--------- Okay, let's call the meeting to order. This is a formal meeting of the Alcano Elderly and Disabled Tax Fund Committee. Um, this meeting is being recorded. If and is a public meeting and if anybody
else is recording this, they they're allowed to do so, but they would uh please let me know and I don't see or hear anybody. Um the first order of business is uh the uh review of the minutes which I sent out a
couple of days ago. Um and uh they were drawn from our um uh YouTube recording of our proceedings. So I hope they're uh accurate. Is there a motion to accept the minutes? >> Is there a second, Mandy?
>> Yes, I second. >> Okay. All those in favor of accepting the minutes as produced say I. >> I. I >> Okay, they are accepted. Um and next order of business was um the
final approval of the attached documents with the agenda which was we last time we were here we went through a detailed almost line by line review of both the guidelines and the application process.
As noted in the minutes, there was several minimal motions to adopt certain things or to not go uh in certain directions. Um and so we had Jim was the custodian of the documents and I believe he the documents that I produced were
his final edit. Is that right? >> That's correct. >> Okay. Are there any questions about the documents that have been produced? >> All right. So, um I I believe the
application was absolutely fine as it was presented by Jim. >> Um there might need to be some um organizational alignment of some of the lines etc and some of them but
basically the content is is spot on. >> Okay. Um on the other uh the guidelines for applying there's a couple things. The on the very first sentence it says on blank which is supposed to be the date the annual town
meeting voted to approve article 37 to that established this committee and established the tax fund. We still don't have that date. We still need that date to go in there. >> Okay. Um, and
the on the third page, >> where would we get that? City clerk's office. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Can you get that date, Mandy? >> I can. >> Okay.
And you'll take care of that. And then um on the third page under awards, it says applicants will be notified by mail. Then it says March 15th. It should say by March 15th.
>> Okay. By mail. By >> March 15th. >> Okay. So there's a there's another word by. There's two buys in that sentence. >> Yes. And all the other um changes you made are absolutely correct. >> Okay. So
we're we're doing a final adoption with two minor grammatical additions. >> Yes. Uh so we can we move the acceptance of the application as produced with the
corrections of completing the date of the creation of this committee and adding by a second by uh in the page what >> under awards >> under awards. >> Yes.
>> Can you move to that to that effect? >> Yes. Okay, we'll consider that a motion. Mandy, are you seconding it? >> Yes. >> Okay. Uh, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Okay. It passes.
>> It is done. Both of those are done. And that is a very significant >> thing. Um the the next order of business is um one of the things that we talked about in the last meeting was the development
of a prospectus. >> Yes. >> A summary of the um Alcaniano tax fund committee and its purposes and its gen a general description of who might be eligible.
>> Well, I did a draft. Oh, >> yeah. Um, >> you are the woman of the hour. >> I did a draft. Um, and and I can't hand it to Mandy, but I'll I'll short. >> Okay. >> And it is it is a draft. That's why I
wanted Jim here so he can I can hand it to him to polish. So, perspectives draft. The AENO Elderly and Disabled Tax Fund has been created by the city of Greenfield to assist our elderly and disabled neighbors in meeting their tax
property payments. Our purpose is to keep people in their homes. This fund was named in memory of our late city councelor and local activist Alcaniano who dedicated many years to the betterment of his hometown Greenfield.
The tax fun committee has set economic and demographic criteria of eligibility for this benefit. The fund awards are credited directly to to should say a design tax account with the city. The
tax funds money comes from volunteer donations from individuals, organizations, and businesses. In a time when a growing number of elderly people are losing their homes, it is only right that our community take steps to
guarantee their security. Now, this that's bare bones. >> Yeah. >> And I'm sure that the I was trying to figure out when you go and see somebody and you're trying to get them to donate, >> right?
>> What do what do they want to hear? you know, and I thought they want would want to hear where does the money come from, where does it go, and how? >> Yeah. Is it clear from what you wrote that the money there there is no grant of any cash or material goods to the
individual applicant? >> I think it I think >> the awards are credited directly to the design's tax account with the city. Yeah, >> I think that says but I mean like I say it's a draft. >> Yep.
>> Um >> it sounds good to me. >> It's a good I think it's a good start that people may want some more meat on there. >> But it's a start. I can uh I can send this to you, Mandy. >> Yes, if you could, that'd be great.
>> I will send it to you. >> And >> hopefully I saved it correctly on my computer. Um, so we will we will accept that as a working draft. Um, and then we'll come back
hopefully next month and uh with a final design uh content and perhaps even in design because it's always nice to put the city of of Greenfield seal on it, >> you know, put it dress it up. >> Yeah. and in the official manner in
which it is an official fund, right? You know, we are official. We work. >> We are official, >> you know, and so we want to make sure that people know that this isn't just a fly by night um grassroots created thing, >> right?
>> This is a a formal city function, >> right? I'll send it to Jim as well. >> Okay. >> A copy as well. So that'll be distributed uh to to us for >> Did you want to copy that? Yeah. And then
that'll be distributed to work on and uh then the next thing we were going to talk about I mean the the creation of the of the guidelines and the actual application are two major steps and and
uh so we are making u not not just slow it's not slow but steady progress uh in in implementing this idea. And those are uh two major things. Now we got to turn our focus, I think, to
how are we going to raise funds? And that's, you know, we've heard some ideas from the public like Al and um the uh Mitch and and uh >> Joan. >> Oh, Joan. Yeah. Mitch and Jo. Um
and so you know we need to figure out for ourselves because it's going to be being done under our names. Um what exactly we are thinking about for a uh plan. I think we all agree that there's that check off solicitation that seems
to be pretty common on the regular tax bills, right? >> Yes. Yes. And you said that you thought it was impossible to uh do it on the RMV or the excise taxes. >> Yeah, we cannot put it on the um the
motor vehicle excise taxes. >> Yeah, that was removed. >> Yes. >> From the document as well, but it can be on keeping utility bills. >> So I guess it means water and sewer. >> Water, sewer, personal property and real
estate. Okay. So that, you know, I think water and sewer is at least easier than my tax bill. I'm usually a gas. >> Do I use that much water?
But um so so we're we pretty much decided that we're going to be using those solicit those devices to solicit funds. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um and also direct solicitation to local businesses.
>> Yes, direct solicitation to local businesses. And how are we going to do that? >> Well, I think we need the prospectus done and we probably need some I guess the we have to decide. So when
we when we go and see somebody, let's say there's an appointment at the whatever office one would go to at Bay State, >> right? >> Franklin. >> Yeah. um we would go in with the perspectus and we would also uh go in
with I'm assuming you know the the guidelines not necessarily the application but the guidelines >> guides >> so people will have have an understanding of what we're doing here. >> Yeah. Um once once we have these cleaned up and print and printed up and the
prospectus is done once that's in hand >> then I think we make a list of the various local businesses >> we want to intend and then we you know divide up that work. >> Yeah. Yeah.
that that that sounds like a a and with I would rather have it done by members of the committee themselves rather than the idea of the friends of this committee. >> I agree. >> You know, I just I just don't see it as
being that that much of a mass mass movement. >> No, I think you know I I think it does make sense for the members of the committee to do the solicitation, >> right? Um, you know, we were appointed onto the committee. >> Yeah.
>> For, you know, re good reason hopefully. >> And, uh, you know, I think there's an accountability >> Yeah. >> to the to the to the to the city. Um, in terms of presenting ourselves accordingly and, you know, all of that. Um,
>> do you perceive, Maddie, that you have a problem soliciting funds from other outside entities? No. >> Okay. Okay. >> You you you can define your goal as you seek.
>> I don't see a problem. I just wonder whether you did. So, yeah. No, because I mean I have no problem going to entities that I might know and it's not like I know that many, right? But, you know, they uh
you know, I I might go to you know, some of the richer lawyers I know because all we're looking for is, you know, we're not looking for, you know, five figure contributions unless somebody's willing to give them to us.
Yeah. >> Right. And we're looking for for three and four figure contributions if we can get them. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> U all right. So um that will be so
targeting uh coming up with lists of potential donors um is what we should bring to our next meeting. >> Yes. >> Yeah. you know, ideas, you know, and uh you
know, um I'll make up my list and and should we try to share them jointly beforehand? >> I think I don't know. I don't know when we get in trouble for open meeting. >> Yeah. >> If not, I think we should just bring them to the meeting. >> As I say, just bring them to the
meeting. >> Yeah. >> Probably be some duplicates, but that's okay. >> Yeah. Okay. Uh so so we'll we'll uh bring um potential lists of potential donors that we think of um to our next
meeting and then we'll sort out responsibilities for doing the actual fundraising. >> Right. >> Good. This is moving along very we're targeting we're we're actually targeting being able to have this operational by this
coming winter. Is that what we're talking about? >> 27. No, we're >> 27. >> 27. Okay. >> So, we've got a year. I mean, we have good a long amount of time. >> Yeah. Okay. >> We got a lot of fundraising to do.
>> And the question, you know, I mean, we'll see after the next meeting whether, you know, that'll have something to do about my tenure on the committee because, you know, once we get into the fundraising stuff, >> we may not we may not need to meet monthly, right? We can meet quarterly
now. >> Yeah, agreed. >> Yeah. >> Now, now let me ask this question because I um I am not a computer person at all and the documents as they are now require
uh some tidying up and some reconfiguration. Is there somebody >> I can do that? >> You can do that, Mandy? >> Yeah. Okay, great. >> Okay, >> because I saw what you were talking about. >> Yeah, you saw what I saw, right? Exactly. Okay.
>> Yeah, >> great. >> And so you could put like the seal of the city on it and, you know, >> bold bold up the, you know, housey. I don't know. >> Make it pretty. >> Yeah. Multicolored. I Yeah. Whatever
won't matter to me. I don't see it. Don't ask me for a reviewing of the visuals of our effort. >> Well, it just has to look official and attractive when we go in and raise money. That's the only thing I'm concerned about. So, >> yeah.
>> Okay. >> Um, >> got to do some thinking on on those targets though. >> Okay. >> Target. >> Well, DJs, >> right?
>> Um, okay. So that was there any was there other things on the agenda because this >> that was it. >> Okay. Um we need to think about our next meeting date. I would prefer that we
meet on the 30th which is uh you know the last Thursday of uh October because that'll be two weeks after my surgery and I should be able to you know meaningfully participate in things.
So I would ask that we move our next meeting date to the 30th same time same place. Is that reasonable? >> Yes. Yeah. >> Okay. Well, let's let's I'll leave I guess a chair can make a motion. I'll
make a motion that our next we are adjourning till October 30th 5:00 p.m. here at the fire station. >> Can we can we So, can we move the time? I meant to raise this earlier. >> Yeah. >> I can't I have a commitment till 5:00.
>> So, it's impossible. I mean, if we could meet at 5:30. >> Is that okay with you, Mandy? You're the You're the public servant. >> Yeah, 5:30 works. And maybe that would um work better for WAHB schedule as
well. I don't know what his schedule's like, but >> I do know the last two meetings he hasn't been able to make it due to work. So maybe by having it at 5:30, I would keep it to an hour though, 5:30 to 6:30. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah. I think that the you know the heavy duty work was in the production of these u guidelines and and application process >> right >> you know in terms of the you know because that was a lot of longing to get capital
>> and and substance I mean it wasn't just >> right >> writing it there was there was a lot of substance in that writing right >> so okay so we'll have an hourong meeting starting 5:30 on the 30th here at the fire station Great.
>> Okie dokie. >> Is Is >> that the end of our business? >> I think we are. >> Yes. >> All right. Uh we'll stand adjourned then. >> Stand adjourned. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Have a good night. >> Good night, Vandy. Take care.
>> You too. Part: 2
So, I'll call this uh meeting of the uh sustainable green field implementation committee order September 25th, 2025. And we'll do a um roll call or introduction of committee members. Uh
introduce or mention the names of anyone who's not here. Uh so I'll start. My name is George Tulumpsus. I'm the planning board representative to this committee. I'm the co-chair and I am facilitating the meeting at the behest of the chair. Go this way.
Mike Budro, I represent this great public schools. Graham Marinus uh just representing myself. Public member. Public member. Nancy Howard, public member. We can go up to you. Uh Franis
Franis had member of the public. Jonah Jonah Keane public member Sarah Sarah Brown city council designignate Hannah Hannah Rexathan member at large
uh Amy Kane community and economic development director and planning department designigny who are we missing we are missing at the moment at least Carol Collins um Carol is out sick Ied you an email um when we're missing Paul okay she's and Carol is the director of
energy and sustainability and is and and what did you say about Paul? Paul Newell is not with us yet, but he may he hasn't he hasn't declined that I'm aware of. Okay. And that is everyone I think.
Okay, great. Um and the next uh item and just as far as a general agenda comment as your facilitator, I'll mention we have a dense rich agenda. Uh there's a lot of items and I think we might have over
budgeted our time. It's add up a bit over 90 minutes actually. So and we may have to stop early with people departing. So uh I'll try to serve you by giving some time checks but let's also try to be mindfully efficient and
concise in our comments. Um so yes open space task force was given 10 minutes on there towards the end. That's not necessary. So I'm happy to give an update. We definitely don't need 10 minutes. So you can keep that in mind in your time management.
Okay. Thank you. Um so next item is public comment. Um so are there um any did I miss something? Do we have uh do we have approval of the minutes? Oh yes we do. That's after public comments.
Sorry. Uh, are there any members of the public who would like to uh like to comment? It's not obligatory. Obligatory, Cliff, Greenville trash pickup club. Very good. Do you want to comment otherwise? Yeah. Okay, great.
Oh, that's a comment. We're doing great. Thank you. You want to introduce yourself? It's up to you. Yeah. My name is Max Webb. Um, I'm running for city council and precinct 9. I also run the Greenfield Trash Pickup Club and excited to show you more about it.
Very good. Thank you. Glad to have member of the public here. Um, okay. Approval of the August 28th minutes. Is there a motion to approve? So, move and a second. Second and discussion.
I'm sorry, who moved? I got about three people. Okay, great. I'm picking. Just choose one. Great. And discussion. Yes. Next. I have one typographical error. Yes. Number seven.
Yep. Third paragraph. Yeah. It says events instead of events. There's a T missing. Corrected. Thank you. Any other discussion? Yes. Thank you. Okay. Great.
Hearing. Seeing none, we have to do a roll call because we have members attending remotely. I will say yes. Go around the same way. Yes. Yes. Yes. Dona. Abstain.
Sarah. Yes. Hannah. Abstain. Yes. Thanks. Very good. Uh, okay. uh master plan updates and plan board discussion. So uh we did at
the last uh planning board meeting complete our review of the um land use um uh chapter revisions. There were less uh revisions. There was uh um one uh
one item that had a parenthetical as it came to us had the parenthetical uh comment still needs reworking. So uh we we took care of that. But um for the most part there were uh very little that we did as compared to um the
earlier part of uh the last two um uh uh strategies or goals from that uh section. And so rather than uh so we finished the revisions from our end but rather than vote to approve it uh we all
wanted to have a clean version to review and see since we had done a lot of different changes and it was all you know notes a lot of different notes and stuff. So, at this next Thursday's uh October 3rd uh 2nd rather um planning board meeting, we we've gotten a clean
version and we're going to review that uh to make sure it matches everything all the changes we made and we'll be voting on it and I will get some guidance from the uh planning board on how it wants to proceed as far as like you know forwarding this to the council
or the mayor in any way and also suggest that the uh SGIC is uh available to uh support the chapters the renewed chapters um as far as uh dissemination
uh to the public and uh supporting public engagement around those. So I will report back after talking to the planning board. So that's my update. I don't know if there's any response or comment about that.
Thank you. Okay. You just had somebody joined too. I believe it's Kyle Bosram from Kyle Boston just joined in on the meeting too from Oh, I'm gonna talk at a later agenda item. Welcome.
Um, thank you. Yeah. Uh, okay. The next item we're making good time. Next item is discussion of SGIC workflow and administration. And this is a conversation uh that Bram had initiated regarding two
items. Creation of a digital outreach working group to execute committee decisions regarding digital communications including social media. The second uh component is discussion of proposed new more interactive platform
air table to replace the current spreadsheet to help link master plan goals and priorities to objectives and tasks in a more dynamic way as a means of encouraging accountability and increased engagement.
So many words. I'm so sorry. Shall I? Please. Okay. I'd like to address those in the reverse order that they're listed. Um, when I first came to the committee as a public member, um, not as an official
one before the pandemic, there was a spreadsheet that, um, was a list of tasks that the committee could do to execute on the implementation of the master plan. Um, and so at each meeting, it'd be like, you know, here are the
things that we said we were going to do. How are we doing on this? how are we doing on that? Um, I assumed that that was still going on and that's why I said replace the current sheet, but um, in speaking to most of the members of the committee, I understand that we aren't
really being driven by, uh, any kind of a task management system currently. Um, and I feel like an implementation committee needs to be um, even if the tasks I mean if you were to look at the plan and get a list of all of the open
tasks that were there um, and there were a hundred of them, we don't have to go and hit all hundred, but we should have a sense of well these are priorities either because the plan has seven elements. One of the elements was land use. The next one coming up as I
understand is economic development. So, we should be doing things related to the element of the day of the year, how whatever our term is. Um, and trying to figure out what we should be doing requires an analysis of what's in the
plan because that's our charter because that's why we're here in my seeing of it. Again, I'm brand new. Um, but I I feel like, you know, one proposal, yes, we should have task management as part of our world. If you agree with that,
then how are you going to figure out what those tasks are? And a Google sheet is just not a powerful enough tool to take all the information from all the different pieces in that plan and figure out what stuff we should be up to. whereas a database is if you don't know
what a database can do, you're not used to using one. Um I'd be glad to meet with you after meeting and it's not really the time today to go and do it, but um the video that I sent around to everybody is a little bit of a demo and explanation of it. And so far, everyone I've talked to has said yes, it's a
great idea. So that's my presentation. Um let's just, you know, open it up and then see if people agree. So that's the second thing about the more interactive platform and you refer to it as an air table.
Air table is the company that makes this that's a company that makes this database that is incredibly easy to use much easier than Microsoft access. Um very visual um yeah it's just it's lovely. Comments or questions?
Um, yeah, I I'll just comment to say that I think uh having our tasks in a platform like Air Table where they're easier to label and sift through um would be incredibly helpful. and then
moving into conversations around sort of what we're doing, what our direction is, I think is really supported by having a better parsing out of all of the information. And I agree that the spreadsheet and the whole process that
we went through just got really thick. Um, and so I think having it in a more of a database system would help us. I'll say that. other comment please don't just just voice my support of it as well
I think it's a great idea that uh time is the only thing and the work put into doing it but if if Bram and maybe others are open to that the initial effort that's needed I think it's a great a great direction for us uh
yeah um So from what I understand Graham um that's not a free platform right and so you said you were somehow the cost of it right now I am um I don't know if the committee has any money so I think it's
a donation until such point as the DPP can be convinced to give us the money and and so the Only issue with that is should RAM get hit by a Mac truck or
something horrible, h you know what would happen to this database? So um Air Table has a free version. Um it just means you can't edit it anymore. So at that point, you know, whatever we've made is fixed in time until
somebody can start paying the $24 a month necessary to have the editing level. Thank you. So it's an ongoing expense. Yes. $24 a month per person per person who
has edit rights. Free to anybody who doesn't. Oh, so if several of us had edit rights, it would cost us more than 24. Right. But I'm but I'm still willing to to cover that. If you're the only guy who's using it, then it's just 24. But thank you for clarifying.
I'll call on myself. I think it's great to have something tool that's um more effective and accessible. I think you know anything to help us. I'm wary as I've said before of any private
uh mechanism like this. Um, even if it's a relatively small expense, I appreciate your initiative, Brim, and I appreciate your generosity. I just I think it's not a good precedent. Uh, I think it would
be better to try to see if there's any kind of way to have that uh picked up um by uh the city. Um, and I I don't know if that's feasible, how that would be. Um
uh is it true we have absolutely no funds as a as a I believe it is true at the moment you have absolutely no funds. There is nothing precluding you from trying to find funds. Okay. Um but at the moment you have not
I have a question. Okay. And then I'll get to Sarah and then Hannah again. I was just going to ask if there was an annual is there an option for an annual fee? Okay. For the editable. So then it would be, you know, $20 a month rather than $24 a
month if you paid it annually. Also, nonprofits tax exempts can pay half of that. So 12 rather than 24, but I don't know whether municipalities are nonprofits. I know the schools are Sarah,
I like this idea. Um, similarly feel like it would be most durable if over time if the city could pay for it if there was funding through the sustainability department potentially or community economic development. Sorry Amy. Um, and then
also I um would like once the database is created for it to be on our website on the sustainable green field page. Um, I think that also is important to not be violating open meeting law because we shouldn't have something that the public
can't see. Hannah, then that's it. Yeah. Um, I was going to ask a couple questions too that got answered. Um, but I think one thing that is also helpful, especially if this database was
subsidized by the city, is to really think as we move into it, how the city might use it. I think we're always coming back to this idea that one of the goals of our committee is to make sure that the plan is being implemented in all these
different departments. And so if there's a an easy way to onboard department heads or anyone who might really want that information, administrators, um I think there's a real argument to be made for the city subsidizing it because I think it would actually make the plan
more useful and accessible by those that were intending to sort of be on the side of the plan in terms of implementation with us. So just wanted to throw that out there. Nancy, um,
if is the editor the only person that could search the data in a way that it's useful? No, anyone can search it. Okay. It's just inputting information. And actually, anybody can input it if
you use a form. But if I have a form that says, you know, what are the names of the people on the committee? You know, Nancy Hazard, this is her email. And then Nancy must have changed your email. Only an editor could do that. You could add another Nancy Hazard, but you couldn't change something that was
already there. Um, uh, being mindful of time, this is item number two of this, uh, uh, of this item. And uh it sounds like there's general agreement this would be a helpful tool. Uh the nuts and
bolts of payment and and where it would sit the issue and and sounds like uh the first question would be is there a way to find money for this from the city and do we want to leave it that the next step would be exploring that and who
would be who would look into that? I see Amy hiding. Um I am happy to look into what it would look like for the city to pay for it and what that whether there are any requirements that that would trigger or
whatever. Is that something you could report back next? Sure can. And then just I wanted to um say out loud it sounds like that Bram you're volunteering your time to do all the input. Um, but I just wanted to be
sure that that was in the record that you that's what in fact you're proposing. Yeah, I've already built it for the economic development. It also includes all of the sustainable green field implementation committee goals. It really you just take a sheet out of the
master plan saved as a CSV separated values file and then upload it. So it's not like I don't touch anything. It's all automated process where the data is just kept. Wow. So, as long as these new versions of the plan that we're making end up sheets in them, it's it's pretty easy.
Well, thank you. That's helpful. Even a lot of me understood what you just said. Okay. So, the first item was creation of a digital outreach working group to execute committee decisions regarding digital communications including social media.
Yeah. So, thanks. So um because I did that work analyzing the master plan and particularly as you saw in the video there's like four tables related to the elements and then there are these two tables related to the committee. The committee has a job um and three of the
things in that job involve us going and doing things. One of which is being liaons to the city departments and boards. One of which is working with key stakeholders um to involve them in ways that are necessary for things that we
need to do and then the third is to be an outreach to the public. All these things are in the plan and so to the extent that the city said let's have a committee they're saying yes to those things too. Um and I'm just saying thinking further
forward into the future. Um, if we don't have a brand where the public goes the SGIC, then the only way we get anybody paying attention to us is by, you know, giving candy in a bowl at a tableabling event. I would like us to exist in the public's mind. And that requires
outreach, both physical outreach at tableabling events, getting something on that, you know, interactive uh board on on the common and doing things with social media because that's where people are. Not everybody reads the reporter recorder. Um, and when the recorder puts an
article out, there's then a whole big conversation on Facebook which the recorders get started and those can get very very interesting. Well, we can't go and participate in that conversation if we don't have control of our own Facebook page so that when we post from
that page, it's it links back. Similarly, you know, Hannah and I have worked together on the uh and and and MF has worked together with me on resilient Greenfield's use of social media. Um if you're not on Insta, you're just dealing with retirees uh pretty much in this
world. Um or people who just have aren't to the new jive. So, I think we really need to have our own Facebook page, committee's official Facebook page, our own Instagram page, and our own website. And by meaning our own, I mean that when
we want to add something to the website, we just say let it be done and be done. And maybe that happens now. I understand that the communications person listens to Jonah when he says make a change. I don't know how frequent that is. I don't know if whatever limitations there are to getting fast exchanges there might
lead us to want to have our own website which is linked to from town. But the way you do social media is if you have something you want to say, you put a page on a website and then you can get to that page from your Facebook post because you have a direct link. In Instagram, you don't get direct links, I
don't think, but you can say, "Come to our website and look for this thing." Because the stuff that's on the website is branded by our committee. It's in an environment where we're saying, "You might want to look at this. You might want to look at that. Here's the new database thing that we have." whereas
just an Instagram post isn't going to do that. All that work I've seen, we've had a couple of meetings already about social media and like there's been a lot of conversation back and forth and it pretty much like boils down to, yeah, we ought to do something, but no one individual is going to go, yeah, I'm going to be the social media person
because that's the end of their life in between meetings. Um, and if we don't do anything about it, we're just a bunch of people meeting in a room and then, you know, generating videos on uh on VCTV. So I think we need to have a working group
that meets between meetings that has some structure and some leadership and accountability. We don't in if we have this group we don't invent what it is we do. Committee says here's the things that need to get done but we go and make it happen and we bring back metrics about where the engagement has gotten
and all that kind of stuff. And the reason why I said that should be proposal number two. If we don't have that task management, then we got no way of making decisions about what should be what we should what the outreach team should be up to.
Thanks. Comments, questions. Yes, so I I support that idea. I'm I just don't know if and you know how the work how the town works if that's acceptable.
It seemed like in the past when we've talked about that it was solely you know Carol and Jen maybe uh somebody who works with her were in charge of the website and social media. So, could
we as committee members be involved in that or or that's not not okay? I feel like people are looking at me. Um, I'm Give me a minute. Sure. Please. I have a question. Uh because you bring
up a good point for us was so would that kind of thing violate open meeting law? I would then say if it's a working group that Hannah as chair can form a
subcommittee or working group and then those meetings just as the um open space just as the um open space task force they would have to post those meetings and then they would be open to the public. I see.
So it's it's a subcommittee essentially. And I I I saw you texted you put your hand up. I was looking for your actual hand and I didn't see your little electronic hand. That was okay. I never know what's more effective. Yeah, that's gota
um so I I just wanted to put out there um because I think there are a couple different um um actual spaces that we're communicating in. We do have a Facebook page. We do have access to the Facebook page. Um, we do have a website under the
city and it is fairly easy to get changes made both through the communications office or through uh Amy's office when Amy has more help. Um, and I think the only outstanding thing was the Instagram. We weren't sure. We
don't have an Instagram at the moment. And I think there was a question of if we made a new page now kind of who would make it. I I think we made the Facebook page at a time when things were still a little more wild west and I think it has social media like all communication
platforms has been locked down a little bit more. So I think that's the one we would just need to check with the city um which I think Amy probably again would have to do for us um to see what our access is to creating a new page. I know we were having that conversation
around um visit greenfield as well. Um and then yeah and then I think a working group is a is a great idea. I was curious like is it is there any
not a way around it but like it feels like having to post meetings having public conversations sometimes is not the most efficient way to have quick conversations about social media
in particular. And so I wonder about the nature of a group that's looking to like post things and be communicating all the time if we're also trying to follow a more structured public meeting schedule. So I would just want to pay attention to
how we're able to communicate in ways that are actually going to make it effective to be marketing in this way. If that makes sense. And then Amy. Um, yes. Ditto Hannah. Um, I talked to
Alex Jarrett who's in Northampton City Council president about this and he was saying if you create a subworking group um in a committee then it is also subject to open meeting law. But if you designate like this person, it's their role to figure this out. And then if
they tap in a cup, whoever they need at that time, but it's not a ongoing working group, but they just get support from whatever is less than a quorum and it's not a continuous working group, then that's a way of um not being subject to
making it an official committee that has to like post the agendas and and whatnot. So that could also be something if Bram wanted to take on like an operational role and then tap in whoever is willing to help. Amy,
um I just wanted to say that this morning we got an email from the communications director specifically about social media accounts, municipally sanctioned ones. Um and they're trying to get their arms around um just tightening up on what accounts we have and who is in control of them. There
also is a sevenpage um list of rules and guidelines for city sanctioned social media accounts. So I do think that um while it has been kind of the wild west maybe because of COVID that that that ship is turning a little
bit. So I think whatever we decide to do we would have to just get the blessing of the city and make sure that um Jonathan or somebody at the city was added as an administrator as well. Um, and that also might impact how we officially engage in uh commentbased
conversation on social media. I think we'd be limited in commenting as SGIC. You can do what you will as an individual, but I don't know how deep in the weeds SGIC could go. Can you say that again? I don't
understand. Sure. So, um I as my own individual human could go on to Facebook and get into a Facebook argument about um parking, but I as a city employee if I were coming in as the economic development
committee Facebook page. Yeah. Um the city probably wouldn't enjoy me getting into a online dialogue about parking. I think you would just I think you could, but I think you would want to be more perhaps thoughtful or
circumspect in how you talk. Isn't that obvious? Okay. No, I mean from the point I mean yes, it feels obvious, but we were talking about limits on our social media, so I thought I'd throw it out there. No, I No, I agree. I just think it it
would seem like good judgment. you're going to not treat it as if you're personally I would think it would be too but we just had a whole conversation about how we would um engage in comment conversation on social media and so I thought I didn't get the comment convers I got you okay I I didn't get that part of it
um Nancy then I'll call myself yeah I guess this is tagging on this I'm still trying to understand I never understand open meeting law exactly but sort of along what Amy is saying is like
so okay so as we as a member of SGIC can we make comments or do we just need to be quiet or how does that work because it could look like deliberation I guess if it if there's back and forth stuff
that goes on in in the Facebook I'll call myself I have never ever been on social media I've never been on Facebook I I have no idea what that world is like, right? Um, and I would
I would never as a member of official committee in with that hat on ever comment as a planning board member or a member of this committee. I would never engage on social media. I would think
what we're doing is we're getting out information. We're disseminating information. where, you know, we're trying to make sure the public is aware of things. We're not having back and forth and things like that. That would be my
my sense of the main purpose of that kind of a thing. Um and and what I also want to say is I would think that um and I appreciate what you were saying Hannah and and Sarah about um not wanting to be
too hamstrung uh by open meeting law and yet I think open meeting law is is a very important um guideline. I think I think it could be a twostage process here because there is some uh important
caution about uh getting into this um process and making sure it's it's um uh uh coordinated well and following the the overall city guidelines. So I would suggest forming a working group to get this kind of the standards and
guidelines underway and then you know wrapping up that working group after it's established who's going to be implementing the process going forward. That would be my suggestion and I don't know who is next. I think Bram and then Franis and then
um just putting information out I don't think is enough. I think we also sometimes need to engage the public not in a back and forth but in a request for feedback. Oh, so if we asked, you know, hey, we're considering whether or not to ban roenticides if that's something that
you should take on as a committee. Here's the current, you know, thing that we're putting out. We'd like to get your feedback. And then we get all those comments. Now, if you come to the committee meeting with a huge pale of, you know, comments, we're not going to
in the middle of that meeting like read them all and talk about them all. So, you'd want a committee member to say, okay, I'm going to go and, you know, either feed this to AI to ask it to come up with summaries or just do that and then bring those summaries to the meeting so people could actually process
them or just distribute them before a meeting. But I I think that us being informed by the public is is is what engage means. I say next French. Yes. Um so I I agree with both both um
both of you George and uh and Bram. How I understood it is that we would put information out on um social media but open it to comments. However, that we wouldn't comment back and forth that as
Bram just said it we we would be interested in in the comments and then and then also to decide what to put up. Maybe the subcommittee would come up with you know what we are going to publish but that we would bring it to
SGIC and HGIC would uh you know vote on it or decide yes that's I mean I don't think the subcommittee should make those decisions and go ahead and post right is that do you agree I think that the decision is what should
we post about I don't think that we can take committee time to review the words that we use to do it. That's the whole reason why I'm saying we need another the topics, right? Yes. Amy, um just also a reminder that our social media is subject to public records
requests as well as open meeting law. Thank you. So, we should probably wrap up this item. Um any um ways someone suggests we wrap it up as far as next steps? Sarah,
could we make a motion for um to form this working group with Bram and I'm not sure who else wants to be part of it? That sounds like a motion. Is there a second? Seconded. All right. Is there any discussion?
So, I would be interested in PE being part of that group. Okay. Hannah, would you be uh willing to be on that group as well? Um, yes. Thank you.
Yeah, I I would be curious to have a conversation about like the workload of it. Yeah. But yes, thank you. All right. Any further discussion? Uh, okay. We have to roll call. I will vote. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Yes. Uh, Sarah, yes. Yes. Hannah, yes. Yes. All right. Unanimous. Very good. Thank you all. Next item. And can we get the vote on the database?
We didn't. Did we just vote on both? Nope. We just voted on that. And for the database, we said someone was going to look into Um uh the I said what it would look if it was feasible for the city to pay and what restrict the next step that might put on us and I'll report back at the next
meeting. That was we were going to vote on we're just uh Okay. Next item is Greenfield trash pickup club conversation with Max Webb and Allison Gage regarding it ongoing projects and data they have been able to collect on public trash and goals the
group has for the future. and actually you're welcome to come up here and that way the um uh microphone can pick up. I borrowed a school computer and it's not letting me see the agenda. Is one of these things today's agenda? Nope. Okay. Sorry to touch it.
Hi Max. Hi. And is um is that phone by any chance? Is was Alison gonna be here? But I don't think Alli's here. I think Ally is overwhelmed as we all are. Welcome. Hi, my name is Max Webb. Um, I
live in Greenfield. I'm a resident in precinct 9 and I started the Greenfield Trash Pickup Club earlier this year in May as a way to build community and to pick up trash. So, that has been going
well. We've collected over 50 bags of trash on municipal land just by meeting weekly for an hour or two over the weekend. Um, we have a lot of data of where trash goes and where trash cans are not, where
cigarettes go, where cigarette uh genies are not, and where they could go. Um, and we've spoken to people at DPW about maybe creating um, you know, a GIS map for them and making that more accessible
so that their jobs are easier in regards to picking up trash and we see less of it. Um, other goals we have are to work further with the ad hoc unhouse committee on the encampment cleanups that we've been doing. So that's been in
partnership with the CRC, the ad hoc aden house committee and Amy and crew have also been involved. We have been hosting cleanup days to get them get their trash out, clean up um abandoned sites and trying to establish regular
trash pickups through DPW with them so that their trash does not get washed away with every rainstorm we have. and we are further looking into a more sustainable site for them so they are not in violation of the wetlands
protection act. Um and also not subject to living next to water and mosquitoes and horrible conditions. Um lastly or no we have a couple more things very busy. So there's that. There's um you brought
up the Escar Rodenticide campaign. I have been involved in bringing that to Franklin County. I know that rats and compost have been a really hot topic around town and I'm happy to work on mythbusting and tableabling and outreach with that. Um we just had our first
meeting at the library to discuss what alternatives there are to escars and what um IPM plans can be put into place. And we're currently doing research on what pest management companies in the area do um IPM versus rodenticide usage
and um what their protocols are for that so that it is an easier transition should you all decide to ban escars and rodenticide. Uh, I've also worked, if that is Kyle, hey Kyle. I've also worked with Kyle in trying to get composting back into the
school because he is a pre precinct 9 resident. And I think as someone who is very sustainably minded, that's important to me. That's important to him. And I find it very important to get our kids involved at this young age with
any kind of conservation efforts, whether it's picking up trash or uh learning how to compost or learning how to do integrated pest management, which high schoolers can totally do. Um lastly, we are hosting the
source to see cleanup poet seat tower location spot this Saturday from 10 to 2 and it will be very lowkey. We're just there to pick up trash and hang out, build community. Uh yeah, if you have
any questions, I just from listening to you all. I also agree like that I think outreach is important and getting these things moving forward. I think what I notice across everybody is that we're all at capacity and like
no one has any more hands to hold these tasks that would move these projects forward. So, I think partnering with something like the trash club, like I would love to partner and do like tableabling and outreach or like host a community trash pickup day or I know like with the business association, like that's also a great way to get people
out in the town is just to go pick up trash and meet your neighbors. So, I'm happy to plug in that way as well. Thank you, com. Yeah. Hi, Max. Um, so I hadn't heard about
What do you advertise? Start start again. You're going in and out. Oh, um, yeah, Max, that um, where where does one find out about this trash pickup club? Because I hadn't heard
about it. So, do you have a social media presence or where where do people find out about the question of the day? Um, I have a campaign website that I have dedicated a page to the Greenfield Trash Pickup Club and I have put the monthly calendar on
the website. So, if you go to max for greenfieldp9.com Greenfield trash pickup club, it should pop up. Um, and it has the calendar. And then if you are a Signal Chat user, you can sign up to join the signal chat
where we post more regularly about meetups. And that's called also Greenfield Pickup Trash Trash Pickup Club. Yeah. And if you uh go to my website and sign up for the trash pickup club, it'll send you the link to the group that you
can Thank you. Yep. I'll call myself. Um and how many people when you say we how many people are involved in the fund activities? Now the signal chat has almost 40 members.
We see an average of two to six people a week and we yeah we're just people are interested in being involved and I think as the school year kind of settles and summer goes away we'll have more time and more
volunteers and can do more dedicated projects to get outreach but also having a campaign to run the the outreach part has also fallen to the wayside on my Mhm. Yeah.
Anyone else comments or questions? Yes, ma'am. Um, I'll just say quickly, Max, I really appreciate you coming in to talk to us and I really appreciate your existence and the existence of this group. Um, and
I just emailed you with my GBA hat on to see if there's a time that we could meet and talk about our mutual efforts and advocacy stuff around this. So, I just wanted to thank you and you have an email from me. Great. Thank you so much.
also say I just want to thank you for that effort and um yeah it's um it's so needed and also the the leazison with the um DPW like the other day I was
in the energy park and where the water pump is, there's kind of like a container kind of around it and people are clearly there's cigarette butts and little bits of P, you know, it's like people clearly wanted to put those things someplace and there wasn't
there's no trash bin, you know, it's so people want to do the right thing, but and there used to be a trash bin at that area and I don't know, you know, it's been I don't know told me this, but somebody said that there was this idea of not
putting a trash can where they don't want trash, which seems antithetical to human behavior. Well, I have dreamed about, as Turner's Falls does, uh, is carrying carry out locations.
Uh, and I'm but there's no sign saying carry and carry out. So, and I've brought it up many times and the DPW says, "No, that's impossible." So I'm like okay so if you're not if you're not going to try carrying carry out then you have to supply the the cans you know and
I also dreamed I was advocated for many years or also pair of cans one for trash and one for recycling and maybe I should just give up on that but I'll just say it out loud one more time. You can hold
that dream together. There we go. Hannah then Sarah. Yeah. Um I just wanted to say really quickly around trash cans because this is something that we at the business association have been advocating for really hard. Um and after the last city
cleanup day, I think the mayor got a little more on board with the need. And so there are, I've been told or assured, um, there are trash cans and cigarette butt recepticles on order that are apparently stuck in Canada, but when
they get here will be put out in different places. Um, and Max, you said something really critical, I think, which is that you've been gathering data about where they should be. And I think that's something that will be really really helpful and useful whenever we
can encourage the DPW to take the next step. And so it's there there is a lot of work under way because of everybody's advocacy over a huge amount of time. I think especially recently there's been
an uptick in the call for that which has been really critical. So that's why I want to meet and talk and if anyone else wants to meet and talk about this, this is something that I will talk about all day. And Nancy, I really don't think you should give up on it yet because it's
not hard to have trash and recycling and there are a lot of ways that we can do it that would actually make the DPW's job easier if they would listen about certain things. So anyway, I just think this is a good conversation and it is underway and very active.
And Sarah, um I wanted to mention one more thing. I'm in the signal group so I see some of the photos and I've participated before but there after the Fourth of July fireworks poet seat had a ton of plastic
trash bits from fireworks debris and that's just another consequence to think about like um we don't need to go down too much of this rabbit hole but even alternatives like a silent drone show or like a routine trash pickup after the fireworks
um I think that's another like problem spot to think about. Yeah, we ended up using brooms to get the cigar or not cigarette to get the fireworks debris because it was just so small and minute and so much stuff and it was kind of alarming that it was
all just up there the next day with no thought to remove it. Yeah, I'll just last comment that uh often over the years we've talked in this week about how essential volunteers are and volunteer groups are to getting you know
the master plan uh fulfilled and the goals fulfilled. So thank you for your work. Yeah, thank you. Thanks for being here. Yeah, thank you guys so much. All right, take care. Yeah, best wishes. Thank you again. Next item. Yeah,
come out anytime. Thank you. SGIC membership, student representative from GHS sustainability club, conversation about adding a student member from the Greenfield High School Sustainability Club, and conversation with Kyle Boss from teacher associate to the sustainability club regarding club
interests and activities. Is Kyle on the is on the phone or Kyle was here visually? Are you still with us, Kyle? Hello. I don't see him on. I don't know if he had Let me see if I have an email from
him. Can you hear me? Oh. Oh, that's it. Yes. Kyle. Hi. Hello. Hello. We can hear you. Can you hear us? Yes. Yes, indeed. Yes, indeed. I can hear you. Well, what's on the agenda?
Welcome. We're on your item. All right. So, we run a little club at the school, uh, sustainability club. It's like two years old. Uh, the kids are great, very interested.
And it's always, you know, my thought is, you know, uh, as students are part of the community and and, you know, in four, five, 10, 15 years, they'll be taxpayers and and all that. and I would love to see a student on your board to
contribute and keep you up to date on to what we're doing in the school. Let me let me give you Yeah. Let me give you Kyle a brief background about the history of this this committee. when um the uh
when the portion of the uh the uh committee's charter, if you will, was approved in May of 2015, one of the um counselor, city councilors, uh Rudy um uh I can't remember the last name, but uh
huh, Renault uh added that there'd be a youth representative, potentially a student. Um and uh that was added at that time, but it said a a youth representative uh because we knew it might not uh always be able to have a student. And there was actually for one
year we did have a student, a high school student on the committee, Jacob Frank, uh it just um he attended one of our in-person um events in late February of 2020, a huge in-person jam-packed
event just prior to the pandemic. but he joined in uh just after the start of the pandemic and participated for a year. He was great. And so that that um uh that slot on the committee was uh placed there with the potential of having uh a
student on the committee. So I just want to give you that framework before you continue. Okay. Well, yes, it's it's been difficult to find a student who wanted to be that person. So, for uh one or two
years, uh Greta uh whatever her last name is Guy the food person. Anyway, she was our member or a youth representative and now we have Mike Budro as our youth representative. So,
it's um so technically speaking, we don't have a vacant seat. However, I'm wondering if there's some way that there could be a I don't know, honorary or temporary or something where a a student could come. Could they be a
voting member or non- voting member? How would we do that? I would think that we could allow a student on as a non- voting member. I think the ordinance though I would defer to George is um defines who our voting members are.
Oh, yeah. Um on a school committee I was on, we instituted that as students having being non- voting members and um there's there's precedent for it at the state level. And uh yes, Jonah,
I was going to say that as well. In the open space task force, we have folks that are non- voting members. It works quite well. Um they can participate in the conversation. They just don't vote when we vote. Um the seems like that could actually be better since the students as you are coming and going uh
that it could be an opportunity for students to participate then you could have folks that come to the meeting and participate but are not necessarily committing to long long-term engagement. I feel like that could be a great setup. Yes. I I'll call on myself. I don't know
how we can as a committee alter the you know the the town uh uh ordinance. Um I I certainly think we can uh have I mean any member of the public can attend the meeting and we could certainly say we
would invite uh someone to you know participate actively and per the uh discretion of the chair we could have them sit at the table and actively participate I would think. Um but uh I'm not sure how we could um designate someone as a an associate member or
however you would call it. Um I don't know if we could u uh do that but um I I think clearly there's a spirit of doing that but that would be interesting to see we could do Nancy and then Sarah. Yeah, I think it would be fabulous if
there was one or two student a couple of students who wanted to come regularly and as non- voting members and I it's not just the charter change that makes me say this because I personally spent several years trying
to find a student who would come and fill a seat. And in fact, originally the charter was written that there would be two youth representatives and we took one of those seats. We changed the who was sitting in it because it was just
vacant all the time and we couldn't meet quarum. It was a big issue. And so I I I don't know if um Kyle if you feel or and your students feel like that would be acceptable, but we would really welcome
students. Sarah, yeah, I think it'd be fine. You know, a non- voting member should be fine. It's basically to enrich them and to enrich you all with what students who can concern are and input.
I think Did you hear me? Yes, we did. Go. Thank you very much, Sarah. Yeah, I think this is a great idea, Kyle. Thanks for bringing it. And also, it's cool to hear that this actually has happened before. Um, and I was just pulling up the code just to see what it
said. Um, it's in the code, not the charter. So, that's a little easier to amend. I think it's totally adequate to just um have list a student as a guest continuously at each meeting. Um but then long term if we really want felt
like we wanted to I think it would be fine for council to make that amendment. Right. Yes. I also want to add that I am thrilled that there are some high school
students who are interested in coming to this meeting. I am thank you Kyle. I'm thrilled with uh love to meet your sustainability club membersh. So thank you for having being the staff leazison or whatever you
call it to that club and for the course that you're also offering on sustainability is so important. It's an absolute pleasure to work with them. They're wonderful. That's great. And do you have one or two um Kyle who would be interested in
coming to the next meeting or Yeah, I think so. We'll ask him uh next Monday, excuse me, two Mondays from now, but we'll ask him for sure. We got a pretty heavy schedule this fall with stuff and clean up and and a and a and a
glean and all kinds of stuff. So, but I'll ask Excel. Thank you. Thank you. All right. See you later. Thank you. Thank you so much for initiating this. Right.
Thanks to the fart. Nancy, you're on to shut it off. And you'll listen to the recording for the rest of the I'll get the rest of the minutes. Okay. Oh, you're amazing. Thank you so much. Take care. Okay. The next item is discussion of
composting in the Greenfield public schools. Continued discussion of progress on composting, including updates from the conversation held since the last SGIC meeting. Mike, I'm thrilled that you're here so that we can hear from you because you
may know more than I I'm just going to say a few words about what's happened to date and where we are. Um, so, uh, Green Grieffield and Amy Donovan of the Franklin County Solid Waste Management District,
uh, and a couple of and you and a couple of we met with the, um, interim uh, superintendent uh, in the middle of on the 18th of August. And
uh two days ago or a couple of on Monday um Peg Hall and myself met with the school out community outreach committee uh to to bring them up to speed on what
we're trying to accomplish. And then uh we sent a follow-up letter to the super the interim superintendent sort of just checking in to see if there's any progress in his decision making. It's he he'd been really optimistic in August
that he was going to get back to us in two weeks, but clearly school began and that didn't happen. And I know that he the delegate asked you to work on some of the details. Right. So, we we got all the costing together as far as um what the dumpsters
would cost per month and per year. Um as as far as the dumpsters and and then also the uh bags that we would be using and all the containers inside the school, it was roughly around a $20,000 a year cost around $1,800 a month that
would be increased into the budget. So, um, intern superintendent Roland and myself, uh, Roland went and spoke with the school committee and he's kind of get looking for their feedback on how to do it. With with all the cuts that we've had to do in the school system this year
and in the city, we want to be cautious about what we're bringing in and what what we're spending the money on. So, I know he was looking for some feedback from the school committee and the mayor and I know he's been in talks with the mayor about it also. So, um we have
everything that we need um the pricing and everything and what it would take to do this. We just need to figure out if this is the money the city wants to spend. Do you have any idea when how long it
might take to get feedback from those two and make a a decision? He did bring it up the last school committee meeting. I haven't had a chance to watch the meeting, so I don't know what the what the responses were from the school committee. He did have a a one-on-one meeting with the mayor
regarding it also around that same time. So, um I can check with him. He he was he's been out the last three days because of a personal thing he had to manage. So, he hasn't been in. Um but um it sounds as
though he's waiting for the feedback from the city. Okay. And I know the school committee was in favor of it, the mayor was in favor of it, but it comes down to the money and you know, we we cut positions and things at the school and and certain things
we're not funding anymore. We just got to be careful about which if we're going to start another program again. Yeah, it' be great if you could uh get some information back to us. Okay. Yeah. And as far as like uh on my side of things, facilities side of thing. I
oversee all the all the waste and cost of all that stuff. And my budget as all the city budgets are, I have it up till the end of June and July. We start our new budget. We're going to start building our budget for the upcoming year. So that gives us the opportunity
to add stuff into the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. So we just got to decide with the city if they think we should try to get the funds out of this year's budget that we didn't budget it for. Thank you. Long haul.
Yes. But everybody is in favor of it. Y and uh even the uh cafeteria folks um and stuff like that. And we just be a little more strategic about where we're putting them this time compared to where they were last time like the dumpsters and stuff like that because I believe
one of the last the last time at the high school they had closer to building and it was starting to affect the building and stuff like that. But we learned from those things. Yeah, it's a big thing to do and I totally recognize that and it's such an
important thing to do in the schools to teach everyone but the young people uh that this is how they should live. I mean that you know so the whole rest of their lives hopefully they will understand the
importance of uh collecting the food waste separately and and there's huge um climate change implications of posting composting or not composting and that's something that we as a society we all
need to just get in the habit of understanding that and living that way and it it's it's a big change for many many people but it's a great time to do it at the high school because
composting in the schools existed before co right and the students who in the elementary school at that time who experienced doing the recycling I mean the composting are now in high school
so that they have been through it once and they're kind of they're just ready to and I know that Kyle who's not lives anywhere but I know his sustainability club the kids in there want to help and want to be monitors in the kitchen in
the uh in the cafeteria and also uh reach out to younger people who haven't experienced it yet and and help train them to what needs to be done and looking in the crystal ball real quick um I would think that what is
going to possibly shake out, but I don't know the responses yet would be to implement it at the high school, just the high school for the rest of this fiscal year and then take our findings and try to get the budget money and implement into the rest of the schools.
So then you can have the folks, the older folks, the students and people that are running it at the high school can help implement it in the in the elementary schools and preschools with students helping students. That would be I love that.
I think that, you know, we're not going to say, "All right, we're going to spend $2,000 a month, throw this all in right now and go." I think we'll probably do it in a stage and but we got to get the feedback, but I think that's how they'll approach it if I had to guess.
That would be great. Sounds encouraging. Just want to get Sarah before we move on. Um, thank you, Nancy. Thank you, Mike, and everyone. I'm I'm so happy to hear people are in favor of it. Um, I have an idea which is maybe like slightly
far-fetched because it's not implemented yet, but I had talked to the mayor about compost drop offs on public land before. And the idea is that if pe if parents are already dropping off their kids, perhaps the capacity could be larger so
that way they can also bring their home compost to it. I don't know the price difference, but if it's not that different, then it might be um worthwhile having extra capacity there so that people can also bring their home compost. Um cuz we had talked with the
mayor about like um partnering with the compost co-op to have drop offs on public land um at different locations and that's like a pretty good location. Um it might not be realistic because of where things are placed, but just to hold that as a possibility of like one
day having residential drop offs neighborhood. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks. Okay. Um next item is and we have three minutes for it. Uh discussion of engagement with the CPC community
preservation uh committee. Continued discussion of how we could or should engage with the CPC review of priorities. review of proposed projects. Uh yes, Sarah, I would be in favor of skipping this
topic, tableabling it for next time and then um getting into it when we can actually look at the proposals because so far just the interest letters came in. So I think we still have some time is my hearing no objection tables. Uh, next is
continue discussion of campaign to ban for dentisticide, update on events including information from September 17th Greenfield Public Library event and conversation about whether and how SGIC might want to be involved in this effort. Does someone have an update from that event?
I can share. Um, it went well, although I could only attend for like the last um half hour because there was another city council meeting. Um, but I think there's another meeting coming up out of that on October 7th, also at the library. It's under the
announcements bucket of our agenda. Um, and since then, I've talked to Central Maintenance, Greenfield Housing Authority, and Mike. And all I've gotten so far is just what pesticide management companies that the city is contracting with, which is helpful data. Um, and
I've called up some of those companies. I would even be interested in hearing from you, Mike, potentially if you wanted to speak on pest management for schools if now's a good time or it could happen outside of the meeting. Um, but I think that like
the the two pathways to proceed down. One is um uh an ordinance banning use of rodenticide on public land and that would be impacting central maintenance which is having a huge rat issue at the
transfer station and it would also be impacting the schools um and it would also be impacting the housing authority. And then the other pathway to go down would be a um a home rule petition to
enable banning the use of um rodenticide on private land and that would be like maybe take like a year from now and also a working group could keep like doing public education and outreach in the meanwhile. Um, so I think most of the
planning is happening in this smaller group like October 7th, whatnot, and that Jonah has been involved with, but I feel like it's um, maybe I would like at the end if if it got to like a less halfbaked and more baked SI could
make a recommendation for the council. And did you want to respond, Mike? And then I'll call on Jonah. Yeah, real briefly. Uh, we we have the plans that we get from Walt Pass control. We have Waltham do all the schools. We originally go off their
recommendations. Um we we tell them if we're having mouse issues and stuff like that, they they suggest certain bait stations to use and we put together a plan and cost to it
all. That's how we do it. Um not knowing a lot about this personally until this has been brought up. the more you look into it, um I understand what you're trying to do. Um I was I called Waltham and twice now and I have not got a
return call. Um they answer quick if you want to pay the bill, but when you have questions, it's not so quick. So, I'm trying to find out what our alternative measures are and if there's a cost to it. If there's not a big cost difference, like if once again, if this doubles the cost, um it still may not be
a huge issue because we don't spend a lot of money every year on pest control um or rodent control, pest control. Um so, we might be able to do it. I just need to get them to get back to me on the school side of things. So, um I don't think it's a huge thing on the
school side of things. The only thing that we want to be cautious about, if we bring back composting, we're going to have containers of food outside. So, that is going to have to be more away from the building. And when you get more
away from the building, then you have um whatever you use as a deterrent um is going to be farther away from the building and more out in the open for animals and things like that. So sometimes it's a double-edged sword. We
just got to be cautious on the the composting side and trying to manage that. Thanks Jonah. Yeah. Um just to expand a little bit on Sarah's uh description of the two
different angles of this. I think a good role for SGIC would be to help to promote the home rule petition uh process. That process is particularly exciting to me because it's a statewide organized effort by Mass Autobon to have
communities apply to the state so that the state will get to the point and say, "Okay, all these towns are applying for this. We're just going to address it at a statewide level instead of have to take the time to deal with each town requesting this." So their strategy is for more more and more towns to request
this this home roll petition um to then end up having a statewide ban uh on this particular rodenticide. So I'm excited about that approach especially and hope that we could get behind behind that as a committee and help um move move it along.
I removed my hand. Oh, okay. Let's go on to the next slide. Time's Yeah. Yeah. So, the open face task force, Jonah, you were saying we could table this for the
time being. Yeah. I could just I can just use 30 seconds just to say that we've shifted our meeting time. Uh we are now meeting the fourth Monday of uh every month and we're now meeting in the city in that um city hall room um at five o'clock on the
fourth Monday of each month and just invite everybody um to is welcome to participate and encourage folks to come be a part of that that group. Um and then in next meeting I can give some more details on on what we've been up to. Yeah, I'm just going to make a a
comment that we we've um tabled this two I I know I think you weren't here last month uh Jonah and and we've tabled this two months in a row. So it it seems important for the rest of the committee to hear about what's going on. So I I think we should move it up higher in the agenda for next month so we all get a
chance to hear about it. Yes. Thanks. So I I just wanted a clarification and probably comes in but you're saying it's been changed from Thursday to Monday. you back to Monday and oh, did I say Thursday? No, no, it's been Mondays. It's been the second
Monday second Monday. Now it's the fourth Monday and it's here instead of at the fire station. Is that accurate? That's correct. Okay. Thank you. And if anybody has questions about meeting at the fire station, talk to me. There's some real There's pros and cons. It's challenging.
Uh, okay. Next, we have announcements and updates. First, the Greenfield Energy Fair updates on plans including invitees and anticipated program for the upcoming fair. Uh, and it's to be held on November 3rd. That's a change, I believe, at 5:30. Uh, conversation on
how, uh, SGIC would like to be in involved, including hosting a table. And we should try to keep this as brief as possible. Nancy, yes. Um the date has been changed because it turns out that the Johny was not available on the date that we
thought it was available. So that's the first piece of it. Okay. And Bram brought up the other piece. So what's the other piece? That um SGI it' be more involved. Oh yeah, that if we have an outreach committee,
that outreach committee would plan the tableabling and if we have a task database then we know what to table about. So um since now we have until November that's awesome. Um so I hope on
our agenda um what I can do is take the database uh work that I've done so far meet with somebody who's got some history with the committee and say well what would be some good timely things to
bring up uh as the person who's organizing that event the um there's a limit to how many tables are possible that fit into that space and we're signing up vendors right now. So, um I would need to know
sooner rather than later about whether in fact SGIC is going to have a table or not. That was not decided at the last meeting. This is November 5th now or is it November the 3rd? November. And our meeting here is this is in se
this September right now, right? Yes. And it's the fourth Thursday in the month, right? No, second. What? What Monday? We meet the 3rd Sunday. Okay. Third. So then the next time that we meet will be um October
October 23rd. 23rd. Okay. Which is just a week or so before the event. So anyway, I can report back whether there's space or not at that time. Well, I know that I I know I'll call myself and then you friends. I know that um when it was brought up
about us co- sponsoring that having a table would be an effective possible, but now I'm there's a limit there's a physical limitation to how many tables we can fit into that space. Uh I know I for one would think that would be an effective way to um uh be
present and you know to try to um uh um resonate some of our work and some of the things we're trying to host if there is space. So I would be uh uh interested in volunteering to be there for one. So
uh uh Franis and then Sarah I'm watching the clock. Do we need do we need to vote on this? Because if we do, I make a motion that we say yes, we would like would like to like to have a table if there's room.
Make room for us. We just barely have quorum. Yes, we have six people. Uh so you'd like to What is your motion, Prince? I see have a table at the energy fair on November 3rd. Second.
Okay. Okay. Is there further discussion? I can table as well. Okay. Is there further discussion on the motion? Okay. I have to roll call vote. I would say yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Yes. Yes. Okay. Unanimous. Very good. All right. Uh next is the source of sea cleanup is on September 7th, 2025 as an announcement. Anything more about that?
Uh next is announcement that small um thing to expand upon. There are there's going to be two dumpsters at the encampment along the bike path. So if anyone wants to work on that site, I'll be working on that site. And then Max is also working at the poet seat site. So
yeah, that's Thank you. Uh, next announcement, Rising Rivers: Edge, a short film about the future of food and farming in Franklin County, is screening on October 9th at 7 p.m. at All Souls Church. Next announcement. Spectacular film, strongly recommended.
Thank you. Next announcement, Redicide Campaign follow-up meeting, October 7th at the Greenfield Public Library and via Zoom. It doesn't mention the time. If anyone knows it, sorry, that's 6:00 p.m. in the conference room. Very good.
And um we're uh this is suggesting a brief discussion and decision to post event updates on social media following our meetings carry over from the last meeting. Um that's come under announcements and updates. Um so um
I'm wondering if there is there I think that our discussion about how to move the outreach has that we covered this covered that very good. I feel like what I meant by this is that I after our last meeting we had come up with some announcements and then I was like I'll send it over and they'll post it on
Facebook um and I just wanted to hear from like Carol and Hannah if that process worked for them but now they're not here so I don't think there's much to chat about. I will but maybe I don't know if we have to officially vote on this but I would send over this announcement list to them to post on
Facebook still but we can you would you would send over what announcement list the announcements and updates like the energy fair the source to see oh I see these anna list I see above um okay uh sure I would uh
make a motion to forward the above four announcements seconded All in favor I would say I. Yes. I Yes. You too. Yes. Very good. And we can find out from that if it work. Very good. Are there
any other announcements not reasonably anticipated by the chair? Hearing none. Is there a motion to adjourn? Our rather our next meeting is October 23rd here at 4:00. Is there a meeting to adjourn? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. No, there
isn't. Um, I had um asked um um Amy if if if we could talk about um the Hope Street parking lot issue at the SGIC. Didn't know if and she said bring it up
about the next meeting. See if the committee thinks that is something we should discuss. Well, what I can say is I did see that um exchange pause. Um basically we can't program meanwhile we can't really
discuss if it would be a good topic is my understanding uh because it's not on the agenda to discuss as whether it's a good topic but you certainly can put it on the agenda for the next meeting. I will but I won't be at the next so
hopefully you guys will are okay discussing that. So you won't be at the next meeting. No, no. Would you want it to be at the following meeting or is that too late? That'll be too late. That'll be too late. Yeah. Uh well, you can request it to be on the meeting for the committee even if you
won't be at the committee. Okay. Thank you. That would be enough. And you can invite a person to come to the committee public comment regarding true. This all leads to the um I presume the referendum. is on the 3rd. Is it the 3rd
of November? The 4th of November. Right. So, it's like Right. And and it's I was going to say I could sort of talk about it, but it's so complicated that I can't talk about it because there isn't enough time to talk about it. Well, we can't talk about it now because it's not on our agenda for
That's true. All you can do is put it on the agenda, right? For the next meeting. And you've stated it here. So, Amy will hear this date and she will put it on the agenda for the next meeting. Okay. All right. Is there a motion to adjurnn? So move.
Second. Second. All right. I I I I I Excellent. All right, everybody. Good work. Long agenda. Well done. [Music]