am Mor no and Kathy th all right have you had a chance to look over those minutes yes and may have a motion to approve them I've already seen them because I wrote them right right oh what one little thing the scheduling the next meeting you meant to say Wednesday March 20th what did I say the February 20 so that's minor technical schedule next meeting oh that's the one that's it okay so three 2024 and after that uh is corrected uh may I have a all right I make a motion to approve the minutes for the meeting on February 21st 2024 all right with that correction um in favor I second all in favor I I am also in favor correction right you okay uh thank you for that now um this the green communities Grant status discussion um so we re we received more um more emails uh offering opportunities some of which didn't really seem directly for the for our uh committee it's like uh like for the waste you know how to how to reduce um waste and that sort of thing just a whole bunch of opportunities came at the same time and it wasn't the green communities program that sent it it was another Associated one for reducing carbon but not green communities and um we'll get to that later but that's going to have to come up in uh items not uh previously you know because I got it got a response this afternoon I'll explain that later oh interesting but but for the green communities uh part of this um I still don't have an updated quote for the green actual green communities I wrote this up into two different categories one is the Green community status discussion and next is the non-green community grant program because because the confusion people put them together and that that caused us some problems all right so um just to Green communities Grant status so that's the the current projects that we got funded last fall you're talking about or or is it yes yeah um I had asked Frank for an update on the quote because if we finish the current work on time I believe if we finish the current work you know by summer we'll be able to go again in the fall I I sent Karen an email and I asked her like three questions I think I copied you yep and she answered the second question with a whole with a uh a lot of detail I mean it's basically her zip file record of all the documents regarding Towns at work oh I should have open I don't think I've looked and one Excel sheet yeah so I haven't really opened those yet that's like an hour looking through Stu so um she she did respond to that but she did not respond to the question if we finish this work you know in a reasonable amount of time this spring or early summer can we participate in the next R right I wanted to have that answer because I don't want to go Expediting and pushing people to get stuff done if it not going to get us anything I thought she said something about well September 1st if it's if things are finished by September 1st that would be sufficient or did was that referring to something else they have been referring to something else I didn't see that part of it I don't think she ever responded to my to that question or the last part this was an email like just like yesterday two weeks ago 10 days ago oh no this is more recent like just came um did I save it in the because I try to save things in the uh let me see if I have a folder for all this committee stuff um Kathy Thompson will be here shortly oh oh that's good um oh Karen March 17th let's see um this the one she said see my answers below trying to find it okay so you uh wanted to know we must complete the current Grant work before you can participate in another round trying to set a completion date goal for facilities so we can compete again in a fall uh what should be our completion done paid and inspected what should the goal be that's the one did you question she said beginning of September should be the completion goal if you want to apply in the fall excellent all right I didn't see that honestly so I can put on here she had a bunch of responses response beginning of September to finish for next round fall that's good news all right um I did want to check on the progress Teresa was trying to do that but she is not here so okay um we'll ask Ur separately I think I I might send her an email in between and ask her you know if there's any word on how they're doing I tried to add did did Cara respond to that has she got any any completion information none at all she says and no info at all about the current Grant heard nothing I don't know why I didn't to see that I saw the the the midle one where the zip file and I haven't actually pushed that button yet I'm going to figure out which computer I want to do um yeah I haven't opened that either but I I will yeah I'll save that all right so um good next was the non- green communities grant program and again Teresa's not here she's going to be able tell us but I don't know if you knew about the rest of this after the last meeting um I had asked Frank Davies at unal if you know uh if it was still possible to to take advantage of that led unital program right and he was going to have to check with some with uh unal right and repic everything hello Kathy hey how you doing good how are you good and I read everything you sent me all right well we already approved the minute so that was the only thing we've had so far did I yes the back door yeah it was unlocked right yeah okay check thank you yeah yeah better be how how you doing fine you're getting around I'm getting around yeah yeah I'm still doing taxes yeah that's so much fun yeah just so much I I discovered um that um the the uh do it yourself tax program thing is cost me cost me like 40 bucks to do my own taxes you know why huh why you mean the software yeah I've got the software right so I can just file them online and that's what I do I just do myself with software yeah well that's all I'm doing after after you do it the first time it's not that bad I mean you're doing your own taxes imagine doing somebody else's taxes got boy s i it can get it can get tricky okay these elderly people come in we're on um the uh item on the agenda at the bottom of the first page non green communities grant program uh opportunity um picking up from where we left off last time it was going to take a big outlay just starting from where we were last time um Frank couldn't quote right away because there was someone on vacation at at unicone when he did finally uh quote unfortunately a lot of the lot of the incentive went away but it was still a fairly good return on investment it just wasn't like absolute on fire you're crazy if you don't do it kind of thing uh this is a incentive that we received from un unal for the for the public buildings which are no longer covered as far as LEDs are concerned for the municipal buildings they don't cover the M LEDs at all you're on your own really right so but but they switched it to unal and they had a very large incentive for us to do the police station fire station one of the fire stations four structures senior was $180,000 worth of light bulbs I anyway um it wasn't just light bulbs it is also the switches and the dimming and all that kind of um but we didn't take advantage of it and what I was I I went off the last year to have my surgery right y well three weeks after the surgery I'm still at home trying to get around and I'm not going not not actually going very well I had to go back to the doctor's office in July but at the beginning of July rise sent uh to towns and uh attention Eric and uh Rob cardan copy Ron yeah um a quotation an offer for a highly incentivized uh LED you know and um it was cofy to me and I wasn't I was still drugged up and if I I didn't do anything with it I think they'll get it's C you C copy to me so I figured they'd ask me if they had any you know exactly and they didn't well come around to uh July I started pushing rise for a for a quotation because because other than the items that we we actually got we haven't got any other items quoted we don't know where we would go next time and um if you recall they had lost the quote they had lost the all the data the guys took it with them so recently um I I created a a uh I went back and got the Excel sheets that we work from yeah and identified those things that are done and the things that are are that have that we still have we had we had on the on the list there really wasn't anything left except the stuff that's not quoted and the LED including the LEDs for these buildings so when I asked rise you know to update his quote he says well you know you didn't you never you never actually acted on the on the Wonder we sent you before I said what do you mean I looked at it and said holy crap you know we never responded to this um so he got us a new quote and um a couple weeks ago and um it is like a $30,000 less incentive but still good return on investment um and there was one other structure that he didn't quote the fire station um next to uh next to Cherry Hill to and uh when they did finally quote that it turned out to have a crappy return on investment I'm not really sure how much that is I I kept asking how many people are in the building I mean why do you how how could you possibly justify spending you know $20,000 on a building that rarely anybody there unless unless you want to be able to dim the lights and you can't now I don't know I don't know no one answer no one ever answered the question but it it it turned out to have a crap return on investment like 15 years or something like that but but it's going to produce carbon one way or another you know so it I don't know what they're going to do with it it was submitted to the finance committee or some group here that decides how to come up with and spend money and um I've never heard whether they actually worked on it or not it's been probably a weeks since I've heard anything and Teresa would be able to answer but she's not here okay now who's in charge of the fighter Department well who's in charge of the fire department they couldn't tell us okay who's in charge of the fire department be the chief yeah but he must report to somebody here I I I don't know I don't know this the reporting structure I don't know I don't know how strong a man a town manager is you know regarding you know oh stuff like that deal with people and I don't know how much is the board versus the town manager and you know whether there's someone else in between I have no idea um when we did make our submission of a of um our goals yeah to the planning board they decided they would take the goals and split them up by apparently they think they can decide you know who's interested in what you know he send some goals to the fire department some goals to the fire to the police chief and I don't know but that's how they do it they they wanted to send to the chief of the department I don't know how they're going to work it out anyway we don't have any feedback I can't tell you what's happening with that um now anyway is Mass Save only for residential is what Mass Save what mass mass save progam is it is it what is it only residential yeah Mass Save probably has a commercial component I I never really I'm not familiar with it enough to tell you because that's who I'd get in into that fire dep well you know because they'll go in that that that is that is utility that's what massave is it's utility be be all unal so it is unal but they don't call it massay because they I guess they don't there'd be some confusion there if they called it m there's some something like Mass safe whether they call it Mass safe or not for for commercial and for industrial they do get involved all that meaning what did they go and do like an energy AUD suggest do Industrial and Commercial properties um I wonder Mass very specifically by their rules probably is not also residential because they don't want to get that the you know those programs confused I've never heard of it but there's some program that does what massive does for Industrial and Commercial properties um but you think it's unal in oh be it's all unal unial and the state um there are other Grant programs that are not necessarily the green communi programs and we'll get we'll talk about that in a little while because that's going to come up under topics not reasonably you know I just got to message all right um so we don't really have any um feedback on that uh I got to get back to Frank we went to this part of the okay I got to get back to Frank and and uh get him to quote and now we have a goal September beginning of September I probably put it at the end of July just to cover uh right well that's separate in other words what Frank is quoting isn't under the Green community grant program right that's a green Community grant program this is separate I just went back I'm sorry uh the the non green communities grant program stuff we just don't have any more information cuz Teresa is not here uh oh well what was what did they decide to do that's all there is really now because we gave them everything including we had thought Frank had given us a quote for the for the fire station adding to the other stuff um saying that he thought he felt fairly confident that unit would do that and I sent that off to Teresa and oh I but I sent in the note I told her that until the guy from unal approves this it's not actually you know written in stone you may not get it and when he did show up he didn't he didn't get it and I just sent that information off to Teresa and that's where we are I have no why it it's frustrating that a lot of the time we send our um you know we we communicate with people we don't hear anything back you know you you're trying to get ready for a meeting and stuff it's just not working all the well that well all the time this the the fire station thing I mean there's a couple of numbers in here with some question marks but the savings are like you know minuscule but I don't know I don't if these numbers are up to dat $329 but you know be the annual energy saved energy cost Sav yeah the return is like 15 years so it's presumably very small scale in any case but okay you know some buildings you wonder whether there's a justification for it because they're working by uh this formulas right yeah so there's an occupancy formula so they got so they do installation on the garage over here and I don't really know is is there people stay in the garage all the time waiting for the you know ambulance to get called or is that like an empty garage that people go to when they got a call or I don't know yeah I think they go from the fire department over there to get the they go back I don't know the usage of that that building is but they they spent I think they put in uh four $6,000 worth of weather stripping on the doors so if they never have the heat on it wouldn't the savings would be really less than what right I'm saying I'm saying buildings are not not necessarily they're using a formula to come up with savings rather than customizing to a yeah yeah I mean if I was doing it I would I would you know look at that building and say okay so the occupancy isn't really you know the the uh you know 60 hours a week that the program says it is it's more like 20 hours a week so that's the savings yeah you know on the on the lighting not necessarily the heat because you got to leave the heat on right but I don't know how we don't have access to the details of their estimating except I was able to to go backwards and see what they were getting per hour for air sealing cuz air sealing is a very easy very easy job itself sometimes getting around stuff to do the job is a problem you're got to curl your body up and weird positions but um I air ceilings look I I think in my younger days when I could crawl around I probably would have been better off air ceing they they paid the they get like $80 an hour they pay the the employees pretty well because it's not comfortable work um all right so where we where we where we come here is to the portion of the meeting where we we put it off last time um I I was trying to figure out get a little idea of what we do to support the goals that we've drawn up and so I thought what we could do is kind of go around this is just a kind of a brainstorming session uh all I can do with this is when we look at it you we would consider it and try to see what we might imagine needing if it implies that we need a certain skills on on the energy committee um if we needed to um you know have [Music] um skills and and the number of people that it might take to do it I wasn't able to come up with a lot that we haven't already thought of I mean we've had discussions before where we wanted to do you know uh Powerpoints and stuff like that but the one the one idea the that U I'll start one idea that I came up that kind of excites me I don't know I need to run it by you guys to see what you think um we've got these these access to this um mass energy insight and I was wondering if we could sort of publish or have a poster spot here in town hall or maybe even in in departments if it if it becomes relevant to the department where we show progress you know here's our and you would you you you'd have a chart basically um you know just a l just a line chart basart where you would show the years and the um emissions mhm um for the total whole town would be the one you use here you'd publish one for the fire department and the whole town for the for them to put up at the fire department and you do the same thing for the Departments that are actually using Fuel and you know people go byy it they say you know GE we we actually use more fuel this was last month did the you before why why and it's it it's oriented towards emissions rather than the budget item which is gallons or you know dollars right but at least it puts in everybody's mind that we are we are thinking about this we're supposed to be trying to reduce these things and um hopefully that would help engage more people you know what I mean in the in it's a way of disseminating the fact that there is energy commit we're trying to reduce emissions yeah uh and and um you could even put at the bottom of it we we we need more volunteers but you know that was a way to kind of get exposed now I haven't actually tried to draw one up yet except for this little model but yeah I like that idea with with Excel um uh you could put that kind of thing out and yeah you got a format for it's a matter just dumping the numbers yeah yeah um it's a little bit complicated because we have I I would probably want to do one for the schools too because we want to put that onto the town but that was that was just one of my one of my ideas the others most of my other ideas you you've you you've heard before we've talked about them before the the um the um PowerPoint to to educate people about energy you know I I was thinking building science before but I'm I think I'm getting beyond that now that you know there are people who' be interested in building science you know the Do-it yourself stuff the do-it-yourself stuff but I think we're I think as a committee we're kind of getting beyond that where we where we need to head right towards the emissions and and then you'd back into that if people ask into the details of how you do this people ask but I think people are more likely at this point to be asking questions about um does is solar any good do I do I actually save money you know I had to come to my house and you know they start off you know you absolutely no out of pocket okay great so it get through the whole process and they say okay here it is uh you know you just sign this loan for $43,000 and we'll put Peds on your house say what that's more than I owe in the house um uh yeah a lot don't they didn't really communicate well to me I mean they do that purposely well the panels you got to you got you got pay for the panels you got to ask question installation is free the question becomes um you know these panels will produce all the electricity you use and then some okay well where's all that money going where's all that money going well yeah it sounds like they was selling you a lease opposed to you buying I mean I I just did it last year so I'm pretty familiar with it but I bought the panel so you know yes there is out of pocket money absolutely it cost a lot of money I but it was worth it to me you know and and it's going to be a good investment um and there's a big tax incentive now thanks to the inflation reduction act um but yeah other people I know there are other deals where you if you don't have the money to lay out you can do a lease thing and those are my perception is those are not a good deal but they maybe they could be I don't know I I had this I'm as you guys probably know by now I'm a detailed guy I I go further than I probably should with beail but a thing um I get to the point where you know we we use 4,100 kilowatt hours a year and the thing will produce 7,000 okay so what's happening to the other 3,000 there is that like paying me or you or where's it going well why would you need to have something that produces more than you need that that doesn't make sense you don't get you sell it back to the utility potentially I mean that's what I would expect they're going to calculate they not going to pay the leaste they it it eliminates my uh the doesn't the utility have to pay me for the electricity that I produced not directly basically at least the way give me credits the way it works is at Le I don't know maybe it's different with a Le with a lease I think it's more you're GNA pay this wasn't a lease I was going to pay $43,000 oh oh they just wanted to lend you to finance but you were going to buy the pen 4 43,000 $43,000 um because how many panels are we talking about I because okay I got 15 I got 15 panels which was enough to to produce all the electricity we need which is about 5,000 uh 5,000 kilowatt hours a year roughly 400 a month on average is what I do our in my house see our our conversation is educational for me you have actual experience yeah and there are people who don't have experience or being sold a bill of goods they don't need know should I just talk to One Solar Company who has good references or should I talk to three and compare the prices what's what's the you know they're gonna ask question several you know and and I don't know I don't have any answers yeah no I went through I mean maybe we're going off topic but no I I went through I learned a lot about we're looking at ways people learn just a conversation I mean you could you could have put people in a bunch of room are you interested in in solar okay we're having a meeting where there's six people who have put solar in the houses and have uh you know 5 years worth of experience come on down and have a conversation with us you know because then you're not actually talking to someone who's trying to sell you something you're trying to talk to someone who been experience that's different yeah so we are that's not off topic that's okay yeah that's right in there I mean I was going to say in terms of brainstorming I'd love to um as a committee you know encourage the adoption of of a solar or any other you know Green Technology um I think we've kind of touched on this many times over the last several years um I mean it's not really part of the green communities program but on the other hand it's an important thing it would be it's certainly being adopted just from looking around a town like townsin it's pretty popular you know I don't know what percentage at this point we're going to be getting outside the green communities program a green communities program will continue to be a big deal right but it's not it's not the only thing we do you know that return on investment and the amount of carbon you can reduce is going to come down over time yeah and my my point in talk and when I was talking to the people who developed the software you know including the annual report was that you know you want to build people's enthusiasm to this program while they're saving money every time they do something because there's going to come a time when it's going to cost them money every time they do something you know you'll save money but you also cost M think of the situation that this building appar I've never seen them but has six boilers gas boilers and they come on in sequence to demand I don't know how much more efficient you can get and so the program would have you throw away those boils and replace it with heat which probably involves some other kind of distribution you know uh what do they use here anyway this this uh ducted or what what do they how do we heat these this building in terms of distribution I don't see any radiators or anything there's that thing those are the vents that is you know apparently heat and cooling it goes right outside oh is it so that is a heat that's already a heat pump in this room yeah I don't even I have to confess I don't get heat pumps I have to read on it I don't know how they work a think air conditioner and reverse it yeah um all right so we got that I I've been talking for a few minutes anybody else come up with ideas that we can I can add to the list um well I don't I don't come with any well formulated ideas but yeah as far as um you know what about solar in terms of opportunities for either for the town I mean I know there' have been things projects that have been looked at and for one reason or another wasn't you know adopted you know the roofs of the buildings and all that kind of stuff well obviously we're short short-handed here and I get to that on on your saying that because we used to have en Chapman here work for the town land use which is sounds to be like a great great place to start for solar you know you want to plant it right there because where are we going to put them if we have put solar panels on in here on in towns and and U you know reading the um the mission of the land use is to try to con try to maintain the character of the Town well charact character of the town is going to change a little bit when you put a bunch of panels everywhere you know you got to be careful how you develop it so you don't too badly influence but it's different you know and there are places places there are Woods are going to turn into panels I mean I'd rather have woods but yeah I don't I don't actually I think that's being discouraged by state policy which it should be in other words just you know chopping down trees to make room for solar panels is not the IDE not what we want to do in most cases I would say and I think this you know back last year when I went to that um discussion with I forget exactly what the context was it was a um a a sort of conference or a meeting to discuss the sighting of solar all over Massachusetts and it was I think a report had come out um and one of the things I remember is that um they're not encouraging you know just putting solar panels in what used to be farest that is abolutely uh not not what we want to do okay I'd like to see that even even the bylaw if you could find that would you send me a a link yes information I I'll do my best yeah yeah I know hard to find sometimes after been there but if you remember a couple of key words maybe because the bylaws I was on a solar bylaw committee and the bylaws were that you like you say you wouldn't be cutting down things to to do a solar farm or whatever it would be in an open area but it would also be it would be surrounded by you'd have to put up vegetation so that it can't be seen buy anyone some of some of these rules and regulations might be modified I mean like oh yeah today for example I guess in the last few days the um the government is has reduced the requirement on the auto companies for you know for producing for their schedule for producing um um more electric cars and less gas cars and and it got it interest related to the interest rates and the the slowness of people developing you know desire to have EVs and uh not enough Chargers yet and that sort of thing but that that's like a rule that they modified to adjust for the for the realities and I don't know what's going to happen um in the future regarding sighting of these these things the big we'll get to it next um the thing that the green communities program has been bringing up and and there's a climate change Pro uh grant program in Massachusetts that they're emphasizing um they're trying to get us to lost my track they're trying to get us to um develop well we'll get to it in a few minutes we get because we're going to look at that [Music] um at some stuff that I received in the in the uh as email today I think I forward that that just came in today this one um right this one here right um all right we ready ready to go away from this this topic about the discussion of specific of of things that we can take we can do for now we'll put we'll put that aside but I think we got a couple good ideas there um topics not okay so was that where is that that one phone is making a call or something somebody's there oh my phone's over here my phone's over here so that's not doing anything it's not doing anything make sure it's not yeah nope I just have a reminder that there's an energy committee meeting today um so what are you looking for the top right let me just use your copies I thought I had it running uhuh I actually emailed this to myself so it should be why not talk you yeah because I mean you just did it before the meeting pretty much I got it [Music] um [Music] so yeah okay yeah this thing from Karen with the attachments see if I can that oh okay so there are my inbox and he I received a ton of emails since I got that there it is you get it like five all right some time ago probably three weeks ago I got an email that um was from the climate pollution reduction I don't know what the PC stands for PC it's the um central Massachusetts is came from the central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission um so it is it's going to be Regional Planning Commission but it it's not not the not Green community um so it was a a a note that had opportunities that they for things that they were considering doing um and you were supposed to in to indicate along the list either you were interested and you'd like to do it or you'd like to learn more about it there were some things there that had to do with climate change and directly affecting our work and to those I said yes I'm interested in participating for the ones that didn't have anything to do with energy or a lot less to do with energy or looked like they would primarily be handed by somebody else I said I'd like to learn more about it so it was none of them were you know not applying and uh one of them uh this um I should share this how do I share this uh is that is your um I I just cut I just opened an email is what I did uh and I opened the email but you can't see it there okay if you want to uh share anything uh you have to uh join the meeting with your computer uh so if you can do that I can let you in and you can SC I am I am on the you're are you on Zoom oh I see you gotta be on Zoom this is not in Zoom so I don't know how I do that how do I get over this over oh if you go to um if well one way to do it is to go to the towns in website towns in what is it town oh did I somehow rather leave Zoom if you're on then you just have to share today well um that's you there so that I think you are right you are I no that's me from this thing it's not it says you are viewing Ron's screen so Ron you're still uh you're still screen sharing uh so oh he he is screen sharing so um your his screen isn't showing [Music] though we could just look at look at it it's only three okay why don't we do that maybe this will screen share new share new share yeah um where's the zoom is this the zoom window that's the one that I want to share it's not coming up it is well it's too small for us to read now bad all right so now we're looking for a [Music] zoom zoom in terms of size oh and uh you could you probably want to minimize that this stuff on the right stuff on the right that is um you know all the pictures it's blocking the text yeah like this so you want to pull this stuff [Music] down yeah three bars when you go up where I want to go here see I think yeah does that give you a menu let's see what you can do no um was this something else all right I'll just tell you what it is this first one here they are they they asked uh I'll read it um Mr Mar Army thank you for responding our survey on which climate pollution reduction implementation Grant projects your municipality would like to be involved in uh with our application due April 1st well that's kind of soon damn soon they just sent me there the 20th yeah blow the blow the pro blow the project uh that your municipality have expressed an interest in participating that's me I I checked the blocks yeah Regional they think what I was trying to say before that I couldn't come up with the right words they they want us to do solar consider doing solar a regional basis you don't necessarily have to come up with the open space in Townsen if they have it in Ashby and you just Co coordinate and cooperate as a region to generate your electricity um what I don't like about that is the transmission because you still got you still got to get transmission over here somehow um and unit won't necessarily let you use the a lines except that could change I suppose all right um low are the projects that your admin ities has express interest in participating in or requested further information Regional waste entity uh this one they uh seek to create a a Worcester West organic waste diversion program as part of their uh implementation Grant application this particular program would be structured in an intermunicipal Coalition where towns can voluntarily off in to participate if awarded the grant money would fund the following types of services for this program assistance and developing local and Regional composting pilot programs developing the necessary infrastructure uh composters aerobic digestors to support organic waste diversion and and reduction across the region education and public workshops you know they can help us with this uh to include information about uh using uh newly available composting resources and waste reduction best practices professional consulting services for municipalities um education about potential local uh public private Partnerships to move uh Organics from areas of exess to areas is need joint procurement contract management why op them the benefits of opting to this this uh wer West organic waste diversion program would be plentiful including cost benefits reduced disposal cost Municipal staff time available would increase soil benefits boosting local food production and Workforce Development landfill disposal capacity benefits reduced air pollution when uh managed efficiently which results endless Environmental Protection benefits and Healthcare cost the next one is an aerobic digestor project this is one I would have suggested that I'm interested in I but I don't I don't uh i' like to learn more Brad it I don't know who who would do this they seek to assist our municipalities in creating new aerobic ingestor infrastructure uh why participate reduced disposal cost opportunity to reuse heat and electricity generated from the aerobic digestion process soil benefits uh improved opportunity for Farm nutrient recycling landfill disposal capacity benefits and yards Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions please commit to this project only if you know of aerobic digestive project if you know of an that is looking for to be implemented in your community I don't know I don't know who who would know yeah well residential weatherization assistance okay this one would be us if a water grant would refund dedicated staff support to create a comprehensive an interactive tool for Connecticut Massachusetts residents use in rization assistance funding for residential buildings both of the both those that rent and those that own property would benefit this staff support would extend beyond creating a tool and would provide the one-onone support for applicants from program's application through the installation of any rebate procedures in doing so the staff will assure ensure more households take advantage of existing state and federal that's what we're trying to do is get people take more Advantage why participate increasing Energy Efficiency among residential buildings decreased utility cost for residents particularly lwi income res residents and renters decreased energy use for Residential Properties and uh extends the life of homes and reduces I don't know if we get any credit for the reduction [Music] in carbon emissions from homes but that yeah that's what that's what our goals are that's I mean that seems worthwhile obviously we have to learn more about this and we're not going to deal with it before April 1 but you know the question is how often does this come up can when's the next time you know and maybe we can learn more about it in the meantime shrub tree planting and maintenance program you know that that's not really me that's public works right yeah tree woodens why op and then the vpal solar project seeks to assist M th's of new solar infrastructure is part of implementing Grant if water the grant money would fund following types of solar in installation solar canopy over Municipal parking lots were we were there somebody looking into doing that there were I think they've already signed up to do some but I don't know what what program is sponsoring that oh this may be an alternative program or it could be the same program I yeah don't know who would look at it it's it's no one's commun I don't know what's going on there's no Grant administrator so nobody knows what's going on yeah would I don't know would Eric now or well yeah we there's another one another but um well I'll get to that later if it would a grant money would fund equipment panels installation planning permit you know there's a lot done there why participate reduce electricity cost and so forth and so on if committing to this project please indicate if your town is interested in parking lot canopies rooftop up solar or solar over a Brownfield capped landfill right now what at some point in the distant past that was looked into for our landfill but it's just like there's no infrastructure to transmit the electricity I think was the issue that the the wiring transmission right the the the the wires that are in that part of town are not enough or or not the type that yeah you know you could probably get the solar panels for free but then you know $3 million to run the the electricity into town you know yeah I that that's just a it well favorable you know even if you if you do the regional solar production thing and you share you know Resources with with towns you got Pro it's either going to go over the unit unial lines you know utility lines or you create your own you have to build your own I have not heard of a utility sharing their lines with people who are competing with it you know they're in the business of transmitting and electricity really not making it necessarily but police transmitting it and they don't want to give the transmission to some you have to pay for it right and then what do you what's the benefit you say you're trans you're changing from there to Electric yeah yeah all right so that Municipal weatherization is another one we know what that's like but this is this is like oh so I mean this is an alternative grant program that is a little different than green they might have different rules you know they might they might say okay we'll we'll do we'll do the public buildings with LEDs I don't I don't know if you the more exposure you have to this stuff well they do solar and that's definitely not Ed in GRE Community right yeah tree shrub planting and maintenance program again public work probably then econ environmental economic and social [Music] benefits why participate uh Municipal weatherization seeks to assist the municipal installation of Municipal weatherization Services part of community Grant application I don't know what I don't really know what the difference is between this and the the other program right to this point if awarded the grant would fund weatherization work in Municipal and school buildings to use design install maintain weatherization that's app cost well for why that's something we're already doing hbac improvements that would definitely be you know something that we' be looking at battery storage project that covers another you know the benefits of additional battery storage infrastructure in town are playful including energy dependence of energy goals increased Independence now what they're looking for before April 1st was for us to sign the letter of uh interest F the letter letter of support is what they're asking for it's a non-binding letter of support we will need side letters on Municipal Leatherhead emailed no later than March 25th oh let's even sooner we'll need final list of towns participating each project so we can run numbers and finalize emissions reductions impact we and so forth please reach out to myself if you have question question okay so so we want to I I think at this meeting what we'd like to do is have you authorize towns and authorize me to request or maybe I can even just sign a letter of report there's letter of report template here which I don't know if it allow me to list several projects or whether you you project on each on uh you know on an individual one but if we could look at these and and uh just see which ones you would like me to send uh the um interest of support the letter of support for the energy committee we could do that for the other ones I would just send those to Teresa and tell her which ones we have signed up for and and uh you know she should send the other ones to whoever they think I don't know who who gets this who who who you s I guess you'd send it to Teresa and to Eric let them sort it out right for the other one right but I mean what so we I don't know do we have the authorization to say towns is interested in pursuing I understand it's not nonbinding it's non-binding and we do have the authorization I would assume that we've done it before I don't know if someone specifically authorized those to but you know and then what so then then what but what do we have to do by April 1 what I think what they were looking for is is the um because the application due due date is April 1st we will need sign letters on letterhead by by March March 25th and I guess they're going to create from that they're going to create applications they create applications oh for April 1 this organization the letter is Du by March 2 who's applying so so they're applying but they just want to know like Which towns in the region want to parti I can't understand why they would just put like like what it five or six days between the the letter and the application du they yeah that's kind of pushing it all right so can we decide now which ones of these we wish to support and I can send that let us just click this thing and see what happens oh so what's this you got to put her on the town letter head oh and just to check off which projects you're participating yep okay so which one do are we interested in um going through [Music] so residential weatherization systems program uh that certainly seems to be within our purview and is worthwhile right the residential one the municipal solar on suitable sites in the community installation of Municipal solar there's only one dedicated to Sol whether s weatherization of buildings um sure school buildings I mean I'm a little fuzzy on what what exactly where this is going but um but I guess it doesn't do any harm we're not committing to anything yeah what I believe this is for is is they are trying they are trying to develop whether there is interest adequate interest in each of these programs yeah and when they have interest they're going to measure the Savings in emissions that that might result out of that group of towns doing it then they decide whether or not they want to do it they they I think these These are programs that they plan to offer is there adequate interest that's really what the and we're not going to be filling out any sort of application actually apply apping for using the program I would think that an application would show more about what you know it's actually doing but I think we've had a pretty good description already all right so we've got one two three four of them so far okay I mean I guess any The Battery Systems are related to energy right so weatherization assistance I've got I've got the I mean obviously that's been the third one residential weatherization assistance oh resid and then there's another one for build fifth one one two three [Music] four solar yeah I would say the fifth one solar yeah this one I got my uh I I'll highlight it this is this is one we want to do right uh that one yeah and the next one as well yeah and and one after that and one after that so these probably all of them plus the residential assistance one and the composting one it's kind of out of our yeah I I I just notified them we did not apply we did not you know send a letter on that anerobic digesters I guess you know we don't know any know where to disc we're not going to be looking at that and then uh so it's these um all these except for the tree and shrub one tree and shrub one is not ours so we got okay so may I have a motion that we support that we send that we send the non-binding letter of support um of those four how many programs were missible so guess about six battery one two three four five programs right is that five no no yes two three four five five program that will be the um okay so let's let's do this I'm I'm going to do the motion myself okay okay all right all right so I move that the towns and energy committee return a letter of support for the residential weatherization assistance program the installation of Municipal solar on suitable sites within the community weatherization assistance in Municipal and school buildings hva uh HVAC upgrade assistance in Municipal and school buildings and installation of battery storage systems in in public buildings and public solar facilities um in the motion I further recognize that the following items on the list will be sent to alaon and the Town Administrator for consideration for ACT to action by other committees the regional composting waste reduction effort the insulation of aerobic digestors in the community and the tree shrub plant and maintenance program yeah I hear a second of the mo I'll second that all those in favor Mike yes Michel Brown Kathy I at carries I will do that in copy you guys I I guess um I actually have to have the town do it but we'll on the letterhead Town letterhead supporter way administrated okay all right that was topics not reasonbly expected because we just got that um that could be an interesting program know where does the money come from for these gr who who's who's funding this program do we know is this state that sounds like a state funded program to me there's um they don't tell us where the M money is coming from but they just recently got a big slug of funding from the feds regarding uh oh maybe it came from like the inflation reduction act and stuff one of those yeah well I mean that is something that if it's if it's being divided you know certain it's divided up among the states and then Within State um yeah if we could get some of that that would be great um one other thing that I wanted to bring up under topics not reasonably we used to have I think we have already brought it up the land use coordinator Jessica consalvo now the land use coordinator was Karen um Chapman and she was very helpful to close the gap the communication between us and the town you know keep things going and you might say that not having a person like that cost us $37,000 because we missed the boat on the big incentive that's a cost of not having someone and I was hoping to say this that line in front of Teresa but we'll put it in the minute um also um we need I think we need to engage uh some someone in in at Town Hall to help us uh fill the Comm committee again you I mean I need at least two people and if we are actually participating in all these different programs that we could have subcommittees you know for two people to go here two people to go there at the same time I don't know but it looks like that kind of activity could increase and we need to have proper Manning cuz cuz the three of us can't really handle it um my wife proposed the name of a person who uh she um yeah she met this guy's wife at the store and uh you ever know does anyone know Lance MCN Lance MCN he used to be active in town committee sound Vaguely Familiar but we'll run that by Teresa too and see if she she knows it but he he was suggested by his wife as a potential member of the committee and I'm not sure how to approach it but I wanted to see first see if any of either of you knew him and Teresa and uh yeah I just called because they gave me a phone number um and see if there's any interest but uh other than that we need to turn up the the heat getting more people because um we're you guys have been here longer than I have but there's going to be some turnover and burnout either Among Us you know we're we're all fairly in I'm I'm I'm at the stage where yeah I'd like to do other things yeah so um and I appreciate you guys supporting this um you know while we're going through this phase but we've got to rebuild the committee to a point where someone else wants to be chair and and can be because they know you know what we're doing and how and I think it would take at least a year for someone to be on the committee to be here we know that you know they're going to show up and have an interest and um you know be able to to carry this on so um I don't know if the town has someone when when the town hires people what what do they do is there someone here who responsible for publishing ads and stuff there should there has to be be a Personnel person right I don't know why the Personnel person shouldn't be involved in getting volunteers you know yeah yeah but if you look at the at the board just about every committee is looking for volunteers yeah yeah chronic getting enough volteer yeah well suppose we have a um just just a brainstorming again suppose we have a uh a u meeting a sort of a place where um announced and advertised that we're going to have a a gathery of people to find people who would like to volunteer and you know you I would go and you know other other representatives for the for the other boards and committees that are looking for people would go and you'd be able to to say Hey you know help I'd be able to promote us we're helping Town save money and the environment all that and we've all got reasons you know each committee has reasons to you know um has has a has a role to play and um benefits for the town and for the people who volunteer so you know even resume building you know if you want to work in this in the energy field being a volunteer of this committee is not a bad idea you know um so that kind of thing I think we need to really involv U the the the town more and um I'm not sure how would all you guys come about I mean I I came about sort of on my own no one told me you needed a volunteer iig I just figured it out I was looking at a at a uh real estate bill that was up you know $800 or something I said holy I just you know I I I just lost my job and I'm paying these bills and I said well okay it must be something that I can do you know to help and I discovered there was was an energy committee and it discovered there was an opening energy committee and it went there how did you guys end up I was um contacted by Terry Terry Morris because she was on the energy committee Back In 2013 how did she know about you we know each other we were our kids were friendly in school and we we're kind of you know I close friend we've been friends outside US how about your care I came in kind of like you right I came in to volunteer for a committee and basically they said well the best one was the energy or the the friendliest was the energy committee I said okay that's the one I want okay I'm glad it work so I mean we might have to get a little more creative saying we have to get more creative because nothing's happened it's been a couple years now so and because we lost that in this fall um all right thank you for your time today and we got no nobody's here we going to schedule the next meeting yeah April might be a bit of a issue pardon next month um I'm going be away for two weeks and then the week after that got some medical things coming up colonoscopy and oh those fun things yeah I'm doing it a year early yeah I think I got a notice saying okay so I'm work on trying to have something for us to work with from Frank by then but we'll see yeah um so um yeah so want to do an early May reading yeah that that's fine um because that can we go May 8th uh yeah I think town meeting um annual town meeting is the 7th day before that so yeah that'll be a big week for Town well if you want to go the town meeting let's make it another day cuz you don't want to have two days in a row in town H I mean it's not major I'm like you to go to the town meeting this time too well I'm definitely going because it's I'm I'm also on the bylaw Review Committee and we have some bylaws including my my big interest outdoor lighting we have updated outdoor lighting okay if you don't mind the ath will we want to stay early in the month and I just uh well we could go the first I suppose yeah that's the first day of Asian Pacific American heritage month uh do the first work for you um May 1 yeah uh that start away from your other stuff um yeah no that's uh we just double checking that should be fine um yeah I don't have anything on May 1 yeah all this stuff I'll be back for my trip the medical stuff will be done May 1 not likely to be our last meeting but if we may if we end up with more activities then we will have room for two meetings after that if we don't really have a lot of activity going on we could yeah I'll just have one meeting after that um May 1st 7 o'clock yes yeah okay yeah that should be time [Music] may have a motion to adjourn a motion to adjourn the meeting second uh all in favor [Music] yes