##VIDEO ID:PvpR0MEMIyU## all right I'm going to call the meeting to order it is Monday August 5th at 7:35 p.m. we have quum all right first item on the agenda is meetings minutes for this meeting I know I haven't looked at anything so if anyone else has it we can skip right to the next one have any meetings review I think it's May 6th and June 17th I think June 17th I wasn't here and I didn't get may I wasn't here on May 6 either June 17th all right we'll skip moving on well there been two old meetings since then that we don't have on this to July yeah I I wasn't at definitely the first one in July because I was overseas I wasn't on either of the July so all right moving on to the next agenda item um hearing on agenda items only three minutes per resident um oh and uh take a minutes I will take minutes oh I was gonna ask if you had anybody sure you haven't you didn't do a lot it's all right sure give minut just get I'll get started go ahead keep going all right Al we be taking minutes um the guest we have here is Jerry Jerry Wong hello do do you have any uh anything to add to the hearing on agenda items only um I was going to speak about asking about electronic waste and also just like U maybe not within like her like house composting but we are we are have a lot of restaurants in our town so maybe something could be done to reduce the food waste there as well as within the schools in our town since lunch since lunch food often goes wasted because not because not everyone buys lunch first of all and even if they do a lot of it is thrown away so something could be done about that and I'm just thinking about like some kind of composting effort for those but I wanted to speak to the town to ask about like the feasibility of such a thing okay um first can you introduce yourself I'm Jerry Wayne okay um are you a student or are you uh uh I'm a high schooler okay are you a GL uh no I go to magnet like Union County vocational Magnet School oh I just I'm I'm a resident of Berkeley High I've been here very long okay okay well welcome Jerry thank you um school is always a challenge we've had this conversation more than a few times um you know the feasibility Factor has always kind of been one of the challenges you know on on school is who's going to do it how enforceable is it um it doesn't um i' I've actually I I think I vaguely know it doesn't have to be like about the town you guys don't have to worry about it if possible I'm just asking if I were to like go up to the school to approach them with like this thing or like some like Club idea or whatever like you organize some kind of composting club or whatever or something like that gardening maybe something like that I just bring it up to them would that be like feasible or like would I be allowed to do that or would is that just like a separate matter entirely well composting is something I mean school lunch stuff is I mean what's everyone's opinion you know I know you're certainly welcome to bring it up yeah um we've had the discussion before it's not an obvious thing that we're going to go Implement next week um but your point is very valid a lot of material goes out of the school lunchrooms in trash bags and gets trashed which could be compostable um asking that question is a really good thing to do it brings it back up to the onto their radar if it's not on their R already um um I would just say separate from the schools um just talking about restaurant wise so I guess also just in general we should just say like Berkeley Heights does not have a composting thing happening just to let you know so just as a basis but there was a lot of interest sorry yeah um but yeah but we're not like collecting it like recycling or anything like that but we've looked into um there is an organization that you looked into that collects in nearby towns but only if we had enough residents that would want to sign up and if you're interested more in this maybe we can discuss more with you or someone can discuss it more with you um if you want to try to get other people involved it's just that the capacity to do something things sometimes with our small group is a little bit hard but um so there's that and then for the restaurants this is something that I kind of discovered recently from my brother there's this app called too good to go so after a certain time when the restaurant has closed um restaurants will like give away food that they're not going to sell so I don't know if that would be would actually go to the garbage otherwise or what exactly would happen with that food but I know it's the big old place close to stoping shop they do it just can't think of no away no closer to Delicious Heights it's like a bagel place definitely Bagels semi yes oh so like after they close they have like this window from like 1:30 to 2:30 where you can like pick up a huge bag of bagels for that day for $5 so it's like cheaper you like do it on the app whatever um I think getting more restaurants involved in that would be great all right um the app is called too good to go but we can definitely talk to you more about this if you have a lot of interest it's just something that's kind of difficult to do and what grade are you in I'm a junior you're a junior yeah uh you're wait you're gonna be a junior next oh I'm I'm a rising senior I think that's the term okay so you have one year to get this done don't it's fine even if I can't get it done now I'll still work on it in college because even if I start something because even if I start something I'm not going to quit it until I'm like fully satisfied with it so even if I start it now I'm going to keep it going even if I like worst case scenario I'll just find um other people that I can pass it along to best case scenario I just keep it going for as long as I can so which school are you at at um which division are you in at the I'm at the County School uh I'm in magnet of magnet school okay so you know environmental science is has a composting system right yes yeah magnet yeah yeah magnet is supposed to be like the engineering part of the school oh my my apologies they like cutting out on my end yeah uh wait so Magna is supposed to be the engineering part of the school but the only thing I've learned from that place is how much I don't want to go into engineering so I'm trying to do everything but engineering so I I I struggle with how that whole complex is organized but there are other it's yeah I think about it less like divisions and just more like five different schools yeah so there's an environmental Sciences school that has a composting system yes yeah there used to be um a composting system there I I is it still in place the composting system um i' i' no right as of now no they used to do it in the past with school lunches and stuff but it is no longer in system I spoken to the principal and like vice principal about like the possibility of it starting up again but it's like it it's un uncertain what do you know why they stops um it was more of like a club or like a community volunteering thing the issue with the system wasn't that it like failed at entirely like it it was still effective in getting compost and getting soil that part worked it also did manage to reduce waste the issue was that it was just like not very interesting because not many like students or like people in general want to spend like their free time after school like uh kind of Shifting through like large tubs of like decaying food so it just like kind of fell out because there weren't enough people to like run the thing I think that maybe points for one of the challenges of that yeah initiative is just the economics if if you can throw that waste in a trash bag and your trash company takes it away it's tough to make the case of why you should do something different even though different is better for the environment there's not a big economic pull to to have schools or households um adopt a composting program so I think that's part of the part of the challenge of this if it's not mandated it's just hard to make it happen on a voluntary basis because the economics all that and also you need some real estate too because you know we so we looked at some problems uh you know so there's a company called Javas compost and they do they're a private company they do two type of programs one is Municipal oriented and one is private citizen oriented and so the private citizen one they they will come pick up town to town they have a route if you're close to the route or if you're in the route they'll come pick up from you if you're out of the route outside the route you know until some until there's critical mass of more people asking for that area they they don't expand the route so the routes expanded quite a bit over time you know it was very centralized I think they were based in um Maplewood or I I forgot where they where they started but they were in Essex County and then they started branching and now they've reached as far as the very edge of Berkeley Heights um and New Providence but not everywhere in the town so um you know I've spoken with them before um and um you know it's kind of like a waiting game we kind of just need to re-engage so it sounds like this is a topic that you're definitely interested and we'd love to you know have you on board as an advocate and and with you so you know um you can engage us at the our our primary email address and maybe we can have some conversations about you know what to do moving forward maybe we can talk about you know you know advocating for it during our Winter Walk um and other times throughout the year and maybe brainstorming ways to uh you know make this uh hopefully happen or find ways to make it happen whether you know a school perspective or Municipal perspective um but yeah it's definitely maybe engage with your school as well see what see what if they're you know do they have an environmental Club let's have a club more of a class and they are willing that's why uh the that's why they were willing to like um like cure me out when I asked if I could like talk to him about this but I just have to like um work out like some difficulty before I like before they like actually want to like go further but they're like willing to listen um all right let's let's uh engage another time but email us and um we can uh you know get of we can have some conversations about it Kim Kim did you want to add anything no nothing to add okay okay well it was very nice nice to meet you Jerry um thank you for joining and uh yeah we hope to you know work with you in the future have a good day thanks thanks Jerry uh how do I leave the the zoom like thing like changed formats and I don't know how to leave should uh oh oh yeah sorry my bad have a good day to stay on all right uh there's no one oh there's no other uh not remember Steve is not on here um moving on to new business we don't have any plans so next up is G projects D no updates no updates all right community garden Rene is not able to join but um Karen en alone reached out out about um plant theft in the community garden um and I reached out to me about some uh security camera options so I'm going to uh I was hoping she would be able to join tonight but that's okay time I gota talk to to about some concerns go ahead Kim security cameras are installed um will the police department be involved as well I mean it's great to have security cameras but if there's no enforcement what you you know like what what good is having the cameras if there's no enforcement of hey shouldn't be doing that maybe as a deterrent visible on the on the post and well she's her concern was it that the theft is a deterent to new members um because the donation Garden was stripped and they're trying they she doesn't think it's animal she thinks it's human she referred to it she says was it a four-legged or two-legged creature right so yeah it was too clean to to to see I didn't have a discussion with them either so I mean one of the questions is did somebody have the combination and simply you know answer the garden that way um and that's the case then maybe she wants to change the combination for everybody um did she report it to the police I don't know um maybe this police might engaged a conversation with her possibility um the uh I think this is the first time happened in the years that they operating so this is very strange thing actually because those those vegetables are being donated to a a church for food path I don't think the thief really cares that the vegetables are being donated if it is in fact a two-legged Thief rather the four-legged one so it's it's not plants it's it's the fruits and veget okay yeah said she to Echo what Richard I think that's Richard at the end there said um hi Richard um yeah I would Echo what Richard said I think if they're thinking of doing any kind of surveillance it needs to be tied with the police so I would recommend that she reach out to the police to see what they could possibly do I know that sometimes in the morning there there's a police men um By the Light there um but anyhow if she could work out something where they're patrolling the Garden or doing a little bit more than just having cameras up I don't know that just having cameras up would be a deterrent unless the police somehow help to do some enforcement or someone looks at the tapes and provides it to the police yeah no agre I I I mentioned my email that like who's responsible for it you know and there's privacy concerns like you have to consent to being recorded as well so there's a lot of implications but um you know we'll have a conversation followup conversation from today she just sent an email today so the other thing was pathway that the AP SC did she said that to pay the contractors for the house damage or that to and can contractors be made to repair cathine they apparently just damaged just a that seem reasonable ask right right nothing to add further on that topic storm water ordinance and ms4 education uh we have not heard from Margaret Isis who took the storm water or saying that she would go through it with John I will be challenging her on ask that's for I thought there was a deadline of mid mid out of compliance out of comp did that deadline get by the state get extended is there a penalty is out of compliance or sort of yeah it's Technic possible there would be a p but State seems to be fairly me right adop the drain k um the only thing that I have to report is that anj reached out to me and asked me to join the September 10th presentation that Hamline University will be delivering to the environmental commissions so I will be part of that presentation on September 10th it's it begins at 7 I don't have the details yet but I can and should be circulating the information shortly but um that that's the only update that I have thank you Kim sorry what no I said just thank you um sure oh and and another thing too I know that we said we table it until closer to school time since it's August um do we want to reach out to um the school board or some I don't know who else beside the school board to reach out to but somehow to get adopted drain tied into the educational curriculum of um at least elementary school kids so that they know what storm water infrastructure is they have an appreciation for keeping the storm water infrastructure clean it doesn't have to be a lot that they learned doesn't have to be a big chapter but um just knowing the robust participation that we had from younger kids for um recycling thin fil Plastics and even the robust participation that we had when we had the name your drain contest top names um little kids get very excited and into this so I'm open to suggestions for how to do that Outreach because I think it could be good and could help reinvigorate the program as we go into September then we can bring up that the next Board of Ed meeting I think the next Board of Ed meeting is August 15 uh is that a special meeting or a regular meeting regular meeting regular meeting public sessions at 7:30 Governor the bston high school cafeteria actually wait there's a special meeting on the 80 that's and then yeah the regular is on the 15 okay could we aim for that meeting perhaps so would I need to do that meeting what say it again so what what would we need to do for that meeting we can ask for a a slot at the meeting could ask a short informational session is there a public comment period as well or yeah the public comment period are they at the end of the meeting okay yeah I think you want to try to get on the agenda if you who sets the agenda on the board of meetings I will find out and ask for them to make a time available for for this and also for trees because we've been having a conversation with these supervisor lar men and I having a conversation with supervisor for the grounds trying to get them to cooperate things that they've done P to change the the things that happened is they kill the tree they they chopped it down um and now okay now are you going to replace the tree and other things that they're doing you know with their properties that aren't good practices so I would ask for adop and TR remember PR me we had other topics that we thinking of discussing on a school level I can't remember what they were well that's we maybe like a bundle exactly what I Wasing post well especially if it's curriculum based you know like if there's multiple things you're like oh you know this is environmental action on behalf of all students regardless high school elementary school whatever you know maybe it's some or even just ask question like hey what are you guys doing with the kids to teach them about environmental responsibility here are some proposed ideas but if you have anys and wants wants to speak we always bring up the idling anti-idling topic once a year as well and they often in past they put out notifications parents onight I think as well for the curriculum um they have all the curriculums uploaded onto their site so you can see like if you think and I think it would probably be best for like Elementary School you can look through it and I think if we had a little bit more of a background and we can sort of point out oh you know this would be a good section to add a few things about that that would be good um um because yeah I've done some work with changing the curriculum and it it takes some time I think the topic that I wanted to add in was a little bit more controversial so but it can happen we push for it Earth that was it I was was like was there was something we want to lead up into Earth in I foret what it was I'll find the previous meetings but there was something the schools still celebrate Earth Day yeah but something more like was like leading through the year that so it wasn't like all push that that one wasn't there on one of the other meetings as well involv right the student who uh was involved with the sing SCH um is that one somebody else for some but all right so think about something after we'll aim for August 15 maybe we'll just have an email chain and discuss topics to put on the list okay I will ask your time on all right uh sustainable Jersey application so um it's been submitted did her uh action I uh share the uh diversity inity action you um we have until uh the end of the month to get that into uh to complete that action so if there can be a discussion and a recommendation uh for for that so it's complete you can complete work sheet to then uh we'll get credit to it presentation the township is the one that I have to through in terms of I know I haven't gotten a chance to look at my emails today but there was something from Angie and I don't know what that was you don't have to do it now talk the end then didn't you finish something recently um the native species well it's under the Community and Outreach action so yeah there was they didn't like that I didn't like promote it as a part of it so we promoted it after the happened because I asked if that would count we just read an article about it and she said yes so then that was CTIC but then the newsletter one I didn't fix because I didn't I just have like the time yes yeah I read the other well did Happ I just was like I need a something okay so that that's well hope that we can get credit for them but we should continue to work on other actions even after deadline so that we for the next review we're we're getting credit for things that can do I me one that D and I worked on need to change that say updating part of that and and get credit for doing that I have a budget stents part talking about for example the maps flood maps and so on they're not incorporated into master plan noral um presentation of the townships the flood you can check ahead of time those flip apps need to be updated that would be another major action that we could count for next year because at this point we're only trying to get CS um there's a composting one right I think so maybe we can have food waste maybe we can have him do that one and we can assign that to yeah that would be great but it only works if the actually um I didn't read through exactly what but there's you have to do exactly whatever they say and maybe we're doing some of that already have to Har ask I speaking of the food way waste aspect I mean you you work in the city it looks like the city is now doing food waste all over the they're putting containers out and people are putting their food waste into these containers they've had that for a few years but I mean they're expanding it to all parts of the city City's doing a lot of good stuff you know in terms of like that and although they regress on a few things like well like the skip stuff thing which I'm I'm also very interested in which is like not giving utensils and all the accessories you know which is now filtered down to Westfield and some other town which you know that you know I think the next um sustainable Jersey meeting the Union County thing that's we want want to discuss like see how that's Progressive the other towns because maybe we can bring that here you know it's not just like composting or those thing but you know what it's another source of eliminating some areas of waste right you I think every little bit helps yeah we're going that action waste it's a challenging one composting in general is just in in a in scale it's hard yeah but if he does it that makes it easy oh and that that reminds me there were a couple of other um I think students who are interested in volunteering I didn't get a chance to contact so the new it's the child of the new CFO yes all right I was interested in the environment all right has anyone get yet I Haven get a chance and and also astonishing enough laon um um um said to me know if there's something else that you need volunteers for he might be available to do he didn't make one of the thing that they did as we but was the uh clean up that they did up at the high school with the county and that clean up uh was heavy lifting because apparently the school has dumped stuff up at at that site that we once PL treeson and Dan berer said I'm going to dump all of that stuff out onto the road get it off of the site and let the school take it away because it's all School side including an I beam what and a support beam for a building an I beam I it's called iy yes and wait huh who this the school D the school no use for so is it um other than the I is it trash or is it trash kind of stuff it's so it's no it's it's not just composable material it's there's a little bit of uh I see the gring yeah not just that it's not just right it's not just the the mle it's not just that it's it's other stuff that's just piled up get out of it sounds like the next viting Al they might not be to or like what are you blaming us that's interesting well that leads into recycling cleanups right what's next for uh what's her name Shanley is she is she starting anything back I think she's busy outside the country I guess we're visit next month okay uh next topics for the fion newsletter anti idling what do we need well and would be a topic if we could get um September the that umot about it for a while the The Pledge so we can eventually try to get points for that one since we need a certain percentage that that didn't Happ the pledging that you do certain things yes to send the pledge out like we had it at the block party but yeah that's a good one and also if we're still thinking about the actions they want us like if I remember the comments they wanted to be like what we put in the newsletter to be I don't know very like lengthy and like I don't know I don't remember the comments but that's a part partly you know a function of the editor of the newsletter yeah how much how long a piece have you had a talk s an about how long the pieces can be in the newslet I haven't I I think I was operating under the same guidelines from before where keep it short relatively and then you know lead to another link to you know right I think it's really long not as long as it used to be but you know it's still I don't think they want to have too much but they've been pretty liberal about it too you know sometimes you know some of the some of the we put in are almost like full so they they're as rigid about it as they were before you saw the U if you got your Tac notice you saw this little thing about I still I saw that yes I hope that wisza is correcting this I don't know not that goes out once a year right no mid year to mid year right that's the schedule yeah right had tree permits what else was on it a couple other things too the tree permits I said wait a second what's this all about we have a new tree ordinance um I doubt that she's going to correct that she's not going to send a new mailing out I thought that she was going to send a new mailing out but she needs to credit because otherwise the consequence is oh the tree has to be 8 in thick oh I've got a 7 and2 in tree cut it down I don't Department what do you have in mind by correcting what the new ordinance says just you know correction this is what the new ordinance says you have to have a permit be the tree is six inches in diameter so should that go in the next newslet is is a corre it can either go in the next newsletter or she can send out some other sort of notice she mailing not a mailing David though a an email black they they sent out and you can also put make an make it an article in in tap t very it's just you need to correct that thisinformation oh goodest that type of Correction and you put to correct mailing because I think it's right not going to send out another no I'm not expecting her to send out another mail did anything have a good point did anything go out to the town about the fact that thein was changed does published in the in the the newspaper is that we used to publicize the that's typical of all so if someone has prior knowledge of the tree ordinance unless they chose to go back to refresh on what it says they would have no way of knowing that it was change right the legal requirement is that it gets published in the newspaper and whatever the newspaper record is but we know in reality that nobody goes and reads that so so so may maybe the answer is that there should be something in the newslet about the fact that the town is updated these are the new rules so maybe it captures that correction but it also makes people aware forgotten and be aware that the criteria change yeah sound like September's be a jam pack newsletter good idea okay right that deadline probably be the end of three this month everything holds true all right uh the River Park and trails nothing I'm not there while right rggi grants so we have to update to the state as to what we're doing we've been doing uh for our grant we have to rep be important um and um at the same time time uh trying to finalize the list of plants planting and FL um I've been doing that for the last couple of days but I have to finish it up also um contact and a list of trees to be planted so you can put out request would be issue that we've been having these hydrators Steve is now having oh the issue with the hyres yeah so um I'm not sure how widespread it is um we saw that or he showed that there was this uh fungus under the hydrators and that some of the hydrators seem to not be completely draining so what's the solution to that perhaps just remove the hydrator and just water U the tree um there was one tree that was suffering and and the rest of in contacted us about that tree he went and looked at it and uh um didn't seem to have a firm idea as to why this tree the leaves on this tree are really looking like they're dying so um it may be a um a disease and maybe the tree should have been uh treating maybe too late to treat the tree that may be one we're going to have to have a discussion as to how to replace that tree and I'm not sure what the legal ramifications are because homeowner was watering uh so we have to rely on homeowner saying yes I was watering the tree and that what that's not the reason why the tree died see station Engage The the tree inspector the is going to go record all of the tributes of the status right that's the other thing that U it's been going back and forth because Lia said oh it's if the estimate for or the quote rather is more than $6,000 we have to get was coming in at about $2500 not help a s I did get same uh or no there was supposed to be three quotes GRS over 6,000 I got two quotes and uh uh Rich Consulting was the lower quote was this back and forth with okay we want to make sure that he doesn't spend more than what he's quoting because he was quoting on an hourly basis so question is would he spend many more hours doing something that what he fing I think uh it's a reasonable uh request that he give a maximum amount that he's going to uh build and so I sent that back to uh um um Li and said pleas issue P they should be able to SM as soon as that PO position you saw what I sent to um the uh public utilities on the community on the other on the other BR yeah so that's the late I'm going to give them till the end of the month and then I'll I'll start to harassing again they were supposed to be July 24th it was which gr again energy plan C energy yes CG energy plan so the gr awarded we would have an opportunity to develop a plan for energy energy solutions and that was uh one of the things that was going to apply I didn't know if we could technically apply for it as a private company the engineers who uh presented to us about the waste oh further EC USA resolution I sent that around that I forwarded that email with the comments from the rec depart my question was basically you know uh she's saying certain activities would have to be approved by the rec department and I simply asked that she insert how the wording should be in solution instead of saying be approved by so I sent that back to Anna uh with that question how is that m going to be understand what they're saying where they want to uh regarding the PC you something I thought I I se it I will send it around an email from August 1 Rich one resolution yes NJ P students hi Rich you see comments below from the recommission regarding the BCD USA resolution I'm that came from the township it originally came from the township this is richest forward um yes it was from Anna yes that's then if you look at how she's forwarding an email from De right bot right back recommission 4 C we should add by recommission 4 C4 D4 e G right she doesn't put the wording into that sentence so try to understand you know exactly what she me means by it' be good to have that more questions than answers yeah item woods and Wayside adop the trail proposal now upate I just have a quick question before we end the news letter comes out in the beginning of the the deadine yes is it two weeks before like we to two weeks Sarah's Sarah's pretty flexible reach out she's like hey anything just but but generally I mean for our purposes we say Friday 15 say yeah the middle of the month I okay yeah I was just thinking thinking about something for October paper shredding oh that's right yeah that's yeah article whatever copy paste Facebook Facebook Instagram yeah all right since hearing on environmental issues there are no other citizens so motion to adjourn at 8:24 p.m. okay and third everybody all right adjourned good night night Chris good night on my computer wait wrong amouse the wrong Mouse and the mouse is out