In accordance with the open public meeting act of the state of New Jersey, adequate notice of this meeting of the Franklin Township Environmental Commission was made by posting on the Bolton board in the municipal building posted on the township website and electronically transmitted to the
officially designated newspapers dictating that the meeting would take place in person at 7 p.m. on May 5th, 2025. Okay. Roll call. Walter here. Hey here.
Easy here. Ellen here. Stan present. Arnold here. Robin here. Maria here. Tara Edna here. We got everybody. And Jenny. Okay.
We'll honorary. Wait, I told her to come up to it, too. Okay. Um, I have a a little message. Jenny's right. Yeah. Sorry, I switched. I have I don't know if if everybody
knows, but the hearing was held and the judge issued opinion on the B9 House proposal that he commented on over these many years. And I'm going to read you what I wrote that's going to be in the newsletter coming out from Canal Walk on
June 1st, but it's been edited by the attorneys and all that stuff. Um, Judge William Menon issued his ruling on the B9 lawsuit to overturn the planning board's 910 90 of the B9 application for site
plan and subdivision approval for two warehouses on Metlers and Schoolhouse Roads. The judge vacated the 90 planning board decision. judicially approved the B9 application and remanded the matter to the planning board to set reasonable conditions consistent with court
approval. The judge recommended that the process early employed by the HOA attorney Howard D. Conn serve as a model for dialogue between B9 and the planning board. In conclusion, the judge invoked Mr. Cohen's words stating that this
legally realistic approach allows the planning board to exercise its local expertise to shape development while recognizing the conforming nature of the B9 application. It went on for 41 pages. I'm not reading the 41 pages, but this
is a good summary. Um, he made comments about the opposition and the crowd, all that kind of stuff, but I wanted that on our record and so it's here. It's one that we've spent a lot of time on. So, so that's that's that. So, with all that verbiage, what was what's the ultimate
outcome? The ultimate outcome will be that they'll build a warehouse. That's what I thought. So, no matter what you say, it's going to go through. One thing that hasn't been uh decided yet is the township wants three driveways and they want two driveways because the third
driveway requires a variance and they don't want to get a variance because then it's grounds for turning it down. So um that that will have to be discussed. But um Howard Cohen came before our assemblage with the mayor in
the very beginning and the mayor was not optimistic that it would pass and people sort of upset with him but he was telling the truth and so and so was the the negotiations with B9 to get all sorts of amenities that they wouldn't have given otherwise.
member, I mentioned to you the other day at the green fair that I think if we can't ask the planning board to strongly urge them to put on solar, not just be solar ready. I'm going to get a hold of Mike Osini and make sure
that I can be on the program and I'll because we don't our opinions that we put in on I think they were in there but I want to do mention the solar. Yeah. because I they'll say we'll be solar ready because they have to be they have to be solar ready but we want them to go
further. I mean they they've set off so much of the community. Yes, this would be a smart thing to do. And if they're they're making the building solar ready that means they've got the weight load figured out, right? Yeah. So then it's getting so and they'll make money. I
mean it's not going to cost them. A there's subsidies from the state. B, they're gonna they're going to need electric power for what they're doing and for the the pumps and everything else if they put in any conveyors. If they use electric um forklifts instead
of propane, they got to charge the forklifts. So they can they can power the forklifts with the solar system. You have electric forklifts on the plan or it's not I haven't se we never see those details. We see the structural details but not operational details. Well, if
you can use the terms distributed energy, ah, they're not going to be as subject to a power outage or somebody hitting a the power pole down the road if they've got their own power source, right? That that's a good point as well. Yeah. So, um, yeah, I get a hold of Mike
and see if I can get on there as as the representative, you know, the commission. I mean, they look back at the plan, there's a good chance they have a backup generator for something like that. Even so that then they don't have to even buy the propane. Yeah. You know, what fuels
the back up. You can use the battery power things that people are selling today. Keep that charge so they keep going. Much better than having a fuel based backup which is idling all the time. Yes. To have energy storage. Yeah.
And when you have solar system coupled with the energy storage, then you can overcome several days or outage and run full operation. Full operation, no noise, no nothing. And they can even use the energy storage throughout the entire year to arbitrage
and when BPU will have it's it's about the distributed energy essentially. They can they can uh charge when energy is cheap and discharge when it's expensive and make additional profit. It is something that they do not get used to yet. But um
the thing is with with the battery storage operate at night solar is not going to be generating stuff, you know, in the winter time a lot of time. It'll be off. So anyway, that's that's that that's the next controversial one coming up is
Onyx. And uh that one I think was supposed to be tomorrow, but I see that tomorrow Wednesday. someone's been on Wednesday. That plane board is over Wednesday. Okay. So, I I should be there. Um the people confirmed I got a
message from Christine. Um again, yeah, if it's if it's going to go, let them put solar on the roof, you know. I'll make that message. But also, our comments never appeared on the website. So, uh Tyra was sending me what we we did comment, but it never ended up on
So, I want to be I want to get that on the record. I think when we commented it was before the zoning board so it was on there but then when it got moved over to planning board I don't think we've commented since it got moved. No. So I I think yeah it might have just gotten
because they have them. So the the last word I heard was that the the pipeline company has been offered seven different points that they want and the onyx people agreed to it. So that was the major that and and access
I looked at the plan and the redesigning that whole intersection of New Brunswick Road and Old New Brunswick Road, making the corners wider, three lanes, lightning, all that kind of stuff. So, do they address pollution? I'm I'm sorry if I'm not
totally conversant. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, God. Thanks, D. We do the same thing, right? I wanted to see if you're anytime morning.
Anyway, Paul, yes. Do they address noise pollution, light pollution? I Well, I they're all using um exhaust pollution, full cut off fixtures on the outside. That's Everybody's doing that.
Um and that will now allow the parking lot lights to go up. Everything goes goes down. Uh and um from the whether what they're going to use for power, you know, again, all the trucks coming in, the big heavy trucks, we got to make sure they put the no islanding signs in
and all that. Yeah, but they're all going to be gasoline powered probably. And diesel sticks. For the lights, can we get them to use yellow lights? So use what? For their lights, can we get them to use like yellow or amber lights? I don't think
so. Uh we talked to I did talk to the illuminating engineering society and they they had no comments about amber. They just talked about full cut off and that kind of stuff. Well, there is lowering the color intensity. So
instead of going to amber yellow, just 2700K, it's amber. Really? It's high pressure sodium. It's It's not amber. I have 2700 all around my house. It's not amber. But it's not blue. No, it's a warm white. Warm white. not amber. It's a warm white
and that should be in the IE regulations. It usually has a that gives you a range. It'll say 3,000 to that. We should have it in our kind of checklist and recommendation. Well, we have a lighting ordinance. We'd have to come up with some amendments to it. Yes. And I'm
going to talk about that in a little bit. Okay. But I think Stan makes a good point. We should have lighting on our green checklist. We do have it on our checklist. I think we should be not only talking about direction but temperature
of the light. Yeah, ours conforms to our lighting ordinance. So, we can we can make amendments to recommend changes, but it should be in conformance with the lighting ordinance. Yeah, we at least conforming. We asked for conforming now,
but if we want to do more, it's probably better. Although, we can ask for more until we Yeah, we can do that. We can always ask for more. Yes. Well, if we're going to ask to have it in the checklist because that's something we want. We want to make a recommendation to the council to change the ordinance to
reflect that. I'm working on that, Arie. I'll talk about that later on the agenda. Okay. But, you know, our checklist, we can certainly add that ourselves with, you know, and and you can reference as a base the lighting ordinance and then, you know, yeah, they
would do that. Okay. So, um, next we're up to the approval of the April 21st, 2025 minutes. Second. Is there any changes or Well, I I wasn't there. I pointed out to Tara that at one point we referred to going
to Franklin High on September 3rd. It was May 3rd. I changed it already. Yeah. Oh, that's the other thing I I should have done. I wanted to thank Stan and Maria and Robin for all the work you did at the high school. It was a good event. I think
let's let's finish. Okay, good. Okay, perfect. All in favor of the minute. Wait. So, we have a discussion. We have a discussion. Wait, the first was Stan. Who was the second? I'm sorry. Maria and Robin. Oh, you
Maria? Yeah, we'll finish that. Robbie. Yeah, I understand. gender and go ahead. Go ahead. Um, Paul, thank you for, you know, I know that it was you're not that it's always hard.
Um, I'm thorough, but I noticed here when referring to my daughter, uh, there is a typo in, uh, instead of she, you added H behind it. Where is Where are you? I think I put in your
changes. Yes. Yes. But there is another one. Martine under public comments. [Music] And then behind his page. Where is it? Oh, I see it here. I see it. Yeah. Sage. Got it.
Oh, here. One. Five paragraph. I changed it. Not that it is not understandable. But she hasn't [Music] this relates to my daughter and she cannot be spell when your daughter made
the Did I spell her name? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That that one that's important. That one I would I'm not making any comment now because um that's it from my end. Anybody else
with comments? Okay. on paper then we'll stand. Okay, we make the vote for approval. But you have something else you wanted to add. Okay. Okay. All in favor of approval of the minutes. I minutes approved. I
abstain because you went there. Yes. Okay. Okay. Public comment. Bill, you got anything you want to talk about? No. Okay. So, I think we can we'll make the uh have to make the motion and then say nobody here. Oh, we need Mag. So, I
asked Okay. So, we've done the public comment. Any correspondence? Uh, no new correspondence as of right now. Okay. My plans. Well, let me back up. I'm sorry. Who is I don't know if this should be
correspondence or not. The we did get an update from Susan Bristol via email. Should we talk about that a separate time or now? So, we did get an email from Susan Bristol. They're working on the lower RTON working group with uh Scott Thomas from our lower Milstone for
from our engineering department. Scott Thomas is our representative. So Hopewell has recently put forth resolution to actually join the group which involves putting money in to work with this group one water which would prepare this watershed based plan. Um
from my understanding Scott Thomas is working you know as a member of the group and I guess he's in talks with our township manager and our um township attorney. But that's the only update I have on that and that's the only correspondence I got was that email.
[Music] So site plan, um I gave Okay, so site plan review. This has kind of been a tricky one. Um so we have two site plans for review. They're both the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, right? Um one is for
the subdivision of the property, which we talked about last time. One is for the actual development of the property. Correct. Yes. So Ted reviewed the subdivision part, right? No, I did. No, you I did the subdivision one part. Oh, well I I actually did both. You did
both. Okay. So they I think they both did both, which is great because this is a little tricky. So we'll we'll go over that. They have two different numbers, both for the zoning board. Let's talk about number seven first, which is the subdivision. Is that okay? And we'll see both of your comments. Okay. I have the
the sheets. I did Okay. I did the whole sheets. So up on the screen is the Ukrainian I think we talked about this last time to or two times ago, right? Didn't we talk about this two times? Month ago. Month ago. I believe we
did. I believe we did talk about it April 7th. So I got an email from Christine. I don't know, maybe I got the numbers confused or something. I don't think so, though, cuz I went back and looked and she's saying that no, we don't have a review in. I emailed it to her and she's saying, "No, they're two
different numbers." Which I thought we did review them as two different numbers. Seven and eight. Seven and eight. Okay. So, if we reviewed these on April 7th, I can use our previous list, which you guys have already talked about, right? And what you sent me and the meeting I think that's the meeting maybe I wasn't here and Robert was the
chair. Maybe we would have had Ted, did you review both last time or only one? Do you remember? Cuz you reviewed this. I I there are actually in total three site plans. There was one called
1950s. Yes. The first was the for the warehouse that's going to be on the back half of the property. Yes, that's what we reviewed. So, we already reviewed that. And then for this meeting with the subdivision
and a subdivision in and of itself does nothing. Nothing environmental. Well, they got to plant trees, put down trees because No, even that's in the as the site plan, not in the subdivision.
So, they have 1950 sycamore. So, Ted's right. Three applications were for the same lot. One was filed as 1950 sycamore, which we reviewed. That is now gone and has been replaced with just Ukrainian Orthodox Church seven and eight. So, you just transfer everything
over. I can transfer everything. The subdivision really is both halves of the property, right? What is dividing what was one lot into two, but that's all it does. And it has to go to the zoning
board because the church is not an approved use in the BI zone. Therefore, this is they call it expansion of a a nonconforming use. It's actually a
compression of a nonconforming use, but the church will have less land. So what I think it is that Okay, I think I got it. So I'll take the 1950 sycamore report though that comment your comments and your comments and put together the site plan report for this because that's
what it is. Yes, we did review this. If you have subdivision then the percentages of previous impervious will change. No, because now you're considering only sections. So the one lot you understanding well. Yes. So so his question is when the when the
subdivision is done, the amount of impervious coverage that's going to be permitted. What's that? Goes well it's going to be per lot. Per lot per lot. This part of the subdivision is basically for parking, right? you know,
and and and tree planting. I've got the list of all the trees that they've from what I dug out of this taking down 78 trees and planting 175 trees. And I've got the list of the subdivision that's
in the sub that's in seven. All right. So, the subdivision is just to subdivide the property and create one part of it for parking. 78 trees are going to be removed. They're planting and what did you say? 75 175 trees and putting parking in that was in
the way that was the way that they did this is it must have been both because I didn't look at Oh wait 70 okay do you remember Paul if the parking was pvious or not there was a talk about pvious yes they did I have
this feeling that there was something mention of pvious but I could find nothing in the plans indicating ing pvious pavement. I certainly suggest it suggest that and one one point is I happen I
looked into the environmental review which usually and the soils indicated that this is aluvial soil. So infiltration should be good okay compared to most of the township. Okay,
lots good, right? Yeah. This has two there with two basins. There's a bio retention basin and an infiltration basin. The infiltration basin is smaller than the bio retention, but they're side by side, but for pvious parking, I think that's what we're talking. I think there
was. So, the soil is more like a sandy or Oh, it says plan for pvious pavement. I did see that, but I didn't see what the coverage. I don't remember seeing the percentage, but there is a plan to do. So this is the over what I have on the screen. This is the overall site
plan. So this is where the subdivision is going to occur. Yes. Let me get the map back up. So in your mind at the bottom, well the the U-shaped building, that's the church, right? The two basins are right above that that the
cross-hatched area is the cemetery. Nothing moving there. all over about the U shape about building a museum and it would be over across the brook over the
brook subdivision. Yeah, it's going to go like this. So, the subdivision will divide the property like right where this is going to the right and to the left. I don't know why they did. I would like to know why didn't they file it as a a
um like why did they file them together? Cuz it's so confusing. It's really confusing. Yeah, they may have filed them all together and it's just that Christine only passed them on to you. They're on the website that way. They
all have separate numbers. Yeah, and they have separate numbers. We've got it's on has its own number. All right. So, we already reviewed this now, not once, but twice. So, I think we're all set. No. So, you don't need this list of trees. I'll take it since you did it.
Thank you. Thank you. I'll tell you. We got the same trees are red maple six, sugar maples five, blood good, London uh 12, olive cypress 7. Then the ornamentals,
there's a birch, rose bud, and a cherry. And the evergreens are eastern cedar, no way spruce, and something giant arite. And and the basin has red maple because I remember seeing your recent
discussions about where the trees should be in a in in around the basin that you you raise that. Well, I brought up that and I wasn't at the April 7th meeting, but then when I saw the minutes, it says in the minutes that about half of the
trees um are in a bio retention basin. And when I say he when I see it written as in a bio retention basin, I'm wondering, you know, what trees are in a in the bio retention basin opposed to along the perimeter and the banks
because it makes a difference. And I think I think Well, go ahead, Ted. I went back and looked at after reading Ernie's question, I went back and looked at the plans and actually most of the the trees are around the perimeter. And
you never can tell exactly whether they'll be right at the top of the burm or slightly down. But there was one point where there seemed to be six white pines more down into one of the basins.
and they do not belong there. Pines in particular would not belong. They do not belong there. This says the what I read said that the red maples 18 trees are listed for the basin. It doesn't say anything about the in in the evergreens. I don't see where they
were. There's red cedar, Norway spruce, and giant uh arborite. That's the evergreen. So in the basin? No, it just the basin was called out separately. Okay. So the white pine was the ones that were there's no white pines on this. The
white pines were in in the warehouse application. That's what you'd asked about, not in the I was only talking about, you know, like I said, I wasn't at that meeting. I was so I was only focusing on what was in the base. I'm not sure which application it was cuz you're talking about two or three
different applications. I wasn't there either, right? And so therefore, you know, if they're planting white pines in the uh basin and we approve that, we should go back and I think we should
amend what we said about that and make other recommendations whether it's um ball cyprus or the river birch which are on the list uh of for shade tree that could be um could be planted in basin.
But I also think and as I said in the email that I copied the three of you on today, um that you know Shade Tree does have lists of trees that can be planted in Franklin Township. Um, but I think Shade Tree
needs to, and I copied Steve on it, and I think that Shade Tree needs to look at a list of trees that can be planted in bio retention basin and along the perimeter and have trees listed specifically for those
purposes. Yeah, it can be used for others also. But you know, if you all remember what was planted at the entrance to Middle Bush Park, they had three or four trees there and one after another and they just they just did not
belong there. And what we were told at Open Space was that, well, they did belong there. And I said, well, they don't belong there. And I was told, well, they were in the plan, so that's why they belong there. And I said, 'Well, then the plan was wrong. They
don't they don't belong again. The plan was wrong. And so, we don't want to approve a plan the same way. And then they say, well, you approve the plan and then all the trees die. I agree. That's okay. Got it. I um we haven't sent any
comments in yet, so I wrote that down and we can make that comment as a you know that the uh the site the bald cypress and the river birch can be the replacement for the white pine cuz we haven't sent those in yet. So or cypress
is hard he came to New Jersey. I didn't I didn't know which ones were native and which one were. Well, I looked at the list and I'm not sure if it said it was um you know, we're planting trees that aren't I think the I think the birch is native to New Jersey.
So, if we want to just say the the birch, the ocean cherry is probably native not native to Jersey either. Sounds like it's a Japanese everywhere. Yeah. Now, that was the other one I picked up. Robin, uh also the lighting
is 3000K. I've got that in my notes that I did. That's what they're proposing or that's what we're suggesting. No, it's what's in the plan. Did you also mentioned that they said the London plane tree? Uh what I see I see red maple, sugar
maple, blood good London and bald cypress. Those are the shade trees. ornaments are Dora Heat birch, eastern rose blood, Yosha cherry, and the evergreens are listed separately. The eastern red cedar,
Norway spruce, and green giant harbor vining. Instead of London plains, they might want to do American sycamore. It's native, but it has like aesthetically it's the same. There's nothing here. And the and the basin has red maple the same as the No, I think I
think red maple would be okay for this. Yeah, but I sort of have the feeling that applicants are planting trees in the basin just to get more trees. I think so too. I think
so too. Logical. I think the basins would if you've got a bio retention basin or anything that's supposed to be purifying the water. I don't think you want trees. I think having tall grasses.
Yeah. It's a good point because in those places that's a place where geese congregate a lot also, right? And they're dropping their feces off. You're right. The the other thing I not that ends up
in the rivers, right? Yeah. The the other thing I noted on the plan I saw two EV chargers and the bio retention bas different different points of the parking lot. Yeah, it says um that the parking is 413 parking spaces, 42
regular uh 11 disabled and and they got two EV chargers. Well, I don't know. That didn't seem to me to be the right percentage, but 400 something would have been for the warehouse. Yeah. 80 for
this for the the church. Yeah. There's two, which you can see up there all around the church building, right? And the two uh charging stations, one is over on the right hand side, one's on the left. Yes. That's not 4% then. four.
So they if you have 80 parking spots, you need to have four. Four. Four. And they don't have four. They've only got two from what I could tell. Are these dual? I don't know. Are these dual chargers?
They're most likely one on the lower right. The other thing is they really only talk about absolutely something charger ready. They don't actually sold it says make ready. Yeah, but they
they do not have the uh the uh opportunity to do charge ready within the limit. It has to be installed those 4%. They can have charge ready on top of that it has to be installed within 6 years of the for residential. No, no,
that's for everything. They have one/ird has to be done. I think at the time of commercial must be 4%. 4% correct. Yeah, but they have a certain amount of time. I think it's 6 years after the approval to actually install the station. So,
they have to have the make ready in and then they have one/ird has to be done within the first two. You're talking about is for multi-unit dwelling. I'm sorry, what? I thought that what you are describing is for multi-unit dwelling. over multi-unit dwelling. It has 3% uh
3% or 3 years 3 years a uh I thought it was universal, but I'll look it up and we'll see. But you're right. Yeah, I mean either way they have to have them installed at some point on the drawing right right above the disabled one on this lower corner. There's the EV one and and there's one
over and that's up there just a little hair on the drawer on that. Sorry. Yeah. What direction? This is good or more? No, that that you see across the bottom is at the bottom
bottom right is is EV, but the way how it is spelled it looks like it's a single port, but maybe it's just the icon. It says EV. Yeah, that says ZV. Yeah. Why don't we just comment that those who need to be
dual move forward for move forward? Come down to more. Keep keep going. And I think it it very may you want to have one next to the
line subdivision. There it is. Oh, there it is. Right. It's the same. Is is that also eating? So there's number three now because you have one on the bottom and this is second and this is
third but they need to have four. Did we miss uh anywhere else? These are very tiny icons. Can you which way I have? Sorry. Either way, do we have additional parking spots at the top? No, it comes this way that way.
Scroll down. I don't think you have one. Oh, there's one and and there is nothing here. There it is. Yeah. Okay. That's on the warehouse lot. Yes, that's on the other side of the
lot. Ted's right. Are you saying that this is a different noticing those when I reviewed the warehouse? It's two separate applic. So this is the going to be the um subdivision in line. So two are on
number eight. Two are on number seven. What is the total parking? It's 80. Um it's 80 on the church side. 80 on the church side. What's the other side? Yeahund something. Uh, I don't have notes on that. 10 and something. Yeah,
you wrote it down. Yeah. 100. Nope. That's the trees. 80 on the church side. I don't know what it is on the on the uh other side. We can find it out though cuz we'll just do the we'll do the formula
there. somewhat. They discuss the parking requirements for the chapel where they say most of the people will be standing, right? But they avoid discussing how many seats there are in the main church
which would be used only on Sundays. So, but you can let Mark Healey worry about how many parking places. And I have a sneaking feeling that in practice what will happen is if they have too many people some of them will
park on the warehouse law. I would assume so. Yeah. It's also worth noting that the access to the church is from Eastern Avenue. winds up. The road lines up from Eastern
Avenue and does not connect with the road on the driveway on warehouse propert. Yeah. I wonder entrance on Executive Drive. Oh, that's uh up the hill a little bit, right? That goes the three
buildings. That's a different plot. It's on the other There's a Is that where the stream is? You Yeah. Hey, executive. That's where the light is. Yeah, that's where the light is. That's where you make the right turn to go into executive drive. So, it's a little bit
northwest. Forget which direction. So, is the entrance for the trucks entrance and exit closer to East Avenue? Yeah, it was on Davidson, but it's it's 175 or something. It's a
between Executive Drive, I think. So that's where the trucks are going to be coming in and out. Yeah. But again, if you look at our proposed master plan, the warehouse itself is within a mile of the entrance to 287. I
mean, it's about 1,000 ft or less. I understand that. The residents around it. It seems like I mean that's the traffic people issue, but it said they're re I didn't read the whole thing, but it did say they're redesigning the intersection. So that I don't know what's in there
that'll have to be approved by our traffic department anyway. [Music] I think I think Davidson well more will be a much bigger
radius for the trucks to be entering into the lot and that will require moving the traffic lights back. [Music] That's that's engineering. Yeah.
All right. Well, thank you guys. Okay. Is that is there any other cycle? No. Okay. Then we're up to new business. And the first thing is the resolution to pass strong packaging product stewardship. Is that what I haven't? Uh
yes. Let me get to the to the resolution here. Okay. So Robin put forth um the resolution to support the passage of the packaging product stewardship act and this is wording from Anjac. This is exactly
wording from Anjac and uh this is their model resolution. So I basically just quickly amended it for Franklin. Um, and it basically says that companies that produce packing m packaging materials, especially those packaging items that are not recyclable, should help bear the
cost of waste byproducts. Um, it talks a little bit about um the serious pollution threat of plastic through its life cycle. Um, and then the Packaging Product Stewardship Act would reduce waste, increase recycling rates, create
jobs, reduce toxicity in products, provide millions of dollars in savings for taxpayers, provide new money to local governments to manage waste, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. So, there's two versions of the resolution. One would be this one that I'm showing
you, which is for the EC to recommend, and then I have one that has language in it for the council. So I would send that resolution recommended from this committee with our resolution to the council for them to sign a similar
one. I was there a comment? Yeah, I think there was a comment on it. Now I would you see the third whereas is talking about what the company should do. I would move that down below the
fifth whereas litter resulting because everything's up to there is the bad effects of okay one three the companies should
so you're saying it should go after this litter one yeah we should put there because then that's the solution that makes sense And there there are some things uh just where it talks about where we're
sending it. I think it it had state senators plural. Well, we only have one state senator. Okay. Be it for the resolve governor, local state assembly member, the local state senator. That was that was something the the paragraph
that was made made um well the last two paragraphs. No, I'm sorry. The first, now therefore, be it resolved that the environmental commission of the township of Franklin, Somerset County, state of New Jersey urges the state legislature to pass this legislation and that the
governor sign into law a strong and effective package. Yes, this legislation that the governor sign into law. Governor sign into law. Governor
Governor Governor, sign into law a strong and effective packaging product stewardship act. Right. Okay. I made the same comment on the second one. Um although I think I forgot the word to
Oh, okay. That one. Oh, on the other one you're saying. Got it. Okay. I'll have to Yes, you're right. I'll have to remember to do that to be forwarded. Is it a V machine? Um hang on one second. Let me get the other one up before I forget here. Um because you're right,
that has to be done on the on the council version, too. I'll do that separately, but I'll just get it up. Okay. Now, what were you saying, Paul? It says uh resolution two forward to the governor trying to be forwarded
um to be forwarded and that the governor uh Oh, here we go. copies of this resolution to be Oh, it should just be be forwarded be forwarded to the governor local state. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Okay. And this be it further resolved should also be changed in this version. Right. Um it was this one right and therefore be resolved. Is it the right one? Let's
not. Okay. And then that copies be forwarded. And then I got to move the the third one. It was this one I moved around the company.
Relax. And it goes under litter. Oh, girl. Wonderful. Okay. Yes. All right. I move we approve these and forward them on. Can you just Where's the now be? Is that the second one?
We have twice further. Um, need further resolved. The first one should not have further. Okay. Hang on one second. Right. Where did that now? Therefore, be it resolved. No, you're right. Where did that in this one?
That's what it was. Okay. Uh, this one does not have it. This one. Yes. Yeah. It like went missing. Okay. This should be in this one.
Yeah, right in there. Too many documents help me. Okay. And now be it further resolved. Be it further resolved. You're saying Stan, you don't like that? No, no, no. That's right. What was missing now? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Now I think we're good. So we have one document for our
commission and one suggesting for the council. Yeah. So, what we'll do basically if this passes, we will post the resolution that we approve on our website, we'll also when we send the memo to council that we recommend approving this resolution, I send them a a version ready to go so they can just
do it, which is what you're looking at, but I'll also send them the signed copy of our resolution so they can see that we have signed our own resolution as well. I thought that we won't always send something that Louis Rammon wants to make some edits. Yeah.
Usually if we send them a resolution of support, it's usually okay. It's the ordinances usually that he likes to to make the edits on. So, and this I'll explain in the memo that goes with it that this is language from anj like it's a model basically. This really was a
communication. I think this is um Okay, hang on that one second. Just cuz that's a different thing. You need you need to call a vote. Okay. I made a motion. Second it. All in favor of both resolutions? Yes. It's just for one
because it's going to be approving our resolution and then the one from council, it's the same one, but we're recommending they pass a resolution on basically just sending one so they don't have to um you know approve it. All in favor?
I cannot be approving council president. Okay. Can we talk about that under sustainable jersey? Sure. Okay. All right. Perfect. Okay. Well, we are indeed. We are good now. So, walk to sustainable
jersey reertification. Sustainable jersey reertification. Okay. So, so far I So, I have only entered what I have done because that's what I have so far to work on, which is fine cuz we still have a little bit of time. So, as of right now, I've gotten in 250 points.
So, you need 150 for bronze, 350 for silver. I'm still waiting though on everything from everyone. So, I'm waiting on Wreck. I'm waiting on DPW which has the bulk of it. So, I'm not the only one. You're not the only one. You're fine. You're fine. You have eight. You have to leave
a Yes, you're good. Absolutely. I'm still waiting on Shade Tree Commission. I noticed when I was sitting here this to like turn my computer on for this meeting, they sent me in all of their stuff. So, honestly, by the time I get Shade Tree, DPW, I don't have recreations yet. When I have all of
those, it's going to be well above and beyond. But everything I can enter right now is entered. We have until the 16th to get the final application in. So we already have 250 submitted. So once we get Stan has two he's working on and that's another 20 points. So So we're in
good shape moving along. 20. Wow. You mean for for two or for one? For two. So it's 10 and 10. The same thing that is under that. So, one of the actions I submitted was the sustainable land use pledge. I sent it to Paul today. So, basically the
sustainable land use pledge was passed by the council on the April 22nd meeting. We do it every time for the certification. It basically says that, you know, in all of our planning processes and programs, we're going to implement sustainability and resiliency and we're going to have a focus on
health and equity. And then to finalize getting the points for that, I have to send a memo to, you know, a group that they list out the environmental commission as one. So I send Paul the copy and I put copies in the middle of the table, but it's basically just a very generic resolution. We're listed
right with the third one down. Yes. Yep. You're in there. So you're good. That's what we You don't have to do anything. It was just that it's done. So we're sustainable Jersey. Yes. Moving along. have a lot of things in as soon as I get the bulk of things. It's just a matter of entering them into the
application and then we'll be all set. What final date? The first application date is May 16th and then after that the next one is July 15th. So they'll send us back comments and then we have until I think it's July, let me double check, but I'm
pretty sure it's July. uh as Sustainable Jersey gives us their feedback on June 15th, then we have till July 31st. Okay. So, we got enough time to get this. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we'll be we'll be good. I mean, right now, if we were to leave the application as is, we
would get bronze certified, but we want to get silver certified. So, so that's okay. Are there any committee reports? Maria, do you have any you want to mention anything about the uh I think we high school fair. Yeah. And
participated in the first Elizabeth school. Um they have a sustainability no the stain ste. Yeah. That that was on Thursday, right? Or Wednesday. Wednesday. And then um our commission was also at the green fair the high
school and Paul uh gave a little um he made a public announcement. Oh, I did. Yes. About um the increasing electricity beginning in July. July. Yeah. And um and that's that's complete the
report. But also we have um an art we created a piece of our Franklin Times the comm the education committee that we would like the com the commission to review uh and to send it on behalf of the committee of the commission
um for publication in re talking about um explaining the the residents increasing electricity and the options they have. If everyone here is okay with the article, I don't know if everyone is or
not, but if it is, you can send it to me and I can get it to Safy for Franklin Times. I texted her and asked her when the uh deadline is an article to all of you. Email it. Did everyone look at it or didn't or not yet? They haven't seen it. Okay. Only only. Okay. I would email
it then to everyone. And if we're once we're set with no more edits, I think it's fine the way it is. In a word document comments. Yes. if it's the supply side of the bill that's being increased and that
um I think we should put the website for our website in the article. Oh yes, but I think we have the www whatever plunk it right. Okay. So send it around then Maria with those changes. If no one has any comments after a day or two I'll
send it to Safy. I don't know when the deadline is she hasn't gotten back to me but she'll have it. So this but in a word document. Yes. a little bit if there's any graphics or anything like if you want to put that picture in of you guys with the table that would be nice. Is there any logos that
developed for us? Um it's not a specific Franklin logo but they do have like the partners in energy efficiency. We can put that in there in the photo would be something Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, we could do that. It would look pretty good. Okay, I like it. Okay, so send that to me, Maria. I'll add the logos and then
we'll get it to Safy and at least she'll she'll have it and then it'll run in the next issue and the the photo has the banner across it also. Yeah. Yes, it looks good. Thank you for doing that. I think it's a good article. Yeah, I think it's important. Okay.
Is there any other committee reports you want? Well, I just want to mention uh I and Robin as well the webinar from sustainable jersey on the status of
the SNG program. Uh so I was looking into uh our the website that is for our town and also the two videos short and long. Um but the viewership they are
nested on YouTube and YouTube gives you some stats and so the viewing was really abysmal right so I think that uh and I was about to ask like uh what was the original plan how the uh how do we drive people
there I have on the agenda next under old business A so I'll tell you about everything we've done since since the last Yeah, absolutely. I know what you're saying. I get what you're saying completely. We have like done a bunch of stuff to get the word out for it. Right.
So, this is kind of energy coming. Yeah. I think you have. Yeah. Nothing else from me. somebody off the back. I think in terms of um you know u communications committee if we end up coming up with an outreach event
we'll do some communications around that. Yes, absolutely. We see that's next on the agenda. Yep. Cool. Good. You have something else, Marian or? Yeah, but but probably we'll go to the hot topics. I don't know where we're That's where we are. I think we're up
there anyway. So go. Okay. So um I brought this idea uh it's not mine with in our school and I share it with Paul and Robin and they think it will be a good to try the town she would like to do a night day lights out at the municipal building and maybe the
residents. Um oh my god but you told me to get how to get the data and I forgot I went to work and I forgot about it. Um we did it in our school and the students uh collected the data of how much carbon emissions we save on the day
that we were all in life lights lives off. Oh okay. Okay. So 24/7 lights off 24 hours or how old were you? Well it was from 7 to 2:30 the operating hours. operating they're operating
hours. So because we have a lot of windows in our school, so we don't and we didn't need the lights, especially during the summer time that it gets so so hot inside the building. So we somewhere maybe we can do it during the summer, you know, maybe we have So you
thinking doing a municipal? I don't know. I I bring the idea what you think is best for the town. It could be have some verbiage around it because what I notice in our company, they put the shade on and they turn on the light
and every time I walk into the room, the first thing that I do, I open the shade. I was like, what? There's a light outside, right? Good question. Do you have any material around it, Maria, that you use to promote it? Yeah, let me I have to look it in my email. Why don't
you bring that to us? cuz if there's some kind of package already, it's so much easier to I like that idea though. And we can do it during operating hours in the summer, which is great. Yeah, I love it. I I did it and it was my my office was cooler.
Have we can maybe encourage the library to do it and the youth center to do it and other municipal buildings. They like the light coming from the side. They want to have it diffused from for one day. One day, right? I also think if you catch it like when the weather's really
nice and you have places like open up windows like inside the buildings would probably be better than they are if it was controlled. I was just in the Munich airport and it's amazing how much that air cuz it's almost brand new is almost completely
daylight. Now, I'm sure at night they turn the lights on, but so few lights during the day. They have designed it so that it they're really running it on daylight. It was Yeah. You know who else does that in in on a smaller scale is Duke Farms. Their
offices in the orientation center, the staff offices are day lit. So, they're designed with the light tubes and everything. And it's really it's you wouldn't know that it's it's light tubes. You would Yes. Yes. Very interesting. So, I think it's a good idea.
Okay. If you if there's Yeah. If there's like um branding around it or something that we can use, that's awesome. So, if you send that to me, we can talk about at the next meeting. I think we can figure out a good time to do it. Okay. Even September might be nice cuz it's kind of cooler, you know. Okay. Awesome.
Okay. Thank you. One thing I know you you mentioned, Robin, at the thing I spoke to the guy from that's working on the Y building. Yeah. And um if that could be a lead building, that would be a good thing. Um I keep bringing it up at every meeting. Well, I was part of
the US Green Building Council for a long time. The connection, we got the email. I'm on the capital campaign committee for the building. So, well, from an environmental standpoint, you know, yeah, I still have my manual. It's the yay thick lead zero. Now, it's up to
lead 5.0, but the basics are there. I I will keep pushing it. Yeah. Okay. We're still a ways off from hiring an architect, but Oh, yeah. Yeah. There are lead professionals that can consult and
find the right ways to do stuff, right? Okay. So, now we're off to old business. Residential energy efficiency campaign grant updates. Yes. So, um I met with Jane and Leanne. They are from sustainable Jersey and they kind of work
on this program in particular. So, we put together a letter from the mayor. They already have the language and everything. I got the mayor to sign it as part of our grant program. They mail the letter to residences and um any residences that are 14 units and less.
So, I got the mailing address from the tax assessor. I had to go through and it was a lot to go through, but I did it. Um, I went through that and sent them that, sent them the signed letter from the mayor. So, it's all approved. So, they are printing it and they're going to mail it. So, that as part of our
grant, they print it, they stuff the envelopes, they mail them. So, go out to It should go out by within the next like week or two. So, we should all get one at home. Absolutely. Yes. So, it's going out to over 10,000 residences. So, thank you foring that. It's going over It's going to go out to over like 10,000
households, you know, much more. Um, so yeah. So, that's exciting. Uh, so that letter is going to come out from the mayor. Um, also on Facebook, I don't know if anyone had a chance to see it, but on Facebook X and Instagram, we posted social media posts in English and
Spanish driving people to our website and basically saying, "Hey, there's, you know, um, options to lower your energy efficiency or to improve your energy efficiency, lower your energy costs." So, I've went back and verified. They were all posted. So, it was posted
across multiple. It's also on FTTV. So, just came up when I went to the water. There it was. If you scroll past that cards at the high school that had the QR code, got the QR code, we got the nightlight. So, we've done a ton of stuff. So, now that the letters gone out
and those posts have gone out and the posts are up once, but they'll get repeated next month. FTV, it'll just stay on. So, hopefully we should start seeing some more traffic to the website. Um the other thing is Sustainable Jersey actually updated all the websites. So
it's the same um URL but they changed it a little bit the format. So it's not a huge change but see this is the logo I was telling you about that they do. Um our video is here. It's the same video. And then um yeah it's similar. And then
you can click here to get started with your free assessment. Um and then you can also learn about you know what your free assessment might be. It gives you some links to partners that are available and there's multiple places you can click here to get your
assessment. They have an email address, contact info. So, it's pretty uh some of the most attractive from my viewpoint is and and you probably can click through is a list of rebates for various
appliances. Yes. So I'm I'm very interested in water water heater heat pump because that one will save you know three times the energy and and the big thing is is that they say you know now what they're really pushing is that it's
regardless of your income you're eligible for these programs regard some you know some or all regardless of your income and here you can start how many people are in your household. So you can click and when you do that you can do your income whatever you say you want that to be and then it'll take you I'm
just going to click this one just to and then so right away so if you have four people in your household and you make under $80,000 approximately it brings up here you're available you can get the comfort partners program and here's the button to get started. So if people come to this website they'll really be able
to customize what programs are available and right from a click of a button. So saying I'm available for comfort partners, it brings you here, brings you to the application, it brings you to everything you need basically. So it's a it's good. You know, I think this is also a good thing
to contact the library cuz the library has a big following. Absolutely. We have a newsletter. Maybe we can Absolutely. Let the libraryies newsletter drive people here because they they act as a community service. I have flyers at the
front desk. Okay. and flyers. Yep. Um the other thing is is an outreach event and that's something that Sustainable Jersey recommends that we do. until the sustainable jersey certification application is over. I cannot personally like be in but I think we should also
wait to see what happens with this energy bit because we talked about an energy summit and we can talk about community solar, we can talk about this PSEG thing and we can talk about community aggregation energy. Well, and also too once people get the letter too.
So yeah, give people time to get I can ask about the library for sure. I can do that tomorrow. Um, but we should start thinking about an outreach event and then we can have u if it's going to be a presentation about it uh if the library can allow us if they have Chromebooks so
people can sign up while we're talking or practice with this that and also sustainable Jersey connected me to a person they have like a liaison that works with them for these PSEG programs and that person apparently if they're available will come out to the
events because she comes out the computer. Yeah. If she comes out, they can we'll speak her and she can help them sign up right there on the computer. Yep. Yep. Actually, if somebody from the library, like one of the staff people can get familiarize themselves with that and have the the library be a resource if anybody's like,
"Oh, I can't figure it out." They can go to like the library. They can help. Yes. Yeah. They really do consider I was wondering if we're going to, you know, go through the library. What about the two senior centers here in Franklin? You have the Quailbrook Senior Center and
the Franklin. We can absolutely do that. Yep. I like it. Now, when we have a Yes, agree. We don't have to just be limited to one outreach event. We can do we can go to different places. We can make it simple at, you know, we can make it one big event. So, I think it's just something to start thinking about. So,
the letters just went out, the social media posting and the FTTV. You've seen it where I see people getting stuck, right? uh signing in and opening the account and not the regular put, right? For sure. Yeah. So then we hold an
outreach event and hopefully it gets more traction, but through that sustainable jersey grant which basically now minus using the helping, you know, using the lady as a resource from heg, we've really done I we got the banner, we got the giveaways, we got the
tablecloth, we've done the letter, the social media posting. So they were super that was really actually a super helpful grant. They have a very similar They have basically an identical grant program for commercial energy efficiency. So, we didn't apply for that last time because I said, "Let's finish
this one." But now we're basically after we do the outreach event, we're coming to the end of that. I was in Somerville the other day and I was um like going down Main Street there and I noticed that um Somerville must have participated in the commercial version
of this because all the businesses had these like flyers like stuck into their um or what do you call those like the door hangers. U so and it was for energy efficiency. So Somerville must be participating now in the commercial one. So, it is a something maybe we want to
look into for next time doing it commercialwide, but we'll finish this up first. So, slightly off topic, but a question for you. We know we have that big popup thing from PSG. We had our own popup that we had made for us when we
that lists all the things that environmental commission does. Where is that? It's lost. It's lost. We just bought it. I mean, it's less than I was going to say. Yeah. I don't Is it in your office? No, I don't have that. So, that went to an event somewhere.
Franklin Day. Maybe it got mixed in with some of the Franklin Day stuff. Was that the last time it was there? Could be. I wasn't at No, the one in Franklin Day. I That's the one I have. No, that's PSG. We didn't have that yet. Yes. Cuz that was back in September.
I don't know. I But I don't I haven't been in my office probably in about a year cuz I don't literally go to my office here anymore. You might have dumped it in your office. Probably not, but I'll check before I leave. I'll look somewhere. That's a very nice piece. Yeah, it's going to be there, but it's
It could have gotten mixed up in the other Franklin stuff. It might be at Safy's. I'll check with her, too, because she she keeps it. Okay. All right. I can do that. Okay. Got it. So, that's the update on
that. Okay. So, um, now we're down to the annual report, Earth Day presentation, April 22nd at FBI. Yes. Nice job. So, Stan, you did the, um, you did the update of our annual report at
the April 22nd council meeting. Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. I I I should have made the proclamation, but that's okay. Uh, no, but uh, thank you, um, Tara, because you you gave me the bullet points, and that was very helpful.
Um yeah, I um just uh read the bullet points. Um uh the council seemed to be very pleased. Um almost every council member uh acknowledged and made eye contact with me. Um it's always good.
No. Yeah. And um the shaitree um commission committee I think chair I don't remember the Steve he was also reporting. Oh, great. Um so and that was also very well
received and uh yeah um I received copy of the proclamation uh for the earth day which says that it will be annual and I was like I thought that we already had that
before but but then yes the yes and Frank you're right yeah you're right I hear you but you know the nice thing is is now I think if we make it annual we can maybe just like have a placeholder on that agenda that's near Earth Day to update on our EC every
year cuz getting five minutes to seven minutes on that agenda is difficult. So yeah so that that'll be if we can do that every year update them every year I think that's great and stick in whatever particular message that year we want. Yes. Well thank you Stan for doing that.
And does it mean that um the interpretation of that annuality is that we'll talk to the council or we'll have some other event? That's what I'm I'm hoping that that's what that means. So because it's an annual resolution, it's like it'll come up on like the you know
it'll come up before the clerk like every year like oh this was on last year. So at that time it'll be like do you want to go on again? And we can say oh yes we want to go on we want to update again. Okay. Um because what I noticed in this in prior years is that
always around Earth Day there is um bike activity here. Yeah. The race that's the food bank raise money that way. Food bank every year to Franklin and and to the Franklin right and it's
it's attracting uh folks for action of some sort but uh it has nothing to do with Earth Day. No, it's happening around Mother Earth Day. So, it feels like a competition. Okay. Well, they've been at it a long
time. We're not going to get them to change. Food bank. That's about as old a tradition in Franklin as you can almost get. I wonder though if maybe we can like somehow like join them. Join them, but in a weird not in a weird way and
like not add a dimension to it. Yes. Maybe we can like calculate based on how many miles they ride like tie that to greenhouse gas emissions or something like that and then we can like kind of like join another hotel. We'll be like and us and they're don't forget us here
too public gathering and so that's where you want and a lot of people from town come to that event. I like that. But I think we could work with Derek Derek Smith I think. Yeah, he's great. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. All right. All right. Well, some So now I think every year though updating them, you probably felt
Stan since you were the one doing it, it probably felt good to update the council and they probably didn't realize some of the things that we do. I think that's what I think like Ed knows cuz he's there, the mayor knows, but I don't know if everybody knows and we didn't have report prior like in January or December
to have one for ourselves, but they we post it on the website and we send but it's like good to you know say it out loud in person, you know, things to read. They don't get rotated. Okay, cool. Thank you, Stan. Okay, thank you. And we can rotate. You know, today it
was me. Uh, tomorrow it could be easy. Or Maria, you know, I think Maria, she's like sustainable. The sustainable land use pledge and the annual report and the Earth Day thing all come up together. It helps the
council think we're a really environmentally conscious town. And with some of these other resolutions or ordinance suggestions, we're already pre-programming them to be environmentally conscious. Yeah. Yeah. This was Robin. This was the
letter we got about the sustainable. We all have one copy. Very nice. Okay. I sent that today. Yeah. Cuz for really close. I've had it for a few days. That's why my packet does. Okay. So, uh, we've done
that. We've done that. Um, youth member, where are we on that? I don't have any update on that. So, the last update I had was I sent the memo with the suggested language to council member Patasnik and to the council in general. So, he said he was going to bring that
forth. Okay. But I haven't honestly talked to him since the last time. So, I'll I'll follow up with him again because speaking of Jenny, I mean, she has another job in I know. the last time. Yes, I know. I guess
trying to get that youth member. Yes, I know. Okay. All right. Okay. Um, skip the stuff voluntary program. That's Get the stuff. I actually did talk to Carl Hal and he said we can use the clean community's money. So, yes, he did. So,
I have to basically get a mockup of what we're looking for cuz we have printers on retainer that we have to use. Um, so once we get him a mockup of what we once I can get a quote from our vendor and then how many you think you
want, I get it to Carl and he can actually use the Korean community's money to order it. Okay. So, what we had before is this artwork that Montgomery had a youth member develop that we would create something says we're a proud for
a business owner to say we're a proud supporter of Skip the St. Skip the plastic. for more info. We would send them to a QR code. Now, I got to go find out what we want that information to be. And I'll see if I can get that from
Anjek. Perfect. And then maybe Anjek can help do. I don't know how to make a QR code. I can make a QR code. Okay. So, I can do that. I just It has to go to somewhere. It has to go maybe it goes to Anjax's site or to the Skip the Stuff site. The only other thing we need too though is you wanted to have the decals.
I know for the window cling or whatever, but you want to have something right to put in the restaurant like on the counter where people a laminated or a tent thing. I um I was in Jersey City uh a little while ago. My son plays basketball in Jersey City now and it
doesn't make sense to come home. So, I have no choice but to like go to eat at Wendy's. This is like a long story, but I can't park where he plays basketball because I'm not allowed to park there and I don't want to park anywhere else. So, I go to sit at Wendy's. So anyway, when I pulled up to the drive-through window, they had a decal. Didn't say
that. It wasn't that decal, but it basically said like um we only give, you know, straws, condiments, napkins if you ask. So if you want this, you It wasn't like a nice thing like that, but it basically said like if you want anything, you need to ask. And I noticed that cuz it was right on the window. It
drew my eye to it. So yeah. Did you test it out? Do they? I did. They did not give me a straw. They did not give me anything. I checked the bag and I didn't want ketchup. So, I was like, "Give me one ketchup." And they did. They literally said, "How many do you want?" You know, so they don't do it. They
really don't. Well, you were idling in line. Well, I Yes. I was pulling out getting my burger that I like didn't need and eating. Yes. So, you just said something. I saw something on I love watching this program on on 243 channel.
It's called Getting Green. I love it on Sunday mornings. Uh uh I'm I'm a monotheist. I don't go to church. Um it's, you know, it's getting green. I get all excited. This man, Alex Payne, and it's green initiatives and whatever.
And they were talking about food establishments no longer giving out those packets of condiments that they now have push, you know, whatever you go and you get what you need and then you leave. So you you mentioned those little packets. I haven't been to a Wendy's in
ages cuz I'm watching what I eat, but they always throw in a ton of stuff and go and then I put it in a drawer and a refriidge. I don't want to waste it. What do I do with it? And it's probably like 10 years old. But but that's what this is exactly. And basically just by putting that cling in the window, it'll
make a big difference. And now Carl Hal is saying we can use we get money from the D called clean communities money for like recycling and litter reduction. So he's saying this does fit the criteria. we can use that money to order it. So anyway, another plug for getting green
Sunday mornings 10 get old 243 I'm on Xfinity whatever. Thanks. So you'll get me the info then um Robin. Yeah. And then I'll I'll get it going. This way we can at least get it in and then we're going to have to figure out how to actually disperse the information and
get businesses. Well, we can talk about that. Let's get to disperse it though. Yeah, if I could just add to that. Um, last week I went to the Somerset diner and never fails. We order our meal without even ordering. They bring us
straws. Every single time they bring us straws and at the end of the meal when I went up to the cash register to pay, I brought the straws up to the cash register and I said, "You realize state law says they're not supposed to give us
straws unless we ask for them." Oh, okay. Was it the server or was it the bus person that did the same? I don't know. And it doesn't matter, but you're not supposed to do it. Good for you. So, I mean, I don't know um if they do it to everybody if this is something that
should be reported to the Somerset County Health Department for them to go. Tap House 2020 does it every single time. Rule here. Yeah, it's a hard and it's next to Wendy's, right? The diner is
not mys. That is my new favorite. Well, they've got Steve Fulip is amazing. Yes. But you're right though, that does happen. That happens at like every diner. They immediately give you the straws. Yeah. There is a violation. Like I don't think they can just reuse the ones that you don't use. So what I do is
I try to catch them before they even put it down and just like I don't need it. But you end up throwing it out. Yeah. But you can't just give it to another customer. It's like a violation. Yeah, but the skip the stuff also includes like not giving out even like salt and pepper packets, ketchup packets, cuz those things are just like extra forks
and plastic. Plastic plastic. All right. Okay. So, we'll work on that. The the curbside composting, I don't think the kids are getting insurance. Something's happened there. Well, they got to find a driver who's insurable. That's the
problem. Now, at the high school, there was a person there, a table for the kids that had a household composter. You saw that? It was a wheel. Yeah. And you put it in here and every every day you give it a turn and you keep throwing up and
by the end of whatever the time was, you have soil to put on the backyard. Now, it's it stands about yay high and we can do that in canal walk. That's why I'm still hoping these guys would come up with something. I went over when we
heard about this. I went over there to see and that other company I sent I sent it to Ellen because she was in I asked her remember I sent you that email from the other company that was a competitor of tourist the state. Yeah. But I called and left a
message. I couldn't the line wouldn't take any messages. I'll try again. Did you all know that New York now New York City? Oh, Ellen did some research. I was on the Anjack food waste
uh Zoom call and it's always good when there are towns that have done something that you want to do. So, Milbour has uh gotten involved with food waste composting and Maplewood and Princeton has a drop off program. Yeah, I've
talked to them. You know, maybe we should use them for a model. Talk to them. find out information and find out what works. Especially if a tourist if tourist is taking and nothing against them, but if they're taking this long to get it done and we have people in canal
walk who are willing to do a pilot. Yeah. I mean, they're not going to wait forever. Yeah. I'm going to try to drop it because some county remember I went to the county and said, "Can't we do something with our recycling?" Oh, no. We can't do that. There are commercial companies that do it. You should talk to Java. That was
one of the names. First thing I'm going to say is no. Cuz they have to then think and change their behavior. Come on. It's it's a behavioral change. When I did safety work at Ruters is changing people's behavior about safety. That took time. We got our our
accident which was above the national average. It took us several years. We got it to below the national average. Behavioral change takes time. Okay. Well, we're up to Speaking of taking time, what's the story with our tree
ordinance recommendations? I have not heard nothing. I still All I've heard actually I shouldn't say I've heard nothing. I talked to Steve Galuli not too long ago and that maintenance plan or whatever is still it's still not like complete yet. So was you know I don't
know that they need to hold up on that to make the changes we've proposed namely the definition of the tree and putting the the cap back in. We sent that memo when like a year ago. Then we resent it though. Then we It was a year ago. Then we re I think it might have
been longer. Then we resent it. So maybe we have to resend it. We said ask for a response. We've been very patient. Could we please response? Resend. When the B9 gets going, there'll be a ton of money going into the shade tree commission.
Um so the other item under old business that I have is dark skies. Okay. So, I've finally got a hold of someone. I said, "Can you please help me get an answer on how your model ordinance compares with the illuminating engineer
society standards, which is what Franklin Township adheres to?" And they said, "Oh, yes, that's a good question. I never heard back." So, now I'm reading this carefully again while I'm sitting here. They have something called dark sky recognized program for any
municipality seeking to have their ordinance recognized by Dark Sky International. A program is available for questions regarding this program. Contact the Dark Sky Lightning program manager. So, I'm going to go to this program manager and say, "Can you approve our ordinance and let them come
back and tell me what doesn't." That's a good way to do it. Yeah. Then we'll try to change it. So that's that's my next course of action. Yeah, I like it. And then in coordination with that, I did speak I don't know if I said this at the last meeting, the trails advisory committee. I spoke with them and they
are they would love to have us there at the Firefly Walk to talk about the dark skies. So if we're interested, they always hold it at John Clyde Memorial Native Grasslands Preserve. It starts at like 8:00 at night. Um and you know, once the fireflies come out, they do a
walk, but we can have July, right? It's usually the second Saturday of July. So, but they would love to have um someone from the EC there. Even if we don't have a table, it's just to walk and talk about fireflies and light pollution and so. Okay. Yeah, they're happy to have
have us. So, well, could I go back a topic? I I just had an idea or a question for the Skip the Stuff cuz I'm hearing cuz I don't go to restaurants anymore cuz I have to cook for myself my certain diet. But for the skip the stuff, is there a statewide restaurant
association that maybe we could contact and get them on the side of Skip the Stuff? We could work through the Chamber of Commerce, especially now that we have like a liaison position on that board. So that's probably where we would start off. There is a bill in Trenton for
this. It just hasn't gone anywhere yet. But that's how it's going to get to the State Restaurant Association. They're not going to listen to Franklin, but the Franklin Chamber hopefully will. I think now's a good time to try it though, too, especially with the cost of food and everything going up. If they can save money, those ketchup packets, I don't
know how much they cost, but it's such a weight. They would listen to Franklin if the Somerset County Health Department went to certain restaurants and they ordered and they were received and they got fined.
Then they would remember very quickly. You know what's sad though? One thing I was just thinking when you when you reported it right away it was like was it the server or the bus boy? Like they're going to take it out on of course. I mean so and you're not going to say oh it was this server. Hey you. It was you. Not at all. And that's so
it's sad cuz it's like it's not their it's real. They need to be educated the restaurant's responsibility. They're playing it off like it was one person. I go to the Somerset diner frequently. They always give me a straw. Like they're not training their employees not to do it. one lone waiter that's and they're not
inspecting. You have to do follow-up inspections. If you want behavioral change, you got to reinforce it. Now, there's a new restaurant just opened up off on Randolph. It's a bagel place, but they were full menu with sandwiches and that kind of stuff. I went there for the first time lunchtime and I had a
sandwich and they came three packets of ketchup which I didn't even open because I didn't need ketchup in that throw in the garbage. They probably throw in the garbage. What would happen if you took out your phone and took a picture a picture of the packets and maybe you know part of the restaurant and they'll go what are you doing? I'm going you
just violated you know there is no law. There is no law. So we need that. Do you know the bill number? You can look it up. I don't my head but and I'm trying to get a meeting with Egan Jr. I know Carmen who answers the phone and I'm working on her to get
an actual face toface meeting with Egan. Oh awesome. cuz I know my other representatives Egan just doesn't you know what are you doing? I may end up going into New Brunswick and camping out at at the office. I should be on Joe Danielson, but I
don't want that to happen. You know, I like Joe. I get along. I know Jeff, you know, I know Wayne, you know, uh Danielson is is available. Okay. I like him. I like topic which I forgot to hold on. Oh, what what what
you didn't report on? So, so it is u admittedly uh limb stuff. So, it didn't uh didn't caught me before about deers in our town. What happens when they die?
Deer? Yes. Because uh uh someone has to remove the remains. They get hit by a car, you mean? So, what happened? It actually it impacted my property because there was a and actually it was two weeks ago when we
had meeting on that day. Uh a deer that was hit was continuing to flock on three limbs. Um my wife was at home doing something on the front yard and she has seen the deer eye contact and
police officer was following that deer. Oh, he asked my wife to go inside and there were two shotguns. Yeah, he killed her. And so she then asked, "So what uh what's next?" And he said that he reported removal. Yes. He moved the deer
to the curb. Okay, that was two weeks ago. On f and and on Friday, I started calling like uh first house department. They said, "No, no, you have to call your police." I called police. left message, nothing. Then on Saturday, I
went physically and today is 2 weeks and I want to show you how it's been there for 2 weeks. Yes, it's being eaten by other It's gone. It's bones after 2 weeks. Oh
jeez. supposed that's nature that's what they want and everything like you know how it was natural and all the
Yeahard the it's interesting you say that cuz someone else came to one of our open space committees and asked that same question like what happens so the police even if they even if they don't have to deal with it but they have to just mark it it's like it has to be marked And then we contract with a
company or the police and they're supposed to come out within I think do you remember Arie? Cuz it was at an open space meeting. I think it's within 2 or 3 days they're supposed to come out. I really don't remember but if it's not a local is it the same is it the same contractor for whether it's a local road, a state road or a county road. I
think if it's just in Franklin Township and I thought they were supposed to come out within 2 or 3 days in North Brunswick, whoever they are, they come out. You drive down 27, it's clear as a bell. No deer on the North Brunswick side. They're all on the Franklin side. And you know the deer aren't that smart.
Right. I wonder where we stand. That's the worst. Actually, I thought the state was responsible for deer carcasses on Route 27. Well, that's terri. She was just saying anything in Franklin. I thought it was anyone any in Franklin that I
think, but I'm not 100% sure on that. So, let me check. But I I saw it. My neighbor in North Brunswick in North Brunswick had their people come out and remove it from her front yard and it was gone the same day. Wow. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
So, so the that police officer whom I left message on Friday of the week, he called me on Monday, which is a last Monday, and he apologized and he said he'll make another additional phone call. I kind of
threw towel, but uh you know, well, now what's to pick up at this point? It's like to pick up the bones. Okay. Yeah. But um my cat's kids are really hungry. No, but if we knew it and we would maybe
act we have a cat. Okay. And I'm I'm not I'm not afraid of of you know I will maybe cut some meat and I'll leave it for my cat at least. But but they told us it will be removed. So it's like okay we don't touch it. But
then B started take that picture and send it to Born Locker and say this is after two weeks when the police said it will be removed. So the thing is if the Dunship is paying some contractor to do it. Yeah, they should be doing it. They should just dissolve the the contract
and say you are not following and save money because that's the question is did the contractor receive notification about it? But you got to speak up and inform somebody. So they police officer who shot it, he said yes, he uh he make
the request, right? And then when I followed up with police, they said yeah, we we asked then we heard that they they're not so responsive. There is nothing we can do. So ask the police who did they talk to you go bother them. You go to Horn Locker and say get a different contractor. Yeah, I'll go to
War Locker. I have the mayor. I have a video and the mayor the worms and you have Yeah, you have pictures you know. Uh I send you the branding. I email you the branding. Okay. Oh, thank you Maria. Thank you. I'll look at it.
You um save the most stuff. So, this is my last meeting likely until I leave for a few months. Um I have I have some of the signs. I don't know if you want to get them out at like tableabling events, but I have them in my car if anybody wants to take them for now. If not, we can keep them in our house and give them
out for leave the leaves. And then I also have um some of like the tri leftover trifolds if you just want for material. I think it'd be great for Franklin Day to have that. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. Um I could put it in my car for now and then Yeah. Okay, that
works. Just check your office for that. I will. I will. Yeah. Such a nice thing and it's Yeah, for sure. I like those signs. My sign is still up. I'm surprised. Um, the other thing is that article I wrote for volunteer solicitation. I realized I was supposed
to send that out and or send that to Bill and I didn't. If I send it out now, is it overlapping with anything? No, it's perfect. No, now's a good time. Yeah, Bill. He'll like figure out if you know Jenny's going to send you an article for your review. Yeah. Okay.
Thank you. Thank you for your work. Great work. Where are you going? Acadia. Oh, that's good. Yeah. for five months and then I'll be back in glory for you. Yeah. Five months back relaxed. Yeah.
Yeah. I think so. I'm going to try to weasle my way into some position for November, December cuz I know nonprofits and they have like, you know, their budget. They need money to burn could work for them. But thank you for your help, Jenny. You've been a huge help. And your mom, too. And your mom. So
moved. Did we want to have public? Second. Do you see the public the press? We have a motion and a second. Our free press is here. We