HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-06-27 Cities for Climate Protection MinutesJune 27, 2007 Reading Advisory Committee on Cities for Climate Protection Program
Committee Notes for June 27, 2007 (Next Meeting - SUBCOMITTEE -July 11 th at Town Hall)
Committee Meeting 7:00 PM, present were Tracy Sopchak, Michele Benson, Gina Snyder, Ron D'Addario, Joan
Boegel, and Stephanie Anderberg. Guests in attendance were Wallace Lafayette from Billerica, Peg Raciti from
Reading, and Sophie Gellot from Reading.
Welcome Chair Gina Snyder opened the meeting, welcoming all present. Wallace explained about
Billerica Watchers and their efforts to stop a power plant to be built in Billerica. Peg and Sophie told the
committee about how they've heard of us and are interested.
Minutes -.A motion was made and seconded to approve the meeting minutes from the June 12th meeting.
The motion passed unanimously.
Surveys - We talked about the best way to collate data. A suggestion was made to get a service similar
to Survey Monkey, online and enter the existing paper surveys into it. There was a question about how long we'd
"own" or have access to the data if this were done. No one knew. The committee decided to go with an Access
database and forms for data entry, to allow us to perform numerous queries which may be needed for our future
local transit grant application.
MBTA meeting at Wakefield - Tracy, Ron, Michele and Gina attended. The committee discussed
sending a formal letter of comments in addition to what was said at the meeting. We will also have an
opportunity to comment again in approximately a year when the T compiles the public input and issues a draft
plan. Gina will take a stab at a draft comment letter for this phase of the process.
Action Plan - Tracy showed the committee several updates to the plan and layout.
The transportation section has been split and redistributed into the remaining categories (municipal, residential,
etc) so that others - Peter, for example - can easily see which items require municipal actions.
An introduction was added.
Tracy has been combining some similar items to keep the overall plan concise. Existing and planned committee
items have been condensed into a list.
Groupings for items are still in flux; it's possible that a better organization strategy would become apparent as we
go.
For some ideas, it needs to be understood that they are future efforts. Others are already in progress and we
should recognize the good efforts already underway. Tracy has added color coding to identify these, and
therefore make it easier for Peter and others to see at a glance what needs his attention/assistance.
Tracy gave an explanation on the layout of the plan - for each item, an intro box with graphics, category, key
info, likely implementers, related actions. Text sections are clearly identified so readers can go directly to the info
that they are looking for.
In describing time frames for each item, it works to use a month and year for efforts underway, but for future
efforts, we can use a more general timeline such as "in the first 0-3 months".
In response to input from the Board, we have added water conservation, trees, green lawn programs, etc to the
plan.
Transportation 1-2-3 Pledge - We should add the zipcode, ask for general car information (to better
estimate MPG and emissions savings), and ask for email addresses, to use when/if we develop an email updates
program.
Next Steps - There will be many people unable to attend the July 1 lth meeting, so this will become a
meeting led by the Action Plan subcommittee, to discuss progress on the plan.
There was a brief discussion about a volunteer program idea using block leaders to encourage more residential
recycling.