[Robert Paine]: Okay, so let's see, we have, let's see, I gotta figure out how many we need to have a quorum. I think it's six. Let's see, we've got, because I think we're down to what we had.
[Alicia Hunt]: So I will say that there are two people in the waiting room whose names I don't recognize, so I'm just waiting.
[Robert Paine]: Okay, is one of them Rosemary? Yes. She's Tufts Energy Group.
[Alicia Hunt]: Rosemary Lohr, okay.
[Robert Paine]: Yes.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, there's P Hanson. I just wasn't sure if it was possible for any of the members of the committee to using, you know, like relatives account.
[Robert Paine]: I don't know.
[Alicia Hunt]: I mean, I'm going upstairs for my meeting.
[Robert Paine]: I think we need six to have a quorum. We have to have 12 members with Loretta is.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yes, but we can still honestly without quorum, you can run a full meeting all you just wouldn't vote on the minutes.
[Robert Paine]: That's literally the only thing that if they if we have a motion though we can't vote on that either right.
[Alicia Hunt]: In theory, if we, in theory, if it was anything that was a Um, emotion that wasn't on the agenda. Like if it's a topic that's on the agenda, it's fine. If it's a different issue. Then in theory, like if it's something that's not on the agenda at all, you would want.
[Robert Paine]: All right. Well, if we get to that, I'll ask your opinion. Okay. Okay. So, uh, and Lily worth, uh, Hi there.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: I'm an intern in Alicia's office and I'll be here taking notes.
[Robert Paine]: Well, thank you. It's so good to have you doing that. That's wonderful. Thank you.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: Thanks for having me.
[Robert Paine]: OK. And Rosemary is representing the Tufts Energy Group. And we have a good to see you. And we'll have a short report from you, Rosemary, as to how your group is doing.
[MCM00000547_SPEAKER_07]: Sounds great. Thank you for having me.
[Robert Paine]: OK, great. And we'll do that early so you don't have to stay the whole meeting if you don't want to, although it's always fun to see what we're doing.
[Alicia Hunt]: Okay. All right. I'm going to admit the person who, okay, great.
[Robert Paine]: Okay. And Benji is Benji remembered this time, right? I apologize. I'm very sorry. I hope it never happens again. I didn't intend it to happen last time. All right. Well, I was, uh, I, I missed the last month's meeting cause I was in a plane on a plane. To Raleigh. So I couldn't join them for some reason.
[Barry Ingber]: I'm not able to turn on my video. So I'm going to log off and log back in.
[Robert Paine]: Good to have you, Barry.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I'm still at work. So I'll put my video. Okay.
[Robert Paine]: Okay. So we got, I'm trying to count what we have for members. We have very, so we have four, but I think Martha was also, let me see if all the people here.
[Martha Ondras]: Yeah, I'm here.
[Robert Paine]: Okay. So you're a fifth one, I think. Okay, great. Thanks Barry for joining with life's complications.
[Barry Ingber]: With life's complications, here I am under the Bodhi tree.
[Robert Paine]: Okay, thank you for joining. I think Jess was going to be able to join at least for part of the meeting, so we're expecting her to join. I'm going to keep I gotta remember to take Chris Hogan off, right? Because he's left, right? Or is that my, is that the right person?
[Martha Ondras]: That's correct.
[Robert Paine]: Okay, thank you. All right, so I had my, okay, he was a member. Okay, he was a member, maybe last month he resigned. Okay, so. I think with 11, we still need six total. Let's see who else we've got here. Loretta has joined, I think, but she's temporarily off, but it's good to have her because she's an important person for this meeting.
[Unidentified]: Hi, I'm here.
[Robert Paine]: Let's see.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Good evening. Good evening.
[Robert Paine]: I guess, P. Hanson, could you introduce yourself?
[Alicia Hunt]: Only if you want to, it's not required. Okay, well, just, just kidding.
[Pat Hansen]: Hi there, good evening. My husband and I just want to learn about any energy things we can do to help the environment.
[Robert Paine]: Well, that's great. Welcome.
[Alicia Hunt]: Thank you. And John Rogers just logged in.
[Robert Paine]: Oh, great. Okay. We'll give it one more minute and we'll be able to start with a quorum then. Actually, since I have to read the statement, why don't we start recording Alicia and I'll read.
[Unidentified]: Recording in progress.
[Robert Paine]: Required statement here. Okay, this is Robert Payne. I'm the chair of the Medford Energy and Environment Committee. I'm gonna read a statement that allows us to do meetings remotely. On July 16th, 2022, Governor Baker signed into law an act relative to extending certain state of emergency accommodations. This act allows public bodies to continue holding meetings remotely through March 31, 2023, without a quorum of the public body physically present at a meeting location and to provide adequate alternative access to remote meetings. In accordance with this act, this meeting of the City of Medford Energy and Environment Committee is being conducted totally via remote participation using Zoom. including committee members and the public. The use of Zoom complies with the law's requirement to provide live, adequate alternative means of public access to the deliberations of the public body. Instead of holding meetings in a public place, persons who would like to listen to or view this meeting while in progress may do so using the link that was included on the meeting agenda posted on the City of Medford website. We will also post a record of this meeting on the city's website in the near future at the link provided in the meeting agenda. End of statement. So just to confirm committee members who are present, and then we'll go to the guests. This is Bob Payne, I see in the list Gaston Fiore. Here. Okay. What's up, sorry, okay. Gotta get by. I got Benji Hiller, John Rogers. Just to note that Loretta James, who's normally on the committee, has taken a temporary leave of absence through this month and will rejoin the committee in November. So she's not an official member of the committee today. Mary Ingber is here. Okay. I'll see. I did John Rogers, Martha Andrus.
[Martha Ondras]: Here.
[Robert Paine]: And let's see if I missed any. Okay. That gives us. At least six. We have looks like Lois Grossman, who used to be on the Wind Energy Committee. Oops, looks like Jessica is also joining, Jessica Parks as a committee member. I don't see Paul as living yet, unless I have missed him. And who else have, do I not see, that may be it because, oh, Nicole may or may not be able to join later. Kathleen and Luke are not able to join today. So I think, and Paul, we're not sure about. So then in terms of guests, Lori, why don't you, sorry. Okay. Rosemary, why don't you introduce yourself from the Tufts Energy Group?
[MCM00000547_SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, hi. My name is Rosemary Lohr. I'm the president of Tufts Energy Group here at Tufts. So we're going to be helping organize the symposium in November. We've helped in some previous years, and we have a lot of members who are interested in helping again. So we're looking forward to that.
[Robert Paine]: OK, thank you. Other members who are guests, which they don't have to necessarily identify themselves. We already heard from the Hansons and I think is that all? Of course we have our intern. Maybe you could talk about your role too.
[MCM00001654_SPEAKER_16]: Sure. I'm Lily. I'm an intern in the planning department. I also work in the engineering department. A big part of what I'm doing is working on the citywide bike plan, but I also help out here and there with other projects. And I'm here today helping take notes for the minutes.
[Robert Paine]: Thank you, Lily. Okay. Why don't we get started with the administrative part of the meeting? I Obtain the minutes late and I sent them out, but I don't know if people have had a chance to look at them. If it's too short of a time, we could defer that till next meeting. Or if you've had a chance to review them, we could vote on accepting them. I can't even vote because I was not at the meeting. So I'm going to leave it up to those who were at the meeting in September tell me if they've had a chance to review the minutes and could vote on their acceptance.
[Martha Ondras]: Well, I was at the meeting. I will vote on their acceptance, vote to accept.
[Robert Paine]: Okay. We're not going to do the vote until any other comments on that, on whether we should proceed with voting on their acceptance. If I'll second the motion to accept. Okay. So I will, I will, uh, I will then call the role for, uh, and I'll do all the committee members present and you can abstain if you were not there and vote to accept or not. Um, so, um, Luke is not here, Bob Payne. I, I have to abstain. I said, all right, Paul is not here. Uh, Barry except. Okay. Kathleen is not present. Nicole is not present. John.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Accept.
[Robert Paine]: Martha.
[Martha Ondras]: Accept.
[Robert Paine]: Jessica.
[Martha Ondras]: Accept.
[Robert Paine]: And Benji. Abstain. Okay. That's right. You missed the meeting too. I did. No votes to the negative. We will accept the minutes of set out and posted. Okay. Alicia, it's time for you to give us administrative updates. Maybe we can also review the arts event about a week ago.
[Alicia Hunt]: Sure, I was just sort of thinking if I had any real administrative updates for the committee. The only thing that I can think of is the mayor sent staff today an update with different positions that have been filled in the city, one of which is particularly of interest to my office that I, you know, I don't know if How much it interacts with this committee, but the facility, the building commissioner. We have hired a new building commissioner. So that is really good news for us. We work very closely with the building commissioner. I will also say that we have reposted the facilities manager position as a bit more, we hope a bit more realistic. We looked at it a little bit and focused more on a position that will manage the buildings. rather than somebody who would go out and get grants and do capital projects, because it was very clear that what we had budgeted for this position was not in line with what people who were qualified for that position would be expecting to get. So we're hoping that we'll be able to fill that. We've been, like I said, we've reposted it. There are a lot of positions posted on the city's website right now. So if people are looking for municipal jobs, they should look. We are looking for lawyers, city solicitor and assistant city solicitor are both positions that are posted on the website right now. And then I'll move on to the event last, was it last weekend, two weekends ago? Oh my gosh.
[Robert Paine]: 24th of September.
[Alicia Hunt]: So it was two weekends ago, I guess, technically. So we had a table at the Mystic Arts. It was the Mystic River Celebration. This is down at Conin Shell. There was a lot of great music and entertainment and a lot of excellent tables. And we hosted a table that had Energy Committee information on it and had information about the climate plan, the comprehensive plan. actually a project that Lily's helping me manage, the Route 28 underpass, which is a project that we need to do some public outreach on because we are going after federal state funding for the construction and they require some additional outreach than what we've done, particularly for the state MEPA process, the environmental review process. requires outreach to underserved communities. We had information about that. And the solid waste survey was there. And we had, let me see, Martha staffed the table with one of my grad interns, and then Bob and I staffed the table. I thought it went really well. We talked to so many people. It was very exciting. Sarah Gilmour, COB.: : yeah there was some stuff this weekend, but the Oktoberfest got pushed to next weekend, and so we are talking about having a table at that those solid waste task force is particularly interested in that. Sarah Gilmour, COB.: : I would love to get some additional help staffing that and then I feel like we could commit to a table if I had more than one person i'm willing to be there as well, but. we find that my time gets so sucked up by people that it's good to have somebody else there in addition to me. I don't know if Martha or Bob, you wanna share any, oh, I do wanna give a shout out to Benji's daughter-in-law who also staffed the table with us. She works for the city of Somerville and she had actually reached out because she needs to do outreach on a project, a stormwater separation project that they're doing in Somerville. and she needed to be talking to people because it'll impact the Mystic River. So she spent some time with us and with the Mystic River Watershed Table, talking to the community as well. That was fun to have somebody from another city working the table with us.
[Robert Paine]: I'm severely prejudiced on this subject, but I think she's great.
[Alicia Hunt]: I love working with Luchika. She's great. I know her through professional work stuff.
[Robert Paine]: Yeah, Benji, we got to meet a lot of your family at that event.
[Lois Grossman]: Which event is this, Alicia, that's coming up?
[Alicia Hunt]: Then the one this coming weekend is Oktoberfest, which was postponed from this past Saturday. It's a Chamber of Commerce event.
[Lois Grossman]: And where is it going to be and when?
[Alicia Hunt]: Salem, Medford Square, I believe mostly Salem Street. Although actually, nope, Riverside Ave. I could be wrong, or Clippership Drive. It's one of those right there in the middle of the square.
[Lois Grossman]: And from when to when?
[Alicia Hunt]: 1 to 5. 1 to 5 on Saturday?
[Lois Grossman]: Yep. I'm going to check my calendar and I'll let you know if I can join you.
[Alicia Hunt]: I'd appreciate it. We'd love to have some more people to talk about all our great projects. All right, Bob and Martha. Anybody want to add to the, about the event we were at?
[Robert Paine]: No, the weather was great. I hope we have the same good weather for two weeks, less than two weeks now. which we'll talk about soon.
[Martha Ondras]: Yeah, the weather was great. A lot of people were interested in talking about different energy, heat pumps, transportation, trees, you name it. People are very interested. And they love the signs was one thing. We got a lot of very positive comments on the pilot. Project to put up signs about walking distances around town people, a number of people made unsolicited positive comments about the signs on invasive invasive plants to always be of interest.
[Robert Paine]: Thanks to Paul for that. Okay. I don't think there's any other, no other administrative updates. We can move on to, back to Rosemary. What's, is the Tufts Energy Group going to have a energy conference in the winter?
[MCM00000547_SPEAKER_07]: So the energy conference usually takes place in around March. Technically the group that puts on the energy conference is a separate organization from energy group. but we plan to be working together a lot this year. So yeah, that would be sometime in March.
[Robert Paine]: Okay. Just a reminder that this webinar, which we've now it'll be third year in a row. This will feature a presentation by Block Power, which is, has worked in other states, but now is in Massachusetts, and we'll talk about how they work with municipalities to help residents fund projects like heat pumps, because the heat pumps are not, you know, a cheap endeavor. And it'll be interesting to see their point of view on how to actually fund and pay for, help residents pay for types of programs. In regard to that, well, we'll talk about later what we're going to present at the Harvester Energy Festival, but I did send out a presentation mostly geared toward residents and some opportunities to take advantage of all these government initiatives, state and federal, that are coming up regarding heat pumps, solar and electric vehicles, there are going to be some unique opportunities for deep discounts. And so it's good for residents to be aware of those. I think we can move on then to the Harvest Your Energy Festival planning. We're going to let Loretta and Alicia take that over. Thank you Rosemary.
[Unidentified]: Thanks, Bob. Alicia, do you want me to speak first?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Go ahead. For the festival, we have 40 exhibitors and 13 sponsors so far. We will have some food. chapters, coffee carts, and let me think. Sorry, I just had a brain freeze here. Work hard, eat good will be there. That's a food truck. And they'll be serving different kinds of chicken and rice bowls and a vegetarian option. And let's see, what else do we have? We have music by Matt Heaton and the Outside Choice and Trail Mix. For an update, the most complete update you can find on the website that's been updated, googreenmetro.org. When you click on the Harvester Energy Festival, almost everything's there. Just a few more tweaks we'll do. So you can see all the exhibitors, the sponsors, and all the raffle items. As far as some interesting things we have, that are still coming in. The Board of Health will be there to give out free COVID test kits. And some new exhibitors that haven't participated in the past are the Animal Control Officer and also Kitty Connection, our local animal adoption and rescue organization. And recycling, we have three recycling events. HELPSY will do clothing and material recycling at their table. And that's on the website. So you'll see a list of what you can donate. And they also have a retail website where you can purchase reused clothing. And they'll be giving out, well, they actually, they've donated to the Raffle some gift certificates to use on their website. In addition, we'll have paper shredding and electronics recycling. And we're working on some details on the electronic recycling. And this week we'll be really busy picking up raffle donations. Wegmans just came through with their donation request. And for a snack, I was looking for snacks and a lot of the restaurants and food vendors are having supply chain issues, which is the same across the country or They don't have enough staff and they need help. So it's very hard to get a food vendor right now. So Wegmans has donated. I asked for some packaged snacks and other things too. apples. So we'll have fresh apples to give out for free. I don't know how many yet, we just got the request approved and it came in the email today. So I'll be working with them to see how many and who can pick out all the stuff up plus the 200 reusable bags they'll donate, a gift basket of organic food and a gift certificate. So like I said, the best way to be updated is to go to the website, gogreenmedford.org and it will list all the recycling options, all the exhibit responses and raffle items, directions, and recycling. Alicia, do you want to talk about that? The electronics recycling?
[Alicia Hunt]: So we have electronics recycling lined up and waste management has agreed to pay for it, which is about $1,000. So we don't have to collect money, but. Nice. But if we want to take televisions or monitors, we have to charge for them. And we were able to work it out that they would charge us $15 each, which is a lot less. So people can actually arrange to have large items like dishwashers and televisions picked up from their home through the city for $26. And so we're actually putting on the flyer, like no large items, dishwashers, refrigerators. And you would say, but really? So I actually, at the August electronics recycling that the crew team had, I watched somebody unloading dishwashers into their truck.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Wow.
[Alicia Hunt]: So we're going to say no large items, but we're going to put on the bottom, you can pay $26 and the city will come pick them up from your home. Well, from the curb. So here's the question. We could do the TVs and monitors for, sorry, was it $13 or $15? $15 per TV, LCD or Right. So the question is, in order to do that, we need somebody who would take responsibility for that portion of it, for collecting the money and making sure that was happening. Because that's a certainly we can't delegate that to students. It's not directing traffic, it's actually collecting money and then turning it over to the company at the end of the event. So I basically said to Loretta, I thought that it would be better to bring it to the committee because if there was somebody here tonight who was willing to say, I'll be responsible for that at the event, then I think we could offer it. But if we don't have somebody from this group who's willing to do it, then I don't think that we can offer it because I'm not putting a student volunteer in charge of collecting money at this event. So I basically figured I'd put it out to you all.
[Jessica Parks]: Do we know, I mean, is it something that we've seen in the past has been a popular thing? Do people really want to bring their monitors and things? Okay.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I did the traffic controller. I've done it for like, I don't know how many years in a row. And I usually work with Kathleen McKenna and she collects the money, but she's not here today. So, but it is popular because they're hard to get rid of. And here's a place where you can get rid of them. So we probably do 10 or 20, you know.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: There's a picture on the website of how much we collected one year at the bottom of the Go Green, MedFed, Harvest for Energy Festival page, and it was a lot. And Kathleen, she did it, but she wasn't really comfortable handling all their cash. I mean, we could also limit it to two, two televisions or monitors per car.
[Jessica Parks]: I'm happy to volunteer to be that person to collect money. I mean, I have no problem doing that. I just didn't know if there's a need or if there's that much of a demand, I guess would be my question. And I apologize for the cartoons in the background. Is that Jessica?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yes, it is. I don't see your room.
[Jessica Parks]: I know I have cartoons going in the background.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Okay. Okay, so you'd have to be there like 1030 at the latest. I can do that.
[Alicia Hunt]: Why?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: So
[Alicia Hunt]: Go ahead. I mean, aren't they only scheduled the electronics recycling company? Well, we would expect would show up around 11 or 1130.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, originally the contract said 10 and then I have to email them an update. And then if you want to do the $15 instead of the per pound rate, which we already know true. I have to get an updated contract with the quote and. The other thing, Jessica, is we need to have change to make change for people.
[Alicia Hunt]: Do you really? Could we put on it like exact change cash only? Yeah, we could figure that out.
[Jessica Parks]: I mean, so I mean, I would think after a while, we could ultimately get there, I would guess, right? I mean, Just tell people to bring fives. I mean, not many people carry cash around, I'd say. And so if they're being told to bring cash, they're going to go and take some out, would be my assumption.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: OK, so $15 cash only, exact change. Exact.
[Alicia Hunt]: I think it's better to at least say that, and then that way most people will be prepared. And if Jessica ends up then making change for a handful of people, it'll be fine.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Okay. Do we want to limit it to two per car? I already have a list of people that I've been calling and emailing. you know, waiting for a re-answer, so.
[Jessica Parks]: Yeah, and there were a bunch of people who were really interested in the answer from the question on the Medford recommendations page.
[Adam Hurtubise]: So what would be the advantage of limiting it?
[Jessica Parks]: Yeah, that would be. I mean, I would say the limit.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: If we're charging, limit. Okay, well, let me tell you why. Occasionally you get tricks at people, you know, like someone was at, when I was talking to PC survivors, they told me someone showed up with like seven dishwashers, 12 TVs.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, that's not television though.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: No, well, I said seven or 12 TVs. Okay. So, you know.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I thought you said dishwashers.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: I did. Yeah, I'm just giving an example.
[Jessica Parks]: Yeah, I think like 12 TVs is easier to handle than I would think. I mean, I don't, I don't know, is there? Maybe that's a question for the people who are taking this stuff? Like, is there a limit to what they're capable of taking?
[Adam Hurtubise]: So what they do is they come with these giant boxes that are about the size of a wash machine and they're called Gaylords, that's the name of the boxes. And these boxes unfold and they're like triple thick cardboard. They're really hefty and they have a forklift or a truck lift that they can put them into the truck. On a really good year, we've built like 10 of those and they all fit in the truck. And, and if they don't fit in the truck what they do is they start loading stuff on top of the ones that are already in the truck, because they're not tall, they're, they're the height of a, of a. of a wash machine. So what they'll do is, because they're interested in the materials, they recycle the materials and make money on that. My feeling is about the monitors are, the goal here is to make the environment better, right? So the more of those we can get out of the environment, the better off we are. There we go, there we go. Yeah, that's the picture.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yeah. Well, I was also thinking, you know, we don't want people to hold up the line either. I don't think this company is bringing boxes and that's the other thing we need to labor. We have a list of student volunteers to help people unload their cars. So I was just putting it out there for a limit. I mean, you might want to say a limit of five or a limit of eight. And they did say a piece of our selling came in with 113 inch like television screen that would be like in a big bar or restaurant.
[Gaston Fiore]: So if the problem is running out of space, would it make sense to just be first come first served? And then whenever you're out of space and you just stop the collection for both items?
[Adam Hurtubise]: That's what I think is a good idea.
[Jessica Parks]: Yeah. That was going to be my next question is until basically until we can't take them anymore might be. better, because we don't want to, we don't want to say like, five per people and five per person. And then you know, only a few people show up with a couple or something, you know.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: So what's the wording? Until the truck? So the truck is full?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, they really have to say that. I mean, you just say, Hey, the truck's full. Sorry, you should have came earlier. I don't say that, that, you know, that, you know, so that, the other thing is that one thing I think that's nice about big giant TVs is they tend to be flat. So they could just slide down the side of the truck and, you know, they don't take up a lot of space because of the way they slide down the side of the truck. So I'm not worried about that.
[Jessica Parks]: Okay. And is this, and I'm sorry, I may have missed this, is this $15 for all monitors regardless of size, or is this like $15 for a larger size monitor or TV?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: They said all, $15 for all types of televisions, CRTs and LCDs. Okay. So CRTs are like the old Apple computer. with the tubes and.
[Jessica Parks]: Right. Right.
[Alicia Hunt]: Originally, they wanted to charge us per pound. And we basically said to them, we we can't do that.
[Adam Hurtubise]: How do you weigh?
[Alicia Hunt]: We just can't. And they wouldn't even charge us then until after they got back to the shop. And so so one thing that they're picking up along the way. Right. Can you confirm with them? If we fill up the truck, is that it? Because we've had companies, we had one company that filled up boxes, took a truckload away, came back with the truck and filled it up again. So what their plan is. Yeah, that was one of the earlier years, they literally left stuff there for a few hours. And they're like, we don't care if people, I'm like, what if people come and pick? They're like, we don't care.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, that was Northeast, that was Northeast recycling.
[Alicia Hunt]: but they did two trips. And the other question is, would they want us to pay them right then and there or bill us later?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Okay, I'll check that again. They were going to bill us because what happens is we get a revenue share back for the other items, not the monitors. And so they'll adjust the bill for the quote. the quotes like over a thousand, and then we'll get credit for a lot of the other electronic items to bring the bill down. It might come down $200, but the extra charge, the $15, I'll find out about that. So I will ask, I'll get back to you.
[Alicia Hunt]: So let me, I'm just going to toy with the wording, because in theory, we could take checks made out to the city of Medford. and we would deposit all the cash with the city, and then we would have a check cut from the city, from our account. The one year that I really, that sticks out in my head with Kathleen collecting money, we handed the company the cash at the end of the day.
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Jessica Parks]: So basically it's $15 cash or a check made out to the city.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah. Yeah. But the city has no way to take Venmo or credit cards on site or anything like that. We're still working on figuring out how to take credit cards in City Hall. If you can't use a credit card when you walk up to the window at the parking department, I don't think you can do it remotely with the city. We're just not there.
[Jessica Parks]: But you can't just do a global City of Medford Venmo account? It doesn't work that way? No, you would think. So I have one more question. Do they take batteries? Cause that's when I keep getting asked.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yeah. Let me, let me just finish with Alicia on the TV thing. I don't want to say we take checks yet because I think you said they might want to be paid at the event. Well, can you confirm with them?
[Jessica Parks]: Let me know morning of, or if possible, so we can promote it.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Right. Right. So I'll find out. and let everyone know and it'll be put on the website in the flyer. But we know that for now, that'll be $15 per TV each CRT or LCD or any type of TV. They will take all kinds of batteries. They want you to keep them separate, not mixed in with other items. So all your CDs and double A, triple A's, whatever. Awesome. The other thing is the tables. We're working on the tables. The tables we need for exhibitors. But Alicia and I, I guess we'll be working that out. So I'm calling table rental companies to get prices. If anybody has a recommendation, I'm calling Peak and I have so many notes here, Taylor Rental.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Oh, yeah. I've had a lot of good luck with Taylor Rental for other events. They're pretty good. So talking about the one over there in Somerville.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: I have the number. It's Cambridge, right? Cambridge. So I'll be calling them tomorrow. And I got the quote from Pete, but it's so complicated. So hopefully we get more from the schools.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Now with the, I just have a question on the recycling again. As far as the appliances go, is there somebody who's gonna be there to sell the stickers? Because that would be awesome if people could buy stickers there, you know?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: No, we didn't talk about that.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Okay.
[Alicia Hunt]: I will tell you that I couldn't imagine that they could handle that. The way the city's doing it now is that you have to pay downstairs at the treasury and then you can come up and get your receipt and get your sticker from the DPW. So I don't think they could manage doing something remote. There is an option though that you can mail it to DPW and get it mailed back to you.
[Unidentified]: Good.
[Gaston Fiore]: Good. Question, Loretta. Is there going to be textile recycling at the event?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yes. Yes. Halpsy will have a table and they're the new provider for the city to pick up material and clothing at your home. But in addition, we still have the bins at some of the schools to donate clean material.
[Jessica Parks]: So you can go in. The school bins go to the PTOs.
[Gaston Fiore]: Right, right. Perfect. Yeah, I have both, clothes to donate and clothes that is so destroyed that I need to do something about it.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: And the list is quite large for anyone listening. I mean, stuffed animals, belts, hats, shoes, lots of things. So if you look at the list, you'll be surprised. In the paper recycling, I guess Alicia said up to four boxes of paper will be taken for paper shredding.
[Alicia Hunt]: So I will tell you, we did pick that number a little bit randomly, but it has a lot to do with the fact that There are some people who will try and bring like an excessive amount and it's both they fill up the truck and they hold up the line. And what I would say to the volunteers working the recycling truck is that if somebody really has a lot more than that, then say to them, you can come back at 2.30 or 2.45 and if there's still space, you can put it in, but we need to spread the love a little bit. And I've worked recycling events where there were so few people showed up. It was really no big deal. And then we've had others where it's just a constant flow. And if somebody had that much stuff, it would really be a problem for everybody else trying to drop their stuff off.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Okay, so Jessica will be in touch and
[Alicia Hunt]: Thank you. I appreciate it.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yes. Thank you. And I just want to shout out to two people in the office besides Alicia that are helping with this. And that's Teresa DuPont, who's the head clerk, and she's helping organize and work with me on social media, getting out the sponsor spotlights and the event page on Facebook. And also there's a new intern named Mago Durfee. I think that's her last name. who's helped with the website. So we're working with, I'm working with her and updating the website for the festival. And she's part-time. Any questions more about the festival? Okay, so I have an ask, if people are available to pick up the Wegmans order, that will be huge. I need someone strong. And it can be picked up at night. And that will be two boxes of reusable shopping bags, which is very heavy, and the apples, and the gift basket, and the gift card, and some other items. So if you can, that'll be sometime next week, probably. I don't know how many apples yet. I'm going to ask for a lot. I'll see what they can give us. I'm trying to figure out like a number, like 500. I don't know. We'll see. But if someone can pick it up and store it, you know, maybe pick it up Thursday night. I have to speak to the manager. I have to go there and see what it looks like. There's no way I can do it because I'm picking up other stuff too. So you can email me or call me.
[Alicia Hunt]: Any comments? Loretta, you said you needed somebody strong. Right. Well, if if nobody on the committee is able to do it, maybe we can get somebody from my office to do it because I employ a lot of young people.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Well, Teresa Rock, but she said she had a truck, but I said I'd ask the committee because she's she's full out and she has a lot going on too, so. Any more questions? We know that arrival time is 10 a.m. next Saturday. Hopefully we're praying for good weather. If not, I'll be inside the school.
[Robert Paine]: Maybe I missed this. Is there a schedule of events? Is there a presentation by the city?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yeah. At 12 o'clock, Matt Heaton and the Outside Toys will perform till 1. And then trail mix band will come in at one to set up and they'll start around 115 or 130 and stay until three. They understand there'll be breaks for the mayor. What time the mayor shows up, but we, I don't know what time that is. It may be one to one 30. So they'll just stop when she comes and plus they'll have to stop for the raffle announcements. So that's the only schedule I have. Everything else is going on at the same time.
[Robert Paine]: Okay, I'll be doing the winter. I guess pretty much semi continuously, although we'll have to work out.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Well, Green Energy Consumers Alliance will be helping you with that.
[Robert Paine]: Well, that'll be good, okay.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yes, I'm sorry. I thought you knew that.
[Robert Paine]: Someone usually shows up from an organization like that.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Right, they'll be there. They definitely plan to help you with that. And they'll be printing up the passports for the children. It's little booklets and the kids go around and find the tables and get a stamp. And I think they give them a prize. I've never actually seen it before because I've been busy doing other things, but they'll be printing those up.
[Gaston Fiore]: The last question, if it rains, the electronics collection and the textile collection and that kind of stuff, it still happens in the parking lot? Or how does it work?
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, what we've what we've done in the past is that if it rains, we kind of move to the front of the school. So there's a big drive aisle there. And we've done electronics recycling along the edge of it. And you can really cone off like to one lane for electronics recycling and one lane for through traffic. And we put the shredding truck up on the sidewalk next to the entrance to the school. And then the event moves inside to the cafeteria. We've done it that way at least twice where we needed to go inside and it worked pretty well.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Okay, thank you.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, the flow actually worked kind of well when it was like that. The parking lot in the back has some really tight corners and it gets like super tight. And actually the drive aisle out front is more accommodating.
[Robert Paine]: Oh, okay. I just looked at the long range forecast and it don't put any faith in this, but it looks like good weather for the 15th, but. being 12 days ahead, I don't have any faith in it. Oh yeah.
[Alicia Hunt]: I want good weather and I want it warm. Yeah, warm. Warm is good too.
[Robert Paine]: Hopefully the sun will be shining and there'll be a little wind blowing so the wind turbine does something. Right.
[Alicia Hunt]: As a meteorologist, have you now learned how to control the weather to just get us the weather we want?
[Robert Paine]: No, no, there's too many legal issues with controlling the weather. You can't do that. Sorry. Right. Let's see if there's any other questions I have. Oh yes, in terms of informational prison, you know, materials, do we, I could provide a poster, you know, like a science fair poster of this Information I've sent out today, if that's of interest, it does give some nice links to people interested in heat pumps, electric cars, and community solar.
[Alicia Hunt]: I wonder if rather than you printing those onto a poster, whether I can get somebody from my office to take the information and lay it out into like a more.
[Robert Paine]: Sure. have at it. That'd be great. Right. Yeah. Oh, go ahead, Bob. That organization, the Green Energy Consumers Alliance, had a very good presentation, which I had to listen to because I was en route. They did have a lot of good references for where you could go to get unbiased contractor contacts for heat pump installations. Same for, you know, EnergySage for any, I think for solar panels, you know, even community solar and electric cars, they also have a go green website to give you the latest information on, especially with the complicated Rules for these laws, well, you know, the battery has to be X percent U.S. assembled, all that sort of thing. That's complicated, but huge discounts are available. So people have to be very well informed. And these are guides that help residents to figure out how to go about any investments at their house or cars or solar.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Bob, at the festival, I thought it would be good for the energy committee to have two tables. So somebody should bring a table, because we're short on tables. And seriously short. We had so much material at the circle and the square event on invasive plants and tons. And the whole table was too full. So if we could have an extra table. And then Alicia said the Office of Planning Development Planning, development and sustainability will have a table, but we might need some committee members to staff that too. We have a lot of information at the office from the last festival. And I have some at home that we can print. And Paul, I don't know if he's here. I was trying to look.
[Alicia Hunt]: Paul said he couldn't make it. He sent it.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Oh, okay. So he has a poster on invasive plants. And I have some posters on invasive plants and all kinds of other materials. pages for um about trees and coloring pages for kids from the Appaday front so there's a lot and then look at brochures um i think oh bob i think you have those at home because at the end of circle in the square i think you took those home so remember if you have them to bring them they were massive rebate brochures i don't know if i took them home i might have said i think you did okay well Or maybe Paul did.
[Robert Paine]: I'm not sure. I don't remember.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: I did a little brown boxes and they're full of brochures from mass save on resident.
[Robert Paine]: Commercially residential upgrades and rebates something like that to see if Lucas, any others to provide I can't remember if I took them or not. Sorry, too long.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: I'm doing my point is that that will be going, there's a lot for that table. Right.
[Gaston Fiore]: You know, okay.
[Robert Paine]: Yeah. This is a forum with emails throughout.
[Gaston Fiore]: I have a question for Alicia. Alicia, what, what do you want said, uh, related to community solar and mass safe that it meant for, is that, have you ever said something like that? Or I'm imagining, um, something like when, when will we lose mass safe, um, network meaning?
[Alicia Hunt]: I'm not sure what you're referring to, like MassSave is incentives for home energy stuff and all, and doesn't actually have anything to do with solar.
[Gaston Fiore]: Didn't you say in one of the meetings that under some circumstances, if Medford engaged in some program, then we couldn't offer MassSave or something like that?
[Alicia Hunt]: That's if you look at becoming a municipal light plant.
[Gaston Fiore]: Oh, okay.
[Alicia Hunt]: That's a completely different type of thing and a massive undertaking.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Okay. Perfect. That's, that's what it was. Okay. Great. Awesome. Thank you for the clarification.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yeah. So we'll see everybody Saturday at 10 AM, October 15th. That can come unless you've written down a different time. Um, I'll be working out the task and what volunteers can do in the next week. Um, We know we need someone at the raffle table. The electronics recycling, Jessica will do. Material cycling, trying to say it fast. Material recycling, they're handling that themselves, help see. The shredding truck probably needs somebody there to help. So I'll find out about that.
[Alicia Hunt]: And then that one I'll tell you, Loretta, because it is staffed by a person from that company. Um, what's mostly helpful is like labor. So assigning him a couple of students who are just helping older people lift bags out of their vehicles is probably just fine because you don't need somebody to use judgment.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Okay. All right, then we should we could use some students for the electronics recycling to just to keep the cars moving. So, okay.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Well, I'm handling the traffic. So that's, that's what I've done in the past.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Right.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I keep the cars moving.
[Alicia Hunt]: Do you need, no, I think what Loretta probably means is students to help unload the cars.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Absolutely, yeah, yeah. That's one of the things that does, I hate to say it, but the students tend to be more of a hindrance than a help because what happens is they treat it like the electronics museum. And they start looking at things like, oh, look at this CD player from 1999. And they get distracted by that. So it's kind of like herding cats. If you can keep them focused and keep them getting the stuff out of the cars, then it all works out fine. So the best thing that we did, and we did it last year and it worked great, is we had the guys from the recycling company. They said, once it goes in the box, that's it. No one can touch it. And that really helped handle that.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: I understand. OK. And they do want a table. So that's not a problem. So if you have any recommendations for table companies, let me know. Any more questions?
[Unidentified]: Have you heard back from Taylor Rental?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: No, I just started calling today. Oh, OK. OK. So I talked to one and it was just like. Did you talk to did you have a name at Taylor Rental? No, I just have the telephone number because they're everywhere. They were in Arlington, Cambridge, Somerville, the Cambridge one. That's right down the street from us. Well, 28 or 38, whatever it is. But I talked to one and it's so complicated. It's like a half hour conversation. They're gonna send me a quote. And the problem is it's a school. So they can only deliver them Thursday or Friday, eight to five. Oh, geez.
[Alicia Hunt]: Wait, why? No, they deliver them to us. It doesn't go to the school. They deliver them to us to the festival at the wind turbine on Saturday morning. I've always had the companies deliver them. Okay, well, I just called one.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Don't get excited.
[Alicia Hunt]: I say don't let them think they're delivering to the school because the school's not involved in the event at all. I know, I know.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Believe me, I asked them about Saturday. They only deliver on Saturday. They're completely booked. If they do a setup, let me finish. They do a setup and a breakdown. And that's, and then they can't pick them up until a Monday. So the other option is, so that's just one place I call. That's what I said, it's a headache. So I'll be calling.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, Taylor Rental, they do have this thing where they're not available on Sundays, which is not our problem, but they also, on the weekends, they're not very responsive to delivering. What I've had to do is I've had to have them deliver the stuff on Friday, and then we store it, and then they pick it up on Monday. Which is something we can't do.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, we store.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Well for the events that I was working on I started to build it, but it wasn't, it wasn't a city event.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Well, this is, yeah, so you can't sell them in the school, they were saying, you know, there's $1,000 minimum order. for them to deliver and they can only deliver Thursday or Friday. And then, if we wanted it Saturday, they could do it Saturday, only if they're going to do the whole setup and they need the van table plan. which is an extra charge on top of the other plan. So they need the floor plan and they can only do it six to 10. So someone would have to be there at six in the morning to meet them. And then they couldn't pick it up till Monday. So I'm like, oh boy. So they're gonna send me this in writing. That was one company.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Did you contact Party Needs in Woburn? Who? Party Needs. Party Needs. No, I don't know about them. Yeah, Party Needs in Woburn. There's another one in Stoneham. I can't think of the name.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Well, you can email me.
[Unidentified]: OK.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Or call me. This is in case the schools doesn't, you know, we've always got them from the schools, but I don't know. I saw an email come through that they I don't know, it's a very limited amount, so.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right, this year they said that they have 15 tables down at the McGlynn they can give us, and DPW was going to look and see if they had tables that they could provide as well, but I really wouldn't expect them to come up with more than 10 or 15, but we'll see.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Well, I'm asking Alicia for a call for 40, just in case. Is that okay?
[Alicia Hunt]: No, that's okay.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: We actually have 40, we need 48 tables. Anybody else that comes to the festival that's approved has to bring their own. But, you know, since we're online here and we're talking live, I don't know about the chairs. I don't know.
[Alicia Hunt]: They usually haven't had any trouble. They have, the McGlynn School has stacks and stacks of folding chairs. that they just bring out for us. So let me reach out to them again and ask them, what about the chairs?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Okay, because I asked for a call for 40 chairs, but we'd actually need 40 more, two per table.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, I've gotten 80 chairs out of the McGlynn School before.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Okay, so you'll follow up with that part and I'll nag you about it.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, I'm gonna email them.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: So I asked for a quote for 40 chairs just as an extra price, just in case. And my concern is working at the festivals over the past few years and being outdoors, I don't remember a lot about indoors. And I would think the cafeteria in the school has tables we might be able to use, but I don't know. I have to see it.
[Alicia Hunt]: I will tell you that the problem with them is that they have the tables where the chairs are these stools that are attached to them. Yeah, so you can't use them for display because people can't walk up to them. Right, like the seats are attached, but they're not benches, they're like round circles. Okay, you need to go in there and see them.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, I want to go and see the flip point because I'm sending it worried if it's a rain event we have to go in, I need to see the space and all this exhibitors and how they're going to fit. So that's interesting because if we have to go in the cafeteria, what do we do with those tables push.
[Alicia Hunt]: actually the custodians push them all up against the side for us. They fold up and then they just fold up against the kitchen.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: All right. I won't talk about this anymore, but I'm happy about the batteries. I'm happy we have a little bit of food. I tried to get this food vendor. They just spent so much time with me and they said, yes, yes, yes. Then they emailed me last week. We can't do it, but you can sell the ice cream novelties and then I've been calling them and then returning my call. So it's like one more call, that's it for them. So we could have had ice cream novelties, but it doesn't seem to be working out.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, I'm looking at the places that I'm looking online and the ones that I've used in the past don't seem to exist anymore, so. Right. Yeah. Right.
[Robert Paine]: I've used a peak event services, which used to be Peterson's party. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. That's the AK event services.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yeah.
[Robert Paine]: Okay.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: And they only had wood top tables. They said you need coverings. They don't fold or something like that. And, uh,
[Adam Hurtubise]: It was just, yeah, I know the tables, they wouldn't tables, they don't mean they don't fold means that the table itself doesn't fold but the legs do fold. Right.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: And they don't bring them on rolling cats or leave us with rolling cats and the woman I spoke with so that's a good idea and I'm like, we've always had them on. So we have to, the driver would unstack them somewhere. I know we're not probably gonna do this inside the school on a Thursday or Friday, and then we have to carry them all out. And I'm like, it's an outdoor event, we want them outside, but they don't deliver safe, unless we pay for them to set it up. But who's gonna be there at six in the morning?
[Adam Hurtubise]: But you haven't heard back from Pete though, right? That was peak. Oh, that was peak. That was peak.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah. After they took over from Peterson's, they went seriously downhill. They used to be wonderful. And then they just became so difficult to deal with.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Right. So if someone wants to be, if we want to deliver and have them set up the tables and chairs, it's an extra like for the six, seven, 50 per table and chairs. Oh, geez. And then the tables are running 13, about $13. The chair price is $3, but $15. So it adds up. And they want the thousand dollar minimum order or there's an extra charge. And the thing about them setting up at six in the morning, if the time is six to 10, they'll let us know like the day before what time, but it could be six in the morning. What if it starts raining? Well, we'll know. That's true, but they can't pick it all up until Monday. So we put it somewhere and someone would have to be at the school too. Oh, I don't even know how that would work.
[Robert Paine]: So I think we have to move on for your reporting. We'll keep in touch by email. Before we, we, we had next on the agenda, a solid waste contract. an environmental issue update. I missed last month's meeting, but maybe, is this something that has evolved since the last meeting? I forget who was, actually, was it Paul or Gaston? Maybe you know about this.
[Gaston Fiore]: Well, so Paul was going to give a presentation. But he's not here, so I'm assuming that he might want to give it next week. So in terms of evolution, I will defer to Alicia, but also Luis is here, I think, which I believe is one of the leaders in the waste task force. Yeah, but I have a few things that I would like to complete from last time, but I'm very happy to hear an update if there isn't from the city.
[Alicia Hunt]: So the solid waste task force. So there's the, we're looking, we need to get a new contract with waste management, not with waste management, we need to get a new solid waste contract for the city. So we've been doing surveying, we got a huge number of responses to the survey, well we got about 650 plus. But we are, we've decided to keep it open longer with the hopes that the people that we reach later that less about getting big numbers and more about getting people that are harder to reach. Right. So we're continuing to try and connect with places like the Oktoberfest, which are people who are It's like a different crowd than shows up at the Mystic River Festival, stuff like that, to hear from residents. We are reviewing with the consultants all the various things that can and should go into a waste contract. Medford's waste contract was made 13 years ago. Let's just say that the waste world has evolved a lot. There's a lot more things that you can put in there now around How do you pay for how do you decide how much to pay for recycling, like who gets revenue revenue share or paying extra if your waste stream is too contaminated. How is that calculated. They do recycling audits and waste audits where they'll dump out your truck and people will sort through it to see what level of contamination is there, what percentage. So there are a lot of different things. And then starting to look at, do we charge people? Do we charge people for some aspects? How do we handle businesses, large businesses, small businesses? There are a lot of businesses on Medford's waste contract. There are also some apartment buildings on the waste contract, but not most of them and some condos and not most of them. So how do we handle that and how do we handle that in a fair and equitable manner? And what are we looking for from ANU? contract. So we're sort of going through what all these options are. We're also going through with myself and Tim McGivern, who's the DPW Commissioner, things that are really on the city side, like right now, the city collects garbage cans in public spaces, and the city does event garbage and recycling. In theory, you could have your waste company do that if you wanted to put that into the contract. But that's not really like something we need the public to weigh in on. It's how do we want to allocate our DPW resources. So sort of working through a lot of those different topics. We're meeting regularly, both with the task force and with our consultants to figure out what are all our options. We've also been negotiating with waste management to extend our current contract by one year. because it actually takes a long time for a garbage waste company to be able to handle a new contract as large as the city of Medford. So the idea would actually be for us to figure this out all out over the next two months. In November, we're going to be talking about what scenarios, what we want to put out to bid specifically for an RFP. have a public meeting in November about here's some of what we've heard, this is what we are looking to do, these are some of the choices that we have to make about an RFP, have a public meeting around some of that, and then in December, the consultants will actually write the RFP, will put the RFP out for several months, probably January, February, March. It takes a lot of, they put a lot of effort. I hear that it can cost a company $50,000 to respond to one of these because of all the research and all that they have to do. We'll get proposals back in the spring, and then we'll pick a new company with the goal of having that all settled who the new company would be by the end of this fiscal year. Sorry, you guys don't think in fiscal years. by the end of, by like mid summer. And that would actually, but then have another year before the contract starts. Because if we choose a new company, they have to buy new trucks. And honestly, waste management's trucks have depreciated over the years, they'll probably need to buy new trucks if they stay with our, if we stay with them. And they'll need to hire people and there's on the order of nine months to a year lead time on these kinds of garbage trucks, so we need to give them enough time to know they have the contract to be able to become able to do the work for the city. The other piece that's in all of that is sort of figuring out what policies we want to put into place. There's a lot of state law about what you can't throw away in the trash, and that is actually evolving. In November, you're no longer going to be able to put mattresses in the trash, and you're technically not allowed to throw away textiles in the waste stream in the state of Massachusetts. And composting is moving from entities that produce a ton of food scraps, like literally a ton, and I'm not sure honestly off my head if that's a week or a month or a what, to a half ton. So smaller entities are going to be required to compost. Entities like Tufts, they may compost out of the goodness of their heart, but they also compost because it's the state law right now. So we need to look at some of that and how how that all plays into each other, and some of the new technology that's coming down the pike. Apparently, waste trucks now have cameras, and they can have an RFID truck tag in a garbage can. They can see the waste that's tipping into the truck. They can see that bad materials are in the truck. and they can issue a citation or ding that household that just that that can is from. And that's stuff that's starting to become more and more standard in the industry. So understanding that, do we actually require it in our bid? Like where do we fall in, fall out on all of these things is some of what's going on. So.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, the waste management trucks have cameras now.
[Alicia Hunt]: They do have cameras now. They're not, they don't have RFID tags in our garbage right now. I see that Gaston and Barry have their hands up.
[Gaston Fiore]: Yeah, so I was just going to say that our hope with Paul, and I believe Martha also shared some of this, is that in the next few months, then we can, this can become kind of like a main point of discussion for the committee. So Paul was going to give a presentation for this. So I have a few more thoughts in two minutes, and then I know that this might not go into this contract because of limitations in terms of timing. I do want to remind everyone that I think the contract is for between seven and 10 years. So, I don't know whether you can revisit it as time goes on, but so very quickly. So yeah, so I think the city should declare a zero waste goal to be achieved sometime in the future. And then establish a timeline working backwards to the day that Medford achieved the zero waste goal. So these are all going for discussion that I hope that in the future we can retake. So restarted zero waste assessment of Medford public schools. And I was happy to know that that was a vicious project before the pandemic and it's restarting. So it would be great to see how that goes, offer free pay-through taxes, curbside food scrap collections or composting service, set yearly limits. So this is something that you have just mentioned, Alicia, that goes in that direction. So set yearly limits on waste produced, adjusted by population changes that decrease over time. So have a contract with the trash company based on weight, so Medford pays less if on gold, and a fine if over, use money saved if on gold to fund free pay-through taxes, composting service, so we can get the funding through there to sort of to subsidize composting. Launch a massive educational campaign on placing correct items in recycling and food scrap bins. For example, all fruits at the supermarket come with stickers that aren't compostable. Anyone that is composting should get the stickers out. I hope everyone does it. The banana, for example, the bunch of bananas come with a nylon kind of wrap at the top. That needs to be taken fully out. It should not go into the compost bin. Launch a massive educational campaign on using less chemicals throughout the household. and unknown bodies like back repellent. So how do we get rid of, for example, promethane and things like that? I'm not clear. And then I think we should become a leader in extended producer responsibility legislation. So obviously this exceeds the local level. We should require food distances to use reusable plates, utensils, glasses, napkins for increased dining, requiring compostable materials and everything taken out or delivered. And then advocate at the state level to tax single-use plastic products to make them more expensive than reusable compostable alternatives with revenue from tax going entirely back to state residents to erase the increased cost that might ensue as a result. And I think Medford should take the leadership and recruit our Massachusetts town to join in the effort.
[Adam Hurtubise]: So those are ideas I hope we can discuss in the future.
[Robert Paine]: I think Marika.
[Barry Ingber]: Yeah, um, I mean, I think it's fine to, to sanction people who don't follow the rules around recycling and composting. I'm, I get a little concerned because people dump stuff into my trash thing all the time. And I get annoyed by it, but there isn't really much. I mean, I could move it to the back of my house where people can't get to it, but where it's easier, harder for me to get it out to the street. I just, yeah, I just don't know how that works. I mean, if there's wrong stuff in your trash, it doesn't mean that you put it there. So.
[Alicia Hunt]: Yeah, and I think that the big Pete push is really on the recycling side. So, the waste bands are really being forced at the state level and they're being forced on the carriers right so like if a garbage truck shows up with with mattresses in it. It's, you can't say that those guys who load, they were loading it on the truck right like they need to not be picking it up. On the other hand, like, so there's a bag of textiles in your trash, like, I don't think people are really going after that at this level at this point. On the other side, it's the education about the recycling. There is a whole program that the state, so Mary at DPW and I learned about it pre-pandemic around education for recycling, and they found that it dramatically reduced contamination in the recycling stream. If you had somebody who went around and looked in garbage cans, looked in the recycling bins, and said, that's not recyclable, and then left a love note on the can saying, this is what's not recyclable and waste management don't pick it up. And then you had to take that stuff out of your can before waste management would empty your toter. I've had that problem.
[Barry Ingber]: I've had bags of garbage thrown into my recycling too that weren't mine.
[Alicia Hunt]: That's problematical, right, it is problematic. And how do we, how do we address stuff like that it might be like it is helpful for us to be aware of one and where it's problems. My impression, what I've heard is that so Malden shifted to a pay to throw. So everything that they throw away, they have to pay for the garbage bags. And so those people are motivated to, on their way to work, drop their garbage in somebody's garbage can in Medford.
[Gaston Fiore]: Yeah, and then I think, I think we go to zero waste, it will be the same with, so the problem that we have with compost, with the recycling in terms of contamination, it will happen in the compost bin as well. Um, even, um, I get a lot of emails, uh, from Black Earth Compost in terms of like even packaging that now starts becoming sort of ASDM, I think 6,400 compostable. It's not really accepted, um, because it's not enough. So I felt like, yeah, that's a huge problem that I think requires a lot of troubleshooting. Yeah.
[Alicia Hunt]: Right. And so one of the things with the cameras is that they don't need to pay a person to come around and look in your can. they can actually leave a message for you, contact the owner, because the truck figured out that stuff was dumped that shouldn't have been. That's some of what we're learning about on the committee. So we actually have gotten, waste management came and told us about some of these new technologies they have. We asked them for recommendations for the city, and that came out loud and strong from them. Some of this education is what they would really like to see.
[Gaston Fiore]: So Alicia, is there, so you mentioned Malden, switch towards the paying for waste. Have they done this for long enough to have data on whether, for example, contamination of recycling bins has increased since they did? And is it possible that if not them, some other communities that have similar approaches for us to get some data, you know, have they noticed, do they have data on contamination having increased in recycling, for example? or, you know, even in compost inside Cambridge has a corpse cycle or San Francisco has been doing this in somewhere in the 90s.
[Alicia Hunt]: So I have to tell you that Madeline, one of our grad students, has actually interviewed people from some of these other communities and talked with them about what's working and not working. And I don't actually have in my head, I think I have notes from her somewhere, that talk about what she's learned from different communities. But I couldn't tell you off the top of my head without looking it all up again.
[Gaston Fiore]: Yeah, so given the timeline, my last comment is that if we could So, you know, you work on this contract that is, has to be decided very quickly. But if at the same time, there could be some room to sort of like modify it within the seven to 10 year period. And so we can keep discussing some of these ideas and see, you know, how can we all together sort of, you know, move in the right direction. That would be great. I don't know what kind of flexibility you can get, but that would be something we can get some, that would be awesome.
[Alicia Hunt]: So that is something that the consultants have asked at the very beginning of their list of things for the contract. They said that it would be excellent for Medford to include a solid waste goal. And in our climate plan, we do list that there's a recommendation that Medford should adopt a zero waste goal. And so it's not adopted, it's a recommendation to adopt it. And they thought that putting in the RFP that Medford's climate plan recommends that the city go to zero waste would probably be enough of a signal to the companies that that's a direction we want to go. And the other thing that we were going to discuss with the committee is the idea of having a clause in the contract that allows for innovation. So if there's innovation and new things, there should be a mechanism to be able to allow those to occur. Honestly, when this contract started 13 years ago, herbicide composting wasn't really a great idea. It wasn't flushed out in this area. There weren't companies willing to do it and able to do it. People hadn't quite, they were just starting to pilot it in a couple, so around 2015, a couple of Massachusetts communities started piloting it. And so now, it makes sense. There are companies that could do it, they could pick up from everybody in the city. But 13 years ago that wasn't the case. So we just say like what could be in seven years, we can't even think of what those things should be so there should be some clause in the contract that allows for innovation and allows for us to reduce. the amount of waste. So I will tell you that our contracts have been structured so that we pay a flat rate per household per container for picking up trash, and then we pay a weight per pound for reducing trash, per pound for disposing of the trash and disposing of the recycling. And what that means is the company can be incentivized to help us reduce trash, reduced by the weight, because they still will take in enough income. So the amount for the pickups pays for the drivers and the trucks. And so if we reduce our say we cut our tonnage in half, that doesn't cut their money in half and all of a sudden they can't afford to pay their drivers. There's still an amount per pickup we're paying so they can still pay the drivers and the trucks, but the amount that they pay to dispose of the trash, that's where we're saving money. And they're saving money because they're not paying to dispose of it anymore. So while it might seem a little counterintuitive, it actually makes sense because then they become our partner in reducing the weight and they don't see it as like lost revenue and now we're going to have to lay off people kind of thing.
[Robert Paine]: Okay, we need to move on. Can we, any other burning comments on this issue? I'd like to move to the last agenda item, which is the Okay. Any, any comments on the status and any comments on the mentor tree ordinance? There was a committee of the whole meeting. I wasn't able to go, but I looked at the video. Maybe. Those who attended or virtually or in person could summarize what happened and. And we can begin the discussion there.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: So I didn't hear the whole thing, but I heard a lot of it. And it was from my, I asked, actually emailed Nicole and she emailed you both of us back. I don't know if you saw the email and she gave us an update on it. She sent that, I think it was yesterday to both of us.
[Robert Paine]: I think so. Basically, it was my impression that there are, you know, you look at the draft document, there's a lot of comments in the margins. The legal people haven't really stepped up and done their job yet. So that's one problem. There's an issue also of the number of, calling it full-time equivalents. How many people do you need in the city to implement The ordinance. And how do you, you know, staff that how do you hire them, and that's really a limitation as well.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: So it was split up to go to different departments for their comments and review and recommendations. The DPW planning and development and maybe another one finance. I haven't even read the draft update because I've been so busy. But, you know, Barry and I had made a suggestion. So we have made some comments like maybe some of these tree companies should be required to file a permit, like other like electricians and other contractors do with the city for the work.
[Barry Ingber]: Loretta, I got that idea from you, and I thought it was brilliant, but it came from you. I know. I've given you the credit for it.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: It was in the tree report. And that's because in the past there have been, and there still are, tree companies that aren't certified arborists or arborists that come in and have done damage to properties. And the city has had to clean up and go out and fix them. There was like a landslide in the heights. a couple of years ago because some land was cleared and it made a muddy mess and fell down and blocked the street, if you remember. So, you know, this is what we talk about when we talk about remediation. You know, if there's flooding and all these things happen because of all the trees cut, you know, it's good to have arborists and certified arborists come out to explain to people the value of their trees and what will happen and whatever. So I think it's a simple thing to add. but we can just make these suggestions and hope for the best.
[Robert Paine]: There was also a, there was a vote on whether to split the ordinance into, or the, whatever ordinance they have into public, private, and tree committee, different areas.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Right. Right. Tree committee. public trees, which are going to the city and that the city takes care of those and then private trees and maybe into zoning or something. So.
[Gaston Fiore]: So Loretta, didn't you call in the email that you just mentioned, give an update related to that breakdown, because from the meeting, I was at the meeting of the city council, I think two weeks ago, and I didn't get the sense that there was an update on that breakdown. I'm not sure.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: No, just what they voted on she just gave a recap, because I didn't get all of them. There was so much going on. And some Councilors were talking residents showed up which was good to talk about the importance of trees and how they're affected. So no, she just gave a recap.
[Gaston Fiore]: So did they vote on breaking it down that way? So is that decided or that's still a proposal and kind of, we could do this?
[Barry Ingber]: Yeah, they voted to break it into three ordinances and send it to, send it to committee to work on it further.
[Gaston Fiore]: Okay, thank you. Yeah, it wasn't here from the meeting, at least I didn't go to the previous one.
[Martha Ondras]: Yeah, I think a key point here is it's going to sub this in climate and environment subcommittee for wordsmithing because it's difficult to do in the full committee and full council. And also it's going to the city department staff for an assessment of what kind of staffing would be required to surveil and enforce. The proposed regulations. That's right.
[Alicia Hunt]: Sorry.
[Robert Paine]: Go ahead, Alicia.
[Alicia Hunt]: I wasn't at the meeting, but Nicole emailed myself and Bob Dickinson, our finance director, asking about when we thought we could get responses back to them. But I thought it's just helpful to understand the process is that that's, I haven't actually received, it's not like the city clerk through any city process has reached out to us about these at all. Tim was at the meeting. I think I understand Bob came for a while. One of Tim's concerns was that he felt that he had heard that there was some, perhaps, conflicts between the ordinance proposed and the Mass General Laws, and that those needed to be reconciled before he really digs into how many staff he was going to need to manage and enforce this. I'd been under the impression that some of it was going to go through the building department and code enforcement officers. And nobody had reached out to them. And honestly, we don't have a building commissioner who could look at it. And the new building commissioner doesn't start until late October. That's, it's not like something he can give an opinion on in his first week, right? He needs to actually understand what the staff do before he can intelligently speak to taking on new work.
[Martha Ondras]: Yeah, you got the right. Yeah, Alicia, the other point was that KP Law had basically refused to look at it and asked that the department's draft because it needed too much work. So they asked that the department refine the draft and particularly answering policy questions, which are still embedded in the draft. And with the idea that the KP law would look at it after that. That was problematic for the Councilors and the department staff, because as you quoted Tim, you need to know if it's on good legal ground before you start commenting on the procedures that are outlined. but they're going ahead with it to subcommittee and hopefully with some input from the solicitor.
[Alicia Hunt]: I will also give my, I always, so often people say, we hear this from lawyers like, well, I don't know if I could defend that in court. And I come back as a, so like, right, there's the lawyers and there are the planners and the policy people. And as a policy planner, my attitude is, Well, let's see if anybody takes us to court. Let's pass the law. Let's start doing it. And then let's cross that bridge if we come to it. Maybe nobody will object and nobody will take us to court and we won't have to defend it. And maybe somebody will say, I'm taking you to court. I don't think you have the right to do this. And then we'll go back in the other room and we'll go, How much can we defend this? How much is that going to cost to defend this? Is this really, is this the sword we want to die on here, right? Do we really want to defend this? Can we alter this so that it's not so objectionable? and we change it, or we say, great, Cambridge says, sue us. And then they battle it out in court and set legal precedent. That's how legal precedent is set. Somebody makes a decision, and then somebody else doesn't like it, and then they battle it out. I Medford doesn't have as high a tolerance for going to court, as you know, Cambridge and Somerville do and that's fine we don't have the budget that they have. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't ask things and see where it comes out. On the other hand, there is something to be said for if it is in direct conflict with the state law, right? If state law says you're not allowed to idle for more than five minutes, Medford can't pass a law that says you're allowed to idle for 10 minutes. You know, like we can't do something in direct conflict. Just say, is there anything in here that's blatantly illegal that we should know better?
[Martha Ondras]: Or it's just a matter of getting the language aligned rather than changing the principle. Barry had his hand up. Yeah.
[Barry Ingber]: Yeah. I'd actually like to make a motion. I mean, I'd want to, I think almost everybody in the room here knows this, but a lot of the original impetus for this ordinance came from within this committee and the work done largely by Loretta and Luke. And there was somebody else on the committee, but I can't remember who it was. It was Curtis Tudin and Carolyn Mikkelberg. OK. That's why I can't remember, because they're both gone. And so we've been strong supporters from the beginning, from before the beginning. So I would like to make a motion, and I don't see any point in us getting into the weeds, because it's very much a work in progress, and we are not involved in drafting or revising the ordinance. That is not our work. Or not at this point, I guess it could become our work if we took it on. But it's not right now. So I would like to make a motion that we reaffirm the support of the Energy and Environment Committee for a tree ordinance in as strong a form as possible. And that includes both public and private trees.
[Robert Paine]: That's my motion. Jerry, could you type that into the chat just to make sure we know exactly what the language is? Do you know how to do that? Or I can try. No, I know how to do that. We always like to have exact language that we're voting on. We also need a second for that motion.
[Martha Ondras]: I second it.
[Robert Paine]: All sorts of seconds. All right. That's great. The motion is subject to debate and actually could be amended. So I will open the floor for, Barry is gonna type it in. Any comments on the motion or in general? And I think Gaston, you had your hand up anyway.
[Gaston Fiore]: Yeah, sorry, my hand was for something else, but not even the body had this motion. Yeah, so given how it is stated, I oppose it because I have reservations about the as strong as possible. I mean, I have a whole document that I have written. It's already kind of eight pages or six pages. I will share it. But my main concern is that people that own a house and live in it as their primary residence should pay no tax or move any place from their prior property. Notice that this is in some way or another in every ordinance that I have read from our neighbors. So if you live in the city of Boston, and then you own and live in your property as a primary residence, you basically get a waiver. If you live in Somerville, you get a waiver. If you live in Cambridge, then you pay 10%. And Cambridge notice that it has a humongous fee that they tax, that they charge. So it's $850 per inch. So I have this example that I've directly copied from their website and from Cambridge Geordian's website. I will put a link in the chat shortly. And then I will compare it with our proposed Geordian. So If you remove a 32 inch tree and plant zero replacement tree, so in Cambridge, a developer, for example, would pay $41,000 to round it up, whereas a regular resident would pay $4,080. So If we compare that with our proposed ordinance, that would be $9,600. So that's $9,600 both for developers and regular residents. Notice that in our approach, by not differentiating from MedForce approach, by not differentiating between those who own and live in their property from others, we are benefiting developers while penalizing regular residents. This is totally unfair. Moreover, a developer might be able to form it for mitigation payment and just pass it on to homebuyers when the house is resold. Yes. I'm almost done. I'm almost done. Let me finish. I have 30 more seconds. Where do we finish? Part of it is exacerbating the housing affordability crisis. So in Tempech's case, since they are paying $41,000, the fee might be so high that they might not be able to pass it on instead opting to keep whatever trees they decided to get. And then finally, PB, David Ensign — He. Him. His. PB, David Ensign — He. Him. His. So notice that the landlord, if we differentiate between people that own their property and living it from others, would have to pay the full mitigation payment, just like the developers do, which in Cambridge's case, is so high that it would actually could be high enough to lead to these types of activities. So because of the way that it says like to the highest extent possible or in whatever specific way that I wrote it, I just have to not support this, even though, as everyone knows, I do think that trees are an essential part of whatever we have to take care of for addressing the climate change crisis. But yeah, the way trees are important.
[Barry Ingber]: Again, what I said was my motion is about the general principle of affirming our support for strong tree ordinance. All of that getting into the weeds is, I explicitly said, my motion has nothing to do with it.
[Gaston Fiore]: Right, but I think the way I see it, it's that it could give the interpretation that that I am, I'm talking about myself, that I am supporting the one as written. And for example, there are many other things I just don't support about the proposals. When you don't happen to know about the permit, let's say the Oregon passes. You don't know about the permit, you get the penalty. The penalty, the example that you see in your hand, it's like almost $4,000 a day without any kind of stop. So if you read Cambridge or Summerville or Boston, then the minute you apply to the permit, then it stops. And it's also like $100, $300. We have like by DBH per day, there's an extra 500 on top of that, as I understand. So that's a detail.
[Barry Ingber]: That's a detail. Yeah, that's not what I'm saying. That is not what the emotion is about. That's a detail.
[Gaston Fiore]: Well, but they are strong as possible. makes me think that, oh, they actually would like a $5,000 a day, that it's not even had the money to apply for a permit. Yes, Stone.
[Barry Ingber]: Yes, Stone. That's like saying, well, we're not going to impose the death penalty on homeowners for cutting down a tree. I mean, that would be as strong as possible. I mean, your understanding, as strong as possible. That means within the realm of legality, of fairness, of reasonableness.
[Gaston Fiore]: Yeah, I mean, I guess obviously, but it would be like, you know, for example, testing the 5,000 direct today that a lot of people consider that, you know, legal and sort of warranties or whatever. So I don't know. That's my personal opinion. But yes, there's no right or wrong. So I do appreciate your thoughts. I have my hand up.
[Robert Paine]: Go ahead, sorry.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: I can't vote, because I'm not a member right now, but I would strongly suggest that we move forward with Barry's proposed suggestion. I just want to say briefly to Gaston and the rest of the members, a lot of the information Gaston said, if you read the tree report, specifically suggest that there will be exceptions for low income people and it's on a case by case basis.
[Gaston Fiore]: I read the audience, I didn't read the tree report. I'm talking about the proposed tree report.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: You need to read the tree report. I really strongly suggest you need to read the tree report. Can I finish Gaston? Yeah, sure. Please. It specifically says there's exceptions for a low income or case by case basis. So I just wanted to bring that up because a lot of what you said would not apply. As far as, you know, MGL and all that, the city council's responsibility in the city is to protect our public health. And that's also written in all the ordinances that they start with. It's a matter of public health to preserve the tree canopy.
[Unidentified]: That's all I can say.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Okay. Because it's a matter of public health. I'm not done. I'm not done. Okay. And the other thing is that, um, when we talk about land clearing and residents, I don't think there's a difference whether it's a hundred year old tree on a developer's property or land clearing tons. If a lot of people do it in one area and there's flooding, we pay for it and our taxes, because the city has to come out, because they call the city, the fire department, whatever, and our taxes go up and we pay those salaries. So that's why there's a difference. as far as other cities, there's plenty of other cities that are rewriting their ordinances right now. That's all I have to say.
[Gaston Fiore]: Okay, so I just want to say that I read the ordinance that was submitted to City Council and the text that City Council is basically taking at the start of the discussion. That's the text that I think is the one that to me is important because it's the one that's in the hands of the City Councilors, which are the people that are going to modify it and write it. So yeah.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: And that includes a lot of our suggestions in the jury report. So those can be written in.
[Gaston Fiore]: Right, right. But yeah, no, and I appreciate that. So again, so my emphasis is that If in this motion, and I say, like, you know, as soon as possible, and I vote yes for this, then it was, well, what's, what's what we're discussing here, they proposed meant for three ordinance. So as much as I really value the work that you and look, et cetera, have put into the, into that three, you know, work. Yes, yes. You know, that's not what, It's being discussed in the city council.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: We can work on that. And let's go back to Barry's times running out. And we did collaborate with a lot of people with that tree report. You weren't here for that time. And it went to each department for their comments. So it went to DPW, went to the tree warden. went to engineering. So they had made their comments, but you know, it's huge. And we took legal language and prepared a semi-draft for people considering to consider it in the future. But we did say the local education was primary for us before the tree ordinance, but what happens, what happens, but let's go back to Barry's. I just supported it. And I hope the rest of the committee does.
[Robert Paine]: Martha, you have your hand up.
[Martha Ondras]: Yeah, Barry just in the chat added the word general support. I move to reaffirm its general support of the tree ordinance in as strong a form as possible, and including both public and private trees. And I seconded the motion before he put in the word general, and I second it with the word general, recognizing that we all feel the ordinance could use some wordsmithing. Um, I don't want to, um, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to, you
[Robert Paine]: I wanted to say something. There have been, since the tree ordinance was drafted, several communities have, like Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, as Gaston mentioned, have enacted ordinances that do have differences from Medford's that I think are noteworthy. So I am going to actually move to amend the motion. And I put it in the chat. And it has to be seconded, but I'm saying that we do recommend enactment of a tree ordinance to protect the urban tree canopy in the city. But I think there's a significant and so significant a change that needs to be done that I say it should be revised for its current form to be more consistent with the ordinances that affect in adjacent cities in its treatment of pre-removals for current residences primary home. So that's my, and someone would have to second it for even us to vote on that.
[Alicia Hunt]: Bob, can you hit return? Cause it didn't send through the chat.
[Unidentified]: I'm sorry.
[Robert Paine]: Get rid of this thing here. Enter. Let's see if I can enter it here.
[Martha Ondras]: Are you sending it to everyone?
[Robert Paine]: Yes, I am, but I'm trying to figure out if I can send it here. Let's see. Why can't I send it? Did it get sent? Let me go back. Let me see if I can figure this out here. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Let's see. I can't enter here. Okay. There you go. Okay. I'm sorry. Sorry about that glitch. I just feel strongly that it's, there are, I think punitive elements in the current draft that need to be addressed with, a certain, and it consists with the other cities. So I do support in general, but I think there's, again, there's a significant inconsistencies with other cities that it's actually more, it's overly overreaching in my opinion. But somebody would have to second it. If no one seconds it, the motion dies. The motion to amend dies.
[Gaston Fiore]: I'll take on your motion.
[Robert Paine]: All right, if there's no other discussion on this, we could have a vote on whether the motion to amend survives. If it doesn't, then we vote on Barry's original motion. I'll entertain comments.
[Barry Ingber]: Well, I guess I get to make a comment since it's an amendment to my motion.
[Robert Paine]: Exactly.
[Barry Ingber]: There are a lot of things in the ordinance as written that I have an issue with. I have shared those with the committee. I've shared those in various venues. But what's unwavering is that I support a tree ordinance that is as strong as we can reasonably make it, and that covers both private and public trees. And what I So I object to the amendment because it starts getting into what needs to be fixed in the ordinance. And there's a lot of things that need to be fixed in the ordinance. And I don't think that this is the place to start talking about them. I just want our committee to affirm that we support a tree ordinance and that it needs to cover all trees. That's what I'm caring about. It's really simple.
[Robert Paine]: Okay, Martha, you have a comment?
[Martha Ondras]: Yeah, also Sue Brown has her hand up just for your information. I feel the amendment is vague. It says we're supposed to align with other cities. Now I've read those other cities and some of them are different from each other. So I'm not sure which ones we're aligning with. And as very, you know, along the lines of what Eric said, I think we're getting into, not the weeds, but the bushes anyway, you know, into something that is not going to get worked out in this meeting. And we should endorse a general support of a strong tree ordinance that addresses private and public. I mean, at the end of the day, the city is going to tell us they don't have the money to enforce this and it's going to get cut back.
[Robert Paine]: I can always withdraw my amendment, but I'll listen to other people. Okay. Loretta and then Sue.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Okay. So as a comment, as a private person, I'm not in the community anymore. I don't agree with your amendment because in the tree report, when we analyzed all the other tree ordinances, what came down to it and then doing it now is those cities, Cambridge, Newton, specifically those two, and now a whole bunch of others are rewriting to actually add moratoriums and private trees. And so I don't agree with that amendment because those ordinances were not working because people can just pay to cut down all the trees and developers were doing that. So that's not a good thing.
[Gaston Fiore]: Bob's amendment is not for developers. That's not applied to developers. Developers would not be exempt from anything. They would pay the full price. Yep. Same with landlords. Only people owning their house and living there will be exempt in some way.
[Robert Paine]: Sue, do you have a comment?
[Sue Brown]: Yes, I do. Thank you, Bob. I'm Sue Brown, and I'm a member of Trees Medford, and we as a group wrote the draft of that ordinance that was submitted to the councilors. First of all, I want to thank Barry for your suggestion for a general support of an ordinance in this city. And I also want to thank Loretta and the folks who worked on the tree plan, the tree report. That was a fundamental resource in drafting the ordinance. I wanna say otherwise, I'm pretty disappointed in this conversation. Folks, I can tell you, we did a lot of research and outreach to the citizens and to this committee as we drafted the ordinance, number one. Two, rest assured that we basically cut and pasted content from other cities ordinances into the ordinance that we drafted. Third, we submitted a really aggressive ordinance knowing that there would be some discussion in the city council to make some amendments to it. Fourth, we have a city council right now that's very amenable to protecting trees and the tree canopy, that we are not united in thinking about pushing this through and in dialogue with the lawyers, with our city departments, with our Councilors, improving it is just befuddling to me. And fifth and finally, if you read the ordinance, you would see that there was specifically for folks on private property who might not be able to maintain the burden of the tree, maintaining the trees on their property, a fund that people could apply to to get help. So I would just ask you, number one, to support Barry's amendment for a general support and be in dialogue with your partners at Trees Medford and with your partners across the city that are interested in environmental issues. Thank you.
[Robert Paine]: Thank you, sir. I will withdraw my motion for amendment then. And if there's no other comments, we could vote on Barry's motion. Okay. Let's see, I guess I'm first and last. I will vote yes with my comment that yes, I think there needs to be some revisions, but I do support a strong tree ordinance. So I'll say yes. Gaston?
[Gaston Fiore]: No, because of the reasons I've explained.
[Robert Paine]: Okay, let's see. Barry, of course you'll say yes, right? All right, Loretta, you can't vote. Let's see, John?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Robert Paine]: Martha?
[Martha Ondras]: Yes.
[Robert Paine]: I think Jessica had to leave. And Benji? Yes. Okay. The, the motion is unanimously. Oh, no, I'm sorry. There was one no vote, but it carries. The majority voted. Yes. For the, do we have a quorum still? Oh, let's see. Maybe it doesn't matter, but let's see, we have one, two, three, four. We do have a quorum, yes.
[Barry Ingber]: Can I ask a question, Gaston? Do you own property that you're planning to cut trees down on? Sorry? You own property on which you are planning to cut down trees?
[Gaston Fiore]: Probably, yes.
[Barry Ingber]: In that case, you have a financial interest in the outcome of this discussion. And I think you should be recusing yourself from this discussion.
[Gaston Fiore]: No, no, no. I'm sorry. So how does that? What? Why?
[Barry Ingber]: It's an ethics issue. No, it's not an ethics issue at all. It is. No, it's not. As a member of a government body, when you have a personal financial interest stake in the outcome of this question, you should recuse yourself.
[Gaston Fiore]: No, I'm not going to recuse myself. What's my financial interest? I'm sorry.
[Barry Ingber]: You just said that you were probably wanting to cut down trees on your property. You are affected by whether this ordinance covers trees on your property in a financial way.
[Gaston Fiore]: That's not true because it would like, first of all, I haven't decided anything. Second of all, I might decide if, you know, in the future, there's no exemption for people that own their property and living it and the primary residence. So I don't understand where it's any conflict with that.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I have to say that I generally support the law, but I don't like the idea of being punitive to people who can't afford. That's too glorified. That's exactly how I feel too. I mean, you know. Yeah, of course. But I support the law, you know, the ordinance.
[Gaston Fiore]: Sorry, John, keep going.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I was just gonna say, and I'm accompanied by Sue Brown's comments that there's a fund for people who, because, you know, cutting down trees is really expensive.
[Gaston Fiore]: That's what I'm saying. And I don't own property that I rent or anything like that. But if people keep pushing for something that, you know, it is going to require me in the future to basically pay a humongous tax without getting an exemption, then I might very well consider to do so. And I don't understand where the conflict of interest in anything like that. In fact, I thought that that's the reason why people want to push a moratorium. So then, you know, people, whenever there's regulation coming in, people don't hire to do something like that. So no, I don't own the property I rent. I'm not a developer. So none of that applies to me. I just own a house that I live in. That's my primary residence.
[Robert Paine]: That's it. Okay. I think we don't have to continue further. We have passed the motion and I think we've exhausted our time. And thank you for, this has been a spirited discussion for sure. and I'm sure there'll be more development of the ordinance and we will have to actively follow it and hopefully it will be, if anything, it will be improved.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Bob, did that motion pass?
[Robert Paine]: The motion we just voted on, yes, it passed.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Okay, I just wanted to make sure. Okay.
[Robert Paine]: That exhausts the agenda. Is there any other thing that I've forgotten that's of pressing nature? If not, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. Move to adjourn. A second? Second. Does anyone object? Hearing none, I will declare the meeting ended. Thank you. And we'll see you at the Harvester Energy Festival.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Right. Take care.
[Robert Paine]: Bye, everyone.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Bye.
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