Utilities Committee - Regular Meeting

I'm going to call the meeting of the London Dairy Utility Committee um to order at um 700 p.m. Um and we'll all start with the um pledge of allegiance.

I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, we have no public present tonight, so we'll skip public comment. Um the I believe that the last meeting that we had as a full board um here was on in February. Um and John did submit minutes, I believe. So, can I have a motion to accept the minutes of the February 3rd meeting of the utilities committee?

Before you call for vote, do you want to um Sorry, not coordinated. Tonight, do you want to appoint people to vote for the absent members? Oh, yes. I'm sorry. That's right. Tonight, we have um three absent members, Ray Brees, Anne Fen, and John Ferrer. And so, I will appoint Lynn Uh Joy, do we have any other alternates? I don't think so. Ray is an alternate. Yeah, raise an alternate Ray, but he's not here. Okay. Okay. So, will you guys vote? And that makes us That's perfect. Thank you. Okay. Sorry.

All right. So, again, can I have a motion to accept the February 3rd minutes? So, move. Thank you. Second. Second. Thank you, Paul. Okay. In favor, pardon me. All in favor? Oh, all in favor? I

opposed. Chair votes in the affirmative. Okay. the um first I want to turn it over to Kirsten and um any additions that you want to make for us this evening

in terms of well I see here that you have written St. Cobain and the status of strategic plan and I'm happy to speak to both of those as long as my voice holds out. Um as you know the council did give their approval for the settlement agreement with St. at the March 30th special meeting. Now, this settlement agreement is between the town and St. Cobain. It does not preclude, limit, or alter the agreement between the consent decree agree agreement between the state of New Hampshire and S. Cobain. So, all of Scoane's responsibilities under the consent decree for all the properties listed in the term sheets stays. So that means that Scoane retains full responsibility for remediating anybody who's well tests at more than 12 parts per trillion who lives within the consent decree area. As a reminder for anybody who might be listening, the consent decree area um the border is roughly for most of the north south line of it down High Range Road down the middle of High Range Road. So, if you are west of High Range Road all the way over to the border with Lichfield um or Hudson, you are likely in the consent decree area. That does not mean that every home is going to get a waterline. In fact, many homes in that area have already been remediated with a poet, a point of entry system. Sobain is responsible for maintenance on those point of entry systems until that water tests below the limit coming out of the ground. So if their wellwater ever gets cleaned up

and they no longer require the poet, that is when St. Cobain's responsibility for it ends. And that would still be at the 12 parts per trillant, right?

I think it might be lower than that, but I would have to check on the exact number. It is in the consent decree. Now, there's three major neighborhoods that have been identified for waterline expansion, and those are the ones that are between Royal and Alexander. They all start off High Range between Royal and Alexander. And those are the neighborhoods that once the water line between Royal and Alexander is completed, construction will be able to begin moving west.

That construction is the responsibility, management, execution, engineering, everything is the responsibility of St. Cobain. The town will not be running that construction running west. We will be running the high range roadwater main

but into the neighborhoods. The town's not running that construction. St. Cobain is they've been working with Penachuk on developing plans for that and Penachuk I don't know if it's for sure but there's a high significant chance that Penachuk will be completing the construction management of that work that includes water lines and services to houses. If all goes well with the high range road water mane, which we anticipate it will, it will likely be done by the end of this year, by the end of the 2026 construction season, which means construction west can begin as early as 2027. Um, it will likely build the water lines and then go back and build the services. Again, water lines are under the streets. Services are curb stop to home. Back to the settlement agreement. settlement agreement. Um, Scobain has agreed to pay 40% of the cost of the water mane from Royal to Alexander, the phase two of the water man. So, they are going to be putting that money into escrow for us upfront and they will also pay they're paying 40% of the estimate and 40% of any cost overruns.

And so, they're going to be placing a little over $400,000 in there for overruns. and their contribution is just over 1.7 million. What this means for Londereerry other Londereerry residents is this. We between the voters of Londereerry who approved the Warren article allowing us to use leftover funds from the high range road water main project elsewhere in the town. That was step one because the voters originally approved appropriating these funds. So for a very narrow project, so the voters had to say, "Yep, we can use them for this project, too."

So that was a check mark. The drinking water and groundwater trust fund advisory commission also had to approve us using that water for that money, leftover money for a different project. And at their meeting in January, they gave us um or February, they gave us provisional approval subject to dees basically signing off on it. So we do not need to go back in front of the advisory commission to use the leftover money. We need to get DEES's approval for the project. So that's really good news. Um and because that money is from the drinking water and groundwater trust fund which is funded by settlements that water that money is not federal money that's being filtered down through the state and therefore we can use that money towards matching funds for other grants which is good because most any other funds that we are eligible for moving forward are at least a 20% match. So, we're hoping that between that and an application that we put in for congressionally directed spending, we're going to be able to take care of a full one of the our first full project from that list that we presented to dees. We're hoping that's the goal. So, we'll be able to take care of that first 4A, project 4A, which is between Shasta and Lichfield. We're hoping, not 100% sure. That's what we're thinking right now. dees would like to see us present a full project to them for the leftover funds so that it's not contingent upon it, but there's a part of that project which is really excellent for that. So, we're waiting to see where some things pan out before we finalize this. But, um, regardless, that money is going to be able to stay in London to help lender residents who are not being helped by sane. So while it, you know, I' I've seen a lot of reactions online that range from

good, they they should be contributing, which is, I think, a very apt sentiment, to what's going well, that's a drop in the bucket. I can't speak to St. Cobain's overall financial status, but I do know that every dollar that they're putting into this project helps us take that dollar and put it towards getting somebody else clean drinking water. And that was really important to us, and I know it was very important to the council, too. So that's the status of the St. Cobain settlement. Does anybody have any questions on that one for me before I move on? Is it available for us to look at? I believe once it is actually fully executed it will be. I'm not 100% sure yet. Let me check with Sean on that and get back to you.

Thank you. It needs signatures from both Shawn and Senko Bane to be fully executed. So once it is, I will certainly let you know. Okay. Once it is, it would absolutely be a public document. Um, as far as you know, it hasn't been fully executed. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know the status. Yeah. So, they the council approved doing it, but it does need to be executed. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. So, Kirsten, uh, not so much on the agreement, but you had mentioned where uh, if a customer has a poet system and they're still using their well and the well tests below the minimum limit that uh, St. Bane will no longer be maintaining the PO system. How often is the water tested and who's doing the testing?

It's a great question and I don't know. I don't know that. That is a question I can ask. Um I can help you with that. You know that? Yeah. Awesome. So I'll give my house as an example. At my house, Culligan comes four times a year and they test the in and the out and you get a report back from the state. Yeah. And the state pays Culligan to do that. Um St. Cobain paid in my house. Sane pay somebody besides the home. Yes. Yes. So, uh, four times a year the water gets tested and the and they change the um the filters, too. Sure. And four times a year they change the filters. No. No. Four times a year they come to your house to test the water. No, they come to test the water, but they'll also change the filters as needed. As needed.

Um, so in depending on you might also have Sec. Second Win also is another company that's out there. They may also be doing it also, but I know Culligan does it in my area. So, and did Ron did you happen to know the number that it needs to test under? Is it 12 coming? So, right now it's 12. Okay, it's 12. All right. Yeah, that does create an interesting situation for some people in the consent decree area because some people in the consent decree area will not test low enough, will not test high enough for St. Gobain to pay for their connection. Yes. But they will test high enough for the state rebate. Mhm.

So, that's going to be an interesting house by house thing. Currently, what we're working on in our end is being building out basically a house by house dossier of every property that we can find out information on and figuring out what their status is. It's going to be a long process, but it's trying to build up that information so we know where everything stands. Any other questions on it? All right. Awesome.

Thank you. You're welcome. So that brings me to uh strategic plan. Strategic plan is the materials for the first workshop are in the final stages of being prepared. Um I would have been finalizing them upstairs if I hadn't had my eyes dilated a little while ago, but I'll be um meeting with Sean about it tomorrow morning and then we'll be distributing them. Um what's the date of that? Uh the first workshop is the 13th, next Monday,

and the second one is Wednesday the 22nd. So we'll be presenting the overview and the first half of it basically next Monday and then the rest on the 22nd. I will say based if I'm remembering the sequence of areas, I think most of things that are more relevant to y'all fall on the 22nd. Okay. Follow the latter half. The four areas that we'll be presenting, it worked out to be seven functional areas. The ones like for example, Lebanon had were 10. We have seven functional areas drafted for this tag. Um and each objective the there's two to four objectives per functional area. Um the biggest one is kind of that high performing government one. There's four objectives in that area. Um, I think down under uh the one that involves utilities, we really kind of concretely narrowed it down to two. Basically, there's a utility and infrastructure one. I know there's an infrastructure and transportation. I don't want to get ahead of myself. I'm starting to ramble, but we are at a point where and quite a bit of the feedback that this board and other boards that you may sit on was incorporated into that. Um, again, it's for looking forward from fiscal year 27 through 2029. You'll notice when you see the objectives, many of them will say by June 30th, 2029, but then we'll have priority action items for next year because a lot of what we're going to be doing is we want to do this in three years, right? This is what the town says, what everybody said we want to do. But there's lots of intermediary steps. So, we're outlining the intermediary steps that we're hoping to achieve the next year and how we measure them and who's involved. Um, this is all subject to town council

signing on. And I actually want to give a yel give a shout out last night when you were mentioning the strategic plan. I took, you know, the goal that you had mentioned about coming up with that policy that and dropped it in there as an action item. Awesome. So those type of things, you know, they're going to it's going to evolve and change over the next two workshops and then it will likely evolve and change again at the public hearing on May 18th. Um but yeah, so there's a lot of it in there. Not everything made it in there. Not everything that everybody put forward, but I would encourage people after we finalize the strategic plan to come back to our to your input and think about it almost like a business plan for your board.

You know, we're we're encouraging departments to do that, too. Some departments gave really awesome detailed ones for their departments. Um, assessing comes to mind. They have a really great one that would work as an awesome business plan for assessing over the next year. Some of their goals fit into the larger town goals, too. So, it's really it's an interesting interaction and I think these workshops are going to be a really good chance to see the interplay in the way everybody relates in a way that maybe we don't always see. Sometimes we see things really siloed, but we're going to be able to see the interplay between things and I think it's going to be a really good conversation. So, that's where that stands. Excellent. Thank you so much. I don't think I have anything else right now, but let me know if I forgot anything.

Kirsten, these the workshops should be treated like any meeting where, you know, a week ahead of time there's a agenda comes out and there's links to the underlying documents. Going to be a little bit different. Um, I'm trying to finalize the first half of it, the first three areas and the overview of what we did in a really readable form. So, we'll be publishing that. This is being recorded, isn't it? Okay. Hopefully by the end of the day tomorrow.

And then, um, if I hadn't had strep throat, it would have been earlier this week. Um but and then you'll have a chance to review it and look at it. The way that the workshop will be is that Sean will work on presenting it to the council. Uh the kind of overview of it and then go start going through the the functional areas and objectives and people will be able to speak up. Um it's more designed for the council departments and boards to speak. So people who kind of have the ownership for executing it rather than a public comment. The public comment is meant to be at the hearing. This is a chance for the council to ask questions to the people who gave this input to create it and who would be responsible for executing it. So that's kind of this opportunity for dialogue. May 18th is really the big day for the general public. And so that's why when I think Tanya sent out the invitation to boards or was it me? I don't remember. We sent it to the chair and the vice chair and then suggested to anybody that if they can't make it, they invite other people. You look perplexed, Jeff.

I don't remember getting Yeah, I don't remember getting the email. So, are you I apologize if I'm if I missed the lead, but is there a day that you want us to show up for the town to question us or the 20? Yeah. So, Tanya had sent out that email. I'm fairly double check my Yeah. Um the 22nd is the day that is more relevant to the areas that you would be Got it. Thank you. Yeah. April or May? April 22nd. Thank you, Mark. And then May 18th is the Oh, yeah. Sorry. It's been a long day. Amen. Um Yes. So that's where that stands.

Just a question. Um would anybody be able to come and sit in on the entire thing? Oh yeah, you absolutely come sit in listen. Yeah. Um but yeah, the conversation this is less of a public forum. This is not like a public hearing or a public forum. This is a work this is like a you know like the planning board has working sessions. Yeah. This is a working session basically. Okay. For everybody who was involved in creating the strategic plan. Public is always welcome. It's going to be open to the public. People can come in, sit and watch. Ron, does that kind of capture your understanding of it? Absolutely. Yeah. Awesome. Be more I think more informal though. Yeah. Like it will just be more of a discussion, not a formal meeting where we're like that's why I'm not sure if there's going to be

an agenda. And that's why I said we'll send it we'll post it and send it out, but it's more just going to be Yeah. Yeah. plan itself. The way I saw it was like we were going to be up here and they were going to present to us. We were going to ask them questions, but more informal, not like a, you know, a meeting setup. Yeah. not minutes, not rules of procedure, those type of things. It'll be public. It'll be recorded, but no decisions will be made. There might be some draft changes, but again, it's still working on a draft. So, and people that come will be just an audience. Yes. Okay.

Yep. And they're welcome to share input. In fact, I still have the link. I might not have the link live online, but I might. But the big thing I'm working on, and I might not have it before I send out the minutes, is trying to get all the input that we were given into a readable format, right?

Because it ranges from comments on the website that were sent through the web form, emails, handwritten notes, um staff sent it to us in many different formats that ranged from a 16page plan to a one-page email. So, it's a lot to try and get together in a legible format. So, that's what we're working on is kind of in the background getting all the data together so people can see where it came from. But the plan is also sourced. So, if somebody says, "Whose input did that come from?" I can tell them. Yep. So, okay, sounds good. James, do you have anything you want to add? I do not.

Makes me look bad. James is Okay, moving on then we'll go to um subcommittee um discussions. Um and first under that is um energy. Um before we delve into that, who's going to be presenting for energy? So I'll talk to probably the highlights and I'll certainly defer to okay

the committee members for uh the details that I overlook. I did get um a couple of people call me directly and um same kind of comments that we got at our open forum when Freedom came to speak to um the public.

Um and um if we could just sort of explain that again in this meeting. The the comment is that they wish that it wasn't an opt out program. They wish it was an optin program and I tried to explain to them that it the whole idea of aggregation is that you get an aggregate of numbers and that speaks to what you're able to do under under the agreement. And if we did an opt in uh uh rather than an opt out, then we we would you know we may never get to the point where we could offer anything to the general public. So I just want to say that that feedback came in and I think if we could address it that would be great.

So that's a topic of it in itself and uh Paul jump in whenever I make a misstatement here but the way the legislation was written uh up in conquered is uh these programs were designated as opt out programs. Everybody was automatically opted in unless they chose to opt out. And that was done for the primary reason of uh addressing economies of scale. If uh this was an opt-in program, I don't think we would find an energy supplier willing to take the risk to participate in the program. And uh one of the desires of this program, one of the desires I think of the uh legislature of the executive branch is to get Eversource out of the supply business. And if we didn't pursue a program like this, if the state didn't pursue a program similar to this, what we're doing, uh there would never be Eversource would be in the business forever and ever of being a supplier. And that's not their core business. And uh that was really what this program was to address.

And and I've heard the comments about opt in, opt out. I get it. It's not that hard to opt out. I mean, I I feel bad that people have to do it and it makes, you know, they either sent back a postcard, they went to the website that they had to do something and I get that that's kind of unfair to them that they had to take the time out of their day to do that, but it was not a hard thing to do and there was a variety of ways to make it happen. So, and I I have to say just uh you know, anecdotally, I got many more comments about uh from the town's people thanking us for saving them money. And I think that's really what we were able to accomplish. So, and I I want to talk a little bit about some of the statistics, you know, who's participating and who's not. So, and I think that kind of

says how we were making out with this program. So excellent. You want to use my handle? Oh, sure. Yeah, but I don't look so techn technologically savvy if I'm doing it from paper. So, I I know this is the first meeting that this committee's had since February. So, u just to give you the uh the short story first and get into some of the details. uh the program went live April 1st

in town and uh people will notice uh their the change on their May bill from Eversource so it'll just show up as a different supplier but uh we are live uh effective April 1 and I think that's a huge milestone uh but going back to uh after you know events after the February meeting so uh we put together a FAQ video uh Bart from myself over at the uh cable center. Uh that's up on the town website. I think uh I think it came out well. I think we answered a lot of questions. I hopefully might have generated some more questions, but we had that uh FPL for Freedom Energy uh launched the London CCA website and we have links to that through the CCA page on the utility utility committee's web page. uh we went through the whole opt out postcard mailing and the period for people to respond to that. March 1st was the beginning of the opt out period and um they had a month to reply if they wanted to participate or not. Uh and then we also had a public information session on March 7th at 10 a.m. in the school cafeteria. I think it was very well attended. Uh we had 130 plus Kirstston attending

just about. Yep. Yep. And I thought uh some very good questions that came in. I think you know we have a a very well- educated citizenship if that's the right word here in town. And uh they they came prepared with questions and I think we were able to I don't want to say send them away satisfied because obviously the opt-in opt out uh situation with some of the group there but uh I think it was very well received. Um March 31st we closed the opt out period. That concluded all of our regulatory requirements. So we have met all the requirements of the uh of the plan that we had filed with the PUC and we went live on April 1st. People still opt out. Yeah. Okay. You can opt out. You can opt in opt out whenever. Whenever. Okay.

With no penalty. It is important to say that if you opt out after that date, you may your first bill may still go over. I get it and then you'd be moved back. So I've had to answer that question a couple times. Yeah, there will be timing issues to Kirsten's point if you do opt in or opt out if you're jumping back and forth, but you can do it as many times as you would so choose. If you want to, you know, if you think you can do better on the open market yourself, you're free to go play that as well.

Not interested in that. But uh just to give you a little bit of um some statistics here in London there were 14,080 total meters or opportunities for this program. Uh there were total meters in town uh for eligible for this program were 10,799. ineligible were 3,31. Uh ineligible meters would be those that are with thirdparty suppliers, those that are uh net metering, you know, solar from their roof. Uh the opt-in rate, granted, uh you know, you didn't have to do anything to opt in, but the opt-in rate, we had 9,989 participants. Uh actually 9,990. John just opted in today

which is which is a 92.7% uh participation rate 71 now 92.71 thank you John we didn't we didn't have to opt in though did we were already in it right if we were customer but the particip participation rate as of two days ago was uh 92.71% awesome what you'll see Martha also though is that there's some more people who were on third party whose contracts were higher who are ending them and now opting in. So you're seeing like I'm assuming that was your situation. So you're seeing several people.

Y and I've had a lot of uh lot I've had several people on third party contracts tell me that they were going to opt into this program as soon as they were eligible to do so. So I think uh uh that's going to be a source for growing the program downstream. So the opt- out rate, we had 790 people opt out or 7.3%. And those are actually the numbers that are pretty typical of other cities and towns around us. So, you know, we're not any better or any worse, but they're pretty typical. It's

probably good to remember that those are households or or meters. So, it's not people. It's not that we have 10,000 people on the program. We have 10,000 households. You know, figure out two or three people per household. That's the people. But we we're just talking about meters. Meters. Yep. Exactly. And the other thing I I want to just get clear, when these types of programs were authorized to um happen in the state of New Hampshire, it was conquered that said that these programs have to be an opt automatic opt in. Oh, yeah. Automatic opt out, right? No, automatic optin.

Automatic optin. So, so, so don't blame Lynn. So, you're So, you're in before you can be out. Yeah. You're in unless you choose to be out. Okay. You're in. And that came from conquered. Yeah. That that's the way the legislature was. We didn't we didn't make that decision. No, it's legislation. Yeah. I'll add a little balance to the optin. I live in a 55 plus community. When I mentioned the people, the opportunity to save money, they all said,"What do I need to do?" I said, "Nothing."

You don't understand. What do I need to do? I said, "Nothing." And there were a lot of happy people. So, just add a little balance to the Absolutely. of that. Yeah. If you got 10,000 households, someone's going to be upset, right? No matter what you do. Correct. But part of the commentary that I got back was that they didn't like us as a utility committee making a decision for them and it wasn't totally our decision. It would we followed a program. No, and honestly I get that argument in your pocket.

Yeah, I I understand that argument and I and a lot of people have a lot of reasons for not participating. All I can say is that I think this program is saving 92.7% of the meters in town money. And I I think that's hu that's huge. I think that says that we've accomplished what we set out to accomplish. I agree. The one other part of that answer that I've given to people as well is that a utility is different than another service. When people ask what right does the town have to change our util our our supplier utilities are governed differently than other services. You know I've had some people be like so you're going to tell me who I can have insure my car to. Nope. No

that's different. Utilities are actually governed. The first line of responsibility for a utility is the state. And then the state decides how that can be run. And the state gave municipalities the ability to determine their default supplier. And it's one of those things where, you know, people didn't choose Eversource, right? That was the default supplier for them. We're changing the default, but people are welcome. They still have 100% of their choice. We're only changing people who are on the default. And that's the other thing, too, is that municipalities do because it's a utility. like water, like gas, it's run differently because it is an entirely different product than something that is sold individually.

And so that's the other big difference here that makes it different from anything else. And I I've had that conversation with people, that long conversation several times. And so it's also a good jumping off point to understand that like no, we're not going to make rules about what kind of, you know, satellite dish you can use on your house or anything like that because we're not making rules. We're we're following state law and that's an important thing there. Yeah. That's good language. I like that language. Yes. Yes. And I I saw some commentary on social media about the length of the contract. We signed up for a six-month contract, seven-month contract, right?

And uh Eversource goes through every six months and sets their rates every six months. And there the the Eversource has to go through a fairly robust process with the public utilities commission to have their rates set. And uh the next Eversource uh rate will come out in August. uh our contract goes through October and so we'll have plenty of time and and I think that's one of the tasks that this committee has and certainly the the energy subcommittee has is to monitor the rates that every source is um putting out there and what we can do uh with competitive rates to that correct

what data can we get from from these guys to uh to do that monitoring I mean what data do they provide to us or is it online or on their website So, uh, how would we measure that? So, so far, and we're, uh, early into this process, Paul and I have been getting an indicative pricing sheet, and they do this every two weeks. They go out to different suppliers, and they do checking the market periodically. Excellent. Yeah.

And they come up in on that pricing sheet, they'll come up with a short-term price, they'll come up with like a seven-month contract price, they'll come up with a 12-month contract price, they'll come up with an 18-month contract price. So, do we have the option sometime in the next seven months to like lock in an extra seven months? So, if something happens in three months and all of a sudden the price drops precipitously, we're like, "Oh, we're going to lock it in right there." Yep. Nice. We can do that. Nice. And the o other thing that I um got from somebody in the public was can we put the agreement that we have with freedom on the website if it's if it's not already. It is

it is yep it's in these documents at the bottom of the web page and if people can go to londarenh.gov I made a redirect so it's not long. It's just slashccca. So, if you put CCA after mundary.gov, it'll take you to that web to the web page. All of these documents are here. Um, and that's our web page.

Yep. This is our website. So, the full text of the plan, all of it is here. um links to examples of the letter that people got, the card that they got, the community choice aggregation program video, and one neat feature of this video, and I'm not going to play the whole thing, but if you look at the bar on it down bottom, it doesn't work as well when you're here, but if you go to YouTube, it is broken up into chapters by question. Yeah. So, if you have a question that you want to see, you can actually go here and select basically that section of the video. So, you don't have to watch the whole one. Okay.

Um, it also has links to the opt-in opt out form online, a sample energy bill, and the number you can call when we get when we know the next round of rates. So, the Eversource rates, and then when you all decide which way you're going to go, that will be updated on here as well. So, this will all be kept current. This page is permanent. It's not going to go away. Um, I'm trying to get back to people as they get to me. For a while, there was a big rush. It was a very, very busy week and a half. It's kind of tapered off. I can't always get back to people, but I'm trying within 72 hours. Um, but yeah, so we're still answering questions. Still doing it. Awesome. Thank you,

Kirsten. I'm looking at Well, I'm looking at that here. Yeah. Um, would it make sense, and this is a question, would it make sense to have a line that says, you know, 9573 is 83% of 11. So, you're actually showing that you're saving people 15% or whatever. I mean, that's pretty sure. Yeah. And they have that in the if you look in the opt. Okay. Perfect. Perfect. Okay. So, I can just take the I can take some of that letter some of that language from there. I just want to make sure I don't go crazy on I want to make sure I don't go crazy on kind of making up my own comparisons and over complicating it, but some of that language is there and I can put that on there.

Perfect. Yeah. That way it's like how much is what's the difference? I mean, you can do the math pretty quick, but you know, I don't want to Some people might not know how to do that math. Yep. Yes. And you know, and I'll also say this, there's been some negative publicity in the news that you might see about aggregation programs in New Hampshire, but they revolve around one particular supplier that is not the partner that we have chosen to uh move down the path with. Thank you. So, yeah. Okay. Anything else for energy? That was very good. Thank you,

uh, Martha. I could just give a quick update there. We're also working on uh I know the opportunity to create some kind of a solar facility. Uh that's going more slowly, but we're working uh trying to get with um though we're doing GIS analysis, try to identify sites. are working with uh Stonyfield try to get out and see how they did their um parking lot solar array and um working with James actually now on trying to see whether the there's a app called the solar app plus that Homer and and his installer can use to uh expedite the permitting process in town.

Wow. So, we got those three initiatives going, but they're all they're not anywhere near fully baked. Okay. But great. There's um uh solar on the top of the parking garage at the airport. Um I will I will ask him if they have like a a developer or the guys that did that for him. See if I can't get someone for you to call. Yeah, great. Yeah. Even the guy at the at the airport that's managing it. Yeah. Yeah. So that we'll see not we'll see the the the warts as well as the bloom on the chic. Exactly. He'll give us the data. He's a pretty pretty uh candid fellow. Yeah. Okay. Good. Very good. Gave a good update at town council. Yeah.

Um okay. Water. We pretty much um gone through the St. Oane um agreement. Um, do we want to talk anything about or is this premature at this time about the water special assessment districts that we um voted on and little premature because I had to cancel that meeting Tuesday as you both know because I didn't want to get everybody sick. Yeah.

Um, for those of you who didn't know, is that all stress? So, um, I'm working. I'm looking for a new date on that. And maybe Martha and Jeff, if you can just swing by and give me a rough idea of your schedules for the the end of this week and the beginning of next. Um, yeah. And let me know when you're free. We can get that going. Okay. So, yeah, that sounds we're going to hold the kickoff and then we'll start and on that point, we're going to get everybody on the same page and start moving forward. I see May being a really big month for that. Okay. Very good. Thank you. You're welcome. Um, I don't think that we have anything else. Th those are mostly the things that we spoke about at water. Go ahead.

Um two small things. Um uh Ann is uh taking two actions for us. She's looking into doing some research on any lawsuits nationwide that could infect uh New Hampshire. So she's going to be doing some some research for us. Also, she's going to be uh working with uh people on the water committee. I think John uh to try to get our arms around the quality of water that pentatuck produces both at the um at the point where it comes out of their systems. So she's going to be collecting some data for us and we'll share that with the utility committee. Um also uh John is and Martha are going to be making friends with water committees in the area because water is a it's a

regional it's it's not you know it's it's not a local problem. It's not a local issue. It's a regional issue. So, we're going to try to make friends with uh with our neighbors. So, that's it. Okay. Very good. And everything Kirsten said. Okay. Um moving on, we'll go to sewer and solid waste.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh this past uh Saturday, uh our committee subcommittee met um and Bob Kerry, who's the town's environmental engineer, joined our meeting. Um Bob had a couple of topics. Uh first, uh he wanted to make sure we uh gave a shout out to the upcoming household hazardous waste collection. Uh if you're not familiar with that, that takes place twice a year. Uh we kind of share that with uh with dairy. Um the the spring collection is in Derry on May the 9th from 9:00 am to 12 pm uh at the uh behind the West Running Brook Middle School over in Derry. Um and the fall collection will be in our town at the laughter fields and behind the fire station. Uh we run ours from 8:30 to 12:30 on November the 21st. Um, you can uh if you need some details on what can and cannot be brought to the household hazardous waste collection, I direct you to the the DPW's uh website. They have the best source of information on what can be brought, what can't be brought. Um, the second thing that Bob talked about and updated the committee on, I believe on the um on the agenda talks about the uh uh uh the pump station project. He called it the Pillsbury Road pump station project so we don't get ourselves in trouble with the folks over at the development over there. Um the uh uh and that's and the progress on that. That's it's if you had an opportunity to drive down Hardy Road recently, you might have noticed that that bankrooft has been closed off and they've started to lay down the uh the sewer pipe on that road coming from the pump station. It'll come down Harvey and then swing up

onto Pillsbury. Um and that uh project uh will uh um serve uh uh the the development there. Um, but also the 250 or so proposed cottage housing that's going to be put in north of Pillsbury and east of uh of Hardy Road there. Um, all those will be served by that that single pump station. Um, construction is going to take a couple years. Uh, probably be active December of 2027. Um and uh that will probably be uh have to be done according to what Bob indicated before those houses are constructed uh above Pillsbury Road. So that'll be the timeline on that construction. So uh th those were uh Bob uh kind of gave us a lot of detail. Ray's not here tonight. Rey uh uh question Bob severely. Okay. And I don't know if it will halt construction. I think it they can go ahead with construction, but they won't be hooked up and they won't be occupied.

They can't be occupied. That's you're exactly right. Um but a lot of those houses are also being built on spec. So I don't think they're going to build too many of them uh to they're done. So

um the third thing, uh uh Lynn had sent us a note. Uh Lynn is now a member of the solid. Uh we'll get you your t-shirt, Lynn. But but uh uh a committee sent a note suggesting that we look uh uh take a look at u uh and I've heard different names on this project now, but basically the anorobic digtor program that's being suggest suggested on the north end of town. Um I have it in my notes as the Southern New Hampshire green energy campus, but I I know there's a company involved there too. um and uh maybe take a position as a committee. Uh committee discussed that in our meeting and um Joy I believe had the suggestion uh that maybe there's been an offer made actually in a town council meeting uh for folks to go tour their facilities. And we thought it might be advantageous if uh the sewer and solid waste committee, the members that could do so, uh went and toured their facility up in Vermont um and reported back to the town or to the the citizenry of the town uh as to what we observed uh because there were some concerns I think expressed in a in a planning board meeting and I don't know if that's come before town council yet. Um so uh our uh distinguished chair has uh volunteered with a little proddding for me to to uh pursue uh uh this uh business to see if we can get something set up to go up and and uh tour that facility to report back on what we see um in town and then take a position on it as a committee. Okay. And unless anybody on the committee's got anything I'm skipping,

look around. I don't see it. That's it for me, Madam Chair. Um, can I make one minor correction on u some of John K's input? Um, is the household hazardous waste for the town is actually going to be at DPW. It's not going to be at Lafa. Oh, okay. What did he say? Could you repeat yourself real quick? Sorry about that. Could you say again? Oh, I apologize. Could you repeat yourself real quick? Uh, the household hazardous waste for for London is actually going to be at DPW. It's not going to be at Lafa. Okay. There are facilities over on the west end of town. Is that okay? Oh, fire. Is that what you're talking about? On High Range.

On High Range. Yes. Really? Sorry. High range. Yeah. I hope it doesn't rain. They want everybody to go over there and see it. And well, you need waiters if it rains over there. I mean, it gets pretty bad. This is a purposeful move. Waiters and mud boots. You don't get out of your car, John. Remember? Yeah. Yeah. I don't You know what? I don't have an ATV. I don't think I can make it through that parking lot. Best get your stuff ready for next one. for the first one then.

So small addition to the water committee meeting. Uh the um the outreach we did at the water roundt and our efforts to sort of get people involved is uh we're getting some green shoots from that effort. And we had a lovely email from Kelsey who's one of I believe one of our high school students here in town. Great. Yeah.

Uh asking some phenomenal questions which uh some of them we can answer. some of them. We're working with the town to properly disposition the requests and uh the goal is to have a good answer for her in time for her article, which it looks like is end of the day Friday, but we're working on it and it's lovely to see people uh or see the high school kids or young adults uh showing interest, really good questions, and a great email. So, so we uh the the outreach is coming back to us, which is a positive sign. That's it.

Madam Chair, as long as we're talking about young people, I got to put my hand down. Um, uh, Joy is, uh, bringing a a group from the green council down to, uh, the Bill Ricka facility, I believe, of, uh, to show them recycling and what happens when material leaves town. So, and that's, uh, the green council over at the high school.

Yeah, we're working on planning planning that for for a team to go down there. So, yeah. And um I reached out to um um oh I'm I'm blanking on his name right now. He is in charge of maybe in charge of facilities at the schools um to ask him because the students have been really interested in trying to get a robust recycling program down there and um he also would like to tour the facility with us um and he is very interested in in helping the students get their recycling program going. So good things. Yeah.

Excellent. Okay, the next uh subcommittee would be uh cable and internet and we really rely upon our good dear friend John Ferrer who is um recovering from a little bit of um medical procedure tonight. So, anybody else on that committee have anything to add? No. Oh, yeah. Okay. So, we'll um we'll hold off on that one. And um that really brings us close to the end. So, we'll go to just uh round table. Uh John, do you have anything else that you'd like to add tonight?

Uh just a brief one for um uh the uh town council chairman present. Um the uh a small pet peeve and and in a way I it's somewhat self-s serving because I'm in this group. Um as you're aware there is a uh there is I think it's still funded a state fund for folks to hook into sewer and water systems um when they're not inside the consent uh area to hook up to water to water. Yes, I'm sorry. Water. Um, and it's it's $10,000 if you're hooking into a public water system and 5,000 up to $5,000 if you're putting in your own correct

poet system or or under the counter program. Um, one of the things that's happening now is many folks in my neighborhood, including the guy sitting in this chair, put in a poet system for $4,500, whatever it was, three or four years ago now.

Um, because that's what we did. Now, we have water coming eventually to our town. And I've had a couple of people ask me, gee, it doesn't seem right that somebody that's getting that didn't do anything can now hook in and get $10,000 from the state, and I'm prohibited because I'm only allowed to get the $4,500 I got from my poet system. I want to hook into the water system when it comes. And the proposal was maybe that additional $5,000 should be made available to folks in that boat.

It is. It is. So if you spent $4,500, you'd have $5,500 left to hook up to your public water. You have a maximum of $10,000 that you as a as a as a resident can get. When I called Ron after somebody brought this to me, Yeah. I was told one or the other. No, it I I can get uh speak with Amy Russo if you have any any Okay. specific questions. I know she is the she's trying to change offices, so to speak, and have someone else take over her, but I believe the the lady is still out on maternity leave. So, Amy Russo is back in that position and she knows everything.

You know what? That's great. That answers the question. Somebody brought that to me and I said, but that is my understanding. You have a maximum of $10,000. Wonderful. And John, for the gap for the difference, that's what we've designed the special assessment district process for it. The special assessment district process, it's money that you have to pay back, but it's not a personal loan. It's tied to the property. So, it's not tied to personal credit, personal credit inquiry, and it goes with the house. So, that's the other thing. So, the town is trying where it can to address what is a very real disparity. Thank you. I'm good.

Yeah. Good. I Good. Thank you. Okay. Jeff. Yes, ma'am. Do you have anything that you'd like to add? I have something from our our lovely friend Ry. Okay. Um, please inform the committee that Monday the 13th, next Monday, this is

the NHDES is holding a funding workshop for municipal and other interested parties. He believes it's all week. Contact DWSRF dees.nh.gov or we can call Ry because he is a source of information on this. And I did send uh Ray did speak to me about this too. And I did send an email to um Sean Muhalland Kirsten and you Jeff uh about this water funding uh project. So um and I gave you the link to it. So it will tell you everything that's there.

Be able to go to that. Maybe not. Okay. But it is and it's basically about funding and and how um h how to go about that and what's available. So that would be they would probably answer your question too. It's online and it's free. So I'm not going to be even easier. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. Okay. So that's all I have. Lynn, so I'm planning on briefing the town council at the April 20th town council meeting. uh with the status of the CCA program. Thank you. I'm good. You're good, Joy.

Um just a quick plug for our Beautify London uh this Saturday morning if you would like to join us 9 to noon at Matthew Thornton. We'll be handing out bags and gloves and you can pick some trash and it's going to be it looks like it's going to be decent. So yeah. Wait a second. You forgot the ice cream. Oh, right. And Max has once again graciously donated a free cone for all of those who come volunteer. Yeah, very nice. The only thing I have is I just want to take a minute and pause and look at that agenda for a second.

Um, every single person on this committee served on either the energy or the water subcommittee

and look at the two things that you guys have accomplished since your inception. in 2023. You've been an integral part of all the town's water plans, operations, research, feedback, policies that have led us to a point where we are hitting the pedal to the metal to a point where we're like, whoa, do we have the capacity for this? We'll make it, but it's a that's a good problem to have. And the energy, the community choice aggregation, like Lynn said, April 1st, it kicked off It's running now. These are two fairly significant, not even fairly, these are two significant accomplishments and I just really want, you know, you you guys do the work and I want you to know and I want people to know the work that this group does. You guys are really incredible and you've made some serious positive impact on thousands of people in this town. So, I just wanted to call you guys out for that and recognize you for that.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, with that, if no one has anything else, I would like a motion to adjurnn. Some moved. Second. Okay, so we have a uh Yes. by Jeff. You You're taking the notes. I am taking the notes by Jeff and Mike. Second. And uh All in favor? All in favor? I I the meeting is adjourned at 804.