 |
Colebrook Energy Committee Minutes
Meeting #8
May 13, 2008
Present: Danielle Ruelland, Norm Broome, Dick Harris, Larry Rappaport, Haze Smith, Brian LaPerle, Bob Soucy, Julie Moran.
Opportunity for cooperative work with NC RC&D: There is great interest among those present, to pursue a Feasibility Study for district heating with biomass, and to establish a relationship with the North Country Resource, Conservation, and Development Area Council in Laconia, to find and apply for grants for municipal buildings and schools. J Moran explained the relationship of our group to a Fiscal Sponsor, such as NCRC&D, for the purpose of applying for grants for such Feasibility Studies and municipal projects. She also invited Dr Morris Pierce from New York, engineer of the Groveton Biomass Project, to join us when he comes next. J Moran will contact Rick Demark of NC RC&D to ask for his assistance as a fiscal sponsor.
L Rappaport said that the Colebrook Sewer lines area really old, build in the 1890’s, and that some money is reserved for fixing them, but it would be really efficient if we could do all the downtown digging at once, and bury the power and phone lines, fix the sewer lines, and do whatever upgrades need to be done all at once. By law, the underground lines must only be on one side of the street, and apparently, the phone company and power company have agreed to do so. There is a difficulty with ledge und Main St, but we do have civil engineers in town, and other towns have done this. B Soucy will call to inquire about what those towns did.
Opportunity for Cooperative efforts with CDDA’s “Keep Colebrook Green” initiative J Moran spent over an hour with Sharon Pearson about her ideas for clean and recycling last month. S Pearson is compiling a list of area businesses to help with “advertising” locally. Please tell others so that we can get construction companies on her list. CDDA is starting an Eco-friendly shopping bags program. CDDA Brochures were passed out to committee members at the meeting.
Email address and website report from L Rappaport: The email list has been running since the day after the last meeting. Address emails to energy@lists.lmr.com and they will be "reflected" to the list. Folks can subscribe by sending an email to energy-subscribe@lists.lmr.com and can
unsubscribe by sending an email to energy-unsubscribe@lists.lmr.com. L Rappaport says that he will register and pay for a domain, pay for and create a website and host it for a year, but he needs some content to put on the website. All present committed to contribute something for the website content. Content includes: Articles written, photos of our projects, links to companies and websites, energy tips, conservation tips, insulating info, educational info, especially for construction, and affordability of installing alternative energy and building improvements. Try to get “Colebrook Energy.org” for website address.
Energy and Recycling Articles - need content - people interested in recycling plastics 3-7. H Smith wants more articles in the newspapers to get people to learn more.
Lancaster Home Builders Association - a monthly meeting of local builders - has speakers, and is a great source of information for builders. H Smith belongs - if interested, contact him.
Schools - working on getting adults involved - left a couple of messages at SAU7 office, and email the Key Club, spoke with the Music director in CDDA office - awaiting a response from school officials.
People asking for solutions for their energy issues - J Moran invited some to this meeting. D West at Leibl Printing was able to get his recycling need resolved. G Jannenga is installing Solar panels, needed some support from D Belanger who is helping her with that project.
Legislation - NH Senate passed extension of State rebate incentive for Solar systems, through 2009. Did House also pass it? - no-one knew the answer yet.
Regarding 501(c)3 L Rappaport said, “…generally any grant submitted by the town should be submitted by the Town Manager and first approved by the Selectboard.~ If the Energy Committee wants to submit grants on its own, yes, it does need officers.~ In addition, unless a recognized entity is to serve as fiscal agent, it needs to be a 501c3 or 501c(something) which is the IRS designation for an IRS-approved non-profit.~ If it is not (the Energy Committee is not) then it at least needs to be a New Hampshire approved non-profit.
Decided to become a recognized organization - Officers were nominated and elected:
President: Julie Moran Nom:L Rappaport, 2nd D Harris, Unanimous
Secretary: Danielle Ruelland Nom: L Martel, 2nd L Rappaport, Unanimous
Treasurer: Brian LaPerle Nom: J Moran, 2nd L Rappaport, Unanimous
Decision to get a fiscal sponsor for applying for grants: consensus was to contact Christine Charman at the Coalition (Upper Connecticut Valley Coalition) and ask for assistance.
Schools: Mindy LaPerle (x8105, 9839) wants to get involved in recycling. We also need to talk directly to the principals and J Falconer, the Chairman of the School Board.
Recycling: B Soucy found that there is a great resource of shredded paper at the hospital (UCVH), which could be access for recycling, and would also help employ the citizens at the Vershire project. Junk wires are being recycled and shipped out of the country. L Rappaport and J Moran are pursuing companies that do this. B Soucy is pursing someone who has a use for old CPU’s and monitors.
New generations of Photovoltaics are coming out that are increasingly more efficient, as the industry is developing. L Rappaport and EH Roy are keeping up to date with the new technology.
Pellet boilers are becoming affordable. L Martel is installing one for R Young, and NHEC is reimbursing $5000-8000 of the cost.
Power lines and Biomass Plants: Berlin and Groveton biomass plants are looking at installing 30-60 MW transmission lines. Colebrook should look into starting a municipal power company like Littleton did, only have our power come from multiple streams of power sources ( wind, microhydro, solar, methane, geothermic).
Meeting started at 7:05 PM and ended at 9:50 PM.
Next meeting at Kheops building, 7 PM on Tuesday, June 10, 2008.
Respectfully Submitted,
Julie Moran
| |