March 6, 2008
Energy Committee minutes taken by: Chinloo Lama
Energy Committee Present: Chinloo Lama
Martha Broad
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:
Agenda
1)~~~~~Vote on recommendations for 2 open voting seats on our committee (Bill Darden and Kevin Lord), and non-voting seats
2)~~~~ Vote on plan for Earth Day event (Soccer/ball fields table or Event)~ Chinloo has joined the Bolton Celebrates committee and will be a liaison between our committees so we could possibly get help planning a Spring event from that group if we decide to do an event.
3)~~~~~Review our Mission Statement & Goals and Approve (vote needed) so it can be included in the mailing
4)~~~~~Review Budget -~Our proposed budget for next year was cut by $1000.~ We’ll have to see what this impacts
5)~~~~~Vote on what we recommend the town purchase w/ funds from Green Up/MTC program and assign owner to work w/ town officials to move recommendation through.
6)~~~~~Review other open action items
Decision on Our Mission and Goals
The group reviewed the proposed mission statement and committee goals from put together by Laura and Daphne. We discussed, refined and unanimously voted (all five voting members present) to have the following be our committee mission and goals.
The mission of the Bolton Energy Committee is to:
· help the Town of Bolton and its residents reduce energy usage and dependence on fossil fuels
· provide education and information on alternative energy programs and technology
· ensure all new development for the town implements alternative energy solutions wherever possible
· ensure all future planning and purchases for the town consider long term energy requirements.
~Goals:
Ø Save town money on energy costs
Ø Take advantage of federal, state, and other grants and funding for reducing town’s energy costs and implementing use of alternative energy sources
Ø 20% energy use reduction goals in municipal buildings by 2010
Ø Educate & empower residents to reduce their energy costs & reliance on carbon-emitting, nonrenewable energy
Earth Day Event
At the time being, the group agrees that there will not be enough time and resources to devote to making an Earthday event a reality for this year. Perhaps we might have more resources next year with possible involvement from the community. There is a possibility of engaging the Bolton Celebrates (BC) committee to co-sponsor the event in the future.
We feel that our efforts will be better utilized getting a polished mailing out and properly introducing our group to the community and hopefully engaging the town to play a larger role in the greening of Bolton.
If BC is interested in a spring event, we would rather wait until later this year to commit to a partnership on an environmentally themed event.
The voting members voted to postpone to planning of the Earthday event to later in the year and for the event to take place next year if we have the resource and time commitment. For now, we will set up, ad hock, stands and tables at soccer fields and sporting events in the spring, summer and fall time to promote Greenup signups and other efforts we take on.
BEC Mailing
There was a suggestion to invite requests for guest speakers to our town in the mailing. This would improve participation and encourage involvement.
The committee liked the idea and would like to have a group member spearhead a possible education series that we can promote and present. John and Frank Lazgin (a first time attendee of the committee meeting) will take on the responsibility of doing some research.
Low Carbon Diet
4 copies of the MCAN book will be purchased at the library for residents to check out. Funding will come out of our remaining budget from the Bolton Fair event. Linda King will be leading a local group with Laura’s help.
Committee Member News
Kevin’s seat is up in June. Kevin will not be renewing that position. So we need to find a new volunteer. Bill wants to step down to a non-voting member. We as a committee need to recommend individuals we feel would be a good candidate to the Board of Selectmen for approval.
Our voting members present at this meeting voted to nominate Daphne as a temporary replacement committee member for Kevin for the remainder of Kevin’s term which ends in April.
Budget Reduction
Laura informs the committee that our budget has been reduced by $1000 from the proposed budget. We will have to make we can reshuffle funding for key objectives.
Commonwealth Solar
Commonwealth Solar can provide PV array with 40% of the cost paid by town rebates. There were committee members who proposed to put these PVs on a school, which might be easier to sell since the school budget is much larger. Could we hook it up on the library as an educational element? There might be a chance since the library can use extra money towards green energy solutions. According to Martha a 2 Kwatt unit (minimum) would be needed to make the energy generation viable. We will use next meeting to continue discussion on this matter.
Earth Hour
March 29 is the night of the Earth Hour. People are invited to turn off their lights from 8-9pm that Saturday all around the world. We should try to announce this through our town email or school newsletter if we have time. As a note, we were reminded by John that we need to sign up for the space on the police board if we want to put up a message. We will have to properly plan for this task in the future.
Action Items
Paula – check budget
Marth, Daphne, Chinloo – sub committee on polishing up the mailing and graphics
Chinloo - Help draft up a sample of how to shut down offices to keep energy efficient. The offices in the town hall are not practicing proper energy saving tips.
John and Frank – education series
Items to Add to Our Future Agenda
· Dark Sky initiatives.
· Building code updates for 2x6 instead of 2x4 framing
Proposed Next Meeting’s Agenda
· Commonwealth Solar, can we also use money from Clean Energy Choice?
· Would we be able to pay for a mailing with the budget cut?
· Finalize Mailing
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