North Quabbin Energy Planning Meeting — Thursday, January 24, 2013, 6:30 at MREC
People present: Linda Paquet, Aimee Hanson (w/ Colby), Cathy Stanton, Paul Goyetche, Brian Nugent, Pat Larson, Judy Northrup-Bennett, Hal Gillam, Neil Anders.
Some Notes from Discussion: (See www.northquabbinenergy.org/wordpress for other events. Also check out North Quabbin Energy on Facebook.)
- Food Issues – Linda announced that Cultural Council grants were received from Warwick ($100), Orange ($100) and Athol ($75). This money will help cover the cost of printing 1000 copies of the “Local Food Brochure” for 2013. YES in Orange would charge about $350 for printing up-dated brochures. We will just need an additional $75 to do the job.
- Green Community Updates – For Petersham, the Phase 2 application has been submitted to DOER. Linda told the group that the Phase 2 application is to have a Level 2 energy audit done on town buildings by Bart Bales. When there is an audit report to review by the Energy Committee, they will submit another application. For Athol, Hal reported on the energy reduction results for Athol in the past year. This includes a 50% reduction at the Millers River Environmental Center through building envelop work and other projects (NQE Winserts). See the spread sheet for savings and Power Point presentation at http://www.athol-ma.gov/egov/apps/search/results.egov?ss=1&ss_cq=energy&ss_submit.x=0&ss_submit.y=0. There were no updates on Green Community projects from New Salem, Wendell or Barre (the other Green Communities in the region)
- Solar Projects in the North Quabbin – Hal reported that the Adams Farm and Hunt Farm projects were moving along and going OK.
- Energy use in U. S. – Judy presented a graph which Brian also spoke about. In understandable terms this use can be equated to running 2 clothes dryers for 24 hours a day by each person.
- Review of NQE Mission Statement: After a lengthy discussion we agreed as a group to change the mission statement to the following: “North Quabbin Energy is an informal network in north-central Massachusetts that supports and facilitates communication with people and town energy committees to share ideas and projects concerned with issues relating to energy use. Through this informal network of people and direct communication we work to educate ourselves and our neighbors about the true social and environmental costs of our current energy consumption patterns. We also work to find ways of changing our individual and collective habits of energy use through conservation, use of renewable fuels, and support for local and regional enterprises that reduce our dependence on imported resources.” We agreed to also add to this later by explaining how we would support communication (e.g., by holding 3-4 potlucks a year, visiting other projects, keeping the website updated, etc.)
Discussion of Projects and Activities for Coming Year –
1) River Rat Parade and Canoe Race on Sat., April 13, 2013– People present agreed to be involved again this year. Aimee will co-ordinate signs and other props. After the meeting she suggested that we have a message on back of walkers (e.g. Conscious Awareness = Conserve) and is looking for a message about conservation to use. We agreed that we should have walkers and bikers again with clothespins and a clothesline with T-Shirts containing messages. Judy thought that Bruce would also be in the canoe race again.
2) Possible speaker – Beth Terry on “Plastic Free Life” Jinx Hastings is working on bringing Beth Terry to MA to possibly speak in April. People present agreed to contribute $50 toward this project. Linda will call Jinx to get more information about this project. See www.myplasticfreelife.com.
3) Solarize MA – Neil agree to research this DOER project for towns and possibly submit paperwork for the Feb. 20 deadline if possible for the No. Quabbin towns (7 or 8 towns). If the February deadline is not possible then we will discuss it for September, 2013.
Next Meeting – Friday, March 22 – a Potluck Supper at MREC at 6 p.m.