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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-03-08 CAC Minutes Jefferson County/City of Port Townsend Climate Action Committee Meeting Minutes Wednesday, March 8th, 2017, 3:30 - 5:30 PM Cotton Building, Port Townsend, WA Members Present: Laura Tucker, , Sonja Hammer, Tammi Rubert, Chris OHiggins (Jefferson Health), Jeff Randall, Cindy Jayne, Deb Stinson, David Wilkinson, Darren Wilson (PTPC Environmental Manager), Absent: Eric Toews, Scott Walker, Kate Dean Staff: Judy Surber, City of Port Townsend, Laura Tucker Jefferson County Guests: Matt Stewart (Jeff Co Fleet Services), Dave Seabrook (guest, retired fire Chief) Akwe McDaniels (PTHS, Students for Sustainability) Scribes: Judy Surber and Cindy Jayne Topic Recommendation/Action Call to order 3:32 Approval of Agenda & Minutes Motion to approve Agenda by Laura Tucker, second by Deborah Stinson, approved. Motion to approve November 30, 2016 minutes by Deborah Stinson, second by Laura Tucker, approved. CAC Resolutions, New Members, Introductions Did introductions. Cindy and Judy welcomed the new members, and gave some background on the CAC goals, Climate Action Plan, etc. Deb noted that city and county councils approved the recent resolution (County resolution 10-17 and city resolution 17-009) that appointed new members, defined organizational positions, and clarified member terms. Elect Chair, Vice- Chair Cindy noted that per our charter, we elect officers at the first meeting of every year. Officers are a chair and vice chair. Vice chair fills in for chair, and has traditionally been doing minutes. One year terms. Nominations for chair were opened. Motion: Laura nominated Cindy Jayne, Chris seconded, approved. Nominations for vice-chair were opened. Motion: Cindy nominated Jeff Randall, Deb 2nded. Voted, and approved unanimously. Public Comment No comments. Goals for 2017 Each member was asked to identify one mitigation and one adaptation goal for 2017. Members reported as follows: Laura: Jefferson County Public Health: Mitigation: Education and outreach to encourage recycling, composting. Our recycling rate is going down, grant funding was cut in half two years ago; want to do outreach to kids. Brainstormed possibilities of biodigesters, and using natural gas at PTPC or other places in town. She would like to continue those discussions with Darren. One comment was that perhaps part of the charges for garbage could include funding for education on recycling. Adaptation: Education and outreach on things that may change with a warming climate (e.g., allergens, asthma, heat); infrastructure (e.g. washouts). Cindy noted that Local 20/20 event booths could be used to disseminate information. Tammi – Jefferson Transit: Mitigation: Continue implementation of a no idle policy . Apply for electric bus grant. Some of the fleet is currently using biofuel. Continue to do public outreach on transit. Adaptation – continue to coordinate w/ city and county. Sea level rise – flooding on Water St, etc., would impact routes. River flooding and mudslides have impacts today.  Improve communications with to the public about route changes. Looking at routeshout; can sign up for notifications on phone now. Noted that electric buses have a high voltage charger that only take 5 minutes to recharge. Charger is expensive. Can it also be used for cars? Probably not. Install EV charging at transit’s 4 corners location. Jeff Randall will talk to her further about EV charger. Install Bicycle barns at 4 corners - going out to bid. Laura noted that the school board is interested in collaboration with transit. . Akwe – Students for Sustainability: Mitigation:  Continue implementing composting system in Port Townsend High School.  Pursue Bottle Bill – Students went to Olympia to talk w/ Senator Van de Wege and Rep Chapman on a possible bottle bill for WA State. Drafting a bill based on Oregon model. Judy suggested potential partnership with NWWI (NW Watersheds Institute) to get grants, students get credit. Sonja - Energy LLC: Mitigation: Promote electric vehicle car sharing by neighborhood/or perhaps a shared fossil fuel vehicle for those with electric vehicles (or truck). It was noted that Bellingham has shared cars. Perhaps have them at the PT ferry and/or Fort Worden? Adaptation: Investigate feasibility of producing and storing fuel in east Jefferson County. Discussed solar roof tops for charging? It was noted the two don’t necessarily go together well. Jeff feels the community is ripe for community solar project. Chris - Jefferson Health Care: Mitigation:  Continue recycling, and composting, Laura offered to make presentation on recycling to Hospital Green Team.  Begin growing own herbs and veggies.  Continue bus passes to employees; green committee just kicked off.  Consider purchase of Infrared testing equipment for panels to discover any potential for energy savings ($5,000 for equipment vs. contracting it out. Discussed it possibly being shared in the community? Jeff noted the PUD has talked about hiring an energy person, maybe some collaboration. PUD has same sort of camera.  Consider recyclable food containers for purchase.  Investigate feasibility of installing charging station for hospital. (Also noted that there is interest in having a CAC meeting at the hospital some time, and enjoying their food.) Jeff – PUD: Year 4 as an electric utility. When PSE switched to PUD, Cindy recalls it resulted in 1/10 the carbon footprint! 2017 goals: Focusing on organizational challenges - need to get healthy (e.g., CFO, balanced budget) and then set other goals. Last night passed resolution for low-income assistance. Sees PUD as a strong long-term partner. But need six months to get organized. Cindy & Dave – Local 20/20 Outreach: Mitigation:  Inform community on global and local climate issues so that county residents know how to act both individually and collectively toward a sustainable future.  Taming Bigfoot follow up on earth day, 4/22; may include working w/ county on business program; investigating ridesharing software, working on energy efficiency summary, etc.). This ties to the Climate Preparedness Strategy CI-4 Do outreach and education on climate adaptation to build community support, and E-16: Develop community climate action plans (if not already in place). It was discussed that perhaps we can add the Climate Preparedness Plan to the county website. Laura will investigate. Adaptation:  Document selected King Tide events (3 to 5) including posting photos to Sea Grant website, maintaining King Tide email group, and sending “real-time” KT photos to NWS Seattle via Twitter to support Coastal Watch/Warning system. Post blog on how to tweet photos to NWS to improve Coastal Watches / Warnings. Provide climate input on municipal documents out for review Deb – City of Port Townsend: City recently completed Mountain View work on reducing energy, but year to year change was flat due to using more square footage. Mitigation going forward: Mitigation:  Transportation – looking at parking in downtown to reduce SOV  Pursue opportunities to collaborate with mill re: natural gas, . Adaptation:  Water conservation – looking at rates, and communication plan to include water supply issues. Laura noted importance of pairing trash and recycling bins (otherwise recycling bin becomes a trash can). Need to check on the status. Might the newsletter be a place to note and climate change? Relooking at communication, it is more a utility letter so some information yes, but improved plan will be able to cover all. Chris offered that the hospital might have space to put recycling bins. Darren – PTPC: PTPC’s recently completed natural gas project cut emissions; Mitigation: Investigate opportunities to utilize empty trucks for something. Lots of truck and vehicles into the mill leave empt. Discussion: Wood waste – collect it locally and use it at mill? Maybe at county transfer station? Adaptation: Can work on adaptation goal for next time. CAC update to city and county councils – when should we plan them, and what should they include? We are due for an update to the city and county councils. Cindy will talk with Kate and Deb offline to see what might be most useful. Updates on Recent and Upcoming Events and Activities Recent Events:  Home show – Local 20/20 booth on sustainability Cindy noted electric bike drove interest, lots of people stopped by. Had info on sustainability products and services of other businesses. Had handout on WA State and federal programs for financing renewable and energy efficient projects. Had signup for a group to work together doing their own home energy audits.  Jefferson County Hazard Mitigation Plan: Cindy noted that L2020 reviewed the version out for review in November and provided revised input in early January. Cindy reviewed the updated version available at the end of January and it generally looked good. She noted that there are lots of ties in the plan to climate change, pretty much all climate risks are there – drought, flooding including tidal, fire, etc. The plan also notes that there is an ongoing Natural Hazards Mitigation Planning Committee. It would be good to talk with Lynn Sterbenz, and perhaps see if she wants to join CAC?  QUUF/L2020 ALPS class on Climate Change: taught by Cindy and Laura, 6 sessions, about 10-12 people attended. Class materials are at http://l2020.org/climate-action/climate-class/ Upcoming Events:  April 29th 3PM - Climate March in Port Angeles. Carpooling being organized from Port Townsend.  April 22 - Bigfoot anniversary at QUUF. Public Comment None. Next Steps & Agenda Planning It was agreed that the next meeting will be on May 24th, 3:30 – 5:30 pm. Jeff is not available, so Laura will scribe. Anticipated agenda items include goals for 2017, draft content of energy efficiency chapter. Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 5:32 p.m. Next Meeting Next meeting is scheduled for May 24, 2017, 3:30-5:30 pm, at the Jefferson County Public Health Pacific conference room, 615 Sheridan Street.