Clean Energy Task Force Regular Meeting November 3, 2014
CLEAN ENERGY TASK FORCE MINUTES
SUBJECT TO APPROVAL
November 3, 2014
REGULAR MEETING
The meeting was called to order at 6:35 p.m. by Commissioner Beinstein in the Engineering Conference Room of Simsbury Town Hall, with the following members present: Mark Scully, Jim Ray, Claudia Szerakowski, Susan Van Kleef and Bob Beinstein.
1. REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM MEETING ON OCTOBER 6th, 2014:
The draft minutes from the October 6th meeting were reviewed by all. Commissioner Szerakowski made a motion to approve the minutes as written. Commissioner Van Kleef seconded the motion. All voted in favor.
2. PUBLIC AUDIENCE:
Commissioner Beinstein opened the floor for public audience.
Mr. Phil Szerakowski, a student at Simsbury High School, presented a proposal for support for their Electrathon Team. This is a program under Mr. Kurt Dougan’s Engineering and Design course series where the team will build and race electric cars. Mr. Szerakowski’s proposal requested that the CETF consider funding of six 12 volt Optima RedTop batteries that will be required for the team. The batteries cost $160 each so the request is for a total of $960. Members of CETF asked further questions for clarity and thanked Mr. Szerakowski for putting together the proposal to represent his team and school.
Ms. Ieke Scully also was in attendance but indicated that she was just interested in following the discussions and had nothing to bring forward to the CETF.
Mr. David Levien also was in attendance. He has been working with Commissioner Szerakowski in developing the overall Green Business Challenge program and has indicated interest in becoming a member of the CETF. Mr. Levien is an Aerospace Engineer who had just recently moved to Simsbury with his new job here, so he is just now officially changing his permanent address to Simsbury. Once he has done that, he indicated that he will start the process to be a member. All the CETF members indicated their appreciation of his interest and support and will endorse his nomination to become a member.
With no further items to be brought forward, Commissioner Beinstein closed the public audience.
3. COMMUNITY PLEDGEWRAP-UP DISCUSSION:
With the Community Pledge now signed by the Town, the next action is to follow up with the State in getting the earned solar panel installation and also the earned $10,000 Bright Idea Grant. Commissioner Ray indicated that Mr. Tom Roy, Simsbury Director of Public Works, has sent a letter to the State providing them the signed Community Pledge to officially notify them.
4. SOLARIZE SIMSBURY WRAP-UP DISCUSSION:
Commissioner Scully indicated that the results of the program with its 80 new sign-ups was presented at the October 15th Simsbury Board of Selectman meeting with a picture taken in front of the Solarize Simsbury ‘thermometer’ with all those associated with the program who could come. Even though the official credited number ended with the program, Commissioner Scully indicated that further sign-ups have occurred after the deadline so others have benefited from the program. Although the number of sign-ups were a little lower than hoped, part of the reason could have been that the solar installer, C-TEC, is a local firm and already had been doing installations prior to the program. Commissioner Scully has data from the State based on where incentives were used that show past installations so he plans to compile a more complete representation of the total installations in Simsbury.
5. GREEN BUSINESS CHALLENGE REVIEW/DISCUSSION:
Commissioner Szerakowski provided a new package for the Green Business Challenge that provided an introduction to the program along with the revised criteria based on prior CETF discussions and other inputs from CETF members and Mr. David Levien. There was some discussion about the addition of a higher level at Platinum as the original design logo had only considered the basic green and a gold design. Commissioner Van Kleef indicated the designs had been done by Ms. Mary Murphy of Sage River Graphics and could be asked to do another one for the platinum level.
Commissioner Szerakowski and Mr. Levien indicated that they could do this and would not need a formal graphic change. Commissioner Van Kleef indicated that since the original design had been done by Sage River that the information should show credit to the company. A general discussion about publicity for the program was discussed including adding a separate page for it tied to the Simsbury webpage and a separate Facebook page. Commissioner Van Kleef indicated that she had worked with the Simsbury Town webmaster, Mr. Rick Bazzano, and would set up a meeting with him to discuss the best way to add it to the Simsbury Town website. Commissioner Szerakowski indicated that she would like to go ahead with the program starting with an information session held at the Simsbury Library. Commissioner Beinstein made a motion to approve the go ahead with the launch of the program. Commissioner Van Kleef seconded the motion. All voted in favor.
6. SUPPORT of SCHOOL INITIATIVES in FALL DISCUSSION: With the proposal presented by Mr. Szerakowski during the public audience session, this was felt to be a good program to support under this initiative. Commissioner Scully made a motion for CETF to provide the funds of $960 for the purchase of the batteries for Simsbury High School Electrathon Team. Commissioner Beinstein seconded the motion. All voted in favor. Commissioner Van Kleef indicated that she understood that there had been some issue in the transfer of funds to the school in the past and she would contact Mr. Dougan at the school and others as necessary to ensure that the funds were transferred as agreed.
7. OPEN FORUM:
Commissioner Szerakowski indicated that she is also on the Simsbury Recycling Committee and provided information about upcoming events/activities. On November 15th, a Composting Open House is being held at the Simsbury Community Farm to provide information about composting to anyone interested. This is related to one method of trying to increase the amount of waste being recycled. The State has a goal of 60% and currently Simsbury is at 24%. She also indicated that to increase awareness about recycling, a display is being put up at the Simsbury Library.
8. NEXT MEETING
The next regularly scheduled meeting is December 1st.
9. ADJOURNMENT
Commissioner Szerakowski motioned to adjourn the meeting at approximately 8:05 p.m. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Beinstein and unanimously approved.