Conservation, Energy, & Environment Committee - Regular Meeting

And uh roll call. Um we have who do we have? We have uh Jessica. Uh we have Nancy uh Bowden, Paula Jones, Bob Dickinson, and uh David Hager. So we have five members in attendance. We have a quorum. And are you set with that, Lynn? Okay. Very good. Um approval of of agenda. Uh, does anyone have any additions or suggested changes?

It be put on a future meeting for reducing the time required for permitting of solar projects.

I I think we'll be talking about that potentially today. So, okay. Okay. So, hold on to that thought. Okay. Um, so can I have a motion to approve the agenda? Okay. Um, yep, Bob. And could I have a second? And Dave. Okay. Um, so that's that uh approval of the 12125 uh meeting minutes. I have one minor edit and that is the very I think last line. Thank you. I put mine away. Um, the very last line on the first page I think should read, "Mr. Carter noted that they have a sidewalk inventory and that when working instead of work working um on projects that all the pieces work together, so add an ing." And I have a comment on the last paragraph on page two. There was discussion as to whether or not the library was built with the structure solar. Yes, absolutely it was. There was there's no there's no question there.

How about um there was a discussion about solar on the new ProEer library um noting that it was built to support solar. Does that work? works. Okay. And it is works. Okay. Yeah. And um John wasn't here so we were a little nebulous on that but in just in terms of what he could say in terms of the process. So okay. Anything else? Okay. So with those changes, can I have a motion to approve with those changes?

So move. And then Brent Brenda will second. Okay. Thank you very much. Great. Okay. All in favor? I I Okay. Any abstensions or nays? All right. Very good. And just noting that Brenda is is with us now. Thank you. All right. All right. Uh Tom Planner and Environmental Planner reports. Sure. Uh on my end, I think most things I'll discuss will be already in the agenda.

Um nothing really I don't really see anything other than what is already here. Uh and we have John here so he can give a broad planning update as well.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Um and happy new year to you all. And um for mine I I what I just left for distribution today uh which I thought might be of you of interest to you all is the um report I regularly give on a monthly basis to the governance u council's governance subcommittee on um building and land use um activities in the community. Uh this is a because that community committee had not met for a while. This report covers about five months. um and um don't think it would serve much purpose for me to go through it in detail at this point, but um for all of you to take one home and read it, it's fairly self-explanatory. Um as you can see, there is a lot of activity going on and a lot of activity that uh is in the works. uh which is exciting and I think that um from um if you look go to the last page which we by the numbers um you know we had almost 1,200 building permits issued in the last 6 months. They had a value of um 1,00 almost 161,000 uh and they represent um over $83 million worth of construction value. Um I would note that the permit value is um I think we projected for the entire year somewhere around 1.3 million. Uh so we are well on our way into to achieving that which is really a good thing and indicates that Bloomfield still is um an attractive and receptive um for location for good development and uh and will continue um with that. Madam Chair, unless there are specific questions, um um I will um defer to the environmental planner as we go through the um the specifics of of business.

Any questions for the planner? So So John, on page two, you say that the grand application for the town center is 19.8 8 million. Does the downgrading on the the town's uh credit situation have any impact on this?

It should not. They're totally unrelated. Um and I would note that this um as you know, we the plan was approved last May. We submitted a CIF grant uh in in June. That grant was not uh actually approved for. It was about a $23 million. The state encouraged us to uh refine our numbers and to resubmit. And so this grant that was resmitted uh in early December uh for the next next round um represents our refining of of the uh projected numbers and um and answers a number of the questions that the state had on the original grant and uh hopefully we'll get a favorable action by them when they act in March of 2026. But the um the um the one notched um grading reduction is unrelated to the grant. Any other questions from the committee or uh the public for our town planner? Okay. I have one quick question. Um I think I saw a reference to what 800 Cottage Grove Road um discussions. Where is that? I think I know, but I'm just trying to place it.

It's in Bloomfield. Okay. Where where in Bloomfield on Cottage Grove is it is Is it a redevelopment? No, it's the southeast corner of Cottage Grove Road in Bloomfield Avenue and is now an a very older small office. Okay. Yeah, that's what I thought it was. Okay. Thank you. Just trying to place it. Yeah. Say again. Correct. Yeah. Law offices and so forth. Yep. Okay, great. Thank you. Okay. Am I on that one? I think we I had the wrong I What number did I put in there? 150 units. It's actually 215 units.

Okay. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Um at this point, we shall move on to old business. Um I've allocated about 30 minutes. Um, we want to we we have kind of a hard stop tonight at six o'clock. I think when we talk about our priorities and kind of review, you know, what we did last year, a lot of these old business items are going to kind of fold into that discussion. Um, so what I would like to do is, um, and I don't know if this is something you can share, screen share, Lynn. Um, we had a couple of documents that we used two years ago and last year to come up with priorities. I thought a good starting place would be with the um one-page document that we finalized last year uh categories for CE CEC priorities. Um, for one thing, it feels good. I think we can check a couple things off and that's always positive uh to have completed something. Um, but I think some of the things we're going to want to continue with, it seemed like it would be easier to start with something on paper and then we can um have some discussion today in terms of ads or edits and then we can um, you know, potentially come back again next month and kind of finalize a little bit. Um, I would propose that this is kind of a working document and um, maybe what we do is like every, you know, at least once during the year we bring it back up and take a quick look at it, make sure we're still happy with it. So, um, just starting at it, uh, CEC should monitor relevant bills at the state level. This should be a theme across all categories so that working groups encourage advocacy on key legislation

supporting town goals. Everyone's still um good with that statement that that actually um is included in part because if you look at the description of our scope of responsibility on the town website um kind of monitoring what's going on at the state level um is out there. And then you know where we landed in terms of groupings after a couple of meetings last year was we thought it made sense to categorize the different things we want to um focus on into just four broad buckets. Um nature-based solutions for environmental health. Um then um renewable energy um efficiency, affordability, climate change resil resiliency and hazard mitigation. And then we talked about communication, you know, how can we do a better job of um communicating with the public and um doing outreach. So I'm going to open I'm going to like let's start with number one. Anybody want to um make any comments about anything you think should maybe come off be added? Uh it's Nancy.

Yep. Go ahead.

Um you get to look at apple blossoms instead of me because of them. Got a terrible head cold. Um it's a good trade, believe me. Um under nature-based solutions, uh and because I think yeah, Lorenzo's still here. We after looking at the um the the plan of um Okay, it's going to be one of those day. Yeah. U development. We talked about um the egg commission and the fact that we say many times in that plan we want to maintain, save, preserve farmland and promote agriculture. So we don't actually have a point about that in this document. Um so I'm thinking we should maybe add something explicitly. Uh, and I and I think it goes under nature-based solutions for environmental health. It's it's I don't know where it fits. Maybe it's its own category, but I think it if any of the it fits in that c that bucket best of any. So to promote uh the town's um recognition and valuing of agriculture and agricultural lands, something like that. We can work on the wording.

Yeah, there's there's a term aggre aggreg a agrarian or something. I can't um I've came across it a couple times that it's kind of this all-encompassing agrarian culture type of thing that will include agriculture and this farm stuff. Yeah, I Yeah, I agree. I agree, Nancy.

Okay. I think that's a good addition and an appropriate ad and we can refine it. Um the the other thing I want to mention very quickly here is we have a very long list here [laughter] um as we typically do and we've always talked about the fact that um what we want to do is leverage what other groups are doing and other committees are doing. Um Corey um is you know Corey is here with us today um and hopefully will be joining us. um she uh is leading the effort on really establishing pollinator pathways. Um that's something we've talked about in the past and um BBC is sort of assisting and supporting and you know that's something for example where we can identify it and but not have to not have to as this entire committee play a lead role. So, I just want to emphasize that um just because something's on the list, we can be playing a supporting role and making sure that we're kind of in tune with um what other groups are doing and I think Nick will help with that because he's talking to a lot of people which is great. Okay. Um so, yeah, go ahead David. with respect to the uh farmland open space preservation in in in John's uh hand here is the comment about the TP uh the POC about to be formalized and I don't know what what the thrust of the flavor is on that topic in in the revised POC but it would be important for anything we do to be considered consistent

the sorry John go ahead I think you'll find the thrust is very positive to where you want to go and um you will be receiving shortly I hope um because you've been a number of you have been involved in in reviewing it uh drafts of a number of the chapters that we have rewritten so that we can get your further comments as to whether or not uh they satisfy um the issues that are important to How? How do we get that? He'll send it to us. I think we are nearing completion of a draft. The US mail. No, we haven't sent them yet. We're going to We will US mail. No. Uh we can if you want. You might get them next year. [laughter]

Good point. Okay. I'll I'll add to to that. uh in my review of it, the the topics related to agriculture in town are what I would call pretty well thought out. It's not just one bullet point. There's lots of information on different aspects of it as well. So,

um I want to make two brief comments and then I want to make sure I everybody has an opportunity to talk about one. Um just want to note that Trees for Bloomfield and Tree City USA um since we co-chair kind of that initiative um we do play a leading role. Um but basically at this point now we want a leading role to get um reertified for Tree City designation because we got certified last year and actually I submitted the uh application on Monday, this past Monday um for 2025. So, um, we just want to keep we want to make sure we keep that going. Yeah.

Uh, may I say something? Sure. Um, I had a similar thought, uh, madam chair about the fact that some of these items on these list are things you've already done, which is great. So then you could say things along the lines of like continue, right, shred event, continue, right, that kind of thing, right? Or you could remove them. But if if it makes I think it could make more sense to use the word continue to imply a building upon and right

stuff. And um while we're here while we're on this topic and and to to your point Nick um the bianual shred and small electronics recycling day that's a great event but um one thing that's a little bit later on the agenda is establishing a date for the spring event. Um part of the um challenge of offering um events like this and events twice a year is our cost is about $800 for each event. I mean as in CC pays for the um shred truck, okay, for four hours time. the town invest actually quite a bit more because they we have support from the police department, different departments, overtime and so forth. So I know that India Rogers um just let me know that they are working on trying to get a better cost estimate on what how that translates into dollars, not just for our event but for town events in general. um because you know budget the budget is tight and it's it's challenging and we just had reval so um that I would say maybe continue shred and small electronics recycling day you know I don't want you know at this point I think we should be a little bit thoughtful about how often we might offer it do we really need to offer it twice a year do we do the shredding once a year especially if the library system still provides shredding. Um because the library branches did at least before the new buildings. Um but the you know we just have to think about um what the all-in cost of these events is and the

town wants to do that in preparation for the next budget cycle. So, um, okay. Um, actually, if you're online, um, feel free to kind of if there's a pause to speak up because we can't see you and that's fine, Brenda. Okay. I had my hand raised. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, go ahead.

That's okay. I just wanted to follow up on NY's comment about um the nature-based solutions and maybe I hate to say replace pollinator pathways but maybe just change the category to sustainable agriculture which pollinator pathways could be under that. Um, that was my first recommendation. And the second thought that I had was about the shredding event. Um, would it be possible to maybe collaborate with another town that's doing it so that we maybe find some savings there? I don't know if if that's feasible. Um maybe a a location that's maybe borders other communities that we could, you know, partner with for that.

Good suggestion worth considering. And um either that or just try to do something where we switch off um in terms of location in town and make something available to um you know make something available to both um residents of both communities. Uh I think you know I think that's something definitely worth considering. So, let's kind of put that um you know, put that down and um I'm hopeful that we'll get a better sense of kind of all-in cost in what you know, what's feasible in terms of what's anticipated. But yeah, that's a good suggestion and the pol the uh sustainable agriculture. Um yeah, potentially we could come up with one category and we can also have EG or IE pollinator pathways. um ag you know agrarian culture that kind of thing. So that'll save a little real estate on the page. Thank you. That's a good suggestion.

Okay. So with respect to waste management, um I I don't really know where these programs stand now. Um certainly the shred day is is could be part of it. Yep. Um the the annual um cleanup Bloomfield Day in the spring can be part of the anti-litter campaign. Um um the composting program seems to have come to a stop. Yeah, it has. You're right.

So I don't know if for me a priority would be I mean it seems to have come to a stop and there's not an advocate for it. So, um, if that's the fact, then we should drop it. Okay. Yeah, [clears throat] I would agree with that. Um, means there was no financial incentive is is is is probably the uh, right? It's hard. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. other. I mean, I think this gives us a pretty good start for number one in terms of like reworking it a bit. Um, last call on that. I'm moving to number two. Did have one suggestion for it. I know Mary Pelleter presented the other week. Yep. Something under the realm of sort of supporting the efforts around um Bloomfield's large watershed watershed support repairarian buffers. Yeah, that's good. that uh perhaps that's a great idea, Corey. Perhaps that could fit under climate. Yes. And hazard mitigation. I mean, it could fit under many categories, but if we're picking one, just a suggestion. Yep. It fits in both.

Nature [laughter] nature based solutions in. Yeah. But yeah, so let's add that.

Okay. Great. And let's see. Okay, so perfect. Let's move on to number two. Electric generation, renewable energy efficiency and affordability. And I'm I can't see who's on screen, so if you have something to say, speak up. And so actually Brenda actually uh Bob's got his hand up and then if Brenda has her hand up. Go ahead Bob. Yep. Into the mic. Yep. Is the power. Yeah. Does the town uh pay peak power charges?

I guess. Well, I'll tell you why. because uh I've been looking on on battery storage and the various incentives mostly from Eversource and okay if they can't build big projects okay you build project incorporate uh small projects where they're needed and uh if in going through it it looks pretty much if you do have a peak power charge then the various incentives from every source will probably make your project make money for Okay. But you can eliminate you can eliminate the big power charge. Yeah. Okay. And I don't know if John or Nick know anything about that.

Well, I I think that would maybe go under the category of um policy. Um because that's that's a policy or perhaps regulatory change.

We um I suspect we pay a variety of rates. Um, we probably pay a certain rate on our buildings. I know we pay a different rate on um on street lights. Um, so um in terms of uh and we also um I'm not we are we are part of um a municipal consortium purchasing uh thing where um I think some of our electricity comes through. I know our our fuel comes through through that and we get we get a fixed rate. So I I I I don't think we pay a peak power rate. Um but we pay a variety of different rates. Um we can certainly find that out. Um just one comment and I I mean there are several of you in the conversation here that are um this is more your passion in terms of the renewables. So I want to make sure you have a chance to like talk about potential additions or areas of focus. Um

the municip the just one comment though the municipal energy usage update in uh year-over-year comparison um help me out here Brenda the the and Bob and everybody else who went the c the pace's new tool shouldn't we be doing something with that and Nick so um yes to answer your question and and to go back to the first question and this category I wondered if we could add uh geothermal

networks to that. Um and yes, I agree. We should be using the PACE um energy score or rating tool to maybe serve as a baseline in terms of what we want to focus our efforts on so that we know exactly where we need to make changes. Um so or pay attention to some efforts who who I I don't know if this about this tool and who would do it [laughter] the environmental planner

pace tool you mean? Yeah, sure. I mean, yeah, we mentioned this maybe it was two meetings ago, I think. Um this great new tool um through PACE that kind of lets us see exactly where our town is at in terms of energy sources and use and also we could compare ourselves to other towns and the state broadly speaking. So, it's kind of a already a built-in data source for us and data tracker. Um I are is the uh suggestion to include use of that tool in this priorities list?

I think so. Yeah. because you when when we generated this list last year um for 2025, we were concerned that we had this climate emermergency energy plan that was presented to the council I think in December of 2022, end of 2022 and it hadn't been updated. It was done by a consultant. It was for municipal and school buildings only. Right. 2019. The data are from 2019,

right? Precoid, right? Pre-COVID. Um, yeah, pre-COVID. And I'm the school buses are rattling around in my head because the buses kept running during CO because the governor said they had to. Um, they didn't run, they got paid. Okay. So, yeah, I stand corrected. But the problem was is we couldn't, you know, the we've never we've never followed through, I don't believe, on updating that data. So, the value of this new tool um is PACE has gotten some way to literally down, you know, build a database with all of this information in it. And it includes residential as well as municipal. Um, I'm not sure it splits the stuff. It splits residential, commercial. Um, I can't remember what the splits are is the issue, but the point is is it really can be used to look at and the overall energy footprint of the town. So, we should start using it. It's available at no cost to us.

And could this be compared to the data from the plan? Absolutely. Yeah, I will I think so. I'm not entirely exactly sure which variables were measured in the last plan off the top of my head, but if it was as um comprehensive a plan as this data source is, which is very comprehensive, I'm sure it could be used to compare the years and uh metrics.

Yeah, [snorts] it was it was less comprehensive only from the perspective of we didn't have residential energy usage in it. It was looking at town buildings, board of education buildings, and then using fuel receipts to estimate um the bus greenhouse gas emissions. Okay. Um anything else on two? Okay.

Oh, yeah. I just I was just curious because I uh I I I'm not familiar with the PACE plan, but I was wondering whether the town staff ever succeeded in putting in um their effort to use the EPA portfolio manager that measured whether normalized energy use for all the town and board of education buildings. and a lot of time was spent uh kind of presenting that to to the uh town and officials and that's what was in the works a number of years ago. Did that just never uh you know it was an extremely uh you know EPA certified tool that was being used across multiple towns for municipal energy. you didn't include residential, but I'm just wondering about, you know, yet another portfolio tracker tracking um procedure when the last one didn't seem to ever get um so to speak, energized by the town. I I don't know if um what happened with that. I was I was wondering if Mr. Coleman might know because I think at some point you started to relook into um log on to that database.

I do not have a um an answer for that now, but Nick and I will um check into it. My suspicion is it was not, but I don't I cannot um cannot give you an affirmative answer one way or the other. Okay. The the beauty of that one was it the the uh information was fed in automatically from Eversource and from uh the gas companies. So there wasn't too much um additional work required by the town staff, but I I'm not familiar with the PACE. Yeah, I will check with the facilities manager. Okay, thank you.

Yeah, and Val, the PACE tool, I think that's the same setup. I think they've arranged it so that they're getting the information fed automatically. But yeah, good question. I know Dave I know David and you did a lot of work on that when you were on CEC. Yep. So with respect to electric vehicles,

um interest in that I would think has really dropped off. um and largely again to uh very large expenses. Um one thing that can be done is to reduce the size of the school buses. The the the buses going around town are full-size buses and many times they are empty. So you can use smaller buses and less fuel.

I would note that CRE has is starting to do that a lot. If you notice, I have some young children that are attend CRE in my neighborhood and they go on on smaller vehicles, vans or or the smaller, you know, much smaller school buses. Very rarely does a um large full bus come to pick them up. Yeah. I guess a a question I have is when is the DATCO contract up and being you know when is when are the when is the school system renegotiating the contract fairly nearly recently done so it's going to be a while but they can

it might it might be like three years at this point and they uh they have smaller buses okay Anything else before we move to three?

Well, just my rant about school buses and and that if we maybe didn't have so many magnet schools, our kids would be able to walk to school. But that's just my [laughter] rant. So, so noted. So noted. All right. Okay. Climate change resil [laughter] climate change resiliency and hazard mitigation. um climb. Actually, we can we can still support an environmental planner, but we have an environmental planner, so that can come off. Um because that was the intent. Take my support away. No, I won't take your support away. Um

yeah, it's a tough budget year. That just meant support for getting one and right put a star next to it if we wanted to.

We actually got it done. Yeah. Um although we in the collective sense it got done. Okay. Um so we can certainly put in the role I think I think let's like peg that for adding kind of the watershed piece and repairarian buffers because I think that makes a lot of sense. Um we have the climate task force. Dave has suggested a couple of times kind of rolling that all into the sustainable, you know, s a sustainability committee. Um, and maybe that's the way to go. The climate task force was a recommendation out of that Bloomfield

energy plan. Go ahead. Sure. I mean, that that's totally fine with me. Um I will say the sustainability team you're referring to the sustainability team which is prescribed by Y.

Yeah. Um sustainable CT. Yep. I mean so that team for all those not aware um as part of the application process for sustainable CT the town is supposed to create a uh sustainability team and that uh is allowed to be either an existing group or committee. So for example, we could just say that CEC is the sustainability team. Um but the other option is that it can be any collection of um residents uh or elected officials and staff. The only requirement for it is that um at least one member of the team has to be either an elected official or staff. So, um, the that team, what I'm trying to get at is that team is supposed to be just kind of to guide and review the sustainable sustainable CT process, but it could just become a sort of subgroup that focuses on sustainability in Bloomfield.

I would just have one uh from from town hall's perspective. Um we already have over 50 boards and commissions and um I would urge if there's a way to fold it into an existing body uh that would be preferred from our perspective in terms of of um both workability and staffing. So that was particularly my my suggestion because I think your POCC has a overseeing task force. Is that correct? it did. I'm not sure it has. We don't have a formal one as of now and will not

um that yet to be determined. I suspect we won't because I think we'll um there there's a real challenge with boards and commissions in this community in terms of the number of them and and um and properly serving them and and and and filling them getting sufficient folks to sit on them and continue. So I my sense is there's a reluctance unless absolutely necessary to create any new boards and commissions and oversightes and things of that type. We'll try and utilize what already exists and if we can combine any of them I think we'd probably do that as well.

So what would be the the monitoring or the enforcement of the PCD the TPZ itself?

Okay. So okay that's uh so I I think we should have further discussion about the sustainability group. Um I think it could potentially be a subset of CEC. What I like about it being but I don't like it being the CEC. You know this is the whole pushpull we always have about CEC do it. Um, what I like about having more of a working group is the idea of having other community members who are interested participate. And we have quite a few, you know, to to the degree they have a particular interest in area of expertise. I think it'd be great to fold people in. I don't feel like they should have to be on a particular committee to participate. So maybe we should think that through a little bit more. I'm going to try to move us along here because we got stuff to talk about. saying then is that the the community task force uh that was suggested in the plan

climate task force or the climate task force should be discarded. I I mean what this is coming to it's falling apart.

Okay. Um I'm suggesting this because I thought what you had suggested was folding this into something else. So, I'm not I I guess I'm not um I don't have I don't have a specific point of view at this point. I think we need to do something and kind of you know we need to do something I guess and to the extent that you know what what we may be accomplishing what we need to be accomplishing with having an environmental planner on staff who is doing a lot of relationship building and working with the department heads which I think is great and that may getting us to where we need to be in terms of what the point of that team was, which was supposed to engage people.

That's that's terrific. Yeah, that can be Yep. crystallized in a in a um very clear message that that can be very helpful. Okay. So, it seems to me that this whole section is one thing. Okay. Um and it, you know, it re it represents things that have happened over time while we have not had Yep. the climate task force that was recommended while we have not had an environmental planner when we lost one and didn't rehire it rehire anyone for till recently. So if you look at the four point sorry five points y

it's it's kind of like one thing under the category of climate change and resiliency and hazard mitigation which is it's a separate kind of a separate focus and category from the others on the page. So I think maybe uh you know like a clean slate think thinking about how do we promote this portion of our what we see as our mission might be a good idea. So that's kind of where we're getting at I think um yeah so so yeah so let's spend more time on that next time um and kind of take a fresh look at it on that piece in particular. Um, but yeah, I think that's right. We have Nick now, which is good. I mean, and we we're going to have a POC and this can be refreshed to kind of reflect all that. Okay. Um, communication. I think, you know, personally, I think that's a statement that I still agree with. Everyone okay with that? just in terms of we should always try to do better. Um uh well

yeah I think that the other thing I was thinking about is the extreme heat piece that we have under um nature-based solutions y might move to climate change and resiliency and then the um emergency communication portion of of that project. Okay. uh or education part could move down to communication. So we could break up extreme heat uh because yeah I don't really think it falls exactly under nature-based solutions. It doesn't exactly so um I think kind of folding it in. Yep.

Yeah. So, so Brenda, before you go, so just to clarify, Nancy, you're talking about taking extreme heat education under number one, kind of moving it down and folding it into number, you know, into point three, category three, and then in terms of the communication piece, count emergency plans for climate and general emergencies, that kind of becomes part of the communication. Oh yeah, that's right. So, it's really all under under number three. Yep. It's all under number three. Okay. So leave the last So so fold still leave that last point up there even if we kind of rewrite or fold fold it in. Yeah, that's your suggestion. Yeah.

Okay, Brenda, last that this is it. I'm moving on. I was just going to say uh the communication piece reads well to me. Um, I wondered if in the past, um, members of this committee had been responsible for maybe writing one op-ed a quarter or, um, just to help kind of push the communication out oped to go into the the, you know, the local paper.

Yeah. Actually, there's a green news column um, in the paper which Claudia Guardiac actually uh, started. she talked to the editor about it. Um, and we've done a decent job um, of putting content in there, but we could have more diverse content in terms of, you know, um, I'll just say I write a lot [laughter] and I'm more focused on um, trees, birds, things like that. Um, but just in terms of energy and things like that, um, yeah, I think just sort of having maybe more people um, participate in terms of submitting content, that'd be great. Yeah. Yeah. I think um

Yeah. I mean, I' I'd like to volunteer to write an op-ed about, you know, the rising cost of energy and how clean energy tech can help reduce the burden for folks in town. Of course, connect the health component. So, you know, maybe each member uh chose a topic that they're passionate about and and wrote an opad about it. I think that would be that would kind of distribute the work across the committee. Excellent suggestion.

There's also a brand new town communication piece that's just come out whose whose name I should remember, I don't that Brian just produced that I think is going to go out at least quarterly that you may want to utilize as well. that's going to be that goes up on the website also goes on the social media um and um has a v has has opportunities for specific topics uh to be addressed. Good. Okay, I'm moving on.

I I'm sorry. I have one quick I know. It is very quick clarifying question. It does say Oh, it's gone now. It said C CEC should develop a communication plan with the objected to blah blah blah. Does that mean that it is not the responsibility of town staff that [snorts] this is a plan to be developed by the members of the organization in front of me here? Um the intent is that we as a committee should be thinking about the things we want to push out there. I see and we should utilize whatever is a whatever um outlets are available including town help and the town has assisted with that. Okay. That help? Yes.

Okay. Good. Okay. Um, so I'm going to move on to um old business B through E should be fairly quickly. Fairly quick. So let's rock and roll on that. Yeah, I think my version is different than did you is different than yours, but is the first thing solar and Bloomfield? Yes. Okay. Yeah. Y

um so yep. So I can give a quick update on that. Uh the draft uh regulation is complete uh technically. The only reason I'm saying it's not totally done is because I did finish it. However, I think all you folks who are at an email chain, we got a notification that there is a a Zoom meeting called simplify solar run by third act. And the purpose of that meeting is so towns can get guidance on how to write solar regulations. So I finished the draft. I was like, well, let me hold on to for one more week and see if I can learn anything from this meeting and update it with any useful information. So for all intents and purposes, the draft is done and it will only hopefully get better. That is all

perfect. Okay. Um sustainable CT certifification update. Um you want to say something about that?

Sure. I give a progress report I suppose. Um at this time uh I think I have approximately 85 points accounted for. Uh which is 42.5% of the way to bronze certification. Um the current target submitt date is August 18th. However, it's possible we could submit earlier if we had our ducks in a row. Um with if we do August 18th, we'll have had the certification in uh within less than one year of me joining, which I think uh could be a nice a nice accomplishment potentially. Um the something that I'll just voice is Paul you and I have discussed this starting the equity toolkit now could be good or pretty soon just so we're in and because that is the one thing that is required for all submissions so we should try and have our eyes on that and lastly we kind of talked about this earlier in the meeting about uh the sustainability team it's very exciting I think since our last meeting I become aware more people who want to join not me people who are uh residents and non-members of TEC. So, I really encourage that. But that said, uh per the instructions on the website, we should have at least uh we should meet at least quarterly. Uh and if we're trying to submit in August, in my mind, that means ideally we meet at least twice before then, you know, August being approximately the eighth month of the year. Um I'm going to talk with a rep from SCT to confirm that, but that's what I'm thinking as of today. That is all. And I just want to make a comment in talking to Nick. Um, it's really great the time he's taking to meet with department heads and kind of build the relationship and give them a sense of what it is he needs and is looking for. And um, that's something that we've always talked about

um, as far as how an environmental planner can really add value. um you've got somebody on staff who is the point person liaison and is trying to build the notion of sustainability into our operations and practices in you know into the town's DNA in terms of how the how it's thought about. So um I think the investment upfront is great. Um and I just I was very happy to talk to hear about how he's going about it. I think it's really good. He's investing time but I think it's going to really pay off. Okay. just an editorial comment. Um, extreme heat, Nancy.

Yeah, I don't have anything new to present on my part, but I did want to, uh, let Nick know that we already identified, um, in sustainable CT, if the numbers haven't changed. 10.6, um, plan and prepare for extreme heat. I just printed these pages out, so I don't know if it's section 10.6 of something. So, we do have in mind that uh the extreme heat project ultimately will will um contribute to our sustainable CT and I hope to have more specific information about people that will help work on the project across town uh for next meeting.

That's great. We'll be in touch. Thank you, Nancy. Okay. And then um I think landscape regulations, that's quick, too, right?

Very quick. Uh, similar to the solar regulation, the draft, the second draft, the landscaping regulations is complete. Um, my staff is hoping to review both the proposed solar regulations and landscape regulations uh this month. Okay, great. Okay, new business. Um, I want to be um mindful of time here because a couple of these things are quick and I want to give um Brenda a little bit of time to talk about uh item D um and Bob. Um so deer crossing signs request. Um that's fairly quick. I got a an email um from a resident on Maple A who has she and her neighbors have been seeing a lot of deer crossing, which makes sense. The golf courses right there. She was asking about uh deer crossing signs because there are turtle crossing signs in town. And so I told her I would bring it to the committee. Um, you know, turtles are um, as Nick Nick and I had this discussion, turtles are kind of a um, a harder thing in terms of kind of the impact, the mortality impact if you lose a turtle in terms of the population versus deer. However, deer are also a big public safety kind of hazard. And so the um, the request from this resident was to have some kind of warning signs like turtle signs. Um, our thought and then I'll open it up. Our thought was we should kind of refer this to public works and public safety to get an idea of of hotspots in town, get kind of cost estimates on it because I think it's I mean I think this is something that is a real thing. Um, but I think we need some information about where to where else to

look. Okay. Yeah, Bob, go ahead. I think police department probably tells us where deer crossing signs should be. I had that experience a few months ago and okay I hope that the police department keeps a record that okay there have been five of them at that locations therefore it does warrant a sign right t you mentioned turtle crossings I assume that is a time of year situation that maybe should address with some kind of temporary signs

um I think well I I think there is no harm in having the signs up around more for for for raising awareness. Um, and I'll just say there is one of these signs right below where I live and we have spotted turtles which are a listed species. So, so it's a little bit of a but but again it's knowing where the hotspots are and where there's a need. So if the committee is good with this, you know, the recommend our recommendation is to refer it and I can bring it up at the public health, safety and environment committee meeting as well next week. Madam Chair, I would just note there there are a variety of deer crossing signs in town already.

Um and if you look closely, you'll see most of them have a little red nose. Ah, um particularly up in the northwest section, but on on Duncaster, on Terry Plains, Yep. Uh there are signs and I think there are in some other areas of town. So um DPW certainly is aware of it. Um I think the challenge you have is that um deer are not uh necessarily going to stick to those locations. Right. Right.

And uh have a tendency to cross and I' I've noticed a couple other areas where they um where I had not seen deer for a number of years where I now see them regularly. So I think that's part of the challenge. But I think DPW probably has in their stock um some deer crossing signs and uh would certainly be receptive to um to uh to some resident requests um although I don't want to speak out of turn for for that department. Okay. But there are signs already in town and and have been for an extended period of time. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Lorenzo,

quick question. Do we have salamander crossing signs? That's a good question. I have not seen any. I've seen the turtle signs and I've seen the deer signs. I I have seen some handmade salamator crossing signs, but I have not seen any. And I'm not sure that uh DPW has any of those. But it's a great question and we should look into it because I kind of know where you're talking about or have a sense [laughter] that part of Yeah, that northwestern part of town. Yep.

Yep. Listed species, too. So, good. Okay. Do you want to say anything else? Are you good? really quickly that that's the supplemented thing is a is actually a pretty important things because as we finished we we've been working on this forestry plan over at Hoskins and we kind of got the baseline from the state the for the baseline report from David Irwin and yeah like there are some species things it's really like organizationally it's made us really like rethink um you know kind of what we had thought right if that's a easy way to say it um And and and not it's not just that, but it's kind of like this thing around like it is the public education communication stuff like how like how are we getting this information cuz I it's just kind of like like is this department of tourism stuff as well as like department of agriculture stuff, right? Um so it's it's just interesting as we've read the report, we just learn we've learned a lot more. I caught the back end of the dragonfly conversation um yesterday and I asked [clears throat] a question but I couldn't wait. I I think I left when they asked your question Paula right after that I had to go join my other meeting and I was like wow I had never considered dragonflies were a thing I brought up in the staff meeting today and half the staff was like I got a dragonfly tattoo it means all this other stuff. So there's like this conservation species life pollin it goes back to I think what Brenda was saying about even some of this pollinator pathway stuff the trails. So I just wanted to say like yeah like there's like a vibe around public education and maybe some civic engagement work we can do around um some of these things that are coming up. So maybe we have a salamander sign making contest or something one year. I don't know.

Good good suggestion. And this kind of speaks to the um the uh point uh Brenda made about writing opeds and and you know starting to get some of the information out. Um Trop Ridge Land Conservancy every year in East Graanby has a um vernal pool walk in the spring and it's right up off the rail trail. It's easy to get to. There's plenty of parking and it's great because you go out in the pouring rain because that's when they're moving. Um, but it's a really cool thing to see all these different salamanders. Um, so I mean trying to again leverage some of what other groups are doing and yeah the the dragonfly talk was a great talk that was hosted by uh the land conservancy again and that will be uh posted on their website. So to the degree we can push some of that out as well. Um rip rack, you know, rip rack used on um river corridors, stream corridors, um is a real barrier for dragonflies as they're coming out and you know doing enclosure and going into their adult form. Something I never thought about. So lots of things we can push out. Okay, great great suggestions. Okay, I am going to move um I'm going to try to move fairly quickly because there's a couple things I want to give, you know, good amount of time to here. Um, are people um supportive of accepting the Simsbury Sustainability Commission's invitation to participate um in their fair?

I am. This is Nancy. It looks good. Last year's looks good.

Yeah. And Brenda just gave a thumbs up. People good with that because I can have a conversation with um you know I can have a conversation and circle back and see what they might have in mind. Um you know Corey and I exchanged emails about potentially doing something with pollinator pathways. Um I think it would not be a real heavy lift to collaborate. So, you know, but if you all are willing to kind of brainstorm and and work on it, um I can give him an affirmative. Everyone good? Okay, I'm getting nods. Perfect. Yes.

Okay. Shred day. Um and small electronics recycling. I mentioned this already. Um if we if it's a go and we've got money in our budget um for it, CC does. Um I'm proposing a date of May 9th. Um normally we might have done it on a May 2nd. Um but that's when the sustainability um fair is in Simsbury. So are people good with that as a date if you know if it all makes sense in terms of town support and everything else? Anyone see a problem? Yeah, we will do something for Arbor Day and then Earth Day. That's all in April. So, I'm trying to stay away from April. Okay, good. Um, Brenda, um, and then Bob, chime in. Uh, renewable energy educational opportunity for Seabberry. Can you speak to that?

Yes. Thank you, uh, chair. Um I wanted to um share with everyone that I worked with Bob uh one of our fellow members here along with um uh Dr. Reverend Dr. Dvita um at Seabberry to host a tour of their geothermal system and solar system so that we can learn more about it. Um I have a particular interest in geothermal networks. Um working with the 104CT coalition to help promote um funding for geothermal projects um starting with feasibility planning and studies. Um so uh stay tuned for a legislative u event that's going to be coming up in February. But anyway, uh February 14th is our date. Um it's a Saturday. It's um Valentine's Day for anyone who celebrates that. Um from 10:00 a.m. to noon. Um uh Devita noted that we probably will not use the entire two hours. Um I don't suspect that we're going to have like a critical mass of people who will be asking a dozen questions, but um I'm helping organize it. So um what I'll do is create maybe just a note that will go out to everybody. Um I I would imagine that everyone that's on this call or in the meeting room is is we're probably missing a few people from the seek. Um I think what we wanted to discuss is whether or not we should include members of town council and a town manager to join this tour or should we as a committee um learn as much as we can and then bring the information back to council at a later date. Um so I wanted to put that on the floor to see what people were thinking. thoughts.

Why not? Dave said, "Why not?" [laughter]

Why not include uh members of the council? Yes, I agree. I think um again, I don't think most folks are going to want to spend their Saturday morning learning about geothermal unless they're, you know, nerding out about it as I am. Um, so having members of the council I think is a fantastic idea and um, what one of my goals as a member of SEEK is to really work on helping us figure out a way to reduce the energy burden in town so that folks are not struggling with energy affordability and and you know heating insecurity during the the winter months. Um and I feel like geothermal along with solar for all um resiliency in terms of micro grids and and battery storage all of these things need to be happening at the same time. But as we know the federal government has rolled back so much but along with that the federal government is particularly supportive of geothermal networks because of its association with the gas industry. So, it's an opportunity for us here in town to learn as much as we can and when funding should become available um perhaps even apply for um a feasibility a feasibility study um in town and I don't know what that would look like. Um but learning about uh Seabber's investment, their $ 1.7 million investment and how it paid for itself over seven years um is interesting. I don't know the details of that, but that's what I recall learning from um Bob and Dvita. So, um interested in in learning more about how that could work for us in in town.

Brenda, is it is this like an in-person thing or um hybrid? The It's in person and that's a really good question. It's in person. It will be at Seabberry. Um, if you are not feeling well, uh, folks are highly recommending that you do not show up because, you know, there are folks that are vulnerable. Um, wear a mask. If you have maybe just a scratchy throat or something like that, but if you're not feeling well, please just stay home and we'll brief you later. Um, but yeah, it it is in

Interestingly enough, I've been married 28 years. I didn't even know they still made Valentine's Day. So, like [laughter] this might be the first time I've had Valentine Day plans in like 12 years. We could gutt it up. Well, she's gonna she's gonna love the Seabberry tour. [laughter] I haven't had Valent I didn't know they still made Valentine's Day. That's all [laughter] right. They still doing

this is a way to to show some love and maybe even like a future residency. Hey, maybe there's a future here. Listen, potential. Yes, ma'am. No, this is what's what's the time again is from 10 a.m. to noon. 10 to noon. Yeah, [clears throat] it's on actually if if you've got the agenda, it's it's on the agenda. And I I think what we're hearing is people are people are supportive of the notion of if you can come definitely come and let's extend an invitation to the council and to become manager and you know if they want to attend they can and they've got the opportunity and obviously everyone in this room is invited to so

right. Yeah. Perfect. So, what I'll do is I'll I'll write up a quick, you know, press release sort of framework um to for Lynn to share with um members of C. Lynn, would you also be able to share that with the the council members and the town manager? Perfect. All right. Okay. I'll I'll take care of that. Perfect. All right. Um the next item is just more of uhformational um violation at 171 Mountain Avenue and remediation plan. Yep. Sure. You want me to go over? Yeah, just just very high level.

Okay. High level. I I was um a town event. I was uh approached by a town resident about a concern she had about some vegetation clearing at a property the northwestern part of town. Um that was December 16th. The next day on the 17th I discussed the matter with our wetlands agent Peter Castaldi to ask if he knew about it. He informed me what him and his uh commission work on. And so he's the wetlands agent and the liaison for our IWWC, the inland wetlands and water course commission. Um and the reason it was a topic in that commission is because the clearing happened in area surrounding a riparian zone and stream. So that's within the water course and wetland zone. Peter told me that uh back in October he made a visit to this site uh and also collected photos of the clearing uh and then during the so that was in October and then at the next IWWC meeting in November. uh he brought the the topic up to the commission. Then um the commission uh realized that this sort of thing is not is uh it is a defi clearing vegetation in a wetland of this type is a regulated activity. Um uh and therefore uh you know would have needed a permit to do such a thing. Um the IWWC did not file a form of violation against the property owner. However, the commissioners agreed, I'm quoting here, that restoration would be appropriate. Uh, and the property owner agreed to coordinate a spring planting schedule with our town wetlands agent Peter. Uh, and our the resident has proposed to plant willow saplings to supplement to supplement the removed vegetation. Um, on December 19th, Peter, a wetland's agent, uh, sent a letter to the resident uh, putting in writing that there will be another site visit conducted in March of 2026, quoting again when there is no

snow on the ground. Uh, and then following that site visit, a replanting plan will be formalized and implemented in the spring of 2026. And as of today, no further action has been taken on with either party as of December 19th or since December 19th. And I just asked Nick to keep us kind of, you know, give us updates periodically in terms of implementation of the plan and so forth. Um, the resident had approached me as well um at one point. So, um, I was a little bit in the loop.

Okay. Um so at this point um I'm anything else before I move into um the last part of the agenda announcements. I want to um if with with people's approval what I would like to do is I would like to talk about the pollinator pathways. Um the rest of it is fairly quick announcements but I want to give Corey um some time to talk about that because she's taking the lead. Everyone good with going to D under announcements updates? All right, go ahead. Yep.

Hello everyone. My name is Corey. Thank you so much for having me this evening. Um I am super excited to be leading the way on the pollinator pathways initiative for Bloomfield. Um a quick little bit about my background. I've been in Bloomfield for five years now. Um my professional work is at the intersection of the creative arts, expressive arts and environmentalism. Um and so a lot of what I do is I work as a sustainable designer um and environmental educator focusing on adult education um and in the sustainability design work focusing on native habitats and plant life. Um, a lot of the focus there is on helping people sort of shift um and create a transition for them in terms of their perspective on what is beautiful and how we can move away from these more traditional methodologies that tend to have um ecologically negative impacts and move folks towards more ecologically beneficial practices in our yards and homes. Um, and so that kind of all brought me over to Pollinator Pathways. Um, for those of you who are familiar with it, and for those of you who aren't aren't, I'll give a really quick overview of what we do. Um, the idea of Pollinator Pathways, it's an international organization. It was begun here in Connecticut originally as a local chapter um, down by the shore and it's grown immensely since then. Um I had been in touch through some of the NOA meetings and whatnot with their um organizer there and we discussed Bloomfield as a chapter. So here we are. Um the focus in the pathways is and I think some people misinterpret the pathways are not for the humans. The pathways are for the pollinators. Um, and so while sometimes we may be working with areas like trails and parks, um,

and even some agrarian areas, really the focus here is on how do we build pollinator safe environments, um, and habitats with a focus on native habitats and native plant life. Um, and the large piece of the mission here is not only on building and installing these habitats, but also on community outreach and education. Um and so we got started in the fall of last year. We have our steering committee formed. Um we've just had our second meeting last night. Um Nick has been a wonderful resource and has joined us in all of those efforts. We have about I think 8 to 10 residents who have joined um and are all helping in various ways. We have our community kickoff event scheduled for February 4th um 5:30 p.m. at the community center at 3:30 Park. Um, everyone here will receive an invite. You're welcome to come. The kickoff event is going to have a short educational presentation from myself. Um, talking about pollinators and sort of the general information that the introductory information that'll help people understand the why and what we're doing. Um, as well as giving them some motivational bits to get involved. And then it'll go over some really easy sort of actionable um guidance for folks on starting to develop these pathways in their own homes and yards. Um and then how they can get more involved in how the the pathway organization itself works. Um in terms of what we're doing here in town, there will be events like that that focus on uh public education. um free opportunities. They are not always going to be only pollinator specific, but we sort of work around that area when it comes to conservation um and native habitats. And so that's the educational and community outreach component. Our other events will focus on things like actual garden building, planting events and installments um as well as invasive removal um

coalitions and community activities that we'll do with that. Part of what we're doing now within our steering committee is coordinating with BBC. Sharon man has been an important part of helping us get started um and Nick to begin um essentially like an audit of organizing all of our town lands and parks so that we can begin to identify areas that already qualify for the pathway that we can add um into the map already. areas that are close to being able to be implemented, but our committee would have to plan several maybe events or raise some funds to be able to move it into the pathway or areas that are highly accessible to the public. That would be wonderful spots for us to have um some pollinator programming and gardens where folks can have access to the educational opportunities that come with that. Um, so with that being said, I extend an invite to everyone to join us. If there is any CES committee member who would like to join the steering committee to work with me on that initiative, the invitation is also open to that. You're welcome to respond to the email invitation that goes out. Um, if you would also like to join steering

and as Corey said, there will be an invitation to the kickoff kickoff event as well as the opportunity to sign up to be on the steering committee. Um, and Lynn's going to send that out for us. Um, any questions, comments for Corey? Okay. Actually, um I'll I'll make one. Um I just think it's really great to see a lot of different things converging. Um I think kind of you kind of leading the charge in pollinator pathways is great. You know, we we're into year six now or trees for bloomfield. We have this forest stewardship plan. Um there's just a lot of convergence as you put it going on. Actually, I was talking to somebody else who was excited and used the word convergence. So, I think to the degree we can be really leverage all of this and I'm using the word leverage too much. Um, I just think it's really exciting and hopefully we can really keep the momentum going. So,

y I'm sorry I couldn't go ahead Lorenzo. Yeah, I had a quick question. You mentioned the organi Connecticut um CTO NOA has an organizer in for Bloomfield or I didn't know they had organizers. No, it was sorry. It's the organizer for the pollinator pathways. The overall organization is who I connected with through NOA. Nice. Okay. Great. Thanks. Okay. If I can. Yeah. I just wanted to say thank you and I I already forgot your name. I apologize. Cy.

Corey. Yes. I thank you, Corey, for stepping up as a town citizen to help promote this. I think it's so important and um I I'm not going to volunteer in a moment, but um as more information and and the planning progresses, I'm pretty sure I'm I'm going to be available to help in one way or another. Um so I just again wanted to thank you and it's I'm loving the energy of SE. So thank you. Thanks, Brenda.

All right. Um All right. I'm going to go back to uh item A. Uh, and that's really just uh a reminder that this simplify solar kickoff um by third act. That webinar is on January 14th. That's the one that Nick referenced earlier and I think we all have the link to it. Um, so I've registered and if you're interested, you know, sign up. Um, Tree City USA and Trees for Bloomfield. I mentioned that the um application for reertification was submitted on Monday. Um and I'm pretty confident that that won't be an issue and will be reertified. Uh trees for Bloomfield, we are um actually I've spoken briefly with Sharon Man. We're trying to um look at the forest stewardship plan. Also, uh Dan Carter is working on his uh rightaway inventory. That will be a big project for this year in terms of getting that done. And you know, we'll we'll need to do an event for Arbor Day in terms of planning or something. So, that is um kind of revving up in the planning stages at this point. Um anyone have anything to add to that? Things are happening. Okay. um public landscapes working group update. Um Nick, can you address that just quickly? I mean because you're helping to facilitate it.

Oh. Oh, I see. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just real quick.

Yeah. Okay. Sure. So, there's been a effort uh mainly through the Bloomfield Beautifification Committee um aka the BBC um regarding the management of landscapes within town. um specifically those both at parklands and forest lands as well as the the grown landscapes around town buildings so like town hall the library um 330 park etc. And so there's been a coordinated effort amongst multiple departments, parks and wreck, DPW, land use and zoning and building. Um along with the BBC, um the town manager's been involved, our finance department's been involved, all kind of trying to think about solutions uh or just thinking about ways we can better manage our landscapes aside from just uh general kind of I guess you would say traditional methods of of mowing uh and that go beyond that. Um there's been a lot of uh talk about having potentially a management plan or just kind of like writing down and organizing thoughts surrounding um ways to manage one property versus another just because some areas might need certain care over or you know different care. Uh there's also been potential talk of hiring somebody who is a dedicated person who will work on these kinds of landscape management goals. Uh but that would be within DPW. Uh that is the thought. Uh but that is all these are all ideas that are swirling around but that's what we've been discussing. I think Paul, if I could just add it, there, you know, it's um it starts at the beginning that often we get these particularly with the newer buildings and we get landscape designs that have um sophisticated plannings that require particular types of maintenance and um

the Department of Public Works uh admittedly is not staffed or funded uh for that level and um technical capability. ility of maintenance. So a variety of conversations are are being suggested. One when um designs are being developed with landscape architects to have initial conversations with them in terms of discussions of the town's capability to maintain what they're putting in so what they put in does not uh disappear over the first growing season because uh it's not able to be maintained. And then secondly um you know transitioning from um which is really a funding challenge from uh the existing process used by most public works which is a general large scale um simple maintenance of mowing and clearing and and allocation of staff. Uh, for example, one of the examples was when there's a paving program going on in town in the summer. Uh, Dan has to reallocate and reassign his a lot of his staff to support that. We're paying 8,000 bucks a day uh to have paving done and so we want to make sure that we maximize that. Uh so there's as part of um the budget preparation uh the town manager has challenged uh a collective group of departments uh to come up with uh a potential budget uh for dealing with this situation and um seeing whether or not uh in a budget year where zero increases is basically the norm uh whether there's an approach to begin to address the issue directly. Thank you. Well said. And um I've sat in on the first two meetings. Um really

great meetings and and I think the word transition is a really good, you know, you look at what's happened the past 10 years with the new buildings and the new projects. And John described it perfectly, these more complex plans. Um but just thinking in terms of a sustainable environment going forward. um you know lawns mowed grass um probably isn't the best way to go. So in terms of transitioning some of our existing landscapes into more sustainable ones that don't require the same level of mo mowing maintenance etc. Um you know that I think is the objective. So um yeah so that's the update on that and uh anyway David is smiling so that's good.

[laughter] All right. Um, we have worked our way through everything, I think. Um, anything else? Any public com any other public comments before we adjourn? Okay. Can I have a motion? to adjurnn. [laughter] Okay, Bob, can I have a second? Is Brenda? I second.

Thank you, Brenda. All right. Um, anybody opposed? All right. Uh, it is 558. We are adjourned. Thank you very