 And we have a course of recommended vote of the board select select board on article five. I think Mr. Excuse me, Mr. heard. Did you wish to speak to this. Yep, briefly. Thank you, Mr. Moderator John heard chair of the slack board. This is an article authorizing the select board to file homeroom legislation as recommended by the clean energy future committee to amend the town bylaws to regulate the installation of new fossil fuel. Infrastructure in new residential and commercial construction and major renovations the purpose is to take firm action to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and reduce pollution in Arlington the select board voted. In favor of pot positive action four to zero with Mr. DeCorsi recusing himself from the discussion and the vote. Thank you, Mr. moderate. Thank you very much. Mr. heard. Patrick canlan. Thank you, Mr. moderator. I'm Pat Hanlon precinct five, and I appreciate the chance to introduce more an article number five. In 20 seconds Amos Meeks, the co chair of sustainable Arlington and not coincidentally a PhD candidate in physics at Harvard will present the article to you in a video. I will have about 20 seconds to add after that to add a little additional information Amos and I will both be available to answer questions, and we'll be joined by Ken Pruitt the town's energy manager and the chair of the clean energy future The town body whose recommendation started the process that brings this article to you today. Thank you, sir. That's our first example of a video. Hello, my name is Amos Meeks. I'm a member of the steering team of pre heat for Arlington. And today I want to tell you about one article number five, which asks to file a homeworld legislation that would allow the town of Arlington to create a bylaw amendment that would inhibit fossil fuel infrastructure in new construction and gut renovations. First, some background on this bylaw. So our goal is to reach 100% clean energy by 2050. And this is mandated by both a state law, the global warming solution act, which commits us to reduce our emissions by 80% by 2050, and in 2018 when the Arlington select board voted to set a goal of net zero by 2050. Fortunately, the recipe for reaching 100% clean energy is relatively simple. We electrify everything and we green the grid. So if we look at Arlington's total emissions, we see that the vast majority of our missions about 60% come from buildings residential buildings and industrial buildings. And of this the vast majority of this is space heating. So we want to focus space on space heating as a place to start. Electric solutions for space heating exists in the form of heat pumps. Heat pumps are very different from electric resistance heaters that you might think of, which are expensive and inefficient. Instead, they're more like an air conditioning unit that can heat as well as cool. And because they just move heat around, in terms of heating efficiency, they can be incredibly efficient, something like 200 or 300% efficient. In addition, cold climate air source heat pumps work in our climate. They're rated to be highly efficient down to five degrees Fahrenheit, and many of them work down to negative 17 or even negative 22 degrees Fahrenheit. And it simply does not get that cold around here. And they work as the sole source of heating. In 2017, a large portion of new homes in Massachusetts used heat pump as the only source of heating and cooling. And even in Arlington, in Arlington, there are many buildings that use heat pumps as their sole source of heating without backup heat. Heat pumps are also affordable. So this study in 2018 modeled a house being installed with gas and electric air conditioning compared to a house using an electric air source heat pump and heat pump hot water heating. And what they found is that the installation cost differed by less than $1,000, which in the case that they were looking at of a large single family house, newly built, newly constructed house. This difference cost difference shown in this red slice here is tiny compared to the overall value of the house. In addition, they found a small difference in annual operating cost. But again, for a new 3000 square foot home, if you look at the monthly expenses and compare that difference, which is this red sliver at the top here, it's pretty much negligible. So in the case of these large new construction single family houses, the difference in cost ends up being more or less a wash. But of course, some people can't afford to pay anything at all. Fortunately, affordable housing is already leading the way on heating electrification. These are some examples of buildings outside of Arlington that use heat pumps as their sole source of heating and cooling. But even within Arlington, all of the affordable housing construction projects that are being planned or built by the Housing Corporation of Arlington use heat pumps as their sole source of heating and cooling. And this is often because for the sort of high density, high efficiency new construction being built for affordable housing, heat pumps are just already the most economical option. So to get into what this bylaw actually proposes, we would prohibit new fossil fuel piping in new construction and gut renovations. This would not affect existing buildings that are not undergoing some kind of gut renovation. It would not affect kitchen renovations or other sort of renovations that are not literally stripping the entire inside of the building down to the studs and rebuilding it. And it would not affect additions. We also include a number of practical and common sense exemptions. This bylaw would affect only the customer side of the fossil fuel piping. All gas cooking appliances are exempted. Backup generators are exempted. Since it deals with fossil fuel piping, it would not affect propane fossil fuel cooking such as outdoor grills. Hot water for large buildings is exempted due to technical reasons. And in addition, research and medical facilities are exempted also due to technical reasons. And of course, repair of existing and unsafe piping is exempted. And to be clear, this only affects fossil fuel piping. So any modification can be done to the water side of a water heating system without this bylaw coming into effect. However, this may not account for all cases. And so in order to avoid any sort of undue expense or burden, anyone can seek a waiver for the bylaw. And the waivers would be granted by the building inspector, potentially with consultation with town staff and local energy experts. And finally, as a quick clarification, the reason this needs to be a homeworld petition is due to conflicts with existing state law. So over the summer, the attorney general, Maura Healy, found for a similar bylaw in Brookline that while she strongly supported the policy of this bylaw, it does conflict and is preempted by existing state laws. However, homeworld petitions are a very common way to deal with these kinds of kinds of conflicts, as you can see in articles 11 through 15 of this special time meeting. So with that from me and everyone else at Clean Heat for Arlington, we hope that you will join us in supporting warrant article number five, and we'll be happy to answer any questions that you might have. Mr. moderator, if I can just do the last 20 seconds. Yep. Most of you, most of the members today received an email from Clean Heat for Arlington earlier today, linking to a new study of the economics of electrification in a number of cities, including Boston. The new study shows a much narrower gap between gas and electric in operating costs than the two year study that Amos discussed in the video. The new is dated from last October and we did not really focus on it until after the video was made. But the difference, according to the new study for major from 2020 is about 3% or 10% a month instead of the somewhat larger figure that is talked about in the video. That said, we're ready to rest in and again and Amos and I will all be available if there are questions to attempt to answer for you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. So we'll get started further. Called Jim to Tulio James to Tulio. Thank you, Mr. moderator. I'm honored to speak tonight in favor article five as a town meeting member and an appointed member of Arlington's clean energy future committee. I urge the strong endorsement of this article by Tom meeting tonight, which is consistent with the clean energy future committee support for the article. who will affect and how it will do so. And my objective tonight is not to repeat what's already been said or to wait into the specifics of the article, except to say that it's been an exceptionally researched, studied, and expertly drafted article representing the hard work of many dedicated Arlingtonians over many months. The article is drafted with precision and care, and I think it strikes the right note between its environmental ambitions and real-world practicalities. What I do want to speak to tonight is why this article is so critically important for town meeting to support at this moment in time. You know, one of the tired tropes of climate change deniers in recent years has been the opening phrase, well, I'm not a scientist as if, you know, sort of saying I'm not a scientist, so I don't know about, I don't know if climate change is real. Well, I'm also not a scientist, and that's precisely why I trust the scientists and researchers who've dedicated their lives to studying and documenting the climate crisis. Their research is undeniable, our planet is sick and getting sicker by the day, and we're nearing the climate tipping point. And each day that we fail to act in any big or small way is not just a missed opportunity, but also brings us one step closer to a point of no return. And against that stark backdrop, we as leaders of our Arlington's town government must take every available opportunity presented to us to do whatever we can to stop the deleterious effects of climate change. To that end, the Clean Energy Future Committee, of which I'm a member, has been working diligently since 2018 to map a plan for Arlington to reach net zero carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The net zero plan being developed by the CEFC relies on a three part framework, make buildings more energy efficient, electrify everything, including buildings and transportation, and green the grid so that everything we've electrified is powered by clean electricity. Article five is absolutely necessary to the success of that plan, because let me be clear, every future building constructed that relies on fossil fuels will be in direct conflict with the net zero plan and the 2050 goal. Many people often think of 2050 as some far off date. It's not, certainly not when we have a task in front of us of the magnitude of reaching net zero. The decisions, even the small ones that we're making today will have major repercussions for the next 30 years and will affect our ability to reach the 2050 goal. Think about it this way, we should not and simply cannot be building new buildings at this point in time in 2020 that are reliant on fossil fuels when those buildings have multi decade lifespans. To do so is the equivalent of hobbling your leg right before you attempt to complete a marathon in record time. It just won't work. I realized that this article's future rests on a home rule petition which became a necessity in light of recent opinions from the attorney general's office. Arlington has the opportunity to be in the vanguard of this burgeoning movement. Although Arlington and Brookline are the first towns to push this issue, several other towns are close behind, I expect that in two years time dozens and dozens of cities and towns will have joined the movement and file their own similar home rule petitions on this issue. There's going to be strength in numbers and numbers of that size will assuredly get the attention of Beacon Hill leaders to either act on the petitions or take statewide action on their own. We've seen a similar strategy with plastic bag and polystyrene bands which are now in the verge of statewide enactment. Arlington can be a true leader on this issue if we act to support article five tonight. So I'll conclude by simply asking you this question. Several decades from now when your children or grandchildren ask you what you did to turn back climate change and to fight the existential battle of our lifetimes, what are you going to tell them? I think it's fair to say that if you support article five you can tell them you began the longest and most important journey for humanity with a single important step in the right direction. Please support article five and thank you for listening to me tonight. Thank you Mr. Tulio. Just to remind our meeting members please name Precinct when you first log on. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'm called David Levy. Thank you Mr. Moderator. Dave Levy from Precinct 18 and also a member of the Clean Energy Future Committee. I will be brief because I know the hour is late. So I just want to say that you know I joined the committee that helped support this warrant article for your consideration because you know a few years ago when I joined the committee I just kept getting more and more concerned about how every summer felt like it was getting hotter and I was running the air conditioner more and you know shoveling the snow less and I remember as a kid growing up in the Boston area how you know every once in a while was a big deal with the family would gather together and sleep in one room where we had one air conditioner running and now you'd be crazy to think that was going to be a reality going into the summer of 2021. I mean unfortunately we are just facing every year more and more days of 90 degrees you know 90 plus and it's frightening. I have two young kids they're both in public schools and I worry about their future when they are adults and what it will look like and will they be able to do the things that we were able to do or whether quite honestly prevented I it just it frightens me to think of the world I'm leaving them. So being a part of this committee has been so exciting because we're able to be practical about what can we do as a town to start to make a change in this situation and this quite honestly we're working on several initiatives we think they're all very practical we hope to discuss those in the coming year but this came before us because other groups were just as concerned and we realized we could do something now that would help. It doesn't you know like we said if you have gas today in your home it doesn't change that if you know unless you are planning some major renovation of your entire home assuming the state follows our request you know your life will not change but as we've said it does send a signal it does start the process to make change in this regard I do believe that if we are going to improve the climate we live in we must find ways to stop burning fossil fuels it's it's one of the solutions we have to approach and and this is one I think where you know over time we can ring fence the issue and get our arms around it more proactively and I I think it'll make a positive impact on our lives and our children's lives. So I would urge you to vote yes on article five I'm happy to answer any questions about the Clean Energy Future Committee and what we're up to and I thank you so much for your time. Thank you Mr. Moderator. Thank you sir. Mr. Ed Trembly. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Moderator. Ed Trembly, briefing 19. I had a few questions and a couple of comments. My comment is that more than 20 years ago when I worked on electric cars there was a move of foot back then to mandate them and thankfully that didn't happen because they weren't quite ready for prime time at that time. You know here 20 years later electric cars have become much better and you know what people choose them and buy them on their own and I would submit that that this should be the case with this too. Heat pumps are further along in their and their efficiency and so on now compared to where electric cars were 20 years ago but who's to say that we aren't going to have something better? Somebody isn't going to invent a better refrigerant or some new heating system that's more efficient and this doesn't ban the piping in the house. You can still have gas heat and depending on who you talk to or who's presenting you either can't or can't have gas hot water. I know of people who have heat pump hot water heaters and they've commented about how it makes their basement cold in the winter and so I'm not 100% sure that this is quite ready for prime time yet. Another concern that I might have is that the electric grid we have here in Arlington is not the most robust thing in the world. I know that at my house I used to want, I'm at the end of the line and when some neighbor up closer to the transformer from me would turn on the air conditioning, the voltage at my house would drop down to less than 100 volts. Well that transformer blew up eventually and now we have a new one so it's not quite so bad but. Okay add circle back to scope. The scope of part of this is that I'm not sure that the without a major rebuild that Arlington's grid can carry all the upcoming electric devices that people would like to plan for this. So I think that we ought to take a just let right now let people make their own choices on what they want to heat their homes with and I think that as once the heat pumps become really good or we have something better the people will choose them and they are choosing them now they're not bad but the proponents here had a little chart that showed the cost of heat pumps versus gas installation. Well there's a big difference in heat pump cost depending on whether you get a high efficiency one or one that's less efficient as you might guess a less efficient one costs less than the highly efficient ones are pretty expensive. So we do get cold weather here sometimes and the efficiency of heat pumps is not the best when it's very cold out so I would say that maybe a hybrid system where you have both is a good way to do it but for me for right now I think we ought to let people decide what they want to have for heating what they want to heat their houses with. Thank you Mr. moderator. Thank you Mr. Trimbley. It's 11.59 I can either take one more speaker or we can take a motion to adjourn until Wednesday. So move to adjourn. And we have a motion to adjourn until Wednesday the 18th seeing no objections meeting is adjourned until Wednesday the 18th at which time we'll pick up that the speaker list where we left off. Karen Keller precinct five thank you I rise in favor of article five the fossil fuel ban for new construction and substantial rehab and I'd like to speak to it from the perspective of the affordable housing sector. I'm the executive director of an organization called Waste Boston we provide financial policy and other kinds of support for affordable housing as well as economic development small business and other aspects of community development. In that capacity my organization has been providing policy support at the intersection of affordable housing and energy efficiency and climate resiliency for up to 10 years almost 10 years now and in that at that intersection we're very focused on driving both you know reduction of fossil fuel use but also controlling cost because when we're advocating for measures that reduce the carbon footprint of a building if they are increasing the cost they may be actually reducing the affordability of that project reducing the numbers of units or reducing the income level or increasing the income levels so we try very hard to make sure that we're not pulling between those two objectives but doing things that are moving both of them forward. So I want to speak to this article and what I like about it from that perspective my organization has been very supportive of this type of ban in Brookline and in other communities in Massachusetts because of some of the features of these bans that really make it a feasible viable thing to push forward in both affordable housing and other multi-family housing. So there are two primary things I like about this ban. First is that it focuses on electric HVAC systems and that's a place where the market offers electric options that are cost effective. I couldn't say the same thing if this was a requiring hot water heaters to not rely on fossil fuels or emergency backup generators because the market hasn't produced those options yet but in the HVAC space there are viable cost effective electric options. The second thing I like about this is that it has waiver authority if there were to be financial feasibility issues as a result of this position and so there is a particular call out for affordable housing in that waiver authority so should folks be concerned that this is imposing a cost on affordable housing that it can't bear that's going to reduce its affordability I think there's plenty of track record to show that that's not the case and the last point I'll make is that that's being demonstrated right here in Arlington by the Housing Corporation of Arlington. I think it was pointed out on Monday night that they are currently constructing two different projects that are relying on all electric HVAC systems in their affordable housing. Thank you very much Mr. Moderator. Thank you Ms. Kelleher. Next will be Roderick Holland. Thank you Mr. Moderator. Roderick Holland precinct seven. Brief comment on this article. I like it a lot because it gives us something for the gut rehabs and tear downs that otherwise are causing havoc. At least we get better greenhouse gas emissions out of it. Thank you. Thank you sir. Gordon Jamison. Thank you Mr. Moderator. Gordon Jamison precinct 12. In preparation for speaking tonight I looked at the video again. I think the article is positive I'm positive on the article in general and well crafted. I have a question about what Ms. Kelleher just said and then I have a couple more. She mentioned that it only applied to HVAC and not hot water. Could that be clarified by someone? Mr. Meeks. Yes so I think it does apply to it applies to fossil fuel piping and so fossil fuel piping of course would affect a hot water here so it does apply. I think she was referring specifically to the exemption for hot water in large buildings over 10,000 square feet and that's really where the technology does not exist. Thank you Mr. Meeks. The history of this type of article goes to Brookline and was that put Mr. Meeks was that put through the moderator Mr. Meeks was that a bylaw that passed town meeting? How was that passed initially? Mr. Meeks excuse me for that. Or Mr. Hine actually Mr. Hine might be the better person. I believe it was passed by a bylaw in Brookline but Mr. Hine. Mr. Chairman I this is Pat Hanlon precinct five. You can't just break in unless I call on you sir. He was left on. I know but you Mr. Hanlon you can't just break in unless I call on you. I did address to you. Pat you can't break in unless I call on you. I'm the moderator Gordon asked a question. I call on Mr. Hine to answer his question. Reclaiming my time. Gordon go ahead. Mr. Hine is this a bylaw that was passed by Brookline? Mr. Hine. Douglas Hine town council good evening members of town meeting. Yes the bylaw was passed by Brookline town meeting. The bylaw that Brookline town meeting passed was later rejected by the municipal law unit of the Attorney General's office. I'd be happy to elaborate on that if folks were right. I know that Mr. Meeks and Mr. Hanlon are also aware of those details but I don't want to take up all your time Mr. Jamerson. So the answer to that is yes was passed by town by a town meeting bylaw. Thank you so am I correct Mr. Hine that bylaws usually require a two-thirds vote? Mr. Hanlon. No Douglas Hine town council so zoning bylaws require a two-thirds vote. An amendment to the general bylaws require a majority vote unless Mr. Lee only correct me on that score. I believe that a general bylaw only requires a majority vote. This is not a zoning bylaw? No sir. Why is it not a zoning bylaw? I'll defer to Mr. Hime on that. So Douglas Hine town council there's a couple of ways this particular we could have approached this but this is largely not the exclusive to the province of zoning. We have a lot of other regulations that speak to certain facets of private property regulation including buildings. I believe that this is proposed to be entered in under title six of the town bylaws which does regulate certain aspects of buildings and makes reference to the state building code. So it does fit in there. I'd be happy to I don't want to take again more Mr. Jameson's time than necessary but I'd be happy to talk more generally about the legal posture for any town meeting members who would like to know more and why and how we're planning to approach the issue of the Attorney General's office's decision relative to Brookline's I think I think I'm making Mr. Hime I think I understand the Attorney General's position I did I looked at the the video and that's explained that I just was confused that this to my mind is a zoning bylaw but I guess in this context it's not because if it was a zoning bylaw then this would be a way to work around to get a majority position versus two-thirds but I trust your your knowledge Mr. Hime. On other things I was happy to see on page seven for those of who are following along on the paper copy we were sent that there's a difference between you need 75 percent of the listing space to be changed for residential and a slightly lower for commercial it says added space so in other words a question perhaps for Mr. Meeks or Mr. Hanlon if I added if I doubled the size of my house I wouldn't have to do this is that correct Mr. Hanlon now now you can speak that is that is correct thank you Mr. Hanlon continuing on thinking towards the future when we're doing all doing this I'm sure many of the proponents are against pipelines for natural gas I myself was against the northern northern pass which would have brought for aesthetic reasons of the white mountains that would have brought hydro power down from Canada I'm concerned long term about our supply here Mr. speaking quickly to Mr. Trenley's comments at the end of his speech I'm curious how much of this is already in progress if the director of inspections is online could he report how many splits have been installed or permitted in the last 12 to 24 months it's Mr. Bern present can we bring Michael up if he is good afternoon good evening Michael Bern please sit 13 inspector of inspectoral services good no we've not kept track of how many of these have been done but I know that there is not been a lot of them so far okay thank you Mr. Bern thank you just trying to get just trying to get it how how far this was being adopted already on itself so sounds like we need to have a little nudge here so I'm I'm moving towards being in favor of this learning about the bylaw you know bylaw and and that and I want to remind people very quickly that whether or not you need to have a split or something the town has a way and if you don't have solar on your house the town has a way for your electricity usage to tomorrow essentially be 100 green and that's the Arlington community electric thing you can opt up to the 100 so I want to put a pitch and fat and so while I admit I was initially skeptical I will be voting for this thank you very much Mr. Moderator thank you Mr. Jamison Mr. Joshua Lobel hi there Josh Lobel precinct eight I also in favor of this article for many reasons one is I think that we probably all can agree on the fact that climate change is real and that we have a limited opportunity to address or mitigate all those problems so one question we heard in our precinct meeting was why should Arlington take this up it seems like a much bigger issue and I would agree it is a much bigger issue and probably we would be ideal if we had federal and state leadership on this but we don't and so many towns and cities around the country are doing the San Francisco just did the same thing with even a little bit more severe impact because they also don't allow gas for cooking there I guess about 39 or 40 places around the country country that have done it so I think that and unlike kind of just a symbolic move on our part it also represents real opportunity because we're preventing building structures and systems that will be obsolete and have to be changed so that just kind of makes sense it's been mentioned several times that Brookline did pass this or similar article at their non virtual town meeting and originally I think it had a fair amount of skepticism but it ended up passing by a vote of 207 to three with their conversation there so I think that again at least at their town meeting people felt fairly convinced by all the discussion the other thing is that by doing this we're not really trying to force an industry so much the technology is there already it's improving all the time and by putting in the kind of the core infrastructure to utilize this kind of technology we can take advantage of it whereas if we don't do this and you build your house with a system that's not compatible with a heat pump then it does total it would have to be replaced in order for us to do what we have to do by 2050 so again I'm very supportive of this I'm glad that Arlington is taking a leadership on it and I appreciate all the people who put in the effort to get this on our agenda thank you thank you Mr. Lobel um Mr. John Deist yeah there I go okay um John you have to turn off Mary's speaker oh right sorry sorry John much better thank you um I'm also strongly in favor of this this is the great impending disaster for the entire world and we uh our participation this way is a really good idea so I'm strongly for this thank you very much thank you sir Christian Klein thank you Mr. moderator Christian Klein precinct 10 I'm a practicing architect in the Boston area um the mechanical engineers who designed the mechanical systems for the interior spaces we designed switched about three years ago to go all going to air source um heat pump specifically for this reason that any new infrastructure that's installed today especially in the commercial side which is not necessarily applicable to the bylaw we have in front of us but everything will be most likely in place 30 years from now and so if we are looking to reduce our emissions by 2050 we have to do it today we can't do it 30 years down the road so um I am very strongly in favor of this uh thank you Mr. moderator thank you Mr. Klein Mr. John Warden Mr. Warden can unmute yourself go ahead and talk John can you hear me now yes we can again thank you I couldn't find the unmute button I I did it for you oh oh good that's why I couldn't find it thank you Mr. moderator John Warden precinct eight I also like previous speakers and strongly in favor of this and I was particularly moved by Mr. Tulio's comments Monday night uh about the the legacy we're leaving and and what will your what will you tell your children and grandchildren when they ask you what you did about climate change in 2020 well in my case it'd probably be great grandchildren my children have been involved in trying to deal with climate change for a long time but I am the the legislative process I mean we're going to send this hopefully we pass this by a large majority we will send it to the legislature and there it goes into kind of down the rabbit hole and you can be sure that the gas industry the oil companies and the and the development world sorry and the developers will have the best the best lobbyist money can buy and if you ever dealt with the legislature you know that lobbyists have a much better way of getting the ear of our legislators and we ordinary citizens do but it is important for us at this point I believe to and I'll bring this all together to do whatever we can on the local level to show that we are really serious about this climate change issue which is so really an existential challenge to our society and just mentioned briefly three things that we can do ourselves without any help from the legislature one is stop the war on trees the the central administration of our town on John we're talking about fossil fuel right now let's keep it within scope well I tied this together okay because the the whole concept is say is eliminating the additional use of fossil fuel and part of that if we stop cutting down all those trees they wouldn't use those gas chainsaws to to cut them down and so but but the mr. Meeks in an earlier presentation that I heard talked about the importance of trees that's also a part of climate control which is really what we're dealing with i have a climate change and the trees are putting out oxygen and stuff that that that helps us avert that and so removing them is inimical it's it's part of the same it's part of the same thing is eliminating fossil fuel getting saving our tree canopy the second is the pterodontic epidemic which again is those aren't those aren't electric back hose and destroying those little affordable houses and carrying them off to the dump and all the materials and so on good wood that you can't even buy anymore is being destroyed to put up new buildings made of made of the same thing that makes fossil fuel oil and finally and this this is a very important point the biggest and most expensive project ever undertaken in 385 years in this town it's been the new high school and one of the one of the undertakings that was given to us at town meeting and was given to the voters the new high school would be heated and cooled by geothermal so it would not use fossil fuel except for cooking and and then but after after the those votes were obtained and the thing was approved they said well we're gonna not can't do the geothermal and and I think that is a serious mistake that has to be reversed and that's a little bit out of scope there John let's bring it back to the article I'm trying to get rid of the fossil fuel going into the high school I know but that but we're not going to solve the problems of the high school architecture issues tonight we're talking about fossil fuel tea I the reason I bring that up Mr. moderator please is that when we go to the legislature we we we want to say we have done everything we can on the local level to to combat client change climate change in our town and to be an example for the rest of the state and if they say well what about the high school that you that you use good old natural gas with with our leaky pipes you didn't change that did you well you look a little bit hypocritical I don't want to be able to say that about us that's not the kind of people we are let's do it right let's pass this pass this this warrant article send it to the legislature and let's go in there with a clean slate and say we've done everything we can trees teardowns high school to to our level to do our part for climate to prevent climate mitigate climate change thank you Mr. moderator thank you sir Sophie Magliazo yes good evening so familiar so please eight I am clearly in the minority here but I rise in opposition to article five although I'm all in favor of clean heat unless we're all moving to clean heat I find it fundamentally unfair that an owner of a new home will pay the same property taxes we all pay that be prevented from choosing how to heat our home same as we have that choice if we want to make a move to clean heat it needs to be done I believe more at the state level so that applies across the entire state to make a difference and if we ignore the unfairness that I find my additional concern of this article is the waiver provision I believe it's going to swallow the article and in what we're looking to do so I think that basically with this waiver position provision the clean heat desire is just going to be wishful thinking so I would be in favor of an article for clean heat like this if it were more limited to commercial and non-owner occupied housing thank you thank you Mr. Magliazo um Leba hi I'm Leba hi I'm precinct 11 I move the question and all matters forward okay very thank you very much Ms. Hyam we have a motion to terminate debate that's not debatable so let's uh get a voting screen up to terminate debate second Mr. Mr. Moderator thank you Mr. Foskett so Tom meeting members we have a motion to terminate debate on article five in a second voting will be enabled at that point in time you will navigate over to your voting portal you hit refresh page or refresh screen and that should bring up your voting a one for yes two for no and three for abstain and then hit cast your vote now remember we only count yes and no votes this wayman has raised the raised hand function on zoom if you're having a voting issue and if all else fails please call um town clerk brazil at 7813163071 um and it looks like we don't have anybody in tech support right now so we're not going to run into any issues right there so go ahead and cast your vote so we seem to be picking up the speed of voting everyone's kind of fallen into a good pattern um maybe what's not going to take two minutes each time because right now we've already had 221 people voting and only 25 outstanding and miss cross may still be experiencing issues mr. moderator yes julie brazil has her hand raised okay we can assume when julie raises her hand during voting that you can just bring her up and um activator sure thank you mr. moderator adel kraus precinct six votes yes determinate debate very good yes thank you okay we have 10 missing voters um and i'm told mr. mckabe has logged off um so he's not in a queue anymore so we have eight voters let's give them 15 seconds michael brown patricia costa annie lecourt caron kellerer robert marlin sylvia domine domingas lenid cardin out as all six people can go ahead and vote we're going to give you 10 seconds i'm going to start my stopwatch because i don't have my nifty little clock and five three two one okay let's close voting we're going to terminate debate it's two thirds it passes 88 percent we have two hundred and twelve the affirmative 29 and the negative debate is terminated that brings us to the vote on the main article so once we run through the screens um i'm gonna also assume that everybody has figured out where their name is and that they can find their name on their screen the first pass if that's not the case um let me know okay we're now going to take a vote on the main article on article five home rule legislation fossil fuel infrastructure if you want to pass the bylaw and send it off to the legislature as a home rule please vote yes once mr coralski has finished his clicking there we go so your voting portal should be open at this point navigate back to the portal get refreshed if you need to vote one for yes two for no three to abstain and then cast your vote if you're having an issue the raised hands feature will be opened and mr coralski i'm going to enter verbally entered votes for miss marica pelka mr pelka votes no and john lennard mr lennard is voting yes mr moderator yes we've got two hands raised okay adel crouse and janis weaver okay let's take a tell yes miss crouse votes yes okay so adam can we enter a verbal vote for miss crouse and miss weaver mr moderator um could you um please say the uh votes at the end of each article if it's not too much trouble uh yeah declare what the vote is yes please yes man thank you that wasn't a voting issue but i will do that uh bethane freedman has her hand up there's a problem with my voting screen i vote yes but it's just thinking thinking thinking so i i think i have to reboot okay yeah with your permission we'll enter enter your vote as a yes vote thank you mr moderator does mr lowbell have a point of order and mr winstein after mr lowbell hi this is josh lowbell precinct date just very briefly um i know that uh many people have to resort to the verbal vote um but i think it gives them undue influence in a way when you announce it when the rest of our votes are not displayed so i don't know if there's a way around that but just something to consider thank you mr moderator okay so i'll i'll try and wait till the very end of the vote before i do it and then announce the two that i have the others i'm not sure what else we can do we'll try that thank you and mr winstein has his hand up yes thank you mr moderator jordan winstein precinct 21 i'm just reporting on behalf of silvia demingas a town meeting member that she's not been able to vote uh using the portal and doesn't seem to be able to raise her own hand um um if mr mingas could call the tech support people yep um she can get their phone numbers on the get help button yep mr moderator i just i just spoke with silvia and she's also okay is she able to vote yes okay so we'll give silvia a moment to vote because she still hasn't voted yet so silvia if you can go ahead and vote then we're gonna um and fitz gerrard michael brown silvia and have not voted so we'll wait give those three folks a second mr moderator julie brazil has her hand raised okay miss brazil julie brazil town clerk i do have a vote for miss fitz gerrard whenever you're ready we'll take our votes i'm about to close voting all right uh and fitz gerrard precinct 17 votes yes very good thank you mr moderator phil has a point of order phil goff okay mr goff what's your point of order and silvia has now voted so mr goff what's your point of order phil goff precinct seven uh i'm just wondering mr moderator for the sake of time and i know this may not be the most popular suggestion but for the sake of time would it make sense for us to record the votes of those who are able to vote and if the vote is close we then take the time to go through and do all the verbal votes well we wouldn't we something passes by 90 percent is it really worth all the time we're taking to make sure everyone well as important as it is to reach if thank you we are gonna we have to take everyone's vote before we close voting because once we close voting we can't go back in and manipulate the database and if they want to get their vote in so i don't think it really takes that much time but i understand your point um we'll see how it progresses with the meeting so let's close voting at this point the emotion carries by 93 percent we have 225 in the affirmative eight in the negative and it's a vote and i so to clear it that ends article five bring us to article six