Lyme Energy Committee
11/17/08
Present: Carola Lea, Sue MacKenzie, Simon Carr, Gary Phetteplace, Dan O’Hara, Mike Morton
Absent: Becky Lovejoy, Matt Brown, Shirley Tullar, Claudia Kern
Topic: Quorum
Discussion of whether we were going to have five members to get a quorum. We did.
Topic: October SERG presentation
Some members thought it was “preaching to the choir”
Comparison to attendance/crowd from Energy Fair and Gary Phetteplace’s lecture
Topic: Budget
Sue asked how the budget request was doing.
Simon said it has gone in. He doesn’t expect problems; the Budget Committee is concerned with larger issues.
Topic: Local food initiative
Sue asked what was happening with this initiative
Action: Carola will call Michele Estes
Topic: Transportation
Sue asked about transportation work.
Simon said they’re pushing ride-share, and discussing places for park-and-ride.
Topic: Membership
Carola brought up the topic of membership, and the difficulty of reaching a quorum.
Simon suggested that we find someone willing to resign (they need to do so in writing; email is fine) and invite Mike to become a member.
Could be in time for the selectboard meeting this Thursday.
Expiring membership terms end at town meeting of the last year.
Mike said he is content to be a guest or a member, but either way expects to attend meetings regularly again.
Action: Carola will contact Claudia and Shirley to ask about their wishes.
Topic: Efficient Christmas-tree lighting
Simon said Michelle Balch, JJ Pippin, and Katie Jenks are organizing LED lighting for the town Christmas tree.
Said to be 1/10th the power consumption and last a lot longer.
$1,200 to purchase the lights. They’ve asked the town email list for donations.
Nobody in the meeting knew the amount of money saved.
Last year, adding a timer to the lights saved a lot of money.
Town pays for the electricity. Has a meter so we know what it’s cost in the past.
Sue asked how we can help — find another source for the lights?
Simon said they’ve found a good price already.
Topic: Town Fire Station
Gary asked about the Fire station.
Simon said it’s a large expense. Heating fuel will be $9,000 this year (was $6,000 last year).
Locked in heating oil at $3.85.
Gas and diesel (fire, town trucks) at the rack rate all the time.
Michael Hinsley interested in getting insulation onto fire station. Matt’s been talking with him.
Question of keeping the roof structurally safe when insulating. With insulation, snow and ice will build up
No energy audit yet. Building is unfortunately “well ventilated” by doors and so on.
Discussion of whether blower used to test doors would work on doors this large.
Could PSNH do an audit? Probably not. They’re more interested in heavy electric users.
Could Bob Walker do an audit?
Gary knows someone who does audits.
Gary: Footprint of the building? Maybe from insurance documents.
Simon: 2010 Town Meeting may address setting up a $10,000 capital reserve fund to build a new fire station.
Old building is 30+ years old. Refurb vs replace decision.
No plan yet for place or cost of new station.
Action: Sue will ask Bob Walker about doing an audit.
Action: Simon will get fire station floor area to Gary.
Action: Gary will check with his friend about doing an audit.
Topic: Wood usage by town garage
Carola said she’d hear complaints of $500/week to fill wood pellet boiler. What’s the actual savings?
Simon: Matt would know.
Delivery cost is a significant portion of total cost (vs materials).
Topic: Local food
Carola: Subcommittees for things like local food.
Simon: Need a purpose for such a subcommittee. Need more focus than we’ve had so far.
Sue asked if Local-food folks are involved in buying Country Store for Coop?
Carola said no.
Gary pointed out that everything’s using energy. We should look for the “low-hanging fruit”. He_’s read that food-transport is a large part of carbon pollution, but is it something we can work on?
Topic: Whatís next for the committee
Sue said we need new goals and objectives
Brainstorming: Fire station… Energy fair again… Education… How do we help individuals reduce their energy costs? Hands-on workshop… (Liability worries? ) Raffle for home energy makeover…
Respectfully submitted,
/s/ Michael Morton
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