##VIDEO ID:j53dkAEJrME## all right welcome to the township of Sparta environmental Commission meeting for Thursday January 23rd 2025 the meeting is called to order at 7:04 we are live in the council chambers at the municipal building and uh also live streaming at www.youtube.com backpart wpst streams um adequate notice of this meeting was provided to the public and the Press on January AR 21st by delivering to the press and posting on the township website a copy of this notice um Emily will you please do roll call yes thank you Deputy Mayor marjerie Murphy here chairwoman Kimberly null here Vice chair Neil sne here Christine Dunbar Ted Gaul here Christine Rogers here Linda Tower here Barbara kazala here Landon ten Yuri here Robert utto here John gr thank you all right thank you please join me in the salute to the flag pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you all right um next item is approval of the minutes these are the January 9th minutes so the first meeting of this year um even though Christine Dunbar is not here I'm going to read in uh changes that she requested to make sure we're all in agreement um item number one that she had was Sally Larson agreed with Christy White House line it should be EC as in cat not EV in Victor um and the second item she is suggesting a change to the road road salt paragraph Christine Dunbar suggests reducing salt usage by replacing trucks this is an investment with updated computer technology that controls the type of salt appropriate for the freezing depression Point freezing depression point of the salt sorry used new trucks also prevent piles of salt from accumulating on sloped roadways sand can be used in environmentally sensitive areas but it can cause sediment pollution if ice is too much sand can be added to the mixture for traction during icing and freezing Organic Solutions like beet Solutions can also be used but they can also wash off into creeks and cause algae problems while Organic Solutions are beneficial they may not add to the contamination of aquafers as salt percolates down into the groundwater overall both pros and cons should be considered considered when implementing salt management strategies so those are two changes that we have or were there any other changes I just had one on page two um The Fifth Line uh from the bottom where I had a comment um that second part of the sentence It should read that instead of then that everyone has a great perspective that's my only um next time Emily can we have copies of the minutes sure with the paper copies so you don't have a copy in your packet today I just so um I don't know if we want to table to next time if anybody didn't get a chance to read them or if I have a motion to accept them now with those changes that were mentioned I didn't really get a chance to read them sorry okay so should we table for next time all in favor I I I okay thank you all right um correspondence so there was uh an application that we reviewed I think it was in November originally it's the MPS Holdings um they want to build um a warehouse out in our en not the environmental Zone the uh business zone out um by White Lake and um we had originally asked for an environmental impact statement and so this is the correspondence that you have in your packet also included is the memo that we originally sent to them not sure if there were any additional comments or questions that we wanted to reply back based on the environmental impact statement I had a comment I don't know if this warrants going back to them with this comment but I I took a little bit of an issue with their assertion that there are no impacts of building on a site on essentially an early successional site um I mean of course there's pollinators there's all sorts of like foundational you know insects and and invertebr and snakes and whatever that might be using that space to the and nesting birs to the point where they're cutting down actual Forest to to build these habitats so to just sort of dismiss it out of hand as as no impact they did it a couple times in the statement I thought that was not correct any other comments questions or do we feel like we should go back to them with that comment everybody's still [Music] reading I give you more time in the vegetation and Wildlife section on page six yeah I agree they do it think that's and I mean even if we're ncky the Aesthetics I mean it's right next to White Lake Park and of course open space and roal character are very important to our community and they just say oh no there's no sites of genic or aesthetic significance we haven't seen any pictures right no draw oh there's no drawings of the architect during um well they were at the planning board this last time um it's right in the middle of it's a plot of land right in the middle of two other warehouses right in the middle of the entire Warehouse section so I mean it is industrial park so it's I understand it's and they're going to build on it but to just dismiss it out of hand I thought it was Rel wor and I think our comments still stand like thank you for putting in a rain Basin but it really should not have just rocks in the bottom like let's put some native species in there um to further it's more of a retention Basin yeah yeah it's a retention Basin right yeah um the light pollution even though they are in an industrial Zone light pollution can impact other animals bugs Mig migrating birds um and we also ask them to change some of the non-native plantings that they were proposing we asked them to change to Native plantings so I don't know I think I think um our memo still stands I don't know if we'd want to add any more to that the but the environmental impact statement I mean do we have any that we that you can reference that we liked because I think that's interesting uh this is obviously from developers eyes so they're saying no there's nothing important here but that kind of gets me thinking that not that we should steer them but it would have been better if we I hate to say if we had kind of like build this out Ste them through it because if you're just going to leave a developer to prepare an e they're just gonna do the bare minimum so I don't have something specific to point to the future I don't know you guys got to talk on the mic I don't think anybody's gonna hear you I I was just responding that I don't have something specific to point to but it's probably worth looking into so we could even say like this is what we expect like we expect these sections to actually be addressed I don't know either if that's something you know depending on the zoning that the town would even get behind but we have the open space plan the master plan I mean I think it's as good a time as any yep that's fair so basically are we saying uh look at this um just creating our own Eis template kind of and at least putting it forward and maybe just a rough inventory of the things we'd like to see even classifying habitat type according to standard yeah not like a like a we didn't see you like a technical inventory like a exhaustive inventory but yeah like just tell us at least what we're looking at like um but yeah maybe I think the idea is to just use other um environmental impact statements to write a memo to you know coming from us to the town saying that this is what we'd like to see so I don't know if we did an ER on this property I don't recall if we did or not you don't think we did I no I don't recall either um we could also we could do that and send it and kind of say like you were you're saying there's nothing here but here's what we found I don't know if we're going to find anything we run that but but there are also other resources on the DP I think it's called ipac that's map and danger species map different species of the animals that we can run that and see if there's anything I think that the ER incorporates the reporting that's found that also but I'd have to double check that it goes out to a whole lot of other resources and pulls it all into a single report so you do get endangered species Geographic stuff all all kinds of stuff that's that's just pulling the existing databases together and spitting out a report spits out of report yeah so can we just kind of in future have that to compare oh we've done it on a lot of our plots that we've looked at yeah then at least it's on the record and there could be a more informed decision yeah as I think we didn't pull it on this one because it's a uh comment on the application okay yeah my comment is on page seven down near the bottom of the page it says land use then it says the subject property is located within the spot of Business Park mhm that the LA next to last line says other development within this area is generally agricultural which is a contradiction to being in a business park I know it's like on the other side of that road is that farm Anderson Farm yeah yeah the other side of that road yeah and it's right in the middle of a residential neighborhood too on one side is residential other side's the park across the way is a farm I know across Park Lake Road is yeah that farm there but then they continue further on on page 10 and say the same thing I think it's page page seven and page 10 they say the same thing the next to the last line first paragraph other development within this area is generally [Music] agricultural which is a in a business par all right so we're gonna I think run the ESI and er sorry and uh see what it says and we can share that along with our okay this is this the huh this is nck is this environmental resource isck yeah that's so I was looking at that too uh they're going to have and maybe it's not under this but they're going to have a impervious request right yep I think it's already been approved no is it I think it's that in there they wanted less parking spaces I think is what I thought yes and and an inre in in the in a waiver for impervious service but I think it said it was already approved in the first application I think so to well and I think we would approv less parking spaces I would have because they were only going to have it it wasn't for um public to come in and it's not a showroom it's just for for contractor for contract wholesalers but what I was going to say I mean this is for one of their product lines is environmental pavers and it thought to me what a what a wasted opportunity if it's part showroom part you know uh large scale sales to instead of going crazy on the impervious to have a portion of that be their pervious paver system then they could showcase it it I think I would be happier with that and presumably they have that material relatively cheap so that would be a recommendation from this committee that I wouldn't I mean I don't know wouldn't mind saying hey some of this this area that's paved would you be willing to Showcase your pervious pavers or environmental pav line I think they had four different options so some of them are your typical where the water infiltrates through the PA and then some of them there's a wide spacing in between the papers so um good point that's interesting that'd be interesting for them to do yeah and I don't see why they wouldn't makes sense shaving Stoney yards do do that don't they yeah they never been to a does he what like have their product out right yeah and so it's I mean you can what a great thing in our Ed Zone if you could just say hey look you know beautiful display yeah not only that stand behind your product even if people aren't coming like say hey we use it on our own drive by yeah and they could do a whole social media thing around it well I mean that's yeah we should just keep our marketing commission yeah well we could at least I think acknowledge that if they did that all right great comments I think we are writing another memo and we'll do the ER and include it in there and we'll go from there um we have no new applications to review tonight um and opening up to public comment but nobody from the public is here um so we will move on to reports so you wrote none here but we always do report sorry so optimistic We Are Who know I mean maybe our folks who give the reports have nothing but see who would like to go first I got nothing you s just kidding she was foreshadowing which organization that you cover are you covering first actually I do I do have nothing master plan subcommittee hasn't hasn't met keep it going we we haven't met we we had a a plan meeting but do to the uh reorg of the uh uh planning board we have not met yet okay this year all right thank you Landon or margorie ladies first or I can go um so with the trails committee uh we had met for the first time in January and just discussion building off of the three trails that we're still looking at and some more progress through um Doug dyra who is um graciously you know volunteering and with his professional experience it's kind of helping us out to really progress this project so yeah we're we're really excited with that so hopefully um as the season starts to change we'll be able to begin to present something to the Town Council and greater and and get this uh ball truly moving in February we're planning on doing a trail walk um for the committee um in the main section that we're portion uh trying to look at is the uh Railroad by the route 15 area so we'll test that out and see what it looks like and hopefully that can give everyone kind of a visual of what this could potentially look like um and then further from that Neil was able to stop by and let us know about some um Grant transfer opportunities so we'll discuss that in new business and um that's all I have thank you thank you and your next meeting is this coming Monday right yes uh as of right now but we we might be delaying that depending on some people's availability to Thursday but ideally this Monday is still on the books and then for sure the February 10th is another meeting margerie uh Christine had written a a letter about the salt and to the planning to the Town Council and to me except I didn't get it had email address but uh if we could for the solidity of the the salt she was concerned with as as we were talking and so we just needed some more facts and I there's really nothing right now that I can expound upon for the environmental what we're working on um except I have a question do there is and I don't know if this board does anything about this because I I actually inquired about it probably two three years ago is B Le's Pond up on Stan Hope Road which I've always called berle's Pond come to Pond yes until I yes because the Bley lived there so it that's why I always thought it was and I was shocked anyway um there is a kind of like a compound up there there's a a housing where a house burnt down maybe 10 years ago uh it was rebuilt and there is filt and dirt that I think it could be contaminated because there are vehicles that are abandoned and fire wood that's being sold and so I had contacted the I come I came down here a couple years ago and Country Club supposedly D got involved yeah it flows into Lake Mohawk and I don't know if we if anybody here has done any studying on that or if you've looked into that I think uh Sabina with like Mohawk was on top of it somewhat did you talk during the last year okay um yeah and then um I just a neighbor I believe reported and so I can talk to you yeah yeah you know yep um because it's I've never seen it green and full of I mean the algae on top is so thick you could write in it and it's just it's um I don't know what's what's being the seepage into the ground it's got to be horrendous because I have no idea what they're doing up there that's right by uh pine cone isn't it it is Pine con Lane SE know that you've not seen that it's because I don't go usually go by that way so but I am like one of those one of the location one of the sites that stream goes by my house and that's I've been doing taking samples for the salt study there and uh but it's it's frozen solid right now it is yeah well I used to skate on it when I was little so I mean it's but it's it's horrendous it's awful and and it flows like I said into Lake Mohawk so yeah but there's nobody wanted to seem to take charge of that but I do know that the DB D has been notified he has been cited I don't think he's done anything about it but there's silts in the bottom and it's very contaminated um and God knows what all those vehicles are up there there's back hos there's trucks there's trailers they're dilapidated their I don't know what's if they're leaking oil gas God only knows what it is I can Che the status of the the DP and on the DP websites to see if there's any if there was anything done and uh yeah so we can start with that and then sounds like zoning or I would reach out to the town zoning and just have them check it out yeah because like I said you know I know D is very busy so 12 pan con Lane that's that's the address okay hopefully our zoning our zoning Enforcement Officers can be on that and take a look yeah I'll go stop in there and see yeah okay other than that I uh I don't have anything to report if the zoning like need assistance with like looking at it since this is something that I do for a living I can take a look like I can schedule it with whoever and go and see what is there like what would be the concern for this lot okay okay don't go up there by yourself though yeah I was going to say don't go I'm not entering anyone's property but with someone like you know if we have the approval to go there I can definitely yeah let's check let see if anything's been done yeah you know what I'm talking about don't you okay I always wondered who owned that Lake no it's I was told by one of the by a byly actually that it's everybody that borders on that Lake was supposed to had a responsibility and it's supposedly in their deed to take care of the lake yeah we know how that goes yeah just one guy taking care of the wrong way yeah um Chris star's not here but we do have a new planning board member so I don't know if you have anything from the planning board to share or you want to it was weird um said East it it was uh interesting um yeah what can I say uh well I guess um I'm on a a subcommittee that's part of the planning board and so I started looking into the dark sky things that we've talked about for this committee uh I think there's some opportunity to cross-pollinate with just like minor sight plan lighting signage um so that's something I'm looking into I made some recommendations um just general recommendations but if um people are interested I mean I'm going off of uh without without calling out a specific application but just um you know know low Kelvin low output you know for signage if we're talking about facades or signage that I would like to recommend that we mirror the same language that we would for commercial lighting and like say parking lots what which I would like to see you know from this committee and and I'm starting to work on that um but so as we're doing you know environmental um we're talking about you know like an environmental uh assessment of a site um and we're talking about native plants and tree regulations or ordinances I think it would be beneficial to have kind of a couple models for commercial lighting so um that's that's just the again low temperature low output only during uh the hours of operation um but then within planning where I think we could we could put it to them to kind of have their have their lawyer take a look at uh that language and have some of the other committees weigh in on that then I would like to expand it to again looking at signage because it's not um it it is for the Wildlife but um some of these these lights have just in the last day I've been looking at like Route 15 um freestanding signs if you guys are just driving around you look it seems like the move is just to light them uh from the ground surface and just shine a light 30 45° typically a flood light often times just on an extension cord or uh several solar powered flood lights or um so it's just it's messy but then then I I started looking into it a little bit more and unsolicited uh started hearing that you know people driving that were like oh yeah it was blinded by this light and that light so it's not just the wildlife it's um people in traffic driving so it's hazardous too so I mean that's there's a lot I think on planning board um and I think we could craft some some good stuff some good suggestions and put them forth to planning and then hopefully bring them to margerie and the rest of Town Council and you know make make some positive difference so I'm excited for that but uh I would just say like the dark sky and the native plant uh ordinance is already kind of in the works and the tree ordinance so like I think these are all these would be great things to get on the books and again build out that chapter 25 like we we have an opportunity I think when we're looking at these commercial site plans um from this committee we can just make the recommendations but then planning can make those recommendations a little bit more binding probably so that's all thank you all right um unfinished business so this is the last time we're going to talk about the open space and Recreation plan because it was adopted wonderful it was thank goodness y so it was adopted by the planning board and it was very brief um uh discussion about it I just read into the minutes uh the changes since the last time the planning board had seen it and then it was adopted I think unanimously um I don't think anybody was against it being adopted so that's your update and I'm not gonna talk about it again but but we did have the representative from Newton and so uh I I was a little frustrated uh with with the representative from Newton because they didn't read the uh open space report after the Rossy language had been removed so that came up again and then you know I was just asking because we all kind of were read in on that there's significant problems if you have a property and you'd like to modify the use of it it's on the rosi so I'd like to revisit the Rossi potentially later um or just keep learning about you know the properties I think what I think I found was that we don't we learned a lot about like the open space and what we thought was open space but there's obviously a lot more to learn about it and then what I had asked Newton which I thought was valid was you know there's the Morris Lake area but then there's surrounding areas that if they needed to further develop that infrastructure they they should be probably looking at that and then letting us know or you know we we should look at that we should look at the Trails um so anyway yeah we don't need to talk about anymore but I uh I thought that was interesting that another Township was well let me add this I I said what I said about the Morris Lake and I thought it was interesting that the township showed up and defended their water source but it was also interesting that this same Township had has a pretty significant water source that's under potential direct threat uh and we we don't seem to be defending it quite the same way so um made that comment right all right any other questions on the open space and Recreation plan that going to go to the Town Council for final adoption or planning board done all get to go wonderful good it's adopted great news I do have a question about the rosi um I understand the argument for not creating an official rosi but it would still be beneficial to have in case you know for planning reasons you know as we move forward and just say someone comes up with uh just this state funding that we can't say no to like then it wouldn't be such a scary thing we' have the document and we could make those decision more clearly yeah the r reac is basically a listing of properties that are going to that are open spaces that you're not going to build up and and it's already contained in the open space of recreation plan without being referred to as a Rossy but there are then you would take basically the listing the listing of properties from the open space and Recreation plan you pop it in another form called the rosi and then you ship that off to the state so most of the work to create that is done they just have to decide if they want to accept money or not do you want to tie it into the environmental resource assessments so that well there are there's another layer on top of that which is all the carve outs for utilities and the projected future right so from what I understood that that piece is actually pretty significant and it would make sense to me to do that now so that we don't have to react in the future and they can either submit it to the state or not but if they choose to like that work has at least been completed I mean I think they should take the money and build the playground and subit the my opinion and we don't have we can't that's not up to us do you know margerie from the town's council's perspective like if they're gonna proactively do anything like that I don't know to be honest but I can find out but that playground was the like uh was the reason they were no but but it was the incl what was what's it called inclusive but can you do you remember I mean the inclusive but what the materials used in that are so it's synthe it's essentially synthetic and it's uh Tire crumb Rubber and stuff like that so once I heard that I was less enthusiastic but that's the design can you know change the design yes do something like what mulch probably the wheelchairs won't go over mulch that's the problem no so it's supposed to be fully wheelchair accessible so that you can and it had like a I saw the whole presentation had like a swing on it that you could just put the wheelchair on so even people in wheelchairs could enjoy the playground all right um Green Team resolution so in your packet sorry this did not get sent out beforehand is the Green Team resolution this resolution has to be passed in order for us to get our bronze certification there's no there's no choice about that so we can certainly argue over the verbiage in here um and talk about that but it does have to go to Town Council to um be finalized and move forward so please do I know I didn't get it out early so please do go ahead and take a minute to read it and if there's any changes we can make them and then vote on if we're moving forward with this or not e and essentially what this also does is we are members of the green team as well as there was um two other members of the community that um agreed to stay on the Green Team at this time was there a previous Proclamation I don't think so because I think the last time we got the bronze certification we didn't have to do this but I don't know Neil you know more about our last certification I do they yeah they updated the requirements for the green team so I don't know if we had one prior to uh you know our last recertification that didn't need to be updated I'll have to look into that uh I find this interesting that it only pertains to sustainable Jersey certification um right yes is that a requirement for the proclamation is there a proclamation that I just basically changed the names I didn't put the dates in yet or the you know there's x's in here for how many how long we've been working for did they allow it to be changed I don't know if they would or not I'm wondering why it doesn't I mean why is it just put out certification and and not well because it's not it's not our ordinance for the environmental commission it's a green team sole purpose is to do the New Jersey certificate uh sustainability work okay yeah so um it's very what do you call it low risk like I don't know why Town counselor or Neil would not approve this this is what we were already doing it's just now there's a proclamation about it so can you can you find out if it can be changed before we try to change it or you don't even want like what's the point of Chang want to change no I don't I don't no I didn't know if we were no if you want to change something we can change it and then before I sent it to Town Council I would probably run it by New Jersey sustainable okay sustainability first and just we want to make this change is this going to I don't see the I mean we have our own thing so I don't see the need to change it or yeah I didn't either it's good I think all right do I have a motion to go ahead and vote on approving this to move forward I'll make that motion do I have a second second all in favor I I okay good it's moving forward um next item is Speaker presentation schedule uh yeah that's the same as we discussed last time we're going to have Jenna Black come on our February 13th meeting to discuss um the risk of lead exposure and and I did write up a quick um press release that's going out into the tap into Sparta to help get people to come to that meeting awesome did you send it to Emily to send out yes all right and I sent it out oh it already went out y thank you so much I think I already saw it on top oh you did yeah oh good oh good awesome um salt watch week the next item is uh I think it's yeah next week is the 27th already wow next week is officially the salt watch week um for 2025 this is the New Jersey Edition so every day they're having a series of speakers at uh 1:30 um so this is the schedule can we also post this on the Sparta website yeah okay yeah I can thank you under environmental commission so that if people want to join I do I think it's free so anybody can join and if you're available at 1:30 every day next week you can attend and with that can we just point out um if any of us or anyone in the public is participating in the salt study next Friday is crucial they're doing if you read on the announcement but also was included in your packet that they mailed your test strips with they want everyone who's participating to collect a study on that day uh go out to your stream and collect a sample because they're trying to get a snapshot of the entire state so if you're participating make sure you go out at some point on Friday next Friday setting an alarm right now thank you so what you have to do you have to sign up yeah and they'll mail you a yeah they'll mail you test strips okay um and that's the website right on the bottom New Jersey Watershed watch.org saltat and you just request your strips they send them in the mail and then it has just a little packet that tells you that you could log your data but this is important this snapshot because it'll be much more of a regional perspective looking at the entire State on one um given day so that's it's good to have that kind of data to do stronger analysis thank you for remembering to say that all right I forgot about that no worries okay um any updates on Earth celebration uh just that the Board of Ed is having their meeting today so I should have updated info about whether we're going to be able to to host it at Sparta Middle School and whe what whether or not there would be a cost to us to do that so I'll let all of you know all right um there were additional resolution SL ordinances that we talked about last time one of them was uh the sustainable land use Pledge um so Neil was kind enough to send out a draft and I went ahead uh that's you sorry that was um I think it was the model that you sent out so I went ahead and saved it for us and added uh Sparta Township in there again I know I didn't send this out ahead of time my apologies so if we want to take a minute um to read through it real fast and see what we think um this is also a New Jersey stainable New Jersey uh points right how many points did they get for this one 10 yeah I think it's 10 points for this so it's also part of getting our bronze and maybe our silver certification um so again if we could if there's no changes what I'd like to do tonight is take a vote on if we want it to move forward or if there's changes recommend any changes at this point um and the other thing about this one is it's very app propo to be talking about it right now that since we're doing the um Master Plan update so it fits right into that process perfectly because it talks a lot about um when you're doing that process what you'll try to do as far as um Regional cooperation transportation choices protecting national resources land use Etc housing options interesting doesn't specifically call out water protection it says natural resource protection but you're right um it's worth adding just because that's an issue we're really facing right now y yeah you're right it doesn't add water does it otherwise it would it's awesome I'm so glad that we're going to put this all do you see a good place to add water I'm wondering if under natural resources you might even add a a whereas at the top water is a right it's a human right yeah um how about whereas huh I was going to say yeah whereas land use is an essential component of overall sustainability for municipality and whereas why is considered a basic human right and you know but that's shoving it right at the top is it not mentioned because you're talking about the physical land yeah yeah that's what I'm wondering topography and yeah wouldn't it come under natural resource protection I mean that's what I was that's I was trying to put it somewhere in there yeah I mean we can add it I'm just saying maybe that's why logistically it wasn't added you could that could be the point that you make in the whereas like whereas land use affects the quality of water and acers Below surface whereas you know well planned land can create whatever whatever and then in the natural resource protection environmental Recreation health and agricultural value avoiding negative impact to these resources including drinking water or something uh sorry I'm under natural resources where I think it needs to say Protect natural resources of the state for environmental health recreational and agricultural value and then somewhere in the next sentence um the last sentence would be a good spot resource management and protection of caring Capacity Analysis water quality comma water quality comma land use and open space planning I can write that yeah go ahead and write it because I do not see that um I'm totally not seeing where you're adding that do you want to do the W like pledge to complete National res uh natural resource in inventory when feasible to identify necessity extent of our natural resources do you want to call out water as you know kind of a specific one before linking natural resource management and protection yeah I think there should be a whereas and then I think in the National resource protection it should include water quality but I can I could send that in email and then we could decide if makes sense yeah that'd be great um and then we can get it back out to everybody and at the next meeting um move to approve to move it forward or not any other comments on the sustainable land use Pledge okay um another one that we talked about was is a resolution in support of the green Amendment to the New Jersey state constitution um so what this one is I spoke a little bit about it last time but basically what it is is Sparta Township saying that we support the green Amendment to the New York the sorry New York New Jersey Constitution it's not actually that we are passing the green Amendment here it's just saying that we support it um and so um some counties towns municipalities in New Jersey have been doing this and then um sending it to their legislators uh in support of it and then hopefully those legislators are are going to then pass the green Amendment um I'm not sure this is ready to go I did reach out to them about having a speaker come in and talk to us about it um the founder of the green Amendment her name is Maya Van rosson van rosson I knew I was going to mess up her name thank you um and she can come and speak for either $350 or $500 depending on um what we want to do or somebody else can come and speak for a less honorarium so I wanted to bring that up uh share this with everybody and see um what we thought I do think it needs some more work but um I wonder if we want to have somebody come and also uh talk to us about it too so that's the update on this one go ahead I heard her speak at the library several years ago yeah she was here she oh that's good was she good or yeah yeah okay I have her her the first edition of the book her book too oh really nice so I don't know if we want to consider her as the she would be the fourth speaker maybe I don't know if you have a fourth speaker um we have a speaker up through March that's it all right so thoughts on that does that sound like a good approach I'll see what the budget is and go from there just uh a note on the third page um fourth paragraph from the bottom just where is the township of Sparta blah blah blah blah blah residence of it says Essex County so I borrowed somebody like I think I know where you got it from where are you third page third page fourth paragraph from the bottom just the county needs to be Sussex yeah and first page um right before the bullet points in that whereas statement it should say stories describing the threat and right now it say threat she right um the tree ordinance I sent it to Jim so the process has started so we'll see what he has to say about it um and we'll go from there I got a sorry I have a question on the resolution yeah um just looking at it again C to the first page do you do you want to include all of your sources in the beginning like for instance you know tox I think all of these articles need to be updated because if you see some of them are they're quite dated at this point would get newer one that's my concern so I would I would keep this part General bullet points uh including you know and then just say your basic concerns and then just reference it okay back and also like on the last page I don't know what's happened with this by C with this bill so that needs to get updated too we got some posos in here then yeah plastic uh Turf stuff oh yeah no there's there's plenty of Articles we can [Music] reference so this one and including the American L Lung Association like that's good but yeah unless okay all right I knew it wasn't ready for prime time but I wanted to give you an example good though okay um sorry I started talking about the tree ordinance it did go to gym so the review process has started um any of the other ones that we talked about before have any more updates like native the native ones that we I don't have I think my goal is to send out a revised draft with the input you guys have by like the end of next week so you have time to like give specific feedback do you want me just to email for some of those other ones we were floating around we start like an email chain with that subject line okay I think we can right Emily we can yeah yeah all right okay sounds good before we move on to um new business can I just bring up this that's in everyone's packet sorry um so if you see the handwritten text that's um just my notes from our sustainable Jersey discussion so all the ones on top those are are actions that have expired um and that we have to update and then the new actions are those two the bottom and then plus the open space plan so our sustainable Jersey subcommittee met today and we have we don't even have to update every single one of these expired items for the February 23rd deadline but we have our priorities um we each were assigned different actions that we're going to take ownership of and we're going to keep updating everything into the system so that we can submit for February 23rd so that they are able to review and let us know either we're going to be Brun certified at that point or we will have to make some um tweaks or changes to some of the actions but it it's at least getting us on the path forward so that we can keep working to up our points and hopefully get to Silver certification eventually just the certification whether it be bronze silver we are then um can apply for more eligible for Grants we eligible for okay yeah and the more the higher status we have the more grants not necessarily oh Silver's just nicer to have I mean if you're already doing it you might as well say that you're doing it right get the more points okay good and I just want to add that yeah thanks to Christine and Barbara's hard work we're in a much better position than we've been in fast so we should y we should have a we should be on way to Silver this year although you did say it was 200 more points it is 200 more points yeah so it's going to be a lot of effort but we do have a bunch of the reason we don't have to submit all of the expired items at this point is because we have so many new points already from some of our Outreach events and from the green infrastructure um assessments that rers completed so we have new things to add in so we get will eventually get to the full list of the expired items but right now the ones if you just want to mark down which ones we're working on now it's going to be the Green Team uh the emergency communications planning environmental commission environmental commission site plan review prescription drug safety and Disposal recy cycling and waste reduction education and compliance uh the two new items that are on the bottom the winter best practices to reduce road salt impacts and the lead education and Outreach and then the new one to add is the open space plan and that one's going to be worth 10 points only worth 10 points yeah unfortunately that's all yeah unfortunately can you tell me about the digitizing information like that we had that and we lost it no no no we did have that they expire we're going to go back to it but we're just trying to get to the 150 right now and we're then we'll what kind of information are we trying to I'm I think I think it's just more that the township documents get posted online and broadcast to the public so we will absolutely meet that it's I was just thinking like Rossy and incumbrances cool let's no not that all right thanks for that update and I will remember to put Sustainable New Jersey all right uh new business uh Landon you wanted to talk about the grant resolution yeah I did Neil do you maybe want to talk about what you brought to the attention of the trails committee and then I'll pick off after that sure we um we were awarded a grant um in 2023 for our uh uh SS green business initiative uh that we're trying to promote and getting getting uh businesses on board for this but didn't have any much uh interest among the township businesses so we haven't been able to use that Grant and uh I reached out to the the grant person that sustainable Jersey and we can transfer that Grant to another use which in this case is the trails committee so we have a $2,000 Grant but in order to uh or we need to we need to use it by February 14th I believe was the deadline right uh and if if we can spend it by then we can still apply for uh the 2025 Grant uh um round Grant cycle so we can apply for a little large both large which are 10,000 and 20 $20,000 grants and the small Grant of $2,000 so it would be great if we could spend that and and write up a new uh Grant uh request so then after learning about that um at the committee I want to thank Christine Dunbar and and lauch for all their work that they started doing on this and um trying to go through the work almost following off what Christine also so thank you for sharing some of that information um we decided that at yoner Landing the will we be adding a trail map and some signage there just to get some um infrastructure and an easier lower hanging fruit project with the type of deadline that we have so we're in the process of doing that the estimates have been submitted to us and uh at the minute all we need to do is get Town Council approval for this grant um transfer so on February 14th in 2023 resolution 95 was passed authorizing this initial Grant submission so I would just be asking everyone if you'd be interested in making a motion to recommend authorizing a grant transfer of that that initial grant that was uh sent out in 2023 I have a motion for that or second sorry I I technically can't vote so don't put me that okay on as the so I need a motion in a second then please okay I'm make the motion okay do I have a second I'll second thank you all in favor I thank you all for that and then I'll keep you very updated on the progress with that and thank you for Jim Jean Corey everyone else in the township who's really been helping behind the scenes with this um project and hopefully in the future we can bring in more Grant monies for the town and thank you Neil of course for bringing this to our attention I was talking to Chris last week and she said that the this there two signs something about two signs uh or Maps possibly but they're both I think the cost was $600 uh yeah they were they were relatively um inexpensive but then the final quote that we have now um is $1,600 which gets to that point and edits some of the the size of the the the signs and what's their location in use and then the rest of that monies can be Affiliated to internal workings and stuff like that so hopefully everything's good and we've already been told that it'll be able to be installed in house wonderful M to you can spend all that money then exactly should be a problem good I do want to mention that the reason that um no businesses applied to be on the green business list was not for lack of trying we did create presentations we did go to various business organizations in town the sparta chamber as well as um a networking uh organization and give the presentation businesses did express interest but then didn't follow through on on actually filling out the application so um I feel like we did a lot of leg work we just uh couldn't couldn't get any organizations to do their piece so we'll this gr transfer isn't going to completely get rid of that idea and hopefully we can revisit that very soon as an environmental commission and as the economic climate hopefully increases for everyone too and our business owners can get more involved after Co and everything a lot of people have been still mulling over what does that entail um Sustainable New Jersey has a like green business recognition program and so you would go on the website and fill out and then say in what way that you are being a green business which is kind of like oh well I'm not a green business I sell cars or I'm a bank but there are different ways that you might still be a green business you have changed all your light bulbs to LEDs or if you have a recycling program so there was a number of things that you could be doing even though you're not like a green business necessarily so a lot of things that companies are already doing yeah a lot of things companies are already doing you know you you want to save on your electric bill so you change all your light bulbs to LED um in New Jersey not stop and shop and not I think it's shop right is a design not shop right either what's the other big Wegman's I think Wegman's filled it out and they are a green business so and how they did it was one of the main things they did was change all their Lighting in their grocery stores to LED saved a lot of money and the environment all at the same time um all right any other new business all right do I have a motion to adjourn oh sorry I just wanted to if not not everybody was aware Neil I saw you had looked on it but tomorrow um if anybody's available around 10 o'clock tomorrow morning there is a zoom meeting or Zoom I should say hearing hearing for Diamond chip that the more people that are on there would be tremendous and uh it's posted on tap into and it's on a couple other websites or I can send it to you if you'd like okay but um if you want to log on to see because this is uh where they're suing they're trying to get some more people off the planning board okay and all the support that we can gather is tremendous all right thank you you're welcome just checking my meeting schedule all right do I have a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn all right second all in favor than hi hi