January 17, 2008
Energy Committee minutes taken by: Chinloo Lama
Energy Committee Present: Chinloo Lama
Joel Lindsay
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 9:00p.m.
Discussion:
Agenda
· Review of Action Items from last meeting
· Plan for mailing
· Plan for energy day – pick a day
· Electricity audit follow-up
· Application for heating audit~
· Volunteer for speaking with the Selectmen to appoint a liaison from our group to the Public Safety building planning board.
Joel’s Report on the Library
There is $100,000 for “Green Items.” There is a plan for Geo-thermal gurus to come 1/31 at town home at 7:30pm to speak to the library meeting. The Library committee will invite the DPS group. Richard Marks has had bad experiences with geothermal technologies specifically a company, Water Energy Distributors. The system discussed is an open loop in a 1500 ft deep well. Library will be connecting to the new waste treatment plant at Sawyer. There might be more options now with the new state support for solar array systems.
On a side note: Public Safety reforming a new committee (already filled) on building planning.
Emily Niel of Constellation Energy. They are a provider for MMA. There is an existing contract with MMA (which we are a part of –we can come in at a discounted rate) Joel communicated to her our town usage. She recommends “stabilization” they would take our data and do a free analysis and tell us what is the best way to go about fixing our rates with a high level of certainty. This will help with budgeting and might help a little on the cost savings. Perhaps Nashoba school district might want to do this. They say there are school systems that do this. They provide audits and data calculation.
Heating Audits – Martha (covered by Paula)
Lighting audit is a great idea. Perhaps it will make more of an impact if bundled with the rest of the heating stuff. The results will make the overall proposal look better.
Library display of energy reference area – Paula
There is no space in the library for the display. However, when we have space, the library will need to own the display. We have to donate it to the library. There are also concerns about knowledge of how to use things we make loan-able, like the solar pathfinder. We will donate it and there will be a manual with it.
Walk-way in front of the school
The topic of safer roads in Bolton came up when we were talking about less use of our motorized vehicles. A crosswalk on Wattaquadock from memorial field to other side has been proposed in the past. A few BEC members would like to make Bolton a walking-friendly town. Paula will keep conversation with Dan Seane responsible for trails. Paula requested for any references of people who know good walking and biking trails safely from one end of the town to the other.
The Library reconstruction project has researched about possibly revisiting sidewalk upgrades when the state repairs 117. The state has to be part of the change. Sidewalk has to conform to the state’s requirements.
If there is a way to walk to school or biked to school, the morning commute traffic would be so much better.
Paula will continue the conversation with public ways. This is kind of slightly out of the scope of this committee, but it is an interest of a few members. We might want to do this off the side. This is a good opportunity to engage more of the community to take on this initiative.
Last Month’s Action Items
Chinloo:
· Submit budget proposal to Jodi.
· Google page on a list of topics to cover in the mailing. Energy day
· Find out from Board of Health who else is doing geothermal.
· Make next week’s agenda.
· Get cost estimate of heating audit from Martha’s document.
Martha:
· Clarify metering meaning on the heating audits.
· What’s being done in terms of maintenance on the heating equipment
· Get a copy of the electricity audit report
Mike:
· Find out from Jodi who’s on the Public Safety committee and initiate communication with that person about providing energy efficiency help. We can help provide energy efficiency research efforts.
· Cards for John. Green-up
John:
· Continue to speak with Harold about audit efforts.
· Press release for the Magnificent 7
Paula:
· Talk to Kelly about our own space in the Library.
· Crosswalk in front of high school and a walking Bolton.
Plan for Mailing
Daphne is volunteering for layout design. Planning to mail sometime in March.
Include Accomplishments:
· Energy Audits and how much we can save
· Cost energy opportunities.
The mailing should be a small tri-fold with lots of bullet items.
Laura went to a conference where they are able to summarize into 4 simple items that we can do to reduce our reliance on non-renewable energies.
Plan for Energy Day
Propose to have it at the Nashoba Winery. Need to initiate networking with possible show booths. Need to find a connection with the winery. Try to get a way to set it up for a town event.
Another proposal is the High school. There might be more room. We will have to plan the whole thing including the port-a-potties and facilities stuff.
We would like to invite other towns neighboring to join in the event. There might be interests from Harvard,
Liaison to Public Safety Building Committee
Every Wednesday night at town hall. Be a good source of information. Suggestion for Margaret Campbell might be interested to be the liaison with PS.
Action Item
Chinloo:
· Check older versions of energy data to see if there is some overwritten stuff.
· Speak to Chris Rogers (member of board of health) about the geothermal
Mike:
Provide John with brochures for the Town Hall.
Paula:
· Provide Joel with the Energy data for each building for Constellation Energy’s free audit.
· Continue investigation trail walking
Laura:
· Speak to Linda King and recommend to start a book club start with LCD
· Communicate with Martha to invite Margaret Campbell to be liaison with PS
· Float dates around for the mission communication at the winery
· Speak to Jodi about Emerson Burner on Selectmen committee meeting
Joel:
Speak to Joe Spratt about Constellations
Daphne:
Layout the mailing with information from everyone else.
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