Climate Action Plan Standing Committee

Public Climate Action Plan Standing Committee Meeting Minutes January 19, 2022 A. Attending – Liz, Robin, Kate, Nathan, Joe Page, Lydia, Karin B. Minutes from December 15, 2021 Meeting were approved C. Communications/Outreach/Education - Fire Chief Joe Page WUI regulations adopted by the state legislature without the main parts of the regulations, including maintenance of the property. Embers get into cracks or land on dry needles or leaves (in roof gutters) start fires. Hardening of a home is a prevention technique. The Whitefish watershed prescribed burns last summer were coordinated by DNRC, Forest Service, Stoltze and the City. Our Fire Department offers to do individual home assessment or neighborhood meetings anywhere in the Fire District. Insurance companies will impact improvements in prevention. Promoting Fire Wise Communities – Is an effort of Fire Safe Flathead. The city has helped put on several information meetings in the past with the assistance of Fire Safe Flathead and Ali Ulwelling of DNRC. (Steve Thompson of Climate Smart Glacier Country used to attend the Fire Safe meetings). We discussed setting up a fire safety workshop this spring or summer (depending on COVID). Emergency Services Building - Joe mentioned that he heard the solar panels were not hooked up currently at the ESC. I can check on that with Dave Butts. He noted that the original fire bay doors are very inefficient. They take a long time to open and close allowing heat to leave the building. They have replaced 3 of the 5 bay doors with bifold doors. They are much easier to open and provide much better energy efficiency. Kate thought that the bifold door replacement might be an appropriate for a USDA energy efficient grant. D. Coordination with Climate Action Plan • CAP Vacancy – Update from Karin – Explained that the second reading of the CAP ordinance amendment will be at the Feb. 7th meeting. Michelle will advertise for the vacancy in February. The amendment will go into effect 30 days after the 2nd reading. • Council Goals - Budget Questionnaire for Department Directors. Karin will send out the budget questionnaire to the department heads this coming Monday, Jan. 24th. E. Project Updates • Existing Projects o Recycling (Karin) – Info is on city website about the central site closing at the end of the month. o Community Solar Project (Karin) – Discussed being given a yellow light by the council to move ahead with the community solar PV project. FEC (Ashley Keltner) is going to provide additional information on the amount of energy produced in relation to the energy use of the wastewater treatment plant. • Proposed Projects o Guidelines & Best Practices for buildings, subdivisions, site design (Robin) – will talk to Tara o Montana Facility Finance Authority – Commercial Building Energy Efficiency Financing C-PACE. Kate will contact other cities to gauge their interest in an online workshop. Need to create a district that the county would administer. F. Amy Robinson, Pantry Collective – Amy provided information on her relatively new company. There was interest and support from the committee members. Next month we plan to have Tara provide update on the planning department projects that relate to the Climate Action Plan.