Environmental Commission - Regular Meeting

Welcome to the Township of Sparta Environmental Commission meeting, Thursday, June 25th, 2026. We are live in the Council Chambers at the Municipal Building. The meeting is called to order at 7.04. The live stream can be viewed now or in the future at youtube.com at spartatwp slash streams. Please take notice that action will be taken on the following items at the Sparta Environmental Commission meeting of Thursday, June 25th, 2026. Adequate notice of the meeting was provided to the public and the press on June 19th by delivering to the press and posting on the township website a copy of the notice. We have the salute to the flag.

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

Courtney, may we have the roll call, please?

Chair Neal-Sauerwein?

Here.

Vice Chair Christine Rogers? Here. Christine Dunbar? Barbara Kosolka? Robert Otto?

Here.

Alex Bertie?

Here.

Councilwoman Margie Murphy? Here. Nicholas DiPrato? Here. Thank you.

First item. First of all, I'd like to, on behalf of the Environmental Commission, congratulate our student liaison, Nicholas DiPrato. He's served us for the last year and will be moving on to study veterinary medicine. We thank him for his service.

Thank you.

Hope we got a lot out of this as much as we did.

And where are you going?

UMass Amherst.

Awesome.

Awesome. Congratulations. Thank you.

So next item is approval of minutes.

On page two. I think that last sentence is supposed to say councilwoman Margie Murphy also mentioned that due to the technical issues with the audio during the town council meeting this past Tuesday that the agenda that the audio was posted to the agenda center on the township website. I think it's just the sentence doesn't read right, but it's the right idea.

The audio was restored.

Yeah. And then on page 5, under Pope John Rain Garden, let's just put in the teacher's name. It's Judy Loff is the last name, L-O-F-F. And then in that paragraph afterwards, did Christine Dunbar say last time that Judy Loff was going to retire after... the next school year, so the 2027 school year?

Yes.

Okay, so can we just change that in the sentence that said, Christine Dunbar noted that the teacher leading the Pope John Rain Garden project is planning to retire after the 2026 to 2027 school year.

Yes, I believe so, because she said she was going to help in the fall, right?

In the fall, yes. Right, right. Yes, thanks for that, Christine.

That's all I have.

I have nothing. Everyone else had a chance to review? Are you still reviewing?

No, I'm done. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes.

I'll make a motion to accept the minutes with the minor corrections provided.

Thanks, Rob. Can I have a second?

I'll second.

All in favor? Aye. Minutes are approved. Moving on. We have no correspondence. We have no applications. We have no members of the public, so it's time for reports. Margie, would you like to start?

Sure. Have you heard back yet from about the tree ordinance?

No, I asked Courtney actually to try to find out the status of our MS4 municipal wastewater permit in our plan because that's part of it. And it seems like we are not yet in compliance with the new rules.

So we put through an ordinance at the meeting on Tuesday to lower the building in the PDRM-1, PDRM-2, and the economic development, the ED zoning, to the maximum building size of warehouses, 75,000 square feet, from the current 175,000 square feet. So we voted on, first we introduced it, and then last week, or the other night, we confirmed and we put through the ordinance. which I'm very pleased about.

Was the vote unanimous?

Yes. No, it was not. Sorry. It was four to one. Yes, it was not unanimous.

Did it specify a warehouse or just a flat 75,000 square foot cap?

75,000 square foot cap.

Okay.

And what we suggested too was that anything to do with the intensity, the whatever whatever else that was to go with the building should be done in the master plan so to what we were working on yep that would be taken given to the master plan committee yes did the council person who voted against it provide reasoning no he did not and uh That's about all I have for... Was there another ordinance up for... There was. There was. There was. There was another ordinance. So it was the master for the three zones and... 2611 was the other one.

And what was that for? Data centers.

Oh, the data centers. Yes. Right, right, right. Yes. So the data centers that also... That was a unanimous. Unanimous. That was approved. That was approved, and it also, the intensity was to be also given to the master plan committee. And there was some questions about, oh, the master plan has not been redone in approximately 40 years. Bits and pieces here, it was reviewed and things were, a few things were changed over the years, but the whole thing has not been redone. There were some comments from the from the audience that said that it has been, but not completely, no.

1986 was kind of...

Yes, correct. So it is now in the process of completely being redone. And with up-to-date and with more of these specifications, with intensity and with all of the concerns and all of the work that you all did on those two ordinances, that will go to the Master Plan Committee to be put in.

Wonderful.

Thank you, Rob.

Thanks for doing that. Yes, thanks.

Our pleasure. Our pleasure. And we also, which was really, I was very pleased about, we submitted an ordinance. We introduced it to get together with a few other, and I'm not sure all the other municipalities in Sussex County that are writing, putting an ordinance through to Governor Sherrill to not defund the Sussex County School of Conservation, or the New Jersey that happens to be here. So we put through that ordinance, and that was unanimous.

That was a resolution.

Resolution, correct. Correct. It was a resolution. So we will send that on to also all of our congressional committee to take down to Trenton to not defund the school.

Very good. Wonderful. Thank you.

Oh, my pleasure.

Yes.

The more letters that are sent and written, the better. So from all of the constituents and all of the residents of the state in itself.

Yes, and there's still time. The public comment is open until the 30th, I believe, right? Or at least that's when it gets voted on.

I believe. I'm not positive.

But you can still call our governor and legislators.

Yes. Yep. Mr. Enganamort and Ms. Fantasia and Parker Space. Parker Space, correct. Yes. Yes.

And that's all I have. Keep your calls and letters going yes this is a very important issue okay the master plan subcommittee we held a subgroup meeting this morning we're going still going over goals and our next full meeting of the master plan subcommittee will be on July 13th The master plan is still scheduled to be finished in September.

Thank you.

That's all I have. Are you going to be working in some of what the Environmental Commission suggested for intensity, scale and intensity? Yes. Okay. Sounds good.

And we have one distinct goal for environmental issues. That's it. Christine, you don't have anything, do you?

No.

And we don't have a planning board member here, so.

No.

We don't know what happened.

I had some questions on that, but seeing as they're not here.

All right, moving on to unfinished business. The first one is Pope John Rain Garden. I think we pretty much resolved that last week. I'm sorry, Courtney, I should have asked you to take this off. The tree ordinance that we've been wondering about for some time now. The tree ordinance is part of our MS4 municipal stormwater wastewater treatment plan. And it seems like we're not in compliance yet. So I asked Courtney to try to find out where we are with that and when we can possibly expect a resolution or or action on that and who did you contact um i asked just ask courtney but no no before that though hadn't you written letters that who do you normally deal with with that i asked i had sent an email to jim zep i i he might have missed it um i just asked him about the tree ordinance but uh okay um i think he is is the stormwater coordinator so okay

Barbara's not here, but presumably she had worked a lot on that. So I think she was gonna go over her draft. And then we were waiting on what Corey Stoner had done right a couple years ago or a year ago. Okay.

Okay, so that's where we are with that. Um, The next unfinished business item is a native plant ordinance.

Yeah, I think that relates I'd like to. Move the tree ordinance, get us compliant and then then if I think if we have that, then we kind of have a format to work from. On shrubs and plants and all that we could. Because I don't know that we need that for our compliance. No, no, no. But it would make sense to me to follow a similar format. You mean as far as suggesting... Well, once we can get the tree ordinance codified and submitted and all of that, then I would basically take that and copy that format and put in plants and shrubs and all of that, build off of that is how I would approach it.

So does the tree ordinance that you and Barbara or that Barbara's working on...

I didn't work on it.

Barbara worked on it. Yeah, I don't recall seeing it, but did it have... Any kind of recommendations for...

I don't know. And then I don't know what Corey Stoner did subsequent to that. I just heard it mentioned kind of occasionally every so often when I first started on environmental. Okay.

All right. So I guess we can...

table that for a while did you or did you want to work on something I mean I would just if people want to start researching at their leisure. I think. If we can get a copy of the tree ordinance, then we kind of see the template. Then we can kind of start playing around with what the native plants might look like. And then that's where I think I could make a few calls. Other people could check with master gardeners and landscape architects contacts that they might have. And we kind of try to. Bring that all together and like a quasi working session and then present that as we think. that this follows in line of the tree ordinance. Well, that's on purpose. That this is kind of along the same lines, because I just don't want to go too far down that rabbit hole and then have to revise it, which sounds like was kind of what happened with the tree ordinance.

Neil, with the native plant ordinance, in the past, did Kim and Linda, weren't they working on a native plant ordinance? Was it just a list of recommendations or was it an ordinance? Because that was going back and forth for a while.

Yeah, I think it was a list of recommendations.

Because we should circle back and try to find what they were working on.

Yeah, that's a good idea.

I didn't know if Linda had worked on the tree ordinance as well.

I don't think so. I think it was native plants only.

Well, the tree ordinance is something that as part of the state requirements, there is a model ordinance that's

i guess uh barbara had added to it or but right but then it was pulled and looked at by the town engineer right i don't i never heard anything after that no i don't know like margie is that something can you reach out to cory stoner directly or i mean do you want to coordinate i don't know cory stoner hmm

the township should should have that from two years ago just like maybe check with him just whichever yeah I can reach out to okay and and not just you know not just the tree ordinance but everything else that's in our stormwater report on our on the web page that we're required to have on our township website there's still some things that are Outstanding. Yes, outstanding. That were supposed to be done in 2025. Okay. Or estimated.

I'll do some research and figure it out. Thank you. You're welcome.

Moving on to the environmental resource inventory. I haven't had a chance to work on any of this, but... Unless anybody else has any thoughts and suggestions, we can move this to the next meeting, I guess.

I also thought that maybe this could be coordinated with what you're doing in Master Plan, potentially. Yes. Okay.

I think at the last meeting we had talked, though, about trying to do two things at once, like our own... Shorter, right? Shorter inventory and then getting the consultants. So has anyone reached out to our grant writer or is – what's the process for that of how to get a grant writer involved in helping us to push an application forward?

That's a good question.

I know – well, yes, we do have one, and they are right in the process of – working on one for us for town council. I don't know. One of us could find out.

Yeah, because we might, you know.

I actually don't know the process.

We could, I think we could ask for a Highlands Council grant for this also, even though we already have one open for the master plan. Right. We should be able to ask, you know, maybe submit for one for the ERI.

Okay.

Okay. That seems to be it for unfinished business unless anyone has.

Yeah, I have something. Okay. In the last meeting, we talked about having the Sylvia from the Spartan Mountain. Save Spartan Mountain. Save Spartan Mountain. I didn't have her email address, but I went to her website, and I sent a message to them, and I never heard back. You haven't heard back?

That stopped the chop? Yeah, stopped the chop.

Yeah, because I wanted to have her come in and kind of just give a little talk.

Let me see if I can reach. I'll try to reach out to her, too. Okay. I've spoken with her before. Okay.

All right. Thank you. I'd also brought up artificial turf. Last meeting, and I didn't stay for the entire town council, but it sounds like they've picked up on that too. So I don't know what was said, but someone just mentioned, oh, they're talking about it. I said, oh, that's funny. We talked about it two weeks ago. So I would like to... Not not tonight, but take a look at that again, figure out it has a finite product lifecycle. It was installed against. Well, I would say against several people's better judgment and regardless. What's the plan in five, six years when it's end of life?

That's its lifetime, isn't it? Five or six years?

I thought so. So what's the plan for the turf, for the crumb rubber, whatever underlayment? And then is it going to be more plastic or are we going to do natural turf? And if we're going to do natural turf, I think Environmental Commission could suggest kind of, disposal of the one figure out how we're going to pay for that hazardous disposal um and then how we're going to remediate and then if we if we want to plant um natural turf start planning now so because i think this proceeded in part because there wasn't enough preparation uh There wasn't enough conversation, so they kind of said, oh, we need a field, so let's do this. Then I think we also had some parents who were advocating for it. But, again, World Cup and everything, some articles have come out now talking about how there's higher incidence of injuries. Injuries, yeah. So just – Maybe everyone could take a look at that. And then next meeting, it could be a topic of discussion. So maybe put that one on unfinished business.

Yeah, let's make this an agenda item for our next meeting. And we did talk about it. We did at the council meeting. I didn't get a chance to watch it all.

What did you guys talk about? Just bringing it up, the fact that we need to take a look at it and how to dispose of it and what is its life cycle, what actually do we do with it. And yes, because there are so many reports that have come out with higher incidences of injuries of every age.

Well, and we talked about PFAS and these forever chemicals and how – especially our youngest population in the community, they're closer to the plastic. And when you're running on it, you're abrading it. Those fine particulates are getting airborne. So it's actually a very high risk. One, because of proximity to the inhalation of it. Two, in the friable material. And then two, because... small bodies, developing bodies.

I've never played on turf. Only grass.

I played on grass.

You too, right? We didn't have turf fields.

I don't know if that's good or bad. I think it's good. Cut up with rocks.

One of the reasons they put them in, though, I think is because of the geese issue with the geese pooping on the grass fields. So that's just something to keep in mind. Because you also don't want kids playing on geese poop.

I guess, did we play on geese poop?

We didn't have so many geese.

We didn't have so many geese back then.

I remember the pros did have artificial turf, but we didn't. We did not.

But I do know, living on the lake, that to keep the geese off, something that reflects is the only thing that keeps them off our lawn besides my dog.

I was going to say, we're dogs.

Yes. That is the only thing. Fences, wires, they hop over. It doesn't bother. But something that reflects, I had put tape. But then, you know, that, if it doesn't stay on there and then I'm picking up little pieces or it's going in the water, you don't want that to happen. But something that reflects... I tried everything. Sounds, all kinds of... I had something that was playing or something that if they got near it, it didn't faze them. And they're creatures of habit. They come back to the same place every time.

But that seems to be... I mean, so, yeah, obviously, feces, not great. But the entire field is plastic. And I think the other argument was... drainage into our water bodies so it's not just the inhalation risk it's also this is this is directly sheet flow into our bodies of water so when we talk about salt when we talk about well yeah we could talk about waste from animals and people going to our water but all of this um and and maybe that's the thing too it's like shoreline buffers and all i mean we can talk about all that right anyway so maybe next meeting yes have we uh

We have a bunch of artificial turf fields, and some of them are old, right? They've been around for a while. Have we ever had to replace one or dispose of one?

Not to my knowledge. I think the newest one probably is Ungerman was put in. White Lake. I don't know if any of them have been replaced, to be honest.

Ungerman was last year, but that replaced the natural grass.

Yeah. Yes. I honestly don't know. Do you know from the high school? Has that ever been replaced?

I'm not sure. It might have been replaced right around when I was a freshman, but... I don't know. Because it was turf back then, right? It was definitely turf when I was a freshman, yeah.

Okay.

I don't know. Maybe I could ask Matt. Sorry? Maybe I could ask Matt because, you know, he was there earlier than me.

Yeah, that would be great if you could find out. It would be good to know if the high school has had to replace anything.

All right.

And find out what it costs.

Before we move on to new business, I just wanted to confirm with Rob if we're going to have our speaker series. I know you were thrown out around a couple of dates in the summer.

Yeah, I haven't heard. Again, Paul was waiting on Dr. Sousa. He is recovering from something. So when he was done with his recovery, I had given him three dates. I think it was like a six to eight week.

But we shouldn't wait on that. If we have other speakers, we should wait.

We should certainly be scheduling those in the meantime. Um, I think I provide the dates via email that.

Yeah.

Okay. So, yeah, I just didn't want to press because I know it's like doctor's orders once.

Yeah. So the idea would be that they're going to do a joint presentation.

So, which I think will be, um. really good the question is would I think that the question to the answer to the question that I would pose would be oh do we want to like add even more but probably those two could carry it but then we might consider following up with like a watershed ambassador maybe someone LMPF or something like that just to further talk I don't know if you have any ideas but you know talk about like lakes and, uh, sheet flow and stuff like that. So, but I think that would go nicely. But then we had also talked about deer management and there's a Spartan mountain.

Um, we'll do salt stuff later and, you know, winter, but what, and I know that the, um, the watershed ambassador, that program's finishing, um, July 8th is their graduation. So the new watershed ambassador will be starting in September. Um,

We'd have to put that off as well.

Yeah. So if we're going to do a follow-up on the Paul and Steve Souza presentation, it would be later.

Unless you want to find out if they want to do one last hurrah before they... When's our next meeting?

No. No, she's not going to want to do that.

But the incoming one will probably be very eager. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, I attended a seminar on vermicomposting last week at Simple Bare Necessities. And maybe that's something we could do.

On what?

Vermicomposting. That's composting with worms. It creates really high-quality compost. compost between the compost and the worm castings. It's very beneficial to plants. We all got a bucket with a bunch of red wigglers. You can't use regular earthworms. They don't work. I can't think of the Latin name, but I think they're called red wigglers.

I

I have a little demonstration project in my basement now. I'll let you know how that goes.

Okay. So how does that work? Is that actually, do you use like a regular compost bin that you already have?

No, it's a five-gallon bucket with holes drilled in the sides for aeration. And you put the worms in and mix in your compost. greens and your Browns and once take care of it it's supposedly in three months you can get a good results good compost hmm red wigglers cool have you heard of Google culture of what well you're talking about red wigglers

um it's the uh it's the when you bury you i think you dig a trench and you bury woody material but not like cedar oh yes i'd be interested uh if if you've got if you've got worms um you you put those in there and my understanding is then then you you layer your your browns or what you could layer your material there, you can put hay on there, and then you can put your plantings in there, and the wood, as it breaks down, it gives off the nutrients, but also acts as a sponge. So if we have times of drought, it will slowly release the moisture, and it will help create that rich, dark soil, and then it will also be a great habitat for worms. So I kind of, I'm curious, I'll be curious how your experiment goes. And then I don't know, like if skooma or anything, like if you guys would ever play around with that or.

I have seen, in fact, I think I saw a. a webinar on that. It might have been a training session or a video.

Take a look at that, but I mean, it looked interesting. You basically build like a mound and then you could put your plantings in there and instead of like, you have more surface area and then the lower areas as they rot, they just release the nutrients and the water.

But not cedar.

but not, not something that's rot resistant. Um, I think also not treated. Yeah. Um, anything that would give off like not, not tannins. Um, some, there's some other woods that aren't good, but like pine, ash, um, probably even red Oak. You bury it as long as the water can get into it. So maybe white Oak probably, you know, it's rot resistant. Um, But, yeah, so just as you're playing around with that, I'd be curious. I don't know if you have a spot in your yard where you could.

Not really. I didn't really have a place to bury. What you're supposed to do or one of the methods is to bury that five-gallon can up to the top, leaving some air holes. But I didn't really have a place, a space for that. So that's why I put it in the basement inside another bucket. Hmm.

Are there any Sustainable Jersey points that we could get related to that if we were doing a workshop?

I think there's something on backyard composting.

Yeah, we should look into that because I think people would be interested.

Yeah, I would like to do something with that.

Okay.

So we've kind of morphed into new business here. from old business without officially announcing our new business. But we have nothing else on the new business agenda unless anybody has other things they'd like to talk about.

No, I guess just related to our conversation earlier about the School of Conservation, I did see that New Jersey Highlands Coalition is hosting a hike this weekend and a training session at the School of Conservation. So we can maybe get that information posted to the Facebook page.

Oh, I hadn't seen that.

Yeah, it's like a three-hour hike. It's supposed to be a hike and an educational lesson about the benefits of the School of Conservation.

Which day is that?

I think it's on this Saturday. By New Jersey Highlands? Yes. Oh. New Jersey Highlands Coalition.

The Coalition.

Yeah, is hosting it. What time? I think it's 11 o'clock, but I'll get the information posted. I'll send it to Courtney, and she could get it posted on Facebook. Oh, awesome.

Yeah, I did one of their hikes. I think it was two years ago there. There was a really nice hike along that river. In Stokes? Yeah, Flatbrook and then up to Sunrise Mountain. It wasn't an easy hike, but it was a good one.

We used to have field trips to Stokes when we were in high school.

To the School of Conservation, right? Or just to...

No, just the Stokes, and we'd stay in the cabins there, like in fourth or fifth grade.

We did that in eighth grade, stayed at the cabins there.

Did you?

Yep, at Stokes, yeah.

Maybe it was fifth grade.

Did you go to the cabins in the School of Conservation? No, it wasn't those cabins. It was different cabins. No, I don't think so. Oh.

I remember bunk beds. Yeah, yeah. That's all I remember. Maybe it was later than fifth grade. But we went, yeah, we did go there for the weekend.

Yeah.

Do they still do that?

Not at all, no. No? I can't say I've heard of that being done.

Hmm.

No.

I didn't go there, but in Connecticut, I went to nature's classroom in, like, fourth or fifth grade, and it was a similar thing. We went, we stayed in bunk beds and cabins, and we learned about nature. And, yeah, it was a great experience.

Yeah, the Highlands hike, this will be at the school, right? that's that's where it was and some of the people from the school were were on the hike yes that's what this is oh that would be great yes thank you i didn't know about that all right anyone else have anything i'll make a motion to adjourn can i have a second i'll second All in favor of adjournment? Aye.

Are we having meetings throughout the summer every two weeks?

We're scheduled to.

Because like town council, we're only having one in July and one in August. Yeah. Are we off?