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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Energy Committee - 10/02/2014Thursday October 2, 2014 7:00 to 9:00PM South Burlington Municipal Offices, 575 Dorset Street South Burlington Energy Committee Meeting Minutes Adopted Present: Don Cummings, Karen Mckenny, Keith Epstein, Marcy Murray Absent: Fred Kosnitsky, Sam Swanson Staff Absent: Ilona Blanchard Public Present: Paul Wagenhofer, Patty Tashiro, Linda McGinnis, Rosanne Greco, Allan Bullis, Steve Roy, UVM Students from sustainable living program Don convened the meeting at 7:00 PM. Karen volunteered to serve as scribe. Meeting Minutes: Unable to approve previous meeting minutes due to initial lack of quorum number present. Public: Allan Bullis expressed concern regarding renovations to city hall that did not remove unused non energy efficient equipment. Committee encouraged him to attend the city council meeting on Monday night to discuss. Allan also shared recent conversations regarding coordinating efforts with Montpelier and Waterbury on the GUEP. Members of the SBEP team have been in contact with the other two towns and are keeping each other up to date on projects and plans. At this point the majority of the time and effort of the team is focused on getting our project plan completed for submission. City Staff Updates:  The SBEC is on the agenda for the City Council meeting on Oct 20th to present our SBEP project plan prior to submission to the GUEP.  Ilona shared the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that the city has with Commons Energy, an energy services company (ESCo) to provide technical services, project management, and the opportunity for financing for municipal efficiency improvement projects. They will take advantage of existing audit data, may perform more auditing as needed, and will guarantee energy savings. They will charge for labor and materials plus a percent for overhead and profit. Allan Bullis is requesting a copy.  Landfill solar array output will be divided between the schools and the city. A letter of intent is in place regarding this project and the next step will be a contract with percentage to each outlined. Project Updates:  SB Energy Prize (GUEP) o Don provided the group with a high level review of the different components of the project plan. o Residential Solar: Rosanne Greco and Steve Roy volunteered to look into residential solar opportunities for roof top, property, and leasing. o Marketing and Outreach-messaging plans are outlined. Next step is finding/hiring a professional to assist us in ad design and production. Don following up on this. o Public outreach- We have tabled at 2 events and there are 4 more coming up. A list of 25 more public outreach opportunities has been created. . Karen is working on permissions to table, as well as games, activities, and promotional materials for each of these. We need give a-ways and prizes. Facebook is up and running 120 “likes”. Karen has access to all FPF’s in SB and is posting weekly. Keith reports that the website will be up and running soon. Keith is looking for a volunteer to be our webmaster. Karen will send out a request to email list. Multiple suggestions regarding possible outreach “prizes” to include energy assessments, audits, contests, and carbon foot printing websites. o School Sector- Linda reports that all schools in SB are committed and involved with the SBEP. The high school and Orchard in particular are moving forward with program plans and curriculum development. Student groups are getting involved and the high school has been accepted in the Whole Schools Energy Challenge. Renewables: A letter of intent has been signed between the city and the school regarding the landfill solar array. Improving facility efficiencies are a work in progress but Linda feels confident we are moving forward on this piece as well. o Municipal Planning- Keith has met with the planning commission to request a timeline for the approval of the comprehensive plan as well as a letter of support for projects related to the SBEP. Discussion regarding the inclusion of street lights and traffic lights into the project plan. Discussion on inclusion of a project related to the waste treatment facility and water resources in general. Keith has requested volunteer support for this project. Karen will send a request to email list. o Fundraising-Patty has completed a partner and sponsorship program for the SBEP. Differing levels of support and cross promotion are outlined. Donation letter has been created. Work on grants is underway with another volunteer Janet Bellevance. Patty would like volunteers to help her with contacting businesses for donations. Karen will send out a request to email list. o Marcy has volunteered to be our treasurer for the project. Marcy reviewed two forms that we will use for funding. The first is to request funds that will need to be approved by the committee. The second is to collect funds after approval and purchase of items. Marcy will send the forms to all committee members with instructions for use. o SBEP retreat is set for Sunday October 12th from 10-5 at Healthy Living in the learning center on the first floor. Lunch will be on your own. Plans for that day include completing project plans in detail for presentation to city council and submission to the GUEP, budget projections, and outlining next steps in moving forward with the project.  Karen moved to adjourn the meeting at 9:15, members voted unanimously to adjourn.