Conservation, Energy, & Environment Committee - Regular Meeting

have a quorum. So, we'll get started. I'll call the meeting to order at 4:36. And for a roll call, um I see uh Bob Dickinson, Claudia Guardiac, David Hager, uh Jessica White, and myself. Um so that's five terms of the um approval of the agenda. Um is there anything anyone wants added at this point? Okay, we shall move ahead. Um approval of the March 13, 2025 meeting minutes. Could I have a motion? Okay. So, Dave Hager and a second. Second. Okay. Bo Bob Bob and Claudia. Okay. Any discussion, corrections, additions. I think I sent a couple of very minor edits like change a word kind of thing. Okay. Um Okay. All in favor? I Okay. All right. The minutes are approved. Mr. Town Planner. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, this last month has by and large been all things budget. And um, as if you've been following either social media or the town. Um, the budget has been um, approved by the town council and forwarded on for the town meeting which will be held in May. Um right now I think believe it or not that the environmental planner position is still

included and um if it remains included after um town meeting and the final adoption by the council uh we can um begin recruitment uh uh in miday with hopefully having someone on board um during the summer. So we're very excited about that. Um, I think the other big news, um, budget-wise, um, I think, well, a couple of things. One, if you've been following, they're going to phase in revaluation over five years. Um they have transfer they are proposing to transfer some money from the reserve account to um lessen the tax increase. Uh that is caused by both revaluation and the reduction in um the um car car tax revenue received because of new calculations um required by the state of Connecticut. Um and they did uh they are proposing a transfer of some funds from the uh reserve account to establish a uh economic development trust fund uh which is primarily going to be focused on um revitalizing the town center. Um, in terms of other things, um, you may have noticed if you've driven by Gistler Shopping Plaza that there's a fence that's gone up, uh, in the, uh, southwestern corner. That's the Popeye's location. So, we may finally see some, uh, action there. That's always the first step. And, um, they have submitted their final building review plans for review. So, that's moving along. Um the town center plan itself is moving along rapidly. Uh it has been scheduled for public hearing on the 29th of this month uh with action by the town center committee on the 6th of May. uh followed up

um almost immediately the following night or the day after a review of that by the uh an appropriate council subcommittee with a view to hopefully having council action at their meeting on May 12th. um concurrently and finally uh the plan of conservation and development I hope will be uh released for public uh review and and the required 65day review at the uh town plan and zoning commission's meeting on the 24th of this month. Uh staff is finalizing the text and the proposed land use plan as we sit here and uh hopefully have it out to the commission next week for its review. Um, and we're actually revising the plan inhouse. We're using um our in-house services to to revise the the pl the future plan, the actual map. Um, and um, very appreciative of the IT department helping us do that. Um, we're also going to have a public hearing on the TBZ is going to have a public hearing on the and its meeting on the 24th on proposed amendments to the zoning regulations to establish a section on inclusionary zoning which we discussed at the last meeting. Um, the Arbella restricted housing project has submitted their building plans and we hopefully will see um movement of dirt there and in mid to late spring. Um, and there's also, um, you can't see it, but there's a great deal of work, interior work going on, uh, in within the command complex. They are doing a great deal of renovations. And there's the um, gear up production. That's sort of the, um, the, um, ELR, plan, luxury residential at Watkins and, uh, Simsbury Road is um, is moving along. And I think that's sort of

the the highlights of where we are. be happy to answer any questions. Questions? If the uh if the council has approved the budget, what is the impact of the public hearing? presumably that depending on um what happens at the t the town meeting at the town meeting at the town meeting I think gives feedback and that I don't I don't think the council actually officially adopts the plan until after the town meeting if my memory serves me right when I was on the council. Right. So the town meeting could influence the budget. Yes. Other questions? Okay, thank you very much. Um, that's I'll just comment that's um very positive so far about the environmental planner um because that ties into some of the things that this committee has identified that it would like to uh pursue. And um I think I mentioned last month I had a very a very brief conversation with um the manager um like a 10-minute conversation and he was very amendable to um appointing a climate action group um and obviously having so that's something we should um perhaps as a committee talk about as far as suggestions for folks he could appoint to that. Um, oh, and welcome council me Merritt. I see you've joined us. Um, so you know, I I think we definitely we as a committee will definitely have representation there, but the manager is

looking for suggestions from us so we can talk about that. And um he um basically welcomed um another visit after the budget. So that's kind of where we are on that. Okay. So that's good news. All right. Um so moving along to the sustainable CT reertification. Um, interestingly enough, I just got um an action alert about contacting your legislators to to push to add another million dollars over the next two years, 500,000 each year. Um, just to have just for sustainable CT to have funds funds available to do the work it does. um that doesn't seem very different than um kind of where we were a while ago. So I'm not sure what the evolution is. Um any commentary or if anybody knows anything, please share. Okay. Because I think our intent was um to start looking at it again and and again if we do have an environmental planner on board and that program that state program has money um then there's an opportunity to get reertified. Um I I um I'll just share very quickly. Um I attended what turned out to be Glastonberry Land Trust. um that's not its official name, but it's the Glastonberry Land Trust. They had their annual meeting on Sunday and um one of the highlights they announced is that Glastonberry had gotten certified whatever the highest standard is, gold, I think. Um which they were very proud of.

Um they had a they had an interesting program. um Evan Zako who is the PhD student at Yukon who's using drones and liar to figure out beaver populations or beaver be beaver habitat uh did a presentation so maybe that's something we can bring to Bloomfield he's amenable to come and talk to us maybe um early next you know early next year so yep but uh they were very proud of their their gold s their gold uh certification. Okay. Um I have no new business at this point. Um oh, I skipped right over recycling program. Um which I can come back to. The real star of the show under old business is um I sort of hopscotched around because uh the planners report reminded me of some other things further along under old business, but um I know that Jessica and Claudia and Nancy have been doing quite a bit of work about um on looking at extreme heat and what we might do. So, I'm going to hand the mic over to Jessica. Sure. Thanks, Paula. Um, so yeah, Nancy, Claudia, and myself have had a series of meetings at this point really trying to educate ourselves about this issue and um, how we can help just raise awareness around the community. I think we talked about this a little bit at our last meeting, but since then, we got together and we drafted an outline of a webinar that we're planning in collaboration with the library. I think the date is June 17th off the top of my head, Paula. I Okay, that sounds familiar. It's

definitely in June. We thought that that would be good timing sort of at the beginning of summer um when this is probably going to be a prevalent issue for people. Um but really what we've been finding through reading is that high temperatures, which are happening more and more often, having heat waves or heat domes, things like that, um can really take a toll on people's physical health. Then even if you don't die for example, right, there still can be lasting effects that people um have because of the stress that your body goes through just trying to stay cool and to deal with those effects. Um so it's predicted that these are going to become more regular occurrences and probably things that people need to worry about a little bit more. Um so there is an outline of what we've put together and what we're thinking about talking to folks about. Um, I think it starts on page seven of our agenda. Um, so we have a working title there, just a short blurb that kind of goes along the lines of what I just said. Um, but really wanting to raise awareness of why this is harmful to people and also what they can do to help to mitigate some of the effects or um to help protect themselves a little bit more, especially without air conditioning. Um, so the first section, I won't like read the whole thing. thing I think folks can can read through and kind of get for themselves, but it's really again why is this an issue? What can be some of the effects that people feel from this? Um really cardiovascular strain is a big one. Um sweating more which can lead to dehydration then can have other cascading effects on your organ systems and things along those lines. Um and again the effects can be lasting. Uh respiratory issues are another problem that a lot of people feel. Um so who is at risk? There's several groups that have to be mindful. Um, young children, the elderly, um, people who work or play outside, and then also folks with, uh,

specific pre-existing medical conditions. Um, and that kind of drives also who we thought might be good audiences for this, like certainly some of the senior citizen population in town. Potentially, we can take this at some point to the senior center or something like that to talk directly to that population. But even like people working in the youth camps, you know, in town at summer, right? Are the do they know the signs to look out for in the young people and um how to respond and things along those lines was another question that we had. Um so from there we thought that we would try and open up discussion um to see what people are already doing. You know, what are some of the tactics that they use to help mitigate for themselves? Um, and then we have a list of solutions or things that we recommend that are a wide range of things from like plantings in your yard to um, even, you know, putting shades up that kind of block out the sun on the inside. Um, but also like staying hydrated and using a fan with water splashed on, you know, certain parts of your body or things like that to help just uh, increase the the cooling effects that are happening. wearing loose clothing, things along those lines. It's a pretty exhaustive list, but that's intentional so that people have a lot of options and um feel prepared with what they can do. So, for here um from here, we would really love feedback on this outline. If anybody has suggestions, if things don't feel clear or you know, something that you still are wondering about, please let us know. Um, I think from here the next step is to make a slide deck and kind of formalize the presentation a little bit more and then start promoting it. So I think Yeah, Claudia, anything that I forgot? Anything else to add? Your questions or comments? I just excellent job. I think you covered

everything very well. Thanks so much. I I think this is really terrific and uh um I think there there's room to add things like um the gradation of problems going from a heat cramp to heat exhaustion to heat stroke. Uh and the and the gradation of symptoms that occur with those stages. Um I think I think that would uh would be uh one thing that can do would be helpful. I'm interested in in knowing how you use the the wet bulb. Talk about the wet bulb. All right. So, I'll admit Nancy is going to be the better person to discuss that. I am not as educated about that, but I think it has something to do with the amount of humidity that is in the air. Um, I don't think I can justify explaining it much more than that. I don't know if anyone else can. Yeah, I I'll defer to Nancy on that for when she's back. So, so I I thought I would I'm just interested in knowing and and if you could have a wet bulb at the webinar and use it. Um that would be kind of fun. Sure. Yeah. I think there's a wet bulb. I also think there's a dry bulb. uh but whatever and how it relates to humanity that that could um anytime there's a case history that could be presented it's it's also a wonderful way to get into some of these things. Yeah. And uh so for instance, if there's anybody in Bloomfield that's gone through this or uh you know of anybody or you can find a good case history that can that can be uh wonderfully uh helpful in focusing people on some of the symptoms. Totally. I agree with that. Thank you for that suggestion. I always think of storytelling right as a way to connect with people. So every time we can make

it real for them, I think it helps it to resonate. So that's great. And I also really agree with um talking about the progression of what this might look like, right? What are the early signs and then what is our more severe symptoms? Things like that is definitely something that we should add to this and maybe we'll consult with you about if we got it all right or not. So, thank you. I believe um Nancy also has been in communication with the public health department as well and we intend to share this draft with them for review and hoping maybe to get even endorsement from them that they'll like you know say what we're saying feels credible to them and that they they agree. So, if somebody asks, "Is there a place to go if I feel as though I'm getting confused or I'm not sweating and I should be sweating or um is is there a place in Bloomfield to go? Is is is the webinar going to reach that point? I saw Claudia Yeah, Claudia, go ahead. Jump in." Y well actually that came up in our discussions but we haven't done all the research yet to answer your question right this minute. I looked at West Hardford uh to see what they were doing and I mentioned this at our last meeting I think. Um they they have a you know emergency management office and a full-time staff person who coordinates here in Bloomfield. I think we depend on fire and police to intervene in emergencies. Um and then um and then up before it gets to the emergency stage when we are offering people a chance to cool off in a communal setting. we discussed, but we we don't have the, you

know, go ahead or anything like that yet of using, you know, 3:30 Park or some uh place like a school or that's air conditioned. But, um, we recognize that, um, if these are really extreme heat events, they may there may not be much cooling at night, which has happened. It happened last summer. Um, it just didn't cool off at night. And so, it was even worse the next day. and um and so we don't have uh facilities for people to sleep at, you know, if they don't have air conditioning at home. So, we got that far in our discussion, but I think we do need to tie that up a little better than we've gotten to so far. Yeah, we're more in theformational stage. The am the ambulance people could also be very helpful. I mean, if if somebody's going to take their temperature and it's 101, that's one thing. But if it's 104, hey, which it really gets to be in some of these really severe, then then there's no question what people need to do and and having call the ambulance and get there, right? So, so adding that and maybe even getting some of the ambulance people uh into this would be something that that could add to the webinar. EMTTs. Yeah. Yeah, that's great to sort of add to what Claudia was saying. Uh we're sort of taking a two-pronged approach to the issue, this webinar and public awareness being one and sort of lowhanging fruit that we're trying to go after first. But we've also been asking questions about what's in our town's emergency preparedness plans. You know, are heat events considered in those and you know, do people know how to respond? To your point, where are the cooling centers that you know, we don't have a great grasp of that either? And kind of hoping that this is the start of more

conversations. Um, we're also interested, part of the reason we wanted to include like a discussion session in the webinar was to hear from people like what do you have, what do you need, how how can we help support folks in the community to navigate these. So, I think Bob is next and then uh John. One of the things I think the emergency personnel a real key to this, they they could tell us when when they uh you know when they transport to a hospital as to what conditions are are considered are considered critical that they could have add an awful lot to this discussion. And I think that uh as far as uh two things uh in uh let's say people that are not doing any physical activity and what they need to do what and what the symptoms of people that are still trying to work outside and and when they need to be alarmed. Yeah. I know. I I I I was kind of many many years ago when I was about probably 50 or 55, I was on a hike at a Grand Canyon and the the the the uh the raft tour guides or whatever that supervised the hike for us and and it was well it was going well over 100 degrees, but we all were fine because he more or less used the whipped and and to how much water we had to drink per hour every hour and and it worked. Yes. And I I think normally when somebody's even working outside at 90 they're they're not aware of how how much water they need to intake.

Absolutely. Yeah. You have to change your behavior, right? You can't do the same activities when it's extreme heat that way. Absolutely. I think that any any of course any lawn care service or something they they they need to be they have they still have to work at 90 degrees but they really need to be aware h that they really have to push on their employees drink. Yeah. Take breaks. Exactly. Yes. John, I was just gonna wet bold I think was the um the original and still is the measurement of the heat index. It combines heat and humidity. I can remember years ago when I worked in the municipal building in in Hartford, which had no air conditioning, um that when it really got hot and humid in the summer, someone would walk around the building with a wet bulb and if it reached a certain level, you know, they sent everyone home. Um Okay. Okay. We need to find a wet bulb. Okay. Um, electronic humidistats are are are very addict uh dependable now and probably they've come a long ways even in the last 10 or 15 years. So that you know a a wet bulb is the what you calibrate these electronic instruments to but but they are I don't know exactly how they work but they are I I have like three or four of them and when when they're always within 1% then I say they're accurate. We'll have you as holding things up. Right. Um, just a couple of quick comments and then I also want to welcome Brenda Watson. Hello Brenda. Um, I was glad that um, when Lynn provided your comments um, you know, your outline that she included the

comments because I think that's very helpful. Um, and I kind of fell down because I believe I offered to talk to Dave Molesco um, about kind of youth programs and what they're doing. um he's a good source I would think in terms of finding out um I know a lot of summer camp activities are take place inside the building because it's air conditioned um but also I think some of our youth programs um you know I don't know how much activity there is in the summer but it would be good to connect with some of the folks involved with our youth programs um and I just want to um remind all of us. Um Nancy did a really good job, not this past not not yesterday, but like last month, she attended the public health, safety, and environment committee meeting and brought this up um the fact that we wanted to do this, but she also brought up concerns about um the availability of information to our residents about what's available, what to do, where to go to get things, and um the council members um councelor Lloyd chairs that um committee and then India Rogers is the is the um you know staff liaison. They were very receptive to the yeah we need to be kind of more proactive about this. So um I think it would be helpful maybe to circle around to India um because she has lots of ideas cooking in terms of trying to put information out. Yeah. So um and like I said everybody was receptive so it was good good thing. We also talked about taking some of this information and creating either some kind of flyer or maybe it's a section in like the Bloomfield newsletter that goes out.

Something along those lines too so that there's multiple ways to get the information out to people. But we haven't solidified any of those plans or what that's going to look like yet. It's just an idea. Yeah. Okay. Anything everybody? Yeah. No. Uh great job. Um, the dynamic trio is doing fabulous work here in terms of pulling things together. So, thank you. Yeah, the suggestion. One more. Maybe for our next meeting, we could invite invite an EMT either in person or on Zoom to fill us in as when to run up the red flag. Yeah. and we could maybe approach um I know L Lewis Blumenfeld um chairs the BVA committee and he reports out at public health safety and environment so we might ask him and he might suggest somebody we could invite. Okay, anything else on that before we move on? Okay, good discussion. Thank you. Um, so now I'm going back to item B under old business because I've been jumping around. Um, recycling program update. Uh, we talked about that last month. Um, and basically the the things that we're sort of focusing on at this point is cork and batteries. Um, I will confess up um that I haven't pursued that at this point because I think we need to have a conversation with the town manager. Um what the suggestion was was for cork if we wanted to collect it to use something similar to what the Lions Club is doing. They have um a couple of like cardboard boxes with liners over at 330 Park kind of at two of the entrances and that's where

they're collecting the plastic um that they get um trex benches for if you collect a,000 pounds. I think it is um doing something similar with cork might be um feasible and acceptable um but we would have to manage it. Um batteries is the other thing that we've talked about and the bin you know the um container that was out in the parking lot was pulled because of um trash concerns. People were dumping trash in there. Um, I just went and looked online and was finding some smaller containers that are specifically for battery collection with small openings. So hopefully, you know, that would uh dissuade people from trying to dump things in. So, um I'm willing to have a conversation on it, but I think, you know, um I did my homework today on that, so I don't have a lot more to offer than that. But, um thoughts are open and we do definitely need to bring the manager into it and make sure he's comfortable with anything because, you know, he pulled bins because they were being abused. So yeah, comments. I don't know where, but if we could have these battery containers uh at some location where there's a person, you know, just uh I mean, this has nothing to do with their job, but they're just, you know, somebody's working at a desk all all day and but there's that box within their site, then people will respect the sign of no trash. Yeah. And the other thing we have to Yeah. And the Yes. And the other thing we need to um they need to be monitored and you know a question of frequency needs to be answered like how closely how often.

Um the fire marshall had they there was a bin for batteries in you know um bulbs um a bunch of things in the lobby up until co and then it got pulled but then the fire marshall was justifiably concerned with having indoor storage batteries because of the fire risk. So they made the trip to the parking lot and then people were trashing them. So um that was the issue. So it would be you know there are places to bring your batteries to recycle and take two you take um thank you take two recycling that that where we have the truck twice a year with the shred truck they take batteries. So, um, you know, if we had containers, it would not be, you know, certainly I, my husband would, you know, pick them up. But I think I think we would need to be emptying the containers more frequently than that. And again, we just need to make sure, you know, it doesn't burden staff. Um, doesn't give them something extra to do. And, um, they're being monitored. So, so more to come, but um that's where we're at. Okay, Brenda. Yep. Yeah. I just I think that um the general public doesn't care to separate trash in the first place, right? So, when you have public receptacles like that, I think it's just kind of inviting people to abuse them. So I wonder if maybe we should take a step back and consider ways of which we can encourage separation of trash in people's homes first. I mean I that's a heavy lift. Y um but in my work, what we're doing is we we own three multifamily buildings, lowincome

housing, and we've introduced um composting to our residents who um in the first few months did nothing with the containers. Um we're still monitoring um even in our commercial space, we are encouraging the use of separation of trash. So we have three receptacles, one for compost, one for trash, and one for recycling. It's going to take some time to get people used to the fact that they have to process how to mindfully, you know, throw things away. So, I wonder if maybe we should kind of think about ways in which we can introduce education before we introduce the actual bins. Yeah. And we Yes. I mean, we need to be thinking we need to be thoughtful about all of it. what we have been doing and when I say we when I say we Lynn has been doing for us you know we ha again we have a nice um information piece that we keep updated but updated but again kind of pushing it out and it's like how do you you know how do you focus and how do you get the change in behavior and how do you get into you know what's going on in the schools quite honestly I can't tell you at this point oh yeah So, um, but yeah, um, to be continued. Um, obviously this is a problem that won't be addressed, you know, in in a month or two even. But okay. Um, councelor Merritt, I'm sorry you I see your hand up. Yes, I I do have a comment on that. U, good. I I I we have a battery container in our house for putting used up batteries in and uh I would think that better than having a place for us to dump it into a can somewhere which seems to always have problems, it might be better to just

have it. I think you said that they will accept those at the uh when they at the pickups um uh where they uh I'm trying to think of the shredding pickups. Right. So why don't we just include that and suggest to people they bring in their battery container because I would I don't I mean ours fills up at least takes a year probably. Um right. So that might be a way around because there is a problem with containers. I've been going back and forth on the containers for doggy do pick up on the bike path. The town has a real problem with with trash cans because people just dump stuff in them. So that might be a better way to handle it. Yeah. And actually um I mean that's a great suggestion. We we um our shred day and e recycling day is May 17th um from 9 to noon. It's going to be at Bloomfield High School again, which is great because that's a really nice site because you can do everything in one parking lot. Um so bring Yeah. No. And and we just figured out when I say we CEC, we just kind of figured out relatively recently that they take batteries that take 2 takes batteries. So we should be promoting that definitely um this time around so that people will know they can bring their batteries in. Who takes them? Um, take two recycling um the big, you know, the c the big the company that um kind of travels around and takes your televisions, your laptops, your old phones and kind of, you know, recycles what can be recycled out of those electronics that so they don't just go into the waist stream. So, um, good

suggestions. Um, definitely take a step back and, yeah, push that information out. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Good. And thank you councelor Merritt. Um that's a good suggestion, good reminder. Okay. Um we have talked about um the POC and that's coming and that will be the opportunity to look at kind of elements of um the POC with incentives in it for renewable energy you know um multi-use paths etc. Um, we've talked about the environmental planner position, sustainable CT reertification. Those are kind of placeholders and will stay on the agenda. Um, in terms of 2025 legislative session monitoring, um, this is just an opportunity to talk about, um, bills of interest. Um, we were doing quite a bit earlier, I think, in the session in terms of get, you know, trying to submit testimony for things that interested us. I've got House Bill 6423 uh down um because Bob brought that to my attention. It didn't get out of committee, but um and I'm I'm going to ask you to talk about it, but the legislator who was pushing it, I think, wants to bring it back. And so um Bob, if you want to talk a little bit about it, that would be helpful. I think it's Brennan or something. But anyway, he is kind of looking for support next year who who who will to get additional legislators to to sign on and uh and if

we can get get various towns to endorse it. Can can you can you can you describe what it is? Okay. It's it's a I should have brought a copy, but just generally Yeah. BA Basically uh the t the town would en able the towns to require uh a uh a developer to set an set a to give the town an equivalent amount to what it would have cost to put in sidewalks. So that in a case where they're not used the uh the or there were physical restrictions of you know, big drop off or something like that. And then the town used that money to put in sidewalks and or or bike paths in in high priority areas. And again, it would be not requiring the town to do it, but it would be enabling legislation if a town wanted to do it. Right. Okay. So con considering our emphasis on complete streets, that seems like something worth considering. Yeah. Anything else that anyone wants to bring up about the session? I know everybody's um there was a uh there was a Democratic town committee last meeting last night and Senator McCrory was there and was just talking about um the preoccupation with what's um going on at the federal level. So everyone is very worried about that. Obviously that was the emphasis. Okay. All right. Um, so I had no new business this month.

Um, there's a lot of updates. So, so the the last part of the agenda, um, announcements, updates, upcoming events. Um, so I just want to kind of give you, you know, an open conversation. Um, so Tree City USA designation, um, we got it. I can't remember if we officially had it last month or not, but we got it March 12th, I think, is when we got it. Yeah. Um, and it's great because there's swag that the Arbor Day Foundation sent in India's office apparently. Well, apparently, I just saw it. We have a plaque. We have a couple of big signs that we can put up. Um, we have a flag. Um, so it's kind of neat. Um, you know, we've got stuff to kind of show our pride. Um, in terms of trees for Bloomfield update, um, there's a ton of activity and I attached kind of a summary um, as part of the package. Um, Sharon Mannon, the BBC is kind of leading the charge. Um she got a grant through the Arbor Day Foundation that um local business Cummings is, you know, funded the Arbor Day Foundation. They um I think just finished up um and maybe Dave knows something about this. Did you help? So on Tuesday there was I think it was really a wonderful wonderful gathering. There were six teams of five um six teams of six in each team. uh a wonderful group of of of employees over at Cummings came and uh really worked hard uh in terms of removing a lot of bittersweet and and uh growth around trees, saving trees in Loellet. And if you go up to Loellet now, just beyond the uh community

gardens, you can see it's a it's it's dramatic what what's been done. It's it's um very very impressive. Uh Ron Pittz was there with his 1957 original Chevrolet truck, which in itself was a treat to see, but gave phenomenal teaching in terms of what to do and why to do it and what not to do and why not to do it. Uh um so it was uh I think people worked hard for for uh um solid four hours. It's good. And my my and I think um prior to that a forest mulching machine was brought in to kind of do the preliminary work and then the handwork was done and the and the the helpers from the from the BBC were there served a beautiful lunch. Sharon had things organized with kits with loppers and clippers and saws for each team. Uh it was it was extremely well-run and very successful. Nice. And um that's ha that's basically half the grant funding and there's also a going to be another community tree giveaway. um it's going to be a little bit different and then I think it's spelled out in the summary in terms of it's going to be open to all residents. Um and it's not going to be as many trees. Um at least that's my understanding. Um but it's good to continue that community tree giveaway component. So that activity is going on. Um, I'm pleased to report that um the public works department um has been notified by the Connecticut Urban Forest Council that Bloomfield was

awarded um $30,000 grant and uh for the continuing the street inventory um in the rightway, which is great. Um actually Dan Carter is working with um Deep to kind of refine the application a little bit because um the feedback we've gotten is we provided an estimate um from one vendor in terms of what could be done and as it turns out um they have some suggestions for other vendors which would allow us to get more mileage of Bloomfield Roads done. So, they would like to see us do that and it would be good for Bloomfield. So, good. It's good news. Great. And just as aside, I don't know if everyone knows that um the Bloomfield DPW was just recognized by the association they belong to as the number one public works uh department uh I think in the region in the New England region. Yep. Yep. It's on the It's on the town website. Yeah. Yeah. By whom? Recognized by whom? by their by the public works association. Oh yeah. The whole Well, I think in all of New England. Yeah. Yeah. Broadcast that. Yeah. They richly deserved. I I was witnessed to an example of why they deserve that. And uh I I notified the public works director of uh of brush on the up up on the on the on Terafll road where it crosses the rail trail. There was a lot of brush right on the edge of the road so that you couldn't see if somebody was standing there waiting to cross the road waiting to cross the road. Anyway, I sent an email. Reply came back that they'd take care of it

and a day later it was taken care of. They're a good crew. Really are. Okay. So, um and then finally um to obser So, so we have Tree City designation, but um that's you have to get reertified every year. So now we're starting to work in 2025 and you know one of the requirements is just having an AR arbor day observance. So um our Arbor Day event is going to be um a co-sponsored activity with Traprock Ridge Land Conservancy. Um and what we are doing is we are installing actually an Eagle Scout project is the installation of a tree trail at Hawkhill Farm which um is owned by the land conservancy but the town of Bloomfield holds an easement on it. So it's always been a collaborative kind of thing and um it's a cool project because the scout is installing a kiosk. There are nine tree signs. Um, five of the trees are notable and we're going to have a very nice ceremony. Um, I've been organizing it so I know the details of it. Um, the so the mayor will be um just sort of speaking and kicking it off because this is our first this is our first Arbor Day as a Tree City USA which is kind of neat. Um, we have uh Danica Dowski who's uh the state urban forester. she is choosing to come to our Arbor Day celebration and she's going to speak um about Arbor Day. And then um Pom Nicotira who's a Bloomfield poet, works at the library and kind of established um the poetry program here in town. He

is going to be doing a short reading. And then um Diana Hughes, who donated some funds to establish the trail, um is very excited. She's going to be cutting the ribbon. So, we're going to have a ribbon cutting. So, um it should be a really nice I think um and it's nice some young people are involved. I I the fact it's an Eagle Scout project I think is great. And there's a young woman um I think it from East Graanby who um goes to Sfield the Vog School in Sfield who is a really um fine draw drawer artist and she did all the drawings and all the tree signs. So it's really um you know it really does take a village and this is going to be a I think a very nice event and the farm the farmer will be there as well participating. So should be a lot of fun and my biggest worry if anybody has any hints on u managing parking that's my biggest worry for this thing is um all the parking on Duncaster Road could be a challenge. Yeah. Um, what about a um walking school bus or a bike like mass, you know, critical mass with people on bikes? Yeah. Yeah. I I was thinking potentially shuttle, but we're it's like I got two and a half weeks to figure something out. So, my sense is you may want to have a conversation with with the police department. Yeah. See if they can at least have a patrol officer on who's on duty at the time be there. I think the key is to try and get the parking in just one side of the road. Right. Yeah. If we and and they can control that so that it's on both sides and then we're going to have some issues. Yeah. And and and I am going to meet with India next week because she's the obviously the liaison for the town. So she's kind of managing things. But I hope you can all come. Um I've been trying to forward things as I get them. Um because I think

it's going to be a really nice event. A April 27th, which is a Sunday. Um, we don't have a rain date. We would just reschedule at some point if we had to. Um, but we didn't want to predict a rain date either. Um, and it's at 1 p.m. So, um, the ceremony the ceremony will be hopefully between 1:15 and 1:45. We'll have some light refreshments. Um, the Connecticut Land Conservation Council is coming because um, they like this property. Um it was part the purchase was partially funded with open space grant. Um you know it it it ticks a lot of boxes for a lot of different organizations. So should be a nice event. Okay. So that's you know lots of good stuff happening on the tree front. Um except you keep seeing them cut down. Um but that's kind of what's happening there. um all-American city application. We found out we were not a finalist. Um which is disappointing, but um we learned a lot, which is good. Um artificial turf ban resolution update on that. Um I learned earlier this week that the Rockwell Park Planning Committee is taking a look at it um tonight apparently. Um, so I did send um some additional information um namely the letter that the lower Farmington River Wild and Scenic Committee sent to the town of Simsbury because the youth soccer group there um would like to put in an artificial turf field near the Farmington River which is not a good idea. So um that's that's very recent. The letter was sent out like two weeks ago. So trying to

um it's it's good that the the resolution is being circulated to different groups that would, you know, have something to say about it and have an opinion on it, but that's an update. So, um I'll let you know what I hear when I hear it. Okay. Any any questions online? I'm or comments? Okay. Um, hi Adam. Hey, welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, we will make a point of saying hello just quickly going around um since this is your first meeting with us. Um, you were traveling last month. So, welcome. Okay. Yeah, thank you. um Highlands region designation resolution. Um that is um I think at this point just in the parking lot um in part because I don't think the federal government's going to do anything with um anything at this point. The funding would be um questionable. So um we can follow up. Um so I'm just ticking through here. Uh the recreation committee um applied for a small grant for Farmington River Park to install four benches and some bridges to improve trail passage. And um that is the wild and scenic committee and I'm one of Bloomfield's representatives which is great because I got to go to the two subcommittee meetings um that consider the grant the grant applications. And the good news is um both the education and outreach and recreation subcommittees like the project and are recommending it be funded and the full

committee will meet and vote on that next week. I think the 17th. So that should um give us a little bit more a little bit more in terms of improvements in Farmington River Park. That's great. Yeah. And and this committee Yeah. and this committee wrote um a letter um of support for that. So, uh it's a good project. The the and I'll this is the third small grant that the lower Farmington River Wild and Cena committee have given to us and I'm just going to say it. We are um that committee is that committee pulled all its funds all of its funds that were appropriated from from Congress when the opportunity presented itself so that the money is in hand and it is doing its best to spend everything before the end of the fiscal year so that it won't get pulled back. So, um, yeah. So, that's that's another good development. Bird migration. Um, take the lights out pledge. Uh Zelene is not with us, but um this is a followup to the um the dark side of light webinar that Marjgerie Wyinners did for CEC and the land conservancy in March about the negative impact of light pollution on birds, insects, human beings, fish um And April and May are the peak migration months for birds in the continental United States. Uh so I wrote a short

article um for the messenger last week. Um and it was a it was a blast to write because there are some really fun sites out there. Um, there's something called Birdcast and actually Lynn, I'm gonna pull yours. Um, there's something called Birdcast and if you um go if you go to it, it gives you kind of real time maps of bird migrations. Um basically you can specify a county um you know a specific location and it will give you projections for when things will peak. Say in Hartford County Hartford County it's May you know basically all most of the birds come through in May. Um but it's a very um fun engaging site to look at. Um and I think people will really enjoy it. And it's, you know, there are some very simple things you can do to help the birds. The um there's another organization called Lights Out Connecticut and that's what they're promoting is, you know, um reclaiming the night sky. Um they I I wrote to them and they have given us permission to use any other materials in terms of uh pushing that out and promoting it. The local paper can use it. Um, so, um, Claudia and Zelene, um, who have offered to help write, um, I think it's going to be very helpful to periodically between now and the end of May to put in reminders, put in little simple flyers. Um, the the easiest thing you can do is turn off turn off your lights between 11 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. And that does a lot to help the birds, you know, it's

something as simple as that. So, All right. I've been Yes. Yes. Claudia, and you're on mute. Um, since I'm also on the uh library board, I was going to ask this question, but I I'm I'm volunteering to find out if we don't know um whether anything has been done about all that glass that's going up on the new library, new proer in terms of bird safety. if if you could ask that would be good. I've been thinking the same thing. Um, and I thought in terms of the renderings before the building started going up that it wasn't just going to be a wall of glass. I thought there was going to be brick, you know, more thinner panels, strips of glass. Yeah. So, I think it would be great to ask the question, Claudia, if you can. Yeah, I we when we meet, we talk endlessly about other things with that new building, but not the outside. So, uh I'll find out and I'll report back. Great. Thank you. Unless Joe, you know something. And you're on mute. You're on mute. Yeah. Uh I uh I don't I I'm concerned about that myself because I it's a great view. I mean I was in the library about the new library a week ago and just to look down at the village the town is is beautiful. I have to give them credit for that. But I mean even my house

windows I kill a bird here. And I mean normal windows. I I don't know why is, but I wonder if there's something you can do to uh give birds a warning warning signal that don't don't fly into this window. So maybe to maybe something. So I think it's worth bringing up there. There is there is I think it's all it always comes down to money. Um there's we we had advocated for bird safe glass. Um, like I said, the the seeing it go up and seeing just a complete one side be glass, I was like that will kill birds because they will see reflections of trees and they will just fly into it. I mean, that will happen. So, um, but yeah, thank you. the trees outside the library are dying anyway. So maybe those Yeah. But but but actually if if they just see reflections of trees, that's what fools them in the glass and that's why they fly into your windows and I get the same thing. I get an occasional bump and I always go running and you know usually I don't see any bodies which is good but generally if they strike they're not they have a reduced life expectancy. Let's put it that way. So, thank you, Claudia. That's that that would be helpful. All right. Um, oh, let's see. So, I've we've talked about Arbor Day, we've talked about Shred Day. Um, we're co-sponsoring these events with uh the public library for Earth Month. Um, we've talked about the extreme heat webinar and I'm hoping everybody got the email about PE cycling

kits that I just sent out earlier today and I think I copied you on it too. Okay. Um, libraries got some available. Um and we had that sp jointly sponsored um interesting talk about peace cycling and they've gotten some kits in um to give away and some at each some at the atrium and some at the new the new library. So um if you're interested um there you know make sure you reach out and contact um Sarah or whoever is designated there. Yep. Yeah, it is pretty cool. Um, if you saw if you if you looked at the uh flyer or the image and the kind of like it's like it's it's interesting. Yeah. If you look at that picture and the the pea uh bottle is is great, but also in that picture in the back is the famous bench that was made in 1804. by craftsmen here in Bloomfield for the library that was being used then what's going to happen with the oak log that's now at BT B DPW. We're waiting to see. I've heard they're considering a sculpture. That's what I heard, too. Yeah. But they don't have a sculpture at our last meeting. Go ahead. At our last meeting, they just said uh and that was two days ago various things are being considered. Okay, that's it. That's all I

know. Okay. So, at this point, I mean, I'm just going to open it up before we adjourn. Does anybody have anything they want to say? Bob. Yeah. Two things. One, and maybe the environmental planner might get involved in this or it could be ga the information gathered some other way. And that would be good for if the town were able to put out maybe monthly may maybe a longer period of time kilowatts produced with by renewable energy. Otherwise, all our all of the the schools that have projects and and and if we can gather uh the figures from homeowners just so that we could say the town produced x numbers of kilowatts uh during this past month. The other would be uh if we could identify all of the v the vacant unused land in in in the town which might be candidates for uh so solar fields. Uh because we we could use the income from that the lease lease payments to you know to plant trees for instance and and that would be an a yearly thing. we could it would be an income stream if we could arrange it. So, so I'm going to comment on that because several years ago um this committee um actually the economic development commission sort of um originated the notion of we need a policy. the council needs to pass a policy about um renewable energy projects subject to

citing council control. And the idea was to have a policy that specified um and it was geared towards solar at the time. And the idea was to sort of cite our preferences in that policy so that we would have something as a town to point to if something came before the sighting council and we wanted to make our wishes known as a town. Um and um actually for Brenda's benefit because I know she's interested um the council actually updated that to make sure it explicitly included battery energy storage systems. Okay. because we didn't think about that. No one thought about that like three or four years ago. So, it's good because it's got um an environmental justice section in it in terms of that as well as the environmental impacts, agriculture, you know, like and to Bob's point, one of the things that the CEC, you know, if you had your brothers, it would be great to inventory part the parcels in town, you know, in the zoning like if we had our brothers, where would we want to encourage solar, you know, renewable energy developers projects to go? And that was something the CC talked about three or four years ago. Yeah. Still a good idea. Putting in these projects is the best way to stop pipelines and gas plants because then they the energy is not needed. Yeah. So, I have a question for John. Oh, I'm sorry. Uh Joe and then Yeah, go ahead. Oh, I I I would been talking John Coleman knows how obsessed I am with about uh wanting a solar field uh near my house. As a matter of fact, I'd rather have that for a neighbor than some of the things they're talking about

putting there. But there's there's a what 20 30 40 acre lot right nearby right on 189 cost from me. And I make I had the solar people in town uh look at it say, "Oh, it'll be a great solar field, but we'll never get it." Because uh they don't pay much for that. There's no incentive for an owner of a field like that to uh uh turn in to rent it out or sell it to solar field people because they just don't pay much. They can't afford to. There's not a lot of money. But I'm just wondering if we can do something to incentivize that kind of activity. And uh I I I know that uh nearby there's also a battery park which I'd like to see. I'm sure nobody else does, but I do. Uh I not my backyard. It's in my back. I'd like to have it in my backyard. So I think it's important we do these things. I've been fighting to get a mini bus that they're b for senior services and I found out that um I wanted to get at least a hybrid. I I didn't even ask for a plugin but I'd like to have a hybrid at least and uh found out that uh the federal money coming in there 80% of those just won't pay for a hybrid. It just is a regular van. It just seems so out of date that we're back there. But with what's happened in Washington DC, I I suspect that certainly isn't going to change in the near future. Um, but anyway, I would love to see something done to encourage uh solar farms and but I'm I'm just not too optimistic

about it. Anybody has any ideas, that'd be great. Yep. I I don't have any ideas, but I think it would be a good idea to um in addition to collecting or developing a database of parcels um and I'm pretty sure there's already one that exists, but a database of the number of multifamily homes um in town as a result of the Connecticut Green Bank's energy storage program, which 40% of the um incentives must go to um justice 40 or um low and moderate income customers. Um there's a huge benefit to providing backup storage and making u more of our homes in in town more resilient, right? Um but I'm also concerned about the sighting council and um them wanting to develop battery storage on open space. I think that that's a horrible idea. Yeah, especially if it's 200 megawws. just saying. Um but just actually you're you're soliciting some memories. Um John had sent me um an email about a webinar um about battery storage and it was not at all what I expected in a in a positive way. Um because I'm I'm I'm thinking of these huge, you know, projects where you're worried about thermal runaway and all of that. um any environmental impacts. It is remarkable how far sort of residential smaller storage systems have come in like the past six or seven or 10 years. Um that's what this was about. And this was about programs in

terms of um battery storage at the residential level for solar. Um so um I'm glad I'm being reminded of that because that might be something um we take a look at. Yeah, it was a very good webinar and I I think I'm on I think because I registered I should be getting you know some followup or you know some yeah you know something. So if I get something I will share it and I should share it because it it was it was very interesting. All right. Anything else? Go ahead. I did want to share that um Clean Energy Group has just finished wrapping up their um drafting of Connecticut uh climate resilient building codes for multif family buildings um and affordable housing. Uh there is a webinar coming up I think April 25th. Um I'll send you the the notice Paula but um public comments on the draft is about 46 pages long will be accepted through June 27th and I think it's um it's a benefit to uh of course see these building codes be passed and I I I don't know what the process will be after June 27th if it has to go back to legislative session like next year. Um but I think it's u a really good idea for this committee to um have some exposure to that and and you know take a read. Um we definitely need for um more climate resilient um development in the first place, but we need to take our existing buildings and ensure that they're brought up to today's standards to so that they're more energy efficient and resilient. Um so it's it's I'll send

you the information. Yeah, that would be good. And perhaps what we can do is actually put that as an agenda item to talk about next month. Um, and we need to gear up to also be looking at our POC draft when it comes out. Um, and the fact that the TPZ is looking at this inclusionary zoning, I mean, it's kind of a nice it's a good time. It all ties together. Yeah. Okay. Thank you for bringing that up. Okay. Anything else before I entertain a motion to adjourn? Oh, well, actually, I'm sorry. Welcome, Adam. It's like and Adam, what I would like to do next month because we're we're running short on time. Um, we did this last month because Charlie never is a new member. um was here last month. I want to take a few minutes just to kind of all introduce ourselves and um give you an opportunity a little bit to talk about what some of the things you might be interested in and maybe we can have a conversation. But um if you'd like to say something now um and and you don't have to, but if you'd like to. Yeah. No, I'll just say um thanks for having me, I guess. And yeah, that's fine. If we want to, you know, take that uh take that up next week, I'm good with that. Okay. Or next month, sorry. Next month. No, that's fine. And uh certainly if there's anything um any particular topic that um strikes your fancy that you're interested in, um feel free to just shoot me a quick email. Um, we are going to be forming a climate, you know, the we're going to be going to the manager to ask him to appoint a climate

action team um to go with the Actually, I've got to get it right. It's the task force that is recommended in the uh climate um climate emergency energy plan to try to start driving implementation of some of the things in the plan. Um, and we need representation from a lot from stakeholders as well as town folks. So, um, there's certainly opportunities for committee members to be involved with that if that's something you're interested in. Okay. Um, but there's lots of other stuff that's going on, too. And, um, oh, cleanup day. Um, let me mention cleanup day. April 26, there's a townwide cleanup day. Um Sharon Man BBC is leading the charge on that. They've done that for the past couple of years. I think it's like 9:30 to 12:30 and 9. Yep. And um lunch after. So um if I'm I'm going to be leading a team. Um I don't know who's going to be on my team, but um I'm putting feelers out to the recreation committee and to trap rock members. So, if anyone's interested um and you want to be, you know, I I can sign up a team if we want to do that. So, yeah, it's going to be around town. I think they're they're picking out they're picking Yeah. And I mean, recreation committee, they were talking about potentially doing some stuff toward the center behind Philly Park, over by some of the plazas. I think, you know, where they see trash is where they're going to send teams. So, um, Burr Road, please. Okay. Burr Road. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Now, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Okay. Bob, can I have a second? Claudia. Yep. All

right. Thank you everybody. Have a have a lovely evening and we'll be