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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Energy Committee - 11/04/2013 South Burlington Energy Committee 575 Dorset Street South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 846-4106 www.sburl.com facebook.com/SouthBurlington Monday, November 4, 2013 7:00 pm South Burlington Municipal Offices, 575 Dorset Street MINUTES Present: Karen McKenny, Laura Waters, Brendan Taylor, Peter Tousley, Marcy Murray, Don Cummings, Keith Epstein, Fred Kosnitsky, Marc Companion, 7:00 PM Convene Meeting Recruit scribe, timekeeper Review and Approve meeting agenda & confirm plans for November meeting Approve previous meeting minutes Peter makes motion. Fred seconds. Approved unanimously. 7:15 PM Invite Public to Speak No public present 7:20 PM Elections for Chair and Vice Chair Karen is vice-chair but her life is full with family medical challenges, thus she is unable to devote enough time to being Chair of SBEC. Marcy is willing to be Chair, and Peter agreed to serve as vice-chair. Don proposes a motion to appoint Marcy as Chair and Peter as vice-chair. Karen seconds. Approved unanimously. 7:30 PM City Project Updates Status of plans for Energy Efficiency improvements in City buildings (Municipal Offices, two fire stations and one other) Don has been following up city staff with the goal to have some work done before the heating season kicks in. A next step would be for DPW to issue an RFP to have one or more municipal buildings audited. Peter Tousley has offered to draft the Scope of Work in collaboration with Justin, but would need to visit the building(s) to examine situation in each. Action: Peter to send e-mail to Justin offering to help and requesting someone to give him access to the building(s). Renewable Energy Projects: Police Station, Cairns South Burlington Energy Committee 575 Dorset Street South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 846-4106 www.sburl.com facebook.com/SouthBurlington Police Station – the City and developer need to reconcile dismantling issues when solar array is decommissioned. Cairns – the City is waiting for an engineering assessment of the roof’s structural capacity for holding solar infrastructure. Ilona has offered to write a letter to engineering firm that did the work to get an official answer to this question. Update on Claire Solar Project No updates Next steps regarding City Center district energy exploration Sam, Brendan and Marcy are interested in exploring options. 7:50 PM Project Updates – Committee members Home weatherization programs Brochures and information packets were sent out and some residents expressed thanks for learning about the opportunities. Georgetown University Energy Prize initiative update – progress and next steps Application fees have been removed. There was a meeting with people from the school that resulted in some great ideas and enthusiasm. Follow up meetings are scheduled with school officials and Vermont Gas. The SBEC will seek City Council approval to submit a Letter of Intent for the City. Button Up Workshop Allan Bullis offered to hold a Button Up workshop. Karen to work with Allan to organize. Renewable Energy Vermont Conference – Oct 28-29 Conference presentations are available to download at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/vqc28db5ib9k0ac/dfYK7bajgw Potential projects: Revisit PACE? Explore on-bill financing? Explore more solar for SBSD? Explore community solar net-metering on landfill? Pace: There was discussion on the merits of PACE but the SBEC needs more info to gauge the time commitment to get PACE on the ballot. Marcy will collect more info. SBSD solar potential: Steve Webster is interested in exploring options, however SBEC has limited resources right now to help organize. Landfill solar: Contacts have been made to see if the utility is interested in developing the site. South Burlington Energy Committee 575 Dorset Street South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 846-4106 www.sburl.com facebook.com/SouthBurlington 8:15 PM Comprehensive Plan Review Don showed the group a number of edits to the Comprehensive Plan recommended by the SBEC. Marc makes a motion to send the edits to Staff for synthesis and presenting to the Planning Commission for consideration. Seconded by Peter. Approved unanimously. 9:00 PM Adjourn Meeting