##VIDEO ID:6sH6ZChmnIg## okay we're calling the meeting of the Berkeley Heights environmental commission to order for January 6th at 7:36 adequate notice of this meeting was provided informing the public at the time and place according to the provisions of the open public meetings law uh it's supposed to take place in the doorin room but uh because I was sick I did not go to the doorr room so I think we are completely on zoom and recording uh Alvaro you are recording the M you are taking the minutes right I am okay sir thank you uh approving the minutes we may not have enough people to have reviewed the minutes but let's try august 19 I could not find minutes okay I will look for those minutes oh October 21 uh I sent that out and anybody else has anyone else seen them if not November 4 couldn't find those me minutes either to um resend them out I think you Richard had some things that I need to change so I need to do that okay so you're going to revise and send November 4th November 18 nice sent those out as well okay anyone else review November 18th I don't I don't have those okay I'm sorry David Harris sent those not I okay December 16 those are mine all okay all right let I'll try to send all of these around one more time resend minutes except for the ones that near re has to resend see if we could get last year finish hearing on agenda items only right I will come on hey I was going to say um my original intent was to say happy New Year um and but actually I was I was I always seem to be a little late in bringing uh bringing this to uh the attention of people who are under the open public meetings act um the um just to let you know um when you're on Zoom tonight for the purpose of conducting the meeting and and not being in the Dogwood room um one of the things that the the town needed reminding of is that uh the ability to do a totally remote meeting um is is not allowed under the under opma unless you have a an emergency at the state or the the local level and the uh the town in fact canell the last regularly scheduled meeting of the year because somehow they decided they wanted to do a remote meeting and they finally realized after being shown the law that that is not the case oh interesting no and and and let me tell you the reason I thought about it was as I follow the legislation I follow in you know the state the state legislature they have a bill that passed one committee that actually is looking to um undo that restriction so that Zoom totally Zoom remote meetings or tot remote meetings you can use zoom or anything else um they want that to be allowed an option at any time but right now it isn't so just keep that in mind I'm not going to complain I love that you use zoom for people who want to zoom in as well as the public so that's always wonderful but just be a you know you because you operate under opma just want to make sure you know that and that's all I got so is that under chapter 231 PL 1975 or is that someplace else I can bring up I can I have a PDF of I can bring up the the law on the screen you can read it if you want no I don't want to spend time reading okay the reference is what I'm asking yes I can get you that hang on um I just want to interject if this is the same law that the um various State organizations use until such time as they stop using it I don't know that we should stop using Zoom either because they would function under the same law right well there's people who are are uh like even some Town councils who are um either getting different opinions or but I I got it verified by a state lawyer so okay but all I'm saying is as long as our state government agencies are still doing zoom and they have to follow the same laws as we do while they are still doing it I think we should follow that precedent you're giving legal advice I am not giving legal advice I'm giving my opinion based on practice by our state agencies I I I have no comment because I I I wasn't gonna bring any argument to this discussion just the facts yeah so so if you can put it uh uh the reference on the chat Steve that would be great well the reference is just the the same the um you want you want the statute number of of opma that's talking about that's writing about this that's mentioning this Zoom limitation yeah and and by the way and again it's it's it's like you can you can use zoom um you know like when you meet physically in the room and have people there and you have people joining remotely as Commissioners or as the public that part's fine because you've got the the physical presence but but like I say I'm I'm advocating for them to overturn that so that this doesn't become a literal legal problem yeah I'll put the I'll put the technically Zo I mean I I'm sorry to interject but okay the uh the Dogwood room is available someone could go into the building and say to the person at the front desk I'm coming for the environmental commission meeting and they could go up to the Darkwood room and somebody could turn on the zoom there yeah it's it's you it all it all really it only matters if if if somebody challenges you and when you go when you go look at the sections which are 104-5 16 and 17th there um penalty enforcement injective orders and other remedies to ensure compliance and proceedings in Lee of prerogative WR to void action at non-conforming meeting right all those good things I can't take those notes Steve if you can put that in the chat or put it in an email that would be great yeah I'll put the I'll put the U I'll put the link I'll put I know all do where else at let me just oh take I'll take care of that and what I will add let me come back so I can see our so I I answered the question I was going to ask but I think I answered at the website you guys did a nice job of updating your environmental Commission on the town website congratulations at another term um I guess Angus and Rich reach and I guess and N yes and nit has got uh another year or too that's correct well more than year if she wants it more than the the the website reflects um um um you know those changes I noted so congratulations all all right thank you all right moving on to the budget so the Liza uh asked us for uh our budget and and uh I said well we're having a meeting uh can we get back to you after the meeting and in January is when they uh usually bring up the budget so if I go let's see what do I want I don't want that want to share it on this screen I'm trying to share it hold on a second all right uh sure and I want to share this okay can people see that yep there's one I think I sent this to everyone uh just to talk about uh 2025 right versus 2023 2024 we have uh under now I should have back to the the line item titles are Professional Services conferences Education and Training and then you come back you can freeze that column Rich if you if it's easier for you say what you can freeze that column in in under view up at the top of the uh your menu and freeze the right hand left hand column [Music] let me see if I can do that so coming back to here yeah there it is colum is now uh go at the top menu you're currently home if you scre scroll over to the uh View and I've got it's blocked by the control hold on that's not that big a deal we can probably free cells right that should allow me to do it right yes there we go here okay so Professional Services so this would include 2 4 uh from this request of 2,000 from the town we this would be for the sustainable Jersey grant for the national the natural resource inventory so the expected cost is about 20 ,000 we found that out when we put it out to multiple vendors last year so we would apply for a $10,000 Grant and then um uh use 8,000 of the Exxon Grant and request 2,000 from the township uh the other amounts are basically stay at about the same level except that we're adding the uh at this point we're adding bcity membership that was approved when the resolution for bity uh uh was passed that included uh uh an annual membership of about $200 for bity uh the adopted rain I think that uh was goes over to um Department of Public Works right uh yeah that should be a line item on the Department of Public works' budget it has been for the last number of years yeah I will I will call it out anyway I mean if they if the town does want to give the adoptive drain program money to uh for anything we might want to do contest wise to inspire people to pitch in um it seemed to be effective when we got the grant initially to use a leftover money use some of that funds to to buy rakes which I think we still have but if again if we want to still make some kind of a request for some kind of prize for various people for adopting a drain or cleanups or something like that yet to come um that's something to consider for maybe keeping a some kind of a a budget for adopted drain rather than zero you have a number in mind 500 maybe we could give it a try put in what would say gifts for contests con uh yeah like uh prizes for contests hey anything else anyone wants to comment on um we have not use the money for meals uh but sometimes we've gone to meetings I've gone to meetings where uh the meals are included sometimes they're not included so that's just in there as a know in case um professional association does that's an and also um the uh uh what's it called the tree Association um where we also attend uh or get training from shade Tre uh yeah the Sha Tre Association and um I think that's about it there's also we have money for train training we're we should be most of the training that is available comes through an but occasionally there's a a webinar or a meeting where we might have to pay uh5 or $20 a person to attend so that's what that's okay if um there no more questions do you need a motion to approve Rich yes we need a motion I make a motion to approve the budget as amended and discussed just now okay and without I will submit this budget to the township oh and N was adding uh could we increase supplies for seeds I think that we've got money there that we can uh spend on seeds I don't think that's uh an issue that sounds good sorry I my my laptop shut down but yeah I think it's fine thank you well thank you okay I was multitasking looking at trying to adjust the the budget and also uh um sorry could we tweak something just briefly um maybe we want to say adopter drain annual dues is now under DPW because if we just say adop is now under DPW we want $500 to purchase I I hear you yeah annual dues I think she said yeah annual just add annual in front of dues there you go thank you thank you okay I'm G stop all right we're back then uh 31 Roosevelt Avenue so this uh is an application uh to add an extension to the house and it'll increase imperious coverage uh the total impervious coverage uh will exceed maximum allowed now this is an R15 Zone uh the maximum allowed is 25% then this will bring maximum uh lot coverage to 26.9% um the property is not does not appear to be in a flood plane but it's near a wetland uh and the slope of the property is towards the Wetland recharge value uh according to an NJ DP map appears to be in the range of 11 to 15 in a year the slope is in the range of 3 to 5% uh so that means that the runoff storm waterer runoff will run into the Wetland and typical of these Wetlands the even though there are trees there okay there are trees that will kind of slow the flow of the water the runoff uh the the the Wetland is typically uh not permeable so the water will tend to run into the stream and down uh uh the slopes down towards the river so because the recharge value seems to be good of course they should test for the recharge uh but because that recharge is good uh we would recommend that uh a storm water management plan be implemented to retain storm water on the property uh and we referenc the rain Gardens and also recommend that any down spouncer some pumps be disconnected from the street and connect them to rain Gardens of vegetative sweats any questions or comments that's just a side comment I was surprised that the number of paper streets in that area I did not realize that Bolton Avenue was intended to cut through that swampy ground yeah in the original lamp that was very curious there are paper streets like that in other places in town uh even in the in the um uh bake River Park uh the uh Grant Street uh uh which is right near me uh uh is partially in the Pake River Park and and partially an actual Street um so and that's the same way with the end of planfield Avenue the Northern end of planfield Avenue near me uh there's uh it's a paper Street and there's a stream that's running through it so I'm guessing that's you know someone whenever the town was planned that they uh just drew streets cut down they when they built yeah who who laid this stuff out that's what what I wonder because if you look at the at the paper streets in that particular just be connecting Ro in addition Balton there's supposed to be another cross street connecting Rosevelt and Hamilton yeah and there's actually homes built there so it's amazing to me that this is how this is done but anyway that's just a side note do we need you need a motion to approve the David recomend I I'll move do I hear a second I'll second thank you CHR Scout projects we don't have John or um David there was a scout who contact wrote uh asking about the garden but the you know this happened over the uh uh last two weeks I have been away so I didn't get a chance to get back to him uh I haven't been able to check whether there's any update on uh building a pollinator Garden uh at the community garden um so that also address the community garden storm waterer ordinance uh I uh plan to ask Margaret what's the status she was the one who was taking the lead on that adopt the drain okay back to you Kim okay so a couple of things I'm putting the link in the chat for those who haven't seen it our article about our winner of the No More Scary drain contest between Berkeley Heights and chadam was published in tap into on December 29th thank you Richard shout out for helping to get that published um I noticed uh trending as the top three articles during this last week um it was one of the top three articles in tap into of the most read so hopefully that has helped to Garner publicity an additional interest in the adapter drain program um secondly um I was contacted by anjac and Jack um spoke to me um and interviewed me briefly they would like to do a piece another piece about our adopted drain program and our contest with chadam um so that other towns might replicate it and from a Lessons Learned standpoint um be inspired to do the same type of thing as as we did um because both towns benefited from it as as you might have read in this article um there were more cleanups reported in Berkeley Heights we had two additional drain adoptions and even though we technically um beat chadam in terms of number of pounds collected chadam had four drains adopted and um they had experienced a lag in adoptions this is their first year of the program so our having a contest with them helped both them and helped us as well well um what else oh and the national adopted drain based at hanline University um I shared the article with them and they thanked us for our continued use and promotion of the adopted drain program and they are going to be using Berkeley Heights adopter drain program as a national model for the webinar series that they will be doing to roll out to other towns across the US the adopted drain program so our program will be used as a national example for what to do for those interested in participating in adopted drain um no matter where their municipality is in the country and that is all I have hey hey Kim I saw the article and if said you put it in chat only uh um rich is going to be able to see it the way it said oh it Berkeley oh so hold on sorry everybody should be able oh it says Berkeley Heights Township official host they're on yeah they're on to the the option isn't set to allow all meeting participants oh I see it yeah that's interesting okay so it says direct message to me that's weird so you have to be able I should be able to change that correct um okay the dropdown only gives Berkeley Heights official let me see what happens here okay so is there let's see how you can change that well I'm looking I'm looking at the check reviews but let's see what happens here no that's something else maybe can forward to participant if you if you search in your browser under tap into Berkeley Heights no more scary drain if you just type that in as a search the article should pop up as the the top thing on the list so you can access it that way anyway just letting and and Rich so you you see I provided you all the information and more that you asked for that you got to be why oh let's see who can see your message only you can see what I sent but at least you're the one who wanted it I can share them without so when I look at the chat from Kim Kim Diamond to you it says direct message so yeah and that's because we the only option for attendees is to send it to you you there is no there is no option to send it to other people or to the whole group which you know can be set to be done I'm trying to see where that setting is and I'm not seeing it you I don't know if you have to go online for it or it's something adjustable within your um um application on your laptop well let me see um I don't have to many on my participant I only have one option under chat so I can't so I can't I can't it doesn't give me any hints well right all right well not not a big deal just be aware well I copied what you sent I can share that with people after the meeting but I I'm not I'm not seeing an easy way to just do that to change the way the chat uh is being shared all right let's not spend time trying to fix things that may take time sustainable Jersey application actions for 2025 and I turn back to n um I've had a very busy two weeks so I have not had a chance to do much um but I'll make sure that I reach out to the two people on the mayor's youth Council um to talk to them about the green challenges one and then just talk to them to see if they're interested um or connect me to people who are interested who might want to do some other ones I haven't really looked at the other ones yet just wanted to finish the green challenges one firsty something something changed it may work let me try it yeah you can do it now meetting group chat yeah it's St now can everyone see testing yeah everybody see the texting I think I had loud I just circulated the link can everyone see it yeah yeah I can so I assume everyone else can cool good good J you must have done it rich you there was there was an option I saw so good you got it very good onward um Recycling and cleanups uh nothing special there that I recall anyone on Recycling and cleanups oh if not on to topics for the township newsletter I haveed yet but sorry sorry my internet's kind of weak um just penciling in something Loosely haven't selected a date yet um I don't know what the usually um was it New Jersey clean communities Council has some kind of program going on in the spring um maybe we want to do some kind of a cleanup on a like what we used to do preco just have like certain cleanups on certain streets where we all gather together led by the environmental commission and whoever shows up shows up um so I can look into that further and maybe we can do something in the spring when it's a bit warmer and the snow has melted right I expect it called K what is it New Jersey clean Community uh New Jersey clean communi Council got it thanks let let me see if I find and I think that David had proposed a date for a clean up uh March in March you saying Kim there's a specific date that the New Jersey clean communities Council would do this cleanup I'm give me a second I'm trying to find okay okay uh give me just a second all right while we're waiting topics for the township newsletter I sent the uh article that we had previously sent to tap into on uh deicing uh uh why you should be cautious about using deicing Sals uh I sent that to the newsletter and that will be published okay um circling back I found it so um New Jersey clean communities Council has the Clean Water Challenge that runs from March 1st to April 30th to encourage volunteers to clean beaches rivers lakes and streams and promote clean water so what we've done in the past is we've had cleanups that are adjacent to small creeks Etc um we have one on Locust we have had other ones on horseshoe um so that gives us eight weeks to choose a good date one that works for everyone um and possibly do something like this clean up a street or two so I I think that it uh the date that David had proposed was March 22nd I do not remember exactly why but that might be a date that works with the clean Community council's proposal so maybe we can work together on that okay right and I will put the link that has the information on it in the chat as wellc moving moving on to Pake river parks and trails uh I still haven't heard from Dan berer I will try again to contact him now that the Vacations or holidays are over I also contact him about uh the grant for hand tools for trails and then onto the rggi grant we are apparently approved so far on everything we're doing we need to start the next round of bidding for the next round of planting I will tell Lia that we need to do that because it's going to take a few weeks for that to happen and the vendors need to have time to purchase the trees rity energy plan Grant getting lots of emails on those and I hand off to Alvaro yep we uh so I sent out an email asking for a to pull together a meeting to uh start our plan our planning process um targeting either next Thursday or the following Tuesday incorrectly which I realized now is a town council meeting so I'll have to change that date I've only gotten one reply so far but the goal is to get everybody together go through the workbook that sustainable Jersey provided and uh start to put our heads around uh what we where we think we want to go forward what we want what we think we want to go forward with and and and what steps to take so that's the goal of the meeting that's all I have on community energy program Richard you're muted I muted so that I could blow my nose have you heard anything back from Margaret or from Susan on on this topic no actually Margaret suggested that we include um Bill Machado on the council and has reached out to him about joining waiting for a uh a response from him but otherwise no respon and I and you also contacted the chief of police for the EV oh yeah yes correct about the police car electric vehicle police patrol vehicle uh webinar which is January 22nd i' be curious to know how uh how whether that's other towns are doing that uh are they use yeah hopefully that'll that'll come through in that webinar yeah um it could I don't know what the webinar is going to cover but Alvaro is it possible for you to ask for a list of um awarded projects not for the community energy plan Grant but for the the one that comes after it like the year following you have to do a community energy plan Grant to apply for the other grant mean the the actual execution Grant yeah that one yeah could you get a list of projects that were awarded projects so that we can see what precedent like what historically has been awarded it's a good idea we'll do I think you can I think that uh pmin had mentioned that we can find out what has been awarded yep yeah so if we can if we can get that list that should be a matter of public record that sustainable Jersey should be able to provide us with exactly I think it's the the community energy implementation Grant that's it is yep and Green Acres Grant for henal I already covered that then bcity USA uh so the bit of bureaucracy involved with the bcity USA uh application I've uploaded our resolution they need to approve it and then uh we then would pay them so we're waiting for that they also had some suggestions on involving uh departments such as the DPW or or uh Recreation Department for uh planting so uh I can do that too and finally hosting the Hub uh that's coming up next week uh I uh did a list of possible topics uh which included a watershed Improvement plan the state uh wants towns to do Watershed Improvement plans and the Rutter's Water Resources is will give free support for that uh ER NRI I'd be interested in hearing from other towns what their uh experiences with renewing or updating their Eris and then artificial turf um we I think uh a couple of us attended a webinar on artificial turf which seemed to be saying this was Sierra Club and anjac uh sponsored this webinar seem to be saying that uh no matter what form uh artificial turf is what on to Fields it releases pasas which is a toxic chemical which can then leak into our water supply um I don't know and I think that there are a couple of other towns that have put in artificial turf just wondering what their experience is the other aspect of that seemed to be that some uh proposals say that artificial turf is cheaper cheaper in the long run others say that uh natural Turf is cheaper in the long run if it's properly installed so be interested in talking with other towns on these topics anything else you'd want to see on this Hub meeting any other items for the Hut beating did you say that you sent out those agenda recommendations rich I sent them to Lauren uh oh saying you know that I'd be interested in seeing them on the agenda so uh we need to let Lauren know by tomorrow if there's anything else we'd like to see on the agenda well if you think about it tonight after after the meeting any items for the Hub meeting because we're you know it's going to be at least a a half dozen other towns uh coming to this meeting next week that's all that I have anyone else before we open it up to residents I have nothing I just checking one thing see screenshot screenshot just looking to see if there was anything in the chat that we wanted to discuss but I don't see anything I think we discussed everything that's in the chat yep okay and Steve do you have anything you want to add on anything my timing was on anything environmental sorry yeah no problem I was actually my timing is great I was in the other room um I had some texts on my phone for my wife and I came back just in time for this so I'm I'm all set I covered everything in the course of the meeting thank you all right then I do I hear a motion to adjourn so moved at 8:22 p.m. okay second I second meeting is hereby adjourned thanks for attending see you soon sorry to miss you on Thursday Kim yeah unfortunately I have a prior commitment so I'm sorry I'm gonna miss everyone it's always it's always tough uh trying to get busy people to have time good night everybody good night and feel better rich