Town of Sharon, MA
ENERGY COMMITTEE
Minutes
Wednesday, 11/08/06 7:30pm to approximately 10pm
Members present:
George Aronson
Ed Connelly
Thomas D’Avanzo
Ernest Kahn
David McCabe
Joan Spiegel
Rosemary Tambouret
Lynn Wolbarst
Member absent:
Arnold Wallenstein
This was the second meeting of this committee.
The complete list of members of the committee who work in fields related to
energy and the environment are:
Thomas D’Avanzo– EPA, northeast region
Arnold Wallenstein – lawyer involved in energy
George Aronson – mechanical engineer; principal
in 4 energy related companies; is a consultant to MA Technology Collaborative
and to the Chicago Climate Exchange (sells energy credits online)
Ed Connelly – president of New Ecology, Inc., Cambridge,
MA
David McCabe – Geologist; worked as an
environmental consultant x15 yrs; now with Textron, a multinational company
involved in corporate and environmental safety.
Lynn Wolbarst – MA in city planning; has worked
on environmental legislation.
Items Discussed:
- George Aronson and Lynn Wolbarst met with Eric Hooper, the
town engineer, and learned the following:
- The town has generally big vehicles in the fleet that
include police cruisers, DPW pick-up trucks and sedans; school vans for
special ed transportation; brush truck for fire dept; the exact number is
uncertain; there is a filling station at the DPW.
- The seven town water pumps are regulated by an old “scada”
system, a computer program to turn the pumps on and off
- Energy audits have been done in the past
- Newer street lights are on meters but the older lights
are not; the lights are sodium vapor and every third light is off in
order to conserve energy
- Documents from the TransCanada Electric Supply Contract
with town were reviewed; included in these documents was a list of 18
metered accounts for the town, including the water pumps, DPW HQ, street
lights and the various schools.
- Ernie Kahn met with Barbara Dunham, the assistant
superintendent of schools. He obtained a spread sheet put together by
Donald Gilligan, a member of the school committee that details energy use
in the schools.
- The committee agreed that at least a one year summary of
town energy usage is needed. The following tasks were assigned:
- George Aronson will call TransCanada to get more detailed
information. Will check with Eric Hooper about gas meters.
- Ed Connelly will check with library about energy use
- Tom D’Avanzo will obtain the benchmarking sheets from EnergyStar
that can be used to compile data for Sharon
- Lynn Wolbarst with check the assessor’s office and the
standing building committee to try to determine the square footage of
town buildings.
- Ernie Kahn will try to find out if there has been and
what the results were of any energy audits of the elementary schools
- David McCabe will look for examples of mission statements
of energy committees of other towns in the region
- Rosemary Tambouret will check with Masschusetts Climate
Action Network to see if the town can join and to see what resources are
available
- Development of a mission statement and selection of a
chairman is necessary but the committee needs more information; these
items will be addressed at the next meeting to be held on December 13 at 7:30pm.