Environmental Advisory Committee - Regular Meeting

Yeah, perfect. So, let's call the meeting to order here. Um, and uh the first thing that we need to do is uh approval of the July minutes. So, is there anyone who has uh anything that they want to add to that or any changes that need to be made for the minutes from July? Not hearing anything. So, do we have a motion to approve the minutes? I'll move. Second. All right. Okay, moved and seconded. Everybody in favor? I. All right. Excellent. So, minutes are approved. Uh, next up, public comments. Don't see anyone there. Is there anyone hiding in amongst those seats back there?

No. All right. Looks looks like not. So, we will we will hold that for now at least. And move into project updates. Uh, it looks like the first thing on our agenda here is sustainability. So um yeah I can provide the update there. Yeah please. The third and final session for that

student group who will be helping us uh happened the other week. So they just filled us in for the fall semester. We're going to be working on completing an inventory for our greenhouse gas emissions. And then moving into the spring semester, they're going to help us build a document. Uh whether we decide we would like them to help with a climate action plan or a community survey or other types of planning documentation, uh we'll be able to discuss that internally and help guide the direction for that. Uh right now, MCandless has provided the organization with the data requests necessary so that they can reach out to the utilities, get more information. uh school is starting up here in a couple weeks. So, they're going to assign students to us and they're going to be helping us and working closely to do this very exciting work that is super timeconuming. So, that's the update there.

Great. Is there is there a uh like an ETA on that or anything or is it just at some point during the semester? So, um they start up on the 25th and then a week or so before that we're going to be introduced to our student partners. We're going to have regular communication with them. Um, so that's going to be ongoing. We're not quite sure of the cadence. It's up to the town and the students to work together to see what we prefer, whether we want to meet by phone or by Zoom or just through email and communicate that way. So, it is going to be regular communication. Yeah. Throughout the semester.

And one of the things they mentioned too, the timing is also going to be tricky because the utility companies are basically going to supply the data on their schedule. So, that could be up in the air a little bit as well. That's part of why they request historic data. Yeah, I think we're doing 2024, not 2025. Okay, that's a lot easier. I have a friend who's in administration of decaying light and they are very far behind on a lot of things because of the storm season we had in the spring. They're still catching up from that. So, a lot of their personnel is still doing that. Yeah, too. But they'll work with what they have and there are always gaps and when that happens, you just make assumptions. Yeah. Great.

Any other questions? from me. All right. Excellent. Uh let's jump to rain garden. Joanna.

All right. Um so if you go up there right now, there's a lot of really pretty things blooming. Um I don't know from Brad if all of this rain done, but it does look like some of it has been done. And it's beyond just the rain garden, but if you look at the Japanese knotweed that was on the hill in the park in general, it does look like quite a bit of it has been uh both uh chopped down and sprayed somewhat recently. So, it does look really good up there as far as the spraying, taking care of the Japanese knotweed. And they were thankfully um very conservative in the amount that they did. Um, it's mainly in like the ending part down by the sidewalk is where most of the Japanese kneaded was. So, they didn't knock down anything or do any cutting down as you're getting down towards like the heritage center and things. So, there's that. The other thing I want to bring up, and this is more of a question for Trish, um has to do with I have heard rumor um that they were looking at putting lights in that parking lots, which I understand from a safety standpoint like if you're coming out of the Heritage Center, but then I also worry about the light pollution, what that does for the pollinators for that area because we have put a lot of effort into a lot of the plants and everything going in there

beyond timers, they won't be on all night. Okay, that's the main thing I wanted to double check. Like, as long as there's like a switch or a timer or something, that's fine. Or if you're using it, I think it's like during Heritage Center hours, like during the winter, if they have programming that goes until 9:00 at night, you know, they would want to have the parking lot safely lit. Yes. And that that totally makes sense and I understand that, but wanted to make sure it's not on all especially during the summertime. In the winter, you don't have to worry as much. But I will double I will send a note along that line just to make double check it. But be somewhat aware that one of our public commenters that's one of her big things is the light pollution.

Just just being aware of that. Yeah. That we heard from a lot of the public when there was consideration of the sign outside as well. Odd light show. Yeah. Yeah. I think that was one of them. But um but I do think um I mean uh I when we leave here and I drive past the ambulance facility, I mean those lights are crazy. I don't know how anybody can see, but um I mean do you know what kind of lighting they are considering in that parking lot? I don't recall. It's hopefully down lighting. I think it's it's it's for the

people walking from the Heritage Center to their vehicle is the purpose of it. It's not to draw attention or anything like that. Not lighting up the ball field. Yeah. Now, they're not they're not lighting the soccer fields or anything like that. EMS, you know, all those lights point out. They don't point down. Like, have you ever noticed that? I've not noticed it. Um, but if that be something to they they lease the space from us. We don't control that facility. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Something to consider. But yeah, so I would say I think you're talking about Ellen. Is that Yeah. Yeah. But I think as a committee we should care about pollution.

But I just mean Yeah. Don't think it's coming out of the left field when if there's a comment about it. Oh yeah. Just being aware of it. Yeah. So your pollinators will be safe. Mhm. Well, there I'm not sure the difference anymore with what type of lighting they use, whether it's LED or whether it's uh because different things throw off different spectrums. I'm not sure. I believe all the lights that they've started switching out to in the ball fields have been LED. So, I I don't know for sure, but I would guess it's going to be LED. Less energy. Exactly. Mhm.

All right. Anything else about the rain garden? That's about it. Yeah, I think we're good. Cool. All right, Bernie, let's go on to you for the tree program updates.

Okay. Uh, so I have a fully executed agreement with Tree Pittsburgh that was signed off by um John Schwend and and gang here at the staff. Um, and it is for the tree adoption u which would happen on October 18th. the same day as our tree tenders. The tree tenders program on October 18th, it's a Saturday, will run from 9 to 3 and then the tree adoption will go from 3 to five. So, we'll do two hours. We're only uh at this first um time looking at just 100 trees and canvas uh has agreed to underwrite that. Though I'm still going to try and get sponsorship up to and including so Dukane today, right? I talked with them about um their role with um they they have a program called right tree right place. So as you all know I've been talking to them for a while about what could we do. So I've asked them to bring that you know we're at odds with them. I mean I talked to now Pen Power and Dukane Light and Dukane Light is certainly more aggressive in removing mature trees than Pen Power. Um, having talked with both vegetation groups, so Pen Power is willing to do a tree planting in the spring. Um, you know, possibly 200 trees. I mentioned to Liz about this um, you know, the Penn State event. She said she may be able to clear this fall room for a 200 tree planting in, you know, her area. So that would be something we you know try to angle for for as part of the schedule for next year. Uh but for right now you know um I was trying to recruit Dukane Light. Their vegetation management folks are have been traditionally very

aggressive with removal mature trees. So you know talk to them about the fear people have about trees now. Um anyway, so they're going to join us on that October 18th event both for the tree tenders as well as the tree adoption and we'll try to do they're going to engage with us on the education the guy who runs vegetation and I'm trying to get him to see a balance of interest and not just you know only what they want all the time. So anyway, I think it was a successful call today. And then I've also asked for their sponsorship for the plantings and they're uh amendable to that. They're just don't want it to be so significant that they're not considering all their other municipalities because as we know, you know, they're not the only one here. But anyway, so we'll see what their response is. Um but they canled on me a couple of times. So, I insisted I talked to them today. So, we had an update from them today. But, but he he's a Penn State arborist, uh, the gentleman who runs vegetation management, and because they're playing in Iowa that day, he's willing to come. So, I know um anyway, if not, he wouldn't be available. So, um, but I think I I have been working. So, we met with um Jeff, John, Diane, and and I all met with John Schwend. Um had a conversation about um how to view this program and um I mean, you never report out on this stuff, but anyway, but he essentially said, you know, they're supportive of this initiative and what we're doing. Um I as you know John has ideas as to what he'd like to do too. Uh he wants us to

be a tree city. So I what I've been working on though I crashed my computer and it did not recover. There's no recovered documents other than two of them. Um I know. So I went back to my chat original files but they're not updated. But I am happy to kind of forward to everybody like you know this is kind of what I did as a you know a quick you know what what a it would look like. Um so I ran this whole strategic plan through chat emission vision um you know how we'd do it kind of explaining to the public um how we would you know publish and communicate it. So, this is um I had done edits on this though and that's what I lost and uh I'm kind of bummed out um because this was hard to edit. Um so, and and mainly because but but the goal for 26 would be only a thousand trees to plant. So, I see running it over that 10-year window if we can get Pen Power to do the 200. And then obviously the goal is um to um launch by January the GPS if not sooner.

Uh we talked about launching kind of a whole map system and kicking this off. Uh but I have an entire strategic plan. This is this was the summary of it which was the high points but so I have a longer document and that's what didn't get recovered. I have the original one that showed the wrong dates and the wrong projected quantities. So, I will figure out what happened to that file and get them updated and get them to you. But I think the most significant part of the conversation with John Schwen was um uh was had to do with budget. You know, he asked for a budget and so that was part of what was in the strategic plan. was a projected budget and budget categories. Um, there we go. Um, nope, that's not it. Um, anyway, I'm so sorry. I I mean, literally as I was walking out the door, uh, you know, it crashed. I tried reopening the files and they're not here. But, um, I do have a file with a projected budget. Um, I think the problem is I have about 600 files on this. Um, but if I got to the budget, you know, it's about a million dollar, you know, is like 900,000 over the 10 years. And yeah, but there are um grants that we can apply for, corporate donations. There's kind of a whole host. But part of what I did, John, which is why I think it's important for me to find that document right now, is I had put staff time in it and because it's something that, you know, John's talked about, which is either allocating staff time or getting staff, which could be an arborist, a contract arborist or

something like that to kind of because what he said is if when MacAS goes to become a tree city, there has to be a certain portion of its budget that is allocated to trees. So, you know, part of this is how do we go get the state grants that are available that could be that budget on an ongoing basis in in addition to uh so I don't know what the thoughts are about that John? You know, I don't know. You don't know? Yeah.

Yeah. So because trees and materials when I I have a summary budget trees and materials were 500,000 uh events and education over the 10 years the 160,000 staff support was 263,000 marketing over the 10 years was 65,000. So again that that was just the budget summary. I'm missing the um you know the the more detailed document and that's what seems to be like gone and I'm not getting it back. Um but I did want to share this idea. Um, I mentioned uh so part of what I think on the kickoff what you're seeing is a project I did in Mount Washington and when we started talking about this fifth grade park of the city and how it would just take all the green space and would make it into a park, people would look at us and go, I don't know what you're talking about. So we had an architect, Jonathan Klene. I asked Jonathan if he would create a visualization of what I'm talking about. So part of what I'd like to do, you know, this fall, you know, for the launch next year is to do a visualization of what a restored tree canopy might look like, you know, and it would be we did it as a poster, but we really did this as handouts. it became the you know the and and obviously ultimately the park didn't get named that but you know but it was a concept that we were able to people would go oh oh is that all like something that could be made into a park and I feel like the same way about you know how we might go about this so but I feel like what I came here did tonight to do and that I don't have adequate information to share with you is to get kind of an approval on how we might go about a budget and that budget might be too high. You know, I I once did the math on tree Pittsburgh

trees at 40 bucks each and what it would cost to do it and then kept thinking like how do we do this where these are sponsored. Um because as you know, you know, the tree Pittsburgh trees at 40 bucks each include all the staking, but if there are sections where like at the arboritum where you're not necessarily

something I threw out before and I've talked with Brad about a little bit of rather than relying on tree Pittsburgh and things, we've got area over here and basically doing the greenhouse um and doing this on our Um, we've got seed sources here. All that's is not that difficult to do. Um, and it's something that you can then get a lot of community involvement with kids doing stuff and and everything. So, that's kind of where I am on sources of trees and things like that.

Well, so in talking with Danielle, they need another nursery. They're out of room in their nursery. So, what I'd love to do is, you know, figure out with them how to put a nursery up in the park area or somewhere up here, right? And maybe we have area, you know, that you could do that. But um I mean one of the things I find if you feel like there's energy to do that but I made a promise to everybody that I would not create you know um programs that required you know a lot of um I don't know investment is that the right word um

I'm looking at it as it's community involvement in the sort of uh educational um stuff for for kids and and uh because a lot of our suburban kids at this point don't uh don't get their hands dirty growing things and and understanding, you know, the the whole cycle of things and um so I was looking at it as a as a big education thing as well as as a less expensive way to do things. I'm with you obviously, you know. Yeah. I mean just these numbers I'll be honest that the council they'll be you'll have some reluctancy for sure but uh Mhm.

I I like the have has there been consideration of involving the school district cuz I like when you're talking about a greenhouse my brain is immediately going to this the old Nike missile site off of right beside Hosak. It's 11 acres that the school still owns. H really that's not getting used but for anything but overflow parking on chorus night. Wow. There's a lot of areas like that and it's it's it's not that difficult to set up and and to do you could tie in with the school there because it would literally you wouldn't even have to bust the children. It would it would be a situation of walking. Okay.

Outside. Is that something that you want to figure out how to get that? My bottom line on all this is is until we get the deer population under control. Well, that's why I only do a thousand next year and not 5,000, right? So, but it's it's really not that big of a thing to, you know, you've got with a tech over there, you've got carpenters and and so forth to and then the the plastic sheeting that's clear and all of that. I mean it it's not a it's not a far reach to make it a community project and and with those things I'm willing to head it up but I mean when it comes to building the greenhouse okay carpenters right you know

right um that's theirs to do you know kind of thing but it's it's um I think it's something that you can get the the community involved and we can cut expenses.

Yeah. Um I I mean I I saw that as something I would love to see happen and if you think that could happen sooner not later then yeah even if you're just you know again I would definitely work with you. I mean part of what I worked out in this strategy plan were the key roles and I saw it as there's kind of program chairs but then there's community engagement leadership and there's planting and stewardship leadership right so and that's I think just to get us started and so you know obviously planting and stewardship you know I you know I feel like kind of falls here and I know we always kept talking about having Mark getting more involved D in the community engagement.

So I I know you can do that but I think you know how do we you know do that broader and and I did find my list of all the people who want to get involved and help like Elaine Mik and a few others. Um, so I do think there's a lot of energy around doing it. But to your point, Trish, you know, when I originally did this budget and made it equal over all the years, that's why um this upcoming year I um scaled back from the 3500 trees that were projected for next year. And we're not paying for those trees. I mean, most of our strategy just to share because you haven't been here. I mean the strategy is more about you know how do we Tom Sawyer the community into doing it right. So, how do we educate the public and try to get trees in on private property, right tree, right place, and then give them So, you know, Ken's idea was we talked to all the nurseries, Lowe's, like everybody who's selling trees on our footprint and get them to participate in some kind of, you know, program where you say, "I'm a mechanist resident participating in this." But yeah, I have uh whole initiatives around scheduling and what we could do. Uh and again, I apologize for uh and and I'm fine to send this once I um

would you be able to create a folder in the environmental advisory committee SharePoint and just add all of your I would love that because what I was trying to do before the meeting when it crashed was I had all the files open. And I was trying to put them into a PowerPoint and that's when it crashed. So, uh, cuz you're right, if you them there. Yeah. You could work out of that and create arts and

Yeah. Because I do think I mean part of it like this was, you know, this is like the action plan schedule, you know, I really see just focusing on spring and fall uh planting events, the tree adoptions, the tree sales, you know, would happen those two key times. and all the other stuff is education programming. Um, you know, the tree tenders, we've talked about to your point, can we do a training for Macanless residents that isn't always a tree tenders training, right? Where we just get community residents who don't want to spend six hours on a Saturday to do it, but would come for an hour and learn about trees, right? You could do that, right? But I think you know those are the things that I see us being able to project and yeah I was hoping to you know be able to and again I lost stuff from here as well but but I think part of it is not you know looking to launch until January but I told John I owed him all of next year's calendar in October

for the calendar. So, I'd like to be able to at least, you know, for those months of, you know, the plantings be able to suggest that and get on the tree tenders training calendar for next year um with adoption. But but I agree, we need a budget and I probably need to uh you know maybe come back next month with that. Um you know, but maybe I can work with the staff and you Trish on what is realistic because I know these numbers scare everybody. But I also know that there is lots of money earmarked at federal, state, and private foundations just for tree findings or purchasing trees. So we really just need to tap into that. Do you have a list of those by any chance and the amounts?

Does that exist? You mean how much to raise from where?

Uh like the the amounts that are available and the things that we can actually apply for and that are realistic for us to get like is there a is there a a a created list of those things at this point? Well, so I um met with Arvin staff about it and um so I mean there's three that I started with with Tree Pittsburgh, but as John knows from my meeting with John Schwand, I was upset because we missed all three deadlines this year to get that for next year, which is why I had to back off our goals for next year and back backtrack because I wanted to do so DCNR has like a $100,000 grant And there's um there's one that um what's the name of the the parks conservancy gets one every year. They're they're the one managing the tree vitalize grant. So we can apply to that just for tree plantings. And there's a third one in the community as well. But that's before we even talk to foundations that have funding for this. um some of the private foundations and some of this is working with uh you know the park and the friends of the park and what they're doing. But Ken's been good about trying to connect me with like Liz and you know her just having a clearing for 200 trees that we could land from West Penn that means 800 trees need to be planted by the community, right? So, we could do tree adoption, pre-sales, and just try to um you know, compel people to put them in. Well, I think

I think maybe since since budget is kind of a a priority type of thing at this point, maybe an action item for next month in addition to hopefully you were able to just recover those files and that you have all of that stuff and that doesn't take you too long, but maybe starting to put together that list and those due dates so that we have a document that says, "Hey, look, we've got to be watching out for this. This due date's coming up. We got to we've got these things to apply for." And then we can actually go through and say, "Hey, here's how much we can get in grants." Cuz I'm I'm sure if we go to the council and say, "Hey, we need a million." They're going to be like, "No." But if we go and we say, "Hey, we need $200,000 and we're going to get $800,000 from these grants over here." Maybe then it sounds a little better, right? If we're like, "Hey, look at how much we're we're taking care of on the on from from outside of the the money that we need from the from the town."

Well, that was always my intent. I knew McCandless isn't sitting around with a million bucks to blow. So, I mean, I never anticipated coming up with that kind of request. So, it would all be grant um funded um those kind of requests. But you have to say, here's the plan of what I would do in order to qualify for the funding. So, you know, you at least have to say it is our intention to do this. And that's why the number is what it is. Is that way you can attract that kind of support. Uh so as opposed to if you give me money I will plant. It's you've got to say I have this goal we we're going to do this and then apply for the funding. So I did talk with um a few of the legislative folks and I have talked with DCNR and PDP. PDP has program funding but DCNR tree vitalize tree vitalize is funneled through the conserancy but the funding that we just got for the parks is there are there's one just for passive green space and my larger concern is the conflict there is an open award right now the gaming funds from the state but again if I jump in there and already has plans but that's why John Schwend is saying you know give us a budget and let us figure it out when we're branch for the township.

So yeah, but I I think uh next year so those numbers did count uh the addition over time of staff. Um but based more on what John Schwint has said and maybe I can pull those out and let him make a decision about you know when he pulls an arborist in either on a contract or something like that. Do you have to allocate your time that way, John? No. All my money is basically in the communications budget this day, so we don't need to worry about that. So, okay. Yeah.

Yeah. So, if I pull that out, I mean, the staff support was uh wow, pretty significant. Um, so yeah, if I just even pulled that out, it's the it's yeah, it's several Well, it's a lot. Uh I I didn't uh you know again my I I can't believe none of these files saved. Um they usually recover the documents and anyway um yeah to think about with this and whatever other programs is we're going to be getting convening our committee of the mechanist 175 together. Yeah. Like wouldn't this be a neat thing? Yeah.

Too to say you know like our history is we have a big tree on our logo. just keep going with those kind of things 175 too. And that's part of what Matt and Ken have been working on is these legacy trees. And I don't know what month we want to you mark that for. I've tried in the meeting figuring out when there when is the official date for the celebration and I heard there isn't one. There isn't one yet. They're trying to it's going to be like year-long little things. Yeah, there'll be there'll be small events and probably like a culmination of something like around community like at community day because

we don't we still don't have budget to have fireworks five times a year. You know, I don't know maybe some people would like it. One of the things with um the the trees is we have an old list of of you know old trees here in McCandless and it's just a matter of for my preference I'd rather wait until fall. it's a little easier to to that see the big trees that aren't and but we have a list of of some and and I'm sure that's not a complete list at all of if I'm looking around at at trees, you know, there's

like at my house, one tree I took down two years ago, I got back to 1846 on it, you know, and there's it's got brothers there that are bigger. So, Wow. One other question. Did you have a chance to look at at grants for rehabbing the house on the new um part of Potter Park? No, but we talked about that. And so there are, you know, there are it's the same pot of funds between DCNR, DCD. I mean, there's all these state funds. I don't know if that house is even Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've been in it. Oh,

I I have not been in it. So, I I know the barn's coming down and that house. I can see I mean the barn I'm hoping they keep the the stone foundation, the barn and maybe build upon that because it is a beautiful stone foundation. Um the house uh putting my realtor hat on here. Okay. I I didn't I didn't

And there's a lot of there's heart in it. There's heart and memories and a whole lot of stuff. But but I don't know that it's I don't know if it's a historically significant. There's it's an old house. It's an old farmhouse. There's you know it's got all the attributes of an old farmhouse. Yeah. Kind of sideways walking narrow stairwells. I mean, you don't have to go in it to see the back board just completely mauled like like by gunshot with the woodpeckers and the woodpeckers have

and the you know the woodpeckers and invite the flying squirrels and then invite you know I would imagine there's critters inside there as well. I don't it would be a significant task. Okay. To rehab that into something useful. Just something is is it is perfectly placed to be a nature center if it was reasonable to do but and I hadn't been in it to have any idea if it was reasonable to do. It's I mean I'd love to see something small like that. But the the other part of that equation is where will people park? Mhm. That's a huge part of our conversation with the parks planning is where will people park with all these things we

trails and where trails will be and you know like anything we do it needs you know obviously accessibility has to be you know considered and there's that and then you know if you had a nature center let's say you have programming for 15 people right now there's not a place for 15 cars Yeah, that's something that we have to think about, too. Yeah. I'm not sure how good the sycamore trees are going to do here as we go along, too. They don't look real good to me. Yeah. Oh, that's unfortunate. Those were There's someone coming from the state

um the end of August. That one and the big white oak. The big white oak is right where the spring comes out. Everything that's that's an old tree. Yeah. I'm not sure what day, but there is someone coming from the state to to walk the and point out significant trees and things like that. Oh, that's part of Ken already did that, right?

I This is I don't I know we may be becoming a little bit redundant here. is kind of what I'm hearing quite a lot of when we're talking about trees, but um this is something from the consulting firm. It's part of what they're doing. There's some interesting plantings. It didn't I mean, I'd be curious to see your opinion and their opinion side by side to see what's going on. see where like where you know the value is where the you know and it it really depends on how how the access is and and everything because there it's it's a wide open thing right now. It's an open book to right

it's a matter of how we're able to do things as to what you end up doing right and you know we have to keep in mind like things like potter it was deed to the town for passive use only so no active sorts of recreation can ever happen I know that it ever absolutely well I'm actually happy to hear that because I's kind of a general feel that

the the minor property will kind of follow in that same more passive possibly trails some birding you know that sort of thing not you know um there was one council person that started saying oh we could put a ballpark over here I'm like not putting any ball over there not appropriate for that

no not at all so I think you know generally we're we're leaning toward board. You know, my my vision would be to have, you know, a trail head that had a signage that said, "Here's a, you know, half mile fully accessible trail. Here's something a little longer, a little more aggressive, you know, and just have the loops, you know, kind of thing that will connect with Vestal and that will connect to Wall." And then we're looking at connecting with Franklin, we're hoping. Yeah. We got this.

Yeah. So here's our our current green space. You know, we're hoping to get to the point where they do start connecting and connect that visualization. That's what we did because those green spaces in Grand View were not connected like around the thing. So is there a visualization? Well, that's part of what the consulting firm is working on is, you know, we we look at these different places and say, you know, can there be a trail system from here to here? Like, here's the thing, like we have this little lot right down here on the border with Ross Township. And it is I haven't been in that one.

It Well, because it's landlocked by private property. There's two there's a lot, a middle lot and another lot. A middle lot is owned by a resident who has a house on it. So you have these two big lots with a divider in the middle and everything is landlocked by private residents. Yeah. You can't get get can't get to it. That's why I haven't been there. So you'd have to go through someone's yard. So but we you know we're looking at things like it possibly we could possibly do something see something happening where we're connecting with some trails through Franklin Park things like that because we're They've talked about that sent these guys.

So there's a lot I mean there's our we're going to be looking for more public opinion coming. There's going to be more options for that. But hoping that there's a plan in place for parks by December. Oh, good. So that's how the goal. So that's going to come quickly. So yeah. when is the um you know decision making on that happening? Well, that's when they're expecting to present to council. So, usually it takes who does make the decision agenda? Well, it's going you know it is kind of like the way I see it and understand it. I could be wrong like the comprehensive plan. Yeah.

Like they say here's the information that was gathered. Here's what the community said at once. Here's some ideas to make that happen. Now, that doesn't mean the council says yes to all of it. It's kind of like we take it in advisement whenever we say we're going to put this much money toward the trees because it matches what this plant it fits in this part of the plan, right? And and I do think like when we got those um you know like you know pen power, we need to get that commitment on how many trees because that's what I don't know yet. but they do 20,000 trees a year.

So, I want to get on their calendar and make sure that we can allocate maybe in our own little parks, you know, are there spaces for trees because they just want to see a big community gathering and volunteering. They don't want to see them go in neighborhood streets. So, we could use those trees as an example for our own parks, right?

And that way the funds that we get maybe can go toward other things. But so you're right, they all between the 175th of parks plant, I feel like the tree thing fits and then to your point, you know, where you putting the greenhouse, the nursery, like everything else, right? So yeah, so I I you know, and I do think that's why I saw a need for more staff because I don't know if the existing staff can manage what I think it looks like a lot of ambitious plans that, you know, This is the first year we've had a full-time recreation person ever in this town.

Two years ago was the first time we had a part-time recreation person in this town that has been said in 5 years. So, there's been an a kind of a shift from administration and council to see that and to realize that our residents appreciate the value of our parks and our community. And you know, the old line of but we have North Park, we don't have to invest. That's old. That's old now. Yeah, I'm glad to hear that. I mean I mean I there's an awful lot of work that can be done on you the existing Potter park and wall park absolutely

even in Vestal but uh a lot of that is restoration of our ecosystem and stuff and

that's a ongoing thing and hopefully can get a lot of community involvement. Yeah, we're I mean that's some of the issues that have come up from constituents is talking about things like accessibility like yeah, I'd love to go to Potter Park, but how am I supposed to get there? Um, you know, you hear that or Wall Park, I guess they have issues because of the ball fields. If there's two big games, there's not enough parking for for people to come and watch their kids play or or let alone grandma in a wheelchair can't even come and watch their grandchild play. So, they there weren't like those kind of things. Um, yeah, it's all part of the parks planning, too. Not

all right. Well, this is uh this is this is a fantastic conversation and I love this, but we do have some other agenda things that we need to move on to. So, I want to table this for now. Uh if we have additional time at the end of the meeting, we can come back to this discussion because I think that this is great. We're getting a lot of questions answered. So, I really appreciate that. So, thank you, Trish, for providing the info that you have. Uh because I think we don't have a lot of that info. So, that's really going to be valuable in us. It's a work project, too. So, yeah. Right. Absolutely. Nothing nothing I say is is uh set in stone, but it's what we're talking about. Absolutely. On that committee, too. So, yeah.

Um any anything any uh final words on the uh the tree program.

Um I think you know I I think maybe I mean we've been working on this for as long as you know last since I've been here, right? But I think, you know, what I'd just be looking for is some support and and I agree. I never wanted to propose any budget amount that we couldn't get sponsored or covered. But this is also why I see the need for additional staff because as a volunteer who now, you know, even while I was sitting here, a billion dollars was allocated for the work I do. Um, so, you know, I know somebody just sent me a note, Merry Christmas. So I keep getting loaded up with work. So the time that I thought I was going to have myself to dedicate to it just keeps eroding with how much u you know my day job keeps consuming me. So I I am hoping whether it's because we can create more volunteer infrastructure for the tree program and I do want to do that. um you know, how do we build that out in addition to um you know, I but I do think taking it on is going to require some level of staff, you know, time. Um and and I don't know outside of John who's going to be allocated to that. Is it going to be you? And do you have the

It could be mix of anyone really. Yeah. You know, but that's a question. Does the Yeah. township have the bandwidth to do it today? Okay. Who knows? It's going to depend. All right. All right. Anyway, um that looks that that seems like a good thing to uh to explore and to look into moving forward here. All right, let's go into community outreach. Um and we've got the deer presentation coming up on the 30th of September. So, Ken, how's that moving forward here?

Oh, everything everything's in place for that. Um I'm not in charge of the publicity. John's doing all of that stuff and um and Mark is also supposed to be involved in that. But um Janine will be here on 9:30 to do the presentation. Um I'll just you know that is ongoing with what we've been trying to do with um the PR pieces we've been putting out there and and we've been doing this for a number of years now. So, it's what I'm finding and I'll just go into the the second part with the um you know the deer management end of things. It's like when we were at the uh master gardener thing, Jeff and I were there and we we must have had roughly 35 people that stopped and virtually every one of them um all but one um was bringing up deer and everybody is very aware that we have way way way too many deer. And all I can say at that point is is that we are going to try to do a more aggressive uh uh management program this year. Um you know and and so I'm I'm finding that there's a lot of uh community support for that. I haven't I haven't run into the people that are against it and I'm sure they'll be fifers at some point.

Yeah, I met one the other day. Um, but it's that's part of the reason for having Janine come in is that she's the person that can field any of that that type of stuff from an authoritative position. So, that's pretty much, you know, what I have. Uh, we're going to continue with the, you know, the archery hunting and and, uh, I think our paperwork is moving along to do the, uh, the more substantial management program. Great. I saw uh I've seen some publicity and some stuff in the paper about the deer populations as well. So, good to see that it's um it's something that people are talking about and getting out there. Um any anything else?

All through you've got Ross is going to be doing a call this year. The city of Pittsburgh is doing a call. Fox Chapel's been doing a call. So, it's it's not like we're the only people out there looking at doing an increase management. Yeah. And that's good because if we were it wouldn't I don't think it would be effective if if not if if everybody's not doing it. You kind of have uh trouble, right? Because they just wander off to other areas. Um Garden in the Park. Any any additional things to add about Garden in the Park and how that went?

It just the it's smaller than it used to be. I used to have my own table there for American Chestnut Foundation and there's fewer participants in it and uh you still get a good flow of people coming through and the people that are coming through are all very interested in in uh the various things that are there. You know, the the gardeners and um you know, Friends of North Park were there and so forth. So, it's it's a good way for getting community involvement and some information out there and and uh I think it's a worthwhile thing to to spend a couple hours at. Great. How many uh about how many people did we have come up? Do you have any any idea?

The best the best of just my recollection is we had extended conversations with about 35 people. Oh, okay. That's great. That sounds good. Uh, let's go to National Night Out. Melissa, how did that go? National Night Out was a big success. I thought uh Jeff and I were there for the whole event. We actually had a lot more people show up than I was expecting. I would say we were pretty busy most of the night. Um, we have almost a full signup sheet of new names of potential volunteers that I'll be adding to that combined file. Good. Yeah, we had really great discussions. It was a very worth our time to be there. Good. Good. That sounds good.

Volunteers. Yeah. Few of the marked trees. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Um and that that feeds a little bit into our next thing which is community day. Um I was going to ask if there was anything that you did or that happened at National Night Out that you thought we should absolutely make sure that we repeat for community day this year. Um I'm guessing the signup sheet is definitely one of them. Yeah, the signup seat sheet was very successful. We also need to ensure we have little rocks to hold down our paper because it blows away. We also had to use several zip ties to adhere our sign to post to the little

I was going to say I saw at uh garden the park my rain garden sign needs to be windproof. So I will try to work on something for that. That's a lesson learned. We but really as as the environmental advisory committee, we don't necessarily even need all the pamphlets. So, so that's a consideration, too. But we'll definitely want a great activity to draw in the families for community day. We we were only talking at National Night Out. It was still good, but definitely not the same as what we want for community day. Great.

Yeah. So, uh do we have thoughts on community day so far? Because I know in the past we have definitely done we've done a number of different things. We've had uh the art kind of projects that uh Don used to run. We've had the snacks that we provided with the cups of dirt, the uh the little pudding cups, and we've done um giveaways of of different types of things. So, uh are there thoughts at this point as to what we want to have at our booth this year?

So, I I will say I noticed in the email that came out, they don't want us giving out food any larger than simply a wrapped piece of candy. So, keep that in mind if we are going the food route. They said it takes away from the food vendors who are there, so we can't be doing bigger treats. Um, I personally thought the recycling game that you had going on last year was a pretty big success and something like that could be fun again. But as far as actual crafter activity, Joanna, do you have anything?

I have a couple ideas. I was going to I don't know. I was going to pick your brains because the biggest thing for it is like it needs to be accessible to everybody. And that's one of the things that was kind of successful about Winterfest was that you could adapt it for all different ages. So, um I had things there where for like up to three, you take a glue stick, you rub it on with them and they can color on directly on that for a way that they could help around the house. And then some kids could draw a picture and then the older kids could actually like write something. So, you could have that adaptation for everybody. So looking at something like that, you have to think one, it's this one's going to be a very long period of time. So this we're looking at it starts

it's longer than usually like noon to 8. Last year it was four or five to eight,

right? So what do we what could we do where we could have enough material so we don't run out? Cuz that's part of it like if you have to source a lot of materials for that many crafts and you a lot of kids come to this. So how can you get enough? obviously make sure everybody can do it. It's accessible for everybody. Um, everybody feels like it's meaningful. It ties into something and in a way it's also sustainable because one of the things I didn't like about the dirt cups from last year was that it's a single-use cup. It's a single-use utensil. Um, and it all gets thrown away. So, that's not really sustainable. It's just kind of a fun little snackivity. So that's where I'm like kind of stuck on like what could work and I could actually like source that many materials for something. And I'm not sure like the best thing is like making magic wands out of sticks or I've done crafts before with like taking sticks and like I you can use them for Christmas ornaments, but that's better even like with a glue gun. So, we don't have access to that and I don't want a glue gun out there.

Maybe instead of the craft route, maybe we go more along the Q&A type game where we have either a wheel or different categories that they can somehow choose. They get a question and then if they get it right, I don't we'd have to find little prizes to give them, but just something something maybe gardeny or Yeah. So, one thing I'll throw out at you is um you uh you have to think about your audience for that, right? Uh cuz one of the things we've run into in the past is uh some of the things we've done with the recycling game like it's too difficult for kids and adults don't want to do it. And so it's like okay where where is our line here for like what can we do that's easy enough that kids

can still do it and be engaged and and I liked last year um the the previous year we did like we ran like a show and we had them all come up and we had people sign up and we had contestants and we did all kinds. Last year we basically just when somebody came up we were like hey you want to play a quick game with us and then we just like kind of rotated through a lot um and I don't remember even what I think we gave away I think man gave us a bunch of like bird feeders and stuff like that that we were that we w up giving away toys that were given away where the toys would come from.

Yeah. Well, I I had brought some with me, but I mean there there aren't enough to do that all all day, right? There's there like I I couldn't provide those and um I don't think that we have a much of a budget for things like that. So, if we want to do just like candy or something, we can certainly do that. That's not my favorite thing to give away to kids cuz But sticks. Can we give away sticks, stones? What What do we think? No. Kids as far as those might break bones. Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, they do that. Yeah. Yeah. As far as making a Q&A thing more gamelike, we could set it up so we have a little like a recycling container and a trash container and we laminate just basic pictures of items and have them put it physically put it in because then it's for the kids.

Yeah, I mean that's that's definitely a lot of fun. If there is somebody who's able and willing to build that type of thing, uh that could be great. Um we also need to talk about people who can attend this thing. Uh this is where I deliver the bad news that I cannot attend because I will not be available that day. Um so as far as running a game, I won't be able to do that. Uh but are there people who are able to attend? Obviously, if we can do this in shifts, it's going to be better since it's a 1:00 to 8:00 type of thing plus setup plus tear down. Um Jeff said that he can be there. I can be there for part of the time.

I was planning on being there the whole time if we're doing kid related things. That's where I have that background. So September 13th and it's it goes until 8. So even if you could spare like two hours in there. Yes. Before season. Okay. So you can help a little. What about you? Yeah, I can definitely um figure out what day part you need people to fill in on. Okay. Yeah. As far as timing, I do we want to decide that right now or should we maybe set that up by email so people can do a signup sheet maybe email might be

I think email is a better way to do that. Plus then we can also figure out if we need additional volunteers. Um we're not getting our own volunteers this year. We're instead having um is doing that for us. Uh I can't remember Abby I believe is the person who's going to be doing that for us. So uh we'll go we'll be going through her to get volunteers if we need them. We haven't let her know that we do need any at this point. So, we should figure it out soon so that we can let her know if we do and then she would be able to to fill for us um if we need additional. So, probably in the next week or two, we should figure that out via email. Okay. She'll be hitting up the school next week. Yeah. They start up the 21st they start.

Yeah. Yeah. To send around for us to sign up. Yeah. For like two hours at a time or something like that. Yeah. send by email or we can send out and say what times we are free and then I can build out the schedule from there and do that too. And I would assume most of your volunteers that are get recruited majority are going to be high school students. So you're going to make sure one of you are at the booth at least one adult. Yeah. We have them, you know, just do like a big container of dirt and have teach kids how to plant trees. That could be a fun activity. You know, they could get them dirty and just do Yeah. Have a couple little aprons. Yeah.

We've got a fairly small spot. I believe it said it could be, you know, basically a sensory bin. You're basically making a sensory bin. Yeah. Yeah. Jeff, I think was asking to be sure that he got an 8 foot table. So, we're not we're not in a very big spot. Would you with doing that? Would you let them keep anything related to That's what I was thinking because I mean it'd be cool to do little pine trees like and then let them take them. But you know um cuz from 12 maybe maybe we only do that even for select hours in the day. We have a sign up that says pine tree planting from 2 to 6 something. Yeah. Or they just plant them like they just learn how to plant them and then look at them and we

I mean I can make a fake tree out of pipe cleaners or something. That's true. You can plant the big trees in this dirt thing. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Like I can make like a sensory bin type like I do that regularly and usually it's rice and today it was plastic dinosaurs and as the kids are doing that we could chat with the adult educator that way. That's fun. That was my thought. Um again on the note of you know getting the adults and the planting right. So but please do not just couldn't find those. I keep thinking like little pine trees that are really tiny. I mean, Ken, you tell me. I don't know where you get them.

Yeah. Any place you're going to I don't know where you would get them. Yeah. I also don't know what our budget is for anything like that to actually be giving those away and the pots that they're in or whatever it might be. So, I'm not sure. Like native seed. That's what I was thinking like if we could even get I know like American Meadows has pretty fairly cheap packets of um wildflower seeds. So we could look to see depending on how many we want to try to get. It's not a terrible time to give us Yeah. that or will that just

Well's not a terrible time because a lot of times you want to put them down sometimes late fall into winter so they come up in the spring. Um because if you wait till spring like wait for the snow to melt and everything if it gets snow like yeah St. Patrick's Day but sometimes you want it to root sooner so then you're missing some of them that could come up a little bit sooner. So um it's worth looking into. Okay. Would you be able to do that to look and see if there's a a cost on that and then if we can kind of get this we do have another meeting before the actual event but it'll only be a couple of days before. So,

we don't want to we don't want to wait until then to plan this, but we can at least at that point confirm everything is is set to go and we're all ready. So, yeah, put a little sticker on the wildflower packs because just as someone with a bunch of kids and people bring crap home all the time, the more I touch, the more I see it, the more I'm reminded that you guys exist when I move it around on my counter. So, left a sticker on those. That's And do we want to have some information at the booth about the uh the deer presentation on the 30th as well?

Yeah. So, we had a couple leftover flyers from that and um Jeff had made he or his wife had made a little poster which will have at the table as well. So, that's already going to be there. Yeah. And 118 spots. Where's it? Is it going to be in the power room? Is it is it a limited capacity? But you are gonna video, right? And put it on YouTube. I imagine. Can we talk about that? Yeah. I mean, we could pretty easily do that. Like Yeah. I imagine I'm going to work that night and help Janine with her slides in the back computer so I could run a Zoom then too and record it. Yeah. And that could go on our channel.

Yeah. you have a lot of questions because I I feel like all the education events we start doing like could you know especially on the tree stuff like if somebody doesn't think about it till year three I wouldn't want to have to repeat all the programming in the first two years so I would love to have a I didn't know you have a YouTube channel mechanis it's not YouTube this is on there right now somebody's watching it have a channel that was a public meeting. It's broadcast. No, it's not broadcast, but it's recorded. Yeah, it's recorded and it goes on our YouTube channel. It does. Yeah, this meeting. Yes, this meeting. All of our committee, all of our public meetings. I do not.

Yeah, you can go watch all You don't You don't watch them the next week. That's what I go back and do every every week. You don't watch zoning when I land zoning goes till midnight. Say hi to who's ever watching the recording now. Hi. Hello. Um there you go. All right. Uh let's go on to open initiatives. Sorry. Go ahead. As a as a quick recap from that, um if everybody just wants to send me their hours of availability for that day, I can then make the schedule for that. Joanna was going to look into seed options and then wildflower seeds, EAC stickers. Okay. Okay. So, you're looking into the kids stuff, too. Yeah. I'll just handle the email. Is that correct?

Yeah, that sounds good. Great. Thank you. Give away apples for Apple. Apples. Yeah. What? Giving out apples. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. I'm not sure public works be happy about that. Bigger than the oranges went over really well though. Okay. No. The thing says no nothing bigger than candy. Well, oh right. Oh, yeah. Very small apples.

Yeah, little non-edible apples. Um, all right. Let's go on to open initiatives. Uh, the Potter Park walk recap. We talked a little bit about Potter Park, but uh Joanna Melissa, did you have any uh things to tell us about that event? Last time, didn't we? Yeah, we talked about that last month. I think that was a typo. Yeah, I it was on here, so I didn't want to skip it, but uh I did think it was something that had already happened. So, we'll just move ahead. Uh, junior EAC member. So, we have an application in. Yay. Came in in mid July. So, uh I guess I guess it kind of is working. Um we'll look and see if we get more. I know school is starting up, so hopefully we'll push a little bit more. Uh Melissa,

yeah. Um I was going to ask, are you able to send out one more social media reminder or something? Yeah, for sure. And again, all those direct emails we sent out, they didn't see our applications, but we'll see. There's still like a week. Yeah, almost like two weeks left. There's also that one individual, I forget her name, but she was at the national night out and she also had expressed that she will be submitting an application. So, if she goes through that, we'll have at least two. And she was one of the individuals who helped at the roadside cleanup and was walking with me. So, potentially possible we get several on the last date because it's the last Yeah.

Yeah. And we that we have seen that in the past. Um I know and and I'm not sure Melissa if you went over this last month or not. uh talking about the fact that we are accepting applications, we are going to review those applications, we're going to do those interviews, but if we do not wind up with a viable candidate, uh then we will not have a student EAC member this year. Um so we are hoping that we will, but we are not going to just take uh take a student just to have a student. We're going to make sure that it's somebody that's uh wants to do this and and has the time and the, you know, ability to to commit to it, things like that. So, uh, that's the plan for now. Uh, anything else to add to that, Melissa?

No. Okay. All right. Excellent. Um, cool. We are already at miscellaneous. So, September McMail tips. Um, I I don't think we have anybody scheduled to do that at this point. I don't think we have a topic right now. Does anybody have suggestions? You're not volunteering to do it. just you just because you suggest a topic. So

in the past the topics for September included light pollution twice. Uh we had one year without an environmental tiff. We had asphalt ceiling or ceiling. Yeah. We had signs and trash and phone book recycling. Those were the topics from historic Septe. Yeah, we could just pull one of those again. Did you I mean that's when the birds are starting to migrate and stuff. So that's Yeah, that's appropriate for that. There's certain dates like uh like in spring there's couple of weeks and like is that what we'd be putting in there? It's whatever because I'm we just recycle it.

Yeah. Can remind me when is a tree of heaven flowering? Uh, no. When do you uh kill it? Like kill them anytime. When is the optimal time to It's actually good to do that right now. You just go. That's what I was thinking. You just hack around. Well, that's why that's what I was saying is should we put something out there like is that a good time to say something about like how to identify and uh treat tree of heaven and why you need to do it that way? Yeah, it's not a bad thing at all. I like that. I have a bunch. You want to come to my Look, go ahead, Ken. I don't want to get I don't want to have to do it. Um,

well, they're invasive. You don't want to write it. Yeah. Oh, okay. Would you like to me to write it and then you check my work? Sounds good. Okay. It's just It's hack and fro, right? Is what it's called. And if you want to see them, it's actually this is a good time to do it because they're flowering right now. And so if you get them now, this they're not going to produce seed to

like if you if you're on Mcnite Road going north right where the deer crossing sign is up that that hill that steep hillside, you've got a whole tree of heaven's kind of unique in that it secretes a basically a herbicide that keeps anything else from growing in where it is. So, it's just a clump of tree of heaven there. Just as two real quick comments that it I'm seeing a lot less lantern fly at my house this year. And I I kind of been hoping for a couple years now that it's going to be like gypsy moth, which

when gypsy moth first came in in June, you didn't have any leaves on the trees. They were totally defoliated. And I actually had slid through a stop sign because there were so many caterpillars on the road. I slid through. Um, but that doesn't happen anymore because the birds figured out that the worms were edible and the chipmunks figured out that the egg masses are edible. And it seems I've been hoping that the birds have figured out that the lantern fly is edible and it seems that they're down. And the other thing is is I've been seeing monarchs at my milkweed at my house. So that's like today I saw two at one time. So I know it's it's not just one. Um, which is good to see, too.

Oh, fun fact that I don't think it's a fake mail, but it's all related to this is that I saw it on my own milkweed and then I looked it up and it is a true thing that milkweed kills lantern flies. So, if you plant milkweed in your yard, not only will you help the monarch population, and it's something that the deer don't really eat too much, but also when the lantern flies go to drink the sap from it, because it's toxic, it kills the lantern flies, which explains why I kept seeing dead lantern flies around my house, it's because they were drinking the sap from my milk. That's what they nest on at my house. Uhhuh. And I see all the larvae, like I just killed about 2,000 larvae on one of the milkweed pots today because that's where they're living.

Yeah. They're they're going there and they're going to I think maybe also why you're not seeing as many is because they're going to your milkweed which is cool. Yes.

Well, I had heard that uh Penn State released a study in the spring that said that they determined that the lantern fly wasn't as dangerous to our uh to our plant growth as they thought it was, which I thought was great. But I do I also am glad that they far less. I've seen far less as well. Um, so I'm I if it's whether it's the milkeed or whatever or the uh the birds or whoever it is that's taking care of it, good for them. I we tried to, you know, destroy a bunch of them last year. We would put uh um dish soap and water into squirt guns and go out and squirt them off the trees. My daughter was really enjoying that. So, she's a little disappointed we can't do that anymore, but she's very glad that they're not around, too. So, um so that sounds good. Uh the my question about the September mail tip then with the tree of heaven is will that come out at a time that it is still good to be doing this or is it will it be too late?

No, it's fine. It it's it's still going to be during growing season and what we're doing is cutting into the cambium and putting a herbicide in there and that kills the tree. Great. Okay, perfect. I just wanted to make sure we weren't going to be like telling people this and then it was going to turn out, oh, you got to wait till next year to do it or something like that. So, that's great. Good. Good stuff. All right. Perfect. All right, John, you're gonna talk to us about annual officer nominations.

Yep. So, every September is when we reorganize EAC. So, we're going to select chair and a vice chair. So this is actually kind of a good time for those present to think about you know if anyone is interested in actually pursuing that or Matt if you want to continue to be vice chair etc. Uh this will probably be the last year we do September because they are going to change all the um terms to January to December. So next year we're probably going to hold off until January 2027. So yeah, again, we walk through the process pretty slowly. We actually do it and that process is as it has been in the past during the September meeting, we'll ask for nominations. Yep. That type of deal. Yep.

Okay. Pretty straightforward. Okay. Uh, anybody have any questions on any of that? All right. Start start putting your resumes together. Um, report from town council. Trish, you got anything for us?

Not sure. Um, we had a pretty light meeting this past week. Um, I don't know if you have any questions of me. You know, I'm pretty excited that the park study is is really working getting moving forward. Um, but I'm not sure what else is happening that's, you know, relatable or what you're interested in. I'm happy to share what I know. So, I have a question for you, Trish, about the the survey that went out. That's that's been closed. That's closed at this point. Correct. Yes. Um, what do like were the results reported? Uh, is there going to be action on those items? Like what what is kind of the next step as far as that's concerned?

Yeah. So that survey it it was recorded with the responses and everything and the Heather from Pashtek that'll probably all come in the summary that comes um you know in the next couple of months because the way that Pashtek usually does things is they do these surveys, they do the like the community meetings, the you know come and and tell us they've had the pores outside, put a sticker on what's important to you, those kind of things and they'll combine all that data. stuff. Um, so it's not going to necessarily say 22 people want a dog park. It's going to just kind of it'll be listed amongst all the things. Um, one thing that was pretty interesting that was shared with us the other night was um, it's from a national group that says based on the fact that we have 28,000 and some residents, we should have this many tennis courts. We should have this many playgrounds. we should have this much of XYZ and it was pretty interesting because we are lacking on pretty much all of them and it's probably from the history of having North Park and schools and things like that. So um those kind of things were pretty interesting um to hear about.

So they didn't count they they are only counting ones that are provided and run maintained by Macan list not counting ones that are part of interesting.

Yeah. So, so once we have um you know cuz you know there are some communities that even have like small little playgrounds parklets as part of their HOA host them. Um you see that more in Franklin Park and Marshall with newer construction than you do in Macanas. But you know there are things that we look at like for example we have the ball fields over um like that are part of the Vincension complex but we don't own that land but we maintain you know so that's one of the question marks is like how much do we invest? Yeah it would be great to put some more trees along that one stretch but should the town be putting trees onto somebody else's land that could be sold sold from under us next week. So, you know, those are the kind of things that this park study is looking at. But in terms of the survey, um, like I don't know that you're going to get a whole lot of data points on it. It's going to be more of a summary.

Uh, which I think is valuable as well. I mean, I think that's good for us to be aware of and for things for for us to be looking at, too. So, any other questions? Just a comment on that. I mean, my argument's always been we do have, you know, the park and it is a massive swath of our property, you know, the land and and we do have Lar Ro has like a massive calendar of events and CCAC used to have a massive calendar of events, you know, all their uh adult learning. So I I used to look at that and think, you know, there's just so much to do in the confines of this small area, right?

Are you telling me they haven't taken all of the activities of all the groups in they we we did take those when we did the comprehensive plan that was included in there, but right now the park study is looking on where town investments should be going.

I see. So the town's not going to approve something going on to lower Gro campus right now. We're looking for the needs, you know, hearing what the residents are saying and what's missing and like looking at each park like I was saying, parking is a huge thing at most of our parks. Um right now um some accessibility features and even the ballparks. The ballparks are pretty well funded. They're maintained by these community groups that play there, but they have said we'd love more access for strollers and wheelchairs. I see. And that's on town property that you know. So that's where you're going to be seeing those kind of focus that kind of focus more on what we can do.

Have has there been any discussion on things like increasing walkways and public transit in the area so that we don't need parking at every single one of these parks? In that way, we Yeah. I mean definitely the long term is more um like walking and biking to get to places that that is always the 10-year plan. Yeah. To develop that

and it h is slowly happening but it's it's very expensive. Um we just approved up on North Meadow um got a grant so there'll be some sidewalks up there. I mean that's not accessing park, it's accessing community and bringing them closer to shopping and things like that. But right now, you know, getting even so current zoning is there has to be sidewalks if you're building now.

So, and that has been enforced. So, for example, the property that used to be the YW.CA CA on Thompson. Um, right next to Beth Shalom Synagogue, the the builder there kind of said, "Oh, it's too steep a slope. I can't put a sidewalk in." And council said, "Well, you're going to have to figure out how to put a sidewalk in." And with some back and forth, there is a retaining wall and there is a sidewalk on that property. So, that's kind of So, whatever is building new is definitely being enforced. It has to be sidewalked. Yeah. They just planted inappropriate trees way too close to the sidewalk. But I

really, you know. Okay. I was just happy to see a sidewalk. And I'm happy to see the work of the sidewalk happening on long 19 from like the target area up to the flats, too. Oh, there. Oh, is that what's happening over there? I didn't even realize that that was that was what was occurring. Holy cow. Okay. Yeah. So, that would connect that Oakidge neighborhood up into the flats. And the neighborhood that is being built um I forget the name of it. Ridge something. Ridge. Yeah. The ridge. The ridge. Something about a ridge. Yes. No. No. Tree ridge I think is what it was called. Yes.

Well, they did say one tree. There's one property that's like that one scoop out. See the pile of wood chips? giant mountain of wood that's from my neighborhood as you were looking down. It just made me sick every day. Yeah. But yeah. Yeah. More trees. We need more trees. We don't need more trees.

All right. Well, thank you, Trish, for your report. Appreciate that. Um, we have a number of topics already on the agenda for next month. I'm assuming because Jeff wanted to talk about these, but he's not here. So, we've got the officer nominations, the 2026 budget, McCandless 175th Birdtown PA discussion, a regional EAC reboot, and the roadside cleanup date being established. Um, are there any additional things? I know that we want to add community day to that list as well to make sure that we're uh all prepared for that. Anything else that people want to add to next month's agenda? No,

I don't think so yet. I'm sure it'll come to us through the month. Yeah, obviously if you think of things, uh, reach out to Jeff. He will add them and we will discuss them. Uh, any other matters that people would like to discuss or comments or questions? I I think maybe I I hate ending the meeting, but um you know, we've had the Canadian smoke again, uh the wildfire smoke, and I feel like we you know, we talked about, you know, the township putting an air monitor,

but you know, I would love to, I don't know, see a way that we and and that maybe we always project it for fall McMail tips about how to, you know, on those kind of bad air days, you know, how would you keep your indoor air quality better? Um, which is not opening your windows and, you know, kind of running your uh I don't know, things like that. Uh, I I mean, I've noticed the weather people, they were like, "Hey, you know, might be a bad day for certain populations." And I'm looking and it's like 150 on meter. And I'm like, "What do you mean might be?" like there's nobody who could walk out today who wouldn't be impacted by it. So I I just feel the need to do a little bit more to I don't know just alert people to what they can do. So I I don't know what it is. I mean I know I did a training with a group called Rokus which is a free training for indoor air quality but um

like an October make tips. Yeah, I think that'd be great. Yeah. Yeah. I think you just volunteered. All right. Uh yeah. All right. So, yeah. I because I do think uh as long as it's dry. It I mean I think it's worse in the summer, but you know, maybe June it could come out again, right? I know. Well, and that's it. It's always uh like the Mcmelt. I mean, yeah. No, I know. So, so we'll see if the Canadian uh you know and the western you know uh wildfires are over by by then. But you know I do think it should go into the cycle somewhere which is what can you do? Yeah.

Yeah. And it's not like uh they're not going to come back. So yeah, I know every year experiencing that for the rest of our lives. So yeah. Yeah. So what can you do? All right. Sorry about that. Thank you. No, I love it. That's great. Anything else? All right. Do we have a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor? I. All right. Then we shall adjourn the August meeting of the EAC. Thank