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Meeting Minutes
Thursday, July 21st, 2011
6:30 pm
120 Washington St.
Salem, Ma
In Attendance: Jeff Brandt, John Hayes, Jenna Ide, Jeff Barz-Snell, Rick Nye
Members not in attendance: Cindy Keegan (Chair), Rob DeRosier (Vice Chair), Adam Segal, Nick Lewis
City Staff: Paul Marquis
Public: None
Administrative
- Meeting called to order at 6:37 PM
- Approval of May 2011 meeting minutes approved with minor changes. (June meeting called off due to lack of quorum)
General business
- Increasing participation in meetings and projects by Task Force members
- Members exchanged ideas for improving participation in Task Force activities given high levels of absenteeism and lack of active participation in projects among some. It was agreed that formal votes on these ideas would be taken at next meeting.
- Ideas included:
- Minimum recommended attendance of 6 of the 11 annual meetings,
- A concerted effort to limit casual discussion at meetings to keep them as brief as possible in the belief that this would encourage better attendance; establishing a target end time for the meetings; taking necessary votes at the beginning to ensure a quorum and placing any committee business at end of meetings
- Requiring active participation in at least one event per year, such as the Living Green Fair, Farmers’ Markets, Clean Salem, Green Salem, or public forums. Active participation is defined as either staffing the event itself, or helping with prep work and event materials.
- Sending outstanding action items lists to members on a routine basis.
- Formalizing committee work by tracking action items more carefully, keeping hard copy of task list at meetings, conducting committee meetings in public spaces at City Hall Annex where appropriate, limiting the number of committees to three, and assigning just one point person per project.
- Changing the meeting start time to 6:45, 7:00 or 7:30 to accommodate work schedules
- Planning for August 2nd public forum on the Winter Island wind proposal.
- Paul Marquis noted that he arranged a City of Salem email distribution to promote attendance
- Members discussed providing a two-page fact sheet for the general public, and that this would be a slight modification of a fact sheet provided to City Council members several days earlier by Paul Marquis
- Ideas for the presentation itself were discussed, such as who might be invited to offer testimony at the meeting, such wind power experts and residents of Hull or Ipswich who could relate their experiences regarding living with wind turbines. Jenna Ide offered to contact an associate from Hull who might be willing to attend. Paul Marquis noted that Jonathan Markey from Meridian Associates had already accepted his invitation to attend.
- Members discussed key issues that may be of concern with respect to wind energy that might be included in the presentation by the Mayor, including economic benefits to the City, using revenue to help underwrite Master Plan proposals, noise, shadow flicker, ice throw, visual impact, impacts related to temporary roadways, the potential for the wind turbine’s “blowing dust” from the coal piles at the power plant and how a wind turbine may affect perceptions of the City as a climate leader. It was agreed that these issues should be addressed in a Frequently Asked Questions document as well as in the public presentation, and that members should forward questions that they might anticipate.
- It was suggested that Meridian Associates might be asked to provide some high-resolution mounted images from the photomontage work in the Feasibility Study from perspectives such as the Willows, Dearborn St. and Naugus Point in Marblehead.
- Members discussed the direct revenue benefit to Winter Island Park in the form of avoided electric cost.
- Creation of project development checklist
- This discussion was limited due to time constraints, but Jenna Ide offered a financial scenario analysis spreadsheet (“Cashflow Model – Salem Wind Turbine”) somewhat more comprehensive than the one provided by Meridian Associates in the Feasibility Study. It includes a column for earmarking funds specifically for Winter Island.
- Agenda items not discussed
- Design & engineering services RFP for Winter Island project
- Update on MA CEC and New England Wind Fund grants
Documents discussed or offered as exhibits
“Cashflow Model – Salem Wind Turbine”
Action items arising from discussion on 5-21-11:
- Members forward FAQ questions to P. Marquis
- Jenna Ide contact Hull associate
Meeting Minutes recorded by Paul Marquis.
Meeting adjourned at 8:23 pm
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