all right welcome to Township of Sparta environmental Commission meeting for Thursday July 25th 2024 uh meeting is called to order at 701 adequate notice of this meeting was provided to the public and the Press on January 5th 2024 by delivering to the press and posting to the township website a copy of the notice um we are live in the council chambers at the municipal building and also at www.youtube.com SL spart wpst streams um Christine will you please do the roll call councilman Daniel cherell I'm here chairwoman Kimberly noell here Vice chair Neil sarne here Christine dumbar I'm here Ted G here Christine Rogers here Linda Tower here Barbara kazaka Landon tener here Robert Otto here Arn Solace please join me in the saluting the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you all right we do have minutes of June 13 2024 for approval do I have a motion to approve the minutes I I'll make the motion to approve the minutes of June 13 2024 do I have a second I'll second Neil thank you all in favor I I I no discussion all right um we have have no correspondence um next up is application we have one application for Willow Tree Therapy Services LLC um they're not it's a change of lease so it's just a new um renter of that space did anybody have any comments on that or questions or concerns the only thing I noticed was is the lighting running all night long so I thought we might want to suggest a period of time that it goes off or be dimmed is the lighting downward facing it is downward facing but still of course yes yeah all right okay um public comment no one is here from the public um reports who would like to go first I will go okay thank you Chris I did forget my notes but um I can add some things um what I shared with the planning board that evening was that were the five goals of the open space that that was shared um and there was no comment on that and the other thing I advocated for was your um assessment the inventory for baringer because that was um exactly at opposition of what the um baringer attorney I believe uh sent back to us right and so I commented on how you know both of us can be looking at the same property and see so things so differently and that I saw this as being a treasured area because it's sitting right on top at least um underneath is the aquifer of the Wallkill and the pollen skill so this would be the most unlikely place to be having a development and asking for a variance and also that it is so close to um a well hit also and so um he said in his report which I left at home that he believed that there certain Z two zones This was um a part of two zoning areas and they weren't the same ones as we had indicated it was part of so he believed these were the correct zoning areas and I said we should go on more than belief when we're talking about these things in this critical area because it is a critical area so I tried to Advocate um you know for us um and it seems like every place along that aand way they're asking for a variance a variance a variance and it's just it's just got to stop but we don't support it yeah um where is the application now in that process was that the first hearing I think we heard all of the application okay yeah no okay anything else oh um no I don't think so that was the kind of the main thing thank you Neil or Dan who wants to go next me Dan Dan next okay um I've got a couple things I actually took a pen had a couple things time um so uh on four things we could talk about first I think U most impactful from the meeting from th Tuesday was the master plan funding was rejected by the council it required a to a majority a super majority which uh is 2/3 which for our council is four yes votes and it only received three so the master plan funding was rejected um the primary objection to the no for the no votes was that one of the council members put uh a series of restrictions on how the um professionals could access the the the funds that were trying to perform or trying to put into place um and um we kind of met that person 90% of the way there but it um there were um still reservations and um led to a no vote so uh for right now um I think the project is I don't want to say dead but it's um it's been voted there's no funding for the project so I don't think it proceeds from this point forward it's possible it could be reintroduced uh later this year we even next year but um for right now the master plan um is on the Shelf uh the council also created a Trails committee and uh we had three applicants which we named name to the trails committee one of them is with us tonight um thank you um I I believe we will also name at the next meeting uh which the council will next meet August 27th not we're going to skip the second the first or the second Tuesday meeting in of the month of August and go to the fourth one uh at that point we'll name a council one or more Council leaz on to the committee and then we can get the committee started um the other thing that received a lot of discussion at the last meeting was posos regulations so these I I don't remember what posos stands for if anybody knows [Music] floor well chemical well that's not does the f stand for forever and I don't see yeah whatever so poly floral ethyl whatever um so the these are as as um as Mr a notes say are these are forever chemicals the government the federal government recently lowered the allowable limit and it's like per trillion right they're measured in it was a pretty big number that's what he said and I think the limit went from 11 per trillion to four or to six something like that might be the testing level could think it's perhaps so I'm not up on that so I don't want to provide too many numbers because I'm I might be wrong but in any case uh we were in compliance before the levels were lowered and now spart it is not and so um we need to do something about it um and this is not this is not a simple process and it's a very expensive process and so the town right now is embarking on a plan for how to approach this and and the plan isn't is simply as just put new filters on and filter out all that P stuff and you're good um these filters are expensive uh we do have um close to two dozen wells in town I don't know exactly how many but um it's um almost 20 I believe or maybe just a little bit more than 20 and some of them have higher level testing than others and so maybe some some of the wells that test High maybe we take those offline and some of the ones that test low we we you know um accentuate those or put filters on those and so there's there's a there's a plan that we're working on to try to figure what's the best way to approach this thing and least uh with the least cost one of the things we also did is uh as a Township as municipality we joined a class action suit and we did this a month earlier this year uh and with a number of municipalities seeking remedy for the expenses that we're going to incur uh primarily from the chemical polluters or the chem the chemical companies that are responsible for putting the posos chemicals into our system um poly floro Al uh alkal alkal substances thank you thank you sir um so um that we're hoping that that act that class action lawsuit would help us recoup some of the costs that we anticipate having to Bear for the remedy of the um of the uh the new legislation Dan before you move on the wells are Township Wells Municipal Wells correct okay so anybody with a private well they have to do their own testing private Wells are not covered by these are these are people on the township uh Municipal Water System okay uh that's a good point though so if um you you might have to have your own well tested and you might need to put your own remedies in place if you have your own well water yeah um now our our water system has 19 different um water tanks something in that area give or take a couple um almost the same number of Wells I think just um by happen stance uh but the the system is interconnected so it's not 1: one or 2: one or 1: three you know we can pretty much draw water from any well and put into any where the the um the tank in in town is low I it might not be 100% connected but there is a lot of interconnectivity um that has to be factored into place too when we figure out our plan um anyway it's a it's a difficult plan a difficult process a problem to solve and it's going to take a while to solve and we're working on it another question about that was do we know where the source of the P are well every well will have some level of contamination they'll test for right meaning they some will be higher than others they didn't go to the tanks and the and the the water in the tank is bad but the water coming out of the well is good I think these are all from the source from the well they went to the Wells okay I'm I can't be 100% certain but that's my understanding okay um so um I and I can't tell you if every single one of our wells had some Trace amount maybe some might be zero I'm not sure but I do know that some wells tested higher than others uh for for this uh and that's you know factors into how we how we address it so just some like I said if there's a a well that's a real problem that would cost a lot of money to resolve maybe we take that well offline yeah and again um we don't know who in the township leads this effort well ultimately it's the manager the township manager but the um you know the water department uh is primarily taking the lead because they're closest to it um for this plan and our Engineers also involved the thought that all these pabs is just coming from the Environ yesal environment but I mean like how are they well these are not natural chemicals so they're unstick stain resistant any basically anything that's so like when people are just doing their regular old washing their clothes getting dry clean class action lawsuit that I don't know but it's a it's a large group of municipalities but who are you suing in the class action La I think one of the primary defendants is daoo but I'm not again I'm not sure I'm I'm in deep end of the pool dupond again I don't want to name names because I might be wrong and I might be naming company names that's erroneously and I and I apologize if if I did Mis state if these were not part of the suit but um the answer is I don't know so is the suit to um recoup costs from the filtration of the municipal water for the filtration right so is there an opportunity to consider uh uh like for instance we just heard how there's development over recharge area or near aquifer areas so those would be areas that would be likely the shortest distance of the aquafer into the recharge area would accept contamination the most readily so it's maybe something that we should consider while while you guys are undergoing kind of getting it out of the drinking water is to look at how we can uh consider keeping it from entering yeah that's probably part of the plan uh it's not part of the class action lawsuit again the the the the lawyers for the plaintiff are um big boy lawyers that are I don't know what their office is um but it's a national lawsuit So speaking of Big Boy lawyers I guess just would not suing the producers of it but maybe we have to consider our development guidelines and distances from aquafers and recharge areas just in the future so there's I think I see two things in that one is um do we seek remedy from local sources of contamination and I think the answer is no I these are National lawsuits and I think they're going after the actual manufacturers of those chemicals the chemical companies themselves uh but secondly maybe more to your point um if we do see that there is some um local contamination source that we we may be able to um amarate um if there is a a source that happens to be close to a runoff that could lead into our recharge area um the answer is I don't know but that's a good idea U if that would factor into our plan to say if there are local sources of contamination Maybe we um put some restrictions there I don't know if that's even the case I'm not saying they're local sources but with what they're in uh firefighting chemicals and turnout gear sure there's there's there's a couple what ifs we could follow through so just yep could be brake pads you know from you know breaking a car and so proximity to uh paved areas and again distance to so I guess when we're talking about storm water management I guess that's the thing right now we have guidelines and you know things that are prolongated from the state and the FED about green infrastructure and storm water guidelines so we might maybe just put a pin in that like we want to look at past uh and just add that to our list of things to be consider considering because it's not just sediments it's not just Road salts it's forever chemicals that are in their ubiquitous in man-made products yep that is interesting point um two comments on this sure um one especially considering the U master plan is uh the funding has been turned down could there be a larger effort to look at an because I think I remember them having a water um a runoff assessment that like a townwide study of um uh you know runoff and and um funding for uh to look at those pieces especially when we're talking about bar being infected our wells being infected um that's an interesting thought um and two will the water department and town manager and engineer be reaching out to everybody with private well to have this discussion the answer is that I don't know but I will raise that with the manager um and again I'm I'm not a hydrologist I I can't tell you what the impact of storm water would be on posos maybe it's maybe that's not a thing but um I don't want to pretend that I know but I will I will um that's a good point I will raise both of those things with the township manager along with storm water assess as to storm water assessment um there uh this is going back four or five years um the at the state level um the state passed a um laws or regulations that allowed municipalities to set up storm water utilities um so um right now um you know municipalities provide services and one of the services we provide is water for people um but uh since people use water at different rates uh we don't uh we we pay for water as you consume it it's in your water bill um we also provide a garbage pickup and um that's also so on a consumption basis and so um the uh that's done through a utility uh people not everybody uses the sewer so that anybody use the sewer and again people use the sewers at different rates so the sewers uh have a rate that we charge per you know gallon uh and that's done with uh through utility um things that are if you were to charge for sewers across in your taxes like anything else that means everybody would pay the same amount you know per you know unit of of Taxation uh regardless of how you cons how much you consume so if if my House's success is the same as my neighbor's house would L the same size but I'm really good about using water and I I try to use as little as possible my neighbor lets the toilets run all day long if it were done through uh property taxes we would all pay the same arrate if our hous assess the same but um since uh but since it's a consumption based utility we pay as we consume it the reason I bring that up is these the the storm water utility would allow people that that would use the storm water system service more utility more to pay more um so someone who owns a relatively smaller property that's discharging less um would um instead um would pay less than send a large parking lot um where that puts a lot of stress on the storm water system um in any case uh the township council at that time a number of years ago voted to um never ever ever consider this um so um and I'm I was the Lone no vote on that um um so I that might be and I bring this up um not to Pat myself in the back but I still think there was the way to uh vote on that but uh it's possible that a storm water utility and some stormw assessment and some stormwater um way of looking at this problem could play a role um so I'll I'll bring that up again and then I'm not suggesting that we we Implement a storm water utility but I think that should be a card on the table absolutely yeah and it's a way to reward businesses for not creating more impermeability yep and it's actually a way to there are ways that you can as IND individually in your in your um property can buy down your storm water assessment like if you implemented storm water capture systems your your rate your assessment and your utility would go down and so you can have some control over how much you'll you'll pay uh for storm water uh and some somebody who doesn't want to put those capture systems in would pay more um so um if you remember it was somebody had created a snide remark and called it the Rain Tax and that would became the thing that's what this that's what defeated this um uh would you believe they're taxing rain um but um in any case so I I will bring those are two good suggestions and I'll bring those to the attention of the township manager um I don't want to use up the entire meeting but the last thing I'll mention real quick is that uh and we talked about this a little bit last meeting uh we do have a student liazon a position that is up for Renewal and uh the uh Township um manager assistant manager was asking about um how we post this thing if we have a if we have a an example or a a press release or something that we could send out to the media to advertise or socialize that this position is open um and I thought that would fall upon this group to come up with something and we're not talking about you know a big work of Nobel literature we're just talking about a paragraph or two to introduce what this would be so if somebody wants to take this on at for the commission to put something together that we can socialize on our website um U press release whatever to say that you this position is open if you want please apply I think that would be helpful and that's all my update how did we get our current student um was there something written for that or how did that come we're looking to see when that I um I haven't looked very hard but um that was the first question is what did we do last time I'm like I don't remember but so we're looking around I thought I I read something I wrote something last time but I just briefly spent five minutes looking for it I couldn't find it so I'll look also okay thank you if not I'm sure I could write something and very quickly um Neil well the master plan subcommittee met last week on the 18th and it's pretty much moot right now um as Dan explained uh the funding was uh V voted down uh we do remain optimistic that uh an agreement can be reached uh maybe in the next couple of meetings I don't know how How likely that is but that's you know only be optimistic otherwise the uh there was a website that was ready to go um with a survey uh and it's um it's already been designed there it's a hub that'll U you know include the previous Master plans and surveys and how how we get to things so so hopefully that'll come about you know I just recurred to me um the Highland's Council was scheduled to um review this thing at their next meeting to Pro to approve a grant that we requested to cover the cost of the master plan right which I guess becomes moot now well I don't know if it does because it it would be would proactively approve it maybe well I mean it would give us some funding to to continue wouldn't it because that's actually a good point if we if the council did did the council voted to not secure the funds but somebody put the funds in our lap right I don't know that's a good question yeah because they only voted down the funds they only voted down the fund right and and that was a $300,000 uh amount that the township was going to provide but we had a our Grant application was for something like 100 607 something like and that would you know that would be adequate to keep us yes in fact out of the 300,000 160 of it or maybe it was 170 I'm not sure was for the actual plan itself the remaining amount of3 140 uh was to be used for reviewing all all of the ordinances to make sure they comport with the master plan because all of our ordinances have to comport with the master plan and so if the master plan changes you have to make sure your ordinances are still good and so that is going to take some time and some effort with some uh professionals and so um that's that second part U was for but the first part that first trch was for the grant for the plant itself and it's a good point if the we get the grant maybe it's back on I would hope so as well Juna but I I'll bring that up as well and would that be worth um a discussion with the highlands commission so they know exactly where we stand before they decide whether or not to approve grant money I I would imagine it would make them want to approve the application that much more interesting thought yeah don't know this is the highlands Council right not the council yeah good points I will get my best man on it that you that's the joke all right quick next Landon once the trails commission gets off we'll be asking for your reports too cool that' be great cool thank you all right I didn't miss any thing out okay unfinished business so the open space um subcommittee uh has been we've we've had a quiet period because basically the uh Land Conservancy of New Jersey has gotten most of the materials that they needed and has been diligently working to put everything together um into um the inventory as well as um prioritizing the sites Etc so hopefully by the end of August we should have our draft document um the only thing I think they were still waiting on was a group of properties that had been identified in our 2003 open space plan as having cluster ordinances do you know if they got that information on it from the tax assessor's office has been working on it been working on it looking to get the block and lot numbers okay great talked about it today with Dory and Michelle and once we get those walk and lock we can okay go forward and may need to dig into some resolutions Department okay sounds good um when does the survey shut down or has it already been no it has not shut down yet um know what date what day she was going to leave it open till the end of this month okay yeah so that was what I was going to perfect segue um the survey was uh posted online in several different forms through Facebook it was posted by the township thank you very much Jim um on our website as well as it was sent out um by some other uh organizations in town to try to get as much input from the community as possible um last herd we had over 150 there's probably and that was like two weeks ago so there's probably way more at this point so that's good it's great to have some more input from as much as the community as possible um still very disappointed that the master plan funding did not go through of course but that does not negate the work that we're doing on the open space plan it's still um going to help a number in a number of ways so plugging away any comments or questions or anything you'd add Christine um not really it's it is very disappointing not to to um have the support of Our Own Town Council in almost full but um you know I'm grateful for those who did um you know vote for the funding and I'm just I just unclear why there is a concern about the management I know that that is often a concern about funding and the management of funds but um there still is the fact the fact remains that probably to have I've looked at many Master plans throughout the Palo Watershed and none of them are as old as ours and our community has evolved now and we have more science-based evidence now you know um and so I mean our master plan is good I have read it it's like 88 Pages or so and it's a good master plan but it's not a master master plan for the times or the future and so um so that that's disappointing um and I'm I I listened to what you said Dan but but I still don't understand why this should be a a thorn in our side and going forward um it's very timely now because um you know we're doing the open space and Recreation review which can be incorporated into to our new master plan so that's another you know disappointment but I am confident that we will get funded for that master plan we will yeah any other comments questions on the open space planning all right Municipal tree replacement ordinance Barbara um had an emergency and so couldn't be here tonight she's fine just couldn't come tonight so don't want to scare anybody um but we if anybody has comments I'm happy to take them then we can put together another version um the comments the new commented version will then go to Jim and our attorney for review um and then it goes back to us and then um through the process here uh for review if the of the the Town Council wants to take it up um so did anybody have a chance to review it and want to talk up to any comments or questions on it now I just was wondering if this was a model ordinance um from another town perhaps that we've adopted um for our town or um how did the basic structure you know come about with I thought it came from anjac that's a good source y that's where the um that's where the dirty dirt or yep I know that you were looking for lists like concrete lists of native trees that could be used for like different sizes and different conditions and I sent you some good PDFs okay great can be used thank you Linda all right if you have any comments that you do want to send my way feel free to do so after tonight and we'll hopefully by mid next week have a revised version um okay other unfinished business so green team we talked about last time creating a or utilizing the Green Team a bit more and maybe having activities or somebody who would kind of take on the role of like a captain or whatever you want to call yourself right uh maybe helping the Green Team maybe do a bit more things and then I think there was some ideas about um what the Green Team could potentially be doing so um an invasive Strike Team invasive plant should be plant Strike Team um adopt a site potentially the Green Team could adopt a site or sites Trail maintenance um if there was somebody in interested in doing guided hikes of some kind or group kayaking those are just some ideas I think I heard from various folks about salt testing we did oh yeah more salt testing we did send that out this past year to the um to the Green Team and I think I think we got at least one participant from the green team that did the salt testing with us they do is there a green team captain no we we talked about creating that role is that something you want to do Neil I wasn't volunteering you weren't volunteering okay but no we I mean that was kind of the thought is send out an email to the entire Green Team and maybe post on the website right hey we're thinking about if anybody's interested in taking a lead leadership role here here's some ideas or you know what what what are people interested in kind of like getting actually flip the switch rather than have someone here be the captain maybe the Green Team become has a captain and that green team member would be a Le on that's what I was thinking when I asked the question I thought maybe we would we had somebody already but and then we have to we need another chair yeah the one back here yeah but I I think that's a good idea too because it almost puts um an obligation on the green team as well and allows them to be a little bit self-sufficient so we're not necessarily so Hands-On and almost guiding them as well it allows them to kind of independently create maybe some of their own ideas that we haven't listed down here but I think we should really push for that I I think this committee should still guide them oh I agree for sure but it also them going off on doing their own stuff and you don't know what that might be but yeah right like we can come up with projects and that type of thing and talk to the leaders but then it would be their responsibility to to meet the volunteers on a weekend morning and you know call the parks department to let them know where the garbage bags are so they could be picked up you know in a timely manner and that type of thing um which I would I would be happy to work with a volunteer but I can't volunteer to organize all the volunteers events if that makes sense yeah like I'm happy to show up but I don't know that I could organize a bunch of things right yeah well I mean I could help them organize with the town and and find spots and and develop projects and make sure that they know what they're doing but I don't want to be emailing and recruiting volunteers and um showing up on a Saturday that's the captain yeah yeah I could help the captain yeah set up the projects but gotta the deputy but I think another way we can think of the captain is maybe we organize the first couple events and we see who attends who's on time who's responsive and maybe that Captain bubbles up and we see who's good in the group and we can kind of hey would you want to be a captain rather than some people volunteer for stuff and they don't follow through so because I do a lot of planning events even in my job the captain role that we're talking about is a heck of a a lot of work so we just want to make sure that we have someone good and can communicate and we'll go back to the group and actually do the follow through because if it doesn't happen the parks department will be annoyed that you know garbage is being collected and they weren't told or if people are in the park and you know not doing something they're not supposed to be doing I mean that could just cause trouble for the town so I think we just want to make sure that we have a a good captain of the Green Team there's also like the stepping away from this volunteer like physical in the park you know uh unless we're talking about like just like a like an environmental group or something like that that has the built-in Captain but just the idea of like developing um the programming um whether it's like speakers at these meetings that that the public might be interested in on native plants or like walks um in you know the open space we do have just to develop more of an environmental Community um around you know what we're doing and the assets that we really have already um and I think that might be another way to look at the Green Team and might also be very important the green team is a Workforce that's what they're they're for they're a labor force um so I think we just say Point them in Direction go and that's clean up this me whatever the parks department does not want them to clean up they said the parks are very clean but there but there are a lot of invasive 100% there's a lot of um invasive removals to do and adopt a site to do but it's not going to be as simple as you know Point them to garbage because they're not a clean up team right but they're they're they're a labor force of other RS and and that Captain will have a seat here so we'll be able to keep an eye on that Captain right and make sure that they're they're doing report but I I see uh the Green Team also in another light I see it as um a group of individuals that want to do community science such as the road salt or doing some sort of water Tes are they're concerned with yeah Community sence yeah so um that may be a draw also it's just not a labor force you know it also can be a creative Force also you know you could have them design something also that that promotes best management practices for distribution or it would be wouldn't it be great if we had one of the silos like the one that's on 181 you know somebody designed that like they have Lafayette that's just you know with a message a very powerful Green Team message you know on that Lafayette has as a theme Farms but you know we could come up with a green team so are we saying that they would actually be expected to attend all of our meetings because the captain I think would be here but then how like how is that how are they distinguished from a member of the environmental commission well I said they're a labor force um I'm looking it up now a green team has a defined purpose and according to the sustainable Jersey um uh green teams provide the leadership to develop plans Implement programs and assist with educational opportunities that support the creation of a sustainable Community the student liaison team so maybe they don't come us off and I have one U process question I think we just also need to make sure whatever kind of waiver would need to be signed maybe like green team members can sign an overall waiver that if they're participating in multiple events at multiple Town sites they could do that one time um rather than I don't know what would be required waiver wise but it would be good if if they just sign and it's an all-encompassing waiver potentially for any event that they would be involved in throughout the year green teams differ from Conservancy boards and environmental committees and commissions and planning commissions because the focus is on completing actions required for sustainable Jersey certification It also says here they're appointed by the mayor and city council I don't know if we did that no we didn't do we have a a list of green team members yes an email list might be nice to just email them and say these are the three volunteer positions we're looking for like and then start the conversations whatever those three volunteer positions are uh of someone who's going to organize uh walks someone's that that's going to organize volunteer events and someone that's going to help with the education piece or citizen Finance piece well well it says here the focus is on completing actions required for sustainable Jersey certification so that's our like Constitution that's our North Star right sustainable Jersey so I think all those three things are in this okay perfect I'm not I think that so I'll take I'll take the lead on um seeing how our green team is is established according to our ordinances uh and U making sure that if we have if it you know we have to have a city council appointment then we'll make sure the council does that um I'll take the next steps on this and okay I'll get back to you all right thank you and um Linda I was going to say I if somebody's interested in doing it I think we should kind of we could come out with ideas but I would like them to say like oh I'm really interested in butterflies okay well what what are your thoughts on as long as the butterflies checks one of the sustainable Jersey boxes right and it's not an invasive species of butterfly exactly from Africa or the spotted Lantern butterflies no all right great I think we have some and can somebody get me a list of those green team members Christine you have that I yes I do believe I do is it like 10 or 100 or 50 or between 10 and 100 like wait how many I mean I'm just ballpark is it like four one say like eight or 10 okay is that all okay I thought it was more like 50 50 because didn't you get some from this this year's um spart day oh no you weren't doing um green team sign up no I mean we we took like some names and stuff like that okay we were really promoting the um open space meeting and yeah I'm I'm sure you had plenty to talk about it that wasn't a dig in any way I'll find lend it to you thank you all right great ideas um EV research and I haven't had time to uh do much more with that but that brings up something that um that's all shame Neil now I'm kidding you were driving around track that brings up something that uh was mentioned that the uh the township manager mentioned uh at the council meeting on Tuesday um that um the the state mandates for uh EV vehicles and trucks he did say that didn't he and I was wondering that's what I'd like to know like what specifically are the mandates because I I'm I'm not aware of any I'm aware of the push for it but not anything in particular so I was wondering how to find uh you know what the what the specifics of those are and how we can might be able to help as far as grants let's just ask Jim yeah that's what I thought okay yeah um I recently got an electronic Mower and I love it I actually like mowing now been using one too for a while you mean a cordless electric battery yeah yeah battery powered yeah it's awesome I have a corded one they're a lot quieter A lot quieter yeah is it mulching too does it mulch yes yeah that's the best part about i' I'd never rake any leaves I just mulch them yep well don't mulch your leaves because that's where the the lightning bugs are well I leave some I leave a layer on at the end of the year all right I know that all right um somebody had new business and I don't remember I didn't write it down so somebody had a new business item they wanted to talk about oh I just I was on the state agriculture development committee virtual meeting and just I think uh awesome Acres the Wilson Property got preliminary approval to uh look into State um acquisition of that property so think they're moving on to next steps that's great news um so the next steps are do we know what they are I think they have to figure out of of value right appraisal was the next step I think I forget what the appraisal like didn't Jack degre was saying that they redid the appraisal guidelines for the funding but there's significant funding available so obviously and I well so we just want to hope that the appraisal comes in with a number that the owner is happy with I guess okay I don't know what the number is yeah we'll definitely have to keep following that that's good news now if if the appraisal isn't enough would the township be able to that was my question use open open space funds to bridge when you say not enough you mean the owner says I'm like I want more money yeah yes TOS do it I know they do yeah because that's my concern well I don't know how the appraisal would go so I believe it was pointed out that you know if any person any reasonable person looks across the street and um is aware of the upcoming development pressures uh that while it might be underutilized now and farmlands uh it it might you know qualify for a higher uh value just based on where it is and what's what's been approved or being developed so I meanes two appraisals and if there's a huge discrepancy they'll get others okay Fair process all right everybody just make sure you talk in the microphones because otherwise they won't be able to hear us in the recording I didn't know if I wanted to be heard in that spectum all right um any other new business I think the county fair starts this week next weekend and I think Monday is Green Day I was going to announce that it's Green Day at the fair yeah I I saw that I thought it was the band will be there Wishful think we could be there also it's free you could yeah 10 to four maybe in the sometime in the future we can table there and think about doing it yeah I'll make a promotion for the ruter Cooperative Extension has a booth there oh nice I know a lovely person who's uh managing that work so we'll have to stop by and um I guess also I've another thing that I left at home was a flyer for a bike ride that starts at warbass that's on August 10th and it might be something that um we could publicize as it's not in spart it starts in Lafayette I don't know what our boundaries are on that but it's a familyfriendly bike ride know that day to explore the Watershed is it in support of anything or it's exploring the Watershed yeah it's it's a naturalist guided and one uh group will go towards Big Spring in Newton that's a short ride about five or six miles from warbass and the other will go all the way down to the pollen skill Lake and have a picnic and then come back nice yeah anything else for the good of Sparta's residence and the environment all right do I have a motion to adjourn a motion motion to adj Second a second Linda thank you all in favor I I when when's our next meeting it