Category: Tree Planting

MWRD Board Denies Easement Request - Preserves Isabella Woods in Evanston

5/29/2017

Metropolitan Water Reclamation Board Meeting - May 18

Significant Decisions Made:
Consideration of the request for an easement to build a road through Isabella Woods on the Evanston-Wilmette border occupied most of the public meeting.

The road would serve a 4-house development proposed for a parcel in Wilmette.
More than a dozen individuals and representatives of conservation groups in Evanston and Wilmette spoke against the proposal, arguing that the District’s mission to manage storm-water precluded approving removal of old-growth trees which provide drainage. No one appeared on behalf of the developer or the County Highway Department, the nominal requester of the easement. (The County was brought into the process after Evanston declined to grant the easement to the developer.)
Several Commissioners and speakers alluded to the fact that the developer’s lawyer is State Senate President John Cullerton, whose “clout” may have been involved in persuading the Department to ask for the easement after it had been denied to a private citizen.

The Board unanimously refused to grant the requested easement after considering the issue in Executive Session.

Significant Topics Discussed and/or Referred to Committee:

A few contract awards were deferred at the request of various Commissioners who had detailed questions about the projects. These will be discussed privately with the District’s Executive Director and the items will re-appear on the consent calendar for the next meeting.

Unexpected Votes, Events, Testimony or Items to Watch for in the Future:

The unanimous vote against the easement could be considered unexpected. Apparently the Board’s concern for storm-water drainage, old-growth trees and popular opinion outweighed its concern about being sued for refusing to grant the easement, but that’s only speculation because the discussion took place in Executive Session.

Observer: Kelly Kleiman Meeting Length: 90 minutes before Executive Session

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Native Plant Nursery Project Remains on Hold

1/21/2017

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Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Board Meeting - January 19, 2017

Highlights from the Meeting:

Most of the MWRD Board Meeting was spent discussing the report on the rejection of a bid by Industria, Inc. on an RFP to Design, Build, Operate and Maintain a Native Plant and Tree Nursery at the Hanover Park Water Reclamation Plant, Fischer Farm. (Agenda Item #9)

This contract had been previously discussed at the board meeting of 1/5/17 and had been deleted from that agenda without any action due to concerns with the contract.
During Public Comment at today's meeting three speakers presented information about the proposed contract - 2 of whom were participants in the sole bid for the project.
The sole bid for the project was for $3.6m whereas the estimated cost of the project previously determined by MWRD had been $2.5m and thus it had been decided to reject the bid.
Mr. St. Pierre, MWRD Ex. Dir., stated that after further analysis it was decided the project would be divided into 2 contracts - one for construction of the nursery and the other for maintenance and operation of the nursery, and new RFPs would be prepared.
Industria, Inc., the sole bidder on the project, was in attendance and stated that they had done 4 previous projects with MWRD and that their initial bid for this project had been $5m but after discussion with MWRD staff to more clearly define the scope of the project they had reduced their bid estimate to $3.6m.
Comm. Spyropoulos asked if there had been any consideration given to leasing the land to a commercial nursery and having them run the nursery at their own cost.
Comm. Shore was concerned that dividing the project into 2 contracts and rebidding would delay the project for another year.
Comm. Walsh had concerns about the accuracy of the initial estimated cost for the project.

Due to the continued concerns raised the Board wanted to defer this item for another 2 weeks so the staff could do further investigation. Since the item was presented on the agenda as a “report on rejection of a proposal” and by their rules a report cannot be deferred, the board approved a motion to give Mr. St. Pierre, the Ex. Dir., permission to delete the item from the agenda. Presumably it will come back to the Board at a subsequent meeting.

Other Item of Note:

During Public Comment - Mr. Smith, who has a bee keeping business, made a case for partnering with the MWRD to have bee hives on MWRD property. He has been working on projects throughout the city establishing bee hives. The Board expressed interest.

Observer - Cynthia Schilsky Length of Meeting - 2 hours

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MWRD Distributing Free Trees but May End Free Rain Barrels

5/6/2016

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Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Board Meeting - May 5, 2016

Major Items Discussed:
Restore the Canopy; Plant a Tree Program. Executive Director David St. Pierre asked the Board to help publicize that the MWRD is giving away 100,000 18 inch oak saplings to municipalities, community groups, and schools to distribute and plant throughout Cook County. Individuals can also pick up the free trees every Wednesday from 9 am to 12 noon at the Calumet, Egan, Hanover Park, Kirie, O’Brien, and Stickney Water Reclamation Plants, and during the public tours and open houses at these plants on Saturday, May 21. To find out more, contact the MWRD Office of Public Affairs at public.affairs@mwrd.org or at 312-751-6633. Trees provide rain absorption (helping to reduce flooding) and a canopy that reduces city heat island effects. They can also absorb carbon gasses and produce oxygen.

Free Rain Barrel Program. The Board approved an increase in the contract for the furnishing and administration of the rain barrel program by $1.3 million from $2.5 million to $3.8 million. Agenda item 31, #16-0453. This will only carry the program to September, and Executive Director St. Pierre said that he will be coming back to the Board for additional money to continue the program to the end of 2016. Based on the discussion, this observer understands that there had been a consent decree under which the Board had agreed to distribute 15,000 rain barrels at no charge, but had also separately authorized the program through 2017. To date, approximately 45,000 rain barrels have been distributed. Several Commissioners asked for a study session to discuss whether to continue the program beyond 2016 and whether there would be a better use for the money currently being spent on the program. It was noted by Commissioners that if the decision is to end the program, then there needs to be lots of communication with the public about this. Executive Director St. Pierre said that the MWRD would probably continue to make rain barrels available at a charge in that case.

Other items of note:
New Rules on Public Comments in Effect. As discussed in prior Eyewitness Reports, this was the first meeting that the new rules limiting public comments to the beginning of the meeting went into effect. The presiding officer does have the discretion to allow comments at other times. At this meeting, citizen George Blakemore spoke at the beginning, prior to the convening of the Committee of the Whole (and he complained about the reduction this new rule has on public participation as compared to the old rules), and then again after the Board reconvened prior to the meeting ending (when he stated the Board members should be doing more to get the public to attend the meetings). This observer is seeking clarification on the rules from MWRD Staff.

Partnership Agreement with DuPage County Stormwater Management, the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, and the DuPage River Salt Creek Work Group to facilitate the sharing of resources and responsibilities to better protect the West Branch of the DuPage River and the Salt Creek watershed in a responsible manner. There was no discussion of this agreement, but it was approved, and appears to this observer as a positive step to utilize the collective expertise to promote cost efficient resource allocations among the parties, which is the mission of the partnership.

Priscilla Mims - Observer

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MWRD Board Denies Easement Request - Preserves Isabella Woods in Evanston

Native Plant Nursery Project Remains on Hold

MWRD Distributing Free Trees but May End Free Rain Barrels

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