Wednesday, January 19, 2011 8:00am-9:30am / Town Hall, Selectmen’s Room

Next Meetings:  February 2nd and 16th

Present: Lyn Swett Miller (Chair), Larry Litten (Vice-Chair), Brian Walsh (Selectman), Mary Ann Cadwallader, Chris Soderquist, Peter Kulbacki (Public Works), Andrea Caruso, Marjorie Rogalski.

Guest: Rosi Kerr, Director of Sustainability at Dartmouth

Minutes Approved: for December

Action Items:

• See items listed at the end concerning our February 26th event, publicity must be done!
• Larry will talk with Bill Young about recycling at the 250th Fourth celebration.
• Someone needs to find out if event permitting includes provision for recycling
• --Zero Waste Initiative in process--
• Larry will meet with Frank Austin and Mike Chase about zero waste in town buildings. Marjorie, Peter, Julia and Larry are pursuing this idea with someone at Thayer. 
• Peter K. will give Larry his input on the best place and coordinator for the zero waste pilot.
• Peter, Frank, Julia, and Larry should meet if there are budgetary concerns with piloting zero waste in public buildings.
• Larry will look into the waste-reduction initiative in the hospital operating rooms by contacting John Leigh if apropos.
• Larry will talk to Marjorie R. about Charlie Sullivan’s input
• Lyn will speak to the junior high student who wants to do a Recycling clothing fashion show for her Bat Mitzvah project.
• Lyn will talk with the Dartmouth wood working shop about design and building of the kiosk. 

Planning for Saturday, February 26 event will commence, February 2nd.
Action Items follow:

• Lyn and Larry will send out the announcement to the Town resources list.
• Lyn will arrange for Transaction Ads advertising the event.
• Lyn will write the ad and a short description as well as a schedule before the 2/2 Meeting.
• Peter Kulbacki will send Frank Austin’s talk to Lyn. 
• Lyn (& Julia) will summarize Frank Austin’s talk for ‘To Done’ part of event.

Minutes:
Welcome Rosi Kerr, Director of Sustainability at Dartmouth:  Rosi has been working since the middle of November with all interested parties at Dartmouth on a sustainability strategic planning process.  The zero waste initiative at Dartmouth has had a high learning curve but continues with administrative support.  She plans to attend our meetings to further the ways that Dartmouth and Hanover can support each other in the area of sustainability.

Larry, Lyn and Julia met with Rosi Kerr last week. She suggested Town and College funding for a communication director for sustainability.  Julia is helping with the job description and the search for grant funding for the Town’s share.  Brian reminded us of the Town’s tax dilemma.  A pilot demonstrating the cost savings aspect of sustainable practice might bring taxpayers support for funding when grant funding inevitably ran out, but grant applications shouldn’t take Town funding for granted.

Sustainable Hanover’s Part in 250th Fourth of July Celebration Sunday, the 3rd  and Monday the 4th ) :  Larry suggested the theme—Let’s assure another 250th.  This could be a theme for our kiosk, each bin of recyclables could secure a future birthday… 

At the least we should work to make the event itself sustainable by requiring venders to use recyclables and the event planners to provide recycling.  Larry will talk with Bill Young, who is chairing the event, about this.  Someone needs to investigate whether a permitting process that addresses recyclable waste we suggested earlier has been put in place.

There’s another teachable moment here as well if we ‘get the grit out front’.  We could make 3 piles on the Green—recyclables, compost, and trash—and see how much bigger we could make the recyclables and compost piles than the trash pile.  Rosi would find Dartmouth students to monitor the piles.

Further, Lyn is working with a middle school girl on a fashion show using recyclables and used clothes (in connection with her Bat Mitzvah).  Lyn will talk with the young woman about whether she’s interested in making a float for a Queen of Recycling…

Zero Waste Pilot in a Public Facility:  Larry suggested having a sustainability coordinator in each Town building for the purpose of gathering data, cheerleading for and perhaps enforcing waste stream reduction and recycling. Larry will meet with Frank Austin and Mike Chase on waste. Marjorie, Peter, Julia and Larry are pursuing this idea with someone at Thayer. 

To make the choice and show progress we have to understand our current waste stream and need more data.  Todd at NE Waste has been asked again about our waste stream and Betsy McClain is prepared to add data. Chris Kennedy’s progress on buildings energy performance ratings for public buildings and residences might be used.

Larry could make a survey for Town employees that the Sus. Coordinator in each building could collect or an online Survey Monkey could be used.  If someone is in place to guide the process, a paper survey was preferred by the Committee.  Further discussion of this will be a future agenda item. 

Brian suggested successive 3 month pilots at different sites with a coordinator at each site. Choice of the first site and coordinator would best be done by Peter K.  Public Works and places where patrons generate most of the waste, like the Howe Library, would not be representative and should not be first.  The place chosen should be one with a person who would like to coordinate and would have a salesman, rather than an enforcer mentality. Information on the process as well as the waste stream is important as we pilot.  Peter, Frank, Julia, and Larry should meet if there are budgetary concerns.

DHMC has a new program, the Green Medicine Initiative, which is working on lowering operating room waste. If felt apropos, Larry will look into this by contacting John Leigh.

Streetlight Update:  National Grid is offering the possibility of turning off streetlights after a certain hour each night, which would meet Hanover’s needs.  The cost for the mechanism and its installation is $150 a light which could be amortized over time by the savings in electricity (40%) but National Grid wants the money paid all at once upon installation.  This and the fact that they only offer high pressure sodium lights when LED lights save more energy is reason for a letter campaign protesting their policy.  These letters should arrive at the following address (Debra A. Howland, Executive Director and Secretary, New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission; 21 S. Fruit Street, Suite 10 Concord, NH 03301) by Wednesday, however, to be considered at the PUC hearing that day.  Lyn will send notes to people in the Sierra Club to get out the word.

Kiosk & Website Update:  Lyn will talk with the Dartmouth wood working shop about design and building of the kiosk. 

Sustainable Hanover’s website will include a summary of our activities as done for an annual report.  Rosi offered Darthmouth computer students’ help to improve our site but not to maintain it.  We are awaiting word from Cory Stevens about our space on the Town’s new website and how the Town plans to maintain the site.

Sustainable Hanover Model & Simulation: Chris Soderquist has received funding from the Sustainability Institute in Hartland, VT to develop a graphically-based simulation tool that can aid local communities like Hanover in understanding the relationship between  sustainability goals and quality of life indicators.  It will include a needs assessment and allow strategies and actions to be plugged into the simulation to see their effectiveness in meeting the identified needs.  Hanover will be the community model for the simulation allowing us to benefit from Chris’s expertise in developing community-agreed upon goals (like our ‘0 Waste’ goal) and strategies and actions to meet them.  He will help us put up a ‘dashboard’ on line showing what we want and with strategies to encourage public debate and action.

Collaboration with Dartmouth College will occur through involvement  by Steve Peterson and Anne Kapusinski, both of whom teach related subjects at Dartmouth.

Chris will begin assessing needs through interviews with Town staff and knowledgeable citizens.  He will invite a small group of 15 strategic thinkers to work together in the break-out session time at our February event to review the initial structure for a Hanover model & simulation.  Our Committee would help get the data needed. Chris plans to have a simulation prototype ready by June.

Brian spoke to a concern that the Committee’s energy not be diverted away from actions planned.  Chris agreed and said this was a pilot, an academic exercise,  that would compliment our action agenda.

Agenda Items for Future Meetings:
-Zero Waste Pilot needs more discussion
-250th Fourth of July Celebration—Larry
-Earth Day (talk with Dartmouth) or Vital Communities
-Or May celebration or use of Kiosk—a Dartmouth intern is interested in working with    
  us to organize something on either Earth Day or in May (We will see about having the Dartmouth student focus on Earth Day and keep Town Meeting day quiet in terms of our work).

Respectfully yours,
Mary Ann Cadwallader, secretary