Conservation Commission - Regular Meeting

Yeah. So, at least I can hear. The last few times I haven't been able to hear people like I have to go over and so allow participants to chat, rename themselves, unmute themselves. Oh, okay. Does that mean they should be good? They should be good. Okay. We'll see what happens. And the one thing I'm going to change is to let them Oh, no. I'm not going to bother. Okay. Yeah. Should be good. Okay. Well, I hope your meeting doesn't go too long. It is what it is. I know. Did you find a place to park? just literally squeezed in next to you and Abby. Oh, good. Yeah, it was. What time was they do? They start graduation. I thought it was 5:30. Okay, that makes sense because we were home and like traffic was backing up and people

I had trouble with last time. A there are nice people in the room Toby. Now, are you excited about the last day as well? And I bet you it's a short day, too, isn't it? Today was also So, are you learning anything at this point? Yeah. No. You're learning patience, but you have to sit there for a few hours. That's what you're learning. Good luck with your meeting. You, too, This

Hey Jim. Hey. How you doing Kathy? I'm good, thanks. Good. Let's see. I guess the way I'm currently see I think we're it for now. Kathy, you you you can hear me? Yes, I can hear you. You hear me? That's great. Yes, I can. Um, sorry. Sorry for the silly questions. Can you see me? Um, I can't see you. I can see your name. Okay. Interesting. I'll um I'll I'll uh I am not sure why. Hi, Will. Hi. How are you? I'm good. How are you doing? Well, thank you. Jim, you're the little uh camera next to your name has a cross through it. Interesting. Yeah, I know. I'm I'm on my end. I'm not seeing the way to get my camera turned on, so um I I'll keep playing around with it, but I'm glad the audio is working. Hi, Will. Hi, Jim. How are you? Good. Good. How you doing?

Good. Hey, um I had a question. Are we meeting through the summer? We usually do. Okay. All right. I only ask because my wife's on the library board and they they don't meet during the summer, but uh I'm all for meeting. Let's see. See, how was your trip to Ireland? Oh, it was marvelous. Um, yeah. And I I saw that Cara was in Ireland. Yeah. And and um you know, I guess it didn't dawn on me to hop on the meeting at midnight, which is what you must have done. Had you been before? No. Well, um not not like this. Just um a blow through one time. Yeah. Um but um yeah, it's a it's a beautiful country. It's on my list. Oh, yeah. Well, yeah. And they they got direct flights from Bradley, which is I know which is awfully nice. It's so easy. My uh my wife and and three daughters did that um I guess now coming up on two years ago as sort of a delayed college graduation trip firstly because it was so easy as you said. Yeah, it it really is. And um this was sort of a delayed graduation gift for my daughter. She graduated last year. So we Neat. Yeah. So it was the three of us. Let's go.

Oh, Jim, I don't I printed off that document you sent. Okay. And I might have left it downstairs, so I think I'll run downstairs. All right. Um, well, Kathy, for the life of me, I guess I can't seem to this evening find how to turn my video on, so I might just be audio. Yeah. Okay. All right. H It's kind of like 80% of the time everything works, 20% of the time I have no idea. I think you have to go to settings. Um and then you select your camera. That because that's happened to me in the past and that's what that's what I did. Aha. Well, I didn't go to settings, but got it. Okay, here you are. Kept fumbling and and and there right back. Let's see. Good evening. Hi. Will was just briefly describing his trip to Ireland. Awesome. I think you guys I think you guys were overlapping.

Oh, this is great. Hi, Zach. two. I I bet our numbers will change a little bit, but Cara, if if if we're five or does that make us a quorum or or or not quite? I believe it does. Yeah. Okay. Shall we uh get started? Ready? Yeah, let's do it. I'm good. Let's go. Okay. Um, so I guess I I officially call this meeting to order at 7 7 p.m. Uh, I don't see any members of the public present. Um, so that will lead us to uh review and approval of the May 13 minutes. Um, Jim, I know you emailed some comments. Um, Kathy, I I did. Yeah. Cath Kathy, I guess my sentiment there was just that and thanks for capturing everything. Um um I know I sent you the written comment, but the sentiment was gee I wasn't trying to say

that the Graanby Land Trust had an NRC plan because I actually don't know if they do or they don't. It was farm uses elements of one on their land and on the town owned land. So, I know I sent you a couple of words and a phrase, but that that was that was the sentiment because I I I don't know if uh if if GLT formally uses that, but they certainly use elements of it and and sorry, the Pulk Farm certainly use elements of it on that land. So, how do you want that corrected, Jim, for the purposes? Um I I emailed you a sentence. Okay. All right. I'll just look that I can look that up. Okay. [Music] I think um Jim suggested in email um under the bullet point attributed to him uh such as IPM NRCS conservation practices including the use of crop rotation and cover crops practices used at Hulkcom farm and on the fields they lease from the town and Graanby land trust. test. Okay. So, I'll put that in the chat. Um I think uh just a point of procedure. Um Kathy asked that we make our corrections verbally during the meeting uh rather than emailing them. Um Okay. And then I think that um as I understand it, the town clerk is working on some guidance for town committees um and facilitation rules. I look forward to getting more information. Um but uh as I understand it, the philosophy of the meeting minutes is not

to necessarily be a transcript of the call, but to capture points discussed, who was there, motions made. So I think um you know, it's a it's a lighter approach to minutes. I mean, I've in a past job had to keep minutes and um you can you can go all out or focus lightly. So, I think um as I'm understanding it, the town is looking for a lighter touch on just the overall minutes. So, that's a a less is more approach sounds great. Yeah, that's that's the idea. Any other corrections to the minutes or corrections, additions? All right. Um, hi David. Hi. Right. Um, do I have a motion? Computer problems, but it will be better for you. And, uh, Andrew, hello as well. Hello. Good evening. It's great to have everybody here. Uh, I move to accept the minutes as corrected. Uh, is there a second? Second. All in favor? I. All right. Pass unanimous unanimously. Great. Okay. Um, next item on the agenda is the farm lease conservation. Um, and Jim, I know you've been trying to coordinate with

the, um, agricultural commission, which is, uh, I guess undergoing a change in leadership. The, uh, Heather Lombardo is stepping down and they are figuring out, uh, who will be the next leader to go forward. Um, was there anything else you wanted like what else uh would you like to talk about tonight or anything else you wanted to bring up? Well, from my perspective, it was just a couple of a brief comments about the two-page document that I distributed. Um and and just I mean when we had our last meeting it was it was good to have the first selectman there and and and went through that kind of whole dialogue and and and the broader so so wanted to come back to this document and just say um uh give you the kind of the one minute speech on on on how it was developed and and kind of the fact that it's just a working draft. So Cara and I met with the agricultural commission in April and then uh after that meeting they said yes we'd like to work together. Um yes please send us the leasing guides. Um folks went through those kind of offline in advance of the May meeting and the two page two pages of notes that you see were the result of the May the 1st meeting. Um now I I call it a working draft. not looking to make any motions or anything, but wanted folks to see it. And I guess, you know, I'll just say in in my words, um, that group was pretty excited to say, "Yeah, these are these are important things that we might do." Uh, the first page is is is things you might do in a pre-season meeting. um which uh um I mean I won't kind of read through the bullet points but just captures um uh key points of what would be prudent practices. Um and then by the way the agricultural commission includes

some of our longtime multigeneration farmers who reiterated no they don't feel that any of this is ownorous. This is just kind of basic standard stuff. Um the second page was kind of more of a brainstorm list. Again, neither one of these was expected to be final. Um, it was the start of a dialogue. Um, and I wanted this group to have a chance to see it and at least react to it and go, "Oh, okay. Those things seem reasonable. They resonate to me." Um, now that I've read the 2016 plan of conservation and development, I found it interesting how many of the longer term things that we capture here are already in the POC. Um a and then what would be happening with the agricultural commission is just as Cara said um uh uh Heather Lombardo is going to be stepping down. They'll kind of reshuffle roles and responsibilities. And when Cara and I talked offline a few days ago, we thought that I will discuss and maybe over the next six to nine months, we'll flush out this two-page document further um and and come up with something that we'd make a motion on, but but really don't envision any deliverable until let's call it about the end of the year. Um, so with that, wanted to share that story and give folks just a chance to scan this and and provide any any gut reactions. Um, if you'd like and and Cara, does that kind of capture, I guess, our discussion and what we what we think the process might be over the next six to nine months? Yeah, I think that's a great summary. David.

Um, I think this is great. Incredibly thoughtful and um I I really like the the uh sort of specific, you know, do it and then thoughts for the future format. You know, lots of issues. Uh my one question is the meeting that should be completed by April 30th. Is that a public meeting? Is the public noticed about that? I mean there's so many fields around that people have, you know, somebody comes and mows that periodically or they grow crops there and maybe they'd be curious and maybe that would be a positive thing. Um whether or not there's like a public process, but you'd think there'd be it would be useful to have some greater education about what's going on there. Great comment, David. I guess we didn't get so far as to say would this meeting be public or not public, but what one of the things we did talk about was saying, hey, we need to have a a mechanism, some some group of folks that may be uh part of an interface team. And and so you're right, people need to be able to provide input. Um um Zach has helped us very specifically, you know, share that boy, if you see this kind of a concern, your first call should be to deep, but but just in terms of town communication, um yeah, in the longer term considerations, we've looked at the guides where many towns have a body um could be members of the ad commission, the conservation commission that I guess would would probably field or be an opportunity for for people to provide input to in some public forum. So, um, great comment, TBD, I guess I would say, but capturing your thoughts. And, uh, does the egg commission or the conservation commission take the lead on that? Seems like it's more their belly wick, you know, if they're interested. T TBD. Okay. Um, you know, it's interesting when you when you read the

the missions of the two organizations, um, the missions would probably nudge it more towards us, but I'm I'm not lobbying for one or the other. I just But TBD. Yeah. Just because there's more egg expertise, I guess I was thinking. Yeah. Thank you. Sure. Thanks. Uh I you know I I uh I was intrigued with the section dealing dealing with the Connecticut Agriculture Preservation Program. Um and um it says here that they pay up to 20,000 per acre permanently to preserve farmland. Um yes they do. And um has this I mean that that certainly would be that could generate a lot of revenue for the town. Um I'm I'm not sure when the town initially purchased the land um if it was explic explicitly purchased to set aside for potential schools or low-income housing or anything like that. Um do you have any information on that or Well, let me let me take that and if there's any longerterm residents who have more, go right ahead. So, so well I I did a a little f first off I I put forward the preservation because that's been kind of a passion interest of mine to to learn more about. Um I can tell you that in Connecticut in 2024 about 1,600 acres were permanently preserved using this program and over the last 50 years it's 50,000 acres. So it's a it's a wellutilized program. Um uh it is a mix of federal and state money. So, you got to go through a process to figure out what that dollar figure would be. And there might be questions about the federal side currently. Um, but to your to your good question, my understanding is in 2012 that land was purchased um uh for $2.5

million and that we're still carrying some bonded debt on it. I don't know the exact outstanding debt figure. Um uh and I've heard I've heard open space. I've heard potential school. I I've heard all of those things. Okay. The POC actually calls out permanently preserving it, which I thought was ironic. Um I only read that in the last few days. Um the TW and and so in in my world where I want to permanently I would want to permanently preserve the egg field, you also need to look at the town and say how do you monetize the asset? And as I indicated in the bullet point, if someone were to pay us two or three million dollars for the permanent preservation, that could provide one very nice revenue stream far in advance of the leasing dollar values today. Absolutely. So I hope that that subject can say part of the dialogue. I mean, and and like I say, it's in the PCD as well. Yeah. And would um just do, you know, off the top of your head, if it wouldn't preclude us from leasing it out as farmland, correct? We could still have another income stream on top of it. Wow. %. So, and one way to say that is you could you could like triple triple quadruple your current revenue on the 107 East Street Field is 32,000 a year. And would there be use restrictions um that come with this, you know, enrolling into this program? So, so in in talking with the CT a team that does this, um I I've had a couple of discussions um and and every agreement is written specifically and sometimes that's a

process that could take six to 12 months. I see. So that so that you give yourself the flexibility, but it must be agriculture. So okay, but you can think through that and make sure okay I I might need future buildings. I might want to have some solar. I might need fuel tanks. I might sure. So, so um yeah, it's it's a it would be a slow process before you make a a permanent commitment. Okay. Um what is the name of the program you're talking about? I'm going to pull out the brochure. So, um well, um so, so I can send you the the guide, Kathy. Okay, thanks. Yeah, but uh well, actually, hold on. I mean, it's generally known, I think, as the farmland agricultural farmland preservation act. Okay. But take the formal name from Jim. Yeah. Ju just to say that though Kathy um to sort of capture the theme, the Connecticut Department of Agriculture program exists as do as do other private programs. Okay. So there are there are multiple organizations that do that. One of which is the Grand View Land Trust, right? And what piece of property are you talking about? I I'm not talking about a specific piece of property. Oh, just any Okay. Yeah. just and and just saying that well as as as one of the things brought up was to say um one of the long-term topics to discuss

which would be permanent preservation of any town owned agricultural field and there are Connecticut state department of agriculture options and there are private options. Um, and the payments for those conservation easements could substantially increase town revenue. Okay. All right. Thank you. Sure. Um, Jim, do you think there's any chance we could get a representative of one of those programs to speak to us at a meeting? Um, I would love that. I think that's great. Um, um, I guess um, yeah, I I would be be delighted to to reach out um and see if they would join us. Um would you would you want to invite Mike Walsh or somebody from the town to join us in that if we did that or probably would be wise. Okay. I mean, I I think um at this point it's a you know, we don't we're not authorized to begin negotiations, but it's to gather more information about the possibilities and what we might might include. I will start with sending you the brochure which describes it all um electronically to you guys if you want if if that's do that. And David just put in the chat, maybe a joint meeting with the A commission. Well, they asked for this, so they have it already. Yeah. And if a decision was made, um, you know, to enroll some or all of the

agricultural fields into this program, um, would that be something that the board of selectmen could act on or Yes. Okay. it wouldn't have to go to a town referendum. So, I'm going to give you an answer based on on experience in town recently. Okay. In 2022, the Grandby Land Trust uh paid the town a half a million dollars to permanently conserve um with a conservation easement, not an agricultural easement, the woodlands of Hulkcom Farm. So, so the Hulk Farm farm fields are not preserved, but 270 acres of the woodlands are, and that was done with Graanby Land Trust and a half million dollar payment. Um, and that was decided by the board of selectmen. Okay. And and they did they felt they did because the land was not being sold, they did not have to go to a town referendum. So, that's a fall 2022 example. Sure. Wow. I I think it's a fantastic uh program and uh I certainly would be in favor of uh getting more information and potentially pursuing that option. Okay. Yeah. Well, I I think that's great. I uh yeah, you know, lots of things. I I I grew up in a town where where the last farm was plowed under when I was a teenager and and you know, we we only have about 200 town owned agricultural acres and they are all incredibly high value agricultural acres. So, sure. Yeah. If if somebody might give us as much as $4 million to to do this, that would be uh I mean, to me, that would be amazing. But, uh um yeah, Kathy, you can just ignore my my rambling on, okay, please.

So to summarize um Jim shared a document um that has kind of an overall I think we are all interested or those who have spoken are interested in learning more um and um so I guess any concerns at this point about that and maybe just to clarify the like the go forward plan would be that we know the ad commissions is going to have some changes and working with carara will I I would I would come up with a way to meet with the agricultural commission regularly to progress this further over nominally the next six to nine months but kind of TBD and anybody would be welcome to participate in that but for our first step would be to once they kind of re reestablish their leadership we'll we'll define the process a little bit more and this will be kind of a starting And okay, any other thoughts or questions on the document? Okay, Jim, thanks for your energy in moving this forward. Thanks for all the research. Um, it's very it's very exciting. So, it's good. Thanks. Okay. Um, are we ready to move on to the plan of conservation and development? Okay. So, had the email open a moment ago. Um, there we go. Um, so on May 28th, I got an email from Abby Kenyon. Um, she is looking for a representative from the Conservation Commission. Um we're kicking off the

development of the 2026 plan of conservation and development. Uh the last one was done in 2016. Uh we're required to reddevelop them every 10 years. Um and um they are going to be meeting on the fourth Tuesday of the month at 7 p.m. U with the first meeting scheduled for September 23rd. Um and in addition to monthly meetings, there will be um public workshops that may require attendance. Um and then they they have an open application as well. Um I think we would be expecting the member uh of the conservation commission who joins this to attend um bring back information um be sort of the official voice in the discussions of the conservation commission um as public meetings. Any of us can attend as much as we want. Um but this would be the person who's committing to make as many um as he or she could. So um is there you know is there anybody uh interested in pursuing this? I mean so uh Jim and I have spoken a little bit about it. Um and Jim has expressed some interest in uh representing us. Um, is there anyone else who'd be interested as well that we need to negotiate over? I nominate Jim. Yeah, David's raising his hand. David. Yeah, I'm not I'm not I would really I'm not I do wouldn't I'm not nominating myself. I'm going back to the last meeting and I

think Cara you said you might potentially be interested and in some ways it's better to have the chair on but maybe there are two seats or alternating or something you know if you're still if you haven't ruled it out maybe you and Jim can share it somehow or you know I am very interested in it. Um I am reluctant to take on another commitment officially. I I will continue to monitor it. Uh, I will certainly, you know, I'm I'm happy to be an alternate, but I'm also um happy, although um David, I am curious about your um statement about it being better to be the the chair. Is that based on experience in town or Okay. No, it was just a guess that you know. Okay. Um yeah, I expect I will attend um and will be, you know, involved in many, but I'm happy to let someone else be the official representative. Well, and I guess I'll say from my perspective, um you you're all supposed to laugh at this. Um I will probably overcommunicate what happens at those meetings. Thank you. Um and and and you know look for Yeah. Um you know input to and others joining on it. I I sort of see it as okay uh if if my schedule probably allows the the the the time to make sure, you know, we're there. Um and then also have the the time to sort of put together some key points and figure out what we ought to be uh uh maybe contributing on as a as a group. Um um glad to do that. And I think that that's the that that's a huge key to the the role to say, okay, it's

it's not so much the person sitting there, but it's it's making sure that we're gathering all the input. Um, also, as I read the 2016 2017 plan when it was put together, um, uh, I don't know if anybody else had a chance to scan parts of it. It's an excellent document. And I I my honest first read was I'm not sure what I would add to that. Um, so it's it's I I I don't know, but I sort of suspect and hope that we'll be reinforcing a lot of the content that was put together by a, you know, a great group now almost 10 years ago. Um, I think my impression on reading it was there's a lot of great stuff in there. Um, there's a lot of great things that we said would happen that haven't happened. Uh, and so I think that would be my question for the group is how do we how do we make this more actionable? Yes, good. Great comment. So, minus maybe that u suggested 40hour training for all conservation commission members if if if you hadn't se seen that one. I missed that one. That was the deep training that I sent the note to to Zach. Oh, cool. Yeah, it was I was like, "Wow, that's a program." Which I'm glad that like exactly like I told you in in the offline email. I'm glad to reach out and and find out more about it, but um yeah, they didn't they didn't have a set schedule of of when they're going to be offering that again. And I I'm sorry if I missed it, but was was the 2016 plan of conservation and development, was that already circulated? Um, yes, it was a link in Aby's email. I'll add it to the chat again. Okay, thank you. And it's a

6070page PDF, so it takes a it takes a minute to download. Okay. And who's who signs off on the plan? I believe it's adopted by the town. Okay. [Music] So, I think the the commission that develops it submits it to the board of selectmen and then they vote on it and adopt it. Yeah. And I think there's requirements set forth by the state. Um, and if I'm not mistaken, there's actually there's some bills that went through this past legislative session that just ended that added some additional requirements. I'm not sure if they're going to affect the 2026 um plan of conservation and development or will affect the future one. Um, that's a great thing to flag. So, um, we had an official nomination for, uh, Jim. Do we need Kathy? Do you know know if we need to vote on this? I don't think you do. Okay. Um, is there I think it's a fine idea. I'm reading unonymity from the nods uh on the the screen. So, thank you uh, Jim, and I look forward to hearing more about it. Yep. Sound sounds great. And I guess um for formal kickoff not till September. So right. Yep. Okay. Okay.

Energy conservation. Um so I was very sorry to miss the meeting with Mike Walsh. Um but Kent, can you uh share how that went? Sure. Yeah. Jim and uh Dave David were there as well. Um so I'll let them chip in. Um did you guys not talk about it last last meeting? I guess we ran out of time. Yeah. Okay. Um yeah, it was excellent. I mean Mike uh has a lot of uh uh uh aspirations regarding um in particular solar on town buildings. uh other energy efficiency measures um and expressed um I would say you know somewhat lack of uh staffing and resources to really execute from his his team and he would love all the help he could get. Um there you know one thing he has done is he has negotiated um and maybe you guys help me. I I certainly town uh electricity maybe also board of ed but uh longerterm uh supply contract for electricity which has some portion of renewables commitment. It's not 100%. I don't know if you guys remember if it's 40% but there's a a cost-saving measure with that but there's also there is a commitment of uh renewables you know if you you guys know you can buy your electricity supply from a third party and he's he's he's executed that which I think is a is a good move.

Um I'll talk a little bit here about um the solar on town properties and some of the recent developments which um will be new to everybody uh here and then maybe Jim you can follow up and Dave you can follow up regarding our call with Mike and anything else that that um or meeting with Mike and anything else not related to solar on on town buildings. So the solar um now Mike had initiated uh working with the Connecticut Green Bank. They have a program to help you know communities uh assess solar on town buildings and and they they they did you know reasonable first pass for a number of buildings. Uh Mike wants to get you know one or two done. Identified the town garage uh as as one that he'd like to maybe pilot. It seemed like a good, you know, first project to do. Also, the uh former Methodist, this Methodist church, right, David? Um that is now owned by the town or managed by the friends of Hulk Farm or whatever the whole soup of of of that is. So the um the green bank and the green bank is supported by a a solar developer out of I think Meridan called CSW Energy and so they're they're actual you know solar developer installer and they but they helped the green bank and working with communities. So um the feed so they green bank CSW worked on those things and the feedback was that you know what ever source the eversource grid doesn't have the capacity to install solar on those locations. So if you guys are familiar with this to some degree um you know the utility grid really isn't designed for all this distributed generation. There is there

are technical limits to how much you can put on on util, you know, the utility system. We're we're kind of at the end of Eversourc's line. We have an older system. There's been a fair amount of solar put on there, but they put a map online. You can go look at it and say, "Well, I want to put solar here." And we're pretty constrained up in Graanby. And the map, and the map's not official like ruling, but the map says you could put at most like 200 kilowatts on most of the locations around by the way. Um, but in those two particular locations, and I think the the assessment wanted like 270 kilowatts on the public garage, but Ever Sourc's map says you can only put up to 200, maybe less. So, the Green Bank kind of said to Mike, you know, you can't you can't do it. Um, and kind of left it at that. Probably took the easy path of saying we don't really know how far they went with Eversource. Cara, Cara, I'm going to say Cara a couple times here. Um, so did they just look at the map? Did they get an early read? they didn't put in an interconnect application, but that's that's the early feedback and Mike was pretty discouraged. He's like, "Oh, okay. Well, this is a this is not good." So, so I volunteered to help and um and then this weekend we we actually made some progress here. So now some of you may know this like David may know this but uh so David connected me with Jenny Emory who has uh successfully um worked to get solar moving forward on the Hulk Farm CSA barn which of course is right next to the

church and she's working with CSW Energy and she's really happy with them. So, I think Sunday I connected with Jenny and because Mike Mike said, "Kent, can you help here?" And I still have to meet with Jenny. But what's interesting is that the um putting solar on the CSA barn, you know, Eversource said, "Well, we can't. We'll have to do an upgrade to the system." And but working with CSW Energy, the deal is that they the finances work out such that Eversource is upgrading the system. CSW is it's it's it's the uh buy all sell all approach. So all of the electricity goes to the goes to the grid and we basically sell it. We the developer sells it. And there's a a split. CSW gets something like 20 uh 78% and and and whoever the town or the friends of Hulk Farm gets 22%. That's 78 22% split I believe. So they're moving forward which is great and the but as a part of the cost of that Eversource is upgrading that grid and so now maybe the church will benefit from that. I don't know exactly. I don't know where, you know, I think it's coming from Route 20, so I'm pretty sure. So, that's the long story. Uh, Ella Jim. Um, and, uh, so I think I'm going to connect with Jenny. We're going to go to CSW and see if we can what we can learn about that um, Methodist Church application. Now, I told I told Mike, I mean, the green bank's great, but in my experience, the developer will do this stuff on their own anyway. So, um, and we can get a few quotes. It's very easy. But, um, Jenny likes CSW. I want to start working

with CSW. And then um there's going to come a time though where like whether it's the town garage, probably the town garage is going to be the big one. I'm I'm going to need to navigate how do I work with Eversource? I know they have a formal process for applying and getting a response, but I I don't know if there's I have to refresh there if there's a a um a quick response you can get sort of indicative um you know if if if they can't take 270 kilowatts, could they take 199? Um do we have to go through a whole application? So I think the town garage will probably be the Mike calls it the beta. I think it's a good term. Um, at least get a starting point and then and then Cara, I don't know if you have any if you like I've in the past I've talked to the Interconnection Group because of my my professional job. Um, the David Ferrante is retired so I don't I don't he's not there. I don't know if Joe Debs or whatever like I can if I can get maybe you can help me a little bit. We can get some some better. we get the feeling that the green bank just sort of said it's more than the map and let's not pursue it. So, um that's uh that's where the solar on town building stands. Um yeah, I can I can ask around. Um I'm deal more with like the data geeks and and trading information back and forth about customer information with some of the um solar folks, but I think they can point me to the right direction. Also um what I have, you know, I know who in the energy efficiency group would be more than happy to work with the town. there are some new um weatherization

incentives on buildings um that might be good that you know so they're expanding the commercial weatherization programs um so I can uh I can put Mike in touch with with the correct people there and that's something maybe Jim and and David might be interested to help on that on those things that's where um I mean that's the solar story I don't know Jim if um you know he I mean Mike was looking for help just with good oldfashioned energy management or facilities. Yeah. Yeah. As as we talked um Mike kind of told the the the the story of of of of you know great town resources and and what different folks had were kind of focused on. And so something that has a little bit of structure to it, but he's hoping to develop some more is is really a a look at all town buildings um that would kind of fall under the capital plan. Uh and actually it extends down to every town vehicle. Um so so what Mike had shared was like he would be delighted to have some additional help just kind of uh uh working through and and structuring and trying to prioritize capital plan uh items which would h all would many would have a energy efficiency component but but uh not not exclusively. Um, so I uh I I offered uh some time to Mike and he sent me the draft plan and um uh I I don't have uh uh uh no no deliverables yet, but uh we suggested a a process of of maybe meeting monthly and um I will uh follow back up to to to Mike and see if he's uh ready to initiate that. He was uh he was

looking to get some other things done in May before we uh got got into this. So, I guess let's see. I'm just trying to share what u I think it's relatively recent that the school um uh the school district hired a facilities manager and and I I guess I'd say Kathy, don't don't quote me on this. I I don't know if he's been there a year or maybe this is his second year, but but he was he was delighted that that position was now in place because that that helped provide some some more kind of longer longer term thinking on um on uh on on projects for the school. David, do you want to add anything to this? Um, I don't have the technical expertise that these guys have. I'm happy to help. You know, I I said in the meeting that I could probably help more with, um, you know, public awareness and acceptance, um, information, that kind of thing, building off the Solariz campaign from almost 10 years ago, I say eight years ago. Um, and Cara, I think you and I were going to talk about audits. I'm happy to help with that or not help with that, whatever is useful. would it be? Um I will look for contacts about solar and interconnections at Eversource. Um, I can maybe I'll send from my work email an introduction to um Mike Walsh and you guys to um Dana Mauy who's the energy efficiency consultant who work with Graanby um and she'd be happy to talk through what programs are available if you guys think that Mike would be receptive to that.

Yeah, I think that's um really something that we should pursue. Um so what would do do you think like uh just set up a business hours meeting? Uh, could we do I don't know if Kathy I'm not sure if team uh if uh Mike does um I guess Zoom calls or how we could do it in person but he does. Okay. I think um I would certainly um think that could be valuable and just to understand the the opportunities programs that are out there. Um you know maybe and you know we could help pick a building or two to to to try based on Mike's priorities. Um I don't know Jim and David if you'd want to attend such a meeting and see see where it goes just whether it's a you know a building envelope or other energy efficiency measures or and that's that's really what that it's a is that is she is it a woman I thought it's a woman yeah uh is is she's an Source employee. Yeah. So she would then there are um some firms that would be on hand to do a technical assessment and so so she's uh the energy efficiency consultants are kind of the internal project managers who work to you know connect um we also have so they're sales account executives for energy efficiency and then energy efficiency consultants um so um but the energy efficiency consultants are really the project managers and we have internal engineering resources but they hire out firms much like Greenbank

works with CW or CSW you know it's it's the on the ground engineers that would do the assessments. Does anybody know if uh Brian Murak still lives in town? He he he had that role at Eversource for a while. Um he's no longer with Eversource. now has an independent consulting firm and I've, you know, worked with him both when he was in Eversource and and outside. I didn't realize he lived in Grimby. That's interesting. Uh, yes, he's still So, you still work with him? He must still be here. I I don't know. I mean, I think he's still in the state, but uh, Right. Yeah. Can So, sorry. What's just on that on that topic? So, how do we how do we conclude that? Cara, are you going to um I I will make an introduction to Dana and say that, you know, see if Mike would be interested in in a meeting to discuss it. Just going to send an email and you can copy us and Kathy. Okay, that's perfect. It'll it'll probably come from my Eversource email. Um so, just, you know, generally um that's I try to keep business and personal life separate. Um so but that one will I will do for my work email. Um I'll and I'll ask around and see if I can find you know more about the interconnection process and see who the appropriate person to come to would be on the side. Um and just well kind of a a curiosity on like just economies of scale. So, so, um, um, I I you'd already, you'd said pretty clearly, it sounded like, you know, Jenny Emery was was was moving forward with with a, um, with CSW and

and and and had things in progress. So, yeah, we don't want to slow anybody down, but but I just I think about it, whether it's the buildings on Hulcom Farm or the Methodist Church building or or the town garage, all are owned by the town of Granby. So I I don't know. I I wouldn't want to trip anything up, but in a way it almost I I mean maybe the friends of Hulcom Farm is signing an agreement with CSW, but but they're the lei. So So it would seem to me that maybe they're heavily involved, but it's a town probably a town contract as well. But anyway, just I I'm not trying to muddle things, but but uh all three of those buildings, I believe the the common denominator is they are all owned by the town. So anyway, I don't know that uh yeah, I I mean that deal is is done. It's uh okay. I mean, David could tell us. I don't know. Do you see any activity over there? But it's she say it's like imminent. Um, and that's great. I think economies of scale, three buildings for a company like CSW Energy wouldn't wouldn't result in in too much. Yeah. Um, it could possibly make a difference though with the upgrades to the grid, you know, so like the they're and I don't want to get out over my skis. I'm demand side, not supply side. But um if um usually they like to plan for things, multiple things at once. So if we're it might make some sense to say, all right, we're doing it at Hulcom Farm also doing the um Methodist church at the same time and then you know the town garage which is you know next to the the I'm correct that's next to the high school, right? Yeah. Two miles away. So doing those two

at the same time might also make sense from a grid planning perspective. Yeah. Yeah. The the again that the CSA barn is is a done deal. Um it'll and I I'll learn we'll learn what Ever Sourc's upgrade policy is. it I mean I think it is sort of the way it it works is the they'll they'll install solar until they can't and then the next person has to pay for it right and but I don't know how much they I'm sure they oversize it to some degree like you know it's obviously very technical but I think there's probably a good chance that the Methodist church then project wouldn't wouldn't have that additional cost that's that's our hope it won't be very big project so I think that's our hope but Yeah, as we start to go down in toward the garage and the schools, then I think very much let's we talk to them about a bigger plan, you know, and maybe something more um forwardlooking rather than just one one project at a time. From um from Jenny Emry's updates to the town on um the Methodist church, I mean, one thing that was 100% clear is it's an all electric building. So, oh yeah, the heat source is electric as well. So, yeah, boy, what a what a great candidate for solar and a great candidate for insulation. Yes. And and uh usually like in projects like this, if there's excess uh revenue generated by the surplus power, um would would that revenue go to the town or Well, the pro there's a few programs and ways to install solar these days and on the CS the CSA barn there's no electrical load right so all all of that energy is being sold to

Eversource under this particular program and then the uh all of that revenue comes back to the project owner and apparently I see okay apparently under this deal that they that they've done with CSW Energy I mean, CSW Energy probably own probably owns owns the solar system, probably have a a nominal lease with the roof or whatever, right? And and then or or the town gets the 22% as obviously as a lease. And does anyone have an update on the the 100 I think it's a 100 megawatt project that's going in um on salmon? Good good question. Um Monrovia. Yeah, Mike I mean from the meeting we had about I don't know five or six weeks ago, Mike said they've been silent. Okay. The the the solar developer has like I don't even I don't even I think he said they're not returning their calls. They're just basically um there's no communication with them. Oh, okay. I don't know if anybody has any other Maybe that's not going forward. Maybe David has an update. Yeah, I Yep. I don't have an update on the solar going in, but part of our meeting with Mike Walsh, um he was giving us an update on the battery project and the town's um appeal, I guess, of the Connecticut Sighting Council decision to allow it to go through. And, you know, he he brought out the arguments that we've all seen. And I thought Kent did a really good job of saying, "Hey, it's not that it's it's not fireprone the kind of u batteries that they're using. Um, a lot of the concerns are not uh

wellounded." And, you know, forgive me if I'm paraphrasing you too much, Kent, but it was, you know, was was not at all a discussion back and forth, but it seemed like a whole bunch of good new information for him. um given that he's not, you know, a solar battery expert or whatever. Yeah, that's a good reminder, David. I I I I need to do a little research and send it over to Mike. Um I mean, look, they're a the win appeal against the sighting council. It's I don't know. He didn't seem very The only idea maybe is you you tire out the battery supplier and they give up. But um I I I pointed out and I'll I'll I'll try to keep this brief, but I'll copy you on on this. Um there's a lot of concern about the the safety of of lithium-ion batteries, rightly so. There's been a lot of fires across the world that we we should all be concerned about. Um, but there's six different type of lithium ion batteries. And the the ones that make the news that catch fire and all this other stuff. Those are nickel, manganese, cobalt, NMC batteries that were the first ones that, you know, are all in all the original Tesla cars and everything because they have the highest power density and a good price and all that kind of stuff, but they're also have this thermal runaway challenge. and the stationary battery industry. While starting with NMC batteries, you can almost not buy an NMC battery these days. They're all lithium iron phosphate, which are um not um without any risk, but they have orders of magnitude less risk of thermal runaway than uh NMC batteries. M and I just kind of mentioned that and Mike's like, "Well, that's interesting. We've never heard such a thing." And and

to me, I can't believe the battery company didn't talk about this. So, I I I I need to find some good third party uh independent writeup and uh I'll share it with everybody and and with Mike and with he can share it with the first selectman. Um, I don't know if that'll change anybody's mind, but the primary concern is concern over over fire safety um and uh threat to the water um table and water supply in that area. Um, and there may be all sorts of real concerns there, but I just want to make sure people know be maybe a little less um, fearful of batteries from, you know, that perspective. What was the chat that was put about fire? Um, do the batteries require any additional investment for our firefighters? So, that's Andrew. I would think they need there's additional training and um, I would equipment I I would think that's that's and usually I mean the whole the sighting council um the whole reason it's set up is to prevent not in my backyard. That's the whole reason the sighting council exists. Um but generally when you install big things like that you want to go to the fire departments um and get their approval and things. Um I I don't know anybody know if if the if our volunteer fire departments have been involved in this, but they would want some training. Even even though it is much more safe than NMC, there's still certainly a risk and it's certainly certainly training would be warranted. I I read a bunch of the testimony, but it's been too many months, so apologies. I I there there

were definitely concerns expressed about uh firefighting. um uh uh equipment and and capability um especially if you're in a town with an all volunteer force. uh but I I don't recall specifics if there was any you know agreement or offer from the developer uh to provide but you yes from my experience in communities where my former employer used to operate we uh um we had to provide all that equipment um our ourselves um and then also make sure that um uh um the local municipalities were were well outfitted as well. So it's it's typical, but yeah, I mean certainly and the other things with these with these products that are out there, they have like fire suppression systems all throughout the cabinets. Um I mean this is obviously a big concern and topic for the the battery industry. Um so Okay. Um All right. Anything else we wanted to talk to on energy for tonight? Okay. Um so topics for the next meeting. Um which I guess would be looking at here. Um, July 14th or no, sorry, July 15th. Okay. Does July 8th here? That's it. Oh, sorry. Yeah, July 8th. I was looking the wrong. Yeah. So, July 8th will be our

next meeting. Thank you. Um I think um should we continue to talk about the farm lease wording and um or do we want to wait until we've had more of a chance to talk to the agricultural commission? Yeah. Yeah. Car my sense is we probably won't have anything new. Okay. Um, but yeah, we'll just be looking to make contacts and see what Heather has to say and establishing a process. But can I suggest can I suggest that we just leave it on the agenda so if something does come up we can talk about it and if not we can just breeze over it. Sure. Yeah. um plan of conservation development probably won't have any develop anything to report on until uh late September. Um energy conservation I think we should keep on um composting will do you want to um have something on that next month? Sure. Yep. That's fine. Um, I might just mention that I am locked in for um a uh presentation at the library on September 16th between 6:30 and 7:30 and I'm going to um hopefully uh line up a Blue Earth uh representative to attend. Great. Okay. Um any other topics we want to add to the agenda for July 8th? David, David, were you raising your hand? No. Okay. Okay. All right.

Um, any final comments? I um uh was at a a meeting with some of the MLAN folks and they have done tremendously well on their early fundraising. I sorry I guess some of this was in the paper so just say it very quickly. they they've achieved about 500,000 of their $800,000 goal uh for fundraising, which is going to be a total revamp of the um facility on on Barnor Hills Road and and that'll be office space and laboratory storage, meeting space, research space. Um, so kind of tangential to our work, but uh but just a great a great win for MLAN such that they're going to be moving forward, I believe, with bidding and maybe even construction on that project uh before the year's out. Wow. I didn't know there was a facility on Barn Hill. It's a It looks like a garage. It's like a double garage. Oh, okay. And I've been there to, you know, to talk with them and they're having like a meeting around a card table, you know, with a concrete floor, no heat. It's it's really for, you know, Connor has definitely built this organization up from the, you know, occasional staff person pre before him and uh they need more space. Uh very much like Joe O'Grady has built up Hulk Farm to a big steady crew that deserves a place to hang his hat and wash their hands and stuff. Sure. Yeah. Con I guess this is year eight or nine or something like that for Connor and he's had now about 25 college interns go through there and he's normally has four or five at a at a time with him each year at least. So, so this is great and and I guess yeah, some of the renderings and whatnot were in the

drummer, but uh um I know they'll be using one of the things he said uh to me was uh in a in a world with with tariffs on lumber because they'll be using a lot more of their own lumber um from from the farm which is already you know store being stored and dried over in a barn that's off of Firetown. Um so but just you know anyway great great news for MLAN. My daughter was one of those 25. Oh, yeah. That's great. She great experience at Sustainable Connecticut also. The same daughter or all. No, not No, my daughter didn't do that. No, she didn't get No, that was Maybe you're thinking Jim Mafa's daughter. Oh, right. Fred Maf. Yeah, sorry. Jim Maf Fred Maf. Um, David, you were raising your hand for additional comment. Um, David, did you raise your hand to make an additional comment for final? Not on not on the agenda. It was in comments by commissioners. We're in comments comments by commissioners. You is there one? Oh, my um next not wanted column is coming up uh deadline Monday. You know, if anybody's putting anything that in the drummer, it's noon on Monday. Um, and I'm sorry my cam is so terrible, but uh this is is this backwards? No, we can see it. We can see it. How can I help? Um, yeah. So, it's the latest uh Doug Talamy Talamy book. People may know his name. He's a um entomologist at University of Delaware. And sorry, I just had to turn that off. Um, and it's a great book because it's 499 uh questions that have come up in his public conversations with people. So,

you know, think of all the times you've had conversations with people about uh poison ivy or, you know, how bugs are eating my oaks. Is that really a good are oaks really? You know, should I should I kill the bugs that are eating the oaks? You know, all the all the sort of funny little questions that come up along with the, you know, the big picture items. Uh uh but I so I started thinking okay this is a great book to recommend to everybody and then I zoomed in on one issue and it's mosquitoes and very much like Kent's column a couple years ago in the drummer uh I'm going to focus a bunch of it on you know the the the downsides of the fogging industry and how they kill everything and how if you want to kill mosqu if you want no mosquitoes around, you know, as Kent said, they don't travel far. So, I think the title of the article, Kent, was uh if they if you don't want mosquitoes, uh kill them before they get launched or something. I don't remember. It's on our it's on our the conservation commission website. It's a great very succinct article. Um and you know, so it's it might be a little controversial. I'm not going to name, you know, I'm not going to say Mosquito Joe, you know, boycott Mosquito Joe, but I'm going to make it clear that if if you hire someone to kill all the bugs in your yard, you're also killing all the birds and all everything else. If you know, we have a a um uh Carolina Ren family that's come I don't know if it's the same family, but they sure look the same. um three years in a row and they they live in this g they bear their their they make a nest for like two months and right now they're bringing uh caterpillars every couple of minutes. Where are they getting them all? I mean they're they're feeding their kids on these caterpillars that they're bringing every couple of minutes. Um and it's the

whole whole point that a brood of chick, you know, a family of chickades needs four to six thousand caterpillars to raise their young. So if you kill all the bugs, you're not going to have caterpillars for the birds and you know, etc., etc. So I'm going to make the point as clearly as I can and um look, you know, find some other resources so that it's not just, you know, oh, it's just crazy Doug telling me, but uh there can well be some push back um from um you know, from people who really love their their fog and and I really recommend the book. Uh, anybody, you know, it's not that expensive. It's like 25 bucks. Uh, and if anybody wants to has a question like, "Oh, what does he say about poison ivy?" Well, he's a little hardcore, so I'm not going to tell. No, he's like, "Don't cut down your poison ivy. It's such a useful." Oh, geez. Okay. We all know that if you you can kill as much poison ivy as you want. We're not going to make a dent in it. So, even though it's native, it's not invasive, it's just a problem. So, that's my update. Thank you. Um, so Kathy and I corresponded a little bit about um, meeting rooms and um, Kathy, I'm I'm going to paraphrase, correct me if I get this wrong, but it sounds sounds like given the constrained technical resources, both people and rooms, um, there's not really the capacity to have a hybrid meeting. Um, so I am interpreting that is that we can continue to meet by Zoom or we can meet in person but having hybrid will be difficult. So Kathy, did I interpret that correctly? Yes. Okay. Um, so I think um

given some of the public comment, it would be good to at some point have a an in-person meeting. Um but and so I think um just trying to figure out how to navigate um would you know do you do you feel strongly that we should continue to meet only by Zoom? um would you be open to an in-person meeting um perhaps in um you know in September or you know I I'm around all summer so uh I've done my traveling for the year so we'll or until the fall so um yeah uh any any thoughts or reactions to that. So, um, David or David, yeah, I'm I'm for at least one inerson meeting if we could pull it off this year. We don't all know each other. You know, it'd be nice to to meet face to face and maybe have a have a meal or just a longer conversation or a conversation that could be wide wider ranging than we can have uh in in this way. Okay. I I agree. I agree. Uh I think it would be good to do some inerson meetings now and then. It would be great to be able to do that and have somebody call in remotely if possible. I don't know if if that's possible. Let's just say like July 8th. I'm not going to be in town, but I could call in somewhere I am. And if it's in person and I can't call in, oh well, I guess. So, I don't know. Just is that is that an option for like a September? Even if it's

September, does it have to be all in person or can it be hybrid? Well, I think the issue is that um we don't have the abil like it would require GCTV if I understood correctly. So, it's sort of all or nothing um one way or the other. Um but we have seven people now. It is been easier to get a quorum. Um so, if we had a in-person meeting, would September be the right time to do it? Um or would you want to do it sooner? Uh I would I wouldn't recommend before September personally. Yeah, September sounds good to me. Yeah. Um so Kathy, would you be so kind as to find us um if possible uh an a room for an in-person meeting? We know it won't be hybrid um for our September meeting. Sure. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Okay. Any other comments? Um I I have a comment. Um I was or kind of a question. Um you know, I recently reviewed um the Connecticut General Statutes um section on municipalities and the establishment of conservation commissions. And you know, as everyone here probably knows, uh, the conservation conservation commissions don't have a lot of, you know, power or authority. Uh, we don't have subpoena power, for instance, which I wish we had. Um, or to levy fines or anything like that. But, um, the the one pull out the National Guard, though, anytime, right? But but the the one thing that's that's

appears to be mandatory in the statute is it says conservation commissions shall keep an index of all open areas public or privately owned including open marshlands, swamps and other wetlands for the purpose of obtaining information on the proper use of such areas. So my question is, do we have an index of all open areas including marshlands, swamps, and other wetlands? Because if we don't, we're in violation of the statute. Arguably, [Music] there was a link on our old website to um an inventory, I think it was called. Um and it wasn't something we produced, but I think we had some ownership over it. I don't know if we have to do it or uh reference it, but I'm so glad you brought it up because there aren't many things that we're that we have to especially since we don't have inland wetlands responsibilities like some other conservation commissions do. Yeah. Um, I think it I think maybe that's a pro project that we may want to undertake uh because that dovetales with other aspects of the um sort of the enabling statute. And by the way, the statute is Connecticut General Statute 7-131A and or yeah 131A. Um because there's also reference to um uh establishing um proposing greenway plans for inclusion in the plan of conservation. Um and greenways are becoming increasingly important um with the you know the ongoing development of uh lands.

So, um, any I just thought I would raise that, uh, for consideration. Um, maybe we can we can talk about that at the next maybe we can put that down as an agenda item. I am open to it. Um, I have some thoughts, but it's probably better to put that as an agenda item for next time. So, okay. Definitely. I don't know if David concluded this, but there there's something out there, right? I thought Zach found it as part of the sustainable CT thing, but this I don't know. I think there's there's an inventory available. I just a few years ago. I thought it was I thought it was even on our website, town website, something. I'll poke around and see what I can find. Yeah, between the land trust um and the tax assessor database, I'm sure there's a fair amount of um information about what's out there. We could always use the wayback machine to to find our old website, you know, on that topic. or will and Carol. also touched base with Eric Luckenville who was on well done a lot of things in town but was on the last plan of conservation development and and and he's talked at length when we've just been talking about open spaces in town about how um you know the Graanby Land Trust which he's also on the board of um has worked on identifying specific properties to to to have interconnectivity etc etc. Um anyway, I I'll touch base with Eric to see if there's something there that we can talk about next time as well. Um that you know it was something my my impression is there is something formalized but I'm not sure if if it lies within the town or the land trust

or anyway I'll explore it. That'd be great. Yeah. Uh great uh great addition will and I think it would be good for the next agenda. uh next meeting especially as a ramp up to the plan of conservation and development. So that's good. All right. Any last comments? Do I have a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Second. Second. Uh all in favor? I I Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Very good. And thank you. Thank you. Have a good week. Bye.