 Good afternoon everybody. Okay, so first let's talk about the meeting minutes taker. I thought the next person was Laura and she is not going to be able to make the call. So let's see it's Jesse. I thought you went recently, Jesse. Can you take minutes. Absolutely. Thank you. Okay, so let me share my screen. Thank you, Jesse. Okay. So, um, we start off with this every every meeting and although this is my last meeting with ECAC, our sense of purpose as ECAC will endure and, you know, you know, we're, again, we're here to engage the, the town and educate the town, the staff, the council, we're here to educate the community. We're here to make decisions that will address the needs of the vulnerable. And my hope is that we'll continue to move with the same level of rigor, if not faster. And my hope is also that we continue to build strong relationships with the town and the community and not just Amherst is the town but beyond Amherst because climate changes is not a local problem. So I just hope that we continue all the great work that you've all put in and I'll be on the sidelines watching but rooting for all of you. So, with that, we'll talk about our, we talked about the town manager goals, our roadmap, the five pillars that we're all working on, and we'll talk about the annual report on the call today. Again, our on heat pumps, region and state trends, solar, transportation and pace. Our metrics and again this can change depending on, you know, what the next person sharing will be but Steve, I think had a really nice idea as part of the report to include YouTube views for the education series that we've started. And so that could be another metric that we can look into, along with the attendees will come into this meeting. And then in terms of open actions. This is fairly old it's been a while I don't know if anybody else has been documenting actions because I missed a few meetings. Don couple of items for you on pace. Any updates here. I really don't. I've been basically gone for the last month. So, okay. So it is still open these two action items, right. Yep. Okay. The third action for me. So I did connect with the town manager the town council but Jesse, you got this at this point right the plan. I don't know what the plan is but can you share it with the rest of the group here. Okay, we've got it in the agenda there's a line for for talking about it. Oh, no, we can wait. Yeah, let's do that. Okay. Thank you. So the next one is, I guess it's in progress so we're going to push the specialized cord forward. Jesse will talk about it. The draft letter for the tune DPU members. This action item. We say we're going to proceed with this or pause. Andra, you were going to work on this one. I thought we tabled that we did with the with the rationale that we wanted the town council to work on the stretch code the new specialized code and not distract them with this letter. That's my memory. Okay. And the same goes with the next one. We said, we're not going to work on it. Right. I think so Laurie was leading that up a little bit. Okay. Sorry, I'm having a little trouble with my zoom. I dropped. But yeah, I think I think we kind of backed off from that. Okay. And then this is complete. We should have moved this to complete and then questions for he pan people discussion. I think that's complete. And then. Yeah, that's complete too. Okay. So we don't have anything new, or the last couple of meetings that we talked about that are that we want to track. We don't have anything new that we know, remember. So I think the focus was on the specialized code is kind of a next step. Okay. Which is captured here and Jesse will talk about it. Okay. All right. Thanks Stephanie. Sure. Okay. So the next part of the agenda is probably common. So, Martha Hanner, you can go ahead and unmute yourself. I would just like to take the opportunity to publicly thank Basu for your leadership this past year. It's been a pleasure to work with you. The one time that I gave a presentation and I've appreciated your professionalism and your dedication and how you're working to try to move forward on on several different fronts from the current report. So, thanks so much. And my best wishes to you for your success and whatever is your next endeavors here. And I certainly hope the ECAC can continue to live up to your high standards. So thank you. Thank you, Mark. And thank you for attending these meetings every, every two weeks. So really appreciate you being here. Thank you. If anyone else has a comment. Please raise your hand and I will let you unmute. It looks like Anna is here. Okay. Yeah. No, no comments. Yeah. Okay. Let's move on to the next part of the agenda. Stella is Stella here. Yeah. Okay. Actually, can I, can I, can I just jump in? I am wondering if, if I know Anna can stay until about 515 and then has to leave and it would probably make sense to do this update on the specialized code while she's present. I'm wondering about bumping that up in the agenda. I think they are present here because that, that's limited. Does anyone mind if we did that? I think we're good. Jesse. So yeah, why don't we go ahead and start with the specialized court then. All right. So this is, let's see. So, Anna has is going to be the sponsor in the town council. And we have been working together last week and this week to kind of put together and hone in, take Lori's presentation. And kind of get it a little shorter, but put together a presentation. We're actually going to present this to the town council on Monday, which is next week on the 26th. And it would love to be wonderful for anyone who can attend. Physically or virtually that would be great. And if you know people in the industry as well, but I don't think that that this is the meeting where it's going to turn into a large public conversation. My sense is what's really going to happen. Let me just grab my notes here. What's really going to happen is we're going to say this is a recommendation from the ECAC and, and we're at our sponsor for this. And then what will likely happen is the town council will refer this to the CRC who will just go do a deeper dive and really look at the implications. And it is likely that we might even during that have the opportunity to meet with the CRC or they. I'm not exactly sure how that works, but maybe I'll go with Anna for one of their meetings or something like that. And then it goes back to the council for a vote and, and given that it is June. This is not going to happen before. I'm not getting a text here. So if we want to just let Anna into the room she can interrupt me and, and give a better. I don't know if you can do that Stephanie. But then it goes so essentially, the goal I think is to have the council vote on this before January 1st, and then give it six months to enact before July of 2024. So we're, I think we were very successful to get on the agenda as soon as we did. But given the way that this process sort of has to go. It's not going to, this is not going to be, I don't think I don't see unless someone. Yeah, I don't see any way that this can be in place before July 2024 so it's going to be about a year. Which I think is reasonable. I've had really positive meetings with the town inspection services and Stephanie. So everything's going very positively and very well, but I do think it's a slow process which I think is fine. It's, it's, it feels like it is very much going to happen. But I don't want it needs to go at a reasonable pace where you know everyone invested in this all the stakeholders will have time to see it and respond and give input, etc. Does that sound about right. Are you asking me Jesse. All right, or Stephanie. I guess I will I'll share my perspective and then Stephanie maybe you can fact check me if I if I get anything wrong. The, yes, Jesse you you've got it right so it'll come to council twice. And so it'll come to us for an initial referral it'll go to the Community Resources Committee they deal with housing and building codes and all of that. The only thing that I would maybe add is that there, there are three, the three different stages of this, having voices, make a little noise can be really helpful so the first time the council sees this will be Monday I'm, I'm finishing the memo for Athena puts up with a lot for me. And so I'm finishing the memo up now for the packet that kind of just outlines what the code is and why it's important. And then Jesse has been kind enough to offer to come do that to work on the presentation and present to the council. The first vote is to refer it. And so we still have to clear that hurdle it needs to get a referral which basically is the council saying we want to spend time on this we want to move forward with this committee debates it this is. I mean this code is a little bit different because we can't edit it. So it's really just an up or down there. We're not allowed to change it. And so I don't anticipate that it'll take a very, very long time in committee but I think Jesse your timeline is in that we won't. The council is is taking trying to ease up for the summer to give the staff a little bit of a break and so we're not meeting as much. So in order to give at least a six month head start for folks once we ideally pass this January. So you said no you said July there we go July 2024 would be the the implementation date. It will get voted on in committee in terms of just a recommendation it comes back to the council either way. Hopefully that will we're anticipating I'm hoping that will happen around in August or September, and we'll go from there. Then the council votes on it again. I think that that's about it what's going to be in the Council packet. If this is helpful is my memo, which again is just kind of a quick overview why this matters what it does. I'm going to include the actual code even though it's really confusing because I think that's relevant to include. And then there was a really good resource from Watertown when they passed this they did a grid. They did a grid where they compared the, the specialized code and then the opt in or the normal stretch code excuse me and then the specialized code to show where the differences were and that's really the kind of the key, the key thing that I think most folks are going to want to look at. So how could, if y'all want to write in or come speak or call in or however you want to make public comment public comment is always really helpful, especially from from folks who are industry experts so, or who care that that helps to. I think that's on Monday. Sorry on Monday it's just going to be introducing it. And then a yes or no decision made by the council, whether to move forward with it or not. That's the committee. Yes. Yeah, okay. Yep. And usually that's dependent on what if people think it's a good use of our time and energy. So I think that this is where that this is where the public comment can be really helpful in terms of telling your counselors why you think they should be spending time on this. What do you think the committee should be moving forward with it. That's that's this part of public comment is like why this is important why it matters. I mean, that's kind of all the public comment but that is the that is the vote on Monday is to refer it to committee it might be quick. Honestly, I have no way of guessing what's going to take a lot of time and what's not I have tried and been very wrong before so I stopped trying to guess what'll go quickly and what'll go slowly. Is it a unanimous voting or to go through. No, it requires a majority, it requires an, I believe it's a simple majority vote to go to committee. What I need to check on is because I'll check on what the ultimate vote needs to be it's not a zoning code so I think it's just a simple majority but I'll confirm that. Yeah, I was just thinking Jesse if we should bring somebody from the 17 communities who have avoided for this code, would it help if we can bring someone in from one of the towns. Just to add another layer there and saying why they did it. I think it might be. I guess, from my perspective that might be helpful I don't think you need to scramble for that for Monday necessarily but they could always write a letter about their experience or, you know, call into the committee meetings as well as to the to the full council when it comes back. But I mean if you want to that would be a really interesting perspective to have in my opinion I don't know Jesse or Stephanie if you have any other thoughts on on that. I, yeah, we could I wonder about it. I don't imagine. I don't know how to do that for Monday, but, but that might be worth just mentioning. There's that there are 17 communities and that might be a good place to start for us to reach out and maybe bring that voice to the CRC. I'm, yeah, I like that. I like that concept I'm not. I don't, I'm not sure how to. I don't know if any community, and if there's any community that can say, you know, it's great. We love having the specialized code I just don't think I just don't even know if any buildings have even been permitted under the specialist code yet, it might be. I'll try to find out. I like that. And I know what happens if you all won't know, do we get another chance at it, sometimes soon or do we have to wait. Gosh, that's a really good question I think that you could think about a way to represent it but I'm pretty sure it's a no is a no. So in terms of in terms of this, I will say a referral typically those are a little bit easier to get than a final vote, because often if people have questions they want to see the committee answer their questions. But I think that for you all in terms of getting the referral vote, I don't I to be clear I don't necessarily anticipate it being a problem. I think really appealing to in comments if you make comments, I might consider, including something about how this is helping us reach our goals. You all could, you know, endorse this at this meeting and carry it forward and I guess you kind of have because you wanted to do it to us so I think you know it's. Yeah. Oh great yeah so I think that like, that's really helpful I think talking about how this helps us to reach our goals is going to be the important part for the referral. And, and, and general voting but I think we're going to get, we'll get more into the details of it when it comes down to fully adopting or not. Okay, thanks Anna. Yeah. Any other questions from or Jesse. Vasu if I might I'd love to also take just 20 seconds to also thank you for everything that you've done for ECAC I think that this has been you've your grid, your implementation grid and all of the work that you've done has been really impressive and it's been pretty great to know that this committee is is driving a lot of this work right you all are absolutely the engine here and anything that we can do to support that carrying it forward we will do but Vasu a lot of that momentum came from you and so we're really I'm really grateful to you for for all your work and generally to all of you as a committee but I want to want to shout out Vasu in this moment too so thank you. Thanks. All right I'm going to return to the attendees unless anybody has any questions but y'all know how to reach me and I will see most of you on on Monday in the audience probably but still. Thank you. Thanks. Anything else Jesse on specialized code. No, I'm just going to spend the weekend sort of brushing up and trying to be ready for questions on Monday. You know that you know Laurie did most of the work we're we're waiting to hear back from Stephanie on on just some some feedback from the town and now it's been a real actually it's been a great kind of ECAC success story up till now kind of every you know Vasu you got it going Laurie pick up the ball handed it to me it's been fairly seamless as far as sort of carrying the work forward, which has been great and glad to have the baton and hope to see someone, all of you on Monday. And what kind is that on Monday Jesse, you know, you think I would. Well they're meeting started 630 but it could be a while before just no. Public comment is all at the beginning. Right, but. I wanted to start the presentation. Right. 630 is good enough for me. Thank you. Start over to you for transportation updates. Yeah. So, we were actually just visiting the other side of the family in Germany, and it was very inspiring and sometimes depressing transport wise. But, but I think I forgot at the last meeting to like mentioned the most important thing that came out of the conversation with tack, which is that somebody on tack and I apologize I forget who had the really good idea that EECAC and tack could collaborate to really try to have a plan for active transport at the new school, because Fort River is that like is not, not a friendly place to like walk bike or roll to. So the idea came up to somehow work together to really make sure that like, there's infrastructure there for that and have that be the thing that like EECAC and tack really collaborate to get going. So I guess my question for the committee is if people think that seems reasonable what the kind of what our role could be whether it's purely advocacy or working with tack to actually like come up with what we think the actual infrastructure should be and who that goes through like presumably the town manager like is that a letter. So what channel and how. So I guess there's two questions one is, is do people like that idea and two is if people like that idea then what how to implement. I like the idea. Implementing joint to committees to advise on a plan. I think that we have to be given the task to do it by somebody for it to be worth investing a lot of time. I mean I think we'd also want to see the plans because like for all we know they're optimistically there is already a plan, but maybe there's not. But I presumably if there's a plan and the plans for the new school would end up would include that. Question one. I love the idea. And number two how to do it and be careful not to have it kind of create work for the design team who may. They, they, there are probably experts involved. And so it might be, I wonder if different. Just a joint tack ECAC. I think that's a really good letter even to, to the building committee to say like, we encourage you to pursue these things. I think if we're involved in a sort of nuts and bolts way, I can't imagine that being productive. I think we would get in the way more than, but, but it just. If they proceeded by a casual conversation with the building committee. Are you guys already doing this. And if they are, then we write a letter to say how great it is or something instead of do this thing that you're already doing. Yeah, I'm a person agree with Jesse. Thanks for the comment. Dwayne. Yeah, I've a third the idea that's a good idea. For sure. The idea of getting more non vehicle transportation to the schools sounds like a win-win for the students and for the community. I guess, in advance of writing or reaching out to the planning committee or to the town. I do wonder if there's any sort of back of the envelope calculations or analysis or thinking that we can do might do to sort of move forward about how potentially exciting this could be and an innovative. Well, one metric of greenhouse gas reductions, but also in terms of what indeed, you know, Fort River is not in the middle of town like the current. Well, while would I guess it is. So it's a little bit more challenging that way but you know what would be just at a high level, some of the solutions we would be thinking about to, to, or ideas that we would want to move forward with the town. It has to do so much with the planning of the school except it's more in terms of, you know, how do you have corridors for this type of transportation from major parts of town to that site, for example. And is there something, especially since we have three or four years or however long it's going to take to build the school. So it's going to take years after that to operate the school. You know, some thinking about maybe some new new pathways to get kids to to that school without getting on the roads. Thanks. Does that help Stella. I think so. So, I think it sounds like it starts with figuring out just who who's responsible for for planning this. Right. And what the current, what the categories for sure. Of their design is right because and then drafting some sort of letter either supporting what's already going on or suggesting that this is something of high priority to the community. Yeah. Does anybody know who who like, who would have that information like is it the town council or is it the design team or like where in the design process. Kathy Shane is the counselor who's chair of the committee or co chair or something. And so we could have her come talk to us. Or we could have one of the design team members, but I think maybe it would be good to start at the council level. Yeah, that sounds good. That makes a lot of sense. I mean, I wonder like if something, because whenever, well, this is a little bit of a sidebar whenever I think about the like widening route nine project like I don't understand why there isn't public transit being put in if they're widening route nine already like it blows my mind so like how can we not repeat that. Like, like why isn't there like a protected bike lane or like a street car, you know, like a green man. Dedicated bus lane maybe you know, like, I want street cars back. Yeah, that sounds good. I'll reach out to Kathy Shane, then and see if she would maybe come and be willing to talk and figure out what's going on with that. I mean, I just, you know, want to point out that it's it's not something that's extremely urgent right because we're talking I think that green mentioned it's going to take three four years but obviously we can stop planning ahead but how soon ahead do we want to get right and something to think about. I think that what tack raised also is, is one of the reasons that this would be helpful is because like, it could potentially be kind of a vehicle for for community education to, given that involves like the new school and there's so much conversation around the new school so I think the, in some ways that's an argument in favor of a very public drawn out discussion of that. Yeah. Thanks so. Yeah, of course. Okay, I forgot. We need to work on minutes from last meeting so let's do that. Did everybody get a chance to review the meeting minutes. Anybody want to move to accept. Okay. Second. Hey, and voice vote in no particular order. Allison. Yep, John you. Abstain. Okay, and roof. Yes. Selman. Yes. Recker. Yes. Regevan. Abstain. D. Abstain. Rose. Yes. Okay, I just lost track. That's like one, two, three, four. I had four of you. Okay. Minutes are approved. Thank you. Okay, let's move on to pace. Was that when I was 430. Yeah, I got it. Well, it's 403. It's all right, Jesse. I got it. No worries. Don any updates on pace. I think you mentioned it earlier. Skip it. This meeting talk about it. At the next meeting is that good. You don't need it by the way. Sorry. Yeah, we could talk about it at next meeting. I will be at the next meeting and. I will be at the next meeting. Okay. Which based with Stephanie before that, just so we can see where things lie with. The agency that's putting together the. New. Guidance. For use of the program. Okay. We'll be ready in two weeks. John or do you need more time? I'm more than welcome to have a conversation with Stephanie and the interim and do whatever work I need to do. I just don't know where the agency is on. On putting together the guidance for the extension of the pace program. To new construction, which is what the big deal is. Okay. I guess that's just hold off then for the meeting in a month then instead of the next meeting. We'll talk about solar and heat pump. I mean, they did. Correct me if I'm wrong, Stephanie. I think they thought they would have these. Guidance. Data out this summer. So I hope. We'll have it, but it's an agency and I. You know, they'll have it when they have it. Yeah. We're waiting on mass development and they. I think they were. Cautiously optimistic. So I wouldn't be surprised if they're not ready yet. But I have the contact information and I can reach out. Okay. All right. The next part is the annual report. And I think this is going to take the bulk of our time. So. Let me share my screen. So thank you all for your feedback. And I got a large feedback five minutes ago, so I didn't get a chance to review it, but comments were around the IRA funds, but let's go through the format here. Make sure everybody's aligned with the format and then we'll go through the wording as well. So I have the PDF file here that I'm sharing. And then on my other screen, I have my word document that I'll continue editing. So this is going to be the format for. The annual report. We'll, we'll start with the high level summary. And then those five pillars that we're working on state and region policies, heat pumps, solar transportation pace. And we'll talk about other accomplishments, community engagement, make some high level recommendations for the town manager for calendar for town manager goals for calendar year 2024. And then just a reference to section with links. And my hope is, and you all can decide this, that we shared this at a town council meeting. If that's possible. I think it'll be much more beneficial than just sending a report and having hoping that they will review it. So I'll leave it up to all of you to decide, but that would be my recommendation to review this, but with the town council. So I'll just pause here. Let's make sure we're reading every sentence here and giving me any feedback and I'll make some, I'll make changes. Like here. And if you have comments to speak up. You don't have to raise your hand. I don't know what you all thought about this. And if we should keep this or not. Just figured we can have a standardized approach and when we submit the report. And the annual spend review. And then review of town manager goals. And I was originally thinking that I also include something around when we report out to not just submitting the annual report, but reporting that to the town council, but I removed it. So I just have review of goals instead the next year. I just have one. This is such a little thing, but. The Earth Day Festival is really called, it's called the sustainability festival. So why not just call it that? Okay. And I just want to say that that name was. Chosen from a previous committee. Many iterations ago, it was an energy task force, but they're the ones who came up with the name. So of sustainability festival. So that's why I. Kind of feel we should stick with it. Yep. Yep. Okay. Okay. I think that last blue square that just scrolled off the top is pace. Supposed to be all caps. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Yep. Thanks to page two. We'll talk about the ones in yellow. That I'm either questioning or just new updates. Possibly Laura and other books. I think that's where I got the data or information. If people need more information, I think the comment. Can you stop scrolling for a second? Yes. For the aggregation plan. I think you said, hold on. The fruition of that work is noted this year with the completion of the aggregation application. It's not completed yet. It hasn't been submitted. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think the collection of all the public comment is part of that process. So. There's still materials being gathered. So I wouldn't say it's a complete. Application yet. Okay. You'd say the development. With the devil of end of the. Yeah. Okay. Of the aggregation application. Yeah. Yes. And Laura just sent this. I didn't get a chance to. Edit the information. I'm not sure what Laura is referencing there. But it seems out of place in that set of bullets, because it's talks about other municipalities. And Greenfield savings bank is not that. Yeah. Yeah, I have to look at the comment that Laura made. Let's see. Yeah, she's. Yeah, her comment is new green bank in Massachusetts. That is combined with affordable housing. So yeah, I. Oh, that's, that's not the Greenfield savings. That's the, the climate bank. I think it's called her clean bank. That's under. Development. Climate bank. Climate bank climate bank. Oh, is that what it's called? Okay. There is also legislation for a green bank. And what town is that. What? No, no, it's statewide. Okay. It's the, it's being established by the governor. Got it. Okay. To fund low income retrofit. Primarily. Okay. Do we want to try to work some of this. Right now. So maybe not, but I. I'd argue maybe it should go in the next category of what's needed from the town and what's needed from the town of somebody to. You know, go ahead and take advantage of it as much as possible. It's also possible that should go up under state and regional. Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's probably a better place. So here. This is under state and regional. Andra. So I think it can go in what's needed from town under a state. And region. I think it makes sense that it's there. Under. Okay. Do you agree, Andra? I'm sorry. I must be looking at an old. Um, version. I'm looking at someone that came with the. I've made updates. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I've made updates to it. So. Yeah. So I'm trying to follow along. Why don't I email this to you right now, Andra? Okay. So you can follow along. It is under. State and region trends. Okay. Great. I just emailed it to you. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. And then under you wrote this. And about the specialized code and. I don't think. The sentence makes sense. So I left it there. So we can have a conversation about it because the specialized code is not just about all electric buildings. It also has mixed fuel. This is like different parameters and different. Yeah, it's sort of. It's a little bit of a simplification to say all electric. And it's also. Not just about the energy source. It's about. You know, the. A lot more than that as well. So. We could probably word Smith it to. Be more. General. Yeah. Jesse, what would you recommend here? Buildings with low rehearse ratings or. Would it be a different definition. Meanwhile, sentence that you've got highlighted. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean it's like. Yeah. You're. You can't change the speed at which a building permit is granted. That would be illegal. So. So I, I, you know, I think. Maybe I might replace that with. Educator facilitate. Awareness of the implications of the. That it's driving building construction. I'm just not, I mean. I'm not sure to what's highlighted. It's a separate thing. And it would be. Tricky. I just really put it in there to have something. Knowing knowing that. I don't want anyone, you know, rushing in to put a building permit in before the specialist. Code is going to require them to do something. They'd rather not do, you know, it's like, if we can. Put it out there in just. You know, this is our intention. This is the way we're going. We really support developers who will support this goal. You know. I know you can't actually. Speed up or slow down. I mean, we could encourage. You could encourage people to adopt the. The premises of the code before it is formal, you know, before it becomes law. Yes. Yes. Knowing that this is how it's going in the direction that's going. Yeah. Tell people they tell people they don't have to wait until July. The year from July. You can get a great, you can get a great all electric building anytime. Yeah. I think that since this is under what's needed from town, it would be. Something like a statement from town. Encouraging developers to be proactive. In. Adopting the guidelines of the specialized code. Provide, provide information. I mean. We're good. It's encouraging. People to do. I mean, it's, it's very shaky ground and way out of, it would be way out of their lane. And inappropriate for them to tell people how to do things, but here's information about. The code that's going to be happening in a year. There's a lot of great stuff in here. You don't have to wait. You sort of neutrally provide that information. Okay. We'll get the advocates onto it then. So is that makes sense here, Jesse. There's a downside to that, Jesse. If you give them information, they may, they may not even be aware that the specialized code is coming. And it may actually speed up their, their desire to apply. This is, this is my concern, Don. I mean, there's a lot of people who aren't paying attention. To the fact that there might be a new specialized code. And low and behold, we give them information. And the next thing we're running in to get their application before July. I get their application approved. Well, I'm not so worried about one. For two houses. I'm concerned about large buildings. And that would just be such. A bad etiquette. I think she's her developer. To do that. Unless they're making it an all electric building anyway. Yeah. Maybe take it out. Just. Adopt a specialized code is the recommendation. I was just going to say there's really nothing we could do. I mean, the town can't do anything about that because people will, you know, I mean you'll. If there's a change in code coming. There may be some people who will take advantage, but I don't think it's going to be this mad rush. All of a sudden of all these people trying to build. Buildings with fossil fuels. I hope not. I don't think so. Well, they would have to, it would have to be. Oil. Propane. I don't think it's going to happen. They're not going to rush. They'd have to have their plans and everything already. And it's just such a long process. I don't think it's going to happen. Okay. And then this was. Laura's comment. And I didn't get a chance to read the rest of the commentary that she made. Do you want to talk about this? Is this. Stephanie based on what you know, IRA funds still available. Absolutely. Yeah. Oh yeah. I mean, they're just folks are still trying to sort of get a handle on how to access them. So I don't think. Yeah. Okay. You could even just leave it. You know, from. Average IRA funds for municipal projects. You could even just say that. And then. We'll have to work some of this. We could do it now or we could do it later, but. We'll do the chime in if you want. Otherwise we'll go to the next section of everybody's good with, is everybody good with whatever else is in the. Region and state policy trends. We won't get a chance to read it. Okay. He pumps. Is that true that HVAC is the biggest contributor? Is that true? Is that true that HVAC is the biggest contributor of carbon emissions? Because I thought it was like buildings broadly. Is that. Is. Yeah. Buildings are. Yeah. Putting us on contributors. Next section is solar. Steve and Dwayne. Should I say members? Or should I say. ECAC participated. Just leave it at that. Yeah. It's really just one. Yeah. Member. On that task. That working group. Yeah. Okay. I'll say. You see. Now that I'm looking at this. That ECAC also prepared a memo that. Maybe that's a separate bullet point. Because that's a, that's sort of separate from the solar bylaw working group. Yep. So it might just be ECAC prepared a memo. Get rid of the alt. So. There we go. You can abbreviate the solar bylaw working group at that point. Yeah. And Stephanie, you will send me the link when that's ready. On Friday. Yeah. This looks fine. Yeah. One of the public comments we got at our last meeting was, I think for questioning why we are excluding the colleges and the universities. And that just. Cross my mind. And maybe we want to at some point. Re-explain. Why we have done that. And our analysis. I don't know if that has to be done. Should we say. If we could, if we can remember exactly the justification and I concise language. Our whole annual report is only about. The. Yeah. That's true. Institutions. And so maybe that just needs to be right up front. Reminder. I think so. Because that's our metrics with greenhouse gas emissions generally. And we're not. We're not trying to promote heat pumps to the. Campuses either, for example. Summary page. Yeah. I think so. Or I can just include it here. Well, I think because. They have their own. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Well, I think because they have their own active. Climate action plan or something. Yeah. I think it needs to be right up front. A reminder that that's what the carp is about. I would just pluralize that plans because it's. Oh yeah. Yeah. And I think I don't know if it's worth saying it here, but I also sort of like, I remember we made this decision to not just, we're doing and sort of unfairly benefit our numbers. We wanted to have the numbers come from. We wanted it to be harder to achieve our numbers. If I'm not mistaken, which I think is a good thing. You know, so he wanted to avoid. Double counting or the. View of double counting in terms of the, you know, the colleges and I know the university is going to. Promote their own numbers to the. To outs to the state and to outsiders. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah, redundant. Instead of double depending redundant. But I think that this needs to be about the whole report. As well. You could be a reminder here if need be, but. Redundant. The greenhouse gas emissions counting. Inventory assessment. Sure. No, I would, as per Andre, I would suggest that that. That goes up higher. Not in the solar section, for example. So I'll put it in the summary. Yeah. Yeah, I. I wasn't opposed to leaving some of it in. Yeah. Need to be there. Just basically that doesn't include the solar at the university, at the campuses. Because they are. Working under their own climate. Yeah. I mean, you're saying added in both places, right? Yeah. But not, I wouldn't add the greenhouse gas inventory here. Yeah. Yeah. On solar. Solar and climate goals. Maybe. And plants. Plants. I want to say plants. Okay. And then so back here in the summary. Colleges. I think we have. We have some. In this report. Okay. Or actions. To. Support. Yeah, after the bit, about 25% reduction by. 2025. Before the five focus areas. actions related to quality of means, we're not going to support it today, but they're going to come in and try and play. Just leave it at that. Let's go back to our analysis. I might add to the what's needed from town is not just continued leadership with ECAC, but also continued engagement of the community given that there's so much interest in the community. Continued relationship with ECAC support. I would just make that a separate bullet because it really, it's different. Yes. Yes. It's more broad than the municipal projects. Okay. Well, what's needed from the town. Continued engagement with the community given. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. Continued engagement with the community. Okay. And maybe in the community at the end can be deleted. Yeah. Given a high level of interest. So what highlighted a high level of interest. Okay. Okay. Transportation. Stephanie, I wasn't sure if. This made sense here as an accomplishment. No, because. The fleet inventory, we've kind of hit a snag with that. I'm thinking now that I just need to write it up as an RFP and go to bid because the folks we were working with. We were doing a lot of work. We couldn't provide them exactly what they wanted. So I think I want to start that whole process with somebody else. So I wouldn't say. Yeah. It's not an accomplishment. Yeah. So I can put it here. But I have an action here. Well, let's review it. We'll come back to this. No, no biggie, but. We just add, I think it's North Carolina. And see after Durham. Yeah. And then a couple of questions for you here, Stephanie. So we have a. We received grant funding for a level three fast charger. That was actually secured in 22. But. This is part of my update, actually. It hasn't been installed yet because we didn't have. The utility support for the covering the cost of the infrastructure. But we do now. So that is something that's going to move forward. It just hasn't yet. Okay. And I think I saw. How many. Charging stations. Well, we have. How many do we have? We have seven, I think. Already. And now we're getting a DC fast charge. So we have like 14 ports available for charging within. The town, mostly in the downtown. And now we're going to get a DC fast charge as well. Yeah. Is it public information where that's going to be located? Potentially in the CVS parking lot is where we're. Yeah. Cause it's a, we want a downtown location. And that's a really good spot for something like that. Meaning the town parking lot next to the CVS parking lot. Correct. Yes. The municipal lot next to the CVS lot. How large Stephanie. Yeah. Well, it's a, well, let's see. There's usually, well, I don't know if this is a single port or a dual port. I have to double check because it's been a while since I've looked at that. I'm just trying to find out that we can. Get every source support to get the utility and, you know, structure and I haven't looked at it. I don't remember. And then another question for you, Stephanie. Yeah. So that. There is an effort moving forward there. The schools tend to be working. Primarily on there's kind of taking the lead with the finance director is actually shepherding a lot of that through. So there is an effort. Underway. Okay. Nothing to call it. I can't really call it out yet. I can't really say for sure. Okay. Well, we did get some funding. I think it was public that. Yeah, the funding was applied for and got. For a bus. For a bus. Yeah. But I think we're trying to look into how much can we expand it even more. So should I call that out because it did happen last, this. Well, last fiscal. Yeah. So. Funding up through purchase. Lead of electric buses. How many? I wouldn't say fleet. I think it's only one. Okay. One more. And then we already have one. It's pretty old, but we have one. So it would be an additional. So we'd have to. An additional. There were some emails. If you wanted to, like, I don't know if it seems like relatively minor, but, but we like assisted members of the public and making their voices heard. Yeah. Yeah. I do remember that. Yeah. Yeah. I think we should call that out. I mean, how. Do you remember what we did? Where we just. I remember. I know. We facilitated community. I would put it. I would write it as like facilitated community engagement or, or something. We like connected somebody who. Maybe a couple of people who felt strongly about that with the person at the schools. I would say. To advocate for more. Electric buses. And I say as a result. I wouldn't say. I wouldn't say that. The result of the engagement was the school basically said. We already applied for it and we got it. Okay. Okay. Just leave it there. Funding was approved to purchase an additional. Okay. Yeah. I don't know if this was helpful. I found it online. Just looking at how many rebates. Electric vehicles as a potential metric that we can track to. It is on this. More. Website. Massachusetts. Office of rebates. And it can be. I. Incline not to include that in the report. I think it's interesting to consider using that and seeing if it's possible to get. Disaggregated data and do our own, but. Yeah, that was. Yeah. And we tried asking for that data. And was not available. So this was the best I had. Data from Amherst of just Amherst. Correct. Vehicles. Yep. Sorry, go ahead. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize that. Yeah, it's just Amherst. I mean, it's comparable to what I did with the. Yeah. See you. And just found. Yeah. Yeah. Put Amherst residents then. I mean, it's the report for Amherst. So I did. Okay. I thought this was state level. Okay. Okay. So Stephanie. If I'm keeping this statement. Should we get rid of this one? Yeah, because. I mean, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, that's not exactly what we're going to be doing, but. Because we're looking for more information about. Transitioning our fleet. So maybe you could say something about. Sorry, go ahead. I'm just trying to think of how to phrase this. Towners pursuing. A timeline for transitioning its fleet. To all to be to an all electric fleet. But that's different than this one. This one's just asking for. Right. That's why I'm saying it's a separate bullet. Okay. Okay. Town is you said just putting a plan together. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I guess what's needed is pursuing. Wait, this is under what's needed. Yeah, I guess what's needed is. Plan. To. Execute. Well, that I mean, so what we were looking for is to get. Develop a fleet inventory that would include a timeline for transitioning the fleet. To be all electric. So that was part of it. Yeah. That's what we need. There you go. Make a fleet. All electric. Town fleet. For the town. Well, you could just say timeline to transition. For established. Transition to an all electric. There you go. So, is it okay? Yeah, that works. Okay. Okay. Install DC fast charge and before 24. And then Stella, you had this. We're talking new school. Three, four years down the line. Should we keep this. Or a move. I think there should be something that's not car focused. So whether that's bus ridership. Like I think it's really important that we not lose sight of. Needing to transition away from personal vehicles as well. So. Yeah, I don't know whether it's this or whether it's something else. Whether it's implementation, like adoption of the tack. Plan. Should we just. Should we just call it exactly that is to adopt. We don't know what tack is doing and are they coming up with. Top priorities for the town manager goals next year. And we could just say. There's going to be a plan coming from tack and. Well, their plans not finished yet. That's why it's tricky. Okay. Bessie, you could add. Reestablish an e-bike network. Because our company went bankrupt. I'm reporting on that as well when I get to mine. I have a long list today. Okay. Okay. Stella. Is that sufficient or do you want to. Call attention to attack. No, I think, I think. It's still not like public transit and I would like to like. Support like public transit in this document. Okay. What about under accomplishments. Just establishing. Well, I guess. You have it. Just presented the current work to take tack. Yeah. Okay. Sorry there. Yeah. Fine. I think what about adding. We don't have it necessarily the data is of bus ridership. That we need to catch it. Yeah. Our metrics were you envisioning only things that we already have or things that we want. No, things that we want to. Oh, I would say bus ridership is definitely something we want. We'll just say data. Let's say school bus ridership too. Pack has school bus ridership. They definitely have, they definitely have pedestrian numbers. Yeah. Okay. Is that good stuff? Okay. The other thing is as we're updating our community dashboard, some of these metrics can go in there. Right. If we think that there's any. Yeah. Okay. Pace. Don, I didn't hear from you. Just send me whatever you can or. Yeah, we can work on it offline. But can you send me whatever you think is critical? Yeah, I can. Okay. Thank you. And then once. Once I'm done, I can send this to Lori and she can share this with everybody. On the next call. Stephanie, is that okay? Is that how you would see this. Play out. Yes. Okay. Okay. This one here, we talked about it in section two. I don't know if it makes sense for me to keep it or remove. I'd like to review it. If there's anything you included here that isn't mentioned in section two. I mean, this one stays entered into agreement. I mean, that one has. Pretty much the same information. If you go back to section two. I guess you could put the memorandum of understanding into. Section two. But everything else I think is there. Yeah. Okay. And it's not. Okay. Nevermind. Let me do that now. It's easy. Steve, I thought I removed this. Is it okay if I remove the highlighted statement here? Because we said ECAC is exploring ways to add new provisions. And I can just get rid of this. Yes. Yeah, you did say that you're going to drop that. That is fine. My only tiny little list quibble is. We're going to be exploring ways to add these provisions that may or may not be through the rental registration by law. I think that's to be determined if that's the best vehicle for it. So the sentence at the end of the first paragraph. Let's say ECAC is exploring ways to add new provisions. To the bylaw in the coming year. I think it's probably okay the way it is. So are you not going to say that it was. Not adopted. Yeah, I wasn't sure if it, I mean, I'm talking, we're talking accomplishments here. So I figured it made sense to remove that and just instead say, we're still going, we're going to pursue these provisions. The accomplishment is that we pursued it. Yes. And the result was it didn't work. I think it should be in our annual report. Yeah, we, we got it pretty far along, which was an accomplishment in itself, even if it wasn't all the way to the end. Yeah, you can leave that, that last line that you just put in these proposals were dropped from the draft rental registration bylaw in spring of 2023. That's a factual statement. And also, I think it's really good to show people what you developed. And the fact that it was dropped. So that we're saying, okay, so these things didn't get included. I don't know that the rental registration bylaw is going to be the best place for them quite honestly. Because you know, I mean, this sort of stemmed from that whole building accelerator program. Effort, which was really about. Maybe creating something separate. So we were following of a model that already existed in. Other cities. So, right, but. What if you, let's see, just if the sentence ECAC is exploring ways to add new provisions, if you got, if you take that sentence away from there, then, then, then this passage. Yeah, take that out. Then this describes what we did. Then we mentioned that they were dropped from the draft rental registration bylaw. And then after the end of the sentence spring 2023. Something that ECAC is exploring ways to. How about this? Yeah, so I could say. The following. Proposals where drop from the draft rental registration bylaw. Well, that's. ECAC is exploring ways to add these provisions, but that's our list of what we tried to put in there. I would rather present that list of what we proposed. Then say that they were dropped. And then say that we are exploring ways to bring them back to life. Whether it be in the rental registration bylaw or some other. Bylaw, because I think you don't want your put to put all your eggs in that one basket. Yeah, right. Not that this is going to limit our baskets, but might as well try to make it precise. Yeah, I just think there might be more pushback. Under the registered rental registration bylaw. Yeah. There was. And there will be more, I would continue. That's why I'm just saying, I think. We want to do something different. Yes, but it can be here for the report for now. Yeah, but get rid. I'd say get rid of that sentence above that says the following proposals were dropped from the draft. I'd like to see the proposals that we propose listed. Yeah, that sentence. You're spinning. Yeah, get rid of that. And say, and maybe even end that sentence. With a colon to indicate that the ABC were those proposals you see develop. Yeah, put a colon after council, I think. Well, yeah, it doesn't align them, right? All right. I thought we wanted to say with their provisions that were dropped. I think we do want to say that, but I want to say, here's what we proposed ABC. And then mentioned that they were dropped. Just in the wrong place. Yeah, I just think you need to take that. Put it after. The list ABC. Before. Yep. Yes. The above proposal. Yes. Yeah, that's, we're getting there. Okay. And recommended proposals. By ECAC where, and then these proposals were dropped from bylaw. And put a, put a, put a period after spring 2023. And then get rid of and. And put ECA is exploring ways to add new provisions to buy. Yeah. Yeah. A number two, I know we wrote it. Drafted an op-ed. I wasn't aware that it actually got published. I don't know what I should say. So. This one was a link from. Let's see where. Amherst Indy. Oh, it's the Indy. Oh, okay. And I think it also got published in the Hampshire because that. So okay, I changed it to publish. And we didn't do the publishing, right? We did. We drafted it. Yeah. So you just want to keep it as wrote. Which we. Which was, which was published on March 31. Yeah. Yeah. You say we wrote it and it was published. Yeah. I think that's fine. Right. ECAC published. Is that okay? I think what they're saying is that. You see that the ECAC wrote it. Yeah. But it was published on March 31st. Yeah. Okay. Okay. And. Next section is community engagement. Just pictures. Okay. And then. Recommendations. So I guess. My thought. Of putting it here. Was get an opportunity. Yeah. Okay. Okay. And. Next section is community engagement. Just pictures. Okay. And then. Recommendations. So I guess. My thought. Putting it here. Was get an opportunity to present this at the town council. With the caveat that we're still working through it. But here's what we're thinking just to get that conversation going. And then in August. We will share the updated goals. So I think Stephanie. Really for the next meeting. And the ones after. There should be. A final comment. So I think we'll start with the agenda. Going to start with the town manager goals. In the agenda. Can I correct this. Adoption of specialized building code. By. Jen. By. Jan 2025. December. 2023. It's got to be before. January 1st. In order to be implemented. July. Yeah. Adoption and implementation, right? July 2024, whatever the right word is, if not implementation. That's correct. Yeah, I think we might have to correct the one statement about special. Oh, okay. So I said for July for the stuff. Okay, that's good. So we got me today. Sorry, go ahead. Do you want a more specific sounding goal for pace? Yeah. I believe that was already in the town manager's goals. So we may want this year. John things in the previous year. I don't remember. So these are the town manager goals. Oh, pace. Okay. Begin implementation on a plan. And utilization of pace. That's for 2023. So build on. Create a culture. In town where. Pace is the cool thing to do. Yeah. Yeah, man. Don't we want to say create a groovy plan? Yeah. Thanks. Cool. Maybe it's like increase adoption of. It hasn't been any start. I know there's been one. Yeah. There you go. Encourage. Establish ramp up adoption. Not just established because it's supposed to be done this calendar year. Well, it's partly we're waiting on the program. We're not doing a lot of revisions. So. You know, And I don't ramp up seems like we've already done it. So that doesn't really seem suitable there. Maybe it just was new adoption. Implement. Programming or something to. Go back to the language from 2023. That never happened. Yeah. I mean, you could just, it didn't happen in 2023. So. It's not over yet. This is calendar year. This is calendar. Wait a minute. The, the. The goals is calendar year. Right. Yeah. Yeah, he's still got six months to go. He's got six months. So just put the word continue in front of it. Continue the development of whatever blah, blah, blah, that you have in 2023. This isn't the final version that we're going to put out. That's fine for now. Correct. Yeah. Do we want to say continue the adoption or, I mean, we could just leave it at established adoption. You can share it at the town council meeting. And then come on. You'll have a new goal. Well, we've adopted, I mean, we've already, we already adopted pace. I would put established implementation. Yeah. Yeah. Establish the implementation of pace program for multifamily. But it's not, it's not just retrofits. It's new construction and retrofits. Because pace has been changed. That's true. Yeah. Multifamily business business retrofits and new construction. Yep. So number three. Town manager can't approve. Yeah. Unfortunately. Yeah. I would say implementation, although that's really not likely, because all of this, all the value green energy aggregation. I would say submit application. And I know that we said that last year, but that is where we are. No, no, no, no. This is for 2024. It will be submitted. So, but encourage. Again. No, no, because we're already prepared for the implementation. There you go. Prepare for implementation because we're not. Actually, I would put encourage the approval. Even though we don't approve it. No, no, we can't do anything now. We can lobby. The governor. That's important. You know, but that's already in section two. Okay. But okay. I guess that gets repeated here. But for calendar year 2024. I mean, we can lobby. I mean, I guess the hope is by the end of this calendar year. We'll have it approved for this. But it's not, that's very unlikely. What's going to happen. What we need to be doing more of in calendar year 2024 is education and awareness. Because people need to know, because they're all going to be, if they're, if they're basic rate customers of ever source, they are going to be automatically opted in and people need to know that. And then we have to make sure they're educated enough to know that that's a good thing. And then it gives them more choice. So that's more of what we've got to do. I think it's not going to be done. It's not going to be ready. I don't. It may be part way through. But. I think, I think it's important to, to ask the town manager, the town council to expect the town manager to strongly advocate. For. Speeding up to advocate for and prepare for implementation. The, the, the city of Beverly. The, the city of Beverly. The, the, the speeding up the DPU. The DPU review process. Right. Yeah. Advocate for. You know. Prompt approval if you want. And prepare. For the implementation of. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I just heard from somebody from the city of Beverly that it's been three years. They're one of our NEMS network community members. And it's been three years that they've been waiting on. DPU approval. They must have gotten it in. Just at the end of the line there. Yep. So I call on DPU here. Or is it obvious here. It's six o'clock. You have your, you have your robotic voice again. Okay. Yeah. Okay. One last time. Right. Should I call out DPU here? Or is it obvious? You could say advocate for prompt approval by DPU. And, and prepare for the implementation there. Yeah. I think that's great. And you should probably spell out DPU. Department of public utility. Is this something that we want to do? I. I think there was another town that did this a while ago. Oh, this is also. Stephanie, the training. I would just, yeah, I was going to say, instead of identify community champions. Yeah. I would say and establish a training program for community champions. This is already. In the current year's goals, I believe. Yes. And hopefully it will move forward. It's also on my list. Yeah, where is it? I don't think it's there. Let's add. Stephanie's reestablish. The. Like share. Yes. If it has been done by then. All right. That's it. Okay. You rock. Thanks. One last thing though. You had Earth Day event somewhere again. Just make sure you change those to sustainability festival. I don't have the agenda in front of me. Do we have a. Agenda item. Roasting Vasu as an agenda item. You do. Well, it didn't say roasting. It said something about love and appreciation. I would prefer the. To be honest. Go for it. So, Don. Let's work together on just that. The CCA, the pace portion. And I think the rest of it. And then I'll send it over to, um, to Lori. Um, yeah, I'm, I'm really tied up tomorrow and I'm. Go on on Friday. On some. Why don't you take a stab at it and send it to me. We don't even have to meet. Okay. Okay. Cool. All right. Okay. Stephanie staff updates. Okay. I have a long list. So I'll try to be quick. Okay. Our fellows are here. Caitlin and Miguel, they're amazing. They're really getting into their work. Miguel's been out with the facilities manager to quite a few buildings. So he's been looking at age fact systems and really getting to know the. Inwards of our municipal facilities, which is great. Caitlin is working on the greenhouse gas emissions inventory. She's doing a great job as well. She's working with us. She's working with us for the next couple of days for like an orientation program that you and H does for the sustainability fellows. And I'm actually driving up there tomorrow myself to join them. Um, The dashboard is being built by KLA associates. So I have met with them along with the, um, communications director. So we're kind of working together on getting the information that they need. She's working on the technical side. The communications director is working on the technical side as well. She's working on the technical side as well. We're moving forward as well. Um, We're getting questions. Yeah. Um, what, what kind of input do we get to have? Um, I would say it's really. I would say. Once it's done, it's going to be something that we'll be kind of editing, but it's got a lot of the information that of all the programming that we're doing. Um, I think that the ECAC is doing, you know, a lot of information is going to be there on specifically focused on climate. So I don't know what specifically you want there, but there's going to be a lot of. There'll be a lot. When I have a draft of it, you know, the sort of bones of it, I can share it with you, but I can't do that right now. It's not there yet. But I mean. It's going to be something that's going to be. On the municipal side that we're going to be updating as we go. So. I would say trust us. If I can ask you to, um, I, there'll be a lot. It's more than you have now. So, and I think it'll, it'll look really nice and it'll be very user friendly. Um, Um, moving forward with the fast charge station, as I said, um, we just found out what put that on hold was that the, it was kind of odd. The state. Um, I don't know. Um, I don't know. Um, I don't know. Um, Evet program gave grants for installation of fast charge units, but then there was no support for covering the cost of the installation and the utility. Um, hook up for those. And that was, um, A pretty significant cost. And in the past, those programs have kind of worked together. So it was kind of almost like the state got ahead of itself a lot. But when it comes to, um, uh, infrastructure, that changes everything. So we're, um, looking at right now, the municipal lot that's behind the, um, CBS parking lot. Like that's right in that location, which is an environmental justice. Uh, neighborhood. Um, The solar mapping is pretty much done. And there's going to be a review of that with the solar bylaw working group on Friday. Um, I'm not sure if it's going to be, um, I'm not sure if it's going to be a review. Um, I'm not sure if it's going to be a review. Um, I'm not sure if this specialist is going to be, uh, leading that tour of the new map. Unfortunately, he cannot make it to an ECAC meeting. I tried to get him for this one. He couldn't do it. Um, and he's not really going to be available for the next several meetings. So what I would recommend is we certainly record that meeting. So I will send the recording of that meeting to all of you, but I'm not sure if it's going to be a review. Um, I'm not sure if it's going to be a review. Um, I'm not sure if it's going to be a review. Maybe we can sort of go over, um, at a future meeting, we can add that as an agenda item. I know Steve probably has questions. Um, So, um, Let's see what else. Uh, renter surveys. That's the one, the grant from, um, The mass that you see the empower grant that we received on, um, Working with family outreach. And there are roughly about 200 that have been completed so far. Um, But it's taken a while, but I think they're doing a great job at really getting the, you know, Getting folks to, to actually fill out and complete the surveys. And hopefully we should have more. Uh, within another month, I think we might even have like another 90, 90 might have like 140 more. That's kind of the goal. Um, The RFP for the heat program has been developed. Um, And it's been submitted to our procurement folks here in town, but it had to be reviewed by legal counsel. Because we're using ARPA funding and they wanted to make sure our finance director wanted to make sure that there's no language in the RFP that might sort of conflict with guidelines for the use of the ARPA funds. So that's kind of holding that up just a little bit longer, but that should be moving forward soon. Um, And then we can focus on the, um, the, um, The whole, um, um, share as I said earlier, um, our. The company that we had worked with, Bowigan went bankrupt. Um, it's been in the paper. It's really unfortunate and very upsetting for all of us who worked so hard to get it in the first place. Um, But we're hopeful because there are some folks who were on the operating side of that effort that worked with Bowigan, kind of doing what they always did with operations, but another one is actually going to start their own separate company. So potentially we might be able to get it up and running again. It won't be the same. It would be a bit different, but we're just trying to figure out how to move it forward. So there is desire and commitment from all the communities that have been engaged with it. And some of the newer communities that were joining us, we started as five communities and we've had three more joined since we started and more were even interested. So the thing that's really sad about it from our data was that that we found out was that it was expanding each year. There was more ridership each consecutive year even during the pandemic and we had no reason to think that 2023 would have been any less so than 22. So it would have been as good or even better. So there's definitely support for having this e-bike network in the communities and in the region. So hopefully we'll be able to move that forward at some point. Stephanie, do you know if why they went bankrupt? Is there a lesson? Yes, they had a really horrible business model. It really did. It was just, it was, you know, they were relying solely. Well, I shouldn't say solely. They had a few revenue sources coming in. One of them was the fare box or, you know, the membership. But also they were, they had a heavy reliance on sponsorship for the stations. So it was really kind of the operating costs were pretty high and the communities weren't footing the cost of the operating portion of that. So it was coming from sponsorship and we weren't having success in securing the sponsorship that we needed in part because it's about $15,000 annually to support the operating expenses for a station alone. So for any business, you know, especially here in Amherst, when we would go to the businesses in town, you know, they did not have the ability to shell out that kind of, you know, support. So securing a network sponsor like getting someone like, you know, Blue Cross Blue Shield or Citibank to fund your network is really the ideal business model. That's kind of the best way to make it work. But it's not as easy. And I think we just have to be more creative going forward or municipalities are going to have to start footing some of the operating costs, which frankly, I do think they should. So that's why it might have been a longer answer than you wanted, but that's why it tanked. Thanks, Stephanie. Sure. I see. Yeah, a question, Stephanie. Did you say when the solar assessment would be up publicly on the town website? Yep, it'll be ready after Friday. So I think we're just trying to, Mike has been, as we've gone along, he's been making some adjustments and tweaking it a little bit. And I think he's doing some final, we had one of the members from the solar bylaw working group had a list of like 20 something questions. And the technical team went through them. And this was before even seeing the map. So the technical team went through them and based on some of the questions he did a little bit of finalizing and fine tuning, not a huge amount. But so I just want to make sure that in case anything comes out of that meeting that, you know, he's going to have it completed. And so that it's a final product. And where will that be hosted on the town website? Do you know? I think it may be on our, because we had a solar page that was specifically about the solar assessment. I think it was an engage Amherst, but it'll probably be there. And I have to talk to our communications director about where we might best cite that. I'm not really sure right now, to be honest. I think it may be, it might even be with our, because we have a maps section, right? It may go there. I'll double check with Mike, but it may be there. And you'll tell us when it's available, right? I'll send you the link. I'll send you the link. I mean, I might send it as soon as Friday. It's very possible that it'll get it out to you by Friday. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Next time. Sure. Okay. The dreaded ECAC member updates. So both for it. That's words of gratitude and appreciation for Vasu is what it says. Oh, where do we start? I think I want to say two things. One, just the robot voice. It's just, it's part of my circadian rhythm. Now, every day, five minutes before six o'clock. And the other thing I'd love to say too is, Andra's leaving the group as well. And I didn't, I don't know if it's, if this is your last meeting. Okay. So we don't have to. Just Vasu. Yep. To flog you today. She'll get roasted later. I'll just add, it was great to have you join us Vasu and then take, take ownership and leadership of us. Number of us knew each other from even before ECAC. You came out of the blue from my perspective and didn't know you were in town and part of the town. I don't know if your departure means you're leaving town, but it's good to know you're around. And it was good to have you bring some rigor to our meetings and their, and structure to our endeavor. So great appreciation. Thanks, Finn. I'm still around. I just work 80 hours a week on a normal job. So I just have to pause. That's another couple of hours. Vasu, I just want to say how much I appreciate in this time where there's often a lack of civility. Just how much, how wonderful it is that you've been so incredibly respectful of everybody, respectful of staff, respectful of members, community, public. You've just been so great in that way. And I just genuinely appreciate that. It's been a pleasure to work with you and I'm very thankful I had that opportunity. Thanks, Kevin. Yeah. Oh, sorry. Oh, go ahead. Deflect. No, I do want to thank all of you as well. I'm not an expert. I relied on all of you and I mean, I've learned so much. So thank you. And I think special thanks to Laura as well, because she let me leave. She wasn't like imposing and said this is how it should be done. So really appreciated, you know, her support and all of you. So thank you. Okay, save some of your deflection. We're not done. I really appreciated having you leading with your data prowess, your ability to use and get us to use data. And just visualizing our work was a real gift to have that, you know, as a part of the rigor that you brought. Because multimodal learning is really important. And you brought that that was really great. And you're just a mensch, really good person to work with, good person in the world. I'm glad that you're in our community. Thanks, Sandra. Okay. All right. Thank you, everybody. And thanks to your patience and allowing me to test different methods to work. So appreciate it. Thank you. I will say one thing just the work you your impact will continue. I mean, I think the way that you've engaged this committee is in such a way that the work you've done will be valuable moving forward. And that's that is rare and noteworthy. And specifically this annual report, which I think is now templated and sort of like leveled up and ready for the next person to do it and other things as well. So the value will will will remain. Thanks, Jesse. And moving on. Any other EKAC member updates? Thank you, everybody. I really appreciate it. I just can't tolerate the positive words and they just I choke, I choke up and so it's really hard for me. So but I do really appreciate all the clean words. So thank you. Okay. Other updates? Steve? Yeah, I'll just say, I guess it was almost two weeks ago, I watched the East of the Solar Bylaw working group meeting, the previous meeting had a really nice presentation on agri voltaics, the combining of agriculture and photovoltaics with a bunch of really good experts that came. And I found it really informative. So I would encourage members to track down the video of that meeting and watch, sit back and watch and learn. How about I just send the link? It makes it easier. And the three presentations are also on the website, just the standalone presentations. I wanted to remind people that it is time for you to write your comments to Stephanie showing your enthusiasm for Valley Green Energy. That should be in the subject line and anyone else listening to us talking about it. June 30th is the deadline. And it's really important that we hear from the community members that this is wanted. That is something that the Department of Public Utilities looks at. And particularly, we got front and center. Green, clean energy is our goal. And we're doing it with our friends next door. So, well, not quite. Jump over one. And that's extra valuable. I knew there was something I forgot. Thanks, Sandra. Please, please, please write your comments. Don't have to be long. Thanks, Sandra. Anything else? Okay. Today's the longest day. It's summer solstice. Throw that out there. It's an ECAC report. Why does the calendar say tomorrow? Maybe it's the wee hours of the morning, the actual moment of solstice. No, it was at 10.57 this morning. Maybe you're looking at last year's calendar? Maybe. Anyway, have a nice long evening, everyone. I encourage you to stay outside. One of my favorite things to do every year on the solstice is to not turn the lights on when it gets dark and see if we can use that long day to sort of don't turn the lights on tonight. See if you can get it all done and just watch it get dark and go to bed. Couple more items in the agenda. So, for the next meeting, Stephanie will have the annual report review. We need to start talking about goals for calendar year 2024 for the town manager. I suppose you'll be voting for a new chair. Yes. And then, Stephanie, in August, you'll have the expense report review. Yeah. And then, Steve, at some point this summer, would we get a tour of the solar field? Do we want to add that so you can remember? We can talk about it or you all can talk about it. I'm putting it down and then maybe it could just get scheduled because everybody in the room. Okay. And do you want me to email the town council for their time where we can share the annual report? You might as well. Does everyone want to do that? Share that report in the town council meeting? Or you can work on it at the next meeting. That's okay too. I think it's wise to do so just so they don't forget about us. Yeah. Oh, CC Laurie in my emails. You should CC me too on that one. Yeah, yeah, reaching out. Sounds good. Okay. Anything else for the next meeting? Well, if the GZA maps are up, then we may have questions about them. We sounds like we might learn something if we watch the Solar Baila working group meeting this Friday, but we might want to have questions or discussion about them at a future meeting once we have a chance to look at them. Thanks. Okay. Any public comments? Martha? Okay. That's a wrap, everybody. Thank you. All right. I'll see you around. Thank you. Thank you.