October 20, 2008
Energy Committee minutes taken by: Chinloo Lama
Energy Committee Present: Chinloo Lama
Martha Broad
Paula Berg
Michael Gorr
Laura Kischitz
Beth McGilvray
Non-voting members: John Balco
Diane Martz
Paul Vasington
The Energy Committee met at 7:00 p.m. at the Town Hall.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m.
Discussion:
Energy Usage Guidelines to Town
Lisa and Jennifer OKed it and still need Shelly’s feedback. Chinloo will send it along to Shelly and get feedback before sending it to the Selectmen to approve.
Recommendation to Selectmen
In light of a meeting in November with the Board of Selectmen, the committee brainstormed on potential topics to cover with them.
- Annual report of our progress
- Present Energy and Heating recommendations from the audits (only for electrical for now). Mention that we were recommended to present the electricity and heating findings together that’s why it was not reported a year ago when the electrical audit was done.
- Green Office Guidelines
- (2kw) Small PV array using grant MTC money for Sawyer (Bolton building) - $15K for us to work with. Might make it open for High school vs. Sawyer. MTC will give a free assessment on which building (structurally dependent). Data acquisition kiosk for educational purposes. This is a very small system that covers about half of an average household energy use. So it will not be big enough to make a significant dent in energy usage for the Library or DPS. Also we want to get it up ASAP.
- Overview of the success of the Green Open House Event
- Bolton Fair efforts
- Future goals
Goals for the year ahead
The committee brainstormed on a list of areas to concentrate on.
General areas of focus:
Residential outreach (workshops)
Updating Bylaws on permitting for alt energy. (esp. windmills).
Alt energy support (proactive advocacy)
Energy efficiency for our residents (community)
Some examples:
We wanted to get the audits done for town buildings.
Residential education program (outreach)
Clean energy choice outreach
Wind power?
Meet criteria for “green communities act” – perhaps a subcommittee effort?
Make suggestions on where best to apply the alt energy. (Alt. energy advocacy)
Invite more experts to come speak to us
Free audits available for the residents
Bylaws set up that is more alt energy friendly. (Should be written by Jan/ Feb for this to be accepted.) – There are concerns about it being too late to achieve for 2009. There are no clear guidelines to address specific technologies.
Seminars
MCAN Conference is a great example (conference fee $40 on Nov 16th).
There are seminars / information available for us to get the information we need.
Voted on the 2kw array from MTC for Sawyer
Unanimous (6 voting members) for the system to be put in.
Update on the Alt energy Open House day
Was a success from Laura (16 people) and Chinloo (9 people).
Education Lecture Series
Want to still get few workshops on how to improve energy efficiency.
There is a cable program series on energy efficiency that John would like to get a hold of to present in Bolton through our local broadcast channel.
Coming up:
- Energy Efficiency Audit demo by Mike Duclone) – Nov 11.
- Info on Retrofits - Doug Storey (Sometime in January).
John would like us to suggest any ideas we have for future presentations.
Senior Center Talk
Laura will be talking about low income options/benefits for the seniors in Bolton.
Bolton Fair
Paula has sent in an invoice to Linda, but has not gotten feedback on it. She needs more info.
Recycling – Thanks to Margaret Campbell, the recycling worked- providing t-shirts and 20 volunteers. Clearstream was the company that we were getting bins from. Clinton Savings. 2 Story’s - $200, Borrego $200, Bolton Printing - $50, Terrene- $200.
Laura paid for the remaining $250 for the recycling bins herself because Clinton Savings pulled out. Group motioned and voted (unanimously) to reimburse Laura the amount coming from our supplies budget. Though the bins are housed at the fairgrounds we will be able to access them for any event our committee is running. For example, we can allow Bolton Celebrates to use the bins for all their events.
Bolton Celebrates
The Earthday event could be engaged with the Bolton Celebrates. Daniel Teague was not able to make the meeting. We will reschedule in the future.
MultiTown Event
Stow and Harvard just got their own town committee. Perhaps we can get Harvard to host the next multitown meeting.
Misc.
An idea came up in the meeting to invite the public to observe an energy audit being done. It would help education and demystify the experience.
Mail Update from Our Folder
Make sure with Linda that info on new construction/green construction should go to Library/DPS instead of us.
Next Month’s Agenda
Generate Energy Contacts for the Town
MTC Follow-up
Research more on grant money and volunteer to get this.
Vote on 2009 goals
Action Items
Chinloo – Look into ByLaws. Send budget info to Laura. Send out action items. Send out Agenda before meeting. Write-up 2009 goals. Send Paula and Shelly the guidelines
Paula – Go over FY10 budget info from Linda. Double check budget for fair and coordinate reimbursement for Laura.
Laura – Get Chinloo Shelly’s email. Get the dates of selectmen meeting to share with group. Look up Bylaws. Send seminar info for group. Get another town to lead multi-town meeting
John – will be tracking mail and maintain the committee cabinet. John would help with the Multi-town event if there is another town to host. Continue to work on education lecture series.
Paul – Look into Green Community Act and share with the group
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