HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-09-30-SLC-min Town of Lexington
Sustainable Lexington Committee
Minutes of Meeting of September 30, 2014
A meeting of the Sustainable Lexington Committee (SLC) was held on September 30,
2014 at the Hadley Building. A quorum of five was present.
Members Present: Mark Sandeen, Chair
Rick Reibstein, Todd Rhodes, Sheryl Rosner, Dan Voss
Members Absent: None
Other Attendees: Marcia Gens, Greg O'Brien
The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm.
Next Step Living Update(T. Rhodes)
• Next Step Living has provided the following statistics on the projects they have
conducted in Lexington:
• Home Energy Assessments: 1,026
• Weatherization Projects: 404
• Rooftop Solar installations: 19
• Ductless Mini-Split installations: 49
Community Choice Aggregation (M. Sandeen)
• Mr. Sandeen outlined the steps needed solicit bids from brokers:
• Prepare a warrant article
• Present warrant article to Board of Selectmen
• Present warrant article to Town Meeting to approval to solicit bids
• The committee voted unanimously to endorse the Task Force to write a letter to the
Board of Selectmen in support of Community Choice Aggregation.
Community Solar (M. Sandeen)
• Mr. Sandeen discussed opportunities to site community solar installations in or near
Lexington that would provide access to solar power to residents that are not able to
place solar panels on their roofs.
• Mr. Sandeen proposed that the committee prepare a warrant article to allow the siting
of a community solar installation in Lexington.
Air Source Heat Pump Program (T. Rhodes)
• Mr. Rhodes presented a draft RFP, modeled on the Solarize Lexington program, to
qualify a vendor who would install Air Source Heat Pumps for interested Lexington
residents following a tiered pricing approach (i.e., the more residents commit to an
installation, the lower the price).
• Recommendations from the committee included:
• Reach out to developers to get their input on the program.
• Explore opportunities for funding and technical support from the DOER.
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• M. Gens provided recommendations based on her experience with the Solarize
Lexington program, including:
• Ensure that the project manager has access to the vendor's Customer
Management System
• Ensure that the vendor point-of-contact has authority in the vendor
organization to make decisions.
• Assess whether the vendor has the capability to scale up to meet the demand
and whether they would use sub-contractors.
• Assess their customer service capabilities, i.e., demonstrated level of customer
service, sales approach, marketing plans, prior community outreach success.
• Also, the Town will need to establish a website to support the program.
• The RFP and contracting language will need to be clear that any agreements are
between the contractor and each individual resident. The Town is not a party in these
agreements.
• Consider including a penalty to the vendor if the system is not installed in the
promised time period.
• Consider reaching out to other Town groups to begin building support for this
program.
Climate Action Plan (T. Rhodes, S. Rosner)
• Ms. Rosner and Mr. Rhodes presented an overview of the proposed Sustainability and
Climate Action Plan.
• The committee discussed next steps for the plan, including sharing the plan with
Town staff and other committees to get feedback, and beginning the process of
completing specific sector plans.
The meeting adjourned at 9:00 pm
Respectfully Submitted,
Todd Rhodes, Scribe
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