Thanks everybody for coming to the November meeting of the climate action planning committee. Um I'm Alex Tasha the chair and we'll call this meeting to order. It is 6:05.
Let's take a quick roll call. Um actually let's go around. You can each uh uh state your your name uh for the uh for the transcripts. These are the
start online. >> Matti present. >> Kyle Johnson present. >> Aidoral present. >> Magfield present. >> Dopkin present.
Johnson. >> Anna Morgan Barcamian present. >> Great. And Alex is present. Wonderful. So that's a forum. Um so uh first item of business I wanted
to vote to approve the meeting minutes from October. Has anybody had a chance to look over them? Any uh suggestions and corrections? >> If the chairman, I'll move their adoption if there are no corrections.
>> Thank you, Arthur. You second? >> Second. >> Okay. Uh and all in favor? >> I I >> I >> All oppose.
All right. minutes are approved unanimously. Wonderful. Um, now next item on the agenda is an update from our municipal energy manager, Tai Mueller, who's unable to join us this evening. Uh, but I do have
a few updates to share from him. Um, he sent me this email I think last Thursday. Uh so uh last Thursday the town submitted a letter of interest to power options for EV charging stations to be installed at
the council on aging or town hall through the community charge program. Um also last week they submitted um the premunities annual report. Okay, I'm getting a phone call now.
Hello. What's going on? >> Hi. Yes, I'm I'm running the meeting. I think you're I think you're on the wrong. If you you go to the agenda online there. Okay, I got it. >> Hey, hey, Alex, can can you repeat again
who submitted the electrification application? >> So, these are updates from Tai. Uh, so just a list of the the things that he has done since we last met uh that will be of interest to this committee. Um so
what one of the things the town has to do to maintain its status as a green community is submit an annual report to a lot of a lot of the data collection that um enables our commission inventory um and sort of tracking of energy costs and
energy use. So that's that's done. Um his next priority is completing and submitting an application for the municipal decarbonization roadmap
planning assistance through DOER and we were touched today was either going to submit that today or tomorrow in the immediate future that'll get submitted an application. Uh and then I think he is um
looking into a potential solar project. Um there's a few solar solar panel proposals uh that the town is considering uh that are under review. And then review draft NMC agreement from Rewire. I actually have no idea what that is and
I neglected to ask them. So we'll keep a little mystery for next time. Right. And welcome Alice. I see you found the link. Um, great.
So, uh, let's move on to uh, topic four. Well, are there questions about um, Kai's updates discussion? Apologies. All right. So, let's move on to topic four, working group updates.
Uh, and um, fortunately Ron's not here, but uh, his uh, suggestion was that we sort of do do a a bit of a round robin through the emission categories and and uh,
share any new and noteworthy updates um, since we don't have. So, who would like to go first? Do some nesting? Yeah, I don't really have any I did I did touch base with Arthur and we're going to you know have another meeting soon but we haven't met
in a while. I did want to mention which is just that um you know we had been talking about um how there should be like a commute like a way for the town's people to like compost without having to um subscribe to an expensive plan and
that is happening at the DPW yard and they do have the plastic film collection now at the DPW yard and also there's an electronics recycling um it's a fundraising event that appear on Saturday. >> There's stuff. That's right.
>> Yeah. Going to dig through some of my drawers and get some of those old wires out of there. >> I got rid of a lot of stuff last year and there's somehow there's more stuff. >> They just Yeah. Yeah. Have a whole drawer I can't close for and I don't know what's in there.
>> Thank you for that reminder. And I >> if I may, I have some related information um on the waste working group and that is that the number of um homes with uh Black Earth uh outside
pickup uh was 353 and I understand we're pretty close to 390 at present which is a u very positive indication and the estimated weight diversion from
that is uh almost 3,000 lb. On another note, um there was a recent a relatively recent uh audit of the waste management um carrier for the servicing of Milton's
waste. This is the actual trash and the recycling. I participated in one of these audits with Jack um probably a year ago, this past April. The superior cut is about uh a 10% contamination rate
and communities don't want to go, if I recall correctly, over 15%. Once they start to get into that zone, uh the costs can increase uh for the communities. On the last audit or the most recent audit with waste management,
we were given a 17.7 contamination rate score which is going in the wrong direction of course and uh Milton will have uh 6 months probably four more months since the audit took
place uh to complete an aggressive recycling education initiative uh be prior to the next audit. Um, one of the things that uh some people in town have reported to me is that uh it is not
unusual for some people to put their trash in their recycling bin rather than putting out two bins. or if there is an extra black bag uh without a sticker on it, it might happenstantially go into the recycling
bin rather than have a sticker fixed to it and put on this uh sidewalk with the um black trash bin. And these are people who uh don't want to uh make complaints with neighbors and so on down the line,
but they have uh seen evidence of this and have reported it in which gets back to this need for an aggressive uh education program. And of course, we have a lot of turnover in the community. So, the education of new residents is
very very important with respect to our uh program for trash and recycling collections. So, more on this uh shortly. I as Kim mentioned, uh we will have a meeting coming up in the near future. Um I'll be
touching basis with Cassandra again on scheduling that and then going through uh the mitigation work from the last audit report and recommendations that we'll bring back to the uh climate action planning committee.
>> Hey, Arthur. Yeah, just just qui quick quickly. Um and and this is because I just got a sticker put on my own bin >> because uh we've got some people doing some work on the house and so the collector put a sticker on saying, "Hey,
you know, keep your cars basically away from the bin, otherwise we can't get in and service your house." Which I, you know, okay, I I I I understand why why they need to be able to get in and service and be efficient. But it was a red sticker affixed to the top of my
um and this is trash my my my my trash bin. And so I I wonder what kind of communication do the the collectors actually provide to you know if they see an extra bag put in recycling.
Why not put a sticker or something to tell the the the neighbor or to to tell the the homeowner, excuse me, this isn't the right process, >> right? >> And actually, the stickers um going on those bags, etc., at the
present time should be a green sticker. The red stickers are out of date. The fee went up and the color of the sticker changed. Um there are a couple of um thoughts borrowing from past meetings on this that might be helpful. Matt, one is
that some communities do what's called internal audits. They will actually um random sample the recycling and the trash um at residences throughout the
community and get an estimate of what the proper the improper allocation of trash and recycling might be. Uh the other one is to uh work much more ardently on a continuing or ongoing
education program. And this has some relationship to a recent communications workshop that was held at the public library where um there was a recognition of the fact that it takes more than just passive communication, i.e. putting
something up on the town's website and expecting that people are going to be able to go to it and become knowledgeable and so on down the line when maybe prices, policies, practices have been migrating over time and have as a companion to that a communications
program where you can reach out to the community and make them aware of changes and best practices in the community. not just for waste but for a lot of other matters in in the town of like Milton. And we all know >> that the best communication takes place
when there's a two-way process, not just one way process. >> Yeah. Again, I would not have even known that these stickers existed except for the fact that I got one in the last seven days. So, I just >> see seems a very effective way. I won't make that mistake again, but seems a very effective way for this two-way
communication between the the collector and the resident. Thank you. >> Yeah, I was just going to say um this this dovetales to a pet concern project um of mine um just because there's quite
a bit of um loose trash or litter in my neighborhood and has been for several years. Um and I yeah I think I think it'd be interesting and I don't know what researcher thinking there may be around this you know by the public works
department or others. Um but it would be interesting um you know I can see see this being an interesting project for studying um people's like practices around how they're using their bins. I think part of it part of it in the issue
is um being around more um dense multif family housing. There's more overfilled um cans that have things that fly loose in the wind and things like that. I think that's one of the um reasons, but I think there could be some interesting overarching studies about how people are
using their bins and and how um communication about um mitigating some of those issues along with um proper proper waste um protocols. just um the last communication I had
from this was uh a request to actually have some type of an open forum in the community on on waste management. >> Excellent. Well, as a media update from the waist group, thank you very much. Um
and uh Steve, I think you you said you had some news to share in the transportation category. >> Uh yeah, some some at least talking point. So I guess first of all the big news from today was at the the US
Department of Energy they have uh abolished uh two offices. The um uh so they uh they they have uh removed the office of clean energy demonstration and
the office of energy efficiency and renewable energy. So these are these were organizations that gave out grants to communities. So that's winding down that that won't be so much of an option as they move to other priorities. Um I
had the opportunity of going to uh the MIT mobility initiative visioning day last Monday and and uh they are very focused on electric vehicles and mobility. So just a a few few ideas
coming from there as well as meeting uh some some innovators there. The first is really the focus uh is what the what what folks there have I found effective is really just talking about mobility. When you start talking
about the fuels or how people move there um it it it can it starts getting off in other directions but if you're talking about everybody needs to get somewhere. So leaving it at the mobility and how and in and as for the conversation point
and a point was also made that as communities are sort of shifting uh and thinking about electrification uh at the same point they should be thinking about automated vehicles. uh that that one is there's probably going
to be grants more grants associated with that as that's more in line with the current administration. Um but in any infrastructure you want to put in you want to have it as AV focused AVs are going to be electric vehicles and there
also are going to be u a big push for those and so those are providing mobility for people who may not otherwise have easy mobility options such as seniors. So maybe reaching out to the council on aging or talking to the tea about their para transit
systems. Um and there may be grants along those lines too with uh safe roads and streets for all uh for example they're the ones who sort of put road diets uh in place. So in thinking about and it's too bad Kai isn't here but in
thinking about sort of the contract language that the u the town puts in place for its own fleets or in in setting up infrastructure trying to make it sort of AV ready uh so it we don't have to redo these things
twice as these new types of vehicles come online within uh within our organization. with regard to um uh electrification in particular. There was an interesting presentation by uh
charger help uh uh who made the point and I have the report I can I can send it around if people are interested that um the data that they've collected from a few thousand charger points in the country is about onethird of charge
attempts fail uh at the first time. And while uh these uh the chargers themselves are becoming more reliable around 95% or so um assuming proper maintenance uh about a third of the times people fail at the first attempt
in trying to get the charge going and there's a number of reasons for that including uh maintenance. The firmware isn't updated uh either on their car or in in the system in in a proper way. So there's there's the whole mindset of of
really trying to understand the infrastructure, making sure that you have the right people who are on top of that infrastructure to make sure that it's uh it's interoperable uh and that there's some cross network compat compatibility
uh both at how you pay for it and uh the the system itself. So the three main pain points are the charging speed, the time at port, and the reliability or success. So these are things that as we're thinking about building out that
infrastructure in town uh uh that the town has the capacity to think about that and either put that in their contracts or have somebody who's able to to monitor that these these systems are working properly and are providing you
know proper data and transparency to us if we own if we own those or are housing them. uh to know if that you know how they're working that helps with the trust in adoption uh of these uh technologies.
Um I can go on a little bit more if you want me to. >> I I have a quick question. Um, so this here in town, um, I I don't know this for certain, but my my impression is
that the the public charging spots that I've seen are all part of the charge point network. Uh, and I I have wondered if um they're they're they make data available about, you know, utilization,
reliability, um, charging volume. Um, so I would I would think it would be in their interest to do that because uh having more information about where where there's utilization and where there's unmet need would help municipalities buy more charges which I
would assume is their goal. >> Um, >> so I don't know. I mean, if you have an answer now, great. But it would be great to find out if uh what what data is available about the utilization of the the charges that we have. Sure. I mean,
I'm I'm happy to reach out. Or is that something Kai does as part of his job? >> I'm not sure whose whose job it is. I don't think it's part of Kai's job yet. Um, but it may >> Well, you Yeah, I would certainly ask him first. Um,
>> I didn't see it in the green communities reporting, >> Matt. >> Yeah, sorry, I had to come off mute. This is totally off the subject of electrification. So, I will yield to anybody else that had a question about what uh Stephen was actually covering
there. It's it's it's related to the road diet on Rolph Road and and any um impact that that may have on folks choosing other routes through through town other than than than 28 given it's
only one lane each way. U but again I I've already asked my question but but but should should wait if other people have questions on what Stephen just covered on electrification. >> Anybody else? >> I will say something about the road diet. Um I was going to cover this too
and so I'm glad you brought it up >> of um what are we really expecting for mode shift here? Who's really going to So, we're in a we're in a bedroom community in in a fairly welloff uh town.
What are we expecting as as mode shift here, especially when you have road dice? So, one benefit of those is okay, people will feel more comfortable being on bikes uh for example, but they're even more comfortable if there's actually a barrier uh there protecting
them from the cars that are going by. thinking about it myself and just looking around town, I mean the benefit are people who use their bikes on the weekend and maybe you know students who who bike to school during the week. I I
I I I'm not sure from um from an energy perspective um how much the road diets and that sort of activity is going to buy us in in the near future versus trying to do a fleet transition. So, I I was going to bring
that bring that up. And then that sort of leads into what you're talking about Route 28 where, you know, you have more traffic, people are going to look for other other roads to to avoid uh that bottleneck. Uh but we're not really limiting, we're just dispersing the the
traffic or, you know, emissions more broadly rather than on that one road. It it seems to me. >> Yeah. I well principally it was for for safety and I you know living in that area obviously am am a advocate for you know safe travel through town and just
you know whether they would be also looking at um the the number of cars I'm not not thinking of the right terminology here but you you understand what I'm saying it's like look are people staying on the highways instead of you know cut cutting through town knowing that whatever it
was 80 90% of our transportation emissions were actually not, you know, due to non-residents, right? So, um, ju just wondering whether that was part of what DCR, not DCR, but whether MASDOT might also be looking at that over time
to see whether it's other roads in town or people staying on 93 or 95. Um, you know, just what the impact might be o over time. So, I'll just say that's explicitly part
of the road diets. It's a pilot. Uh, and when they when they explained the pilot to the select board earlier in the year, that that was explicitly part of their scope that they they they said >> speeds will come down. It will get safer. And the question is what what
does that cost in terms of uh new issues popping up elsewhere? So, they're they're monitoring where traffic's diverting through. >> Okay, that would be interesting. That's medicine. I'll say anecdotally just in terms of mode shift. Um I I bought my
13-year-old a bike and and let him bike over to his friend's houses now. Uh and I wasn't ready to do that when Randall was a a fourlane Speedway, but with the current configuration, I'm okay with it. And uh so at least one teenager's
horizons have opened up because >> yeah, I mean I it's great to hear that they've got it as part of their study. uh I didn't realize it was a a pilot um but okay uh whether it's a year or 24 months down the down the line the impact
not only on safety but also you know on on emissions I mean I you know I know these aren't things we measure every year to see what the you know what what what the emissions are due to transportation through town but in the next 5year study
it might be four more years before we actually get any data on it but may maybe it is having an effect more people are staying on the main main highways and not and not cutting through town. >> I I was going to ask along those lines, what data are they collecting to make a
decision on whether this pilot is valuable and do we have access to any of those data? I'm I'm hoping it's it's more than just, you know, the number of of of accidents or near misses that that are happening. Do they have, you know,
those the BASCAR where they're they're testing how many cars are going over an area at a certain time of day? Do you know? >> I don't, but we should we should absolutely. There's a there's a a project email inbox um from Mass that we
could send questions to. >> Yeah, it'd be great to to know that. It it might give us a another lever of analysis, >> right? I can follow up on that. Okay. Uh I think I took up enough time. Thank you. Great update.
>> Yeah. Thank you, Stephen. Ron, good to see you. >> Sorry. I had a really busy day, so >> Oh, no, no worries. But you you got here in time uh for the the new and notable uh tie that you suggested. Would you
like to give an update on the >> uh Sure. Yeah. So um as far as conservation is concerned, I think the notable development is that we were able to
submit two proposals to the um uh I for the climate community RFP to without um >> what's that
>> the eco oneaff Yeah, the ecoist. Yeah, sorry. And um so one of them is a proposal to do a study to um measure
the um composition of the trees in the uh Milton portion of the Blue Hills. uh with the goal in mind of uh trying to
determine if the existing uh composition tree composition is optimal in terms of uh sequestering carbon and affecting emissions
and um it's a short study. it should uh be completed within a year to 18 months if we get a very minimal amount of funding. The um the second proposal
is a proposal to study the impact of uh climate change in the Neponid River Valley on
uh property holders abudding the river valley and to what extent uh I think it's 150 the houses that are part of the study. To what extent uh
their structures and their foundations are threatened as a result of seawater rise and various movements in the uh configuration of the dams they're part
of the neposet river valley and other climate related impacts and so this again is a relatively really short lowpriced U activity
and um we're keeping our fingers crossed. I don't know. Do you know, Alex, when we're going to hear about these? >> Um I don't I was I was just going to ask you if you've heard back from them yet. Um, no, >> we have a
>> we have a a topic at the end to to discuss the the eco onetop grant opportunities specifically. So maybe we can circle back to this then. >> So I've had a feedback session for one of them and but I submitted two and
haven't heard back around one. I haven't heard anything. >> Um maybe I can just add a footnote to um Ron's comments um to the effect that there was a meeting the night before last with the Neos River Watershed Association.
uh they've been doing a major study of the uh entire watershed area with a particular focus on the estuary which would be essentially from the Baker Dam down uh through Boston Harbor and the
updates for the flood maps are just about complete. We'll be getting a um pretty good um report very shortly on adaptation and mitigation recommendations but um the prognosis in terms of
seawater rise is quite significant and um the area of um housing in other uh facilities, businesses that would be outside of Milton but in that lower estuary area uh will be significantly
impacted. in I would say the next um 25 years at most. Certainly the outlook for 2070 is um very very significant in terms of the impact of uh seawater rise and the fact
that this would not be as infrequently as we are used to it occurring i.e with the uh king tides, but rather most likely uh a on a monthly basis and b with the incoming and outgoing tides
um being regularly um increased due to the uh sea level rise which can sometimes be combined with increased precipitation as well which means there would be surface sheet water going in in addition to the seawater ice having an
impact upon on um what was mentioned and also what uh communities like Milton would have to consider is the impact on infrastructure, sewer, water, gas, all of which are currently underground, but in the not
too distant future in some areas, particularly in that location, would be underwater as well as underground. Arthur, I'd really like to see a copy of that study if it's sharable. >> Okay. Be happy to uh it should be
forthcoming shortly one and I'd be happy to share it with you and the other members of the committee. >> Right. Thank you. >> I think I I received meeting materials from that even though I didn't attend. I could forward those that came today, yesterday.
Very nice. Uh so that is buildings. H do you have anything you want to to mention? Uh the only thing I would say is that you submitted um an expression of interest on my behalf related to
geothermal uh uh for the for a portion of the town for actually the uh two churches on either side of the town hall and the town hall itself. Um, and I don't know whether you
have any feedback on that yet or not, but that's the only thing I I really have to add. >> Uh, no, no, I haven't. Um, and uh, we'll we'll circle back to that. Um,
so in that, so I guess in broader updates, I think since since we last met, uh, and maybe some of our our our listeners weren't at town meeting, uh, the the town overwhelmingly approved the, uh, clinicals article that we
brought. 92% of town meeting membershed in favor of it. Uh, so that's that's a new and noteworthy development. um in the the same vein uh as Hale was
talking about. So Hail is a member of the um the Yuyu church to the right of town hall if you're facing the library and I'm a member of the UCCC church is to the left and uh
you know in this spirit of uh the the first steps towards a shared geothermal well system which would be an exciting uh uh and and sort of novel um clean energy development. for the town. That's preparing for that looks just
like preparing for any sort of DA system replacement. So, uh our our property board voted to um work with Massachusetts Interfaith Power and Light on a environmental stewardship assessment for our building in Hampton
Avenue. Uh and so that's just an example of one one more large building in in town beginning its um electrification journey one one step at a time. Uh just a an example of the the type of thing hopefully more residents and and
businesses will will choose to do as well. Alex, if I may, um, somewhat related to the commentary with Ronn is that topic about the, um, climate resilience regulations for the state that I shared
some information with you on recently. Would you want that to u be shared with the committee as well? >> Thank you. Are you talking about the uh the proposed bill in the House of Representatives or are you talking about something else?
>> This this is um to move the uh regulations that have already been through public review um essentially off the governor's desk. Um because um the current regulations
from 2014 still use outdated rainfall data for storm water calculations based on information from 60 years ago. And no standards have ever been issued for development in the coastal flood plane
despite the fact that the wetlands protection act made this a protected resource uh decades ago. And uh the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions has been um advocating
uh the release of the new regulations. Um the public comment period uh was completed some time ago and uh no action has um been taken yet to release the uh
new regulations. And the apprehension is that this is not only outdated at the present time in terms of going back to 2014, but with an election year coming up in 2026, unless something takes place before the
first of the year, they're likely to be there's the possibility of them being delayed uh for implementation uh for another year. So um the association asked for comments and I took the liberty after sharing some
things with you and with John Cannon of um writing the u draft letter from the MACC to uh the governor um also sharing copies with each of our three legislators to hopefully um get those
regulations accelerated and acted before the 1st of January 2026. And if anybody wants further information on that, I'll be happy to provide it. >> Thank you. That and I will I will follow up to um in include those documents you
shared with me in the minutes uh when I put them together. Thanks for the reminder. Right. And you also reminded me of another thing I meant to mention but I've forgotten. Um
the uh over the last few weeks there was a a bill being considered um in the uh Massachusetts House of Representatives uh that in in the name of improving energy affordability which I think is a very important priority. um was moving
to um significantly reduce um mass save funding and uh uh eliminate or or make fully symbolic the the 2030 uh emission reduction goal that's part of the Massachusetts climate
roadmap act. Um, so there was a significant uh uh criticism of the bill and it's been I think withdrawn for further study for the time being, but it's something to be aware of. It's uh it's changed numbers a few times and I I really don't
understand uh how how uh bill numbering works. I think it it had one number in committee and then another number when it came out of committee. Uh the most recent bill number is H4744. Um it probably will have a a new number
when it reappears in the next session. Um but I think that's just something something to be aware of that I think uh uh energy affordability is becoming a a very serious issue and that but I'm sure the legislature will do something about
it. uh and uh you know they need the the the input of uh the whole community including folks like us who are concerned about reducing emissions to make sure that there's an appropriate balance.
Um and I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't think that clean energy is uh more affordable and plentiful in the long run. All right. Any other uh updates before we move on
to topic five? Alex, is there a way >> to um formalize this new and noteworthy section of our meetings so that each meeting for the
four or five working groups, there could be a list of the new and noteworthy events. And maybe if there's a followup, there could be a line that says followup. And we could just map this
from month to month. I think it would be useful. >> It'll certainly show up in the minutes. Um, you want me to And if there >> I mean, if it shows up in the minutes, >> I could take it and try to format it if
you want. >> Sure. >> Or somebody could do it. A maybe AI can do that. I don't know. >> It took I I I uh took longer than usual to get around to preparing the minutes this month, but I could try to be a
little quicker. Um often in the day or two I have to wait for MATV to post a YouTube video, which is which I need to to do the minutes. Uh my mind wanders usually. Yeah, I think I think this was a good
addition to the agenda and I'll keep it on on uh in coming months. >> Okay, great. >> Um >> okay, so the next topic uh is a discussion of our work modes and focus.
Um, so, uh, you know, I've talked to a few of you over the last week or so about, um, uh, you know, how how we should organize going forward and like to talk to to more of you um,
about that, but also uh, you know, I I heard a a theme pretty quickly from those discussions that, um, there's this tension u between sort of continued refinement of the plan uh or or
focusing on implementation of individual items in the plan uh versus a sort of more general project of um outreach to residents but also to partners and and stakeholders and town staff and uh and
in town. I'm generally gathering the resources uh to make the plan successful uh with you know particularly fundraising recruiting committee recruiting committee members
recruiting uh you know people who can help the committee with things that we are not already excellent at let's say social media campaigns um so
I wanted to uh you know I had a version of this discussion with a few of you. I'd like to have a an open discussion with maybe do we want to uh sort of decide as a group to focus on one
direction or the other. Um I I do think that it's pretty clear we can't do it all at the same time. Um, I also think that this volunteer work uh, and I don't think anybody should set aside a burning
fashion to do one or the other in order to go with the group, but I just want to see where people are at on this question. So I start talking. >> I sure I'll start um and again kind of speak personally about my engagement
since the draft plan uh was was completed. Um and I I missed a a meeting I think it was last month had a had a conflict. Um but in general there seemed to be me me personally a lot of engagement in the committee in getting
that that draft plan completed and I would say on through the article and and there was a number of drafts on on the article uh submitted to town meeting and I know we're only talking about you know 60 days here in between but just less
engaged uh and so as a committed committee member Uh, I want to pour my time and energy into um, uh, one of two routes. I I have a personal choice, but I think the two are either sign me up
for one of the four committees, whether that be conservation, transportation, waste for buildings. um or a pivot towards a more what I'll call um horizontal
uh focus which would be on on recruiting more committee members as as an example uh or or uh inventorying uh funding sources uh ju just as two example one one would be fundraising the second would be would be recruiting just to kind of use
general general terminology that I think people will understand And so my personal preference is that the plan is I wouldn't say good enough. Um but I I'd like to see us work more on outreach as
an example. Uh and on recruiting more committee members or advocates or or or or partners that can actually help us get more work done. That that's my kind of per personal preference. Again, easy for me to say because we're working on
the mitigation and that that was what you guys might recall what what was what we what we were focused on was drought and and and fires. And there's certainly more work to do there, but as a committee, we've decided to focus more
on the reduction uh pillars. Um so it look, I'll go either way. I I want to be a part of the committee. I want to be valuable to to our progress here. I would prefer to be working on recruiting more committee members andor on on kind
of a social media or or otherwise outreach plan to our community. But I think we have to choose one one or the other. And my personal preference would be u bringing more resources to to the committee whether that be funding or or people
uh a and or some sort of outreach campaign that I think we've all mentioned at different parts over the journey for the last couple of years. That's it for me. >> Yeah. Um well, just sort of building on what
Matt said, I you know, I think um any opportunity the committee has to um broaden its reach and bring in more engaged members uh just bill's support for the work the committee is trying to
do. Personally for myself, I'm very much interested in seeing the committee achieve some wins in the town. Um, you know, I really do believe that the old expression that nothing succeeds like
success. And the more um examples of of actions that this committee can push for and achieve, I think will be self-reinforcing
in accelerating um uh further uh mitigation and sustainability efforts. >> That sounds like a bone for implementation. Yes. Do you have do you have winds in mind?
>> Um, I'd love to see the geothermal project completed, but it's really any any project in the town that moves moves the dial. Um, I mean, that's ultimately that's what we want to do. You know, we
want, you know, planning is great. you know, the plan uh the climate action plan is almost by definition always is going to be a work in progress. Uh but action is really where I'd like to see
the committee focus achieving achieving specific outcomes. So, I'll say I'll say for my part um my I think my person and this is partly just like where my personal strengths um and passion are um are more in the
outreach camp, but I don't see that as necessarily um mutually exclusive. In fact, I think I think they're very complimentary um because I think the best way to um move toward implementation is through um continued networking um
building constituency um making connections and getting input from other stakeholders in order to find you know what are um the best avenues and the best action points for implementing um various things we may want to focus on on implementing. So,
um, that's kind of where I would be inclined to at least spend my time and I I, you know, would make the argument that it fits into a broader strategy that that goes along with with implementation. >> Thanks, Kyle. Arthur,
>> like Hail's comments and those of Kyle bring to mind um the fact that implementation um requires resourcing and that's not just human resourcing, it's financial resourcing.
So, might we want at some point in time to possibly have on our agenda a discussion of um what a financial resourcing road map for the climate action planning committee might be. We
have of course the uh town budgetary construct process and the need to be looking at that um in advance of when town meeting ultimately approves a budget for the community and what we
might want to um be submitting for budgetary considerations within the town. And the second one is uh grant resources from private uh state federal levels for which um the
agenda of the climate action planning committee might be eligible. And recognizing again the the window the time associated with needing to u identify, plan and submit uh those applications.
Thanks, Senator Ron. >> Yeah, I um tend to lean with hail. I'm into doing stuff. I think the we get bogged down in the process aspect of this. Um, we need to have more
people, but to spend six months trying to find more people is to me not as productive a use of our time as we could make it. I think it is possible to do
things even with our small group that give evidence that this committee is um focused on the issues that matter. For example,
we could in each of these of our four areas hold a small public hearing around the issues that we've discussed which would a get our agenda and our
implementation more visible while at the same time hopefully getting more people interested in our worked. I think to decouple the process
of getting us more efficient and funded and all that uh can just take a lot of time. Uh that to me is more if not equally valuable to be spent on dealing with some of the
issues that we talked about earlier in this meeting. I I ju just and and maybe this is what Kyle you were also saying is I I think this idea of outreach you know a couple of people working on outreach Ron on
behalf of the uh again I call them the verticals the the reduction the reduction teams um you know it so it kind of comes off your plate for the coordinate you know how do how do we do it how how do we how is it hosted what what agendas need to be
published what what does the PowerPoint need to look like just as an example where you still get this action but you've got somebody supporting you to to pull it off I guess is the maybe the the middle ground here in in terms of what I
I think where we could be where we could be helpful >> helping you get the word out assuming everybody has that as a priority uh within their you know within their working groups. >> Yeah, that's good. I'm just saying for
me, just thinking about the conservation piece of this, it would not be a big deal. I mean, I can think off the top of my head of five or six organizations that ought to be interested in this. And to convene a meeting of them for a
couple of hours should not be that big a deal. And I think it would have big payoff. But that's that's out that is outreach, right? I think when when I hear we should focus on outreach,
>> I I don't uh I don't think there's a lot to be gained from a a sort of like scattershot uh unfocused audience, just pure awareness raising outreach. I think you have to think about well if I wanted to move forward with this whose
buy I need let me reach out to them, right? or who what who do I need staff time from? Uh and so you my uh my ideal situ like a year from now uh if
things go perfectly I would I would like to not be chairing this this committee I would like to be kind of putting 90% of my volunteer hours into the home electrification coaching program. It's one of the the top recommendations of
the building section, right? Um what stops me from doing that tomorrow is it's just a lot of work to hold a space for this meeting. Um there's a lot of work to sort of keep reaching out to town staff and town leaders and and keep
this sort of climate action plan on on the agenda broadly. Uh there's a lot of work to um I'm working on one one grant application right now. That's a lot of work, right?
So I am definitely with Matt that I think we really for this to take off we ultimately need to bring more people into the work. uh and and people don't just show up for work unless you uh reach out to them with a compelling
message about why the work is worth their time, right? So, I think having having a group kind of focused on well, how do we do that uh in in a more um organized way I think is necessary. I I
want to take back what I said earlier that we can't do both at the same time. I think um I don't think we can just do plan refinement and and expect it to to go anywhere. But I I also don't think you can do
effective outreach or fundraising decoupled from implementation, right? Because if you go and ask for money, they say for what, right? To do something, right? Um, so I mean it sounds like we've got a couple of us who are sort of really
wanting to focus focus in on specific projects and I think that's fine. I've certainly done that. Um, but I would love to uh get a a a working group uh assembled to kind of map out what we need to do um
for fundraising, for recruiting, and for uh targeted outreach. uh not super general, but like Hail said, you know, I think to to bring people in, you need to let them know uh what what the successes
have been and what the next success might be, right? Well, I think it might be good to like reach out a bit more. This might be the scattershot thing that we were kind of not liking, but like to let a lot more town people know what we're doing because I do I did feel like the 92%
vote. >> Yeah. >> That there could be like more people out there and who knows what sort of skills they have and they're just, you know, busy people, but they're like this climate action planning committee kind of like what I was before I joined. That's interesting. I want to know what they're doing. I'm, you know, they might
have some skills. So I would see at some point maybe having some sort offormational meeting that anyone could go to. >> I agree with that. I think I think there there's some preparatory work that would support that or support a
social media campaign um of just saying hey what if you in the plan that we've written so far what are some of the key messages, recommendations, calls to action that we want broader awareness of
>> there could be some points that people in town have like some interests some things that that they would like the committee to focus in on and they you know we are sort of working for everyone so >> right like I I think my my feeling about
perfect plan refinement is that I don't want to refine a plan that nobody's reading uh so the the couple times that I've dipped into the plan to add things or make changes since we did the first draft had been because Nick Kolano had a
question about something I wanted to answer this question, you know, and um if if we can do a kind of outreach where we're starting to get organic feedback from people who who feel that this affects them,
then there will be more uh sort of organic demand for improvements to the plan. And that would be the time to pivot in my mind. But now we're going to go get that engagement. So who uh
just to to tie a bow on this since we have a little more time left. uh who would like to be I will send an email around to set up a conversation about outreach, recruiting, fundraising
uh and try to get organized on that. Who who does not want to be on that general that okay? All right. Excellent. Steve, which which camp do you land in?
>> I I'm more of wanting to be on the implementation side of things. I want to I want to do things and I'm looking for who are the partners, you know, if if we want to change how we buy things or how we think about infrastructure in town,
we need town partners in in involved here. in. So, >> so there's a little outreach to do there, but more more like personto person. >> Yeah. >> So, I think that's fine. So, Ron Hill and and Steve for focused on sort of
moving specific things in the plan forward. Um, everyone else, I will I'll send an email about setting up a meeting to uh plan some next steps for outreach and fundraising uh and supporting
the implementation efforts really are on Steve just one one comment I mean the municipal decarbonization road map is you know getting resources to complete that is
currently on on price plate I know I think there's solid buyin to complete the climate leader communities certification and that leaves the um zero emission vehicle first policy Um
and somebody needs to push that along. I get the sense that the town fully is do it. Um but uh you know helping with connecting to uh I I don't know how much
fleet planning they intend to do as part of making that commitment like getting from where we are today to a a fully zero emission vehicle fleet for the town is like
pretty long long-term complex undertaking. So whether you know whether you sort of put the policy in place and then sort it out as as things come up over time or whether we want to do more proactive
long-term planning, I think it would be great to have somebody from the committee engaging the town on that. >> Yeah. And and I think there's a so yes and I think there's a connection there with for example you were talking about the grants and so maybe
as the fleet has to uh replace itself maybe we look for grants that put the gap between you know an ICE and an electri electrified vehicle um for example. >> Excellent. Thanks everybody. Um so final
final topic is circling back to the the eco onetop grant opportunities that have already been mentioned. Um so I um think I mentioned in the last meeting or
before that submitted an expression of interest for um grant funding to secure consulting support for our committee. Um
and uh and specifically focused on uh completing a robust uh public and town stakeholder engagement process. Uh I think that having having professional
support will make that uh a lot easier. that that seems to be what the the the consultants in this space um one thing that they're strong at and then
the the towns that work with consulting support when you when you look at the uh the acknowledgement pages of their plan like the number of people they manage involved in in getting the plan done are much larger than we've been able to engage so far. Um
so uh that expression of interest I had a feedback session on um and it was very helpful. Um so in in the past uh I've seen climate action plans funded by the uh MDP action grants. That's municipal
vulnerabil vulnerability preparedness program grants and also um EA land use planning grants. And so now only the EA planning grants uh cover climate action
planning. Uh and so the they advised me to focus on preparing an application for that specific program. Um and that what they'll really be looking for is a u a detailed scope and budget
um for that plan. they they you know said reach out to consultants now basically and start putting that together in partnership um with you know potential partner for the project uh and you know good
consultant should know exact exactly what to do. So, um, since then I've been, uh, reaching out to the select board and and the town administrator's office trying to get them engaged because they they will need to approve at least, but
hopefully also be involved in preparing a grant application. Um, I have solicited feedback on consultants that other towns have worked with through a couple list serves that I'm on. um she recommended I join the mass planners list serve which
is something you guys could do as well if you're interested. Um it's a an email list that um town planners from towns around the state asked each other inside baseball questions on. It's really kind of fascinating to watch. Um
mostly not about clean energy but also about clean energy. uh and then I reached out to MAPC uh which they uh recommended is you know a very good kind of baseline quote uh you should work with them to to work on a
project scope. So I I have a meeting with um MAPC's uh clean energy directors tomorrow at 11 um to discuss kicking that off. And if anybody would like to join that meeting
just let me know um and I can add you And uh I think also when we get a working group together on fundraising, I would I would welcome any any support on moving this forward. Um I think we'll need to,
you know, get on the agenda for the select board at some point. Um, and I would love to uh get town staff outside this committee a little more involved in the process and just having having more people
pulling on that would always be helpful. Um, so the other uh the other one I submitted on behalf of Hail, I have not heard back yet. Um when I got when I did the first um feedback
session, I asked about it whether we were going to be talking about both or just that one. She said uh they're they're kind of processing them in the order they came in and they they obviously got a lot. Um so they're kind of working through them in the order they were received. Um I know the the other two were submitted right before
the deadline, so it might be a little while. I don't know. um might be worth uh reaching out to them just to to make sure everything's on track and our and our turn is coming up.
Um the the the application deadlines for a lot of these grants are late January, early February. Uh, and you know, it takes a it takes multiple meetings to get a a grant application together and it's hard to
schedule meetings at all. So, I think it's it's a good time to start uh being a squeaky wheel. Any any questions, comments? >> I'd be happy to turn that around to you. Okay.
Alex, who who would I reach out to in the state to get a read on the uh EOI that you submitted? >> Um I'm not sure and I I can do that since I submitted it. Um
I would go to the Eco1top page and scroll down looking for contact emails. >> Okay. because they the feedback session was with the um the person
you know leading the grant program that I was matched with and I think because we don't know exactly if what's the right grant program for for your proposal um
you know could go through email all the the grant program leaders one by one that feels inefficiency there's a there's a a central inbox to reach out to >> okay is there an a specific identifier
for the grant that you submitted >> uh not that I'm not that I know of >> okay >> I'll have to check >> it was a it was like a Microsoft form all this Microsoft stuff. >> Yeah.
>> A weird weird fact of the the Google Analytics. >> Yeah. >> All right. >> Well, any any more comments before we wrap up for the evening? Well, thank you for all the work you're
doing to keep this community moving. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Appreciate you all being here. >> And uh with that uh should anybody wish to move to adjourn and we would not be unwelcome.
>> When is the next meeting? >> What's that? the next meeting date. Are we meeting in December? >> That is um an excellent question to ask at the end of the meeting. Um our normal our sort of regularly
scheduled um time would be Thursday the 18th of December, which is my mother's birthday. Um though we're we're having the party
before so probably free. Um does that time work for everybody else? >> I really should have made another plan for that. >> I forgot to check the calendar. >> It's okay. Um anyone
anyone else have a conflict? Okay. Okay. So far so good. So we'll keep it on the 18th for now. Um and so we have a motion to adjurnn from Kim. Any second? >> Second.
>> Second. >> Seconds. All in favor? >> I. All oppose. >> All right. Ron, that wasn't opposition, was it? >> No. No. >> This meeting is ajourned everyone. Uh
>> thanks everyone. Thank you. Please have a restful and >> happy Thanksgiving to all. >> Happy Thanksgiving. >> Happy Thanksgiving. >> Thank you. Same to you.