Yes. So we are recording. Great. Thanks, Stephanie. Okay. So, um, We forgot to send our didn't send that a reminder. But as we just tried last week, we're going to try to review the meetings ahead of the minutes ahead of time so we can just go ahead and vote on them. So, um, Um, Give maybe I'll give folks a minute to say whether they have any comments. That they want to make. And then we also needed to assign a new minute taker. Which I think. Might. I think. Don, we might be back to you. Yeah. I think it's. Potentially. Laura, I think it's Andra and then me after. Okay. Andra, are you able to take minutes today? Yes, I can take minutes. Sorry. No, no, I would think it's been a while. Okay. I'll just make a quick plug for Andrew. I met someone that knows her. I've always known we have got a great committee with great people. But when I dropped your name, Andrew. They were, oh my, oh, she works so hard. She does so much. She's so amazing. So. It takes a lot of good minutes. You should let her take minutes every, every meeting. Best. So Laura, just for the benefit of attendees, I just wanted to let people know that this meeting is being recorded. And that. The video. Transcriptions can be found on the town's YouTube website. So if you went to YouTube and searched for. The town's YouTube website, you can find the link on the town's. ECA C or energy and climate action committee. You should be able to find. The recordings. And there is a link on the town's. ECA C website. Page as well. To those recordings. I will say they're not necessarily up to date, but you can find them there. Great. Thanks, Stephanie. You're welcome. Okay. Any comments. On the minutes or otherwise anyone want to motion to accept them. I'll move to accept them. I will second. Great. Thank you. Okay. I need a voice vote. So roof. Yes. Regevan. Yes. Allison. Yes. Drucker. Yes. Selman. Yes. Reger. Yes. And Rose. Yes. Okay. And it's our approved. Great. So we'll go to. To public comment. If anyone would like to make a public comment. Please go ahead and raise your hand. I'm not seeing any hands raised. So we typically also give opportunity at the end of the meeting. Not seeing anybody. So we will move on to. Stop updates. Okay. So a number of things. First is that you may recall about a year or so ago. We had applied for a DC fast charge. Electric vehicle charger charging station. For downtown. We only applied for one. They are very expensive. And there is some additional operating costs that the town would incur in getting one, but we did actually receive grant funding for one. So. We'll be moving that forward probably within the next few months. The state supplies the cost. And we got this through the mass event program. So the state will supply the, the charging unit, but we do have to go through a process with ever source, where they'll actually provide the installation costs as well. And the electric hookup. For that unit. So. I've already been in touch with them because. And it's been so long. I think people. People thought that wasn't even moving forward any longer. So it was kind of a bit of a surprise. And it does look like they awarded more than they had originally estimated that they would. So, which is, I think just. You know, knowledge that we need more fast charging infrastructure within, within and throughout the state. So that's coming. And I will also know that there isn't another fast charging unit for at least within 15 miles of us. So. It'll be really useful for a lot of people. Yeah. Does it have a location down. Yes. Yes. At least as the way we had proposed in the application, it's going to be, I think in the lot on Kellogg street. By the Ann Whalen apartments. So. So we're proposing to put it there. That's the town manager actually requested that it go there. And then we are looking at investigating a program that could help us transition the entire school bus fleet to electric vehicle buses. So it's just, you know, we're just exploring that opportunity, but it looks promising. So I've been on the periphery of that conversation. And of course I'm, you know, all like, yes, we should do it, but it's not my decision, but I'm just curious to know what happens to the buses. I assume someone else uses the buses. If our fleet goes electric and it just, it helps, it's, it helps, but it. It doesn't fully take all those buses off line. Is that. That correct. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I think we'd be replacing the buses. We might want to hang on to one because I know that there's some. There is some concern about range for field trips with the electric buses, but. You know, we might, so we might hang on to one for that purpose, but I, you know, again, this has just been a conversation. There's nothing definitive, but I think it would actually be good to be hanging on to the diesel buses. Except for maybe one, if we decide we need to. Yeah. So, and then. We also had a company reach out to us about the possibility for a community solar project. Typically I'm not. You know, we get a lot of these calls all the time. But this one was different and did have an opportunity to be able to specifically serve. The rental population, which I was kind of excited about. And I don't want to say too much because we're just having initial conversation. Like we're just, I had a conversation with representatives from the company, but we're going to have a meeting with the town manager and the finance director soon and have them sort of hear more about what they have to offer. You know, like anything, these, everyone makes their, their opportunities sound like the best opportunities that are possibly out there. But I do think this one to me has some elements of it that are more promising. So I will definitely keep you informed about that. One thing I personally want to make sure of. Is that if we went this route that there's no. No impact to the CCA opportunities. I just want to make sure that, you know, there's no conflict there. So I am going to reach out to our. Consultant just to sort of get their, their opinion to weigh in on, on this opportunity. And then I just wanted to tell you about the sociocracy training that I just recently experienced yesterday through. The collaborative for educational services out of North Hampton, which houses the healthy Hampshire program. And because I'm doing some work with their food policy council, the newly formed. The new Hampshire Hampshire food policy council. So it's a regional effort. They're using saucy sociocracy as their governance model and decision-making model and tool. And I just will, I'll send you all a link to that site, but it's very, very interesting. It's a very slow moving process, but it's very interesting because it really gives people an opportunity to all have a voice. And it really makes sure and ensures that it's a more sort of equitable decision-making process. So I encourage you when I send you the link to, to check it out. I don't know it's necessarily something we want to adopt, but I think it's something worth looking at. You know, I feel like as we talk about equity and the way that we know meetings have always been run, there's kind of a very similar format. And I think we all have experienced this. Desire to move things quickly, but sociocracy actually takes more time. However, even though it takes time upfront. In the long run, because the decisions are really, really vetted well. In the long run, those decisions tend to stick and not come up with additional problems later. Because people have really vetted them out at the beginning. So, so it's very interesting. So I just wanted to share that with you. And also last thing, I updated. The web page, the ECAC web page to include the packets. So now there's a folder for the 22 2022 packets are there. I'm, it's a little different than you might have seen before in the past, it was one folder and all the documents were scanned. Now the folders show up as a folder. And if you click on the folder, you'll see that the document is a separate document. So you'll be more easily able to access. I mean, items from the meetings, both you and the public will have an easier time sort of identifying, getting those packets. I will say that the packets up until that point will not be in that format. And I still have to, I have a back load of packets that I have to get back on the site. And that might take a little while, but at this point going forward, the packets will be posted. So, and my apologies for the backlog in our year of COVID. Thanks, Stephanie. Yeah, let's do it. Do you have a question? Yeah, cause Stephanie, where does the funding come from for the electrification of the bus fleet? So that's a, it's a company that they would. They would actually own the buses. So the model is that they own the buses and we would essentially. You know, lease them. Got it. So, but again, that's why it's being in, you know, I think the town has to really sort of weigh how that would work and whether this is something we would want to pursue. And of course this is through the schools. It's, you know, there are decisions. So. It's just a conversation that I know was out there and I know it's something that this committee has really advocated for. So I wanted to share. Just so people know, we already. We have. We have the three year lease. Most of the buses that are used in the.  Elementary school system. So we have nine buses. That we own. So I'm sure that's. Yeah. Talking about, but because the. Three year lease. Contract was signed last winter. I think it's a little bit different. I think it's a little bit different. But maybe it could expand. Yeah, I think it's slightly different though. I mean, those companies don't have electric buses. So this would be leasing. Taking that lease away and leasing with a company or. Whatever. But yeah, we, we, we shared some of that information earlier. I think last year around Montgomery County in Maryland. Moving toward towards a leasing program. I know we talked about that a bit. So that's exciting to hear. But Jesse to your question. Yeah.  They'll be sold to someone else. So I mean, this is a problem with all kinds of used vehicles and cars and when. Hey, you know, so. But it's supporting the replacement, you know, it's supporting the replacements. The next fleet that gets purchased by these companies and they're seeing a financial model to move it forward. It's a good thing. Totally. It's something with our own internal combustion vehicles. By 2030 as well. You know, we're going to be seeing a much broader scale. Transition to EVs. To that, to your point, Jesse. And Dwayne and then the zoo again. Yeah, just quickly. I want to back up to the website. And this is not a biggie at all, Stephanie, but. I actually did have the need to. Share the carp report with somebody. A couple of since the last meeting. And I went to the website and I couldn't even find the carp report. And maybe it's in a packet, but who would know what month the look or what meeting to look at. And I was wondering if some of our more prominent reports, maybe our annual reports and like the carp report. Couldn't be separately. Listed. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. On. Or somehow accessible on the website. I can ask Dwayne, but that's, it actually lives on the sustaining Amherst page. And it actually has. Found it, but okay. Yeah, it has its own link. It's. It's. It's actually listed as carp. Like if you. Googled carp. And I did. Well, I. You'd find it. I found a fish probably. Two ways. But yeah, I did. I hear you. I hear you when we've talked about it, but I think there was a reason why they. It's not on that, that page and why it lives on the sustaining Amherst page. Okay. Yeah. I mean, you could live there, but we did. Well, we did. And I, and I actually brought this up a meeting or two ago that, because Vasu had brought it up that he had trouble finding it. So I had worked with it so that when someone does a search in the search engine, they should be able to find it fairly easily now. They've created pathways that should get to it faster and easier. If you do a search by name versus going to the ECAC site. I don't think it should be on our committee page or the sustaining Amherst page. I think it should be on the main. Town page. It's a town plan. It's really important. Should be very prominent. I can ask. I can always ask. Yeah, Stephanie question on the electrification of buses. Are we going to start planning ahead for building infrastructure for charging stations then? Well, so for the buses, that's something separate that the schools are dealing with. And I think that the infrastructure has to. Is part of that. And again, I don't have details about that. So I don't even want to say more about it because it's not. I'm just sharing information about a discussion that happened, but I have not been involved in that. So I don't have all the fine details and it's not the municipalities decision to make. It's the school. Systems decision to make. So I just want to be clear about that.  That's, that's something that's an ongoing whenever we have an opportunity, we'll just keep pursuing that. Yeah, I hope it works out quickly. But the solar more important. I mean, it's going to be a challenge with installation of solar until we're talking until the solar study is completed. Well, that's for large scale solar, not for smaller solar. But it's for a certain, it's for a much larger capacity. Is what we're talking about for the moratorium. Okay. That's right. The moratorium would not include anything mounted over impervious surfaces. So it would not apply to parking lot canopies. If anybody decided to do that. And it was under over two gigawatts, I think. 250 KW. One acre of ground now. Thank you. Great. Do we have any e-cac member updates? I'll share. Oh, go ahead, Andra. Oh, I was just going to give the state legislative report. All the climate bills that. Any organization wanted were given an extension. I'm pretty much there were a few that were actually reported out of committee favorably, which is what you want, but an extension is pretty good because it in this case probably means that some of them are going to make it into an omnibus bill. Thanks. Thanks, Andra. I appreciate you updating us on that. Those important things that are hard to keep track of. I don't know if anybody else was able to watch the town council meeting this week when they discussed the solar moratorium, but. Looks like Steve did anybody else. No. It was an interesting discussion. They need to discuss it again. But one thing that came across that I just wanted to share with you all is that. There was certainly quite a bit of. Talk about the importance of climate action and how we need to move quickly on climate action from people, both for and against the moratorium. So I think. We. Have an opportunity right now to really. Give them clear examples of what we could actually do. And so, you know, I just wanted to flag that for folks that. You know, particularly, I think around the renewal, the. Rental housing work that Steven under you've been involved with. Some of the discussions we've had with the affordable housing trust. You know, things around legislative pressure or other bylaws we might want to push through. The moratorium itself is not going to. You know, even if the moratorium didn't pass that, that act in itself is not going to push forward any. Climate action. So, like, how do we. Sort of take the counselor for their word and make sure that we're actually. Supplying them and helping them. Push through some actions that we can, we can start taking. So that was my sort of positive takeaway from, you know, I think we're going to be able to do that. I don't know, Steve, if you have anything you want to add. No, that was my same thought that both counselors and members of the public. Sometimes ask questions along the line of, well, why aren't we doing building efficiency? And I'm like, yeah, we are. We're trying to, we're working on it. So I think the council is hungry for evidence of actions that we've done. So our annual report is like perfect timing. And I'm just going to add that we have a lot of, a lot of discussion about the idea of the town council right now. They might be received quite favorably. Agreed. Yeah. So maybe. Oh God. I just going to add, I thought the discussion that I heard both at the town council, but also earlier at CRC and planning board on the moratorium was really good. It's really deep discussion. A lot of interesting stuff raised. Both on the moratorium itself and the bigger issues of solar. And I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that takes hours and hours and hours and hours of time. Agreed. Okay. Well, maybe we can pick that up a bit as we go through our other agenda items. But is any other, any other updates from folks that. On things that aren't on the agenda. I'm sorry.   I don't have it on there. Yeah. That's the next one. So why don't we just go to that? So one. No, but there may be other updates. So let's. Hold on. Other. Not seeing any. So go right ahead. Okay. I have. Appointment. Next week. Next week. No. Friday. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a good point to talk with. The district three counselors and I sent them all the documents. And they're anxiously awaiting our meeting. I can go next. I reached out to district five. Counselors and. Pamela suggested that maybe it's worth bringing all the counselors in into one conversation and. Feel free to contact them, And honestly, I just wanted to. Just get doing a call with them. But I also reached out to district five because I mean, I live in that district. So I reached out to Shawnee. And she was interested in, in meeting. So. I know, Steve, you probably reached out to Shawnee as well. But. Just forward basically. I suggested that we. Just have a meeting together with all the counselors. During their meeting session. I told them that I'll get back to them based on our conversation. Yeah, Stephanie. Vasu, it's up to the council president. Whether to schedule you all to meet with the council. There's an actual planning process for meetings that they go through with the town manager. And it happens before each meeting. So the request would have to go through the council president and they don't necessarily have to grant that opportunity. I mean, it's not that they wouldn't it's just that they have so many other things that they're dealing with. So even though that was a suggestion, I think the fact that you have at least another council in your district counselor who's willing to meet with you. I would recommend seizing that opportunity. And reaching back out to the other one, maybe. Yeah, Steve. I had, I've had great conversations with the two district five counselors Shalini and Anna Devlin Goddier. Hello, I think they're listening in or listed as the attendees and the participants. Really good conversations with both of them, and I learned stuff from them. I think they learned stuff for me, and I was enjoyed them and I look forward to having more of those. And I would say Vasu that yeah, we should suggest to them that they suggest to the council president that they ask ECAC to come in at a meeting to give some kind of a presentation. We've, we sort of wanted that ourselves for a while. But I guess the invitation has to start with counselors through their president to make that happen. So that's a suggestion we make to counselors. Okay. I just wanted to say that I did send in the annual report to the council president with a request for you all to appear before them to present the report so I just wanted to make sure you all knew that I meant to put that in my report so sorry didn't mean to interrupt Andrew sorry. Oh, no, a suggestion to anyone who's assigned counselors are hesitant to meet. We are designated as the liaisons to them. You know, it's like, this is official, you know, it's, it's something that we're initiating and every counselor is going to have a meeting with one of us on some regular basis. And so I just push back harder. I also think that, you know, we can, we can listen in again to the next council meeting where they're discussing the moratorium and the extent that folks are bringing up supportive climate action we could kind of use that as another option to to reach out, which I will plan to do with my district one people who I did email them on Monday but I haven't heard back yet. I didn't do my homework yet. But plan to do that and apologize for that. I think it would be great idea to meet with the council as a whole that that being said I think it's easy for me to say because I haven't done it yet but I think one of the purposes of us getting in touch with each of our counselors. Personally is that it would be more of an opportunity for a longer term relationship where they could, you know, feel free to call contact us and us back out to them on an as needed basis I think was also the intent just to have some more coordination and rapport I guess with with the counselors. Okay great any other updates on this topic. I did. Sorry, what'd you say. I just said, if it. Same as Dwayne. He's speaking Latin. I don't know the doctor was a frog. Just for those who haven't had a chance yet to counselors that I think are actual real people. It's not really scary to talk to. And I think those who aren't on CRC or GL who have already been dealing closely with the solar moratorium, like some of those other counselors may be seeing it for the first time, and may have lots of interesting questions to ask us. So that'd be a good chance to reach out a good topic the conversation for them. Great. And is anybody who's reaching out to that large people. I actually, I've only got two. But I had Andy and Mandy Joe but I don't know if the third has been a sign. I've got the third I've got. There you go. Okay, great. Um, yeah just the Alicia seems really like she's got some ideas from the car so probably might be a good. I'm looking forward to it I think it's good I think this is an awesome way to, to connect and awesome. Okay, great. Um, so we'll keep pushing forward. Um, on that. All right. Let's see what's the next on the agenda here. I lost it. Okay, here it is. Um, Okay, town council request for ECAC response to Berkshire gas outreach. Andrew, do you want me to share the document? Um, I guess so I, I'm, I'm, but I'm going to bring it up in on my computer and the editing any comments people have. Okay, you won't see them. But, okay. Well, just bear with me one moment. Okay, you should all be able to see it now. So I did take the ideas that we talked about. And I put in a little complaint that we were only given notice in late January. And I went down real hard on our vision for the future of gases that we won't have any in 30 years. And I also talked about health issues that we have. And and mentioned the moratorium as a good thing. That the town will is following, you know, a net zero building approach and encourages private development to as well. I'd love to say that stronger, but since we want to make this a, you know, This is it. We don't have time for editing. Send, you know, send it. Then I I didn't think we could like create policy here. So, and then that we would welcome the district heating idea of gas, starting to sell ground source heating purposes. I welcome your feedback, big or small. I would just in the second paragraph, second sentence. This is what we need according to the IPCC. I would also include in there the mass 2050 decarbonization plan. Perhaps after IPC and before Amherst's. Okay. And honestly, I forget whether that 2050 decarbonization plan has gas going down to zero or going down to something like only 1% or a few percent. Depends which pathway you look at. Yeah. Not actually call the decarbonization plan though is it. It's CP. Right. Decarbonization plan is the title of the report that I've been looking at in the website. I think there's the There's also the interim plan that's being developed for 2030 and 2040. We'll just leave it at that. Yeah, okay. And then I don't know if you saw that there was just a press release WB you are environmental justice communities in Massachusetts are exposed to a much greater number of natural gas leaks from city streets in Massachusetts and other communities. Yeah. That was based on a really neat research paper. I love this way to fold that in or reference that in that third paragraph. Yeah. Yeah, I was going to make a similar comment about just tagging that and if there's a rough if there's a paper to reference even better. Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of sources that we could put in but frankly, I'm not going to read this. The draft report is coming out in one week. So it's already written, and they already have all the citations we could put in so it's it would only be for our own local audience. Yeah, that may be reason enough though right. If it's not too much of a pain. It is but I can do it. I've got the links for that report. I get, I get sent all of those. I just have to find them in emails. There was I think it was a Stanford University study about the indoor health effects of natural gas, especially in smaller apartments. Yeah, Lawrence labs. I can read about that. I'm not sure I have a link to that. I think that was featured in a New York Times article that around. But I'll look through and put in a bunch of sources. The only other thing, and or first of all, this is great. It's concise and like the tone. Do you think there's a place to add that we know that the, the, the leakage of, of natural gas is a major contributor. And not just the burning is it worth adding that it's the actual climate impact. Yeah, just there's that's any, I think that's a partially known fact. And so any chance that we have to like, add that on top of a natural gas conversation is worth it. Thank you. I'll add that. I think that goes like right near the beginning. I also think this looks good. I like the tone. I think that's a good start. And I guess I'd like to say. That we go ahead and prove it and with the comments that you're are the small edits that you're going to make. And one more comment. And I don't know if we want to suggest that they don't look at hydrogen or biogas for that matter. And I'm, I'm for one. I'm skeptical that we can literally electrify everything. Or that that really is going to work. Dwayne let me let me frame this. This is just going to the local distribution companies the retail gas. We're not talking about the gas industry that's going to be. You know, could, could be transitioning to providing the hydrogen that we absolutely will need for jet fuel. This is just for our homes. Yeah, or, or central plants that that. No, no, no, no, it's not that this is just about what's piped under our streets to our buildings. It's not for electricity generation at all. No, no, no, but for a district heating. For district heating. I don't know 30 years from now, if hydrogen cheap, and you can set up a small plant that you know basically just makes water and water vapor and. Yeah, we really want to say that 30 years from now would be okay. No, but I would I was just going to suggest that we that we don't say that we do not see any need. That you know that we see only only niche potential niche needs or something like that. For those for those technologies is all is all I was saying I that I wasn't going to suggest we promote it, but just acknowledge that have added if you want. Okay. Yeah, yeah. I'll tone it down a little. It's really important to mention hydrogen because that's. Yes, that's what they made the cool shiny thing that the gas companies are really hooked on trying to push that. Oh, we can have clean gas it's hydrogen gas and yes, it could be made cleanly and is going to be important for some things but not for piping under our streets and into our homes. At least couldn't be done now and I don't know hydrogen fires are invisible. Did you know. Okay great any other comments on this. I think Steve suggested that we vote to approve this with the comments we've we've we've made and then. Stephanie would you would you then send it back to Lynn is that the process here. Yep so Andrew should just get me the clean final copy and I'll forward it along to the council president. Thank you Andrew for writing this up. Thanks for feedback. Do we want to do we do we need to officially vote on this. You should probably. Okay. Um, I'll make the motion to submit this to the town council with the edits discussed during the meeting. A second bet. Great. Okay. So I need a voice vote roof. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Rose. Yes. Allison. Yes. Okay. Great. All right. I've lost my agenda again. One second. I have too many things open. Okay. Okay. So solar study and solar bylaw update. So I know Stephanie you had sent an updated. Document. And I'll turn it over to you maybe to walk us through that. Sure. So I guess I'll. I guess I'll share it. It is in your packets after all. So just give me a moment. So I can set this up. Okay. I'm going to move on to the next slide. So I'm going to talk about the plan. And I have a proposal that came out of. Many conversations that we've sort of been having. With both the easy AC, but also when we've gone to various meetings, the planning board had a meeting CRC had a meeting. And the planning director, Chris breast strip and I sat and. Talked about. Some of the. Some of the information that's been sort of. I'm going to move on to the next slide. So I'm going to move on to the next slide. So I'm going to move on to the next slide. And I have a proposal into the town manager. This is a draft. Subject change. I think in concept, I think the town manager is on board. But basically it just sort of. Initially lays out the background and need for a study, which I think has been well communicated. At very several meetings. But then we sort of got down to based on some of the information that we had proposed putting together a working group. So it would be a solar working group. And it suggests that we. Get representation from various members of the community. So there would be a member from the easy AC. And I think. Dwayne has already sort of. Talked about his experience with solar. Solar siding and recommendations for best practices. So we were thinking, you know, and I know he's already said he'd be interested in doing this. And then a member of the planning board. A member of the conservation commission to sort of talk about the land use of the town. And the natural resource protection and then the water. Resources protection committee. And then a representative from that committee who could address the hydrogeology or hydrogeological aspects of. Impacts of solar. And then a UMass forest ecology expert. Then again, a representative on behalf of the legal aspects of solar development. So that's maybe someone who would.  Or someone who understands the legal aspects of ramifications of. A large scale solar development. So someone who. Potentially works on behalf of that industry, but as from the legal perspective, and then a representative from the solar industry who. Could just talk about, you know, what. Some of the, you know. What it takes to build solar so that we actually have somebody who is knowledgeable about an actual solar installation, what it takes the various steps that they go through and has a, you know, sort of real insider knowledge on the, on the industry. So the idea is that that committee, that working group, I should say, would come together. But from that working group, there would be two subcommittees because there are two things that are being called for, which you also called for specifically was a solar assessment also being called a solar study. And then development of the bylaw. There is definitely a push. From some of the committees to be moving and developing the bylaw. Right away simultaneously. But we know that this committee, especially the ECAC really believes in the importance of having an assessment done and we have funding to get that started. So the idea would be to have these two subcommittees. And that the one subcommittee would work specifically on the assessment and work with the consultant. On. On developing that. That assessment study doing the study. Doing outreach with the community on prioritizations. But they would work with that subcommittee would sort of be the contact for the consultant. And then the other subcommittee would be. Developing the bylaw. And the idea is that because they're under one committee, they actually come back and share information. So even if the assessment isn't completed. In my head anyway. I think that's why. If you have these two subcommittees coming back to the table. As they're developing both the bylaw and the, the assessment. That they're sharing information as they go along. So it's not like they're working in silos and the bylaw isn't being informed by the assessment. It might not be completed, but there's certainly going to be information that as they move along with the study. They're going to come back together. And they're going to come back together. And then the subcommittees can then come back together and share their information in the process. This is essentially the charge, basically that they're going to come together and. Encourage responsible development of solar. So this was the committee charge. I can. You all can read that. But basically it's just, I guess, I'll read it for the benefit of folks who might be listening, but can't see this. So that's essentially the charge. And then I've already talked about the working group structure. And then there's the role of a consultant. So actually, I'm sorry, that should be solar assessment. Solar bylaw working group is to develop a solar assessment that will guide and encourage responsible development of solar through the creation of a solar bylaw. As the result of a process that engages the community. And identifying community values and identifying and prioritizing locations for said development. So that's essentially the charge. And then there's the role of a consultant. So actually. There is some funding, I think, for from through the planning board and the planning department to engage a consultant. To help develop the bylaw. So the subcommittee on drafting the bylaw will work with. We'll also work with a consultant as well. And the idea though, where you all come in and where the planning board comes in, is that as this process moves along. The bylaw is going to be reported back to, I mean, both. I should say both the assessment and the. Bylaw drafts, if you will, or processes will be reported back to the ECAC and the planning board. But ultimately. The planning board will sort of have the final, you know, the final review of the bylaw. And this is in the final form. This draft bylaw is in its final form. And the ECAC. Will have final review of the solar assessment. So you all will be the final authority on what is final. Is this completed? And that would be. Hopefully in both form of a map. And a report. If you have the opportunity to weigh in on the bylaw. It just means that your primary responsibility is the assessment. But you will have an opportunity to weigh in on the bylaw. Likewise, the planning board will as well. And I imagine once those final drafts are done. That's when I think they'll probably be a broader. Community engagement and council review and. And other review. So. Can I stop sharing my screen or do you want me to keep sharing? I think you can stop or stop. Unless Jesse. Jesse, you have a question. I have it. I do have a question. I don't know if you can stop sharing though. I noticed in the proposed kind of members. That. That there is not. Not necessarily an expert. In the sort of equity piece as far as. Not just disproportionate, you know, wanting to have it avoid negative impacts, but also maximize positive impacts. I don't know if. If the consultant would fill that role. I just thought I'd mention it. And. And see if the. I'm sure you've thought of this already. Yeah. So I can tell you that. So one of the things when the RFP is being developed. There has to be obviously when we're. Identifying the prioritization that has to go out to the community. That can't just be. That's not going to be just identified simply identified within the working group. That has to go out to the broader community. And the idea is that there will be engagement. Of the community. That there is equity in this process in terms of the prioritization. So. That will be written into the RFP. The consultant will have to do community engagement and that'll be their role. I mean, that's where also. You know, when we look to this committee and people say, what can I do? Well, when we're in this process, I think. When it comes to the community engagement and hopefully we're at a place where we can actually physically go. To the community. To the community. To the community. To the community. To the community. To the community services. Or maybe it's just going to be better weather and we can meet outside a complex. You know, that we can go over, you know, to East Hadley Road and go to the complexes and like. Have a discussion with people and, you know, engage people more directly. So, but the consultant will definitely be the ones to sort of. Work with us on that. Which consultant is that. Sorry. Is that the consultant for the bylaw or for the. The solar study? Because it's going to have to start. I mean, prioritization is going to be one of the first. Pieces that has to happen and it has to happen for both the assessment and the bylaw. Like the can't. The bylaw can't be developed without that prioritization being identified. And that needs to be. A process that engages the community. And because as we know, so many people. Have very strong feelings about certain aspects of this bylaw development. So we really need to make sure that, you know, there's representation and voices represented in. You know, so, and I. Imagine there'll be at least a few opportunities for that. And maybe some online too. Just to make sure if people can't meet in person, maybe people feel more comfortable online, but that'll all be worked out with a consultant. Yeah, thanks, Stephanie. Yeah. Yeah, I'll just do something quickly and then Steve. I still think there may be. I think that's important. I'm. A very important piece of the process. I still think there might be a need for another working group member who has, like, if I'm looking at this list of the working group and I'm thinking what. What hat are people wearing the only person in this working group that has a hat of climate action is us. And I, and then there's a lots of hats. On a lot, on a lot of other things. And so I don't think we should be the only ones wearing the hat of climate action. And if there was another person we could bring in, maybe from the UMass energy. Equity group. And Duane would know more about that or from some other group that can wear the climate and equity hat. I think that would add a lot to. To the, to the group. And that wouldn't put that all on ecac. I think that's a great idea. And I think that's a great idea. I was going to mention this a little bit later, but I spoke with some folks with the energy transition Institute at UMass. And there may be some people there that. Could be the people that you were referring to. And I think that's a great idea. Couple of other questions, Stephanie. I think you said this is. Proposed. And to the town manager. Now. For his review. Yes. Is he the one who gets to say yes. This is how it will be. Yes. Okay. And then the, the members from committees, planning board, are they chosen by the committee or will the town manager. Choose those. Town manager has that authority to appoint. Committees. Make recommendations. But, but it, but I, I mean, I wrote the proposal. So if you all are saying you really feel the need for someone else. It's certainly I can. You know, give feedback that you all recommended very strongly that there'll be another, at least one other representative. I think I would agree with that. I was asking just, I guess a little bit more technical questions about the proposal at the moment. I guess my other thought, which is a little less technical more, more bigger is there's sort of two different tasks, big different tasks there. And the two sub committees. Form with those subcommittees. Bring in any additional members or. Additional resources. They could, but I think that has to be the working group has to figure that out. Okay. Okay. That's it for now for me. Thanks. I think I missed. Or I think I missed. Or there's not enough. Residents without a particular expertise, just lived experience in ours. So do you. So you're saying as part of the working group. I mean, there is going to be community engagement. So. There will be opportunities for people to. Certainly weigh in. This is just a response to people. People's particular concerns. These are in response to residents concerns for these particular issues that feel like they need. A certain level of expertise. And then it'll go out to the. To the community for, you know, for feedback and input. I'd like to see. Residents. Who live in. You know, the apartment complexes. On their. Well, this is the plan. The outreach, you know, not, not just being recipients of. Something that other people have structured. I think the concern with. From in my. I hear you, Andra. I think the concern in my mind with that is that. It's going to need to be. I think we're just going to open up a Pandora's box. And we're going to have to have. A community member that's pro solar and a communicator. That's anti solar and it's going to be even and all of us up. And we're not going to get. People from our. Complexes. We're going to get the people that have. Already been fully engaged in this, in this conversation and have. Already have opinions. So. I think it's. I like the idea that we're keeping it at the level of people that are. You know, working. With, with specific expertise that are going to contribute to both of these. Developments, but I also agree that. It has to, there has to be significant outreach. I think we've proven through our outreach on carp. That that's possible to do. And Stephanie has good experience with that. So I'm not too worried about, about that piece. But I would, I would, I don't know about expanding the working group. To beyond. This a group of people who have specific expertise. But maybe others have thoughts. Yeah. Jesse. And then I see Steve stand up. Just a quick. I realization too, of when you asked for another. Climate. Concerned person. I realized Stephanie. And someone who's. Track record of career of. Outreach and equity and it, you know, those two things are basically at Stephanie's highest priorities right now. So the mere fact that she's. Overseeing all this might. Take care of a lot of our concerns.  So if you're looking at the assessment, you're saying. Things are really missed here. I mean. You have, it has to, it does have to include the concerns of the residents. And other issues beyond just. The climate piece, because if you're going to develop something, it's got to be representative of what everybody in the community wants as best as you can get there. So. Yeah, Steve. And then Dwayne, I think. I think you're going to have Dwayne next. Okay. Dwayne, go ahead. Yeah. And I'm not sure if I have a fully. Thought out thought yet. But that being said, I did want to. Second, sort of the. I'm not sure about concern, but just issue of whether there is enough. Representation of. Climate concerned. Perspectives on the committee. I think that certainly. But we're also sort of serve as the recipient of this. And I do feel like. I'm not sure about the planning board, particularly, but you know, the conservation committee, water resources, ecology. Forest ecology. That's going to be all about the reasons why. To be cautious about solar, which is. Critically important. Perspectives. But, but what's also expected, you know, critically important is that we have a climate emergency that we need to make trade-offs. And so, and I don't see. And obviously the solar developers will make that case too, but they're, they're a bit biased, if you will. Or could be, would be perceived as biased. I do want to be cautious about solar. And I was thinking, you know, maybe somebody from the state to say, we got these targets, we got these commitments. We got. And not sort of advocate one way or the other, but just make that clear. Or maybe an NGO. That works in this area. Or potentially somebody from UMass.  That could. Represent that perspective as well. Or any other college. In the town. Steve, I do want, I'm sorry, Dwayne, I do want to say just one thing really quickly in response to what you said is that a representative from the conservation commission is going to be talking about. The legal parameters and guidance that has to be met. I mean, they're coming this from a, from technical, I mean, the idea is that no, it's not people showing up just with a passion. The idea of bringing experts in is because they're the ones who know the legislation. They know the laws. They, you know, they're the ones who sort of have the background that can bring that kind of an informed. Perspective to the development of both of these pieces. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you for that. Sure. I think what. You know, I'm, I really want to make sure that. That we have. What Dwayne is saying that, you know, like how much are we morally obligated to. Put on Amherst land. Amherst. Right. Amherst Bruce, you know, all of that. That question has to be grappled with. Has to be an important piece of the outreach. And this will be great. This will be great for a CAC's work. To have the community really thinking about our responsibilities. And you can create those opportunities in your outreach. Well, we're not. Doing the outreach for this process. Well, in, in certainly in the prioritization, I would, I would hope that you would be involved in. Those conversations. I mean, that's part of what, you know, we, we need to have. Opportunities to engage the community to identify those priorities. And then what I was saying is it wouldn't just be the working group doing that. It needs to go out to the community and those opportunities need to be led. And so, and that's really a huge part of the assessment is identifying the priorities. And the prioritization. So. And that's where Dwayne's background comes in with the work that you've recently done with communities in Massachusetts and. You know, identifying responsible solar sighting. Right. So. Yeah. Go ahead, Dwayne. I was just going to say we have. Sort of some templates on some survey, survey questions and focus group. Designs to that we could. Bring forward to the committee and to the consultant. And potentially work with the consultant. And work, work from there to, to help, help in that process. Now I'm getting concerned about the. Assessment. Being too much about. Our, you know, getting our, about engagement and, and our values. And not. Having enough in there.  Cause. We, we did that. A lot of that. Already. I don't want to redo the carp. We did a lot of what though. We didn't do engineering studies. We haven't done. But I know, no, that's what I want the money to go to. Not a consultant who's going to lead us through another. Carp kind of process. It's not, it's not, Andra. It's not, it's going to be, it's, we're hiring someone to do an assessment. And it will be an engineering study, but we have to identify priorities because. Members of the community have come out and very strongly voiced their concerns and opinions about the development of this. And you can't.  But if you're going to say this is representative of the community, then it needs to be representative of the community. And I think you all have to share that moral, what you see as a moral obligation. Right. So that's where you have the conversations with people. We're not going to get anywhere.  But this is not, we don't have the privilege of having walls and. And policies in place around climate. So like we don't have a person like the con con person who can be there bringing that in. Right. We don't, we don't have that yet for climate. And so it feels like a lot of burden put on one e-cap member to be bringing all of that into this process. And so I, but, and I, we need community outreach. We certainly do, but an input. But at the end. And we will have that. But like. I just feel nervous that. That this is not that we need someone else. And I, and I don't think it can be the solar development. Injury person. I actually don't agree that we should have a solar development industry person on here. Unless they agree to never work in Amherst. Or, and let it would ideally be somebody maybe from one of the colleges who has experience in that industry who can. An engineering professor or someone who can speak to the engineering pieces, but not have a financial input on. Not have a financial tie. But I. I don't think we're going to get that. We're not going to get. What I'm thinking about from the community. Yeah, Steve. The solar bylaw will go to the town council and they will debate it, discuss it and. Decide whether to pass it and that'll be a huge community process. And they presumably will have the right to make changes to it as it will be a recommended bylaw to them. So there'll be a lot of chance once that solar bylaws developed for community input. So I would say that. I would say that the solar assessment. I would view that as a bit more of a technical thing. Let's gather the facts about what land we have that's protected and what land cover types. Do we have an Amherst? Pull those. That's largely factual data. Pull that together. We'll fold it in with information on the state's plans. And I would, I would. My vision would be it would lay out here are the different places where solar could go. And there's going to be the first priority areas, second priority areas, third priority areas. And it's going to be if we want. You know, do our share by population as I suggested, just as a rough estimate, you know, that would be one proposal. It might be another one by income. Separate from population. Anyways, that the assessment would be largely technical. So I would say that. I would say that. I would say that there's going to be a community discussion about. The moral question that you raised, Andra, which is how much should we have that's, that's much more than a technical question. That's a values question that involves a lot of input. So Steve, what you just laid out is, I just want to say that that's how I'm envisioning it. So I'm just done. I just want to say that with everything that you've just said, that's exactly how I'm seeing the process go. So I'm sorry. The only problem is, would that, you know, they're happening concurrently in my ideal world. The assessment would happen first. We would have those discussions about the moral values after the, the facts are gathered in the assessment. And then we would go on to the byline, but these are going to be happening in parallel. So not quite as clean. The other thought that came to mind. I love the, Andra's idea about getting local community people involved in the outreach. And maybe that's something we can ask the consultant to do. That would be to bring in local people. To help them, the consultants plan the community outreach. But that would not necessarily be a member on the. Working group. Yeah, Don. Oh, you're muted. I just have a quick question. For you, Stephanie. I think that other than the applicability of the wetlands protection act. To land in the Amherst, what role would conservation commission have in. You know, such that they would be participating from start to finish in, in this process. I mean, there's, you know, there's a wetlands protection act that says you can do this. You can't do that. You can't do that. You can't do that. You can't do so many feet of that and you can't. Right. But there's also open space. The conservation commission are the ones who oversee the conservation lands in the community. So there's also open space. Issues. And there's wildlife habitat issues. You know, they don't just look at wetlands. They have. They have a broader charge than that. And I, so I just want to say, you know, I. I appreciate all this feedback and I can share this. With the town manager, certainly, but I think Steve, I really appreciate your. Summary because that is exactly how they did out. And I do agree that. Ideally the assessment would be happening first, but that's not how things are moving forward. And if we didn't jump in now, and which is why I put this proposal together, because my fear was that I was seeing this thing. And I was like, well, I don't know what to do with this. I don't know what to do with this. I just wanted to take off in a way that didn't feel like you were, you as a committee were even heard in your request for the assessment. So I just really felt like we needed to find a way to pull this together. And the reason why it's one working group is so it doesn't spin off in two different directions. So, I mean, it's the best, you know, and I hear, I hear what you all want. And it's just, there's representation for people who have interests that I, and I understand where we're coming from. I totally get that. I agree that's all going to come out in the bylaw process. And the assessment will be more technical, but there is a piece of the assessment where you're going to have, like Steve said, zone one and zone two. And you're going to sort of look at where, where are we going to prioritize development for solar first? Are there going to be opportunities for solar that we want to go to as the first layer of, of, of attacking that problem? Where is it going to get us the most bang for our buck? If you will. So that's where, you know, that's where the prioritization comes in. So I don't, I know that there was other, maybe thoughts about what I was referring to, but that's really what I mean. When I talk about prioritization, it's like, where in town. Are we going to say this should happen first? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think we need to have an ECAC member on both subcommittees. Well, and again, that can easily happen. I mean, the working groups are going to dive off into their subcommittees, but there's not going to be enough people. I think on the subcommittees to just be them. So that's where they get to, you know, there can be some outreach and invitation for people who are interested in working on those subcommittees. I mean, like voting members of the subcommittees. I think we need, that's what a, there'll be a subcommittee and people will, the subcommittees will. What, what do you mean voting members? I thought that the working group is a combination of two subcommittees. It will be so that they report back to each other. So the work of the subcommittees are going to come back to the bigger working group, but subcommittees are going to sort of work on whatever they're working on, and they're going to need to have consensus around the piece that they're working on to bring back to the working group. So in that respect, there will be. Subcommittee members, I guess voting in or weighing in on the consensus that they come to in moving their piece forward. Ultimately, it's coming to you all. The assessments coming to you all for sort of the final blessing.  But, but one of us needs to be working on the bylaw too. You can be a member of the subcommittee for the working of the bylaw. I don't think that will be an issue. So I think we get more than one DCAC member. For the working group. The subcommittees are going to be different. They're going to. They're going to be working group. There's going to be, yeah, there's going to be like a subworking group of the working group. They're going to need additional people to be on there. And there can be a sort of outreach for additional people to come into working on the subcommittees. So I don't think you should call them subcommittees though, right? Cause they're working groups. That's a technical distinction committee and working group. I think we're, I think we're trying to, we're trying to keep a cohesion between the two pieces. So that's why they're subcommittees. Because ultimately they're going to be one working group working on the assessment and the bylaw. That's the idea of the cohesion there. But it's a subcommittee of the working group. So there's some. It is. I understand that. It could be a subworking group. I guess you want to follow the subworking group. Whatever lingo you want to use, but it's. An offshoot of the working group. For me, you know, if I'm the one in one for EK, I'm very good to hear that there could be other members in these subcommittees or working groups. That would be very helpful. And I guess I would state that I would be very interested in working on the solar assessment. But not so interested in working on the solar bylaw. So again. But. So we have, we have to also be careful about open meeting law because you are a committee. So you can probably have one other person work on the, like one person can be working on the assessment and one person representing ECAC can be on the. Bylaw. But if you recall what I said earlier. Drafts of both pieces are coming back to you for a review and comment. So it's not like you will not have an opportunity to weigh in. Or have input. It's not going to be at the end. It's not going to be at the final. It's the idea is that you're. You know, I would think of it a bit similar to the carp in that you weighed in a lot along the way. Right. It, what got developed was the result of a lot of input from all of you over time. That was what resided resulted in the final document. I see this as a similar kind of thing in that you will be weighing in along the way that there will be sort of drafts of what are the steps that are happening. You know, in looking that and being able to weigh in as you go along, as they go along. I feel like something else needs to be written in here, Stephanie, because as you said, you're just trying to. Rain in this. Stampede. To move ahead on the bylaw without an assessment and. Integrate them. In some way. And we cannot. No. And having it written down wouldn't guarantee, but it helps to have it written down that. PCAC members will be. A part of the sub working groups. Well. Okay. I think it's in there.  You are going to have not on the bylaw. You want it. Okay. I see what you're saying. I mean, I think the idea was that both can both the, because the planning board is also going to be looking at the assessment as well. As we go along. So right. Right. Exactly. What I said at the very beginning is you two committees. We'll be looking at both, but the, but the ultimate. Final say on the draft on the final drafts. The planning board as the bylaw, you have the assessment. But you're both looking at both. Being at the table with this diverse group. Discussing. It different. And having our own meeting and reviewing. Okay. I don't know how many representatives. Well, you have a representative. I can't, you can't have more than one. Because you have open meeting law issues. So only one of you have more than one. This is going to be a public. Posted meeting. No, it's not necessarily. I mean, it's a working group. So we can, I don't want to have a big argument about this. Cause I really feel like I just, if you, if you have some suggested language, I will let you know. I'll let you know. I'll let you know. I really feel like I just, if you, if you have some suggested language, I will happily take it. I just don't want to get in a battle over it. I mean, the idea was this is supposed to be transparent. It's supposed to be bringing people in. You're supposed to have a voice. That is the goal. So it's not like anyone's working against you, you know, or around you. The idea is that it's shared. I think you answered a question I had. Was it the working group meetings? Would they be public meetings? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. They could, they could be, well, then, I mean, it's a working group. So it's not necessarily. And I think in part because we were a little worried about the, you know, the, the constraints to have to always, I mean, I think we can post them. But the constraints of open meeting law make it really hard as you all know. To sometimes get work done. And because there's such a pressure to move things forward. You know, I think the idea was a working group would get things forward. You know, I think the public review piece would be during planning board meetings and your ECAC meetings. That that's the opportunity. And that's why you all will be reviewing these things as they go along. Because that's the opportunity for public comment and for people weighing in, but we can do more. You know, I mean, it's nothing to say we can't do more than that. One other comment I would make is I think I would be a little uncomfortable of having a rep from the solar industry as a voting member. I think that's a great feedback. And perhaps as a non voting member might be more appropriate. Sure. No, that's great. That's great feedback from you and Laura. Or a professor with expertise. With the industry. Like Laura said. Yeah. I guess I was just for clarification, maybe. A recommendation on the language is that it says. The committee will include two subcommittees. And I presume that means the working group will include two subcommittees. But then I thought you had mentioned. Stephanie that. In the constitution of the subcommittees. The working group could decide to bring in some other expertise. To work on those subcommittees. Yep. And if, if, and that would allow. Somebody else from ecac. To join a working group. Or a person, another expert that we, that we are somebody else, things would be really great from the town. And I'm wondering if that might be explicitly. Stated in this memo. That that's, that's at least an option. Yeah, sure. I can add, I can add that because I, I agree that it doesn't explicitly say that in the. In. Identifying the makeup of the subworking groups, even though we call them subcommittees and I'll tweak the language again. I mean, again, this was just a draft.  Figured out because it's, it's, it's been a bit. Muddy for people and some people didn't even know where to begin. So I was trying to find a way to lay it out so that it's clearer, but I do agree that bringing in expertise for the, for the subworking groups, it was kind of the vision. Yeah. That's what I was expecting is that, you know, those subworking groups will just have additional people beyond just the working group. It gives more people an opportunity to weigh in. Go ahead. Sorry. Thank you so much, Stephanie, for stepping in and initiating this and. You know, thinking so well about it. I think this will be a good process. And that, you know, we will have a lot of say. So I appreciate that. I do just want to say that the interpretation of open meeting law constraints. Is that no more than a. A quorum. No, no more than, than a majority of our group can meet without posting. But it's, it's not just. Two. It's however many. Quorum is. Quorum. Right. For decision making.  But when you're doing work, there's still open meeting law, doesn't pertain to just the decision making that happens within your meeting. It also happens when you're having conversations and having deliberation that's outside your meetings. That's what this addresses. And I've. We, many people have very different views. I am going by what I have been guided by. I have been guided by. I have been guided by. From the town clerk's office. And that is what I have to go by. You can take that up with the town clerk's office. If you have a different interpretation. It's just what I, and I. More restrictive than the council goes by than other committees go by. And then that other municipalities go. So it's just really is limiting our. The speed at which we can work and. You know, I don't want to say that so I could put it into the note. I also wanted to say thank you, Stephanie. Sometimes it seems we put you on the hot seat. Of all these questions. And. You have to defend a lot. In front of all of us. And it almost seems like we're arguing and fighting, but I really appreciate what you've done here and pulled this together. I think it's great. I think it's great. I think everybody agrees we need a solar study and a bylaw. And everybody's like, I don't know who's going to do it. Town councils like. So this is great. I'm glad that you've done this and presented this. And are shepherding it through whatever the process is that needs to get it approved. And I think it's overall, it's great. And I think. I'm really happy that you've done this and thank you. Thank you, Steve. A big step forward. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks, Stephanie. And yeah, I think we're just since I, I'm personally just sensitive because I feel like the reason why we're doing solar has been left out of most of these discussions up until recently. And so I want to make sure that it's not left out of these. These things. Not, I don't think it will be, but I am just sensitive to that. Um, so. Okay. So any, anything else on this or should we move on to the next agenda item? Okay. Um, so, so doing, I don't know if you have any updates on your idea that you presented last time. Yeah, okay. I didn't, I thought we were going to not have it on the agenda, but that being said, I, I did. So I am very interested in, in. This concept of whether it makes sense or it's viable and sensitive. To potentially look at the opportunity for using reparation funds that the town has provided to the black community. A clear national leader in that effort and whether amongst their options that they might look at and there is a, I believe it's the African American. I think it's the African American reparations assembly. Committee, which I think is sort of parallel to us as a town committee. And whether they might. They, I'm sure looking at various different options, but we were curious at the clean energy extension to look at an option of where by solar reparations funds could be used and leveraged to provide. A business opportunity for the black community for owning, owning an LLC to own solar and provide. Deep energy, electricity discounts to black community members in town through net metering. And so we've done that analysis and looks, looks pretty interesting to me. So in discussions with Stephanie and Laura, decided that instead of bringing it up at this point, bit premature. I happen to have a contact from UMass, who is a colleague with this energy transition Institute. But also he happens to also be a member of the, the reparations assembly for town. So actually just today. I shared with him a, an email in a brief analysis on this. And then ask if he would be interested in discussing it further. And, and if so, I'll, I'll keep you informed. If that makes sense to everybody. Yeah, great. Thanks, Dwayne. Any questions for Dwayne? Otherwise we can move on to. Discussion on invitation to state official to review mass decarbonization plan, which we talked a little bit about last time and it sort of morphed into an idea around. Community education and outreach. And I think that's who you have been tasked with me with. Thinking about it a little more. And so I'll turn it over to you. So it's something about our state. Weird feedback. You have a weird feedback, but do you want me to try to share for you and. I don't know. Yeah, but your audio is really messed up. No. I mean, it's cool. But it's hard to understand you. Great Darth Vader voice. How are now. Oh, it's fine. Much better. Sweet. You can try to share and if it doesn't work, let me know. Okay. So I was thinking about our stakeholders being town counselors, the community. Neighboring towns. And also businesses. So with that in mind, I know we were talking about.  So I came up with a timeline. So that's something that we could aspire to. And, you know, one of the things that I have in bold is the town council review. And this is standing from the fact that, you know, I emailed the district five counselors and they said, why can't we just all get all the town counselors together in one meeting? So figured, you know, maybe a quarterly review with the town counselors might be beneficial. So that's the one in bold that I have. And then highlighting the ones in red here is thinking maybe there's a potential for Amherst having holding a climate change festival where we can include the businesses like Amherst cinema to, you know, show movies.  Yeah. And, you know, for an hour and do some education around that as well. Along with that, I was also thinking that we should have this semi-annual climate newsletter. We're always waiting towards the end where we publish our annual newsletter. And maybe there's an up potential here to do a semi-annual. So we're not rushing towards the end of the year to complete that. And so we can also see as a committee on how we're tracking to our goals for the year. One of the things that I included on the timeline is the bringing someone together from the state to talk about climate change, but also discuss our carp as part of that process. And then everything that you see on the bottom here are educated. You might have frozen. At the middle school. Oh. You're back now. It's just done. Okay. Sorry. I'm sorry. We missed a couple of sentences there. Okay. So the climate change goals. We talked about this bringing in some state representative to talk about climate change, but also tag team with someone in our committee to talk about the carp and our goals for 2025 and beyond. And then at the bottom here is all the education series that I know Andrew, you mentioned a couple of weeks ago, but we were also thinking that maybe there's potential to combine these activities with some of the other businesses. Like I know the climate fair. That happens at the middle school or the library read together event. So I put together this timeline that we can possibly track to again open to any feedback or comments here. One of the other things that I missed over here is, is this one is. In order to engage the community, I think for them to see some sort of a scorecard that says, this is where we're at in admissions and. And it's published either on the website or. In the town building. And it was one way to, you know, bring the, the community together along with this over here, which would be a. Pretty large undertaking if we're deciding to have a week long climate change festival. Any comments there? You guys still can hear me, right? Yeah, thanks. I'm just checking to see. Yeah, this is helpful about so I think it's. And maybe we can take it. In phases, I have, I think it's helpful to have this like larger picture. And I think it would be helpful to have a, a larger view of what we could potentially do. Agree that it would be a big undertaking to do a week long festival, but maybe if someone else took the lead on it and we could support in some way. That. That may. May help. You know, I think we could be creative to think about that. But we could also just get started with some of the. And then sort of reassess and see maybe at the town council review period, see like where we want to go. Go from there as well. Yes, Steve. I think this looks great. And I love the timeline format format of it. I wanted to, I guess, report that I have spoken to a couple different people. Just earlier today, I spoke with Anna Goldstein, who's. You know, with the energy transition Institute at UMass, which is pretty new endeavor. And they're having a kickoff event on February 28. So you should check out the website and maybe check out that. She and I talked and we agreed that some kind of. Education. Program around the Massachusetts climate action plan would, would be valuable. I don't have anything more definite than that. I've also been talking with my colleagues at Hampshire college. About doing something a little bit more local to Hampshire college, but it would be similar. Some kind of event to allow people to learn more about Massachusetts climate action plan. So I'm working on this. I don't have anything definite. But I would love to get some. Some of the representatives from. The state. And I'm not sure if that's from D O E R and Dwayne, you could probably help with this. But to do as part of the outreach of the. Ongoing. Clean energy and climate plan for 2025 and 2030. And this is Andre mentioned this earlier, the Massachusetts clean energy and climate plan for 2025 and 2030. And that has actionable goals. What I was referring to earlier, the decarbonization. 2050 decarbonization. That's a roadmap and that's a little bit different. That lays out a series of different possible pathways. And then those possible pathways. Get. Condensed or reduced into a plan. So you're right. Andre, it's the C E C P clean energy and climate action plan. And that's under review, as I understand right now, and should be getting published in March. With more opportunity for community meetings. And then it's supposed to be signed into law early July, I think. So I'm hoping that we might be able to get some, some officials from the agencies that are developing that plan as, as part of their responsibility to promote it to the public. So I'm hoping that we might be able to get some, some officials from the agencies that come on out here to western Massachusetts and do it in the pioneer valley. And perhaps that could be coordinated with ETI five colleges. And then I also a few weeks ago, I had conversations with Senator Joe Cumberford. And she was very interested in that sort of outreach. So I've got some things. Feelers out there. But I guess I'm continuing to work on that to find some specific people that we can invite. That might be able to speak to that clean energy and climate action plan. That's great. Thanks, Steve. We should probably. I think it sounds like your internet might be like flaking out. The wrong time. Did you want to try to respond to Steve's point again? Yeah, you know, I was saying, Steve, since you're, you're working on, I guess, with so many different people, can we partner to see how we can collaborate and maybe even combine a few of these activities? Yes, I will do that. I will keep you informed as I come up with more specific things that we can work together. That sounds perfect. Thanks, Steve. I would just add in terms of getting a state official out here. I think that's, you know, great. And also very much in line with their. Responsibilities, quite frankly. And, and, but I would, you know, they may be planning some for the road show. And so we might check in with them to see if they are planning a road show with something like this. But I wouldn't doubt if they would. To have some regional meetings, you know, it may not be, it may only be sort of in Springfield or something. Because Western Mass, it's pretty, pretty large for them. So, so I don't, I don't know if they would, I don't know if they would do sort of like a singular thing for the town of Amherst because they probably, you know, can't, can't justify going town by town by town. But, you know, if the town wanted to coordinate, help to coordinate something that would bring in other, other towns and maybe with the regional planning agencies to, to have a, you know, have, have Amherst sort of be a, be a hub for that. And, and, and, you know, maybe some that opportunity to discuss what's going on in Amherst, particularly with the state, state folks. I think we could look along those lines would make sense. I mean, I'm, I'm hoping that the ETI will have kind of the, the, the status to help do that. So that that's what I would say yes and no. I mean, I know it intimately. And they're getting off the ground. And their, their focus is more. I wouldn't scholarly and academic research in this area of, of energy transition and equity. And maybe less so on, on sort of the community outreach. That being said, I think they're looking for opportunities to get their name out as well. And so, and, and it's the right person to be talking to. Dwayne, do you know other folks that in the state government, that would be appropriate people to ask about. Whether they're doing a road show or could they do a road show. Sure. And, and Stephanie may know better, but. Yeah, it would. The plan itself is coming out of EA, the secretary. So, you know, it would be, it would be, I think an inquiry to them as opposed to do we are. Because it does cover things beyond energy. And I'm actually blocking on, on. The person's name. She's been, I've been on a few of the webinars that they've had and she seems to be the one that sort of primarily at the staff level, at least in charge of developing the plan and the outreach and so forth. So I think that would be a great way to find that name for you, Steve. As opposed to, you know, asking the secretary for example. Dwayne, I have a meeting with the green communities advisory group on Friday. Okay. So I could just inquire there. I mean, those folks are going to know. That'd be excellent. Yeah. I was also thinking of Mark Rubinsky. He, you know, as somebody we could speak to, he's the regional coordinator for green community. So I think his knowledge bases have been limited in terms of the general plan, but he could be somebody that's easily at our disposal and particularly Stephanie's with, with these types of questions as well. Yeah, Mark will be at the meeting and also Joanne Bissetta will be there.  More information in terms of the contacts for that than, than Mark even as you said. But I can ask. There's also a number of other planning processes that are going to require community meetings. For instance, the gas. Planning process that we're. Trying to have some input into through that letter. That's required to do five different. Community meetings, I think. After this, after they get their plan. I might be mixing that up with another one, which is the net zero stretch code, which just dropped yesterday. Draft was. Pulled out of the. The OER. And they, they have to do community. Outreach as well. So. Ian Finley son is one of the good guys. We met with before, you know, doing very friendly with him. And he's usually very in the know. He's a very friendly person to talk with and very. Yeah, that's a good idea. Andra.  Yeah, I just. First of all, it's great. To an overwhelming to see about a year. Of. Activity. Shown, but I think it's really helpful. My brain at least relates well to this graphic representation. So I really appreciate you. Putting it together. One very small specific idea that just. I've got a lot, but that. The idea of this semi-annual climate newsletter or annual. Leading up to the annual report. I think one of the things that's been happening. Is the reports getting more standardized. And I wonder if this. If it's coming summer. Might even just be an internal version where we work to. Template it and make it, make it. So, you know, the idea being that. This should be an easy task for us. It should end. And it should be a task that anyone could do it. It should be a task that. Can. Take that institutional memory. And so let's maybe, you know, creating it as a document, like maybe the first step is creating it as a document. And then we're going to go so far as say form fields, but it's very user friendly. And if all of us got hit by a bus and they appointed a new committee, and it was time for them to write their new report. Here. Make it a little more turnkey. So an investment in efficiency of our communication. It might be the first step for that. We can only get hit by an electric bus though. So. We can only get hit by an electric bus. So we can only get hit by an electric bus. We can only get hit by an electric bus. So we can only get hit by an electric bus. Great dorky minds think alike.  That's true. Okay. So I think we need to keep this conversation on the agenda. Gender maybe best do this could be something we. We raised during e-cac member updates to make sure we're, we're thinking about, I like that idea, Jesse. I think we need to keep this conversation on the agenda. I like us combined. I mean, we know we all don't have a lot of time and the people in our community don't have a lot of time. So how can we combine this with other information and other things is important. But I still think there seems like there's interest in this, a couple of avenues to explore. Around start kicking this off with. Some state level information. So maybe we can talk about that. See if Steve or Dwayne. Yeah. I think we can talk about that next time and continue that discussion. And thanks for flagging that energy transition event, Steve. We get to. Yeah. Yeah. One of the other things in the timeline is the quarterly town council review. Is that still something that we want to do? You want me to start reaching out to. I'm going to be talking to the district for counselors as well about bringing the council president. All of us and is that Stephanie? Is that something that we want to do? The quarterly review is the town manager. Presents a quarterly update to the town council. So we would be basically reporting to the town manager that they're asking him to do that. They're not asking the committee to do that. If that makes sense. So, I mean, ultimately you're going to want to reach out to him, I think.  To get that information to him. I know it's a little. I guess my point was how do we continue to engage the town counselors, right? I know we're all taken separate action items to meet with. Each of the district counselors. But can we bring them into a conversation and say, here's the update for the quarter. This is what we've done. I think we're going to go ahead and do that. I think we're going to go ahead and report for the next. I. I almost think the direct outreach that you all are starting now is the way to do it. Quite honestly. Because the town manager can report out. But if you go to a meeting. I think you have very little time, very little engagement. Honestly, you're part of a huge agenda. But if you take the time to make a relationship with your individual counselors. You know, that's, that's where you're going to build the report and get the information that you have. The more you're able to share more information. So more of them have it versus it's just another report. That gets put in their packet of a million other things. And even if you present at their meeting, honestly. I don't think that's going to get you. That's going to get the kind of absorption of the information. When it's part of a big meeting that has a lot of other agenda items.  You know, I think what you're going to do with this is, is what you're doing right now. I think this is a great model going forward. Share the information with your district counselors and have a one on one conversation with them about it. If we do this right, they're going to be calling us once a week. Yeah, exactly. You know, they might start reaching out to you. So that's what you want. You want to build that rapport. And I think that's the way to do it. I think this is, you know, it's a brilliant approach. I mean, I think maybe. Quarterly or, or, you know, we have our annual report, but maybe one quarterly, maybe ambitious, but maybe once in the summer, you know, or in a couple of months we, um, you know, if conversations with our counselors have waned, or if we like haven't been making as much progress we want, like we draft a quick bulleted email with like what we've been working on. And so I think it's a great way to, you know, make sure that we all share that again with our counselors, like as a way to keep up the communication. So it doesn't have to be a presentation to the meeting. Cause I agree with Stephanie. Those can be, um, quite formal and not that helpful. Um, but I like that idea of like on a quarterly basis checking in and seeing, you know, is there anything we want to share with our counselors that we haven't shared recently. Um, Okay. So the only last agenda item was see, see pace next steps. I think this can be rolled into the discussion on outreach. Cause I think. What we had talked about, and this was, I think on my agenda to do. Um, is, is, and I talked with Stephanie briefly about it last week. Um, To try to get a kind of a list of people that we would want to potentially talk to about see pace. And so once we have that, um, Maybe we'll talk about this on a, on a future agenda item, but doing some targeted outreach to some business owners and building owners to make sure they know about the program. And, um, And so we'll, we'll, we'll save that for another, another time. Um, I think we've, we've, we've made some good progress. Um, Anything else that folks want to put down as a, as an agenda item. For next time. Kind of wanted to get back to, um, well. Maybe, maybe it's the timeline. Maybe we can add more things to the timeline. Um, I would, I think it would be helpful for us to get a sense of the, um, the cycle of, of grants that are like. Um, you know, Set in stone. I know that, you know, lots of grants just appear. Um, but like the green community. Process. How, how often does that happen? If we could just have that in there, then we would know, okay. So, you know, let, let's. Have a conversation ahead of time so that. We're, we're thinking together about what we want to submit this to.  Uh, at, at the moment that we.  Because she has to, so much to do. Does it all so well. And there's too much. To help us not be. Blindsided by, you know, things that we could predict. And work into our meeting planning. Yeah, that's a good suggestion. We could talk with Stephanie about how feasible that is. Um. Yeah. I raised my hand. Sorry. I can, I can help with that, but I need to know everything that's going on. Stephanie, if you want to. Send me a list of something, all the actions and mean the rest of the group, if you want to send me individually. With dates, I can, I can help with that. I can do my best to get you some, I can't get you everything. I can get you what I know. And what I typically go for. Green communities is one that we always go for, but again. You know, it depends on if we've gotten a grant, we have to make sure that we. Have completed the projects before we apply. We have to have all our reporting in all the funds have to be expended. So it's not like just because a cycle comes up, doesn't mean we can apply for it. Right. So. And in fact, we. We just recently finished our last grant funding and we had that for two years. And the lighting project finally got implemented. COVID kind of threw things off, but. We are probably not going to apply in the spring, but most likely we'll apply in the fall. And again, that's to be more strategic about what we're applying for, because I, you have to have engineering studies. So these things have to be kind of planned out ahead of time. It's not like you could just say, well, we want to do this. It's like, we got to know ahead of time. So we've got some building. Engineering studies that were happening. And we've got a lot of, we've got a lot of, we've got a lot of, we've got a lot of, we've got a lot of, with a fire department and some other buildings that we've. The building. Facilities managers is helping me with. Great. Yeah. That, you know, I think, you know, even maybe just having a discussion about that would be, would be helpful. Okay. Any other ideas folks can feel free to email to me. And Andra. Or to Stephanie. Okay. I'm going to see if anybody else has a public comment. Martha. I'm just going to get my timer here. No worries. So yeah, Martha. I've unmuted you, but I think Laura is going to make sure she. Yeah. Hannah from district five and just full disclosure. I am a planetary scientist. So I do my best over the decades to keep up with. Climate research and, you know, concern and so on. And also full disclosure. I'm also a member of our towns. Justice. Our League of Women Voters Racial Justice Committee. And so Dwayne, I was thrilled by, you know, your inspired idea here. For the reparations. I think it's very positive, all the kinds of outreach you're doing. One of the things.  I think it's important to involve some of. Of those people.  Do all those. But I will have to, you know, have the opportunity to talk to the community. And say, you know, why is there no representation. From the community. You know, we saw this. You know, when the work on racial justice, this always comes up. You know, everybody talks. A good line. And then it never happens. But, you know, to say that, oh, well. You know, the members of the community are biased or, or they don't know anything or, or so on is, is really. I think it's very important that the stakeholders should be involved in the discussion at the beginning. And so that you don't have the phenomenon that it's all the way at the end when the, you know, town council is debating the final thing and then everybody tries to speak up. I really would urge to reach out and have one or two members of the public. I've been very impressed with the way some members of the community have really dived in. They've learned all the ups and down of all the state regulations. They've, you know, read the literature. There are some very knowledgeable people out there who I think would be really enthused to be involved and could be quite helpful. So I would really urge you all to consider that. And I think you're working on, you know, all kinds of interesting things. And the more you can involve the community and to recognize this was a lot of experts out here. I think that would be very helpful. It would not be opening Pandora's box to invite the public in more. I think we need more in reach as well as outreach. So thank you and keep up all your good work. Thanks Martha. And just to be very clear, Laura Drucker was the one who said all that, not Stephanie. But the, said the Pandora's box comment. No, no, no, I wasn't trying to imply it was Stephanie. No, but you know, it's what Stephanie said at the beginning about what was it? Sociocracy, you know, it can be, it can be vexing and make things take longer. But in the end it comes out with a, with a better result. And I see this, you know, from my race justice committee in the, in the Cres. Program that was a painful year with everybody, ups and downs. But I think now we've actually are coming up with something that's going to work and I could see this happening in things like the solar and all our efforts. And just one final thing, please. Steve, I would love to get more information about the solar project at Hampshire. Is there any report or is there a way that, I think that the size could, could do a presentation on, on your process there because as I understand it's about 25 acres and it seems to me that would be a, I'd love to see, you know, a dozen of those around town of that kind of size and would love to learn more. So thank you. Thanks Martha. Steve, do you want to say anything? That's a great idea. And I'm talking to some colleagues at Hampshire about that, making sort of showcasing the Hampshire process and the result. So yes, thank you. Stay tuned. Great. Okay. We're, we're up on time. Any last public comment before we go. All right. I don't see anybody. So thank you everyone for another great meeting and we'll keep it going. Thanks.


Right now at Appalachian Wireless, you can get the Samsung Galaxy S7 for just $99.99 and get a second one Service agreement is required on both devices serving you for the last 25 years with better service and bigger savings at today's Appalachian Wireless It's becoming more and more evident just how important local businesses are to the struggling economy Folks in Paintsville know that one of the best ways to help local businesses is to revive Main Street Main Street is very important and the local economy really survives when you reinvest in the Main Street The local merchants downtown shop locals are a big event right now And so we want people to come downtown and support these folks because when you do you pay for dance lessons You're paying for medical bills. You're putting food on your neighbor's table And that's what it's all about and when we can revive our downtown and have folks come in spend our money local That's the best thing helping out our friends and neighbors Paintsville's annual Christmas open house is an opportunity for the public to come downtown and find they can feel their Christmas wish list Right in their own backyard Main Street has always been gracious enough to bring the characters in during my open house just to visit around with everybody Open house is wonderful. I started that about six years ago and it is just grown and grown and grown I do it then we've got a boutique now downtown And then we've got two other Businesses that are antique places here that are also doing it the coffee shop is doing it and we're kind of just bringing the downtown back We're wanting everybody to know that we're here And you don't have to go to Huntington and Lexington and places like that because we do offer things here that you would be Very surprised if you came in the store just like you told me a minute ago When local people spend money with local people it not only boosts the local economy But it helps those in need as well What people doesn't realize is that all the churches all the other businesses that need help all through the year We donate so much and we give so much that we can't do it if if people doesn't buy from us Then there's no money there to do it. So the st. Jude's the sponsorships the this and that that the this town needs you know, there is no money there if you don't trade with us and They on town then, you know, there's no money to spread it all trickles downhill For more information on happenings in Painesville simply visit Paintsville Main Street Paintsville tourism and the historic SIP theater all on Facebook Reporting from Paintsville for EKB news. I'm Sean Allen