HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-04-26 Cities for Climate Protection MinutesReading Advisory Committee on Cities for Climate Protection Program
Committee Notes for April 26, 2006
Present were Stephanie Anderberg, Michele Benson, Ron Daddario, Gina Snyder, and Ray Porter.
The minutes for April 12 and 19 were accepted unanimously.
Due to a last-minute change to the Town Meeting schedule, Tracy was not given a spot on the
agenda for April 24t" for the overview to Town Meeting and is rescheduled for April 27.
The committee decided to call to interview the primary candidate for our advertised internship, and
if the interview went well, and based on the excellent reference feedback received, to offer the job. The
basic parameters would be for 8 to 20 hours a week, the intern would record hours worked and percent
completeness of the inventory. [Immediately following the meeting, Tracy, Ron and Gina interviewed and
ended a good interview with an offer for the job. The candidate indicated.a...need for a week or a little more
to evaluate the summer schedule; while working with Reading on this project fits perfectly with interests
and plans for graduate school, the candidate will need other summer employment as prior to leaving for
graduate school August 20.]
Stephanie will be calling Paula at town hall to check on how the funds would be dispersed both for
the canvas bags and for the internship compensation. The canvas bags purveyor will be providing a cost
estimate of number of bags with two-color printing.
Stephanie also confirmed that the Webpage address ci.reading.ma.us/climate can be linked to the
web-page that Tracy has been setting up. We will plan to put our meeting agendas on it along with a
meeting schedule. We will need to assess how much changing information to try to keep up on the webpage
without overwhelming our ability to keep up with it.
Michele reported that using the year 2000 as the base year for the inventory will be no problem for
RMLD. She also provided hand outs on Green Bylaws adopted by Truro, which is broader that what we
discussed for Reading, but demonstrates what some other communities are doing, and a page that defines
green building. The committee wants to think about what would work best for Reading - if it's bylaw
changes, this would be a major undertaking.
We also discussed that the intern may need our help to access records from the year 2000 for the
' baseline from Town Hall for the municipal side of the software. Also, there may be opportunities to include
more or less detail with the software, depending on what records are available. For example, again from
Town Hall, excise tax records might give detail on types of vehicles used by residents for the transportation
category, or we might end up using some of the assumptions that the model can provide if the data are too
difficult to obtain or evaluate and/or enter.
Ray provided an updated timeline, and following a discussion of the possibilities, it was decided to
break out into more detail the data collection to include the various categories/sectors to tease out some
detail. Also, the intern wouldn't be able to start until the beginning of June, so that date would need to move
out.
Ron called a contact from Hull Wind, an energy engineer, and he indicated he'd be willing to talk
with us.
The committee acknowledged that to evaluate the potential for wind power in the RMLD service
area, a year-long wind study including an anemometer set up would be required. This could run $50-
100,000 and so is no easy task. The committee discussed land owned by RMLD - Causeway Street in
Reading and next to Moynahan's in North Reading. Michele will look into it at RMLD.
Michele will also check into a global warming special that she caught on CNN and Stephanie will
check to see if her dad was able to tape the HBO special "Too Hot not To Handle."
Ron has been trading emails with the Walkable Streets group (they have a new person) and the
developer who offered to come and have a discussion with us. Committee members expressed a preference
for Friday afternoons for the Walkable Streets visit/walk.
Next meeting would be May 10.
Also, here is the website for the wind map for Reading
http://masstech. org/RenewableEnergy/Community_Wind/maps/Wind%20Resources_READING.pdf
And a web link with info on NE wind
http://www. eere. energy. gov/windandhydro/windp oweringamerica/newengland. asp