Environmental Commission

Madison Environmental Commission Meeting Minutes January 26, 2017 1. Call to order by Chairperson Stephan Stocker at 7:45. 2. Announcement of meeting notice Statement of Compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act: Read by Stephan Stocker, Chairperson. This meeting of the Madison Environmental Commission complies with the Open Public Meetings Act. (P.L. 1975 c. 231) Notice of this meeting was provided to the Madison Eagle, Daily Record, Star Ledger, and to tapintomadison.com. Copies of this notice are posted on the bulletin board at the main entrance of Hartley Dodge Memorial and were made available to the general public. 3. Present: Stephan Stocker, Mary Ellen Kapalo, Carmela Vitale, Claire Whitcomb, Ellen Kranefuss, Trina Mallik, Jeffrey Gertler, and Brian Monaghan. 4. Absent: 5. Communications:  Mary Ellen, Claire, and Trina will take turns writing the minutes of the MEC meetings  Amy Terracciano (from Sustainable Madison), Ellen, Mary Ellen, and Claire will work as a team for external communications. They will inform Erica Cruz who works for the Borough on what should be posted on Rosenet, the Borough’s Facebook page, TAP, Eagle, Local Ledger, and Madison Patch  Amy will be primarily responsible for Eagle articles, liaising with the Madison High School, and other sites TBD; Ellen will be primarily responsible for the Sustainable Madison website; Mary Ellen for Twitter and MEC FB page; Claire for articles to the Eagle, such as on Ciel Power  Stephen Stocker will be cc’d on all communication  The MEC will own an email distribution list and share it with other environmental organizations in Madison. We need to have a group of volunteers to go to for initiatives, e.g. Shoe recycling, see below.  Mary Ellen will set up a gmail account for the MEC and create a google docs folder to keep track of our agenda, minutes, action plans, etc. 6. Guests: none 6. Continuing Business:  Last year a tremendous amount of work was put into recertifying Madison as Silver Sustainable Madison; hopefully the set up of a Google docs will make the application less onerous for the next round  We have access to 39 acres for conservation at the MRC. We have received money from Sustainable Jersey small grants program and Open Space funds of about $45,000 however with other grants and volunteer in-kind donations the total capital put into wetlands restoration since 2011 is about $200,000; the largest conservation effort ever undertaken by the Madison Environmental Commission. We have about 5 more years of work just in the wetlands.  To supplement the labor involved in maintaining the wetlands, Stephan is successfully getting interns from Drew University during the Spring semester.. 8. New Business:  There is a Land Conservation Rally on 3/17 in New Brunswick from 8am to 5pm: www.njconservation.org/rally  Several organizations, including Sustainable Madison, MEC, Garden Club, Community Garden, and Steve McAuliffe (a professional apiarist) are building a 200’ x 70’ pollinator garden in the spring.  Stephan requests that each member of the MEC develop a subcommittee with friends and other interested citizens to execute projects  Claire proposed that we should get a Drew intern to work with DPW to promote more recycling in Madison. For instance, by having a place to drop off Styrofoam that is not during work hours.  Ellen proposed that we accelerate ‘freecycling’, or a swap market, in Madison. For instance, so that not every neighbor has to buy their own hedge trimmer, people swap the use of one for another neighbors drill or just lend it or give it away. Perhaps a Drew intern can set the system up (could involve an app or some other technology that we’re not thinking of)  Claire brought up again this year’s shoe recycling initiative. She needs more volunteers to collect shoes, wrap them in rubber bands and take them to UPS. The YMCA will co-sponsor with the MEC.  The Green Fair is April 29th from 1 to 4pm at Madison library. Stephan needs help setting up.  In next meeting, we should have a check in where everyone provides an update or bring up ideas (with the action plan already sent out for everyone to preread).  Trina would like to execute a special project: a Town Hall that represents environmental issues specific to Madison and in conjunction with other environmental organizations in Madison. Carmela said the Mayor would be very supportive. Places to have it could include Hartley Dodge.