Sustainable Madison Advisory Committee

Sustainable Madison January 17, 2017 Minutes Call to order and reading of Open Public Meetings Statement at 7:09pm. “This meeting of the Sustainable Madison Advisory Committee 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. Present: Chairperson Stephan Stocker, Amy Terracciano, Kathleen Caccavale, and Gene Cracovia. Absent: Council Liaison Carmela Vitale, Marilyn Musielski, Ellen Kranefuss, and Representatives from The Department of Public Works and Madison School District. Guests: Lisa Jordan, Professor at Drew University. Communications: None Reorganization decision was to keep Stephan Stocker as Chairperson. We did not discuss the Secretary position at this time. 2017 Meeting Dates: February 21, March 21, April 18, May 16, June 20, July 18, August 19, September 19, October 17, November 21, December 19. Meetings will start at 7:00pm. Proposed Projects for 2017: Amy Terraccino submitted two projects for consideration. #1. To write a monthly article for publication in the Madison Eagle and post on Sustainable Madison website. These articles will be based at the local level and will include what other towns of similar size did. Amy requests ideas from the SM group for these articles. Kathleen Caccavale suggested tying the articles to the seasons – offered “Cut and Leave” action around springtime, April or May. Also discussed was posting on other sites, either in whole or by “link”, such as the Madison Environmental Commission Twitter and Facebook accounts, and on Rosenet accounts for both the MEC and SM organizations and possibly the main page of Rosenet. Mr. Stocker will seek to have the articles posted on Rosenet. #2. Partnering with Project Aware at the Madison High School. No one was sure how this would work since the Sustainable Jersey Schools Program came out but we agreed that keeping one another organizations in touch with each other would be a good first step. To that end, Stephan Stocker will add Project Aware and The School Board to the SM mail list. During this discussion, it came out that the High School maintains Borough Council broadcasts on channel 21. Thoughts by members of Sustainable Madison were that the broadcast seemed spotty but maybe the students would be interested in making short videos of various environmental issues and coordinate with SM. Stephan Stocker will contact Mr. Coviello at the High School to explore this possibility.  Both of these were voted and approved to proceed. Discussion of possible projects requiring Grant money. #!. Kathleen Caccavale informed us that Morris County Freewheelers is taking application for grants to place Bike Racks in the Borough. Discussion led to a number of places that could use this award; Summer Hill Park, Madison Recreation Complex to mention two. Kathleen will reach out to Parks to get their thoughts. #2. Freewheelers is also taking applications for a Bike Training Program. This program aims to teach riding the roads with the bike rider’s view in mind. We need a little more information on this and Kathleen will reach out to the Mayor about mounting this project. Gene Cracovia pointed out that these ideas must be submitted by filling out the application for project approval to SM before official approval could be granted. Other Discussions: #1. How can we help with Ciel Power’s roll out of their Home Energy Assessment Program? This program was presented at the Borough Council meeting February 13, 2017. Questions that can be answered now are; yes, there is a letter to borough residents by the Mayor. Yes, a brochure will be available. The major push of this roll out will be in March 2017. It consists of a mailing to residents by Ciel Power and postings on Borough websites and news media. For now, our efforts should be word of mouth and email to friends. This program caused some concern that we might lose points off our Sustainable Jersey action list as we were granted points for community energy efficiency but this is a municipal action. Our conclusion was that we not concern ourselves with being tied to just the Sustainable Jersey platform. As a group, we should push to have a larger footprint in the Borough and if a project is good for Madison, we should work on it regardless whether it gains us point or not. Our charter, Mr. Stocker says encompasses more than the Sustainable Jersey platform. Stephan will resend our Charter stating our duties and responsibilities. #2. Utilizing Drew University’s Civic Volunteer Program Stephan Stocker explained how the Environmental Commission is attempting to use Drew’s Civic students during the semester to proceed with a number of projects. He has had three queries so far, two from students seeking experience in woodland restoration, and one professor inquiring as to what tasks the MEC needed. He proposed that SM members consider how this could benefit them and offered to assist in posting job descriptions with Drew.