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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-11-12 Climate Advisory Committee Minutes4Dw� (a Town of Reading Meeting Minutes Board - Committee - Commission - Council: Climate Advisory Committee Date: 2014 -11 -12 Building: Reading Town Hall Address: 16 Lowell Street Purpose: Bi- monthly meeting Attendees: Members - Present: riECEIVED fOWN CLERK :,.DING. MASS. 1014 DEC -8 P 3: 31 Time: 7:00 PM Location: Conference Room Joan Boegel, member; David Williams, Chair and member; Ron D'Addario, member; Ray Porter, member; Laurie Ann Sylvia, member, Gina Snyder, associate member Members - Not Present: Michele Benson, associate member Others Present: Michael Scola Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: loan Boegel Topics of Discussion: • Review and approve minutes of recent meeting. The committee voted to approve minutes of the 10/22/2014 meeting as written by Joan Boegel. • Meeting schedule change. Due to Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, the committee agreed not to meet on the fourth Wednesdays of November (November 26, night before Thanksgiving) and December (December 24, Christmas Eve). Instead, we will meet on December 3 and 17. • Reading Public Library project. Mike Scola attended the October 30`h meeting and presented the concept of LED parking lighting. The library building committee likes the idea but said it was too late. Project Manager Evan Warner asked Mike for a proposal. He will speak to Griffin Electric, the successful bidder for the electrical contract. We can ask for a "substitution ", not a change order. Adelphi Construction was the winning bidder for the construction management contract. Laurie Ann did talk with Tirzah Shakespeare at RMLD regarding rebates for the library parking lighting. Tirzah wants to wait until we have a plan. • Opportunities for Solar Energy and Energy Efficiency in Town Buildings. Mike Scola spoke with the administrative assistant for Kelly Colon, the new Reading Director of Facilities, regarding ESCO reports. He is waiting to hear from Ms. Colon. loan reminded the committee that when we met with Bob LeLacheur last February, he told us that ESCO energy efficiency work had been very successful and the committee offered to publicize the successes. Mike would like to see a public "dashboard" for Town energy use. • Vehicle eV charging stations. Mike hasn't contacted Keolis yet. He plans to do that. • Climate Change Adaptation Report. Ron stated that our 2 -page Climate Change Adaptation article went out In the Community News sent by Maureen Knight a couple of days ago. He received two responses, both from climate change deniers. He spoke with both of them. Page 1 1 Town of Reading - Meeting Minutes Library Book Discussion. Ron will lead a discussion of Thp Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert at the RMHS library on Tuesday, December 9, at 7 p.m. Energy Efficiency financing. Gina spoke with leader of Reading Council on Aging. He had some ideas on how the grant program could be set up. The council is interested and will discuss at their meeting tonight. They are trying to connect with the person in Winchester who started their program. The Winchester bank helped set it up. Maybe a local bank would be interested here. Adopt an Island. Dave contacted Jane Fiore. One site is available. It is on High Street and Vine, bordering the railroad tracks. It had been cared for by the Girl Scouts. They planted trees. Gina noted that DPW will help with tree trimming. The committee discussed whether we should adopt this island. Perhaps we could use it as a demonstration site for native, drought - resistant, climate change - resilient plants. Ray volunteered to ask his wife, who has interest and expertise in landscaping and has been involved with New England Wildflower Society, if she would help the committee with this project. It was agreed that Interested members of the committee should meet at the site, probably on a weekend day, soon. Earth Day 2015. Laurie Ann would like to begin planning. We had discussed doing a Solar or Alternative Energy event with vendor displays at RMLD. The committee agreed that would be good. We focused on outdoor activities for families and young children for the past two years at the Mattera Cabin. This event would be geared toward a different audience - mostly homeowners. If we use only the RMLD cafeteria and deck, we would not need to have coverage by Facilities. Looking at the calendar, we agreed that Saturday, April 11, would be the date, avoiding Easter weekend and school vacation week. Page 1 2