March 9, 2009
Energy Committee minutes taken by: Chinloo Lama
Energy Committee Present: Chinloo Lama
Martha Broad
Paula Berg
Michael Gorr
Laura Kischitz
Beth McGilvray – left early
Paul Vasington
Non-voting members: John Balco
Margaret Campbell
The Energy Committee met at 7:00 p.m. at the Town Hall.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m.
Discussion:
Agenda
- Review status of Public Safety Recommendations
- Review status of Town Building Audits
- Plan next Lecture event
- Update on Budget status
- Update on PV system at school
- Plan when to do training on Energy Efficiency guidelines for
town buildings
- Brainstorm possible grant opportunities for Leigh Shanny to
research. Leigh can't make it tonight but wants us to get her a list of
places to start. ~
- Earth Day event
- Any other business?
Green Community Act
Nothing about hydro power was included. Bio mass was not included as well. Doug Storey thought that there was no time to redo bylaws for the May meeting. It would be more feasible to shoot for a year from May to achieve a good chunk of the zoning and bylaws to address by then. Jennifer has been looking at other towns for suggestions on how to address some of the requirements for this act. The planning board is eager to get going on this. Concern is that we should have all the details and know the answers before presenting a proposal. This will prevent voters from setting bias towards this. Perhaps we should use the mailer to get this information properly phrased to the community.
Energy Efficiency Audit on the Public Safety Building
Laura reported on the results and suggestions. Public Safety meetings occur every first Wednesday of the month at 7pm. A BEC member should be at their meeting regularly.
Lieutenant Governor Meeting
John found out that there was only one request for road work in Bolton. Laura thought that there were different top three items from all the requests from our region. The documentation online did not show all the Bolton requests on the State approved projects. So further investigation is needed.
Town Building Audits
Margaret reported that the energy improvements started three weeks ago and now it is done.
Update after meeting from Margaret: The electrician will be completing the DPW lighting retrofit in the next month. We have to hire a lift which will cost about $350. When the DPW barn work is done then all energy efficiency installation will be complete.
CFL Recycling
Paula has purchase a proper recycling box for the DPW now.
Lecture Series
MMA (Mass Municipal Association) Energy - energy and weatherization program. They are interested in coming to talk to the community. Very detailed description of what is needed to improve the home efficiency. Margaret asked if we can co-host the event with Bolton Local and hold it in Davis Hall. A good site to get more information is Buttonupvermont.com.
Update on Budget
Paula updated the group. The Advisory board went over the budget, which is now $4160 for 2010. They requested a 10% cut to all budgets. We only lost funding for the mailer postage. There is still $800 in the 2009 budget until June.
PV on the Schools
Bill is set to issue an RFP. Already reviewed the roof of Sawyer. Depending on the software for data acquisition, the clean energy money will be put towards that as well. However it is being phased out because of the green communities act.
Guidelines
Chinloo will continue the ball rolling on this again. There were some timing issues in February.
Earth Day Event
We might want to consider a local venue in Bolton and get the Lions club to BBQ – either May 2 or April 25th is taken at Sawyer Kids day. It is a morning thing for pre-K to K. Perhaps we can try to merge the events and shoot for May 2. A possible location is the Sawyer field in the back. Another possible location is the field behind the Flatly building. A swapping event would be on another day earlier at the transfer station. We would have to advertize early and clearly. Make sure we contact the Vendors early to commit their time. Contact Bolton Local about coordinating the town cleanup event as part of Bolton’s Earth Day celebration.
Grant Research
Leigh Shanny is our volunteer to help with grant research and writing. She says that there is a lot of opportunity. We need to give her a direction.
- Laura proposes a grant to get solar hot water panels on the new Public Safety building.
- Grants for surveying town and identify locations for green improvement opportunities
- Development of design guide and bylaws that support the greens communities act
- Energy efficiency for the Holton Public Safety building renovation
Reduce energy by 20% in 5 years
We will think of how to achieve this and find ways to get community to support this.
Other Stuff
John suggested that we should have a checklist to recommend to our community to help them know what type of questions to ask about what type of energy efficiency service they are looking at. This document can be posted on our website for people to access.
Next Month’s Proposed Agenda
- Earth Day event planning and update on contacts
- Update on guideline education gatherings
Action Item
Chinloo:
- Send Linda invitation verbiage and try to set up meetings
- Contact Daniel again about Earth Day event
Paula:
- Talk to Bolton Local about Earth Day event support
- Contact Shelly to talk about the resources for the event
- Talk to Lynn at Bolton Local. They are leading the effort of the town cleanup
Mike:
- Try to line up a venue. Check the available fields in town
Laura:
- Talk to Shelly on the swapping activity
Beth:
- Check with MMA Energy to set up a presentation
Paul:
- Meet with subcommittee (John and Chinloo) to decide how to approach the presentation of the act to the community
Margaret:
- Talk to Sawyer School committee about the co-hosting the kid-day event
- Talk to the Lions Club about BBQ
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