Environmental Commission

Madison  Environmental  Commission   Meeting Minutes—November 7, 2013 1. CALL TO ORDER BY THE CHAIRPERSON 2. ANNOUNCEMENT OF NOTICE (STATEMENT OF COMPLIANCE) A regular meeting of the Borough of Madison Environmental Commission was held on Thursday November 7, 2013 at 7:30 pm in the Hartley Dodge Memorial Building, located at Kings Road, Madison, NJ. Betsy Uhlman, Chairperson opened the meeting and started with the reading of the public meeting notice as follows: “Let the minutes reflect that adequate notice of this meeting has been provided in the following manner: At the meeting of the Commission, held on January 30, 2013, the posted annual calendar of meetings of the Madison Environmental Commission was approved with minor modifications which were submitted to the Borough and posted at the bulletin board at the main entrance of the Hartley Dodge Memorial Building, was sent to the Madison Eagle and the Daily Record and filed with the Borough Clerk, all in accordance with the ‘Open Public Meetings Act.’” 3. PRESENT: Missy Durham, Jeff Gertler, Judy Honohan, Susan Niculescu, Stephan Stocker, Betsy Uhlman, Claire Whitcomb. ABSENT: Mary Lewis, Jeff Sarrett, Robert Catalanello (Council Liaison). GUESTS: None 4. MINUTES: The minutes of the meeting of September 9th, 2013 were approved. 5. MAIL RECEIVED: None. 6. ISSUES FOR DISCUSSION: 1. Results/next steps of Bottle Hill Day October 5th: Energy Audits: How to sell the idea of Energy Audits? Can we get together an Energy Audit article? Should it be approached from the point of view of increasing comfort rather than saving energy or money? People seem uninterested in saving energy. Should we get the Bd. Of Education involved—invite them to a meeting to brainstorm energy auditing? What about discussions in the schools of the importance of saving energy? Composting: Should we offer Dirt Hugger Awards? Decide to judge composting piles and give a prize? J. Gertler will contact Nicky @ Firehouse Pizza as a possible judge. Four people have put in for the competition. Should we do a “Compost Tour”? 1      Eco House Tour: Should we offer a tour of Solar Houses? 2. Sustainable Jersey: Silver Status was awarded. We are in the “medium” size town category and we got the most points in our category. Discussed grant applications. Grants are available in three categories: $20,000, $10,000, and $2,000. We should apply for each category if possible. We are allowed one application for each category and no town can receive more than one award. The smaller awards are easier to get than the larger ones. a) $20K Deer Exclusion Fence for the wetlands/wooded area. (Plus bird houses on the fence poles?) b) $10K New Tree Inventory? (Ask Shade Tree Commission) OR Composter for School Cafeteria food waste? c) $2K Better recycling bins at Sporting Events/Playing Fields and/or on Main Streets? (Coordinate with Borough, Marty Horn, DPW?) OR Green Welcome Wagon. d) $10K for both options listed under c)? 3. Addition to the ERI: Two pieces of information are ready to be added to the ERI, the Conservation Inventory and the Threatened and Endangered Species Map/Inventory. How do we get these included in the ERI? Resolved to ask for correct procedure. 4. MRC: Ad Hoc Committee—B. Heskins-Davis from the Land Conservancy of NJ was at a meeting. She had several useful comments re trails, accessibility. Other projects under discussion include a dog park and a sledding hill. 5. Green Fair: Discussed date proposed by Laura Prout, the Boy Scouts Chairperson. Agreed with her analysis of the benefits of the April 24th date. Discussed streamlining the sign-up process for vendors/exhibitors in order to reduce the hours necessary by our volunteers. Kathi Caccavale has offered to help set up a website. J. Honohan and E. Durham agreed to help with the Fair this next year. 7. MEETING ADJOURNED. The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 pm. 2