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12-15-2010 ECC MINMEETING OF THE ELK RIVER ENERGY CITY COMMISSION HELD AT ELK RIVER CITY HALL ELK RIVER, MN WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2010 Members Present: Tim Steinbeck, Scott Hagen, John Setala, Vance Zehringer Stephen Rohlf, Susie Overholser, Bruce Sayler, and Denny Chuba Ron Touchette arrived at 1:50 p.m. Members Absent: Staff Present: Rebecca Haug, Environmental Administrator Nicki Blake-Bradley, Environmental Technician Annie Deckert, Economic Development Assistant Ross Pomeroy, GreenCorps, City of Elk River Others Present: Rick Peterson, Spectrum School Representative 1. Call Meetinn to Order The regular meeting of the Energy City Commission was called to order by Chair Zehringer at 1:35 p.m. 2. Consider December 15. 2010 ECC Agenda A request was made by Rebecca Haug to add Ordinance Amendments, Chair Zehringer requested the addition of Mayor Elect Comments, and Ms. Deckert requested the addition of City Wide Branding under other. MOTION BY COMMISSIONER STEINBECK AND SECOND BY COMMISSIONER CHUBA TO APPROVE THE AGENDA WITH CHANGES. ALL IN FAVOR. MOTION CARRIED. 3. Consider October 20. 2010 and November 17. 2010 ECC Minutes Nicki Blake-Bradley commented that significant changes are necessary to the November 17 minutes due to the lack of quorum until Commissioner Touchette arrived. Due to a quorum not being present until 1:50, all actions before the quorum was reached must be stricken from the record of that meeting. They may be approved at this meeting and/or discussed if they are to be part of the record. This situation was unknown to the recording secretary at the time of the meeting. Items 2, 3, and 9 will be removed from the November 17 minutes. Other changes to the minutes include: Item #8: The date for the Business Recycling Event should have been January 25, 2011. Addition of the words: "energy design and technical" to read: Ms. Decker stated that there are non-profit agencies that offer free energy design and technical assistance. Item #4: Commission Setata should be Commissioner Setala in the Motion Last paragraph, second sentence: change the word "would" to "may" Last paragraph, last sentence before motion to be amended to say: "Ms. Deckert stated not to her knowledge." Item #10: Strike first sentence. Change second sentence to state "staff discussed the possibility of being a bronze medalist sponsor with the EDA for EDAM." Remove "at a cost of $375" from fourth sentence Page 2 Energy City Commission Minutes December 15, 2010 Change second to last sentence to say "She stated that as a member, they would receive recognition on EDAM's newsletter and emails as well as at EDAM conferences." Discussion followed regarding adding the stricken items to the December 15 agenda with one new update by Chair Zehringer concerning GRE updates. Commissioner Touchette arrived at 1:45 p.m. MOTION BY COMMISSIONER STEINBECK AND SECOND BY COMMISSIONER CHUBA TO AMEND THE AGENDA TO ADD ROOFTOP SOLAR UPDATE, APPROVE OCTOBER MINUTES, AND ADD AN UPDATE REGARDING GRE'S REBATES. ALL IN FAVOR. MOTION CARRIED. MOTION BY COMMISSIONER CHUBA AND SECOND BY COMMISSIONER SETALA TO APPROVE THE OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER MINUTES WITH STATED CHANGES. ALL IN FAVOR. MOTION CARRIED. 4. 2011Enerav Expo Update Ms. Haug informed the commission that staff has paid half the fee for Ron Schara to present at 10:00 a.m. (instead of 11:00). Six exhibitors have now signed up, but we have no sponsorships yet. Ms. Haug will be attending the EDA meeting in January to request a sponsorship and plans to attend a Utilities Board meeting (ERMU) as well. She noted that the Expo will be in competition on that day with the Minneapolis Home and Garden Show. Ms. Haug stated that a new option is for an exhibitor to bring in a new exhibitor and receive their booth for half price or to bring in three new exhibitors and get a booth for free. KBOB has offered nine, 90-second slots for advertising businesses that will exhibit at the Expo for $100 each. A postcard will be sent out the week following Christmas reminding potential exhibitors that January 22 is the cutoff date. Requests will be accepted to exhibit after the deadline, but their business will not be on the advertising for the Expo. Businesses may register on-line. Because Mr. Schara will be speaking at 10:00, another speaker will be lined up to discuss Energy City (who we are and what we do) or Project Conserve. Discussion followed regarding ways to get exhibitors to participate. Ms. Haug hopes to have an electric car displayed although no car can be inside the school if there is any fuel in it. Ross Pomeroy will check with the MN Wild about availability of players to be present as well. The school district is really backing the Expo and partnering with the ECC for children's activities. The art contest and display may not happen since the Arts Alliance is against an art crawl. An LED lights presentation may be set up. Commissioner Touchette commented that the additional speaker should address who we are and what we do for both commercial and residential sectors. Chair Zehringer stated that whoever does the LED presentation should not be a salesman. Commissioner Rohlf arrived at 1:57 p.m. Page 3 Energy City Commission Minutes December 1 i, 2010 5. Phase II Proiect Conserve Update Chair Zehringer noted that approximately 311 residents have signed up for Phase II. Ross Pomeroy commented that he has been getting requests for late entries so word is getting out and more people want to participate. Unfortunately, the program is half way over so it would be difficult to get more people in now. Chair Zehringer discussed the audits and Level 1, 2 and 3 energy audit checklists. He sent a sample around for the commissioners to review. Nine people are trained to do the audits with eight being certified by the State. The level 1 audits are supposed to take 1.5 hours, but they have been taking 2 hours. Level 2 audits involve the homeowner more and level 3 audits include a flue gas analyzer (determines CO [carbon monoxide] levels) and furnace efficiency analysis. He added that he feels it is good experience for the auditors because they are receiving some cross-training between fields. Building inspectors know building envelopes but don't necessarily understand the electrical aspects and the Utilities personnel have the opposite experience so they are all learning something new. Next year, the focus is intended to be on commercial businesses and rental housing. Ross Pomeroy reported that the City and Energy City websites have been updated for Project Conserve and the Energy Expo. He is sending out newsletters weekly to the Project Conserve participants. He read an a-mail message received from a Project Conserve participant following an energy audit that detailed the changes she has implemented. People involved in the project are receptive and taking action. Chair Zehringer stated that air vents have been discovered to be a problem. Many are plugged. This includes not only the dryer vents ,(lint) but also the fresh air intake vents. The general public are seeing a lot of positives with this program. Ms. Haug stated that organizations such as the Sierra Club and other cities in Minnesota are calling and asking questions about Project Conserve so it is getting recognition. She added that she is thankful for all the support received so far. Chair Zehringer responded to a question about flue gas efficiency testing by describing the process. 6. Upcoming Business Recycling Event Mr. Pomeroy noted that the first Business Recycling event on Sept. 30th was well attended. The second event has been re-scheduled for January 27, 2011. Ms. Deckert created a postcard for the event with the tagline "TRIM YOUR WASTE LINE" that will be sent out soon. Ms. Deckert stated that next year, there will be a series of events sponsored by the EDA and Environmental Department. 7. Waste Water and GRE Partnership -Tim Steinbeck Page 4 Energy City Commission Dlinutes December 15, 2010 Justin Femrite, City Engineer and the Wastewater Treatment Plant have applied for a grant for reuse of effluent waters through a partnership with GRE. GRE has a well at the power plant for a boiler, air conditioners, and a large tank at the peaking station which is filled periodically. The thought is to use effluent water, thereby reducing discharge, and reusing it rather than pumping water from the river or aquifer. GRE already has adopted several green initiatives such as geothermal heating and using waste heat from the power plant for heating an outbuilding. Commissioner Chuba commented that it's too bad district heating is not available. Ms. Haug commented the City hopes the Gateway park will be able to do district heating as an "Energy Park". 8. Other Mayor Elect Comments -Vance Zehringer Chair Zehringer attended the Mayor Elect's Citizen's League Luncheon to hear his ideas for leadership. Mayor Elect Dietz is very supportive of Project Conserve but may not understand what Energy City (as a whole) does. When opportunities exist, commissioners should explain what we do. A program for the City Council may be necessary. Mayor Klinzing was very supportive and active. Ms. Deckert shared her feeling that Mayor Elect Dietz seemed interested in Energy City. It might be an idea to have him introduce Ron Schara at the Energy Expo. He has made no decision on who will represent the Council on the Energy City Commission. Commissioner Setala suggested a rotation. Chair Zehringer commented that is not a bad idea. Commissioner Steinbeck added that the commission did recently update goals and suggested putting that in front of the Council as an annual refresher. Ms. Haug discussed a joint meeting with City Council and ECC during a work session to answer questions, talk about our commission, etc. Chair Zehringer stated other issues were discussed at the luncheon as well such as the Mayor Elect's support for the landfill. He appears to be in favor of expansion under certain conditions but he's one vote of five. The Mayor Elect wants to see a settlement. He talked about branding and feels it's never been the case that Elk River is a dumping ground. Mayor Elect Dietz also discussed sharing services with County and City, sharing staff and resources in the future to save the City money. GRE Rebates Uadate -Vance Zehringer Chair Zehringer stated that GRE had recently decided to reimburse for the commercial/residential rebates. He explained the Elk River Municipal Utilities had planned to pay for the rebates themselves, but they have since learned that GRE will be refunding them for the rebates. Elk River Municipal Utilities rebates are re-instated. Ordinance Amendments -Rebecca Haug Page 5 F.nexgy City Commission btinutes December li, ?010 Ms. Haug proposed taking a strong look at the ordinance regarding the number of members due to difficulty filling positions and obtaining quorums. For example, SNBA is still listed and it's quite restrictive to who can be on the commission. She will send out the ordinance before the meeting so that commissioners can review and be ready to discuss at the meeting. It would be nice to have more flexibility. Right now there is no opening for Ryan (CenterPoint Energy) and he is interested in being on the commission. Residents may be interested in sitting on the commission as well. Commissioner Rohlf questioned where the ordinance he wrote up is located. Ms. Haug commented she will look for it. Spectrum School is not a voting member at this time due to the way the ordinance is written. Commissioner Rohlf commented that we need people in the industry, but want people with a passion for what the commission does. Ms. Haug reminded people to call if they are not going to be at the meeting to let her know due to issues with quorums and open meeting laws. Commissioner Touchette requested a change to the time to make the meeting later because he has a continual conflict. During ordinance amendments, this is the perfect time to discuss changes to the meeting schedule. It is a public meeting so there are rules about how the meetings need to be posted. Chair Zehringer reminded people to bring their comments. Citv Wide Branding -Annie Deckert The Elk River Vision has goals which support the vision. The EDA has authorized a city wide branding campaign as an action step that will help assist in supporting the goals. Elk River currently conveys several messages to the community which may convey that the different departments don't work together when in reality they do; a branding plan will help create a unified message. Commissioner Touchette shared that the goal is to have unified methodology in place for when businesses and commerce are approached so the branding can be used as an effective marketing tool. Chair Zehringer stated that Mayor Elect Dietz has no preconceived notions about economic development. Rooftoo Solar Panel Uadate Discussion of the presentation by Finance Director, Tim Simon and Building Maintenance Supervisor, Gary Lore on October 20, prior to the meeting starting is as follows: Finance Director, Tim Simon stated that the city has been awarded a grant from the School District and Local Government Renewable Energy Grant program for 16 solar roof panels for the City Hall building. Mr. Simon reviewed a PovverPoint presentation outlining details of the project. He noted that the grant, awarded September 8, 2010, provides for 50 percent of the cost of the project ($49,000). Building Maintenance Supervisor Gary Lore explained that the city hall building was chosen due to the siting of the building, the need for supplemental heat during the spring, summer and fall. He noted that the pitch of the roof is nearly perfect for the roof panels and the piping is already in place. Mr. Lore stated that the installation should be fairly simple. Page 6 Enezgy Citi~ Commission Minutes December 15, ?010 Chair Zehringer asked if there would be trackers, since there is no afternoon sun and if any panels would be installed on the other side of the building. Mr. Lore stated that the State will be looking at the design before the project is started. Discussion followed regarding possible tilting of the panels, annual cost savings, payback period, and installation and function details. Mr. Lore stated that the current heating/cooling system for the city hall building is not very efficient compared to other city buildings, noting that the library and public safety facility have geothermal systems. Ms. Deckert asked if the grant agreement has been signed yet. Mr. Simon stated that the agreement will not be signed until all of their questions have been answered and modifications have been made to the design plans. Mr. Lore noted that there is not a lot of free information available from potential bidders, unless they know they have the job. Ms. Haug stated that she felt the project was a good way to promote Energy City. Mr. Lore stated he would provide Chair Zehringer more details. 9. Schedule Next ECC Meetinct and Identify Agenda Items The next meeting will be held January 19, 2011 at 1:00 p.m. at the Elk River City Hall in the Uppertown Conference Room. 10. Adjournment Barring no further topics for discussion, Chair Zehringer adjourned the meeting at 2:45 p.m. Minut~ared by Blake-Bradley Tina Allard City CI rk 0 ante Zehrin r Energy Cit ommissi Chair