HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-03-28 Cities for Climate Protection MinutesMarch 28, 2007 Reading Advisory Committee on Cities for Climate Protection Program
Committee Notes for Mar. 28, 2007 (Next Meeting - April 11 6' at Town Hall)
Committee Meeting 7:00 PM, present were Michelle Mini, Ron D'Addario, Gina Snyder, Joan Boegel, Ray
Porter, Sovay Anderberg, Dan Blodgett, 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 14 meeting.
The motion passed Unanimously.
Healthy Landscapes - There is a date conflict with the Crystal Garden Club event. Ron called S
landscapers and got only one "maybe" from Norway Landscaping. He called and visited both Eric's and
Calareso's multiple times, and they won't come. Ron will try calling Mahoney's.
Step it Up - The committee will not be able to organize an event for this on top of every thing else.
Earth Day - Stephanie showed the first draft of the display layout map. There were some suggested
adjustments, and Stephanie will email the next draft. The check in table could include a sign-up sheet for an
electronic distribution of the Green Sense columns, and the 1-2-3 pledge, and a sheet for people interested in a 4-
night course on various eco-circle topics, etc. Michelle updated the committee on the plans for the library display.
Plans involve getting neighborhood kids to make recycled crafts and handprints with climate actions written on
each finger. The library will select related books to include in the display. The display dates are April 1-13.
Committee members should send letters to our contacts for Earth Day displays, to let them know about arrival
times, table location, etc. Gina will send her letter for others to reuse. Committee members should also plan to
arrive at the event between 9 and 9:30 am. For the movie night, we believe Michele had been planning to pick up
the hotdogs from BJs, and we've also heard that RMLD might be planning to spring for pizza. Marketing for
these events, plus the Healthy Lawns event have been/will be in REI materials, at Atlantic, at the library, at
Healthy Food Exchange, online at Boston Central, and online at Edlines. In a related event, Parker students want
to organize a Lights Out event for the evening of May 4ffi, and both middle schools are interested in working on
collecting transportation data that we can use toward our MPO grant application.
Action Plan (Transportation Components) - The committee discussed how to illustrate the eC02
savings for each action item. Tracy volunteered to take the current draft and take the first stab at standardizing
format & text, and add graphics. The document is long but the current list of items are only those which receive
votes in our prioritizing exercise - several items have already been weeded out. In identifying groups which can
help accomplish action plan items, it would be better to use language such as "potential partners" instead of text
like "assigned to". The Parker students voted for a class project related to climate protection, and the top choice
was anti-idling. For that particular project, potential partners could be these students, PTOs, and police.
Stephanie will send anti-idling weblinks to Gina. We might want to include the Green Transit white paper in our
action plan. Then, when the plan is finalized, it can be cited in our grant application. We might keep the
document organization as is, and list them in order of priority elsewhere - we will see as we go. We need a
written summary for the intro to this section, stressing that transportation is our town's largest source of GHG
emissions. Stephanie will take a first stab at this, and bounce drafts off of Gina & Michele. Gina will check in
with Michele on the non-transportation action items, to determine what the committee's next steps should be with
those. The next town meeting is in late April. Do we want to try again to be allowed to give a report, or do we
want to put in an instructional motion on Reading Green Transit? The motion is not really the best way to go
about it. We may just want to ask for a short presentation opportunity to show our results and suggested
transportation action items for now. Probably just the list of action item names for now. An anti-idling "plug"
can also help the Parker project.
Next Steps - Gina will send her sample letter for Earth Day displayers. Stephanie will send revised
layout map ASAP.
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