Minutes of Meetings

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HAMILTON-WENHAM GREEN

Minutes of Meeting February 3, 2009

A hardy but small band attended the meeting as we enjoyed another blizzard: Dave Carey, Stan Ward, Kim Radochia. Caroline Horner, Emily DeHority, Alisa Greco, Barbara Lawrence.

(I apologize for being late with these minutes. I really miss our Secretary, Lindsay Schnabel, but congratulate her on the birth of her first grandchild, who has won her heart and taken her away for a while).

Dave talked about refining our mission to support activities by other groups and spending less energy and time on events such as the Energy Efficiency Fair. We discussed the fact that having small groups pursuing their own interests and goals had always been our model, but that after the fair many of the people who had been heavily involved needed some “time off!” We talked about the need for some events to generate interest, give us time to brainstorm and learn from each other, but also the need to define and limit what we take on at any one time.

We agreed that some problems are so big that we need to address them on a larger scale, and that the community may be the best unit for this as it allows for personal communication and development of local solutions. Some challenges like climate change and peak oil need our involvement on personal, family, community, national, and international levels.

HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE TEAM: Emily, a Senior at the High School, is a member of the Science Team and her group is interested in working with HWGREEN. Alisa and Barbara are trying to find a time to meet with them to discuss ways they can be involved. Dave suggested one possibility, which is to develop a Carbonrally challenge for students, and Emily and Stan will see what they can work out. We also hope they will be interested in working on spring events, which could include projects at the schools.

TECHNOLOGY GROUP: this group has met several times and is considering an array of possibilities to improve our ability to communicate with each other and to the community. It will report its findings very soon – so stay tuned!

GREEN BUSINESS GROUP: The Hamilton-Wenham Chronicle did a cover story about the GBG and the group met recently. The GBG already has 16 members and is defining its mission statement and goals. It will meet again at the office of H-W Family Chiropractics on Willow Street in Hamilton, and welcomes people who are interested in greening their businesses as well as those who already have green businesses. (Lauren, Lisa, and Matt - Anything you want to add?)

TRANSITION: Stan had to cancel the originally scheduled meeting of Transition because of the previous snowstorm, but the group met Feb. 8^th. Here’s a summary of that meeting: (STAN_

MEETINGS: We’ve been meeting once a month at the library from 6:30 to 8:00, and usually on a Tuesday. The problem with selecting any one day of the week is that some people have standing commitments on specific days and can’t attend. However, it seems best to keep our meetings to the first Tuesday whenever possible. We also talked about separating the planning meetings from events such as films. We’ve tried combining these, but as we grow in both numbers and sub-groups, it may be best to separate the two. Planning meetings would include reports from subgroups, and then focus on specific events or topics.

SPRING FLING: At our last meeting we decided to focus spring events on food local organic food – how to grow it, store it, and cook it. Green Meadows Farm is holding several workshops this spring that give us a good base: Testing your soil: May 2^nd, Planning your vegetable garden: May 2nd

Raising chickens in your back yard: May 9th

Preserving the harvest: 2 dates to be determined (July and October)

We want to hold supplementary events that might include classes on cooking organic and vegetarian food, a seed exchange, films, workshops on rain harvesting, building a cold frame and root cellar, canning and storage, and other ideas. A small group is already working on this, and we will devote much of our March 3^rd meeting to further planning. Please contact Barbara or Alisa if you are interested in joining the planning group. (barbaralawrence@comcast.net; alisa_greco@yahoo.com)

ORGANIC WASTE PILOT: Update – on Feb. 4^th 75 families started putting their kitchen scraps out for collection to be weighed and taken to Brick Ends Farm. In the first week, we save over 220 pounds of waste from going to the landfill, and we’re expecting an even bigger amount this week as the program gets fully launched. We actually had to turn away participants because we only had 75 bins, but some people are using their own bins or saving kitchen waste to put into bins of neighbors already participating in the pilot. If you have any questions, please call the Trash Hotline at: 978-468-5515.

OPPORTUNITIES in the COMMUNITY FOR HW GREEN MEMBERS: Let me know if you can help.

Share the knowledge: HW Regional High School (From science teacher John Kotch)

Do you really want to embarrass your children? I have a great suggestion: Be a guest

speaker in their science or engineering class! Seriously, if you happen to have a particular

expertise in the area of science or engineering and feel that you can contribute to the

learning environment of our school, we want to hear from you. We cannot always guarantee

that your area will fit precisely within our curriculum, but I encourage you to contact me

directly and we can talk about the opportunity for you to be a guest lecturer. It is a nice

way to become more involved in the learning environment of our community and to develop

a better understanding of what we do as teachers. You can email me at:

kotchj@hwschools.net

COMMUNITY HOUSE AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM: March 18, 3:00 – 4:00 pm

From Heather Kent: For our feature Fun Science at the Community House on early release day, WED 3 – 4 p.m. we’re looking for exciting projects to offer students. I’m thinking one or two session events that focus on science issues that relate to everyday living and keep students thinking and enjoying discovery, outside of the classroom. We’ll kick off with Curious Creatures. Then Gordon College is going to help us out with WonderScience

JULY 4^th COMMUNITYCELEBRATION – ON THE FIFTH

The Community House will feature the MA Air National Guard Band for Sing Music and Holiday favorites in Patton Park. We’ll have a large cookout and our usual bike parade. We’re waiting to hear from others in town, but it looks to be shaping up into a Fourth of July of by-gone days. If Hamilton Wenham Green can participate in any fashion, we would love to have you on board, either sponsoring something fun for children, a learning project, a demonstration, anything that could add a little sparkle and fun.

NEXT MEETING: We agreed to communicate by email and through the NING site about the spring events until our next regular meeting on March 3^rd at the Hamilton-Wenham Library from 6:30 – 8:00.

Hamilton Wenham GREEN

7 January Meeting

6:30 pm – 8 pm

The first meeting of 2009 was well attended by about 15 people including: Jeri-Lee Gray, Dave Carey, Jon Richardson, Stan Ward, Andrew Rodgers, Carolyn Horner, Alisa Greco, Lauren Consolazio, Richard Brown, and Lindsay Schnabel.

Sagamore Hill:

Dave Carey reported on the $40,000 grant for wind study on Sagamore Hill. The site is well chosen as it’s hard for neighbors to see. The town is responsible for $6000 of the grant and this may be paid in kind. The study is being conducted by Meridian Associates of Beverly and Hamilton resident Merle Olmstead, who helped GE set up their wind turbine, has offered his time for the project, which satisfies the in-kind requirement. The first meeting will be very soon, but there may be an issue with an abutter who is not interested in the study. One blade is 550 feet which might cause a noise issue.

Dave also reported on the Energy Service Project. Federal money will be coming for projects to increase energy-efficiency so our towns should be ready to use it. We have engineering studies for town facilities as well as an energy audit of the middle/high school building. The Capital Management Committee is considering an Energy Services Company (ESCo) that would install such equipment through a performance contract that would not require upfront money.

Green Business Council: Lauren Consolazio and Lisa Kawski have re-energized the Green Business Council and are preparing for the first meeting. They want to find ways to highlight green and energy efficient products and services, and welcome new members and their ideas. Lauren said they plan to get articles about local green businesses in the Chronicle. She added that Essex County Green Belt is creating a website, which is a good source for Green Business information, Newburyport has been very successful with the same sort of group. She has also been in contact with a woman who is putting together a roster of green energy-efficient buildings and wants our input. Please get let either Lisa or Laruen know if you are interested in joining the Green Business Council: Lauren at laurenc71@gmail.com; Lisa at lkawski@comcast.net. For more information see below:

Energy Fair: MassEnergy has done an energy audit of the homes of several of the ten Seniors who won our Home Energy package at the Energy Efficiency Fair. MassEnergy recently installed 62 CFL light bulbs in the homes of some of these Seniors. The Wenham Handymen have been installing other energy-saving devices in their homes as a direct result of the Energy Fair.

Communications: We are looking for articles of about 400 words for the Hamilton Wenham Chronicle. Greg Horner has written many articles on environmentally friendly ideas and suggestions. However, now that his co-writer has a full time job writing for area papers, we need to find more authors. After much discussion about how to improve our website our computer savvy members Lauren, Caroline, and Stan will research possibilities and come up with the best solution.

Energy Efficiency: Richard Brown, a home energy auditor, asked how energy efficiency can become be a requirement for new homes and renovation projects. He suggeseted energy efficiency should be a criteria for new construction and renovation, and other members agreed? With Jon and Jim’s help, Richard will create a list of criteria that should be part of building inspections and perhaps code. Through the GBC, they may try to educate home owners about the value of working with contractors who are aware of energy-efficient and environmentally safer methods and materials. We also discussed taking a field trip to the Green Building in Boston or to the LEED Platinum house Jim Farnham is building in Beverly.

Renewal: a documentary film about faith-based environmental work. We’ll have a free showing of this 90 minute documentary at the Hamilton-Wenham Library on January 21 at 7:00. There will be time for discussion afterwards. For more information see: http://renewalproject.net/film or hwgreen.org

501 9 (c) 3: Ernie Stone has prepared the documents for non-profit status for HWGREEN, which he will file in February. Members of the Board of Directors met with Ernie this week and we’re very pleased with the results. We’ll have more specifics to report very soon.

Transition Handbook: Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to local resilience. 18 people have signed up for a group reading of The Transition Handbook. The first meeting will be January 28th at the Community House. Please contact Stan Ward for more details (stan@stanward.com). Everyone is welcome to join the group, but is asked to have read the whole book if attending the meeting on January 28. You can find out more about The Transition Handbook at: http://transitionculture.org/shop/the-transition-handbook.

Spring Fair: We talked about having a spring fair at Green Meadows Farm, though perhaps not on such a grand scale as the fall fair. We might even hold it over several Saturdays. A spring time fair lends itself perfectly to gardening, May would probably be the best month in terms of weather, although Earth day is April 22.

Themes for the Fair are: local and sustainable food, re-educating ourselves skills relating to:

Organic and vegetarian food: cooking, growing – benefits of.

Composting

Rain harvesting/rain gardens

Gardening in raised beds

Raising chickens

Canning

Making Root Cellars

Using Soil Sampling kits.

OTHER IDEAS:

Intergenerational communications

Film – from Green Meadows Farm on farming

Plant Sale

In our February 3 meeting we may break into interest groups for the Spring Fair. Instead of having one date for the fair we could have several events throughout the month as Green meadows Farm has done for some time.

SWAP SHOP: We briefly discussed starting a SWAP SHOP such as one held in Concord. People seemed to think this would be a good addition to our now under-used HWGREEN FreeCycle (freecyclehamiltonwenham@yahoogroups.com). At the next meeting we hope to discuss this further, though we will concentrate on the spring event. Perhaps the SWAP SHOP could even be started as a part of this event.

Next meeting: February 3, 2009 at the Hamilton-Wenham Library from 6:30 – 8:00

Respectfully submitted,

Lindsay Schnabel, Secretary

The Green Business Group is having its kick off meeting on

January 29th at 7pm.

We will meet at the office of Lisa Kawski: lmk interiors ltd. –

77 Main Street Wenham (978-335-1140)

We hope you can join us!

The Green Business Group is comprised of local business people who are involved with companies and/or organizations that are socially conscious, promote recycling, healthy living, alternative energy, conservation, industrial hemp, organic products, low impact alternatives, and other green initiatives

Goals:

1.Identify the best way to reach our target market, environmentally friendly homeowners, and how our businesses can work together in co-promotion efforts.

2.To raise community awareness of green resources and service providers on the North Shore.

3.To build a reputation and expertise in best "green" business practices.

Reasons to Join!

1.Meet other small businesses that focus on "Green" products and services.

2.Network and share ideas with like-minded individuals.

3.Get more ideas and support.

4.Educate the public and other businesses about green business and why it is important.

Hamilton-Wenham GREEN

Agenda: Meeting 6:30 – 8:00 pm, July 1 at the Hamilton-Wenham Library

Quick Review of past month’s activities:

Solar Field Day

Bag Sales

501 (c) 3

Bank Account

Brief Subcommittee Reports:

Clean + Green – Barbara Lawrence

Communications – Caroline Horner

Energy Efficiency – Dave Carey

Grants – Lauren Consolazio

Green Business – Colin Davis

Recycling and Waste Reduction Gretel Clark and Alisa Greco

Schools – Jen Flynn

NEW BUSINESS:

InterCommunity Organizations Collaborative (ICOC): Alisa Greco, Gretel Clark, Barbara Lawrence

Alternative Energies and Sustainability: Kim + Peter Radochia, Dave Carey

Northeast Sustainable Energy Association Green Buildings Open House: October 4^th, Barbara Lawrence and Greg Horner http://www.nesea.org/http://www.nesea.org/buildings/openhouse/

Dark Skies Initiative: Gretel Clark

US Green Energy Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.: Dave Carey http://www.usgbc.org/

Hamilton Wenham Green

Minutes of the Annual meeting, May, 29. 2008

On May 29 Hamilton Wenham Green held its annual meeting at the Hamilton Wenham

Public Library. About 20 people attended to discuss and review our goals and accomplishments for our first year and to set new goals.

In the Bags: Charlotte Lidrbauch arrived carrying a box with 100 of our new reusable

shopping bags. They are a handsome dark green, made of recycled material, and ideal for

shopping. They will be for sale at Green Meadows Farm, through Jen Flynn's website:

www.giftsofgreen.org, and at Giggles on Railroad Avenue. We very grateful not only to Charlotte for her hard work in making this possible, but to our sponsors: Green Meadows Farm, Gifts of Green, Carbonrally, and the Hamilton Police Department.

Non-profit status: Barbara announced that member Ernie Stone, who is a lawyer, has

offered to create a 501 (c) 3 for us, which will help us become a non-profit organization.

We are in the process of setting up a formal structure, and the following people have

agreed to be officers to fulfill the required roles for the next year: President: Barbara

Lawrence, Secretary: Lindsay Schnabel, Treasurer: Sue Patrolia. Directors, Dave Carey,

Alisa Greco, Caroline Horner, Barbara Lawrence, and Sue Patrolia.

Currently Hamilton Wenham Green has four Sub committees all of which seem to be making headway.

Energy Efficiency - Dave Carey

Communications - Carolyn and Greg Horner

Clean & Green - Barbara Lawrence

Recycling - Gretel Clark and Alisa Greco

Energy Efficiency Committee: Dave Carey said that National Grid presented the

findings of the energy audit at the high school and middle school facility, and that the

report is posted on our website. If all the suggested improvements costing $280,685.00

were made, there would be a $73,000.00 annual savings and a less than three-year

payback. Leaving the expensive photovoltaic recommended improvements aside,

savings would still be $64,000. National Grid might help with payment for the

improvements through a reduced electric bill and grants.

One low-cost suggestion in the audit is to have a monitor that senses a lack of motion

around vending machines, which puts them in a reduced energy mode or actually turns

them off. We've already gotten a commitment from one area business to donate the cost

of installing devices in the vending machines, and might find other local funders for similar

improvements.

Emily Patrolia, a student at the high school, and other members of her Science Club held a

Chocolate sale and CFL light bulb sale at the school. National Grid supplied the high

school with the chocolate and light bulbs. When a student bought a chocolate bar he or

she would get a light bulb. The event was a success. The Science Team is holding an

Eco Film Fest on Wednesday June 4th to increase environmental awareness among the

students. Alisa Greco and Dave Carey will host a table with information about Hamilton-

Wenham GREEN during part of the film fest.

Dave Carey said that experts agree that Sagamore Hill with its 500 foot elevation is a

terrific site for a wind turbine. Mo Olmstead, who built the first wind terminal for GE, is

now retired and offering his advice for this project, which is proceeding.

Communications Committee

Caroline Horner asked for any ideas or issues people wanted to have discussed in the

local green column of the Chronicle that her husband Greg and Kim Nolan have written.

Caroline and Greg have been keeping the website hwgreen.pbwiki.com filled with

valuable information and tips. The Yahoo group site has also had plenty of activity.

A letter writing campaign is one way to make an impact on various businesses. Hamilton

Wenham GREEN should be able to encourage people to target certain companies and

help them to understand the importance of going green. One example is Market Basket

that sells organic produce in a non-recyclable Styrofoam container. Another way to make

our community aware is to follow up on legislative action pertaining to our goals and

knowledge.

Recycling and Waste Reduction Committee:

Gretel Clark had to attend another meeting, but sent us this summary of the activities.

Please let people know that the Recycle Program is an unmitigated success; that we are on a roll and planning on an Eagle Scout project for 2 boys who want to build two Swap Shops (one for books, etc. and the other for household, clothing, etc. stuff) that will go behind Town Hall. (Have to get permission, still, from our new DPW director.) I am also working on an expanded composting program, with some kind of pick up process with all going to Brick Ends Farm. Gretel

Alisa Greco and Jen Flynn have been working on a program for composting and recycling in the schools.

Clean & GREEN: air, food, and water

Barbara said that this group co-hosted an information booth about rain gardening and rain

harvesting last month at Green Meadows Farm with member Bruce Blanchard and the

Wenham Water Commission, which several of us attended. She also said that she hopes

someone else will take over this subcommittee because she knows she is not giving it the

attention it deserves.

New ideas:

Alisa Greco had a wealth of creative ideas to make our towns aware and involved in

energy efficiency and recycling. She has gathered materials for welcome kits, which will

go in the new bags, to encourage new residents to reduce, reuse and recycle and introduce

them to the many environmental resources in our area. She would like to encourage

everybody to read the Low Carbon Diet Book as it gives ideas about how to get the

community involved in reducing its carbon footprint.

Alisa wants to hold Green design lectures at the library that would pertain to both inside

and outside the house. She also suggested connecting with other groups such as

Sustainable Cape Ann. She spoke with John Tomases regarding the involvement of the

DPW in an Eco day where we would try to involve both communities in as many ways as

possible, probably on a different date than the hazardous waste disposal date of 9/6.

We discussed composting in the schools but wondered if a teacher would jump to verma

composting using worms. Composting in the cafeteria is a difficult goal but one worth

working on. There are several avenues of approach and suggestions to get the lunchroom

monitors involved. We should also get in touch with the company that has the

composting truck that recycles materials and food for compost. The high school should

have a composting club. And what about Wenham having a compost site?

Dog owners interested in using their pets to help fend off Patton Park from the geese,

should make themselves known to Alisa, especially any border collie owners. It was also

suggested that dog owners be more vigilant about picking up after their own dogs.

Jen Flynn said she thinks there are a number of ways we can get students at the

elementary and middle schools involved, and we all agreed. She added that it might be

time to create a subcommittee for the schools, and many of us thought that was an

excellent idea. We do have a teacher liaison in each of the schools with whom Jen could

work to find out ways in which we can support ongoing environmental programs and

increase awareness of recycling and energy efficiency. Jen also offered to head this

subcommittee, which is wonderful.

Colin Davis, another hero of the evening, offered to form a green business sub committee. He will send an email around describing what he asking for volunteers and ideas. He is interested in holding a seminar and series of discussions of green business, and his group might create an award for local green businesses.

Carbon footprint reduction: We discussed the need to take out the guilt and form a team

to help people understand how to reduce their imprint. Member Stan Ward, who works for

Carbonrally, which Time Magazine recently featured, offered to help create such a program.

Lauren Consolazio suggested that once we have our status as a non-profit we should look

for grants to increase our effectiveness. Lauren offered to lead this effort, which will be

another enormous help.

Other suggestions:

Promote planting of trees

Promote bicycling

Encourage people to switch to renewables thru National Grid. Hamilton needs

56 households to switch for a $15,000 credit.

Use CPA money to bring in National grid to audit other town facilities. (It is

also possible that we could use the Savings through Energy Management [STEM]

program to train students to do this work in conjunction with National Grid).

Meetings: We decided to return to a monthly meeting to keep the ideas moving and to work on and reach our new goals. Barbara will schedule a meeting for the end of June and will

announce the date as soon as possible.

We decided to return to a monthly meeting to keep the ideas moving and to work on and

reach our new goals. Barbara will schedule a meeting for the end of June and will

announce the date as soon as possible.

Respectfully submitted,

Lindsay Schnabel, Secretary

HAMILTON-WENHAM GREEN: Meeting February 7, 2008

PRESENT:

Andrew Rogers, Charlotte Lidrbauch, Alissa Greco, Kim Nolan, Bill Nolan, Kim Radochia, Conrad Willeman, Grace Belfiore, Liza Caulkins, Barbara Lawrence

Welcome to new members Alissa Greco, Liza Caulkins, Bill Nolan, Nazir Shamsuddin, and Sue Savarese. We’re delighted you’ve joined Hamilton-Wenham GREEN.

We started the evening by watching “The Story of Stuff,” with Annie Leonard. You can download this 20 minute video at: www.storyofstuff.com, or take out the DVD, which we’ve given to the Hamilton-Wenham library. A second copy, which Fred Hopps has now, is available for showing at the schools. I think we all enjoyed the film. It’s funny, moves briskly, and makes the point clearly that we are owned by our stuff, which we can’t sustain.

MEETING:

Many people contacted me before the meeting to say they were sorry they couldn’t attend because of a conflict. I don’t think we’ve ever found a “good” time to meet, so I wonder if a Saturday morning or lunch, might work? We could start with a short film, and then a share a potluck lunch or bring our own bagged lunch. Would you let me know if this would be a better or worse time for you to come to a meeting, and whether it would be more or less likely that students could attend?

COMMUNICATIONS:

Caroline told us that Tom Loosmore from iFLOOR is still working on the new website. We agreed to give members the password for the current site, which is recycle so we can all post information, announcements, etc. Contact Caroline at Chenango@gmail.com if you have questions, but you will find that the site gives lots you lots of help and entering new information is simple. www.hwgreen.pbwiki.com.

The Yahoo group has been quite active, so please join if you haven’t already done so. hwgreen@yahoogroups.com.

Charlotte Lidrbauch has found a bag that we can get quite inexpensively (roughly $1.50 per bag), which includes printing our logo on one side. Charlotte is finding out what it would cost to print and the logos of perhaps 4 – 6 appropriate businesses on the other side. Cost of 250 bags would be about $400. We could pay for this by advertising the businesses, and then use the money from sales of the bags to pay for the next order. Charlotte will follow-up with details.

Two Books for Two Towns: The library is highlighting two books: Bill Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods,” and Tom Wessell’s, “Reading the Forested Landscape.” I really enjoyed Bryson’s book, which I read a few months ago, and am having a wonderful time now reading Tom Wessell’s book. Please check out the Hamilton-Wenham Library site for more information.

http://www.hwlibrary.org/Community%20Read/2Books2TownsEvents.html

As part of this effort, Hamilton-Wenham GREEN is starting a film series with two films and organizing a Trail Day.

We will be showing King Corn, on April 2 at 7pm with discussion led by Director Ian Cheney. On April 30^th at 7 pm we’ll show Inconvenient Truth with discussion led by Rev. Jeffrey Barz-Snell, Pastor of First Church Salem, who is one of the 1000 people trained by Al Gore to facilitate.

TRAIL DAY: April 12^th.

Kim Radochia is leading the group organizing Trail Day on the Discover Hamilton Trail and welcomes your help, particularly on the day itself. Essex Country Trail Association has agreed to mark the trail and a group including members of HWGREEN will go out soon to identify places that may need repair, and others that will be best for walks on Trail Day. There will be two or three hikes of varying lengths, The Audubon Society has agreed to help, and Green Meadows Farm will host simultaneous activities for very young children and their parents. Kim will follow up with a note about ways in which we can participate and help make this a wonderful day for all of us.

New member Alissa Greco wants create a Green welcome kit to give to new residents, which ee all thought that was a great idea. She will find out from the towns how many people move here in a year, and perhaps also how many babies are born to residents each year. She’s starting to collect material for the kit, which might go into the reusable bags Charlotte is working on.

RECYCLING-WASTE REDUCTION:

Grace Belfiore told us that she and Gretel Clark met with 5^th graders at Winthrop School and are helping students extend the recycling they are already doing, and that nancy Rowse is organizing this effort. The owner of Brick Ends Farm is interested in composting food that is now thrown out by the schools, and the Recycling group is looking into that possibility.

Conrad Willeman reported that Wenham has decided to initiate a Pay As You Throw program for recycling. Please contact Conrad if you are a Wenham resident and would like to help work for passage of this very important way to encourage recycling and reduce costs of waste disposal. cwilleman@mac.com

Gretel has set up a FreeCycle for Hamilton-Wenham, through which you can both give and get many free items that are reusable. This not only saves money, but saves the space in the landfill that would have been required for the item. (See hwgreen@yahoogroups.com or more information or contact Gretal at gretel@milesriver.com.

Alissa Greco also wants to set up a day for a community exchange of household items, that we would hold in a large public space. She’s doing some research to find out how this has worked in other towns such as Ipswich, which have already done something similar.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY:

National Grid has done the energy audit at the high school, and we’re waiting for the results. Students are enthusiastic about the experience, and eager to find out what National Grid will recommend. We weren’t able to find funding for the joint program at the high school with Wilson Educational Services, but now several people in Hamilton Wenham GREEN are interested in having Wilson Educational Services and National Grid do programs in the middle and perhaps elementary schools, and there is still interest in getting Wilson Educational Services to hold a program at the high school. Carol Wilson, president of Wilson Educational Services, reports that Fred Hopps helped set up a program with her group in Dedham and it would work well to do something here at the same time. We would still need to raise the fee of $5250, but several people on HWGREEN seem to think that may be possible, so I’m hopeful.

New member Liza Caulkins, who is in the 8^th grade at The Waring School, wants to get an energy audit there and to make her school as green as possible. She recently completed a program in the Bahamas in which she learned a lot about ways to make a school green, for example by going paperless. We’re delighted that she brings her experience and enthusiasm to our group, and look forward to learning more and finding ways in which we can be helpful.

Dave Carey says the feasibility study for wind power at Sagamore Hill is continuing successfully, and he’ll let us know when we may learn the results.

CLEAN + GREEN: air, food, and water

Green Meadows Farm is going to co-host a seminar on composting and rain gardening and rain harvesting with us this spring. We haven’t set the date yet, but will let you know as soon as we do. Gretel has contacted Corliss, and they will sell us composters at cost. See Gretel’s message to the Yahoo group about this.

Dog DOO

New member Sue Savarese is interested in getting people to pick-up after their dogs better than they do now. I know from personal experience that the lack of a local ordinance requiring people to pick up their dogs’ litter can be a real problem for neighbors as well as any of us who might enjoy walking in Patton Park. I was frankly astounded when we first moved here to realize that the streets of Cambridge, where we had lived, were much cleaner than those in Hamilton. So I welcome Sue’s interest and hope we can do something to make our local environment cleaner and healthier for everyone.

Next meeting: We haven’t set a date yet, but I think Hamilton-Wenham GREEN is about a year old in March, so we should celebrate. Let me know what you think of holding a meeting n Saturday. Please do put the April dates for our events with the library on your calendar and volunteer to attend and to help if you can.

Those of you who were at the meeting – please add or correct anything I’ve missed or mis-stated.

Thanks very much,

Barbara

HAMILTON-WENHAM GREEN: Meeting February 7, 2008

PRESENT:

Andrew Rogers, Charlotte Lidrbauch, Alissa Greco, Kim Nolan, Bill Nolan, Kim Radochia, Conrad Willeman, Grace Belfiore, Liza Caulkins, Barbara Lawrence

Welcome to new members Alissa Greco, Liza Caulkins, Bill Nolan, Nazir Shamsuddin, and Sue Savarese. We’re delighted you’ve joined Hamilton-Wenham GREEN.

MEETING:

COMMUNICATIONS:

The Yahoo group has been quite active, so please join if you haven’t already done so. hwgreen@yahoogroups.com.

http://www.hwlibrary.org/Community%20Read/2Books2TownsEvents.html

As part of this effort, Hamilton-Wenham GREEN is starting a film series with two films and organizing a Trail Day.

TRAIL DAY: April 12^th.

RECYCLING-WASTE REDUCTION:

ENERGY EFFICIENCY:

Dave Carey says the feasibility study for wind power at Sagamore Hill is continuing successfully, and he’ll let us know when we may learn the results.

CLEAN + GREEN: air, food, and water

Dog DOO

Those of you who were at the meeting – please add or correct anything I’ve missed or mis-stated.

Thanks very much,

Barbara

HAMILTON-WENHAM GREEN: Agenda Meeting November 27, 2007

Attending: Grace Belfiore, Dave Carey, Gretel Clark, Charlotte Lidrbauch, Sarah Getchell, Sue Patrolia, Bruce Blanchard, Meredith Gisness, Heather Kuebel, Candy Kuebel, Lindsay Schnabel, Kim Radochia, Emily Patrolia, Caroline Horner, Greg Horner, Barbara Lawrence

Communications and Clean + GREEN sub-committees met for half an hour before the general meeting.

COMMUNICATIONS:

Website:

Caroline has set up the website and she and others are adding to it, which makes it even more useful and interesting. Please visit www.hwgreen.pbwiki.com to see what we mean! We are using a free Wiki site, but iFLOOR, which is making a significant corporate effort to be environmentally responsible, has offered to design a site and host it for us. Caroline and Barbara will meet with their representative, Tom Loosmore, in the next week or two to talk about the design, and find out about the expectations iFLOOR would have in terms of its presence on our site. We welcome your suggestions and ideas.

YAHOO Group:

Meredith Gisness and Lindsay Schnabel have been working hard on organizing details of membership and starting the YAHOO group. They will send us an email soon to explain how to join the Yahoo group, which will connect with the website. Using the Yahoo group will let us hold ongoing discussions and you will be able to set up your membership so that you designate how you want to receive emails. There seem to be many advantages, which Meredith and Lindsay will explain and we encourage you to sign up.

Chronicle Column:

Greg Horner has written several excellent and provocative columns already, the last about the toxicity of plastics. Marya Place is looking for a family to profile in a column, so if you or someone you know would be a good model for environmentally responsible things we can all do, and might agree to be profiled, please let Caroline know (chenango@gmail.com). Caroline and Greg hope other people in Hamilton-Wenham GREEN will write columns so we have different voices and cover a wide range of topics, so please be let Caroline know if you have an idea or would like to write a column.

Library events for Community READ:

Caroline is working with Jan Dempsey at Hamilton-Wenham Library to schedule two Wednesdays in April to show Inconvenient Truth and King Korn. One of the producers of King Korn lives in Boston and may come to the showing to lead a discussion afterwards. Caroline and Greg highly recommend the film, which is about our corn-dominated agriculture. If the film series is a success, we will hold another in the fall. There will be some costs, but we think Friends of the Library will help pay for them. Gretel suggested we also think about hosting a discussion series as there are so many people in the community who have expertise to share, which seems another good project. As soon as the dates are final we will let you know and ask that you tell friends about the showings and, of course, attend yourself.

Barbara reported that the Recreation Board says it might be interested in helping us with a trail day to be held in conjunction with the Community Read of “ A Walk in the Woods,” and “Reading the Forested Landscape.” They were unaware of the Discover Hamilton Trail, but gave us a copy of the Essex County Trail Association map, which shows it going through public and private space. Susannah Coloredo-Mansfield, president of ECTA welcomed our interest in increasing public awareness of the trail, and perhaps in re-publishing the map and a flyer about the trail, putting together trail repair teams, and then having a celebration of the trail in the spring. She is interested in meeting with us to discuss how we might proceed. Sue Patrolia, who knows Tom Wessells, suggested we contact him to see if he had any ideas about what to look for on the trail, which made me wonder if he might join us on a walk there the day he is speaking about his book.

Several people agreed to help with these projects, and we welcome any of you who are interested in doing so but couldn’t get to the meeting

We discussed deferring the self-guided tour of places where people are doing environmentally responsible and innovative things until the fall. Although we still think this is a very good idea, we don’t want to take on more than we can do well. The group agreed that this made sense.

Clean + GREEN

We’ve continued to look for good water bottles. Sue Patrolia said she has just bought 25 for Christmas presents, which is a great idea. Sue has also tried to get more information about the water bubblers in the two towns, and we are delighted that Bruce Blanchard, who is the Superintendent of the Water Department in Wenham, has joined Hamilton-Wenham GREEN. We plan to attend a meeting he is holding this evening (Wed. Nov. 28^th). At 6:00 pm in the HW Library to learn more about ways we can work together.

Charlotte Lidrbauch has been looking for a recyclable and affordable bag we could have imprinted with our logo, and perhaps those of businesses and school teams. She’s found one that is reasonably priced, which you can see at: http://www.bagmakersinc.com/pom.html . She likes it because it’s size and shape make it stable even when it’s full of groceries. Although we aren’t ready to fund this project immediately, we will continue to pursue the possibilities as we agree that having a bag imprinted with our logo would promote not only Hamilton-Wenham GREEN but waste reduction as well. We will start looking for sponsors for the bags and bottles after Christmas. Please let us know what you think about this bag, and any others you think we should consider.

We are still committed to creating a lunch box that uses non-toxic and recyclable containers, but we don’t have a lead person for this project yet.

We are also committed to researching anti-idling. We know that state law limits school busses from idling more than five minutes, but we don’t know if drivers abide by this limit. We would also like to stop other drivers from idling, and to initiate an anti-idling effort this winter. We need someone to lead this as well.

Energy Efficiency

Dave Carey said that the National Grid “How Sweet It Is Campaign” is about to start at the High School. National Grid provides free-trade dark chocolate bars, which students sell for a dollar a piece. National Grid then gives buyers a CFL light bulb, which saves energy. Emily Patrolia said students are very enthusiastic about the program, and she and Sue agreed that the chocolate is great!

We’re ready to launch the energy audit at the high school. As you may remember, this program has three elements: National Grid, Wilson Educational Services, and students from the high school including two of our members Emily and Hannah Gisness, who will be working with teacher Fred Hopps. Since 1979 Wilson Educational Services has taught students how to do these audits, and their work is supported by New Jersey and New Hampshire, and recommended by the Alliance to Save Energy. In 1979 after implementing the program a district in Connecticut saved over $533,000 in two years. That’s a significant amount of money, particularly as oil and gas then were a fraction of the cost now. The real merit in this partnership is that National Grid will bring in its experts and equipment to work with our students, and Wilson Educational Services will guide them as they also consider how changing patterns of use can result in considerable savings. Both Anita Hagspiel from National Grid and Carol Wilson said they think that because of this partnership the program will be one of the best, if not THE best, in the country. That’s the good news.

National Grid thought they could provide full-funding but told us late last week that they now realize a technicality in their structure prevents them from going ahead as they had planned. Anita, who has been working closely with Dave, is so committed to the program that she pledged to sponsor a student! She is also looking for alternative ways to provide partial funding. But we need your help and ideas. We need to raise $5250 to cover the fee to Wilson Educational Services. We already have commitments (though they are tentative) of about $1000.00. We hope that National Grid will make a make a significant contribution, and that other businesses and organizations will as well. Donors can sponsor a student for about $200 and contributions of any amount will be very welcome. We just contacted the Essex County Community Foundation to see if they would be able to help, perhaps by being the conduit for donations and helping us set up a 501(3) c, and are following up on other leads.

Would you let me know if you would be able to make a pledge, or to give me the name of a business, organization, or person you think would be interested in helping? We think this is a very valuable project and that the savings it can produce will be significant. If this pilot is successful, we hope to bring it to the other schools as well as town facilities. You can send me an email at barbaralawrence@comcast.net, or call me at 978-468-2828.

Wind Power:

Dave has also been working to get studies started to determine the feasibility of installing a wind turbine at the Sagamore Hill site owned by the Town of Hamilton. Fred Hopps is also helping with this and the University of Massachusetts is involved.

Waste Reduction and Recycling

Gretel Clark thanked us for supporting the work of her Recycle Committee by attending the recent Town Meeting in Hamilton and voting to give Selectmen permission to implement a recycling and waste reduction program. The Selectmen will meet MONDAY, DECEMBER 3^rd to discuss this and decide on their course of action, so please attend. It seems likely the Selectmen will follow the Committee’s recommendation that all recyclables are picked up free of cost, in addition to one 33 gallon barrel, and that residents buy bags for excess waste. The program is likely to start in mid-March.

We thanked Gretel and congratulated her on this important success. We all know, however, that we need to continue to support the recycling and waste reduction efforts and to educate residents about its importance.

Before the main meeting, Grace Belfiore, Linda Mastrianni, our teacher-contact at the Buker School, Gretel Clark, and Heather Kuebel, who is an 8^th Grader at the Miles River School, met to talk about a recycling program for Winthrop School that Nancy Rowse is working on. (Nancy couldn’t be at the meeting, but asked for our help and ideas). Grace will meet with Nancy and on Thursday both of them will go to Winthrop and meet with 5^th Grade student leaders. We hope to help Winthrop and Miles River School with their recycling efforts, as we did with the Buker School. Emily Patrolia said they are trying to get more recycling bins for the high school, and she and Grace will let us know more about this soon and other projects such as having community TV film a demonstration about recycling that would be shown on our station as well as be viewable on our website.

NEW BUSINESS:

The Wenham Conservation Commission has an opening for a board member and asked us to relay information about volunteering, which I’ve pasted below. If you are a Wenham resident, please consider this opportunity.

Request from Emilie Cademarton for a board member for Wenham Conservation Commission

Essentially, we have a 7 member volunteer board that meets usually twice per month (the 2nd & 4^th Monday). Our primary task is implementing the Massachusetts Wetlands

Protection Act and local Wenham Water Resources Protection Bylaw. Wenham

is 40 % wetlands by area- so there is plenty of permitting to do! The

commission also works on open space planning and general natural resource

stewardship within the Town. Projects have been variable over the years,

depending on member interests and that of the residents. We just

initiated the process to update our Open Space and Recreation Plan which

will make the town eligible for grant money from the state. I would be

more than happy to answer questions from interested residents. They can

reach me via this email address, or my # at town hall is 468 5526. I am

sure that the current commissioners would also be willing to speak to

prospective candidates as well.

http://maccweb.org/about_commissions.html

http://maccweb.org/new_commissioners.pdf

Minutes of Meeting: September 12, 2007

Present: Grace Belfiore, Greg Horner, Caroline Horner, Zoe Horner, Jan Dempsey, Sue Patrolia, Emily Patrolia, Meredith Gisness, Hannah Gisness, Bonnie Crimmins, Kim Radochia, Nancy Rowse, Kathy Marshall, Barbara Lawrence

We spent a few minutes greeting new members and identifying ourselves and our areas of interest, and then talked about a wide range of possibilities, loosely organized under the following heading.

Update from groups:

Communications: Sue Tomases has to hand over leading the Communications team because of another commitment. Fortunately, Caroline Horner is willing to take on this responsibility, to which she brings her enthusiasm and expertise, as well as her organizational skills. Thank you Caroline! (Zoe and Greg may help too).

Article in Chronicle: Sue had already contacted the Chronicle, which would like to run a story about our group, and then give us space for a regular column. Caroline and Sue will coordinate on this and let us know a couple of dates for a group photo.

Web site: Caroline is working on the web site. We need to give her input on what we think the site should accomplish, as well as links to other good sites.

Yahoo group: Meredith Gisness has set up the Yahoo group and will send another email inviting to members of HWGREEN to join, with some instructions and information about ways in which the Yahoo group can be useful to us. It might, for example, be possible to use icons for each of the subgroups so that members can log into messages they want to read and we can have substantive discussions online.

Energy Efficiency: Dave Carey could not be present, but tells us that the project with National Grid and the High School is going ahead with meetings planned this week. Fred Hopps is the teacher who will be working with the project, and he asked Emily Patrolia to be the student liaison, which will make it very easy for us to know how the work is going. Congratulations to Emily!

Addendum: We had a very good meeting with Anita hagspiel from National Grid, Carol Wilson who runs the STEM program, Hannah Gisness, Emily Patrolia, and Mark, another student from the HS, Fred Hopps, a teacher there, Dave Carey and myself on Friday. Everyone wants to go ahead with the project of training students to do an energy audit and working to increase energy efficiency in the middle and high school facility. National Grid can provide technical support and data, and by the end of the meeting both Anita and Carol said they thought this could be the best project in the entire Northeast. We should hear soon about the degree to which National Grid can fund the STEM project.

Recycling and Waste Reduction: Grace Belfiore has been in contact with Gretel Clark, who could not be present. Grace will find out more about the policy the Recycling Committee is proposing that the town adopt. We agreed to help the larger Recycling effort in any way we can, which might include co-hosting events at the schools, Crosby’s, and other places in the town. Grace will let us know as soon as possible if there are specific ways in which we can be helpful. The vote is October 22, and the committee needs volunteers. I’m pasting an email I just received from Gretel below.

The Recycle Committee of Hamilton is meeting this evening, and tomorrow at town hall with the purveyors of the plastic bags we will be selling if the Recycle initiative passes at Town Meeting this coming October 22. We are going to need everyone concerned with the environment to help with this campaign to get it passed. I have posters that we would like to put on people's lawns to vote YES on the issue. Could we generate a volunteer list from the Green group to each take one?.

We are also investigating the possibility of a "drop and swap" program behind town hall. Our strategy is to engage, possibly a boy scout or troop to build a walk-in crate that we could put by the "roll-off" that takes cardboard, the Abitibi (for paper) and Good Will dumpsters.. We are also thinking about a "Hamilton Recycles" program on the web. I may have someone in house to help me. This would be for big things like furniture, shelves, etc. Any volunteers to help would be great

We also discussed the challenge of recycling bottles, cups and other trash at school games and other public venues including Patton Park and the shopping center. We agreed that working with the students and through the schools is a vital way to raise awareness of the importance of recycling and waste reduction, and that we want to involve more students as soon as possible.

Cleaner Air, Water, Food: Barbara suggested that we revisit the idea of getting reusable market bags and water bottles that do not leach chemicals, and offered the following sites as good sources.

Water bottles and recyclable bags

http://www.reusablebags.com/

http://www.kleankanteen.com/2products/products.html

We talked about using the bottles or bags as fund-raisers for the schools, and perhaps assembling items for a non-toxic lunch bag. Bonnie, Nancy, Kathy and Grace suggested we share information about Melaleuca, which sells a wide range of environmentally safe and effective products. See: http://www.saferforyourhome.com/ Kathy is a designer who has a lot of experience in green construction and said she could help us learn about a wide variety of good green products.

We talked briefly about encouraging the town to repair and or install bubblers in public spaces and the issues regarding the safety of public water.

We talked about trying to determine whether or not the school bus contractor is following the state law requiring that busses idle for five minutes or less. We decided that each of us will observe informally whenever possible (it might be helpful to take some notes of specifics including: date, time, how long the bus was running). If our observations suggest there is a need, we’ll observe more formally. We also briefly discussed the need to have a limit on idling throughout the town for public and private vehicles.

Public Safety Building: Emily is going to check with Matt DePiero so see if he needs our help. One of Grace’s sons worked with Matt for several hours recently installing plants donated by Corliss Bros., which may complete the project at this time. Emily is also going to see if there is a group at the high school that might help with long-term maintenance of the planting as the Environmental Club has changed.

Food:

We talked briefly about the importance of shopping for locally produced items and eating locally grown food. We learned that Green Meadows Farm and Appleton Farm are both offering winter memberships, which we would like to learn more about. We also talked after the meeting about the possibility of starting a food co-op. New member Nancy Rowse has had experience doing this and will see what might be possible here, and Caroline will help her as well.

New Business:

Library Event: Jan Dempsey, Director of the Library, congratulated us on our progress to date and said that she was delighted the library has been able to host us as we’ve grown from a few members to 50, with several important projects. Jan said that the library will have a second “Community Reads,” and has chosen two books with an environmental focus to highlight: A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, and Reading the Forested Landscape, by Tom Wessells. Tom Wessells is tentatively scheduled to give a talk in early April, and we have the opportunity to help develop programs in conjunction with that event. Sue Patrolia has taken a course with Dr Wessells for her Green MBA at Antioch, and reports that he is very knowledgeable and entertaining.

We talked about helping organize a wide range of events including working on trails, guided walks along the Discover Hamilton Trail, a Coast Watch event for children, and a tour of green houses and projects. We noted the importance of having activities for people of all ages, and timing events to the weather. For example, we might show Inconvenient Truth and the new Leonardo DeCaprio movie, 11^th Hour and host discussions in the winter. Jan gave us her email: jdempsey@mvlc.org, and asked us to send her suggestions and questions. I’m sure we can come up with some very good ideas, and ask that you copy me on emails to Jan so we can keep track of them and focus on a few things we can accomplish.

Addendum: Greg wrote to suggest the following:

We could get one or more Kill-a-Watt meters to have at the library that people could borrow, just as they borrow books

see it here:

http://www.smarthome.com/9034.html

Kim shared information about the events at the Museum of Science relating to the environment, which you can find at the following web site:

http://www.mos.org/events_activities/special_programs&d=1977

Barbara and Dave Carey are going to do a short presentation about HWGEEN at the Rotary breakfast next Friday. Anyone else is welcome to join us, so please call me if you’re interested. (978-468-2828)

We agreed that our focus has spread wider than we first anticipated because of the incredible experience, expertise, enthusiasm, and creativity people have brought to the effort, as well as the reality that so many things affecting global warming are inter-related. We may want to consider whether or not our mission statement still fits. We agree that it makes sense to stay focused on Hamilton and Wenham, but that we should be in contact with organizations in other towns that are involved in similar efforts, and that at some stage we might encourage other people to form groups in other towns. The web site will be very helpful in this effort.

We agreed to send Caroline (Chenango@gmail.com) and/or Barbara (barbaralawrence@comcast.net) names and web addresses for local, national, and international groups with which we should consider contact and possibly affiliation. We have the beginnings of this list, which I’ll add at the end of this message, but appreciate your thoughts about ones we have not listed.

We did not have time to discuss our focus for the next six months, but that is an important topic, one that perhaps we can have through the Yahoo group.

Fund-raising: we very briefly discussed options for funding. Sue is going to get the information for applying for a grant from the Community _________ (what’s the correct name?), and Barbara will contact the Recreation Department as Grace suggests they have funds for projects. Perhaps they could help us fund some of the activities we hold in conjunction with Community Read.

List from Steve Kenney: we did not have time to talk about this list, but want to consider it at a future meeting.

The future environmental issues I see facing the Town are the deforestation of Hemlock trees in some the areas in Town from the Wooly Aldelgid. Once these trees die there will be potential erosion problems, greater evaporation and under story growth destruction, invasive species encroachment and a large fire danger. Any thoughts or help in securing grants for removing the dead trees or replanting and controlling this problem would be helpful.

Encouraging the Town to purchase enviro-friendly vehicles, energy saving electrical devices and heating systems would be helpful.

Encouraging the Town to adopt policies for rebates to encourage citizens to purchase water saving/ energy saving devices. (toilets, clothes washers and dishwashers)

We are looking for volunteers to paint stencils at all our catch basins to discourage people from dumping contaminants in them.

Joining forces with the League of Woman Voters, Recycling Committee and DPW to help promote and educate folks on the environmental and financial benefits of recycling, water conservation, use of fuel efficient vehicles, proper disposal of hazardous materials or proper use of lawn fertilizers and pesticides.

PROPOSED CHANGE IN MEETING SCHEDULE:

Because we have grown to over 50 members, and have a number of different projects, it may make sense to reorganize the ways in which we meet. I suggest that we meet as a large group no more than once a month and perhaps once every other month. I think it makes sense now to spend our time discussing specific strategies and projects, so I suggest that the head of each sub-group let me know what would be the best day of the week (Tuesday, Weds, or Thursday) for meetings for his or her group. We’ll rotate meetings between the four groups and focus on specific projects. (Subgroups can certainly meet in addition to the open meetings, but this format still will give us a way to get input from members not actively working on a project, get updates on group activities, and share that through the Yahoo group and web site. People should feel free to attend any meeting even if they aren’t committed to working with that group or on a particular project. There is so much overlap and we all have so much to contribute, but the time we can give to this work is limited and we want to use it most effectively. I think a combination of discussion through Yahoo and changing the meeting schedule will help us accomplish more, and I welcome your thoughts about this.

Thanks everyone!

Barbara

Web Site List: (from the list complied for the Super Summer Saturday Events)

Environment Massachusetts: http://www.environmentmassachusetts.org

Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov/

Alliance to Save Energy: http://www.ase.org/

ICLEI, Local Governments for Sustainability: http://www.iclei.org/

World Land Trust, Carbon Balanced: www.carbonbalanced.org

Global Green USA: www.globalgreen.org

Conservation International: www.conservation.org

National Geographic: www.nationalgeographic.com

Royal Geographic Society: www.rgs.org

World Land Trust conservation: www.worldlandtrust.org

The Polar Foundation www.polarfoundation.org

The Earth Institute at Columbia University: www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu

Meeting Notes: August 16, 2007

Present: Meredith Gisness, Sue Patrolia, Emily Patrolia, Matt DePiero, Barbara Lawrence

Barbara summarized the work of the four committees because heads of these groups were on vacation.

Sub Groups:

Communications:

NEWSPAPER COLUMN: Hamilton Wenham Chronicle welcomed the idea of a weekly or bi-monthly article and will give us space.

LOCAL TV: We should look at the possibility of filming some of our projects for the local television channel. Matt and Emily said that the high school film studio is always looking for good projects.

WEB SITE: Caroline is working on a website.

YAHOO GROUP: Meredith Gisness offered to set up and run an email group on Yahoo and Barbara will send her the information she needs to get started: our mission statement, and email list.

MEMBERSHIP: We need a volunteer to handle membership, which includes updating email lists and contact information.

Energy Efficiency:

HWHS ENERGY AUDIT: Dave Carey has gotten approval from Supt. Marinel McGrath, who appointed a teacher, Fred Hopps to be the liaison between the high school and National Grid. We’re meeting September 7th with Anita Hagspiel of National Grid and Carol Wilson of STEM.

Recycling:

WIND POWER: Gretel and Peter Clark and Eileen and Dave Carey met to discuss the possibility of a wind power installation at Chebacca Lake. Gretel will tell us more about this soon, but we should think about what we might be able to do to help.

JUNK MAIL: We discussed briefly the idea of distributing the web site address where people can register so that they don’t receive catalogues, and well as other information about reducing waste by limiting catalogues and other junk mail. (For more information see: http://www.environmentaldefense.org/article.cfm?contentid=2039)

Cleaner Environment:

LANDSCAPING at the PUBLIC SAFETY BUILDING: Scout Matt DePiero presented his landscaping project for the Public Safety building. The existing plans call for planting trees along the perimeter of the property and plantings around the sign. Matt said we could be most helpful if we volunteered the come up with plants for around the sign, which we agreed to do. We asked about long-term maintenance and Emily said the high school Environmental Club might be able to commit to doing that. We also discussed the possibility of a plant sale in the fall and spring to raise money perhaps for purchasing trees, and that unused or unsold plants could be donated to the schools.

LITTER PICK-UP: We talked about the possibility of organizing a litter pick-up day this fall, and agreed that this might be useful if coordinated with the DPW. Barbara will contact Steve Kenney.

ANTI-IDLING: We’ve looked into the problem of idling school busses, and found that the town only controls 2 busses, and the contractor who provides the others says Massachusetts law prohibits more than 5 minutes of idling. We agreed that the drivers do not seem to abide by this, so we need to monitor it during the school year We also discussed the merits of an anti-idling campaign for drivers of any vehicles, and decided we should look into this as well.

BOTTLES + BUBBLERS: we had tried to get a safe water bottle with our logo printed before the first Super Summer Saturday, but this proved impossible We want to look at the possibility again and to see if teams or other groups in town would want to help with sponsorships and distribution.

Sue suggested that we also talk to the town about repairing bubblers that don’t function and installing new ones in a few locations, which everyone thought was a very good idea.

NEW BUSINESS:

We talked very briefly about the following:

New affiliations? Should we join or form partnerships with organizations such as:

Stream Team

Ipswich

ICLEI

Emily Patrolia agreed to be a liaison to HW High School, and Matt said he thought we were doing some very interesting work and he might be interested in helping too.

Should we try to organize a fall or winter series at the library and other venues?

The tentative time for the next meeting is Tuesday September 11^th at 6:30, though I need to confirm that with the library.

Even Newer Business:

I wrote Steve Kenney, Director of the Department of Public Works in Hamilton about our idea for a town wide litter pick-up project. He responded with a very thoughtful list of ways in which he though we can be helpful, which I’ve pasted below. I think there are several ideas on the list with which we can help out.

As always – please let me know if I forgot something.

Thanks,

Barbara

From Steve Kenney:

Hi Barbara,

We have talked in the past and I recall your committee’s efforts. We currently have School and Eagle Scout volunteers clearing our culverts and storm drains and "help" from the Essex County Sheriff's Dept. clearing brush and litter from our roadways next week. We are also involved with picking up litter on an annual basis from the Chebacco Rd. and lake area after a citizens group collects it.

Encouraging the Town to purchase enviro-friendly vehicles, energy saving electrical devices and heating systems would be helpful.

Encouraging the Town to adopt policies for rebates to encourage citizens to purchase water saving/ energy saving devices. (toilets, clothes washers and dishwashers)

We are looking for volunteers to paint stencils at all our catch basins to discourage people from dumping contaminants in them.

If any other specific projects come up I will notify you. Steve

Minutes: July 24, 2007

Present: Grace Belfiore, Dave Carey, Gretel Clark, Barbara Lawrence, Susan Patrolia, Kim Radochia, Sue Tomases

As the first line of these notes suggest, we chose a name! Kim Radocchia presented several handsome and eye-catching logos and we asked her to change the format slightly for one that incorporates the name into a tree. Well done everyone. Our thanks to Kim for not only her great artistic skill, but her patience.

Dave Carey told us that he met with Anita Hagspiel and Marie from National Grid who now want to work with us to conduct an energy audit at the Hamilton-Wenham High School, perhaps in conjunction with Savings Through Energy Management.

Dave said that National Grid has the capacity to offer expertise and equipment such as efficient pumps, usage meters, etc. The company likes to focus on one area at a time, for example lighting, and that the program we envision might result in substantial savings for the district.

Dave also brought a poster advertising what we think is a fund-raiser for schools that gives free CFL’s (compact fluorescent lamps). I’ll follow-up to see if we could get some of these.

Grace brought information about The Natural Step, a program started in Sweden that is now worldwide. Here’s the website. http://www.naturalstep.org/com/nyStart/. We agreed that after the Super Summer Saturday events we will consider our long-range goals and affiliations.

Grace and Gretel have had very productive discussions about ways in which we can work together with the Recycling Committee. Gretel is very knowledgeable about the issues and methods, and we’re working to find ways in which to share that information.

I’ve been working on things relating to the Super Summer Saturday (SSS) and didn’t have much else to report.

Preparation for SSS

We considered a number of possibilities and arrived at the following:

We want to use the new name and logo to attract people to the table, and “presentation” matters.

People working the tables will wear something green – the more green the better – but we’ll resist the temptation to paint our faces.

We don’t have the money or time right now to have a magnet made for the first Saturday, so we’ll delay having one made for now.

Sue Tomases has a list of the top ten things we can each do to reduce global warming that she pulled off a website – (I apologize for not making a note of which one!). She will contact that group to see if we can re-print the list. (Sue – let me know if you need help with this).

Steve and Emily Boudreault have compiled a list of useful websites, and we will print those and the ten top ways in which to reduce global warming.

We will have a form for people to fill in with their interests and contact information. The first 50 people will receive a green reusable shopping bag that I’m getting from Crosby’s.

Susan Patrolia is bringing a green cloth for the table and is working on questions to be put in a fishbowl.

Grace and Gretel will have someone from the Recycling Committee available to talk with people about waste reduction and recycling. Grace will get some free banners from the Town Office that people can put on regular garbage cans to indicate they contain recyclables.

Kim Radochia is making a sign with the logo and name that we can put on the tent or an easel. Kim is also going to work up an activity for children for the Aug. 4^th event in which they will make an animal or simple toy from recyclable materials. Kim may need our help in collecting suitable and clean recyclables.

I’m getting copies of Edible Boston, Environment Massachusetts’ latest report, and appliance wheels to hand out as well.

We forgot to mention a previous idea – that we have copies of Inconvenient Truth, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and other books on display.

I have an amended schedule for “personing” the table – please see below.

Schedule for Super Summer Saturdays

July 28

8:30 – 11:45 11:45 – 2:30

Sue Tomases Marya Place

Emily Boudreault Joyce Nolan

Barbara Lawrence Kim Nolan

Aug. 4

8:30 – 11:45 11:45 – 2:30

Emily Boudreault Grace Belfiore

Barbara Lawremce Barbara Lawrence

Some of you have volunteered but need to check schedules before committing, but we could use a couple of other people as well.

I hope everyone will try to attend for some of the time, and will tell friends as well.

UPDATE:

Sue Patrolia just emailed to say she is getting 50 copies of Greenscapes, and 25 copies of another publication called Green Living -A Practical Journal for Friends of the Environment.

I just picked up 50 very green reusable bags, and also received the appliance wheels and information about the MassSAVE program.

Anita Hagspiel, who Dave and I have been talking with about other issues, turns out to be the contact for “How Sweet it is” – the program for schools through which kids sell chocolate bards and get free light bulbs. That is another program National Grid could offer the high school. Anita, who apparently started this program said that National Grid will send a representative to each of the Saturday events. Her contact is calling me and we’ll discuss details. I think they will have some CFL’s and other information to distribute.

Thanks everyone, Barbara

MINUTES OF MEETING: July 11, 2007

Present: Brad Bradshaw, Dave Carey, Grace Belfiore, Steve and Emily Boudreault, Sue Patrolia, Deb Barnwell, Barbara Lawrence

Group reports:

Energy Efficiency:

Dave and Brad have talked with a representative of National Grid about its program for auditing energy use in schools and are meeting her on Thursday, July 12^th. After that meeting they’ll compare National Grid’s program with STEM (Savings Through Energy Management) to see if they are compatible or mutually exclusive. Maybe the two programs can be offered together and that National Grid will be interested in financing the STEM program HMHS.

Brad has been very active with the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, Clean Energy Council, the Hydrogen Collaborative, the environmental initiatives in Ipswich, Green Schools programs, and the 3^rd Annual Conference on Energy, to be held in October at the Hynes Convention. (Wow! Did I get that at least partially correct?) Brad is working closely with Dave, and will also think about ways in which his contacts can help us focus on other initiatives.

Dave learned from the HWSD business manager that the district only controls two busses. We think a contractor provides the rest of the fleet, and Dave will be in contact with the company if that is the case. (The business manager just confirmed this, and Dave will contact the contractor).

Sue Patrolia noted that sometimes busses idle for hours at school sports events, and the group agreed that this is an important issue to pursue. Sue volunteered to work with Dave and Brad on the Energy Efficiency group.

Recycling and Waste Reduction:

We want to support the ongoing effort to increase recycling and reduce waste, and think we can help provide information to the public. Grace Belfiore offered to help Gretel Clark and to focus by focusing on ways to make complex policy accessible and promoting education about recycling and waste reduction. Deb Barnwell is interested in helping both these groups.

Cleaner Air, Water and Food

Sue Tomases suggested that “toxicity” was not a good name for this group, and I realized she was right. I suggest something like the above, which at least gives us a goal to work towards not against. Please let me know what you think.

I’ve been talking with reps of companies that make canvas and cotton bags and others that make water bottles. Even the “green” companies buy fabric from China, but Sue Patrolia, who works in the fabric industry, offered to find organic cotton or canvas if we go ahead with this project. The reason not to is that Crosby’s has test-marketed bags in Georgetown and Concord and has decided to have its own made. The new manager in the Hamilton store said the company prefers to do this alone. However, Steve offered to talk with Steve Bean, the former manager, to see if there is a way to work together with Crosby’s, perhaps just by promoting the bags.

The reps I talked with at companies making reusable plastic water bottles didn’t know the rating for the plastic, so I couldn’t determine if the material would leach chemicals into the water or not. With Greg Horner’s help, I found Kleen Kanteen, which makes metal water bottles. We could buy the minimum of 160 bottles for about $10.50 per bottle, including set-up and probably shipping charges, though that isn’t definite. The bottle re-sale value is probably $18 - $20, so this could be a fund-raising possibility in the future.

We discussed the pros and cons of the bags and water bottles and decided not to do either in time for the events on July 28 and Aug. 4^th. Instead, we’ll follow-up with Steve Bean and find out a bit more about the costs and quality of the different options.

Group Name and Logo:

We got very close, but didn’t quite reach consensus. The three top contenders, in alphabetical order, are: Green Reach, Green Steps, and The Hamilton-Wenham GREEN (or Hamilton-Wenham GREEN, or HW GREEN). Kim Radocchia designed excellent logos for the first two names, but we would like to presume on her talents and time again to design a logo for Hamilton-Wenham GREEN (or a variation thereof).. If that’s possible, we’ll vote one more time by email.

300 Main Street Event

We talked about a lot of ideas and agreed to some assignments, so I will summarize the discussion.

We will have a table at Super Summer Saturdays at 300 Main Street (Henderson’s) on July 28^th and August 4^th. The event theme for July 28^th is “gardening” and for August 4^th “ice cream.”

Steve reported that there were at least a hundred people at the event last weekend, which was a better turnout than anticipated for the end of the July 4^th vacation week. He added that the event seemed to go very well.

The purpose of participating in Super Summer Saturdays is to make people in the community aware of our effort in hopes more people will join the group, and to raise awareness of our impact on global warming and related issues.

The events start at 9 am and end at 2. We’ll need at least two people at the table for each day, and should probably start at 8:30 and plan to finish by 2:30. This suggests we need people for a n 8:30 – 11:45 shift, and others for an 11:45 to 2:30 shift to allow some overlap, and tie to set up and clean up.

So far the following people have volunteered:

July 28^th:

Sue Tomases

Emily Boudreault

Barbara Lawrence

Grace Belfiore (possible)

Aug. 4^th

Emily Boudreault

Barbara Lawrence

Grace Belfiore (possible)

If you can help on either or both these days, please let me know as soon as possible and indicated which shift.

We decided to prepare two handouts, the first, a refrigerator magnet listing the top five or ten things people can do to reduce their impact on global warming. We’d like several suggestions in each of our three areas of focus. It would be helpful if each of you would send suggestions to the following people: Dave Carey for energy efficiency. Gretel Clark or Grace Belfiore for recycling and waste reduction, and me for cleaner water, air and food. Dave, Gretel or Grace and I will send Sue Tomases our prioritized lists of suggestions by July 18^th so she can pull this together next week. (Sue – please add or change anything in these directions you need to).

We also decided to create a one page, double-sided list of websites with brief descriptions that people can go to for more information. Steve and Emily Boudreault volunteered to gather this information and get it to Sue Tomases in time for her to get it printed, so please send them any ideas.

I talked with Halitta Halic in the Boston EPA who is sending me material we can distribute, and Sue Tomases will get copies of Greenscapes to distribute.

Books:

We decided to display books such as Inconvenient Truth, Omnivore’s Dilemma and others on the tab le.

Demonstrations:

We’re going to contact KeySpan and National Grid to see if they will send someone to talk about energy audits. Several people in the group have had an energy audit done and been impressed by what they learned. I will call KeySpan and Dave and Brad or I will talk with National Grid.

We would also like to have a recycling demonstration, and hope that Gretel, Grace and Deb will work on that. It might be also interesting to have someone showing how to compost.

Sue Tomases suggested contacting the Department of Public Works to see if we can get more bins from them to sell or give away.

Games:

Sue Patrolia will develop a simple question answer game, perhaps using bags, to engage children and adults in talking about environmental issues. If possible, we’ll find some prizes to give out. These don’t have to be big – and we’re hopeful that we can get contributions from are businesses, KeySpan, National Grid, and Renewal by Andersen.

Presentation:

We didn’t really discuss this – but we need to think about a simple “uniform” – a hat, badge, or tee -shirt, etc. that we can wear while “working” the table so people can identify us. Also – I’ll ask Julie Preston, who is organizing the event, if we can have a green umbrella and table.

Renewal by Andersen

I’ve talked several times with Steve Woodward who directs marketing for Renewal by Andersen (RA), an affiliate of Andersen Windows. Steve is interested in our efforts because RA is proud of the energy efficiency and green technology of its windows. The company obviously wants to sell windows, but also want to spread the same message we do about the importance of being as green as possible. Steve said they could do anything from providing food and beverages to a sending a team to distribute literature about the event or to the event. He said he only wants to something in the scale that seems appropriate to us and is very aware of not wanting to commercialize what we’re doing.

We agreed that we don’t want canvassing or distribution of literature except at the event. We decided to ask Steve to give us cookies (more about this next), and perhaps to send a couple of people to do a green window demo that focuses on the benefits of renovation/recycling/energy efficiency/etc. Cookies – RA sends a package of cookies to people who have bought windows. I was impressed not only by the presentation but by how good the cookies are. Steve said they could send cookies printed with our logo and theirs, though this might get too busy. I think we should skip the beverages and go with the cookies. I’ll email Steve later today about this.

Other Issues:

Brad mentioned that we should look into the problems concerning water usage. He is concerned we may face a year-round watering ban if increasing population in Salem, for example, depletes the aquifer on which we all depend.

Brad also noted that other towns (was it Ipswich?) have a committee focusing on these issues and that we might want to consider that in the future.

Fall event – after the Saturday evens this summer we’ll focus on something for the fall that might include a showing of Inconvenient Truth, speakers (Deb said her brother often does talks about environmental issues and might be available), as well as events throughout the community.

NEXT MEETING:

As we are rotating the nights for meetings from Tuesday through Thursday, our next meeting would be Thursday July 26^th. That date, however, seems very close to the first Super Summer Saturday on July 28^th. I suggest we meet instead on Tuesday July 24^th so we have a little more time for last minute planning.

Please let me know about anything I’ve left out or misrepresented any part of the discussion. Also – people who couldn’t get to the meeting – please chime in by email.

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