Environmental Advisory Committee - Regular Meeting

All right, welcome everybody. I'd like to call to order the November 12th, 2025 EAC monthly meeting. And uh I know John distributed the agenda and the minutes. Did everybody have a chance to read those? Are there any edits or objections or any comments on the minutes? Motion to pass. Okay, second. We have a second. All in favor? Very good. Okay, comments. Um, seeing there are none, we'll move on. And, um, junior EAC member update. So, Jenna, do you have anything for us?

Um, formally, I have not much, but I was did want to kind of address my project or area focus to kind of narrow that down. I wanted to narrow down the focus towards connecting neighborhoods to parks and particularly the neighborhood that I live in that has a lot of students in it um is just upkmer. So, if you go out the back side of the neighborhood, there's like one stretch of road that's unsafe to get to the park, but other than that, it's like it'd be great to be able to connect that in some way, whether it's a trail by North Park Church or behind North Park Church that could bring us to the park or a sidewalk or some other thing. And then address that with other neighborhoods as well. Just kind of little sections that would be easier to connect to North Park in general, kind of from all sides.

Sure. who owns that property that you're talking about.

I'm not exactly sure, but I do know that like the road that goes through it is like one side of the road is on that um like the retirement home there and then the other side is North Park Church. So, I don't know how that plays in. That's all like base level like something I was thinking of that I'd like to do, but obviously there's other levels to that that have to be addressed. Definitely. Well, and you can expand on that because that's certainly something that we uh work with um council on and that is, you know, the u the sidewalks they could get put in and and where they could put in and there's grants associated with that. So, um you know, Nick, there's uh there's there's ways to keep us informed about what's happening um from council to uh to increase sidewalk and you know, and other grants with that.

Definitely. I think grants are a little bit on pause now given the state and federal funding situation at uh this moment but yes there is

okay good awesome sounds good and then another thing that I wanted to share two other things actually first off I know that Bernie's going to talk about this later but I did attend the tree tenders meeting and I was happy I got to meet one of the girls I've actually gone to middle school with so she was a student and she was at the tree tenders meeting and that was wonderful to have a chat with her and I'd love to have more kids interested in that. And then um another thing that I mentioned last time but kind of have been thinking about more is addressing like a social media page that me and Nadia work together on to kind of reach younger folks and to get in contact with uh other students and to advertise events through a network that is more connected with younger students. with your sidewalk connectivity thing. Find out who your council person is and identify what the

who owns the properties and that's where you need to start, I would think. Thank you. That that's great. I think we would all agree that you're that you're talking about a social media page or connecting through social media is just the missing link that we're always looking for, I think, on this committee. Yeah. Yeah. It really is. Yeah. So, I'd love to Yeah. I'd love to. Um I don't know if there's any like approval processes for that. If you have like if it's like associated with the township if I have to like have some sort of rules or regulations probably a partnership, right? But yeah, we can figure something out. Awesome. Thank you.

It might even be better to just tie directly into the town so that Yeah, we can always just crossost or just post directly even just whatever works. But we're always looking for more stuff. Yeah. joints public information. So, you know, he would he would be a good contact right there in the neighborhood. That's great. Anything else? That's all I've got. Thank you. Thank you, Jenna. Yeah.

Um and uh the only other thing I wanted to mention is uh Matt and um that James did return all the catch or all the um yeah, the catch basins. Um he also put a bunch down and in my own neighborhood. I'm like, "Oh, whoa. Where did these pop up?" So, um, he did have a bit of burst of energy there at the end, um, and and place some down. So, we'll we'll we for the spring summer, we'll try to update where we left off and, you know, how how we can sort of put life back in that project.

Yeah, that'd be good. If we can get a list of the um whatever the whatever roads were paved uh this past season as well, so we can add those onto the list, too. That'd be good. Okay, good. and we'll put that on the SharePoint. Okay. Um, moving on to project updates, sustainability. Um, I'll mention this. So, we are officially um scheduled for Penn State University students presenting the communitywide greenhouse gas inventory. That is next meeting. that will be in a sustainability time like we I gave them 30 minutes. I'm gonna try to make next month's agenda not be as robust. I mean, it'll be our usual updates and everything, but you know, all this other stuff, we could just table that and and and make this um the priority. So, we'll give them a full 30 minutes for questions. I've invited Sawyer Silinger from PA Sustainability. I invited John Schwen to uh township manager. He may or may not attend, but we will have our presentation. We will have our greenhouse gas inventory and we will have our last detail to the gold standard sustainability reertification.

Anything else you want to add to that, Melissa? No. Um, I was going to ask, do we want to try to meet up with them beforehand for dinner or anything or people who are free? Is that something? Uh, they're going to just do it by Zoom. Oh. Oh, they're not coming physically. No, they they won't be here. They'll just pay Zoom. Originally, it was a physical visit today. Oh, wow. Let's check on that. Yeah, we might want to confirm. Wow. Okay. Yeah, we we definitely she specifically chose the students for our areas based off have those ties. So, they Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Yeah. Very good. And that's all I have. Um any questions on sustainability?

Okay. Next up is um any update to rain garden activity?

Not too much for this month. Um, I am happy to see that with all of the construction out there on the uh parking lots with putting in the lights, I did swing by and make sure that everything looked like it was still untouched and everything. It looked really good. Um, I spoke a little bit with Bernie and through through Bernie and also Arch about like what time frame I'm looking at for next year for doing some work again. Um, next year I want to get a chip drop so we get a lot of mulch mulch. um and really work on some of the beds that had a lot of the Japanese knotweed in them. And now that should be taken care of a little bit more and I can get more rocks down. I can get more mulch down and we can get in those beds a little bit more. So

the tree companies, most of them are looking for a place to dump. So they'll be more than happy. Oh, it's a lot. My neighbor did it. It's a lot of a lot of wood chips. But that's an area that can actually use it where if you get it for your house, I hope your neighbors also need wood chips and their neighbors and their neighbors and their neighbors. So,

yeah. And I can tell you by by filling out the application we'll talk about a little bit for for Bird Town, PA and sustainability, the rain garden project is extremely important. It is really it is it is it's a core of a lot of a lot of things that they're looking for. So, you know, there there's a it's it's an important project. Yes. And it's a good launching place for everything else that has to do with invasive plants, native plants. Absolutely. That's exactly what I mean. We can we can point to it all the time of being, you know, sort of our foundation for for doing that, removing it or identifying it and um and having community outreach to

That's great. Any other questions for rain garden update? Okay. Uh can tree or I'm sorry. Let's uh let's go to Ken before. I'm sorry, Bernie. Let's go to Ken before um on um deer update, please.

25 deer that they harvested in October. Suburban white tail. Um again, they're not hunting in any of the uh green space of the township so that we can meet some requirements of the game commission for the enhanced management. Um, I've gotten data on deer pickups going back I guess since 2016, back to 2012. Um, so when we're looking at how giving us some yard stick to be able to measure how well we're uh handling the deer management thing is we can use the benchmark of how many deer are getting picked up on the roads. And correlary to that is is that the additional expense that Macandless incurs, if somebody can come up with a way that we can get the insurance companies to kick meas money to help with our enhanced deer management, it would be wonderful because that that would allow us to do even more. Um, and it would be saving them a lot of money on uh the with the number of deer that were picked up last year. If it was 3,000 in accident, which is probably really small, it's probably really an underestimate of the cost, um, it would be over half million dollars that the insurance companies are are kicking out to repair cars. So, if anybody can come up with a way and access to any of these insurance companies to uh thank um so you know we have an additional property under management this year, private property under management than we had last year. We have one more property. Um, and this is prime time right now. Just for caution, in the last week, I've had the opportunity to harvest four different

bucks with my car. One was on the way here. Um, so this is what this is prime right now. So, this is when you're going to see a lot of deer on the side of the road. Um, and we're just going to progress on and see what see how we can go. But as a yard stick for how we're progressing with things, I'm going to be proposing that we use uh you know the number of deer that are picked up uh each year and when we can start to show that decreasing. That's one measure that we're getting the deer population more under control. That's all I have. You question that you have all the data going back. Where is that?

The the police have it from from the pickup. Okay. You have a copy of it. Can I grab a picture of that? That email that you sent with a file, that file is shared or saved directly on your computer, which is why nobody else can access it. Yeah, because it says it's on a C drive. So, it doesn't work for us. But if you download that or save it as a PDF and then resend it, we'll be able to see whatever it was. Jeff found it in a newspaper. I think I think I did. Yeah, I grabbed the vexing deer dilemma. Um, okay. So I I might have found it but if it's the same one

see when I tried it you know when I copied it and pasted it and it worked for me it's safe on your computer. I like it. I mean Ken just a quick question about writing uh you know let's say I talk to my insurance agent and say hey you know would you be interested in underwriting a the deer program? What kind of dollars are we talking on an annual basis that you'd hope to either subsidize or in total need? Anything would be great. Um I know I'm going to throw that amount. You really haven't looked at it from that standpoint, but like $5,000 would go a long way. Okay.

It could be something as small as 5,000. It's it's a matter of there's a little bit of an issue with an insurance company giving money to to the countless municipality. So, I'm not sure if that's a third party underwriter like a nonprofit who could accept it, I'm sure, as a sponsorship. Yeah. And that's it's something that's not in my ballpark to work through.

Okay. But it would make so much sense for the insurance companies because they can get some good PR out of it and it would save them money on on you know the auto insurance cost of things. So So if I can just sort of go back. So you want to bring to us each month the number of deer that were harvested along with the number of deer that were that were killed on a road. Yes. And I didn't tell you what that was. That was uh for September was 27 and for October was uh 21. Okay. So that that was uh that was on a roads that was on Macandless roads which

and those are picked up. That means that doesn't include the deer that ran back into the woods and died and that doesn't include Mcniter 19. So give me the number again. I'm sorry. September was 21. September was 27 and October was 21. Okay. And October was 21. And and in October we're at 25 harvest harvest. We had 25 harvested in October and so we're at at um we had 16 in September. So we're at 41 so far. We're we're ahead of last year.

Okay. Good. Good. Good. Great. Okay. Very good. And then secondly, um if if we were to contact insurance companies, All State, State Farm, blah blah blah blah blah, what would that money go like? like how what do you think it goes for directly? I'm not sure exactly how council hasn't approved the expenditure for the enhanced management until this month. Okay. And I'm not sure exactly how that that goes through. Can you can you ask that question, Nick? And yeah, I can I can follow up on that. I don't know that off of the top of my head. Okay, good. Very good. Thanks, Kevin.

I forgot you were there, Nick. I should have been throwing some of this your way. I'm always watching over. [laughter] Those are two good suggestions. Just watch. Okay, next is next is tree canopy and Bernie. Let's and let's leave off um the tree tenders um recap until we get down to community outreach. So, so if you want to just give us the update on on the tree program.

Okay. Um, you want to pull it up, John? Sure. Um, I I also think uh I know I'd sent the update later, so let's just go past first couple of pages and go to the planning guide. So, can I So, that's on that's page number four. Are you stopping on four? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Because I do have a question about that.

Yeah. I mean, um, so the committee met and, you know, um, last month, you know, I proposed kind of a draft of what we were suggesting to do. So, there would be two speaker series. Archie would do one on uh, kind of tree health uh, well, tree health and landscaping in March. And we one of the things I wanted to do was pick actual dates because then we can promote we can in January when we launch the idea of we we want to restore the tree canopy here's our goals we can kind of outline an overview for the whole year what we see occurring so picking dates was important so uh we went with March 5th and again Lar Ro originally had said that they would uh uh share this and by the way I can forward this to everybody body. So, you all have it. Um, but this is why we reached out to Joanna because Archie wanted to make sure that we could with Joanna if she last March 28th was, you know, pulling out the invasives, couldn't behind her, maybe parks um, you know, if there's an invasive removal program, could we do a very specific planting um, on April 11th, [clears throat] which is a Saturday. And we tried staying two weeks away from when the road pickup is because it's the last um

so yeah well I thought I had it on my calendar for the last Saturday of April. Um but maybe that was just a discussion not a final. No no Steph it's final locked in I think. Yeah. So so we were trying to be cognizant of you know other events and when to do things. So it it feels early to do it, but I think because we're we want to if you're removing invasives, let's say in a park and we work with, you know, parks on maybe where they'd want to do this, you know, where some of the worst areas are. Archie was, you know, concerned that we could get in there and plant so the invasives can't come back or or try to mitigate that.

Anything that's going to be up that early is garlic mustard, unless we went after shrubs. [clears throat] barberry. I've just been spraying. [snorts] [laughter] Well, and again, that's up to you to decide, you know, where you Well, we we'll just say it this way. Our our philosophy was, could we do a planting to really support, you know, your program, right? So, you're going to do an invasive removal somewhere. How can we come behind it? Whether it's rain garden, whether it's wherever it is, right? Whether it's shrubs, whether it's

trees, whatever we could put in. So, so we wanted to dubtail the two programs. Um, but you know, so on the fifth though we do, so Jeff I I mentioned last meeting two speaker series. So we talked about doing Archie on the March 5th and all the way down there's a gentleman named Adam Harrington um who has a program called Learn Your Land. Um and do you know who he is? Yeah.

So, he um you know, he's got a massive YouTube following and I guess he's local, so Archie's gotten to know him and um you know, anyway, so we talked about maybe having Adam uh be our second speaker um you know, to speak more about ecosystem, not just trees, but how the whole thing fits in. So, those are the two speakers, you know, we're um proposing. where the rest of the year would go is this remarkable tree. So last meeting you had asked about we called it the legacy tree program and this notion of old trees and you know how do we offer them and respect them and you know Archie was familiar with the remarkable program. I think it's Franklin that's what they call it. So um I I don't know if we can share John the other information I sent about the remarkable program but the idea behind the remarkable program is it's asking the public so say January through April we promote um that you [clears throat] know we we want to pay attention to tree canopy and and give awards for it and so the actual proposal would be to highlight and honor remarkable trees that define Macas township ship landscape history and the foster community connection through shared appreciation natural environment. So April 1st we would launch the announcement of the challenge on the township you know website newsletter. Um I see promoting it really January through April but it would actually open from April 1st through say the end of August and through [clears throat] the end of August. Uh so then I again I don't know the date for um yet for the community day but what we thought is it would be a lot of fun then to kind of create exhibits of everything that was submitted with asking people to submit photos of their trees and you know

what's remarkable and the categories would be most historic tree, biggest or oldest, most beautiful tree, community favorite which would be a people's choice and then like a youth nomination award best entry submit by young resident or student group. So, so we kind of saw, you know, those categories. So, it's not just old trees. We still want to do the old trees, meaning that's the the historic the most historic trees that we have, and we want to see those submissions, but and then we'd do kind of a whole host of judges. Um and again I have this all documented you know the certified arborists or forester historians um artists and photographers and you know representatives from EAC community day ideally would make those awards and announcements and that would be our kind of community day you know part of

this is this is very well done and this is this is very well thought out. I know everybody doesn't have the document yet, but I I picked him. I mean, so I I would send a document to everybody. Okay. Um and I know at the very end you're sort of asking for the buyin from the EAC, which you know, we these guys don't have they don't have the the stuff to do it yet, but I think that we ought to after we we should ask for everybody to read this and within a week or something like that, come back with their by email. Yeah. We should we should connect again because I don't I don't want to hold this up. This is this is very good. Yeah. And it's well it was by request right I said let me try and synthesize with everybody and

uh and we are still open for you know thoughts feedback um you know how do we make it better what are other I know you Joanna you'd be like you know a million categories that would be silly categories I my I do have a question though um my question actually is does this include trees that are in North Park too because I think that's where there are so many just incredible trees there. I don't know if it's going to be better or if we want to focus on things that are in like geography of Macanas. Okay.

I mean, you know, our 16.4 square, you know, um that's how I'd be promoting it. That's how we think about it. I mean, yeah, I if it sends people into parks looking for trees, then it's probably a good thing, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, did you want them excluded? No. Oh, okay. No. I there's so many beautiful trees in North Park. I want to make sure like they were included because they are very special there and a lot of those like I know there's some there that are all long trails that people hang things on or they might have like a little fairy garden or something there. So,

okay. Yeah. and and like I said, open for feedback, but I think, you know, trying to think of how, you know, we were talking about what we could do for community day and honestly, this just turned out to be a really great way to tie it all together. And then on the heels of that, October 18th would be our next tree tenders, tree adoption, planting, like the notion of making that kind of the Macandless tree day on October 18th or we did the 18th this year be the 17th next year. And again, I already talked to Tree Pittsburgh about reserving that date for us. Um, so uh anyway, so yeah, I feel like um for us it was thinking through the whole calendar. How do the activities inter interweave with each other and how do we then tie it together and and you know the communication plan um for the whole thing. I know Julie's going to work on that and then John. So our next step for the whole annual schedule plus this would be to meet with the um we talked about doing this last meeting. How do we coordinate then all of this with the staff and you know the 175th and you know how it does and doesn't fit in.

So yeah. So I I I'd love to be a part of that with Abby, with John, um with Diane, with our John, you know that that. So yeah, I think this is I think this is very well done and very well thought out. I like the dates. I I think it's realistic. Um I think it hits a lot of marks and it goes well beyond 175th into just tree pride. Um so I I I really think it was really well done. The um the one question I have is on back on slide four of your of your deck. Now you you have you have MC mail tip on every month of the year. Yep. Because we decided that last meeting. Did I miss that?

Did we decide that? Okay. Then [clears throat] I missed it. Well, here's what I asked for. I asked for the ability to have a way to promote what we're doing. Um because it's not just those topics. It really is about um the whole uh implementation of our events and our activities and how we tie that together with say it can be in McNail every month and maybe give it a different name rather than EIC to like environmental typically. You said 150 words about right because I thought last meeting trust me I'm not going to remember everything.

I know. So I thought last meeting what I had asked for was doing this and we decided that the only thing EAC gets is the tip. So we talked about us taking half of the is it is it 300 words

300 400 portion of it. Yeah. So we try and keep it at 150 and then you know um now there might be a couple of months we would have talked about trees anyway that maybe a couple of months negotiate for you know the whole thing but but this was our way to kind of keep the activity and the interest going on you know our topics of how do we get everybody in the room happy about their trees. I I would say also that there are times when we're when we're taking subjects and we're filling words with with with you know McMill topics where we could be short. We could be more condensed and and we could definitely share real estate with with this. So,

yeah. And again, it's it could just be something smaller. And and again, we have a lot of stuff to do. And I Joanna, we had a note down there. I mentioned about your scavenger hunt you had with the kids on community day where you had already found the trees that we had and the leaves. I mean, everybody loved that. Um, so I don't know if anybody actually completed it, but I think it's a good idea and I think it's something that can come up again later if we want to do something like if we go on a tree hike on Branch Trail talked about is how do we get out of the booth, right?

That you know our booth on community day has so many messages. So, you know, could we take the tree program? So, the the whole remarkable tree um and being able to do an exhibit of all the uh the folks who apply, you know, having this printed out and I don't know where we'd put them, John, maybe somewhere in town hall where people could kind of walk around and see them. Um but it's just a way to, you know, get out of just the 10 by 10. But same thing with the kid thing because that's a scavenger hunt that have to look. So we could, you know, organize it more to be like an actual kids activity that day. Yeah. And I think that I think that Abby I mean there were certainly some empty booths. Yeah.

Um and I she probably wouldn't mind setting up another table and and and giving us um you know a booth of actual information than a booth of um you know an activity or you know a tree focus or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, again, having maybe a little bit more engagement with the tree adoption. So, I kind of see using community day now as kind of a if it's a month before our mechanist tree day, then how do we kind of do something to engage the the community to that day?

So, and yeah, I don't know what you think about it. needs a better name than tree day but [laughter] but it's the idea of focusing everybody on you know our annual moment to trees anyway so um tree day a lot of times they say arbor day yes [laughter]

yes well an arbor day I that's for our April 11th you know we didn't want to do you know we planning on the u the March 5th and the April 11th [clears throat] date so that we kind of get ahead of Arbor Day and ahead of Earth Day so that you know um we're trying to kick things off without you know crowding the room for Arbor Day and because that's a lot of you know the tree folks are like please don't do things on those days. So but we can talk about what we are doing on those days.

Okay. Can does everybody then because it seems like everyone didn't remember um is everybody okay with that that McMail um you know the way that we're going to structure the McMail tips for 2026. Yeah. So like it's like an addendum of like a separate thing. Yeah. No, you did a good job. I'm sure. But I'm sure you know I I have some suggested names for that [laughter] if you need it. So the um addendum at the end of McMail tip that is the tree related one. So we can go over that later though.

Yeah. Well, you and Archie can have fun with that [laughter] because he's you know um Yeah, he already has like his speaker series in the can and you know he's just going to make it more mechanous or Oh, I was just making a tree pun. That's all I'm doing. Yeah, I know you are. exactly what you want to do and and it needs that kind of creative. I feel like I've just been trying to focus on mailing, you know, logistics, dates, times. Um, so yeah, it it needs more creative right now. So, um, that's it. Great. So, so you'll send it to everybody. Yes.

Um, and what we should do is we should u everybody should read it and why don't we give one week. So because at the very end you're you know you want you're asking for buyin from the EAC which is just you know I know that we're all buying in but why don't we just all do that then make it official and say the EAC has you know voted by um you know emailed it to move forward with this plan and you're also looking for any feedback or thoughts on it too. You had said I am so by end of day next Wednesday. Okay good end of day next Wednesday. That that's great. Um, so Bernie, can I mention a couple things that are sort of um, so, um, can I get the update? Yeah, please go. Yeah. Yeah, go ahead.

I mean, if I can jump on to the update because there was people who were phenomenal when it comes to, you know, our October 18th and, you know, Jeff, you showed up on the 17th and helped upload uh, trees as did John. So, um, and you know, Ken, that's where I said to you, I think we're good because, you know, we had some muscle, we had some public works folks. Uh, but I really want to thank you guys for coming and offloading the 100 trees, getting them set up. Um, we did that in under an hour because I know I had an appointment and I couldn't believe we got that done so quick and and yeah, I wasn't the muscle. So, thanks you guys um [laughter] for being it was smooth. muscles are very clean.

Whipped cream. [laughter]

So that was the 17th and I really and you know I have to kudos to all the work too for clearing the decks on the space and I'm sure you had to do some finagling there. And then uh the next day, boy, we started early and um yeah, I feel like it was a marathon day, so you know, Archie showed up the whole day, but who beat everybody there was Jenna. And uh you know, [laughter] and but who had to get there early with copy was Melissa. So, um, so I would say, you know, for the treat tenders, I mean, the rock star was definitely Jenna showing up so early, getting things set up, like setting up the room, uh, with John, by the way. So, John shows up with his kids and had to give up his Saturday morning as well.

So, thank you, John. I know. Was Jenna our greeter, too? Jenna was not only the greeter, but I mean, I would say from a logistics perspective, I I don't think I've ever found such a young volunteer who was so capable of doing so much in one day because in addition to doing all this set up with me. Um, and then Melissa came with the food. I mean, it was just amazing like how thought through like we had tea and she went ahead and made signs for what tea it was. Like I just [laughter] it was so far over the top.

Why do you think I'm here? Wait a minute. But the the best part was, you know, I thought I'd have a little bit more help at 2:00 to put together a hundred um you know, stakes and netting for the trees. And um so I recruited uh Jenna to come with me and her and two guys from public works uh you know uh put them together and made what we called party favors. Who else was there? Uh Archie.

Archie. Yeah. Archie like lived the whole day with us, right? Yes. He he kind of showed up in time for the event and then he kind of did that. But but yeah, I think the fact that she pulled double duty not just on tree tender setup, but she did all the setup of these party favors. Um, which was a lot of work. Uh, you had to count. Anyways, scratches, [laughter]

scratches, I mean, wiring, you know, wood. Um, yeah. So, it was a lot of work. So, I I just wanted to give a shout out to that. And then Joanna bailed me out because, you know, for the uh we were down one person. We had a big line. We knew that was going to happen when the adoption started. We needed more bodies because people were lined up. And so Joanna jumped out of line and kind of helped. And I more just ran in. I'm like, I'm here. What do you need? I wasn't even in line. Yeah. I was more like, let me help out cuz I got back from my trunk. That was it. Yes. So anyway, so it was great. But that's what I'm saying is the volunteerism from this group and uh and more. And the public works are there there.

Oh, the public works guys. they were and how many people were actually in the class?

Uh, so I I was a little upset. They were turning people away because they had more than 25. So they actually had a waiting list and but in the end there were only 18 who showed. So I know. So I was very upset with them. I said next time you can't cut it off like that. You've got to allow everybody to sign up. Um because yeah, we had some folks no show that morning. So yeah, but it was 18 and 18 completers. They now have been certified. Um so and again, you know, we want to do outreach to them and get them involved. And that's where been talking with John about. want to take uh an you know kind of send a notice to them to ask them to be the first 100 to document the trees that were planted in mechanis on John's we see them as our beta testers for launching the the GPS map site that can identify those and Tree Pittsburgh has that already set up so I'm trying to connect on with Laura Lynn who sent me their map of

they still have a map from their tree adoption of everybody in Macanless whoever got one. So they had sent me that data, but it's on a it's on a Google map with a pin drop on who and what tree and where. So good. But any suggestions too on getting that GPS site set up? Uh because it's going to be attached to the mechanist site, right? If Yeah, we ever do that. Yeah. But I do want to see if we ever do that. [laughter] Okay. Like our GIS does not have a public facing section right now, which is the main thing. Yeah. Oh, I didn't know. But if we can figure out what Tree Pittsburgh is doing and we can just link back to them, that just might be easier. Okay. You know, I want to see what they're doing. We can figure it out.

Okay. So, [clears throat] we'll work with Laura on that. Yeah. Cuz she's she's did send me They probably have a really simple setup that we're not thinking about, you know. Yeah. That's what I hear. It's just easy, right? It's a Google map with pin drops. So, and that's what Tree Pittsburgh has. Anyway, feel like I'm taking up a lot of time, but No, no, it's it's it's wonderful time. So, uh and you gave away all all 100 trees. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, in the end, um we did have folks not show. I even felt bad. Were you there at five or or No, I was I was at a wedding. Who Who was with me? I was there.

Uh but in the end, like um who was it? It must have been Archie. We were leaving the parking lot after getting all cleaned up and everything and somebody pulled in and said, "Did I miss it?" And I'm like, like we literally just So yeah, but there were people who totally forgot. Um, you know, I think you had a couple reach out to you.

Um, so yeah. Um, so that happened, but um, we had adopes and we were horse trading um, people who really wanted certain ones who weren't able to get them. In the end, we were trying to negotiate, you know, for those who didn't really want that with. Anyway, it it it worked out. I think most people walked away with a tree they wanted. So, and some people, yeah, ended up with more than one tree. They had, you know, two, three, four. Um, I'm I'm not I'm [clears throat] not recalling, but I have them all documented. And that's what I owe Tree Pittsburgh back is, you know, who got what and then we'll do the pin drops and have them participate in the map. So, but I do want to thank McCandless Township, too, for kind of allowing us to to do that and, you know, and now we've got to go get some sponsorship and get that underway.

Okay. Can I can I ask um so Alig County reached out to me as you saw? So, um Braden Miner Yeah. Um, and he has this, uh, you know, he has these, um, I have several thousand 5-ft tree tubes and 5-ft stakes that were left over from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Um, blah blah blah blah blah. Um, you know, we can have I'm about 15,000 stakes and tubes that we're keeping as our project blah blah blah. But but they have these. Do we need these? Do we have a place to put these? Well, that's what I I don't mean thousands. I mean some. Well, that's what I said to you is I don't I don't know where we'd put them.

Yeah. About the public works. Yeah. And we have to figure out what they are willing to take home. And those tubes are just like what you see in North which I thought you didn't like those. I don't which is why I wasn't like they insist that they were. And some of them the trees are finally growing out the top. What American Chestnut Foundation found with those is when they came out the top because they weren't weatherized prior that they broke off. Now they they insist that they work. Um so over the next couple of years we're going to be able to see in North Park if they do or not. Right.

Okay. Maybe there's a way that we can um do before a community event we can say, you know, can we get a hundred of each and maybe give them out or something like that? Um uh something garden to park. Yeah. You know, maybe we have them underneath our tape. The reason for the tubes is it what they have found is it's less expensive way to do to protect from deer. Um and the trees will grow up, you know, grow up out of them. Um, and it's much less expensive than using wire.

And [clears throat] particularly the way the county uses the wire, they notch everything over. When I use wire, I do top, bottom, middle, and it's I can take it off and move it to another tree. And they don't do it that way. But, um, that's, you know, it's less expensive than using the wire. Right. Well, uh, I mean, Jeeoff, I I didn't I had heard about that opportunity as well and didn't really act on it because I don't know what McCandless Townships, you know, and I wouldn't know either. Storage capability. I don't know. We have to we have to have a good reason to take them, too. Yeah.

So, we maybe maybe we'll just think about that. I don't think they're going anywhere. If you you want a reason for it, you could then be using those tubes to plant trees like in Wall Park and Vestal Park and Potter Park because that would be your deer protection, right? So So until we until we start putting a shovel in the ground, we we can't really do much with them. But when we do Well, what has an answer? They're not getting rid of them, are they? No, I don't think so. Yeah. I mean, they're going to have them. My my view is let them store them until we need them. Yeah. He said he said um I have about 15,000 stakes and tubes and we plan on using some of them for our projects but it would take years to go through that many. Right. I would touch base with him so that he doesn't feel ignored.

Okay, got it. I'll do that. Okay, I'll follow up on that one. Okay, couple other little um ticks and ties. Um Leaf Angels, was that John Schwend was he saying or what was the Leaf Angels program? John Schwend wanted to start a Leaf Angels and Snow Angels program, so we started that. I'm in charge of it. Okay. [laughter] I was thrilled to see it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's going to be fun. And the really good thing is we didn't have a lot of time to put together for the leaves at least. So, the deadline is Monday at noon for people to sign up. Right now, I have seven people seeking service and five volunteers. So, that's pretty good. That's pretty balanced.

Yeah, that's actually really good. do two properties and we should be fine. Yeah, that's great. Great. And then we'll do snow. Kick that off probably next month before the snow actually gets here. Yeah. Excellent. I I'll joke I'll say I should get somebody to volunteer to do my 350 foot long driveway for me. You can tip it. [laughter] Okay. I have an ATV. Good. John. So then then moving on. Um I John wants to do an or somebody wants to do an Earth Day planting. Who was that? Was that John again? I think. Or was that Abby? It's either one of them. I mean, yeah. And Bernie, you and I said yes to that. [clears throat] We'll figure that out. So, and Ken, you also said yes. So, I don't think there's anything that's a traditional thing,

right? Okay. So, so we'll be just letting the committee know that we're going to do that as well. Um, and then lastly is um Liberty Tree. Yep. Uh, that was another one. So, I think, you know, they'll have to come up with where that is, but I think that's another thing we'll we'll, you know, we'll get and we have that on our calendar. I think it was, you know, because we didn't hear a date whether it was going to be April or May. We threw it on May, not knowing, but I mean, we can always throw it somewhere else. Um, but you know, again, there's there were thoughts about, you know, what we could do there. Okay. On that. So, okay. Go ahead.

Again, we threw it on the calendar. You're right. I think the Earth Day planting um I know the township wants to do it. It it was Tree Pittsburgh who just yelled at me and said, "Please don't ever say Arbor Day or Earth Day for planting." But if the township, you know, has the, you know, wherewithal to want to do that, um then yeah, we want to support it. Um you know, uh and I do they have a site selected for that? I I don't know. So, I'll go back and I'll just make sure that uh and I'll let you know make sure that we've confirmed that we want to be involved in where you know and anything else. So, I'll follow up on all those little things.

Okay. Well, and again, I I want to get them all on you know what I'd call the annual calendar for trees and then we can promote these really at the top of the year and every month ideally be able to talk about the calendar and right promote them. Okay, good. All right. Anything else for Bernie? Okay, very good. Um, so into community outreach, we've already talked about the tree tenders and tree adoption recap. Um, next big topic is Winterfest. Mhm.

Is Winterfest. So, we have a table. Um, I don't know, you know, let's let's just sort of think about what we need here in a way of Winterfest and what we want to do and how we want to present ourselves. Okay. So, I know we're doing the Christmas tree and Melissa and I are going to go on an adventure. Yes. Um, other than that, so I know last year we had the turning over a new leaf activity where we had people talking about what they could do to in the next year to help the environment. So, then we put it on our tree,

right? Um, I kind of like the idea in a way of like that New Year's resolution feel. Like it's it's something it's not exactly Christmy, but it's a way like people around that time are thinking about what can I do in the next year. And I like that idea. Um, cuz I know that there's other crafts that are happening where they're making other ornaments, they're making other things. You can go that route. It's a lot more kids centric at Winterfest than it is at community day. So there would be a lot more kids and we're going to be going through a lot more material. So like thinking about it that way, it was easier to have something where it's like, okay, you can draw a picture here. That was easier.

Um I don't know if we want to think about and like do we want to do leaves again? Do we want it how do we want to display it? Because the other thing was at the end there was that unceremonious and now we throw them all in the garbage. [laughter] I would say keep them and build upon them. Especially with it being tree year, we can put the tree in more and more. We could even bring it and have people make new trees at different events throughout the year. Get it kicked off a little with the preh holiday resolutions or however. Okay. But you don't necessarily have to tear them down, right?

You guys have room to store this stuff. But that's what I was just thinking like where does this get stored and where would we there's well there's store I saw it on the uh when we water on tree tender day there's like storage behind the there are some storage behind there for events there's a couple closets here that are pretty full you know a lot of other stuff ends up at public works Abby gave [clears throat] stuff her office too and it's hard to walk around sometimes right so I that's where it is hard like is it better to store it digitally. That's true. Just take pictures. Just take because that's what I did last year of some of my favorites. I just took pictures of some of my favorites so we can recycle them all. So yeah,

and since we're going to reuse anyway, we could grab more paper for it, right? That's where I got it in the first place. So I think I still have some of it. That's Well, that's a nice simple craft. Not messy at all. Easy to do. That's what I don't want. Anything that's going to be messy. No glitter, no paint. Is it correct? No glue. We are only there 3 to 7 this year. Is that those are the apps? 3 to 7. 3 to 7. So, okay. So, as far as who's even available that day, I'm I'm there the whole time. Okay. I'll be all my crazy material and all that. I'll be available for part of the day. I don't necessarily know if I could do the whole thing, but I could do half of it for sure. What are the date is the date? The 6th, which is a Saturday. I was planning on being there. I cannot attend.

Uh date is important. tournament slashsat if I decide to do that instead. No problem. So we have that as entire dining I can I can at least come to help set up with you stay through. We'll see what other hours we get here. Um nothing else going on that day. Well, in in a way, um, it's not bad because we don't want I don't think that's a thing. And we don't have a lot of room to like I'll be there the whole time doing my, you know, my talk talk talk talk. And if you just take care of, you know, and and you guys are going to do the tree. Is that is that what you said before? Like the um decorate the tree? Well, yeah. That's Yeah. Do we want to decorate a tree then? Let's have a leaf. The tree is

Oh, we're going to put it on the tree. Well, there's two trees, right? Decorate the Christmas tree first, right? We have before that. Yes, that's happening before. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I'll help with that, too. So, we'll have to figure out what we how we want to decorate the tree. We were going to grab supplies for the tree. Yeah. I mean, it should be something obviously it should be, you know, reuse. Yeah. Yeah. Re reuse. Exactly. Right. Stop. All that kind of stuff and things that's not going to blow over, you know, that we're going to be picking up on April 25th. Really quick. Did we have anybody else who's helping out day of? Are you free at all the on the sixth? I was going to suggest you send out a email and people Okay. Okay. I can do that. I'll take care of that. Matt. Matt. Yep. Are you good?

Do you want just part of the day, all the day? What's your preference there? Um, ideally part of the day, but if if you need somebody, I can probably find a way to be there the whole time. Okay, perfect. And then um I'll send out the email still so you and then I'm I'm available. Okay. Probably be happier helping with setup. Happier with setup. You know, if you guys need help with just getting everything, you know, ready to go. for cleanup or you know if you need coverage in hours but you know burn down for cleanup and Ken for Bernie for setup and Ken for cleanup. Okay, [laughter] I'll I'll send out the email anyway just to make sure you're free. But

last year we also had a snack, but I don't know if this is going to be I don't think it was like I don't they want food again. I think they're probably bringing based off what had happened at the last event they said not to do snacks bigger than just a candy because of food vendors. So I'm assuming that makes things easier. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Keep it no food. So So we're going to decorate a Christmas tree or a tree evergreen front of the the municipal building. Okay. Fine. We're going to do that and we'll do that prior to and then we'll set up um we will we will talk about all of our programs and different things and then there'll be a craft uh which will be I mean it's craft craftivity. Okay. Craftivity. Okay. Right. And you have an idea for this craftivity.

It's going to be similar to what we did last year of thinking ahead. What would you like to do in the next year? What helps? What can you do to help the environment and get the kids thinking like more forward thinking with what they can do? Turn and I had it so it was something that everybody could access. So I even had some things printed out ahead of time that were pictures of like turning off lights and you know turn off water. So when it's like a 2year-old and they want to do it, you get a glue stick, you go and you stick it on pat. So that way they feel like they're doing something, but they're not able to write or draw pictures as well. And then we'll also want to do the volunteer signup list. I'm not sure if you want your wheel again or

not the wheel. Not that wheel. And then as far as what we're having on the table, we do a lot of the same things every time. Maybe we we also have too many things sometimes. Maybe we pair it down. related. We don't have deer. We don't have deer. We don't have tree like that type of stuff. Well, we should pick which ones we will want going for that. And since Bernie has tree kicking off, did you did you want to focus on that tree? Yeah. But as far as the information with the calendar, I don't know if your calendar would be ready by then, but we definitely could. That could be That's good. We could definitely then you can promote all of the activities. And that's it. Is it a [clears throat] um a handout? Um, is that what you're looking for like to promote it?

If if do we have a solid activity in January or February coming up? I can't recall over I I need to read over your details again. Also a good place to let know when for our public speaking things. Yeah, public the series speaker series. Yeah. And and I know we're getting to the speaker series on the agenda, but you know, ideally if we have the next two selected, we absolutely and we can publish that. Yeah. Yeah, that would be good to just sort of showcase that and then calendar. Okay, good. So, if you can come up with something that looks like a you know some some type of um you know PowerPoint or something like you know like just power can print it out and we can we can promote it.

I would say also for anything that we do print this time if it's related topics let's try to do double-sided so we don't have multiple sheets of similar information because that got messy. Yeah. [laughter] So, we we can we can email over the next couple weeks, but we'll want this ironed out pretty soon because this is what, two and a half weeks. Yeah. Should be wearing a Christmas tree outfit. Yeah, if you want to. Okay. Yeah, that could be a tree. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Yes. And And do we need to bring um do I need to bring my big tree? Is that was that the idea? That's what I think we're thinking is putting it on that tree again. And and then these things that we're putting on a tree, is it the stickers again or is it not? It's not that it's stickers, right? No, it's not stickers. It's going to be um tape. Is that what you

We had tape previously. There last year I was out of town. Okay. We had tape last year and then one lesson we learned is try to have as many kind of cut out ahead of time as possible cuz that was Hold up. A big hold up and make sure they're easy shapes like they were. We could just like prefold them and like wrap them and then fold them. Okay. We can build that up as part of setup. Yes. Okay, good. I'll be there for that. I'm there. I'm there all day. So, okay. So, um so Joanna, would you like to just do like a little um or somebody um just do like a little summary then? I mean, I know you're putting this

I need to I'll send out the email asking for hours and sort of building out a mock schedule just to make sure we're okay and like put a recap too of what we just discussed. Perfect. That's exactly what I'm looking That will probably be Friday or Saturday. Okay. You all see that. But [laughter] yes. Yeah. Okay. That's all Okay. Excellent. Okay. So, Winterfest, we're we're off and running. That's that was great. Um, so speaker series, we we talked about that and we know that we have um two in a can. Um, so that's great. I don't think we need to worry about a third one yet. We'll just we'll come up with that in 2026. So, the two are both the tree ones. No, we what we I thought what we agreed to trees and two others. Yeah. Two trees and two others. So, could we talk about something?

That's what we had talked about last tour. Okay, let's do that. All right. Um, there's a guy I'm aware of that I think would be really interesting who um he he's a bee specialist and he's the guy who um uh runs all the beehives out at the airport, but he also has a biology degree and can talk about native bees and pollinators and ecology as well. Be fantastic. I love it. Enmologist.

I mean, Ottabbon Society, we got It's [clears throat] a good point. It's a great point. So, we're gonna talk about the birds and the bees. Got it. Bees and trees. Why don't we let that one be in the trees? Let that one up. I'm talking to Nick Sta Stamon Stolman of the Autoborn Society and maybe it might be him and it might be related to Bird Town PA. That is our speaker series is Bees and Trees. Well, let me find out for sure if we can get so let me look into it again. But that that'll be easy to advertise the birds and the bees. And yeah, I still need to know.

I will find some kind of entomologist to talk about bees. I Okay. Yeah. So So we want to do bird bees and trees. Yeah. Yeah. We can do birds. Wonderful. If we can get our people to commit. [laughter] Yes. And throw in some of the like with the um lantern fly and stuff like that if that's possible too. Yeah. insect. I can see if with that. Yeah, they they seem to be doing like what the gypsy moth did. The critters are figuring out that they're edible and so I think the problem's going to dissipate, but it does seem that way.

Well, good. I I want to get clarification on the speaker series. Was that meant to be a collaboration with the library? And was it always intended to be at the library or was it supposed to It was done with the library because of the ability that they had a place and they had the ability to uh get it out to the general public broadly disseminated. That that would be great to get back with them, especially as the construction's wrapping up. That's what I'm thinking. When? I don't know when. It's pretty soon. Oh, is it? So, for 2026, we might be able to partner They're very good because they're very good about getting the disseminated. Yeah. You know, that would be amazing.

Yeah. So people all right have a better space and work them on, you know, doing. So that was actually another member who was working past, but I can make the connection again. I think we need to, right? Um, but it I I think that's why I'm asking about the history. The history was it was always EAC in the library. it they added the library on eventually. Okay. Because they also had slightly better Zoom capabilities for large events as well during CO. So that was also very convenient as well. When we during CO we did the deer program. We had 250 spots. They were all taken and there was waiting. It's amazing. Was that a zone?

Yeah. Wow. Okay. That's incredible. So, um, yeah. And yeah, I I just feel like I last year because they were under construction, we didn't work with them, but I feel like we should go. Yes. So, yeah. Yeah. All right. Good idea. Very good. That's a great idea. They can network it. So, I mean, they they really can get it out there. Okay. And I'll think about how to advertise that speaker CD to high schoolers, too, and get some people there. birds to the beach. He'll come [laughter] have a special, you know,

yeah, I'll figure that out. I'll let you guys sent over an idea for take a look at that um for the Winterfest. You found You found something for us to That was That was just to you, Jeff, and to Melissa and Joanna. Okay, got it. Okay, that's just they're they're just there's a bunch of um things on Amazon where they have leaves that are like like they're the shape of leaves and we could buy those. They're pretty inexpensive and it would lead to less waste of all the stuff the the cutings that we would have to like cut everything out and we throw that paper away. So, it might

it might be easier. It'll definitely be easier and it will probably lead to less waste. We're heading to the place this weekend, so we'll see what we find. And if nothing, then we'll we can go with this as backup. Yeah, definitely. Good. And don't forget, we're you know, we have a budget. So, yeah. Good. Okay. Very good. Um uh next up is the adopt the highway date, which um we sort of came to loosely um to this Saturday. So, I'm going to be at the Clover Leaf on Ingamore this Saturday. Um, and you know, more hands make it less work. I would say with two people would probably be an hour and a half. With four people would probably be an hour most. What time?

Pretty good. It doesn't Yeah. No, it's not much. Just it's a walk. It's It's not much at all, but but we are we do have a commitment as it's off the highway um to do it twice a year. So, we can do it. We can do it at 9:00. We can do it 10 o'clock or whatever that is. And Okay. You know, can anybody uh join me then? I can join and I can bring my husband. Okay, great. Wonderful. Yeah. Is it going to be 10 or 9? Which which one do you prefer? It's warmer. 10 minutes. It's warmer at 10. It gives us time to take the dogs in a night. 10 o'clock.

So 10:00. Um, whoever can join. It's It's going to be an easy one. It's going to be a fast one. So whoever whoever can join, nobody nobody needs to say anything. I don't need to send send an email. So it's this Saturday. uh meet whenever you're leave here and you go out right and go down Ingamar, there is a road that is now sort of closed off and it used to lead down to the cinemas. There's an old orange cone there. Yeah, there's Okay. So, it's right before we and then we can just walk to all four um the four little um entrances to 19 north and south and um we could be done with this thing in no time. I'll have bags. I'll have gloves. I'll have all that kind of stuff. Okay. I don't think I do have gloves. I have bags, but no no gloves. I mean, we have gloves.

Yeah. Do you have your pickers for the option? Great. Great point, John. Before I leave tonight, I'm going to I'll grab fourers. Well, how many people you said? One, two, three. I won't be able to make it. Okay. So, probably four, which means it'll go really really fast. And so, I'll grab four of you.

Yeah, that's that's wonderful. Thank you. I'll grab pickers and gloves. Okay, good. Uh, thank you for that. Okay, next up is the bird town application. So, uh mainly it was greenlighted by John to do this to to to move forward on this John Schwen and um from that standpoint there are some uh requirements and one is an application which John and I are working on. So, it's a very simple application to be certified green. It's a sort of the entry level certification. uh it is to a uh to adopt a resolution

which they were going to do it this past Monday meeting, but I said, you know, they're they're they're anxious to do it. I said, you know, give give us a little bit of time. So, probably November 24th, council will will pass a resolution. I'll work with Diane on that. Um and then it's a $100 fee to join. So, and then from there, we'll start to work with the Autobon Society to partner on um you know, a 2026 agenda and education and things like that. Okay.

And actually thinking about what the students are going to be doing for us in spring, we might be able to have them work on looking at what's needed for that program as well as the gold into platinum and start building a plan to get us to the highest level for each of those. Yes. You mean this the Penn State students? That's right. Okay, that's a good idea. Okay, since we now will have those two separate certifications that we're working

That's right. Okay. Okay. Um I will here for a minute and uh that's all we can do. Okay. So that is the update on bird tone application. Um, next is miscellaneous open EAC position. We have nine candidates. We've interviewed eight of them. I would I mean, you know, I I'll ask Melissa and Nick to join in, but I I would say that we each one of them have just unique uh qualifications and uh it's an extremely uh difficult process because there's so many great candidates. So we are really uh

we've been very fortunate with the applicants this Wow the room. So it's a great great problem to have. Yeah, it's a good problem. Oh, it's a great problem. And what we're what we're attempting to do is we're attempting to determine different skills throughout the the the part the the the as we do this and see if they can fit in different places. And we we've done that um a little bit. and and we also have people saying um you know even if we don't even if I don't get the position I want to be involved in X Y and Z going forward. Several of them have expressed that. [clears throat] Yeah. So that's really really great. It is.

Yeah. So, uh, we will figure out a way to, um, to really take advantage of of the quality of candidates that we have to keep them interested and, uh, and the ones that unfortunately the eight that won't be chosen, um, hopefully we can, you know, still, you know, sort of use them and use their talent someplace and use them someplace else. So, yeah, we're we're really really lucky. Um, so the other additional update that is is that since the process is taking longer, it will go to c we will we will have made a choice. It will go to council on the 24th and then we will look for them to attend the December meeting. Good. So they'll be here next month

unless they're unavailable that day for some reason. Yes. Yeah. Because they don't know they are the accepted person yet. Whoever they may be. [laughter] Okay. Um, so moving beyond that, um, the summer McMail tip, where are we with that? Historically, we've had holiday tips for sustainability, geo management, solar, storm water runoff, foam books, and radon, as well as recycling. So, it's been all over the place. Yeah, I wanted to the air indoor air quality and radon.

Want to go ahead and take that then? Yeah, if we're good with that, unless you you have an idea for something you'd like to No, that sounds great to me. Indoor indoor air quality. It's kind of fun because that was one of my responsibilities back in the early 1980s in Washington DC doing all that stuff. So, interesting how 50 years later they come back around and go through the same stuff again. It is. Yeah. It doesn't always get

Yeah. I mean, I I've really I just recently in my own home because I still had a radon problem even with increasing the radon and I have all kind of air cleaners uh inside the house that are the best quality. I had to put in a um a system to pull in more outdoor air through the main system in order to do a a greater air exchange and my radon levels have decreased, but they're still not below what they should be. So, so to me, it's been like a three-year saga of trying to get healthy indoor air quality in my own home. So, I feel like uh I've learned a lot in in attempting this. Um but you know I [clears throat] I'll I'll focus on it's not relevant now but I think you know um [clears throat] when we're having all these wildfire problems

you know and what's happening that's when I think people notice it and pay attention but outside of that I I think tell me about well it is it is relevant now for people who have like wood burning stoves as we're approaching the colder time. That's a great way to tie it. Yeah. Oh, that's a great because I love wood burning stove and I or and fireplaces. I always had them until this house and and I hated not having them. I have gas, but um but yeah, they're a real problem. They are. Yeah. So, but Well, we when we were doing it in the 1980s, it was you were coming out of very very loose construction that you had a lot of air turnover

and then they were making houses too tight, right? And so then you were getting all the indoor air issues. And the long and short of it is is we figured out as long as you get air turnover once once an hour, you're you're good. You're good, you know. But u it's Lawrence Berkeley Labs and all those people. You was that was we had a lot of fun. Well, I'll have you take a look at what

I was going to suggest that. That would be be a great idea. So, so and and always with the tips, um I'm just reminding you please run them run them past me first because if there's anything that might be I know about that's going on in council that might be you know in in contradiction to something like because we did run into that one time with lighting and um you know uh uh with regard to LED lights and different things like that and we found that we uh we we we got egg on our face a little bit. So, just make sure and if I have any questions, I'll run it past Nick and we'll we'll we'll make sure that we're not being [clears throat] not contradicting anything they're doing. It was advocating for bad lighting. [laughter] Yeah. Yeah. I mean, is that what was happening?

Um I I don't remember. I wasn't as It was the gentleman was concerned with all the bright lights in the neighborhood and and how there was no darkness and Oh, yeah. and the different and the different u you know bright white versus soft and so forth and people weren't considering that when they were putting their outdoor lighting in and things. Yeah, that was his big thing in you know in a suburban community. Yeah, [clears throat] it's one of the things I like about Macandas is we don't in my neighborhood anyway have uh even street lighting. I I happen to love that. You might be able to see the Aurora Bara Balis tonight. out. We should definitely look out. Oh, yeah.

If you've never seen aurora, it's really, really cool. I've been I got to see that trout [clears throat] fishing up in northern Labrador, you know, fly fishing at night with beavers around. It's incredible. Yeah. I mean, that was just uh it really incredible. Okay, so you're going on a tip. Yeah. Okay, wonderful. U regional EAC re I'm sorry. I was going to say unless somebody really wanted to do something else. No, I think this is unique. This is this is this is new for us. Yeah. [clears throat] And and just make sure Ken, you know. Yep. Send it around. You guys can all tell me what I did wrong. Yeah. The Aurora if you can get somewhere dark.

Yeah. Give it a sharp tonight. Yeah.

Okay. Regional EAC reboot. Uh I've actually um connected with Pine with Ross with um uh Franklin um Captain Frank uh and and Liz from Hampton got back to me finally but nobody from Hampton but I'll I'll connect with Hampton. So, it's, you know, it's a it's a longer process, but I would say that, um, you know, hopefully um, we can we can host the first regional EAC gathering here at Delin Park [snorts] at some point next spring. So, really, I mean, I'm just trying to make connections right now. U, but, you know, that's what my goal is to to do that, you know, and then somebody else could host it another time. So, twice a year is good. We'll just take the first one. It's those they're very interesting because you have people with different uh expertise and stuff and or grant with the grants and and so forth and different trying we're all trying to accomplish the same thing and how somebody has gotten something

accomplished is it's worthwhile. Those conversations are really worthwhile. Yeah. And even aligning and teaming up and doing Yeah. you know, even joint grants, you know, everybody from the state loves to see that, especially when we have the same representatives. Yeah. Yeah. And so, so we'll I mean, we'll we'll focus on that in in, you know, in a few months, but we'll make sure that we, you know, put together a robust agenda and we're touching all the bases. You know, the remarkable tree program really came out of, I think it's Franklin or is it Pine? One of the two Argie was talking about. I think it was Franklin Park,

but he's reached out to them to get he said they have a form to fill out to submit and that's what he was trying to get from them. So, you know, if you're talking with them and somebody mentions that, okay, that was the outreach he was trying to do on that. It's interesting, too, different, you know, like Hampton's EAC is very involved with planning and and all of that kind of stuff. They're much more involved in other areas as well and where the different emphasis of the different uh communities committees are. Great. That's it's that's you'll see vast differences. Yeah. [clears throat] Yeah.

Okay. Um next up is monthly meeting time or start time. And so um you know we look like we came to um you know a split. And I think um when you come to a split you sort of keep the status quo. So, um, I would I would suggest, but I want to open it up to the up it up to the committee if you know, John, I don't think we've gone I don't think the calendar has gone to print yet, has it? It's going to print Monday. We pretty [clears throat] much decided I thought that we just leave it as a third.

Well, we that that's what we'll do. But I mean, you know, but but I'd like to um and I and I think that's true because there's three of us that said we'd love to take it to seven. There's three of us that it's not as possible. of us joined knowing it was 7:30. That's even what was posted for the new applicant. Very true. So, okay. Okay. Good. Um, you know, but two things. Um, we can we can address this again next year prior to the calendar. So, we can address for 2027.

Um, you know, can we can we begin it at 7:00 and we'll just have a robust conversation about that instead of forcing it this time. And secondly is I think we just all need to have a, you know, a strong commitment to make keeping this thing strictly on time. No longer than 9:00, no longer an hour and a half, no matter what time we start. So I think I think that's it's a it's a good reason to emphasize that. Okay. So John, we're to stay at 7:30. All right. Much to your but we could do 7:15. That would be the real compromise. still just adds to another layer of math. [laughter] Yeah, I don't think any 7:15, do they? Nobody likes that. I thought

starting on 15 is kind of a unique thing. I don't know if anytime I set up work meetings that way, half the time people show up early and other times people are just confused. [laughter] I thought it was 15 that you know. Yeah. I will add the town council did just actually vote to start our meetings in 2026 at 7. Yeah, that's that's what John said initially that a lot of these meetings were starting at seventh, but he's saying for 27, not Oh, I thought you said I think they're starting 26. No, I meant to say yes. Correct. Sorry. Thank you. I heard 26. Okay. Well, okay. Well, and I can plan [clears throat] in advance if need. I just I have a right

patient that I can't move right now. So, yeah. So, so we'll discuss it in um you know, next September, October, and then we'll we'll hopefully we can um we can adjust and [clears throat] it's a long day for John, but anyway, try and change that time. Yeah. [clears throat] I mean, I don't think you're the only one. Yeah. Okay. Um and then next, um it's and it's not on the agenda, but I have it here in my notes. Um, I did we submit I I I put together an annual report for council and and John, you did graphics for it. Uh, Melissa, you touched it up and put it in a different format and changed it. Did we submit that, Nick, or did you did we finalize that?

I did not see that in my packet at Monday's meeting. I haven't seen Okay. So, I'm assuming in our share, too. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So, so we'll we'll have it for you for the 24th. Is that okay? Or absolutely. Yeah. Okay, good. So, we just have to put a put a bow on that. Uh, it's in the SharePoint. Um, yeah, I can resend you the link, too. Okay, we we'll get it to you, Nick. Thank you. Um, okay. Uh, next up is report from town council. Nick,

uh, we are in budget mode season here. Um we had our first public presentation of the budget on Monday. Um next council meeting we will have the public hearing for said budget and then the first December meeting we'll go to approve the budget. In the proposed budget for 2026 we do have a $79,000 increase to the parks and wra budget which is a 40% increase from 2025 landing it at $279,000 which I love. So that's about it. And and now we have our own budget, but so that budget doesn't really do anything for us, per se. That's just that's okay.

No, but you are part of our budget. I I don't know what the exact number is because it's it's like a subsection. Okay. But anything you guys need, our council fully supports you guys. Thank you. Um, anything with regard to the elections that that that is meaningful for this committee? Uh, we will have three new council members, which is a pretty large number. Um, I will be sure to tell them that the EAC rocks. So,

okay. Um, yeah. And we will, um, and that they be they begin when? January. Yeah, they'll be sworn in. Uh we'll have a reorganization meeting uh the beginning of January and you will receive a new council liaison. Okay. We we will get a new council leaison. Yes. You're leaving us? I believe John, correct me if I'm wrong, but can the same liaison stay on or do do we Yes, it does. It does happen. I mean, it's kind of so [clears throat] officially the council president

sort of figures that out, you know, in conjunction with however they want to do it. And presumably there's going to be some side discussions figuring out who's probably going to be president beforehand if I'm guessing right. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, my everyone can say the same. Everyone can change. It's just really Yeah. technically under the purview of the president. Yeah. Okay. I don't know if you guys heard that, but the bar alarm just went off. So, if that came through and was loud, sorry. It did not. Okay. Well, if you burst into flames, we'll uh Oh, it's back now. Yeah. You need to leave.

I mean, that's probably the smart thing to do. [laughter] So, all right. I'm gonna put on my shoes and go. Sorry, guys. Good luck. [laughter] On. Huh? One way to get out of the vehicle. [laughter] Alarm we never see him again. [laughter] I heard the fire alarm. Did you? Yeah, I heard the beep in the back.

All right, let's get out of there. So topics for next month's meeting will be um the Penn State University uh communitywide greenhouse gas presentation. Um so we are we will allow time for that. Um a winterfest recap. Um there'll probably be another 175th. If there's any update there I will I will bring it. Um an update on the bird town resolution and application. And anything else?

Probably should do just a real real quick update on deer. Like um What do you mean just Oh, he said for dear. Just an update on deer. You mean yours? Yeah. Oh, yours is always on. Okay. Well, we're depending on Yeah. I I think whether or not they're in person because that makes a difference. That's That does make a difference. Yeah. Okay. So, let's just make sure agenda depending what we learn. Mhm. Okay. it it may be a bigger focus for the students if they are actually physically here rather than us talking about all of our typical topics. My understanding was they were but if they're virtual that's a different story. Okay, good. I'll find that out and we'll but we'll we'll absolutely have that on the agenda. Just I'll just do that real quick. Yeah. And uh and we'll and we'll I mean we'll keep yours on the agenda, too. We probably won't need anything for

Yeah. Yeah. We won't but we'll keep in case you have any anything new um you know we'll throw it on there. Okay. And we're all providing our feedback to you by end of next week for you. Yeah. That's the next item. Yeah. Yeah. Just make sure you share that to us all and I'll get that article back out. And if I had internet perfect if you need help just let me know you through the process. Yeah. I have no I'm behind times technically. We'll just leave it at that. Yeah, you enjoy your nature. It's more than welcome. Matt, any uh anything to add um to the meeting or to uh to next month's agenda?

No, I don't think so. I think the agenda for next month looks good. Okay. I hope they can be here in person. Yeah, I hope so, too. Glad you said so said. Geez. I'm glad glad you're paying attention to what's going on. It's the December meeting. We can have snacks, you know. So, Is it our Christmas party then? Can we get that? What kind of snacks? Okay. So, with that, if there's anything else anybody needs to add. John said we can have a party. [laughter] I will give a motion to adjurnn. I'll second. All

in favor? All in favor? All right. feet. Great, great, great. And you call guy about bees.