 Okay, so we are now recording Laura is in transit with her children right now. So I don't know if she might, I hope she can log in if she's having trouble that might be an issue. So, we'll give it a little bit and see if she makes it. Yeah, and we don't have a quorum yet. So we can't start. I guess that means we can't even take public comment. If there's public. Not yet. I mean, well, you can you can have, and this is some people disagree, although I have checked and I've been told it's okay. I mean, if it's not, you know, we can, we can have conversation. You can't officially have any votes. But you could just, if it's just the public, you know, except it wouldn't be sort of an official record. So I would, if you want to make it official public comment. Moot point. Hi, Laura. Glad you're here. Okay. There you go. So you're good. You have a quorum now. Glad you're here. Everybody. All right. Okay. So we only have an hour tonight in which we will have a quorum. So I'm going to start right away. We're going to start with a review and the vote on the minutes from 913. I had one question on them if I can find them. Do you need me to display them? Has everyone had a chance to see them? Yeah. Right. I had one question on them regarding point number eight. Staff updates next effort heat pump program. At the end of that. Sentence there is CCA working on applications and one year DPA review. Does that mean the DPA has DPU has one year to review them or what? No, it could take up to a year. Easily for them to maybe take them at least a year to review. That's, and that would, that was being a conservative estimate. Laurie, you just froze. You know, Stephanie, there was some efforts by I believe state legislatures to try to get that DPU review of CCAs to be more on time. Yeah, there's some legislation that's been put forth. So, I just dropped out and missed the entire answer to my question. We are mostly quiet while you were frozen, but I just, I just asked that Stephanie, if she knew anything about. Efforts to accelerate the DPU review of CCAs. I understand it's quite a backlog. Go ahead, Stephanie, you can finish your answer. Hey, I was just going to say there is some pending legislation. So it's pending at this at the moment. So, and we did. We did submit the town did submit a letter of support along with numerous other communities. We were basically working with our CCA consultant on getting letters of support and then there's a group of consultants that are basically submitting feedback kind of on behalf of their communities. So, we did authorize our consultant to do that on the, on behalf of the Valley Green Energy CCA. Okay, but what did that one year DPU review refer to. Oh, so that just refers to the length of time that, you know, the, you know, about approximate length of time. It's been taking DPU to approve applications. Unless this legislation goes through, which I think would substantially cut that right. Well, it may not, depending on the timing so of our submission and, you know, and when that legislation gets approved and there's still a backlog. Yeah, I would say just make sure that let's make that. Then we expect DPU DPU review to take about a year. Maybe just wordsmith that a little bit. And what number is that number eight. It's number eight expecting DPU expected to take about a year to review something like that just so I know what that means because otherwise I don't know what that means. Okay. I'll revise that. Yeah. As a reminder, there are states where if the the equivalent of the DPU does not review in 45 days or something like that it you get your CCA period. Yeah, I don't know that. Yeah. Nice to have that here. All right, that was my only comment. Any other comments? We need to assign a minute taker Lori before we go too far. Oh yeah. Who's minute taker today. Last time it was Jesse Don. Sure. Okay, Don will be our minute taker today. Quick question about the minutes. The zoom now has an AI note taker. Are we allowed to use that? No. They're not accurate enough. So, no. Fine. Sorry. But everything I say it's going to be a generated from this meeting just so you know. Okay. I'll be able to tell. I get enough of that handed in at class. My comments will be strictly I generated. Not a. All right. So, okay. So I'll move to accept the minutes with that minor edit that Lori made on item number eight. Okay. And I guess Lori, do you want to call for a second? Anyone want a second? Someone second. Please. Okay. Don, thank you. Okay. And then a vote and Lori, you're going to need to have your camera on for the vote. So in no particular order. Yes. Allison. Yes. Drucker. Sorry. Goldner. Yes. And Selman. I. So minutes are approved. All right. Next thing on the agenda is probably public comment. Right. Yes. So we do have some members of the public today. Quite a few. Are there comments that folks would like to make? I see Lily Nate, Sarah, Tracy. Raise your hand if you do Tracy has her hand up. Okay. Tracy, you can go ahead and unmute. Hi. So. I see we can hear me. So I'm Tracy and I'm the chair of the transportation advisory committee. And I was not able to join when you were talking about the safe routes to school. Work that we didn't, but we did have a very successful. You know, bike walk rule to school day. Last week. And it also raised some questions about just the biking and pedestrian infrastructure. There were two letters in the Gazette afterward from parents who participate who are also concerned. About just the overall safety for bike, biking and pedestrian. In our town. And I was contacted a few days ago by Stella D. Just about the proposal. I think it's on your agenda for tonight about. Writing a letter of support for the completion of the. The bicycle pedestrian network plan and the bicycle pedestrian network map, which identifies the priority. Networks. For biking and walking. And we really appreciate. If the ECC wants to take that step. We've been trying to get the plan. The plan was completed by the primary planning commission in 2019, but it was never fully adopted by the council. And for, in particular, we've been struggling to get the map completed because they prepared a map and it was missing some key elements. So in the early 2021. The tack members spent a number of meetings going over the map and. Making manual edits. We were on zoom then about where we wanted to see. Bike and pedestrian priority networks identified on the map. And those have not yet been incorporated into the GIS. But we do get requests from the planning board and others. Frequently about where are those networks. And I think that having that map done and the plan adopted and the map adopted would be a huge step. So. I appreciate that. And I was also just contacting you and I had mentioned it to Stella too. And I know. I had met with Stephanie. And with Chris press up a few weeks ago, but. The transportation advisory committee and myself. Any vocal have also been involved with. Providing feedback on the proposed street lights policy. Which was brought forth. In August, 2022. By counselors. Mandy Henneke and Anna Devlin got there. So one of the current. One of the current facets of the latest proposal is to create a street lighting. Task force. That would look at. Which sections of town should have the most lighting and which sections of town should have the least lighting. And really, I mean, the original proposal that they brought forward in August 2022. Did. Prepare those maps, but they weren't based on any kind of public feedback. And it was just based on their own evaluation based mainly on underlying zoning districts. So there is a task force performs. We support that. Even I had recommended that a member from ECACB on the committee. And the counselors would prefer that. That not happen that maybe you could be one of the parties that we contact for feedback, but we just thought that given your knowledge. You know, in terms of energy. And the carpet. So, and that it might make sense for there to be a participant on the committee and ECAC participant on the committee. If that's something of interest to you. So I just want to let you know that we've done your name out there. And if that's something you support you, you may want to let the counselors and the town council know. So thank you. Thank you, Tracy. That's very interesting. I didn't know anything about the streetlight effort. I think it would be great if someone on this committee could be on that new task force. Sounds like it's a new task force. That's just. Yeah, so it isn't, it's being proposed currently. As part of the implementation of the street lights policy. I believe that the. It's proposed to have a member. Should be set up starting in 2024. With the work probably completed in mid 2026. Seems like such a long timeline for a fairly simple task, doesn't it? Well, I think just part of it is with public outreach and so on. And that you would have a version. Of the map that was prepared and then that would go out for comment. And then there'd be a new council in beginning of 2026. So there would be some delay then. And so it's not like it would be active the whole time, but. Right. Okay. I believe also this streetlight. I think that. Topic is not. Without. Conflicting opinions. You might Google some of the articles. I can imagine. It's weird. It's weird here in town. To have conflicting opinions, but. We have, we have plenty. I'm in Echo Hill and there has been plenty of discussion on and we've had a lot of discussion over the years with people on different sides. So I can imagine what the. I can imagine. Let me leave it at that. But it's still be nice to have easy, easy input. I think on such a panel. It won't be. It'll. Right. Only the age is silent. In our town. It'll be, it'll be an interesting task force. So. So Tracy, we were going to put off the discussion of the memo that she provided. There's a, in our packet, there's a draft memo on completing the. Biking and walking plan. It's. So I think we're not going to discuss and we also only have an hour today because one of us has to leave and we won't have a quorum. So I think we're going to put that discussion off for next week. I apologize. We probably won't hear anything about it today. Yeah. That's fine. Well, thank you for letting me know. Yeah. I haven't heard that update from Stella. So thanks. Yep. And thank you. Anyone else. If anyone else is interested in making a comment, please digitally or raise your hand and I will unmute you. Okay. So that being the case, no one, no one else raising hands. It looks like let's go on to the next thing on the agenda, which are updates. So we have an update from. Dwayne's not here and Stella's not here. So, okay, we get to skip the updates. I can give a little update on the annual report. I did give the synopsis. I'm sorry, we didn't get to meet last week to get your input on it, but I did give, I sent a, there's a, there's a document in the packet that is the update that I gave to council. I pretty much read it. I can provide a little bit, but mostly just read it. It was pretty well received. I think we had. A couple of questions. One of which I couldn't answer. It was the question. I knew there was something I wanted to ask Stephanie about, and I had forgotten to ask her about it. It turns out Stephanie didn't know anything about it either. And that is the climate bank. One of our goals for the town manager was a climate bank, which sounds like a wonderful idea to me, but I know nothing about it. And was hoping we could have a little bit of a discussion. On it. So I think who wrote to me, I did get some feedback from, was it Jesse? Who sent me a feedback on it or was it Laura? Climate bank. If it was climate bank, it was probably Laura. It was. Yeah, it was probably Laura. I actually don't think it was me. Because Massachusetts has the climate bank. So I'm not sure why I would suggest the embers created. Oh, I got it. I got it. I'm sorry. It wasn't, it wasn't you. I'm sorry. It was. Okay. Vasu. Vasu had a note about this. He said, he thought it was you. That's why, that's why we thought it was you, Laura, because Vasu said that you had brought up information on climate banks. See the attached link for more info. I can't put the link in the, in the text, but I can share my screen. So I think I'm going to do that quickly. I haven't had a chance. I've had a crazy busy week or so. So I haven't had a chance since the. Meaning to look at this. But you should be able to see this. Massachusetts new green energy bank now, right? Yeah, so, um, sorry, I've been extremely. Over subscribed this fall. So I haven't been able to be as involved as I should be. I would not have been suggesting that we do our own climate bank. So if that's how it came across in the polls, we can certainly reach out and. And then that I think the point being is that Massachusetts has formed a climate bank and it's actually the first. Climate bank in the country that's focused on decarbonizing affordable housing. Right. And so there's a lot of opportunity and I was able to watch a bit of your. Of your session, Lori. And I think there's a big opportunity for us to, and this came up, right? There's a historic amount of funding out there. There's the sky's the limit with federal funding support. We just have to. Get the projects ready and go for it. And this is an example of funding support in Massachusetts. Specifically for affordable housing. Decarbonization, which is, I know, is it. A important topic in our town. So. I think we could generally my point for a. What I think would be extremely important for a town manager goal is being open to innovative funding mechanisms and models. We can't, we're not going to solve that. We're not going to do this the same way we've done things in the past. I know that's more difficult now that we don't have Sean. But that's, that would be my suggestion that we include a goal that's related or suggest a goal that's related to, to that. Yeah, with that in mind, the other question we got was in regards to. Well, without going into detail, it's basically why aren't we applying for more money? I think it's how it came across, right? And the answer, of course, is because we don't hand why aren't we specifically getting funding for more people to work in Stephanie's department, which is not a solution because it's always just, you know, time limited money. And it's also that we just don't have enough people. So the problem, of course, with being open to more funding. And able to go after all these different lumps of money is, is just having the bandwidth, right? So having more people on board to do that. I do want to say that's, that's, you know, that is true to a degree, but it's not that simple. Like it's just a matter of, we just need to have more people. I mean, it's a matter of what the funding is, what it's for, what we're ready for. You know, it's just, it's a bit more complicated than that. It's just not that straightforward. You know, and sometimes it seems like there's a whole pool of money. I know that solar for all came up as this incredible grant funding opportunity. And I think people just sort of saw it. I think it's tied to the IRA. People saw that as an opportunity. And, you know, I get comments like, why aren't we going for solar for all? Well, it's because it's not for individual communities. It's like a 24 million dollar pot funding that the state is going to be pursuing. So I think sometimes there's this knee jerk response that we don't go after enough when, you know, I think, you know, we're, I'm going to give an update in a bit so I can sort of tell you about some of the funding we're going to be pursuing coming up. But anyway, it's true to a point. All right. So I will probably look at this a little bit more and try to come up with maybe, maybe Stephanie, we should talk a little bit about how this green bank might or might not work or whether we want to retract the goal or whether we want to, you know, say a little bit more about what we were expecting. How Amherst might leverage this green bank, right? The availability of this green bank. Maybe it's just a matter of outreach. I'm not, I have no idea because I haven't looked at this at all yet. If it's just a matter of outreach, we can, we can do that as a cat, right? Oh, Laura, you're breaking up. I can't hear you. Uh-oh. Is it me or is it Laura? Can everyone else hear Laura? It's Laura. We can't hear her. Uh-oh. All right. Hopefully Laura will come back. Any other comments or discussion about this or should I just, Stephanie, maybe you and I should talk about it next time we meet. Yeah, we can talk about it. And I think we just need to have some follow up because it was an inquiry from the town council, what this was about. So even if it's literally just a response as to what this is. And to Laura's comments, we might want to run it by Laura. Um, to take a look at what our responses. I'm just looking at the, that WVUR article explaining the green bank. Is this is a new thing in Massachusetts? Is that, is that right? Apparently. Okay. So it's just kind of getting started. This is Jen, June 26, 2023 recently established green bank. Right. Okay. Let's see. Where does this go? I don't know. So June 13th, it was announced. It says the state is seeding or starting the bank with 50 million from the department of environmental protection. And we'll put it in a good position to apply for millions more from the federal government. Okay. That's good. I guess. This Laura. Hey. Yeah. So, so sorry. I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's still here. We lost you again. Oops. Oh well. All right. So we'll come back to if Laura, if you have any other comments, we'll take them when you get connect connected. But meanwhile. Any other comments on green bank or should we move on? Let's move on. Okay. So, uh, the grant for community networks. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Laura was also Laura. Um, Do we have you back? Okay, we'll come back to that as soon as you're available, Laura. Hopefully we'll be able to come back to that. Okay. Quick discussion of recruitment. Um, so where are we? Stephanie with getting new members and when is this? Um, I don't know if we'll be facing having to cancel meetings because we don't have a quorum. Um, As we always. Right. Um. Yeah, it's been, I mean, it has happened even when we've had nine members, but it doesn't happen often. And I. We've been pretty fortunate to have at least five members. Um, consistently. So, but, um, where we are at this point is that we're down to people. Um, I believe I have an email from the town manager's office and I'm sure they just haven't seen it yet. So, um, I will check on that, but I can follow up with you, Lori, at the next, at our next meeting. In terms of where we are with, um, Potential candidates, but what I would say, um, is that, you know, if you know people who are interested, they should certainly contact the town manager's office. And let them know of their interest. And they can go online and complete a, um, I think it's a citizen action form. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Um, Lori, do you want to stop sharing this article? Or are you waiting? I'm sorry. My apologies. I totally shared. Stop share. Here we go. Uh, so next. This is Laura. Oh, sorry. Good. Can you hear me? Yes. Sorry. I was in North Hadley where apparently there's no internet. Um, yeah, just, just to close out the green big thing. Happy to, happy to work with you both. Um, or review whatever. Yeah. Yeah. So the, that's kind of one of the rules of some of the IRA funding is that states have to set up green banks. Um, like a couple of states already have them. Um, I think Massachusetts was one of the first ones to set up. A new one as a result of the IRA. And as I said, it's the only one. That we're aware of that's focused. Within the housing department. So it's. Got this housing focus, which. Um, it's great. And. Yeah. I hear you, Stephanie. I think it's. It's, it's a combo of, of, of a few different things, right? Being. Being ready to take on these. Grants, I mean. And knowing they're not all grants, right? Some of them are just direct pay tax credits. Like, for example, the library project now should be eligible for a lot of these direct pay tax credits. Um, and like, just who within the town, like. Having a laid out process, I think of who is, is dealing with this within the town. Is going to be really important. Important moving forward to make sure we're not leaving any money on the table. And I feel like that's something that could be a clear. Um, goal for the town manager. So sorry to bring it back to that. Um, but I'll stop there. And then we'll see on the agenda. Well, sorry, go ahead, Stephanie. I was just going to follow up with, and as you noted earlier, Laura. Unfortunately, we are. Um, at an incredible disadvantage and it's really horrible timing for us having lost Sean. Because we have 2 other folks who are already doing their own jobs. That are now basically taking on his duties. And I don't know. I haven't heard what the plan is for getting a new. Finance director, but it is a position that we've certainly had. So I don't think it's not that it's going away. It's just that. Um, finding someone. Doesn't often happen quickly. And until then, these other folks are totally overburdened. Um, because they're already busy. So it's just one of those really, this is just a challenging time right now. We're down some. Key positions and it's just, um. Yeah, I mean, I hear you and I totally 100% agree with you. And I wish we had Sean because he would have been totally on top of this. But it's a good goal for sure. All right. So Laura, the next thing on the agenda was also had your name on it, the grant updates on that grant for community network geothermal. Do you want to talk about that? Yeah, I don't have too much to say other than I just wanted to flag it. Um, I just wanted to say that. After what you just said, Stephanie, I feel bad even raising this, but there's, um, basically a grant available for, um, doing a study on the feasibility of network geothermal and different communities in Massachusetts. I think. If we wanted to submit for the grant, we would need to do it by mid-November. If I, if I'm remembering off top of my head. Um, happy to talk to you offline, Stephanie, but I think it's a good idea. I think it's something we want to, we want to pursue and I can help maybe draft it or whatever. Um, I, I, we would need to look into what the, what the rules would be. Um, because I think we would probably want to have a bit of matching funding, whether it comes from our sustainability. Funding or some other type of funding source. To make it a more robust study. But the idea here being is that there's two pilot tests already going on. Um, and the benefit of networked geothermal systems is that. We could use it to help improve the just transition away from gas. Um, because it would support. Um, all members of a community within the area, instead of just supporting. The members of the community that have the credit scores with the other means to, um, to be able to switch themselves off of gas and onto heat pumps, which then just leaves the gas infrastructure. To be burdened, you know, to be covered by those who have not, not had that opportunity. So I think it's a really interesting thing that we should. Try to explore. Again, this would just be to do a study. So it wouldn't necessarily result in us. Being a good candidate for this. But with some of our school buildings, some of the older apartment complexes would be the place to start. Lots of dense housing. Low cost housing. And very much in need of repair. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Thanks, Laura. Any other thoughts on that thoughts? I'd like the sound of that. And. Yeah, I think some of the older apartment complexes would be the place to start. Lots of dense housing. Low cost housing. And in very much in need of repair. Yeah, exactly. Thanks, Laura. I'd like the sound of that. And if there's something I can do to help with that, I guess I'd be willing to do so. Yeah, same here. So I guess if Laura can send info to Stephanie and Stephanie could send it around information about the grant. That you were describing Laura, that would be, that would be helpful. Yeah, I can do that. I think there was a link sent at some point, but it was a while ago now. So. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. There's no further discussion of that next on the topic is. On this on the agenda is staff updates. So Stephanie. Sure. So I guess I'll start with something that was kind of fun. I had been invited to speak to Steve's class. That was wonderful. A group of his students came to town hall and we had a discussion about sustainability and some of our efforts and all the great work you all are doing and the things that are going on around the world. So I think that was really nice. And then the following week I had a session with some high school students from an engineering class. And one of the things that they're looking to do is. It was kind of interesting because it was different spin. They were really looking for something like very specific. From me about something they could do. That would help. And they were talking about one of the things that they wanted to do. They were looking for something that would benefit the high school. And so they asked if that would help. And I said, well, certainly that's something that would benefit. I said, although, you know, the high school is regional. And in terms of our greenhouse gas emissions, it doesn't really specifically align with our green communities goals because it's not included in our. Inventory. However. I did mention that. One of the biggest nuts for us to crack is sort of how we communicate with the community at large. And that used to be. I think it was really, I think it was sponsored by Massive, but there used to be these Windsor classes years ago. That residents could sign up and you would get the materials. To learn how to make a Windsor for your home. So I talked to them about that and said, you know, that might be a great opportunity. If you all. Figured a way to do this for the high school, then maybe held a workshop in the community, teaching people how to do it. And they really liked that idea or at least their instructor, certainly like they're at that idea. That was John Fable, by the way. So. So anyway, so John, like that idea, I think the students were seemingly interested in that possibility. But I said that, you know, if they did something like that, you would be a wonderful group to sort of help them advocate for holding these workshops and getting the word out. And that, you know, I thought it would be a nice partnership for you all too, that you would appreciate that. So it was just an idea. I don't know if it'll go anywhere, but it was sort of put out there. So. So there's that. Then another update I wanted to give you all is that. So I am working very closely with the facilities director. And as I've mentioned before, we're really looking to find the pathway to decarbonize town hall. And so we already had a group of Duane students are well actually, I'm sorry, Ben Wiles students come in, but it was sort of through Duane's clean energy extension program. And a group of students came in and sort of did an assessment of town hall. And they came up with some, you know, potential pathways of us to get ourselves off fossil fuels. They included weatherization. There was a whole host of things. So we were looking to get green communities funding for a building decarbonization project was, which is like a, it's a much larger grant than you typically get from green communities. It's a $500,000 grant. It's for two years. While you have that grant, you can't apply for any additional green communities funding, but ostensibly this is a really, you know, this would be a very big project. And so we talked to Ben about the project that the students proposed. We sort of narrowed in on what our pathway might be. We then followed up with the green communities program, our Western regional coordinator, who is Chris Mason, who most of you know, we used to be my colleague and counterpart in North Hampton and the city of North Hampton, but Chris is now the Western regional coordinator for green communities. And we talked to him and we wouldn't have enough information provided by the report that Ben and his students are doing. We need more specific engineering. We need like an engineered plan to sort of move that forward. So what we're going to do instead is apply for a Metagrant. That grant is due mid-November. So I'm going to be submitting a technical assistance grant funding to sort of get us an engineer to develop plans so that we could then apply hopefully in the spring round for green communities for this building decarbonization grant. So, and this would specifically be for Town Hall. I'm really, I don't know, I think for many reasons, we really feel like this is an important building to decarbonize and have this be our first project. So part of that is also weatherization. We have some funding that we got through the ECBG funding. It's a federal funding, which I'm sorry. I'm totally blanking on what that stands for. It's an energy efficiency building something, funding from the federal government, but some communities have to apply for it. We actually have a voucher that we're actually have some funding that we're going to just be given. I think it's $70,000. We're going to use that towards the weatherization effort for Town Hall. So we're going to, we just, I told Jeremiah that personally, I feel very anxious to just, we just want to get it started. I think he feels the same. So we just want to start weatherization is certainly a really good effort to start with. So anyway, those are just some of the things that we're working on, but there's a lot of other things, some smaller projects and big projects that are all sort of happening in the background too. But that's where my focus is at the moment. So I just wanted to share that with you all. Stephanie, if you need any support on the Town Hall stuff, I've done overseen a lot of these studies and similar building types. We've done completed many. So if that's something, if it's useful to you to have someone put eyes on any of that work or language or what you're asking for, what the deliverable bowls might be, et cetera, et cetera, I'd be happy to do that. That would be great. Jesse, thank you because in the past, both Lori and Dwayne have helped with RFPs that I've sort of drafted developed and then given them to sort of edit and take a look at and refine further. So if I could do that same process with you, that would be fantastic. That's great. Other updates or any comments or questions, Steve, did you have something? Yeah, I was going to ask Stephanie if she was able to give an update on the solar bylaw working group progress. Oh, right. I wasn't going to because Dwayne usually does it but he's not here. Laura has her hand up and I don't know if it's in relation to what we just talked about or so. Yeah, thanks, Stephanie. That's really exciting about the town hall. I'm not about the solar bylaw working group necessarily, but I was wondering if there was any movement that's been made on the proposed ARPA funding for the solar canopy at the high school. The only, I have not heard, so I don't know that that made it into the town manager's recommendations for funding. What I've heard so far is it sounds like street infrastructure, street support for improving streets. And then I'm sorry, I'm totally blanking on what the second one was. There were two, I sort of heard two goals and I just don't have it right in front of me. I'm sorry. But the canopy was not included in which I have sort of asked but I don't think they're including the canopy. I've advocated for it. I think ARPA funding would be something that ECAC would have a big say in, right? Well, it's not, no, well, because it's not, I mean, it's related to COVID response. So not specifically, you know, it's not. That's kind of where it came from. You might be thinking IRA. I'm thinking IRA. You're right. I'm sorry. Yes, they'd love to throw out those acronyms. It's confusing. So anyway, so that's that. And then I'm sorry I was. Solar By-law Working Group. Yes. Thank you. So they were, we held a meeting yesterday, which was supposed to be the last meeting, but some information on battery storage came in kind of last minute. And they had gotten through half of the bylaw and had another half to review yesterday. And with that, they were discussing some of the more controversial topics around forest clearing mitigation. So I, they are going to have one last meeting. It's, I've sent out a doodle poll. I don't have a date yet, but I would certainly share that with you all. But they did remove a whole section. They voted, they had a vote. Actually, they held a vote and removed a section on forest mitigation requirement for clearing for solar. So. So the update is that they have one more meeting. They still have to discuss battery storage. And I think they have a section on farm lands that they're going to be discussing as well. Steve, go ahead. Stephanie, do you know what, how they're going to work out the nexus statements? There's several sort of nexus statements that are kind of in a draft format. And I was just curious how it's expected those might be developed. And we're going to be just looking at, you know, typically what has been happening all along as suggestions are made. And then Chris Breistrup, the planning director has been taking what she thinks is sort of reasonable and relevant and then creating that language for the bylaw. And so members have been reviewing it. I think the idea about keeping the nexus statement to the end is because it should reflect what's actually in the bylaw. And because they're still working out what will or will not be included. So that may come together actually more readily and easily than seems with these several different suggested statements. And Chris has been good at pulling things together and what she tries to, and she does try and does an excellent job at really taking people's suggestions and including them. So sometimes it's repetitive. Sometimes people are saying the same thing. So it seems like a lot, but once you sort of boil it down, there's a lot of repetition. Thank you. And so there'll be one more version draft version of the solar bylaw posted on the resources for that for that group. So there, yes, it'll take another week or so before that's up. So we don't. Next week, there were no dates proposed for next week. It's either the following week or the week after that. So I will certainly let you know, but she also needs time to incorporate some of the suggested edits. I would encourage members of the ECAC to take a look at that draft document. And if you have any comments now is certainly the time to provide them before it gets before the draft gets finalized as the draft from the solar bylaw working group. Can we circulate a link. I can send it to you all after this meeting. It'll when it's available, it'll be on the resource folder of the solar bylaw working group, which has paid. Yeah, I can send the last one that was sent, which had been updated. Just a sort of because there it's a lot. So you might want to just go through even this version. Because by the time the other one comes out, it might be too late. So even members have been sort of a little bit behind and sort of which version they're commenting on. I'll send you the latest. How's that. Thank you. That'd be great. Okay. So where are we in the. So anything else Stephanie or should we move on to ECAC member updates. No, I think that's it for me. Okay, you can't remember updates anyone have updates. I have one thing I wanted to mention that I think Stephanie already knows about I don't think I mentioned it here so he. What's it called eat smart alliance. I think it is is doing a free electrification coach training. We're calling a heat pump coach training. It may not be as rigorous as some of the other ones that are out there. But I have been taking it and I've been finding it quite interesting and useful. It's being run by Mike Simons, who's the guy at dope, a boat green energy who a boat energy who gives a really nice heat pump seminar and a few other people who are experts who are technical experts. And it's good so far. So if anybody else is interested in that or wants access to the recordings, let me know and I will send you a. I'll really do send you an email address to contact because it's a little hard to find the link to sign up for the training but it's pretty easy to get a hold of the person who is running it and she seems happy to share the materials. I'll send it to me I can or actually I have it, but make sure. Yeah, yeah send that to me and I'll I can send things out at once. Okay, so there by law and that will do. Make a note. Don't think I have anything else I feel like I'm forgetting something important. Any other updates. Laura has her hand up. Laura. Sorry. Yeah, I keep trying to like me. Anyway, um, just on the point. Stephanie about the solar, the ARPA funding and just everything like I'm just wondering because that's another example where and fine like maybe it wasn't a top priority. It was an opportunity for us to like achieve real like significant operational savings at the high school, because we would have used. I'll be right there. We would have used ARPA funding to support the project and we could have the direct pay for the IRA has no limitations on it internally with other grants, so we could have used that to get money back. And then just use less money yet less of the ARPA money. And then we could have owned the system and have had all that operational savings from electricity. Now having to pay for electricity so like, I just feel like we need somebody to be in this role. Can we like hire a consultant like what could we do to like it just feels like we don't have the time to wait for another child director. For all these decisions. So I know, I mean, I, you know, I know there's nothing you can personally do about it, but it's just making me feel like. I will say part of it is, I don't disagree and I certainly was advocating for it and it was something that when I talked to Sean, you know, we had both talked about like, you know, he'd asked me and I said, you know, yeah, this would be a great one to start with. I think the problem is that when this was put out to the public, there was not a lot of public support. Everyone was complaining about streets, you know, so I feel like it needs, you know, I think you all need to. And I think I feel like you did send a letter. Did I recall sending a letter about it. I just think it just didn't have the broader support from the community and that's, you know, what happens, you know, you need more voices you need more people to understand. So, you know, again, I don't know what to say. I mean, I hear you Laura and I totally agree. I think it's partly the education of the broader community to to understand some of these things as well so that they would maybe see the value and understand it more and understand the opportunity. I feel like that's part of it. Yeah, I mean, I think, yeah, that all makes sense. It's just a shame because our funding is going to be a drop on the bucket for our street problem. Like we need significant long term planning and strategy around that that is not going to be solved by a short term chunk of money. Yeah, I agree. But anyway, and this could be used in the long term for street repairs. Yeah. Yeah. I hear you and I agree and I know that, you know, you know, I don't know what to say because I, you know, I, yeah, I feel similarly I just you know I when I hear that, you know, the, the, you know, the residents did not support it, you know, that there was overwhelmingly not like there was very little support. I wonder what you need to do to get people to notice what's going on. Again, I think it's the kind of thing where it's just people see it as like this incredibly expensive thing. And again, like Laura said, but there's all this other funding that's down the pike that's coming that could support it. And, you know, and I, I just, I mean, even for me, I say, you know, I say what I say, but I think, you know, Sean was a champion, and it's really unfortunate timing right now to not have him in that role. And I don't know about bringing in a consultant like I that's not my decision and I, you know, I can, you know, I think maybe expressing the opportunity again in the letter in the letter would be helpful. So, excuse me one second I'm just going to go off game. All right, so I think we should look for the next opportunity to encourage the town to do the right thing. All right, the next thing on the agenda is items for the next agenda. When Stephanie comes back, we can get her input but so far we have the things we didn't get to today. Particularly, Stella's oh yeah Stella's letter memo will definitely talk about that next week. Anything else for the agenda that we haven't. Yep, go ahead Steve. There was a, I guess encouragement by some outside people for us to take a look at the recent Massachusetts Audubon report on solar. And I've invested some time reading that. I don't know if that's something we'd want to discuss it largely focuses on sort of state level policy. So if you want to give us a, well, it's a little late now but if you want to give us a two minute report now, we can put it on the agenda for next time though. Sure, I guess the teaser report and I feel mixed about it I think the at the end the policy recommendations they make I think are great and those recommendations are all about changing up incentives to help make solar less developed buildings and parking lots less expensive in order that we then in the state develop less of the best farmland. So that I think that's a great approach let's see if we can change the incentives to encourage more solar on rooftops and more on parking lot canopies and less the best farmland and so best forests and farmlands. That said I think there's the sort of unnecessarily hostile against solar in many of their headlines and, and it almost seems like there was somebody who wrote the headlines and the big bold print that was different than what the text read there was inconsistencies in there. They spoke several many times of sort of how clearing forests for solar results and huge emissions of carbon huge carbon emissions, which is true when you're just counting the loss from the forest. But they never talked about the avoided emissions from the solar that was put on those sites. Of course pretty complicated. Yeah. So they did not really acknowledge the, the, the carbon benefits of solar in those analyses. And then the other thing that struck me is they, they said that solar development is one of the major sources of land forest land conversion, and they referenced their the mass auto ponds report from 2020, and you look at that and it says a solar is as much as 25% of forest conversion, so forest conversion, and there is 25% or less. And we heard from Dr. Rogan, John Rogan I think from Clark University a couple weeks ago at the solar forums that Wayne has helped organize that solar development is really only 10 to 15% of land conversions. My big question is for Audemars and others it's like okay well if so there's such a small one why are you picking on it so much, and what kind of policies might we do that integrate those other forces, causing deforestation and loss of farm land which are housing developments and roads and commercial developments. Let's bring those into the mix and see if could collectively sort of help direct housing to those less valuable lands and also meet the housing crisis that we have in the state. Those are, those are my thoughts. All right, so that's interesting. Let's save a discussion for next time though it does sound like it might be worth putting on the agenda to talk about Jesse I know has to go now so if there are, I think the next thing on the agenda is, is it we're back to public comment. In that case. Why don't we just go right to that and then adjourn and if there are any other meeting agenda items just send them to Stephanie or me. Okay. All right so are there any public comments. Please raise your hand and I'll allow you to speak. Lily or Sarah. It does not look like we have public public comment so. So if not, then I think we can adjourn till two weeks from today. Correct. And remember to reach out to people to ask them to serve on ecac and to fill out the citizen, whatever it's called form activity for activity form or action form action form right. Okay. Right. Thank you all. Thanks everybody. Thanks everybody, Stephanie. Thank you.