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Rotary Club speaker to discuss sustainable benefits of electrification

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Regina_LaRocque, Wellesley
Dr. Regina LaRocque

As part of the Wellesley Rotary Club‘s mission to support local programs centered on sustainability and health, the group will host speaker Dr. Regina LaRocque, MD/MPH, at its monthly meeting at the Wellesley College Club.

LaRocque is on staff at the Massachusetts General Hospital Division of Infectious Diseases and is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She often represents Partners HealthCare in urging state lawmakers to invest in clean energy.

The Wellesley resident and member of Sustainable Wellesley will present the health and carbon reduction benefits of electrification, with clear facts on how such actions will result in significant health benefits for citizens of Massachusetts. She will explain why and how Wellesley should make the change and how the Rotary Club and Sustainable Wellesley can work together to achieve important goals. Join the Rotary Club for this exciting event.

WHEN: February 4, 6:15pm to 8pm
LOCATION: Wellesley College Club, 727 Washington Street, Wellesley, MA.

All are welcome for the light buffet and easy conversation beginning at 6pm, followed by Dr. LaRoque’s presentation.

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Renaissance man Paul Hephill to speak at Rotary Club meeting, Feb. 18th

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Paul Hemphill, author of Inspiration for Teens, which highlights over 200 life lessons from “a very unexpected source”,  will be the speaker at the next Rotary Meeting at the Wellesley College Club on Feb. 18, 7pm.

After receiving a college degree in philosophy, Hemphill was drafted into the United States Army. He served in Vietnam as a chaplain’s assistant, and was awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious service and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. Following his military service, he went into broadcast sales and in the late 1970s led the most financially successful small market radio station in the nation.

Wellesley Rotary, Paul Hemphill
Wellesley Rotary, Paul Hemphill

Until late 2019, Hemphill was a successful marketing specialist who helped teenagers get into their first-choice colleges. He has written four other books, narrated the audio version of this book, and has written, produced, and narrated its video version. The videos make up a classroom course that is designed to be a new teaching model for how American History can be taught in our schools.

Instead of a textbook approach to history, the author sees the future of teaching history as a video-oriented and story-telling format that generates useful life lessons to inspire our youth to become better persons and better citizens.

All are welcome for the light buffet ($30) and easy conversation beginning at 6:15pm. Please make a reservation here or call 781-591-0759 to speak with a Rotary Club board member. When making a reservation, please indicate if you will have the
meal in the comment section of the registration.

The 7pm – 8pm meeting will address Rotary business and feature our guest speaker. Feel free to arrive at 7pm to attend just the
meeting and hear our guest speaker.

The Rotary Club of Wellesley is one of Wellesley’s oldest community service groups and conducts local programs to benefit the Town of Wellesley. The public is always invited to any Rotary program. Please check the web site www.wellesleyrotary.org for times and location.

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Rotary Club speaker discusses the sustainable benefits of electrification

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Letter to the editor: regarding the goals of the Wellesley Municipal Light Plant

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To the Editor,

This letter is in response to the components of a recent letter to the editor that addressed the governance and policies of the Wellesley Municipal Light Plant (WMLP). In that letter, the author stated that “Our Municipal Light Plant has been taken over by special interest groups” who are not operating in the best economic interest of the Town. Obviously, we completely disagree.

The WMLP is owned by the Town of Wellesley. Management reports to a Board consisting of the three members of the Board of Public Works who are selected in the Town elections, and two members who are appointed by the Select Board. By statute the Board has a fiduciary responsibility to operate the business for the benefit of the rate payers.

The WMLP is guided by its core principles and mission statement to provide safe, reliable, economic electric power in a sustainable and environmentally supportive manner. We believe that the environmentally beneficial programs that we pursue are not only beneficial to the world’s ecosystem, they are, flat out, good business. The balance of this letter will address some of those programs.

Beneficial Electrification – It is a prudent business strategy for our WMLP to seek to grow its revenue by capturing energy dollars that were previously paid to large, non-local energy companies. It is also a prudent environmental strategy to replace the direct burning of fossil fuel with WMLP’s 50% emission-free power that will continue getting cleaner over time. To effectively attract this additional revenue, there is an incentive to maintain low rates.

The Real Cost of Fossil Fuel – The upfront cost of fossil fuels does not embed the enormous cost of the climate catastrophes they are already causing. It is penny-wise and pound-foolish to consider this a bargain.

Net Zero Ready Buildings – The key for being “net zero ready” is a very tight building envelope that significantly lowers energy use and thus operating costs and emissions. It is also important for ensuring the building’s resilience during dramatic weather conditions. There is a sometimes a small up-front premium for this but it is a prudent business decision with long-term benefits.

WECARE – The WMLP created the WECARE program in response to a Citizen’s Petition (upon which the WMLP did not take a position) recommending an “opt out” voluntary program. It was approved by a large majority at Town Meeting. Any rate payer can opt out and not participate. These funds are designated to accelerate Wellesley emission reductions. For example, WECARE money will subsidize the cost of the Power Purchase Agreement for the solar farm on the roof of the Sports Center on Route 9 and most likely the solar installation at Hunnewell School. In both cases, the rate payers will contribute the equivalent of the average cost of power purchases, thus not putting pressure on rates. The voluntary WECARE money will fund the premium over this cost.

Redundancy – Redundancy can be achieved when a renewable energy source is paired with battery storage to form a microgrid. The WMLP is negotiating our first battery storage project. The technology and cost of backup storage are dynamically improving every year and will hopefully become widely installed in the coming years.

Solar Panel Recycling – As promised at Town Meeting, the Recycling and Disposal Facility has made an arrangement with a solar panel recycler and will now accept solar panels from residents for recycling.

Our safety and reliability statistics are stellar, and our rates are 25-50% lower than those of surrounding communities served by investor–owned utilities. We can continue to accomplish all of this while pursuing the goals—continually expressed by our constituents—to operate in a sustainable and environmentally beneficial manner.

Ellen Korpi, Chair, on behalf of the Municipal Light Board
Oak Street, Wellesley, MA 02482

Taste of Wellesley, Rotary Club

Wellesley DPW eyes parks as Green Zones

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Wellesley’s Department of Public Works is looking to convert four Wellesley parks into Green Zones as soon as this summer.

The Green Zone concept is promoted and certified by the American Green Zone Alliance (AGZA), which describes a Green Zone as “a defined area of land on which all routine maintenance is performed with battery electric equipment and/or manual tools.”

DPW Director David Cohen said during the Feb. 9 Board of Public Works meeting that the effort was inspired by workshops on electrifying residential and professional landscaping that were held last year and hosted by the DPWs in Wellesley and Lexington. He says the town’s Park & Tree Division is enthusiastic about the effort, which initially would target open space at Central Park near the Wellesley Square post office, Church Park in front of Village Church, the area near the Wellesley Police Department, and across the street at the Tolles Parsons Center. These are prominent parks in high traffic areas that would help to showcase the Green Zone approach.

Butterfly Girl, Central Park, Wellesley Square, spring 2014
Central Park in Wellesley Square

 

The Wellesley DPW has set aside $30K (twice that before budget cuts) for landscaping and other equipment electrification, though one question is whether to use all those funds for equipment purchases, or if it makes more sense to spend a chunk on getting certified for Green Zone practices, which would give the town access to discounts on gear.

The Board of Public Works was supportive of the former approach if it doesn’t turn out that going the consulting route first would have an immediate payback.

“We already have [some] battery-powered trimmers, edgers and blowers.  We’ll be looking to supplement this equipment in the coming months to make sure that we have enough (including batteries and chargers) to eliminate the need for gas-powered equipment at these sites,” Cohen wrote to us.

Benefits beyond the environmental ones from reducing carbon emissions include using equipment that vibrates less, which can be a health benefit to those operating equipment as well as passersby and nearby critters. The DPW has not yet completed calculations on carbon emissions reductions, but will work on that in coming months.

Sustainable Wellesley‘s Trish Glass said during the Board of Public Work meeting that the hope is that the town taking the lead on this effort will inspire residential landscapers to follow suit.

Natural Resources Commission Director Brandon Schmitt said targeting parks that have been or are being restored to native landscape plantings “provides a perfect synthesis to show how you maintain a landscape in the most ecologically sensitive way.”

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Meet Wellesley candidate for Board of Public Works, Scott Bender

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The Town of Wellesley depends on the active participation of its citizens in governance of the Town. Wellesley has 11 Boards and Committees on the ballot at the Annual Town election each year in March. The 2020 election will be held on March 17.

Scott Bender is one of two candidates running for a single open 1-year term on the Board of Public Works (BPW). The three-member BPW is made up of local residents. Like other town boards, members of the Board of Public Works receive no payment for their volunteer services.

The Board of Public Works, acting through the Director and Managers of the DPW, helps provide multiple services to the Town such as: engineering and technical services as related to Town Facilities; highway services, including those for roads, sidewalks, and drainage systems; services to parks, recreation areas, trees, and open space; services related to the Recycling and Transfer Facility; services for the Town’s water and sewer systems; and practice sound fiscal practices related to all of the above.

We invited the candidate to answer a few questions about his qualifications and his priorities for the Town of Wellesley. Below are candidate Scott Bender’s answers. A later post will include a Q & A from Board of Public Works candidate Thomas Skelly.

The Swellesley Report: What is your background and what qualifies you for the position?
Scott Bender: As an appointed member of Wellesley’s Sustainable Energy Committee I had many opportunities to work with the Municipal Light Plant and Recycling and Disposal Facility during my eight years on that committee. As an Engineer I have experience evaluating new technology to meet functional and data products to support emerging needs for infrastructure planning and maintenance. As a Product Manager I have successfully managed multiple multi-million dollar projects on time and within budget. My experience with strategic planning and product lifecycle management qualifies me to work with the DPW and MLP teams to further optimize processes in town infrastructure improvement, maintenance and resource utilization, including preparing to mitigate climate change in financially and environmentally compatible ways.

SR: Why are you running for a position on the Board of Public Works?
Scott Bender: As a life-long resident, I am committed to excellence in town-wide infrastructure, responsible resource utilization and fiscal responsibility. The path that led to the DPW started in 2002 when I toured solar homes and became excited to learn about renewable energy, energy efficiency and conservation… I was hooked! At the time my house was not suitable for solar but I learned that reducing energy use by ~50% was achievable with short paybacks on investment, and little or no impact on lifestyle. Enthusiastic about sharing this with the community, I joined forces with other engaged residents and together we founded Sustainable Wellesley.

The same year I was appointed to the Town’s Sustainable Energy Committee. In both organizations, I spent the next 10 years engaged in community outreach including organizing a series of seminars, often sponsored by Wellesley’s Municipal Light Plant, featuring programs and incentives targeting residential energy efficiency, conservation and renewable energy.I have successfully leveraged Municipal programs to inspire individual action. Now, I am excited to work on the Board of Public Works to develop programs and policies for residential, commercial and municipal sectors. There is a huge financial and environmental win-win opportunity that will enable us all to save money, reduce waste and improve infrastructure. Together with the DPW and MLP staff we can make critical decisions that will improve the quality of life in our town for years to come.

SR: What if any changes would you like to see take place in town as they relate to Public Works?
Scott Bender: I would like to add even more transparency to these boards by encouraging the Board and Department Supervisors to have Wellesley Media record the board meetings so our community has the opportunity to be more informed about all the amazing things the Public Works is accomplishing. With 250+ gas leaks in Wellesley, I intend to educate and encourage our community to move away from gas, as the infrastructure is deteriorating. In addition, having the Wellesley DPW collaborate with other communities I hope to accelerate National Grid’s rate of gas leak repair and pipe replacement.

SR: What are the most pressing needs in Wellesley as they relate to Town services?
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Meet Wellesley candidate for Natural Resources Commission, Allison Burson

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The Town of Wellesley depends on the active participation of its citizens in governance of the Town. Wellesley has 11 Boards and Committees on the ballot at the Annual Town election each year in March. The 2020 election will be held on March 17.

Allison Burson, Wellesley NRC candidate
Allison Burson is running as a candidate for the Natural Resources Commission.

It is the mission of the five-member NRC Board to provide stewardship of, education about, and advocacy for the Town of Wellesley’s parks, conservation, recreation and open space areas so the full value of the Town’s natural assets can be passed onto future generations.

There are two candidates running for two three-year positions on the Natural Resources Commission (NRC) Board — Allison Burson and Martin Jay McHale.We invited the candidates to answer a few questions about their qualifications and priorities for the Town of Wellesley. Burson’s Q & A is below. McHale’s Q & A will appear in a subsequent post.

The Swellesley Report: What is your background and what qualifies you for this position?
Allison Burson: I discovered my passion for nature on the wooded trails I used daily as I trained for soccer, lacrosse, and track in high school and for cross country in college. Those trails gave me an understanding of the use of our natural resources and playing fields for athletic purposes. I have a degree in Environmental Studies from Wesleyan, and after college I organized a successful parks levy campaign that funded new green space and playing fields in Seattle. I then worked on environmental and education policy in the Seattle Mayor’s Office. Now I’m the Program Manager for “A Greener Greater Boston” at the Solomon Foundation, a non-profit that supports planning and designing parks and greenways.

I have both professional and volunteer experience with road safety and trail access improvements involving work with Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), and elected officials, staff, and volunteers from Wellesley, Newton, Weston, and Natick. In Wellesley, I participated in the Unified Plan and Hunnewell Elementary processes. I recently worked with Sustainable Wellesley, the DPW, and Police Chief Pilecki to fundraise for and install a bike repair station to encourage bicycle travel in town, and I am participating in the Complete Streets planning, and the Route 135 Rotary/Wellesley Avenue design forums.

SR: If elected, what do you hope to accomplish during your three-year tenure on the NRC?
Allison Burson: My mission at NRC would focus on ensuring sustainable management of resources through habitat preservation, stewardship of water and air quality, balancing active and passive recreation, and improved access to Wellesley’s green space for all.

One of my top priorities in 2020 is preparing for climate change by emphasizing resilience in our town’s natural and physical infrastructure. I hope to join the new “Wellesley Will” Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) process to help prepare our  town for hotter summers and more extreme weather events. This could include improving the town tree canopy through enhanced bylaws, more tree planting, and improving our tree data, creative stormwater management to help prevent flooding, and native plant landscaping. All of these efforts can also provide a broad range of other benefits to the town.

I also hope to work to deepen partnerships with all town boards and departments to steward our natural resources. For example, by working with DPW, Planning, the Traffic Committee, Trails Committee, Police, and others we can identify a Complete Streets system that connects to a network of off-street corridors, enabling people to safely walk and bike to their destinations around Wellesley, reducing car traffic and air pollution.
SR: There have been a few meetings about potential changes at Morses Pond. What do you think should be the top priorities as they relate to shoreline erosion, the beach area, and protecting the town’s drinking water?

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