Committees - Regular Meeting

You know, Joe, right?

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know that we really met.

I would bet. Yeah. Okay. I'm going to bring the meeting to order. Hi, Elise. I see you're zooming in.

Morning.

Morning. We'll get to any questions for you after we do this. first part. We don't have minutes, as I let you all know, so I'm just going to move on and jump into the RFP, which... Oh, hi, Ben. We just started. So we're going to jump into the RFP, Ben, and some revisions as suggested by Vincent Djokovic. And that was sent out to all of you so you could see what his suggestions were and what the revisions were like in the actual R&B. And so, do you want us to walk through the provisions? Is that what you'd like? Okay. John and Rob, do you want to?

Okay, yeah, as Tim said, you've had a chance to see Vincent's note and some, I think, excellent suggestions. I think we were able to incorporate just about everything. We do have some questions for the town on some of it. But so just going through it quickly. PS, in Section 1, He suggests, rather, we add an email address so bidders can send an email to confirm their RFP has been submitted. And I would also suggest that we need an email for questions from the bidders. So that probably should be the same. without knowing otherwise i suggested the town clerk email but i don't know joe would it be for you

Yes, all correspondents should be through the clerk's office. If there are technical questions, the clerk can forward them to me. But that way, there's only one point of contact. That's how we typically manage. And they will confirm receipt when they get them. But sometimes we specify whether paper copies are required. I don't think that's applicable here, but we should stipulate exactly how it should be transmitted, you know, if electronic or PDF format, things like those.

Are you talking about questions or the proposals?

Proposals, yeah. These are minor details, though, that we could...

I guess I just assumed that proposals would be submitted on paper. Maybe that's not right. I mean, we provided, you know, post office box.

So I prefer electronic as long as it's from a PDF. Yeah.

Okay, so I guess we change that again to the town clerk. And um, Any particular format? Should it be PDFs? Yes. Okay. So submit as PDF to the town clerk at this address, right?

At this email. And we'll provide the email. You already have it there. Yes.

Okay. And basically paper would not be accepted. So it is submission via email PDF.

yeah we don't need to get bogged down with these types of details, because we have sort of a standard procedure for you have some standard language for receiving good, so I can square this away when when you guys are already.

Leave it to you, then.

yeah yeah I don't want you guys to worry about these. issues right good.

um let's see somewhat related to that in section two vincent suggests we include a link to a shared drive that includes the last 12 months of utility bills of presumably for that one meter which of course we do have and i've created a spreadsheet of it also we can give them pdf copies of the bills or we give them the spreadsheet which breaks out the information Or both. I don't know. Again, your thoughts on that? Or is that a sensitive issue for the town?

No, I don't believe so. So it's public information, so we don't have to password protect the link.

And we just need some page on the website, I guess, to host them. It doesn't have to be password protected. True?

Yeah, we can set up something. We can set up a link.

Okay.

Or it can be part of the application as a PDF at the end of the RFP or something, sharing information.

Do you have it in an Excel spreadsheet? Yes.

We'll send this out digitally, the RFP will go out so we can attach it.

Okay.

We can figure out a way to do it.

Okay, good. So, again, you folks will handle it. Good. Thank you. That's what I like. Let's see. He says in Section 4, you may want to state the 50 kilowatt system is intended to not only offset the recycling center's usage, but also to cover the usage of additional buildings. We have done that. And just jumping here to the wording in Section 4, we say, The town intends to use this system to offset energy costs for other town meters through remote net metering program. So that's just what we've added to 4.1. Okay. Let's see in section 4 also under warranties. He suggests that we add a warranty on the. Racking equipment, which we've done so just a bullet point, racking equipment, minimum 25 year structural warranty. And I don't know, is that sufficient to Joe or. You need something explaining what the structural warranty is or what the structure is. I don't know.

Yeah, that's a good question. At first glance, it sounds appropriate, but I need to look at that a little bit more. This is not something that I've had any experience in. My instinct is to require the same lifecycle requirements for all of the system components. So the panels come with a respective warranty that we should be consistent.

The inverters are typically only 10 years. Yeah. And then also we have in ours, the workmanship minimum five years, but maybe this needs to be explained. I don't know what that means. Okay, well again, I guess again, we leave it to you. I don't know what else we can do.

Yeah, I'll look into that.

Okay, thank you. Uh, let's see section 5 required proposal information. You want to specifically state that demand.

Oh, I'm sorry. Can I skip something? Yeah. Financial analysis. I skipped 4.5.

Just pull out of the, uh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yes.

John Potter, I just add once. John Potter, Yes, thank you dumb question and 4.1 it says the town intends to use assistant to us energy costs, can we say to also use, I know we've established that. John Potter, It sounds like this is the main intention here to offset other town meters.

Karen Hollweg, Oh that's a good point.

Maybe that's what do you, what do you mean also for demand management?

Well, we have we have 1 purpose, but then the other purpose is to also offset.

Yeah, it should be the town also intends to use this system to offset energy costs for other town meters. Just a small remote net meter.

It only counts if you exceed the usage on that meter.

If well, then you can say if available, but I agree. It's like, this sounds like this is the purpose of. That it's to offset the energy costs for the other town meters and that's not actually the case.

Well, maybe it's just a matter of semantics here.

I think it's substantive. it is okay i think i mean we've established what we want to do ahead of this but then you come to this i just think we should just make that distinction so are you saying just add the word also well maybe the town intends also to use this system okay if yeah and then it gets like you don't want to have too many words in there but if available or if Excess energy is available when appropriate to use access energy.

Yeah, I think you could do it simply. The town also attempts to use this system to offset energy costs for other town meters through PSC and GLIs, remote net metering program when available.

When available. Yeah, that's the best place to put it. I agree. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Thank you.

Or maybe when excess energy is available, just to make it clear.

Okay. Section 5. 4.5. 4.5.

Yes. Okay.

uh 25 no excuse me yes estimated annual cost savings balance of loss yeah so that whole section i think was added 4.5 financial analysis yeah right that's okay good and um In that regard, in that section, he suggested adding the annual utility escalation rate of no more than 3% so that they cannot inflate it inappropriately. OK. Let's see.

Then we're in 5.1.

Well, the numbers have changed here, so that's the problem. OK, let's see. 5.1, yes. Through demand management, reduce peak charges through demand management, which just clarifies that the battery storage rather than being used for redundancy or resilience, its main purpose, I think, should be reducing the peak charges and thereby decreasing the demand charge substantially, we hope. Right? Okay. Okay, next. Now, I guess the rest of this is, let's see, 5.4. We've added a bunch, you could see there, estimated annual cost savings for the expected useful life of the battery. a simple payback period, net present value assumptions, and annual escalation rate of no more than 3%, as we said, and describe description of how the savings are derived. So we're asking them to clarify their financial analysis in their proposals.

And that's for the battery plus the solar system.

This is in the battery section, correct?

I think that's the key context here is section 4 is solar, but section 5 is about solar plus, so it's really much more into the energy management side, but saying, okay, well, this is a whole new ballgame, so give us a lot of detail on your financials.

Okay.

Ah, let's see.

Vincent references the NYSERDA 2023 municipal solar procurement toolkit, which, by the way, is an excellent document. It is rather voluminous, but that particular section is relevant and includes those items. Uh, public liability, property, damage, insurance, workman's compensation, vehicle, liability, all risk builders, insurance and excess umbrella liability insurance. I don't know is that part of the boilerplate for the town? Usually that insurance covering the town is done on town property.

Yes, we have standard terms and the town attorney clarify those. Okay. Good.

Good.

Which section is that? 6-2. 6-2. Okay. So if there's anything to be added by the town, it would go in there?

Yes. There are some cases where the specific work warrants some, you know, adjustments to our standard language, but the town attorney will handle all of those.

Okay, good.

We don't need to worry about, the committee should not be concerned with Section 60, we'll take care of that.

And you pass it along to the town attorney? Yes. Just in the interest of time, do you think he'll have time to do this before July 1?

I hope so, yeah.

OK. Are we set? Is there anything else? Oh, yes. Second and seventh submission. We actually did that already. I'm not sure why it's not highlighted here, but in section seven, you may want to add and spec sheets to bullet point five. That's not showing up here, but yes, it has been added. We went through that in a meeting.

What we have is equipment specifications and a forward slash manufacturer specification sheets. I'm wondering if that's an adequate explanation.

The point is we want to see the panels and I guess the inverters manufacturer spec sheets rather than some interpretation that the installer might have of those. If that makes sense.

With respect to confirming the analysis?

Well, this relates to the requirement of how much must be made in the USA also, I believe, to receive the tax credit. I'm not sure of the number, but it's something like 40%. 41%. 41%, thank you, must be US-made.

I saw there was a statement in here, though, elsewhere that the report must be in accordance with or must qualify for the credit.

Yes. Yes. It's kind of like that. Paragraph 14 in that section. Paragraph 14. Yeah.

The attestation of love.

Oh, okay. Yeah.

The system complies with the requirements of the federal commercial solar investment tax credit.

Yeah, I would prefer, this is actually a town attorney comment to make, but we typically don't get involved with reviewing and qualifying something like this that we would want the burden to be on the contractor for. We wouldn't want to be in a position where we review the spec sheets and say, yes, this looks like it's good for the credit. We would want to make sure that It's their responsibility to ensure eligibility for the credits. So I'll run that by Tom to make sure he can adjust that one accordingly.

Yeah, that whole attestation statement was all exactly that. We want to put the burden on them. Okay.

You do your homework insurance yeah that's not our expertise that's direct and so stating that clearly we thought would be useful yeah so that's point 14 yes, yes, I see that you're okay.

Yes, that's it. Isn't it?

Okay. And then, oh, questions down there. But it says all questions should be submitted in writing to you, but you say that should go to the town clerk.

Yeah, we can keep that to the top to the top clerk to manage and they'll go forward the request.

So that, yeah.

Okay. So, town clerk.

Looks like it.

Yep.

What do you think? Do we stand a chance of getting it out early in July?

Oh, yeah, I think we stand a good chance of that internally. We'll be able to review this and make the. You know, small changes and formatting. But I think the larger question is, what is the town prepared to do on this? Are we going to take action on this? Is this an exercise in getting costs, or are we making commitments to seeing this through? Is it executable, I think, is what's important for us to understand internally about whether this can happen or not.

I think we'll know that after we get the responses. Yeah, I just need that information from the response to know if the timeline is going to work, if the cost is going to work.

Yeah, is there something that the board would need to see from the potential contractors to help make that decision? Obviously, the schedule is important because we want to make sure we get the credits, but is there some other terms that we would need to see, you know, financially from the contractor or something that the board understands as a constraint, now that we should incorporate into the proposal. Payment terms, perhaps, or something that we should specify here as a request in the proposals that may impact someone's ability to bid or not.

How do we typically do the payment terms?

We don't make deposits or retainers for professional services. We can pay for materials for lead time, but the materials come to us. But those are like standard municipal procurement issues that apply to everybody. They're not really unique here, but perhaps that's another thing we want to include.

Yeah, we may just want to put that in so it's up front so they understand.

How we usually pay for contract work is, if it's a longer project, monthly invoicing in accordance with progress. If it's a longer project, we would associate that progress with inspections by somebody in the town, either the public works officer or myself, depending on the work, and then we would verify that. invoice submitted for that month aligns with the work that we that we see um that's probably i guess how we would do this project or maybe it would be um milestone based because there's a few key ones with bigger ticket items you know like that equipment installed right um but i That would be my question to the town board. Is there anything that you guys think you need to see in the proposal that we should make sure we're asking so that the project becomes executable? I certainly understand that we need to see what we get back to make a decision as to what we can move forward. But if there's any lingering questions or known questions now, we should put in.

No, I don't really have any.

We've kind of covered it.

Yeah.

Yeah. It's interesting, this conversation, because the four of us met Tuesday, and we kind of reached that same spot where it was like, we really need to get this out. We've kind of exhausted our own personal knowledge and everything else. We need to get some data in from these bidders to kind of gauge, like, you know, I mean, we still don't really know what is the total cost of this going to be.

We're not even in a ballpark, really, yet.

They get the credits.

It has to be online. Exactly. Next year.

That's the real constraint. The timeline is doable, and we need to know what the cost is so we can either look at a grant funding or figure out what funding we need or how we're looking for it, right? So those are kind of two key things we need to know to know moving forward.

And and we really thought you know the payback period is key, and that you know the value of the project apart from you know the value to protect against you know worsening climate it's it's really a financial issue so we're hoping it's cost effective and yeah.

So. Evaluation of proposals.

we have to state up front that it is a it's an assessment of quality uh it's not just cost our town's procurement uh procedures allow for tech technical uh professional services which i would categorize this as because of the analysis uh to not be a low cost mandate or uh lowest cost mandate But, but frankly, in this case, I mean, it largely is a lowest cost. Or, you know, if the payback period is higher for. If the payback period is less attractive for one proposal than for the other. probably not going for the other. This essentially is a lowest cost project. They meet all of the other criteria that the materials qualify for the credit. They are all certified to code. Really, I don't see any angle on this project where we would take a higher priced proposal

Well, there may be a slightly higher cost associated with some elements of the panels, like how they, you know, you want panels that if one fails, it doesn't knock the whole system out. And there's a little like something on each panel.

An inverter on each panel.

Yeah, that's right. And so we would prefer that even if it's a higher cost because there's greater resilience and it would be more, it would,

Correct. And related to that is the efficiency of the panels.

Correct. Yes. That's the other thing that I was going to mention. Yeah.

Yeah.

But how does...

But the efficiency of the panels, I think, would be reflected in the payback period and in the financial benefits of the project, so.

Yeah, actually is the evaluation criteria. So qualifications and experience, technical approach, cost and value, which is financial benefits of the town, project schedule, equipment quality, and references and past performance.

Yeah, I think value would also include the effectiveness of the system as well, which may or may not be captured in the financial analysis. I mean, I don't know how they evaluate, you know, if the panel If the panel go out, you know what's the loss and how you know how they assess that and their financial analysis, the potential for that happening. I don't know.

Well, I guess that remains to be seen, but we may know that they would include.

I wouldn't considerations.

I think they would.

Yeah, we may need outside assistance with evaluating the proposals from a technical angle. I won't hesitate to say that. You know, I don't know a lot about. Sure, larger scale solar systems and so in determining value and nuances with the equipment, like we're saying, you know. We have reached out in the past for other experts. I think that's a totally appropriate role here.

So we have a question about that because solar United neighbors is set up to provide that assistance for free.

That's great.

And so the question for you is, is that okay for us to share the, or the responses, the proposals that we get in. with Vincent, who is tasked to do that.

We should probably if that's the agency or organization, we should probably set up an agreement with them and their scope and other terms before we, you know, share the yes with them. If that's I looked at that organization, they they seem really promising. That seems to be their specialty. So they would probably be accustomed to that, I would think.

Yeah. Yeah, I think so.

I could definitely see a two stage proposal review. The first one being pretty cursory. Did the bidder submit everything required? Like, do they have a complete proposal? Did they provide everything requested and required? And if yes, it goes into the bin for further technical analysis. If no, sorry, you know, for assessment. So that's why if we do rely on outside experts, we're not But I've given them proposals that don't even qualify anyway, so.

Yeah, good point.

Any other questions or thoughts?

I'll let Thomas take a quick look at it and then we'll get it out by then.

We will work on trying to target some contractors.

Yeah, that's actually a really good role for the committee is to put together a short list of potential bidders so that we can do direct contact with them.

We will work on that.

Yeah, that's probably, you know, that's the biggest challenge here, I think, is trying to get it out there, cast as wide a net. We just don't have a network. You know, some municipalities have a whole system of pre-registered bidders and things. We don't have anything like that.

That was one thing we talked about. This would really fall more towards the board. Not making work or anything, but you know if I don't know how the whole structure works, but I assume shelter out and all the other townships of Suffolk county must have some overarching you know group that they get together once in a while and talk about things that they would like there was a way, maybe that the towns could get together and ask Suffolk county. Like the federal government uses some called the commerce business daily which it's a huge publication every day but. Every request for also that any part of the government is putting out gets listed in commerce business daily so if there was something similar to that Suffolk county. You know every company out there, you know just has computer programs it's parsing through all that for certain subject matter that would be a I think a good. county effort if they could do that.

Also, we can talk to the towns that have done this. We have some contacts at some of the other towns where we can start, hopefully.

Yeah, so once the RFP is ready, then we'll have that list, or at least a list. NYSERDA might be helpful on them now.

How many days do we have for the first? So we need to work on that.

So will you guys just accept these relevant changes and make a final version from the committee and then hand that off and then I'll do my part and Great.

Thank you.

I'm reaching out to bidders.

Is there anything else aside from that?

Give me the finalized documents. That way we can sort of close the committee's role on producing the RFP, and then we'll take that here on internally and then switch gears for the committee with the shortlist. Yeah.

Okay. Awesome. All right.

Thank you very much.

Anybody else have any questions about this while we're on the subject?

Okay, good. Is it appropriate to talk about solar at the landfill?

The rest of the property.

That's a new topic. Put that off.

So we have been, this is not new, we've talked about this for years. So we're sort of doing this as one project, but then, you know, we still have an interest in trying to engage somebody with doing more.

I guess the question is... We've been in contact with Lynn.

We've been in contact with Lynn, and there's a company, Kearsage. Kearsage. Kearsage, and they did the Southampton project. array at the landfill, which ended up being community solar. And it was a bigger project. So the question is, do we want to... I don't know how we would do this. Like, could we want to do this?

Wouldn't that be a larger system that would require more in-depth analysis? Yes, it would. Oh, yeah, it's quite different approach. Yes. Yeah.

Plus, it would. It would probably bring in the Caesar study, right? Yeah, that's what she said. She's referring. So, I think.

I think we should just focus on this first and then we'll get to that more. It's also the issue that keeps coming up with the landfill is the slope. So unless we can somehow get Richard to change the building, we're going to have to figure out how to work with that. So you can't pierce the cap either.

They actually work. That's one of their specialties. But I think.

So let's get this one done.

That's what I think.

Let's get this RFP out. Then we can look at that.

Because we're also trying to qualify for the 30% with this.

Right. There's no way we're going to get there without it. So let's get this one out.

I have a different question, if I may. Just wondering about the low-income housing that's going up. I understand that solar is part of that, but I just wanted to ask if, in fact, it is.

It's going to depend on the final financials, but we're hoping to have solar incorporated into the construction. And if not, have solar put on just then, have it solar ready, so that it would be able to easily So it is part of the plan. There's a whole section of green requirements for the housing, so that's one of them.

Actually, I can talk about the membership position. One person who we've been interested in is filling out is going to send in a resume. The other one still hasn't sent a resume. So I don't know. One thing I did do, though, which we can use for other purposes, is I put together a whole timeline of grain committee initiatives, sort of like a cheat sheet, so that it'd be sent to prospective people who are interested, and they can just see everything on two pages, what we've done over the last 15 years. And it could also be used, I want to start having a table at least once a month, maybe twice a month at the farmer's market. And we can use that there so people know who we are and what we do. And we can sell the bags and do other things. But what I'll do with the cheat sheet is I'm going to send it out to everybody to take a look at because I slightly customized it for this one person. But I want to make it just sort of a general sheet, not customize it for different people. So you can all take a look at it, just make suggestions, and I can clean it up.

It relates to what Jonathan prepared.

It is, and I actually... You have his stuff? I actually used that, and then I added some stuff to it. And I don't think his was by date, like a timeline, but I made it into a timeline. Okay, and that's where we are with that. The bags are here. I should have before the meeting quickly grabbed one, but I didn't. But we'll have that. So we'll bag and bring it in here. Yeah. Do you want to do that? Sure. Yeah. I didn't want to interrupt things.

Some of those boxes are

Don has offered to do a whole brochure holding them for promo purposes.

Makes you feel like hotcakes.

We're going to get a stylist who...

I like it.

And a professional photographer who will charge the town.

We'll get Adam Bundy to come in and do it.

Yes.

And then just skipping ahead, we're having so is the farmers market, the primary venue for. Oh, and they, of course, they.

And then they're here for sale. Oh, I see. We'll advertise them on the town website or Instagram all the different things. So people could come and that's actually worked.

Nice.

And they buy the bags. So we have a multi prompt. yes so we have a and actually on the GOC page we should update the photo so people see it's a new and improved bag oh it looks nice oh wow oh that's terrific that's a great size too that's great and the graphic shows up well quite large and sort of a flat bottom I just have to tell people when they carry the bag they have to have it It's a requirement.

It's part of the instructions.

Wrong, correct. It looks great.

Yeah.

Thank you, Don, for all this.

Thanks for all the work.

I know you enjoyed every minute of it.

Yeah, yes. I don't look forward to the bag selling out. Yes.

That looks very nice. We'll probably have a little time. it looks great and the colors look it's great terrific okay and the last thing unless till we get to older new business is we're having an invasive plants forum on July 9th at the Presbyterian Church I may have to ask you for some technical help if John Potter, If somebody wants to do. John Potter, So far, they don't. John Potter, July 9 July 9 at the church church at 530. John Potter, similar to what we did last year it's a it's a collaboration between the green committee at the water advisory committee and perfect earth project. We have on golf and perfect earth will sort of do the introduction, and then we have Andy Cinesic who's the Cornell weed specialist who's been helping me on the CPF committee with the preserves. And he'll be there and then also. An island resident George Hune. with his wife, Julie, they've been essentially trying to tackle invasives on their property and restore them. So that's sort of a first-person, do-it-yourself approach to it. And then we may have a third panelist who will also be part of it. So it should be bullet information and interesting and will inspire everybody to the setup pretty much like the previous one exactly the same yeah yeah the room is longer than i yeah what we did was you saw the last time we had that and it right in sir it worked out very well and actually between it didn't even need a um The last year, we had about 60 people came.

That's a good turnout.

So it was.

What day of the week is that? Thursday. That's a Thursday.

Anyway, and Perfect Earth is working on the promotional material, which I'll have shortly. And we'll post, I assume, maybe we can post that on all the town stuff. And then I'm going to also contact all the The different associations and hopefully they can those who have. Access to all their members, they can also. know. So hopefully we'll have a good turnout. And at least you have any questions for us.

No, I don't I just like to check in with you guys and see what's going on, so I can share it with. our association, the MPA. So thank you.

Yes, you can. And Elise, in terms of contacting members of the associations about this invasive plant forum, who do I go to? Do I contact you to share it with your association or somebody else?

Well, Teresa Andrew is the president, but I always ask that people put me on in copy because I'm really in tune to all of the committees and I'm the treasurer. So I'd like to have that information just in case she misses it.

OK, so I should send it to you and then you'll.

Yeah, you can.

You'll work with the president.

Absolutely.

Good. OK, great. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Anybody else have anything else? New, old?

Too early for the expo to talk about?

I did send out a save the date, which I don't know if you all saw it. You see the committee, chat board, everybody else. And so far, the only new group is Perfect Earth Project will be there this year. But if you have suggestions for anybody else, for like a vendor, we don't have any vendors lined up. I've not heard back from the solar company that we've been talking to. They came last year. But if you have any new ideas for things that we can do. I notice the dead tree is gone. is finally gone and so I mean I sent that out I heard back from a couple of people and then I'll just keep reminding people again the sooner I know about anybody we should be contacting the better and if we do have proposals

And at that time, I can say something about the town's intent for solar. That would be nice.

But I would think we would get the responses before then, because it's kind of obvious. It's the end of August. So we should have some information whether one way or the other on it.

But I know you're just starting budget talks.

I don't know. I'm just thinking of some way to gin up interest.

Yeah.

We'll figure it out.

We'll have a better idea. We'll figure it out. Yeah, let's see what comes back.

Oh, yes.

Or if it comes back. Exactly. I mean, I don't know.

Yeah. No, it's the third one right now.

Let's see what happens, and then we can figure out what we want to do.

Yeah. OK. All right.

So nothing else? Good. I make a motion to close the meeting.

Second. Thank you. Thank you.