##VIDEO ID:JpmdVjJy4t0## good evening this is a meeting of the Park Heights commission environmental commission for September 23rd 2024 adquate notice of this meeting was provided ining the public of the time of place according to provisions of the open public meetings room it's taking place in the dog room Dog Wood room on the second floor of the toship ball not be attending please advise the chair so we are recording and who's taking minutes okay 7:33 okay improving minutes May 6 anybody let's try to do that for the next time August 19th on that one anybody else near I I have not read any for a while okay September 9th just down okay got agenda items that's for Resident residents want to speak out he since I usually come on to say I will or won't I I got two things I was happy to actually get a notification for the agenda something worked this time and just related to um adopter drain I've mentioned this before but in the past week I received another email reminder email from the adopter drain website you know saying um to go and do your thing and and uh I think they as I said I think they're doing that on a regular basis which hopefully you know reminds people and as it's intended to do um to take a look at the drain and if needed clean it up so I assume I know um Kim's not here but um rich and and maybe Angus if you are you seeing those emails too sometimes I see them sometimes I don't know whether I got them recently okay my catch Basin is generally pretty clean yeah well it's it's as we go into fall that'll start that'll start changing but um it depends but um anyway no just just saying it seems to be a pretty regular basis which which at least helps the cause and you know they're I think they're doing it without us asking them to so just bringing it up since I got one last week that's it did note that she had received okay new business I don't have anything new but uh going over the plans here in county park there was a meeting uh of the planning board it was a courtesy meeting uh which means that although the planning board or people who attended the meeting would make requests the caly park is not required to uh take up those requests although the engineer for the project did say she would consider certain things I think Ed was the the county manager at yeah o o and Vicki I'm sorry but anyway uh she also attended uh for the county uh and um said they attend uh cons the I presented the recommendation from the environmental commission and they said that they were getting permits to encroach on the uh reparan Zone and the uh Wetlands uh they uh therefore wanted to have a path going along parallel to the uh River and also of course there's a boat launch there two boat launches right and uh trees were taken down I should have asked how the county is going to ensure that new trees that are planted would be uh watered so that they would survive I didn't do that I will follow up with any other comments on the Union County Park TRC for 343 Snider Avenue this is a was a business called I think vus orus I don't know vusa to but uh the company that is buying it is turning it into a training center and it looked like there was a indoor B yeah I don't know whether it's baseball or softball but it's a v um and uh I composed a memo for the TRC asking about storm water management and about trees uh any comments on that on the M that straight for this is just going to TRC this is only going to TRC there will be a hearing uh before the planning so if there's no comments on that [Music] make a motion to approve that memo motion to approve the memo to 4 343 SN Avenue block1 second okay so I will send the memo [Music] consider Webster Five Webster Drive um this is a corner lot on Snider and Webster they are building a second story and expanding some impervious surface but they stay below the maximum impervious surface so I wred the out minals uh of the recommendation simply to ask them to uh direct their uh down spouts to a rainb I couldn't tell from um viewing the site online of whether they are what they are doing with [Music] announcements I hear any comments on that no no okay near no no comments no I don't have any comments okay and do we hear a motion motion approve the U recommendation for by Webster Drive okay Scout projects so we don't have David or John so and I haven't seen any messages on Scout community garden I actually have a quick question about Scout projects um I only did Girl Scouts for one year because I didn't really enjoy it don't really remember exactly what I didn't enjoy but do do we have any contacts with Girl Scout Troops as well to do environmental projects um I know that for the Boy Scouts they have like the whole big project that they have to do but do we have just if they're interested we have had contacts with ro Scouts um it seem to be mainly with the younger Scouts appr we did do one um one point with the with the you know eliminating CS initiative was you know my friend Nicole um her two daughters were and you know I think they they prop they had two proposals I think point the STS was the first one which was when they were I think uh still in middle school at the time well question is do we have do we have contacts with the scouts I ask her but I think her kids have aged out I think they're in they might have graduated this past year so I'm not sure I'll I'll ask David if he has contacts okay thank you scouting has changed a little bit also you know I think Girl Scouts with the scouts you know um now including girls you know I've heard that you know there's sometimes less Focus depending on the girl that may have joined the BSA Scouts rather than Girl Scouts right that's a little bit too right BSA or now I think just Scout they're uh integrating Boy and Girl Scouts together into one organization so okay okay good to know I'm very yeah I only did the one year very long time ago so I'm not very familiar but um yeah okay we'll hear what David has to say and also the scouts do have badges and activities related to um the environment um that's part of the reason why the scouts that meet at Mountain Park are still involved with the rain Garden and uh in fact uh I met with the Scout leaders Chris bomo and Maggie K uh and we planted some plants there uh at the rainard and I have to follow up with the school to ask them some questions because it looks like they're mowing the burm but plants were installed and so that's basically in plant so we have to figure out a way to resolve that issue community garden and I think Renee is still traveling she was traveling uh last week so uh the only thing I saw commity Garden wise was that the Union Township community garden contacted the Berkeley Heights community garden to ask about beims because there's a apparently uh the Union Township community bartens looking at installing beeh and they wanted to gather some information some more ordinance and ms4 education uh Marvin illis just emailed today about uh the storm water in particular about disconnecting uh downspouts from the street asking uh whether there were any references or documentation about that because she couldn't find that in other towns ordinances I sent her a model ordinance for uh the Raritan it's the ritan Watership which includes the state in the disconnecting down spouse from curve and asked her to contact Tom S Faro as well and a do to saw text did you see the text yes so she was hoping to join Jen but in the event uh that she didn't join time she asked us to float the idea of us doing a no more scary drain challenge against Westfield Running from Halloween to Thanksgiving no more scary Westfield hollowing Thanksgiving as for the okay Lu with that that was that was a uh thing that just didn't happen because there was a lack of communication within Westfield yeah I think it would really come down to communication with Westfield and whether we're both at the same age yeah but assuming all factors work out yes uh adopt the train okay so we did that sustainable Jersey application so uh the fear I had was that we would not continue to be certified with Bron certification for 2025 but sustainable Jersey contacted us and said uh you know if you can get your energy uh data in uh could be uh receiving bronze certification and this was arshley from uh because we received the community energy Grant so it's connected with that grant that sustainable J uh Jersey offered to update that action for us I provided all the data that uh crypto was looking for and she presumably will be able to uh get all all that data into this database for clean energy uh and time for us to uh be approved for the sustainable Jersey Ron certification she got everything that she needed in order to assure us of that certification yeah I checked seem to have everything that you needed in the past what we had done was we I gathered the data and then ask the student to get familiar with Excel uh to input that data took a couple of hours to so it's really very generous of sustainable Jersey to do that excellent Recycling and cleanups [Music] um have anything at the moment um I'll just say that the shredding um paper event is on October 19th and I have an article and tap into and I emailed Sarah about putting it in the newsletter um and I'll email you Angus as well about Facebook and Instagram for the brookley heights calendar is that also Sarah uh you know what I'm calendar I don't think so I would send it to me I'll forward it to I think it's Barbara yeah I think Barbara does that okay I'll send it to you Richard uh so topics for the I was going to do an article about more trees for next year and I will do an article What tap into on why not take a tree because what we're fine what I'm finding is generally people who don't want trees complain that there's too many Lees going on their own or or Leaf seeds such as sweet it was very unpopular Choice say it's a lovely Tre it just has these big seats chance to talk to your neighbor about that the other day across the street from you he told you both talk to him yeah I propos well that's he mentioned not having s the sac River Park and trails Pat Shanley emailed that she would be able to do the bake River Park about once a month it would be good if we can get that better organized so that we can you know get more people involved um she also offered the tools for working on the trails but she doesn't want to have to all them back and forth and ask about storage so I contacted Dan berer and asked him if the county could install a storage shed at Grant Avenue for the tools uh also apparently um frer extension uh was offering uh to supply some foods as well um AR GI brand so we're working on the next planting which should be this Vault I'm not sure exactly when this uh request for quotes is going to go out and uh Al you reminded me about the we Maps I don't think we included we Ms in the request for um what on reservation and I will ask about that and also Dan berer is supposed to finish cleaning up the reservation I have emailed him about that I haven't heard back also the watering of the trees needs to continue I contacted um Misa today um did not hear back about whether the watering is continuing even though it's the fall and it's getting cooler best practice says continue watering for these new trees especially since they were under stress Community energy plan grant program so as uh I said we have received this grant I think we put it in last minut didn't uh but the point is we need to make we have one for tomorrow oh for tomorrow what time at uh 10:30 um now this is a meeting to organize uh and figure out uh what we're going to apply for for the energy plan brand well yeah what they're they're going to review the process pretty detailed process for arriving at a plan in a uh uh deliberate Community Based way and um and so that's that they're going to walk us through and I it would be helpful I didn't receive a response from L that we need somebody from the administration somebody from the D um I'm sorry DW DPW right and and somebody from the administr or the council obviously we're not going to have anybody the council but I'll follow see if get anybody there DPW there it's tomorrow unfortun could we change it if necessary we could I have to take the change said short notice but I'm just asking because you're thinking maybe we need to have other people in meeting yeah yeah yeah I sent an email on Friday I probably should this kind of came up a little bit short let tell what maybe I will try to postp on it yeah because I think it's it's more important to have the the right people in the meeting then meeting I agree yeah okay I yeah I think gave us a range of dates or she just it's a calendar dates from [Music] um BC USA resolution um so uh uh the mayor came back and said that she would be her office would be the contact for the the township that solves the so problem of people are approving things or uh what's going on uh and uh that means that we can now offer the resolution to the township Council to approve I sent that I think I sent that resolution around every um so that you can see how uh that is awarded and this way if there's something that needs to be uh facilitated the mayor's office is in charge okay anything else before we I had a question before you move on yeah go ahead you mentioned two topics on the township newsletter the one is an article on accepting trees what was the other one [Music] um well one was to sign up to get a tree and and then the other one was an article about why not get a tree in other words uh why have trees which is basically uh an argument for getting a tree so it's separate from hey we got this grant we're going to sign up for it you like to blank a tree and SE from that is why should you plant a tree on your proper and and and get leaves and seeds on you hey everyone sorry I'm late yes well if you want to say anything we are about to end the meeting um well hello and goodbye all so my text Kim um I'm just reading it right now um hold on okay deal support as long as we can sucessfully coordinate with Westfield all right cool so I will reach out to Lois Krauss and the Green Team there and see if they're interested in doing that kind of a Throwdown um last time when we did the um challenge for game of drains it took a while for things to trickle through um we started with the mayor who ultimately brought us back to Lois Krauss who is the person who is in charge of it anyhow so um I'll reach out to Lois see if we can get things rolling and I will report back and let you know I figure that um at least starting it on Halloween will give us time to hear back from Westfield publicize it sufficiently and have just a small enough time frame between um the 31st and Thanksgiving to get people excited about it keep you know keep the momentum going and not kind of fizzle out over time so there you go okay just in time just in time any other comments before we go to Citizens it's all I got all right citizens citizen citizens no additional yeah no additional comments I'm thankful for a short meeting it's probably you are good night all right air of motion to adjourn at exactly 8:00 p.m. at 46 seconds is it exactly 8:00 it's exactly 8 o' last time last time was 8:07 well I need a you know what three seconds left oh you need a second second oh second I I'll wait till 807 damn it it's 801 now thanks all right everybody good night everybody and now the come on good night good night good night good night bye bye