all right let's get this going please welcome to the regular meeting of the uh Township of otion environmental commission for January 4 uh we're going to do a quick roll call member Colton yeah member Johnson here here member godette here member Lut here member Brandon here member m here alternate tronti here alternate boxy here great thank you everyone happy New Year uh let me read the statement of compliance of the open public meeting law the notice requirements of the open public meeting law for this meeting have been satisfied a copy of the annual notice was sent to the Asbury Park Press and the poster posted in town hall and filed in the office of the township Clark on June 30th 2023 this meeting will be recorded in avail a on Ocean Township's YouTube channel great so our uh first order of business this evening as we have our minutes from the November 2nd 2023 meeting you should have copies in front of you um I know that uh Mary had indicated she had a change he how's Mary participating in this Mary's on the screen over there you can't get I have a problem with it Mary can you Mary can you share only I can only hear Ed's voice I can hear other voices but no not the words go ahead I don't know how that works but okay Mary can you we can hear you so just share what your uh change for the minutes was please yes um it was under new business the deer project um and toward the end it says once available member Johnson will review to make sure the information doesn't conflict with the information from the animal protection League before placing it on the website and what I meant I maybe I didn't get it across clearly but I meant to say I would coordinate to make sure that the um information I got from the animal protection League I would be using the information that was supporting the council's plan gotta council's plan tell I said okay okay all right um does anyone else have any comments or edits I have a motion to approve amend to be approved as amended as amended do I have a second seconded by Julia all in favor I hi oh sorry oh right because we actually everyone's here all right I need another second I know I don't remember the last time we had everyone I'll second seconded by Jack we'll try that again all in favor all right opposed abstained was two exensions okay all right never happens moving right along we do not have any presentations this evening but I do just want to mention um thank you all for bearing with us as as we move back to inperson I was trying to remember the last inperson meeting we had and I think it was January of 2020 I don't yeah so it's it's been years that we've all been together um so we are doing this in a hybrid format because one of the things that worked very very well for us over the course of the pandemic we're able to have presentations from outside groups that we otherwise would not have had so we are going to try and keep that format um and so ideally if you are able to come in person to these meetings that is preferable if you are for whatever reason unable to attend in person but can attend virtually like Mary is tonight you are welcome to do that and we will continue this format so that we can continue to have presentations but also involvement from members of the public we have to work TI No you do not I mean if you want to update the bylaws and mandate that we can uh yes yes um so does anyone have any questions about this for we're we're still kind of working through all of this we were thinking about being downstairs but then we have the facilities up here to do virtual as well so so I have a question yes Mary I do prefer a virtual when possible but is it possible to correct the um the speaker system so that I would be able to hear everybody if I continue to do it virtually we will ask about that tomorrow but we hear you as this voice from above Mary which is as it should be Ed nevertheless I would like to hear your voices down there also we will we will look into it and see what we can do app quality for the folks participating virtually I did notice I got the open calendar I just looked it I barely opened the page I forget you know but we're can conflict with a council meeting we knew that right yes we do every year for a couple meetings so on those days we've just met keep going we'll just keep doing our be downstairs um but we won't have our liais on here obviously because they will be downstairs and they're slightly more needed there for votes than they are here to listen to us um but I mean that is something that we can take a look at if we need to amend our schedule if there are a number of conflicts but we don't to do that they on Zoom let go to meeting is that it that was to you Donna we're on go to and and they are on Zoom so it doesn't conflict so we shouldn't have any issues no and that is why we are on goto because at times when we conflict with them they're the more important body than we are to some people little reality check there sorry sounds like a I'm allowed to have one I am a resident we have any other guests on the on the screen we have Jim B's here okay um all right so jumping into Old business so the EC website um Jack I still have you down on this the the one thing I think that we do need to um just make a note to update on the web pages to make sure that the the virtual meeting and inperson meeting information is a little more prominent now that we've made the shift we can put it up there but I can get that note over to Tre and have that updated does anyone else have anything on the EC website that they think needs to be up there sooner rather than later so I thought of it this morning and I was talking to Julie about this could we have the information about the D complaint line up on the environmental yes we can I think that might be really helpful instead of like seeing Message Board you know on Facebook but it might actually be like author ative um you know place to look to say okay like I'm having this issue this is what you should call you know press option two or whatever it is and St your complaint you do it anonymously that's the other thing like maybe we could like make that a um uh like highlight that that it can be done anonymously or give your name and maybe even go through the process because then people will know like what the process is but I think are you think of that being part of the environmental commission part or should that be a basic thing on the town's website period independently um I I don't know if it makes that much of a difference I think environmental and GP go more hand in hand that's what I would thinking it go more have to find it well you could put it we do both yeah we could do it in both um but I have to imagine that if you're upset about something environmental you see in town and you come to the town website the first place you're going to look is the Environmental I yeah yeah that might I mean I don't mind writing it up I I just went through the process this morning do you want to share what you saw just in terms of the phone number to call I mean it doesn't have nothing political right L all it is is and that we can talk about that later but um but just the phone number you know if you're experiencing this issue at any point in time here's a phone number to call and you should expect a call back from somebody else and this is what you should yeah the details and we can also put the number for the M County Soil Conservation District and then um our Tree Experts number up there as well so that it can be a One-Stop shop for three hope Soil Conservation freeold yeah are we the only County that doesn't Doan County Soil yes yeah I think so yeah the soil conservation yeah so the soil conserv every County has an office that is in charge of making sure that runoff um and erosion is mitigated especially around construction sites but not right necessarily and so they have the authority to come out and issue fines and citations if something like a Sil fences has failed um the town has some power and The Soil Conservation District has more so usually um both of them will get involved but the Soil Conservation District has a little more they have some more teeth to what they can make be done years ago we used to enforce it in town and then slowly it drifted off to to let the county do it yeah but it's not called the county but like for instance like when there was that that runoff in that storm back in September when all the mud was coming down the hill to Wegman's that was the soil conservation like the town got involved too but that was really The Soil Conservation District they're in charge of making sure that you know our uh streams don't get sedimented up with erosion but um great so that that's a fantastic idea for the website anything else on the website before we move along all right um I will just say as long as we're talking about the D hotline I uh called it two weeks ago the uh the reclamation center was uh having the special not great day and I walked out my front door in wanasa and was like oh yeah so I called the D number and not only did I file a complaint with them but they sent my complaint to the county health department and the County Health Department follow well so yeah yeah the only issue with that stop me if I'm talking in the wrong part of the meeting but but the only issue with that is that like unless like you're having like some sort of asthma attack it seems that from walking out the door and and smelling the odor you have to go back in because you can't be out there um it didn't seem like there was much of a anything anybody could do except take down the fact that you called you know it wasn't like someone would come out and send the inspector you know or or they would send an inspector but what are you going to say to them oh I I went outside and it didn't smell good well they'll come and test if if you walk out and and there's a very very heavy odor they will come out and they will test but the problem is it it takes some time to get there and by that time the wind could have shifted so they will test the air quality and see but if they get enough reports they will do more intensive testing I mean that's what happened the last time um I guess it was three or four years ago that there was just a rash of complaints from Ocean and tinon falls and not only to the D and the county health department but also to every elected official at every level um and there was finally enough pressure that they they took some more serious action so um I don't know what's going on over there I haven't plugged in but I know that you know I've smelted it more often in the last few weeks than I have since that and I know others have as well so it's they might be doing expansion I don't know but keep calling and keep going from there 66 this morning you wasn't it was noticeable it's not overwhelming but noticeable well I've been noticing that I drive home on 33 and I've been noticing it uh frequently um right before you go over the parkway to get to where the the outlets are I've been smelling it down there a lot which is obviously much closer than here but I probably shouldn't be smelling it with my windows up and you know what it is I thought there was something wrong with my car for so like so I would I came my I would go to my garage and I thought oh my gosh my there's something there gas in my in my in my attached garage that I have to worry about it going into my home right and then I was like oh my God now is there a dead animal in my garage you know I was trying to figure out what is in my garage and then it dawned on me that it is not anything except the ambient you know e is was in my garage so um I think a lot of people are suffering and maybe don't know what to do about it yeah yeah I had the um when I was very small child that grew up in Carney when the dumps were still open so there's this weird every time I smell I'm like why does this smell like my childhood it is it is a very nostalgic smell and that is not a good thing anyways all right so yeah we'll we'll put those numbers up there and um and again keep calling and if it continues maybe we'll we'll have to I'm sure that other folks are aware of it is not just this group here um but maybe start reaching out to some of the other environmental commissions see what uh they're doing about it so uh all right so next item on our agenda is the true ordinance review and next steps uh home back from I just want to actually I know this was from the last meeting and this is a separate meeting but I did want to just read into the record for posterity sake if it will load um there seems to be a lot of confusion about the timing of the ordinance so I'm going to read from the league of municipalities bear with me it's brief this is dated November 3rd 2023 titled njd releases model tree removal replacement ordinance last year the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection revised the tier a municipal storm water General permit they also took steps to reclassify all municipalities into the tier a category the revised permit requires municipalities to adopt and enforce a CommunityWide ordinance covering free removal replacement if they didn't already have an ordinance that met the requirements to assist municipalities in adopting in compliant a compliant ordinance the njd undertook the development of a model tree replacement ordinance which has been finalized and is now available on the njde website in addition to finalizing the ordinance the njd has extended the due date for municipalities to adopt a tree ordinance removal replacement from January 1st 2024 to May 1st 2024 so that is that those are the dates and that is the time I suspected when I heard from the township engineer that D was going to revise it again and I was wondering if that was really correct right so um so we will see but we do have an ordinance that is very similar to the proposed ordinance um and we uh so we're already ahead of the game and if we need to twe ours to bring it into full compliance it is a not a heavy LIF since we're 95% of the way well two things one is is it possible to find out from the d whether they're going to revise it again or if this is final that's one and two we were going to revise our ordinance anyway to talk about tree density rather than the number of trees right and I'm all to do that in fact I have some revisions so I all to do is press the button and and look at some revisions so as far as the EP revising it again I do not know and I don't know if they would say so I haven't seen anything formally I mean they just published this ordinance in [Music] November would B they maybe but um as far as a treaty density I think we would need to reach out to their office it's handling this and see if they would be willing to accept that as compliant or more restrictive than their model or it's at least as restrictive yeah because we can't have an ordinance is less restrictive we discussing the D and oddly enough um it says in here there notes inside municipalities that are accredited with New Jersey urban community forry program may continue to follow the atts established forestry program departments provided their accredited program addes through removal and replacement details of municipalities forry program should be incorporated by reference contained within the municipalities adopted coordinance please contact you know NJ urban community forestry to obtain further information becoming then it say municipalities it says then then it says though municipalities with an existing tree may contact the department at stormwater manager dp.com to determine if the ordinance requires modification yes we should do that and but their model ordinance is based on density and that's the way we wanted to go anyway I think well it's it's both it's numbers by density but the time we have the time we have for our they're looking for our official ordinance you can talk about May looking about today's ordinance to send it in there and see what they say about it and then the question is which ordinance well because right that is the one thing that we will need to modify is that we need to have one that is across everything not one for development and one for residential like and one for right shry thing is sort of unrelated that's got to do with who pays for things than what's going yeah so I I mean so it's not that hard to revise our ordinance to incorporate all of that right but we should also send it in to see what they say we don't want to mod we do not want to go through a process where we wind up modifying it two three or even four times in the span of six months that is that is a non-star that does doesn't help us that doesn't help the residents that does not help the the service providers that helps no one so we want to make sure that if we're going to make another revision that it's going to be one revision and we're not going to touch it for a good long while so does anyone have any other thoughts or comments I've been out of the loop a little bit what's is there some push back on the existing I'm sure there always is but anything in particular that yeah and and I'll let Ken jump in if I'm not characterizing it correctly but there was a desire to after it's been implemented for a year or so looking at it there was the desire to try and tighten it based more on density and tree canopy coverage to make sure that we weren't running into these situations where um you know someone that has a very small lot was able to take out three trees and denew their whole property and someone who had a lot of trees but wanted to do some you know oh it's always the pool example and I can't think of a better one but they were one is if you have an acre lot and and really a wooded backyard and you wanted to thin out the trees to give give you know so they're spaced out and and they become healthier you still have the same canopy but you might want to take out 15 trees and you doesn't allow that either so it's going to be based more on on keeping a certain density you know so many trees per acre and and uh that's the way we were going to revise it and and that's certainly the model ordinance talks about that as well right so I think we were both the direction has been doing these things you know and he says but you know they're looking at how big how much of it how many trees can go on a lot okay and it turns out and a relatively small lot the answer turns out to be one if you want to consider how big the tree is going to be in 65 years which is what Bill saying you should do theoretically I don't quite go along with that particular moment but the point is there's all kind of issues like that oh and the only other comment that I have on this was um I did talk to bill the other day I ran into him here in town hall and we were talking about the mapping the mapping piece to all of this that we had discussed with the town engineer and aak in and he's going to follow up to see about getting the mapping so just to recap one one of my big issues with all the tree ordinance is so much of our previous information was anecdotal we knew trees were coming down we did not know where they were coming down we did not know how many because they were not getting permits now we have permits we know block lot how many trees and we can map it so that we can see where trees are coming down in town and then we can either Focus replanting efforts from shade tree in those parts of town or we could do more Outreach and education if we see one part of town for whatever reason is losing a lot of trees because sometimes neighbors get scared and like well I'm afraid the tree is going to fall my house and then their neighbors like well the tree is going to fall my house and then all of a sudden everyone's cutting down trees so we can do a better job targeting Outreach U or enforcement even um to those parts of town so we want to see the mapping you want to see the visualization you have it no this teaser teaser this is this is proded by tree keeper software okay this is the tree survey that we're doing which it turns out we didn't get as much of the town as we to do but talking about maybe we'll do something more okay but this software see this this is good for putting things that you've mapped where are the trees and so on and so forth okay it doesn't mean there's probably another side of this thing okay where we could map all trees coming out by GPS or whatever I ask them about that okay but it would be a sort of reverse of this but and it wouldn't include the town R of ways necessarily but it could be adjusted way that you have a this is with trees with losing trees and buying some of worth of license yeah that would be fantastic okay so just so Dave done already they finished y yeah yesterday okay yeah so uh you know we we we we had more trees than we estimated Jo player Park itself I think in my own count we did 700 trees on I'll get the numbers they they actually met also we also blew it that I didn't notice in The Proposal they said sides not trees so they M 300 vacant SES which means there's no trees there but it counted as one of the sites coming off a total of 3,000 or so okay so wound up with we wound up getting switching something out we were going to get PL in plant just because to fit into the amount of money we were getting in the grant but we traded that for another you know 100 trees or whatever it was so they actually mapped uh 20 2,842 trees and 313 pment sites what was a site was it a block and LW a site would be a block that was as opposed to if but it could have been five sites if the L had five trees on it we have that many vacant sites well no no not no trees bacon of trees yeah yeah put this way I go I didn't go out with them okay and and see what what was what but I think I assume if a home had no trees on you know you can tell here's a house here's a house for yeah but they just M Street trees right right yeah so right so our neighborhood would have been BAC like correct you know yeah so okay yeah I don't think there's any Street trees very few Street trees in our whole neighborhood yeah as a matter of fact they didn't even look at this at the East no the south side of Apple there's nothing in that in that map could be I catch everything but the fact is they didn't do they barely did way side at all there just couple the only spots they did was the Wayside Park and the Wayside School and the middle school yeah and maybe the gym across the street you know there are a lot more Street trees there yeah now these clusters of course when you zoom in this all splits out yeah if if we can figure out a way to to map the the remov trees as well I mean we have the blocking lot and we have the numbers and that's a great intern project to sit there all summer and plug them in well let's take a couple of things that would would have helped also with this was we were estimating rights of we okay I need I I with something that I wish we had done last year got a Scout project or something there's a set of maps of the town that are available tax maps that if you zoom in on on any Street it'll tell you what the right of way is to that street so somehow we need to trans have somewh going through that and taking a map of the C of the town so that we have here's a map and here's for the right way of all these streets the county has GIS data you can just plug it in anywhere and it'll show you all the lot lines right away you don't have to do anything how wide the street is still to know wide that's right away on that street no it'll tell you based on you could see you'll see the lot lines and you can overlay it on a satellite map and it'll tell you exactly do you need a number for people to know when they're driving around looking at trees this here's a street what's the right away on this street yeah but sometimes the streets are offset sometimes right away is 5et 15t on the other side then you're never going to get them right because you got to ignore that information going around okay because we gave them we actually gave them access to GIS data also they had this that's how they created enough yeah all right% every every little bit helps all right so the the next one actually you know at this point I think that three and four I'm sorry three and five on our agenda the storm water ordinance and imperious cover I think going forward we're just going to combine them um the last I heard on the impervious cover ordinance was that it had been moved forward in October they had introduced it but they were going to make some modifications to it and I think it would need to be reintroduced so they didn't do anything else with it so they're going to wait until January so I have not seen a revised version of it in a while it's been it's been a long while the original one said 40% was the maximum and Margie said it was going to be increased yes it was going to be increased um I think to I don't remember remember but it was um there were some little a is 40 or for like because obviously each Z is different no was they were going to drop it across all the zones it was going to be fairly standard I think wow yes that's scary yeah if you buy 3,800 Square 38,000 foot lot now it's 75% perious coverage it's like 29,000 Square ft it's going to drop to 40 you're not getting their swimming pool and kazos well you have to get a variance yeah wow and when does this get implemented I mean if they if they reintroduce it the way they intend to and they vote on it it would be sometime in the first quarter of next year wow yeah people are going to be in a mad rush the next 12 months wait why would it be why would it take a year no yeah this year sorry I I'm I'm still in Ken Ken I uh my generation really check [Music] people just zoning certificates for pre-existing conditions you know you're gonna have thousands and thousands of well no I I I would imagine that they're when they come in for pre-existing condition as long as they're not expanding the footprint of the impervious cover but you know um but it's I think one of the other changes and I'm I might get this wrong originally was going to be of the buildable lot area and now it's just of the lot so that will even out a little yeah yeah so I mean because I forget in in some of the zones the building are is 22% in R2 Z not right so it's tiny anyway so some some places it'll be a little more breathing room and others it'll be you know but I mean the impervious cover is is one of the the biggest drivers of the flooding that we're in town we see what the discussion council meeting yeah should we uh introduce things like if they Implement certain green infrastructure they could have a little more Herbies cover right well some towns say you know you put in perable papers and 50% that sure but you know I uh there was a town uh the town planner or manager I want to say was in clar or Westfield and he refused to accept impervious papers as impervious he's like because they're only impervious for the first few years because no one ever maintains them and to actually maintain them is a whole other thing he's like so then they're perious again so yeah the maintenance on some of them is point it is yeah I mean if you've ever looked at the maintenance even for for you know perious asphalt you have to vacuum it who's going to go out there and vacuum their parking lot like you know um so the the technology exists to make it better well right but I mean it's it's a whole other cost to the infrastructure in addition to the original infrastructure cost of Maintenance now you're adding a whole other layer and maybe that that layer is is worth it um but but but yet in most municipalities is the enforcement of the maintenance that create or lack thereof that creates all sorts of issues within the municipality yeah yes but then we're back to the flooding issues again right right and and I mean the the the downside or or the upside rather to the the very dramatic and awful flooding that we've had the last few years is that I think more people are starting to take it seriously um you know everyone's been talking about flooding and again in other parts of the state it's been getting worse for years but I think we're seeing it now even more acutely in Ocean than we had been not that there aren't neighborhoods in ocean that have not flooded Mary's neighborhood floods all the time um but I think that you know what happened back in September opened a lot of eyes to the seriousness of the issue so um so all that is to say I guess we will see what happens um at the next council meeting which is a week from today so keep an eye out for the agenda um and we'll see where that goes um and then there's also the enhanced storm waterer ordinance has been floating around there for a while I have not sorry I can't stop myself didn't it wash away it did not wash away it is uh you know bobbing up and down on the waves of bureaucracy um so we we'll investigate that one as well because for our chair of the Green Team over there that's points um when are we doing in two years uh I think we're good to probably three so we have three years to get that one done for more points well I'm going to say one year because I want two and a well how long did it take us to get our tree ordance three years anyways don't go there anyways tree could grow FAS um all right well actually then our next one is Mary if you're still with us any word on Brookside the last word was that um Greg can't send me copies of the um permission form he has to send me original so I gave him my address and I'm waiting to get those or Originals before I go around to neighbors asking them to sign it okay so nothing will happen with Brookside Gardens till that dredging gets done okay let us know if you need any on any help getting them I'm happy to to stop by town hall and pick them up and drop them off to you if that's easier no I I I gave him my address he can mail me the copy The Originals I just can't print out a bunch of copies and take them around but thank you for offering Ed all right so the next item on our agenda is our 2020 for work plan and what items we would like to see the environmental commission oh I apologize that was that was we kind of covered that in our last conversation AR our is there more no remember you asked for a list of all the permits yes and it was suppos it was due November 27th did we get yes we did with a caveat we got it in a format that is not the most useful to us right now it is a printed hard copy that does not have the ability to be unless we want to sit here for five hours and go through and cross reference and check everything it's not really in a format that we can use so I've asked and Donna was there when I asked for it so you can back me up on this for it to be presented in a digital format so that we can sort through it and it be of use to us so yes that's where we're we're at with that when did you ask what what year is month uh uh beginning of December October I feel like it was October when we started this conversation oh yeah first when did you get the thing it was just October 27th no no no I didn't get it till after Thanksgiving but didn't you ask for it October 27 yes yeah and you you said November 27th you said that was a date that's what Ken said yeah okay that was a due date so let's assume you got it on the due date okay yeah so then you asked for in at that time you asked for in a better format no this is more recent I asked for two weeks ago all right yeah yeah yeah who produce it this way H who's going produce it this way who's keep who I I'm not sure if it's a vaki and it's whoever runs the system that for the permitting oh no it's who Bill say they jungle lasers system J yeah was it jungle lasers or but does this but the person he named he named a Woman by name oh Kim doton she's in the construction Department so maybe she's the one who would be producing it sure you like you said you was going to talk with her to see if we could put together a report to give us more useful data but it's not even it's not even more useful data it's it's we got a lot of data and we got the data that we asked for how far back does it go it goes pre aurent ordinance I think it goes back five years yes I never saw it right um but but it's just it's just it's a list right but it's not a sorted list it's not a it has everything we want but not in a way for us to be what are you going to do with the list well if we were in an Excel format we could sort and right map it just well we can sort we can map but we can also get a sense of where the ordinances is falling short where the ordinance is not meeting our expectations um in terms of let's say someone is coming in with a request for to remove five trees or six trees and they're getting approved for removing all of those trees and why and and how many this goes back to a entirely separate conversation that I've been having but it is just as important is the Zoning Board of adjustment should be producing similar reports every year for the variances that they Grant so that the governing body and the planning board can take a look it's it's one thing to create the ordinance it's one thing to enforce the ordinance but then what's that great quote between the dream and the reality Falls the Shadow and figuring out you know because every ordinance has to have some give and take you know we understand that but making sure that that give and take is is within the the bounds of what the oversight Committee of the shade tree is uh envisioning is important so yes so that's where the needs of the res versus right it's it's always the balance between the needs of the environment the needs of the residents the me the down and the capacity of all of the above so anyways okay so back to our work plan though last year we had a work plan um I forgot to print it out and I had a whole little score of what we got done and what we didn't get done and um wrote it up is it on there was in the minutes yes oh it is in the minutes could you have me carry it over every month thank you DNA thank you for doing the things that I asked you to do that I forgot that are very important um so what we did get done this year was we did have further discussions on planting trees on private property there was no resolution achieved but we got further there seems to be a large appetite to do that um my my own personal feelings on it notwithstanding um the creating and tweaking of priority list of where to plant trees in town that list was creative that list was shared um there were at least two versions of that done um Scout projects we did not get any Scout projects new Scout projects done this year Don brockel and I did discuss a few of them but they didn't get done um Wildlife Gardens was on that list we not get any Gardens done wait a minute wait a minute a wait I know wild Middle School is putting in this we we the shry commission bought two Port trees that uh were very we ordered them whenever they came and um planted isn't uh Mrs Brandon because I'm pretty sure that my daughter is working with her on that as well yes featur with Megan she sent me some pictures yeah they were featured in sustainable Jersey as well um they won an award for that yeah um okay so we can we can put a half check mark on that one what is a wildlife c what does that mean you mean something for the deer to eat no it's it's more of a habitat Garden right it it's no it's for the coyotes one of the the critical things that we've lost in Suburbia is habitat for Native species and Native species aren't just the charismatic megaphon like the deer that everyone loves they're also the insects and everything else and the the Chipmunks and and birds and birds Chipmunks yeah the lbs as I refer to them if you can guess what that means I don't think we want to guess because we're being recorded right now Norm thank you moving moving on other types of animals um so so creating taking spaces that are being overrun by invasives and converting them back to Native species or taking wwns and converting them and I know that it's happening um privately in fact there was the documentary done on a house on Sunset that has a Garden that is featured in documentary that they did wonderful native plantings oh I should know the Garden Club screen did yes the Garden Club screen did yeah um that's true go through my emails to find exct thing if you'd like me to if you could yeah because that is actually one of the things um that I think would be good for us to do would be the screening what you say about spider l fly so now I'm sure that they're done laying all their eggs so they they even give away all over this place this kind of a thick credit card you're supposed to scrape the eggs off into something and then throw it out in your garbage if you just scrape them off the tree which might have work with Gypsy M want sure but let him go on the ground it's not going to matter then it's still hatch but you get scrape them off the trees and throw them out and get them in the garbage you know put them in some kind of contain I had him on a fig tree this spring stuff on the other side I had it on another tree okay if you see something that looks like all this gooey stuff under something this that tree got SP landf it's this honey like stuff that they that's how I notice the thing so I had this tree I it's a pretty big tree about 4 [Music] 12 but anyway the point is there they were right so I had to ask them come and the guy came and sprayed the tree I think it CST me 150 bucks comes sprays the tree about head high there's a bark penetrant and this stuff called transect okay he sprayed it about 10:45 and about 12:15 they were dropping dead off the tree wow and and kep to be dropping dead I think it's the thing got moved up the tree and for a couple months but uh so I'm hoping that they didn't get through the but that was just mention right and we did do awareness of the spotter Lantern fly at the greenfest last year so we didn't do a lunch and L that's another half check we did awareness but not at a lunch and Lear um the meadow was mow this year and we want to identify another spot in town we did identify that parcel on Monmouth this is the parcel we talk about planting trees on and mewing and possibly replanting more densely it's 7even right just north of the 7-Eleven Yeah well yeah just north of that because that whole area is part of a a flood plane too um Faith was in here talking about that the flooding that they're having over there so we talk about doing things someone in town I forget who when said that no you not touching that property some years well I'm I'm really okay not touching that property at all letting it Meadow that would be great so we're sending DPW out there to mow it for I don't know why yeah seems like a not great use of resources when we can help create we get so what do we who do we contact to I mean to get it official maybe the council has to make resolution I think it's probably the town manager and and DPW I feel like that's an easy enough one and they can save on fuel costs and labor and all those things so now it's going to be a meadow so do we actually fence it off in some way no we want animals to go through there well I mean doesn't have to be solid I vehicular traffic and something who knows driving through a lot of meows days C I don't know people cut through their with the with their cars what anything wa that whole area big sale in itop down I mean they I remember seeing kids in the snow sleigh riding down that Hill I mean you don't drive a car down now well people do Park up there where where P up on the C parked in the grass across from the houses okay about the same place yes yes we are the street from homes side street yeah there's some homes in there Street oh it's overflow par well so maybe maybe we do defense it so okay that's I'm saying let's talk start with yeah we start with if you don't itain as a mle like like all those trees that came up and you stop mowing then you're going to get a lot of trees big trees there yeah so so that's that's what our work plan was for last year I think we got half so what well no but what are we going to do for 2024 that's the conversation I know you're very excited to talk about PL but what what would we like [Music] to hold wait a sec if you're looking for idea I'd like to see a Scout project build a model rain Garden near the parking lot that J L apart so that other people can and see what a rain Garden is okay anybody else have uh project ideas that we want to see done get done in 2024 and if you want to think about them we don't have to finalize this tonight we can do this at the next meeting but I want to start thinking things that we can do things that we can go back to the council and share things that we can go back to our neighbors and share and educate oh yes you said neighbors um more like dog waist basket okay in one there's like certain locations people have brought to my attention especially like the intersection of North bamasa Drive and witho I guess it's a very popular place to walk your dog over the bridge with lollipop P aren't there already ones and there AR waist baskets I think like this closest one is at like the byx pizza okay I know it's like 20 yards away but I guess I don't know and there's that weird little pocket park there too yeah which is a which is an adoped spot but I guess that's the prime location for a waste basket okay and I have a I have a suggestion yeah Mary um we've talked about doing uh Native Plant Gardens in town and I I assume we the commission would be them on public lands but we also should consider doing a public Outreach to uh educate our residents about the importance of making their own property as native as possible the benefits to um flood control to Wildlife coming into the area I mean I I I I can't name them all right now but we should reach that out and then maybe bring in some education on how the how to to do it or have a model Garden somewhere in town that people can be looking at could be a collab with the garden collab yeah and we can screen their movie yeah okay so it's in the it's I sent it to you it's like in the Garden State or something called but I texted it and her name she's a local filmmaker awesome yeah maybe we can get her to come and present to the environmental Commision as well there's also a native plant Association in the area and we might want to work you know ask them to work with us also and an Jack had an article on it this year in their magazine so that's another uh place that we could reach out to to to see what kind of help might be available in doing this all right sounds good okay other ideas suggestions um increase engagement for greenest yes so what we got eight booths last year yeah and maybe 150 people total of 10 days we're a town of 27,000 people I feel like we should have at least a thousand people that so Earth Day is Monday this year so will green pest be the 21st at Saturday no we're going to push it to may may okay but will you run with like the Earth Day Green Fest yeah I mean you know it might be good marketing way depending when it is if it's I got to see what this is because it's point where they don't keep the trees at Tre a point where it's the last week I forget where it is says we're looking at May 19th last Sunday so it's after Mother's Day Before Memorial Day um so I pushed off about a month because also what I do usually do that feel like the warmer weather will drive more people to come saying it wouldn't but but then again it's Tre we always do the tree giveaway separately too right we did that we've done that would you need like um besides for vendors who need like entertainment people that don't need services for that yeah um I already have like a few local bands that have reached out and they want to perform there which would be nice to drive people to come that is people like to do things with their kids yeah so I think we should have like a few vendors that like do like interactive things for kids like face painting tattoos yeah you reached out to um ter cycle or Maza I know Maza comes out tou a yeah I haven't done a lot with it yet you know I was just curious if you had relationships that's another thing I need help with okay yes you [Music] knower but you might reach out and talk to the guy that run sweet Joe's because then you could tie into that hole with Nicks and sweet Joe's and stuff and the and the gallery that opened there you find a lot of people sitting out there in the evenings in the neighborhood and maybe we can hook try to use that as a hook to bring more all right I name you vice president in charge all right so greenfest engagement is on the list um everyone else can can think about some ideas and if you want to email them we'll we'll work on finalizing this for next at our next meeting in Fe so Norm plans up PL put in [Music] Billard okay that's that's on the southbound side of that's on the southbound side of 35 and this is the uh what call like the to place this is the middle Brook is over here MH there that tunel place that used to be a lazy boy Place whatever it was this is right here okay I'm not sure what's there now oh those buildings below it just got demolished correct I don't know I'm not sure what's going on is this right north of air yeah yeah they want to put limiting the number of billboard Billboards and that probably speak that I don't how many is from the other one the billboard itself each billboard each billboard is 14t high and 48t wide an electronic electronic and it's one two we one oneth one in South those Billboards generate each each Advertiser they they charge by $3,000 $10,000 a month something the same woman is the 100% owner of name okay the next one is just North of same southb side but this is no this is way anymore okay this is right over here this is the at store this is M discount is that Orchard Plaza that's Orchard Plaza okay so right here whatever that is I'm that's the shop or the boiler shop the boiler so that's what that is now but that's the same thing you know 14 by 48 Varian listed here [Music] I she bought this property solely to put a bbard on it or there no plans the name of the company is IAT services and the Ia stands [Music] for what do they want to do they need okay all right so what was the third one the third one the third one is a synagogue of some kind or South Lincoln on a corner lot I can't remember what the side street was the Red School okay it's a very big building it's like a three-story building now and they're going to cover more more ground but it's going to be a TW story building so it's another you know it's going to be is it is it going to zoning or planning I think they will going zoning okay well may be that may be pretty soon this one's got various uh non nonconforming use things and so on that's going to Zing you know I mean this you know for the Billboards actually one of them didn't even fill out the whole application so the other one shouldn't be going to zoning if the obligations for is what's our what's our concern about yeah I I other than then light pollution yeah that'ss and yeah we don't have a a viewshed ordinance in town so I mean that's not sign it says use VAR for two principal uses so what are the other uses I mean light okay see that's what it says on on the thing there and then it says refer to CO2 I mean for light pollution could just say like we recommend that they lower the brightness of the billboard at night to like a certain a certain if anyone's got any comments on question have toate yeah all right so I don't want to rush this long but it is after nine um well just uh for the the planning board update we had a second what was it a seven minute meeting in December um mostly just to to approve the two uh ordinances that were uh sent To Us by the council so that they could vote on them in December meeting um so um yeah so what's the organization of the planning board going to be so currently Jeff Weinstein is the chair and I am the vice chair of the planning board there we do not have any and Jack is also on the planning board we do not have any Lis on with the zoning board right now which is something that we are working on um I've reached out um Again part of my one of my personal pushes is to make sure that the annual report from the Zoning Board gets done so that it can be reviewed um and we need to know what's going on over there as well so um we're working on that but they're yeah Jack had to get off the planning board and made my life diff I'm sorry the zoning board made my life difficult meor how is aside from is hey is hold on is this is this an environmental commission one right now cuz if not you guys can talk in and Don yeah second all in favor you everyone