##VIDEO ID:mNgF_xdS-FM## okay this is the ber environmental Commission meeting for August 19th meeting will take place in the dog room the second FL the township ball meeting shall not last past 9:30 B recording we're recording the meeting and asking can take minutes for this meeting Angus is taking minutes ising third person okay approvement is for May 6 anybody so I Dro it okay so I'm happy with it anyone else seconding minutes for May 6 no okay moving on to June 17 I thought I had resent these minutes p hello Al hey there sorry to be late again all right so we have for June 17 yeah um Al drafted those I've reviewed them I okay David David moves I approve we have a second June 17 June 17 I can second okay 17th's coming in person she'll be here bring on agenda items three minutes for Resident our resident resident is here I am here and actually I've got quick agenda items something at the bottom of the agenda but not the list and related to adopted Rin and storm um as aside from looking for the link that we now straightened out I noticed which was a nice touch all the remaining environmental commission meetings are were listed there I had a note on my calendar after the first half that I I needed to get them and I also was glad to see they were on the U the town's calendar so I have them all in mind but just want to say nice to see that um at the end of the agenda um related to storm water and drains um I don't know that we're all anticipating as much rain as we got in as short a time uh despite the uh you know early call for a flood watch but uh aside from doing my own drains I I kind of did some of the other ones I am a caretaker for until someone takes them over and they were those were in bad shape since I don't do them regularly I and um so I kind of felt good especially with all the rain we got um I just wanted to share that with you um I guess for all of Sunday if you look at where I live I'm up on the ridge so think around near the corner of Snider horo and Mountain got 4.7 inches and the prior Saturday was just a you know 4/10 of an inch so it's a a lot of rain up here um and the drains worked so 4.7 inches yep I want to give a a big shout out to you so thank you for for clearing those drains to allow all the water to go down and thank you for um I don't know what to call it like fostering trins that you yourself have not adopted so thank you thank you thank you how did you measure oh oh the rain yeah I the rain um um as opposed to the drain junk uh yeah uh rain Gade I've got this my joke I have this this in the corner of my deck so literally I call that my Benchmark for measuring rain and then snow and winter and and what was ironic I left a half I left it at half an inch on Saturday and it got up to after 8:15 we had know like between 5:30 and 8:15 is when we got most of it and um and it was H and I was up to a combined like 4.7 4.6 I had a it's a five inch you know measured limmit um with some overflow space but you can't measure after that and I had a made a point of dumping it and if I hadn't I wouldn't have been able to catch the measurement for the stuff that came in close to midnight so you have to you have to keep on your measurements tools so so anyway yeah I you know everybody knew there was lots of rain and you know you don't every once in a while you see an estimate on TV if they cover our town but sometimes a lot of them are radar estimates and those things sometimes seem to overestimate but yeah everything we got on Sunday from 5:30 to to midnight about around here it got to 4.7 so I'm sure it was similar elsewhere and every Everything by you went down the literally was able to go down the drain because of your help pretty much yeah and and I yeah and and you know the ones that the ones are important that I do at the at at Mountain Avenue because it would go into it go into Mountain Avenue and um as well as catching the stuff coming down the sides but the couple of the other ones I maintain um after I gotten did get several people to do theirs um at low points that's that's way our neighborhood is they're all at the bottom of Hills where they need to be and and I took a look at him today and um I need to I need to clean him again but they're um when they kind of got re um semic clogged um they weren't as bad as I found them so yeah all right let me let me stop let you get get on well I I have a quick question the kind of stuff that was clogging them was it primarily like threee big fluffy tree leaves or like what was in them just curious yeah the one the ones actually the ones that have been let go a while will have the old just like we Mark primary and secondary when we log them in um there was a lot of sediment and you know de composed into dirt kind of thing mixed in with dried leaves that come down from the dry summer okay just asking because there's a drain by me that recently got cleaned that looks like a for lack of a better way of describing it a a melted snule ocus it has like orangish pine needles in it and it looks like Mr snule upus came over and melted into the drain you know if you got pine needle are yeah pine needles were drying out with the the dry summer and if they're plentiful near where the path of the water is you're going to find it yep okay thank you again Steve my pleasure so there was uh 5.2 Ines in my rain gate and um when I walked the neighborhood this morning there was a lot of stones and gravel that were obviously wash wased off of people's property and some of that probably washed into catch basins as well um and since you mentioned the Dr drain do you want to mention the AAC meeting on the top of the train Kim um yeah the we should have been getting notices about it I will be presenting a a little bit on adopter drain um some someone from hlin University is going to be um telling the story of the greater adopter drain program and I'm going to be more specific to Berkeley Heights so Steve if you have any pictures you'd like to share um we could possibly you know feature your drains and the fabulous job that you've been doing to allow all the water we've been getting of late which I'm you know as hurricane season continues on sure we're going to get more of so if if you are interested Steve um send me your stuff I think uh um I have I you do have something of mine from a a prior picture submission that says a but I'll give it I if I find a terrible mess um I I'll I'll think of something good picture to show the importance we'll do okay okay any anything U new and groundbreaking that's wonderful if if you have old stuff that's great too right moving on uh we got an email from uh don't be middle school because they wanted to do a project uh did people see that email uh ni we support that an environmental project that I wanted to get the students involved in yeah we we definitely should support that's exactly okay so any other discussion otherwise make a motion yeah so motion to approve the proposed how how they phrase it Middle School environmental Focus produ yeah that's M SCH okay second second all right any discussion if not then consider that approved I'll get that I'll right back to them direct pay I've got this on the agenda and I forgot why I put it there do anybody I put direct pay on this I have an email doesn't ring your bell no idea yeah I'm not coming up with have anything to do with capturing mean energy that's what I was wondering Al was that yeah capture clean energy tax credits of direct pay coming from sustainable Jersey direct Cod program for local governments nonprofits and tax exemp eligible and projects eligible projects include electric vehicles and E charging infrastructure renewable energy projects including solar this is not directly with what we apply for but tell me if I'm wrong did you send that uh that to to the rest of us Richard I don't you should have gotten it but I can I can certainly form it again I can't find anything in email in that regard it's from sustainable Jersey yes it came from sustainable Jersey and I oh what's let me see if there's a deadline came on 14th of August November 15th November 15 is it are completed eligible projects in 23 of until November 15 to file for the tax credits join a webinar September 24 I'll forward this to everybody thanks okay and I forward it to the EC address from myself I'll try to do it again from home because I don't have everybody's okay onward before we move off of new new topics um the Board of Ed the meeting you had with the Board of Ed a week or two ago you want to cover that here or later in November um could cover that so it wasn't the it was with supervisor okay Anthony yeah supervisor so with L um is the um superintendent or the uh Acting Superintendent superintendent is Rob Nixon no he's the business this is the business manager uh and uh basically we try to um explain him uh what all the environmental commission has done with uh the schools over the years because he's brand new and uh Lara was particularly interested in things like solar uh panels on the schools and uh also we wanted to was a kind of say hello here's who we are here's what we do and then we said we'll put together a more detailed presentation to uh uh give to him and and the board event and that would include you know reviewing all that has been done with the schools including the rain Gardens that have been installed at various schools the tree that hav't planted out the be the the other activities we've done with the but then moving forward to try to encourage the to um uh plant trees where appropriate we're not trying to eliminate places where you're using a lawn but there are wet spots in almost all of the school properties which are difficult to Mo so why not uh plant trees and let that naturalize so that's basically uh one of the major things we're trying to do and also educate custodians and taking care of things because the school says oh we are not going to mulch the treats oh but we accidentally used a weed whacker on this being killing sorry we're not replacing so that kind of thing that uh we're trying to raise the level of awareness and educate uh uh the Personnel at the schools to take care of uh the environment one of the things that came out of it was the uh business manager said uh the rang Garden at Columbia Middle School is a security uh concern people could hide in rainor and then go out and grab kids when they're coming out of the classroom I came really did you go to MD school I did I think you could grab a kid from anywhere I don't think you need to hide if you're going to I'm trying to find out who is saying so they they are saying wow you need to get rid of some of the plants in the rainbow you could do that we we've been out the rainbow but it was very strange behind a car I feel like that's it's a bigger easier thing for an adult to hide behind maybe they're scared that a kid will grab them adult a kid could hide behind that but I don't know if an ads hide plants this was one of the things that came up trying to clarify that trying to address their concern so is there a plan for a presentation to the board of EDS that's why we're putting together put some thoughts together and some so the is the one in the front right yes yeah between the two you know doors that are on left and right how do they feel about trees I feel like they must be scared of all plants right and Richard um one of the reasons I wanted to be part of that meeting is I have a child at Colombia and a child at GL and you know with the past couple of years I mean I I have many friends in town that parents fellow parents and you know I see this with my own kids they have the students have way too much downtime and they even complain of boredom I mean I think the last three weeks of school my daughter went to GL maybe twice or three times because once their exams are over they're done they have multiple EPS um and there's just a huge opportunity to give them um a chance to do something and even get credits towards you know volunteer hours you know the the the grade students are are preparing for confirmation many of them um certainly the high schoolers you know would like things on their resume so that's an opportunity it's a missed opportunity in my opinion and and I I'm you know I'm just sharing the voice of many parents in the district for what's happening these past few years um so you know I'm glad that we're you know one of the actions is to you know create a presentation I'd like to be a part of that because I I feel very strongly considering that I have two children in the district yeah actually if I could add on to that I've been the last I don't know kind of on and off I've gone there like three times so far this summer been volunteering at Wagner Farms on Saturdays but can do volunteering any of the days cuz they have like three volunteers that are always there and they're retired so you can do on weekdays and there are students high schoolers that come there on Saturdays but yeah I was always thinking I don't know why in GL we don't have that volunteer work requirement is well I've never done it it's there for the hon societ yeah I think probably be there for all the students I never did it and I was onor Society um so I think that it should probably be a requirement across the board maybe for like sophomores or something like that like maybe Junior and Senior year like Junior they setting for sat senior can be hectic with you know college and everything but like even something small like 10 hours or something I think and maybe they what it is I think it's at least that yeah well but I never had I think the majority of students are not an Honor Society I think I don't really know I just know from laara men there are students that she gets to volunteer because they have to do some sort of doting service yeah but I think that doesn't it's not the majority I think okay but um and I think it would be important for the majority of students to get this kind of kind of real world like doing things outside the house the classroom sort of thing the colia the rain Garden thing at Columbia I mean just thinking through this simply hello hello can you hear me so this is the point so the next step after this meeting with uh the business manager is that we're going to prepare something we want to try to give that to the whole school board that I think is where it's appropriate that you have have input and even perhaps attend the meeting and and you know anyone else from the commission wants to attend the meeting so I'll come back to you and you know ask for your input as we're putting this presentation together I don't know how much time they'll give us but we're going to ask for actual time at the meeting and Rene you muted yourself again so if you want to speak now it's fine I think let's not go down the wrap all let's continue with the agenda okay was there anything else with the bo okay uh Liberty Avenue 32 Liberty Avenue so this is coming back to us we had already reviewed this site which is next to a stream and when I went to look at the revision I looking at numbers uh that aren't agreeing and finally contacted Connie and she said well uh Tombo had used uh numbers on his denial letter so I picked those numbers up so but the basic point is uh the increase in impervious surface is what's changing and uh the consequences of that basically we're still recommending the um reparan Zone be uh uh how would I put it be respected uh and that they install a rain gner of high retention in any questions or comments I'm looking at one of the well it's in the um TR recommendation it's the long one that says J the best best management ta chapter 2 says when applying for develop approval so forth is that specific to reparan zones or is that a general no that was reparan Zone okay I wonder if we should start that Bullet by saying because much of this property falls within the reparan Zone wellan Zone yeah or it is aarian Zone yeah Ju Just to reinforce the fact that we're talking they're talking they're talking about doing development within the repairing Z right so and then the rest of that parag fine yeah okay basic recommendations motion to approve dra recommendation as revised okay second was there a comment Alber I was just going to suggest if you're editing uh this document there's just the in the third bullet point you you you have um recommendations that that uh start with a gr a grass Swale and if and Then followed by a second recommendation numbered green roof third numbered uh previous um or previous Paving system and it's just it's missing the one that's the only thing a one okay all right okay I don't make those Corrections and S I think the meeting is this week uh on Thursday so we'll find out all right uh moving on Scout projects no updates community garden we need to go through the community Gard so um basically there was a theft of vegetables at the community garden they think they thought they might be able to identify the person who's doing it so far they have not uh they wanted to purchase a camera to uh uh surveil the people entering the gate uh apparently most gardeners wanted to have this uh and the question was you know can we do this uh right away of course last week Li was on vacation uh so uh the uh and there was no vendor for a video camera so I suggested that they just go out and buy a video camera so they've installed the video camera and put up a sign that says there's video surveillance um and the camera uh takes pictures only when there's it's motion activated some of these what do they call them trail cameras right that um is motion activated and takes a when it's once it's activated it takes a photo every 15 seconds and you cannot access those photos without a a pin so uh there's a certain amount of security there that people can't just pull those photos off of the camera at this point uh it's in action we'll see whether Liza has any objections because it's on Township property and is there an issue with it being no daming problem com question Richard I believe there was a police report that was um generated correct with this yes when now you're right so it's unfortunate because I think you know the gardeners just want a plot of garden and everyone has their day job in their their lives and this is happening so um I think this is an extreme measure but it's it has to be done my impression was that most of the gardeners wanted this I don't know they they did but it's it's just unfortunate that it need that it needs to come to this right yes I agree all right uh the other thing on the garden is um can we touch on the um uh the walkway the damage to the walkway there yes so I I asked I forwarded that email about the damage to the walkway to Li asked her to uh see if they can get the uh contractor to repair the walkway but of course you went on vacation so I'll get back to Liza and ask her and the third thing is that's pending is is just the the project that we've been talking about and and whether there's I think it's you know with this this um theft the community Gran has just been distracted but we do still have that the water issue and and just have to consider whether you know we want an eagle scout to build a pollinator Garden to help you know with the water problem so um let's let's just one I And1 T at a time and and we'll cover that at a later time okay I Rely I to follow up on them yes I'm on it thank you water ordinance and ms4 education so uh I asked again about storm water ordinance and finally we got an answer back uh that Margaret is going to work on the draft and pass around in the next week or two we are now beyond the deadline that state set for having a new St more answer it's okay um so I was also confused about the message from Li today about Suns because it doesn't seem to me like that the audience that Margaret's working is the one for minor departments no major and Min it seems like the some pump thing is not part of either of those that's that seems to me to be separate from the storm water uh well the thing is if sub pumps are expelling their water into the street that's contributing you know especially during heavy rains that's contributing to possible flood yeah uh and um to so Faro at one point suggested that maybe we should have the Sun Pumps empty onto a lawn or they could empty into a rain too or a Swale so as to slow that that runoff um what confused me about Lio statement was it seemed like she was saying people are having uh water going in those storm water going into the seus but that's what is allowed to happen you know the ordinance says even some pump water can be allowed to go into the sewer when I say sewer I don't mean the waste water uh that goes to the wastewater treatment plant that's a separate system so in in Berkeley Heights there are separate system the ms4 system Municipal storm sewer system versus the Wastewater treating set system so your toilets your um shower water your uh dishw water that's all going to the wastewater treatment PL that's not going down out into the sewer if it is that's a problem because that's untreated water where as water that's coming off your roof going out to the street that's allowed to happen and that is currently uh addressed in the current ordinance what's allowed to go into streets and what's not allowed to go into streets um and that even includes things like uh oil you know is not allowed to go in Street treats that so companies that uh have waste water they have to you know get a permit to to send their Wastewater to to the wastewater treatment plan or maybe they have to get a permit to treat the waste War versus strong I think point that Liza was making is about output from Sun Pumps going into the municipal SU sewer system the dirty system it goes to the sewage treatment I think that the point she was making like waste water not un yeah everyone mulle going except in fact yeah right so I mean that if that's happening that some pumps are going into the wasteing um you know pipes so what you got basically is you knowre theum clean water that's going into the treatment system but it's increasing that volume of water which is a burden on the Waste Water treatment so so the the point I was getting at is I don't think that is solved by or should be solved by the storm water management it's nothing to do with that that should already be covered in another ordinance that's already in place well I I don't remember what what part of the ordinance it's in but there is it that I thought it was being addressed in a current ordinance not necessarily strong worda yeah so that's the question then is it is it already being addressed but being addressed will perhaps already address okay okay I think we covered adop the Dr unless you want to add something um okay sorry I had a little trouble coming off mute um are we able to talk to anyone from the the board of education for um integrating anything about adopted drain into the curriculum can you adopt can you integrate adop bra something something about you know storm water management storm water infrastructure just I can think of ways to do it but I'm just wondering if it's possible at this point I know we said we defer until until a later meeting to talk about but since we're now kind of running on the the last few meetings before school starts um are do we know if we're going to have like any kind of board of education member be our point of contact that we could at least reach out to them I know we had someone in the past but was our point of contact but I think BL men has a has a contact of Bo so um I relied on her to uh uh be in in touch with that person okay but do you happen to know if someone will be we used to have someone regularly attend right that hasn't happened that was uh name just Dr forer yes for he has a back should I should I there should I just reach out to Lara then yeah I I would suggest reaching out to Lara an EnV all right I can reach out to her I know that Laura does the um the AP environmental class at G I would I would hope that she would also be able to ask if something could be rolled out in Colombia and at the elementary schools too because you know just just providing us something to to the AP environmental class I don't think is sufficient I think it's better to get kids excited about it young um I can't tell you how uh heartwarming is not the right word to use but um Gra F maybe it was to you know when the when we did those thilm Plastics and the little kids were excited about doing it and um to have various scouts over the course of the years say like one of the ways that they got into doing environmental things is coming started from coming to our cleanups I think we need to start it young and if we are able to do something like that that has like an um an educational aspect to it and could be creative in addition to having the you can go adop to drain and Clinic kind of aspect um I think that would be great to have an all different levels so I I will reach out to LA to Laura menden Hall and ask her if she um can do something in that regard and can extend that reach to her other teacher colleagues in other schools in town if if I could just say something about changing the curriculum really quickly um for it to officially be changed it takes time so I don't think something could be changed before this school year but since it just takes time anyways it's just better to start earlier than later for an official change but I'm sure it could be implemented this year if but I think maybe teachers would want like some something that help them do that easier like a PowerPoint or something to make yeah I'm I'm sure that Laura and I could figure out what that might look like um I know that it's been difficult in the past to get things started and get things part of the curriculum this is something that we've tried to do years ago and we were told by the school board and by the head of I can't remember the the guy's name right now but um by the head of the guy who was in charge of the whole um environmental and science curriculum for our district that it was going to take time it's going to take years and in the meantime nothing happened but at least this will start the ball rolling into your point if there's a way that something could be integrated as part of some like a tangent to something they already plan to do otherwise I think the science teachers could find a way to somehow work this into what they already plan to do and it shouldn't take a big chunk of time to to roll out something like this um it doesn't have to be a big unit again it could be like a a subpart but um I'm happy to make the Outreach to to Laura to see if we can get something going yeah and Kim I know we don't want to go down the rabbit hole again but I'm happy to be part of that too and I think you know kids are competitive right so we could make it like an event like a Tim event where we can say from dates X to y in the spring I'm thinking right um because it does take a while to implement we can we can maybe do some kind of a competition where kids adopt a drain and they they who who has the most I don't know something but we we we can definitely do something there's just a lot of opportunities yeah I agree thank you Renee I think for an official um change in the curriculum I think from what I remember it's either like a four or five year cycle like each curriculum is in a different part of the cycle and then that's when they officially make the changes or something like that um but I think I think if if one of you guys actually goes and can do a small presentation I think that would be sort of the best way to do it right now now if you guys have the time for that um just cuz teachers have a lot of stuff going on it's kind of a big burden sometimes to make changes but that's just what I would but give a presentation to who exactly like to the kids like if you could go explain it yourself I think the teachers would love a small little break but um you know that's only if you have the time to do it um but that's what I kind of did with the SE speak for myself I work during the day so I I likely will not be able to to do that I can't speak for Renee but um again I'm happy to coordinate with Laura to see what makes sense and and again we could video we could like record something and just have the teachers play it in the classroom in the science classes or something so yeah let's let's put our heads together um like I said there's a lot of opportunity here and it could be a quick win-win I don't even think it needs to come down to changing curriculum because that's long term it's more of like yeah let's create you know opportunities quick opportunities for students to do a little bit more and help our town right and and not not be stuck on their phones all the time that's all y yep I I would even to to go along the same lines as what um n was just saying if if you can get find a way to get the information to the teachers if they're receptive I think this would be much smoother if it doesn't go any anywhere near the border of there and just ends up as being information for teachers to use about this need program opportunity whatever yeah I think a a video sounds really good um then they can do it when they have the time and the coordinating between the teachers and going there sometimes is a hassle as well so having the video and just some material I think be great yeah although I'm not volunteering to be in the video because my kids might kill me so I can be in the video Renee my my kids have graduated from GL so the embarrassment Factor isn't there anymore so the schools seem to have uh somewhat of flexibility with special presentations because I have in the past given presentations like when uh we distributed uh saplings one year I went into uh views and gave a presentation on trees and uh I think un at certain grade levels there's more environmental oriented environmentally oriented uh topics uh so teacher might have an option to uh invite someone in or to show a movie uh to the students uh on a special topic so it's possible you could develop something along the lines of uh storm water and uh drains and and be educating uh the students that way um again I would uh uh suggest that you do go through Lara and because she knows who the curriculum coordinator is or who the appropriate person is to uh work with on okay sustainable Jersey application we're waiting to getar back and in the meantime most important topic at the moment is the diversity Equity action GNA be able to get people together and discuss that a meeting with the me tomorrow so partip yeah okay um do you know when we would know um if we the next notification is September end of September okay Recycling and cleanups anything there topics for the township newsletter point we were I think our last meeting we discussed doing the idling because is coming up yeah so see did she yeah school is coming in right we also identified the [Music] need the newd I think John rid that mistake and who published the um need to apply for a Perman yeah that's what we talking about right yeah republished it I think she republished it but it went out as a mailing to home yeah that's not going to happen no I know I know so so I don't know where did you public um I I think that belongs in the new I think that well you can go into the newsletter again I I agree yeah it should go into the newsletter it should go uh online to uh uh you know whatever uh the township is using uh for stream you know for communic whether it's Instagram or Facebook whatever it is I that you go out wherever Township that do that so this is the one for September yes I'm emailing sarahy right now that's like last month it was August 25 and then she gave us time so we'll see okay think with a box of trails nothing there yet I'm expecting P chy will be back down the end of the month uh grants rgi Grant uh we're supposed to review will review Alvaro and uh I called Liza to say uh can we get together to do a review of our experience with the Grand and also we need to do a report just wondering if you had seen I I saw the email from Tony but I didn't haven't had a chance to go into the system to see if I can find that document that he's referring to okay I have to go in there and take a look I'll do that today uh also uh going back and forth of having uh uh a CTE survi tree expert monitor the plantings that Steve's trees has done some of those trees are suffering uh maybe some of you saw emails on that I uh took a sample uh from an oak tree up on Mercier to the record's Diagnostic lab as them to look at it they said basically the tree is suffering from the heat uh keep watering uh we'll see what happens in the spring um perhaps it's just going dormant and we come back uh the spring and uh so uh Rich VI Consulting to the monitoring uh and uh waiting for them to get a PO to start doing that there anything on the other Grant out of the No No update on that so as far as we know we don't know whether we have received it maybe we well we're still in the running okay we're still in the running all right uh B City USA resolution perhaps you saw the emails on that I was asking de watering uh you know what the rec department is responsible for so that we can be sure to uh ask their you know get their approval for things that marks direct part responsible for and basically she said if we're a sponsor we want with everything and my sense of a sponsor isn't somebody who's approving things but supporting so um I don't know whether we're working at Cross purposes here I certainly wasn't trying to uh measel out of getting approval from the rent Department uh uh if we're doing any program um and park so where Rec Department is is responsible my understanding from Xerxes which is the uh organization that was promoting this resolution is that the sponsor is basically someone like the uh could be the uh you know the Box Department could be the township administrator it's basically someone who's part of the uh an employee of the township that's supporting uh the execution of this and certainly did did Deb ever get to see a full copy of the and if we're doing anything on Township parks we would certainly ask their permission to do it okay now okay can can you hear me okay yes okay sorry about that um uh I I'm just wondering if Deb got to see a copy of the entire resolution I was following the the chain and it sounded like she wasn't happy about only seeing that one paragraph or two that was sent to her do do you have a copy that you could send heard the whole thing of and then just kind of I want to say like outline to her exactly what you said just now because I I think the way that she took it was you're only giving me part of the whole thing and you're expecting me to sign on to it and I can't do that and I'm feeling like you're kind of strong arming me into giving my consent for something that I can't really evaluate because I don't have the whole thing I sent the whole resolution to uh uh Carolyn georan because my understanding from the township was that it would be the head of the rec department and I think Carolyn shared that with uh Debbie also an Anna linkov shared it with Debbie so she has seen the whole resolution uh she chose to come back and not give us uh she wanted to say that uh you know the rec department was going to approve but she didn't put that back into the context of the of the resolution so I asked that she put that back into the context of resolution and she did that so then my followup question was because I wasn't clear as and it wasn't clear to me what responsibility the rec depart recognition was taking was I thought that the rec commission was taking responsibility for what properties the rec uh commission is responsible and Debby referred me to the statute I looked at the statute and saw that Rec commission is responsible responsible for playgrounds Playing Fields uh and uh what else was it I think uh there was something else but that's in the statute and so I said okay are you is that what you're going to be responsible for because everything else it says in the statute is under the DPW other words non Playing Fields uh are part of the the dpw's responsibility and I've run into this kind of conflict of the past when I've said uh to the rec Commission of the P commission would like to plant a tree on this uh property and the rec commission said oh that's not our responsibility that's DPW so now I have to go to DPW and say is it okay to plan on this this Township property and that's you know where I feel like I'm running around and I thought that that was getting clarified but now Deb in his in her latest email says we want to approve any any of this and any property in the township separately from that I also contacted Dan berer from the county sent him the same resolution and asked him uh uh to comment uh because if we were to do anything with the county we would also ask for permission although we're already doing uh things on County property without their permission and asking for permission but that's Tech you know because Dan is so aware of the good things that we're doing it's not an issue this is so convive I'm wondering if even worthwh I it do seem like it belong with the Departments anyway yeah I think that anytime we're going to do something that's on Rec Department responsibility we're going to ask them for the missions do and and then they can say y or name so I I'm thinking back up just back out of all this and not not get the Department as part of this resolution that's my thought well the reason we wound up in this with the rec department involved in this was they wanted a figurehead and we arrived at Carolyn George as being the white figurehead I wondering if we should just abandon the whole ecd USA res solution I disagree I think that we should do that okay I think that this is something that we're trying to raise awareness of what is happen happening because uh of all the things that people do on their property everything from uh you know the mosquito shell actions to people not being aware that planting non-native uh plants is affecting the whole population of insects beneficial insects uh and not contributing to you know the environment as a I'm all of those things I'm just not sure that we need to be B City USA to achieve it and it's causing us so much grief together if we decide that we're not going to go through the rec department we've got way back to the beginning and trying to figure out who else would be a figurehead for this if not car George right so the other the other aspect of I mean the point that uh is well taken but if we become B City uh a b City USA then we get the support from the zes foundation in uh in doing plantings uh and and uh uh doing publicity for for for the environment that's access to materials access to materials yes and I think they also Supply U depends upon the project but they also Supply PL is your notion that we find somebody other than the rec department to try to sponsor this I think we just back out of that whole thing look to see if we can either find some someone else internally whether it's um um you know administrative person uh and have that that person delegate responsibility running program to the environment yeah we're running the program yeah yeah I mean point of a sponsor in in a program is is support um which means uh doing you know Finding how unities for this program comments questions sides yeah I I don't think the department is the way to go based on where we are I and I'm sorry I'm sorry that f up and Carolyn Georges and r so at this point I will see if I can find some okay woods and Wayside the dump Trail also nothing new so before we go to Citizens hearings and we still have Ste okay um we're putting signs on the A and I found a uh volunteer to do that uh Raina uh is a student said that she would put signs on the trees we have these signs that put on the asri that say ashri treated in 2024 uh also what's your name r a y n a h a r i d a also bris uh ventor and I attended a rainard uh training session and I haven't talking too much for sure I mean essentially what what that meeting was about was was basically training us to be trainers so so so the whole point is is that um you know I mean I mean so for an example I was just give myself when when I made some adjusts to my home um um that's that's kind of like the first time I met rich I got a letter from him saying um what he recommends is that I put a rainb to medicate my water um and so you get this thing and and and you get you know a link to the rodus website and you you can go and read whatever you need to read um but but what what they're recommending from at right now is is that what you're trying to do is you have sessions and you have meetings with the people that are going to be putting rain butons and and you you you you you provide them with some ideas of different types of designs and and so you know for an example some of the designs that you know a lot of the time you see rain gos and they're very rustic and you know they have um you know to plants and everything goes side by side but there are ones that can be manicured um and and and look you know more like a the traditional tidy Garden that people seem to like a lot so so so that that was what the meeting was all about and so um there's going to be follow-ups right now with roders where they're going to be providing us with all kinds of information and and the hope is that you know what they'll do is just like maybe the first time that we start to meet with people um they will provide some of their stuff to come and help us um but then from then on you know um they they want to try and take themselves out of that process and and and that we would have a group of people within BS um that could could help them um so um I thought it was a great program you know um and it was really interesting because the G that I've seen are all they're all wild you know um I've not seen one of these manicured rain garders so was kind of interesting and then um they also you know gave information about like okay this is a rainard that um is somewhat dear resistant this is one that's not um and again what they recommend and I know our recommendation for rainbow is a little bit different I think you say 50% could to be native plants I hav say be all yeah yeah so pretty much that's what they recommend is that they nature plants because the root systems go deeper and so that that helps with the you know the population of of the so um but you know I think that's something that I would like to look into in the future for us to do so question for you on that um is the objective to train residents and other land own owners or is this to train landscapers and people who might be or if said residents or lands aren't actually performing the work themselves you know some of them require assistance you know you might need to hire a you know have someone do a dig excavate you know all the soil and you know pretty involved I mean I think I think that um it's not for us to to do the work for them for us to to show them how to do the work and and and and and lead them in the direction of what plants to buy and and and maybe what type of contractors they may need in order to do the work um and then you know some of the other interesting things that they show us is that there there's a there a there a national site where you can actually key in on on a home and you can have a look at what soil types they have so so you know you know what what can and can't be done what needs to be done in order to to make the S so you know those are the kinds of things that we would be able to educate the home owner on or whoever is doing it and and you know obviously I don't know maybe provide them with the re as somebody as a resource that they could balce ideas but not for us to do the work for them yeah know I wasn't think we do the work but I mean in terms of the advice there's going to be a a a question about you know the involvement of the organization not necessarily doing the work but you know that advice comes at a cost per se because you know you're advising know like what plants to buy and things like that so there's there's you know they they still have to Source plants on their own but then there's a lot of steps you know I'm trying to think of how to take it from an idea from somebody you know because adoption is still kind of rather difficult because I think people are daunted still by it you know and and you know plan to take the easy way out on a lot of things unless a regulation forces them into something you know so you know encouraging people to do it on their own and absorb the cost of it I I think like I've just been doing research myself on driveways right now and I'm considering a new driveway and I'm looking at it and you know before you get to the quote process you know a lot of things are like well that's all drivers didn't cost you this much perious paper drivers didn't cost you this much getting to that point where they may want to spend a little somewhat more to kind of mitigate an issue rather than try to take a easy Road out is kind of how do we drive adoption you know on and get people to reach out to you know you and other experts to kind of gather the process to hopefully incentivize them to motivate them to move in that direction rather than looking at more gray infastructure kind of even though it's against policy now to do so they will still try to push like commercial buildings will always try to push a variation infrastructure when they can you meaning all the building PLS we look at they say oh I'm building a detention basic which is not what they want but a lot talking you know you mentioning about manicur um rain gens is probably going to be a big deal like especially in commercial sectors you're like yeah I want something that looks nice that's trimmed but you don't adversely affect the plant by you know trimming it you're like well now it's not retain water because you kind of hurt it by aggressively turning it you know those kind of things that people don't know about so I you know it's kind of an open topic I'm just a lot of curiosity about how something like this should be executed right so uh I did a program several years ago the B we advertised the program and we were trying to subsidize we can certainly try to do that again um the program actually got about 12 families um to come to the library and they what those designers designed Gardens for each of these people and tried to explain to them what was involved in doing this and certainly the cost of a rain Garden uh installing a rain Garden it can be one factor but also the amount of leader that you're putting into and so um it dep upon how much of your labor and a b into as and and the choice of plants that is going into the rain so you can have uh a rain Garden that is uh uh built with uh lugs basically you know uh what we give away uh at uh you give away the sa that size of a a plant versus a plant and a a gallon container it's not really a gallon it's called a gallon container or two gallon container um so of course if you're buying a plant in a two gallon container that's going to cost much more than a PL so that's Factor too in stalling M so that that kind of thing is is what this would involve teaching people about bring people into a room you explain all the factors that go into rain garden and then design rain Garden for them and then uh let them take next is it possible that the homeowners could work together uh in this sense well uh for example you you need to excavate so would but everyone hire the same excavator and come in because that's the heaviest part of the job digging digging out the the area putting putting so that kind of discussion is what would happen and uh what workers wants to do is say you know have the greaten infrastructure Champions who already learned about actually Che the pl they would attend uh this this class that someone records would attend the class and then give you feed back after the class as to how how things are work um obviously it would mean advertising uh and and trying to uh organize a meeting that would involve the people who are interest one of the things that we hope happens with new Stow water Lely is that anytime there's need to retain storm water on a property the primary way to do that should be bio retention which means either a rain Garden or bios swell bios swells are deeper than rain Gardens so some sort of green infrastructure that is a primary thing even though the state uh ordinance is saying oh you could put in a driver but dri don't do the same thing in as easy to monitor as as rainor and you need to make peopleware oh yes well with a rain Garden you're going to need to maintain but it's just like nor to do some maintenance each season probably in the spring and the fall um and if you if you you're like me I go out into my garden I pull some weeds you know spend 10 minutes pulling weeds and I I go on and do something else once the garden is established that's the way that Garden should look I mean at the moment my personal rain Garden my address is filled with native plants I don't have to do very much weeding at all I did do some weeding in the spring before the plants came up uh and uh you know it was in my experience as a gardener very minor weed and it depends I think that all depends on the type of individual to you know I mean one of the things that they do suggest even for maintenance is that you really mulch it 3 in so they should keep the weeds away and because that can obviously save you a lot of you know but you know it's really it's really looking at the range important you know from from from the start going into the maintenance phace that making sure that everybody's aware of what they do need to do um and and and um you know they will probably be be able to provide us with with a lot of um Las of providers um of the different sizes so if you want you know like if you wanted to because for me I'm I'm not adverse to planting clothes um you know I I I I I'm a patient person I don't mind if my b doesn't look so great this year but next year it looks better and then the second year is full because everything's grown some people want things to come that they rain looks like that it's been there for years already so they buy bigger plants and that needs to be up to the homeowner to decide what they want to do how much money they want to spend you know so um it's a it's a it's an education thing but also an an informational thing providing people as much as they can get it was a little frustrating with me when I first had to do this because I don't know where to find plants you know I went to you know um um you know what the great one Greenhouse you know and they had a small little B of because this am was done in 2018 so I didn't have very many plants that I could find I drove out to a store all the way out on Route 202 it's called ruus um it's it's not related to ruus University it's just the name of of of of of the um of the nursery and um you know I drove that way and and and and and found very little you know wasn't easy so so I think um with the folks from Rus helping us you know they they've done they've done a huge amount of of rain Gardens for a long period of time right I think it's years right I mean it's yeah yeah yeah so so so they they they would provide us with that resource where where we could go and get get get these things so I mean I would like to be involved in that so like I mean I would like to be part of the group that does the training um you know helps the folks because I think rain are a big one you know so and that's why every time I do a uh review of an application for the zonian I always say let us have them put in the main thing that is happening uh is just as we found out with this 5 Ines of rain you're getting flooded uh and uh the way to reduce flooding is to retain storm water on your body and let it it's not staying on your property it's percolating down into an aquifer and slowing the Run off of the stone that's what you're trying to do slowly run off of the stone any any anything else yes something very very quick um did we email or I know I emailed you about the asking for the if we had that students email who came I think two weeks ago yes yes about composting do we email him something I think uh I em us yeah I think you emailed him maybe waiting for I asked him to email us you didn't email us yeah I think you probably need to email him um okay yeah we got this email okay you have we have email yeah all right good anything else sance hearing anything else Steve no that's it good night good night all right I did send I did send Kim links to photos so I was productive tonight do I hear a motion 902m second all right thanks everybody may I have a ride home