 first. We are now recording. So hello everyone and welcome. No attendees. So hi everyone. We're it. Okay, so a couple things. First thing we need to do is just make sure we have someone taking notes today. So whose turn is it to take notes? Or would someone like to volunteer? Let's see, I have where are the minutes? Laura did it last time. So Jesse, Don, Stella, in that order maybe if we go down the list? Well, Jesse's not here. Can you set up the take notes? Yeah. In my office. Yeah, I can take notes. Okay, then first thing on the list is just to review the minutes from last time. Should we put them up quickly? I can share them or you can share them? Stephanie? Yep. Sorry, I just got something that distracted me. Sorry. I can share them. That's okay. I got them. I'm putting them on. I just. I admit I just glanced over them. I didn't look very carefully just because I was working on the annual report. So if there are, why don't you just go ahead and scroll through slowly. Don wasn't here and Stella wasn't here last time, right? Everyone else was? Correct. We have a lot of updates on the solar issues and the mapping. Definitely like a combo of first and last names. Oh, when I ended its last names. So maybe we should just go and put those in? Yeah, I'll correct that. I can't spell so I use first names. Sorry. Okay, close this window because I'm going to get sun in my face in a moment. Okay. Anything else under that annual report? We're going to revisit today. Okay. Is that it? Or is there one more? There we go. Staff updates. Fellows are coming next time. We continue to have hottest days on record. Day after day. Any comments? If not, do we have a motion to accept the minutes? I move to accept the minutes. I second. Okay. And voice vote, no particular order. Allison. D. Abstain. Goldner. Yes. Rose. Yes. Drucker. Yes. Breger. Yes. Minutes are approved. Okay. So next we have public comments. No one there. It is July. But with that, I should say with the change of chair, I want to, I sort of liked, there were some things I liked and some things I thought were a little too lengthy about the way that VASA used to start meetings. I would like to come up with a single slide that maybe I'll bring something next time for us to talk about just to sort of get the conversation started and remind people who we are and why we're here and the urgency with which we have to work. I think urgency is an important point right now. So I won't bother trying to put something together today since we don't even have an audience, but perhaps for next time also with that something maybe I'll talk about at the end is do we want to have another little retreat to sort of focus our efforts for the next year? Do we feel the need for that? So let's, let's save that. I'll save that for member updates at the end and items for the next agenda. So without further ado then let's go to item three, which I believe is updates and Don, anything more on pace? No, unless Stephanie, you've heard anything. I've heard nothing. Yeah, welcome to mass development and how long it takes them to come up with their guidelines. So I, you know, my sense is, and Stephanie, you can correct me that we can reconnect with the chamber pretty quickly to get that thing moving once we get the guidelines and the actual presentation from mass development. Yes. All right. Stella got any transportation updates? I emailed Kathy, Kathy Shane. Do you, it's been on Shane, right? Shown, Shane. I haven't heard back yet. I might try following up with Stephanie and Cici if that's okay to ask for maybe a brief update to ECAC on what, if anything is going on with pedestrian safety corridors and the new school and has that entered the conversation at all. So is Kathy the head of the, of TAC or something? What is, who's Kathy? I don't know if she is. So, Shown. Kathy is a counselor and she's head of the school building committee, or at least she's head of the sustainability part of the school building committee. I think it's just the building committee actually. Okay. And I'm sorry, I just reminded me the idea was to contact her just to. Yeah, to kind of as a first step in possibly collaborating with TAC to encourage like a thoughtful approach to pedestrian and active transit access to the new school. Okay. Thank you, my own notes. Any other comments along those lines? Anything else we should be doing? Other updates? Did we also talk about having Kathy actually come and talk to us at the meeting? Yeah, that's what I, that's what I requested by email. So I think I'll just follow up. It's like the summer and so yeah, it might take a little bit. Yep, I think everyone is on vacation this week except us. Okay, so without anything else, let's go on to solar outreach. We talked last time a little bit about the idea of doing some outreach around solar development. So go ahead, Laura. Did you have anything? Where do you want to go with that? Yeah, thanks. So yeah, I've started to, so I watched which I'll send to Stephanie to send everybody. I watched a really good webinar by Evergreen Action on the direct pay provision of the Inflation Reduction Act. And what this is basically doing is it makes it so that all non-tax paying entities who previously weren't able to benefit from any of the tax credits associated with solar, but also many other things, electrification, charging seats, things like that. There's a lot of things that there's tax credits for that electric vehicles that non-tax paying entities were not able to leverage. They have changed that with the Inflation Reduction Act. So this means towns, schools, any NGO, any faith-based organization is going to be eligible for this direct payment. They basically fill out a form and the IRS sends them, or the IRS, yeah, sends them a check. So I watched a really good webinar on this and actually funnily enough, one of the people featured on the webinar was a gentleman by the name, who I'm probably not going to say his name correctly, Sirag Leila, C-H-I-R-A-G, and then her last name, L-A-L-A, who is an economics graduate student at UMass. He was super informed on the IRA and how this all worked. So I have on my to-do list to reach out to him, not just related to ECAC, but also related to other work-related things. So that was really exciting, but I'll send around this link. It's worth a watch. And what it got me thinking is that maybe we want to launch a campaign, like a campaign around this to get the word out, and maybe we can partner up with some of the other organizations within town to help just get the word out about this. Maybe see if folks want to come together to organize a session, maybe with the gentleman from UMass, if he's willing, and just help answer questions. I had a meeting with the credit, UMass credit union president the other week, and he was like, I don't know how it works, because we could get solar on our buildings. We haven't been able to do it yet because we weren't able to justify because of our members, but now we probably could. So anyway, I think there's a lot of opportunity here to get the word out. So I had hoped to write up a little campaign strategy doc, and I have about three lines in it right now. But if anybody has ideas of folks groups that we might want to reach out to to join us on this campaign, let me know. Yeah, that's great to hear. And actually, I hadn't heard of the economic student UMass, who I'd be very interested in connecting with myself. Just an update on quite related matters that we're doing at UMass in the clean energy extension. And this IRA change of the investment tax credit and making that accessible to non-tax paying entities is a real game changer as we see it in abilities for more leveling the playing field of who gets to really access ownership in solar. And so we've, and Stephanie knows about this, and I think I might have mentioned this probably a year ago or so. We do have a partnership with others at UMass with Franklin County CDC, Community Development Corporation, and five towns and UMass credit union, five college credit union, with a proposal that we've started circulating around the state. A proposal that we put together for USDA, which was ranked quite highly, but not didn't quite get over the finish line. But it's a proposal to provide pilots for community ownership of solar projects with five towns in Massachusetts, five rural towns in Massachusetts, with the focus of those projects taking ownership and providing as much of the benefits to low income minority and other targeted populations. And so we've been circulating that that wasn't successful with USDA, with the new state administration. We've been having some conversations with EEA, DOER, and then most recently, Ann Gobi, who folks may know was was Senator Gobi and now director Gobi as the first inaugural director of rural affairs in Massachusetts. And so we have a good conversation with her. She works under the economic development secretariat. So we're trying to resurrect that. And so, just Laura, I'd be real keen on working with you on a Amherst based thing. I'm fairly versed as much as you can in this IRS and IRA opportunity. As Richard Komp seemed to indicate, nobody knows what to do because the rules aren't quite written yet at the IRS. And so that's still going to take some time so nobody really knows quite yet how, when it'll become available, but it's really helpful. And I think would be good to start informing people about it because it should come forward fairly soon. That sounds great. That sounds great. I will say, Laura, I don't know if you know, like co-op power. They've been co-op power in Western Mass, Lynn Bonander and some others. They've been very active in tracking this IRS direct pay quite closely as well. So it sounds like that's something that we're trying to do. Now, how does this work with the open meeting law? Can Laura and Dwayne remind us, Stephanie, if Laura and Dwayne want to get together and work on this, is that something we have to do in the ECAC meeting, or can they do that outside? I'm talking, but talking to myself. Sorry. No, I was going to say, do not direct them to work together because then you create a committee. If you direct Dwayne or Laura to do this work, then Dwayne or Laura can contact each other as a follow-up. So Dwayne might want to reach out to Laura, but it's not a fit, don't make it official. Okay. So who wants to be the lead on this then? I mean, I think Laura can continue to take this on in terms of if she's willing and interested in terms of what we might do as a committee. We shouldn't place this on any one person, but as a committee, do think about something that would be informational and supportive of organizations in town that might take advantage of the town itself as one example. Okay. Oh, sorry, Lori. I started, like I said, I started this little doc. So I'll share this out along with the link to the Evergreen Action information and we can go from there. Okay. So, Laura, if you'll take the lead on this then and get input from folks, we can make sure we put this on the agenda again next time and again until we have a plan or a program or something that makes sense or our input is no longer needed. So that'll be a regular agenda item for a while until we figure that out, I think under a solar outreach, IRS credits, whatever it's called. Does the program have a name? I'm sorry. This IRS credits. IRA, right? IRA? The IRA is the Inflation Reduction Act. I think most people are referring to it just like direct pay provision or something. IRA direct pay provision. Okay. Okay. Anything else on that? Any more discussion on that? If not, let me go ahead and bring up the annual report that I just sent to, I sent this reformatted slightly altered version to Stephanie just a few minutes ago. I'll go ahead and bring it up on my screen so I can make changes as we talk. Let me just find it. Last week's folder. There it is. I will just share this. Port draft. Now let me put you guys back where I can see you. That's for some reason. Zoom always likes to make you guys jump around as soon as you share your screen, right? Okay. So I have to fix the table of contents, which is now wrong because it's one page longer from the change in font size. But I haven't done a really careful proofreading of a lot of this. So I reserve the right, if everybody's okay with it, to go ahead and just make minor grammatical or stylistic changes, if that's okay. But the things that have changed that I want to make sure we talk about didn't change any of this. I don't think that's changed from last time. What's different from last time is two things. Don gave us some words. So let's take a quick look at that. And then I want to get right to the discussion of the town manager goals, because I think that was the thing that had the most comments last time. So this section is new. Can everyone see that okay? So let's just take a moment to read through it and see if everything's okay. Let me close my door. Finance improvements. I see a typo. That's probably my fault. That all looks fine to me. Anyone has any comments? I would say leadership is needed. What's needed from town doesn't mean everybody else. It means we need leadership in town in order to create robust participation. I saw some other comments, some other typos in there. We need leadership. We need, hold on, get my hands in the right place here. We need leadership in town for robust participation in the PACE program by local property owners, developers, and businesses. I think I may have screwed something up, Don, in copying your words. I don't have the copy. I have it. Let me look at it. I'm sorry. There was a paragraph there that I thought I erased first, but it looks to me like it got mangled. I did this right before the meeting. Yeah, not your fault because I didn't give it to you until property owners, developers, and businesses will reduce. You might want to say we need leadership from the town to facilitate robust participation in the PACE program by local property owners, developers, and businesses. We'll bust participation in the PACE program by local property owners, developers, and businesses to reduce. Yeah. Yes, to reduce. To reduce emissions from building, which I said I was going to repeat that. Yeah. I think about that to that end. How about just we request the town like that? Yeah. So take a hand. Improvements. There's something still funny here to finance improvements. Oh, no, that's right. Design to both reduce energy consumption and to install renewable energy systems. So that looks okay. We request and we request the town. There's an extra hand in there. Look okay? It's okay to me. Any other comments? No, if not, I'll scroll down to the other part that we talked about last time. So we had a lot of discussion about this top paragraph, so I rewrote it. I hope in the spirit of discussion last time. So tell me what you think. I added one recommendation at the end that echoes the first paragraph. This was about how do we make specific, how do we have specific input? Rather than put examples in, I decided to give an example of how we could interact. We're asking the, should we have the, yeah, we asked the town manager to meet with department heads. And if he wants to get our input on how, right, on brainstorming the sorts of things the department could do, rather than talking about a climate lens, you know, which is sort of fuzzy. I have a comment. I think it reads fine, but there's a concept here that I think needs to be emphasized. And that's that the town departments are not just responsible for themselves. They're responsible for their ability to create change in the larger community. I don't know exactly how to say that, but that's what I think is missing. So that's not in this first sentence. I don't think it would be assumed that that's what it means, that the town's own budget, you know, we know that the town's own building emissions are a minuscule compared to residential. So, right, what does each department do that can impact the residential and business communities? How it activities, how it's active, how their activities can affect maybe a second, how it's activities, both within the department and in the community, or something like that. I'm not sure that does it either, but it gets there. I just think this is an important thing for us to emphasize when we're talking to departments, to the town manager, to the town council, that we're not just talking about reducing the town's own municipal emissions. How about this? Some urgency, how it's activities, both within the department and now it's too long a sentence, so I have to figure out how to cut it up, but impact the climate. This is both beside the department and in the larger community. So that's the thought you want to get in there, right? I don't like that sentence now, but that's the thought. It might take a little work to find a couple of sentences to replace the one, now a really long one. I get the idea. Okay. I trust that you'll word it right. Okay. There's also this idea that the town is in a unique position to make these sorts of changes, right, to make that sort of community change. So maybe there's a way to get that thought in there too, that this is, this is there, you know. Or just a minor typo, but you might want to change outlines in the first sentence to outlined. Oops, outlined. Oops. Thank you. Sorry to interrupt. That's okay. I can, and I can wordsmith this thing a little bit more. I'll make it different colors. So I remember the wordsmith it about green. How does that last recommendation look to ask the town manager to meet with each department head to discuss and review climate impacts in the community? How about I add in the community here? So they understand it's not just the town. Laurie, I just have. Oh, so go ahead, Stephanie. Maybe more. I know these are recommendations for the town manager, but I think it would be good to sort of really spell out and be specific about the town manager meets with each department head. And or schedules, you know, meetings, like just really spell it out schedule meetings with each department head. Should I add and ECAC members or as an option? So I sort of think that's kind of what you all want to recommend. I mean, I have thoughts about that, but I think you all need to recommend what you want to see how that happens. But I will say that I mean, we don't typically individually meet with the town manager. It's not a regular thing. We have department head meetings. They don't even happen every month. So I think how however you're envisioning this as a committee, I think you need to sort of outline that. But I think even just asking him to meet with each department head to discuss this specific topic is a lift for, you know, how many department heads it could be a it could be at a meeting of department heads that is, you know, that is focused on how each department is going to address climate issues in the community in their own department or through their own department. Which isn't doesn't really typically that's not how our meetings are formatted. But that's not to say that we can't have one and I would be happy to work on one with Paul and you all. So that might be something that maybe it's to schedule a specific department meeting head meeting around, you know, relevant to climate impacts in their specific departments. Are you thinking so would this work better so you know how the inner workings of the town work, Stephanie would it work better to request? Are you suggesting that we request a meeting focused on this with ECAC folks present one meeting? Is that what you're suggesting? I really think one meeting that's really focused on this with like if you're you all request a meeting with department heads focused on sustainability and climate change. I think that's a that feels like a doable request to me. Okay, what if folks think about that? So we'll say schedules a meeting with ECAC department heads to discuss and review relevant climate impacts to discuss and review. How about we just say ways to mitigate reduce a reverse climate impacts town and broader community? You know, and I would say in coordination with the director of sustainability. Oh, of course, you know, well, yeah, but I mean, even even us, you know, coordinating as well. So does that look doable? And is that the sense? I see Andrea giving us a thumbs up. I love it. Personally, sorry. No, I think it's great if people thinking about this brainstorming meeting. Okay, so I'm opening it up. I mean, if there are other suggestions or thoughts here, otherwise, I think those are the only things I changed other than formatting and an occasional typo correction or something like that. I think I changed the wording a little bit here to make it a little clearer, but didn't change anything that would have changed the sense of anything. So if it's okay with folks, I'll send out one more copy. I'll fix that sentence, those sentences in green, send out one more copy sometime in the next couple of days, and then wait a week for input. If I get no input or if I get minor input, I'll just go ahead and submit this. Do we need to accept the report or how do we, what do we need to do for that to happen, or should we just do that for the next meeting? I would say that we should just approve it with the small changes that we expect you to make as chair and not wait a week or anything. Okay, so if there's a motion to do that, there needs to be a second, I guess a vote. Go ahead and accept it with minor changes. I think we need to have everybody on screen actually to do this. So if you want to stop sharing and then we can call for the vote. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Stop share. I've got you all on screen, but that's because I've reorganized my screen. So Lori, if you want to call for a motion. So I think I heard a motion from Andra. Is there a second? Or did I hear a motion from Andra? Yeah, okay. I can second it. And by voice vote in no order. The motion is to accept with minor changes the report. Yes. Yes. Sorry. Allison? Yes. Goldner? Yes. Brigher? Yes. D? Yes. Drucker? Yes. Rose? Yes. Okay. So with that, and I also, along those same lines, I did write to, I was supposed to follow up with name Lisa about submitting the report about reporting in September. And I think we set a date of September 11th. So I will go to the September 11th town council meeting to present the report and the recommendations to the town manager. So that was the town manager goals discussion too. Are there any other, should we take a look at those other goals just to make sure, I think we've been through them a couple times, but this next, I'll share just briefly, really quickly just to make sure there's nothing else in these goals. And so that's the next thing on the, read through them one more time. The goals were the adoption of the specialized building code, the implementation of a PACE program, advocacy for prompt approval for the Valley Green Energy CCA, installing an electric vehicle, fast charging station, reestablishing the heat pump program that we've been working on. A lot of these are all things we're working on, right? Fund energy efficient retrofits and multifamily apartment complexes, reestablished e-bike network to include and interview questions for anyone applying for town committee and other appointments, questions about addressing climate goals and justice, and then the one we just discussed, which was the meeting. So we sort of already approved this, but I wanted to make sure we're all on board that we know these are the, these are the recommendations that we have adopted now, right? Okay. Any further discussion, Stephanie? I'm so sorry because I know you just had a vote, but I, there's something that's going to come up in my report. And I'm thinking this actually would be a good place to include it now, is to ensure adherence to the sustainable procurement policy. Okay. So we are adding a recommendation? That's okay with me, but we need to. Yeah, maybe you could either open the vote or you could vote to sort of add an additional, I mean, you could have another vote to just add an additional 10th item. Sorry to, I just came to me that that should probably go in there. So what was it again? I'll write it down and then we'll vote on it. Ensure adherence. Ensure. Ensure, Ian. Ensure. Adherence to the sustainable, sustainable procurement policy for municipal facilities. And can you tell us what that is? So that's this, yeah, that's, remember, I told you all that the facilities manager and I came up with a paragraph for all procurement docs to include that any HVAC system replacement needs to be fossil fuel-free in an effort to move towards electrification. Okay. That's a town policy, not a city policy. No, this is a town policy. Maybe you want to say to the town sustainable procurement policy for municipal facilities. I mean, that obviously relates specifically to the municipality, not the broader public. Okay. I'm going to capitalize it. Sounds like a title to me. It's really just a paragraph within a procurement document. So it's not, but that's okay. That looks good. So. So do we have a motion to just include that as well? A motion to include that. I'll second that. Okay. And then a vote. Sorry, I'm going to stop sharing now for the vote. Stop sharing. It's my share. Oh, right. You stop sharing. Okay. I'm glad you asked. Yes, Allison. Yes. Goldner. Yes. Breger. Yes. D. Yes. Drucker. Yes. Rose. Yes. Thank you all. Thank you. Yeah, I'm glad I went back and looked at that again a little more carefully. Me too. Usefulness of having an agenda. All right. So the next thing on the agenda is staff updates. Okay. Well, I guess I'll start with this one because it's the most painful. So I, our fellow as you well know is, is doing, or one of our fellows is doing a municipal building inventory of all municipal HVAC systems and other systems and doing a great job, but has been going around with our facilities manager to each building, looking at the equipment, taking photos, putting them in the report. And recently went to the Mill River rec area. I think this was literally like a day or two ago only to see a box that had the replacement for boiler with another fossil fuel boiler. And we did, I mean, we did have this policy. I want to say that at least the department head who's responsible for this is new. And I think, and was not working with our facilities manager here in the building. So I think because it was under a certain threshold, there was also not, it didn't have to go through the procurement process. So there wasn't as much oversight as there typically is with other projects. So it was one of those things that sort of fell through the cracks. And what I will say is I know this is a bad thing to happen. I will also say, because I like to sort of see the silver lining in these things. It's a good thing too, because one, our facilities manager came to me and he was really disappointed and a little bit speculative of why he wasn't consulted for this. So because he has been very consistent and he's the one who worked on that policy statement. He developed it first. I just worked on it with him to sort of fine tune it and then brought Duane in. So I mean, that's a good thing. That's a really like I cannot tell you how huge that is that he was bummed out about this. Like the fact that he was bummed made me so happy. So that's a good thing. So and he's aware. So the second thing is that I was able to then send, I talked to the finance director and I sent out the policy again to all of the department heads with a reminder and at the advice of the finance director recommended that now all future procurement for replacement of systems needs to be reviewed by the facilities manager. So I think so again, that was like another good thing that came out of it that there be some direct input and oversight by the facilities manager. So so I just wanted you all to know this because it's going to be in that report and I didn't want you all to see it and I want you like there was a mistake made. It's a mistake and you know, it happened. I was totally unaware. People that should have known didn't know again because there were so many things that sort of made it fall under the radar again being the threshold, the cost threshold. So but now we're aware and it was sort of the policy that my reminder that went out to everyone is like from this point forward, no more fossil fuel purchases like bottom line. We're not doing this anymore. So that's so I mean, I know it was bad, but it's a good thing. And at least at least it was sort of a smaller system and not a really huge system. You know, so I'm just trying to, like I said, find the silver lining, but I wanted you all to know that upfront. So that happened. But ultimately, hopefully it'll be a good thing. But I think including it in the town manager's goals is just to ensure that's like another like really making sure that the town is adhering to that. I think it's super important. So so that's the first thing. The second thing is just the the fellows are working so hard. They're doing such a fantastic job. I think you'll be impressed by both of them. And I think that they will be, you know, really great presenters for your next meeting. So I'm looking forward to them having the opportunity to speak with you all and for you to be able to ask them questions on their work. There's that. And then as far as I just wanted to give you an update quickly on the CCA, it is we finished the 30 day comment period. I was in touch with the consultant. I will be reaching out to the advisory committee to schedule a follow up meeting. One of the things that the consultant is doing now is actually going through all of the comments. And there was just a couple of particular comments that came in at the very end that the group, the advisory group has probably wanted to discuss amongst themselves for some consideration for potential amendment to the to the application. But or not, I think we just the group has to have a conversation about it. Yeah, I don't think so either, but we need to talk about it. So so anyway, so that's gonna that's gonna happen. So and that means that, you know, it's really close for the application to be somewhat complete. That's going to be, I think, August 4th is when we're proposing that meeting. So I just have to reach out to the rest of the committee. And I think that's it for now, except to say that bike share we, you know, we're still working on it. I think it's going to take some work, some creative thinking. And I think we're Northampton has developed a request for information to get some input from some other programs on how they would potentially structure a new bike share network using our existing equipment, if they could, what would they do. So we're trying to get some information so that we can sort of move that forward. But there and there are companies that are definitely interested. So we have had folks reach out. So, so that's, you know, I think it's moving forward, it might take, you know, take a little while. It's certainly not going to happen before the fall. So best case and like the best miraculous case scenario, which I'm a little hopeful, but you know, hopefully optimistic, I think that we could maybe have something for next season. But, you know, I think it's going to take some time actually. So that's, that's my general update. Anything on the P pump? Yeah, so I think what I told you all last time was that we did have a legal council look at the proposal, which was overall really good. The problem that we ran into, again, was that we can't specifically put ARPA funds towards purchase of the pumps themselves. I think there was something about some reason why we couldn't specifically, but I'm actually going to be working on creating some kind of narrative to support that. So we're going to keep trying and plugging away, but that's kind of the sticking point, which is double crux of it. Yeah, how do you get around that? What do you mean by I'm just curious? Well, because we have significant environmental justice communities in Amherst. And so, and the target of this program is really for low income households and renters. So I think we're going to sort of really try to push that a bit. So I don't, I don't know. I don't know if we can, if it'll work, but that's kind of something that I have to work on. So I will be getting some language to Sean Mangano, and I'll share it with you, Laurie, just a few, because you and I have been working on this together. I'd be happy to run it by you first, let you have a look, but that's what I'm working on. Yeah, it makes me wonder what the, you know, where the, what the requirements are on this money and how to, I'm just curious from a professional standpoint. Oh, there's a whole lot of criteria, and I could probably find you the documents, but I mean, what's relevant? I mean, I really, you know, there's folks on this end. It's not, well, I don't know that it's honestly totally worth your time either. You know, I think the people on this end know what they are, and that's what we're trying to sort of work around to make this happen and move forward. I, I don't know, I feel kind of, I think we can write something up. So that's what I'll be doing. Yeah, so that's that. Thank you, Stephanie, as always. You can't remember updates? Any other updates? I have some updates. I know most, I know most of us are on this BEA email list, but there's two webinars they sent around this week that both look really interesting. One being a webinar on the BE, please join the BEA and home energy efficiency team on July 27th to learn about network geothermal and a new grant opportunity. HEET is offering in the fall for communities to conduct feasibility studies for developing networked geothermal systems. And Sarah Ross, who some of you may know, reached out to me and wondered if we think there's a potential opportunity here for Amherst. Her suggestion is high school and middle school and some section eight housing that's in close proximity. So anyway, throwing that out as a webinar idea for folks that might want to go and then maybe Stephanie or others we can talk about whether or not this is something we would want to put in for a feasibility study there. And Stephanie, I see your hand up. So why don't I let you speak and then I'll say the other one. No, you finish Laura and then I'll, because I just remembered something that I meant to bring up with all of you and it's really important. So and it's what you just said actually ties into this. So finish and then I'll bring up my point. Okay. And then the other one that just came out yesterday is energy efficiency and electrification for renters. It's on the 31st. So I don't know if that's something we could actually share more broadly, like on the calendar for Amherst or something like that. But anyway, or maybe folks with network connections to some of the other advocacy groups in town could share it through there. So if folks don't have the links to these, I can send them an email to Stephanie. Yeah, does anyone not get those emails who would like those links probably wouldn't be would be worth sending them anyway, just to have them in one place. That isn't what you just sent me or did you? No, I just sent you the solar campaign idea thing that we were talking about earlier. I have these both opens. I'll just send them quickly. Yeah. Okay. While Laura's doing that and focused, can I quickly? Yes, go ahead, Stephanie. So, so there was, I guess, a meeting with council members about the use of ARPA funds. And, and a lot of, there was a point at which residents could sort of weigh in on preferred use of funds. And one of the proposals that was on the table is to use them for installation of solar on the high school for the high school parking canopy, which if you recall in our cadmus report was one of the projects that was highlighted. And was really kind of the first one that I've been, I've certainly been advocating that we start with internally. And I know that that was something that came up, but it didn't get much traction, I guess, and even from council members. So I really want to urge all of you, I don't know if it's better to do it as a group or me, I think in some ways, individually to each of your counselors in your district is probably the way to go. Urge your support for use of ARPA funds for a canopy at the high school parking canopy. Go ahead, Andrea. I've already asked, I've already put in my two cents because I was part of the mother's out front and sunrise request to pay for the feasibility study or whatever it was called. And I've also asked for a meeting with the town manager because it is the town manager's discretion to decide how to spend this money. The counselors can weigh in, but it's an executive decision. Which but I think you all want to really reach out to your respective counselors to get their support because there's been my understanding and I didn't see the meeting, but my understanding was that there were a few counselors that articulated concern. And so I think you really want to reach out. It sounds like writing to Paul and the counselors make sense. Yeah, and you could do that too. Yes, absolutely. I mean, if you know, either writing as a committee or but in some ways, I don't know, however you all think it most effective, but go ahead, Don, and then Dwayne. If I could find my little oh, there it is. I missed it. What were the concerns? Again, I wasn't at the meeting, but I think it was about complexity of the project was what was because well, because it's a regional school. So Amherst sort of taking this on because it's a regional school, I think was what was initially expressed as the concern that that was the other communities concern in just doing the study as well. Like why should we foot the bill? Right? Exclusively? Well, it's because we pay the, you know, vast majority of the regional school district budget. So it's going to be on property in Amherst. It's not that complicated. Right? Well, but you know, it's being presented as such. So that's why I think it's important for you all the way in. And now we can get a 30% check back for this project. Exactly. Exactly. And I think all of that needs to be like just, I don't know, if somebody wants to draft a letter for the committee that maybe you can I think it's like the roof needs to be replaced on that school. Do we not do it because it's like too hard because it's a regional school? Like what's like I don't understand we have regional schools like we have to deal with them. Exactly. I guess my question is who owns the real estate on which the school building and parking lot are located? So again, I think all of the communities contribute. I'm not talking about the maintenance. No, but I think they can well, I think it's town property. It's Amherst property. That's what I understand. It's, I mean contributing to the maintenance of the buildings is different from who owns in the real estate upon which this would be built. And my understanding is it's Amherst. It's like the others like renting or like our renters or something. Yeah, I think that it would be good for individuals to write letters and for us to have a letter from the committee as well. But we can write it very quickly, especially since we're only an hour in and we don't have that many things left on the agenda. I have the LEA suggest the letter and we could just edit it right now. Ready to shoot myself. I was just going to ask and I my comment was similar to Don to like what was their concerns, but it seemed like if it is that issue with regional of all the complexities of dealing with climate change, if we can't handle that when we're in bad shape. That being said, I was wondering, Stephanie, was there any, was any of the concern based on was there other options to use this ARPA money that they were considering instead? Yeah. Yep. And I can tell you what they were. Renovations to the senior center. Road improvements and grants. Like to solicit having someone to solicit grants grant writing or and road improvements meaning just like incredible improvements needed in Amherst roads. Yeah, but these so the ARPA funds were specifically for Amherst. So these these other things that I'm listing are Amherst specific. Yeah. But the regional school is because it's a regional school. That's why it came up as a supposedly a red flag. But I didn't know about it. And I only just heard about it. And so I wanted to make sure you all were apprised of what went down and that it's important to weigh in. It's a great opportunity to use those funds and I can I yeah. So I just took the LEA letter while you guys were talking and took out two sentences and came up with a very short, you know, we support this as a committee. Do we want to take a look at that and just wordsmith it? It's about three sentences and some bullets. What do we think? Yeah. Should I share it? Laura has our hand up too. Laura, go ahead. Yeah, fine to do that. I didn't 70 not to put you on the spot. So just say you don't know if you don't know. But how I'm trying to understand how heat pumps would not be allowed, but road work would. Yeah, well, I don't I don't know. So yes, that is the answer. I can ask that in my note. And again, I think it's just sort of the like road work. It's sort of like the scale of it. Like in some ways, heat pumps would serve like individual households, whereas road work is for the entire community. That's my guess. Like that's where that's and I would I think I would probably be pretty fairly on point with that assessment of why. Other comments or anything? Shall I share the screen here quickly? We can do a little wordsmithing. Whoops, what did I just do? I just showed the wrong thing. Hold on. I don't know what I just did. Share document one. There we go. I literally just took the opening of the LEA letter and stuck in Energy and Climate Action Committee supports using a portion of the second round of ARPA funding to fund the installation of solar canopies on the ARHS lot. And then I took the rest of this right out of the letter. And I would also reference the Cadmus report. Okay, how do you do that? If you, I mean, I could, if you want to send this to me later, I can take a, I was just going to say, you know, as identified as a project in the Cadmus report. I can give you the date. I'll give you more information. I just don't have it right at my fingertips right in this minute, but. Okay, so let's put something in for a sentence. So we have something we can maybe vote on quickly if someone wants to move to just accept it right now, since this seems to be a little urgent. I'm wondering, and I'm sorry, I should raise my hand again. I'm wondering, given the discussions that, you know, Steve and Dwayne's committee is doing on the solar bylaw and identifying these types of solar installations that we want to encourage, as opposed to deforestation. It's an ideal location for it in terms of what we've been talking about about where, where, how you can maximize solar installation on already developed land. I don't know if that's important to have in there, but it's, it's, to me, that's a big point. I would concur, it's highly relevant. And I think we could also reference the community survey that pointed to parking lot canopies as a preferred location. Okay, this type of solar, this type of solar installation using, using parking lot canopies was widely supported in the recent solar survey administered in Amherst. Now, the Cadmus report was the previous. It was a solar study. And it was on, it was looking at 10 specific locations. And that was the one that Andra referenced earlier. Okay, so how do, just give me a sentence without even too many specifics, the Cadmus CADMUS. Correct. Like that, that's a capital abbreviation for something, or is it a name? No, it's a name you can, everything else after the C should be lowercase. Cadmus report also supported what specifically these sorts of? I think I'd identify, it just identified the parking solar parking canopy as I'm just trying to think of my words here for high priority is a higher priority or having a higher rate of return in terms of financially, I think, and in terms of climate impact, having a higher rate of return, both financially and in climate, both financially and in climate impact. Energy and Climate Action Committee supports using a portion of the second round of ARPA funding for or not to fund for the installation for an installation of solar canopies in the ARHS parking lot type of solar installation was widely supported in the recent solar survey administers, the administers in Amherst, the Cadmus report also identified this solar parking canopy as having a higher rate of return. The specific one or this type of solar parking candidate canopy? I think it was the specific one. I mean, because we had we had 10 specific projects and this was the one that we looked at that we said, oh, this really makes a lot of sense. Can I suggest that you put just so it doesn't run into each other when you're talking about the recent solar survey you might want to put in front of Cadmus, the earlier Cadmus report so that there's an identification, a separation of the two reports, you know, one was a solar survey and the other wasn't an earlier report, if I'm correct, right, Stephanie? Yeah, I can get you, Lori, I think if I get you the years for each of those, I mean, obviously, the solar survey is 2023, but the Cadmus, I can get you the year. Could we also include a link to both? To each one? Yep. I mean, you have them, but I'll get them to you again. Okay. And then this stuff is just taken right out of LEA, which I think is fine. I think that's good. And people should write their individual points with their particular point of view that Laura again has her hand up. Go ahead, Laura. Yeah, I think I just think we need to add the point about the direct pay thing. The language that people have been using is that, you know, right now also presents a once in a generation or like, you know, it's quite, I forget the wording a lot of folks have been using about it, but I mean, we have this new opportunity to leverage direct pay to directly benefit from federal credits to support renewable energy development projects like this one. So I'm confused. This is ARPA money that's already coming to the town, right? Well, so this would just make the project cheaper so we could leverage ARPA funding to then make the project cheaper altogether, right? Duane, is that your take too? Well, in the case, well, it enables the town itself to look more seriously at the opportunity to actually own the system and reap long term deeper benefits of having that asset as part of the town. And it enables that because the 30%, usually you would have a third party do it for you because that third party would get the 30, can access that 30% and only that third party can access that tax benefit. The town doesn't have a tax appetite. Now the town can get direct paid 30%, the same 30% of the capital cost from the IRS instead of instead of a tax break. So it enables the town to more seriously consider owning it and reaping substantial benefits. Probably enough to pay for a couple of teachers in perpetuity. So how do we say this? That this could be combined with IRA direct pay? I would maybe put it in the second bullet. It just maybe one idea locally sourced and potentially and potential to own and unless you think it should be up in the main part but it could be here that locally sourced and with changes to the investment tax credit it enables a potential for the town to own the system and reap long term benefits. Locally sourced and with changes to the investment tax. Changes to the federal investment tax credit. And with recent changes let's say so that recent changes not like futures to the federal invest to the federal sorry to the federal investment tax credit potential for the town to own the system and reap long term benefits. Only if that seems okay with you but that seems great. I would put long term financial benefits. I mean because there's obviously long term benefits having it but it's the financial part that's. Do you want to put the word creates before potential? Creates the potential potential. Locally sourced and potential and locally sourced. And with recent changes to the federal investment tax credit creates the potential. Creates the potential. That's it yeah for the town to own the system and reap long term financial benefits. Okay that makes sense good. I would lose the word I'm sorry I'm going down one sentence but lose the word for after hub. Oops yep there's also a lot of comms in here that I'm just going to turn into these are bullets so they don't actually need to be I'm just going to not put any I think this is no punctuation and funny punctuation then wrong punctuation. This is really great because I think you know especially at a Laura's point I'm sure that's not being considered and I think the council probably needs to know more about that so when you talk about outreach I think the council like if you guys put something together you know that's just like a one sheet you know information about it I think that would be really important. All that yeah so Laura do you want to do something like that just for maybe separately to send them a one pager on what that federal investment tax credit is or or Duane? Yeah I mean I think we could we could potentially also I know you don't have much time when you present in September but maybe we could also do talk about it then or do both I mean Kathy is not being aware because that was that factored into the decisions around taking the five million dollars out of reserve for the the school building but yeah I think it would be good to remind to remind folks and I know I mean the counselors I feel for them they have a ton on their plate I think they're all burnt out it's been a really long term for them and but like we can't just not do climate stuff because it's perceived to be a little bit difficult so we need to come in with you know some strong reasons why we have to act so maybe that can be part of and I think our letter already does that well I think and I think we can just highlight that in that presentation too. Okay all right so all we need I think is a so I think this letter would be sent to the counselors and Paul right and the town manager from ECAC and the only changes would be to add the links and the year in link here right so is there a move to go ahead and accept the letter and send it to them? I would just maybe to that extent put instead of recent solar survey the 2023 solar survey the 2023 good idea and I suppose I would just send this as an email with a dear counselors dear Paul at the top and a sincerely Lori for the Lori Goldner for ECAC right yep okay Andrew I think you're talking but you're muted quite true I would add that um the solar survey administered in Amherst for the solar bylaw ready group or whatever the group was called so this was an act of the council to create right the type of solar installation is what it's for yeah okay it's a bylaw working group right so I think that's all right other comments move to anyone move to accept it and send it with the links added I move to accept go ahead I move to accept and I'll second actually for the vote I'm going to have to have you all let me let me just save this on screen I'll just save it let me unshare I'm just see what is that for now um and unshare there we go okay and no particular order Allison yes Goldner yes Regger yes Drucker yes Rose yes D yes right okay let me just make sure I save this quickly folks hang on just a second did not save successfully and I want to make sure that I don't lose this these meeting all right so going on from there I think that was a good use of our time I need the agenda any further ECAC member updates okay the only thing I wanted to ask I mentioned this at the beginning is it worth trying to schedule some sort of a retreat to talk about to refocus us for the next year we did something like this last year what do people think go ahead Stephanie um I I was just going to recommend that you perhaps wait until you have new members and what I was going to also recommend Laurie is that maybe you send an email just has to be an email to the town manager reminding him that you are in need of additional members that you're two members down we're two members down okay is it appropriate or helpful or not really appropriate to you know if we have some people in mind who might who we think might make good committee members to have them offer their services to Paul is that like is there open an open call for members yep so the town has a link to completing a citizen activity form or participation form but that's how folks essentially can go through that process or they could just reach directly out to Angela Mills in the town manager's office and she'll she'll set them up with what they need in the process for which they can identify which committees they're interested in serving on the other thing is please encourage them to come as a as a participant as an attendant to this meeting so they have some idea what we're about and how we work but yes that would be that would be great so okay so we'll wait for new members and I will reach out to Paul about being two members down um any other updates from ECAC members so items for the next agenda sorry yeah but it's my last meeting and I'll miss you oh no no and Andra we want to thank you so much for all your input you've been really invaluable I don't I'm I'll still see you I hope at LEA meetings um and uh be carrying input from you to here so you know and I hope to show up as an attendee and let us know when we're on the wrong track or what the right track is since you're quite good at finding that and yeah it's worth pointing out that Andra was is a a founding member inaugural member of this committee's been with it since the beginning I think along with Laura and myself uh and we're getting fewer and fewer uh and so it's it's a real bitter uh departure uh but but um wish you well we'll see around I'm sure and we will hear your voice around I'm sure uh which is always good and um but it's also uh good to bring new people as demonstrated by the people that we have come on to the committee uh over time but it would be it was good to serve with you Andra thank you Dwayne you're here we were meeting in person I had a brought a cake and Andra I know that I'll see you at the CCA meeting so I know I'll still get to work with you yes great so shall we finish up the agenda then items for the next agenda I think we talked about continuing the discussion of the solar um solar outreach there's uh we'll continue the updates to the extent there are any for the different sectors but is it um pays transportation heat pump by forgetting solar bylaws solar yeah we talked about getting an expert from the solar mapping the thing here sometime in August right from the solar mapping tool do we still want to do that and when would that be I don't think you want to do it for the next meeting and I think Steve sorry I haven't written down here I think Steve is away still on the second yeah he's not back on the second so I think you want to put it off till the 16th okay so we'll put that off we are having the two um interns give us a project overview next time at the presentation time so that'll be and that'll take an hour that'll take an hour and then I think um with the usual updates and discussions we probably have plenty to talk about so was there anything else I left out in that case we do have one two participants so I think it's time to open the four four questions or comments from the attendees so Janet or Renee if you have a question or comment raise your hand I think I see one from Janet go ahead Janet you can unmute I I wasn't really planning on saying anything but the high school discussion got me super interested um tonight the planning board is hearing a SPR permit spent site plan review permit for a solar array on the roof and along the side of the auto zone which is right next to near junior garden and it's a pilot of this company I guess they're national and they are going to be in their current array will produce more than electricity than the um than that store needs and there so they're looking at I think they're trying to get to net zero and so they're going to sort of allocate the extra um energy to other stores and so they just want to see how that goes there's actually more space on the the ground than the actual array um would so they could expand that which I was going to cheerfully suggest um and you know the company the project manager is you know excited about it and so I thought that was you know really positive step and um they're also using a kind of panel that actually um it kind of reflects the light back to itself and produces more energy and so I had a big yabba dab after the site visit collecting more information so I just thought that was great you know it's like it's what we all want to see so that's all I just want to pass that along that's great thank you for that information Janet that really is good to hear we need positive information positive examples of developments don't we yeah other questions comments Renee if not then I think we have come to the end of this meeting and everybody gets back a half an hour so move to adjourn all in favor second and yes thank you all right thanks so much all right thank you Stephanie and take care Andra thank you Laurie bye bye bye all I'm sure I'll see you around Andra yes I'm sure you're done