okay in accordance with the open public meeting Act of the state of New Jersey adequate notice of this meeting of Franklin Township environmental commission was made by posting on the bolt board in the municipal building posted on Township's website and electronically transmitted to the officially designated newspapers indicating meeting would take place in person at 7 7:00 p.m. in the municipal building on February 27th that my pens on there we'll do roll call next yes yes Walter Andrews here okay Ted Chase here easy y Jessica is not here yet Stan pres Arnold here Robin sudam she's not coming tonight about no she's out of the country I Maria Santiago no she's not come PA W I'm here Tera you're here Ed is not here and Alissa is here our right I could put her name on theone we didn't quite get her name fully into the minute I that's why I didn't have you to spell your last name yeah b a n d e r h o it's your first name Al or have a short uh report from the chair uh ridewise recently held a zoom meeting to develop relationships between various Somerset County municipalities I met with several uh representing black Township environmental commission I met with several Mayors Deputy Mayors and two environmental commission members from other towns this was a preliminary meeting to establish a municipal advisory committee which would be countywide uh the other other other point in this uh report is a meeting that we held carara and I and Robin uh went to the somerset administration building and met with planning director wal Lan and one of his staff I didn't get his left you know tomino oh bino okay uh so we and we represented EC and the open space committee uh commission Rails to Trails is a countywide effort but it does require the consent of Conrail and in some cases local land owners so it was a while to go on it but we are going to pursue it um actually rails the trails is a national movement and Senator Ben Cardon from Maryland has been pushing that on a federal basis they give grants to the states and then the state give it out but uh that I got from my daughter she sent so she's a deputy chief of stand um okay so that's that's the oh um approval of February 5th 2024 minutes Mor did you have anything on the minutes you can ask somebody else I want to approve okay second second okay let's uh discussion on the minutes nothing done not now okay T I think you got it done there were some there were some comments that were doneil and they were they were fix so all that's a vote for approval of the minutes all favor I I that passed that's good public comment uh the meeting is now open I need a motion to open the meeting to public comment so move all favor all okay anybody from the public want to make a statement over actually sure I feel I could my name is Ellen Basta and I've been a Franklin resident 3 five years I'm retiree from ruers University the biology department and then the health and safety office and I have a lot of environmental concerns after I retired from recers I work part-time for the solid waste resource renewal group where we had a I think it was a US EPA Grant on food waste uh composting and that is something that I'm very passionate about I can bring that to the council I have files on it I believe we won an EPA Excellence award it's it's a natural resource I mean I'm doing minimal a little bit of food waste composting in my kitchen just vegetative and bakery waste and I don't do to the higher temperature long-term you know meat and cheeses and fats but it could be a resource it could be savings for you know Franklin Township uh part of our grant was we went to every County just about every County in New Jersey conducting food waste recycle forums and I felt very lucky that I met Tom saki who was the the starter the creator of ter cycle and we all know terce cycl now in Home Depot and Lowe's and I learned about vermac posting using you know earthworms it's I'm very yeah I'm very it's like what can Franklin do it's like I feel we could do something we have so many residents and in my condo Community I go out to the recycling shed and the garbage I'm pulling stuff out I'm going you don't know how to you know to to segregate you're throwing away good stuff I take stuff to Unique Thrift Store for them to sell it's we such a wasteful Society I you know and I recently uh retired from being president president of the common interest homeowners Coalition which was a Statewide organization uh for advocacy for owners who are kind of abused in their common interest communities I need another I need another passion so I thought I'd bring it here so anyway uh that's it for me thank you appreciate I think Jessica who's not here I think she does come yes I know Rucker's dining I think uses the pig farms they send their food waste and that I think is wonderful but we all just look at what you put in the garbage that goes to the landfill the Organics when um when you talk about composting are you talking aerobic or anerobic what aerobic or anerobic uh right uh no I'm not doing Anor robic I just have a little bucket in my kitchen and you know composting almost by definition is a it's the natural decomposition of Organics yeah because if you do it anerobic you can get methane which you can use it more difficult I know because it's not hard I just put my floral and my vegetative and bakery waste in a little bucket and I and I hate to say it don't you know wrap me out I have woods behind and I spread it in the woods it's organic yeah absolutely you know if the animals want to eat the pairings of my you know my kale or whatever have at it otherwise decompose give it back to Mother Earth you're welcome anybody else have any comments oh yeah Debbie Stewart to barington this is almost like I Heard it Through the grap find which is silly to even bring up but on the one of the Franklin Facebook pages today somebody said they are cutting down trees they just noticed it and the address they said was Davidson and I was trying to figure this out an old New Brunswick but Davidson doesn't really it's New Brunswick isn't it the Davidson yes so I was trying to look tonight it was too dark but is there something going on that new right there I'm going to look tomorrow when it's lighter but I just we don't know anything about that there is not the onx not the Onyx there is a site plan proposal in planning office for West corner of David but they shouldn't be cutting down tree yet well that was what the you know again I'm just hearing it through the gra F I'm going to check tomorrow but you go by it I'm sure you talk about 390 St yeah that's what we looked at last week lastek or last Mee was on there's a um proposal in fact there's another proposal from um which I'll get to when we get to plans uh this one is um 315 Davidson that's they need a treatment works approv they submitted to the D I don't know what all right and there was AUD I sent you that email yeah I think was Ste anyway I'm okay so we'll have a motion to close public so is there anybody else that want already the wheel have yeah that's you okay yeah I don't know if this is appropriate to talk about if I already sent but we read in the um Franklin reporter about the uh um I'm gonna say it wrong help me what the noo until Earth and I know you didn't get to it yet um but what a fantastic idea and we were talking at home that it would be nice if we could have yard signs to go with it because then more people would do it and the neighbors would accept it I think the one thing that I mean who wants to mow I think this is a great idea on that sense also but uh there's a little bit of pressure from Neighbors to keep your to to mow but if we can explain you know with a little sign anybody who's doing this is a little sign I think people would get on board and they would not only be accepting but also do it I think I think that's an excellent idea because people do complain about those things but if you can plant a sign on your lawn and I don't know if there's anything and by the way this is the Stan's idea that's I point the St a great idea but I think that um if there's any way we can get I mean it's still early enough I would think that we might be able to get some money from the township to to print up signs and ask it's like a real estate sign yeah something like that it doesn't have to be as big but you like the lawn sign that has the but you're doing this on purpose exactly and and I think people would be curious about I think people will do it people do it and if there's like a website or a QR code to like maybe the article even like you know some people might not be reading their reporter but as a way for them to be like oh what's that about and then like a resource to learn about it that sort of thing well now you're asking too much to make a comment cuz I I got the the flyer whatever about that and I live in the condo Community I imly cut and pasted and I sent it to my board so you know and I asked them you know check the contract what does the contract with our landscaper say and let's abide by this and I think it also mentioned not applying any chemicals yet either so it's like you know condo communities are you know we have so many um you know self-governed communities let's reach out to them yeah I got a question about it when that showed up in my Gmail when it said from Franklin Township so how do we get that out to everybody um yeah so went into the Franklin reporter it's on our website um and I asked that it be put on FTV and that it be put on our social media so I don't know if it's up there yet the reporter didn't put it off yet right um that's how you saw the reporter yeah Franklin times Franklin times I'm sorry Franklin times it could also possibly put out as with a nixel um we could yes I could ask for that it showed up in my email and then I went back to one of my friends how' they get into our Google group but it wasn't on the Google group it came right in front so that that's the first time we've done that yeah so on the same lines my I start on Fran T right and I I made copies and send it across all my neighborhood my old old older you know senior citizens they were wondering whether you could get a copy from the township directly into mail so that they could directly show it to the lawnmowers the lawnmowers are now go to challenge them right no we want to come so they were very worried about the fact that lawn MOS will compel them to you know get the La cut beforeand but I think uniformly we we've thrown all un M set no one's going to come until end of April early May so but I think maybe next year for the next year we may want to plan it better if you can just you know have Flyers mail dispatched to every house if the town Chi can allow us mhm okay it's very well taken so people are talking about it now it really is good luck we'll try try I can give you a little bit background the original idea was no more it sounds much better right and that came out from folks in Midwest because they have spring later and for them may works and I tried it couple of years for the first time May doesn't work just get Tall Grass yeah yeah but uh the early uh flowers like dandelion they come up actually in April March they actually they kind of gr and they come back again in the fall but uh and most importantly those pollinators they do come ear okay in May that's too late and then many mo them it spreads the seeds a little bit my name suzan k I'm the one I my email was up there that was your email yes cuz I realized Jessica sent me her correspondence oh that one yeah so she must have yeah yeah okay so we'll close the public comment period somebody make a motion so move second second all in favor I I so then we go to correspondents okay I have the correspondent so the first one up was um we just spoke so all we're all covered there okay um so there was something from Laura schwat she's from New Jersey conservation Foundation I think but she she says I serve as a board member she left it oh right I serve as a board member for anj the organization requests that board members try to visit EC's to find out about their activities and see if an's programs are helpful in addressing your needs I can attend a regular meeting in person or virtually or talk with a chair or other contact on the phone whatever is convenient for you let me know your preference so she's a board member of an Jack and she wants to know should she come to one of our meetings to talk to us do you want to just talk to her alone the chair and her just ask her to come to the meeting okay which one would this her name's Laura schwock she used to work at um New Jersey conservation Foundation but now she's a board member of anj we we worked with anj all the time yeah okay hold on and and the town did pay our duties yes I thought that okay then we have um someone wrote in let me see what is this uh my name is om car I am 14 I'm a Boy Scout from Troop 18 I am currently the rank of star Scout and in order to advance the rank of Life Scout I require three volunteer service hours related to conservation are there any opportuni within the township that would allow me to complete this requirement okay yeah sign would that be three you think it'll be like 3 hours or you think three hours yes yes the date of that one is what April 13 1 I'll tell them that and we have two more uh okay I am sorry this is the April 16th April 16th my memory I thought it was April 13th too I thought it was the yeah we have the 13 was 23 last year oh really we have the 13th down and um isn't isn't it isn't clean up on Saturdays yeah it is Saturday yeah the 13th I Saturday correct I have it on 13 in my calendar oh I was looking into March the 13 you know you can't and Bay all right let's see here we got another one love my Android my name is William C and I a resident Franklin Township I am writing to you today's a concerned citizen who's committed to the sustainability and environmental health park community the increasing impacts of climate change have prompted me to inquire about our local environmental initiatives it is within this context that I am reaching out to ask about the steps our Township is taking to mitigate these challenges specifically I am interested in learning whether the Franklin Township environmental commission has developed or is in the process of developing a climate action plan a comprehensive climate action plan would be extremely helpful for outlining the strategies and measures our community will undertake to reduce greenhouse gas emissions enhance resilience to climate impacts and transition towards a more sustainable future thank you for your attention and for the work you do to protect and enhance our community's environment so I can write back to him kind of what we're working on we are working on a climate action plan we're not working on the climate action plan yet but we will after this is it's down the road yeah it's it's the end unit the end of where we're headed to right and that actually is it communicate for correspondence so from site plans this one you didn't see this one about the bridge that's just a request for a treatment works No actually they're going to they have to affirm more than that this is the Reynolds group um for uh Royal Somerset in 315 davidon it says the applicant proposes to construct a 24t wide access road across an unnamed tributary to the r River from an existing Hotel Site to provide access to the undeveloped land on the property an 8 in dry sewerman and mans will be constructed within the project limits separate application be submitted for future site Improvement and future operation of this application stage street but this is all part of a treat work approval application because it's for Access so it's not a site plan review but but it's it's yeah because the thing is why are they going to put the bridge in and it's undeveloped land they're going to take down some trees to build something yeah so we should be alert to this to watch watch happen there has something about this that they were afraid that some State regulation will prevent them from doing this in the future so they wanted to get stand right before the regulation comes in I don't know where I live this yeah they talk to the they already sent application to the storage Authority here in town he has a treat treatment works approval and that's all it's all in here so there something in the works yeah that's and then the the ones that you did oh yes so mention those let me just back up and say real quick so the process I think I talked about last month the process for site plan review is going to be completely digital moving forward um so last month I had had a meeting with Mark hey and Christine Woodburry he is the planning director for the township and Christine Woodberry is the secretary for Planning and Zoning so we had a meeting and basically what's going to happen is that all applicants are going to be asked to submit their plans digitally and if there's any amount of copies that we need we can request them so if someone really wants a paper copy we can still get one but instead they're being currently asked to submit like 15 or 16 or 20 25 copies of plans which is crazy they just get thrown out wasted so now um the planning board and the zone eight Board of adjustment have been putting the plans up on the website for quite some time really since Co and we had to start doing reviews digitally so I know easy you like doing reviews digitally so do I um we can still get uh paper copies like I said but in order to make sure that we don't miss any of the digital submissions Christine is going to send me a copy of the TRC agenda which is the technical Review Committee they review the applications that come in first basically for completeness and kind of to get the planning board ready so she's going to send me that agenda every week and it has on it what has to be reviewed for like what's coming up that we have to reveal so I think that's a good way to kind of keep us on like what is outstanding what's not outstanding copy the whole commission no she's sending it just to me and then I'll usually distribute it like I do but in this instance so normally I would get the this and I would distribute to myself Paul Ted and e but in this case the three that were on were super simple so I'll just go through them really quick just a quick question before that for the for the portal now what about resubmissions are they going to you know give us uh responses in the Reiss yes so in the uh the review letters that come from the planning board now they have a standard blurb and we have a standard blurb and Engineering that says we require that you submit a memo or whatever of all the changes you've made for resubmission so they have just started being put in there you know like probably last months so but moving forward our letters also we have a standard blur so yeah so hopefully start doing it you know I mean technically now because it's in Ru if they don't do it we could require it but it's in there so yeah that would be very helpful very very helpful um so the first one is uh the name of the project is uh hold on let me get it uh ahsr realy and basically what this one is it's very straightforward um the def the ordinance I'm trying to read this qu definition of single family home per the ordinance doesn't permit for a secondary kitchen I'm requesting he this person would like to put a secondary Kitchen in their house um and apparently the ordinance does not permit a secondary kitchen so they're not you know adding anything to the house it's not an addition it's within the existing footprint so this is probably a no comment from yeah they wanted they wanted a vegetarian kitchen as well so that's going to be a comment because there's nothing for us to comment on plus it's a single family uh interior modification so uh I'm going to do that one last yeah that will probably have to go to the zoning board though that's under zoning board all three of these are Under zoning board the next one is I'm sure I'm going to not say this correctly cartha Ken Koopa Swami um and that is located at five summer Field Drive apparently the land owner had hired a landscape architect to put down a Hardscape patio and basically the application says that they trusted them with the measurements and what happened was is the landscape ER did not do the measurements correctly so they have exceeded the impervious coverage limit not not uh on purpose so the uh Zone allows for 35% impervious coverage and now this home which is just a patio that was overbuilt is now at 43.7% impervious so it's already done it's already there so they're applying for a variant after the fact so you know somebody made a mistake that's summer field and it's right across the street yeah so we could request that they put in a rain Garden or something to kind of compensate for the impervious coverage overage but there's not a lot of wom know there's not that's the only problem comments what can we ask them as a kind of I mean really what I mean we could request that they remove enough of the patio to get the impervious coverage but it's kind of yeah I mean there it's kind of drastic so we could ask for a rain Garden the pium underneath um like is it slab or it's on a h yes it's on a slab um and basically they're saying the reason they're requesting the variant after the fact is let me tell you what they wrote um the property is a severe sloping site a level heartscape patio is the only way to really use the rear yard so that was the reason for putting it in um and then again the land the they're saying that the landscaper incorrectly measured and now after the fact they realize that they've exceeded the impervious coverage so yeah do they have an inspection of coming up I'm assuming that they had an inspection and the inspector probably found that they exceeded the impervious coverage which is now why they're applying for a variance after the fact can we suggest them to plant a tree we could yeah we could have raise beds everywhere right yeah there might be room for a tree I've only been back all the way in the back of some just so that we are not giving them Absolute yeah way they have a board because we are still only making yeah they're not bound but you're right I mean that definitely could be make a that's a good idea make the recommendation that they find to plant the tree they'll have to get the approval of their HOA but with us recommending it tree that when it's grown up does not shade uh roof right so the roof should have solar right yeah so those houses some of them were 10 years old more yeah they kind of late I think some have solar over there yeah is where is the north north is like this way yeah it's like the north is pointing like this right so so see on the property they already have a gazebo an elevated deck here's the patio P that we're talking about oh so any tree they will put will cast on their own house yeah there's probably setback requirements they might be able to get a tree in the backage yeah we could request that short tree mhm or maybe in front of the house there is maybe some space what is the dash line at the bot botom uh that is a blanket utility easement 10 ft wide oh okay there's a lot going on there they have a masonry porch an asphalt driveway so this is the front over here yeah you got a tree in the front front yard like we have yeah no you don't think so oh no no I'm I'm just oh I was shaking my head you were looking at me now I'm just the audience don't invol can I ask a question no at the next public comment okay for yes got it okay um okay I can put that in there that they plan a tree I'll get the language in there uh then we have one more which is let me get my checklist up here checklist checklist okay uh the next one is Thorn Temple Ministry this is located at 686 Hamilton Street um and it's part of the Hamilton business district uh the total acreage of the site is just under half an acre um the applicants proposing to convert the existing building so we've seen this one in the past before um they are proposing to convert the existing building from an eating and drinking establishment that has office space to a banquet hall that also will have a house of worship space and professional office in there the house of worship is a conditional use in the Hamilton Business District zone and the hole and offices are permitted uses so they're not seeking any use variant they do require eight bulk variances um because basically the building that they're using comes like this and they're not trying to make any alterations to the building but the way that the building is is would be a pre-existing non-conforming use however because the ownership has now changed those uses are not grandfathered in so what they're asking variances for are the street setback um um the your required has 50 ft they only have 3.8 ft that already exists uh the sidey yard setback 25 ft are required only 9.5 ft exist the lot Frontage required is 100 ft there's only 75 ft uh there's an existing sign area that you can have a maximum of 25 Square ft and they are proposing they just say more than 25 square feet so I guess they're thinking they'll take as many signs or as large of a sign as they can get uh the existing sign height is a 10t maximum and they have proposed more than 10 ft the existing sign setback is 25 ft and they have zero minimum parking spaces required are 22 they're only proposing five um and then they have an agreement for 18 parking spaces with a neighboring property the minimum parking total is 45 and they're only proposing 27 total which I don't really have a problem with is that the one where the church is it would only be on Sundays and most of the other way would be closed so the parking space would be available I remember that so basically Chang a little bit a little bit a small change but the main reason they're submitting it is they've submitted a a plan of the existing building and the architecturals they're requesting a waiver from submitting a full site plan because they're not making any changes to the site so really we've already reviewed this I can submit the same comments but the reason for the resubmittal is they don't want have to submit a full site plan they're not really making any changes that should require that so and the variances they're requesting are all both variances that are existing so they're not doing any ripping up of sidewalks or that kind of stuff so there's no there's no leeway to do anything more no I mean basically in order to meet the variances they would have to make alterations to the building which would probably be a lot more invasive and intensive in terms of envir enal issues and if they just use what's the existing building opinions of commission just no comment or what anybody have any feelings about e you w okay perfect all right and that is it for the same right along but tell when you're writing to the previous and car do let them know that you know you have to take permission just make make it very strongly comment in there that you have to that you're responsible basically even though it was yeah I know what you're saying got it yeah I agree what was the name of the ministry It's Thorn Temple Ministry thorn thorn with an e at the end so th o r n e okay Temple Ministry y okay and that is that for uh the S review okay I guess real quick before I move forward maybe this is something we can decide at the committee level unless everyone here has a should we be requesting one paper copy always I don't really see it necessary we end up throwing it out it's a lot of paper to carry yeah I would like to have us get a paper copy that then I can take on to use for my planning board oh right and you can use a double oh so maybe if you just get one from the planning board or from us you'll just get one from she has the plans though so maybe you get it from but this one comes first well environmental commission gets a copy then you can pass it on to me okay we can do that so I'll ask for one copy I'll ask for one it's also because a lot of people have laptops and can look at the plan right while they sitting on the days I don't have a laptop okay and I'll say you'll use it for the planning board so it really is Dual Purpose okay that makes sense all right I can do that thanks Ted okay so then we're up to new business yes and the first one talks about the abandoned were not usable what what was the right word he told us not to use abandon uh not they said not to use the word abandon but not in use or something like that the railroad Conrail doesn't want to admit that everything anything has been a so Paul like Paul had mentioned Robin Paul and I met with the County planning board director Walter lean and Tom bino who is the um supervisor of preservation planning at the county and Robin had wanted to meet with them to discuss uh basically turning abandoned what the train company calls not in use rail beds into Trails so Rails to Trails kinds of things she's on the uh open space ADI advisory committee as well so we kind of meant to talk with them because the township has had a lot of difficulty working with uh Conrail to kind of get this done and we what met with the county they basically said the same thing they have not been able to do it in the county at all because working with CSX and Conrail has proven to be difficult because they tend not to want to give up those rail beds even if they've not been in use for 20 years they want to hold on to them just in case just in case they also don't want to take on the liability um so cuz one of the questions was could we do it through an easement like a long-term easement they don't really want to take on the liability of doing that so Walter did say that if we were able to kind of come up with some concepts for the rail bed that we talking about which is by Veronica ab and it connects to 27 right if we were able to kind of get some Concepts in he could make a connection between us and the Conrail and maybe vanj TPA to see if we can kind of come to some agreement but they weren't very uh optimistic as I remember Robin has a connection with the transit authority the transit authority yeah they may be able to help us as well yeah but it's going to be I mean you know we've known in Franklin that this would be kind of difficult and the county kind of confirmed that so I don't know how it's going to move forward but we're going to try and do some research and see what we can do to kind of um P that is it is it known what is uh what is dragging con rail they don't want to give up they really just basically don't want to give up those rail beds even if they haven't been used for 20 something years it because they think that they they think they might potentially use them they think maybe they can sell them for more money maybe down the road but they it's like an asset that they don't want to get rid of so even in Somerset County they've been unable to come up with an agreement for anywhere not just in Franklin so yeah we came up at the open space meeting and Bob borer said you can't get anything out of conro told me had to of we paved over where Veronica and Clyde go over the the rails but we had to agree that if con rail ever wanted to reactivate the rail line it would be up to the the township would be required to remove the pavement right yeah the think is that the rail is still surrounded by some business yes yeah yeah very true you're right and uh as we Electrify all the transportation sector it turns out that actually whatever transported by rail is more economical yeah very Trail the uh rolling resistance uh Steel on steel is much less than rubber on on pavement yeah and you can elect CH yeah are not in Europe but uh yeah no I know what you're saying yeah well I eventually took up the rails from from Monmouth Junction to Kingston and up to trap rock yeah he mentioned Trap Rock way there yeah I can remember actually seeing the train cross Route 27 there in Kingston that's probably the last one it was when was it 1970 it was the state had a material storage um was Now The flma Preserve there oh okay I think they were just delivering stuff to that yeah but there were within my memory tracks all the way up to trap rock Oh wow was also talk of some land owners weren't thrilled with the bike path along your backyard no so actually it was funny so um because I used to work at the County planning office when I went in there I told them one of the first things I did when I started working there in 2006 was a Grant application for Franklin Township to turn the rail bed behind it's on South Middle Bush Road and it's um I you know the name of the street it's a uh yeah Smith Street Smith yes uh it's off South Middle Bush Road Franklin had put in a grant to turn that into a trail connection and the county awarded the Grant and the town was never able to use the grant because there was so much opposition from the property owners there who were all using the well it was two things people along Smith Street were using the rail bed as an extension of their backyards and then people at the Elizabeth Avenue end were very concerned about loss of privacy they had to Trail through to there and that was in 2006 so that was almost 20 years ago and it was a problem then so it's just difficult well that that was not a problem with conre that was with that was with the neighbors yeah and reviewing the L'Oreal application I could see that at least one house at the end of Gary court has acquired the Conrail right away by bordering their lot there so uh they gave up you know beyond cannot service L'Oreal yeah and then L'Oreal is the biggest I don't see this actionable because the the disruption on of uh the traffic on Clyde and Veronica this is I I don't see it doesn't have any lags this I know I I don't think I think it's such an uphill battle I we can do the initial work I don't know even with the trail we will still have problems because the traffic needs to cross these yeah you're right I agree I agree with you y I agree okay the the second item was sustainable PS partnership for Energy Efficiency yes so I attended a webinar from sustainable Jersey it's called the the program that they're running is called Energy Efficiency partnership it's with psng so the goal is to support Municipal actions to reduce Greenhouse grass gas emissions um Franklin Township is eligible for this Grant because we are 100% served by psng uh currently Somerville and Princeton also participate there's three tracks for the program uh once one is complete you can actually keep applying for Grants to do the other two tracks if you want um so the first tract is the municipal tract and basically that looks at uh it delivers virtual training and Outreach plan templates for community outreach and if you apply basically sustainable Jersey will help you they will send out a professional videographer to make a video that you can put on your website that explains what the benefits of residential and Commercial Energy Efficiency are they will give you a table runner they will do direct mailings that they pay for the postage and all the supplies uh social media templates door hangers brochures and that's all to say here's these great programs for residential Energy Efficiency and Commercial Energy Efficiency um there is a commercial tract which is that sustainable Jersey will help specific businesses develop an Outreach plan where they can get direct install money so to actually Implement some of the Energy Efficiency and conservation measures they'll help throw a chamber of commerce event uh they also do the video promoting energy Audits and commercial buildings if we work on this we can get up to 20 points for our sustainable Jersey certification um the last tract is that there's a school district tract and so they can apply separate of us the great thing for school districts is you don't have to be registered or certified with sustainable Jersey to apply you can just be a school district and they'll do the same things they actually um get the students involved in a program called empowered which is where they teach students you know how to look for energy you know um waste how to propose Energy Efficiency how to bring it home to their parents and it's a whole program that they do for that as well as everything I told you about before um enrolling in this program would actually also fulfill one of our community energy plan initiatives which is the residential and Municipal efficiency so that would basically cover that um we would also get three training sessions and then all the required materials we need and the application is due April 5th so we already have a lot of Grants kind of floating around but when I see one that I think is really going to kind of help us achieve more than one thing I think that's a good one to apply for so if we apply for this grant we're not going to get money but we will get they will pay for like I said the direct mailings all the kind of you know videos and all this stuff um they will also train us on in three different trainings and um it'll really be a good way to complete one of our community energy plan actions and it could get us up to 20 points for our sustainable Jersey certification so I think it's worth applying for it's due April 5th so we have time and so I wanted to see if you all agree and if so then I can recommend to the township that we apply you know for this Grant and uh what what do we use the money for specifically so we don't they don't hand money to us directly but what they will do is they'll come up with um flyers for example print them and pay for the direct bation yeah they also give us a table runner so when we go to tables they give us one of those vertical signs which Robin has wanted yeah um and then the videographer so they send out a videographer and they'll help people from the environmental commission maybe might be in the video the mayor probably and it goes on the social media and out to all of our residents it could be a and all of it is to bolster the Flyers will be distributed in which Bo oh all all of Franklin by mail it could be by mail they also do door hangers brochures social media templates so multimedia approach um and it's really and it'll have a Q QR code on it and it will say here is a link you know to some great programs so I think it's worth it I mean it doesn't seem like it would be a lot of work from our end I don't know if you can get it into your timelin that's okay yeah I think I mean I think I can it's just attending these virtual trainings but more than I can do it like you know someone from the AC maybe could do one I hope that they will also include information on the IRA uh tax credits that are coming up next year I think so I think one good thing is I think if we really want that we can say we want this in the in the advertisements that we do so I think we have some customiz the only reason I'm mentioning it because there was a town hall meeting on Thursday with u um New Jersey lcv lcv League of conservation voters it was advertised with with Bono comman Watson but uh they were discussing the benefits and the of of the IRA what is coming up okay yeah all the ELC stuff I know but electric vehicle I know but what I didn't know was the Home Improvement incentive that will be coming in oh okay yeah so you know heat pum heating heat pum water heater and all Co stff so uh that kind of fits into the Energy Efficiency okay I like it I mean it's a good time right now Alyssa is here she can help put the Grant application together so that would be a good project for you and also be like super helpful for me so I think I really kind of just need a if you all agree a recommendation to for what you know to I move that we apply for the move then I say do it awesome all right we will get back going okay uh reports from subcommittees uh Maria is not here we don't have any plans oh wait she sent something Maria she didn't send a report but she said something she wanted to ask about let me see where it is hold on I have so many emails up at this point um uh here it is okay oh yes Dan are you on this you're on this about the youth center and youth Council right so you can probably report on that you have it on the screen so it's related to our proposed activity to um visit uh their uh meeting so that we display our interest uh so uh essentially Maria is asking them for permission um that one of us can attend the upcoming meeting okay and she hasn't heard back yet right I don't think so although I'm not live connected to my box um she hasn't heard back and she sent this on February 24th so all right so we'll keep an eye on that the other thing is is that we have the kiss the ground movie screening it's on our website um and I believe Recreation also posted it so it's on there yeah I reached out um so I made the flyer and it's it's in the hands of communication Community hence Tara is reporting that it's out it is yeah uh and um I also follow up with um uh uh montgomary and uh and uh Hillsboro because they wanted to um be part of the screening um and I suggested them that since it's more difficult to find time and date and Vue for all three together that maybe we can do uh some sort of um uh synchronized screening of uh one film in one month so that um each town will select different venue different date different time and if we jointly uh Market this event then residents from three towns can essentially select based on their availability whether they want to watch it in their Hometown or elsewhere um because it's all kind of u local community here so I didn't hear back from them um but um that's what I uh communicated um and I think that concludes uh the committee report on St what are you doing with the library on Wednesday night the head of the library committee asked me to ask me to attend a meeting with the library oh oh well that's um related to my other hat uh the New Jersey Electric Vehicle Association right so um the new library uh the South Branch they um they are they already open a year maybe oh okay okay so they they just wanted to install the charging station um I mean it's all lined up so um they have capacity for dual charger but the way where the wire is coming out of the ground um makes it more difficult for more than one parking spot because because the way how they put it so I'm going to talk about better way way of uh planning for the charging station or kind of wrap it with some other blur but excuse me what is the meeting that Maria wants to go to the Franklin Township youth Council she wants us to go to she wants us to go to that right if any of you haven't been to the youth Cent it's an amazing place Street really is been there three or four times now every time we just get blown away by oh it is it's great really is yeah any other updates uh from anybody so would Maria go she'll represent us if she she'll let us know I guess when she's going to go and maybe she'll ask if someone will go with her or not I'm not sure yeah let me know I can go with her okay perfect good I think that completes our committee reports sub commit I think so hot topics you just uh you may have seen in the paper that EPA granted the state $19 million for electric school buses however the the initial grants are going to go to the major urban areas like Newark and Trenton Elizabeth and I guess down to the shore what's that Union City and Lakewood exactly lewood yeah yeah and maybe there will be others coming if if this is successful the other day I was in Princeton found myself behind a Princeton University electric bus oh wow that's interesting I guess between pron is spreading you know going across sty Brook and so forth so they have a bus to run around various part wow interesting I'm going mention this right I think this Princeton bus is made in China bus right no it's not too L it's they make high quality electric vehicles they're making 70% at least of the electric vehicles being made in the world the reason I'm making that comment because for all the grand program for the school bus has to be by American oh okay they have to meet certain percentage and pretty much precludes Chinese buses and Princeton I think they didn't go through the grb so they were able to go to make U and it's actually if you if you don't need the money from the government you can do things faster yeah yeah very true I now in a related but I'm electrifying fet and you know Paul before you get to that go ah with the I was going to mention it well I thought that was the Sarah thing it I was well we run other things so I have this two different things and both of them related this uh to trees um and I did a little bit more research here um a site at what I believe is 395 Elizabeth Avenue it's at the corner of Elizabeth and Grant Street um which is where the entrance is and if you go down it's sort of a dirt Gravel Road and you go all the way down and on the leftand side between there and 287 it's like all the trees that appears have been just devastated I don't know if this is something that we have looked at before but everything is gone um looking at and maybe this will help Tara um I have block numbers that that might help but the owner of it says it's EG equities which is at 187 Davidson Avenue which is Roc clip so it is Roto clip property I don't think we looked at that one I thought we I know I've seen this yeah you have seen it trying to remember I think it's just another warehouse but yeah see okay yeah I think they are putting a warehouse in there I remember that a while it's a big so they're even taking out some uh solar solar cells if if you look at the map um you can see the solar cells are in one area but where all the trees have been removed is a separate area so I was just asking I didn't know if this full site had been evaluated it was evaluated it's been evaluated determine how many trees have been removed and what they're going to owe we made comments about the solar and why not put solar on the roof instead of taking the cells off okay that was the place we said that yeah so this is going to be a warehouse okay and it was filed well before the ordinance okay and so everything is copesthetic as far as this property is concern okay so the second uh thing is unrelated but close by if you drive down 287 or even look from the back root C property and other properties there you down brought down 287 where the Billboards are and I have pictures here in front of at least the first two Billboards that you get to all the trees have been chopped off about halfway so that they can see the Billboards so the question is and I haven't had the opportunity to bring this to shade tree yet um and it's been like this for quite a while the question is is that legal or I mean they're basically ruining the canopy possibly killing the trees um the ordinance says removal of trees they not REM they haven't removed the trees but they've cut them off and if this is something that legally they were allowed to do then I do believe we should change the ordinance to say something to the effect of you know cutting off trees halfway which is basically killing the trees maybe not all killing the trees but removing the canopy um there's a difference between removing trees and cutting trees halfway to the ground um I noticed it uh at another stretch of 287 I think that belongs to Bridgewater MH same thing yes by the billboard over by the ballpark I think ah okay so you're not talking about Franklin actually well now I'm talking about Franklin but I know what you're talking so you know you know we can't do anything about what happened in bridgew but it's the same situation I know what you're talking about yeah yeah I mean they're not removing the trees and from reviewing the the shade tree ordinance numerous times I don't have any recall of there being anything saying you can't you know cut the tree like that so I I don't think there's anything in the ordinance that precludes that no there there isn't that I'm aware of either but I think it's something that we need to talk about and rest because you know we need the canopy even though they haven't killed the trees they hav't removed the trees they have removed the canopy right I think that removal should be defined by percentage I don't know what the percentage would be but if they remove more than let's say 20% branches it would be considered removed tree well well I mean they could remove 20% branches from the bottom and or or from the from the top and leave the branch that's the entire conversation how would you define yeah it's it's it's how you define it yeah we have to we have to figure that out of course there's always the problem of uh tree companies working for psng going along liberally liberally trimming branches to protect the power Lin power lines I I I thought about that because I was driving down Eastern Avenue and looking at that also and I see that as two different things even though PSN does a crappy job when it comes to trimming the trees they don't they don't have I don't think they underneath is not you know horizontal branches underneath the line but the reason for doing that is to protect our power sources the line and they they have absolute authority to do this gred by the so I don't I don't see that as comparable to where a commercial property is doing doing this to enhance their business and has nothing to do with power lines or anything like that it's just so that they can advertise on their on their Billboards there so just something I'm going to be bring I'll be bringing it to uh shry also but I just wanted to have it on uh here also and I know when is next when is the next meeting sh tree Shay tree the last Shay tree meeting was what's today Monday today today's environmental the last shade tree meeting was today's today's Monday THS this last it was last Thursday the third Thursday right yeah third or fourth Thursday I propo of shade tree committee you all Sarah Malone is finally getting our environmental stewardship award tomorrow night at Council y I think it would be a good opportunity to ask about the manager whether he has yet developed a means for watering the trees watering planted trees very good oh we are making a presentation tomorrow night at the Town council meeting Sarah Malone has retired is she not gone she reti she retired from the sh Tre she's no longer on sh Tre for many years and she did I pulled her resume off of LED and she's done all sorts of environmental work so we've given her in recognition of outstanding efforts of environmental stewardship November 2023 she could make that meeting now the next meeting from out is going to be tomorrow night I think that's a much nicer plaque than we've done in the past just from the new company yeah I know they Blue Ribbon went out this is Crown Crown Trophy and green yeah and they do a lot of stuff for the for the Green Brook Green Brook yeah 22 yeah that's good phone phone numberers on the back so I was going to mention this and any anybody wants to come to the town council meeting it's right in the beginning so you don't have to stay for the whole meeting it's like the first thing they do after after the pledge okay yeah rold did write up a nice thing I'll read and I just wanted to mention that uh where is she Sarah was um graduate well she's a research specialist at workers environmental analysis and Communications Group r r initiatives inclusive Healthy Communities grant program Graduate University of Pennsylvania master of Environmental Studies and project manager water planning Wetland habit that she she done all sorts of stuff yeah and chair and member of Franklin Township now this read this read 2013 are youth I think she's been on that longer has she oh she was she was on uh shade tree before she was chair yeah and she left I'm going to say a year ago two years ago something like that so that's what we're going to do I'll do that tomorrow night it was a good segue from your observation about Tre but I you said I wrote something in December okay in December you get me light up it says while Sarah was a member of the shade tree commission she was instrumental in advancing the care and visibility of the tree canopy in Frankford Township Sarah worked tirelessly to educate the public through many arbit Day events maintaining Franklin townships Tree City USA certification recruited several new members to the shade tree commission developed cover in Franklin oh to maintain canopy cover in Franklin Sarah has contributed thousands of hours of volunteer time to help manage the shade tree of Frankl T which will produce environmental and Community benefits for generations of residents oh I wrote that you did what can I tell you got your name on it you can add something to it you can tell you can say that Arie is still very upset that she left and he does not forgive her right okay so now we're on to Old business anything there annual report where we the annual report I'm still waiting for the uh information from adopted D to just get in there so as soon as I have that I can finalize it it's basic I showed it last time I think it's basically done the community energy plan I know you had some some stuff we gave you last time but you still missing a few B uh yeah yeah we're still working on the initiative so yeah still moving forward with that oh one thing though to add to that is that um as part of that Community energy plan we had received the grant to do it and then we said we were going to do the micro Mobility study so I finally got the okay to do the purchase order cuz the budget is now all basically the temporary budget at least is set enough so I alerted the consultant which is mv5 that they can we're going to be sending them to PO as soon as they sign it the next step after that we be uh they'll hold a kickoff meeting with us and they'll let us know when that is so that is now going to be officially underway did you see the email about a micro Mobility Workshop I did I signed up for that you did that's that's what I was going to Y I signed it's a full day yeah that's okay yeah I it to Friday yeah yeah okay so but yeah so hopefully by the next time we meet um we'll at least be able to have a few dates that we can meet with the consultant to start the micro Mobility work is that that seems to be for free do we have to pay for that or it's through the grant through Al you go because oh for the workshop you mean oh the workshop is free yeah that's fine I mean our study that we're doing for micro Mobility is y yeah I was I was tempted to go to the the spend the day yeah it's free what is the status of the micr mobility study it's a ridewise the study or the or the um you you just made the reference to it the micro ability study so the the consult nv5 nv5 nv5 is going to do the micr mobility study we sent them the purchase order as soon as they sign it and return it they can basically start working um and they told me that the first step is they'll arrange a kickoff meeting with us so members of the EC probably the township planning maybe and they'll kind of go through what their processes and get ideas from us about what we want to see moving forward so hopefully that'll be in a few weeks okay okay and we already talked about no no M toate as as the open we are branding it as a save the mo till save the all I don't know why it's listed here as a i cuz I just keep forgetting to change it I read what was written yep I just keep R to change it on the uh agenda um green infrastructure projects at nam in Williams Memorial Park we ought to add now McAfee school on that the lady came that's point of me yeah that we have to talk about separately because I don't think that's under my perview so I don't know under ours so but was it I guess I have to go back and figure out like did we just apply for the grant or do we actually have we we sponsored getting it done we sponsored getting because Z and I went to the they had a ribbon cutting and there's a picture of us and you know the teacher did the whole thing the teacher and and the kids were helping right but we don't have any we didn't do any work for it the township we don't maintain it we don't no I think we were we expanded it and added more than that we we like doubled or more than double the size of it it was a a learning thing for the kids and then became a community yeah thing just like d yeah the same way okay I'll have to look into and see what's going on there yeah we're talking about this Pine Grove Community Garden which someone came just to the meeting before my teacher Annabelle fig figuro right and um she's basically saying the grant is due March 7th and she wants us to apply on her behalf to have it more work done which is great it's just that I have to figure out like how we yeah it didn't come from Board of Education it came from us yeah well we haven't done anything with it we've had no I've done not one work on it since I've been with you guys so I don't out I we take yeah it's just we I've certainly had well I don't know not much but some communication with that Garden yeah it's mostly been a project there was a teacher there that started it and but community members have carried it on but I haven't and I used to be in contact with them in for a sustainable Jersey certification that's that was my connection Walter do you remember when you were chairman did this it was after Arnold I think it was on New York time not in detail but no Community G was a robust activity at one point and apparently there was some I want say infighting but uh made some miscommunications and things sort of quiet it down for a while yeah yeah so I don't know what's happening now well in terms of the green infrastructure grant that we have going at non Williams Park right um we have all the concept plans are finalized and so I have reached out to DPW and I will continue to reach out to them to I want to schedule a meeting with them and put together the supplies and materials list we need to actually implement the green infrastructure project so we're basically ready to go the New Path at n Williams has been has been completely repaved which is great it looks good um DPW did put in under drains in two sections that typically flood they haven't been closed up yet because I think they're still working out where the water is going to be diverted to but underd drains have been put in some of the new fitness stations have been put in but not all so we're at a good point where we can like start ordering what we need but I need to get you know in contact with them so that's where we're at and the interim report is actually due this week to sustainable Jersey so I'll complete that and get in there well um okay well we'll see what happens with this Mac if you will yeah yeah okay um I think that completes all business really unless somebody else has something they want to bring up um not we'll go back to public comment I don't think there's anything let me just make sure I have nothing outstanding here no n okay yeah okay um motion to open the meting to public the public all favor second all favor all right anybody else want to make another comment you opened it up and I have to sure that's this is I think my third one I'm quite stimulated here I'm hearing that you were talking previously uh I guess about youth involvement whatever and I feel so fortunate that years ago a friend of mine became the middlex county 4 AG associate agent and she is now the middle sex County agent it's like are we involved with 4 cuz I I was asked to be a judge for multiple you know competitions and I have been so impressed with the four eers that I've come across for over 20 years the different competitions let's connect with 4 let's you know bring the youth in you know get them excited about what we're doing here in Franklin and you know in the Somerset County as I said my friend is Middle sex but we can you know it's just you know I want to bring that out to you let's bring the youth in and 4 impresses the heck enemy we are trying to through the youth center um it's been they had they couldn't find out to come here so now Maria the youth contact she said we'll go there so now we're trying to get that yeah no I heard yeah I don't know if that includes for each but it doesn't I'm a big I'm a big Advocate they just impress we can definitely work Clos are with 4 that's for sure um we do work with the high school environmental Club frequently but and Girl Scouts and boy scouts but the 4 is a good really good uh Avenue to approach the 4 is a one through 202 I've worked the lemonade stand oh yeah for the temple we had weeks to do fle then we just come back to Lemonade but I was squeezing them into some the kids are the kids are great the for eaches great they are they are that's a big thing that's a real big effort you had some yeah um going back to the one plan with the private home with the patio right I'm just trying to connect the dots how that works so is that something that's ultimately going to the zoning board zoning yeah and this is now I'm I'm equating it's a Canal Walk where I live so if I wanted to expand my patio I would have to go to the canal put in a p Mr to Canal Walk yes and they have their own requirements yeah but does Canal Walk understand that Franklin Township because I don't think a Franklin Township person comes out to I think they do to look at your they would come out to so at that point so so Canal Walk or summerfields could give this person approval maybe based on their recommendations or this fellow is saying I'm just trying to see where it went wrong and how you stop it from going wrong in the future and maybe this is such a small incident and not really a big deal probably what happened was someone from our code office came out to do the inspection like for example even any work that you do in your own home a fire inspector might come out or a plumbing inspector there are people that do you know things like come out and check the outdoor area as well so a code official probably came out just to give you know it's a typical small patio probably said giving you know just doing the final inspection and then realized uh oh this you know exceeds what you're actually allowed to have and it probably was pretty apparent because when the code inspector probably went out there and saw how large the patio is on top of the house and the asphalt driveway and the masonry that was there the impervious coverage and the deck the impervious coverage is probably you know right so that wouldn't that be on the contractor that put it in that he would have to go back and do no it's on the home sesting you do this it's on the homeowner because it's your whoever you hire as a contractor you're supposed to make sure that they're getting the right permits and they're following the right rules even though you hire them as a professional it's still on your on you because you know you might say oh big deal and plant a tree and that'll be all good but you don't know the person next to them all of a sudden this may start washing down into the a yard now they've got massive piles of water coming so so and maybe this is just a oneoff and you don't see it much I don't know we don't I since I have been here this is the second time that I've had someone apply for a variance after the fact so most of what we do it's straightforward but this does happen and probably what happened is they probably just thought oh good we're going to get our patio approved and then our coders came out and did the measurement and said should should before the patio is built they would have I would think they would have to submit a plan to the township and the township would let you know whether it's an appropriate size they would they would prove it that would be after Canal Walk said yes it's okay which is not relevant to the township if Canal Walk says it's okay then you go to the township show them the plan they say the plan is okay then you build it for things like a patio offense you would submit your permit application a shed you would submit your permit application to the township and then when the code person comes out to inspect the final thing they bring out your permit application so he probably said Oh look The they're saying the landscaper drew the wrong measurement so he probably looked at it and said uh oh this doesn't match this and that's how everything came about so yes all right so it's not a frequent occurrence no no the contractors can be very unaware of requirements correct I know when we had a new septic system put in and they told us well we may have to bring in some fill for it for the mound and I said well then you have to get a soil Transportation permit a what right it is true it's very I had to go get the permit not the contractor y you're right we we do have a limit on the sides of the decks Canal oh yeah and and the inspector came by in one case they put a ramp in guy was in a wheelchair and the the fire guy said you need the deck to be a certain size so he can turn the the wheelchair around on the deck they one of these electric things and so we said yeah okay fine that's that's a health it was a fire safety so that the the inspector improved it and said this is what we you know so worked that way I think we have I'm sorry did you have a well I was just thinking further about that application could we suggest that they plant shrubs at the bottom of the slope to slow down any runoff we could we definitely could that might be a better option yeah or an additional option again that will depend on your hoa's rules also yeah yeah all right I'll put that in there too you going say something yeah it was just a question that ordinance is it to prevent flooding like that's the purpose of it yeah yeah okay I did like your idea of a rain Garden when yeah I don't know if there would be enough room on that actual site and that would be a good option but also too the rain Garden really has to be at the lowest point of the property and if it's so far down though it also has to be able to withstand the slope so at that point it might not be able to there's also like Nomo lawn that kind of like it grows long and then kind of topples over that the root system is a little bit better at like collecting water something like that IDE that's a good idea I mean I don't know if a homeowners association will allow but we can definitely you know bring it up I think it's a good idea for sure I know if you wanted more info like I know a place that sells seeds for that thank you I think it's a good one very good okay any more comments uh motion to close the meeting to public favor Mo second