hello and welcome to the township of Sparta environmental Commission meeting of Thursday March 27th 2025 the meeting is called to order at 7:00 p.m on the dot we are live in the council chamber
at the municipal building and also live streaming at httpswww youtube.com at Sparta tww streams um the meeting 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 on the township website a copy of the notice uh please join me in saluting the flag pledge aliance 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 thank you all right uh roll call please Emily okay Deputy Mayor marjerie Murphy here chair Kimberly null here Vice chair Neil
sarne here Christine Dunbar here Ted Gul Christine Rogers here Barbara kazala here Landon teneri here Robert utto John gra here thank you thank you all right
next item approval of the March 13 2025 minutes I just had a couple Corrections on page one third line from the bottom um it should be becoming the next
tropic level instead of traffic yes can you spell that r o p h i c thank you and on page
four uh the following exhibitors it should be will be attending instead of reached out to and then just on the um third list on the same in that same
grouping River should be capitalized group be capitalized that's it I guess I have one correction also okay and that is is that pollen skill Watershed community in that list on page
four um it's two separate words pollen po skill and then kill because kill is the stream is stream in Dutch so it would be saying paen stream stream yeah yeah oh and food shed above it right should
be one word yeah the food shed be one word thank you you can you can put on there the spart of Community Food Panter you reached out I'll do it for this time no worries all right any additional
changes all right all right do I have a motion to approve with those changes I'll make the motion to approve thank you Chris do I have a second I'll second thanks Christine all in favor I I thank
you okay we have no applications that we're reviewing tonight and we'll open it up to public comments there's nobody from the public here so we will move on to reports uh Neil how about you go first
tonight um we the um master plan subcommittee uh is meeting next Thursday that'll be our second meeting of the Year okay thank you uh Landon you want to go next with
Trails sure the trails committee hasn't met since our last meeting so it'll our next Trails committee meeting will be here at the council chambers at at 6: pmm before our next um environmental Commission meeting so that's April 8th and we'll finish up right before this
and then we'll start here wonderful and Deputy Mayor Margie um I wanted to let you know that the um the water treatment that diamond chip
has proposed uh for the location out there there um we are appealing the what they had brought to us with the amount of water the size of the water
treatment plant that they would need and we are appealing it they're going against their own the state's rules so we're appealing that um also the green the grant that we were that was
being requested for the uh Kids Castle we are not going to go for that there is money for that and if we put that would require us putting all of our Green Space into the hands of the
state and we don't want to do that because that's what happened on Sparta mountain and they anything we would want to change we would have to go in front of the state and do we want to keep that
even if it maybe gets into we change the Deeds to SP a township owns and it can't be changed so we're not going to go ahead with that keep it in our own hands okay okay and
that's all I have reports um do you want to mention the presentation that was done this week by D yes there was a presentation that was given on the the
logging and saying it was pretty much I mean it was a very good presentation it was the most thorough I've heard and it was given and concentrated mostly on on birds and wildlife and said how some you know
some the part of the logging that they leave there and it refreshes the ground and it it uh is healthy for the environment and there was a a quite a large group from forest watch that
came and we offered them they're going to come back and give a presentation as well and let and we invited the d d to come back and listen to that as well do you know what day they're going to come uh we haven't no they said uh the forest
watch said probably May okay okay so I mean it was very informative but um it was concentrated on birds and there seems to be some conflicting so we want to hear what the
forest watch has to say too okay wonderful probably may I don't have a date yet okay we'll we'll look for it thank you hey Rob hi Rob I'll have to go back and open it up
to the public um you're just in time to give planning board report if you [Laughter] want catch your breath we move very quickly here we're already on the planning board
uh let me make sure I'm able to take take your time oh yeah well just as it relates to environmental mean we
yeah we heard a minor subdivision it was uh within like Mohawk they can't hear you oh sorry perfect um we heard a minor subdivision application um and it was within Lake Mohawk and the benefit to
that was it was taking a small section out of a much larger parcel and uh expanding the existing small original Lake M lot so that it improved their impervious per manage so that was um
good the other uh the other application I think I don't know that it's worth talking about too much it's it it's it's just uh God bless you it's uh the sparta Pharmacy area and there's a lot of unknowns
with the plans on that the parking spaces the slope grade um impervious cover so I think that and uh we just kind of asked that they take another look at that and come back um so I think
that was kind of the big uh notable I mean we we did a consistency review that was pretty notable um we were yeah this was all
disjointed because of sinkhole traffic so we kind of had to just like kept shifting stuff around cuz our lawyer wasn't here and you know so we had to kind of triage having trouble with that yeah so so we just we heard the the
proposed uh cannabis class five ordinance and kind of went through that as far as you know just consistency with master plan um you know contemplation and then put
forth our recommendations as well as you know our opinion that it was inconsistent with um the current master plan so um I think it's just being looked at all
right thank you all right ask a question what were they proposing to put in that building by the pharmacy well yeah I mean still a restaurant it was there was a restaurant then the drawing had a deli and then a takeout so it was there was like a lot of things going on but then as it got
later even though it was on the drawing then the deli was apparently an old idea that was no longer so we just needed to kind of like firm up and then there was a a previous plan um which had called
out three problematic parking spots um that had been filed with a subcommittee and those were on this subsequent plan um and there were just concerns I mean one of them was um yeah so there were
concerns so it's it's basically it it needs to be looked at again and um I think there's just been so many changes with that site that it's just hard to to hear it because it keeps changing so thank you yep are they keeping the
pharmacy there or yes the pharmacy staying then they have some uh residential rental places and they need to allocate spots for those then they have the adjacent building and they were going to kind of
share some spots across so they have to memorialize that and it's it's complicated all right I'm gonna go back to public comment we had moved on I don't know if you wanted to make a
comment or anything we'll open it back up what I have to say sure um welcome thank you my name is Barbara Bea of 94 Westshore Trail um I am part of the Horticultural and
Design Group for the Lake Mohawk Country Club um I'm a 40y year I'm still working so I'm not quite retired yet um a certified Landscape designer and uh I ran a fine gardening
crew for many years so I have a lot of experience in landscaping plants and the problem we're having with de population so um Bob Rob has asked me to because I we already started at the h&
group we started the process of calling the D getting some information and so um I did speak to uh Brian schum he's a wildlife biologist with the
D he um would upon your approval or Sparta's uh Township would come and uh do a talk directed towards uh the Town Council HOA boards police Chiefs Golf
Course managers and the public okay he um he asked us to solicit comments from the public as to what their subjects of Interest are and uh he mentioned some uh
as far as tickborne disease deforestation and loss of natural of native habitat the biodiversity of Flora and the subsequent chain of events
where okay now this F no longer has that food so there's you all know when you go in the the woods there's there's nothing left but Barberry so um there's no food
left for um uh insects and other animals car collisions landscape and crop damage I think landscape damage is the number one reason why uh most residents want to see
some uh action and then he spoke about the he will he he would be able to speak about the biology uh the science of overpopulation they studied deer herds and how uh when their food source gets
scarce they do exhibit aggressive behavior and I can attest to that cuz I ran into a buck um walking across the manau bridge and he was not going to give he
he jumped right over my car wow to get to the island he must have got a sniff of of a a dough over there he was it um and then he also wants to debunk
myths such as feeding deer deters landscape browsing there's a lot of people think if you feed them over here they won't come over here and that's totally what makes a mess and also there's um several people who think that
we need more coyotes and more wolves and that'll take care of the problem but of course who wants a wolf trotten down your your street so that um he will speak to all those things if we ask him
to there's quite a comprehensive um I have some handouts not very many but um if anybody wants I I did a um a small synopsis of the
communitybased deer management manual okay um to kind of hurry things along a little bit so you can download this okay um it's really quite good it uh helps like if
you go before Sparta Township and ask them to pursue this it has to be the application has to be put in by a Township y so um you know the Board of Trustees at Lake Mohawk can't do it
um okay what they will do if if they if the application is approved um they will come and they will do a whole study they'll help us study exactly we because you need
numerical um studies of what is the percentage of landscaping you do that the deer eat what how many cars uh collisions are there per uh capita that
kind of thing they steer you um they the sample um application basically answers all the questions you just plug in your number um they do Bow
Hunting especially in smaller lots for instance if somebody has a double lot in Lake Mohawk they could have a bow hunter because it's 150 ft from a an occupied building and that's the number one
reason in spart why deer are so bad is because there's no open space for hunters to get to get in there so um and I can tell you they're bad from a landscaping point of view the damage is
unbelievable there are areas where I've seen there is absolutely nothing left um except Barberry everywhere um they're eating things they've never ate before uh they die of starvation in the winter with a
full belly Full Belly full of sticks with no nutrition um so they do a Controlled Hunt if we so request where they
um determine how many Hunters make sure we have to I think we have to make sure they're all licensed but they train them to be the best they can be um
they um get they help us get permission from the landowners you only really need one let's say like manatau Island right now has a huge deer population who they never had before
and um it just takes one resident to say yes and then convince the adjoining neighbors to say it it' be a okay you can that Resident can say I only want
you here on week weekdays not weekends I only want you to use a bow I don't want you to use a a a rifle so um you there's a lot of flexibility um they will help work with other
homeowner uh land owners large land owners like golf courses corporate centers to open up there that but you have to have the permit in order to hunt those areas so that's why you have to do that
first um [Music] then uh so there's there's four steps you designate the area where you want to control your efforts so there is some
study and I raise my hand for Lake Mohawk that's really bad um I think that I do think that's where it's the worst is it yeah um just just so you know we had a landscape job at one point and the
truck from the nursery pulls up unloads the plants while we're in the back raking getting ready for digging holes by the time we got out to the front of the house to bring the plants into the
backyard they were mowed down right in the pots um so right up on my deck and ate everything yeah on your deck yeah they climb the stairs right on the decks they eat your Christmas wreath off the front door oh they never touch that but they
just look at you in the window as they're munching away on my oh yeah they they they are um lost all their fear mhm um you have to demonstrate an overabundance like I said um
and they'll tell you how to do that um you have to adopt a Township resolution and they even have a sample ordinance so you don't even have to write it y um and you have to complete the uh permit
application um you have to ensure that the venison from the cold deer will be donated to the needy and that goes they help you with that that um Sparta would have to
pay for the um processing of the of the Venison and they would also probably have to pay for the advertising because you need legal notices in the local paper you need special hunting signs posted and there may be some other costs
but they have a grant so you just fill out the Grant application and and it's an annual thing so there's an example of um I think I gave it to you the example oh oh yeah it to got it um I'll copy is
made for everybody okay the example is um a county park in here in New Jersey got their permit they had 20 hunters and in within three years they
reached the level of population that they desired and they maintain it on an annual basis you can get an annual Grant as well um you maintain it on an annual
basis and they do it with uh 10 Hunters um and the total cost per anom is for them was $3,000 and it was all for processing of the
venison so um uh yeah it's a lot of times though when you use volunteer Hunters they will take the Venison and then it cost you zero it's just if you donate it um it has to go through their
um charitable uh butcher that they use because it has to be um tested for you know safety food safety uh there's also a big explanation
of the other ways to cold deer with um trap and release and trap and euthanize and the reasons why that's not used in New Jersey um there's uh several other methods that
they don't recommend Princeton had a calling of the herd they did a a trap and fertility so theyth control yeah chemical birth control it ended up costing
them 800 and some odd dollars per deer it's not Financial yeah feasible whereas the hunters with the ven to process each deer is about
$65 so that's how the program works so this the first step is to um is to get the township on board and then have Brian come out and speak to them to the
public or some on that's it yeah yeah thank you it sounds like you've done a lot of the leg work for us already it's all on the website and Brian is really really good he's he's real easy to talk to and very informative so he can come
out they get very busy he said starting in March so you need a 100 it takes about 120 days to get through everything okay the process so the hunt they want they
really want to hunt in the winter okay that's the other nice thing about the permit they make their own hunting season it it's special uh so you can hunt um out of season and they like it in the winter time
apparently because um there's no leaves on the trees so they can sit in a tree and they can see very clearly um and they also the deer come to the bait they bait to bring them in so the deer come to the bait much more
so in the winter time um they they know how to handle um they know how to handle those that will come forward and
um you know try to protect the deer you know protect Wildlife but they are experienced in how to handle that so so they'll explain that feeding the deer is
is actually harmful because they yeah oh yeah the um and then I know in my group one of our problems is the diversity of plant
material um my 12 plants that I keep plugging in my landscape design is not good for the environment um so that's our thing I mean they mow down my uh friend's garden and she's on
a pretty steep slope and now she has soil erosion because there's no plants the The Roots can't hold the the soil in place and uh there's all kinds of problems that Brian will go over and I'm sure they'll be
discussed um if if the if you can convince Sparta Township to host poost this and I think uh Lake Mohawk uh Country Club said we could use their facilities we have permission we just need to have a date so that doesn't
interfere with um an event and that's it any questions so Brian's is is there cost associated with Brian's portion free so it sounds like we should re if if we agree we should try reaching out to
Brian see what his dates are as soon as possible um and then that's the first step right yes and then to invite the township and have them endorse it I guess um I I don't know how
but wouldn't this presentation be better at the township Council level they're the decision making body right we made the motion a couple meetings ago to recommend yeah them look so is there any update on that is that going to be on the agenda anytime soon how is the protocol for when we make a motion to
recommend something to get pushed up to the Town Council is there a notification to all the council members or I see Kim yeah yeah and I spoke to Dan about it and then we were gonna look into it some
more so yeah so I yeah I was just trying to Short Circuit the looking into because she already uh did the looking into so uh I think that question is if if we if you've already talked to Dan
perhaps we could have that informal um to find out dates of availability just to have the presentation and then we can say here are five or 10 Dates as of right now to Town Council and let them run with it here's um here's Brian's uh phone
number it's his cell phone number I have it here right this is say cell8 why I don't want to say it publicly oh 8624 no he he's a an employee of the state of New Jersey that's his work phone work phone okay 432
2685 okay yeah thank you so much what's name shum C uh s c hu MN that document is the community based deer management manual from municipalities is that the one you have
yes and it's um if if you go on that website yeah and you can download it yeah oh you have it yes yes you do the group last before last meeting uh isn't that funny we were both working on the same thing yeah and you know another
thing too we brought up to the Lake Mohawk is the the problem with the the historic Zone because we were working with the code to try to figure out was we're
buying new planters for the plaza is is there was any restrictions on the um you know things like street lights and imp Planters and garbage pales and and and at the same exact moment the yeah planning's dealing with a question about
zoning which you might have heard well the other thing before you um wrap up it sounds like you have a lot to offer on the uh the native uh or or just the plants that work here or don't work here are you potentially open to some future
collaboration where you could steer Us in the right direction for like recommendations for commercial planting landscape potentially I could recommend but most for the most part commercial usually is done by a licensed landscape
architect I'm a certified Landscape designer I worked for an architect for 30 years um but usually uh for commercial they want to see that seal um so we review a lot of plans um
and we kind of just go through and kind of say are these natives native plants or non-natives and so we heard from ruers um Lisa cherell um how you know maybe it's not
maybe it's not so strict the natives could get eaten by the time you go to plant them oh yeah they definitely do so maybe cultivars non invasives could be an answer and ours they're called and they um they're
improved they uh they're improved in many ways for instance they don't if you have a plant that flops over they're bred to be stronger um they have uh also different
they breed in different colors but you have to be careful of that cu the the bees and the hummingbirds aren't going to recognize the or the hummingbirds aren't going to recognize the color if you change it on them so um you know flower form um and and again they have to you
have to be careful with the flower form because you're not going to have certain insects that going to be able to get get to the pollen so there's a lot of um things with Native ours um and yeah I can help you with that but we also have
a Sparta residence um Bruce Crawford he's a landscape architect um he taught uh Landscape Architects in at Rucker University he is I think really high up in the freeling high in
arbored he's uh an awesome speaker he speaks all over the east coast and he lives right here in Sparta so maybe I can twist his arm to help um to help you nice awesome thank you thank you very much for coming appreciate
it thank you for what you do all right so we have two things for you to bring to the Town Council so all right um all right moving to unfinished business Sustainable New Jersey
certification um we haven't heard back yet from our initial submission okay and the next deadline we're working towards June I think it's May it's in it's in May I'm not sure the exact May 21st does that ring about I'm not I'm not positive
I know it's in May all right um one of the things that we um have talked about is the sustainable land use Pledge and um last time we had already talked about it but I think you missed that last meeting so we wanted to bring this forth
to the Town Council also um it has a lot of whereas statements well not a lot three wees statements um about trying to maintain transportation choices a healthy environment and make sure our
land use decisions um uh decrease Mobility High uh decrease how high high housing costs and um decrease uh gas Admissions and so then usually this has to get adopted by with approval with the
Town Council I think it gets adopted by either the zoning Andor the planning board so I my coffee has coffee on it okay I'll give you a clean Cofe um I'll email it to you okay um so yeah we'd like this to also go before the Town
Council to um okay see if they're uh willing to move this forward also and it get did you find out if um you had some tweaks to that and did you find out if they're okay with that we can make tweaks to it okay um so yeah if
the Town Council wants to change anything the town lawyer or Corey um the engineer wants to make choice they can make changes to it okay yeah as long as it's largely the same I've seen versions of it used for other towns we still
should be able to get um points for it okay is it 10 points I think it's 10 points yeah yes okay um Earth Day celebration update Christine okay so our Earth Day celebr celebration is going to be at on May 3rd
from 10: to 2:00 and it's at Sparta Middle School so our environmental commission is partnering with the environmental Club at the middle school to put on this event so all families should come out um we're going to have a lot of activities
for kids there's going to be a number of different vendors so I'll read you the new update since the last meeting uh these are the groups that are confirmed that they will be attending so we're going to have our Sparta environmental commission
table then Sparta Middle School environmental Club is going to run their kids corner with arts and crafts and games for kids and then the other vendors will be uh walkill River watershed management
group and the Sussex County Municipal Utilities Authority New Jersey Highlands Coalition uded Alliance Poland skill Watershed
Community New Jersey forest fire service Lake Mohawk preservation Foundation Aven Wildlife Center Friends of the walkill river National Wildlife
Refuge New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife Sussex County Office of mosquito control and I heard that they're going to be bringing their mascot um it's like a mosquito costume that they call Miss
skito um and then um the New Jersey mological association with mushrooms yeah it's mushrooms and um Sparta Community Food Pantry is going to be there so we're going to be conducting a food drive as part of the event so
please everyone it's a free event but bring non-p perishable food items for our local food pantry um we since the last meeting we did get confirmation that we are allowed to have food vendors um so we're going to try to get a couple of food vendors
locked in to attend and now we're kind of at the point where we need to go through some of the um get the certificates of liability insurance and all the signed agreements but those are the different exhibitors who are going to be there um Kim were
you able to confirm if Steve is going to be able to do the music at the event he said yes but I will re askk him again okay so we're gonna try to have music at the event live music and then um so for promotion Kim's friend helped
us do a a flyer redesign so that was finalized since last week or last meeting and then I'm working on a press release for the event that I'll send around um before it goes out to the public I was wondering if we would be
able to have the event advertised maybe on the sign outside or the sign in the middle of town as we get closer um the middle school has a signed so I'm going to check with Cara if they can Cara Johnson U who's the teacher at the middle school who is helping us but she
was also saying that they're going to be able to have the flyer and the announcement go out to the students so that their families know about the event as well so we're hoping we have a good good turnout um if you email the flyer there was two images there was two
things included with the flyer that second image uh document if you email that to the library Dave Smith can also post it they have like a screen that runs through everything so this this um it will count
as sustainable Jersey points and um it's 10 points for the Earth Day fair and then it's I think additional Five Points if we could demonstrate that it's green so like maybe not printing out the Flyers and putting them all over town but posting them electronically things
like that so it's perfect the board right by the uh intersection by the post office that board yeah and the board up on across from the m c school yeah that's a good spot and even out on the municipal building
y yeah so we are just hoping we can get as many people to know about the event we have a lot of exhibitors coming and there's nothing worse than being an exhibitor in at an event than not having the public there so we got to make sure we have a lot of Resident um Coming what
was the time again 10 to it's May 3rd 10 to 10 to 2 o' is it outside on the out Side Y side on the front yard it's on the lower parking lot oh the Middle School Middle School this time Middle School oh at the middle school okay
sorry Em there is no rain date um but if it does rain the middle school is giving us permission to bring it indoors okay okay good Emily I think the post the flyer was approved yes it right okay and did it go on the town web website yet or
no in the process okay Y and Emily um I just had one other question Michelle was saying she was going to look at the revised agreement and hold harmless forms from last time has she given them to you no I didn't okay because she said at the last meeting she would try to get them I'll just give her a call and oh
okay yeah she didn't give me anything so no worries um and then do the only other thing I was GNA I think we talked about was do we still get in the newspaper the local uh app into no Sparta independent
for a while we had ads that the town took out in the paper every every week I don't know if we're still doing that this year yeah I don't know about that one I know we're still working with tap into but I can find out this part independent it
was all right thank you for the update thank you it's G to be fun all right um the next speaker that we've been talking about is um green mment for the future uh so the update I
got was that they will they'll do it for free now um so we still need to talk about if we want to move forward with that as the next speaker or I think there were a couple other ideas maybe we could even just have Brian come and have
that be our next speaker um since that's been such a a critical issue um so I don't know if anybody had any other thoughts on on that at this point speakers on any other speakers or if we prefer the dear speaker if we want to go
with the I can keep talking to the green Amendment uh for the future I think you had mentioned last time or after the meeting potentially the idea of the forest fire service because of the drought situation I think that's a really good um idea my personal opinion
would be to move the deer presentation to the Town Council because they would be the decision-making body but that's just my I agree I think that that uh the deer speaking on the deer population really does need to go at the Town Council level but does that mean it
wouldn't count for us if we were the ones doing the leg work behind it I guess if Brian's fine with doing it twice huh if Brian's fine with doing it twice that's fine by yeah I think I asked uh if if we could have him do like one here and one
at Lake Mohawk and I don't think that's um but you're you're saying if we set it teed it up for Town Council and it was presented at Town Council count for I mean wouldn't we just say like points presented by you know environmental and
then we can get the points we did that with the planning board for the open space yeah we did do it for the with the planning board for the open space we did so yeah I think I think we elevated it to Town Council and then based on what they say then okay we suggest you know
we'd like to have a speaker come in and you know they're going to figure out how that works but I was going to throw that that name that we just heard uh Bruce Crawford if if I'll talk to Barbara a little bit offline and I think
that would be interesting with like the native plant discussions um and kind of as a followup to imagine if there were less deer grazing stressors what would we want in the ground and then again um
you know any advice so that when we review these applications instead of just saying you know we'd like a native of this something that's going to survive the plant and not just keep having to get replaced or that's going to do what we
want do we want it to be a buffer from the site to the offsite conditions and maybe you know again let's see see what if Barbara can get him to agree what it would take um but
maybe down the road sooner rather than later I would be up for that okay so I'm hearing is prioritize the deer um presentation and then we'll see forest fire or Bruce Crawford
okay it sounds like forest fire green forest fire can still happen if we want to do that or um you had mentioned I think R and Valley Conservancy yes the presentation about that could be potentially one to reach
out to yeah how to put your land into Conservancy if you want it yeah are we pursuing the green Amendment for the future speaker or we're gonna move away from that do we think it sounds like other folks want to pursue
other things first so yeah I'm I'm up for that but uh that would that would be ultimately kind of framing for for a future set of ordinances do you think single ordinance a single ordinance so um I I would kind of keep it you know
like third or fourth speaker on the list potentially okay an ordinance for the green Amendment yes um the idea is that uh they're trying to get every state to pass a green Amendment right um New
Jersey has a lot of townships that have signed it and it's the same thing as like what happened with the bag ban a bunch of townships sign on to the bag ban ordinance even though they can't necessarily enforce it within their Town
limits to say that they're in support of it so once you get enough townships I think there's 357 townships in New Jersey or something like that once you get a enough of them to sign on to that type of um ordinance then the T the state is more likely to
agree them so it's an ordinance rather than a resolution well I think it's an amendment yeah it's a it's a green it's a resolution yeah yeah that you support it basically says I think I brought it here one time I don't have it tonight but um it
basically says we support green Amendment for the future there's a bunch of whereas statements and then it um basically says we ask the New Jersey state to pass this amendment it's it sounds like it's a resolution
that we would recommend for the Town Council y yeah I guess I was thinking also green infrastructure but that's something down the road building off that maybe yeah okay so deer first we're still
going to also talk about forest fire okay then we'll go from there all right um New Jersey salt watch um before um um before I just um make some points about that how we can
carry this forward and get it out to um the public what we've done with the salt watch I just want to step back a little bit and have you just eyeball um this uh picture of Sparta
Sparta as I've mentioned before is extremely unique it's the only Township in the whole state um um that has five is the headwaters of five watersheds and I think that if we build
awareness uh of this that we could possibly start to engage people and taking care of their Watershed and their property and their neighborhood so that we can keep the um keep the waters clean
and healthy basically so and we also are in need of a drawing in more folks who are interested in being part of a green team and uh we've talked about this before well what does that mean to be a member of the Green Team people want to
have a little project and uh we need to engage them in things that are interesting to them and their children so um our idea was to maybe make a banner at the EC booth
that engages people to come into the booth to look at a map and try to identify what watershed is theirs are they the Wallkill which is the dominant one I think that's like
40% of the drainage for um our Township or is it the pollen scale are you in the pquest Bic are you in the musenet Kong okay and they could find themselves and and be more aware of their environment doing this and there's a
little area reference map um and then um after they found which Watershed we can have some things there to suggest to them that they do to help us to help work with us to keep our environment
safe and where to go to sign up to be a member of the Green Team well what are they going to be doing we could have like um I don't know a picture of a rain Garden I'm trying to think of of what would excite them um pollinator Garden we
could have a little demonstration of the salt watch you know some of the indicators and how easy it is um you know to take these measurements and that way you know I think that they would um be a little bit
more amicable and signing up for a green team if they knew that it would involve the cleanups maybe the road salt maybe we could help them with a pollinator you know Garden or a rain garden and this is what we were are heading
towards so you want a banner or you want a like a poster well talking about like a you're not talking about like the plastic stuff that you hang up you're talking like well ask was thinking about the plastic stuff it used to only be about 35 well
Spa e Banner is beautiful but I think that's P plastic that we stretch stretch across but it's reusable that's what I going to say do we want to I was we it would be cool to get a nice poster board where we're also printing that on paper right so we're the watershed's not going
to I guess the map's going to stay the same for a little bit right so that'd be really cool advertising piece and just an informational Banner to show off now and be prideful yeah well and and on this could
go the sparta logo for the town you know any enlisted projects I'm not good at designing things folks but the but these are um some suggestions you know um something that doesn't
require a whole lot of ink U that really pops and draws kind of Interest I think we do have to have our Sustainable New Jersey on it too good required to put that there okay
maybe the guy that has the sign um Kelly that has a sign place maybe he's got some signs in there that that maybe had a mistake on it or was the wrong size and we could use the back of that so we wouldn't exactly it would be
not throwing it away um but we can also design the sign and just request the the quot for that and see how much that would cost yeah you know but it's something that we' have for a long time but also if he's got
something that he can't use just use one side of it it wouldn't cost anything okay or very little yeah no that's right or but I was recently like making a sign for the client and basically aluminum sign which like we can do the plastic
one like 2 by three feet it cost us like 100 bucks so that's much money and there was like a little bit of the graphic on it some some black and white you know text and so it wasn't that much so I think we could basically see how much it
would be and then okay maybe go from there and if not maybe they have some old ones that we can reuse another option remember um I think it was last year when we had the big Maps displayed and we were using the dry erase markers
so if we had like a map printed laminated something like that that you can actually draw on it like I'm picturing at Sparta day at the the um fair that we're going to have if this is spread out on the table it's this
color-coded map right and maybe we combine it and just have instead of like the reference map and then this map it's just we have major roadways on this colorcoded map and it's like that helps Orient people to find your Watershed learn where you are and that's where we
could tie in the the salt watch and trying to get people to sign up to monitor their own Watershed where they live because I was just thinking like a cheap way that we can do it quickly and we would be able to use it for the um at least for the events we have coming up
this spring is we could get a a bigger map printed and just laminated so with some dry erase markers and encourage people of all ages to come and and use it and we can see if that's enough or how we would want aand to look you know as we move forward it doesn't need to be
like a final design right now necessarily that's a good interactive project to get people involved and find out where they're at then we can provide little maybe an information for each Watershed so that they can go you know learn about the other ones but then learn about the one that's in your own
backyard there's so much here that you know uh because half of them go to the Delaware the other half go to the Hudson River and the major communities they pass through and um you know there's always the slogan that um everyone lives
most everyone lives Downstream yeah yeah if we're if we're um talking about kind of testing stuff out I would just suggest too we could we could laminate sure we could also get like a sheet of
plexiglass and then we could change the map out underneath or the graphics underneath and if we get one we can Source One like the size of folding table then you know like we just put it on and have whatever our topics are our
map and then you know do that and then that you could change the background under it I was going to say glass but you know I'm looking for something a little bit more renewable but um yeah because you would be able to generate a map like this pretty easily
on like a GIS program and just mean I could do that on AutoCAD um and I'm just thinking like a normal standard um print it's it's I mean black and white it's like two bucks you know Staples um
so bigger we have to see but we could we could put a couple of them together once you start adding colors obviously it gets a little but um yeah well that's that's great you can do that because I tried forever with New Jersey geow web and
that that's I think that's maybe where one of the maps came from but the colored map comes from New Jersey conservation blueprint and they're the only um mapping that I could find that did the colors and I think the color differences
are very engaging yeah it almost I like the colors it almost makes me think of those Watershed model the three-dimensional where you kind of introduce like uh like colored water as your pollutant
into you know yes we have one at the office and either Christine or I will be bringing it to the event yeah we like love to show them how things get polluted yeah with a squirt bottle and everything the kids love that everybody
adds a little bit and then you have a real mess at the bottom yeah right thank you you want to talk about the salt watch or yeah I just just um for your
information and I know that I've emailed um with Emily about this um that we need to have some sort of um publicity and Outreach for this
program and um so whatever we can post on our EC website I think would be very helpful especially for next season um so again the sparta 5
watersheds map um perhaps could be on there um and we need to update the the the project background as it's moving
forward we're now finished you know with that winter season and um maybe put on if they want to get you know if they want to get involved next November where to go to register and Order uh
test stps to thank you all for and thank you all if you were able to monitor this season it's greatly appreciated and um to draw them again to the Green Team you know um this is a
project of the Green Team um we now can go to this link it takes you to the Google Map and um we have 16 uh sites with in our town that have
been monitored and we um came up with so far um four sites that would be really good to be monitored and then we'd have all of the watersheds covered a little bit and their um surface water sites that
are next to where they um do Road salting the in the yellow um oh what else oh when I was putting this together a couple of hours ago um I noticed that with the Google Maps you
guys probably already know this there's a way that you can add a data table so I wanted your opinion on what data um we could put in um like should
it be the the date and highest parts per million or maybe the lowest taken and then the highest with along with the dates some sites only have one uh measurement um some sites
have six or or seven measurements that are taken but just to give people an idea of of the range and then the date I mean we're not going to the Watershed Institute correlates this with rainfall and and
everything else and gives their big presentation every year but just to give people an idea but also along with that just happen to think we need to have um a table that tells them what is a healthy measurement versus a dangerous
measurement um along along that just to inform us and I don't know whether we should have also here just so that um people know that we're not not um we're not targeting anyone we're and some of
these roads are town roads some of them are privately contracted salt salted areas and the others could be State you know that come through here um like with 517 but we need to get a whole body of
Benchmark data um so that we can know um know what's going on um and which areas are damaged so that maybe in the future we can help um agencies with better road salt management practices so the table
you're talking about last meeting you shared like three pages I think that's way too much could we take like gosh yes the site the A C the couple of the sites with the highest readings or like here's an example of three sites and the and
the five readings taken at these sites or something like that oh like we could pinpoint the bad boy like like a heat map you could do I I'm yeah like graphical would be think that's what I was about to say even with these points you can now go back and change the
colors and almost like a stoplight about the areas that are averaging higher or lower but I know it's also always subjective and every data point is different at different times well the problem though is if people only collected the data when it wasn't storming then that's misleading data
it's going to make certain areas look super bad right that these are hot spots when they might not be on the grand scheme of the the town so I don't know I know that New Jersey salt watch has like they've created little pie charts that
show kind of summations of data and I'm wondering if we can show like how many of our data points collectively maybe exceed the wildlife standards something like that so it's kind of more big picture that we're looking at we're not
trying to blame anyone any contractors pinpoint any specific roads but just demonstrate that there potentially is a problem um if it's like five out of 16 or 10 out of 16 yeah because I agree because I think you're pre-selecting based on your your
points your times your collection people and all that so if you just gave some key takeaways and then compared them to what we expect and what is deficient or egregious I think that' be good
examples would be good yeah yeah and like what what does that do to wildli or what is that why is that bad oh well that's a whole other that's a whole other presentation like a few bullet points just to get people like
why do I care right because it's hard to think like oh the level is high okay so happens yeah because most of our wellwater you know is we drink from wellwater and if your wellwater salinity gets too high if you have a heart
condition that's another thing and then that feeds back to plants because if you over salt an area the plants are impacted so even though you have great in you know great native plants um you know you're going to kill them you know
if your contractor comes and salts your driveway and they're lining your driveway well also premature weathering of the road surface too I mean if if you're worried about people you know you want to appeal to people's pockets you could say not
only are they killing your expensive plants but your driveway is going to have to get replaced sooner with overuse of salt right there seal there's so much there when you um submit your data online you
have to everyone had to indicate whether it was taken on a day when when it was snowing or when the snow was melting or when it was kind of none of the above like a sunny normal condition day maybe with spring-- like conditions like some of the days we've had this winter so it
might be good to kind of separate out like the storm event kind of data right where you have that that sample was collected when it was snowing or icing out versus like more of your Baseline data and you can assess that I would say
based on whether they're saying you know what the storm conditions were that day you know how like online when they submit the data they indicate the kind of the weather conditions but when I go back into the general data map for the whole state and I click on one of our
sites it will give me the reading the name of who did it the date and the reading in parts of million but it does not tell me this was before a storm this is after a storm I don't think no I don't think it's before or
after but it's it's um it says whether it was within 48 Hours of I don't think that's on the dropdown but we can we can check you have to enter that data though yeah but don't most people enter it it yeah I think she's saying it's not in the data
that you get after it's not in the data includ it in the database go on um if you go just on their main website yeah New Jersey salt watch it there's a button that says view data map yeah no I know what you're talking about but okay we can talk afterwards yeah okay so
we'll figure it out we follow up afterwards we want it to make sense um and be helpful you know to people thanks okay dark sky ordinance I was supposed to give you my
updates oh I don't know if anyone else has got coffee on it that's just coffee don't worry it's dry coffee you've been through it Rob I apologize I really haven't got a chance to so this weekend I'll send everyone my highlighted yeah that's fun
I I have some modifications to it what what I took away um is we had an alternate which was just kind of like a nuisance based kind of smaller ordinance I don't think there's any need I mean we wouldn't present that anyway but this this seems
like at least the general feel of what the environmental commission should put together okay so we need revisions um and then if you could bring it back through another version but also don't
yeah I mean don't uh this this is all borrowed from an organization that has uh massaged this quite a bit and put it in it's been established in a in a throughout I think throughout the US so
there shouldn't be like egregious errors uh there but if you kind of want section additions or if you think you'll see some stuff doesn't apply but the other thing you could consider too is which I
haven't um yeah is there could be kind of Zone based modifiers on this so there was like a sports Field section so you know and for our environmental or our uh economic
zones like we can modify this in that regard so when you're reviewing it I guess you don't need to get too caught up in the wording because I think the wording is pretty good right I thought so it's the general like any of those yeah and you know do you feel like you
know the town so really what what I think uh if you could look at this with the eyes of I live in this town what what's missing from this or what is unnecessary in this maybe and what would
I change in certain areas of town possibly thanks um we've already talked about the deer population did anybody have anything else to add to that right now okay um and any other resolutions or
ordinances that are drafted that we need to discuss tonight did we go anywhere with the skip the stuff ordinance we did not yet yeah okay um and resolution that's that would be a
resolution I think I think and uh and the uh make polluters pay resolution have we talked about that I don't remember us talking about that all right maybe do you want to refresh our memory or yeah it's um a lot of towns have
signed onto this there's it's I think there's a act before the legislature legislature um I'll have to dig into it some more okay maybe for the next meeting make poters pay yes I think
that's what it's called all right um next item is new business so actually this should probably be moved to unfinished business because we have talked about it before but um we're talking to Jenna who is our
um U maror New Jersey name was not coming to Mar New Jersey Watershed Ambassador all right for um so we're talking to Jenna about doing another rain barrel
Workshop um and then the other item for new business and I'll come back with dates um is Sparta day so I think we also did talk about Sparta day once before but it didn't quite make it um uh onto this list my
apologies um Sparta Day this year is May 30th pretty sure think so yeah um so we need to apply and look into how much money it's going to cost can you do that Emily yeah okay and then are folks around on May
30th I think we did I ask for volunteers last time to man Sparta day Booth yes we talked okay yeah then we we talked about sending an email and trying to divide up times to make sure that we always had someone there throughout the day
okay I don't know that's May 30th all right check your calendars and I'll start an email chain um so we can sign up for some time I know you have to get there pretty early if you're going to drive a car in to unload it's like 9 o'clock or 8 o'clock something like that
in the morning and that's it um Mohawk Avenue School right no they do that at at uh Station Park oh they do yes Sparta days at Station Park um May 30th
yep that's a Friday is it maybe it's May 31st huh then it's the 31st then the Saturday is yeah they didn't go into June this year they're doing it in May 31st y all right and I'll start an
email chain and and we can talk further about what other I think Neil you were trying to get an exhibit right from an Jack for that or were you getting that for Earth um I think Chris Christine you got yeah I did it for the Earth Day fair and then
you we're gonna do it for Sparta day do you have times for chance do we know I think it's 11 to 5 or 10 to 5 don't that time was never it's usually in June yeah they
they moved it up to the last weekend in May now 11 11 I'm going to be with my grandkid all day long so no no oh yeah okay I wish I could bring them here but they're in Philly and all the money that they raise they give back
to charity it's their biggest fundraiser okay yep all right any charity do you know no they divide it up divide it up okay yeah um all right any other new business I guess this is old business
the um bagged day are we doing that on oh yes 6 yes we are the Sunday the 6th yes for that I mean that's just filling with garbage right walk around pick up have we ever done um kind of analysis
after the fact that they garbage like I not super detailed but just he does it's always there's a point I could tell you the right okay drink bottles small bottles bottles okay that's that was I was curious about because that's
what I see on my street yep every once in a while it's a bag of fast food left over but otherwise it's beer bottles Bott water bottles usually it's the Fireballs the vodka the so you said uh any new ideas and
maybe I shouldn't share but I when I was looking into other uh ordinances uh other uses let's say uh I also came across kind of um if you look at Chelsea Massachusetts 2018 they have a
uh they try to ban because they saw an inordinate amount of the airplane bottles that 50 or 100 milliliter and then they even did a 200 Mill band and um then Connecticut did a different program where they did a collections
because they like to kind of have the recyclable deposits so some of these towns were like $70,000 in uh those little liquor bottles so how did they get money from
it I don't I don't I I'll look into the program but there was some kind probably a state where they give money for per bottle yeah they might have forced um a 5cent deposit on the purchase and then then the municipality
redeemed them but they they reported on what they earned and it was I mean some of them were yeah 70 80 grand wow so uh that was something that I just started looking at but um I don't
know if that's ever anything that could consider but I'd be curious about maybe just on the entrance and the exits like put a big garbage can with like a can you make it although I'm just seeing all the car accidents I don't know would be up for
that it's April 6th April 6 okay well we could do it April 5th or April 6th so actually we don't have another meeting between now and then do we so I guess we better finalize um I actually can't do the fifth but if other people can do the
fifth then we could go ahead and do it that day somebody else I can't do the fifth I think I can do the sixth though okay I can do the sixth too yeah I'm actually running a cleanup in Hampton the heartland of Sussex County on the
5th at the pollino Wildlife Management Area I can't you do a lot of clean up I can't I can't do the fifth but the sixth if I have any energy left yeah we decide what our location is I thought we would just do the same one we did last year up
by L Clark and Ryan yeah and we'll do as much as we can again like I think last year we did manage to get up and down every exit and down the road from all all the way to the turnaround Point yeah we did a lot of it and then Robin um from the town said when I was talking to
her about the earth a fair she confirmed that she has gloves and garbage bags for us so she was saying how many do I think would be there so I said maybe 10 to 15 and she said okay I'll get supplies for 20 so as long as we think 20 people probably need would be good enough then
we should have plenty of supplies yeah last year I went and picked them up down at the DPW okay well they were setting them all aside I guess per group that signed up rely on you to get them okay thank you or I can get them because I'm
always out there oh perfect they're yeah I'm there every day okay great if you can get him that would be good all right great and Robin is uh is the woman in the office um her last name is starts with an
H herle something like that in the main off DPW no me she's with yeah with DPW and recycling I'll find her anyway she's right her desk is right there when you walk in yeah yeah yeah are we
coordinating this with Mitch Marson yeah well he's he's uh picking up the bags and gloves and vests and we'll distribute them so oh is he but how are we going to get to him uh he um he he'll drop them off um let me see please let
me know if you would like me to drop these items off uh at your house to use so oh he can drop them off at my house if you want yep it's Robert Robin psle oh okay p
all right or I can I can ask Mitch to drop him is he GNA be working with us as well yeah Mitch Morrison is the organizer of the day oh okay I mean he's not going to be on site with us he's not no oh okay he's just organizing a bunch of
groups to do it oh okay so is he bringing having people come join us no he's not getting more people for us oh okay yeah he's just organizing so anyone from the public who wants to come join our group can come right what time are we going to do it let's do it Sunday at
like 9: 9 to 10 be the 6th on April 6th and where are we meeting at l oh where we did it that rainy day okay remembers the rainy day the
rain although we do need rain n yep let's do nine get it over and done with okay all right any other and then lmf also does one too yes they usually
do it around Labor Day though in conjunction with the Labor Day 5K or something they do it on Earth Day that's when they do it I'll find out pretty sure they do that's who was that Lake Mohawk preservation yeah I think they do it
they do it on Earth Day or that's what I meant Earth Day I don't know what I said okay all right any other new business we are busy busy busy oh uh the there's another Grant available
uh oh that's an an yes an anj grant anj grant yes $1,500 Grant we can use maybe um I don't know Landon what do you think can you use it yeah definitely I mean what was the deadline on that I it was May that is May
21st we we'll bring this up at the April 8th meeting then and then report back then for April 10th April 10th correct sorry correct that for the record Emily I'm sorry thank you please please please oh it's May 12th sorry it is the
application deadline okay well I mean if anyone else in the municipality or any of the Departments are think we can do anything with that well what about if we
purchased um testing strips they're really expensive are they yeah they you get them free when you go through the Watershed Institute they mail you some but if an organization want to have that
a project they' come in this little you know thing and they're they've gotten to be very expensive that probably would be good for the um the funding that comes from sustainable Jersey because this is I think from anjac and its open space
funding so that was the one that we used for the Arbor Day you're right event so I think this is tied more to like Trails or Parks or signage or if there was an event we wanted to do but it's more like open space and local stewardship projects yeah stewardship
projects invasive species removal yeah but the testing strips is a good idea for sustainable Jersey when they have the grants come out that's how we can really boost up this map that you have yeah Wild
colors all right anything else for the good of the environment or Community I did want to ask John um John is there a green team or Environmental Group at Pope John these days that you know about oh yeah there is would they want to uh
do an exhibit at on the earth day yeah believe so I'll get contact with them okay um it could be you know um they could come up with a kids activity or they could you know display what they've been doing um but
that would be great if Pope John had a presence also yeah thank you how about baggot day that is true you got a bunch of bunch of people that want to come out and collect garbage with us yeah yeah
the track team some Community hours community service hours yeah get your letter yes absolutely got all those dates down not not all of them though so bagot day is April 6 9 to 10 latty Clark and
what's the Ryan Ryan thank you you know where that is sorry the latty Clark and Ryan building and we meet in the parking lot oh it's uh the Walker right yes right when you get off blue and blue Haron when you get off to get on to
15 imagine you could get 20 30 people to come out and help us goals hasht goals hash all right do I have a motion to adjourn I'll make that motion thanks Rob y
second I'll second thanks Chris all in favor I I thank you everyone