2008-09-24 Cities for Climate Protection Minutes

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September 24, 2008 Reading Advisory Committee on Cities for Climate Protection Program Committee Notes for September 24, 2008. 7PM (Next Meeting - Oct. 8th at Town Hall) Present were Michele Benson, Ron D'Addario, Gina Snyder, Tracy Sopchak, and David Williams. Joining later were Bing Xia and Bob Brown. Meeting opening -Chair Michele Benson opened the meeting. Minutes - A motion was made to accept the Sept. 10th meeting minutes which were accepted unanimously. Action Plan items updates - Update on RCAP a) Looped Bus Service, under Modes of Transportation actions by Ron & Tracy include possible help on next step of RFP. Carol has spoken with Jim Cole at the state who is doing the paperwork. Michele will check with Peter and Carol on timeline, when branding and news items will be needed; and also on whether they are getting the assistance of a consultant on the routing of the bus. Tracy will do up a branding concept poster for committee to see and offered to write up a Green Sense article for publication when the town is ready to "go". b) Community Ride Share Program, under Modes of Transportation, actions by Ron, Stephanie & Michele. Michele indicated that it will take some time for the database at MassRIDES to be populated. Our contact, Elliot, has left and Michele has been in contact with the new staff member. This item can probably be moved into the `ongoing' category. c) School-wide No-Idling Policy, under Vehicle Fuel Efficiency actions by Gina, Joan, Michele: since last update the signs are up! And the principals of each school have been contacted and three responded immediately with how many pledges they need. Michele printed them and she and Gina distributed. Others will be contacted directly next week if no response to email. d) Public Outreach and Education, under Education & Outreach, actions by Tracy, Ray, Michele. Tracy indicated this is `ready to get going' with some time now set aside. e) School Climate Change Educational, under Education & Outreach actions by Gina, Joan & Sophie. Some discussion on this topic, not clear where it fits at this point. It overlaps with student and youth group. Mary DeLai had indicated some activity on the part of the schools subsequent to last year's curriculum review. This also includes recycling. f) Student and Youth Group, under Education & Outreach actions by Gina & Joan - Ron would like to pursue working with students. The committee, more generally, felt that the amount of time invested was greater than the return and with the pressure of all the other actions needing to be done, this may not be a phase I activity at this point. Ron will pursue and it will be revisited by subcommittee. g) Community No-Idling Campaign, under Vehicle Fuel Efficiency, actions by Gina, Joan - no update at this time, this action item will be pursued at the end of the time line of the no-idling campaign at the schools. h) Town By-Law and Master Plan Review, under Energy & Buildings actions by Stephanie, Ron, Dave. Dave has been looking at bylaws and policies. Public works has rules under rubbish and the selectmen have rules and regulations plus there is a very large book at town hall containing policies for the many committees, however, it does not seem to be very current. Tracy will add Stephanie's findings from previous meeting and pursue update on where we are. Michele will check with Peter on whether the consultant's review has been done. Ron indicated that he would like to be taken off this action. ICLEI meeting update, Conversation in Climate Michele and Gina attended the ICLEI meeting in Winchester last Friday. The many towns are actively pursuing many good projects. It is interesting to see the different ways towns are pursuing climate protection actions. Several towns have energy committees for municipal buildings, depending on where the facilities department falls (e.g., in Winchester it is under DPW). Reading seems to be ahead of the curve on writing action plans and ICLEI northeast has several new and energetic staff members who will be looking to put together best management practices (BMP) or case studies so all can learn from others' experiences. On the conversation on climate, note was made that ICLEI is recommending this around Earth Day (not in Oct as last year) so the question is whether it is something that can be tackled as part of our Earth Day activities. Could it be instead of `movie night'? - It would be more work than Movie Night is. Question on whether Peter would still want to do it? - He was a major proponent last year. Thought of seeing if the World Cafe group would want to help? - This was suggested as they had a great outreach program leading up to it. Home Depot Fair Saturday 10:00 to 2:00 Home Depot's focus on energy includes a new display on insulation and replacement windows. They have invited CCP to staff a table for outreach. Gina and Dave