We hope everyone has been enjoying the long President’s Day weekend, and if school break is relevant to your household, that it’s off to a great start as well. It’s a relatively quiet week in Town, as folks continue preparing their May election campaigns and the Town’s annual budget season formally kicks off on Tuesday.
Brookline Town Board and Commission Meetings of Note
- As alluded to above, the Select Board and Advisory Committee will be holding a joint meeting on Tuesday evening February 20 at 6pm for a presentation of Brookline’s financial plan by Town Administrator Chas Carey and Deputy Town Administrator Melissa Goff. This will be the first public opportunity to learn about the Town Administrator’s proposed budget, including everything from funding day-to-day operations of Town services, the Tow-School revenue split, long range capital projects, and more. While technically Town Meeting has the ability to amend the budget in May, practically speaking the best way to have your voice heard is through the Advisory Committee and Select Board’s budget processes. The financial plan is available online here. And the joint meeting agenda can be found here, Zoom registration here.
- The Zero Admissions Advisory Board (ZEAB) mandate is to help the Town achieve our ambitious goal of Zero Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions across both municipal and community wide functions by 2040. As a part of this goal, they will be meeting on Tuesday, February 20th at 9am, in-person at Town Hall, to discuss and vote on submitting a warrant article to Town Meeting amending the zoning bylaw to allow installation of energy saving devices in yard setbacks. The draft article can be found here. Making it easier for households and businesses to transition to climate friendlier energy equipment is hugely important, and we are excited to see ZEAB consider steps to do exactly this. The meeting agenda and how to join are available at this link.
Run for Town Meeting and Help Elect Pro-Housing Candidates!
One of the most important steps we can take to implement pro-housing reforms to help move Brookline toward the environmentally sustainable, economically thriving, and racially inclusive community we all want to call home is to elect pro-housing candidates to Town Meeting every May. In order to make this happen, we need great candidates who understand that Brookline needs more housing – affordable housing, subsidized housing, income restricted housing, and market rate housing – and the town’s zoning policy needs to allow this housing growth by right. Brookline for Everyone will be holding our second “Run for Town Meeting Info Session” on Tuesday February 27th at 7pm where we’ll cover the logistics of getting your name on the ballot, how to campaign in your neighborhoods, how Brookline for Everyone can help, and what being on Town Meeting entails. Sign up here to learn more. And if you can’t make the 27th and are considering running for Town Meeting email BrooklineForEveryone@gmail.com; we’d love to connect one-on-one!
And if running for Town Meeting isn’t in the cards for you this year, we still need your help to support and elect pro-housing candidates! Please consider a generous donation to the Brookline for Everyone PAC to help fund our campaign efforts!
An Important Message from Brookline’s Climate Advocacy Community: Are you looking to make your home more healthy, comfortable, and climate friendly?
Electrify Brookline, a community campaign launched by the Town’s Zero Emissions Advisory Board, Brookline Mothers Out Front, and Climate Action Brookline, has produced a series of How-To Guides to assist our neighbors in electrifying their homes and transportation, which are major contributors to carbon emissions. The guides walk you through how to electrify your homes, provide examples from neighbors, and give you resources to get started.
You can find the guides, as well as a handy checklist to make a plan, on the Town of Brookline website.
To save hundreds or even thousands of dollars, check out our Financial Incentives: Rebates & Tax Credits chart. Don’t leave money on the table!
Finally, Electrify Brookline is developing a Green Contractors List with feedback from neighbors about contractors they used. We need your help! If you’ve installed insulation, heat pumps, an induction stove, an EV charging station, solar panels, or other types of electrical products or services, please fill out this form.