##VIDEO ID:wxPxdefAlMY## in accordance with the open public meeting Act of the state of New Jersey adequate notice of the meeting of the Franklin Township environmental commission was made by posting on the Bolton board in the municipal building posted on the town's website and electronically transmitted to the officially designated newspapers indicating that this meeting would take place in the municipal building at 7:00 p.m. on August 19 y i that right okay uh roll call um Walter here Ted here EAS here Stan Arnold is not here he's not going to be here tonight no he said that he was picking up his wife yeah okay Rob Maria here El Ellen Ellen Okay Tyler and Ed Ed's in Chicago yes true that counts as being here okay I have just a short short thing um and I I I noted on the web but I didn't uh see it anywhere else but if you all heard the zonan board rejected two requests for land to be subdivided uh the the one the pl was the planning board that was the one where they wanted to divide up a a performing lot into two non-conform exactly well there were two of them one we rejected one was postponed for him to come up with some other ideas I have a feeling it'll be rejected eventually was that one that we looked at here would had a lot of trees and they were going to go trees down no I mean these were just one at Hamilton Street and Wheeler place on the corner they had 25,000 Square ft where 18,000 would be required and they wanted to divide it into 14,000 and 11,000 would no excuse so I wanted people to know about that so also I want to mention that um while the uh B9 Warehouse thing is going to be in court in September a demolition of two vacant Homes at the corner of metlo and School Road is underway they've been taking the houses down and um the first they are it says I wrote the first court hearing on the suit is due to to overturn the rejection of the B9 Warehouse will be heard September the two houses and the property are on the property of the proposed Warehouse and the question people are raising is did they get a permit to do this don't you need a permit to take down buildings yeah you do I don't know um you know there's no signs or anything but but the the backers and the you know the wrecking stuff and the dumpsters of doing a Qui quick the houses were empty but they've been empty for a year year and a half my question would be how old were the houses well one one they paid almost $3 million for and the other they paid about successful explosion matal this lead based paint Who would know if would the construction Department the building a demolition permit yeah you need a demolition permit Zing so going to jump in the gun a little bit I think but you know hope okay so that's my report um approval of the minutes from um August 5th T did only make any changes you have any motion to accept the minute I I think I I sent out a new I think about Saturday I sent out a new version with some additions with stand there and I think that's what I I move to approve the minute second okay more pres I am saying I was not there okay that takes care of the minutes public comment motion to open the meeting public comment move to open to the public second all in favor Bill any comments no com to close Mo to close second all in favor I close that okay correspondence there's nothing comes in the mailbox anymore it's been open it's been empty for about 2 months yes and everything probably just will get sent electronically uh and we have no emails either to respond to we did get one email I should say from Jan brand and she was just asking about if we have site plan review tonight I told her two that we're reviewing which are very small so I sent to her information I got I got a phone call from um debb Stewart who come side ask me the same question so so we're done with site reviews started we're we're just going to start those yeah so I just did both of them because they were pretty quick and it was my turn really anyway so I just did both of them at the same time um the first one is let's go it's called hold on Carl bampo Perry uh it's a variance application do I have the I'm sorry one second just get my CH list up here okay so uh this is for an addition to an existing single family residence it's at 19 Mont Rose Road in the somerset section I'll show you uh a map second um the total acreage of this site is a little over a quarter of an acre there is an existing uh 2,227 Square ft of uh existing Improvement that includes a house a carport a shed a patio not a patio a deck um they are going to be adding 701 total feed and 505 of that is the existing is the addition to the house which will include a kitchen a breakfast area a bathroom the vestibule and then the remainder of that which I think is 196 sare ft is for an outdoor patio and stairs um the reason they're coming to the zoning board is they need some variances uh it's for rear yard setback the required rear yard setback is 40 ft the applicant is proposing 3141 the lot coverage permitted is 30% the applicant is proposing 39.94 and the building coverage requirement is 20% and the applicant is proposing 26. 44% so slightly over on everything there's no Wetlands Forest the area T species flood Hazard area of property whatsoever I look into that um let me show you this so this is the property right here let me back this up so this is Mont Rose Road this is the property you can see it's mostly covered by the existing house and carport and shed as it is I'll show you the uh addition these are not minor additions in percentage so here's the existing split level the addition is back here okay and here's the carport and the driveway so basically it's behind the house so the house is this so it's basically back here in this empty section they're not proposing to remove any trees um that's tree they don't want to remove this section right here is where they're putting on it's a small 500 ft uh addition with some steps in a patio then uh like I said there's no Wetlands or anything on there how about how about recommend rain Garden because they're increasing the pervious cover by 33% so if what's left became more perious because law acts even Susan Bishop the woman that was here from Watershed Institute explain the traditional Lawns are almost like an impervious cover now right very true so if they took some of the existing lawn and made it a rain Garden so they helped make up for this increased impervious cover oh okay that works oh maybe also as alternative to suggest underground rain water storage or underground about as opposed to like maybe brain barrels that's a soft promise because yeah we can that for out but it's underground it's um so that's basically that so that's a pretty simple straightforward one does anyone else have any comments or question questions on that okay the other one which is the only other one we have to do is Jansen pharmaceutica this is before the planning board what they are permitting is uh it's actually called a hot box is what the name of it is and it is a um it's a fire prevention measure basically it's also they need to put this in to meet the town's requirements for utility pits so it's an above ground heat enclosure that protects and insulates water back flow preventor and valves commonly known as a hot box um it also has an underground water meter Franklin Township actually has requirements in place to require this utility Pit and the township approved uh this proposal back in October of 2022 they're just getting around to building it now um I'll show you a map of that is I'm sorry I'll show you the the plans let me just get to that as we kind of bounce back and forth that's the what the corner of Cotton Tail and what one cotton tail Lan yes uh this one's before the planning board so uh this one is before the planning board they require zoning board approval and show you the set s plan okay I'm going to blow it up just give me one second here so this is their property it's at the corner of one cotton it's at one Cotton Tail Lane and this all is their property and what they're proposing is in this area right here and as you can see it's this small proposed underground meter chamber and then here's the above grade Hot Box enclosure so it's a sitb back issue is it yeah so the reason that they need to come before the planning board is that um the frontage required is 50 ft and there's only going to be 21 ft there can they screen it with some Greenery they could um where is I think that are is yeah they're not affecting any trees let me get the let me get the map up just so I can show you that where it is see here that's the roof yeah what you're looking at so this property here this is their whole property just give it a second so I can get this yeah it's it's covered um now they are proposing so I make sure I have the exact along the Cotton Tail hold on one second it's right by the sorry I'm having a it's right at the Cotton Tail Road so yes it's a long Cotton Tail so this is yeah where the curb is so they are basically it looks like they're proposing it it's not a thing I put it let it right there it's over here there no it's right of to the right large building right there down a little bit down a little more let me look at the plan hang on I want to see where it is see it's it's towards the bottom of that thing yeah oh yeah so what is I just want to see what this is real quick it's a great so up here they're replacing this little area here with with vegetation flood line from can yeah yeah there's a there is an application on the lot right next to it to build a warehouse which turned down and then they come back with a smaller warehouse but I don't think that's been heard yet yeah it looks like from just looking at it here in more detail so that there is an oak tree in here right here and this I think also is an oak tree so maybe we can make a comment I mean they're not removing it it doesn't they're not removing it no they're not they're putting it right up against it it's required it's yeah they don't have any choice so the lot line is that solid line yeah yeah it's just next to the door and this is conail and this is just to give some reference 623 is westal Road so this is Weston Canal this is cottonil theer lot is what 37 5 could you please Zoom at the section where they want to propose uh the project little bit down I think it's right in here closer to the bottom the bottom portion yeah what's uh what's in that are right now what is in this area right now nothing uh well looks like there's tree there's two trees we know for sure in here little bit above it I think the tan a little what's this um yeah that is a concrete patio it says concrete patio and trench drains load yeah there is nothing maybe some bushes but it's okay I think vegetative screen yeah no could be considered yeah they're not taking down any trees and it's an open area if they're if they're having they got 20 ft to work with put some shrubs in there or I think what they are doing is kind of resilience project maybe back flow prevention yeah is that going to be a above the top of little uh so the hot box portion is above ground get back to it now um so this one is above ground and then this is an underground water meter chamber but yeah this part will be above ground you said originally about fire prevention it's for fire prevention yeah so that's something else okay that's it there's nothing really we can see reasonable I have just quick question sometime ago we had um review for 400 Atrium Drive Right remember it was a commercial building yeah was it approved never come before the planing boing I I was just passing by and I noticed that they are taking the building down so since there was a question about whether permit is needed uh so I was just curious look I'm trying to remember no actually I think that one we acted on the next one at 500 yeah 400 that was in 2022 is when we discussed at 400 Adrian yeah yeah that one I'm not sure it's 400 it's it's those two triangles that looks like see near there right there was some that were going in the back they were taking down something we going to go yeah that one that one this one here yeah yeah yeah that's 400 to 600 Adrian drive cuz I noticed that some of the windows are uh destroyed and and you can look inside and it's kind of wake up oh all right we reviewed it back in 2022 um so I'd assume that it must have been approved where did it go planning board we said I would actually planning board yeah okay that was a there were certain trees you know there was a sort of a pond in front and there were some fairly fair size trees just behind that and I insisted that they save those trees I think we did yeah it's not even on the website anymore so I'm not 100% sure never mind it it this is that old and it no it was there it was there the bottom one was 400 600 yes and that sheet you just had oh yeah that's just the tracking sheet just so I can find the number of of what it is that's our tracking sheet not planning for yet see it in here all right any other questions or 500 but this is a different number a different number that number is 03 what s is talking about yeah so how come that 500 would be somewhere else when we have 400 and 600 sitting next to each other I don't know sometimes if they name the projects like for you know they named it 400 to 600 this one's named 500 maybe it's odd even size yeah it could be that's that's the thing well the last digit should be off yeah all right so anyone have any other comments or questions no thank you all righty okay so that takes care of our site review and um gets us to new business Tera has been pursuit of electric vehicle adoption leadership so it notification so yeah so based on the last meeting we had voted to apply for the certification for the eval which is the electric vehicle adoption adoption leadership yes I went through the system I filled out everything I got got a confirmation but then I never then I had some sort of technical issu so Stan looked into it well uh because you didn't uh specify total number of parking spots oh okay so Stan and I are going to talk about this after tonight's meeting and and by the way uh I thought that we have agreed that we will do uh the main site here and the DPW but you did the um the youth center instead was it on purpose I did the main building here and so when I was talking to Bob about um I did put in for DPW did I put oh no I didn't put in for DPW those are not employee spots right is that or you still want me to well employes well I think it's supposed to be to charge your your vehicle like when you drive to work well not think that that that Bob didn't get it properly what we wanted to say we wanted to say that the charging stations that are C ly in use only for the fleet should be opened to the employees the township cannot do it it's going to be hard because even for the for this side you specified only two parking two charging spots right which are the only the public right so um that's why I added the youth center in cuz I figured oh that'll give us ant Center the parking is also public there are there is no official employee only right and and to define the total number of parking spots it becomes tricky if you if you essentially ask your employees to share the parking spot uh with the or the public use the public parking spot because there is no dedicated employee but the system is asking for that number so what I was about to suggest is that we would look into the number of employees that are on site at a time like I don't know how many employees are within Franklin but how many would you envision are working on this side at a time that that might go be tricky question but the only uh section here that has uh employee parking is in the back and that's for the police officers right but everyone who works here they around on the public right they do the only thing I'm confused about so they would have to it would have to be one of those spots by the charger right actually and there's only so many spots that can be used some of the parking places in the the large public area that way you know that you have to go to if you can't use the ones right on on the drive if you go further in some of it is reserved for I don't know whether it's Township vehicle but it's still Township vehicle it's not employee yeah it's not employee employee is only in the bag here for and it says police employees right and it says actually the way how I know it because I went through the Google Street View and if I can do it then fourth that that is develop anti program that is auditing it they can do it as well without coming here right so um since we already talking about it I would really go back to Bob and ask whether the township can allow employees to use those 10 charging spots that are today used only for the fleet and they could be used by employees only during the day while the fleet vehicles would be charged during the night that's great do you know what I mean I do know what you mean yeah I'm just wondering I'm going to I know what you mean exactly I I I can see his objections but the thing is um the goal of this certification is to really celebrate employers who encourage their employees to drive electric and allow them to charge so unless unless the township will say hey here are the 10 spot and you can use them then I mean I not worthy of recognition I mean I would still file it with the two okay as a compromise and instead of gold you will get bronze okay but uh cuz those two out there that are by the charger right so there's two spots that are for the electric vehicle charger but they're not designated just for employees so but you can stretch it that's okay all right that's that's and in that case I would consider number of employee parking spots only those that are considered the for this specific building not for the and not for the police only for this building now Poli yeah so whatever number B and you guys can figure out are the sitting in the building in some sort of average scenario but then it would only be the two spots that are available for all those employees is that right or no yeah okay and that's okay that's okay okay you just will have only um 10 points out of that got it okay all right I'll talk to wait a second not 10 you get two points per level two so you will get four points for those but you will get four points because they are energy STAR certified you get four points because the side review was done of course you backtrack essentially if you have biking program if employees can bring their bike and park it safely if they can if they have electric bike and if they can charge it here you get another five points so it's not just about the charging stations it's also about everything that is around the the theme of sustainable Transportation sustainable Community yeah so yes I asked them those questions about you know do they is there flexible like working hours I guess if you ride your bike or whatever but we don't have anything like that and listen all these numbers you don't have to sweat it we're working on a micromobility we are that's why we have the study going yes and and this study you can actually claim points for that I did I put that in there so yeah yeah so back to DPW we kind of cut it um for DPW uh again both would have to agree that you know there will be official email that will say you can use those two charging stations in DPW as long as you are working there right and make sure that you know uh the toship vehicles can get charged during the night and employee can charge during the day right yeah I think Carl right Ted is going to also have to approve that with Carl that Bob so all the time vehicles are charged at the DPW I thought they were mostly charged here yes yes in in DPW they have two charging stations whether they have two vehicles of City I typically see two vehicles there uh and and they typically leave them parked at the charging station now they will have to be a little bit of a mindful that when the vehicle is charge technically they should put it on the sun no and uh you know I'm not saying that anyone who is currently working at DPW Drive electric but the spots should be really made available to them and it should be communicated to them so that there's some sort of soft encouragement hey you know and by the way we don't charge you for charging you know they could program it for whatever price but yeah I would say for employees leave it as a benefit and you know for a long time it's going to be formal because nobody there drives electric right right but then again you will need to have the number of parking spots for employees and you can think about the same how many employees in DPW work at a time is it 10 is it 20 I don't know okay but I would call this as a number of parking spots for employees okay all right let me see what I can find out then that way and I'll find out what the situation the same the same is for the uh Youth Center same the youth center okay because the youth center the public parking has and taking as 30 spots right maybe two of of what I maybe maybe something 30 that you right right use Center and and two of them are equipped with charger right so you don't want to report that you have uh 30 sports for employees but only five or 10 depending on how many employees are in the building under normal normal time okay all right let me find that start out then it doesn't have to be exact got it all right let me see what I can find out and then I'll continue working on it but so we're working on it basically seems like we just have a few little things to find out for it and then we can go ahead with submitting it but the bulk of it is and if you give me these numbers by email that's fine you don't have to log in back oh okay good perfect I mean you can choose you can no I'll send it to you yeah and I think it's good PR for the town the council can say we're doing this for our emploees it's definitely good because and and this is fairly new a has it uh Cranford and and we are exploring corporations do it for their employees why can't retention roders has a number of space we have contacted Rodgers Rodgers pushed back he said they said we have some project we want to complete it and then we'll file at the beginning of 25 so been adding they started out I was mainly aware of ones at Livingston but maybe they're putting in otheros elsewh oh and and d d oh yeah I think it's the livings at um what's the department it's next to the solar array yeah exactly was the but then you guys have it or I'm s you guys because I rgas has an Eco complex and they have many other spots so can since I rarely go to ruers anymore building building you know this one C AIT it is center for advanced infrastructure Transportation correct yeah they have this is also very old station okay can we move on oh yes sorry okay micro Mobility study so I got some comments from Paul um I don't know if anyone else had a chance to look it over since the last meeting um Paul's comment were uh that he recommends that the traffic department and the of the police uh review this so that they can look it over and give their input which I think is a great idea uh he wondered how it would affect emergency vehicle access and response times which I think again is another thing that we should you know have it looked over for that um and also there's a significant cost to complete many of the recommendations is is it something the town will support and I think uh you know having all the projects in place and understanding that there are grants available access to that Library through njt PA for the temporary improvements um I think the town is very supportive of that so love from the consultant about if we did this project in 2025 what this would cost are we talking $100,000 are we talking well there's a few different recommendations there and I think they it depends you know from striping as pretty easy but some of the larger projects they didn't give us cost estimates on but there's are where they want to have a little island come out from the sidewalk so you now Manville just did that the whole town yep and it's not cheap theyve done it all over Montreal and it works so well it slows everybody down and makes you pay attention to bicyclists and it creates more greens infrastructure it does no it works great absolutely I just wonder if if we would wouldn't be wise to if for no additional money they could say package a right now in today's dollars would cost X package B would be plus y so that we know what grants to go after yeah we can ask for that that is probably not going to be under the purview of the cost because they it takes there that's going to take them some work to go through and come up with a cost estimate but maybe I can see if they can give us real yeah real round yeah yeah if they've done this for other towns they'll have some ballpark yeah they might say we did something similar in plus or minus y $20,000 I think just so we have a sense do we aim for $100,000 Grand or do we go for $20,000 right well I I did view it well two things I don't think will happen one is a pedestrian bridge open mile run and the other is uh making Magnolia one way for vehicles for motor vehicles that would be rough I use magnoli yeah I mean there were just not that many cross strees I mean basically to get from uh say from JFK to deont Lane there's there's eastn Avenue there's New Brunswick Road those Magnolia does AML out and Magnolia is in the middle you take that one out well anyway I don't maybe there's were people living Al maybe there's a better way to slow down traffic and make it one way that one no yeah I do like the parking Alternatives that they put in there like turning like three or four spots into the bike Corral and I think that's a relatively one of my thought was we have any parking for bicycles at the municipal building um I think there is if I recall correctly one bike rack that I know of I don't know where the other ones are but we Pro we need more for sure no um turning some of the parking spaces in our in our parking lot into a bike area might be and that doesn't really cost a lot of money you know it's removing striping it's getting uh putting in a bike repair station the bike repair station we're asking people to do it on pl we should and that's something absolutely can get a grand for that we can definitely get a grand for so that's maybe we start off with some of those but I really also do like the path they proposed between the youth center and um the school I think that's schools I think that's a great idea so what's the next step what you so the next step is I'm going to send comments to them to make any changes to it that the document will be final I'd like to do a presentation of it to the township Council I would love to do that if they'll have us um and then we use this plan basically I can start researching grants I think what we should do let me back up before we research grants I think we should go through and make like prioritized projects and then I can start looking for Grants based on the priority right you know I think that's the next step like basically making Excel sheet of right we should read it again carefully and then if you can identify the elements and make a list yeah we can help to priori yeah and then we can keep a list of what grants are available and then the priority might be this grant is available now so that or it might be we really want to piece together grants we want to do this one big project I don't know Trails committee have any in so the trails committee has also reviewed it um they're sending me their comments their meeting was just last week um but they were very happy with it they were really happy with it and when you go to presentative we can get some of them there in council chambers and we there in council chambers to get the idea absolutely yeah the trails committee was very happy with it they like the biking anything that can connect they really liked how one of the proposed routs brings you by in Mid Park it brings you to Middle Bush Park it has the JFK walking path there so there's a whole connection some of the youth center Friends of the youth center or families of the youth center might like to come agree so that's really the next step this is going to be the foundation that when we apply for a grant we can say see attached plan and that hopefully will give us a leg up over other it looks very nice it does they did a great job they did a great job yeah I'm happy with it so and they may know other towns that are starting to get funding and they can point us to some of these resources yeah so so they're the ones nv5 are the ones that told me about that Library like you can get you can get ballards and whatever it is they're the ones that brought that up so they know a lot of places too which is great I would think that if we paint stripes to set off bicycle Lanes thereby narrowing the the motor vehicle that might slow traffic down there because that's what they tell you to do this one the comment one of the items they put in there as well was it's called daylighting and that's where at the corner of two intersections you basically just paint a white box with the stripes in it an no can park there I know an I know an intersection in New Brunswick that needs that right I'm sure great start okay so uh item C is the award for Franklin Township I'll send you some yeah send them to me because I'd like to send them over to mv5 like by the end of the week so just send it to me thank you Ted um so you got an award we wanton an award from the New Jersey planning officials for the local Health assessment and it is for have here I got in the mail while I was on vacation and actually came as a letter I submitted for it I did submit for it I sent it in um and yeah we just I it came to my house which was funny but that's where it came to so yeah so it says it's been selected for the 2024 New Jersey planning officials achievements and planning award which is great so they have the mayor was invited he gets a complimentary ticket to their breakfast which is September 27th um and the morning conference Friday that's Friday but the mayor I'm not sure if he will be able to go assuming he probably will if he can't I'm sure I'm going to talk to Bob about it and see you know how many people can go but that's really great so I want to let you know congratulations yes thank you well maybe we I told sappy we should go you know yeah far away no it's actually at the Pines Manor Edison yeah it's not far this is from from the New Jersey planning so yeah so that's exciting but it's good um it's also really because they'll put it on their website they have a newsletter they send out so they'll put it in there apply for another grant that the plan was absolutely like the micro Mobility plan that was kind of born out of the local Health assessment so it gives us more credibility yes it does so I'm excited about that yeah I'll make you one before leave just REM me yeah but we should go on the website yeah we should put on the website they didn't send to me electronically I just got a letter in the mail so I'll scan it I'll put it up here yeah so that's really good so we're excited about that I can post it in my newsl yeah definitely in the email too yeah it'll be great yeah actually I should get it in the Frank still take and when the micro Mobility I guess it needs to be approved by the council and then we can put that on the website definitely yep definitely [Music] that's exciting congratulations thank you thank you guys too you guys had a lot to do with every we all did we all had a lot to do with it so that's the eval and you will yes another award thank you and then the recognition 26 September the day before and yeah so that's good news okay the inject environmental Congress we have to get Bob to approve who's going or well I need to know from here who wants to go so I know Ted wants to go but he said if if other people want to go in his place then that's fine but if so we have a budget for sending people we have that budget is for the whole year for educational opportunities so I really just need so the town has to register you that's the thing so I kind of need ourselves no no if if you want if the town is going to pay for it for then we register you so who wants I basically just who wants to go me down you're away you want to go Ted you want to go right Maria did you decide yeah I think I'm not going um if there's another one um that is closer and less expensive because that's 100 well the Township's going to pay for it but we only have $600 in the budget that's what I understood so if imagine three people they will only have 300 left and then if there's another one that is online or Clos or like 50 bucks you'd rather do that okay that's fine sure Walter I I mean it's I know it's far it's at Rolland it's far and it's 100 something 150 or Helen did you want to go since you're new I don't know if that's of interest to you you might like it I don't know I mean I'm new I didn't think I an does wonderful stuff you probably learn a lot there what's the it's September 27th Friday keep me for another one that is I'll keep you for another one then and I can't pay half I can can go me to tell you inbody from South Jersey must have ft it's not all the way down at row yeah it's the Burlington County so it's in Mount Laurel Fe Friday September 27th 94 what I meant was if enough other people want to go that it's a significant drain on the budget I will go on my own money as I usually have well we're already in I mean this will be September we'll still have $300 left over for educational opportunities some of these webinars really are only $50 $25 so do you want to go Ellen you're welcome to you let me know you don't know second you know like tomorrow next mean I do have a few things in there okay can you just email me like either by the end of the week I would say and it's an opportunity to hear Dave Robinson State climatologist who lives here in town he lives in Canal Walk you can meet your neighbor okay okay I do have a rain gaug station for what's actually a national program but he and his graduate student run it for this state and I've occasionally gotten Communications from St yeah you know the yesterday station in Warren Township at 5.85 in of R now when which day yesterday yesterday 5 and whereas up in Connecticut they got as much as 12 Sandy Hook got 12 I think the rain barrel has capacity 10 in isn't no no you can you can have uh rain barrels in sequence sorry a rain gauge you have to keep rain barrels are for me well it'll hold up to 10 in but if it's that much you have to go out and during the raid measure it dump it and start again I've never had that much I had 5 in once when they had 8 in in downtown prinston how much did you have yesterday morning 3 I got 39 yeah I could see it was more just up in theth yeah okay are there any reports from the subcomittee Maria Maria is there any reports from the education committee um we are planning to meet having a meeting next week okay and and hopefully will'll pick a program for three we get on the calendar so I can start promoting will be meeting right so the communication committee is holding off until the education committee meets right so we have something to say no I'm interested in the education and the energy committee hasn't done anything either communication after education at the moment ell's committe yet I think ell yeah I was just wondering about the education commit because I I want I have this urge to like communicate with people educate them whether it's rain barrels you know or voting in your common interest Community you know why don't you do both because I think you already said you'd like to do Communications with me since I'm agent at the moment hope I don't spread by educating is educating is communicating okay that's true I don't know why I'll give it a show okay so send Ellen the email so she can pick a in they kind of work hand in hand so putting down that you're joining the communications committee yeah I'm thinking about I'm putting in the minutes and that means you're on and that is it on the energy side I'm waiting for the county to do judge kid better I don't no so right now in the communications committee then we have Robin and we have Ellen Ellen I thought we had EAS no Easy's on education and site plan okay so we'll we'll turn into um hot topics Hot Topics anything I'd like to bring up roundabouts I've been doing a lot of reading and researching on roundabouts because I spent a lot of time in Carmel Indiana which is the roundabout capital of the United States I thought the Jersey Shore was those are circles there's a difference between a roundabout a rotary and a circle yeah okay sorry rounds are much smaller um so I took all this I mentioned it to Joe Danielson I've had one meeting with him and his top assistant policy guy Jeff and he's very charged up about this so I wanted to share that with you I'll be working with what's her name from the um the assembly's appropriate committee I forget her name I have to look at my emails is that Isabelle munz I don't know right now I'm not going to take the time to look it up um but I saw Joe again this past week and he's very anxious so I'd like to get the township the county and the state all looking at this the benefits are enormous life safety issues cost savings but particularly for us eliminating idling okay Vehicles keep moving it reduces and eliminates road rage because they slow down to 20 M an hour the fatalities go way way down and the uh injuries go significantly down in the town of Carmel Indiana which is a relatively new town 100,000 people it's a major suburb of Indianapolis 100,000 people two traffic ples W 104 round because they have roundabouts wow you have to have space for what is what's the circle in uh in bound's what's that it's roundabout that's a roundabout okay it's a travel that I know is the the road from scotchdale Arizona um in Europe every round it's so confusing absolutely confusing that's interesting because Flemington has TR Circle at least two in and there there are more and more coming all the time they're at on Long Island there's um they're coming all the time I would like to see us get to the point like Safe Streets that when you're doing an improvement or a repair yes of a certain size you have to replace a traffic signal with a roundabout oh when you replace it number one you're saving money you don't have to pay any electricity when there's a power outage the roundabout keeps working right right the traffic light doesn't if a truck hits a roundabout it doesn't knock out doesn't knock out people getting around the life safety is huge so I'm I'm going to I'm going to start with this woman from the assembly and with Joe try to put together a campaign and they'd like to get the mayor involved and the county and the state so that we can all begin to see I mean look at AMW Road and cway yeah that's bad if that were a roundabout yeah wow how much easier that would operate yeah we're looking at that for the Western Canal Road in mville Causeway and the county working on that I've been working on that for 3 years cousins laye in room 27 oh unfortunately I don't think there's room for one at Route 27 on Laurel Avenue yeah7 which one Laural Avenue in K cuz there are buildings right smack up to also FL right isn't it isn't no pass that in Europe where I see a lot of them where it get they do them on big roads too where where there's a lot lot of things coming together they'll do a series on them well the small roundabout which feeds off some of the truck then it comes to a bigger roundabout that feeds off to the major arteries and then another small roundabout so you kind of go through the series and it slows everybody down and then you go on and nobody is stopped TR right very true everything keeps moving don't we need two lanes for on theable no no I thought you were two Lan for on theable you may you may not it depends the size and the feeder coming feeders coming in I've been on some in Ireland which is tricky cuz they go the other way right and you have to get in the right lane inside the roundabout to get off at certain places yeah but they are happening more and more in Europe they're mandatory in most places and in new construction it's easy you got space yeah and right away you look at the cost of the roundabout versus an elect ified traffic signal it's a no-brainer it's harder when there's already a builtup area but if we can build it into legislation so that if you're doing X level of improvements right you got to make the switch out yeah that makes sense I I we'd have less screeching brakes we'd have less kids hurt on bicycles we'd have I I've got some great materials I'll email them to you for future meeting where you can see the fatalities and accidents in a traditional intersection versus a roundabout and and how the graphics of that are are fascinating Robin is there a positive environmental impact like reduced uh exhaust I mean no no no stopping at a red light no idling yeah yeah so also you can put May better gas mileage cuz you're still moving you're not so I mean there's a lot of positive and no last minute screeching on the break so the sound pollution is but we have to change driver education actually so I want people need to learn how to do something what Robin just said so exactly what she described I found in a a YouTube channel Ricky and his his channel is called two bit DaVinci I'm going to send link to everyone okay it was 5 months old and it includes some charts about statistics just to improve what what Robin talking about and and he's deliberately stating that the traffic lights are where most accidents and fatal accidents happen while in roundabouts it's it's substantially substantially better here let me let me just show you guys this this is a conventional intersection like a little dots this is a roundabout yeah the orange dots are vehicle to vehicle conflict points so there's about 25 at a traditional intersection there's eight in a roundabout oh my goodness the blue dots are vehicle pedestrian conflict zones and there are 12 or 14 right here in the middle at a conventional and there are eight way out here in a roundabout so you're taking the pressure off from right here spreading it out and slowing it down nobody's racing to make the yellow light right right all right got to get through that yellow before I like it I have a whole database of Articles could what do you think the reaction of the former traffic offical will be well we know what his favorite word [Music] is but I I wonder if statistics on safety I to get his attention but I'd be happy to send this list to everybody with all these links of the Articles I've been reading from the Federal Highway safety administration from the engineer and carel India he'll come and speak he's retired now but this engineer went to Oxford on a road scholarship no pun intended came back and said in the 80s and said the Brits are doing roundabouts or Europe is why aren't we he went to work for carel in indana the mayor signed on and slowly over time they now have over a 100 roundabouts in town and that's where I got to know cuz we visit this family once or twice a year and you just keep moving and they're lovely they're Landscapes and the community and neighborhood can put a little something in the middle to be their identifier there's a town in the south of France called cavon cavon is the melon capital of in France they grow more beautiful they look like little CES than anywhere else in France they have a 30ft melon in the middle of their roundabout so when you come into Cav you know it it's it creates an artistic opportunity as the ones in Princeton don't have anything in the middle just low rocks and then there's not even a curb really and that's that's an expression waiting to happen somebody's you do something but I'd be happy to share this with everybody how does how does it move from y to where next well I think number one we make it a requirement for new developer where developers are building a community or affecting an intersection we make it a requirement whether the town can do that on a Town Street the county on a County Street State on a State Street so that's new construction I think for existing this is not my specialty but having read the safe Street stuff if you do a certain amount of work and you're getting funding you have to do better crosswalks you have to do certain things under the Safe Streets regulation I think that's Federal Highway yeah this could be something similar if you're making improvements to an intersection of of a certain level you got to turn it into a so these things are default they're not one at a time it's built into the system planning board should be involved with that right mm good point so it's the beginning of the learning curve and I'd be happy if you want to learn along with me it could be the beginning of an infrastructure shift you know we rarely get things big enough anymore to require but when some Redevelopment starts to happen and it will over time it's something well Redevelopment has been happening in the the RPM area off 27 between Franklin Boulevard and church have so that's my Hot Topic very good I have one maybe it's not hot but let's say the campaign against uh you know two cycle leaf blowers is not dead oh um there's a study recently showing sort of the trend across the country and California I think in 23 had a public law that became effective in July of this year Banning uh leaf blowers and string uh we yeah we whackers we whackers and really all sort of two cycle uh powered lawn equipment gasoline power yeah gasoline power and it they the study also showed that the workers are happy because they are breeding all that stuffff and you know they might not say anything now but they noise heing and the noise of course that's main heard that those two stroke engines of the leaf blower that the equivalent of the emissions of 30 cars exactly because it doesn't have emission system right that's right and uh it Al say there are a number of this things I think two or three Boston maybe one I mean Mass I don't know what the other ones are I was researching are considering uh you know a ban against those type of injuries there are towns in New Jersey that do have those requirements yeah and U certain times of the year that they have to use electric those are or milberg I think it's and did the owners of these lawn care companies have found that the initial investment is high but overall on a day-to-day basis is cheaper to operate on all electric Fleet rather than have the other ones y so the data is trending in the right direction oh I think I think in Princeton the town actually pays one5 of the cost cost if they switch to Electric that's very forward I I have wanted for a while to have Franklin Township and develop a revenue stream for sustainability and issues like just like that I was once asking about a real estate transfer tax which has to happen at the state level but but if we we passed an open space tax in Franklin years ago which developed a pool that allows us to buy open space if we could pass a sustainability tax that allows us to develop a pool of funds that would allow us to support initiatives like that defay 20% of the cost from landscape help support more solar installation but I think I this got floated past Lou Ron at my request yes and Lou said give us some examples of what you'd want to see it used for and I need your help help us come up with a list if we had if we could start develop a par based on a modest sustainability tax that if it should pass that we would build a kitty that could be used for sustainable things here in Fr there'd be money to do these things that we all know make sense but we need example and that's a perfect example yeah so thinking cap that would require overhead right have an employee dedicated for that well it it would certainly fall with then War Locker's administration of things whether he needs a new person whether he can take a current consultant and add 10 more hours a month there yeah for example and the tax would be paid by whom all the citizens or that that's the external as you mention like our open space tax okay that be line on the tax bill have this is an l we ought to find something to attach to the like the tree fund yes I would love to cuz I I had thought real estate transfer would be good with but that's a state level that's not a municipal level so we need something at the municipal level that if we could that would actually act as a disincentive for an activity we don't like like a syntax put on something we don't like help reduce hey maybe we can draw on the money the township gives from gets for hot shops because we do where is that fun it's not otherwise dedicated what oh it sounds like I that was one reason but you know the town this Township is like an island every town around it that well I don't know about the Brun but we're the only town in Somerset County that agreed to have them Princeton doesn't South Brunswick doesn't which is why they're popping up in Kingston Kingston not happy about it but actually the one right the one at the end of 200 y from my house um what the exhaust I think they put it there is can is that a natural tie well it's it's it is a form of so Stan wanted to know what a syntax is a syntax is a oh we have in Europe for gas yeah that's that's Sy right it is it's usually liquor cigarettes that kind yeah yeah yeah yeah we have it for gas that's why Europe has more expensive gas at first place that's right it's why Europe also has much better public transportation of course we do so but any of those ideas of what we could use this kind of funding for that is an incentive for good behavior or just the township itself making its buildings more sustainable we could use this fund for [Music] that but I think if it's going to come from anybody in Frank they got to come from this commission nobody else is going to come up the thing is that those type of ta is it's better to feel it at a higher level just but our open space we did that here and open space is on the and and and Princeton's got a sustainability budget they're getting the money from somewhere yeah and other towns are as well so please think about funding sources as well as other towns you might hear of if they're doing it how are they building that kitty to do to take those I'm just trying to think of why did you know why do the citizens always have to pay for everything what about the landscaping companies wouldn't it benefit them could they but they're the people that have to pay to buy new equipment they're the ones that Princeton actually pays them one5 of the cost of buying an electric to convert you want to you want to focus on the corporations to to these are the bastards well Ted makes a good point that the the development activity right now or the commercial activity is in these distribu what do we call them there's a better word dispensar dispensaries dispensaries that that's where the activity level is but they're individual small businesses is there another I mean warehouses we hopefully pushed aside I hope so what's the other activity level that we could impose this upon that would render some meaningful funds for a sustainability fund whoever wants to build new gas station I will rip them the gas station seem to be decreasing I mean a lot of gas stations gone away from Route One oh yeah you see them there was one at Aaron pay much attention there was one at finans M the there was one new [Music] gone the the Shell Station Anderson gone yeah that was the one at yeah because here in exit 10 we got new one U quick check I think it's yeah well think about sources and uses of a sustainability fund this is where we need some good thinking and then we come up with a proposal and we develop our own source of money to do the things we see are important in cuz if we wait for the county and the state to do it we did the town did it itself with open space maybe we can do it with sustainability oh we could give town give grants for rain Gard y oh yeah particularly to knock for profits and other groups that have a substantial piece of property and Y what about common interest communities I was trying to get my board to consider rain barrel 20th century fingers unun Cann charge move old business y thank you for listening what good SJ P partners and energy efficiency grant so the granted continues to move on there was a webinar last week it was recorded they're going to send it out so as I get it I'll for it cuz I was away last week um and uh we're working on just there's a video that will go on the website that sustainable Jersey has prepared as part of the Grant and that has to be recorded so I'm just trying to organized dates for that so okay uh promotion we been talking about educational items for the tables what do we and Franklin day is getting closer yeah so I just kept that on the so at the last me so I kept it on the agenda as like kind of a placeholder the printing bid is out um so we have to wait for printers to come on board now because our old printing BD expired so I have the list that Maria sent and everyone said we should do there was three things I think it was business cards um uh what was Banner the banner and there was a third thing what was it table the teacher table you said that we're going to get a tablecloth as part of this brand but we were saying not the f one we could do a tablecloth but we have the list Maria and the education committee put together as soon as that comes on then we can order it what what's happening for Franklin day well I don't know last year we've always had a table in in the government tent and we have some from I've been all of us all of us we take turns by I don't think so the the printed stuff probably not because we have to wait for the printer I will not be there cuz it's what the 28th I think uh I think it's the 28 so the day after the injac conference I would recommend you get this stuff from anjac like we did for the high school green fair that way you've got things on the tabletop to bring people over and talk to them and see if deie can drop it off for somebody because just you standing there I'm sorry I know Paul you're really handsome you not enough to to come to the table we do have I got box of so sustainable Jersey sent us these save the DAT cards for our campaign so we have those I did get a bunch of new things from anti-idling so I got a whole new box of things so we have some things to give out but if we could get some stuff from an so I don't know Maria if you can reach out to them or if you want me to that would be great to have some extra things and and if you can get a teenager or two to work the outside of the table don't stand behind the table so you engage people as been walking by and say hey take a look at this or do that real thing they have um I highly encourage it I wish my timing were different well we used to have led bugs yeah we to but I had a whole I know that but this is now yeah I know that absolutely you want me to reach out again to last year the county gave us the composter for free remember and I think we gave that away to somebody I don't know if they'll give us another one but I can ask them sure I can compost and what we did last year did we raffle yeah we did we had like signups I guess okay okay nonon Williams Memorial Park uh potential Eagle Scout project so we talked about this more at the last meeting but we do have an eagle scout that's interested in doing um some of the green infrastructure work um by the playground at uh at Nan Williams Park so I am working with him on he he will make a presentation to the open space advisory committee about it because that's really the process uh but he's very interested in working on that so if he does that that'll be great and he'll also use it to get his eal award so working on that that brings me to mind we talked about having a youth member of the environmental commission is that K anywh yes so I sent that to atmik and basically told him because it's going to have to be recommended through Council I sent him the idea about it he said he was going to talk to some of his colleagues to see how other environmental commissions work that if they have a youth member so I'm waiting and could help with that CU they know it's in the anj handbook that you can have youth members so they I recommended him I told them it's allowed but before I guess he goes he wants to kind of do some research on it cuz he's already aison that would bring that to the council so he's working on it okay so um then if if there's another any other old business yeah wait wait I have some um I don't want us to forget the digital environmental resource inventory right that was on your list that we have um we have um a quote already um this is the kind of thing I think U we want to keep our eyes and ears open of any grant money that could help us convert what we have on our website that is PDF and turn it into interactive really meaningful things that I think the planning board and the zoning board would find really helpful they're looking at an application go on our ER and see what environmental resources are right there and be careful what you approve um cuz they're not going to go to the website and go PDFs so um and there is a possible 20,000 for sustainable Jersey but we know we need to close out the first um skip the stuff that's the M ordinance we've talked about and people wanted time to review it I think we've had it out there for quite a while what do you will recommend do you want me to bring it back at the next meeting so maybe we can approve it yeah yeah okay I would bring it back and if you want me to you know edit it or if you're going to edit it for that's specific for us and bring it back yeah okay and I'll send it to you and then we'll get it up here on the screen I think it's sort of like the straw area where it's there but you have to request it you have to request right yeah and it doesn't work well we have to educate the businesses yeah yeah but keep the stuff is taking you to the next level and it's pretty much extensional next level of the back band Yes and it needs to be the same start with Grassroots and at the municipal level so that when the state is seeing that lots of towns are adopting it then they'll make it a when we were doing our own uh ordinance for for the the back band we spend too much time on details yes and I think we should just take it easy and do it I'll bring it and let's approve it and get it to councel yeah and you know Arie may be a stickler but I think if we need to we just override him because he loves to word Smith this stuff at nauseum and nothing happens so okay that's next me okay um storm water ility today we just I think we want to keep talking about storm water utilities that's a way to get some funding in to do sustainable things M I know Ed's very much in favor of it I know B warker is very much against it New Brunswick's just passed one and I think 5 in of rain in 45 minutes what we have the other day technically 24 hours but yes yeah we how bad does it have to get before we pay attention I know yeah and and the last thing in my old business is putting our goals on our website yes yes I'm that is I'm getting to it absolutely yeah let me read it again here done all good that putting our updating our goals on our website Tara developed this great spreadsheet of the things we've done and are working on and want to do but if you look at what's on our website has nothing to do I do we have like an estimated deadline I better she's got she's got a huge spreadsheet it's all in there we approved this beginning of the year and maybe we could send you a copy I'll send you a copy and we work on it every year and we kind of like update it based on our priorities and what grants we have like a good goal a Target and then a deadline keeps me motivated all of those things have to go through I'm going to ask for a motion to open the floor to speak anybody second second all in favor open open any close second motion to adjourn yes so move all in favor