okay this since the meeting of the environmental Commission on March 18 uh and calling the meeting to order at 7:32 p.m. and first item is approving minutes I missed out on I think February 19th I still we haven't done February and I'm almost finished with March 4 okay so those are the two uh I think those are the two that are outstanding do you have anything you need to display on screen I'll join I'll join virtually if you need okay and there's marit m is in attent so now we need I'm sorry we need to know who's taking minutes n are you able to any of you yeah I can if I need to okay so we call the meeting Tom at 7:32 and as you can see we have Eduardo and Angus and Kimberly and yourself and Steve carus as a guest uh hearing on agenda items only and Mr GIS already told us he doesn't have anything at this time and new business so there was uh a webinar on uh plants but it included a little segment on jumping worms and I think I sent you a link uh to this website about jumping worms the only thing is making people aware of it at this point I think uh if you're going to do composting and there's a worm comp composting don't use jumping worms because they are non-native worms and they are harmful to the environment according to this website they're invasive yes they're invasive invasive worms they are there can be invasive worms you know do they where do they come from where they are exotic um I'm not sure where the origin is uh I I think I'm sorry I think in the article that you sent I was reading Asia I think but but not specific to a country um I don't remember yeah that's what I'm not remembering either um a lot of uh invasive plants have come plants I'm talking about have come from Asia because uh they thought that these plants would do well here and they do do well here too well they they out do Native Plant that's why they're called invasive not only because they out through them but they overwhelm them all right um so at this point um maybe uh and I'm going to ask uh the um represent extensions office if uh this is something that's of concern around here that we need to uh that we should uh be warning people of and incidentally to that rers extension office is moving to Berkeley Heights at least temporarily to station at state state to Grant Street around the corner from Station Street exciting okay on to plans 288 Garfield Street um uh you got that uh recommendation basically I I been super busy this week so I I'm noticing I'm making mistakes on things uh and in this case I saw that the total impervious surfac is 28.3 4% and I simply said recommend retaining storm water normally I should have written recommend that this this uh plan not be approved as is and then I go on to say retain storm water and all of the other uh parts of that so with that change recommended any other comments on 288 GF Street if not then then do we have a motion to approve with motion to approve the recommendation uh for 288 Garfield as amended second I don't hear a second I'll second okay thanks Kevin so if there's no further objections we have approved to radiate Barum 314 Washington Street same uh situation I because it exceed Lees the maximum amount I would recommend not to approve as presented and that they do the measures to retain storm water any comments or questions I agree with your recommendation so you're moving to uh I I move uh to how do I phrase it to to approve as recommended by Richard leer okay second second all right third one at this point this is going before the planning board4 134 Snider Avenue uh and there is a meeting uh about the completeness of the uh application and what I mainly saw was there was no uh there were no storm water measures so I would ask that they uh address that in their application because uh that is apparently a a fairly uh an area that uh drains well and it kind comments or questions I make a motion okay to accept the recommendations on 134 SN Aven Avenue as drafted okay second anyone second one seconding I'll second thank you Scout projects we don't have um sorry question did we approve the minutes for March 4th and March 18th did I miss that no no no nothing was approved nothing approved okay thank you thank you nothing on Scout projects community garden no news on the Community Gardens and storm order ordinance that got revised slightly it's up for a reading I believe tomorrow night I haven't gotten a chance to even look at the revision um one of the issues was um escrow uh which John le recommended and we picked up from the summit ordin I talked to uh a couple of uh certified Tree Experts who are involved with I'm sorry we're talking about the tree ordinance not the strong orance so just hold off on it strong waterer ordinance hasn't moved forward adop dra Kim I don't have anything new to report at this time okay sustainable Jersey actions anybody have a chance to do anything there um yeah I was looking a little bit at the comments that were left for the um Community Education and Outreach action and yeah there was kind of a lot of comments because we put a lot in there and also I was looking at it to um to add the the presentation that I did at with the senior club and everything so there's a lot that needs to be taken out because either I don't know it needs to meet certain um like for like the newsletter and need I can't just we can't just write that we put articles in the newsletter we need to show I don't know where exactly it was but we need to show like four different newsletter articles within x amount of months so and I think we can qualify for at least that one for five points and I put the one for with the seniors that will qualify for another five points um but yeah we also need to fill out a form with each of we can we can do three of them I think so we also need to fill out a form for each so I did the senior Club one I'll work on um I think I can do the newsletter one on my own and yeah I'm not I think haven't we done um there's there was something already on here about um a hike with um like an educational element to it as well but this specific one um was in 2022 and they didn't mark it as that it needs to be a more updated um event but I think haven't we done something similar more recently with or something with invasives right so there's uh Patricia shamley has uh regularly been doing uh educational uh uh sessions uh at the sa River Park uh and we have photos of that uh and uh we can certainly describe what's going on there uh basically she's teaching students about invasives she's showing them how to remove the invasive and uh doing that uh how would I put it yard by yard because to remove aasis by hand without spraying you need to move slowly through areas that are dominated by the invasive M that is the beginning of a a longer program which hopefully will continue with other students do you think do you think she could fill out the form just because I don't know all the details there's just you know like the date and I don't know just but I can I can uh start running out the form and then okay questions I can ask her to help I'll I'll send it to you and then yeah um and yeah that's it yeah and let me ask a question wasn't there a checklist uh in that action or am I confusing things yeah that's yeah that's kind of what I meant by Form yeah okay so you go through the checklist and you you document what you've done on the check okay right and I hope uh because the the tree have to be done by tomorrow I'm hoping that I can shift over to sustainable Jersey and tree ordinance should be uh moving along so the tree ordinance there was an issue with uh the um part that was talking about esos so there were two parts uh involved one is uh when a builder comes in and then uh says he has to remove trees then they uh have a process to replace the trees and the the requirement is to um that those trees are supposed to survive for two years years and to enforce that the uh ordinance says uh you have to deposit an esro account uh you have to have an esro account with the township that at the end of the two years if those trees have survived the the the escrow is refunded to the building so um the township inspector said I I think that it started getting technical because instead of going in an esper account there's something called a maintenance Bond and that maintenance Bond basically does the same thing in the sense that the trees are there's a a money deposited into an interest bearing account at the end of two years if those trees survive the Builder has to come back back to the township and say uh please give me my my bond back uh the other aspect of that is uh for the trees that aren't removed so there's trees left on the on the site uh but the Builder has to protect them so uh if the Builder come comes in he's or she they are uh supposed to protect the the trees out uh to the trip line or the critical radius that we're changing the ordinance because the state uh uses critical Radiance but the point is that you're protecting the trees by putting fencing around now uh the inspector is looking to see if that's done if that's not done and the inspector sees that the uh the Builder's trucks are parked under the trees or dumpsters are put put under the trees we don't know what damage is being done to the trees so then the uh inspector would require the Builder to uh do a maintenance Bond uh for two years for those trees that have Haven been taken down the question came up from our tree inspector you know how does he now how does he do this what is uh at what point does he do this uh but it seems like uh what would happen is the builders coming in uh is required to put up protection the inspector comes and sees what whe the protection is there if not requires the protection before he's allowed to proceive and some some cases I'm talking multiple uh people who are involved with this process um for example the Senate uh inspector uh will not issue a certificate of occupancy uh because he sees that the the trees are uh are possibly damaged and then he can either issue a summons or require a bond to be place so those kind of details were going back and forth uh so I'm hoping that that's going to be okay with everyone uh and uh we'll see what happens at the hey Recycling and cleanups I know you uh I don't have any updates but I know you reach out to steuart to see if there's an update right I asked uh the County Recycling uh person Stuart Newman uh whether he's got any update because we last heard from him I guess December um so we're waiting to hear if uh there's any update there in addition the uh Lia sent an email out uh asking about recycling grants uh and there was an announcement from njd uh about grants but I think it was simply an announcement about grants ofed not that there are grants available yet one uh you know you might expect that the DP might be offering grants again on recycling but uh I think that uh that announcement has uh not been me I'd like to also step forward and say that um I will look to see if the clean communities Council has any kind of a I want to say like an event going on um I know that during the fall they have their adopted Beach program and even if you're not by a beach if you're by any kind of Waterway um they will send you gloves and bags and stuff like that we used to do this before so I will look into that to see what's going on with that and then um maybe I can help lead some more cleanups around town in the next months or two right thanks Ken yeah topics for the Township Minnesota so the deadline for the newsletter is this Friday um so I am in the midst of and this will be in a separate subject but um working on the um on the next iteration of the tree sapling announcement and uh and signup sheet so I will uh get that ready I don't know if you know we'll have a final dat but it could be a I call it St the date but be prepared kind of things so when it comes up um so I I will aim to have that ready for uh the newsletter so we start signing up for trees um beyond that I know that last week um last week last meeting uh David said uh you'd be interested in writing something about basps newsletter um beyond that I don't think we had any other topics um set aside the time trying to say the and know well for that invasives you had recommended a list of plants that should not be planted so which we can put on the website and maybe link to that rather than capsuling that all article beyond that uh if anyone has if if anyone has any other ideas if not we will just go with these two may maybe muling but we have something on Ming maybe we can revive revive that I haven't had a chance to look at that what we had done because I I still see landscapers just you know piling making volcanoes oh yes we still have a we still have a uh old post about that we can we can revisit that yeah so actually um just to add to this but also kind of sustainable Jersey um since I had the seeds that were donated I'm trying to just grow some of them um to then hopefully give some away maybe during the Earth Day time so I was talking um a little bit to the library so if I'm able to set up something um I don't know if that could also be in the newsletter but I don't know if I'll be able to set up something by Friday you more that it I'm sorry understand it so n are you are you saying you're going to set something up by Friday no if I'm able to set up something by Friday maybe that could be something else to throw in the newsletter but I'm not sure if I I've just been in contact but yeah that's it reminded me thinking about the trees that I forgot to mention it also for sustainable Jersey all right sa River Park and trails I know that there was a clean up this past Saturday and uh uh P stamp family is trying to continue that another weekend or two although the school schools go on a I guess a spring break at some point in the coming weeks I'm not remembering exactly when she told uh David when that is [Music] so they're trying to coordinate with the with students and sometimes a couple of adults come to that pain up too so uh it's uh starting to gain some traction because the students are really enthusiastic about it they feel like they're given they're given the the authority to do things they like that grant rgi grant today there was an email from the state saying that the rgi grant has been successfully executed another words we can now submit bills for the things that we're doing so we now have a firm uh uh active grant' been waiting for this for a year so that uh and related to that so the vendor Steve's trees has planted almost 185 trees around town you may have seen a couple in your neighborhood with um bags on the trunks those are the trees that uh he's been planting uh and uh the next step is watering the trees uh a lot of residents have said they will water the trees uh but there are places where the trees need to be watered so the uh the town needs to hire uh someone to water the trees probably Steve trees um and I'm talking about the trees in places like Snider Park Mel Lord Lower Columbia um and uh at the corner of Station in Grand streets and there are a couple of other places where they're uh they may need to be watered as well what does that mean they fill the back uh maybe uh once a week if it rains they they don't do anything the most important time will be June July August when it's warm and if it doesn't rain the trees are going to need to to get uh watered then and during that period if you have temperatures of the 90s uh it you may need to fill the bag twice a week depends upon how hot and dry it gets that's the information on nothing on ER NRI gr we don't expect anything until April some seed donation well n you just talked about seeds do you want to add anything else um no I don't think I need to add anything the FL ordinance we don't haven't heard from John B City USA resolution I talked to Carolyn George because I suggested that she be the official Township employee who's the contact for this resolution I said the environmental commission uh together with um you know people who are interested in pollinator Gardens would be doing the work she's basically a contact for the township HS and as long as she doesn't have to actively do things uh she's agreeable with it and I said to her we already have one Garden that's starting up and that's at Lower Columbia field uh so I think that we're already satisfying parts of the BC USA resolution we can expand it uh because the um community garden wants to have uh uh pollinators too and they are planting uh in addition to vegetables they are planting flowering plants that would Bloom at different times so that uh that also would satisfy the be in US say can I think you back off this since it's related I'm going to I need to follow up with um toy Rel to the E hotels which is a sear one from several meetings ago so I will follow next good idea yeah what IOP the trail proposal I have no update on that um but it seems that uh um what's happening at the Shanley homeall which is where uh WS noide wanted to be working out of uh means that uh the exension agents for Union County will be occupying uh uh that and they're renovating that as offices um so they uh there's apparently also uh a question of whether they could have a place so that sh P sh they could store tools uh that would be used uh in in the activities that she's doing and it's not clear to me just how long of the extension uh Records is extension will be there might be that the is staying at that spot yes oh okay interesting so they may be having to do something at the building that they're in at the moment down in Westfield that's why they're asking they're moving them up here uh they may then move them back because we're on the western side end of the county and they're involved with the whole County so they're kind of you know if they want to go to raway you know or granford they've got a longer trip Westfield was more Central uh to their activities I sent uh the document that I presented to the commission to the mayor and the um Township Council the mayor sent it to the township planner and asks him to incorporate it into the visioning uh program for uh uh three saplings so I've been trying to find out about when the state is going to have the tree sa available still nothing on the website I was planning as a backup to go to piland's nursery and uh order set two blings from there and all of a sudden this week even though I had marked two BLS that I wanted I didn't order I should have ordered them now they're out of stock so we're still waiting to hear from the state on uh to Lings which the state might make available that's it for me any from anyone else um I know this is no longer on the topic uh did you already send me a finalized any report to post on the website was that already I don't remember I I know that we had I know we find I know we made a motion I don't remember what I sent it okay I'll check maybe you did and I maybe I didn't so let me check it's just been a little bit too crazy with the tre un there you know there have been floods of emails there are people asking questions we we staked out places Stakes disappear I mean it's something where uh we're going to do this again and one of the things that uh should happen is the vendor has to notify uh the utility companies utility companies have to then Mark out but what Happ and then we have to put Stakes where the tree is to go but what has been happening is the the vendor brought the trees as soon as he called to to have the mark out them so there was no uh time or break for us to put the sakes in the ground we were just running around from one place to the other and then as we did that there would be people who would object so we would talk with them uh so it was a a complex uh and and busy few days anyway um I will check on the an word anything else and if not anything from Mr carelles I think he's finishing his dinner he chewing sure okay then do I hear a motion toour weour at 808 PM second not a record but close second all right Kim seconds okay so we are Jour thanks very much for coming tonight and see you next time okay have a nice evening everyone bye thank you