all right all right folks you have Quorum and it's 805 let's get the show on the road shut up I am going to call the July 11th 2024 meeting of the Ocean Township environmental commission to order uh we'll do a vo call member Colton is not here member janetti is not here member godette sorry member Lutz is not here member branon is not here member m here uh member serti here and alterate boxy is not here okay statement of compliance with the open public meeting law I'm talking slower because Donna yelled at me the notice requirements of the open public meeting law for this meeting have been satisfied a copy of the annual notice was sent to the Asbury Park Press and the coaster posted in town hall and filed in the office of the Township Clerk on June 28th 2024 this meeting will be recorded and available on Ocean Township's YouTube channel okay we have SW caring ins to do for member godet and member m will both reup for another three-year turn and if member janetti gets here we have to do this again so if you will repeat after me I state your name Jack do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States do support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey stition of state of New Jersey that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and in this state and to the governments established in the United States and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people I do further solemnly swear that I will faithfully and partially and justly I do further Faithfully partially perform all the duties of the position of per all the duties position of State your position member of the environmental enir according to the best of my ability ACC to the best of my ability so help me God me all right congratulations for another term okay uh we have two sets of minutes for approval we have our April 2024 and may 2024 yeah and then just return those to Jesse when you get a chance or you can give them to Donna Donna can get Jessie um two sets of minutes anyone have any comments concerns questions no coms all right do I have a motion I will make a motion to approve all set a minutes so have a second I'll second seconded by Jack all in favor I I I was only here for April so I guess and any Propst great um question was there a town hall meeting tonight as here okay yes there was a town hall meeting tonight and I'm sure that you can guess why people were here that end very Qui yes because they didn't catch the notice um all right let's get into our agenda environment of commission website we have no updates on that uh the tree ordinance I just heard and remember about that is our liaison from the shet tree commission this evening apparently our tree ordinance was approved by D yes signed off on signed off on we are in compliance absolutely we are one of the only ones in the state probably one of the small numbers that actually have yes I'm very excited by this all of the what three years that we've been doing this that not only did we get it in place but it me D standards and we did not have to start all over again I am thrilled thrilled that for a celebration yes we should go plant some trees or turn them into wine or turn them into wine that is you plant them in the shape of a wine glass you can only see from space well as the lady was here should apply the drumes over St listen I'm I think that the Drone surveys are a great idea for the trees for a canopy right we haven't had a full canopy assessment in years pre Sandy so I actually I know this is a little off but the new planning shade commiss um I don't know what it is I guess a subcommittee ultimately um I'm actually like trying to get in touch with someone in the county to see because they offer this GIS service where they show topography of the overlays in M County so I'm trying to see if they have something for a tree canopy if they have some kind of shading option on an aerial to show us you know percentage just because we're focusing on like the 330 300 rule which I'm sure you're iny to so if you know anything about that please let me know because I'm trying to get answers well at the Shad TR commission there was a woman from a company that was just talking literally 2 minutes ago here yeah was I can rewatch that and Donna Donna's going to send out the information oh well then good I don't even need yeah I would think that would be a useful thing on a major there's also development come through true a bunch of we just had David davson um Davies some yes but obviously Le to canopy but sorry no canop I was like um that word been a trigger word all week yeah no that's fantastic and actually if you want to it's not on the agenda because I forgot that I wasn't sure that it started yet but you want to give a a brief update on that committee and just yeah we have um you know a member from pretty much every major we have school teachers um a Township employee and then representation from planning board zoning shry Etc environmental commit and um ultimately our first meeting was about tree canopy and we're hoping um you know if there's not a count or an option to see what percentage is covered um we could apply for Grant so it was a very light meaning but that's one of our objectives so awesome aligns with this for sure yes definitely all right so we're good on we're good on trees for a while I think we can like maybe take this off of our agenda we might be something that we could find a grant for yeah yeah and again I say this every year I am conflicted out so I cannot participate but there's always the an grant that comes out every year and I think the cycle will be opening again um either towards the end of the year very early in 2025 for a grant that MH we could apply for MH as I say I went to school to become an engineer and now I are one not a good writer uh well the town has a grant writer on retainer that we use Millennium strategy so if there's any grants that we want to apply for you know it is an easier life for us because yeah for years we had K right yes um all right so next on our agenda is the storm water ordinance so there's been a lot going on with storm water at the state level uh part of it was the the ms4 permits that or tree permit that's or tree orance that's what we've been talking about and this week I'm blanking on the acronym because there's the real flooding acronym from D there's a new set of standards that just came out that address flooding and residential flooding and all of that so we had been working for a while on the sustainable jerseys model storm water ordinance they create a my favorite thing about there were a lot of things that were good about it they created a minor development trigger right for storm water remediation that hasn't really gone anywhere but now that the landscape in the last let's call it four years has dramatically changed both in terms of the regulatory schemes from the state but also in the Practical experiences that we are now having with flooding and ocean right those two storms we had in August and September last year I think opened a lot of eyes to the reality of what flooding looks like in Ocean and will look like going forward I think it's time that we revisit this in a more serious way because I don't think we're H please note on the record member Brandon arrived um RI that we that we look and see how we can incorporate these new rules into what we're doing but also I mean again you know that we've pitched the enhanced St water ordinance at least three times it hasn't really gone anywhere so maybe now it's time to try something else did you just um watch the webinar that we were required to watch the 45 minute cuz I feel like you're testing us and I should know it's be fair that is I have it set on my calendar for Saturday morning my coffee and I'm sit I'm going to watch it so you you know you know what to look for tell report back with that a it is a planning board that's but that's what I'm saying right that was never a requirement before now it is the regulatory landscape has changed that their understanding that you know this is something that we need to to take a closer look at and since a lot of municipalities were dragging and not ocean ocean has been doing better than a lot of other towns on it um but I mean every time it rains it's better you know even we have the the daytime the sunshine flooding in in sebrite and Long Beach islands like it's real it's it's something that needs to be address so I think one of our goals for um the fall is once we go through these trainings and we have a better sense of what the the new D regs look like we can start thinking about how do we address that in town um the Brookside project Mary I see that you joined us and I was hoping you would tonight because I'm not sure that anyone else caught this but Mary has stepped down as an official environmental Comm commission member um but with the Proviso that she wants to stay involved on the issues she's been working on including the Brookside project so Mary if you're there and you have an update for us we'd love to hear it yes can you hear me yes oh okay um I don't know what just happened but okay um first of all I I want to let you know that I just was sitting here and remembered that it the meeting was scheduled for tonight I didn't get the usual notice and I did ask if I could be on as an associate because Associates get meeting notices so maybe I could be added to that list from now on yes so let's let's do that Donna is giving me the thumbs up that you can absolutely be added but I think we do need to take a a formal step to make sure that you are an associate member as has been our custom and you have attended more than three environmental Commissions in your time here in town have you not I've attended for many years almost regular yes yes that that's my point Mary like three years but I don't I didn't hear the second part that you said what else did I have to do nothing we need to take a vote to make you an associate members so I will make a motion to make Mary Johnson an associate member of the township of Ocean Environmental commission and I can see all your arms so all right so I made the motion second by member of godette all in favor I any okay thank you um I I have a little bit of hopeful news on that I finally reached um Jeff I or Greg whatever the engineer's name is and he basically told me that he is now working with another um resident who backs on snail Pond um one of my neighbors and the neighbors sent us all a letter saying the progress that he's made and the one obstacle is that many of the houses backing on the pond well not many but a number of them are owned by absentee landlords so Eric is now in the process of trying to reach them to get their signatures too okay okay I this this is a very long drawn out process but that's what's happening on it now okay all right well we'll stay we'll keep waiting eventually eventually we'll get it done uh the next item on our agenda is the community energy plan so we voted on submitting an application for the community energy plan it was submitted we have not heard back yet we should hear I was expecting to heard back by tonight so stay tuned we should be hearing back very shortly on whether or not we got that and then once we do then we can work on um the next steps for implementing that Grant um on to new business so I had a long conversation with our town manager about the powers of the environmental commission I learned some new things um apparently we have the ability to appoint Liaisons to other environmental commissions or other municipalities that don't have to go through the governing body we can do it on our own which was kind of cool um more powerful than you thought yeah um so and I had talked to uh miss baxi about her being the liaison to tinon falls on our behalf um and unfortunately she's not here I don't want to you know Vol and hold her not here she um but I would like to to make her the uh liaison to didn't Falls this is geographically she's right there right and she's the one who brought it to our attention and has been the champion for that part of town on the issues with the reclamation center so um I think we'll take a formal vote on it once she's here but that is that's that's the plan unless anyone has any other concerns or if anyone wants to be appointed somewhere else we can we can out across M that's so cool yeah stop good point yeah I hear Charleston South Carolina or no I'm sorry Houston Houston really needs it um all right so our recycling contest one of our work plan items that we haven't gotten to yet that I wanted to discuss tonight we'll discuss more in August and we'll hopefully have something ready to roll out in September is we had talked about doing a contest for a recycling video for students from Ocean Township the issue that we're trying to address is residents members of this committee included do not know everything that can or cannot be recycled so we would like to put a challenge out to the students at the intermediate school or the high school or both and see if they can come up with some sort of video ad to raise awareness that we could put on the municipal Channel um or on our YouTube or both so that residents can see what they can recycle raise awareness make sure that we're not throwing things out that we shouldn't be or or vice versa um so I would love to hear some ideas of one what we could offer them as a reward to some ideas for what the parameters of it are going to be do we have a link do we have just a list what do we want anything else um I I think this is a great great opportunity to get students involved and we have the need identified so let's start kicking the tires on on some of the structure on this so love to hear some ideas Mary's got her hand up so we'll start with what um maybe you said it and I missed it so I apologized but what school level are we um having to contest work so it could be middle school or high school that's one of the things we we should determine do we want open it up to everyone do we want to narrow it do we want to do two different ones can I make a suggestion yes well I I would suggest that we open it to high school students because um at that point in their lives they're they're very close to adulthood and if nothing else it will be educational for them but they also will have access and use to some more sophisticated technology probably than many of us are aware of at this point apologies if somebody works in the field but for um you know they're always coming out with a lot of new things and it amazes me what um the Teena the older teenagers can do now and that that might be very effective in in a creating a video so so there was a comment about using AI is that something that we want to address in Contest rules do we want to eliminate the use of AI how can we tell I don't know I mean we could put in the rules having listened to some graduation speeches the that were written by in AI by predominant speakers were very obvious yeah the phrasing kept repeating itself slightly changed but it was but won it just come out of the judging yeah either we like it or we don't like and if it was generated by Ai and we like it and it gets the point across I mean at this level doesn't make a difference yeah I agree on using it also because it is it is going to be used one second Jack Jack and then Mary I'm so sorry I'm sorry I didn't I can't hear the voice that well I apologize go on Jack I I would say put it in the contest guidelines that AI tools are highly discouraged okay why though um because I feel like people should really connect with it and you don't like research it themselves and not like just plagiarize yeah like well don't like it what they're reading so you know why you just I don't like do all that like what you just like say to your phone like make a recycling video oh yeah pretty much absolutely pretty good video listen I mean in in Adobe you can be like I want to see a chipmunk surfing while drinking lemonade and it will create a picture of a chipmunk surfing with lemonade yeah what you're missing out on yeah seriously actually no I I there's actually a really solid not for the reasons you said there is an environmental reason not to use AI because the AI energy consumption through the roof yes so we can we can include that and be like it's not a hard rule it is discouraged because AI because of their environmental impact yes all the electricity Mary Mary um I speak against that I think that it's like a lot of things that may not be the greatest the environment but they're here to stay and if we if we word it so that AA AI can be used but um a reminder that this does consume a lot of energy and this is uh an environmental project and so it needs to be used with that in mind and maybe even an explanation of you know why you're using it and why it's justifiable to use it um again I feel like the younger people who are more familiar with what comes out yesterday practically may have answers for that and I I think it would be good to hear that since it's going to be around we could use AI to create the rules we could use a to create but I think it is I think it's worth it to put the statement in there it's discouraged okay yeah um I I think for uh for a reward uh a proclamation by the Town Council would be nice for a high school student and they can include it in their college applications letter of recommendation from the environmental commission uh recognition of them Rec and maybe some kind of gift card either to like a a bookstore or GameStop with this by that one share of GameStop it'll be at 600 or 60 right right yeah I mean we can also see if there's any any groups in town that want to donate a prize yeah um and get some recognition for it um wouldn't it be nice if someone would donate an electric car they're high school what are you going to do yeah what if the Freshman wins just I guess they're D years um all right so I I like that I like the the proclamation the letter recommendation and we can do some more research on donating a prize um but donating the prize gets me thinking about our recycling company um and who we want to have on the judging committee because I the the key to this is it has to be technically accurate right we are creating something to raise awareness it's not just a a one-off for the sake of doing a one-off like we want something out there to help educate residents so um so we need someone from the recycling center on the judging committee to make sure that it's accurate um for Public Works maybe yeah he's on the subcommittee I can ask him his name pin yes yeah some from the environmental commission or recycling what' you say Mary someone from the EC someone from the environmental commission someone from the Green Team doesn't have to be you you have members delegate delegate um should we have should we ask ask the the mayor the town manager or both I feel I don't want to get too unwieldy so so the mayor then don't probably want more four or five yeah all right so I would even put the mayor well someone from the governing M how's that we can ask the mayor who he wants so okay so that's a member of the governing body someone from the recycling center a member of d W member of the EC and a member of the green team that is a five I have one more suggestion yeah Mary we should look for one citizen who has no connections with the environmental commissioner anything like that and get them as a judge also looking at whether or not as just a regular person they see that this would have an impact okay citizen I was going to say citiz in can but that doesn't really work man on the street yeah now we're at an even number speaking of back in the day when residents came and asked questions at um you know plany board hearings and Z board hearings when they had concerns that is when residents actually got appointed this to these positions because you know you showed such interest so perhaps you know a lot of people come in front of us that are so environmentally conscious and concerned for anything so you know think of a few people from our last meeting that you know we could ask if they like to vote on maybe maybe not you know they have opinions yeah so I mean I've never wanted this meeting a planning I I'm I need to have a talk we need to gabble watch it yeah I I don't want to expand the group too much but and I realized Mary's point was someone who's unaffiliated that just so we make sure when the general public sees this they get the message um but if you're looking to get back to an odd number maybe somebody from the D commission yeah yeah um I think that's good and that gets us fact to an OD number so I like that so do we have nine people as judges now what so do we have nine judges now seven oh okay I thought we were just like the Supreme Court I thought we were up um all right so we so just just to recap my notes we want to go we want to limit it to high school students um it's going to be a video project um we're going to discard we're going to include a statement about Ai and its energy use um the reward is going to be a proclamation from the Town Council and a letter of recommendation from the EC for their college applications whatever they want um also look for a prize to get donated we'll have a seven member judging panel governing body recycling DBW EC Green Team um citizen on the street and the F commission um when do we want to how long do we want to give them if we announce it in September do we want to give them two months three months I would do it like before the holidays I would I would agree early November October maybe before we break for Thanksgiving we do it like mid Thanksgiving yes in the middle of dinner the middle of dinner we're going to carve the turkey stop sorry well also if a senior wins they will need um the letter of recommendation in time for the college application good so remember Brandon is someone who's gone through the college application process more recently than anyone else what is the the timeline for applications right now we're doing early decision I think it's November 1st maybe no okay hi but why why couldn't we announce it right at the beginning of school and say they're due by October 15th and we can announce a winner by November 1st sure six weeks yeah we're really going to have to Target you know people to to do it like I hope comp I think we could get to get a nice prize to really get the Juices Flow I mean I hate to say it but I think that's what's going to move could we them until the end of October because putting together a video of this sort I think will take in order to do a really good job it may take longer especially since at the beginning of September they're going to be very occupied with Gathering all the supplies and books that they need yeah I agree especially if it's all high school then it could be a junior possibly that wins and hasn't even applied yet so so if we get until the end of October we could still you know have the judges ready to go and we could have the decision by the first week in November jobs all right so let's so let's I do think we' need like eight weeks minimum yeah okay so but we'll still do it at the very beginning of the year right and then maybe somehow at towards the end of the year there's an announcement that this is coming well we're going to do it I mean if we're going to do it for this fall like we want all the yeah if we want you know welcome back to school and this is happening yeah yeah yeah so we'll need to coordinate we'll need to track down the teachers on their summer break yeah and coordin um but I I do think that get Tri to Cancun an all expense paid self-guided walking tour of downtown ocean on a rainy Sunday afternoon yeah um I I think that again you know I think there are some companies in town that might be interested there some of the the that's true yeah so we'll uh we'll reach out so um I will type this up and send it around and then we can kind of see what it looks like all written out and and kick the tires on it more in August and then we can roll it out in September and have our competition um and and we'll see how it how it's received we need to extend the deadline we need to extend the deadline and and we'll go from there but I think this is good and I think think it's going to meet what has been a a long identified need in town is having a resource Mary you know I just thought of somebody who should be on the judging committee and if you're really stuck on having a which is important an odd number I'll resend my request for the man or citizen on the street but I think we should have somebody who works on videos who could judge the quality of the video also I I don't no I think that at this point we watch enough videos all day every day in every medium I mean I think that yeah I've worked I've worked on video production before Mary so that could be my job so I would nominate whoever said that to be the judge from the environmental commission so something to put in the hopper maybe for spring and we've done it with the envir commission many many years ago my tree is bigger than your tree and put that out to say the elementary school kids let them go out and give them some sort of idea of how to figure out how tall their tree is and let's see if we could find the biggest one in town huh that's interesting you can find the tallest and the lightest biggest diameter bre height biggest biggest third grader he yeah there we go okay all right I I think this is a good start to this um so like I said I I'll write it out send it around we can weigh in comments and then we'll revisit again at our August meeting so that's right um Norm had a leave tonight so we don't have any pending plans um but but Julie do you want to give the planning board update oh oh man um I mean do I just talk about the last meeting yeah you can just talk about the LA the last decisions we made at our last meeting because we had three yeah so we um approved the English manor they're doing some um modernization of the exterior and in the footprint a little they're losing square footage yet adding on square footage I didn't know how that worked out but it's all good um and then the next thing we actually approved a subdivision in West Allenhurst and there was only one tree coming down on it there were no trees coming down um I think there was like one that was like just they were they were only subdividing there were no proposed buildings so as part of the subdivision removal of the home no trees were coming yes so which is you know it's tough because you see something where you know Neighbors come out and they're so upset but it's like would you prefer like a pickle ball court like a mansion and a pickle ball court and splashing pool or you know or two small hous or two small houses you know but so always you know can't make everyone happy and then what was the other one another subdivision yeah in wanasa oh and then another one in wanasa where resid came out to support the subdivision wait but do we ever go back and fact check like check her address that just seemed so peculiar to me that she waited the full like three hours to be like I'm for this application because we all thought obviously it was going to be the opposite because it was a 25 by where's the subdivision on l Road no it's on um woodlock and North B Master Drive yeah it's an L-shaped lot and they had a house and a bungalow and on the one street Frontage so the the dog leg of it was a yard and they were going to subdivide it so the dog leg was one lot and then the corner and The Bungalow was a separate lot you know but the most important question that I came here with tonight is where is the new town hall going to be oh that open space to the right of the library so when you're coming down deal Road where we drop the chopper remember the black guy right there right the meadow yeah yeah the meadow okay yeah oh that's worth that is the current proposal well I saw the notice for the Rossy yeah so I was just okay interesting no Dre coming down they building in New Town pool boy sorry sorry there there is a proposal in its infancy to build a new town hall um this current facility is lacking in a number of respects that inhibits the proper functioning of municipal government so there is a thought to build a new town hall that is very early on in the planning process they haven't even gotten professionals as far as I'm aware for it so they're gonna take down the meadow to build it potentially we planted milk weed in there the be T FS put up and in Middletown did Middletown is crushing it whenever I have to go to Middletown Township website they just they're the best it's so good talk about AI you type in an address it's like this is the Zone it's in these are the book requirements this is the block and lot ocean I can't even find the zoning map it's on the hom page I know the new UPS's much better um yeah ocean has always been difficult to find not as difficult as some other town try finding stuff on deals website I have one oh and then it's like n see like the 800 amendments in a whole mother website it's like oh just you know yeah so what's going to happen to the current building what are they going to turn that into they let us sit here and run like the school they're going my understanding is that they're going to somehow refurbish the police station so there will be a facility here the police station's not gonna move oh so that again this is all yeah so boy we're gon to have a lot more police if they take up that whole building well now that we need to to find all the people cutting down trees illegally yeah oh my um okay so I asked the uh the planning and zoning department for a um zoning board update and I have some stuff to share um they have a whole slew of new cases coming up they have one um we don't care because it's just defense uh storage shed don't care um a new two-story Edition on dght a new a conversion of a garage to a kitchen on Elmwood uh another two story side there's just give us some more hard there's nothing there's the what about the Billboards there's the last thing on the list for the two Billboards um they are supposed to be heard at the next meeting on July 18th uh um they're still representing that application it is Brian and I apologize if I mispronounce his name chowski yeah um but it's iaat Services um and they're doing two one's block 34 Lot 12 and the other one's block 182 lot 7 yeah they C across the street yeah so they're going to be heard uh a week from today so stay tuned all right next's going to be some history 20 years ago the enironmental commission fought hard to get the ordinance passed now we have the ORD right and Norm has written scating reports on behalf of the EC to get sent over to them so it is now in the zoning board's hands got a scathing call for lawyer wa for once though how funny was um his letter his EC letter for the planning board on that um the subdivision he's like this is all it says for one yeah well there was another report the for the car wash on 35 where we spent a whole lot of time talking about the size of a Ford F-150s turning radius and whether or not it could adequately turn into the to the thing and so they red did all their designs with the extended cab variety factored in yep they did I know more about truck turning radiuses than I ever needed to so I thank M for that um all right jack what's going on sustainable Jersey um no no real new updates since on the schedule to talk to you manager to see where we on some new actions but I have not had that me yet okay let us know and what we can do to help uh lollipop pond so lollipop Pond we got wood chips donated to spread and then there was a concern raised by some of the residents about the wetlands upper areas and whether or not we could be doing what we were proposed doing so out of an abundance of caution D was contacted came out and took a look they have identified an area and I'm I I was actually surprised by this they identified an area near Maple where they think there are some Wetlands that need an Loi not where I was expecting them to flag anything um so I think I need to have a further conversation with uh chairman pudus and Greg blash about being able to do work closer to there because I mean from ail to where we're trying to start is I mean it's like five block so and if they only identify that corner for an Loi then we should be able to put chips down on the existing trails that have been there for ever so um so that project is moving along as well um we'll probably have another Cleanup in the fall once there's less sticks and poison ivy is it Maple Bridge isn't that the bridge from that where the is right there is that bridge getting replaced not that we have like a bike Bridge um but is there another Bridge it's getting I thought I saw some Mar D got some gr money yeah yeah we I call it a weir it's more of a weir than a bridge yeah but yeah you know retaining wall the bike Bridge has been there for ever yeah I love it I run over it all the time um so yeah so stay tuned for updates on that um I don't have anything else on the Chairman's report that we haven't covered already you know there's a lot going on at the state with climate change and flooding and it's coming we can we can be ahead of it and adapt or or not um and I'm sure that we will be talking more about Town Hall in the coming months that's um had nauseum had nauseum yeah so anything else anyone have all right well then do I have a motion to adjourn so have a second I I I'll give it to Andrew because you already got a couple for that so all right fav all right thank you everyone thank you