[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Motion to accept the minutes from the last meeting. Second.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: I as well.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Say aye in favor.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Aye. Aye.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Aye. OK. So then, yeah, we can start now.
[Brenda Pike]: I think the next thing on the agenda was, I was wondering if you wanted to have information on the website about you the same way that the Energy and Environment Committee has information on their site. So let me pull up what they have. Here we go. Can you see that? Yes, we can. Okay. So yeah. So this is just their, their webpage on, on go green Medford. Um, a little bit of information about them and then they get into the, sorry, the link to the agendas and the minutes and the recordings, and then they get into the bios and pictures of the members. Is that something you'd like to do for this group too?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: What did you say, Lizette? I said that would be awesome.
[Brenda Pike]: So by comparison, this is what the Climate Equity Council page looks like right now. It just has the mission, the members, and then a link to the agendas and minutes.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I mean, we could, I would be fine with like putting my picture and just like, you know, Arabic Medford connector. Because I don't even know what I would put for bio.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: We can put the same thing that we did for the brochure. like a short thing of like our state mission.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that's true. Brochures that never came out.
[Brenda Pike]: Do you have photos of the brochures too? Would you like to include photos?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, we all have photos.
[Brenda Pike]: That's great. Can someone here send those to me or should I reach out to Sophie?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: I have the pictures actually, Brenda, because I was the original sender to Penny when she was here. Okay, great. I'll send it first to our mission, our little paragraph that we did to everyone, see if they want to tweak it and I'll send everything to you.
[Brenda Pike]: Awesome, thank you. Of course. Cool. I guess then I think the only other thing in this administrative section here at the top of the meeting, I just want to remind folks that we had talked about our next meeting on June 24th being in person. Would you like that to be at City Hall or do you want to try to do a room in the library or something else?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Room in the library would be nice.
[Brenda Pike]: I agree.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Especially because there's AC there.
[Brenda Pike]: Nice. Nice. Technically City Hall has AC, but it's an old system.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yep. But their workspace is so beautiful. This should be taken advantage of too.
[Brenda Pike]: Yep. That sounds good.
[Unidentified]: Perfect.
[Brenda Pike]: So I think that was it for the administrative stuff. The next thing on the agenda was Medford Connects events. What upcoming events do you have?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: We have a lot actually send us a list of the ones that we were. Approve or not approve of doing. Let me see where is it. So that we have the. Pride flag raising May 31st. We have the Circle the Square, June 15th. We have Hoops and Hope, June 9th. We have Juneteenth Flag Raising, the 18th of June. Multicultural Celebration, that's June 22nd. And then Skate, Mingle, and Dance Event, the 29th of June. So we have a couple.
[Brenda Pike]: Is circle the square June 5th, not the 15th?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: I don't know. She wrote 15th. But if you see, if you know that it's the 5th, then maybe she didn't earn our email.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: My calendar says the 15th.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. I don't know.
[Brenda Pike]: OK. Yep. It is the 15th. Sorry. OK. I think I was thinking in the back of my head, the farmer's market, which starts on June 6th.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Right. It's always on a Thursday, right? Yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: Yep. Yep. What is skate mingle and whatever the third thing was?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: And dance?
[Brenda Pike]: And dance, yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: That's a good question. I don't know.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: There's just, I believe it's, um, I believe it's the gay student alliance or a gay straight, I don't know, GSA something. I think that's what it was.
[Brenda Pike]: Okay. So, oh, it's another pride month event.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Okay. Yeah. Yeah. At the La Conte skating rink, but I believe it's going to be roller skating. I believe they're going to put a roller floor down. That's very cool.
[Brenda Pike]: So what are you going to? Are you guys going to be at all of these with? Materials about Medford connects or what? What's the plan?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I accepted all except for two, but I think so. I think that's the. The goal for us to all have information about what we do and like our own like. Goals like we had for the Haitian Flag Day, kind of the same thing.
[Unidentified]: Great. Okay, cool.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: If we're not there, there'll be other liaisons and or connectors there. When I say we, I'm talking about the three of us who are on the call right now.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: I think I'm pretty much at all of the events except for Circle. Is it Circle in the Square? Yep. I won't be there for that.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: I'm going to try to show up to all of them, but maybe I won't make all of them. Yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. If I drop off some Electrify Medford flyers with Sophie, can you pick them up there to have at these events?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: She usually brings like all the flyers and stuff from other organizations. I'm sure.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Sorry. I was going to say it might be good to throw some compost flyers in there too. That might really be good for the Hoops and Hope in June as well. That sounds great.
[Brenda Pike]: I'll be at Circle the Square and we'll have some kind of carnival-like games that have a climate message to them for that.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: That sounds cool.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Brenda, I have a question. I was just going to say, they'll probably be much better than our spin the wheel. We did our best.
[Brenda Pike]: Oh, I can't wait to see it. These are just wooden games that people made, that this organization called Mass Energize made. And we're renting them from them for the day.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: For those curious on our agenda. Are we going to talk about the composting?
[Brenda Pike]: Oh yes, yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: OK. I'll ask the question when we get to it.
[Brenda Pike]: Anything else under Medford connects events?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: No, I think that's it. I usually like. Sophie does like the month. Like plan, so then I think like by the end of like. two weeks before the end of June, we'll get another load of dates and stuff.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: There is a multicultural something or other that's going on in June. I think that's June 22nd. I don't know too much about that. I don't know. Is there going to be a Hispanic event?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Um, from what I heard, yes.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Yeah. No, I know.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: That's that was usually around, like, October.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Oh, October. Okay. Because I think Brazilian Portuguese, they might be August. Aren't they? Yeah, they're before us. It's all tentative. It's all tentative. I'm just kind of. Brenda was asking about events, so these are some things that are potentially coming up. We don't have nothing set in stone at this point, but. Those are a couple of additional things that we have going on. Cool. Okay. I'll keep them in mind then. Yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: And. Are these is the multicultural celebration is that something that's being put on by the Office of Outreach and Prevention, or is that a different organization.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: I'm not really sure what the. I'm not really sure who is putting it on and or what it's to include. I think we'll probably get some more information about that in the next couple of weeks. I just know it's on our calendar.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, the thing is, don't you remember Stacey? Frances was the one who gave us the list of like all these dates and stuff. And she was going around saying what it was about, but obviously like it was too many
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: I mean, we can ask her the things that Francis were telling us about. That's those are primarily events.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it roughly was the same. It roughly was the same ones because remember, I was taking the notes when we were doing. When we were on our meeting. So, it was roughly like, I think there was some extra events, but it was a majority was the events that we were already. That was in the email right now with Sophie. So that's why I think she knows a bit more about it as well.
[Brenda Pike]: Okay, there's 1 other thing that I know about on May 29th. there's the Black Health Series event focusing on asthma at the West Medford Community Center. And I'll be there with a portable induction cooktop to talk to people about natural gas and its connection to asthma. And we'll have a couple people from the Electrify Medford coaches who will be there too.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: There'll be another Black Health, the final Black Health event will be in June. I don't have the date off hand, but I do have it in my calendar.
[Brenda Pike]: What is that one focusing on?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: That's on men's health. Plus there's going to be a Juneteenth event. There's a flag raising at City Hall for Juneteenth. Yep. And, you know, the Black Health series will wrap up sort of around Juneteenth, and it'll primarily be men's mental health, I think, mental health and men's health sort of thing. And that is June 26th, I believe. I'll send you the flyer that had all the dates. It says that everything's being held at the library, but it turns out we've been doing it at the community center.
[Brenda Pike]: The library's booked pretty solid. I've been trying to book some things there in the evenings, and there's just no space.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, we kind of got booked ourselves for Wednesday for some events. You're right. It's a hopping sort of place. It's nice. Everyone wants to be there. Absolutely. As beautiful as the building is, people should be there and taking full advantage of it. Because I tell you, Malden doesn't have anything like that. And it would be nice.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: To be honest, it would be really cool if we had our own building that we could do a ton of all of these events, you know, and not have to be doing it at the school. People go there, you know, like a community center that's like nearer to us, if that makes any sense. But just saying.
[Brenda Pike]: This is one of the things I want to talk about when we get to the Electrify Medford topic. But anything else for the Medford Connects events?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Nothing that comes to mind.
[Brenda Pike]: Cool. OK. So I think the next thing on the agenda is city actions. And the first thing I'm thinking of is top of mind is Electrify Medford. Um, so we've done the first two coach trainings and there are three more over the next three weeks. We have 13 coaches who are actively participating in the trainings and there are, there are others who are, who are making up with other trainings by watching the recordings online. Um, and three of our coaches are from the Haitian task force.
[SPEAKER_01]: Awesome.
[Brenda Pike]: But we would love to have people who speak other languages other than Haitian Creole in this as well. So yeah, if you come across anyone who you think would be interested, please, please, please let them know. So we have a basic web page on the city's website. And we have an introductory flyer. And we have a Haitian Creole version of the flyer that Natasha translated for us just in time for Haitian Flag Day. And then Samia has just sent along a Portuguese translation to me today, so that's that's great. What is the process for this for the future? Do I submit that form to Sophie? That like breaks it down into the different languages? Yes.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: So Natasha had me do it this time, which is okay.
[Unidentified]: Oh, okay.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: You can, if you can just like put all the text that needs to be translated into the Word document like so, like how you saw it. And will you with the different languages and then we'll, we'll work on it. I'm working on the Arabic translations.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: I'm working on the Spanish one still. I was going to say, Brenda, anything that's 500 words or less we can translate.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, that's great. And I should send it to you through Sophie, not directly to you.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, if you can.
[Brenda Pike]: Awesome. So yeah, so I think the way it will work is we'll have some flyers that are, you know, full flyers and in each language, and then we'll have one flyer that's English on one side and then little summaries and the different languages on the back. Moving forward, I'll be adding some more detailed information on the Go Green Medford site with links to incentive programs and things like that. And I'll be putting together some more flyers, as well as the questionnaire and the decarbonization roadmap. So a lot more for me to do, more to come. But anything that you see that we're like putting out there, let me know at any point if you have any feedback on it. Like if I email it to you or you just see a flyer at an event or something, let me know, because always happy to change anything.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Brenda, I think I sent like an email, because I had a quick question about like the QR codes. Do the both QR codes that you already have on the flyer, do they go to the same website?
[Brenda Pike]: No, they don't. So one goes to, let's see, I can pull it up right here.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: One goes to signing up as a coach. Another one is talk to a coach if you have some questions. And the other one goes to one of the websites.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. So the main one that has the box around it that we're trying to call people's attention to is here. This is the main site. And then people can click to sign up to talk to a coach. And then the second one goes to the Go Green Medford site where I don't have a lot of additional information for this program on there right now. There's lots of information that's been collected there over the years, but I do need to make some additional changes to this site for this in particular. And then the third one goes to the coach signup form.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: OK. Do they all get translated? That's a very good question.
[Brenda Pike]: So the two websites do. Right now, I don't think the sign-up form does, which isn't very helpful.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: And I haven't found a way yet to translate the Smartsheet form So I might have to add links at the bottom of the text area to different Smartsheet forms that are in the different languages.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Can you get the same thing that the city website has that translates it to different languages?
[Brenda Pike]: I was looking for that. It didn't look like that was available for Smartsheets, because this is a different app than what the two websites are.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, makes sense.
[Brenda Pike]: But it's possible there's something out there and I just have not found it yet.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: So I if I if I see something, Brenda, I'll send it to you.
[Brenda Pike]: Thank you.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: You're welcome.
[Brenda Pike]: just jotting that down in the notes that we need, still need translations of those forms. Okay. We're getting some fun props to draw people in when we're tabling. We had a dollhouse at the Haitian Flag Day event that was really fun, that drew a lot of kids in and their parents, so we could have conversations. And like I mentioned, we'll have those carnival style square and for the Harvest Your Energy Festival in October. We could have them for every event, but we are renting them, not the dollhouse, but the carnival games. We're renting those for each event. So we're being careful which ones we're using them for.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Don't forget, Brenda, to modify the house.
[Brenda Pike]: Yes, Alicia's husband is actually going to put some solar panels on it for me. And he's going to 3D print a mini split and a heat pump water heater. That's awesome. And I'm going to get a little cord so that we can plug in the little car. But that dollhouse is available for any time. So if you want to use that dollhouse for any events, then you're welcome to borrow it. It was a hit. I want to have a kickoff event for Electrify Medford in early June, but I'm having a hard time finding a location. I think it should be an evening or weekend. My first thought was the library, but that's not proving very easy to find a time for that. So I was thinking maybe something like the Willis Ave Community Center in South Medford or the West Medford Community Center.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Is it a big event or is it like a mini?
[Brenda Pike]: I expect there would probably be 30 people.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: So a mini one, because I was suggesting I was going to suggest the front of the city hall because, you know, free space outside. You know, but all depends on how many people you're estimating to go there.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, that's true. It does make it dependent on weather. Mm hmm. Yeah. It's a good idea. I didn't even think of that.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yep. we can do with like tarps, like, you know, like the cover.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. Hey, we'll get people's attention. You have like green balloons, orange balloons, you know? Yeah. Oh, what is that? And they'll be like, and you can have info of the compost thing because that thing was a success. I'm just kidding. Yeah. But, you know, nice.
[Brenda Pike]: Um, yeah, I was, I was really hoping to have something in like South Medford or West Medford, just because those are neighborhoods we're really trying to target with this pro with this program. Um, and I, but I don't know a lot of areas, a lot of places where we could do it there.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Are there parks near them? I mean, there's Tufts park in South Medford. Oh, that's a good one.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Yeah. Well, and there's Duggar Park that's right across the street from the West Medford Community Center. So it could be that, you know, shoot for it. If an outdoor event is preferable, the park is right there. And that it's poor weather, you know, perhaps the community center, you know, would be the rain place if necessary. And plus, you know, too, there's, You know, if the community center is involved, is there bathrooms and stuff like that? If the center will be open, you know. So it's certainly a possibility. I mean, you know, Lisa Crossman would be the person to reach out, reach out to for that. She's the ED over there. Great. I don't know much about the Willis Street. I mean, I know it exists, but beyond that, I don't know much else about it.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, that's a Medford Housing Authority development. And actually, we applied for a federal earmark to replace the community center because it's too small. So I'm not sure that it's large enough for something like this.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: What exactly is, I mean, I don't know. I mean, Liz, you might, Liz, I can't hear you. Lizette, you, perhaps you have a better idea. I mean, would the community center be a big enough space? I mean, I know you can fit 30 people in there if you're putting them in chairs and that sort of thing, but I don't know. Is it like displays?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: How close it is to the park? That's one question.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: How close is it? It's just it's on the backside. It's on. Are you familiar with Mystic River Road? Yes, it's right behind. It's right behind Mystic River Road is right behind the community center.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so maybe like. I guess you could say, depending on the weather, that can be open. And then you can have half and half, sort of. Because people need to go to the bathroom and stuff like that. They can take a little walk and go there. And there'll be maybe some booths of information. But majority of the stuff can be on the opposite side. I mean, depending if the weather is good.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Yeah. I mean, it's easy enough to scope it out. You know where Duggar Park is? Me personally. Yeah. Okay.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Maybe on to be honest, if I see it, maybe I'll remember, but as you see it, you probably you probably will.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Yeah. Okay, well, it's certainly an option, I think, certainly a viable option.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, thanks for those suggestions. I don't know why I hadn't thought of outdoors before. That's a good idea. And we're also working with the mayor's schedule to have her come to it as well.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: That's cool.
[Brenda Pike]: I think that's it for Electrify Medford.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Before we go on, I just wanted to connect up with the coach recordings. Now, do we go to the Is it America Rewiring or something? Is that where the trainings are there? Yes, Rewiring America. OK. Because I was kind of on the impression they were Zoom meetings that were being recorded. And I did connect to it. So I kind of saw it. But I wasn't really sure what I was looking at. And I didn't click on very much. So I just, you know.
[Brenda Pike]: So they're available online as those recordings. But I know it can be hard for people sometimes to, you know, take the time to sit down to do it if they don't have a fixed time. So that's why we're doing the zoom meetings where we're really just getting on together and watching those recordings together.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: But Edith from Abode is actually going to be joining us each time. And for the last half hour of the Zoom meeting, she'll just be there to answer people's questions.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: So there's quizzes and stuff, or there's some sort of test at the end of the four trainings that folks, do folks have to pass those?
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, so each of the sections, there are four sections, and each section has a quiz that's like 10 questions long or so. Yeah, and you do need to pass it, but you can retake it multiple times if you if you don't do it the first time, it's really just a way for them to highlight sort of the most important topics that they're trying to get across in the recordings.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Yeah. Thank you. Yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: Oh, composting. Yeah, Lizette, did I hear that you went to the, uh, that you went to the garbage to garden compost event?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: So luckily I passed by it without even realizing it. And then my sister went crazy and I don't know if she like signed up for it, but she needs to get a compost thingy. So I was just curious to know where those are at the city hall.
[Brenda Pike]: Oh, so did you stop and get a bin?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: No, I couldn't because it wasn't, I think it was, correct me if I'm wrong, the same day as the event? The Haitian Flag Day event? Am I crazy? Yeah, it was. Yeah. yeah um so yeah so your sister can sign up anytime oh no she signed up she just oh she already did okay yeah that's what i'm saying she needs to get the um composting bin but that's where like she doesn't know where to go so i would like to know where that goes so then i can tell people
[Brenda Pike]: That's interesting. My impression was that they were doing that one big distribution event, and then they were going to drop the rest of them off at people's homes, like, you know, whenever it is that they've signed up for. So if she signed up for it to start July 1st, it would be before them.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: She texted me and she said, I signed up for them, but I don't know if I'll get one. Nice.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, but I can double check that with Alicia to make sure what's going to happen. Because I don't think they were planning on doing another big bin distribution event. I think they were just going to drop them off at people's homes after that.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Okay. If anything, where, like, where at the City Hall can you go to ask or to sign up?
[Brenda Pike]: That would be my office, yeah. Planning Development and Sustainability room 308. But also you could just go online to medfordcompost.com and that would have information there that we would have.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Okay. That was perfect.
[Brenda Pike]: Cool. We have a little over 3,000 people signed up for composting now.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Wow.
[Brenda Pike]: So there was a big jump.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: That's good.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Wow, that almost doubled since last month when we met, hasn't it? Or it's more than doubled, hasn't it? Well, it was about 2,000. It was about 2,000 before. Oh, I thought it was less than that.
[Brenda Pike]: Well, there was like 1,000 who signed up to start doing it now. And then there were 1,200 who signed up to start in July. So there's like 2,000 roughly total. So we've had another 1,000 people sign up since then. That's awesome. But the goal is for us to have 4,000 people signed up by July 1st. So we're still trying to get the word out. I think that's everything for the composting. For the Andrews and McGlynn heating and cooling system updates, we presented to the school committee on April 29th about the plans for the heating systems for those schools and the repairs in the other three schools that are kind of being lumped in together in the contracting process. And they were happy for us to continue with those plans. At the same meeting, the school committee passed a resolution banning the purchase of fossil fuel equipment for the schools unless the school committee authorized it. So the city or facility staff couldn't just replace equipment that had broken down with new fossil fuel equipment, they'd have to go to the school committee first and get approval.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: That's really good.
[Brenda Pike]: Definitely, yeah. And then, oh, brand new thing here. We applied for technical assistance to put together a decarbonization roadmap for city-owned buildings, where we kind of outline, this is all the equipment in our buildings. These are the expected lifetimes of them. This is what we would replace it with when it gets close to the end of its lifetime, and just have a plan set out for the next 30 years. And we applied for technical assistance from the Department of Energy Resources for that. And we got that award. So over the next couple of months, we're going to be working with their contractor that they've hired to help us to put together that roadmap. So I need to be collecting lots of information about our buildings over the next couple of months to get that done.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: So Brenda, how does the financing for that work? I mean, okay, so we're looking at, you're looking at putting out a 30-year plan for lifespan. Does that mean that the city begins now to start thinking about that and tucking money away, or is that a matter of grants from the state and our federal? To accomplish anything, you know, when when the lifespan of a building or whatever.
[Brenda Pike]: So I mean, so the idea is that this plan means that we don't, we aren't stuck in situations like we are now where it's an emergency and we have to do it as quickly as possible because we're already, you know, we've already lost cooling in some places, right? So the idea is that with this plan outlined, we can say, okay, in, you know, three years, we're going to need to replace this, you know, water heater. No, or we're going to need to replace water heaters across all of these schools. Let's apply for a grant in order to do that. And it allows us to take, you know, to plan it out. Some of these grant timeframes can be really long. So, it makes it really difficult in an emergency situation. So, having a plan like that makes it much easier to go out for those grants.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Right. I just didn't know if, you know, you know, you know, we're having the foresight to look, look ahead and, you know, are the dollars and cents sort of, you know, are the savings accounts, you know, being replenished and such in order to accomplish those goals, you know, three, three years down the road and that sort of thing. But I get it. It will be grants and that sort of thing. So that's good.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, I mean, that's the goal is to be able to plan for that, right? Whether it's or city funds, we, we definitely don't have the funds for all of that now.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, yeah, well, that's what I figured. But, I mean, I think it's, I think it's great to have a plan in place. And I, so I just kind of wondered, I mean, you know, a plan is great. So, you know, we, you know, we shouldn't, we shouldn't get caught, you know. I'm not going to say what I would normally say, but it won't catch us off guard. Yeah. You know what I mean? Because we've been planning for it, we saw it, we planned for it. Now, the plan is here, how are we going to get it in action?
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, definitely. I mean, we have a lot just the next few years with the HVAC upgrades in the in the couple in Andrews and McGlynn repairs and three other schools and then the high school. either complete replacement or giant retrofit situation coming up on us, so.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: No way, they're thinking of rebuilding it?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Complete replacement sounds like the way to go there, gut and rejail.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Oh, so many memories.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, but have you seen that place?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I know, it's shaped like a jail, it looks like a jail, but it's the best place I've ever been.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: I mean, the concrete steps are crumbling. That's true.
[Brenda Pike]: It's kind of bad. Yeah. I mean, that's what we'll be taking to account. So the Massachusetts School Building Association is going to be giving us funding for part of the cost of that. And they require that you look at replacement and a retrofit and see which one makes the most sense.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Will they come up with a plan, Brenda? Like showing what they will do, like architectural-wise? Just curious.
[Brenda Pike]: Oh yeah, we will. We will. So we'll come up with the plans and we'll submit them to the MSBA. Yep. That's awesome. And there are arguments for both sides because the argument for keeping the existing building is, from my perspective, There's so much carbon emissions that went into the building of that building. And if you build a new one, you're putting all of that in again a second time. And that's like half of a building's emissions over its lifetime is just in the building of it.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: That's true.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: So you think it's better that they just work with what's already there?
[Brenda Pike]: I think we need to look at it and see what it would take. Because if it's so far gone that you would need to replace a lot of it anyway, it might not make sense to do that.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: If it's still in decent condition, then it might make sense to retrofit it. That's true. Yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: In all honesty, I went there the other day and I feel like there needs to be so many updates to that building that it might as well be like gutted, to be honest.
[Brenda Pike]: That's what I'm hearing from a lot of people. Keeping an open mind, but a lot of people think that, yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, like I remember being there and it was summertime and we were all dying of heat. No matter how much you open the windows or anything, it was so hot. Then in the wintertime, it was cold like it wouldn't.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: It's really almost criminal, like what they put those kids through.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: And I should know I was, you know, I wasn't there not too long ago, you know. Every summer.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: I was there in 2000 till 2011. And that thing, it's still, it's still the same, a little bit like, I don't know, everything deteriorates. So, you know, yeah, I mean, it would be a sin though, because they just did the science labs like a few years ago. Right, Brenda, they like remodeled it.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: It was like, that was like 2018. Yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: I don't know, but I think that needs to be over.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Actually, 2015. Yeah, a few years after I graduated.
[Brenda Pike]: Oh, wow. Almost 10 years ago now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Oh, Brenda, please don't say that. Do you know when the school was rebuilt? The high school? I don't. 1960 something? Huh? 1960 something? No, I think it was after that, because it wasn't that it wasn't that old when I 19, I mean, 1894 between 1894 to 18.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: No, not not the old was the rear wing.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: No, I'm talking about the new high school on Winter Street, not the not the high school that was on. What is it on Forest Street? Yes, now, isn't it?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Yes, yes, near the theater, right? That's where the old one used to be.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: That's right. That's the old now that might have been built in 18,000 or something. Yeah. Which one? I'm talking about the one on Winthrop Street. When was that built? I'm thinking in the 70s. Well, you're talking about the one that Charbel and I went? The current high school.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that was in the 70s, I think.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: That's what I'm thinking. Yeah, 1970s. It wasn't that old, but even at that time, it was starting to, you know.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Just think about all the stuff that.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: In 30 years, there should be some kind of refurbishing going on.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Refurbish. And up to the plumbing.
[Brenda Pike]: And ongoing maintenance going on. Yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: That must cost a lot to run that place.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: No, because it's like it's really embarrassing because like if you look at the other cities, beautiful high schools with like brand new facilities and stuff every every couple of years.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Well it's kind of like the Andrews and the McGlynn. How they totally made that brand spanking new. Like it was top notch.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: It should be something like that.
[Brenda Pike]: So I think the only other thing that I had here was the Energy and Environment Committee update. This is an exciting one, actually. So their May 6th meeting, Senator Barrett attended. He's the head of the Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy Committee. And he talked about the omnibus climate bill that his committee is working on this year. And it should be finalized by the end of July, has to be finalized by the end of July if it's gonna be passed this year. It has like 50 to 60 different parts to it. But he mostly talked about siting and permitting of energy infrastructure. So one of the parts of this bill would create one comprehensive permit that municipalities would use. So instead of having multiple permits for synergy infrastructure, there would just be one comprehensive permit that covered everything. And this would be for things like substations and transmission lines and things like that. And if the city did not have the permit or approves it with conditions, it could be appealed to a statewide siting. And then they would consider it and their decision would be contained. And then folks could, people could lose decisions, but by appealing that to the state Supreme Judicial Court. So it was interesting because I think energy infrastructure siting is something that you get arguments against from a couple different sides, right? So you've got the people who are saying like often these things are cited in environmental justice communities. and they shouldn't be, and there needs to be more consideration around that. And then there's the people who have more money and are saying, we don't want this in our backyards, which is why it gets put into environmental justice communities. And so this is kind of trying to kind of go down that middle path. He also talked very briefly about a few other parts of the bill. Right now, residents have a right to natural gas. If there is no natural gas hookup to their house, the utility is required to connect to it. This part of the bill would make it not a right to natural gas, but a right to heat. So it's not saying how your heat has to be served, but you have to have a way of heating your house. So if that way is with electricity, then there's not that right to get natural gas. There's also part of it is a ban on competitive electricity suppliers for individuals. So that's sort of the door to door like, Companies that are kind of predatory and signing people up for contracts that are more expensive than what the utility offers. That's something that I'm really looking forward to is that ban because we had someone come into the office a couple weeks ago. who didn't know that she'd been signed up for one of these competitive suppliers. And it was $0.05 per kilowatt more expensive than Medford's aggregation.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Oh, my God.
[Brenda Pike]: That's like... Yeah, it was a difference between like $0.13 and $0.18. Yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: It's a lot of money in the long run.
[Brenda Pike]: And she didn't know about it. I assume someone must have just come to her door and was talking to her and asked to see her utility bill and got her account number and signed her up that way. Yeah. So I'm looking forward to that. Another thing he talked about is this bill, one of the aspects of it would change the requirement for National Grid to purchase electric supply every six months. So one of the reasons that Medford's aggregation is lower than the utilities rate most of the time is because the utilities are required to purchase electricity at six month intervals. So they're locked into the times when they buy it. So that's why there are those fluctuations because they have to buy during different seasons and they have to buy every six months. So this would allow them to do the same thing that Medford's aggregation is doing basically, which is time when their electricity is for times when the market's lower. lock it in for longer periods of time, things like that. That might make Medford's aggregation a little bit less competitive with National Grid's basic rate, but it would also mean that National Grid's regular rate would be a cheaper option for everybody too. It would save people money in the end.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Wouldn't that mean that National Grid would have a monopoly on electric?
[Brenda Pike]: I mean, they don't technically. So technically, utilities are a regulated monopoly. Just because the distribution systems that they manage, you can only have one, basically. That's only allowed one in each town. which is why we only have national grid here in Medford. You don't have lots of utilities vying for each other. Yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: I was going to say, because they can just charge however they want, how much they want in the end. But it's already a thing, so never mind.
[Brenda Pike]: I mean, they have oversight from the Department of Public Utilities, so they have to submit their rate plans and everything and get approval through that.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: That's true.
[Brenda Pike]: And then another aspect of the bill that he talked about was a bottle bill that will increase deposits to 10 cents and will cover more bottles. So it'll cover like the little nips that you see thrown on the ground everywhere too. So I think that was most of what he talked about. I thought it was really interesting. I think mainly the reason that he was coming to the Energy Committee was because he was doing sort of a roadshow going to municipalities, talking to them about the siting and permitting aspect of it to get feedback on that. So that's it for my information. Was there anything about any of that that you had questions about or wanted to talk about?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Nothing for me.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I think I'm all set. I was just kind of confused a little bit about the national grid thing. If you wouldn't mind just like, I don't know, explaining one more time.
[Brenda Pike]: Oh, sure. Yeah. So national grid, um, so they're a regulated monopoly for the distribution of, um, energy of electricity. Um, and, and gas where they, where they do gas as well. Um, And so it's because they manage all of the lines and the pipes and stuff that go to your house. They don't actually create any electricity themselves. Like they don't do any supply themselves. They're just buying it on the open market and having it on to customers.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. And the Department of Public Utilities, and they had been required to purchase their electricity at specific times so that the companies that did generate the electricity would know when to expect these purchases to happen. But, so that made it more reliable for those companies, but it also meant that, you know, it did increase the prices for, for customers too.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Okay. Thank you.
[Brenda Pike]: And if you're interested, for a future meeting, we can talk about the electric grid and, like, I don't know, the local distribution and the ISO New England and how that's managed and Department of Public Utilities and all of that.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Let's put that on the agenda for next meeting. Cool. You made a spreadsheet, correct, to put, like, the topics? Oh, bless you.
[Brenda Pike]: All right. Yeah, so that's our next agenda item, actually, is our priorities.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: I have a question, Brenda. If there's something like a certain, I mean, when you send us the minutes for like, you know, our meetings, if things are misspelled, is that okay? Or can I tell you what?
[Brenda Pike]: Oh, please tell me I'll correct them before we actually put it up online.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it sounds dumb, but it's just like it's supposed to say they just put, but they put, you put the T-B-E-Y where it says, um, underneath number two city communications, uh, underneath where it says tax bills, it says there's also Tufts daily.
[Brenda Pike]: Hmm. I don't know if you can see it. I'm pulling it up in front of me right now. Oh, good one. Okay. Yes, thank you.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: You're welcome. And I was gonna say, if you need anything for the event for the Electrify Medford, let us know. Anything for in terms of translation or... Translation or I think help as well too, I mean, we're not opposed to helping. And that's within the scope of it, obviously, which I think it is, so.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, that's awesome. I mean, I think part of it is definitely making sure to get you the flyers for Electrify Medford and having you be comfortable talking about it with people. So if you feel you need more, sort of more training on any of that, let me know and we can follow up in future meetings with more info.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. I mean, we can do that for a meeting, no? With all of us. So we're on the same page of what we can, what, you know, We say when we talk to people and things like that.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, yeah, definitely. I bet you've heard me talk about it so many times that you could give the summary in your sleep, but. There are some things that I get asked that are a little weird sometimes, so it's nice to have a little preparation for that. Somebody this weekend started talking to me about how he doesn't trust anything the government does, and that's why he didn't get his COVID shot. I can't breathe. Yeah. I was like, OK, that's a little bit out of my purview here.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: You imagine how many questions the mayor would get or, like, any other, like, political they're like about those questions that I'm really just like. I don't even know how to answer that. I mean, it's hard. It's hard to deal with that. That's crazy.
[Brenda Pike]: So, um, what I was thinking of in terms of these priorities is not just necessarily like, just topics to talk about at future meetings, but if there are, um. projects that you want to work on or you want to be involved in or consulted on or anything like that, then you'd want to have them listed in here so that you can decide what to focus on as a group. And one of the things that I was thinking of was just keeping in mind sort of the mission of the Climate Equity Council. to advise the city on implementation of the Climate Action Plan with a focus on representing the interests of previously underrepresented groups based primarily on members' lived experiences and perspectives they've garnered from their communities. The council will give feedback on proposed city actions, including neighborhood-specific projects, building and energy projects, stormwater projects, public health projects, and transportation projects. And I think we've talked about all of those areas here with multiple different things that are going on with each of them. So if there are ones you're particularly interested in or you want to make sure that you're continuing on moving forward, I want to try to get it in here.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Um, it's like, is there a list of like, ongoing projects that like mentioned, like, that you, that would be, you know, good for us to electrify Medford is, is one of those projects, right?
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. So yeah, I'm just, I'm dropping some, a few things in here that we've talked about in previous meetings that, seemed like they were things he might want to focus on. And some of these things you might say it's too broad. It's too broad or, well, like, yes, there are topics in this area that I'm interested in, but let's focus in on particular things, right? Or actually, that's not the way I see this committee going. Let's focus in on something more hands-on or whatever. Yeah, so just a few things that I just dropped in here. Electrify Medford, composting, stormwater education, school outreach, city policy, state federal policy, city building upgrades, city transportation projects. These are things that are the top of my mind, but there could be other things that other departments work on that you might be interested in that I haven't been, you know, directly involved in that I could reach out to people and pull them into.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: We took out of our list to the. The electric cars, right?
[Brenda Pike]: We can add it back in though. This is all open. Open discussion electric.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: I thought we, I don't know if. I remember correctly that we were going to update where, like. there was going to be more spots to be able to charge your car.
[Brenda Pike]: So are you? Yes. Are you thinking charging stations?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Because I remember you showed us like where there was already and when there was going to be. So I was just curious to know if like they put them in. where they were planning to.
[Brenda Pike]: We've got most of them in now. We're still waiting on National Grid to connect the station that's installed at West Medford parking lot. A charger is being installed at the DPW this week and at the police station next week. Although the police station one is just for their use, it's not open to the public.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Wouldn't also, Brenda, the station for the bikes?
[Brenda Pike]: Blue bike stations. Are you thinking of giving feedback on where the station should be located in the future?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: yeah i think that as well as like um where maybe like do you guys have it in your in the electrified medford like links to where like the maps are that shows where those things are what where is it where is it under because let me see
[Brenda Pike]: Let me stop screen sharing while I look for this. It's on the Go Green Medford website. Okay. Do they have any at the schools? Yes. There's one at the high school. That's good. There is one at the Brooks. There's one at the Missituk. There's one at the Roberts.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Good.
[Brenda Pike]: There's one at Hormel Stadium, so it's not technically at McLean or Andrews, but it's nearby. Yeah, close enough. It's good. I've actually had some, uh, some teachers, well, a teacher, I've had two teachers reach out to me. One of them was interested in getting an electric vehicle. And one of them said she was getting an electric vehicle because there was a station there.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: So, generally, when people get these electric vehicles, they, they don't have. They, they are unable to charge at their own homes. Most people can charge at their own homes. It's just you got to get a special. outlet or something, or?
[Brenda Pike]: Depends on how far you're driving every day. If you're not driving too many miles, like, you know, 20 miles or less, you can plug in with a regular 120 volt plug. Oh. And if you want more, if you want to charge faster, you can put in an outlet that's like what your, what an electric dryer would plug into.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Okay.
[Brenda Pike]: And that would, that would charge a lot faster. So most people can charge at home. It's, I mean, the folks who like me don't have a driveway need to use public stations.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: And then a lot of, sorry. No, go ahead. I'm sorry. I was just going to say a lot of people, um, will charge up at home. And then if they're on longer drives, they'll top off wherever they're stopping.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Right, right. I just, you know, I was just trying to understand the whole, you know, sort of the system and sort of how it works. I mean, I get that you don't have a driveway to, you know, so you can't necessarily plug in, but you still want to But I didn't know if that was sort of the vast majority, because I was kind of under the impression that you needed a special sort of outlet, you know, if charging stations have to be built in these different public places and such. But I get it. If it's just a regular outlet that you're plugging into, when you get to your place of business, you might need to plug in so that you can get back home. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, and does it work like, okay, are there time limits? Okay, you know, you get two hours, after two hours, you know, you need to, you know, unplug so someone else can plug in or do you just first come first serve kind of, is that kind of how it generally works?
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, it's different at different places, but most places say that as long as you're plugged in and actively charging, you can stay plugged in there as long as you need to. A lot of times people will, their car will stop charging and they won't come out to move it for, you know, an hour. And then that will frustrate other drivers.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Yeah. I mean, is there, do you, can you tell from the exterior if a car is fully charged? I mean, is there some sort of, some sort of thing that anyone can walk by and be like, that car's fully charged.
[Brenda Pike]: Oh, yeah. It'll show on the charging station.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Oh, on the station itself. Ah. Yep. Yeah, let me start looking.
[Brenda Pike]: So yeah, Lizette, this is the page on Go Green Medford right now. It's got the list of locations and it's got the link to the survey to ask people where they would like to see them. It doesn't have a map. We should have a map on there. But again, that's part of what I want to make changes on on the website.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's what I thought there was gonna show, like the map as well as like, I don't know, blue bikes, like that goes on our thing as well.
[Brenda Pike]: Okay, so back to the priorities though. I'm dropping in the chat the link to this spreadsheet. It was also in the agenda that was sent out. So after this meeting, if you're thinking about it, you want to go back in, make any changes to it, you can do that then. Add more things that you're interested in.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Brenda, did you press record in this meeting?
[Brenda Pike]: I didn't, but Medford Community Media is here too. Okay, good. I'm thinking this might be sort of a brainstorming meeting and then give people time to think about it more and add to this between now and the next meeting. And then at the next meeting, we can sort of vote, unofficially vote on what areas we really want to focus on moving forward.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Sounds good.
[Brenda Pike]: Anything else people want to add here before we move on?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: No, I'm all set.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: If I think of anything, I'll add to it.
[Brenda Pike]: Sounds good.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: So are we all set?
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, I think so. Unless there's anything, uh, any new business, any topics for the next meeting that we want to talk about. I think we added information about the electric grid and maybe more in depth, sort of electrify Medford. Yeah. Not a full training like the coaches are doing, but yeah, more details.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: OK, then motion to adjourn the meeting, if nobody has questions.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Aye.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Do you have a second the motion first?
[SPEAKER_01]: Second.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_04]: Hi, favor to adjourn the meeting.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_08]: Hi, sorry, guys.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: You're good.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_08]: No, I'm not.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: It's that weather.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_08]: Oh, no. Are you sick too? No, I'm kind of burned out because. It's been a long, long month. And yesterday I had to go sing. So I've sing for like six hours. So I'm tired, need a vacation. Brenda, how was, I have one last question. Sorry, guys. How was the success with the flyers? Did you wind up giving it out to people? Did they understand the flyer?
[Brenda Pike]: We had a lot of people take the flyers. We had a few people stop and talk to us about it. We had one person sign up right there, talking to me about it. And I said, oh, I can just do it on my phone right now. Yep.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_08]: OK, that's cool.
[Brenda Pike]: Good to know. It was nice because we had Immacula and Zila there. Right. About electrifying effort because they're two of our coaches.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_08]: OK, great, great. Awesome. Thank you. Oh, was I supposed to close out or something? What did I say? Nay. Hi.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I'm sorry. Natasha, get some sleep, girl. All right. Get some sleep. All right. Good night, guys.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Feel better, Natasha. Feel better, Brenda. Thank you. Bye.
[SPEAKER_01]: Good night, guys.