 We can do the minute draft minutes earlier last night. Yes. Yes. Yeah Oh, it's just And when I post the minutes I will post the revised version Second And apologies as a minute taker for Those in favor of accepting the minutes So that is unanimous It's your committee So let's see. Um, yes, so Steve and I are going to be Reviewing the proposals that come in for the MPP grant again. This still is not official It won't be officially announced until February 5th. So please don't share that quite yet Even though I'm sure the words gonna be getting out there, but I would make it to not be the ones that do that. So so we have a request out and The proposals are due on February 10th, which is a Monday. We're going to be opening them that afternoon of February 10th so And then we're going to be doing interviews. I think on the 12th and 13th Possibly 14th and making a decision for the 17th So we have a really tight Yes, so in in person interviews. Yes, so we're going to let folks know Um, that yes I think in fact, I think it even in the RFP it might have been said that it was um Going to be a tight time frame, but also I think that the 10th was only open to Proposals Right, so just know that The 12th through the 14th just sort of That's why I wanted I sent that email because I wanted to make sure that you had a heads up So um, so there's that and then also, um, I think the The CCA process is still is moving forward. We had a meeting this afternoon I could Comment on that but that effort is moving forward and We have some funding to be looking to move towards Convening a joint creating a joint powers agreement that will eventually lead to a joint powers entity That will then sort of be the entity that is the CCA So we're kind of excited about that moving forward. So that was a great meeting today And we got some DLT. I wrote A DLT request from the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. So they're going to give us some technical assistance District local technical assistance. So that will be giving us some technical assistance to work on Um, specifically working on becoming creating the joint powers agreement So we're going to have some someone to assist us with that process who can do research and also draft Some language for us as well We got it on the record I I asked some questions about that because I was looking at whatever channels we're trying and A lot of that would hire kind of an overall high level consultant And then they could subcontract to Bring in experts on The mitigation or adaptation or something that's specific about adaptation that they were doing storm drain or whatever um So that was of interest to me because Then I'm not sure process Suddenly said we work with the overall whoever gets hired To try to figure out who those subcontractors should be Because seems pretty important that they that we get that they have the right subcontractors in addition to choosing the right overall contractor we have some input, but I mean so for instance Um, let's just say I'll use the land the solar landfill as an example We're contracting with cypress creek renewables and that's who we have the contract with But they needed to have someone hired to do the environmental permitting We don't get to choose who they hire to do the environmental permitting But if we were really if we had very strong objections We could at least voice them to them But ultimately the decision of who they some subcontract with is really theirs because they're essentially they're paying them I guess you could find that out in the intro program. Well, so I would say that um When and deven doing you probably speak to this as well from experience doing projects, but You would expect the contractor to come with the subs that they're planning on using in the interview And propose them as a package So I think in some of my climate action plan, I would expect them to have an idea of what subs they typically work with We'd want them to have a relationship with those groups. There may be a reason why we'd want to push for someone else, but Sometimes a raging marriages like that are not Great So I think we would want and and I think we want to do a lot of that background or I think we want the contractors or the The main consultants to come with us with this is who we're going to work with This is why they bring what they bring to the table and we're making a decision on the whole package And I think some of the the quote I mean you used some examples some very specific examples and as far as I know, you know those um So the consulting firms a lot of them for instance, you pointed out one specific firm came longer than associates They work with lots of different consultants. So You know, I would expect that that firm may be one of the subcontractors that might be like a few people on our list so And I expect as you said, I expect that they will like I'm sure there are a couple that I know would definitely Bring them to the table I don't you know want to sort of say too much ahead of time, but because I don't know You know Yeah I asked the chair of the of the conference sustainability advisory committee and He explained that they use this kennel on brim associates as their overall and that they were really good at doing the outreach and But that they subcontracted with x-group for To get in the leads on mitigation and another one on adaptation So that's just like flagged in for me because I wasn't really aware of how the process worked And we make I mean, you know, again If there you know, if there are like specific questions and things you want us to bring to the interviews You can get them to me again, you can't deliberate all together but I could make a list we can deliberate right now. No, you can deliberate as a group. Yes, of course I'm saying if you're gonna send them to me You know, because I think we have another We need to look for that Any kind of interviews are happening, I think So I'm just saying yeah, you get However, I don't we don't have on the agenda tonight, but Unless you want that to be the update on the MVP process and just be Coming up with questions. So we last two weeks we did come up with four questions Um, and I had noted down as an action item. They were in the ER Just for people to look at this list and send any insights to Stephanie Although I don't think I actually sent this list out to everybody. So I apologize for that So I will make sure I send it out to folks Yeah, they might be in the minutes I mean the question would be raised How would you approach the process of the town like ours with the colleges renters, etc How would you best utilize the expertise at the committee and what is your approach to working with active citizens? How do you pull together ideas from different sources into a cohesive plan? Ways they would lower the environmental impact of their work Those were the four we came up with so I think we can See if we have time at the end of our meeting today, but since we spent time on the last week, um, maybe we can think on this a little more and And send more and you can get a full list before the next meeting Any other jump? Oh, uh, just very brief and in my interest So, uh, I joined most of the town council this past weekend in Boston at the Massachusetts municipal association Um, and two of the more interesting sessions I went to were preparing your community for climate change and renewing the municipal energy landscape Which was mostly about cca and trying to sell you on cca and also what we're doing that so we don't need this Um, but there were some really interesting presentations That did strike me as potentially useful to this committee going forward One was from a select board member in lexington about how they made um, and that zero school work Um, not just technologically but financially and how they were able to convince their town to rethink how you bond a project um to To justify because they don't have the requirement that we have and yet they were able to sell their town on Well, if we bond it this way. So that was really interesting. I want to follow up with them on that um, and the second one was a project in millberry that merged sort of a downtown revitalization project with a climate adaptation process and so they were able to cobble together Great funding from the mvp program. They got a million dollar action grant, which I don't know how they managed to get a million dollars but Millberry the whole the whole project was 1.9 million and 1 million of it was an mvp action grant Which people in the audience who had applied for action grants and not gotten them then were very mad Very vocal about it Yeah, but it was cool because then they also were able to cobble together funds from other things that were like economic development initiatives and downtown initiatives To put together a project that sort of merged redoing streetscapes with rain gardens, but also Figuring out ways to make it. It was just and I think that uh, the town right now I was looking at our downtown in a bunch of ways that was a presentation to council on monday of a bunch of downtown projects and it got me thinking about Going forward with this focus on the downtown uh Trying to pair some of these an mvp grant. It's interesting. We have an mvp grant to do this thing Can we pair an mvp grant with ck money and water sewer money and money from the transportation and and do something bigger? So um, I have all those not all of them But most of those presentations and so if they're ever of interest to people I can also send them to you Um Do you know who I guess it'd be interesting to know in the millberry one who like spearheaded that How they actually got it to happen. It was presented by lori connor's director of planning and development so you can always reach out to her but um One million mb fiscal year 19 mvp action grant one million dollars Is there any um funds For committee members to go to conferences I don't even I If I wanted to go to nma I would have had to pay interesting So, I mean some staff are covered But it's not like every year staff can go. I think if I wanted to go this year I would have had to pay the only time I've gone twice and it's because I was a presenter both times so I think I'd like to go I would have liked to There's a conference on buildings in boston You're building energy companies. Yeah, are you going to? um Not that I know of at this point People at the university that clearly go You can do it by zoom Is this the nessie conference? Yeah, yeah Okay um So, uh, in real report discussions. This is something we didn't get to at our last Meeting um I did have a document that was pulled together For the last meeting So no Darcy if you want to take the lead on sure Um, so, um, I had brought up that our charge requires us to provide an annual report and in that in the Um in the charge it says the annual report report needs to cover those things that those five bullet points um, and one of which is Funding needed to enable initiatives recommended by the acac. So I was thinking that that we In order to get a funding request in for fy 21 we need to be doing it now or you know like last november um and um So it's I was thinking that you know, we should Do a do a um An early annual report, but I you know that is the more important part of this question I think that if we want to decide to Do our annual report regularly in december That seems like a great idea. We don't necessarily have to do one early But we do want to think about do we want to put in a budget request for this Do we want to send a memo to the time manager? Um, do we want to have some appropriation? in the fy 21 budget and his his budget goes to time council on june so Most of what's going on is happening in the different departments now and um So, uh, I had Three different things that we might consider four one is Whether we want to just Recommend support for the resident capital request that andra put in the students what she's going to talk about today one is um Do we wanted to just put in a statement saying That we support the request has a bunch of items that pertain to Vehicles, roofing, h-back systems, energy systems Do we want to like just make a statement saying we want them to consider Being integrated into the employment action plan to the extent that we have one by the time You know, I don't know how we would phrase that but there are a bunch of things in the budget that are going to last for 30 years And do we want to just make some kind of statement about that to the town manager? That's one thing and thirdly I Think that it would be to give Stephanie some help either Either you know one or the other of either trying to get money in the budget for an assistant for her um, or the other idea that I thought that was adding to our staffing by by creating a position of like That would be completely different from Stephanie's To create like an energy specialist so that for um If we're looking at a situation where we're going to be doing all this solar development coming down the road I'm going to be putting solar on rooftops, you know, municipal rooftops or parking lots or whatever we're going to be doing um In newton, they have two positions one of them is An engineer who is a specialist and he Instead of hiring a consultant a million times for one for each project They have somebody on staff who's the actual person who goes out and You know finds the foundation points for the solar canopies figures out how the canopies at the middle school are going to connect to the to the You know the middle school, you know, whether they're going if they're going to have a Less depot how that will all work, you know, if they're going to have to be able to building charging, etc It's someone who Who is a specialist so they have a person like that Who's just on staff and they're saving a boatload because they have all these projects coming down the pike And they don't have to hire, you know outside to to they just have somebody on staff that can go out and do this so um, I didn't propose this to paul when I had my meeting And these it sounded like you thought it was a good idea How it would be Funded is unclear. It might have to be somebody who's Replacing another position that's leaving. I don't know. We never get new staff in this town So That Is just an idea that we might want to hash over as to you know, getting Assistance for for stephanie so that she's not You know, she's doing so much high-level work But I feel like her her job should change, you know, take away the sustainability festival And you know, it's all me just micro managing everything But you know, she's doing a ton of high-level stuff Um, so I see her as more And I also see this other position I see that many of the towns in massachusetts are in elsewhere that are really making dramatic progress Our towns that have a committee like this And they have like solid sustainability staffing that are behind it In other municipalities with cca Is there staffing associated with cca commonly? I was just wondering if there might be an overlap between some of those roles or if that might be a way to So I think um one one idea that I'm sitting there's two Maybe two discussion points here, but um on on if we want to write a memo of some sort that sort of makes Some assumptions about some of the things that we're going to be in our climate action plan or that we're going to move forward with I think that making Sure that capital requests that have the energy have been reviewed through a lens of the climate action plan operational savings and cost I think that and this is Darcy a point that you made very very early on I'd like to see us move towards your proposal of integrating sustainability into the job descriptions and roles of people that we hire so um Because I think even if we were successful in getting I think what we need to do is elevate sustainability to the in the town to the level of the other directors in town And I think we do need more support um But I think that from my own experience What we really need is people in each department that have to own a piece of it as well um Otherwise you're never going to get a big enough sustainability team to Do the work Do all the work like so thinking about the economic development person that's leaving like can the new economic development person Have written in their job description very clearly that they're going to do some of the stuff that Evan just talked about Work on renewable Development as part of their role. So like I think If that's something that we think we want to build into the climate action plan both of those things elevating the role of sustainability in the town and um Doing that I think that we could mention those things that we're exploring in our climate action plan and you should just be aware of this as we're entering into the Budgeting because you know, I would say especially because the economic development position has just opened up and That process will start before this climate action plan is done um I had a conversation with someone where it was said to me They saw economic development and sustainability as being across purposes and how and I said I don't see them that way at all And I got a blank stare So and I will say that I think I I'm a hundred percent obviously on board with this and I love what millbury did I would say that um That kind of thinking needs to get out there like immediately and I I think that example needs to be Um raised as how because I said Sustainability creates opportunity like I don't understand how these are across purposes at all So school mentality. Well, exactly. And that's why I'm saying that I think that this is something that shouldn't really could Newsblast newsletter Press release something newsflash sustainability is not an odds of economic development You know like like, you know MMA corner Here's something interesting, you know millbury blah blah blah and um school committee talking about They're doing us this climate action plan that was just at the meeting last night and They they're they're thinking about this and wanting to join in You know, could we like and and put in it department looking at Get out there that this is happening Yeah, I think that's a separate thing but yeah action plan for sure You know, I mean now I mean like Yeah, I think it's what's our bandwidth and what do we what do we want to focus in on right right now We're talking about an annual report Yeah, well, we're talking about budget No, we're talking about the annual report with the idea of inserting into some Commission's of things that might impact the budget No, it could be that we decide now we're not going to do an annual report But we'll do a memo about The budget because we're not ready to do Could one thing I would I don't know if I can officially I would just say that Because this economic development position is now open and there will be a search I don't it seems to me that you all being aware of that um Could maybe just send a memo to the town manager just sort of using millbury as an example of This is the kind of forward thinking we hope When there is a search committee that's convened or maybe you could even request that somebody from this committee is on the search You know, I'm just giving you ideas of some way you might want to Have your concerns expressed now And that was the attack that I was interested in discussing and just so I understand who who Um Is it the town manager that hires this position? Yes, and the search committee is made up of Of senior leadership and whoever he chooses and who he chooses And so the the job description has already been posted in britain. I don't know. That's why I'm not sure If there's still time to affect how it is framed. I think we should move quickly to do that And that's why I'm just saying you might want to at least make a recommendation Um Because it is important and I think especially now that the towns adopted these carbon neutrality goals You know, if we've been talking right in the beginning is we need to change systemic thinking and I'll tell you this position is certainly one Which really need it has a lot of influence and to have at least one of the evaluation criteria If not requirements that somebody who is um knowledgeable About sustainable sustainability issues and has ideas on how to Innovative around these sort of Right Who writes the job descriptions that get the town manager? Oh, it's hr will work with the town manager He's starting us to decide what Responsibilities are included in the job? Well hr usually that's their function hr kind of Has an existing description and we'll probably run it by the They're probably fresh off the last time you hired an economic Yeah, exactly and the town manager can weigh in I'm just that's why I'm saying if you Well, I just curious. Yeah, who has the power to add a new responsibility to a job I'm telling you, aren't you? Yeah, good. And I think it's a memo to him with this with a suggested paragraph language It made me some qualifications So so context on this so I mean Jeff is our first ever economic development director position created under john mucanti Who passed away before Someone who was even hired for that position And then paul inherited a position that he didn't create and that he didn't hire the person for and so He I believe is in a situation where On this position was originally created with someone else's vision And so he is trying to figure out what his vision is and so I don't actually think they will just stop the last job description Because that was a different town manager who had his own vision for the economic development director that really never transferred over and so I would say probably within the next two or three weeks is when the town manager will be figuring out What he even wants an economic development director to do because that's It can be a million different things for an economic development director Can we as a committee then draft some language or select a couple people to or put a one person to draft some language to share with paul certainly suggesting some of our ideas about what we think this position should do and Being pretty bold and what we think we're we might imagine it would be good But I think it would be good if you know there was a meeting So why don't we do this? I think what we should do is send him a note fairly immediately and say that we've been talking about this We want to suggest some language Or potentially have a meeting with you to talk about it Um, but in the meantime, we're going to work on some language and we'll send it your way. So he knows it's And then maybe somebody To ashman to your point could work on maybe look at some other examples and work on something He may not want us to suggest language. He may just want to meet with us and hear what we have to say But I think meeting It is most important. Yeah, really? Yeah, just people meetings are hard I mean drafting language for him That can go a long way too because yeah one reason why you might not do it is just because you don't have time to do it I mean, I think even just sending him an email saying like we discussed this It is our sense that we have a huge opportunity here to reframe economic development in amherst as centrally about Achieving sustainability objectives and here's some ideas about how we might do that We'd love to meet with you to talk more about what our vision is I mean, I think just getting that note might go some way towards getting them thinking about this Yeah, I would say yes do that if you could do that as chair and then if He indicates we have two weeks Then we set up some group people who come back to this group with the proposal We work on it a little bit at the next meeting and give it to him If he wants something in less than two weeks, then I would say we go ahead and give a small group here authority to Write something without further meeting time There's also the possibility That he will not fill this position He will not actually look Well, then that's an opportunity to There's I think that I think it should be I think all of this should be framed in the context of Our climate action planning process is going to identify It's it's going to identify strategic systematic changes that we need to make including things potentially like changing the structure of the sustainability function Elevating it adding sustainability to jobs and we What we want to be proactive about this opportunity And he could ignore it if he's not going to fill it I mean, I think asking to be on the search committee is also important I think this is one of those jobs that I think Could really you know Be a game changer So so that's um So this kind of got a little bit off topic, but I think that so I guess the question I think we should do that unless anybody has any reservations about and we'll see what he comes back with And if you want some input on language or or things, um That's one point. I think the question more broadly Darcy that you were raising about budget requests generally Is there any if we wanted to write something about capital request or Like, you know Some I think that I think we're gonna Get far I think our climate action plan as a basis for these asks in the future is going to be really important Because then we can look to it and say this external group Helped us and you know from their expertise is showing us that we really need to Buff up sustainability staff um So I don't think we're going to make much progress on that in this fiscal year But I do think it may be helpful just to note that that's what we're Hoping right in case something falls out of the woodwork that Money Perfect in a short ending report say that next year it's likely This part of the action plan. We will be proposing a budget request or forming a budget request that might include Travel from reading Maybe hiring somebody in town. We could list two or three things from small to large I think from what I read in the town council report to paul that we were given they seem to appreciate having advanced notice ideas They're also very receptive in several places to sustainability initiatives. Yeah It seems like though that it would be a somewhat of a lost opportunity not to ask for something in the FY 21 budget Because then we have to wait a whole year to get anything and an obvious thing would be staff so this is a good idea about the economic development person, but I mean we could also ask for an energy question or a Half-time assistant for stephanie. Yeah Are you talking about like a full-time benefited One fTE energy specialist request energy engineer Yes, and paul did say that he's planning on I'm sure he's said this to you that you know He's already planning on giving Stephanie an assistant and guess who it is Someone's already working here the community participation officers Um So, um, I'm saying it like that because they've been given many many tasks, you know to I think every time something comes up you just give it to them Um, but we're not getting new expert staff essentially Well, they're helping with the festival, I mean, but that's not like an ongoing I think what I agree with Evan that that's an awfully big ask Is he really well justified An engineer We're not getting a full-time benefit after one fTE person Um, I think where the opportunity is if you're looking for a staff perspective is what we just talked about is trying to I wouldn't be very careful because derisie and I are in a very delicate position when it comes to the time management staff But influence some of these decisions. So the economic development director. We know is The other thing that should be on our radar is that so downtown parking working group made this recommendation of a parking coordinator as a new position It's been recommended by the council committee There's also been this open planner position For a while. That's the vacancy that hasn't been filled And not a budget is for it's it's there It's part of it and the Yeah, but there's nothing There's a part of me that My suspicion and I could be completely wrong. This is complete speculation Is that the town manager will probably try to merge this planner position in this parking coordinator position And create a planner that's transportation focused Which if there's going to be a new planner hired which it sounds like those interviews and parking might be part of their role It seems ridiculous to me to have someone who parking is part of their role, but then also Not considering Multimodal transportation and other things too. So that's another perhaps way to sort of imbue Sustainability into some of these staff positions without necessarily having to hire a new staff person People can learn to exactly can take pick up Yeah, it just has to be part of their job description and If they're already hired they have to That is an important point that I've made that that this new you know may get this new position And one of the pieces of it is that he or she will be in charge of transportation policy So I brought up that that should be You know with sustainability integrating into it, obviously Um, which was not accepted at why I'm in the town manager goals, but um That seems almost equally important to these positions So what I'm hearing here is that we have several positions that are being Reimagined right now in various ways and they're both and there are kind of the Most easily available opportunities for us to ask to have an influence and an A voice in shaping those positions so that sustainability is central to them Should not we also ask for what we actually need to accomplish the goals that we have which will definitely include more staffing I know we don't have the money, but we're trying to transform the entire economy of this place Why don't we put that asking because that's what we think it's going to take to do what we're saying that we need to do Yeah, and I think that's exactly what we're going to put in the climate action plan I think we're being premature to say it Now I think it just won't have the weight that it will have Behind okay, I mean One option is to recognize that that you know the real the bigger ask of the FTE or more Would come after the climate action plan, but if there's a compelling reason to say there's things that need to be accomplished in the next year um, then is there a um compelling argument we can put together to high, you know Put into the budget not an FTE, but a sufficient funds to hire More on a contractor role contractor basis a contractor who has energy Engineering sort of pizzazz that can go out and do A study here and there as they come up in this next year of the parking lot um of the high school or whatever and You know on an on-call basis a certain amount of budget that's available for You mean for that Well, there is Yeah, I mean I mean, you know, I suppose an FTE is probably more in the order of like 40 50 60 thousand dollars. It's supposed to 100 that So I'm not sure we want to get too much in the weeds about this But it it does this I think it's a good idea to end this report to town council Put in a request for somebody Yeah, and that would essentially establish an account for us even if it's a fairly small token amount And then they get the idea that we need the money and then we ask for more in subsequent years Exactly whether it's 40 50 thousand first create a line item exactly or whether it's and and Travels the conferences. We could probably come up with a list of things and make a request that we I think would be reasonable That they would grant so not a budget buster Not something like roll their eyes and set this away the supplement would be like well not not for the committee For for the sustainability department. I don't think for the committee. I mean the I I don't think so. I don't think committees have budgets Yeah, I don't I didn't understand that either I do I do think that we have consensus here that we want to send a memo to try to influence the nature of these two open positions and I think that there may be strategic value in At every opportunity repeatedly Continuing to get the idea into leadership's head that the direction that the town needs to move in is well staffed permanently staffed People that are doing this work We're gonna we're gonna emphasize exactly what that looks like in the climate action plan But you know just just for context, obviously we're thinking about this stuff all the time But this is a town that apparently has in very recent history tried to hire parking coordinators that don't think about multimodal Transportation right we're in a context where people are not thinking about this So I think we need to assert vigorously and repeatedly in all available spaces that this is the direction that we're going I'll find it good that we're gonna be spending all this time on a climate action plan But why don't we start with a finite project a concrete project and we talked about Solar at the high school as being a project So now we have a capital request for a study for solar and the high school and middle school parking lot uh for solar canopies And so that is actually a project that we could we're not even asking for the project to be funded We would just be supporting the resident capital request That was for a study A design study to get it Set up in the next however many months Um, so I guess I would I feel like That is a reasonable thing for us to ask to We wouldn't even be asking for to well. We would be asked. We would be supporting the resident request to have money put in the budget for a study to get that started And that is something that this group has been talking about since the first meeting If I recall correctly so the um We could also say, you know The town manager's budget that he will present to the town council um Is his you know absorbing and shuffling all of the departments and um requests And one request from the school district is 15 000 for a um solar study It's going to be for the middle school roof But it it could be used for ground mounted And so we could say, you know Keep that in Grandpa, you know put in the resident um request for 25 000 for A broader town, you know solar study work what roofs what parking lots are possible and So include both okay, so what I'm hearing is We already made the decision that we were going to send a memo about the positions on the annual report discussion What I think I'm hearing is that There's general agreement that we would do them in december But maybe there's a good reason to do a short memo type one right now to say Moving forward we're planning on doing these reports in december, but to address these bullet points. I think all but number four We can say either progress towards climate goals see Climate action goals create engagement see community engagement report The other the second and third 2vd tvd and then funding needed to To enable initiatives recognized by ecac. We could put a few bullet census is there that we are We want to support all requests for funding that That involve renewable energy studies We want to ask that capital requests that use energy or are involved in making energy Be reviewed through a climate action We want to let folks know that You know, we are going to need of wells You know We're going to be moving forward the kind of actual plan that's going to identify budgeting needs for this work And then I think the open question is do we want to is there an ask that we want to make of a certain amount of money for Stephanie's and as you don't think this even comes through us that we would have to come through Stephanie's department Right and then we would just support. Maybe it's just us supporting additional funds for the sustainability Work that we already have yeah, and I I mean this my department isn't proposing anything so again, you know, I mean Could they propose something could we ask Dave to They're hiring assistant right now for the most stand on the job stage That's an administrative assistant for the that's just support and it's mainly an assistant to Dave As the assistant time manager It's really primarily what that role will be so yet You can put it out there. I think it's not coming for me Okay, I want that to be clear. It's not it does have to come from us not the department Well, no, I mean You can put it out to the department. You can put it out to the time manager again I mean committees have done that before the conservation commission has done that for their staff of support before as well And in the history that you told me if I can share is that the climate action plan that was written in 2005 was Reference this reference this position and it was what helped or at least I think it helped quite because it helped make your position full time Eventually yeah, I mean it was part time Yeah, there are that's anyway more complicated It just made for the ability for the position to be created that certainly supported You know, so there is some precedent for that. Yeah piece of it Okay, does anybody want to take on the role of of writing up that short memo? About the two open positions The two open positions I can do if someone else wants to start a draft of this one with the More general goals around and the supporting of the Renewable request. I don't see why we like to do that Okay, do you want to drop that up and then we can review it next week? Next meeting next meeting. Yeah great If we were to ask apart from these positions And trying to get some scope of work in those positions relating to sustainability if we were to Think to put in a request for some money Not ft necessarily which might be after the action plan but some money to get going on Meaningful project or set of projects What's the time frame that we need to really act on that? I mean, so everybody's budgets due to the town manager in the next Few months, right? And then the town according to that memo that was in the packet The month of may is when the budget gets consolidated and decided upon um, I think what we would need so yeah, so I think Like We would need to find some group with which to link up with I think whether it's a conservation committee I mean like some department would have to ask For those funding funds for us. I don't think that our committee would be asking for funds, right? Should I talk? I'm not sure could I have a conversation with Dave Somak and and just Explore the idea What idea of of Budget and you know, we're going to have to expand the Sustainability department because it's You know already Stephanie has a job in the half because we're creating work for her all right now and To be clear. There isn't a sustainability department. Yeah, there is. I can call it Yeah, there isn't there's all but right now the conservation department is holding sustainability We're a committee of the town council, right? So I mean does it make sense for us to The annual report goes to the town council We have two audiences I think the idea of potentially Having a little pot of money that we could use for some studies and stuff is not a bad thing to throw out there They can always just say no Um, I think if there's anything more specific, I don't think we're ready Like we're not going to be ready in time to ask for something more specific. I don't think As long as it's married with that's with the high school project. Yeah, I mean We can ask for that we can recommend That's separate, isn't it the town It's all about shaping the budget and you know, he can recommend or not recommend that We could put it into this and that's also How much are we talking about Yeah, but for just general for a fund for for this committee Oh You're talking about putting in A request for money that would just be a pot of money for this committee to use as discretion Yeah I mean there could there could be um You know, like I could see something like an item for um For like building projects, you know specifically, you know funding that would be remarked for like building assessments And that kind of our engineering studies We're like an alternative to replacing the boiler that they're going to replace so if they're if they're not going to look at it Let's have a kind of For these The North Hampton sustainability and energy committee has has a funding source. Um, I'm not Anyway So I think I think we're we're helped and and The harm doesn't all right word, but by having counselors on the committee that know what we are allowed Are allowed and not allowed to do like let's pretend we don't know what we're not allowed to do Exactly See what sticks. I mean right the answer is probably they're not gonna Do it, but it's getting it to Ashwin's point. It's getting in their heads And then the next time around we'll ask again, right? So I think we should maybe just throw in like for building assessment because that that Point did come up with the library discussion. I mean they ended up funding it, but when the sustainability community the library was looking for Doing another assessment on sustainability. It was like, well, doesn't a town have money set aside that does these assessments? And the answer was well, not really exactly. So I think it's not a bad idea. So Darcy if you want to include that in the draft As well Wow, just so we can leave it kind of late for now Or funding for assessments that support decision-making around Carbon neutrality goals. Yeah, exactly. I don't think it should it's not funding for this committee. No, let's drop the funding that this committee can pursue Ideas or recommendations that this committee brings forward. Yeah Recommend them we're going to be making recommendations. Yeah Yeah, having 500 bucks that we can use to set someone to a conference is like not even really a priority because it's not bad And it wouldn't be very the other committees Okay, great The housing trust is a whole different piece they they do hold money and they can't Can we become a different piece? Wait, I'm confused. I thought that what we just said is we're not going to ask quite for that We're going to ask for funding to support to ensure that our recommendations can be implemented, right? Well our recommendations already require at least one consultant for a period of time that It sounds I mean, I think we might need two consultants. Should we double it? It's specific enough that it doesn't look like we're just asking for some money because we need placeholder for some money It should be a fairly defined need That's fairly urgent and thought out. You're going to be drafting A climate action plan. Exactly. And there's going to be very specific things identified in that plan So if you can think a little bit along those lines, it's like studies engineering studies Beyond what the consultants will be Doing right because I don't think I mean, I don't know our The consultants that we hire for this drafting of the climate action plan are not going to be probably able to get so deep into engineering studies We're going to need that's what they could identify as the process For moving forward on projects and one of them might be secure and engineer So we're saying can we have some funding so that we can secure an engineer? I mean, I think we can already anticipate that the climate action plan is going to hear specific recommendations In at least a few predictable sectors We can probably say that there's at least three sectors that are going to require Deeper dives into actionable projects sounds to me like that's going to call for three You know dedicated consultants engineers, whatever it is to cost those projects to scope those projects and to define those projects That I think we can anticipate that with Prec almost with near certainty at this point I think we're going to need um Someone the consultant to assess Maybe some of this could happen. Um, like every department And it's current staffing and what kind of training might be needed for them to Implement those kinds of recommendations will be developing But in terms of getting to the goals you might have things you need to do that are more That have more immediate return Like, um, you know, again, I'm looking to the building assessments We you need you're going to need technical expertise Um, because even with town engineer, you know, we have an engineer We have a couple of engineers on town staff. We have people that are very smart and very capable But for the specific kinds of projects that we're going to be recommending We need a very specific kind of expertise like the people, you know the millberry project I'm sure they didn't just rely on their You know their their staff they like had to find people with very Specific knowledge background Vision and those are the people that you need to hire And and knowing that like moving forward that's those are the kind of people you want to have some funding Just secure because that's where we always, you know, that's where the rubber hits the road, right because So I think um To move the agenda along a little bit. I think we have enough to do a draft right Darcy I think even if you leave that amount blank or that line A couple possibilities that we can spend some time at our next meeting Are you're going to just shoot off this memo? I'm just going to shoot off the memo to paul and say that we've talked about this We'd love to set up a meeting Slash send you some ideas and I'll send that later today or tomorrow or something and we'll just see where that goes um Okay, so I think with that have we covered your agenda item andra? um So we'll just so people know uh, they're There's this mechanism for residents to submit a capital request, so Um, I did and it's very much based on the newton um work of Doing their solar inventory But and you know, but it includes a lot more than just site analysis it it it includes um the the potential for integrating charging stations with solar, you know solar to um building integration storage as you know with electric vehicles connected to buildings it so it's like More holistic Than what I learned yesterday um Rupert intended when he added the 15 000 for the school solar study um, you know, he was just thinking you know engineer to look at you know, how much could it be done on this hill here and how much um Would it likely cost? To to do some solar siding The reason not on the middle school roof is because that would have to wait until there's um state money to redo the roof But to make that solar ready is something else that's definitely on the agenda, but Doesn't make sense to do that right now. Um unless Someone could do both So so there's not even you know at right now. He's not even talking about the parking lot So my right of request was for 25 000 it would be in addition to and it would have the Benefit of being flexible because a resident put it in instead of staff member one thing that we know from the one time that they've had resident requests like this is that you have to stay on it so It would be very helpful to have the ecac's backing On it to be able to tell the finance committee when I have to go and talk to finance committee jcpc when I have to go talk to them They would expect to have the ecac's Um recommendation for it to go for it So it's actually a specific ask So you're here with that ask is sort of a resident Yeah Oh one of them yeah one one of them couldn't come but yeah And they're both like sunrise Great idea It seemed to get in an awful lot into the weeds with some of the things that were being asked of From a consultant Oh, hey, I just wanted to go into the weeds a little yeah So I thought it got too far into the weeds For a consultant some of these things that are being asked are things that you would A company that was responding to an rfp would specify And therefore I don't think we need you don't need to request town doesn't need to pay an engineer to do that because The engineer could develop the concept And then you put out an rfp and companies come in And their job is to do a lot of that sort of thing. Here's how many panels and what kind of KTVH the produce of the year don't you need like you know the analysis to to Have an estimate of how much money you have to set aside for this What maybe that I'm not sure I think so some of this yes So that's that my suggestion is what's the big picture that you wanted an engineer of your own to frame out Versus what would you expect firms that are responding to you? So maybe not the drawings necessarily That came from the new person and all of this Right, that's interesting who did this the newton staff person the engineer Person who they have on staff So he may have you know, this is obviously exactly what he had. I think he may have um, all done This like well, no, he's just describing Everything he did right right Right, so he took it beyond Because a lot a lot of this is just like that back in the napkin Almost that you can do to put together the basic specs of the of what would then be in the rfp we wanted to be um, see, you know You know Deep enough though that can really answer the question how much will cost and Well, hopefully it'll cost nothing because we'll do a ppa and somebody else will pay for it, right? Yeah, well, hopefully, yeah, we'll be able to say yeah, something that depends on uh, what we want to claim Well, yeah, but that's a whole different question. Yeah, so that's we can't claim anything under smart So it doesn't matter that's the kind of thing that the engineer might play out You can go this route or go that route Uh and do that larger analysis so that you know what to ask Going into a negotiation with response to the rfp whether you want to do it under this program or that program I could share with you the rfp that we did four or five years ago after college Where we framed in fairly general terms. We wanted solar rays that would cover our main campus Six million kilowatt hours per year And I I think we sort of specified here's some possible areas that we're considering But then they came in 10 different companies came in with very specific proposals on this passionland and this now And so they did most of the work And we might also be able to get the uh to the extent that it's parking lot Tissues with parking lot third, obviously you mentioned parking lot canopy solar and uh, they're third party owned Except for one of them and uh The rfp I'm sure would be public information so I could ask Yes, that'd be great, but it is correct. I was just going to ask with the solar landfill project Was there is there a way that the town worked its way through defining the scope of it for going out of the rfp? Yeah, we had an rfp. I mean it's it's been a very very very long time So I can go back and find that I actually was on the committee for the very first round that we did Like in 2011 or so Wasn't this a company kind of come out of the blue and then it proposed? Yeah, it was in its name in fact It was before it went blue-way But there were other companies that applied Because we we interviewed at least And was there any feedback that the uh, uh, the town did in terms of any substantial expenditure of funds or Is it to get any of this information ahead of time? Yeah, that I don't that part. I don't know I know we did an rfp. I remember because we did the interviews and I was There's probably some work in terms of the condition of the landfill Well, I was going to say I mean but and a lot of that information and we already have because you know There's a postclosure use permit which identifies, you know the conditions and that's and that's all part of the process of closing the landfill So there's you know, frankly, there's a halfway lots of information But I'm pretty sure I know we did an rfp because we had respondents and I know it was not that someone just made a proposal for us And they did have very different ideas. One of them included having goats Maintaining like grass underneath the animals way back when Why not? Meg Vickery was on the So I think um, I mean Andra if I understand correctly you're saying that this Can change over is this set in stone or if we got the if you got the funding You can use it for what you No, no, this is just You know the request yeah, and and I mean, I think it's gonna go around to all these committees and is it getting update. Is it getting edited or is it getting This is the request you're asking for it. If you get the money that you'll edit it I knew that this is like rfp. It doesn't even belong in the request really but just You know, I I do want They'll EA's ECA CEO or you know students to continue to be involved to make sure it goes that deep Yeah, and I do have to like do something to kind of incorporate the knowledge I got afterwards the fact that the school is putting in some request for something so so you are So I guess edit yet I mean, I would say I'll look around for I mean, I think based on our previous conversation. We were sort of like sure we would we want the council to support requests around solar analysis and things like that I mean in a general sense, right We talked about solar at the high school solar the high school Well, no, it's more well, it's not just It's not just parking lots. So I think you're gonna say parking lots. Um, yeah, I think it would be good if it If the ecac Voted to actually support this as well as putting into, you know, whatever darkest draft General support for okay So I'm trying to think about what Maybe I'm maybe I'm confused a little bit about the process of this. So you submitted a resident capital request Are you being asked to edit it in some way for a final request? Or was that first request a final request? Mungano did ask me, um, if I still wanted to submit it or you know have it be considered Because the school already said, you know, he was Equating them. Yes. And I said, yes, definitely So No, but I I don't think that I think it's really 25 000 for doing a solar study That that's really what It needs the support And and it's going to more as it Moves through the process Did you you've submitted the request already? Is it this thing here? Yes. Okay. This is what I submitted and um It was a pretty sure the only President capital request It seems like that if this is submitted our choices to Decide whether to endorse it or not exactly we're not here to edit this I'm trying to think of reasons why we wouldn't exactly I can't think yeah I just want to be careful. We don't endorse anything and everything that comes along because in our endorsement isn't Doesn't carry much weight but this Seems solid and like I said, we've been talking about the concept for a while. So Maybe something along the lines of endorsing it in concepts Not necessarily endorsing everything down to the details Yeah, I think that that's what I would say as well because I actually think there may be a benefit to us Endorsing the concept generally like we support Residential capital requests around solar and renewable energy and things that support our climate action plan Right. Maybe there is another one and we don't know about it because my one like hiccup is that if we I don't want this to become an ECAC ask And then that have a different be looked at differently than a residential cost to look at and I don't want to You know, this is being I think that it's really powerful that it was being presented by you and two Students and I don't want to lose that and make it feel more like an e-cap thing So that would be my suggestion as well. I also feel like when When we put out a request that probably comes after the climate action plan It's got to be a much more strategic Exactly on a cold method of how did we come up with these requests as opposed to some of the requests that You know So that softer support doesn't do As much but perhaps that's all the ECACs willing to do at this point I would personally actually be comfortable. I support what you all are saying how I'd be comfortable with that I actually would be comfortable endorsing this proposal because I appreciate that we're anticipating kind of a delusion of our endorsement in the future. I appreciate that we want to Not conflate this proposal with an ECAC proposal And also, I don't actually think that we are yet close to living in a reality where that Super saturation of projects that we risk endorsing is a reality. So for that reason, I think that we are Over-prepressed So for that reason, I actually would be comfortable endorsing this. I don't Yeah, I'm I'm not Super Concerned I appreciate the concerns, but I don't really feel them about the risks of establishing presidents that may become problematic in some hypothetical future. We endorse it with those same caveats, but in addition While we haven't done a methodical look around everything around town I mean the high school and the middle school do strike me as probably being on that list at the end of the day I mean, they're big If not the largest municipal facilities They got big parking lots. They got big roofs. They got students being educated And it and we're not Endorsing construction we're endorsing exploration exploration construction and That seems like it should it is likely to Fall into a list of potential sites to explore. It isn't just it mentions, you know town Sites, you know to explore the possibilities for solar sighting Um Specifies the parking lots That's right. There's a section here that asks the consultant to look all across towns or other sites. Is it the town home sites or? Yeah, yeah, town home sites and municipal building of the detailed More and yeah, it would be on the limited high school It was but I you know, I would argue that this is you know Solar sighting is definitely something that we will Need information. We know that. Yeah, exactly. So in my view, we know that we need information on solar sighting as a committee we have Talked about how we want to support urgent actions to move that forward Um, there may be some procedural concerns with how this is shaking out in this particular instance But this is already there. It's on the table. It's ready to go. I think we should endorse it for that reason because it's there The reason the school put it on their budget request is because the students asked for it It's hard of why we did it too. And students have tried this before Yeah They were working on it for a couple of years Okay Okay, I move I move to uh What are we moving to do endorse Are we recommending recommending that the council recommending that the Recommending that who approved this Who who who who who who's this goji next It's gonna move a couple of places. So you don't want to endorse it too Well, that's just it's in to endorse. I moved to endorse uh, resident the resident capital request for 25 000 to explore a solar installation At the high school and further exploration of solar setting across the town All those in favor I think I have to recuse myself. Okay. All right, great. Um, Thanks for putting that in and knowing that we could do that Yeah, I did not know that The flood gates are gonna open now Next year Say again One resident request last year There was it was around the school. It was to get the crocker farm school Study to expand it, but you know, study what what could be done to the something smaller Um, thank you Okay, great. So Let's Um So Right, so I think we're good there. Um, so what we talked about we have about Half an hour left if we're tight. Um Um, what we talked about doing is beginning our sector discussion. So one of the things that We That we talked about last week was The fact that we know we're gonna have to move very quickly once we get with a climate action plan funding in place and once we get the Consultants in place we spend a lot of time talking about what we look for and a consultant the questions We wanted to ask and then we sort of turned it over to talking more about what what our Climate action plan excuse me is going to look like in terms of What sectors will it cover and how we're going to approach those those sectors? um, so we talked about the general kind of sectors of buildings Energy renewables, it's class slash cca and transportation um, and we talked about maybe getting into small Groups not to be You know permanent groups, but for maybe right now just breaking out for about the next 10 or 15 minutes together And starting to brainstorm a little bit in each of those sectors um, what we So where did I write these numbers? These questions Identify some initial projects that we might want to explore near term medium term longer term Um research other plans in those areas, which we're not going to do the next Minutes, but if we thought about it at all tee up questions analytical work and research We want the consultant to do for each of these sectors Look at high priorities outreach. Um And pull out ideas that are cross cutting or overarching So I think particularly this the team up the questions work and research might be a good little chunk We can think about right now for each sector like for transportation. What are some like high level questions kind of Work what we need what research do we want to do? Um, that will lead us to maybe a couple projects We would love to see spelled out specifically in the plan Um Do we want to split into groups or do we just want to pick a sector right now and Do that time to do each sector together? We started doing that and then we kind of just said actually let's not Split ourselves up yet. Let's Um, let's do it together So Um, and I don't think we have to I think let's throw out ideas if they maybe fall under the building category It doesn't matter. Let's just throw them out. Um, so renewable electricity I mean our ultimate goal would of course to be To meet our goals would be that we are 100 and zero electricity by 2050 half Renewable by 20 30 25 A lot more aggressive than that actually because electricity is the easiest thing to do if we're trying to go with 25 percent overall emissions reductions By 25 we're talking close to 100 percent by 2025. It's true. And electricity is not easy to do. It takes freaking forever So, uh Where are we now? We need to know What We need some data And we are talking all classes of renewables those are including privates behind the meter electricity renewable municipal owned institution owned And renewable that's on the grid Provided now by ever sourced by the future by cc right so we start with 14 percent What's that? Oh, that's this I mean We didn't we we could say because electricity is Easier simpler, but not easy We could say in addition 25 percent in addition to what the are Is required at the state level for our supply I mean I think it would be worth trying to figure out and maybe this exists elsewhere in the state of massachusetts or even in our region But given where we are What is the most efficient mix of renewables that we ought to be pursuing and have right like I mean because you know, for example, we just endorsed a resident capital request for siting solar Um, we did that because there's not because there's a posity of proposals for renewable installations. Um Do we need to be thinking more strategically about that in the future like you mentioned and How are we going to do that? So, yeah, what is the kind of optimal mix for us? What what percent? Yeah, I mean yeah, I mean part of it is also I mean what are their Electricity Is either, you know, we generated our own ourselves or we import it Or we just get it What's the mix in the group on the grid or the contract specifically for renewables? And I mean one of the questions is is What is the resources and not just solar but wind or whatever Exactly What what what I think would be interesting to do a resource assessment of solar opportunities in Amherst within the town boundaries um, and then those that are you know, maybe And this is Overlapped with the cca Opportunities for solar Very proximate to Amherst. I'm not sure how we would define that Um, but then also look at what are the Other forms of of renewables Massachusetts or within nice of knowing them that might also be The resource available to Amherst meaning that we could Invest in or that we could buy the net metering credits or we could Buy the wrecks, you know, there's different ways to think about this and you know I have to have that conversation sometime. What counts and we're not just talking about the municipality. We're talking about businesses and residents In my mind, it makes sense to Create the different categories with the municipality being one category the institutions being a category the grid being a category then private homeowners or private Business and dwellings. Thank you As another category and maybe that's the last category that needs the most help Given that the cca is moving forward on the municipal side The grid is a little bit bigger than we can chew on And the institutions are making new progress about our health So that leaves the citizens and the dwellings at that level What what is there something we can do to enhance increase the number that are that are solar rest Yeah, I like that approach because it sort of helps us narrow in on where we should focus our energy Um versus where some of the other things happening I don't just like to get an energy balance done like I mean what we have data from cca what the energy load is The electricity load is in that rest and so If that that tells us our load and we can sort of at least use that as a basis to compare that with how much we could generate within With the resources we have in town Energy efficiency quite frankly and then and then what is What is what percentage already comes in at 14 up out of 16 percent now 2020 From the grid what what what's the remainder that we need to I think 16 it was 1 percent per year it goes up 2 percent a year Do we know why you said the load is added to the land Or is it in the adjacent We have we have And this happens as you see it broken out Oh, yeah, yeah Customer type Yeah, I don't I don't have to check whether that includes the institutions. I don't think it does Maybe just basic service Yeah, I think it must be just basic service. Yeah Yeah, so anybody who's on a third party service The the beauty of the cca is that Takes care of the residential week. We know You know, it's like whatever we decide the cca level of Of green energy Can be at any given time that that's How much Everybody who's in Is using exactly Assuming we get this greatest cca you can imagine is there still a need for Dwellings to have solar on their own roofs behind their meters need Need to get closer to the 100 percent renewable It's not absolute need because you could always You know the retail electric the supplier that the contract with could be Specified to you know procure energy from other renewable energy resources That to serve the load in hammer so you don't need it, but Um, I think the cca would be looking to promote that I don't encourage that And even perhaps buy the wrecks So that If they're selling the wrecks does someone else can we count their solar? Yeah, well, that's a problem quite frankly with the 16 that comes in with the rps as well Those are all purchase racks. Yeah, those are all I mean those are all Claimed by the citizens of massachusetts No, it's claimed by the utilities they were hired Yes, well everywhere does I mean you mess up the rocks too. Yeah, I mean very unusual You can't afford it by to keep your solar racks So I don't think we would be affording anybody's solar wrecks at this in this market. I think it'd be really hard I mean obviously the the percentage of the of the revenue that is being wrecks now Is getting less and less as the smart program sort of gets more and more Lessons in it, but it's still really hard to afford solar On a limited budget if you hold on to your X We could actually buy the wrecks and sell them to people who can't put it on their roof To you know who want to go higher, you know higher in That's what a lot of the green CC gates do they they have an opt up. They've been opt out They have the standard. They have a opt up halfway to green and opt up 100 percent, which means they're paying Like I've signed up to pay extra for class one racks. So those are not solar racks in massachusetts Though those are different or at least not a recent solar Maximum Yeah The smart program, there's no more s-rex. Yeah, there's still wrecks So there's under Is as a potential thing to do is one of them Find ways to promote rooftop solar to residents and dwelling motorists I think it'd be helpful for us to I think it'd be helpful in the climbing action plan process to Really I sort of it's almost like a gap analysis Like what are the gaps that need to be filled with our climate action plan? And so what is happening to For citizen level solar and what can what gaps are being filmed there? Maybe it's just Making sure that information is getting out to people. I mean that's a gap we can fill Maybe it's understanding Better what the community solar angle is and whether that needs to be part of our plan To get that information out to citizens or whatever it might be So I think that would be really a helpful outcome of the to say okay looking at all this where we really need to focus our energy is Yeah throw something out or like zoning to make to make developers make sure that all the risks are solar ready or blah blah blah Or something like that like maybe there's policy specific policies that would seek out There's also specific programs too. So we did salarize once and I would actually I was thinking about it today That would be really nice to apply for the next round and we could include air sourced heat pumps as part of that So it's not just solar. It's also You know other technology as well. I think we should apply for doing both When when is that Particularly exciting if we had the cca In a little further along right integrated into the cca Yeah What's that? Why would we wait? Well, I'm not sure I'm saying that it would be nice if we had the cca framework to do the solarized program It's part of the cca framework. They're very compatible with each other And so it's a lost opportunity if we don't I can not suggest But but once we have cca we can provide additional incentives For people to do it. So not everyone's going to be able to afford a $10,000, you know Heat pump system for whole house, you know, so Solarized program is that something that requires a favorite time from talent? Or is that something that is run by a Cursor company. So the way it's structured is that So the last time we did it I served as the I did the application but I did some outreach and we put together I Put together a solar team And so the solar team does they're really the ones that will go out and promote the program They're volunteers there is one the so the coach Is paid it's just a stipend It was like $500. So the coach has paid a stipend But the rest of the team basically volunteers and our coach didn't even keep the stipend basically just donated it to the effort. So So it's the staff time for me up front the application process Took quite a bit of time, you know, but I'm but I fully expect that I'll be doing this again So it's not like it's a new thing. It's something I plan on hoping to do Um So that takes a lot of upfront work once it gets going once the team is put together Um, the team like I said does a lot of the outreach and events and things creates events and opportunities They did door to door. They did all kinds of really creative stuff But they also worked really closely with our solar developer consultant contractor Which is northeast solar and they did quite a bit on their own as well Did northeast apply? Yes. So it's the way the program is structured. It's a state program They vet all of the contractors so that we basically get to say, you know We put in our application and they actually say we would like to work with these towns So they identify which towns they want to work with and then we're provided with a list of who the contractors are and then we proceed to sort of Go through their, you know our responses and they submit information to us and we I think we ended up interviewing maybe four I think we had five I think there were one or two companies We just automatically wrote off and said no But we interviewed four different companies and we didn't go to the one with the one that had the best price We went with the one that had the most local experience and who we felt would be a really good partner And they were excellent They did a great job And you think there's capacity to repeat that and there'd be plenty of business Opportunity for new installations Well part of it is that I think we include the air source heat pump this time because the first time is only solar This time I think you know the air source heat pump, you know Technology people are starting to be more familiar with it. Yeah So I think we'd have to do an educational component to that which is a little more than we did even with the solar but um I think it's time And that's part of the state program Do you have to I think we have to I think it's I haven't yeah, I'm pretty sure they must have to be smart Yeah And is there energy efficiency measures enrolled into that? Um insulation air sealing that kind of thing I think maybe with the air source heat pump there could be and the way it was We we handled that with the solarized program was that people it was recommended that people first contact smarts Um Massive and work message get an audit and then sort of you know, so everyone who did it had to at least have had an audit first Let's make it too much in the weeds So I think it does make me think that in our climate action plan We may be proposing that we increase our use of electricity We need to electrify everything you need to have things ready and that actually is going to increase our electricity emissions. Yeah, I think so I think that's a good point. Um and this is actually um Something that I've been been drafting out which I think Could be a nice framework for each of our sections or each of our sort of sectors Is sort of like the first question. Where are we now? What's our load? What is our current renewables? Where do we need to go? What's our load going to look like in the future to meet our goals? Probably a lot more electricity What can we do locally? What is our resource assessment? What's our most efficient mix of renewables? um I think within where do we need to go? We need to kind of determine how we're going to approach the credit question um What maybe interterm interim sector level goals should we be setting around some of that? What actions are happening in the following categories and how far will they get us towards our goal? versus what are the gaps or municipalities and institutions and dwellers and citizens and then What are the gaps that need to be filled and how are they going to be filled by who? What actions do we need to take what projects what policies what programs and grants what partnerships? And then ending the section with like okay, and then here are the pilot projects that we're gonna Like that would be a in my mind. That's a solid analysis of renewable energy for a climate action plan we We need to have something that takes us to 25 to 30 to 50, right? So Yeah, so maybe that comes in with the gaps and what do they and and what do they need filled in what? pilot projects or we could expand that to be pilot projects into Longer term projects. I think something that we've talked about in the past is whether we want this to be seen as I think we have discussed not wanting to plan very specifically out all the way because we don't know what's going to happen, but rather Frame it out to what our long-term goals are and then identify some shorter term projects And then also identify within the climate action plan how we're going to update those in a more concise way The gap analysis could give us a sense as to we need to increase rooftop sober by 30 percent That would move us this far towards the mutuality We need to increase efficiency in homes by x percent and that could translate into a number of homes that do That's a program We need to not build buildings that will carbon, but that means they're going to be electric Have solar or yeah But yeah, so those are going to be translated into there may be guesses whether 30 percent Additional solar will be probably back in the aqua Figure out how much that would move the needle towards Neutrality goals, but I'd be happy to do it just a quick analysis Could do it, but What proof of solar has there been in massachusetts? I mean in average, you know from 14 or what the beginning of solar was and sort of look and compare that to massachusetts Generally, you see if we're on a trajectory that's Too slow or higher or slower than the normal than the average But then also use that to say okay at this pace Are we getting to 20 percent at uh, whatever year or are we like Woefully, woefully short or are we just doing great? It's a deal we are as as if for anybody by town Yeah, not by Yeah, by town. It won't give you the address So you can see every year how much new solar was installed And it's um, yeah, it should be accurate for this purpose And I can divide it down to whatever Small project be residential and then there's some larger projects to Well, uh, well, they the do we are database Databases they wouldn't have address specific for residential Oh, you mean Yeah Be able to I don't know. We need to know addresses. We just want to know what the cross Yeah, I was gonna say not addresses just sort of like a Dishonoring the permits the electrical permits. Yeah, they're gonna have Yeah, we have I mean we have the information. It's just a matter of does someone have the time Well, so does the town want to put out information like specific You do clean neighborhood that's what I'm saying But it wouldn't be by how you know, there'd be sort of a A general dot not necessarily a specific house Yeah, okay Okay, so I think that's a good really good start I think if we could brainstorm that for each of the other sectors next time um As well as a couple other sections that we've talked about I mean we certainly talked about education being a part of our plan Um, we also need to build, you know, what we forgot is resiliency in here though. We need to fit that in somewhere um Which is on the electricity side just I think in this renewable part We also want to look at the role and build out of energy storage because You know, we you can't run the whole town on solar because then nobody has anything at night time or whatever We do much in the daytime, but also because part of the goal of Getting more renewables is also reducing peak loads and what the cca is Not reducing improving the load curve associated with the uh with the town and so um, you know bringing in some in that analysis of the amount of storage that makes sense and potentially where the where storage is located and how it's operated And it raises a lot of questions, but also it won't do to operate at all. That's something That's resiliency, and it's a We also need to And I would say that and I know this isn't going to specifically speak to um carbon reductions, but they're because this was an mvp grant. We do need to look at, um You know some some of them the larger vulnerabilities in town and flooding there's specific neighborhood flooding Um, that we need to sort of look at resiliency in those terms as well. We also Could you know, I don't think resiliency is Necessarily a totally separate thing. We should think of it in each of the sectors. So any new electric The wires should be underground That's resiliency micro grids connected to So Okay, so I think we could continue that next time um I think we will have a really good sort of foundation with which to Could you give us more specific problems before next meeting? Yes, I'll share what I just typed up um, if you have any comments on it Send them just to me. Um, and then I'll throw out the next the other like sections. We've been talking about um, so transportation buildings education town I've caught it town capacity, but that was our discussion about staffing levels and things like that and then updating the plan These are just in my mind sections that we want to make sure are part of the Climate action plan and there's probably others that I missed. Did you just type that out as we were talking? Yes, yeah, that was brilliant I think this is like my skill I have a few and this is what I have um, so Uh Okay, great. So I think we're actually gonna wrap um any public comment to close out the meeting most interesting. Thank you Um, okay, so next Meeting we'll go through that. We'll look at the annual report or the memo Um, I'll share any updates from my email with paugh If not before then and I think that's it and we'll Look at questions about, um Questions for the interview process. Yes. Okay, great Thank you That sounds good. Oh, yes adjourn