##VIDEO ID:t1bpP-OXUJ8## you got nothing else to do all right calling the meeting to order at 7:30 adequate notice that this meeting was provided informing the public of the time in place according to the provision of the open public meetings La it's taking place in the door room doorwood room on the second floor of the toship hall you're not attending the meeting please invis the meeting is sh that's that's yeah and just clear Al are you taking yes so I was looking for the May six minutes I can't find them in any emails so um maybe I lost them they never got sent can't be lost email so I sent an email uh saying uh you know can someone if uh can someone review the video and and do the minutes seen those minutes so that's the first question hello everyone Kim hi Kim you're waiting for an answer on I'm waiting for an answer the question yes I asked the question are the are the is the recording available somewhere yes I sent an email with a link to the recording oh you did today yeah yes within the last half hour oh okay well that I see I've got to draft in my if you've got a draft David then maybe can save you know share it with everyone so that we can yeah it looks like I I um I drafted the okay okay so just for the minute so David sh draft May 6 i y excellent Now we move on to August 19th you reviewed the minutes for August 19th about September 9th yeah um I reviewed that right M comments I'm sorry august 19 is mine is the outstanding one for me so that's okay September 9th so I reviewed the September 9th minutes do we want to go ahead and approve those does anybody want time to review well we need yeah we need no else has TR so I can say I if not that's September 23rd you just send that I sent it last week and David pointed out that wasn't here for to second the motion to all right so we still have minutes I don't want to you know I just want to get us get this off the tap all right heing on agenda items we have a guest Mr car do you have anything on our agenda item uh yeah actually a nice coincidence something that's been on the agenda I have some detailed information about so so I can actually ask you a question um I'm get over to the right thing yeah regarding the B City USA resolution which you've been working towards uh I guess first I just like to make sure you know it's on the Town Council agenda for tomorrow and given that the agenda came out to the public late um you may or may not know you probably do but one I'm making sure is are are you aware I am yep okay and I did have one one question um at the very I don't know if you have it in front of you but I can I can read the part um it's the um f of the of the last Clause under policy and plans establish a policy in the Township's comprehensive plan to acknowledge and commit etc etc what is the Township's comprehensive plan do you know or is that kind of boilerplate from the model legislation you presumably got this from there is a master plan Steve the master plan that's posted on on the website repeat the last sentence after you said it's the master plan it's supposed to go on the website you said no it is on the website the master plan master plan is on the website okay so the comprehensive plan here is the master well I know actually I've looked at it recently U so that's what that comprehensive plan means in the resolution I think so okay I was wondering if I you should have said master plan if master plan was meant but you answer my qu that you so it's the best of your because we don't have I'm not aware of something called that currently in the town called comprehensive plan right yeah nor am I okay isn't doesn't that be City resolution talk about um like integrated Pest Management plan or something is that what we're supposed to be referencing um I don't think so in the context of that section and that that that is its own that's its own plan an IPM okay right yeah well anyway I will I'll leave it at that because you don't know anything more than your best guess and and I I I ask so thank you okay onwards no new business plans 25 Liberty Avenue um this uh was a an address for the homeowner had received the permit to build a new house and then did things which were not in the so that he exceeded the maximum impervious surface uh and uh in the context of that uh I wrote that uh the additional uh imperal surface what the consequences were for that that additional square footage and also recommended a uh buo retention from uh for that property so they have widened the driveway widened the driveway beyond what was permitted with the zoning board resolution right and so that also happened I think on is it Overhill yeah we're not at over at this I know but in that one we recommended that they I guess they put papers in right or a p p patio PA patio but in this case they've already installed their patio which is their driveway no in addition to the driveway they installed a patio on the back with artificial turf oh and they were permitted to do that with a trench that led to a drainage uh PL going to the catch SP I do find it very frustrating that per go ahead and install without permission and they should clearly know it's not VI and then away well she's infuriating there is a fine I mean there was a fine imposed for for violating for doing this without a permit okay but in addition to the fine they have now come before the board again to get permission to to do what they didn't get permission to and in that context uh you know we're saying he should be putting in the homeowners should be putting in uh being infrastructure M were there any other comments or questions on that and I I know I sent that out today but uh it was a busy weekend so that was the that was the revised one you sent out today right you the revised version of that one today not that one that was over okay the Sony board hasn't got much alternative been to well it has I guess it could say I you know I'm I'm presuming that they could say Hey you have to remove that extra uh impervious govern yeah I mean that legally I guess they would do that whether they will do that so we're recommending it be denied well should I should I first recommendation be that the application be denied and that may be required to remove the additional inter that was a question that came up in my mind I would say so I agree yeah and we let the planning board say no leave it that's be our first recommendation yeah I think that the language that you had used on over it should be denied if approved if approved yeah right that's of our standard I I did also note that that the scope and this review they put that new driveway right up against the tree so a live driveway they would have um basically excavated and compacted and paved over like a third of the roots of that tree that is possible I almost guarantee that tree will die within a couple of years and that uh that uh we can note that that that any effects of that Paving uh on the tree they have to replace the tree I see that consistently when this construction when they get too too close to trees couple of years later they went up die there is supposed to be um you know that's in in the building C that they're supposed to protect trees yeah that's what happened on Garfield too they put they dump they put a dumpster right over the trees and they didn't care about the trees so in this case they put driveway virtually right up to the base of the tree yeah but also what happens is they often die a couple of years later exactly a little bit outside of the that 12 month it's a little distant from the time you can't exactly say you did that that happened right it's just far enough away that it's exactly right any it it can take a couple years for something that that to have an effect on a tree it's trying to grow and half of its roots are crushed all right did I hear a motion with these changes yeah motion to um submit the letter of recommendation for 23 Liberty as amended 25 2 25 25 Liberty yes weer Drive get that yeah yeah that's one we I think we shared that last week so oh that's what it BR it was reviewed on September 23rd so we had already done the review so and approved so we're all s 268 Springfield Avenue this is where uh Marella's restaurant that building will be taken down down uh there's a car work behind the building that will be removed uh and place will be a new building a larger building but the total impervious surface will be reduced slightly uh that impious surface is I think something uh something like um 83% or 84% and you're permitted to have 85% for service so there was a slight reduction recation on well um I think in this case you you know you're in the downtown develop DD Zone uh so they're allowed to have that amount of O impious surface so the recommendation had less to do with the ovious surface in this case because there was a an engineering report about the project complying with storm water management provisions and the propos development will maintain the existing storm water drainage gatter while reducing part surface coverage the only recommendation I proposed was that led lights uh could possibly affect insects and and have a side effect on other species so using lights that em emit less blue light secondly the the tops of the lamps have shields to direct the light downwards the uh application included pictures of various lamp sit sites didn't wasn't clear to me whether those lamp types would all have shields on and then finally there was uh the recommendation uh at least 50% trees 50% of shrubs 50% of grasses be native and this grass that they propose pum aloid is which is um Asian grants uh is apparently uh considered possibly invasive not yet or let's put it this way I the sites that I checked said possibly invasive uh not one of those that is definitely invasive there are areas where it's been planted and shown uh to be invasive there's not enough data to support that it's definitely invasive nevertheless I recommend avoiding that grass and using native grasses such as little blue stem and Pennsylvania questions or comments that make sense yeah I mean that was is so heavily paved even a small increase in imper yeah small decrease in imp is a step in the right direction and there's a slight there's an area at the southern part that looks like it's a flood Z they're avoiding that area another a question Richard mention in your recommendations that this is also zoned AE Zone a school property right it's next to the school prob guess it's next to it but it's not in that zone because I think the wording well the map showed it as Zone AE for a good part of the property because it's uh possibly could be flooded I think Zone a is a is a not actually a flood zone right well I don't say I didn't find a code zoning code oh that's not a zoning code that's a zone for flooding oh okay so that's a flooding Zone as supp no no to do with the zoning want to move and looking for a motion to improve so okay second and seconds okay finally Overhill this is one where I made a a change we had previously approved it but um here are given the total lck coverage okay so just to summarize again what uh is happening uh at 20 Overhill way the total loot coverage uh exceeds the maximum uh by 6.08% um and this increase of 745 square feet means that the with a water quality storm of an inch and a half runoff will be nearly 700 gallons uh and so given that the total lot coverage and other coverage both exceed the maximum allow commission recommends the application not be approved this is the kind of work were talking about for 25 I would just suggest that where you talk about the um the runoff in terms of volume that that be qualified that's the additional runoff that's the additional runoff yes that s should have the word additional in their it is the it's true it's the the there from the total imperious is actually larger yeah yes otherwise hey a motion motion to the letter of recommendation for 20 Overhill as amended okay started okay answer all business Scout projects possibly at the community [Music] garden uh I have I don't see Renee uh we're still waiting to hear whether they want to do an additional uh rennial Garden have any there was another that was the thing with from what's it name yeah so that yes so that was that was on my list to bring up that was a question from the spring they wanted to consider putting Bon of Garden in that portion outside the fence that tends to fly yeah um so presumably that didn't happen no it hasn't happened I mean we haven't heard back from the garden to say for them to say oh that would they would want to do that because they realized they need to maintain that Gard so I haven't right and and Rene said that you would take from he on that but she was traveling okay so this is a recomend this is a somebody was recommending adding the notion came from well came from a conversation with Steve Martin and and the community Martin could they possibly what could they do about that flooding area so one possibility was to basically plant perennials there uh and almost create a uh rain Garden which would be capturing the runoff from up the hill that's where the runoff is coming it's coming up bu down to the Garden so it's causing flooding to occur car right and then it runs into the garden and they tried to put to block the water from running into the garden but that's not preventing the water from getting into the nor so um we can follow over the future meeting or I can follow if there's interest in that happening I can let our Scout Troop know or the other Scout Troop know and if a scout wants to take on the exactly I will follow with terrific thanks and as far as the community garden is concerned they're shutting down uh for the winter they're shutting off the uh irrigation system that has to be blown out and there and uh the town is hiring a a professional company U to do that and charge the can we go back to scout moment yes go ahead so one of the things I was planning on was some sort of um conservation activity with Scouts either potentially um tra pick up or um something in one of the parks I've actually made arrangements to to do um a project in the W reservation with d Scout 368 um so that means I'm not taking on a trash pickup okay this for so that's we can come to that a bit later so this I mean this this Scout project is outside the direct scope okay I'm not aware of any other scale okay the the Scout project is a clean up it was it's um it's some remediation work at the um Scout camping area in the yes all right stor War ordinance and ms4 education I haven't heard anything on that John do you have anything on that I was just reading the what Margaret passed along last time um if you want I can connect with her and get the conversation going again I could email her right now is that what you'd like me to do I mean I thought she was working with you on this that's why I'm asking yeah she seems to have been taken the lead U I think I was just along with everybody else where we're just reviewing the text um I think she put together a whole new path of what we were compared to what we were working on before um at some point in the last couple of weeks she asked me about a particular aspect of a storm water ordinance for uh developments I sent her model ordinance from raron which had the appropriate language but she never replied back did I share that with you I don't remember I think so and that yeah and that's where we stalled that's why I was going to try to drum up the um the conversation again okay is she working directly with the township on this uh no I mean it's getting to the point where she wants to make sure the stakeholders are bought in and then she wants to go to council she's not really working in the township I don't know if she's sat down with engineering or Bak I guess he wouldn't be involved but I don't think she sat down with everybody I I don't know honestly I think she was kind of putting it together herself as a proposal it'd be good if she was to Loop Us in at some point before it goes too far and awesome because we've got lots of collective experience around this table on that topic has she not I thought she emailed all we haven't seen anything okay is this not maret yes Margaret maret yeah Margaret Margaret wanted to help get this through so um yeah I she's on the coun we're several months beyond the deadline she should have been aware of that the state had a deadline on this yeah let me start an email chain again and respond to I think was you Richard or I'll just try to broke her something where she gets to sit down with us all right nothing else than adop the drain Jim we're on so I reached out to Lois Krauss of the Westfield Green Team um asked if they wanted to partake in the challenge that uh we proposed to them and she checked with her Township and basically they vetoed the idea so we will not be doing a contest with Westfield she suggested I reach out to chadam I proceeded to reach out to chadam chadam initially indicated that they were interested but then when I followed up I heard crickets so I have not heard anything back from chadam so my Outreach to Westfield and to chadam to hold an adopted drain contest um will has not met with success so um we we can hold something internally if we want um between October 31st and things giving I don't know maybe pictures by your drain cleaning it up and either we or the mayor could be the judge of the contest um but all we have right now is just reminding people to clean up their drains we we don't have a contest with any other town this is a good time because lead are starting to fall yeah it's a good time to remind people anyway and maybe skin there was email on a different topic from mayor uh who uh was forwarding an email from the hillside mayor uh and I mentioned in my reply to the hillside M mayor uh one of the things we do is Adopt a drain maybe she wants to start adop the drain uh but that was just part of a bigger uh email I'll come back to it when we get to recycling and green and the the thing about people who initially express interest about adopted drain the big deterrent for many is that they have to pay to get their drains mapped if they're not already mapped and that generally is a cost preventive hurdle that many towns who don't already have their drains Ma don't want to spring for just I think maybe you can confirm this I think the state is requiring that to happen Maybe not immediately but I thought the state was requiring that uh the drains catch patients be met I I don't know and I'm going back from Berkeley Heights back to uh 2010 when the township engineer asked me about the uh GPS mapping for the trees whether that might work for the um drains yeah well we actually did get our data from the township engineer who who had mapped all of our drains exactly and I think the the problem was that there's a cost involved in in mapping the drains and the the towns were saying Hey give us money so that we can map our drains you know requiring us to do something uh so why aren't you uh funding it so just confirmed somebody that wants to raise their hand new newly raise their hand to be adopted Trin now has to pay no no oh there's a there's a the the short answer is yes Alvaro they everyone who participates in the adopted drain program has to pay some there there three key fees that you have to pay um if you don't have your drains Ma you have to get someone in your town or otherwise to map them so that's a cost the second cost is is to have Hamline University upload and basically map onto their system their Software System all of the drains so they take the gis file that you give them of all the drains in your town and then they plot them on that interactive map for your town so that anyone can go in and adopt a drain um and then lastly there is an annual fee that gets paid to Hamline every single year this we have that fee now picked up by our DPW because of our statistical results that show that we provide a a benefit to the community that they recognize through this program so DPW now pays the adopt the annual adopted drain fee on their budget but it's still a fee that a town must pay so if you think about that that's several different fees that have to be paid in order to participate in the adopter drain program individuals such as you and I don't pay to participate that's correct individuals as what I was trying to say that's all yeah yeah corre you do not have to pay it is free to anyone who can sign up either on their phone or on a computer yeah I'm gonna say glad you mentioned that there you go did you want to say something yeah just I just I hate to blavor the issue we're talking about a resident a new Resident wanting to adopt a train in brookly Heights does or does not have to does not no one has to pay a new Resident all they need to do is go to our environmental commission website and follow the directions for how to adopt a drain there is no fee for individual participation but a Township newly wanting to join would have to pay those three Township has to have their drains mapped yes they have to pay the mapping fee and the annual fee to Hamline University in the first year after the first year a municipality no longer needs to pay the mapping fee because the drains are already mapped however they do have to pay the annual fee every year thank you yeah okay oh and Ju Just to add I followed up with anjac after I gave my presentation on adop drain and I asked if there are any questions from any municipalities and anj told me that there were no questions so uh while I was prepared to follow up and answer questions of anyone who put a question in the chat or submitted it to an thereafter um there were none and do you know how many people participated k um I don't but I if you'd like me ask I'm happy to do that I mean if if you didn't get a a number then I was would be nice to know so it's not a a must yeah I'm happy to ask I'm sure they have that information yeah gives gives you an idea of you know how how broadly it's been communicated yeah all right moving on to sustainable Jersey application we are uh uh have been trying to get uh this energy uh report done where 90% there uh with the help of uh forina Gupta uh because she uh um has been able to upload all the data in the end I had to uh uh contact the Jersey American water and get them to send us data and they were very nice about it even though the person I contacted is no longer responsible um so uh now we just have to write a report we have to write a summary of what we did and then write a report to the township Council of uh about the data that we've collected basically of whether our new building is uh functioning on less energy usage than the old building even though we've increased the size of the building uh we no longer have a library that's separately using energy and uh we don't have a recreation building that's SE using energy so those to build building uh electric and gas usage uh is all subsumed under uh the municipal building that's for bronze certification right that's for bronze certification so I've got try to get that done this week not that I've got anything else uh Recycling and cleanups um so the mayor of Hillside is apparently a member of a sorority which is oriented towards um theal care but this sorority also is looking for opportunities to volunteer for environmental action I misunderstood at first that she just wanted suggestions for what to do in a town she is apparently is looking for opportunities for to volunteer for environmental actions and actually would uh apparently uh be interested in volunteering in Berkeley Heights kind of the way conel volunteers or F surge as its Vol employees volunteer so I sent that to John and David and tonight maybe we can discuss are we planning to do any cleanups this fall uh and we be setting up a date to do that where we could invite these people to participate so the the person contact came from was the mayor of Hillside but this group isn't necessarily Hillside based exactly is not in Hillside uh think she think she said Scot's PL me on that so the question is do we have any activities that uh we could invite them to participate in regarding the environment such as recycling or me there's always an invasive species cleanup needed I tell you that right now that we haven't done one summer including that correct yeah and and Dan berer said that he would probably not uh be wanting us to glance at the watch reservation in uh next to Governor Livingston until he does another cleanup so he would try to get a group to do that uh in the early spring is that a litter cleanup uh invasive species ah okay and combination was that the area they tried to plant before and F it just to um dense or something it had a lot of debris right okay there was a lot of stuff that the school apparently dumped there it's it's the area to the west of all the east of all the planing field so yeah I can picture yeah yeah acrossing the tennis F across from the right abandon tennis cours yeah and he moved that area but as he was mowing with this machine he struck uh an I beam which was dumped there and broke a blade so he had to stop there was a two three foot I beam D so that so that's getting beyond what that may be getting beyond what we can do with this um s but does this sound likees this sound like this this sounds like it might be a a separate volunteer effort to clean out this area you think yes I think it's a separate volunteer um uh I mean Dan was going to try to get a group of I don't know Trail stewards or some somebody to try to help him with that before we plant CU he's saying uh we would plant in the spring and um as far as other volunteer activities I mean in in the past you've organized activities before um um are you going to do that I do not have a current plan to organization okay okay and um I mean we also organized with um canel and but they have a date that they do they have a canel sorry La sorry because l'oral is on the campus so L'Oreal has a date a volunteer dat uh for their employees that's the way that gets work that's that's like an early summer summer June did it not happen year it did okay but I wasn't there there okay and Dan had them go up to the to the watch on reservation help up there so they worked up there you're saying that that that's not good recommend good opportunity for this sorority because D doesn't want to do it to shed or he's not doing it this for I mean um does Dan speciically want to do it or is it something that we as a town can take on because it's it's your project it's our project I mean it's our project only in the sense that you we propos planting trees yeah and my understanding was that Dan was going to organize any necessary cleanup of that area right so I would hand over any cleanups to Dan I mean we can certainly I can certainly contact Dan and say hey Dan here's some volunteers are interested doing volunteer work uh possibly on on the county property that and I'm happy to be an En neighborh that I'm asking whether we as the commission have any plans and you're saying no and John is apparently saying no as well am I understanding that correctly my concern is the invasive species aspect which is important to the trail building but uh I think as you know that I'm worried to continue that with such finicky commitment because it's a big problem there's invasive species everywhere that you have to tackle on a continuously yeah and David you were do an invasive species over on Lower columia between one section on that a small section but severe I'm sorry John I didn't hear you I didn't mean to cut you guys off sorry about that it's a small section but it's quite severe so is that have something uh you want to try to read address I so is this how often will they uh want to do volunteer activities this this going to be M like L'Oreal where they're they'll have it yearly or is this a oneshot deal we haven't had that conversation yet okay so so look looking at my calendar and I actually do have some availability the 2 third of November which should still be in season to do a cleanup whether litter or invasive so the Halloween is kind of passed all the activities for the weekends in Berkeley Heights is kind of passed so the second and third if we want to organize something I'm I'm willing to take the lead on it I'm yeah I'm good for that weekend think I'm good as well Saturday morning or Sunday is the first weekend in November oh wait I'm sorry not that not the next one yeah November 2nd or November 3rd that's a Saturday or something y so what are you thinking John to take on the um the area by the tenis courts that rich was talking about or to take on invasive elsewhere or all tra I'm I I'm I'm open to suggestion I I know behind the soccer fields in pic where we were working at the end of last year is over grown again but again we kind of need a better commitment the thing is is no matter where we do it as we get new people interested I think that kind of is positive momentum for doing these on a more continual basis and attacking the problem better so it doesn't matter where whatever we think is priority and it sounds like GL maybe because there a time constraint with planting the trees there I I I'm little excited about getting something going for that location at GL watching reservation at GL but I am about picking up trash from the sports fields to be honest okay yeah I'd be in favor of I guess I'd like to take a walk around that patch and make sure it's something that we can do as a group and unless unless you're convinced that we can do it well I mean I think we need to have a conversation about and see you know whether it's possible to do yeah at this point that area has been mowed down we're talking watch reservation at opposite the tennis cours that area I was there uh this week or this past week sorry and that area is the mow uh and uh he we can't mow any further in because there's soil that has been dumped so there's piles of soil that are like four feet 5 feet high right that have uh um uh Weeds on them you know uh uh and other growth he he was afraid to uh even move that soil he's he's not sure you know what would be uncovered if he started moving the soil so the whole area that he has moved down extends from the end of of that playing field right at the border of that playing field Eastwood uh and it looks like it's a slightly smaller area than uh what originally was planned he's saying also that he'd want to readdress it in the spring not now that's my understanding so this cleanup you wanted to work on watch on reservation would be in the spring so maybe you're better off with the area between Park and columia you know that that whole path are traveling I guess my question would be whether um Dan's proposing the spring because it's not so high on priority right now and doesn't have the resources to do everything or does he think it's as it deferred to the spring from what I saw there the last week there's nothing else to be done at moment unless you're going to spray the that uh those weeds that are there because those weeds are only you know an inch or so above the ground you cut them very very low to the ground we've got no ability to exactly um you said that there's the like the I beam in it so is there that's out that all of that all of that stuff taken apparently was taken out with some tractors because we're talking pieces of concrete that are 6 feet long all right 3 feet high I took a picture and sent it to high school the high school and he says I don't know who dumped that did you leave it in Mr Nixon's office Mr Nixon is only the principal has nothing to do with um I'll here we go that's and then just swipe to the left that's just so did the school remove that or did um no the county damn damn the county removed it and just stopped it on the access you want to see Access Road between the tennis tennnis courts and I mean it's so maybe there's nothing to do there I think at the moment there's nothing to do okay um I know we digressing a bit but just to close out that subject um is there some plans to level those mounds of at some point and plan beond stay right he has no plan at the moment to level that area okay I mean they've got they've got Backes and to do I guess I'll walk around this and curios take a look okay so that that particular thing doesn't sound like it would be the project for this fall so should we plan on doing something between then um something between either the um B River Trail and or the um Columbia Fields yeah uh lower and witch Hills and Lower Columbia yeah that's AIC River or both yeah you know what we could do is we could do like we did last time both locations with a Sign Up Genius if we get enough people we'll split up if not we'll keep it at one yeah yeah I can I can Le that so if you guys want to agree to it on the second or third what do we determine a Sunday morning is not good Saturday evening Saturday morning I I would expect you to say Saturday and Rain dat Sunday yeah up to you guys either works for me I'm just thinking what would uh be most convenient for people I figure Saturday afternoon might still be apple picking and all that stuff going on maybe it's a little later in the season I'm not sure but Autumn activities I think Saturday afternoon people get busy don't they so Saturday morning the more driven of us can wake up to do a cleanup and then rain date Sunday morning okay 10:30 or 10 10 o'clock or even what have you done in the past 10 o'cl or I don't remember and we're doing invasives right yeah all right I'll get to work on that I'd say even 9 or it's 9 to0 how about 9:30 split the difference give chance people a chance to get their coffee but also make a good lunch date if they want to yeah okay sounds good I know we're bouncing around a bit but on on the same subject of the invasiv do we want to try and get the high school Environmental Studies group back in so I if it's okay to combine groups like we have in the past we can get this new group that Richard's been in touch with but also I've been working with Laura I'm sorry not working with her but I wanted to talk to her about her progress on getting younger students in the high school involved before they are freshman and juniors to join her Club so she said she is working on that so we can make this one of the activities that they can get engaged on if they're in that uh in that in those in those years so the I I don't know how that program works because I haven't asked L directly the environmental Club obviously they're they're seniors uh and they have a certain number of hours to put in I'm wondering if freshman and sophomores also have a certain number of volunteer hours to put in that's the question you know I don't know the answer to I I'll find out that's the case it's not under directly under Lara would be a question to the principal or one of the vice principls about you know any interest in doing that sort of thing uh and having Lara as part of that conversation as a facilitator yep yeah the kids need a certain number of hours in high school not just a senior year they may be scrambling in their senior year didn't true enough hours in the earlier years um but yeah there's there's no reason why they can't volunteer earlier than high school right there was at least one Junior involved last year so she's still there as a senior so she that's great that happened so it would be great even better if we get freshman andom yeah agree that seemed like um fairly self perpetuating not completely but there was a consistent turnout week on week wasn't that with that yes with under Laura's group they were there every time yeah I think what I want to help her do if there's a way is to fill the Gap with these activities if she can help drum up the interest somehow with freshmen and they could do activities for the environmental Commission in their early years though it doesn't give them any credit or she could probably help figure out that part of it but then by the time they become uh freshman and um I'm sorry Juniors and seniors they can uh they can jump into her Club but they would already have work under their belt for the two previous years yeah and if you want to keep that focused on the pic River Trail what about that proposal to get that I think Pat Shanley prop Trish Shany proposed this right to get tools and some sort of lockout shed for the the building there so it's show up and the tools are going to be there yeah so it sounds like there was some uh initial conversations on that so I think what Trish could help us to actually if we yeah if we could if we could facilitate this conversation Trish could actually start a new turtles group up here on the paic and then we go to Dan beray and then we make it an adopt a trail program so that Trish trains her Turtles from Princeton so that freshman and sophomores from GL can run that on their own and then they go to the club on freshman on the Junior and Senior year that's how I would picture it yeah that would be terrific if you not but have that some way to establish a continuity so that you have recruiting younger uh people to get involved yeah okay and speaking of the river so I walked down there the other day um and looked at some of the plants that got planted by Trish and other people uh and some of them have died but some of them are doing well uh you have to expect because it it was difficult to get watering water to those plants and some of them would die uh so uh that's another possible project to do uh either you know you know in the fall or in the spring uh so that we can keep the invasives from coming back in M you know basically plant uh um native plants that are deer resistant that's all I have going on to Grants newsl sorry we were on topic oh newsletter I skipped over the newsletter right okay newsletter TOS the next uh guess the next date would be for November yes probably be will probably be in the second half this month yeah coming up fast done before see if I can uh put something together or ask people to V about planting trees on the right way that would be we can do it now for next year there's another one more planting in Kim do we want to write anything for Dr drams we not doing the uh we're not doing that program but do a reminder that' be good yeah seems to be pulling leaves out train yeah see else that and then uh should we cover M leaves I was just about to I'm looking for that the last we do that last time I'm not remembering but we yeah I mean it's fall so if we haven't done we should do it we haven't done it this year because we usually do that in the fall yeah this is the time okay then just out about ding yeah yeah so it's an alternative things ah okay yeah the last one we did was we called it how to improve your s and reduce your AR it wasn't really specifically about that but um we did have we did link to an article from merer County called PA leaves love and leave them yeah but yeah and I usually I think previous years we had a um always had a picture of a guy on a riding mower mowing Lees on his l so Mission no no no this is Public public domain yes John sent one of those pictures too provided a lot of pictures did right he was in a picture or he s a picture of leaf muling long he wasn't going to charge us for the use okay we get that in writing is that in our email look for it we could all vou for okay it's on the record it's on the record all right so we can we can re republish this uh article and the short blur okay we pull from last last years and then the last thing which is actually we could have a lot of the other one that we usually post is fertiliz your lawn not to do it between November 15 and March 1st so since the next news letter will be November 1st it's just in time yeah for that so all right so it's fertilizing your lawn no is leaf mulching we want to write one thing that kind of encapsulates both things cleaning out of the drain and mulching or don't want to have separate things for them so they're each important in their own right but is that a lot of reading I would keep them I keep them separate and just ask separate and short the more incl to read a really short article yeah and then just have a link to more information on the website they want more we'll use the same Publications on that page so the helpful information res all right we'll do those three was that leaf mching no fertilizing what was the third one ad we adop training or what was the other one um ad ask people to plant the right way adop the four yes I'm sorry planing the right away oh clean the drain that's you leaves no f okay K do we have a previous blur regarding adop the drain regarding the lane to fall sorry Angus can you repeat the question it was a little bit mumbled okay do we have a existing blur uh relating to adopt the drain relating to fall since going to be posting a bunch of fall related articles uh newsletter entries I I don't think we do because the last fall thing that we tried to do was back in 2022 um when we tried to challenge Westfield in the first place so I can't recall offand when we initially launched adopter drain maybe we have some from the initial launch but not anything more recent I have a contest we want to just remind people to clean out their drains and encourage them to the I think reminding people and if they'd like to take pictures if if we want again I don't know if we want to encourage them to do it you know especially since it's Halloween maybe take fun pictures with kids in costumes by the drain you know great opportunity for that but you know at a minimum remind them to clean up and Report what do you think do do you think that we float out there send us pictures of people cleaning their drains or do you think we're not going to get much unless there's some kind of a contest gonna get much shy of a contest even it okay the very least we should definitely remind them to keep their drains try to keep their drains clean yeah and then we can encourage joining adop Dre yeah all right well I can come up with something Snappy for the LED sign and um something to to put in the the weekly blast we'll put it in the newsletter for November well okay okay thank you Kim thanks then rgi Grant um can I tell you we're supposed to be putting out another uh request for uh proposals uh and planting another 185 trees this um I haven't seen it go out yet do you have any update on that I don't oh no we didn't have we don't have no I hav't anything all right then um the energy plan Grant we've had a meeting with uh or grou about this with uh uh Township administrator we were hoping to have Susan po one of the township Council uh but um she um didn't attend I asked whether she got a chance to review the video I haven't back you know anything Happ you I mean the the it's I think the uh the next steps to I thought my recommendation is that we get together has get an initial thought about what we want to do and what the next steps would be so I heard back recogition about that but I did sign up for the December 4th webinar on uh trans Transportation right yeah and just to to round that out there are uh three webinars that the state uh is organizing on different topics related to energy and um you had volunteered especially the were solar comps right Transportation Transportation well that's the webinar but there's also an interesting and building right solar panels that's a separate that would a separate energy generation and um so there is a whole list of possible projects that towns can do related energy uh that uh you can review uh and then the grant is for $10,000 my understanding is basically you're going to use that Grant either to hire someone to help you apply for the next stage of the grant well it's really the $10,000 is to be used to cover expenses associated with developing an energy plan that can be used to submit for a much larger Grant to fund that those those energy plans right so the might includ it a hiring at consultant it could include that it could include uh public meetings and and the cost associated with advertising education educating public so and that's that's part of this old rant you should be uh looking for feedback from the the public right uh it could be at a Township meeting or it could be a separate meeting but in any case you're trying to get the word out that we want to do something uh um um for sustainable energy goinging forward and there's a lot of resources sustainable Jersey offers and they're they're there um all the way to help us prepare put together our plans and uh think through the whole the whole concept the whole is that within 12 months yeah 12 months to deliver a a our proposal for to 250,00 yeah and actually you can you can propose more than $250,000 but you'll only get town will get 250,000 so you're trying to say here's what we're we want to do and then set a priority for which which projects you see as the highest priority any questions or comments then if not going on to the BCD USA resolution as uh you heard the resolution is on the agenda for tomorrow night uh there was a lot of going back and forth about this uh resolution finally the mayor uh said that she would be the responsible office in the township uh for any uh coordination so that would be needed uh while the environmental commission would be actually uh implementing uh the resolution um how they're implementing it we need to discuss once the resolution gets passed um any other questions or comments on the PC oh one other thing was this came about because the uh New Jersey p g student uh had proposed this resolution and so I've invited uh those students to uh to come to the township council meeting tomorrow night um because we're finally passing resolution [Music] wow longer than I thought citizens hearing on any environmental issues you stuck it out you want to say something else Richard I have something to add when you're done what was that Richard Richard something after we're done oh okay well let's give Steve a chance and then we'll give you something to add John Steve's apparently not there he's not I'm muting himself no nothing here he comes here we go I am no I don't have any more thank you all right thank you on to your job um as Steve and I will tell you uh we started a complete and green streets task force so just as a suggestion if you wanted to add it to the agenda I can when I'm available provide updates for that piece whenever we have anything to so that we have your participation and you guys can assist where necessary too on the green as effect funny that you mention that because this last week uh Margaret illis U mentioned that uh effort uh and uh in the context of planting trees I said you know one way uh to have sidewalks is to move the sidewalk away from the curb so that to have a wider Zone to plant trees instead of having these two feet zones two feet of grass whatever you want to call that between the curve and the sidewalk have 10 ft between the curve and the sidewalk and half the half the sidewalk 10 ft in from the curb so you've got two things happening there you're moving the pedestrians away from the street and you're uh have making room to plant trees so um we we don't get too much into design here but what we'll do is if if uh I think to put it in these terms this will be the way we'll think about it storm water and how we have gray infrastructure and green infrastructure we want to just build a policy so that engineering as they go forward in any designs that involve sidewalks crosswalks anything of that nature that they have before them all the options available including uh Green Street design so we're gonna we're going to try to design something that empowers them to make sure that they have options that that they get looked at kind of the same way that storm water prefers green infrastructure um so that's a good way to put it but we we don't our task force won't be doing designs it's just kind of creating an organization that empowers all the appropriate departments to think holistically about the the street and uh green will be a big part of it we did have one takeaway in our first meeting and it was that um you guys have a list of native trees and appropriate trees to plant around town do we have a list that we utilize for trees that are appropriate in urban designs that might be restricted with water or might be contained by sidewalks or asphalt is there a specific list of trees for that be easy to take out of our list and basically there are um characteristics of the trees that are noted in the tree list one of those characteristics is whether they're salt Toler because if you plant trees oh yeah Road you want them to be salt tolerant and possible there's one of the organizations that we look at from an environmental standpoint have a list of trees that are acceptable in Urban Design because I know there are contractors that Supply trees for cities in in Urban Design where they have to consider those restrictions right so uh when I developed that list I went to lists that had those kinds of uh uh specifications one of those list is a book that's published by the state of New Jersey But it includes a lot of M trees and uh um includes trees that we no longer plant but I use that list as the base so for example we're not planting ash trees at this point because of the Ash and now uh beach trees are being uh um attacked by uh another disease so we'll probably not be planting beach trees for a while oh boy all right a dynamic list in that sense you need to be aware of what things are happening with trees so so I think if we get into that Green Design stuff we want to make sure the environmental commission has line of sight to it so that's just why I recommend making sure we're on the agenda or I could just report back or Steve Canen as well John I I have a question for you so in in Berkeley Heights where for example could a a green streets initiative be rolled out would it only get rolled out at a point where we're doing a street repaving and we have the optionality to possibly redesign something because at at this point most of the new construction has already been construction constructed along with the access roads to them so we we would be talking about redoing existing infrastructure at some point Y and that's how it's that's how it's plugged in so I'll let you know more in a couple weeks when I actually attend my first uh demonstration Grant where uh the Town of Verona has inv me to go up and see how they teach their task force nuts and bolts A to Z policy to implementation so they actually take a sampling of a road of 250 yards 300 yards something like that and they show you the implementation from start to finish for a Green Street uh sample and it it's not for new design it's for existing infrastructure usually and would we have to get some kind of a big Grant in order to afford to do engage in that green infrastructure redesign it sounds kind of expensive that's all so yeah budgetary I mean the one of the first things we have to sit down and say is what is Berkeley Heights and what are its restrictions and budget's a big one uh these are not internal budget things um I I I think we're we're going to try to look at that and see what's possible and what What the residents want and if how much they want to financially support it but mostly it's Grant work uh the demonstration one is specifically a grant it's not it's not a a fiscal Grant they just come in and bring the people that know how to do it and spend their time uh teaching us so the grant supports that work okay informed so thank you John put that into the new pres here so we can yeah we can do that from next time okay I have motion 855 right thanks very much everybody