good I'm glad that it's going be we should come to see you hi I'm not person I was compelled to write toic I passed them that way do we have more of those Maps did you hear about the County Commission meeting might be live yeah they I didn't that thank you you're on camera uh welcome to the township of Sparta environmental commission meeting of Thursday February 22nd 2024 we are live in the council chambers at the municipal building and also on W on YouTube at uh Sparta wp/ streams um this meeting is called to order at 702 adequate notice of this meeting was provided to the public and the Press on January 5th 2024 by delivering to the press and posting on the township website a copy of this notice um roll call please Christine councilman Daniel cherell I'm here chairwoman Kimberly null here Vice chair Neil swine here Christine dumbar here Ted Gul here Christine Rogers here Linda Tower here Barbara kazaka here Landon tener here Robert Otto here thank you please join me in the salute to the flag pledge allegiance to the flag of United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you um we have no minutes to approve today um we do have um three items of Correspondence actually I think it's four total with two two minutes um the first one is freshwater application wet lenss application for 19 Brumley Court um they are looking to get approval for a septic repair we've got quite a few of these recently and I did do a um environmental resource inventory for the first one at which is block 41755 and it didn't show really anything of any concern it's existing too yeah just a repair repair of existing septic can we go to that one any other comments or questions okay same with the next site at 12 Valley View Trail I did not have a chance to do an environmental resource inventory on this one because I think we just got this one today huh yeah we just got it today again it's repairing an existing septic I think we're in favor of that any comments or questions on that one no I I didn't get a chance to look that up I'm looking it up right now with the New Jersey conservation blueprint okay if I see anything I'll let us know okay thank you all right next two items are um minutes from from the Sussex County Agricultural Development board one is from November and the other one is from December do we need a minute to take a look at those anything impacting Sparta properties there was one Farm in Sparta that's looking to get approved November hson right oh it's um timber tree Valley Timber Valley Tree Farm yeah that's says free no not the one one holding well actually it does say Sparta Township so but it says also freed and Township on page two that's a different that's a different one right different one yeah it's not it's not TS maybe they own two sites because the second the page three has it in Sparta Township but it's a different motion right yeah read it starts with the the Roman numeral I think ran numeral one the motion R Roman numeral three is like the one two three paragraph down right I might be mistaken but I believe it's the one on Price is Lane by Demorest Road it's deest yes I look it up not the Timber Valley Tree Farm which one were you talking about the sparta hold that's um oh really let's Seeber belly tree was the previous one this this one ran three I got the so where was this did we did we say huh lock 12002 lot one it is 104 Demarest Road Demarest yeah they have wetlander they have um stream and well protection area tier three Y and they approved it December there was nothing no any other comments questions on those okay um we also have an application um for Titan Elite the full application is down there if we want to take the time to look at it um everything that they're trying to do is internal to the site um and adding making a couple modifications to the parking lot but not adding parking lot as far as I could tell so I I don't know if we have any comments or questions on that one either um I did do an environmental resource inventory and um the site is pretty much as you would expect it doesn't have a whole lot of environmental value at this time since it's already been built on my only question was um how an auto shop could be in there if it's zoned for um Athletics I guess they're sharing space but I still I'm surprised that that lets it become an auto shop I I was confused too is there an existing auto shop there and I think there adding the auto shop which is why they're doing work and there must the way I read it I'm not sure if it's correct that there must be an existing gym in there I thought they were adding the gym that's what wa they're adding no they're adding the the they want to add the parking spaces I believe for the that's what I thought too yeah I think there was autoshop application there that was denied a couple years ago that's kind of the way I was reading it yes because you're not allowed to have any those chemical that are associated with auto shops in this area so are you saying that there it does include that's the way I read it but but I could be wrong me look where I got that impression we want to look at the full application to be sure the only business I see reference to is a gymnastics gymnastics mention the auto State received prior Zoning Board of adjustment approvable business that consists of restoration modification of classic and performance view yeah thank you I remember that that application I mean if I don't know if it was this one but there was an application that were specific for just this and it was denied yeah so I think that's I kind of vaguely remember that too the story still here because they wanted to have a is this the one that they wanted to have a paint booth yes yeah I remember that too I it didn't it didn't get approved I don't know if it was this one but we talking about was specifically for that and it was like a 54 vo I remember yeah but rereading this it it sounds like they had a variance for classic restoration and modification of classic cars and now they're trying to put in a athletic training facility yeah Dory was just here and she was mentioning it only has to do with interior changes for leading okay I'm curious I would like to search this and find out if that's actually accurate yeah they're than here they're proposing they already have the gymnastic place there right but I would like to know if they actually do have a preliminary approval for automobile restoration any other comments questions on that one all right um we have nobody from the public here so skipping public comment uh moving on to reports who wants to go first Chris do you want to go first oh okay um yes my report is very short um that we did not um we were expecting at first to review the what I guess we had looked at Captiva that now changed to FL Holdings however that was now postponed to March 20th so that was going to take up um quite a bit of our time and I did share with them though that we did have a visit from Jack deg Groot and they seem to be very interested um in uh the possibility of preserving preserving farmland and doing the master plan so they seem to that seemed to very much pique their interest um and I did mention and they also really seem to appreciate the fact that we were having a rain barrel Workshop out here um March 23rd um I invited them to that wonderful yeah Neil or Dan you want to go next we uh the um uh master plan subcommittee met on Monday our kickoff meeting and uh basically talked about what we're going to be doing and nothing nothing other than that great a lot of work probably take a a year or more yeah I go all right so from a council perspective um a couple mention a couple things uh with regard to things that are might impact the environmental commission um there was an a resolution that the council passed the last meeting that um we had we had until last Friday as a deadline to um approve I don't know if approve is the right word because we weren't the final say that we to give comment on uh water quality management plan Amendment for the diamond chip application uh as their application change and we needed to reflect that in the water quality management plan and the council at the time voted to um uh state that we didn't have enough information to make that change or to make to uh recommend uh to either approve or um or disapprove the the plan's request um now any any approval or disapproval from the Council for the water quality management plan doesn't really have any bearing um it really uh applies as input into the de who has the final say on it and so um it's really just collecting our the council's feedback on it uh so it's not a gated um decision for that but nonetheless we the council voted to um to state that we didn't have enough information to make a a judgment at this time um we also I believe we did the it was the final approval of the student leison okay so that was last week Tuesday so we had to wait 21 days from that date in order for it to take effect and so um we in about two weeks we'll have another person sitting here in our brand new chairs um so it'll be cool um that will be March 4th okay excellent thanks um two other things of note um last year or late in the fall we started uh debate on an ordinance to uh update our uh ordinances uh for to account for short-term rentals uh we had a public discussion period we solicited comments from the public um had a u debate about the policy behind the dis and that was going to lead into a new ordinance that was never introduced until because legis legislative calendar ran out uh so that's going to be back on the table soon maybe even as early as next week uh again to um solicit input on short-term rental changes um so more on that next week um and then I believe we'll also start debate on an ordinance change to uh address um door to door solicitation um and um um I'm pretty sure that the council hasn't decided whether or not to take that up but I think that we will U maybe as early as next week um that's I think kind of it thank you so if you have any comments about either of those two ordinance changes about the short-term rentals or solicitation door to door solicitation um feel free to send me an email or show the next council meeting or or or whatever we know how to get a hold of us thank you all right uh moving on to unfinished business um so open space planning I believe we have a signed agreement now yes we do so we can actually um start working on that I wanted to propose a motion tonight that we establish the um open space planning committee we've talked about that last year but we were waiting for the rest of the process to happen before we officially um stood up that committee um and then we can also then have folks uh volunteer for that committee anybody who's interested could then volunteer and um we could start the meetings up um so do I have a second for that motion I'll second the motion okay um all in favor of an open space planning committee say I I it's like no no abstentions okay thank you um does anybody know that they would are interested in volunteering for that at this point Linda Landon and Chris all right I'm writing it down this time Rob to okay and can't have AUM yeah we can't have everybody it has to be less than um I think five less than five over nine so it has to be four has to be four four or less okay all right so I Saw Linda Chris and Landon first and then myself we'll definitely bring it back to the the entire group if that's okay all right thank you all right Road road salt testing yes um I just wanted to update you and to find out if you um are a new person who has gotten your test strips and would like to go out and locate a site and we can do an onsite sampling or reading and I can show you um at that site while looking at it making the selection um how to submit the data which is tricky so if anybody's in that situation um you know please contact me and on your sheet on the first sheet you see that um these are proposed locations where every Star is and the gold stars are the stars that where we have people monitoring there are two new gold stars and that is by Pope John student John gr who is monitoring the Pope John wetlands and also the Upper Lake so that's pretty nice and um then we have um if you notice we don't have anybody for the peak Quest or the musky uh watersheds of Sparta so if you know anybody who is in the pequest area out towards the Andover area or over um by Tomahawk Lake in the musky area that would be great because I actually do think we have um the pollen skill Wallkill and pic covered um but we could always use more if there's a stream or um surface water of concern near you that you know is getting salted on the second sheet um the system is still getting repaired um and when you log in um you may or may and indicate Sparta EC as your organization you may or may not be added to the map on the second page but this is um this is a current um locations of where there's actually data being collected and readings taken um so that's something we're working on so you can see that um that um if you look at the star map and this map they don't quite Jive yet but we'll keep working on that and then finally when you go to the the clean waterhub website and put in all of your data you are able able to access um and download uh readings but the funny thing about it is is that they give you your site name your description they give you other things like latitude and longitude and and all of this and I just kind of abbreviated the table that you see but what you do not see on this table are the parts per million so I don't know why that's not they don't do this on the table um but you can when you go to the map on the clean water Hub and you see your location you can click on it and it will give you a reading there so I just don't think they've gotten that far in their in their software yet to be able to put in that other column of information perhaps but we'll get to the bottom of that so once we get all um all of this kind of um coordinated it will be pretty soon I would say in a position to be posted somewhere online on the EC site so people can click on and they can see um the sites that are being monitored and perhaps also invited to participate because I'd like to try to recruit people all the way through February because the um project is going through the end of April so that should be enough time to order um strips and get them back in a couple of weeks and um go out even if we don't have a snowstorm if we have any storm at all to monitor before and after or at least get one reading that's a Baseline and that will set a baseline for the future and we'll always have that to compare um next year or if we do um assault snapshot another time during the year so yeah so I mean I think it's coming along um there are glitches in the system um it's a new system this year but we're on our way to collecting data we have data for three out of five Weds do you want sorry go ahead no no go ahead oh there should be another gold star Chris um I think it's the might be the red one by uh the um on this end of the lake it's a stream that comes down from viser pond I think that's what it's called how it's pronounced um right by my house you know that's what I was going to ask you before we move off this topic if if you if you are collecting data and submitting it to the Clean Water Hub and you don't see uh your location on here particularly on the the map this map right here um you know let me know right now because tomorrow or probably Monday I'll I'll get a hold of them and I'll say can you please please um look for Neil sour win's um you know his name in your database he needs he needs to be added as an EC Sparta EC uh partner I that's the thing though I I am and it's it it shows up online but it's just not here on this oh this this is a map that I made oh okay okay but you know when I go in because I'm the manager of the site it's I'm supposed to be able to go in and manage the site and the bottom they have a listing of everybody who's a member I added you today your name was there Ethan's name is there and Neil your name isn't there nobody else's name is on that are you are youed strips about a month ago and haven't gotten them yet so that's another thing I need you know I haven't gotten my strips either but it was only two weeks ago that I okay sometimes the turnaround is very fast and other times it takes because the person who distributes the strips is um the person who is helping to run the Watershed conference the seventh Watershed conference which is being held at TCNJ tomorrow so she's got a lot of responsibilities and like every nonprofit you know she's trying to do eight jobs that should be done by eight people I think what you have to do remember we were having the error with adding us to be an EC member I went in and if you look at the the help manual and follow the directions that way rather than going through the link that came when you added us to the EC I was able to get myself added so if you go to the guidance document and just follow the steps you can add Sparta EC as your um you know group that you're affiliated with and then your dot will appear on the sparta map where was the help manual um FAQ I think it's just yeah it's either in FA on website go to the it's on the website yeah but my DOT is there it it shows my readings too so it's dot on your dots on this part you see or is it on the big map of the whole it's on the on the big map on the big map of the nation I guess yeah I think that's what it is so Neil if you do like exactly what I said like with the Neil if you go in through the that help document and follow the steps you'll be added cuz I was having the same issue where I was on the one map but not on the EC map oh okay thank you if I get my strips I'll take Beach six here perfect okay you'll get them eventually yeah hopefully before April 30th yeah so work in progress but thank you and um what I noticed is is that when I walked into the building unlike a couple other townships that um I've reached out to um there's no sign on the door or or as you walk in need uh volunteers needed to monitor road salt um when you go walk into Frankfurt when you walk into Stillwater Township all of those towns that um you know are part of the pollen skill Watershed um they have that displayed but we don't so I'm just throwing that out because is there another way that can we can reach out to to people and our community because I don't think they know about this did we email it to the entire green team already I don't think we did we just asked Christine to mail did you did you email that no I don't think we ever asked her to do that would you please that'd be great and um you know if there's any other way like on the lightboard as you come in volunteers needed to monitor road salt you know if we could just do that for a week or two till the end of February you know that would be terrific to see who else we could Garner and get started with this project did you want to mention the meeting with Jim I was going to mention that we had a very um productive meeting with our town manager and um you know I was just so delighted that uh when we walked in he had all of the documentation for the inventory for the town so that's 10 points um out of the total 15 that that we can uh earn for the gold star and water quality so um so I just need to upload that to the Sustainable New Jersey and then once we get this straightened out a little bit more um we can start posting the information to the public and documenting our work um that we've been doing here um monitoring road salt and um then we'll have our other five points and that'll be a total of 15 and that's the maximum that we can earn from this um particular action yeah awesome are Chris are you uploading them yourself are you able to um I well now I have them in electronic form because Michelle sent uh the documents to me and I haven't tried to upload them I'm not sure if we can I think um Christine might have the or Michelle had had that uh access but I don't know if we had okay so how do I find I don't know I guess you could try it I could try and then if I'm not successful well you're GNA need a log on right do you have a log in you know I never was very successful in going in and logging in for our e team so then it might be something that we need to ask Michelle to do or teach Christine to do because they have to log in I'm sure and upload stuff well I would like to be able to do that you know that's something that should be easy for us to do so um you know maybe the three of us could get together or and we can show each other how to do that are you able to do that Neil I don't think so I don't think I had that that kind of access um s what is it you're trying to get into Sustainable New Jersey website as a Township you can log into the website and upload various actions materials related to the actions that you can do um yeah Michelle should know about how to do that check with her on that thank you so much thank you all right great update um we already talked about the student lays on um so I think our next meeting is not until after 3:4 so we can reach out does it it's a mayoral um correct appointment y okay and uh the mayor doesn't need to wait until a council meeting May do it by email okay all right great just decreed all right Sparta Glenn Arbor Day event yeah uh so Kim and I met this morning with the sparta Parks and Recreation director and the superintendent of parks so we have been you know pulling this event together I have the draft schedule that I could pass down um but everything today was approved they're happy with moving forward and they just want to be incorporated into the planning and where the trees are going to be specifically placed but you can see from the draft agenda that it's going to involve a a lot of different partners and it should be a a good day it's going to be a full school day and the schools are getting approval this week from at the board of ed meeting so then that should be officially done and really all the pieces are coming together so we just need nice weather right um but I'm happy to answer any questions if anyone has about the event the students are definitely going to enjoy this we we don't often get to field trips in middle school so to especially on a Friday they're going to have a lot of fun time I yeah it should be good um and it's going to incorporate the both the ecology and environmental clubs at Sparta High School and Sparta Middle Middle School it'll be about 40 students participating that's great wow you have the New Jersey invasive species Strike team are they going to remove some invasive species do you think or um we have the director who's actually wants to come himself and he's going to set up a table and talk about emerald ashor and other invasives versus native species so it's going to be more of a just a learning experience and table setup for that portion but it should be good to really introduce them to why these trees were removed from the Glen in the first place you're going to have Smokey the Bear there too I hope I was a ranger when I was about 5 years old yeah I wish I had my badge still and then that's great the highlands hike Highlands Coalition kids will love that so they're going to be broken down you can see in the morning there'll be four different groups that they'll be rotating through four different stations back to back to back to back they'll have lunch and then in the afternoon we'll combine two of the groups together um so that we have a about 20 students in each group and then um we really don't want to have too many planting at one time we want to kind of keep up with them and make sure everything is being planted properly is Sparta Recreation or Parks and Recreation supplying all of the equipment and everything like that um so the organization I work for is going to bring like all of the shovels and everything like that for the physical planting and then the parks department said that they could bring out if we need additional tables and chairs or if we want some wood chips to be kind of put around each tree that they can provide that there's not any need to clean up or anything that no all right thank you Christine um rain barrel event is also coming together you'll have the flyer in your packet there there um if you would go to the grocery store and post that flyer that'd be great um we're also it it is already on the township Facebook page and I don't know if it made it to the website yet but we're working on getting it um out is it on the fa Township website yet um it's on Facebook on Facebook yeah it's on yeah it's on the town Facebook and they just needed that press release in order oh on the website right that we'll give that to mikee tomorrow yeah thank you so much I think we have a contract with the tap too sorry we have a contract I believe with the tap into Sparta to also do press releases now there is a limit of 15 families or groups um so depending on how quickly we sell out we might continue to advertise or just be like no more so we'll see but thank you so much for Christine also was instrumental in putting uh this together with with our maror um Li on to or yeah watered Ambassador waterers share Ambassador yep thank you all right um we do have a new business item I'm sorry it didn't get on the agenda um but Sparta day 2024 so for new folks last year we did not do Sparta day because we didn't have um enough environmental commission members who were available to be there um but the year before we did do Sparta day it was very fun um to share what the environmental commission does um we had um a mulching lawn mower we had some pamphlets a bunch of information actually about invasive species and we also had a bunch of folks like at least I think close to 30 or 40 people signed up for the Green Team also at at the at spart day so it is quite a fun event I would love to do it again um if folks FKS are interested it's going to be June 8th I already know I'm not available so so we need to see if anybody's interested available to kind of take the lead on that I do have a tent that I'm willing to stand up for it um so thoughts on doing Sparta Day this year and if you need to check if you're available we can also table that question until uh next meeting have a little time yeah we have time to figure it out and I think all the we still have quite a few of the pamphlets and the various information that we shared um in the I don't know where the environmental commission stuff is stored around here Christine but we have like a box with all the it has invasive species and all the information in there so we could use that material again um and we could have different ideas about how we could get folks to the table um I think we had a game or something oh from an Jack we borrowed a um a watershed display that they had um so there are definitely things that we could do to that makes it easy it's not um a huge commitment but we do need folks to man the table the the has any everybody been to Spart a day it's kind of a long day you have to get there I think before 10:00 a.m. and you're there until clean up at 4 or 5:00 um but if we had a BN enough people we could have like two shifts so you're not there the whole time we can solicit green team members do we need green team members we could but I'd want a commission member there for at least I'm sorry I mean at the event we can try to gather more yeah absolutely I'd be definitely willing to do like a couple hours okay SPL some time I think we can definitely gather a couple Commissioners to do that me too Neil yes okay anybody else know right now or you want to check your calendars okay all right thanks um any other new business items share are we doing this in record time tonight oh all right um anything else for the good of the environment um okay um Michelle was going to get us or try to get us business cards I think that that would be something that would be useful I was thinking of that one I was dipping my cup in the Stream by someone's house oh and they like come out and say what are you doing here yeah yeah clipboard in the vest get a clipboard in reflective yeah that's right got my footboard company car while you're asking oh yeah yeah stop there all right do we have a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion to ad okay second yeah I'll second okay all in favor I I I thank you everyone Julio what how did we get so fast tonight my first year on the council moving everybody along at Sparta day they wanted everybody in the council to go into a dunking booth oh my God and nobody would do it I'm like I'll do it I mean why not so you got I sat there and I told to