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Advisory Board Meeting

Town of Cary · Environmental Advisory Board
Tuesday, September 9, 2025 at 6:00 pm · Conference Room 11130, 316 N. Academy Street, Cary Town Hall, Cary, NC 27513

Advisory board meeting Bonds and debtParks and recreationWater and sewer

Agenda document Full packet Minutes Meeting page Watch Meeting recap

What's on this agenda

Cary's Environmental Advisory Board met Sept. 9 mainly to give Utilities staff feedback on the town's citizen billing portal experience (Digipay and Aquastar), through a structured Q&A with the Marketing and Creative Manager, the Assistant Utilities Director and the Director of Special Projects.

Chair Mia South also flagged the town's draft Open Space Plan for review ahead of a Sept. 28 comment deadline, and reminded members that new appointees join and the board elects a vice chair in October.

Summarized from the published agenda. Read the agenda itself before acting on it.

Meeting recap

What happened, drawn from the records published after the meeting. Minutes

Board members worked through a list of staff questions on what they want from a redesigned utility billing portal, covering login priorities, payment methods, usage data and features borrowed from banking or shopping apps; no formal recommendation was recorded.

Two residents submitted detailed written comments on the draft Open Space Plan, arguing it understates tree and natural-area preservation relative to twenty years of citizen survey results favoring conservation over recreation programming; the comments were shared with the board under the public comment item. Members also picked Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer for their next book discussion, thanked outgoing members Shouse, Falk and Karwoski, and welcomed new Teen Council representatives.

How the votes went

The agenda and the Aug. 12 minutes were both adopted without objection; no other votes were recorded.

From the published minutes.

What was said

Two residents of Oakridge Road submitted written comments on the draft Open Space Plan, saying it emphasizes recreation programming over tree and natural-area preservation despite survey results showing citizens rank conservation highest.

Read from the records the government published after the meeting. Members of the public are private residents and are not named or indexed.

Speaking at this meeting

Sign up for Public Speaks Out by calling the town before noon on the day of the meeting; each speaker gets three minutes. Comments that arrive after noon are passed to the council as correspondence instead.

Town of Cary's own rules for public comment — check them before you rely on anything here.

Agenda items (6)

Other · 4Procedural · 1Discussion item · 1
  1. For any public interested in listening to the meeting, please call 1-650-479-3207 and enter access code (2557 425 4862) and password (54354522), followed by # when prompted.
    Other
  2. 1. Councilmember Smith's comments
    Other
  3. 1. Public comments
    Procedural Parks and recreation
    The clerk shared two written public comments on the town's draft Open Space Plan, both urging stronger tree and natural-area preservation provisions.
  4. 1. Board Member Profile
    Other
    A board member described a native-garden yard project and the process of getting HOA approval for it.
  5. 2. Member HOA Share
    Other
    Members discussed invasive species issues within HOA-governed properties.
  6. 1. Utility Billing Experience - Citizen Input
    Discussion item Bonds and debtWater and sewer
    Speakers: Kristy Buchanan - Marketing & Creative Manager, Corrie Bondar - Assistant Utilities Director, Wes Everett – Director of Special Projects Members will be asked questions and provided an opportunity to give their input on the citizen utility billing experience (Digipay and Aquastar). Members are encouraged to review the utility billing portal ahead of time and may wish to bring personal devi ces for access to the current platform.

Other recent meetings of this board