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Meeting Minutes
Thursday, October 21st, 2010
6:30 pm
120 Washington St.
Salem, Ma
In Attendance: Cindy Keegan (Chair), John Hayes, Adam Segal, Jeff Barz-Snell; Rob DeRosier
Members not in attendance: Jenna Ide, Rick Nye, Nick Lewis, Jeff Brandt
City Staff: Paul Marquis (Salem Energy Manager & RETF/ City Liaison)
Public: Derek Luangrath; Melanie DeRosier; Meghan Debski; Victoria Phu
Administrative business
- September meeting minutes approved w/ changes
General Business
- John Hayes briefed Salem High School (SHS) and SSU students present at meeting on mission and activities of the RETF
- Rob DeRosier updated members on his progress in reaching out to Salem restaurants to see what they required in terms of assistance for “going green”. He suggested developing some kind of green restaurant program for the next Salem Restaurant Week (Spring event). Rob said he would coordinate this with Rinus from SCC; Paul Marquis invited Rob to attend the next Green Salem Business Challenge planning meeting on 11/30/10.
- SHS student Meghan Debski asked Task Force members if there was any grant money available for installing a solar-powered streetlight in the parking lot “at the top of the hill”.
- There was a brief discussion of the plan to provide suggested revisions to the City’s wind ordinance; there was a consensus among members that the scope of this task should be expanded to include renewable energy projects in general, and not just be limited to wind facilities.
- GCP Weatherization Program
- Paul Marquis reported that 10/10/10 inaugural weatherization ‘barnraising’ and tree planting events (to mark 350.org’s Global Work Party) were a glowing success; 8 trees were planted on Harbor St and Jefferson Ave. A home on Lee St. in North Salem was weatherized by a crew of about 35 volunteers from the community, North Shore Community College and Endicott College. Paul Marquis led the weatherization effort. Despite some obvious room for improvement, the process proved to be a general success, producing a reduction in air leakage in the target home of about 15%.
- Areas identified for improvement in the barnraising process included: tying the overall number of volunteers to the size of the home (limiting number of volunteers); requiring RSVPs, especially among would-be team leaders; making sure that the project coordinator is not also engaged as a team leader; and more-effectively dealing with clean-up at the end of the day.
- Rob DeRosier offered to forward a Dominion Energy grant application to P Marquis; $5,000 is typical grant amount for this type of project
- John Hayes reported that he had reached out to the SSU MassPIRG chapter to try to enlist volunteers
- Cindy Keegan noted that weatherization program should include energy/ carbon tracking. Paul Marquis assured her that this was a specific requirement of the GCP grant
- Cindy Keegan suggested that online energy tracking tools like Wattsy should be a mandatory requirement for candidate homeowners. P Marquis noted that Cambridge HEET was doing just that.
- Jeff Barz-Snell suggested that would-be clients should be required to enter the MassSave program for an audit, even if they subscribe to the Salem program
- Members agreed that most clients should be means tested (meet income eligibility), rather than limiting no more than half of the homes to be targeted to the income eligible group’ Paul Marquis will check with DOER to see if the program can be modified in this manner.
- Members discussed possible names for program, like EEKO (Energy Efficiency Knock-Out) Team or Weatherization Ninjas, and using catchy, Salem-appropriate catch-phrases like “Energy Efficiency- It’s not magic”
- P Marquis reported to the Task Force that he had briefed the Park and Recreation Department on the status of the met tower testing at Winter Island and a potential timeline for decommissioning the test tower.
- Jeff Barz-Snell asked when it would be possible to apply for a Design & Construction grant from CEC. P Marquis noted that the feasibility study needed to be completed and accepted by CEC, and that the project was determined to be viable.
- Jeff Barz-Snell noted that the discussion regarding project financing should begin in earnest—Bond issues, MassFinance funds, CREBs, etc
- Cindy Keegan emphasized need to address questions posed at earlier meetings, like Winter Island ownership, access, interconnect issues, acoustics, etc.
- Cindy Keegan asked P Marquis to forward photomontage pictures provided by Meridian
- P Marquis agreed to follow-up on question re: ownership/ permitted uses
- P Marquis informed members that the City may be issuing an RFP for a solar Power Purchase Agreement whereby municipal rooftops would be ‘blanketed’ with PV solar panels (where practical)
Votes taken
Action items carried over from 9/16/10 meeting
9-16-10 |
Review Historic guidelines with Salem Inn project in mind (get status update) |
P. Marquis |
9/24/10 |
9-16-10 |
Evaluate comments on solar guidelines for any substantial changes that may require special meeting/vote of RETF prior to sending to Historic commission |
P. Marquis |
9/28/10 |
9-16-10 |
Get guidance on how specific meeting minutes need to be |
P. Marquis |
10/1/10 |
9-16-10 |
Forward EECS & Green Community Application to J. Hayes & J. Ide for gap analysis of proposed Sustainability Plan for Salem |
P. Marquis |
10/1/10 |
9-16-10 |
Meet with local restaurants to find out what they are doing and help needed to “go green” as part of larger proposed project to create a restaurant tool kit. |
R. DeRosier |
10/21/10 |
9-16-10 |
Review Climate Action Plans & existing Salem plans and data to develop gap analysis and action plan |
J. Hayes/ J. Ide |
11/18/10 |
Action items arising from discussion
Identified Date |
Action Item |
Responsibility |
Proposed Completion Date (Actual) |
10-21-10 |
Forward Dominion Energy conservation grant application |
R. DeRosier |
Not specified |
10-21-10 |
Check for ownership/ restriction on use issues at Winter Island |
P. Marquis |
Next RETF meeting on 11/18 |
10-21-10 |
Arrange consultation with National Grid for P Marquis and interested Task Force members re: interconnect application for Winter Island turbine |
J Barz-Snell |
Not specified |
10-21-10 |
Identify funding source for SHS solar-powered streetlight |
P Marquis |
Not specified |
10-21-10 |
Get clarity from City officials re: new open meeting law requirements |
P. Marquis |
Next RETF meeting on 11/18/10 |
Agenda items not discussed
Meeting Minutes recorded by Paul Marquis
Meeting adjourned at 8:44 pm
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