[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Okay, let's start with my other co-chair, Dan Papa, are you there?
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: Yes, I'm here, but I'm on my phone, so not too present.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Is Will Sherwood here?
[Brenda Pike]: No, he's out of town tonight.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Okay, Lois?
[Lois Grossman]: I'm here.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Okay. Benji? Berry?
[Barry Ingber]: Yep. Presente.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Loretta?
[Lois Grossman]: Yes.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Kathleen? Luke, I see you.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: Yes, present.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Martha? Bob? Yep. Hi, Bob. Jessica? John? Paul? Paul here? No. Oh, and now I see you. You're there as well, Benji. Okay. And we have Jill Feldman with us. Would you like to say hello? Introduce yourself?
[MCM00001758_SPEAKER_12]: Hello. I'm here on behalf of the new Medford Mothers Out Front chapter. I'm just keeping on top of what's going on and I'll report back to them on what I'm learning.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Thank you. Thank you for joining us. I see that Martha just joined. All right, why don't we get started? Okay. We're going to review the meeting minutes from January 8th. We did not meet last month in February. Is that right? Sorry, February 5th.
[Brenda Pike]: That was a typo in the agenda.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Oh, okay. February 5th. Has everybody had a chance to review the minutes? Do you have any comments? All right.
[Robert Paine]: I'll move to accept the minutes as presented.
[Unidentified]: I'll second that. I'll second that.
[Brenda Pike]: So moved. And then we'll go down the list for the vote. OK.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Sorry, I'm having trouble finding the list.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Would you like some help?
[Robert Paine]: The agenda has the list, if you have the agenda available.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: I have the agenda open. You mean the list of priorities?
[Robert Paine]: Yeah, if you look at the committee members, you have the list. It's on the first page.
[Brenda Pike]: It's close to the top, right under where it says the Zoom meeting connection. Oh, that list.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Participants?
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Yes, I think I got through all the names, didn't I? Oh, but this is for the vote to accept.
[Robert Paine]: Oh, you got to do it all over again.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Oh, OK. OK. Lois.
[Lois Grossman]: This is to vote in favor of the minutes, right? Right. Of accepting. I accept the minutes.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: OK, Benji. Benji, can you hear us? Oh, you're muted.
[Unidentified]: I accept. All right.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Barry?
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Loretta? Yes. Kathleen? Kathleen's not here. Luke?
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: Yes, I accept.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Martha? Yes. Dan?
[Robert Paine]: Yes.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Bob?
[Robert Paine]: Yes.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Jessica? John? John's not here. Will? Oh, Will's not here. And Paul's not here. I accept the minutes. That's everyone. Okay. All right, what's next? She helped me out with the next step.
[Brenda Pike]: Oh, the next one just as administrative updates from municipal staff. I don't have any updates. I think you talked about the hiring that went on across some of the city offices last time. As a note to the agenda for tonight, though, the student who asked about invasive plants for the Girl Scout project that she's working on, she won't be coming to today's meeting. She'll reach back out later. She submits her project proposal at early March and will finish the project by the end of the summer. So we'll hear from her later on.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Did she mention what she wanted from the committee?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yes.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, Loretta, did you speak to her more?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yes, I did. Brenda forwarded me. That's actually, I was going to bring it up. I'm looking at my notes. She's working on a potential project about invasive plants, and she asked some questions. And that was for what it's all Brenda said, yes, I could answer her cause we didn't know if she would actually show up at this tonight's meeting. So I sent her some beginning things to think about and she asked specific questions. Um, so I gave her quite a bit of information, um, about, you know, invasive plants. I gave her one to start with the information about it, what our committee does and how we could assist her with handouts and, um, information. for her project if it gets approved, which I didn't know until actually she wrote me yesterday. But I saw it just before the meeting. So she also asked about if she does a project on invasive plants, how could that be? What would be included in the curriculum as a potential idea? So I gave her some ideas and we could think about that more. But she wrote back that she has to present her idea as a project to the Medford Girl Scout, I guess, committee leader, and she'll reach out if it's approved. So she thanked for the information. And as you all know, we have a lot of information from previous events, handouts and posters on invasive plants. And also, you know, for their curriculum, they could always do, if they wanted to, a walk, organize a walk to identify invasive species in and around Medford and maybe collect them. And there's a lot of ideas, so. She'll get back to us if her project's approved.
[Barry Ingber]: And was she looking for specifically invasive plants or invasive species more generally? She didn't, she said invasive plants.
[Brenda Pike]: It was plants, yeah.
[Barry Ingber]: Okay, I mean, because there's invasive insects, there's invasive all kinds of things. Right, right.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Is that what you're asking, Sarah?
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Yes. Thank you. Brenda, would you like to share your updates?
[Brenda Pike]: Yes, I think I have quite a lot of them tonight, actually. So for Electrify Medford, a press release about the grant went out towards the end of February. We're still waiting to get the contract signed with Mass EEC. And we still need to get more information up on the website, make flyers, and prepare those materials and stuff. But that's where we are right now. So far, 21 people have signed up to be energy coaches, which I think is wonderful. We're interviewing each one of them to better match them up with interested residents. And then we'll let folks know if they're eligible for stipends and schedule our first training session in about two weeks. I'm still going through the internal process to hire the heat pump consultant who's going to be doing training and going to be working with residents who are interested in switching to heat pumps. But some good news, MassAve actually now offers heat pump consultations for free with the consultant that we were looking to hire. That's going to save us some money. That's great. They're not doing right now the quote comparison tool and the energy coach training, which were the other aspects of the contract with a consultant. So we'll still need to be paying for that right now. But MassSave is actually looking into offering both of those as well. They're just not quite on the same timeline that we are. Um, we're still working on the internal process for the resident incentives. Um, so more to come for that probably, um, and towards the end of March. Um, and we're looking probably at a soft launch towards the end of March and then a real public kickoff in April. Um, any questions about Electrify Medford?
[Martha Ondras]: I want to say congratulations on the grant. It's great. It's really exciting. It's a challenge to bring that kind of clean energy to low and middle income. households, particularly in the single family situation. I'm really proud of Medford for taking that on and look forward to seeing what happens.
[Brenda Pike]: I think this coach model is going to be really helpful in reaching different populations than maybe we would have with more general outreach. Yeah. Moving on to curbside composting. The press release for this went out at the end of January. People can sign up for it at medfordcomposts.com and I'll drop this in the chat too in case people hear. are still looking to sign up so yes, some people can sign up now to be put on a wait list for the free composting service July 1. Or you can sign up now to pay you know them a monthly fee just to start immediately and then it'll automatically switch over on July 1. And we're working on doing some really intense outreach around that as well. And we don't have quite that designed, I think, what that's going to look like. But we actually had a marketing professor from Northeastern reach out to us asking if we would like assistance with anything. And so one of the things that I think Galicia is going to be working with him on is the composting program and getting the word out about that. And then I'm also going to be talking with him about helping out with Electrify Medford as well. Oh, Bob.
[Robert Paine]: I was going to ask you if there's any events around Earth Day in this year?
[Brenda Pike]: Events around Earth Day. So we are planning to do a kickoff around for the Electrifying Medford program, but we don't have that pinned down yet. It'll probably be the The 24th or the 25th of April, which is the week of Earth Day. But we don't have that pinned down yet, so nothing really to announce there. There's going to be a cleanup event the Saturday after that, which is the 27th. the Medford Community Cleanup. I think that a sign up form just went out about that for people who either just want to sign up to volunteer at some sites that have already been identified or who want to manage a team at a site that they suggest. Then there's also going to be The ultimate Frisbee team, the Boston Glory, is doing a green fest as part of their home opener on April 26th at Hornbill Stadium. So we are sort of partnering with them on that. It doesn't sound like it's going to be huge, but there will be music, there's going to be a food and clothing drive, there's going to be recycling information. Our office will be tabling there. I think Kathleen had volunteered to help out with that as well. Bob volunteered to do some wind turbine tours before the game. Thank you for that. And Alicia is actually going to be throwing out the first Frisbee. So she's practicing for that. She's very nervous about it. And they're going to be sharing sustainable tips that we give them over the loudspeaker at different points during the game. So it sounds like it'll be fun. OK. And let me drop, again, let me drop into the chat the link for that as well.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Brenda, do you know what time? I know what time it starts, but I don't know if they're going to do it during the day or have the energy fest during the game, which is at six. Do you know?
[Brenda Pike]: I think it's during the game, yeah. Bob's going to be doing the wind turbine tours ahead of time at six o'clock. So I think the idea with the energy fest is like, as people are coming into the game, they can stop at the tables and stuff like that. And, uh, I think the, the tours are probably going to be more for the, uh, the team members who are really excited about it.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Okay.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: And I don't know if you, I missed it, if you mentioned it, but there's going to be the just hummus food truck there, apparently. Right. Nice too. Yes.
[Brenda Pike]: Um, moving on, um, for the, um, electric aggregation program, our supply contract for that expires at the end of the year. Um, we're probably going to go out to bid for that this spring in the April-May time frame. Um, and I think this time around, we're probably going to increase the renewable energy content. Many communities right now are at 10%, we're at five of additional renewable content. Some of those actually at 20% for their default service that everyone is automatically opted into. So obviously we need to balance cost and the renewable content, but I think our goal this time around is to be at least at 10% additional content.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: May I ask just on that front, so we were able to benefit from aggregation locked in pricing when national grids utility rates spiked. And we knew it in advance, which was great. So I just wanted to know, when roughly do we get a sense of what the likely option rates are? How far in advance would we start to know that? Do you know?
[Brenda Pike]: I don't remember exactly when. I know that we won't know what the fall-winter switch will be when we go out to bid this spring. We're doing that a little bit blind, so we'll be locking in those prices in the spring, but obviously, we'll keep an eye on it. As we get closer to it, the prices are significantly lower than what we're doing, then we'll rethink this. It seems unlikely, they usually go up in the winter.
[Unidentified]: Right.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: Okay. Quick question on the renewable portion of that as well. The 5 or 10 percent, are there any restrictions on what kind of resource that needs to come from or where those resources need to be located? Do they need to be within Massachusetts? I'm interested in a little more information on that if you have it.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, so they need to be MAS class 1 RECs, which doesn't limit it to Massachusetts. I think it limits it to the ISO New England area. But they're class 1 RECs. They're non-emitting renewable content. And I can share more information about that if you are interested.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: No, that's okay. Thanks. I was just wondering if we had any sort of restrictions or anything sort of above and beyond what is mandated for like a retail entity here, but that answers it. Thanks.
[Brenda Pike]: So moving on, we had a we held a specialized code training on the so on the stretch and specialized codes actually for building inspectors at the library on February 22. I would did more than 40 people came from municipalities all around. This is the first real in person training that has been held on this in the area. I intended it to be for Medford, but we had so many inspectors asking for it that we just opened it up to everyone, and it was great. There was a lot of conversation, and I think it made people a lot more comfortable with the material. This one was focused on the residential code, so we'll be doing one on the commercial code for building inspectors next. And then we'll hold some more open ones for building owners, developers, contractors, anyone who's interested. Those aren't scheduled yet, but soon to come.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: May I just ask on that front, were you present for that? Yes. And what did you think the inspector feeling was? How were they feeling about all this? Were they okay? Are they scared? Are they upset?
[Brenda Pike]: There's a lot of concern and there's a lot of misinformation. So I think this meeting was this in person get together is really important so folks can ask questions and express these concerns in a kind of a safer space with other inspectors. there was a lot of concern, for instance, about the specialized code and existing buildings, which the specialized code doesn't apply to existing buildings. That's the stretch code. And so there was a lot of kind of misunderstanding about what applies to what.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: May I also just ask who was leading the training?
[Brenda Pike]: It's PDS Consulting, it's the consultants that MathSave hires to do this.
[Martha Ondras]: Great. Brenda, can I ask what the timetable is? Is Medford adopting the more aggressive code or do we know yet?
[Brenda Pike]: Yes, so Medford has adopted the specialized code and that takes effect July 1st. But actually, I would say that the bigger changes are between the previous stretch code and the updated stretch code. Yeah, I would say mostly specialized code applies to larger multifamily buildings and things like that. I would say the stretch code is more for smaller buildings as well.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Brenda, was this recorded?
[Brenda Pike]: No, it wasn't. Although, PDS does have recordings of their webinars online. Anybody could go online and watch their webinars anytime.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Okay.
[Brenda Pike]: They have online webinars that they do, that they have recorded and have available online, which is the same material.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: All right. I'll write to you separately. I'd like to get a link or how I find that. I think Luke and few other members might be interested.
[Brenda Pike]: Um, let's see, moving on. Oh, so the Climate Equity Council had a meeting on February 26 last Monday, and Bob came to talk about the Energy and Environment Committee and how it works. A couple of things from that meeting that I think folks here might be interested in. Thanks to a suggestion by the Climate Equity Council, we added a translation widget to the Go Green Medford website. The official city site has had one for a long time, but I think we didn't think to do it for the Go Green Medford one before. I think it was great that they pointed that out and we can get that on there relatively quickly. And then one of the things that we talked about with them was some stormwater improvements that were being planned for South Medford. We got a grant for the design of the project, and now we're applying for a grant for the construction of it. And the Climate Equity Council will be writing a letter of support for the grant because it's in an environmental justice neighborhood, and they recognize that that's one of the priority areas where we want to mitigate flooding. And they'll also be helping us with outreach to neighbors in that area to educate them about the need for things like permeable surfaces, for rain barrels, things like that. Because that neighborhood is so dense, there's not much room for green infrastructure, except in people's yards or driveways. So while we're doing the gray infrastructure work of like increasing the size of the drains, we also want to be working with the people in the neighborhood to try to increase the green infrastructure there too. And then I think one last thing that I wanted to mention here on the policy side of things. So sort of a general timetable for the policy season in the State House this year. So February, March is when a lot of the energy bills that we're looking at would be moving to the Ways and Means Committee. March and April is when the House will be voting on a climate bill. April, May is when the Senate will probably be voting on a climate bill. And then in May through July, they'd be working on a compromise bill together. So just something to keep in mind as you're getting information about all of the policy that folks are advocating for. That's what the timeline is. And then for a couple of things that I think we've talked about before, the municipal reforestation bill, that was reported favorably out by the House and the Senate Telecommunications Committee. Telecommunications Utilities and Energy, I think it is. I actually don't yet know if it's going to the Ways and Means Committee or next or if it's going to Reconciliation Committee, but it did get reported out favorably out of both of those. And then the Future of Clean Heat Bill, that was reported favorably by the Senate. And the House has an extension until April 7. So that's one where folks are interested in supporting that one, that writing letters of support to the House would be a useful thing to do at this point. I think that might be it for my updates. Anybody have any questions on anything?
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: I didn't quite catch all of those dates regarding zoning, but if that's something that can be sent around or whatever, that would be great.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, and that's not for zoning, that's just for bills that are moving through the State House. Yeah, I can definitely send those around too.
[MCM00001758_SPEAKER_12]: And I just want to make a suggestion that in addition to you know writing to the one's representatives to encourage him to support those bills. It's also a good idea to write us thank you to those senators to where the and with the word for it to who supported the bill before it was passed let them know we appreciate that.
[Brenda Pike]: that's a good point. Okay, I think that's it for my updates then.
[Martha Ondras]: Brenda, I have a question. Maybe this is an appropriate place to ask it. Is there any action on cleaning up the alewife brook where it flows into the mystic in Medford? I know that there was some renewed interest in eliminating the CSOs and SSOs. in the area, but I don't know if there's anything that the city's involved in.
[Brenda Pike]: There's nothing that I'm involved in, but that doesn't mean that the city isn't involved in it. So I can follow up and get back to you about it.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Thank you.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Shall we move on to the Trees Medford updates?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Brenda, are you done with your updates? Yes. Before I get into that, I just wanted to mention some other events. April 26th is National Arbor Day. So the city always has events on that day. That's why I didn't sign up, Brenda, for the Boston Glory thing, because I'm conflicted of where I'm going to be, if I'm available. But I just wanted you to know that. I probably will help with that. But anyways. April 26th is National Arbor Day in Medford. We're a tree city, so we always have an annual proclamation and some events around that. Aggie Tootin, our tree warden, usually has one or more tree companies volunteer their time to trim some trees. They may plant some trees. I don't have the specifics yet, because it's a little bit out in time. But the mayor usually will show up at a designated place. And the public's invited, and they read a proclamation for the Abbott Day Tree City that we are. In the past, Trees MadFit has also been there to have maybe free tree seedlings. And sometimes the Girl Scouts are there. So I don't know what time. It's usually in the afternoon. So I just wanted to make everyone aware of that. That's Friday, April 26. What else did I have? There was something else that I didn't show you. Oh yeah, and Saturday, during the Citywide Cleanup, Trees Benford will also be at the library on Saturday, April 27th, to give out free tree seedlings. I don't know the time yet, so we have plenty of time to find out. But I just wanted to, if you have a calendar and it's getting filled up, because it's Earth Week and we have lots going on, I wanted to mention that first. So moving on to the draft treaty ordinances by Trees Met, and pardon me while I look down at all my notes. Can everyone hear me okay?
[Barry Ingber]: Yep.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Okay, good. They were almost done with the draft. There's three tree ordinances, public trees, the tree committee, and private trees. And the private tree ordinance was the hardest. They decided to have a meeting with some city councilors for suggestions. on the draft before they finish it, and for maybe, you know, clarification if there was some areas that weren't clear. So that meeting took place a few weeks ago, and they will be updating the drafts based on some suggestions that were made. So let me just read my notes here. And the updates will be to make certain sections clearer before submitting the drafts to the clerk, Councilor Collins and Councilor Justin Tseng. And I think it's City Councilor Bears. City Councilor Callahan, they will try to meet with her for any suggestions. before they submit the ordinances for their review. So, I don't have a date yet, they'll let us know. And that will go to the committee of the whole, they're hoping sometime, oh, this is March already, but time is moving along, and have the city council will have their What would you call it? Well, it's not the law department, they're a consulting legal group, KP Law Review for their suggestions too. Let's see, the suggestions were made in the private ordinance. to define more the mitigation fee schedule to make the process clearer in calculation of fees, because it was a little unclear. So they want to make, have a tree staff and make that more easily understandable. And also add examples of fees per inch, you know, actual examples. Who determines the fee schedule? What's another question? For trees in the private, ordinance. And they want them to define the cumulative tree, aggregate tree measurements of trees that are three to seven inches, decimal, uh, DBH diameter, grass height, because that was a little muddy, they thought. And so they could define it more. They also would like them to add back pruning because that wasn't in there, which we'll get back to that in a minute. And also the tree canopy goal was stated, it was the goal, 40 to 60% to reach that, because we're only at 29. And they thought that that should be removed, the percentage numbers, because where are those numbers coming from? They also congratulated them on their work, and they're happy with the changes. They were really impressed with the work that was done in defining, you know, the tree ordinance, the three different ones. So that's where that stands. Some of it, you know, Bob's worked on it, Lois has worked on it, Latrice and myself. You know, it's in their hands now. I don't particularly agree with removing the tree canopy goal. Maybe they'll keep that in the introduction letter. Because I think that's important for future grants. not increase, but they might, is with the tree committee. We were suggesting, Bob and myself, that they make the tree committee proposal larger in member numbers so they could achieve more. But I think they're keeping that at 10 with two students. So I'd like, I still like to see that more. I did mention that to them a few times, but you know, that's their project to submit. So maybe they have specific people in mind. I'm not sure, but I think it would help if they went up to 12 or at least allow for 12 or more members. Let's see. Any questions on that?
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: I would agree with you on the canopy coverage. I mean, I expect that's something that could be clearly defined on specific dates. Satellite imagery is looked at and, you know, quantified or something along those lines.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yeah. I've mentioned it, Luke, many times.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, I hear you.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: It's super important. You know, you can't control without the people do their own committee. But I totally agree with that. It is 40 percent in most of the country, but they're changing it also as. Planet Geo had suggested in the Tree Seminar last year about ordinances across the country. Things are changing really fast with the wording of ordinances that are coming about, and they're suggesting 60 percent. There are some that are coming out that are 60 percent goal. I mean, think about 40 percent goal, that's going to lose a lot of canopy if you're like, oh, it's 40. you know, hopefully they'll keep in the introduction letter to this project that they will be submitting to the city council that it still stays that, that they will stay, that's a 29% midfield now, which is below the standard. And the other thing to that is the reforestation bill that's being proposed is above 40% that they're recommending throughout the state to certain cities.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: So Martha's got her hand up.
[Martha Ondras]: Yeah. Loretta, I think this is a good point that the goal should be codified somewhere. Is there a goal in our climate action plan for tree canopy? Because that would be a place I'd expect to find it. Again, if you want to point, if you want to go after grants and say Medford has a a goal, you know, Medford's working on it. That would be one place to put it. I mean, it can always be in the whereas preface to the actual ordinance. And another place, another opportunity is that zoning is going to be rewritten in Medford. hopefully this year, and that's a place I think we should speak up about injecting some tree protection and tree encouragement, increase in the tree canopy.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: I totally agree with you. I can't remember the climate action plan which we all had public meetings on and participated in because it's just been a lot of data. Maybe someone in the office can look it up.
[Brenda Pike]: I'm glancing through it right now trying to find it.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, that's a big document. But there is a section on environmental and trees. But I would suggest, It would be really good if Martha and Bob and maybe Luke, write to Tresmith and write to Amanda, write to Sarah, Gerald, and also make that recommendation. As you stated, Luke, and as Martha stated, I think it's a very strong point to keep that in the ordinance or at the least in the letter.
[Brenda Pike]: I know that Aggie is working with some consultants to develop an urban forest master plan. Right. Maybe that's something that could come, that goal could come out of that plan with the help of the consultants.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Right. But we had the bigger master plan that was done before you started with the city. What was the name of that? report, do you remember?
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: I can't hear you, Martha.
[Martha Ondras]: Sorry. It's the Climate Resilience Plan. I don't know the, don't recall the official name of it, but it's what the Climate Equity Committee is working on.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: Not the climate action adaption plan.
[Martha Ondras]: Action adaption plan and the tree canopy study may be an outcome or subset of that because the plan is necessarily broad and then there are pieces of work that come out of that where. Right.
[Brenda Pike]: sure, yeah, I'm looking in the climate action plan right now, one of the actions and in the, you know, the tree section is the tree inventory, which I know is being, you know, worked on or finalized, right. And then the next step in that is taking that inventory and then building out that the urban tree can have the urban forest master plan. And so I think that's the part that will really get into those numbers.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Right. Right. You know, we have a citywide goal, but the plant, this is another subject, the group that is doing their to the city council. The tree equity plan is only for the city trees. It's not for the whole city. It's just for the city trees. So, again, I'll just reiterate, it's important to have those total canopy goals presented to the city council. I'm sure Theresa will let us know when it's done and send it to us.
[Robert Paine]: This Bob, I, I took, I was at the meeting part of the time that presentation to the city council members. They were concerned about the capacity of the city staff to carry out the ordinance and would, I think, wanted to consult with them before finalizing their, when the city council wants input for the city staff, can we actually implement this? And then they were worried about who has the ability to levy fines? Whose job is it? And should the mayor step aside and have Aggie Tootin be the arbiter of any disputes? I think there's a lot of political considerations here about, can the city actually pull it off? Who has the ability to do fines? I mean, because that's a nasty thing. So who are we gonna force that on? And who's gonna be the judge and jury about any challenges to permit denials and all that sort of thing? And who do you appeal to? So they thought the mayor shouldn't have to deal with that as well as everything else that she has to deal with. Yeah, they had a lot of practical considerations.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Right. So you left early.
[Robert Paine]: Yeah, I had to leave early, yeah.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Right. So some of those answers were, some of those questions, they really didn't go into that too much because the tree committee is going to help with a lot of that, but also they're going to split responsibilities between the building department and the DPW forestry department and the tree committee. So they did offer that up of who would be doing what. But this is all based on the city council and some of your concerns. I mean, there were a lot of good things about this that they thought was great. They had some questions. But they've already reviewed, remember some of these drafts they already had from a year, what, a year ago? So they've already reviewed some of this. So it will go to KP Larg for their suggestions or comments. And at the Medford Trees regular monthly meeting last month, They did talk about this, Aggie Tudin was there. It's not for us to say who will do what, we're giving them a guide, and that was already somewhat approved about who would be doing what, but they would like to pass this. That was their hope. pro-active about having a tree, having a tree, and then someone preserving a tree canopy and adding more trees. They'll learn why it's important because a lot of them are new to preserving a tree canopy and having more trees. I'm sure it'll be educational for them and there'll be more meetings. but they liked the presentation. So at this point, we helped and they had already had certain ideas. They have a lot of professionals in Tree's Medford group that have worked on trees and they also have others that they can speak to. So one of the things that we had, talked about several times sorry I have a lot of thoughts going through my head but you and I had said let's make the tree committee bigger so that they can do a lot of this work as Alicia mentioned two months ago. Let's not be concerned about who's doing what. If they want to get this done, you know, they need to figure this out. There's many other ordinances that are passed. It may not be exactly what they submit, but it'll be something. And the tree committee can volunteer to get a lot of these, excuse me, permits or projects done that will the ordinance. And then we will facilitate the ordinance, which will be a huge reduction in cost to the city. And labor. Right? So that's why we kept reiterating to have more members. to other committees in the city, as Alicia said, do a lot of work like this. The zoning committee, this committee, that committee, they do a lot. So I think they can get it done. I hope that helped.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: Thank you.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: I hope so.
[Barry Ingber]: Can I suggest that if we want to get to the other item on our agenda that we move to it? Yes. Or we're not going to get to it. I mean, that's a choice that we can make.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: I'm ready. So the next thing I think was the municipal for reforestation bill.
[Barry Ingber]: I think the next thing was the priorities.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Sarah?
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Yes, I think you're right, Barry. It's the committee initiatives for 2024. Okay.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: I thought I was supposed to talk on the municipal reforestation bill.
[Martha Ondras]: I would kind of co-propose with Barry that we go to our priorities discussion and then get back to the reforestation bill. There's time later in the meeting and I think we have another presentation as well, do we, tonight? No.
[Unidentified]: I don't know.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Okay. Okay, I'm going to post in the chat a link to this priorities document, the long form. So Dan and Will, you guys came up with this, is that right? You're spearheading this?
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, we'll put this together and then Yeah, I would say this is, well, we created like a template for, for people to drop ideas in, but I think this would be a better document to work off of.
[Brenda Pike]: Excellent. And this builds on the priorities from last year as well. Right. I think every there, there, most of the things in here were also priorities from last year.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Okay, excellent. And so there's a spreadsheet to let me share that as well in the chat. And who is this person who has just joined us? Could you introduce yourself?
[SPEAKER_06]: Hi, yes, this is Kathleen. I apologize for being so late. I just had a in this day. And I'm sorry, I didn't give give anyone a heads up. But I'm here now on my phone. Did you hear that?
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Yes. Welcome, Kathleen. Thank you.
[Martha Ondras]: Kathleen, we're just starting, actually, the discussion of our priority items for the year. And unfortunately, if you're on your phone, unfortunately, you probably can't see the Google Docs that Sarah is sharing with the lists, the priority lists that have been developed.
[Brenda Pike]: Sarah, should I share my screen so that folks can look at this as well? Oh, I'll go ahead and share mine.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. Okay. Go ahead, Dan.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, it's really quick if I could make a suggestion. I think one of the things we talked about the last meeting was reviewing the 2023 priorities and deciding which ones were still relevant or which ones have been achieved or which ones might not be relevant and using that as a starting place for 2024 priorities. And it looks like people dropped a lot of ideas in this document, but I don't know if that sounds good to you, Sarah, but I think it'd be great to go through the 2023 and have that conversation first.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Okay, let's do that. Number one, support and promote electrification of public transport. Are we going to keep this?
[Brenda Pike]: So no one has signed up to be involved in this project in the spreadsheet. So if this is something that you're really interested in getting involved with, definitely speak up so that we know that somebody is.
[Barry Ingber]: I think it's super important, but I don't, I mean, we didn't really do anything on it in the past year. We don't have any proposals on the table and we don't have any volunteers. So I don't know if we wanna just have it there as a way of expressing that we think it's important, but it's certainly not part of an active work plan for us.
[Robert Paine]: This is Bob. I think it's part of the state climate law implementation. And if we have throughout the year some input from, for example, Senator Mike Barrett on that, there might be an item that deals with this issue that we could be more aware of. Some state funding or whatever that Medford should tap into or be aware of.
[Martha Ondras]: Does Medford have public transportation?
[Robert Paine]: It says MBTA buses.
[Martha Ondras]: Well, yeah, the MBTA has public. I mean, I don't usually think of this as a municipal issue. I put this in the bin of things we should encourage our state delegation to work on.
[Brenda Pike]: Yep. And our transportation staff definitely advocate for this at the state level. But that's really where the city's actions are.
[Robert Paine]: Surely there are city buses too, because a lot of them go right down my street every day. I see a lot of yellow buses go by. And they are probably diesel fired or whatever.
[Martha Ondras]: Yeah, I think the school buses are still operated by a contractor and the city buses are MBTA. So I just, I agree this is very important, but it's an issue where Medford as a municipality has to pressure, keep the pressure on the state agencies.
[Brenda Pike]: As for school buses, we have applied for technical assistance to create an electrification plan for the school buses, either with a third-party-owned fleet or bringing that in-house, but we haven't heard back on whether we've been awarded that yet.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: With the new aggregation, Uh, been are there any time of use rates or anything that would be available that would support. Electrification that we're aware of, or is that something that could be electrification of, like, city fleets or school buses?
[Brenda Pike]: I don't think that there's enough. There's the infrastructure for time of use rates right now. I know there are demand response programs that MassSave does with charging stations and EVs. Yeah, that doesn't really have to do with the aggregation though, unfortunately.
[Unidentified]: Okay, thanks.
[Martha Ondras]: Well, moving on, I mean, I don't know how much time we want to spend on each of these, given that it's 725 35. And we plan to end at 8, but maybe it's worth going through these spending a few minutes on each 1 and then. somehow voting on priorities?
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and I'm going to suggest that perhaps we can fold number 3 into number 4 and 10 because it connects directly to them. if you're going to have any success in composting initiatives or in the urban meadows, it will necessitate finding volunteers, and that will necessitate going to the school. So I think it just connects. What do you think?
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: I would agree. I think trying to put maybe high-level categories and then defining subprojects under them makes a lot of sense. And also, if no one's that interested in kind of taking charge or pushing for a single priority, I think we could probably cross them off the list. If electrification of public transport is not going to be too important or any others that aren't really highlighted here, then it might be good just to cross them off the list so that we can get closer to you know, a shorter list of achievable priorities.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Okay. Yeah, I think subproject is the right word. This gathering student support will become a subproject of composting and your urban meadows work naturally.
[Robert Paine]: Listen, Bob, do we actually have any representation or liaison with the public school, green, you know, the environmental clubs or whatever? Do they even know about our existence?
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Wasn't there a teacher from the Medford School who came and spoke to us about habitats and turtles and animals in the fells? Do you all remember that?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yes, I did. It's been a few months. I can look it up.
[Robert Paine]: There are liaisons with, we used to have a liaison with Tufts Energy Group. They seem to have dropped off the face of the earth. I haven't heard from them in a long time. But we ought to try to reconnect with them and the education of the high school or whatever.
[Brenda Pike]: What is it called? CCSR? Sorry. A group like that. I know Teresa in my office has recently connected with the teacher who's working on that. I've gotten his contact information from her, so I'll be reaching out about Electrify Medford at least and doing outreach in the schools for that. We can talk about other things with them as well. And I know that Jessica said she was working with a couple of the teachers at Missituk who were interested in starting a green club or something at the school. So I know she's not here today, but she was involved with them.
[Martha Ondras]: Yeah, I like the idea of bending the projects that could be done with this high school and middle school level into one group and then trying to establish that relationship over several projects.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Plus, we have the possibility of the Girl Scouts at the high school getting involved with invasive plants
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Thanks for reorganizing whoever's doing that.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, something like that. Is that kind of where we're going with this?
[Martha Ondras]: Yeah, you could put that project label on the urban meadows. I mean, the volunteers certainly could be more than high school for the urban meadows. It might be a good public school project.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: I think it's all the way around, right? Urban Meadows is the project and school outreach is the sub project. Okay.
[Martha Ondras]: Well, no, because we're talking about school outreach for composting and invasive for other topics here in column B.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, I agree. I think it kind of seems like the overall project is increase outreach to the schools. I guess we can leave community out of it, but I think that's sort of a large project, but then that community campus, high schools, Tufts, Mississippi. So a lot of different options there. It might be better to kind of focus on. So like, if that's a goal or that's like a project that we want to be involved in and, uh, and make a priority, then there's a lot of ideas that we can add underneath that and try to find the most effective ones to reach out.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Makes sense. Okay, does anyone want to add anything on the topic of urban meadows or invasive plants?
[Martha Ondras]: I would add that I would put pollinator planting in here somewhere.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, I have it under, I added it under urban meadows if you go down. Yeah, right.
[Martha Ondras]: Yeah.
[Robert Paine]: This Bob also, if there's any liaison with any garden groups or other interested clubs, I think we have to make sure we're not the not reinventing the wheel on some of these things.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, I think I put that in the notes further over that I can't, I don't see. You did. Can you see that? So one of the group is the Tufts Pollinator Group. I don't know if I wrote that. Oops.
[Martha Ondras]: If you go back to column C, I think. Oh, okay. Loretta, you wrote maybe this, planting native plants for pollinators and their benefits for others in the environment. Provide education and outreach on native plant species.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: Right.
[Martha Ondras]: Urban meadows and green projects for student support.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Go ahead, Barry.
[Barry Ingber]: I'd like to suggest that in addition to seeds, we say, I don't know, small shrubs, saplings, in some areas like in In North Medford, a lot of the spaces in people's yards and between people's yards is really rocky. And what you get in areas like this, if you actually have natural species or things like low bush blueberry, you're not gonna grow those from seed, you're gonna grow those from plantings. So just to expand it beyond seeds is kind of my point.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: That's a good point.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: Well, One thought as well, the composting initiatives, and maybe a little bit with this, and maybe other people here know more about this than I do, but some of the other, like, composting companies, like Black Earth, offer compost delivery or access to compost or soil made from that. Do we know if, does Garbage to Gardens offer that, or is there anything we could maybe help support with, like, a bulk Compost delivery.
[MCM00001758_SPEAKER_12]: Garbage to gardens does offer, but you have to pay for it. You get it free once when you sign up, but then you have to pay for it.
[Brenda Pike]: Oh, interesting. I have Garbage to Garden in Somerville. And you can get a free thing of compost once a week, I think, you can get something. But if you're getting something in a larger quantity all at once, then you have to pay extra for it.
[Martha Ondras]: This is a citywide contract that's been negotiated. It's not the same as you as an individual contracting with them, right?
[Brenda Pike]: I'm not sure about what the terms are here.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yes, and that will change. They will charge for it after July 1st. But Brenda, I think we have that now for people who pay for the service. Unless they've changed it, we could get a bag a week until supplies last. But that'll change in July. So I think it was, was it Dan that was speaking? For bulk compost drops? That's hard to say fast. Bulk compost drops. I don't know, we could ask Average to Garden if they have that. I don't know.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: It might be something that would be Pretty pretty popular. I think it would help with the composting effort. If people can have access to discounting, so I was looking at some of the rates for specifically black earth, but I assume garbage garden is the same. You get massive discounts. The more yards you get.
[Brenda Pike]: And I would point out that so far, nobody has signed up as expressing interest in being involved in this project, so. You might be putting out some great ideas that people aren't going to pick up. Nice one, Dan.
[MCM00001758_SPEAKER_12]: The Mothers Out Front in Medford has made Uh, supporting garbage to gardens in their promotions. Here, 1 of their priorities, and I think some of us are going to be meeting with Brenda on Friday morning. And I'm pretty sure that's fine. I think so. We'll talk about.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: Well, that was a comment. Just I think that's a great. That'd be something great to keep in mind.
[Lois Grossman]: I haven't signed up for any of these projects specifically. I was waiting to see what happens and where we need more help. And I'm still waiting to see
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, I noticed that, Lois, that a lot of people hadn't responded to what their preference would be.
[Lois Grossman]: So. I mean, I'm interested in many things, but I wanna put my time and effort into something specific and something that can't happen unless we make it happen.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: So, I think this would be a great time then. Sorry if I'm sort of jumping in here, but I think it'd be great time. Then, like, are there any other potential priorities or subprojects that are on anyone's minds we can add here? So that Lois, you and others can just start putting your names down where you think you would be the best use.
[Lois Grossman]: I mean, we're going to do all of these things.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: I think the idea is no, we're not going to, but it's a way to start and then vote on which ones become our priorities and which ones are maybe like a part of a larger priority that might happen, might not, but they're interrelated.
[Martha Ondras]: I have a suggestion I'd be willing to work on, and that is monitoring what the city council is studying or voting on and making sure that the Energy and Environment Committee has a presence, takes positions on issues that are important to our environment. I mean, some people like writing letters to their state delegation and I tend to like Badgering the city council members on issues. So I'm willing to take that one on. I'm sure I could get some help.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: That's a very creative idea. I like that you thought of that. And I want to add that I've noticed that the younger members of the city, Medford City Council, and you know increasingly they are younger, they're very active on Instagram and some of them post videos of exactly what they're working on and what the latest meeting was about, their next priority. And in these little videos and their captions, you can learn a lot even without attending the meeting. So I would suggest that as a supplemental way to connect with them.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: Does this committee have any or can we have any social media presence?
[Brenda Pike]: Not that I know of. You certainly can, but I don't know of one.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, I will just say that that used to be Jonathan Hunt's territory, so Alicia's husband. And he has, for instance, he set up the Go Green Midford website and did a lot of our early social connections. Nobody else has really taken the lead on that. I think it depends on capabilities as well as interest.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Right. And I just like to have we do have the Facebook group, Go Green Medford and interns. And when someone has the time, they post to it. So, you know, I think Alicia's always mentioned that, you know, it would be great to share more. So we can speak with her more about that.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, it does feel like especially a lot of the, like, tying in with. Monitoring the city council and then a lot of the different kind of initiatives, especially at a state. Or the local level that that some people here are tracking, like. Getting that information, like, electrified that for to, like, any way to get. Centralize that information could be useful.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: We have the Go Green Google group, too, that was emailed that we can all sign up for to share information.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: But maybe not yet, so. Maybe that's our point that those might not be the most used platforms anymore, so it might be worth thinking about an update, but. I'm sorry. Do you mean just for our committee? No, for the larger, for the city. So the committee administering some sort of social media presence, but something like
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Right. To Dan's point, the high schoolers and tough students and young people that we would want to recruit as volunteers, we have to go where they are. They wouldn't see us on Google Groups or Facebook, but they will see us on Instagram.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: I thought we had an Instagram account. Because when we have the Harvest Your Energy Festival, there were some interns posting to that. So I'll have to check with them to see.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: Yeah. I think it's one of those things that's definitely shifted and we could probably reach a much larger group, especially in Medford with Instagram, even if some people are still on Facebook, but it might just be a time to rethink. how we get that information out.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, I'll check with Teresa in the office. I thought she was posting to it too previously.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: There is a City of Medford, actually there are a couple of City of Medford Instagram accounts.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, sorry, guys. When I said I didn't know of any before, I thought you were talking about something that was specific to the Energy Committee.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: Energy Committee, I agree.
[Brenda Pike]: I didn't think you were talking about that.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: Oh, no, I was. Yeah, the Energy Committee. Yeah, that was my thought, but.
[Unidentified]: Hmm, okay.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Does anybody in this group have interest in community gardening? If not, that's okay, because there might be a community group that's already doing that.
[Martha Ondras]: Yeah, there is. There's a community garden commission, which is actually an officially appointed board group like this one.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Right.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: So we don't have to feel bad. Let's just cross it off. Or what do you think should we should we collaborate with the commission and let that be our project.
[Martha Ondras]: Yeah, I would vote for collaborating with that group and, you know, possibly other city groups where we have an overlapping interest.
[MCM00001758_SPEAKER_12]: I mean, unless there's a bit of change in the website, the high school has a gardening club, which has a pretty broad mandate for environmental issues.
[Martha Ondras]: Cool.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: I would put this here that there's probably overlapping priorities too with them. I'm going to guess that road and control might also be something that they would be interested in, and any kind of potential composting initiatives, especially if we did a bulk compost drop or sale. I don't know if it's worth keeping on as a priority, like a high priority for us, but it aligns with with the mission of this group.
[Barry Ingber]: Just going back a couple of statements ago, I'm totally gung-ho about collaboration, but I think that it has to be done with some care. We don't want to be stepping on toes of other groups. commission, an official commission that has as its job, as its sole job, as its only job, community gardens. And anything that we do with that should be helping them as opposed to getting in their way. I'm not sure we should even call it our project, honestly.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: Totally makes sense. Yeah.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: All right, what have we not discussed enough among these priorities? And what else do you think we can cross out? The electrification of public transport?
[Martha Ondras]: Yeah, I just don't see a project there for us. Feel free, yes, anyone feel free to challenge me on that.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: I will just say, and I don't mean to suggest this as a project, because I don't have anything in particular, but we don't have anything specific around decarbonization, other than things like electrification and general good composting and electrified network. But in general, the electrification effort is about decarbonizing, reducing our carbon impact in the environment. And that can be done in many other ways, including eating less meat, doing more in terms of building with urban-friendly materials, less concrete, et cetera. I just want to throw it out there that that is a topic that we could also look at, but it's very big and challenging.
[MCM00001758_SPEAKER_12]: Well, the trees, I mean- Yes, and the trees, absolutely.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: Yes, that is definitely a good zone. Sorry about that.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: Maybe I would 2nd, that don't say that a lot of these. Kind of priorities are ways in which we can focus on decarbonization efforts. Locally, um. I would maybe suggest and again, feel free to push back on it that we make sort of an overriding. Kind of goal D, like, localized decarbonization and then. Continue to add anything that's doable on this committee or with this committee as a way to achieve that. And it sounds like electrification of public transport. Not the, you know, not something that can actually be done, but other things like the trees initiatives. And potentially, you know, working with electrified Medford and other initiatives would get us there.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: On that front, I would just. Good. And on that note, I just wanted to point out, in the past, we have put our mission statement as a general starting point for this. And our mission statement is somewhat general and broad around that topic. But it includes a lot of that. Just thought I'd throw that out there.
[Martha Ondras]: I think it's good to have our mission statement somewhere adjacent to this list of priorities. And I also like the idea of having local decarbonization as one of the big projects Because there are things that come up like there's a leaf blower ordinance that will move us toward electric and away from gas leaf blowers. There are a bunch of things that will fall under that heading.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: So maybe just to sum up a little bit so that we can sort of close this out. It sounds like there is a couple of kind of major themes coming up here. One is local decarbonization with projects underneath there. A second one is outreach to public schools. And a third one is like enhanced community interaction on these topics, both with the, you know, city council, other groups, and potentially social media. Do you think there's anything that's Are there any other large, more large scale things that are missing or how, maybe how would the group sort of bucket some of the other priorities that have already been allocated?
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Oh, I think the last remaining bucket is probably nature restoration. That's how I would classify the meadows, pollinated planting, invasive plants. I would call all of that nature-based solutions or nature restoration.
[Barry Ingber]: Oh, that sounds perfect. I would add one more bucket, even though we don't have any projects right now that fit under it, which is energy justice.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: Definitely. And I think that probably ties in with some of these, but yeah, defining like a sort of a spearhead project for that, I think, I mean, to me, that makes total sense.
[Barry Ingber]: Could I suggest, I'm glad that Martha reminded us about the leaf blower ordinance, but I think that that should be on our list. Promoting that should be on our list as one of our priorities, I guess, under whichever project it fits under.
[Martha Ondras]: It fits under decarbonization and it also fits under monitoring city council.
[Robert Paine]: And this, Bob, one other thing we ought to monitor is the state climate law implementation. And one of the things we were going to try to do in a future meeting is to have Mike Barrett, Senator Mike Barrett, do a presentation. Brenda, do we know if there's any update he's offered to do it on their next meeting?
[Brenda Pike]: Last I heard, he wasn't confirmed for the April meeting yet.
[Robert Paine]: Okay, who has to because he actually reached that back out to me because I did this a while ago, but I pass it on to will. So, hopefully, we'll can close the deal on this.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: What is this about? Well, he speak on.
[Robert Paine]: He will speak on the current status of the Massachusetts Climate Law implementation and initiatives for this year. And I think he had a very engaging talk a year or two years ago or whatever it was. And he's offered to do it again, give us updates. And he actually indicated that he might be available on our April 1st meeting to do that.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Okay, thank you.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: Is that a larger priority? I feel like underneath the community interaction is more guest speakers, more bringing people into these meetings, or should we keep that out and that just becomes a priority under what's been brought up here?
[Brenda Pike]: I mean, I feel like you could have a, oh, sorry, go on, Bob.
[Robert Paine]: Something we typically try to do on an ongoing basis. I don't know if it's a new thing. It's a, yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: And I feel like you could have guest speakers on any of these topics. So it's not its own thing.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: Oh, yep.
[Barry Ingber]: Makes sense. Guest speakers in a way is community interaction because these are open meetings and anytime we have a guest speaker, we can advertise that we're having a guest speaker. And we are engaging the community.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: Other people feel free to add stuff in here too. I'm just trying to document it.
[Robert Paine]: At the next meeting, we can go over this updated list and maybe finalize it.
[Brenda Pike]: And maybe the chairs can discuss in between the meetings and clean it up and send it out to people again.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that that sounds like an excellent idea. I've been meaning to meet with Dan and will.
[MCM00001610_SPEAKER_12]: Cool. Yeah. And if anyone has any thoughts, feel free to put them in here. I think the best way to handle this would be to have comments and any additional priorities or projects or thoughts on the way that this is being organized. That way we'll come to something useful.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: One suggestion is, since we've got so many infinite columns, maybe one more column could be resources, so you can insert any helpful links. Should we move on?
[Robert Paine]: Yeah, we're already past eight.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: All right, yep. All right, well, I'm going to bring a motion to end the meeting so we can end on time.
[Barry Ingber]: A little point of order, Sarah, I'm sorry, is that as the chair, you can ask for a motion, but you can't make a motion. I know you haven't done this before, so I will move to adjourn.
[Lois Grossman]: Second.
[Barry Ingber]: And now you can take a vote on that, or you can just see if there's any objections and not bother with the vote.
[MCM00000770_SPEAKER_02]: OK. Any objections? Going once, going twice.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: Thank you, Sarah.
[Robert Paine]: Congratulations. Thank you, everyone. You did it.