City of Brunswick's Green Advisory Group was formed in July, 2008 at the request of the City Manager. The majority of members are citizen volunteers, says its chairman, Ed Kelly, who also recruited council people, county commissioners and local scribes for the Brunswick Sun News and Medina County Gazette.

"We try to establish a theme and project for each month and get them done, not just talk about how much of a problem they are," says Kelly. "We picked the transportation issues such as (changing) the bus route and hike/bike trails as these were mentioned as high priority items in the (city's) 2005 Comprehensive Plan. We use this as a guide as much effort and work was put into this 318-page document.

Does the agenda have specific goals such as reducing stormwater runoff by X% or increasing recycling by X%?

"We have not set firm goals yet, but to assist the city by being the extension of their services. For example, the city manages the local buses operated by a contracted group. The city responsibility is to manage the contractor. The contractor's responsibility is to drive the bus. However, the void in the program was to get people to ride the bus, and I think at some point it became 'it's not my job'. We stepped in and took on the responsibility to promote the bus system and that is what we are beginning to do."

We will continue to pick issues from our first meeting and develop plans and solutions as we move forward.

See their agenda below:

Natural resources

• Backyard composting
• City-wide composting
• Leaf collection composted nearby or in-house for later use or exchange for product
• Water use reduction plans
• Rain barrel collection systems
• Increase riparian zone awareness
• Setback restriction enforcement
• Dumping enforcement

Transportation

• BTA (public transit/bus routes)
• Increased ridership, or other improvements?
• Smart traffic lights, better traffic flow
• Bike/pedestrian friendly areas
• Trail and sidewalk upgrades
• Cardinal Trail System/increase access by walking and biking to town center

Recycling

Recycling awareness

Increase amount of city's refuse that gets recycled

Currently mandated at 25%; much more can be done

Glass igloos, bagging of recyclables, etc.

Energy Efficiency

• City lawn mowing
• No idle policy (in place)
• Motion sensing light in city buildings
• Heat/cool programmable thermostats
• LED traffic signals
• Use of alternative fuels (non-food based)
• Alternative energy ideas
• Solar, wind, etc.
• Can work on a neighborhood level

Pollution and litter control/cleanup

• Litter clean-ups
• Streams and roadways
• Neighborhood clean-ups
• Good neighbor awareness program
• Eliminate plastic bags in grocery stores
• Move to canvas bags (rewards)

Other ideas, city beautification

• Tree commission—Tree City USA
• Resident tree planting program (no current budget)
• Adopt-a-Spot
• Awareness
• "Buy recycled" campaign