On the agenda: Erie Sustainability Advisory Board Meeting - In Person — data center (Aug 5)

645 Holbrook Street
Erie, CO 80516

Town of Erie
Meeting Agenda
Sustainability Advisory Board
Wednesday, August 5, 2026

1.

Call Meeting to Order

2.

Roll Call and Verification of Quorum

3.

Approval of the Agenda

4.

Approval of Previous Meeting Minutes
Approval of Minutes
a.

Town Hall Community Room

Approval of Sustainability Advisory Board July 1, 2026, Meeting Minutes

5.

Public Comment

6.

General Business

7.

6:30 PM

a.

Council Member Updates

b.

Staff Liaison Updates

c.

Virtual Meeting Policy and Advisory Board Appointment Discussion

d.

Joint TAB/SAB Arbor and Earth Day Debrief Event

e.

2026 Budget Update and 2027 Budget Reduction

f.

September Look Ahead
i.

SAB Corner

ii.

SAP Presentation

iii.

Cleanup Day

iv.

Meeting Attendees

g.

Advisory Board Member Updates

h.

Prior Action Items

Adjournment
a.

Next Regular In-Person Meeting: Wednesday, September 2, 2026 @ 6:30 p.m.

Translation Services
Persons planning to attend the meeting who need sign language interpretation, translation services,
assisted listening systems, Braille, taped material, or other accommodation should email the Town Clerk’s
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Office or call 303-926-2710. Please submit requests at least 48 hours prior to the meeting.
Si requiere una copia en español de esta publicación o necesita un intérprete durante la reunión del
Consejo, por favor llame a la Ciudad 303-926-2710. Por favor envíe sus solicitudes al menos 48 horas
antes de la reunión.

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TOWN OF ERIE

645 Holbrook Street
Erie, CO 80516

Meeting Minutes
Sustainability Advisory Board
Wednesday, July 1st 2026

6:30 PM

1. Call Meeting to Order

•

Anne Walsh calls the meeting to order at 6:35pm

2. Roll Call and Verification of Quorum

•
•

Present: Mackenzie McClaskey, Art Henderlong, Anne Walsh, Will Thomas. Staff: Eryka Thorley
Absent: Karen Winkler, Kathleen Teal, Megan Anders

3. Approval of the Agenda

•

Art moves to approve, Will seconds, approved.

4. Approval of Previous Meeting Minutes

•

Mackenzie moves to approve the June 3, 2026, meeting minutes, seconded by Will, approved.

5. General Business

A. The STEAD School and Aimbridge Energy Presentation: Resilience Hubs
a. Rachel Balkcom, Erie Resident & The STEAD School Director of Partnerships
b. David Lindsey, President & COO with Ambridge Energy Group
c. Ben Berghoff, National Sales Manager with Ambridge Energy Group
d. Chad Alexander, Erie Town Facilities Manager is also present to listen in
e. STEAD is a public charter school for grades 9-12 on ten acres focused on food systems.
Students then learn every piece of the process for building the micro-grid. They have a
production greenhouse.
f. Eryka asks about agrivoltaics (pairing of solar panels with agricultural use like with
livestock or farms) solar garden – the STEAD school’s original idea was to do a regional
training on it and they then learned about microclimates and microgrids. Eryka introduced
Jacks Solar Garden as an example of a local agrivoltaic project. The STEAD school is
planning on putting the back acre aside for solar panels and the agrivoltaic space.
g. Anne asks what a holistic resilience hub looks like and does for the community. Eryka
explains it is where community members can go for clean air, cool or warm air, the ability
to cook if needed, and it needs to have resilience from a power perspective (backup
generation/batteries). Evolving from something like a red cross emergency center into
more of a “blue-sky” center because the community is already there all the time and feels
welcome.
h. Will asks about how valid the spaces are with resilience in terms of batteries and
generators. How do you make it financially beneficial for the city when the city power
providers have such reliable up-time? Their system is stand alone at STEAD, so they are
considered off grid, so they think of the grid as a backup option. They anticipate, especially
around data center areas, the availability of the grid becoming less reliable as time goes
on. But if there are no power outages, the cost benefit analysis is not as easy to provide.
i. Chad talks about how they explored making the community center more resilient from a
facilities standpoint and less of a resiliency hub perspective. He says they will need to
partner with grant funding since some of the payback periods for some of these
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technologies are further out than can sometimes be justified. It started with the beneficial
electrification plan. It is a secondary shelter for the red cross, so they have talked about
having battery backup to make it more reliable during emergency events. Ultimately, they
are exploring using a phased approach, with beneficial electrification, using renewables,
etc.
j. David says that they ask their customers “What are the critical loads you want to cover?”
since covering the entire building is massive and would take significant financial cost.
Similarly, with what Chad was saying regarding the rec center, they do it in a phased
approach.
k. Will talks about Southwest Power Pool (SPP), where everyone puts power into the pool
and people can buy it at different costs. For example, we have a snowstorm here, so we
buy power from Idaho where they have blue skies. Would make more financial
opportunities.
l. David says standard lithium-ion batteries are going to be replaced by something even
more efficient because it’s a constantly evolving field.
m. Eryka mentioned taking the resilience hub model and expanding it further than just
community centers to schools, churches, HOA clubhouses, etc.
n. TOE Floatovoltaic project– started as a ground mount exploration at the North Water
Reclamation Facility approx. 5 acres – real estate became more valuable as a way to
expand the facility rather than do a solar field there. 2x or 3x more expensive than ground
mount solar vs float but the cost has started coming down. Partner identified a vendor for
floatovoltaic which looked at 100% offset and received DOLA grant. Applied for federal
grants and get it in the budget but didn’t happen. Offset 2 meters out there – system 3.1
MW solar array, this phase is 1.2 MW with more phases planned in the future, initial project
finished end of the summer. Direct pay allowed local government to take advantage of tax
credits on these kind of projects but has since been rolled back by the federal
administration.
o. Ambridge mentioned the value of exploring off grid DC powering AC loads, which means
we have higher efficiency options. 5-10 % efficiency loss when going from DC to AC.
Computers are DC, for example, but converted for AC so that you can plug it into the wall.
DC ready appliances are becoming more common. LED lighting are all DC ready.
B. Council Member Updates – No Council Liaisons present
C. Staff Liaison Updates
a. SAP will be going to council on Sept 1st. Updated draft will be done soon and that draft will
be up for resident review soon.
b. Mineral Rights was passed by Town Council, Eryka encourages us to watch the recording.
It will likely reduce our emissions on paper, but we know that those emissions will impact
our air quality.
c. Just booked their community resilience pilot workshops – there will be two general events,
and they will invite Erie residents. Monday July 27th and August 18th in the council
chambers and Community Center. Plan is to go through a resilience process – explain
what it is, etc. Social capital is highly important. Flyer hopefully available next week with a
sign-up link. Requests SAB to distribute fliers. Dinner is also there to entice people.
d. Turf Rebate Program – we are still in stage 2 drought, which has helped people think about
converting their turf.
e. Events: requesting a booth for sustainability at large for Erie Fest on Aug 1st. Farmer’s
Market on July 9th, Clean Up Day is second Saturday of September.
D. Bee Watering Station Event Swag
a. Mackenzie presented two options for 3D printed bee-waterers, which allow water to slowly
trickle from a filled bottle and into shallow pathways so that bees can drink without the risk
of drowning.
b. Anne has a 3D printer. Will suggest injection molds instead – potentially using silicone so
we can avoid plastic.
E. August SAB Corner Contribution
a. We have some backups, but does anyone have a contribution to suggest? Nope.

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b. Will might have a suggestion for September.
F. August Meeting Attendees
a. Will, Eryka and Anne will not be able to make the meeting.
b. Mackenzie, Karen and Art can attend.
c. Megan and Kathleen are unknown – we will need one of them to have quorum.
G. Upcoming Public Engagements
a. Farmers Market on July 9th
b. Erie Fest on August 1st
c. SAB Presentation to Town Council on July 28th. Karen will present; all are welcome to
attend.
H. Advisory Board Member Updates
a. Art – is under the impression that the Earth Day / Arbor Day will be at the Coal Creek park
instead of the community park. There are staff members that may want the event to be
moved. Historically they wanted to move to different parks to show case the different areas
of the town. He distributed the pros and cons list shown below:

I.

i. Eryka will follow up with Tom and circle back.
b. Mackenzie asks about what our interest would be in partnering with the library (and
potentially the rec center, pending Ian discussing this idea with them) to host a paper
shredding.
i. We need to avoid redundancy since with the fall clean up event we have a
shredding event. Will also ask for when he would be looking to do it. Ridwell could
also be a good option to test the waters.
Prior Action Items
a. Will said they had about a dozen folks come through for the Makerspace Garden Tours
and had a lot of interest.
b. Eryka said there is a need for bylaws for the boards, she will bring it to August or

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September meeting.
6. Adjournment

•

Adjourned at 8:16pm. Next meeting is August 5, 2026.

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Sustainability Advisory Board

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Meeting Agenda

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