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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Energy Committee - 02/16/2012Meeting Minutes SB Energy Committee February 16, 2012 Present: Laura Waters, Karen Alence, Keith Epstein, Marcy Murray, Sam Swanson and Marc Companion. Tim Perrin and Allan Bullis attended part of the meeting. Approval of Minutes: The Minutes from the January meeting were approved. Button Up workshop: Allan Bullis offered to hold a Button Up workshop on home weatherization techniques and asked the Committee to sponsor it. The Committee voted and approved to sponsor the workshop. Allan will pick a date and venue, and proceed with the activity. City Staff Updates Paul Conner was not present, but he had given an informal update to Laura Waters before the Energy Committee meeting:  ICLEI membership renewal: Paul had asked City to cut a check to ICLEI and the payment is being processed.  Condo Weatherization program. The City issued a RFP to seek a contractor to perform the work, which is funded by a grant through the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission. The proposal submission deadline is Friday, February 24.  Route 7 park & ride:There are no updates at this time as not much had changed since the last Energy Committee meeting. There then ensued a brief discussion of what we believe is the role of the Corridor Study committee in the larger process of getting a park & ride through the regional planning process and funded by the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). It is felt that we want to make sure the recommendations in the consultant’s Corridor Study report clearly articulate the park & ride need.  The Corridor Study is part of a formal municipal, regional, State and possibly Federal planning/funding process.  While awaiting the formal process to unfold, there is interest within the Energy Committee to initiate shorter-term activities to get things started. Examples of these activities include identifying a temporary site (which entails making phone calls to commercial property owners) and possibly establishing a short-term pilot project that can be implemented with minimal funds.  ACTIONS: 1) continue to attend the Corridor Study committee meetings and make sure drafts of the Study report adequately convey the park & ride need. 2) Keith to contact Paul Conner about jump-starting the informal process  Municipal Building Energy Upgrade grant: The City received an extension to the deadline to give more time to complete the assessment of the mold issue at the municipal buildings. The mold assessment will help the City determine whether the municipal building’s condition is suitable to receive a new HVAC system. ACTION: Marc to find out the status of the mold assessment. Williston Road repaving and road diet: Following up on Lou Bresee’s presentation last month, it was noted that the City Council is to review the road diet concept at its next meeting (Tuesday, February 21). School solar grant: Everything is approved and the School District is taking the project over to implement it. Thanks to Marcy Murray for helping facilitate. In early March, the School District will present the project to the School Board. The photovoltaic panels will be available in April and tentatively scheduled to be installed beginning in early July. LED street light upgrade: A meeting was held in late January to discuss the project. Present were members from the City (Public Works, City Manager’s office, Planning Office), Efficiency Vermont and the SB Energy Committee. To summarize, the City is looking at two options: the first is to continue renting the fixtures, and thus Green Mountain Power will organize the LED fixture installation. The second is for the City to own the new LED fixtures. Initial estimates are that the savings to the City would be greater through ownership. However, implementation of a City-owned fixture upgrade is more complicated because the City manages the project (instead of GMP), creates fixture specifications, gets quotations, funds the capital cost, contracts with vendors and assumes maintenance responsibilities over the life of the fixtures. Shelburne has installed new fixtures that they now own, and Colchester is well into the process of upgrading fixtures that they, too, will own. To explore both options, the City is gathering information and working with Efficiency Vermont and GMP. LED traffic signal upgrade: Part of the street light discussion included the possibility of upgrading traffic signals as another way to save energy and money. Tim Perrin mentioned that he had spoken with Justin Rabidoux of Public Works last summer about the idea, and noted that Justin has an inventory of traffic signals in the City. ACTION: Tim to talk with Justin to revisit the topic and explore interest and opportunities. Marc to follow up with Tim and Justin. VECAN conference: Marcy and Marc briefed the Committee on the VECAN conference. A topic that generated some discussion among the EC was the new Residential (and Commercial) Building Energy Standards (RBES and CBES). It is unclear how the codes function and are enforced in Vermont. There were also questions about how the “self-certification” aspect of RBES and CBES work and what this means to South Burlington and its energy goals. The Energy Committee expressed an interest to learn more. ACTION: Tim to ask his colleagues at EVT to give a brief presentation to the SBEC. Idle Free Fleets program: The American Lung Association has an Idle Free Fleets (IFF) program and asked if South Burlington is interested in participating. An earlier pilot phase initiated some discussion within S. Burlington but that was a while ago. Amy Sayre and Wayne Michaud of IFF are willing to give a presentation about the program to the Energy Committee to help us learn about opportunities and identify next steps. ACTION: Marc to invite Amy and/or Wayne to give a presentation at a future EC meeting. Climate change presentation: it is felt that our time would be better spent focusing on action items and showing people how to do it, rather than give a presentation to convince others. Chittenden County Regional Energy Forum: Laura and Marc to attend the meeting on February 23 at the CCRPC. There are some exceptional seminars at UVM coming up. Other Business EC member resignation: Karen Alence informed the Energy Committee that she regrettably will step down from the Energy Committee. The members of the Committee are sorry to see her go and thanked her for her many contributions. THANKS, KAREN!!! ACTION: Karen to send to the Committee the SBEC Google Docs link so we can preserve a historical record of Committee activities. At the time of typing up these meeting minutes, Karen had forwarded the links to us. Vote for next EC President: the Committee voted to have Laura Waters succeed out-going Pres. Don Cummings as President. Laura’s tenure is for the next four months and then will revolve to someone else. Next meeting: Thursday, March 15.