 Okay. So we are now recording. So it looks like for taking minutes today, I think Laura's not here, right? Correct. So then Jesse's the next one on the list. I think Jesse, can you take minutes today? Have my computer with me. Uh-oh. Let's see who else do we have then Vasu's not here. Don is Don here. I think it's down to me. Stella, Stella. Can you take minutes today? Yeah, I can do minutes. Okay. We'll give you credit for that. And then go back up next time. Let's remember to start with Laura next time. Make you credit when we get there. Okay. Great. Okay. Okay. So in, because we're only doing this for an hour today, we're just going to start with Laura. And then we're just going to start with Laura. I think that Vasu usually does. So is there any comment on the minutes? Oh, there's Andra. Sorry. That's okay. We're just asking for any comments on the minutes. And if not, if someone wants to move to accept them as they are. I'll move to accept the minutes. So a second. Second. All right. We need a voice vote in no particular order. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. Minutes are approved. Jesse, you have a tangerine on your finger. Okay. And with that, I think we're going for public comment, but I don't think there are any members of the public here for this special meeting. So. I think we, we get to go right through that. Okay. No public, no public comment. What's next. Next we have. Amherst sustainability festival. Okay. So I started doing flyers. I decided I won't bring them. You guys didn't want to see them anyway, but I think I will do though is the week before. I'll probably send them to you, Stephanie. If you see anything that needs to be fixed. You know, let me know. And then I'll have them again. Right before the. The meeting before the sustainability festival. I will bring them. And if there are any last minute changes, since I'm not going to make a lot of copies, it's no big deal to make a last minute change on any of them. So I started working on that, but I didn't get it done. Get it finished. I did get a good start. I got two of them. Pretty much done. Not worth showing today though, I think. And I lost the page. I was taking notes on hang on a sec. There we go. Okay. Other than that, I just wanted to make sure that we had, I think, I think we have. What we didn't have was people signing up for hours. So what I was going to do is just rather than spend time in this meeting doing that, I'll just reach out to folks individually. And see if I can make all the hours fit. So there's at least one person at the table all day. If that's okay with everybody. All right. And then we'll get a couple of, I'll figure out where to get easels from Jesse. I'll probably get one from you and I'll find one somewhere else. And if you have that big, you have a big pad of paper. And I'll get some stickers. I'll get some stickers. I'll get some stickers. I'll get whatever we need. We'll have a table there, right, Stephanie? So. Yeah. Well. You'll have a space. So typically. People provide their own tent table and chairs. And most people just use a regular. 10 by 10 pop up. And if you don't have one, you could be. So I'm at the information booth. I don't have a table. I don't have a table. I don't have a table. I don't have a table. I don't have a table. I don't have a table. But. You could be, you could be there. So. And there will be a table. I usually almost always have a table and a few chairs and. A pop up tent. So. Okay. I have tables. I have like four foldable tables if anybody. Needs. But what I don't have is that 10 by 10 pop up. I have a 10 by 10 pop up, but it's a little broken and very funky to put up. And since I won't be able to. Help put it up. I'm a little worried. About someone doing it. Who's never done it before. Okay. With affiliations to. Colleges. Do any of you have access to a tent? I've never seen one. In my apartment. And the reason it's broken is because it was. The tent that blew. Away and landed on its. Side down at one of the sustainability fairs. Sorry. I do think we probably want our own. So how are we going to do that? Maybe somebody else. Okay. I will try to identify. I'll stick it on my list of things to do. If you have a friend that has a tent. I mean, we've lent ours out to. The schools. Unfortunately, the last time we did that, I was broke. So. Yeah. Yeah, they're not, they're not the best made. Structures, but, but yeah, I mean, you know, a lot of times friends might have one and. And the one thing I would recommend is just that you stake it down. You know, make sure you stay down and. Sometimes people don't for whatever reason, they think it's okay, or they just put things at the base and that does not work. You really need to stake it in and you probably need to use the. Ties as well. Yep. Which means, which means bringing a hammer. Yeah, I can do that. I even have a mallet. So. All right, I will bring a table, a mallet. And chairs. Put your name on the mallet. Other people are going to want to borrow it. Okay. And I got to find a tent. So if anyone has a lead on that, send me an email. Otherwise I will figure it out. Sometimes you can rent them as well. Taylor rental. Sometimes I think has them. Rent. Okay. Look at that. You know, anyone who, you know, goes to craft fairs to sell their wares. I do know some people who do that. Hmm. I can give a few updates about the festival from the whole bigger event and. So one of the things I wasn't aware of this year is that I didn't know what was going on. So I just, I just found this out now. I guess they started that. I don't know if it was like a year or two ago during COVID. I'm not sure. But so I just, I just found this out. Thank goodness that I did not do more robust outreach for vendors because in the past couple of years. We've had over a hundred vendors and we used that space. Like the whole common. So now I have to sort of, I haven't done a check. So I think we'll be fine. So we're going to be sharing the common with the farmers market. They'll have like the first third of it. And I think the way they have their thing laid out, they actually sometimes have entertainment. And so they were, they were like, you know, they were like, you know, you know, they were like, you know, they were like, you know, they were like, you know, they were like you know, they were like, you know, they were were like, you know, they were like, you know, they were like, you know, they were like, you know, they were like a triple lay out. They actually sometimes have entertainment. And so they were the way they've got it laid out is they'd actually be using two thirds of the common. And we'd be left with a third of it, but I booked the space a year ago. Their request only recently came in, I booked it over a year ago. So I, I don't, I can figure out. I can work out my, the layout. So long as they're not going to have their own entertainment, I think they need to know that we've got a stage and we've got performers that are already committed. And they've been, they've actually been, some of them have been committed since 2019. So, or 20, because they were planning on doing the 2020 event and then COVID hit and we didn't have it. So we were just like literally a month before a month out. It was right around this time of year. So there's no way they can, there's no way they can just set up in the parking lot again the way they used to. No, no, no, that's like, there's, that's got to do with, you know, permitting and I think and they wanted to transition to using the common. So it really does limit other groups using that space on Saturdays for however long they're going to be there through the season. So it is what it is. But in any case, I think it'll be fine. It's actually nice when they're there. I think the two events really do well to complement and support each other. So it'll be actually really nice. It'll be a much fuller event really, because they'll be, you know, everything will be right on the common. So there's just going to be sort of set up so that there'll be a definite division between what's the farmers market and what is our event, but it'll, it'll still all be in one place. The comments not that big. So it'll be cozy. Great. But it'll be good. We have some great entertainment and like I said, I'm getting more requests, more activist groups. Thank you for those of you who have been doing outreach to like the university. I've got some student groups who have reached out to me. So they'll definitely be part of it. And yeah, so I think it'll be fine. I think it'll actually be a very nice event, especially with the farmers market there. They leave earlier than we do. They'll be breaking down by about 130 or two. We're there till four. I don't know that it matters that it's a distinctive space. I mean, it'd be kind of nice for the rose to just continue into. They, they won't want to do that. They're very particular about their market. So I'm not going to mess with that. I'm not even going to suggest it. I'm just, they do their thing will do our thing, but it'll still all work really well together. So I'm not, I'm not worried about it. And I think they just let them do their thing. It's, you know, it's a lot to put these things together. So I know that they're probably they've got what they do down pat and we've got what we do down pat. So, right. Um, I think we just leave it as is. I'm, I'm reaching out to find out about the parking from Amherst college. I've been fortunate enough to secure parking from the college over almost all of the events. They'll provide out one of their lots, but I haven't heard back and like the people that I've reached out to in the past have retired. So, um, I'm a little nervous about, and it's been a couple of years like there's that gap. So I need to follow up and find out and make sure that I can get parking for vendors. Otherwise, I do have a request in with the town manager to secure some spaces around the common, which we always do, which is where the drop off. What happens in the unloading and where some, we do have some vendors who sometimes have mobility issues or they have really heavy items that they, they need to be like right near the common, or they need to park their car. Right. Adjacent to the common. So I do have spaces, a request for those spaces. So that's it. And I haven't heard back yet, but I'll follow up early next week. If I don't hear back soon. I'm so looking forward to you having support staff, Stephanie. You and me both. Especially right now, things are, there's so many things going on right now. It's crazy. It's crazy, but haven't not, I shouldn't say this. It's going to say I haven't dropped the ball quite yet, but I'm knocking on wood. Trying not to. I just want to check in. Is there a rain date for this thing? It is. Oh no. If it rains, we are there. We have had all kinds of weather. We had one year where we showed up and on my way in, it was snowing. And then it changed to a cold rain. All day. That's why we want tents. Now I know why we want tents. The other thing though, you know, is, and the rain is one thing. It's the wind is actually in many ways worse. Like if you get a sunny day, but it's super windy, the wind can really be a drag. The easels are not at this wind. I'll bring two tables just in case. Maybe I'll bring all four because they won't blow over in the wind so easily. And we could always tie things down onto the table rather than, you know, I'll bring tables and glue. All right. So if there's nothing else for the festival. I don't think so. I think we're pretty good. Okay, then let's. Let's move on to the next thing, which is the school letter, the school op-ed that Jesse put together. Jesse, you want to share that with us on the screen. Oh, you don't have a, can you? Oh. Jesse, I'm concerned that the, the version that I put in your packet is not the latest version that you did. I mean, I didn't do a new version. Did you comment or I have Laura's comments on mine. So it's not a, it's not a clean copy. It's the comments from Laura. I mean, I put comments on hers and she either accepted or did not. So I'm not sure. All right. Do you want me to, I mean, it's in your meeting packet. So, I guess I can share. You could just look at it. I think what we have. Okay. You could double check quickly with Laura. The thing I was thinking might be helpful too is just like a, a little brainstorm on, on titles as well. We don't get to choose the titles. So I can, do you want, I mean, I can share it if, why don't I just hear, let me see if I can share it. I can, I've got it up. I just don't know if it's the right, you know, which version. So I can share. Share what you've got because if that's what we've got, then that's what we should work with. Right. That's, that's all we've got. I don't mind that the comments are there. It looks like she rendered it as a PDF with the comments. Still in there. Which is fine. It just makes it hard for us. That might have been me. I have, I mean, we do have the other version. We have the word version. Maybe we can just wordsmith it while we're doing, you want to share the word version? Okay. Sure. Let me. That way we can just add a glance that looks like the last one I saw. Okay, good. I just wanted to make sure. Yeah. Let's use the word version and then edit it as we go along so we can finish it right here. And now we should have time to do that. I think that's the main thing on the agenda, right? Yes. Let me just give me a second here. To get this all set up. Well, you're doing that. There was another letter that I was going to write for the pipeline project. And I did get a start on it, but it's not done enough. So I will, I'm not going to be there next week, but I'll try to distribute it. And if you guys want to talk about it next week, you can. Okay. So I read through this and thought it was okay. I don't, I'm fine with honestly with accepting it as it is, but there might be a few things. Maybe we just want to go through it and find ways to improve it a little bit. And think about a title. I think is what I heard Jesse say. Jesse, you want to, but you want to lead this discussion? Sure. I mean, I was saying that maybe we can't choose the title, but. We can suggest. Andra also has said many times, we shouldn't let people tell us what we can and can't do. So taking her. I think it's a great idea. I think it would be great if we had a really good title. So good that they would love to take it. And. And so I think if people, I mean. I really, I really thought the. Stella's comment about. This really being for the students. And about the students. I found that to be very compelling. So if people have a great title idea, maybe we could throw a couple up on the. I don't know. Where is everybody? See the titles. I would. I would make it. Something more. I would make it. I would make it. I would make it. I would make it. I would make it. I would make it. Something more. It has to have the word school in it. So the first one. I like. I'd say it as. New school fights climate change for our students. Do you want me to just change this one or make it an additional suggestion? Yeah. I would suggest. Remember just a green new school for our students. I was going to suggest. Our kids deserve a climate friendly school. Yeah. That's a good one. Yeah, I like that one. I thought this was a great version of the letter. I don't think the title should have fighting in it. Cause that's like. I just don't think. I'm sorry. Our kid, what was doing? Our kids deserve a. Climate. I think that's a little. User friendlier than responsive. About attack. I'm putting a star next to that is like the preferred choice. I think that's great. Cause it, cause it, it also kind of. It's an op-ed. It's not a, it's not an article. It's an opinion piece. And this is what we think. We think the kids deserve a climate friendly school. Yeah. And then we go on to explain why it's such a great idea. Would it be too long to add that phrase and saves us money. That's a key issue for many people in town, but that might make the title a little longer than we want. I thought that that was addressed pretty explicitly in this draft. Yeah. That title is very like. Punchy and hard to be like, no, they don't, you know what I mean? Yeah, I'd say let's save the money discussion for the. For the body of the thing. We could have it. Yeah. It's pretty clear title. We deserve to save money. No, we deserve to save money. Yeah. Although, although it's hard to, it's, it's a little bit oversimplifying, right? Because. Well, that's a title. I don't think they do subtitles for. Yeah. I think you'll be lucky if you are able to get this one that you suggest. Yeah. So. You can put it in and say. I would propose that we. Cross out the other ones. And, and send it in. With that. Title. Okay. Good. Okay. This unanimously. Element. Is there a way we can confirm. Nanaminity. Are any of you. Not. Well, I, I mean, this is a little bit tricky. I think you are all unanimously in support of. Providing this letter. So you are taking your joint position. So I would say that that's unanimous. Yeah. And you all voted, you were all at the last meeting and you all voted for this, for doing this letter. So then I would say. That's what this is. Yep. Propose new. I think we should leave unanimous. Okay. I'm not going to mess with it. I think Laura was. Just being like. Wanted. She didn't want to. Not assume kind of thing. She just wanted me. Not. Say that unless it was really true. Yeah, I would, I would. I'm adding, I'm just going to take some notes. I'm not going to make all the edits right now. Just easier for me. So I'll leave that in, but. And I'll take out the comment. Can I just also be. Just careful and get Stephanie's thought on this. I mean. We talked earlier about. That as a political body, we're not really. In a position to support. A vote one way or the other. And that we weren't necessarily expressing support. I didn't think of the. The concept of the school, but the. The climate friendly features of it. And I'm fine with the way it's written, but I just want to be. Extra cautious that we're not saying anything here that we shouldn't be saying as a. Political body. I think as the ecac were allowed to. I mean, I don't want us to honestly, I don't want us to say which way. People should vote because that's a trickier question. But I don't think we're not allowed to do that. I think we are allowed explicitly because we're a. We are a. Policy making and. That's sort of our role here, right? I would say just lose the end vote on main second. I think you could just say we write to encourage you to learn more. Because you're. Calling for people to take action by learning more. You're providing information, but I. I mean, I mean, it's just general. It's not, you're not telling them which way to vote, but. I think there'll be any of other. Articles about voting on May 2nd. Yeah, people won't miss the date if they're interested. Right. I think what you're, what you're. Really providing is the climate information, the climate perspective. On this. Construction and. I think that's, it's not to tell them. One way or the other about the voting, but just to provide them the information that they need that helps them to vote. If that makes sense. So I would just lose the end vote on May 2nd. I would, you could even leave that whole last sentence, right? Building a policy. It's an opportunity to show. I would, I would. Strike the whole last sentence. You all let me know what you'd like me to do. Yeah. I mean, if we do say we write to encourage you to learn more, we probably should. Offer where they learn more from. Yeah. Here. I mean, we're right. We're teaching them more. So why don't we just stop? Why don't we just, yeah, strike the sentence. Yeah, I agree with that. I agree. It's gone. Can I just be double clear though on, I was more. You know, I think that's a good idea to come back to the, to the discussions, which says, we unanimously support. And then some adjectives, but support the elementary school. Yeah. And is that okay? That's okay. I'm trying to think, you know, we could say we, you know, we are that ecac is. new energy features of the of the new school. Yeah. I think it's okay. We did vote to unanimously support it. I mean, obviously we want to support it. The subtlety and the problem here that I pointed out last time is that the vote is not strictly for just a new elementary school. It's for an increase in taxes and that's the that's the sticky point. So I don't have any problem with us saying we support the school and we should say that we support the school and encourage people to support the school. And if that means for them voting to raise their taxes, then they should do that. But we don't have to talk about that because that's not our interview. We do talk about it and that if this well, it saves money overall, right? Overall, no, the town if the town would put up the money to to avoid the tax increase because then you get and then towns, what money do I not understand that correctly? The town is increasing taxes. There's no way around it. They're trying to decrease how much the increase is. Right. But we're being at you're all being. Yeah, yeah, they did vote to decrease the amount of the amount that has to be borrowed. Yeah. The one way or the other, the taxes are going to go up to pay for the school, but they would go. Yeah, you really need to go up more if it wasn't climate friendly. Yeah, exactly. And be aware, I actually got a mailing that you all probably got to encouraging me to vote yes, that on the very front said it's a temporary tax increase, but it doesn't tell you that temporary means 30 years. So I'm sorry, that that was a little bit of beyond the pale for me. That's not temporary. Yeah, and it's interesting if you go and look at the tax rate in our town, the proposed increase would bring us, it was more last year. It's still going to be less than it was last year, the tax rate. Was it? Yeah, you look at the tax rate and the town goes up and down all the time. Oh, okay, the tax rate, but the taxes are going up. The tax rate is going down because the cost of housing here has gone way up. So our taxes still keep going up, up, up every year. I've never had a decrease in my taxes. And they just raise my right, right. But the rate, the rate, they're constantly adjusting rate up and down. Yeah, let's move on with the letter in the school that's forward. Yeah. So then there's a lot of information that I think is all good information. And I thought it was pretty well written. And I think that's sort of, I was a little bit torn as to whether or not this background stuff was really necessary. But then I think that's the purpose of the letter. The whole purpose of this letter is to get this information out there. So I think this is good. I did, I did feel like I kind of got lost at the specific argument about it's going to cost less because it's green got lost. I wish that could, that part of it could move up, but or, or have a paragraph less of the background. But I didn't do that kind of level of editing. Let's see, where is it in 20 days? Keep going down. So there's a whole sentence, the whole, then there's this whole section on eliminating possible makes climate and financial sense. So there's all this information about the IRA and things that are going on. And then there's will cost less to build and operate. So why don't we raise that sentence up then that see that and thanks to the IRA and state incentives, it will cost less to build this. Why don't we just start that whole section with it will cost less to build and operate just net zero school than one with a conventional heating system. Why don't we put that there's a sentence in here right here. Yeah, and thanks to the IRA or maybe yeah, if we do that, then I have to wordsmith a lot of it. So but that's the part you were talking about raising up to the front right under. Yeah, somehow get that thought right at the beginning. We could repeat that concept. We don't have to move it. We could repeat it. We eliminated a sentence and we're under the word number by a little bit. And there was another sentence we maybe could eliminate as well. Yeah, go up to that title that title for the second part. Instead of saying eliminating fossil fuels, why not say it costs less to operate in big bold print like that it costs less to operate this school than one with conventional heat. It will cost less to operate this school than one with conventional is the right word. This is still a fairly conventional. Okay, sorry, that's just moving it up like five lines. That's not what I meant. What did you mean? I meant up to the beginning for the background. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a good idea. And I think we could just write a short sentence that's similar to that as part of the intro. Jesse, do you want are you taking notes to work on this more with Laura or because I'm assuming that you're going to work Smith this more just going to I didn't know this was going to happen in this level of detail. I thought Laura was going to get comments from everyone prior, you know, at the end of last week. So I could I'd have to run grab a piece of paper, which I'm happy to do. I'm just I just want to make sure I'm capturing what folks are saying. Okay, I'm sorry. Well, just as a backup, because I think ultimately this is on you and Laura and I don't want to mess with it. So okay, I'm sorry. So you want to take this thought right here and move it up like repeat it in the beginning. I put it in the beginning basically less to build and operate. Isn't that zero school and one with a natural gas heating system? Yeah. I mean, and just repeat it. It doesn't have to be right. We haven't really introduced IRA or anything like that. So it might just be, you know, thanks to federal and state incentives. It's going to cost less to operate this building as a climate friendly building. Do you want that right up front? Like right up? Yeah, right there. Right here. Yeah, that's a good idea. So thanks to federal and state incentives. Yeah, I think that's great. Yeah, that's that's perfect. Here's my question. Are people in favor of saying natural gas? Yeah, that's fine. That's fine. I think most people know that natural gas is the cheapest way to heat right now. So but we do have a moratorium. Any houses that but we do have moratorium. Yeah. Okay, then one with a fossil fuel heating system or one with a what would you call it? I would say fossil fuel if you're not going to say natural gas. Yeah, I'd say fossil fuel gas or fossil fuel. That's a good natural gas. It's toxic combustible fuel. So natural. I feel like I never want to say natural gas. I'd say methane gas now. I like fossil fuel heating system. I agree. And that's nice. Yes, that's also nice because it takes the first sentence which combines the saving money and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and then cuts it into the two pieces a sentence about, you know, the school and climate crisis and the school and cost, right? So it's a nice, it's a nice paragraph. I like the paragraph now. I like that first paragraph. And then I think the rest can stay. So there was one, there's one thing where was it that kind of mixed up what I thought mixed up the electricity versus the heating system. It's two major things, you know, go down, go down. Oh, and let's change the natural gas heating system in the fossil fuel, right? To fossil fuel when it comes up later too. Just the burning of fossil fuel. I see it in that paragraph right below your cursor. The burning of fuel in these buildings, not oil and natural gas, just fossil fuel. I would search on the word natural and take it out everywhere it occurs. Okay. I'll do that after. Okay, fine. Okay, maybe it's in the replace carbon free electricity. Okay, then replacing these buildings in the school to come on off carbon free electricity means. Oh yeah. Okay, so that sentence that's just above where you are this paragraph that's split. Um, the sentence that starts with without. It's a very long sentence right here. I think it should be stated in the positive with a new school on the grants provided by the state the town will realize operational cost savings period and won't be responsible for. I thought needs to say really, I guess now maybe not. Yeah, I think I would switch it and won't be responsible for repairing. So with a new school won't be responsible. Wait, we don't want anyone to be repairing the existing buildings and bringing them up to code if they're still using fossil fuels. Well, that's what would happen if we don't vote for this tax increase, right? No, no, those existing buildings are still there. So not being responsible. One's coming down for sure. Yeah, I think the design as far as I understood it is predicated on the port rear or not being there. And that's where all the new fields are. Wildwood stays. Port River comes down, right? Wait, isn't it the other way around? I thought Wildwood was coming down. No, Port River. Wildwood will be closed. Right. Port River will is the site. Yeah, yeah. And what happens to Crocker Farm? But the idea is that they would take down both schools. I mean, is that, yeah. The two existing schools would be replaced. So Port River, it would be in a location, but the existing school as it is would go. They're not just renovating the school. Right. You have to take down both schools for... So they're taking down both. They, I want to, I think we need to say that they both, you know, have to be taken down because otherwise we are left with a fossil fuel building that's brought up to coat. You know, even if it's not the town doing it. Well, somebody else could renovate it. I don't think we should be talking about the old buildings. Let's focus on the new one. Right. I agree with that. Okay. So just cut that. Well, the reason the old buildings are in here is because one of the big points is they're not these two buildings on fossil fuels versus this one building on renewables. And it's a stark difference in emissions. I think we could rewrite that long sentence to be in the positive. Two sentences. Why don't we just say with a new school, go ahead. With a new school and the grants provided by the state, the town will realize operational cost savings that would otherwise be unattainable. Period. Estimates, let's see. Yeah. I mean other, we won't be the only ones making the point about the repair estimates, right? Right. Maybe we just, I'm just looking at the time too, maybe we just flag this to reply. Yeah, and maybe Jesse and Laura can work on this a little more. What I understand is the important things to capture in that are one, to, the sentence starts with without to put it in a positive stance and then to make sure we're clear that we're not sort of like getting into the weeds about what happens to these other buildings we're just talking about. The important thing is that the alternative is if the new school doesn't get built, the alternative is more expensive. Period. If I understand this correctly, it's the new building is costing us like 96 million, but 40 million of it is coming from somewhere else. So the net cost is a lot less. And this would be 40 million dollars of building just to upgrade them. And then it would still cost us more to run. So I think, I think that's, I looked it up when I read this, because I was trying to figure it out. My numbers may not be right. I might not be remembering right, but it was something of that order. That's about right. I do think this is important. Sorry. I'm just my comment here is like, yeah, I'm just trying to capture what you're saying is was Stella trying to say something? Yeah. Yeah, I think the numbers are important. I think it's, I don't, I don't think it's a good idea to lose the 40 million dollars per school because if it's just operational cost savings, like if you don't do the research, the orders of magnitude may not be clear. It would be nice. Yeah, no, I would keep the numbers in and it's not, it's, it's not that old buildings cost more to renovate and operate. In this case, that's like oftentimes fixing things is the better way to go. There's some particulars about these projects that makes it extra difficult. If you're going to make that case, you should put the other number in there too. You know, what is this building costing us? What are, what are those building? What would that cost us? So that I had to go looking for that number and it's better if it were in there, if you're going to keep that in. But anyway, that's just, whatever you want to do. But my point is, is that that part of the sentence doesn't talk about, you know, it wouldn't be enough to repair and bring them to code anyway. They also have to be retrofitted to be all electric. Right. So that cost is even more than whatever. But I do want to make sure, where are we getting this estimate from? Is it a solid number? I don't know. You know, we have to make sure we're using the school committees, you know, new elementary school subcommittees numbers on this. Right. So I think that number is what Laura shared with us a couple of meetings ago. And I looked at that. She got actual invoice data for all of the electric and fuel oil and stuff. No, no, no, no, no, this is $250,000 annually on oil and natural gas. Not that number. We're talking about the 40 million. Oh, sorry. Okay. 40 million. I'll check it. For lack of time, let's just, Jesse and Laura, you know, why don't you check it with Laura and then I'm fine with whatever you want to put in there as long as the numbers are correct and want to just finish this. Is there anything else we want to say about this? Let's look at the rest of the letter real quick. Yeah, if you slide up, I actually had a question about something. Tell me further up. Yeah, yeah, right here. This is not a conversation I had with Laura. And so I, and I don't feel extremely strong about it, but I just wanted to ask if the group had any similar feelings. The sentence, this is because heat pumps save money. The non-profit Rewiring America has a free calculator, Stacey Abrams, et cetera. It's my, it feels like we're going, we're promoting a whole movement that and not sort of sticking to, and I know we are promoting a movement, but for me, if we're going to start promoting movements, there's things I would start with before heat pumps. Yeah. This is a public building for children where this technology is paramount as opposed to just delete that paragraph, the IRA paragraph. I want to ask Laura if it's okay with her to delete that paragraph. Not the IRA paragraph. Oh, that's the one I think goes off on a tangent. Oh, well that one is money we're using. I think, I think you can just delete it after transition. That sentence, this is because heat pumps save money. Because I agree that like Rewiring America and then Stacey Abrams, like that's like, sort of it's in there. Sorry. Sorry, he's in there. I think finishing that paragraph with our Northern neighbor main is a leader in this transition is fine. And I do think the main thing is relevant because there is always that like, do they work in the cold, which like main does that they work in the cold. Okay, guys, I think we need to move on. I hate to do this, but I think what has to happen is Jesse and Laura, if you could take this to Laura, Jesse and tidy it up a little bit and maybe just send it around for input from everyone on the committee. I don't know that we need to vote again. But if you'd collect everybody's input on the final version, do one more round, send it to everyone. And if you don't get anything back in a day, I'm fine with you submitting it. Maybe just ask for our comments back. And if you don't get any, it's consent, it's, what is the word I'm looking for? We've already voted to go ahead and do it. If there's no more wordsmithing, then I'm happy to have you just submit it. I don't, is that some reasonable? I'll just add one thing quickly, just as we're on this paragraph, but this is very, and I'm fine with it, but there's something we're trying to educate folks to, but this is very national focused as opposed to Massachusetts focused. And our electricity and greenhouse gas and fossil fuel use is quite different than the country. The one thing I would particularly think would be, people might take exception to, and also isn't really accurate education wise, is that we are really dependent on coal, which we aren't really. We're not here. Yes, I would, at a minimum, just say maybe is made of, is currently made from fossil fuel. Well, our electricity is over 50% power by natural gas. Yeah, and guys, we really need to move on with that. So, let's give this out to Jesse and Laura to deal with and get one more round and try to do it online. And Stephanie, is there any reason we can't finish this up offline with just? I would let, well, Jesse and Laura were, I think, going back and forth with it. So, I think what we could do is get it out to everybody and then you could do it one of two ways. You could just send your edits back to Laura, but do not copy the entire group. They go just to Laura or just to Jesse. Or you can send them to me and I can send everything back. Okay. And then I don't think we need another vote to submit it. Just as soon as you've got our comments, final draft comments, go ahead and submit it so that we don't have to wait on this. Okay, so with that, updates, staff updates, ECAC updates. Staff updates. I think I told you about the festival coming. There's a lot going on. I'll have more next time. Okay, good. And ECAC, anything? I'm sorry, are we meeting that next week? You are meeting next week. But I'm meeting next week. We were trying, this letter was urgent and yeah, and I can't be there next week. So you can't be there, Vasu, can't be there. So I actually did reach out, actually this could be my staff update. I reached out to Athena O'Keefe, who's the clerk to the council about process. And so what we do is at the beginning, there's basically an election for a chair pro tem. So I will probably, I can lead that because I can just like we did way, way back in the very beginning. I'll lead that piece. And then as soon as that chair is elected, you'll take over the meeting, whoever that may be. So people know, I will, I will only be available till six next week. Okay. So I don't know if that means we won't have a quorum. Well, it depends on who shows up. And if you leave and we no longer have a quorum, then we have to end the meeting. We can't continue if we don't have a quorum. So, but that should be fine. Okay, back, right. Yeah. Any ECAC member updates that shouldn't wait till next time? Okay. In that case, items for the next agenda. What goes on the next agenda? It's kind of already been put together, but you can add to it. So what's on it? Let's just get that question. It should be in the notes. It's a letter in support of new DPU members and the review letter supporting the Springfield Climate Justice Coalition. And I think some updates, right? Probably. That wasn't on the minutes from last week. Let me see. I've got, just give me one. Updates from Don maybe? Yes. Yes. It was, Don was going to update on the PACE program. And sorry, I'm just getting it open now. So it is a vote for chair, review in minutes, public comment. Yes. Updates from Don and from Dwayne. Gas pipeline discussion, review and vote letter to new DPU commissioners, staff updates, member updates, items for next agenda, public comment. The only other thing I can think of is it's coming up faster than I expected. We talked about putting together a panel of just us and maybe Scott Chernak, right, Jesse, for a date in May. Did you ever follow up with him? Because we should set that date. Yeah, I sent you an email and I seed you both. Whoops. He said he'd be glad to. Okay. I'm sorry. I somehow. Or I CC'd another Lori, which is entirely possible. It's possible. I missed it. I get so many emails these days. If you can't find it, give me a holler. He'd be happy to do it. Okay. But so next week, one thing that should be on the agenda. I won't be there, but let's make sure we have a date and we know who's lined up to be on the panel. I can be on the panel. I don't think we actually got a formal list yet. All of us sort of raised our hands and said, yeah, we could do that. But maybe we should just talk about that a little bit next time. Stephanie. Yeah. What do we, and tell me again, this is a panel for. This is a panel to discuss heat pumps, sort of a Q and A, invite the public in and have a everything you ever wanted to know, you know, ask, ask us about our heat pumps, ask us about our process, you know, what happened. So I just wanted to give you a quick update too that the building electrification group did a presentation on educating about heat pumps. The other day I couldn't attend, but I got the recording link. And I asked if I could share that with all of you and they said yes. So I wouldn't want to show it, but I can share it with all of you and that might be helpful in putting this together. So maybe you want to watch that first before the next meeting. I'll send that link. Okay, cool. That sounds great. And I will write a draft of that letter to the DPU as well. And I'm working on a letter about the pipeline. And I'll send that, I'll send that as soon as I have it, a draft to you guys to talk about. Okay. And all right. So I should have those for the packets then. And again, the meetings next week. So this is kind of very tight time frame. It comes a lot faster than you think. Yep. So. Try and answer at the public comment if we've got nothing else. We have one public member of the public now. Tony, any comments for us? Raise your hand. So if no comments, I think we're there. Do we leave anything off the agenda? Do we skip anything? No, I think you, great job. I think you got it all. Stephanie, will you send me that word document that you were just playing in? I will. As soon as I close this meeting, I will do that. Great. Okay. Thanks. I'll see you in three weeks. I won't be there next week. Thanks everybody. See you next week. Bye-bye.