Green Team

MMGT APRIL MINUTES Morgantown Green Team: Minutes of the April 4, 2016 Meeting Attending: Joey James (Chair), Holly Purpura (Friends of Decker’s Creek and YTGG), Amanda Stoner (City Recycling Intern), Chelsi Baker (City Liaison, Communications), Jim Kotcon (Energy Committee), Karen Kalafat (Energy Committee), Jenny Selin and Bill Kawecki (City Council), Jing Zhang (MMMPO), Pam Cubberly (Green Morgantown and YTGG), Steven Woodruff, and Ella Belling (Mon River Trail Conservancy). I. Old Business  Parks levy. Ella Belling again urged the team to do whatever it could to reinforce the talking points that she had put together in support of the parks levy. The team considered sending a letter from the Green Team to the Dominion Post on the benefits of all five levies on quality of life in Morgantown. Action: Jim Kotcon offered to draft such a letter for team review. Acton: Pam Cubberly said she would ask the Farmer’s Market manager if a table on the green-related levies could be included in the Green Households Fair. [Pam later found out that the market had decided to not permit any politically related tables.]  Recycling. Amanda Stoner reported that she and Jim Kotcon distributed the ad for a City Recycling Intern again as no one had responded to the first ad. [Note: Amanda has since decided not to go abroad this summer and is able to continue serving as City Recycling Intern, leaving more time to recruit a replacement by the fall.] Amanda asked the team for specific assistance in obtaining the information needed to fill out the application for state funds for recycling education, whose deadline is July 1 this year. If the grant is awarded, it would run from January 2017 through February 2018. Action: It was agreed that Amanda or the new intern, Tom Arnold, Jim Kotcon, and possibly City Engineer Damien Davis (if approved by Jeff Mikorski) could form the working group to fill out and submit the proposal to the state. Amanda noted that the application could cover, not only recycling education, but such items as vertipac recycling compacters. She asked whether the team should include the latter. Action: The team decided to only apply for recycling education. The team also discussed the need for an accurate list of dos and don’ts on recycling in the City’s single-stream program, especially as one was needed for distribution at the April 23 Green Households Fair. Republic Services had sent Pam some one-sided, full-color instructions that all agreed were not clear or comprehensive and should not be distributed. Several persons had tried to get updated information from Republic Services to no avail. Ella Belling suggested that someone just call Greenstar directly for this information. Action: Pam offered to contact Greenstar to get a list of what can and cannot be recycled.   Data on energy savings through performance contract. Jim Kotcon reported that he still had not received the requested energy use information from the city.  Proposed hydropower dam (Ella Belling & Jim Kotcon). The City of Morgantown had filed a letter to FERC. There will be more public meetings in the fall.  Sustainable Morgantown Initiative. Joey James presented some data on results from Phase III of the initiative. The Solar Co-op has installed an estimated 142,060 watts to date offsetting the equivalent of 15,092 gallons of gasoline used in vehicles or 144,058 pounds of coal burned. The 500 demand response systems installed on water heaters through the initiative have offset the equivalent of 81,914 gallons of gasoline or 781,922 pounds of coal burned. Phase III will conclude this year. No follow-up on the initiative has been planned but could be topic for a future Green Team meeting. Karan Ireland had told him that another solar co-op could be possible as early as the fall in Morgantown should there be enough interest. II. New Business  Status and roles of Green Team. The team had a wide-ranging discussion on its role vis-à-vis the City Manager’s Office, specifically, whether it was fulfilling one of its stated purposes of advising the city manager and to what degree it could take initiative where it saw benefits for both the City of Morgantown and its residents. In general, it was agreed that the team had been playing an appropriate and effective role and should propose initiatives to city officials, departments, and council members to continue to move toward environmental sustainability. Action: It was agreed that the team should clarify with the city manager that, in addition to monthly attendance of Chelsi Baker at Green Team meetings, such technical city staff members as Tom Arnold and City Engineer Damien Davis should be available to attend when the topic/issue required. It was important to discuss this with the city manager to get his approval.  New YTGG initiatives. A number of Green Team members were scheduled to attend the tour of the National Energy Laboratory the next day. A discussion between the team and NETL staff on how NETL might participate in the Year to Go Green was planned. The team then discussed possible opportunities to collaborate with WVU’s Industrial Assessment Center, which had already provided pro bono assistance in the Sustainable Morgantown Initiative’s Phase II residential energy audits. One of its graduate students had also spoken at the first YTGG community forum on energy and business on March 10th, in which he said IAC had worked with municipalities. Action: Pam said she would contact Dr. Gopala at IAC to explore opportunities of mutual benefit between the City and IAC on energy efficiency and audits. III. The meeting concluded at 7:00pm. Next meeting: May 2, 5:30 pm–7:00 pm, in Morgantown City Hall at 389 Spruce Street