Sustainability and Resiliency Meeting Minutes - August 8, 2023
The meeting of the Sustainability and Resiliency Committee was held in the City Commission Chambers at Fargo City Hall at 3:00 p.m., Tuesday, August 8, 2023.
Present:
John Strand (chair), City Commissioner
Bruce Grubb, City Administration
Mark Williams, Assistant Planning Director
Brenda Derrig, Assistant City Administrator
Ben Dow, Public Works Director
Becki Majerus, Director of Facilities Management
Shawn Ouradnik, Inspections Director
Julie Bommelman, Transit Director
Abhinjuna Kavasseri, Youth Initiative Representative
Greta Gramig, At-Large Member of the Public
Mike Williams, At-Large Member of the Public (via video conference)
Shawn Paschke - Xcel Energy Representative (Ex-officio)
James Hand, Fargo School District Representative (Ex-officio)
Tim Mahoney, Mayor (present at 3:30 p.m.)
Absent:
Jennifer Sweatman, At-Large Member of the Public
Casey Steele, At-Large Member of the Public
Zoe Absey, At-Large Member of the Public
Paul Matthys, Cass County Electric Cooperative Representative (Ex-officio)
Chair Strand called the meeting to order.
Approval of Agenda
Ms. Gramig moved, second by Mr. Dow that the agenda be approved as read. There was unanimous approval.
June 13, 2023 Minutes Approved
Mr. Grubb moved, second by Ms. Bommelman that the minutes from the June 13, 2023 meeting be approved as read. There was unanimous approval by all the members present.
North Dakota Clean Cities Presentation:
Heather Betts, Manager of North Dakota Clean Cities, said the group serves as a forum for local stakeholders to connect and collaborate on saving energy and using affordable alternative fuels. She said the group also provides support and resources on new transportation technologies and infrastructure development as well as helping stakeholders identify cost-effective solutions. Clean Cities has a 30-year history of facilitating change, she stated, and started with six coalitions in 1993 and has grown to more than 75. She said the creation of Clean Cities coalitions is rooted in legislation, including the 1975 Energy Policy and Conservation Act, the Alternative Motor Fuels Act of 1988 and the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 and the Energy Policy Act of 1992. Participation in Clean Cities is voluntary, she said, and coalitions draw local stakeholders from the public and private sectors. Clean Cities has nearly 18,000 stakeholders, including 39 percent from the private sector and 61 percent from the public sector. An active network of government agencies, industry representatives, community organizations and businesses work through Clean Cities to exchange information and resources, she said. North Dakota Clean Cities is managed by the American Lung Association, she said, and is supported by diverse stakeholders, including fuel and equipment providers, fleet managers, public utilities, technical experts, non-profit organizations, automakers and private citizens. She said the NDCC helps its industry partners raise awareness of clean air choice fuels among consumers and fleet operators. She said one of the projects the NDCC is involved in now is an the Upper Midwest Inter-Tribal EV Charging Community Network called Electric Nation, a project to ensure all 23 Native nations in North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota have at least one Level 2 charging station. Another current project is Empower, she stated, which engages with employers in North Dakota to promote workplace charging, provide EV charging education and advisory support and connect workplaces to local businesses and utilities for planning and installation of EV charging stations. She said there are 244 public stations in North Dakota with alternative fuels, including 190 EV charging ports, 38 ethanol pumps and 16 propane locations. She then shared information on EV and other types of alternative fuel vehicles registered in North Dakota, including in 2021, there were 400 electric vehicles registered in North Dakota, along with 5,400 hybrid electric, 16,000 biodiesel and 100 compressed natural gas.
In response to a question from Commissioner Strand asking about alternative fuel vehicles used by the City, Mr. Dow said biodiesel vehicles were tried about 12 years ago; however, there were issues with filters. He said the refinement process for biodiesel is better now so he is looking at biodiesel again. He said the City has tried other hybrid vehicles over the years, some with good success and some not so good. He said there is no funding in 2024 for hybrid vehicles; however, when it comes time to replace the Solid Waste facility, that will definitely come with a lot of electrical infrastructure and hopefully some electric vehicles. Fleets that do a lot of starting and stopping in a steady route every day are good candidates for the future of large-scale electric vehicles.
Mr. Grubb said several years ago, hybrid buses were tried and Ms. Bommelman said in 2011 two diesel/electric hybrid buses were purchased and Transit now has eight diesel electric hybrids and they do get better mileage. She said once the engine hits 25 to 30 miles an hour, it starts using diesel and prior to that it uses electricity, so you regenerate energy through the braking system. She said moving forward Transit is looking more towards propane in the future.
Mike Williams said battery technology has not evolved much in the last 20 or so years and now solid-state batteries have a lot more resilience, they can last twice as long on a charge and can charge faster and have less a propensity of fire. He said that it is exciting.
In response to a question from Commissioner Strand asking if cities have to become members of the Clean Cities group in order to get services, Ms. Betts said membership is not required.
Mr. Grubb said with the new Police station, idle times and the associated emissions have been reduced due to the fact that squad cars are now kept indoors.
Sustainability Work Plan Update:
Mr. Grubb said this will be a reoccurring topic on the agenda and there has not been much progress yet on a sustainability work plan; however, one of the other items discussed was the formation of a working group subcommittee to assist in some of the working sessions.
Colin Rohlfing, Sustainable Development Director with HDR (Henningson, Durham & Richardson, Inc.) said getting information from departments within the City will help HDR provide better content for the City for decarbonization planning. He said what needs to be put in place is how is this plan funded and how to put together a work plan for procurement. He said a number of different categories for decarbonziation were looked at, including buildings, utilities, fleet vehicles, landfill and waste water and it was determined the main focus in Phase One will be buildings and utilities. He said he is not going to ignore fleet vehicles or waste water and there have already been some great things done so far; however, some ideas and strategies are needed to get things moving with regards to operational emissions. He said another priority is an action timeline for procurement, grants and funding. There will be a lot of analysis for peer review from cities that have done some of the things similar to Fargo, he stated, and for the first phase, those from the student committee should be involved, anyone who has detailed information about building facilities and utilities, the grid reliability, design standards, as well as anyone who has gone after funding or grants.
Commissioner Strand said if anyone wants to participate, this is a chance to roll up their sleeves and start aiming the Committee in a direction that is going to have traction. He said energy up front will really have an impact.
Mr. Grubb said he will check everyone’s availability and the initial meeting would be about three hours. He said the biggest impact will be a key facilities list and utility information for these facilities. A few years of data will be helpful and if it is not available, there is still a way to move forward by using industry-wide standards, calculations and approximations. He said another thing that would be helpful would be any past energy master plans, retrofits, upgrades, any future renovations or building plans, upcoming deferred maintenance and capital improvement plans. A list of fleet vehicle makes and models will be helpful along with waste water plant specifications, past disaster impact reports, and what it costs the City to clean up after floods or other natural disasters such as droughts and wildfires. He said participants will include Brenda Derrig, Nicole Crutchfield, Sean Ouradnik, Public Works and Julie Bommelman.
SRC Bus Wrap – Youth Initiative and Arts and Culture Commission:
Mr. Grubb said Abhinjuna Kavasseri has been working on a draft for seeking submissions for art for a bus wrap. He said he wanted to discuss this further with the Arts and Culture Commission; however, that group’s next meeting was cancelled and will not meet now until mid-November. He said he would like to schedule the next SRC meeting sometime in November to coincide with the next Arts and Culture Commission meeting, and to combine the October and December SRC meetings into a meeting in November. He said Ms. Kavasseri will reach out to the high school art teachers in early September to submit ideas by early October so the Arts and Culture Commission can review the artwork and have a recommendation at its November meeting. They then could give a recommendation to the SRC at the October/December meeting in November, which will help keep this project on track to get it to the City Commission for approval on November 27th.
In response to a question from Mr. Grubb asking what kind of reaction is she getting from students when she lets them know about the bus wrap project, Ms. Kavasseri said she reached out to some students at the end of the school year in May and did not get any feedback; however, she got some student names and sent it to them directly and they thought it was a cool idea. She said it would be best to send this out after school starts when students are more settled in.
Mr. Grubb said another idea is to offer some prize money, maybe $500.00, and perhaps try to get a company to sponsor the stipend, such as Gate City Bank.
Next Meeting
The tentative date for the next meeting is November 21, 2024.
The meeting adjourned at 4:05 o’clock p.m.