Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Energy Committee - 09/12/2019 - No Quorum Energy Committee Meeting Notes September 12, 2019 (No Quorum) Committee members present: Tim Perrin, Keith Epstein, Marcy Murray, Andrew Chalnick. Committee members absent: Linda McGinnis, Karen McKenny, Patty Tashiro, Don Cummings, Richard Shrake, Sam Swanson Community members present: Donna Leban and Havaleh Gagne of the bicycle and pedestrian committee Guests: Lou Bresee (City of SB Energy Manager), Kevin Dorn (City of SB Manager) Meeting was Called to Order: by Chair Tim Perrin at 6:35pm. It was noted that since there were only 4 members present, we did not have a quorum so we are not officially having a meeting. Meeting Notes Keith agreed to scribe. Way to go Vermont Donna introduced the Way to Go Vermont program. It encourages students and teachers to learn about the energy impacts of getting to school and promote non SOV (Single Occupancy Vehicle) modes of transportation. Individual schools sign up, not the entire district. Anecdotal evidence was discussed that there is a social stigma to riding the middle school and high school bus. This may be a barrier to alternative modes of transportation. To participate, a school needs a coordinator and someone to record the activities. Carpooling can count. There are prizes for the winning school. The website is https://www.waytogovt.org/. Keith will send suggestions for coordinators to Donna. Donna is looking for potential people to coordinate at the schools and assistance reaching out to them. If you would like to help, please contact her at lightspd@comcast.net. Municipal energy efficiency projects status and prioritization (Lou Bresee) Lou Bresee shared his latest energy projects presentation, available in the September meeting folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wvQbwj3ZAIzVLOD5XK5V-jLwuot1lbns Kevin Dorn will ask the police chief about the issue with the police car anti-idling device that was tried. Lou said officers did not like that the climate control system was turned off, so their car was too hot when they got into it (summertime). Thanks for the update, Lou. Tim coordinated feedback for Lou from the energy committee members who were present. We shared our thoughts about what was working well, what we would like to see more of, and what we would like to see less of. Here is a summary: Working well: Documenting city energy use, lights projects done or in progress, regular communication, meeting attendance, Lou responds promptly to Keith’s emails and phone calls, setting things in place for efficiency during upgrades, collaboration with city departments, having someone focused on energy, pulling together old information. Would like to see more of: Visibility into work planned and work in-progress, inquiries of SBEC when starting a project about knowledge or experience that may help projects be done quicker or better, make sure Lou is asking often for help from EVT and VGS – keep asking for more until they say no, publicity for completed work and the work that is happening, prioritization of projects based on analysis, doing visible projects, progress on longer-term projects, energy education and continuous improvement training, addressing police station conference room HVAC problems. Would like to see less of: Defensive tone when receiving suggestions. Project prioritization and organization Tim briefly discussed the project prioritization and organization document that he, Don, and Sam worked on. Request to all members: Review the document and come to the October meeting prepared with at least 2 projects that you want to work on and to discuss how to make progress on our priorities. It is in the meetings folder. Project Updates: Committee members briefly reviewed their input to the Project Tracking Document. We did not get through the entire document. See Google Doc in the meetings folder. Andrew will update the proposed solar on new construction requirements to address cost barriers for low income homeowners, and he and Keith will call Barry Murphy at the Public Service Department to discuss the commercial solar requirements in the draft update of the stretch energy standards. Next Meeting. October 10, 2019 @ 6:30 pm, South Burlington Police Station’s 2nd floor conference room at 19 Gregory Drive (middle entrance). Adjournment. We finished at approximately 8:45 p.m.