okay going meeting to order at 7:31 Alo is taking minute and uh it's January 22nd approving minutes for December 18th and January 8 ready yet so right okay December 18th anyone for December 18th no iote soor else second okay so motion to approve December 18th pleas okay seconded by all right car on agenda items R is the resident any residents yeah Steve yeah this is the perfect subject I did did um I I sent to the um Environmental commission email so all of you could see it about there there being No Agenda posted so I don't know what tonight's a specific items that aren't standard Fair on the agenda tonight you saying even today you can't find the agenda on the no yeah it says at the time I wrote and which was this afternoon and it's as and I I checked several times in the last hour um in case they got put the work uh no only the January 8th meeting agenda is up and I know you prepare it and send it to them so it's it's the usual problem is them having some difficulty getting it posted there seems to be some issue with the way it's getting posted she I think warer thinks she's posting it and people don't see it okay I will follow up with Mar yeah I'm assuming I didn't go looking under other boards to find out if it got put in the wrong place I mean I'm on I'm on that page you can and and can do that um so um all right and I'll just mention because this is quick enough I was uh you know pulling pulling my notes and I think um as I can tell I only missed two or three meetings last year so I had a pretty good attendance record so all right well good good good luck with uh getting getting that fixed it uh you know you carry out your your you know the rules when you get the thing up in time so as much as you do it it's got to wherever you're getting help from it has to follow through fortunately we have no plans to approve tonight because if we did would be an issue yeah yeah okay sometimes you'll all right thanks so much on to all this because there's no new business no PLS uh Scout projects David nothing new right right I hope this is a mass meeting community garden I received a request for uh an application to the community Gard because somebody knows me so I forwarded that um I didn't know what the status is on available uh once on the community there was one application at Le storm water ordinance and ms4 education status I checked with um tho phoh um he says he's uh going to get together with u Liza this week and they'll set up a meeting um the I think the deadline for stor water ordinance is June as this deadline for the tree ordinance is May okay adopt the drain I don't see him I would not expect anything but anyone if not sustainable Jersey action uh usually Ned is able to come in on this but I don't see her didn't see that she wasn't attending maybe she'll be here in a little bit we're going fast we may may get through this all agenda fast three ordinance so Alvaro and I and for a couple of minutes John Leo uh met with Margaret illis uh on the tree ordinance lots of changes uh it's a work in progress um uh so uh she's trying to set up uh the conference meeting at the next I think at the February meeting on feary of of the township Council so move that forward we'll see if we're at that point um soon so changes relative to what you shared on email a couple weeks oh yes and is a Township tree inspector whoever seen bought into that yet I sent it to him today so I Margaret should be contacting right and so this isn't a draft that he's and is happy right anything there is it yet nothing okay topics for the township newsletter in February sorry just joined yeah okay let let's just go through the agenda and we'll get back to otherwise I lose track of what I'm doing town for the township top for the township Newland this would be February right this will be March February's past okay so March we have anything coming up are you ready for anything about spring yet for March 1st talk about anything being related storm water Etc we've got uh we got possibility to sign up for trees for for saplings nothing else else the sake River Park and trail John le I saw an email from Pat Chandy saying she's friend people want to come up again but she hasn't scheduled as I that was some time ago was uh yeah she I mean they already did something early this month they again yeah I would like to do something um on the trails when we when the weather warms up a little we get um some slightly slightly more spring spring like weather March yeah yeah okay even February so I will be opportunistic and if looks like we're getting mild okay I mean I know it's going to be milder this we and and joining his n RG said that we still don't have an agreement officially l by the states is that that must be a nightmare no way how how can we not have an agreement we spent money I know we should follow up on that see but uh just to update the uh plan the plan was to plant on the part of the uh vendor was to plant in January and then the forecast was for snow and he said Noah not he's not going to plant so now planting planting in Mar he's now planting energy plan Grant I think we finally got some straight answers on that yeah so is that as she I did hear back I reach out to sustainable Jersey to clarify the confusion at least I had which is that uh you can submit there are two grants one is a planning Grant the other one is an implementation Grant the implementation has a lot of money associated with it but you have to submit have to have a plan before you can submit and um the uh what the sustainable Jersey cleared up for me was that we submit a plan Grant where which gets us $110,000 to prepare an energy plan um during 202 4 and then in 2025 the epu will have another round of funding for the implementation Grant hopefully uh same same kind of money and then that way we'll be ready to submit on so um but I have to do what I did is I I um I'm sorry what I have to do is submit uh a request for a meeting and Conference session with sustainable Jersey to get clarification my question to you is why need to include anybody or should is anybody interested in joining the environmental commission this would be a meeting with sustainable Jersey to get clarity on this when is me uh well never already set it up it'll put on the calendar there's no date yet until I submit the grant deadline is sometime early or mid February it's at the end of February so we have about a month and we have to have a resolution that's a key thing is that we need to have a resolution so the other thing I have to do is follow the LI if isues no tiet Town Council to get a quick resolution adopt uh in time for this so I'll follow I just want to add to that that the the BPU is very interested in giving out the funding so it would seem like those who do a decent job throwing their hats in the Rings will be rewarded for doing so did you say decent job or just a job well you have to complete everything that the application ask for oh okay you know I mean it can't be lacking because then it's administratively incomplete but um this is something that the Board of Public Utilities would is very interested in having robust participation among municipalities that's great I got that I got that from the email reply that I got they pretty enthusiastic and anybody on the gr Comm besides yourself uh no it's just a lot of people on the grants committee beside myself no I just didn't know if anyone else on the grant committee would be involved so let me know if you're interested I'll just send me a note and I'll include you because I want to have attend I think there's a generic form which would have to be adapted to um our town but there's there should be a form of resolution provided as part the application yes so if if Liza needs something quickly it should be relatively easy to slap that into place I would I would think not to not to put stuff on your plate Alro but it it shouldn't be I had shared that with her before and she was going to send it to the council that's why I just have to follow up on the status because I sent her that the the application form includes the sample resolution um we should should be this should be extremely simple to apply and receive at least that's my expectation are are David was kind enough to uh start drafting uh the application uh I asked uh the uh Chief Financial Officer to uh give us funding for the grant he basically said that must admit that maybe it's the way Financial people speak but I was not sure I was understanding I wanted to confirm could we get a $10,000 Grant um not and basically the end of it is we should apply for the $20,000 Grand uh he's uh the township is creating uh or he is proposing the township create a an account that uh would be called matching funds in other words if a committee or if the township is going to apply for a grant uh there and needed matching funds that would be taken out of this account he wasn't saying he's got those matching funds for the I have to say that I think the probability of us getting the $20,000 Grant is very cool right I agree but I think we need to try because they're the town saying it's not going to um um match our application for the 10 so maybe the way this needs to play out will apply for the $20,000 Grant and fail and we'll have the same the same conversation next year and this will be a rationale for applying to the $10,000 gr and getting some matching the other right and the other uh way to approach this ER is and some towns are doing this is to say uh we're going to revise this part of the IR ERI whatever part that is and we need X number of dollars maybe it's only $3,000 to pay to update that part of the grant so that we're setting up a schedule every 10 years ultimately for the different chapters of the IR be able to update if we need to update that's yeah that's some things I think don't need to be updated so uh so anyway we're going for $20,000 um I've started drafting I've shared Conta with Richard if anybody else wants to see review content I'm happy to share it otherwise I'll work with Richard in I'm gonna try to see if we can find uh any more information about the successful grants that okay because there were a couple of successful grants for $20,000 to as sustainable Jersey for year now we also need to get a um Township resolution on this yes and that we can do for the 6th of February and I will W something up you in the next day or to what yeah see donation so we got the SE donations it took a long time to know if we were actually going to get it or not but basically um they so you have to pay for shipping which is $5 um and then you get 20 seed packs they don't you can't really pick which ones they just say it's a mix of vegetables and flowers um and so I can get one of those or I can get two but for some reason the each one is still five I don't it's I guess the shipping isn't together or something um so yeah I'm not sure but we emailed a little bit yes so you're saying that you could order uh vegetable seeds well they don't say what it is they don't say what the vegetables are or the flowers they don't I mean it might not even we might not get missals I don't know I don't know what it's going to be um let me see if I can find it but um yeah so I don't also I don't know if we want 40 or if we just want the 20 yeah you know the thing is that there uh at least one of the schools was interested in you know having the students be involved with Garden so let me try to contact uh one of those people um you know by tomorrow and see if we can get an answer by fence the other thought is vegetable seeds why not fence order vegetable seeds for the commun garden yeah it says we try to include a balanced assortment of vegetables herbs and flowers so I guess we will get probably all of those okay um and also with the ordering of that would I just get it and then I don't know last time just write a note to Barbara you want to order ask her if she can you can order it through the school because it'll out through the school through the there won't be any tax on okay okay okay do we want the two packs or just the one how many are in the two packs or one pack per pack it's 20 so 20 or 40 knowing not knowing what we're getting I'm hesitating and I would go with the lower number that's my gut feeling it's not any I I think 20 is kind of a lot because one pack of seeds one pack of seeds could have 100 or a thousand seeds in deping up upon the sizes I'm thinking 20 okay just the one I'll let her know they don't tell you what size the seeds are how or how many yeah I was assuming it's just a normal pack of seeds yeah I don't know what their their sense of I mean the anal might be small but you don't know how SE yeah I wish we could pick okay smaller that's okay Green Brook flood commission so there was another presentation green flood commission uh which basically repeated everything that they said before but this was with people from rainbrook Scotch Plains as well as from Berkle Heights um myself I think B mus plus David you were there I don't know Angus were you there last one yeah no I wasn't um I don't think there was much that changed in that presentation uh but the comments from uh the citizens uh uh and questions you know were over a broad range and what I heard what I'm remembering from the meeting was that a citizen or two in RW was complaining about what was happening in their area they were getting more flooding other than this one so very yeah Richard you had sent a letter to the Environ to the township Council right I sent it to the township Council as well as to the US U Army of Engineers so that's uh uh you know in their inbox uh saying basically we oppose any uh project that includes a d has the township provided any response to to the call no I didn't see anyone from the to on on that presentation municipalities comments carry more weight than comments I will ask if the town I imagine the town have thought about D potentially in dat water treatment PL right the other thing is it would AFF fact you know would also affect so much property including the canal if for D he Leaf bler ordinances hav followed up John's not here right BC USA resolution I uh that uh Haven had a chance to work on it I would do that side adop the trail proposal another thing that uh John's connection with Union County connects Union County connects has to comment on that we haven't seen that right we haven't seen that we have I I shared that with everybody but uh Pat said not to move forward until un County come in okay right so it's the same proposal waiting for their comment yes find don't happy to I I'm losing track of all these documents I know I know which ones have we seen and which ones are changeed you know the the the tree ordinance and and the uh the tree GR me I don't know what I'm talking aboutmore my eyes glaz over when I look at these things okay about LS property I sent you uh a document today last time we I had showed the maps uh showing what areas uh could be uh put into conservation and then uh today I sent a memo with the any comments on that you I think you said the revised version right because it was missing the maps ient that area you that was a little purple right little purple I think on on bottom left the map uh that was part of it Edward basically there's a whole wooded area there that's on the southern part of the property uh that extends West to that area which is a Wetlands or a detention Basin so there's a large area there can you call that up a sorry look up the the email I sent this morning we waiting for to do got it share it on time I get over there I guess I you closer hold on join the Mee that's some you got it you got it right yeah you sent [Music] it you know where you're looking for me to share the document that Richard attached an email at 1118 says we sending memo on B so we not sent that to the township previously we haven't sent it yet it's still a draft it's yeah at this point I mean could say that it's still a draft okay up okay terrific so just page down for a minute okay so this is the overview and you can see at the bottom head south the along the bottom side along the bottom side that's all wooded area but then to the left there's kind of a little circle there that is a part of a wetland and the b38 to that's that's uh not berly Heights that's uh New Providence so B 3701 that's berkly Heights okay so now now if you can come back to the memo so this is the uh what I'm proposing to send to the to the mayor right I haven't done this yet give you a minute to take a look at it should we be putting something in there about how much that property is currently impervious versus perious versus wooden wow I I I I could do that but um that would take a little bit of for example I me that that it's a large property there's there's buildings and parking lots there's Al also a lot of greenery yes there's a lot of Pia surf in sorry per surface there's a lot of Woodland yes we wouldn't we would not want for example there to be a net reduction in Woodland as a result of development right so specifying how much is already there in terms of um some semi native woodlands and Surface review I mean we could we could add that information I at this point was thinking in big picture but we could do that I mean I'm expecting that this is the beginning of a conversation that is going to involve New Providence and the there may even be a a debate about conserving uh land because if you put land into conservation then the town does not have it's not receive taxes for that land so the town the question is would the town you know be agreeable to cons serving of uh this this land in other words putting it into Green Acres uh and certainly uh the other possibility is that whoever buys the property uh would have to agree to retain that open space um and not expand but I can certain they add information about how much brous and inous surfaces if we estimate how much Woodland is yeah because ultimately the the township does have some power because right now it's zone for industrial put is they're going to want it zone for Resident so right there that gives us oh yeah but I could only do that information want go with that not not industri mean hospital system would be expansion that would that be consed I don't know well was certainly this there's a zoning changing so that right there gives the at some L yeah I think it would be helpful to have a sort of first starting position out there we don't want to see a net reduction that's the intention of this yeah we don't want to see know want to see stor order runoff being retained and uh part of that is re you know keeping the wooded area there are there are places there are other states that have uh guidance for properties that are wooded uh Berkeley Heights doesn't have that kind of guidance from our state from the state of New Jersey so the tree ordinance for example does not address W wooded areas IT addresses trees trees being removed so if more than x number of trees are removed you know uh by a developer I mean any trees removed by a developer the developer either has to replace the trees or pay into the tree trust fund but that doesn't address wooded areas that are environments that are ecological systems so that's that's a challenge for us to say we want to reserve the woodlands not just trees I can easily add perious versus impervious surface for the properties that are in herings Rise we are not on a headline at this point uh for this so I'm happy to do that revision and and come back to the at the next meeting anything else in this document besides if anybody has any comments or questions otherwise okay if not then uh I will add perious and impious service on the property and send it again and report for 2023 I still don't have hours from everybody please send your hours and circling back to Kim on adop the tram anything there uh nothing new to report coming back to Renee anything on uh community garden nothing new okay anything else anyone wants to report on before we go to citiz um yes can we go back to the newsletter yes so I reached out to ingred and Julie um about if they would be willing to write a little bit the two women who came to talk about native plants and pollinators um and they both said yes um I didn't remember exactly when would that be due because did we want it for the one in March so the yeah so February is passed deadline's passed so March 1 or the first first week of March would be next new so would we need would 16 of 16th or so of February of February okay um and it should just be maybe a paragraph from both of them sure does that Mak sense and they want to write something um shorter like something two paragraphs I think that anything longer than that we probably have small blur and then expand it on to a website okay they want to have like a lot of images and stuff like that kind of show off things we should post that on the website and then lead people there okay um and also ingred was wondering if um she could so I guess this might be multiple paragraphs um but if she could do a short paragraph on um why Wagner farms and asking for volunteers I don't know if that which Farms Wags Wagar Farms that's outside of so absolutely not okay I'll let her know andbody it's a compan okay yeah that was it okay well she she she's entitled to approach the township directly about putting something in news right I mean we we have local Scout groups that work with Wagner FS um so it's not like we're not involved with it as a Township as a community so if the new is happy to put something in from her for Wagner Farms she can do that but we just can't come to us separately it won't be distributed to anybody is watch they taking volunteers from yeah she just wants more volunteers for What specifically I think just to work on the garden okay yeah so going back to the um New there's some it's a bit early right now but come come like near near a planting season so the April newsletter um we definitely want to get something in around um invasive versus native versus non-native so when people start thinking about PL they've got those thoughts in mind so the pollinators kind of fits with that but if you want to do pollinators in March and then the invasives natives and exp wait sorry I'm a little bit tired so to do they're related topics that's okay yes but having them separate okay so you're proposing T to write something about aason versus me come yeah from now April the April newsletter okay you want to hit the topic of planting people start thinking about plantings and going I believe we do have something already from previous reuse or we could augment or okay build something I think we can do some Comin page started we can do some combination of stealing from ourselves and cre a new okay all right then going on to Citizens here on any environmental issues we still have Steve with us nothing add to add thank you good night all right nothing else do I hear a motion so motion to adjourn at 812 p.m. right maybe not a record not a record not a record all right