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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-04-11 Cities for Climate Protection MinutesApril 11, 2007 Reading Advisory Committee on Cities for Climate Protection Program Committee Notes for Apr. 11, 2007 (Next Meeting - April 250' at Town Hall) Committee Meeting 7:00 PM, present were Michele Benson, Ron D'Addario, Gina Snyder, Joan Boegel, Tracy Sopchak, and Stephanie Anderberg Welcome - Chair Gina Snyder opened the meeting and welcomed all present. Minutes - A motion was made and seconded to approve the meeting minutes of the March 28 meeting. The motion passed unanimously. Healthy Landscapes - This was a good event. People asked lots of good questions. Thirty people signed in, but there were additional attendees who hadn't signed in. Having the room set up so that people were seated at tables made it seem more full. Norway Landscaping sent 2 employees, who were asking questions. The audience was very engaged in the topic and seemed very interested. DPW provided a composter to be used as the drawing prize. The committee got the extra copies of the handouts, to use at the Earth Day fair. Earth Day - First, as an aside, the committee discussed the opportunity to submit a proposal for the Energy Star bus tour. It might be worth pursuing this, because even if we don't get selected, it would put us on a list of interested parties for future opportunities. The committee decided to propose that the bus come to Family Day, rather than us having to organize another event. The Earth Day fair and movie night were advertised in the RMLD newsletter, and RMLD staff had been receiving calls from people interested in the "hotdog feast". These appeared to be largely from families with small children, and some said they were not planning to stay for the movies. Committee members discussed what food and quantities to have for movie night. We've heard that the North Reading environmental group might be interested in having people attend our event, rather than plan a separate event. The committee discussed plans for dealing with overflow, should the crowd become too large. Plans involved possibly showing movies, in reverse order, in a second room if needed. The Future City kids were working on a plan to get their posters to the event site. Next meeting for their group is 4/27, and then 5/2, at 2:30 to 3:30. This group will soon need help with survey work for Green Transit. The committee discussed minor changes to the table layout for the fair, and decided that some displays could move outside if the weather was nice. Members agreed to meet at RMLD around 4:30 on Friday. RMLD staff will set up the tables, chairs, & a/v equipment, so we won't be needed earlier. The a/v room should be able to comfortably seat about 64 people. Committee members will work on handout materials such as contact info sheets, a cover sheet to the pledge, and possibly more business cards. Michele has signage to welcome people to the event. The next Green Sense article will be about the event displayers. Parking committee - the Parking committee meeting is on Weds, April 18. Gina will go, Ron will try to go, but is traveling that day. Tracy might be able to make it. Stephanie has been asked by the Parking Committee to attend and speak on carpooling incentive programs which may work in heading. Stephanie will also set up a fake evite for committee members, to test the carpooling feature. Action Plan - Tracy had a nice formatting of the action plan for the transportation section. The committee members were pleased at the format appearance and information. Stephanie had a draft intro for the plan; She will add sections for the 5 steps & inventory results. Michele will resend the summary of "other" action items. We need to reconsider actions to see if we can think of completely new program ideas to try out in Reading. (aside) a summary of the regional CCP meeting was interjected here. There was a brief discussion of the article 97 impediments to solar & wind installations. The committee might want to consider, at a later date, requesting meetings with our state representatives. There was also a discussion of the new Cambridge Energy Alliance, and the indication that there will be other pilot towns added to the program. We discussed that the committee might want to send a letter of interest that the town of Reading could be another of the pilot communities. Gina will send an email asking for more information. (back to Action Plan discussion) There was a discussion over whether to request a meeting with the Town Meeting. We decided that it might be better to simply come up with a handout at this time, perhaps a summary of our progress on the draft action plan, events, outreach, etc. One caveat - with all that is going on, we ask that TM members please consider the climate impact of any decision they make. Ron will send a draft of this paragraph. Michele will reseed the non-transportation items to Tracy first, for formatting similarly to the transportation formatting. Committee members will look at items for the next meeting. Members will add paragraphs wherever we have the info. Next Steps - A notetaker will be needed for the next meeting.