supposed to be >> and meeting um we will call this meeting to order. Start with the sunshine law. This is a regular meeting of the environmental commission of the burough fair in accordance with the provisions of the open public meetings act. Public
meetings may be held in person or by means of communication equipment to include streaming services and other online meeting platforms. This meeting is being held in person and through the Zoom meeting platform being broadcast from Burough Hall, 748 River Road, Fairview, New Jersey. Public
participation for this meeting on December 10, 2025 is available by calling, phone number, or through Zoom. Members of the public will be on mute until it's time for questions, comments, which will be announced. At that time, the public has the opportunity to question, comment by phone, or through
Zoom by the raise your hand button and will be called on at the appropriate time. Notice of this meeting was sent to the Asbury Park Press, the tuber times most ledger on January 31st, 2025, posted on the burough website, the bulletin board in the municipal building and has remained continuously posted as
required under the statute. With adequate notice having been given, the environmental commission secretary is directed to include this statement in the minutes of the meeting. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Pauline Flanigan here. Anna Anton here. William Dorner. >> Susan Glovis
>> present. >> Jesse Murray >> here. John Palanetti >> present. Derry Patterson absent. Um John Peters >> here >> also present. Burough secretary Larson,
you have a forum. Thank you. >> Okay. Um everyone have a chance to look at the November 12th meeting minutes. Yes. Um do we have a motion to approve those? >> Motion. >> Second. >> Sorry.
>> Okay, that's great. Okay. So, um those being my notes are approved. Thank you guys. Um and we are very fortunate to have in our um in our audience today um Richard Robinson who's an American
ambassador and a local um two river residents. So, um, we had the honor of meeting with him few weeks ago and we're thrilled to to have you here and to, um, see how we can collaborate on projects moving forward for this year.
>> Great. Um, Christy, were you able to see the email? Okay, perfect. Um, so are you able to share your screen with them so that they can follow along? Are you guys seeing it online? Susan and John, do you guys see
the presentation? Like Susan, they both are muted. Um, are you able to see the presentation? >> Yep, they can see it. Stephanie says she can see it. >> Yes, >> okay. Um, floor is yours, Richard. >> All right.
>> You can stand up there if you want. Susan, you can feel free to move if you want to better view. Okay. Well, thank you for having me first of all and I'm Rich Robinson. As mentioned,
I'm an Americanore ambassador. I'm a Washington ambassador for the Mammoth Watershed. And this is a government program by the NJD. And I'm glad that I'm here today. And so, we'll start this presentation with saying that yes, I am a Two River
resident. I live in Shrewsbury. I grew up in Bonds County. Wasn't born here, but came over as a baby. and a lovely picture of Sandy Hook that I took and there's me in a screen when I started this program. And so if you don't know what Americaore
is, it is a a network of programs hosted by different government agencies that looks to bring outreach to communities through services of many kinds. The ambassadors for the watershed program is just one of those sectors. We also do a lot of food
bank donations. We also work with youths. We also do a lot of mentoring and other things, facilities like that. We are also called domestic peace corps. And this photo here is when we were at the Americanore launch conference a few months ago where a lot of these
different sectors of Americaore all meet and discuss their, you know, programs of what they're doing, what they're looking forward to. >> So what is an American New Jersey watershed ambassador? So as mentioned we are funded by the NJD
and here we are at the NJP headquarters. Here are all the ambassadors and we do a lot of stream assessments. We do a lot of community outreach and education. We reach out to different organizations and agencies to do projects to do presentations to do stream assessments.
Um here's me and a few other ambassadors in a stream in WMA13 which is Barag Bay wershed. Beautiful streams down there. Amazing. Uh, right here is a picture of a dragonfly nymph, which is something that we look for. We look for ben
benthic macro invertebrates in order to assess stream health. And also picture is a pretty fish, which is cool. >> How big is that thing with the legs? >> They can get pretty big. It depends on not only their age, but which species of dragon flies. They kind of look like
spiders, but they can be tiny or they can be like the size of your head. Next slide. >> Sounds good. >> But yes, this program is as mentioned is administered by the department of environmental protection and
specifically division of water monitoring and standards. And there's other subcategories below there. There's a lot of bureaus in the D, but we promote wershed stewardship through education and community involvement. uh pictured here is me and a few other ambassadors from my eco region which is
the Atlantic coast uh coastal plains. So we have the WMA 13. I am WMA 12 which is Mammoth. We also have Jacob who is WMA for no 15. Um we have Jamie who is
Wharton based Wharton Batso village if you have been there which is the Pinelands region watershed in s and then we also have Lauren who is Cape M. Uh in the middle there we have an active um stream
assessment going on here pictured. We are sorting through those different background vertebrates in order to assess the stream health. And this is also in WMA13. And over here is also a tree planting that we did. We planted 250 trees up in
which I think it was WMA8 possibly, but in the northern part of New Jersey and 250 trees for the 250th anniversary of US. Um yeah, next one. And so there are 20 different watershed
management areas that we have. So that's 20 ambassadors. There's one ambassador per region. And we serve our local communities here. Pictured there is WMA or Month. But we also have three source water protection ambassadors which are north, central, and south. And they can
go to any of these W minis to help out. And they are slightly different from the watershed ambassadors because they're source pollution. So they deal with a lot of the pollution aspect. They don't do as many presentations, but they are still just as important. And so a little bit into the look of
Month County. Obviously, I don't need to go into depth. All of us are Mon County residents, but we have different WAS that are actually in Mammoth County. Majority is the Mammoth, WMA, but there's also WMA9 the lower Ritton South River and Lawrence WMA 10 Milstone WMA
11 central fail wa2 mm WMA 13 Barney Bay and WMA 20 accommod 10 11 13 in the south there and 20 is just this bit here. And so a little bit more about the Mammoth waterershed. It's mostly Mammoth
County, but also includes parts of Ocean down here, Point Pleasant, and also Middle Sex all the way up here. And it has 56 municipalities within it. And a little fun fact, it also has Mount Mitchell in the Atlantic Islands, which is one of the highest ones in the Atlantic coast of North America at 260
ft elevation. Also has a very beautiful view of Sammy Cook and also New York City. I've been there a lot and I advise you go there. I you know you probably have but you know that's beautiful. I want to plug in whenever I can.
And so what do we do as mentioned we do streams presentations and projects. So the streams we look at the macronvertebrates pictured here we have a stonefly. And so we look stone flies are important because they are very intolerant of pollution. So if we see a lot of stone
flies that tells us something about the stream that is not very polluted. So the health of that stream is probably very good. It's a type of rapid bio assessment. But if we see a lot of macrovertebrates such as leeches or snails or um clams, the pollute they are much more pollution tolerant. So if we
get only those, then the stream might not be as healthy, but they aren't necessarily bad. If we still get those macron vertebrates, that's still great. It's just if there's not a good diversity of all of them, that can tell us something. And everything that we gather is reported to the NJ.
And so presentations like I'm doing right now. Yay. But we also do a lot of presentations to schools and clubs. I did a presentation to a club yesterday in Eontown for Memorial Middle School and I can translated this little activity to the water tank pool. But another popular
presentation that we do is called the envircape which is this plastic model of a waterhed that shows um pollutants and water runoff from the surface that shows and teaches kids how you know polluting the environment isn't good where everything washes away goes into the
rivers the streams that fertilizer salt it all goes somewhere doesn't just magically disappear when it rains. We also do projects as mentioned. Here's another picture of that tree planting. Over here I'm also presenting to some
high schoolers in the Pinelands and I'm actually teaching them how to sample for the macaron vertebrates. They're all very squeamish but some of them are really into it. They also asked if you could eat them. I don't recommend it. Even though the crayfish you can eat, but I can't say. Um, there's also scuts,
which look kind of like shrimp, a little guide. But all of those are just little bioassessment stuff we do that we want to teach kids and teach anyone in the public because we want to connect people with nature so that they can become stewards of it instead of just living in it and going to the office every day and
never connected. So fathers have done so far. I only started my term back in September. Um, so one of my first projects was an environmental stewardship training, which is a type of training where we train kids or the public how to steward
their environment. So that can be a rainbarrel workshop. That can be how to sample macro vertebrates. That could be a biob blitz. And here is a biological survey of fisherman's coven conservation area which is a matty park. And we did some sing with the high schoolers. We've
got a lot of fish. We got nachogs, got killer fish, Atlantic silverside, we have a forest sea star, which is pretty cool. We're also keeping track of what birds are in the area. And all of this can be submitted to save coastal wildlife. That previous ambassador did that last year. I am not sure what the
high school did with that data. It was a little bit looser this year, but it just gets the kids yet again connected to nature. Then another project I did the first ever know your stream day with the Northern Mammoth Watershed Alliance up in Kingsburg. Uh we had a lot of towns
participate. We had different stations in different towns where people could come and register and visit the stream, learn about the stream, see what's in the stream. Um I had a little station here where I had some macronvertebrates I could show people, tell them that yes, I got them from that stream. This stream
isn't just water. There's actual living things in there. Um, and then we also had a demonstration by the NJP of the Kingsburg floodgates opening and closing. They allowed us to do that. Normally they close it when the tide is high so that water doesn't rush in and flood the marina. But because the times
were so low that day, they allowed us to do it whenever we wanted. So we got to show the public band was really cool. I would have added a video, but it was 10 minutes long. I could speed it up, but it's just a big giant metal slab slowly closed.
And that's it. That's uh the America or Watershed. That's the America or New Jersey watershed ambassador program. Another very long name. And if you have any questions, feel free. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> Um gosh, my mind was constantly and I
wrote down a bunch of notes. Um I think this would be great. I I know you've met with us and um members of the green team too and just trying to see how we can utilize your services um in the most efficient and and for outreaching
way. I know um this spring we're try and winter and spring we're trying to do an education series including on storm water um and perhaps kind of working towards that is also how residents can do some on their own property right
whether we talked about the rain barrels or um some you know something else we could do but um I'd love to hear feedbacks what you what do you guys think um >> yeah even just getting the kids involved doing like stream assessment or something because we do have a few
streams in town. That'd be kind of pretty interesting >> to to see kind of what the novels are on top of the on top of the D and the other stuff that we're getting constantly because they're not in great shape right now. >> Mhm. >> Right. Yeah. But the know your stream day just seemed really
>> kind of >> Yeah. And I think it goes to this water story, right? We've talked about we want to do our water as the grave town, right? people don't know these different creeks now they can finally see fourth fourth creek um because all the notweed
was kind of cut down but knowing that there's these creeks that all kind of run into N river but knowing that water story and then also the health right how we can the stewards get the kids out I think there's some great stuff at the school too collaboration yes
>> would it be possible to have the kids do an event during the day and then have a presentation about it like what they found like formally presented at something. I don't I mean just so everybody kind of hears about it and >> I don't know. I'm just trying to think
of how the get the information out to the public about what they found or didn't find. >> Yeah. No, I think that definitely I think that would be a great idea. I think it's also a lot of um very empowering for kids as well to talk
about what they found. Um, even if it happens at one of our the storm water event or council meeting or something that or maybe even just later in the year or actually like if we have like an event and then later on the year like have another kind
of education thing where we present the results and whatnot. It's kind of say we always continue. Yeah. Continuation of just like of this program, you know. >> Yeah. like a group of kids going. I mean, I think that the new visible Fort Creek is ripe for people to
get into. >> They could do something there and then have a table at like where you live day and people could go check it out and be like this is where >> this was what we were doing. I mean it's I mean people will probably see them you know down there. >> What when is when will you live again? That's
>> May April. >> April 26. >> When's the best time for the stream assessments? So I can do them whenever I can, but because of temperature and winter, we obviously don't want people going in there. They might not have waiters or tall boots, and we don't want kids in there. They're going to freeze their
off. So the spring when the the weather gets warmer is the best time. >> Yeah. So it might be a little bit too late to present at low where you live day, but maybe something can be like advertised at low where you live day like to like hey we're going to be doing this event and then like later like
after the summer can have another like a presentation either to council or you know some just something that kind of ties it all back together. So like first like education piece like tying all this water and then have an actual like in-person event and then the results of
that. I love the idea of having the macro invertebrates right there so that kids can actually see them and say, "Whoa, what is that?" Like, you know, I mean, so whether we can do just some kind of sampling >> and just have it there and then >> it's almost like a you have a dichomous
key and you can try to figure out which is what. >> Exactly what we do. We take kids out and we show them how to the macro vertebrates and even if it is too cold, I have a preserved box of different macrovertebrates. I can still show vacation, >> right? Because I think that that's such a great
>> tool, too. But like maybe you could at least set that and then you can do on, you know, >> how about Marter Pond? Checking what's in Marter Pond. >> Do you do ponds? I mean, the same way you would do. I mean, >> I mean, the rules would be different. We
mostly do screens, but there's definitely things with ponds. the vernal pool. Then it's going to have lots of frogs and you get kids introduced to tadpoles and you talk all about the science behind that. >> That's in the natural area. There's no pools. >> Yeah. >> Yeah.
>> But Carter is far from >> wonder I mean wouldn't it be cool to have this came from the stream this came from the pond pool and see how their life bird sanctuary has a stream running through it. >> Yeah, it does. um which would be really
accessible for the kids to go play down there, right? I mean, great big space. >> I love bringing the sanctuary in as a learning >> uh you know, outdoor classroom for the kids. >> That's a great word. They'll trample
cabbage and everything, but >> right. Um I mean so I think is this would be maybe that's the direction you know if you can offer your help with that getting um you know doing the stream and then just
is Richard do you ever do like a um a preview like you go and sample some of the streams to see like what if you find a stream that has nothing in it like >> and I mean so maybe you could >> sample our various things because I mean's tiny it's not like But if you
went in and kind of exported first to see which one was right for the kids to I don't know. >> Yeah, I I can do site recon. Like I have my own sites that I can recon for the NJDP. But if there's a stream by a school or a site of interest, I can go there beforehand, see what's in it, see
if the kids will find something presentation. >> Yeah, but there's also that stream right behind the >> Yes. >> Yeah. I like you going first. You didn't also bring anything. >> I can bring a podcast bucket of macros
from a different stream so that I know that the kids. >> Well, that's great. I think um I'd love to be in touch to kind of figure this out too. I'd be happy to go to the streams as well with you recon um and whoever else wants to. But I think this
um >> anybody else any anything else, Susan or John? No, I was just thinking if we if this fits into one of our four programs, if people are assigned to be in charge of those educational programs, then we
could filter it through whoever that is and get a format for what we want. Mhm. >> I I I wonder though if this is because this is with the kids, it might be something that's like a little bit more, you know, whether you work with the
school and then you present it at love where you live day, you know, like so I think this might be a little bit different than the education series. Not to say that you can't, you know, not talking about stream water and this especially the health of our streams is so important because everything that
goes through the streams goes right into the river which goes into the ocean. It's all connected part of the wershed which is very important. But I wonder if this hands-on stuff um I'd love to just see the kids do it with the schools and I think that they'd be very open to
having you come in um and then seeing how the kids could actually present that. So maybe this would also be something that you know Junior Green Team, the Norwood Green Team can get involved with or Andy Doy's program. >> So what would that link? What what's the
connection between the school and taking this program forward? Um, >> well, I I I mean, I could see this becoming if that stream in the back of Nwood actually has some macaron murder birds that are there and and you can actually have the kids catalog that and
catalog the bird sanctuary, which is they're trying to utilize a bird sanctuary as an outdoor classroom. Now, Mrs. Romano is really trying to push that. >> Um, this seems like it fits right in there. >> Does Does the stream you're talking about go to Schwankers? Is that >> It does. Okay. >> That's the one that goes to Schwankers.
I don't know where the bird sanctuary goes to, but this is why we need to have that water story. >> It would still be good to tie it back though, so like not just the kids, but like other, you know, everyone else can understand it too what the hell that is, >> right? >> But have the kids Yeah. Yeah. You know,
why not? >> Yeah. I don't think about sanctuary. >> How long are you are you in the program for? What's your like is it for just a year or like what's your >> 10 month long term that starts from
September and goes to either June or July and then I can do a second term if I choose or a third term as well. >> Well, you're still local too, so >> right. >> Okay. Just trying to think ahead of like, you know, I'm sure obviously things will take time and want to present and
>> Yeah. So right um I am happy to uh you know put you in touch with the schools if that's where we want to start and see that. Um I do think that once we're still working I'm still waiting for dates back from
records >> in February. >> Yeah I asked for date submission. Um actually >> but I do think that this we can have some kind of poll where there was education public education around the time of love where you live which is in April
>> whether that's at love where you live day or um another symposium like soon thereafter. >> Mhm. >> Yeah. Um but I'm happy to
start that connection with the schools. I would love to present to the schools do any sort of project with them. I would hope that >> right >> they would be I think they would open that I just yeah earth week so awesome. >> Yeah rather than lower level.
>> Sure. >> Um but I think it's all connected too which storm health as well. >> I mean um stream health especially with our river Yeah. >> and the D. >> Um All right. Well, thank you. Are there any other questions from the public or
green teams that want to ask Richard why we have him here? >> Stephanie Adams has one online. >> Okay. >> Hi. I had um raised my hand earlier to mention the creek right behind the school. Um, but it's I don't know if
you've been back there, like the entrance to the creek is right. Like you could almost like they wouldn't even have to leave school grounds almost if you wanted to do um that creek because I know that becomes an issue sometimes just getting the kids out of the school, but I know a
lot of kids play back there. So I I mean I think it'd be a great idea if you could, you know, get something going in the creek like right by their school, you know. Yeah, agree. And that's easy. And that's a part of their, you know, right on their school grounds.
>> Yeah, >> that's the perfect situation. >> Yeah. >> Um, great. >> Thank you. Very interesting. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Richard, do you work with Scout Troops, too?
>> Yes. I haven't personally yet, but other previous investors have because we've done this is our 26th year. So, we have 26 years of ambassadors doing this. So, scout our mention. >> Great. Um, well, thank you so much. Uh,
we will be, you know, we'll reach out to the schools and put you in touch with that. And then as if anybody you know wants to get in contact with Richard directly too including like his scouts or anything else um is it okay if we share your information? >> Yes. Yes. >> I also have flyers if anyone wants them
if he wants to reach me out after this meeting. >> Awesome. >> He's going to stick around. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. I appreciate it. Those are some really cool photos. Thanks. Thanks. >> Okay. Moving on to our current business.
The first thing um that's come to our attention um I asked you uh Christie to share with you the ordinance from uh Long Brbridge on skip the stuff and construction dust ordinance. Um this has
been Mammoth Beach was the first town in the country to pass this type of ordinance. um skip the stuff. If if you guys were able to take a look at the ordinance actually makes the default of
any restaurant um or to go orders to not have any plastic cutlery or anything unless requested. Um this will help reduce the amount of plastic stuff out there, but it's also saves money for the
business owner as well, too. So, it seems like a win-win, kind of like a no-brainer. construction dust ordinance. Um many times with new construction happening with the Azac trim with the plastics that are h um being sawed for
porch or decking or any other types of materials. Uh it's being treated. It's standard as it usually is with lumber with wood dust. Um, but this is microplastics and what it leaves behind is the residue of tiny
microplastics uh that's entered into the air, the ground, the water. And so this ordinance is stating that homeowners, contractors need to be able need are responsible for containing that, for cleaning that up.
They can't just leave it there in the street or wherever they do it. Um, this was brought up at the League of Municipalities in Atlantic City in November and was unanimously and well supported and it was um agreed and so
the the League of Municipalities um did write a letter in their of their support for this ordinance. Um so it is gotten a lot of momentum. I brought it up in in front of all you guys to see what your thoughts are on this and if
this is something that the environmental commission would like to write a letter or memo and support to the town council um that Fair Haven also passes these ordinance or adopts these ordinance as well. So, um, I hope I open up to any
questions, comments. Did people get a chance to take a look at these ordinances? >> And the tough one I thought was already a Jersey, but I think that was just for straws, right? >> Just for straws. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. No, I
>> How many other towns? Red visit now. There's Long Branch, Mammoth Beach. I can't tell you how many I don't >> field and >> were are the three major ones that do safety stuff in the
town. >> Mhm. Um it's going to be enforcement and it's going to be the question who's enforcing this right and that's always that's always an issue. Um, but if we Is it a vacuum that
they have on site? How do you How do you >> uh using Yeah, you have to use a tent like a something to contain it so it doesn't just blow, you know, trying to minimize that. Um Yes. So, uh, that the membership approved unanimously
at the municipalities, the New Jersey League of Municipalities business meeting, um, calling on municipalities across state to adopt an ordinance to have contractors and other subs and residents must contain plastic during construction and or renovation projects in their towns. Um and it calls on this
resolution calls on state legislator to pass a statewide first of the nation law that would do the same thing. Reducing our exposure to these micro nanoplastics obviously that we know has become an important health issue. Um 22 municipalities across state have already
approved an ordinance first passing on the beach a year and a half ago. Um and so they're are asking for you know more mis values to to support this. So are we presenting it as two different things?
>> It's all in one or >> they are both contained um in one or not. And Christy, you sent that out, right? That was part of the um >> when I sent out the agenda. >> Yeah, cuz even at first Christy and I
were like, wait, where's the other one? But if you scroll down, you can actually >> document. >> It's the same document. And this is what Michael de Machelli had just sent to me because she that was long branches. >> Yeah.
>> Um to Susan has her hand raised. >> Okay. Yep. Susan, >> I make a motion that the EC write a letter to the commission recommending adoption of the ordinance based on what
the information you have. >> Second. >> Any opposed? >> All in favor say I. >> Okay. Um Christie, can you note that that we I will let write a letter on behalf of
the environmental commission that we support this ordinance and is asking council to um >> yes consider the adoption as well for kind of amendment. >> Cool. >> Okay, great. Okay, thank you. Uh moving on to Fourth
Creek and Navis River update. Um levels are I I did get an update from um Brian uh Hendor from the D. Um levels have gotten have improved, but they're
still um let's see this time of year is pretty good. >> That's what he said. >> Yeah. Happy says as far the latest results they were coming out of Fourth Creek have looked a lot better. This is
however typical results when the weather tends colder. Why look at our exor now we haven't been out of >> to do any further track down sampling because I'm not seeing anything that's alarming. The two high results in 1119
were because of the samples that were collected right after 36 in of rain. So I I'm happy to um share these with you from Fourth Creek and Shbury River Yacht Club. The also I asked him the question
if that there is online you know live data as as we're thinking about how to get this out to the public and so as of yet there is nothing. Um, you can find them weekly when they're put up. Uh, but there's there's none
that have the two. Uh, >> well, if you could give me where it is posted weekly, like everything that we want on on a dashboard, I can scrape it and pull it in >> every time and we could snapshot it historically on our own dashboard.
>> Okay. >> So, I I don't want to wait for them to have a dashboard. I want to pull the data and make I had sent an email. I think you were on it. >> Um, if I have the data sources, it's not a hard thing to do. >> Could that just self refresh?
>> Yeah. Oh, no. It'll scrape. I could set it to scrape weekly. I could set it to scrape hourly. I could set it to scrape every five minutes. Um, I just need to know what the data sources are and then >> Okay, cool. >> Um, >> and then find a place to host it. But I'll host it for now. We'll figure it
out from there. I'm not worried about >> um just a couple of lines of code. >> So I don't know. I mean can we sit and maybe figure out what the sources are that we want once we find them on the internet that >> yeah there's no website link for the monitoring stations that are collected
by the volunteers and clinician actions but they are collecting samples today and tomorrow. So then yeah so he just got the results and put it in a PDF. >> Okay. is actually posted somewhere. >> Um, and best the results that are collected by DP though on a routine
basis are uploaded monthly >> to are they uploaded as documents or they get >> and you can see and I will share this with you. I'm sorry. This >> No, I know. I know. >> This email chain has been going back and forth on it. So, I'm like >> dizzy where it is. You can see here the
NJT NSSP monitoring network. I'll pass it on to you. >> You can click on any water quality standard to see all the results. But there is >> ideally it would be great to have the D and Clean Ocean Action together so you can get the different types of readings. >> Does Clean Ocean action post their data
results? >> Do you know what >> do they post? Does Clean Ocean Action post their data results from the water quality? >> See, yeah, that's that's a suggestion that COA needs to come out to to the municipalities.
>> Yeah. data. >> They have um like every I'd say every two months or maybe every six weeks >> the the people who are or they're invited to hear what the results are after you've spent the time volunteering
>> but it's not publicly published data. It should be >> No, it should be. >> Yeah. And it it should be not as technical an analysis but it needs to be done in your own >> 100%.
>> Okay. So then Oh, so at least DP says the DP at least post it once a month. >> Yeah. Who knows which it should especially because it's getting more specific. Yeah, I'd love to present them side by side so that >> is that something can we can we maybe
like reach out to ask about that even even if it's just like fair havens since since we're requesting to do this like could we ask about like can we at least get like our data published or something >> you know who do we contact
>> sworn that yeah >> yeah maybe that's worth doing then asking and saying like letting letting sworn that say, "We're looking to put this together for our >> Can we please like get your data?" >> Robin, do you want Are you okay if we do that?
>> I can figure out how to download that box. >> Do you mind texting me her email address? >> John and I reach out so that we can start to pull >> I think Yeah, I think that'd be great. Even if somebody just send us >> Yeah. Again, it's full of data. It should be publicly available >> once we figure out how to ingest the
data. We can figure out how to Yeah. pop it back out. I think it'd be great for residents to just have a QR code and be able to see the water levels and historically too like oh >> well yeah that's the once we once we can ingest the data we can do whatever the hell we want but
>> all right we'll reach out to her great thanks guys >> awesome >> okay moving on to living shoreline grant um there shoreline grant is um still being considered um as of last though they did not have a date or time
when Stevens was going to come by and look at 22 uh 21 Fair Haven Road. The building should be >> it's down, right? It should by the end of this week. So maybe a week. >> Yeah. Um but it is moved. So that might
allow a better um survey of that landscape and just see what happens there. But we'll keep you posted once I hear um when Stevens will be able to visit the site.
Okay. Um education series. Um Susan, do you want to speak on that? >> No. >> No. Because I'm not sure what you're asking me. >> Uh I had to see your name on the agenda
with myself as well. Uh just want to give a heads up on what we discussed with Rumson. Um you know what the education series is going to look like or what the start what we're trying to uh do and I'm going to defer to you on
that Kelly because I came late to the meeting so I think you can give a more complete picture. >> Okay great. Um so Anna, myself and Susan met with the Rumson EC last week. Um our hopes are trying to collaborate on more
events together just like the sports swap which has been very successful. Um one of the ways we can do this is by collaborating on the education series. They are hosting a presentation in June uh January on sustainable landscaping um
in collaboration with the Rumsons and garden club as well. And then we are um going to be hosting a storm water series that's all connected to that. Um we're hoping to get and we've been in contact with Chris Arada and Holly Demoral from
Ruckers who are going to come speak to um anyone that's interested in in February. Uh take the date, we're still working on the date, but most likely to be at community center. Um, and we our plan and goal is
to open this up to the two rivers like so Redbank, Rumson, Little Silver, Shrewsbury, anybody that's interested in finding this out because it's it's all connected. It's all the same watershed. Um, and try to maybe think of us as the
two rivers or the peninsula EC or or environmental working group. Um, in March we were thinking about having uh native plants or patchwork for wildlife. They've been very active in Redbank and so reaching out to our
friends and collaborators over there to see if they would be interested in continuing this um education series. So, and then in April culminating at Lori Live Day or doing an event there. So hoping to have something for January, February, March, and April, all
connected to uh sustainable landscaping, storm water, native plants that's available in the Two Rivers and working with our neighboring towns. So be on the lookout once we find out some more information about that. But I
do encourage everybody, it's a free event to go to the J January 20th during the day though. Yes. Yeah, >> I recommend for ours that it is not during the day and status. >> Right. I think that is what
it's the 20th. >> The January 20th at home Tuesday at night now. >> No, it's Tuesday. It's 11:00. >> Yeah. >> But yes, and so, right, obviously we hope to have ours, you know, offer that
PM slot available, >> right? Okay. Uh, Marta Park Open Space Preservation. Anna. >> Yeah. Um, we Susan and I can't get it off of my head for the last meeting to put together a
bit of a plan of action to present to Chris. So, we have a meeting scheduled with him December 18th, 100 p.m. It's a Thursday to talk about what we all took in from the last meeting. Um, we had our neighbors on Baron Road come in just the
way that the maintenance process works in town where it's not really one-sizefits-all. So, it ties into our strategic planning initiative where we feel like the environmental commission should be
leading the charge on what that maintenance plan looks like. We have uh there's continuity to our meeting dates. Nobody, this group is not disbanding. It's there's not one person that, you know, my point is it's not like
someone's on council and they're gone in two years and then it could fall off. People in our town know when they're when we're meeting. They can come and and air their grievances. They know that there's a group of experts on the panel. The garden club is
the green team. They're all involved. So it just seems like the place and the consortium to take in that information that we're seeing like we saw last meeting this is the best group to handle that and then just and then get the information to TPW in a way that says
like you what you're doing in Marta in Marta Park is not the same as what you should be doing at the soccer fields and fair fields. Those two things cannot live in the same maintenance plan. So, we wrote out a plan, Susan and I, um
that we plan to present to Chris and just say, "This is our recommendation. This is the group that we think should be working closely with DPW." Um, in my opinion, it would actually probably alleviate some time, alleviate some work
that they're doing. There's probably redundancy. They're probably spending too much time at parks that they can leave. Um, so we think it would just be a better it would be a better it would be an opportunity to streamline things. >> I think some of the questions we have to
ask is are are are they just doing it because like is there requirements like are they going to that you know to that park and mowing it because they were told to or they just jump from one spot to another. >> Right. Because some of it, like you said, may be a cost savings, but a lot
of what we what what was presented last last time we met was, you know, them purposely zero cutting so close to the trees and causing damage is a cost cutting measurable. That's why they're doing that rather than weed whacking or, you know, they're they're not cutting
the grass. You know, I I don't cut very close to my trees because I want my trees to live. But given that information in this setting to be like this part does not need that >> correct >> there's your like there's your whole answer >> and I think that
>> we should be like a a guiding voice to DPW >> because it gives the town the opportunity to come here and say we're seeing that not like you know telling on but like these are things these are practices that we're seeing being implemented. We know that this isn't the right way to do it. How do we get where
is our connective tissue to the council? It's us. And we've always kind of struggled to figure out what the purpose of the environmental commission is. I know that since I joined, it's just like where where do we land? We have the green team who's out there, boots on the ground, but like can we be this connection to council and say and DPW
and the the physical happenings in you know the maintenance of the town and say like this is our best practice. this is what we recommend to be the best practice so far. >> And by setting requirements and either throttling them back or putting them in place, right, >> we also start to get a little bit of
control of how we could say, okay, this is where the budget might need to be steered because you're saving or busting a little bit here, but we're saving a little bit there. But as we could get a voice into requirements and throttling, we could maybe get a little bit of control of budget.
>> Yeah, that'd be great, >> you know. And >> so that's the plan. So, we're gonna go to Chris and recommend this. >> Um, and just say like, why not try it? It's, you know, give it a give it a chance to say. So,
>> I mean, we also are supposed to have like a council member that's helping to voice our opinions. >> We've not we've not had >> we have not had um I think also we should recommend having a backup so we can always have a council member here. >> Yes. because obviously we've been trying to get this connection going, but I
think this is a great I mean it makes a lot of sense. >> But now going back to our strategic plans that we worked on last year, we had two that were open space preservation and then municipal property management.
They were too separate. >> Yeah. >> I I do think there's a lot of fuzziness there. there's overlap because if what you're proposing on like how we preserve our open spaces and how we manage that um also how DPW manages our B properties
right um landscapes do you see this that falling in this open space preservation plan or is that something separate >> it's a budgeting thing because obviously TPW you know you see where I'm coming from it's going to be so if you if you look into Redbank like you know you talk
to people like get tricky on it or anything like that. They solved their open space problem and the budget problem through dispensaries. That's literally how they fixed it in the last two years >> by letting dispensary. >> They t the every tax dollar that comes
from a dispensary goes to open space. Period. >> That's why they did it. >> They said the that that's where that revenue stream goes. Every textile has to go to open space. >> Yeah. And so that's how they fixed it. They had a big problem before that. And
then when the dispensers came in, they went, "Let's do it." >> So last year we had you had the open space tax that was that um yeah >> was brought up in council. There was support for it and then there wasn't it kind of fell off. But I wonder if
>> and that's the most important part. >> But you know, we even said half of a penny, right? um >> isn't >> anything >> anything's a valid >> um >> so I don't I don't but but my question was just like is because I our senior plan and I and I know that but I'm just
wondering does municipal property like Burrow Hall the police department like DPW do those properties also because DPW has that whole big front property too like that's all part of this open space does that fall under your open space
preservation maintenance I yeah I look at this as like there fair has a ton of green space. We're lucky for it but I don't think that we are I and I don't I think that they would agree like we're not managing it the way that it that supports the ecos. They're all vastly
different. So you can't just apply one to each. I think categories >> right categories and what we're what we're allowed what we're allotted is the ability to be flexible. Like we're not a middle town. We're not these gigantic places where it's like just go mow. It's like you can be really precise with the
group and just, you know, >> have a plan in place. Where is the plan? Can we see a plan if you have a plan? What is your schedule? Like just to the ability to start having conversations like that >> or and also to make recommendations like there are going to be plan teams that we hope that they'd be native or that
they'd be considered. >> Totally. I think I think that that's like baseline. I'm really I think and Susan interject but the the plan that I outlined which I'd be happy to to share is more focused on like
what is the plan? What are you guys doing? What's going on out there? I see people today I saw one guy blowing the leaves at Fair Haven Fields. >> Yeah. >> Why would we just leave them? Don't do that. Go figure out something else to do. Like where is where is everybody supposed to be? These parks are
different. This waterfront is different. It's unique. It should have a unique application to each location that we have. And I think that if we said, "Stop messing with Marter Park and put your time elsewhere. >> You know, this looks good. This I just
believe that we have the ability that's tangible for us. That's possible for us as as a small town. >> And I think we look at it too big picture. I think we look at everything like it's just like mow it, blow it, blow the leaves, >> mow it, blow it, and move on. I just don't think it needs to be that
>> it can be. >> The one one positive is if you've noticed the DPW has started to leave leaves around totally trees in the part which was huge. I mean you know and I made a big fuss about it. I said that's so great if they in addition to doing
that if every spring they got wood chips delivered there and put them around the base of all the trees then they wouldn't have to go near the roots. That's like nourish the trees, >> but they also wouldn't have bees either. >> But that should be nobody is nobody
>> would could tell them that that information needs to get relayed to them. And I think we are the this group is the right group to relay that and to plan that and say like you've got you're in the room, you've got Gavin and his wife in the room. Who is getting that information? DBW? Nolan. So I mean if
you're we do have a licensed tree expert if she said this is the best thing to do for the trees to protect their roots and so you've got a you know expert to say that um because I mean I'm sure the shade tree commission wants to do that
too. >> I want to say collaboration between the shade tree and the EC would be great up to >> and the point is is this is a monthly meeting that everybody knows. You can come here and say we saw this. We think that this is a better a best case and we
say great we will get it to we have an open channel with with our public works and maintenance group who takes care of the open spaces and say we let's try this let's do this let's kind of navigate this a little differently so that we don't end up with ground bees at
Marter Park so people aren't coming here and being like stop that you know so I think it's like we don't have to be so reactive we can be proactive and take a sample of each different open space that we have in down up above us is fine. It's mowed. It's it's they do whatever they want. The great mortal is like
we're good. I think it's more like >> so that Harding Bird Sanctuary doesn't get back to where we have to like >> overhaul it completely. Like where is the maintenance been for these things? So I think that this is what we're trying to get ahead of a little bit.
>> Yeah. >> Susan go >> me. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. It's more I think I think Anna's point is really well taken because it's more about using best practices to maintain what we have and just kind of
establishing what that is and what that could look like and scheduling and just starting pretty elemental in this and opening the lines of communication. There's a lot to be done, but I think it could be really effective and great start for us. >> It's it's not been helpful that we don't
have a representative that has shown up to these meetings. he'll stop. Like I'm not I'm not slamming Drew, but like we need a person to be here that can relay the things that we talk about to council. It's not fair for us >> cuz what are we just sitting in a vacuum for, >> right? >> So if we need to knock on the door of
the burough administrator, I'm fine to do that to make sure that we can at least get some of the stuff that's being spoken about here in front of them. >> So that's what this is about. >> Yeah. And also about, you know, having the burough be a role model, right? And and in in best practices,
>> right? If the burrow can do it, then residents can do it. >> Something has to change with the like we can get into it. The leaf schedule. What's going to happen when the first snow lands and all of these roads are covered in piles of leaves. Where are they going to plow them? Like this is just nothing is connecting right now. And I feel like we have we can be a
little more there can be a better line for for these things. There could be better use of time for the group that we have. We have a bunch of guys that work really hard. Why are what are we doing? >> What if you follow it? the degradation of all of the services and and what has
been impacting everything you just said has been us trying to manage cost. >> Yeah. >> And that's caused a lot of problems. >> We have a ton of machinery. We have millions of dollars worth of heavy machinery that we can use that we hadn't been using. We had to use gray cans. Like it just doesn't it seems quite
disjointed. And the idea that ratables keep growing in Fair Haven and we and we cut taxes by point what I think it was.3. Who cares? The idea is if you left it at 4.75, it wouldn't hurt any of
us because we're used to paying 4.75. We're now paying 4.44. I'm sorry, four 1.75 or 2. Is it two or one? >> It's either 1.7. It's very low our taxes. I mean, our houses are expensive, but our taxes are low. And I believe
it's 1.4. It was 1.47. Now it's 1.44. But the point is, we could have captured, you know, every small house like mine that's worth 750 is being torn down and turned into a 2.2. And if you
had left it at one point, whatever it was, and and captured that extra cost, we could have been fine. But instead, we dropped it by 0.2%. And we lost the ch and and we always talk about, well, things are getting
more expensive. We can't fit the budget. We're going to cut leaf collections at this amount, you know, and that's a problem. And it and that's what bothers me more than anything else is that I'm sitting here as someone who lives on the bird sanctuary for the last 15 years,
moved there because I'm the only house with a vista. I look right down that I'm that white house right there. I bought it for that view. I didn't buy it for the house for you, >> you know. And that that >> okay that that
you know watching the bird sanctuary turn into what it's turned into to the point where they have to do that also. Clean up bothered me more than anything. Guess that's why I'm buy. >> Yeah. No. And I just think like like we said, we're we're not we're clearly not
done buying new property as well. And it's like that scares me. >> We're buying more than >> we just have more land now to maintain that. >> We just, you know, so >> yeah, we may have a conversation. I guess everybody's going to get budgeting
101 from me real soon because >> there are limitations and you're going to get a lesson now. The professor's coming in with a lesson, right? So, I'll I'll follow up with you guys. No worries. >> All right. >> And say the same thing.
>> Not as simple as you think. >> John's teaching a class right now. >> Steph's hand raised. You wanna >> Hi. Um, so you're talking about love all of it. You're talking about um best practices.
Um, I would imagine you know when it comes to something like Marter Park, best practices are going to be, you know, try to prevent this buildup of dirt and dust and to to preventative measures, right? How do we not get the bees so we don't have to spray them? Are you guys and I
would imagine that this is going to be kind of in phases. you know, this is this is a multi-year kind of um effort to get to a point where everything is established, but as far as best practices go, would you also be looking
to try to encourage more sustainable practices? For instance, you know, like we're talking, you were just talking about the big patch of grass, although that was a different meeting. Big patch of grass at the community center. No. Um, you know, and there's no sprinklers.
like would you start encouraging things like the town maybe using rainarrels or um you know the dreaded um you know different kinds of equipment um that aren't gas powered I won't say
the word um is that something that you guys are looking to do as well to incorporate into this maintenance plan is just overall to have the burough you know use more sustainable practices in how
they're doing maintenance. >> Susan, Susan, do you have a question? Yeah. Or response to that. >> Um, no, I wasn't. But I would say we're certainly going to start out a little bit more broadly and quickly get to what's best for each one. Stephanie, do
you agree, Anna? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah, I would give you guys a baseline and be a living document that as you learn as everyone's working together what work and like having your categories and then as you learn that those things can get amended. >> Yeah.
>> But you need to have at least a baseline plan to start with >> for the communication purposes. >> Yeah. >> Right. And are you guys um and again this is down the line um I guess you'll be you'll be looking at the budget with
Chris and hopefully that there will be potential savings but as we continue to bring in more property um are you guys looking at the open space tax? Is that something that, you know, the environmental commission might opine on
in the future? um just as a way to you know try and and uh you know mitigate >> how much money I mean I know and I've I've brought this up in council meetings in the past and I know that currently
there isn't a lot of support but I maintain that you know a lot of people don't even realize that they're paying um you know the Mammoth County open space tax they don't even know it's there don't even know that they're paying that extra $100 And you know, I would argue that another $200 $300 on
your tax bill is not going to be ownorous, but would do a lot towards funding, you know, our efforts in town. Um, so just wanted to put that out there. But thank you. The the it sounds amazing and and long overdue and um I'm
excited to see how it progresses. >> Thanks, sir. Um, we've got John hand up. >> Okay. I would just say this quickly that um you know you got to look at all the different things you're putting on the
table. A lot of them cost a lot of money and I'm going to be the grim reaper here telling you because you want to go electric vehicles that's expensive. You want to talk about adding different things that's expensive. You have a cap on how much you spend and you have a cap on how much you raise taxes. >> I did not say electric vehicles.
>> All right. Whatever. I'm just saying when it's all done when it all done it has to go. I know you want to say these things, but when it's all done, you has to roll into the total budget. >> And I will again, we can have some discussions, but again, you can't have too many things on the table because the council is resistant to getting rid of
certain things. And that's a possibility, too. >> This is I'm happy to discuss snowalled and I should have shared our plan before I I'm sorry. I just This has snowballed into this is not we're not like hooking up DPW with rain barrels and getting like
>> this is how to manage. This is just perks. It's just an initial conversation. >> Yeah. No, seven people in one curve. >> Yeah. Right. Or just at least a bridge of communication about what's going on right now and where what we can make slight changes to immediately to make
sure that people don't come in here saying please stop cutting trees in the car park. That's really I'm not I'm not overhauling DPW again for that sort of thing. But >> because if anything we should be low >> not trying to tell DBW what you know
we're not that that's not our role the easy but to provide guidance and recommendations best practices according to and and like you know mindful of wreck and mindful of shade tree and everything else that uses but those are all those are all groups
of people who now work and can have a better connectivity with a better structured plan and not work separately and do things that are possibly redundant. Time wasting. It's
just to have an overarching idea with a place Wednesday nights to come talk about them Wednesdays, once a month. I think us being known as the group where you can come and say, you know, I'm an expert on this. We have a wonderful what, X, Y,
and Z. We can relay that to the council. I think that's a I think that's a purpose that we've been searching for for years to figure out what do we want to be when we grow up and I think that that can give us some sort of guiding north star. So
>> thank you Susan. >> Just continuing on the idea of commun increased communication. I think Jesse brought up last time that we should ask for an alternate from the uh burough council to come to our meeting. Was that letter written and did we get a response?
>> Uh, we had uh I'd spoken to our burough administrator about that. Um, and that was um not I I should follow up with that, but our liaison is done. So, um there's
going to be a new structure in January. >> Um and so we will be given another le >> I think it's a good idea to ask for it now. for January. They do the reorg and they're assigning everybody that it should automatically be in January.
>> I think it's good to put it in writing, too. >> Yeah. >> We'll do that. Um Okay. So, Oh, yep. I just wanted to to um uh have everyone know that this
Richard McCoy who is coming next January is an incredible perfect example of someone that started a green industry horiculture business. And what he found out was that municipality save taxes
when they practice sustain. They save they save taxes because their DPWs are not working as hard. These plant are working hard. >> Um I think you know Anna and Susan too
when you guys go and speak to Chris and I'll try to see if I can go there but invite Chris to that and invite Nick. >> Yeah, of course. totally >> nick to that too because and I do think that he would be >> he he is we've I've spoken to him about any of the plots that we've developed on the road
>> actually their mayor and their um town administrator are invited and their engineer you talked ahead to that >> in January oh like in January invite invite Chris to that and Nick to that as well I think that'd be
>> yeah this um it it's really just kind of a starting point so I'll get more information. Susan and I and whoever else can make it. >> I'll send a draft. >> Yeah, I'll send a draft. Yeah. Yeah. And
just um Did I send it to you guys? Okay. >> And it's going to be an adjunct uh field trip to Stoning Woods, Princeton, New Jersey, where uh Richard McCoy did work and was successful at showing a demonstration of this.
>> Cool. Thank you. Um okay, so moving on to administrative items. Uh the green team met earlier um before this meeting at bysentennial hall um items on that agenda and I I'm sorry that Jenny um had
left but um Bonnie would you would like to represent the green team and just say what you're talking about >> saying the sports swap with dates um Mhm. Or >> it's March 20 for the spring up the 28th.
>> 28th >> and that's going to be at the community center from >> 9 to 12 >> 9 to 12 at the community center is a sports swap and that's the Robson Fair Haven sports swap. Um and then in
September will be the fall sports spot which already >> going to be on the 26th uh at Fairfields. Um love day is going to be April 26 from 1 to 4. We are going to ask about
reserving the community center, thinking that um first of all be nice to utilize this new building, but there's also that big field up behind that we could set up all the tables at um because we need a big space now it's
grown so much um that that was plan for that. >> Great. And and one of the things that um a resident brought up was I mean if you walk back there, it is a great big soon
to be very hot, right? There are no trees on the southwest. There's nothing shading the back of that building center. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. It's all south or the tennis court. >> Yeah. So I mean there was um just
question about whether we could promote some planting of shade tree some. >> And did you say there was no sprinkler system? >> I think they they they decided not to put it in the grassy area >> but I don't I don't I walked it I was I was over there wrapping fencing around
the trees that they planted for um the other day and uh I don't remember seeing I thought I had a stick out. I think it was going to be very expensive, right? >> There's most of it. >> That's okay. >> Um but but one thing also that Steve
Miller pointed out was at this facility there's that huge catch basin that I don't think anybody in town really understands what that is. Um big fence around it and it would be great to have that part of the storm water discussion. It's going to be at community center and
you know give Ruters a head up heads up that they can talk about what this is and why it's so necessary because there's so much water >> coming under those nest undermine the tennis courts and all that. So it be just a nice opportunity to explain to the resident what that is. >> Is there a sign on it?
>> Explaining a sign. >> Should we throw that? >> Should we throw that into the mix? It has to be this but but it's it's completely full of native plants. So it really is love. >> I did go to look at it and we got that huge raintorm.
It was there was a lot of water. So it's good. It's very >> Yeah, >> I'm sure all the residents on Fifth Street are thankful for that too. Yeah. Um I did want to give uh an update at the because I'm the leazison with the planning board as well and we had a
meeting I told you about this about the storm water >> the change to the minor site division. >> Were you at that meeting with bridge the two of you? >> No. >> There's an ordinance that's going up. It's up for discussion right now where
minor subdivisions, minor site plan changes would be required to manage storm water. So there's like a threshold of like 400 square feet. Good idea in concept. The planning
board, myself included, were hesitant to put anything else back on the homeowner. Yeah, >> we are constantly struggling. Like these ordinances come up and they're they live in these like silos, but when you put
them on top of the millions of other requirements that homeowners have to jump through to build in Fairy Ben, it starts to become untenable and it's expensive. So we sent it back to council
to workshop more and just say like you have to look at this in the broader scheme of what you're asking. If you want to add like a little debt then they would make you do a storm water and that could be really it's just it's becoming more more more expensive to do these
things either like take some things away to make it easier instead of just adding more on. So we had a we had a debate on that. Nobody disagreed that there's not a storm water issue and we should figure out ways to do that. But they keep it seems like the town keeps passing the buck on to the homeowner and we just
that didn't sit well with the planning. >> Was it didn't that developer developer dependently? >> So a developer would be a major study plan which does have requirements and I'm we're all okay with that. We're talking about like adding a 200 like a 300 square foot anything to a home would
require would trigger a requirement to manage the storm water runoff which just seems like too it's just it's a bit egregious. So >> we just were like pause figure this out. They were taking it from other towns. Rich was here. He wouldn't tell us what
town it was that had a 250 square foot trigger which is really small. >> Very small. And I he bumped ours to 400, but I'm like, but we were all kind of like it just you have to look at this in the price. This would include this would include changes to our business
district. >> Yeah. >> Which is like they already have to do so much to open a business here. So we were like just can you guys work this a little bit more? >> And and um not to mention too looking at it case by case to understand some of the things that that person might have already done at their home,
>> right? and they and the things that were being applied >> native trees or grain or anything, right? And so I think >> and then this goes back to the discussion we had too of trying to come up with this homeowner's guide of what you can do, which is you're helping the
environment. You're a steward of your own property, which is amazing, but it's also big picture. It's a patchwork. Yeah. in this whole quilt that's fair haven. And so everything that you do on your property helps the general public, right? The common good. Yeah. And so other things you might want to do is why
native plants are important. Look at the root system. And you don't have to use as much water, but it does take in as much, you know, or the not cementing or having a pavement driveway or having a rain barrel or planting more trees. How much trees take up or gallons, right?
Little things like that. That's education. You're not telling them you must do this. You're building 250 ft so you have to put this dry well in >> or or like they were saying, you know, there are options and one is a rain garden. I'm like, who is building a rain garden that they're going to then
sustain? Like it just it doesn't this doesn't lay out well. You're just putting these requirements. But if you if you pick up a piece of lawn though, even like a a a little patch of lawn and you pull it up and you put plants in it, that helps so much more than just
they're putting in this small deck or whatever, but that deck entails taking down a big tree. >> That's triggers a storm water issue. Like that's that is a major. >> But that's there are layers above that before it would get to I mean you were
hoping that the tree ordinance would step in. >> No, it doesn't. >> Well, I know. But so but so then we also spoke we had a conversation with Rumson and I'm waiting on the details but there is a tree cover canopy percentage >> the tree ratio >> the tree ratio
>> ratio right >> that towns are adopting that sits on top of and Rumson has to be really reactive to this situation that they're in where the these six acre properties are going to get subdivided and 100 trees are going to get shot down. So they're trying to figure out ways to get ahead
of this and say like this sits above this above your master plan above your planning board above your zoning board. There's a percentage that we need to maintain. Other towns have adopted it. West Orange has adopted it. They're almost entirely treeless. They're trying to figure out ways to stop the stop it.
So, I called Betsy and Betsy is open to hearing about this as a way to sit above all of these ordinances and say like you can't go under these >> on your property >> on your property that ratio. >> So, that would be a stock gap >> like a 40% ratio or whatever our town
adopts as our ratio. >> I think West Orange went like 70 like they were they're hurting. So it's that's another thing that we're looking into that would but for a minor for a minor site division you would still need to if I understood it correctly you you
can't just cut a tree down like you'd have to get >> yes you can because you >> well you can yeah >> which is a very broad >> or you pay the minor fee that isn't many people don't even >> so these are all things that are
happening our planning board meeting is next um next week and we should have more updates on what this is looking like. I wanted to be transparent. I wasn't comfortable with pushing that back on on a homeowner. I just we we've all even a business owner like the
amount of stuff that the town makes them do. We're like, "Show us what you're planning on doing for these things. Why are you kicking it back here?" So that's where we put it. John >> Yeah. No, I'm going to just say I'm a fan of soft versus hard.
And I think the town is too in favor of hard solutions. Like grain gardens are not as favored. Drywalls are favored. Permeable payment is not favored. Gravel's not favored. There's a lot of ways to do this cheap, >> but you can specify a lot of stuff that's very expensive and has a high
carbon output. Like when you say dry well, you're doing a lot of cement and you're making a lot of transport costs >> versus a rain garden which involves a little bit of ground and a little bit of design. >> So we poked holes in >> No, I mean I'm just sitting here going,
we keep specifying high carbon. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> People are not doing this because it's fun. They're doing it because the town requires them to do it to get your approvals, right? >> And they want to do it the way that's most easy to get your approvals. And they'll say a six foot dry well, right? With, you know, again, how many tons of
concrete that's approved. >> Yeah, >> that goes through without a problem. You say I want to put a rain garden in or a bio swell or lawn discharge that I don't think gets the same favorable look. And for 200 square feet, honestly, 400, it was 400. There was another work,
wouldn't it? >> Yeah. I mean, come on. It's a trick. It's a thing. It's a whatever. It >> has to be sent back. So, I'll let you know. But in the meantime, if you have any information or data or you you have
things that you think would be very good for homeowner guide or resident guide on your property, >> send our way >> then it because we're trying to compile this and this is going to be a document that's Rumson and us are working on and we'll share it as a resource because
we're in the same boat here, you know, and I think it'd be worthwhile for somebody like, hey, welcome to our town. Here's, you know, some guidelines and recommendations. you give to the realtor. >> I know it is. That's what we sp we spoke about. Yeah, we we talked about making sure that if you move in that's on your
>> and the value of a tree, right? The actual value. >> Okay. Um any council update? >> Cross that one off there. Um then any public comment or any other new business
from um the EC member? I recommend for January meeting that we kind of revisit our um of to-dos for the year and our priorities and who's doing what and obviously we'll have some new people I
would assume. And I guess that's a good point too if I think we're probably looking for people for next year. So if anybody knows of anyone to be on the EC cool, >> let us know so we can make help make the recommendation.
>> Yeah, >> Susan, >> last year we had a conversation about disposing of Christmas trees um at the shoreline and we said it was too late to do anything about it. So is that still still a relevant conversation for this
year? late on. >> No, I think we're getting too late on that. Um >> I think that's something we we should be talking about in like a September >> and that's like a DPW too because that's uh waiver. >> So yeah, feasibility practicality. What
does that look like? >> What if we I mean I've heard pros and cons about that. >> Yeah, >> you know, I don't know if it's like a an amazing sol like I've heard there does it but pros and cons of pros and cons.
make things that is more acidic because you know plant trees are you know decomposing. >> Do we want to just bag that forever and stuff? >> I think I think I think it's worth having discuss but I think it's have the communications first because it's going to be a DPW thing that we and we also
are still working on what's going on living tour lines on top. >> Exactly. >> So I think it's like once we kind of know more with that and if that could be a potential to tie in >> then maybe kind of bring it up again. Um it's still kind of it's there just
>> um further I just want to give you an update that we have uh worked with Riverbroad book. Thank you to everyone that um submitted recommendations for the library for resources last meeting. We uh voted on $400 worth of materials
um to give to the library in terms of you know student book our kid books, children books all the way up to adults on environmental issues. Um our list that River Road Books, our vendor that we're using was able to get there was a
couple that they could not get. um it came out to $400.80. So, you were able to um get a great good amount over there. The the library was very very thankful of our generosity. They're very excited for that. Um
and the pots were ordered. So, we will >> Yeah, >> I believe so. >> What were the plans ordered? >> The grain? >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> Okay. and the um the ERI were ordered and and
copies. We'll have um print. It's in print. So, >> could it be a Christmas gift or >> That's great. >> Who did it? >> Jamie. >> Yeah. Who >> Who did the printing? >> No. No. Oh, that's who ordered the plants.
>> I You called the plants. >> Well, I did the purchase order. >> The purchase order? >> I didn't. Right. So, I did the purchase order >> to go get the plants. Like, >> right. Nobody's ordered them. >> We got a quote. Now, we have a purchase order. Nobody's actually ordered. So, I
need that purchase order so that I can call them to actually get the order in. >> Okay. >> Right. >> There is a process. >> I'll send it to you. >> Very nice. Can you do the >> but right so it's not signed yet by Chris. So, when it is, I'll send it to you.
>> Okay. Perfect. Yeah. Thanks, Christie. Okay. Any other public comments? Okay. >> No. Okay. And um total guys. All right. Enjoy. >> Bye everyone. Thank you. >> Appreciate it. Thank you. I was just
doing Christmas.