Meeting called to order

7:22pm

Attendance

• Members present: Corey Burnham-Howard (CBH), Claire Golding (CG), Ed Katebi (EK), Mark Horeanopolous (MH, associate member), Starr O’Malley (SO)
• Members absent: Forrest Iwanik (FI), Kaitlin Kohberger (KK), Violet Abady (VA student member), Richy Bisk (RB)
• Public present: Gerry Pellegrini (GP, Advisory board liaison)

Meeting Minutes

Meeting minutes from the October 20, 2025 meeting were reviewed and approved unanimously.

Updates

(See attached compiled updates.)

EV Charging Stations

• Lots of questions regarding this- how would payment work/who would pay for it? Is there liability if it malfunctions and causes damage? Where would we decide to put them? Jim McGrath from ECR was invited to this meeting but did not come. Who handles this since we do not have town employees for it?
• Plan is to invite Jim to the December meeting if the EV charging station subcommittee does not meet with him beforehand.

Events

• Night Sky Fest- slightly warmer weather, but not nearly as many people attended, EAC to brainstorm how to get more people to come
• Dot Odgren would like the EAC to host another talk (EAC chose Native plants topic). CBH moves to allot $100 for this, CG 2nd, vote was unanimous.
• String Light Recycling Event:
  • Bin is going out on 11/22 (will be clear and labeled) PMLD approved to put it outside to the right of the door, each member will collect them every week and take them home, test them, separate the ones that work from the ones that do not work, and will all bring them to the final collection event on 1/11 to get rid of in bulk or before and give to CG, CBH to make an EAC member sign-up sheet for designating pick up weeks, Landmark reporter reached out to CBH about writing an article about the string light event!

Town Website

• Need to get a tag for our site to be able to track our traffic- register with google and get an ID (free), EK can work with who’s updating our page to do this, town clerk can help with this
• Getting a new website at some point, Karen Cruise to train us on this
• CBH to reach out to Karen Cruise about tracking and if we can do it on our own rather than bother the town clerk

EAP Roundtable Follow-Up

• Only MH and Charlie Carey responded to CBH email follow-up about top 5 important topics, EAC will decide top 5 topics since no one else responded with feedback, then will send out to participants and ask for thoughts, EAP discussions will pick back up in January after the holidays are over.

Green Community Anti-Idling Policy Compliance

• MH is witnessing vehicles idling for long periods of time around town, PMLD is a separate entity from the town so they do not have to follow specific town rules like this one, CBH can check with Town Administrator re: whether Princeton PD has any anti-idling technology for cruisers and low power anti-idling technology for PMLD.

Green News Briefs

• Get sustainable holiday guide GNB out ASAP, target this week

EAC Budget for FY 2027

• This is due 12/1/25, CBH moves to request $970 budget, CG 2nd, vote is unanimous

Next Meeting

Next meeting date: December 8, 2025 at 7:00pm

Adjournment

Moved to adjourn 8:25pm

SO motioned, CG 2nd, Vote: unanimous

Submitted by

Starr O’Malley

Documents referenced from meeting

• EAC meeting minutes (October 20, 2025)
• EAC November 17, 2025 Meeting Agenda
• EAC compiled updates November 2025
• FY 2027 Budget Memo
• FY 2027 Budget Request

(Attached: Compiled Updates)

EAC Updates for Review and Discussion at EAC November 2025 Meeting:

Green Communities (CBH)

No new updates to report.

MVP (CBH)

Princeton was awarded $100,000 in MVP 2.0 grants for a Climate Education and Outreach Program to inform residents on climate change and resiliency. We now have 8 “Core Team” members recruited but still are looking for 2 more members.  Core Team kickoff meeting is being planned for late November/early December.

PFAS Information Sharing (FI)

No updates reported.

Public Safety Building Committee (CG)

Public Safety Building Committee: The committee met on Thursday, November 6, 2025 to discuss the project schedule in detail with the Owner’s Project Manager, Vertex. Key takeaways:

• Demolition of Center School to begin soon, but requires Special Town Meeting in December to fund.
• Committee is hoping to save roof slate, granite steps, and some other outdoor materials to be reused on the site for the new facility. Roof slate repair areas used a mastic that includes asbestos, so those require asbestos abatement procedures; rest of roof slate ok to salvage. Interior millwork (windows, wooden details) too difficult/expensive to salvage.
• Well drilling requires special procedural efforts to prevent potential PFAS-laden ground water from escaping during the drilling process. Will add to drilling costs.
• Very favorable bid environment right now. Recent bids coming in at 10% under estimates.
• Proposed date of April 7, 2026 for Special Town Meeting to approve construction. Bids will be in hand at that time.
• Need to plan public outreach soon.

Waste and Recycling Working Group (CG)

Three-town group met Weds 11/5/25 with Tyler Finnegan of Casella, who presented a revised 3-year proposal with lower pricing based on specific ranges of households, and a 5-year proposal similarly based. The Working Group has not yet scheduled a meeting to discuss these proposals further.

Housing Implementation Committee (RB)

No new updates. RB will miss the committee’s next meeting on 11/12.

EV Charging Station Subcommittee (RB, SO, MH)

RB spoke to ECR Renewable’s Jim McGrath. He reports that:

1. State program. Free EV Chargers.
2. Doesn’t know when program will end.
3. Can be on public or private property.
4. Provides level 2 chargers. The fastest will get you 70 miles of driving with an hour of charging. This could an impediment to interest on our part.

McGrath will email RB an application “do list.”

EAP Update Subcommittee (CG, CBH, SO, MH)

As discussed at last meeting, CBH sent an email to all Environmental Roundtable attendees asking for a response with their Top 5 priority actions. So far, the EAC has received one response back.

EAC Website Traffic Analytics (EK)

No updates reported.

TPS Environmental Club

No updates reported.

PMLD

No updates reported.

Website (CBH) (CG)

The Town is getting a new website. CBH recently attended “website accessibility” training at the Town Hall Annex.  The legal compliance date for the Town’s website to be “accessible” is April 2027, but with the new Town website, the Town is pushing any new content to comply now. EAC members should start familiarizing what we need to do. This will apply to Meeting Minutes, Agendas, Town News Announcements, Webpage Content, and Green News Briefs. For example, all pictures must be “useful” and must have alt text describing them embedded in the photo. As well, the text must be simpler with stylized headings, short paragraphs, and bullets.

CBH and CG will continue to coordinate website updates with Karen Cruise.

Green News Briefs (CBH, CG)

Latest GNB: Bird Migration – by SO and CG. Published!

Next: Holiday Guide (KK)- Mid Nov.

Then: Environmental Costs of Eating Meat (MH)- January

EVENTS

Night Sky Event (CBH, EK, GP)

Due to overcast skies, the event was held on Sunday, October 26. Five astronomers and their telescopes participated. CBH, EK, and GP represented EAC. Approximately 20 other attendees participated. Aldrich Astronomical Society has sent their $300 invoice, and CBH is coordinating payment.

EAC String Lights Recycling Collection (CG and CBH)

CG has coordinated with PMLD to allow us to host a collection at PMLD. The bin will sit outside PMLD’s entry way, under a hose on the right—from November 22 to January 10. CBH will create the bin and sign. EAC members should coordinate weekly check/collection of lights. EAC to finalize EAC member hosts for 1/11 collection.