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:

  1. George Aronson and Lynn Wolbarst met with Eric Hooper, the town engineer, and learned the following:
    1. 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.
    2. The seven town water pumps are regulated by an old “scada” system, a computer program to turn the pumps on and off
    3. Energy audits have been done in the past
    4. 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

 

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. The committee agreed that at least a one year summary of town energy usage is needed. The following tasks were assigned:
    1. George Aronson will call TransCanada to get more detailed information. Will check with Eric Hooper about gas meters.
    2. Ed Connelly will check with library about energy use
    3. Tom D’Avanzo will obtain the benchmarking sheets from EnergyStar that can be used to compile data for Sharon
    4. Lynn Wolbarst with check the assessor’s office and the standing building committee to try to determine the square footage of town buildings.
    5. Ernie Kahn will try to find out if there has been and what the results were of any energy audits of the elementary schools
    6. David McCabe will look for examples of mission statements of energy committees of other towns in the region
    7. Rosemary Tambouret will check with Masschusetts Climate Action Network to see if the town can join and to see what resources are available

 

 

  1. 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.