##VIDEO ID:jvsYTPw7T18## e e e e e e e e e e e e e right welcome everybody I would like to call to order the energy awareness Commission meeting for Tuesday November 12th 2024 um we're going to change it up a little bit here first um as the mayor had something to say so I will welcome the mayor up first and then we will go from there thank you as a mayor it's always a great pleasure to for me to serve the community of new Al but even greater than that is all the people that step up to serve on the 17 boards and commissions of the city of New Al sharing their time and their talent willing to come in and make decisions and decisions aren't always easy to make you want a simple decision of yes or no but when there's debate and there's a bit of controversy it's always a another story if you will so I applaud all of you for serving on the commission as volunteers but today it's all about Jordy and uh sharing your time and Talent with the city and the leadership that you have provided want to extend great appreciation to you and this isn't a swan song for Jordy because he's already agreed to go on yet another commission of the city of newal so we will continue to benefit from his leadership but at this time I'd like to present you with recognition recognition award for your dedicated service thank you to the city and look forward to continuing to work working with you thank you yes my pleasure my pleasure yep thank Youk you yes thank you um it's been fun it's been great it's been a pleasure and I look forward to what the future brings and helping out on another commission so thank you y what is it 12 years seems like it you had your your two terms and you jumped in for someone else when they left 20 20 April 2016 through end of this year so y so it's been a while yeah yep so yeah cuz I started with filling in for a term and then kept going after that so yep good so yep no it's been great no you've helped me out a lot also so I appreciate it yeah no you're welcome I'm glad I've been able to help and it's been great to interact with with everybody as well so all right with that said then um we will go on to our first item which is the approval of our meeting minutes from May 14th 2024 move okay second have a motion in second to approve our meeting minutes for May 14 2024 any other questions or discussion right all in favor say I I opposed motion carries next up then is reports from officers boards and commissions um so whenever Derek is ready we have our CIP statement in activity Okay so we've had a few It's been a few months um since we've had a meeting so there's been a lot of activity um I guess we'll start just with um usually um about this time is when the public utilities approves their um the budget so but unfortunately we haven't had that yet so I can't share anything with the 2025 budget um but as us ual it's it's it's um come I put it together based on the savings needed for the for the next year so it'll be it's similar to the this last year of this 2024 um but as of right now we have a remaining balance of $196,000 uh but we've rebated $220,000 so we're doing okay um it would be nice if it was a little bit lower um but as you see in uh the next paragraph on the agenda I have some uh dollar amounts for some rebates that we've given some of those weren't included with that remaining balance so I'll just discuss some of these um rebates that we've we've issued the last month and a half so a lot of these were issued in October and the early part of November a lot of them were some restaurants and bars that had gotten some new equipment um which is what I've been trying to get out to these locations that are our customers CU we don't have rebates set up on our website to just focus on those rebates just because they don't happen that often right um so as I go and I discuss items with these places I consistently mention you know we can work and get you rebates for appliances stoves coolers things like that so a lot of these um there's a few on here that are around a, ,000 doll and that's for what they're for for commercial appliances um which is something that I've been trying to push the last few years and then there's some other bigger rebates for air compressors and uh vfds so variable frequency drives and then we also I just dropped off a check for the one bullet item which is the third one down on the list which was for 4,66 so that was probably the biggest check that I've issued at once it was kind of a big deal um that was actually something going to probably put in the newsletter that was up at the college they've done a lot of the last year or so year and a half um a lot of work on their boilers lighting more variable frequency drives a lot of HVAC work so we went through and did pretty much a walk through of a lot of facilities and did you know kind of a an audit walked around see what was new what they knew you know obviously things that they know they've done but also look to see you know what we thought was new and you know question them about it to see if that's something they haven't thought of and so we go back get invoices gather the savings and kind of come up with um a rebate for them so I dropped that off today to the College president and so yeah what's nice about these rebates which I think think is important is when especially for the commercial customers they're investing this money you know maybe to help their bottom line too but the conservative energy and something that they mentioned which I think is pretty good and I think other people should consider is they're going to be they're plan is to reinvest that money into more efficiency right so consistently trying to conserve that energy lower cost and eventually you know save money I didn't bring the report along but that this first Year's savings was you know tens of thousands of dollars they're going to be saving just by doing that so that along with the rebate dollar amount helps with the Payback right of those Investments so um that's kind of what hopefully my article turns into for the next newsletter to help show that they've done a lot of work there's rebate money available you know so um other than that the usual the uh statement of the the programs is is listed in the agenda item so unless somebody had particular questions regarding a a program that's about all I had for that item do you have any idea um how many businesses I don't know how how you approach people to to redo things are are a lot of the places is doing that I mean some do um sometimes it's hard you say a new business opens up downtown and I'll stop in check out the store but also you know make the utilities presence known um a lot of times they don't own the building just the business so it's kind of gets tricky that way um but definitely the commercial large commercial and Industrial customers should know you know that's why sometimes couple things in the newsletter hoping that they catch it in the newsletter you know different means that way do you go talk talk to the chamber ever about it um I don't know how big their meetings are but you know if people no I mean but I've done you know um did we discuss that Teresa with the League of Women Voters that time there's been different I can't remember well we talk there's yeah I mean there's I've never talked to the the chamber um committee or board I should say that way no I just thought that would be a way to connect with them sure yep okay I I had some questions it's on the income statement and I apologize for being light so these questions may have been answered if this says period ending November 30th does that mean you're anti This truly you won't not it's just the way the software kicks it out I had to put a a date frame in there so it could be November 2 is going to say November 30th even though sure yeah it's just the way it so we have two months really left of spending yes and 196,197 today you know it's never to date it's always technically incorrect from even the the next following day so there's there's some of these rebates you know there could be another $30,000 left of that I did 25 rebates today and I'm not even through so that number is always that's why you know in years past January and February of that next year I'm still talking about the prior items because we're still processing stuff from that following the re good is that I would hate to have 196 that yeah and then for the items that have overspent is that a problem given that there are several items that are UND spent no the reason why I allow those to go over is because for example this one is can't see I was trying to look to see if there was like a gas one okay we have well for anyone say it's there's residential lighting rebate 169 so there's say there's $270,000 put into all the programs that are electric if I would just stop at you know residential lighting I'd be missing out on capturing savings from that program when technically all those electrical programs I I to me fall under that 270 okay so really I use that as gauging you know how popular they are kind of also and whatnot to me it's always the overall budget so potentially we'll get more even but it's not a problem to overspend in some and underspend in others because comes out of the pot for yeah electrical okay right yeah so it's pretty much as long as that remaining isn't in a so right on the on the balance sheet it's 196k if that's negative then I didn't do a good job yeah but individual um programs it's not a big issue I I don't turn people away for that anymore sure in years past we did because that was just a thinking now it's different yeah and is there anything that this team can do I guess it kind of goes to dab a little bit to your question about ensuring that businesses and residential customers are aware of the rebates Beyond I know it's advertised in the newsletter and there have been you know we did a New Alm Forum on it and um I think we've tabled I don't know if there's are more is there like a Welcome Wagon where we could it a lot of times it comes down to um you know and I don't know if anything had to do with some things that the elections were going on if some people were slowing down a little bit until they knew what was going on it comes down to really the industrial customers and the large commercial customers cu the residential customers alone aren't going to take all these funds and capture the savings needed so it's really up to them and I write to them you know throughout the year especially during and in the year now I really push and say have you done anything if I have a large amount of money so it's kind of up to them to report those issues but that's another thing of what I haven't necessarily been advertising but I'll call up and we'll do this type of audit like we did at the college or you know whatever you done you know well we're looking to do this you know and you talk it's like well how about we try this and we'll go and we'll look at things and you start looking you start seeing things and you realize you know over the last year maybe two years at the most we've done all this stuff and I can capture that savings so the savings from just a college alone was like 800 or 900,000 kilowatt hours that's over half of what we need at one facility mhm so it's going and doing more things like that we went to the brewery so we have yet to find out stuff going on there so it's kind of really taking the initiative more than we obviously waiting for them to come to us but for us to start going to them much more aggressively and what about public buildings such as the library or I guess the historical society's not public I mean it's a not for profit but so any any any government building can get a rebate um except for the utility so uh because you can't rebate yourself so I mean if we had a facility like a natural gas facility they're building that did lighting we could probably rebate them because that Department's not putting funds into the electric rebates same with you know the Ed Ed building needs a water heater they could probably be if they buy a gas one they could probably get a rebate for a gas water heater because they don't put into the natural gas funds so yeah I mean really pretty much anybody's eligible to get a rebate that's a customer of utility or the apartments Garden Terrace or yep they've gotten rebates before MH yep yeah I mean the park and wreck has gotten um rebates before um I don't know if it was two years ago we did an audit at the Fieldhouse like we had done at the college I think they I can't remember $14,000 check or something maybe they got or 20 i' had to go back and look but yep so Derek how is the holiday LED lighting going you still getting demand for that or um has it kind of there's been a handful of people yeah that's like every other year okay so I don't know if it's every other year the squirrels get people's lighting outside and they come in and they get you know there's been years where I'll get chamber dollars and I have a th you know $1,200 left and then the next year I got to I use some I use that and then I go get more so it's kind of okay which is why I usually budget like 2,000 and it's yeah and soon as I get chamber dollars then this gets take you know wiped out so yeah no I was just curious because I was like if we have there's money left you know if that if you can capture savings and there's a demand you know maybe you could do that more but I'm also guessing too there's probably quite a few that have made that transition already to LED slats probably and yeah and that's the same with the commercial lighting um you know last year when I reported I think we had 700 800,000 kilowatt hours for lighting and that's really low usually that's I'm getting 70% of my savings overall savings I need for the state is coming from res you know Commercial Lighting so that was down quite a bit for I assume that's part of the reason people a lot of people have switched over not everybody but a lot of people have any other questions otherwise I'd be looking for a motion to approve the CIP statement I have a um I don't know if it fits in here or not how are we doing as far as the um the car charging stations do we are do we have enough or are they being used you know has there been a request from more of them well there's I mean there's more in town that I think people realize cuz well just recently I mean you had the utility oned off of German Street um with the Volkswagen settlement money um the city received the one outside of just right over here in the parking parking lot um Chuck SP Ford has one um I think I think Jensen M have said I mean I think at least three car dealerships have them oh okay yeah so I'm not but I'm not I don't know the usage on those the ones that utility in the city own they get they get usage it's not like it's not a lot but they get usage yeah I just wonder how that going yep I move approval of the CIP statement and activity report okay I have a motion in second to approve the VIP statement and activity report any other questions or discussion all in favor say I I oppos motion carries we do not have any old business this month so we'll move right on to new business and the first one is green step City's best practice 6.1 adopt the comprehensive plan I know we've talked about that several times but now that that has been adopted we can continue on with that um Derek yeah as Jordy mentioned you know that was adopted by city council um so that is something that is a major component of the green step cities there's a lot that I have here obviously um I'm not going to read through all of it but everything in bold um is things that I found within the comp comprehensive plan that um is specifically mentioned within this best practice so and this is these are the items that I'm going to send off to Green step City's coordinator um such as you know in infill a new projects um open spaces and parks and areas so I have kind of cut and paste different aspects within the comp plan to show them that we're meeting a lot of the um what they're asking within the comp plan also included will be the comp plan and I'm going to also include The Zing ordinance which I think was adopted in 2022 um which has some updated material in there that's also um mentioned in the comp plan so I don't know if anybody had a chance to look at it if they had any questions about um the items that I chose to put in there or if you had a chance to look at that best that best practice but I I feel it's going to meet the the criteria of what they're looking for yeah I think it's a good fit I was at I think T I think you were there too at one of the open houses for it and um John and I were talking about actually quite a few of the things that you pulled out and relating that back to that best practice so it just seems that there's a lot of things in there that that should qualify yeah yeah I I mean in each of the Bold statements you know I have like land use housing goals and strategies Transportation utilities they're all things that are specifically mentioned Within in the best practice of what they're you know looking for to capture from within you know within the city's comprehensive plan any other questions or discussion I'll make the motion to approve green step City's best practice 6.1 second okay a motion and second to approve green step St City's best practice one which is dealing with the comprehensive plan any other questions or discussion all in favor say I iOS motion carries next item on the agenda is to receive an order filed notification on sustainability committee and energy awareness commission so during uh 2024 the city of New Alm engaged Bolton m to develop a strategic plan for the city one of the themes of the plan was sustainability going forward the city has taking first steps in a newly formed sustainability committee uh yet to be named I don't know if it it will be named sustainability committee or not uh but the committee will consist that community members looking to find ways and direct the community community and sustainability R and renew renewable energy and worthwhile efforts to guide future Generations in the community with this uh beginning in 2025 the city of New Al is planning to dissolve the energy awareness commission the main purpose of the EAC was to help establish and guide the utilities conservation Improvement program as you are aware uh the Sip has been established for numerous years and evolves on its own through Minnesota Department of Commerce mandates and state statute changes so if there's any current members of the energy awareness Commission that are interested in being part of the new committee um I encourage you to talk to Mayor backer and put your name in the Hat to join that new U committee that they're looking to form so as you know sustainability is pretty broad word um but that's that's what they're looking for I think what the city manager is looking to do with it is to be Community FOC I mean not only Community Focus but the committee to be the driving force of that so it may be something I'm involved in with a part as you know um kind of sitting on the sidelines along with other city employees but U I guess more to come I've heard a little bit of some ideas but I don't know if it's set in stone yet it's something that I think will go to the city council possibly February so it's not it's not for certain yet but it needs to be voted on and approved upon so yep would it be the um intent well would the committee oversee green step cities since the plan I think so yeah I think it would be a big portion of their well I don't know if it's a big Port it would be part of a lot or or they they can use it as a manual or to get grab ideas from whether or not they follow it you know as gospel I guess you could say is up up up up to them you know that's kind of the whole point is if the community wants this then they can have a larger voice I'm not even sure if it it would be necessarily um underneath city council or not I'm not sure not sure I'm not sure is It's Kind like I said it's kind of more to come mayor did you have something some further information to Enlighten us at this point I can't really give you additional information we've had conversation about this body and and the role that you have played and we know that we have an obligation um under the state of Minnesota I believe it's 2040 when we look at yeah uh so there's there's that goal out there to be you know sustainable energy and we would like to expand the the role of this a commission and rather than having an energy awareness commission and a sustainability we thought it made sense to to have them be one and the same uh and so our work now for us is to establish how many members would sit on that commission how they go about about appointing them and then what their responsibilities are so that's still in the works but we know what will happen and it will happen in early part of 2025 thank you yes who will draft that sort of committee job description if you will or commission I believe that that'll come out of the city manager's office with input from others got it yeah and that would include Chris manderfeld from the Pu as well as Derek and others that have been involved in the process uh but I do know that uh one of the things that was emphasized is that it be community-driven and we want Buy in from the community and those of you who know that when you sit on commissions you are really not only the Shepherds and and leaders but you then um basically have a network of people that you impress and share information and so I believe that the commission will probably be larger than the the five that we presently have Sitting but I can't say that for sure that's just my impression right I guess that's yeah that's that's impression I gotten as well yes so this is our last meeting and are we having a party well we don't have a party after this we can get together and have a party yeah yeah I wasn't um I knew that this was going to occur um but it wasn't until I was drafting this Friday that I was told to to put this on the agenda so I wasn't really prepared for it to I mean it makes sense so it kind of was sooner than what I thought but yeah but I do I I stress that if you're interested to put you know let the mayor know I think from what I've gathered and I can't say you know for sure but I'm not sure if there's even going to be pu members or city council members sitting on it at least from what I've gathered in initial talks it's literally the community is is is kind of trying to be the driving force to be continued and as Derek says it seems a bit premature and that we haven't officially uh approved the Strategic plan and that's still out there but I think the the intent was to make sure that the members sitting here are aware that there uh is going to be a shift uh and it it just seems like it um is a good use of of time of our volunteers not to have the two commissions sitting next to each other and we also uh Beyond looking at the sustainability commission we're also exploring all other uh we have 17 boards and commissions and we're looking at uh the value of them as far as do we roll some of them into other commissions and have adoc ad hoc appointments just to deal with certain aspects of that particular commission uh and then the number of people some commissions have 11 and 12 persons sitting on them and we're looking at uh whether or not that is something that we want to continue so it's not just the energy awareness commission that we're looking at the only reason this one is singled out is because sustainability is such an important piece going forward uh and that's the one we've been looking at first when if you remember back to I can't remember which best practice it is um but there is actually best practice in the green step that deals with Community involvement so then you're tying back into to that with the green steps so it's a great step forward with that so and I think in a lot of communities um from what I'm looking at a lot of different of what other communities have done and how it there is someone maybe from a city that submits things and whatnot but it's that green step cities is commun I mean it's like it's a group of community members leading the effort that's not so much the city but telling the city and asking the city to to do the best practices within it just a an observation if this is en tied to the city formally I would be a little concerned that some of the goals in the Strategic plan including continuation of the green step cities and monitoring isn't as accountable perhaps um as it might be if it were an official City commission or I'm not saying it's not an it w't be official City commission um if you notice these meetings and some of the other meetings there's someone from the city or Public Utilities maybe sometimes leading the meeting yeah like I think I told Jordy before the meeting started it could be myself or maybe depending on who this commission would want to speak to they they're more in control that's the way I see this they're they're the ones in control which they should be any other questions or discussion otherwise I'll be looking for a motion on that to receive an order filed okay um I'll make the motion to receive an order filed file notification on sustainability committee and energy awareness commission okay you had okay so we have a motion in second to receive an order file notification on sustainability committee for energy awareness commission any other questions or discussion right all in favor say I I I post MO motion carries any other commissioner comments I'll just again say thank you one more time um since this is my last last meeting um thank you everybody for your effort and volunteering your time and everything you've all the meetings you've come to and all that and thank you Derek for always preparing everything and being ready prepared to answer all the questions to get tossed at you so yeah thank you um any other otherwise is with that it be move adjournment yeah motion second Motion in second to adjourn all in favor say I CL motion carries thank you everybody