HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Energy Committee - 03/17/2021
South Burlington Energy Committee
575 Dorset Street
South Burlington, VT 05403
(802) 846-4106
www.SouthBurlingtonVT.gov
facebook.com/SouthBurlington
Meeting Minutes
March 17, 2021
Committee members present: Andrew Chalnick, Ethan Goldman, Marcy Murray, Tim Perrin, MJ Reale, Richard Shrake, Sam Swanson Committee members absent: Keith Epstein, Linda McGinnis Community members present: Melanie Needle, Penny Saltzman City staff present: Lou Bresee Meeting conducted online via Zoom.
Ethan called the meeting to order at 6:40 p.m. Rich agreed to scribe. Minutes Approval Andrew moved and Sam seconded approving the 2/17 minutes. Approved unanimously.
MJ moved and Rich seconded approving the 1/20 minutes. Approved by a vote of six yes and one abstention. Committee Openings There was a brief discussion concerning the upcoming openings for serving on the Energy Committee.
MJ is aware of two potential candidates. She suggested an advertisement in the Other Paper would be effective. The committee discussed possible pools of candidates for recruitment including: the SB school district, VGS, and GMP.
Ethan also noted that his term as chair is complete and that we will need to select a new chair at the April meeting.
CAP Update Melanie Needle from CCRPC presented an update on the development of a climate action plan. She noted that this project is scheduled for the current and following fiscal years. The project is still in the preliminary stages, but will include: assembling a broad task force, analyzing the data compiled by EC interns, developing policy actions, and public engagement. The CAP will ultimately be incorporated into the city’s comprehensive plan. Tim noted that the EC’s 2019 brainstorming sessions would be helpful in this process. Andrew will share the powerpoint that portrays this work. Andrew pointed out that the city does not have much recourse to enforce the actions a plan requires, and that there should be transparency about this reality. Ethan
suggested that in addition to identifying necessary steps, the plan include what those steps require to succeed.
South Burlington Energy Committee
575 Dorset Street
South Burlington, VT 05403
(802) 846-4106
www.SouthBurlingtonVT.gov
facebook.com/SouthBurlington
Melanie stated that a wish list from the EC would be helpful. Ethan will determine an open-meetings-compliant method of developing a shared collective document. City Manager Meeting The committee determined that acting early in understanding the energy-related perspective of and presenting our concerns to the incoming city manager is necessary. Ethan will invite her to our May meeting.
Update from Lou Lou presented updates on the proposed weatherization of Fire Station #2, the development of a solar array at the Airport Parkway WTP and how to handle the excess energy it would produce.
I-89 Corridor Study Ethan, Marcy, and Andrew attended a recent presentation and forwarded data-assessment-related
suggestions to CCRPC. While it’s something to keep an eye on, this particular phase doesn’t appear to offer much opportunity for significant energy-saving involvement from our committee at this time. Facebook Community Coalition intern Penny Saltzman presented her analysis of the SBEC web presence. She recommended changing the name from South Burlington Energy Prize. She will get clarification on the posting permissions on the different types of Facebook accounts. Andrew suggested the name South Burlington Climate Action which was popular among those present. Electric School Buses Marcy will reach out to the school district to see if there is any activity/planning in this matter.
Regular Meetings The committee decided to set our regular meetings to the second Wednesday of the month at 6:30.
Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 8:30 Next Meeting April 14, 2021