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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Energy Committee - 02/04/2016 South Burlington Energy Commiee 575 Dorset Street South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 846-4106 www.sburl.com facebook.com/SouthBurlington February 4, 2016, Approved Meeng Minutes Commiee members present: Karen Mckenny, Keith Epstein (Chair), Linda McGinnis, Marcy Murray, Pay Tashiro, Sam Swanson, Thor Vue Commiee members absent: Don Cummings, Fred Kosnitsky, Wayne Maceyka Community members present: Grant Taylor, Tom Chienden (City Council) City staff present: None Inial business Marcy volunteered to scribe and the commiee approved the January 7th minutes. Input from the Public Grant gave an update regarding the agreement of UVM Natural Resources 206 students to use Porolio Manager to record our municipal energy use. This project will build on the tremendous amount of work former SBEC member Peter Tousley did to record the baseline data. When finished, the students will include detailed instrucons for city staff to keep the database up to date so staff can learn from and take acon based on mely informaon. The commiee and Ascension Lutheran Church have both had great results working with students from the 206 course in past years. Grant agreed to be the liaison between the students and the commiee. South Burlington Energy Prize Updates Members shared key accomplishments, next steps, and requests for assistance as Keith scrolled through the pre-meeng wrien project update summary. Tom suggested and agreed to explore adding energy-efficiency- related blurbs on the city’s property tax bills—while SBEC would have input on such text, the message would be from the city so residents would not associate the commiee with the huge tax bill. If implemented, a typical message could emphasis that one way to lower annual costs is to carry out energy efficiency projects. The Georgetown University Energy Prize (GUEP) administrators have shared parcipant rankings based on three fiscal quarters of selected energy data. South Burlington is currently ranked number 38—sll within reach of making the finals (Keith will confirm that GUEP’s calculaons are accurate). Tom asked if we’ve been working with landlords who might want to parcipate in a Welcome-Bag-type program for renters similar to what Pay has set up with real estate agents. Discussion concluded that perhaps Rotary could help idenfy enlightened landlords willing to enthusiascally parcipate. There was a discussion about the importance of making sure that all new buildings will be required to be water- use efficient. Tom will explore whether that requirement will be part of the stretch energy code and, if not, why not. The commiee celebrated Linda’s connued great job in guiding the landfill project forward—both the School Board and City have now signed contracts. Next steps involve handling issues related to the Public Service Board and the net-metering cap issue. We discussed the need to turn our retreat goals into a small number of cohesive strategies, ideally with measurable targets. Sam emphasized the wisdom of allowing volunteers the creavity to pursue their interests as long as their ideas would not harm our goals and might actually help achieve them. Treasurer’s report: Marcy reported that we have $18,338.35 on hand ($1,972.21 in the General Fund and $16,366.14 in the Energy Prize Reserve Fund). Based on input from Ilona, our General Fund spreadsheet will now only track the current fiscal year’s funds including budgeted and accrued amounts. The accrued line item funds (currently totaling $800) must be used by June 30th. Consequently, all future bills will be paid for with accrued funds unl the laer are depleted. Moons MOTION: Karen moved and Linda seconded a moon to approve the January 7th minutes. Approved unanimously. MOTION: Keith moved and Pay seconded a moon to authorize $2,500 for addional ad creaon and placement and $500 for social media. Approved unanimously. MOTION: Pay moved and Karen seconded a moon to cover any addional costs related to replacing the SBEP banner that Lowe’s lost. Approved unanimously. (Note: the amount is expected to be less than $10.) Adjournment The meeng adjourned at 8:44 p.m. Next Scheduled Meeng: Thursday, March 3rd, at 6:30 p.m. in the upstairs meeng room at the South Burlington Police Staon (19 Gregory Drive).