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<br />We still had grant funds for the lighting program available last autumn after deducting our <br />program costs from last summer, and the County's grant administrator suggested we use those <br />funds for a program to replace incandescent holiday lights, similar to the City of Boulder's LED <br />Holiday-Lights exchange program. <br /> <br />Our board initiated such an exchange program right after last Thanksgiving, at which we <br />collected strings of older incandescent holiday lights from our residents at the Recreation Center <br />and Parade of Lights. And we gave them discount coupons to purchase new LED holiday <br />lights, good at several local participating merchants. <br /> <br />We plan to pursue an expanded LED Holiday-Lights exchange program at the end of this year, <br />and Tom Phare has submitted a grant application to Boulder County to fund it. We plan to start <br />the program earlier (beginning of November) and seek to have even more local merchants <br />participate. <br /> <br />NEXT: Our members intend to explore options to reduce the use of single-use plastic shopping <br />bags within our community. This is a topic that has been discussed at Boulder County's <br />Resource Conservation Board meetings for consideration by the County Commissioners as part <br />of the county's overall zero-waste goals. And during this past state legislative session, a bill <br />was introduced that would have sought to significantly reduce the use of such single-use plastic <br />shopping bags. That bill failed to move out of senate committee, but backers plan to introduce it <br />again during the next session. <br /> <br />Some of our members had previously expressed interest in this issue, and last year we had a <br />local resident, Ms Laura Robinson, speak to us about her Masters Thesis, which examined <br />programs in Ireland and Australia to significantly reduce plastic-bag usage and detailed her <br />recommendations for a Colorado-wide program. <br /> <br />Earlier this month, several of our LRCAB members met with members of Lafayette's equivalent <br />board, Waste-Reduction Advisory Committee (WRAC), to discuss this topic. Their board <br />contacted ours, believing that cooperative, multi-city efforts will be more successful than having <br />each of us trying to work the problem separately. <br /> <br />The consensus from our meeting was to implement information & education measures <br />describing the wasteful use of plastic bags and how to reduce usage. Presentations can be via <br />videos, slide shows, and print media, on venues like our local TV-channels, the cities' websites, <br />libraries, recreation centers, and at city-wide public events. We also discussed options to <br />promote expanded bag-replacement efforts by local merchants. And by working with our <br />respective Chambers-of-Commerce and other local business associations, to create programs <br />to pool reusable-bag purchases by-and-for local merchants. During the coming year, we will <br />pursue positive, incentive-based options to reduce single-use plastic-bag usage by merchants <br />and residents here. And when a measure to reduce their usage statewide may be introduced <br />again at the state legislature, we will plan to come to you seeking a Resolution from Louisville in <br />favor of that statewide goal. <br /> <br />LAST: We have discussed changing the name of our board. Saying 'Louisville Resource <br />Conservation Advisory Board' is quite a mouthful, and trying to say 'EI-Ar-Kab' or 'Lur-Kab' is <br />awkward too. We just don't have an easy or catchy acronym. <br /> <br />7 <br />