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Home My WebLink About020608 Climate Task Force Minutes.pdfMinutes of the Climate Protection Task Force Bozeman, Montana Wednesday February 6, 2008 Meeting Location and Time: Bozeman Public Library, 626 E Main Street, 6:00PM CPTF Members In Attendance: David Boggeman, Otto Pohl, Martin Knight, Molly Cross, Collin Moore, Steve Bruner, Pat McGowen, Matt Madden, Peter Belschwender, Mark Johnson, Other Attendees: Seth Kurt-Mason (attending on behalf of Cliff Montagne, Sustainability Coordinator for MSU), Angela Patnode (Public Schools System Science Curriculum update), staff liaison Hattie Baker, minutes taken by Lea T. F. Warden I. Public Comment Seth Kurt-Mason: Cliff Montagne is the new Sustainability Coordinator for MSU; Seth provided CPTF members with a copy of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment which MSU has/is going to sign(ed); new coordinator and support staff are committed to fostering a culture of sustainability on campus and are creating an inventory of organizations and individuals on campus who are already pursuing environmental initiatives; sustainability coordinator and staff are looking forward to working with city and community organizations II. Discussion on Missoula Climate Action Plan Hattie Baker gave a PowerPoint presentation, followed by discussion with members; overall CPTF members felt language used in Missoula’s plan was weak and plan lack definitive action Mark Johnson: Bozeman’s City Commission is enthusiastic and I believe more concrete actions would be accepted; Commission is serious and bold actions should be presented David Boggeman: BZN plan should include numbers to back recommendations; Missoula’s plan did not include such numbers and thus made the plan weak; Mayor Kaaren Jacobson said to be ambitious Peter Belschwender: Do the individual city departments have baseline numbers on energy/resource consumption? Those figures would be helpful in implement actions and realizing results. Hattie Baker: historical records lack detail; 2007 records are available Molly Cross: Missoula’s plan did not have any clear goals in mind; BZN plan should include more information; provide more detail and supporting facts Hattie Baker: lack of detail leads to questions on recommendations; also CPTF may want to provide a more holistic list of benefits beyond mitigating global warming David Boggeman: sometime soon we should hold a public meeting; perhaps at a subgroup level to focus on particular issues; draft recommendations would be available for public comment/ input Hattie Baker: a public meeting could be held in April; a notice could be put out through city media outlets; do we need input for municipal operations? Otto Pohl: we should filter out issues that do not need public input such as using energy efficient bulbs; this would help focus the discussion on more complicated issues David Boggeman: however we are insiders and to get people involved and active it is important to include the public in a comprehensive way; one meeting may be better to reduce redundancy Hattie Baker: meeting could be held at community event like Earth Day Steve Bruner: public meeting would be opportunity to get more volunteers and support for process Seth Kurt-Mason: MSU is organizing an environmental event and CPTF could participate; he will send info to Hattie as event evolves III. Montana Climate Action Plan Summary Hattie: gave a PowerPoint presentation followed by open discussion with members; handed out list of 54 recommendations developed by Montana Climate Change Advisory Committee; if all of them were implemented an overall savings would occur; Hattie asked CPTF members to read Montana’s plan for next meeting Members thought the plan’s overall format and the graphs were good Molly Cross: BZN plan should either state that figures are estimates or include margin of error; it is important to backup figures to bolster support for them Hattie Baker: provided a reviewed BZN CPTF progress; posed that after municipal climate action plan was developed the task force may want to pursue community CAP; stated that it would be beneficial to pull in key members of the community to help in the development of a community CAP; Hattie handed out Bozeman’s municipal 2000 and 2006 GHG emissions; Records are not detailed enough for instance staff did not track gas usage per vehicle; a better monitoring system is needed to track increases and decreases; BZN CAP should include recommendations for monitoring David Boggeman: Bozeman is a rapidly growing area which presents a challenge to developing effective recommendations Steve Bruner: growth needs to be included which will increase overall GHG emission reduction figures Hattie Baker: plan can be aggressive to combat growth David Boggeman: solar panels on 50 homes has bigger effect than on one high-rise; BZN fleet has doubled and old inefficient vehicles are maintained which effects GHG control Pat McGowen: different city departments buy more vehicles due to population growth; to both buy new and replace the old costs money Peter Belschwender: agreed; recommendations should talk about budgeting for replacements Steve Bruner: recommendations should also emphasis the use of the right vehicle for the job IV. Scott Bischke Bozeman CAP Outline- Comments Steve Bruner: it is important to make categories and CAP clear and succinct; Scott’s outline is good and makes sense Pat McGowen: we should keep an appendix as an option to allow more detail Hattie Baker: at March meeting subgroup could bring in draft recommendations to full committee for input; do not need hard numbers in draft; full group could direct where figures could be developed Group agreed to have meeting on March 5th and agreed to bring in outline of recommendations VI. Sustainability Coordinator Updates Angela Patnode: Met with Marilyn (last name?) Superintendent of Bozeman Schools, who said she cannot sign a climate agreement due to lack of support, more pressing issues, and lack of resources; Angela suggested the school system could focus on smaller initiatives and expressed her interest in developing a project for her college thesis; Marilyn said she would support Angela’s project and that there is interest in bringing environmental sustainability issues into the classroom; Science program is currently being revamped and faculty are looking for input; School board is debating whether or not to maintain an open enrollment system or institute a neighborhood orientated system; Marilyn felt it would be helpful for CPTF to send letter to board that focused on the environmental benefits of a neighborhood system. David Boggeman: CPTF should support initiative to reduce commuting and promote walking and biking Angela Patnode: said letter could be submitted via www.Bsd7.org before 2/11/08 Pat McGowen: said he would draft a letter and email it to CPTF for comment Hattie Baker: gave other updates: city implementing recycling program and members can show support by signing up early; Earth Day event will be on April 22--Greenglow productions is putting together a plan and they could come to March meeting to give presentation; EPA put together a feasibility plan to move towards methane capturing at Logan landfill; Bozeman is seeking a Grants/Climate Protection Program Coordinator VII. Sub-committee Updates A. Planning/Building/Energy Steve Bruner: PBE had a meeting with Andy Epple; Transportation and Land Use committee should also meet with him Otto: will have draft recommendation at next meeting; It would be helpful to have numbers on how reduction in water use translates to reduce in GHG emissions Hattie mentioned individual who is working on water reduction efforts and may have GHG numbers to go along B. Waste/Water and Recycling Collin Moore and Molly Cross: At a recent city commission meeting the Solid Waste Superintendent gave a presentation about curbside recycling; WWR sent him a list of questions to help develop recommendations; SW Superintendent provided a lot of useful information; WWR has another meeting with the staff at the water treatment plant C. Transportation and Land Use David Boggeman: group had two meetings in January one with Streamline and the other with the local bike board; both were very informative; Streamline ridership has doubled and is now running up to Bridger and has a late night run in BZN; buses are using biodiesel from depot in Belgrade; Subgroup would like to talk to Story Distributing about putting biodiesel depot in a BZN; Boggeman mentioned that in the state’s procurement program the cost of a vehicle includes fuel use; BZN needs to include 100,000 mile cost analysis similar to the state’s and cycle out old vehicles; Decisions about vehicle purchases should be more centralized and not left up to individual departments Pat McGowen: also recommended that city should give reason why actions do not follow energy efficient options; traffic lights and street lights issue is complicated and different standards apply depending on street jurisdiction; currently traffic signals are mostly LED except yellow is incandescent and now on 24 hr system because pedestrian system does not function when light on reduced flashing mode; technology may exists to separate two systems Seth Kurt-Mason: perhaps traffic signals could flash red instead of yellow Hattie Baker: NW energy charges a fee per street light for the life of the system VIII. Next Meeting – March 5th? Yes Hattie handed out Burlington, VT CAP to go over in April IX. Adjourn 8:05pm