Sustainable Madison Advisory Committee

Sustainable Madison Advisory Commi ee Mee ng Minutes May 19, 2020 Due to the corona virus outbreak, this mee ng is being conducted on Zoom. Chairperson, Kathleen Caccavale, called the mee ng to order at 1:36 pm. STATEMENT IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE OPEN PUBLIC MEETINGS ACT: “In compliance with the Open Public Mee ngs Act, adequate no ce of this mee ng of the Sustainable Madison Advisory Commi ee (SMAC) Mee ng was provided by transmi ng a copy of the mee ng no ce to the Madison Eagle and Morris County Daily Record, pos ng a copy on the bulle n board at the main entrance of the Hartley Dodge Memorial, and filing a copy in the office of the Clerk. This no ce was made available to members of the general public.” The following members acknowledged their presence: Kathleen Caccavale, Chairperson/Regular Member Peter Fried, Resident/Regular Member Lisa Jordan, Resident/Regular Member Joan Maccari, MEC Representa ve/Secretary/Regular Member Stephen Tindall, School Board Representa ve/Regular Member Maureen Byrne, Borough Council Liaison/Regular Member Angelique Devost, Resident/Regular Member Marilyn Musielski, Resident/Regular Member Gene Cracovia, Resident/Regular Member Guests: Claire Whitcomb, Chair Madison Environmental Commission (MEC) Bridget Daley, member Madison Environmental Commission April minutes were unanimously approved, with correc on by Peter Fried. The sentence "They are working on so ware that will automa cally update the carbon footprint data each year" will be changed to "They are working on so ware to reduce the work in doing the carbon footprint data each year, by automa ng the interface to u lity data.” Minutes will be submi ed to Rosenet. Joan Maccari requested access to recordings of mee ngs to ensure accuracy of minutes. There were no objec ons. Steve Tindall reported on schools: ● Michael Zulla has le his posi on as Director of Facili es, and will no longer be the contact person between SMAC and environmental facili es in the schools. As second in command, Chris Kechula is an cipated to act as contact un l a permanent director is confirmed. ● The school board has approved the crea on of a 17-member school-district Green Team. Members of the green team currently include principals of the schools and a teacher or other employee from most schools and employees in the central office.  External members, from the MEC or SMAC for example, and student members have not yet been named, but are an cipated to be assigned to the green team in the future. A chairperson has not yet been named. Crea on of the team was coordinated through the office of assistant superintendent Daniel Ross. ● The school district plans to apply for bronze cer fica on for the district as a whole, including every school building, through Sustainable Jersey for Schools (SJS). The school district sustainability policy is being updated for bronze cer fica on with SJS. There are 8 policies referenced within the parent sustainability policy, including professional development for sustainability, green purchasing, district safe routes to school, ISTEAM educa on, and others. The complete list is available on the school district website as an a achment to the recent school board mee ng agenda. ● The school district is looking into ge ng VW se lement money to replace a bus, but it is not yet known if Madison will qualify. ● Also, there may be money available for electric car chargers at one or two of the schools. Again, it is not known if the school district qualifies. The district would like, ideally, to install chargers at every school, but will need grant money to do that. Kathi Caccavale encouraged everyone to a end the virtual open house for the Borough Master Plan (MP), and take the survey. Consensus opinion was that the open house and the survey were generally straigh orward and easy to navigate, but that it was difficult to submit the completed survey. This is only a first step in the process of rewri ng the MP. A ques on of when and if we will be able to give comments at stakeholder mee ngs was raised. Claire Whitcomb invited all members of SMAC to join the MEC Zoom mee ng on May 28 and discuss possible comments from MEC and SMAC to the MP commi ee. Claire updated the commi ee on progress toward recrui ng summer student interns to help with MEC and SMAC projects. A working group mee ng to brainstorm ideas successfully came up with a number of possible projects. Three poten al interns have already shown interest. A press release to recruit interns was sent out today. Members reviewed progress on their individual assigned ac on items. The next SMAC mee ng is scheduled for Tuesday June 16, 2020, but may be changed to an earlier date due to the June 14 SJ deadline. The mee ng was adjourned at 2:48pm. Minutes respec ully submi ed by Joan Maccari.