So, calling this meeting uh to order of the sustainable green field implementation committee at 403. Uh we do have a quorum and um uh so we'll do introductions. I'll start. I'm George
Tulumsus. I'm the planning board representative to this uh committee. I'm the vice chair of this committee and at the behest of the chair, I facilitate the meetings. Thank you so much. I'm Hannah Rexen, chair and member at large.
Sarah Brown, city council designign, second meeting. Am I Nancy Hazard, member at large? Which meeting is it for you? That's a good question. A decade. Franis, Franis hat, member of the
public. Thank you. Uh Amy Kaling uh planning board designignate, director of community and economic development. Great. Thank you everybody and welcome to anybody listening. Uh so first next rather we're going to do the approval of the March 2025 meeting minutes. Is there
a motion to so move? Second. Can I discuss for a minute? I recognize they're my minutes. No, no. I mean that's discussion is the next thing. Right. Yeah. Um, George, I feel like every time I do the minutes, you make a point to me about how to list people and
their names and designations, and I go along and smile and nod, and I feel like it then leaves my brain until this moment right here. So, could you could you walk me through again? Sure. How to list them while I'm just about to I was I was going to bring that up. I didn't
want to belver, but No, please bely locked in. So basically anything that's not in parentheses I think should be um should be indicated what someone's uh function on this committee is or their their role. So for me Mike
wouldn't be Mike wouldn't be in parenthesis. It's got one parenthesis. Um I I just think you would be um I would be planning and development designate and then in parenthesis my job title I think so because that's not why you're what gives you the ability to
participate here is being the designate planning and development. Uh and similar uh Hannah important it is to be the Greenfield on the Greenfield business association. Uh that's not an official uh function she has here. She's I think
for her it should say chair comma public member and then in parentheses Greenville business association just so people are clear what someone's function here thank you sorry for not I'm correcting it on the March minutes and then and Carol you didn't get to
introduce yourself to one we'll finish the minutes and then we'll do that uh all right so we we have uh couple of changes just in the you know how people are designated for being present Any other comments on the March minutes? Did
you cover the Hannah part in the first paragraph? No. Okay. Cuz I wasn't here, so I'm going to abstain. But I was very confused. It sounded like Hannah offered that SGIC would be the host of the Give Pulse volunteer site,
and then Hannah also didn't think that SGIC was the right entity. So, got it. Um I assume someone else introduced it or vice versa. Yeah. Yes. Me. Um yeah. How
you think it should be read read? I guess that's the last my memory is that at the last meeting we were going to talk about it but Franis wasn't here and we kind of tabled it but at the meeting before that we had opened up the
question of okay weren't you? I remember weren't we? Yes. So, I can't remember at our most recent meeting. Here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna say um Hannah um was generally Hannah said yes. Hannah said no. Hannah was probably just
generally confused. And then we're gonna say we're going to take out this host thing and we're just going to say Hannah suggested um that um uh see Here Hannah suggested that SJIC could be a vehicle to encourage use of the
volunteer platform where necessary. Say that one more time. Sorry. Anna suggested that SGIC could be a vehicle to encourage use of the volunteer platform were appropriate or helpful.
Yes. Not necessarily that we Yes. Yes. That's why we we could be a vehicle to encourage use. We're not leading or hosting or whatever. We are just a
potential I can reword that if you would like something different. That's right. Right. And that not only matches what we think now, but it matches what you think you said at this meeting. Okay. That's the important thing. Thank you for bringing us back to you're like we're not discussing Mhm. Okay. Yeah. And just uh
Okay. Any other discussions? I I just have a thank you to um Amy for your minutes, but in particular, thank you for sending the minutes and the agenda as word documents instead of PDF. You
know, I'm glad you said that because I went back and forth on that and I sent them as word and then I second guessed myself. So, I appreciate that validation. It's really helpful. And I'll just make a a procedural comment because it came up in some other meetings I was in recently. Uh because you were saying,
Carol, because you weren't here and you're going to uh abstain. And certainly you're welcome to abstain. A lot of times when you go and attend a meeting, you abstain. I just want to point out that people aren't required to abstain just because they weren't there meeting. They can vote on it. They can trust. I mean, might have watched the
video or I've done that sometimes, but also they can just trust that this is, you know, representative. So you're not required to attend. Okay. Second. Okay. So all uh members in favor of the minutes as amended.
All right. I'll go in. Oh yeah. I wasn't pressing this. Okay. Thank you. Uh you just saved us 10 seconds. Okay. So uh master plan updates from the planning board discussion. Uh okay. So I have 15 minutes for this. Unfortunately, I don't
have 15 minutes worth of uh to fill. That's okay. All right. It's like those did you see this sensors in Australia? Okay. So, what we So, basically it was a first time the uh planning board was
discussing this. The planning board had proceeded table um and uh of the suggested uh changes or or you know new uh strategies etc for the and goals for
the two chapters and also had received not that long before the meeting the 90page background material. So, um, people weren't fully able to able to be fully prepared and I accept some responsibility for that for not getting this more voluminous document out to
them sooner. Um, so we were just basically Yes. Is that it? What you just tucked in under this? Yeah, that's the No, that's something else. And what's underneath it? This is the table that the subgroup
put together with the students and then this committee went over to edit. And this is the under background document that the students put together. Um actually it's like I I believe the students did not make an implementation
table at all. Right. Mary took that on or we as a committee took that on. Okay. And so and actually you were at the meeting and you helped uh at the plant meeting and helped give some of that background since you've been part of that group. And so the uh board was just
getting their heads around uh things generally. And then our plan is at next uh Thursday's plan board meeting to um tackle the natural historical and cultural resources chapter in the sense of reviewing the vision, the goals and
the strategies to see if the board's comfortable with those or wants to make any tweaks or anything like that. So that's where it stands right now. So we're going to plug away incrementally on that. Uh that was less than 15 minutes.
any uh any questions or um uh recommendations about this or you want to say something please. I I um because I attended and I remembered that folks were asking about um the open meeting law and the Google Docs and
collaborative editing and all that. And I was curious so I called um Kelly Kilcoin or Carrie Kilcoin from the attorney general's office. Yes. Yeah. Um, and she was saying, and I think in the meeting folks were confused
about if they could add um, comments on the Google doc and then send it to everyone or if they could only send it to the chair. And she and what she um, offered is that you can write comments and then you can just say this is for your review and no one's allowed
to reply and deliberate, but you're allowed to share that with the whole group. Um, and you are also but you can't be like collaboratively working off of the same document at the same time. Like you not multiple people can't be putting their
comments and if they do that then um a like less than a forum could do that. So, but that also can't be decided within the meeting. Like you can't say like okay like three of you can go work on this because then you're creating like a subcommittee. But if you say like you can work on this and then that
person taps someone to help them or two people to help them and it's not a form then they can collaboratively mark up the document. Um and then you just you send out the collaborative edits or whatever the Google doc and you just say here this is for your review and you
don't give additional commentary. So then it would come to the meeting. Yeah. And then you discuss it in the meeting and then during the meeting you can collaboratively edit the same um document and have that link available to the public and then you can integrate cause. So anyway that's a that's a
Google doc collaborative editing primer that I got from her. I was curious as well. That's really it's great. So, in the with Google Docs, if someone was and you may not have asked her this,
so I'm just I'm always looking for like the full extent of the rules because I I'm so bad at opening. um in Google Docs when you're able to collaboratively edit and you're also
able to just sort of happen stantially edit at the same time. So if three or more people happened to be in the Google doc editing, maybe not even aware of who's there, that be a violation of open
meaning law. I'm just asking, right? Because you see the little bubbles in the upper corner, but sometimes they're anonymous if someone's not signed in or or what have you. And like how far does it go? Depends who's asking and how much they
want to you not to be doing that, I guess. Sorry, but I would say that's Yeah. Is that how you Yeah, I assume that you should work off of your own copy because if it's happening on the same document that the public doesn't But the Google
That's the only public if the committee. Let me see. I'm going to see if I understand what you told us about what she said. Let's say there's a committee and there's a Google doc. So
each member of the committee can go into the document and make suggestions. Yeah. Outside, but nobody can reply to those suggestions. No deliberation. No deliberation. That's the word I want. No deliberation, right? But and but you can
have a everybody on the committee can put their can write something in there. Yeah. And then the whole thing comes to the committee to talk about all for the deliberation. You were worried about 15 minutes. Yeah. Right.
Sorry. And as long as there's no deliberation, even if all committee members happened to be putting their own comments in at 400 pm on a Sunday, that's still not as long as they're not
too, right? Totally fine. Okay. Just making sure. And I didn't ask her that level, but that's to me sounds accurate. But Gordon Quinn, who's the city's lawyer, did talk about this topic basically like the 48 hour cut
off. It was more in terms of like what you can do within that 48 hour cut off and um a meeting so that you're not unnecessarily limiting progress on items or whatever, but I think it might overlap a bit with
this. Okay. So and it's a fun ride. So, Carol, let me see if I understand what you're saying. Sorry. So, the I wasn't honestly I was going next and I was just like, it's 95 degrees in here. Get out. And so, I honestly didn't think
anyone could talk about it for that long, but I'm constantly surprised always because my brain is confused. That was about having the agenda posted to the public. It's 48 hours. 48 hours in advance and then if you're add unless
otherwise not reasonably anticipated by the chair. I think you couldn't make ad edits within that 48 hour. Thank you. That's what I thought you meant but I wanted so I guess another layer but it still refers to making edits and Yeah.
Yes. I'll I'll offer my bias that um open meeting law working governmental work utilizing in respect to open meeting law is narrowly inefficient. Um I I use the contrast with the
planning board that I'm on the co-op board private organization. We have all kinds of shared Google docs. We have all kind of group emails all the time. It's not covered by open meeting law because we're not a public organization. And so it's fine and it's much more efficient.
Yeah. But we we're charged with doing things in the sunshine and I get worried about, you know, things happening like that because it's so easy to slip into this or or you were going to make a comment. Oh, I see that. I'll react to that even subconsciously. Um and um we
had had one a couple incidents of email. Uh I don't know if I listened to the last uh plan board meeting but um where I'd gotten concerned we had violated open law potentially because there had been a couple of comment comments and
recommendations uh opinions given via uh email and one time it was just you know a group sent the whole board and it was someone was going to miss a meeting so they wanted to weigh in and I flagged it you know I said nobody else comment on this I'm going to call the AG. I had
communication with that same person. Then another time the person sent it out individually to each board member. But I remember our training, it's serial communication like that counts as if you're communicating with a court. And in both cases, the attorney general agreed and even
said as far as suggesting an agenda item, a board member can via email request an agenda item, but cannot give their opinion about the agenda. cannot even advocate the agenda item can just say they want it to be on there right so that makes sense so it's very nuanced
and it's very you know cautious and so this idea of working on the stuff in between is is just I think crazymaker like how is that you do it and does the public have access and how do you secure that document from other changes so so I I think we're going to do it try to do
it deliberatively and and just you know at the meetings so but but doing a lot of preparation ahead of So we're so So you raised the question for me. So So are you saying that what SGIC can do and what the planning board can do are
two different things because Oh, you're not. Okay. No, no, we're both both public council things. Council. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. So that's but it was it was very interesting when when you know I communicated with them and they were
so precise about this and for the serial thing they gave several you know examples of how it has been it haven't been bound to be a violation of both when there was this kind of serial communication. So I love that you're using the word serial because it's I
always think of serial killing I would but maybe that's just a hint like if you have to use the word serial it's bad don't do it. that that's bad, but it's it's not a violation of meanwhile. You're going to say so. No, I I Okay, so
might have used 15 minutes. Okay. See, um so the next item is master plan potential update for economic development chapter and Amy, you're going to update about the uh potential partnership with UMass um and
information gained from the meeting with them and the A is it AIA or A1A? AIA. Thank you. Are you making a joke about the education secretary? Oh, you know about that though, right? No. Oh, so funny. Okay. Is it funny? No. You know
what I mean? I don't know what you guys are talking about. Amy, you're up. I was gonna say I don't think I have 15 minutes either, but if we were just going to do five on a Don't even worry about it. That is never ever an issue. Our agenda, if I
count right, is 15 minutes short. Not a problem. Not a problem. On the door at 5:30. I know. Um, so I the only real updates I have I think everybody here but for Hannah was at the meeting with um with the architects and the
walkabout. So thanks all for coming. Oh and Marie Franis. Um I thought it was a great meeting. I thought it was helpful to hear from them. We are still in terms of funding um planning on applying for funding through the onetop round. Those grants
are due June 4th. I've already gotten a scope of work um from UMass and I have a letter of support from AIA. Um my plan is to come here next time with a proposed letter of support from
Sustainable Greenfield for us to talk about um to submit with this. So that is my update is sort of I'm looking at that grant timeline right now. Yes. Do we have a Did they get gave you
a price, right? They gave me a price. So, they did and I It was way more than I was expecting, but it's grant funded. So, I'm not really losing sleep over it for both combined. I think it was 105,000
which was a lot. Um 10 what? 105 I believe. Well, just because we'd heard 10 in my head. So, 105 what? I knew it was a thousand dollar. Um, that's that that does make sense. It is a lot. It includes the AIA team. It includes them
coming up here, a three-day thing, plus them bringing in outside experts at no cost. Um, to come do the the sharet and all of that stuff. Um, it also includes, and I I think this is part of the reason why it is a little bit higher. So, we
get bonus points in this grant if we can show a match. And so they have priced it um I think as though they would were pricing um also in Eastern Mass and are giving us a cash uh discount off of that pricing that we can quantify um that
that is counting as a match. I don't think I explained that. I was going to say, can you say that sentence more time? Um, they are their price is high. However, they are building into that
um a a discount off of what their rate would be. So, their full package would have been higher. Um, but they have built in I'm going to come back to you next time with a better with a with an explanation. But we can use their discount as our match. Yes. So, so when
they map out their pricing, it shows what their discounted rate is and they've thrown in some good language um so that we will have a match to go with because we don't have any municipal dollars to go for a match, but this will give us a way of quantifying. I love it,
which I appreciated. It still is a lot of money. Um, however, if um it's getting us where we want to go and we are funding it fully through a grant from the state, then I am okay with it, but all of you
need to be too. So, we can put that on the agenda to talk about next time as well. Yes. I guess my only question about the money is the um you're familiar with the one stop price thing. How does that fit in with
their criteria and their and their the kindsizes? Not close to the top of their Yeah, I think these go at least up to 250 as a typical cap and there may be room to go above that. Thank you.
Just out of curiosity, I love this idea and I love the idea of working with UMass. Just out of curiosity, how much did we pay the Conley school to do two chapters? Thought it was like 40, right? Yep. Here's the difference. Conway school came to us. Yeah. We went to UMass.
Okay. Conway school needed projects for their students. UMass does not need us. Yeah. Yes. And I would assume the product we would get from UMass would be fully fleshed out by experts. And yes, that's the other piece of it is Conway
School with students plus Conway faculty, which is amazing. Yeah. UMass is some UMass students. UMass faculty, these architects and the experts that they're bringing in from out of state. Got it. That's helpful. Thank you.
Because the Conway school plan required a lot of work from this committee to be true. That's very true. which um I also think so the Conway school Nancy did they do two public two just like 2hour public things and so built into this
plan in addition to public forums like that will be an intensive um cheret and stakeholder interviews and I think just a lot more public engagement than maybe the con school had the capacity for better or worse
I can speak also mentioned that um as we you know finished up with the two chapters and they were thinking oh what would be next and we came up with the idea the economic development and it seemed to make total sense um the uh representative from the planning board
neglected to check in with the planning board is this okay this me yeah I so um so I have mentioned to them that this committee has has started working on this and is recommending this and there was no there was No negative reaction at
all. I put it officially on our meeting for next week just to get formal. Oh, great. Stamp of approval for this. So, it's belated, but uh so that's fine. I believe that the planning director was looped in unofficially. Um and the something else just went
through my head. Wait. Oh, the other thing I will say just in terms of cost comparison, although it's a little bit tangential to this committee's direct request on the economic development chapter, this proposal and this cost also includes a
community a um a neighborhood corridor plan for Deerfield Street. So, it's going to be Deerfield Street up to Hope over to River and Mill. um outreach in that area and an update of if any of
most of you maybe were around for the Deerfield Street initiative that UMass did back in 2017 or 2019, they're going to update that as part of this. So, it's really a chapter update and a plan update and that's all included in that price. All included in that price, all
included with the same folks since they're going to be here and be talking about many of the same issues. Yes, I have to ask these questions, but uh is this alleart at all? This is just so I
could make my 15 minutes, isn't it? Since I Oh, yeah. I got your back. It's I mean I think we can go back to them with what like if we don't get the full funding amount, could we say, "Oh, you know what?" Like to have It's sort of like when you do a pro a building
project. I say without talking to them at all, but I think if we were only to get partial funding, the first thing that I would do is since this committee is behind it, say just what would the update of the economy be? Okay. Um that I mean that is a very easy way to divide
it off and I think if we needed to do we could get further um down. My good guess would be if we locked off the Deerfield street and we're just doing economic development and we still hadn't cut it down that they would find a way. Yeah, I think they would really like to see this
happen and they're they're trying to be paid what they think is fair for their services, but I think they also recognize that. Yeah, they want to do this type of work and want to do this working field. And did you make them aware that we're a semi- finalist for the Strong Towns competition? Got to be
at least a 5%. We did. Okay. Carowware. Yeah. Anything else? Anything else on that topic? Good. Thank you. Close enough to I know this is Can I say something or is it on
this topic? It is. Please. So, I was trying to just print out a little bit, but I I did mention the last meeting I was at that. So when I'm thinking about this and I was trying to convey that in the short time I was at
the meeting um with Wayne and AIA that again a lot of this is is just like kind of reframing what we all already know and what we've already worked on but but there are some really great resources on climate and land use
planning and how we can achieve our goals. And that's really where I feel drawn to making an impact that I think we can have a much larger impact and it's a social one as well as an adaptation one. And your topic at the
Brazilian green field seemed like I wish I was able to see it. I I really am curious how that went. But um those are the kinds of things that I think are are kind of uh paramount to us.
And anyway, so somehow instead of printing out four pages, it printed out like 65s. You know, me I always I love this stuff also. So two questions. Um, one is, do you think that that stuff that you're
passionate about will be able to be integrated into this economic development chapter? I mean, in the discussion we had, it seemed that they were I mean, Wayne is a preeminent smart growth planner for lack of a better term these days. I don't know what they call
that, but definitely sustainable land use. And I mean, the work that they were doing, all these communities they've been in is because of devastating storms that have like destroyed their infrastructure. So, it's all about ad adaptation, resilience, and
it's all connected. It's always been connected, and we made it about the cars, and now we're having to redo it all. My second question is, um, if you have either, you know, the thing that has just really fired you up right now,
there's a long list. I know, but if you have some links, please share. I do, but I know no one looks at them. I I do. Okay. To a nice We'll look at them and talk about it. Just to but we're not talking about that in the meeting that we're Well, but this
is this is not Okay. But so what I'm going to say actually I'm going to say whenever you come across something that's really amazing please share the link because I know how these things come and go and I may not
look at every single one but I really I just I'm always I'm not a good researcher. I'm a horrible researcher. I will not go and seek these things out. I do follow up on things that are referred
to me and that pe other people have vetted, found it, recommending it, excited about it. I want to know about that and then I can choose whether I'm gonna be foolish enough to spend a lot of time on it or not. So if you're I was
thinking of sharing it, but I just want to just in response I feel like this is almost like I I'm like a professional. This is kind of my field. this is my thing. So, I was thinking it would be the AIA and and Wayne who would kind of be the ones sinking their teeth into it.
But I'm happy to I'll try. I'll do my best. There's never enough hours in the day. I will say the thing I'm most passionate about. Sorry. You mean a secret? Is that what you're saying? It is. It's a secret. I don't want to violate all the laws. And don't even get me started about procurement. H what a
racket. And we pay double for everything and we get half quality. But rent over there. Uh, but the thing I did bring up, which the AIA knew about, I don't know if Wayne did too, but I am super passionate and I really feel like it's
it's what we need to be doing is the uh development in Austin, Texas. It's called Communities First. I know it as mobile loaves and fishes. That's how the the ministry I guess how how it started. But it is such a fabul they're actually
teaching other communities how to do it and it's dealing with your unhoused populations and people that are dealing with addiction and in such a beautiful supportive uplifting way and it it's is it a tiny home village? That's what I
want. Yeah. Yeah. Tiny home is like in the US 900 square feet. So where Yeah. It's a different They started with like campers and stuff and now they're doing these 3D printed homes which is how I found it.
Icon architecture out of Austin is wild. That's the kind of stuff. Yeah. Anyway, I know I could go on and on. I'll stop. I just wanted to move these papers around the mic because I didn't want this blocking. So you don't know
this is it was you're talking that you're the only person on the screen. So I do kind of feel like I'm on the USS Enterprise and you're the Captain. You're ginormous. Yeah. That was perfect.
But that means that's the only person that that's phoned in. I was gonna check with Amy if there's anybody else who is waiting. There is nobody else who is waiting. Just uh in relation to your comment about wanting wondering about the um Brazilian green field event that
is was recorded. It's available online. So if you want should put that on the agenda. Uh so public comment there's no public here. Well, not unfortunately. Uh then the next item is membership
discussion around the open seat on the SGSC. Well, I can touch on this and and it's related to the uh Brazilian green field event. Um when I was there, I um you know interacted with Pram a little bit and he had expressed interest in
joining this committee and so I he asked about and I mentioned um that we had been thinking of someone related to food security. we hadn't found somebody yet and um he took then so he said so I shouldn't I said well that's it's up to you I said just the committee had
thought we're trying to fill that gap we've seen from the point of view of the description of what things we're supposed to cover as a committee and then I did I was um you shared an email that went to the he sent to the mayor you forwarded it to I forwarded that's
right that's so apparently he did seek out with the mayor appointment and it sounded like the mayor was going to do it as far as I could tell. So I believe so. It wasn't definitive. It was definitive. And I had a question about process around people getting
seated on the committee. Is this a good moment for that question? Sure. um when when something like trying to fill a gap around food security, is there recourse for us to say we'd like to wait to see if we can find someone or
once someone has put something in with the mayor and it's on its way to city council, is it kind of out of the committee's hands at that point? Well, it's the mayor's decision for the public members. Okay. And I mean I guess the you know if the committee had a
sense we want someone to fill this you the chair I assume could talk to the mayor and said oh here just a heads up we have this open seat the committee is recommending someone who has this kind of expertise we're looking you know in case you get anybody else just let you know this is something we're looking
for. Um uh so I I don't think so that might cause the mayor because the mayor could get all kinds of applications and then hold off. I mean it's not like the first one would automatically get appointed. It's the mayor's discretion. Okay. So but once the mayor appoints and
it's headed to city council, I assume it's kind of that's that's happening. So they wouldn't uh I don't think the mayor would resend that. But um but if um so that looked like he had requested it,
but I don't I don't know that uh it had been approved. I can't remember what the Yeah, I haven't seen anything moved along. Okay, so along those lines, since we don't know one way or the other, um that could
I I would like to see this committee, I guess the chair, I don't know who would do this, to reach out to the mayor, find out the status, and voice our our you know, our priorities. Okay. and just share that with her and then I'm happy,
you know, but unless people want to just go and put the flop, but I would still like to have someone related to put out that the desire to have that skill, food systems, food security basically. That's
correct. Yeah. And that's from the charter. I mean, is it called the charter? It's it's the ordinance. We're not in the charter, I don't think. We It's the ordinance. Yeah. Are all ordinances in the charter? I don't know that. I think it's part of the charter.
My my department's not on the charter. You think I keep track of these things? I No, not but whatever our our bonding document is, that's what we're referencing. Yes. So, so is there Well, is there agreement to that? That's what
the group wants to do. Anyway, that's my personal Is there any uh objection to that? Hearing none delegate you to Yeah. represent us. I will do that. So I the
email that you forwarded to me from the mayor to Graham with uh George and Sarah CC on April 1st said Mayor Dorgger has approved your
letter Graham of interest to be consider to be considered for the sustainable green implication committee. The next step is your name will be submitted to the city council meeting that will be held on May 21st. Once you have been approved, you'll receive an email confirming an instructions to contact
the city clerk's office to be sworn in. So he's Does that mean that it is he's in process of being okay? It's always been approved by the council like it's too late, but once the mayor is it I think it's worth reaching out to the mayor. Um
I guess it can be to clarify. Yeah. Okay. We didn't get an email saying for the appointments and ordinance committee about what name that name was put forward. May 21st and it would come out in the first week of May committee chairs meeting and then it would go to
committee right. Oh no maybe not think I'll reach out. And it's always it's always good to have communication between the committee and committee like this where we're having we're trying to have people filling you know certain Yeah. And it could be for future reference even. So it's not it's not
personalized to to grammar or anything like that. It's just uh you know seeing a need and and we maybe should have done this earlier. So it's a good lesson to learn you know when we identify that be good that should I CC anyone on this
committee or okay to just go for I'm meeting with the mayor on Monday and I can bring it up if but I I'm not sure I understand all the ins and outs but I understand just that the preference is for someone with a certain background
okay that we're missing that piece of our All right so I can bring that up Well, maybe we need to do both things. That would be great. I think it would be good to come from the chair. It's also good to sometimes bring things up when someone's in front of you. Yeah.
A hand up. What was that? I'm sorry. Yeah. Uh, now I don't know. Has anybody reached out to folks at Stone Soup for a member suggestion? Yes. Oh, that's a
bit I have not. Okay. I know some people there. I um I can ask if that's okay. Please. Yeah, go for it. The only hesitation I would have is at this point it doesn't look like there is an opening
if this has Is there a limited number to this group? Yes. 11. Yeah. Very specific. It's six. uh department or board or organization
representatives and five uh members at large. So we're we're really we're only replacing Mary at this point. Correct. Okay. But it sounds like then that as soon as
you hear Hannah that you should reach out to everybody I guess not just right because that's the kind of thing we're trying to come up with friends is who might be a good source of someone who has that kind of uh background or experience or expertise
right I understand that but are you telling me no you shouldn't ask anybody at this point you should wait to hear from Hannah All right. Well, Hannah, let me know because if the if the seat is essentially filled, it would be unfortunate to ask someone their interest and then tell them, "Well,
sorry, you don't have the opportunity." So, yeah. And I and I will, as an aside, say there have been times when someone's been appointed by the mayor to a committee and not been approved by the council. Oh, that's interesting. I think I might have been the first one.
That was a lot of time. Wait, you a long time ago. Martin's reign. That's a No, no, no, no, no, no. That was What were you applied for? Uh, do you remember? It's a long story. Never mind. Never mind. When we after we return, I'm
happy to share it because it's not part of our work, but it's just Anyway, yeah. Uh, anyway, um, so, uh, anything more on membership? Sounds like all right, announcements related to sustainability?
Yes. Yeah. I wanted to talk about Earth Day which was this fabulous event and I want to thank Carol because um I have been asked to speak and I reached out to Carol for some data because I'm a
numbers person. Sorry guys. And I wanted to know updated like how much money we the city has saved because of her work and how much uh energy reductions or maybe another way of putting it is climate change
emissions and I and she sent me all this great information which I then of course being a numbers person I had to dive into it. So um the things that jumped out at me and uh well first of all the simple one is that we have reduced our
climate emissions by 44%. Which I believe and Carol correct me if I'm wrong is more than any other community. No idea. But anyway the goal was that you had to make at least 20% reduction. So we're that was what we were people
were aiming for. So I would say extraordinary. Uh but she also spent sent me a spreadsheet of um each building and um and over the last I think four or five years and how much energy or how much climate change
emissions I should say uh were emitting and which obviously was shrinking as she did work on it right and the thing that is really I mean I'd always known that that uh street lights like changing light bulbs has a huge uh return on
investment, right? But it it I when I dove into it a little bit more, I mean, I was just I was amazed and so just a few statistics. So there's 91% reduction in energy use of going from a conventional street light light bulb to
the LEDs. What is the percentage? 91%. Wow. Okay. But then it's not just a percentage because um it's also I looked at the exact numbers. So the number was there was
500 m um is it million or multimately uh gt tons I can't even say it millions of uh climate emissions tons of climate metric tons metric tons that's what the
gun stands for y okay thank you um and then you mentioned in another email that we are say that the city saves $200,000 a year because of that energy reduction
from those light things and that the maintenance was way cut because you don't need to keep changing them. They don't they last a really long time. So, um so I did a little bit of arithmetic
using that and hope I didn't make mistakes. Um, but if the light if the light fixtures are saving $200,000 a year and that was because they were reduced by 100 500 metric tons of carbon
dioxide that equation when I look at the total savings in the in our city it's um 2500 metric tons. So when I do the arithmetic, there's another
$800,000 a year in this past year that we would have saved because of the things. So if you add those two together, we saved a million dollar just last year. Okay. Then throwing this in, how'd you get there? Well, I took the
what 2500, right? The metric tons reduction if you look at the very bottom. Yeah. Okay. And if I subtract 500 metric tons because they were already accounted for in the lights. Yeah. So now I've got two 2,000 metric
tons, right? Okay. So 500 goes into 2,000, right? Four times. Yeah. Okay. So then I multiplied the 200 by four. Can't do that. No. No. Not for dollar savings. Definitely not. Oh, that's interesting. Nope. because
every first of all metric ton I don't know does anyone care should I okay well you're telling me it's anyway but it's and then you told me that that the solar farm saved 3 million what I would suggest is this is the the section we're in announcements and if people want to
discuss this more we can make it an agenda item I I would say you don't have to apologize from my point of view for the numbers because the way we reach people as we inform people about these kind of changes. Different people are going to be influenced and and uh you
know impressed by different things or some people will be metric tons you know of pollution. Other people will be money saved and so it's it's wonderful got to get it right. Getting it right is kind of important because people love to
Right. Right. Um so so I would just say why don't we make this because that's seems like a wonderful would that would cause Carol some work. So, I'm not sure you want to put it on the agenda, but my my conclusion was just it's it's amazing. Just amazing. And we haven't
really talked about it recently. Um, so if Carol wanted to put it on the agenda, that would be great. But if not, I totally understand. I don't want to create any more work for anybody. Yeah. Is that was that I think other announcements?
Yes. No, please. Um, a couple of announcements. The, um, city has a cleanup day downtown tomorrow. The mayor's office is running that um, from 12 to 3, I believe, um, if anyone feels
like getting involved. Um, and then on Saturday, the Greenfield Business Association is heading up some cleaning efforts downtown um, with our Blooming Greenfield cohort. And we're also watching the bee sculptures which will be very fun. And it'll be raining so
it'll be easier. But that'll be really fun. And it's also the opening of the farmers market and healthy kids day at the Y and there's a local author meeting at um the library and it's queer prom at night. So it's
just a big day downtown on Saturday. So go to visit greenfieldm.com to read about it. What's the partnership with what is it? Blooming Blooming Greenfield. Yeah. So, I um talked about this a little bit last year, I think. Um
that is the group that did the flower barrels downtown at different businesses. Um and the GBA has kind of adopted Blooming Greenfield. Um and we are building it out to be more of a um
beautifification entity and engine in Greenfield. So, we're continuing to do the flower barrels this year. Um, and also starting to pick up more projects in different neighborhoods. So, one of the projects that uh we're working on um is a door painting project down on
Deerfield Street where we have selected five colors and are going to systematically approach um residents and landlords and see if they would be open to having their door painted as a way to just start to make um what can be a
little bit of a rough looking corridor. um just have little pops of color and do a little bit of placemaking. And our hope is that that will go super smoothly and we can do it in other neighborhoods where businesses and residences kind of
blend in a certain way. Um so Bloom and Greenfield is volunteers has been volunteers which all continue. Yes. But in collaboration with Thank you. Yeah. and we actually um are in the process thanks to Amy's amazing work um of incorporating Blooming Greenfield so
that they will also be able to apply for grants. So the EPA is not a 501c3. So this will be our sort of version of a friends of entity that will help us raise the money for things like storefront improvement and plantings and downtown cleanups and um our mission is
the beautifification and celebration of all things Greenfield. Very cool. Yeah, that's I just wanted to follow up on on what the numbers and I I just I appreciate your effort and one of the reasons that I'm very cautious about
providing numbers is because it's very nuanced and there's a lot of detail that goes into everything. So, I definitely don't want to I already have a super hard struggle on both sides of what I should be doing or why is that
even necessary because gas is our friend. And so, I try to be absolutely accurate and we are doing fabulously. And if anything, what I was trying to convey to you is that with Greenfield Light and
Power, which again gets into this whole ideological argument with the zealots is what I call them. Um, but our electricity has zero emissions. So, it's even more than that. But trying to
document that and doing all that math because every type of fuel has its own calculation of how much you know greenhouse gas it's generating. So you can't it's not just a apples to apples that is the apples to apples where you
convert everything. So again it's like I love doing that stuff. I'd love to know, but it's then I don't get anything done and it's kind of more important. And again, a lot of it is still I
feel open to interpretation. It depends whose numbers you're using and where do you get them from and that's getting increasingly more difficult. But anyway, so I didn't mean to I just didn't know where that number came from and wanted to explain a little bit further. Thank
you. Yeah, thank you. Yes, that's why you either had an announcement or wanted to comment on announcement. Well, I comment on um Hannah's announcement of tomorrow's and or maybe Saturday's cleanup and cleaning up the bees and
um I realize that's a bit of a tangent, but what about the the signs that are like I'm thinking of the the Brookie Park and you know they have explan explanation to sign that are filthy and I'm wondering
uh if that's part or could it be part of a clean up. I'm not exactly sure if it's if you can just clean them with a water and soap, but who's in charge of that and and how would I Yeah,
that's that's a great question. Um that park in particular, I think, is a good example because one of the members of Blooming Greenfield is also one of the steering committee members for the precinct 7 neighborhood group
um Yeah. So, so that park in particular is very much on their radar. And one of the reasons that we're starting with Deerfield Street is kind of because of who's on Blooming Greenfield and and kind of where we feel like we can make an impact. I think, and I could defer to
folks on this council, I think it varies a little bit park to park. Like I know there's a Friends of Energy park. Um, I don't know about other parks, but I think for Bloom and Greenfield's perspective, the the main thing that
we're focused on are areas where businesses and residences really overlap, but that's not to say that we wouldn't show up to something or partner on something. Um we it has been really wonderful to have precinct 7 resident
group come together with the business association and it only really happened because this one member also happens to be a business owner and had met with Amy and so then got connected and so there was this ven diagram. Um but we would love to connect with other neighborhood
groups especially because in Greenfield there is actually a pretty high um instance of businesses in neighborhoods. When you go up to Well Street, Pierce Street, you know, you kind of find these little pockets of business that are really interesting. So neighborhood
groups I think are one way that we can both get things cleaned up and sort of build more um bridge between the kind of business community, resident community. Um some parks I will just say I know
from Christie some parks would you'd really have to go through the recck department or DPW. So, it would it would be a bit case by case, but I'm happy to field any ideas and specific thoughts like Brookside, which I know they really
care about. Thank you. That was longwinded, but it's great question. I love ven diagrams. That would be great to have different different volunteer groups and Yeah, absolutely. Um, building on the Deerfield Street
interest, I I wanted to um just give kudos to the Deerfield sidewalk update. Uh, that's just it just absolutely gorgeous and a great Yeah, it's just wonderful to see that happening. And there is a an area that is has a lot of
leaves along the wall. Be great if those got cleaned up, but but maybe that maybe that will happen in the cleanup day. So, that would be great. And the other big um progress thing that I've noticed is that um the Well Street complex for the
unhoused, which we've been waiting for forever and ever and ever. If you have driven on Well Street, there's a large hole there now. It's so exciting. Unbelievable. It is actually the
construction has started. So very cool. So congratulations to everybody who worked so hard on making that happen. Now it's going to I think through maybe next fe a year from February or sometime or next spring it's
going to be real. Unfortunately not for this coming winter. I'll defer to the chair but I see we have a member of the public who has joined and I wonder if we want to go back to possibly a public comment. Hi, Stephanie. Wanted to welcome you and just see if you had an interest. We had
gone past that agenda item. We kind of had a a speed speed meeting today, but we're still in session and um we're open to public comment. If you had something you wanted to say, you know, I actually forgot to look at the calendar. I wanted to log in
earlier, so I really feel like I'm not really informed. I I'm I will have to relisten to this on GCTV, but thank you for the opportunity to speak. You're welcome. Thank you. Uh and I'll just mention from the point of
view of an announcement about the um Brazilian Green thing. And so uh I um in the 10 minutes I had to present, I basically did a speed session of the uh background, the origin and background of this uh of the master plan of this
committee. Um, I had hoped that we had, you know, I got a lot of help from folks on the committee about examples over the years and from the charts I looked at. Unfortunately, didn't get a chance to get into that when I was when I got the hook. Uh, so uh I was hoping could touch
on some of them during the Q&A, but only was able to get into a couple of them, but that was uh so couldn't unfortunately get into that much, but again, it's it's recorded if people want to see that. Thank you for doing it. Great. Oh, sure. Yeah. And uh and no
other announcements. Yes. I've announced this before, but now it's getting closer, so I'll announce it again. The Miller's Meadow planting is happening. The first one is the uh May Saturday the 3. Um so
not this Saturday, the next one after that. And then Saturday 10 and 17. So from 7 9:30 in the morning to 10 to 12:30. So, we're having it's we've had a lot of people signing up. We have a
signup sheet and we're doing really well. I think Michael was saying I think it's got like 20 people signed up for each of the three planting days. So, yay. Peter, put it on visit Greenfield. What? If you
put it on visit greenfieldmma.com, people can also sign up and come if you're looking for more people. I don't know how to do that, but um I think Matt, can you send it to Matthew? Yes. In the mayor's office. Yeah. At Conway. And next time I'll bring postcards that walk you through
the process. I don't think I have. So, the next meeting is on May 22nd here. Same time, 4:00. Um do we feel like we have agenda items for that? Potentially, Michael. I did email
Michael. Oh. Um, the FRTA. FRTA. Um, and hopefully we'll have a couple other What's Michael's last name? Harald. P E R R
or an E. E A U L T or A U L T. I think it's a U L T. That's enough for me to go on. I can Google. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's the assistant administrator, the FRCA. Okay. Okay. So, you have enough for the
agenda. I will I make one more announcement. I just wanted to announce because I realized that this meeting will be after it. Bef Fest is coming up on May 17th, 9 to 12:30 and the farmers market that day is 9 to 1:30. So, really
great opportunity to come downtown and talk about these beehives and eat. There's a lot of bee sculptures. Well, there are 12. There are 12. I know there's one other fire station with a fire station.
You know, it's so great. And I my hope is that there will be more. Amy and I are are going to submit resubmit a grant trying to get five that will be not in the downtown corridor, which I think will be wonderful to have some bees a
little further field. Um, neighborhood bees. What? Neighborhood bees. Neighborhood bees. The neighborhood bees. Um, and this is just something I won't get up on my be soap box, but I will just say that um, the GPA um, I
think the bees are just such a critical opportunity for Greenfield to really be known for this kind of work and the bees are sort of the figurehead for that. So, um, I don't know if we've talked on this committee about the M Darby. We talk
about this. Can I give another announcement? George is like, "Oh my god." Okay, this is why George facilitates because I have zero understanding of Robert's rules or opening law or any kind of protocol. So, very exciting.
Very exciting. Um, uh, and clearly not talked about enough. Um, the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture, which is currently headed up by Ashley Randall, who's from South Deerfield. And so I think because of her being in that position, we've gotten a
lot more um involvement from the state in Western Mass. Um, and the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture commissioned a bee sculpture um from Rachel Catz which is currently
painted and hiding somewhere I think in Rachel's studio um to go be installed at the Massachusetts building of the Big E in perpetuity. Christian is designing a beautiful brochure that I owe him notes
on. Sorry. Um but but one of the things that this does is it's going to give us this opportunity to put a brochure down with the bee to invite people up to Greenfield to take a detour for the bee tour and come see the bees. Um, and as
that grows and as more people travel up here, not just to see the bees, but maybe for beef fest or for other events and happenings and we continue to tie in, you know, the fairgrounds or the graange or art space with these
sculptures, um, I think it it necessarily and importantly leads to conversation about why bees are important and why the invention, literal invention of the beehive in Greenfield is so cool. Um, and all things sort of lead back to conversations about
resiliency and climate. And so this is just a big effort underway and um, MDAR commissioning a B was a huge surprise and exciting. Oh, MRB MDB. I was seeing it in my head and I know.
I'm so sorry. It's it's just it's so exciting. It's so exciting. Greenfield is going to be front and center of the Massachusetts building at the big E which is visited by 1.6 billion billion billion.
I was going to check if during Bfest you're going to change temporarily change the name of your organization to G B. We can I absolutely would. I make B puns all day long. I love it. I have a
procedural question related to our next meeting. Would it be helpful? I mean, I think it would help me to get the minutes like the week in advance or something like that just to help remember things. And I wondered if it would help, we've done this in the past, put out word to people, does anyone have
an agenda item they want to propose? Oh, yeah. Not advocate for, not discuss. Yep. Yep. Propose. Would you would you not to get overly asked question? Thank you. Um, he said would it do you actually want
them a week in advance or like I could email them to you now since I am typing them or or is that too far and I'm asking this genuinely like would you like it a week in advance or so with a reminder and a call for
that's u I've always been a fan of getting the minutes soon and then maybe resent and the reason being that in the minutes there's often an action item and if you don't see it until the day before the next meeting it's like just not
useful. I will send them before I leave this table for you. Thank you. And and then checking about any however you guys want any additional agenda else. Okay. And is it is sending the
minutes out a week before with a request for agenda items? Is that something you're willing also? I am happy. I'm totally happy to do that. I would love to en inlist all of you to remind me to do that. That is the kicker. It's not
the doing the remembering to do. It's on your your agenda. Am I the vice chair supposed to remind you as the chair to I will operation. I will put
housekeeping calendar while we're sitting here. I'll put it in my calendar. There you go. Let's go with the 14th. Someday your calendar's going to be so full you're not going to be able to join. And then it'll be colorful. Oh,
I'm still stuck with a paper. Yes. Okay. I don't know. I I'm a rule breaker by nature, but really I know surprising. But um I was going to loop back to the A1 story if if we're out of meeting.
Let's end on. No, it's so fitting. Does anyone know about this? Okay, so that you all know that our I might get some details wrong, but I'm go with me. Our new esteemed dire what do you call it?
Secretary of Education is a billionaire from the world wild world wild wrestling federation. We're still in the meeting. Okay. Making No, I'm not stopping you. I'm I'm stopping. I'm wondering if we want to adjourn first. Yes.
This is absolutely related. It's not related. Although it's related to you saying A1A. That's Gotcha. Gotcha. I have a motion and a second. Yes. All right. All All members in favor of adjourning. It's unanimous. All right.
Thank you very much. Everyone in favor of Carol sharing her story. Hi