Sustainability Commission

SUSTAINABILITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE (SAC) Meeting Minutes: Sept 2, 2021 Attending: Daniel Kirk-Davidoff (Secretary, Outreach), Jason West (Energy Manager, non- voting), Gabriella Cebada Mora (Vice Chair, Water, presiding), Laura Gulfo (Law Dept), Andre Lake (Environmental Equity), Pete Sheehan (Energy), Bill Trudeau (Traffic Engineering), Lauren Alpert (Planning Department), Hyde Clark (Outreach), Scott Kellogg (Urban Ag), Harriet Lewis (Transportation), Joe Coffey (Water Department) Absent: Frank Zeoli (DGS), Randy Milano (Engineering), Jackie Gonzales (Environmental Equity), Tina Lieberman (Chair, Zero Waste Education). 1. Regular Business ● Gaby Cebada Mora called the event to order at 6:01 pm. ● June 3, 2021, July 5, and August 7 Minutes: approved ● Public comment period (meeting was open to the public via the Mayor’s Office of Energy & Sustainability Facebook page and the Sustainable Albany Facebook page and via emails to sac@albanyny.gov or Sustainability@albanyny.gov): No comments. 2. New business  New Open Meetings on-line legislation signedauthorizationby Governor Hochul. Laura reported that w (Laura). We will be able to continue to meet online through January 15, 2022.  Energy subcommittee letter of support for the Sheridan Hollow/Mansion Geothermal project. Letter is included with the minutes. It’s in reference to a proposal by Aztech Geothermal, National Grid and the Grey Edge Group ’s proposal in response to NYSERDA PON 4614, seeking funding for a planning study for projects to provide clean heating and cooling to Albany neighborhoods. The proposal aims to capture heat from discharge water from Empire State Plaza for the Mansion neighborhood, and potentially exploring wastewater heat recovery from other sewage lines in the area as well as proposing geothermal for Sheridan Hollow. Letter has been sent, signed by Pete and Tina and members of the Energy Subcommittee.  Budget proposals. Andre requests $500 for video editing. This would be the vendor: https://www.manonproductionsllc.com/#/. $250-$300 for printing and other tabling supplies. Approved.  Clean Energy Communities Campaign (Hyde). Hyde is working on a scoping document for our work to gain credit towards the Clean Energy Community grants from NYSERDA. Get in touch with Hyde at edwardhydeclarke@gmail.com , and he will share the document. Pete will get in touch with Hyde to get access for Energy Subcommittee members. Laura and Lauren requests access. Gaby suggests that Hyde share the letter with the full committee. Hyde requests that all comments and contribution be entered in the next two weeks (by September 17).  Commissioner Reports 1  o Joe Coffey (Water): Roll-out of lead water service replacement grant program. Rep. Tonko and the local EPA head showed up for the roll-out. Albany is the only community doing this proactively, rather than in response to a consent decree or other enforcement action. If the Federal infrastructure bill passes, more resources should become available, but the Water Department has allocated $2 million dollars from the latest bond release to this project for now. See: https://www.albanyny.gov/DocumentCenter/View/2315/Lead-Water-Service- Replacement-Program---Frequently-Asked-Questions-PDF. The Department is looking at code changes and other approaches to encourage this process and make it easier for low-income households to accomplish. Beaver Creek project is proceeding, tunnel machine has broken through from lower to upper tunnel entrance. Public meeting was held to present results on community input tofor future use of regraded lower field. Soccer was the most favored use. Aim is to have the lower field graded and seeded and ready for play in the Spring. The community’s input is up on the public website: https://www.albanyny.gov/455/Beaver-Creek-Clean-River-Project . Looking for funding for additional flood mitigation work in the lower Sheridan area and in the Hackett Blvd area. o Traffic Engineering (Bill Trudeau): Received first two electric trucks. New traffic lights are bagged up because we’re waiting on parts that are on back- order. Working on figuring out alternative ways to get around resource chain issues (mostly computer chips). Will be using federal funding for pedestrian safety improvements (~$750,000) on Henry Johnson, and a few other important pedestrian corridors.  Subcommittee reports o Environmental Equity (Andre): Working on an elevator speech to recruit more volunteers. Looking to cooperate with the Outreach subcommittee on getting interns. o Outreach (Dan): The SAC Outreach subcommittee tonight met and discussed the following topics.  Weatherization volunteer corps. Mary Ellen has done a ton of work organizing information about what the corps could learn and do, but for the corps to function we need money for materials and we need to line up more potential help recipients. Dan has written to Jason to see about the possibility of getting $5000 for materials from the City. We discussed having a U. Albany student intern who would work on outreach to Albany High School. (Dan will restart efforts to get in touch with HS administrators and teachers before the semester starts.) Dan will also pick up loose ends around finding homeowners or renters (with landlord buy-in) who could use weatherization assistance. Will talk to West Hill refugee assistance folks about this also.  Outreach on EVs. Howard ( hkibrick@nycap.rr.com ) has been doing outreach to farmers markets and other venues where EV 2  demonstrations might be possible and Lukee (lukeeforbes0@gmail.com ) had a bunch of good thoughts about how to motivate dealers to cooperate with us towards our goal of documenting additional EV sales in the City. Howard and Lukee will talk with each other about how to move forward.  We reviewed outreach opportunities at street fairs and farmers’ markets- we need volunteers to join the Solid Waste reduction folks at tables to hand out literature on energy efficiency, EVs and discuss all of the SAC's activities at street fairs and block parties coming up in the fall.  Dan and Carolyn, a member of the Outreach Subcommittee, and I will talk offline about resilience and adaptation to Climate change and ways to engage the community on these topics. o Transportation (Harriet): She’s working on setting up meetings, hoping to start this month. o Energy (Pete): Haven’t met in six weeks. Plan going forward: meetings will be third Tuesday of the month, September – December. Looking again at the CLCPA Energy Efficiency guidance. Will look at Hyde’ Clean Energy Community application and contribute to that. Awaiting guidance on priorities from subcommittee members. o Water (Gaby): The water subcommittee is looking to identify clear actions and milestones to more tangibly assist the AWD. The focus will be outreach and education and working across committees, particularly with Outreach and Education and Equity. Target outreach and education areas: flooding and storm water, climate change, lead water pipe replacement, and community awareness of AWD projects. Joe pointed out the connections between the lead service projects and the Equity committee. o Agriculture (Scott): Finishing out a very busy growing season, but nothing particular to report. Joe wants us all to note Water Department employee Laura Rose’s butterfly sanctuary as a great example of all the projects around the city that individuals have taken on with little external support. 3. Adjournment: Event adjourned at 7:30 pm. Next meeting is Thursday, October 7, 2021, by Zoom. Minutes prepared by Daniel Kirk-Davidoff, September 2, 2021 3