okay good evening call the meeting for March 18th at 7:31 and who is taking minutes minutes hus is taking minutes okay and I noticed and what time is it 7:32 and I noticed that U I should have put in approved minutes from March 2nd do that because anyone want to propose approving minutes for March 2 no it's not being hearing on agenda items and Steve coris is the only resident present at the moment good evening everybody hey I'll just come on to talk about the agenda in general it um another nice um good goings by the town because I actually got my notification that the agenda was available and per our discussion of how are we going to do Zoom links these days the specific meeting link was in the uh in the agenda and even clicking on the thing got instant access without even having to go put in the password so it worked all just to follow up on that you can expect that because of the way I'm trying to create the um agendas on Zoom not the agendas but the meetings on Zoom it allows me to group meetings together so for a couple of meetings it'll be the same uh meeting ID but it's quite possible it'll change in the future and I think yeah like we discussed last time as long as the right one is in the agenda then we're good to go and it it even works for like I said there's you can put in the meeting ID and then it'll ask you the password you could do that but you get that link that has the embedded password and it makes you know saves extra typing and cutting and pasting so it worked okay very good EXC okay new business is we don't have anything well we do have something here that we just received tonight uh and that is a letter from Remington and verick Engineers telling uh us that this is legal notification that an application for an authorization under freshwater wetlands General permit uh is being made right um and the project is the Union County Park in Improvement at 7:35 Springfield Avenue within portions of block 101 block one block 501 LS 1 to three basically it is the area that is at the Western end of town on Springfield Avenue just before you Mo over the bridge uh where there was catering uh building that got knocked down and the county is apparently proposing a park with walking trails sidewalks benches a pavilion with a Amphitheater style seating play areas exercise equipment shaded structures a bike rack restroom building drainage basins Landscapes car and pav um I'm G get this to so that you can put that into the where moving on to 20 Overhill way plan for 20 Overhill way recommendation on Overhill way is that uh the application not be approved has uh that's presented apparently the applicant had has already removed the wooden deck and installed the 37 by 20 paper patio with GL equipment and apparently uh did not uh apply for the necessary permits so now the applicant is applying after the fact uh and in doing so uh the application shows that for post other coverages exceeds the maximum allowed for the Zone which is an our 20 Zone and exceeds total proposed lot coverage which is 25% for the Zone um and recommending uh specifically disconnecting any any down SPS or some pumps the street connecting them to rain Gardens or vegetative swes redo the paper patio to be per rious as determined by the township engineer take steps to capture storm water run off from the driveway bying part of the curve and SW a SW on the south side of the dve see cor discussion I agree with that I reviewed that right before this meeting the typo you found was the last bullet one yeah yeah it's missing an end right yes other than that I'm aligned with that recommendation anyone else motion yes motion to who the recommendation has drafted correction Corrections okay if there are no objections then we consider it approved Scout projects anything coming up David um so the UN Union Council has this um invasive invasive flips six I think so that is a scout focused activity so I'll be um engaging with two Scout Troops our town to help that it's um watch on reservation so I think we'll be cleaning up some parts of watch on reservation rather than Township property per se but think it's fine and so you wouldn't also you wouldn't be doing it at B River Park no you would not I wasn't sure whether there's a county park thing or whether it was a watch reservation I think it's just watch reservation okay if it's County Park more broad we might consider doing it at the park if it's just watching reservation then we'll we'll go with the county plan and uh going on to community garden apparently all the plots are pent reserve for this year and I don't see Rene to give us any more information unless you want to say something about SE Garden I can well I have her address I didn't give her the seeds yet but I plan to of blue this week okay some more of ordinance and then that's for education so I have um asked uh kind of Valente if I could give a presentation to the planning board this presentation would be about strong water and green infrastructure um and she said I could do it on Wednesday this means that we're fulfilling our ms4 one of our ms4 education requirements Nam the uh holding a public meeting and uh educating people about uh green infrastructure and stormw um any updates on the storm water ordinance that's supposed to be in place by June June so I haven't talked to the uh Township engineer uh and uh he said he was uh arranging something with Liza but I haven't heard back from it so I don't have an update uh the other thing I found a manual online about um what I would call Best Practices I will uh share that with you I just found that today uh I thought it would be interesting to take a look at that in regard to General best practices related to storm water and and and development so I'll send it to you uh tomorrow and we can put that on the agenda for next time Dr drain don't see okay so leave that on sustainable Jersey actions um well I put uh most of that into the an report so you can see that maybe we can use that other the guide as we move forward U try to make the next dead line for some of these actions so that we can uh find out where we stay stand on I'm hoping that the next week be less activity on uh the tree plantings and be able to uh do more with um sustainable Jersey actions anybody else on sustainable JY if not tree orans so I sent you I hope I the revision that uh Margaret illis sent to Alvaro and me and apparently there's a conference session tomorrow which will discuss this um there were still things that are that are not clarified in this version um although there were changes and if you look at the comments you see that the change some changes were made by uh Mana one of the main uh changes that I don't understand uh was under the dbh the diameter at breast height diameter at breast height definition of for in this ordinance is relevant uh uh because tree replacement requirements are by diameter so if a tree has a small diameter fewer Replacements are required and there is a sentence here that has been added that I don't understand because it says for species of trees where this main trunk divides before the 4 and 1/2t height the dbh shall be measured at the highest point before any division um it's interesting that when a tree company comes to your house and sees a tree that whose trunk is divided and that division is below 4 and 1/2 ft they measure both trunks at 4 and 1/2 ft and they say the the size of the tree is trunk one plus trunk two we're going to charge you based on trunk one plus one trunk to they do not charge you based on one of the Trunks and someone has added to the the ordinance here if there are multiple trunks then the diameter to be measured will be of the largest trunk if you measure the largest trunk the next smallest trunk would be an inch smaller so that would mean that uh you're looking at half the tree so the replacement would be for half of a tree not for a whole tree this just does not make sense to me I think the um the model ordinance from the States has the definition you describe yes so we should just propose it go back to that exactly that's not based in science or what this is based on I don't know I you know I'm I don't I don't know you know what the discussion was about it I simply said to Margaret I don't understand what what why you're doing that it contradicts the previous sentence sounds like is it a moderate change or was that a many it may have Manny change I mean the thing is that you know I'm only talking to Margaret so and I talked to Alvaro Alvaro is G he's out of the country uh and he I basically agreed with uh what I my perception was that it should be measured at the highest point before any division the other the other option would be to say measure that all trunks that are there have four and a half ft and the total of those trunks is what uh that tree is I think it's pretty straight forward that's that definition shows up in every tree ordinance i' seen it has long yeah well the seen yeah um we should just revert back to whatever the stat the other thing that came up I mean there were other things that came up that uh basically I said okay we can live with the other thing that came up that is seems to me a bit confusing is see paragraph the paragraphs about esro now there are two paragraphs about esro originally John Leo proposed a paragraph about es we picked that up from the summit T and then uh another paragraph got added about Esra and um Dono and I had a discussion about it today because I wasn't understanding what this is supposed to be all the ground and that is the applicant shall pay to the township at the time the application is approv and esro deposit equal to the tree replacement cost for each tree planted to be held by the township has account established for the purpose of covering replacement of trees that do not supply so Tom was having a problem with the application what application are we talking about the application for building and uh you know how is that to be determined or should it be the application for moving trads and his comment was uh it should be uh uh when the certificate of occupancy is being issued generally what happens is the tree inspector goes and inspects the tree before the certificate of op and then confirms okay the trees have been planted they're uh in uh before the certificate of op if the tree if for some reason there's there's a problem with the trees he doesn't issue a certificate of occs he requires the build them to fix the problem so that's not the same as an escro account but um basically it achieves the same thing if you establish an escco account that means that you're doing more paperwork to track that there's an eser account and uh have to at the end of two years have to go back and inspect again and then U um issue uh you know return the escort so at this point my question is you know what is this really achieving if there's already a process in place to take care of trees that are being planted the the existing process makes sure that the trees are planted before the co is issued exct I'm with you on that that that Clause is about leaving additional money in estra for two years so that if any of those trees die over the next two years the township can go to that money that's worded it needs to be worded so that that's clear because it wasn't clear to Tom bako okay that that is what's happening that was my understanding but maybe maybe it's not there enough well there and there's there two paragraphs one is about the the uh replacement trees and the other is about the trees that are are not that is if there are trees that are left that is when the Builder comes in and and starts building he doesn't he designates or they designate what what trees are remaining what trees are going to be taken down so the trees that are left remaining you don't you don't want those trees to be destroyed either so uh now there's you know two different sets of trees that were talking uh in any case no I'm not against escro accounts per se I'm just asking the question what is this really achieving and is it it you know if it's achieving what uh you know is it protecting the trees any more than and what the tree inspector is currently doing that's [Music] where I it's not clear to me whether it's it might be covered elsewhere in the municipal code or whether that's a standard practice that there's an ESC account sta and for you know for what period that esro account uh can be held I think normally the escro for the period of the project I'm I'm not familiar with any situations where the escro money's held in esro for a two year per two year period I I would imagine that would get some I would think that push back right I would think it we can push back that oh now I've got to wait two years you know and depending upon the number of trees that were involved could be a large amount of money yeah it could be so those are the two things that you know stood out for me anyone else have any comments on this revision so one thing that's interesting second paragraph of that es SE yes it's it's it's I agree it's Loosely worded but it's interesting if any tree is not properly protected replacement will be required according to the tree schedule should pay an Esco deposit equal to the tree replacement cost if the tree dies during those two years the Esco esro May to replace the tree I I see a lot where construction happens and it's not just house construction Landscaping too a year or two later some of the Big Trees adjacent to that renovation di because they've had their Roots I see that a lot I saw it within the last month uh on the street uh uh down the street from me the builders came in they dumped a giant you know container on the front lawn right next to two trees they basically destroyed the two trees in doing so it was a a deep rut in the in the lawn because of that so that means that that soil is being compacted which means that if you go to try to plant something else there the roots are going to have a tough time growing into that compacted soil the the Builder was issued a summon for what what they did but you know uh I thought that uh 141 basically covers most of this that there's supposed to be no materials Machinery uh or anything being placed over the critical root radius of any tree uh so you know basically it's saying you need to protect the trees and there are a couple of exceptions that is one exception is when the crr extends to within 12et of a building well obviously within 12 feet of a building they they may need to be doing work uh and uh you know they can put things on on on the driveway uh or maybe they can protect the the trees that they're working there by putting down uh um heavy plywood and putting materials on the plywood so that plywood spreads out the load uh in any case there's certainly language there about protecting the trees maybe that needs to be clarified a little bit I don't think it's a matter of clarification I just think those are just words and and when it comes right down to it and it's a construction project the guys doing the construction have no knowledge or they don't care about those words they do what they but but I think if that that paragraph gives teeth to that well I hope so it's um there will be a financial pen penalty if some of those protected trees die within the next two years right I'm sure you're not going to change the behavior of the builders but at least we get some money into the tree fund for Replacements right so I just think that maybe the those two paragraphs need to be simplified clarified a little bit I'm not against I'm not against the es we say and this was something that I think was added either by Margaret or by many buos it's in the building permit section so it's it's focused on trees being either removed or protected in the course of a building construction project yeah yeah I'm fine for having that careful all right so then just want to be clear so um the two uh points are the um dph definition and the escos I'm I'm not saying that there shouldn't be an ESC account I think that it just needs to be clarified or the language be a little bit clearer or simplified and with the dph uh stick with the definition that we previously had not add that sentence about dbh um and so go one last thing on the es the second paragraph the one about protecting trees that are remaining yes it it's as you say it's Vue um it says if any tree is not properly protected and who's deciding that right yeah I mean the one way to do it might be to designate all of the trees that are remaining on the property as being protected trees and they have to provide an estos for every one of those I don't know that might be a lot of trees they need to Define exactly what trees are covered under that second yeah and you can't always tell if damage has been done you can if the tree dies a year later it was probably to do with the construction but if you didn't identify it's being damaged at the time right that paragraph's not useful okay right are we are in agreement then that the dbh and and trying to um make that language about es clearer MH anyone else uh last time discussed the Javas compost and I know there was a inquiry with um this County and there was uh someone from The Province I think I followed that to yeah okay so um I follow on that okay I haven't heard back from Stuart have you been in contact with not okay I just want to add um one thing about the compost I think that maybe we should consider br bringing compost to the block party and giving it away possibly um just little like not that much but I know like I have a lot of jars that I would just recycle maybe just putting it in there and giving it away um just so people sort of understand that there's like a result from the compost if they decide to do that I don't know if I have compost I assume you're still using your thing so just yeah an idea curious idea not a lot of them I feel like that would be hard to take a lot of jars but maybe like 10 or so just because I think people were really interested when they were coming up and then they were seeing it so I think also having people who are really interested in gardening also like be able to take a little bit of compost with them um yeah that might encourage them to like start on their own and maybe also some sort of little brochure or a link to you know website on composting or page on the website um that doesn't have anything in it yet composting compos talk about different ways you approach like yeah and like companies like Javas compost also like cell containers there's other places that cell containers want to do it that way you know like that maybe like this what compos looks like how it can be used yeah we're talking about um doing survey what about survey from composting asking did we ever mention that TR to put together a survey for composting asking people if um they wanted to do composting or if there was it was available to what they I think we were thinking about it um I don't think we we got there yet so we options trying toig okay question was it was that with John or no John was um we create something see what people interested it's it's just an idea maybe it's something that do especially if we're seeing that things are happening on the possibly happening on the county level I'll try to ask steart about that too okay topics for the township newsletter oh last month was the article from in and Julie um so what's on the docket for at this point middle of March would be April so it's planting season planting season so something on what species are you buying invasives verus natives think think to yeah I mean we could put uh add a little could pick up from one of these brochures and encourage people PL and also U mulching trees a lot a lot of landscapers start doing mulching this so and then well this is for later but um and announ the trees yes I've been in contact with the nursery and they still don't have have their Lista so I'm waiting for that in the meantime I went to um Highlands Highlands direct which only sells wholesale but we qualify to buy from them for wholesale and we can get saplings actually they own Tu so they're putting the saplings in little tubes and um we could get I think it's a 32 32 tuings for 68 bucks so about $2 roughly a sapling so we could get a couple hundred that way I think we've got funds to do that we want to Black do but the woman at the nursery said you know just check back a littleit later in the month they're waiting to see how how the saplings you so know end this I'm hoping yes keep I keep calling and it should they should know by the end of this month they would be Distributing them in April no we can since it'll be the beginning of April and should be toward the end right I mean birday is the 22nd right um assuming I will check I will check before the 22nd so if we have that should we put out the initial um sign up list in the newsletter yeah why we could we could put the sign up list in the newsletter if something happens that you know we can't get as many as we need know then we can always say you know sorry we weren't able to get the samp we needed nobody loses from that okay so still on the um newsl thing yeah invasive thing um there's a um D email that goes out every yes every week I think there's a link in there to the njd invasive plant species webite might both including that in the what we post it's got new or different information right I'll say the the thing that didn't happen so far on the state level is that the state did not pass uh legislation prohibiting certain invasive PLS um we can certainly uh with outgoing to that extent the township level we can say here are plants that you should not be planting uh and because some some of these plants are still being sold in in nurseries we can pick up that list from um either the county or uh Native Plant so I've got it at home so happy to to pick up from that I believe that bill made its way through the legisl and then the governor veto it yeah I'm not sure why he did that I haven't been tracking it either unless Steve Gus has been tracking tracking what invasive species PL the governor apparently uh veto a bill for I would list plants that are invasive and not to plant them prohibiting the sale of them yeah uh let's see well I'm sure I'm sure he did if you if you have that information um but probably was that during uh was that did that make it through a Dame lame duck was at earlier because he just he he he just with with the when he does stuff at lame duck there's a whole bunch of stuff that just gets pocket vetoed yeah I'm sorry Steve I did not see the details on this I saw it somewhere uh whether it was a pocket veto or whether it was during the lame duck session I'm not I'm not remembering well I will let me tell I will come I will I will I'll do some quick looking and come back to you before the meeting is over if I um Can can add any anything more factual about what happened okay thanks sa River Park and trails nothing nothing okay R GGI Grant we're just holding on to that uh still not signed uh on the part of the State uh e i NRI Grant we're waiting until April uh that's when those supposed to announce it see donation um yes so yeah I dropped off the seeds for the teacher in Mountain Park this evening I'll email her that I left it outside of the school and where I left it realized that I the timing isn't good for me to drop them off because of work so and then I will drop off the seeds for Karen right Handel them yes um sometime this week and I emailed Rene is here but I emailed her she said that she might be interested but she didn't even be back yet and there was um I I attended a meeting uh which involves the summit uh library and the summit library has a seat Library um did you get a chance to ask about that at the library here interest yeah they should could since you were doing so much with seats I'm just okay Leaf BL ordinance is nothing BC the USA resolution I wrote to Xerxes asking why it would be a department uh who would be a sponsor of this uh resolution I did not get an answer back yet that's several days ago because Carolyn George asked what would her responsibilities be if she were the sponsor and her Department direct Department were the responsible Department W Wayside Trail update last property so I saw the mayor announced that there would be hearing sessions uh uh about this and my thought is that um in light of that um I will do two things one is send our memo to the mayor and also when this comes up to uh ask for the opportunity to talk about it at that session annual report for 2023 uh excellent uh Corrections from David and Alvaro I haven't seen any other comments so I'm going to say can we submit this report as amended yes yes motion to submit the 2023 annual report as amended okay second second you had my you got my email with the hours right yes yours your hours are included in the total hour there were a couple of people who didn't submit their hours so the hours are probably uh not totally accurate I simply did a guess in it uh based on people attending meetings and finally Tre saplings that's what we talked about previously um we have options there that's it anybody else want to bring anything um I guess I'll just say that I didn't have a chance to look at the thing that you emailed about about the native um plants and where we would put those and maybe somewhere else but that is something I I so want to get to okay there's nothing else and we have 816 I'm sorry Steve we may be a joury before you get a chance to um no find out no no timing is great I found it oh wow and actually it's not just telling you what the bill is but I found the veto message so I can tell you why he did it ni all right let me um so for for record in last in last year's session um it was a the lead bill was a s a 3677 so let's see substitute yep 86 and there is a when you go to that if you go to the legislative website and you know search on that session as opposed to the current session on that number again uh A36 77 at the very bottom is a veto message now it was vetoed on the last day of the session but it wasn't a pocket veto it was an absolute veto he actually purposely did it and wrote up a statement to explain why so it's basically a a a paragraph after these vetos typically summarize the bill and then say uh why he did what he did so here we go I commend the sponsors for seeking to combat the spread of invasive species that pose a threat to New Jersey's ecology to the establishment of a regulatory permitting scheme of invasive plants under the njda they have the potentials to significantly impact um natural and agricultural resources throughout the state while the goals of the bill are laudable I am concerned that the bill does not consider the existing authority of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection in this space success UL controlling and limiting the spread of invasive species New Jersey necessitates careful consideration of the framework already established under D around potentially dangerous species which includes non-native and environmentally harmful species additional discussion with a relevant with the relevant agencies is needed to limit duplicative and unproductive efforts to address invasive species across the state and he looks forward to working with a legislature and building upon this legislation to advance a plan that will best mitigate threats posed by invasive species and of course G what was talking about ensuring njda has a necessary support to successfully administer an invasive species permitting program so it seems like um I guess it didn't cover all the administrative basis okay so they didn't talk to DS basic that's that that's what it sounds like and like I said you can you can go to the whole bill and you can [Music] um let me see do we have I can put a link I can put a link to it in comments if you'd like in the chat the chat is what I meant yeah I will uh do that I'll grab that right right the other question I would have is that's the assembly version right Senate version did it originate assembly uh the bill the bill actually started in the it's the assembly number it was the lead bill it started in the assembly and then you know went to the Senate and it had a senate companion bill but in the end it's referenced by that assembly number and whatever the whatever the final reprint when you go and look at the the page of the link I'm going to send you at the bottom last two entries of the things you can download uh the reprint will reflect the you know the most recent bill that was sent to the governor and then then right below it is the you know the veto statement of which I read the last couple of paragraphs so let me see back to zoom uh let see notes there we go I don't want to do it C comes yeah my I had I had to go realize my uh the chat was under the Moore that I couldn't see so I had to go find it but that that ought to do it for you like that'll take you to the record for the whole everything they did with that bill and just follow your nose yeah I guess I can click on that and that will open up uh right because you obviously you'll lose when when this goes down you'll lose it in chat right although the chat is saved ah but put it in your browser and and and you know that's interesting because there's there's a a dozen people who are the primary sponsors are co-sponsors right and it started in 2022 yeah yeah I mean it it well it was introduced then and but and it but it didn't see first action until 2023 in in May right and then it then it got you know then it was kind of a uh let's see received in Senate reported yeah basically they they they attempted to keep it moving in lame duck because that started after the election like by by the end of November is when lame duck session started and must have been something they wanted to get through and you'll notice the unanimous votes in both houses so right yeah passed unanimously yeah and then even and then I guess they had they assem second read yeah they probably made a change in at the end because then they had to go back to the assembly and that's where you had the 16 you know yeah but uh Hey the good news about it being veto least he was an absolute veto and he stated his reasons so it looks like it it looks like it has unless there's something hidden with the governor which there always can be um it looks like uh um it's still possible if things are coordinated and you know internal agencies cooperate with you J okay oh GL can help thank you thanks Ste sure I I'm hoping that means that the D is working with one of those sponsors to come up with a revised version that addresses whatever issues presumed the EP flag as being yeah and uh you know you can can uh or we can even send a message to uh our uh representatives and uh because they voted in favor and I asked them to also make sure that the conversation takes place with theep you put me down for that as an action I I'm going follow with our elected um representative see what they can tell us sure well and well the thing is you can you can you you you can do all that one one of the things that um uh was the bill re automatically reintroduced that's one of the things that happens on like day one it's gets set up ahead of time but that bill may already be in the hopper um and it's probably um uh yes if you look for Bill's the primary sponsored by you know assemblyman Stanley um you know if you find it prohibits sale and distribution of invasive species you'll see that he reintroduced it and you really want to find out was uh what's going to happen to it you know call up the u a primary sponsor's legislative office and ask to talk to an aid you know legislative director right they can tell you what the um if anything's going to happen they I mean it I mean yes we've been a few months in the new session I don't know if um you know what the priority is for the the sponsor and and and so on and so forth there's I was just looking at the um let me go back to the homepage there is um where is it while you're going back uh Bob Smith who's also a primary SP sponsor is a real really strong environmentalist yeah and and when there's a lot of primary sponsors it's like yes it can be sometimes it can be difficult to who's really um you know the main person but you you you call one and they they'll point to the person who's taken the the lead on it doing was looking for an Agricultural committee because it's under that uh because the assembly no not security committee right many military you've already been environment natural resources no no I just because I I'm trying to remember if I saw it come up again in any of the Committees I and it doesn't it doesn't ring a bell because I after hearing you guys talk about invasive species over the years if I see that in a bill you know it kind of sticks with me that it was there and I don't think it's come up yet but anyway there's you there's your there's there's what happened to it and why and and you know with the same people are likely to take it up again um and it'll have a different number probably then yeah yeah yeah it will unfort unfortunat see what's neat when you find a new one well if let's see I I might be able to let me do a um builds let me go back to that let me see if I can find under the sponsor Stanley you want to hang on for a moment I'll see if I can get see answer that question okay there's him and let's use current session not going to let me do that words state of action ah here we go there we go minut now concerns expenses to municipalities for tree purchase planting and removal all right hang on let's let's not restrict my search okay here we go what I got do is just I'm just I'm just scrolling through a list of bills that he sponsors to see if I [Music] I can see okay this page more than halfway through here have something no it's like under under for this session I under anything he is uh let me see hang on let me check his primary sponsor s1029 s1029 yes for this this year yes yeah it could be on one side session 20 24 2025 one more time on the number s1025 you said S1 to9 nine okay got that up yeah and yeah okay yeah there isn't a what this tells me is that do not have a they do not um yeah I was searching under that assemblyman um yeah you'll notice the record they'll tell you what bills were last session but it doesn't unfortunately if you're looking at an old and they reintroduce it they don't they don't go forward so it doesn't look like the assembly side has introduced one yet this is the sen yeah and that often happens so it's like but um there's and yeah and as you said there's Bob Smith yeah okay really appreciate it thanks so much yeah at least at least now you can just get right to it you don't have to go dig in to find what you need to to get past go so go have at it right so I hear a motion youour 8:31 p.m. okay thanks and thanks again Steve have a good night