[Robert Paine]: Okay, before we introduce the The guests and the members, I'll just read the statement as to why we can have a remote meeting. On February 12, 2022, Governor Baker signed into law a supplement of COVID-19 fiscal appropriations and an extension through July 15, 2022 of certain authorizations related to public meetings. This new law extends the remote meeting provisions of the governor's March 12, 2020 executive order suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law. In accordance with the 2020 executive order, 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 the public body instead of holding meetings in a public place that is open and physically accessible to the public. 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. Despite our best efforts, we are not able to provide for real-time access. We will post a record of this meeting on the city's website in the near future with the link provided in the meeting agenda. End of statement. It looks like, Alicia, can you send to Benji, he doesn't have a Zoom link.
[Alicia Hunt]: OK. I can send him an email.
[Robert Paine]: Yeah, an email would be great, yeah.
[Alicia Hunt]: Oh, look, I see that email just came in.
[Robert Paine]: All right. Thanks. In terms of that, that that log going through July 15, 2022. I'm not sure if there is an extension to that.
[Alicia Hunt]: There's so in the state budget, there is an amendment in either the senator had the house extending that through December 2023. So that would be 18 months. And I understand that they will discuss it in reconciliation. So hopefully when the state budget is passed, which will hopefully be by June 30th, because the budget expires June 30th, there will be an amendment in there to allow an extension of open meeting law remotely. I have actually reached out to our delegation asking for a permanent extension, and I'm told it's under discussion. So we'll see about that.
[Robert Paine]: Okay, members that are present. I don't see Luke. So, so Bob Payne, obviously Gustavo is here. Yes. And Barry Engler, Loretta James, I see Dave Hampton, Martha Rogers, Jessica Parks, and hopefully Benji soon. Before we, we'll do the minutes and then we'll review Dave Hampton's status.
[Alicia Hunt]: Bob, can I introduce our new intern who's here on the call?
[Robert Paine]: I'm sorry, go right ahead.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yes. So everybody knows me, but Patrick Snyder started today. Patrick, would you like to introduce yourself? I hate to put him on the spot, but it's his first day. So that's what you do with new students, right?
[SPEAKER_12]: Hi, I'm a student finishing my master's degree in urban management and development. And I'm here to be the intern and I'm going to be working on the Harvester Energy Festival.
[Robert Paine]: And you're at Tufts, I presume, right?
[SPEAKER_12]: So I'm from the area, but my university is actually based in the Netherlands.
[SPEAKER_09]: Oh, wow. OK, great.
[Alicia Hunt]: Interesting. We branched out this summer. So Patrick is from a different university in the Netherlands. And we also have two new graduate students from Tufts in our office who started in the last two weeks and actually a graduate student from Harvard Graduate School of Design. So we're branching out this summer.
[Robert Paine]: Let's see, before we do the minutes, Dave Hampton, why don't you tell us about your status?
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks, Bob. Yes, so I will be moving at the end of this month to Northampton. Massachusetts for those who don't know it. So I will need to be stepping down. I suppose that's that's that's what one does if one is no longer a resident. I've enjoyed being a part of the committee and I've really enjoyed working with you folks. And I know it's been fairly short since I joined, but I will miss working with you folks. So yeah, so that would be before the next meeting, I'll be moving.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: Sorry to lose you, Dave.
[Alicia Hunt]: I don't realize you're muted.
[Robert Paine]: Right, I lost my link. Okay, I'm back. Thank you. So Dave, we'll miss you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you very much. I appreciate you saying.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Good luck in all your future endeavors.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you so much, Paul. I appreciate that. And I wish the best to Meek. I think we're doing great things. And it's been an honor to serve, really has.
[Robert Paine]: Obviously, you'll be able to join remotely if you want to in the future. member of the public, if you will. Thank you. I appreciate that. So that will drop our committee membership down to 13, but seven is still the magic number for a quorum. Cause that's, you know, 50% plus, you know, one rounding up.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I will need to sign off at seven apologies.
[Robert Paine]: Okay. All right. Well, that's what I wanted to get you on.
[SPEAKER_03]: So you still have a quorum.
[Robert Paine]: Yes, we're gonna, we're gonna, yeah. And we have, we have some extra people, so let's see. Okay. Jessica joined as well. We're gonna also review the minutes so you can do your last vote, David. So let's see. I set those out last week. Does anyone have any comments or questions on the minutes from May 2nd? If not, I will entertain a motion to accept the minutes as posted.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: I'll give the motion to accept the minutes as posted.
[Robert Paine]: You're a late comer. Sorry.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: Yes, I came in late.
[Robert Paine]: Mark you down as present. Okay, great. All right, I will second the motion. I will call the roll and let me know if you've snuck in and I don't know you're here.
[Adam Hurtubise]: John Rogers. I'm here.
[Robert Paine]: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: Yes. Yes.
[Robert Paine]: Although you weren't there, right?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Is this? I was there last month.
[Robert Paine]: You were there. Okay, I hope I got you down in May.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Oh, you know what? No, Linda had a knee down. No, I wasn't.
[Robert Paine]: All right. All right. So you have to abstain. Yeah, I'm staying. Dave. Yes. All right. Your last one of your last votes on Martha. Yes. Jessica. I abstain as well. I wasn't there.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Thank you, Benji. Bob, I have to abstain too, I wasn't there.
[Robert Paine]: Okay, so far we have no nos.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Okay.
[Robert Paine]: Have I missed any members that are present?
[Kathleen McKenna]: This is Kathleen, I just jumped in and I read the meeting minutes and they look fine to me.
[Robert Paine]: Thank you, okay, great. We have a good attendance here. Okay, then with no nos and just abstentions and yeses, the minutes have been accepted. Kathleen, you may not have heard that Dave Hampton is moving to North Hampton. So he is at his last meeting. In fact, he has to leave at seven. So he's in his last few minutes.
[Kathleen McKenna]: Oh, that's too bad. I wish you the best of luck. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Yes, we'll miss you.
[Robert Paine]: But we will have, before we get to administrative updates, we will have a meeting in person in the area you see behind me. Looks like the best date, I mean, I can't accommodate everybody's schedule, but August 3rd is a Wednesday. I think Martha, you may be gone that week, but I had to juggle lots of schedules. That's the meeting date that, I'm going to propose is the next is the summer meeting. And we'll meet in the back. There is a Wednesday. That's correct. Okay. Yes, I know it doesn't have to be Monday. Okay.
[SPEAKER_09]: Yeah.
[Robert Paine]: In fact, Alicia is not available Monday. So we figured we'll pick will give her actually will actually city members gonna pay her actually to be on the first part of that meeting. I think we'll start the meeting maybe, I was thinking of starting at six so we don't get shut down by darkness and mosquitoes, if that's okay with everybody. All right, so it'll be 15 West Street, it's on the Mystic River. If you wanna bring family members and they can fend for themselves, we have, Flotilla, we have a sandbox, we have a play structure, all sorts of things. People can play soccer in the backyard as long as they're quiet. That may be hard to do. So that'll be the summer meeting and we get to see each other in person finally again. Okay, any other administrative updates, Alicia? I know you introduced It was Patrick, I guess? Yes, Patrick. I don't know if everyone got to meet him. We have come in late.
[Alicia Hunt]: You know what, since so many people have come in since then, why don't I just repeat about interns and then Patrick can introduce himself. That we have four new interns have started in the last two weeks. We have one who will be focusing, Lily, will be focusing primarily on transportation and the bicycle master plan. And she's going to be working jointly between our office and with the transportation office with Todd and Amy. Oh, I just blanked on my name. Catherine, who started today, who is going to be working on more like land use and standard office planning, community development board stuff. And Madeline who is working on solid waste and with interest in food security issues, but she's going to be supporting the solid waste task force that we're getting ready to launch and working on waste and recycling issues. She's so she's actually on a fellowship from Harvard and Catherine is on a fellowship from Tufts and Lillian joins us from Tufts. And Patrick, why don't you introduce yourself since you're here?
[SPEAKER_12]: My name is Patrick. I'm a master's student in urban management and development. My university is actually in the Netherlands, but I am based in the Boston area. I will be coordinating the Harvest Your Energy Festival for October.
[Alicia Hunt]: So we're excited. I already sent an introduction email to Loretta. So Loretta can meet Patrick. You all to meet him and he's helping with the minutes for tonight. And he's very interested in renewable energy. So I'm going to loop him in on some of those projects. So yes. I think that is all the administrative updates. We're working on the budget, the city's budget. I'm going to be presenting to the city council Wednesday evening. So Wednesday evening is the start of the budget hearings. And basically the mayor's told us flat or decrease everything based on projections that we've been waiting for the new finance director to get here to help give us the projections for this coming year. So that's the update.
[Robert Paine]: Alicia, does that present any issues for environmental activities then if it has to be flat or?
[Alicia Hunt]: Not really. I do have a desire to hire an energy coordinator that would work under me. But it was something that with the pandemic, there have been other positions that have been more urgently needed, like the economic development work. I will actually Sarah Silver, PB – she-her-hers): That I am trying to figure out when we're in the middle of figuring budget stuff out is it like an awkward time to say things, but I will share that the Mayor and I have been working to see if we can. actually increase the staffing in a few ways. The Community Preservation Act could really use a full-time coordinator because we're putting so much money through that. And that fund actually has administrative funding, so we can pay a full, we've had a half-time CPA coordinator, and we can pay a full-time person with that fund without touching the general fund budget. And we, the person who's been doing that has been serving as a halftime housing coordinator and housing coordinators actually paid for with community development block grant money and we actually have some space there to increase that position to full time. So we're sort of working internally to figure out what does that mean for the person who's been serving in that role, and how are we going to move things around, but it looks like that we would definitely do a shift and hire to fill one or the other of those positions. So nothing's set in stone yet, but that wouldn't come through the general fund. That would be these other sources of money that have, relatively speaking, limited uses, right? You can't hire a teacher with one of those funds. So that seems like it's a good way to provide some additional staffing and projects. We've really seen a huge demand for more support in the housing area as well. So doesn't really directly affect the stuff you guys are working on. But if my if I have more staff, it is less work for me to do and more things they can take on so Think about it.
[Robert Paine]: There's no stimulus money or whatever that is left over.
[Alicia Hunt]: We do have ARPA funding. I'm actually so one of my staff has been funded all for the past year through cares act and then ARPA. Amanda has been doing parks and open space projects for the city. and some food security stuff and like composting. So she's funded through ARPA and actually we are bringing on, we posted an economic development planner position. We've actually had a graduate student working 20 to 30 hours a week doing that work with our economic development director. And she's been doing a lot of small business support, the, Sorry, I can't think of the names of the facade prod program and some of the other programs that we outdoor dining has been under her and shared streets. She's graduating that position was posted she was interviewed last week. I would say I, the mayor's told me I can give her the job offer. So we're waiting on paperwork from HR. So that is not quite the same because she's already been working like almost 30 hours a week for us, but she'll be staying and she won't be leaving to take a full-time job somewhere else. And that is hugely important for us. So we do actually have two ARPA funded positions in my office already.
[Robert Paine]: Okay, thank you. We last month had voted to send a letter to the mayor with our, which is to direct action on the gas powered leaf blowers. I don't know if the city council has done anything on this since then, do you know Alicia?
[Alicia Hunt]: They have not done anything with the leaf blower since then. We sent the letter, the letter was addressed to the mayor and asked her to make changes even if the city council didn't approve it. So in that letter, I did ask her in my email if she wanted me to send it on directly to the city council. Sometimes she forwards stuff like that herself to the council. So I'm anticipating we'll send it on to the council, but it was really directed at her, the letter. Bob just sent it all back out to you. Yeah. Barry has his hand up.
[Barry Ingber]: Hey, Barry. So part of the letter was asking her for her support. And I wonder if there has been a response to that either to Alicia or to Bob?
[Alicia Hunt]: It took us a while to get it drafted and on letterhead. So it actually went to the mayor today, unless I assume, Bob, you didn't send it earlier.
[Robert Paine]: I think that I just- I did not, no. I figured you had control of the document, so.
[Alicia Hunt]: I will tell you that she acknowledged receipt today, but I would never expect her to say, oh, more than that. Without like, she likes to sleep on things.
[Barry Ingber]: So this was the first that she had heard of our committee's request.
[Alicia Hunt]: I believe so. Yes.
[Barry Ingber]: And Alicia, do you know where she's likely to stand on this?
[Alicia Hunt]: I think she's likely to do the thing that's environmentally right for the city. where she can do it, like, what do we limit on city properties? She's actually been working, she has one of her staff who's been working on our city contracts around landscaping, looking at replacing all the annuals with perennials and a planting plan and drought tolerant stuff. So it seems to me that the leaf blowers on city property, which is what she's control over, direct control, she is directly in favor like I would think that she would support that. The lobbying the city council and a citywide thing, it is my impression that she would wanna hear in general more from residents as to their opinions on it as well before taking an action on it is my expectation.
[Barry Ingber]: Well, I think part of the reasoning or my reasoning in offering the motion was a sense that city council will pass it, but may only pass it with four votes, though it may get five or six, but may only pass it with four and to know that the mayor would not veto it if it only passed with four.
[Alicia Hunt]: I will tell you that right now, almost everything is passing with four votes and the mayor is definitely not vetoing things because of that. That is not reflecting, we don't see that as a good reflection on definitely what the population thinks on any given issue. It's a very clear political split in the council that's going on.
[Robert Paine]: Any other comments on the, I guess, I mean, I guess Dawn mentioned that in chat that Nicole had being on the both committees has gotten the letter as a city councilor. I don't know if that means that everyone- I saw the discussion.
[Alicia Hunt]: Honestly, Nicole started the conversation about gas power. This was her issue. She's the one who took it to the council. And she does have a copy of the letter by virtue of being on the committee. And in case it's not clear, she's city council president. So I don't know if she has sent it to the rest of the council or not.
[Robert Paine]: All right, well, we'll probably have an update by the next meeting, if not before on that. I think we've gone through the first set of agenda items and now. Since Patrick was helping on the Harvester Energy Festival, what's going on with Harvester Energy Festival?
[Alicia Hunt]: The big picture. I'm not going to put Patrick on the spot for that because literally he started today. Today's the first time he saw. Some of you may remember my crazy spreadsheet. I think some of you guys are newer to the committee than that. but we have a massive master spreadsheet. I'm happy to share it to any of you who would like access where we look at who are the exhibitors, who we reached out to, et cetera. Um, so that is just getting updated. I have, um, I was concerned about making sure that we had a shredding truck and electronics recycling. So our administrative assistant Teresa actually contracted for those months ago. Um, so we have those lined up for the energy festival. Um, actually, you know, Patrick make a note, we should send something to the communications team. make sure that the festival's on the city calendar. When we set the date, we did vet it with the mayor, but I'm not sure it was actually added to the calendar at that time. And so some of the stuff that'll happen over the next week or two is we'll start to update the webpages, we'll start to reach out to exhibitors, and that'll start to move forward. One thing that was a big problem two years ago, it wasn't last year, was the drainage at the location. It actually rained heavily the night before and there were lakes. I will tell you that that was a problem that is a structural problem at that location with blocked rain and collapsed drains and the city's DPW has been working on the drainage in that area. so that that should be fixed and not be that kind of an issue for next year. Because what we learned is actually that that ground is peat moss and it's very hyper-saturated. So the water just won't soak in, like the ground when it rains too much out there just can't take any more water. So we actually need drains to take it away to the river.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Alicia, remind us of the date again.
[Alicia Hunt]: It is October, Saturday, October 15th. Let me look, whatever that Saturday is. 15th is it?
[SPEAKER_12]: October 15th. Yes, 15th.
[Alicia Hunt]: I can remember it's the teen Saturday in October. There's only one of them.
[Robert Paine]: Right, yeah, since Columbus Day is actually before that, I guess.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yes. Yeah, it is not on the city calendar, but I'll teach Patrick had to do that we send a note to our communications staff and they'll put it on there for us.
[Robert Paine]: Historically, I mean, we have not had a green award ceremony since the last 2019 I think probably aren't going to start that again unless there's a strong preference to do that.
[Alicia Hunt]: Don't everybody jump up and down at once.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I like it, but I don't think we have any people right now to be recipients. But when we do, we should do it again. Because I do think it brings some kind of visibility to what we're trying to do.
[Alicia Hunt]: Well, you know what I'll, Patrick and I will do is actually reach out to our economic development staff and our small business support and sort of let them know that this is an option and something we could do is these green awards, because honestly, they're both newer than the green awards. Like we haven't done had a green award since either of them started. So they can keep an eye out for these. I mean, we have, companies that are talking about doing LEED buildings. The library is net zero. We should give the library a green award. It's net zero, wait, but. It's definitely gonna be lead silver, and it may very well be lead gold. Basically, you get all your points together that you think you maybe can get, and you submit them, and then the company that does lead sort of goes through and vets them, and sometimes they disallow some of your points. So it's definitely lead silver. We may make lead gold, and it's net zero on site. It's the first public library in Massachusetts to be net zero on site. As I said, all that I almost said, but it's like giving myself a green award.
[Barry Ingber]: That's right. That's what I was going to say. It's wonderful. It's a wonderful space. It's great that it's net zero, but I don't think we should be giving ourselves an award.
[Alicia Hunt]: I guess that's the thing. It's literally. Yeah, I agree.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: And yet the staff would appreciate some kind of support or recognition. And they did have some role in making decisions in what this library would become. So I do think that some non-energy related people might appreciate some recognition of some sort.
[Barry Ingber]: I think that we could do some, I don't think that we should give ourselves an award. I think that's really in bad taste. However, having some sort of special display or something about the library, I think would be a perfectly good thing to do.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: It may also be up for awards outside of our committee. Right.
[Alicia Hunt]: That's a good idea. I should think about if there any reward programs to submit it for.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Well, we should definitely invite the staff to the Harvester Energy Fair. But one of the things I might be able to do is to sign people up for library cards.
[Alicia Hunt]: I will say that they've actually had a table the last few years. Sam Sednick has had a table at the Energy Festival some years.
[Barry Ingber]: It has special edition green library card.
[Alicia Hunt]: I love it. That's fun. Let's email that to Barbara.
[Robert Paine]: In terms of the actual agenda or the organization of the harvester energy festival, would there be a change from last year? We had a. Didn't the mayor say something about accomplishments in the previous year or something like that?
[Alicia Hunt]: Do you mean like what we did at the festival?
[Robert Paine]: Yeah, I'm sorry, the festival. Yeah.
[Alicia Hunt]: She made a little speech and we announced the new climate action plan and we released the draft climate action plan at the festival last year.
[Robert Paine]: Okay, now it's been finalized, obviously. So probably there'll be something like that again.
[Alicia Hunt]: Usually, I mean, it's nice of the mayor to give a speech. We've had, some years we had Green Energy Consumer Alliance do a speech about wind turbines and wind power. Dave has an idea.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, I actually need to go.
[Alicia Hunt]: Okay, well, good luck.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you so much. I put my contact info in the chat. It's been a pleasure to serve with you all. Take care and great working with you.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yes. Good luck. Enjoy all the nature out there.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you. Thank you. Take care. Bye bye.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Bye bye.
[Robert Paine]: Bye.
[Alicia Hunt]: So yeah, so back to the festival. If people have ideas, we've had different levels, different kinds of musicians from year to year. We've really gotten the habit of having the same two, the children's music and the same folk music that we've had for many years. Some years we've had Tufts Beats, the drum band come. Often it's actually, they actually enjoy it except it's conflicted for them for, many times. I think we're right around Tufts homecoming. But if people have ideas of other things, we've also done smaller presentations on the side from year to year. We always do the wind turbine tour. Some years we make that a bigger deal than others. People have ideas, tell Patrick.
[SPEAKER_12]: I'll put my email in the chat if you just want to send whatever you have.
[Alicia Hunt]: And I forgot to tell Patrick that I usually that I will set him up with the enviro email account so that all the messages to and from exhibitors will come from that won't flood him and it'll be consistency. So he will be getting that, but I will tell you that I see male twin viral. So if you want to talk behind my back, then email him directly.
[Robert Paine]: Okay, well, we can certainly have some more discussion at the August meeting on what's happening. That'll be the big event coming up.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I'm curious, one thing that we we had talked about years ago in the committee was some kind of a display at the library about it being net zero. Is that something that we're still gonna do? Are they gonna do something like that?
[Alicia Hunt]: Honestly, there's a lot of signage there. And I, at this point, don't remember. Part of the LEED stuff is educational signage. So I couldn't tell you off the top of my head. I'll email Barbara and Sam.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I'll go by. I'll check it out at some point.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah. And ask them because multiple people asking them changes.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Oh, that's true. Yeah. That's true too.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah. But there's a lot, there's a lot of signage up and around in the, in the library on various things.
[Robert Paine]: Would they have the information on their website if there is such a, That would be, if not, something should be put there, you would think.
[Jessica Parks]: There's some, it's not as prominent, I think, as it could be. There's definitely the opportunity for it to be one of those, like click and find out information about the building type things, but, um, there's some information.
[Robert Paine]: Okay. Anything else on the Harvester Energy Festival from anyone?
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Yeah, I have a poster I'd like to put up. Is there a mechanism to do that? Maybe a poster board stand? Is that feasible?
[Robert Paine]: Yeah, well, you have it ready for the Circle of Square event even.
[Unidentified]: Okay.
[Robert Paine]: That's the next agenda item is we're going to have this is going to like the Circle of Square event is going to be our dress rehearsal. in a small way for the Harvester Energy Festival. It's the public event, the only public event I know of before the Harvester Energy Festival where we will be staffing a table and meeting the public. So go ahead.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: I have a question. If you could fit it in somewhere tonight's meeting. Last month we had quite a conversation about the open meeting laws. Could you give an update or make it clear, because I think, well, at least I am confused about what we can do. But I'm specifically curious if anything's changed with subcommittees, because we've always met in the past without an open public meeting, either on zoom and made decisions. So, I don't want to do anything incorrectly. I just wanted to clear the answer. Can we still do that.
[Robert Paine]: Yeah, I'd have to ask Alicia if she knows if I think subcommittees could trigger a new. What do they call a quorum definition for meeting.
[Barry Ingber]: I mean, subcommittees, if they're officially designated by the committee, are themselves public bodies and they're subject to open meeting law. However, Martha and Gaston and I could just volunteer to work on something without being designated anything official. And we could do that since we wouldn't be a quorum of the overall committee.
[Robert Paine]: So I don't know if our quote subcommittees are official subcommittees and make them as I don't know if Alicia you have a suggestion for how we deal with that. It would be easier logistically to not have to have or you know public meetings for every subcommittee. Right.
[Alicia Hunt]: It's a difficult issue because the idea is that you're not supposed to deliberate in secret. I have always felt like this committee is not making decisions for the community. You're not holding hearings. You're not issuing permits. You're working on things to promote and make recommendations and try to make recommendations about ways that the public can do things better. And it's useful to go off, do some work, having a working group, figure some stuff out and can report back. Often we have things called working groups that is more that, right? You're not trying to decide something. You're just trying to get all the materials together, get the facts together, bring the information together so that the larger body can then deliberate on the information that's been sourced. And that's kind of like the idea is, that I've always felt is it's important to honor the spirit and the meaning of the open meeting law, right? That a public body shouldn't be doing things in secret behind closed doors. Whereas getting together and bouncing some things around and working some stuff out and getting some different materials is different from making a decision, Issuing a permit, you know, like so many of the group, the bodies that I work with our permit issuing bodies like they could never the CD board community development board has a permit request in front of them for the. life science building for RISE. And they should not be meeting together and debating that building unless they're in a public meeting, right? But that's a very different thing because they're debating and discussing what requirements to put on them around issuing a permit. It's very different from, we're trying to gather information on solar panels and talk out between ourselves, how should we be promoting this to the public? It's sort of a very different, different type of activity. So I guess it has a lot to do with what are you concerned about? How are you doing it? What's the goal, right? Is the goal to do things in secret or is the goal to like try and work some things out and how are you doing this? So I see Luke has his hand up.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, I just add to that. Most of the meetings the past many years that we've had, subcommittee meetings, were to organize a project and deliberate in somewhat of a workshop type group like we used to have the Harvester Energy Subcommittee That would be like ridiculous to have a meeting many times a minute that would be public just to go over, you know, agendas and vendors and all that stuff. So I just want to make sure that we're doing, nothing's completely changed and we're doing the right thing moving forward. So for example, if we have a tree subcommittee meeting, we're talking about items that we might end up presenting to the committee to decide on or working projects. that would like to propose, things like that.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, and I just wanted to add, because I think Loretta is bringing up an important point. Do we as a main committee want to be making every decision during this meeting, for instance, versus having a small group who is interested in being dedicated to lawn, you know, leaf blowers or trees or solar, to be able to make decisions, and then inform this group, as opposed to informing this group and relying upon this group to then deliberate and make a decision. So it's it's not about being in secret, I think it's about having effective working groups that can do things versus us as a larger group having to do it all.
[Robert Paine]: So it seems like the solution is to call our... Barry's got his hand up too. Okay, call them working groups. Let's go ahead and who else wants to speak, Barry?
[Barry Ingber]: Yeah, so I agree with every word that Alicia and Loretta and Luke just said. I think that there is ethically nothing at all wrong with what we're doing in subcommittees. I think that it is compliant with the spirit of the law. But there is the letter of the law. And I think it's simply out of compliance with the way the Attorney General has interpreted the law. And I think that Bob's solution, I think that just calling them informal and fluid working groups where we just stay below a A quorum of the full committee is the solution that we've got. I don't think it's a matter of trying to make decisions that we aren't empowered to make anyway in private. But the law defines an officially designated subcommittee as a public body. And as a public body, a subcommittee would be subject to open meeting law. You know, I mean, there you go. Okay.
[Robert Paine]: Any, any others we could have a vote shoes. rename what we may have referred to.
[Alicia Hunt]: As soon as you vote to rename it, you have just made it an official thing. What we actually want to say is maybe vote to disband subcommittees and that occasionally you recognize some members may work together on some issues, but it's just informal and ad hoc as the need arises.
[Gaston Fiore]: Alicia, do we know if any other city committees or commissions do have formal subcommittees in the way that we do? Or are we the only committee that has formal subcommittees in the city, basically?
[Alicia Hunt]: The City Council does.
[Gaston Fiore]: No, no, no, the city council, yes, but outside of the city council.
[Alicia Hunt]: And the school committee. So I just sort of, I just want to acknowledge they do do that and they do have those meetings, public meetings and stuff like that on various things. But that is, they will go through and deliberate on stuff like leaf blowers in public subcommittee meeting because they can't do everything in their main meeting. I am, if there are any other bodies that have formal subcommittees I'm not aware of it. I hesitated because for a while we had the parking committee and they actually had a business subcommittee and a residential subcommittee that sort of went down the two different branches of parking. But the whole thing was a temporary six or nine month body. If any other groups formally have subcommittees, I don't know that.
[Barry Ingber]: The reason that I became aware of this problem was because I was, as a non-member of the Human Rights Commission, appointed to an officially designated subcommittee of the Human Rights Commission. And one of the members started researching it and realized that we were completely out of compliance with the law. Even though, again, it was not a subcommittee that was going to be empowered to do anything or that was, you know, trying to operate in secret. I mean, there was nothing nefarious. It was just, we were just caught.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: So may I make a suggestion or recommendation then? It does sound like working groups is a good way forward. It simply means that when a decision does need to be made, it needs to wait for one of our main meetings and we just need to make sure that they get onto the agenda and get voted on.
[Gaston Fiore]: Yeah, and I actually, I like that approach, what Luke just said, because I feel that even, you know, people that are on a formal subcommittee right now might have ideas or opinions or input on whatever got decided on that subcommittee. So I do think it's a great idea for decisions to wait until they are deliberated publicly with the rest of the committee and members of the public.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: I will say that a successful strategy for making this work is consensus. And that is generally achieved by I would like to have. Informal discussions between small groups of people. So that if I would like to bring forth something to be voted on, and I want to make sure that it passes. I would like to communicate individually with Alicia and Barry and Kathleen and Loretta and Jessica, et cetera. goal out there so that when it comes up during the meeting for a vote, nobody is taken by surprise and there's at least some understanding of how it should go. It takes more work. But anyway, sorry, just had to throw that out.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: I completely agree with you, Luke. Yeah, I think I think that's the only way to do it. We just relabel as working groups and have those deliberations prior to bringing the process forward to the main committee.
[Robert Paine]: Alicia, you're recommending that we actually vote to disband PB, David Ensign --"subcommittees of this time."
[Alicia Hunt]: PB, Lisa Smith-Moyers --"If you feel that it's important to vote on anything, I just, I wouldn't vote to form working groups. That's exactly, you're just giving it a different name. But Right.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: Maybe voting to disband whatever we might have had.
[Alicia Hunt]: It's possible that you sometimes want to have a formal subcommittee and if you want to have a meeting and you want to have it posted, then you have to send an agenda to me or one of my staff. more than two business days, preferably three or four business days before the meeting so it can get posted on the city's website. And there has to be a a public like way to access it. So if it's remote, then we can set you up with a Zoom account. Actually, we can if any of you guys want to meet to talk about stuff and and you're going to talk about like I would say two or three of you wanted a Zoom to like talk about energy committee stuff like you're welcome to use this or if you were interviewing somebody or whatever, for committee purposes, we can set you up a zoom meeting. So, but if you wanted to have a formal subcommittee you have to post an agenda, and you have to to post how people can access the meeting. I will tell you, we forget this in these COVID times, but you don't have to meet in a municipal space. The Bicycle Commission used to post that their meetings were at Colleen's. And they had open public meetings in Colleen's. It's a public space. It's handicapped accessible. So if you wanted to post that, you know, a couple of you were going to go meet at the Riverside Plaza tables to talk about solar panels, you could do that. And that would be fine. And we could put the posting up for you.
[Gaston Fiore]: Yeah, so I have limited experience on committees because I joined them last year, but based on the experience in this committee and the experience that I'm having on the bicycle commission, then I think that dismantling the formal subcommittees and then being aware of what different members of the committee are interested in would pretty much not change how this committee has been operating so far. Meaning, for example, the people that are interested in trees will be able to have their meetings every month, like Loretta has been having, because we already know who is interested in that. And then it's below quorum. And then, you know, if we are aware of what different people are interested in, so for example, if I wanna, I don't know, start a project related to solar energy, then I would just contact, you know, four or five people that I know they could be interested in this, work with them, and then before we make any decisions, we'll bring it to the committee and discuss it properly in a meeting, which is sort of like the way the committee has been operating so far.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: So are we going to relabel these now?
[Robert Paine]: Well, we have to disband. We have to have a vote to disband all formal subcommittees. Then separately, if people want to have working groups, they can be established. Is that the correct interpretation, Alicia?
[Alicia Hunt]: I think that what we're saying is that you shouldn't formally establish working groups. you can just say, hey, these people, if you guys wanna talk about that offline, you're welcome to talk about it as long as it's less than quorum. Once you make it an official group, it doesn't matter really, I don't think what you call it.
[Gaston Fiore]: So the way the bicycle commission does this is that, so for example, if someone is interested in something, let's say bike signage, then, you know, on a meeting we say like, hey, I'm interested in bike signage. We make a small presentation. And then we say like, so if someone else is interested in working on this, then please email me. And then, you know, we can work on this and then we'll just like present regular progress on each committee meeting monthly. So then that way, it's not that there's an official working group. In fact, the number of people that work on different projects, you know, on signage might be like four members. And then on some other projects, it might be four different members. So there's nothing official. And it's more about like, you know, presenting before too much work gets done. So everyone has the opportunity to contribute. And then, you know, people work on it informally, and then discussions happen on the public meeting. And I think that works pretty well, at least based on my limited experience.
[Martha Ondras]: I would say that sounds like a very reasonable way to work. You're not making decisions out of sight of the public, but you realistically can't prepare everything in a group of 12 or 13. So it gives you some space to prepare an issue or idea for discussion by the larger group. and decisions by the larger group in the public eye.
[Robert Paine]: I agree. So it looks like we need a vote to disband all current subcommittees and in the future proceed with ad hoc informal groups as
[Barry Ingber]: I'm not sure we actually have to officially suspend the committees. They just have to not meet. Or if they meet, they have to follow open meeting law practices. It doesn't really matter.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I mean, that seems common sense to me. I mean, it seems like you don't have to disband them. You have working groups now. Does that make sense?
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. You can have the subcommittees. They just shouldn't meet without posting.
[Adam Hurtubise]: No.
[Martha Ondras]: Okay, if we have, who's on the tree committee? Who's on the tree subcommittee right now? Are there four people?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yes, there's Luke, myself, Martha, and all.
[Martha Ondras]: Okay, so those four of us could not meet, in other words, because we're a subcommittee. I think it's better to disband the subcommittee so that we can have a meeting.
[Gaston Fiore]: Yeah, for example the transportation subcommittee is both myself and just Martha, and then so if I decide to meet with Martha and even people from make for the bicycle commission, then I already cannot do it, because then it's Martha and myself, which are two out of three. And we are not even meeting as part of this committee. So that doesn't work for us unless there's a very simple way to publicize these meetings and make them open to the public in a very efficient, easy, fast way, which is also fine.
[Barry Ingber]: Yeah, that's right. I withdraw what I said. I think that the committees do need to be suspended.
[Martha Ondras]: I move that we suspend subcommittees.
[Unidentified]: I second that.
[Robert Paine]: I'll call the roll. Luke, do you agree?
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: I agree to suspend subcommittees.
[Robert Paine]: Bob, I agree. Gaston?
[Gaston Fiore]: I agree.
[Robert Paine]: Paul? I agree. Barry? I agree. Loretta? I agree. Kathleen?
[Kathleen McKenna]: I just have a quick question. If we disband them, does that mean that we don't have to publicly post?
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: It means that they cannot meet and make decisions. So it's really more informal.
[Kathleen McKenna]: Okay, which we weren't really doing before, but it's formalizing our lack of decision making. And I agree.
[SPEAKER_12]: To clarify, I think the language was for suspension rather than complete disbandment.
[Alicia Hunt]: Why would we do that? That's what whoever made the motion actually said.
[Robert Paine]: Oh, yeah. So maybe we should. Okay.
[Martha Ondras]: Somebody else make a better motion, please.
[Robert Paine]: Yeah.
[Barry Ingber]: So I will make a motion and all of our subcommittees.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: I seconded it.
[Robert Paine]: Any discussion before we vote? Is that that appropriate wording?
[Unidentified]: Yes. Okay.
[Robert Paine]: All right. Let's start again. Luke, do you agree? Yes. Bob, I agree, Gaston? Yes. Paul? Yes. Barry? Yes. Loretta? Yes. Kathleen? Yes. John? Yes. Martha? Yes. Jessica? Yes. And Benji, are you there? Yes, I'm here. Yes. All right, the motion passes unanimously.
[Martha Ondras]: So thank you to Patrick for that catch, good catch.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Just recap what we did. So we're all on the same page.
[Robert Paine]: Well, we formerly had five groups that were working on various activities. We call them subcommittees. Now, if people want to work on things like that, they can do so informally. And they're not subcommittees and they can, as long as there's no more than six, that's below the quorum of seven, they can have discussions.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: I think that'll facilitate things a great deal.
[Robert Paine]: And then they can certainly bring up those those people could bring up to me a desire to have a an agenda item uh to the chair whoever the chair is uh have an agenda item on an actual committee meeting so yeah and I just want to add that it would be actually great if um you know different people were working on different things and then on every meeting then we could have
[Gaston Fiore]: you know, updates and discussions and input from other members. I think that would be very enriching and I would be very happy to see that. So I think that would be awesome.
[Barry Ingber]: I think that's awesome. But let's ask Alicia if that is in violation of the rules on sequential meeting.
[Alicia Hunt]: I feel like if somebody sends mail to the group saying, I'm going to be working on this, if anybody wants to help me, we're going to and then you put it on the agenda for the next meeting. you're not discussing it. It's very similar to sometimes members will just send out an informational article or something. We find that members don't ever send out, here's my opinion on this topic because that would be discussion. But occasionally people will say like, here's a relevant article forwarding this for the group's interest. Um, particularly if it's something that's similar to what we've been working on here and you want to know before the next committee meeting. I think it's. I know that, for example, the city council, they post an agenda, but then they get a packet full of materials that's briefings for that meeting. So for members to get packets of materials, the community development board, we post the list of all the things that are going to be, all the projects that are going to be heard at the meeting, but the members are sent documents to review before they show up at the meeting so that they're prepared. That's actually, I might not actually say important for boards that are issuing permits that everybody doesn't show up cold at the meeting. They've reviewed the documents and materials in advance. So I could, I just had to say, I could imagine saying, hey, I'm gonna prepare some stuff. Does anybody wanna help me? Or here are some articles to read before our meeting. then can we put this on the agenda to discuss would be very much in line with that. Something that if we had more bandwidth, we would like to be doing is setting up websites so that people could access these materials and stuff in advance. It's really hard to maintain all of that. It's the kind of thing that we should, we've been talking about. The city was trying to roll out right before the pandemic a software that was designed to help committee structures and list agendas and meeting minutes and meeting materials and links to the video and do that automatically and broadcast the materials. I know that's being looked into again to make that available to all the boards and committees. So that helps at all.
[Robert Paine]: Okay, I think we've clarified and voted on that issue. Let's move on. Circle the square event. I'd like to know, first of all, logistics and who, how we, you know, sign up and take care of things. So Alicia, do you know if we have a table? Who would know if we have, what do we have? We have a table. How large is the table? Just a typical six foot?
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Yeah, it's a typical foldable table. That's my understanding it is. One of those gray ones you can get from Home Depot, I would imagine. They're roughly about six, maybe seven feet, and about three feet width. And if we, if we have a, a, you know, something designating the table as our committee would be good, you know, sort of identifies us on the spot.
[Robert Paine]: So just bring them to the city supply the tables that we should, you know,
[Alicia Hunt]: I'm not on the email list getting information about this it's to be clear circle the square is not a city run event. It is run by cache, which is a private arts and culture and business group in the city of Medford. So like the Medford. Comprehensive plan consultants have signed up for a table to promote, put out information about the plan and I'm going to be there, but I'm not actually the point of contact. So I haven't seen any of the emails about organizing for this. So I'm looking back at Paul, what has he gotten from the, you signed up for the table, right?
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: I did, yeah. And that's my impression of it. So nobody told me actually that it's going to be that size table. But I haven't been to any festival that gives you a smaller space than that. So that's my educated guess. So when they said, we're going to give you a table, table space. And if a table needs to be bought, I can bring one there. It's not a problem.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right, you should be clear whether they're providing the table or not. I wouldn't think that if they were providing tables, they would have to rent them. I know that the Medford Arts and Culture, the arts festival every year, you have to bring your own. And I believe there's an option to rent them through them and they'll do a group rental. But everybody's expected to bring their own.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Paul, I have a question. Are you the main contact person for the table for the event?
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Yes. For us, yeah. OK.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: And does anyone have one of those tent things in case it does lightly rain?
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: I do, yeah. I can bring that, too.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Give me one of those gazebo things, you know? Canopy things.
[Robert Paine]: There is a rain date. I don't know when that would be announced, but for the next day. You won't have to worry about that. So yeah, Paul, find out what if they do provide a table and then chairs. I don't know if they provide chairs either, but we could bring them too, I guess.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Yeah, I'll let you know within a day. Yeah. Some emails went back and forth today.
[Martha Ondras]: Can I ask, maybe anticipating what Paul is going to say, but does the Energy Committee, Energy and Environment Committee have any materials for tabling? Do we have a tablecloth with our name on it or any signage or any kind of stand-up holders for posters or any easels? Do we have anything?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: In the past, we've used the Energy and Environment Office materials for events, and we contribute our own for the event, bring it home. So, no.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. We have a tablecloth that I don't think anybody else is planning to use. It's a City of Medford tablecloth. We have poster boards that the committee other years, either committee members or interns in our office have put together on various topics that the committee has used. Sometimes it's been my office, like the last one. I know we put together one on the climate plan that we used at the energy festival. Patrick can look at that tomorrow in the office and see if it's still in good shape. if you wanted that one. There are a number of others. Sometimes we take pieces off of one poster board to make another. So we have literal blank poster boards. We have stands that can be used for those. I would want to get them to somebody in advance. You probably want to know this. City Hall is closed. So that's a four-day weekend in City Hall. We're closed Friday for Bunker Hill Day, and we're closed Monday for Juneteenth. and a lot of my staff are going on vacation. So I won't get you any stuff in advance, because I'm planning to be at Circle the Square, but honestly, I'm camping all weekend. So I'm going to come down from the campground. So I don't promise to be there super early.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Can I come to City Hall and get stuff from you? Is that feasible?
[Alicia Hunt]: Yes, absolutely. I just want you to not wait till Friday.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: No, no, I can come in tomorrow.
[Alicia Hunt]: I can come in tomorrow. Give us a day or two so we can show Patrick what we have and where it is.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: OK, so can he share his email with me or I can send an email to you? I'll put him to the chat. OK, sounds good.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah. And that'll give him a little time to look at it. I don't know, I was, today got a little crazy, but I was hoping that either I or Teresa or admin could show him where we have poster boards and we have stands and stuff, what we have from previous years. So you have to sort of figure out what you think is a good fit for what you wanna put out there. And then if you want to make new stuff, I mean, I have the boards. I personally have never made a nice looking poster board. The better they are. It means I've brought in students to do it.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: So we are actually making up some things in addition to that. And I plan to come in Paul and Alicia and the rest of the committee to pick up a couple of things probably later this week, but I'm glad you told me about the days. Because I want the Plexiglas stand holders is going to have some information sheets. So I'll be stopping by. Sounds good.
[Alicia Hunt]: If you and Paul wanted to coordinate when you stop by and then you could actually see what each other is, because you're same table, right? Like I'm not losing my mind.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: No, we're going to be sitting at the same table. Yeah, I'll email you, Loretta. We can commiserate afterwards.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right, because you can discuss it standing in front of the materials and stuff that we have and see what we have.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Okay. And I'm working with Teresa, so I might pop in other times because she's going to print some things and see how they look printed. You know, so that's
[Alicia Hunt]: I discovered today that we have a laminator. So sometimes we've laminated materials and then stuck them on the poster boards.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: How big is, how big a laminator is this? Does it do a postable?
[Alicia Hunt]: No, I'm pretty sure that it was letter-sized. Honestly, I could be wrong, but the materials coming out of it today were letter-sized. One of the new interns was using it, and I was like, oh, look at that. I think it's new. What we've done in the past is we would laminate things, and then we would cut them out and put them on the poster board.
[Martha Ondras]: Felicia, what size board poster can you print?
[Alicia Hunt]: So let me, bigger than legal. And so the engineering office actually has a bigger printer that could be used to print like a poster, like a one-off time. They can't, we don't have the resource to say like, oh, we'll print a hundred copies of the poster, but we could print one. They can actually do two foot by three foot and stuff like that. Especially if we thought it was something that was going to get reused. And then our regular, I'm trying to find something that'll let me look at what our standard size is.
[Martha Ondras]: I'm sorry, if you don't know off the top of your head, I can contact you.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, Teresa in my office knows off, right. And then I'd have to check if we have the paper, which again, this is the victim of being a big office now. Like I've delegated these things. So I'm like, I don't know, I give her things, she prints them. It's actually very liberating.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: So I guess the concern is, how big is the space and how many easels? It gets very crowded if you've been to the Circle and Square event, really crowded. So I'm just concerned about how much we can have. So it'd be good to know the space, how many easels, where would they be? They have to be behind us, in front of us. I'm thinking two maybe easels, plus tons of handouts if people want them.
[Alicia Hunt]: as community development, having a table. So we were going to, but honestly, with it being a four day weekend, none of the staff wanted to work on and we what we really felt was the most important thing was that the comprehensive plan had a table and did outreach. and the consultants were going to have a separate table anyhow. They're going to have, we're going to have a table for the comprehensive plan with the consultants. And then I'll be by that. And I would come by your table and see how things are going. But the office is not going to have its own table.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Okay. So my thoughts are we're the energy committee. It's our table representing the city. What, in your opinion, if you gave us like two or three things from your office that you would like us to have, besides our ideas that we're going off and, you know, sort of other directions, I was thinking of, it's important to let people know about the composting program we have, but you may say something else and you might have brochures there. Can you like?
[Alicia Hunt]: The composting program would be great. I don't think they would have their own table. They're actually gonna be at the farmer's market the next few weeks. That's the one that pops to mind that's the most relevant. Sometimes we've promoted the adopt a storm drain program.
[Martha Ondras]: We could definitely use your climate
[Alicia Hunt]: The climate plan stuff I think is really would be great to have the poster about the climate plan. And the other thing that I tend to do is I tend to tell people that our office has a newsletter and that we send it out about once a month. And so then I ask people to sign up for our newsletter because that helps really push out regular things. I'm hoping all of you are already on it.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: But we can have a sign up sheet for that, right? Okay, so yeah.
[Alicia Hunt]: And we actually sign up people for our newsletter, the Community Preservation Act newsletter. And sometimes we have maybe the mayor's newsletter. I've occasionally had the business newsletter, but that's really so hyper-business oriented that we tend to collect addresses from the clerk's office of new businesses. It's really not general interest. It's like, sign up for outdoor dining, or do you want a facade for your business facade? Apply for the facade grant program. Which by the way, was hugely popular. We got way more applications than we can possibly give grants out. So they're going to have to do the selection process.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: So crime posting, newsletter sign up, The climate plan.
[Alicia Hunt]: You could have some information about the library being net zero. Ken Kraus actually sent me a really beautiful picture that was taken recently of the library from above. It was taken during the ribbon cutting. The dedication, sorry, it was a dedication. I feel like we should blow it up and laminate it. I would totally hang that in my office too.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Okay, that's a lot.
[Alicia Hunt]: You don't have to, I'm just offering.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Oh, no. Okay, picture of library.
[Alicia Hunt]: I'm making notes. And then you have trees material, material on trees, right?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, I'm doing that, trying to, and send some stuff to Teresa. One on invasive plants, Massachusetts, and I'll bring some samples. A black swallow, that's like the bane of my existence. It's called the killer vine too. Not to pass out, but people can touch it. Don't worry, I won't let it spread. So you have to burn it. So I made a little flyer and also, and up the city has a great flyer and black swallow wart, but it's a Massachusetts list of invasive plants. So that's one thing. And the second thing is maybe jumping ahead. Oh, so sorry. Activities for children. So we have coloring pages on the back. There'll be QR codes to activities for children. So like leaf ID, junior forest, junior arborist, activity and the life of a tree. I was going to add maybe some adult coloring pages, but that might be getting too much because I still have to do more tree related things, which I have an enormous list. So we're trying to think about how to present all that without using a lot of paper and ink, but we might have to, I'm not sure. I mean, I have pages from DCL. I have just a lot.
[Martha Ondras]: Yeah, I have some walking maps of Medford that I use when tabling for Walk Medford and some other walking information that I think would be good. It doesn't take up a lot of space. It's not a poster.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: And I heard Bob ask about Mass Save. I have been asking if anybody can come and represent Mass Save. I will not be available, but I will be able to pick up some brochures on residential new construction and heating and cooling incentives that can be on the table at least.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: So we need a sign up sheet for timing. Right, who's going to take what times?
[Martha Ondras]: How long is the event?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Three to seven. So I guess set up, I don't know, set up might be a two.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: I'll be there the whole time.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Oh, you will?
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Yeah.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Okay.
[Robert Paine]: Paul, I'll be there for probably a good part of it as well. And maybe, who else? Maybe you can just send an email to Paul about your availability. Exactly where the table is going to be, I'm not sure, right?
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: I don't know where it's going to be, you're right. I have no idea.
[Martha Ondras]: Well, Kashe should be able to give us a layout.
[Alicia Hunt]: I'm not sure how long before the event they do that. Yeah. You can ask.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: I had thought of making some paper planes for the kids. But, you know, that's know, in previous stuff that I've done with with kids, that's a very popular thing. Just go wild, you know, throwing those planes around. You know, it's, it's just fun stuff. So I, you know, just to bring in people and so they can while while while they're looking at the posters and rummaging through, you know, flyers and all that, you know, you get the kids interested in paper airplane and sort of, you know, be thinking of putting like our website or other websites typed out on the paper or You could do that. I mean, we could add to it. I mean, my concept is just to make the plane. But if we're interested in getting it even a little more, becoming a little more sophisticated with it, then we can definitely think of something to put on the planes, absolutely.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: That would be a great idea. If you had it on the wings, go green method.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Yeah, there we go. So yeah, exactly. So yeah, absolutely.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, that'd be nice.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah. Yeah.
[Kathleen McKenna]: I'm not sure I can make it. This is Kathleen. I'm overdue on a trip to Phoenix, which sounds like fun time, but it's going to be plus 100 degrees there now. Not a family thing. If I'm around, I'll definitely show up. Just to add to the mass save thing, website I can post it on from MassCEC that talks about heat pumps. It looks like it's 22 pages. So that's a lot even if you did like a laminated both sides. I don't know if it makes sense to maybe I can look at it and pick out the key pages that people would be interested in and maybe me making laminations on that or I don't know just printing out some pages and putting it on a poster board. Any ideas if that makes sense?
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: I think if it's like a good description of how heat pumps work or something along those lines, that would also always be good.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, there's a page on that. I'll post it. I'll jump to my other page here.
[Robert Paine]: Yeah, I had to actually summarize the presentation from Heat Smart. I could just print out the presentation and have it available as a reference in case someone asks. And we could have that type of thing for a number of things. I had, for example, the Massachusetts Climate Law, I have a summary of the current status of that, which I could just, if someone asks, we'll have that information. Buying electric cars, some people People might be interested in that, and I have some information on that. Renewable energy options. So, yeah, in terms of information, we could have reference material to refer to if there's a citizen who wants to know, well, what do you think about this while we have this information? So Paul, go ahead and, I guess you could ask the committee members, but we could also just send you our availability for that day. And maybe in case there is a total rain, it has to be the next day. So you might want to ask for availability for that day. It would be more difficult, probably.
[Alicia Hunt]: Do people who know they're available want me to just note that down in the minutes here to track it?
[Robert Paine]: Yeah, why don't we do that, yeah.
[Alicia Hunt]: And I do, I have Paul's available at the same time. So for the main day, the Saturday, I noted that Bob and Loretta were also available. Is there anybody else who is planning to help with the table?
[Martha Ondras]: Yeah, I'm planning to help. I can do two hours.
[SPEAKER_15]: I'm not available on the 18th, but if it is a rain day, I'm definitely available on the 19th.
[Alicia Hunt]: I was actually gonna actually then say, so let's put just who's available the 19th of it. If it does get rained out, just so I wrote Jessica. Paul, I didn't hear what you just said. Something happened to your sound. Your mouth is moving.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: We lost him.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: We can't hear you.
[Alicia Hunt]: Loretta and Martha, are you guys available the 19th if it moves?
[Martha Ondras]: Yes.
[Robert Paine]: I'm not sure yet. Bob, I'd be available for probably the first two hours.
[Alicia Hunt]: All right, so I'm jotting these down in your notes and we'll send them out with Patrick's help. We'll send them out in the next day or two, two or three days so that you all have this or I can actually just grab this little piece of it and send it in an email to you guys.
[Robert Paine]: If you want to hand out something on the Harvest Energy Festival date, we might want to have a little placard.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yes, we used to do that, a save the date, like a small flyer. So one of these things that I haven't told Pat, later we'll do a full flyer that will list all our sponsors, but now we should do a small, like a half or third of a page, that's a save the date flyer. Do save the date on one side and composting on the other, or some kind of handout? Patrick, there may be save the date templates in that Google Drive folder I shared to you. And if not, I have some floating around.
[Adam Hurtubise]: So I won't be available. Linda's having knee surgery the Thursday before. So knee replacement surgery. So I know that I'm going to be taking care of her. OK.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Can you hear me now? Yes, I'm available both days, rain or shine. And probably a good idea to send me all the material that needs to be printed up, or we decide to print up. So we have it in one place or put it on Google Drive or somewhere like that in a folder.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Well, Paul, I sent it to Teresa and I was going to work with her on that. But I sent you, I already sent you and Martha and Luke, Teresa. Sure. Comments and if you want anything edited. Okay. I can meet you maybe Wednesday if you want to go there.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Yeah. What time?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: I'll email you. Okay, sure. Yep. Is there up until 730 I think. So if I went later, that would be better.
[Unidentified]: Yep.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: I don't know. We'll figure it out.
[Robert Paine]: I have heard in case anyone asks that the Green Line extension opening date is like late summer. That's probably the latest we have on the fall now.
[SPEAKER_09]: What was the fall? That's what I saw the other day. Really late, really late summer. Okay.
[Robert Paine]: Fine. You know, if a walk Medford or any, you know, bicycle commission will have a table. You don't know, I guess.
[Martha Ondras]: Just not have a table. Um, that's one reason I'm bringing some of their literature to our table.
[Robert Paine]: Right, okay. Anything else on the Circle of Square event? We had a good discussion. If not, the rest of the meeting is for basically various other working group things. I had seen, this is sort of in the area of building uh energy building greenhouse gas emissions. National Grid has a plan for how it replaces fossil power natural gas fossil generated natural gas with renewable natural gas. And the way this is going to work is they're going to take you know, the biogas from landfills and whatnot, and maybe green hydrogen, but eventually replace all the, in the gas pipelines, the fossil fuel natural gas with other methane that's supposedly renewable. I guess that has good and bad aspects. One is you still have leaks of methane, which are tremendously potent for greenhouse gas emissions. That's the bad thing. The good thing is you can still, people who don't change to heat pumps and use natural gas for decades into the future will presumably be using more climate neutral of means. But that's an interesting development. The National Grid has announced this plan.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Now, the natural gas from landfills, how is that mitigated right now? Does it just escape into the atmosphere now or? It escapes into the atmosphere now.
[Robert Paine]: Yeah. Or unless it's captured or whatever. I mean, obviously, the Deer Island uses it for fuel. Because they have a lot of that from their digesters.
[Barry Ingber]: Right. Some of it has been captured since my days at what is now the Green Energy Consumers Alliance. So we're talking the 90s. They were already using landfill gas for generating electricity. So I don't imagine they've stopped.
[Robert Paine]: This would have to be a massive scale up if you're going to replace by 2050, all of the... Yeah, I don't think there is that quantity of landfill gas.
[Barry Ingber]: I think that what you've got is National Grid attempting to save its business model. And I don't really have any interest in
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: If I can just weigh in for a moment. Transitioning to cleaner fuels is definitely a good thing generally, as we can all agree. The transition to all electric As that comes, while it kind of can't happen fast enough, it can't happen that fast. And it will be a period of many decades to actually succeed. Frankly, as many of you are likely aware, the density of fuels are very convenient, whereas the usefulness of transportable battery power, for instance, or backup battery power are challenging. So the fuels play an important role. They will continue to play an important role. Having them be more renewable is always going to be good for the fuels that we are using. That said, yeah, it is, you know, a business that is trying to maintain its infrastructure and a justification for existence. So there is some competing interests in there. But then again, competition is part of what drives opportunity and success. So, you know, there are opportunities and good things about it, even though it's not ideal. So I think it's important to always take it with a grain of salt, always recognize that it's not a panacea or perfect, but it is better than current practice, I guess.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Well, I guess we'll see in 20 years.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: Well, yeah. It needs to be an iterative process. As of today, yes, it's better. As of five years from now, maybe it's not better. So it needs to keep evolving.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: I agree. We can't switch right away.
[Robert Paine]: We need to. I was gonna say one of the issues is there will be a push to convert to electric means for the heat pumps and whatnot. There will still be those how homes that will not convert and they will, but you would hope that the demand for natural gas overall or methane will be reduced. And therefore the reduction can be more feasibly met with renewable natural gas supplies by 2050. And the state has to do that to meet the climate law goals. I don't know what happens if we don't meet them. I don't know if there's a penalty, but right now they have a plan to get to 50% by 2030. It's very aggressive. And there will be hopefully incentives for heat pump installations and electric cars, perhaps. And that's what we should be looking for those types of things to tell consumers. I think there is currently a national grid rebate on electric lawnmowers, for example. We should probably make note of Maybe at the tabling event, probably should be aware of any available rebates of that sort.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_11]: Do they cover the manual lawnmowers too?
[Robert Paine]: No. You mean, oh, you mean push reels? Yes.
[Barry Ingber]: You can't make any money on those. And that's a joke, but it's but it's also true. And and, you know, so I've got tongue in cheek, but they don't care about anything except making money. So they're not going to promote push mowers.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Oh, I know.
[Unidentified]: Okay.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: The rebates are for electric battery powered hedge trimmers, saws and lawnmowers.
[Barry Ingber]: You know, the repurposing of the gas infrastructure, I don't feel like I know enough to give a definitive answer, but I do know that scaling up the production of supposedly green hydrogen to replace natural gas is a huge enterprise and it's the wrong direction to go in. And another thing that I know is that, I mean, people are right that the transition has to happen over time, you can't can't flip the switch. But the reality is that as the natural gas delivery system gets less and yet less used, it becomes more and more prohibitively expensive for the people who remain on the system. And at some point, it does not make any sense to be reinvesting in that system. But National Grid wants to reinvest in that system because their guaranteed rate of return is based on their built infrastructure. So they want infrastructure. And I think that we need to be able to do that. So again, I'm not ruling out completely those approaches, but I think that we have to look at it with more than a grain of salt. I'm looking at a bowl of salt and thinking about what are the economics behind those shifts? Who do they benefit and who do they disbenefit? I certainly not gonna jump on that bandwagon.
[Robert Paine]: Right, they just have posted their goals, their plans, and whether they make sense or not. I guess it's one way to meet the climate law requirements. You're right, as natural gas usage shrinks, and the people who can't afford heat pumps are left in the cold, if you will. Will the price of natural gas go up because there'll be less and less usage of it? That's an important issue.
[Barry Ingber]: Well, it has to, because the cost of maintaining the infrastructure and of providing a return on investment on that infrastructure stays the same over less usage. So that's, it does go up. It's not, will it? So, you know, so we have to figure out, without worrying about the fate of national grid, what the best long-term plan for all of society would be.
[Robert Paine]: I think the state, you know, climate officer, whatever you want to call the Environmental Affairs is aware of these issues. And there are lots of comments to that effect. So at least that's being aired publicly. So that's a good thing. Obviously, the more we can make citizens aware of rebates or incentives to go to heat pumps, that's a good thing. And so I think we should be in the know about that. And I think Mass Save, Lucas, Mass Save the best venue for that or other venues?
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: So MassAve is rebates for energy efficiency improvements for electric and gas. And it is a consortium of utilities and energy service providers like Cape Light Compact that all agree they're obligated to supply, to pay back the energy efficiency funds that have been collected. as part of our Massachusetts energy efficiency and renewable energy reinvestment kind of policy. So we all pay into renewable energy and energy efficiency and MassSave is the organization that pays back the energy efficiency portion. So yes, rebates come through Mass Save. And then it depends on the utilities and energy service providers to figure out what is the program that is going to be giving back, whether it's passive house or all electric buildings or heat pumps, et cetera.
[Robert Paine]: You'll give us information for our table on that.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: Yes, and again, that'll be, I'll keep it focused on single family to, you know, couple of family residential and heat pump incentives, heating and cooling.
[Robert Paine]: Before we lose all our time, does the three working group like to talk about anything in their, in that realm of things?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yes, I have a question and a comment to Alicia. Is Alicia still there?
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, I'm not allowed to leave till you're done. Yeah.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: So we were working on House Bill S-504, an act to establish a reforestation program in the Commonwealth. to keep track of it and to have people promote it. And we had written to the mayor and asked her if she would support it. So I'm just giving you a recap of that. And she had wrote back that yes, she supports it, but she wanted to pass it by you. And so I sent you the information for the Metro Climate Mayors Task Force from the last meeting. Because she wanted you or you wanted to check with them to see, because they would be the one to draft a letter to other mayors on what supported this bill, since it will help all municipalities in the Commonwealth with their tree canopy. So I just was wondering if you had any update on that.
[Alicia Hunt]: I apologize. I do not. OK. Patrick, can you remind me tomorrow? You know, look at this.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Oh, I have an email to you.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, I found the email.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: This might be one or two, you can copy and paste. So the letter, because the mayor had asked was there a letter that they could, you know, she could use. And that's how it was directed to you, I guess.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. Typically, we'll get stuff from Metro mayors and stuff and ask us if we want to weigh in or sign on to these letters. But if I understand correctly, you've been asking her to start the letter and be the first person to initiate it.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: And she wanted to check with you to see if there are any of the comments by them. She likes the idea, and that would be for her to send out the letter, but maybe, what is it, MPAs, Metro Mayor?
[Alicia Hunt]: I think she was actually asking the MAPC, the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission. So they have legislative staff that look at the various laws and make recommendations and keep us updated on things. And I will reach out to them.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: So it's the letters to other mayors for their support so they're on top of this and can ask for support from other delegates in the Senate House Ways and Means Committee is the next group that will be reviewing the bill. So to contact those members, you know, that mayors support it and our delegates support the bill.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right, right. I sort of what she was saying that the reason for involving the MAPC is that one of the things they would look at is, are there things in this bill that we wouldn't support or that would cause problems for us that like unintended consequences and would want to know about that. And that's the kind of stuff that MAPC is really good at. What we have generally found is that the legislature typically has a couple of different bills that are very similar or on similar topics. And then some of them, they go into a committee and then they make sausage, right? They kind of mix them all up and stuff comes out the end and that's the bill they vote on. And so it's really important to not say to a legislator, I really support S504, I want you to support that for me. Because what the legislator wants to know is, what are the items in this bill that you support? So that when they're mixing them all up together, that the things that we care about the most are the ones that show up in the final version of the bill. And even when the House and the Senate both vote, they'll pass different versions of a bill, and then they have committee to reconcile. And so what are the things that we want to come out of that reconciled version. So it's really important, because I see in your letter to the mayor you talked about like canopy coverage and stuff like that. So the things that are in the bill that are the most important bullets. That's what we want to say to our delegation. These are the things that we want you to support in this bill.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Right. So I did highlight, I know, you know, we're running out of time, but I did highlight there's like four or five major things in there that would help.
[Unidentified]: Right.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: But the plans for each community to bring them up to a percentage of tree canopy, including administrative and equipment and all kinds of things. Okay.
[Jessica Parks]: Yeah. Let me. Okay.
[Robert Paine]: Is that all Loretta?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: That's about it, I haven't heard anything. We're working on a lot of different things here, so.
[Robert Paine]: Let's see, any other working groups want to chime in on any activities? Let's see, Martha, you've been checking in with Walk Medford and others, what can you report on their activities?
[Martha Ondras]: Well, let's see, just really briefly, the Route 16 Traffic Calming Coalition had a walk on the Somerville part of Route 16, the L.Y. Brooke Parkway that was very successful and they got DCR out there and DCR actually reset some of the traffic lights on the spot to make it easier for pedestrians. We're hoping to plan a walk in the Medford portion of Route 16, probably in the fall, because the spring has gotten too crowded and summer is not a great time for doing it. But that's the main thing that comes to mind.
[Robert Paine]: Were they planning on certain ways to get to the new green line extension station. Any, any, any new initiatives there.
[Martha Ondras]: The city has been where actually I think Alicia's office has been working on that, improving those routes. and both for bikes and pedestrians?
[Alicia Hunt]: The city engineer's office. Right. Todd and Amy do not work in my office. They just work with my office.
[Martha Ondras]: Right.
[Alicia Hunt]: So I don't want to take credit when it's not mine. But actually, Todd and Amy have really been working. So they brought new bicycle lanes to the Traffic Commission for approval a month or two ago. So they're working on some like routes for more marked bicycle lanes that will go to the new Green Line station at Tufts. That's one of the things that I've seen. And they actually during the pandemic had some high school students through CCSR do a sidewalk audit, taking photos of all the sidewalk problems, like ramps and stuff like that, between key locations, or near the new green line, so that they had a survey of that, that they've been trying to address those locations to make walking in that immediate area safer, particularly for people with mobility issues.
[Barry Ingber]: I have a question for whoever knows, most likely Alicia, about the bus systems changes. I wasn't able to participate in the webinar, but I looked over the map. It was a while ago, so I no longer remember it. It looked like half of what I thought was important from my self-centered point of view in North Medford is there, that there is a shift to have a route going from North Medford directly to Medford Square, which then can take you to Cambridge and Arlington and other places. It didn't look like the other side of it. which would be just like this little extension to take it to Malden Center, to the train station there, to our closest neighboring city up here, is done. And so it still takes longer to take public transportation, even with the changes. It takes longer for my house to take public transportation to Malden than it would take to walk. And, you know, so, but I don't know how, I couldn't figure out how to make productive, a productive comment to that effect. And I also don't know what other pieces of Medford are benefiting or suffering from the suggested changes.
[Martha Ondras]: You know, I think Alicia says the 16th is the June 16th is the public comment meeting on the bus network proposal for the core area. Are we in the inner core area?
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, let me, I'm double checking that. So I just dropped a link in there for the whole bus network thing. So Medford is listed in the inner core and that is the one that's on the 16th. The other things to know is that there are actually the Mystic River one includes more the Malden area. So Todd was actually saying people, so like Malden and Everett are actually in the Mystic River one. So that might be of interest for people who go in that direction. And that is June 8. And then there's minute man and Metro North. And that is, if anybody's going towards Melrose, Stoneham, Winchester, Belmont, so Arlington, we have lines, the new lines, it'll go through all of it. So the reason I might have been making a face, so that link I just dropped includes a link to the new map and
[Martha Ondras]: Or the proposal. There's also opportunity for written comments to submit written comments.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. So they do have like a link that you can like map your trip and stuff. And then you can submit comments. Because I thought, Barry, that the line that was going sort of around like vaguely high street. was actually doing what you were just, so there's one that goes from Malden Square, from Malden Center, through past, basically down Route 60, through Medford Square, and then that one drops down to Tufts. and goes down to Davis Square and Porter Square. And that's supposed to be one of the new every 15 minutes or faster buses. So that's supposed to be very rapid. There's a different line. So you would have to switch in Medford Square. And there's a different line that goes from Medford Square through West Medford to Arlington Center.
[Barry Ingber]: Right. Which is great. I mean, that's like, two thirds or three quarters of what I was suggesting. But then from the other end of it, essentially, I think they've extended a little bit, but it goes to where the hospital used to be or something, instead of going to Malden. And it seems like.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right, the one from Arlington goes not to Malden, but goes to Medford and then Wellington's. Wellington station. So they kind of mapped where people went and they kind of said, people don't go from Malden to Arlington, but they go from Arlington down to Wellington and they go from Malden over to Davis. And they're trying to make Medford Square a bit of a hub so that you could treat it like you were on the T and the buses would come often enough so that you would transfer in Medford Square. but the buses would come so often that that would be reasonable.
[Barry Ingber]: Right. I mean, there's a flaw in the thinking, looking where people go, because people don't go where they can't go. And the only way I could find on the site to give my input was mapping my trip. My trip is by car.
[Alicia Hunt]: But that's, so they actually did not use bus data. What they used was cell phone data to map where were people going, looking at whether they walked, drove, were on the public transportation, Uber, Lyft, whatever. They actually bought cell phone data to map where were people coming and going and how were they, like what the routes were and stuff.
[Barry Ingber]: Yeah, we'll make a comment about privacy. I'll just skip that.
[Alicia Hunt]: Well, they looked at it and they said, that's better data, right? Like it's not just saying, well, we know where people use the bus, and we're just going to make that better, but said, where are people driving between and moving between, because we want to get people onto buses. So I really think that people need to look at it from their own perspective and submit comments to them. Because like I look at it and there's a line that goes from Medford Square every 15 minutes through Somerville to Kendall Square. And so I know there are a lot of people that live in North Medford who go to Kendall Square. I mean, the foggiest idea how they're supposed to get from North Medford to Medford Square to get the bus. But if they did, it would be a pretty direct run into Kendall.
[Barry Ingber]: Oh, I thought the new route did take you from North Medford to Medford Square, but it didn't go the other way.
[Alicia Hunt]: So there's another one, the 100 actually goes from the end of Elm Street and Belsoy West to Medford Square. So you could bring that, take that down and then hop the express bus, the rapid transit bus to Kendall. And then there's one on the other side of North Medford that goes down Highland, that goes into Malden and goes down to Wellington. And then you get on the orange line, but it takes forever to get from the orange line to Kendall.
[Barry Ingber]: Right. Okay.
[Alicia Hunt]: There's a ton of people that work down in that area, including my husband.
[Barry Ingber]: Okay. But there's a way to submit comments.
[Alicia Hunt]: That's they really want.
[SPEAKER_12]: There's a feedback form. I just put it in the chat.
[Barry Ingber]: Cause the only feedback form I could find was map was based on map your trip. It was not, there was no free form form.
[SPEAKER_12]: There's this other one I just found that's okay.
[Barry Ingber]: Great. Great.
[Robert Paine]: Okay. I'm going to just remind people that there is no July meeting. Our summer meeting will be August 3rd, a Wednesday in my backyard. You're welcome to bring your own beverage. and any finger food if you want, if that makes any sense. And send me any agenda items that you want to discuss before then. And we'll see some of you at Circle the Square event. I'm going to adjourn the meeting. Thank you. Good night.
[Adam Hurtubise]: See you later.
[Unidentified]: Thank you. Good night.