Energy Committee

By City Clerk at 2:31 pm, Oct 16, 2023 AMESBURY CITY HALL 62 Friend Street Amesbury, MA 01913 Amesbury Energy Committee January 12th, 2023 @ 5:00pm Municipal Development Center 39 South Hunt Road Amesbury, MA 01913 Members Present: Angela Cleveland, Barbara Lorenc, Nate Mallard, Nancy Maynes, Bill Messner, Tony Rinaldi. Absent: Mike Browne, Michael Hogg 1. Meeting called to order at 5:06 2. Minutes from December 8th, 2022 held for revision and approval in February 3. Public Comment: none 4. Communications: • Angie reported that the Department of Public Works (DPW) director resigned at the end of December. Amesbury is one of a number of communities to be part of a project to examine electrifying municipal fleets – the MA Advisory Fleet Services Program, through National Gride. They will assess our entire fleet; Angie has sent a list of our fleet. This program will provide ideas, recommendations, and suggest replacements for ageing cars and trucks. The Energy Committee agrees that we will monitor and assist DPW with this project. • Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report: Action: Tony will collect our comments, collate them and pass to Angie, who will incorporate them. 5. Existing Business: • There has been no word yet on municipal aggregation. Tony will contact State Auditor Diana DiZoglio, Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll, and state Sen. Barry Finegold to try to accelerate the process, and determine status. • Budget review: can we get involved from an energy perspective and how do we do that? If we want to help change the direction we need to be involved in looking at the capital budget, because that’s where money is allocated. Angie  doesn’t get involved in the capital plan, because that’s mostly DPW. The first round is due next Friday, an initial discussion with Mayor Gove and Marissa Batista, Amesbury CFO. The 2nd round end of Feb/early March when each of the directors have to put in their own budgets. Peter Manor (acting director of DPW) will be compiling their budget. Angie suggests meeting with directors in February to help them connect the dots, remind them that we can be a resource, build trust. Reference the Decarbonization report to assist: transforming our transportation, heating benchmarks, etc. First meeting might be more consultative, Meet and Greet, asking questions about how they build their budgets and what is included rather than prescriptive to begin. Budget book is online to look at for last year...budgets only include anticipated replacements but not emergency/unforeseen purchases School Committee, Police and Fire Departments and DPW are the top departments. Action: Tony will ask Joan LiPorto for the capital budget. Action: Tony will meet with directors to start the process. • Surveys online to complete: infrastructure. The Energy Committee needs to add to the survey to discuss and promote sustainability, our value-add is how do we do this in the most environmentally-friendly and resistant manner? 6. New Business: Mayor asks us can we take responsibility for recycling. The DPW has neither the manpower nor the interest in recycling and the circular economy, and Mayor Gove is very interested. Action: Angie will forward the email from the DEP (Department of Environmental Protection). A major problem with recycling is that we have single-stream waste, and if there is any contamination an entire bin is wasted and has to be burned. The Energy Committee has unanimously agreed to research the issue. Action: The Energy Committee will invite the members of other departments to brainstorm with us to set our goals. Discussion of composting facility, areas suitable for that (near ‘composting/yard waste’ area on S. Hunt Road? 7. Adjourn at (we didn’t officially adjourn since Angie left early) Notes to be completed in minutes: Solar panels on Middle school. Mayor has been talking to....Kearsarge Development. All of our credits are maxxed out. No more solar credits can be attributed to us, per the state. 80% cap on – they’re protecting Nat Grid. If energy is not controlled or going into a transmission station. All accounts are assigned, even we’re assigning traffic lights for credits. They recommend that the credits go to low-income housing, or that we lease it... ARPA stimulus plan Am Rescue plan Act needs to be allocated and contracts signed by the end of the year. Southampton NY is selling credits back to low-income residents, so we aere going to look at their contracts and model our