##VIDEO ID:2lUM0ZJplFM## this is November the 7th 2024 and we prepared to St a Shater commission meeting and first we'll start with the role chairperson colon is here uh member Gordon he's here he here he here on here here here member gordet here member Cur Jack said he might not konheim yeah alate Lutz yes I'm here alate Armstrong is not here yet or okay so therefore we have a forum and I would say that this note the notice requirements of the open public meeting mod for this meeting have been satisfied Cy of the annual notice was sent to the Asbury Park Press and the coast poed in town hall and filed in the office of the Township Clerk on June 28 2024 this meeting will be recorded and available on moan Township's YouTube channel okay so we usually start with the uh from the previous meeting has everyone had a chance to review the minutes yes are there any comments no comments on anyone move we ac to accept second and uh all in favor raise your hand or some other thing you yes I okay so we the proove the me is Mr Brooks coming tonight no no he's not coming um not sure it's that he'll be coming that much more things he's told me but uh if he had anything specific I think he might have PED in or something like that okay so right now at least as far as the tree stuff in general there's nothing new you know that he friendly of that's uh with uh address so uh that said uh the second item on the agenda is the Sher commission planning committee so if you would please tell us what your committee have you committing we have been committee uh we've met as you all know once a month since June it's the first uh uh first meeting uh and uh Ken and I are both on on the committee uh as well as Julia simonte and Ang backi that planning environmental commission and we also have containing from dep Department Public Works uh on the committee as well and Patrick Sullivan from the schools so the goal is me just quick recap you all was to try to figure out a way to plan to create help create plan going forward for one year 5 year 10 years how to be proactive of how do we you know make Ocean Township Greener uh have more trees and you know do better do a good job with trees in the township so the things that we realized you know we first started the committee was how much we didn't know that we needed tree canopy we needed a n tree uh that we needed to have better Community engagement uh and uh to that so the things how that's developed and we wanted to be coordinated with the schools so how this is all been shaking out which is very exciting is that we have been working with the schools that first they okayed us to uh do a create a survey we created a drafted a survey and the the superintendent of school said that we could use their software services to get the survey out to all the residents uh but then we met with the teachers as well the two teachers Dian uh Brandon and Megan Edson in the middle school and we have here tonight Megan I'm sorry we have here tonight Bella and Emma who are in Miss edson's class they observing tonight uh and the teachers were very excited about how what we're doing could work in their classroom and how they could help so the uh Miss Edson class is going to be helping uh create and distribute and do PSAs for the survey so they're working on that with the woman in our committee angel Mai who's who's been working on the survey so they'll do all of that when they're done finished with that bring it to sh Tre commission they'll present it here and they'll also uh want to present it probably to the council at the workshop for the council the student engagement is fantastic and we want to show the work we're doing so that's the survey piece and that's going to be an opportunity to really get information from um everyone in the township including uh the overburdened communities and so this is the subjective information and engagement piece we want to start with this is the you know do you do you have trees can you see trees outside your window how many trees you know can you see three trees what you know do you have flooding in your area um you know do you have trouble do your roads close do you have trouble the school buses have trouble trying to get some of this information because trees and flooding are connected that impact people's lives the other piece of this sure but I looked at the survey mostly addresses uh you know traffic on the streets and so on and so forth Tre for flooding and so on and so forth but we I know for a fact that we did our own planting that has become a Tre a hazard so people should address problems that trees are actually Crossing on the streets still okay that's a that's a potential uh question and I'll bring that back to uh Andel and our problem I think there's also a a section a question in right now in the survey that does say if you know do you know who to call if there's a problem with a tree in your community you know and and gives that information as well so there is that piece but I'll make sure it's clear that we can get that information as well uh the other piece if I may add we even though the survey is anonymous we try to associate it with different districts so that when it's returned we at least know it's the or yeah or the apartments or yeah exactly there are three three districts you cre created based on the map of the Town that's going we're going to be using the voting we're going to be using the voting districts because they're more specific than the garbage districts and they're already mapped out and they're pretty much some of those are kind of weird but they align very well with the DS overb Community Maps you look at the maps and you overlay them they align so it's okay will get we'll be able to see so people will just be able to pick a color pick a number so we'll know what area they live in so that was where we were with that so um I will bring back to missed she go all right I'll bring back make sure that that's clear um the other piece is tree canopy and uh uh Mrs brandan uh has there's the schools have access to G software and she wants to work with that with her students and so we're going to uh try to do a student tree canopy GIS and also see if there's flooding in that software as well so they're going to be exploring that with Julia suron who you know having the cmon involved in this is a good thing she certainly knows her way around mapping and stuff so um so they're going to be looking at that and the great thing and so that's more of the objective data the great thing about getting this initial information with the students help it's it builds Community engagement it helps everybody in community know that we're doing this it also gives the data we need to Grants so we can get a grant maybe to do a professional you know tree County survey I mean we could use shap tree funds to do that if we wanted to I suppose but it's nice you don't have to use your own money so grants a lot of Grants these days in our in our in this in this you know um these days are really uh Grant granter really prefer to give grants that uh help overburden communities especially so having this information data will help us secure grants in the future for all kinds of things for tree canopy perhaps for planting projects for all kinds of stuff so that's the stage that's involving the students right now um and uh I think it's very exciting I think Patrick Sullivan who's our Lea on he head the science for all the schoolsan township is also going to be talking high schoolers and uh maybe in the statistics maybe there's a mathematical possibility um the math department will be looking at the data that comes in from the surveys so this is just great to have a a Workforce that can do this and uh you know um and get us the results and visibility that this they need so it's a it's a really I'm really pleased that with my committee they've been working really hard and that we've gotten this far with the with this so that's the Outreach piece and try how to gather information killing two person on St gathering information and doing engagement at the same time it's also a nice way for the students to get to learn more about the community yeah abely and you know and trees and you what we do and in government how to work in government slowly um the other piece of this you know working with uh knowing the things we don't know is we do know a lot about the financials of the sh Tre fund so I got a list here's your copy I have shade tree this is spending shade tree fund spending for the last three years I have hard copies I don't have a digital copy this is the last years uh and I'm gonna uh I'm I've asked to have this also since they to have this uh put together in a way that shows different Columns of income tree removal tree maintenance tree planting I mean there's just another way to parse out this information so it's easier to read and understand it's useful that way too because the the community forestry report you put those separate numbers yes so we're gonna I'm costs that go go into that that AR strictly from the sh this is only the sh Tre yeah and now you'll see there are things in here that were're kind of surprising to meital also well it's it's and we paid for came out this maintenance but um so was just it's just good I think it's important for us to have these numbers part of our fact finding gathering information we don't know and I also want the uh new information also show what the incomes were sh fund and what the projected incomes are do we have any big developer uh pieces that are coming still so you know what kind of money are we still owed sh fund I don't know what those cont so to try to get this should be a way of connecting planning board where they make those agreements about about the monies for trees to find it in to connect it well yeah we should be able to follow up and you're see you're seeing deposits here you're seeing pluses coming in no but they may not be deposits yet but they're committments right we need to know that yeah the we need to have have it spelled out I'm sure when you know when the finance guy looks at this it's clear as Crystal to him but you know for the rest of us I have to really I think they're talking about increasing the fee from 350 which was to 750 make a difference I mean the difference that's already in the ordinance not in the inun Govern it's only in your ordinance it was passed which the the ordinance sets fees if they're still charging 350 it's wrong no no no I'm not talking about people's home homeowners stuff I'm talking about commercial okay that's where say they take that's where they take down a lot of trees and hopefully they're getting that up because I try been trying so we'll see how it works out but I pointed out to Dave one day I used the wrong number I said for every thousand trees that we lose $400,000 I should have said for every 2500 trees we was a million dollars the the other thing I just want you all to note in this is there's there's a lot of talking with Public Works about this um a lot of this tree removal is emergency tree REM these are things that had to come down because they were falling down you know and and most of this is that and uh and some and the capital expenses there's very little actual plant there's AR over here there's stuff that went on behind and AR and not sh so I'm not sure that me for which they're actually too close to planted course us but that's right but but it does say the St commission responsible for planting you know trees and I I do Shrubbery I Shrubbery or bushes but you know and maintenance thereof so it's but the the point is we have said you know we this is part shows me the need to really have a plan that says we need to plant X you know x amount or x value of trees over this period of time and to figure out where my my future plan is to meet with um the head of the new head of sewage Authority the executive direct sewage Authority who is very informed about flooding in town and and storm water and flooding so that's just filling in for our own information uh and kind of mapping ideas where where we have issues with flooding and sort of getting more of an understanding of the engineering pieces it's so related so that's a conversation that's coming up as well so that's where we are and I welcome any questions I think that uh what we're going to do for trees and not you know we plant them and everything else we we need to plan we need to figure out where and when and so on and so forth and uh and we also have to have and it's not clear where the budget is going to come from I'm trying to talk about this also but we learned we did it planting on Al and P and a few of the other side streets in there right go and but right that's the problem they they grew and now they're they weren't maintained now they're a hazard so what I'm saying is so part of anything we do planed we need to make sure we've got funding you know the first few years they just hanging out but after that we've got to start triming them up and and making sure that we keep the cost down for overall for maintenance and so on so part of the other problem of course is that a lot of places we like to plant trees you know um the the streets the way they're designed now can't support trees on Town problem so we've got to come up with a plan for that I do know for a fact that in Freehold Township um if you you apply for a tree and they they plant it on your property and then they say okay you got you I don't know if you sign up or what but then you take care of it and uh I tried I asked the shade tree guy he he didn't talk about whether they have easements or any of that sort of stuff either so I'm not sure what they're engagement so what the attorney so step one right is to have a tree canopy done and have an idea of where we need trees where there is a 30% coverage which we really know improves you know quality of life for everyone in the township um and that's step one to figure out where and then when we see where we have a shortage of trees then we can help develop strategies about the specifics of where and how and address questions such as does the township do we talk about does the township pay for trees on private land or do we talk with landlords do we bring landlords of development in and talk to them about the importance of this and perhaps you know get them involved in a Civic engagement project with us where we say okay you put them you put them in we maintain them or you know you pay for the trees we'll put them in or you know we'll do a ribbon cutting ceremony there's all kinds of ways that that that you know landowner engagement is a different kind of Outreach but I think could be very valuable as well and but you know and that you know I think that's a possibility as well we don't I I love not having to take things out of the sh Tre fund if we don't have to so um and I and I do think there will be places where we'll see that there isn't perhaps public space physically to put a tree but there are trees needed so I think uh that's when we bring people who do on that land to the table and talk to are you interested we see this as a problem you want to help out and uh let them you know let them uh get their picture you know at you know good service recommendation and be good citizens and engage with them so and not everyone probably will want to but there are probably those who good so that's another possibility too but step one let's see where we need them let's get the so that's all I got has any thoughts it's okay if you speak up you know okay try not to slurp too loudly in a couple places I see here we're paying for trees to be taken off of uh R property proper Parks and Recreation property would think the rec department would have they you've got to have a maintenance budget it's public land the sh Tre commission is unless it's the schools school is a different no the schools technically are not Township is except that when we did the survey we got them to sign up so that we let them surveyed at least and so on and so forth and um but the golf course is you know Jo player Park all the parks are in so on okay so okay so now we have the um Colonial terrrace project where we were hoping to get some trees along what amounts to rout 35 that area so that that park there could be more protected okay we've gone over there several times and there's also a bunch of some of the K on cherry trees there are in uh are in bad shape okay so bill and it's also o a bunch of things that are in the way so to speak there's some black Locus there that are in pretty bad shape and Bill did uh put out a proposal uh which I'm going to stare with Dave and ask him to turn Public Works on okay I think told me that within reason with the new uh Capital expenditures we've got that those black Locus could be taken down you know internally you and wants to put this stuff called garon 4 on the stumps which it's not so much to rot the stump out I know that uh when you cut down a black locust okay it starts to sucker up all over the place okay and I saw that actually at the synagogue that I go to I took down a tree and and there were you know so um although I did find it round up since I were pretty good on it so we'll see how I don't know how many more are going to keep coming up okay but uh well if I recall Bill talked about this at the last meeting has anything more been done right he he talked about it okay I'm not sure what's been done um this course there's two aspects of this project okay so that's aspect of I'm going to get I'm send daa thing saying okay this is what the project is let's get Public Works energized and so on and so forth okay so the idea this includes as part of this also taking out the uh the quanon that are bad okay and those obviously don't need the [Music] G possibly the best thing to do if you can if you want to replace a tree in the same location the best thing to really do is get some equipment there and take out this dig out the stu okay because then you can plant it I had at my house several years ago I had an uh Redwood was maybe 60 70t t starting to mess up my driveway and it turns out the Jee Armstrong came and you know took it out took it out right but to get the root I have my power line going under and everything else so I actually had some guys hand dig this giganto stuff that uh Jean came and got independently you know and that and basically that was as costly as taking the rest of the tree down you just to get that out was Che St but I knew if I didn't do that we ground it I'm going to have this place right next to the driveway Prime piece of real EST estate totally useless practic so doing that s stuff's good also for what it's worth the U SPID lanon fly's favorite plant okay as usual anyway that one's also another one that if you cut it down it comes up better you know and you got to same thing with those bunch of those so you're you have a dig you a digal version of plan no well I have this in a PDF okay so you can send the PDF Dave and and see what they I'm do so I'm going do that okay okay and the second thing I'm going to do to him I'm just can't get caught up because I'm still working on the grant believe it or not because we have we haven't gotten our money back yet because we have to file a bunch of stuff okay so get get pretty close I think get to that point and um so the other one I want to send him relates to the sh Tre commission ordinance that we talked about up and so on and so forth so those two things are things that I want to get uh in day hands and I had a nice note two days ago that said I was going to do it yesterday and I saw it again today and course not it tomorrow but soon I'll get those and this one you know so this one could be going to now as far as the other one is somewh there was a list I couldn't find before we came over was a little bit late I was looking for there were some nominal lists or plants discussed to be planted in addition to the Quan cherries at Colonial Terror like newway Maples and you R greens and stuff that were going to go closer to uh screening out uh traffic you know going by on the circle and 335 or even Asbury Avenue I suppose it's what to say what that piece of rway classifies as but yeah well yeah except that rury Avenue continues on all the way down rout 66 and keeps going so I'm not sure just saying so whatever it is whatever it is that's the place we got so I'm not sure who's got that or anything but I think that also is something that they should start you know going forward with getting bids and so I saw this thing from last week right whoever joined us at last month's meeting they were talking about asking for list of tree nurseries to ask for pricing and so and so forth but I think that that shouldn't be on the colonial terrorist Association to do any of that stuff in anyway you know so but that means we do have to get you know off ground zero and start moving so that's where that stuff stays okay so um okay anything anything else anyone have any other thoughts on colon or any other specific things that we' either discussed in the past or you want to bring up now okay okay so next thing on the agenda is treee keeper okay so you know we've got treee keeper we've got training and so on same people have accounts I got to admit myself I have have not gone back into there I even got some correspondents from them talking about some other treekeeper stuff that they changed or added or stuff that I I didn't do anything about okay and I also told Kelly Terry I don't know when that was that I would send out a thing to the all the council people which was also on my list of things that I didn't get to this week where I would give them access to treee keeper with the kind of uh password access that you have okay and uh go forward from that that's part A with Tre keeper okay I did find the uh the email that has the training video which goes about three hours and 40 minutes you know and um did kind of drag along if I remember correctly the 3 hours and 40 minutes did not feel like 3 hours and 40 minutes but know which way you mean by that well it didn't seem like 10 minutes I could tell you that so anyway wasn't the excited that really built up but anyway so uh so we've got that sort of stuff okay then uh treekeeper itself um we haven't done this yet and we should now this this the very lowest level of treekeeper access is just to go onto the website and look at what the trees are by name that's all the real information you get on the trees to start with is the name the type of tree it is where they are however there is is also a lot of other stuff on there that you can look at about you know that relate to trees and so on and so forth that's still Public Access type stuff so we want to get that at least get start getting that put once I get my get more into what I've got what we actually got we want to get that on the town's website and people can go there and look at what trees are where okay now I know we've been taken down some trees a few of which must have been On the Hazardous tree list that was in tree keep I'm assuming have spill but I'm assuming that at least one of them had a be which means we should have been modifying the inventory that's in treer to take that treat I don't think bill has been on tree keeper when we asked him last month about this he basically said no I've been driving around doing my own inventory so I'm not saying I'm not saying he specifically I mean the he can identify the trees that were under survey I think you did see that did see that at the beginning and go you know and someone one of us should be able to go and remove the the problem with multiple inventories is they get out of sink awfully quickly and I think it should be part of Bill's responsibility to go in and modify treekeeper um and make sure that there's just one database or two it's it should be his responsibility to keep them in safe yeah that would be my I mean I'm all for full transparency the public being to see see all the different layers of treekeeper it's public information and all of us can see it but I for instance would not want access to change anything because we accidentally mess it up you just want one person or one group of people do I think that there only three I think right now is if I recall there's only three levels okay one level is just look at the trees the next level is where you can actually change the data a bit and the third level is where you can give people say there's second level of access and stuff like that I don't think there's one that enables people to look at the data but I can find that out now they said there was some changes keep TR keeper changes I have to find out what the business is okay so I'm just make a little just talk to them I'll call the guys need to be made secure yeah and and we need to have somebody who's staff you know a public work surgery person whoever in charge of maintaining coordinating it with public works right well the people I'm going to give back the next you know thing to when I said the council that's going be Steve you know and anyone else you can suggest you know to top of your head um you know and he may want to give it to a few of his people too I'll talk to him you know and maybe even uh to whatever level to uh the township say the planner and the town engineer and people like that possibly that the answer yeah I think it should be a very very very very small group that actually is responsible for going in and changing data updating data I think that should be like one or two people and probably out of Public Works or wherever the tree people are right that's where I think we may have I'm not sure if there's a disconnect between the levels and who has access to different levels but it could be it could be it could be only the third level which right now I have you know and I'm not sure who else actually has well what level right now doesn't matter we have someone some individual has to be appointed and responsible and then we'll worry about which level saying all I have to find I'm going to talk to them I'm going to talk to them about I'll give them a call probably next week no the the um Davey people about tree keeper and but you said you're going to need to access and make talk to State yeah well wonder who else he might want to have that can go at things aside from him be to yeah right right and seems like you need there's no mechanism in place and this is very similar to the maintenance management software packages that run in some of the plants and so in theory that package could issue the a work order to take down this specific tree and it has to go out and and come back and because if you don't have a c obviously there's no Circle there there's no way to close it and there's no person who feels so responsible for it either I yeah well it's the planner I was had the issue when I had to collect them and I also could go and change the data but that's okay so then we have the uh let's do that I don't know if I'm not sure if I gave Dave accessing and you have a lot on your list I mean we're here you can delegate too any ofre yeah okay do all okay okay so okay so anything anyone else have any questions on TR Keeper at all I do have a question and I wanted to raise if you have a second fill point but the report that Dave's produced about having um access to that it is it is uh you know it is a public publicly viewable report um so I think it should be access to that on the website so people can see what that they they wrote that plan and I think that would be a good thing for people to able to it turns out when I was talking to the D I I kind of made one SC they called it a community forestry management report or something like that right or Community forestry plan not management plan okay but I of course my wisdom went we changed that I was you had a lot of the stuff that should be in with the the new plans that they're talking about right right so but that wasn't quite correct in that does it does also other things it doesn't have that we want in our plan such as the original committed forer management plans that we got produced you know talks more about the town and the shape of the town and makeup of the town all Town town to stuff okay so that stuff uh we need to come up with something uh that so we're probably not sure call it a commun for management plan anymore I may have to reedit it or something you could just call it the Davies report you can just call it the inventory report itself on the front page now so I have to right but you can change that and it's just just just saying just saying nor glitcher it's yeah just just yeah change the just saying so so that that I think we can get and then can we get it on the website so people can see the results of the inventory just to they can see what D had to say we were G to discuss this tonight yeah there's a lot of data there's a lot of like percentage data of things I mean this that the next thing all that's stuff is there's nomal budget data in there and I'm not sure whether the township itself and the council you know has allocated any of that stuff for for other than take it because historically when they needed something they took it out of the shry as opposed to having an exual 5year plan on how much we expect to spend on various things and so on so forth which is laid out to some extent in that so so long as what they've written is accurate this and this my understanding of the report they wrote was that this was what they assumed this would CA to do this to do most of those costs they picked were like some of their costs and then um you know Bill wasn't sure what you know may that was a p or or not whatever it's not clear you know and I'd asked Jean to take a look at it which I don't think you know came up with any numbers to me to say what you know be here like they maybe say it takes this kind of tree would cost $6,000 to take out and the anwers would two or three I don't but my point is that it doesn't matter I mean this was the result of what a grant you know Municipal Grant created and this is the product of I'm not arguing I'm not arguing that I'm just I'm just pointing out the utility of some of those numbers right but I think I think the public should have access to it and that's when you have a conversation with somebody and say you know what this is this doesn't look right we argue with this we you know you have a conversation it's just it is what it is come to meeting since we have something at the meeting let's not forget that we have public to hear from hello that's true I my only comment about you have any question can I ask my name is Carol Doyle and I'm from The Ocean counil Club I live in and I was working on the project with a gr of people who been restoring the library wens made a comment earlier is there a list of the trees that are available to the Colonial terce folks are you or there it's not like we have it's not like we have a list of trees that are available as much as that uh there was a proposed list of trees that might be used you know for what they want to do okay and then once the master plan so to speak is that like but what Dave told me is like we have a project we identify the project what we want do thetically you can look at this it's my copy thank you I'll just take ack okay because you mentioned Norway that was just coming out but that's not a native uh plant to the United States East Coast or New Jersey and I know you guys have well actually reason fast growing and you blah blah right because there's only a few plants that we would probably just use the used in red Cedars or something like that yeah thank do you mind if I take a picture just so we have it I yeah thank you that was my only comment than problem so so my understanding that once you change the title on the get the title either the way you're comfortable with it on the Dave's report that that then can be a link to that can then be put on P I just want to go I want to look at it again but I suspect that if if there isn't something we we don't want but I don't see the reason why we can't but then again there's always you know I can't say yeah if there's nothing in there that I would I would hold back but I can't say there something I don't think we can hold anything back on that it's a public it's a public document I think under the open records act it's a public document I think changing the name on the front of that that was something you did plac but that but what D's presented to us to me that's a public document and that's and under the public records act that should be on it whether you stand behind it or agree with everything on it that's not the point I mean that's what you're say but I would I would move that we put this I mean I I want you know to be on the record saying I think this should be on the website right I'm not saying it isn't but okay maybe I believe one of your tasks once I tidy it up all right so you tidy it up and I'll I'll get it to whoever who handles the website don't who does the website stuff what do you to put something on the shave tray to put a link create a link to put the um Davis Resource Group report on the website you can send that to me oh that's I don't to write that down I can remember that all right okay so once you clean it up and get it to get to do you need this this is the trees did you want to attach this these are the trees that b Brooks had lastek this okay yeah can add that to must have eaten wait let me take a picture before I give it to you why don't we just make some copies before we run out of that okay that works maybe I can do that y the other meeting or something okay cool okay so let me see hear that okay so um so Community um Outreach is yeah pretty much covered that in the SCH thing we've already talked about y all good so girls why don't you tell us a little bit about what we're actually doing over there with the set in these days um so we're learning about like all the ution and currently we're raising oysters for the reclaim the bay program so we're raising them in our classroom until January I believe and then we're releasing should they be clams if it's a reclam they so they have like different types of like clams and oysters but that's good oysters are much better filters yeah PL and have you been also starting as your class also studying um sounds Urban heat islands like that we are doing Urban heat Islands that's something we're looking more into for the project we're doing which we decided to do but like we did a little like we took one day to learn about it and then we kind of moved on from it there are actually two islands in the shb river that are part just one the disappeared one natural no one natural Island the Sledge Island it's all Dred but they been studying the heat island of what happens when have I'm just talking in general oh okay keep up right very good okay so anything else uh Mo you have anything to add about anything and actually we have some other people attending the if they have any and Jack looks like he's here hi Jack Jack's here welcome who else do we have up so who in so Mo so anyway see so I see online um on go to meeting there are several people who have joined us hi okay if you want to identify yourself and this if you got any comments we'll be glad to hear them um my name's Molly Walker and I um live in Rolling Meadows and um I'm on the board uh and we're having trouble with our trees so I thought I'd come and listen and um see what I could learn welcome Mom okay what what kind of troubles are you talking about well they're just getting it that's um Community is about 20 years old they the shade trees are 20 years um there's never really been a a tree maintenance program it's mostly if they die then take them out and it's a little confusing of uh taking taking a tree out and and replacing every tree any tree that comes out dies or needs to be taken out to replace it and what to replace it with so I'm trying to learn more I was been doing the taking the tree ordinance uh Workshop listening to that I still have to do the third one um the shade tree um or no it's a tree ordinance Workshop that were held this spring so um just concerned we have a wet lens and it was really you know wet last uh spring and PE uh residents were concerned that you know the trees were going to die in the wetlands because it held the water for so long but that was just sort of the backup because we'd had an unusual amount of rain we have giant suum trees that have been there for years apparently right so lot of trees can take it quite wet like sweet guns can take it pretty wet and red Maples can take pretty well the problem is that my guess is you'll lose more trees to the drought than you're going to lose to any of the rain that came because rain it just doesn't rain anymore I think we're GNA be the new Arizona yeah so this is Faith tidle B hith hi Molly hi Faith hi I just wanted to say that the uh the land behind your development belongs to New Jersey the natural lands trust and um there you know like that goes up to the whale pump Brook there's right I know that our the the um Wetlands that we had that was filled um couldn't drain because uh down deal lakeer was fallen and we drained down to D lake or well Pond no you you drain down to tanassi Lake Lake in okay yeah where we work at Ross Lake that's part of the Watershed okay and so um the state purchased that land because it's the farthest North Stand of white cedars in New Jersey and when they were putting in Route 18 the um state made them preserve that and you know those ponds those five ponds that are on the other side of Route 18 that also belongs to New Jersey Land Trust okay yeah well we knew that there were some uh depart do um land there's this the middle school behind one section and then next to that is the do and that goes up to Route 18 okay something like that so yeah and you know now so just to give the Watershed a plug we're trying to make a green Greenway that goes all the way from Long Branch and so Ocean Township has a big part of it that's already belongs to New Jersey and they said that we could go through it as long as we told them what the trails would look like so one of these years maybe we can get that done also on the planning committee committee so faith maybe is there a chat on the zoom can you put your information so Molly can Faith is head of the whon um Watershed Association so Molly maybe B you can put your info in the chat Molly can yeah Molly comes to Ross Lake and helps us clean up so I'm I'm also a Master Gardener from uh just a year and a half ago so right yeah so uh we love to have Vol come to the L the pond the Ross Lake so I'm get trying to get my feet wet yeah great you know we also had a Forester do a study of that area we got a grant from the USDA and um they did a study about what we should do what the what the topography was and just everything you want to know about the land because we wanted to put a trail in but we never we haven't done it yet okay sounds good yeah I'm also in charge of U our retention basins and irrigation and I'm trying to get them to water a little less so a lot less so we don't have squishy Lawns and fewer mosquitoes and mold so those health issues um I'm also I'm a retired nurse Midwife so um um so this is um actually this is really what I wanted to study and college but um you know being a nurse was a safe occupation can always get a job my mom paid for that my mom D well thank you for doing that yeah so um like I said I'm just trying to get my feet wet and just uh learn um you know what's going on and well it's really helpful for us to have uh citizens such as yourself and experts come in and talk says under the Mi you know talk uh talk to us about what you need in your community and what's going on in your community we really want to hear from people as much as possible Ellis okay so Maryanne do you have anything to join yes hi I'm a also a recent Master Gardener graduate with in Molly's class and working with my sister Carol Doyle who's in the meeting there um on the library Garden um I have a question a request uh someone at one of the previous meetings that we've attended um suggested that the tree in front of the library have a tree Gator and I'm wondering if the shade tree commission has access to them that they would like to donate to the library building well right now we we don't we haven't purchased any yet uhuh I think we the Public Works will probably be purchased and when we trying to go around to planting things um can we get somehow get on the list to purchase one but but it may have one in my garage something somewhere I was doing something I don't know if it's got holes in it or what never used it but um no I mean I think the um the library who was in charge of the library planning was that what whose land is that that's that CH land yeah yes so so I I don't see why we can say gee you put in a tree you need a gator that we can't you know we can't talk to Public Works about that and see how much that it cost I appreciate that um the other thing that I would like to bring up is um any of those things that you're doing over there classifi Municipal planting you different the library than is in one of the parks yeah I I'll I'll talk to the head of Public Works and see if they can get what kind of tree is it how big is it what's the Cur tree and it's about what do you think Mar is this the csur tree you're talking about yes small tree said that that looks like it's in bad shap well it's actually budding right now which may mean bad things for next year anyway it's fully budded right well the cherry tree is in is this kind of cherry tree no it isn't it's not okay how big what's the diameter of the tree Mar what do you think I I think it's 15t tall and I would say that the uh diameter maybe six8 inches I'll can may be kind of big I just need I'll get your contact info from your sister I'll get I'll get the information and I'll just someone and I'll I'll I'll connect that's a minor that's a minor thing for ever greens that have low branches bill was talking about something it's not quite what they call a gator but it's some other thing that refer to maybe it's on this thing here we also have maybe something like that may something that's better for nor watch the time please yeah uh the other thing I'd like to ask and this probably is DPW is um if you all have any information about what's known as the rain Garden it's a very grassy area in front of the library we've get we've gotten mixed information uh some people say that there's a cement pool under there it seems like there's Landscaping pipe running into it um is there a plan somewhere for the building and the grounds that we could access to deter under there wasn't that an Eagle Scout project no I would I would be I would ask Public Works about that too I asked the museum the museum the small building that's out there between the museum and the library was a poolhouse right there is a swiming pool there that was filled in oh so you think that the cement stay that pretty sure that the pool was not taken out no but if my memory cing right they drilled or core drilled holes through the cement okay okay so it would drain point it would be helpful to have the plan because I think there's a concern about is the water really going down there um because from there's plastic you know tubes that have been there probably for 20 years and it's unclear whether that's actually leading the basement of the library going down and there is interest in turning it into an actual functioning rain Gardon right okay Muse have the plans Original wly House okay great am I third can I have a third um I I believe that rain Garden was originally created by the left and Ken had something else yeah I'm concerned that some of their wooded areas may be very vulnerable to fires since we've seen fires all around the state and I'm wondering if the town is taking any precautions about maybe cleaning out some of the underbrush to try to prevent that and I'm wondering if that's something the Public Works needs to look at I know that they're working overtime to people right now they got people seven days a week doing that they busiest season but um while I've got stepen on the phone for these other things I will ask him about fires and what they're because I'm sure they're concerned as well I would imagine right there was a fire last night I came home and I smelled smoke okay and someone said it was down it's Jackson Jack Jackson oh sorry yes who who had another question you have one more question just car shared with me the list of trees that was offered to Colonial Terrace and I'm wondering um in this day and age why we're not limiting to Native Plant planting native good question I will certainly Express that priority that that that as a well you know there's a there's a movement of foot yes in New Jersey now that is there native plants are important but there are many plants that were never natives originally that have now become come New Jersey nativ unfortunately the biggest one is a Norway B maple okay which is the most invasive plant in the country but but they are talking the state's talking about figuring out which ones are reasonable plants good plants you know and uh and it may not be such they're not going to consider them necessarily as invasive species if they're not natives now I'm like fully into what's going on there but I've heard people talking about that yeah I do know that they're planting Southern trees further north now in the cities that doesn't necessarily mean nonnative because of climate change yeah those those are native not to this area they're moving North because clim you know climate change yeah okay so within the the purview of the um shat Tre commission to limit to whatever trees are made available in the town no and why not make it just uh New Jersey natives or us natives why are we planting um imported trees landscape trees that's a really good point and I think that you're right that this is something that we should you know prioritize and and discuss uh we have not uh done a lot of planting in the last three years we've been spending most of the shade tree fund frankly on removing hazardous trees because we have so many trees that have to remove the life and limb Lally so now that we're working more on planning that that's that's a really valid point and I think you know great thank you it the sunshine all right so we're we're over time as always which uh not not quite always and you're lucky this gives you less to mess up move for all right Patty and and Steve simultaneously move to let's just adjourn and I you got it [Music]