2021-01-20-NAC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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Town of Lexington Noise Advisory Committee(NAC) Minutes of Meeting January 20,2021 A meeting of the Noise Advisory Committee ("NAC")was held via Zoom videoconference on Wednesday January 20, 2021 at 7:00 PM. A quorum of four members was present. NAC Members Present: Dan Koretz (Chair), Vicki Blier,April Wang, Nick Afshartous, Stewart Smith Others Present:Judith Glixon (Volunteer) Opening Remarks 1. Approval of the Minutes Dan presented the minutes of the November 24, 2020 meeting. The committee voted to accept them. 2. Discussion of issues related to the Chair's scheduled February 8, 2021 presentation to the Select Board. In anticipation of the Committee's presentation to the Select Board, Dan led a discussion of issues having the potential to arise during the presentation. Among these, it was noted that the cost landscapers would be required to incur in converting to battery powered equipment would likely be regarded as an issue by the Board. There is little comparison cost data available for similar gas-powered equipment bans in the Northeast US as a number of those are recent.There is data available from the numerous municipalities in California which have enacted bans. However,those cost breakdowns do not fully match Lexington's scenario since the California landscaping industry runs for 12 months per year(climate) and the local landscape management season is much shorter.A CA consultant working in this area (Dan Mabe),which the Committee had communicated with,was not able to be of assistance at this time. Dan noted that he had reached out to Harvard for information on the costs of its conversion to battery powered equipment but had not heard back. The Committee discussed other possible sources of cost information. These included reaching out to at least one local landscaper who had already made the conversion. Other ideas involved comparing the use of electric cars in terms of lower cost of operation. Nick also noted the continuing need to explore bulk discounts on electric equipment.Judith suggested that the Committee send an email to various community groups inquiring as to available grants.