Amesbury Energy, Environment & Sustainability Committee Meeting
Discussion of municipal solid waste pickup plans for FY27–FY28 and a technical assistance grant offering 80 hours of support for the solid waste program; updates on city energy projects including HVAC upgrades, a citywide LED lighting retrofit, solar inverter repairs, and EV charging station revenue and maintenance.
The Energy, Environment, and Sustainability Committee met to hear updates and discuss ongoing energy and solid waste issues. A resident expressed interest in filling a vacant committee seat and has submitted an application to the Mayor. Committee members shared communications about a prospective School Committee representative to the Energy Committee, recent meetings with the Mayor about trash and recycling plans for FY27–FY28, and upcoming Earth Hour/Day activities. The committee voted to approve three sets of prior meeting minutes and asked that they be posted on the City website.
The body reviewed a range of operational energy items and solid-waste-related topics. Energy updates included challenges with utility account management and billing delays, a request submitted to National Grid for 15-minute interval meter data (estimated annual cost noted), community power aggregation churn, EV charging revenue and maintenance concerns, HVAC upgrades at the fire station, a citywide LED retrofit with expiring rebates, solar inverter faults at two sites awaiting funding for repairs, Project Lumos pre-bid walkthroughs for building energy upgrades, LBER reporting responsibility shifting to the City Energy Manager, DOER guideline attendance, and electric ferry infrastructure planning. Solid-waste discussions focused on pickup plan concerns for FY27/FY28, enforcement and compliance issues in the downtown business district related to food waste and recycling, a technical assistance grant offering roughly 80 hours to support the solid waste program (including bin counts), and an Earth Day cleanup planned for April 26 at Heritage Park. The meeting concluded with a unanimous motion to adjourn.