[0:03] Yeah. So, at least I can hear. The last
few times I haven't been able to hear
[0:07] people like I have to go over and
so allow participants to chat,
[0:16] rename themselves, unmute themselves.
[0:21] Oh, okay. Does that mean they should be
good? They should be good. Okay. We'll
[0:26] see what happens. And the one thing I'm
going to change is to let them
[0:33] Oh, no. I'm not going to bother. Okay.
Yeah. Should be good. Okay. Well, I hope
[0:38] your meeting doesn't go too long. It is
what it is. I know.
[1:30] Did you find a place to park? just
literally squeezed in next to you and
[1:34] Abby. Oh, good. Yeah, it was.
What time was they do? They start
[1:39] graduation. I thought it was 5:30. Okay,
that makes sense because we were home
[1:44] and like traffic was backing up and
people
[1:59] I had trouble with last time.
[2:05] A there are nice people in the room
Toby.
[2:10] Now, are you excited about the last day
as well?
[2:14] And I bet you it's a short day, too,
isn't it? Today was also So, are you
[2:19] learning anything at this point? Yeah.
No.
[2:24] You're learning patience, but you have
to sit there for a few hours. That's
[2:29] what you're learning.
[2:33] Good luck with your meeting. You, too,
[2:43] This
[9:47] Hey Jim.
Hey. How you doing Kathy? I'm good,
[9:51] thanks. Good.
Let's see.
[9:57] I guess the way I'm currently
see
[10:02] I think we're it for now.
[10:29] Kathy, you you you can hear me? Yes, I
can hear you. You hear me? That's great.
[10:34] Yes, I can. Um, sorry. Sorry for the
silly questions. Can you see me? Um, I
[10:40] can't see you. I can see your name.
Okay. Interesting. I'll um
[10:47] I'll I'll uh
I am not sure why.
[11:18] Hi, Will. Hi. How are you? I'm good. How
are you doing? Well, thank you. Jim,
[11:25] you're the little uh camera next to your
name has a cross through it.
[11:29] Interesting. Yeah, I know. I'm I'm on my
end. I'm not seeing the way to get my
[11:33] camera turned on, so um I I'll keep
playing around with it, but I'm glad the
[11:37] audio is working. Hi, Will. Hi, Jim. How
are you? Good. Good. How you doing?
[11:43] Good. Hey, um I had a question. Are we
meeting through the summer?
[11:49] We usually do. Okay. All right. I only
ask because my wife's on the library
[11:54] board and they they don't meet during
the summer,
[12:01] but uh I'm all for meeting.
[12:06] Let's see.
[12:12] See,
[12:17] how was your trip to Ireland? Oh, it was
marvelous. Um, yeah. And I I saw that
[12:24] Cara was in Ireland. Yeah. And and um
you know, I guess it didn't dawn on me
[12:30] to hop on the meeting at midnight, which
is what you must have done.
[12:37] Had you been before? No. Well, um not
not like this. Just um a blow through
[12:44] one time. Yeah. Um but um yeah, it's a
it's a beautiful country.
[12:51] It's on my list. Oh, yeah. Well,
yeah. And they they got direct flights
[12:58] from Bradley, which is I know which is
awfully nice. It's so easy.
[13:09] My uh my wife and and three daughters
did that um I guess now coming up on two
[13:14] years ago as sort of a delayed college
graduation trip firstly because it was
[13:18] so easy as you said. Yeah, it it really
is. And um this was sort of a delayed
[13:23] graduation gift for my daughter. She
graduated last year. So we Neat. Yeah.
[13:32] So it was the three of us.
Let's go.
[13:44] Oh, Jim, I don't I printed off that
document you sent. Okay. And I might
[13:51] have left it downstairs, so I think I'll
run downstairs. All right.
[13:56] Um,
[14:16] well, Kathy, for the life of me, I guess
I can't seem to this evening find how to
[14:22] turn my video on, so I might just be
audio. Yeah. Okay. All right. H
[14:32] It's kind of like 80% of the time
everything works, 20% of the time I have
[14:37] no idea.
[14:41] I think you have to go to settings. Um
and then you select your camera. That
[14:48] because that's happened to me in the
past and that's what that's what I did.
[14:52] Aha. Well, I didn't go to settings, but
[15:00] got it. Okay, here you are. Kept
fumbling and and and there
[15:10] right back. Let's see.
[15:16] Good evening. Hi.
[15:22] Will was just briefly describing his
trip to Ireland.
[15:26] Awesome. I think you guys I think you
guys were overlapping.
[15:41] Oh, this is great. Hi, Zach.
[16:23] two.
[16:32] I I bet our numbers will change a little
bit, but Cara, if if if we're five or
[16:36] does that make us a quorum or or or not
quite? I believe it does. Yeah. Okay.
[16:42] Shall we uh get started?
Ready?
[16:49] Yeah, let's do it. I'm good. Let's go.
Okay. Um, so I guess I I officially call
[16:57] this meeting to order at 7 7 p.m. Uh, I
don't see any members of the public
[17:06] present. Um,
so that will
[17:11] lead us to uh review and approval of the
May 13 minutes. Um,
[17:18] Jim, I know you emailed some comments.
Um, Kathy,
[17:24] I I did. Yeah. Cath Kathy, I guess my
sentiment there was just that and thanks
[17:30] for capturing everything. Um um I know I
sent you the written comment, but the
[17:35] sentiment was gee I wasn't trying to say
that the Graanby Land Trust had an NRC
[17:41] plan because I actually don't know if
they do or they don't. It was farm uses
[17:46] elements of one on their land and on the
town owned land. So, I know I sent you a
[17:51] couple of words and a phrase, but that
that was that was the sentiment because
[17:54] I I I don't know if uh if if GLT
formally uses that, but they certainly
[18:00] use elements of it and and sorry, the
Pulk Farm certainly use elements of it
[18:04] on that land.
So, how do you want that corrected, Jim,
[18:09] for the purposes? Um I I emailed you a
sentence. Okay. All right. I'll just
[18:16] look that I can look that up. Okay.
[18:21] [Music]
[18:25] I think um
Jim suggested in email um under the
[18:32] bullet point attributed to him uh such
as IPM NRCS conservation practices
[18:38] including the use of crop rotation and
cover crops practices used at Hulkcom
[18:44] farm and on the fields they lease from
the town and Graanby land trust. test.
[18:49] Okay. So, I'll put that in the chat. Um
I think uh just a point of procedure. Um
[18:59] Kathy asked that we make our corrections
verbally during the meeting uh rather
[19:04] than emailing them. Um Okay. And then I
think that
[19:11] um
as I understand it, the town clerk is
[19:17] working on some guidance for town
committees um and facilitation rules. I
[19:23] look forward to getting more
information. Um
[19:27] but uh as I understand it, the
philosophy of the meeting minutes is not
[19:33] to necessarily be a transcript of the
call, but to capture points discussed,
[19:39] who was there, motions made. So I think
um you know, it's a it's a lighter
[19:47] approach to minutes. I mean, I've in a
past job had to keep minutes and um you
[19:53] can you can go all out or focus lightly.
So, I think um as I'm understanding it,
[19:59] the town is looking for a lighter touch
on just the overall minutes. So, that's
[20:06] a a less is more approach sounds great.
Yeah, that's that's the idea. Any other
[20:12] corrections to the minutes or
corrections, additions?
[20:21] All right. Um,
hi David.
[20:26] Hi.
[20:30] Right. Um, do I have a motion?
Computer problems, but it will be better
[20:37] for you.
[20:40] And, uh, Andrew, hello as well.
[20:45] Hello. Good evening.
It's great to have everybody here.
[20:51] Uh, I move to accept the minutes as
corrected.
[20:57] Uh, is there a second?
[21:02] Second.
All in favor?
[21:07] I. All right. Pass unanimous
unanimously.
[21:15] Great.
Okay. Um,
[21:19] next item on the agenda is the farm
lease conservation. Um, and Jim, I know
[21:25] you've been trying to coordinate with
the, um, agricultural commission, which
[21:31] is, uh, I guess undergoing a change in
leadership. The, uh, Heather Lombardo is
[21:36] stepping down and they are figuring out,
uh, who will be the next leader to go
[21:41] forward. Um, was there anything else you
wanted like what else uh would you like
[21:46] to talk about tonight or anything else
you wanted to bring up? Well, from my
[21:50] perspective, it was just a couple of a
brief comments about the two-page
[21:54] document that I distributed. Um and and
just I mean when we had our last meeting
[21:59] it was it was good to have the first
selectman there and and and went through
[22:03] that kind of whole dialogue and and and
the broader so so wanted to come back to
[22:08] this document and just say um uh give
you the kind of the one minute speech on
[22:14] on on how it was developed and and kind
of the fact that it's just a working
[22:19] draft. So Cara and I met with the
agricultural commission in April
[22:27] and then uh after that meeting they said
yes we'd like to work together. Um yes
[22:33] please send us the leasing guides. Um
folks went through those kind of offline
[22:38] in advance of the May meeting and the
two page two pages of notes that you see
[22:43] were the result of the May the 1st
meeting. Um now I I call it a working
[22:49] draft. not looking to make any motions
or anything, but wanted folks to see it.
[22:54] And I guess, you know, I'll just say in
in my words, um, that group was pretty
[22:59] excited to say, "Yeah, these are these
are important things that we might do."
[23:04] Uh, the first page is is is things you
might do in a pre-season meeting. um
[23:10] which
uh um I mean I won't kind of read
[23:14] through the bullet points but just
captures um uh key points of what would
[23:19] be prudent practices. Um and then by the
way the agricultural commission includes
[23:24] some of our longtime multigeneration
farmers who reiterated no they don't
[23:28] feel that any of this is ownorous. This
is just kind of basic standard stuff.
[23:34] Um the second page was kind of more of a
brainstorm list. Again, neither one of
[23:39] these was expected to be final. Um, it
was the start of a dialogue. Um, and I
[23:46] wanted this group to have a chance to
see it and at least react to it and go,
[23:50] "Oh, okay. Those things seem reasonable.
They resonate to me." Um, now that I've
[23:55] read the 2016 plan of conservation and
development, I found it interesting how
[23:59] many of the longer term things that we
capture here are already in the POC. Um
[24:06] a and then what would be happening with
the agricultural commission is just as
[24:10] Cara said um uh uh Heather Lombardo is
going to be stepping down. They'll kind
[24:16] of reshuffle roles and responsibilities.
And when Cara and I talked offline a few
[24:21] days ago, we thought that I will discuss
[24:28] and maybe over the next six to nine
months, we'll flush out this two-page
[24:33] document further um and and come up with
something that we'd make a motion on,
[24:38] but but really don't envision any
deliverable until let's call it about
[24:44] the end of the year. Um, so with that,
wanted to share that story and give
[24:50] folks just a chance to scan this and and
provide any any gut reactions. Um, if
[24:55] you'd like and and Cara, does that kind
of capture, I guess, our discussion and
[25:00] what we what we think the process might
be over the next six to nine months?
[25:05] Yeah, I think that's a great summary.
[25:16] David.
[25:21] Um, I think this is great. Incredibly
thoughtful and um I I really like the
[25:27] the uh sort of specific, you know, do it
and then thoughts for the future format.
[25:34] You know, lots of issues. Uh my one
question is the meeting that should be
[25:39] completed by April 30th. Is that a
public meeting? Is the public noticed
[25:44] about that? I mean there's so many
fields around that people have, you
[25:48] know, somebody comes and mows that
periodically or they grow crops there
[25:51] and maybe they'd be curious and maybe
that would be a positive thing. Um
[25:56] whether or not there's like a public
process, but you'd think there'd be it
[26:01] would be useful to have some greater
education about what's going on there.
[26:06] Great comment, David. I guess we didn't
get so far as to say would this meeting
[26:10] be public or not public, but what one of
the things we did talk about was saying,
[26:13] hey, we need to have a a mechanism, some
some group of folks that may be uh part
[26:19] of an interface team. And and so you're
right, people need to be able to provide
[26:24] input. Um um Zach has helped us very
specifically, you know, share that boy,
[26:30] if you see this kind of a concern, your
first call should be to deep, but but
[26:34] just in terms of town communication, um
yeah, in the longer term considerations,
[26:40] we've looked at the guides where many
towns have a body um could be members of
[26:45] the ad commission, the conservation
commission that I guess would would
[26:49] probably field or be an opportunity for
for people to provide input to in some
[26:53] public forum. So, um, great comment,
TBD, I guess I would say, but capturing
[26:58] your thoughts.
And, uh, does the egg commission or the
[27:05] conservation commission take the lead on
that? Seems like it's more their belly
[27:08] wick, you know, if they're interested.
T TBD. Okay. Um, you know, it's
[27:16] interesting when you when you read the
the missions of the two organizations,
[27:20] um, the missions would probably nudge it
more towards us, but I'm I'm not
[27:24] lobbying for one or the other. I just
But TBD. Yeah. Just because there's more
[27:28] egg expertise, I guess I was thinking.
Yeah.
[27:35] Thank you. Sure. Thanks.
Uh I you know I I uh I was intrigued
[27:41] with the section dealing dealing with
the Connecticut Agriculture
[27:46] Preservation Program. Um and um it says
here that they pay up to 20,000 per acre
[27:53] permanently to preserve farmland.
Um yes they do. And um has this I mean
[28:02] that that certainly would be that could
generate a lot of revenue for the town.
[28:06] Um I'm I'm not sure when the town
initially purchased the land um if it
[28:13] was explic explicitly purchased to set
aside for potential schools or
[28:19] low-income housing or anything like
that. Um do you have any information on
[28:23] that or Well, let me let me take that
and if there's any longerterm residents
[28:28] who have more, go right ahead. So, so
well I I did a a little f first off I I
[28:34] put forward the preservation because
that's been kind of a passion interest
[28:39] of mine to to learn more about. Um I can
tell you that in Connecticut in 2024
[28:46] about 1,600 acres were permanently
preserved using this program and over
[28:50] the last 50 years it's 50,000 acres. So
it's a it's a wellutilized program. Um
[28:57] uh it is a mix of federal and state
money. So, you got to go through a
[29:00] process to figure out what that dollar
figure would be. And there might be
[29:05] questions about the federal side
currently. Um, but to your to your good
[29:09] question, my understanding is in 2012
that land was purchased um uh for $2.5
[29:15] million
and that we're still carrying some
[29:18] bonded debt on it. I don't know the
exact outstanding debt figure. Um uh and
[29:25] I've heard I've heard open space. I've
heard potential school. I I've heard all
[29:30] of those things. Okay. The POC actually
calls out permanently preserving it,
[29:36] which I thought was ironic. Um I only
read that in the last few days. Um the
[29:41] TW and and so in in my world where I
want to permanently I would want to
[29:47] permanently preserve the egg field, you
also need to look at the town and say
[29:51] how do you monetize the asset? And as I
indicated in the bullet point, if
[29:56] someone were to pay us two or three
million dollars for the permanent
[30:00] preservation, that could provide one
very nice revenue stream far in advance
[30:05] of the leasing dollar values today.
Absolutely.
[30:16] So I hope that that subject can say part
of the dialogue. I mean, and and like I
[30:21] say, it's in the PCD as well. Yeah. And
would um just do, you know, off the top
[30:27] of your head, if it wouldn't preclude us
from leasing it out as farmland,
[30:32] correct? We could still have another
income stream on top of it.
[30:38] Wow.
%.
[30:41] So, and one way to say that is you could
you could like triple triple quadruple
[30:47] your current revenue on the 107 East
Street Field is 32,000 a year.
[30:53] And would there be use restrictions um
that come with this, you know, enrolling
[30:58] into this program? So, so in in talking
with the CT a team that does this, um I
[31:04] I've had a couple of discussions um and
and every agreement is written
[31:10] specifically and sometimes that's a
process that could take six to 12
[31:14] months. I see. So that so that you give
yourself the flexibility, but it must be
[31:19] agriculture. So okay, but you can think
through that and make sure okay I I
[31:23] might need future buildings. I might
want to have some solar. I might need
[31:27] fuel tanks. I might sure. So, so um
yeah, it's it's a it would be a slow
[31:33] process before you make a a permanent
commitment. Okay.
[31:38] Um what is the name of the program
you're talking about?
[31:44] I'm going to pull out the brochure. So,
um well,
[31:52] um
so, so I can send you
[31:58] the the guide, Kathy. Okay, thanks.
Yeah, but uh well, actually, hold on. I
[32:06] mean, it's generally known, I think, as
the farmland agricultural farmland
[32:10] preservation act. Okay.
But take the formal name from Jim. Yeah.
[32:18] Ju just to say that though Kathy um to
sort of capture the theme, the
[32:23] Connecticut Department of Agriculture
program exists as do as do other private
[32:28] programs. Okay. So there are there are
multiple organizations that do that. One
[32:34] of which is the Grand View Land Trust,
right?
[32:44] And what piece of property are you
talking about? I I'm not talking about a
[32:49] specific piece of property. Oh, just any
Okay. Yeah. just and and just saying
[32:55] that well as as as one of the things
brought up was to say
[33:00] um
[33:04] one of the long-term topics to discuss
which would be permanent preservation of
[33:12] any town owned agricultural field
and there are Connecticut state
[33:18] department of agriculture options and
there are private options.
[33:22] Um, and the payments for those
conservation easements could
[33:28] substantially increase town revenue.
Okay. All right. Thank you. Sure.
[33:40] Um,
Jim, do you think there's any chance we
[33:45] could get a representative of one of
those programs to speak to us at a
[33:49] meeting?
[33:52] Um, I would love that. I think that's
great. Um, um,
[33:57] I guess
um, yeah, I I would be be delighted to
[34:02] to reach out um and see if they would
join us. Um would you would you want to
[34:10] invite Mike Walsh or somebody from the
town to join us in that if we did that
[34:14] or
[34:18] probably would be wise. Okay. I mean, I
I think um at this point it's a you
[34:25] know, we don't we're not authorized to
begin negotiations, but it's to gather
[34:30] more information about the possibilities
and what we might might include. I will
[34:37] start with sending you the brochure
which describes it all um electronically
[34:42] to you guys if you want if if that's do
that.
[34:47] And David just put in the chat, maybe a
joint meeting with the A commission.
[34:52] Well, they asked for this, so they have
it already. Yeah.
[34:58] And if a decision was made, um, you
know, to enroll some or all of the
[35:04] agricultural fields into this program,
um, would that be something that the
[35:11] board of selectmen could act on or Yes.
Okay. it wouldn't have to go to a town
[35:16] referendum. So, I'm going to give you an
answer based on on experience in town
[35:22] recently. Okay. In 2022,
the Grandby Land Trust uh paid the town
[35:29] a half a million dollars to permanently
conserve um with a conservation
[35:35] easement, not an agricultural easement,
the woodlands of Hulkcom Farm.
[35:41] So, so the Hulk Farm farm fields are not
preserved, but 270 acres of the
[35:46] woodlands are, and that was done with
Graanby Land Trust and a half million
[35:50] dollar payment. Um, and that was decided
by the board of selectmen. Okay. And and
[35:56] they did they felt they did because the
land was not being sold, they did not
[36:00] have to go to a town referendum. So,
that's a fall 2022 example. Sure.
[36:09] Wow. I I think it's a fantastic
uh program and uh I certainly would be
[36:15] in favor of uh getting more information
and potentially pursuing that option.
[36:21] Okay. Yeah. Well, I I think that's
great. I uh yeah, you know, lots of
[36:25] things. I I I grew up in a town where
where the last farm was plowed under
[36:29] when I was a teenager and and you know,
we we only have about 200 town owned
[36:34] agricultural acres and they are all
incredibly high value agricultural
[36:38] acres. So, sure. Yeah. If if somebody
might give us as much as $4 million to
[36:43] to do this, that would be uh I mean, to
me, that would be amazing. But, uh um
[36:48] yeah,
[36:52] Kathy, you can just ignore my my
rambling on, okay, please.
[36:58] So to summarize um Jim shared a document
um that has kind of an overall I think
[37:06] we are all interested or those who have
spoken are interested in learning more
[37:11] um and um so I guess any concerns at
this point about that
[37:22] and maybe just to clarify the like the
go forward plan would be that we know
[37:26] the ad commissions is going to have some
changes and
[37:30] working with carara will I I would I
would come up with a way to meet with
[37:35] the agricultural commission regularly to
progress this further over nominally the
[37:40] next six to nine months but kind of TBD
and anybody would be welcome to
[37:44] participate in that but for our first
step would be to once they kind of re
[37:49] reestablish their leadership we'll we'll
define the process a little bit more and
[37:53] this will be kind of a starting
[37:58] And
okay, any other thoughts or questions on
[38:02] the document?
[38:07] Okay, Jim, thanks for your energy in
moving this forward. Thanks for all the
[38:12] research. Um, it's very it's very
exciting. So, it's good. Thanks.
[38:19] Okay. Um, are we ready to move on to the
plan of conservation and development?
[38:28] Okay.
[38:31] So,
had the email open a moment ago. Um,
[38:37] there we go. Um,
so on May 28th, I got an email from Abby
[38:44] Kenyon. Um, she is looking for a
representative from the Conservation
[38:50] Commission. Um we're kicking off the
development of the 2026 plan of
[38:58] conservation and development. Uh the
last one was done in 2016.
[39:02] Uh we're required to reddevelop them
every 10 years. Um
[39:09] and um they are going to be meeting on
the fourth Tuesday of the month at 7
[39:16] p.m. U with the first meeting scheduled
for September 23rd. Um and in addition
[39:22] to monthly meetings, there will be um
public workshops that may require
[39:27] attendance. Um and then they they have
an open application as well. Um I think
[39:34] we would be expecting the member uh of
the conservation commission who joins
[39:40] this to attend um bring back information
um be sort of the official voice in the
[39:47] discussions of the conservation
commission um as public meetings. Any of
[39:52] us can attend as much as we want. Um but
this would be the person who's
[39:56] committing to make as many um
as he or she could. So um
[40:07] is there you know is there anybody uh
interested in pursuing this? I mean so
[40:15] uh Jim and I have spoken a little bit
about it. Um and Jim has expressed some
[40:20] interest in
uh representing us. Um,
[40:25] is there
anyone else who'd be interested as well
[40:30] that we need to negotiate over?
[40:36] I nominate Jim. Yeah,
[40:43] David's raising his hand. David. Yeah,
I'm not I'm not I would really I'm not I
[40:48] do wouldn't I'm not nominating myself.
I'm going back to the last meeting and I
[40:53] think Cara you said you might
potentially be interested and in some
[40:56] ways it's better to have the chair on
but maybe there are two seats or
[41:01] alternating or something you know if
you're still if you haven't ruled it out
[41:05] maybe you and Jim can share it somehow
or you know I am very interested in it.
[41:11] Um I am reluctant to take on another
commitment officially. I I will continue
[41:17] to monitor it. Uh, I will certainly, you
know, I'm I'm happy to be an alternate,
[41:22] but I'm also
um happy, although um David, I am
[41:28] curious about your
um statement about it being better to be
[41:33] the the chair. Is that based on
experience in town or Okay.
[41:38] No, it was just a guess that you know.
Okay.
[41:45] Um yeah, I expect I will attend um and
will be, you know, involved in many, but
[41:56] I'm happy to let someone else be the
official representative.
[42:01] Well, and I guess I'll say from my
perspective, um you you're all supposed
[42:05] to laugh at this. Um I will probably
overcommunicate what happens at those
[42:10] meetings.
Thank you. Um and and and
[42:17] you know look for Yeah. Um you know
input to and others joining on it. I I
[42:24] sort of see it as okay uh if if my
schedule probably allows the the the the
[42:29] time to make sure, you know, we're
there. Um and then also have the the
[42:35] time to sort of put together some key
points and figure out what we ought to
[42:40] be uh uh maybe contributing on as a as a
group. Um um glad to do that. And I
[42:46] think that that's the that that's a huge
key to the the role to say, okay, it's
[42:51] it's not so much the person sitting
there, but it's it's making sure that
[42:54] we're gathering all the input. Um, also,
as I read the 2016 2017 plan when it was
[43:02] put together, um, uh, I don't know if
anybody else had a chance to scan parts
[43:07] of it. It's an excellent document. And I
I my honest first read was I'm not sure
[43:14] what I would add to that.
Um, so it's it's I I I don't know, but I
[43:19] sort of suspect and hope that we'll be
reinforcing a lot of the content that
[43:24] was put together by a, you know, a great
group now almost 10 years ago.
[43:30] Um, I think my impression on reading it
was there's a lot of great stuff in
[43:36] there. Um, there's a lot of great things
that we said would happen that haven't
[43:40] happened. Uh, and so I think that would
be my question for the group is how do
[43:46] we how do we make this more actionable?
Yes, good. Great comment.
[43:55] So, minus maybe that u suggested 40hour
training for all conservation commission
[44:01] members
if if if you hadn't se seen that one. I
[44:06] missed that one. That was the deep
training that I sent the note to to
[44:10] Zach. Oh, cool. Yeah, it was I was like,
"Wow, that's a program."
[44:17] Which I'm glad that like exactly like I
told you in in the offline email. I'm
[44:22] glad to reach out and and find out more
about it, but um yeah, they didn't they
[44:25] didn't have a set schedule of of when
they're going to be offering that again.
[44:31] And I I'm sorry if I missed it, but was
was the 2016 plan of conservation and
[44:36] development, was that already
circulated? Um, yes, it was a link in
[44:40] Aby's email. I'll add it to the chat
again. Okay, thank you. And it's a
[44:46] 6070page PDF, so it takes a it takes a
minute to download. Okay.
[45:01] And who's who signs off on the plan?
I believe it's adopted by the town.
[45:08] Okay.
[45:11] [Music]
[45:16] So, I think the the commission that
develops it submits it to the board of
[45:22] selectmen and then they vote on it and
adopt it.
[45:28] Yeah. And I think there's requirements
set forth by the state. Um, and if I'm
[45:33] not mistaken, there's actually there's
some bills that went through this past
[45:38] legislative session that just ended that
added some additional requirements. I'm
[45:43] not sure if they're going to affect the
2026
[45:48] um plan of conservation and development
or will affect the future one.
[45:57] Um, that's a great thing to flag.
So, um, we had an official nomination
[46:04] for, uh, Jim. Do we need Kathy? Do you
know know if we need to vote on this? I
[46:09] don't think you do. Okay. Um,
is there
[46:15] I think it's a fine idea. I'm
reading unonymity from the nods uh on
[46:22] the the screen. So, thank you uh, Jim,
and I look forward to hearing more about
[46:29] it.
Yep. Sound sounds great. And I guess um
[46:33] for formal kickoff not till September.
So right. Yep. Okay.
[46:41] Okay.
Energy conservation.
[46:46] Um
so I was very sorry to miss the meeting
[46:50] with Mike Walsh. Um but Kent, can you uh
share how that went?
[46:58] Sure. Yeah. Jim and uh Dave David were
there as well. Um so I'll let them chip
[47:04] in. Um
did you guys not talk about it last last
[47:08] meeting? I guess we ran out of time.
Yeah. Okay.
[47:13] Um
yeah, it was excellent. I mean Mike uh
[47:18] has a lot of uh uh
uh aspirations regarding um
[47:25] in particular solar on town buildings.
uh other energy efficiency measures um
[47:32] and
expressed
[47:35] um I would say
you know somewhat
[47:41] lack of uh staffing and resources to
really execute from his his team and he
[47:47] would love all the help he could get. Um
there you know one thing he has done is
[47:55] he has negotiated
um and maybe you guys help me. I I
[48:01] certainly town uh electricity maybe also
board of ed but uh longerterm uh supply
[48:09] contract for electricity which has
some portion of renewables commitment.
[48:15] It's not 100%. I don't know if you guys
remember if it's 40% but there's a a
[48:21] cost-saving measure with that but
there's also there is a commitment of uh
[48:25] renewables you know if you you guys know
you can buy your electricity supply from
[48:30] a third party and he's he's he's
executed that which I think is a is a
[48:36] good move.
Um I'll talk a little bit here about um
[48:41] the solar on town properties and some of
the recent developments which um will be
[48:49] new to everybody uh here and then maybe
Jim you can follow up and Dave you can
[48:53] follow up regarding our call with Mike
and anything else that that um or
[48:58] meeting with Mike and anything else not
related to solar on on town buildings.
[49:02] So the solar um now Mike had initiated
uh working with the Connecticut Green
[49:09] Bank. They have a program to help you
know communities uh assess
[49:15] solar on town buildings and and they
they they did you know reasonable first
[49:19] pass for a number of buildings. Uh Mike
wants to get you know one or two done.
[49:24] Identified the town garage
uh as as one that he'd like to maybe
[49:30] pilot. It seemed like a good, you know,
first project to do. Also, the uh former
[49:36] Methodist, this Methodist church, right,
David? Um that is now owned by the town
[49:42] or managed by the friends of Hulk Farm
or whatever the whole soup of of of that
[49:48] is. So
the um the green bank and the green bank
[49:52] is supported by a a solar developer out
of I think Meridan called CSW Energy and
[50:01] so they're they're actual you know solar
developer installer and they but they
[50:04] helped the green bank and working with
communities.
[50:09] So um the feed so they green bank CSW
worked on those things and the feedback
[50:15] was that
you know what ever source the eversource
[50:19] grid doesn't have the capacity to
install solar on those locations.
[50:24] So if you guys are familiar with this to
some degree um you know the utility grid
[50:30] really isn't designed for all this
distributed generation. There is there
[50:34] are technical limits to how much you can
put on on util, you know, the utility
[50:40] system. We're we're kind of at the end
of Eversourc's line. We have an older
[50:44] system. There's been a fair amount of
solar put on there, but they put a map
[50:49] online. You can go look at it and say,
"Well, I want to put solar here." And
[50:53] we're pretty constrained up in Graanby.
And the map, and the map's not official
[50:59] like ruling, but the map says you could
put at most like 200 kilowatts
[51:06] on most of the locations around by the
way. Um, but in those two particular
[51:10] locations,
and I think the the assessment wanted
[51:13] like 270 kilowatts on the public garage,
but Ever Sourc's map says you can only
[51:19] put up to 200, maybe less.
So, the Green Bank
[51:26] kind of said to Mike,
you know, you can't you can't do it. Um,
[51:33] and
[51:37] kind of left it at that. Probably took
the easy path of saying we don't really
[51:41] know how far they went with Eversource.
Cara, Cara, I'm going to say Cara a
[51:44] couple times here. Um,
so did they just look at the map? Did
[51:50] they get an early read? they didn't put
in an interconnect application, but
[51:54] that's that's the early feedback and
Mike was pretty discouraged. He's like,
[51:57] "Oh, okay. Well, this is a this is not
good." So, so I volunteered to help and
[52:05] um and then this weekend we we actually
made some progress here. So now some of
[52:10] you may know this like David may know
this but
[52:14] uh so David connected me with Jenny
Emory who has uh successfully
[52:20] um worked to get solar moving forward on
the Hulk Farm CSA barn
[52:28] which of course is right next to the
church and she's working with CSW Energy
[52:33] and she's really happy with them.
So, I think Sunday I connected with
[52:37] Jenny and because Mike Mike said, "Kent,
can you help here?" And I still have to
[52:43] meet with Jenny. But what's interesting
is that the um putting solar on the CSA
[52:49] barn,
you know, Eversource said, "Well, we
[52:53] can't. We'll have to do an upgrade to
the system." And but working with CSW
[52:59] Energy,
the deal is that they the finances work
[53:05] out such that Eversource is upgrading
the system. CSW is it's it's it's the uh
[53:12] buy all sell all approach. So all of the
electricity goes to the goes to the grid
[53:15] and we basically sell it. We the
developer sells it. And there's a a
[53:19] split. CSW gets something like 20 uh 78%
and and and whoever the town or the
[53:26] friends of Hulk Farm gets 22%. That's 78
22% split I believe. So they're moving
[53:32] forward which is great and the but as a
part of the cost of that Eversource is
[53:38] upgrading that grid and so now maybe the
church will benefit from that. I don't
[53:45] know exactly. I don't know where, you
know, I think it's coming from Route 20,
[53:49] so I'm pretty sure. So, that's the long
story. Uh, Ella Jim. Um, and, uh, so I
[53:57] think I'm going to connect with Jenny.
We're going to go to CSW and see if we
[54:01] can what we can learn about that um,
Methodist Church application.
[54:07] Now, I told
I told Mike, I mean, the green bank's
[54:12] great, but in my experience,
the developer will do this stuff on
[54:17] their own anyway. So, um, and we can get
a few quotes. It's very easy. But, um,
[54:23] Jenny likes CSW. I want to start working
with CSW. And then um there's going to
[54:29] come a time though where like whether
it's the town garage, probably the town
[54:35] garage is going to be the big one. I'm
I'm going to need to navigate how do I
[54:40] work with Eversource? I know they have a
formal process for applying and getting
[54:44] a response,
but I I don't know if there's I have to
[54:48] refresh there if there's a
a um a quick response you can get sort
[54:54] of indicative um you know if if if they
can't take 270 kilowatts, could they
[55:00] take 199?
Um do we have to go through a whole
[55:04] application? So I think the town garage
will probably be the Mike calls it the
[55:08] beta. I think it's a good term. Um, at
least get a starting point and then and
[55:16] then Cara, I don't know if you have any
if you like I've in the past I've talked
[55:19] to the Interconnection Group because of
my my professional job. Um, the David
[55:25] Ferrante is retired so I don't I don't
he's not there. I don't know if Joe Debs
[55:30] or whatever like I can if I can get
maybe you can help me a little bit. We
[55:34] can get some some better. we get the
feeling that the green bank just sort of
[55:38] said it's more than the map and let's
not pursue it. So,
[55:44] um that's uh that's where the solar on
town building stands. Um yeah, I can I
[55:51] can ask around. Um
I'm deal more with like the data geeks
[55:57] and and trading information back and
forth about customer information with
[56:02] some of the um solar folks, but I think
they can point me to the right
[56:07] direction. Also
um what I have, you know, I know who in
[56:13] the energy efficiency group would be
more than happy to work with the town.
[56:18] there are some new um weatherization
incentives on buildings um that might be
[56:24] good that you know so they're expanding
the commercial weatherization programs
[56:28] um so I can uh I can put Mike in touch
with with the correct people there and
[56:36] that's something maybe Jim and and David
might be interested to help on that on
[56:40] those things that's where
um I mean that's the solar story I don't
[56:45] know Jim if um you know he I mean Mike
was looking for help just with good
[56:50] oldfashioned energy management or
facilities.
[56:56] Yeah. Yeah. As as we talked um Mike kind
of told the the the the story of of of
[57:03] of you know great town resources and and
what different folks had were kind of
[57:09] focused on. And so something that has a
little bit of structure to it, but he's
[57:14] hoping to develop some more is is really
a a look at all town buildings um that
[57:21] would kind of fall under the capital
plan. Uh and actually it extends down to
[57:25] every town vehicle. Um so so what Mike
had shared was like he would be
[57:32] delighted to have some additional help
just kind of uh uh working through and
[57:37] and structuring and trying to prioritize
capital plan uh items which would h all
[57:45] would many would have a energy
efficiency component but but uh not not
[57:50] exclusively. Um, so I uh I I offered uh
some time to Mike and he sent me the
[57:55] draft plan and um uh I I don't have uh
uh uh no no deliverables yet, but uh we
[58:02] suggested a a process of of maybe
meeting monthly and um I will uh follow
[58:10] back up to to to Mike and see if he's uh
ready to initiate that. He was uh he was
[58:16] looking to get some other things done in
May before we uh got got into this. So,
[58:25] I guess let's see. I'm just trying to
share what u I think it's relatively
[58:29] recent that the school um uh the school
district hired a facilities manager and
[58:36] and I I guess I'd say Kathy, don't don't
quote me on this. I I don't know if he's
[58:40] been there a year or maybe this is his
second year, but but he was he was
[58:44] delighted that that position was now in
place because that that helped provide
[58:48] some some more kind of longer longer
term thinking on um on uh on on projects
[58:55] for the school.
[59:03] David, do you want to add anything to
this?
[59:09] Um, I don't have the technical expertise
that these guys have. I'm happy to help.
[59:14] You know, I I said in the meeting that I
could probably help more with, um, you
[59:18] know, public awareness and acceptance,
um, information, that kind of thing,
[59:24] building off the Solariz campaign from
almost 10 years ago, I say eight years
[59:28] ago. Um, and Cara, I think you and I
were going to talk about audits. I'm
[59:32] happy to help with that or not help with
that, whatever is useful.
[59:40] would it be? Um I will look for contacts
about solar and interconnections at
[59:45] Eversource. Um, I can maybe I'll send
from my work email an introduction to um
[59:53] Mike Walsh and you guys to um Dana Mauy
who's the energy efficiency consultant
[59:59] who work with Graanby um and she'd be
happy to talk through what programs are
[1:00:04] available if you guys think that Mike
would be receptive to that.
[1:00:10] Yeah, I think that's um
really something that we should
[1:00:16] pursue. Um
so what would
[1:00:22] do do you think like uh just set up a
business hours meeting? Uh, could we do
[1:00:28] I don't know if Kathy I'm not sure if
team uh if uh Mike does um I guess Zoom
[1:00:34] calls or how we could do it in person
but
[1:00:38] he does. Okay. I think um I would
certainly
[1:00:45] um
think that could be valuable and just to
[1:00:49] understand the the opportunities
programs that are out there. Um
[1:00:55] you know maybe and you know we could
help
[1:00:58] pick a building or two to to to try
based on Mike's priorities.
[1:01:04] Um
I don't know Jim and David if you'd want
[1:01:08] to attend such a meeting and see see
where it goes
[1:01:12] just
whether it's a you know a building
[1:01:15] envelope or other energy efficiency
measures or
[1:01:21] and that's that's really what that it's
a is that is she is it a woman I thought
[1:01:25] it's a woman yeah uh is is she's an
Source employee.
[1:01:30] Yeah. So she would then there are um
some firms that would be on hand to do a
[1:01:37] technical assessment and so so she's uh
the energy efficiency consultants are
[1:01:42] kind of the internal project managers
who work to you know connect um we also
[1:01:49] have so they're sales account executives
for energy efficiency and then energy
[1:01:54] efficiency consultants um so
um
[1:01:59] but the energy efficiency consultants
are really the project managers and we
[1:02:02] have internal engineering resources but
they hire out firms much like Greenbank
[1:02:06] works with CW or CSW
you know it's it's the on the ground
[1:02:11] engineers that would do the assessments.
Does anybody know if uh Brian Murak
[1:02:18] still lives in town? He he he had that
role at Eversource for a while. Um he's
[1:02:25] no longer with Eversource. now has an
independent consulting firm and I've,
[1:02:29] you know, worked with him both when he
was in Eversource and and outside. I
[1:02:32] didn't realize he lived in Grimby.
That's interesting. Uh, yes, he's still
[1:02:37] So, you still work with him? He must
still be here. I
[1:02:40] I don't know. I mean, I think he's still
in the state, but uh, Right. Yeah.
[1:02:51] Can So, sorry. What's just on that on
that topic? So, how do we how do we
[1:02:56] conclude that? Cara, are you going to um
I I will make an introduction to Dana
[1:03:02] and say that, you know, see if Mike
would be interested in in a meeting to
[1:03:08] discuss it. Just going to send an email
and you can copy us and Kathy. Okay,
[1:03:11] that's perfect. It'll it'll probably
come from my Eversource email. Um
[1:03:18] so, just,
you know, generally um that's I try to
[1:03:25] keep business and personal life
separate. Um so but that one will I will
[1:03:31] do for my work email. Um I'll and I'll
ask around and see if I can find you
[1:03:37] know more about the interconnection
process and see who the appropriate
[1:03:41] person to come to would be on the side.
Um and just well kind of a a curiosity
[1:03:50] on like just economies of scale. So, so,
um, um, I I you'd already, you'd said
[1:03:56] pretty clearly, it sounded like, you
know, Jenny Emery was was was moving
[1:03:59] forward with with a, um, with CSW and
and and and had things in progress. So,
[1:04:06] yeah, we don't want to slow anybody
down, but but I just I think about it,
[1:04:10] whether it's the buildings on Hulcom
Farm or the Methodist Church building or
[1:04:16] or the town garage, all are owned by the
town of Granby. So I I don't know. I I
[1:04:23] wouldn't want to trip anything up, but
in a way it almost I I mean maybe the
[1:04:27] friends of Hulcom Farm is signing an
agreement with CSW, but but they're the
[1:04:31] lei. So So it would seem to me that
maybe they're heavily involved, but it's
[1:04:36] a town probably a town contract as well.
But anyway, just
[1:04:42] I I'm not trying to muddle things, but
but uh all three of those buildings, I
[1:04:47] believe the the common denominator is
they are all owned by the town. So
[1:04:52] anyway, I don't know that uh yeah, I I
mean that deal is is done. It's uh okay.
[1:04:59] I mean, David could tell us. I don't
know. Do you see any activity over
[1:05:02] there? But it's she say it's like
imminent. Um, and that's great. I think
[1:05:07] economies of scale,
three buildings for a company like CSW
[1:05:11] Energy wouldn't wouldn't result in in
too much. Yeah.
[1:05:16] Um, it could possibly make a difference
though with the upgrades to the grid,
[1:05:21] you know, so like the
they're
[1:05:26] and I don't want to get out over my
skis. I'm demand side, not supply side.
[1:05:31] But um if
um usually they like to plan for things,
[1:05:37] multiple things at once. So if we're it
might make some sense to say, all right,
[1:05:42] we're doing it at Hulcom Farm also doing
the um Methodist church at the same time
[1:05:48] and then you know the town garage which
is you know next to the the I'm correct
[1:05:55] that's next to the high school, right?
Yeah. Two miles away. So doing those two
[1:06:01] at the same time might also make sense
from a grid planning perspective. Yeah.
[1:06:05] Yeah. The the again that the CSA
barn is is a done deal. Um it'll and I
[1:06:13] I'll learn we'll learn what Ever Sourc's
upgrade policy is. it I mean I think it
[1:06:20] is sort of the way it it works is the
they'll they'll install solar until they
[1:06:25] can't and then the next person has to
pay for it right and but I don't know
[1:06:29] how much they I'm sure they oversize it
to some degree like you know it's
[1:06:33] obviously very technical but I think
there's probably a good chance that the
[1:06:36] Methodist church then project wouldn't
wouldn't have that additional cost
[1:06:41] that's that's our hope it won't be very
big project so I think that's our hope
[1:06:47] but Yeah, as we start to go down in
toward the garage and the schools, then
[1:06:52] I think very much let's we talk to them
about a bigger plan,
[1:06:57] you know, and maybe something more um
forwardlooking
[1:07:02] rather than just one one project at a
time.
[1:07:07] From um from Jenny Emry's updates to the
town on um the Methodist church, I mean,
[1:07:12] one thing that was 100% clear is it's an
all electric building. So, oh yeah, the
[1:07:18] heat source is electric as well. So,
yeah, boy, what a what a great candidate
[1:07:21] for solar and a great candidate for
insulation.
[1:07:26] Yes.
And and uh usually like in projects like
[1:07:31] this, if there's excess uh revenue
generated by the surplus power, um would
[1:07:37] would that revenue go to the town or
Well, the pro there's a few programs and
[1:07:45] ways to install
solar these days and on the CS the CSA
[1:07:50] barn there's no electrical load right so
all all of that energy is being sold to
[1:07:56] Eversource under this particular program
and then the uh all of that revenue
[1:08:02] comes back to
the project owner and apparently I see
[1:08:09] okay apparently under this deal that
they that they've done with CSW Energy
[1:08:16] I mean, CSW Energy probably own probably
owns owns the solar system, probably
[1:08:22] have a a nominal lease with the roof or
whatever, right? And and then or or the
[1:08:30] town gets the 22% as obviously as a
lease. And does anyone have an update on
[1:08:36] the the 100 I think it's a 100 megawatt
project that's going in um on salmon?
[1:08:44] Good good question. Um Monrovia. Yeah,
Mike I mean from the meeting we had
[1:08:49] about I don't know five or six weeks
ago, Mike said they've been silent.
[1:08:55] Okay. The the the solar developer has
like
[1:08:59] I don't even I don't even I think he
said they're not returning their calls.
[1:09:03] They're just basically
um there's no communication with them.
[1:09:08] Oh, okay. I don't know if anybody has
any other Maybe that's not going
[1:09:12] forward. Maybe David has an update.
Yeah,
[1:09:16] I Yep. I don't have an update on the
solar going in, but part of our meeting
[1:09:21] with Mike Walsh, um he was giving us an
update on the battery project and the
[1:09:29] town's um appeal, I guess, of the
Connecticut Sighting Council decision to
[1:09:34] allow it to go through. And, you know,
he he brought out the arguments that
[1:09:39] we've all seen. And I thought Kent did a
really good job of saying, "Hey, it's
[1:09:44] not that it's it's not fireprone the
kind of u batteries that they're using.
[1:09:50] Um, a lot of the concerns are not uh
wellounded." And, you know, forgive me
[1:09:55] if I'm paraphrasing you too much, Kent,
but it was, you know, was was not at all
[1:09:59] a discussion back and forth, but it
seemed like a whole bunch of good new
[1:10:03] information for him. um given that he's
not, you know,
[1:10:09] a solar battery expert or whatever.
Yeah, that's a good reminder, David. I I
[1:10:13] I I need to do a little research and
send it over to Mike. Um I mean, look,
[1:10:18] they're a the
win appeal against the sighting council.
[1:10:23] It's I don't know. He didn't seem very
The only idea maybe is you you tire out
[1:10:30] the battery supplier and they give up.
But um I I I pointed out and I'll I'll
[1:10:35] I'll try to keep this brief, but I'll
copy you on on this. Um there's a lot of
[1:10:41] concern about the the
safety of of lithium-ion batteries,
[1:10:46] rightly so. There's been a lot of fires
across the world that we we should all
[1:10:50] be concerned about. Um, but there's six
different type of lithium ion batteries.
[1:10:55] And the the ones that make the news that
catch fire and all this other stuff.
[1:11:00] Those are nickel, manganese, cobalt, NMC
batteries that were the first ones that,
[1:11:06] you know, are all in all the original
Tesla cars and everything because they
[1:11:09] have the highest power density and a
good price and all that kind of stuff,
[1:11:12] but they're also have this thermal
runaway challenge. and the stationary
[1:11:19] battery industry. While starting with
NMC batteries, you can almost not buy an
[1:11:26] NMC battery these days. They're all
lithium iron phosphate,
[1:11:32] which are um not
um without any risk, but they have
[1:11:38] orders of magnitude less risk of thermal
runaway than uh NMC batteries. M
[1:11:46] and I just kind of mentioned that and
Mike's like, "Well, that's interesting.
[1:11:50] We've never heard such a thing." And and
to me, I can't believe the battery
[1:11:53] company didn't talk about this. So, I I
I I need to find some
[1:11:59] good third party uh independent
writeup and uh I'll share it with
[1:12:05] everybody and and with Mike and with he
can share it with the first selectman.
[1:12:11] Um, I don't know if that'll change
anybody's mind, but the primary concern
[1:12:16] is concern over over fire safety um
and uh threat to the water um table and
[1:12:26] water supply in that area. Um, and there
may be all sorts of real concerns there,
[1:12:30] but I just want to make sure people know
be maybe a little less um, fearful of
[1:12:38] batteries from, you know, that
perspective.
[1:12:43] What was the chat that was put about
fire? Um, do the batteries require any
[1:12:47] additional investment for our
firefighters? So, that's Andrew. I would
[1:12:52] think they need there's additional
training and um, I would equipment
[1:12:57] I I would think that's that's and
usually I mean the whole the sighting
[1:13:01] council um
the whole reason it's set up is to
[1:13:06] prevent not in my backyard. That's the
whole reason the sighting council
[1:13:09] exists. Um
but generally when you install big
[1:13:15] things like that you want to go to the
fire departments um and get their
[1:13:21] approval and things. Um I I don't know
anybody know if if the
[1:13:26] if our volunteer fire departments have
been involved in this,
[1:13:31] but they would want some training. Even
even though it is much more safe than
[1:13:35] NMC, there's still certainly a risk and
it's certainly certainly training would
[1:13:39] be warranted. I I read a bunch of the
testimony, but it's been too many
[1:13:44] months, so apologies. I I there there
were definitely concerns expressed about
[1:13:50] uh firefighting. um uh uh equipment and
and capability um especially if you're
[1:13:57] in a town with an all volunteer force.
uh but I I don't recall specifics if
[1:14:03] there was any you know agreement or
offer from the developer uh to provide
[1:14:07] but you yes from my experience in
communities where my former employer
[1:14:13] used to operate we uh um we had to
provide all that equipment um our
[1:14:17] ourselves um and then also make sure
that um uh um the local municipalities
[1:14:24] were were well outfitted as well. So
it's it's typical, but
[1:14:29] yeah, I mean certainly and the other
things with these with these products
[1:14:32] that are out there, they have like fire
suppression systems all throughout the
[1:14:39] cabinets. Um I mean this is obviously
a big concern and topic for the the
[1:14:47] battery industry. Um
so
[1:14:59] Okay. Um All right.
Anything else we wanted to talk to on
[1:15:07] energy for tonight?
[1:15:12] Okay. Um so
topics for the next meeting. Um which I
[1:15:19] guess would be
looking at here.
[1:15:25] Um,
[1:15:28] July 14th
or no, sorry, July 15th.
[1:15:33] Okay. Does July 8th here? That's it. Oh,
sorry. Yeah, July 8th. I was looking the
[1:15:38] wrong. Yeah. So, July 8th will be our
next meeting. Thank you. Um
[1:15:45] I think um
should we continue to talk about the
[1:15:51] farm lease wording and um
or do we want to wait until we've had
[1:15:59] more of a chance to talk to the
agricultural commission?
[1:16:02] Yeah. Yeah. Car my sense is we probably
won't have anything new. Okay. Um, but
[1:16:08] yeah, we'll just be looking to make
contacts and see what Heather has to say
[1:16:12] and establishing a process. But can I
suggest can I suggest that we just leave
[1:16:18] it on the agenda so if something does
come up we can talk about it and if not
[1:16:22] we can just breeze over it. Sure. Yeah.
um plan of conservation development
[1:16:30] probably won't have any develop anything
to report on until uh late September. Um
[1:16:39] energy conservation I think we should
keep on
[1:16:44] um
composting will do you want to um have
[1:16:49] something on that next month? Sure. Yep.
That's fine.
[1:16:54] Um, I might just mention that I am
locked in for um a uh presentation at
[1:17:01] the library on September 16th between
6:30 and 7:30 and I'm going to um
[1:17:07] hopefully
uh line up a Blue Earth uh
[1:17:11] representative to attend. Great.
Okay. Um any other topics we want to add
[1:17:18] to the agenda for July 8th?
David, David, were you raising your
[1:17:25] hand? No. Okay.
[1:17:30] Okay.
[1:17:33] All right.
[1:17:37] Um, any final comments?
[1:17:44] I um uh was at a a meeting with some of
the MLAN folks and they have done
[1:17:51] tremendously well on their early
fundraising. I sorry I guess some of
[1:17:56] this was in the paper so just say it
very quickly.
[1:17:59] they they've achieved about 500,000 of
their $800,000 goal uh for fundraising,
[1:18:05] which is going to be a total revamp of
the um
[1:18:09] facility on on Barnor Hills Road and and
that'll be office space and laboratory
[1:18:15] storage, meeting space, research space.
Um, so kind of tangential to our work,
[1:18:21] but uh but just a great a great win for
MLAN such that they're going to be
[1:18:26] moving forward, I believe, with bidding
and maybe even construction on that
[1:18:30] project uh before the year's out.
Wow.
[1:18:34] I didn't know there was a facility on
Barn Hill. It's a It looks like a
[1:18:39] garage. It's like a double garage. Oh,
okay.
[1:18:43] And I've been there to, you know, to
talk with them and they're having like a
[1:18:47] meeting around a card table,
you know, with a concrete floor, no
[1:18:52] heat. It's it's really for, you know,
Connor has definitely built this
[1:18:56] organization up from the, you know,
occasional staff person
[1:19:01] pre before him and uh they need more
space.
[1:19:06] Uh very much like Joe O'Grady has built
up Hulk Farm to a big steady crew that
[1:19:12] deserves a place to hang his hat and
wash their hands and stuff. Sure.
[1:19:17] Yeah. Con I guess this is year eight or
nine or something like that for Connor
[1:19:20] and he's had now about 25 college
interns go through there and he's
[1:19:26] normally has four or five at a at a time
with him each year at least. So, so this
[1:19:31] is great and and I guess yeah, some of
the renderings and whatnot were in the
[1:19:34] drummer, but uh um I know they'll be
using one of the things he said uh to me
[1:19:39] was uh in a in a world with with tariffs
on lumber because they'll be using a lot
[1:19:44] more of their own lumber um from from
the farm which is already you know store
[1:19:49] being stored and dried over in a barn
that's off of Firetown. Um so but just
[1:19:55] you know anyway great great news for
MLAN.
[1:19:59] My daughter was one of those 25. Oh,
yeah.
[1:20:03] That's great. She great experience at
Sustainable Connecticut also. The same
[1:20:08] daughter or all. No, not No, my daughter
didn't do that. No, she didn't get No,
[1:20:12] that was Maybe you're thinking Jim
Mafa's daughter.
[1:20:16] Oh, right. Fred Maf. Yeah, sorry. Jim
Maf Fred Maf.
[1:20:23] Um, David, you were raising your hand
for additional comment.
[1:20:32] Um, David, did you raise your hand to
make an additional comment for final?
[1:20:36] Not on not on the agenda. It was in
comments by commissioners.
[1:20:40] We're in comments comments by
commissioners. You is there one? Oh, my
[1:20:43] um next not wanted column is coming up
uh deadline Monday. You know, if
[1:20:49] anybody's putting anything that in the
drummer, it's noon on Monday. Um, and
[1:20:53] I'm sorry my cam is so terrible, but
uh
[1:20:59] this is is this backwards? No, we can
see it. We can see it. How can I help?
[1:21:04] Um, yeah. So, it's the latest uh Doug
Talamy Talamy book. People may know his
[1:21:10] name. He's a um
entomologist at University of Delaware.
[1:21:17] And
sorry, I just had to turn that off. Um,
[1:21:22] and it's a great book because it's
499
[1:21:27] uh questions that have come up in his
public conversations with people. So,
[1:21:31] you know, think of all the times you've
had conversations with people about uh
[1:21:34] poison ivy or, you know, how bugs are
eating my oaks. Is that really a good
[1:21:40] are oaks really? You know, should I
should I kill the bugs that are eating
[1:21:43] the oaks? You know, all the all the sort
of funny little questions that come up
[1:21:47] along with the, you know, the big
picture items. Uh
[1:21:53] uh
but I so I started thinking okay this is
[1:21:58] a great book to recommend to everybody
and then I zoomed in on one issue and
[1:22:02] it's mosquitoes and very much like
Kent's column a couple years ago in the
[1:22:07] drummer uh I'm going to focus a bunch of
it on you know the the the downsides of
[1:22:16] the fogging industry and how they kill
everything and how if you want to kill
[1:22:21] mosqu if you want no mosquitoes around,
you know, as Kent said, they don't
[1:22:25] travel far. So, I think the title of the
article, Kent, was uh if they if you
[1:22:29] don't want mosquitoes, uh kill them
before they get launched or something. I
[1:22:34] don't remember. It's on our it's on our
the conservation commission website.
[1:22:37] It's a great very succinct article. Um
and
[1:22:42] you know, so it's it might be a little
controversial. I'm not going to name,
[1:22:45] you know, I'm not going to say Mosquito
Joe, you know, boycott Mosquito Joe, but
[1:22:49] I'm going to make it clear that if if
you hire someone to kill all the bugs in
[1:22:52] your yard, you're also killing all the
birds and all everything else. If you
[1:22:56] know, we have a a um uh Carolina Ren
family that's come I don't know if it's
[1:23:05] the same family, but they sure look the
same. um three years in a row and they
[1:23:09] they live in this g they bear their
their they make a nest for like two
[1:23:14] months and right now they're bringing uh
caterpillars every couple of minutes.
[1:23:19] Where are they getting them all? I mean
they're they're feeding their kids on
[1:23:23] these caterpillars that they're bringing
every couple of minutes. Um and it's the
[1:23:27] whole whole point that a brood of chick,
you know, a family of chickades needs
[1:23:33] four to six thousand caterpillars to
raise their young. So if you kill all
[1:23:37] the bugs, you're not going to have
caterpillars for the birds and you know,
[1:23:42] etc., etc. So I'm going to make the
point as clearly as I can and um look,
[1:23:47] you know, find some other resources so
that it's not just, you know, oh, it's
[1:23:51] just crazy Doug telling me, but uh there
can well be some push back um from um
[1:23:58] you know, from people who really love
their their fog
[1:24:04] and and I really recommend the book. Uh,
anybody, you know, it's not that
[1:24:07] expensive. It's like 25 bucks. Uh, and
if anybody wants to has a question like,
[1:24:12] "Oh, what does he say about poison ivy?"
Well, he's a little hardcore, so I'm not
[1:24:16] going to tell. No, he's like, "Don't cut
down your poison ivy. It's such a
[1:24:20] useful." Oh, geez. Okay. We all know
that if you you can kill as much poison
[1:24:25] ivy as you want. We're not going to make
a dent in it. So, even though it's
[1:24:30] native, it's not invasive, it's just a
problem. So, that's my update.
[1:24:35] Thank you.
[1:24:38] Um, so Kathy and I corresponded a little
bit about um, meeting rooms and
[1:24:46] um, Kathy, I'm I'm going to paraphrase,
correct me if I get this wrong, but it
[1:24:50] sounds sounds like given the constrained
technical resources, both people and
[1:24:58] rooms, um,
there's not really the capacity to have
[1:25:02] a hybrid meeting. Um, so I am
interpreting that is that we can
[1:25:07] continue to meet by Zoom or we can meet
in person but having hybrid will be
[1:25:13] difficult. So Kathy, did I interpret
that correctly?
[1:25:17] Yes. Okay. Um, so
I think um
[1:25:25] given some of the public comment, it
would be good to at some point have a an
[1:25:31] in-person meeting. Um
but and so I think um
[1:25:41] just trying to figure out how to
navigate um would you know do you do you
[1:25:47] feel strongly that we should continue to
meet only by Zoom? um would you be open
[1:25:53] to an in-person meeting
um perhaps in
[1:25:58] um you know in September or you know I
I'm around all summer so uh I've done my
[1:26:05] traveling for the year so we'll or until
the fall so um
[1:26:12] yeah uh any any thoughts or reactions to
that.
[1:26:21] So, um, David
or David, yeah, I'm I'm for at least one
[1:26:28] inerson meeting if we could pull it off
this year. We don't all know each other.
[1:26:33] You know, it'd be nice to to meet face
to face and maybe have a have a meal or
[1:26:38] just a longer conversation or a
conversation that could be wide wider
[1:26:42] ranging than we can have uh in in this
way. Okay.
[1:26:48] I I agree. I agree. Uh I think it would
be good to do some inerson meetings now
[1:26:55] and then. It would be great to be able
to do that and have somebody call in
[1:27:01] remotely if possible. I don't know if if
that's possible. Let's just say
[1:27:07] like July 8th. I'm not going to be in
town, but I could call in somewhere I
[1:27:11] am. And if it's in person and I can't
call in, oh well, I guess. So, I don't
[1:27:17] know. Just is that is that an option
for like a September? Even if it's
[1:27:23] September, does it have to be all in
person or can it be hybrid?
[1:27:27] Well, I think the issue is that um we
don't have the abil like it would
[1:27:32] require GCTV if I understood correctly.
So, it's sort of all or nothing um one
[1:27:40] way or the other.
Um but we have seven people now. It is
[1:27:45] been easier to get a quorum. Um so, if
we had a in-person meeting, would
[1:27:52] September be the right time to do it? Um
or would you want to do it sooner?
[1:27:59] Uh I would I wouldn't recommend before
September personally. Yeah, September
[1:28:03] sounds good to me. Yeah. Um so Kathy,
would you be so kind as to find us um if
[1:28:11] possible uh an a room for an in-person
meeting? We know it won't be hybrid um
[1:28:17] for our September meeting. Sure. Thank
you so much. You're welcome.
[1:28:25] Okay.
[1:28:30] Any other comments?
Um I I have a comment. Um I was
[1:28:37] or kind of a question. Um
you know, I recently reviewed um the
[1:28:43] Connecticut General Statutes um section
on municipalities and the establishment
[1:28:48] of conservation commissions. And
you know, as everyone here probably
[1:28:54] knows, uh, the conservation conservation
commissions don't have a lot of, you
[1:28:59] know, power or authority. Uh, we don't
have subpoena power, for instance, which
[1:29:04] I wish we had. Um, or to levy fines or
anything like that. But, um, the the one
[1:29:10] pull out the National Guard, though,
anytime, right?
[1:29:14] But but the the one thing that's that's
appears to be mandatory in the statute
[1:29:20] is it says conservation commissions
shall keep an index of all open areas
[1:29:27] public or privately owned including open
marshlands, swamps and other wetlands
[1:29:32] for the purpose of obtaining information
on the proper use of such areas. So my
[1:29:38] question is, do we have an index of all
open areas
[1:29:42] including marshlands, swamps, and other
wetlands? Because if we don't, we're in
[1:29:47] violation of the statute. Arguably,
[Music]
[1:29:52] there was a link on our old website to
um an inventory, I think it was called.
[1:29:59] Um and it wasn't something we produced,
but I think we had some ownership over
[1:30:05] it.
I don't know if we have to do it or uh
[1:30:09] reference it, but I'm so glad you
brought it up because there aren't many
[1:30:12] things that we're that we have to
especially since we don't have inland
[1:30:15] wetlands responsibilities like some
other conservation commissions do.
[1:30:22] Yeah. Um, I think it I think maybe
that's a pro project that we may want to
[1:30:28] undertake uh because that dovetales with
other aspects of the um sort of the
[1:30:35] enabling statute. And by the way, the
statute is Connecticut General Statute
[1:30:39] 7-131A
and or yeah 131A.
[1:30:45] Um because there's also reference to um
uh
[1:30:54] establishing um proposing greenway plans
for inclusion in the plan of
[1:31:00] conservation. Um and greenways are
becoming increasingly important um with
[1:31:07] the you know the ongoing development of
uh lands.
[1:31:12] So, um, any I just thought I would raise
that, uh, for consideration. Um, maybe
[1:31:20] we can we can talk about that at the
next maybe we can put that down as an
[1:31:24] agenda item.
I am open to it. Um, I have some
[1:31:31] thoughts, but it's probably better to
put that as an agenda item for next
[1:31:34] time. So, okay. Definitely.
I don't know if David concluded this,
[1:31:39] but there there's something out there,
right? I thought Zach found it as part
[1:31:43] of the sustainable CT thing, but this
[1:31:48] I don't know. I think there's there's an
inventory available. I just a few years
[1:31:51] ago. I thought it was I thought it was
even on our website, town website,
[1:31:56] something. I'll poke around and see what
I can find. Yeah, between the land trust
[1:32:02] um and the tax assessor database, I'm
sure there's a fair amount of um
[1:32:09] information about what's out there. We
could always use the wayback machine to
[1:32:14] to find our old website,
[1:32:19] you know, on that topic. or will and
Carol. also touched base with Eric
[1:32:23] Luckenville who was on well done a lot
of things in town but was on the last
[1:32:29] plan of conservation development and and
and he's talked at length when we've
[1:32:34] just been talking about open spaces in
town about how
[1:32:39] um you know the Graanby Land Trust which
he's also on the board of um has worked
[1:32:44] on identifying specific properties to to
to have interconnectivity etc etc. Um
[1:32:52] anyway, I I'll touch base with Eric to
see if there's something there that we
[1:32:56] can talk about next time as well. Um
that you know it was something
[1:33:02] my my impression is there is something
formalized but I'm not sure if if it
[1:33:07] lies within the town or the land trust
or anyway I'll explore it. That'd be
[1:33:12] great.
Yeah. Uh great uh great addition will
[1:33:18] and I think it would be good for the
next agenda. uh next meeting especially
[1:33:22] as a ramp up to the plan of conservation
and development. So that's good.
[1:33:28] All right. Any last comments?
[1:33:34] Do I have a motion to adjurnn?
So moved.
[1:33:39] Second. Second. Uh all in favor? I I
Okay. Thank you very much.
[1:33:51] Thank you. Very good. And thank you.
Thank you. Have a good week. Bye.