[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Yeah, the quick summary for those that can't be bothered to read the minutes. We introduced our new climate planner, Sam, and we talked about the Black Plastic Zero Waste initiatives, which are moving really, really well. I'm quite proud of us. Proud of you, Laura.
[Josh Ekhart-Lee]: You're in the room. Thank you for helping make that happen. You've got 146 signatures on your petition.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: Yeah. All right.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: We'll get it. Anything else? Are there, what's the next step? I know Lois was talking about canvassing and potentially just going through the door. Are there any other next steps, anything that we could assist with as a committee?
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: Other than reaching out to like, you know, what we discussed about the city council finding a sponsor and how we want to, you know, It's always helpful to have support before we propose for an ordinance. So there, people.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: So maybe beginning to look at model ordinance language, we can see how other cities have done it.
[Lois Grossman]: And Benji and I will be keeping score. On how many people you meet and talk to. How many have already gotten the letter and made the change.
[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: Yes.
[Lois Grossman]: Most of those who are just ignoring it and don't know anything.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Great. So we'll do some outreach and some research and we're golden. I love it.
[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: Can I ask, I'm assuming because the letter went out to the Board of Health, I'm assuming maybe the enforcement on an ordinance, are they on board with it? Has it been brought up?
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: We have not discussed what inspection or actual enforcement would need to look like. Yeah, but the letter is more of a recommendation. Okay. Um, you know, once we start talking about an actual ordinance, then things get much messier, which is why I wanted that to be kind of the last later step.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: Yeah.
[Lois Grossman]: Um, but we are going to try to keep score great momentum. The ones we're going to have to target or not. Yeah.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: Yeah. It's like the, Residents and community want this. The restaurants are already doing it. Hopefully it's easier for the city.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: So, yeah, I'm glad we did it in the order we did. Now it gets messy and that's kind of fun too.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: Yeah, I'm excited. This is my first time working on something like this. Okay. I'm so sorry because I'm going to go off of agenda because I didn't introduce myself, but I have a really exciting update. We installed heat pumps. in our house, finally. We're so excited. And we have an electric car, and we're going to do solar panel. So hopefully, we will do the full circle. I thought this committee would be super excited to hear. That is great. It should talk to MassAve. 100%, they knew the letter, like all of that.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: And so did they insulate? Did they air seal?
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: We did that as soon as we moved into the house. They came and they looked again and they were like, looks good. They gave the approval.
[Robert Paine]: All right, so you'll get a rebate. It's great for you. We'll get it. Yes, you'll get a rebate. Someday.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, it takes time.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: I wasn't told of this.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: For the heat pump, you should get a heat pump rebate. Yes, you do need the National Grid gives a rebate.
[Robert Paine]: It just goes to like the company that puts it. Oh, you should ask the company to help you with that rebate.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: National Grid?
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Yep. Talk to our very cool climate planner and head of the electrified coaching.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: Okay.
[Robert Paine]: Or Bob, yeah, because he took all the training. I got a $10,000 rebate.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: You did? Like a personal rebate? Oh, my God.
[Robert Paine]: That's for good. Cut the check.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Yeah, my parents just got their new insulation paid for through Mass Save and things. Nice. Yeah, it was worth pursuing. Definitely.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: I'm texting Rene right now.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Wait a second. Beautiful. All right. To be mindful of time and all the beautiful ideas I want to give, like, We want to go to some true updates with Loretta. This one is really busy. And I know many of you are also on other committees and have ties to these. So Loretta has some updates, but feel free to add to it as we go. And remember, focus on, I want to know what we can do as a committee, because I know this is a busy space.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: I will do the tree after and the updates could be other things too. Okay. Because there was one thing left out. And it's also for Sam, since you're new, to worry about. So, I have to put my glasses on. And I numbered them because this is critical. I'm going to block that because we're supposed to have paid attention. So, there's a public tree audience. The city council will be reviewing it tomorrow and hopefully vote on it. That's the public tree ordinance. Um, I did speak with, uh, trees today and told me about it. Public means municipal property, um, owned or managed. And that was more of a simple ordinance. They took the old one and updated it. So, um, I looked at the schedule very briefly before I came here. But tomorrow night's city council meeting, it looks like it's going to be really long because there's a lot of stuff in it, but it does say tree or tree movements. Okay.
[Josh Ekhart-Lee]: So let's make her tomorrow night.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Tomorrow night. Right. Public. Um, and they didn't send it to us, so I don't know what it looks like, but you know, this is between, Oh, you're going over. Um, so it would be, um, you know, trees method, uh, Anna Callahan, city councilor worked on it. I'm sure KP law looked it over. And we'll see if it's a vote for passing. So that's number one. Two, private tree ordinance. After this is done, we'll work more on a private tree ordinance, which is more work. Three, the tree committee that was approved by the city. They've had some applications, but we need to check on the status, how many people applied or when this is going to be formed. Treewooden position. I think it might be posted again.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: My understanding is we have applicants that are in final rounds of interviews.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Right. So there's a lot of work to be done by the new Treewooden. They're going to be very good. Trees Method has a community tree program for the fall and spring. And what that involves is free trees for residents in certain areas that have high heat. And it could be South Medford, Glenwood, station landing area, it's on their website. And they're taking applications now for people who want trees. So on their website, www.treesmedford.org, I'll say community free program, and all your questions can be answered, like what trees they have, when is pickup but you need to order soon. It might be the deadline could be in the next week or two. And the other part of this is that, and that's to mitigate heat, environmental heat and the climate to make it cooler and more livable. So that's why those areas that have high heat are targeted first for pre-trees and they could run out. So people need to order what they can. The second part of this is that in other areas of Medgar, you can still order a tree from them at a discount and it's only $50. It's a significant size tree. It comes with the tree gel, which is a fertilizer gel pack, a watering bag, and soil amendment. So it's $50, but if you could offer a donation of more, it costs them over $150 for that package. So people can order those now. They'll be delivered late October, November, but they have to get the order completed pretty soon. And they'll tell people the date to pick them up and all that's on their website.
[Josh Ekhart-Lee]: Can I ask a question? Sure. If we received a tree in the spring, can we request a 2nd free tree in the fall thing, or are we allowed only 1?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Okay, so it looks like September 20th.
[Josh Ekhart-Lee]: There's the dead.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Oh, thank you. Thank you. Okay. September 20th is the deadline. So if you live in 1 of the heat.
[Josh Ekhart-Lee]: Islands, I'm sure you'd be in another one. Okay, because just about now there's beautiful 150 year old elms all along the street. Supposedly dying. And I have more.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: Okay. Yeah, so $50 is an amazing deal.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: That's a very beautiful tree. The last thing about trees. is the Miyawaki mini forest planting. There's an experiment and that is being done. They already prepared the land and it's at, I'll call it the Tusk Park, but where the Tusk Swimming Pool is on Main Street in Medford, behind that is a park. And there's a dog park at the end of it on a side street around from the pool. And that's where the mini forest website is planted and fenced in. And so the planting of the trees is a Saturday, and it's all volunteer work. And what I'm going to tell you, I've got so many notes, I'm trying to do this. Volunteers would be showing up at 10 to plant at different time slots. And I think that they may still need volunteers. So there is a link, I think, on trees management website. to sign up for it. I know Jared was organizing this, one of the volunteers and coordinators.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: If you just want to do the planting, there's a separate sign up, but then there's like a different sign up for tabling, moving stuff, workshops, and all of that.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: So a lot of people will be showing up at 8 to set up the site, you know, and bring supplies and tables and There'll be some food for the workers. I'll be there at some point. Last time, which was, what was it, March or April, maybe. I can't remember, when was the other, well, whatever the other time was when we prepped the site, I was there and I brought food. So there's different, you know, volunteers for different things for the volunteers. So if you'd like to show up to help plant trees, do you, Lois, have some of the trees?
[Lois Grossman]: Yeah. I fostered about, 30 trees. They're fine. One didn't make it, but all the others have, and Jared has been keeping an eye on them, and it's been interesting.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: How big are they now? Are they little, or how big are the trees?
[Lois Grossman]: Some of them are about that tall now from the ground. Some of them are a little smaller. Some of them are hitting the top of the air. I forget what it's called.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: An air pruning bed.
[Lois Grossman]: Yeah, an air pruning bed. It's an enclosure, a full enclosure.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Now, wasn't the idea to plant 300 trees?
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: Yes, so there are a lot of volunteers who like foster trees, if you will. And then we've also, the company has ordered a whole bunch at like different saplings sizes too. So it's, and then like high school students, I think they got like some 12 trees. So it's like a full community. I think we are reaching the number with the different, and then like Walter was one of the persons who has like an amazing In our city, they're bringing trees from over there, too.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: I don't get it. It's exciting. Yeah. It's Saturday the 19th. Yeah.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: And it's going pretty much all day. They have volunteer forms, but also, like, I imagine you can also show up. Sure.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: That's right.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: We try to show up, but, you know, we're not volunteering. They'll tell you where to go.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yeah.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Fill out some forms.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: And Kim, Kim, Kim D'Andre has, um, a list of like things needed. So people wanted to donate sort of like the last time I brought a ton of food, but this time I'll bring some food. Other people bring sandwiches, compost bags or whatever. So that's about it on trees. But the other part of my update is to talk about dark sky lighting, which I've been interested in for a while. And Will and I talked about it But probably talked about it maybe almost two years now about the idea of dark sky lighting. And the city has dark sky lighting already on the municipal street lights. But my update is about, let me just read this, that the House of Representatives did pass a bill for the installation of dark sky lighting for state and municipal properties. And that was passed in June of this year. And it went to the Senate. They hope that, you know, that is also passed. So for us, we, I was talking to Will, that I think it's important that we have some kind of guidance or education or an ordinance for docks by lighting for private properties.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: There's too many floodlights.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Exactly. And it has gotten so much worse that I have noticed and people have told told me and are going to see, Spring Street's a good example, that people in new development redevelop. New development project has to go through, well, I don't even know, actually. Commercial redevelopment, meaning large-scale projects, go through all the departments. But I don't think we have a dark sky lighting ordinance for them. But the principle of Dark Star Lighting is no light trespass. Light trespass is a legal term. And a lot of the houses that have been redone, and regular residents don't realize that just because they sell LED lighting and spotlights, and especially the three panel ones, they're right on the street of the front of their house from the little sidewalk in their crowded residential area. And they're going off and on all night. being focused down on their property, they're facing out. So every time a car goes by, every time a car goes by, so I've seen the contractors put them up, you know, because I'm in real estate on redeveloped houses and stuff. And they'd want their driveways to light up for the homeowners to come in, but they're pointed right out at everybody else's houses. And it affects wildlife and privacy. And it's really bad. And we even have some that talk when you walk by. They have a talk. Scared the heck out of me. I'm not kidding you. You walk by a crowded sidewalk and the lights come on. Hello, you are being recorded. I'm like, what? And I'm like, Okay, so I'm really interested in this. Will, I know you may be, but I would like us to know, you know, if we don't want to talk about it at this meeting, if anybody else is interested in simply coming up, you know, just working on a plan of how do we present this and to maybe get to an ordinance, because they are doing so.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: A little bit of context. I actually, I left it off the list just because we were getting pretty full This is something I've been following for a while now. This will likely be my graduate thesis for this year. It's on lighting ordinances and how to better design sustainable lighting. So this is very much my top of list item. But we also know that Massachusetts and a couple of states have looked at Dark Sky International model language and they pass it through one of the parts of Congress every year and it just doesn't go anywhere. Or the state house, excuse me. Like in past years, like the Senate would pass something and then it doesn't really go anywhere. And then maybe the house will do something and it doesn't go anywhere. So it, yeah. So relying on statewide push does not seem reliable or sustainable. I would love to look at um, model language, uh, that exists in other parts of the country or other parts of the world. Uh, there's some really interesting ways that this is being done. Um, but it's a complicated one because it is directly impacting private residences. And we saw how that goes with trees. Uh, it will take some, it'll take some research and some thought.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Right. Um, but I'm interested in sooner than later. And I understand your project. But I think that, I think when we're talking about the new zoning, that the councillors should be aware that this is something, maybe it comes from planning, that design concepts, which we talked about before, that there's something in there about trespass. And there is an ordinance that we had already.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Well, so all of our street lighting for like overhead roadway ones are dark sky certified. That being said, that is kind of a low bound in the end.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: But you have the domes, right?
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: I thought dark sky lighting means... Dark sky just means it doesn't go over 180 degrees.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: It doesn't have to have like a dome thing?
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: It doesn't go up. It just needs to be directed. It needs to go where it's supposed to go.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: But it can go up too.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: No, but it can go like out a bit. And that's usually where the trespass happens.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: It goes and it bounces and reflects my property and Bob's property and my light is shining into his driveway when I'm trespassing, but you can that's where you can have lost.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: But I think a lot of people don't know that they can, most people don't even talk to their neighbors about it.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: They just put up a light that's shining right into your window.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: There's a lot to untangle there. So I think it's worth more meetings, but I also want to be cognizant of how much time it should take.
[Lois Grossman]: Sounds like it's a topic we should devote a meeting to.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: I agree.
[Lois Grossman]: Make a little note of that.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: Because of the wildlife and like how it affects the migratory birds. Exactly.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Especially now, I think it's... And as we're putting out, you know, turn your lights off, lights out, you know, because all the birds are coming down.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: Even the firefly stuff, we spoke about it too.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Even if we don't get to an ordinance, and I don't want to conflict with your work. No, this is all good. But I think educational material, might be too soon for the Harvester Energy Festival, but to teach people about this, it could be, you know, flyers and explaining that you can buy DAC Sky certified lighting. And Josh just mentioned there is some guidelines and ordinances about that.
[Josh Ekhart-Lee]: Yeah, because we already have lighting performance standards for multi-family non-residential structures.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Those are big. Those are big buildings.
[Josh Ekhart-Lee]: I mean, yes, relatively to a single-family home. Yeah. But also, like, it's likely a case where, like, some more targeted education to the Community Development Board and possibly the ZBA as to, like, what actually our restrictions are and how we do maybe a more, like, rich kind of vein than trying to write our own. Because there's already some... Right. Improving and... Yeah, yeah. Amending this and improving.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: They're working with the building department for them to know. The electrical inspector. So then he goes to look at redone properties and part of them, whatever, you know, maybe that's included. He can advise people. Simple.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: So there's... Yeah, there's a lot to do and I'm happy to, I'm happy to start doing research and I can put things out as we find a free month to talk about this. Um, cause I, yeah, it is very important.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: I'm good.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Um, next up is actually data centers on our list, but that originally was Paul and Dan really wanted to talk about it. And, um, And none of us are interested, so. That being said, I feel like a couple of us in the room might know and care a whole awful lot. So I'm going to just set aside a couple of minutes here to talk about what our role within data centers could and should be for Medford.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: I didn't know we had a data center in Medford.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Neither did I, and I looked it up. Hey, me too.
[Barry Ingber]: I think Holly said something about two smaller systems. But they're small scale. I think one is part of Tufts.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: So it's like within the Tufts buildings?
[Barry Ingber]: Yeah.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: OK.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: The other one's down by Cabot Road. I see. Where?
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: There's none of the massive ones. Cabot Road. There's a whole 15 block ones. But yeah, Barry, I saw you were ready to just jump right in.
[Barry Ingber]: Yeah. I mean, Paul originally approached me about it. I mean, I think it's a really important issue. And I'm really curious. about what Dan and Paul have found out, because it seems to me like it's, it seems to me like Healy's executive order does most of what we might do here.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: And can you give me a general refresher? What would exist of that?
[Barry Ingber]: Well, there's a moratorium. I'm not completely on top of the executive order, because I know It includes a moratorium. And if there's a moratorium, I don't know why there's also criteria there because that seems to be a contradiction. But the criteria seems to be that they need to not put a burden on the grid. So they need to either create their own renewable energy or buy from buy renewable energy from new sources and not be competing with existing consumers for good resources and not polluting, and that they need prior approval from communities. So maybe that's the nature of the moratorium. So therefore, if a data center can't be built without prior approval. I'm not sure why you would then need an ordinance, unless you just want to avoid having the process altogether.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: My thinking is, is the moratorium with a probably like a set date of when that would end.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: I don't know.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Because I think the goal would be to prep ourselves for if that moratorium.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: Exactly. Because a new administration would have a new potential approach.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: So this is our chance to prepare ourselves and say, this is what should be in place. If a data center were to come here, there needs to be a community agreement. There needs to be certain restrictions on energy usage or water usage. But that would be our opportunity to make those recommendations is my thinking is. So, if a moratorium were to end or be revoked in any way, like, we'd be ready with legislation in hand.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: I think that's what about the pollution.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: I went to look at that too, so it can increase temperatures.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: I like to look at this particular list.
[Robert Paine]: There's an exemption, less than 25 megawatts. You're exempt from this.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Yeah. And that's one where we would want some of the spearhead and research is that okay. And what, what exemptions need to be there?
[Josh Ekhart-Lee]: What shouldn't be there? And it's only for colleges and like medical programming. So it's likely tough to relate it as the existing data center.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: But the other ones are at least, you know, they lease the data, the service, and they're advertising quite a bit, and they're a resident rental, it's a lease of an existing building that was probably redone. To me, it's quite large, but I'm concerned about the pollution, because what I've heard on television and other talk groups, that they use generators, which is diesel, for backup, And that pollution was in the noise. This one is in an ear. I'm not going to speak about that, but it's complicated because they also meet other criteria to allow them. So if we can, there's a lot of spaces. I remember it was Paul and his email or somebody. That there's a lot of rent. There's a lot of rental space available on Mr. Cat.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: So it could be filled with generators and whatever that gets to the current set up, which limits. Some of those things and I do believe we've got some ordinances around certainly around noise, but around generator use beyond emergencies. I don't know quite what the, that's something I can look at.
[Lois Grossman]: That might be one way to. reign in AI. We stopped building data centers. AI can't take over the world now.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: Well, yeah, except that then they just want to move it out to where nobody's available to compile it.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: Well, given that the trillionaire billionaires are agreeing with it online now, I guess AI will finally be available.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: But I agree with Lois's approach. If there's fewer opportunities to just build Unrestricted. More precedence.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Yeah. I was just reading our I was not familiar with this. We have our Medford has a anti or rather controlled surveillance ordinance, right? Like if you are collecting sensitive information about people, you need to have community. I can talk about, I'm sure you can talk about this for ages. I immediately thought of Barry. Yeah, I was like, all this to say, like, there is precedence for mandating community meetings on an issue like this, if there were to be a data center in Medford, we would have to publicize it. They'd have to talk about where their energy comes from. They'd need to propose plans.
[Barry Ingber]: The surveillance ordinance is a completely different thing, though. That's kind of based on privacy concerns, which is around, in particular, privacy concerns vis-a-vis government. So the surveillance ordinance does not, unfortunately, restrict facial recognition software at Wegmans. And it only restricts the censure.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: I have a question. When you're talking about the data centers, about any large projects that come in, this is what's interesting. It's a large project that comes in from my understanding. Um, because the planning department, the building department goes all through the departments. If it's a new build, if it's a lease and someone's redoing a building from the inside, that's what I'm concerned about.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: There are still some permit requirements if you're renovating to a certain level. And if you are bringing in a whole lot of new service power, electrical power, for instance, you would need to go through a permitting process.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: I mean, I don't know. It's a good question. My point is that it could be, we won't even know if it doesn't go through the building planning and all these.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: Although I would think that if they're trying to actually produce something that is a competitive like a resource, it probably has to be a certain size. I mean, I wonder how useful it is to fill a room like this, you know, with server equipment that might not actually amount to very much.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: No, but a lot of them create huge warehouses. Yeah. And yes, from what I read, they already have federal guidelines and state guidelines and can be fast tracked through if they meet certain conditions. So I'm sure Dan knows a lot.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Yeah, so I will probably ask Dan and Paul later to get some more details. But also, I think I would like to spend time discussing what a post-moratorium data center schema should be from our energy and environment perspectives. It's one thing to just say they're not allowed in Massachusetts. Uh, and that could be very helpful. We should probably dwell on the nuances of a smart and research oriented group.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: Well, I'm a big fan of what, I don't know, very brought up, but saying, uh, you cannot impact the grid. And I would just note that buying racks does not avoid the impacts to the grid. If you have a big load in a building. That load is going out to the nearby transformer and out to the grid or is pulling from just because you're paying someone else for that does not change the local need. And so the supply and the infrastructure still needs to support that. And so a requirement that on your site, you need to provide x percent or whatever, which might be what the more what the executive order says.
[Barry Ingber]: It might be on site generation.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: And then you could limit what kind of generation is allowable. Right.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: In their own recycled water. Right. Well,
[Adam Hurtubise]: The big thing is that a lot of people don't realize is the only thing that leaves the data center is light on some fiber optics. So while it takes in, you know, megawatts of electricity, it puts out maybe 100 watts of light. Everything else has to be dealt with as heat. So it produces every megawatt that goes in there produces a megawatt of heat and that has to be dealt with by either warming up a local river or by having cooling towers on the roof and warming up the local environment. That's the piece that everybody seems to miss is that.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Especially with all the heat island work that is going to do. It's outrageous to think that it would all just be... Right.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: You can't plant enough trees. You can't plant trees the way of planting trees, you know.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: That brings up a very good point. There are no number of trees that offset the amount of heat. It'll be brown from the heat. Or someone has greenwashed it.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: Yeah.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: Okay. Good point.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: So that's where my brain goes is I think it's worth moratorium or not kind of logging down where Medford should exist with this. If we even allow them at all, what conditions must be met and how people are supposed to go about making these things so that they don't. just kind of pop up without our knowledge or our permission.
[Barry Ingber]: And scale being an issue. Scale, yeah. Like, you know, a data center that's serving an institution that's locally based is different than one that's commercial, yeah. Who in the city is directly involved?
[Robert Paine]: Ask Alicia.
[Lois Grossman]: Because we should invite that person to come.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: I will ask Alicia who would be our person, and I worry that it slips into one of those, like, you know, kind of slips through some cracks. But I will ask Alicia and make sure that we have some informed people to come in and talk about it.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yeah. I'd like to know if they get a proposal for one. Yeah. What would actually be the process? What's Alicia's, you know, department's role? Can they stop her financially?
[Robert Paine]: Do they have to sign an MDA? Yeah.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Well, that's like my biggest fear is that you get the email where they're happening and no one's allowed to know about it. Right. That's so scary.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Right. If you saw the TV, the community people complaining, it was Lawrence or Lowell, and they had the neighbors, you know, from the houses on a dead-end street, this big black monster, a box, spanning several streets. And they said it was, they never knew it was going to be like that. And they weren't allowed to vote or give public comment at city council meetings. And it happened. And the worst thing is to sound, but what's worse, It's the dust that they're getting on their gardens and on their homes from the generators. And I was like, oh my God, so now they can't even sell their homes. It was bad. Information of an entire community.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: I guess the final question I'd pose before we move to the next topic, Is there anyone who feels particularly strong in this room before I go harass Paul and Dan to begin this research or begin looking into this as a particular point of interest or a thing you'd like to know more about and help guide us as a committee?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: I'm interested, but I'm not an engineer and there are engineers in this group that can advise. I just like to keep abreast of it, but there are more people qualified in this group than
[Barry Ingber]: I'm interested, but I'm really overloaded. So I would participate, but I can't take the lead.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: I'm interested, but I'm not an expert because I'm a biologist, but I'm super interested. So I don't know.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah. I don't have the bandwidth to take this on either.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Hopefully Dan or Dan and Paul, they seem to be quite interested. I'll see if I can commit a little time to it as well just to start learning and see if we can also get some speakers to educate us as a group. That would be great. So if people come up in your networks, your field, let me know. I would love to have them. Otherwise, I'll start searching in cold column.
[Lois Grossman]: Yeah. I'm sure Tufts would have. Yeah. Especially with their own data center, they could talk about Git. I bet there's someone there that could pitch it once, and they got it.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: Oh, they did it sustainably, hopefully.
[Barry Ingber]: Dan and Paul are a good team in that they have very different abilities. Yeah, that would be good. Paul's so brilliant, but he needs somebody to keep him on track in order to get anything done.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: get them back into our calls and teaching us.
[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: I read today, I don't know how old this was, but Holyoke became the first community to ban data centers. Just outright. Just outright. They have one that was owned, it's small scale, I'm assuming similar to the one that Tufts has. I didn't finish the article. but that is sustainably run. So maybe looking at theirs and seeing if I want to try it. Which place is this? Holyoke.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Holyoke. And that's Holyoke College or the town around it.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: City. City, right. It'd be great to look at their ordinance.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Yeah. Which I would support.
[Josh Ekhart-Lee]: There's a new mode that we go.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Oh, right.
[Josh Ekhart-Lee]: Oh, we shouldn't ever have to do it. AI is the driving force for the data center expansion at NCQIC. And AI, as it is, is so like antithetical to the work we do.
[Barry Ingber]: I think that's true, but I also think, I'm not sure if this is a but or an and, but even apart from all the dangers of AI, the reality is that our society is becoming way more centered around digital information and that as things are moving, even if they don't go in a horrific direction, institutions like the city of Medford, like Tufts, like the schools, are going to, at some point, need their own data centers in order to run their own programs. I don't know how that fits into our thinking. Again, I don't know if it's a but or an and.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: All the more reason that we research it as well. Yeah. Yeah.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: I agree completely. And the future will include data, will include technology, will include information systems, will include AI. The question is, can it be done with minimal energy, infrastructure, environmental impact, and societal impact as well. So yeah, how do we find ways of making it make sense?
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Wonderful. Okay. I have my list of things to begin. Equally on people's minds, at least in my realm, I'm going to go to rodenticides next. I must have a conversation about rats. every three days. People love talking about rats. I love hearing about them. Tell us a little bit about our residential site here in Med 300.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Let me preface this by, several years ago, the city of Minnetonka had a public meeting to teach people about rodents and control and whatever. And I was involved with that and we volunteered. Some of the people on this committee, This was before 2001, before COVID. Some of the people helped the health department, because many of our departments involved. So we helped the health department by advertising this public meeting that was held in the chamber. Back then, we didn't have, and we still don't have enough advertising to get the message out. And the health department held it with Yankee Pest Control. at the informational public meeting for people to learn about how to seal their properties up, cleaning up waste, and Yankee pest control, Galvin Murphy, that is the owner and his family, started based in Malden. He and Galvin actually did the presentation, which was slides and visuals of what to look for if you have rodents, mice, whatever. And the first meeting, there weren't that many people there, but that's because we didn't have enough advertising about it. And there was another meeting and more people showed up. So at that time, you know, I was involved, passing out flyers to neighbors and I started learning about it. I never thought rodents would blow up as much as they have since the past five years. It's been really bad in Medford in certain areas. And that's because of open trash. usually open trash and construction excavation. And, um, you know, the restaurants or food establishments and their dumpsters and whatever. So over the years, um, when I was working to the health inspectors volunteer, cause we're all volunteers. Um, uh, they have taught me that as I'm driving by a public place, a restaurant or a food establishment, We see dumpsters open, we're supposed to take pictures, and we put it to the health department, they'll go out and find them. And there were some that I actually did see, but this was still several years ago, and they went right out, and they were habitual abusers of not getting enough dumpster clearance on pickups, or bigger ones. So that helped, but lately it's gotten really bad. And so when we talk about, And this is a little, I have other notes that are more important to talk about, but it's also important now that so many residents are against the biweekly rubbish pickup that's being proposed. I'm not saying that, you know, this could, this could help to teach people, you know, about what they can do with ruins, but a lot of people are angry about the proposal. biweekly rubbish pickup. Can I pause you for a second? With that, is compost being picked up weekly? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, great. All right. Perfect. Continue. I don't even know where the rubbish proposal stands right now, but many people are against it. Including some people at this meeting. Including some people at this meeting. Including some people at this meeting. Including some people at this meeting. Including some people at this meeting. Including some people at this meeting. Including some people at this meeting. Including some people at this meeting. Including some people at this meeting. Including some people at this meeting. Including some people at this meeting. Including some people at this meeting.
[Unidentified]: Including some people at this meeting. Including some people at this meeting. Including some people at this meeting.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Including some people at this meeting. Including some people at this meeting. Including some people at this meeting. Including some people at this meeting. Including some people at this meeting. Including some people at this meeting. Including some people at this meeting. Including some people at this meeting. Including some people at that if they want to do that, we don't have enough time. Let's go back to that. Oh, yeah.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Looking at that. Oh, my God.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: OK, so we will talk about that. Yes. Right. You know, look, of course, the first time I'm aware of. Okay, so it is blown up. And so one of the things that we started working on, because I was telling a lot of wildlife, is anticoagulant or denticides. And so I've been following that for over a year and talking to the committee about it, and there were bills, and the State House of Representatives, and it was supposed to be kind of the mass radioactive chain, blah, whatever. Now it's in the Senate. And what's in the Senate, but it was taken up The one we wanted to be in was taken out by accident or not. So the Senate has the municipal version where the state and municipally owned managed properties that it can be used in emergency use, but it has to be regular, you know, all these programs. So that's where that ordinance is to be in, except for emergency use in public. properties could change. So that's been sent over to a conference committee and they have meeting over the summer, but the legislative committee, legislative group, the real year starts back in January, but because it's an election year, they're still, you know, doing part-time work, trying to get some things done through election time anyway. So we'll see where that goes. So what happened was this, several citizen towns that have tried to ban it, ban the use of it on municipal property. And so since the Senate had that bill, they could apply. And I was following all the, several of the wildlife groups that were sporting all these animals, many different kinds, that we were poisoning their foods and they were dying or bleeding out because these rodents are eating the rodenticides. that's food that the fox, foxes, whatever, eat. And the eagles, they die. There's a woman, her name is Laura Kiesel, and she's the director of Save Arlington Wildlife. And she has helped many people with education and helping ordinances and getting the information out. Also Newhouse Wildlife and Tepper Legal and Mass Audubon. and many, many have a lot and many groups. So I talked to Laura because last year, I said, would you like to come to a meeting and talk about this and how to get this done? And at the time, we lost communication because the bills were coming up and presentations at the state house. So we reconnected, as Pavitha had mentioned that she had talked to her and she was interested in helping Medford get this rolling. So I did have a conference with her last week or the week before, and We talked quite about this. And in the meantime, I talked to the health department because I know how cities work. To have an ordinance, you know, it's somebody proposes it, a mayor proposes it, we propose it, city councilors get involved, they go to the different departments and ask if this is feasible. So I went right to the health department to ask them, what do they think about a municipal ban or a complete citywide ban of these intercollegiate rodenticides? And what we have is an IP integrated pest management plan already, which is to teach people how to seal up their properties and get rid of trash and bar places where rodents hide and get into your property. And good rodenticide, pest management companies will do that first instead of spraying and putting down chemicals, because that doesn't work. You have to stop the source of where they're getting in. And when I was talking to Mirian O'Connor, who's the director, I knew about this. She said, we don't use anticoagulant or denticides in any bait boxes. So if you see bait boxes, it's not that. And that's like a last resort. If there's any around in the city that you see, they could be old ones. The schools, we're not sure about. But that doesn't mean, you know, so I don't want to take a lot of time explaining the whole city program, but for builders, or developers, and they filed their building permit for excavation or many different things. Part of their permit to the building department would go to the health department, and they have to state what their integrated pest management program is, and the health department will approve it. However, to make this a little shorter, I asked Marianne, so she's fully aware of the state proposal. And I said, would you be in support a rodenticide ban for the city. And she said, yes, but she would like to see what the state does. And a lot of mayors, health departments and mayors are waiting for that. So when I mentioned this to Laura, we agreed. So getting back to Marianne, I said, so if the state doesn't pass it in a few months, can we circle back? She said, absolutely. So in the meantime, Laura Kessler would like to come to a Medford Energy and Environment Committee meeting to explain this to people and hopefully get our support. for an ordinance, and ordinances are two parts. There's two ordinances, but we need to find out, you know, what city councilors need to be educated and would they support this in the meantime? So she would talk about that and the procedure. I know the procedures. I don't know if you want to hear about the procedures, but I know, you know, the procedures. Let me just go to my notes, because this is really important for you to know. 50 municipalities have some kind of similar regulation or ordinance to regulate and be an SGARs. Anticoagulant resenticides could also be FGARs. There's another chemical too, on municipal owned properties that's similar to the state one that they have in state.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: But that's only a municipal property.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Municipal owned or managed property, but you do that one. But I'm just telling you how many, 50 in Massachusetts. It includes that bill, except for emergency use, which is all those restrictions of how and they report it and how often and how much. And then another 15 municipalities have banned ESCR citywide for everyone. And another 15 more have applied. So it's two ordinances that the city council would have to do. And does Laura have that model language? Yeah, she has. She's going to send me like a sample of, you know, I asked all the questions. Yeah, she's going to send me a copy or maybe she'll bring it to the meeting. So that's great. So she would like to speak, um, if it could be next month she's available or the following month.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Can you send me her info so I can reach out to her and coordinate?
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: You want to do that or do you want me to do it?
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: You can do it, but make sure I know about it.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: But I just want to know if at the time, because originally we spoke, you thought the data sentence might take up the whole meeting.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: So we're going to, yeah, but that's why I'd like to be on that email so I can, yeah.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: I can just add you, there's a thread between me, Loretta and Laura going on at this time.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Yeah, I just want to make sure I know when she's available so we can get that on.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: So she wants to speak about, I just want to give you a brief recap of what's involved. If you know city councilors, a lot of people are not educated.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: And that's work that I'm also doing with Lisa Coliani is some trying to revamp some rat education and things. So if you have, I don't know, general thoughts, I'd love to hear about them. We can start talking about them.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Yeah, the other thing we thought is that education is important, and maybe having another public meeting. I forgot to add that. I'm sorry. I brought that up. At least, and I brought that up to, I think, Marianne, if Yankee Pest Control is available.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Yeah, in general.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: It was actually very, very fun to watch. It's actually the length part. It's on the Method Queen to the Meta Beta.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: New York Sanitation Department does a free rap academy online. I did that. It was like three hours and it was riveting. It was actually really fun and they do walks, they do talks, they have merch, like really beautiful hats with like really City of New York? Yes, City of New York. I mean, they did a good enough job that I believe the Greater Boston Metro officially has more racks than New York. What? As of like last year or something. I think part of it has to do with containerization and just like getting all hands on deck. They have some really robust systems in place. I don't think we can do all of them, but we can learn a lot from them. I've got a lot of thoughts on rats, but we know we don't have a ton of time.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Oh, there's more.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: There's much. It's okay. Yeah. Sorry.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: I didn't know that.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Yeah. We got a, we got something ready for you.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: Okay.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: This is a quick, um,
[Barry Ingber]: So there are proposals to add docks, probably plastic docks, and water slides to Wright's Pond. And the Parks Commission is meeting on this tomorrow evening in this very room at 6 p.m. So you can just stay. but there is some significant opposition to it. It might not be quite as awful as my initial reaction to it was. My initial reaction was, because docs to me means both docs, but it's actually docs for slimmers to jump off of. But even so, It would just add more chaos to an area that's already chaotic. And if the service that's needed at Wright's Pond is shuttle service from South Medford and West Medford so that kids can get to it, not plastic monstrosity.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: So, um, so that is tomorrow night.
[Barry Ingber]: Yeah.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Okay.
[Barry Ingber]: Is it going to be virtual also? I don't know. I think by law it has to be, but maybe not. I don't know. I did not get any information.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: There might be a recording by law, but I don't know if it has to be zoomed by law. I also know that when it was talked about, I heard about it from you, Barry, via email, and then the next day, I think it was Teresa DuPont, on this thing, rec department scrambling, trying to figure out what's going on. So I'm curious what the rec department's actual pitch is, because they were perhaps unaware that it would have this pushback. So I'm eager that you, I'm glad you brought it up, and I think it could be done well, but I don't know.
[Barry Ingber]: I mean, I think that it's siloing, you know, thinking about it as a rec, a recreation person or a park person, you want to, develop the amenities, right? You know, that water slides can be fun, you know. Docks can make it easier to jump off of, though I have to say it would, it's already, the adult swim area is already really small and this would make it worse. So, but it's, but Rex Pond is not just a park and recreation area, it's a natural area. I mean, it's Medford's Walden Pond, really. And parks and recreation people wouldn't necessarily think about it that way. Our committee, our conservation committee, would think about it or should think about it that way. And so, yeah.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Yeah, so I think the two-parter for me is, one, people should make an effort to go to this. I know there was another meeting tomorrow as well.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: City Council?
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: City Council. All the more reason they're not brought in. But be civilly engaged. They're good people. We'll figure it out. But Barry, I assume you'll be here at this meeting? I'm going to try. Because getting an email update from you would be hugely helpful. Um, if you could send us an email update on what the plan actually entails, if I, if you do end up going or to anyone who ends up, um, anyone, you know, help.
[Barry Ingber]: I mean, I, there is, um, the city posted a survey and the survey has, um, schematics of alternatives, uh, uh, with, uh, with a kind of downplayed fourth alternative of don't do anything, but all three alternatives were different configurations for slide and docks, including a dock that cut the adult lab area in half.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: with that.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: I forgot something. My trade update thing. I forgot something that we put it on before. Mothers Out Front had sent out, and I mentioned this several months ago, information on a webinar because there was going to be a bill presented to the state to stop insurance companies telling homeowners that they have to cut down the trees, because that's a big thing that's going on in the United States. They don't like your tree, and they're taking pictures, and they think it's whatever for whatever reason, it's too close to your house, they will make you cut down the tree. So a woman and other people had presented a bill. I don't have the update, but I just wanted to bring it up. It's very important, because they'll cancel your insurance, and this bill will help you fight that. Yeah, we will certainly buy that, or say it's healthy and certainly not. So I forgot to mention that. I appreciate that. I'm really sorry about that.
[Josh Ekhart-Lee]: All right. Josh, climate action plan. As ever, the climate action tracking matrix is at the end of the agenda at NAFTA. You all know it. You all know, love it. At the top of the year, we started working on a sort of comprehensive attempt at evaluating where we are almost five years in on the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan. Brenda did a real Herculean effort, or yeoman's work, for this. So she's really built out, as have many of these committee members volunteering, to reach out to city staff and get a sense of what our progress is on different 150 ish actions across the city. Um, and so I think. Largely, the work is back on maybe me and Sam to sort of review the progress and the updates that we all did as folks who did outreach. see if there were any final gaps that Brenda wasn't able to plug, which are few because she's really excellent, and provide some sort of summaries of what we found in that tracking work. I think with it as sort of an end goal that we as a committee had identified of providing some sort of assessment and then set of recommendations to the city for either climate action plan update or a set of Priorities where work needs to be done where it's not being done and where, you know, NBC can or should be a sort of primary partner. So, I think that's that's where I think I think largely the sort of. Spreadsheet part of it is complete, which is always a joy. But I. I don't know if it'll be ready for October, if my time will allow it, but that's my sort of goal for the next two sets of meetings is to have some sort of data visualization for the committee to review on our progress.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: I also know looking forward, we'll likely be in charge of a new climate action plan in the next year or so, which is, I believe there's precedence for us to be a part of that in some meaningful way. So lean on us where and how you can.
[Robert Paine]: Definitely. Or would it be just an update as to progress on the 2022? Yeah, so we're kind of doing the state of affairs. Because usually after five years, you get a five-year update, which would be next year. Exactly.
[Josh Ekhart-Lee]: And so seeing what we've done well, we can identify where we want to go further and see what we fail to do. We can provide some more targeted advice on what needs pushing or what needs to be prioritized.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: More of a gap analysis than a full new plan. Gotcha. But there may be some opportunities that we're not- To add about data centers.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: Right. Yeah.
[Josh Ekhart-Lee]: We can always add new things to consider. Yeah. I think there's always more room for deeper equity goals as well.
[EO-vAhUJAKo_SPEAKER_21]: That'd be great. I'd like to add, Some of us have a lot of initiatives or interests. One of the things we talked about is seeing if others wanted to help in those, to work as a group. So I have a lot of different things I'm following. So if anybody, you don't have to answer today, but if anybody's interested in helping me with some of these, please just reach out to me. The three ones are a lot to follow. The rodenticide one will probably be pretty easy because Laurel knows her stuff. She's taught many students, but let me know so we can work on things.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: The hope is that I will start building some larger meeting agendas that accommodate these cool ideas and initiatives we want to tackle, but also email each other. Email the point people that have introduced things or might be knowledgeable and let me know if there are new subcommittees that need to be formed or anything of that nature. So we can formalize it and get that work done. We won't call them subcommittees. We'll call them whatever we want. That makes sense.
[ir8Km2ErkFk_SPEAKER_29]: My notebook and my laptop are closed.
[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: That can only mean one thing. Motion to adjourn. So, and there it is, thank you, you know, if you have anything on your mind, I'm happy to see you guys. All right. Bye. I didn't get any cookies.
[Josh Ekhart-Lee]: They were really good.
[L5Dn-1_BzKM_SPEAKER_12]: I did. I've got so many still at home. I made a triple batch. Yeah. All right.