop, University of Arizona Extension Master Gardner presented her project, the Youth Therapeutic Horticulture Wellness Program at Killip Elementary, the “Grow With Us Gardening Club.” The program was designed to bring science and the resources of the University to the people of Arizona.  

• They used plants as a therapeutic modality. 97% of the sessions improved mood for students. Session activities/topics included: creating greenspace at the school, watering plants, plant adaptations and human resiliency (aired on NPR’s All Things Considered), mindfulness, nutrition. Purchases included a drip Irrigation system, Tuff Shed, bus bins, and outdoor sink. They supplied salad for the school’s salad bar. 

• Collaborators included NAU, Coconino County Master Gardeners program, Warner’s Nursery, Plantae, Terrabirds, Cheryl Wells, CDC, Americorps, and Coconino County Educational Service Agency. 

5. The Flagstaff Disc Golf Club presentation was given by Daniel Crim (member at large) and Alex Stone, President of the Club.  

• They installed bicycle racks at Thorpe and McPherson Disc Park courses, as well as park benches made from ponderosa pine. Last year, they hosted the world championships through PDGA with a sustainability theme. 

• Collaborators included Multimodal Trans Planner, Mayorga’s, AP Sawmill and Investments , Karen Hendricks (in charge of sustainability for the club), and Josh McNotten. 

6. Townsite Urban Farms’ Shelly Day and Greg Capareso (co-directors) created a small-scale cooperative urban farm.  

• They hosted 30 volunteer days, employed an intern (Director Antonoupolos announced intern Sydney Rittershaus will be joining the Flagstaff Sustainability Office as its Community Garden Coordinator), purchased a 2500 gallon rainwater harvesting tank, installed raised garden beds out front to draw in the community/passers-by, hosted 4 workshops, and grew a wide variety of vegetables, herbs, fruits, and legumes.  

7. D.C. and Marco Alatorre, brothers and business partners, created biomass pellets (biochar), which can be used as fuel for wood stoves, as a pet/plant friendly ice melt, and can improve water retention in soils for drought-prone climates. 

• Their method processed organic wildfire hazards and diverted about 1500 lbs. of debris from the landfill. They estimate a rate of about 50% carbon sequestration from the organic matter that would otherwise decompose in a landfill, and the savings of about 100 hours of grid/fossil heating when using these pellets in a wood stove for heating, displacing about 350 lbs of CO2 natural gas. 

8. Staff played a video submission from Harbert Chapel, featuring their Pastor, Correy Moore. 

• Being one of the oldest churches in the community, they were able to address wiring concerns during the installation of a new lighting system in the building, from fluorescent lights to LED. This saved the church money and energy usage, which they used to give back to the community. 

Chair White thanked all grant recipients and presenters. 

• Vice Chair Wolkowinsky, Commissioner Konkel, and Commissioner Boateng (not present) assembled a working group to draft a response to Council recommending that Council does not approve the Flagstaff First Petition to make wildfires, flooding and drought priority items in the CNP.   

• Draft letter attached.  

• Sustainability Director Antonopoulos added that Flagstaff First asked that the item be moved to go to Council later following the Coconino County’s Board of Supervisors meeting that discussed the results of engineering reports and the impacts of upstream flooding. She reported that the City Manager directed that the finalized letter be sent to the mayor and Council by Tia Hatton, Commission Staff Liaison.  

• March 26th is when this item is currently scheduled to go before Council. Director Antonopoulos asked Vice Mayor Aslan his recommendation of when the letter would be best received. Vice Mayor recommended it be sent out soon. 

• Commissioner Metzger moved and Commissioner Konkel seconded to approve the draft letter as a Commission with possible minor edits for grammar and punctuation and take to City Council as soon as procedurally tenable. Motion passes, 4-0. 

• Chair White and Commissioners recently received a request for input from Flagstaff’s commissions on parts of the Regional Plan, along with representatives from the Commission to attend some of the meetings (the first of which was scheduled for March 13th).    

• Sustainability Coordinator Tia Hatton added that she received an email from Comprehensive and Neighborhood Planning Manager Sara Decter about engaging on Regional Planning Chapters. The first energy chapter is being authored by the Sustainability Division. They are requesting two representatives or Commissioners go as individuals from the public unless the Commission wants to create and official subcommittee to speak on behalf of the Commission at regional planning meetings. There is also a 60-day public comment period where Commissioners as individuals can review draft chapters and submit written comments in advance of these meetings.   

• There was discussion on the creation of a subcommittee (to speak on behalf of the Commission).  Director Antonopoulos believes the decision can wait until the next meeting. Everything is in draft and there will be time for additional comment.   

• Ms. Hatton clarified that the two representatives selected will not have been elected to speak on behalf of Commission; they will be going as individuals.   

• Director Antonopoulos recommended the following: the Division create drafts that the Commissioners review ahead of time and use Commission meetings over the next 6 months to review the drafts. She stated this is the most important document.  There will be three new commission members at the next meeting.  

• Action: none taken today.

• The Fix-It Clinic was rescheduled for Saturday, February 24th from 10 A.M-2 P.M. 

• Director Antonopoulos has updates but will either send them via email or detail them at the next meeting. 

• Commissioner Wolkowinsky announced that a student group at NAU, Capstone Engineering and Data Science Group, applied for the 10X prize for a clean-cooling competition. They partnered with Habitat for Humanity of Northern Arizona to put smartfans into 40 starter homes. They made it to the finals, which will be a virtual pitch competition on March 19th from 10-12 P.M. As finalists, they have money to host a watch party, on campus at the Union in the Grand Canyon room. There’s a chance for them to win another $10k if they get the People’s Choice for their pitch. The winner gets $75k to prototype and build the fan. Habitat gets $50k for implementation. 

• Regional Plan Time Blocks 

• Review fiscal year budget requests 

• Sustainability Analyst Jenna Ortega will present the Equity Checklist