Energyminutes11_01_07.pdf
Nov 1, 2007
Energy Committee minutes taken by: Chinloo Lama
Energy Committee Present: Chinloo Lama
Joel Lindsay
Kevin Lord
Paula Berg
Michael Gorr
Laura Kischitz
Non-voting members: John Balco
Daphne Monie
The Energy Committee met at 7:30 p.m. at the Town Hall.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m.
Discussion:
An introduction of a new non-voting member, Daphne Monie. She is interested in helping out with the Education and Publicity portion of our committee efforts.
Summary of the meeting with the Board of Selectmen
(Reported by Joel, John, Paula, and Mike)
The Board of Selectmen was receptive and willing to support financially. We need to give them a proposed budget soon. Someone hired by the town has already begun an energy audit. We need to figure out a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the full EE audit. We should approach Martha to take the lead because of her experience, if not then Joel has volunteered to take on the responsibility. They would like us to continue to keep a record of the energy information of our town buildings. The best time to get the information is around May. They also support our interest in being part of local new building planning meetings.
Summary of the Climate Change presentation by Doug Plante
(Provided by Mike, Chinloo, Paula, John, and Daphne)
The presentation was much more focused on possible local actions. He has many interesting case studies – Holden’s recycling plan which was an opt-out type of recycling plan that encouraged residents to recycle by giving a larger recycling bin than the garbage bin. Few residents opted out but some eventually opted back into the plan.
EPA program (Communities Energy Challenge)
Joel and Mike talked briefly about this site – an online source of suggestions / mechanism to organize energy efforts. This could be potentially a very helpful tool for us to use to organize our efforts. Joel and Mike will look further into this and report back to our group.
Green Building Update
Not much to report. Library and Public Safety buildings are still continuing. We should try to be present at their meetings and see if we can apply any more influence on the green building aspects.
EE audit
We should try to track down missing months in our current data of energy use. Are these reports even available? We might want to track down records from even further back a few more years so that we have a better comparison with post energy efficiency improvements. It seems that the best time to get the reports would be around May.
Clean Choice Program
From the Chart Martha sent out. Bolton numbers were actually pretty good compared to those of other towns. Perhaps we can come up with some target towns to find out how they do it so we can learn from their success. The Cape has high profile projects like solar projects at schools. Harvard has had a lot of exposure in every town event such as the Step-it-up program where kids and families were encouraged to do eco-activities while surrounded by food vendors, bands… they were also asked to sign eco-petitions.
Be One of the Magnificent 7
John proposed a “Magnificent 7” promotional event. We promote that just 7 more households Greening Up will bring Bolton up to the level of getting more matched contribution from MTC. We can get this in the Commons. We can also promote it at the soccer fields during soccer practice in the spring. We can leave info/pamphlets at the Town Hall and Town Transfer Station.
Used Oil program
John reports that Harold Brown mentioned that the DPW is still not getting a lot of used oil. People are not changing their own oil. Perhaps we can help set up a workshop to teach how. We hypothesize that there might be an increase use of synthetic oil. So there is no need to change oil as often. Small auto shops recycle their own used-oil. Perhaps another article in the Commons would help since the last one was in the summer. A better form of communication at the transfer station (Signage, Publicity) would help more. If there were a BIG sign as they drive into the Transfer Station… that might help. Perhaps we can use the Police Sign to promote as well.
Some Other Discussions on Website/Publicity/Ads/Newsletters
Chinloo proposed a possible mailing during the year from our energy group to educate, encourage, promote, and suggest good practices. We can also point them to an online newsletter that they can sign up for. Someone or some subset would have to take on this eNewsletter as a responsibility.
We can create a repository for useful renewable energy information on our town and google websites. We can include suggestions and advice in town mailings & census~to save postage. We can utilize the town e-mail list for meeting reminders, etc.
Misc. Comments
John spoke with Carol Lumbard and she suggested a few items:
· Would it be possible to provide a set of regulations for residential applications of geothermal units to the board of health, and the conservation committee. Try to ease the process for future retrofits. How to provide educational information for board of health. Look at Bylaws and permitting process.
· Find out who are other residents who are installing a geothermal system (other than Chinloo). Perhaps we can get some suggestions/feedback from them.
There was a brief discussion about Deval Patrick's proposal to allow diesel cars back into Massachusetts.
Future Endeavors
· Publicity (writing articles) – we would need some subcommittee commitment on this aspect especially for the commons and potentially an eNewsletter.
· Recycling CFL – Paula has researched on this topic and has found a vendor, Stoten- Violia(spelling?). According to their service, we can get cartons and have it picked up (ex: a carton that holds 90 bulbs costs about $80). We can also get boxes for CFL tubes and used batteries. One drawback is that the cartons need to be carefully filled so the bulbs don’t break. If broken, they don’t want them. Perhaps we can have this at the HazMat day. Due to the level of caution with the CFLs, we can’t allow the cartons/crates be left alone at the transfer station. The DPW staff might not even like the added responsibility. We’ll have to discuss this
further. (Interesting event at the town of Concord – the (Re-Use-It) Drop/Swap day – Residents pay by the car, and recycle everything they can carry.)
· Participation in the MCAN annual conference if anyone is available.
· Possible startup of a low carbon diet in Bolton – We can get more local people to get involved. Get LCD book for Library. Possible other book for the library, “The Natural Step for Communities. By Sarah James & Torbjorn Lahti.
· ATM Calendar and our budget/funding potential need for the future (This is a proposal for the town money)
- Need to pay for LCD book (MCAN) ~ 10 copies. ($12)
- purchase the CFL and batteries recycling boxes ($80 ea) x4
- Earthday event ($1000)
- Energy Audits ($?)
- Annual Mailing (2x a year)
- Advertising
- Conferences ($500)
· Competitive Supply: Consilation wants to supply. Joel also has contacts from the Energy Summit. A decision needs to be made and a discussion with Bill will help.
· Get commitment from committee members to be present at Public Safety construction meetings. Since we have Joel as a liaison in the Library committee, we should try to have a voice at the Public Safety meetings.
Agenda for Next Meeting
Everything from the Future Endeavors section (at least).
Action Item
Chinloo:
· Check Google email to notify who needs to change setting
· Put Martha’s doc on EE audit on google site.
· Find out from Linda to how much to get an annual town mailing
· Ask Linda to add a new volunteer member to Town page.
· Find out from Board of Health who else is doing geothermal.
· Make next week’s agenda.
Laura:
· Follow-up with Martha about taking lead on setting up EE audits. Take a rough estimate first and share with group.
· Find out from Bill Ferrell about when the Pub safety meetings are. So we could participate.
Joel and Mike:
· Research more on the Communities Energy Challenge
John:
· Follow-up with Martha about the example towns with best practices and come up with some viable solutions for the group to take action on.
· Follow-up with Harold on about next HazMat day and possibly doing this weekly. Drop/Swap (Take it/ Leave it) suggestion at the Transfer Station.
· Article for the Commons on the “Magnificent 7”
Paula:
· Send a list of potential containers.
· Follow-up with Martha how long it took us to accrue $8000
Daphne:
· Check to see if there are tours available for the Trusties and Reservations green building in Leominster.
· Research and find more case studies that show how small towns have successfully implemented community green education
· Take the opportunity to check out the Low Carbon Diet book and how we can implement it.
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