20 minute meeting conect CL server we0 minutes okay following the meeting of the environmental commission to order on May 6 P 7:36 p.m. okay um first order in minutes I had put down all list of minutes because so I didn't go back to check which ones happening I think March 18th and March 25th DAV had asked about February 19th so I put that in did anyone get a chance to review February 19th I and if not we pass on to the next time we should try and knock it out right it's not going to get all through February 18th in February 18 2025 19th or 18th 19th yeah M all right anyone else anyone reviewed anyone reviewed them all right I'm not hearing any things so we'll keep that to the next time March War March 4 that was that was that was mine no I don't know April 15 just came in yeah4 was mine I don't want to keep that's just those need to be reviewed okay um thing on new business order of 134 I'm sorry we have three minutes per resident and Market you're here so you're allowed to speak on any agenda so does that include new business and old business yes okay and storm water ordinances there all right so I don't know anything about the two plans that are up there so I can't speak to those no um so the storm water ordinance I sent Richard in um a message earlier today with John Leo who I'm working with on um and others that I'm working with on revising the storm water coordinance for the township um we basically it's a similar process that we're going to use that we did with the tree ordinance but I'm hoping to make it a little bit more efficient so there's less back and forth um so I asked Richard and the environmental Commission for their feedback um on what they want to see Incorporated in the storm ordinance Richard provided me some information um I'm going away for a week so when I come back I'll incorporate that so if the environmental commission has any further input um if you could let me know then um Richard provided me with the Watershed Association model ordinance which is slightly different from New Jersey futures I haven't dug into it to see what the differences are sure would be nice if these organizations could get together to help out municipalities with a single approach but I get it um so I did use the most recent version of the New Jersey feature Futures recommended ordinance even though the link that I sent with the email was from three months ago but we're not using the version from on on their 2021 and that like okay so the one that I used was updated in January in December of last year and I've got a call out to them that they recently very recently published an update but they didn't Redline what they were doing so they didn't highlight the changes from December till now which makes it very difficult because then I have to go through 58 pages of model ordinance I've been there so um but that's my hassle not anybody else's um so we will be having we will schedule a meeting to review the um the proposed updates the model ordinance probably the biggest thing for our town is we my understanding is we have the support of the administration to adopt um requirements for minor cite minor developments and not just major developments so the previous ordinance only covered major developments um so we will be including the environmental groups recommendations for minor developments and along with that comes um recommendations for green infrastructure and a variety of other things so second just realize Renee we're having a link issue so Renee Kim and Steve cannot get them are they using link from yeah and I just tried it too we get the uh uh another meeting in progress so I'm this meeting can you invite them by yeah that's Emil I'm trying to stop this meeting what was the meeting go to the that meeting I think participants yeah I'm trying to this computer sucks sorry I got to call what it is you know I haven't been in this room for a meeting that he has worked of their son even with liing to filter and you enter an email yeah yeah you have to go over it's on compx now so you have to go over to Ema oh but you have to be link to umop the invitation but I don't even know how you get it it's on this computer can you look at the meeting information and get oh no because they're in the same yeah that'll work get the meeting ID and password that's what I suggest to show everybody then in the whole world we'll see if they try to mute I business all right anybody else well that's the thing anybody else trying to get in is probably not going to get in minutes somewhere okay so we're coming back uh minus Devion sure um so I was just giving a brief update that um I volunteered with Council to update the storm water ordinance um so I've Incorporated the drafts from New Jersey features which is a group of environmental organizations probably the big news is that um I believe the township is fine with adding minor developments to the storm water ordinance to go along with major ones which is more restrictive than the D proposal so Richard provided some feedback I'm going to be aware for the next week any other feedback that the environmental commission has suggestions or recommendations for changes to the existing storm water ordinance if they could be provided to me by the middle of the month optimally um then we'll have some stakeholder meetings and issue a draft of the updated ordinance um so the draft of the updated ordinance probably won't happen until later in the month um but that's the general plan um the ms4 permitting the other another point that I don't know the people are aware of is part of the permitting process is a mapping of all um storm drains basins whatever exists in the town so we have contracted with neglia engineering to do to begin doing that work um when I saw the initial um contract with neglia I asked for a clarification in the budget I asked for a clarification because the information that I received at the um League of municipalities this year said that this was really a huge effort so Liza went back and asked neglia and they agreed that there was more money necessary for this effort for them to head it up um I'm going to work with Liza in hopes that we can get some Volunteers in order to help with that GIS mapping so my understanding is that there's like software available you can download the client software for free and then basically volunteers can help map the location of the storm drains and manholes and whatever else there is and then neglia would you know work on that information for our submission so I don't know that that's going to be possible but I thought it would be nice if we could try to get some volunteers instead of paying the Consultants more money than they need um I would like to say a big thank you to the um to Richard and the environmental commission for their support on the tree ordinance it finally passed woohoo um there was one set of negative comments on the night that we were passing pass ing the ordinance um I haven't received the feedback from that from that Resident yet but I did tell him I'd review his feedback and you know we would potentially consider um updates for the future he was concerned that it went too far regarding residents and it was going to be too great a burden on the residents um uh regarding grants I found a grant listed that we actually missed the um the deadline for I don't know if you you were aware of it Richard it was the association of environmental commissions a an organization a a JC we are right so there there was a grant this year having to do with maintaining open space that possible things are removing invasive species Trail mapping Trail development um so we didn't we didn't meet the deadline this year we didn't make an an application so um my suggestion for the environmental commission is that you work on a set of potential projects that then we can scope out the possible cost for and then we can have them available for for when the grants committee or the township learns of more grants that could be used in this area so what happens is the grants committee finds a potential Grant then we have to read the details and see if we can apply for it and whether it fits anything that you know the township priorities and then we have to go find a project so the environmental commission could kind of get in front of that a little bit and say I'm going to use an example that I saw on my own walk um the the short nature trail over on Snyder park on the side of the baseball field there's a stand of bamboo that's coming through into the park from a neighbor's yard so a grant like this could pay for the the the removal of that bamboo and some sort of a barrier to stop it from coming into the park um that's the kind of thing that we can't get volunteers out there there to just you know pull it out by the roots because bamboo is too invasive um so that's you know I implore the environmental commission to come up with some potential projects so then we can get on the grants this one we'll put on the calendar and we'll look for the opening of that Grant starting in January of next year I think the deadline was March 24th or April 24th but it opened up earlier in the year so we'll put it on our calendars um and we would love to do more in order to get grants to help you know the natural world here in Berkeley Heights so so can I get some clarification on how that would work in practice yep the in the let's take that bamboo inside the park yes who would do the actual removal of the bamboo it would be contracted so we would get a quote so basically somebody either the township a volunteer from the environmental commission working with the township don't know really how that works yet but we would get an estimate of the number of dollars required to do that right so if you want to build a new Trail there's work there's materials you estimate it and then when you write the grant proposal you tell the story of why this is important and you quote the amount of money you're looking for and then they give you a grant there are some that are matching grants we definitely prioritize the ones that don't require a match if they do require a match we're looking for ones that optimally the accept in kind donation as the match like so let's take the you know this example of the stand of bamboo if one of our local landscaping or Contracting companies has a back C that you need to do this work and they're willing to give it to us for half the price then the other half the price becomes an in-kind donation so we can use that as part of the grant proposal to say we're getting an in-kind donation of this um so we've done that with a number of local businesses um you know landscapers when we get grants for like the the plants in the um Veterans Park for example um so we would need to get an idea of the dollars and then that goes into the grant proposal and then once we get the grant then Li in the administration works with whoever she needs to to make this happen I know more about it on the recreation side then I because you know there's the recreation team works with the DPW and they get grants for playground equipment they go out and contract with the equipment vendor they get a quote they at the grant the equipment vendor comes in if work needs to be done on the site um before that DPW does it but if we need to bring somebody in then there's money involved and that would have to be a part of do that help yes it's a little fuzzy over there because that's actually a Union County Park so you know then yeah but the same would apply if it was say 3 acres property that was Township yes administered yes yeah so there's nothing that said in it didn't look like in that grant that we would be preluded from doing the work on a Union County Park yeah this grant that I mentioned specifically is for environmental commissions to apply for so in that case the township would provide the support to the environmental commission for writing that Grant so we would have to write these grance I'm I apologize I came in late I was having difficulty joining but you're saying we would have we the environmental commission would have to write the grant which would make us responsible for its execution is that correct no exactly what I'm saying the in this specific grant that I mentioned which is help me return a e andj yeah and Ja that's how it's pronounced okay um this specific Grant is available for environmental commissions to apply for so in this case you know let's say let's go to February of next year right the grants committee comes to the environmental commission and says this is a great Grant opportunity they give up to you know $50,000 what kind of projects are there on the boards what's the highest priority we have a conversation and then the grants committee will write the grant with the assistance of the environmental commission right so we're not we don't expect the environmental commission to be grant writers then the rant is applied for on behalf of the environmental commission but then the environmental commission works with the Township in order to make that to execute the grant so we wouldn't expect the environmental commission to go out and hire a contractor to do this word that would be done through the township does that answer your question who goes I mean if it's if it's going to land in my question is just we've done projects that we've gotten grants for and we would have to oversee the project oversee its execution make sure that the you know the pictures are submitted and the reports are submitted and the followup is submitted is that correct or would the township do that or you know after the grants committee writes it we basically responsible for making sure everything happens with it I the grant going to write the grant proposal and we're responsible for everything else I yes that's my question I'll get a clarification for that um or you know Richard if you're going to talk to lies on another topic anytime time soon you could get a clarification as well um I'm supposed to talk to livea tomorrow about grants in general so I can add that to my list of questions and send the environmental commission back and answer my understanding in general is that the grant committee assists with the writing of the grant we help get acquire the grant then we identify and help write it and do any follow-up necessary and then the township the administration of the township takes over from there and in some cases that would be the rec um Commission because the rec commission does have their own fund but they so I don't know I don't know that it works exactly that way because we have gotten an anjac Grant in the at least one anjac Grant in the past and once we have gotten it while the township does do the you know the finan get the money in for it we're still responsible for the you know doing everything to effectuate it so while they process the funds and expend the funds and get in the funds and do whatnot ultimately we're responsible for it so if you could get some clarification as to what exactly the township is going to do responsibility wise versus what we the environmental commission will be responsible for doing for each grant that would be helpful okay so is your concern that the environmental commission doesn't have the resources is that what I'm hearing my that if we get the grant the environmental commission is going to have to follow through on everything related to the project we'll be the project man manager sorry you broke up a little I'll get a clarification on that because we get like the the historic preservation committee isn't responsible for overseeing the restoration of latel Lord okay um yeah if you could get clarification because in the past just saying in the past when we've gotten grants we've been responsible for we've been basically the project managers and responsible for the execution of the project okay absolutely right we become the project managers I'm happy to step away from the $725,000 Grant and Alo would step away from that too but we are the project managers 720 the plant Tre around the town for the next three years all right I'll get um clarification so okay the other thing is uh you're talking about bamboo coming from private property onto public property is that right that was the the bamboo was origin as far as I can tell and I didn't you know go into the Bamboo Grove but it's on the edge it's on the the resident side of the trail and it looks like the bamboo started in the resident's yard so we can't remove the bamboo from the resident's yard but there should be some type I I haven't done the research into bamboo to see is there some type of a barrier that you can put in to at least slow down the growth or the spread of bamboo right so the towns have this problem and the way this has been handled by Tom bucko is that when the bamboo is an invasive form of bamboo commonly called Running bamboo because it just runs um that is treated as a as a nuisance and that is covered under the ordinance that means that some somebody has presumably grown bamboo on their property and allowed it to uh off of the property that person is so responsible for keeping the bamboo on their property and if they don't then they are taken to court to to have that project done they have to hire they have to hire someone to remove the bamboo right so that if that's the case with this County property I would notify that to County what do you want to do you know that's a nuisance I was using the stand of bamboo as an easy example to illustrate what we could do with this grant it's a small confined project that's easily defined and I wouldn't apply for the grant for that I would my first okay first course of action would be to ask Tom B to notify the resident uh you know but that's what's happening we looked at that Brant not not for that purpose but because the high school has a rain garden and that rain Garden uh captures rainwater from the from the parking lot up at the high school y uh we got quotes for uh for doing the work and I encouraged the high school to apply for this grant because we as the environmental commission could applied for the grant to use it on the high school property that didn't happen in time for the grant to um to be a bful so my proposal to the high school was well let's look at that Grant or another Grant because we can apply to New Jersey American water or rant for for things like rainbows so that we can fix the problem of the water uh coming off of the rain of the parking lot and getting into the rainbow that's a project that's going to cost maybe $8,000 or $110,000 to fix so that's uh we did look at that okay so my so just let me finish oh I'm sorry I thought you were finished so we in fact are are really very active and looking for Grants and that's one reason why we promote sustainable Jersey membership because if you're certified under sustainable Jersey there are grants that are coming throughout the year that we can apply for them one was one that Kim apply for we've applied for we applied for a grant back when the community garden was sted we got a grant to to build uh uh that community garden so and one of our members is on the grand committee that's alphab so we are really aware of grant opportunities uh that in the environmental hearing okay uh the other thing is that the June deadline for stormwater ordinance but to complete the survey of the uh of the um that's the word I want the drains the the cat Basin I think the deadline for that is either 2025 2026 right so I didn't my update was on your agenda you mentioned the ms4 yes so this the mapping is the ms4 permitting and that's coming we have money allocated to be working on that process right um plus the ordinance were working dating that the other aspect of the ms4 is that the environmental commission and specifically John Leo was supposed to be doing this reporting on all uh educational aspects of uh things related to stor so for example I gave a presentation um to the planning gr that counts as an educational presentation that should be reported and the ad report to the state um for our ms4 education status that's where that's going be so John did mention the not tracking educational events but he did um when we talked to Liza recently he did bring up the communication the regular communication to um residents like a calendar kind of anything related to strong water you know that we you know even publicity any kind of story that we put out to ask people to do things okay um related to St to inform them about St um and adopt the drain uh is uh part of that so that that's a program that Kim started where we're encouraging residents toop the drain and clean out clean out the uh the group what do you the grid the top of the C it um so I'll AB I'll absolutely make a note about that um tracking the education requirements and make sure that um I'll follow up with John Leo because we just did the um we did an update on the westside drainage uh a conference session on the westside drainage project um at the um last Township meeting so we can add that as well to the list of educational things and unfortunately on video from that meeting the the screen that was showing to you people in was not showing in the video they did not switch over to the presentation so anybody who was viewing it online didn't see so it would be good if that could be put on we need the power yeah so going back to the original the first up that you gave on the stor water ordinance so I we going back a few years now we looked at the DP recommendation for B ordinance for for minor developments um and the one of the gaps that we kind of ran into and start at that point was if you do that if you require storm water infrastructure for minor prod paos those sorts of things you wind up having to track them in some way is that how the p is going to go forward um I'm not sure I don't want to say we're early in this process because a lot of people have spent a lot of hours over the past four years looking at possible potential recommended updates a lot of the analysis work has been done what I took on was taking the actual ordinance text that we have incorporating the recommendations that were made incorporating the in the Statewide environmental group's recommendations how they Define a minor ordinance um The Watershed um Association for example they said that in a major development it was either Paving or repaving they actually specified the replacement of imperious coverage and I thought that was a really good thing because we've had you know the bank replaces their parking lot they didn't do anything to adhere to the new they wouldn't need to do anything to adhere to the new regulation unless we say that that puts it into a major instead of right yeah um so my first job was basically to immerse myself in this and the language of the ordinance put all of that together put the new tables in the new measurements in right and then come to the environmental Commission tombacco the administration for what recommendations they have which goes potentially above and beyond what we had said or you know maybe the similar to the tree ordinance the administration asked us to pull back on some of the recommendations that went a little further right so there's there needs to be a back and forth with this yeah so I'm not sure where the tracking gets into it yeah but for the green infrastructure specifically um it says that um for properties of less than an acre um dry Wells are fine if you go more than an acre then you you should be looking at swes and Rain Gardens and other things so when you get into minor developments you know this is a reminder to to the residents when we present this that this is really it's designed for everybody it's designed for our whole pwn but the most C I'm not even going to say costly but the majority of the ordinance is directed at large projects come yeah right they're going to build a new building they're going to replace their parking lot they're going to do something else they need to address storm water when they do that yeah so the the bit that catches the small development is when when you gra the threshold in more than x number of square feet correct so it's all it's all where the other meets the road is what's that minimum square feet threshold that trips into the ordinance um if you then require mitigation of storm water what are the allowed things that you can do and then what provision are we going to have as a Township to make sure that those are maintained and that they're still there a year 5 years years down the road because if you don't do that it's all paperwork and it's all meaningless well it's all meaning I don't have an answer for that we're obviously hiring additional staff the township to go out and you know review the rain Gardens in people's yards is not going to happen right easier that's easier than inspecting the the dry RS because any of the dry the issue all of this stuff will stop working if you don't maintain it I I don't disagree with you but we so this is this is where we got being absolutely yeah this is where we got to about four years years we are not there will not be an okay to increase staff and salaries in order to do you know this that's a separate issue because that that depends upon what the state says to the municipalities all right state says to the municipali hey you're supposed to be maintaining a a record of what inspections are done and if the town turns around and says we can't do it okay then that conversation has to take place I thought that's where it was going a few years ago right yeah I'm not I'm not trying to argue where it's going where it's not going the point is that uh there's got to be you know something coming from the state that's telling correct the other aspect of that is that in addition to the storm water ordinance the state has also publish storm water best management practices that's a whole compendium of what you're supposed to be doing uh as far as bio retention or uh CIS turns dry Wells uh including where they can be used how what these specifications are or conditions are for for doing them so that's a whole thing that's not part of a St water ordinance except that it has any town has to consider those storm water investment the ordinance states that you have to follow the best practices and there are specific places in the ordinance that refer directly to the best practices by chapter and paragraph and they rate then these different practices so if you take a dryw as an example that's capturing uh uh storm water off of a roof of a house that's permitted because dry Wells are not rated for uh total suspended salads they cannot collect suspended solids you have to have another uh way to collect that storw so if stor water is collected off of a a driveway the driveway is going to be subject to solids from cars parking on the driveway there's going to be oil from the car dripping onto the driveway unless you go to completely electric but but the point is that there are different conditions that apply to what What that particular uh practice is going to be whether it's going to be a dryw or or a bio retention a vegetated bi retention the um and in general the um bio retention can't say for sure 100% of the time but in general vegetated areas are less expensive to construct than putting in a dryw because you put in a dryw that may have to be 6 ft or 10 ft deep so you're now digging up a hole 6 or 10 ft deep you're putting in this dryw that presumably is going to work there and you've now got a whole bunch of dirt that you've got to get rid of a a vegetated area a bio retention area a rain Garden is about nine in deep total so whatl is much deeper than that that's because it's on a hill but the but if you measure if you measure from the top at the base of the Hill down that total area even on the slope is is only N9 or 10 in deep do we know of any properties any homeowners in Berkeley Heights that have been stalled um rain Gardens and swailes yeah well I was thinking that it might Park the park still has a rain bur um the U Columbia midal right so what I was thinking though is we want to encourage Residential Properties to stop sending their gutters to the street and sending their some pumps to the street oh yeah so it I was thinking that it might be nice to to do an information segment on you know laes happening in the Heights or you know just another one that talks about shows people what a rain Garden looks like in a yard you know and says you can still have your play set and your trees and your patio and a raining barard most of the pictures online and even the ones that we do at the schools are much bigger so somebody look at that and says I can't put that in my yard right there's there's a rain there are two rain Gardens up at freeat to so if you could Richard let's talk about that because I think that would be a map there's a map that is uh online of rain Gardens in Union County also some of the plans that go to gone to the um border adjustment where we've weighed in on imperious coverage right the verdict from the board of adjust adjustment has been this development say had pool is approved but the homeowners instructed to work with the township engineer on a storm water management so I don't know what came out of those discussions and what resulted in being constructed whether those were swells or whether it was rain Gardens or whether they determined the condition of the soil was such that they couldn't do anything and did nothing I have no idea so opportunities there to dig into some recent approvals and see what I'll follow couple R so I know a number of years ago when I put in my patio we were required to do a um a water like a pation no we were required to like file like what the slope is okay um to make sure that our the work that we were doing on our property was not going to negatively impact our name right there's a I'm just blanking on what the name of the plan is um it's not it might be a drainage plan yeah so we had to show that the gutters were going somewhere and that they wasn't so I don't I'm not sure what that looks like with the building department anymore but we should like I I think that is still the practice so the township engineer whenever that comes up Township engineer looks at uh at the plans and if there's any change in slope a resident is supposed to notify the town I'm changing the slope here and because right well I wasn't changing the slope I'm just specifically on a hill right so if I do stuff then that potentially causes water to you know flow more down here I think I think they' be called storm water management PLS today if you I tell about storm water management plans implemented in private residences you might be able to point on okay yeah I'll follow up on that that's that's a great so I'd like to do you know that kind of an information session for residents and then make it available on the website so then when we talk about you know Green infrastructure for your home when we talk about a rain Garden somebody can actually see pictures in a yard and understand that this is you know it can be visually attractive it's not taking up your whole yard you know it's easy to maintain you just have to clean out the gunk so and then the one other thing I'll say that we also ran into a couple a few years back when we we're discussing this is some some parts of town have problems with um poorly per perious soils and or high water table for part of the if the water table's High going interes any so yeah it's not it's not necessarily straight forward to determine if a given's property can use some of some of this green infrastructure yeah and and that happened with the plan from the church up at Mountain and planfield the engineers claimed that the water table was too high so that they put in a they proposed it didn't happen right hasn't happened they proposed putting in a uh fire retention Basin but it would drain it wouldn't just wouldn't percolate into the ground uh fill up in and drain into the sour interesting so the people on the phone do you have any questions or comments I guess everybody's a no no I mean I think this is a this is a good conversation now that we're you know we're discussing implementation here so it's going to be a challenge for sure um so yep let's keep putting our heads together yeah I'm gonna I'm sorry go ahead I'm gonna I'm gonna mention just something um a reminder of something that got said earlier when we're talking about information from the town on storm drains now there it may be more than just storm drains but a reminder that we were able to get um geo coordinates for use um with the adopter drain program so that data exist well the to the township engineer had already conducted that study I don't know how long ago the township engineer had done that but that was already on file okay so the um ms4 permitting as far as I understand from the sessions I attend at the league of municipalities goes further than just saying there's a storm drain here um you have to indicate where it's draining to like what pight essentially it's going to and also who owns these things so you know the stuff from the highway comes somewhere so that's State comes into our storm water system or it goes down into the green right but so where we know that's part of this mapping process is to identify not not only what it is but how big it is and what it drains into so that you can map the whole system and you know the point that they were making was we don't know how to fix it until we really get our arms around what it is and most towns don't have that full mapping but and it's not just the storm drains it's also manholes um the bio retention basins that are done it's CTS and and whatever is part of that storm water system needs to be maed it's exens infastructure broading beyond just soing yes Renee one one more thought that came to mind so you know our our Town's changing I you know we're getting new residents coming in every time a house goes for sale it sells quickly are we doing any kind of education for potential new residents um um I mean what do they get exposed to when they're considering buying to Berkeley Heights I'm not a realtor but I remember years ago when I was you know shopping around for towns and houses my realtor did Supply a wealth of knowledge about the town so I can make an informed decision are we doing anything like that in terms of you know this new ordinance and environmental issues we say there is a realator in town I think who was spearheading some some sort of information packet that is given out new I think Diva meta is um I don't know I know I can reach out to her because I know she's done a lot of it I don't know if it's like for all Realtors or it's just her need to find that out but I know that she has developed something and I think it may be possible that BH DC of this too I'm not sure so um because I think she attends oh yes she is part of the yeah so unless you know to ask those questions you would not know there's an ordinance for this off of that yeah I'm sure there's not much in the way of our information necessarily you know uh we'd have to develop something but I know other organizations do seert their uh materials in this packet to kind of you know give every you know I guess make themselves known to new residents course that only applies to homeowners and not necessarily like rental developments right so like Madera and and and whatever the one that used to be on across from uh Memorial Park you know those don't get access and they specifically have you know no flyer rules often that that don't allow any materials from being left but maybe perhaps a conversation especially if it applies to them directly like you know they don't have to worry about mowing lawn necessarily but there are other Township rules that maybe they as renters should be aware of so so I have spoken to laza and Angie about ideas for uh resident mailers um the we already send the tax bills so in a lot of towns you get your tax bill in an envelope and there's other information that's included in the envelope um so could we do that here in Berkeley Heights and they seemed receptive to that idea um you know then we would make the the service available the environmental commission would provide content it would go on on um8 and a half by four or five what's number 10 EnV right if F in a number 10 envelope you know a two panel right um the rec commission could do one the you know whoever else whatever other interested par is in town um the the one side to that is the pieces are reusable then because they could go you know at the street fair they could be used in information bins downstairs as people come on Town into town hall um but they don't hit the renters and the um the tow houses because those are they aren't paying taxes in the traditional so you know then there was a discussion about maybe we needed to do a resident mailing again the resident mailing that'll hit the tow houses but it doesn't get the apartments because they're not on file with us for so question what does because they also don't be next the same way what about 3s what are the rules I don't know so to answer have to oby but whether they you know as far as communication with residents the initial thing was can we take advantage of what we're already mailing because then it'll be a little bit more expensive but not really expensive and you know to Rene's question how do we get the information to people there are holes in that system so we are talking about it it's not going to happen tomorrow it's not going to happen next month um but you know maybe we'll get something going for the fall or we can start a program that starts next year and I I think for for environmental issues it's in particular interesting for new potential residents because you know they want to just come you know buy a ranch knock it down and build a multi-million dollar home but the with with boundaries right so we want to make sure there's awareness because I know everyone who wants to put on a deck a patio anything they get upset because of of our you know all of that so the more awareness there is out there there the better it will be and hopefully it'll be embraced right because we we live in a very special area um and and yeah with lots of challenges we used to do there was a green fair that we held a couple of years we did a Green fair when Len per was still J the green at the U it was in Colombia at colia exactly is there any thought of doing like something like that again it would be great to do that we have we have the bandwidth to do it that would be great because we involved the Scouts in that we involveed vendors that were environmentally oriented because there's a lot of interest in you know for example solar panels right we at that time there were there was a uh they were promoting some sol PS it was um uh a company that would evaluate your home for solar P I got mine evaluated but I have too many trees yeah probin had one recently during their day event which was the same day as our tree give away but um you know they had Eevee thing they had you know they had a various other vendors pitching their you know their their uh responsible sustainable uh uh you know products or whatever so well if the environmental commission wants to think about that I mean PA May I'll you know happily sign on to a committee to help organize um but the best thing would be next year if we year be next year's Earth Day we combine the tree giveaway with it if there's enough room for it and then just doing the same site you know I mean since we did an intership parking lot this time I me we had a lot fewer seedlings but you know say all right block off the entire parking lot for for this effort and then that's what it'll be and we have to move it indoors rain we'll figure that out but that might be a good way Renee to um also get residents out and think about what how how can you be environmentally responsible in today in our town and show that we're committed to it so it's a little short notice but is there anything within the next 33 days that could be because the blck party is the m we have a Township right so um you know that would be an excellent starting opportunity at least for kind of trial something you know usually it's been us running along with the historical preservation committee split the booth um but you know T really wasn't necessarly involved recently took up most of the space so what about um picture boards that included landscaping and things on your house like you could do the house and show that the gutters are going into the garden and their solar panels on the roof and there's an EV charger on the side and the driveway is made of Herby perious Paving or a patio that you know they they make some nice designs where it's a block of concrete and then like River stones in between which makes the it makes it drainable provided that you don't put in like underneath the whole thing but you know what I mean like picture boards that show what you can do to make your house more environmentally friendly and I also think pictures of our storm that we had in 20 what was it 21 with all the the streets that were closed and how why this is so important right to prevent this from happening and Kim the adop a drain like just all of that all of those efforts I like the picture words yeah those yeah I don't want to get into more of the details because we have other things to cover right the final thing about the ms4 is that one of the other requirements this town has to do and I thought there was money for this is they have to fix the uh catch Basin so that the openings are smaller you'll see that on C catch Bas since there's a large opening and that needs to be made smaller two ways to do it one is to take that whole thing out and put another one in the other is to just put a plate on there I don't remember which way uh uh s of was recommending so I know that the majority of catch basins many catch basins were replaced because they also had to be bicycle friendly so we had a a whole bunch of them in town that were not they were the old um long rails so that the bicycle wheel so then you could catch a Bic I know I'm terrified of that um so the new ones are like a honeycomb design which makes it flat my dog still won't walk on it um and I know that the opening size was an issue as well and yes I believe there there was money in the budget and you know whatever's left on that they should be updated so I will ask the Administration for an update on it all right those are good updates thank you you com to walber meetings now I'll put them on myal I can't make promises but budet for most but obviously I have to come back because I have to give you updates for the things that I said follow up on all right then let us move on uh we're going back to our plans 134 Avenue which uh is uh um a business that they want to uh do some work with and add uh some trees and a and that is a business that is at the edge of a reparan Zone in fact the reparan Zone extends into the property and there's uh two uh uh sometimes called C pitch pits or dry Wells that are are proposing to install there I recommended uh that certain things be considered there including a pipe that seems to be running from the seage pit into the woods um asking whether a 100 foot plus pipe is really necessary uh can they do a shorter pipe and also would that putting installing that pipe involve any removal of vegetation did people get a chance to review it and have any comments so is that pipe still on the property I think the way I saw the plan is that the pipe isn't there yet because there's not a a dryw there yeah so this would be like overflow from those SE dump out into the into the repair flowing into the into the bom right the other thing I didn't see in that was anything about impervious coverage is that not required for commercial properties yeah there's well I I indicated what the requirement was versus what is allowed and they're under the maximum on that I'm in the recommendation in the why existing oh yeah yeah so by permit 70% right yeah so not okay I'm fine with so okay I hear a motion motion to approve the recommendation for 34 Miner Avenue as rapid second okay any objections if there's no objections no objections for me 115 can dry um yeah they want to put in the swimming pool this property if I remember incorrectly was part of the the major development that was put in there on that side of Kent Drive where they put in really long driveways set the houses far back from the street and then at the edge of the so there's a large lawn on each of these properties uh and uh that extends for several houses up the street uh there the large houses large Lots yes large houses large Lots uh and now they want to put in the swimming pool and they also would put in uh uh a dryw well and uh I asked the question whether that is also addressing the um this the uh driveway is there any uh uh effort to capture storm water uh run off in the driveway uh and is are those Drive Wells capturing and run off from the from the house that wasn't clear to me and I couldn't uh tell from the drawings whether that was the case and so they if I recall correctly they exceed maximum so therefore recommend that the application has uh proposed be rejected and they be asked to uh retain strong water on with um uh by retaining storm water run off from the driveway and from the house with the with the rainbow so here's my question yes what they're proposing to add is a f on a p yes can we extend the scope of our recommendation say oh by the way you got a driveway you should be mitigating them from your driveway uh we can certainly ask yeah so Richard I know this street I walk down it every day and they they actually it's it's parallel to Sher sherbrook I think anyway coming right onto Mountain Avenue when they built this new development they cleared all the trees during a rainstorm the water just comes pouring down onto Mountain Avenue and pools right excent so I'm with I'm I'm with I'm I agree that we need to be a little bit more Stern with our recommendations because adding a pool and what else are they adding we we'll just make it worse it'll precipitate the issue we we have this discussion so many times of the fact that our boards have made these decisions in past years and even recent years that add huge amounts of imperious surface or it's just along and along with a heavy rainfall the water just but the black is is worse yeah um and we make these recommendations often seem to fall on their fears and then situation now reming the fact that they have this driveway that's not mitigated I'm not sure that we've got any real leverage to have them fix that problem we be like have them fixed with bullish thanks still are you say ask when you when you've got no basis for making an ask I'm not I think it just becomes noise after a while I'm it forres the heck out of we have yeah is I guess how you know also if we offer more options that like I was thinking what if you know like not just the driveway but you know if patio or the end or the um unless Pao whatever space is for around pool if those could be constructed of purpus papers you know um but then like if you cherry pick like like okay this one adding this plus this doesn't address the issue your purose coverage is still X you know and then and then that might even further confuse them so you know but then having those options might allow the planning Bard or Board of adjustment whichever is Ru like you know that they can say all right as long as you meet choose two of three you know or something like that then that will address it we just it's just there's a lot of math involved with all these different aspects the other the other aspect of this is that really if we attend the meeting then we can bring up that issue instead of allowing them to SC and that takes time you need to sit in on the me and you need to be there in person because they don't take comments from people who are attending bya Zoom at least that is my so I am on board with the recommendation we don't that's consistent with the way that we right routinely deal with these um I guess I'm uncomfortable with reopening existing driveways and roof drainage if the question is about P I'm not sure is impious p p yeah so all of the new all the new impervious is is absolutely in scope of what we should be discussing I'm not convinced we should we've really got basis for passing comments on by the way you have a roof in the driveway where's that water going I'm not sure that's within scope of what we're being asked to do oh we're not being asked to do a particular thing we are asked to to you know make comments and and on on the application and one of the things that happens that we don't see is any time somebody is able to do something at their property and increase in perious surface uh and not require a variance we don't see those they're increasing in perious surface they don't have to retain storm water on the property that's not part of the of the thing so that's something going forward I would like to see in this a new storm order ordinance that anytime anyone is increasing in peria surface they should be doing something to retain retain strong water regardless of exceeding or not regardless of exceeding or exactly so that's no one no one is policing that at that point so it falls on De ears that is what the um the model ordinances say any project any minor development any project that increases impervious regardless of whether it crosses the threshold or not it has it's based on this the on the size of the development so if I'm modifying my driveway to increase the width by two feet that's not going to be enough of the disturbance yeah because it's a residential thing if I'm TD Bank and I'm repaving my property and I want to increase the size of the property by two feet that's big enough that it fits into into the new where where other towns have done ordinances for storm water ordinances for minor Department they've set thresholds like 300 sare F feet 600 square ft there a few of those around right so there is a question that I have for um engineering to say what's their recommended threshold yeah um and I'm out looking for I've been in touch with two of the environmental groups to ask for recommended Township ordinances that are doing the right thing from their perspective I I surveyed this five years ago I'll send you what I okay right it's it's probably some out of date now well the other thing to consider is that the state is going to be changing the uh calculations through your uh storm water room so you should be verifying that I think th faroh should know what's happening to our our topic ATO as as drafted you've got a question there is the intent that question stay in there I don't remember what I you've got the statement of facts and then you've got the question the existing other coverage exceeds the maximum allowed yes okay um C apparently only addresses B patio driveway seems to make up more than 3,000 sare ft of impervious yes I storm to beain on the property from the roof I think that question needs to be asked and because Renee is saying telling us that when it's raining up there the water is running right off the property so if you want to get that point in there I think it needs to be part of the recommendation because there's not we we we're providing a recommendation we provide a question when do we get the an to the question the question the recommendation might be um given the square footage of the driveway um the applicant should make include Provisions to capture run off from okay so phrase a question as a recommendation okay if from the driveway is not already mitigated the applicant should okay I like it anybody else I'm align that sounds good okay I hear a motion motion to approve recommendation 115 T drive as modified okay second a second okay seconds no objections then considered approved all right moving on Scout projects I have no updates on the one Scout project I'm aware of is the Girl Scout project on the trail from why I've got no well yeah that cuz I was I didn't get a chance to contact them but because I thought there was some thought that they thought they could plant there but then change their minds thought they couldn't plant there and I don't know what that is all about we discussed that a little bit last meeting I think I think there's an area that's on Township property really potentially put PL okay but um I've not been in touch with them for several where they are I'll try to see I just want to add if um sorry I can't I I just wanted to add that um after the cleanup most of the people that were there were from Scout Troops 268 and 68 if I'm not Incorrect and one of the moms asked me like if the environmental commission has more as she called it short projects that we can come up with um these Scout Troops would be interested in doing it she said that the cleanup I know I'm cutting into the the time of the cleanup but um she said like an hour is perfect and they're always looking for interesting things to do so if we can come up with some interesting stuff they they would be happy to do more projects with us cup Scouts um I don't know if I don't I don't know which is the big kid troop and which is the little kid troop there were two kids there that were the little guys and then everyone else was from the older guys I don't know if 268 are the big kids and 68 are the little guys the 68 Boy Scouts I think and 26a will be the C Scouts so does anybody have contact information for these people I I know the folks in 68 I'm part of TR 360 okay Kim do you have their contacted um I can look through the stuff that they I think they gave me like a handout I'll have to look back um because the mom recognized my name from other things that we had done in the past and I think I communicated with her for the TR program so I can try to find her name yeah I mean if it's a true you know if it's aom who's you know actively involved with the truth that that would be good to know but we have to Define it yeah no we have to Define it but I just was hoping that we had contact information for these for the SCS okay if they I just want sorry I just wanted to pass that along in case we come up if we can think of good other stuff Stu they're happy to participate and um yes I'll leave it at that I'll cover the rest of it during the the cleanup part of the report okay so I've I've done activities like that with the scouts along the um sa River Trail we did a big cleanup last year with both of the Boy Scout Troops so we do we do it on occasion we do and we do Engage The Scout Troops on it just takes work for us to plan and oversee them events which is why we don't do them very often okay community garden Renee anything on your part I don't have any relevant updates any update on that R area mention oh yes yeah so uh so two things one uh the wet area just outside the garden where um somebody uh did a dug a hole just to see how the water would penetrate the surface it penetrated very slowly but it did penetrate and then I asked him to take a little bit deeper just to see if he's he's running into water standing water in other words water table just a foot or two below the surface and he didn't find water so that was a good thing uh I offered to meet with them sometime this week to take a closer look at that area and see what we can do with it uh either to uh make a a rain Garden or a bio swell along the outside ex Garden um and and see what we have to do if if we did that um the other thing on the community garden um just went out of my [Music] head oh sustainable Jersey so this community garden is a sustainable Jersey act uh qualified activity we had uh did that as an action got approved we can renew that action uh and uh get it approved again and that can be worth up to 20 points so for that the only thing that we're waiting on is a letter from a a little flower to whom uh the community garden has donated food so uh we may be able to get points for uh that the community Gard has a sustainable Jersey action and the other thing I just remembered so I think we had that issue earlier in the year with um the path that was getting destroyed by the construction next door right at Lord little property and I think that's now been resolved so um I'm not sure if anyone has heard any other Buzz about that still being presenting a challenge and do you know Rene is that is that project going to go on for much longer or I don't I don't know okay I don't know if Margaret are you aware of what the plans are for that um the restoration of latel Lord will be going on for a long time yeah okay so we'll need to to watch that closely they're just on foundation work um there's more foundation work that need to be done they're going to have to regrade the property because right now um I guess life changes but the property is actually below the level of the ground next to it so essentially all of the water is draining to the foundation of the property um they have to look at that's probably the next thing after the foundation is is done and then they'll start working on some of the Interior um critical elements so hopefully the heavy machinery will be done after they Reade the property adop the drain k sorry you cut out a little bit which which thing you asking about adop the drain adapted drain nothing to report on adopter drain that's new okay St Jersey actions uh I just mentioned lity Garden uh I did another sustainable action we're close to uh getting all the points that we need for the basic uh certification and uh n had suggested another action uh we should talk n and see if we can make that happen okay yeah I yeah I plan to I just need to finish up the checklist for the newslet the newsletter and I'll submit that so hopefully we'll get some points um I don't think the max but some points for the Community Education and Outreach um action and yeah I was also thinking that we could potentially do the Berkeley Heights Green community challenge pledge or at least get that started okay great so our deadline uh the first deadline is I think what was it March May 9th or May 10th and then the I think it's the 10th right we have to submit and then there's another deadline that will follow that so there's kind of steps that we go through with to see if we get our actions approved okay Recycling and cleanups anything we need to add there we skip to have a tree I'd like done I'm sorry go ahead Kim I I'd like to add just to give a summary for everyone um so on the not this weekend but last weekend um we did um a cleanup at Snider Park um we had about 20 people participate it was mostly um people from uh troop 268 and 68 but we did have another girl and her father participate we had some other random people participate as well um we collected about 10 bags of trash and recyclables um and the I just wanted to give a shout out for the uh the the lacrosse refs recognized how nice a job that we had done and gave us a compliment on like you know they had seen us do do all the work and pick up all the stuff and they said very well done um and we put together a um a a news article I don't know how that's coming along right now um Angus do you can you speak to that um the tap side or par we have something yeah for and also Kim took photos Okay let me sorry I'll make sure that goes so um so the article is written about it uh the pictures were taken um I circulated the article to the group um I sent the pictures to um Angus and Rich so hopefully we can post some of those pictures on our website um and get the article submitted because I think once it's submitted we could possibly use it for a sustainable Jersey action um because it will if it gets into tap into and gets published it has since um Richard tweaked it with more educational information in it um we can say that it's gone out to like thousands of you know it happened to has thousands of people as its readership we have done this this is like an explanation of stuff and maybe we can get sustainable Jersey points for it um Kim I was just wondering was there just was there an educational part during the cleanup or um not really I mean they did not ask us to separate recyclables from trash but I brought separate bags for recyclables and you know explained the difference between trash and recyclables because you can recycle stuff certain things and that everything just gets lumped together as litter and trash that you can throw out and one of the kids is like yes in fact you can find some great Treasures from the trash and he had found a ball that he enjoyed playing with so I I don't know if you can call that an educational element but um talking about the importance of recycling or um upcycling you know finding stuff that you can reuse um we talked a little about that that counts I think for um the points because it just says um for one of like the events could be cleanup within the community that includes an educational talk connecting the purpose of the cleanup um before after the physical activity so I think that would count um have a picture U of the group and we do have the we have like four or five lacrosse balls in the picture and um with the the the thought of like you can reuse an upcycle um I'm just noting and you can maybe write this in the the action all four balls were gone like the the boys took them with you know they found new homes so they went from going from under the bleachers and in the woods to in someone's backyard for use yeah that sounds great um yeah I think that would be more in the checklist because uh there's just not a lot of space in the actual action but that sounds good I think that would count okay um trying to think what else oh um I asked people where they have found out about it and most people have found out from the um the distribution that the rec department gave so they saw it in the weekly Blast from the recck Department um I don't think anyone saw it on the sign the sign the sign the LED sign was up but uh according to most people I talked to um they don't really go to that part of town they have no need to go to that part of town so they don't but I'm always good to know which which sources of communication are having the most bank for the buck in terms of Outreach so it was the uh the rec Department's blast that brought people to the cleanup and did you did you also give it to the LI distribute because they've got a distribution to to I'm sorry to the library you said Richard yes yeah Library s on as well oh I did not I did not give it to the library I did not iizz library has a distribution but next time I will do that okay great and uh we we probably collected more trash than we would have because the uh the county was kind enough to provide us with about 30 Grabbers like trash Grabber things and um all the kids thought that was the greatest thing like they were grabbing everything so instead of like bending down and grabbing things with their hands they were using the Grabbers and being very efficient doing the grabbing so I just thought I'd share that grab Grabbers were a big hit did they do they keep the Grabbers or do they return no we had to return the Grabbers um and they had been you could tell that they had been used before they were given to us because there was mud on many of them but it was still good fun for all so reservation you got you get to keep the real sorry say that again what if you adoped tra in the watch reservation you got you bring it every time okay terrific um so talking sustainable Jersey actions we've got this group going out on a regular basis and the river um beating back in faes is there anything in St Jersey that that could count yeah we could we could add that a special because it's going on already so can find a way to get credit for we're taking pictures of yeah you can do that they they have something called special projects or I think they used to have something called special exactly yeah but um maintenance of wild areas invasive species ought to be they do they do an educational comp oh yeah absolutely an educational comp yes yes yes all right um topic for the St Township newsletter got another deadline coming up don't know what that is yet is this for May or for June okay did we put um the paper shredding in the one for may just curious okay oops we can ask Bobby Pier to publ it if it hasn't gotten into the news so just an idea with with spring and full gear and planting um I we may have done this already maybe it's an article we can recycle about invasives and what not to plant um or what to plan in the area to to help with you know pollinators and I don't I don't know just just thinking about all the flurry of activity I see during my walks every day didn't we do a few items on pollinates invasives we have in the past we've done that we can do it again what you know what to avoid planting because certainly uh there are some plants being sold at big box stores and other places that you shouldn't you should avoid planting um uh I'll see maybe talk with you afterwards uh and see what we have done in the see if we can redo that the other thing that that brought up was another uh resident on Mountain Avenue apparently had plan had planted uh bamboo running bamboo opposite Su at Medical Center and somebody wrote in and said can't we do something about this so This bamboo apparently is growing out into the right away and maybe blocking the view if somebody comes to the corner on Mountain from that street and wants to turn the view was blocked because of the uh bamboo I wrote to Tomo uh and said is this going to come under the same issue of uh a nuisance and uh is it uh you know something the town can address um and so that brought up the question of an ordinance um the should there be an ordinance against planting of bamboo especially rain bamboo and other invasive PLS uh uh and I contacted P Chanley about this because she testified before the assembly uh on invasive plants trying to get the uh state to pass uh a law against uh uh installing certain invasive plants including lamb that law did not get passed but she says that uh uh they expect to reactivate that uh uh the reason that it didn't get past is because the D was not involved with it uh so there needs to be a conversation with d uh and that once that conversation takes place she would expect that the law would be reintroduced with whatever changes D recommends so that made me say okay does that mean then that we should um hold off on passing a law I also asked for uh her recommendations on uh ordinances Municipal ordinances that might exist on invasive plants and she uh sent me to the head of the uh invasive plants Strike Team New Jersey he then supplied a list of uh uh some towns that H have ordinances and I will share that uh with everyone on the commission and also with uh anyone else is interested we can see if we want to move forward with that so those two are kind of at the problem from sort of two different sides right the yes the Jersey Bill prevent Garden Center selling it and then the the ones you're talking about prevent would prevent uh residents from plant yes and Richard because you say that so what the Name Escapes Me Right Now the the one uh bush tree that with the purple flowers that climbs up the treesia well there's Mysteria that's In Bloom now right yes that's a v climbing up through the trees right so I was at at a big food place liel in Christmas tree shop and they're selling them and like they have a huge bin in the front of the stores and everyone had them in their cart you know so it's it's stuff like that that made me think um you know let's educate um folks about how harmful those things are because the because the vine basically not only uh covers the tree but it strangles the tree uh may take a couple of years for that to happen but the tree doesn't survive and um yeah any other comments so where do we leave off with a newsletter uh we're going to look at uh articles on what to plan what to avoid plan okay I yeah I was going to say something about the newslet if um if we do the green challenge we can green challenge pledge or whatever it was called exactly we could put that in the newsletter and have a link um to it and then that would hopefully help us get a significant people amount of people to to fill it out yes good idea when is it um duee the newsletter I don't think we have an email about that one yet from usually middle of the month right okay just after the 15th so that survey n was a green challenge yeah so there's one that already exists that I'm not sure how many years ago we did it I think I would just I don't know if if we have it still um like access to it I like it but there's certain parts about it that I think we can we can change like the I pledge to use reusable bags um it's not really something that's relevant anymore and I think um yeah I don't know I think just like making sure that the order makes sense and that it's relatively easy to read because I think some of the paragraphs just might be a little bit too long it might look a little overwhelming uh I think we actually distributed it at uh uh or ask people to sign up for it at one of the concerts at one of the summer concerts like years ago but we could have it ready for the U Street Fair on June 9th would it be okay if I just made a new one um I'm sorry what did you say yes please oh okay we'll do then and I should have that ready before um the newsletter okay Sr Park and trails I just emailed Liza about um saying an email L about the paper Shing thank you and led sign and um Facebook post so one of the things we took on on the trails late last year was attacking the weria along is on the Green Acres property between Columbia right um I didn't we didn't get to organize anything on that in that area in the spring I I mean clients try and do something that's hard to check with um the township make sure they're on board with that okay um it'll we not be we'll not be using chemicals we'll just be just cutting the cutting the vines as they was a clim I need to go back and take a look at how much purple is up in the copy and see how big of a job it is now is the time to look yes okay um anything else on bake River Park and trails well the other detail on that was that last Saturday um the marus extension had available um plants uh about 40 plants in fact for the students to install along the bake River uh under Pat shanley's supervision I don't know how much uh they got to plan but uh the plants uh were donated by R extension service and the 4ers uh um uh could have also helped I don't know if that happened as well those plants were put in along the pade planted along the trail along the P they included uh soy dog um so we had the same glants that we gave away at the tree giveaway um RG gii Grant uh at this point um we're moving to try to plant at uh the watch reservation at uh Governor Livingston in the fall and also uh at along the the streets again um the um we had a discussion of uh with I had a discussion with Tom bako and uh his uh Team about the actual amount of time that is being put into this uh not that we're asking for Ur for that time but to say this is an effect matching uh the grant uh because uh Alo uh tomako and and two of his uh people and myself five people are giving time to this project uh that adds up uh to lots of hours I mean doing the whole project of plan took a lot of hours on our part there was also the question of okay so now the town is using a town vehicle to drive around should we ask for reimbursement for that I guess technically we could I don't know how much that would be because we didn't really keep mileage uh to do that but in the future maybe we uh should be doing that keeping mileage and asking for reimbursement for that expenditure if we did that we have to then modify the grant so that means going through a process of writing up what we're asking for reiners um most of the expenses are under the grant uh for example the uh we're hiring uh a certified uh tree expert to uh survey the trees that were planted and evaluate their condition uh that uh was required as part of the Grant and that will happen over the next two years as well and those trees will then be put into a database ER I NRI brand we didn't get it we did not get it we having a meeting with sustainable Jersey May 8th right this Wednesday Texas mon yes to try to about find out uh what we could do to uh uh obtain that Grant it was a application for a $20,000 Grant then the other thing that we need to do is to see what uh we would do about uh the environmental resource inventory if we want to update a portion it how would we do that c can I ask did did we ever fill out the U the CG Grant yes that's that's done uh Kim uh I think that uh we haven't seen any further information about it but I think that we're practically you know the way that Grant is worded we will get it I don't think that it was announced yet officially but I have to check with Alber okay but we did apply for it I I'm just curious oh yes in fact okay there was a meeting of other environmental commissions down in Westfield and uh they brought that uh uh up because the deadline uh for applying hadn't hadn't uh yet passed and other towns were encouraged to apply for the grant as well y remind me of the AC [Music] background oh you're gonna you know better than I do wait sorry David I didn't hear the question what was the acronym um it's the community energy it's cepi community energy or sorry CG Community energy plan Grant and then for like the second level of it is community energy implementation Grant so if if you've already won a community energy plan Grant the following cycle you can get a community energy implementation Grant in febru the February deadline um in March um David because we had a conversation a telephone or a zoom conversation with a woman from uh uh for that Grant right um the the grant is for planning for Community energy and that could include things like EV uh uh stations and other things that are related to uh energy planning could be solar panels so that's a uh I the initial Grant isn't for a large amount but the followup Grant the information implementation Grant will be for much larger uh funding for uh uh implementing U energy activities energy actions all right see donation I'm taking that off unless you have something to add n um no not really I planted some oh wait could you hear me yes I planted some seeds with um pre and Mary Kay McMillan to use some of the seeds up on Monday and there's still some beet seeds that's left um and that's about it I'll probably just use those um and plant beets um just like one in each cup of the cups that I still have to maybe give away in June at the block party okay and did did the community garden take yes um if they if you want more you can take more um okay glad to that they took it all right the other thing that uh speaking of seeds uh is if you walk into the parking lot and you look at these little islands where there are trees and shrubs there's a a plant that's coming up which is a milkweed plant and I don't think we planted milkweed in those Island so somehow milkweed seeds got into the those plots and I wrote to uh Li and said please tell the landscapers not to pull those plants out they're not real weeds they're plants that will attract butterflies leaf blower ordinances nothing here BC USA resolution I know I have to submit that still uh nothing new on that woods and Wayside about the trail proposal uh P Chanley is uh telling me to hold off on any on any action on that so we're holding off and tree sackings for arer day did we report on that the last time three sings for yeah we did that I could take that and finally um the mayor sent me an email because somebody emailed the mayor about uh uh paddling in the bake River he has a kayak and he went down to uh Snider Avenue uh bridge and there's supposed to be a boat launch there there and he said it's really muddy there can they do something about that I forwarded his email to uh uh the county because that's County property and maybe the county can put in a mat so as to make it easy to you can't get very far because the down trees so even if you can launch your kayak then you're only going you know half a mile I don't know if you go the other direction I don't know which way well but then you're going against the it's not a heavy it varies I've done that stretch various times the trees come and go as Storms Come and Go yeah yeah you do have to get out of the car and drag it across every beting that I go to that has people talking about storm water Rivers anything I'm like sign me up and tell me what you're doing to fix this because you know Angie tried she tried to work with Union County to get the debris out of the river they said they didn't have the equipment they were going to get the equipment and they couldn't and then there was some D said that they couldn't do it because they weren't sure it wasn't dredging or I don't even know what it was but I do continue to say to people with the state of New Jersey you all have to help us here because the these waterways do not like they go across towns even if I fix if we figure out how to clear the paic in our little bit of town if we get every boy scout in in the region to come you know on canoes whatever you can't get past New Providence you can't right it's yeah yeah and to be honest it's chainsaws it's it's down trees that are sort of yay big that you can only get them you can only take them out with a chaina and then you got to figure out what to do with the debris um yeah clean out stretch but up River down river it's the same I haven't gotten any answer from anybody but I keep asking a really good storm moves along don't tell me that anything else before we adjourn well so I'll I'm sorry um so Steve is still here s also so we're opening it up to Citizens hearing on any environmental issues if there's nothing else that the Commissioners have to hand any from the Commissioners would there be any interest not not I'm not volunteering to do this immediately but something to think about um since it is uh you know changing of the seasons changing of the different Recreational Sports would we might want to consider doing a shoe collection or a shirt collection at some point and donating the shoes to um like souls for Souls I don't know who takes t-shirts but one of the largest things that wind up in landfills are shirts and shoes that might be that might be a project for Scouts huh what about organized the scouts would I mean I this is something I talked to that parent about if we organized it the scouts would be happy to participate in it but we would be driving the boat on it so Kim that would look like what we've done in the past where we would facilitate making sure that the bins get to certain locations for for sneakers and no would not would not we would not do it like that what we did one time um we had a clean up on Locust Avenue and at the same time we had a shoe drop off so those who wanted to drop off their shoes just dropped it off and we boxed them up and off they went okay so not not putting bins anywhere it's like you show up you drop off the shoes and then done we we actually did it at um the 5K race that Smith used to do in the fall um but the biggest shoe collection that we had produced about over 200 pairs of shoes okay something to consider I'll put it up I'll add it to the agenda see if we if we are able to do that yeah shoes and t- because if we can I'd have to think about what to do with the t-shirts but again in in the interest of up cycling recycling keeping out of landfills um something to do with you know not throwing out your old t-shirts but doing something else with them okay and Richard the other thing he I'm sorry I'm sorry can you hear me another item if you can add to the agenda for next meeting are just Lessons Learned on this this tree ordinance um the tree Grant rather and um you know there's been a you're absolutely right there's been a lot of resource on this a lot of emails um what we can like Lessons Learned on this and whether we can manage something like this in the future because I I still hear a lot of whis like there's people that are interested in getting a tree and then on the flip side there are those that are not interested interested very disinterested so how do we manage that and then on the also once they're planted like how do we manage the the maintenance of whether like you said before um we need to go back and and replant or whatever okay thanks Renee I got it um so now 3 minutes for Resident any environmental issues okay so I went to the Greenbrook flood Commission meeting that the most recent one that they had the majority of um representatives there were from municipalities that were south of us middlex County primarily the Army Corp of engineer is working on the first phase of the project down there which involves flood walls and other mitigation um they asked about what was going on with the upper basin which is Berkeley Heights and the Army Corps representative said that he believed that it was looking like they were going to do a non build the nonb build option for the upper bason which is not replacing the dam um at C's pond so some improvements to the um channel for the Green Brook and um C Pond again the representatives from the southern from the downstream communities expressed um disappointment and frustration with that um I spoke up as the one member of the upper Basin representative to say that you know we had we were concerned we as a community were concerned about the basic plans that were provided because there were many answers that there were many issues that needed to be addressed there are homes that are going to be lost and the major issue that I brought up was the through traffic from um the S the you know Scotch Plains places south of s the places south of 22 going up to the hospital because that is a major thoroughfare that comes up New Providence Road to Diamond Hill to Mountain Avenue and their plan has um New Providence Road offset into the watching into the Quarry by many many feet and where it sits now will be a retention Basin for the new dam um so you know I spoke up with the concerns for Berkeley Heights but I thought I'd bring it up here because I know Alvaro wrote a report report on on the presentations from the Army Corp and the environmental commission and and people near and the to the you know environmental issues have also spoken up um it's not that we don't want anything done in our community but something that's a more reasonable thing than traversing the new dam is 300 ft wide more than that mass I I SP at one of the PRI massive yeah um the answer to us building homes in the way of the river isn't to build more infrastructure up River it's to it's to mitigate what we've done down stre so they say that it's the building Upstream it's the building in the upper Basin which is not just Berkeley Heights but it is primarily Berkeley Heights um you know with New Providence in the chat and it's everything that's uphill from us that the continued development uphill and the lack of storm water management is causing increased flooding down the green and it's like yes I get it but if not just us right so if you look at what Scotch planes is doing scch Planes whole War development yeah yes the war development at 78 right I mean anywhere where the the Green Brook is Flowing I mean that's basically what we're talking about the Green Brook flowing you know downhill going through canel you know and winding its way down into Scotch Plaines all the water that's running off I mean that that's why that's another reason why a storm water ordinance needs to be uh updated and and why I say that we should be taking it uh with the root of any time you can um retain storm water um on a property it should be done shouldn't be a question that skipped over it should be a question that's asked each time I I don't disagree with you but from the ordinance perspective it has to be reasonable it has to I need you know we need the support of a majority of council members it needs to be we need to be able to enforce it so I don't want to write an ordinance that looks great on paper but then we don't have the resources or um the wherewithal to enforce it so we we definitely have a balance that we have to strike um I think Community Education is going to be really key to this because you know when a landscaper 15 years ago suggested that the new drain on my driveway you know be channeled into the storm drain I didn't think that it was a problem right I never considered an option because I didn't know and there's a lot of residents who don't know who would just as easily you know ask their landscaper to do something else wow I was hoping that another um certified Green infrastructure Champion would attend tonight but he didn't get the emails to late so the the the responsibility of a town doesn't just extend to its residents it extends to its neighbors as well and that's something to keep in mind you shouldn't be just saying hey I don't care uh what happens fix fix the fix the sewers uh do the do the Westside training fer get the water away from my property and what's going to happen with that it's going to go down into the Pate River and once it gets into the Pake River it's adding millions of gallons of water to the P Riv it's going to affect down Downstream there's no no doubt about that that's the same thing with the green you know every time you and that's why noia uh uh that Labs that property you want to try to retain that property and not allow additional development to happen there it's going to cost more strong okay so on noia if anybody wants a quick update on that um noia is the single largest just um um tax base taxpayer tax for our town so to say it should be a museum and a park is really nice but we have to have the tax revenue so we can't you know give up the entire 138 plus acres I heard it was more than 150 but the most recent numbers I've heard are that's I think Total Property including Mountain uh New Providence right the total includes New Providence um so we did um Angie Manny and I went down to Bill Works in Homedale to see what they've done to that property and that developer was very conscientious and creative and community-minded so if we have a developer like that involved in the project then we can work with them um they've done really good things to home down um they do have a bunch of multi family homes on what used to be the the green fields but that's because the the township of Homedale required that they actually tried to give some of the property back to the township for you know Fields Recreation or green space in the township said no thank you um but Homedale is in land poor The Way Berkeley Heights is so we would definitely have a different answer there um there will be some development there will be you know we're trying to keep it as as minimal as possible and do things that involve large open spaces so you know maybe a sports facility um I don't know but you know we do want to keep the green space at the back of the property the undeveloped land and remove as much as the impervious surfaces right now it's just Acres of parking lots and you know so we definitely have to get rid of the Acres of parking lot um noia is taking their um solar panels with them oh I was wondering about that you can't quite figure out why because they are no spring chickens when it comes to solar panels so they M them down that well okay whatever we just love the need discuss that now right right um um so so yeah that's there's been no movement we haven't heard from the developers um yeah all right do I hear a motion to adjourn 9 yeah turn 953 second okay thanks everyone for coming this long meeting but I think it was worth it good night night thanks everyone