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
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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
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