Sustainability and Resiliency Committee Minutes - November 21, 2023
The meeting of the Sustainability and Resiliency Committee was held Tuesday November 21, 2023 in the City Commission Chambers at Fargo City Hall.
Present:
Bruce Grubb, City Administration
Nicole Crutchfield, Director of Planning and Development
Brenda Derrig, Assistant City Administrator
Ben Dow, Director of Public Works
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 (virtual)
Zoe Absey, At-Large Member of the Public
Shawn Paschke, Xcel Energy Representative (Ex-officio)
Paul Matthys, Cass County Electric Cooperative Representative (Ex-officio)
James Hand, Fargo School District Representative (Ex-officio)
Dave Bietz, Fargo Park District Representative (Ex-officio)
Absent:
Chair John Strand, City Commissioner
Tim Mahoney, Mayor
Jennifer Sweatman, At-Large Member of the Public
Casey Steele, At-Large Member of the Public
Mike Williams, At-Large Member of the Public
Mr. Grubb called the meeting to order.
Approval of Agenda:
Ms. Derrig moved, second by Mr. Dow that the agenda be approved with correction to the proposed time of the next meeting. There was unanimous approval.
Approve Minutes:
Ms. Bommelman moved, second by Ms. Absey that the minutes from the August 8, 2023 meeting be approved. There was unanimous approval.
Food and Water Resiliency Initiatives:
Great Plains Food Bank:
Mr. Grubb said sustainability and resiliency encompasses more than only energy; food and water are also vital to sustain life. He said the Great Plains Food Bank and others play a critical role in the area. He said with the help of MATBUS and Transit, a food pantry location map app is being developed.
Zoe Absey said a Hunger on the Plains Study is conducted every four years and transportation was identified as an issue and barrier to resources.
Great Plains Regional Services Manager Nicole Outka said maps, routes and aligning pantries were compiled and handouts are being developed to distribute at high touchpoint locations within the MATBUS system.
Ms. Crutchfield said this cross coordination of information is important and often hard to get.
Lake Agassiz Water Authority ENDAWS:
Mr. Grubb said Fargo has been pursuing a drought proof water supply from the Missouri River called the Red River Water Supply Project, a pipeline from the Missouri River and transfer it to Lake Ashtebula and using the Sheyenne River as a natural conduit to get the water to the Red River. He said an alternative has been offered recently called the Eastern North Dakota Alternative Water Supply (ENDAWS), which is the same project; however, gets water from the McClusky Canal rather than directly from the Missouri River, making the route shorter and saving money. He shared project information from a presentation Mayor Mahoney gave the Lake Agassiz Water Authority Board on October 11, 2023 when some important Federal officials were in attendance. He shared the timeline, participants and a map of the project. The cost of the project is $1.16 billion, he said. The Red River is vulnerable as far as river flows, he said, and can change dramatically from too wet to too dry. He said the project is an emergency water supply for approximately 50% of North Dakota’s population and the planning horizon is 2075, which anticipates the users served would be more than 500,000. He said Federal funding help for the project would save millions for State and local water users. The 2023-2025 work plan funding is $240 million, he said; $180 million from the State and $60 million from local water users and is a 75-25 cost share. The Federal ask for work plans for years 2023-2025, 2026-2027 and 2028-2030 totals $454 million through 2030, he said. Construction progress completed includes Missouri River Intake Pumping Station Wet Well and Site Development, Missouri River Intake Screen Structure and Tunnel, Transmission Pipeline Easement, Sheyenne River Outfall Discharge Structure and Site Development, he said, and Transmission Pipeline East is under construction. He said construction includes a disruption in agricultural land and it is important the easement corridor is restored and land put back in production. He outlined the 2023-2025 work plan and summarized there is $90 million ENDAWS shovel ready and an increase in the Dakota Water Resources Act and Municipal, Rural and Industrial (MR&I) Water Supply authorization is needed. This highlights the importance of water security for Fargo and central and eastern North Dakota, he said, and is a multi-generational supplemental water supply for periods of drought or insufficient water.
Sustainability Work Plan Update from HDR:
Mr. Grubb said HDR (Henningson, Durham & Richardton, Inc.) gave a high level introduction to sustainability planning at the last meeting and part of the discussion centered on how to accomplish that and where to start, so it was suggested a subcommittee or a working group be formed to work with HDR. He said Mr. Strand met with internal staff and determined the working group should consider representation from City departments and the Fargo Youth Commission and a kickoff meeting was held on October 5, 2023. He said future meetings will consider an upcoming topic that best utilizes everyone’s time.
Colin Rohlfing, Sustainable Development Director with HDR reviewed the scope of work and what will be delivered in the short-term and next steps. He said the action timeline was prioritized and then detailed tasks will be created for the final report, which will be determined based on feedback from this group and others for items getting the most detail, which will likely be the first few steps. Then there will be a discussion on prioritization to ensure consensus, he said. Grants and funding are the biggest efforts needed to get started on the planning, he said, and will be much of the focus. Much of the most opportunity for success is with buildings and central utilities, he said, although everything will still be considered holistic and connected. He shared an executive summary slide of what they feel the procurement and next steps should be for the City to focus on a sustainability, resilience and eventual decarbonization plan. The focus is to figure out for water, waste, transit, energy, utility systems and new and existing facilities, what is to be done in the near-term (2024-2030), the mid-term (2030-2040) and long-term (2040-2050). Fargo’s existing documents were examined, he said, and issues seem to be how to do the plans and how to fund them. He said HDR economists will be brought in to meet with the City about pursuing funding grants, an example is a EPA Climate Pollution Reduction Planning Grant that could help with the greenhouse gas emissions inventory effort. He said there are also opportunities that some energy monitoring and benchmarking can come from Xcel Energy or funds exist from an EPA grant for benchmarking or retro commissioning plans for facilities. While the long term plan is informative of what to do first and is good to see, perhaps efforts are really focused on the near-term, he said. Given a prioritization is utilities and facilities, new and existing, he said, perhaps some water waste and transit funding opportunities and movement get left to other endeavors. The end goal before the year 2030 is Greenhouse Gas Emissions, inventory, energy monitoring, on-site energy and renewable energy study, retro-commissioning, new design standards and decarbonization strategies with cost and payback information to decarbonize assets. He said they intend to deliver an executive summary plus pages for each of the items and are very open in how to look at all this. This is their first pass at an actionable plan to get things started and the next step is to create more detail; however, he said, he wants consensus among the Committee about the items. The follow-up is looking at the grants, he said, code updates, writing new design standards and a lot of potential follow ups.
Ms. Crutchfield said she is curious to find a formula or ratio of federal dollars to staff loads of what it takes to manage the grants. She said in the HUD world and in her Planning office, she is still trying to find the grant ratio; however, guesses it is about $300,000.00 per staff needed; thus, it makes her someone anxious in terms of staff capacity. She said firms like HDR do help with management, so with that expertise perhaps capacity management can be requested.
Mr. Grubb said funding is always a big deal, there are many things on shelves that cannot be afforded so unfortunately that’s where they stay. He pointed out the EECBG Grant of $174,000.00 required a pre-application to lock that down and now, it is learned, it is possible there could be a voucher, a reimbursable format that is far less intrusive.
Mr. Rohlfing said he can ask the question about a formula or ratio to his economists. He said Mr. Grubb will be meeting with them to discuss capacity for grants.
SRC Bus Wrap Update:
Mr. Grubb said there was a solicitation to the schools seeking an artist and art work for bus wrap with a deadline of October 6, 2023; however, no applications were received. Now, he said, working with the Planning Department, Communications and Ms. Kavasseri, it was decided to add prize money of three $250.00 prizes for the three artwork winners as an incentive.
Ms. Kavasseri said the winter/spring timeline may work better. She is working with Communications to get a press release out, she said, and close out the deadline in mid-January in hopes of more submittals with a goal of having the wraps on the buses in the spring.
Mr. Grubb said having the next SRC meeting in February would work with that timeline.
In response to a question from Ms. Absey asking if the information will be on Facebook, Ms. Crutchfield said using social media is the benefit of working with the Communications team to solicit student artwork for the bus wrap. There will definitely be a social media presence, she said, and she would ask for everyone present to help push that forward.
Next Meeting:
The tentative date for the next meeting will be February next year, likely February 13 or 20.
The meeting adjourned at 1:55 o’clock p.m.