Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
<br /> <br /> 1 <br />Orange County <br />Commission for the Environment <br /> <br />Meeting Summary <br /> <br />September 14, 2015 <br />Orange County Solid Waste Administration Building, Chapel Hill <br />________________________________________________________________________________________________________ <br /> <br />PRESENT: Jan Sassaman (Chair), May Becker, Lynne Gronback, Loren Hintz, David Neal, <br />Bill Newby, Jeanette O’Connor, Rebecca Ray, Gary Saunders <br /> <br />ABSENT: Sheila Thomas-Ambat, Peter Cada, Tom Eisenhart, Lydia Wegman, David Welch <br /> <br />STAFF: Tom Davis, Brennan Bouma <br /> <br />GUESTS: Terri Buckner (OWASA Board of Directors), Pat Davis (OWASA Sustainability Mgr.) <br />_______________________________________________________________________________________________________ <br /> <br />I. Call to Order – Sassaman called the meeting to order at 7:34 pm. <br /> <br />II. Ad ditions or Changes to Agenda – Sassaman said he would like to add a brief update <br />and discussion on the status of CFE membership and appointments. He said he would <br />insert this item between Items IV. and V. on the agenda. <br /> <br />III. Minutes – Hintz motioned to approve the August 10 minutes as written; seconded by <br />Saunders. Sassaman pointed out a typo on Page 2. Approved unanimously. <br /> <br />IV. Energy Conservation / Management Forum – Terri Buckner (OWASA Board of <br />Directors) and Gary Saunders reported on the first two meetings to plan for a community <br />forum on energy conservation and management. Buckner said the meetings have also <br />included representatives from Carrboro, Chapel Hill, UNC, and OWASA. <br /> <br />Buckner reported the group decided that a community forum is not desirable at this time <br />after all. Instead they will identify projects of mutual interest where there are <br />opportunities for collaboration among the different entities. Buckner said the group might <br />want to hold a public forum after identifying one or more projects. She noted the Town of <br />Carrboro held a public forum on climate change and did not get adequate public <br />participation. The plan is to have something specific for members of the public to <br />consider and react to in the future. <br /> <br />Bucker said the group developed an initial list of potential projects that also included <br />metrics on how each group would measure and report on energy conservation and <br />management. It also included metrics on social value. Bucker said the next task is for <br />people to review the list and prioritize projects of interest to the entity they represent. <br />The group will consider those prioritize and decide where to go next. <br /> <br />Bucker said the next two meetings will be September 30 and October 28, during which <br />the group will identify the projects of mutual interest and to determine what is necessary <br />to make them happen. She noted this is different from what she had presented in August <br />and hopes this new idea will also be of interest to the CFE for further participation. <br /> <br />Sassaman asked Saunders what he wanted from the full CFE. Saunders asked CFE <br />members look over the list of potential energy conservation collaboration projects and <br />provide comments to him in time for him to report to Mary Tiger of OWASA by Sept 18.