Environmental Commission

Madison Environmental Commission Meeting Minutes May 25, 2017 1. Call to order by Chairperson Stephan Stocker at Hartley Dodge 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, Brian Monaghan, Carmela Vitale 4. Absent: Jeff Gertler, Ellen Kranefuss 5. Events:  Madison Green Forum to take place June 14 at 7:30pm at the Community House 6. Guests: 7. Continuing Business: 8. New Business:  We have two alternate seats and 1 full seat open on MEC  Brian suggested we combine Sustainable Madison (SM) and MEC. Stephan responded this is hard. MEC answers to the Borough Council and ANJEC, whereas SM answers to Sustainable Jersey. If they were merged then the entity would have to answer to all three. Also, silver certification is a lot of work so we need SM to be dedicated to that. Also, Stephan provided a bit of history in that the previous chairwoman, Betsy Uhlman, wanted the entities separate and the Mayor agreed. Other towns handle it differently. We should put this on the agenda for a future meeting.  Stephan is out June and July so we’ll use the August meeting to plan Bottle Hill Day.  Solar: Carmela said that previously a consultant said that solar is not viable in Madison, although maybe on Madison High School. The MEC wants to push for more solar. Claire mentioned that Energy Sage aggregates quotes for solar. Carmela is really endorsing Ciel Power for energy assessments. Carmela things that high school students should join MEC; they know wind and solar. Perhaps we should get a task force for serious proposals for solar at high school. Stephan discussed his history of presenting the solar option for the high school but it is now outdated because those state and county incentives have expired. At high school, the Board of Education are the decision makers. Carmela suggested we invite Michael Piano, Superintendent of the Madison Electric Utility, to attend an MEC meeting. He is into self generation. She suggests to write an ordinance, send to Mayor, go to Council meetings, then have a public meeting. Michael Sana from League of Municipalities and John McKeon are huge environmentalists. We should look at wind too. Stephan suggested a financing option for the town is a co-op scheme. And solar is more attractive now for residents than when previously proposed because now residents get 11c/hour and done need to pay 19 cents into the grid as used to be the case.