Paul Szmal: Good morning 837, it's FLX Morning, we're joined by the boss man from Seneca County Cooperative Extension, my new chair pad, just about took me out here, Abe Botters here, good morning.
Ave Bauder: Good morning Ted.
Paul Szmal: Anything significant happen since we last got together?
Ave Bauder: Oh, just a minor couple things. So anyway, we got a lot of events to talk about here with the Cooperative Extension over the next several days and my phone's ringing. Let's start with, you had the electronics recycling and also the confidential document shredding event.
Paul Szmal: Yes, so I definitely wanted to go over that because it was our most successful, I would say, that we've ever had. Greg was in line there for about 50 minutes, he told me when he came through. I didn't mean to out him that he actually recycles or anything, but it was, quite frankly, bumper to bumper from actually 8.30 because people started showing up at about quarter after 8 or so, and all the way through till noon. We had 344 vehicles come through to either drop off electronics or do shredding, gave away 50 blue bins. We're still getting our totals from both Sun King, who took all the electronics, and Shred Text, who did all the shredding. So we don't have that, but we gave out 250 bags full of information. It was pretty impressive. So thanks to Seneca County for the space and also for a couple of their workers to help with forklifting and cones and all of that. And definitely to Seneca Meadows, who pays for everything and brings people to help unload cars.
Paul Szmal: Wow, that's great. The number keeps going up every year. You've got a holiday baking series going on. The first one of those is today, and then it'll be November 20th. Or actually, it was yesterday. And then November 20th, December 4th, and December 18th. So what are we baking?
Ave Bauder: Yeah, so this is designed for 4-H'ers. Candace, I think, is still working on an adult one that might happen sometime early in December. But we had a request, kids like to bake, and wanted to learn some baking skills. So November 20th will be Thanksgiving pies. December 4th will be Christmas cookies. December 18th will be holiday gifts. So they'll be making cookie mix, soup mix, and Oreo balls to give away. It's from 6 to 8 at the Seneca Falls Community Center. Its cost is $5 per class if you're a 4-H member. If you're not, you just join 4-H for $15, and we'll get you all set up for the year. To register, just get online. Get to our website, which is SenecaCountyCCE.org. There's also some QR codes floating around on posters and that sort of thing. Or just call the office.
Paul Szmal: We also had our interview a while back, and we just replayed it the other day with Ryan Stachok and Guillermo Metz talking about solar power, but specifically as it relates to agricultural land and just the things that landowners need to know, because the solar power companies are very experienced with this. They know the ins and outs of the contract language and everything, and just some things you need to think about before making that decision to host solar panels on your land.
Ave Bauder: Exactly, exactly. And so this is actually a... We did this first in Seneca County a few months ago, back in the fall or so. Wait a minute, where are we? We are in the fall. So back in the spring or so. And so Ryan, since he is the environmental guy for our three counties, has wanted to repeat it. It's going to be at Cayuga Community College on Franklin Street in Auburn, 9.30 to 2.30 on November 13th. That's next Wednesday. Should be $15, includes lunch. And really the experts that we bring in give what the information is that people need to know, particularly this one without bias. It's like, here are the facts, here are the things you need to think about. Is the fact that you're putting solar panels in on a piece of otherwise land that you wouldn't necessarily use or that is less fertile, less effective for your crops, is that going to allow you to keep the farm open? Those kinds of things that I think a lot of people don't think about when they say, well, we don't like these solar panels going in, and perfectly legitimate to say we don't necessarily want these on prime farmland if it's going to take it out of production. But if it means that your farm keeps going and that the other acres are productive, then that may be something you want to do. And the lawyer we have this time is going to just be very objective about, okay, here are the things you've got to look out for. What do you need to think about? So Cayuga County, but we wanted to be sure it's open to anybody. It will have a little bit of a Cayuga County emphasis to some extent, but the information will be pretty generally applicable to anybody. And that's on November 13th.
Paul Szmal: We also did a segment just a while back, the HABs and water quality workshops are coming up, one on the 12th in Cayuga County and the 18th in Seneca County. I went to the presentation last year that Judy Wright supervised and just, you know, I've been talking about this for years and I learned more stuff in that one day than I did in all those years of conversations just about the economic impact and what people said about HABs, how it affects their decision where to go fishing and tourism and just a lot of aspects.
Ave Bauder: There's a lot of information about HABs and, as you said, different aspects to look at. We're working with Partners for Healthy Watersheds, which is a pretty broad-based group, to bring you know, what does an active year of HABs mean for water quality? And there's a lot of misinformation out there. There's a lot of assumptions. You know, I like to say that phosphorus is one of the things that's pointed to as, you know, it can increase HABs. And I think on the part of some people, there's just this idea that willy-nilly, a farmer or a winery owner or a vineyard owner is out there with, you know, a hose with phosphorus. It's just kind of letting it go all across the place. And it's like, well, you know, there are various places where phosphorus is coming from. There are various points that, you know, it isn't necessarily all runoff. It's not, or sometimes it's runoff. Yeah, so we're going to look at all of those, all of that information. And I've made the point for a number of years that these ag chemicals are fairly expensive and the farmers want them on their fields, not in the water. So it's in their economic best interest as well, not to let it run off.
Paul Szmal: Exactly. And that's certainly one of my pet peeves that I like to try to make sure we get across that it won't be the only thing that we'll be talking about. But we have several speakers. We'll have two presentations. One will be by Dr. Kimberly Schultz, who's at SUNY ESF. She's done a lot of current research on harmful algal blooms and water quality. Her thing particularly is invasive mussels and how they could actually be contributing to the phosphorus loads, those sorts of things. The other is, oh, I'm going to not get this name right at all. Anthony Prestigcomo from the DEC, Finger Lakes Watershed Hub, and he's going to be talking about past, present, and future of ongoing work to monitor and protect Finger Lakes water quality. We'll have those presentations and then we'll have panels that will be local to each county. So the one in Cayuga will have Cayuga County farmers, the Cayuga County soil and water person, and for Seneca we'll have the Seneca people. The Seneca County one is going to be Monday, November 18th from 6 to 8 at the auditorium at the South Seneca Middle High School on Main Street in Ovid. Please register ahead of time. We just want to give an ID on counts. And again, through our website, people can do that.
Ave Bauder: And coming up this Tuesday, on November 12th, will be the Cayuga County one from 430 to 7 at the auditorium at the community college.
Paul Szmal: Coming up November 15th is America Recycles Day. Ryan Stachok will be here to talk about that. So give us the state of recycling. Is it growing in numbers, particularly in Seneca County, and are the markets staying strong? Because that's what we've always talked about. If there's not a market for these materials, then it becomes harder to recycle them. And that is the conundrum that we have. And I know Ryan will be going into more details on that, but certainly if our electronics recycling was any kind of an indication, it is a growing thing, or at least that people are feeling that they need to do that. We will hopefully by then have some totals for you about what the overall state looks like. We've certainly lost markets in China, where we used to send a lot of the recycling, went there. And now really our push is not only it's use all three, it's reduce, reuse, and recycle. One of Ryan's mantras that we like to also talk about is buy products that are made from recycled items, or recycled materials. We need to create that market so that it does grow.
Ave Bauder: Well it drives me nuts that at least, I live in Yates County, and our hauler does not take number five items, and it seems like every other thing on earth is number five.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, and actually that's, again, I'm trying to remember, that is actually usually one of the ones I believe that is pretty universally recycled. There's a lot of, there's this tension between, Seneca County does single stream, which makes it easy for people to recycle. And that's ultimately the tension. It's like, okay, is there a market for, in this case, let's just say five. It's easier for some, if you want to get everybody to recycle, it's easier to do single stream and have it in there. But then if it's a problem at the other end. I remember the early days when you had 14 different bins, and brown glass, and clear glass, and green glass.
Ave Bauder: Exactly, and that's a real tension right now. What are the markets now, and where are things going to go?
Paul Szmal: The Master Gardeners are doing their Fresh Greens Workshop. That'll be on Saturday, November 23rd, from 9 to 11. What are some late season greens that we have?
Ave Bauder: So this is greens as in making wreaths. Oh, okay. Right, right, right. Not veggies. But yeah, that is a good point. I should... We should talk about... You can make an edible wreath out of lettuce and...
Paul Szmal: Yeah, that is an interesting thing. Because I usually refer to it as the Wreath Making Workshop. And then I just noticed, yeah, you're absolutely right. Fresh Greens. So we could have some people that are just confused. But no, this is our annual holiday thing where we show people how to make wreaths, or a table centerpiece for their Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday dinners. And it will be at the Scenic Falls Rec Center, $20 a person. And it includes all the materials that you'll need to make one project. And we are also... We are continuing to do... We instituted this during COVID when people still wanted to do this, but we couldn't have anything in person. We do kits. So wreath making kits.
Ave Bauder: Oh, yeah.
Paul Szmal: And we have videos on the website on how you would go about doing it. So if you don't have the time or can't stay for the actual in-person, you can also order one online and we'll have the kit all ready for you to pick up.
Ave Bauder: The annual dinner meeting is Monday, December 2nd. Make your reservation by November 28th. And if you need any further prodding, it's at Knapp Winery. So it's going to be awesome, starting at $5.45. You obviously have some business to conduct, but a lot of it is social and education and sort of recap of, in this case, a year of transition moving into your new office.
Paul Szmal: Yeah. This is about... It's our usual time, Mondays, the first Monday in December. We've had it at Knapp's now for probably a good 13 years or so. And we have a great dinner, $5.45. Come and kind of get socialized and I think we're doing another charcuterie tray. Even though we don't have Moe, we have all the recipes and know where to get everything. And so we will start with that. As you said, do a short business meeting. We just basically... Here's the financial health of the association, elect new board members, recognize outgoing board members. We will be doing, hopefully, a Friend of Seneca County Extension Award, you being the inaugural person.
Ave Bauder: That was wonderful. I appreciate that so much.
Paul Szmal: Yes. Well, we appreciate you, Ted. So I've actually got to get a hold of the recipient, so I'm not going to quite let it out yet who that will be. And then we'll have dinner, which is always amazing, from Knapp's. And then we will, over dinner, we'll have each one of the departments talk. They get no more than three minutes. What's the success story? How did things progress? And we'll talk a lot about the transition into the new building.
Ave Bauder: Well, I hope the name that I'm mentioning here isn't the one who's getting the award, but I just want to say, speaking of Friends of Cooperative Extension, Tom Murray from Miranda Cheese got some recognition recently, which was great to see. Tom is one of our former board members, and actually, he interviewed me when I got the job. So, yes. So that is just a wonderful, wonderful story. I remember even, that's when he, back when he was just starting to convert from normal dairy and, of course, he had, like, prize-winning Holsteins that he was sending, you know, sperm and everything, genetics all over the world. But yeah, so that's a great, great thing for the Rotary to present to him.
Paul Szmal: So tell us a little bit about, there's an EPA Recreational Economies for Rural Communities grant, and you're getting into that process and submitting an application. What's that all about?
Ave Bauder: Yes, so Senator Gillibrand's district office had sent us a note, Austin Ponds, who I met when the senator was at Buttonwood. It's a grant from the EPA, well, it's a grant. There's technically no money in it. It's a planning process where they provide all of the expertise and the personnel and walk you through the process, which is actually good because it means that they get to do the application, and it's much easier than the normal governmental grant process. But it's essentially to take your downtowns in rural areas and try to connect them better to your outdoor recreational opportunities. So for example, so what we did is I met with the planning department with the county, and we kind of jointly put the application together. It's been sent in, and Extension will, if we are awarded it, Extension will be in charge of this process. But what we want to do is take a countywide approach. There are DRI money, you know, in both Seneca Falls and Waterloo, and then there's been different Design Connect plans for the three villages in the south end, but nobody's looked at this comprehensively. So it would be, what kind of new amenities do you need to have in Ovid, Interlaken, and Lodi to help people better connect to the national forest and use all of those trails, or to connect to the Willard land use area, or to use our state parks? All of those kinds of things. So we're looking forward to it. It'll be a process where they meet with the steering committee virtually, and then they come and do a site visit, and then follow-up, and we end up with a comprehensive plan with connections to the money. There's no money directly involved, but they help us connect with the partners who have the cash.
Paul Szmal: Right. And then when you have a framework in place, they're much more receptive.
Ave Bauder: Exactly.
Paul Szmal: All right. Ave Botter from Cooperative Extension. Great stuff as always, and always appreciate it.
Ave Bauder: Thank you, Ted.
Paul Szmal: That is now 8.54 FLX morning.
