HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-11-27-SLC-min Town of Lexington
Sustainable Lexington Committee
Minutes of Meeting of November 27, 2018
A meeting of the Sustainable Lexington Committee (SLC) was held at Cary Hall. A
quorum of five was present.
Members Present: Cells Brisbane, Todd Rhodes, Dan Voss, Charlie Wyman,
Members Absent: Marcia Gens, Rick Reibstein, Mark Sandeen
Other Attendees: Joe Pato (Board of Selectmen)
Eric Amundsen
Jay Flynn
Brian Johnston
The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm.
1. The committee welcomed its two new members: Cells Brisbane and Charlie Wyman.
2. Community Choice
• J. Pato identified that a two-year renewable energy purchase agreement was
established for residential customers and, again, is less expensive than the
Eversource basic service agreement.
3. Better Buildings
• D. Voss stated that he has made some updates to the draft School Buildings
Sustainability Dashboard document and he plans to share it with the master
planning group in the next week or two.
• C. Brisbane recommended that we be sure to align the language in that document
with the language in any Getting to Net Zero documents so that there is
consistency across the programs.
4. Watertown Street Development Project
• J. Pato commented that the builder of the project have stated that they would
work to implement sustainable features in the buildings designs and planned to
meet with our committee, but there were no formal commitments on what goals
they would plan to meet.
5. EV Chargers
• T. Rhodes summarized the discussion held at last week's Board of Selectmen's
meeting where M. Sandeen presented the plan for Eversource to install the
infrastructure for three sets of charging stations in Lexington Center parking lots.
The Selectmen were generally in favor of the plan, but wanted to understand how
the purchase and installation of chargers would be funded.
• D. Voss identified that ChargePoint does have a financing program for EV
chargers and asked whether it would be possible for a 3rd party to provide the
capital for the purchase and installation of chargers and then receive revenue
from their use.
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• C. Brisbane suggested that MassSave or other non-profits might be able to
provide funding for the chargers.
• J. Pato commented that the 3rd party approach might be allowable, but it would
be easier to move forward if the Town identified an internal funding source.
• D. Voss commented that time is short. While the program is going on for a while
(as the Eversource representative said at the BOS meeting), other towns are
putting in their requests and if Lexington waits too long, all of the infrastructure
funding (from the VW ruling) will be spent.
6. Sustainability Fund
• T. Rhodes commented that at last week's BOS meeting a resident asked why the
Town doesn't have an account that gets funded by the revenues/cost savings
from existing projects (e.g., Hartwell solar, rooftop solar) that can be used to
fund future projects, like the EV Charging stations.
• J. Pato identified that that approach could be implemented as a stabilization fund,
but then any use of the fund would need to be approved by a 2/3 vote by Town
Meeting. Another mechanism could be an enterprise fund, but that is used when
services are provided for a fee and doesn't really apply.
• D. Voss commented that there was some conversation about an enterprise fund
when the Hartwell solar program was initiated because of the potential impact of
the solar program on enterprise fund activities at the composting facility. So there
may be a way to make that work.
• J. Pato suggested that a line item for sustainability projects could also be
established in the Operating Budget.
7. Warrant articles
• The committee discussed potential warrant articles for spring Town Meeting.
Citizen's Articles are due on December 20, 2018 at 4pm. Selectmen's Articles
are due end of January.
• One topic could be the Sustainability Fund. J. Pato recommended holding
discussions with the BOS before pursuing a warrant article.
• Releasing the Sustainable Building Policy as a warrant article is option—
possibly as a citizen's article. J. Pato recommended discussing the policy with
the Town Manager to better understand his thoughts on the policy.
• J. Pato identified that the Girl Scouts may have an Article or Resolution related
to a ban on plastic straws. He had recommended to them to consult with our
committee.
The meeting concluded at 8:00 pm.
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