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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-07-25 Cities for Climate Protection MinutesJuly 25, 2007 Reading Advisory Committee on Cities for Climate Protection Program Committee Notes for July 25, 2007 (Next Meeting - August 8th at Town Hall) Committee Meeting 7:00 PM, present were Tracy Sopchak, Gina Snyder, Ron D'Addario, Joan Boegel, Ray Porter, Miles Sopchak, Sovay Anderberg, Peg Raciti, Sophie Gellot and Stephanie Anderberg. Michele Benson attended the beginning of the meeting. Welcome - Chair Gina' Snyder opened the meeting, welcoming all present. Minutes -.A motion was made and seconded to approve the meeting minutes from the June 27th and July 11 th meetings. A correction was made on the June 27th notes to reflect the date was the 27th and not the 26th. The motion to approve the notes as amended passed unanimously. Summer get-together - Ron has generously offered to host a cookout at his home on August 19th at 3 pm. Ron will provide hotdogs, chicken, burgers, and rolls. Other members should bring side dishes desserts, or beverages (beer & wine have been volunteered). There may also be a need for veggie burgers. Follow up on MBTA meeting at Wakefield - Gina is working on the comment letter and the committee discussed what to focus on. Suggestions were double-tracking, Orange Line extension to Reading, bus service improvements and double-decker commuter rail coaches on north-side lines. Stephanie also noted that she'd placed a request with MBTA service planning to examine 137 bus route stop locations in relation to development along Walker's Brook Drive. (based on a comment by Peter at the MPO meeting of July 11) MPO meeting followup - Stephanie summarized the meeting as in the notes of July 11. The meeting seemed to be very positive as far as Reading's chance of getting the funding. Central Transportation Planning Staff (CTPS) will help us with data and financial planning. Committee members should send all communications for CTPS through the Town Planner, Carol. No Committee member had been able to attend the TIP (transportation improvement program) meeting that was held in Reading on the 17th Action Plan -There are questions on whether to wait on action item implementation until the Plan is completed, or if it is better to start working on some now as opportunities become available. For example, on the Action Plan, some items have only the text, with no eC02 calculations. So it is difficult to tell which efforts would result in the largest emissions reductions. Some items have champions on the Board of Selectmen, and maybe it would be best to work on those while they still have interest and support. At the same time, we want to avoid doing things just because they are easy to do, if it may turn out that their emissions benefits are not significant. We may need subcommittees to focus on certain action plan items, or families of items. Five items so far have been approved by Peter, and approximately 6 more are nearly ready for Peter's review. We will need to use a large portion of an upcoming meeting to go over the Action Plan items and writing progress. We should also consider inviting Ben Tafoya to attend an upcoming meeting to discuss water conservation efforts and opportunities. Web Page - The Pledge section had been completely replaced with the newest version of the Pledge and statistics. Older Pledge information can be accessed through a link on the home page. Some minor edits were suggested. There was a discussion on whether and how to put the survey online, but for the moment, we will wait to hear from CTPS about whether additional data would be needed. Municipal Sustainability Grants - There are upcoming sessions for the next round of grants. Last year, the grants were not funded after all, so there were concerns that this year will not be funded either. Ron will talk to Peter about applying. Addison Wesley Site - Ron suggests that we ask the new developer to meet with us. This new developer is just assisting the original applicant with PR to facilitate the community process. We will ask Peter what he thinks about us meeting with the new company. We will need to focus our message for the developer, and keep it to the overall sustainability goals, not about the type of development. We will need to show them the benefits of green building to get their buy in. Recycling subcommittee - Gina will let Peter know that we have a subcommittee. The handout outlines several goals of the subcommittee. Short term goals include: clarify and improve current recycling program, create awareness of benefits of recycling, and assist Reading schools and businesses on current recycling programs (if any). Long term goals include promotion of the reduce-reuse-recycle concept, and formation of a watchdog program. After Gina talks to Peter, we will determine from his reaction how we should move forward.