Maplewood officials consider bike sharing, charging stations

Maplewood officials at a work session before the council meeting on Tuesday discussed a list of 10 priorities that Maplewood Sustainability Commission members set for the next two years.

The council members’ thoughts are included below in italics with each topic they discussed. They commented on bike use, charging stations and community composting.

1. Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Program – Recommend that the City of Maplewood to establish an environmentally preferable purchasing (EPP) policy for products purchased during regular operations of City facilities. The intent of this is to reduce the environmental harm from materials purchased and used in the operations with buildings. The sustainability commission would make purchase recommendations to the City that fits the EPP.
2. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction – Work to establish a community wide GHG reduction goal of 10% by 2016 to help assure the healthful and prosperous vitality of the community. This is based on the Community and Local Government Operations Climate Action Plan, 2013.
3. Residential and Business Recycling – Work to increase the percentage of recycling in Maplewood in the residential and business sectors by expanding current recycling efforts.
4. Communication with City Government and Staff – Build and maintain an information conduit between Sustainability Commission, City Council, and key staff. The Commission will generate and update a project status list to indicate which projects are being worked on, their completion status and what resources might be helpful from the City.
5. Increase Bicycle and Pedestrian Paths and Use – Develop and implement a plan that makes Maplewood more bicycle and pedestrian friendly and promotes alternative ways to get around Maplewood. Contact Trailnet and make use of their expertise and resources to develop this goal. (Could potentially be done in conjunction to the Community Ride Share Program) This could include exploring a bicycle rental program in downtown Maplewood. (Implement a bike share program, possibly including surrounding cities. At least have share stations at the Maplewood Metro station, on Sutton Boulevard near the Sutton Loop Park, and at Schlafly Bottleworks. A city employee would need to be assigned to maintain the program, especially on the weekends. )
6. Solar Powered Electric Car Charging Station – Work towards the installation of a solar powered electric car charging station in the Marietta lot. (Good places for charging stations would be the Marietta Parking Lot, City Hall and the new fire station.)
7. Community Composting Program – Work with City staff to develop and implement a composting program for Maplewood residents and businesses who are not currently utilizing the Marietta Lot composting resources. (Community compositing, including mulch, would be great, but finding the space for composting would be hard. Public education on composting is needed. Education on ‘green homes’ would be good also.)
8. Native Plant and Rain Garden Demonstration Interpretive Gardens – Develop a native plant interpretive garden and a Rain Garden (MSD and Deer Creek Watershed Alliance). The first would help educate residents about planting natives and how to choose which ones for which sites. There are outside groups that can help fund and implement this (MDC, MBG, Audubon, and Wild Ones). Work with MSD and the Deer Creek Watershed Alliance to build a demonstration interpretive rain garden in a park found in the Deer Creek Watershed.
9. EPA Green Power Community Challenge (GPC) program – Work with Maplewood City and Council to sign up for and implement the GPC program through Ameren Missouri Pure Power. This would help establish a community wide energy reduction plan focusing on residential, commercial and government sectors in Maplewood.
10. Community Ride Share Program – Encourage Maplewood to partner with private sector programs such as Enterprise’s CarShare to provide access to individual transportation without increasing automobile ownership.