Warwick Buildings and Energy Committee March 19, 2025
Present: Janice Kurkoski (Chair), Jack Cadwell, Dan Dibble, Jared Kain-Woods (HERS rater), Steve Kurkoski, and Emily Rosen.
Meeting opened over Zoom: 4:33 pm
The minutes of our last meeting on March 6th were approved unanimously. JK mentioned the possibility of publishing the BEC’s minutes on our website in the future.
Green Communities Grants
The Select Board & School District passed the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) -First policy and signed commitment letters, which will be included in the GC (Green Communities) application. JK had called and corrected the inventory of the town’s vehicles, including highway trucks as well as police and fire vehicles. JK noted that most of the town’s vehicles are exempt and the only one right now that is not is potentially another police pursuit vehicle. David Shumacher supported the ZEV-First policy. (Joe Larson would like a command vehicle, which would be a pick-up and so perhaps not consistent with the policy, but JK indicated that it is questionable if such a vehicle will be purchased.) Completion of these steps will put Warwick at the top of the list for the communities that have almost completed the application. We still need to pass the super stretch code and then the decarbonization plan for municipal buildings.
The decarbonization roadmap planning assistance grant is due on March 28 and needs approval from the Select Board at their Monday meeting. This grant is for $2-3 K, which the state will use to pay consultants to help with planning for the roadmap.
Tracy Styles will be the Clerk of the Works for the new Green Communities grant, which will also come before the Select Board on Monday night. This grant, which is for $143K, is a contract by the state for minisplits in the school as well as infrared heating. If it cannot be completed in one year, there is a possibility of writing it for two years. Tracy Styles would perform administrative duties related to contracting with companies to install the minisplits, etc. The school needs another minisplit in the gym behind the stage and then an additional heat source (infrared heat) in the pump room. JK has been receiving emails from Rich Finn (Nexus) who would like to take on this work for the town.
JK will complete the grant application and send to David Young with the hopes that the Select Board will sign off on it on Monday.
Green Corners
Jared Kain-Woods had emailed a document for review that outlined the pros and cons of adopting the specialized stretch code for a small town in MA. Board members collaborated to tailor the document for relevance to Warwick so that it could be included in the town newsletter as the April Green Corners column. Questions were raised about the official definition of an “all electric” home as it pertains to the presence of a wood stove, and it was determined that as long as the stove is an auxiliary heating source, the house would still be considered “all electric.”
Scheduling of Meetings
SK opened a discussion related to frequency and length of BEC meetings as well as coming up with a convenient way to schedule meetings. Members agreed that the Doodle poll has been working well but that it was important to pay attention to the time zone when voting for times.
Wording for Town Meeting Articles
JK remarked that the articles related to the ZEV (Zero Emissions Vehicle)-First policy, Commitment of Net Zero by 2050, and the adoption of the MA specialized opt-in stretch code must be composed with appropriate language. SK and JK volunteered to work with David Young to do this.
In addition, JK proposed that several informational paragraphs be drafted so that residents could learn more about the articles on a handout at the Town Meeting. ER will work on this handout to explain the articles once the articles have been composed. JK suggested using page 28 from the CLC Opt-in slide set as well as the FAQs. Jared Kain-Woods will be present at the Town Meeting to answer any specialized questions that residents may have regarding the specialized opt-in stretch code.
JC emphasized the importance of having a public forum event first in order to be able to anticipate what some of the residents’ concerns might be so as to ensure the BEC can respond sufficiently to these questions. It was decided that the school would be an ideal location to host the event so that it could be livestreamed and recorded for people who could not attend. In addition, members felt that an evening time would be ideal for town residents. JK will ask if Chris Mason would be able to attend in order to answer questions.
Financial Year 2024 (FY2024) Draft
This draft document is on Google docs and JK suggests that board members look it over and suggest edits for the next meeting.
Meeting adjourned 6:02 p.m.
Next meeting: To be scheduled via a Doodle poll organized by SK
Respectfully submitted,
Emily Rosen