Environmental Commission

Madison Environmental Commission Meeting Minutes February 25, 2016 We called the meeting to order at 7:35 PM Present at the meeting were Missy Durham, Stephan Stocker, Mary Lewis, Claire Whitcomb and Amy Terracciano Meeting of Madison Environmental Commission complies with P.L. 1975 c. 231 Minutes from the January meeting were approved. Three different communications were discussed at the meeting. The first one was from Science Inc. that informed the town that the LLI (letter of interpretation) was rewritten for behind Memorial Park. The LLI sets the boundaries for the wet lands. The second notification was from the Board of Education regarding a science fair at the Madison Junior School. They are asking for volunteers to serve as a judge for 7th grade science projects. The judges will use NJSS parameters to judge projects based on a problem, hypothesis and community fit. Stephan Stocker will send out information to anyone interested in volunteering. The last communication was a letter from Joseph Falco from the jewelers on Main Street. He asked the Environmental Commission to consider using less rock salt during snow storms. However, as pointed out by Stephan, Madison has taken efforts by using 1/3 less salt prior to storms. In addition, trucks now dump lumps of rock salt in the middle of the roads in a specific pattern. Stephan Stocker will be responding to Joseph Falco with this information. There were six residents from Madison present at the meeting. They were curious about the Environmental Commission and attended the meeting to find out more about what the commission does and to learn about environmental issues in the town. There was one professor from Drew University present. She is looking to get students involved and increase campus engagement about the topic. Amy Terracciano was introduced as a new committee member. Town residents, Trina Mallik and Mary Ellen Kapalo volunteered to be on the committee as alternates. The 2015 Shoe Drive was then discussed. A letter from Johanna Habib was shown in order to clear up the issue about the release of the funds raised. The shoe drive was run in 2015 and they worked with a the schools and the YMCA to collect shoes, box them up and ship them to a textile recycler so that they could be donated to third world countries. Madison received 50 cents for every pound of shoes. They raised $513. The money is currently in a 501 C-3 and the issue of “where does it go?” was discussed. It was decided that the money would go to the Madison High School’s Project Aware. Then the 2016 Green Fair was discussed. Stephan Stocker took the lead on the Fair. The Fair is being brought to Madison by a co-sponsorship of the Environmental Commission, the Madison Public Library, Sustainable Madison, and the Community Garden. It is geared towards children and will be at the Madison Public Library in the Chase room from 1pm-3pm on April 16 2016, it will be interactive with 10-12 tables that focus on teaching children gardening techniques, water issues, solar power, and energy efficiency. Two volunteers are needed to staff the table. The Environmental Commission will be bringing a working model of a compost bin. The idea of bring electric mowers was brought up as well as the idea of inviting the elementary schools to have a table to promote the Fair and to encourage attendance. The schools could have a table that has an interactive game. 2016 Goals and Projects were the next topic of discussion. Writing grants were mentioned along with the fact that the money in the account is not assigned for any projects and thus, it can be used for administrative costs and testing. Testing brought up a conversation about artificial turf leaking into the aquifer. A few years ago, there was testing at the MRC to develop a baseline for the water run-off. It is planned that 3-4 years from that last test, new testing will be done to study the run-off and to determine if the artificial turf is causing any harm to the water. The 2016 Shoe drive was discussed. It will be set up at the YMCA and this year, shoebox.com will be used so that the process of bringing the shoes to a garage and bundling them up will be eliminated. Instead, the boxes will be filled and shipped as the shoes come in. Project Aware at the High School is ready to help. However, if we want to involve the elementary schools, a contact at each school will need to be established. This year, it is hoped that each school will do their own drive and establish their own account, as opposed to the entire town being on one account. The goal is that the Shoe Drive will raise awareness about the MEC and will also ensure that the shoe drive is done every year, automatically. The drive is from April 1 – April 30th. A note about the Rotary Club hosting an End Hunger Campaign was announced. It will occur on April 16th at 9:00AM at St. Vincent’s. About 300 people are expected and will work together to make meals for poorer areas. Fulton Bank is a sponsor and the event will be like May Day. Details are on the Madison Rotary website. This triggered a conversation about how there is an Events Calendar for all of Madison and this should be updated by all groups to create a clear calendar for the entire town’s happenings. Sustainable Madison was mentioned and a discussion about what the committee does and its purpose was discussed. Stephan asked Claire, Missy and Mary Louis to help the Committee by finding posters, flyers and other pamphlets to help Madison recertify for silver status. The benefits of reaching silver status was communicated to the Madison members in attendance. It was explained that this project has both economic and financial benefits and allows the town to apply for certain grants. The Commission then asked the outside guests if they would like to volunteer for any projects. Two volunteered to help with the Community Garden and one member asked to work on recycling and help educate the population on recycling opportunities. This led to the idea that there could be a newspaper article every week about a different environmental issue to promote education. Possible partnership with the high school was mentioned. However, Stephan explained that the students participate in a Day of Service in May. It was proposed that in order to enhance student’s participation, maybe they should be presented with small, incremental projects, instead of asking to be on a committee. Another idea mentioned was showcasing talent in the town, in regards to environmental techniques. In addition, renewable energy was discussed and how to encourage the town to choose an energy supplier that has renewable energy. The process to take on such an initiative was discussed and the many obstacles that may present themselves. A wrap up of the 2016 goals was presented to include the Shoe Drive, Home Audit Initiative, the Green Fair, and Bottle Hill Day. However, we did not vote on the goals for 2016. Biographical Information is needed to put up on the website. These should be submitted for the March 24, 2016 meeting. Lastly, the Drew Site Plan was discussed. Drew University wants to increase the number of parking spaces from 94 to 124. This will be done by taking a garage down, reconstructing the space and narrowing the spaces. However, they are still 11 spaces shy of being in compliance with the regulation number of spots for students on campus. Currently, there does not seem to be an environmental issue however, the University did not provide scenarios and numbers for when there are higher rainfalls such as 10 year rainfall event and 8 inch 100 year event. Meeting was adjourned at 9:50PM.