Bordentown City Environmental Commission

BCEC Minutes for: Meeting of January 12, 2022 at 7:00 p.m. via zoom Meeting was called to order at 7:10pm Present at meeting: Ralph Tolemeo, Joel Dowshen, Mike MacEwan, Lauren Drumn, Dan Preston, Lynn Robinson, Ralph Simon, Katie Sereduk, Cathy Elliot-Shaw Visitor: Mike Skelly Priority Items --Planning Board Report: The meeting was cancelled. 1) Status of Ocean Spray Development & 2) Point Breeze (Divine Word) Public Works is doing renovations and they are making progress. The area designated as the Police Department has to go out for bids --D&R Greenway & Abbott Marshland Report Still waiting for signatures from the state. A calendar cannot be put together yet. Trail monitors are needed. (Walking the trail – Bluff’s Trail - once a month and reporting back. This is a nice trail to walk and you can see all of the Abbott Marshland when you walk the trail.) Katie Sereduk volunteered to walk this trail. --BCEC & Green Team Membership Recruitment There are vacancies on The Commission as well as on the Green Team. We should not have an open house right now due to the cold weather. We can consider having an open house at the Green Fair. We can also do a flyer campaign. --2021 BCEC Budget Final Tally We have $2900 left in the budget. We have a requisition for signs for Lime Kilm for $650. We also purchased items to give away at our fairs at a cost of $462. We will not be spending $1600 of our 2021 budget. --2022 BCEC Budget So far this year we will be paying $300 dues for ANJAC. Kathy would like to attend a symposium. It is the 22nd Annual Land Ethics Symposium by Native Plant Foundation at Bowman Preserve. It is a holistic environmental ecological landscape design. It is a video conference held on February 17, 2022. Registration is online and it will first have to be approved by the city. Anyone else interested in attending should tell Ralph or Kathy. 2022 Initiatives --Coordination of joint meeting with Township & BCEC We have reached out to the township chairperson about having a joint meeting. Nothing has been finalized yet. We might know more information by our next meeting.  --Invasive species remediation—both insect (SLF) & vegetation The eggs (SLF) start coming out in April. Right now we should start seeing little egg masses but they are very small. We need guidance to make sure we are smashing the right thing. Dan will consider some ideas about various other invasive species, check prices and have a discussion with a commissioner. --Environmental Resource Inventory (ERI) This project is steadily moving along. --Hilltop Park restoration We are going to request that the city remove the “Tree of Heaven” because of the toxic effect on other growth. By June we should know how we plan to proceed and we should be finished by September. --Pedestrian and Bicycle crossings of Rte 130 & 206 Lauren will have a discussion with the city planner about this project. --Sustainable NJ/Green Team certification A meeting with the city will take place before the end of the month. We need to review the list and select projects for this year. --Earth Talks/Clean Ups Earth Day is April 22nd. Should we have our rain barrel workshop on the Saturday closest to Earth Day and use this as our Earth Day Project? Can we use some of our budget to buy the materials for the rain barrels and do a give-away. Maybe we can partner with the township for this project. We have decided to think about other projects for Earth Day before making a final decision. It might be a good idea to do something with community involvement. We must decide at our February meeting. --NJ ban on plastics (bags & straws) This might fall under Clean Communities which is run by Gina at City Hall. --Rain Barrel Workshop A date has not been set for this workshop. It might be held as an Earth Day project. --BCEC Strorage area - Clean Up and Organization No status on the materials that were ordered. Other Information Term Expiration 3 terms expire this year (Joel, Mike, & Katie). All would like to remain on the commission. Ralph will write a letter to the city. Newsletter Discussion was held on whether to publish our own newsletter or send our information to the city newsletter. Kathy said we can earn points either way. Do we want to print “teaser cards” and then let everyone go to the website to read the full articles? What would the organization of the newsletter be? Lauren has volunteered to be the coordinator and everyone could send articles or other information to her before the deadline. The second suggestion would be to put our information in the city newsletter and see if that works for us. 2022 BCEC Calendar of Events --Saturday, April 9--City Shade Tree Commission annual tree planting Fifteen to twenty trees were planted last year. We always have plenty of volunteers. Our focus has been on street trees but we could plant trees in parks and other areas. --Friday, April 22—Earth Day...Event on Saturday, April 23 (SLF egg hunt) We will have further discussion at our next meeting. --Saturdays, May 7 & October 8-- 9 to noon)--Paper Shredder co-sponsored with Township We will continue with this joint project. --Wednesday, May 11— noon at Carslake--Annual Public Works Pizza Party We will fund the party this year. The date has been set with Bob Erickson. --Saturday, May 21 & Sunday, May 22—Street Fair (10 a.m.-4 p.m.) Please mark your calendars. --Saturday, June 4 & Sunday, June 5—Citywide yard sale We need to think about how we want to promote this event. --Saturday, June 11—Green Fair More information at next meting. --Saturday, October 1 & Sunday, October 2 –Cran Fest (10 a.m.-4 p.m.) Please save the date. Quarterly Check-In Report (Q1 in March, Q2 in June, Q3 in Sept, Q4 in Dec) Representatives of these subcommittees/initiatives will present a status report on a quarterly basis --Farmer’s Market --Community Garden --Pizza Box Recycling *****PUBLIC COMMENT**** There were no comments from the public. Adjournment Meeting was adjourned at 8:20. Next meeting: WEDNESDAY, February 9, 2022 at 7:00 p.m. via zoom