LDNA monthly meeting – November 24, 2014
Notes taken by Stephen
In attendance Stephen Greene, Jack Moynahan, Capt. Kelly Richards, Eric Sand, Lara Taveras, Counselor William Samaras.
Absent with notice Susan Purdy, Corey, Caroline
The meeting had sparse attendance because it was just before the Thanksgiving holiday
Minutes from October were accepted with Stephen making the motion and Jack seconding.
Capt. Kelly Richardson made the police report. He indicated that there had been a problem in the Roy garage and there are additional patrols especially in light of the holidays and the likelihood that there be more materials, or cash on people during the season. With respect to liquor establishments, Reservations has been a problem recently, this is on Central Street. In general downtown the kids have been a problem – combination of being disrespectful and also problem with bicycles and skateboards.
The city Council is concerned about the quality of life issues downtown and they are working on this.
Also, light in the downtown is being looked at as there are sections where light is poor or absent. In particular, a section of Paige street were ownership of the lights is not clear.
John Noto of Lowell Makes presented information about the organization which is a nonprofit and open for membership. They have a lot of fun useful equipment available and people can join. They have a number of different membership levels. They have teaching space, a computer lab, 3-D printing and refreshments, a bike shop, a laser cutter, an electronics lab, there is leather maker and a metal shop. So there are lots of things that people can do. They even have had their first entrepreneurial spinoff. They also have free Wi-Fi and recently added a pottery kiln. A Lowell Makes flyer is available.
Stephen talked briefly about the condo and commercial recycling through a city downtown program that the Solid Waste and Recycling department has discussed He pointed out that even though buildings have cooperative programs, these programs can have their ups and downs. The density of the units downtown will require a different way of handling recycled materials. He pointed out for example, Market Gallery was 22 residential units and that having 22 recycling bins would be an impossible task to deal with because of the lack of space.
Stephen also talked about community solar program it is something being put forward by Next Step Living. The program allows people who do not have the physical space for solar panels or are renters to participate in a solar program. The concept depends on having one major anchor tenant for a megawatt size solar field which is located somewhere else and then the rest of the project is divided up into ~2% shares. The advantage to being involved in the program is the approximate 5% savings on your electric charges. The anchor tenant gets larger savings which is quite significant and especially considering the fact that electric rates expected to jump approximately 30 or more percent this sound this year. Stephen will get more information from our January meeting.
During open discussion:
Interest was expressed in an electric vehicle charging station in the Roy Garage. Stephen will bring that information back to the Green Building Commission and see if there is some possibilities of having something like that made available.
There are charging stations at UTEC, the Earlie garage.
The City Council is looking into downtown lighting.
Bikes and skateboard issues.
It is time for traffic enforcement as cars are not yielding to pedestrians in cross walks.
A reminded that the full complement of police in Lowell was 260. We currently have 235.
Reminder for the City Lights Parade on Saturday 11/29. The will be parking restrictions on Merrimack, Central and Jackson. Free parking in the garages until 8 PM.
The next meeting will be January 26 and no meeting in December.