 Okay, we're now recording and I think maybe we can just start with a quick check in just see how folks are doing it's been a while since we've seen another and it's always nice to sort of check in. So, Carolyn you want to start. Sure, it's another gray warm winter day. That's about how I feel. But if I don't know you probably heard that the mayor in Northampton announced the creation of a new department climate action project management department so that's exciting on our front it sort of shifts where Chris's former position was located from central services and facilities to this new department and then there would be a department director in addition to an energy officer. And it's tied in with procurement so I think it has some really good potential and sort of shows that we really need to a lot of this is going to be project based and grant, you know, acquisition and implementation based in terms of our efforts to move us towards our climate goals. So that's going to be a new and exciting time for us. Are you going to be involved with that work as well. I mean, I know you're the planner so obviously you know, or you're the director so I mean it seems like you would be involved but I assume, maybe you're sort of in the development but maybe there in the implementation side is that. Yeah, is that what you're saying. Yeah, yep. So we're going to work very closely. I mean, the, this, the idea is that the this department is sort of we'll work across departments, but obviously with us being in the planning seat and the, you know, with all the identified strategies in our climate are sustainable North Hampton and resilience and regeneration plan and that's going to be, you know, a large part of the focus for this department. So will you. Shoot, I just had a question and now I just lost it. Oh, I forgot. Oh, well, I lost it. Del or Andre, do you have questions for Carolyn about that new department. Yeah, I'm just so jealous. Yes. Oh, I know what the question was Carolyn, are you going to be. The, still the office of planning and sustainability. Will that still remain. Okay. Yep, that's great. It's changing in our hands. Yeah. Okay, cool. And so who just joined us on the phone is that you Tom. This is Darcy. Can you hear me. Hi Darcy. Yes, we can. Okay. We're just doing some check-ins and just kind of as an FYI under I did put in for an energy officer. I actually did put that in and a proposed budget. So I don't know if it'll happen, but I did add it. So energy officer and administrative support. The two positions that I requested for 2024. FYI 20, FYI 24. So we'll see. You know, fingers crossed, who knows. So Adele, would you like to go next? Sure. I'm, I'm in Florida. And it's quite warm down here. And I guess my question for Carolyn was the same as, as one of yours. So I don't have any other questions and I'm going to be switching over to a phone. Midstream. So. Okay. Just FYI. Okay. No, good to know. Andrew. Yeah, I'm staying on. No video. Because I have COVID. Oh. You're not, you know, doing. Much. Not feeling so great. Yeah. So sorry. Not so bad. Is this your first time? It is. I wasn't sure those little tests work. Yeah. They do. Although a friend, somebody, a friend had. One of their children had tested negative and then later tested positive. Like they had gone to the doctor. Think for something else. And then it turned out that when they tested them with a. Oh yeah. Perhaps you do. Serial tests. You can't trust one. No. So. Hi, Tom. Oh, sorry. I'm late. My boss invariably schedules me when we're supposed to be on this call, but I moved him back and still went over a little bit, but. Hello everyone. Hi, Tom. We're just glad you're with us. So that's, that's great. We're just doing a little bit of a check in of Darcy's next. And then we'll go to you. Darcy, you want to check in? Sure. That's that much report. I, I'm on the phone because I. I also need to leave fairly shortly and I can just talk while I'm on the, in the car because my, my son is home for the weekend. So that's really. That's really nice. Nice. Well, that's exciting. Happy for you. Thank you. And Tom. Is this a check in just on life? Yeah, just our, you know, where we're at. It's been a while. I got a nice black eye. How's that? I can't miss that. What happened? I live up on the hill and Pelham and there's beautiful. Trails. And I went for my normal. Jog and. Stepped on a piece of land that had nothing underneath it and sunk into a hole. Head in the ground and fortunately. No, no greater damage than. I mean, I didn't black out or have a concussion or anything like that. So it could have been way worse. So I was checking in with mother earth. How's that? You were become, yeah. Well, Is that your glasses ring? Did you do glasses smash on your face? So I hit my head. And I think I. I don't think I hit it that hard. I think I hit it on a. Like our stick that was coming out of the ground and it. So this is all blood that's just drained into my eye from. So I'm like, I got to go to an event last next week. I'm constantly massaging it. Anyhow, I don't know if that's what you were hoping to hear looking to hear Stephanie, but that's my immediate check in. You know, other than that, just. Eager to keep this. This effort moving forward and. You know, I'm just so happy to be here with you all. As I said, you know, I don't know what's going to happen with our budget, but the exciting thing now as a director is that I get to make proposals. And so I made a proposal of. Creating a new energy officer position and an administrative support for the sustainability department. I am the department of one currently. So. And not the only one. There's others that are departments of one as well, but hopefully. I'm just happy to be here with you all. As I said, you know, I don't know what's going to happen with our budget, but the exciting thing now as a director is that I get to make proposals. And so I made a proposal of creating a new energy officer position for the sustainability department. And so I'm just happy to be here with you all. But hopefully. I'm, I'm hoping that those will get approved. And I think the good thing for us is when. North Hampton does something like they're doing, then, you know, it does. You know, help. So, you know, and I think we were, I was certainly well aware of those changes. So I think. You know, hopefully that will. Translate to the addition of some new staffing and. Being able to move things forward here too. So thank you all for being here. We're here till 11 today, but I know some of you have to drop out. So whatever you've got to do. It's really just the three communities that constitute the quorum. So as long as the three of us here. Well, two of the three of us are here. We can continue the meeting. So. But. The first thing I guess I wanted to. Ask is if everyone had reviewed the minutes that I had sent. We're using the ones that the student had done as kind of the official minutes, just. Because I think for her time, I want to acknowledge the last two sets of minutes that I had sent. That she had worked on and we have Darcy's I sent last night. Just we'll keep those as the notes, but. Oh, actually, and is anyone available to do minutes today and Darcy, you're driving. So I don't think you can do that. Can anyone do minutes today? I cannot because I will be switching over to a car also. Okay. And Andre, you have COVID. So. I guess that leaves. The three of us. I mean, I could. I'll try to do it. I'm terrible at it, but I'll, I'll take some notes. Okay. That's okay. I always watch the videos and I can fill in gaps. So just, if you. You know, if you could sort of give me a frame to work with, I can fill in what we need to if necessary. Sounds good. Stephanie, by the way, did you start recording? I did. Yeah, we're recording. Yeah, we've been recording for a bit now. Is there a question about the agenda? Yep. Just wondering about the agenda item, the Amherst solar assessment. If that could be at the end. Is Dwayne coming or are you going to do that? Or what? I think it was just going to be just sort of an update of where that is. Okay. So not. I don't, Dwayne's not coming. Okay. I was just going to ask if it is on the end of the agenda already. So that would be good for me because I don't, probably don't have to be there for that. Yeah. And it's just an update on sort of with the processes where we are. I'm the project manager. So I didn't feel the need to bring. Dwayne into yet another meeting. Okay. So I'm just going to go back to the agenda item. I'm just going to go back to the agenda item. I'm just going to go back for his time. I mean, if you wanted to talk more about the solar analysis he's doing for the ECAC, that's something different, but the solar assessment in and of itself, I was just going to give an overview. Okay. And what's happening with the solar bylaw working group. Okay. So if you want more and want me to bring Dwayne in for the next meeting, I can ask him, but I just kind of feel like he's a bit tapped out with ECAC and I'm just trying to be respectful of his time. I know actually we probably just share the link where he presented to the ECAC and then he wouldn't have to. Yeah, exactly. That would give people a lot of details. Yeah. But I can give you the overview of what's happening, but the analysis piece, I think, is what you're probably more looking for. And he definitely could handle that, you know, or we could cover that through the link to the ECAC meeting, as you said. So I'll do that at the end. So I just wanted to. So I wanted to just start with the minutes if we can get those out of the way. Did people already take a look at them. And have any comments. Changes edits are okay. If okay, then either Carolyn or Tom, one of you could make a motion. We'll start with the minutes of nine, six, 22. I don't know which one. Sorry, what was that, Andrew? Oh, I read through both of them quickly. And so I don't know which it was, but. I wasn't positive that. VGE and. JPE JPA were always used right. I think that was a very confusing thing, but I do think for the official minutes, we need to make sure they're right. Okay. I will go through those more carefully. I just, I kind of skimmed it. So I'll go through and. And make sure that that's accurate. I'll look through both sets of minutes. I'm making a note for myself. Okay. About the minutes of nine, six, 22. Carolyn or Tom. Didn't Carolyn just make a motion for that? Okay. I'm sorry. I was. Yeah. Getting. And I seconded it. Okay. And. Our vote, Carolyn. Yes. Tom. Yes. And I'm a yes. Okay. So the minutes of nine, six are approved. And then the minutes of 11, 18, 22. Okay. I will second that. Okay. And a voice vote, Carolyn. Yes, Tom. Yes. And I'm also a yes. So the minutes of 11, 18 are approved. Unanimously. Unanimously. Okay. All right. So moving right along. So. This is probably this conversation is going to cover a lot of things. Um, so the next agenda item is updates on the JPA signatures. Um, and this is probably going to move us right into our next agenda item, which is the CCA. So, um, Carolyn and I at one point had touched base about the JPA, um, signatures. Um, Carolyn had pointed out that we had some blank spots in the document that required. Um, That required us to sort of put in some numbers for the, the blank was particularly the amount that towns would commit to, um, supporting financially supporting the JPE. Um, the JPE. And I know that Chris had put together a document, but our executives hadn't really looked at it. And it suddenly started to become clear to us that this was going to be, um, It wasn't just a straightforward thing at least for us to just say, yes, we can, um, Sign without examining that amount and actually what that's going to mean going forward as well in the next couple of years. So, um, we reached out to Paul Gromer and had a meeting with him last week to talk about, could we actually move forward with the CCA under the MOU and still continue to work on developing a JPE, can we just get this thing in there in the pipeline now? And I know Paul had talked to us before about it would be easier to do it with the JPE, but he seemed to think this time he said, you know, it would be, it would be an administrative change. Um, he said, first of all, and he said a couple of things. First of all, he said the timeline now for the DP, you turn around for reviewing these CCAs is now, has gone into two years. It's taking up to two years for some. And so, um, he said, you know, that that in and of itself is sort of, you know, kind of a, even though the DPU keeps promising that they're going to streamline it, they haven't yet. So right now it's up to two years. So there's that. So what that means is that we could, um, we could still work on getting the JPE up and running while that's happening. And then if that happens before the approval, he can just amend, he can make an amendment while it's being reviewed. Um, and so that could happen sort of in that process. So if it happens within that, if it's a two year timeframe, it can happen then. He said, if the CCA contract or, um, application is approved by DPU and then we become a JPE, he said, that's really kind of just an administrative change. It's not a very long. It's not nearly as long a process of, um, amending. He said that's much quicker to do. So, um, it just seemed to us at this point that it made sense to go forward with the MOU because we can do that faster. Um, also Paul took a look at our current contract compared to the Cape Light, uh, compacts, um, MOU to sort of look at the language and see if it were possible for us to move forward under our MOU, the way it is currently written. And he seems to think that it is fine that we could actually move forward with, with it under the current language. So just wanted to give you all sort of that update and sort of weigh in on people's, um, feelings about this. Tom and I also spoke. And I think the three communities feel like this is probably the best way to go because we can start. We can just sort of start. We can start with our public outreach. We can get things moving forward and we can still work on the JPE, but maybe we just don't do it right now. Um, and I'm really glad that you had this conversation because I was going to suggest exactly the same thing. Oh, yeah. That's good. I was, I'll be honest that I was really nervous today, sort of coming with this because I thought it's not that we're abandoning it. It's just that it's just going to take, it's just more complicated than it seems because even though it's just will signing the contract and the JPE exists, there's so much more with like, we have to secure legal counsel and we, you know, all those other little pieces. They're not, they're time consuming and they're going to require like a whole new structure. Whereas this way we can kiss. We can sort of continue the way we are too. I mean, in some ways, I think it's good because we can kind of keep our advisory group format for a while. Um, until that really is up and running. So I think in some ways I feel more, um, confident and comfortable to move it forward this way. Um, I think the programming isn't lost. I think we know we want to do programming. I will say that Amherst is, uh, We're putting together an RFQ. It's almost done. I just want to have a BCAC member take a look at it one last time, but we're going to be launching a heat pump program. Um, within our community. So I know that, you know, There's going to be funding more IRA funding down the pike that we might be able to tap into. And we might be able to do other things as well. Um, and I think waiting for the JPE to get up and running. And waiting for an adder that may or may not even be able to contribute towards programming. It's still, it's still such an unknown. I think it just makes more sense to do this this way. Um, I'm glad you're on board, but Andra and Darcy, do you want to weigh in? Do it, do it, do it. Okay. Well, that's awesome. Um, great. I guess, um, I, I'm wondering what it means to. What this group is going to be doing. Moving forward. Um, if we're not, if we don't, I mean, we were, we were kind of assuming. We'll have a JPE. Um, and we can start work, work on the CCA business plan. We can do all the different things. I'm just. I, there's so much waiting that goes on. And I'm worried that this just means. It'll get put on the back burner again and we'll wait another year. I don't think so, Darcy, because there's going to be a whole period of time where the. The CCA. You know, application is going to be under review. And I think there's that, you know, that time is going to allow us an opportunity to just focus on the JPE really. I mean. The community outreach. You know, we're going to be, you know, there's going to be that piece. There's certainly that to do as well. I just don't, it's going to take longer to get the CCA up and running. If we're working, if we're just waiting on the JPE to come together. I just think it's going to take. I think it's more complicated. Then, you know, then we sort of anticipated. And I just think at least if we get the CCA up and running, you know, it won't be hard to amend the. The, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the contract to make it a JPE when that happens. And it gives us some time. We just need to keep the pressure on the JPA development. And, you know, I, I know that there's. A huge cry right now in, in the North Hampton circles anyway. So I just want to start doing outreach as quickly as possible. Yeah. And that's. Go ahead, Carolyn. Sorry, I was just going to say, I also want to note that there's a lot of. Work. I mean. There is work to be done even to set up the CCA. So after it's submitted to the DPU, there's still structure that needs to be defined for the CCA. And the CCA can continue. And then there's a lot of work to be done on. There's no requirement that we've created JPE. But that could also be a piece of the furthering further, you know, further the conversation about what that would look like. The, the piece, the, the issue would be, you know, the other piece of this is if it takes up to two years, year and a half to two years for the CCA to be finalized by the DPU. And then we don't want to have this financial. And time resource intensive constraint on the municipalities. When there's nothing coming in as, as Stephanie alluded to, that if there's no. Adder coming in to support staff for the, for a JPE. There's that piece, but the other pieces. You know, there, there's just this whole CCA thing under the MOU can continue along and develop that structure for what's, you know, the roll out as soon as DPU approves, you know, we'll have to have the whole mailing and the public outreach relative to that. So this group can be part of that. But I think, you know, in terms of getting public information out Adele that you just mentioned about people wanting to know what the status is. I mean, that's sort of part of the next steps that we can talk about. Yeah, exactly. From going on from here. I do want to say. I think there's still confusion about what the. JPE is going to. How it's going to function. And what else it's going to do besides running the CCA. And that is a different conversation. Happens to be the same people, but not have to be in this meeting. And just for clarity, shouldn't be discussed in this meeting. Yeah, I was just going to like, that's why I know Adele wanted to sort of remove that from the agenda, but I just wanted to sort of talk about just maybe like scheduling that next step JPE meeting at another different time. You know, and just sort of at least having a next. A next target for that. At least identifying that, but I, I don't think we need to get into the details. I agree. Today. I think today I need to focus on the CCA. Sorry, go ahead, Darcy. I'm just a little, I know that. You listed the things that would need to be done. But my understanding was that. Once the documents were signed. The first thing would be that a board would be appointed and that the board would then do all of those tasks. And that is actually listed in the list that we have of, you know, the startup list. Yeah, I, I, that's, that's just what I don't want us to talk about now. I had the same thought and we need a home meeting. Just, you know, the JPE JPA group. To talk about that doesn't fit in this meeting about the CCA. Yeah. And the problem with that is also the financial piece. And we don't, you know, yes, we have, and just so you are all aware, we have $29,300 available in the account to sort of help towards that effort. But that's not a lot and won't get us that far, to be honest. So the question then is then what, and I don't. I think that's why I don't, and I agree. I don't want to get into this big discussion. It's a challenge and I don't want to be working in circles when we could be moving the CCA forward more productively right now. So. Are we sort of an agreement that we can discuss the CCA next steps? Cause there's a couple of things to do. I just wanted to share the final logo choice just as a start. We could start with that. So, and then we can talk about the public outreach piece, which has to, which actually does have to start sooner than later. So are folks good with that? Yes. Okay. I am now on my phone and I probably need to get entered into the meeting. Yep. I saw. I'm moving you now. It's not allowing me to. Okay. All right. You should be all set. Can you unmute? You do star six to unmute. How about now? Yep. Now we can hear you. All right. Just want to make sure that you're there. Okay. All right. So bear with me a moment. I will share my screen. I just wanted to go over the logo. So this was the one that we had the most votes. Four. The other. I guess runners up, I'll say. Were this first one. And then this one as well. So I just want to ensure that, let's see. Yep. I think those were the only. The top three. So I just want to ensure that people. I feel okay with this as the final logo. I can't see it, but. Is that, was that the first one? It's, it was your, yeah, it was yours. Your first choice Adele. Oh, well, then I guess I'm happy with it. Yeah. Andra was okay with it. Chris and you and Darcy made this your first choice. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And ironically. None of the communities voted on this one, but I mean, I'm fine with it. I don't, I don't have a problem with us. I don't feel that strongly about this. Not being adequate for our purposes. Tom or Carolyn. Do you, because I think we have to be the ones that sort of have the official vote. So. Yeah. I mean, I wouldn't. Yeah. I don't know if it's okay for any of these. Yeah. How I feel. So, and Tom, are you, you're okay as well. Absolutely. Okay. So. Do one of you want to make a motion to. Choose this second. Logo. I'll make the motion, Carolyn. You've been carrying the motion so far. You can second it. I'll second it. Okay. The one with four votes. Yes. How are we identifying this logo? Just say the one that was displayed with the most votes and I'll. Tweaked if I have to, but I think we just say the one with the most votes. Got it. Carolyn seconds. Okay. And voice vote. Carolyn. Yes. Tom. Yes. And I'm a yes. Yeah, we have a logo. Beautiful. You're unmuted. Okay. Okay. All right. I'm stopping the share there. All right. Great. So we have our logo choice. So our CCA. Okay. Next steps. I think that obviously, as we said, the big thing is the outreach. And. What. Carolyn and I, and Carolyn, I guess, why don't you just, you know, say what your suggestions were to me and recommendations to me. To the group because I don't have your email. And I think they sound great. So. Okay. Sure. So we had, you know, as Stephanie mentioned, I don't know what the. I know that was a little bit of a rumor. And he indicated that there were just some tweaks that need to be made the CCA, and it wouldn't take him much time at all. Get that ready. There are also some. There. There's a range of public. Documents that are. Need to be part of the public information. feedback timeline. And some of those documents have to be tweaked as well. Really, they're sort of administrative tweaks that I think Stephanie and I can work on to fix and send to Paul so that they are finalized, but those have to be finalized for to open the public session. And it's really a matter of how, you know, the public, the letters are organized. And if we're going by an MOU, then we probably want the three communities up there. And so it's not really anything of substance, I would say. So I think that Stephanie and I can work on getting those to Paul and with the target date of perhaps the end of February of getting that finalized so that we can open the 30-day comment period early March, maybe let's say March 6. And then within that 30-day public comment period, we need to have one public forum that can be on Zoom. So we were thinking that we could open the public comment period. We don't have to have the specific date yet for that Zoom meeting, but we can work on finding a date that obviously all the chief executives are available, Paul's available, and then the three communities at least are available. And that would sort of dictate when that Zoom public forum would be. And Paul would be essentially running that, but you know, we would need to all be there to provide that community voice. And then once the 30-day, so we would do that sometime in that window, let's say March to April is 30 days, then at the close of that 30-day, that's when the submission can go to DPU. So if that, you know, I think if we can get all that finished, we can potentially be submitting to DPU early April, early to mid-April. Our folks, okay, and I should be clear that leading, obviously leading that community discussion would be Paul Gormer and folks from his team, not Paul Backelman, just in case there might have been some slight confusion, which Paul. So are folks okay with that timeline? It's probably the fastest we can do this, to be honest. I'm okay with the timeline. I do think that it's important for the three communities to have a more active role in the actual presentation, so that it doesn't look like an external contractor doing, making a presentation alone. Oh no, well the three, that's why Carolyn said we would have the, hopefully the three executives of each community would be part of that meeting, so that they could be there to answer questions as well. So there'd be a brief, you know, I think how these things have typically gone, at least for us is that, you know, if you have a consultant come in, they'll kind of do their, their sort of general presentation, but then the Q&A is handled by the communities. Or even, you know, I can imagine where the introduction to the public forum is by the three chief executives, and then is handed over to the consultants. So, and then it probably circles back as well at the end. And Amherst is likely to host, so we would give each, you know, each community an opportunity to sort of do their, introduce their towns. So we think in one meeting or three meetings? One meeting. Okay. Paul recommended one meeting, one big meeting. Okay. In part because we are doing this together as three communities, so it kind of makes sense to sort of have that unity right from the outset and sort of, you know, to sort of show that it's not just each community working on its own, we really are working together. So that seems to be a logical reason to sort of do it as one. But yeah, we'll tell, I mean, there's time to work what that will look like too and who's going to be doing what. So, and if you all want to sort of weigh in and how you think it'll be most helpful to have our leaders engaged, we'd certainly be open to suggestions for that piece. So, and there's time. So, yeah, the other thing I just realized is we really should try to do that meeting in March because the special legislation to allow public forums on Zoom is up for, you know, for traction in April. And even though the DPD allows you to do it on Zoom, I wouldn't want to take any chances that if all of that special legislation. No, I, yeah, I agree. Because it would be much harder to try to convene all executives from the three communities at one time in a physical location. Yes. Remember when you had to do that. Yeah, well, it may not be too far away again. I don't know. I am very excited that we could actually move forward this way. Great. Excellent. All right. So there are, you know, I gave us two hours. We might able to actually be doing do this in an hour. Because I think that's the biggest piece. And I think that's where, you know, we could certainly, you know, once we get materials finalized to where you all want to sort of help out with spreading the word in your, in your sort of other CCA advisory group, community or community advisory group circles. That would be really helpful. Yeah. And our Hampton neighbors, for example, or one group is really eager to hear about the CCA. Okay. So we just keep putting them off until the launch or is it okay to outlaw any information at all? Well, we're saying the official launch would be at the beginning of March. So I think if we started having materials ready, you know, I think let's just, I think I just want to check all of this with Paul Gromer first just to make sure it's okay that we do that. But I think sort of in a more general information way, you could probably start sharing information. But the specifics of the program, I think we would have to wait a little bit probably to the official launch. Yeah. I mean, the official launch, you're supposed to have all these documents available on the start date of, you know, there's a 30-day window. And so your documents have to be ready on that first day. So, you know, you could tell people we're going to start the public comment period, we think sometime in March, but it's not really official till we have the website all populated with all the documents that we can say that's the start of the public comment period. And also even within that time, it gives Paul time to, you know, any tweaks that he might have to do to the CCA draft, the final draft, it gives him time to do that because he really doesn't need to submit it until the end of that comment period. So he can be, you know, we can, if we need to get signatures or whatever we need to do with the MOU, that can all happen like now. And it gives us a little time. Yeah, this month. And even into March, if we had to, but I think we'll probably get it signed before then, if we have to with the amendments. So let's see our, I mean, the JPE next steps, we could schedule a meeting to discuss the JPE. You know, just because I have people here and it's easier to find a time. And I know that Northampton Chris was kind of leading that piece, Carolyn, just so you know. And I don't want to just suddenly thrust it upon you because I know you've got a heavy load right now. So I'm happy to sort of facilitate that piece for now as well. That didn't sound good. I mean, I guess I would suggest that maybe our focus until we get the public meeting up and running that our focus should be on that. So I would suggest that maybe after we launch the public comment period, that if we could circle back and do a convening about what steps, if any, we want to pursue with the JPE at this given time. So I guess that's what I'm saying though. What's the date? I'm just trying to find a date. I'd say, yeah, yeah, I'm just, well, then I would just recommend that it would be some time in March, but not before we do the public. You know, because I think your and my effort should be to get these documents ready for public panel. Yep, I agree. So with that in mind, whenever it is that we schedule the JPE discussion, I think we need to schedule the a special time either before or after the Belly-Greed Energy Partnership so that it's very clear that it's distinct. They're different topics. Yeah, agreed. Yeah, I don't know that I like the idea of having them one after the other personally. I also just want to voice support for the idea of Northampton leading on the JPA and JPE. We've had a lot to hold in Amherst with very little, you know, capacity over these years. It's gone very slowly. And I know us community members are anxious to see Northampton take on a piece of this. I do want to say that some of the slowness, I'm going to try not to take that too personally. But I think yeah, yeah, we know it's other, you know, positions that's not used, Stephanie. No, I know. I'm just saying that I think, you know, part of that. Yeah. I mean, I just am sensitive to the fact that Carolyn is in a new, you know, a new role and is sort of juggling a lot more on her plate right now. And I don't think Chris had quite that same load. I mean, he was busy. There's no question. But I think I feel kind of sensitive and to what Carolyn is, you know, her position. I know I'm a new department head too, but I'm, I don't have staff. Carolyn has staff. I don't. And that makes a difference, you know, so maybe just initially let's just for now. I mean, what I'm really hoping honestly is that we can sort of get to like, we can sort of move this along as much as we can now. But, you know, at some point I'm really hoping we can bring in an administrative support person to sort of take that on. And I don't know at what point that can happen. But, you know, maybe once you have an energy officer or we have an energy officer, then, you know, and they've got those positions posted. So, you know, that might be the time. Yeah. I mean, I think we're going to have more capacity to going forward. So, I think the combined capacities should be able to move this along. Do these positions have, as part of their job description, some involvement in this effort? You know, go ahead. Sorry. No, I mean, job descriptions are broad. I mean, where this part of this overall, this project is not, the goal isn't the project itself. The goal is to meet our communities and our regional objectives. So, I wouldn't, but I guess, I mean, it could potentially be part of that, but we also don't know what that is. So, I think in the interim, the position, you know, the energy officer position and this new climate action department, it's going to be, you know, whatever it takes on all different fronts, it's not just about energy, it's about land use, it's about transportation. So, all of those things are going to be in the mix for the position. Yeah. I just didn't want us to, you know, be, you know, anticipating this kind of support if it's outside of the scope of what these people are being brought on to do, but it sounds like this would fall under the umbrella. Yeah. And I guess my thinking as well is that who knows what's going to happen if we are going to decide to pursue the JP, that the creating the organization itself, but, you know, there would have to be staff support at some level from each of our communities to that, but it's not going to be the only thing that that staff person is charged with supporting. Right. And I had a very similar vision for us in getting an energy officer that they would perhaps take on this piece, you know, but it's not, I mean, it was sort of, it's kind of proposed, but it's not a job description, you know, there's no specific, like, this person will do XYZ. It's just kind of an idea of in the realm of all that we're doing with this person to have some role in this. And I was hopeful that that could be the case. So all right. So I'm just going to, rather than just come up with the date in March right now, can I just maybe send out some options to folks when I sort of have a clear idea of what our calendar is for some of the outreach that we need to do? All right. All right. So I'm actually, this brings me to the Amherst Solar Assessment. So I can very quickly tell you that we are looking at developing a solar bylaw in Amherst for large scale ground wanted solar. And we wanted to do a solar assessment, which the Energy and Climate Action Committee has wanted to do anyway, even sort of outside of just the development of a solar bylaw, but just as a way to sort of look at where is solar even feasible at this point in Amherst? Where could we possibly put it? And so we're doing a community wide investigation of available space. And we're looking at everything. We're looking at, I should say everything except the institutions of higher education's land holdings. We're not looking at theirs in part because they're already kind of doing their own work with that. So we're looking at like outside of the institutions of higher education, which are kind of our large institutions and our large businesses, if you will in town, where is solar feasible? So it's looking at a community wide scale. It's looking at private land, all land, but then it's got sort of layers of like what's an endangered species habitat that won't allow the development of solar. So sort of those things that kind of prohibit solar from being developed are kind of identified on that map and that mapping exercise. And then we're looking at where is it feasible? How close is it to transmission lines? So some of those things have been included in sort of the analysis of developing some kind of a solar mapping tool. And the idea is that this would be kind of an interactive tool that a resident might be able to access if they're interested in putting solar in their backyard or in their house. Maybe they'll want to take a look at this interactive map and be able to sort of determine if it's something that could potentially do or not, you know, or not, or it would just lead to more investigation. So we're working with GZA, Geoenvironmental Consulting Services. They've been incredible, really wonderful. We're working specifically with Adrienne Duncan. She has an IT specialist who's been meeting with our IT specialist. We have a technical team that's met a few times to sort of talk about the development of that mapping exercise. And that's almost that. So the solar assessment piece itself is nearly done with our final draft. It's not quite there yet, but we'll be able to actually unveil that sooner than later. So that's kind of exciting that we've gotten to that point. And then that is just a tool that will be available to the solar bylaw working group in their development of the solar bylaw. But again, it's really not meant to sort of dictate exactly where it can go. It's just saying where does it look to be feasible, but it still is going to require more project by project direct analysis of the siting. So it's just kind of to give us a general idea. One thing that the Energy and Climate Action Committee is doing, Dwayne Breger and Steve Roof have been kind of working somewhat together on taking a look at what is they're calling the fair share of Amherst's contribution to solar development in the state, given the state's climate action goals. And so they've done kind of a very in-depth analysis. And I do have that is recorded, that meeting was recorded, so I can send the link to that to everybody. You know, Dwayne did quite a bit of analysis and it's not quite fully completed yet. Well, actually, that's not true. They did come up with a recommendation at the last meeting. So I can send the, you know, that portion of the meeting. I can let you know where that was and you all could take a look at it if you're interested. So I can send that out. Thank you. Let me just make a note for myself. So does anybody have any questions about what we're doing on our solar assessment or the development of our solar bylaw? Thank you, Carolyn. Andrew, go ahead. I used to own agricultural land and one thing that we looked into was the possibility of putting solar around the edges of it. And at that time, that wasn't possible, but it could be, should, you know, state priorities change. Is something like that creative solutions a part of the assessment? Yeah, well, not the assessment so much. It's, I think, they didn't sort of like prohibit ag lands. It's just like, and I forget what sort of the layer analysis was for ag lands. But yeah, I mean, nothing is kind of, you know, forested areas aren't off the table and ag land isn't holistically off the table. It's again like, where could you potentially put it on ag land? So yeah, I mean, the assessment is just about, it's literally just sort of a scientific look at sort of, physically, where could it go? The bylaw is more about creating those opportunities for, you know, where it could potentially be zoned, where it would work. So it's just a tool to sort of help them see, like, oh, on this ag land, there's a potential here. So if we could potentially put it on this one, we want to protect the soils. So how do we, you know, how do we maybe write a bylaw that protects ag soils, but allows for some solar development? Those are the kinds of questions and they haven't really gotten into the meat of that discussion yet. But I, it's coming. So I think the solar assessment itself, we had, we had a budget of, I think, 100,000, but it came in around 50,000ish, maybe a bit more. And, but we're also using some of those funds for the solar bylaw for a peer review. So it wasn't all just for the assessment. But the, but the assessment, I think our final cost was around 50,000ish. Sure. Is this an outgrowth of the, all the kerfuffle over coals? I wouldn't say specifically an outgrowth of that, because I know that the ECAC has wanted to do a solar assessment for some time. So, but I think the need for a solar bylaw, it wasn't just because of that one project, but it sort of became clear that we, if larger scale projects are coming down the pike, which they maybe we need to sort of have a way to address them in our zoning, which didn't specifically speak to that scale of solar development. Great. Thanks. Okay. Well, are there any other questions? We don't have any public, Adele is showing up as our public right now. So we don't have any public for public comment. So our next meeting we could, so we could schedule another meeting in two weeks, which is what we've been, that's kind of been our schedule for this group. And we could maybe, Carolyn and I, if we can share some of the materials that we worked on, you know, with the outreach materials, we could share those with you at that time. I'm going to be out of the office on the 24th. Okay. Alrighty. Is there, sorry, I'm really frustrated about not being able to access my work email right now. Let's see. So the following week would be March 3rd, or we could do the, I mean, I think next week would be Tuesday too early, or we could do a different day that week, or we could do Monday the 27th. Would a Monday be not work for people? We could do Monday. I'm out. I'm sorry. I'm out the entire week of February vacation. Okay. I'm sorry. Someone, Darcy, was that you? Yeah. Okay. Andrew, would the 27th, Monday the 27th be okay for you? Nine to 10. Yeah, I may have it 10 o'clock already. Okay. I have a nine, a standing 930. Oh, okay. What if we did like, I think I'm going to be on an airplane that morning. So I might not be available at all in the morning. What if we did it later in the day, like at one? Yeah, that works for me. Tom? That should work. Yes. So if we did one to two, and what about other folks, Adele? I think that's fine. Okay. Yeah. And Darcy. Okay. And Darcy. Yeah. Cool. Great. Oh, yay. That was easier than I thought it would be. Okay. Great. So we'll do Monday the 27th from one to two for our next meeting. And we'll just sort of focus on our next steps with contract edits and with materials and hopefully all those things should be edited by then. Great. Okay. Great. Well, thanks, everybody. I'm glad we could do this in an hour. You have an hour free now that you didn't even know you had. So yay. Yay. All right, Stephanie. Have a great weekend, everybody. Thanks so much. All right. Take care. Bye. Bye.