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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-11-22-SLC-minTown of Lexington Sustainable Lexington Committee Minutes of Meeting of November 22, 2011 A meeting of the Sustainable Lexington Committee (SLC) was held on November 22, 2011 at Town Hall. A quorum of four was sent. Members Present: Mark Sandeen, Chair Rick Abrams, Ken Moraff, Todd Rhodes Members Absent: None Other Attendees: George Burnell The meeting was called to order at 7:05 pm. Mr. Moraff provided an update on stormwater initiatives. • He is planning to meet with Karen Mullins of the Conservation Commission to discuss opportunities to promote the use of Green technologies to address stormwater issues. He also plans to discuss whether the Commission has funding to address stormwater issues. • He reminded the committee that the DPW had commissioned a study of the Charles River watershed that identified two areas where Green technologies may be appropriate to address the identified flooding / stormwater concerns. He identified that a similar study for the Shawsheen watershed should now be complete. ■ Mr. Rhodes offered to contact the DPW to see if the Shawsheen report is available for review. • Mr. Burnell recommended that the committee also get in contact with Richard Cannale on the Planning Board to identify other projects in town where stormwater issues are being addressed. Mr. Sandeen provided an update on NextStep Living and Sagewell activities (see presentation). o NSL has reported a significant jump in Lexington contacts since August 2011 and a 55% conversion rate (i.e., 55% of contacts schedule an audit), which is higher than NSL's average. • NSL has proposed running a 20 home pilot program in Lexington where the residents will receive regular visits (checkups) from NSL staff and share the energy savings. • Sagewell has reported that it has received a large number of contacts through a program in Arlington using a Town email list. The committee Pagel of 2 discussed the opportunity, but is not aware of a similar email list for residents in Lexington. • Mr. Sandeen led a discussion of sustainability priorities. He identified that while our current priorities are energy and water (both stormwater and water resources), there are other priorities that could be considered (e.g., traffic, education, etc.). Economics could also be considered. The committee discussed that with the addition of new members to the committee with a personal interest in these other topics, we would be able to expand into additional areas. The committee also identified that most other towns with " Sustainability" committee are largely not official Town committee and more analogous to GWAC. • Mr. Sandeen reported that he attended a conference and met Dr. Larry Susskind (also a contact of Mr. Abrams'), who identified that he would be interested in bringing graduate students to Lexington to help the committee apply his approach for helping communities reach consensus on issues such as sustainability. The committee agreed that this would be a valuable opportunity to work with Dr. Susskind. It would be important to identify an issue that fits well with the approach being proposed. The meeting adjourned at 9:00 pm. Respectfully Submitted, Todd Rhodes, Scribe Page 2 of 2