September 14, 2009
Energy Committee minutes taken by: Chinloo Lama
Energy Committee Present: Chinloo Lama
Martha Broad
Michael Gorr
The Energy Committee met at 7:00 p.m. at the Town Hall.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 p.m.
Discussion:
Agenda
- Vote for Chair, Co-Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary
- Update on new committee size, update on Paul's and Beth's status
- Leigh Shanny: payment/tax forms for grant work
- Bolton Fair finances
- Update on Green Communities Program, especially on what was achieved by Town Planner
- PSCCC request for help with researching about the feasibility of hot water heating and possible preparation for future installation
- 2011 budget for capital planning
- revise committee goals for 2010 and vote on it
- Continue the effort to invite MMA to speak about weatherizing for the winter for a lecture series presentation - continue Beth's effort
Future Meetings
- Promptly begin at 7pm
- Try to end at 8pm
- Use online google group to discuss issues and save voting decisions to the meetings
- Google group will be reset to only the 5 committee members but viewable to the public
- Hope to move the meeting night to 2nd Wednesday of the month (need confirmation from Paul and Margaret)
Martha and Chinloo will alternate note-taking and agenda posting responsibilities
Update on Committee Size
BOS met and accepted our proposal for Margaret to join our committee. They also voted to reduce the minimum requirement for our committee size to be as little as 5 and at most 8. Not sure if Paul is formally accepted into the committee. We are pretty sure he was. Need to check the BOS minutes.
Update on Public Safety Center Construction Committee Meetings
Chinloo has been attending the monthly meeting for the PSCCC. They have since asked the energy committee to help them research the potential cost, requirements, and benefits for installing a solar hot water system for the domestic uses in the center. Mark Guinta has provided Chinloo with some figures on estimated water usage. This together with the building plans online was sent to Helios Solar. The BEC hopes to get data back to the PSCCC so that they can decide if they want to pursue this effort. Meanwhile, they have also asked the BEC to help find funding possibly through grants to help pay for this installation. If we are able to help find funding, the PSCCC will most likely go ahead with requesting for bids on this project.
Future Meetings
We hope to keep our monthly meetings down to one hour long by doing most of our communications through emails and the GreenBolton google group for public discussion. We hope to reserve meeting time to vote on decisions and use online discussions to carry on research and coordination efforts.
Also, we agree that we will request from all the voting members of the group to notify the committee at least 24 hours before the day of the meeting if they are unable to make the meeting. This way, we have time to check for quorum and coordinate a rescheduling if necessary.
Chinloo suggested that we reschedule the meeting times to be another day during the month since the 2nd Monday does not seem to work well for some of the committee members. The group decided that a Wednesday during the week would work better. So we plan to check with the rest of the committee’s voting members to make sure that we can agree on a day of the month that will work and once the day is decided, Michael will check with Linda to make sure there is a room available for that time.
Bolton Fair
Chinloo was at the booth for a short portion of Saturday. The booth was set up well with a kids play area in the center so that adults can walk around to get more information on the vendors in the booth. Seemed to have gone well. The weather did cooperate.
Votes on Committee Offices
With three voting members making quorum for the meeting, it was strange voting for the positions. Every vote was unanimous but we still felt that we should have the consensus from the Paul and Margaret at the next meeting.
However, to prevent more delay on our ability to carry on with business, we had to appoint people to key roles. Chinloo and Martha were nominated and voted to be co-chairs of the committee. Michael was nominated and voted as the treasurer. We still need to appoint a secretary. So we hope to achieve this at the next meeting.
Green Communities Program
Thanks to the effort of our town planner, Jennifer Burney and with the help of a few energy committee current and past members, Bolton was awarded the approval of planning guidance for grants within the Green Communities Program. We hope to better understand this program and how we can benefit from it in our future endeavors.
Next Month’s Proposed Agenda
- Vote on a secretary
- Minutes
- Forms for Leigh Shanny
- Update on the MMA
- Update on the Highschool PV array
- PSCCC solar hot water update
- Committee goals for 2010
- 2011 budget for capital planning
Action Item
Chinloo:
- Solar hot water research and quote
- Share solar hot water research info with team and get feedback
- Provide info from minutes on budget to Mike
- Reset Google groups to only us 5 and pass along account info to the group
- Find out from Linda and Paula as to who should be signing the forms for Leigh Shanny.
Martha:
- Work with Margaret on setting up the last education series
- Get Chinloo more contacts on Solar hot water vendor
Mike:
- Reschedule meeting nights
- Work out budget request for 2011
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