HomeMy WebLinkAboutCS CEC 2023-11-14Climate Smart/Clean Energy Community Task Force
Minutes of the Tuesday Nov. 14, 2023 Meeting Via Zoom
Attendance: Task Force members: Marie McRae, Hunter Barlow, Christina Dravis, Ray Burger, John
Kiefer, Jack Wright, Joe Wilson, Mckenna Crocker, and Alice Green, Chair; Guests: Anne Clark, Dillon
Shults; CCE Energy Coordinator Consultants: Jerry Sheng (Climate Smart Communities) and Chris Skawski
Clean Energy Communities
Call to Order at 5:02 pm / Introductions
October Minutes Moved and seconded by Marie and John, unanimously approved.
No additions to the agenda
Clean Energy Community Actions Review
DPW Office Building Upgrade Project Update- John
Progress in procuring stamped drawings for sealing the building envelope. John explained that Gary
Bush didn’t have time to do the technical drawings, so now Craig Anderson has enlisted local architect
David Bravo Cullen to do them. Craig, David and John met with Shelley Knickerbocker, code officer, to
get clear on code requirements.
John has drawn up an RFP with some basic expectations for prospective contractors, which he hopes can
be combined with the technical drawings and issued to local providers by Dec. 1. He set that deadline
with the goal of prompting the delivery of the drawings in the next week. The hope is to review
responses to the RFP in early winter and select a contractor who’s able to begin the envelope sealing
work in spring 2024.
Chris gave an update about new clean heating and cooling campaign tiers. He said that although Dryden
has already earned all the original CEC grants, there is a new tier that makes the town eligible for a $10K
grant for signing up 10 Town residents for heat pump, geothermal or air source hot water heating units.
Another $20K grant is available for a total 15 signups. All purchases since June 1, 2023 can be counted.
John said he thought the installer he’s worked with recently has installed at least 10 heat pumps in the
town this year. He could contact that contractor. Anne asked if heat pump hot water heaters would
qualify. Yes. The trick is tracking down the installations; heat smart no longer does that record keeping.
The CCE Regional Clean Energy Hub has taken over some of that work. CCE is working on the
weatherization part of this, which is not included in the
Jack Wright volunteered to connect the task force with Holly Hutchinson, from Sustainable Finger Lakes,
who is working on a grant to weatherized and install heat pumps at mobile home parks throughout the
county. Because of generous incentives, out of pockets costs to mobile homeowners are kept low. Marie
suggested a display at Town Hall would work; Joe said the library. Mckenna said the school social media
can help. Joe noted Christina has strong social presence. Chris said he has a handful of materials that
could be posted in public places. This is a great action to collaborate on with folks from the two villages
The Dryden Village and Freeville Farmers Markets could be a great place to publicize the campaign. Alice
suggested the Task Force could consider taking on a new campaign at the December meeting.
Climate Smart Community Actions Review
Dryden Climate Change and Resilience Plan (CCARP) - Jerry
Discussion of the Draft Plan and timetable for presentations at advisory boards, villages, and school
district meetings. Jerry noted first that the NYS DEC is looking for 15-30 second videos from
municipalities as part of the publicity for reaching the mark of 400 local governments registering as
Climate Smart Communities. The student-made video about Dryden CSC work was suggested.
Jerry explained that he is using input from the critical assets questionnaire that gained more than 100
responses from area stakeholders in writing the draft CCARP. He’s also assisting the Town of Newfield in
the same process, with the goal of scheduling public meetings in each town in late January.
He has learned that the state is requiring a scenario planning meeting format as part of the public
outreach process for the CCARP. These do not have to be large public meetings but can be conducted
for a selected group of stakeholders. He displayed two formats from other NYS municipalities.
The Town of Hector used a format that explained four categories of response to carbon emissions, from
no action, to preparing for lower emissions, and divided participants into four groups to discuss the the
outcomes from each response.
Another approach from Buffalo, reviewed nine climate adaptation strategies and asked participants to
rate them for importance. The strategies are:
• climate resilient construction material
• climate adaptation funds
• emergency operations enhancement
• sustainable development/land conservation
• climate education/outreach
• flood proofing
• grey storm water infrastructure
• green infrastructure design
• invasive species management
Anne suggested starting with the stakeholders meeting to zero in on recommended climate actions,
followed by public meetings to get feedback on those recommendations. Jerry concurred that the draft
CCARP could be used to formulate the plan for the initial stakeholders meeting, which would then
inform the kind of feedback to be sought in additional public meetings. One of the recommendations
from the survey was to update the town’s 15-year-old emergency response plan (which Christina helped
Jerry obtain).
Christina reported on her follow-up about the status of Dryden interface with the SIREN system -She
said the county coordinator, Jeff Dunne, told her no one in Dryden has been designated to post to the
system in cases of local emergencies like a flooding situation, or gas pipe bursting, but they could
contact the county. He could train one or two people from the town to post notices to the SIREN
system. Christina set up the system and did train reps from about half the county municipalities
(including the village of Dryden) to initiate alerts. She’s not sure many are still set up to do that. She
offered to bring this issue back to the Town Board to see who they might designate to create SIREN
alerts if needed. Anne asked how many town residents have voluntarily signed up for SIREN
notifications. Christina can check.
Joe reminded that the Village of Freeville and Dryden need to be involved. Alice has been in contact with
officials from both villages about the critical assets questionnaire, and they are expecting follow-up.
Updates on other Town and Inter-municipal Efforts
DHS Student Report- Mckenna, Hunter
School district has just received a $750 grant from Sustainable Finger Lakes to acquire enough reusable
utensils and trays to eliminate all plastic single use items from the cafeteria. They’re making videos to
help explain how to use the utensils and trays and not to throw them away.
They are still working with NYPA to get a report on options for buying more renewable energy district
wide. Mckenna said they had looked at subscribing to community solar, but there was enough available
to meet district needs. John noted that the demand is still outstripping the supply of available
community solar subscriptions. Ray reported that NYSERDA is putting together a package for
development of a solar farm on Caswell Rd. There’s a 650-acre project also in the pipeline for Groton
Lansing. John thinks this energy will be sold on the wholesale market rather than for community solar.
Affordable Housing Task Force – Ray
Last meeting had two invited guests from Trumansburg about the INHS Compass project, with a $7.5
million grant for purchase and upgrade of a mobile home park. They also heard about Ulysses’ efforts to
drop the mobile home ordinance from their zoning laws and just treat mobile homes as single-family
dwellings. Ray said Dryden can benefit from what they learn.
The Town has an RFP out for contractors to conduct the update of Dryden zoning laws, with a mid-
January return date.
Dryden has applied for a $500K Community Block Development (CBD) grant to rehabilitate 15-20 homes
in the Town. INHS is a partner, and the announcement of recipients should be coming soon.
Town Hall wetlands delineation and land use planning process- Ray/John
The Town has hired Barton and Loguidice to survey the wetlands since the DEC could not fit the project
into their fall schedule. Expect to have the delineation by December.
Southern Tier Webinar about the NYS Priority Climate Action Plan (PCAP)-Alice/ Joe
Joe and Alice attended this webinar about how Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding for reducing carbon
emissions will be administered at the state level. A takeaway was that the process targets larger
municipal areas and or consortiums of smaller municipalities.
TCCOG’s next Energy Committee meeting is scheduled for 3 pm Thursday Nov. 30. Chris and Jerry will do
a brief presentation on their two state programs. Christina said she’d be willing to be the liaison
Adjournment at 6:31 pm
Submitted by Alice Walsh Green