Okay, we are recording. All right, good afternoon everybody. Yeah, just in time. All right, so let's start with our vision. And charge so we want to work cooperatively with our town and our community to raise awareness and move with a sense of urgency. We talked about our town manager goals last time any questions on what the town manager's goals are and our own alignment with the pillars that we have. Okay. Again, our pillars focused on heat pump, legislative actions, solar transportation, and see face. And then in terms of goals. We had six people attend the meeting last time for education series so far the annual report. We're going to have a discussion today on whether we need to have the annual report completed in December, or the end of the fiscal year, which is in May, June. Stephanie, it's in the end of June. End of June. Thank you. And then expense spend report we're going to see the first one, the first week of August. And then goals discussion. Again, we'll have a conversation today I think it gels in well with the annual report timing as well. And then in terms of open actions. Yeah. Don and Stephanie, I think Don is out today. But there was the connection point with, with mass development on pace. And I don't know where that's that and if, or about the chain chamber of breakfast agenda that discussion has happened Stephanie. Well, because I it's on the agenda for today. So I was also confused about whether I should report out because I know Don at the last meeting said he would report out when he returned at the in the next meeting. So not this one, but the next one. And I don't want to steal his thunder. So I don't know. Do you want an update or do you want to just wait for Don? I mean, nothing's going to happen before then things have happened, but nothing's going to more is going to happen before then I don't think. And it might be nice to let him be the one to report out. Okay. Yeah, that's fine. Thanks. Sure. Next one's for Don too and then Stephanie the pace flyer. Can I say that the status of that is definitely in process not not not started. Or the second one too. Yeah, right. And then even this one right the pace flyer. Yeah, that's in process as well. Yeah, yeah, and Don was working on that. Yep, same thing with festival planning I think we have that on the agenda today. That's underway I still need people to sign up and we'll talk about it later. Yep, yep. Thank you. And then I think we can mark this as complete. I sent the letter to the town manager about adopting the specialized stretch code. And it might be on the packet as well. Stephanie I didn't get a chance to look at it. It is. Okay, we'll talk about it today. Or is that part of the agenda? Can I pull it up now, Stephanie? It's got to look at the agenda. No. Okay, so let me pull it up. I'll let you all just scan through this and let me know if you have any questions or updates that I need to make. Sorry, this went out already. Yeah, I had some feedback from Jesse because I wanted him to also add some benefits so just thinking about the contractors and developers. And so there's just no information here about that as well. Yeah, this looked great to me. So that part is completed, but I do think that we need to have next steps, check on the status and provide, you know, there's the specialized code adoption toolkit. Yeah. Yeah, and Andra, we did receive a toolkit from the Green Energy Alliance, right? And so I sent that over as well to Paul. And I think he included somebody from the, I'm going to get the strong building, whatever the department is, but yeah, there is, I CC that person as well. Rob Mora. Yeah. I think that is the building commissioner. Commissioner. Thank you. You're welcome. But yeah, there needs to be some pressure that we need to apply and that the community can apply as well. I've talked to it. Well, again, you know, we should talk all talk to our counselors as well I talked to Alicia, I've talked to Anna about this. At this point, we as just individuals outside of easy AC can continue to apply pressure, unless Andra you're thinking other ways through easy AC. Well, we could have use our, you know, educational programs to increase attention on various ways that the town can support. And have, you know, that be a part of it. So that people know this is in process and something that they can encourage the town to move on. Any, any thoughts on that from the rest of the group. I mean Jesse is that something you would be willing to lead. I'm not sure what it could look like, but yeah. What I mean, essentially, the next step is, wouldn't we want to hear back from the town manager and the town council via the town manager because if it's, if people are in favor of this we should we have limited time we shouldn't take our time promoting something that maybe is going to just happen. We want to hear back from Paul. And if Paul said yeah, this is great. I'm going to put this in front of the town council what I love your date thank you for giving me the support to do this. That's great. Yeah, then we don't need to do much right it's just adopting the code at that point is what you're saying so. So, and so I think that the follow up might be to get a formal response from Paul like, oh, what's your reaction what, what are you going to do with this. Yeah, so I was just going to suggest a similar thing that if you just send him a follow up email saying, you know, I sent you on March 10. I'm just, I'm just at the easy, I would like to report back to the easy AC, and we'd like to know what the next steps will be. And I think if you, you know, make it specific what you're looking for to get from them, besides just the commitment maybe like a, where has this gone or what's the next step to get it to the council. Okay, and how can you help. That's a good one. Yeah. Can I make a suggestion. Yeah. Can we can I suggest that we either contact our counselors directly because they're going to need to know about this too. I mean Paul brings it to them. Cold might be a little bit funny. Or maybe just send that same letter if we can do that to all the town counselors, can we do that as you can or is that no it's already of us who already sent it to the town manager and the council president. And so the council president determines what goes in their packets you shouldn't just send it to all of them. Okay, we should be as a committee, if you're doing something officially as a committee. You should go through the town manager and he gets it to the council and you can copy the council president, obviously, because the council president will be the one to then send it to their members. I know it seems like a complicated pathway, but it's just, you know, keeps it helps them as the sort of, you know, executives if you will keep track of what's being requested and where it's going. Okay, that's all right. Is it okay for us to contact our representatives. Absolutely. No problem doing that. Should we tag team on specific counselors, or I know we've talked about this before. Just contact them, just contact them. Oh, we'll get if they hit more than one email it's not a big deal. We're contacting them as individuals not as the committee. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So, outside of our work, just a side note I've been through a number of trainings now on the stretch code and specialized code as it and the consensus amongst the design community is that this is a great set of ideals and the rollout has been at best. It's not user friendly yet. And, and so a big part of what's happening behind the scenes is trying to make all of these rules and regulations that will ultimately do good, actually usable by the design and construction community because right now it is confusing. Again, that's I would say that's a euphemism. I mean, the legislation wasn't written by design and building. It's not.  It's just it's, it's not all in one place. You open up a book and know how to meet a well intentioned set of ideals you have to look in multiple sources, cross reference and it's very disorganized, it'll, it'll get there, but they rolled this out before it was finished, just a little. It wasn't, it wasn't good optics for, for enhanced code, unfortunately, and I encourage maybe if the public is listening I encourage people don't judge it by its disorganization, judge it by what it's trying to do for carbon reductions, which is a good thing. How's that. Thanks, Jesse. Jesse, can I just ask is, as they, as it gets revised does to make it more user friendly, does is that going to require communities to re approve it, readopt it or is it is sort of all part of the process. I don't think so I think what's going to happen is the stretch code stays the stretch code and any, any community, you automatically re up there, and the specialized code will do the same so there's two parallel paths, and as those update they will update automatically for the community. As they go so they only change would be changing from this stretch to the specialized, and then you just be on a separate track, which is, and that track is the specialized code very much is the stretch code, plus a series of things so it's cumulative and parallel, if that makes sense. If you get any feedback or pushback from the town manager or the council that this is really a confusing code. I'm not sure if they want to adopt it. We can say that it's, it's, it's that it's not well I'm not sure if it's acknowledged but that it's, it's recognized as such but it's also recognized that it will be evolving into a better, a more user friendly document. Yes, and I would this the specialized code isn't any more confusing than the stretch code. They both are. It's, it's, it's a, it's an issue of different entities have control over different parts of the process. And in New York, they give you one book in Massachusetts you got like 13. I don't know if you've seen this and I don't know how helpful it is because I didn't go into detail but it takes you through step by step by step approach I think on what you need to do with links. And I can send it over to Stephanie and have her share this with all of you, but I don't know if this would help at all. As far as understand. Oh, Yeah, it talks about how do you even adopt this step. I think the option is the simple part. Exactly. I was just going to say it's not about the adoption. It's about the implementation. It's about what our inspectors and have to follow up with and it's about what the contractors and developers have to do to comply. And that's where it's confusing. It's confusing for the enforcement folks too. So it's not just the consultants and the contractors and the developers it's, you know, it's confusing for our team here on this end that's trying to get up to speed as well. And look, I'd take a confusing building code that's geared towards carbon emissions over a simple one that's not. And that's where we're going to be, but not for six months or a year in my opinion. So we're automatically because we are a green community and we have already adopted the stretch code. Those updates will happen automatically. So we're already, you know, going to be implementing and enforcing the updated stretch code. What we're looking to do now is to get this specialized code as well, in addition to that. And I, if I recall Jesse, and I know that this was something maybe Rob had mentioned when we, who is the building commissioner Rob Mora, that they, because we're already going to be updating with this stretch code. They're sort of working on that and that it, like, I think they were saying that maybe it made sense to do the specialized code like the following year. That's my recollection of that conversation. It's like, start with that and then do the specialized code the second year. And I know we all said, or I should say the ECAC all voted not to wait to push it for happening now. So I just want to be clear that that's kind of what how, at least the initial town's response was, and I know that Paul reached out to the building commissioner so it's likely that that's the response he'll give him but I haven't heard anything officially. That's, that's true. You are remembering that correctly. And I'm just not sure it makes a huge difference that both of them are going to update again next year. It's going to keep changing and settling and there's going to be, it's going to be figuring itself out large in large degree. So I'm not sure if it matters when not to me like I, yeah, I could be wrong, but I think if they're both got more complicated. You're going to do and builders and architects and design professionals and engineers they work in dozens of dozens of towns. So they're going to, they're going to need to understand this in many ways that what Amherst does not shouldn't impact them. If anything, this is a town where people can sharpen their pencils and get better at delivering higher performance buildings. How's that, that's not good. Okay, so before we review and vote on minutes, I think Steve with might be your turn to take minutes you already are awesome. Thank you. Okay, we have two meeting minutes to review. So let's vote on the one from 215. Do you want to go back and do it. I move we accept both of them. Both sets of minutes. You have to do the one at it. Now you have to do the one at a time. I accept the two 15 minutes. I second. Okay, so via voice point vote, I'll have to actually hear you. So be sure to unmute please. In no order, Raghavan. Yes. D. Yes. Dr. You're muted Laura, sorry. Yes. Rose. Yes. Selman. Yes. Breger. Yes. Yes. And roof. Yes. Okay. Great. Thank you. And let's vote on the meeting minutes from three one. Just one quick. Requested at it on the minutes I took last time. Just a minor thing, but I feel badly about it just in the. Where I had guests at the top. I wouldn't mind putting. Kathy's better title there. Town counselor. And. The official name of her committee. Sure. Chair of the elementary school building committee. Yeah. It's down below where she was introduced, but it just looks funny up there. Yep. I can do that. Okay. Okay. Do you have someone taking notes today? Steve. Yeah, I am. So we're just one at it. When you said you're going to move. Then I'll, unless anybody else has anything to say, I'll move to accept. I made took the minute. So is it bad form? I move. Except those minutes. You wrote the notes and you found an issue with it. And now you're. Okay. Okay. So again, voice vote, please. Roof. Yes. Goldner. Yes. Breger. Yes. Selman. Yeah. Rose. Yes. Ragavan. Yes. D. Yes. And Dr. Yes. Okay. Silla, were you here last week? No, wait, wasn't that a vote on. Oh, wait, was that the. One minutes. Oh, then. Yeah, you can. You can abstain, but you don't need to. It is okay to vote. If you weren't there. If you. Read them and. I did read them. But I, yeah. Whatever. I can abstain or, but yes. You can do whatever you want to do. I'll abstain. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Time for public comments. Okay. If anyone from the public would like to ask a question or make a comment, please electronically raise your hand. Okay. I'm not seeing any. Okay. We'll turn it over to you Stella for the transportation progress report. Did I mention that green energy consumers is coming to talk. On record. I know it's on the schedule. Yeah. The 22nd of. That's the main update. Let me look. Yeah, they're coming to talk end of April or wait early May, April 26th. Is the day. The green energy consumers is going to come give their like EVs one to one webinar. At 530. I'm trying to figure out the. The bus panel. Well, that's kind of like a work in progress. And that's pretty much it. So you said 326, right? 426. Oh, sorry. Okay. So that's to our meeting. Yeah. Okay. So. Want to do some outreach to, for the public too, right? Yeah. So I'll put together a flyer. And we can also advertise that at, because I believe the sustainability festival is before. Yeah. A lot of the advertising for that can be actually just telling people. Hey. Come to our event. Yeah, let's do that. Especially I think last time when Aaron was here, we didn't have a lot of people because the players went up pretty late. So let's do that. Just a question. What about the communication with tech? How is that being going? I mean, I haven't been getting responses at all. That I haven't been getting responses. I've been emailing a lot of people and I haven't been getting responses and people are so busy. I don't want to nag. But I can do a little bit more nagging. I just feel bad. Yeah. I mean, we looked at the town manager goals earlier, right? And I don't think we have anything related to transportation other than inventory. Yeah. I mean, I think we should come from tack as well. Yeah.  And for at least next year's town manager goals, we should be connecting with them and figuring out what are some of the key actions or goals we can take. So we can add on to the town manager goals for 2025. That was definitely missing. From this year's town manager goals. Yeah. Andra. I'm wondering since you're having difficulty reaching people, if it's time to put a. Suggestion like that into writing and send it to the. Chair and to the staff. Person and get it on. Their agenda. If they have meetings and they still have meetings. They do. I think so. Yeah, they're just at a terrible time for me. So it's really a struggle to get to those meetings. Yeah. Okay. So it may be, you know, someone else has to represent. Ready at a meeting, but at least. They know. That we're here to support. This process working together. Or take the conversation offline with one of them and. Have a conversation and talk to them about our goals. From the car. And then what their goals are and how can we align for 2025. Yeah. I just don't really know how to take the conversation offline. If like. It doesn't begin somewhere like online. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. So it kind of ends up in the, in the same place of like, not wanting to nag busy people. Yeah. Is there any way to facilitate it? I mean, I think. In email to the chair and the staff person is a good direct. Way to reach out to them. You know, when you can copy me on it. And then that way, if you don't get a response, then I can maybe try to figure out a way to. Make it get acknowledged somehow. Or the other part is we can invite them to our meetings and we could take time to review the heart. I mean, it's been a while. We're trying to get on their agenda. I mean, I'm assuming Stella's been emailing people. So I don't know if more emails are going to help. That's kind of what I'm saying. Yeah. Did you, so you reached out to the staff person as well? I don't think I reached out to this. Honestly, like. I don't want to like name names that like, I don't want to name, name names because I don't, I also don't want to call out busy people who are volunteers for like not writing me back. Do you know what I mean? So I'd rather not. I know someone that is on tack who sits in the room. Down the hall from me. And so I can certainly ask him to ask. To put us on an agenda. If that's the goal. Of this is that we want to have a discussion with them, right? Yeah. I think the goal was that, that was the goal. That was the content of the emails. I'll see if I can get him to put it on the agenda. That'd be perfect. Thanks. And if you've been asked to be on an agenda, like if you've specifically said that. Of the staff liaison and the chair of that committee, and you're not getting a response though, you should let me know that. Like that's why I don't think it would be bad to do that one more time. But copy me please. Yeah. Because that way we have channels internally that I can say this committee is not being responsive to another committee. That's trying to do some work. That is relevant to both committees. So. We should just let me know. Okay. Or just caught. Yeah, just copy me on it. Thanks. And Stephanie, are we going to talk about pace? Or we're going to wait for Don. I think I feel bad. Talking about it. Cause I think he'd like to tell you what he's done and what I'm doing. So we can, we can wait till the next time. Okay. All right. We'll move that to next week then on the agenda item. So. Andra, over to you on the. Legislative updates. Andra, can you hear us? We're also on mute. Sorry. My computer. Crash. So, um, sorry, where are we now? Legislative updates. Okay. Great. So, um, One. Really great piece of news we just got today. Is that, um, the. Two new DPU commissioners were announced. And, um, One of them is a well-known, um, Climate justice activists for conservation law foundation, Stacy Rubin. And it's. Like, oh my gosh, this administration means business. It, it, the department of public utilities is a, um, Not just a regulatory agency. It is a, it's an adjudicatory agency. It's kind of like a court. And, um, the way that. They are, have been able to stall or promote. Um, the. The climate goals of.  Decarbonizing themselves, which didn't work out so well. You know, that kind of thing can. Um, be really major. So, um, The one thing that I'd like to recommend is that we. Um, Right. Draft and, and recommend that the town manager and. Council send a, um, Welcome. To the new commissioners and, um, Request that the, uh, One of the early, um, Things that they take up is the backlog. Um, For approving municipal aggregations. So. Um, That is. So, um, That is something I'm happy to draft and, um, Just. I'd like to take people's questions about it and. Input. Do people know that the, um, DPU has not approved of any municipal aggregation in two years. And there are about 40 applications in line. Yeah. I also heard that it's our CCA. Has been installed because of some churn and North Hampton. Um, Not anymore. Okay. Yeah. That's, that's a. I mean, we should report in on that because, um, The AC should participate. Um, it's next steps, but let's, let's take that next. So. Any questions or input about, um, This. Making this recommendation. I would bring the letter back to our next meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Andrew, were you asking about writing to the two new members or to the DPU and its entirety? Well, the DPU is run by three commissioners. So one is a. Hold over the, it has a four year term. Um, and so was. Can't be replaced by our. Um, new governor. Until that term's over and I don't know when it's over. So. I mean, I would actually recommend that. We write it to the governor and. Climate chief. Hoffer and the. Um, secretary of. Energy and environmental affairs. Rebecca Tupper, you know, include everybody. As well as the. Three commissioners. Yeah. Okay. So it's a recommendation that, um, under just man is everyone okay with that under our drafts, a letter. I'm not opposed to that at all. I'm just wondering, um, under whether it would make sense to, um, Instead or in addition, uh, have that, have a letter like that written from the valley green consortium of the three towns. Um, uh, that are working together on, on the municipal aggregation. Um, and possibly even trying to get that co-signed by some other. Municipal aggregations and waiting. Um, yeah, that's a good idea. And there may already be an entity organizing that. I don't think that's our role as the CAC. To do and, um, Well, I think we should. Do it as a town and as a, um, M O U working group. For our municipal aggregation. Or encourage the other two towns to also do it. Yeah. Then I'm happy for any other input. So I'm in the governor. When she was a G was. Generally supportive of municipal aggregations. Um, as opposed to competitive suppliers for serving residential market. So, um, Hopefully she'll be, um, sensitive to this. Imagine so. Larry. Do you have something? No, I just wanted to support this. I just wanted to support this. This sounds great. And I'm also hoping to hear an update on where this UCA is. Okay. Um, so. I'll, I'll do that. Put it on the agenda for the next meeting. And, um, I'll do my best to get it in the packet. Sorry. Um, So I had some other suggestions that I, um, would like to make for, um, Um, The actions that we could take as a town. You know, resolutions we could write to, um, support legislation and, uh, executive action. Um, And this, this one is also an executive. Action or an action targeted targeting the executive branch. Um, And. It's to support a petition that the Springfield climate justice coalition. Um, initiated and a large, uh, coalition of climate organizations are supporting to, um, try to. Um, First of all, stop a new, um, Gasline expansion that's proposed for. Um, Long Meadows Springfield area that would go through an environmental justice community. And, um, Given that we need to get off gas. Um, We need to get off gas. Um, And that's a number of arguments. For. Stopping it before it starts, which is where it's at. No permits have been. Um, Given yet. Um, so it makes it something that. Might actually be able to stop as opposed to things.  Um, The petition is more general and it's to stop. Expanding the gas system. They're not actually talking about. Lines from the gas main to your house. We already have that more HRM. In Amherst and the other seven communities in Berkshire gases. But that's not what this is. It's really the, the. Um, what's called the lateral lines. Um, That. Pump the gas from. Place to place and provide the gas. To the retail market. So. It's just like. You know. Douglas mass didn't have gas. So, um, Now they're going to. It was approved by. The DPU.  Permitting agencies. Why. Why would we be doing that? So, um, it would be. Great. If. Amherst would go on record and, um. You know, I think it's a petition drive, which is meant to get a lot of attention. To the administration. To take in action saying, okay. Let's just stop digging the hole deeper. Under. Can you repeat the names of the organizations in Springfield that were, I guess, spearheading this effort? Springfield climate justice coalition. That is fairly. Straight. That we could read or it could be included in a letter that. Yeah. CAC sends to town council. Yeah, it's a pretty simple. Petition. Written in. Pretty easy language to understand. Yeah. So you're asking. You can share. With us. I'm on my phone. So. Well, for next, for the next minute. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but for. The public's information, it's, um, the. You can find it at the website. Stop the toxic pipeline. Dot org. Okay. To be followed up with, um, more information. Lori. We might not need more information because we can just read this. It says, uh, let's see if I can find the actual. Um, Well, there's a lot of background information to, uh, where's the actual petition. If you look at the top. There it is. The petition says, um, No, it's, oh, here. Gas companies like every source are profiting off the gas infrastructure expansion at the expense of rate pairs statewide. Bringing more expensive dangers, polluting energy through our communities. We envision a just and rapid transition away from gas to a clean energy future. That's the whole statement. There's a lot of background information, but that's the statement that you sign on to when you sign the petition. So. I would say to speed this along a little bit. So that it's timely. Um, So, So, So, So, So, So, So, So, So, So, So, So, So, So that it's timely. Um, Maybe we can just draft, you know, draft a letter. Support a letter to the town manager that we would have to, I guess see next time, let's get the letter drafted. I can draft it if, if you don't want to do all of Moundra. Um, Asking the town to support this effort. To stop this pipeline. I guess there's also, um, maybe we could do two things. Maybe we could help to, um, Spread the word about the petition itself. To the public and to, um, Have the town go on record. Um, In, in sending the administration of a letter to. You know, Support this ask. It would take, um, It would be an opportunity for a lot of education, I think, is what. The point of it would be. To have the town council. Consider it to have, you know, that lead to an article in the bulletin. And, um, But the petition is a very, you know, kind of immediate thing. If we could take a vote. If we were ready to say, yeah, sure, let's let the public know about this petition. Um, Then that would be an important action. I'm wondering if we can work with ACJ or sunrise Amherst and as part of the. Climate festival. To do some outreach and bring about awareness. It can that be a platform. I mean, I also agree that maybe. Laurie, I don't know if you want to. Look at the petition, right? A letter to the town manager. But I think for community awareness, we can. We should be using the climate festival for that. Absolutely. Yeah. ACJ. Other organizations will have the petition there. Okay. Um, and yeah, it'd be great to have it at all our tables. Um, Okay, so. But the, um, Yeah. They're trying to get. Thousands of signatures before, you know, by Earth Day. They're trying to get an early declaration from the governor. So I'm trying to put this into a. Motion format. And I guess I would say I move. That we send a letter to be drafted. Um, to the town manager and town council. Supporting this. Anti pipeline effort. And also do our best to. To spread the word. To sign the petition. Yeah. Does that make sense? Something along those lines. Yeah, I think so. Unless people have questions. Yeah. I'm just not sure if we need a motion or just a decision to draft a letter and then the motion to, to, to send the letter when we look at it and comfortable with it. Um, I do want to, you know, just my own. I just want to be. I just want to, I just want to make sure that.  And this isn't lobbying, but it's kind of, um, I just want to make sure it's what we're doing as well within our. Obviously any of us can sign the petition itself. Um, individually. You know, there's a lot here that the town council and the town council, the town council, the town council, what does this mean about electricity reliability? What does I said in New England say what are the tap? What are the spring field politics? Springfield politicians or leadership, think about this. Yeah. This is not a line that's for electricity. It's only for the retail market. Which. So it's okay. I don't understand that. Um, exactly. But so it's distribution lines as opposed to the main, uh, I mean, the, the, like, Power generators are retail markets too. If they're, you're sending, if you're selling to an end use customer, being a power plant. No. That's not what it is. Yeah. Yeah, this one's tricky though, right? I think Dwayne brings up some good points and are we, what are we expecting the town manager and the council to do? Um, well, let's put the letter aside. Do we as the. Resident. Representatives are appointed representatives in town. Um, see. Supporting this. Regional effort. Um, to. It's both supporting a frontline community in our region. And it's, um, Supporting the direction that we know we have to go. Um, which is just stop building new. So. Yeah, I just don't know what we could do with that. I think as individuals, we can sign the petition, but as easy, I see. No. We make, we're policy. So I think this is exactly a far alley. We. Anyway, Jesse has his hand up. I'm sorry. Well, I'd like to think that if there was a climate committee in another town and there was a gas pipeline coming through our town. That they would not be worried. About this and they would eagerly join this movement. And unabashedly sign on. And, and if the town council, if somebody. At legal. Things were out of our jurisdiction, they can tell us. That's my opinion. Steve. I'm still thinking. Yeah, I think, you know, the concept, yes, absolutely in favor of that. I think I'd want to go look at that website. And read a bit more of the background information before. I was willing as an ECAC member to vote on a resolution. So I guess I, I liked the idea that.  Andra and Lori. Put something together. Put it in the packet for our next meeting. That'll give us some time to read the background information, look at the letter and decide exactly how we want to position ourselves as ECAC. And what we want to recommend to the town manager and town council for them to do. So all for it. Thank you. That was my intent as well. I mean, I think there may be. You know, personally, I might be more comfortable. Suggesting a letter that's a little bit more generic than specific to this particular pipeline, but just that. We, we, the town and town council, if they so willing. To support. The continued moratorium on, on, on fossil fuel infrastructure. In, in, in. Not only our own town, but neighboring towns. That is contrary to the goals of, of Amherst and the Commonwealth. And that such projects such as this seem to be moving in the wrong direction. Something along those lines. I mean, just without reading it. As opposed to being. It's specific to this, this project might be a little bit more. Politically palatable to. Folks. Okay. I do want to just. Clarify something. The town official town policy. On the moratorium that we're under. Is actually in opposition to the moratorium. And that's what we're looking for. And that's what we're looking for. And officially asking. For Berkshire gas to lift the moratorium and allow more gas. That is something that we could ask to be. Right. Change. Laurie and then Laura. Yeah, I think that I, I forgot your words, Dwayne. I thought they were great. I was typing them down as fast as I could. But I think it's part of this. We would ask that they, that they support the current moratorium and stop fighting it. Stop being officially against it. That would make it directly relevant and also regionally relevant. It wouldn't be nice to, you know, be asking for our own. Fossil fuels while saying other communities can't have them. Right. So maybe like a point of order here. I feel like we've. Talked about writing a letter about this exact issue and nobody did it. So. Regarding the town moratorium language. So. Just wondering if that's, I feel like we're off agenda. Like I feel like we've kind of gone. Unless this is on the agenda and I'm not aware of it. I'm actually, we, that, that did go in. That was in response to the Berkshire gas asking the. Council to. Give feedback on their plan to. Continue fossil fuels, but we didn't actually in that letter ask. For the reversal of the town's policy. We did talk about it with. The. The town manager. In a meeting though, Laura. Okay. I'm just a little confused what's going on. Well, we did. The agenda did expand a little bit, but in a way that makes sense. Right. It would be. It's part of the legislative update. We have a lot of stuff to get to. So I'm just trying to like figure out what we're doing here. Are we writing like, are we writing a letter to the town council? Are we trying to sign this petition as ecac? I'm just confused as to what's going on. Well, we don't know yet. No, none of that. So I think it is. Let's review. The website. And come back next week, whether it makes sense for a surrender letter. I'm lying. I feel like I heard from Andra. We need to have this done by Friday. No, by April 22nd. April 22nd. Is that right? There's no hard deadline, but the. Springfield climate justice coalition is asking for a. Declaration. By first day. So. Sooner the better. That. But only, only individuals can sign. Yeah. Only. Inside. Sorry. The petition. The petition. Any entity. Can, can. Declare their support for. The idea. Okay. So their options are that ecac. Declare their support or the town council to. Where's your support or both? Yes. Okay. Jump in real quick. Yeah. You have. So just, this is just a logistical thing. So your next meeting is on the 29th of March. And then you have another meeting on the 12th of April. So if you get a draft in for the next meeting, then you can vote on it on the April 12th. Okay. So. If you're trying to sort of do something by the 22nd. I just wanted to. Okay. I volunteered to draft something, but I probably won't be at the next meeting. Because the building energy conference in Boston is that day. And I was hoping to be there. I don't know what time it will end. And I can make it to the next meeting either. So, I mean, for one, we have to talk about that. I don't know what time it will end. I don't know what time it will end. I don't know what time it will end. Who's going to be. Leading this meeting if Lori and I are not. I guess should we have the meeting next week then. Is that an option? No, I think that would work for me. Because we don't want to skip it because we have a lot on the agenda, I think. It is if I post the agenda. So the agenda had just has to be posted by Monday. So as long as you realistically think you can. Have items together and. But I can post it. Next week, I would be late. I would be an hour late next week. But I could be there a half hour late at least. So should we just meet. For, I mean, I'm not going to make it next week either. I'm going to be traveling for five weeks. I'm not going to make it next week either. I'm not going to make it next week either. I'm not going to make it next week either. It's over. Maybe I'm speaking on your behalf here, but chime in because it's going to be next week. If everybody agrees. Should we just have a meeting for an hour. From five to six. Because it is. And. Not part of the regular series. And we can cancel the following one. So I do have a meeting at six 30, but yeah, that's fine with me if it's okay with other folks. I might still be a few minutes late. I have a live meeting that ends at five. So I have to get to a computer. Yeah, Laura. Could we go through the rest of this agenda and decide what's on the agenda for next time. To have this. That's fine. I wanted to bring up the. Letter about the schools and I will not be able to make a comment on that. I think we need to talk about that. Yeah, that's fine. Actually, the school was not part of the agenda, but okay, let's let's talk about annual report. And then we'll talk about school. So. Well, sustainability too has to. Yeah. We don't talk about that because I'm not here. Yeah, we have to. Okay. So, so for annual report. I know that Laura has your name, but I think this is a conversation that we were having last time on the agenda. Okay. So, I don't know if it was completed in December. Or after the fiscal year ends in June. Oh, Stephanie. I was just going to say, Laura could. Certainly do this as an update as a. ECAC member update to the work that she's doing with the, because we had Kathy at the last meeting. So this is just follow up. Okay. Doesn't have to be on the agenda specifically. As long as we share whatever she's showing, I just have to add it to the packet. Okay. Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. Did you have some things? You're on mute. You're still on mute. Because my name's next to the agenda item. I did prepare something to say, but if you want to. About school or the annual report. About the annual report. I was actually surprised the school wasn't on the agenda because it was in the minutes from last time that we were going to talk about it this time, but we can just talk about that during the ECAC updates. Okay. Let's talk about the annual report. Okay. So I don't think this is not going to be a long discussion because I don't think it's going to be a long discussion. I don't think it's going to be a long discussion. Okay. So just to put everybody on the same page. Our. Charge says that the ECAC shall report annually to the town council. The following progress towards climate action goals. Measures taken to reduce emissions and build resiliency. Evaluation of the effectiveness and implementation of these measures. Funding needed to enable initiatives. The ECAC and community engagement. So what we were talking about last time, we have historically submitted this annual report like in December or January or February, depending on how quickly we get it together. That's probably not the best timeline to be able to influence the most important thing on this list. In my opinion, which is funding needs to enable initiatives recommended by ECAC. We've also been invited this last year. And hopefully into the future to submit. Feedback to the council on the town manager goals, which I think fits under this in regards to progress towards climate action goals, which we've also gotten feedback that doing that in early fall is probably best. So I just want to confirm the timelines. On the budget and the team goals. So I want to do that first. And then I think we can come back to this topic point and try to just work out a timeline. But I think some, trying to pull something together in August that we can then present to the town council in September is probably the right timeframe, but I just want to confirm that. The only other thing I'll say about this is like. Measures taken to reduce emissions and build resiliency. I mean, that's really Stephanie's work. And if, if the town manager is. If the town manager is actually doing his goals, he should be reporting on these every quarter when he does his quarterly reports to the council. So it could just be copying and pasting from there. I'm not sure that's actually happening, but like that. So I don't think that needs to be a huge focus of our work. I think what are really main focus needs to be on is the funding piece and. You know. Then I guess giving feedback to the town manager goal. So I think we can fully align with the thought process, Laura, and Anna mentioned that the town manager goals, she prefers to have that by August of every year.  A month before. And then we can start thinking about. What are our town managers goals seem to be for the following year and be ready for that August report out to town council. I think the. The next year we'll be more ideal versus doing it in December. And you know, at the end of the fiscal year, we also know exactly how money was spent throughout the entire fiscal year. So it also makes sense for us to even write the report. Because we will know how money was spent for the entire year. Okay, so I'll continue. I'll talk to Stephanie again about her timeline in terms of reporting and I'll try to get some information. I think that that should be our goal is to like July, August, September timeframe. And then we can try to narrow that down over the next few months. Yeah. Any questions or. Concerns there. Not doing it in December anymore. Okay. Thank you. All right. Let's move on to the sustainability festival then. Hey, so I want to have all my ducks in order because next week we're going to have a meeting in two weeks. It's going to be weird. We haven't, I certainly won't be able to be in meeting in two weeks. And next week we don't quite know what's going to happen yet. So I want to try to have everything in order today. So that means getting everybody on the schedule. Now I have Andra, Steve, me and Don. I know Vasu is not going to be able to participate. But Dwayne Stella, Jesse, can you sign up for some times? Are there times you can make it that day? We don't have anyone in the afternoon right now. I don't know what time I'll be heavily jet lag. So it really depends. So you're going to be so jet lag. Don't worry about it. So we got plenty of other people, but can I ask people to please sign up ASAP or let me know right now and I'll just write your names in. I'm working another booth, unfortunately, so I can't. So still I can't be there. Okay. I apologize. I've. Remind me the date. Okay. It's April 22nd, I believe, right? It's, which is Earth Day Saturday. And we're looking for slots one to three. There's nobody right now, one, two and three PM until four PM and for cleanup. So there's nobody there. Steve is at one, but from two on, there's no one at all. If you don't need me for setup. I could take after noon shifts and help with cleanup. But I don't want to get my schedule changed. So like three and four PM or two to four PM, or what do you want to do? Yeah. Maybe the four is the cleanup. Cleanup sometimes happens a little early, depending on the weather. It's not supposed to, but yes. Yeah. So four PM. Do you also want to do three PM? And I'll take you off in the morning. Cause I get a morning. Okay. So three and four. Okay. So I'll take you off in the morning, Andra. And I'll put me on, I'll make sure I show up with Don at first thing. I was hoping not to have to show up at eight, but I will if I have to. And then we need someone from one and to take the one and two o'clock slots. Two people for two o'clock. Any takers? Yeah. You can put me down. I just, I, I've had to leave town. I've had to leave town. I've had to leave town for some. Take care of some family stuff in Boston. And I don't always know when that's going to happen. So put me down. I've just. I could be a last minute emergency. Departure, which it is what it is. So. But put me out for sure. Put me down for as much as you need me. Basically. I'll put you down for the. I'll put you down for one and two o'clock when I have no, but then I have nobody else there. I'll put you down. I'll put you down. I'll be hemming and hawing because I have family visiting. And bring them to the fair. Yeah. Well, exactly. I did. I did say. That there'd be the fair. And that would be fine, but I don't want to like do me. I don't want to do two hours. So. You can. Put me down either at one or two and I can double up with Jesse or Steve. I can double. Steve is by himself at one and I'm by myself from nine to. No, no, I have Don. I'm not. I'm by myself at 10 and Steve is by himself. At one. I have to retract my offer. I totally forgot this is after my hip replacement surgery. Oh no. I'm not going anywhere on the 26th. Sorry. Okay. So we need help. Yeah. Yeah. All right. I mean, if there are gaps, I'll try to slot. When I wake up. Well, okay. But Laura, can you make it at all? Are you out of town or now? All right. So we're going to have. If Stephanie puts the booths close together, I can bounce back and forth. Okay. So I haven't done it yet, but some very soon. I have an email to the entire vendor list of everybody. And I ask people if they have special, special requests, like some people need to be. Sighted near power supply. Some people have mobility issues and need to be near a parking space. Right. So I will be asking. So you can tell me, as long as you tell me which group you're with and let me know who you want to be with. I can. I try to make that happen. But I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. In a comment. So, which group are you with? You mass arboretum. We'll be handing out trees in the morning. So it'll probably be really busy because people like trees, but then hopefully we run out. And then. Great. That's really great. Sometimes it's not that busy in the morning. It actually picks up like around lunchtime. It gets really busy. It gets really busy in the morning. So. 1130 noon ish until two. That's kind of when the most people are there. So the very beginning it's mostly just really busy with vendors. And at the end. It usually starts to slow down. Okay. So then maybe we should try. Hey, Don, if I do the set up myself in the morning, is there any chance you can do the afternoon instead? Don's not here. Okay. I'll contact him separately. I am flexible. If you'd prefer me in a different time slot. I can be pushed around. Steve. Okay. Steve, we currently overlap for some of the busiest times. Maybe if I just take your 11 o'clock slot and put it in it too. So you're going now from noon to two. We'll overlap a little bit. Okay. I'll work on the rest of this later. We're in trouble. Looks like we're going to have just one person at the booth pretty much all day. If we can manage that and then someone's going to have to come back and clean up and it may end up being me if necessary. But we'll figure it out. If I'm in town, I will for sure help you clean up. Okay. So Jesse will help clean up. So Jesse. I'll put you down. If you're in town. What time do you want to show up then? How about at, how about three and four, Jesse? If you're in town. Anything's fine. Okay. I'll put you down for a couple of hours at three and four. Steve and Dwayne will sign off and you'll sign on. If you're there, but we still have to fill in a hole with somebody else. All right. We'll figure it out later. Hopefully. So the other thing I wanted to ask about our fliers. We're going to have two, first of all, two easels, right? Which I'm going to get from Jesse. Is that correct? One. One, one easel. Do we have a second easel or is it just the one? Just the one. Okay. I can probably find one at Hampshire and, and steal it and bring it for the event. Cause I think we wanted to put information on one and collect information on the other or something like that. We are being recorded. Uh-oh. It's not in use. I can borrow one from Hampshire. Place of employment. You know, come to think of it. I can probably borrow one from, from my work too. If I need to. Now that you mentioned it, I realized we don't have paper, but we need is the big paper. Jesse. Do you have a big paper. Yeah. No, just a big white paper. Okay. What's, what's the plan Lori? What are you planning? So to do something like you did at the, at the sustainability at the, at the block party, right? Um, something similar to that. Um, and I think there were. There was enough. Stuff here for two. I forget what it was.  Um, yeah, I think it was basically to recapitulate what we did at the, at the block party have a chart like that for people to, you know, these are what, which of these things have you already done? And I know that was it. There was one where we're going to do, which of these things have you already done and give people stickers to put in place, which I can pick up. And the other one was to have people write down their ideas. I remember right. Yeah. Yeah. No, so it's going to be very similar to the block party. That's exactly what we did. Yeah. And then we had a barcodes that. Link to mass save. To. Something about ECAC and, you know, I think there was like, we bi-weekly meetings. This is when we meet. And it's just a. Right. And I think I was, so if you have anything, what I was going to do is put together one pagers. If I can get the pace flyer by then that would be great. I'm not going to have a stack of flyers, but I'd like to have one and a QR code maybe. And I'll leave those. Yep. Go ahead. I just going to say if they're like eight and a half by 11 flyers. I have some from my place of employment. I have some. I have some of those. I have some of those like those plexiglass lean. Things that lean a little bit. Excellent. That can be just on the table and. And that way it just stays there. As opposed to. People don't have to take, take them. They can just see them. If it's as a QR code, they can use that, but it's like tilted up as opposed to lying flat on the table. Yeah. So my goal is to have all the flyers have a QR code and I think we had this. I want to put the sustainable Amherst link on there. I think it's actually funny that I looked at the sustainable Amherst page again today, Stephanie, and it looks like it's gotten an update. It looks really nice. There's a lot of really good stuff on it. It got an update a while ago from our intern last summer, but I went through and actually cleaned it up because thank you, Jenny Kellek, who I know is an attendee, pointed out that there were some bad links and some missing information. So I just went through last week and just went through every single item and cleaned it up. Cool. Well, it looks really nice. And I like that the sustaining Amherst seems to be slowly becoming sustainable Amherst. It's not. It's not. That was wrong. That was actually, that was a mistake. We had wanted to be sustainable Amherst, but another group had taken that name. So that logo actually needs to be changed to sustaining. And I'm sorry you hate it, Laurie, but it's not really likely to change anytime soon. Dang. All right. Well, I'll be sustaining Amherst then and have a link to that, a link to the Carp, read the Carp here. I was also going to do some more specific ones on decarbonize your home for homeowners, decarbonize your home for renters, the pace flyer, the MassSafe QR code. And I think that's it.  But that will be in the decarbonize your home. There are suggestions for things like riding pikes and stuff like that. I noticed even on the sustaining Amherst page. So I'll figure out something to put on each of these. And my goal is to have them for you at the next meeting so that if there's any changes, I have time to make them before the 22nd. So I'm going to try to put all that together. So if you all have anything you want to send me that should go on a flyer, I already have some stuff, please send it. I have some, I have a few things that will probably go in, but please send it. If you have a flyer that you've used before, please send it to me in the next few days, because I got to do this during spring break. I'm going to be in trouble. Spring break is this. Yes, right. Maybe a question for Stephanie, but also maybe Stella, since you're going to be representing UMass there as well. But there is a, I'm on a committee where we have an annual energy symposium in May where it's UMass, but the public's invited as well that I was looking for having some presence to outreach and advertise about it, or at least inform the public about it at the sustainability festival. And so we could, if it's okay with eCAC, we could put up, I could have a flyer on that that just posted somewhere. But I'm also wondering whether Stephanie, do you know whether UMass is going to have any other table presence? And Stella, it sounds like the Arboretum will. I've been having trouble with UMass groups. I had some organizations that have participated in the past, and I still have links to or email information for those groups, but then they don't respond. And I think at the last festival in 19, which is the last one we held, they just didn't show up. And I'd never heard from them. And I keep asking like, please tell me if you're going to be there. And then people don't respond. And then I have these gaps. And I like to have UMass representation. So if there are groups that you know, please just give them my contact information. I'm more than happy to support some UMass tabling. I mean, because it is Art Day, it's very likely UMass is going to want to do some of their own stuff too. So sometimes we compete with them a little bit for getting groups. Yeah. Being Saturday, it's going to be a little bit different. But yeah, are those student groups generally? Student groups. I mean, I've had, you know, I've had like Ludmilla has come actually in the past and had students. I don't think she's participated in the last few years. But you know, I just, if you can get the word to folks, I'm going to try to get the word out. It's just there's so much happening right now. And it's all happening at the same time. So my head's spinning a little bit. So I haven't been able to do as much active outreach to get vendors. But so I would just say, you know, if you know folks, please send them my way. Laurie, you'll need rocks. That was what I was raising my hand before about is like, flyers are great. But when we get a windy day, like we have had wind sometimes not every year. But there are times when we get a wind gust where whole tents go sort of rolling by.  So just, you know, just as long as you have a way to sort of keep them and a few smaller rocks are not always sufficient. Right. And Dwayne has those flyer holders too. So that'll help if we can you see those? Yeah. Dwayne, I can for sure take those flyers. I'll be driving the truck over with trees. And so you can just put them in my whole thrift mailbox or something. So Laurie in action for the next meeting, or we'll have we'll talk about this again at the next meeting. Okay. Okay. Stephanie over to you on staff updates. Okay, I'll try to make this quick because I want to make sure Laura has time too. So the GZA solar presentation happened on Monday night. We had 21 attendees. It was short, but it was meant to be. It was really meant to be sort of an information session about what the process was, which you all saw. I think Adrian had shared it with you. So just to let people know what the process was, but also to sort of encourage engagement to provide feedback. So the three opportunities and how to do that were outlined several times. As I said, we had 21 attendees. And during that session, Adrian mentioned that already 129 surveys were completed. So I asked her today for an update. And as of today at like, I don't know, three o'clock or so, 241 responses, surveys have been completed. None of them are non English speaking. Unfortunately, it's just the English responses. And then there were 10 email submissions for folks requesting updates as the process moves along. So that was pretty robust. 10,000 postcards were mailed. So I don't know if you all received them, but if you did, that'd be great. The engage Amherst page is up. So there's link to the survey there and some information with also an open ended survey question. One, I think that actually came from this group that couldn't be included in the actual survey, but was added as an engage Amherst question. So that's up so people can provide responses to that. I've been, I actually get the responses to that. There have been a few, not a lot, but I've had some. So that's in terms of the solar assessment process. Stephanie and Laurie might have a question. Oh, go ahead, Laurie. You're muted, Laurie. Sorry, I keep going. I just had a comment when you were done. So keep going. Okay. So just wanted to let you all know that there's the budget hearing is this Friday for staff to present there. I don't know if it's everybody, but like some departments are presenting their budget, proposed budgets to the town manager and the finance director. So I'm on with that. So just again, I think I told you this last time, but right now the sustainability is kind of in this nebulous place. It's kind of under conservation and I spent a lot of time really thinking through like all of the things that I'm doing. So I had this extensive kind of list of things about what I'm doing. So currently what I'm working on, what I've done last year, what needs to be done in the future, what's going to be ongoing. There were some operating items in there. So there's a kind of extensive list and I was told we probably won't be able to cover every little thing. It didn't get included as part of the conservation budget, so I wanted to make sure that it was definitely being addressed. So at least for this year's presentation, it's kind of going to be under this umbrella of conservation still, but it is its own separate budgets. It's really, if you're confused, so am I. So we're doing our best to sort of pull that out so that maybe by next year it will have its kind of own slated, like sustainability is a department that is still under this whole functional area of conservation and development. We might be also proposing to change the name. Maybe I don't know if that's going to happen, but that might happen. So if we change the name, that might make it easier to sort of make the case of sustainability sort of being under that umbrella for its own department. So the problem is, again, is this a reorg and if it is, then it needs to go to the town council. I think that all needs to be discussed and figured out at a higher level. The other thing I wanted to mention that sort of pertains to this whole group is that the remote meetings are supposed to, our legislation ends March 31st. However, I've heard that the state legislature is going to extend it for another two years to March 31st of 2025. I don't know if that's officially happened yet, so I need to find out. It will, it has happened, Andrew, do you know that for sure? Okay, great. Then that just means that, you know, we'll still stay with remote meetings until 2025. Very quick. I know I heard Laurie ask for CCA update. I'm going to give it to you quick. It's kind of complicated, but so we're moving forward with the CCA under the MOU. There's already an executed MOU between Amherst, Pelham and Northampton. Amherst is identified in the MOU as the lead community, so we are going to move that. We are moving forward with the CCA. We're doing it this way because putting together the GPE, there were just some pieces of it that got a little more complicated because it was going to involve staff from one of the communities. I mean, right now we're kind of identifying it from Amherst, but it could potentially be North Hampton, but that's because we won't have the CCA up and running with some fund supporting an administrative position or potential programming. And until that happens with the stream of funding coming in, it has to be one of the communities supporting that role and it would impact staff that's already working doing some of those tasks for their respective municipalities. So the bottom line is, though, that CCA is moving forward. I had a meeting yesterday and I don't want to say too much because our own working group hasn't been updated yet, but I just had a meeting yesterday with a consultant and working with the other two communities to just move some things forward right now that have to happen in place. And we're going to have a CCA working group meeting or Valley Green Energy working group meeting probably in the next week or so. So it is moving forward. Steve had his hand up first and then Andrew. If Laurie didn't have a question. I did have one quick thing. That's okay. I was more comment. The solar thing that what happened on Monday, I was there because I was curious as to what it was going to look like to the public. And as far as I knew, there were only six people in the room because as a participant, you can't see who's there. That looks sort of sad. It'd be nice if someone would tell us how many are actually in the room because we can't see as participants. Because that's all that entered the survey, the mentee survey. Yeah, I know. And I agree. I think, you know, I think Adrienne was just trying to get through it. We had interpretation and American Sign Language. And so we were really sort of just nervous about how that without the whole thing crashing and burning. So we had had a big meeting ahead of time to sort of do a run through and even doing that, the ASL didn't show up on my recording. So somehow I have to figure out how to get that. It showed up to people who if someone was participating, they could have turned it on easily and it showed right up, but it didn't get pinned to my, I was told not to pin it. And I should have. So I wish I had. So anyway, hopefully we can add it in. I just have to follow. I've already got an inquiry as to whether we can follow up and do that. But I agree about the number of people. There were 21 people for sure. Excellent. Yeah, that's great to hear. I was worried that the six people that did the online survey that was like all of us and nobody else. I figured you were the ones that were participating in that piece. But people, you know, I think people get intimidated even though you and, you know, I think sometimes it's even though the links are there and how to do it is there. People don't always feel comfortable. So clearly 15 people did not feel comfortable. That's good. I mean, that's fine. I wanted to ask, they mentioned the map and they showed that little thumbnail image of it, of the areas feasible for solar. Do you know when they're going to release the more detailed map? Yeah. So sorry. I think that was supposed to be part of my updates. I know I forgot something. That is going to happen in April because they're going to get the information to our GIS person, but he has some stuff that he has to do with it and he can't get to it until April because he's working on this really big massive munis project and he's one person. So the timing is actually good because it coincides with the release of the report. So those pieces will happen simultaneously. So the interactive map will be available at the time that the report is available. And what about, is that late April or early April? It's, I don't know exactly. Probably late April. Realistically, it's going to be I think late April or mid April. I think we said like mid April. Thank you. Yeah. Sandra? Yeah. So the municipal aggregation, CCA, as it's known for short, is required to have a community meeting before and a number of other things that are being worked on. And if we have the date of that meeting, I think that we should announce it. We don't have it yet. I'll tell you that's why we have to have another meeting. It's not a bad thing. It's actually a good thing, but there's some background stuff that has to happen. And the consultant isn't ready with some of their pieces yet and won't be. So it's not just staff not getting things. It's, things have to fall in place and we need a little more time. So I'm guessing that means it's not going to be at the end of March. No, but it's not going to be much later, honestly. So we can talk about that later. And when I have more firm dates at the next meeting, which I should definitely have them by then I can share. Thanks, Stephanie. Okay. Laura, do you want to go? Oh, Steve, you had something? Great. Yeah. So as we discussed last time, we had Kathy come to speak about the net zero school and we had agreed that we would work on an op ed that we could potentially put in the paper from ECAC. So I worked on it and shared it with Jesse and he provided some really great feedback and edits. So I think the easiest thing to do is just to share. I mean, I can share my screen now, but I don't think that's really that conducive to folks reading something. So what I would do is ask, I think Stephanie of this, who I said this to yesterday, maybe if you can share it with the rest of the committee. I think what we would like to do in terms of timing, the vote is May 2nd. I don't know what the queue will be like for getting things into the paper. So what I would hope we could do is have you all review it and with the goal of incorporating feedback and having something we could vote on at the next meeting. But I guess that depends on when we have the meeting. Yes, Stephanie. Stephanie. Yeah, I was just going to say, if do you want members to send feedback directly to you and do you want to have a date by so? Yes. So I guess that depends on them because originally I was thinking if the meeting was in two weeks, I would like feedback by next Wednesday, but if the meeting is going to be next Wednesday, then that won't work. I can send the meat, the letter out right after this meeting. Okay, that would be great. It's only 750 or I think it's actually only 720 words. It's only allowed to be a 750 word, so it's not very long. Could you read it and share it on screen? I think waiting is unfortunate because as you say, there's going to be a lot of people who want to put their op-ed in about it. Yeah, so ideally we would get it, ideally we would vote on it at the next meeting and then submit it immediately after that to the paper. Yeah, I mean, I think I'm sure people need more time to review and provide feedback, Laura. I mean, I don't know if you want to run through the gist of it or... Sure. So yeah, so there's just a little intro here just explaining what we are and why we're writing this basically. It took me a while to figure out the right framing because we want it, it's a technical issue. Can I ask you to not show the comments and make it bigger because I'm on a little screen and I cannot even begin to read that. Okay, I don't know how to get this away. Dismiss. Then just view what is this? Google Docs? View reading mode or full screen?  Laura, you could temporarily change the font size too. I mean, I think regardless, I think the point is whether we're not reading the whole thing, I think it's just, I guess, Laura at a high level. I mean, and then if the ECAC members, because it's 606 now, I mean, unless there are other things on the agenda for member updates, if there isn't any, then we have time to look at it. So let me post that question first. Are there other members, any updates that you have and how much time do you need? Okay, no updates is good. So yeah, let's, I guess, let's review it in detail then. Just if you go to... Yeah, no. Because I changed the view, it's not showing me like how to make... You can't just say view magnify. So, Laura on the left. There you go. That's it. Yay. Okay, good. Okay, so the first paragraph here is just a intro paragraph. We may not need it, but so be great to get your feedback on that. Basically just setting the stage. The background section here. So the angle that I've taken is really focusing on fossil fuels. So starting with sort of just some background on what are fossil fuels and why are they a problem. Then transitioning quickly, because I want this to be a positive piece, translisting quickly into that we do have tools in their reliance on fossil fuels. Question for you? Yeah. Reliably. The third line on that page should be reliable. Okay. So specifically through electricity generated by renewable power and battery storage. Okay. So talking a little bit about the IRA and how that's providing funding to accelerate the transition to meet our country's goal of greenhouse gas free electricity by 2035. And that once we have that, we can remove the other... Or maybe we should say as we're doing that, we also need to remove the other main use of fossil fuels by electrifying building in vehicles. So then we talk a little bit about buildings and how super efficient and electric heating and cooling systems known as heat pumps have already outpaced gas fired heating systems in the US. And that main is actually leading in this transition. So enacting the IRA is anticipated to save us money. And then we sort of focus in on that money saving aspect of this. So on May 2nd, Amherst residents will have the opportunity to vote to vote on funding for the new elementary school. The school will not use fossil fuels because it will be using a heat pump powered by electricity. And then solar on the roof in the parking lot will generate enough electricity to meet the annual electricity demand of the school, making it a net zero energy building. And thanks to IRA and state incentives. Yeah, go ahead. Oh, sorry, I got background. It'll cost less to build and operate this net zero school than one with natural gas heating system. The town finance committee has proposed to take $5 million from reserves to reduce the tax burden of this project because of the anticipated incentives, credits, and operational savings as that zero building will provide. The comment here is just that the town council still needs to vote on that to make it official. If they've done that before we publish this, we can say that instead of what is written here. Yeah, Laura, I think this paragraph is really important. It talks about the one that you have the comment on. You talk about costing less throughout the life of the school. And then you talk about tax burden. I think it's great. I just want to make sure that it pops. And I don't know if it's in the right place or if we should. In the first paragraph, you have information on ECAC. I wonder if you can think about how you can modify this paragraph and say this is and make it pop and repeat it again in this paragraph and keep it as is, but consolidate this paragraph in a couple of lines and say I guess why people should take notice. The first paragraph, if you read the first paragraph, it's a summary of what's below it and it says that it is fiscally. And then maybe it needs to be more explicit, but I think the first paragraph essentially in a few sentences gives the highlight items of what's below, knowing that most people will just read the first paragraph. But there are a lot of people in this town who will dig in and read the whole thing and stay up all night blogging about it. But I think it's sort of like I put the first paragraph together and the idea is that the following work repeats it, but in more detail. I think it could be more explicit about the reducing. It reduces the tax burden. Yeah, we can certainly take. Yeah, and overall operating costs. Right. Yeah, Stella, I think maybe you had your hand up first and then Laurie, I can't see everybody. So yeah, I think and maybe it's going to get because I could only read to the bottom of the page, but I also think if it's towards the bottom, then it should be higher up framing climate change specifically is like a youth justice issue. Like that our children are disproportionately impacted by climate change.  Yeah. Okay. And like it seems it seems like really messed up to have schools that are like burning their futures kind of you know what I mean, not don't say it like that, because I agree about keeping it positive. But like, does anybody seen that movie know with Gayel Garcia Bernal, the like Pinochet referendum movie, really good movie highly recommend. But yeah. So can I can I add something? Yeah, the first paragraph. I actually like this you didn't let me give me time to read the very last couple of sentences on that other page. So I didn't see that but the rest of it I like I haven't finished it. Do you guys want me to go through the whole thing first? I think you're almost done. But the only thing that I don't like so far is there's the one phrase in that first paragraph as a climate smart hub of youth education, which breaks the flow of the paragraph and doesn't I don't understand it right away. So I would just say strike that phrase and start with we believe the proposed that much stronger statement. We believe the proposed net zero school will do this period. I think you should just strike that otherwise I like the letter. If you don't mind, because my comment had to do with this first paragraph as well. I don't know. I'm just always told that the first first sentence that not the first paragraph but the first sentence has to be the popper. And so I would probably, you know, we got we got a climate action plan and we got the e-cac and everything that I think the first sentence should be more about we support the school for the climate active the climate benefit to the school in a real popping set short sentence. Great helpful feedback everybody. I will read the whole thing when it's in print though. And Laura, do you get to choose the title or is that the editorial staff paper that does that? That's a good question. We should suggest the title for sure. Yeah, you can suggest it. They'll do what they want. But you should suggest one. Yes, definitely suggest one that also emphasizes the key message. Okay, if anybody has ideas, feel free to throw it in here or send it over email. Okay, great. So yeah, so then just the final paragraphs are again sort of honing in on the cost savings so that the building is going to the school will replace the existing Wildwood and Fort River schools two buildings that are in need of significant repairs and where we currently spend 25 or $250,000 a year annually on oil and natural gas. The burning of the oil and natural gas in these buildings emits the same amount of greenhouse gases. Laura, can you just say $250,000 annually? Yes. Without a new school and the grants provided by the state of town will be responsible for repairing the existing buildings and bringing them to code. And this will cost approximately $40 million per school and does not include removing fossil fuels from the building or adding solar. So this sort of gets to our key point here that replacing these buildings is both cost effective, fiscally responsible and climate responsible. That could be your title. Some version of that could be your title. Another minor thought, if you use dollar signs, you might be able to replace the word dollar in a couple places and save a few words. Here. I think also this project will allow us to show the region what is possible when, oh now it's called up, when we work together to tackle an enormous challenge. I also think it's worth it to circle back to kind of the youth and be like and show our children that we're serious about protecting their future. Something like that. Okay. Any other quick thoughts on this? Otherwise, if folks want to send me any comments back by Friday, since we've already gone through it and we can get a finalized version ready for folks to look at in the packet for the next meeting. How soon will we get a copy of this so we can really look at it? So I think Stephanie said she'll send it right after this meeting. Okay. Perfect. Excellent. Okay. Great. That's all from me on that. Thank you so much. Yeah. Thanks, Laura. Really nice. Yeah. Thanks, Jesse, for his helpful input. Okay. Let's talk about our next meeting versus when it's going to be due. We're talking about having it next week. Laura, can you make the call next week or you are the only one who said that's unlikely? I definitely cannot make the call next week. But if Jesse can make it, I'm happy to hand over the reins of finalizing this letter to him or to anyone who wants to take it over. I don't think I necessarily need to be there, but I will not be there next week. Okay. Can everybody else make the call next week? Well, I can get it again at five. I would probably still be a little bit late, but the important thing is that if we're going to do this next week, I really asked everyone to please send me whatever you have for flyers. If there's something you, if you have a pretty picture you'd like on something or a flyer you've used before or even the pace flyer, if it's ready, please send that to me in the next couple of days, because if I don't work out of this weekend, I'm going to run out of time real fast this week or this weekend. I mean, we don't have to see every single flyer that goes on the table, do we? We trust you. In that case, there's no rush. Are we agreeing then on the meeting for next week, April 22nd, five to six, 30pm? Who is, who can't make it besides Laura? I don't think I'm going to be able to or good chance. I'm having some minor hand surgery earlier in the day and I understand I'll be a little bit groggy after that. Okay. So you still have a quorum, so we can still have the meeting. Although remember, I'll be there late. And you're going to be chairing Laura, correct? So we could do it from five to six, right? Because Vasu is not going to be there next week. Who's going to be chairing? Me? You would be. But I'm going to be late. Well, that's what I'm saying. So hold on one second. Vasu, you're definitely not going to be there, correct? Correct. Okay. So, Laura, if you're going to be late, we can make the meeting, I mean, this isn't a regular scheduled meeting. So we can adjust it a bit this time. If we want to make it five to six, we can do that. But if we start at five, I'm going to be late. Okay. So what time would work for you? Five to five fifteen. I could be there earliest five fifteen. It would be, I'd be doing it from work, but I could do that. Or why don't we just say, because our meetings typically go to six thirty. So why don't we just start at five thirty and go five thirty to six thirty. Does that work for everybody else? Yeah. Okay. And for the agenda then, that's the case, right? If it's only going to be one hour, we're going to talk festival. We'll talk about the op-ed and then gas pipeline or we need. You're not going to have a lot of time. So that's realistic. Yeah. I think, I think it'll just be festival op-ed and then pace. The primary goal of the next meeting is that we are all agree on the letter and then who sends it to the paper? Okay. So the following meeting will be April 12th and I will be drugged. I will not be at that meeting. Okay. So hold on one second. Are we going, so we're going to cancel, what would have been the meeting on the 29th? We're going to cancel that meeting, correct? Maybe not. How about we can- So Don won't be available to discuss pace on the 22nd. So that will not be on the agenda. I'm thinking the 22nd will be an additional meeting and we can continue to have our others. Well, the meeting on the 29th except, so Laurie and Vasu will not be there on the 29th. And Andra, it sounds like you won't be there on the 29th? Yeah. Okay. No. I will be there on the, I can be there on the 29th. I can't be there on the following meeting. And can someone chair Stephanie, if both Laurie and I are out? I have to double check on that. I'm not sure, actually, to be honest. I think you can designate someone as an acting chair, but I need to, there's process and I need to make sure that we're following the process. So let me just double check in with the clerk's office on that. So at least for the next meeting, it will be Laurie chairing and we'll be from 530 to 630 for the meeting on the 29th. I will have to find out. And I'll be doing that finding out this week because I need to find out. If that's possible, I don't know if the group thinks that should be an hour or just keep the two hour meeting because we have the extra hour next week. We want to be conscious of everybody's time. I vote an hour. Well, I would suggest we keep it the way it is and try to be wrap up in an hour. But yeah, just not not not feel like we have to end in an hour. If we still have more to go over. Yeah. Okay. That's for the 29th you're talking about. Okay. And so, yes, I'm going to want to talk to you then about the agendas for both the meeting on the 22nd and 29th. We can do those ahead of time. So I'm going to be getting drafts to you. So it sounds like there's no need. One of the things I had written down earlier was to maybe write a letter about what was it? The Shoot, the Springfield Justice. Yeah, we not want to do that or do we want to wait on that? To draft something and support those guys? I think we should wait. Wait on that. Okay, let's let's at least take the time to review it. Okay. So that's what we'll do. We'll review that next time. All right. Okay. So I'm going to work on the draft agenda for the next two meetings. I'll get them to Vasu and get them out to all of you. Each meeting. So this next meeting will only be an hour on the 22nd, but the 29th will be our regular meeting from 430 to 630. And it just might end early. And it might even be canceled if someone else can chair. Yeah. Yeah, I think, I mean, I think what happens is that you, Vasu, would be the one to appoint someone as acting chair for that meeting, but I just have to make sure that that is absolutely the process. Let's also try to make sure we get the Springfield Coalition stuff in the packet for next week, just so we can speed that along. Because that's another thing that's something we want to, that has a deadline that has a time frame. Okay. So just get it to me. Can someone just send me the info? Andra. Website. Send it the link to me. Yeah. Just so I don't have to go find it. Just, I know it's probably not hard, but just send it to me. It would be so much easier. Thank you. Okay. And Lori, you can make the calls after, right? Until the 22nd of April. I can make the what? You can make these calls after. What calls? These meetings. After the, oh yeah, yeah. Oh, in April when I'm gone. Yeah. Okay. Yes. As long as we don't change any of the dates, I'm good on the April meetings. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. So Vasu, I'm just making a note for myself of which just, good to just send me the dates that you're going to be gone. Yeah. I'll email it to you. Okay. All right. I think that's, we're good. So. Yeah. Stephanie, I did not get all that for the minutes, but. That's okay. It was a little confusing and chaotic, but I'll fill it in. Okay. Any public comments? Okay. If anyone wants to make a comment, please electronically raise your hand. It looks like we do not have any questions. Okay. All right. That's all we have time for. Thank you, everybody, for your time, and I'll see you all on Earth Day. Yeah. Take care. Good job, guys. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks, guys. Thanks, all. Bye. Bye.


We know that there are about 4.3 million people, we look at a lot of data over at the foundation, about 4.3 million people who are dropping out of two year and four year institutions right now, that we could, with lots of interventions which we'll call solutions over at the foundation, who with a little bit of extra support hopefully can complete and obtain their credentials.