HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Energy Committee - 05/02/2013South Burlington Energy Committee
Minutes from Meeting on May 2, 2013
Attending: Marcy Murray, Keith Epstein, Peter Tousley, Sam Swanson, Marc Companion, Ilona
Blanchard and Don Cummings (by phone for the Strategic Planning discussion)
Changes to agenda: add traffic lights under project updates
Minutes approval
Three sets of minutes were discussed and voted upon for approval:
1. Minutes from the April 4, 2013 SBEC monthly meeting
2. Minutes from the April 9, 2013 mini-meeting where we voted on a specific topic
3. Minutes from the April 29, 2013 Strategy meeting
Motion to accept all minutes: Keith
Seconded by Peter
Approved unanimously
Staff report
• Dorset Park solar array – The installation is almost complete and the transformer will be
installed very soon.
• Police Station solar – going to City Council: letter of interest from City to enable
contractor to conduct preliminary design
o Motion by Keith: energy committee has reviewed the proposal that is before the
Council and enthusiastically supports the project. Marcy seconded.
Unanimously passed.
• LED street lights: Green Mountain Power to begin installation of new lights soon
Project Updates
• Home weatherization project: the middle school student video is in progress.
• Condos weatherization project: no updates at this time.
• Traffic lights: Ian is conducting research and wants to talk with the Enregy Committee to
update us on findings and discuss next steps. It was suggested that the Rec. Path
committee be informed of the effort so they can help provide guidance.
• Affordable Housing: The Energy Committee discussed whether we want to offer
recommendations on the Affordable Housing report and send them to the Planning
Commission. It was felt that a letter by itself may not be enough to be effective and
that it would be important for the Energy Committee to follow up regularly at Planning
Commission meetings and possibly City Council meetings.
There was a lot of discussion about what recommendations, if any, the Energy
Committee might want to consider providing. A starting point might be to have Energy
Star standards or Vermont’s RBES/CBES (Residential/Commercial Building Energy
Standards) integrated into City codes and review processes.
Strategic Planning
There are a number of initiatives on our plate right now and the Committee would like
members to identify those projects they are interested in working on over the next year.
• Energy Committee members were asked to come to the next SBEC monthly meeting and
say “this is the project I’m willing to work on.”
• Also ask yourself if you are willing to be a liaison between EC and one other City
committee.
Vermontivate: Karen McKenny: The interactive educational on-line game starts May 13 and
ends on June 21 (six weeks later). Energy Committee members are asked to play and also
recruit others to join the South Burlington team. Check out the website at
vermontivate.com/2013. There is a Facebook page also.
Motion to adjourn: Sam. Seconded by Keith. Unanimously approved