uh sunshine law guys support we'll get there we'll get there all right you can meet us uh before we get there though this is a regular meeting of the Environmental Commission of the Bureau of Fair Haven 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 Fair Haven New Jersey public participation for this meeting on April
9th 2025 is available by call and phone number or through Zoom members of the public will be on mute until it is time for questions comments which will be announced at that time the public has the opportunity to raise questions comments by phone or through
Zoom by the raise hand button and will be called on at the appropriate time notice of this meeting has been sent to the Asbury Park Press the Two River Times and the Star Ledger on January 31st 2025 posted on the burough website the bulletin board and 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 now you guys want to stand yep all right
i pledge algiance 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 could you do the roll call please sean
Bailey present kelly Flanigan present anna Anton Antinine william Dorner present susan Glovis present jesse Murray here john Kalinetti gary Patterson
john Peters here also Councilman La Barbara okay and also present for Secretary Larson you have a quorum thank you uh first order of business is the
approval of our March 12th meeting minutes they were circulated by Christie were there any questions or comments make a motion to approve thank you i get a second second thank you uh those all those in favor of approving the minutes
from March say I also was not Uh anyone not approving the minutes all right thank you bit of a lighter agenda tonight um but a few extra items to talk through
um first order of business is the ERRI still on here i know we were planning to wrap it up in March is there anything to share to kind of bring forward from last month just that it's taking more time
than we had to give it and u it's being formatted we got some last minute additions and we're trying to we got quite a few actually and we're trying to incorporate them and um I do think by next month honestly yeah yeah we're
getting together uh next week to officially go over everything and incorporate the last of the details i think there just there were some formatting things and whatnot o um but is it's almost there i know and it's good yeah it's and it'll and it will
read well too yeah absolutely so which is a very important piece yeah so are these changes you're describing since March are they kind of material or is it just more content content and formatting yes that required
reformat inside that reformatting yes I think so we're not taking any more information right now we're closed on comments and edits but once we actually get it out and if there are any things to add in we can just
make a kind of a list of anything that we want to maybe add in at another point we'll let it like live for a little bit do you um think it could be uh able to be in a visible form or lower than that
sure oh um 7th maybe i think it should be i think it should be especially if we're if we're meeting next week I think we should be able to get it i think so yeah i'm not sure exactly what issues Anna is facing in
formatting it so I don't want to speak for her but I think constant wise for sure yeah cuz I know she's when we meet next week she's going to bring like copies of it for us to go through and you know to edit yeah just if we rearrange some things but I think we
should be able to okay yeah that's I think what we're hoping for too yeah absolutely one copy no um um ideally one or two um the B I don't know if we want to get into that now but I
let's Yeah we'll get into the planning for that day okay i'm wondering too though um does it need to be like formally adopted or anything once it's done i know when we when we did the um we redid it a few years ago um there was a presentation to council and then it
was officially uploaded online so I don't know do we need to I mean should we like is it okay like if it does that doesn't happen before you live day or because I mean it would be good to have like either even a QR code for it like online like Yeah yeah so Christie you might want to chime in here you reached
out to the burrow side yes and it appears the last one was not formally adopted by council there's well there it's not required but at the same time um it was passed on to the plan for consideration onto the master yes yeah that was what the burough attorney said
at the time okay 2016 if we need to revisit the review official review we could just put draft copy on it yeah that's true like draft to be you know whatever um yeah that's fine that's that's like something simple
we can add do you think it should be presented to the council and to the planning board i mean it would be good especially if they're if you know if there's you know doing the master plan reader development i mean I think that would be important piece to be put into it what was your comment Christie um the
EC is scheduled to be on a council agenda april 27th meeting for the annual report if that's at all or whatever that Monday is after the 28th would be the next council meeting so that might be a I mean that might be a good might be a good one maybe you get
feedback just from residents and people that are looking at it you know just it the overall Yeah like people didn't know about it or they were thrilled to see it or for sure yeah okay so yeah where people could find it I agree i think I I would like the idea
of using some council time just to let them know that it's done and and kind of making that formal and I know they don't have to formally accept it that but we'll whether it's that 28th or a different time I think I'm happy to find some time to get on their agenda and do
that so I think that's important yeah um I'm just a little bit cognizant of kind of getting you guys to a point where we can stop saying draft and start saying yeah final as well i think I mean we can touch base after next week so I I honestly don't think it's it's going to
be I think we could probably I know I know Anna had intended on getting things done by this past weekend but I think again with the additional edits that we got and just kind of tweaked a couple things so I think once we get that squared away next week I would think by hopefully next weekend
well we'll we can touch base and let you know and even send you a copy and the idea that it is a living document right that's the thing is that it's going to stay online as living document once 21 Fair Haven Road or other things like it will be added to and so that's a thing
too so it's like now we have this but if people are reading it they see something that maybe should have been included then we can maybe keep a running list going of hey and then maybe by the end of the year we can like you have a dated version that's kind of my recommendation because that makes a lot of if you put a date on it you know say this is the
April 10th version yeah then we could have December 31st and every six months we could roll new material in and not be like waiting until five years out and then change everything you can you can easily change it on the fly if you have a good document right yeah absolutely and that's I think that's the intention
of it too because we kind of did did this overall learn as you go you know may as well have people have the better information yeah absolutely and I'll make sure it gets into the I'll talk a little bit more about it but I'll make sure it gets into the master plan process as well that'd be awesome great
thank you is that why we were on the agenda for that meeting to present that for the annual report the annual last year i just had a funny conversation with my students today i'm teaching urban planning and we were talking about housing one group is
working on housing and you know the question comes up and they're young you know the 20 year olds 22 year olds in there right well what about this what about that what about this i'm like yeah there's a you know part of I think one of the things we should always be trying to think about here is what are we trying to achieve right and that's that's always an interesting discussion
right because there's different things we can do to make the town more sustainable better better for the environment whatever you know but also livable as a community right so you know it's just always interesting to think about what we focus on next right and
the students were just all over the place i'm like yeah there's a lot now cool all right great update on the ERRI glad it continues to go move forward and hoping really yes the formatting doesn't give you guys too much yeah I I think
we'll be trouble great job guys um next on the agenda um I was going to just give a quick update on Marter Pond uh the committee presented its recommendations on Monday
uh to the council anyone was there was participating um largely it was presented by the liaison to the committee which was Kristen on council with some you know some input from others like Kelly and and some other committee members i didn't I wasn't
there i heard it was generally positive um generally what what was recommended were were things that this body had recommended in years past uh so kind of the old is new again um primarily it was a couple things I
just I thought I'd highlight some of the main ones uh we're trying to get um storm water filters installed in the uh on the inlets um so DPW is already they've been on that for a few months getting quotes finding the right product
um trying to work with uh CFO to get funding for that out of the capital um so that's that's moving that's progressing as it as it can um another one was getting uh the herbicide and algicide treatments on a regular basis
in the warmer months so as early as April if April were warm again um that would be nice but it would also be as soon as this month or maybe even as early as May uh we will get back into that cycle of having a certified contractor come in and do that
work like they did back in 2019 I think was the most recent year um uh the other item that uh was presented for immediate action was beneficial bacteria being applied into the pond um the idea there
was kind of twofold it it helps start to break down the the already kind of degraded biomass that's in there um which is good it also should have a benefit come the fall or come the next cycle when we do
hydroking ideally there'd be less material to pull out if that beneficial bacteria is working and doing its job um a lot of the cost of hydroking isn't really the hydroking itself it's the dumpings uh of of the material and and even though we're still you know in early
early stages about what to do with that material you know most most of the time you have to you know you have to dispose of it which has a cost so we're hoping that the beneficial bacteria not only you know has the benefit of of kind of dis helping degrade that that sort of decaying biod that's in there but also
reducing that volume in the future um so those would be sort of like three kind of quick actions um that are kind of in in process or or an immediate short term um with you know
a look at uh planning for hydroking you know whether it's this cold season or the next cold season going forward i mean again I I I fundamentally am always a little concerned about the herbicides because at the end of the day you know we've had this fight and I'm like it's
not going to be an alpine you know lake you know this is not what it's going to look like and some of this is it cosmetic is it really beneficial and again anytime you're putting herbicides into the environment I'm always going I don't know you know I really would like to see some bank management i
really think those bologs the quarry logs along the bank would be a good addition they wouldn't cost that much i think if you just stake them in it would help stabilize the bank towards Fair Haven Road you know especially this last was it last week when we had that really
strong rain that whole edge of the pond was like tan you know from the sand no and I would like if we put those in in a layer and then put another layer and then over time brought in some of the material from the pond we might rebuild that bank a little bit naturally and do some plantings in it to stabilize it
because right now it definitely has that cuff you know and it's it's like the next item in the recommendation is that is to set aside some space to uh recuperate i don't know if that was talked about was um Kristen uh she did
talk about um it was on one of the short-term recommendations about the plan embankment finding out when and what the plans are for Fair Haven Road the repaving and and that area but brought up the idea of perhaps having like a dock or some kind of that goes
out so that you can you don't have the entire bank exposed to people going up there that you can carve out some spots but leave some natural education which would help with filtering that and the only other um the only other recommendation was the or updating the
ordinance so that materials not being blown into the uh into the pond itself right from the properties and whatnot leaves or anything like that and it sounded like you guys had that covered with the brush and leaf
yep exactly taken care of which was great just to give a quick kudos Sean i mean the way the recommendations it was actionable uh it was grounded in research um two out of the six required
technical resource support but excellent job extremely wellreceived um and more to come at the next governing body meeting yeah so yeah the actions that came out of there were nicely summarized by
Kristen some going to to Chris York um to for followup some coming back to the committee um I talked to Kelly I talked to Mike um between the three of us the four of us we will take the other actions and come back with um you know
with those answers cool anything else on voice was there any uh we didn't talk about it earlier today but sustainable Jersey i know I got an email back did we get any feedback it was We did get feedback is it talking about tonight or is it too
Yeah because it is that it's funny because um the next round is due May 16th so that's um that's Yeah it's very soon and we have to get a significant amount so I did email some people just um reminding them about the actions that they had signed
up for we did get um there's a couple of our actions that we have revisions on so that we have to revise those but we have to still submit some of these outstanding and some of them are ones that we've done in the past we just need people to actually go in there and
submit that information um Christy were you able to see some of the revisions i haven't had time to log on yet okay but yeah something was like the tree yeah um there was a couple of Yeah but but um they give you pretty much details on on
what it's missing and what's needed but there but remember this is um our second round the third is the third and final um so we have to have um all of our points in so the more that we can get for this next round in May the better
how many points do we have currently with with the revisions yeah um I'll have to It's It's okay i I will I can give you that update at some point Dan yeah no worries um we should
have more we should count bikes more yeah there's um so I will I will find out but we Yeah no worries no worries but um so I I do if you had signed up for something or if you haven't done a submission yet um I really please urge you to get in there
and I'm happy to help and we meet with anyone um at all to help with the the process i see I've still copied on the emails yeah I know i'm still waiting for the I have everything from the town i'm waiting for the fire and first aid great
okay but it's Oh it is it is um I get it and some of them are hard so if that's like there are some lowhanging fruit like the ones Gary that you signed up for those are ones that we've done already in the past those are fairly easy everything's kind of in there so it's just a matter of like kind of doing
that palinetti um I had spoken with him a little bit about some of the firehouse ones i think they're all doable as well too um well my thing is like with the mileage and stuff like that from that you can well if it would be easier I have everything done except
those vehicles so I have a thing that's ready to be submitted i have all the driver information the policies the municipally own vehicles but not the vehicles that are used by the fire first aid and that's and that needs to be included well if I don't get it I'm going have to admit it then just submit
what I have yeah i wonder if you just submit what you have and then see what their I mean that's ready to go i think the comments is honestly maybe just see what their comments are maybe see what their comments are after that and be like they're separate it's like the fire and first aid is a separate it's not a municipal Well they're municipally owned
vehicles i know they're wrong they are they are they don't like to talk about it yes believe me I signed the $1.2 million in checks oh that's for two fire trucks believe me 500,000 and 6700,000
and I was the lucky council person who replaced two kelly what I'll do is if I don't get anything in the next couple of weeks I will send you what I had okay we'll go from there i mean Sean will tell you I've been emailing emailing and it's like Bill let me Bill I've been on emails you definitely have been on it uh
if you don't get an update by Friday let me know and Okay i will I'll I'll I'll help all right yeah I just need I just need fire and first aid information yeah understood okay we um Yeah we need a we need a lot of work
on this they don't do a lot of mods that's the other thing well I know but the thing is I need No I know yeah no I got and I can't right now so yeah so we are um How many do we need
how many did we submit four we we have Yeah so and and we must revise 125 points so 125 of our points need revision of 150 of the
215 that we submitted we need 350 total we have 90 Wow completed and approved what's the plan to get them are you going to sign or what do we how do we get there what's the plan to get there i don't know this is Come on team what is
our plans i mean it's it's a lot of you know burning the midnight oil i'll happily do that but there it should be a collaborative and and all group effort um so you had the spreadsheet yeah is
the spreadsheet up to date yeah can you circulate to us do we have it or not go online sure where is If you don't mind I will resend totally i will and there were some people that you know I reached out and was you know and said "Remember don't forget that you signed
up for two speeds slow and never." Yeah if you get slow you're doing good i get it um no problem if we all that be enough i'm sorry if we were to do the things that against it would that still be enough is there a gap if we
uh I Good question i have to I have to do that math to maybe yeah in the next couple days yes I I can do that math we can we can help organize and get people reminded i mean Drew we might have to have like the
pizza in the burrow and kind of all work together all right I will give a sustainable Jersey update and I will send all the links and everything to it and let's do it let's if if we're at that point and
we want to sprint let's let's do it give me a give me a call offline and we will get something set up sounds good okay cool cool all right excellent um so I'll keep I'll take I'll kick it off and
Kelly you can you can pick it up um Saturday the 27th Love Where You Live Day sunday sunday i'm sorry it is the 27th great date wrong wrong day um love where you live day um so we're going to need some
volunteers from this group we would like to have some materials ideally a little bit about the ERRI whether it's a poster or just a mediumsiz poster something just something kind of eye-catching the cover certainly is eye-catching by itself
um it would be great if the you know the QR code was ready to go and we had it online by the 27th um I don't know if that's absolutely necessary but it's a great opportunity um and then um I know the garden club is doing
their mailbox garden challenge kickoff on the same day um anything that Kelly um right so I think just echoing from that if you've been able to attend love where you live day before in the years past it's always
a great community event bonnie Torivia and Robin um O'Neal have done a fantastic time uh job getting a lot of vendors together there's going to be music john Amil is playing we're going to have um students performing there's going to be a nature scavenger hunt big
tree hunt susan is going to be doing some nature art with with kid uh what we said minor minor but it all good stuff um fun yes it'll be very fun we've got the natural area going to be there um I
believe brush and leaf maybe is going to be there yes as well shade trees so a bunch of commissions river rats is going to be there um clean ocean action there's going to be um so much information to learn a great community event so we as the EC hope to have a
table um that we we hope for volunteers that can be there um in shifts you know come when you can and we and Christie sent out a signup genius for the shifts as well um and we were hoping that we can have the ERRI so um I spoke to
Christy he said that we can print the ERRI here inhouse that might save us some money um and perhaps we can go to Staples and they can bind it for us you know just so people can flip through it um but if we wanted to get anything blown up I'm wondering are we
able to get like maybe a poster i'm just thinking since we um changed the beginning of the year to have all the open spaces to maybe have like the little like maybe take those little you know like from the pages put those like on a a poster and just kind of highlight like here's all the open spaces like
Right because that's because that's we're highlighting in the beginning of the year anyway yeah yeah and I think people don't realize that i think visual it can be very you know very neat to have that um I like the concept you guys have capability to to do that i mean I know
Anna has the Canva thing i'm sure we can probably make a poster for that we can get it printed by stables maybe they put that out here or Yeah do that and then maybe even just have like table of contents like in the you know the middle of it or something and then Yeah and
then have a physical copy yeah so and then you know somebody there just be like this is what an ERI is this is what the intent is where we can find it yep have any comments you know who's going to do that that's what I'm wonder i know you're busy anna's going to be at Sticks and
Sprouts this side of the table come on boys what do we got where is it that Mart for for some part of the day there was a sign of Jesus yeah I didn't see that chissy sent it out with the agenda
oh it was um Okay I can resend it john's not here we can sign him up yeah oh here it is there we go oh no anna's not here so she can make the poster yeah
right get a sign that's right the 27th 27th the 27th rain or shine yeah working on the year next that'd be like a pretty easy we're going to have a beautiful day
i know great always do so the weather always works out for it okay you can just 30 minutes check your calendars and come back with even like a 30 minute even like right a 30 minute interval that's fine too and then you
could go a there's bingo at the Columbus Club that day too you go to bingo then come back you know it's a whole separate uh it's separate it's a It's a student that is hosting it to raise money but um I'm just saying it's a great a lot of good stuff happening on
Fair Haven Road that day it's 1 to four right Kelly it's 1 to four it's only three hours three hours we've got you know bring a bring a friend bring your kids bring your spouse bring your kids bring whatever whoever wants to the dog also volunteer weekend
in the That's right after you come working in the morning you come and then go you know you can show off your volunteerism by learning about other things in town you can get involved in great day fairy
great day um great anything else on that one no just it um I just want to say thank you to Jesse because she's always been there with everyone and Jesse right it's it's a good event setting up right now there
you go awesome right there done awesome it is no it's it was a really nice day always Yeah it's nice to see everybody too and it's just Yeah it's been with all just even kids and everyone it's nice to get
some nice comments and feedback and just Yeah it's it's always nice i think the ear is just a great thing to be proud of the work that you guys have done and you know what a what a valuable asset it is to the town to have that so yeah cool good job just um if you are purchasing
anything live day out of this budget we need the vendor purchase order process takes it some time so just right Staples is a vendor okay which I heard okay you can but you
can't be reimbursed you need to follow the process right right well Right and that's why I mean you or you could put it in a binder but um that's why Chris said he could print out it here in color
sweet so you can poster call me offline and we can figure something out yeah thank you K you have it as a PDF or you have it as a PDF yeah we'll be all right let me see if I can find it i might be able to can you Can you print
it out school resources CSI money i This does count by my some of my academic efforts so I can I can argue it for the basis of the university wants me to do these things okay great bring some students they want me to be engaged with the
community that's great you could so I think they can help that's one thing that's my side of it um also just kind of sticking with the events uh wanted to reiterate in June June 7th Clean Ocean Action Rumson's Eco
Fest um again we'll have presence there with the green team uh garden club will be there too uh we're also looking for volunteers to run a kids activity um at that event so it's a little bit further out um but it does require a
little bit more uh planning um because of the you know the the actual activity that that we would do so give that some consideration as well for your time and where is that
Victory Park victory Park um so in the years past we've done a recycling game we've done oysters and we've had live oysters in there to show how they help clean and purify the water we did what the oak tree the oak tree
right talking about the oak tree what did we do last year did we do something with worms i thought it was one um but we've always they try to they try to highlight something that you're working on or something that's informative or educational um and the
idea is to have it a kids activity so that kids go to each person's group find out about the group you know and then they can perform something to get a stamp and collect stamps as they go um will the the fair garden club will be there this year yeah it's also the
Rumson garden club is having their plant sale the same at their grow so that's also too okay great so we just have to come up with an activity we should at some point in time figure out how to do a singing activity if you haven't taken
little kids singing you've missed out on life so um all of our kids in town every kid in this town should have sained at least once so they can see what's in the river and get a feeling for it and that's a great way to start anybody off in the right direction in life i think they actually do that on the the literal
society usually comes to and they do that right on the beach there but it is but they do it they do it they have some fantastic stuff that it's Clean Ocean Action that does it with Remson yeah and they do tons of activities on the beach and everything yeah they have their rain garden there which they show to they
have last year um they even had uh how to regrow from food scraps they showed like you know your lettuce instead of throwing it out you can regrow it again and yeah um all those different stuff um but it's great to have some kind of
activity for the kids so if you guys think about anything noodle on it so we will again green team will talk about it too and just see but we I mean I was thinking if it's also the mailbox thing would it do
they plant something there but I was wondering if that's Fair Haven Garden Club is going to be talking about what's the mailbox thing i don't know the mailbox challenge can you tell us please what that is sure bonnie Bonnie can um it started with a garden or excuse me garden fair haven um event we were just
trying to encourage people to plant something attractive in their front yard kind of a town beautifification um and it's kind of a we had a speaker come because a lot of people their mailbox is in right near the street and it's not an ideal it's hot it's got you know traffic
going by dogs everything else so I was just trying to show some plants that could be planted there that were a little more resilient um anyway but it turned into a competition so I love where you live Dad they're going to be signing people up you give your email and then you can decide to plant your
garden and it's going to be voted on by online you know some little competition i don't know but it's just it's it's the beautifification committee is helping out so just No I want to decorate i have my telephone planted so my telephone pole
is planted in my So I I just wanted to know if the mail cuz my mailbox is on my house can we apply for a telephone pole my telephone excellent excellent i put a lot of effort into very very flexible yes i understand those rules are pretty
liberal so well I want again I have multiple plantings so I mean you know you have to come at the right month you know I don't know when this because right now it's gonna be clatus time and it's gonna be good you know I Where where is your address John let's take a look okay take a look at my It's not ready yet so John you can come to Love
where you lived and you'll find out all about it yeah i was a little You said if you said go to the council meeting I got a little twitch there you know five years i don't go one of these days you'll get me out um
in Yeah so I don't know we can maybe talk and see but I would you know if brainstorm ideas native plants you know pollinators I don't know have to come up with something maybe I don't know what
else re maybe we do a hydra activity there I have no idea get the kids in there no the bucky brigade at the bucky I don't know I'm trying to think of what we've been doing this year that we
can put our efforts into that for kids saying that okay okay so it' be on the Jenna the green team you guys can talk about it too and then if if there's a reason to kind of get blast something out to everybody either bounce some ideas off of just you know use Christie to do that okay great
awesome um so it came up a little earlier the the master plan um so I spend a couple minutes and just kind of refresh everybody on what's going on there um we had that meeting last night i'm also on the planning board um so every
10 years you go through a process of re-examining the master plan ours has been re-examined several decades in a row and it's kind of at a point where it's it's 30 years old and things have sort of dramatically changed um so
rather than just do kind of a report about what are the the differences between the master plan and today's needs we're actually going to do a little bit more of a in-depth investigation and and re I don't use the word word re-examination but um basically go back to all the plan
elements and spend a little bit more time is really what it amounts to spend more time um look a little more critically at the the challenges that we face to look a little more critically at what's going on statewide and countywide statewide you know you know bigger
picture um I bring all that up for two reasons um one just to kind of let you guys know that's going on um there are five elements within the master plan that we'll be looking at and there are things like circulation which is you know essentially transportation
utilities which you know is utilities but also storm water falls under that category um and you just giving some examples what all the one that I'm specifically going to talk about is there's a an element around recreation conservation
and open space um so there's a committee set up i'm chairing that committee for now um and I'm looking for five to seven residents to join that committee um who would be tasked with helping us shape the policy and our actions which
ultimately become recommendations back to council um around recreation so our recreational spaces our recreational activities um conservation how we protect our open spaces things like that
um it's if you come back to the original master plan there's not a whole lot on it um it's it's a it's kind of a broad stroke and it's really left to open to interpretation i think we have a great opportunity with a lot of committed volunteers on various boards and and
other committees um so I kind of give a little bit of an advertisement that we're looking I'd love to see people from you know green team garden club natural area um maybe we'll get to do a little bit of
a double hat um it's probably um a little bit of a time commitment later in the year this year where we'll go through like a two or three month sprint with our professional planner who will do a lot of the back work and we'll be responsible for helping shape it um so
we're not actually putting as much pen to paper as some of you guys did for the we can get to lean on our our um our professionals a little bit more um but we are responsible for you know helping shape the survey that goes out to the
public um you know taking the feedback from that survey uh applying it to you know what what it is that we want to recommend that goes into the the master plan um so yeah just going to give that a little bit of a shout out and a and an
advertisement i don't need you know people to volunteer right now but if you are interested or if you know people that might be interested I would love names and just feel free to message me directly okay what's the timeline Sean
so it is due just like the ERRI you know this is a statutory requirement it's due next August so 2026 so we're working back like 14 15 months um which is that it takes that much time um so we're we're
administratively getting engaged with our planning professional probably wouldn't kick officially until June so it's going to be like a summer activity getting start getting started getting the survey out into the public domain
for people to respond to um we're talking and and it's very high level we're still talking schedule you know how do we link it to things like the fireman's fair it's a great time of year when people are kind of you
know here looking reacting to things so it's all on the table um but really we're just every committee lead is is trying to find people to join their team it's like kickball everyone's out trying to make a team
any other questions the ER would obviously like have a huge piece on the conservation part probably just take a bunch of stuff that's already in there so and that's why I have no problem it'll get in there it'll start and then
it'll be where the RAR stops at like policy there's no recommendations in this yeah it's the natural next step in that evolution so all that work we've done on the RARI the last year it's perfectly positioned us to be
ready to Yeah take some action with it in the master plan so I love that that's that's the master plan is the conversation between the community and the council that's the way I always thought of it you know because it's a way to ceue up ideas that should be acted on maybe not this year maybe not
next year but as we look forward as we look forward yeah is are is anyone getting feedback or would like to use a love of day venue as feedback or or idea to start a you know like if you think about the conversation
with the community and suggestion box right like a or you know Tracy always has her map of sacred places and always asks residents that are four years old to 90 what's your favorite
spot in fair haven and why what's your favorite you know and that's how we got Pirate Beach and everything else and things that we don't think about but like as a place where you interact with people and hey master plans coming up in 2020 what's important what is important to you why do you love where you live in
Fair Haven what do you want to see happening i just wonder if that's a great Yeah next April would be too late would you want to use it that would be a great idea sounding board that's an easy put it the posted or something or tag it
pin it on and like a whole board of what you love about you know we've done that in the past in our initial love where you live days it's like what you love about Fair Haven we have a video about that like we have a we interviewed people that's right um that was my first
thought well how long ago was that video made oh that video was made in 2021 that's probably more than enough current it was a very good video yeah I can imagine like even just doing like snippets and like why they love and you
can ride your bike to school and what what like things that they loved about Fair then but there's even more in-depth stuff and there could be even a box too for something to be incorporated yeah that's a really good idea i like it i don't share the the planning board so I just provide ideas they have
to decide but I'll We could have a table for you guys i'll uh You have to bring your own table though from the firehouse we're just going to put on the EC table too i mean since like you know I mean we could find somebody like a young person to capture those videos we're gonna have
student Yeah student volunteers i mean think about that like kids have their EP easily make a video um okay oh yeah great anything else about the master plan guys
cool um I'll get to the end of the agenda um Drew the next one I was going to jump to would be you and 21 Fair Haven Road does that work yeah that's perfect um and appreciate the time Sean um so I'll give some quick background
just so we're all on the same page last year the um the procurement of 21 Fair Haven Road occurred and there was a advisory committee that was established last year uh a byproduct of the advisory committee
um was a proposed plan uh timeline uh structure of community engagement uh public engagement working with committees commissions boards to ensure as a con a conceptual plan of the park
is derived is that it's done in a an inclusive manner um that it's done in a a proactive and transparent manner from the beginning so at the governing body meeting in March one on 24 March the
proposed plan that the advisory committee put together presented it to the governing body to seek uh approval of that plan to execute on the timeline now all timelines right are never set in stone um but it was to provide a
framework of how we could move forward one of the key pieces in addition to working with professionals in addition to having uh open houses that we're going to do in addition to having um specific meetings with the residents
around SW Haven Road we wanted to have each liaison to each um committee commission and board uh one provide the plan so it's it's a 22-page document but we want it to be transparent and
provided and then start the initial conversation um the the scope of what can be put at 21 Fair Haven Road is pretty um clear because of the funds and the
grants that were utilized for it comes with very specific guidelines of what type of park can go in and it comes down to publicly accessible and low inensity wreck use that's the that's one of the primary parameters of what we'll be able
and authorized to put in there um based on the green acry program based on the mammoth county land preservation program um and so in the document it also goes through and talks through key questions
that we're going to ask our residents um such as what types of parks currently exist in Fair Haven what types of parks are missing um when it comes to the commissions the committees and the boards right and we use that in the broad sense of the term because there's
quite a few of them um each one has a unique perspective of what would potentially be put there and so when we look at it from the environmental um commission uh perspective there's there's a series of key themes um and
lenses of how the EC would look at what could potentially go in there and so what the initial ask is is for the EC to review and and digest the plan and then
provide initial feedback that will feed and be um amplified by the other liaison and their work with other committees and commissions as well the open houses to work with a um an architect to put
together a conceptual plan and so it's a lot of information there's a lot of digesting uh to do but at the end of the day we want to be proactive in our communication and engagement fully transparent hence the the entire 22page plan that was put
together and presented is available to everybody and we want to start the dialogue early um we will get to the point where we have an actual conceptual plan that we can put on the screen and look at and make comments to that um but even prior to that we're we're starting
even earlier um to to initiate the dialogue and the feedback report so thank you for giving me the floor Sean for a few minutes just to kind of go over that more than happy to answer any questions um and more than happy to answer questions after this as folks get
time to read the document and um unpack it the document on the web it's not on the web it's been sent to every chair of each committee commission and board that
exists and they're authorized to pass it uh to each board committee commission member yeah so I I have it okay and not not holding it i I thought it would be better received after hearing from Drew
tonight yeah um and having a little bit of an intro verbally rather than kind of interrogating the 22 pages on your own and um going from there so thanks Drew for a little bit of an overview i I think my I I'll start with just a quick
question um to kind of get us oriented what in what format or what is the what is the best way for a group like this to communicate back to you guys yeah um I so the again nothing set in stone with
process right we we left a lot of creativity to the liaison and whatnot um how I envision it going Sean right is um the EC having their discussions right uh having their feedback centralizing their
feedback and then allowing me to deliver it back to the governing body and ultimately or excuse me to to the the advisory committee and then ultimately the governing body um if the EC has a different process a different means and method to do that I am fully open um
where it stands as of today is we've just requested the liaison to work with their respective groups pull the information together knowing that there's specific questions and perspectives of feedback that we're looking and then deliver that back to both the committee and then ultimately
we'll go to the governing body because the governing body makes a decision right so that'd be my suggestion but it's up to us collectively the collective us here to to decide what's the best way yeah and then just kind of thinking
through like an example or two of of what the feedback might entail are you looking you kind of you said earlier at some point there will be that visual design of of what the space ends up being are are you looking for that
kind of input now like we for example we suggest that you do the you know a kayak rack or or you know something to that is that the level of of feedback you're looking for or is it more general like I guess that's kind of where I'm I'm trying to get the right
jumping off point for us yeah 100% i I'll give you examples they are arbitrary in nature uh they have not been vetted doesn't mean what it has to be but I'll provide kind of the the level of detail that I think would be most useful um and I'll pretend to be
the EC high advisory committee uh we know that there's a failing bulkhead there it is likely in the best interest based on from the EC's perspective that that should be a living shoreline um hey advisory committee um this is one of the
major runoffs of stormwater water that would go from Fair Haven Road into the Navis um is it possible to enhance the measures and mitigations to prevent you know different type of pollution pollutants and runoff right um that that
go from the street into the navis the third one I'll give you is um hey advisory committee we know that it's meant for um light recreational use and not meant to intensify the area we think
you know a a small craft or a kayak launchpad would would have a have a polite balance of not intensifying the area but also being from a from a light uh use perspective and and maintaining the environment that exists right so
true true can I can I jump sorry to jump in um just on on that just my thoughts is that last point really should come unless it's from an environmental standpoint like you think it should be kayaks because you don't want motorboats
and gasoline to be put into the Navasync the last point really should be coming I think from the wreck committee and I I also want to say um if you all have individual feedback there's going to be other outlets through open houses for
you to provide that if so so so just as far as like the feedback that should be coming from environmental commission I think that should be strictly environmental feedback that's all I want to say and and Josh the reason I brought up the kayak right is because at the that the Marter Pond presentation they
talked about the foot traffic and what it did to the bank of Marter Pond right and so the the type of recreational use can have a direct ecological impact right in the site if that's the case then absolutely 100%
yeah so that that's that's why I was approaching it from that lens um so I agree with you Josh i think I think the rec committee is going to have phenomenal feedback on the types of recreational use but I think if I put my EC hat on hey you know are we going to
destroy if if they want to you know they they say natural shoreline's great but we do X Y and Z is that going to destroy the natural shoreline so right just a handful of examples Sean i think and I'm you know I like detail and I like actionoriented right you know that so
hopefully that helps it does help yeah and I didn't mean to cause a a discussion about what's what's racked and what's us it's it's more this is what me and Drew like to do we like to hijack your meeting Sean and have a debate in the middle of the environmental meeting
it's welcome the participation okay that's great sorry yes we could all take a look at it provide our with regards to the environment you know what we like we don't like what's missing and but in the realm of obviously the environment I think if we all can kind
of review it and provide that feedback all together we can get some common themes and that could be our we push forward yeah so uh Drew that's great i'm I'm going to take a stab at a bit of a process that that u we could follow so
um it it can go out as early as tonight you know you guys have it in your inbox tomorrow um look through it i would suggest I'm thinking create like a a Google type doc where we can all just put stuff in good idea at your leisure
you know and this is your you know your comments you know everyone's got their own comments that's fine um but then it we have a chance to kind of see what other people are thinking too and then yeah we come back in our May meeting and we set some time aside to talk through
it i think that's great and then we can summarize our then we summarize our our points from there and Sean if I can um in the spirit of your prioritization effort right that you shared in the
beginning of the year I think it would be helpful to have a conversation and I don't think we need to have it here um but the EC's role in maybe funneling the recommendations and aligning it to the
priorities because I remember the presentation that you gave and I know it was a working living breathing document for discussion purposes only but I remember in the beginning of the year right you were talking about you know third street natural green right you were talking about all of the bodies that encompass and so I don't know if
there's an opportunity for that um I did obviously you were on the email where all the chairs were on it right the ones that I've just the other committees that I just referenced but I also put that out there just as as you and the EC have worked to uh uh streamline and optimize
um you know a cohesive vision right so to speak so I leave that for you uh but just wanted to read yeah that's that's good and I mean you know the the natural area or the garden club or um you know obviously the green team can be represented through through Kelly easily
but yeah it it can either be the EC's recommendations or it could be a a group um summary too of of you know kind of everything i'm happy with I'm happy either way we're having a dialogue to see what people are great yeah so that
gives us kind of like a common starting point of now and a common sort of end point of of our next May meetings to which I think is summarize that May I think our next meeting is May 7th or May 8th we may have some differences
of opinion because you know there's always the question of not possible you me your work by Yeah oh I mean preservation versus access i'm a big fan of access and I really think it's
important that this be developed for the benefit of people having a relationship with the river because I believe that that is key to the future well and I think having some sort of guiding principles this body are important it's going to be interesting question we set
we set the tone like it's our opportunity to set the tone i I'm not real thrilled about living shoreline just because of the fact that I think it might compromise access and it's something to think about i'm just telling you you know what I'm saying it's just one of those things because if you want to launch kayaks and stuff and you want to
talk about how you maximize it what No there's a way to do it there's a way to actually Yeah there's a way to do it it may be I I'm I'm willing to listen however I haven't been pleased but I haven't been pleased with some of the behaviors acts of president May
14th to be continuing so it's May 14th and then it's due May 15th all right ours is May 14th our next our next meeting turn that's why I thought I thought it was May we're meeting on a Tuesday wednesday
jesse just told Yeah may 14th is the second second Tuesday this is and this is that's that's Tom so is it Thursday May 13th or is it Wednesday May 14th
we're we're we're generally in the right vicinity and and that's that's that's what counts so Okay all right great so it'll come into your inbox please set aside you know some time um to John's point I think it's it's I expect there to be differences of opinion i don't
think we're doing ourselves justice if there aren't but that's sort of the point of May is to come back and and have those conversations you can set up like a do a Google doc so we can all voice our opinion yeah great you can set that up when I send the
report thank you all right thanks Drew i think that's it for Oh sorry no not with 21 but I was wondering if Drew is still on there um if if there was nothing else just to ask him a followup from last week or
last meeting about the DVW oh go ahead drew are you on there he's muted okay we can if he comes back on i just um I followed up with just some suggestions with the DPW like in the front with the lawn and
then the other the um There he is there he is joe sorry guys hi um just a followup from last meeting talking about the um the DPW the landscaping with the lawn if we could add if if there was a
possibility of adding some more native grasses and you know flowers plants and there and then the second thing you um about the I know you said there's going to be an electronic recycling bin but the um clothing bin I didn't know I know
you met about that just wondering if there was a followup if you could provide any more information yeah so I have a Friday walkthrough on the landscaping um so I will have an update after that uh the walkthroughs with just
to give you guys the information um is with both the landscape architect and the landscape burr and then the site professionals and the site work subcontractor and so the goal is to go
through all of this where we're at and I'm that's what will raise the question and it'll be on site i'll be there and then uh e-waste is confirmed uh what we're working through is the clothing aspect of there's some other considerations that have to be made
especially with what gets dropped off there and then the amount of work involved if any so we're still working through that piece of it um but our goal is to have it fully decided upon and resolved before the recycling center reopens completely uh when the project's done hopefully within the next four
weeks so I'll get you an update on the landscaping after the meeting and as the conversations progress on the clothing drop off again the e-waste is is is moving forward um I'll let you know okay yeah and if there's any way I could help
um connect you with helps or anything um to find out more information I would most certainly take you up on that yes please and thank you great thank you no worries good we having the Town White Garage
show when is that that is May 3rd third may 3rd one thing to think about is we thought about having a free cycle along with it that people don't have to sign up they just put anything out with a curve that says free and let people just pick up things on the street you know what I mean and they can't be selling it if they either participate in the garage
sale but if they want to put something out for free just get rid of it right just put it out see all everything has to have a sign that says free if you're not participating in the garage sale it has to have a sign just want to get rid of it just I want to give this away is bulk trash happen to be the next Monday i don't know but I mean I think
it's just you know but it's a way to get more materials we did we are doing on campus one of my colleagues is running um a free cycle and they measure by pounds and it's just incredible how much stuff comes in and
stuff goes out and we had about equal number of people bringing stuff in and other people taking it out and that would be good for community i mean you put something one person in yeah personally no exactly and so it's just something to do i mean we could do it alongside the garage sale without having In other words you can't be selling it
if you're selling then you're in the garage sale right but could you put one you have an extra bicycle can you put it out and say free they have um the green team's having the sports swap coming up with Rumson on May 17th which is the same concept you could bring it's
free and you don't have to bring anything you need to grab something but did somebody did recently just ask us about doing the same thing with the toys so I you know I love the idea of just a free cycle like to what people are going to be wandering around also people come from out of town too for the garage
stuff just a good time to put things out and I have all sorts of stuff I can just give away i think we could um how I get done social media put a post and just say hey so ask Chris council might have to approve it
you handle a lot of the applications for the the people that participate in the yard sale today yes is $10 register for the town yard sale so I yeah probably just if if I I think it's a cool idea I think
we just have to run it by Chris Um yeah and make sure that the operational side of it because if you put stuff out I think people do you got to pull it back in if no one takes usually on that day people I've seen people do it anyway like free take me you know on that day because it's just an opportune time
people but yeah if you were to actually make it like an event where it just could be hey if you want to put something out for free you don't have to participate you just have to put a sign with this it's free no selling right you want to sell 10 bucks right i'm not even paying that much to put stuff out for
free that's nice to do i got to get rid of stuff do you But then what if somebody takes it you just got to bring it back and you got to You got to do it i mean that's the move we're trying the goal is to move as many things from the people who have them if you want to really be green don't make something new
use take a used you know you want to be green in clothing go to Goodwill recycling recycling something that you have to somebody else versus cutting the tree down i have four generators that I picked up in this town that people threw away because they don't know how to clean a carburetor no I mean I'm being
legit it's the reality i mean people throw out good stuff so we need permission to do this that would be just a request if we could allow people you might want it just so that people from the garage be like this going on yes what you want to ask Chris
yes okay and then how do we publicize it in time i think I think we could just piggy back on the word buzz next Monday because there's already an ad for the the townwide recite um good yard sale if
somebody comes up with a poster or visual we can put it the green team could put it on our Instagram offering i'm not a graphic designer anna thanks John you'll ask a meeting right now
miss late but All right anything else all right we're getting to the end guys um so under administrative items on the agenda uh I wanted to get back to as Drew mentioned our priority areas uh so
a couple months back Anna and John had presented their kind of first attack of the framework for um open space preservation i believe Susan and Kelly you guys are happy to take the floor tonight and take us a little bit through
where you are with property management so with that it's yours guys kelly you you want me to you go for it okay so we under um sustainable property management we
have a strategy three strategies and I'll just run through these and I belatedly sent Christie a copy of it if you want to post it the document up there if it's easier that'd be great so we can read along okay Christie if you
can yeah so we started out um we just did tactics um and what we realized is that the town is full of really dedicated volunteers doing fantastic work and when we were just talking I
like you John said "What ma what mailbox beautifification what is that?" And um what we realized is that there are so many different groups doing so many different things that involve the environment and ecology it would be great to be able to somehow coordinate
inhouse and then spread that out i don't want to stop you but that's the 21 Fair Haven Road document we didn't we didn't Susan's talking too yeah so tactic one was coordinate efforts among
volunteers and um we have host a meeting for representatives of volunteer organizations such as Fair Haven Garden Club Green Team Natural Area Friends of McCarter Pond uh Mailbox Gardens and they're probably more to encourage best
practices and coordination of efforts and I think the way this came up is when we were talking about the mailbox beautifification and um the tree that the town was offering trees and I looked on the list of trees and one of them was
Bradford pear and that's really an invasive tree in this area and so it feels like that we could inform all the groups who are doing such great work um to avoid things like that um some towns
like Pennsylvania has has prevented anybody from planting that tree because it's so invasive um so we just felt that if we could coordinate groups and get some information and I was asking about the
mailbox and were they native plants and were they drought resistant and that kind of thing and we just feel that we all could be better informed we're doing great work and maybe we can coordinate to um better inform each other so we
have that as a who i put who's and by wins on each of these so I assigned Kelly and me to everything on here because it was our area of responsibility to write it but it certainly can be um expanded and I had
August one and this is an ambitious uh strategy and tactics but I'm just going to keep going through it there it's just for a conversation and the success is to eliminate duplications of efforts and resources reduce burnout um there are
hand handful of volunteers wearing many hats in these efforts so maybe by coordinating and collaborating we can save some resources increase awareness of environmental impacts and clear communications established i'm going to go through
these if anybody has any questions speak up um stop me because I'm looking down tactic two was to encourage best sustainability practices among burough departments um meet with burrow administrator and representatives from
CPW shade tree engineering planning and I just have a list of them um who EC board members and we will need more than Kelly and me to do this and by when September 2025 success means to understand the
needs of the departments identify environmental champions and liaons in each group coordinate efforts to eliminate cross purpose Increase communications as I said these are pretty broadreaching tactic three inform
Fair Haven business community of low or no cost environmental strategies who Susan and Kelly when um we were invited to speak at the Fair Haven Business Association meeting on June 2 so we plan to present
um actually the uh sustainable New Jersey checklist that we would like to enroll them in because it's very it's very informative and success will be a quarter of attendees volunteer to implement strategies and promote and we
promote their efforts number two tactic no number two under there is advocate for energy efficiency and renewable energy tactic one is to schedule a pre-approved energy audit of Fairhead and Burough Hall who kelly
Chris York i'm guessing here I don't know who would be on here when July success strategies to save energy are identified and shared with administration and hopefully they're actionable um tactic two
Tactic two host a meeting with EC representatives from Rumson this is Peninsula rumson Redbank and Little Silver to introduce Peninsula Greenway Project um establish interest in collaboration share resources and schedule creation of a plan to implement
who sean Kelly sean and Kelly and I didn't know this had met with uh Rumson um and so we just want to expand it to all the towns on the peninsula because we're not isolated here and what we do affects everybody and vice versa um when
it comes to environmental initiatives when in June and the success is measured by resources identified coordination of peninsula peninsula wide I put advocacy efforts initiated could be a bunch of different
efforts um number three transition municipal properties to eco-friendly practices tactic one identify stakeholders if buried for high visibility municipal properties who christy I put your name down here with a
question mark because and when some of these need to be filled in um success is to prioritize locations meet with stakeholders establish consensus tactic two determine resources needed to
initiate implementation we have some blanks in here success is resources identified and budgeted tactic three support resource acquisition schedule implementation again who and when remain open and success is resources are in
place schedule established and then tactic four promote Fair Haven Burough eco-friendly initiatives schedule tours PR who DPW because we're talking about the um the new construction going on there when
upon completion of landscape installation success is fair heaven is recognized for leading by example burough plans and budgets or ongoing eco-friendly practices become standard operating procedure and residents adopt
eco-friendly practices and this is probably the first year of all of this because a strategic plan is three years and it's ambitious but we thought it would be a good start for talking points
thank you for the effort and and forward a couple questions so the the difference between kind of landscaping so one tactic two encouraging sustainable practices in
road apartments under promoting sustainable landscaping and then what you were just saying in number three yeah that's why it says CT3 there's overlap okay and you know what Sean when I when we were building this out I thought maybe the strategies the wording
and the strategy kind of changes as we work through here because there's a lot of overlap and it just because that the reason I called that one out specifically I just feel like we're at that point right now with DPW
where we've I think we've all zeroed maybe not all of us we kind of zeroed in on that that patch of grass that's going to be left over yeah that's pretty gnarly right now and it seems like you could put more grass seed down and water
it but there's no irrigation right and the alternative would be you know do you plant something that's more like clover and grass mixture or you know just let don't mow it like you know leave it more the meadow approach and it seems like
that would that would be the perfect first example of what you guys are talking about from a a strategic level that's why when it was presented last month I questioned why why we were doing grass and this whole thing is if we can kind of coordinate and inform each other
like municipalitywide we wouldn't have to come in after a plan that calls for grass because people would understand well we could rewild this area and it wouldn't need the irrigation and it wouldn't need the You could still have a
little carve out for benches and little Right sure the and this is coming from me specifically the when we talk about like managing like an individual's property to do do we think we it would be helpful
to kind of get down to here are some areas we want to focus on and and I'm just drawing from examples how we cut and fertilize our lawn leaves how we either collect them or or put them out to the curb
um what we plant like and I mean I know that you know we could talk about down spouts we could talk about capturing water we could talk about tons of things but like are there three or four things we might want to just grab on to maybe even this year this summer maybe one
thing and say like this if if we could get people to change or or adopt this one or one or two things these would be it like did you guys kind of get to that level of specificity yet no not on this not on the plan this is really
foundational but I know that um document that was shared that Cranford had for each homeowner i mean there I shared the stuff that shared with Yeah mhm and yes could we decide we want to budget distribute that to people or it feels
like the EC doesn't really have a communications channel established so much when I go on the website green team has a ton of stuff and the EC doesn't have so much and so if we coordinate it
feels like communications efforts then yes we can prioritize probably more successfully i don't know it's just a thought yeah and I I think that came up I mean when we kind of first started this in
um which comes first like what do we want to say i think we could figure out a way how to say it i think I' I've always seen from our past materials it's we've just never been really kind of gravitate towards like we believe in this maybe one or one thing
and we want to you know perpetuate that it might be do we want to go all in on no mowing in May like that's a common theme i'm not saying like we do i'm saying but that could be a thing we all say we want to want to then you're right we would have to find the channel or the
channels to do that yeah totally agree with that but I'm I'm sort of still looking for if if I was investing money in my in my home and maybe doing some landscaping and I wanted to do it the right way like I feel like you should come to us
or the green team for that that answer i don't think people know that so I think by maybe collaborating with everybody putting messages out that we
can agree to prioritize things like the garden club with a plant sale native plants and you know just coordinate with everybody doing stuff better so that that reaches the homeowner and um this
is really municipal properties focused this one but yes there's so much to do and um it feels like we don't have a clear channel to disseminate education or information so people have the choice of
how they want to grow their lawns and their you know rake their leaves interesting yeah and and that's great i I don't I guess that doesn't feel like our biggest issue i feel like the the green team uses their their um social media channel
pretty well you know people can sign up for emails um but yeah there's still if there's something that's missing like we should call that out or figure out how to what would be the right what would be the
right strategy around that communication but also like collaboration alongside that so like if we were to post like a no m Wouldn't it be cool if like one of the burrow properties decided not to either and right agree to that right and maybe there was okay we're just going to
bend to natives only or you know or twoird at least for Yeah exactly you know and right be part of it so that we're not trying to tell our residents to do something that our towns aren't doing yeah and and that was your first I thought that was your first one makes a lot of sense gota gota try to force
alignment we may want to talk to code enforcement too oh yeah to have an informed discussion about what is acceptable and good because true green chem lawn right is
generally viewed by your people as good and and effective and I view it as terrible and and the worst solution but if your code enforcement officer is pushing certain things we want to make sure we all understand we're on the same page right you know messy messy is not
bad yeah a natural is not ideal right but you might get cold on if your lawn gets too long do we have a pro one of the questions do we have like a pro meadow ordinance you know if I decide to grow my front lawn as a meadow a wildflower meadow am I going to get
called on by the I'm asking I don't know i don't know that's a good question i'm pretty There's a no meadow or there is a metal yeah and that specifies grass you already said grass as opposed to saying
I I I think it's interesting you know it really is interesting to think about what is actually green you know I think gravel I do because once you put down gravel there's very little future mowing or anything you know like if you go out to the west right when it's dry we're
not that dry but you know this is a way to have less maintenance daily maintenance yeah no I I have I have a hoe a horizontal hoe that I put through my gravel to kill all the weeds mhm that's it come out and go whack whack whack you
know so yeah i mean just a start seeing that there's just better ways for collaboration amongst everyone too it'd be great if we actually like knew that the garden club was putting this on we could promote it and be like here are some you know natives and hey is a
burrow participating in this mailbox garden you know like get the burrow signed to have a beautiful part of it you know the electronic sign right there well you're welcome to fair even over there there's you know but just just
having that collaboration and I think it goes back you know we had tried in the past kind of collaborating with amongst um I I I know by the way that people have done plantings around the street signs and the code enforcement officers gone around too much to their concern
and made them cut them back now I mean it's interesting it's just a balancing act right because they don't like the sightines like the the strips right the walk Well no it's on the corner say the street signs on the corner they want the sighteline available they they'll come around and say "Cut it back." I mean I know it because I have people
yell at me why are we doing this can I yes even like if there was one burrow lawn that they didn't own you put two long signs in that said support pollinators
it could be the grassy area where you between red bank and even it could be the front of Paul i mean that would be a huge demonstration or you just instead of having really long brass replace it with clover so it's short it's magical
it's just doesn't have to be mode you know and it's it doesn't have to be furless it doesn't have to be anything um I mean I know people that have done that and you can't even tell the difference that it's from you know from a distance you can't tell that it's not grass it's clover it's clo mix it's natural
[Music] and some people even just leave it on the strip during May so it doesn't have to be the whole thing um we've done that organ yeah there's so many good tactics this plan is really about the organization of
all the efforts because there appears to be some burnout among groups you know volunteers are critical now the need for them is critical so maybe just by sitting and talking and collaborating we can save some resources and here you
know time that we're all working with each other rather than separate yep you know doing trying to do the same thing and any other feedback from the board up here great thank you for sharing
um do you want do you want to share that with everyone electronically for comments or you have to iterate on it a couple more times i see you can send sure yeah all right thanks great awesome thank you um that's cool i think it's time to open
for public comment yeah just one thing before we go i sent around the bike to school estimates of carbon footprint so if you have a chance to look at that um the only thing we need to do is probably tweak it with the actual um enrollment numbers um and number of days of school i made an estimation but it's probably
close but we'd like to know how many days of school there are and you know what's the actual population in schools okay does that to be used for sustainable yeah it could be sustainable New Jersey it could be in the RRI it could just be a promotional piece we put in front of
the schools to encourage I've heard bike to school is off of it i don't know i'm not see to school oh and bike to school is just during the winter months like it's it's starkenly different yeah no but the kids 10 years ago the kids of hardcore I mean they were they were
going in in November and December just need to get and then you know maybe it's just you get like the blue mitts right and everyone just has the blue gloves for like biking in the winter i don't know i'm just asking i just want to get a head count of that when kids are in school to to tighten up the numbers but it's a good
approximation thanks John thank you um we'll open for public comment anyone physically here want to go ahead Bonnie i just say I'm I'm thrilled that the master plan is that you are in charge of making the
environment um a much bigger piece well a peace at all it really doesn't have anything i mean I know that right now the shade tree is redoing our um community forestry management plan and we're also trying to um you know like
set our goals tree planting and make the natural area u kind of a bigger piece you know recognizing what that valuable resource is that we have and how we have to maintain it and um put money into it um
so I'd love to just see that kind of on the radar like you know putting money into maintaining our natural areas on our parks i love the fact that I love the idea of doing the open spaces as you know a table and
showing everybody i mean I have a very active dog so I walk around all over the place and I I was just by um twinkers today kind of walking around that area it's just like what what is that area you know it's um I know that Brian had
talked about putting a trail around it um which I'm not sure how that works but it is kind of a There is kind of a trail though didn't did you walk around it on kind of public space though the whole way around yeah but I mean you it's not
obvious no no it should be it's not well maintained like I mean but see that would be a perfect place why does the DPW have to cut that grass right i mean it's such a waste of time nobody even does any it's just grass that nobody
does anything on um it would be nice i mean I walk by the BBW and I look at it because it's so much bigger now since they moved the fence back what is that space going to be it could be something i don't know if it has a little pathway for the kids that are riding their bikes back and forth on Third Street to go in
i you know it should be utilized and it shouldn't be another headache for DPW to maintain with grass i mean if we could reduce that kind of problem DPW has enough grass to mow at the field so we would love to see alternatives to that
um and the whole McCarter pond talk I know in terms of love where you live day I think that's going to be represented at love day um either
friends of mart the friends of so it's not the official right but um just a kind of like an update would be great what's going on there I mean I think that that's lovely where you live is a great place to have community input updates pictures you
know share what's going on um everybody knows because just people don't really know what's going on a lot of the time right um they don't even read books so it is a great opportunity to get input and share what's going on and just kind of make the community feel like they're
a part of everything it's also so great for all the different committees to talk to each other and because like you know you're trying to do we're all volunteers and we all interact and um you know that was kind of the idea behind the environmental round table was just so people could meet each other and get to
know what everybody else is doing exactly and see where there's crossover and how we can all work together so anyway thank you thanks Bonnie go ahead okay um yes I would echo definitely the I can't imagine why we would plant grass
at the DPW um it's easy right there you know once we plant it we're going to have to go unplank to Fair Haven uh there's that grassy area like I see the DPWs out there blowing leaves you know it drives
me crazy i'm like why are they doing that they can just leave the leaves there um we're spending money to do this it just makes no sense and in this case we'll be planting grass which we're just going to have to pay money to maintain um yeah I just don't see the logic in
that at all um regarding communications I would really suggest that making videos is a great way to communicate your message and is really relatively easy and cheap to do and then I think once you've created something I don't
think you have to worry about the channel then I think you can distribute it via all the channels like the burrow has a channel the natural air is a channel the green team has a channel every one of us has a channel who uses social media so I I think if you make a
you know engaging video and it can be a series of very short ones but I think a lot of people spend time watching videos and learning things that way um and that it would offer you a lot of flexibility uh to share it around and get eyes on it
and then the other thing um as you know I'm the chair of the natural area committee we give our uh annual report in March to the burough council and one of the things we talked about was we said really in this day and age like
given the budget climate like we have to use volunteers you know and I was like instead of kind of tolerating it or acting like this half half ass thing and like you know we if we just admit it that that's
part of how we're going to get things done in this town uh then we can organize them and use them effectively and manage them as part-time employees um you know the people that work as volunteers like you guys I think everyone's looking to contribute
effectively and to feel at the end of the day like they've accomplished something contributed to the town um so like in the natural area we've used volunteers and we often get a lot of like blowback um make sure they sign
this what about that we're worried about insurance and and those are legitimate concerns but if we kind of change our mindset to be like these are people that we need this is how we're going to get some of our work done um then we can
meet ahead and figure out what safety procedures are needed and get people some training um but but have a like a positive attitude that we're going to use them and we're going to uh organize them effectively so they can work
together and be most productive and what we asked for was a little collaboration with the DBW because we said like there's things the DBW can do there's things the DBW can't do that they have to hire tree services to do there's things that volunteers can do um but if
we work together we can have an effective result and we used one of the examples is that when they take treats down they'll leave these like 8 foot lengths of trees at the side of our trails which we don't want um but we
also can't do anything with they're too heavy for volunteers to manage if they need to leave them there if they left them in 18 inch lengths we would take them out and we would get rid of them as uh offer it out as firewood which we've
had great success doing easily so you know that was one example that if we work together they can give a little we'll find people who can offer what's needed um but we feel like that takes a little planning and coordination that
we're sometimes lacking and then just so you know one of the other examples we shared was on Ridge Road there's a kiosk there and it has a little roof and it had gotten old and leaky over the years um so it was on the DPW's to-do list for a year or two and understandably they
haven't gotten to it they don't understand but then one of our volunteers offered to take care of it and he went out and he redesigned it so the roof was a little bigger than it was and he put new shingles on it and now it's beautiful and fixed so we were like
you know if we work together with the DPW we do have a network of volunteers you know we there's jobs like that and we can say like let's ask Jim he likes doing work like this you know we'll take that off your list and we'll engage a volunteer to do it but it does require some sort of coordination you know I
can't say I know what the answer is but um I think we're all feeling the same thing that somehow we were able to work together we can have a more effective result thank you thanks was someone online
thanks Kristen robin hi Robin O'Neal um I just wanted to say thank you for um mentioning the um the uh mailbox guard challenge that was a year in the
making we got Rutgers advisory master gardeners along with a very excited um garden club president Nancy Bosow who took this from zero to 100 she collaborated with the burough
administration and committees the beautifification committee and it's it's without th the enthusiasm from all of those volunteers we wouldn't have gotten the t the burrow admin um involved we wouldn't have gotten the parameters that
would allow us to do this in Fair Haven the mailbox garden challenge is for real it takes subjects like storm water management and native plant um importance awareness and education and
we are presenting this to the residents of Fair Haven and hoping that in uh attempting to do improve inhospitable spots in the at their curbs that they will learn about storm water management
and native plant awareness this is this is launched and um we are getting the schools to create cute little posters there's going to be registration you are going to see this uh advertised through
um the burrow buzz and you know as many outlets as we can get it to uh photographs will be taken and submitted from the residents when they start to grow their gardens uh during the month of May and it we are celebrating
National Garden Week for the Garden Club of Fair Haven uh that's a national thing and that those awards will be given out June 1st so I just wanted to emphasize how important it was Sean that you mentioned that because there's a lot of
uh there's this is one way that residents can really learn about all these things that we're talking about um I also think that we have a the EC table i think that um 21 Fair Haven Road that's another thing that we can add to
the ERRI and um I think we also are uh you know thinking about putting an um information on an open space tax at that table and you know any other little thing that we want to present to the residents this is the time we can do it
uh the love where you live day has not been bigger than this year we are 36 plus tables and it is the most collaborative um work yet in the four years of its existence i also want to say what a
welcome approach that um Drew has to 21 Fair Haven Road i feel really as a resident I'm really excited about that and that's all good night everybody thank you Robin nothing further online
yes is it possible the environmental commission could recommend that the town not plant grass at the DPW or plant lever is it possible it certainly is possible possible is that a strong feeling that
we were talking about earlier about whatever it is right up the street that's usually just grass right but we last at last meeting after Drew showed the plan some of us were talking that um
you know what they do in the on the parkway now you know the wild flowers and the meadows and like the beautiful and you can easily get super you can easily do that something like that but you could still carve out some grass or lower area so you can have a bench or
two benches or some you know and have paths there but some of that meadows I mean you see that in some of the parks around here too gently a park down an ocean has some areas like that too um but why not you know it's less cost more
effective resistant to drought native pollinator you're creating ecosystem it's beautiful it's part of our pollinator pathway that we are planning on Third Street from Nullwood to Sickles with the pollinator garden on Third Street it would just go very well with
this pathway the greenway you know being a very visible highly visible um municipal property that can lead by example yeah so Drew left I was just going to say Drew left an opening that know
they're having that meeting soon so um I'm happy to take an action to to plan something with Drew um sorry i was going to make a motion that the EC recommend that they don't plant grass
oh all right a motion do I hear Do I hear a second second all right would you re could you restate your motion i make a motion that the EC recommends to DPW who would they okay that they don't plant grass at the
DPW site along Street mhm yeah i'll start all right we actually need a vote on that okay roll call vote thank you tom Bailey I agree yes kelly Flanigan
agree william Dorner yes susan Glovis yes dusty Murray yes gary Patterson i abstain for now okay john Peters yes all right that is a majority thanks Susan
um all right i can I get a motion to close meeting sure close meeting thank you Christie thanks Christie