[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: So let's start off by accepting the minutes of the previous meeting. I'm going to motion to accept.
[Brenda Pike]: Actually, I think Stacy pointed out a typo in the minutes.
[Evangelista]: Yeah, the rescheduling part. It said April 29. Did we reschedule June 17th still? And June 17 leading to, no, that would be, oh, June, June. I'm on the wrong date. I have the wrong month. Okay. June 17th moved to the 24th, okay.
[Brenda Pike]: Okay, yes, so it's just the, I think I had it. typo in the minutes where I said today's meeting was rescheduled to the 29th, but it's actually today, the 22nd.
[Evangelista]: And will the June 24th meeting be in person?
[Brenda Pike]: Well, I think that's a good question for you guys, because it didn't seem like in-person worked out for most people today. Do you want to try that again in June, or do you just want to stick to the Zoom meetings?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: I think we could try it in June. It just didn't work out. I was originally planning to come in today. It just didn't work out. Had some stuff come up last minute. But I'm still to try again. I'm still open to trying it again. Especially, you know, everyone's feeling better. The weather will be better.
[Brenda Pike]: Sounds good. Okay, so I think we can, so I think if someone wants to put out a motion to approve the minutes with the revision of the April 29th meeting is actually today, April 22nd.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: And June 24th will be in person. Yes, and June 24th will be in person.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Okay. I second this motion. Or should I?
[Brenda Pike]: I think we need a person to make the motion first and I can't do it.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Make the motion to approve of the changes of the meeting being today as opposed to next week and that we will be meeting in person June 24th.
[Evangelista]: I second.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Okay, everyone. Everyone is agreeing. Say, I, I, I okay. And Liz has a thumbs up. So, yeah, I think we're all set.
[Brenda Pike]: One thing that I wanted to talk about, I know Samia is not here because she works late on Mondays, is should we reschedule these meetings from Mondays to another day of the week?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Well, what day works for everybody else?
[Evangelista]: Monday's good for me, Tuesday's not good for me, Wednesday's not good for me. So, Thursday, Friday, I could do.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_08]: I could potentially- On Friday, everybody is usually available.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: I'm not available on Friday at this time, but perhaps Thursday.
[Evangelista]: Well, I think the one who's not here is Samia. So it might really kind of, I mean, I don't know.
[Brenda Pike]: Well, it sounds like Thursday is the only day that would work for everybody else here. So maybe we could ask Samia. if Thursdays are better for her than Mondays. And if that's true, we could move it.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. Could email, send in an email later with the minutes?
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, I can email her with it.
[Evangelista]: We did hear from Lizette though. Lizette, what about your schedule?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: If you're talking, we can't hear you. Is she sending a chat to you, Brenda?
[Brenda Pike]: No, she did before. Saying that she wasn't feeling well, but doesn't say it's working, but she's texting me.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: So she's available Monday, Wednesday, Friday. So not Thursday.
[Unidentified]: Oh, okay. Yep. I just got that too.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Um, so it's a bit tough.
[MCM00001513_SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[Brenda Pike]: So maybe, so maybe we should stick to Mondays then and, and Simia can join as her time allows her to. Sounds like sometimes she can if it's not too busy.
[MCM00001513_SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. I guess that's the only option here.
[Brenda Pike]: OK. I think that's all the administrative. items then. We have Emma on here from the city's communications team to talk about some of the methods of communication that the city uses and that we can use to get some of our messaging out, too. I think you guys met with Emma once before to talk about social media.
[Evangelista]: guys either in person or on Zoom. But yeah, so I am a communication specialist, as you guys probably know, and I do a lot of work for like our website, press releases, social media, newsletters, all that type of stuff. So I feel like basically, there's kind of three groupings of ways we can push things out. I would say the first grouping would be on the city calendar slash website, on social media, and then in the mayor's monthly newsletter. And I feel like we push out just about every event we get on those three platforms. So feel free to send me everything you have on those. And then the next one I would say, the mayor does like bi-weekly robocalls to the whole city. And usually we're a little bit more picky with what we include in those, just because we don't want it to get too long, because people will just stop listening, obviously, after the first few minutes of this call. So usually we keep that to major events or things that are happening in the next one, two, maybe three weeks, if it's something big, just to give everyone a heads up on the very upcoming ones. And then I feel like the last category really of ways we push things out, there might be other small ways, but the last big category would be in press releases. And I feel like we try to save press releases for like really big events, or like series of events, things we're doing for the first time maybe that are like we've never done before. So that's kind of like the bigger things. But yeah, I feel like like to push out just about everything this team does. And I work with Sophie a lot, obviously, to create flyers. She sends me stuff. But yeah, feel free to send me whatever you guys have that we can always discuss, like what platforms will be best for it. And I don't know if you guys have my email, but I can put it in the chat.
[Brenda Pike]: Emma, so the robo calls that you were talking about, are those just calls or are those also texts?
[Evangelista]: Yeah, they're calls, texts, and emails.
[Brenda Pike]: Okay, okay. And those were every other week? Okay, great. And then the mayor's newsletter you said was monthly?
[Evangelista]: last week of the month, maybe the first week of the next month if I get busy.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. Okay. Good to keep in mind in terms of timing of things, the last week of the month. Oh, interesting. I think I don't have it turned on so that anybody can direct it. Emma just sent me, her email address and I'll just put it in the chat for everybody. Everyone should be able to chat, put things in the chat now. But it's etwombly at MedfordMA.org. Now, Emma, there's also things like the Mayor's Good News videos, right? What are those and how often do they come out?
[Evangelista]: Maybe one or two a month, depending on how busy it is. Yeah, I feel like they can do those really anytime. They're pretty easy to set up. Either the mayor can talk about an event or a topic alone, or sometimes she likes to have guests come and talk with her, like in her office, and it's just kind of like a casual, informal conversation about whatever the event is or whatever. Those are usually like a minute or two long, so they're pretty easy to shoot. You just do one take.
[Brenda Pike]: And is there a certain, like, sort of level of event that those are reserved for? Like really big high profile things or can they be used for smaller things too?
[Evangelista]: A bigger item, but really anything that's good news that we want to share with the community would work.
[Brenda Pike]: Um, and then I think there are things like, I don't know, like welcome kits for new residents. Is that something that you're involved with?
[Evangelista]: I. Committee, which basically is the city hall staff person for that. I can pass along any information obviously to.
[Brenda Pike]: Sorry, I think you're breaking up a little bit there. Did you say there was a. A committee that was that does it, but you can pass along information.
[SPEAKER_02]: The welcoming committee would handle the.
[Brenda Pike]: Great, so for the other things here, would you be the main point of contact? We're getting the word out.
[Evangelista]: send anything to me and you can feel free to CC Steve, but otherwise I can loop him in.
[Brenda Pike]: I mean, I think some other things that we're thinking of in terms of means of outreach for like the Electrify Medford campaign was, you know, putting information out in tax bills. Like, water bills, real estate bills, excise tax bills. I think they reach slightly different audiences, right? So like the real estate bills and stuff would reach the owners of the property and excise tax bills won't get to anyone with a car in the city. I know that's not strictly a communications team thing, but I think you could help us to get that information in there, right?
[Evangelista]: Yeah. I feel like whoever the office is that sends out those bills might have final say, but I can definitely help write it and send it along to them.
[Brenda Pike]: Great, definitely. And then I was thinking things like, you know, information at the library or information at schools. Um, for instance, today, the library put up, um, the, their solar, the solar dashboard for the solar panels on the roof of the library. They put it up on a screen in the, in the library so that the patrons could see like in real time, like what the solar panels were generating. Um, and so I think that they would be open to having things you know, put up there for people to see. And then there are things like, there are like SUFA signs in like a couple of places around the city. I'm not sure, I think that might actually be something that Alicia Hunt in my department is sort of the primary contact for. And are you involved in that at all?
[Evangelista]: Not. I actually think that we don't even pay for those signs anymore, but SUFA just never took them away. So I'm not sure how, like, up to date the information is on them. But yeah, I'm not involved.
[Brenda Pike]: I think Alicia might still be paying for them out of our office's budget. I'm not sure how that happened. But okay, so she might be the contact there. And then in terms of like, the schools. I don't have a really good contact right now for communications with them. Emma, do you have any contacts there?
[Evangelista]: Their comms person is, name is Thomas Dalton. I can find his email too. But yeah, he would be the contact for that. What about, what about utilizing Medford Access? Is that a school thing? Or is that City thing or separate?
[Brenda Pike]: The public access team? Yeah. I think that's a city thing. And I think they're actually on right now recording this meeting. And all of these meetings are, if we tell them ahead of time, and they have the time for it or whatever, it's posted live. It's live streamed. Or they'll put the recordings that we make up after the fact.
[Evangelista]: Okay, because I know once upon a time they used to have like slides and stuff of events or whatever were going on. So that might be another place for some of the go green information could be.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. Kevin Harrington is the contact there. And yeah, if you if you want to reach out to him ever, then
[Unidentified]: I can get the contact information.
[MCM00001513_SPEAKER_01]: Great.
[Brenda Pike]: Emma, how much advance notice do you need to get this information into any of these channels?
[Evangelista]: Not too much. I would say we usually start to push out events maybe at the latest like two weeks before they happen. So I would say at least a two week warning.
[Unidentified]: It's not bad. Good to keep in mind.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Just out of curiosity, what is like the process of like I guess, advertising or marketing events that are happening in the city. And what do you think is the most effective way to reach Medford residents and alert them about these events happening?
[Evangelista]: Yeah, it's tough because there's no one spot that everyone gets their news from. So you kind of have to hit it from a few different channels. So yeah, for events, we'll obviously put it on the city calendar. And then I think one of the best ways is to do social media posts. So we'll do a few of those. But also I think posting it in public places like at the library or maybe at the senior center, depending on the event. Yeah, including it in the newsletters and the robocalls, just so we can try to hit people in just about any way that they get their news.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: And do you ever do, like, I guess, like, when people are driving through, let's say, Medford Square, do you ever do, like, those, like, big banners? Or is that for only for, like, select events?
[Evangelista]: Yeah, I would say it's for, like, the really large city events that go on. I'm not sure how they decide which ones to put up, but yeah, I would say the big events like run Medford or. I don't know, maybe, like, the winter festival or something like that.
[Unidentified]: Annual kind of.
[Evangelista]: Yeah, now, what about. What about the patch? Because I know sometimes every now and again, you know, you might see, you know, what's happening in Medford or something like that. And I don't know, is there some sort of connect that we have with the patch? Yeah, we do have reporters that we send the news to at Patch. The thing is they don't always pick up the news that we send them. So that's kind of hit or miss. That's a hit or miss. Yeah, okay. Yeah, but we do send news to them. So when they do run it, it's nice.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. So is the way to do that to do a press release and then it would be automatically sent out to the Patch along with other places?
[Evangelista]: I don't know that it's a press release, per se, or as opposed to just, you know, sort of an event, what's going on in the city on a weekend or things to do or, you know, something for the children. What is the patch? It's the newspaper, you know, I mean, Medford Patch.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Like the local newspaper?
[Evangelista]: yeah online it's you know it's not a i don't think it's a hard copy i always see it online oh i didn't know about that yeah a lot of most cities have have it you know you know there's some local news there
[Brenda Pike]: There's also some, the Tufts Daily, if you're trying to reach students at all, they have a little, they have a paper. They just put an article out about the Electrify Medford program.
[Evangelista]: Tufts Daily. Yeah. So maybe you've got to get a, got to get on that list so we can see what's happening and Tufts Daily.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, Emma, any other maybe smaller, not city, official city methods of getting the word out that you would recommend?
[Evangelista]: I think Hatch might still have a community calendar where people can just submit events on their own if you have an account. I think there might be other community calendars like that. We might be able to do Eventbrite posts. I'm not exactly sure, but yeah. Smaller calendars like that too.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, I don't know of a lot of other, I don't know of other community calendars like that one. But there are definitely like, you know, Medford Mass Facebook groups and Reddit forums and things like that where it would be another way to reach out to people.
[MCM00001513_SPEAKER_01]: Any other questions for Emma?
[Unidentified]: And for me?
[Brenda Pike]: I know that there are some events coming up this month that I've seen in the city events calendar and places like that. So it sounds like that you're at least for some of the events that you guys are working on, you're already getting the word out through the official City Channel.
[MCM00001513_SPEAKER_01]: Are we ready to move on?
[Brenda Pike]: All right. Thank you so much, Emma, for calling in.
[Evangelista]: All right.
[Brenda Pike]: Thanks, Emma. Okay. Up next, I see stormwater improvements in South Medford. An update on this project. Oh, in talking to the grantor, Owen was basically told that that project would likely not be competitive for the MVP grant because it doesn't include green infrastructure upgrades, because there's no room there with how narrow the streets are. And so We were thinking, we were hoping that talking to residents about doing green infrastructure in their backyards would be sufficient, and it doesn't sound like it would be. So he'll likely want to apply to another grant for that project. It's called the BRIC grant, B-R-I-C. And the deadline is not this month for that, so I'm sure you'll hear about it as that does get closer. And he might apply to the MVP grant for a stormwater project at Tufts Park that does have green infrastructure elements, because it does have the space there to be able to add those in. And I think Tufts Park, because it does serve sort of that same area in South Medford, like everybody around there uses it, I mean, I think it's still a good equity argument to the grantors there. So I think what we'd like to do is sort of use the letter of support that the Climate Equity Council approved for the MVP project at Golden and Bowen Streets to sort of repurpose that for these other two grants. Because it's essentially the same project. It's trying to reduce flooding in South Medford by improving the stormwater infrastructure there. Is that something that folks would be comfortable with? Is having that letter of support repurposed for the other two grants?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Sure.
[Brenda Pike]: I would think so. Okay. Could we do a vote on that just so that it's official?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Okay. I motion to approve of the repurposing of the letter of support.
[Evangelista]: I'll second. I agree.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Everyone agree? In favor?
[Evangelista]: of those.
[MCM00001513_SPEAKER_01]: Liz, that gives us a thumbs up.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Very good.
[Brenda Pike]: Great, thanks. Hopefully, it's so frustrating trying to fight for money for these projects that we know we really need.
[Evangelista]: So can the letter stand as it is?
[Brenda Pike]: Um, I think we would need to, we would need to change the letter. Okay. Yep. Yeah. Um, cause I think we are specifically referencing both the MVP grant and the Bowen and Golden in there. Yeah.
[MCM00001513_SPEAKER_01]: Sorry. Sophie is asking for the meeting link. I'm just sending it to her.
[Brenda Pike]: Okay, so um, so I had on the agenda for today, the MVP letter of support for the actually for the Medford connects program. But I would Sophie told me that that has already been signed as the as the Medford connectors not as officially as the Climate Equity Council. So we don't need to do anything else for that.
[MCM00001513_SPEAKER_01]: What does MVP stand for, aside from most valuable?
[Brenda Pike]: Municipal vulnerability. God, what is the P part of it?
[Unidentified]: Preparedness.
[Evangelista]: Municipal vulnerability preparedness.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. So it's for climate resilience in particular, really. And it really mostly goes towards addressing flooding and heat island effects and things like that. So unless there's any questions about any of that, I think we can move on to the city actions. I think so. Okay. So for the Electrify Medford program, the energy coaches who can receive stipends are finishing up their paperwork with HR. Um, this week and coach training will start next week. And, um, I'll be sending an invitation out to the coaches about that tomorrow. Yeah. So we're finally moving forward with that part of it. Yeah.
[Unidentified]: Um,
[Brenda Pike]: And I'm working with Emma on getting the website and the flyers ready for this. And once we have draft versions of those, we'll actually lay it out and everything, not just the text of it. We'll share it with the council so that we can get your feedback.
[Evangelista]: Awesome. Will it be a separate website, or will it be pages within the Medford City's website?
[Brenda Pike]: So there will be one page within the Medford City site, and then it will point over to the Go Green Medford site, which is like all of our climate efforts have been on a separate site.
[Evangelista]: Excellent.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, that Go Green Medford site has, you know, sort of housed our climate efforts for the last 10 plus years. Oh, so it's all there now. Okay. It's everything the city does around climate, basically. So it's all housed there. Yeah, we don't have the electrified Medford stuff up there yet. Got it. Yeah.
[Unidentified]: I think we talked about that.
[Brenda Pike]: It's just, I think the city site, we're going to have a lot of information on there about all the different technologies and programs that are available to people. And I don't, I think the city site isn't great for that much information. Yeah. Yeah.
[Evangelista]: Yeah, I mean, this is very specific and those who are, you know, super duper conscientious about, you know, being green, climate change and such, you know, it's the perfect place for them to hang out.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, I think, and I think the goal is to try to give people as little or as much information as they're looking for. So if they're just like, I just want to talk to you and have you tell me which things are just right for me. And that's like the very simple sort of city site and it goes straight to the form to sign up. And if they're like, I want to do all my own research and dig around the internet for hours, then they can go to Go Green Medford and go through all the links that we'll have there.
[Evangelista]: Perfect.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah.
[MCM00001513_SPEAKER_01]: Um, so I think that's it for electrifying Medford right now.
[Brenda Pike]: For community electricity aggregation, we renewed our electricity supply contract that expires at the end of this year. And we increased the additional renewable energy content to 10%. And it's at a lower cost than people are paying now to the aggregation. Um, which is really exciting. We haven't started sharing that yet. We don't want to confuse people because the changeover doesn't happen until the end of the year. So we'll probably start really publicizing that in September. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. I'm really excited about it.
[Evangelista]: It will stay, it'll stay at that cost three years.
[Brenda Pike]: Wow. Yeah. Locking in a pretty low price for the next three years.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Wow. Yeah. So it means like it will be lower gas and electric prices?
[Brenda Pike]: Just for electricity.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: For electricity, okay.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: That's very good.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, that's something we'll definitely be letting people know about through the Electrify Medford program.
[Evangelista]: Yeah, that's pretty awesome. Three years.
[Brenda Pike]: let's see, curbside composting. We have 112 people who have, you know, newly signed up to join the program, starting, you know, immediately. And we have another 918 people signed up to start in July. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's a free program, so it's not that hard to sell.
[Evangelista]: Yeah. But, you know, sometimes, you know, sometimes just getting people to, you know, open up their laptop or, you know what I mean? And wow. It's just a huge number. It just sounds like a very large number. And we have 900 people in July.
[Brenda Pike]: So you get 112 now. And we have nine people who newly signed up for now. We had 800. and 40 people who had already signed up before and were paying for it before. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So we've got 1,860 people signed up for it now. That's awesome. We have room for a lot more though. So we're going to keep getting the word out. And again, it's not, I'm not sure it totally fits into the Electrify Medford program, but I really think of this as kind of a, A stew of, you know, anything that anybody is looking for, we want to have information for them. And if we don't know, we want to find out and get back to them about it. And Garbage to Garden, the compost company, they're having a bulk compost and bin distribution event May 18th at City Hall. And I don't think that's something that we've started really getting the word out about yet. So for new customers, they're going to have bins here for them to pick up, but people can also come by and purchase compost. And I think anybody can come by and purchase compost from them. It doesn't have to be just people who signed up for the program.
[Evangelista]: So compost in the bins and compost for sale.
[MCM00001513_SPEAKER_01]: Yep. Yep. May 18th.
[Brenda Pike]: Hopefully people are still working on their gardens at that point. Is it on the events calendar? Not yet. No, they haven't. They don't have that up there yet. I think 10 o'clock, but I'm not going to promise that until it's actually up on the events calendar. Yeah. And people can, yeah, just a reminder that people can sign up for the program at medfordcompost.com. And there's an online form for people who want to volunteer to help get the word out. Mothers Out Front has signed up to help. And so they've been talking with Garbage to Garden about going around and doing door hangers and just talking to people door to door about it.
[Unidentified]: Free, free, free, free. Exactly.
[SPEAKER_06]: That's the important part of it. Free, free, free, free.
[Brenda Pike]: And it's not just an introductory offer. It's going to be free for the life of the program.
[Evangelista]: Free is always good. It's always a good start just to get people more interested in what's going on here within the city.
[Brenda Pike]: It was interesting when I was working on the Mass Save program, they wouldn't let us use the word free. Cause they were like, well, technically it's not free. It's just no cost to you right now. You're already paying for it on your electric bills.
[Unidentified]: So yeah.
[Evangelista]: Yeah. Yeah. Better to be safe than sorry. Cause you know, somebody will turn around and it's really not free. So let's see what else here.
[Brenda Pike]: Oh, we applied for a congressionally directed spending request, which is a fancy term for a federal earmark, to help the Medford Housing Authority replace the Willis-Appe Community Center. And the idea is that it will be larger and in better condition with heat pumps and solar panels, too. so that they can offer more services all year round and then serve as a, yeah. And serve as like a trusted location for people to go to during emergencies like power outages. So you've heard this Resilience Hub idea many times before. So yeah, so that's the idea. This hopefully will be one of the city's Resilience Hubs or Resilient Community Centers.
[Evangelista]: That would be really awesome. Yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: And having a bigger space, they'll be able to offer more programs. So right now, they're doing after school and summer programs and food distribution and computer learning. But they'd like to have moving to work and family self-sufficiency programs and enhanced reading programs for kids and daycare and senior programs. So hopefully, the extra space will let them do that. Yeah. Yeah.
[Evangelista]: That would be awesome.
[Brenda Pike]: The timeline for this, it's a really long process. We'll know this summer if the project would be supported by our congressional delegation. But we won't be officially awarded the funding until the summer of next year. And then they won't be able to start construction for a little while after that. So it's a long process, but it's the first step in it.
[Evangelista]: That's a nice first step.
[Brenda Pike]: We're working on the HVAC upgrades for the Andrews and McGlynn schools. We're going to be presenting to the school committee on April 29th about Our plan is to replace the heating and cooling systems at the schools and repair the systems at three other schools. And we're in the process right now of hiring an owner's project manager and a design engineer to design the systems. And right now we think that there'll be heat pumps with a condensing boiler backup. So it's partial electrification that will put us in a good place so that at some point in the future, you know, 15 years from now, probably we can we can do full electrification.
[Evangelista]: And with that, be a part of the idea of I remember we kind of talked about it being a space for emergency space or something like that. Is this sort of building towards that?
[Brenda Pike]: It will help it definitely. So we're doing the electrical recircuiting work for that we're doing that This year before June 30th, because that's when our grant we have to for our grant, but that electrical recircuiting will allow us to use it as an emergency shelter right away using the backup generator.
[Evangelista]: Okay.
[Brenda Pike]: Like the diesel generator that's there right now. So, that's already in once, but that doesn't really do. The HVAC isn't included as part of that right now. It's really more lighting and things like that. So and, you know, water and yeah, those types of things. This HVAC project will sort of contribute to that as well. Yeah. And I don't think that the school committee agenda for the 29th is up yet. So it's possible that we'll be bumped, but I think that's what we're going to be talking to.
[Unidentified]: On the 29th of April? Yeah, next week.
[Brenda Pike]: Let's see, a couple more things here. We got an electric street sweeper in January, thanks in part to some grant funding from the Masty EP. And we're using it during the big sweep that starts today. And yeah, I've heard some good stuff from one of the operators of it, who was saying that it doesn't leave a snail trail of dirt behind it that he has to turn around and do a second pass for. So he's excited. It's like cutting his time down for doing it.
[Evangelista]: Is it smooth like butter?
[Brenda Pike]: There have been some issues that they've had to deal with the manufacturer on to get it to be, you know, after it was delivered to get it to be useful. But I think they're going to be happy with it. Awesome. And we're holding another training on the stretch and specialized energy code for building inspectors at the library on May 1st. This one, the last one was focused on the residential code. This one is focused on the commercial energy code. And then after this, once the building inspectors are really up to speed on it, we'd like to hold some trainings for building owners and developers and contractors so that they understand it too. prior to the July 1st implementation date of it. And I have a couple of events coming up that I wanted to mention again. So the Boston Glory Green Fest is April 26th at Hormel Stadium. That's a ticketed event. but I was happy that they wanted to use it for, you know, to table about various climate-related things and do tips over the labs. What's it called again? Boston Glory Green Fest. So Boston Glory is the ultimate, is a professional ultimate frisbee team. Yep.
[Evangelista]: Yeah, I remember looking it up.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah.
[Evangelista]: So it's from the sixth.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, so that's this Friday at seven. And then the community cleanup is Saturday the 27th at 10 o'clock. And people can still sign up for that, I think right up until the day of. And I think there are 20-something sites all around the city.
[Evangelista]: Yeah, I remember I had thought about, um, I had thought about maybe doing one and I, you know, I kind of lost sight of it and I, because I was thinking about over in West Medford over there down the park and, you know, sort of that area. Um, but I, we have an event on that day anyway, on the 27th. So in the afternoon, right?
[Brenda Pike]: 3 o'clock is it?
[Evangelista]: Is that what time the event is? Chabot. What time is the event on Saturday? Two. Is it three? One. Oh, it's at three? Yeah. Oh, it starts at three.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: But we're going to be there earlier to set up and stuff.
[Evangelista]: Oh, OK. I didn't realize. OK.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: It's Saturday at three.
[Brenda Pike]: OK. I'm hoping to do both. They don't know Hill app, so there's time to do both. Yeah.
[Evangelista]: I'm working Saturday, so as soon as I get off of work, I'll be heading over to that, so. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: See you there.
[Evangelista]: Huh?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: We hope to see you there.
[Evangelista]: Oh. Yeah. Of course. Oh, there's a lot going on. There's a lot going on.
[Unidentified]: There's a lot going on. This is a crazy month.
[Brenda Pike]: And I was trying to get the electrified Medford stuff off the ground in time for Earth Week, because I know that, you know, get more mentions during that week. Definitely. Could not get it off the ground. And I'm kind of grateful at this point, because there's so much going on. Oh, and the update on the Energy and Environment Committee. So they submitted a letter encouraging the city council to pass a resolution supporting the make polluters pay bill. which is being considered at the state level. So they were just asking the city council to tell the state that they supported it. And some of the members said they, some of the members attended the city council meeting to comment on it. And at the next meeting, Senator Barrett, who's head of the Telecommunications Utilities and Energy Committee is coming We're on a Zoom call, so he's coming to the Zoom call on May 6 at 6.30 to talk about bills that his committee is working on. And the Energy and Environment Committee is open to the public, so you're all welcome to attend if you're interested. Their meetings are posted to the events calendar. And I just dropped the Zoom link to it in the chat. And at the last meeting, they finalized what priorities they want to focus on this year. That was a long conversation broken up over multiple meetings. I think that's the end of my updates. Do you guys have any questions about anything that's going on?
[Evangelista]: No, that's a lot.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, Brenda. So I helped my dad sign up for, what was that thing? It's like the, I'm like, Blanking on the name, the Lee Heap, L-I Heap.
[Brenda Pike]: Oh, Lye Heap, yes. With the ECD.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I helped my father sign up for that so that he could get some, get like, you know, hopefully they will pay some of the electric bill. And he recently got a letter that he was approved for it. So do you know what the step after this is? Or like, it will proceed as its own, on its own?
[Brenda Pike]: For the discounted energy prices, that will happen on its own. So ABCD will communicate the list of people who are eligible to the utility and then the utility will make that change.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Okay, very good.
[Brenda Pike]: If he was signing up for fuel assistance as well, to like, help pay his existing bills, not just get a discounted price moving forward.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, the fuel assistance one.
[Brenda Pike]: The fuel assistance, yeah. Okay, yeah, so ABCD should be following up with him about the fuel assistance.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Okay, then.
[Brenda Pike]: But if he signs up for fuel assistance, if he signs up for LIHEAP and he signs up for fuel assistance, then he automatically will get the discount rate added to his bill moving forward too.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Very good. And they will communicate with National Grid?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: All right. Thank you.
[Brenda Pike]: And then this also means that he's eligible for energy efficiency upgrades to his house through the Mass Save program for free.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: The heat pump, like for a heat pump, for example?
[Brenda Pike]: Yes. For insulation, for air sealing, for heat pumps, I think they also do refrigerators for free for people who are eligible for LIHEAP and fuel assistance and all of that. That's something that I think If ABCD hasn't already talked to him about it, he should reach back out to them and ask about it.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Okay. Yeah, I just, I know that he received a letter and he was telling me about it. Cause like I said, I helped him create the application. And I just wasn't sure where to go from there. They basically said, oh, you get this amount of money in benefits. So it's like, OK, what do I do now? So that's a good thing to ask you. Thank you.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, the fuel assistance and the discounts will be automatic. But yeah, any changes to be made to his house, like insulation, air sealing, all of that stuff. I think he would want to reach back out to ABCD to talk to them about signing up for that program. Yeah, that's great. How did you find the experience of doing that application? Was it difficult?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: It wasn't difficult. It was just, it took like a long time to kind of for them to like, I guess, like the process just like took a long time, like two months or something. The application itself is not difficult at all. They just, you know, they require, you know, identification, income, all that stuff, which is standard these days, you know.
[Brenda Pike]: Yep, that makes sense. So yeah, so I think the thing that Hearing that that I would tell people is it's not that difficult, but it takes a while for them to respond when you get signed up. So do it sooner rather than later.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: It is nice that you can do it all online. You don't necessarily have to call them unless you have questions. So yeah, it's good that way you can upload all the documents online.
[Unidentified]: That's great.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: All right.
[MCM00001513_SPEAKER_01]: Any other questions about any of the city updates?
[Brenda Pike]: In terms of new business and future meetings, Do we want to add an item each week for like Medford Connects events and things that you're doing that you might want to just bring up in this meeting and discuss?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: I think that would be a good idea. Because apart from my event, I know that we have the Haitian Flag Day coming up in May, so I'm sure Natasha will want to share more details about that. We all help each other when it comes to these events, so I think that would be nice.
[Brenda Pike]: That would be great. And I think they're a great opportunity to get the word out to people about all of these programs. So yeah, good to know everything that's going on. And then for future meeting topics, do you have any suggestions for things you want to discuss at the next meeting? Do you want to put together a list of priorities for this group in the same way that the energy committee did so that you kind of have a focus moving forward for the rest of the year?
[Evangelista]: That might be a good idea.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. Because I can't really think of new topics to discuss, but maybe just updates on the priorities, prioritized subjects.
[Brenda Pike]: I can put together a spreadsheet like the Energy Committee had and maybe put some suggestions in and then send it out to you guys so that you could add your own suggestions. sort of vote on what topics you're the most interested in.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Sure, sounds good.
[Brenda Pike]: Anything right now that's kind of coming to the top of your mind that you'd like to make sure is included in that?
[Evangelista]: Nothing's coming to me right now. I think maybe once the, you know, if you're going to create a spreadsheet and start putting and throwing some topics out there, it might, I think it might start to, yeah.
[Unidentified]: Yep. Sounds good.
[MCM00001513_SPEAKER_01]: Okay. Anything else we want to talk about today? Can we get a motion to adjourn?
[Evangelista]: Motion to adjourn.
[SPEAKER_06]: I have a question. Oh, I'm sorry. It's all good. I've been in so much meeting, my brain is fucked. What's your question?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, I wanted to know, you brought up a point about like my event for the Haitian community, Haitian Flag Day is coming up next month. And I was wondering, do you guys would like to come to do a little, maybe a little tabling over there? So you could put kind of like some of the things that you spoke about that the community, Haitian community, could be probably not aware of that is happening because it's a lot of things that you've said that my aunt is a homeowner and she doesn't know much about these things, you understand, and she's been in a Medford residence for like over 20 somewhat years. So and I don't think her children know of these things in Medford to the point that they would like share it with her. So basically now it's going to be on my my end to do so. So but that's my aunt. But I'm wondering if there's other Haitian residents who are homeowners in Medford that knows about these great opportunities, you know, and what for them to do, like about flooding in Medford, if their house, because one of our friends, my sister in church, one of her house is in Medford. And when it rains, her house is bombarded with flood, you know, and she don't know what to do with that. So yeah, so those are the things that are going in my mind right now, as you guys were speaking, because it's like so much. So I'm wondering if you would like to come on May 18th, if you have time in your schedule, maybe you could do a little tabling and enjoy the Haitian fiesta.
[Brenda Pike]: That would be great, absolutely. And we also, a couple of our Electrify Medford coaches are from the Haitian community too, so I'd love to have them there.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_08]: Awesome, I would love to meet them, yes.
[Brenda Pike]: That's great, yeah, that sounds wonderful.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_08]: When I get the flyer ready, I'll pass it on to you via email. That's great.
[Brenda Pike]: And as I mentioned, as we're getting all of the Electrify Medford materials together, we'll share them with you. And at any point, if you have any feedback on it, even if it's a finished flyer, it's printed out, it's out there, and you're like, actually, I think you should probably change this, let me know. We can change them anytime. Matt, sit on the bed. And Natasha, you mentioned that your friend's house floods when it rains. So yeah, do you want to follow up with me separately about that? Because I'd love to hear more about it and see if there's something that could be done.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_08]: Yes, I will speak to her. Maybe we could do a three-way to talk about it, because she was mentioning this. She's like, I don't know what to do. Maybe I should sell the house and this and that. I'm like, oh, OK.
[Unidentified]: Don't know.
[Brenda Pike]: That would be hard for you to disclose that, right?
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, I'm like, OK. I hit my car? Yeah.
[Evangelista]: especially if you see water lines in the basement. Yeah, definitely. So thanks, Natasha. Re-motion to adjourn.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: I second this motion.
[MCM00001513_SPEAKER_01]: All in favor? Aye.
[Evangelista]: Opposed? Abstained?
[MCM00001513_SPEAKER_01]: I see Lizette is giving thumbs up there. Hi.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_08]: I'm sorry my son just got in the car. I didn't like talk to you so much. Sorry guys.
[MCM00001513_SPEAKER_01]: Great. Thanks a lot everyone.
[Brenda Pike]: We'll see you.
[MCM00001513_SPEAKER_01]: We'll see you next month.