During the very intense Citizens Comments portion of Tuesday's Commission meeting, Environmental Sustainability Board representative, Maria Joseph announced the following Educational Forum on Artificial Turf and referenced this flyer which was available to residents.
Please look at the link to the flyer. I can't get it to format properly.
EDUCATIONAL FORUM ON ARTIFICIAL TURF IN MT LEBANON
DID YOU KNOW THAT TOWNS/CITIES THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY ARE CONSIDERING MORATORIUMS ON TURF UNTIL UNBIASED SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IS AVAILABLE ON THE EXPOSURE OF ARTIFICIAL TURF ON CHILDREN’S HEALTH?
Learn more about the impacts of artificially turfed fields when it comes to our children’s health, water run-off & heat island effects
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30th AT 7-8:30pm
MUNICIPAL BUILDING IN THE CHAMBERS
For more information please email: healthylebo@gmail.com
Mt Lebanon Commissioners voted 3-2 to spend $750,000 of taxpayer money to add artificially turfed fields along Cedar Blvd at Wildcat/Middle Fields near the entrance of Main Park.
In May a decision will be made about specific design options such as tire crumb rubber in-fill vs organic in-fill.
With such a long-term and expensive investment (over $2.5 million in 8 years), our community needs to know more about these fields including the short and long-term effects of these materials on our children, coaches and residents nearby.
It was observed by several residents at the meeting, that our PIO was livid that this educational forum is being held in the Commission Chambers without her knowledge.
Prior to the Commission meeting, David Donnellan reported during the Commission Discussion Session that this informational meeting is taking place on April 24, 2014.
I understand that the commissioners whose wards are affected were not contacted by Mr. Donnellan prior to the announcement of this informational meeting.
I spoke with David Donnellan after Tuesday's meeting and asked him when he will be posting the concept plans that he mentioned at the Sports Advisory Board meeting. He changed his mind and was not going to post them as he had indicated to the Sports Advisory Board. He felt that they were subject to change and was asking the PIO to set up a separate web page dedicated to the Mt. Lebanon Turf Project. David offered to share them with me after I asked if I should file a Right To Know. Here they are.
Turf Concept Plan
Turf Perspective
Tonight, the Environmental Sustainability Board will be meeting at 7:30 PM in the Municipal Meeting. Unfortunately, no agenda has been posted. We can thank the municipal staff for that one.
21 comments:
Sure glad my kids are grown; those with children still in school would be wise to do some homework on the turf topic.
I thought the school district's job was to educate kids. Far too much time is spent on stuff like trophy cases and turf.
Whoever had the idea that all expenditures must be approved by referendum vote may have been right on the money.
Tell me again why those pretty Gateway Turf Concept Plan and Turf Perspective View illustrations would be any different if we were talking about a well-engineered and WELL-MAINTAINED natural grass area that drains properly?
You would have to ask the Daves that question; Brumfield, Franklin, and Donnellan. They are the ones who want to spend a million dollars on artificial turf.
Elaine
It was a rhetorical question.
The obvious answer is the field would be laid out in the same manner.
Foul ball lines, base pads, pitcher mounds, home plates, goal lines, etc., etc. would be in exactly the same layout grass or artificial turf.
The Daves and the district don't believe in science apparently. If they did, they would have considered exploring turf grass as well as the turf management.
The 2014 Western PA Turf Conference and Trade Show was just held in our region in late February.
http://paturf.org/app/webroot/file/uploads/File/2014-western-program.pdf
http://www.stma.org/sites/stma/files/STMA_Bulletins/Natural_Grass_Athletic_Fields_Ppoint_Final.ppt
The turf perspective concept plan looks so strange. There is something very wrong with children playing baseball and softball on artificial turf. Natural grass is the traditional surface for those sports and I don't understand why artificial turf is considered by some to be an improvement.
You'll enjoy the following 1:17.
http://www.baseballnation.com/2012/2/15/2800382/blue-jays-rogers-centre-artificial-turf-natural-grass
Perhaps in the future, Mrs Joseph will think twice before putting up all of her yard signs supporting these democrats.
I think there are a lot of people thinking twice about electing these people.
And perhaps, Anonymous 2:13, you'll think at least once before you post creepy "we know where you live" comments and maybe even include a rationale for connecting someone's support of national, state, and local candidates to a specific issue. And by the way, ANONYMOUS, this is coming from some who's yard it is also.
Mr. Joseph
I encourage those concerned about the health and safety risks of turf to visit the Muni Rec Dept website and review the presentation prepared by and presented to the Commission on July 23, 2012 by James Cannon III. It is excellent, with a long website listing of sources and references.
Pleased and surprised it was allowed to be included on the Muni website. Of course, the super majority of the Commission did not pay attention to his actual presentation when he made it or following.
Here is a direct link to James Cannon III's presentation on the Municipal website.
http://mtlebanon.org/DocumentCenter/View/8979
Elaine
The ESB agenda for this evening has been posted and includes an update on the turf.
http://mtlebanon.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/2033
I would worry more about the risks of my child playing on your chem lawn, or a "natural grass" ball field than I would on organic turf.
6:44 Is there a moratorium on yard play? Has the EPA warned against integrated pest management? Are there legislative initiatives pending in neighboring states about children playing "natural" grass?
6:44, Chemlawn, TruGreen and others place warning flags on treated lawns.
Should we require FieldTurf to do the same?
Elaine,
The first two documentary links in Mr. Cannon's presentation do not connect through the municipal website.
John Ewing
In honor of National Public Health Week (April 7-13) and National Environmental Education Week (April 13-19), the environmental blog from Center for Disease Control is spending the next 2 weeks sharing information about how to protect people from exposures to toxic substances. Their blog will feature a series of six posts explaining exposure pathways or the ways in which people can come into contact with toxic substances.
http://blogs.cdc.gov/yourhealthyourenvironment/2014/04/10/scientists-investigate-toxic-exposure/
The Almanac did not comprehensively describe the health concerns about artificial turf in their most recent article. The concerns from the synthetic turf are not just about ingestion; exposure to the toxins within the synthetic turf can be through breathing, swallowing, or touching contaminants. Given that the turf will also impact our waterways, air and adjacent soil, exposure should also be a concern for neighboring residents and downstream communities.
If a child touches a toxin with their hand, then picks up a snack to eat, how will parents prevent the toxin being transmitted from the turf to the snack to the child?
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