HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-01-28-SLC-minSustainable Lexington Committee
Minutes of Meeting of January 28, 2025
A meeting of the Sustainable Lexington Committee (SLC) was held by Zoom conference. A
quorum of at least eight was present throughout.
Members Present: Cindy Arens (Chair), Celis Brisbin, Paul Chernick, Andy Joynt, Lin
Jensen, Todd Rhodes (vice-chair), Kavitha Venkatesan, Dan Voss
Members Absent: Rick Reibstein
Staff Present: Maggie Peard
Other Attendees: Joe Pato (Select Board), Ricki Pappo (LexCAN), Melissa Battite
(Recreation), Nishanth Veeragandham (SustainabLY)
The meeting was called to order at 6:03 pm.
Approval of past meeting minutes. The minutes of December 17, 2024 were approved as written.
Comments from residents; emails to committee mailbox; new business.
1.Rickie Pappo identified two items:
1.1.Sustainability Fair 2025: Reflecting on our Roots—Growing a Resilient Future will
be held on March 22 at the high school. Ester Jun is coordinating the event. They are
planning many events including EV test drives.
•Esther Jun (ejun@lexcan.org) is the new LexCAN clean energy advocate.
1.2.Community Choice Aggregation: It would be good to rename the CCA product names
because “100% Green” vs “New England Green” is confusing. Lin added that
“Community Choice” is also confusing and she would prefer “Lexington Choice” to
make it clear that it’s a Lexington program. Cindy added that we should also include
more low-income residents and that we should make all the changes at one time.
Evan added that the name could be a pun using “Battle Green”.
2.Maggie identified that the schools are having issues with plug loads. The current guidelines
should be reviewed and updated. Lin offered to help. Dan commented that SLC had a
significant role in developing the current guidelines.
SustainabLY Updates:
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Sustainable Lexington Committee Minutes of January 28, 2025
3.Beginning in March and April, SustainabLY members will start giving talks at Elementary
Schools and would appreciate input from SLC members. Cindy has already been providing
support.
4.Andy recommended that SustainabLY reach out to the Sustainability Champions at each
elementary school. Cindy offered to send the list of Sustainability Champions to
SustainabLY.
Sustainability and Resilience Officer updates:
5.Status of Fossil Fuel Free and Specialized Code Regulations.
5.1.Since March 2024, there have been 44 new building starts under these regulations.
5.2.The Building Department now feels that things have stabilized and builders have a
good understanding of the regulations.
5.3.The Specialized Code allows a mixed fuel option, but not many are using it.
5.4.It would be better if there was more coordination with the state, but the Town staff
feel that the processes are working out.
5.5.Andy asked if the new building is all by the same builders. Maggie responded that she
wasn’t sure, but that all of the largest builders in town are engaged in the process.
[Cindy later added that largely the builders of single family homes in town are the
same as before.]
5.6.Cindy recommended that Lexington’s experience that the Specialized Code is
working should be shared with other towns that are considering adoption.
6.Networked Geothermal
6.1.The feasibility assessment has been completed and is available online.
6.2.Of the four sites, Hartwell is the most promising. There is buy-in from building
owners and the loads are appropriate. There’s a lot of interest – many companies have
decarbonization goals.
6.3.It would be helpful to have more contact with utilities (National Grid) but they
haven’t been participating.
6.4.A Lowell project recently came in as too expensive (they would have had to
remediate the effected buildings – driving up the project cost).
6.5.National Grid is working with the Boston Housing Authority for another project.
Lexington plans to meet with National Grid once they have more lessons from these
projects.
6.6.The next steps for Lexington’s project are not clear.
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Sustainable Lexington Committee Minutes of January 28, 2025
7.Waste Reduction Task Force
7.1.The task force is looking at options for automated collection and pay-as-you-throw
(PAYT).
7.2.Two more community meetings are planned to present the ideas and get feedback
from residents. Maggie and Dave Pinsonneault will present the planned timeline at an
upcoming Select Board meeting. Key issues being addressed include:
•Expanding composting.
•Updating the Town bylaw to change the requirement that trash pickup is required
to be “free”
•Looking at 35 gallon bins for PAYT and automated pickup by the trucks.
7.3.Cindy added that they are also working with Julia Green at Mass DEP.
•Kavitha asked what the biggest challenge is for moving forward? Maggie
identified the change to the bylaw regarding free trash pickup and communicating
to residents that the change will not result in an immediate reduction in taxes, but
rather will lessen future increases.
7.4.Maggie identified that they have received good support at community meetings.
8.Capital Solar Integration Policy
8.1.Maggie identified that she is working with SLC members to modify the life cycle cost
model to provide a simplified tool to assess the payback / ROI for solar canopy
projects.
9.BEU-D Updates
9.1.Maggie is getting acknowledgements from building owners regarding their 2025
reports and is monitoring information coming from the state regarding the rollout of
the state’s program.
9.2.Todd commented that this is the first year that fines can be levied by Lexington and,
while he doesn’t recommend it, wondered what the Town’s plans were for fines.
Maggie said that she mentioned the potential for fines in in her outreach and got a
couple responses that she didn’t get in the past.
9.3.Rickie asked about guidelines for solar on historic buildings. Joe reminded the
committee that Jim Malloy had recommend that SLC and HDC work on establishing
guidelines for sustainability activities in the historic districts.
10.Gas Leaf Blower Ban
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Sustainable Lexington Committee Minutes of January 28, 2025
10.1.The ban on gas powered leaf blowers will take effect in March. The Police
Department recently held a meeting with landscapers. It was a positive meeting and
everyone is coming to an understanding of the rules and the process to be followed.
10.2.The Code Enforcement Officer has been hired. The officer will be driving a Nissan
Leaf.
10.3.Guidance on resident reporting, etc. will be provided.
Additional Updates:
11.Lexington High School Project
11.1.Cindy identified that SLC and PBC will be holding joint meetings to provide
feedback on the design.
11.2.Dan added that the next 12 to 16 weeks are critical and we need to drive the
discussion about solar in the next 3-4 weeks. At that point, the design is locked in. We
need to work with PBC to identify what decisions need to be made and when.
11.3.Joe added that the costing for the project will be available in June.
11.4.Dan suggested that it would be good to hold a session about the high school with
SustainabLY.
11.5.Celis asked whether instead of sub-quorum meetings whether we could have full joint
meetings with PBC? Cindy added that we may need to have full meetings with PBC.
12.Turf Working Group
12.1.The working group met this morning and is working on requirements for end of life,
disclosures, and testing for the Lincoln Field 2 replacement.
12.2.Recreation staff met with Procurement staff who identified that some requirements
will need to go into a supplemental request (which is optional) because a requirement
cannot be added to a bid specification without clear accept/reject criteria. Lin
commented that Maggie had said that yes/no questions have been used in bids in the
past and Cindy identified that this is a change because the testing was included in the
Field 1 bid package.
12.3.Kavitha said that she spoke with Phil Schwend a PFAS testing expert and Lexington
resident. He is willing to offer guidance. He has different perspectives on assays to
use and great ideas of what to consider in terms of assessment.
13.Police Station Solar
13.1.The bid is still in process. Dan identified that the RFP is on the street this week.
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Sustainable Lexington Committee Minutes of January 28, 2025
Next Meeting: The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Sustainable Lexington Committee
will tentatively be held at 6 pm on February 25, 2025.
The committee voted to adjourn at 7:23 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Todd Rhodes
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