Climate Smart Task Force

Minutes Climate Smart Task Force of Saratoga Springs September 27, 2019, 4:00 PM Recreation Center, 15 Vanderbilt Ave. 1. WELCOME AND ATTENDANCE a. Meeting commenced at 4:05 PM. Rayna Caldwell welcomed members, old and new. b. Attendance: Rayna Caldwell-chair, Tina Carton-Admin of Sustainability, Michael Horn, Dan Barusch, Pam Krison 2. PUBLIC COMMENT- 5 MINUTES a. No public comments were made. 3. DISCUSSION AND VOTE: ACCEPT 4/27/2019 MEETING MINUTES a. Unanimous approval. 4. UPDATE ON SUSTAINABILITY ACTIVITY a. LED Street Light Conversion – CDTC Smart Street Light Grant— i. Leni Schwendinger gave the walk-around to discuss “designing” street lighting. The event was not very well attended, but there were many competing events that evening including a very well attended homeless forum at Skidmore. The committee discussed new lighting technologies and products such as intersection crossing lighting being installed in NJ as a pilot project via safe streets initiatives. Local dark sky advocate attended. Leni’s overall recommendation was to “tone down” the lighting a bit. Planning Board, Design Review Commission, and Open Space committee and other members of committees attended. ii. Saratoga Springs going to be model for smart street lighting study and conversion plan through the CDTC grant. NYPA and NG proposals will exist, and the study/plan will point us in the right direction. iii. Planning for Places is working on the grant study and should be done in February 2020 or so. b. Community Choice Aggregation PLUS Grant—MEGA (Municipal Energy and Gas Alliance) i. Tina Carton gave quick presentation on CCA. MEGA looking to include entire load zone F. Many municipalities have signed on down near Albany. ii. The committee discussed the step-by-step process to get to CCA program – Select contractor, educate, local aw to authorize, publish bid/select bidder, educate again, citizen opt-out (optional), savings begin. iii. Mike Horn discussed how the energy was not technically “new” renewable energy, since they were existing sources of electricity, regardless of renewable sources or not. “New generation” could count as “green” renewable energy specifically if renewable energy credits were obtained. Renewable energy credits were essentially, what we would be buying from the existing hydropower plant. Rayna Caldwell stated that if more communities go CCA it would hopefully entice more “new generation” of renewable energy. iv. Residents and small businesses should expect to pay less than what we would pay to National Grid for supply. v. Tina Carton stated one contact from Sustainable Saratoga asked if we were ready to start educating the public. Next step is to amend the Capital Region presentation to be able to put out to the public. The committee should create a list of public places and/or organizations to reach out to and present to. Look at booking the library ahead of time. vi. MEGA seems to be coming back into the fold of focusing here in the Capital Region and around Saratoga. The committee can look at future public presentations in conjunction with the Task Force and Sustainable Saratoga. Look at presenting to Chamber of Commerce (small business – non-demand users), neighborhood groups, organizations, and residents as a whole. Tina Carton can work with intern Ruth to get a mailing list, presentation and plan of action for the public participation. c. Climate Smart Certification — i. Rayna Caldwell reported that the City has reached Bronze level certification in terms of credit points. The City has not officially applied yet, but they have everything ready to go for submittal into the portal. CDRPC can go into the dashboard and review all the items submitted for the points. ii. The committee discussed what the CSC program entailed and what it meant. It is expected that the city’s certification points will be reviewed by the DEC in January with items already submitted into the dashboard. The City could be certified by 2020! d. CDRPC NYSERDA Funded Clean Heat Campaign i. Clean heat campaign managed by CDRPC is launching soon. It will operate like a solarize campaign but focuses on HVAC technologies, including geothermal and mini-splits for groups of homes, small businesses, etc. Municipalities can also look into “sponsoring” this campaign and enticing residents/businesses to come on-board. ii. CDRPC issued a RFP and interviewed installers for geothermal and mini- splits. They are working with NYSERDA to review the proposed installers and will be conducting interviews. iii. There are no additional incentives for this campaign. Customers will be educated on the technology and learn about the companies and what they offer to the clients/customers. iv. If residents have deliverable fuels or electric heat, these options would be cost effective; but not so much as compared to natural gas. Mini-splits are also good to look at for areas that have compartmentalized HVAC, etc. a. EV Fleet Update i. Saratoga County sold a landfill, and announced they were going to be giving communities money from the sale. The Commissioner of Finance proposed to City Council on how spend the “bonus” money. She proposed using $50,000 of it for EV purchases for Codes/Building department. Tina Carton would like to proposed to the City to consider fully electric vehicles as the hybrid’s still have maintenance and other emission issues associated with internal combustion engines. ii. Climate Mayors program will assist with EV procurement for municipalities through National Auto Fleet Group purchasing. City can do bulk purchasing through them already for fleet. Also, National Grid has a rebate ($5,000 off) for the Nissan Leaf. They also offer bulk purchasing of EV stations. iii. Vehicle Fleet software could help us with this to track usage, etc. iv. Important to consider reception of the employees who will be using them – look at having someone come to the City Hall and offer test drives to the employees who will be using those. b. Complete Streets/Trails i. Henry Street Pilot Project a. Pilot project has been in development for 2 years. Public Safety and Public Works have been part of the discussions about the pilot project setup. The City’s consultant is doing data collection such as travel counts with bike lanes and  without them. Pilot project could end up being something such as a small section of the Greenbelt trail. b. Survey has gone well so far, over 280 responses. Presentation slides up on the website. Survey response particulars to be announced in the future. ii. Geyser Road Trail a. Construction bids came in this week, selection to happen and will proceed probably in spring 2020. iii. Downtown Connector Trail a. In ROW acquisition for three impacted property owners, will occur next month. Then final design and construction bid in late summer 2020. 5. ADJOURN: MEETING WAS ADJOURNED AT 5:15 PM.