Green Team

Monthly Minutes Morgantown Municipal Green Team October 3, 2016 Meeting Attending: Joey James (chair), Karen Kalafat, James Kotcon, Pamela Cubberly, Jing Zhang (MMMPO), Jenny Selin (Council), Joseph Kanosky (NETL), Ella Belling (MRTC), and Hari Jammulamadaka, Alex Davis, and Zela Wyrosdick (IAC) I. Old Business and Updates A. WVU Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) and City of Morgantown Energy Assessment The team first discussed the pros and cons of energy savings performance contracts (ESPCs), such as the one the City had with Constellation Energy completed in 2015. The team then discussed next steps to take to encourage City implementation of IAC recommendations. Joe Kanosky suggested a high priority should be to rationalize meter location and number so that the City gets clear “before and after” data for long-term energy-use tracking of City buildings. Jenny Selin suggested specific steps team members might take to encourage the City to consider and adopt strategies to implement priority recommendations from the IAC study. Actions: The team agreed to the following actions (including several from September meeting) this fall and future:  Alex will continue to sort out meter data and review comments by NETL’s Joe Kanosky of her initial report draft.  Pam will edit the first draft in which Alex Davis will replace earlier estimates with actual data received later from the City.  Joey will present the context of and results from the study to City Council at its October 25th Committee of the Whole meeting in a general presentation of 2016 team work for YTGG.  In November, Joey will develop and send out a follow-up news release to media about the results of the study. 1  October 19, 2016  In order to facilitate the team’s and IAC’s efforts this fall on recommendations, Joey will request that the acting city manager approve a new city liaison now that Chelsi Baker has taken a new job. He will propose that the new communications director, Krista Baker, take that responsibility and attend the team’s November meeting. He will also ask if City Engineer Damien Davis could also attend to involve him in next steps. Jenny Selin will also talk with the city manager about making ongoing City technical expertise available to the team.  Joey will then request consideration of a budget line item to support the most immediate, simplest, and economical of the recommendations, preferably using existing staff to get it into the “conduit” for 2017.  Later in 2017, the Green Team will ask Council how implementation of IAC recommendations has been going and submit a yearly budget request for implementing the next priority actions based on the IAC study. B. IAC Small Business Energy Assessments. Alex Davis introduced Zela Wyrosdick, whom IAC has hired to promote small business energy assessments in West Virginia. IAC will subsidize such assessments in rural and agricultural businesses, which includes Morgantown, as the city is classified as “rural.” Businesses will only pay $125 for a full energy audit and report with recommendations on decreasing energy costs. IAC will also help these businesses apply for loans as needed. IAC staff hope to complete 2–3 such assessments a month. They will coordinate with Holly Purpura of FODC, which is creating a Green Business Council here. Action: Joey will contact Morgantown’s communications director Krista Baker to help promote this opportunity to local businesses. C. Recycling. The City will be negotiating a new contract on trash and recycling; the City has not been happy with Republic Services but may not be able to open up the process to consider other companies, as the Public Services Commission has given Republic Services an exclusive right to the contract with Morgantown. The current contract with Republic does not include picking up recycling at schools. Could City negotiations include this in the new contract, to incorporate recycling education through action? The team agreed to support a potential petition to the Public Services Commission, which the Council and city manager are working on to rescind Republic Services’s exclusive right. Action: Joey will mention the team’s support for such a petition at the October 25th Council Committee of the Whole. He will also send an email or other message to the city attorney on the team’s interest in supporting this process to level the playing field in selecting a trash and recycling company. The team also discussed the need to act now to find a replacement for Amanda Stoner as City recycling intern. It would be necessary to get another announcement out as early as November to find someone to start next semester. Action: Jim and Joey will work to advertise the internship through WVU and the City, respectively, starting as early as the third week of October. 2  October 19, 2016 D. North Central Solar Co-op. Jim reported a good turnout in late September for the solar tour of his home’s solar energy setup, installed as part of the 2015 solar co-op in Morgantown. He said that 15 people had signed up for 2016’s North Central WV Solar Co-op. He hopes that an installer will be chosen this fall for this second solar co-op in the area, both of which the Green Team has strongly supported. Joey announced that Carra Cheslin had been chosen to replace Karan Ireland as the new WV SUN co-op coordinator. To date, meetings to recruit new solar co- op members had been held in Fairmont and Clarksburg. Action: Joey will invite Carra to attend the next Green Team meeting in November or at least to attend the October 27th How2GoGreen workshop (“Go Solar and Save: Join a Solar Co-op!”), sponsored by the Green Team, which will promote the North Central WV Solar Co-op. E. Urban Agriculture The team discussed if it was possible to get past controversy and opposition to a new City ordinance on urban agriculture. The Green Team had supported City efforts to update the existing ordinance in order to encourage a positive culture for urban agriculture within reasonable parameters—as has been done in Charleston and communities across the country—but the process got bogged down in trying to apply a penalty-based one-size-fits-all approach. In an effort to put the process back on track toward a positive vision, Jenny Selin suggested that the team hold a public education workshop after the November election to discuss and educate the community on a wider positive vision of urban agriculture. The date of Monday, November 14th was suggested as a possibility. Action: Jim will develop details of an open public education workshop on a positive vision of urban agriculture for Morgantown, including “side-by-side” analysis of the existing ordinance compared with several drafts the City has put together so citizens can more easily understand the differences. This might include comparison with ordinances from other communities that the team likes. Action: Jing Zhang volunteered to research model urban agriculture ordinances and programs in other cities in other parts of West Virginia and other states. He will report on it at the November 7 meeting. II. New Business A. Rail trails on private land. Ella noted that hunting on private land on Sundays will be on the ballot for all three of the Mon River’s rail-trail counties. This means, if passed, that hunters will be able hunt adjacent to the trail (most of the trail borders private land) on Sunday. It is a very narrow corridor with a typical 30-foot width for trail property. Currently, hunting is not allowed on Sundays in these three counties. Action: Team members will get the word out on this as much as possible. B. Hydropower on Mon River. Ella also noted that Rye Development, a company that is currently licensing for hydropower on the Morgantown Dam, will be meeting with stakeholders in Morgantown on November 1, 1:00–3:00pm, at the dam (contact Ella for more info on exact location). The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) released the Environmental Assessment (EA) and Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the six dam projects on the Mon River. The proposal will impact green space at Mountaineer Park, fishing at the dam on the Mon River, a section of the rail trail, and lead to addition of some noise and power lines. 3  October 19, 2016 C. Green building advice. Jing Zhang noted that the city has recently been dealing with many infill/refill development proposals. It may be worthwhile for the Green Team to advise city staff and developers on “green” buildings. Green buildings incorporate features, such as energy management systems (monitoring and control), construction recycling, water conservation (toilets, rainwater, etc.), green construction materials, energy-efficient window placement, and so on. To what extent should such features become mandatory? It was agreed that this could be an item to discuss at the next Green Team meeting in November. III. Adjournment. The meeting adjourned at 7:00 pm. The next meeting will take place on Monday, November 7, from 5:30pm to 7:00pm in City Council Chambers, 389 Spruce Street. 4