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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Energy Committee - 10/18/201210/18/2012 Energy Committee South Burlington City Hall meeting minutes Meeting began at 7:00 pm Attendees: Marc Companion (chair), Sam Swanson, Don Cummings, Keith Epstein (note taker), Marcy Murray, Ilona Blanchard, Patrick Michael from Vesco (Claire Solar developer), Mitch Thayer from Colchester High School. Members absent: Laura Waters, Peter Tousley Don moved that the September minutes be approved. Marcy seconded, and the minutes were approved unanimously. City staff updates from Ilona: The Dorset Park ground mount solar proposal has been finalized. It will be 60 KW, not 63 KW as originally proposed. The next city council agenda has a resolution regarding umbrella agreement and financing. Green Mountain Power is auditing the street lamps in South Burlington to match the actual lamps with the billing system. LED swaps are waiting for that audit to be complete. The Capital Improvement Program will be considered after the budget is passed. The city is proposing to hire a person with facilities management responsibilities instead of having department heads manage each individual building to be included in next years budget. The hiring would take place after July 2013. Marcy suggested, and the committee agreed, that the qualifications for hiring should include experience in energy efficiency and energy conservation. Don is meeting with Bob Rusten on Tuesday 10/23 to discuss the weatherization projects that were suggested as a result of energy audits of city buildings. The committee feels that weatherization should be done at the same time as upcoming renovations to save time and money. Patrick suggested the city look into a performance systems contractor who can finance energy saving projects and guarantee performance. He did not have any specific contractors to recommend. The condo weatherization grant ended 9/30. The contractor finished and gave everything to the city. 290 homes were audited in 55 buildings. Five weatherization contracts were signed. 6 to 10 more are close to signing contracts, and there are at least 20 more good leads. The Energy Committee is taking over work now that the contract is done, and Laura, Don, and Marc have been communicating with condo owners. Their initial focus is to follow up with homeowners who are already active in the program, and then reach out to people in other condo associations around the City. Regarding building energy code compliance, Marcy talked to Donna Kinville, city clerk, and Donna showed her how to access the computerized land records. The clerk inserts a comment in the land record when energy code certificates are filed. Marcy will look at some records to evaluate the level of compliance. Claire Solar: Sam brought up that we may want to do something as a result of the Planning Commission letter to PSB against the project. We discussed what the energy committee could do, since we feel that the addition of 2 MW of solar electric generation in South Burlington is a valuable contribution. Patrick said that the site is a cornfield currently, which has fertilizer and pesticides applied regularly. The pesticides flow through the air into Butler farms and into his house next to the site. We had a discussion about aesthetics, and Patrick said there is a row of trees to the West of the field, and they plan to enhance the tree cover in that area. Patrick said they are not committed to having a fence around the project. He also said there is or will be soon dense housing to the South, West, and North, so the parcel is not much of a wildlife corridor. Sam showed a picture of sheep grazing around a solar tracker at Shelburne Farms. Keith pointed out that there is already a road and houses within the boundaries of the Natural Resource Protected area, on the West edge. Ilona pointed out that the letter to the PSB was from the planning commission, not city council. Sam suggested that we try to understand the effect that the letter has on the application. Perhaps there could be some changes to the project to please the Land Trust, Planning Commission, and still meet the needs of the developer. Agencies from the State will evaluate wetlands, wildlife, and other environmental impacts during the CPG (Certificate of Public Good application process. Don suggested to Patrick to make some changes to the project to address every concern of the Land Trust and Planning Commission, for example native grasses, wildlife management plan developed by independent consultant, no fence. Sam suggested changing the meeting day from the 3rd Thursday of the month. We will discuss in the future. Don moved that the meeting be adjourned, and Keith seconded. Meeting adjourned at 8:48 pm.