okay ping the meeting of the Berkley Heights environmental commission to order on February 3rd 2025 at 7:42 meeting is taking place in the dog room on the second floor of the
municipal building at 20 Park Avenue and adequate notice of this meeting was provided informing the public time and place according to the provisions of the meetings law all right recording Al generously volunteer to
record uh to take minutes and we're looking at approving minutes for January 6 and January 20th January 61st one review January 6 minutes no they were yours yeah I didn't
attend those so I can't s can at least all right got we have a second second we move on to January 20th David yeah I can make a motion to
those okay you're on agenda items onlye residents Steve excuse me I am here um well let's see actually I at got one thing for that falls under the B City USA agenda item
and then I got another thing which I I'm just going to give you a heads up I'll come back uh or plan to come back for the citizen hearing to ask something uh that's that's not on the agenda assuming the um the uh the green challenge um
survey is not an agenda item I can come back at the citizen hearing to talk about that um the question I had I saw the um the tap into article um on how Berkeley Heights joined the BCD
USA and uh I know about that subject from attending the meetings and and and the resolution that passed the uh um the council um but just just kind of a clarification um in a couple of places
and in the title of the the article they mentioned the u b City committee um which I'm assuming is um an informal sort of thing because I know we didn't create a Berkeley Heights Township committee related to this as far as I
know from the resolution so I guess could you tell me what the um the B City USA committee is well it's a group of people that the environmental commission invited people
to join uh and I think they listed the name of the people that are on the committee at this right I'm sorry to say that last sentence again you just thinking about the name the people who were members of the committee in the article oh did oh I
don't think I saw that do you remember if they were there I thought they were in the in the article no I've got it in front of me and well members of the brook committee yes you are yeah yeah I found it yeah that okay
y y yep yeah and well you know when I thought about this and read it I read it you I didn't read that part this time um yeah so it's just I think what I said is true to conclude this this is it's it's it's just the informal committee to support what the resolution
says exactly these people will be working on supporting them uh the bcity resolution yeah yeah I mean that's what I thought just confirming okay so like I said I will um to to talk about the other item that was in that same tap into thing at the
end I guess the Berkeley Heights green challenge I I'll come back at the citizens hearing assuming it's not on the agenda otherwise I'm done all right uh new business skip the stuff
this was an item that um was brought up at the Hub meeting uh namely to um encourage people not to take plastic
things when they take get take out uh and there was and low Escape I don't know that that's going to be visible on the screen but a poster that says we kindly ask that you request only the accessories that you need when you get
take out at uh restaurants uh so the uh Lois also mentioned that um this was something that
um was made into an ordinance in some towns that uh people uh not be taking you know restaurants not be giving out plastic uh when people get
take out so the question here is we did something right uh maybe it's a couple of years ago now Kim I mean you initiated it I think we we did a reduce your use a couple of years
ago um and we Tred this is I think during back with the the plastic straw issue at the time but I don't know that we did anything with like Cutlery
and that kind of stuff um the the only thing that I see about it is some places like is it a matter of the customer just asking hey I'm not going to need you
know five forks and spoons because I have five orders um I'm just trying to think like how just Ally it's going to play out because if you if you have a place and you're not right there at the time that the
stuff is going into the bag and the people at the restaurant are preparing take out food furiously they're just going to throw the utensils in so we don't want to sour the
businesses and you know I I can see like it's how would this go into practical Force I guess is the question right so without impeding the business's
function Lois said that u in her email all towns are encouraged to adopt skip the stuff a customer op in model for cut en condiments when getting take out again so that goes let let's say
hypothetically I I'm just going to pick a restaurant in town let's say I order from hoping and I place my order I drive to hoping I get there they have my stuff
ready to go do I then say to them I don't need the utensils that you're ready threw in my bag take it out or how do I I as the consumer help that process so that I don't get all the
utensils do you see what I'm saying the restaurant isn't it it's directed restaurant to not put that stuff in the bag as a default instead if the customer wants it they should ask right so when you're doing the order either online or
via telephone the restaurant is not is the default is the restaurant won't put any Cutler in the bag so we you're proposing that we make you're proposing that we make a townwide ordinance
where we are directing all restaurant owners not to give out Cutlery unless asked is that correct we're not directing them at this point we're not passing an ordinance we're asking that the the
restaurants to do an op in for Cutler and condiments but that would be the message is can't just describ not an ordinance but that would be the message regard right that they should not be putting in
stuff unless or the stuff is available for customers to pick up they want right and the restaurant could easily be posting that you know or asking that
question when or somebody calls for an order have other towns had success with this has this been already done in other places and has it worked rwood granford and Westfield have adopted ordinances along with 13 other
municipality according to lest CR personally would prefer it because when I uh do take out I ex there's a box for any special requests and I say do not include
C and sometimes they read that and sometimes they don't yeah I think it's more aspirational than anything else it's not no obligation at this point it's not we're not proposing that it be an obligation but a lot of communities it
is it is like New York City it's it's it's part of the law the ordinance of your city don't yeah so New York City has been very has fluctuated over time like remember the plastic bag band
theirs dropped because it was unsustainable for them to not have plastic bags because take out culture dominates New York City like you walk in you know you know carrying around bag say it's not a car culture without car culture that was unfeasible so they went
backwards on that but they enacted skip the stuff it was a year and a half ago or so like it was it's not that long it's like within less than two years they enacted that that was a little bit easier and actually like to most of the points of the people who in un you know the other Town said that it's an easier
one to get behind because it'll for the restaurants they don't they'll save money on utensils right and if you're going home if you're sending it home you don't necessarily need it you know the question is uh upon request sometimes also if you're
doing like door Dash things like that it also also has to be in the app because there's very little calling in nowadays like calling has become you know it's it's it's it's it's it's less precise and also there's no payment structure right so you don't want to call because
that becomes an honor System where you give a credit card number with a phone or you wait and then you know you pay you know no no one goes and then pays them right so everyone uses the apps more or less and so a lot of the like in China they did this they had um the you
say and and seamless other ones have it too you can say do you need utensils and you can uncheck that box but that's when it's more optional and not mandated like you have and if if we made it an ordinance and forced it
that means we have in the app they have to say if you don't check the box then you won't get anything like you have to say I need utensils versus I don't exactly so it really comes down to language you know on that front and
public perception and and in a Suburban town it's most likely that people are getting takeouts to bring home and they don't need the in that's especially true in the city New York City most people a lot of people just eat out order out well new C
is because when you when you bring home you know working office environment unless the company provides utensils which invariably become the same thing more plastic Because unless you have like dishwashers things like that you are expecting utensils and napkins and
everything in your takeout delivery because you will need it at your table unless you happen to encourage your employees saying bring your own metal knives and force to keep it at your desk which is what I do but I looking at the garbage every other day it's it makes me
sad there's no recycling no one no one cares about putting things in the right bin it's just it's almost you know it's unhy so the point is would we support an opin
model as a voluntary effort by notifying the restaurants in town do do we have just out of curiosity did Lois provide any statistics roughly about how
much again rough estimate um each restaurant has saved annually by not giving out Cutlery cuz that that could be you know instead of just saying we're just rolling out this opt in thing are you interested in doing it if we had
statistics to back it up like and by the way if your restaurant does you know x amount of business or is this large or whatever um restaurants have historically saved between a th000 and
$10,000 in I don't know how much you know Cutlery they give out but if we had numbers to back it up like you could save save this much money over the course of a year if you did this don't recall was saying specific
numbers at the meeting my memory is that that that the the thrust of it was that restaurants are saving by not giving out covery but I don't remember her sighting specific uh
savings I'm happy to ask her okay I I think that will just help to bolster the the number of places that opt in if we had that kind of information I mean it should be intuitive but having like actual data to
back it up would be just icing on the cake um for like how much um a restaurant could save I think that could be
just calculated um we could just look up how much I mean I'm sure I guess they buy it in a really big amount but we can just say for every
x amount of spoons you would save this amount or Forks but you don't know where they're buying it from and again to have actual data from actual places is better
than just our doing a rough estimated calculation right but I think I mean every place I assume might get it from different places um I don't know they themselves the
restaurants would know how much that they would save so can also just have a conversation about how much they are spending on that I'm incl to agree with marit I'm sure
they know exactly how much they spend on utensils because they have to order it themselves and pay for them so I I don't think we need to put numbers on it I'm I'm still willing to ask Lois if she has any statistics but I don't think
that should stop as if we want to move forward with this any other comments and so there's another piece of information that came up at the meeting and that was there is a proposed law on the state level but that
law uh that was introduced last year and I don't think it's moved forward yet to have this opt in uh on the Statewide so I think that's why Lois is suggesting
you know adopt the skip the stuff he I I can add I have seen that bill introduced and I can say I haven't seen it make it to committee yet our local list I think we can rely
on him all right I hear a motion what's the motion to to uh encourage the restaurants uh to uh opt in to ask
customers to opt in for cupy condiments when they get take out that would be going to each restaurant individually or yes unless we have a way to contact all those
restaurant I guess a campaign of sorts right where for a campaign to encourage restaurants and maybe we should do a press release too if the restaurants are agreeable do we that what is something we bring up with
the business and Civic definitely not all restaurants necessarily belong to no but but that's a good idea it's a good way to kind of get it out thean you know recently they have you know the
organization had the taste of breley heights so you've been in contact with a lot of restaurants so between that and I don't know if yeah I think they're the best candidate I was I was almost going to think of the what was the other group um down beautification because of the
restaurant wait who handles who handles restaurant money it's down vcation sponsor I maybe we get also TI with that as well but I think I mean just just as a means of publicizing it getting the
word out actually getting feedback me this just a good thing helps helps to they meet monthly generally the first Friday of the month Chris Chris Wang is the is the president co-president Co okay the other
the other person is Christina foret last name um she's she's the uh the head of the D Hill monor all right get you name I can do that I can the
presentation I get back in April sometime that be Clos to the summer months okay so I can move to to to adopt the the uh the proposal to encourage
restaurants to do this okay we need we need a second second hus you second yes okay so motion is to adop the skip the stuff customer opin
model for C and condiments from getting taken all right no objections we move on 32 Liberty Avenue resolution so um the uh the board passed a resolution
on 32 Liberty Avenue uh and uh as part of that resolution the berly Heights and environmental commission is supposed to have provide input about their storm water
propos the owner of the house came back saying that you would install Cutters on the roof of the that's covering the deck and have those uh gutters connected to
PVC pipe uh which would run to the brook and empty into the B um I drafted a uh recommendation that said that the owner should not uh have
that pipe go into the brook but have it go to a bio swell or rain Garden right into the rain garden and have any overflow uh uh go into the BL uh any rain Garden that is constructed is has
to be designed with an overflow uh that allows uh water to uh drain uh and this would be according to the uh ruers rain Garden manual so
following the guidance of rain Gard manual and uh the size of that Ro was approximately 300 Square ft so I was recommending that the rain Garden be one
quar of that side that's based on um a uh uh store of 1 and A4 in 1 and a half in I'm sorry uh you do the calculations for a storm of 1 and half in for
300 square foot drainage and come out with this the rain Garden that's one4 of the size of the drainage area so we're talking about a drainage a rain Garden of about 75 Square ft 10 by 7 1/2 ft and
placing that rain this sale uh at the northeast corner of the which would be close to to the brook capture the R so what my confusion with that is that
they've already passed a resolution approving the design no they didn't they didn't approve the design they told the owner to provide a proposal for rain Garden and that's what we saw in the
email from so that that that drawing that they were directing the water into the brook was right that's that was not presented at the at the meeting
okay but that was provided to the to uh the board for review okay that that drawing didn't go to the plan no did not go to the I I wasn't clear on the on the timing of it all
before but um the resolution was in was from early December one of the actions said the applicant shall submit a storm water management plan exactly and the same shall be subject to the review and approval of the township engineer and input from the environmental commission
exactly and then this document was dated 21st of January exactly so um I'm assuming it has not at this point been approved by these s h that's my impression as
well because Connie made a note on the on the resolution which she sent yeah it she didn't specify either way whether it had or had not been approved it was just attached well the impression I got from the way she was commenting was oh the
environmental commissioner needs to comment on okay [Music] um and I'm also guessing that uh the shrubs that are noted haven't been
planted yet so there would be an opportunity to make a rain garden with shrubs at that point on that they're showing on the on the drawing so they're not uh
losing uh more open space because they're putting the rain Garden where the shrubs would be planted you said the size of ring should be a third to size of a
quarter that would happen putting the rain Garden essentially right next to yes is that feasible yeah well of course it has to be not not Beyond on the the slope it has to be at the top of
the slope yeah yeah and also I made a note that it has to be approved by the down I ask you about something about that too so so you know you're saying to do it based on the information at the Rus website okay so um the thing that
you just sent me the other day from when we went to the meetings at time and they talked about the various designs that people could have um um I I think isn't there a way that we can maybe um provide people that are are looking to
build rain gens these diagrams because what happens a lot of the time is people say rains and they think about these wild Bush things that people have grown and put into the Gorden and and and and that really shows that you can have a manicure rain Gorden and in addition to
that it's not just um it's not just you know flowers that you can make the whole whole rain Garden out of nice size shrubs um which is you know which is I think a lot of people is preferable so um I think maybe if you could get that document somehow or or or even just say
to them you know if they would like to um um the environmental commission can provide them you know with diagrams for various types of Rons yeah I agree I agree yeah the we should be able to do that I
wanted to take another look at at the see if that if they were self-explanatory yeah they actually very simple to understand because what they do is they give you a size and then they give you the different you know like locations the rain and and and what to
plant and you know which which PLS really good forward I I I was coming from the point of view of you know maybe this is not simple enough for people but if if you think that it it should be clear to
people I I agree yeah yeah mean you know you can just give it as an optional you know say you know would you like that you know maybe contact somebody or or or maybe create little you know on on on put it on an environmental um webs right
I'll start by putting it on to a Google let everybody take a look and then if everybody that looks at it says oh yeah I I I understand what's going on and we can put it on to the
town you know that because remember they talked about it that is this time of the year actually going into February March where people could where we could like have like little sit Downs of people and and let them go go through it with them so yeah I agree okay we should talk
about then okay uh all right um so did I hear a motion to approve this with the
amendment of providing offering to provide uh drawings of options for the ring Garden so moved okay second second okay all right moving on to scout
projects hey Rich before you start I just I put something on chat but it only goes to the Berkeley Heights Township official so I want to alert you to that in fact it was I asked AI the question about savings for an opt-in
program on utensils and it came back with an answer okay everybody here could read that right and where you picking this up from this is not from no this this is a result of asking Microsoft's co-pilot
AI um okay so and may not be accurate okay right well and the thing I'll say about what it provided is it that sounds like if nobody takes I I could do the math to see if that's what they came up with that sounds like in that example if
everyone didn't take utensils they'd save that much but it shows you how to think about it at least you have a cost of um of of the utensils and you can do scenarios to get numbers that you want so there you go so you might want to capture the Link
in that before you shut down yeah it's automatically Steve okay all right very good thank you okay uh Scout projects no nothing community garden we don't have uh Rene haven't seen her for a while um I I
don't recall anything new on the community garden except that uh there was a master Garden who was interested in was apparently a beekeeper who was interested in helping out with the bees at
the and there was also uh a teacher and at Woodruff who's interested in uh doing a unit on bees uh so maybe the bees at the community garden might be uh of interest
to that St more ordinance and Ms for Education nothing new I haven't heard a thing from Margaret since we last submitted our recommendations for the stor water
or and there is tomorrow night a a conference session agenda item a pres it maybe a presentation from Nea on stormw but there are no documents uh in the agenda so I don't know what EX
that's about next to Dr dra Kim you wanted to say something here yeah uh so two things um first uh Angus I sent you the links to the articles on the no more scary
drain contest that we have so if when you have a chance if you can please update the um EC adapter drain page with that contest information and just change the heading from contest to contests as
the tab that would be great it's already changed you can look at it now fabulous um and we got as I circulated to everyone the annual report from 2024 um during 2024 Berkeley Heights
collected 5432 pounds of litter and other debris um that brings our total of litter collected to about 4,500 pounds since we rolled out the
program um the No More Scary drain contest resulted in two drain adoptions um we did not have many adoptions over the course of the year because um that was 50% of all drains adopted last year
there was one drain adopted um in February and there was another drain adopted in August and then the other two of the four drains adopted were in November during the contest um so the contest did result in
an uptick in adopted drains it also resulted in November being the second highest month for amount of debris collected with AUST August being the surprise uh leader of all months for uh
litter collected August saw 100 about 145 pounds collected whereas November saw 91 and a half pounds collected um so as a result I think it is good to have
contests um we are still getting a lot of um you activity from those who have adopted drains already it's just a matter of getting new adopters into the program and um keeping the momentum
going so Kim can you give me those numbers again we collected in uh 2024 524 pounds so yeah this this is all in the uh annual report that I circulated oh and by the way Angus if you could post this also on I don't know if you
did already but if you can post the annual report too it's done done fabulous okay so um the the total number of drains adopted this year was four the um no more scary drain
contest prompted two adoptions in November we had one other drain adopted in February and another adopted in August our total debris and pounds
collected for the year was 5432 with November being the second highest uh amount of litter collected reported and the first highest month of litter collected uh being August okay two things one
is you can propose that this be this report that you email right be submitted as as an attachment to the minutes forsight um you can just
post going to the website on the website okay yeah it's just refer to so the whole thing is on the website that's what I didn't understand the whole thing is on the website so we can just make that uh as part of the minutes the
second the second suggestion is to to do a short uh press releas about about this that we can put in t or or into I think maybe tap will be better
than the monthly newsletter what do you think or both W okay I mean same the same information can be on both sure okay
okay okay so so what do you want me to do then just write up something very short that will go in the the newsletter and that will be able to go into a press release yeah and then refer to the document on the website
okay gets us gets us out there so that people notice that they can adopt drain yeah okay great question how many so I see there's like 189 drains adopted what is that as a
percentage of the the trins we have in town do you know what the total is I I think though that is the total number of drains adopted in town now What's the total drains in town unadopted oh um I have that number it's
actually in the um I believe it's in the article that um was written about the no more scary drain contest I do have that information it's like 2,000 some odd don't remember the number him but we've adopted about 7 and a half% of the
drains in town got it thank you yep all right anything else on the top the TR we're going on to act 2025 go green this is the oh oh I'm sorry one one more thing um I'm going to propose that I make an
Outreach to uh Laura menden Hall to see if um she could encourage people in the Environmental Group that she leads there to adopt drains I think we had that I think she did that the first year that
we rolled out the program and everyone adopted a drain but those students I'm presuming most of them have moved on to college by this point in time so if she could make it announcement I think it would be helpful to have people adopt
drains um during this quarter or at least in the second quarter very we good okay okay Anon then sustainable teristic action yes
so I sent Angus um the little paragraph for um the newsletter and I sent that to Sarah as well um I think she should have gotten
it but yes news the newsletter went out January 3 first okay great oh sorry um so yeah that happened I meant to write um up something for tapping
into but Richard I saw what you sent me and yeah I think that looks good and we can just add the same picture I assume and would you want me to send that in or
I it's okay it's okay with you I'm happy to post it to tap into oh okay yeah that sounds good yeah it's been a crazy two weeks so I've just there's been a lot going on so I
just have not been doing too much for the environmental commission but um yep that's it weing cleanups anybody uh we will get two the books hav
we yeah what are the dates um March 22nd which I'm coordinating with the little flow church and then Kim was interested in doing something in the march to April time frame which is part of
the New Jersey c community and we were discussing whether those should be combined separate with align on um separate um and I responded to your email from
earlier in the week cam yeah um I the biggest challenge is going to be predicting how many people will get from the church group um because it's a fixed date so it's going to be
weather um so I'll try and get a better better handle on a number of people nearer the time and then perhaps we can make better plans about which park or parks to try to hit in that event and then what you
might do as follow what's the DAT of the second event that's T we we don't have a date of the second event yet because I don't know what my travel schedule is going to be in April but it will will be sometime in April after David's March
cleanup thanks I'll connect back with um Maggie L and see if we can get a better to handle on how many might be interested in doing that EV
okay um this is kind of related and I don't have the agenda in front of me so I'm sorry if it's on the agenda separately um but Richard uh were you able to ask the wine stores about the cork
collections not yet that's on my to-do list okay okay topic for the township newsletter so this would be for March March right okay so for
March we could put in we could put in something about the tree giveway in April people could sign up right on start early yeah start early want to do
that okay probably repeat it for April to yeah oh yeah do do it twice exactly how many seedings did we deserve well we because of the way the order form works and the number for the
schools it's 95 instead of 100 100 to give away 95 95 Town yes that's a m rush for there be one
house two Max right yeah well if we have people signing up then you can close it out right I remember there was some confusion the last night yeah one per household well don't forget that the
fourth grades in two schools are getting so there's 245 is that what I said no it's 145 right 60 + 80 right yeah yeah 145 for the schools plus this
9 all right pafe River Park and trails I don't have any updates anybody else no no ARG gii grants um I've asked uh Li of twice
about uh Community energy plan grants there's a webinar this Wednesday another webinar February I don't know I didn't know about a second webinar was a second
one I just saw oh you sent that today was that today that I I thought you had got too but I can't tell by the way the email is sent I think can today is not today
yeah now I'm not finding it I heard that from the police chief not interested in an Evol vehicle but uh was wants to find out whether or not um uh the the solar
Street crossing signs qualify for for the uh for the under the Grant S yeah and then there was the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection funding available for onroad diesel
vehicle electrification I sent that that to J roana with li of did you see that that came from New Jersey D yeah I didn't go through that entire list I just forwarded that today but I
don't know that I I assume that you have received it as well so I maybe should have forwarded it to I do receive it I just a chance to go through it oh okay Green Acres grand for Handel that was
something that D ber was supposed to rep to I haven't seen anything from yeah I think the deadline for applying for that was like 5th of February I remember correctly so yeah Wednesday Wednesday I think we miss
okay can I cover the um [Music] er uh yes we should cover the why don't you um so this is kind of a recap of some discussion that I had Liza earli this
week and a call that I had with Richard iess Friday um So the plan was to apply for the our desire was to apply for the $10,000 Grant get $2,000 from the
township Qui be request in budget and then fill the Gap if necessary with Exon funds expecting the total to be about $20,000 for an updated er um in talking with Liza this week the
budget was not been approved they had no budget discussion so we can't as of today counts on that $2,000 her suggestion was that we send um a request to the council members explaining what the ER is how it
benefits the town why they should kick in $2,000 for this and she'll try to get their agreement in principle to support this to include it in the budget when the budget goes through and we can then act on that and
apply for the $10,000 so I can draft something maybe even get that to you Richard we can get that to Liza this week we can hopefully get their agreement end of this week getting next on
that and then if they don't agree to fund that then I think that leaves us two choices what is to apply for the $20,000 Grant as we did last year have a similar chance of
success and the other option is to apply from the $10,000 Grant make it up for the Exon funds recognizing it could be a cou thousand doar short of where like to be so we may need to cut some cors in that so I guess that second B bit is
probably a decision that we need to make as a group if we don't get funding by the town do we apply for $110,000 and we heard at the meeting of the Hub that the was it
uh Senate uh was hiring a Land Conservancy and that the land consy wasn't charging 20,000 I'm not remembering the number that they Ved for that was it
15 it was quite right when we did talk to um potential bi potential um Consultants there was quite a r prices I thought they were all in the sort of 18 I thought most of the other last
year most of the bids were between 18 and 20 or more than 20 yeah but the Land Conservancy seem to come in more conservatively the other possibility is if uh we don't
get funding from the township and as you you pointed out the township is putting money in that is telling sustainable Jersey yeah we want to support this uh uh the other possibility is not to
completely revise the ERI but to ask the vendor to review the app ER and say here are the here are the two or three or four uh parts of the of the ER or NRI
that you should be revising at this point so not a full revision of it but a partial revision we can update parts of it and then uh another year update another part of it so that we're and that is in fact the recommendation from
adject that you kind of do partial revisions as you go along but we haven't revised it since 2010 that's why we're asking to do a major revision yeah so at this point we have to put
this application in by February 15th yes and of next right so uh I'm going to contact all of the uh organizations that supported our application last year and
ask them if they were supported again this year um and uh we can talk offline about uh what should write to the township council at this point I think we want to
have a motion that we're going to apply for sustainable Jersey grant for the NRI or ER whichever way want SP we may have in a prior me we do that
in a prior meeting any you would have had the notes um before before we get to the motion if we don't get funding from the township are we going to ask for $10,000 if you get funding from the township
then the answer is will ask for $10,000 right if we don't get funding from the township we asking 10 or 20 yeah um I I'd still say let's ask for 10 unless there's some guidance from
sustainable Jersey are there a lot more $220,000 uh rants this year than there were last year I didn't look at that to compare it they didn't talk about the structure they didn't talk about whether the structure was similar to last year or different I we to ask that question I
can I can contact him and ask if um if we might have a higher chance of success with a$ 10,000 ground I think we should ask the question yeah I I'll I'll do that okay um so it seems like we're
gravitating subject to this answer towards $10,000 request so propose a motion that we apply to the St Jersey pscg PR cycle for a most
likely a $110,000 grant to refresh the ER okay here a second second seconds okay no objections then we consider
it sove BCD USA so this committee uh people uh met uh via Zoom to talk about what uh
we would be doing as a uh as a group uh we made some decisions put that those decisions together in minutes we haven't set next date to do something at this point uh would expect to become more
active in in the spring in March uh there are already there's already interest in uh on the part of the of the committee uh in uh either
Reviving uh Gardens that have native plants or uh installing native plants in the garden and this committee cons s not only of residents in the town but also of one of the
mjp G students uh who wants to come up and help uh uh plant native plants uh as part of the B city project the uh membership in B City I uh
has is being processed so we should be hearing from uh B city as to what else uh they will support us with this spring there's nothing else on B City hosting the Hub uh Alo we already
reported on this I I asked Alvaro and David to put together uh their thoughts on on the um minutes for the meeting I then sent those minutes to the two main presenters uh Tracy and Lois they made
Corrections and then I uh put together then Tracy sent the sign up sheet uh uh for the people who attended uh unfortunately the sign up sheet uh was difficult to
read so there were some uh wrong email addresses and it took a couple of rounds to correct the email address but now I didn't sign it I forgot to sign the I'm not even on there you're not even on there I'll add you in and then
we'll have a final correction for student schools and residents so the uh the New Jersey uh Forest Nursery uh said uh sent me uh this form
to order um saplings they are they are saplings in tubes we have these maybe last year kind uh so we have to break the tubes
apart and so I ordered enough tubes for the schools and also 95 and then these will be shipped the Monday before aror day so we will probably get them Tuesday or Wednesday in
fact is I think the last week in so got another question on trees um was someone sitting next to me at the Hub meeting I think it was yes he gave a brief update on a program they ding in
pan so they so they asked sign up for signups from interested residents in the spring for treats they collected $25 per person and then they distributed these saplings which were like three or 4 feet tall yes in the fall they got them from
um P's Nursery yes um so it's a different way of approaching the tree problem it's instead of a large number of small saplings it's a much smaller number of three or four feet tall how many people say yeah yeah um but I can imagine if
you spent $25 on the tree as a homeowner you might be more inclined to look after it make sure it gets water and so on so it might have a higher success rate than SS planing in the fall is uh seems to
give it a better chance of surviving because sapling is going dormant and so while it's dorant it's sending its roots out and getting established and then the early spring or if there's snow or rain
that is helping the sapling to establish itself as well so um the uh we can order saplings from the pilins because we're already uh registered with them yeah
it's a trade only it's a trade only and towns towns are allowed to do that yeah and I have ordered plants from PS I know we have a program that's working for us at the moment but I just thought i' share that as it's an
interesting different approach to to the same problem right and I don't recall what those uh PL cost I'm assuming that they're basically the $25 is covering cost I assume
so and and and do they give you like a selection of what types of trees you didn't when you order right when you order from P land you have to order in your B so you may be able to order say I
don't know for sake of argument 10 of the same same species so you might be are offering two species at a time it's not that you can order one of each species yeah yeah because
they're they're above operation both legistics of collecting $25 from the people 100 residents might be the they have to send an check to the
down yeah anyway just okay um mayor's Wellness committee request oh no wait budget uh we sent I sent the budget and
that we had discussed so I haven't heard anything back from li no they haven't disc haven't begun discussing the budget but there was no feedback at all outside of what the brand so now the mayor's Wellness
committee request for a community garden blot uh sent that to the community garden and there's apparently a discussion that's going on between the community depard and mayor's Wills so I don't know what the results
are at and then the mayor's Wellness committee Harvest you've been in contact with I contacted the mayor on that yeah so I'll either with her directly or with the committee and one more thing that's not on the
agenda should put on the agenda Sports fields and uh and uh toxic chemicals was supposed to be a another presentation the uh group that was going to give the
presentation was written by an artificial turf company so they canceled their presentation they said they would give it later I saw the something about the sports Fields Sports field a grant
on the agenda for tomorrow night I'm not sure what that is about um I'm wondering if we should be not objecting at this point but raising the issue making people more aware
of uh possible problems with artificial ch I I think I I would say yes Richard especially since we're I don't know how grass affects bees and pollinators but
since we are part of bee City now I would think that eliminating a grass field would have an adverse impact on insects and other types of things that fly in and around that Park area right
now if we were to replace it with with a turf field um it would cause disruption to the current ecosystem there okay thanks anyone else well I just note that the mayor has
said she's Sports the field we we should be taking the the approach I think of of making sure people are aware of the negatives as well as the positives so they start to make their own inquiries as opposed to being
too dogmatic and we're going to fight this yeah I'm I'm I'm we on your side David that you know we should be pointing out that there seems to be some uh or there may be some problems with certain types of artificial turf Shields
and and and make people aware of that especially as regard their children and the adir um I will try to formate uh moving forward to the presentation it would
also be good that that organization does get to a point where they have me right because there's probably a lot more information that you're going to be able to GLE from that kind of me there been a few seminar webinars over the
past month or two on this one was the CL other group yeah the second I also gave links to uh to University a university website that
discussed the two types of fields so we can look at that too anything else before we open up to Citizens anyone else our citizen is ready awaiting all right he's come online again okay
citizens hearing on any environmental issues something else to say yeah as as as as the heads up at the beginning of the meeting I was I saw in the same tap into article that talked about B City I saw at the end they talked about a
Berkeley Heights green challenge 2025 and I went over and looked at the um um Google forms survey and and had like four areas of questions oh me be pretty quick um course where did it come from both the idea and the questions and you know related to that was it discussed at
an EC meeting I'm not remembering it so it's a sustainable Jersey action ah uh and uh under that action you have a number of options one of them is to do
a green Challenge and ask people if they can uh make a pledge to do things to uh be more sustainable and make the environment more sustainable we did this pledge uh I want
to say about five or six years ago uh and uh um we were able to get 2 and a half% of the population to uh make the pledge uh so we're trying to uh do it
again okay yeah because I was going to say the other thought now that I know that is you know what does it mean to pledge to the challenge and I I kind of ask it because as it looks more like a survey unless you already do or plan to do what the I will statement says but I guess is
that is that meant like a if you're saying your will you're kind of just reinforcing that you'll continue to do this stuff is that the idea behind the pledge part yeah it's the idea to say hey I'm going to do this I'm but you know whatever uh uh you don't have to uh
say that you're going to do everything in the pledge but maybe there are things you're already doing or that you'd like to do you know yeah because and the rest and the rest you know I like it it was kind of cute the other said I will not do this and it was interesting because there's a lot of stuff I do so it's like
uh um so you guys came up with the with with the uh the the categories to ask about uh I guess you could say I I would credit ner for uh doing this n do you want to speak yeah sure um yeah I came
up with most of them there were some examples I think in the action description itself for sustainable Jersey yeah um but yeah I wanted to differentiate a little bit if
you already do something so you sort of focus on what's already being done and yeah I guess it is in a way a little bit just a survey so we can know what is
what is already being done and maybe where the environmental commission needs to focus more of its efforts with education or something like that around a certain topic as well um to make
things certain to see what most people are already doing versus what people want to start doing what they pledge to do to try to help with that yeah that's good that answers that answers the question um
kind of the next to last is what's the challenge part getting the 2.5% participation again or something else well the the challenge itself is just I guess to just to sign up that you're challenging yourself to do that
um and then I guess the challenge for us the environmental commission is getting that amount of people to sign up in Berkeley Heights um because that's the percentage we need to complete that action yeah yeah you need have to yeah
need percentage Yeah got it um last question and this is for thank you n for um uh but you know for for anyone who can answer it I know I understand why you're asking for the name and address because it it has to be
for Berkeley Heights residence only and you know that's just to make sure I guess um who will see this non-anonymous data and um I guess I know some of what will be used for as just explained by Nar but is it uh it's basically a data privacy question does this stay internal
to the uh the actual data stay internal to the environmental commission so that was kind of required for action to collect that information so I will submit that I
guess I'll download it as an Excel and then submit that to um within the action of sustainable Jersey so but it'll be there won't be anybody they won't be name I'm assuming there won't be names and such associated
with the data just what it turned out to be I'm GNA double check what they said and I can get back to you because I w't fill it out if it's not going to be anonymous Beyond this the uh I can understand your concerns and
that's some of the feedback that's some of the feedback that often one of these things especially when you're giving your name to have a disclaimer saying um you know to the effect of what I'm talking about which can help with a survey yeah I
think yes you I'll double check about the names but I think I think Unfortunately they asked for they said this is what we require so that's what I put in the form ah in order for the action to you know yeah
because I know even though you made him a required field you know I you can you can put in anything for name and say yes I am a resident and then you can fill out the rest so you can really um yeah you confirm that for me but just you know beware of that issue
and that that's all I got thank you very much we do yeah D maybe that we should be putting in a statement at the bottom the data will not be used for what
taring that's what he wanted to say I was gonna say that the you know the the no personal I ideally you'd like to be able to say no no personal no personal connection to the data will be you know my discussion distributed out
outside of the environmental commission assuming you can do that or or maybe you should put in it's like um yeah yeah you know it's I don't know people like to know what happens with their with their dat yeah I
agree maybe you could check that out near and uh see if if sustainable Jersey has anything on that that yes okay our next meeting is scheduled for Monday February
20th I hear a motion to adjourn so move second 858 second I seconds all right everybody hey by it's the 20th or the 17th no it's 20thth four wait wait four
and three is 17 should be 17 then right 1 I've got that nice thing you sent me this year and it says the 17th on president day is the next schedule yeah be the 17th right two weeks for 3
seven right very good I I just want to make sure it didn't change from what was originally scheduled so that's great like your hoodie Steve logo all right good night every
andnb