[Brenda Pike]: Lizette, do you want to kick us off?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. I just want to make sure, though, that I'm on the right minutes one. It's the one that says July 19th, 2020 for the last one that you sent us, right?
[Brenda Pike]: Because it gets mixed up with my emails. Oh, gotcha. Yeah. So the agenda is for August 23rd and minutes that will be approving are from July. OK, so.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: All in favor to approve the minutes of July. Hi, hi.
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: Hi, perfect.
[Brenda Pike]: I didn't I from you too was that yes. Great. Okay. I just want to, as part of the administrative stuff, can we confirm that the next meeting will be Friday the 20th at 530? Yes. And do folks want to do that just virtual or in person?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: I think that one I'll be able to do in person. I'm not sure everybody else.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can only do it.
[Brenda Pike]: Well, that's true, Charbel. You very graciously volunteered to call in on Friday so that we could all be here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. But if you want to do a hybrid, you know.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Well, I don't get it. Charbel can't come in?
[Brenda Pike]: Not on Fridays. Samia, Stacey, do either of you want to come in in person for the September meeting or would you rather do it virtually?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: I can really kind of go either way. So whatever the majority wants to do is fine with me.
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: Me too, whatever you guys decide is fine with me.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: What would you like to do, Brenda?
[Brenda Pike]: Well, it's easier for me to just do a virtual one, especially if I'm the only person who's here in person.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Right.
[Brenda Pike]: Yep. Do you have a preference? I mean, because I mean, I like in person better because we all get to see each other. But if folks have a hard time making it in person, then it might be better to just do it all online.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Like I said, I can go either way, you know, whether we do it you know, everyone in person, you know, or do every other or something to that effect. I mean, I don't, I don't know. It really doesn't matter to me. It was just easier for me today to, to be home. So, yeah.
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: I do feel that we get a lot of things faster and done in the Zoom, though, because you don't extend the conversation too much when you're in person. No, but like, I'm with Stacy. Whatever you guys decide is fine.
[Brenda Pike]: That's fair. Well, let's say hybrid for now. And then when I send out the agenda for the next meeting, can you guys just let me know ahead of time whether you think you'll be here in person? Or not, and then I can just factored into the agenda at that time.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: What was the date? Was it 920? Yep. Okay. Okay.
[Brenda Pike]: Great and the only other administrative thing I wanted to mention, I don't know that this impacts you guys at all, but in the planning department, we are left in mid August and we've been interviewing for a replacement. So things are a little bit. Replacement for what? Oh, for the, for the clerk in our office. Okay. Okay. Yeah, so things in our office are a little bit hectic right now as everybody's trying to pick up his slack until we can get someone hired into that position. Yeah. I think that's it for administrative. Was there anything else you wanted to talk about there? No. It looks like... Go ahead, Lizette.
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: No, I was gonna say I think we're good with that. We can go. I think the next thing is Medford Connects events.
[Brenda Pike]: Yes. How was Brazilian Independence Day?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: It was amazing. It was noticed that you weren't there.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, I really wish I could make it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, where's Brenda? I see the dollhouse, but I don't see her.
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: But the ladies that were on the table, you know, like they did a great job and they introduced themselves to all the vendors, you know, and talking about it. So it was pretty cool. I think they did a good job.
[Brenda Pike]: That's great to hear because they haven't done one. They haven't done an event by themselves before. So it's great to hear that.
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: They were very excited, actually. They were very excited and get to know what the other agents do, you know, and they exchange information. It was interesting to see.
[Brenda Pike]: Very cool. And in general, how did it go? Was there a good turnout?
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: Not in the beginning. The beginning was kind of slow and got a little scared, like, oh, nobody's going to show up. But suddenly everybody came, you know, lots of kids. So I was very happy about that. And what I even mentioned to Catherine about was that we had so much support from the city this time, you know, the whole department help out. that I think we could do something bigger than we did last year. And I think the hope is every year get better and better all the events that we do, you know. And with the support, you know, it helps a lot. So we're very happy about that.
[Brenda Pike]: Nice. Are there any other Medford Connects events coming up?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: There is Brenda, the, it's my event, the Hispanic heritage month event, but we're still looking for. Yeah, I know it's. Okay.
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm sorry. Can you repeat that? You're breaking up.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: I said that I'm waiting on Catherine and Sophie for the dates of the event because I need to check up with Francis as well as the mayor.
[Brenda Pike]: That makes sense. Yeah. There are a lot of events in the next couple of months. It's a very busy time of year. Oh, yeah, I think is an October 1st, like, 1 of them. Yep. So, unless there are other Medford connects events coming up, I can jump into other city events.
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's coming out the right.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Oh yeah. What is it? When is it?
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: The Tufts community event.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: I'll tell her right now. Hold on. Tufts community day. Yeah. We got, we got a invite, didn't we?
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me see Tufts.
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: But you know, Brenda, it's just like the night out, you know, I think that event is very important to the city. And I shared that with the team, we had a team meeting on Wednesday, and I was saying like, how important it is for the city, you know, to be provided events like that, that it can have things for free, especially like food. Because some people cannot afford to do some fun things with their kids, you know, like, It's expensive, you know. Sometimes you kind of even hesitate to leave the house with the kids because you're definitely going to spend some money, you know. So you have a way to have entertainment and food, you know, for free. It's pretty amazing. So hopefully, you know, we get more support, you know, and all those events can be providing more things to the residents and, you know, and everybody enjoying.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, that's great. So the 29th of September. Yeah. Got that at the 11 to three. Right. And the tough squad. Yes. Yes. So other events that I know are coming up, so we're holding an electric vehicle showcase here at City Hall on September 14th. That's 10 to 12 and we're just going to have a bunch of. Mostly city staff actually there with their vehicles just so people can take a look at them and. Uh, talk to the owners about, like, the pros and cons of the different models and stuff. And then we'll also have green energy consumers alliance here. Um, to as a, as a resource for people, as they're trying to figure out, trying to compare electric vehicles and learning about incentives and things like that. And we'll also have, um, blue bikes here. Um, they're going to have some of their e-bikes for people to try out. And then some, um, of the participants are also going to bring e-bikes and e-scooters and things like that too.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: That sounds like fun. Do you know that I'm teaching ESL class at the library for the city? And one of our discussions slash homework yesterday was about electric cars. What about them? It was saying basically what they knew about it, for example. is a patrol petroleum cars better than electric cars are like, you know, they were comparing, you know, the pros and cons to it. Like it was it was it's a very conversational class. So it was just a lot of questions about it and see like, their knowledge as well as like, them being able to, you know, have conversations in English with it. So it was really good. It was fun. Cool.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. I would love to hear what their perspectives on it were.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Oh yeah. I think nobody else knew like a brand of like electric cars except for my husband, because he's one of the students. He's like, I only know Tesla makes it. And I was like, really? And then like, they were, they were, I wish like, I wanted to bring them I mean, obviously, like Sophie gave me those, like the day of, but I wish I had like some, you know, like facts about it. So they know it because obviously, like, they were like, Oh, I thought like, they're, they're slower, like than patrol cars. And I'm like, Well, I think that like, now with like the new technology, they're, they're like the same or even like faster. Like, you know, and it's like, that's why, like, you know, that knowledge, they need to like, know it too. So I wish I had something like that, like a fact thing about them. But other than that, it was really, really fun.
[Brenda Pike]: That's great to hear. Yeah. They can definitely go as fast as a regular car and they actually can go zero to 60 faster than a regular car. They're very peppy.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Wow. But it takes long to charge. I think that was one of the cons that they didn't like.
[Brenda Pike]: Yep.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Charging.
[Brenda Pike]: Yep, definitely takes longer to charge it up than it does to pump gas. Oh, yeah. Yep. Okay. Oh, there's also the Mystic River Celebration, September 21st at the Condon Shell. Is that something that you guys are thinking about attending? I did not even know that that was happening. So that's sort of an art thing. Let me drop the link into the chat. What is the name again? A Mystic River Celebration.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: It looks like it's a Wednesday, Wednesday afternoon, 12 to 4.
[Brenda Pike]: Nope, it's Saturday the 21st from 12 to 4. You might be looking at last year.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Okay. Yeah. Okay. I see it now.
[Brenda Pike]: Gotcha. Oh, sorry. The form I gave you was the registration form for vendors. I can do the main page for it too. All right. I just dropped the main page into the chat. But it's like performances, crafts, food, lots of activities for kids. That looks fun. Yeah. So I signed up the table there for Electrify Medford. Oh, that's cool. I'm also going to be at the farmers market on September 26th. And then there are a couple of events coming up that I won't be able to make it to because I'm going to be out of town for a couple of weeks. So run Medford is happening on the 27th. Well, 27th and 28th, there's a thing at Hormel Stadium with lots of activities for kids and the mayor speaking and things like that on the 27th. And then on the 28th at 8 AM, there's the actual race. I don't know how many people usually go to that, but that's an annual thing. And then you mentioned Community Day. I'm hoping to have someone from Electrify Medford there, but I won't be able to be there myself. And then same for Oktoberfest, which is October 5th in Medford Square.
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: You're not going to be available for the Community Day?
[Brenda Pike]: No, I won't. I'm out of town for two weeks then.
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I'll check with Sophie if we're having a table over there, maybe we can share a table. We can do that.
[Brenda Pike]: That's great. And then I'll be back in time for the Harvest Your Energy Festival on October 19th. I think that's all the events that are happening, at least the ones that I'm aware of. Switching gears a little bit, the curbside composting program, we have over 5,000 people signed up for it now. We're still trying to get the word out, though, because our goal for this year was 6,000. So we want to hit that and surpass it.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: That's so cool. Don't worry, Brenda. I've been giving out those, um, the doors.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. I like those door hangers because on the back of them, it lists out all of the foods that can and can't go into the combo. So it's something useful that people could like post up on their refrigerator or something.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah. Didn't we talk about last time that there couldn't be any bones and stuff like that. So it's a good thing that they put that there, like the list in the back of it?
[Brenda Pike]: That's a good question. I think there can be bones, because it's a commercial composting facility that it's going to. You couldn't do bones in your own backyard composter, but I think you can.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: Let's see what else. For the McGlynn and Andrews HVAC project, we finally signed the contract with the designer. And so they're working right now on an existing conditions assessment. And we're putting together the owner's project requirements so that they have all the details that they need in order to design the project. We're a little behind schedule on that because it took so long with the contracting, but we're hoping to to make it up by moving quickly with the assessments and the project requirements. But that project construction won't start until next summer. So, the design is going to extend through.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Early next year, I mean, at least you guys got it.
[Brenda Pike]: Yes, finally we're moving forward. Yeah, that's crazy. A new thing, we are going to the city council on September 10th to get approval for an EV charging revolving fund and that way money that people pay to charge their cars at city-owned charging stations can be used to pay for the electricity and the maintenance of the stations. Right now, that's just coming out of the planning department's budget. And use of the stations has more than doubled each year since 2021, so it's becoming a bigger and bigger chunk of our budget each year. And at the same time, We're planning to increase the amount that people are paying at the stations so that we can cover our costs. So right now, people are paying 25 cents per kilowatt hour. And we're planning to increase that to 35 cents per kilowatt hour. And that's roughly equivalent to like $3.50 for a gallon of gas. If people charge at home right now, by comparison, they can pay 21 cents per kilowatt hour. if they're with Medford's aggregation. But one of the things I wanted to talk with you guys about is we don't want to burden low-income residents by increasing the cost. I'd like to set it up so that they can get discounted charging by signing up through the city and getting a special card to use. Do you think that's something that people would actually do? Do you think that many low-income residents currently have electric vehicles?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: I think that's the big question for that because in all honesty, I think, only you're the only person that I know that has an electric car. Like to be honest, I don't, I don't know anybody else that has an electric car, which I know they're like good for the environment. But I think that that for me is like the most important, the cause of having one.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. You should come to the EV showcase. There are lots of people who work here in city hall who have them. You can meet more people. When did you say that was again? Oh, it's on the September 14th.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[Brenda Pike]: But one of the things is I don't want to discourage people from getting an electric vehicle by raising the price, right? So if someone, I know the upfront cost of an EV can be expensive, but there are, you know, there are incentives that are available to buy that down a little bit. So I don't want the operating cost of it to be a factor. I mean, it's pretty much equivalent to what gas is now.
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but if people don't get incentive to pay for their gas, you know, and I think you were in that line that when you're trying to advocate for a cleaner environment and everything, you know, we always encounter those people that, you know, don't agree with certain, you know. So, I've been trying, you know, don't go deeper with people, you know, and I respect their opinions when they come to me and bring those issues, but I can see their point. You know, like that is really not, they can afford an electric car because they cannot afford a new car at all, you know, even with the incentive, you know, but that is all those on top of that incentive, like you're just talking about, you know, reduce the cost and everything for people that has an electric car. That is not an incentive for people that can't afford the electric car right now to, you can go from home to work. So in any state that made that conversation that, you know, you try to advocate for a cleaner environment, you know, like, and we just need to listen, but they automatically think that we're the cause of all that, you know, like, and sometimes I feel attacked by some people because of that.
[Brenda Pike]: I get that a lot. Yeah. Yep. So, I mean, I mean, basically what we're trying to think about right now is by creating the option for low-income residents to sign up for this and get a discount on their charging. Are people going to take advantage of it or are we setting up a whole process and the administrative burden of it that's not actually going to be useful?
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: But the charger at home takes longer than the charger that we have in the street, isn't that right? Or am I mistaking that?
[Brenda Pike]: It depends. You can install a level two charger at home that goes the same speed as this one.
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: Oh, okay. Yep. Because I heard some people saying that, you know, they always put in their schedule to charge their cars, you know, in the public places and all the public chargers, because they're not so worried about the charging, you know, for their electric bills or whatever. It's the timing. that was taking for them to charge their car.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. I'm assuming that that's because they haven't installed a level 2 charger at home. They're just doing it with a regular wall outlet. Yeah. But my thought is, what if people don't have a driveway? What if they live in a multifamily building or something, or they have to park on the street? I want them to still be able to charge at a lower cost if they can.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: So do you, do they have to pay for, do you have to pay for the public, for those public charging areas or? Oh, see, I didn't, I didn't know that. I just, I just thought, you know, it was just a service that, okay. So you have to like put in some kind of ID kind of thing or something like that and okay.
[Brenda Pike]: Yep, yep. You can either get a card or you can connect it to your phone and pay with your phone, whichever.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: So what's the difference in the charging time, the level two versus, was it just a level two and your home outlet? Was it 12 volts or whatever it is, your wall outlet?
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, let me pull this up right now, actually. I have this in the decarbonization roadmap that we're going to talk about in a second. Oh, okay. But we're not going to get that into that. I'm just going to point out the roadmap. I'm not going to get into that detail about it. So level one, which is like plugging into a regular outlet at home is about, uh, you can get about 50 miles overnight, eight hours, six hours. Yeah, exactly. Eight hours, probably level two. which is what we have for Medford's public chargers. You can get about 300 miles overnight. And these are similar to an outlet for an electric dryer or, I don't know, an electric stove. And so you can install one of these in your home. Yeah. Yeah. And then the three ones you can do like 170 miles in 30 minutes, but the city doesn't own any of those. Those tend to be more like.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Oh, so there's a level three.
[Brenda Pike]: So level three, is that it? Is that the highest it goes? Level three is the highest. Yeah. And those tend to be installed in places that people are only going to be for a few minutes, like at rest stops on the highway, things like that.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: What about a mall?
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. Yep. I've definitely seen them there.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: And the faster it charges, the more it costs? Yes. OK. Makes sense. Wow. Level 3, that's a significant difference than overnight. Yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: Level 3 chargers tend, around here, cost between $0.50 and $0.55 per kilowatt hour. Yep. So like $0.21 per kilowatt hour at home, we're going to be increasing our cost here to $0.35 per kilowatt hour for the level two. And then the level threes are $0.50 to $0.55 per kilowatt hour. Excuse me. OK, so it doesn't sound like there's a lot of passion about setting up this discounted charging. Program.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: I, I kind of tend to agree with us, saw me, saw me, I mean. Yeah, unless you already have a car or, you know, you know, there's one in, you know, in your future, but. You know.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I agree beneficial just for the ones who have the car, but. I don't think majority of, like, you know, people have it.
[Brenda Pike]: So, yeah, there are a lot more used ones available now than there used to be. So that's what I'm just thinking over the next few years as. over time, as you get more used ones on the market, you might tend to see people using those more.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, it might change then.
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but I think we're not there yet.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. I think spreading the word out, though, is more important to just like letting them know, like, hey, this is an option. And when you guys if you guys have money to buy a car, they try to see if you can get a used like electric car because it's good for the environment and you don't waste as much and blah, blah. So I think that's like worth noting down.
[Brenda Pike]: OK. Speaking of discounts, did you guys hear that the MBTA now has discounted, have expanded their discount program? How? So before it was really limited in who it was available to and so it was like, Oh, let me pull this up in front of me right now. It was available to certain students and people who are on disability and things like that. And now it's more open to anybody who's below a certain income level. I think this is the link for it. I'll drop it into the chat. But I think that's something that would be really good to get the word out about. Applications will be available to the public on September 4th. So it's 50% discount. $10 weekly passes or $30 monthly passes.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: That's so cool. I wish I was on the train more, but unfortunately, my job is done here. Because I used to know more about that when I commuted anywhere. But I like to know this stuff. Even, for example, my students that I was teaching, they didn't even know that they could get a library card even though they were in the library. Isn't that crazy? So I made them get their stuff ready. So on Tuesday, they're able to get their library card. So that's a good info to tell them, hey, you guys use MBTA. You guys use the bus and all that stuff. Look at this information I have.
[Brenda Pike]: Yep, yep, and I was just thinking, like, as you guys are out in the community to talking with people about about the things that's a great thing to know, because, you know, not using using public transportation is a very environmental. Thing to do.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah, no, I agree.
[Brenda Pike]: Okay. Um, so let's see. So moving on electrify Medford. So we had that kickoff event on July 31st, and that was really successful. We had a, I think we had more than 40 people show up for it. Um, and we had, there was, it did presentation and then, uh, the mayor spoke and then we did some great, like one-on-one conversations with people too. So I was really happy with that. Um, we now have Spanish and Haitian Creole translations of our decarbonization roadmap. Um, so I'd love to send those to you guys for, uh, to just like review them for accuracy to make sure there's nothing embarrassing in there. It was translated badly. And then Frances tells me that we can't use the translation service that she's been using for large documents anymore. Because I think we do some, we do like smaller documents in-house and then the bigger ones we farm out. Do you guys know how the Office of Outreach and Prevention translates large documents?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: That's a good question. I'm not sure the only thing I know is that we. Translate we can only do up to 500 words or something like that. But other than that, we don't know. It's a good question to ask Sophie or Catherine. Okay, if anything, I'll email them and I'll let, you know, Brenda, what they use.
[Brenda Pike]: Okay, that sounds good because we still need to translate the decarbonization. other language into Portuguese and Arabic. So yeah, that's still in the works.
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: I think that if you just email them to Brenda and ask and let them know that you understand the limit of words, you know, and Maybe they'll say yes, you never know, you know.
[Brenda Pike]: I don't know. These are like, this is like 18 pages because it's like all of the information. Okay. Yeah. It's all of the information that we have for residents. And then when we do the coaching and we find out more about them, then we pull out exactly what applies to them and pop it into a personalized version of it for them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, nevermind.
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to sign up for that. Just kidding. Let's see. Oh, we've had 51 residents sign up for Electrify Medford so far. Oh, that's awesome.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. Um, I would say. Maybe a quarter of them are more mostly interested in getting, um. Looking at ways to reduce their electric, their energy rates, so talking about, like, discounted electricity and gas rates and the aggregation and things like that. And about a quarter of them seem to be interested in solar. And then the other half of them seems to be more general, that they're just looking for, you know, whatever ways are out there to, you know, reduce the bills. Yeah.
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: Thinking about the last week cars, we just dropped off my daughter at college. And one of the orientations that we have, they talk about cars, you know, the students can have their own car, but they need to have a specific, you know, passes to have parking and stuff like that. And most of the students are interested to get their first car, electric car. Maybe it'll be something to think in the future, you know, like maybe your first car, you know, incentive for you to get your first car, you know, if it's electric, you know, be a little more, you know, because I know a lot, not my kids, but a lot of kids that have been saving money, you know, to buy their own car and stuff like that. You know, it would be something to think in the future, you know.
[Brenda Pike]: Or that might be a good thing to focus on with like tough students, knowing that that might be something that they're particularly interested in.
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: Well, but it's tough to also have a lot of foreign students, you know, that don't necessarily want to spend money with the car and be here. You know what I'm saying? Like, I know they have a lot of exchange students. Um, yeah, but never know. We have a lot of colleges around here, so, you know, why not? No. Yeah. I know a lot of them take public transportation to go to UMass and stuff like that. So if they can afford the first car and it's an electric car, I think that would be pretty cool.
[Brenda Pike]: Pretty cool. And Lizette, I haven't forgotten that we were going to talk about giveaways for tabling. Yes, we have that pending, that meeting. Yep, yep. And I want to make sure that whatever we do, that it's kind of on brand, right? So not like plastic that's going to be thrown away immediately. Nothing that's like using electricity that doesn't need to. Yeah. Maybe things like paper fans or something that have the branding on it or something. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, I was thinking the same. And like,
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Um, I don't know. The thing is, like, we'd have to see, like, also budget and what we can use that, like you said, can't be thrown out. Yeah, but I know that, like, um, I think I've mentioned before that when I went to Lebanon, I, like, got, like, these bulbs that, like, when the electricity went for the bulbs, the They were while the electricity was going through and then when the electricity would go off, they'd have it. So I'm just thinking of, like, maybe, um. I don't know, either the information for people, or we can find something like, affordable to, like. Do it for giveaway not like to give to everyone obviously. how I spoke to you about like, at the national night outs, we should do like that, like wheel of the what is it? The turbine, the air turbine thing. So that could be like a giveaway to give, you know, a solar powered battery for your phone or like a radio thing that has all like, you know, something that people want.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, I think things like that would probably be more expensive. So yeah, it would be better for us as like a prize for something rather than just a general. Exactly. I've also seen things that were like, um. What are they called? Like phase change materials kind of where it's some sort of, it's a thing that you wear around your neck, but if you put it under running water, it like freezes and then it will like stay cold for quite a while. What is that called? I don't remember, but I can send you the link. Okay. I was going to try it out before using it. Yeah.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: yeah it's good i i want to see like maybe before like we meet i can do a little bit more research of some things that we could use you know or we can get in and stuff that's like affordable and you know yep so we can give out yep um we had a game for the brazilian advance we did the scavenger hunt you know we did
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: animals from Brazil and that was a big hit with the kids, you know, maybe something like that that can educate the kids too, you know, like ways that it can You know, saying, you know, the word, you know, like, ride a bike, find a bike, or, you know, of course, you need to know what places it's going to be, and if they can find those kind of things, you know, or have a, or find three of those things that can, you know, represent how we can save a word or something like that. And I think it would be pretty cool.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: I mean like if we're looking for like stuff like that that's like involving kids and like information. I saw one day, I think it was on Instagram. This guy like used his lawn to like do like cardboard, like animal figures. And like every day, there was like, an animal figure with like a cartoon animal figure that he does with like, what the animal is, what and where they live, like all the information about it. So that would be cool if like an event or whatever, we can use like, something like fun and interactive that's like, you know, we can make out a cardboard or something that has like, you know, a house and like a pop out book, like, you know, they open like the windows or like, something to like be interactive to say okay this is what like this they use solar panels on the house you know what i'm i don't know if like i'm explaining myself oh that's cute it sounds like something like an advent calendar almost kind of yeah so like you could even do it for like a bunch of stuff even like stuff that's like for climate change you can do like you know, the turbine and then open the turbine and you see what's inside and all that stuff and the information about it, you know, so it would be kind of fun to have those type of things. It's like a climate change series of like, stuff doesn't it ranges with everything.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. I was also thinking that we could make some sort of activity book as well, like, you know, I don't know, like I had that little like spot the differences thing and then we could do coloring and like, I don't know, word search or mazes, I don't know, things like that, that we could just make ourselves and it, that would be pretty simple.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. Do they, you know, I was thinking, do they have any, like biodegradable like towels because i've seen like i don't know if you like i was saying that it'd be cool to like have to give out like um I guess you can say like, maybe a one time use like towel that like, if you throw away, like, can be for like the trash, like for people who need to like, get washed. The reason why I'm saying is because unfortunately, we get a lot of like clients or customers in like Target, and like, some of them don't have a place to like shower, clean their face or anything like that. And it'll be really cool to like, You know, give out stuff like that that they can like, use and also so that when they throw out, it's not harmful for the environment. Do you know what I mean? Like, I'm just thinking of little things that we can like, use. yeah cleaning like a wash up kind of thing yeah yeah have you seen have you seen guys um the towels that like are in like for example the dollar store that they're like really small and they're like compacted and then when you wet them they turn into a towel yeah do you know what i mean so i I'm sorry, Renee, you can go.
[Brenda Pike]: No, I was just gonna say, they're called like, I don't know, Norwegian washcloths or Scandinavian washcloths or something like that. That's what I've seen.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I've seen biodegradable ones. They look so like, it'd be good to like give out, you know what I mean? But let me see if I can find it. But yeah. But yeah, we can, we can, I don't know when you free, Brenda, but maybe next week we can schedule something. That sounds good. I'll read that to you. Okay. Okay. Oh, yeah, there is look, Brenda, there's, there's like bamboo, vicos, fiber towels. And they're like singles. Oh, this is so interesting. I'll send all that stuff to you. Cool.
[Brenda Pike]: I'm not sure how on brand it would be for Electrify Medford, just because it's not really saving energy or... Energy.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, but I was thinking just because like, you know, sometimes like we give out stuff that's not really like, Yep. You know what I mean? On brand, like, for example, we should be giving out like healthy snacks, but we give out like candy, health department. So I'm just saying that it could be used like, you know, just a little like extra thing, obviously, like not give out like stuff that doesn't go with what we're, you know, yeah, going about it, at least just to spread the word out because you know, it could have the logo on it type thing, you know.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, we get lots of complaints after the Harvest Your Energy Festival because vendors will bring in their own giveaways. And we'll be like, okay, I'm leaving this, my kids are leaving this festival with all kinds of plastic trash that they're just going to throw away when they get home. And it's not very environmentally friendly. Yeah. Right.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: That makes sense.
[Brenda Pike]: If there's nothing else here, I think we can move into the electrify Medford training. Yeah, let me share my screen here. Can you all see that?
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[Brenda Pike]: Good.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me put this up here.
[Brenda Pike]: Okay, so this is a much shorter version of the nine-hour training that Electrify Medford coaches have done, but it still ended up being a lot. So I actually broke it up into two sections, and I thought we could do the first one today and the next one at the next meeting, if that works for you guys. Yeah, that sounds good. Okay. Hopefully it gives you a general idea of the technologies we're talking about, but still, it's still at a kind of a high level. So feel free to just to break in and ask questions anytime. And then also, I sent you the link to the folder that the coaches have with all of the training materials in there. and the decarbonization roadmap and all of that. So it's a great resource to go to if you have questions about this stuff. The decarbonization roadmap is amazing. I say I made it myself, so.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Did you send in the chat, Brenda?
[Brenda Pike]: I did not, but I emailed it to you guys. Let me drop it in the chat now, too. Actually, let me share this screen first so I can show you where it is.
[Unidentified]: There we go.
[Brenda Pike]: I'll drop this link in the chat. Let me know if that works for you. I'm always worried about permissions for these shared folders. But in this folder, you've got all the flyers in here, like all the translations for the flyers. These are decarbonization roadmaps for different residents who've gone through the program already. We've got all of the slides and the workbooks from the 9-hour training that the coaches did. Um, we've got a document with a bunch of links, um, to, you know, the resident sign up form and the city web page and the events calendar. And all of that, and then we've got this decarbonization roadmap template. So, this is the document that I said that was so long and it has literally. Everything that we're going to be sharing with residents, um. In a way that, you know, you can just click down through. Maybe you can't actually in this online version, if you download this to your own computer, you'll be able to click through from the table of contents into these different sections and it's got late information. Like, a quick summary of different things and then a link to each 1 of them. So this might just be a good resource for you anyway if you're talking to someone and they're talking about how they're behind on their national grid bills or something. This is a great resource for that. But it also has lots of information about, you know, heat pumps and electric vehicles and insulation and all of that. Were you guys able to get into that folder?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: No, you need permission. I needed permission, but I was able to click on the link in the email and pull it up. Gotcha. Okay.
[Brenda Pike]: Well, I won't waste time trying to correct that link now, but since you guys already have that in your email. Okay, but so back to the back to the training. Um, so, yeah, this just. Is the 1st, couple of pages of that of that road map, just pointing out that it's. Um, we want people to think of the big picture. and then sequence things appropriately, because it matters what order you do some of these things in. But we also recognize that for a lot of things, people might want to wait until something is nearing the end of its useful life before replacing it. And in that case, the focus would just be on planning for what you're going to do when that happens, so you're not faced with an emergency replacement and making a hasty decision that might be bad at that time. Okay, 1 thing I want to point out through electrify Medford. We don't make any recommendations about contractors. If the city were to do that, we would have to be hiring a contractor to work with residents. The city is not going to be sort of picking and choosing. Contractors that they'll recommend, but we do point people towards contractor lists that mass save and energy sage and others have so that they have these resources that they can go to. And we just recommend that people get multiple quotes and then come to us or one of the technical consultants that we are pointing them to in here for help in understanding what those quotes are so that they can make a good decision. So just a quick overview here. When you're thinking about saving money on your energy costs or reducing your carbon footprint, there are so many options out there, but it really all boils down to be efficient, don't burn stuff, and don't use electricity made from burning stuff. So energy efficiency, electrification, and renewables. Some options have a bigger impact than others, like weatherization, heat pumps, and solar panels, and driving less or driving an EV. You can definitely do these things in a different order depending on what your priorities are. But the one thing you really want to make sure that you do is to weatherize your home as much as possible before you install a heat pump. We like to think of a house as a system where everything is interacting with each other. So for instance, insulation and air sealing will affect ventilation, which affects heating. And so weatherizing your home first will ensure that you're keeping as much of the heat inside your home in the winter as possible, so that the heat pump doesn't have to work as hard and that'll save you money. So weatherization, it refers to air sealing and insulation. I think of air sealing like a windbreaker and insulation like a down coat. So one protects against air blowing through and the other protects against heat seeping out. And so this is the first thing that people should do and the cheapest. If you go through MassAve, air sealing is completely free and insulation is at least 75% off, sometimes completely free. So it's a good first step for people to take. For air sealing in particular, leaks around your windows and doors can make your house feel drafty, but hidden leaks in your basement and your attic will create a chimney effect where cool air comes in from the bottom. and hot air goes out the top. And it's just like a chimney would just running that air out of your house. And that costs a lot in heating bills. And then vice versa in the summer, if you're cooling your house, the hot air will come in through the attic, drop down and go out the basement and same thing will happen. So people tend to focus on their windows and doors when they're thinking about air sealing, but they shouldn't ignore their attics and their basements.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: That's very interesting that you say that, Brenda. Because I feel like my house does that. I should tell my parents this.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. It can be hard for people to do the work in their attic, in their basement, just because sometimes they'll have so many things stored in there that it's hard to get to the things they need to do. So for instance, in this picture, if you had a lot of things stored up in your attic, you'd have to remove it all before you could come in and do this air sealing and insulation. Yeah. So that can be a barrier sometimes.
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: And when you say that the MassSave can cover the cost, is like an application that people can apply to get some financial assistance to get that done? And how does that work?
[Brenda Pike]: So they would just, they would sign up to do a home energy assessment with MassSave and someone would come and look at their home and see exactly where there are opportunities to do this. Um, and then they would assign their, the, a contractor to do this for you. So you wouldn't even have to look for a contractor to do it. They would assign a contractor. You wouldn't have to pay up front because they pay the contractor directly. Um. Yeah, for air sealing, definitely. For insulation, too, I think. You're only paying if there's that 25% left over or less, depending on what your discount is. That's the amount that you would pay in the end.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: How are these leaks detected? Is it just filling cracks, essentially?
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, basically. So they would, well, A, they would look around the house to see if there are any obviously visible ones. But also they have little, oh, I wish I had an image of this to show you. They have little thermal leak detectors. And so they point this camera thing at the wall. And it will show up in different colors depending on the temperature of the wall. So on a really cold day, a place where there's a leak would show up as like bright blue. And so that's how they would know. It's really cool to see actually.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: And so this air sealing, is it, I mean, would it be the same as like caulking or something like that or no? That's part of it, yeah. Would caulking do the same thing? Would that be considered air sealing?
[Brenda Pike]: Yep, depending on where it is. So you would do caulking around small leaks around doors and windows. You would put in little weather stripping. The little like door sweeps and stuff like that around doors and windows. Something like this that you see here, that's called that spray foam that's used there and that's for bigger cracks. And what they do is they spray the spray foam in there and then it expands. So it really fills in every crack in there. And that's, it's really good for bigger cracks like that.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Now, is that stuff safe for animals and children? Or is that one of those things, it's up in the attic sort of thing. You don't really expect the kids and the pets to be up there.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, it off gases while they're doing it. So the person who's installing it would be wearing a mask. And you would probably want to clear out while they're actually installing it. But afterwards, it's not a problem.
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I have a lot of seniors in my street, and they are complaining it's too hot or too cold. I'll check it. I'm going to check it out, see if that's going to be a possibility to help them out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Great.
[Brenda Pike]: So, for insulation, we're not just again, we're not just talking about walls, but we're talking about the basement and the attic too. And the thicker your insulation is, the better it'll work. Different types of insulation have different capabilities at the same thickness. So that's something that that your installer will consider when they're when they're looking at your situation. This here shows an attic with blown in cellulose insulation, which is one of the more effective types of insulation at the. same thickness levels, you know. So this is looking at, you know, an older home tends not to have that much insulation in it. If you fill up in your attic to the level of the joists, the wooden beams that are sticking up there, it's still not enough insulation. You need to have insulation that actually goes over those beams to a particular height in order to really work for our climate. And this is a couple of the most common types of insulation. There's blown-in cellulose insulation. And the nice thing about that is that it's really small and it settles together, so it's much denser. And so it can do a better job at insulating. And then there's also fiberglass insulation, which is a little bit easier to install because it comes in these bats that they will, you know, sort of shove down into the, into the cavities and the walls and the floor. It's just, it's not quite as effective at the same thickness level, but it can be, it can go in some situations where the blown in cellulose can't. So, Going back to the idea of the home as a system, if you insulate and you air seal your house, you tighten that building envelope so it's losing very little air and very little heat, you'll need to ventilate it by putting in a mechanical fan. Otherwise, moisture will build up, and you could have issues with mold. It's better to insulate and air seal and ventilate so that you have control over it rather than just leaving your house leaky and not knowing how leaky it is or like that. So it's better to have control over it by doing these things. For most houses, a bathroom fan and a fan above your cook stove is sufficient as long as they're venting outside. But if you have a really, really tight building envelope, like passive house level, you can get something called an ERV or an energy recovery ventilator that takes the heat in the air that you're venting outside and uses it to warm up the air that's coming in. And that seems complicated, but if you're building a house to passive house levels, you have engineers involved who will design the ERV into that system. And when I say that like bathroom fans and Phantom of your cook stove is sufficient for most houses now, as part of the building code, bathroom fans now, new bathroom fans, now have to continuously operate. So they'll be running at a very low level that I think you can't even hear all the time. And then when you turn them on, They'll ramp up to blow it out really hard. But most of the time, it's just running at a very, very low level. And then after doing all of this work to your building envelope and before choosing a new heating system, your installer should do a heat load calculation. That's referred to by them as a manual J. because your heating system won't be efficient and won't be as comfortable if it's too large or too small for your house. So too small, it'll struggle to keep you warm on the coldest days of the year. Too large, you'll be going through a cycle where it immediately gets up to temperature and then turns off or you have to turn it off and then it gets cold and then it turns on again and immediately gets up to temperature and turns off again. And that's uncomfortable for you and it wastes a lot of money and energy. So what you need is like the Goldilocks situation where it's just the right size. And if you insulate and air seal your home your heating system doesn't need to be as large, but a lot of contractors can be kind of lazy about this and just put in the same size system that you had before. They only sell a particular brand of heating system and it only comes in certain sizes. So if you talk to three different contractors, you'll get three completely different recommendations. So what we really want you to do is to talk to us and talk to the technical consultants that we'll put you in touch with to make sure you have the right system for your home. So when we're talking about electrification, we're mainly talking about heat pumps. So I'll do a deeper dive into those today. Heat pumps work like a refrigerator, basically, pulling heat out of the air, even if it's very cold air, and transferring it to your house. In the summer, it does the same thing, but in the opposite direction. So you can get both heating and cooling with 1 system. And these systems consist of an outside unit. And an inside unit, which can be either on the wall on the floor on the ceiling. That can be even ducted actually. So, if you have, like, a furnace with ducks, you could be attach it to that instead. So the way that this works, there's a very cold refrigerant, which is colder than the outside air in the winter. So it will absorb heat from the air and then it gets compressed, raising the pressure. And when the atoms are knocking against each other in a smaller space, it heats up even more. And then that's pumped inside your house and your inside air absorbs the heat from that. And then it's pumped back outside, where it expands into a bigger space and cools off. So it can absorb more heat, and then the cycle starts again. And then in the summer, it flips around, so it's doing it in the opposite direction. Because the heat pump's moving heat from one location to another rather than creating heat, it can be more than three times as efficient as other heating systems. Um, in Massachusetts, you really want to make sure to get a cold climate heat pump, which is rated down to 5 degrees. And you can see here, there are 2 models. 1 is not cold climate and 1 is cold climate. They have the same capacity at 47 degrees. But at negative 13 degrees, the one on the left's capacity drops by half. And you can get really cold if you're in that house. So this is also one of the reasons to make sure that a heat load calculation is done by your installer to make sure that you have enough capacity to heat your house at any time of year. Yeah, so... Let's see. Oh, I think that's it right now.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: I was going to ask about these heat pumps. So with the heat pumps, do you have both heating and cooling, or do you have one or the other? Do you know what I mean? Can you have just one? Both heating and cooling. Or are they together?
[Brenda Pike]: Yep. It's both heating and cooling because it's the same process. You just flip which direction it's going. In the summer, it goes in one direction and then it flips and goes in the other direction in the winter.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: This is essentially like central heating, central air and heating, but way more efficient. And I mean, and so you have to have those ducts and stuff in all the rooms or all rooms of your house, or I guess, or does it, is it, I guess it would be based, would it be based on the layout of your house? If you have like an open kind of thing, then, you know, you probably have this huge, you know, much larger thing. So, okay.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah. Yeah. And that's part of the, The installations can be very, very different depending on the layout of the person's house. In my house, we live on the third floor, so we just have ducts in the attic that go to all of the rooms in our house, and we have a central heat pump. My boss's house, she has a two-floor house. So she has that for the top floor, she has ducks in the attic going into her second floor. And then on the first floor, she has mini splits. So those separate heads in each room. So you can have like a mixture of the two as well. Yeah.
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: And would that replace the heat or the air conditioner?
[Brenda Pike]: It would replace both.
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Yep. I was just going to ask if like, if you could, would they utilize current ductwork that's already in the house? Potentially, or would they have to, would it have to be something brand new, routed, you know, or whatever? I mean, I don't know.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, it depends if the ductwork is big enough. Usually, Contractors in the past have definitely oversized ducts. So if you install a heat pump, it can use these older oversized ducts. If the ducts were like exactly sized for like your air conditioning, for instance, that's a smaller load than your heating would be. So you need smaller ducts for that. So when you put in a heat pump for heating with those ducts, you would need bigger ones. So it really depends on what you have already. and the installer would tell you whether your ducts are big enough for that or not.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Like I have ducts coming, you know, coming up out of the heat, heat coming up out of the floor and stuff. So, yeah.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, it's different for every situation.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, it depends on the house and sure.
[Brenda Pike]: Yep. One more thing. People would definitely have cost savings if you switch from oil, propane, or electric resistance, like electric baseboard, to heat pumps. But if you're switching from natural gas, it could actually cost more, depending on a bunch of different things, from what electric rate you have, to the quality of the installation that was done, to how you use it. So it's about the same. But depending on how on a lot of different factors, the heat pump could cost more compared to natural gas. So when we're talking to people through Electrify Medford, we want to make sure that they're aware of that. And if that's something that they are concerned about, that they are thinking about that ahead of time and are factoring that into their decision making process. Some people keep their old natural gas heating system and use that on the coldest days of the year. And they can save money that way because the heat pump is more efficient than natural gas most of the year. It's just on those very coldest days that like the natural gas can be cheaper because of not more efficient, but cheaper because of what the rates are now. But if you keep your old natural gas heating system, then you're also spending money to maintain two heating systems. So I'm not sure that that works out in the end really either. So just something that people have to be aware of if they're thinking about this and they have natural gas. So that, Natasha just joined. Natasha, I just finished doing the first part of the training for the Electrify Medford thing. I can send I'll definitely send the slides out to everyone and we can talk about it some more. Next time to, um, when we do the 2nd, half of the training, where we talk about, you know, all the, the solar and the electric vehicles and and other things too.
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: Thanks, Brenda.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, any. Other questions about like insulation, air sealing, heat pumps?
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: No, to be honest, that's really good information to have for yourself as well as like anyone else. I really like it.
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's what I was going to say too. That would be a good material for us to share. You know, that kind of information, I think, is the kind of information people that go to those events they would be interested to hear. Because even though if they don't own a house, they can talk to their landlord about those possibilities, you know?
[Brenda Pike]: Yep, definitely. Or, I mean, through Electrify Medfar, we're encouraging renters to give us their landlord's contact information so that we can talk to their landlords. And then if their landlord has more, lots of detailed questions about things, we can talk to them about it instead of trying to go between with the renter. Well, and a lot of this information is in that decarbonization roadmap. So I think it's a good reference for you to go back to if you have any questions too. Oh, I think that's it for this first part of the training. The only other thing I see on the agenda is possible future meeting topics. We had a couple of things that we had talked about last time. So the next one we'll do, obviously, the second part of this training. And then, let's see. I think one of the things we had mentioned maybe once before was green jobs. There are lots of training programs out there that people could take advantage of.
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: You know, maybe we can check out some stuff that we have in our priority list for 2024, especially with the winter approaching, you know, and maybe come up with some material or some, even like a workshop or something that it can provide those information to, to the residents. I think it'll be a good thing to do. It concerns me a lot during the winter time, you know, people that cannot afford heat or, don't have any kind of heat system and then they choose other ways to keep warm, especially the seniors. So I think any information and help we can provide to all of them.
[Brenda Pike]: Yeah, definitely. I had someone come to me this week. It broke my heart. She She was having a lot of issues right now because she had cancer, but she got hit with a $600 electric bill in July. And she was blaming the Medford electricity aggregation for it. But when I dug into it, it looked like there was just a lot of electric usage in her house. I was saying to her, well, you should have National Grid check out your meter to make sure it's not broken first, and then have Mass Save come in to take a look at the opportunities for reducing your energy use and what rebates and incentives are available that way. And she wouldn't listen to me, and she just asked to be removed from the aggregation, which actually increased her electric bill. from, what is it, from 15 cents per kilowatt hour to 16 cents per kilowatt hour. And I could not convince her and it was so heartbreaking.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: I wonder, was she in a house or an apartment? Yeah, she was in a house. Air conditioners.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: Does it notice, like, does she see it substantially when, like, her bill comes in?
[Brenda Pike]: Well, it'll depend because the temperature dropped. So the next month, she probably wasn't going to be using as much air conditioning. So it's going to look like her bill came down because of her aggregation. If she doesn't look at the rates, she's just going to say, oh, good thing I did that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So then wait till next year.
[Brenda Pike]: I know.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_02]: They'll be knocking on your door, Brenda, and say, I'm sorry.
[Zcwx-pW5U0k_SPEAKER_00]: I know, but I think the lack of information that people have to, you know, I had to help people like that. I work all day. I'm just at home at night. Why? My bill is $400, $500, you know? Meanwhile, we can call, we can call and ask them to check your meter. And people don't know those things that they are allowed to do those things, you know? And that is a lot of assistance over there too. I always encourage people to do the national grade payment plan that it is fixed amount. So you don't have any surprises in a month. I always did that. I never want to have a $400 bill, you know, like you'll never know, maybe, you know, you're not working as many hours or whatever. So I always did that the fixed amount. So I know that's my budget every month, you know? Yeah. So I was encouraged people to do that, but there are so many, resource out there that people don't know.
[Brenda Pike]: That's what we're trying to do here. I think part of it is, I don't necessarily think that it's as useful for us to just be putting it out there to tell people all of this stuff all the time, but when they come to us asking for specific questions that we can pull out the information and help them with it. Okay, so we're at 7 o'clock. I want to be respectful of everybody's time. Was there anything else that folks wanted to talk about today? I don't hear anything. Okay. So I think that means that we need to do a. A vote to close the meeting.
[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_06]: I motion to close the meeting tonight.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every time I try to click the button, let me do it. I feel like I take so long to unmute. All right, guys. Anyways, motion to end the meeting.
[Brenda Pike]: Well, Stacy already did the motion and Samia seconded it. So now it's just going to the vote. I. I. I. I. See, Natasha has a thumbs up there. So I'm assuming that's an I. So I think we're all set. Thank you, everybody.