Environmental Commission

Madison Environmental Commission Meeting Minutes February 23, 2017 1. Call to order by Chairperson Stephan Stocker at 7:43 PM 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, Trina Mallik, Claire Whitcomb, Jeff Gertler, Mary Ellen Kapalo, 4. Absent: Ellen Kranefuss, Brian Monaghan, Carmela Vitale 5. Communications: No new communications since last meeting. We voted to approve the minutes from the 1/26/17 meeting. 6. Guests: Brooke Winters 7. Member Updates: Mary Ellen set up an email account for the MEC. We will collect emails and create an email distribution list for MEC communications. Mary Ellen also set up a Facebook page for the Friends of Sustainable 501c3 organization to promote environmental events and to inform about environmental issues. Mary Ellen will be taking a class at Duke Farms on sustainable gardening/landscape design. Trina is working at planning a town hall meeting where residents will meet and discuss environmental issues concerning Madison. Trina is working with Drew University student Brooke Winters to develop a program for the town hall. Topics include solar panels, planting natives, the Ciel Power home energy audit program, etc. Trina is working with various town/council officials to find a date and place for the town hall, we are aiming to hold it the end of May. Claire and Stephan met with the President of Ciel Power LLC. Madison Borough passed a resolution that states Ciel Power will be providing energy audits to Madison residents for $49.00. The MEC is going to promote this program through local newspapers, our website, social media and through videos. Claire provided a timeline for 2017 that included monthly promotional tasks to perform. Claire also wrote a press release explaining the program which will be provided to local newspapers. Claire also discussed the annual shoe drive whereby the MEC and schools collect people’s donated shoes in order to be recycled. The Museum of Early Trades and Crafts will be participating as a drop off location this year, which will run concurrently with their exhibit on footwear. Stephan provided a report of ongoing 2017 MEC projects and their current status. 8. Continuing Business: Stephan is working with the Madison Library on the Green Fair event. Since the date for the Green Fair of 4/29 coincides with the climate march, we are going to adopt a theme for the fair of climate change. There was discussion of getting a banner made in order to promote the Green Fair. The banner would be hung at the library a few days before the fair. Stephan invited the group to send him designs for the banner. 9. New Business: Stephan discussed the town’s aging water infrastructure. Millions of gallons of water gets wasted a year due to leaky pipes. We discussed the thought of promoting the maintenance/repair of our water lines. Stephan discovered a leak at Giralda Farms which was wasting so much water a new wetlands area was created. The town was able to make repairs to fix the water line. We may bring up the water infrastructure at a future council meeting.