Conservation, Energy, & Environment Committee - Regular Meeting

30. 4:30. Let's say 4:30. Um, so as far as roll call, see, um, obviously I'm here. Nancy Bowden, Robert Dickinson, Claudia Guardiac, David Hager, uh, Brenda Watson, uh, I think I got everybody. Did I miss anyone? And I think Jessica will be joining us online later, so we'll keep an eye out for her. So, we do have a quorum. Um, any additions or modifications to the agenda?

Okay. Um, could I have a motion for approval of the November 13th meeting minutes? So, move. Okay. Second. Okay. So, Claudia moved and Brenda seconded. Okay. Uh, any discussion or corrections? All in favor? I.

Any abstensions or nays? All right, the minutes are approved. All right. Um, this is great. We're moving right along and we do have a hard stop tonight at uh 5:59 because the trails committee is meeting in this room at 6 p.m. So, without further ado, we will move to our first presentation. Um Dan Carter uh our director of public works will be talking about the right-of-way street tree inventory. Thank you Dan. Take it away. Good afternoon everybody. Can everybody hear me? Okay. Hang on. We're adjusting the sound, the volume.

Can you say something, Dian? Can you hear me now? Needs to be a little bit louder.

Try it now. Can you hear me? We are getting some text support. Please hold. And Jessica has joined us. Can you hear us? All right. Online? I I can hear you fine.

Okay, good. I'm getting thumbs ups. You may need to make up on his end. Can you say something now, Dan? Can you hear me? Yes. Good. Perfect.

So, good afternoon everybody. Um Dan Carter, director of public works. Um I'm not so much a presentation tonight, but as an update. Um I've uh worked with um the trees for Bloomfield and Paula. Um, this time last year, we applied for a Canab Connecticut Urban Forest Council grant that's administered through Connecticut Deep. Um, and it, um, the project that we applied for was a continuation of our right-of-way tree inventory in town. Um, and we were awarded $30,000 grant from Connecticut Deep, um, which we signed a contract in July and we advertised an RFP for a vendor. Um, the bid opening or the final for submitting proposals was today. So I don't have any results from the um purchasing department yet but we have advertised looking for a vendor to perform a tree inventory for us in the roadway right ofway. So the purpose of the project we completed in 2022 I believe 28 miles of right-of-way tree inventory and it was primarily down in the southeast corner of town. And our plan was to take any available funding um and continue that tree inventory northerly kind of spreading out from the southeast section of town and do as many miles of roadway as we feel we can complete with the budget that we have. Um, in addition to the $30,000 that was provided through the grant from um Connecticut Deep, uh, we have a budgetary line item um, as part of our

operating budget for public works. So once we get a vendor and we know what the costs are going to be, we're going to identify the amount of money that we can put towards this project. But our hope is is that we can do um at least another 30 miles of right-of-way tree inventory, if not more. Um, you know, again, we look at the trees in our community as an asset and, um, it's the way we're looking at it is we want to we want to identify them, track them, and, um, just like any other asset we have such as sidewalks, roadways, signage, and that type of thing. So, um, we have a completion date of this time, 2026, December 2026. So, we're right on schedule to get this project off the ground in the spring when the leaves pop, get our inventory done next summer, um, and then wrap this up by this time next year. So, that's the update and report that I have. And if there's any questions, I'm more than happy to answer them. questions from the committee. Go ahead, Nancy.

Feel like this is a question I should have asked a couple years ago when we first started talking about this, but what the right of way is is that considered to be like the first three feet from the road that the town ostensibly owns should it need it for widening or what exactly is the right the right of way? How is it defined?

Yeah, so typical road rightaways are 50 feet wide. Typical pavement in this comm community is 24 to 30 feet wide. So you're looking at 10 to 15 feet off the edge of the pavement. And those are trees that are under the jurisdiction of the the town. They're they're considered property of the town and they're under the jurisdiction of the tree warden, which is myself. Um so therefore, if they're to be removed or or uh we plant any trees, it all comes under the jurisdiction of the tree warden. what what has been done with the first 28 miles?

So, we have a um we have it all mapped. So, we have an assessment right now um and that we can that we update as we make modifications as we become aware of trees being added or removed within that rightway. Okay. Uh Bob,

yeah, one of the concerns I have is that same 10 or 15 foot rightway is where we ideally would have a bike path or a wide sidewalk so that people do not have to ride in the streets and I don't know if it could be done in the same inventory of okay what is what what is the uh what is the space available to expand the sidewalk state of six or eight feet uh and and still not interfere with trees and also be aware of future needs so that we won't plant trees where we want to put a bike path.

Right. So, well, right now we have we have an inventory of our sidewalk, so we know where they are. Um and um you know, obviously it's all part of they're all tools that we use when we're planning new projects and new developments. So, um, it all kind of plays in together.

Other questions from the committee, uh, online? Jess, do you have anything? Okay. Um, I will add a comment. um as part of the grant application uh trees for Bloomfield CC has a role and basic basically our role is um helping the department with out outreach and making sure the community is aware um we're having our reception for the photo contest next Tuesday and when we talk about initiatives um you know and and accomplishments and then looking forward uh we will talk about getting designated as a tree city uh in 202 25 and we will talk about kind of a forward-looking thing being doing more on the rightway inventory because it's something that's been needed for a long time. Um I'm going to say Bob you're bringing up a very good point and this is the kind of input hang on this is the kind of input we want. Um, but our role will be to try to, you know, get the word out to the community through the messenger, through the town website, through pushing things out and maybe having some, you know, public forums in fact to talk about these kinds of things. Okay. Yes. Bob,

I was just saying ideal if you're going to add trees. Yeah. that if it's uh acceptable to the abuing property owner y that it be in their their frontline front yard maybe beyond the right way. All things to think about particularly since we've been doing trees for free plantings. So, um, but again, this is exactly the kind of input and, you know, it's going to be a short conversation today because we have a packed agenda and this is Dan's first time, you know, um, reporting out um, in part because we just got what into the RFP process, but

well, we advertised it and we just got responses. So, you know, we're going to in the next couple of weeks, we're going to be reviewing the responses and uh selecting a vendor and hopefully signing a contract and getting this project off the ground. Great. Any anything else for tonight? There'll be more to come. Okay. Um thank you, Dan. Much appreciated. And uh Mary Pelleter from Park River Wershed Association is up next. And I know you and Rob are here um to participate in this as well. So just as I was drinking some water, that's my timing. It's impeccable. That's right. My my element. Yeah.

Um so I think you're going to pull up the presentation and um so again, I'm Mary Paliter. I work on the Park River Regional WHED. It's a 501c3. And I'm going to go through some of the just background on the project which the 501c3 was formed based on a recommendation. Do you want me to click or how do I Okay, I might be faster if I can click through myself. Is there any way I rotate that or or um Yeah, some of these are going to go quickly. So um so the North Branch Park River wershed management plan uh the the uh was completed in 2010. That's this document. And what it did was it recommended that there be a um a 501c3. So we formed Park Watershed based on the recommendations of this document. But I had really just come at this. I'm I'm my background is in in my training is in architecture and urban design and I've worked in landscape offices and taught design and so I'm rather new to the whole you know design uh the political process um and the levels of engagement um u related to regulation. So, I'm going to hand around the 210 plan and um so I have 15 minutes, right? And to five o'clock.

Yes. Okay. All right. So, um so the North Branch Park River is begins at the confluence of um of uh Beman's Brook and Washbrook and Phillybrook um has flowed into Washbrook as well. And you can see it's about a sixmile stretch that's primarily in Hartford neighborhoods. It's uh technically it's impaired when it flows into the city of Hartford. And uh and so what we found, you know, the reason why it's impaired, impairment means you can't swim in it, you can't drink it, and you can't fish in it. And those impairments are due to fecal um bacteria, storm water runoff, combined sewage overflows, channelization, erosion, and sedimentation. And so the this is the whole uh drainage area or the basin of the Park River regional watershed. And as you can see, the majority of it is in Bloomfield. Bloomfield is 74% of the 28 square mile watershed. Right. It's or how no actually this is complicated to say it. The town of Bloomfield's land is 74% within the North Branch Park River regional watershed and that 74% represents 68% of the drainage basin of the watershed. And um as you can see um 18% is in the northern neighborhoods of West Hartford and only 11% is in Hartford. And there's more photographs on that, but here's um to the right of or the left of this image, you can see how much uh in the pie chart, Bloomfield's land um represents the watershed drainage basin. And again, West Hartford is slightly

more than Hartford's at 17%. So, so the work that we do, um, let's see if the these are the subwaterheds, Beanbrook, Washbrook, Tumblebrook, Phillybrook, and again, I think all of those are tributaries that you're familiar with. And um, and all of those converge south of Cottage Grove Road. So, uh, the the North Branch Park River wershed management plan, the 2010 document had extensive instructions for everyone and there are three pages and at you can see at the top that red arrow, it's to establish a watershed organization and then those two um yellow strips are the watershed organization and what we're supposed to be doing and then the North Central Conservation District which is has been our fid fiduciary or it it's not really a fiduciary, but it's been our partner um from an administrative perspective for over a decade. The blue is the listing of what Bloomfield's role is in the watershed management plan. And now I've just changed the page because there's not only is there plan implementation, water quality, uh, habitat protection and restoration, sustainable growth and land use, there's public education and stewardship. So each of these has detailed goals that were in the original plan. And that's what park we've been doing. And we needed to update the plan because the plan was 15 years old. And that's part of the work that's required by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection in order to get grants um to have sort of priority role in grants. And you can find the the 210 plan on the website and the updated plan which is in

my hands is is will hopefully be officially updated in 2026. So, our partner is the North Central Conservation District, which is largely Hartford County. And we uh and and then this inset of the Park River regional watershed shows what the territory is of the 501c3, which is includes the whole municipality. So it's not just part even though for instance Simsbury and Windsor are tiny portions of the watershed basin we include the whole municipality. Um so there has been a lot of progress on the 210 plan which is why we're reaching out to um commissions and organizations because we want to see more. And a key point of the original plan was that we realized that anywhere we work along the watershed when we conserve riparian zones along that edge we there's benefits. So that green uh the green there is is that little segment which is often seen in my if you see me in webinars and that's a segment that's behind Scarboro Street where there's actually a lot of landscape and the water quality in that area much to the surprise during the original plan improved whereas once you go downstream and there's more inputs more floodplane parking lots more outfalls obviously water quality deteriorates. So based on that, you know, we begin the sort of smaller recommended projects, which is building these deep bio retention basins. This one is east of um 110 Sherman Street in the Yukon Law School, which is a deep 8-ft basin and uh you know, it's filled with with plants. So this is a bigger version of a rain garden, if you know what rain gardens

are. But what we really found was that it's you know it does a a lot with respect to uh water quality improvements and creating habitat but it's not a big solution and what we need sooner rather than later is big solutions. So, so that over time, over the past 15 years, I begin to observe that we that this bigger strategy was needed. And not only that, there's a historic precedence in Hartford because of a letter Frederick Law Olmstead wrote in 1871 when he was looking for a site for Trinity College. He recommended that they lay out the streets along um along the north branch away from the stream. He pointed to the north end neighborhoods and the de degradation of the water quality because they had built too close to the streams and also to the community quality of life and he recommended it be public grounds. So it was of interesting issue especially given the historic context where six years later he moved to Boston and he worked on the emerald necklace in Boston which transformed the muddy river from a stinking sewer open sewer into a parkway and and then the office thestead office continued to do that for many years and you know we've been advocating for riparian buffers and there's currently a a vegetative riparian buffer first working group. So it's a historic precedence that has sustained in not only Boston and so Rock Creek Park in Washington DC but many other cities and um we hope to see you know more policies related to vegetative riparian buffers. Um and guidance really is what I think commissions need. They need guidance. But the plan is really recommending

these conservation strategies which you uh as a town of Bloomfield can go online and find these things. There's a website. There's uh um this document which I'm going to hand around in a minute and there's some instructions. You can download the plan and it's loaded with research on um the steep slopes, the flood plane parking lots and so forth. And you can see what is the role of Bloomfield is up there at the top of the right hand side of the screen is Copaca Shopping Center. And um and actually you can go back one more. You can see that pink highlight there that's showing some kind of steep slope. I've never I've never really been back there, but this is the topic that we're going to now be diving into is this no-name stream that's east of Copaka Plaza. That's an opportunity for conservation um for the the town of Bloomfield. And that could make a considerable difference to um uh the challenges in flooding in the north end neighborhood or the Blue Hills, actually the Blue Hills neighborhood of Hartford. So, you can see it's actually municipal land up there. And um uh um and I'm not sure what the there's a bit Oh, that's the University of Hartford property. That yellow all that yellow area, that's also a large wetland area that um is recommended be conserved. There's University of Hardford owns a lot of wetland areas and we're concerned about that. So, I'm going to zoom in. Uh so everybody gets a little bit better look at this at this segment of the north branch. This is the main stem. It's not the whole basin, but it is the tributaries that are flowing into the

north branch. And you can see the pink is municipal and um and the yellowish is private and the green is state, which is interesting. And then there's some unclassified land in there as well. Um, so that's just it. Again, that blue box is to show you your own area. So, what are the opportunities that are relevant to Bloomfield? Well, you know, one of the things is you need to uh this is a before I go into land conservation, I want to highlight something that we heard over the summer during one of the public hearing meetings, which was somebody said we the town of Bloomfield needs to be concerned about turning the roads into Berlin turnpikes. And and this was a this was a very precient point and I I happened to return from Kansas City where I'm originally born and Kansas City was was designed as a series of parkways by a mentee or somebody who who Frederick Law Olmstead had mentored and and it's extensive long linear parkways that serve as storm water uh parks even though they they didn't use the names in that way, but they there's intermittent streams and so forth all along these linear parkways that have no incoming roads, right? And so therefore, I can drive for miles without stopping because they can time the green lights. They can sequence this in very effective ways. And if there's a shopping center, there's one or two pulloffs and then it's like it's not each little big box store gets its own pulloff. It's very effective. I, you

know, I know coming from Kansas, you want to say, well, that's Kansas and not Connecticut. But it it is planning and it is successful and and I highly recommend that it uh I think there's pressure right now to build uh projects along Cottage Grove Road that will encroach upon the wetland that is um uh right at the confluence of the main stem. Um but what these uh these sort of stormwater parks and linear parkways do offer is they offer these sort of generous scenic vistas, reduce traffic problems and uh reduce road cuts into etc etc. So that so then well how do you get why does that work? um will you create these walkable community service clusters and I think this is another thing that you're you're you know you you need to identify town little centers they're called shopping areas in Kansas City the developer who oddly enough worked with it's it's hard to explain but Walt Disney is there there are multiple shopping centers within walking distance of certain residential neighborhoods So just focusing on having a high density urban area downtown in your town center doesn't necessarily mean you have a walkable municipality. So and of course you want to have all parts of your city need to have access to nature. And that's another thing is that in Hartford we're you know it's like well we have to develop everything because you don't have you know you're a city. It's like well no the the way the whole premise of Frederick Law Mstead is that you have a nature and you have access to nature in cities. So again

what can Bloomfield do? Um, in in the conservation commission, uh, it's really looking at ways to restore your riparian areas and your flood planes and conserve um the steep slopes, but also uh the the flood flood planes and I have pictures of those, but also I have um pictures of why that works for climate vulnerability. Right? So, if you you can see up there where it says Bloomfield and again at the top of the screen where that the bee of Bloomfield is a cooler area in in the city and the darker pinkish colors is the hottest area which just overlaps Copaka Plaza. Right? So you you can see the impact the heat vulner the heat impact of just Copaka Plaza and then that no-name tributary you you can actually see the line running through that cooler area. So those are considerable differences and then of course to the right the flood vulnerability you can see those corridors will always be u vulnerable to flooding so why develop it right you know I don't how many of you are familiar with bloomfields um with um uh Meridan Stormwater Park Meridan took out a whole area that had been developed and they had buried a they had buried a river and then they just developed it, right? And and it it flooded, it became derelch. This is this is not an unusual stories that you if you develop land that's in a floodprone area, even a small stream, you're likely to have that property become derelic and abandoned over time. So, they finally

took it out and created a beautiful park that's visible from the train. So, I'm I'm running out of time here, but that's pretty much what that's the goal, right? Is that you have that well, what that would do. The yellow are the neighborhoods in Hartford that's flooding. Just downstream of the impacts from Bloomfield, right? There hasn't been a sufficient um hydraology study for the the main stem. Um but you can see those photographs on the left. Um, we're seeing really bad flooding and of course these parking lots have been flooding for decades, but the the the lower photos are really outrageous. Those happened just a few years ago. Um, so uh this is another closeup of of that area. Let's see if that I didn't I wasn't able to add a lot of um text to this picture, but you can see I think this is municipal land. its opportunity for conservation and um you know there's a lot of work involved in in that um getting that but it's it's successful. It's an amazing story. The the conservation of non-navigable streams. This was the muddy river under construction in 1892 and this is what it looked like in 1920. And it, you know, the currently the the muddy river is being restored and um, you know, there's a whole array of um, community engagement on many different levels just because on this linear parks flows through the city. I think this can work in Bloomfield because you have the land area. you know, in Hartford, I've really been fighting against um bicycle trails and so forth because the land area isn't there. It's not like it's Farmington where there's like lots of

area. Um but I think not only on this unnamed tributary, but other tributaries, Bloomfield's conservation energy um where conservation energy and environment committee can can develop this as a type as a typological design strategy that would work for the whole city. So um and hey it all started here really with and not you know in the Hartford metro area. This is of course Bushnell Park which was designed around restoring the Park River which was it was polluted at the time. There was an industrial um uh factories and spurs and you know problems and it turned into this. Now we have to do the work to see a more positive future. So, I'm going to send around this plan. This was an this I didn't get this in the presentation, but it it shows a focus area that uh you know, adding trees to the Copaka Plaza um shopping area and conserving some of the land around it.

Okay, I think we can stop there. Yeah, and actually that that's good because we wanted to allow some time for questions and discussion. Um, and I know we've got Nick, we've got Dan, and we've got Rob here. And, um, they're here for a reason. So, why don't we start with you and then we'll go to the committee. Comments, questions?

Sure. Uh, Mayor, you and I have spoken a few times and, uh, I'm familiar with these efforts and I think they're a great I think they're it's a great idea. Uh, I can tell you that, um, from a land use side, we've been looking into that part of Bloomfield in particular, that southeastern corner. Um this the area south of Cottage Grove in particular and I think the area the neighborhood that we're actually doing a I guess you can call it a study on is the area that is directly around that unnamed tributary. We're just kind of looking into the general land use in that area because there is a lot of mysteries in terms of and I think Dan can back me up about maintaining those rightways along I think it's called Central A Hillrest Taft those areas. So that area is a big question box now but for that reason it has a lot of opportunity as to how we want the future there to be. Uh there is a lot of town owned land there. We're aware of that and we're seeing um how that land can be used in a sense of like it's not being developed or being developed just and how that the town interacts with it in that sense. I mean how do we use the land? So it's on our radar for sure is what I'm trying to say here. Yeah. when again I it you know the some days I've just like learn the learning curve for like how do we get this done right like how do we create these beautiful neighborhoods that that I'm familiar with because I grew up in in them right where there can be plenty of fastm moving traffic but there's conserved parks and and so forth and I think it is a two-step process where uh be the culture of planning in Connecticut does seem to have prioritized these sort of Berlin turnpike development strategies and I think you know the town of Bloomfield and the conservation commission has to be very clear that th that's not working

and that that won't work for you because you can conserve that land but I for instance when I drive on Cottage Grove road I notice that there you know they've up toward towards um is it that intersection before the the cemetery? Uh it Blue Hills.

Yeah, Blue Hills Avenue. They've they there's efforts to sell the land along along Cottage Grove Road and then there's that piece and of course the University of Hartford wants to monetize their land. So, you know, one of the challenges is how do you create incentives for property owners? That's a that's a big one. But the climate um resiliency is is a dimension of it that that that that can be um brought to light. Yeah.

Actually, I just want to make sure that Dan and Rob have an opportunity to comment or provide a perspective. So, you don't have to, but you're here. So, no, I think this is all good information. Um, you know, I think Rob can probably comment. You know, Bloomfield already has uh a committed a large amount of real estate to flood control um for the city of Harford. I mean, how many acres of of of flood areas, conservation and flood retention areas, Rob, do we have?

Yeah. Connecticut Connecticut Deep um you know owns 1125 acres of flood control property in in the Bloomfield town limits. That's a actually thank you for reminding me of that because yeah that those are are uh in those patches um you know when in studying the biodiversity crisis we we understand that increasing connectivity you know isn't just good for linear parks and walking along linear parks but that you know aven and aquatic species need connectivity of of of landscapes and and so these riparian zones become either neglected or intentional uh paths of connectivity. But what's interesting about our parks historically is that a lot of them were patches and these these basins that deep conserves were kind of park patches, right? Um that aren't, you know, that we could go on and on about their mode and they're not necessarily pollinator pathways. I you know but I think that that might be a negotiating point like with them in some way because there's again a lot of discussion about how that those uh flood control measures haven't been reviewed or updated the hydraology studies in decades decades. I I will just make a comment more from the lens of being on another Bloomfield committee, the parks and rec committee. Um we have lease we have long the town of Bloomfield has long-term leases with DP on and I get the numbering wrong, reservoir 2, reservoir 3. Um one is behind Seabberry and the other is kind of a Butts Whitenbury Hills golf course off

Tungstus Avenue. And I do know um you know I know that there's some good habitat there and I do know that there's there's definitely more deliberation in terms of what's going on there and in in terms of renewing the leases especially for habitat. You know deep is pretty insistent on kind of what's goes on and you know Dan's crew is the crew that has to maintain the stuff but I know like at Seabberry for example there was a flying club in there. There's a flying club in there that kind of I'm not sure how that all happened originally. They ultimately got um politely asked to leave and you know relocate and the point of doing that was because of habitat needs for um state listed birds and and pollinators. So, I mean, I think the good news is there's more um intentionality around kind of revisiting some of the practices and um you know,

Dan, you know, Dan certainly hears from me occasionally um and I know Dave Volco does in parks and wreck about mowing and not mowing and all that kind of thing, but

supposedly there was a statute passed and I've been trying to get the number in the spring um to conserve land in a way that that will balance out like upstream and downstream and it was mentioned in like a water planning council meeting but then when I asked for the statute number they sent me something to like the neonicides or you know it's something else right so I've been trying to figure that out because I would like for the north branch to be the pilot because then deep would be actively assisting us they actually have hired someone um to um to manage the pilot based on this statute. So let maybe let's stay in conversation about that because I do think it's a lot of it is is um systemically modifying uh urban and you know planning and conservation strategies.

Um and I'm just going to you you mentioned a um riparian buffers working group. Um I believe Alicia Shermute Rivers of Yeah. And it's like I talked to Alicia recently about this so I know that there is a working group in terms of repairarian buffers. She was mentioning legislation. Um so you know maybe she knows the statute um because I think that's a

yeah it it it's it's an curiously quiet mystery. Um but uh yeah, the working groups uh is you can find all the information about the working group on the on the on the Connecticut General Assembly website and there's lots of really great uh information about rifarian buffers and the significance of them. So whatever the legislation, you know, does or doesn't get passed in the coming session, um there's a lot of guidance for um the conservation commissions around the around the state.

So I'm going to want to wrap up in the next three or four minutes. Um but I also want to give anyone who hasn't had an opportunity to comment who would like to or ask a question. This is a a technical a technical question. Uh is that PowerPoint available for download? Is that on your website right now or actually we just downloaded it?

So it's it's all Yeah. So you please feel welcome and the website um an easy way to find the organization's website is go to parkwwaterhed.org or and then go down to the North Branch project and then it'll click through to a very complicated a large scale um website and look for the plan update which is on the far right but there's extensive information including all the project documents and it's a you know it's a fun it's a governmentf funed um project and so who was ever hearing this online we we this is a non- hierarchical effort even though Park wershed, you know, is out there, you know, trying to raise awareness and encourage people to go to do to to make our our nature and our neighborhoods more beautiful and so we can we can live and enjoy high density walkable urban areas and um yeah, so thank you so much for having me um and you know here today.

Thank you, Mary. Um we'll we'll be talking for sure. Um and uh we'll move on. But very good. Thank you so much. Okay. Yep. And um Dan and Rob, if you want to drop off because I know you're awfully busy. You do not have to hang around. Thank you very much. Appreciate you being here. Thanks, Paula.

All right. Um we'll move on to town planners report. Yeah. Yeah, sure. I don't think John is on. I don't see him on the screen. John is uh he's out been out sick for a few days. Um we we email and text still. He didn't have anything in particular to report. Things were kind of just chugging along as usual in our department. Um so unless you have any uh particular questions about our department other than the things already on the agenda, but yeah, and there's there's plenty on the agenda. So yeah, so so we can move into the agenda and catch up there.

Okay. So, let's move to old business. Um, so, uh, Nick, I sort of have you, I think, kind of on on deck for the first couple of items just to talk about what's been going on. Yeah, more than happy to talk. Let me moment. Yep. Bless you. Getting ready for the list. Yeah.

Yeah. I could just jump into it. Um, so I I have a few updates. Geez, I'm sorry. choking up here on the solar regulations. Um, I've been doing a lot of research on the regulations that were submitted back in 2023. I believe they made it to town council or they made it past this committee at least and they just kind of never came to fruition. I took a look at those regulations. I consulted with people in my department as to just, you know, how they were made and also perhaps why they didn't get any farther. Uh, ultimately I I just kind of started a blank blank word document. And I just kind of started doing research based on Connecticut general statutes, solar regulations from other towns in the Pioneer Valley area, northern Connecticut, southern Massachusetts area, seeing what they do. Um, and I've have I have a draft that I would say is about 90% complete. Um, I just want to do a few final looks at it before I send it to my department for their review of it. And then hopefully after they review it, you all check it out and then it goes to council and then we celebrate. Um, I do want to call out um I know there is a particular interest in having either part of this regulation or just a general thought about any new developments in town incorporating solar or must investigate the incorporation of solar. So I I it was clear to me at the last meeting this is very important. So what I have done is I as I was make as I was crafting this draft regulation that broadly talks about solar developments in town. I feel like that that idea about new construction I think that's a separate item that is separate from just regulating development itself. So that said I have crafted a regulatory amendment that I think will be should be incorporated into a different section of the regulations. But what I'm trying to say is that I'm working on two different things. One is the solar development regulation. One is I think I'm calling

it the the proposed new development uh invest mandatory investigations of solar something along those lines. So two different buckets, one cause, one Bloomfield, one team, one fight. Um anyway, so that's that's what I have on solar. Any any questions on what I've said so far? It's in the works and I'm hoping to people can review it either maybe before the Christmas break but you know maybe just in the beginning of the new year you know questions any questions on that okay everyone good okay we'll move on to do you have something well you're leaning forward so

go ahead

of the uh you know requiring developers first to investigate. Uh I I kind of think of possibly a requirement that they do a feasibility study, you know, cost effectiveness of solar on their buildings and and and then uh and may possibly have more that if those that feasibility study shows that it's cost effective, they pretty much should be required to do Yeah, that pretty much captures, I would say, what I've drafted so far. And maybe I didn't mention, but that that amendment that I proposed or have drafted, that is 100% done. So, that I'm hoping to pass around to my department. I I'll pass around this month. Hopefully, we all get together and look at it, but that is done. And I think it captures what you said. Um, and if that goes well, I'm kind of shooting with the stars here. There could be other, you know, regulated investigations for general energy efficiency like new buildings have to have certain insulation considerations or uh heat pump additions type thing. We can we can see how this goes and then broaden it to other ways that new construction can be more energy efficient is I'm saying

and might that include battery storage along with why not? Yeah, often that the battery storage will make it cost effective. Yeah. Oh, yeah. No, I think it's a good trial investigation here and I'm excited to see where it goes. So, thank you all for the great idea. So, actually, I'm going to play traffic cop for a minute. Looks like Nancy wanted to say something and I think councelor um Merritt wants to say something and please come come on up and speak into the mic, sir. Okay. hard time staying quiet. That's okay.

Yeah, I've been interested in that. Um I I about 40 acres across from my house that I think they want to put a what they call these new uh information centers. Data center. And I I would rather it be used as a solar park and uh it much much better neighbor and uh but apparently solar parks I had the there's a company in town that builds solar parks CEK perhaps

and I got him out there and he looked at oh this would be a good place for solar park except they'll never do it because they don't make enough money leasing it to us to do those. And I I I think that's the real problem. And it just seems that uh they'll get much more money from somebody putting a digital center in there. But um anyway, so it never came to anything. This was year or two ago. And um I actually talked, but it's it's it's the I wonder if we have any incentives to encourage solar parks. Um uh do we have any tax breaks for people that own land that could be used for solar park? Because that's what I mean you could on 40 acres you could get an awful lot of solar panels in there and provide a lot of

but presently we t the town collects taxes on that solar installations I believe.

Yeah. I'm I'm wondering well we had some break for businesses if they had it but anyway but so that was one question about whether we're looking into some way we can incentivize that being done um and give who's the big company that owns tobacco company that owns all that land anyway but um the other thing is do we have any I mean we've been building a lot of town buildings like the library and we were thinking about putting solar panels over the parking lot, but that wasn't for some reason done. And I don't think there any on top of the the library either, which of course has been put in our wetlands plane. We should have thought more about that, I think. But anyway, uh we keep doing that. And uh but how how do we encourage people to put solar panels in? I think that should be a municipal goal. Those are my two points.

Did you want to say Yeah, Nick?

Yeah, I have a couple reactions unless anybody wanted to add anything. Um yeah, so uh council, your first point about uh incentives, that's a great question. I I have some information on that. In terms of like actual Bloomfield incentives, I'm personally not sure, not aware of any, but the two things that popped in my mind were were twofold. One is there were federal tax incentives. Technically, they still exist, but I believe they expire in two weeks. So, that's unfortunate. Who says they won't something similar won't come back? But, you know, one place to look could be federal incentives and state incentives. Um the second thing that popped into my mind and this is kind of like a third degree connection to what you said which is in the past we have talked about uh lands that solar fields might get built on being designated as agricultural land and some people in their heads maybe they see where I'm going with this I believe land that has a certain agricultural designation it's some alpha numeric I forget the word thank you very much what he said sorry what you said sir um

PA490 PA490 um that does have certain tax incentives I believe if I'm recalling correctly. So one way to kind of double incentivize is saying if you designate this land as agricultural and then put a solar field on it, you make a tax incentive from the fact that it's agricultural and with the added benefit of the fact that that land under the field is then a land which then would you know imply certain protections longer term should certain technologies become obsolete etc etction but that just came to my mind if that's that 40 acres by the way is agricultural Oh, is it? Yes. Okay. Historically, yeah. Yeah. Oh, historically, of course. Yes. Yes. I wonder if there's that um designation.

I think they might. There might No. Okay. Okay. So, then to consider then uh they may be they they land owners have it in PA490. Bloomfield does not have an agricultural zone. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Um Okay. Thank you, Joe. And let's see, Nancy. And I think Claudia wants to say something and maybe Brenda wants to say something. No, Brenda doesn't want to say anything. Okay. Did you want to say something? Oh, wait, wait. You didn't question it for the town buildings to have is there do we need to pass a policy for that?

I know we keep talking about doing it, but then we need to very often say, well, we can't do it in the budget that kind of thing.

Right. So, again, I have two thoughts. One is me slash my department is working on this solar regulation that could potentially provide more guidance. So if there was interest be okay you're interested here's exactly how it works and maybe then the projects become less scary so to speak you know more approachable. That's one thing I think could be helpful no matter what. The second thing to consider is you mentioned for the old tobacco fields they got concerns for whatever reason. I wonder if something to consider is looking at the I'm blanking on the word. We looked at the map the other day. The sighting potential the word for it. You know what I'm talking about. That there

solar sighting. Not solar sight, but there's like essentially there's a map that shows u the I'm bummed I'm forgetting the word. Certain areas are better suited for solar because of the transmission ability in that area. It's like the 40 acres happens to be very near the substation in North Bloomfield. There you go. They he thought, "Oh, that'll be great."

Right. So, what could be good is if a new building is happening in town or something, we maybe we require similar to considering for just general developments that they consult with the this map. The word for it, I can't recall, but certain areas are more uh favorable for this kind of development. I if I recalling the map correctly, Bloomfield Center, all the lines were green and green means good. So that means an area like the library has a high potential for solar capacity. So maybe when the town is working on new buildings, we require that for the town at least, maybe not the general public, but the town, we should look into that. Okay, Nancy and then Claudia.

Um, just a a short comment that one thing that we could consider in those regulations in the future, not solar necessarily, is um, if you're building parking lots, it's residential or commercial, that uh, you set in the wiring for EV charging ahead of time and you don't have to do it later. You don't have to necessarily put the chargers in, but you've got a, you know, and this is an idea from a previous uh you previous environmental planner that if you put the wiring down or the something or other down conduits. Thank you. Um before you pave, then it's easier to add the chargers,

right? Yeah. Long longterm planning. Yeah. My my comment is actually kind of parallel. Um, I'm on the library board. Oh. And I don't know this for a fact, but I believe that I heard in a meeting that the library was built to uh with preparation, not conduits, but some other word that structurally structures uh to allow for uh solar panels to be added, but it it wasn't in the budget, so they they didn't do it. But they put the it's ready. It's it's solar panel ready. Is that right?

I I don't I'm I'm telling you I heard this and I didn't think it would be better for me not to say it even though I'm not absolutely certain. I think I think that's right. Yeah. Well, that that's another thing. Um similar to what you said, which is how can we encourage these things in other buildings is if if the budget's not there today, maybe it'll be there tomorrow. So let's get the site ready today if if you know because there might be more the budget might be easier to use certain materials in real time as opposed to greater investment in the present in a certain solar.

So so um go ahead Bob then I'm going to say something and we're going to move on. question. Uh the library board, you know, cons consider a purchase power agreement. Otherwise, somebody put it in there and if if it's cost cost feasible, then they do it and we'd buy the power from them. Uh Nick, do you want to say something about that? Uh I'm no.

Okay. Well, actually, I'll say something because I think John I think John Coleman has said something at this meeting before. unless I'm, you know, imagining things, which is possible. Um, I thought he was he he got a connection with the green bank and he was exploring purchase power agreements um with maybe the library in 330 Park or, you know, he was he was at least looking into it. So, um but I don't know where that stands. I'm going to find out. Good. Yeah. Yeah, that's good because um yeah, that was something he was pursuing at one point. Okay, I I could circle back with John on that because I'm interested in that. Yeah.

Okay. And I'm sorry, did you want to say I was going to give you the I was going to give you the last word on this topic. Go ahead. Well, as far as the feasibility study requirements on new construction, uh that can and should include town construction. Oh, yeah. Yep. Yep. All right. Um, let's move on to sustainable CT reertification. Me again. All right. Yeah. No, happy to go on. So, yeah. Um, since we last all got together, uh, I have been doing,

I guess, two primary things related to sustainable CT. One is reaching out to departments in town trying to uh just find the best possible strategy to work with each individual apartment department, excuse me. The reason being uh a huge part of sustainable CT uh is about townwide collaboration. It's designed in a way where you can't just have one person in the land use department like myself just typing away and making reports. You have to work with all these other departments. I've been reaching out. I've already met with the operations and communications department to try and work on that strategy. I'm actually meeting with with Dan and his team tomorrow. So, talk to you soon, Dan. Um, and then parks and wreck also next week. And I'm also working on with reaching out with the library and social and youth services. Um, and really anybody else who, you know, comes into my into our mutual radar here. So, I've been doing that kind of outreach and then on my own things I can control my in the present, I've been doing an internal cataloging of things that I think the town's already done that will earn us points and credit. And a cool thing about Sustainable CT, just a shout out to their program in general, they are really responsive via email, via phone, whatever. And what they encourage is if I have questions about if the town meets certain qualifications, I can run things by them and say like, "Does this count? Does this look good enough?" And they got back to me. I'm building up to saying uh I've so far confirmed pretty much confirmed the town has done certain actions already uh that add up to about 60 points uh which is 30% of the way to a bronze level. So that's with you know quote unquote doing nothing. We've done a lot, let me be clear. But in terms of like now since I've been here, like actual new products for the program, um, we already have 60 in the bank, it seems like. So now the task is to still collect the things that we've already

done, but I think with the new year, I'm going to start putting pen to paper and crafting things specifically for sustainable CT. Um, the last thing I'll say to before I take a breath here is, uh, I talked with Paula a little while ago about, um, the required sustainable CT team that's a part of this process. Uh, it's a minimum of three people. I am on it. Shocker. Paula is on it as well at the moment. We need at least one more member. I can't recall if we finalized it, but I at least heard Brenda, you're interested perhaps in Okay. Yep. So, Brenda, it seems I think I think she's in. I think that's it. If anybody else here wants to join, if anybody knows anybody else on town, staff or residents of the Bloomfield community, anybody who is either staff or in the community is welcome to join. I I don't think we need to get half the, you know, half the town involved, but if anybody has interest, uh, the team is welcome to new members at this at this time. I think we have to meet three time three times per year, I think, or a few times per year. It's a not a huge commitment. Uh but it's just a way to kind of do this but for sustainable CT. That's what I got.

Questions on sustainable CT efforts, please. Yep. Go ahead, Mary. Actually, just just for the record, because you all participated in the Well, I guess it was from the year before, right? cuz we've the we finished the the 2025 plan at on December 31st. So, but but your uh representative had participated so you could point to the particip I think there are some participation points you can get and in the for re-uping what what you are. So just in in terms of what all the great things you're already doing. Mhm.

Could you sorry what could you expand upon? Oh this plan Oh yes. No I I did see one of the action items was to have a watershed plan. This is actually great. We can talk here or offline so to speak. Yeah. I was I'm not sure if the plan because it was made by your organization if it counts. It does count because we participated. She's saying how about that? Look at the detail. Yeah. Yeah. Well, this is why we have these meetings. This is great. No. Hey, you want to be on the team? What are you doing next week? No, I mean really. Um Yeah. Actually, that's fabulous. Yeah. No, that I'll be looking into that. You can or actually and pull in Michelle, too. Yeah, potentially.

No, I think um I Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mentioned town staff and residents. Um, but within residents specifically, if you know, organizations such as your own, special interest groups, I guess, for lack of a better word, that'd be a huge plus to the committee. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I'm going to write that down. Any other questions about sustainable CT? Online? No.

Anything online? Okay, good. All right. Um, Nancy, you're up. Extreme heat update. Um it sounds like it feels like a like a very mini version of sustainable CT. Uh because also we need to gather multiple people together to work on um basically unpreparedness for an extreme heat incident or episode which is which is what we're our next step is after our webinar um that we did this summer. So, at this point, um, and I did, uh, correspond with, um, John and Nick about who all should be involved and have a pretty good list. Uh, I had already emailed um, Dr. Youngberg from the school superintendent. Um Dave Melesco and Dan Carter who's probably just staying on here so he sees how many times we talk about them at these meetings. Um to find out who in their departments we could work with and I did get a response from Tracy Youngberg just before the meeting um just we're trying to find out first of all what's our starting point. Do we have policies? Do we have practices? may not be a policy, but you know, if the superintendent has to call, you know, no outdoor activities for because it's too hot, does she have a way to do that now? Like just like snow days. Um, and similarly with uh recreation programs and with our outdoor workers, which are primarily in public works, not entirely, but mostly. So, that's my first round of um trying to um to collect some information of where we're starting from. Um we already

worked with the Bloomfield Police Department who is overall in charge of emergency response and um in particular Sergeant Zachary Clomberg when we did the the the uh webinar. So, I'm assuming he'll continue to be our contact. And I did hear uh from the public safety, health and whatever else it is comm community committee meeting that um uh they're doing and environment.

Thank you. Oh, those people they're trouble. um uh anyway that they have been doing a bunch of reviews of their emergency preparedness primarily I'm assuming for winter but I mean it's the same kind of thing we say well what if it was heat and not cold or power outages whatever so that will continue um the health district will be another player and then ultimately senior and youth services and social and um sorry senior services become part of the communication network if if nothing else I'm sure they have input as well, but they would know, they would be a able to provide input. How do we get the information out to everybody who needs to know when there is an emergency? And and again, that's also something that's in the works under the the department, the police department and our communications department, what is our emergency notification system. So, we're just trying to pull all that together and make sure that heat uh high extreme heat uh episodes are equally well addressed by whatever we're putting together. And then I'll just throw one more thing out that I forgotten where I originally heard it because I have this little note here. I find notes around my house written by me because I can recognize the handwriting anyway, but it's it mentions the Corey Stringer Institute, which is at Yukon, I think. um where they study heat stress and Corey Stringer was an athlete who perished after uh a workout in extreme heat. Um and they I'm not really clear that he was at Yukon, but the institute's there and and um anyway, they consult on heat safety. So, there's somebody at some point that we may also consult with when we get a little bit more meat on the bones. That's my report.

Any questions for Brenda? Not Brenda. Nancy. I'm looking at Nancy and I'm saying Brenda.

Uh Nancy, hi. Yeah, I I'm not sure why I didn't email you this because I think I know I was seeing you soon, so I just didn't email you. But I did follow through. I did some investigations in the land use side. I looked at our zoning regulations to see if there's anything related to extreme heat precautions. Uh long story short, not really. The closest thing I could find, uh, I wrote it down. Uh, there's a regulation related to, I guess it's it's actually like a landscaping regulation related to, um, landscaped, uh, end islands or center islands and parking areas, which are designed to curb the heat island effect. So it's not so much about not it's not as aligned really with your stuff but it's it's kind of like but that said if you want to like glass half full it there's maybe a way within land use that can consider increased atmospheric heat and we can design our town in a way to minimize those impacts per Mary's presentation earlier about riparian zones being cooler than parking lot areas for example. We also addressed that in our webinar um that Jess and Claudia and I worked on about Lance, you know, we were mostly focused on individual human health, but also talking about the way that we could address it with through the built environment.

Yeah. Um and I was going to say something else about that, but I guess it's gone. Did did you use the it's the so in the north branch park river wershed management plan the studies uh that's I think it was circa or some Yukon group uh they have all those maps so the maps that I showed online of the heat uh vulnerability um and it'll show your patterns across the town you know we're just showing the north branch but yeah so that's through new through Yukon and the references in the in the document.

That good. Okay. Um actually last licks come on up Joe on this topic and then we're looking at a lot of things that are resulting from um our climate change. It's key.

But another one that also ties in with our your situation is flooding and flooding causes a lot of problems and we haven't had recently many problems with it in this area but okay we're not in Texas or in where they had all that flooding and we're not it's now happening right now up in Washington but it could happen here it has before in 55 we had an awful flood that flooded the whole center of town and I and we we have vulnerabilities here that we we're kind of ignoring of first until you have a flood that kills a bunch of people and then you start taking it seriously just like heat. But heat I mean these we're getting these downpours now that and we're getting huge amounts of rain coming in very short periods of time as a result of of climate change and I I think we ought to be aware of that as a problem. is causing problems also for pollution. But so I I I just think that ought to be a topic just like heat that we be aware of and sometime maybe somebody can really look into that what we should do to prepare for that problem.

It's a pretty great Okay. Yep. No, we're going to move on. I was going to say the next topic I think is about climate emergency. Uh it it it is and I'm wondering if what we want to do is try to move that sort of talk about that

the same time we talk about kind of PACE's clean energy action center launch and maybe some things we do there and we have like 16 minutes at this point but we will we we'll we'll get to it. Okay. No, not you. Not yet. Okay. Um we're gonna we're gonna speed things up a little bit here. um recycling program. I left that on um just because it's kind of um something that's been sitting here. I mean, the the whole idea is we need to be reducing um the amount of waste um that's getting into the solid waist stream. Um and it's something we need to revisit because um that's something CDC has kind of pushed for a while. Um actually after um doing a little research on uh leaf removal requirements um I made a comment at the public health safety and environment committee meeting last night that actually um we can view composting leaves as recycling. And maybe maybe part of what we want to do is you know in the next year if this is one of our priorities again kind of look at it a little bit more holistically and globally and be thinking about thing thinking about that as well. You know composting is really recycling.

Recycling is really compost whatever. Okay. So so um that's why she's on that's all I wanted to say about recycling but that's why it's on here. Um, Nick, landscape. Okay, so the next agenda item we've been we've been, you know, there's been something called tree ordinance revision and the tree the the quote tree ordinance revision really ended up being a part of the landscape regulations. So going forward when you see landscape regulation revision that is part of what we're going to be talking about. Yeah, you want to give an update? Yeah, sure. I didn't mean to throw a wrench in the vocabulary there. I just wanted to

he wanted to be correct, which is not a bad thing.

Thank you, Paula. Um, well, to answer your inquiry, yes. Uh, so I've been working on that regulation and also the rest of my staff has has been working on it. What I'm trying to say is I finished the first draft and now my staff I'm sorry, we all got together in a room and we took the red pen to it. So, I think it was wellreceived, but there's some edits and there's some more questions from the staff. Uh, and I'm working on those revisions concurrently along with the solar facilities regulation and the new development solar facilities regul. So, I got three three I'm working on um kind of concurrently here. Uh, they're all priorities, but long story short is it's this the one is probably the one that is furthest along so to speak because my staff has reviewed it. Yes.

Great. Okay. So um just moving to new business um reappointment to CEC and our 2026 priorities. Um first of all, thank you to all um in attendance who I think I think everyone has um submitted an interest form, everyone who's here, which is great. Um I have I'm going to ask Lynn Oh, let me back up. Um, a lot of what we've been talking about tonight and in prior meetings obviously is going to filter into our revisiting our priorities and the things we want to focus on going forward. Um, I think the the word is is that the council is going the govern the governance committee subcommittee of the council is going to look at reappointments in January. appointments and reappointments in January. That's what I'm hearing. And hopefully the council would act on that and then um there would be a newly formulated CEC for the next two years um with hopefully those all of those present being part of it. Okay. Um, so I think next month I want to spend some real um more focus time in terms of at least starting the process of saying, "Okay, let's come up with what we think we're going to focus on." Um, I'm asking Lynn to send out and I sent her an email. Um, and Nick, you got this material. two years ago, we went through a very intensive process um because we were helping um work through some things with Prague in terms of their needing Bloomfield inputs. So, we went through this whole exercise where we looked at the Bloomfield climate energy emergency plan. We looked

at um what the Prague ECAP and I can't remember what that acronym stood for. Um, we looked at town of Bloomfield initiatives and we looked for intersections and we found, you know, we we used that to help develop the things we wanted to work on. And then last year, um, we basically just refined the 2024 document because we really spent a lot of time in 2020 24. So, um, I've asked Lynn to send everybody the 20 the exercise we went through because I think it's a good document with a lot of good material in it. Um and then the link to the our priorities last year just to give everybody a um kind of a baseline of where we've been the last two years. Um the good news is we've actually gotten a couple things done and we can check off the list. Um we'll take credit for the fact that we have an environmental planner that was on our priority list for the last couple years. So now we have a we have a prior we have an environmental planner. Um we got Tree City certification. there are other things. So that's we've we've actually gotten a few things done that can come off the list. Um so um all of you have specific interest and strength which is what's makes this committee I think very effective and I think that's the way we'll continue working in terms of establishing our priorities. So we're working on things that we're passionate about and um you know individually we can take leads and be the liaons on particular things. I know Brenda's strength is all things clean and renewable energy. Um she has a lot of knowledge and a lot a lot of connections. So I think she will bring a lot of value on that front to this group. Um and all of you have your own strengths as well and you've been working on things. So um you know there you go. Yeah. EVs Sunday. Okay. um which was and Sunday which was good you know

reestablishing that or establishing that and getting that going. Um okay um I need I there's one action and one vote I need tonight apart from the minutes. Um so right now we have $1,100 remaining in our budget for the 20 What are we in? This would be the 20 26 Thank you very much. I have to think about it. the 26th fiscal year. Okay. Um and we had a $3,000 budget to start. Okay. So, we have $1,100 left. Um we need Oh, yeah. And I've already accounted I'm sorry. We actually have more than that left. Basically, we have enough left in our budget to pay for another shred day, which is hugely popular in the spring. Okay? And we have $500 left after that. And then we've paid all other expenses related to the photo contest because typically the photo contest and the reception, we participate in that. So, I would like a motion to approve um spending $500 for refreshments for the photo contest reception next Tuesday.

So, move. Can I have a second? Actually, can we have a second and then we'll have discussion. Okay. Second.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. So, um, right now I have 47 RSVPs, so it's probably going to be like 60. That's what I'm expecting, and that's typically what it's been. Um, I work with a vet, Panel, um, on this, and she is wonderful at planning these things. Um, so I'm guessing, you know, we'll we'll work within that budget. Last year, we spent $700. Um, but we got trimmed the, you know, we got our budget got trimmed, and that's fine. Um, it's kind of like the soup, you know, extra guests show up, we'll thin the soup is what we'll do. Okay. Okay. Um, any more discussion or any other questions? Okay. Um, all in favor say I. Okay. Any opposed? Reneise opposed or abstensions. Sorry. Okay. Great. Thank you very much. Okay. Um, okay. Anything else actually that people want to bring up? Yeah. Okay. Um, announcements. This will be very relatively quick. I want to give Brenda most of the time here. Um, basically we're working on uh reertification for Tree City USA. So, that's what's going on with trees for Bloomfield and that's um in good shape that the due date for a submission is January 16th and we'll we'll get it done. Um there was a question about um whether there was a question from a resident that went to counselors uh particularly councelor Mahan about whether we whether

people are required to um pick up their leaves. um you know the the the um impetus for that was the value that leaves have in terms of leaving them down in terms of habitat for overwintering in as in insects. Um I did some research I got help from various town departments and it turns out in short nobody requires you to pick up your leaves. You do not have to pick up your leaves. If you want to pick up your leaves and you want the town to take them away, you need to put them in these paper bags and you put them curbside and there's a period in the fall when the town will pick those up and or have those town picked up and they are I believe composted, you know, and you the material is used. If you do put your m if you do put your leaves curbside, those leaves become the property of the town. So, do not take them. And um but but again that it's kind of a cool thing because it speaks to the value of the leaves. The the the leaves are viewed as a valuable asset and um Dan Carter did report because the question was like what the town does. Um my sense is the town kind of cleans up the leaves where it makes sense to smaller kind of pocket parks and things like that. Obviously, where you can leave the leaves, you leave the leaves because um it's less work in terms of uh DPW. Um and you also have to unfortunately kind of fight the view that leaves are messy. So, sometimes people will complain if you don't clean up your leaves. Um but you know, the the good news is is if you don't want to pick up your leaves, you don't have to. That's kind of what it comes down to. Okay. So, um, Brenda, can you talk a little bit about um the the CAC

launch, Clean Energy Action Center, another acronym? Yeah.

Thank you, Paula. I had the pleasure of um moderating a panel at the PACE um clean energy action center launch, which was previously an Excel document. If you can imagine, um the folks at PACE would actually manually enter all of these um municipal and city stats in a document, but now um that that document is electronic. So, if folks were interested in learning about how they can advance clean energy deployment in their communities, they can actually go to the PACE website um and plug in their their town information and get a digital report um very often one to two pages of all things related to EV charging, um electrifying buildings, um everything up and down the value chain of of clean energy in their town. and you get a report that kind of gives you an an understanding of where you currently are in terms of carbon capture or um uh where you can make improvements in electrifying buildings. Um it's really an amazing tool. So I I I didn't bring mine with me um but I was given a copy of Bloomfield stats and um it was really Oh, there it is. Um thank you Nancy. Um, so, uh, in terms of Bloomfield, we are, um, 50% of our energy sources today are, um, from gas, which is not great. Um, renewables only make up 2% of our our energy mix. So, um, we've got a lot of work to do, Nick. Um, and I was actually happy to see Paula there, Nancy, um, Claudia, and Nick. Bob, were you there? Yeah, Bob was there. Um, we had a Bloomfield contingent. So, it was really nice to be able to kind of, you know, recognize our our Bloomfield contingent while I was on the panel. And, um, yeah, I, you know, I

unfortunately don't have much information to share, uh, outside of that, but, um, did everyone get a chance to see this, by the way? Yeah, I was in the

Yes. Okay. So, I highly recommend that folks who are online, if you didn't get a chance to see this, go to the PACE uh website. Um, again, it's PACE. They're out of West Harford. They're not very far. Um, and um, if you don't have a copy of this, take a just plug in the information. You'll get a report for the town of Bloomfield and you'll see exactly where we are. And it's it's a fantastic report. um a lot for us to learn from and I highly recommend that we take a look at this in 2026 and figure out ways in which we can promote um ways that the town council can be activated to help us um you know get this this blue section here of 50% of natural gas which is not really natural down to you know and increase the the 2% of renewables and and have that compete with the gas. So um thank you Nancy. Yes. Questions for me?

I have to admit I I I got this survey about, you know, the whether it's affordable to have renewables and everything and I and it annoyed me because there was no point in the survey that I could say what we really need to do is focus on conservation. Like what is the percentage of energy per person in the community? And and I, you know, because I because I know we if we had trees and we had trees along these riparian corridors, we would be reducing the heat issues. And and I also I also just happened to, you know, my high school science teacher lived next to the Rocky Mountain Institute and so, you know, it was all about building solar dorms and solar buildings and we had to do the calculations for that in high school and on the western slopes of Colorado. So I feel like the lot of the tension around energy is is for clean energy when I think municipalities and elected officials would do a lot better for the public by working on conservation as well as you know if if as much energy and money went into promoting conservation I think we could make huge strides.

I'd agree with that. I think we tend to focus on um whatever seems to be the most hottest issue. So um there was one time where it was just weatherization and energy efficiency, but we've somewhat along the way ignored heat pumps, but now heat pumps have kind of risen to the occasion and and now energy efficiency is kind of like so and now geothermal is getting to be the hot button topic. But all of these things need to be happening at the same time. I agree. Actually, I'm gonna I'm gonna allow Claudia to say something and we are running out of time. So, yeah, hold it hold it to next month. Go ahead. Yeah.

Um, my my question doesn't need an immediate answer, but I it's on my mind. When you u make statements like, you know, that characterized I mean, not characterize, but that are uh that show what Bloomfield's energy use is. Um, is there any normal or better town that we should be aspiring to be like? Is there, you know, it's like it's like when you're when you're sick, you want to be healthy. How do we even imagine at the same time what we should be like? You know, the the the funny answer to that is um a community in Florida called Babcock Ranch, which is I think close to 100% renewable energy. And what they did in this community is they used conservation efforts to minimize flooding. So when that huge uh hurricane hit, I think it was in 2021 or 22, my cousins who live in Fort Myers, Florida, were digging out and cleaning up. where 45 minutes away in Babcock Ranch, they were sitting on their porches sipping tea because they didn't lose power and there was no flooding in this community and it really is a shining example.

I I know we have like no time, but I have a response to what you said as well, Claudia. So, Brenda, this website is awesome and also you you were amazing on that panel by the way. I had legit Bloomfield pride watching that was Oh, really? I was like, she's one of us. It was You did a great job. Oh, really? It was awesome. Thank you so much. But this website also is incredible. I think my favorite feature is that you can directly compare towns. Yeah.

And what and like that's the thing I have the most fun playing with is like like I know we mostly all live in Bloom, but you can like look at the town next door. Compare Bloomfield to like a big city like Bridgeport or New Haven, compare us to a small farm town and see like where do these overlaps and then what you can do is if you see I'm making this up like how does Weathersfield have so much renewable energy? Like you can see their chart. We can then look at their ordinances. You can look at the regulations like how did they get there? Yeah. How can we get So this website is super awesome. Like it's I have fun playing with it. Sorry. Go.

Okay. So to be continued. Um and I did mention this at the subcommittee meeting last night. This is one of the things I highlighted was this new tool and how useful it would be. And I'm just going to say public landscape meeting organized by BBC. Sharon man is trying to pull together kind of a working group and involving town department heads to kind of look at maintenance um maintenance related to um our landscapes in town. We've got these new projects like the library, like the greenway and DPW really isn't equipped to kind of be handling the increased maintenance. How do we tackle that? So, there was initial meeting more to come. Is there anything else anybody wants to talk about? No. Okay, the answer is no. Um, is there any public comment? Okay, very good. Thank you all. So, can I have a motion to adjurnn? Okay, so okay, did you get somebody that it?

Okay, we are adjourned. Thank you.