Environmental Commission - Regular Meeting

WELCOME TO THE TOWNSHIP OF SPARTA ENVIRONMENTAL COMMISSION MEETING OF THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2026. THE MEETING IS CALLED TO ORDER AT 7-0-1. WE'RE LIVE IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBERS OF THE MUNICIPAL BUILDING. YOU CAN VIEW THE STREAM, THE LIVE STREAM ON YOUTUBE AT SPARTA TWP SLASH STREAMS. PLEASE TAKE NOTICE THAT ACTION WILL BE TAKEN ON THE FOLLOWING ITEMS. adequate notice of the meeting was provided to the public and the press on June 5th by delivering to the press and posting on the township website a copy of the notice. May I have a salute to the flag?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Can we have the roll call please, Courtney?

Chair Neal-Sauerwein?

Here.

Vice Chair Christine Rogers? Here. Christine Dunbar? Here. Barbara Pasolka?

Here.

Robert Otto?

Here.

Alex Berti?

Here.

Councilwoman Margie Murphy? Nicholas DiPrato?

Thank you.

Thank you. All right, we have no correspondence. We have no applications. THERE'S NO ONE FROM THE PUBLIC HERE, SO THERE'S NO PUBLIC COMMENT. SO MOVING ON TO REPORTS. CHRIS, WOULD YOU LIKE TO START WITH THE PLANNING BOARD?

Did you want me to report? Yes.

Okay. Um, so the planning board meeting was pretty much, um, had to do with the re, um. The rezoning of the. Tcc back into the C 1 H. A zone, there was discussion about that. And there also were people from Lake Mohawk Country Club who were able to come and they were able to share their a little bit about their concerns. And maybe just a little bit about what they do not like to see in that area because it can infringe upon the private property of the lake members. i didn't get a chance to because it the audio wasn't um on at the town council meeting and so i didn't get a chance to listen to that discussion which is important so i but i can go back into the agenda and then they have a they they corrected that i i read earlier i haven't seen it yet but they did upload the audio from what i read When I called the office, the clerk's office, she said that I could go into where it's agenda on the website, and they had loaded the meeting there, and I could listen to it there. That would be a good way to do it. I wouldn't be able to see them in action, but I could listen to it. So I'll have to do that. I just found that out this morning.

Yeah, sorry. Yes, I tried to watch it the other last night the night before and, uh.

Yeah, yeah, because everything else seemed to have audio, but there was something about this particular meeting that didn't have audio. Yeah, there was a glitch, a glitch in this, a glitch in the system. So. That's, uh, that's really pretty much it.

Thanks, um, in my haste to get to our exciting topics, I missed the, um, approval of our May 28 minutes. I apologize. So we'll take a few minutes.

Page two, second paragraph, kind of a little bit past halfway. I think what I said, I was trying to recollect what I had heard from planning. I believe that I was just simply saying that the additional height was required for filtration. My intent was to point out that they should have had the filtration as part of their original scope. And so I was kind of pointing out that the height should have been correct. But anyway, so if we could just strike upgraded filtration and just keep it as he noted that the additional height was required for filtration equipment. Thanks.

Anyone else have any corrections or can I have a motion to approve?

I'll make a motion to approve the minutes with a minor change on page two, second paragraph.

Thanks, Rob. Can I have a second?

I'll second.

Thank you, Christine. All in favor? Aye. Aye.

I'm going to abstain. I wasn't here. Oh, okay. Thank you.

Chris, were you here? Chris?

Did you have any corrections for the... Well, I just was looking this up right now. Oh, okay. Because I think I meant the press conference, this is on page three. It's almost all the way down the second to the last paragraph. And this was a press conference given by Mikey Sherrill, but I'm sure it was at the State House. But it was the media that was there and put it on YouTube was NBC. NBC. Both New York and Philadelphia. So. I didn't mean to say that, you know, infer that she was. Not at the state house, and that's what I was just checking on right now.

So, are you suggesting a change?

Yeah, um. It was a, uh, uh, referenced a recent, um. press conference at the State House.

Do you want to just strike the location and just say recent press conference?

I'm sorry, I can't hear you.

Do you want to just strike the location altogether and just say recent press conference?

It doesn't. It's not important. The only reason why I was looking it up is because I thought one of us might want to go back on YouTube and just a way to make it easier, you know, for us to to listen to the press conference at the State House. Sorry.

So what, I'm sorry.

So it sounds like the state house. So page three, second to last paragraph referenced a recent, just say press conference at the state house.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Regarding the proposed data center guardrails.

Yeah. Can I strike the previous motion?

Yeah, I'll remake that motion and say I'll make a motion to approve the minutes with the minor change on page two, second paragraph striking upgraded, and page three, second to last paragraph changing to statehouse.

And I'll second. And I'll second.

Thanks, Christine. All in favor?

Aye. Aye.

Aye. minutes are approved. Now we can finish reports. I attended a master plan subcommittee meeting on Monday, we had had a couple of small breakout meetings, I missed the second one, but we're going over objectives and trying to establish our objectives and goals. And we're still working on that. And working on other things. The master plan reexamination is moving along. The finalized date is expected to be in September. Our next meeting is the second Monday in July.

Did you discuss the data center ordinance? I saw it in the meeting, in the minutes.

Yes, we didn't really discuss it, but I did send it on to the committee and got a favorable reply. Okay.

Did you get the modified one with the size change?

75 i sent the last one you okay thank you i'll uh i'll go back and check and make sure okay thanks did um did it go to the town council because i saw that it was on the agenda i That was a different that was a different one.

They had a different different two ordinances margin margin can speak to you're up. It's the report.

I mean, yes, thank you.

I'm. Pardon me for being late. Oh, that's all right. You can't help it.

All of the food pantry. The ordinance for the. The one we did the other night for the square footage, um, the PDRM, 1 PDRM, 2 and the. E.D.

Zone, is that what you're speaking of? No, but that's another good one. Okay.

She was asking if you, I think there was a misunderstanding that on the agenda was what we had just given you to advance to town council, but that's not what was on the agenda.

That was not what was on the agenda, no.

Do we know who introduced the one that was on the agenda?

I believe Attorney Dash wrote that. He did see yours that is just it was just an introduction and then it goes from there get corrected questions no, he's got yours and everybody on the council has the one that everybody did here and So that is in in line for approval and Adjustment if need be but it was just introduced And then the other one was for taking down the limit of the 175,000 square feet warehouse buildings to 75,000 in all of the zones, everywhere.

And did you see that modified version of what I had sent that had it correlating to 75? Okay.

So both were introduced and will be up for a vote next? Correct. Correct.

No, was the intensity use introduced as well? I'm sorry? The intensity use was introduced? No. No.

It was another for data centers was introduced, but then the two can be looked at together.

Okay, perfect.

So do you think they'll combine them for the next – would that be a reintroduction or – No, it won't be a – it shouldn't be a reintroduction.

It'll be a discussion and – um to put them to see to see if they're compatible and to maybe integrate them but they have them okay

So I think, yeah, I mean, that was the point was to get it to you for master plan because if you weave it into master plan for future consistency, it would be important to tie that all into the back end on master plan. Correct. And then town council, if they so choose, then they can reference back. But as it is, my understanding was you have... just a size, no intensity, but just a size as well as a definition limitation for now.

Yeah, and it's more prudent for the master plan. Yep. Yes. It's perfect for the master plan.

Right. Yes. Yes, great. Thanks, Margie. Anything else? I wasn't able to hear the meeting yet.

Yeah, the meeting, you can hear it now, the recording.

I'm not a good lip reader.

Did you zoom in really well? Really well.

You can maybe tell by expression. It is. Oh, poor Tyann. She could not. And our IT people were not available. One was not feeling well. And they couldn't do it over the phone. They couldn't get here. But the recording was put on the website.

So we can watch on one and play recording on the other one. Correct. So people are moving mouth and you can.

Yeah, you can have your phone and your computer there. Yes.

But it's not, was it re-uploaded to YouTube, you know, with the audio?

I don't believe so. No. To my knowledge, no, but... No.

I don't think so. That's what the clerk said this morning when I called.

That it was?

She said no. Oh. She says you can... She advised going on to the... Go to the agenda page. Yes. And then it's loaded there.

It's loaded there. Correct.

So I'll have to sync it. So should we do like a... Like a visible so that they have to sync the audio and video in the future. We have the flap.

It's kind of like the Wizard of Oz and Dark Side of the Moon, I think.

You think.

The Wizard of Oz and Dark Side of the Moon. The Wizard of Oz behind the screen. Oh, oh, oh. If you want to know a little bit about the Trails Committee, I do have some information.

Oh, sure.

Yeah. So we did complete the application for the Sussex County funding, Trails Committee funding. And with Joel, who's the head of that. And so we got everything in, you know, all the numbers and costs and everything. So they're supposed to come out with a decision on that highly competitive grant in summer, early in summer, hopefully. I just found out from Landon today. And we're having a meeting on the 24th at 6 o'clock of June. It's over in this little room on the side here, the conference room. And it's the Trails Committee. And we'll be talking about the vision and also... the actions that we need to do to move forward to even extend the Iron Horse Trail further out to 94 and north along there and access points. So we'll be talking more about the Iron Horse. And then we'll be probably talking a little bit about, we did the land swap for the Safe Schools Trail We'll be talking about that also, the progress on that.

Was that land swap completed?

That's what we'll find out. It takes a long time with this state.

How much is the grant you asked for from the county? Do you have a number?

I think it was $20,000, either $20,000 or $25,000.

Which is that for the iron horse part?

That's just to get it started with the gate on sunset in, uh, signage. To get that trail cleared all the way to Demarest and then having a gate on that side. Also. Yeah, so just getting that nice.

What's the name from where to take?

Uh, well, to Demarest, it goes from sunset in road to to Demarest. Yeah. So yeah, that's section one, the beginning. So we'll be talking about that. And oh, a hike. They had the hike at Sparta Glen, and there was about a half a dozen. It looked like they took a group picture. There's a half a dozen people that attended. And they seemed very enthused. There were two leaders. I think it was Doug Dykstra and Jeff. I can't remember his last name. And they took a group up and around Sparta Mountain. Awesome. And everybody had big smiles. And they noticed that there needs to be some refurbishing of the trailblazers. so they're thinking about how they can um spruce them up a little bit to make it clearer which way to go with the different colors yeah oh and i i may have some news did you hear about the trails committee there was a new applicant for the trails committee and we nominated them last night so we'll have a new jerry yonkers oh really all right

We nominated him. That's perfect. Yes.

Do you think he'll notice the name thing? Yeah.

Yeah.

He knows. He wants to make sure that doesn't happen to anyone else, right? So he's joining.

So, yes, he's now part of the Trails Committee.

Oh, that's wonderful.

Yep. Margie, you had nothing else from the council?

No. Christine, did you have anything?

Nope.

So I guess move to unfinished business. First thing is a Sparta Day recap. Everybody who attended Sparta Day.

It went well. I mean, we did not have our banner, which kind of made people walk by us because they didn't know who we were. Some people thought we were PSE&G because that sign said PSE&G on it. But overall, I had a good time. It was a cool day, breezy.

Yes, it wasn't hot.

It was a good turnout at Sparta Day for sure. It was. It was a lot of people. Oh, yeah.

Good. So you had a few sign-ups for the green team?

Yeah, we had a cup too, right? Yeah, too. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, we both signed it, right?

Those are the two?

Yeah. No, we sent the names of those potential green team members to Courtney to add to our list. Good. Yeah.

But we were right across from Sustainable Jersey. Sustainable Jersey?

No, Stop the Chop. Stop the Chop. Yeah, Sparta Mountain. Yeah, I'm sorry.

Yes. I was going to ask you if you interacted with them because I saw an email. with more of their information.

Yeah. The woman who was in charge of that, I forget her name. Sylvia.

Sylvia. Thank you.

She said she wanted to come in and talk about what's going on at Sparta Mountain to kind of just give an update and a reminder. to the people of Sparta. Um, so we kind of keep it at, you know, at the forefront of people's minds.

Oh, good.

So I invite, I'd say, yeah, you come anytime.

Yes.

So, um, I can reach out to her and see if she wants to do that. Maybe, maybe at the next meeting.

Yeah, that'd be great. Um, did you get any interaction with a lot of people or did they, You couldn't do the set up the game.

Yeah. Yeah. Without the game and without the banner, it was, I think it was a little difficult. Some, you know, we had a handful of people stop by and talk to us. Um, some people took the recycle, uh, Sparta township stickers and people wanted them. Um, but yeah, uh, which I can't report that there was high interaction with our table. Okay.

No, that's, um,

Thanks for sacrificing your time for us. Thanks.

We did have an idea, though, didn't we, that it would be nice to coordinate a hike with the Sparta Mountain folks, Sylvia, maybe next year. She had a wonderful display and had a lot of interaction with people. So then she could send them over to us and we could say, oh, we have a hike that's going up into that area. So you can know and be familiar with the changes that are occurring on the mountain there because of all of the logging.

I have to say I was amazed I had not been up there. And I did the hike and I was in shock. Shock.

Yeah. That's pretty sad.

Unbelievable. So why wait till next year?

Oh, we don't have to wait till next year. I just was thinking of a way to support her and her to support us. And we got a lot of flow of people coming through. So it might be an easier way to get people to sign up once they see the devastation. Oh, I want to see for myself. and go on this hike. But we could do it any time. Yeah.

Well, when she comes in, we can talk to her about that offline, I guess. That'd be great. Nice doing the fall.

Yeah. Right before they start logging.

I was just, I couldn't believe it. I really couldn't because I had not seen it.

Where did you go? Off of... the edison uh yes yeah yeah the uh edison bog that that section it was all it's all it's all when i was up there i think it was last year it was just all birch saplings there were still piles piles and piles of

wood that trees that have been cut down that were still there and shrub that's okay that that's a good thing leaving the wood is is the right way to do it but everything that had been cut down around it was amazing and the trail that you could see that would go down to almost down to uh the the spart Ogdensburg road right right

Yeah, you're really supposed to leave the wood there to do forestry management, right, Christine?

To create habitat. Yeah, and take out the logs to sell.

Where to? To Canada? Rumor has it.

I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. But I was just, it was devastating. I was just amazed. Anyway.

All right. The next big one is the environmental resource inventory. As we all know, we were denied the Sustainable Jersey grant that we had fought for to develop our ERI. But we were given some resources. And we have some other avenues we might be able to take. I think Barbara Davis had suggested that we possibly use our open space funding to help fund some of this. So we could do it that way. We have the Highlands Council ERI mapping tool. And I used it to develop an ERI just before we came here. I just had to run an ERI for Sparta because it lets you be specific to the municipality. So you can do that and then build from there. So I reached out to the the group that ran the information session on the ERI tool, that's the Raritan Headwaters Group, and asked them for examples of any towns, municipalities within the Highlands that have done it that way, that have developed the ERI on their own from the tool.

What was the feedback from the phone call, from the follow-up call?

Didn't they say we have more interaction from the public? That's that's what was missing from our applications along those lines.

Yeah, that was that was 1, we don't have enough public interaction.

Yeah, we didn't, um, like, the way we did it with the open space plan, we had meetings with the public. Okay, I guess they're looking for that kind of thing. So see, this 20,000 dollar grant is very, very competitive. I think they only gave out 6 of them. in this statewide.

So as part of the grant they wanted more of the public involvement.

Interaction. Yes, community engagement, resident involvement before the ERI, and schools and other partnerships that we could use. Yeah, some of the students, student groups. including school, green teams, then building a team of stakeholders.

They wanted that before we get the grant?

Yeah.

For the application.

For the application. Wasn't this sponsored by PSE&G?

Yes. Foundation. Yes. The foundation, not the company.

So did the Highlands Council grant funding come up at all? Did they have any guidance about that?

Yes, that was a suggestion too. We can apply for another grant with them. Okay. I think Michelle told me we have a grant writer.

We do.

Yes. So can we reach out to her and see if we can apply for a Highlands Council grant for the VRI? BENEFITS TO THE COMMUNITY. WE DIDN'T LIST THAT ADEQUATELY. OVERALL, THEY SAID IT WAS GOOD.

I'M JUST CONFUSED WITH THE PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT IN THIS PARTICULAR THING. THAT'S WHY I'M JUST SEEING HERE. BUT I GUESS COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT IS ALWAYS IMPORTANT.

And like I said, it was so competitive. Yeah.

Because I would think that the community involvement, you would get the grant and then you would engage with the school groups kind of on the back end once you already get the grant.

Well, yeah, that too.

Right. I don't know. That's an interesting comment.

Yeah.

They really wanted us to engage all aspects of our town. The recreation department, why would it be important for them to have an ERI? Why would it be important even for businesses? You know, where is the buy-in here for the ER? From organizations, from the Sussex County Bird Club or the Native Plant Society and all of those folks and then In doing that, ask them, do you have somebody in your group that would like to be a part of a team? This is what I'm interpreting, a team, to use the tool. They were really pushing the tool. They said, you can do this yourself. You can do your own ERI. We have a video. You can always contact us, and we'll walk you through. But you could do your own ERI.

Right. That's what I was saying. I did want. But there are other things that you need to add or that we would want to add to it, like history.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

that's just one of the things I can't think of everything else but yeah history yeah and be in line with the master plan that was the whole idea of this right like this be a part of the master plan which is almost done right if we're planning to finish by September well I don't know well well there's a big but there um uh

so can we it's on its way okay can we like refer in the master plan to this tool i guess oh absolutely yes for sure we should be able to um because that's kind of what they're they were pushing if you watch that video uh you can have your your eri be use the interactive tool because you know it keeps it it keeps it current Because as the maps change, as new data is collected and put out on the tool, that would keep ours up to date.

So is there a benefit of doing both things at the same time, kind of having a shortened, streamlined version that can be incorporated into the master plan now that we run ourselves, and then going after this grant that by the time we get the grant, they do the ERI? That it would get incorporated?

That's, well, I think we can.

Yeah, because it could be like a placeholder for now, like a shortened version that we get something in there.

For sure, yes.

And then add it as a supplemental material once we have a more complete version, if we have funding for a consultant to actually hire out to do.

In fact, I will send that, the thing, the ERI I ran off to the subcommittee.

Okay, great.

Yeah, that's that's great. Yeah, it usually is an appendix and a master plan. Like, just like the traffic flow, because it might be good before, right?

If the timelines don't line up and and the master plan is actually going to be nearing completion in September. If we have a short inversion, something in there for now. Yes, definitely.

Yeah.

Wonderful.

Okay, um, we had talked about the Pope John rain garden last week. How it was. A little bit overgrown Chris.

You said you talked to I did I set up a meeting with teacher Judy who I worked with for years and we took a look around and there were some native plants there. There were a lot of, um, cat tails in 1 basin. along with native rushes and there was even a there was even a little red maple tree that was encircled by poison oak yeah but there were there were some things and of course there was a lot of mugwort but you know it's the end of the school year and since there was so little plants there. We even felt like the mudwort would do some good because it could soak up moisture in the rain if we ever get it. But she's going to take the kids out in the fall and get them started. She knows very well what mudwort and invasives and multiflora rose and all those look like. And they'll have a little project in the fall to try to get anything that doesn't belong there out to make it more native-ish. Right.

Yeah. Yeah, as I said, mentioned to you, I rode by today and just looked over for more that I could see from the road. And the first section had some flowering plants that I hadn't seen before.

look fuller yeah i think yeah she looks forward to do unfortunately this is going to be her um she's planning on this being her last full year and she's retiring so she's hoping to engage you know the other teachers and so they can carry on um improving you know at the whole drainage basins because i didn't realize they were like one two three four they're five there were five there yeah

Yeah, a couple of them look a little sparse. Maybe they could use some more.

Yeah, well, I mean, we can all go out there and put our gloves on. Sure.

Of course we can. Well, I mean, do we need permission from the school to do that?

Yes, that wouldn't be hard to get. As long as there's not a football game going on.

I don't think so.

Good. Yeah, so that's something. It was better than I thought.

Yes, good. All right, next thing we talked about, we've been talking about for a while now, is the tree ordinance. It seems like we're behind in our MS4 permitting. this tree a revised tree ordinance was due in 2025 and the ms4 our ms4 plan is doesn't seem to be current there are other things that are up haven't been updated looking at the at the web page So I had... Sorry, Margie. This is a bomb. I don't want to put you on the spot. I just want to let you know. Okay. And I sent an email to Mr. Zepp asking about the tree ordinance, but he hasn't gotten back to me yet.

When did you send that?

Earlier in the week. I know he's busy. I should have sent it to Michelle, but maybe we can... We can check on that.

MS4. Should have been updated in 2025 for the tree or the tree for other things too.

Yeah, okay. Look at the MS4 page on our website. See, it doesn't look like it's everything that's current. It might it might it might be up to date. It's just hasn't been updated on the on the web page.

But I'll find out.

Okay.

I think the tree ordinance, I assume it was to prevent, the gist of it is to prevent people from cutting down trees unnecessarily. Is that the point of the tree ordinance?

Yeah, and replacing.

Or replacing them? Replacing trees. I know something is because a friend of mine, couldn't cut one down. And was told he had to come for a permit and they said, no, you can't cut that one down without replacing it. So, there's some, let me check into in Sparta.

Yeah, yeah. See, look at up in Alpine.

Actually, this is what was working on because there is a 3, 3 removal replacement. I believe ordinance from, like, years, years ago. Yes. This 1 is not in comply. It doesn't. It's not in compliance with the requirements that they have. new requirements there are some like i can send an email that i had spoke with the dep regarding this okay they reviewed our three ordinance and there's there's some language there that we have to remove because there are exemptions and they don't want those exemptions and things like that and this is based on the three ordinance uh model three ordinance from their websites like the from the dep yes okay but i don't know which version is this because we were going back and forth back and forth and something was supposedly sent to the to the engineer but our engineer yes yeah we're waiting to hear from him for about a year and a half to two years now but that's what i'm saying i don't know what was sent to him if anything i'm not sure about that yeah corey stoner yes thank you okay

We should also add, you know, we're going to treat ordinance. Even should include something there about dead trees that are on people's properties. I know in my neighborhood, there's a. Giant dead ash just hanging over the road and I called. The town about having a cut down because it looked like it was kind of close to the road might be on town property. It wasn't it's on. private property and therefore the town cannot do anything even though this tree is hanging over the road where the buses drive every day and it's just not good. Eventually it's going to fall on the road. Is that like a safety?

Can you report it as like a safety concern?

Safety hazard?

Yeah, like does code enforcement deal with safety hazard trees?

Maybe.

You can figure that out, right?

Yeah, thanks.

But maybe we can just look like we can all look into this one more time, get the draft, and just send it to them instead of trying to find out from what's happened.

But you made a previous draft, I feel like. Okay. So can you send that to everyone just so we see it?

Because you spent considerable effort on that. Talk about this, make changes, whatever changes we want to make, and then.

Yeah. All right.

Is this? Yes, more or less. Yes. But you did. Yes. Oh, terrific. Okay. So let's do that. Okay. I'm going to send it to everyone. Then we can make changes, send it to the engineer and right.

It's like those, the trees on. Yeah, would port the top of Woodport road. I'm going up right at the right at the intersection of Woodport. And, uh, coming up from downtown that were taken down there. Now, I don't know if those were dead, if they, but they were all, removed those big, huge trees right at that intersection. Stanhope Road, Woodport.

Woodport and Winona?

And Winona, yeah.

Oh, I didn't know about that. Yeah. Yeah, that's for the gas station.

Yeah, across the street from the gas station. Oh. Mm-hmm. Okay.

All right.

But there are a lot of dead trees, and that's one thing I was curious about, like off of West Shore Trail, the whole through the woods, and then we had that fire that went right up to Alpine because it was so dry. It just went right up the hill. Oh, that's right. Yeah, that was about a month ago. Right.

And don't they have the DEP kind of doing forest management now as a result of that?

I believe. Well, the forest management was there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes, they were so, I mean, and if if this tree that Alex says. Ash, we should, I don't know. I mean, Emerald dashboard, we should have guidance on.

It's an ashtray. Yeah, it's definitely an ashtray and like, and ashtrays fall, they cut off from the top. Right? And they fought, which I never knew that it's dead.

Oh, yeah, it's dead barks fall off it. Branches fall off. It's going to crack in half like Marty saying at some at some point, just question of when hopefully no one's standing under winds.

All right. Okay. Okay.

Awesome.

All right, let's move on to new business. We have a native plant ordinance. This is you, Rob. I mean, I don't have it.

I said if everyone could kind of come with thoughts about it, because I think we had talked about it would be good for us to have one. And it might be something, I don't know, that, you know, if we could produce one, then we could have it be incorporated in Master Plan. Yeah. Right, and it would also help with some of the proposals that we see where we could kind of have suggested native plants, native ours, non-native but non-invasive options, things that aren't going to immediately be eaten because they're recognized but also aren't going to be noxious to the environment. Maybe if we're looking at, I think there's like a little cross pollination or if we're looking at the tree ordinance. We could also maybe consider native plant ordinance, especially as we lose some of these larger trees, like ash trees. There's the replacement option, but then in areas where we might have these. or just people asking like, what should I plant? I think, you know, small saplings, small bushes, native plants, like a variety in width, height and species would be good. So if anyone has any resources that they could consult, we had someone, I sent a link who was speaking, I think about the deer problem. but she touched a little bit on native plants and she's a master gardener. She is responsible along with some other masters. She's a landscape architect, but she volunteers with some master gardeners and other volunteers. Marjorie, you know. Yes. So you do nice plantings on the boardwalk and White Deer Plaza. and surrounding areas. So with the guidance from that group, perhaps we could put together kind of a few examples of these three to five plants for these type of situations. So maybe we could just start to kind of peruse things.

Yeah, she did all through the plaza with Peggy Laddy. Yeah. Yes, yes.

Barbara Abita, Peggy Laddy.

Yep.

Margie Murphy.

Don't we have a committee? Is that the garden committee? Kind of. Is that the town?

No.

That's Lake Mohawk.

You're talking about the beautification?

That's a beautification.

Yeah, but I don't think that is. Kind of.

That was kind of following up.

Yeah, but there is the beautification committee. To your point, the beautification that Neil's got, he said he's got some funding and they're putting together, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you with that. I'll tell you about that. They've got a program they're working with where businesses can sponsor. They want to put like hanging plants throughout the town, but there's really nowhere to hang them because you can't from those lampposts. But there's also... So they're putting together something where the businesses could sponsor for their signage, around their signage, for their own properties. Or like in Denville, when you drive into town, there's a on the triangle there when you drive in and it's like sponsored by and there's a whole bunch of beautiful plants and flowers and it's sponsored by this business or that business. But then you're That you have to make sure the sign.

Yeah, that was my 1st thought.

Exactly. They're very, they're small though. But it's a beautiful, you know, it's pretty welcome to Danville. I mean, we could a little are welcome to sparta science need a little upgrading in most areas. So, but yes, they're working on that. I forgot about that last Tuesday night. That's good.

We can do the tree in conjunction with the native plants because I remember at the end of the tree ordinance there was a table with the suggestions of what can be planted in place of the trees that are being removed. But the table like the table that I generated was a huge table of basically everything that's in New Jersey, like south and north, northwest New Jersey and Sussex County kind of thing.

Oh, wow.

But we can we can scale it down and put few of them instead of a long, long list that maybe doesn't make sense. So maybe if we can work with someone on that, so.

okay like maybe a local landscaper or or or peggy and well maybe yeah between if they'd be willing to even look over that list and just kind of this one's good this one's good this one's good and then um for you had the native plant sales when we had you know that would that would be nice to eventually kind of coordinate i think with local vendors and say

There are a lot of resources available. Rutgers has some really good resources for this.

Would you like me to ask our local Native Plant Society, Sussex County Plant Society, for their suggestions also?

And I kind of also feel like this somewhat flows to the rain gardens question too, detention basins. I don't know, but I guess start somewhere, come up with their list of preferred, and then we can see if we can sketch up some.

Well, there's four rain gardens. There's Rutgers Rain Garden Manual online. So as an appendix to that large document, they have whole lists of plants that are recommended for rain gardens, plants that are deer resistant, plants that do well in shade. So there's different conditions that we could pull from those lists as well.

And we did just update our stormwater regulations, but I wonder if we could. Yeah, I mean, this, this should all be in the master plan.

That's what I was saying before our stormwater regulations aren't up to date.

Well, but town council, I think did a. like find and replace what was it like four months ago where they said we're going to replace this section as it's written in the code with this section to stay current but I know what you're saying I mean they still need to double check that MS4 compliance is there but they had to do some sort of state stormwater regulatory update so I think if we're the ones that need to help them find that text then maybe it is as simple as here here it is and then put it and give it to margie and then margie puts it uh in front of them for review and then if we could just update those sections that would be good right well that's and and that's the other thing too is the tree ordinance is part of the stormwater regulations yeah i know that's not it's all related um

And I just finished the Rutgers green infrastructure course, too. So I have all that information.

Congratulations.

And I finished the, well, finished except for the project, the environmental stewardship program. That's what I was going to mention next is that part of our, one of our field trips was the same day as Sparta Day. That's why I couldn't. and it was a trip to various sites in the Pinelands with Dr. Emil DeVito, who's just a wealth of knowledge and entertaining as well. He is a great, great source for information. We found out some really interesting things about the Pinelands. meanwhile yours is up in the air yeah but i have a very loud voice okay um and that um you know people get all upset when there are fires in the pinelands but that's really what keeps them what they are it keeps them living and um some of the trees in the pinelands that get burned all the time uh probably some of the oldest trees in the country because their root systems that they they work on their root systems so when they burn down they regenerate and they have these huge root systems that keeps them alive and trees are those their scrub pines there Those are one of the kinds we looked at.

Pitch pine, loblolly.

Pitch pines, yeah.

Loblolly pine. Yeah.

And the other thing I learned was that there are no cedar trees. True cedar trees only exist in the Middle East and Africa.

all the trees we call cedar are part of the juniper family so it's something i learned so if we do a sparta mountain uh hike would he be someone that might collaborate on that That's a good suggestion.

Wasn't he? He came and spoke, right? Yeah. Okay. When we had the Sparta Mountain speakers.

I reminded him of that. Yeah. On our tour. It's time to go. That's my mindfulness timer. I did too for a minute.

All right, any anybody else have anything for new business or any other exciting interesting information to short call backs to do your management just if we wanted to explore that again. And then artificial turf because I was reading. With the World Cup. Where. they're installing grass fields to replace artificial turf and kind of why. And as we know, we just approved artificial turf to be installed in this town. So to me, that means we have at this point like six years before we figure out how to take how we remove that, treat it like Hazardous waste. And then what's the next step? Because I believe some of the rush was, well, we have to put in one of the arguments for it was we have to put in this artificial turf because it's too long to develop natural turf and we need the field. So if that's true, I just would want us to talk about it and see do we see ourselves in six years, you know, needing more artificial turf? Who's going to pay for the removal of the old artificial turf? And because artificial turf is it looks like it Some of this latest reporting, I mean, people can can look up kind of FIFA World Cup on installing grass fields and why and some of the scientific analysis of like how players respond. But I think the gist is that artificial turf has a higher coefficient of friction. So if you have an accident on that, it's less forgiving. So basically your ACL is blown. You have these career ending injuries on artificial turf. I think the counterpoint is that, oh, you know, younger kids. uh if they're looking to progress um in sports that they need to train on an artificial turf to remain competitive but then i'd i'd say what i said then which is so our youngest kids are shortest they're closest to the friable artificial turf so they're inhaling that pfas and heavy metals from the tire crumb recycled materials. So, yeah, if people want to think about that, if they think it's something that's appropriate for this body, just bring that up.

Actually, Angek, I just saw something. I don't know whether there's a bill about artificial turf. I signed a petition. Let's see if I can find it.

We get a

and we were using i thought open space funds for plastic fields which oh yeah yes we were and uh yes here's a the an and check post from june 8th it's on on their facebook page um look that up because there's uh they want you to contact assemblyman jim kennedy to post the green acres artificial turf bill To it's a 4909 a 4909 I believe it's prevent green acres funds from you being used for artificial turf.

And it's a post from June.

Oh, from June 8th, there are a couple of posts. Uh, oh, here, here we go. The, um, uh, in the Senate environment committee unanimously released as 3254, which prohibits the spending of rain acres funds for artificial turf fields.

3254 yes. Okay.

So we can all contact.

Hmm.

Oh, that brings up another point. There's an hour of action. I think it's on Monday. Let me just find that. Monday, June 15th at noon, there's a Zoom meeting on the New Jersey School of Conservation, which we know has been defunded So if you're available at noon on Monday, you can learn how we can save the School of Conservation.

See if I can have that put on the website.

Yes. Can we post? I'll send you the ANGEC post and we can put it on Facebook too.

On Monday?

Yes.

I did mention that at town council last meeting about reading up on the school, New Jersey School of Conservation, how it's the oldest in the country and going, being defunded and how it's, what, 75 years? Yes. It's terrible.

And I know people who have taken advantage of that. I've been there and done a hike there.

It's up in Stokes, isn't it?

Yes, it's a beautiful spot.

I should add not mind me. I bring that up. They are having a, uh, an event on Sunday. Um, I think it's called wings over water about dragonflies and damsel flies. From 12 to 4, I think it is about dragonfly and New Jersey school of conservation.

Oh, oh. Oh, oh.

I may be attending.

Yeah. What day was that?

Sunday. This Sunday. 12 to 4, I think. Oh. Yeah, 12 to 4.

Great. One other thing. Sorry.

The water bottling in Andover...

Um, I think it's currently land use board was supposed to hear it June 16th, 730 PM, but I believe it's being asked the applicants being asked to carry until August. So, um, that's something again with. What we provide to the master plan, um. subcommittee and town council is just it's pulling from germany flats in that proposal and so i would i would have a concern about that as a shared resource that crosses municipal boundaries yes one other thing i went to the backyard composting um

The session, I can't think of the right word, in Wantage on Saturday. And that was pretty interesting. I asked Lena, maybe we could do it here. She said, we'll talk to you. But her term is ending.

Right. Her term ends in July. So we'll have a new Watershed Ambassador starting in September.

Right. So maybe we can do something then. That would be great.

All right. I'll make a motion to adjourn a second.

All in favor.

Thank you.

Thank you.