Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Mark these dates

There are 2 workshops coming up that people should attend, in addition to the March 6 forum that Mayor Holaday has organized to get input from residents about the city's future course.

I was just reading over on Tom Salemi's blog about apathy, and I have to agree that there is apathy out there. But there is also a lot of ignorance fueling the apathy (I think) and the cure for ignorance is knowledge.

Feb. 25, 7-8 p.m., Newburyport Public Library
The Newburyport Green Communities Act Action Plan will be presented to the Newburyport Energy Advisory Committee. I was told by the Planning Dept. that the part of the Act that relates to "right-of-siting" for wind turbines depends on the strictness of the community's zoning laws since the siting has to meet the community's zoning laws for siting a wind energy conversion facility. Speaking of which ...

March 3, 7 p.m., City Hall
The Planning Board/Planning & Development Committee is holding the public hearing on proposed changes to the wind energy conversion ordinance that deals with the siting of wind turbines. Unfortunately, it may overlap somewhat with:

March 3, 5:30 p.m., Salisbury Senior Center, 43 Lafayette Rd.
A workshop on the state's new voluntary "stretch" building code. This is very important for anyone planning renovations to their home or plan on building a new home in MA or if someone is planning on building a commercial building (although it does not apply to all new construction of commercial buildings). The "stretch" code has to be adopted by a vote of the City Council and it is a criteria for becoming a green community under the Green Communities Act.

That's all, for now. Thankyouverymuch.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

the green commmunities act action plan is such a scam.

Gillian Swart said...

errrr, Anonymous, do you want to share why you think that? Inquiring minds want to know! I mean, really, I want to know. I have my own reservations about it. Thanks

Anonymous said...

all "green" initiatives are simply a way for certain people to cash in. With global warming all but exposed as false, there is no need to support these initiatives. the government needs to stay out of how we as citizens live our lives, and they need to stop supporting laws and regulations that dump enormous amounts of tax dollars into private industries who take advantage of this hysteria. The solar panels on the middle school are the prime example, as are the people who "love" the windmill because of the green energy it produces, yet neglect the fact that not only is it a severe problem to the neighbors, the community does not benefit at all from the energy as it belongs to a private entity. It actually hurts the community because our tax dollars paid for it. So yes, the "green" movement is a waste of time and money, used largely as a red herring to either make someone rich or increase the power of politicians, while making the ignorant feel good about "doing something".

macsurf said...

anon, although I too share some of yor concerns about the current hip and trendiness of everything "green", I find your cynicism even more troubling.

Despite much of corporate, right wing America's attempts to bash science, the facts are in about global warming.

I live of much of each year in a fragile, sub-tropical, rainforest eco-system and, I can assure you, climate change is happening far more quickly, especially in sub tropical climes, and dramatically than most people realize/

Anonymous said...

actually, the "facts" are non existent. there are theories and opinions, most of which were fabricated, and global warming is no more than a religion. you need to have faith to believe in it and ignore the extreme lack of data that supports your belief. it's not a righ wing thing, its a common sense thing.