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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-25-16 Meeting Minutes_BBOZEMAN CLIMATE PARTNERS MEETING MINUTES FEBRUARY 25, 2016 1) CALL TO ORDER The regular meeting of the Bozeman Climate Partners Working Group was called to order at 2:01 PM on February 25, 2016 in the Madison Room, City Hall by Natalie Meyer. PRESENT Natalie Meyer, Heather Higinbotham, Carson Taylor, Robin Crough, Jay Sinnott, Kathy Powell, Susan Bilo, Joan Montagne, Kristin Walser, Jared Bley, Lain Leoniak (arrived at 3:00 PM), Jessica Ahlstrom (arrived at 3:00 PM) 2) CHANGES TO THE AGENDA N. Meyer notes that the actual next meeting date will be Thursday, March 24th, 2016. 3) PUBLIC COMMENT K. Walser informs that Rob Sisson, the president of Conserve America, was going to be meeting with the Citizens Climate Lobby on Monday, February 29th. This will be a dinner meeting from 6-8 PM at St. James Episcopal Church, and will cost $10 per person. He will speak to the group about messaging to conservatives, such as how to find consensus, unity, and bipartisanship, which is an important thing for this group to learn. This is a dinner event so it needs an RSVP. 4) MINUTES K. Powell requests that in section 5) A) it be added that the connection between the Climate Action Partners and Inter-Neighborhood Council should read that the INC specifically recommends that the City continues to support sustainability programs with businesses, citizens, and institutions. S. Bilo motions to approve the minutes from January 28th, 2016 with the above referenced changes. K. Powell seconds the motion. The motion passes. 5) NON-ACTION ITEMS A) NWE SOLAR PROJECT & COMMUNITY SUSTAINABLE ENERGY WORKING GROUP N. Meyer informs that the City Commission recently approved 5-0 to lease land to NorthWestern Energy for a period of five years for the research project. The Request for Proposal (RFP) went out the next day. The working group had a pre-bid meeting last week, and they had a very strong response from contractors. There were over 20 people at the meeting, and 9 companies have already submitted. The firm will be selected by March 14th. The City and MSU both have engineering representatives on the committee. There are a good number of local submissions, but also some national. The budget is $700,000 for the solar array and inverter. The balance of the million is for the research component, interconnection, and the smart metering piece. One row will have the ability to pivot west to research west-facing arrays. The actual solar equipment is owned by NEW. Everyone anticipates that the array will remain in operation after the initial 5 years are up. The Community Sustainable Energy Working Group met two weeks ago. The Solar Electric Power Association and Electrical Power Research Institute presented on battery storage and smart grid technology. They also talked further about rate design. There will be two more meetings, and at the end of the session they will have a recommendation to NWE for where to invest the next $2 million. B) MSU WX & EXTENSION BUILDING ENERGY EFFICIENCY WORKSHOPS The first workshop of the series was two weeks ago. J. Bley provided further information. The topic was recycling, and 30 people were in attendance. Lots of good discussion and information was passed around. Many questions also came up that they were able to address. They are working on a fact sheet and getting a summary of the workshop in print to distribute. Two weeks from this meeting date is the next workshop, focusing on business energy efficiency. Chris Dorsi will be presenting with J. Bley. There will be one more in April focused on the solar state of affairs, and one more in May on water conservation. Mayor Taylor added that the glass recycling information must have worked, as it was well-disseminated afterwards, particularly by the BWAGS. H. Higinbotham stated that they intentionally started with recycling since it’s a hot-button issue. Looking forward, they are hoping to keep the audience interested in topics that they maybe don’t know as much about. She requests that the CAP please share the information in their networks. J. Montagne added that because water issues are getting so much attention in Missoula, it’d be worth trying to get local press here as well. Mayor Taylor confirmed that he and Commissioner Mehl provide Bozeman Daily Chronicle Managing Editor Nick Ehli with an op- ed every month. Next month or the month after, an environmental piece would be great. He asks if it should be solar, water, or both? The key is that it has to have an opinion. C) BOZEMAN CLEAN UP DAY N. Meyer provides information on this year’s Clean-Up Day, which will be on April 23rd at the Library Community Room instead of Bogert Park. This year they will not be hosting full-on Sustainability Fair. They will have some City tables, possibly some County tables, and will make space for other interested parties, but they will not actively recruit. The intent is to make it more focused and deliberate. Neighborhood Coordinator Jessica Johnson will spearhead a short event in the morning with coffee, breakfast, door prizes, and the Mayor will give a welcome. The intent of moving and shortening the day is acknowledging that it is often bad weather, and not a great day to clean up. They will provide clean-up kits, and encourage people to clean up in the coming days/weeks. Citizens will just need to bring the provided bright yellow bag to the curb and the City will pick it up when they see the bag. They are also launching a program to provide clean-up kits to groups year round that the City will pick up. 6) ACTION ITEMS A) FISCAL YEAR 2017 CITY SUSTAINABILITY PRIORITIES Please see the attached sheet: Current Sustainability Programs and Priorities. The Compact of Mayors and Stretch Code received the most votes. Mayor Taylor added the Compact of Mayors to the goal-setting at Monday’s meeting. This Monday will finalize the priorities for 2016. He thinks he has enough support with the rest of the Commission. The key is that the City should be doing this anyway, so we might as well do this together with other communities. H. Higinbotham adds that this helps communities create a standardized report by using a common methodology to encourage data validity. N. Meyer and Mayor Taylor don’t anticipate significant pushback. Discussion then acknowledged that the City has already done many of the steps, and that adaptation is the next, natural step. N. Meyer added that people at MSU are also supporting this and want the State and Bozeman to do this. The group discusses bringing MSU and CSAC into the discussion, at least informing Ralph Johnson. N. Meyer notes that the Stretch Code also got a large number of votes. She and H. Higinbotham will continue to explore this issue as they have momentum from the state-wide steering committee. But this issue is pending the recommendation of the committee. H. Higinbotham adds that the most relevant piece at this point is that she wants to meet with Building staff in the City, to inform them of the issue and get some feedback, in preparation for the Building Code conference in March that that staff will be attending. N. Meyer noted that the additional priorities are mostly focused on new construction. She asks to confirm that this is where the group wants to focus their energy in the coming year. The top five on the list have been tentatively budgeted for without dramatic changes. She just wants to point out that these goals are focused on new buildings. K. Powell notes that many of the ongoing and mid-term projects do address pre-existing structures. There is also the possibility of combining the Programmable Thermostat Incentive Program with the Smackdown in the future. SEE ATTACHED HANDOUT. 7) SPECIAL PRESENTATION A) CITY OF BOZEMAN WATER CONSERVATION UPDATE – LAIN LEONIAK Lain Leoniak (Water Conservation Specialist) and Jessica Ahlstrom (Water Conservation Technician) arrive at 3:00 PM. L. Leoniak introduces J. Ahlstrom as the new Water Conservation Technician in the Public Works department. She joins the City from Project WET. SEE ATTACHED PRESENTATION AND HANDOUT. 9) ADJOURNMENT Meeting was adjourned at 3:46 PM by N. Meyer. The next meeting will be Thursday, March 24th from 2-3:30 PM, in the Madison Room of City Hall at 121 N. Rouse Ave. Minutes submitted by: Robin Crough