Climate Equity Council 10/21/26

AI-generated summary. Written by gemini-3.6-flash from the transcript below, which is the record. It may be incomplete or wrong; it does not report votes. Every item links to the moment it began.

The Climate Equity Council received an update on a regional de-paving grant for West Medford, discussed rodent control and waste reduction outreach, and reviewed strategies to expand the Electrify Medford program.

0:01 Upcoming Community Events Review — Council members reviewed upcoming community events while waiting to establish a quorum.
3:28 West Medford De-Paving MVP Grant Update — Amanda Centrella presented an update on a regional Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness grant funding de-paving and green infrastructure design in West Medford, and members discussed community outreach partnerships.
21:53 Minutes Approval and Next Meeting Date — The council approved the September meeting minutes and scheduled its next meeting for November 18, 2026.
24:47 Rodent Control, Waste Reduction, and Student Outreach — The council discussed educational initiatives on rodent mitigation, composting, and proper waste disposal, including social media videos created by high school volunteers.
37:21 Electrify Medford Coaching and Incentive Strategies — Staff presented ideas to revitalize the Electrify Medford program, including recruiting youth language coaches and providing micro-grants or tangible energy-efficiency incentives to residents.

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: Well, we don't have quorum, so I'm not we're not able to start sort of our formal meeting. But what we can do is I can go through sort of the list of events that we have written down just so you guys know about them. If there's any sort of discussion about them, we probably can't talk about them because we're at quorum. But if we can start getting in mind what these dates are, then when someone else hops on, we'll have it fresh in our head to have a conversation.

Oh, but 1st, oh, I don't think I can ask about next meeting. That might be a. That might be a open meeting violation, but I'll just go through the events calendar. So, on October, 22nd, we have a pumpkin carving party. On the 4th, there's the 6th annual Halloween festival and pumpkin float. This next one, forgive my pronunciation, but on October 30th, it's a Get Fet Festival. G-E-D-E-F-E-T. I don't know what that is. I'm very intrigued by it.

I click into it. That looks like it's a Haitian celebration. Oh, fun. Oh, it's a $50 admission. So it's at the art collaborative. That's very cool. All right, and then on Halloween, there's a not so spooky sensory friendly Halloween fun event. Lots of spooky things in October happening events wise.

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: That one's not spooky. That one is specifically not so spooky. Then on November 5th and the 12th, there's a future ready get ready, which I believe that is for career prep coaching. That's very cool. On the 12th, there's also a bystander or upstander event. And then on the 19th, there's this little event. I don't know if you've heard of it. It's the winter preparedness event. So we will be there with our energy bill checkups. ABCD will be there. I'm so excited to see the other things that you guys have going on for that. And then on the 24th, there's a community care van clinic. Am I missing any events? I know I just went through them in rapid succession.

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: Winter preparedness is not yet at the city's calendar because it just finalized the flyer, but it's going to be there soon. But you guys know when.

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: Yes. We're excited. Then we do have Amanda. Are you ready to present? Hello. So, Amanda, we are not a forum. So. do with that what you will. We can't really have in-depth conversations, but I think we can ask questions. But Amanda was just going to give sort of an update and talk about the depaving MVP grant that the city was awarded. I know that Amanda came and talked to the group my first meeting, whether that was August or September, I don't remember. But yeah, Amanda, take it away.

[Amanda Centrella]: Thanks, Sam. Yeah, so There's not too much to update on quite yet, but I wanted to keep this group apprised of sort of where things are at. If you all remember, so we, the city applied for like a regional. With so alongside Malden and Everett, some folks from our department also applied for this deep paving grant. And we received funding to do sort of 2 different things in the city. The 1st is sort of more around, like, a social resiliency and kind of community organizing.

around de-paving, which is the idea of removing pavement and asphalt from public or private property across the city and replacing it with more permeable surfaces or plantings. And so that often looks like, because de-paving happens, and there have already been de-paving events in Medford, Ahead of this process, um, and those have looked like, you know, a private homeowner. Uh, is really interested in maybe, like, tearing up part of, um, maybe they have a really big. Uh, uh, asphalt driveway that they don't need all of it to be asphalt or it may be like, part of their front yard is paved. They don't really want that anymore and so community volunteers will get together. Um. and use manual tools to manually remove the pavement, have that pavement hauled off, and then replace with more permeable things, whether that's plantings or just lawn, or even permeable surface types. Maybe they're putting pavers into their driveway. And so part of this grant, and I apologize if this is already very familiar to everybody, Please stop me if you're if this is old news, but so part of this grant is, you know, to do that work of hosting workshops.

And getting people used to using those tools and kind of building a cohort of volunteers in the community who might be interested in doing this. So that's 1 piece of it. The second piece of it is that each city is going to do a design project that uses either something called nature-based solutions or green infrastructure, which I'll describe in a second, to address a problem, whether that's flooding or extreme heat or air quality. These types of design features are mimicking natural processes or natural spaces and addressing a problem in a way that's often less.

invasive than like maybe more traditional engineered projects like, you know, for stormwater, you know, having big concrete faults under the ground. And there's, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that type of infrastructure, it's just a different type of solution than this, and often is, you know, or costly. And there's limitations in the space and ways that those types of tools can be used. So for this, the idea would be to use these green infrastructure like bioswales or rain gardens, more trees and plantings that would absorb or capture water in a different way. Often in a way that has other co benefits like being very beautiful or, you know, being a place for pollinators, birds and butterflies, things like that.

And addressing flooding specifically in West Medford. So that is what the grant is for. And our next couple of weeks, we'll be getting together to try to organize before the holidays, ideally, a first public workshop about this. And I was actually just drafting an email before this meeting. Would love any recommendations from this group, but we were thinking that West the West Manfred community center, you know, as a deeply embedded institution within the Westman for neighborhood would be a really wonderful partner. If there's interest there in hosting and also just helping. Staff to connect with community members do outreach.

And so if there are thoughts on that or on other groups and institutions to work with and on contacts that people have, we are all ears, very open to ideas. And I think that's the gist from my end. And I know I just sort of, you know, word vomited. So if folks have questions or wanna like roll back to anything, happy to talk. And Will and Sam, if I'm missing anything, please feel free to jump in.

[MCM00001801_SPEAKER_10]: So with regard to, I can certainly field the partnership. Um, piece of it with the folks at the community center. So, I know you're I know the, I know that there's this flooding that you talk about is on the Fairfield street. So. So, I mean, I guess I'm kind of I'm kind of wondering where exactly because, you know, there's a, there's a hill there. It's a hill. So the assumption is that something is pooling there at the bottom of the hill. So, with that, so that would that be the intersections of Jerome, Jerome, Lincoln, Arlington and Mystic River Road.

and no effect to Sharon Street and Monument Street. So those are the two streets at the top.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: I know Jerome Street, that intersection was flagged by Owen, our city engineer, as a site of particularly bad flooding. OK.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: That being said, the grant is for West Medford kind of broadly. The goal is to, by the end of this kind of information gathering session, have a design that could work. Potentially beyond just Fairfield, we're still kind of figuring out the full scope of where it would need to go.

[MCM00001801_SPEAKER_10]: The reason why I'm asking, Will, is because I'm just trying to see if there's outreach to be done. I would imagine the folks you really want to hit, I was trying to get more specific where you want to hit. It looks like it's that Jerome Street down to Mystic River Road, down to the park area and closest to the river there.

[Amanda Centrella]: Yes, I think that like, so, of course, you know, we're happy to go broad, but we would definitely want to do very targeted outreach to sort of any of the folks along Fairfield Street and sort of, and those offshoots that you just mentioned, Stacy. Okay, so those are the folks with biggest impact.

[MCM00001801_SPEAKER_10]: Yeah. So, even the folks on the upper parts of Fairfield Street, so monument in Sharon and. Okay, and I would imagine, okay, well, yeah, let me, yeah. Yeah, do you have any information or any flyers or anything? I don't know, maybe, I mean, I think that might be one way. Well, first we gotta nail down a place, but even if it was just sort of some informational or just to say, you know, we're working on, you know, trying to put a workshop together or, you know, whatever you want to call it, you know. And, yeah, figure out a way and get it to the people. And then if there are other folks on the other side of Fairfield, like from Harvard up, because, you know, I would imagine the folks along the riverway might, you know, further down on the other end of Mystic River Road might you know, have some questions or some feelings about flooding or potential flooding. Because I know not so long ago, a few years back, not that long ago, something I had never seen. And I grew up in that area.

I was just really kind of blown away by how much water there was during that time. So yeah, I can take that on, but any information that you can forward to me and so I can kind of start putting it out and, you know, there's some tabling and stuff I can, you know, I can start to talk to the folks that I'm coming into contact with.

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: I would just I would just suggest Natasha's in now. So maybe we can start the meeting officially. So can get all those things on our notes. And come up with plan because I think I have some stuff in my head too. So I don't want to forget. So maybe it'll be a good idea for us.

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: Yes, we can officially start. Natasha, did you catch all of Amanda's sort of, not presentation, but her talking about the project? I don't know when you popped in. I want to make sure that you're- Partial. Partial. Okay. Maybe Amanda, could you just give a short and condensed feel of what the project is we're talking about?

[Amanda Centrella]: Yes, so Natasha, we received a grant and I think you probably have heard of this project before because I've been in front of you guys a couple times, but this is for the depaving project. Our office received a grant. It does two things. We're going to do some, you know, social resiliency and kind of community organizing around depaving and getting people together to manually remove pavement from their own properties if they so choose. And then the other piece of it, which is sort of, I think the focus of our conversation will be is there's a design piece to this where we look at a part of West Medford, in particular, along Fairfield Street, where there has been a history of flooding. And do some very hands on community outreach to learn from folks about what their experiences have been with flooding in that area and to talk through some green stormwater infrastructure or like natural type of solutions for addressing that flooding to inform the design. And so Stacy and I were chatting a bit about involving the West Medford Community Center.

Oh, awesome. Yes, and to pick back up where you were Stacy, we can definitely put together maybe like an informational flyer for purposes of like starting to engage the West Medford Community Center. And then on top of that, like once we have it, there'll definitely be flyers and things for as we're like organizing the workshop. We're kind of in the early stages of wanting to land on, to start partnership and to pick out some dates for hosting something, although it's moving so fast with the holidays creeping up.

So anyway, the short of that is happy to put some information together to help with that conversation with the community center to go from there.

[MCM00001801_SPEAKER_10]: And in the meantime, I'll just, I'll shoot out an email just to, you know, get, have people be ready to, you know, say, this is kind of coming down the bike, you know, can you kind of start thinking about it or talking about it now? Yes.

[Amanda Centrella]: And do you think, so the grant has this sort of like, we had a delay happen with contracting that sort of like pushed things to like a faster time. Track than I would have liked. And so the, you know, consultants that we're working with are asking us to see if we can get some dates from potential spaces that we might host at. And so do you feel like it would be premature for us to be like, you know, I know we're still figuring out. What this is, and we want to have a bigger conversation, but are there some dates within these. Weeks that might that you guys might be open to partnering with us to host a workshop.

[MCM00001801_SPEAKER_10]: Okay, so that's what I'll that's what I'll send something out potential or, you know. Are you willing to post some potential dates for workshop? Yeah. Awesome.

[Amanda Centrella]: Okay, I'll send you an email Stacy with, like, some of this too.

[MCM00001801_SPEAKER_10]: Yeah, if you can yeah, the more information that I have about the grant or, you know. The more robust and that I can kind of verse myself on and be able to better present it and. feel the questions on the spot, the better.

[Amanda Centrella]: Awesome. Cool. Not that I know everything or, but you know, but to give you the information and the context to like start the conversation. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm happy to be, we're all, any of us are happy to be involved at any point, um, in those conversations.

[MCM00001801_SPEAKER_10]: So, yeah. Cause, cause the folks that are coming in contact, I'm not sure who, which ones might actually be involved, you know, uh, be. Affected by that Fairfield street area. There might be others in other areas that might be affected not by that, but by.

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: I was just going to suggest, first of all, I'm so glad that Stacy is in this meeting because she knows West Medford, so that's great, and she has a relationship with the community center. I would suggest maybe we can have a meeting just to talk about that. I think it's very important because that way we don't need to wait until November 18th if we continue to have that date for the next council meeting. Climate Council meeting, I would love to be part of that too. And I'm sure it stays to get more information and we see how can we support you and put the word out there and get more information and maybe have some. Gathering or something to get more residents, you know, and maybe stays, we have some dates and some ideas that it can help with that. But I think we'll be interested to have a separate meeting, but focus on that. That's what I suggest.

[MCM00001801_SPEAKER_10]: Oh, so the meeting you're talking about is, um, is a much it's just us who were just MVP, just about MVP, just ask that if we don't need to vote and they don't need to do any of those things that it can.

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: And then you can bring all the information to the next meeting, you know, and more details, you know, and. That way, you don't need to wait a month, you know.

[MCM00001801_SPEAKER_10]: Yeah, I mean, I think that's I think that's a great idea.

[Amanda Centrella]: Um, we're more than happy to meet with you guys. Absolutely. Um, if you've got the time for it, definitely bring the coffee can do.

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: Anything else on this topic? Otherwise I'll go back to our events so we can actually talk about the events calendar. I don't want to rush this conversation.

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: I'm good. Perfect. This is great. And we will be in contact about another meeting solely talking about this. So I'll send an email out with some times and we'll go from there. Thank you, Amanda. All right, I had rushed through our events calendar. Actually, before we do that, did we look at the meeting minutes from our previous. Meeting and do we have any changes or can we vote to approve them?

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: No, thank you Natalie. I couldn't find so she sent to me today. So. She's the best motion to accept the minutes from September meeting.

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: Perfect, I'm saving. All in favor, I, I. Great and then for our next meeting with November 18th work.

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: I think that would be a great. Date, because it's the day before the winter preparedness, so we can go over everything we need to do the next day for the event. I think it's a good day. If everybody is okay with that.

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: Great. And we still are right with sticking with hybrid. For the meeting, yes. Perfect.

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: Yeah, I don't. Okay. Yeah. Either 1. Yeah, all right. Perfect. So I will send out an invite for that and then getting back to our events calendar. Natasha, I know you weren't on for when I first ran through it, but when I did run through it, it's mostly Halloween themed things. Were there any ones that were like, oh, we're going to be tabling at this or make sure that this is sort of penciled in to everyone's calendar? Be aware of this.

[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_08]: For this month, I don't have anything, but the vaccine clinic, but we have the winter preparation. That's all I know so far.

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: Yes, the most important event that was on the events calendar. I got the rest were pumpkin carving the pumpkin festival. get-fit festival, I apologize for my pronunciation, the not-so-spooky sensory-friendly Halloween, Future Get Ready, which is sort of career prep, and then Bystander, Upstander, and the Winter Preparedness, and the Community Caravan. A lot of Halloween.

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: No, and most of the events that are coming up now, we, they're not tabling, you know, so I think you're okay.

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: Perfect. All right, then moving on to some updates for city action. So I know that we have our energy bill checkup and at the winter preparedness event. Is there anything else that you would like to see from sort of the climate side or even the planning office in general there?

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: Actually, we just had a team's meeting and the inspector for the health department came to talk about rats. Oh. And I couldn't stop thinking about you guys. I'm sorry. I know it's not a good thing to say like rats and you guys, but all the trash, you know, that is coming up, all the things are trash. But one of our partner asked about, about the trash bins, you know, that has hole on it because the rats eat through them, you know, and then talking about the possibility of having maybe metal bins or something like that. I thought that was a great idea. I know it's costly, you know, but I think maybe find ways to, you can help people to deal with that. Of course, you're educating them about cleaning and stuff, everything. Because we were talking about last meeting about the spring, that you should start getting ready, what are we going to do for the spring? I thought maybe something that it can educate people when they are planting, to have maybe a base of metal or something. That's what Josh was suggesting. You know, about people that have plenty right stays to correct me if I'm wrong was too much information, but he kind of suggest something like that.

[MCM00001801_SPEAKER_10]: Yeah, yeah, you're, you're, you're spot on. I think it would be great. It could, it could go right alongside a composting. Yeah, you're right. Especially during the spring time when. Folks are starting to think about their gardening and underneath their garden beds to lay some material with the metal laced in it to keep the rats from burrowing or finding a food source and burrowing directly to it. So yeah, so somehow sort of, wrap some of that information around the composting and the trash going to every two weeks or or something and just kind of you know push the keep their let's keep the rats away let's let's not feed them and um you know and metal trash barrels yeah i mean it's it's so ideal i mean it's it certainly changes the scope of things in terms of Well, it's just the recycling that's picked up with that machine thing though. Right. But yeah. Yeah, it's a big deal. I mean, not only not only rats. I mean, the same holds true for squirrels and raccoons as well. So.

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: That's really think about some materials that it can start sharing now, you know, even for the winter preparedness, you know, to start putting out there and people start thinking about it. So, when you start this spring without the ideas that you have great ideas that you're going to do. Maybe that's going to be 1 of the things that people already heard about. Oh, I heard I want to know more about it. Then the community gardens too, I don't know if they have any information about that. We focus so much in the other meetings about the trash, how people can compose and stuff, but have so other little things that can be happening to help.

I think we all are trying to find as much as information as possible that is out there that it can provide. The correct educational materials for the residents. So, if you guys have anything, I would love to have some for the winter preparedness and start working on that. So, in the spring, we can come up with something bigger or.

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: Definitely, that's a conversation that we've been having. I know Will and I have been talking a lot about rats and sort of education and what that would look like. So, happy to sort of debut something at Winter Preparedness.

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: We can get it. It's Halloween, so we can get it. Dress up like a rat. A rat costume.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Yeah, you're right in my wheelhouse. I've been talking with Energy and Environment Committee about this for a few months now. I'm going to sick them on some better rodent management education materials. But I like the deadline of the winter preparedness because that's November 19th. And that'll be perfect. I'll get my team on this one, because I've been following it nonstop. They had the big rat conference about a month ago. And I was zooming in on that. There's people from all over the country talking about rat management.

And then New York's Rat Academy. I really am pitching, like, I really want rat walks where we go into neighborhoods and help people identify what's going wrong, why the rats are here, and how to keep them away.

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: It's not a bad idea, the costume, you know, like, because comedy, you know, like, and get people engaged. I even dress, if you wanted me to dress as a rat, I don't mind, man, you know, like, but I think it'd be hilarious and people get people's attention, you know, just don't kill me, don't spank me or anything. I see Stacy dying over there. But like, I think we will attract a lot of people like, you know, get some medals thing and then the mouse, the rat, no!

[MCM00001801_SPEAKER_10]: We could all be rats. me a room full of rats. Oh my gosh. I can see me now. The rat. Checking people in for their COVID and flu shots. You got a piece of cheese. Sorry. I'm sorry. Sorry. Sorry.

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: Oh, I love it. I'll get rat costumes. Then we say City Hall's infested with rats and just scurry.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: I don't know if that's the narrative I want. Somerville made a video years ago on rodent management where they dressed up, this must be two very old planners at this point, dressed up in rat costumes, and they did a old-timey movie-style rodent management video. It is hysterical. It is so cute. and they feature these like two little kids dressed up as rats too that must be like they're probably like my age now they're probably pretty old but uh fantastic outreach materials have already been done and i'd love to just see what we come up with uh to reinvigorate that we can definitely get a better costume than that we can really we can up the game oh yeah yeah So, and who did you say came to speak about this from board of health.

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: Perfect. In the sort of realm of waste and trash today, well, you could honestly talk more about this than I can. Some videos were made about waste.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Yeah, I actually have not had a chance to review them yet.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: We had some courtesy of Samia's co-worker, Joseph. We got a bunch of high school volunteers to come and basically I was told like, hey, keep them occupied for a few hours. They have a lot of skills, a lot of training, they wanna be useful. And I told them to start working on some outreach videos for composting tips, waste reduction tips, kind of like a history of where our trash goes in Massachusetts, some rodent management work as well. So I've not had a chance to look it over, but they developed basically a full like, social media plan of what they would like to do going forward. They filmed a couple draft videos that I'm going to look over. Um, but they're already talking to folks at the voc tech school, uh, to start crafting some social media posts and videos. Uh, so hopefully in the next month or so we can look forward to, uh, the high schoolers taking on, uh, a lot of this outreach as well, which is just super exciting. And I was really appreciative to have this, um, surprise team, uh, given to me. I was really like, Oh, this is great.

Um, So that's something I'm going to start going through those videos and see what they came up with because they got really into it. And I was really excited to see it. And hopefully we can get a bunch more.

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: Now seeing the Somerville rat video, I feel like we need them in costumes. They need to be like trash rats and all that.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: They were actually quite disappointed that I was not supplying rat costumes today. So clearly we need to set aside a little budget for that.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: We need a wardrobe budget because we need at least two or three full-size rats.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: I'm working on an Oscar the grouch costume. That'll be my Halloween costume. So we're, we're going to get a bunch going. It'll be good.

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: You know, you're talking about the students. Last night I was at the high school for an event and I saw a flyer about the eco league club. And you're talking about that they want to get more involved, you know, them themselves, you don't want to get more involved with opportunities of get the community involving preserving the environment and things like that. So I thought of you, I just put in the chat. The email that they had on the flyer.

In case if you don't have yet, maybe reach out to them, but they. Yeah, the flyer was, like, recruiting students, but it, like, recruiting ideas and contacts of people that they can. You know, get more information and get involved. So I thought to be.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: This is fantastic. Yeah, I had reached out to the teacher that runs EcoLeague over the summer, and they were very interested, but they're like, oh, it's student-driven, so we're not sure yet. But this is a really good reminder, and I'm gonna make sure that I reach out to them again and use this email as well. This is very topical, and I think most people would get a kick out of being right on the cutting edge.

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: Well, we can use the fact that you had the students yesterday and that we're going to have some of the high school students attending our meeting or getting more involved. So maybe, you know, make them think that, you know, realize that you already work with the schools and, you know, and we want to hear from them. So maybe, you know, good luck.

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: Perfect. All right. I have one more topic for sort of city initiatives and events, city actions, and it is the Electrify Medford program. I don't know how familiar you three are with it. It's been going for quite some time. I think it started in 2024, and we have a grant that runs through part of 2027. We're going to extend it because we have some extra funding. And with it, we have, so I've sort of two just general things to talk about with you guys, because part of the Electrify Medford as a program has sort of, I don't wanna say fizzled, but it sort of hit a lull in both coaching and in people signing up. And I just would love any feedback for things that you might see in the community of, oh, this group is pushing this, and they did it in a really creative way to sort of get the message back out there. And then my other sort of just brainstorming is we have an amount for incentives. So this is money that we could give residents either in the form of micro grants, or we could give it to them in buying, say, a window air conditioner as it could be spent on a lot of things. And I would just love feedback on what you think would be the most beneficial. way to spend this incentive and again sort of so it combines with not only are people doing it just for the incentive but they're actually coming to the coaching to learn and not just be like all right thank you for my three free things bye. So I would just love any feedback that you might have or brainstormed of ideas with marketing or incentive ideas

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: Are you guys hiring new coaches? Because I remember you guys had some coaches that you guys are paying, you know, to do that work.

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: Yep, so that's part of it too, is we have a lot of funding for coaches. One thing that I would love to do outreach on is funding for coaches who could do some translation, like coaches who could help residents who might struggle with English. We do have some coaches that are signed up who say that they can help in other languages, but in sort of one-on-one conversations, they're like, I say I can coach in Spanish, but my Spanish is pretty bad. Like my Spanish is like, Okay, so it wouldn't be a great native conversation. So, yes, there's definitely the door open to also hiring more coaches.

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: Is there any information that it can provide that it can push that to. The people that, you know, we work with that may be interested to be a coach, but, like, information term, like, how many hours you're expecting this person to indicate to this project and. You know, the pay and all those things, you know. Like, a job description, whatever, you know, they'll be very helpful.

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: I will see if Brenda had one and then as we've sort of been talking about revamping it because that's been an issue with coaching hours is it's very inconsistent but maybe doing office hours so at least minimally you're doing two hours a month maybe two hours every other week of office hour. so that it's a more consistent and not for residents who might be doing it more of like, oh, that'd be a great little side hustle. It's not like, all right, I did two hours within the span of six months. It's more, all right, we're at least getting two hours every other week.

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: And is there an age limit for you to hire those coaches? Because like, what came to my mind is just the language club at the high school, you know, that maybe they'll be interested to, you know, maybe work on the weekends, even better because, or late in the afternoon, you know, after school, and be able to make some extra money, but learn about it and be coaches, you know, and speak whatever language they, you know, the other language they speak.

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: Yeah, I will have to check to make sure that there's nothing legally. I can, like, if I can't legally hire anyone under the age of 18, but I will check because no, I don't see why there wouldn't be. If they can do the training and they can provide the service, they should be able to do it.

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: Especially this age, 14 to 18, you know, is a group of age that they're constantly looking for job opportunities, you know, part time job opportunities in. And I think on top of this, the, but going to be learning and it's going to be our advocate, you know, like, what better did the young people to do that? But it will give you opportunities that our residents are keeping asking us to give for the young people. So. Um, yeah, and and about the hiring process, I'm sure Joe and Matisse can provide you guys information because they work with the youth. Um. You know, work program, so maybe it'll be a good idea to, you know, I'm all for to hire the kids, you know, and give the opportunity for them to.

[MCM00001801_SPEAKER_10]: I think that's a, I think that's a great idea. I mean, and if, if by chance, you couldn't hire them, it's still still community service and, you know, and if it's a, if it's a group of young people who are. you know, have a heart for this sort of stuff, then it's great for a college application and it's community service, potentially. And or, you know, if you can't hire them, maybe if you couldn't hire them, then maybe there could be some sort of incentive for the number of people that you're able to draw to the program and you know, albeit a gift card, an Amazon card or whatever, cash or a savings bond. I know nobody does that. I'm just dating myself, but I had to say it, you know. So I think that's a, I think that's an awesome idea. So Samantha, so it sounds like you're, you're, you're looking for outreach for both coaches and ways to pull to spark people's interests.

So it's both sides of the coin. And two, young people, I mean, sometimes adults have a hard time saying no to young people, especially if they present and they go about it the right way in their age. their exuberance for it, all of those things are selling points. So I think that's a really great idea.

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: They can start with their own family. I was talking to someone at the Harvest Energy, and then we were talking about that, that I may qualify for some stuff, but we promote all those things. I don't know you guys, but I'm talking about myself, but I really don't check for myself, so I shouldn't be doing that too. The other people there in the conversation said the same thing. Yeah, we work with this and we qualify, but we didn't make the time to go through. Maybe they can even bring their own families and educate their own families and then get involved. Yeah.

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: Yeah, and a good point with the gift cards for the incentives. I know in my previous community, I had worked and I had hired some students and I wasn't able to legally hire them, but I could pay them through gift cards, so that's a really good thought. For the incentives, for residents looking to sign up. I was thinking of either doing it in terms of micro grants, so small amounts of money for residents who don't qualify for ABCD, but they can't afford to do some of the projects that they would need to do to make their home more efficient. And even if it's not installing new heat pumps, sometimes people get stopped by MassSave because they have mold growing in their house. So mass able say, we can't do anything else and they're like, well, I can't afford to get the mold taken out. So I'm the project is just stopped. So my thought was something to cover those little.

Those little gaps, or I can't afford to take a day off work to have someone from massive come to my home. Maybe we'll have a little incentive to cover that little gap and then addition to that. or are not moved on addition but the other idea was to cover some tangible things for residents probably around the same issues where it's they don't qualify for all the free things that come with ABCD but they might be able to qualify for some mass save things but they can't afford a lot so whether it's more efficient fans, so they're cooler in the summer. Some of the, not the things that MassSafe covers, but some of the more upgraded tangible items that they can have in their home to make it more efficient. Do you think that there's more of a draw to one or the other residents?

[MCM00001801_SPEAKER_10]: I, I just think that the, you know, the little, the, the micro grants, I mean, I mean, sure. I mean, you, you, you kind of connecting with folks where they were, you know, where, where things hit the hardest financially. And if it's a matter of doing a little something for someone who couldn't take take the time off of work to. then, you know, I, I think they're all, I mean, perhaps every situation is, is different. It would depend on, depend on the situation just as you explained it. So if, if some or, or all of those things are kind of available on a, as needed or, you know, as appropriate basis, then I think it's a, it's a good scope. It's not just one set thing, you know, one set thing that, only one or two people would find useful there, you know, so yeah. Yeah.

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: I, I think that is a great idea, but I think will be should be something that is available for those who try the program and see, you know, go through the whole thing. But also, I suggest to make it as simple as possible, you know, because when they talk about mini grants, grants, anything. It's so much paperwork is so much information that you need to provide, you know, like. We are here to help, right? Let's make things simple, straightforward, you know.

Some of the stuff is just like, that's why people give up because it's like, why am I going to go through that? I don't even know if I'm going to be able to get that. So I think maybe starting with the program, hey, this is what we're trying to do. Um, but if we get some bumps in the way, you know, like, maybe can give you, you know, um, some incentive to help you with some issues, you know, that's a possibility, but to make things simple, you know, okay. So you didn't go through this 1st process. So for us to go to the next 1, we need to do a little thing. That's not going to, you know, take months or a lot information, you know, just be nice.

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: Yeah. Um, for. it, I was thinking that'd be a proof of either massive came to your home or a proof of something that shows us like, I did it, give me my money now. And then figuring out, yeah, the best way that it's an application base. So I know that it's going to the residents who fit in this sort of income level who most need it, but not make it too strenuous that residents don't feel like they're comfortable with the paperwork. They don't It's too much information. It's too little. I feel like it's that fine line.

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: I just think that maybe, you know, we want to grow this coaching thing, right? So you need to have a coach. You need to go through and get educated and get out information. That's what we are giving something, you know, if you give us something. So give us our time, give us the information that it can try to help you. And if we cannot succeed with the resources that we have at the moment, we have this other option, you know. I think it's going to be too open if you just put out there, oh, you have mini grants for any resident. I mean, no, we have this amazing project that you have going on with these people that have been trained to give you the right information, educating you, that you can educate others. So you need to go through this first if you want to get anything extra. That's my opinion. I just think that You know, if that's the goal that we want, you know, because you're not going to have this money every single time and you want to make sure people know that we have this program, we have coaches and people that are being trained to help them.

And the other thing that I want to add is that. Um, I sent some emails asking for donation from different companies, you know, I know it's kind of shooting, you know, the stars, but to try to get those plastic insulation for windows, you know, a lot of people that are not. Don't know about the programs, you know, or don't can afford all the ways to keep their house warm. So that's what I was trying to get and educate people about other option, cheap options. At least for, you know, like, for that moment, you know, so I think it will be a possibility of. Maybe with this funding that you guys have, we got some for the winter preparedness or even have available in your office. If we are working with the family that say, hey, you know. We are trying to keep it down because, like, it's too expensive. You know, my house is not. You know, really keeping us warm and give it those alternative for them. We don't need to provide for the whole year, but like, you know, like, you provide a 1 and they know how it works next year. They're going to be willing to buy that because it's a box. You know what I mean?

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: Like, yeah. I will check to see if I could get it in time for winter preparedness. I should be able to get some because that's the other thing is I want to make sure that we're getting things that are renter friendly too and not just, oh, it's only for homeowners. So those small things that, I mean, if you have a lot of windows, eight bucks window, that still adds up. And I know that they have some that are even like reusable. So then it's not, all right, every winter you're spending $26 on window shades. You do it once and then you're good. yeah I will get back to you if I will get some in time for because even that then it might not be oh you've gone through the whole coaching program but if I can get you on the spot to sign up and then do a little um like google form on the spot of right you filled out all your information please we'll get back to you with actual information here here's a window here's one window sheet yeah we could probably do that

[MCM00001801_SPEAKER_10]: I don't know. I don't know. Maybe I'm sort of missing something along the way. You know, I'm not, I wasn't suggesting that, you know, you advertise these, you know, these giveaways or these incentives, the incentives. It was, you know, that's more, to me, that's more of something you put in your coach's hip pocket. And they, the coach would get a sense of as they're coaching folks, or, you know, breaking down programs and, you know, things they could do to become more efficient or to save energy and. and money, they get a sense of whether somebody is in it for real or just passing some time or just trying to get some free information or that sort of thing. To me, a coach's thing and based on what they're doing and saying with the residents, then they would say, you know, well, you know, maybe we could do something. And I don't, and see, and I don't know anything about the back end of Michael Grant's and, you know, the giveaway. So that might be a whole nother, whole nother beast, paperwork and having to give more information and that sort of thing. I just kind of thought that was something that you would handle and you would just have these, These pools, so I might not totally have understood the whole cycle of how that whole thing would work.

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: No, I feel like you did. You just, you had a different strategy for how to sort of disperse the grants of, all right, you've done the training. You clearly could qualify for these micro grants. Let's do it here. Like the coach recommending it instead of like, Hey, I saw you have micro grants. How do I get them? Yeah.

[MCM00001801_SPEAKER_10]: No, because then yeah, people grab whatever it was, even if they didn't need it. Yeah, you know, I had no use for it, but, you know, let me go get it because it's free.

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: Yeah, it's a good balance of all right. We want people to know about it, but we don't want people taking advantage of it.

[MCM00001801_SPEAKER_10]: Right. That's it. That's it. If you're serious about it, you know, we really do want to help and see you achieve these things. And so let's, let's try to, let's try to do it. Let's try to make it work. So, yeah. Right.

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: Okay. That's very helpful. I would draft up some sort of flyers and promotional things and sort of see how it lands with you guys on if it's to, hey, we have stuff to give away or if it's to like, oh, I wouldn't know that this leads to a micro grid. Like, I wouldn't be encouraged to do this. We'll try to bring those to our next meeting. All right, those were all the things that I had on the agenda, except for future meeting action items or topics. I know we talked about having sort of an additional meeting for the MVP depaving grant, but is there anything else that as we're going into wintertime that you would love to have as a topic?

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: Not necessarily as a topic, but maybe something should do by the next meeting. Um, we need to remove how his name from the climate. Council, and if we go to the met for energy that org, uh, Lizette's picture is still there. So we need to remove that. Um, just for us to keep, you know, updating.

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: Consonant that's very helpful. We will do that probably hopefully this week. Any other topics, anything that you've seen as sort of a topic in city hall or around networks that you're like, oh, I'd like to learn more.

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: So, for the topic for the next meeting, we definitely should go through what do we have to provide for the winter preparedness and information that you have for the coaches, you know. So, it can make flyers and things like that. The rat situation, you know, and go back to the idea of the spring, you know, with the video and, you know, we're not going to forget that. And then we maybe have some information by then from Amanda about the grant.

And then it can update everybody, you know. Hopefully we're going to have a meeting and be able to go to that.

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: And have that. But other than that, I'm just really want to stop us to planning something, get things ready for the spring and stop, you know, have goals and stop work on that. You know, I think we are a great group over here. We have great ideas. You know, I just don't want us to miss any opportunity to do things sooner than, you know, un-vigilate and things like that. And yeah.

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: Is there anything after winter preparedness? So folks sort of after winter preparedness, they're like, in the spring, I would love to do this. I would love to have this as a goal.

[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_08]: I have a question for Will. Will, what activity will you be presenting at the winter preparation? For the kiddos.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: I will. I actually wasn't sure what was best. I was probably going to assist Sam with Electrify Medford materials. But if there's a recommendation of like, hey, we need to be talking about X, I would love to be a part of it. I think I'd thought of a few different things here and there, but nothing felt like a good fit. But I can be also a floating volunteer if you'd like, and just do a fun little game or something.

[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, especially I was thinking because I kind of touched some of my community, they really need Training on recycling. I'll bring that then I'm like freaking I'm like, no, you can't recite the cycle this so I think even the adults not even the children but the adults as well. Yeah. On how to like what needs to be recycled and what does not need to be in that blue bed.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Yeah, there's a lot of wish recycling. I will bring the sorting game for sure. And then I'll prepare also something more specific to recycling proper then. If that feels important, I'll take up a little corner for that.

[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_08]: Yes, because once we go into that bi weekly pickup trash, it's going to be a mess of people don't really know how to compose recycle and organize all these things, or it's got. And we have mice and rat problem. Wait till that this things takes an effect. So that's why we need to stop preparing and educating people on, you know, your trash don't have to be like looking like a month worth of trash in one week, because you're probably throwing things that you shouldn't be throwing at, you know. So it's just a whole lot of mess that I'm seeing. It's like, oh my God.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: I appreciate that yeah, I will. Yeah, I will plan accordingly. Yeah, there's more more to be done, so I'll.

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: Yeah, I think it's a great idea. Natasha, I think it's very important that we keep reminding people of that information. But maybe we could also focus, again, the meeting that we just had earlier, one of the things that Josh was talking about, the apple trees and all the other fruit trees that people are not picking up the bad fruits in the yard and keep things clean to avoid those rats stop feeding them. Maybe the composing part will be very important You know, and teach them how to use that.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: I'm going to do, I'm going to make that my project for the month will be a rat mitigation outreach project of sorts. See what we can come up with to, to easily remind people, you know, Clean up after your fruit trees and your bird feeders. Check for disturbed ground and holes. Check for holes in your trash bins.

[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_08]: And even dog poop. I was surprised on that one. I was like, what?

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: that one bums me out because like people just leave it bagged all over the place if they bag it at all if that one is like a larger that one's almost an epidemic i because i'll go like i'll walk in the bells or something and it is a nightmare but it's a perfect you know like we are kind of following you know what's going on so

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: It's fall, all those things are happening. We are preparing for the spring so we can be ready for the new changes that are gonna happen. So I think that's a great idea, Natasha. Yeah.

[MCM00001801_SPEAKER_10]: Yeah, I mean, it becomes more of an incentive to pick up your dog's poopy doopy. If you're experiencing the rat issues, I mean, seriously. Yeah.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: It's like a one-to-one, like that's where they, where they're coming from.

[MCM00001801_SPEAKER_10]: Exactly. So, so as you're walking your, as you're walking your pet at night or during the day, I mean, you could very well have, you know, a visitor right there at your dog's feet, you know, just, you know, I just, yeah. Yeah. It's just, yeah, just, yeah.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: This is good. I love, let's say a good goal. I will begin playing and I will likely come down to the office once or twice and pass through well for more ideas as we go. But I will make this my project.

[MCM00001801_SPEAKER_10]: Does Medford have dog parks? Do they have dog parks? Does Medford have? I know in the Fells, I mean, you know, I know that because I do take my dog up there, but I mean, even kind of like posting some information or tacking some things up on the trees, because just like you said, you start walking into the woods and it's almost like, come on, we're all dog lovers. I mean, I can't even wrap my brain around it. Why would you just leave a bag there?

[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_08]: So that's one of my questions. Do they have these little trash things that they could dump these dog poopies? Because where I live at, I don't really see that much trash, you know, those street trash things that you can dump trash. Maybe that's where they need to start putting a little bit more of those around. Some people are just lazy. They don't want to walk back to their house with the dog food or pick it up. So maybe if they had these things out and about, maybe that could help them. kind of clean up and throw the damn thing in the trash.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: So a couple, just to kind of go through what I heard there. We have two designated dog parks in Medford, and then like an unofficial dog park. But we have to like designated ones. I believe they have. a designated like dog poop bin with like a bag dispenser at each of those. Those are something that I would like to see more of in general. I think every entry to the park should have these because it's like it's built in like waste receptacle and bag to remind people to do this. That's a pitch I'll draft up more formally and give to every department in the building and then some.

[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_08]: And not only near the parks because it seems like a lot of people have animals nowadays, you know, a lot of dogs and stuff. So like maybe in the main streets or something like that.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: The second thing, uh, I don't know the status of it, but I know about a month or so ago, I was talking to, uh, Lisa Kalyani in the mayor's office, uh, who had just secured funding for new big belly trash cans. Those are those like, um, public trash cans you see in downtown that have the swinging lever, like a mailbox almost. We just got a bunch of money to get more of those and to replace broken ones and things like that.

And something I really would like to do, maybe I'll add this, is figure out locations where they should be going. Because right now we're basically just saying every business commercial district should have at least one. But if there are walkways and things that seem to get a lot of traffic and a lot of trash with that traffic, we should account for that too. We're really hesitant to put it in neighborhoods or something. It's like, we don't want a public trash can in front of someone's house. But if there's a business nearby, we should have it there. Main thoroughfares might be worth mapping and having people put a little sticker on a board or something. Like, where should trash cans be? Because I agree, more receptacles, more containers is a better way to go about it.

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: People just need to be, you know, respectful and pick it up after their dog, no matter what, you know, like, and winter time, I think is the worst time because they go in the snow and then there's no mouth and have all that poop all over the place. And I've seen many parks, not only in Everett, Moulding, but in Medford too, you know, so come on, people want to have a pet, you know.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: It was, I don't know who did this, but my I tip my hat to them. This was last spring, maybe two springs ago I'm walking through the fells and someone came by with a little red flag and they put a flag in every dog poop. all across the fells that basically just said like, lazy, come on, be better, pick it up. All these little things written on the flag and they just, as you walk down the trail, little red flags everywhere. Oh, it's so disheartening, but also like- But it's an attention grabber. But it let me know exactly what's going on and hopefully it communicated the issue pretty effectively.

[MCM00001615_SPEAKER_08]: Maybe they should create a poop police to start finding people.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: We're trying really hard to be like, do this because it's good. We're trying not to be like, we have enforcement and we're finding and we're shaming. But we're looking for ways to keep that. keep people in the right place because they're really, some people don't do the right thing. That's tricky. So making it easy to do the right thing. I like the idea of more receptacles and more bag dispensers and things will be a great start to just make it easy for people.

If it's easy to do the right thing, hopefully people will do that instead of the wrong thing.

[MCM00001801_SPEAKER_10]: No, well, what about the unofficial spot, that dog spot? It's unofficial. I mean, I understand it's unofficial, but you know, but it sounds like, you know, people go there anyway. And so it's even kind of, you know, even though, you know, even if it was about posting something, you know, you're not supposed, you know, you shouldn't walk your dog here, but if you do, do the right thing, pick up your poop and take it with you, or something to that effect.

I don't know, maybe people might see that as saying, okay, it's okay for us to be here, but if you just stay here, you know this is not a dog park, but if you are here, clean up after. Clean up after your dog.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: This is something that Amanda, I think, would speak much better to. Okay. Because I remember her starting to describe it, and I think there's even like a process now they're going through of formalizing it into a dog park.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: you got to clean up your poop, not in a dog, in a dog park too. Like, it doesn't matter what the designation is, people got to do this. So I agree, like some extra signage and again, making bags accessible to people. If you're going to be lazy, the lazy default answer should be the right answer. It should be, oh, there's a bag right here. There's a trash can there too. Not easy.

[MCM00001801_SPEAKER_10]: I have someone in my, in my neighborhood who has put the, who has hooked the little bag things along their fence and they live on a corner. So, you know, you got it on both sides. They, they might have, like, 3 stations of bags on. And I think that's a really great, a really great idea, you know, so long as people just don't grab the whole thing and, and go with it. But, you know, I like that.

[MCM00001801_SPEAKER_10]: Well, I might, I, cause I, I like to have two cause you know, most times I take my dog out. She's not going to go once. She's going to go twice.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: So a larger campaign to clean up after your dog, I think.

[vIXAnO_MxfQ_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, wait, sorry, I just quickly have one other thing. I'm taking a water resources class right now, and we're actually talking a lot about pet waste, because the problem is a lot of it, when it rains, then all that, or even like you said in the winter, it all gets into our water, and it causes really high nitrogen, and that's when you see like all those like algal blooms and things. So I think even just like educational and awareness of like what the ramifications are. And our professor, and I'll just, I'm not proposing this idea, but just like a funny little anecdote. He shared that there was an apartment building that mandated people to have like DNA testing of the dog. So then if they were caught not picking up the waste, they would get a fine again. Not proposing that, I think the education. Love that. But even they were like, honestly, you could even just like threaten to do the DNA and maybe don't even send it to the lab. But yeah, just wanted to share that it's very applicable in the class right now.

[MCM00001801_SPEAKER_10]: The possibility is there to identify you and your dog. That's a riot. Yeah.

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: You mean disgusting talk today? No, but a lot of information. We learn a lot, a lot of new things today, right?

[MCM00001801_SPEAKER_10]: Yeah, it's good and respectable trash talk. I didn't think I'd ever say anything like that in my lifetime.

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: Meeting by doing, you know, I, oh, I learned so much in these meetings. These meetings are fabulous. Any final thoughts otherwise I can give you back some 11 minutes. Less dog poop, less rats.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: So efficient. I'm, I'm jealous. I try to run my energy and environment meetings and it is, it is not quite as efficient. You guys move through these fast. I like it.

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: We can keep going on and on and on. I really enjoyed this meeting. I really enjoyed this meeting. You guys are just amazing too. It's really worth all of my time, I have to say. I learn something every single time and we make fun too, so I like that. Break a little bit. Thank you so much.

[O2nzoxaatsQ_SPEAKER_09]: That's so good to hear that you find it worth your time. I feel like so much can not be worth someone's time, so I find that the highest compliment. And I hope that we're making it worth your time because you're definitely making it worth our time.

[rov34HMcKiU_SPEAKER_27]: Absolutely. I get so much good insight. It really like after these meetings, I'm like, oh, I know what my month looks like now. It just directs me. Feels good.

[MPS Member Jenny Graham]: I'll enjoy your night. Thank you guys so much. Thank you.

Jenny Graham total time: 15.55 minutes total words: 2689