[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: So on July 16, 2022, Governor Baker signed into law an act relative to extending certain state of emergency accommodations. This act allows public bodies to continue holding meetings remotely through March 31, 2023 without a quorum, a public body physically present at a meeting location, and to provide adequate alternative access to remote meetings. In accordance with this Act, this meeting of the City of Medford Energy and Environment Committee is being conducted totally via remote participation using Zoom. including committee members and the public. The use of Zoom complies with the law's requirement to provide live adequate alternative means of public access to the deliberations of public body instead of holding meetings in a public place. Persons who would like to listen to or view this meeting while in progress may do so by using the link that was included on the meeting agenda posted on the City of Medford website. We will also post a record of this meeting on the City, excuse me, What the hell happened? On the city of Medford website. We will also, sorry, on the city's website in the near future at the link provided in the meeting agenda. All right, so I believe I have to go through a roll call of people in the meeting. So bear with me, I will do that shortly if you don't mind. Yes, there we go. So let's go through it. Luke McKinley, I don't think he's present. Bob Payne, not present. Barry Ingbar?
[Unidentified]: Here.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Loretta James? I'm a guest. Yes, you're a guest. Kathleen McKenna?
[Unidentified]: Not here.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Nicole Morell? Kathleen is here.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, she's here. She just muted.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Oh, she was just muted. I apologize. Okay. Nicole Morell? I don't think she's here. John Rogers? I don't think. Yes, he's here. There we go. Martha Andrus?
[Unidentified]: Here. Jessica Parks? Absent. All right. Gaston Thiau? Here. Benjamin Hiller?
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: And lastly, myself, Paul Taslini, and I am present. All right. Okay, we're done with the formalities. Gaston, if you want to go through the agenda.
[Gaston Fiore]: Um, yes, I actually do think we have forum. Um, so, according to what I think we should do is request whether people have any comments, discussion, questions about the other three meeting minutes.
[Unidentified]: Now, full of spelling errors.
[Barry Ingber]: Near the beginning, segway was spelled like the transportation vehicle instead of the actual word, which is S-E-G-U-E. And swallow wart was spelled like planter's wart or wart on your finger instead of Wart, that means leaf. So it should be W-O-R-T.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I don't know, Alicia, what gets done.
[Alicia Hunt]: We'll go find those. I'm assuming that they're online in my folder. Sorry, I sent Bob. Is this the most recent one, the August one? Sorry, I knew I know that I changed swallow or once in the in the minutes, but I didn't. But I missed it times. This is the August one.
[Barry Ingber]: Yeah, it's there twice. So it was spelled. You changed it once and not the other one.
[Alicia Hunt]: Sorry, I missed it the other time.
[Unidentified]: I'll make those changes since you don't have quorum, right?
[Barry Ingber]: It also has one word and not two words.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Oh, Luke is here.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: Oh, sorry, I'm late. Hi, Luke.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: So we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. We are just at quorum, it looks like. We're just at quorum today. Yeah, exactly. So we are at quorum.
[Unidentified]: That's great. PB, David Ensign — He-Him, He-Him.
[Gaston Fiore]: He-Him. PB, David Ensign — He-Him. He-Him. PB, David Ensign — He-Him. PB, David Ensign — He-Him.
[Alicia Hunt]: PB, David Ensign — He-Him.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: So one of us can say that we would like to propose that they are accepted as amended.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: So I will propose that the meetings from our last, sorry, the notes from our last meetings be accepted as amended.
[Barry Ingber]: Paul, if you're facilitating the meeting, you should not make a motion from the chair.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Oh, indeed. Okay. I apologize. I'm new at this.
[Barry Ingber]: I'm not sure you might be able to second a motion, but you can't make a motion from the chair. Okay.
[Kathleen McKenna]: I'll move that the minutes be accepted as amended.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Does someone second? I'll second. Okay. So everyone in favor?
[Unidentified]: Aye.
[Gaston Fiore]: Aye. Aye. So meetings accepted. So next item that I have on the agenda is administrative updates from Alicia. Alicia.
[Alicia Hunt]: I was just trying to think. The one is that we have hired an undergraduate intern who is just starting this week, but unfortunately, she is also ill this week. But she has expressed interest in working with the committee and attended meetings attending the meetings normally and helping out with stuff from the committee. So you may be seeing stuff from Margo in the future, but I am not asking her to work while she's sick. So she's not here with us this evening. So I did want to introduce Lily Wirth, who is a graduate intern working with us. She's working on transportation and mobility projects. That's her area of specialty, but she volunteered to come and help out this evening. Um, so you can all meet Lily.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: Thank you for coming.
[Alicia Hunt]: Thanks for having me. And I guess the one other, it's not exactly an update, but this is the easiest point is, um, I was meeting with the mayor last week about some other things. And she said to me that she would love it. If the energy commit, she would love to start posting on her social media, like an environmental or energy tip of the week. It would be great if there was a recycling tip, whether that was one of each or you know, the environmental tip could be recycling, and she'd love it if this committee wanted to generate those. And then she would share them out from the Energy and Environment Committee, but from her social media. And I thought that might be, you guys would enjoy producing some of those, and it would give a different venue, because normally we share our stuff on Go Green Medford. and it'll probably hit sort of a different cross section of population coming from her social media. So I kind of wanted to put that out for you guys.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Okay, so Alicia, do you put that forward as a proposal?
[Alicia Hunt]: Um, it's more if you guys if it's something you guys want to work on want to send me stuff, whether you however you want to do it like you officially or a few of you just feel like it send us stuff. I may in the end have Margo follow up and have her collect them and whether you all felt inclined to be artistic and make it like a visual thing, or if you'd rather just give us words and we'll have somebody in the office put them on like a, you know, on a background with an image, that kind of thing. We have staff who can do that. Margo actually has done a bunch of social media outreach throughout her years in college. So that is an area of strength for her.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Okay, so this is a This would be a weekly input into the mayor's site. Right.
[Alicia Hunt]: And my thought was that it would be easier for you all to just send a bunch, and then each week she would take one, right? And then send another bunch, and then each week she would post one. Because the idea of you all coordinating one a week sounds overwhelming. But if you each sent one, or if you guys compiled a bunch and then however, that was easier or you preferred or brainstorm them in a meeting, whatever works.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Okay. How does everyone feel about that?
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: I frankly feel that we should be able to come up with a list of 52, uh, brief recommendations pretty easily.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: So Luke, is that a hard number though?
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: If you wanted to do weekly. That's good. But I think it's better to have a list than to be waiting for one of us to send it off. Sure.
[Gaston Fiore]: So what we can do is we can have a Google Doc, and then we can start putting tips there. So I can generate a Google Doc and share it with everyone.
[Adam Hurtubise]: And then we can just compile them there. It sounds good.
[Alicia Hunt]: if you wanted to do that and then share it to me in my office and then we can mark them off as we like what maybe we'll we'll add a little color to them and send them send a bunch at a time to the mayor for her to use or just send her the list she has some outreach staff as well, who could just mark it off as they use them.
[Adam Hurtubise]: yep.
[Gaston Fiore]: So we'll do that. I'll generate the Google Doc and then everyone can start filling it in with tips. I'll share it also with Alicia's office. And then we can modify it as we go. So other updates. So there's an event, the Mystic River celebrations, September 24 coming up. I'm not sure whether we're gonna have a table or not. And if so, who will be responsible for sending it up.
[Alicia Hunt]: So I will tell you that my office has reserved the table. And if members of this committee were interested in helping to staff that and talk about a topic of interest to you guys, I would welcome having some of that. We'll have the comprehensive plan added. We'll have information about the solid waste survey. So we'll have some trash stuff there. we'll have stuff about the composting program, but if there's additional things that you all would like to come, and I think it's nice that it's not just me sitting there or someone from my office, that there's actual real people there as well.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Alicia, I would say that you are quite real, so. Hello?
[Gaston Fiore]: Is anyone available on September 24th? I'm not here that weekend. I will be here for the Publish United Festival.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: I can be available September 24th.
[Gaston Fiore]: Okay, great. So I think Alicia, the survey for the solid waste closes on October 1st, correct? So this would be the last kind of seed event that we have to promote that because it will be too late during the Harvest United Festival. Is that correct?
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. I think that we will have feedback from it. We may have information, but we'll be past the survey point of that.
[Gaston Fiore]: OK. Okay, so I guess then whoever is available can coordinate with Alicia directly, is that how you would prefer to go about the Mystic River celebration on September 24th? Is that correct, Alicia, for your table?
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: That's September 24th. Yes.
[Alicia Hunt]: The event is noon to four. And I think that the excellent signage that you guys had over the summer, the swallow board stuff that's in my office now anyhow right so I'll plan to bring that out. Okay.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: I just wanted to bring up something of concern to me. There is a weed species that seems to be taking over the Mystic River. I forget the name of it. But it seems to be spreading really at least in my observation, seems to be spreading quite dramatically. And I think the Mystic River people try to curtail it to some extent, but I'm not sure what we can do as a committee.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Is it the knotweed? Does that sound right?
[Alicia Hunt]: Are you talking about on the river itself? That's the water chestnuts.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Do you want me to explain?
[Alicia Hunt]: So the water chestnuts are something that we've been dealing with for many years and the Mystic River Watershed Association is really taking the lead on it and honestly was really starting to get ahead of it and win that battle until the pandemic hit and some of the in-person work got curtailed, and I think that really set us back. So the water chestnuts are something that came over from Japan. They got released out of somebody's oriental garden ages and ages ago, and they do overtake. It's a problem. And so typically for many years, the Watershed Association has gotten large grants to pay for a machine the harvester that comes and takes the water chestnuts off the river and dries, then they dry them out and they compost it. And the harvester can do most of the river, but it can't pass the Kratik Bridge. I think that's the point as far as it can go. So above the Kratik Bridge, it has to be done by hand. And so they organize events to do hand pulling during the summer. And the goal is that you have to harvest them before they drop their seeds. So at this point, it's too late in the season to do anything. You have to do it earlier in the season.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Oh, no, I appreciate that. And I looked into this a bit, and there are these implements that sit at the end of a pole. They're like blades that sit at the end of a pole that are used to actually do the manual collection of these things. I'll send out a link for this afterwards, but if that's something that folks are interested in, and if there is any interest from the city in giving this to people or having some sort of effort to get this done a little bit more, you know, high throughput way rather than just with my hand going around the canoes and doing that. That might be better because you essentially stand at shore and essentially send this out and pull it in and it cuts the weeds and collects them and brings them back in. So that's something that you might want to consider, but this is obviously for next year, but I'll send out the link to this and see how people feel about it.
[Gaston Fiore]: Yeah, so also in the pulse, I maintain the areas on the Lawrence woods, and then we have a lot of green briar that needs to be cut. So, and then there's another vine I think it's the bittersweet. So maybe, you know, in the future we can organize some sort of volunteer event. I think I got an email from the Friends of the Falls recently that they were working on that, asking for volunteers to work on it. So maybe, you know, in the future we can help organize some event where we recruit Medford residents. And then we also work in the Middlesex Falls to try to cut back some of the invasive species.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: Gaston, I'd be very interested in participating in that.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Oh, awesome. OK, so I will think about something. Thank you so much. Yeah, we're good.
[Gaston Fiore]: I would like to. I would like to. Perfect. So anything else related to invasive species? So otherwise, I have that before we switch to the Carpentry Festival, Alicia, there might be some updates related to the climate infrastructure funding related to Medford, is that correct?
[Alicia Hunt]: So I don't have anything specific for Medford. Bob sent out this very long, detailed document with all sorts of information about what's in that plan. We don't have any specific Medford programs yet like it's still coming out like the rules are still coming out the programs are still being announced and stuff. So I actually haven't yet had a briefing from the MAPC I'm expecting to get that next week about it. So I don't actually have anything additional to what he has in his slideshow.
[Gaston Fiore]: You're referring to the presentation that he sent, I think, yesterday night.
[Alicia Hunt]: He sent out an email with a lot of information about what's in the state plan and what's in the federal plan.
[Gaston Fiore]: Yeah, I think so. I think it would be helpful. So whoever can compile this information efficiently in terms of new sources, funding, and, you know, what area they correspond to, it will be very helpful, not only for your office, but then also for, you know, for us to try to see whether we can write up some proposals and help your office to get some funding. So I know that we have been discussing some members of transportation. We can talk about it at the end of the meeting. But usually, at least myself, I don't know what's available out there. So if there's an easy way to compile it or if someone already needs to compile this information, we can get a copy of it. So knowing what's out there, what are the deadlines and etc, etc, then I think that will be helpful to have.
[Alicia Hunt]: put it this way, when there are programs that affect the taxes so that there are rebates and incentives, what the committee can do is just educate residents about state programs and the federal incentives that are out there. If it's going to be grant programs to apply for, that's going to take a while to those get developed and rolled out. Like it takes months and years for the federal government to roll out new grant programs. The conference I'm at today talked a bunch about that there's going to be like EV infrastructure, but the federal program is to put high speed DC charging along federal highways, so they're not talking about giving us money. They're going to go start installing those things. There's another program. It's actually the VW. What was that called? Lawsuit resulted in a bunch of money. We had gotten a ton of money at one point. We just applied for funding for an electric sweeper, street sweeper for the city from that fund. So when these programs come around, if the grant programs fit what we have the capacity to do, then we'll apply for them. But it's really helpful when there are programs that are aimed at residents to get the word out to the residents so they know about it. It looks like there is going to be an incredible amount of incentives to buy electric vehicles. One estimate I saw was that it would help knock like $11,000 off the price of an electric vehicle. I haven't seen anything officially from the government that backs that up for me yet. It's just that's sort of the stuff that is starting to trickle out.
[Gaston Fiore]: Yeah, I was referring to grants, but it would also be very useful, I think, for residents to tackle the former, which is basically, you know, if I want to put a heat pump, then we'll kind of. So like three years ago, I went to this kind of conference called Start Smart, organized by the Massachusetts Skin Building Council. I don't know if that's another name. And I remember that when they mentioned, you know, rebates and incentives that you can get, there are like at least like five different organizations that you can get them from in Massachusetts. And it's just like extremely hard to navigate. So now with the new stuff, I think it's probably harder. So yeah, I think it's something that for the residents is something that we should work on. And related to grants, I'm very interested. So if we can help to get some of those, then you know what's available. But in any case, so it's 7 p.m. So I think right now then Loretta and or Alicia we can talk about the Harvest Yearend Festival, what the progress has been, what kind of help is needed. And that's next month already. So I believe we have one more meeting before the festival, but it's probably like one or two weeks before. So if you want, we should probably talk about it now.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: OK. Alicia, do you want me to go first?
[Alicia Hunt]: It's all you. Okay, more than I do.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: So we actually as of today have over 30 exhibitors, and people keep calling. So that's good. And several sponsors, a couple more today came in. And that's, you know, from $100 and up, that they're willing to donate, they get a table. And so there's about seven of those. And people are still calling. So at some point, I'll talk with Alicia about what's too much or is there a limit. As far as support, I did send out an email from the Enviro account to the committee to give you the update. And the last time I checked, I think was Friday. And what I need to know is who is going to be able to come to the festival on the committee and what time slots you can take. So there's a Google spreadsheet that Luke had sent the link out, and then I sent it again last week to the members. So the last time I looked, there was still several that hadn't responded. And you can just write, no, I'm not available, but I need to know so that we can organize the volunteers, which we desperately need. So there's several in the meeting tonight that haven't responded. If you could please find that email I sent to you and respond, that would be great. And I do have a couple of questions. And I think it would be good to have this information. At the Circle in the Square event, we had so much material. So I blocked off two tables for the energy committee, just in case, because that table was so full and would have been nice to spread out more material. So I assume, Paul, you're coming, because it said you're coming. But I'm not sure if you can bring the posters you had about invasive plants, because people love that.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Yes, I'll expand that. Okay, I'll bring it again. So yeah, I think that was, that was good.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: So, yeah, and I have a lot of copies of the documents we've prepared, you know, a pile of them, so we'll have that too.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: If we can bring in weights, too, or bricks. Whoever has small bricks of any sort that can bring in, that would be appreciated. I think we had a lot of wind, and there's no reason to think that we won't have wind at the next meeting. That's a good idea.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: And Luke, if you're still there, I had a question about getting someone from MassAve to be there. I had a contact, but I haven't had the time to reach out and I was wondering if you had someone from Mass Save that could have like all the repeats in a table.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: I can certainly ask, but I can also represent Mass Save. So I can talk to them about having materials and I don't know if they would set up a whole table, but we could either do it at our table or I'll see if there's a few people who are available and interested in actually tabling.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: That would be good. So we have a box or a couple of boxes from Circle in the Square of Materials you brought for home renovations. And Bob still has those, I think. to bring, but there's so many more rebates out there.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, there's commercial. Although I will say that my organization only focuses on residential new construction and renovations and additions and single family. So we don't get into a lot of the other components of Mass Save. Mass Save is a giant octopus of which we are just one tentacle.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: There was somebody from Mass Save that gave a presentation in Melrose and I have the name written down, but I can't find it. Okay. You know, I'll try. But as far as exhibitors and activities, we have music from Trail Mix and Matt Heaton. We have three recycling events going on. Help C Company will have material recycling at their table so they won't need help. Paper shredding and also electronics recycling. So that's three things right there. For food, we have Tractor's coffee carts, which I'm really happy that they're coming and it'd be great to support them. They also have a cart at the library now too. So they'll be serving coffee and snacks, packaged snacks. Food vendors, I had put that in the email, very difficult. Even with restaurants and retail shops, they're understaffed. And they just don't have the staff and lower sales from their restaurants to participate so i've got a lot of nose i'm still working on four or five and Lisa pizza. They do this for Metro Family Network. They're willing to deliver the pizza and their warmers, but I need the volunteers to serve it because they can't serve, which is great. And we still have to pay for it. It's reasonable. Maybe a sponsor might pick it up, you know, for maybe $150, we can get 12 pizzas, plus their equipment to keep it warm. But I need the volunteers to serve it. So that's, we have pizza and coffee, and I probably get sodas from them too if we want to do that. I'm hoping to get, I'm waiting to hear from an ice cream company and a food truck, two food trucks. If anyone has any recommendations, you can email me.
[Gaston Fiore]: So I don't have recommendations, but would it be at all possible to have these food vendors use compostable utensils, glasses, and stuff like that. I know that the answer might be no, but given that it's an environment-related event, I felt pretty bad basically, you know, getting plastic glasses and things like that. But then who knows where they end, and even if they end up in the recycling bin, I'm not sure where they actually end up being recycled. So is it at all possible to request that, even if we get a no?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Well, if they're coming, I can ask them. Yeah. I mean, I understand the concept and the idea. I can ask them. And if they're not providing, well, let's see what happens. But if they're not providing the plates, we can...
[Gaston Fiore]: Pablo Su?rez Hern?ndez-Sandoval?ndez Yeah, so I, I use Blackart Compose because I've been, I've been composing since I moved to Medford and when I moved to Medford, then the CD kind of thing wasn't available. And they have a list of the certified BPI to Austria, I don't know what, and then the links for all these, you know, when you have parties or if you have a food vendor and stuff to buy them. So I'm sure, you know, we can copy that, put it on the list, it's not sponsored by anyone. And then we can just like direct them to see where they can use that kind of stuff versus reciprocity.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: I'll keep that in mind. Any questions? So one of the things, one of the things I'm going to, I'm sorry, was there a question?
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: No, no, it's fine.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Okay. So one of the things I have to work on, and I'll be needing some help, I'll be talking to Alicia, is emailing and making a social media calendar to start posting, you know, spotlights about the festival to our Go Green website. And then we have to have Go Green, right, Facebook account, sorry. And then we have a website that needs to be updated too.
[Alicia Hunt]: I'm hoping maybe either late this week or next week, I can hook you up with Margo, who's planning to be in on Tuesdays and Fridays. And you could talk to her and tell her this stuff, and then she could make the updates.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: OK. And I'll need to meet with you about the web page, Alicia, because I don't have to log in, and it's WordPress. So maybe someone else will do it. but they need to get the information from me.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right, that's what I'm suggesting is that you could talk to Margo and tell her what changes you want. I mean, I can give you access, but if you want to just tell her what to do and have her update the website and the Facebook.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: That would be good. I just realized time's running out and there's so many things to post about. By the way, the raffle items grew. So we need some, you know, two people for the raffle table. We got a lot of items donated because people can't come or their previous committed but they want representation for their company so that was really great but there's, I think there's 22 items in growing. So, Alicia, I'll be talking about getting in touch with the schools because they just started and some of the response was, well, that they're just starting and they're planning their departments and their student groups, so they can't commit yet. So I have just two, like one person and one group from the McGlynn school and that's it. And I know we get like tough students, but I just haven't gotten the responses until I log in tomorrow and see if anybody wrote in. We desperately need, I don't know, 25 volunteers. I mean, we're talking about 30 tables at least to set up, maybe more. And for the experienced people, they know how much running around it is. to help the vendors and exhibitors set up at the beginning. And I looked at the comments from last year and that's one of the things is they wanted us to be a little more organized and helpful with setting them up, helping them to set up and carry things from their cars and at the end too.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: So is this, Loretta, is this something that the high school students can do as part of the community engagement requirement credits that they need to have?
[Alicia Hunt]: Is that something that- Yes, they always, if they volunteer with us, we can sign off that it's community hours. The hard part, though, is actually getting them to volunteer and then getting them to show up. Both of those are not givens. Right.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Let me just say CCSR group at the high school has been incredibly helpful and they show up every year, usually, but they have a new teacher, director of the group, and they don't have a, well, at least as of last week, they didn't have a student leader of the group yet. So they're forming the new group. So they said they'd get back to me and they loved the idea of the festival, but there was still an organizational planning. So we have a festival and we need volunteers.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: OK, so if you can share some of the context with me, Loretta, I'll send emails too, if that's OK.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: I think it's Alicia at this point, because someone had said that she knows the principles, and I don't.
[Alicia Hunt]: Usually the best thing for us to do is to write up exactly what we want to have go out to the high school students. I send it to the principal, and he hits forward and forwards it to the students. I've been advised, and I have found this to be true, that even the part that says, Mr. DeLevo, would you please forward this? He doesn't even delete that. He just forwards the whole thing to students asking for volunteers. And then getting, and then we asked him to put it on the student elections or the student, the morning announcements. They have seniors that do announcements every morning. And what we did last time was that there was a link that students could sign up to volunteer and it got some students and then you have to send them a reminder several days in advance to come.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Okay, so I need to write a letter. Okay, asking for help, okay. I'll send it to you to review when I write it. Okay.
[Alicia Hunt]: Thanks. Yes. Yeah. Insight into what how to talk to the students. So, but I don't think I'm the only one here with kids in the high school now. And Paul, don't you have kids in the high school?
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: I do. I my daughter goes to the high school. She's a senior.
[Alicia Hunt]: There we go. We should work through her. I tell you, there is nothing like getting.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: No, no, you're right. I plan to, I plan to, you know, get her cooperation with this. She's not much into things like this, but you know, I think she has a kind heart. So she might be able to, you know, convince a few people to come and hopefully she'll come too.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: OK, so we have an online Google form for volunteers. It's on the Go Green website under Harvester Energy Festival. So if you know of volunteers that want to sign up besides our committee, they can use that or they can just email me at the Enviro account.
[Alicia Hunt]: The other thing that we've been successful is we actually were just a brief thing saying we're going to want volunteers for this and that and sending it to the Go Green Medford email list. There are a couple of residents who volunteer, we had a couple volunteer for the rain barrel distribution, who were just residents who felt like being helpful. So it's, it's good to send it well, I don't know if you want to send it there Loretta or if you'd prefer I send it. I didn't even know there was one. yeah it's a list for residents i honestly thought that all the members of this committee was were on it um i think lois grossman manages it with me yeah everyone should subscribe sometimes they're interesting discussions there so i recommend yeah we get the emails but i didn't even think about that yeah okay this would um
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Margo have access to that?
[Alicia Hunt]: She doesn't yet, but she will. Okay.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Okay. All right. Some of the things we'll need for the people who are coming, we always need extra electric extension cords, heavy duty ones. And in the past, members have brought up their extension cords, heavy duty long ones, and put their names on them so we can return them at the end of the event. So that's just something to keep in mind. I think there's like six or seven people, plus if we get the pizza, I need the extra cords for keeping the warming oven hot.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah. I'm wondering about the, we haven't really had anybody that's trying that much electricity. I wonder if the warming oven might blow a circuit breaker in the school because of all the other things that were, because we tend to run them through a window. There's a window that we run the cords through.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: I have no idea about that.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Okay.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: I don't know. Um, we'll have the music, you know, so there'll be an amplifier and a microphone.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Um, I'll ask if we're gonna go that route with Lisa's pizza, I'm not sure yet. So, you know, another solution.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I mean, the amplifier for the sound system, that's not a big thing. None of that takes a lot of power, but the heating of the pizza, that might take some electricity.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: It's a little oven, it holds three, like a top thing. I'll ask them how many watts.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, yeah, there you go. Ask them how many watts it is, that's a good idea.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: All right. Anything else the members think I should concentrate on or any last minute guests?
[Adam Hurtubise]: How are you doing the raffle? Like, in other words, the actual raffle itself to the I'm assuming each person gets a raffle ticket when they enter and that's it buying raffle tickets, right? And then they just put them in cups and then they whoever gets pulled out of the cup wins, whatever it is.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, we have a big poster board we have every year and a table. And, and there are runners volunteers that collect the tickets every so many.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Okay, so we're doing that that same way that okay.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, unless, right.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, okay.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: But there's a lot, you know.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Loretta, do you need anything else like, you know, extension cords and stuff like that, if you can make a list? Yes. Look around, you know.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: One of the things I thought of, A lot of people are coming with their laptops and computers. And I thought it would be nice, but you know, that's up to the members. If you could donate for the day, remember there'll be certain exhibitors that might need a fast charger. People might run out of electricity or on their phone or whatever. So if a couple of you have fast chargers, that would be great for the exhibitors to use in case they run out.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Gas chargers?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Fast chargers for their phones.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Oh, fast chargers, sorry, yes.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Fast chargers for laptops and just, I thought that might be nice to have for them. Yeah, sure. I'll be making up a list. Okay. Yeah, but mostly I'm concerned about the setup, having enough people to help the exhibitors. Remember, if it rains, we'll be inside the McLean School. So it still goes on, the festival. And set up, it starts at 10. Exhibitors might show up around 11. Garbage to Garden will be there too with a table to exhibit. And I believe they'll also have composting services at the event.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: So this is going to be October. No, sorry, September.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: October 15th.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: October 15th. I'm sorry. It's the other one that's October.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: It's October 15th, Saturday. So please sign up on the Google sheet. Let me know if you can come in and pick a time. And if you can't, there's plenty to do that people could help with, even if it's for two hours. You know, there's plenty of little tasks that could be done remotely that I could use help with, that we could use help with, I should say. That's about it. I can't think of anything else.
[Gaston Fiore]: So, Loretta, there's a question from Kathleen on the chat asking whether the Boy Scouts are going to volunteer again for the electric equipment recycling and whether there will be a group from School City collecting money. It'll be a what? I think I'm gonna, let me see the chat.
[Kathleen McKenna]: Sorry, it's a little loud in my background, so I decided to write my question.
[Gaston Fiore]: Yeah, sorry, I wanted to make sure that Loretta answered your question.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Oh, I see. Are the Boy Scouts going to volunteer again for the electric equipment recycling? When we talked about this at the August meeting, we thought senior students or adults should run that, so I'm not sure yet. and will a group from school city be collecting money? There was a microphone.
[Kathleen McKenna]: Yeah, last time, it's over now. We've done, I just didn't want to talk over it. The last time there was somebody else was collecting the money. I don't know if that's happening again. Right.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: At this point, you know, we have the Boy Scouts and they have a presentation, I have to look at exactly what they said that they're planning something at their table. They didn't actually volunteer to do something else. There's a group from the McGlynn School, the Junior Honor Society. I assume those are children 12 and under, so that might not be appropriate either. So we need, I think we need older students or tough students or committee members running it.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I believe last year, it was the CCRC that was collecting the money.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Right. And we talked about that at the August meeting, was it August or July at Bob's house that having an old group doing that, as far as collecting money or having to be free, that's to be determined. Alicia and I have to work that out and decide, you know, There's a lot of possibilities. It could be a nonprofit group of volunteers that wants to run it and collect money. I'm not sure about the finance part, how we're going to do that yet.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Oh, I think that they were only collecting money if people brought monitors or TVs. They had to. It was like, I don't know, 15 bucks a TV or something like that.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Right. So I have to look at the contract. and see what it includes. But we do it okay. And then we'll get revenue share back from what's collected this year. That was already signed. So that's to be determined, but yes, we need help because you know, when the traffic comes in for that, they line up and they do the circle around that.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, and I'm happy to do the traffic. I've been doing the traffic for a few years and with my immune system, I kind of have to stay away from people and traffic really works well for me. You know, so I'm up for the whole event and being there for the whole event. And I'm happy to do the traffic for the electronic recycling.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Did you sign up on the sheet?
[Adam Hurtubise]: I haven't signed up on the sheet, I will though.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: And just, would you write that down, electronic?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, yeah.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: That's great, because that needs signage and someone right there to direct the traffic. Remember how many boxes one year? It was unbelievable. Kathleen knows. It was a lot, so. So Kathleen, I don't have any answer yet.
[Kathleen McKenna]: I'm willing to help. I just kind of wanted to put it out there because it is an effort to get to the people and collect the money and easier last year when we didn't have to do that. And the Boy Scouts are great, but they work better when there's another, I mean, we can kind of direct them, but another high school maybe in, older high school person, they, well, John knows, attention deficit, they end up diving into the electronics when they should be, things of that nature.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Right. He mentioned that at the meeting last month or in July. So I'm aware of that. I mean, I hope it would be great if some Tufts students volunteer. I don't even have the pollinator group signed up yet, but Tufts University is a major sponsor. And Green Energy Consumer Alliance is a major sponsor. This is $500 and up. Waste Management is considering it. I talked to them today, but they left a message, so I'm not sure how much they're going to come in with. And then we have several more that are $100 and actually $250 level. This week, I'll be focusing on tons of emails some days. It's just like all emails and calls. And then I have to get into the office to see who's actually paying and send out tons of emails. And food vendors, top of my mind. Really hard, really hard for these restaurants right now.
[Gaston Fiore]: OK, so anything else related to the Carver Sea Orange Festival?
[Alicia Hunt]: There are two little things that exist. I know Loretta knows about these, but they're sort of on the side that I felt was just useful for people to know. So there are two other events going on in Riverbend Park that day, but they're going to be very complementary. One is the dog park is doing a dog park cleanup in the morning. And that's usually a pretty low turnout event. Although anybody wants to help with cleaning up the dog park, we welcome the help. The moving stones is heavy. And then the Harvard Graduate School, GSD I think it is, does a volunteer program with our tree warden, Aggie Tudin. Most years they've been doing it for many years, where they actually come and do invasives clearing. along the river. And Aggie has suggested the day that they're going to do it this year is October 15th. And so we thought that it would work as a complimentary event. So they're going to come in the morning, they come in buses, so they will not be taking up our parking. But they'll either get 40 or 80 graduate students who will come in the morning, and then they get lunch at noon, and then they stay through about one. And they actually knowing that we have the festival from noon to three, they'll build in time for the students to after they do all their hard work and eat to hang out at the festival for a little while before they get on their buses and leave. So that'll be sort of a great exposure for the students to our festival. And it'll be this additional people coming through and they won't have cars we have to deal with.
[Adam Hurtubise]: That's Harvard?
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, it's Harvard graduate students. So the nice thing is they won't come in cars, but they are people who may actually have cars and be able to come back to Medford in the future.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: It actually made me think of one thing to present to the committee for a future idea for an event. The New England, I'm not looking at my notes right now, Electric Vehicle Association had reached out to us. And what happened was they're on the spreadsheet for me to contact. So I sent them a general invite to the festival, but I didn't really know what they were. And they wrote back and they told me that they're like a pop-up nonprofit group and they get electric vehicle car owners to be members and they have meetups, a show and go meetup. So it's actually too much to have them at the Harvester Energy Festival because of all the parking they would need, because they wanted to show the cars, not just a few cars, but a lot of cars. But I thought maybe, you know, we could think about that for a future event. That might be something fun to do or possible. And so I need to write back to them and just let them know that it doesn't work. Someone in the office might've told them, it's not quite appropriate for this festival. But let's say we had the Hormel parking lot someday and we wanted to toast, you know, and people could come and look at all different, you know, it's just an idea for future.
[Adam Hurtubise]: How many cars? Because in the past we've actually had the electric cars on the lawn. Do you remember that, Alicia?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: We will, we will actually have two. Yeah, one or two from Ken Olum will bring one or two cars. Yeah.
[Alicia Hunt]: And if you want my minivan on the lawn, we can do that too.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Oh, okay.
[Alicia Hunt]: I have a plugin. Oh, okay.
[Adam Hurtubise]: So, um, I was thinking Earth Day, but they probably already booked for Earth Day. Cause when I used to work the electric vehicle company, we always did Earth Day events here and there all over the place. So, but like I was saying, that might be a good thing for Earth Day, but I would, they would probably be already booked for Earth Day.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Hmm. Well, you guys can take a vote. And just, you know, think about it, because you need quite a bit of volunteers from the committee to be there that day and the promotion of the event. But they said, basically, it's a show and go, they don't, you know, stay forever. And they mentioned that some people might be able to drive other people's cars. And I'm like, No, But yeah, I know there's logistics and if it's city property, you know, we have to give maybe a permit. So I don't know. But just keep that in mind. It might be something fun.
[Gaston Fiore]: OK, so thank you so much, Loretta. I guess we're 10 minutes behind, but I think it's fine. Yep. Sorry. No, thank you.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Oh, no, thank you. I'd have to know early, but I'll try to listen in and keep up. with other things.
[Gaston Fiore]: Okay, thank you. Thank you. So right now on the list is a solid waste contract status and I'm listed slash Alicia. So we have 15 minutes for this because Nicole is coming at 7.45. So we shouldn't run over that. So Alicia, do you wanna go first and then I can talk about what I think that you know, the city we should be focusing on. We also had a meeting with Paul and Martha, I think I believe last Friday, and then we just discussed this. So this will come back in future meetings, but I think you should go first if you want to explain the new solid waste committee that got recently formed. And then I can take the last five minutes, if that's okay.
[Alicia Hunt]: Sure. So we posted last spring we did a press release and we reached out that we were looking to create a solid waste task force to work on the issue for the city. We need to modernize waste services for the city. The task force has been meeting, we hired a consulting firm to work with us on this because we only get a new waste contract once every 10 to something, 10 to 16 years. And it's good to bring somebody in who's more familiar with the business and how it works. So we brought in a solid waste consultant, and they're actually, I'd have to call up their name, but they've got zero waste in the name of the firm. And the idea is that we are working really hard right now to hear from residents. What do they like? What do they don't like? What do they want to see changed? What services? At the same time, Madeline, our graduate student, has gone out and surveyed other communities, investigated what the other communities in our region have for waste services, what they provide, what they don't provide. And in some cases, she's gotten ahold of other communities contracts, and we've been reviewing those. So we're going to use this information. The survey, I guess I posted it earlier, closes October 1. We have over 500 responses when I looked yesterday to this survey. So we're getting a really good response rate for this. I had to tell you, that's an amazing number to get that. And the volunteers from that committee are also going to the farmers market and to the library several times each to do in-person sessions to get people to fill out the survey. And there are hard copies in a couple of different locations as well. And the survey is currently in four languages, five languages, including English. There is also a business survey. So if for businesses have a different set of questions, because the city provides a lot of waste services for a lot of the businesses in the community. Part of what we want to do is really look at the inequities in the system right now and also just like what makes sense and what can we afford. And the idea then is to put out an RFP to select a waste service company for the future years. Contracts have to be more than three years. They have to be five, 10 years because they have to buy trucks and they have to amortize the cost of the trucks over your contract. And the shorter your contract is, the more expensive it is because of the need to purchase trucks and the need to hire permanent staff. So they need to give commitments to their staff. So usually the contracts are pretty long. They tend to be seven to 10 years. So we'll actually be giving a brief update to the city council tomorrow night. And when we're getting ready to put the RFP out, we'll be reviewing that with the city council before we put it out because they will need to approve any contract because it'll be longer than three years. There are, so you're aware, basically three companies in the greater Boston area who have the capacity to pick up a city as our size. Waste Management, Casella, and I'm going to say Republic Services. Honestly, they either just bought somebody or they were bought by someone, JRM and Republic. I apologize it off the top of my head. I don't know what's the current name of the company, but they merged. There are other waste companies, but they're not large enough to run a service as large as ours. So we're looking at all kinds of questions. It is my hope that the people who are serving on this, they really, they want to do better. And there's a conversation about going zero waste, but you can't do that in one fell swoop. That has to come in stages and with education. And so my hope is that out of this committee, will then evolve a zero waste task force that would move forward and keep working on this even after we do the RFP. And that might include some of the current members of the solid waste task force, additional people who might be interested, but that would sort of be the next step because our climate plan says we should be moving towards zero waste and that this will help push us in that direction.
[Gaston Fiore]: Yeah, so that actually, I'm very happy to hear that.
[Alicia Hunt]: Those are the highlights.
[Gaston Fiore]: Yeah, so that's nicely in, well, Paul and I will probably talk about this in January when we sort of take over. But, so yeah, because I think we would like to focus a little more on some sort of areas that the committee can work on and the seed of waste is exactly one of them. So I just, so just for the record in five minutes, so I jot down just some ideas that, as I mentioned, we discussed this with Paul and Mark on Friday. So I do think that we should, you're perfectly right Alicia, that we can't go through waste, you know, even in 10 years, right? So, but I do think as part of this, now that we have the chance and the city is focused on this, we should declare a zero waste goal to be achieved sometime in the future, be like, you know, 2050. I don't know, that's to be determined by experts. And then establish a timeline that works backwards to today that enables Medford to achieve that goal. And then this contract should sort of, you know, start today and eventually getting us there. So I posted on, for example, an easy thing that we should be able to do, and I don't see any impediments to this, is to work on what I posted on the chat. So back in 2019, Mayor Berkey launched a zero-waste assessment in the Medford Public Schools. Greta Smith was in charge of that. I talked to her a few months ago, and I actually emailed her back when I found out about the solid waste commission. She told me that, unfortunately, it was going to start when the pandemic hit back at the end of 2020. So clearly, you know, back then, it was believed that COVID was transmitted to the surface and things like that. So not only did the, you know, waste pilot at the school not get started, but everything went backwards by, you know, everything got sort of disposable and it got even, you know, worse shape than what it was at the start of 2020. In the link that I posted, it says that they had gotten funding for this from a technical assistant grant from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. So I'm not sure what happened to that grant, whether it's still available or not available, and how easy it would be to get a little bit of funding. So I'm going to go back to Alicia. But it's something that it makes a lot of sense that we should start with a very small pilot, and then I don't see why not. Do we have money for this or no?
[Alicia Hunt]: So, right. So that was I got that grant. That was one of my projects and RETA worked for me. And I've been recently talking, RETA had been doing a little work on volunteer basis. What we had done, so a report was never published, but we had found out what we needed to find out. And we actually applied for a follow up grant. And we got funding, so the problem at the schools is that there is literally not enough space, capacity to get rid of all the recycling that they generate, right? So like the recycled bins fill up and they can't, we can't get any more pickups because they're already picking up every week and there's no space for more recycle bins. So we identified this as the problem. So we applied for a grant to get recycling dumpsters at all the schools. And so then the problem is citing the dumpsters procuring the dumpsters getting them installed. And that was something that read has been trying to work on a little bit here and there during the pandemic, but it's been super hard. The other half of the grant was to buy a dishwasher for the high school, because all of the schools, and particularly any of you who have children in the schools, every one of these schools, except for the high school, has reusable trays, the capacity to wash reusable trays and a dishwasher. And there is no health reason at this time that they cannot be using the reusable trays. And so when you find out that schools are using Styrofoam trays, parents need to get upset at the schools because that is, they shouldn't be using them. The high school, however, has been using styrofoam trays because they have no dishwasher. We've identified the old dishwasher room. We've identified that a commercial scale dishwasher can go back in there and we got a grant to pay for that. So I actually just got permission about a week ago to bring Retta back to finish this project as a contractor because she has sort of a separate, a special set of school skills. She used to work in food services at the schools. And so her ability to sort of manage between these two worlds is huge. So I am just preparing the contract to bring her back so that she can finish working on this because One of the things we had the staff from DEP walk through with us and they're like, composting is great, but first you have to be using reusable stuff. Like there's low hanging fruit here and you need to be recycling more. So we're trying to address that first and then move to composting.
[Gaston Fiore]: So yeah, so Rita to me has been extremely careful. She's extremely knowledgeable and she wants to push a lot of ideas. And when I discuss with her, she has tons and tons of ideas. So she's definitely not the bottom. So I'm just curious as to, for example, why cannot we get these containers that you mentioned for recycling at the schools as part of the deal that we signed with this new trash, you know, company.
[Alicia Hunt]: because we will wait another two years if we do that. Another two years? To get a new trash hauler up and running takes a long time. It takes a long time for them to procure vehicles, to hire staff, and then to do these things. So we're looking to do the recycling. We have the money for the recycling dumpsters. The harder problem is identifying where they're going to go at the school. So we've identified that for some schools, and we're getting ready to put those in. We've identified the place for the dishwasher at the high school, and we just need to work through. The problem is when we leave it to the staff who have their day jobs, there's nobody in charge of doing something new. that's why I had to bring somebody in to help do something.
[Gaston Fiore]: Yeah of course yeah so we have two minutes I mean I've been at the high school several times and then there's a huge parking lot so we could get like you know three people to drive to stop driving then we could put the containers there so I. They have to be on a loading dock sorry the dumpsters all have to be.
[Alicia Hunt]: They have to be next to the loading docks so you roll up to them and you empty the your containers from the loading dock into the dumpster? Because you can't lift those things up over your head to put it in.
[Gaston Fiore]: Yeah, so I'm getting confused about what containers, so that's why the confusion. OK, and then in the last two minutes is that I do think that, you know, so for school cafeteria though, there should be no recycling. They should be everything reusable and then food scraps and food scraps should be compostable. So I'm not sure where the recycling comes into place. It's the whole school.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, I understand that. They're not recycling all the paper in the classrooms, and they're not recycling the cardboard and the big cans from food service. So that's the low-hanging fruit.
[Gaston Fiore]: For the cafeteria, we could get the funding to contract with a company that could take the plates and trays and utensils and glasses and then wash it and bring them the next day or something like that. then I think that we can achieve basically data waste, because then we can just use reusable stuff. I'm talking about the cafeteria. So I know it's hard, and I know implementing this takes a lot longer than one thinks it should take. But I do think that, for example, it's something that this committee can take on, right? So how to go there, see what the constraints are, where the container has to go, the loading of the things, And then that's why I mentioned earlier about the grants, like we can know, you know, where we should be trying to get funding from this. It can even be a private-public partnership or something like that. I just think that, you know, and then we don't have to even do this in all of the public schools. We can start with the high school, with the vocational school, with some, I don't know, something small. But, you know, it seems such a low-hanging fruit compared to, for example, even having, you know, composting all through the city. This is something very confined, small, more control that I think we should take on.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: But anyway, so we're out of time. So yeah, no, I have to say something. We discussed this, Gaston, myself, and Martha, and we have to have a comprehensive recycling plan at the high school. for a start. I mean, just as a city has a comprehensive plan for the climate change, we should have a comprehensive plan for, and if we can work on this in the coming year, I think that's a worthy cause really. So I'm on the same opinion as Gaston here. I think that's something that we should look into. very important. If we can recruit students to put in community hours to help with this, all the better. However we can do it, we'll get it done. But I think we need a concrete proposal, and that's key.
[Gaston Fiore]: Okay, so we'll definitely come back to this either at this next meeting or in the future. So now it's 7.46, I just want to be So Nicole, yes, so Nicole, so remember that last, in our last meeting in person, we voted to have a councilor, Resident City Council, Nicole Morales, to come and explain about the, explain what happened. I believe it was the June 1st, if I recall correctly, meeting of the city council that, discussed the tree ordinance. And according to what Loretta said, it got sort of broken in pieces and stuff. So yeah, so without taking any more time, I think Nicole is here. So.
[Nicole Morell]: Yep, I'm here.
[Gaston Fiore]: Oh, thank you so much, Nicole.
[Nicole Morell]: Yeah. So what we discussed at the June 1st meeting, and apologies if a direct invite didn't make its way over. That would be just my fault, just erroneously. missing that, but we met with, we had comments from DPW Commissioner Tim McGibbon. And then we had Robyn Stein from KP law there. We didn't make any resolutions that would change the ordinance per se. It's still very much in committee. So we're still working on it. have KP law assist us in taking the parts of the tree ordinance and the draft that would, and placing them throughout our existing code of ordinances, including zoning, and see where they might fall in, if this should be its own standalone document, or it should be slotted into different parts within our existing code of ordinances and zoning. Um, we also voted to have, um, consider separating out the tree committee just to be its own separate ordinance, establishing that tree committee so that we could focus on, um, the language of the, you know, specific to. What we're trying to accomplish here as far as protecting trees. Um, and. Last we just asked for updated drafts from KP law. And what I ended up getting back from KP law is they don't feel that we are in a place where they can provide us with updated drafts. They think we still have to make a number of policy decisions. You know, there wasn't a ton of decisions. There really wasn't any policy decisions made on this meeting. I think partly because the draft ordinance as it's written is maybe repeating or Moody up some roles that exist in the city with regards to code enforcement and the forestry department. So we are going to meet once again on. Okay. Let me look at my schedule. I think it's yeah. So on the 21st, so Wednesday, the 21st and 20, the whole at 6. We're going to meet this time. Commissioner given is going to join us. We, he wasn't able to attend the last time. Maggie Tudin. I'm working on hopefully getting our finance director Bob Dickinson to attend as well. I've been having some trouble scheduling with him as far as getting a response. But there's just a number of decisions need to be made as far as what we actually have the capacity to do in the city. I understand the way it's written now. There is a plan for You know, we're not. We're not gaining funds so that we can support additional work in the city, but it's, it's my personal belief as you know, and then go from there. So that's where I feel we are right now is just understanding, getting some more feedback from the departments that would actually enforce this to understand how they would enforce it and making sure that we are assigning the right, whether it's code enforcement or forestry, making sure that this language would be assigned to the right places. So it's still very much a working document. I think we all wish we were moving along faster, but it is, These types of ordinances are, are new so I mean if you watch the meeting you can see us asking attorney Stein from KP law you know can we do this can we do that and it's hard to get a straight answer just because, you know, these things are, you know, I think it was their Arlington has passed by, you know, their approval attorney general, but that doesn't mean that someone's not going to challenge them and they might have issues with it. So she was a bit wary as far as private tree protections and things like that. So again, we didn't make any decisions like that, but I think that's kind of why we're still not advancing. I think at the speed, a lot of us would probably like myself included, but there's still just a lot of policy decisions that need to be made. That's kind of the overview.
[Gaston Fiore]: So are there any questions from people? I know I have, but I'm an outlier in the group regarding this, so I will go back at the end. So any questions about this, Loretta? I know that you're very involved in trees. I know you're there, but anyone else? Sorry, Barry. Yes, I didn't see your hand. Go ahead.
[Barry Ingber]: Yeah, Nicole. So I shared some comments with you and with others. And I don't have them in front of me. So I'm working from a rather aged memory right now. But I know that a couple of them had to do with one had to do with an exclusion for invasive species.
[Nicole Morell]: Yep, I have one in front of me right now.
[Barry Ingber]: You do have it in front of you?
[Nicole Morell]: Yeah, I just pulled up your email. Yep.
[Barry Ingber]: Yeah. One was around changing the nature of the tree committee, that forestry was not really necessary, that there are a number of ecological specialties that could serve in that role. Another was that the remediation was not adequate because measuring by diameter is not two four inch trees are not the equivalent of an eight inch tree. You need to go by area of cross section. And I can't remember what else, there was one related to affordable housing. But you have it in front of you, unlike me. So can you tell me if any of those have been addressed?
[Nicole Morell]: Um, affordable housing came up. Um, I do believe there is language in it regarding to affordable housing. We just need to strengthen it. Um, I think that we have, some of these things are addressed, but they're, um, from attorney Stein, they're a little too vague the way they're currently written. Um, So, but that is, it is a referenced bullet point in the draft. So I will make sure that that is something that. doesn't get lost and also we can strengthen. So it's actually something that can be included. Making sure I get these, move your notes into a document for myself. Okay. I can pull up the latest draft, which again, it hasn't changed significantly since the previous meeting, which I think was in March, maybe.
[Unidentified]: Bear with me.
[Nicole Morell]: I am not seeing it, but I know this is somewhat, yes, I will make sure that affordable housing is referenced. I don't know, I just can't pull it up like right as I'm just trying to find it as I'm in the midst of this, but I know it is referenced or we'll make sure it remains referenced. Yeah, I can keep looking if there's other questions.
[Barry Ingber]: Okay, and the other three comments?
[Nicole Morell]: Yep, and then you mentioned, yep, you did the same, you mentioned there protecting insignificant trees needs to exclude invasive and noxious species. And then you said the same thing, mitigation measures are far too lax. So I do not, yeah, these are all great points. I will make sure that these are, These get brought into the conversation. Again, the last meeting was really just trying to see what we could legally do, what we could ask for as a city, trying to get that feedback from KP Law. Again, it wasn't the most fruitful meeting. It felt like we struggled a little bit with trying to get the answers we wanted from KP Law regarding, can we do this, can we do that? Um, so I think we do just need to make some decisions. Um, and then, um, I lost my train of thought. So yeah, we haven't. And then just kind of working through the language that's there. So I think we, we love with more questions than answers and we didn't make a bunch of policy decisions. So we really didn't get into like the meat of this kind of stuff. So absolutely. I'm hoping that's what we can do next week. Um, I'll make sure this is included in that. And I can send you all the latest version.
[Barry Ingber]: Okay. And do you know what, when I sent you that email, I can't seem to find it anywhere.
[Nicole Morell]: I see as February, February 22nd, 2022. Okay.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Thank you.
[Gaston Fiore]: Anyone else? I don't see any hands, but you can just jump in.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Nicole, I had some questions. I didn't see the video recording of the meeting. What is your sense of, I know they're concerned about staffing and finance, usually with permits. As we've seen with other towns that have tree ordinances, that will cover some of the staffing to design the permits and implement some program, even if it's limited. What is your sense of the City Council and your perspective from the meetings of their consideration to preserve at least the older tree canopy?
[Nicole Morell]: I think there absolutely is. I think there's a unified consideration and desire to, I mean, you know, right now, you know, looking at Commissioner McGibbon's like one of his comments, again we he wasn't able to attend says, you know, part of this permission and this permit you know, tree removal permit that is suggested in this document. He says, this is creating a new permit process that we do not currently have in Medford. Existing permitting processes that are similar are typically staffed with at least two to four people. This includes administrative duties, evaluation review duties, and construction oversight duties. This requires full-time employees and should be calculated and submitted with the proposed ordinance. So a lot of this, not a lot, but I mean, you know, part of this hinges on coming down to just figuring out financially how we, how, this can be put into effect. So I think the desire to do this is absolutely there. I think there's also just the desire to do it in a way that we do it, you know, we can execute on it. We can, you know, what we're trying to accomplish can be met by the ordinance. I mean, I know that goes without saying, but you know, sometimes that happens, that what we're writing is not, we don't get the desired outcome of the ordinance. that we created.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: When you mentioned zoning, what part did they want to split off into zoning?
[Nicole Morell]: It would be the private trees would be what would go into zoning. Okay, so that's, you know, huge right there. Yes.
[Gaston Fiore]: So private trees, it also includes, for example, plots of land that are undeveloped and covered by trees and some, is that correct?
[Nicole Morell]: Correct, yes.
[Gaston Fiore]: Would it be possible to separate between plots of land that are not developed and covered by trees and just, you know, for example, my house,
[Nicole Morell]: Yep. Yeah, absolutely. And I, and I think there was, I believe a Councilor and I did make a comment to that, that point too, you know, referencing the difference between what you just said, you know, your backyard and a tree you want to remove for a swing set was his example versus, you know, something you want to, you know, clear cutting and undeveloped plot of land.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: I mean, you know, it goes without saying, and it's in the report, at some point, how much do we cut down?
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: And I would just add, you know, even on my small lot, you know, there are a couple of trees and if some developer bought this land at some point, is there anything stopping them from chopping everything down before they start, you know, redoing the house? Right. Yeah.
[Nicole Morell]: And I think that's, I think there is, you know, I know that's a lot of the language was intended. We were, I mean, you can watch the video, we were struggling, you know, and I understand that, like, it's hard to give a black and white answer, you know, with counsel, legal consultation sometimes, but I think we were trying to ask, like, what can we, what can we put in this that, you know, passes muster that is, you know, passes legal muster and what, you know, can we not? And I felt like we couldn't quite get to an answer.
[Alicia Hunt]: And I just offer that something that I often hear when we're working on something is lawyers say, I'm not sure how a judge would see that. I'm not sure how that would stand up in the courts. And there are some communities that say, great, let's pass it anyhow and let them fight us. But if you fight something in court, that takes a lot of money. Lawyers to fight things in court are more expensive than lawyers who give you advice on writing ordinances. It just can become very pricey to fight things in court. Or you pass something and hope that it doesn't get attacked and do you fight it or do you say, well then, I'm not going to fight it and you give in and let them take your law away. It's actually a very difficult question to answer. It's come up on a number of issues.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: It's such an environmental impact for the whole world. And it comes back to everybody, everybody who lives in, say, Medford, because it is complicated. The value of the older trees that are healthy are more important than planting new trees, in my opinion. Yes, we do need some new trees, but the older ones have the most environmental impact and benefits. So how it comes back to everybody, whether they're interested or not, is that it causes flooding and heat gain. And who comes out to help us? The city. And then our taxes go up because we need more city help. So I hope people are aware of that. So when we cut down trees and you look down streets and everybody's developing their land and we're missing tons of trees and then they have flooding and they call the city for help and there's not much we can do with that.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: You see, Loretta, that narrative that you just mentioned is not shared. is not shared. I mean, that's the reality we have to face. That narrative you just said, the requirement for trees and how it protects all of us is not there. And I think we need to go a long way to educate folks in the city to get this in a place that's appropriate because whether you like it or not, the weather is going to get hotter. Right. And the less trees you've got, the more screwed we are. So as a city, you know.
[Gaston Fiore]: Along those lines, I want to say something. But first, so Nicole was scheduled from 7.45 to 8. So Nicole, thank you so much for having presented to us. If you need to go, then feel free to do so. If not, then obviously we would love to have you here.
[Nicole Morell]: I can hang on for a little bit.
[Gaston Fiore]: Yeah, so we can go over a little bit because I think the last half hour is just for other business and stuff. So, I mean, as people in this committee know, I'm a little bit dubious about this area. I'm very strong on the way, for example, I'm much more dubious than this. And I'm only talking about private lots that have buildings already in place. So, you know, a normal resident, I'm not talking at all about undeveloped land or things like that, where I do think that, you know, in fact, I am all in for, you know, community owned forests or, you know, the city going and raising funds to buy a lot of lands. There's one like two blocks away from my house that's just covering trees. There's nothing there in the corner. And I don't know why the developer hasn't gotten it yet. I hope the developer never gets it. And then that's both unprotected and perpetuity. So I'm all in for that. Now, so however, I have two things to say. I'm going to say this very quickly. So the first one is that I want to make sure that people are ultra busy and things are out of control. Nothing works in particularly after the pandemic. So I'm not trying to blame anyone at all. But I do want to mention that I'm appalled at the lack of transparency in the process regarding the tree ordinance. I mean, the fact that when it was discussed last time, we didn't get to know about it. I don't think Alicia knew about it, Bob didn't know about it, we didn't know about it.
[Nicole Morell]: Listen, I apologize for not inviting you guys. It's a publicly posted notice. We meet open meeting laws that has to be published 48 hours in advance. I apologize for the invite not getting out there. I understand you being frustrated. This is not a secretive process. These are publicly posted meetings that anyone can attend. Right. So I take issue with that.
[Gaston Fiore]: Yeah, no, no, no, it's not. I mean, definitely, that's not what I mean. I'm just saying that, you know, and I'm not talking about us as a committee. I'm just talking that, you know, so for example, if we get anything close to what Cambridge does, where the cost is $850 per inch. So for a two foot tree, that is a cost of $20,400. If residents, you know, this gets passed, and then residents will not be aware of it at all. And then all of a sudden, they want to cut a tree because I have a neighbor that, for example, got two last year, because he got a new baby and he was worried that the trees were, like, poking his house. He decided to cut both. I don't share the decision, but it doesn't matter. Like, if all of a sudden, then they get to know that, you know, kind of in their backs, then they think of cuts, and now it costs them an extra $21,000 per tree. in addition to the $14,000 that I think it cost him to cut them down, that's just not going to end up well. It's just, it's similar to, you know, what Cambridge did with the bike lanes. Now the city is getting sued by businesses because of the parking spaces. So I just think that here, I do agree 100% with Paul. So there are tons of advantages of trees. Like I actually have three links here about certain trees actually raise your sale price of the house, for example, up to 10%, depending on what tree it is. So if we could launch a massive educational campaign to show residents that you don't have to cut your tree if you don't have a good reason for it. It would actually increase your property value. It gives you clean air. It gets the water off your grass so it actually helps you not get flooded and gives you shade so you don't work your utility bill and things like that. I think that for residents that have their house and have a piece in their yard, there shouldn't be really that much of a necessity to then spend already, you know, $10,000 to get it cut. To then, you know, in addition to that, tax them an extra 800, 850 dollars if it's like Cambridge per inch. So I'm just feel that, you know, I'm doing kind of a disservice to residents by just, you know, supporting something that I'm not sure they will support. So I do think that a way to get this done is, you know, to put a summary of the ordinance whenever it is ready with the cost number. So not just like, you know, do you want a tree protection ordinance or not? And that should be put to referendum because it's really a tax and it's a humongous tax that people are not expecting. I've never had it. And, you know, they should really rest and tell the ones that they should decide with vote whether they want something like this or not. Now, having said that, for everything else, as I said, I think we should push as much as we can to protect existing plots of land that I don't know who owns them, but they are like full of trees. A developer can come and cut them down. I think, in fact, they should not be developed. I think they should be preserved in perpetuity. I think we should help DCR. It's the least funded or one of the least funded kind of environmental protection departments of all the states in the US. I do think we should help them maintain the faults. They're in not that great of a condition. All of that, I think it would be great. And then so the last thing I'm going to say super quickly is that I also think that by having a tree ordinance that pretty much gets rid of cutting trees for everyone, then we're making the problem worse. So because instead of having a systems engineering approach that tries to address climate change as a systems engineering approach, then we're just like doing this kind of separated thing. So just very quickly, so I do think that placing our generation far away from our consumers is against social and environmental justice because it brings the problems of space availability to other communities. So, in addition, it can lead to clearing forests and large bodies of trees with even greater adverse environmental impacts than cutting a few trees in the city. So, for example, I got from the Appalachian Mountain Club, which I'm a member of, that this SMART, the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target Program, which is an initiative designed to help bring new solar energy onto the grids, has led to the clearing of thousands of acres of forested areas for solar projects and adequately incentivizing the siting of projects in already developed areas, like rooftops and parking lots. So in 2020, this got amended. So now it prohibits putting solar siting on land where at least 50% of the parcel area is designated as priority habitat for habitat or critical natural landscape. But it's still 50%. we're going to need a lot more electricity generation because we need to convert all transportation and HVAC into electrical, right? So right now they use fossil fuels. So we're going to need a lot more electricity generation. And then if we don't have the panel here, the panel is going to have to go somewhere else. I know there's like, you know, it's going to be some wind, but the panel is going to be somewhere else. So I would much rather have it in my roof. And then if my house faces south and I have to cut two trees in the front of my yard, then cut those two, rather than having to put, you know, a farm somewhere in Western Mass and having to clear a whole forest for it. So, and moreover, it's fair, right? Because the electricity we needed here, it's not needed down there. So if we need the electricity here, then we should produce it here whenever possible. And then lastly, So there's this Senator, we have Senator Michael Barrett talking to us, and he mentioned that there was a hydro project that was gonna give us hydro power from Maine, and it got canceled. So there's this other project called the Northern Pass that was supposed to give Boston a lot of electricity from hydro in Canada. And it actually was going to traverse all of the White Mountain National Forest. And it took a nine-year fight to help the power line from coming to Ghana all the way here. So I just think that, you know, what about that? So, you know, if we don't generate electricity here, we're going to have to generate it somewhere else. I was thinking of the idea that we should have exceptions for solar panels. Now, I just don't even think it's necessary because I'm just opposing the ordinance for private plans that are already developed.
[Barry Ingber]: I'd like to respond to Gaston if I could. First, I want to appreciate Gaston's arguments, because we're going to get far more vicious arguments from real opponents than we are from our friends. And so it's good practice to argue with our friends before we have to argue with our enemies. So thank you. One, I think it's a real problem talk about setting it up as a referendum campaign. At some point, we end up having to govern the city by referendum. We elect a city council to create laws for the city. We can't have a referendum for everything that impacts people, which is presumably everything, or that's controversial. So I think that that's stepping back from the issue altogether and looking at philosophy of government. need to really think about that more deeply. On the rights of individual, I have problems with the rights of individual landowners. I mean, being a socialist in the first place, I don't believe that people have rights over land. I think that there's not really any such thing as owning real property. There's only a such thing as owning personal property. That property pre-exists us, outlives us, and is not created by us. and that we should stop pretending otherwise. In practical terms, the example you gave about cutting down two trees in order to install solar on your roof, one, the ordinance provides for exceptions, and that might be one. Two, That's going to come up so rarely that putting it out as a major argument against the referendum, against the ordinance is, I think, bogus. And three, even if you were going to weigh cutting down two large trees against the solar panels on your roof, we're not talking about replacing that with cutting down a whole forest. We're talking about You need to measure, and I'm not competent to do this, and I don't know if anybody in this Zoom room is, but you need to measure the environmental services of that array, rather small array, of solar panels versus the environmental services of the two mature trees. I would hazard a guess that the trees are providing a greater environmental service than the array, but that could be wrong. I think that that's something that would have to be assessed by experts. But I don't think that that stands as an argument against the ordinance. And I want to give an example that actually is happening. Down the street from me, probably 100 yards or so from my house, is a lot that's been vacant for, I would bet, over 50 years. It's got a lot of mature trees. Most of them are garbage. But there is a beautiful oak, and there is a beautiful hickory. They are both on the edge. They could easily be spared. I mean, and this, this lot is going to be developed. It's, it just went for a zoning variance. I supported getting developed, we need to do infill development there, but those trees can be spared. My guess is that if there is no ordinance, that the developer will find it easier to cut down those trees along with everything else in order to have easier access to the property for building. I want the ordinance to protect those two trees. I mean, it's a beautiful, it's probably a hundred year old oak and the hickory is probably a half a century old or more. Those are valuable treats. They don't have to be cut down to develop the property, but they will be without an ordinance.
[Gaston Fiore]: So yeah, so two quick answers. I will be happy to meet with you, Barry, in person, because I think I would love the discussion. But just two quick things. So the first one is that Pablo Carreon Hernandez?s iPhone 2?s iPhone 2?s iPhone 2?s iPhone 2?s iPhone 2?s iPhone 2?s iPhone 2?s iPhone 2?s The electricity will have to come from somewhere, as I said. And well, we have to figure that out. But I'll meet with you. And the second one about the developer, it's like, yeah, so first of all, developers, I want to exclude because I do think that it's not the same as the regular resident that just maybe has a problem with the tree and wants to cut it. And it's going to be nailed with $21,000 of tax. But the second thing that I think is very interesting that we should think about related to what you say, it's like, why does the developer want to cut those two trees? Because as I said, trees add, you know, if the developer is interested in making a profit, trees add value to what he, you know, to the property that he would develop if he left. So I think we all need to think about, you know, why do developers come and destroy everything when maybe if they just, you know, cut the trees that are where they want to build the house and left the other one, they won't be able to sell whatever they built for a greater price. That's something that, yes, I totally agree with you that developers will come and get rid of those streets, but I wonder why that is always what gets followed, given that it's not true or guaranteed that a land that has been cleared of everything would actually be sold for more money.
[Barry Ingber]: People cut down beautiful trees from the yards for no reason other than that they want an undisturbed lawn. And developers cut down trees to make it easier to build. And I mean, the value, the additional value of extra trees, I mean, we have, our society has not monetized that. We just haven't.
[Gaston Fiore]: Yeah, I agree, I agree. I think it's something that, yeah, that could ideally change. And lawns, I do think we have talked about this was in the past, it's something that we should definitely try to educate people on. There was a nice article in the New York Times about, you know, people that now are having sort of not loans. So I would love to, you know, contribute to that and, you know, making people have usable yards rather than something that, you know, just sucks in resources and doesn't achieve any useful purpose. So, okay, Barry, I will get back to you and we'll go for coffee or something. So anything else? I know that we still have 10 minutes. So what I have in the agenda, not related to TRIS is, so yeah, so Bob said that he has been in contact with BlockPower, which is a company that he mentioned in our past meeting. that is helping the city of Ithaca become 100% electric. And I think they also collaborate with the city of Cambridge right next to us. So I think he's trying to get them to give a presentation in the week of November 14 in conjunction with past energy group. I don't have any more information. So if you have any input on that, I would suggest that you contact Bob directly. Then Bob also said that He is probably going to give a presentation on opportunities for Medford citizens for electrification, so vehicles, competing, cooling, and the substantial subsidies and rebates that will come within the Inflation Reduction Act at the federal level or the time of the state level. And now we have eight minutes. If members have any other things to discuss, things that you would like to see in the future, Yeah, thank you so much, Nicole. We really appreciate you having stopped by. Thank you.
[Nicole Morell]: Thank you. I appreciate it. Please reach out via email if you guys have questions.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: Thank you very much. Thank you, Nicole. Thank you, Nicole.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Thank you, Nicole. I wanted to bring up something that I saw. I don't know if people know about Zero Waste Massachusetts. They just published a 14-page recommendation for Massachusetts. Apparently 40% of our recyclables that are seriously recyclable end up in landfills. And of course, our landfills, I think we have six landfills in Massachusetts, they'll be filled by 2035. So this is a serious issue. And, and it's, and I think Medford could, you know, be in a position to take some leadership in this. And the issue of zero waste was brought up earlier in the meeting. I'll send this this study out, and they make recommendations like having certain bans on how people dispose of waste. One, for instance, and they looked at how other states like Vermont and Connecticut do this. And one, for instance, was having transparent garbage bags instead of opaque garbage bags. So, and then of course having occasionally having inspection of the garbage that's thrown out. And then there's a bunch of other recommendations they put in there. I'll send this out. And I hope we can discuss this as our next meeting.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Okay, so I will write that down and I'll forward the book or we can forward it as well. Anything else? Future meetings?
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Yeah, we talked, I know Gaston, myself and Martha talked about how to educate people about recycling. And the thing I've noticed in Medford is that on the recycling bins, there is no pictorial depiction of what needs to go into the recycling bin. I wonder if there's any interest by the city in having some sort of sticker on the recycling bins saying, well, this is what you can stick in there and this is what you can't. And please don't do that because obviously it contaminates the recyclables. contaminated recyclables are really the massive problem here. I don't know, Alicia, what do you think about that?
[Alicia Hunt]: There are certain things that we can do at the city level, but there's a lot of stuff that we don't have. When you mentioned waste bands, that's a state level thing and there are a lot of them. Really, it's about education and people don't want to hear it. One of the things the state has done to help clean up the recycling stream is that they've instituted consistency across the whole state. So there's an agreement between all the waste haulers that what's recyclable in Medford is recyclable in Cambridge and in Boston and in Springfield, no matter who the hauler is picking up for you. So like there is a statewide database on what can be recycled. Let me post that for you guys. And we just need to educate people on it. And I'll tell you that we will not change what can and cannot be recycled in Massachusetts because it's an agreement that was negotiated, the DEP negotiated with the waste haulers. It's not something that we will have any level of influence over. But we can educate people on this.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Well, I mean, in terms of education, would it be possible to have some description of what can be put into the bins as opposed to the general junk that people put into the bins? I mean, to be honest, I've gone down the street and I've looked at bins and with people looking at me like I'm a, you know,
[Alicia Hunt]: Like I shouldn't be doing that. Every house, every year we mail it.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: I know, but if it can go, what I'm saying is that if it can go on the bin itself, that's all. You know, this is all about education. Know about no policing, no telling people what you can do, what you can't do, just about education. Like, have a sticker on the bin saying, paper can be going there.
[Alicia Hunt]: What workforce is going to put 18,000 stickers on bins at private homes? It's only an idea, but it makes my head explode to think about it.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: No, I understand. But again, you have to think that by 2036, all our landfills are going to be filled.
[Alicia Hunt]: No, they won't. They'll figure something else out.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: No, no, Alicia. They send them overseas. And part of the issue has been that overseas countries no longer want our crap.
[Alicia Hunt]: None of Medford's crap goes overseas. 100% of it goes to the wheelabrator, where it gets burned. And then what the residual gets buried in the state.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: So you think the statistics that these folks are citing is bunk?
[Alicia Hunt]: Well, what I don't understand is Our waste goes to the wheelabrator, it gets burned, the garbage.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: You've seen this.
[Alicia Hunt]: Do you think that waste management is lying to me and shipping it on a ship rather than sending it to a facility that burns it that's here locally?
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: I'm not saying that. I'm saying that the statistics say only 9% of mixed stream recycling gets recycled.
[Alicia Hunt]: I don't think that's true either. I honestly don't, because in Massachusetts, there are laws about that. Now, did you say that was a Massachusetts study, or just a national?
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: No, no, this is a Massachusetts study. This is a Massachusetts study.
[Alicia Hunt]: Because they're not allowed to just toss stuff. Waste management said to us that about 12% of what goes to the recycling facility does not end up getting recycled.
[Gaston Fiore]: And then they send it to the wheel abrator. And then 12% of those only 12% does not get recycled that way.
[Alicia Hunt]: So I'm going to check because I wrote it down last week when I met with them.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Well, I just want to say something about the stickers. I'm thinking one thing that might work with a sticker is if you include it in that mailing. So you include the sticker in the mailing and maybe on one side of the like, you know how the stickers have like a poly, whatever you want to call it so that you can peel it off. Maybe on that side, it shows you where to put it. And I'm thinking the ideal place because I looking at my bins, the one place that is absolutely clean all the time is the inside of the cover is always clean. So you can put inside the cover. And then if you mail it out, and again, what you say is you mail out 18,000 of them, and 800 of them get stuck on bins. But it's a something. It's something.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: And I'm sure some of these bins get replaced, don't they? There's some percentage of them that get replaced. And if we have a requirement that any new one that goes out has a sticker on it,
[Jessica Parks]: I have a question, is there anything that shows that having the sticker on the bin has a higher success rate at the bin that you deposited in? Because I think my thought process is, you know, even in, you know, working at a university, it's where they put the actual
[Unidentified]: waste, whatever it is.
[Jessica Parks]: It's not because, I mean, we fill our recycling bin and take the whole bin out and just dump it into the larger bin. That's not when I'm sorting it. I'm sorting it in my house. We do the same thing.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: So that sticker can be put up near your what you have in the house.
[Jessica Parks]: I mean, I keep ours on our fridge, which is with.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: There you go.
[Jessica Parks]: I mean, it could be a thing that we get in the mail with the management.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I would, so I had an interesting thing happen just actually just yesterday. So, you know, your pill bottles, they have all your information on them. So we've been putting them, just putting them in a bin, you know, in a 12 gallon bin. Now, I have, we have literally 600 of them. So now I want to recycle them, right? And I went through and I took all the labels off them. And then I'm wondering, wait a minute now, are these recyclable? Because they do have, Some of them have powdery pill residue inside them. So I thought, are these in fact recyclable? I went everywhere. I could not find anything that said that they were or weren't recyclable. Now, bottles are recyclable. I know that. They're made out of plastic. They have the triangle on the bottom. From a practical point of view, they're absolutely recyclable. But this whole medication piece, I'm like, so now you're at the recycling plant and you're grinding these up and powder of medication is going places. What is that? How do you deal with that? And my point is not about the plastic bottles. My point is, I went to waste management site. I started off by looking on the handout. And it really didn't say anything about pill bottles. And again, it's not about the pill bottles. It's about these funny things that end up like, you know, like I got this little plastic screwdriver. Where does this go, right? And so I went to the master site that was better. It had lists of things that were recyclable, but it still didn't have everything. And I'm thinking that really maybe a better use would be just a sticker that rather than had everything on it, maybe had a website or even just, some kind of a broadcast of, hey, here's the website where you can find out if what, no matter what you're thinking of, you know, here it is. I know we sent out a link about this like, I don't know, six months or a year ago. There was, you put it in the, you know, this is a great site for finding out what's recyclable and what isn't. I, yesterday when I was doing this, I didn't have, you know, I didn't have the resources to get to that that quickly, but You know, that's the one thing that I find about recycling is, is this recyclable and is it not? And the thing is, when you think about it, the reason our recyclables are not recycled as well is because they're contaminated. So if somebody puts a battery in their recycling bin, it contaminates that recycling bin, it contaminates that process. And so, you know, it's kind of more important
[Alicia Hunt]: It's not as bad as you think, though, John, because it gets sorted out. The battery falls out the bottom and goes into that 12 percent residue. It's not like it ruins the entire hall.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Right. That's true.
[Alicia Hunt]: I should share. I was trying to get the idea. I've been to some of these facilities and there are some really cool pictures of what they're like that I think really helps people understand what goes on inside the recycling sorting facilities. It's on my to-do list to get one of those posted for the public to just look at all the slides from that. It's an interesting thing.
[Gaston Fiore]: Okay, so we're five minutes over, so we'll come back to waste in the future, I'm sure. And then we'll talk in January about, you know, what we would like to run a little bit different, but in the meantime, if you have any kind of major projects that you would like the committee to focus on, then please let Paul and I know, and then we'll discuss. So I believe that we have to, oh, and then I just want to mention quickly that I want to make sure that whenever I say something a waste or something, then I'm not trying to add work to your office, but I want to volunteer to work on it so I can actually, you know, offload or at least not add any work. So if it looks different, then I apologize, but that's not what I mean. So.
[Alicia Hunt]: I appreciate that. But you know what, do you, one of the things that I like to point out, you should look at the stuff we have on greenhouse gases on the city's website. Waste accounts for about 2% of our greenhouse gases in Medford. And so we've been really trying to focus on transportation and buildings because those are a much bigger impact on the climate change. Dealing with recycling is something that makes people feel good, but it's not gonna help climate change.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yes, yes, that's exactly right. It makes people feel good, but it doesn't do a lot.
[Jessica Parks]: I know. So Alicia, does that mean that we're going to think about a Beardo or a Budo for Medford?
[Alicia Hunt]: You mean the building energy?
[Jessica Parks]: Yeah.
[Alicia Hunt]: I have to say, I feel like I heard at the conference today something about the fact that the state just passed a law requiring buildings over 20,000 square feet to do energy reporting. I think so. I don't know any details on it. They just Boston, the director of energy and environment for Boston, Reverend Mariana was speaking. And she mentioned their or their disclosure ordinance, and mentioned that the state had just passed it. And I was like, Oh, okay, better get gonna have to learn about that pretty fast. So we'll, we'll see.
[Gaston Fiore]: Yeah, I also saw a bill. I mean, the Repower EU plan from the European Union already requires this during 2025. They mandate solar rooftop on everything, like public, commercial, and residential. And I actually looked it up, and Massachusetts has a bill on this. It hasn't passed yet, I don't think.
[Alicia Hunt]: If it's just a bill, then you never know what's going to pass. Yeah, right.
[Gaston Fiore]: But I'm assuming that if Europe already passes, then eventually we'll get there. Anyway, so I think we need to, we need a motion to adjourn or we just adjourn Alicia?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Motion to adjourn.
[Gaston Fiore]: I second it. Okay, so everyone is in favor? Aye. Perfect. So meeting is concluded. If you have any feedback, eventually we'll have a way for you to submit anonymous feedback. But in the meantime, you can just need Alicia and then she will tell us. what the feedback is without telling him to send the feedback. Anyway, well, have a good night, everyone. Thanks. Take care, bye-bye. Take care, bye-bye.
[Alicia Hunt]: Thanks, Lily.
[Gaston Fiore]: Thank you, Alicia, bye.
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