the meeting to order and I'm going to ask the members to did you have a chance to review the minutes from June and are we good with those minutes? Yeah. All in favor? I Okay. Um the next item on the agenda is
the the team grant. just to give a um an update. This I brought with me the stuff that we have used that money to purchase for, you know, a visitation gift. Um and
these are handouts. I've got quantities that were purchased with the grant and um just so you you know feel free to take them home and give them to your neighbors or whatever you want to do with them or this is a bag too.
Um and this is um the kind of thing that one of the things we did with that grant. We also um used it to pay for some social media consultation and also we had a at a program that we
had. So, I guess the part the piece of the grant that I'm just going to put out for everybody to think about is distributing the materials. We talked Hi. We talked last time about Oh, she's here. She's telling her to come down. The meeting started. It's okay. We talked about doing some
tableabling like going to community events to kind of be there questions. So, if anybody feels the urge, I've got the materials available for you to give out. Um, I'm gonna mention the um piano plaza concerts for which you're well
located if you want to sit a table up there. Um, also the I can sprinkle pamphlets down on people from um also the movies on the beach. There's the Belmar 5 is coming up in August. I think that's the road race. Um, and the
Belmar Pro which is the surfing competition in September. They also have tables of vendors there. So, I thought I don't know who I thought I'd ask the Eastern Linesman out there or that'd be great because I would love to go to the watch the surfing and hand
out the flyers. That'd be awesome. Um, but this is the kind of stuff that we have. You're welcome to take some, give them out to your neighbors. Um, but that's that's the green team. So, anybody have any desire to table, please let us know. I'm I'm spread a little
thin this summer, but I think September I think a thing we could do. Here's my idea, but also I'm too busy to do it. But this is, you know, the piano plaza or somewhere, you know, they have a there's usually an intermission. The band will play for a while. There's a bunch of people there and they're kind
of mowing around and they stop and they start again, right? May if you table then with this pamphlet about the recycling. I bet if you put if we came up with some kind of thing to give to people that that was like a prize or something. Try to get people to identify whether or not something's
recyclable. Put stuff on the table be like, "Can you recycle this?" My family is any, you know, I'm I'm always like, "Is this really recycle?" I'm not really sure. So something hands-on like, "Hey, can you recycle this? Yes or no?" Well, it's funny you should say that
because I think Ang has stuff you could borrow for tableabling. And last year we did the Belmar um anniversary day and we had Maza who does the recycling came and they have stuff like that. So they they have examples that they're
happy to show to kids and stuff like that. In fact, we ran a contest where the kids went on the beach and whoever picked up the most recycling at least a significant amount of materials we got them free slice certificates. What about um the Italian festival? Are they doing that again this year? because
they there was there was a whole bunch of space in Piano Plaza if we wanted to try to table at that. I know it's not an environmental fair, but like there's a bunch of people. They're not necessarily locals, but you know, we'd have we'd have foot traffic.
I'll ask again. And is this just Excuse me, I came late. I'm sorry. Is this just to get people to recycle more? So, it's like we have different I mean enough of them, but we have different pieces of literature that we can hand out, but also just talk to people about environmental commissions
and what we do and listen to what they have to say about I'm just a little confused about the way we recycle because I separate my newspapers, I separate my plastic, I separate my cans and then they dump it all in the same single stream together and they sort it.
Yeah, but I mean I I got a thing from the township saying you got to break down your cardboard and tie it up. That's true. Yeah. I don't know if you have to tie it up, but you're supposed to No, they want you to bundle it up. No. And I understand why cuz it's messy. But I mean, they were getting people that were throwing out a hundred boxes, open
the box, take whatever it is out, and just throw the box out on the street. Yeah. No, I I've seen them. It's just a big mess, and they blow all over the street. And it's fareparate everything. They throw it in the truck all together, and then they reeparate it when they when it gets there.
They have a lot of big fancy machines that do a lot of stuff. They don't want plastic. No, I don't. Because the plastic gets in the machinery and clogs up the machinery. What do you mean they don't want plastic? They don't want plastic. No single use plastic bags. They don't want plastic bags in the recycling at all. But you're saying like a tied thing of
plastic that they'll take. No plastic bags. It has to. No, not a plastic bag like the a tide detergent. Plastic containers. The plastic containers. Yeah. But not plastic. Waggman recycles plastic round. You can take it to Wakeman. You can take it to shop right from the 70s.
You have to keep it recycling because if you put it into single stream recycling, it clogs up the machine. No. Yeah, they have con I've seen it. They have conveyor belts running. It's crazy. And people still do it, you know, still see stuff in plastic bags. Let me just mention this is um we have
an agenda to go through and then there's public comment at the end. So, you're more than welcome to I'm sorry. No, that's okay. So, I'm just trying to help myself stay on track. Just can I are the geese on the agenda? Yes. Okay. Because that's a big one. That's why we're here. One of the reasons. Okay. So, getting
back to the agenda. Um the next item on our list was to talk about the sher commission. Um, and I think you had some thoughts about liaisoning with Well, I just talked to them because um, well, I just asked them if it would be
okay if they just shared their agendas and minutes with me so that I could leazison with the environment commission and they were going to take it up for a vote. Who's the shade commission? Shade tree commission. Jim Sher who's the chairman. He's the person I spoke to.
Gotcha. So that's a separate entity. What are they doing right now with their minutes and agendas just circulating circulating among themselves? I'm sure they're public if you ask for them, but I'm like, why not just put me on the put me on your email list as a liazison and then I'll just be in the loop on
whatever you guys are doing. Great. So, that's it. Okay. So, I'm just going to mention about sustainable Jersey because last year when we got certified, the shade tree commission provided us with a lot of stuff. There was the tree inventory.
There was some other things that they do that you needed to have proof of. And so if you can keep that in mind if you're going to, you know, your information, if there's things that we want to keep track of sustainable certification, that would save us time on the end because
next year when we have to start putting it all back together, course we can't really leazison with them because they meet on the same night. Mhm. So having insights into their agendas and minutes would be enough for us to be able to say, "Hey, they're talking about something that we had an interest in." Right.
Yep. Okay. So, um, do you guys want to be copied on the shade three minutes? Yes. Yeah. I already spoke to Jim Sherik about it. He said he was going to bring it up for a vote. So,
you go by the book over there. You know, so I know Gary, you had a couple of like joint programs with between us and the sher commission that you wanted to just kind of mention if you have it at the top of your head. What are some of the things that I don't have my list in front of me, but
you know there was a series of things around u what we do at Sustainable New Jersey to start because they're putting all the trees in town and that ties and they're responsible for the tree canopy. But we also have an underlying responsibility in terms of the town for the environment of which the tree canopy
is important. So that to me is a key thing that they're doing and they're looking to get more money in their budget to be able to put up more trees. The challenge being is that the trees are the responsibility of the residents to put up. So they're working the way through that. But I do
think that when we're doing, you know, our grants, um, that we if we can include trees in there like we will at the lake, you know, and if, uh, things come up and we're coordinating with things such as the, uh, train station work that and
just like what you said at the what they did at the, uh, meeting with the the new building going up down the street, they made sure the right trees are going up and talked about native plants. Those are the key things that I see that we can do in terms of working with them. They're going to be key around the lake
because we're not really supposed to touch a tree or or a bush without getting that involved. And it's not going to be a problem getting them involved. It's just making sure we follow the process. Uh look at you know you know that is the the the main two areas to focus on with
them right now. Um, you know, they're really, you know, they're really looking at um the trees in the town and they're trying to get, you know, the town hired an arborist. They're going to be looking at what the state of trees and that's going to keep
them busy because the state of our our current trees. Yes. We had done a analysis when I was on the commission about see about five years ago maybe four years ago and u we've gone through and looked at every tree in town with an arborist and we had the condition whether or not they needed
reproved whether or not they were healthy uh whether or not they were considered hazards all the ones that were considered hazards where notes went out to the owners and had to remediate it. So they're going through a similar route again. You know, a challenge in our town is that for some reason
somebody decided to either donate all these London planes to us at the same time, you know, we got them up and down our streets and they're beautiful, beautiful trees. What are they called? London planes. Like PLA N. That's what I say. And they're just up and down our streets and they were just
put in years ago and they're coming, you know, towards the end of a life cycle. So, it's uh you have to look at those plans and the thing that they're looking to inspire them is what um our colleagues over in Spring Lake did have a bit more money. And so, those are, you
know, the the things that I look at in terms of um just coordinating with them at any one of the any one of the parks, any one of the in the trees and really reinforcing the value of having a good canopy. Okay.
Um, I mentioned I'm going to skip to sustainable Jersey because I mentioned that before. Um, this the whole process of sustainable Jersey took us months and involved different people that work in the burrow and different groups in the town and it's a way for the town to get
recognized for their efforts in a lot of different areas to be a healthy community. Is this a statewide thing? It's it's a New Jersey nonprofit. It's called Sustainable Jersey and about quarters of the municipalities in the state participate in this. About 150 of
them are certified because they've gotten documented a lot of effort. Belmar is one of those. They also have a sustainable schools program they run in New Jersey where they recognize schools for their practices. So last year Belmar decided to apply for certification as a
sustainable community and we achieved it. Um but it's it's it's only good for a couple of years and you have to renew it. You have to continue to uh make fresh efforts. So, I'm bringing it out there, asking the people on the commission or community members who are
interested in being involved to continue to um look at documenting our programs that we offer and also reiterating what we're doing. Like with the Shade Tree Commission, we got credit from the tree inventory and different things that they did. There are other things that we do
in town have like cleanups and um other kinds of programs that we support and I'm hoping that whatever programs going forward that the commission sponsors that we keep in mind how to do what we're doing for sustainable tourism. Um
and one of the programs is the community energy plan. We have got a grant from sustainable Jersey. So we're doing it's a multi-year plan for the town to look at their use of energy. So we look at their buildings We request an energy audit where the utility company comes in
and they go to all the municipal buildings and they evaluate first of all the cost what we're paying but also the structure like the windows you know how we manage do we turn things off when we leave the room do we use light you know sensors on our on our lighting like there's different ways that we can be
more thoughtful about use of energy in our in our buildings in the town. So that's a piece of the energy plan and then we're going to be working with the town and we already book on to the English department people library the school or other people in the camp who
work for the camp about how they are pursue the future planning is like looking out there trying to figure out what are the some improvements that Belma can make um we talked to the town administrator about transportation like you know there's a lot of traffic in
town in the summer but also what are some ways that we might reconsider consider the traffic. Um, do we want to does BER want to consider having electric vehicle charging stations in plants that people can access them for visiting? Um, because they have any
um do we our police have some bicycles? Do we want to improve the bicycle fleet so there's more bicycles for the police? Public works has a lot of vehicles. Do you want to look at providing them with some electric vehicles, you know, smaller like golf carts that they drive
around and pick up? So, different things, the thoughts that are kind of being put out there to see what kind of planning government wants to do for the future. Are any of the buildings approved for solar or anything like that? That's something to consider too if we want to look at that. You have to be quick. It's not going to
be around too long. Same thing with the electric charging. Yeah, that's true. I mean, it's sad, but true. Well, the the limit of this is it's only a plan. Like we can't implement any of it. But the idea from sustainable Jersey have to make a plan in order to make progress. So at least
get people kind of thinking about it, talking about it, putting something down um in writing so that we have a direction for that. I think it's key to do that because the plan could have 20 items on it and you know then you can at least sort them and say what can you do
you know because it you know because it to your point is that the ability for public funds for a lot of things is is very nebulous. So but if you go through and you have 20 things and something requires $1,000 sometimes $100,000,000 might come
through. So just having any type of plan and that getting on sustainable Jersey it all ties together. Yeah. Well, they're they're a statewide group that advocates for municipalities. So they do lobbying in Trenton and for some of these programs, but it's also
the planning lets you take a look at the cost benefit. Like you might think it's going to cost money to buy certain type of vehicle, but you save money in gas. So there's like you have to kind of look at the real outcomes of the choices they make as community.
Um and one more thing and then we'll get back to the lake which is patchwork for wildlife. um patchwork patchwork for wildlife that I don't know if there's a place in Lake home called Candid's garden which um is a kind of like a a homeowner has turned
their property into a nursery for native plants to kind of showcase sustainable practices in your yard. And so they organized um the community like the neighborhood by going from house to house and encouraging people to be more
sustainable in what they plant in their yard, providing them with stock plants and actually giving out awards to their neighbors to encourage or thank people for the positive things they do. So the program in Lake Ko opened its doors to
see if other towns wanted to also participate. So this year Belmar and Point Pleasant and Redbank are also opening up a chapter of Patrick Wildwood. So, we walked around and found some homes that we're giving
certificates to to recognize them. Belar. In Belmar, we've got six homes in Belmar. We have certificates ready um once we get the final edit on the brochure because we want to give people information when we get the certificates. How many? Six homes from last year. There's going to be six more in the fall.
Um one of the homes that we were like walking through, she already nominated her neighbor like his yard, too. But it's just a kind of a nice positive way to thank people for being mindful about
the environment, but for what they plant in their yard. Um, one of I mentioned Patchburg was I got my little list out. Yeah. was one of the areas because um it would be good to have the shade tree in there because
it's also about trees and brushes. Well, that's you get points for having trees like that's one of the things um in the sustainable landscaping is that trees have a lot of positive. It's just that maybe if you were doing that, if they were combining like when we're doing it, we had someone from chain tree
go with us. You know, I think they might want to do that just because now um you know, with this transition and the new law that came in, the regulation, they actually have some responsibility over trees on property that they didn't have before.
So, something to think about. I mean, this is just meant to be just like a positive Oh, it's a very positive. It's not meant to give people when they need to take down a hazardous tree or anything that No, it's a it's a very it's a very positive thing. I think I would like the
shade tree community to be involved in positive things instead of just telling people take trees down and I think they'd be great at reinforcing that. Um yeah, that was you know that was a a key area. They also do beautiful Balmar every year where they uh put out a thing
where you can buy trees uh get a a better price and and that can go out. Um you mentioned before it's got to be coordinated with them for all the the public property. Um the clearary park also you know one of the things on the notes we put we really need to look at clear and walking around it again.
I would like to be if you guys are evaluating the park I would like to be involved that there's they're making it the inclusivity in that for the playground. I saw that they got grant. Yeah. So, it's it's just that we haven't gone to that yet and it's going to be a
list, but that' be another area that a beautiful park that needs work. Yeah. And so, area that needs work that would be good for us to work on, you know, together. And then the last thing we talked about was um I know we're working with LMS to try and get, you know, what is the town's uh
management plan for our lake? You know, what is that? So, but there's another plan is what is the town's plan for managing all the the trees and brushes and and so it's just good things for us to get involved in together so we can each see how that goes as we go forward.
One one last question real quick when you guys we can take it offline after. I'm interested in anything having to do with McCclary Park. Is the sheep tree think that the trees lining route 35 are in scope? Because you got trees that go along that
patch of land that's on 35 between that and the volcan river. Yes. And when some resident cut down two of the trees and just hanging over and I brought it up. It was like, oh, those are the count like that's the county. We can't do anything about it. County or state land. It all depends on where that that
transition. It's like in Belmar, but is that like we don't have any jurisdiction? What I don't what I don't we haven't figure out is that where you know because it seems that our town ends at that little path ending, right? And then there's the path that goes on to Belmar Boulevard that's
but there's some like rightway stuff like Main Street part of it is state like it's even though it's in the middle of it and Ocean Avenue is counting, isn't it? Yeah. But there's pieces that are because of right away or whatever the but I would think you know we when we
were on the shade tree we talked about how you know how that just didn't look good and we did have we did work and remember a couple years ago they cleared it out a bit but they didn't know who was in charge of those trees that didn't look good. They didn't have a handle on who was in
charge of No. I think we had someone come in and they took they cleaned it out a bit a couple years ago and I don't remember who. So, I'll I'll ask him again. I'll I'll see about that, too. Yeah. Okay. So, um Matthew, you want to talk about the SH?
Sure. I'll run through a few things. Um nothing official to communicate, but there's there's more movement and action going sharkwide, but it would have an impact on Belmar on coastal resilience and whether or not between the county and a couple of municipalities, some
projects could be conceived to increase coastal resilience that might have a component having to do with dealing with the sediment in Shark River, including maybe uh state navigational channels, the channels that in the basin and not the federal
channels. Um whether or not Bomar is going to be directly involved in that isn't it isn't going to go through me, but I think someone someone's going to contact the mayor or the council people because there's some collective effort coming together there. So that's that's good
news for Belmar and the other communities if those projects move forward. projects like the one that was done in Neptune where they remediated remediated 2,000 linear feet of shoreline. It was going to be a bulkhead. They put a dune and living shoreline instead. That kind of stuff.
So that's that's something that's coming whether or not it's going to directly affect Belmar shoreline. If I have anything to do with it, yes. Because I think that the shoreline from the west part of McLar Park all the way to the end of the town is like an asset that
should be should be something other than what it is right now, which is just water to the bulkhead that's at the end of 35. Um, so that's something that's happening and we may be hearing about it from up top at some point. So I think that Belmar is going to be pulled into that if it
wants. Um, other things going on, I run the water monitoring program for the Shark River Cleanup Coalition. We monitor two sites in Delmare and we we're active and we're doing water monitoring right now and the two sites that we're monitoring this year are one
is right under the train trestle bridge. So, there's a pedestrian bridge that goes under the train trestle bridge right there is an outfall that we think I don't have the maps, but we think it drains. Is that over there by climbs? Yeah, if there's that that gravel parking lot and then there's some stairs that go down.
It's right there. I think that drains the area that includes the areas of redevelopment that are being ped. You have the maps. I have the maps. Yeah, it's the I can give you the ID from the I can give you the ID of the outfall, but it's the one that's
literally right under the trestle. See, one of the interesting things about the mass because I was was looking at them the other day and and because when you sent around the about the new development going up that all that area for that new development on 35 more or less goes directly into Belmont. I think
it's outfall 9 that is right across from them. There's a series of storm sewer lines, but then at the end of 8th Avenue, there's another little line and I can't it comes off the map and I can't find Belmont 10 or 11. So, that could be
but it's not directly connected to the area that they were describing in the plan for uh between 8th and and 10th. Where's that number going? Um, I'll show you. It goes out right across in the marina across the street like where the head boats are. Sorry.
Like where the boats are? Yeah, the boats goes into the boats by the bays, but like to the west of the mini golf course like that far down. No, it's direct. So, it's more or less across from um little after Belmore
Motor Lodge going across. There's a line that goes straight across. I could show you. You know what? If there's a compelling reason to do so because it would figure into what you ask a developer to do or not do, we want to add that short cleanup coalition is doing. It might
I don't know if it's sampleable because some of them are below the waterline. You should have a representative from the sharp river cleanup coalition go to the planning board meeting. Mhm. And it would it should be all part of the engineers notes because it did come up DDRC.
It the goal of the used to go to programs. They knew us. They saw us coming. Yeah. And that's that's what I'm trying. There's only one of me right now, but I'm trying to get out to as many folks as I you know, many folks as I can. Neptune's
EC's re being resurrected and I'm trying to make some highlights with them. for the planning board. I'll go I can't go and make a presentation on just our program in general, but I can just basically stand up and say this program is happening. You just get to
ask questions about about the plan. That's all because really it should be what's the town should be testing. In a perfect world, the town should be testing if it wants to know what the state or you could talk to the bur engineer because he'll bring this kind of stuff up too. Yeah. How often do you go?
um right now monthly during the recreation part of the year um and after the meeting I'll be if you're interested in this. So, I'll write you an email. I'll take a picture of it and I'll show you what what it looks like where I you know because and I think I'd rather
because that's why my point when you go you showed it to me was that you they put this big thing up and I realize they have all this great storm water management but my concern will still be is that with all the additional uh foot traffic around it there going to be more garbage where's the garbage going to go like it does in our lake right on a bad
day. So, you know, it's that type of thing of, you know, making sure the town, you know, recognizes what we have to prepare for that. We might, you know, that's why I like the main, you know, mech was a mechanical treatment device. Maybe we need one of those to capture things at either one of those two places. I don't know enough information
about I don't know if currently I mean, does litter go through our sewer system into the Shark River? I'm assuming I'm sure I'm sure it does in some places. So it's just something that's you know something that you know if I lose copy on his planning board maybe if it's something comes up I happen to think it's going to fall underneath our
storm sewer requirement for NJ storm sewer management but it's just something that um as a dwells development um we've definitely learned around you know that when you have a heavy rainstorm stuff goes through the storm sewers and it goes into the river or the lake.
Yeah. Are you talking about litter from the streets or litter from the beach? No, there's litter from the streets on the 35. The new 35 things going up there. There's going to be How many? Because I mean, you know, there's a lot of litter on the beach, too. Yeah. And I my husband and I were there. We
were talking about how some of these kids get up and they leave everything. And we just really wish some of the police would just issue tickets just because then word of mouth would say, "Hey, in Belmar, you got to pick up your garbage." But you're talking more about street litter.
Yeah. because that because they do pick it up on the beach. Yeah. Yeah. And the street litter. I'm just concerned about um the lessons we learned about when I whenever I walk by the lake and all a sudden you see all this detrious and plastic in our lake from a after a heavy rainfall or
something like that. And um so it's the same thing and people going to be walk I mean you know it's like walking around town how many people you see throwing plastic bottles in the bushes. Oh yeah. you know, so you see and no matter how many things. So, it's just something it's I don't, you know, it's something be aware of that made me think
of the other thing that when we thought about Shark River is that one of the we I never put it in to any of the justifications, but I believe that we should also have that the goal of our having our lake being cleaner is that it'll reduce the risk of sending
lowquality water out the avenue way pipe. So, that's another reason to sit there. The litter is not nearly the email the problem as it moves through. Not not even close. It it definitely is of significant interest to me from the
short point of view that basically Silver Lake is part of the Sharper River title basin wershed by virtue of the fact that the avenue pipe releases water there but none of the maps show it but you could say the maps don't show it u because the pipe used to go out to the
ocean. So the wershed is defined based on they made it go into but they haven't changed the maps. If if we're if we're listing reasons why cleaning up Silver Lake is a good thing add to that that we're reducing the risk. We know the water's dirty. We know the water has contamination because we do the testing. That's the justification
for all the work you guys the the basin benefits from that because sometimes at least that water is going in the basin that came D and I went back and forth because when you were here last week you made me think of that and I was looking at it and and you know when we look at the reasons for it it's just another area that we just we should just tell
the army core where they're in there about the benefits that it's just one that I missed all these those benefits. So so let's segue to the the lake then because it seems like you're going there anyway. this I have in front of me the the report from the Army Corps from the meeting that we had which I think most people would have gotten it was we were
there but just the highlights of it we have I'm sorry did you get it? No, I didn't get it either. I'll send it to I got you. I got the email. You were there. I saw your name on the mailing list. I didn't get it either. I'll send it to you. But anyway, um, as
part of our our work on the lake, we have this grant that we got with the US Army Corps of Engineers, and it's a planning planning assistance to the states. It's a year-long process. We had our meeting planning the year-long process. Okay. Um, we had our meeting in June uh at
Taylor with a bunch of people that work for the town and the people from the army. And so I just got the other day and I I'll send it out to you guys the um the lake scoping meeting. So they documented the meeting that we had and um
they have a list here of the stakeholders which there are we talked at the meeting about who the stakeholders are in the lake and then the problems that need to be fixed um include the flooding around the lake um streets and intersections flooding from
the rain um overbank flooding occurs when the pipe that carries the overflow to the inlet is overwhelmed the library was flooded. Basement flooding for homeowners occurs um when the high water table rises and some pumps can't keep up. Poor water quality
in the lake. Potential source of contaminants include storm water runoff, trash, and goose feces. Symptoms include harmful algae blooms, low dissolved oxygen, high turbidity, high conductivity. Um impacts include restricted recreational use, negative
health effects, fish kills, clonet water quality monitoring and other studies uh illustrate the significance of water quality degradation in the lake. Um also another issue, another problem they identify as altered and degraded habitat
in the mass lake. Um the lack of the title exchange with the ocean um since 2012 believed to be blocked. um native fish populations have declined, large populations of gnats, midgetes and mosquitoes, um invasive vegetation
surrounding and within this perimeter of the lake. So the opportunities that could be realized include improving the community cohesion, improving recreational opportunities, providing interpretation, educate residents and
visitors. Oops, lost it. Um, what did you mean about recreation at the lake? Well, this this was the plan. I know. Yeah. They call it like the scoping like what are all the possible things that we could do on that effect. So, like people used to there used to be
fishing tournaments in the lake back in the day. Um, you know, people there might if there was more um you know, was there ever boating in the wood? Okay. There's but it's interesting. It'll be it'll be good to see that report. But
did they ask for comments back? This is a result of the comments that were made at the meeting. They're just summarizing it. So are they looking for feedback or is it just a doc? So then you don't This is the documentation of the scope of what they call it is like this is what they're going to work on. So the
end of the um meeting is that they will continue to collect information like we provided them with a lot of data reports um water testing data um different things like that. They're analyzing that as well as their own resources that they
have and they if you send it to us and we see things that we could add or something like you know especially with the amount of work that Ed and myself and yourself like all the clone data they have all that like all the stuff in the share drive they
have all that I'm sorry about what they wrote it's just I'm just highlighting it because some people hadn't seen it but it's just no but it's my my question is are we are we can we write back to them saying we agree we don't agree, you got it right, you don't have it right, here's something else to add, here's something
else to look at. Or is it just this is just what they're going to do no matter what we think. It's a very open document. You'll see when you read it, there's no conclusions. They're just collecting schedule. Not right now, but there will be other meetings. Yeah.
So then if we have comments on it, we'll just send them to you. That's fine. I can forward whatever you want, but I'm just once you see it, you'll see. I'm just kind of trying to give you a taste of it. But it's really a very open kind of process and it's going to go on for months. Oh, no, no. I'm just asking is that when
they send when I'm just used to when someone sends me something that they there's a reason they send it to me either to just read it for this is what's happening, deal with it or read it and send me your comments and your thoughts. Is this a read it and send me comments and thoughts or is this just
read it and deal with it? You'll see when you read it. It's a very open kind of document. They're not giving conclusions. They're just documenting what happened. All right. I got the impression it's not inviting comment, but it wouldn't be turned away. It's not like this is it.
Don't even bother writing back. But it's not we're waiting for you to tell us if this is okay either. Just like the way they were at the meeting when we were there. Like they're just listening to whatever people thought was pertinent and then they evaluate what they're told at the table. Well, because the way I look at it is um
I'm a taxpayer. I'm paying them to do this work, right? And we're putting $230,000 of our money up as a town. And I think that we should have a very strong uh review process of anything that they do to make sure that we that they we feel they've covered everything.
They haven't missed anything or that we haven't missed anything. So I'm just not The grant is from the tail. The federal the federal is 230, but we have to match 230 in kind. So there's a So there's a lot of stake. And so what we're really working with,
we're working with a contractor, you know, that's not a they're not employees or so. So So managing a contractor is slightly different than managing your own team or your own town. So I'm just not sure how to manage. I mean, I know how to do this when I worked in a
business, you know, I know how to manage my contractors, but I don't know how our town manages contractors. I don't know how you want to manage a contractor. I don't know if the United States Army Corps of Engineers even wants to be managed. I just am a little out of my element in that. And so I'd like, you know, as it
goes around, what I think is the best what we've been doing along is get it, share the comments back to you and you can share them with the Army Corps and see what they say because, you know, if something comes out and the Army Corps doesn't do a good job on a report, that's not on the Army Corps. That's on
this mission because we're the ones who are responsible along with Jim for the output that comes from the Army Corps because we're we're paying for it and everything else. So I'm not sure I had I haven't done this in this type of environment. Have you done this in this type of environment? Not in this kind of environment.
No, but I was I was involved with the Army Corps when I worked. Oh, were you? Yeah, that's what I was ask. That's why I've been looking at them. insure dams all the dams in the and that the army corps makes recommendations and you know we had engineers and I can only
tell you everything the army corps does it finds is not act is totally accurate so they missed a lot of stuff that we as an insurance company would tolerate so to your point they might be doing stuff under you know have a different agenda
to cut corners maybe we don't have to do this it doesn't have to be Perfect. Whatever. But you got to watch them. Yeah, that's my And I just don't know how to do it. Well, I mean, so far it's been pretty collaborative and the people from the town are involved in this. It's not the commission, it's the burough
administrator, it's the council, it's the mayor. So, there's like a collaborative conversation going on between these people from the army and people from the community. But we also have a lot of like data that has been collected like Ed's been collecting
water quality data out of that lake for 15 years here. And what do you say to that? Well, I'm going to talk about that in a minute. Okay. But part of the the set of data that he submits to the M University, which is coastal lake data, but there's like a
whole bunch of information about how the water quality has changed over time and what it looks like. And we're all this we're giving all this to them as well as any kind of like there's been county studies there's been state studies the the information everything that we've been put together we're giving it all to
the people of the army corp but it's also a conversation and the collaboration that will far as I know they're going to keep coming back to us um and we'll keep going back to them until they come up with a set of at least three plans that's what they told us. So in the long
run, who's accountable in our town for the quality of the plan that comes from the Army Corps, the ability to implement it and all those things that you do when you're when you have a contractor that gives you a report the you know the contractor they they're done and then you're you're
sitting here is that Jim and it's the borrow. So Jim and so Jim and um Kevin held accountability for you know what we get from them. Good. That's good to know. Talk about the lake.
Sure. So, I I'll just read my uh the email I sent out to everybody regarding of course the geese in the war book. So, we've been adding eggs on the in on the on the island for two years now. This year,
again, no new geese on the lake. Um so, that was a big success. Um, there were only six nests this year as opposed to nine last year, which means that three set three pairs of geese decided to not nest here anymore. So, that's good as
well. Um, hopefully some of these more geese will abandon the island next year. Some of the geese will age out. They'll just get too old. A double question. How long do they live? 20 years. 25 years. Um, once they don't
get me started on geese biology because I can go all night and I have to leave by 7:30. Once geese have nested successfully in a spot, it's very hard to get them to leave. So, we've done our best to
discourage all of that. Um, how the under towns are doing it. Paul from Birds Beware uh is our goose chaser, professional goose chaser. He has a a dog and a drone that he uses. Um he was very helpful this year uh with
the geese harassment and very responsive. When we had extra geese, I would always call him and he'd be like, I'd be right there because sometimes he came multiple times a day. Are those laser lights in the lake? Is that effective? Yes, that is effective at keeping them from sleeping on the water. And there's
ones on the on the island, too. But um those lights have um stopped working because they're solar powered, but they're under warranty. We're in the process now of getting the replacements. Which lights are those? The amber lights. Oh, really? The amber lights. Yeah. All of them gone or
All of them are There's one working on the island. There's one on the east end of the lake that's like barely working. Um at this point, let me finish. At this point, there are 15 geese on the lake. That's how many we 15 geese every day. Those geese have
lost their flight feathers. They can't go anywhere. You could chase them all day and you're just going to chase them from one end to Lake to the other. So the goose um bird's beware Paul doesn't come. He might come if we have more geese, but like he doesn't come because those geese aren't going anywhere.
They're stuck here until they get their flight feathers back. Um once geese are able to fly, you'll see other geese coming in from other towns. Then Paul will be back on on track to um chase skis again and I do it as well with the
amber lights work with also green lasers. What about the uh the grass? How they said that it certain grasses to plant it works but they know exactly where the gaps are. They know exactly where the gaps are. It's a little path that they have. So do you have any other questions about
geese or I'll talk about water quality? Talk about geese first. questions about geese. I think we're done with geese. We've done really well and I keep track. I have spreadsheets going back two years. How many geese are on the lake? Like almost every day. I I'm sure you've done well. I still
can't walk my dog around it. Well, there's 15 geese that are still And what it is is now those 15 geese travel in a pack. Yes, they're all together. In the spring, they're like in twos because they're pairing up now. They're all in a pack. So, they're all uh they love the shade
by the playground on 8th Avenue. Yeah. Where the little dock is. And uh like I say, they know where the gaps are in the in the thing. So, no doubt the poop is bad. It's not as bad as it was. When they come from another town and go in the lake, yeah.
Do they nest necessarily? Does that mean they're going to nest in our lake or Only if we let them? Okay. But they would. They would. But they would if we didn't keep chase them away and destroy their nests. The eggs. Yeah. Yeah. So that's it. Are you part
Did I hear how Spring Lake got rid of their keys? They euthanized. And is that not an option here in town? Nobody seems to have an appetite for it. The departmental commission doesn't have an appetite for it. Neither does the mayor council.
Is that going to be done? What is that ongoing in spring? I don't think so. Because we we go to Divine Lake and there are there are no geese there still. I mean that's a nice lake. I mean if they're coming from other towns Divine Lake. Yeah.
Divine Park. I don't know what the name of the lake is. I don't know. It's off of Main Street. In Spring Lake. In Spring Lake. Yeah. I don't know what the name I was called Divine Park. Yeah. You know, they have fishing and all that stuff you're talking about recreation. They have it there. Little sailboats, you know, they can
Oh, yeah. I know. It's a big lake. It's beautiful. But the, you know, I mean, they euthanized them and no geese come have come back. They have ducks, but no geese. Any more questions? I just have one more question. And I'm really sorry, but it's so unfortunate
that when we go out of our house with our dog, we have to go away from the lake because we can't walk them around the lake. These gloves, the goose poop. The fresher the better. But um the next question is did I also hear that some people gather the geese and
drive them to Pennsylvania and they stay there and then that's a more humane way to get rid of them. We researched that as well. It's very tricky to even cross county lines, right? Yes. It's like a whole Okay. It's like a whole degal question. And especially with the aven
flu that happened this year, there's probably going to be even harder to justify moving birds from one place to another because you might be moving disease around. Yeah, we've been talking about geese for how long? At least two, three years.
Were there were there not geese in in Silver Lake before two years ago? Yeah, a lot more. Yeah, years ago there was No, there were times we couldn't. Yeah. So Brian McGovern used to do the geese program. The dog. Yeah. He used to do the dog. He said when he started treating the
nests, he said there were 200 eggs. When he first started to help those like a goose. It's a lot of work. The vendor does that but Yeah. Yeah. He does it. So they have a vendor that they pay
monthly. His name is called Birds Beware. The name of the company. And he scares the It's a year- round contract. He chases the geese away. We're uh we have a text thread every day how many geese there are, blah blah blah. If we see extra geese, we text him. He comes back and he treats the
eggs on the island. And and ultimately, um the goal with the restoration of the lake is to make it as inhospitable to geesees as we can through the living shoreline. And you know, but even with that, you're going to wind up geese. And then the also the
migratory geese that we have to always continue and remind people what a brand is. than what is a regular piece because you can't do anything about the brands except you know they make a move on the they're the migraine but it's and I think you guys a credible job from where
it was but I also understand your concern because I walk around the lake too and I don't take my dog around the lake either and we don't have swans anymore what you said uh they can't I think the lake is is that because the lake's contaminated there's nothing for them to feed on there's nothing for them to eat there
swans are dabblers and they eat off the bottom like vegetation and there's nothing for them. So the last time they used to come every year. The last time swans nested the last two times swans nested on Silver Lake. They had a nest on the island. The babies hatched and then they walked to
Spring Lake. So they haven't nested in Silver Lake in at least three. They want it's what is it? Eel grass. They look for And we don't have eel grass because it's it's too big. Bottom of the lake is covered in dead leaves. Yeah. Well, again, so let me talk about work.
Yeah, talk about you only have a few minutes. Some of you Oh, lake management services sprayed the fragmitees in silver lake with herbicide. Um, we weren't aware of this that it was going to happen. So,
um, the water quality in the lake, um, so we've been doing water testing for at least four years now. It's Lou and I. Yeah. So we test for uh temperature conductivity which is like has to do with like salinity of the water. Uh
dissolved oxygen temperature pH like that. Um dissolved oxygens are seasonally low which is typical when the water temperature rises. Uh the harmful algae bloom levels are high again this year but not as high as they were last
year. So this past week the readings that I took in the lake were between 35 and 50. Anything above 25 is considered an harmful algae. So the readings were between 35 and 50. Last year I actually looked at my records. They were all over
100 for months last summer. And you could tell by the way the water looks. It has this green cloudy tint to it. That's the harmful algae. Um and we don't know why it's different this year. Could be rain, could be the weather, could be I don't could be a lot of
different reasons. I'm not a scientist. I don't have those answers. So I just provide the data to Monmouth University and they analyze it and it's all a part of our army core of engineers grant and it gives us a baseline to work off of to know this is where it was.
It it was it was interesting because I did some of that research that I shared with you about, you know, whether that heavy rain makes it better or worse. And theoretically, it makes worse, but it could improve it a little bit if there was flushing going on, but I don't know if we flushed the lake
when it went when it raised. I don't know if if you open that soups out to FUA to lower it afterwards, that maybe that could have helped a little bit. For all I know, I think they usually lower it to prevent flooding, not water. No, no, but say when when we got all
that rain, the lake got high, right? And I don't know if they if they if they ever opened it, if it lowered or it's still at that same height. I don't pay attention to that. And that's the only way I could think of anything flushing through our system because and there was a whole bunch of and come in and you know it's
interesting because your your was your phosphates your nitrates how are they doing the I don't test for that but the clonet people do and they say and they shared the data with us and we included it with our core engineers. Um they say that the lake has
utrification so it needs to be judged and I know there's algae bloom but do you test for the bacteria? No. Now the bacteria is the algae bloom is called cyanobacteria. That is what we're testing for, but
there's different varieties. I don't know what the variety is, but uh clone it might have that data. So going back to the frag fragmitees, LMS sprayed. We didn't know they were going to spray. We don't know what their plan is. I'm assuming they have one because they're professionals, right?
And I'm sure that Kev and our BA and our engineer are coordinating it with DPW with them. So there's got to be a plan of how they're going to take the seed heads off, how they're going to get rid of it, how they're pulling it and things like that. So hopefully if Katie can get them to come in, it would be good to know that. Working on that. Yeah, it'd be great. It would be great
to know that, you know, there's a a plant because it's you they sprayed. You could definitely see them. They're brown. Is that why they're brown around the very inside perimeter of the land? Yes, we sprayed them. What? What would they spray it with?
They shouldn't have. It's called No, it's called Whitney. It's a biohosphate based herbicide that you have to be a licensed applicator to Yeah. They wouldn't spray anything. They're not permitted to spray. I mean, they're regulated. Yeah.
The purpose wasn't to kill them, though, was it? Yes. Yeah. Oh, it's a standard treatment. And it's everything's timing and there's usually a plan that when you treat the when you treat fragmitees is an ongoing plan, not just to spray them. Well, they're an invasive kind of and if
they're not treated, they're going to grow right into the lake. Do you remove the dead? That's my understanding is that they do, but we're confirming that. Yeah. I drove past there this afternoon. It's there were big areas they didn't spray. Yeah. So I think that's why we wanted to
have LMS in here just to talk to them how they're doing that you know management because the other thing is that it I don't know how far in they can spray you know and and I don't we don't know how they do it how much spraying what what their overall purpose of spraying is it to eliminate them or
reduce them you know and that's part of the next steps of you know Kate is trying to get Kate's trying to get them to talk to us so that we can understand that. Anything else you want to add? Uh, no. You have a question. Quick question. Um, it's more of a statement,
but I want to know what you think about it. I forgot to mention this earlier. I'm making a presentation next week to the Inlet Terrace Homeowners Association. Cool. Um, and are is everyone comfortable with me
mentioning that all the good work that the Silver Lake Commission is doing to improve the water quality of the lake might indirectly impact them? They might not be thinking it, but I'm going to be explaining to them. And if the water in the inlet is dirty, if the water where they that they swim in and boat in is
dirty, it's probably because it's flowing in probably, you know, unless they have some leaky street runoff going into the lagoon if that's what you're talking about. Yeah. Well, and especially for that release into the channel. So, if that lake is dirty and sometimes
it's released into the channel, it would that's the first place it's going to flow. If it's coming on an inflowing tide and it's coming through the channel, that's the very next place where that water would go. I mean, our intention is to clear the water that so that what's released is not a problem. That's that's
that would be the message is basically just pointing out to them if they're concerned about water quality, right? Yeah. That the work you guys are doing would possibly indirectly benefit them. You know, even though it seems like it's their thing in Silver Lakes over there, that they're connected in the way they
might appreciate it. Yeah, because I want to give you guys props that the work you're doing isn't just for the people living right around Silver Lake that they will be positively impacted too. And they as part of the storm water management plan. It'll be interesting to see, you know, because there are correct if I'm wrong, there are some lines,
sewer lines that go storm sewer lines that go directly out there that don't go to our lake. They collect in that inlet terrace area and go straight into uh the river. I I'll look at that and see what I think there's one storm water outfall and because I was there at low tide
and it's a old pipe that look God knows where it goes and even if we can test water coming out of it it's probably ocean water that's all in there like until the infrastructure is upgraded. You can't even you don't even really know what you're testing. They're starting to work on this the infrastructure but it's going to take
some time to get the bonding and do all of that work but it's old. Yeah. And so if you do talk to them, that's something that they can speak to uh their c their council person, the mayor about as part of New Jersey D storm water management system just to raise the concerns because they are
looking at it and um hopefully it'll it'll improve. I think that's the intention of the new regulations is to get towns to look at this. Yeah. And then and then have a plan. They might not be able to you say might be able to capitalize everything to do the improvements right away, but they
have a plan and they identify which of those you know, storm sues are the ones that need to be addressed first. It's like the way we know around the lake which ones we would address first. It's interesting just as an aside, it is interesting to when you start looking at all our storm sewers that um
that that 8th Avenue storm sewer that comes through that you know we always flood on 9th and sometimes this library floods and it's hilar. That line going from 12th across to um 9inth is a 24 inch old pipe goes to a 15inch pipe
going from across N. That's the one that goes through your yard and then goes to the one that goes through mine. It goes to a 12in pipe and then goes back to a 24in pipe to go to go into the lake. Yeah. It's remarkable to me how little water comes out of that pipe. Yeah.
During a rainstorm, I'm trying to fe Where does it go? I don't know where it's going, but it ain't coming out of that pipe. It's all on it. It's all backed up on the knife and eventually it does go away, but it's just interesting. So, better if it's so old, maybe it's just decrepit on going into the ground. Going into the ground. Yeah.
Well, we did we did know that um we did have a sinkhole and a little sinkhole thing going on at night that we had to fix with a town came in. DPW again did a great job. Those guys are great what they do and they fixed it. But um now I'm thinking I gota check to see if it makes the flooding worse because the
before that it was just percolating under the ground. But in any case um as you're thinking of the New Jersey D storm water requirements, it's a way for us to just stay informed with the town because they're going to have to they put an initial plan together. It's going to be something they're going to be
looking at again. It's kind of never knew I' never knew I'd learned so much about geese storm mechanical treatment devices. I understand that concludes our agenda unless there's public comment if you
have anything else you want to add. Thanks. Nice to meet you. I wanted to throw in the two things we were emailing about, but just to put it out there and talk about it. Um, Shark River Cleanup Coalition has a summer intern this summer who resides in Belmar. Um, and because I have an extra
pair of hands, we're doing we're gearing up to do a couple things we haven't normally done. One of them is potentially the survey that I shared with our chair that um we may some kind of co-sponsored like SRCC is
doing it but we're working together because it's in Belmar to try to survey people who are using or engaging in recreation in Shark River from Belmar. Right. So, McCclary Park, Elsry Beach, the shoreline west of McCclary Park, and
maybe the fishing peers to try to gather some information about who the people are, what they're doing, how often they come, concerns they have, things that they like, things they wish there were more of, you know, things that they're not
happy with. how to collect that information so we can say something about who are the people that are benefiting from the nice things that you can enjoy about Shark Burger and our public access and maybe opportunities to do better and how to put something
together that um we could maybe use in the future to say hey two years from now we could have a mccleary park and beach subcommittee that's making big plans with hundreds of thousands of dollars of planning about what we can do better there having just
like the data that has been collecting for years about the water quality. If we're collecting information about who goes there and what's going well and what's not going well and opportunities that that could be useful information for us in the future. I think we've really learned a lot about
um funding opportunities that if we do once we're done with this I really would like to give a crack to clear talk to the people we've connected with and see what we can learn. Right. And I was thinking too the same thing that that kind of data is part of a grant application to show who the stakeholders are and who it would
affect. It's not maybe not just the people that live within a few blocks but people come in from the other other towns like you can already provide a good deal. Well I have ane I have anecdotal ideas of what I think that the survey is going
to tell us. But Shark River Community Science, the community science part is that rather than just do things will see what happens, we want to try to have like a plan and intent. So getting your feedback and feedback from Belmar since we would potentially be walking around talking to people in an officialish
capacity as a as a nonprofit, you know, we would say volunteer wouldn't be like Belmar, you know, town or anything like that, but to collect info because it could we want to know who stands a benefit or who maybe is at risk. If
there the water quality is not good, who is at risk? If there's opportunities for improvement for McLaren Park, you know, they would stand the benefit. And who those people are, it's worth noting there's only one free swimming beach in
all of M County. Really? And it's Hell Street Beach. No, you have there's no free beaches. Well, you have to you have to park. You have to pay to park. Well, you have to pay to park. So like the only place you can drive up and there's a lifeguard and you can swim in all of Monmouth County
lifeguard. Yeah. And there are other Neptune City across the bay other places. There are places where they test but it's that's approved for secondary recreation only. So it's only put your feet in the water, walk around, put in a boat, that kind of thing. But full body immersion only one
place you can do that in all of like southeastern Florida. Yeah. And that probably means it attracts people who aren't just walking from a couple of blocks away. And that would be relevant because if it is a magnet for people from around the
region, then that kind of like doesn't get very crowded. It the beach maybe not, but if you go out in the park anytime over the summer, all of the people, and this is why I'm interested in the trees, you people are out there picnicking all day. The grills, they got 10, 15 kids all playing
around. like people really use that park and if they're not in the water in the beach, they're in the water at the other access points which is a different thing entirely than a section swimming beach because they do testing. So like there's a whole bunch of factors here in the who
who where they're from, how often they come, what they do, what their concerns are are all things of consequence. It's worth noting our other Delmare testing site for folk bacteria is one of the outfalls at McCclarity Park nearby to where people are accessing water that's
not the Smith, right? Um that said though, we're sharing it with we shared it with I've shared it with the chair and some other folks to try to get feedback. We're also meeting with one of our state representatives in a couple of weeks to
ask for their feedback specifically about what kind of data is most useful and compelling if you're trying to make a case that this area deserves attention and money you know and something like hey people from all around the county are coming here that that is important
information for Belmont to have start yeah I think one time maybe she the three of us should go out for coffee and just share with them the things we learned about the type of money that Mammoth County has available in terms of what they would do. What we learned that um what we go from the federal
government and what are the key areas that they're looking to provide funding water was it water quality flooding are the are the two key areas and then there's some others. So getting all those things laid out, we can help you get your ideas so that when you're collecting the water quality data, that
becomes critical because if we can improve water quality, we know that goes a long way in terms of asking people. Um, are you going to be working with Assemblyman K? Um, I've reached out to multiple people and I'm currently planning meetings with
the ones that wrote back. I because the water monitoring program had like a like a hit and an impact in Neptune City. I started with District 11. So I haven't yet started reaching out to people for Belmar. But the more forward-looking
stuff of we're collecting data now. We might come and ask you in the future what this data means and if it could help us get resources that I haven't started with yet. So I've only done it from the Nept point of view because I can say this happened. We brought the data to town. We're working on together.
Like that was a hit and a win. We can help you with that, too. And I have built some really strong relationships with Assembly Lease, Senator Singer's office, and with Chris Smith's office, and with uh I think Gary, we have to think about timing, though. This is just this is early stages.
Knowing knowing what the goal is with the data and who we would go to and say, "Hey, is this compelling? Could this get us something?" is part of the long-term plan. But yeah, I'm not looking to come up the works for anything that we need to be hitting our stride at Silver Lake right now, but
I'd like to be in a year or two from now doing something similar. I think we can all learn from each other. Yeah, we could we could help on that. We we learned a lot. But wouldn't you say Oh, definitely. Yeah. Um, that said, the other thing is I'm proposing that we do a river singing
project, a river saming event where I want to make sure that Belmar and the environmental commission are involved in co-promoting it enough to get potentially get credit for sustainable Jersey. If that's a thing, if that can be done,
definitely. I mean, that that's where we talked about that before. sustainable Jersey. You know, there's a lot of ways that the town the efforts can be recognized and then we're going to be involved in that. Can you tell me what that is? So, in in a nutshell, we would have a
public event where we would bring a big sandy net, which is like just a long narrow net that you can put out in the water and pull it in and pull up all the little fish and green. No, no, not sand. Wildlife, fish, seahorses, crabs, anything that you pull up. And what you're doing is and you put
it in a little kiddie pool and for the public education like what's in Sharp River. If you're just standing there on the shoreline, you might see a crab once in a while, but you pull up this inning that you can see all the beautiful interesting things that are in there. Kids love it. Families that want to do something with their kids.
Um, and American Literal Society, which is a bigger nonprofit organization, does it up in Sandy Hook and other places. And I've asked I've invited them to come and do one in Belmar and one in them to Sydney and Shark River so we can see if people are interested if people show up
and come out for it. Maybe it's something we can do more regularly. Great idea. Um so we're going to give it a try. I absolutely will. It'll probably be a week night in August like 5:00 p.m. to 6 p.m. 2our event. And we would we want to
advertise and promote it. Does it have to be August? Could it be September? only because of school like if you want to promote it with kids at school science teachers and everybody is away goes away you know I mean not everybody but everybody like
yeah but it's also just the fact that there's a learning opportunity for kids definitely I know we have there's like sailing school and there's over there I think I'll ask them about it but their their experience in other areas in the region is that August works out really
well because the vibe for the things that you find goes up. But, you know, um I'll ask them. I think long term we want to be able to just do it whenever the residents of the area want to do it. I would love to work with schools and other stuff, but I know for me when I
was I used to be a visitor. I moved down here 2018 during the summer when I didn't have stuff to do with my kids in APA camp until 3:00 and then it's like what are we doing? That was like that's how we got involved in this stuff, you know, horses crab tag and other things. And that makes sense. I'm just thinking about from the side of
like long term and learning about your community when you live in this town. All the kids in the elementary school have an opportunity to see what's actually underneath the surface of the river like that. Maybe do a second trip like just for school. I think the the
long just like with the the clear park thing, the plan is that we Shark River Cleanup Coalition or other people that want to get involved learn how to do it by watching American Literal Society's education coordinator. They have like a full-time people that do this as their
job or volunteers. But if we do a test run and we kind of co-do it with them once or twice, we could either say, "Hey, this is great. Let's do it twice a year." They come and do it. We co-promote it. Or maybe we say, "Hey, we can do this. If we get some volunteers that know enough about how to identify
this silverfish from that silverfish and that kind of thing and say something meaningful about what we pull up, we could do it. We could do it week, you know, do it every Saturday all summer if we wanted to. Well, if you work with science teachers because they can research and teach that to the kids before the event so that
when the kids are there, they can be a part of identifying and then it would help with that sustainable well that too because you we could we can you know document our our effort to let everybody know and just advertising and less does the school do recycling and get
credit for that and everything. Yeah. But I think um like I I talked to Matthew about this idea too. My thought was the sustainable Jersey piece is really important because it it validates what you're doing, gives people positive feedback, and it allows the town to kind
of grow all of our efforts and work collaboratively. So working together is the way to go. But, you know, with AI, all you got to do is take a picture of the fish. It'll tell you what it is. We have it up on my phone. I give you the whole story. And if it doesn't know it, it'll make it up. This
is a true having this is what Elon Musk did. There you go. But, um, we're we're hoping to be a little bit more freewheeling and being able to say like, hey, this, you know, because anybody can do that with an app, but the hope is we can build enough base knowledge that we're not just like, look
how much a silver fish. Everybody take out your apps. But, you know, they g they have like a they give me like a six- page document that has like the major stuff that you'll tend to find in tidal bases and eststeroids around here. But we if we can get this program off the ground, what I really like to be
able to do is roll up that data. So if we do at L Street or maybe on the west side of the park that event often enough just like clean ocean action does on first a they'll do like once a year environmental assessment for biodiversity and they catalog all the
stuff they find there. If we start doing that then maybe again the stuff the data that we would want to make as a part of a presentation years from now we can say here's the stuff that lives here and it could be an even better environment for
you know fishing or whatever if it was not just a bulkhead but you know shoreline or whatever. You know what? Like when we were remember at the base of Lake Louise, it showed every single animal that was around there because we had no clue what a wolverine was in our entire life. And
yet we saw one and they would the next night so we knew. And it wasn't you Jackman either. But I mean even if you would like put some signs up when you do this for the kids like this is like of the critters that they're going to find so they can go and identify them. um even
on like an easel or something to bring down there. And Gary, I mean, I didn't get to introduce myself, but Gary and Lily Ladman, we'd be happy to help with that. Um I mean, I should volunteer anything. That's okay. Yeah. But and and anything else that you
can have us in if you would also um maybe include us on your email list if we can help out. We have You want to give me your email or Wait, you have mine? I do. Where do I have it from? because I used I'm Lily Ladman and I've emailed you about the geese a million times. That's why we're here.
Yeah, you told me. But I mean this has been very enlightening for us. So I'll be happy to write down our emails for you. Yeah, I always trash. I was also listening to Matthew thinking about promoting environmental
stewardship amongst the kids that live in the community. This is a way for them to feel like they know the river, they know the animals, and they know the fish. I think that's exactly what we want, you know, from putting on my Shark River Cleanup Coalition hat. That's what we would like
to be able to do around the whole river, both between biodiversity stuff, being able to get people out and saying, "Here, this is what's really here. It's not just blue water. It's filled with amazing life." Yeah. Um just talk to any of the divers. They'll tell you all the amazing crazy stuff that's under there that you would have no idea.
Yeah. Um, and then the same thing with um with the bacterial monitoring that the older kids who wanted to get involved potentially in environmental science and stuff. If I had if I had three of me, I could spend half the time collecting data that
would drive maybe, you know, actually fixing cleaning things. But we could do a whole public outreach thing where we bring kids out and do the testing with them and set up our own lab and do their own our own data analysis. But, you know, we're trying to get
our elementary could do a field trip to go with the science teachers. Yeah. You know, that's just the kind of thing we'd like to be able to do in the future. But kind of getting getting people thinking in terms of, hey, there's this beautiful giant resource along one side of town called Shark
River that's full teaming with life and worth protecting, enhancing, and uses a driveway for our boats is like the long-term goal here. Yeah. Have you thought about talking to the kids at the sailing school? I haven't harbor. I I have established some communication with them. I need to get to one of their
meetings and just understand that they do bigger picture, but yeah, they that discovery camp they have there's there's a lot of opportunity for synergy there. But they're like in their thing and doing stuff right now. I I need to go back in time in two
months and talk to those guys. So, I'm setting up and I introduce myself. I go walk there all the time. Um they absolutely and they are stakeholders for anything that changes you know they're anything that changes in McLar Park of what can we do better you know what's here
that's the they live there yeah so I I think you said a really great buzz word I hate buzz words but I like environmental stewardship we've not used that term before and when you look at all the things that that we're doing and tying it underneath that so that
people can understand that is an overlying thing. It's just a It was a good turn of the phrase. Thank you. I wrote it down. But that's kind of what sustainable journey too kind of promotes. Like if you look at all of that, it's about taking good care of your your
environment, your community. It's also about health for people. So, it's all all tied together. So, all right. Thank you. Okay. Thank you all for uh your time. Nice meeting you. You too. my card for the nonprofit Shark River. I wish I met you before.
And my personal email address