And we are now recording. >> All right. So, welcome everybody. Um, this is the Amoris Energy and Climate Action Committee uh or ECAC. It was organized to guide the town uh in meeting its climate mitigation and resilience goals. Those goals and the
plan for getting there are adopted from the climate action adaptation and resilience plan or KARP that you can find on the sustainability website in Ammerst. It was created uh was accepted by the town council in 2021. It takes 2016 as its base year and calls for a
25% reduction in carbon emissions by 2025, 50% by 2030 and neutrality by 2050. So, a reminder that this committee has two functions. One of them is uh advisory to to advise the town council and recommend or propose policies or
actions that will help us meet those climate goals. And the other is outreach to promote a just, equitable, and speedy climate response through outreach and engagement. um my usual intro. So, without further ado, let's go on to the meeting. The first thing we need is a is a notetaker.
Do we have a a volunteer? I have not been keeping track of who did it last. Okay. Don't make me call on one of you. >> Emily did it last time. She's not here. And I think before that might have been Steve,
>> right? So maybe Michael or Andrew give the two break. It's only his second meeting I think. >> I think Michael was before Steve >> then I can do it. Yeah. >> Andrew, you okay with it? Okay, good. >> Absolutely. >> Thanks, Andrew. >> Thank you very much. Um, so the first thing we always do after assigning a
noteaker is we look at the minutes from last week. So, um, Emily took very thorough thorough minutes. I I think there I didn't have any I don't have any suggestions to change anything, but we have to all agree on them. So, let me go ahead and share
my screen. EAC minutes share. Okay, I need to move a few things around so that I don't lose you all. Okay, there we go.
All right. So, these are the minutes from last time. Can everyone see them? Okay. >> Yep. >> Um, so I'll just scroll through them slowly. They're a little longer and more detailed than usual, but I I think they're actually very good. So, I have
no just might take us a little longer to get through them, which is why everybody should look at them beforehand. I will scroll slowly down. Presumably, you all have copies. I'm going too fast.
page two. on to the last page. Okay. When you're done, if somebody wants to uh move to accept the minutes or to make changes, just go ahead and do that. >> There are no changes. I'll move to accept the minutes as submitted.
>> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Tetssuya. I will stop sharing. >> Okay. And if you could ensure that your microphone is open so that I can hear you and you can be recorded um to
approve the minutes or not or abstain. Golder, >> yes. >> Stain. >> Lang, >> yes. >> Roof, >> yes. >> Tanaka, >> yes. >> Okay, minutes are approved.
>> Thank you. Um, next thing on the agenda, if we have, doesn't look like we have any um, attendees, so there will be no public comment, which means on to the education series planning. Um, okay. So, I'm going to bring up the spreadsheet we
were working on last week. And mostly at this point, I think we're just looking for updates because I think we sort of had a plan for a couple of things. Let me just find the the right link. there.
Okay. Um, kill that and share again. There we go. Share. And I will make this a little bit bigger. Can't really make it any bigger. Can you
guys read that? Okay. You know what I can do? I know what I can do. I can make the text bigger. >> It's fine. >> And then um it's okay like this. I also need to make it so that we can read the whole column now.
So I think um sorry we had a few things that were in progress that we just need to get updates on. I think um this We did this first one, right? So I think
we can safely this is done. Um we did the valley bike, but let's see. So I guess the first thing is um Andrew, you were going to talk to Darcy. Is that this week or?
>> Yep, that's going to be this Friday. Okay. So, we'll get a little bit of an update then next next time. And yeah. >> Yeah. And she's involved with the zerowaste Ammerst uh group. >> And then Laura never followed up, but I will follow up with her. I will prod her
um to Yeah, she can be one of the people who can come and talk perhaps. So, I'll I'll follow up with her this week. >> Okay, cool. Um, do that. There we go.
Okay, so that's in progress. What else do we have here? Um, solar. Steve, anything else there? And and I actually thought about something else. Um, I was listening to a Bill McKibben podcast this week that was very
uplifting. There's a lot of uplifting things that happened this year this week. Uh the podcast is maybe a month or so old, but he was talking about the uh huge changes going on in China and Pakistan and around the world with solar
and a lot of it is you know solar panels that people are just dropping on their property without even mounting them on anything and you know watching Tik Tok videos to figure out how to plug into how to how to uh but but what struck me is that there are now these portable
systems. Okay, getting Chinese products right now in the US is probably impossible, but I think there are portable systems that are available even here. So that those of us who don't have um reasonable roof for solar, but who might want to, you know, have a system for backup for
charging our devices or maybe even big enough to slowly charge our vehicles uh in case of power outages and stuff like that. Could set it up in a sunny spot somewhere, right, and just just charge a battery with it. Um, do you know anything about those or who
to even talk to about those portable systems? >> May have heard of them. And um, I've heard about the I read some articles a while ago. They were some popularity in Europe. >> It seems like I read something in the
last month or so about at least one product here in the US. And you're right, they basically just plug in um so they com um you know, I'm not sure if if
I think they're standalone. Maybe you plug your appliance in. One of them had a battery backup system so you could like run your refrigerator off of it. >> Right. Right. >> Um at the moment they don't I don't think they can feed into the house. I
think you have to plug something into them and so they they don't do two-way or net metering in any way that that that takes electricians and permits and such. >> They're also very inexpensive though. So, you know, >> yeah. Um
>> I think you can even find them on Amazon looked around a little bit. I wonder squared or anybody out there knows anything about them and in your discussions, >> you know, maybe >> ask about that too. >> Um, >> yeah, I'd be curious if there are like
Yes. So, smaller systems that could work. There's certainly a lot of things that are sort of off-grid or um RV based for recreational vehicles that you mount on the roof and it can charge up a 12volt battery. Um, let me see. Maybe in a few minutes
I'll be able to remember where I read about this company. I think it was a startup that was offering the both umh yeah battery backup for important things in your house like a refrigerator. >> Yep. >> Whether there was solar in that you know
I can't remember now but maybe I'll maybe it'll come to me in the next few minutes. >> Yeah. Anyway, just something to think about in uh talking to maybe PV Squared knows about it or or Northeast Solar or, you know, one of these companies that we've talked to before. Um maybe they
know something. Be interesting to find out. Anyway, that's for later. We're going to approach them in January or something like that, right after. >> That's right, Kim. >> Okay. And uh Stephanie, any
any input for demystifying community solar? >> No, I've been um it's been a bunch of reporting right now. So that's what I've been focused on and I may not get to it till next week. >> That's fine. And none of this is going to happen till after January 1 anyway or till probably later in January.
>> Um all right. Anything else we want to add to this this week? Was there anything else down here? Let's see. Oh, yeah. This this keeps coming up. What are local colleges doing? Um and UMass in particular um keeps coming up again and
again in different contexts. Um I uh this is something that um I guess Michael, Steve, and Tetssuya are interested in this. Um I think Steve, you already know Alex Baron. >> Yes. >> I don't know him, but I know of him. And
there's now a working paper that he sent copies of. Do do you have a copy of that? >> I Yes, I do. >> Okay. So, maybe I'll send that around if I remember. Um maybe Lori to send working paper to EAC from Alex Baron in
the in the minutes there somewhere so I don't forget. Um it it's it's long and I haven't read it yet, but it has a lot of information in it, I think, in a lot of the challenges that that universities are facing. It would be really interesting to put together some sort of panel discussion
and this might be a good opportunity for ECAC to do something jointly with UMass um as well. So I think that's something that should definitely happen. I think I think it's a little late for this this semester. So
probably probably early next semester. We could we could pull it together right away, I think, but I think next semester is more realistic. So it be February or something like that. Um, there's a lot to talk about there. All right. What else? Anyone have
anything else they want to add to this discussion? We have three things in the works. At least two down. If not, then we'll go on to the next topic on the agenda. >> We have um something to anything to help
promote uh that the utility now is providing the uh electric heat pump reduced rate during the winter time. >> Oh yeah. Oh, that's really important because that's now a done thing, right? And there's a
Um, I know. Well, we had Are you saying we as in this >> committee having a scheduling someone to talk about it? >> It I don't know that we need anybody to talk about it. We just need to spread the word that if people have had
homeowners have had heat pumps installed under the Massave program, they should automatically be getting the heat pump rates this winter. uh that people didn't do it under that program or did it longer ago, they might need to register themselves >> or did it this year.
>> That also goes for people. I have a neighbor who uh replaced an old heat pump >> um recently and that's not eligible for mass safe rebates either. >> So, they wouldn't be on the list. >> Um so, I made sure I reached out to them
and let them know that um >> you know they should they should sign up. And there is a link now, right? Uh which I think I sent to I think I sent the email I got to ECAC, right? >> Yeah, that was very helpful. >> Yeah, >> I used it and it worked really well. I feel like everyone should get that
email. >> Right. Well, we've been we've posted stuff on the um dashboard and I just made a note to myself to ask our communications manager if we can do a news item on the town's website.
>> Y getting the heat pump right. I also >> Yeah, that would be good. >> I got some sort of a notice from Eversource that I was getting the rate. >> Do you happen to know that if I just have like one heat pump in a corner of my house, does that qualify or does it
have to be a whole house heat pump? >> No, partial is qualified. >> Oh, wow. Okay. >> You just have to have a heat pump. >> Exactly. >> Because it is replacing some other form of heat if you use it. So, >> yes. No, that's
>> it's a great it's a great uh incentive that yeah, more people should everyone should know about. >> Oh, it's fantastic. >> It's for a It's really great. It's for the winter time, though. We just be clear that it's a limited period of time. >> That's okay. That's when the bills go way up if you can. >> That's right. If you use If you use
Yeah, we we're cold region. So, yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> There was um where did I see it? it was a newspaper article or maybe it was another article and there it referenced a report that was done on the heat pump rate and on the current one and also on
u potentially even larger heat pump rate um heat pump version two they were calling it and kind of a neat analysis on how that would benefit homes across Massachusetts um how much it would reduce likely reduce their heating costs um
>> um yeah >> sort of a nerdy deep dive but I I'll I'll share that. I'll give that to Stephanie and she could share it. Um it's kind of interesting to see how they did the analysis, >> right? And just for completeness here, I want to share this. I think this is the
website uh >> source heat pump rate. So if anybody's watching this and they're not getting heat pump rate or they don't know if they're getting the heat pump rate, this is where you can go. It's a little bit >> It's a little bit crazy uh link up here, but if you Google Aversurus heat pump
rate, uh it should come up and somewhere down here there's the apply for if you're not already getting it. >> And that's what you need to do. All right. And I'll just leave it at that. I just wanted to make sure that got in there. >> Yeah. And this is someone like me who
actually just installed their heat pump this year. I haven't filed my taxes to get the rebate yet. So, um, >> it's not through your taxes, Andrew. >> Oh, what is it? Oh, >> that's good to know. >> This is different. >> Oh. Oh, it's a mass that's the mass save rebate. There's also
>> this is also a federal >> that there's also other state level taxes, right? >> Yeah. You got the mass you got the massive rebate already or no? >> Oh, I don't know. I should look into that. >> Oh dear, that's a big one. I mean, I I did it through uh a a company and I
don't think they took the rebate. So, yeah, I should >> some >> I should have contact Yeah, I should have contacted Massafe before this, but >> if you did you have a uh energy audit? >> I've had a I've had a Yeah, I already had a uh >> Okay. >> Um efficiency
uh audit. >> So, that was years ago, but yeah, >> it's a bit complicated to get your paperwork in, but you should do it soon. >> Yeah, good idea. Anyway, um, right. So, people like me who are dumb and didn't get their mass save rebate can also
benefit from this. Um, yeah. >> Yeah. The mass save rebate if you did a whole home is $10,000. If you did a ton just partial, it's $1250 a ton this year. >> Right. >> Right. So, that's a good chunk of change. >> It's a lot of good chunk of change. It's usually usually considerably more than
the federal rebate which max outs which maxes out at $2,000. That's right. Right. All right. Um, onward. That was our educational seminar for today. >> It's a good one. I was educated.
>> Okay. Um, let's see. Um, where are we now? Education planning. So, annual report on manager goals. Oh, yeah. Okay. So, I have a draft which I think went out to everybody and it's not quite complete because I was just in a
hurry this week with too many other reports to work on, but I have it here. I thought I made this easier to see. Hold on a minute. Let me make it larger and then share it. And I'd sort of like to go through this with you guys. Um,
this is I think we're going to spend a few minutes more than just a few minutes I think on this. um share and report. Okay. So, I want to make sure folks are okay with this. And I think we need to talk about um I don't remember what
state the town manager goals at the bottom are in. So, we're going to have to look at that. Uh let me make this bigger. No, Zoom 1:30. There we go. All right. Should I just uh read through
it slowly or do you want to How do you want to do this? I'll just read through it. We'll see what folks Stop me. So, Energy and Climate Action Committee is pleased to report on our work in fiscal year 2025. We present this to the council at the
end of the fiscal year, which is not quite right because we're way past that now, so that this report may be used as a resource in developing town manager goals for the following calendar year. We hope that ECAC is seen as a resource to the council as you apply a climate lens to all town decisions and work to
fulfill the milestones laid out in the carp sets the stage for cl for implementation of climate actions. Notably, the carp calls for 25% reduction. Usual thing. Therefore, one goal for next year is the completion. Oh, yeah. It calls for um
25% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 20 in uh in 2025, right? So, that means we need a audit or an inventory and that's one of the goals for next year then to do that
inventory and benchmark where we're at. Uh so, a major theme in the car is the town needs to take our climate future into account. I think this one is exactly the same as last year. This paragraph, right?
I don't think I need to read the whole thing. You guys could read, but I'll sort of go through it. Um, okay. So, the transition to green infrastructure has been slow, but progress is now visible with retrofits to the Jones Library and the new net
zero school scheduled to open in the fall 2026. Is that still correct, Stephanie? That timeline. We may have lost Stephanie. >> Oh, no. >> Oh, yeah. >> I think this is still correct. >> I I think that's correct. Yeah, that's I
haven't heard otherwise. >> So, I'm going to kill this comment. I can figure out how because I believe that is correct. Okay. So, while the town is making progress in addressing climate goals,
significant barriers remain. I think this is the same as last year too with withdrawal of federal support. Uh actually, it's a little different. Funding through the Commonwealth has become much more important. So, for that reason, ECAC has been spending more time and effort reaching out to the public and legislature in support of
sustainability legislation. Move this up. It helps that the town was named a climate leader community by DOER in 2025, opening up new grant funding possibilities. So that's yay, Stephanie. One significant challenge is the
completion and implementation of the transportation plan and particularly the map and timeline for that plan. This is what we talked about last week a little bit with the intro reintroduction of Valley Bike. It's imperative that the town improve roads and accommodate a more diverse set of green commuters. Okay, so that's the only real verbiage
in this. The rest of this is sort of boilerplate stuff that I've been filling in. I made a template for it last year and I've just go in and fill it in because our charge includes a requirement that the annual report have these five things in it. Progress toward climate action, measures taken to reduce
emissions and build resilience, evaluation and of the effectiveness of these measures. um funding needed to enable initiatives, which we don't really have a say directly in. And we're not going to be calculating budgets, so I'm not quite sure what that one means.
Um and community engagement. Uh and at the end of the report, we also include our suggestions for town manager goals. So, what I mostly need from you guys, um and we can do it right now. I'm sort of hoping we can just do this now and be
done with it. Uh, but if anyone thinks of anything after the meeting that they want to send me, I I'll hang on to it for a little bit and we can maybe finish it up next time. I'd sort of like to get it in now because it's the end of the I don't know how many more times council even meets and the new council gets sworn in. This should certainly be in
place in time for the new council. I don't know when town manager goals get done exactly. I suspect they're being done right now. Um, so there's a little urgency to get this in. In fact, I think that's right. I think they started discussing it in the last couple of weeks. Is it Stephanie? Are you there?
I think I think that's I think that's right. >> I am here. Um yeah, I think um we're we're just starting to have some of that um conversation about the goals, >> right? And does that actually get finished up by the new council or does this this council determine that?
>> Um that's a really good question. I don't remember at what point they vote on them. It may be December. I'm not sure. The new council gets seated or starts in December. >> In December. Okay. So, >> so they have they they have a say in this then does
>> Sorry. >> Yeah, I think they have um I don't know that the new council votes on those. It seems like it's >> okay. >> I should just stop because I'm not really sure. I just know that we review them, you know, we sort of >> uh weigh in ourselves first um
>> to those and then they but then the council decides they edit them, >> right? >> Uh quite severely um >> which is fine. That's fine. That's what we expect. We just want to let them know what we're thinking. Um, okay. So, measures taken to reduce emissions and build resilience. What did I forget is
the big question here. Um, ECAC reached out to state representatives in support of the following. And I was just going to make a list with letters in the appendix. I don't even remember exactly what we did, but I can, if it's okay with you guys, I'll just add the letters and make a list here.
Um, uh, where's the is what I want. I want to make sure I do that. Uh, we wrote to the town advocating for a waste Tyler hauler bylaw. I was going to include that as well. I'm going to include all of these letters because I got I had Lynn uh
Grisomemer call me and ask for one of them and then I realized I hadn't been sending these to the council. So, they need to know when we're reaching out about topics. Um, Valley Green Energy was launched in November of 24. New new new the new
elementary school. Uh, Zero is planned to open again in fall 2026. Just me just completeness. Jones library is being retrofitted with sustainable infrastructure. Ballet bike was relaunched with drop
mobility. Equipment update improvement uh is ongoing. These aren't just things that we did, right? These are things that have happened in the last year and that we maybe had some small input to. Most of this is is Stephanie and the town council and the and the town
manager. Ammeris residential heat pump program with incentives above those available through Massave was launched. Was this November of last year or the first of this year? When or when actually no it was later. When was this launched Stephanie?
>> April. April of this year. Okay. Funding was awarded for technical support from Mass CEC to launch a community survey regarding on street EV charging stations. Um, some of you got that link to that survey or maybe all of you got the link to that survey.
two EV fast charging stations are um uh were installed in public lot in the public lot and CVS ammeris became a climate leader community as part of this process we adopted a zero emissions first fleet
policy and developed a municipal decarbonization roadmap which I don't think I've seen Stephanie were you going to send those at some point >> I sent them when we when we did it when we applied but I can send them again. I thought I had forwarded it to you. >> Pretty sure I forwarded them to you but
if not I'll send them again. >> I'll send them to everybody. >> You you may have you probably did in that case don't worry about it. Although we have some new members so maybe maybe send them again. Yeah. >> Yep. >> At least Tuya hasn't seen them. >> Uh specialized stretch code which we
worked on a year ago. This is a building code um that ensures new constructions and large renovations be green. and it's more much more specific than that, but it's a really good thing to have. Uh became effective in July 2025 and ECAC continues to monitor
development of the solar bylaw with C roof attending CRC meetings. What I leave out, I guess I could put in the We had some uh let's see, these were the That's not the outreach stuff. The outreach stuff is at the bottom. So, did
I leave anything out here? If not, I'll get rid of that. The um the third thing on the list that we're supposed to report on is the evaluation of the effectiveness and implementation of these measures. and we don't really do that, but there's
supposed to be a greenhouse gas inventory next year um under Stephanie's direction. So, that's there. Um funding needed. I always don't quite
know what to put in here, but certainly we need funding for the additional staff uh for the um sorry, we need we need we need funding for the intern, right? for this. Should we not put that on there, Stephanie? >> Um, we could. I mean, I've been using um I
would probably use capital funds and also >> we may potentially be able to get some funds from um University of New Hampshire, although I think we we do I mean it's one of the things that I've identified for capital
funds. So, >> okay, >> we do have funds available. >> This is where it's a little funny for us to put anything on here, right? Because I'm sure there's lots of things that are that are on your list that maybe aren't on our radar. But does it hurt to put it on here? >> No, it's fine.
>> Plenty to cover the cost of interest to the sustainability to the um to do the uh what's it called? Um inventory >> and there um it's a fellows the fellows program. And Lori, I meant to comment above, but climate leader communities should be capitalized.
>> Ah, summer fellows, did I do that right? Cost summer fellows to do, let me get back to that to do greenhouse gas inventory. Is that right? >> That's right. >> And then I need to where' it go
became a >> I think it was further >> climate leader community. >> There you go. Yep. >> Climate leader community. Okay. Um, so we always ask for additional
staff for the sustainability department. We're not going to get it, but it doesn't hurt to put it in there. Uh, Stephanie could certainly use help. Um, and of and of course Stephanie, if you ever think I need to take that out, let me know. But I think when we talk about
this, it wouldn't it certainly wouldn't hurt. We just leave it in. We just ask every year, you know, >> we expect to be told no. And um funding to cover studies help with gaps in building efficiency, weatherization, and projects to meet carb goals. It's just very generic.
And actually, this thing is sort of in there, but since we know that's going to happen, we might as well stick it on the list. Anything else we should put in here? Anyone? It's a little weird because normally if somebody asks us to enumerate what
funding we need, I would, you know, be in a position to propose a budget, but we're not really in that position. That's Stephanie. So, community engagement, we did a bunch of stuff. ECAC wrote letters to the editor on the following issues, and I'm
going to fill that in as well. So, we wrote letters to our our representatives in state legislature and we also published some uh opeds. We sponsoredformational webinars on the following heat pump program
and Stephanie if you have the link for that uh ready send it please. I think sometimes it takes time to get them up which is fine. If you don't have it we'll just leave it but it's always nice to put the link in. And also the valley bike presentation. Yeah, those are on the they should be
both on the town's YouTube. >> Okay, I'll go look for them. >> I mean, I can find them. I'll look for them as well, but >> yeah, sometimes it takes time for them to get posted. So, and oh, I know what it was. It's not that takes time for them to get posted. For a while, I think you had been putting on the dashboard
the educational webinars, a link uh on the dashboard to a list of ECAC meetings that had ed educational webinars in them, but I think that never got completed. It'd be nice to have it, but it's not not not high. I would say it's not a
high priority, but it's nice to have. >> Yeah, I I have to I mean, it are the ones that actually post them on the YouTube channel, and that's where they're the ones who provide that link. >> Okay. >> So, I have to work with them. >> Okay.
Um, we had the joint elevate program at UMass and I probably need to put in a few words about that. Um, I was sort of hoping Tony was going to do that, but Tony Oh, uh, we didn't make that announcement yet, did we? Did that happen between last meeting and this meeting?
>> It did. >> Yeah. Okay. So, well, there'll be an updates later, but Tony is leaving the area and and resigned from the committee. So, unfortunately, uh, we've lost a, um, he he made some very nice contributions
to this group. Um, I'm sorry that he's gone, but I do want to, I'm sorry he's not here for us to thank him. Um, the stain was held on, what was it? April 28 was something. uh
was held on April is 22nd 20 >> 20 I think it was the 26th to the 25th. Just give me one second and I'll tell you. I just have to look at a calendar. >> Okay. We had a booth and provided heat pump guidance and advice to attendees. >> It was the 26th.
>> 26th and in October we had the Valley Bike presentation with Q&A. Didn't I see that somewhere already? Yeah, that's here already.
Okay. All right. The rest of this um this part I think what I'm going to do is ask if anyone had any I went through this with with um Stephanie. Um I think I was waiting to hear back from you on the stuff I highlighted.
Right. Support the development implementation of sustainable capital improvement plan. >> Right. And I yeah I had said that I was not likely going to get the responses before this meeting because of the green communities reporting. So >> Right. Well say let's we can keep it as
pending and change it for last minute if it's different. Is that is that okay with everyone? >> Yeah absolutely >> leave it as pending. Um, promote uh the ones I'm highlighting are the ones that Stephanie and I spoke about, but uh either I was supposed to look something up or she was supposed to
look something up and I probably didn't do it either. Promote the Northeast Energy Association's existing business member directory. And I was probably going to look up to see what the heck that is because I don't even know what it is. So, let's leave it as under consideration for now.
We'll consider it. We probably should look into that. Um, where's the that some of these things, just so folks know, are not really, you know, things like develop and build energy retrofit outreach and engagement campaign in
partnership with Massave and and the CCA. This isn't really something that that we can do, right? Um, so it's not clear how it would be. It's um well this was modified. This next one is
unclear. Establish policies that enable tenants to receive financial benefits from energy efficiency savings by ensuring that tenants overall cost do not increase along with energy efficiency upgrades. So that would be nice to be able to do but it's really unclear how we would go about doing that. Right? So there are things on here
that either out of our purview or in somebody else's purview are unclear. These were this is from the carp. these these I think of this as as goals and tactics, right? These different tactics. Some of them really aren't things we can do. You know, these these are the goals and
these are the ways you get there. Um, so a few of them have asterises because we just don't quite know how that would be done or since the carpet was written, there's new understanding of something. In this case, it was that deep energy retrofits are expensive and
rarely necessary. So, There's also a new understanding that the CCA can't participate in mass safe light incentives or outreach. So, it's it just can't be done. Uh support and encourage. I was going to
look into this um and Hickory Ridge, the status of Hickory Ridge. Does anyone know the status of Hickory Ridge? What's going on there, >> Steve? >> I do. >> Oh, you do? Um yeah, just the solar, you know, there are still um the solar's
going in. Um and as far as the rest of the use of that site, um I think there's still plans the trail system went in. Um but there's still discussion about things like community gardens and there's still other potential uses that
haven't been determined at this time. >> Okay. So, this is fine to leave it as ongoing. >> Yes. As a side note, I was there I went there for the uh Connecticut River watershed cleanup day. We went to that location
and we recovered 150 something golf balls. >> They're valuable. We didn't save them. >> Oh, you can re you can resell them or reuse them. Bring them to >> Oh, we should have done that. Well, we probably can go back and get more. >> Yeah.
Um anyway, the uh what was I going to say? the the um for Satsuya who who maybe is not aware of this there is already a very nice town developed well Stephanie's
Stephanie's baby a solar solar um installation on an old landfill near the transfer station in Ammerst on Route 9 and uh that powers part of the town's energy right a good good chunk of the town's energy comes from >> it's half of the town's electricity
usage, >> the municipal, >> it's fantastic. So, that's already there. And Hickory Ridge is a privately owned privately owned, right? Um >> Yes. >> Uh >> we're the offtaker. >> Yeah, that
>> we're also getting a pilot payment. >> Ah, right. It used to be a um golf course. Okay. Collaborate with apartment complex to develop a pilot community greening program.
Um, anyone have any idea about that? I'm not quite sure what this what the status is or what that if that's something that's been done. So, I'll just leave that with a question
mark. Stephanie, have any idea what that is? Um, I don't know what that one was exactly, but I don't know if that had to do with um, gardens.
I'm not really sure uh, >> that one came from. >> Okay. Well, we'll leave that. We'll leave a question there. We don't know. Uh, sustainable long-term funding model for Ammeris amoris mobile market. Um, what did I write in here?
might be. We weren't sure about the status of that either, whether it has a sustainable funding. It was This is the Ammeris Mobile Market. Um Stephanie, you want to explain what that is so that folks know? >> Sure. So, um there's a food policy Hampshire County food policy council uh
that was established a few years back and one of the initiatives that was spearheaded by the collaborative for educational services healthy Hampshire food policy initiative or food initiative um was to provide food to the
communities with um basically a mobile farmers market that goes to apartment complexes and locations within the communities. And so they started in Northampton and then they launched in Ammerst few years back. Um so that um
has been very successful. I think they're continuing. A new private organization has taken it over. So um I don't at this point I'm not sure if we're contributing any funding. We were
committed to some ARPA funding for it through 2026. Um, but I think we adjusted the timeline. So, I'm not sure we're funding it at this point any like I don't know that we'll be funding it next season, but we did provide funding for the last three years.
So, why don't I say um Ammeris provided funding? What was it? 2020 2022 through 20 21 through 24 or 20
>> No, it was um let's see let's it was 25 24 I think 23 24 25 >> um and now it's being run by a private >> um yeah private entity took it on um
is currently the operating the the market >> to private um what's the right word I'm looking for to private >> operate it's privately operated >> operation
something like that all right that's good uh work with Pioneer Valley Transit Authority service local food bus route um I thought this might be something that was done I was going to look into this um I remember hearing about this a while ago. I think this is just a PBTA route that goes to
all the groceries, but I'm not sure. We had it as not started last year, >> so I don't I don't know. Anyone know about this? So, if it's okay with everyone, I'll look into that a little bit. Put some mark in there. Okay, I'll leave it like that and we'll
have we're going to have to have a vote on accepting this at the end on uh with that. Um, I'll make a note here. Um, you check on this and fix
as appropriate. Um, okay. Transportation and building. Oh, this is something. Let's see. Per Valley Department complex pilot shuttle. Um,
I am anyone know anything about this one? >> Okay. Uh, I think I'm going to leave this then as refer to TAC because this is more a transportation thing and as you'll hear later, TAC is sort of
undergoing changes. >> TAC doesn't exist anymore, Lori. Yes. at all like but so it's not even >> it's not a committee so we would not be referring it to them. >> How about that? >> There you go.
>> We'll talk about that in a bit. Um I'll put a question mark here because I don't really know but I don't want to spend a lot of time on that one. Okay. And then this is just the road map which I don't think changes. That's out of the
t out of the um carp. Okay. Uh so these are the town manager goal suggestions that I need you guys that we need to decide on. So for the next few minutes um this is a battery
energy. What does E stand for? Storage. >> Energy storage. >> Sorry. Sorry. Yeah. energy storage something >> bylaw. Um so this is something that um
well Steve why don't you why don't you explain this one? >> Uh Steve you muted. >> Yeah he's he's got his >> I think he's talking to someone else. >> Oh okay. >> All right. So let's go on for a moment and we'll come back to that. Um,
we would like to fill the ECAC vacancies. And I'd also like to add to this that um Have you got it, Steve? >> Yeah, I'm back. My my window got minimized somehow. >> Oops. Go ahead. >> Um, but I found it. So, the question was on
>> develop battery energy storage site bylaw as a town manager goal for next year. Yes, that >> will be continuing and I think the town council and CRC is grappling with that.
Um the state now has provided a new draft um bees bees uh bylaw that towns can adapt adopt adapt and adopt if they wish >> it's bees right battery energy storage
sites >> I think it's system >> system yeah battery energy storage system >> system yes >> okay because this is so for uh our new member um you know there's been a long
discussion in Ammeris about uh sighting of solar installations and it's not just Ammeris every town in the Commonwealth has been arguing about this um the state recently issued made a I guess they have a a law now and
issued guidance around um solar storage solar sight solar sightings solar sight sighting, solar installation sighting. Um, and along with that, folks are realizing that they also have to think about battery storage
sites and how you're going to site them. In other words, do you cut down a forest to put them in, or do you uh, you know, use the site of an old uh, peaker plant or something like that, an old oil burning power plant, or what what is the Commonwealth going to value? What is it going to give uh, incentives for? how is
it going to incentivize placing solar and battery storage installations? And um I won't get into it more than that right now because there's an awful lot there. But but that's what this is about. uh
since the state now has a the state's regulations and and laws don't always cover things that happen in Amoris and I know that the example that Stephanie gave is uh you know what do you do about private wells that in Boston you don't have to worry about people having
private wells but here you do so you have to worry about the impact on private wells of any sort of development so um there are local issues that that come into play that need to be dealt with. >> Yes,
>> my Yeah, let me think about this. Um, you know, certainly the town and the the the is working on has been working on for years now the solar bylaw that largely limits where solar can go. It
does nothing to encourage solar um ground mount solar, large scale solar. I maybe we ECAC wants to recommend to the town manager that these he somehow encourages council to adopt
bylaws that encourage solar development at an appropriate level to meet our um carp goals because the council is going to be doing the battery energy storage system. They're they're they're working on that.
Um, >> right. That's >> so I would say, you know, we could I would like to see perhaps us use our influence to make sure that whatever rules they come up with for restricting solar aren't so restrictive that we can't meet the goals in the carp. >> Okay. So, how did you say it? The you
had a good way of phrasing it. Encourage council to >> well uh to develop solar bylaws that uh incentivize >> bylaws. How about both that incentivize >> incentivize solar development
sufficiently to meet town goals in the Karp. And as I say that, I don't know that the Karp actually has goals in it for the amount of solar power generated in town. >> It's not that specific, Steve. It's more
focused on just carbon reduction goals. >> Yeah, you're right. Um I mean in part because we I don't think we our opportunity for solar other than rooftops not huge really.
It's you know mostly um I mean there are a few sites maybe for a larger scale but mostly we're trying to sort of encourage rooftop development >> right >> as much as possible. I mean, even if we were, you know, if people were more amendable to land clearing, there's
still not a lot of space for a really big largecale solar installation. So, >> true. True. Um, I mean, it get it depends on our priorities, what we want to use land for or allow private land
owners to use their land for. And back when the um solar bylaw task force was developing that first draft of the solar bylaw, Dwayne Bger and I worked up some
calculations on how much solar should Ammerst have uh within its town limits to be a sort of responsible amount to contribute towards the state goals. Um, I would I maybe I I should go back and
look at that. Let me let me go back and look at those recommendations that we developed a couple years ago and see if that might be something we want to consider as a town manager goal suggestion. >> Steve, my recollection is that you submitted them to the council as a
letter to the town manager and the council as a letter. >> I think so. Yeah. So that if you want to um resurrect that letter. >> Yeah, >> that would be great. >> Yeah, that was something. Right. We the
ECAC approved a statement and we sent that to council and and the town manager. We may want to sort of bring that back to maintain it as a a goal. >> Remind them. Yeah. >> Um Yeah. And I think I think this isn't we have to be careful that it's not just
about the carp, right? to Karp is about town goals, about decarbonizing town facilities, about roads, about, you know, um about about mass transit, but this is also about Commonwealth goals
about how the town can right. >> So, um so I like that better than just by putting making a bylaw, >> right? They're going to make a bylaw and it's going to be restrictive. It's going to say, well, you can't put solar. Um, and our perspective back then is like,
well, the town should have, and I can't remember the value, sort of x number of megawatts of solar within the boundaries to basically be our fair share of of solar of the of the statewide goals for ground mount solar.
>> But yeah, let me see if I can dig up that letter. I'm sure I have it. and I will see if I can come back with a concise um goal suggestion for the town manager to make sure the solar bylaw still allows for what we would view as a
sufficient amount of solar in town. >> Okay. All right. So, um does that first goal look okay? So for the second goal, since there isn't a TAC, a transportation advisory
committee currently um and there are plans already to put something else in place and ECAC has not had a full slate in about a year now. Um, I think one of the goals ought to be
to make sure that these critical committees are in place and uh and and staffed and filled. What's the word I'm looking for? And and um go ahead, Stephanie.
>> Um I was just going to suggest that you actually remove fil, >> right? >> Because it just doesn't exist at all anymore. Um but but you can still say something about the town adopting the transportation and uh pedestrian and
transportation plan, >> right? I was also thinking that to do that they're going to want to have a committee that has tax at least parts of tax charter. Right. >> Right. So that so the new there's a new
group that's being formed. Just give me one second. I think it's the transportation and parking commission. Yes, it's the transportation and parking commission. Um that's going to be um established in January. I don't know
what the makeup of that particular commission is going to be. In terms of whether it's staff or um residents, I'm not sure, or a combination of both. Um but the council is in charge of the public ways. So I
think you know you want to advocate there was a plan developed. I would just say you want to advocate for the adoption of that that plan. So or continuation of that plan. >> So the transportation plan was completed but it was never adopted
>> I believe. So I believe that's correct. >> Plan with and map. We never finished the map. I know that. Um, so that's something that I think is
really important and I think uh, you know, I I don't know how to say that these committees need to be staffed. >> Well, I mean that the parking the transportation and parking commission is
going to be a brand new entity. So that will be fully seated. So I don't think you need to worry too much about filling those >> those seats. I think you could just lose fill the attack. I would just get rid of that. >> And leave fillac though.
>> Yeah. And you've covered the other issue up above. >> Oh, you do. Yes, ECAC does need vacancies filled. >> So, I think this is something we had last year. Um, that relates back to we had we had goals last year that related back to uh some
of these some of these overarching themes here, I think. um renewable energy etc etc. So um I don't know that we need to do that but in guard in regards to
this is something that's been on there for a while that we haven't had much traction with. So I'm not quite sure what to do with that. Anyone? Um Lori, sorry just not to jump in, but
there are a few things that I'm sort of working on just on my own work, but um I just attended um a USGBC um I think it was they called it a workshop maybe or a planning session,
but there's an um a new designation for communities. It's like a leads rating for communities. >> Interesting. And um so I attended a session and I think it's
something that I'd like to explore and I would like to explore that more with all of you. Um, this is one of the things that, you know, we talked about was also engaging landlords more and I think I talked to somebody at that meeting about this very
issue and they were um going to maybe support us. I I talked to a couple of people about a couple of initiatives. So, um I've only had initial conversations, but we did say something about maybe um this p person coming and talking to you
all as well. So um I have some sort of links to some initiatives that are out there and happening around this issue. So I would just say we're going to
continue or try to establish something >> for what for for >> for engaging landlords and um you know that's around energy efficiency and um sustainable building practices.
Okay, that sort of would take the place of of this sort of thing. And I think also that any objections go like that. So looking at the first four before we go on to number five,
I think those are all important. Number five, I'm I'm the town manager doesn't ever draw on our expertise directly. We sort of insert ourselves and nobody complains. So, I wonder if there isn't just I don't know if we need to have that on there or not.
And we sort of have the first number one, which I think is a stronger statement. Should we take out five? I think that's from last year. I think Lori that it makes sense for you all to provide
comment and guidance and all that, but I think maybe the way this is phrased seems a bit awkward. Um, >> I'm not sure it needs to be a town manager goal. >> Yeah, I don't think it needs to be a town manager goal. >> So, if there's no Yeah. So, this is
close to the first one. Uh not the first one, the uh second number two. Is there anything in here we want to keep? Support the completion of a transportation plan. I don't mind putting that in for context.
Although I don't think >> I feel like last year >> we put that in of like how it related back to the carp specifically. >> Yeah. >> Group. >> Yeah. Uh this year and I was more careful about it last year. This year I'm
not as careful. We we can go back and Okay. We can put that in there. Sure. Um and then we can go back and do the same thing for the others too. Um yeah. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. Um, so I think, uh, continuing to promote
Valley Green Energy, uh, well, Valley Energy can sort of promote itself now that it's a thing. I don't know if that's >> maybe support, continue to support and promote. >> Okay. Yeah.
How should we We want to put something in there about zero waste. Is this Is this look good, Andrew? You think? We You still haven't talked with Darcy, but u Stephanie, Andrew, should we just leave that on as it was last year then? >> Yeah, because it isn't done yet. And uh we should continue to have forward
momentum. >> Okay. Um, is there a goal in here that's specific sector area sustainability department head? Can I make a a suggestion to soften this
language just a little bit? Um, in that saying the town manager should um >> I would say strongly encourage or something that's a little softer than should because it seems like a directive and that doesn't seem appropriate
>> to meet with. Yeah, thank you. meet regularly with something like that. >> Yep. >> Director of sustainability department heads to control, encourage, and require the use of the climate lines in every decision. >> Do we want to keep that language?
I don't know if we need this. Let me take that out down for here for a minute. I like this. I think we can be a resource and they know that. I don't know if we need to say that. We can keep it in if if folks want. In addition to help engender a green culture in the town going forward,
introduce your position at any level should include questions about sustainability specifically. Um how about this language here? Uh does this need to be specifically direct to sustainability should review and contribute additional interview questions regarding how a position
relates to sustainability? That's directly to for you Stephanie. So is there something we want to change there? >> No, I think you can keep it. I mean, at least when I'm on interview committees, it certainly comes up, but I'm not part of every interview for every position.
Um, and I'm I don't get the questions. I don't review them. I don't, you know, like we just got a controller and I actually, ironically, know this individual. But um I was not you know I was not involved in
the process and nor was I shown questions and I have no >> okay >> knowledge of whether or not this was even a consideration in their hiring. >> All right then it's important we leave that in there. Um,
so things I'm not seeing on here, you know, what are the big issues we're facing there? How do we transition everybody to electric um to heat pumps to um how do we get everybody on green energy? Um
the heat pump, you know, what is a successor to the heat pump program, right? Is there is there something there we should be thinking about or is that for thinking about next year or? Well, the thing about the heat pump program is that
it was funded with ARPA funds. So, and it was, you know, not an expensive program. The consultant is getting quite a bit of that funding. So >> um you know I it's not something that
beyond program ends in 26. So beyond that there's no plan for offering an additional incentive to residents for installation of heat pumps. But I say that but at the same time
there may be an opportunity um through Valley Green Energy. Right now there's an adder but it's only for staff staffing right >> um the program which we haven't even you know we have to develop what that's going to be and look like um and it's
for an individual not for a whole staff of people um >> so should I say something here about continue to support and promote valley green energy and expand its purview expand its something expand its ability to >> well I think you know there's a group of
you know folks in in the beginning that have really advocated for becoming a joint powers entity. I don't personally >> I'm not sure that I support that right now because we're trying to >> um get a consultant to develop a business
plan for Valley Green Energy. Well, for the joint powers entity. So remember, Valley Green Energy would only be a program under the joint powers entity. Um, so we've developed um a scope of work and we're going to be uh
potentially putting out an RFP to try to secure a consultant to analyze that and they would be doing a SWAT analysis where they'd be weighing the pros and cons of developing this business and from there we would determine if we are going to go forward or not. So it's
really a bit contingent on that business plan. So I don't know at this point I would say more. >> So just leave it leave it as it is. Um Tetssuya you probably do you know what Valley Green Energy um is a is a new thing around here. You if you live in
Ammeris most likely you're getting your electricity through them. They um buy electricity bills have two pieces. They have a supply piece and a delivery piece. Um the delivery is Eversource. Pretty much everyone around here I think gets their power through Eversource
transmission lines or pro whatever process they use to get to your house. Um but the source of that energy comes from you have a choice and if you don't choose anything it used to be you got Eversource now you get Valley Green
Energy. They're a local community choice aggregation. They buy energy at a discount price to redistribute it to everyone here and it's also greener than what what Eversource would provide. Um so the question is how much can value so
Eversource for example participates in the mass save program and so you get rebates for doing green things through through Eversource. Um but most municipal powers and CCAs don't have don't do that or can't. Some of them can some of them can't. My understanding is
CCA cannot participate in Massave for example not delivering the >> we can't we can't create programming >> okay >> like massive right so >> it's not that we don't participate in massive it's you know it's massive
exists for whatever your electric supply electricity supply is if you have ever source you have a massive provider right so >> yeah um but the the um but things are changing. The DPU has altered their
regulations so that their communities may be able to do more programming. So for instance, something along the lines of the heat pump program that we've done um community trace aggregations may be able to implement an adder that would pay for programming, but I don't know
what that looks like yet and I haven't heard of communities um implementing that. The Capeite compact is a very unique kind of established setup where they do actually do their equivalent of mass save but that's a very specific different
>> Okay. Sorry, I was getting confused. >> That's okay. That's why I'm clarifying. So, >> all right. All right. So, the only other thing I can think that might we might want to put up here that just came up uh today, um so maybe it's not something to jump
on too quickly, but there was this um email which maybe I will uh share that I think I think you distributed it already, right? Um the the uh letter to the independent to the indie
>> I think I yes I sent it just before the meeting. >> Okay. So there was a letter to the Amoris Indie. Um where'd it go? I had it up here. I had it up here. No I don't. Oh I know
where it is. Um about funding uh Let let me pop this thing up real quick. I'm going to stop sharing the I want to pop this up. It's This could be part of a updates later, but I think it's relevant now. So, I think I want to
share it now. Um I'm just curious to get everybody's input on this. Okay, you can see this letter, how to find a safer Fort Elementary School intersection, someone named Jeremy Anderson.
Um, so this is a letter that went to the candidates for the Amoris Town Council just uh a few days ago. So this is a photo of the intersection I am so familiar with um at this is this is Pelum Road and and
Southeast Street. I'm pretty sure that's what we're looking at. Looking north or we're looking south here. Uh we might be looking south toward Route 9. I think we're looking north, but I'm not 100% sure. Anyway, either
way, that road gets very backed up. Um and uh and it's dangerous to bicycles and Pelum Road is dangerous to bicycles. This is the intersection that you'll sometimes hear me complain about at this meeting. Um,
so this person mentions that Amoris could be eligible for for certain types of money to make this intersection safer, to make streets safer and more welcoming for
bicyclists and pedestrians. Um, if we had completed a streets level two priority plan and adopted a bicycle pedestrian safety plan, should we mention that specifically? I don't know anything about this except
this little note. Does this sound right? Should we mention it or do we not know enough yet and we want more time to figure it out before we put it in the town manager goals? Stephanie, you have any >> I I think it's um totally appropriate
for you to advocate for those things. >> Okay. And I think this must link to streets funding program. Oh, look at that. >> Oh, we could even. So, and I will say that I think part of the reason the town
hasn't pursued complete streets is because of the cost of implementing um those strategies. >> Yeah, >> you know, I think that's what we're
going to be facing especially in the next few years. I'll give you more during my update. Okay. So, the question is I'm just going to copy that phrase with the links and then go back to the
you know is it I guess the question is is the amount of money available can you have the plan without uh I mean what well hold on let me let me just uh I'm just going to
stick that in there for a moment. as a placeholder. Um, so yeah, so the reason we wouldn't complete a plan might be that we don't have enough money, but why would that keep us from putting a plan in place or
does just putting the plan in place cost? >> I I've um I know I personally have adocate advocated for complete streets in the past. I know members of the planning department in the past have um I don't
know about most recently. Um I know that I talked to a former planning director of another community and their response was look you don't have to do everything you just do what you can. So which I agreed with but um
for some reason we just really haven't had success in trying to push that forward. So, I think advocating for it is totally fine and it's very um consistent with KARP goals, especially
around transportation. >> Let me do this then. Hold on a minute. I'm put that back for a second. Um I'm going to keep that thought here. Let me let me rewrite this a little bit and see if it makes sense. Um, you can be part of the same goal for a
and adopt. And that would make us eligible for uh just says millions of dollars of funding. So to I think all we can say is is just leave it like that. >> So just leave it like that. Let them
worry about the funding part. >> Yeah. We're not seeing it anymore, Lori. >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> Do you always tell me if I'm talking and nothing is there? Uh, yes. And now you're seeing the town manager goals again, right? So, >> yes,
>> I just I just rewrote this one a little bit, right? Reinstitute a committee to advise on transportation issues and adopt the transportation plan and map. advocate for complete street level two priority plan and adopt the bicycle safety bicycle
pedestrian safety plan. I could add a phrase in there to make additional transportation money available to the town, but I think that since I don't really know exactly what money would be available or who would be applying for it. I think I we might want to leave that to the town,
but I don't know. Is that does that look Does that look reasonable? >> What do you think, Stephanie? Anyone? It looks good to me. >> Okay, so that's all I got. Any other comments? These were the goals
for last year. We've already sort of looked at that. So, I think I'm going to I'll delete these now. Was there some um you can't do it? Were there any other things Steve or Stephanie that you wanted to bring here?
We had some notes from last time that you were going to meet about some of this. Looks like Whoops. Yeah, we met but we didn't come up with anything specific. >> In that case,
I guess what I need is if this looks okay and folks are comfortable with it, a motion to how do we say it, Stephanie? to ex to accept this as the annual report and town manager goal suggestions.
>> Yeah. For FY26 >> for FY. So FY20. Okay. So town manager for FY 2026. 26. And there was one or two things that I was just going to look up. And the only
thing I was going to change was in here. and I'll check it for typos and stuff like that, but otherwise so with the let's see town may have what was this? I think we decided to leave that. I'm going to just get rid of this delete.
And this was NCRS mapping. I might add a link, but that's I don't need to. So, I'm all for not doing anything if I don't need to. There we go. Now I see this. Okay. So, I was going to look into this
and maybe make some minor changes here if I can find out more about it. But otherwise, I think this is the report with maybe some um additional links and items listed
there. just taken out of our notes from this year, out of our activities from this year. Are folks comfortable with this or do we need to go do should we do it one more time? I suppose we could if we want to work
more on the report, we could forward the town manager goals um without the report and then follow it with the report. >> Okay. if that makes sense. >> I'm not too inclined to spend huge
amounts of time trying to refine this. >> Yeah, it's just a report. >> Yeah, just a report. >> It's a time of manager goals that were more important to go over. I wanted to get your input on the report >> and I knew if I sent it to you and asked for your input, I would get nothing back.
because I've tried that before. So, I figured we spend a little time talking about the report and then go over those town manager goals, which we've now done. And I I will say, Lori, too, just given that the council's approach to the town manager goals last year was to
greatly consolidate them because I think the year prior he had something like 159 >> targeted actions and I think they reduced it down to like 59 targeted actions. So that's why ours were
reduced. I what I um was concerned about I mean we're going to I we have goals and we have things we have to do and I'm paid to do my job. So we keep doing things anyway. >> So even if the town manager doesn't
specifically adopt some of those goals or the council doesn't adopt those goals for the town manager, it doesn't mean we don't do things. We'll still do what we can. So I just want to say that upfront. But then also, you know, I wouldn't try to overload
with too many because they're very likely going to get picked through and they're going to pick a few. And the issue that I had with last year's goals were that they were repetitive. There were only five of them and two of them were covered under like the first goal.
So, I didn't understand, you know, um, and I'm pretty sure we provided feedback. So, um, you know, they may or may not >> go back to the goals, >> go back, you know, they may or may not, um,
adopt all of these things. They might pick and choose a few. >> You know, that that's fine. And I think the the importance of this exercise is for them to know what we think is important. you know, we're we're we're residents of Ammerst and
as a group, we've decided these are the things that are important and I think a lot of these things will get a lot of local I mean, anything have to do with transportation, transportation and education are the two huge things on everybody's mind this year, you know,
this this season. Um, if you talk to any of the candidates or hear what they're saying, this is, you know, these are the two big things that are >> I I just noted too that I don't see something about the municipal
decarbonizing the municipal building stock. Let me see. >> Um, okay. I mean, >> I think we I think we do want to specifically say something about transitioning
continue, you know, transition municipal buildings to be fossil fuel free. >> Well, and I would say don't even say continue. I would say transition buildings, municipal buildings to become fossil fuel free. Is there a specific building or building that you think
could be done in the next year? >> Yeah. Well, um >> I know you're working on the town hall. >> Yeah. Well, we're working on the town hall, but that's not going to happen in a year because it's just so like the roof alone is like millions of dollars. It's ridiculous right now. Um which is
the big part of the problem. Um but I would say maybe the Bangs Community Center is likely one that we can transition. So, be maybe beginning with the Banks Community Center or something like that.
>> Is there apostrophe in there? >> No, it's just bangs. >> Okay. All right. So, is there a are we h if we're happy with this? Uh I think what what do we need exactly, Stephanie? >> Um we just need to make a motion to say
that you're going to um approve the annual report as written >> and written >> promote the town manager goals. I mean, you can something along those lines >> as written but with uh I I need to be
able to make >> with you can say with Goldner's final edits. >> Excellent. Do we have a motion to accept the annual report and the town manager goals with Goldner's final edits?
>> I move to accept. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Andrew. And I will second that. >> Okay, good. Thank you. We need a vote, I guess.
Let me stop sharing. Uh oh. Stephanie, are you frozen? Oh, there you are. >> I'm here. I think we need >> No, I'm writing. >> Oh, okay. Sorry. >> So, I think we need a vote, right? So um okay we'll start with Goldner. >> Yes. >> Pissing.
>> Yes. >> Lang. >> Yes. >> Roof. >> Yes. >> Tanaka. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> And thank you. Everybody deserves thanks for putting up with writing the report in public like that. But I think it's the only it's the easiest way to get
this done and just get it over with. Um. Okay. Good. So, we have that. Um, let me go on to I've saved it and we'll come back to Oh, save. Save. There we go. Um, next thing on the agenda,
uh, I think the rest of this agenda might go fairly quickly. Uh, education outreach. Don's not here to talk about PACE coordination with local groups. I am going to talk about something there. Uh, that would have been Tony. Tony was
doing that and was planning an another elevate event. But since he's not here anymore, what I'd like to just mention quickly is this this um community group that is there's a new community group that's calling itself UMass Carbon Zero, sometimes with a question mark at the
end. uh that um consists of alumni, some local folks, Sunrise students, students who belong to Sunrise at UMass, um faculty, me, uh that's trying to find ways from the
outside to convince UMass to um continue transitioning, which they've really have stopped. We we finally got an accounting of what they've actually done and it's it's really sadly very little. Um and their emissions did go up
7% last year and they're still they they could burn as many I don't want to I mean they transitioned their their power turbine to diesel which means they could be burning diesel in the valley at 7 million gallons a year which is insane.
um they they you know when they're currently burning methane uh and it it could be renewable diesel which in some ways is even worse. They're only planning on burning 100,000 gallons this year and they're planning on using most of it in boilers and not in the not in
the electric generating power plant part part of the plant. Um but it's it's a little terrifying that they've done this. Um, so the first action that this group is doing is actually going to be tomorrow at an event. We put together a flyer and they're going to be putting
out flyers as a new Google group and a really sad sort of web page is slowly going in place. And I just wanted to mention this because um I think if we do do a uh some sort of a education series with um about what local universities
are doing, it would probably be in conjunction with that group and maybe some folks at UMass. Uh, and I also wanted to let people know that if you're interested in joining this group, um, it's called the UMass Carbon Zero Google
Group, and I will send a link to everyone in UCAC and anyone else who reaches out to me for it and I'll probably post it on Facebook at some point and, you know, do other things like that. Um, so there is now a Google group going up. There's sort of a small group of people that's doing the I'm not quite sure how it's all going to work
yet. there's a small group of people doing the strategizing about what sort of things should this group be doing and they just started this Google group which presumably is for everybody in the area. So, um we'll see where that goes. Um and I do think at some point ECAC
should have some input. I'm not quite sure how yet. Like I say, it's all evolving. So, that's all I wanted to say about that. heat pumps. I don't have anything unless Stephanie has.
We talked about the education series. Advisory and support. There's UMass climate plan. We just mentioned that. Um or lack thereof. Uh draft solar bylaws. Steve, anything new on that?
>> No. Uh but I did want to check with Stephanie. The um CRC was trying to reconcile the solar by they've been working with over the last couple of years with the new state regs. And when Stephanie is the next Do you know when the next CRC meeting is that we'll be
dealing with this? >> It was scheduled for tomorrow, but now it's been rescheduled to the following Thursday, the 13th, I believe it is. >> Okay. >> Um yes, the 13th. And that will be from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. And I believe um
councilors Haneki and Shane will uh I think give an overview of what they're looking at to so far. Um I think they've just it looks like they're trying to develop some kind of a strategy to
um what it is they want, you know, what parts of it they want to focus on and what are the differences. So I it's not I don't think they have an actual draft yet to to share. Yeah, they may have more then >> that they were going to sort of see how
the existing draft bylaw that town's been working on kind of compares to the new model bylaw that the state has provided and I hope also sort of figure out how the new state regulations which are currently in draft form, how they
will interact and figure out how to proceed. It's it's complicated. Yeah, I think at this point they're mainly focusing on the bylaw itself, not specifically
>> the bigger regulations. I think they're just looking at the bylaw >> suggested draft language from the state and the town. And I think they're just trying to make sure that what they have is consistent. I think maybe that's your point. >> Consistent with the state. >> I think so. some at some point the the
town will have to have a bylaw that's consistent with the new regulations that come into force next year which is you know the stuff that requires a consolidated permit review >> and and there's a scoring system and
things like that. So we'll see I I'll see if I can attend that meeting and um we'll I'll report back at a future ECAC and we'll we'll see what what's happening with that. >> Thank you. Steve.
Um, okay. Emily's not here. So, the next thing would have been transportation and we talked about that a bit. In any case, um, as part of the goals regional, >> Lauri, if it's okay with you, um, remove
can we remove tack outreach for future agendas? >> Yes. Please leave transportation in but tack outreach out. Um, if you want to give that update now, Stephanie, you sort of we sort of talked about was there anything else we should mention or do you want to do that as part of staff updates if there is or?
>> Um, well, I can say it here and I think I really pretty much just said it. Um, it's just that there's a new commission that's forming and maybe staff as well as residents. I'm not sure who's going to be staffing that. Um, but again, the goal was to have that in place in
January. So, uh, and it's not going to be their purview won't be exactly the same as TAC. It's going to be a bit different. Their focus is going to be a little bit different, but I think, you know, there'll still be for an is, you know, for I think the
issue that you're promoting, they're going to be the closest attack that exists. So, there's it's worth maybe trying to bring this forward to them if there has been progress before then. Okay, thanks Stephanie.
And that brings us to Oh, yeah. Regional and state policy updates. Okay, I've got something else to share here. So, I think this was also sent to you. Uh there's finally news about when the climate bank is going to have a hearing. Um we've sort of been waiting for this,
but I did not have time to draft a letter. However, uh oh, it downloaded it and it's not here. Oh, that's bad. Moment. Where did I put it?
There it is. Okay, good. Um, so I don't know if we have the patience to do this now or not, but I will I will put it up. We haven't had a meeting that's actually gone the full two hours in a while. Um, so all I've had time to do really is uh download this letter. So, there is an a
hearing coming up. um testimony on the climate bank has to be in by November 18th, which means that there are two ways to do this. We we don't we don't have another meeting before then,
right? Um did I share the right thing? Can you see honorable Paul Feny at the top here? >> Good. Um this is the draft letter sent out by the coalition that's supporting this. So the
idea of a climate bank is to have uh a way to fund projects, right? Climate projects. I don't even know the details. Um it sort of talks about it here a little bit. Uh where is hang on a minute. I want to
do one other thing here. Page width. I'm sort of inclined at this point just to ask everybody here to spend a minute and send in something or we could do it together as a committee. This is what the coalition that's trying
to um promote the climate bank uh has sent out as a draft letter. So, one thing we could do is spend the next 10 minutes, 15 minutes going through this and editing it to make it relevant to ECAC and try to have something by the end that we can
then submit as ECAC. Um, or it's it's just a let's see some key points in support of the bill. Um, or we can just do this on our own. And I'm given the time
and patience. What folks think? Do we have the patience to work on this now or should we just since I did not have time to do more than just download this thing? >> Uh will you have time uh on your own or is that is there a risk that
>> I'm going to submit something no matter what. But if it's not something that we can vote on together, it wouldn't be coming from ECAC. be coming from me, which is fine. I mean, you know, it's not it's if it's coming from me, I feel the biggest difference is um I don't
have to send a copy to Lyn Grizzly and the town council. If it comes from all of us, we really should let them know that we're supporting this. Um and it's a way of letting them know that we're supporting it. >> And I'm okay spending 10 minutes on this if if that does anything.
>> Cool. Okay. So then um with the understanding that uh I may need to change I haven't even looked at exactly who I'm supposed to be addressing this to if this changes depending on where I'm coming from or if this is just the committee members uh with that understanding um
uh we can just change this >> just swap it in. Uh we are writing energy and climate.
Yes, that's right. Energy and climate action. >> Maybe we can leave the boilerplate to be filled in later. Those questions seem relevant for discussion. >> Uh these ones here. Okay. Okay. >> Uh why this? So the problem I have with that and the reason I'm just I have I
haven't had time because of all the stuff going on at UMass right now. I have not had time to think through this or even look closely at what's in the bill. Um, this is why it would be nice to have Don here and to have given him some heads up about this. Um, you know, the main thing I'm interested
in is is funding for for climate for projects for sustainability and resiliency climate uh resiliency um projects, right? Uh so we can say much the same thing here that I think we've said before in
other contexts which is that we're you know we're we're a a small town without the ability to I think we said something similar for the we could basically look exactly okay what did we write oh that's a good idea what did we write for the um
>> for the make what's what was the name of that bill the bill that was uh doing a bond issue >> make polluters Okay, >> make polluters pay. Let's see if I can find that quickly. And we can just go through these.
Um, I think I can find it. Let's see if I can search for it. Make pay. The power of the search. There it is. Make polluters pay act. EAC letter final. Okay. So, what I can do is I'm going to
just paste this in. Hang on a minute. And I think that uh did Laura write this? I think Laura may even have written this. Um >> yeah, Tony might have started it and then maybe Laura put some polish to it
and finalized it. >> Yeah, >> we talked about it a couple meetings. >> So, I can So, here are the things there. Let let's read this first and then that's the make polluters pay uh letter. Um so why this bill matters to us,
why we want the legislator for vote for it. It's usual. >> Yeah, I think just in a in a sentence um we're a small town. We don't have the ability to fund largecale projects on our own. Um
we we need to act in coordination with other communities to you know coordination coordination with other communities just just getting some thoughts down
being rescended. So, specifically for Ammerst, uh, we could list a couple things here, right, Stephanie? >> Ammerst had ARPA funds that paid for a heat pump program.
What else did we have? Anything come to mind quickly from federal programs? >> Well, we have Yeah, the heat pump program. Um, that was an ARPA funded thing. Okay. >> That was ARPA funded, right? Yes. >> Yeah. I think right is that? >> Yes. Yes.
>> Okay. >> It is actually it still is being funded by ARPA funds. >> So what else was ARPA funded or what else was funded through federal program? >> The Ammeris mobile market was funded by ARPA funds. The
um establishing the Fort River Farm Community Garden was in part utilized with um ARPA funds. Um, >> we hired fellows to do um reporting.
So for our greenhouse gas emissions inventory update and our um HVAC system inventory, those fellows were also supported by ARPA funds.
>> So all this stuff is ARPA. >> Yep. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Anything else? Um, what else? I'm feeling like there was one other thing. Um, those are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head.
>> Okay. Client bank bill use a limited amount of public seed money to leverage model. Okay. limit amounts last remaining largely untapped sources. This is true. That's actually been our biggest challenge. I would say our
biggest challenge as a community has been getting local landlords and businesses to get interested. Right. Is that fair? Um, yeah. >> Uh, I can say something about how much
rental we're something like what percent rentals? Oh, I want to say it's around the order of 40%. >> Is that all? I bet it's more. >> I Okay, >> it might be more. Might be 45. I don't Or 50. I'm not sure. But it's somewhere
in between there. >> Sorry. I'm just trying to find a document. >> Yeah. Rentals >> finding ways. >> Yeah. Yeah, I think it's actually like closer to 55% of town residents are are renters if that's what you're looking
for and old housing stock has been challenge. The word challenge appears twice. I'll figure that out. Figure it out in a minute. Um, let me just so I don't forget this. Let
me just do that to it. And the same thing. Yeah. Okay. Good. Good. 40 state and local green banks. Okay. I don't think we need to reference that necessarily. And that's just a little factoid they want to throw in. That might be okay to
throw it in. So, now that we have that, let's take a quick look. This is what we wrote regarding the makeers pay. Most of this is going to be about this wasn't the bond act. This was the make polluters pay. There was a separate bond act but same idea.
>> Sorry Lori, I found one other thing that >> the ARPA funds um supported was the development of the community dashboard and I think that's a really important um outreach piece outreach tool. >> Yeah. >> And I think that was it.
Here we go. Okay. Um, so a lot of this stuff is going to be not relevant. Oh, this is we urge you to pass the
blankety blankety blank. This session says community reasoning. This is relevant for our town and its residents cannot carry the
financial burden of climate. Oh, this is climate damages. Not carry financial burden of transitioning to uh transitioning away from fossil fuels
of of a burden of h it's it's about uh resilience I think as well as transitioning. I'm wondering what funds are exactly covered or if that hasn't been decided yet. Uh but this was all
about about resiliency about the damage of climate change. Um >> yeah, >> which we don't want to emphasize here. So not carry the financial burden of transitioning to clean energy on our own.
Um yeah, I don't think I don't think that's probably not relevant. This is probably not the right letter. >> All right. Well, I think we can do something. >> Well, this is sort of relevant.
>> Yeah. >> Yeah. I mean, it's the same flavor of >> right >> problem where we create a larger scale fund to draw from. Okay. This is >> but we should this is more focused on what we can build rather than what we
can repair. >> Yeah. And I think this is more about getting um sort of public private or private >> Yeah. >> money in into the mix. >> Yeah. It's all about leveraging a a smallalish amount of money to unlock a large amount of money,
>> right? So, I'm not sure this is quite relevant. Uh, why don't we go right from that to to something like this? Our biggest challenges in management involve local landlords and businesses in the energy transition
with with 40. What was the Did we get a number here? uh finding funds to generation about the old housing stock has been a challenge. The climate bank in Massachusetts would allow private
owners or landlords and businesses. I don't want to report repeat that again. Uh allow private funds to leverage. How do we say that? Did they have did
they have a word here? Another small amount of public funding. >> Right. Right. >> Not okay. Lori Steve uh was right about the percentage of um the rental population. >> Okay. >> There was a UMass Donahghue Institute
estimate that's actually 56%. >> Wow. >> And that's in comparison to the state average of roughly 38%. >> Well, that makes sense. Finding funds to transition departments and old housing stock has been a challenge. The client a small amount of
public funding to leverage much larger amounts of private funds to to uh that's the way to say it. Give me some
words. >> To fund um >> to private funds to do what? to transition again to >> Yeah. to to build our green future. >> Build a green future. To build
>> to build Oh, yeah. Sure. What the heck? >> Whatever. >> Greener green future. Something like that. >> Um, what else can we put in here? I'm gonna take both of these things and
work them in. Need some words. They have words here. >> Um, the loss of federal funds for you fossil fuels is >> a challenge. >> Challenge
>> additional challenge. uh is >> is is a particular well it's a new another challenge >> particularly difficult. How about that? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> For a small community like Ammeris
put this stuff in. Yeah. We need a way to fill in fill the gap left by the yeah loss of federal funds. >> Right. Let me just fill this one out.
house gas updates and HVAC system and and and the development of a community dashboard to track track um our climate progress.
Massachusetts needs to find a way to fill these gaps. Massachusetts needs to find ways to fill the resulting gap. So wait a minute for a heat pump program uh for MR residents. This bill is lynchpin funding
is a maintaining our >> lynchpin is one word. I don't think lynchpin has a dash in it. I think it's just a word. >> Okay. So, there we have some words. Let's see what else was in the letter above that we might want to pull from. Just use that as a final. I don't know
where we got it from. That's okay. Uh, where'd it go? Okay. So, a little bit about us, a little bit about why it's important. I think that's probably all we need. Let's see if there's anything in their letter. Um,
I'll make I'll do some I already filled that. Okay. is always sponsored by uh I think some of this stuff we could work in coalition. I don't need to say anything about the climb coalition. I don't know if we need to tell them
what the bill's for. They ought to be able to know that. They just need to know it, right? >> Yeah. I mean, we're kind of we we provided our own, you know, list of things that we as a town can continue to do
>> as well as local other beneficiaries across landlords. In our case, I I think what we're missing is like ARPA funds like you couldn't leverage ARPA funds to unlock more funds, right? So like we used ARPA funds and as just
like a grant, right? Um so this is more than that. This is more useful than ARPA funds actually. it's uh more the leverage is is the useful part and like low interest loans stuff like that that we could do so much with that
>> right uh let's see maybe we can put how do we want to say that um >> I mean how they said it is is pretty good we could crib from them >> is um >> yeah and then like our ARPA fund stuff
is like in addition we also used ARPA funds you Uh maybe we should put this here. The goal of this bill is to foster financial innovation. All right. Home owners, landlords, small businesses across Massachusetts
could use just put that. You think that looks good? Something like that. >> See, it's just reading for a second. Yeah, I like that. Um, yeah, I like that.
Yeah, leading off with the the stuff from them about what the bill can do. And then I like our addition of like also we had creative uses of ARPA funds that we could you know that everyone can can take this money and like it's hard
it's hard to argue for this money when like everyone's strapped for cash but if we had money you know designated for climate action this is the kind of creative innovative stuff we can Um that yeah but I think that that that
kind of says that you know it implies that like yeah I don't know if we want to work in like you know every town is in is under d fiscal duress um in a time like this
this you know this this funding is even more useful. >> Uh yeah, and I'm also just trying to smooth this over with some thoughts to make it a little less choppy that uh the ARPA of funding isn't
specifically uh it's different, but we need to find ways to support small business, which is something that the ARPA funding we haven't done with ARPA funding. Um, and then I'm sorry, and your thought,
Andrew, was that we needed to >> maybe work in like we're all strapped for cash, you know, we're all, you know, >> right? >> We we like this is we need something ticketed specifically for the climate in order to get anything off the ground.
Um, because we're all just struggling to fund basic services at this point, >> right? in the current uh financial in the current economic >> climate. >> Yeah. >> Economic >> I I would say financial or just because like it yeah inflation I don't know if
it's econom Yeah. hate to use climate again >> uh in the current uh economy >> um >> in the current with how about we just say with with inflation and >> yeah with with the with t with towns
across America in I don't know under fiscal duress or I don't know what the words are but like yeah rise. >> Uh as prices continue to rise
>> or just as towns struggle to fulfill their basic services, you know, and budgets, you know, belt tightening budgets, whatever you can use, whatever flowery language people like to use. >> I'll struggle to
find basic services towns across the country in fiscal stress as prices may rise. We all How about we all struggle? No. >> Yeah. >> Towns across the country. How about struggle to provide >> communities? Yeah.
>> Yeah. Well, uh struggle to provide >> basic services as as prices rise. It's really worse than just rising prices, but I don't know how. >> Yeah, it's co it's it's just costs. >> It's cost.
>> Yeah. >> As the cost of living continues to increase. >> Sorry to interrupt, but I need I need to head out. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. We're we're over time. >> So, right. We're over time. So, we
should we should uh I want to make sure we have to do which is we have to is there anyone in our audience. Uh Stephanie, let me stop sharing for a minute. I don't know if we're going to be able to finish this. >> Um is there a way to finish this? Can we do a quick meeting sometime just to approve it? I'll send it to everybody
and then we have a quick publication. >> Why Why don't you do this? Why don't you um send it out to everyone and people can write back directly to you? You can't do it as an entire group. So if Lori sends it out if anyone has
edits, you only respond to Lori and she can incorporate your edits. >> Okay? >> You just can't do it as a do not send it to the entire I mean you could send it to the whole group but make sure you write do not respond. Do not reply to me. >> Respond to public. Yeah. Yeah.
>> Right. Respond just to me. And um so I'll clean this out. And uh I think do we need a vote to approve that process or are we okay just doing that? >> No, I think you're okay just doing that. >> Okay, that's what we'll do then. And >> how will we get do we need a vote? Like this is from ECAC, right? So don't we
need a vote to approve the final thing? How do we do that? >> Yeah, I mean we do that as a matter of course, but I don't know that you have to. You could just >> ask Lori to do the letter. >> Yeah, there can be a consensus. If any one of you objects,
>> I won't will not send it out. So, please let me know if you don't like the letter. It will not go out. >> Okay. But we don't need to hold a vote uh right now. >> You don't have to. >> Okay. So, with that, there's no public or is there public? I'm going to make >> There's no public. >> Okay. And uh let me stop sharing.
>> I just have one thing I do need to say because I think um staff update is next. And as we announced earlier, Tony has resigned, but we really need um folks to um fill those two vacancies. We need we
so we have two vacancies right now. So, if you all know of people, we really encourage you to to let people know that there are these vacancies. Um if you all could do some outreach to people, you know, that would be really helpful. and they could go online and fill out a CAF
and to volunteer. >> All right, good. And with that, um, we will talk about Stephanie, you and I will talk about agenda. If anyone has any agenda items, send them to me and I think we can adjourn if there's no by
consensus if there's no objection. All right. >> Right. >> See you in two weeks. Bye. >> All right. Bye.