The meeting, held on October 11, 2022, was an announcement for a community recycling drive and various energy efficiency initiatives, hosted by Representative Carol Fiola at Bristol Community College. The main event, a community recycling drive, is scheduled for Saturday, October 29th, from 10 AM to 1 PM at Bristol Community College. This collaborative effort involves the City of Fall River, state legislators, Bristol Community College, Green Team Junk Removal, National Grid, and Eversource, and is open to residents of Fall River, Westport, and Freetown. Key details of the recycling drive include free drop-off for clothing and dehumidifiers, with a $30 rebate for old dehumidifiers and an additional $30 for purchasing a new Energy STAR certified model. A $15 fee applies for a car full of other items, with additional fees for tires and computer monitors. The event will also feature electronics recycling, cost-effective mattress recycling to divert them from landfills, furniture collection for Habitat for Humanity and other charities, and a food pantry collection. Speakers, including Mayor Paul Coogan, Frederick Cullen of Green Team Junk Removal, and representatives from National Grid (Steve) and Eversource (Bill), emphasized the environmental benefits and the importance of energy efficiency programs, especially in anticipation of rising winter energy costs. Dr. Laura Douglas, President of Bristol Community College, expressed enthusiasm for hosting the event, highlighting the college's strong commitment to sustainability through initiatives like solar panels and zero-net buildings. Attendees were encouraged to visit masssave.com for information on various energy efficiency programs, including income-eligible options, and to attend National Grid's Winter Customer Savings Initiative event on December 1st, from 4 to 7 PM, at Fall River City Hall.
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Council
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good morning and thank you for joining us today for this announcement uh it is October and it is Energy Efficiency month and uh while we are doing a lot of talk about how to be um to save uh this winter and we'll be doing a lot having a lot more conversations about that with our partners here today and how your energy bills can can be helped uh today we're announcing an event uh
0:30called it's a recycling event to be held here at Bristol Community College thank you to our Bristol Community College Partners Dr Laura Douglas and her team because on Saturday October 29th from 10 to 1 we are doing a community recycling drive and what that means to you is that you get to fill your car with your stuff from your basement or your attic or your spare bedroom or your living room and
1:03bring it on down here to Bristol Community College and if you have a car full of clothing it's completely free drive through drop it off and we'll introduce the fine Partners here in a moment if you have a a dehumidifier I'll give you all the details or or our partners will give you those details it is free bring it down and you will receive quite a rebate and quite a
1:32credit and we'll talk about that in a minute and uh there is a small fee to fill your car uh excluding clothing and dehumidifiers for fifteen dollars you can bring all your stuff down and there are some additional fees for tires and monitors uh computer monitors but we believe this will be a more cost effective way for you to get rid of that stuff that you've been holding on to
1:58that you no longer need or want and we know that it will be helpful to you and your families I'm proud to be supporting this event with my colleagues Senator rodericks representative Sylvia and representative Schmidt who couldn't be with us this morning but uh while why we are all together is because this event is is for all residents of Fall River Westport and Freetown so if you live in
2:27any of those communities you will be receiving a postcard in the mail from our Energy Partners National Grid our electric Energy Partners National Grid or eversource depending on who you get your electric from and so with that the first thing I want to do is bring greetings and support of this program as always in everything that he does is our mayor mayor Coogan mayor thank you Carol and to all the partners
3:00that are making this possible on octo October 29th we expect to see a line of people out here getting rid of stuff that can help others and be moved on by the Green Team they'll be set up in the first Bay here under these solar panels at Bristol Community College it's another opportunity for not only to help people but to remove things from your property that may be in good shape and
3:22may be able to be used again this is a great project we do it in Fall River quite often but this is a new addition with our partners at National Grid and neversource and I look forward to working with everybody and I will be down here on the 29th thanks Harold and representatives thanks expect you'll bring your car load uh mayor Coogan um so how did this happen well I got an
3:46email our colleagues my colleagues and I received an email regarding this program and like every good initiative it was established by a person who came up with this idea to help out help us out clean our basements and I'd like to next introduce the Green Team junk removal guy Fred Cullen who really was the brainchild of this idea Fred welcome thank you representative hello my name is Frederick Cullen I am the CEO of
4:16Green Team junk removal we're established in 2018 our mission is to recycle reuse and donate up to 80 of what we haul that is a true number and we've worked very hard to um to make that possible on the 29th I'm very proud to announce that we will be having a uh on electronics and a recycling drive down here for the residents of Fall River Freetown and Westport at our events there they're they are Community
4:45Driven we set up our events in stations one of our stations is electronics you'll be able to bring down your electronics okay uh they'll be you'll be able to drop them off at a station and they'll be able to be properly disposed of as of I'm not sure if everyone's aware there is a new mattress bill that's going to be going into effect where mattresses in the Commonwealth will need to be um recycled correctly
5:15what we're able to do at these events is we're actually able to provide the constituent with a um with a very cost effective way of getting rid of your mattresses okay they are brought to a um a dep vendor and those mattresses are disposed correctly so none of those mattresses would would be put in a landfill we also have a Habitat for Humanity that comes to these events they're a uh a
5:43great partner to work with and I love their mission when we bring down when you when you'll bring down your furniture habitat will inspect the furniture okay anything that they want and that they feel that can be uh reused and and sold in their restores okay to raise money for affordable housing they will they will take any uh remaining furniture will then be inspected by Green Team junk removal we
6:10do work with other local charities throughout the Commonwealth that we could bring that uh Furniture to and if if doesn't go to those Charities then it'll be recycled correctly okay uh now at these events we really love partnering with uh with the community if you have uh and local organizations such as we will do a food pantry collection so if you have um food that you want uh to bring you can bring
6:40down and we'll drop that off at the at the food pantries uh because we we understand right now you know with the way the economy is um it's it's tough out there so there's a lot of families in need that that need uh meals so if you want that day and you want to be able to bring down some food please please do we'll be able to collect it and make sure that uh it's
7:03brought to um the correct pantry we have um done 11 towns last year and I'm excited to announce that this year we're actually going to do 68 towns throughout the Commonwealth um that is so that is substantial growth and it couldn't have been done without um Steve from National Grid and um bill from eversource us three we worked tirelessly to to make these events happen and also the delegation
7:38thank you for inviting us down and also uh their colleagues have helped out uh throughout the year so you'll be looking for your postcard okay everyone's gonna get one it'll be in your mail uh it'll come from eversource it'll come from National Grid whoever supplies your leg your electricity and I'm looking forward to having a great event and it's going to run from ten to one okay it's going to
8:03be October 29th uh you can bring tires down Windows ACS you can bring down your monitors your TVs your box springs your mattresses you bring down um if you have lamps if you have different items in your house or you're just looking to get rid of bring them on down but I thank everybody for um your time thank you for holding this event today and I hope everyone has a good day
8:27and I'm looking forward to seeing you on the 29th thank you thanks appreciate it every good event really has a spark and Fred created this whole idea and we're we're very grateful in the community certainly benefits um he mentioned the partners eversource and National Grid we all know them because we get our bill every month right but uh we also know what good work you do in our communities so I'd ask
8:50both Bill and Steve to come forward and talk about your role in this and why it's important to have people get through their houses and bring their items down come on thanks thank you very much and I want to thank representative Fiola representative Sylvia Senator rodericks and mayor Coogan for the opportunity to speak with you here today about our Recycling and Energy Efficiency programs
9:17you know we're very fortunate to live in an area to live and work in an area where you know thanks to the our Partnerships with the administration thanks to the leadership of our legislators and thanks to the engagement of our communities in our and other stakeholders that we have the most robust Energy Efficiency programs in the country so we're very fortunate to have that support here in the state in the in the
9:46political will and the resolve to make these programs happen you know at the beginning this year we are implementing the most ambitious and transformative uh Energy Efficiency programs in the country there's really two strategic prioritizations one is the electrification of homes and businesses by removing the fossil fuel central heating systems or displacing them and getting customers and businesses to
10:13switch to electric heat pumps you know to help to help meet this goal Mass Save is providing education guidance significant financial incentives and other resources to customers to help them in this process where appropriate by converting our homes and businesses to Electric uh central heat instead of fossil fuels we're really preparing our communities for clean energy future the second strategic prior priority is
10:48to make sure that the benefits of our Energy Efficiency programs are available to all of our customers and to support this we have initiatives that to reach out specifically to renters to moderate income customers to income eligible customers and a lot of these programs are offered at low-cost or no cost uh to these communities we also have programs for you know English isolated communities and hard to reach
11:16communities as well you know the goal is to really make Energy Efficiency available to everyone and we're really committed to ensuring that all of our customers have access to these benefits in regards to the recycling program that we're here to talk about today this supports our goals by offering a convenient way for all members of the community to get rid of old efficient dehumidifiers and receive a 30 incentive
11:48the 30 representative once they're validated as a as an eligible customer will be mailed to the customers a few weeks after in the form of a prepaid Visa card in addition customers can also who want to get a new dehumidifier if they purchase an energy STAR certified dehumidifier they can they can send in their application and get an additional thirty dollars back off that new piece
12:14of equipment as well so sixty dollar uh potential incentive to upgrade to an efficient model and they use you know significantly less electricity and they really help us meet our Energy Efficiency goals in the state um in addition just wanted to note that as Fred mentioned everything is all the dehumidifiers are recycled to full EPA compliant standards so every single component all the uh all the gases and
12:44the refrigerant is all is all captured properly stored and documented in terms of uh in terms of the recycling initiative I we want I just wanted to mention one other thing that you know we we here at National Grid never Source understand it's going to be a challenging winter for a lot of customers Energy prices are on the rise um and it's going to be difficult for folks and we're we're here to help and
13:08you know there's Energy Efficiency you know the cheapest possible energy you can you can get is the energy that you don't use so I encourage everyone to go to massive.com look at our Energy Efficiency programs that we have there like I said there's lots of low cost and no cost options for you to improve your home through weatherization through equipment upgrades and just make your home less expensive to operate and
13:37more comfortable for you as well finally I wanted to mention National Grid is hosting a series of events in regards to the pricing excuse me will I just get the details here it's our winter customer savings initiative events that we're hosting around the Commonwealth and we're gonna I have one right here in Fall River from 4 to 7 P.M on December 1st at City Hall so if you're if this is something you're
14:04interested in or concerned about we encourage you to come to that meeting so thanks again to our State Legislative legislators for supporting this fat and for your commitment to Energy Efficiency and sustainability thank you Steve I think Steve did an excellent job basically encapsulating everything uh that's going to take place one of the things about these dehumidifier alternative events is that
14:31it gives us an opportunity in the representatives incentives and opportunity in the mayor to interact with customers and we first hand here perhaps some economic issues that they may be concerned about and we're able to all the different programs that Steve talked about were able to present information for those programs the home energy assessment programs heating cooling incentives especially the income
14:52eligible programs people who don't realize that they may perhaps qualify for the income eligible program a family of four for example making eighty one thousand dollars a year can qualify for the program and that is they could have insulation weatherization added to their homes heating system updates water heating updates uh refrigerated Appliance updates at no cost no money out of their pocket so to Steve's point
15:15we we really encourage people to go to massstave.com to get a full understanding of all the array of opportunities and programs that we have and we always want to remind people that on those bills that you receive each month from National Grid and eversource is a small ever Source a small Energy Efficiency charge on the eversource bill which people are paying into every month when I go out to some of these community
15:38events and do speaking engagements I try and drill home the fact that you're paying into this fund every month it's like having a savings account you've been putting money in for years and years and never taking the money out so we really try to encourage people at these events in other uh events that we have and webinars that we support to make sure that people participate in these programs that they are actually
15:58financing and I hope everyone turns out October 29th 10 a.m to 1 p.m as well thank you October 29th right here under these energy efficient solar panels at Bristol Community College and it takes a village it takes a lot of Partners as you see and one of our ever-present Partners is the president of Bristol Community College Laura Douglas and we thank you for letting us Host this event here Dr Douglas
16:28have a few words well good afternoon everyone and we are thrilled to host this event here in Fall River at our Bristol Community College Fall River Campus and I want to thank the city of Fall River and mayor Coogan as well as our delegation from Bristol County representative Sylvia Senator rodericks and representative Carol Fiola who are here with us today I also want to thank National Grid and eversource and I think
16:55my twin today on the green team look at this yeah do we are we not twins yes well we are not the green team but we certainly are Team Green at Bristol Community College sustainability is very important to us we are under our solar panels behind me are our EV charging stations and we have two zero net buildings in Massachusetts and Bristol Community College this building right over here is one such
17:22building so our commitment to the environment is very very strong so I also want to invite you to come out on the 29th for this wonderful event I hope it's an annual event and while you're here feel free to walk around our campus and envision yourself here as a student at Bristol Community College and we'll do the rest to make it happen thank you so much okay thank you Dr Douglas we're going to
17:48wrap this up but on behalf of myself mayor Coogan and my good colleagues in the legislature we urge you to not only come down here on the 29th but really look at the options you have available to you as we head into this winter season in terms of payment plans on your energy bills in terms of making sure you've connected with citizens for Citizens we really want to make sure
18:12that you are able to take advantage of every service that is available to you in our community to get you through this uh this winter at the best savings possible so thanks to our team here we'll see you on the 29th and uh have a good one