##VIDEO ID:N5XmuE6bdfQ## harison Lake that I do McLaren mechanic can you I'm good enough okay we're great all right let's uh call the meeting to order um just before I get into it thank the green team for coming out for us tonight this is great um I just I'm going to open the meeting and then I'll go a little bit over the agenda um kind of how I thought we would run the meeting um a little bit different just because of the idea here of more of a collaborative Workshop session at the end but I do want to get through some of the EC business up front and then we'll we'll go from there all right um so I'll read the sun fine law notice uh this is a regular meeting of the environmental Commission of the borrow of Fair Haven in accordance with the provisions of the open public meetings ACT public meetings may be held in person or by means of communication equipment to include streaming services and other online meeting platforms this meeting is being held in person and through Zoom meeting platform being broadcast from bur Hall 748 River Road be Haven New Jersey public participation for this meeting on September 11th 2024 is available by call and a phone number or through Zoom members of the public will be on mute until it is time for questions comments which will be announced at that time the public has the opportunity to question comment by phone or through Zoom by the ra hand button and will be called on at the appropriate time notice of the meeting was sent to the Asbury Park Press the Two River signs the Star Ledger on last week I'm assuming September yes September 2024 posted on the burough website and bulletin board in the municipal building and has remained continuously posted as required under the statute with adequate notice having been given the environmental commission secretary is directed to include this statement in the meeting minut us um I thought after the Pledge of Allegiance we'd have a moment of silence 911 remember Jo I to of the United States of America and to the for it stands na God indivisible andice thank you Ste help with roll call Tom Bailey here Dy Murray here Anna and here William D here Kelly Flanigan here Susan Lis here Gary Patterson here John Peters not here councilman olon is not here either you have a quorum thank you uh first order of business is approval of the July 9th meeting minutes those were sent out over email is there any questions or comments regarding those meeting minutes okay um I move that we accept the meeting minutes and approve second all right all in favor thank you thank you hey Bri sorry um so just looking at the if you're looking at the agenda for tonight current business new business administrative items um so in my mind the administrative items is when we have more of a workshop session with the Green Team and the EC um and I have some ideas for how to kind of facilitate that conversation my thought was we would take open public comments before that um so that there if there are comments on our agenda items they can provide that comment and then jump off the phone if they want to they're welcome to stay for the workshop portion but it may just be a little bit harder for them to follow um via zoer or or phone want to change um so with current business um I was going to have the ER group uh present on status and then use that um come back to the ERI again when we have the U the workshop portion work all right go for it all righty well yeah now we um we had a brief meeting last night uh me and Susan and um we've been going through the comments that were made which Whoever has made comments on it thank you very much um I think we're almost through all the comments I think the biggest thing we have to address is making sure that our like executive summary summarizes everything that has been updated since the last time I think the biggest thing I think that we need to work on um obviously I don't know if we'll get to that when we get to our meeting uh with all the green team but if there are any other comments or things that are missing from it uh we did discuss based on um just the the guidance for Eris that we're not we're technically not supposed to be incorporating recommendations into the ER which we initially were going to do so we started talking about it and something that came up that maybe could kind of go back to like new business or what we're talking is strategic planning and having like a mission and vision for the environmental commission and having some guidelines to go by but also some um recommendations and things and stuff we want to work on so that kind of just kind of came out of that conversation so something to kind of come back to but just want to least bring it up now um anything else no I think we'll have the the um executive summary by next meeting okay we're good with that we then can integrate some of the the heat map that Kelly had indicated in their John Peters tree study all of the visuals are kind of the next and final layer in bundling that up right yep but I think that covers it for now until we have some more discussions with everybody so that's kind of where we're at with the was you Comon about the excluding recommendations is it not meant because it's supposed to go somewhere else it's not appropriate the point of the document is to just to out to lay out all of the open space um that's in FA to help for decision making so it's not supposed to be a decision-making document it's supposed to help with decisions so recommendations are not really we can say like hey these are like our priority areas but we can't make actual recommendations on what we should be doing what we put concerns or issues yeah I think I think that's appropriate to put you know storm water is a big highlight um and you know all since we're along the river um like things like that I think we can incorporate as like here's our like our focal points but I think if we maybe have a strategic kind of plan for the EC um that can eventually have some goals which has recommendations that we can work on yeah I think that the way that we had originally seen the we had intended the document to look was like an executive summary with the recommendations included in that and then last night we were like we scrap we will include an executive summary but it can't there can't be like an um influencing recommendation so the document itself should theoretically influence the decisions at the planning board and whatever the master plan but in terms of calling out high level our thought was in creating a strategic initiative and a Mission andv Vision that will will then tie budget tie all of our um all of our recommendations back into that so it was something that we had considered yeah I think it also help out just in general for like EC members that are you know someone that comes in that's new that want needs of a lay yeah guidance guiding principles and that kind of guidance kind of document so that's what we were thinking about this to be totally crazy nothing crazy but I do we do feel like you know having something I mean we've talked for months about what's our what's our point and I think that if we could put it all in writing um and then we were discussing where the where the document lives it will live in the fairen library once it's done it would also have a website um that you know hopefully the EC could build out that includes the Mission Vision yeah yeah I think we I know we talked in like in the past about updating our website yeah yeah to have you know make sure that these documents are easy to find and once we actually incorporate these new figures that we've been talking about those can be like like click on andig index we searching for something that it would pull on it yeah absolutely so it make it a lot easier for folks that are interested um and they're doing work or they're curious about something and they can pop it up and actually see it so okay so I mean it sounds like we've made great progress on the ri in the last couple months so that's good and I think part of what you guys have highlighted is the purpose of this conversation tonight so one of the purposes so she's um Susan's going through and making sure that the executive summary is updated based on some of the recent updates so once we have that it's really then just plugging in all the maps we'll get the from the group and keep it going yeah and if there's any a last minute you know once through if to make sure that we're we're not missing anything yeah we did close the comments down to like the broader group just to keep it a little keep yourself safe I made some comments today allow me to make them okay well maybe the we'll we'll check them you know what we will includ wor it's not too late we'll take a look yeah so yeah we'll have an update by the next time yeah cool great um do we want to spend any time tonight or just kind of push that I think we could push um living shorelines to next and yeah and save time for the and it might come up in the workshop as well yes okay agreed um and then ring Garden yeah P it nothing new um um any other new business do um is there a chance to just updated about from Green teams or do you want to wait till um I was going to if there's no like new business then we can go into the Green Team and kind of start all that perfect could we could we call for a strategic planning session in one of our next either with the green team maybe we kind of start to Workshop it and then have the Green Team weigh in but like I would ideally we talked about having this be a seriously collaborative effort to do a mission vision for the group so um I don't know if it's I think maybe we give the time to them tonight and maybe we can next session start to work on it I know Susan has some background in in doing strategic you're you were a consultant yes I was hired by a Denver firm to um they sent me out to consult with businesses around the country on strategic planning so I could I could facilitate a really kind of three question exercise to get people quickly to a mission cool so maybe kind of doing this live but the idea for tonight was um kind of using the ER as a backdrop to do some brainstorming amongst us all of us here um and really kind of narrow down if you had three kind of Big Ticket issues or or things that you wanted to see done what would those three things be and have every do that like on their own um and then I've got poits we can use and we start to so this is number one this is number two this is number three I want each of you guys to rank them and then the idea is we cluster those and start to see like where are we seeing common you know common themes common topics I imagine there will be um and then we we can then take those topics and break it into small groups like two or three people and do a bit of a deep dive and so some of the questions you know do we need help you know outside help you do we actually know all the do we need more research like do we know the the the extent of the problem or or you what the solutions are um and at the end of tonight we have a little bit of a richer understanding of what we think our Collective groups priorities are so right then and there we know EC Green Team have walked out of this meeting a little bit more aligned on X number of topic areas and we have some insight into what we're missing to me that becomes the start of this is is really the strategy this is really the things that we would care about most how does that sound sounds like a good start right sure yeah bra and it not doesn't have to end tonight but I think that was my my idea for a starting point I know we had talked about how do we kind of get more of you know a vision you know strategic view of what we want to do build off what you guys had done earlier in the year with that spreadsheet that kind of had top assigned to different people um we can still come back to that and and have champions for those topics but at least this would be an opportunity for these two groups to say hey we've we've had a conversation and we think this is what matters most yeah maybe from there we could mold something something a vision mission or any sort of the current Mission or mission for the EC is like huge if you ever read it on the website I mean it's like everything um so what I love be able to do is say you know that's that's it but like here are the things that we focus on yeah yeah cool all right thank you um so I just I'm GNA just mention a couple things as far as new business before we jump into the the Green Team introductions um first is the mcarter pond subcommittee um is meeting next week you might know that that was a topic that came up after the July session uh Council took it over as well mayor Halper appointed a committee to look at that in more detail that's getting started next week me Michael and some others on on that to do much more of a deep dive into you know what the challenges are for me I'm learning like how do you manage a pond like I there's like a you know there there are some some um best practices so um we're we're with coming back to the governing body with a set of recommendations how to improve it how to make it more sustainable um so that's going on um Berg Sanctuary is similar I think are you have you guys started no we just got confirmed last week um so in a similar light um the mayor stood up another committee to look at the bir sanctuary and and is representing us on that um and finally for next month um we will put some time aside to revisit deer mitigation yes um we had talked about it and and you guys had talked about it before I joined we had talked about it kind of closed it hand it back to Brian and and Michael and the rest of the governing body um a resident has stepped forward she has extensive background and experience and wildlife management and alternative methods for managing the overp population in this case of deer she's brought brought forward studies and experience and and a passion for the topic we will host her next week or not next week next month um I will send out I'll make sure you guys are are get a pread of some of that material that she's prepared some of the studies that she's sharing and we'll have a we'll give her some some air time and have a discussion um and and for me it's not a binary Choice it's not like you A or B it's there are various different options in front of us one of which was the the the bow hunts contrary to our group recommendation and sounds it it doesn't have to be it's just another point of view that I think we should consider um I think this is the great forum for her to come and share that information and for us to discuss it can I jump in there so the my sense is the whole Council understands there's a beer problem um you all did your homework I think I was on the EC that person came um from the state the same person came in sou the council and at least where I was sort of left was you know it would be great to do a non-lethal way but it just isn't it doesn't um isn't practical or wouldn't work that was a conclusion that I was led to believe this resident is saying no that there might be another way so we think it's worthwhile to explore it to make sure that we're just in case right we have a state official that said it that we a DE is the only way to do it effectively but if someone has another idea I think it's worth listening to just in case because I would much rather do not lethal but you know I'm I'm open-minded with skeptical can I something I to say um I'm with Brian I was actually on the EC also when we talked about it and that was our recommendation as well um what a couple flags for me were that like romson and little silver opted not to do it and so I was just kind of wanted to get a little bit more of like why some them they didn't decide to do the um the hunt and also if we do it and no one else around us does it how does that play out so I just as a council member would love this information just to know that I've made the most Sound Decision and well thought out any other comments any other new business that you wanted to consider for next month or I think this deer mitigation is very important discussion that we should it everybody thank you all right cool so that's end of new business um so like I said at the beginning if there's anyone on the phone joining us that um has something they want to share based on the business we've covered so far this would be a great time to raise your hand and you can speak once we're finished with the uh public comments portion we'll move into the the green team workshop there are no public online well I have can I speak as a a resident te okay I just have a question um about the peninsula approach to Deer mitigation are we I mean obviously these deer live in the play pen of the peninsula are we coordinating are we working with collaborating with little silver Rumson Sandy Hook is there any so I know the mayor did meet with or at least speak with other Mayors but I do remember from the conversation that the um the woman from the state said that deer actually don't move much it's a very small area that they live in I think it was one kilometer maybe yeah yeah they don't spread I would think that they do okay um but at least the person from the state said that they don't okay but but I know that the mayor did reach out to other mayors um and to Michael's point they they declined oh okay all right to do a deer hunt and aren't there some private like I guess there's like private hunting on like larger properties private properties yeah that's the that's rson in particular yeah and the county has its deer management program yes yes um which has been in place for 10 years and doesn't seem to join as far as their own membership thank you anything else all right Qui question I guess for Brian I know we um I guess it was I guess a month or so ago um we had commented for the tree ordinance I know you discussed it at the council meeting this past week I just didn't know like how our comments for cooperations we didn't get to see like I guess an updated version are we going to get to see an updated version of the ordinance yeah there is so it's part of the part of the public record it's part of the the council meeting but yes I I believe I Incorporated essentially everything it might have been a thing or two I don't I got feedback from um the Natural Area environmental commission shade tree Commission of course um Sher our licens tree expert bur administrator um and one more so I can't quite keep track of who's giving me what I think I I tried to incorporate everything the mayor gave me some feedback some private residents gave me feedback right okay I when I looked on the agenda I didn't see the actual like revised ordinance on there so that's why I was wondering where we'd be able to see it so it is um just so you know the process it's in Workshop so it has not so we don't get to see it until I think it's part of the public I mean it was part of the packet um but it was wasn't yeah it wasn't in the packet to actually look at [Music] I'll send it to you yeah just curious just to see it I'm here see everyone's comments and what not so all that so the next so the the town attorney is making it coherent and making sure that it's legally viable or whatever yeah yeah um and then we either Workshop again or pass or you know what introduced I should say will we get another shot at comments or is that will we will we be able to look at it as a group before it goes or is it kind of past that point so um good question um to me it feels like it's at the point where the council would amend it okay but certainly the public can come and talk at the meetings I just know that from the original document not the updated document that I did see there's no I don't believe that the buau is mentioned the burrow of Fair Haven it's applied to the burough of fairen so we changed that good good point we changed that in the workshop Okay so we've so anything that's applied to a homeowner is essentially extended to the burrow yes okay great cool yeah good thank you oh now I can continue we didn't have like the official Council update so I'm like it's fun it's great um all right great so um best way to do this I thought we thought be great to to do some basic introductions just so you know there's some new faces there's some um in the room but just kind of do introductions Green Team EC um give the you you and the Green Team a chance just to kind of share a little bit about what's been going on what's upcoming in the next couple months specifically um I just wanted to kind of Kick It Off say I I'm I'm glad you guys are here um thank you for coming it's it's great um it's a great response to me this is the you know the purpose of of all of volunteers coming together and trying to do something better improvements you know for the town and and sharing ideas in a in a format like this is great so thank you guys for coming I appreciate it and I hope we all find some value in the workshop portion of tonight as we try you take our ideas our our different missions and and you know work together on on common outcomes on common goals you know we're you might carry one part of it we might carry one part of it but we're kind of working rowing the same direction well so started with that and then you know you want to just kind of do intros sure sure yes um and thank you I appreciate allowing this to happen I think this this was a thing we talked about for a while a long time coming right for so long it's been kind of separate entities um apart from just a report of what the green team is doing and um we are connected um not just by budget and you know um policy but um it's great to have a name and a face to people and understand that the different both sides of the coin of the work that we're doing which is equally valid um but just different um yet complimentary so um I think this is a fantastic and I and I these people mostly are in the the audience week month after month but it's great to have them as active members of of the meeting so thank you um I would love to begin I know we have some green team members that are joining us on Zoom too I don't know if we want to bring them over or at least allow them to just introduce themselves as well bring sure Jen yeah [Music] right all three and Stephanie I know great and um you all know me but why don't we begin Sarah would you like to begin and just introduce yourself hi background about um I'm Sarah Pachel um figured out that we've lived here for almost 40 years which seems likely but time Lies when you're having um and I'm fairly recent member of the Green Team I'm very interested in energy transition and climate topics uh Bonnie T um I've been in B for 10 years came from rson so I've been in the area for 30 um I am on the Green Team I am on the shade tree commission I am on the Natural Area advisory committee member of the Garden Club of Fair Haven the and the romson Garden Club um I'm on the bird sanctuary now um Third Street Trail the third it's not really but yes but everybody knows about it um so I'm um very concerned with you know preserving Fair Haven and how wonderful it is and the Natural Area and the trees and um so I don't know what else to say I mean I want to make most of the bird sanctuary brings you know love that we're going to focus on that and um anyway I look forward to working with all of you thank you so I um spend every morning and probably every night talking to Bonnie so a lot of the Committees that she is on I am on also but um I'm here Robin O'Neal and I live on River Road I came here 8 years ago thinking I was never going to leave Philadelphia but my daughter moved to Fair Haven and I came here she found my house it happened to be on the river and my husband loves to swim in water we found out very soon after we moved in eight years ago that the water was pretty polluted and it really wasn't behooving to dump in so that motivated me to find out about clean ocean action and that's how I Bonnie and I you know found our bond and I've really if there is a passion it is to make sure that we have the that we do that I do the most I can to clean to keep these Rivers clean and so that our children can feel free on a hot day in May coming home from school and jumping in the water and they can do it in August and they're really going to be safe hi I'm Bethany kin I've been in Fair Haven for about four years now um what brought me to the green team was um wanting to help spread a culture of reusing and recycling I see a lot of things being thrown away specifically on bulk day that was very upsetting for me so I think I found a group of like-minded people that can maybe help um spread that kind of culture change and I do social media for the Green Team please do you want to um oh yeah hi I'm oise casy um been a member of the green team for probably about a year um I'm on the mcarter pond advisory committee friends of marter pond um co- the fa farmers market um and you know historic Association but just really interested and passionate about conservation preservation of town Susan do you want to hi I'm and then we um have a few members online that would if they want to speak um you can unmute yourself Jenny you want to start there you go hey uh yeah I'm Jenny Foster I don't even know I've been on the Green Team I guess since the official beginning although it existed before I ever joined it um but uh yeah very similar to Bethany there's just I I want to promote awareness of how people can help and you know I don't want to put a burden on people but but I just want to educate them about small daily changes they can make to that will be very effective in helping our environment and taking care of the place we live in so that our kids can enjoy it thanks uh Jenny then step hi um I guess I've been in town for about 13 years um and I was uh met Kelly through lini nef actually when lini first um got involved with sustainable Jersey and um we started the Green Team um and you know involved in all kinds of things and just echoing really what everybody has said um you know just trying to keep what we have right sustainable sustainability we we've got a pretty good place going here and and um we'd like to keep it that way for our kids and for our kids kids and um you know it's a it can be kind of an uphill battle but it's you know I'm I'm honored to work with such an amazing group of people and the fact that so many of us have very specific interests and and really just kind of run with that which is so crucial to attack back in all of the issues that need to be addressed um so that's it thank you and then Sarah hi Sarah shetti here um born in Fair Haven 40 some years ago um grew up splashing around in the navn like Robin would like us to be able to do again um also enjoying all the nature areas Etc I've been in and out of town um my whole life and um kind of settled back here during co uh got involved with the green team um I guess shortly after Co I I can't even remember it's all blur um but I have a background in um fundraising so I uh was brought on to uh help out with grants and and other things um but stuck around because I love the town and the trees and the green and the river thanks her aome you have to yeah like we should sure I'm Bill dorer I've been a resident here for 38 years and I just started the environment Commission in January so um I'm learning a lot that's all I can say there's a lot to learn and it's amazing but it's a lot of fun um I'm Gary Patterson um I B the town for about 15 years um and I've been on the environmental commission for about eight years now um I'm a a civil engineer in the in transportation infrastructure um sector so you know through that I've seen how you know infrastructure can impact the environment and soil erosion and impervious cover and all of that so that's how I ended up getting involved with the environmental commission and I'm Jesse Murray I've been on the EC since I moved to town 2016 but born and raised um on the Jersey Shore not too far away um I'm actually a Fisheries habitat biologist uh by trade and I review Coastal development projects so that's my what I'm doing now my previous experience with in Consulting environmental Consulting so I have background in environmental permitting um designing and implementing restoration projects so I've got a lot of background with everything environmental although my passion and what I'm doing now is focus on the coast great Sean Bailey the newest member of the EC and uh resident since 2019 um what drew me to the the region was the proximity to the water I've been in and around the Jersey Shore for South Jersey um I'm also phly backgrounds Che yes the the being water you know being near water is important to us my family 30 years of of being on or near the shore um this is a great location we're on a river we're you know we're close to the to the coast um and I'm big into fitness so being outside I love our natural areas I was you know in very even Fields today running um so I'm very invested in making sure that you know what's what's here is maintained and sustained and invested in and and cared for so that you know other Generations have the same ability to to benefit from that great um pretty much everybody knows me CU I I'm on both but I don't know if I need to but I'll say I'm Kelly Flanigan I am um on the green team as well as on the environmental commission I've been on the environmental commission for the past four five years uh I think um and the and green team I was on it as Steph mentioned from the Inception uh with lini and was critical in getting our first sustainable Jersey certification which was bronze back in um 2019 and then with the help of this fantastic that we have we were able to up that to Silver certification in 2022 with 350 points which was a great um accomplishment um and we'll be talking about our next round is Du next year um but I come with a background in Environmental Education that is my passion that is what I do um professionally that is the you know for me it's education with the children I I do a lot of work with the school and um but also educa in residents as well because that's so much is not done just because of not wanting to do it but not knowing um the right way or more sustainable way and also many times that can also be the U most effect cost effective way as well so that is my passion I'm Anna Antonin lifelong Buri and Resident um just really love this town so dop right in to get involved and start the farmers market all all the different fun things and I find myself here in this basement a little too often but about doing things for Fair Haven so this has been one thing love Fields love the water it's part of my whole life and identity so if there's anything that I can do to help this town it's my mission so I don't have a background in anything environmental but I defer to these brilliant people here to lead me in that so the reason I moved to Fair Haven was because I read it has Sailing Club and encourage kids to ride their bikes to school and I thought that's where I'm going to raise my daughter so I love it here U my background is in writing and as a newspaper editor we focused on environmental stories that led me personally to build the First Solar house in Mammoth County 50 years ago it's active and passive and then that led me to design and I became a lead accredited professional with interior design and construction appalation and I was asked to write a course in sustainable design and teach it at Kane University and sit on the committee to write the green residential remodeling guidelines for the state and blah blah blah right now so at all art practice in Fair Haven and I received a grant from the state to pursue the practice and it's environmentally Focus start and it's awesome have the time to here I'm happy to be here some of the coolest start you'll see at the Estuary next year already thank you do you uh you want me to pick off some of the an stuff um sure if I could just give an update on some of the stuff of green team that's y uh surprisingly there's quite a bit of really awesome stuff um going on with this Green Team and I think um first off I would love to say that um we were awarded the 2024 and Jack environmental Achievement Award um for partner um which was an incredible team effort um on on both sides and um you couldn't have done it without the amazing work of Bonnie and Robin and their incredible knowledge of native plants and um their passion that has turned everybody that they talk to into a native plant believer and they are it but once you learn that how do you how do you choose otherwise and so talking about education I mean that is brilliant and what is even great about that is that it is educating everybody that comes to that Garden because of that fantastic sign that Steph spent numerous hours iously revising and editing and the grammar and the document you know the images and it just was a wonderful um wonderful achievement and it's a beautiful if you haven't seen it it is just in its full Glory now on that Third Street Trail and when you go in there and you see the butterflies and the birds and it's it's just a beautiful part of that trail and um it's that trail is only getting better um so that was a great award and um so make sure everybody so anj is the association of environmental Commission of New Jersey yeah Association of New Jersey environmental commission exactly they are the um leading organization that helps people get started with environmental commissions kind of teaches people they offer workshops of what environmental commissions should be doing they put on great stock so one of the things because we were that awarded that award it will be presented on um September 27th at Rowan University um at the environment Congress which is also includes wonderful speakers and workshops um if anybody from the Green Team or the EC would like to attend that as well if you could just let or talk to me after um but it is uh a whole day Friday the 27th Friday the 27th it's like a 9 to4 at Rowan um and we can you know feel free to come talk to me after um speaking of the pollinator Garden we Council has um awarded or approved Eagle Scout Alex aronik to um continue to build off that pollinator Garden as well um for his Eagle Scout project um and that will take place his fall in order to raise funds for that he is having a car wash this Sunday at the rson fire company from 11 to2 so $10 a car it is a bargain and you're helping Alex raise his go to raise $700 that will include cost of plants and additional deer fencing because that is still problem um because do so move on to that I think it's important to note the work of the Green Team for the pollinator Garden yes but the work of you to get the award and the application thank you for doing that as well like I said it's it's always a team effort and it's um it was great it's we have a wonderful team here and I would be to not include Mark Olen as well and he is the not afraid to get into anybody's ear about it and um you know P their arm and and they'll meet them at that that that trail but it is um yeah it's great um thank you um other things coming up is also the sport swap the um fall sport swap which is our collaboration with Rumson environmental commission so that will take place on September 21st at the Fair Haven fields which is a Saturday during soccer Saturday and flag Football Saturday where that fields are buzzing with people from 9: to 12:00 p.m. so you can bring donations the next two Saturdays at the fields or you can bring it to the farmers market this Saturday so it's great and we'll be um they allowed us graciously to support it they're going to be supporting it and helping us um promote it as well there so um 9 to2 921 rain location will be at Nativity Parish Center right okay there's incing weather and the other thing that I just on our everyone's agenda and Forefront is just as I mentioned earlier our sustainable Jersey application we have to renew it to continue with our certification for those of you that don't know about sustainable Jersey it offers a wonderful road map um to how to get your municipality to think more sustainable and not just in terms of Environmental and carbon footprint and but also with vibrant downtown a local economy maintaining the Arts culture um everything that makes a community worthwhile and wanted to move to right biking to school and safe rots and sailing in a river and you know all this wonderful stuff that we do and how to maintain that so people so it's the wonderful place that we know it as um also it does allow for Grants and opportunities and so that's that pollinator Garden that we did was through a $22,000 sustainable jeury grant that Sarah you know helped us um achieve but just and this is we can talk as the environmental commission and the Green Team going forward um if this can be a joint application this time you know it's a lot of work um and there's a lot of stuff that the green team is not you know whether DPW does or the business administrators do there's a lot of other in information that we would need help Gathering um but just round one is February in sometime in February round two would be in May and the final application will be in July so just get those months on you know that I know that will come up pretty soon but you know maybe we can start taking a look at that application really soon yes yeah yeah because the final you get received your award would start you know or it expires next December so we have to have everything in so so we have to have a draft by February for at least 150 points yes but we're shooting for the go we are shooting for silver obviously there are gold stars and and priority ones too yes I mean we are bring home the gold that would be great right did you need info from us for the farmers market yes and so there are different things like Farmers Market what Sarah might talk about too today to um where she wants to talk about is her climate you know that is all part important so some you know there were things we did where you live day there right a lot of stuff we're already doing anyway it's just a matter of kind of combing that out and seeing what's needed and What needs to just be renewed would it be would it make sense for next month in October to just have like start an outline map yeah it's kind of like at least on paper work back from those dates um if there are certain like Milestones or even if we start listing out projects and and things that we know that we've been win points for the start putting on the paper as well right and I can also um share with the group or have chrisy share to uh the website and the actions that are available and the points that are given because there might be something like I think we do this or we're very close to getting this that some other people on the committee might might know about or 50 might know about because there's a lot of overlap with the shade tree Mission and everything else so is that now all the actions we did are blank be recalculated some you could go into the application you'll say expired some are approved because they're always approved um or you know yeah yeah but just to you know keep that you know Kelly I'm thinking that um fresh off of a Garden Club Fair Haven meeting today that they are really Civic um partners of ours and they are you know really going to be leading the birth Sanctuary effort um because it's their Duty they've been you know they're handed that but I really believe that we could get those residents uh involved with um filling out these actions yeah and I see the bird sanctu as being probably like a um yeah one of those Innovative projects right you know which is on that application so there's a lot of good yeah and and reaching out making it broader than just identifying the program to them the fact that they need to know having been named the Garden Club of New Jersey just recently in 2024 they were awarded that so they are you know interested in expanding their leadership so um yeah that's that's yeah think that's good okay anything else before we jump into the workshop from the garden members to sh right um I brought poits and pens this is why we like sh Kelly a couple Vol sorry um is Sarah is Sarah felle is she GNA be talking about um yes okay you're right SE maybe she should just talk real quick before we um do you mind I'm just think if it sort of devolves into groups and Y you're right call um Sean do you mind if we just quickly just jump I'll do this while do um no I'm good I have nothing to write on I can't be trusted with paper um so in the context of the sustainable Jersey Paradigm and um wanting to do some Community Education and Outreach the Green Team thought that we should um maybe do a talk maybe a series of talks about um sustainability uh climate topics in the town and in particular for a first try um I think it's still feasible for us to plan for November and this due date motivates me to try to make it be November uh a an hour hour and a half format where we would do a talk and have discussion and um Refreshments um where it talks about a personal experience with heat pumps electric vehicles so panels Home Efficiency uh in Fair Haven and my husband and I can do our house um maybe there's another house that we could do we don't want it to like like last too long um and we would also talk about the um New Jersey and federal government rebates that are coming for making these kinds of investments in your ownes um we've had some de success with these kinds of presentations uh at the it's actually more than the county so there there's a couple of groups that host monthly webinars on this topic where different people come in and talk about what was their experience like trying to put heat bumps in their condo Community you know the hard parts and the easy parts of that what what is what's your experience like doing solar panels um and just having more or less regular people talk about making these kinds of upgrades to their house could be a good a good topic for us yeah and just be like what's the value what's the the cost and benefit of it you know and how how does one go about yeah even starting that process yeah right and why is it important and right what are the finances associated with it um and I think that um uh and in the in the sustainable Jersey contact they you know have suggestions like oh some people do one a quarter one a month some people do it on paper you know put a little essay in the like a white paper something yeah an essay that's available to Residents to help educate to begin to educate people about when they're doing renovations in their house what are the things that they should be thinking about around Energy Efficiency and clean energy and clean their and I mean I think it would be great to kind of do that brought to you by the Green Team and the environmental commission is this something that the environmental commission is interested in helping to support co-hosting or co- putting on um for the public it's a good idea you people know what's out there and I I think not just people too could it be open to commercial as well um or is that a separate you mean you mean to contractors businesses in town oh businesses yeah that that that'd be great that' be great I mean you can with these kinds of talks you can go in the direction of inviting contractors in to come talk about what their experience is and what they recommend there's several businesses in the county in the region at any rate who um uh you know do energy audits and can talk to homeowners about that but I didn't think that we would start no I yeah just like local businesses and local residents here yeah didn't didn't Forefront didn't they do a lot of um when they did their new campus I thought I thought I remember somebody saying that they Incorporated a lot of kind of more sustainable renewable um energy Concepts into what they did I thought yeah question um I could talk to them I mean and I do think that um it would be great to do this hybrid you know so there's a real question in my mind about what space do you do it in where you can have people on zoom and have people in person um you could do here you might be able to do the schools yeah might be a good um option as long yeah um but I don't know how it got to be the middle of September but it is the middle of September so we're talking about doing it um in the middle of November then Tick Tock like I we I I need some we we kind of took the summer off us SC yes we did kind of took the summer off so we need to get our act together but I mean if if the green if e thinks of something that it's not you know we're happy to you know for sustainable Jersey can report back at the next yeah I think doing one of these is five or 10 points so it's not you know some every Point adds up though but every point so yeah I'm not comp with the ask is just to see if this is something that the E is agrees with like wants a support do you want your name on the do you want your name on the flyer I think that's you show up and help will you be a will you be a yeah great okay great okay we just now have 10 more people be there in the audience yeah I mean sir I think the main thing is to really uh pick a date because November I mean which month isn't crazy in the fall but um pick a date and pick a venue and then kind of yeah that's exactly right yeah all of it she's back um yeah so some of the rest of you know things like school calendar is better than I do but yeah S I can help you work I'm gonna work with Kelly and I can check locations and Columbus club or whatever true Columbus that that could work you have a bar there too Robin already volunteered to help's helping Kelly's helping I'm providing content we'll get happen if anybody else wants to help out just let us know you might ask everybody to bring brownies right something like that all right thank you Sarah okay get clever so the reason for the colorcoded poess we're back in school my thoughts was there just like we had the comment earlier about the Strategic plan and and looking at our the EC Mission and understanding the scope of what collectively and I'm not saying the EC and the green team when I say this I mean all the other groups that you all volunteer for and advocate for and actively participate on um if we try to get our arms around all the different things and all the facets of of environments that that matter it it's big it's really big and I think one of the challenges I've seen is is how do we take energy passion action at the ground level and and bring that to something that we can take to or Council the mayor and say this is action that needs to be taken it it it seem to move easier for things like the police station Community Center and Roads and sidewalks I mean maybe it's tangible I maybe it's parties whatever I think now is the time for us to unite and to come up with a A playbook a way for us to talk about it that's more Unified that gives that direction to our leaders and that's kind of as phally as I can say I I don't know necessarily a process that's perfect to get us there but I think what I'd like to use our time for tonight is to start to at the ground level what are your top three issues because a lot of the people in this room whether you're a professional in the space or a volunteer covering a lot of different areas I mean it's going to come from it's you're going to cover all the a lot of the bases maybe not everything but a lot of things so um the idea is the color coding is on purpose so this orange one this brighter fun color is your number one item if you could ask the mayor to do one thing fix one thing related to our environment whether it's a shoreline the pond Natural Area storm runoff from housing you I don't want to I don't want to bias any of you guys but one your number one issue number one topic you would want to dress that's this color and so on and so on big blue the lighter this is your number two item that number one item was already done this would be your number two and then finally your third item is in yellow give you guys a couple minutes it is because like I said it's a big worlds yeah have to answer a question for me I don't know if anybody in this room knows this um do we know whether or not we be Haven burrow is allowed to have more stringent building codes than the state adopts they can't but they can't be less restrictive right yeah that's always how it is like even with just general government government can like federal government will said something State can be stricter County can be stricter so it can it can get stricter is it yeah I think I think there's a a law at the state level that says that it cannot that the state level Cod has to be equal to the um whatever the main agent you know uh yeah there there's minimum set but you can't go like below that but at least meet it but if you want to be more stringent that's always more okay thank you somewhere that is next we just too fast e e I may have given you extra Post-it notes for each color but remember it's just one and if you made two number ones you just have to pick one I'm so opinionated [Music] [Music] yes okay may The Next Step okay all right I take Jesse's um recommendation so when you're done out of your seat we'll use the wall back here behind us and then your number one your top priority is going to go on the far left here in the middle we'll do number two second one and on the left sorry far right over here all the [Music] okay School okay good out of you and her T each other and I being inated matter you're on Zoom want to send priorities to karson f.net or put them in the chat I can put them on the board for you k l a r n f HB o r o.net and it's your top three prior [Music] going out of get I want to share with [Music] [Music] I en requirement and I am so education major Psy I also you know I did a that was great and I got and church because we took a field trip maybe what I'll do is I'm looking at [Music] so that but anyway we no you guys come back here come back so I think what the purpose of this exercise was to number one get us up and moving a little bit a little bit more if SCP does not have trouble chatting um but what if you start to just take a step away what we've been doing up here is trying to group together similar topics and the purpose of the color of the poits was to give us a bit more of a visual representation so for example this what this this grouping here is is flooding storm water management it's generally this topic see that two of us it's the number one problem for three of us it's a number two problem um just like this this is flitting shorelines are well generally just like our Shoreline and again we've got two people that think it's a number one party in four of us that think it's a number two priority so we've got gear mitigation over here as another we have couple of us but if someone thinks it's a number one priority something fell on I think it was um and so it's not to say that like I mean obviously de mitigation we're going to put time in the EC is going to put time into it next month like it's not that it's not an important priority but it's just you do we've got far with it do we want to when we look at the wall do we want to spend as much time with that or do we want to spend more time with educating the public or you know our our our pond here which had five two number ones and two number twos you know what I mean so it's like that's kind of what I'm trying to tease out of this type of exercise is we have to start to narrow down and it's not that other things aren't important it's just certain things are more important but are they related to because preservation of open space which has a lot is deer mitigation is very much related to that dear that's we say they open space and all the management plans are related to the pond but also related to deer management so it's kind little like off shoes of the main topic right but um and faing living shorelines and storm water management are also kind of like tied together yes okay right okay so there's there's food ways program there's energy efficiencies there's the storm water management living shorelines Environmental Education General Open Space Management uh the pond invasive species management clean air and then deer mitigation those were all the main topics that came up obviously a lot of them are linked together um just like water is where the focus should be storm water in charlot the most water yeah you know I um but there I I didn't write storm water and because if we have a great living Shoreline and we have a vibrant NE more robust planting and tree planting like that alleviates yeah it takes care of a lot of storm water issues too can I waigh in on that one yes as this like person who is so affected by storm water all that stuff is great but a lot of it is also like our infrastructure that can't handle the amount of water that's added all the development that's happening so I think some of this has to also play into like our zoning our building codes like some of that like new build so it is definitely those are kind of solution part of the solutions but I think it is a little bit of a bigger but just to chime in you know also it's building codes it's codes but it's Al trees you know it's how many of these larger trees that we're taking down and with those trees go those root systems so I I agree with you Michael but you know it's not just the building codes it's also you know how we're treating the natural resources that are either going to impede or assist with this problem definitely cool so that's kind of The Next Step so what I thought we would do in conjunction together as the group um is get into a small I think we've got an even number here so just partners for now and then we can cover six topic areas so you and your partner take would take one of the topic areas and dive into a little bit more detail so look at the poits try to understand you know what are our peers saying are the issues um and start to ask start to answer a couple of key questions I joted a couple here down but it's certainly not an exhaustive list but um you know what have we tried in certain areas we've tried to do certain things to make improvements um you know who do we need help from um what do we need to know things like that so again back to grade school style if we can count off and then we'll make ourselves little partners okay so Bill you start your number one yes Jesse your number two Kelly you're number three four five back to one one two three four five six six okay cool with number ones number twos number three find you find your partner see you're number one right yes I am you tack one I'll tackle one but I'll take the easiest one cap right up my street where's the lease [Music] SE I'm doing great we got I think weeks they had the original thing was they did year and and he did something and it didn't work so then they put it out the b and they talked about but the thing isine but you would that help and what need to know yeah so and like I said it's not an exhaustive list but just if amongst the if you don't see a good Coalition or what the issue is maybe try to create your own issue statement based on what's there um so restate the issue yes what don't we know what have we tried whose Health do we need whose do we need and what have we tried problem whates that problem okay you know we clean it up rure [Music] [Music] but spru spru is next here here see is that anything going where that goes or is that impacting the RO now have the problem so we tried H know that car I don't change the oil it unforunately I haven't seen done he this side this but meanwhile resents whatever how do we get it that [Music] yeah not leave like it's like the is creeping up and the water is going maybe buil and houses 4ty bu getting rid of it sure they a little bit but I don't know also I mean you know along the L one fo away but no way years ago and that's always one thing out right [Music] [Music] [Music] right right right right and the people that live here [Music] I wonder wish I truck I right and then they next open [Music] yeah then issue well the more you open it it's like an onion hang yeah great so do you mind going first so what I thought we would do next is I think we can do this in 15 or so minutes but just take a couple minutes and share what you and your partner to discussed as far as taking the input from the poits helping Define what the issue is um and Talking Through you know what is it that we need to focus on where do we how do we move forward in addressing that issue chrisy will type as fast as possible to try to capture everything it'll be again like I said I think this is a good Baseline if nothing more it's a chance for us to then decide of these six are all six worthy of a further Deep dive are there a couple that sort of float to the surface as being more complicated and therefore requiring more you know a little bit more of our Collective attention Okay we started with marter Pond and it's like an onion and the more you get into it the more and more problems we got into so the short of it is we tried Hydra twice and that didn't seem to really work um and next thing is help it needs a lot of help what what what is causing that problem you know for the the pond to be like that with the you know the wetlands and stuff like that um I I we we couldn't you know as we talked about it it's like more and more issues came up whether it's storm order management whether it's building uh how do how do you solve it and it's it's it turns it turns into a really complex problem so what we need to know is there's got to be experts out there to say what has to be done to solve this problem it's it's more it's really it's amazing I mean uh the the way that I see it is that there are long term uh uh causes that are affecting this like uh like the fertilizer runoff there are short-term causes that are affecting this like recent construction uh and therefore there are short-term solutions that we can take like drudging it or Hydro raking or taking a little Dixie cup and getting all the duckweed out and then there's long-term things that we can take to help the issue uh like um like looking at at how we use uh fertilizers around the pond looking at the drainage around the pond looking at the airators around the pond but it's a pretty complicated issue can can I just I find the whole thing so confusing um I know there was this big legal suit we couldn't talk about anything I think I feel like what it what exactly is the history what has truly been done what are the mistakes made would admit what mistakes we made or um just just we don't do them again like I feel like like we keep hi you know doing this H working it's not really effective but why like what what what is what are you doing WR so I think if you can wait you know a couple weeks the committee um will have that so we're working on a timeline to kind of give everybody like a level set of understanding about what's been done when um including you know the dates of Hydra raking and and sort of what what was the expectation of that and so did the expectation wasn't that it would fix it the expectation was that it would help improve it as an example so um if you give us a couple weeks we you know we'll give this group our group and your group if you're interested a read out of of where we get to with that so I think that's one of the topics where um we've already agreed as a as a burough we're going to do a deep dive on that so thank you guys Jess you guys want go a second on this the importance of communicating to the community I know that's hard it's like pushing a noodle you know where you don't always make it actually push but um people in town are intensely interested in this one and so the more we probably cannot talk about it too much it's cost so much money and it almost feels like it was flushed on the toilet like that I guess that's that's just I feel people saying like what we spent so much money and what happened and what you know are we going to get some of that back I don't know just and frankly that that may be part of it but I think most of what I see on social media and stuff is just it's such a mess how come we can't what's going on what's going on yeah and people will feel better if they just know what's going on agreed I think the honesty for all their issu education is kind of like a component for each and every single one of them so that's kind of like an overarching theme yeah so thanks Jesse but yeah we had the living shorelines um as a topic and things what have we tried so far I I think just to kind of like do like a quick summary I mean we have kind of three different stages of projects and like is and like areas so there's um dormandy that has the failing Shoreline that we have plans for just haven't really gone past the plans and the American leral society gave us presentation on these plans but they kind of just they've been paused that's kind of like a almost like a almost ready project um there's H road that has it's smaller but there's we don't really have plans we kind of but don't really have plans for that one and then 21 Fair Heaven road which is brand new knew there's a you know a whole host of things there so honestly what we've tried so far is really mostly related to like Normandy we have potential plans um we've had we've mostly just been talking about knowing this is an issue um so yeah mostly just been talking and we've had consensus that you know natural shorelines are preferred to and you know Imperia surfaces that's kind of like the main main thing that we kind of talked about um what we need to know um obviously you know what are the impacts like what's affecting all these different shorelines you know are there wave wind storm water is it a native PL issue like like what are like the main issues that are part of these shorelines that are causing the problems um are there any temporary things we can do like any in in the interim in order to get to our you know final spot um you know what are the rules like environmental rules um what are the options that could be done at all these locations that's kind of the what we kind of need to know and who to help um really anyone between um the different government agencies nonprofits um rant funding um design education it's like again like I mentioned for all different projects we have um consultant for design and Engineering so those are kind of like the the main things kind of going but again we kind of got like three different stages of like Shoreline projects so it's like you know know can't do them all at once but if if we can um or you know we can that P be further kind of reduced down for you know product purposes but that's kind of what we got I don't want to go too deep into it but for dormandy with the ALS plan did that make it to the burough Professionals for costing and budgeting uh I think so I know what was the presentation was it one or two years ago I know there was initially we were going to go for Grand for it was very close and I think it was just I thought we had some f side to side for when they came to the E meeting yeah remember they came to the environment they did a presentation yeah it was like a yeah and like they there were plans made but I think the plans just need to get updated because the elevations have changed there's been more more the Shor line has unfortunately like degraded since but that's kind of like the it's very close to actually being a like shovel ready project it's just a matter of I think I'm not sure what the stage of like the funding is or if we need to get more grants or what we need to get it over the finish line so okay so maybe I can sorry I was going to say prioritize it honestly like I mean I'm just curious if Chris it's on Chris's radar like it did it make it you know into the administration's I mean I would think so because there were designs I mean there were already like engineering plans for it but they just did not get updated yeah got stall so okay well let me take an action to follow up with Chris and see where if he's aware of it so then actually that should be taken care of before anything is done as 21 fair oh 100% that's a 21 Fair Haven Road is a blank Sate we need to actually do an environmental assessment there to figure out what exactly is going on what the issues are but first the normative oh exactly no absolutely great thank you you to go yeah had to step out so uh we were discussing um open space preservation management of Open Spaces um we ended up with more questions than we had answers because we actually don't know what the DPW does we don't know what their budget is we don't know what they have on their list of things that they do to preserve our spaces we brainstormed a little bit about like what maintenance entails um obviously cutting grass maintaining trees removing invades of species watering things planting things handling storm water ideally installing rain Gardens ideally maintaining canopy and setting canopy goals um the things that we have tried uh we listed community cleanup days things like Natural Area Community cleanups Third Street Trail Community cleanups um but maybe some other things we could try would be Community cleanups for other parks and areas um forth Creek came up apparently there's a big notw sorry yes not weed there um we need a engineering plan for to Normandy and we need help with Mond like professional external so open space preservation wasn't I guess I didn't know which direction it was going to go either it wasn't like if if there's an open lot like in a neighborhood like keeping in an open lot it was more the spaces that have already been designated as public spaces making sure they stay yeah that was what the vibe I got from these stickies at least it was like focused on like ponds rivers our Parks our Fields um was it necessarily about like um aining Open Spaces like turning 21 Fair Haven into open space it wasn't like yeah okay cool I say that's a big component too of a lot of these it's like there's going to be a maintenance plan associated with and a lot of these projects too like I forgot to mention that for living short but obviously if there's a product done there needs to be some sort of monitoring and maintenance that goes with it so that's the word and that's the money yeah all right you guys have a tough topic well we had we just had five topic that we tried to mesh into something we had a good brainstorm well we have invasive species uh get rid of gas powered leaf blowers robust tree native plant planting preservation um improving Community centered Fields by planting trees and converting the old ten course to a passive Park area with Shrubbery flowers trees Etc sitting areas and Lawn culture specifically imported Turk grass is BL native fa grass is yay yay so um this is um a kind of widespread I mean I think in terms of what have we tried I know the EC formed of committee Jonathan Peters was on it think and Gary left but about the Lea blowers and we kind of talked about it but it never really went anywhere so um I think there was a lot of push back about it's a very sensitive topic right leaf blowers well actually there's no need for a leaf blower in the summer well that is one of the things that we would say I think that that that that is something they're for blowing leaves not they shouldn't be used for blowing dust which is you know an allergen and nobody wants that dust so particularly if we could somehow talk to our own DPW about blowing stuff all over um particularly during the summer months um um but you know a lot of this does come down to education it's you know what is an invasive um you know why is a electric Lea flower better this noise pollution it doesn't blow as hard it's you know it's it's um it's electric um but um you know the community center Fields um making that into a nice you know open open space with native plants and trees and um maybe a a example of how effective green infrastructure works like really make it a showcase by the community center and use all the you know good Technologies I mean I feel like we focus on Ray infrastructure a lot in the town where it's talking about sidewalks and curves and you know um and the green infrastructure and I mean I think it's started to come like the police station and the rain Gardens and um activations and things like that um but I I feel like in the past DPW focuses on and you know they're a wonderful group they just keep losing people and um they focus on the playing fields and then if they have extra time then they address like the Natural Area problems or Third Street Trail trees falling down and and basic they just you know I know they just cut them down at by Centennial Hall so that's good but we just need to make it a prior Our Town needs to make it a priority the maintenance and to address the invasive problems and um so of so of what you were given were you able to kind of come I think it's like if if the town is if the town and and the powers that be within the town that make these decisions are leading the charge on these then hopefully the trickle down effect would be that the community will embrace them and understand that they're doing it for a reason that if applied to yourself person personally it's probably positive specifically the gas powered leaves there's no need to use them in the summer so the town should say we're pausing on these just so you guys know we're pausing on these in the summer because of X Y and Z education but if if the town's doing it they're doing it for a reason and as a homeowner I would say it's probably a really smart idea to do invasive species same sort of thing don't plant these do plant these we're planting uh natives in our community gardens we're planting them here here a list like I just don't think that the information's disseminating enough I don't think that people have it enough so it's not like readily at your fingertips when you're making these decisions but if the town is leading the charge and doing them then it would just become a little more in our zch like we would just be you know it would be the first thing that we think of I mean even this lawn culture um it's painful for me to look at the Fair Haven Fields where all the kids are playing and see signs that um chemicals have been sprayed like warning signs I I'm just not sure that it matters if there's Clover at Playing Fields I mean that just seems like you know what I mean like that you have warning sides at our playgrounds and that they sprayed for the bees you know yeah I I feel I feel like we there's uh been a disconnect between uh it's been really siloed about what DPW not that I don't think that we need to be actively involved in it but I think that they've just kind of been kept away from the community in a few different facets and maybe working on things that are less what we would want as a community and more what you know some people have thought are the best decisions to have made for on our behalf and I think if we actually weighed in on these things more if I wasn't I am a parent and if I knew that they were spraying pesticides on a field that my son was playing on I think everybody would be like absolutely hard no but we don't that that communication is not open it hasn't been open between DPW and maybe you know changes coming I'm hopeful but I think that that's probably something that we could talk about invasive species live under Fourth Creek and that overpass on River Road you can't even see the water from it we like we just those are the types of things that you're just like let's address these and all of Fair Haven field like Fair Haven Fields back into the Gentry that whole line is all just not we that's at least 12T tall now and the longer you don't address it it just it's bamboo it's and we have a bamboo ordinance but we didn't put nwe in the bamboo ws and it's B it's bamboo I mean it's Japanese bamboo so I just think what we kind of were thinking was like lead by example from the Town open communication with the people who are executing make sure that the priorities reflect what the people in town would actually want and um you know having some say in improving you know just looking at we've we've acquired a few pretty substantial parts are we making sure that they're reflective of what we as the town would like them to look like thank you sorry that you did have a yeah all right put it in front of you all right we had a variety of um poits that were all about education many of them were quite specific several of them were quite specific we just went bigger and said we think that the issue is that um residents should have more access to um information about sustainability and about their role in sustainability um what don't we know and what info do we need well it would be good to know if residents are interested in more information it um we don't know that for sure and then it would be good to decide which topics are most important to address um anchoring those decisions in in some specific criteria like clean air impact clean water impact emissions impacts um and then how do we create buyin whatever actions um we think are the right ones that the environmental Commission in the Green Team might in the town might um pursue um what are some no cost lowcost actions that we could suggest to people to take to improve quality of life and build sustainability culture and um build community and reduce demand and then we wrote down how could we do electric car charging but I don't know why that's on that problem um let's see what have we tried we tried a bunch of things the the specific example that I wrote down here is an example of a no cost thing that really helps us with sustainability is when we've had um uh usually young people hate those fish on drains to remind us that hey the scats usually do that yeah yeah yeah to remind us don't don't dump stuff it goes out the it goes out of the river um and we have a lot of different Avenues to use for Education we've got you know the broas um we've got a lot of school related education things particularly about bik rating and using local resources that we have in the area to build the children's to build children's programs collaborating with other Civic organizations um maybe doing a no uh idling campaign um and and and we have to uh look for grant money to pursue these education programs I just want to add that the biggest obstacle to sustainability is the will to change so we don't actually know how to measure people's will to change um we can guess so we wanted do some kind of temperature taking about what's what's their tolerance to changing Behavior because if you ask for example all the adjacent homeowners around the the pond not to fze their lawn for a year to see what happens we don't know what the buying would be but there are things you can do to improve Community Life Education like you said Jess it's overing [Music] teach it would be such a wonderful thing if our schools could utilize these living shorelines get into the parly I mean start it young cultivate it early like they live in we live in such a unique pocket and I it's you know there's not I don't see enough two-way transaction between the outdoors and our even sickles and going so a lot of opportunity here all right last we of to management um I it and Michael has a very I didn't want to have that still um so the issue is stor water management and storm water runoff is kind of the big one of the major problems but also just excess flooding and more are more areas are flooding than it before Carter Woodland Drive was flooding obviously floods and the I guess the toxic stuff is from dog poop and fertilizer and pesticide so that's what's going into the water that's the problem but the increased water that's coming off of down spouts like new builds old builds are just putting stuff into the water there's no one to maintain like no one to check up on that there's T of you're not going into the street stuff going around the street there's no one that stops people I flagged it like well that's not our job so to figure out whose job it is to enforce some of these zoning um things that we do have in place to cover some of this but also look at our zoning policies and see what maybe we could do to improve that to for some of these new bills and you know one of the things we just changed the in uh in the storm water management ordinance was additions there was like nothing for additions so like new builds were held to a certain standard but the additions weren't even considered so that's a piece of it and just making sure every piece of construction is covered um some of the issues are also we're taking down trees a lot of trees so we're not absorbing as much um in perious Paving that's a problem aged infrastructure is a problem um I guess like the increased in building in town is also a problem and what we have done is in my opinion is kind of Peace meal and we've addressed things as they've come up and also like later like way after the fact that they've come up so we've had sort of Band-Aids we've cleaned out some pipes but that took 10 years so we need regular maintenance of cleaning out pipes um we have right siiz some of the pipes like on um Smith Street there was a small pipe led to a big pipe led to a small pipe and the gring was wrong and all that stuff so I think having a better understanding of our full infrastructure and how everything's connected and what is working what's able to carry the amount of water that would be big um we said I also I this is me but identify flooding hot spots like understand where all the real problems on the flooding um have a full analysis of living Shor lines like we have that one at to Normandy but understand the whole and all how that all fits together not just like figure out infrastructure but then not deal with the living Shoreline I think it all kind of needs to be a big plan and we need um storm water experts and storm water Engineers uh so also how do we pay for that how do we what is the fun like what is the cost of all of this and what kind of funding is out there there is definitely funding out there for storm water management whether it's from the state whether it's from like and like there there are there is money out there to identifying that um what zoning you know things could be [Music] changed say um Community Education I think that's more on like what I think some of the education is really like you can't put a down spout into the water into the street but also like the effects of pesticides cleaning up after your dog I know that the the um the buzz does say like being after your dog but what else can we do like what are what other steps can we do do that um I think we need to the people we need to talk to zoning DPW admin Council uh surrounding towns because we're not we don't sit alone I we we connected to all these towns so we're all having issues the water just doesn't sit in our town uh the county the state uh again professionals F professionals and then the community you know did you leave anyone out I don't know uhal commission there are some um climate change forecasts about what we can how much worse we can expect it to get yeah in the planning period available I mean I mean we already know we're not handling what we have right and it ain't to get better yeah exactly I just to say one of the um actions that gets a lot of points with sustainable jersey with this recertification is the our water story it basically is dissecting the water flow through town I mean you know yeah like storm water where our water comes from I keep saying shouldn't we be worried what cnck is doing by our um Reservoir and our water you know it it's um but it's kind of it would be interesting right to show where all the water is like where's that pipe coming from where's this gun where why do we have these problems incorporating that [Music] into is that an outside agency that would do that there's some things I know John has access to a lot of different um GIS information to like actually make a lot of maps so he's got a lot of access to yeah apparently Nick Pinsky does have a lot of this knowledge I don't know if it's all well like together yeah so so for example if you want to look at the marter pond Watershed and there is a map that shows you all of the contributing properties to that pond and then you know the downstream that um you know if you get more to the west side of town I don't I I haven't asked for it but I would imagine he's got other maps that show contributing factors to some of the other unnamed creeks and and whatnot and she put out a that shows um the water CHS in town I have a copy of it I'm wondering if there's any more upstairs but I guess like all have like how all of it fits together like different things are all connected they are kind of everything talk connect but if we're doing that as part of the really should look at the actions and what requir yeah get get could be even 30 or 40 points could be a lot of which you know when you're chipping away at five and 10 yeah all right guys well thank you for tackling the the big big big ones um so I thought that was a good use of time I hope you guys had fun the idea here is we'll take these six and not that they're the um the only six but I think even just like having this group together it starts to give us a bit of a a sense of of where to spend our time so we've already talked about marter ponds getting a focused um clearly storm water runoff and storm water management has already gotten a lot of focus it's being put into the development plans um you know that come through burrow Hall the office um but there's there's certainly more that I think we need to figure out where where we could play what what sort of whether it's education you know where where can we play in that space can you repeat what you said though just before that that new construction that's coming through now has to follow certain guidelines for recapturing water things like that so it's if you think about water coming off of everyone's property like we talked about there's a lot of properties that predate all of that but new construction additions things like that you know they're getting caught in that in that updated but just to be clear the new regulations are just only the barebones of what this state wanted corre so we are just now able to be reg like we're of Regulation but it wasn't anything that would I there's a lot more that could be added to I was gonna say do you think we should go a step or two more than what the minimum is absolutely again my op we just we did it to just do it we did it because we had to we to in order to be I'm just saying maybe we should be more need I personally think so yes um but you know it was a good start we needed obviously needed it but so those are the things that are happening but it's not necessarily being addressed other ways apart from that and that speaks to that Mission Vision so if our vision is um to exceed minimum requirements then the actions that because this feels tactical which is fine all these things need addressed but if we put in place really what do we envision for the future and our role maybe it would inform all of this I'll say to gu just some themes like coming out besides education is on maintenance plans and funding I wonder if maybe we could at some point have like a meeting with the grants Committee just knowing how grants are there's like different types of Grants there's building capacity grants there are planning grants and there's also implementation grants so like I think since obviously funding is a part of everything besides education I mean that's I think it might be worthwhile having conversation with the grant committee at some point too nothing should be done if if there's a not in the maintenance plan already built into decisions yeah but mean those are themes that are coming up short all well and that's the thing so I'm on the grants committee with um Tracy where the leis on and we have some wonderful um volunteers U but historically we really won't working that closely with the administration so now we're going start working CL closer with the administration and one of the things that has come up is really identifying what commes and commissions are asking for too instead of like blindly kind of being like Oh What brands were and you know not trying to dictate projects based on the grants so this is very valuable and knowing these kind of priorities and I think they align with some of the council's priorities too but the council has to you know have our priorities as well but that will help die the grants and I think it would be a really important meeting and I would love for the gr commit to kind of meet with each of the different yeah that'd be great I would recommend n committee because almost every Grant has a matching component if you don't have a budget or a match the grant is a non-starter some are yeah a lot of them do have that I know they're trying to be better I know certain grants are trying to be better about match because it's been it's been difficult for anyone to get products done so but no I agree like that's that's obviously part of it too and kind of being creative about the the matching but I also think that planning behind all this will help because if we have foresight to what our plans look like where we need the money MH then we can budget for part of that knowing that we want this is a priority we're going to spend some money but we know we can't fill it all like that will help to us so I think we need to plan further out yeah with a bunch of this which goes back to strategic plan for all US Vision and that I think that'll help guide us to even just for all these projects once we have that set together then like hey here's how we can design like or you know set up all these different projects and how they want to go forward do grants is there a um like a warehouse like does the bur administrator get Enos about grant opportunities or do they come to each town or they I don't know how it's a mixed bag it's a mixed bag so there are some that are proactively pushed out there are some the gr committee was originally stood up to go out and hunt and find and determine which ones fit as Michael pointed out the priorities of the projects that were already identified to try to help fund those projects uh there's not there are some Central like locations but it it it that's why we stood up the committee originally was to go find it and try to try to get our arms around and create a spreadsheet literally of grants that are available the challenge can be you identify it but it's due like next week exactly we have a database now like that we're working off of now year and a half of the grand committee almost two years that we can work off of and we have like the dates that they were due and not all of them R exactly the same timing the numbers are different sometimes but we do have this database but there's oh there's so many grants out there there are companies that will compile them for you but you have to hire them so they'll send you all grant opportunities that they think are valuable to you so certain towns do have hire those companies but it has to be worth like you would want to be taking advantage of a lot of Grants I think to make that right valuable but it it's been an ongoing challenge but the more we recognize this grants and and I one of the reasons I love Chris York is that he has a lot of experience with grants and he has sought grants for RS so I think that the grant aspect will be included I hope be amazing posi I Su just we wrap finish there all right guys how are we gonna handle the next meeting in other words what is your plan for the next meeting in October so we've got a couple things on the agenda as far as this goes um what I'd like to do is work a little bit offline could put this look at the notes that came out of this um maybe Susan talk to you a little bit more about sure how to structure pick your brain on that and uh what I'd like to do is present it back we can see for some for some common and work before we meet again right um and then we can use some of our uh time in October to continue to work on it great I want to say one thing so I want this group to be effective um and I heard a lot about education which is good but I would caution the group to not use education as a euphemism for persuasion so there are for I'll use the the lead blowers there are a lot of people that just disagree with the idea that they should be banned and I would categorize that as they need to be persuaded Not educated if you're saying they need to be educated you're assuming that you know you're smarter than them or no more than them and that may be true um but I think the hurdle is not education as much as is persuasion and the town um has a different value set in this particular group and so be aware of that I what you I don't that like that's not really fair what do you mean by the town mean by value set we are the town I think so for example um I knocked down a lot of doors as you did as well and I heard a lot of people tell me don't ban leers so that's not be during the day no I asked him what's on their mind I ask them you know what are they thinking about so all I'm saying to you is don't just assume education think about persuasion as well I think it's you have you have to persuade people well I think that that's similar to what you said Susan like do you have the will is the will to be sustainable is that you know I mean there are some people who you'll never but there are some people that are on the line that are saying okay and I don't know if it's persuasion but I think it's I think that leadership is valuable and I think that this town has you know the ability to help facilitate that change I I don't I mean I think maybe it's awareness I guess I I always say you know I read this book by Doug Tommy and all of a sudden I realized what a native plant does and what a if you get a plant from Europe or Asia or something it does nothing for our environment it just was like once you know just the de tell I just meant did you know this is I mean you know I it's um but I understand that it's it's a Hot Topic it definitely is but yeah can I say something too sorry it's Kelly I've been listening in after I like settled the crazy situation at home um remind that you know this topic of leaf blowers did come to our attention because of concerned like emails we got from residents um you know asking about and concerned about some of this so you know I do think that our voice and our opinions also don't reflect everybody that's in town but I do and I and Brian I'm I understand what you're saying I just also think that you know big picture too and I think this is where the ER comes in too with education I know Sean you talked a bit about like a an environmental scorecard right and have people actually looked at what our air quality is in town and what the main factors of our air quality are lawn equipment and construction and so I just think people we're not saying we're smarter than you but again this awareness issue did you know um what our air and what partic particular you know um particles are being you know and and what the scorecard is of our air quality right um so I just think it's like being more aware of the full picture so that's where it starts okay Dr thank you I think this is more involvement always welcome thanks forting good