Outreach and Feedback

a. We are in the process of getting ready to do some much-needed upgrades/renovations to our town hall building and to install energy efficient upgrades as well, and we are reassessing our msw (municipal solid waste) and recycling services to the town.

b. We have retrofitted all of our street lights with LED. We have entered into a performance contract with Johnson Controls adding energy efficient equipment in our town buildings, we have sponsored over 2000 home audits with our residents and we have built a solar park which helps offset energy usage at our Water Pollution Control Authority. We have also added EV charging stations.

c. The City is working to electrify City-owned buildings and vehicles, with more than 40 light duty electric vehicles purchased this year and heat pumps replacing legacy heating and cooling systems in police substations, firehouse living quarters, and other small and medium-sized municipal facilities.

d. The City's first electric refuse vehicle is due to arrive at the end of this year - electrifying the entire fleet with eliminate asthma-causing air pollution, lower operating costs, cut carbon pollution, and also provide grid-level energy storage.

e. The City is currently working with solar developer Greenskies to install solar on two school parking lots, two City buildings, and the City landfill. While the City is not able to change the state building code, through zoning the City has incentivized all-electric, energy efficient, and sustainable construction practices in two of its zones.

f. The City is building out a network of protected bicycle lanes and has identified priority areas for pedestrian improvements through its safe routes for all active transportation master plan.

g. The City's parking authority is re-launching the New Haven bike share program and the City is exploring piloting an electric scooter share program to provide additional transportation options. CTDOT recently awarded the City a grant to launch a microtransit ride sharing program on the west side of New Haven in partnership with Via transportation. City staff have helped to publicize the state's electric bicycle and electric vehicle rebates. The City has applied for funding for 6 publicly accessible electric vehicle charging stations.

h. The City has provided financial support to Neighborhood Housing Service's I Heart My Home home energy counseling programs and City staff have led canvasses to enroll residents in environmental justice census tracts into this program to improve the energy efficiency and lower the carbon emissions of their homes.

i. The City has posted a position for a part-time recycling educator to help educate residents about recycling and composting. The City is exploring how to implement some form of unit-based pricing and co-collection of organics. The City has partnered with Collective Oyster Recycling and Restoration to begin shellfish shell recycling in restaurants selling shellfish."

j. LED Street Lighting and energy efficiency upgrades to our Town Hall and 2 Schools.

k. Completing another leg of our greenway, food waste program, EV chargers installed, LED streetlights installed.

l. HVAC upgrades at our public schools, retained the services of Energia consulting for school and municipal building energy efficiency review. Designing our two new elementary schools with potential geothermal non fossil fuel energy systems.

m. Upgrade my EV charging station. Energy upgrades to town owned buildings.

n. Building efficiency updates. Exterior renovations to Hamden Government Center and the Keefe Community Center. HVAC replacement at Hamden Government Center.

o. Transportation improvements to promote multi-modal transit; sidewalk repair/replace, installation of bike lanes, complete street policy implementation, regional bus rapid transit project along Dixwell Avenue Corridor, and bus shelter/stop renovations.

p. Solar panel installations at various Town owned facilities (Primarily BOE property).

q. Green infrastructure implementation at various locations on town owned property and within the right of way.

a. A blank check would be nice, but we would still need to look at what we have and where we want to go.

b. Continue to work in greater depth regarding updating the boilers in all of our town buildings and all of our schools.

c. The City would prioritize subsidizing residents moving their water heating from oil, gas, and electric resistance heating to high efficiency electric heat pumps. Our analysis of switching to heat pump water heating from our citywide emissions inventory shows that this strategy can help cut the amount of carbon emissions by 60% compared with electric resistance, 68% compared with gas, and 74% compared with oil water heating. The cost of the intervention is an order of magnitude lower than switching space heating to heat pumps and the complexity is much reduced - it is much more standardized and “plug and play"" that space heating, which is more customized.

d. The City would also prioritize regional investments in infrastructure to recycle food scraps, which would enable municipalities to turn food scraps into nutrient-rich compost at a greatly reduced tipping fee as compared with municipal solid waste. Equipment to sort color-coded bags of co-collected organic material, remove the organic material from bags, decontaminate the organic material, and aerate the organic material in an aerated static pile are necessary investments to make this possible.

e. The City would also prioritize the electrification of heavy duty vehicle fleets, in particular those fleets that spend much of their time circulating in and polluting our environmental justice neighborhoods. These vehicles have a disproportionate impact on local air quality. Replacing them with electric vehicles with large batteries offers an opportunity to provide valuable grid services to our electric grid, including peak shaving in periods of high afternoon demand.

f. Incentivize efficiency upgrades

g. With all the new construction in the City of Ansonia it is important for us to be able to incentivize property owners and developers to lower emissions through building upgrades. If there were a revolving loan fund or grant to administer to qualified owners, that would greatly improve our housing/commercial development projects.

h. Replace HVAC systems at our aging High School, Middle and singular district elementary school that has not been renovated. Explore energy efficiency projects at our Town owned facilities.

i. Fleet upgrades.

j. Support transit-oriented development. Implement energy efficiency upgrades to Town owned buildings. Convert vehicle fleet (cars, light duty trucks) to EV and build out EV charging infrastructure.

a. I think your Examples sort of cover the main points.

b. Help improve our waste management options which is a huge problem right now.

c. "The state should change its 2050 greenhouse gas reduction commitment from an 80% reduction to a 100% reduction and create subsector plans for emissions reductions.

d. The state should create a program for funding school decarbonization retrofits - these retrofits are far beyond the budgets of most municipalities.

e. The state should increase funding for energy efficiency programs to at least a level where the current amount of efficiency work can continue - this would require $40-50 million in funding. To speed heat pump adoption, the state should increase incentives for heat pump adoption for space heating to the level that Massachusetts provides. The should set a date after which all heating system retrofits must use heat pumps.

f. The state should enable municipalities to adopt a “stretch"" building code which would allow them to require all-electric, energy efficient construction of new buildings. The state should increase financial incentives for income-eligible residents to purchase electric vehicles and electric bicycles - current incentives are too low for many low-income residents to make the switch and demand for electric bicycle rebates far outstripped supply in the summer's bike rebate program.

g. The state should continue investments in improved bus and rail service and require municipalities to allow for higher density construction near transit.

h. Improve Waste Management Options

i. Financial incentives for municipalities are always welcome. They help us prepare for any potential mandates in the future.

j. Focus on Waste Management reduction in our landfills. Incentivize municipalities to upgrade municipal buildings with aging systems.

k. Help with zero emission upgrades, offer waste management options.

l. Continue to provide substantial investment in meaningful public transit projects like the Bus Rapid Transit system in the Greater New Haven area. Expand service for the BRT project to Hamden's core area near the Hamden Plaza. Reduce administrative burden for public funding. Continue to provide funding resources for transportation infrastructure.

a. Remember - every municipality has different needs. Rural is quite different than city.

b. We have done a great deal here in North Haven but we know we can do more and hopefully there will be incentives to do so.

c. Thank you for your efforts in helping with the challenges we all are dealing with, I hope we are successful in receiving the funds we need.

d. Focus toward open space acquisition funding to balance development with retention of natural resources within our communities to ensure greenspace to assist with pollution reduction.