Town of Sharon, MA

ENERGY COMMITTEE

Minutes

Wednesday, 12/13/06  7:30pm to approximately 9:30 pm

 

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 third meeting of this committee.

Items Discussed:

  1. George Aronson: has a spread sheet prepared for the 17 town buildings and 9 DPW pumping stations; still needs a definitive list of town buildings; we still do not know exactly what site each meter is reading ( the mailing may not be the same as the site billing address);
    1. suggested that he contact Mark Mazur, the town assessor; Lynn Wolbarst after contacting the accountant’s office found that town bills are not sorted by buildings but by department so that the committee needs to obtain a copy of each bill
    2. Lynn and Joan will establish the definitive list for electricity and heat
  2. Ed Connelly: requested information from the library on kilowatt/hour for electricity and gas usage; he has not yet received this information; he will contact Mark Mazur to get the sq. footage; of note, the library reports only to the library board of trustees (elected); the oversight agency is the finance committee, not the selectmen; Ed will write up a summary of  the town energy use and C02 consumption for the annual town report.  The water use must also be determined.
  3. Tom D’Avanzo: presented the mission statement draft (attached) which was reviewed and edited; also discussed use of Energy star portfolio manager;  Tom will check out other towns to determine their use of Energy Star benchmarking.
  4. Lynn Wolbarst: obtained information from Eric Hopper about town use of diesel fuel and gas use, the meter numbers for 4 of the pumps and a CD containing details of use of all of the pumping stations for the month of November 2006.  Lynn will now work on getting a town vehicle list.  Lynn has also obtained the sq footage for the schools, police, fire, DPW and high school buildings; we now need a site visit to observe energy use (boiler, computers) to determine kilowatt/sq ft use; then will match bills with meter name.  Lynn also reported that she was contacted by Warren Smith  (70 Mountain Road) who wants to construct a residential windmill.
  5. Rosemary Tambouret reported on the pros and cons of the energy committee joining MCAN (Massachusettss Climate Action Network); the group determined that joining would be beyond the scope of the committee.
  6. Ernie Kahn reported on his discussion with Don Gilligan of the school committee about an energy audit of the Sharon HS

 

Potential Projects:

1.      benchmarking

2.      Adopt a building by individuals for inspection; for example, HVAC students from technical HS can be involved in inspections

 

Next meeting:  Wednesday, January 17, 2007 7:30 PM

1.      Lynn will obtain a definitive list of town buildings from the assessor

2.      George will present data on electricity use for the town buildings and library

3.      Lynn and Joan will obtain the town electric bills

4.      Tom will present information about Energy Star bench marking

5.      Lynn will determine if the town website is prepared to post information about the energy committee

6.      Tom will present the revised mission statement that will then be forwarded to Ben Puritz

7.      David McCabe will research building data, especially school energy use, for other regional towns