is that okay all right welcome to the Township of Sparta Environmental Commission meeting of Thursday April 10th 2025 u the meeting is called to order at 7:10 p.m we are live in the council chambers
at the municipal building and also live streaming on YouTube back slashspartatwpstreams uh adequate notice of this meeting was provided to the public and the press on January 10th 2025 by delivering to the press and
posting to the township website a copy of the notice um would everybody please join me in saluting the flag i pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation
under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you um roll call please emily Deputy Mayor Marjorie Murphy here chair Kimberly Null here vice Chair Neil
Sourine here christine Dunar here ted Gaul here christine Rogers here barbara Kazulka landon Tenieri here robert Otto here john Grath thank you thank you Emily um approval of
minutes of March 27th 2025 did anybody have any changes to these minutes all right if I have none do I have a motion i'll make a motion to approve thank you Christine do I have a second i'll second
thanks Christine all in favor say I i i thank you so much all right we have one bit of correspondence tonight um they are replacing the Westshore Trail Bridge project um so we have the plans over
here we were not the plans did not go out beforehand so we probably do want to go down there and take a look at them that's what I heard after school they're very hard to view the
entire suggest yes it is August no we have to start it after after school buses after school but that's
not Oh down in Jefferson oh yeah it's been there a long time and it's been run into several times no it was They did a lot of gravel a lot of the gravel in the middle
of the road when it was snowy and people come out trail and they didn't clean up back then when they sanded everything and yeah sidings off but mostly corner
top 30 no nothing i don't I don't think Do you think anything has been done to that bridge i don't think so it's just a little red what' you say it's just a little red
structural engineering but so these weather They've adjusted so they're they're replacing it but then they're also bringing it up to current standards we don't need do that
per it's a pretty That was what it was supposed to so we have equivalence we have equivalent here program we should probably I mean you know I'd have a hard time
I don't know why it's not They're going to minimize impact working in working in the maintaining grass the existing bridge roadway impacts will be limited to mode lawn asphalt road and bridge and it's
complying with the applicable flood hazard area control act rules NGA NJAC 713 for disturbance to regulated waters channels zones fishery resources and threatening species
So I mean it's pretty heavily regulated that's why it's taken so long for NJP to approve it so that's what I said it's good to see but we're going to have a hard time
even I mean it came down many years ago something I mean it didn't really That's it thank you but it was it came
down but it didn't come this far because it was in you know took a lot of that out but it went down station road yeah i think the blend doesn't go in no not at all it comes
like this might be of interest to you yes it does and it rev it up it goes down behind that because that all flooded they're withdrawing from the flood hazard area individual permit and substituting individual permit area
general the dam is fairly new so they did the dam without the bridge yes they did the dam check check check our dues this dam payment within the last 10 years
it's only 10 spill water spillway yeah exit Watch out this is awesome house yes it did the two houses the same yeah long time
member right i don't know if they keep it above it yeah maybe they're doing nothing they're doing Yeah I don't think it goes it comes near it personally I don't Is this just a duplicate
as long as you know in it it's pretty far down and I don't be wider i don't know if they're making it it doesn't look higher the only
problem I see is there's a choke point here if we ever had a really big storm that choke point might cause the water to overflow the banks but it's so far below it we're talking like three feet
well you've been you've been close to the bridge haven't you you've been close to it it's pretty far under the existing there's quite Yeah there's quite a Well even in Yeah even pictures there's a lot
of room i'm hearing more details any debris from construction we usually write a poem warmer condition you know what i think I can put them back together if needed
this long time won't be so good to see her of brief um next topic um applications we didn't have any applications at this time um so moving on to public comment
does anybody in the public want to make a comment sure we don't have any time limits or anything so thank you um we don't use a clock or anything here um my name is Gail Burn and I noticed that on your unfinished
business you have down here as far as the deer population uhhuh um I noticed at one meeting there was a gentleman that was concerned that the deer were eating his garden um I I just wanted to take a minute um to address that um
first of all if you look at Google Maps you see a lot of green we're we're we're in the country okay there's a lot of woods um it I do have some suggestions for him as far as like don't use plants
that the deer are attracted to hire a landscape company that can treat to deter the deer um there's storebought deer repellent although that smells
awful you can get motion detector lights and me I use Irish Spring soap if I shred it and stick it in the garden it keeps the deer away um the thing is like trying to control the deer population but it's also rabbits are eating your gardens and
groundhogs and um he had mentioned about like uh um hunting season and that and that's all regulated by the division of fish and wildlife commission excuse me can
you speak into the mic oh I'm sorry kind of far from it um now I lost track um they they pretty much regulate and they do all the research as far as the deer population and that um I just don't feel
as if we should be spending time and money on this when it's your individual um I'm trying to think of the word now um it's up to each homeowner to decide whether they want to embrace the deer or
deter the deer and as far as if you do want to deter the deer address it on your own property because the deer are going to come around anyhow you look at all the woods so I just want to speak by piece as far as that i I don't feel as if we
should be spending our money and time on something where we live in the country very difficult and therefore you have it and we return the same place that they're used to yeah yeah and no matter what I do with my I have the backyard is
fenced in no matter what I do with my garden the rabbits and the groundhog eat my hostas but the um it works for me with the Irish Spring because I have a small property but like I said he could hire a landscaper to treat the property
if Thank you for your time thanks for your perspective okay thank you all right um I was just going to suggest if um I think we're we're going to try to get a speaker so your points I think are are good uh there's counterpoints
um and there's a whole program to kind of understanding because on its face it is that simple we do live in the country and we are um kind of overtaking habitat but the flip side is I think also true and I
don't really want to get into it because there's professionals that devote their lives to studying deer habitats life cycles um I think some of the concerns though just to touch on that you could kind of parse this like imagine where this would
go but when you have feeding of deer artificially kind of boosting numbers when people are feeding them and then they can't necessarily rely on that so then some of the deer may starve
so that point is good i I want to hear and it's I think it's a free did we say it was it's a it's a it's a free uh NJP um to come in to talk about kind of uh deer habitat life cycles kind of humans
versus nature that all of that stuff will be covered um but I think we would all agree um that we don't want baby deer to be filling their bellies with just barbar and then just you know dying
right so so there there is I think there is kind of a magic number for population so we just I think the first step isn't to go where I think you're concerned that we're going it's just to learn more all right so um we're going to if we
have that talk uh that'll be on the website I think um and we'll we'll be sharing it with the township so I would just urge you because I assume there's gonna be Q&A um and opportunities to engage further
which which I appreciate what you're saying and and actually that's a good idea and maybe have something on the Sparta website as far as deer you know and as far as treating it and what to do like like there's something on bear
safety well you know like as far as with deer don't feed the deer because then you're actually infringing on their habitat um I know of a company large company that moved out of Madison and the employees were always feeding the
deer not realizing that one day they're tearing that building down and there's hundreds of deer out there like what do I do we do have an ordinance against feeding deer I believe yeah yeah and and I think maybe that's you know kind of like you
were saying educate the town educate the people in the town as far as deer but yeah and but I appreciate what you're saying too and also was it Sussex County is people in nature together so all
right 94 people in nature so thank you thank you did you have any questions for me huh did you have any questions for me no okay we invite you to come back though when we do have a speaker so okay yeah come back every
time we meet we'll be happy to see you you know what i'm watching that's how I knew about the you know the the um um what happened with the meeting and uh anyway thank you did you see the
uh the meeting the subsequent meeting with the landscaper who has been doing landscaping for 40 years and has Oh no i missed that so I would just that would be another thing check that out cuz that was after uh that initial concern and
she has done a lot of research um and you know she knows her plants so she kind of speaks to her 40 years of uh designing landscape around the community so it's it's informative but I'll look at it definitely thank you thank you and
thank you for what you do thank you all right um reports who wants to go first brandon I can go first because we just met the trails committee met today at six o'clock over in the conference room and we were just going over a couple of
our different projects and confirming where we're at with all of that and um some exciting progress that we're we're getting to but still in the very early stages and um looking at all facets to make sure that when we do go to give
presentations we have um a well-rounded explanation for everything providing where we're going to get the resources from and that we've already done our homework so um Doug Dystra has been great help for us uh volunteering his time on the board as well christine
Christine Ann Neil Neil so I thank everyone who's coming um to those and um guess if your name's one of those and you want to come too that'd be nice to keep adding on so I think we need another Landon someone maybe be watching so um that's
that's really all with that on on that regard and I'll also make a note for the zoning board because I think it'll be important for for this board now I usually don't give any reports relative but um we do now have a um a planner Lindsay Knight so uh we might be getting
more well-rounded information when we have our Dvariances that could provide me to or me or whoever might be on the zoning board and environmental commission at the same time with more information so I'm looking forward to that and I welcome her to the zoning board and we welcome her first and yeah
I know you guys got her first at the planning board do you want to go next Rob christine do you want to um Why don't you go ahead i mean I was going to say that um the firehouse apartments are being um
we've looked at that but they um we're having trouble scheduling with them you know um and the other um thing that we looked at was the uh the new upgrade in marketing for the stop and shop um
they're going with the uh the red ball and the green ball instead of the fruit basket and um really the changes that they're making are um really uh small um the only one that um really
needed a variance was the large uh sign out here a monument sign that was just a little bit bigger not not much um so from our perspective we didn't think it was going to make any impact and they seemed to be complying with the
lighting that was there uh also so that did u pass okay awesome and then yeah for that I I did ask um if they'd be willing to do 3,000 Kelvin or less and I heard that they
would um and I asked about the hours of operation for that um so I think they're gonna I think I think they're uh kind of
I'm trying to push my my lighting agenda a little bit uh test it out uh and they they seemed amendable to it because they did have a graphic that showed kind of what the halo light looks like and it's just like a a glowing and it was very
like bluish white so I think it'll fit better into the rural character of the community to have it be that amber light um and then minor site plan i don't know if we talk about that subcommittee we don't usually too much we're just
working on process so okay um I don't need to really get into that but it's it's there's an opportunity i think um we've talked about kind of making sure environmental has a voice uh and is a part of the process so um we
can I guess talk about that later but um I think there's going to be good some good opportunities to give input to help um support some of the the boards that we advise not just town council and help
frame kind of future sustainability goals great can I just ask a question on that Rob yep they're not changing their lighting and you brought up the halo you know lighting but did they say that
their the signs are uplit ground lit and up so that was something did that slide past me i was like scratching my head during during that um we did not um we're being recorded here
um so halo lit is considered indirect back lit halo is indirect so it's not internally illuminated which is not allowed um but halo would be kind of like the post office um those letters so
the periphery is lit with an LED strip um and and that's allowed um so it's going to be halo lit i don't know if it was halo lit previously or if
it was internally lit um but if we don't like that in 12 to 15 years it seems like that's the cycle for rebranding uh as far as the monument yeah I think they're proposing ground lit and I was kind
of kicking myself a little bit with that because I thought there was an opportunity to light from above but the way that the structure was built it's already built so uh I don't think it's It would have been
fair to we could ask him to do it i should have but right now it's ground lit and then they have a bunch of plantings in front of those monuments to try to you know so I did hear them write that it was ground lit but that's but that's what it was before so but that's
what you see throughout so what is your feeling on ground lit okay what's your Well what's your feeling on ground lit because we're talking about Well maybe we save it for the lighting discussion later right do you not like ground lit well I just
don't want anything facing up yeah okay i that's I think that's a general rule of thumb I'd like to see you know conveyed in our lighting ordinances you know um going forward but on the other hand you think of the
the businesses coming in you know you're asking them it's to make changes you know to it but in a sense it's upgrading we're all upgrading together and making progress with the environment and I think that they maybe should own that a
little bit more so I'm sorry that I didn't at least ask ask them you know we're trying to improve our environment you know so could you do consider down lighting or some other lighting that's not going upwards yeah yeah that's I was
I was also kind of like because I pushed on the temperature and uh anyway um but but yeah so that that's a good recommendation um and as you look on uh as you look around town you'll start
to see just how many have the down or the the flood lights from below um it's surprising but is there an ordinance on which way or is it individual there's nothing concrete is there so I know I've
been looking at this well no it's allowed u it's currently allowed and uh it's because it's indirectly lit it's not internally lit we don't want internally lit we don't want electronic signage we don't want distraction
however yeah I think this this commission um could be pointing that out that you know one of the very basic things with with that lighting is you know you're shooting it into the sky just from an environmental
perspective there's going to be spill beyond the letters of the sign uh and also from a human perspective it could be um distracting drivers get light
shining in your face so and then just from a technical aspect I mean I think you're you're concerned about kind of what giving new applicants all these requirements but I would say like light pollution is something that can be
framed as it's a very easy thing that we can steer applicants to make very simple changes that actually aren't going to cost much i don't think that they're going to cost anything additional or a negligible
amount as well it gives the the company an opportunity to show they're being a good steward to the environment so it's a pretty easy um cell I found so okay well well next time we'll catch that and try it i'll be relying on you
great um Deputy Mayor Margie you want to go next i wanted to let you know that the sustainable Jersey pledge is passed y was it was passed Tuesday night so now whatever the next steps are and
that is a pledge which is an ongoing so that we can get to silver certification huh 10 points right there we're trying yeah awesome thank you you're welcome thank you for championing championing that you're welcome
my pleasure and that's all I have okay and Neil um the master plan subcommittee will be presenting uh uh the results of the survey that uh went out
um last the beginning of the year was it i can't remember when it was um that's that'll be next Wednesday a joint meeting with the environmental commission the zoning um board and the planning board so
is it a formal meeting including the environmental commission i know we're invited we've been invited yes I think it's a joint so then do we have to issue an agenda thing and a meeting notice i'm environmental commission i think we
do yeah last time we had a joint meeting with the planning board we have we had to issue for the environmental commission our own um meeting notice i mean it had literally the agenda item presentation of whatever it was that
okay we have a with a quorum yeah can everybody go next Wednesday do you have a quorum yeah I'll have to see can everybody go or no i mean I'll be there i'll be there i'm planning
and Christine you're already there anyway you're there so that's four of us yeah I was planning on going okay all right good is that just Okay yeah you're technically not a member of the commission right
i think that just happened um last night with zoning where uh Dory noticed just in case we had a quorum um because some of planning attended present some of planning attended a presentation that
was at zoning on dev variances so um so that that process I think was done for last night okay yeah I did do a notice but we didn't have a quorum for planning that notice so late I couldn't Okay all right so it sounds like well
enough of us will be there because you're going to be there too right yes okay perfect and we met our new planner at the uh our meeting last week thank you so much so important last night yeah I missed that
all right unfinished business so we already heard that the land use pledge was passed that's awesome so I think the next steps are get the signed version from Michelle and then we can Do you submit it or Christine are you submitting them up through the website
for sustainable Jersey i was doing you were doing I was doing this one okay um we'll need to distribute it to the other boards and if we could get it publicized maybe and tap into I'm sure Jenny will hit on it when she uh does her report on
the last council meeting and um and we just need to send them the minutes or the um of the council meeting that um when it was approved or this the section of the the YouTube video where where it
was approved approved okay and I think that's all we need okay great um Earth Day celebration and updates all right so our Earth Day event is going to be on May 3rd um from 10 to
2 o'clock and this is the event that we're doing with Spartan Middle School and our vendor list has continued to grow but since the last meeting we have now approval from the historical society they're going to be actually opening the
Vanckirk Museum um during our event so that's going to be a nice addition that we can have we'll have our exhibitors we're going to have our kids corner and then um some food vendors and then the Vanc Museum so it it'll be a fun day for families free for everyone to
participate and we're crossing our fingers for good weather um but if not it will be able to be moved inside at the middle school um so right now we're starting to publicize the event and that's going to be critical we now have
a flyer and an approved press release so I'll send that out to all of you if you can all start sharing with all of your networks that would be super helpful so we can get as many people there as possible um Emily has helped us she
spoke to the township manager and we now have approval to have the event posted on the sign out front um Kim talked to some other signs in town and the contact she had there so we're going to try to get it publicized as widely as possible
and then I also asked Cara Johnson at the middle school if we can send out the flyer and the press release through the schools so that we can get families there so that's it it's coming together and it's almost here so what we're going to need is if you all can start looking
at your calendars as well and we are going to have an environmental commission table so if we can just like spar today we did in the past we can make sure that we have a constant presence at our table that would be super helpful especially because some of us are going to be staffing our own
organization tables as well and kind of jumping back and forth so um hopefully a lot of you can come as well i already know I'm going to be there perfect me too yeah we're putting none at the table thank you for all your work
it's coming together um can we get a note out to the green team too sure thank you so much all right any other questions on that one do we think we um can we have canopies
at our tables is that being encouraged don't require but it's like you're talking about a tent over Yeah a tent you know like a canopy tent that has open sides or or not no that that should be fine there's plenty of space so we'll be good we have that entire lower middle school parking lot that we can work with
and then there's even if we really needed it that other parking lot next to the um the garden that I'm sure we can use as well historic Society one yep yeah just keep in mind with your canopies that it's going to be on cement
yes weights around it those weights i always fill jugs of water that's worked well good idea where you get the canopies wreck department no we like we've used mine for
the the sparta day we've used mine we've used it for the other thing too so I don't know if we have any the library might have they have they have popcorn machine hot dog all sorts yeah and you can take it out bfw oh if anybody needs
BFW has canopies um I And Okay cool yeah it makes it cozier a nice you know fair feel to it but it could be windy out there also on that in that area yeah
oh and the other thing is I finally got uh information about our budget so we have some money if we need to spend uh to get anything last time we I think we needed a couple and and like garbage bags or I don't know we
we bought a couple things um so we do have $624 left after our ANject membership not suggesting we spend it but if we need something we have it all right um I have been working on the next
speaker which has to do with the next two items um we the original person that we reached out to about coming and speaking about the deer population and um things to consider for that i have not heard back because they change it
was Brian somebody and now it's a new person i reached out to the new person i didn't hear back so it took me a little while to realize I wasn't going to hear from that original person so I'll keep trying and let everybody know um rain barrel workshop so because
we could not find a weekend morning that would work we've moved to a Thursday evening and the thought is maybe we could try to do it especially it's staying light pretty late um and it's only going to get lighter later um so
maybe uh right before the environmental commission meeting like at 5:30 at night 5:30 or 6:30 do the rain barrel workshop create our rain rain barrels and then um if you want one you can come and then also still make the environmental commission and the dates for
that sorry I have it in my phone the proposed dates are May 22nd which is right in between the Earth Day and Sparta Day um June 12th or June
26th i'm not I'm thinking June 26 is not good because um school's already out and I'm not sure how many folks are that's like a huge vacation week I think so 522 6 or 612 is kind of what I was
thinking i mean exactly what it is the rainbell workshop sure we've done it one one time before and actually members of the community have requested that we do it again um the Oh Christine you're gonna have to remind me of that um the Americanore
watershed ambassador thank you i always forget yeah for our Walkershed yeah they come and they donate all the materials basically um the brain barrels and then we put the little screws things on it and um the ambassador will tell us we do
a little lesson in here on how we do it and what we're going to do and then we go out and make the actual rain barrels so last year we did it I don't know if it was last year but last time we did it we did it on the side over here on the rocks um because that's where the
electricity was for the drill um it was a little windy and cold but I think everybody We all managed to make our will rain barrels and um some folks managed to make two and yeah we've gotten really good feedback
on them also it's basically like if you don't know what a rain barrel is it's basically just a big food grade barrel that you it will collect the rain water and then you can use that water to water your garden it's oh conserv water conservation practice that you can put in your yard
it intercepts it comes the water comes off your house and you connect you instead of it rolling out along your lawn or and everything you intercept and it goes into directly into the the barrel and then you have a tap at the
bottom and a hose so out of your gutters would it be possible to do it on jumping ahead on on spar today if we inspired today i was originally proposing Earth
Day um I could ask her that date too she said she didn't have another Saturday until Oh this is this is dependent upon Jenny availability yeah and she's from the I'll write it down
for you watershed ambassador program i always forget it too americanore yeah huh we could ask um the musky um you know uh the water management area number one
ambassador if she's available that day if you know because she's supposed to be working in this area too well not really but pollen skill um up here but I think the concern with Earth Day it's it's my
concern too she's not available on on that day but I think it's too much for Earth Day with a lot of running around and prep that we got to do in the morning because if the event starts at 10:00 vendors are coming at 9 like what time are we actually doing it unless it
was late in the day yeah the reason I thought Sparta Day would be good is because it would give give it more visibility we're even doing it the at the farmers market is there electricity there there must be
there's a generator for the bands oh I I don't know that would work possibly i don't know how maybe we could even if we did it ahead of time though maybe we can get like a demonstration barrel and bring it to Sparta Day just to have it there to talk to people about it as more
of an educational tool for sure yeah I can bring my barrel what's it made out of um it's like a I think it's like 55 gallons it's a big food grade like plastic um barrel that they put like
juice in or pickles sometimes okay yeah mine smells like apple cider yeah so I think it helped juice okay bad all right um unfortunately like I don't think Sparta day is an option too because I
really was trying for a Saturday do we think it would work on one of these Thursdays or Okay all right and I'll come come back with either May what's our preference may 22nd or June 12th
either one is fine with me okay it's going to be outside better weather later I would hope and it's sunnier later too so June might be better though because then we are spacing out our events that we're telling people about right we have a
couple events coming up this spring yeah you can advertise the rain barrel yeah for Yeah all right so I'll I'll We could advertise it at Sparta Day right is that what you're saying yeah yeah advertise it ahead of time that's great at Earth Day too
any Sparta Day updates good segue right to Sparta today no you Neil are you organizing that are you organizing something am I organizing it well you were going to get the thing from Anjack yes I I I sent an email to them today i haven't gotten a reply yet
okay we are definitely Do we have a table i don't know we didn't sign up for one did we yeah that's what That's why I wasn't sure i I I emailed them and said we're we're proposing we're trying to have a Oh and I think what held it up is
we didn't know how much budget we have right right so we have budget and so we can sign up for Spar today okay okay good well are we available i know i think I am it's May 31st it's like an all day it's kind of like an all day thing you're not no is
anybody else available besides i am i was there last time and I can I can do the whole day okay yeah I can be there what was I doing last year was my daughter graduating the last time we did this or something
it's May 31st right yeah I'm good you're good okay right i mean I think that between the three of us we can I always bring my husband and make my kid do it i'm only good till I can't stay
okay all right so yeah we can go ahead and sign up perfect all right tree ordinance update last time I forgot to mention this but um Corey does have the tree ordinance they are moving forward with it um he was
very happy and impressed with the a lot of the leg work that we had already done so he's very appreciative of um our work and they are moving forward as I mentioned i think there's like additional revisions coming down from
the state so we'll have to see um yeah what it how it ends in the in the end there's a sustainable Jersey webinar I think on the revised tree ordinance okay requirements coming up in April sometime
very soon i can't remember what the date is okay yeah if we can get that then we can share it with uh Corey okay perfect um baggot day update so uh Christine Christine and Margie and I
were there with some other volunteers some high school kids came as well as my sister um and uh Mark was there of course and we I think we had like 10 bags you guys had at least three we had two two and there's Yes yeah yeah so I
think maybe we as a car bumper and front of a car and Yeah there was some odd things i drove by there recently after and I actually I noticed it was clean yeah so because I I was there a week before and I was like this place needs to get cleaned up and then when I came
back I was like "Okay I could see where you got." Unfortunately we got one side of Woodport Road and we looked at the other went "Oh my god that one's even worse we didn't get that." So we can do that on LMPF day
um so yeah it was very successful um thank you everybody who was able to make it out that day and we actually did not have any rain so um at least while we were actually doing the the bagging of the litter so I thought it was very
wellrun too mitch uh Morrison he did a great job organizing everything he's been doing this for years yes yeah what was the most common thing fireball fireball i only found two i found a ton of white
cloth cans uh pores light there was more cans this year than last year that I that on that road because we the same spot but definitely and big wine bottles does anybody do the the um the on andoff
ramps to the bypass anymore the ones that we used to do you mean um by the stop and shop yes by stop and shop we did do the ones by blue the blue hair yeah we did that last year but yeah the uh we had traditionally the
uh EC had done the uh those the ones right over here yes i don't know i wonder if anybody I wonder what kind of shape they're in they're not they're not as bad as they've been um state supposed to do them but
because I know they pick up signs there so I'll I'll I'll pay attention next time I'm coming home i'll see it's not it's Somebody had picked it up but it's getting could use a little help
unless somebody did it i don't I haven't been down that way do we do a bag a day only once a year um we used to do it twice it might be something to think about doing in the fall just before still a little bit warm and it starts to you
know before the leaves I guess drop too because it gets real messy then fun guess when we get our new student representative that can you know rile up the schools in the beginning of the year
yeah that'd be a good idea good idea okay was he there i'm not sure i wasn't there no he wasn't there no the high school kids uh a girl named Laura and then my daughter Bri were the helpers from the high school
all right new business this one's you right uh yes um uh before I hit th those um there is a uh Kain University uh the Skylands
campus is having a sustainability event this Saturday from noon to 4 with all kinds of workshops and um um displays um and since the weather is not supposed
to be so good it's probably going to be inside uh I remember last year they did this they called it a bioblast where people just just walked around on the trails and identified things using the um I seek app or seek app but this year
it looks like it's going to be inside but that's that's a a great event yeah um last year they had it was like indoor and outdoor and they had um reptiles there they had making uh making
your own lip balm out of natural things they had a whole lot of different displays that you could hike i can't even remember all the things that they had it was really fun i didn't do I didn't go inside that's I forgot about that at school it's at Keen yeah oh but
the Skylands campus this one here here off the GR road oh the old um it used to be a monastery St paul's Monastery or something yeah it's beautiful what they've done there if you haven't seen since the remodel you should go that treetop canopy is so cool i've never
been there they have a skyway where you walk uh it's at least three feet three stories in the air wow yeah it's beautiful the buildings you um the next thing uh
is a um resolution that I I had sent i don't know if um well we all got copies of it here oh we all do we I didn't see it okay sorry yeah Emily print uh printed out i know she says she here
um for the uh in support a resolution in support of the packaging product stewardship act which is uh now sitting at the in the state or the senate uh yeah the state senate
budget and appropriations committee um but uh that's something that a lot of towns are endorsing and I thought it might be a good idea for us to to try to promote that and urge its
passing what does the effective p packaging product stewardship act do do we know any details about that uh okay i I'll I'll try to dig it up for the
next meeting do you know when this is going to be um when they're trying to pass it when's it being introduced or anything like that i don't know it's it's been uh I think this is the one that has uh just recently uh uh in March was
um was referred to the this committee from the environmental committee so it's still in the committee stage at this point okay we could or you know pass a resol resolution to promote it okay and it sounds like we have a little bit
of time um and then is it just for us to um sign off on it or should it go to the town council does it did it give any instructions either way you know what i'm not really sure let me
um Okay let me look into that okay so we'll keep it on the agenda for next time as unfinished business and see if we Okay yes sounds good something that I found really interesting i just
got back from Breenidge uhhuh there are no 16o size plastic bottles to be found in the town and I was going to start looking which I hadn't had a chance yet to see if it's it's not in the county
because they're found in other places but in the town itself not in the in the stores in on the mountain in any restaurants you they have all the like aluminum or the bottles like the
um like the liquid death cans but but all screw top bottles there are no plastic bottles in the town to be sold to be used do they have boxed water i've seen that boxed they've got box but mostly they
have the the metal whatever it looks like aluminum aluminum can yeah that's what they have and you don't find it on really either one of them on the mountain no kidding no that's the first time yeah and I know we've talked about
here having um an I don't know if it would be an ordinance but like recommending that folks leave the packaging at like if you're getting fast food or you're getting Chinese food leave the plastic wear there unless
you're planning on eating it like in your car just leave it if you don't need it because I don't know about your house but I have all these plastic silverwarees bags of it that I don't need i I think that's part part of this uh this bill that that would uh prevent
restaurant owners or people who provide takeout from automatically including all that all that garbage saves them money and if you don't need it why are you taking it yeah just goes right in the garbage
just on a general question what what were the things that you can recycle here at the municipal building wasn't that a thing or was that like a onetime event that we did that soft plastics are you talking about soft plastics i thought it was like battery or something else or maybe that was a one day event
yeah um we've talked about having a battery collection here and what happened was um batteries can cause fires of course so um they've done they've had a battery collection bin out
there and then they ended up removing it because they felt like it was a fire hazard there there might be some things not maybe at on batteries but other things that the everyday recycling and garbage can't take that residents would feel happy knowing that they could drop off
here rather than going to Lafayette or someplace else to to get rid of those particular items and if it's more niche stuff that isn't really damageable I think it would be interesting well there is the um medicine downstairs maybe
publicizing that more and stuff i'm sure many people don't know that you know it's crazy medicine bottles they're all exactly the same why can't those be recycled i know it's so upsetting i I hate throwing them out every day i know if you get another
one it's exactly the same just the sticky why couldn't I take my old one there just put my medicine back in there i don't know i wonder if if I doubt if a pharmacy would take them back no I did hear of a charity that was taking them and you and taking them to Africa or
something like that but the last time I mailed them pill bottles they were like "We have too many." Oh I know but maybe we should talk maybe we should look into that a bit more
what can you do with pill bottles all right um any other new business or anything for the good of the environment or the residents of Sparta oh I also wanted to mention that um uh according to the D we're still in a
drought as as of March yes uh 30th it's very dry by my house i can see it when was that Neil as of March uh March 30th according to their website there there's a new I guess they'll be issuing a new advisement uh today i think it's
the 10th so um the other thing uh I don't know if you saw it in the asparta independent which is good news the nature conservancy has preserved uh one site and supported the protection of two
other parcels totaling 454 acres in Warren and Sussex counties as part of a habitat preservation project called Bobcat Alley oh nice that was I hadn't heard that one saw the title but that that came out today right yes
very nice so there's some good news sometimes yeah and I know our open space um our open spaces support Bobcat Alley too um it was part of the open space plan that they kind of mapped out where it was it kind of is almost right
through the middle of town but Sparta Mountain and then up that way it's kind of how it went it's hard to describe but yeah that's all I got all right thanks Neil anybody have anything else
do I have a motion to adjurnn make a motion thanks second and thanks Neil second all in favor i thanks everyone thank you thank you so maybe we should go ask Rob i think this is the most
active environmental