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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-03-14 Cities for Climate Protection MinutesMarch 14, 2007 Reading Advisory Committee on Cities for Climate Protection Program Committee Notes for Mar. 14, 2007 (Next Meeting - March 28th at Town Hall) Committee Meeting 7:00 PM, present were Michele Benson, Ron D'Addario, Gina Snyder, Joan Boegel, Dan Blodgett, Tracy Sopchak, and Stephanie Anderberg Welcome - Chair Gina Snyder opened the meeting and welcomed all present. Minutes - Ron noted an omission in the notes, regarding his action items assignments. The notes will be amended once compared against Gina's original assignment list. A motion was made and seconded to approve the meeting minutes of the February 28 meeting, with the suggested corrections. The motion passed 5-0. MCAN - The committee decided to edit Ron's draft text for a listing, so that it includes only the committee's Hotmail email address as contact information, and no personal email addresses or phone numbers. This will also eliminate the need for any changes later as our committee chair terms end. Ron will make these edits and forward the text to Marc at MCAN. Other Workshops - Peter is trying to get a town employee to attend the anti-idling/DEP meeting on 3/15. If no one from Reading can go, Gina can get the notes after the meeting. CCP meeting at Cambridge - Tracy and Ron can attend. Walkable Reading - brief discussion about coordinating efforts. Collective procurement contract opportunity - the town can get a 25% discount on bicycle parking structures/hardware, and can be reimbursed for up to $6200. The eligible purchases must be installed on town property and before December. Gina is working to narrow down the best products. Our options are products from Cycle Safe, Dero or Madrax. Peter is identifying locations for installation, including at the library and Town Hall. Healthy Landscapes Publicity - Members will post flyers in various locations. We need to print out a bunch to hand out at the Adopt-an-Island kickoff event on March 27. We need a minimum of 15 people to attend the seminar. Several committee members will attend. We also need to attract landscapers. Ron will check the classifieds, and start calling landscapers from the ads, particularly those that advertise a "green" technique. He will also ask Calareso's about donating a prize. The committee will highlight this seminar in the next Green Sense article, along with Earth Day and movie night. Earth Day Event(s) - There was a short discussion on whether to list the displayers in the flyer, but we don't yet have all of the confirmations, so it was decided to generalize them on the flyer (by subjects) but to produce a handout for the event, listing the displayers at that time. There was an idea to invite landscapers to the April 10th landscape event, with a "carrot" of letting the first to rsvp (and attend) the opportunity to host an Earth Day display - outdoors on the patio, where foot traffic enters and exits. The display should be on environmental techniques and appropriate plant selections. We need to add the movie night info to the flyers, and adjust the movie start times to allow people time to get back into town after work. It looks like it will be possible to move the first start time to 6om, and still start the second movie at 8pm. Hotdogs can still start at 5, and be available throughout the 5-6pm hour. Joan will add the event info to EdLine. The 8d' grade science class from Parker is working to publicize the events. RMLD is hoping to have additional showings of An Inconvenient Truth. Dan will make PowerPoint slides based on Tracy's flyer, and will send them to cable. We might also be able to add the event info to our website, to simplify what's needed on the cable slides. The committee continues to work on a list of displayers. RMLD will give out free CFLs and will also have a display of a variety of bulbs. Stephanie will ask Sovay to host a table for kids; based on 50 Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth. There were additional ideas on things to add, in case we need to host a few tables ourselves to fill space, and a few ideas about other groups to invite. Action Plan Items - There was a discussion on how to structure the items within the written plan. Some towns have good comparisons of how much eC02 is saved. There is also some difficulty in describing the potential savings in some ideas, for example, those which depend greatly on how much individual action is taken. It was decided to put the potential savings in terms of smaller units, for example "for each mile changed from a driving trip to a walking trip..." We will also need to develop some nicer language for items where benefits are truly unknown, such as informational campaigns. Committee members will work in estimating the eC02 savings of each item. Then we will look for an idea to use consistently, to illustrate the savings. Michele cautioned the committee to double-check statements in other town plans, as she found errors such as one statement where a Camry would be better than a Malibu, when really the Malibu is better. Next Steps - Between now and the next meeting, members will continue work on paragraphs for transportation action plan items. When writing up items, consider and note who might be potential partners on accomplishing them ( for example: RMLD, other town committees, Walkable Reading, regional organizations, etc) Everyone will re-send their item text to Gina, who will forward them all as one document. For paragraphs on non-transportation items, we will wait until the next meeting to decide on which can be combined, and how they should be ranked. Then we will assign items for writing paragraphs. Everyone should also read through the transportation paragraphs once Gina sends the combined document.