[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so we're going to start with. The meeting the minutes from last week. From the last time we met.
[Brenda Pike]: Does anybody have any edits to the minutes?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Okay, here it is. Brenda, you want to go through the minutes or.
[Brenda Pike]: I don't think we need to talk through them. We sent them out ahead of time. Did people have a chance to look at them?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: This is the 1 from March 18, 2024, the 1 before that.
[Brenda Pike]: The minutes from from February.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. Yeah.
[Evangelista]: I wasn't at that meeting, so I wouldn't have any edits or anything.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Basically, guys, motion to approve the minutes from February 26.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: I second this motion. Now we have to vote.
[Evangelista]: All in favor. I proposed. Abstained. Motion granted, right?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yes, motion granted. Okay. So, so the 1st is we're going to have to reschedule April. The next April meeting. If everyone wants to meet. April 29. Motion to approve to switch it to that date.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I 2nd, the motion.
[Evangelista]: I'm okay with that all in favor.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Okay, so it will be April 29, right? Okay.
[Brenda Pike]: Yes. Did we hear Natasha on that 1?
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, I'm looking so which 1 are we not. Going to be on it's going to do it. The 8th, right?
[Brenda Pike]: So it's the 15th? City Hall is closed on the 15th because it's Patriots Day?
[Evangelista]: No, Patriots Day.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay. So the 29th. Okay, okay. I just had to check to see. Okay. What was the word again?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Wait, no, never mind. Are you in favor?
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm in favor. Okay. I'm learning. I'm in favor.
[Brenda Pike]: Okay. That's great. And I would also add, since we're talking about this, the June meeting. June 17th is also a holiday. So, we should, we could probably reschedule that as well just so that people can plan it out in advance.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: What about June 24? Do you approve on that date? I approve. So far, yeah.
[SPEAKER_08]: It's too far away to know.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: But if anything comes up.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Okay.
[Brenda Pike]: So is the 24th okay with folks? Yes. If it is, then we should do a motion for that, to reschedule that one.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Motion to approve that, switching the 17th of June to June 24th.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: I second the motion.
[SPEAKER_08]: I second the motion. If I'm not out of town.
[Evangelista]: Stacy? Aye. I'm in favor. Okay. So, we're talking about April 29th. And 624. Trying to update my personal calendar.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Sorry, I was trying to sneeze. If you see me like that. But, um, okay, so the next 1 that we have for the agenda is that.
[Brenda Pike]: Update from Brenda before we jump to that 1 thing I wanted to talk about was, um, do we want to do any of these meetings in person?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yes, I remember that. Um. Natasha Stacy, do you guys want to do it in person? Which 1, all of them are no, we can do 1 in person Brenda. Right? Or do you want to do them all in person?
[Brenda Pike]: No, you can do however many you can do. However, many of them in person as you want or or none of them. It's all it's all dependent on what you want.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: I think maybe we can do like, once a month in person. Just so we can see each other.
[Brenda Pike]: So, we're only meeting once a month for this, right? Well, then we can meet.
[SPEAKER_08]: We'll be a nice day. There'll be some. So.
[Evangelista]: But if we did, like, every other month, there's something like that or every 2 months, we meet in person or something like that. Or quarterly every 3 months. Yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: It's a suggestion. So one month, yes, one month, no, is a good idea. Say again. One month, yes, one month, no, like every other. So every other. Yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: So would you guys want to meet, like, the next meeting we meet in person?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: I would like that.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: And on April 29th? No, it was 27th.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Oh, 27, I'm sorry. Yeah. Or 27, is it? No, the 29th. Yeah, you're right, 29th. Sorry, Sharba, I was looking at me. Wait a minute. Sorry. The calendar is driving me insane. Okay, yes.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Yes, so all in favor to meet me in person April 29? Natasha?
[SPEAKER_08]: Stacey, do we have an option of hybrid if the 1st, if I can't make it.
[Brenda Pike]: Yes, I think you, you might not have a good connection. I'm like, no, but yes, we can do a hybrid setup. So and that helps members of the public if they want to join, they can use the zoom link to join. So we will set it up in a meeting room here at City Hall. And I'll set up like a camera and microphone there so that people online can can watch if they want to.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Brenda, I was curious, um, the meetings like this that have to be in city hall or could it be the library as well?
[Brenda Pike]: Because how interesting yes, I think it. Could be the library, although, um. Scheduling the room might be a little bit more difficult for me. Um. But, yeah, we could, we could definitely go to the library.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, because we usually the connectors we meet on Mondays. That's like our meet, like period. So I think that'd be good for us to like have our meeting and then have like the connectors meeting, like there.
[Brenda Pike]: Oh, cool. So you meet at the library every Monday at this time anyway. Yep. What room are you in there?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Oh, well, we can choose any room, but we usually do room four. Room for big enough, but it's small enough to at the same time. So, it's it's a good conference room.
[Brenda Pike]: Okay, I mean, it has to be big enough so that if members of the public want to join that there's room for them to.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: You can do the room 5, then the room 5 is the biggest 1 and it's really vague. So. I don't think they're opposed to it anyways, because we go there all the time. Like I said. We always call in advance, let them know and we book it.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. Let me let's have Kim. Can we not do it for the April meeting? Because I'm not sure if I'm supposed to take the the camera and microphone setup that we have out of City Hall. So it would give me time to like double check whether I can do that and to see what options they have at the library if we want to use those instead.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Sounds good. I was saying more for like a field trip. So you can get out of the city hall. Yes. Lovely. Don't tell me that.
[Brenda Pike]: Okay, so yeah, so, so April 29, we'll meet here at city hall and we'll have an hybrid option if people do want to call in. But then I'll look into for the June meeting, which would be the next one that would be in-person if we could do it at the library.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[Evangelista]: Cool. Just so that I'm on track here. April, we will meet in-person, but we'll do that at City Hall. That's April. May, we'll be on the call. In June, in-person, maybe the library, or we're shooting for the library. Got it. Roger that. All in favor?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Natasha, Charbel, T? Yes, okay.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yes, in favor.
[Brenda Pike]: Okay, so next up, I think it's my updates on city actions.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Oh, sorry, should we discuss the letter first before that?
[Brenda Pike]: Oh, yes. Oh, the letter. Okay. So in terms of the agenda, so we have Owen Wartella, who is the city engineer joining us at seven o'clock to talk about the stormwater improvements in South Medford. I thought you might want to talk to him about it first before voting on the letter of support for the grant.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, so we'll wait. We'll wait then. Cool.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, so just jumping into my updates. So the translation widget on the gogreenmedford.org site is live. Thank you guys for bringing to my attention that we needed to have that there. Could you take a look at that and just let me know if it does a good job? Because I know sometimes these translation widgets can be a little awkward. I'm just dropping in the chat, the web address. For the site, not something that we have to do now, and we're all together here, but but just sometime between now and the next meeting, it would be great if you could just take a look and let me know if it generally looks good in your languages.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Okay, where are you showing us now? Are you sending it to us an email Brenda?
[Brenda Pike]: I just dropped it into the chat right now, but I'll also send it out with the minutes of the meeting. Let's see. Electrify Medford, so we're still working on getting the contract signed with the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, which is where we got the grant from. And as we're working on that, we need to get some information up on the website and get some flyers out. So none of that is ready yet for distribution, just so you know. It's not happening, and you don't realize that it's just not ready yet. For the energy coaches, so far we have 24 people signed up. And I'm interviewing each one of them to better understand sort of what their level of knowledge is and to better match them up with interested residents in the program once we get started. So hopefully later this week, we'll be letting people know if they're eligible for stipends and reaching out to them to schedule our first training session. And I'm working with a consultant on developing that heat pump training session. And it's not just focused on heat pumps, it'll also be talking about energy efficiency and solar and things like that, but it's gonna dive deeper into the heat pump aspect of it, because it is a little bit more complicated. And so it looks like the soft launch of the program will be in early April, when we get all the information up on the website and can start talking to people just out in public about this, but we'll probably have a kickoff event sometime the last week of April, like April 24th or 25th, something like that. I'm still scheduling that. I'd love to have the mayor come to the event, so that's gonna take some scheduling. Any questions about Electrify Medford?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: I went on the website, Brenda, but I don't see where it shows.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: It's a widget, Liza. It's like... Oh, okay. Yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: So it's, yeah, the top right of the little bar.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: I checked out the Arabic one. It works, but... the translations are taken a little too literally. Like, um, like, you know, where, where it says homepage, they literally put like the, the word for house.
[Brenda Pike]: Oh, house page.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: So which is, you know, it's understandable because like, uh, there's not something like that in Arabic, like the, you, you, they could say the main page, but I don't know. But it works, though. I like it. And it does the job good.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. I think something like that that's doing it automatically, it's going to be tough. If you know of a better widget that we could add to it, I would love to. I would love to get recommendations if you've worked with something in the past.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: I mean, I haven't done, I haven't worked with widgets, but like we usually, we usually do like the translations, like whenever we want to need to translate a flyer for an event, we usually like do it ourselves. Cause like, we know. like uh culturally like how what's what to say this not not like the literal translation you know yeah that's always going to be better i don't know if it's uh feasible for the entire website but that's that's why i said like it's it's understandable you know as long as it it's uh it's like doing the the job you know brenda which one's the one that you guys use for that website oh what i mean
[Brenda Pike]: Let's see what the name of that was. Nope, I don't think I'm going to be able to pull it up quickly enough not to bore everybody, so. Oh, I think it's Weaglot. Weaglot, I think.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Because I know that my sister, when she did when she had her business, she had 1, and it was really good. So I'm going to ask her what's the name of it and send it to you.
[Brenda Pike]: That would be great. Thank you. Okay, so. Moving on to curbside composting that free program that is rolling out July 1st. So 86 people have signed up to start that now, and they're actually paying a monthly fee between now and July 1st. And 792 people have signed up to be, to start with the free program on July 1st. So that's over 800 people who've now signed up for curbside composting because of this free program. So that's exciting. So people can sign up for the program. I know I've shared this with you before, but it's at medfordcomposts.com. And there is an online form for people who want to volunteer to get the word out about this. So if you want to share that with people who you know who are interested, or kind of excited about the program and might be interested in telling other people about it. I just dropped that in the chat. Again, I'll include it with the minutes when I send those out, too. And that's something where I think they'll probably have people You know, maybe going to events or going door to door. I think they're really looking to go door to door for this 1, because it is a. Sort of a trash thing, right? So everybody could be eligible for it. Any questions about the composting program.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: And that the composting programs on the website, right? Brenda? Yep.
[Brenda Pike]: I should double check whether it's on, it's been updated on the Go Green Medford website. It's definitely on the official city website.
[Evangelista]: So how long is the program free?
[Brenda Pike]: The intention is for it to be free forever moving forward.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, OK. Yeah. Oh, OK.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, it's just people have to sign up for it. It's not like trash where you can just, you know, where you just The city will just start picking up your trash because it's composting and you do have to know what to separate out and things like that. You have to sign up for it and get the little bin for it and get a little flyer telling you what can go into it.
[Evangelista]: Okay, and then so so enrollment is for a limited time. for a limited amount of time. And then once we get to that point, once we get to that date, then if you decide you're interested or you see your neighbors talking about it, then you have to do the monthly fee of 899?
[Brenda Pike]: No, no. So enrollment is not for a limited time. People will be able to sign up for this whenever they want to. It's just July 1st is when it starts. And so we're just trying to get as many people starting with it immediately.
[Evangelista]: Okay, because on the site, it says enrollment is limited. That's why I was asking.
[Brenda Pike]: It is limited, but I think it's limited to like 6,000 people.
[Evangelista]: Oh, yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: So far, we have we have 800 who signed up.
[Evangelista]: Yeah, that's that's quite a limit. So I didn't know if the limit meant a date cut off or so it's a number cut off. Got it. Cool. That's awesome.
[Brenda Pike]: Um, yeah, it's, it's really exciting. I think it's, it's something that Cambridge has been doing for a little while now. Somerville isn't doing yet. So we're ahead of Somerville. That's great.
[Evangelista]: Yeah, that's, that's good. That's a feather in our cap.
[Brenda Pike]: Um, there's a community cleanup happening April 27th, um, from 10 to one. Um, and the. Mayor's office has a little sign-up form where people can sign up to volunteer. And I will actually share this sign-up form. Well, I just shared the link in the chat, but I'm going to share my screen here so that you can take a look at the locations where people have already. Let me see if I can. There we go. Can you see this now? Yes, we can. Okay. So these are the locations where people have already signed up to do the community cleanup. And so you can sign up just as a volunteer choosing one of these locations. Or you can sign up as an ambassador, I think they're calling it, with a different location that you want to see a cleanup happening at. And as the ambassador, you would be sort of the connection with the city and getting materials and distributing it to the volunteers and essentially telling them what to do the day of and things like that. So it would be great if you could help to get the word out about the cleanup that's happening. And if there are areas where you would like to see a cleanup happening, either signing up to be an ambassador for that area or talking to people who you think would be interested in having a cleanup at that area.
[Evangelista]: Brenda, what does the cleanup consist of? Is it pretty much just picking up trash or is it weeding?
[Brenda Pike]: I think it's just cleaning up trash.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. I don't know if there's any gardening or anything like that happening, although I know that a lot of people would be excited if there were.
[Evangelista]: Well, yeah, you know, sometimes it's just kind of overgrown Bush and stuff kind of pathways blocking pathways or, you know. So, what about materials and stuff like. Trash bags, the city provide all that gloves or bags or whatever.
[Brenda Pike]: Yep. The city will provide everything for this. Okay.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: So Brenda, you're saying that for us per se would choose one of these places? If you would like to volunteer or we're like, I'm a little bit confused.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, you could do either one. So you could choose one of the locations that someone has already organized an event for, just to volunteer at it. Or you could, if you wanted to see it in a different location, you could sign up as the sort of the organizer for that location. And if you, yeah, so if you select as an ambassador, on this, then it asks you what location would you like to do it? Where would you like to meet everybody? And to provide your contact information so that people can reach you. Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: I get it. I get it.
[Brenda Pike]: Any other questions about the community cleanup?
[SPEAKER_08]: I think this is an awesome program. You said Cambridge already started this?
[Brenda Pike]: Oh, for the community cleanup? I think a lot of cities and towns do this. I think Medford has been doing this for a few years now.
[SPEAKER_08]: That's awesome.
[Brenda Pike]: Charbel, I know this is the same day as the event that you're holding, but it's earlier, so there shouldn't be any conflict there.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Oh, yeah. Tell them to come after. I'm sure they'll be hungry.
[Brenda Pike]: That's great.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. But it's really cool that they're doing this, like community members actually cleaning their community. That's awesome.
[Brenda Pike]: I have done one of these before near Assembly Square, the new area over there. Before it was that, when it was much more neglected. and we actually pulled so many tires out of the river that the bank was shorter. The bank didn't go out as far into the river because it was the tires holding it in place.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: How were you able to pull them out? They were just along the shore, so we were just pulling them off the ground there.
[Brenda Pike]: That's crazy. Um, let's see what else here. So, um, on April 26, the day before, um, at 7 PM, um, Boston glory is holding a green fest. And so Boston glory is a professional ultimate Frisbee team that, um, has Hormel stadium as their home stadium. Um, and Friday, the 26th is going to be their season opener. So they're holding a green fest as part of it. So my office will be tabling, the energy committee will be helping out tabling and doing wind turbine tours before the game. And Alicia, my boss here will actually be throwing out the first Frisbee. She's practicing now. That's so cool. And they'll be doing things like sharing sustainable tips over the loudspeaker. There's going to be music. There's going to be a food and clothing drive. There's going to be like recycling information, things like that. So it doesn't sound like it's going to be huge, but it'll be a lot of fun.
[SPEAKER_08]: Nice.
[Evangelista]: Brenda, if your boss is throwing out the first Frisbee, does that mean you're doing the national anthem?
[Brenda Pike]: You know what? Don't tempt me. I love karaoke. Perfect. So I dropped the link to the Boston Glory, like the information about the day. It's a ticketed event because it's their game. So there is that, which is why it's not the kickoff event for our Electrify Medford program, because I want that to be free and open to anybody.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Oh, wow.
[Evangelista]: That's awesome. It could be football, I take it.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: You have to tell your boss that it's not the power, it's like the technique.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: How she throws it.
[Brenda Pike]: Are you an ultimate Frisbee player?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: No, not at all. I do remember I used to play with my friends at the school. And that was really fun. So I'm sure this event will be very fun.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Nice. You know, there's going to be a hummus food truck, Charbel.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Just hummus food truck. Maybe I should get in contact with them for the event. If we don't have enough vendors by then. That'll be good.
[Brenda Pike]: That's cool. And they actually, so they reached out to our office asking us to partner with them on this, and we shared with them our vendor list for the Harvest Your Energy Festival. Which is the 1 that we have in October at the McGlynn school. And so that's where they, they've gotten a lot of the contact information for their vendors. So, if that's something that will help you guys out in the work that you're doing, like. contact information for different vendors, then we can definitely share that with you too.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: That would actually be very good because we're still looking for a few, especially artisan crafts, food vendors. Like we might still need some. So like hummus is like, you know, everybody loves hummus, knows hummus. So if you have the information, I can contact them. That would be awesome.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, absolutely.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: They have, I'm looking at their website. They have fidefil too. And tahini. All the good stuff.
[Brenda Pike]: So it's not just hummus. That's a lie.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I know. It is like false advertising.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but sure, but at least they have options. Imagine just hummus.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: And it looks like they're based in Medford, too, on Mystic Ave.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: I've never heard them.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: I don't think they have a restaurant. It's not a restaurant. It's like more of a factory, I think.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: That's funny. Oh, yeah, it does. Oh, that's on Mystic Ave.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Oh, my gosh, it's crazy.
[Brenda Pike]: Sorry, I can I can move on unless people had any questions or comments about that.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: No, no, no.
[Evangelista]: I just I just had one question. Is it is this co-ed or is it all is it men or co-ed?
[Brenda Pike]: I think it's a women's Frisbee team. Although it might be co-ed, but it's definitely not just men's. Okay. Cool. Let's see here. The community electricity aggregation that Medford has. our supply contract expires at the end of the year. And so we're looking to go out to bid for it this spring. And we would like to increase the renewable energy content in there. So right now, we talked about this a couple meetings ago, where there's like a default option that people get opted into. And then there's like a a level down that's like the basic amount that is required by the state. And there's the default option is 5% more renewable energy content than that. And then there's another option that's 100% renewable energy content. And so we're looking for our default amount to increase that to something like 10%. And that seems to be the level that a lot of communities around here are at right now for their aggregations. Um, although Somerville is at 20%, so, um. Where we're, but we're trying to when we're doing this, we're going to try to, like, balance out the cost of it. With the renewables, because the idea is for it to be cheaper than the utilities rate. In addition to having additional renewable content. So, that's what we're going to be trying to balance out when we go to bid. Did you have any, anybody have any questions about that? Cool. The state requirements go up every year. So, right now, I think everyone's electricity supply is at 63% renewable. And according to the state's definition of that, ours is a little bit stricter. And then that goes up like 5% basically every year. So with the idea that eventually by like 2030, it'll be like 93% renewable. And so at that point, Medford having more renewables in our aggregation. It's not going to make that much of a difference, but for now it does. And my last update, I held a specialized, a stretch and specialized energy code training for building inspectors at the library at the end of February. more than 40 building inspectors came from all kinds of different towns. So it wasn't just Medford building inspectors. It was others as well. And we had mass save contractors and to actually do the training. And this one focused on the residential code. And I'm now planning another one focusing on the commercial energy code. Um, for the inspectors, and then after that, we'll hold some for more of, like, members of the public, building owners, developers, contractors, things like that. But I want to make sure that the inspectors have a really good understanding of this 1st, before we move on to to the members of the public. And then the specialized energy code here in Medford goes into effect on July 1st.
[Evangelista]: What is that that goes into effect on July 1st?
[Brenda Pike]: So that's the specialized energy code. And so the energy code basically says how efficient your building has to be for new buildings and for major renovations, ones where you're essentially taking it down to the studs, right? If you're doing more than 50% of your building, that's considered a major renovation. Um, and so these are just more stringent efficiency requirements as well as requiring, um, in some cases, solar and electrical wiring for. Electric vehicles to be able to plug in. And so there's the, there's like the base energy code and then there's the stretch energy code, which Medford has been part of for for quite a while now, like, over more than a decade. um, which was recently updated. Um, and then there's the specialized energy code, which goes even, um, better than that. That's even better than that. And so the biggest thing is like for the specializes for like multifamily buildings, you have to have, um, very tight envelopes. Essentially, you have to do lots of like air sealing and insulation. Um, so you don't lose, you know, the, the heated air or the cooled air out of the building as fast. Yeah, those are the basics of it. For stretch code, for large multifamily buildings, there's something called passive house that they have to comply with, which means that, for instance, in the event of a power outage, your building would stay warm for a longer period of time because it's so sort of airtight and so insulated.
[Evangelista]: Not to throw any shade or anything like that, but does City Hall fall under this specialized energy code? I mean, does City Hall comply to this?
[Brenda Pike]: It would if we were building a new City Hall or if we were doing a major renovation of it.
[Evangelista]: City Hall would sort of be grandfathered, so I kind of get it. It's for the newer stuff. Yep.
[Brenda Pike]: But for like, if we, so we're talking about doing a new high school at some point. And so the new high school would definitely have to comply with it.
[Evangelista]: Yay.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: New high school.
[Brenda Pike]: No more jail.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: It's about time. Yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: That's going to be a long process though. I'm sure you're going to hear about that a lot before. Yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. No doubt.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: At least like.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. Do they temporarily transfer the students to another school or place to the school? Did they like. Shut down half of it constructed and. I'm just curious.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, that depends on on where they're going to do it. So is it going to be in a different location or is it going to be the same location? I don't know. I haven't been part of those conversations at all.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: I feel like if they would want to make a new one, it should probably be like more towards like the center of the city. Because like the the high school right now is pretty much like on the border. Yeah, Medford and like, and Winchester, Winchester. So yeah.
[Evangelista]: Because think about it, where the condos are, the old Medford High is there and where the Y is.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, Boys and Girls Club.
[Evangelista]: High school and then they built the one up on the hill there. That was a situation where school was in session in one place and then as far as I know, the high school was built, it was new when I'm aging myself. Let me just stop that conversation. No, the building was kind of pretty new when I was there. But anyway, yeah. It's time for a new high school. For sure.
[Unidentified]: For sure.
[Brenda Pike]: So I think the other, so those are my city updates. I think next up on the agenda was the Energy and Environment Committee update. So basically, at that meeting, I gave them similar updates to what I just gave you guys. And then we talked about some bills moving through the statehouse. So this is the end of a two-year cycle. So some bills that people have been looking at a couple of years are either being voted on by August or they're waiting another 2 years. So senator Barrett the who's the head of the telecommunications utilities and energy committee is coming to the main meeting of the energy environment committee to talk about the bills that his his committee is working on. So that's something that you guys are all welcome to attend as is any member of the public that wants to to hear what Senator Barrett has to say and to give him any feedback. The May Energy Environment Committee meeting is the first Monday, May 6th. Those start at 6.30 PM. And where are they? So those are mostly on zoom. Yep, yep. They sometimes I think twice a year, or more often if they if they want to, but usually twice a year, they'll get together in person and do sort of a hybrid meeting. But most of them are on zoom.
[Evangelista]: So, would you send out the zoom information for anyone that, you know, if if any 1 of us were interested or something? I mean, is that. I mean, I'm not sure how else we would know.
[Brenda Pike]: Yep, definitely. Yep. And those will also. Just so, you just so, you know, I will definitely send it out for this and for any. Other sort of cross pollination going on between these 2 committees, but for any other things that you're interested in. The Medford events calendar, I just dropped the link in the chat has all of the. Municipal committee meetings, and each 1 should have an agenda. At least 2 days beforehand with the, with the link to the zoom meeting, if it's going to be virtual. Let's see. Also, some members at the meeting, they gave an update on the tree ordinance that's going through Medford City Council right now. So there are actually three tree ordinances. There's one that focuses on public trees, like on city property. One that focuses on private trees, on like privately owned property. And one that establishes a tree committee to help the city to oversee this whole process. And the goal behind it is to try to prevent trees just being cut without other alternatives being looked at. And the tree, other tree related things that they talked about. April 26 is Arbor Day, and there's an annual proclamation, I think it's City Hall, declaring Medford an Arbor Day tree city, and the events around that. And I think the city warden has tree companies come in that day or that week, and they volunteer time to trim trees for residences. I don't have any other information about that right now, but before that happens, I can find out and send it along to you if that's something you want to share with people.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that sounds good.
[Brenda Pike]: Then on April 27th, Trees Medford will be at the library giving out free tree seedlings. People want to get some and plant them in their own yard.
[Evangelista]: Same day as the cleanup.
[Brenda Pike]: There's a lot going on that week because that Monday is Earth Day and so everything just kind of gets. Crammed into that week. And the energy environment committee, they also discuss what priorities they want to focus on this year. And they, they didn't vote on it. They were just in the process of discussing it. So. There was a spreadsheet that they were using to kind of communally discuss this and keep track of it. I dropped that link in the chat and I'll also put it in the minutes. But if you want to look at that to see sort of what their priorities that they're thinking of for this year. So I don't know if the Climate Equity Committee wants to do any sort of similar priority discussion. That could be something for you to take a look at. And then I think the last thing that they talked about, there's a Girl Scout doing a project about invasive species for her final project, which is kind of similar to an Eagle Scout final project. And she reached out to the committee for information about invasive species and they were helping her out.
[Evangelista]: Nice.
[Brenda Pike]: That was a lot. Any questions or comments about any of that?
[Evangelista]: No, just a lot going on next month.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, busy months.
[Brenda Pike]: Yep, it's gonna be crazy. And for folks that are focusing on, you know, the bills that are going through the state legislature, it's going to be a crazy couple few months too, because two years of work is now they're scrambling to try to finalize it all. So, we should have Owen the city engineer joining us. In a few minutes to talk about the South Medford storm water updates. While we're waiting. Do we want to talk about the. 3, the make polluters pay bill that 350 mystic valley.
[Evangelista]: Sent the email about what's that about? I didn't read it. Yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: So, um, it's basically the idea is they're, they're kind of modeling it on like the super fund sort of thing where the, the companies that, um, did the polluting. have to pay into a fund that is used to do cleanup, except in this case, the polluting is carbon emissions. And the fund is not just, you know, to be used at specific sites or anything, but it could be used for reducing carbon emissions. And I think they were really focusing on in environmental justice areas. But so 350 Mystic Valley, they're looking to have the Medford City Council pass a resolution supporting this on April 2nd. And so they're just reaching out to folks to see if that's something that you'd be interested in supporting. They have an info session. So if you want more details about this, that info session is on March 27th. And I think they're really looking for people to, to like show up at the city council meeting on April 2nd or, um, or speak at the city council meeting.
[Evangelista]: So they, they essentially just kind of wants, um, a fund to be paid in to, for offenders of, um, pollution, polluting the environment or, okay.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, yeah, and then this is really focusing on on carbon emissions.
[Evangelista]: Okay, and carbon emissions being what exactly. So, it's the exhaust and stuff that's what I'm thinking, I guess, because of the word emission. So that's why I'm asking. So forgive it's a question.
[Brenda Pike]: No, it's not done, I'm just wondering how to explain it. Yeah, so it's basically like if you burn anything, then you're putting carbon emissions into the air. So like, you know, gas heating systems and stuff, but I think they're looking at the big polluters who do a lot of this.
[Evangelista]: Okay. I don't know who, I mean, so would the offenders, I'm just trying to get a better understanding. So would the offenders be like, you know, like stores and stuff or, you know, or is it just, you know, I don't know.
[Brenda Pike]: I don't know a lot about this myself. I haven't really been following it so much. But I think it's more large corporations that are, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[Evangelista]: Yeah. Yeah, so an info session could be helpful because I just, you know. I mean, sure, it sounds great, you know, make the polluters pay. You know, but, you know, you kind of got to know what you're asking for and.
[Brenda Pike]: So, yeah, definitely. So I think if folks are interested in following up on that, you can just reply to the email that. Chrissy. Sent for asking for more information because I think that's something that you're going to be doing not. As a climate equity council, but more as an individual. Yeah, got it. Oh, I think we have own joining. Owen, can you hear us?
[Owen Wartella]: I can, sorry.
[Brenda Pike]: Ah, there you are. No worries, thank you for joining.
[Owen Wartella]: No, I just got caught up with little ones.
[Brenda Pike]: It's about that time, it's bedtime.
[Owen Wartella]: Well, it's dinnertime. Is it really?
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. All right, you guys, you can tell I don't have kids, right? I would be like, go to bed.
[Owen Wartella]: All right. So, um, I guess what? How? I don't even know. Yeah, go ahead.
[Brenda Pike]: No, no. So we talked last time about the grant that we're applying for to make drainage improvements in South Medford. Owen here is the city engineer. And he can talk about that in a little more detail for you. And then we can vote on whether the council wants to offer a letter of support for the grant.
[Owen Wartella]: Great. So, um, Oh man, I wish I had sharing capabilities, but I guess I don't. Or maybe I do. Either way, recently the city has conducted a a localized flood mitigation assessment for South Medford. It was one of five areas within Medford that we did a flood assessment study on. And we have gotten funding for a grant to do the design for one of these locations. It's around Bowen and Golden Ave. and it's in conjunction with a larger area of a whole bunch of infrastructure that we're trying to target this construction season. We have the design funding in place and we are looking to go for the MVP grant to get funding for construction. And so we're reaching out to the community to ask for maybe letters of support, which will hopefully boost our chances of getting an MVP grant. Which is where you guys come in.
[Brenda Pike]: And Owen, I've made you co-host so you can share your screen, but I can also, I think I have an image from the localized flood mitigation assessment report that might be helpful to show the area. Yeah, thank you. Um, so yeah, I don't know how closely you guys, you folks can see that this is Harvard Street right here. So this would be like Oasis restaurant, right? On the, on this bottom left edge here. Um, and it goes up to, so the, sorry, Owen, I'll let you talk here.
[Owen Wartella]: So, um, the, I can't point. So the Bowen and Golden are at the top of the page in the center. Yep. So from there up, um, and the, this would be a drainage project essentially. So basically the design or the report. gave suggestions of how to mitigate these solutions. And we are going to basically tie in the drainage, which is being surcharged. It's not large enough to be for the whole area that it's capturing. And we're creating a separate design point or pipe network to the pipe network that's already in Mystic Avenue, and then we're going to increase the pipe size of that. So, during large storm events that are like high-intensity storm events, the added capacity will decrease the localized flooding for these homeowners.
[Brenda Pike]: And it's not, is it just for these two streets, Bowen and Golden, or does it, will it affect the- It will affect the whole red area, right.
[Owen Wartella]: But the design work is within those two streets. So we're going to target the, that's what the analysis basically did. They said, if you can alleviate a pipe network on these two streets, it's going to remedy the larger area.
[Brenda Pike]: And this area is, like I said, yeah, so it's Harvard Street down here at the bottom, where Oasis is, all the way up to, what is this, Bob's Italian Foods right here in this corner.
[Owen Wartella]: Yeah, Tindock Street, yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: Yep, and all the way around here, yeah.
[Owen Wartella]: So this is going to be part of, we're doing a few infrastructure projects in this area this season. Willis Ave is going to be getting a new water main. So we have funding for the design and construction of that. We have some sewer mitigation going on Bowen, Golden, and some of the other side streets. which will also be, we're trying to time it up to limit the disturbance within one construction season. So the only thing that we really don't have funding for, which is always the hard thing, is drainage. For some odd reason, drainage is the hard one to get funding for. MWRA doesn't do it. So the MVP is one. option that we could do it. And there's a few other if we can go that, but I think this is a really good, a good, you know, effort to try to get the funding for this one.
[Brenda Pike]: And the timing for that would be the application would go in mid-April.
[Owen Wartella]: Yeah, April 30th, I think, is the deadline. So we're going to be working on it over the next month. And then we're going to ask for a letter of support from the state so that all these little kind of hiccups that might Delay or put doubt in the project. We're going to try to get all our ducks in a row. So we're feeling pretty good about About it, but you know, it's up to them make sense.
[Brenda Pike]: And then if If we receive the grant that construction would start in the fall.
[Owen Wartella]: Yeah, probably. I mean, the design is going to be done probably by July, so we could just put it out to procurement and then go. The timing of that will probably be the construction season. A lot of contractors will probably be targeting a start of the fall, but then probably wrapping up next spring.
[Jenny Graham]: That's great.
[Owen Wartella]: Granted, that's fast track. Everything in government is, you know, slow down, but I'm trying to get it through as fast as I can. The delay won't be on the city side, let's put it that way. We're getting pretty efficient on our end. Does anybody have any questions?
[Brenda Pike]: So I think as part of this project, we were also hoping to educate property owners about how they can help to reduce stormwater runoff, right? changes to their properties?
[Owen Wartella]: Yeah, there's a few things you could do. One is basically deep paving. That's the big one. If water can not run off, you know, concrete or asphalt into the drainage system and seep into the ground, that's the biggest that homeowners can do. Another thing that they could do is You know, mitigate stormwater, create maybe recharge like the roof drains into the ground, create dry wells.
[Brenda Pike]: Is like the rain barrel program a good.
[Owen Wartella]: Yeah, I mean, it's it's fine. It's great for reuse you know some larger projects that are coming through the city for site plan review or Targeting rainwater reuse for you know flushing and stuff like that You can do it on a smaller scale on homeowners, but it's probably not cost-effective for most homeowners, so But rainwater for irrigation, for gardens, those are great, great things.
[Brenda Pike]: So yeah, so I think this group as the Medford Connectors, we would love for this group to help out with that resident education part of it as well.
[Owen Wartella]: Yeah, and I think we've provided some programming with the climate action plan as well that your office has done that we could probably provide them if they would like some documentation and some newsletter leaflets that we could distribute.
[Brenda Pike]: Do folks have any questions about this?
[Evangelista]: No, I think I was just kind of curious about the property owners and, you know, what the things are that they could do. And I know, Owen, you had just listed some of them, depaving. Was it create dry wells?
[Owen Wartella]: Yeah, basically, it's just that, sorry, it's basically taking the rainwater and putting it directly into the ground into a stone area that will allow the volume to, you know, the area for the volume of green water to recharge. Yeah.
[Evangelista]: And what was there was something roof something.
[Owen Wartella]: A roof leader. It's just your gutter. I call them roof leaders. That's it's the stance. I'm an engine nerd. You know, understood. Understood. Here, let me. OK.
[Evangelista]: All right, so I'm assuming that the leaflets or whatever information you have sort of speaks to some of those things that, you know, property owners could do to.
[Owen Wartella]: Let me share something with you all since I have it. Where is it? So this link in the chat window, I'm going to share my screen and I'll show you what it can do. So Kleinfelder, who is the person that we have doing the design for this, has created this upper Mystic River watershed tool that basically shows, it's basically analyzed all the flooding area of the properties and the EJ communities in all of northern, you know, Mystic area. And Medford is all upper Mystic. So the area we're talking about is this area right here. if you can see my cursor. And these are all for the present day flooding, and then the 2070 year events. So as climate change gets more impacted, it's going to get worse. And this website they've set up is a really good tool about showing which properties are going to be inundated and how much they're going to be inundated. and how many of the community is going to be vulnerable to these larger storm events in the future.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: So is that like the yellow? Is that like, that's showing like the water, I guess, going above the land?
[Owen Wartella]: Yeah, that's the, I think there's a table, there's a, so that's the 2% annual chance of flood hazard. So, or 0.2%. And that is basically, it's like a hundred year storm event. So we're seeing like 1% or, you know, storm events. a lot more than 1% of the time. So this is just the modeling that they're using to show what areas are impacted now versus what will be impacted 50 years from now.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Oh, I see. So potentially, if nothing is done, the chances of flooding goes up every year? Yeah.
[Owen Wartella]: The chance, no, the flooding happens because of climate change. So we're, we are anticipating more rain events, more intense rain events, 50 years in the future versus now. So this is the modeling that is basically putting a color code to that impact.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Okay. All right.
[Owen Wartella]: And the one thing that we do have on our side, so not to be all doom and gloom here, is that, you know, the Amelia Earhart Dam is there, and that is like our main protector of Medford and most of South Medford. So these models, I believe, show the impact if the dam was open.
[Brenda Pike]: So, Owen, is this model focusing more on on like rainwater or is it focusing or is it also including flooding if the dam was was not functioning properly?
[Owen Wartella]: I think this is I misspoke. I believe that this modeling is showing the rain events with the dam working properly. OK, so it is the dam is too low. It would top over that. And these are the areas that would be impacted. during these very, very large storm events. Granted, these are very large storm events.
[Brenda Pike]: Okay, okay. So this is with the dam being overtopped?
[Owen Wartella]: Yes.
[Brenda Pike]: Okay, yep.
[Owen Wartella]: So what we're trying to do is we're trying to get ahead of that curve. So we want to provide mitigation now, planning for the future.
[Brenda Pike]: Do folks have any other questions for Owen? We do have a letter of support here that Liz and Charbel has worked with me on developing. So actually, let me share my screen for that. Can you see the letter of support? So I think For some of you here, this might be the first time that you're seeing it. So I might just, I'll just read it out loud so that everyone can hear it. So this is to the MVP grant program. It just says climate change is an equity issue, since those with the fewest resources to manage its impacts are often hardest hit by its effects. This is one of the reasons that Medford's Climate Equity Council was formed to ensure that environmental justice groups in Medford have a voice in the city's decision making. One example of this is the stormwater flooding that we see in South Medford. The census block groups in this neighborhood are considered environmental justice census block groups by the state of Massachusetts because the minority population is 30 to 50% and the median household income is well below the state median. Our climate change vulnerability assessment and localized flood mitigation assessment both identified significant storm water flooding in multiple areas around the city. And Medford has prioritized improvements in this area because of the environmental justice populations they will benefit. As the Climate Equity Council, we encourage the MVP grant program to help fund this project to upgrade the drainage on Bowen and Golden Avenues in South Medford. First off, Owen, is all of that accurate? Is there anything that you would change?
[Owen Wartella]: No, that's wonderful. It's well better, better than I could write it. So thank you.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: We told you, Brenda.
[Evangelista]: Well done, chair and co, or well done, co-chairs. Well done.
[Brenda Pike]: So do folks have any edits to this?
[Evangelista]: No, well, well, it sounds great.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: We have to do more on that.
[Brenda Pike]: Yep, just a motion to, you know, to to actually support the letter not to.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, guys, so motion to approve the letter.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: I 2nd, the motion.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, thank you so much.
[Owen Wartella]: I appreciate it. This is going to, you know, it's one little piece that's going to go a long way. So thank you so much. I've also, um, I also added the localized flood assessment report to which is available on the engineering website to the chat window. So if you guys want to see what other areas that we're working on that we're trying to target. That is also, you know, you can see it there. Okay.
[Evangelista]: Thank you.
[Owen Wartella]: Thank you. Appreciate it. Have a good evening.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Why are you? Thank you. He's nice.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, he's great.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: And let me tell you something well informed. Like, that was so interesting.
[Brenda Pike]: I do feel like he's speaking a completely different language sometimes though. I'm like, wait, wait, explain to me what you're saying here.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: I didn't really understand that 0.2% flood hazard thing, but after he explained it, it was a little bit more clear.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. I think the point is that they, they, they used to call them a hundred year storms and that was what people would design too. Cause they're like, okay, each year there's a 1% chance that this storm is going to happen. But because they're happening more often, it's not a one, it's, yeah, they're not really 100% 100-year storms anymore. So we're just, they're like ramping up the, uh, what they're designing it to.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: They're designing it to. Is it similar to like, like, you know, how they speak and how it happened like millions of years ago, it's like that volcanic eruption that covered the earth. So it's kind of similar to that, but it's just like a rainstorm.
[Brenda Pike]: I don't know. I think a volcanic eruption like that would cool everything, because it would be such a cloud cover at that point that it would cool everything down. This is the opposite.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. No, I guess my point is just saying there's a low percent that something like that happens. But the, but the moment that it happens, it could mean like, like doom, you know what I'm saying? So, okay. I get it more now.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. So like, um, hurricane Sandy, um, that hit New York, um, years ago, that was a hundred year storm.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Oh, wow. Yeah. Cause it like completely destroyed the boardwalk in New Jersey. Right.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. It destroyed, yeah, a lot of things were really damaged there. Boston lucked out. If it had hit at high tide, Boston would have flooded really badly too.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: And we were just a few hours off from that. That's crazy. Yep. So I think that might be everything that we had on our agenda. Yeah. Was there any... Like new business, anything people wanted to bring up?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: I guess what is the next step now with the letter?
[Brenda Pike]: So I think we would just need your signatures on that, Charbel and Liz, as the co-chairs. And then I would give it to Owen to submit along with the grant application. A physical signature? Either way, if you want to send a digital signature. Okay. You can pop it on there.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Electronic one?
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. But you're, I mean, you're in City Hall sometimes. So if you, whenever you're here, if you want to drop by and sign it, you can. Yeah. Oh, I might have one more update that you might be interested in. I was in a meeting today or a webinar today with the Department of Energy Resources, the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, and they're applying for federal funding this spring for retrofits, rebates for the most part affordable housing. And it's going to be $50 million for retrofits in larger affordable multifamily buildings. And with income levels up to 80% of the area median income, and then $72.8 million for electrification assistance. Things like electric panel upgrades and wiring upgrades for people who are going through the mass save program, and getting like heat pumps as part of that. And the funding for that is a little bit higher, is higher income. It's up to 150% AMI. But that's, I'm excited seeing this come down the pike and they're going to be applying for it now and should be hearing back about it this fall, I think. Who's applying for this? It's the State Department of Energy Resources. So this was part of the IRA, that giant package of funding that was passed during COVID. And so the money is set aside for Massachusetts, but the state has to say how they're going to spend it. So this was their proposal for how they're going to spend it. And they're taking feedback on that right now. If you want to submit any comments on it, I can send along the link for that.
[Evangelista]: So how would this, if the state were to get these, this $50 million, how would the state divvy it up? Would it be up to the towns and cities to, okay.
[Brenda Pike]: No, it wouldn't be. So the first part that's for larger affordable multifamily buildings, they have a program already that Department of Energy Resources has people, has building owners apply to to get grants. So they would just be adding funding to that program. And then for the other one, they would just be adding funding to the Mass Save program.
[Evangelista]: Got it.
[Brenda Pike]: Okay, now I think that's it. Sorry, I was kidding before. Okay.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: So we're done with the agenda, Brenda?
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, unless anybody has anything else.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: So motion to adjourn the meeting.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: I second this motion.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Samia, Natasha, Stacey. Hi. Hi.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Hi.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Natasha, I didn't hear you.
[Evangelista]: Hello and good night, Samia.
[Jenny Graham]: It's just so loud to be here.
[Evangelista]: Yeah, I saw your message, so, you know.
[Jenny Graham]: Yeah, it's very loud to be here at midnight, but, you know, so I'm trying to hear you guys, and we are saying what we're supposed to be saying. Nice to see you all. You too, Samia. You as well.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: All right. So we will see each other in person next month.
[Evangelista]: Yes.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Right.
[Evangelista]: Until then, good night. Bye guys.
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