Sustainable Madison Advisory Committee

Sustainable Madison Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes October 18, 2022 Chairperson Kathi Caccavale called the meeting to order at 1:05 P.M. STATEMENT IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE OPEN MEETINGS ACT: “In compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act, adequate notice of this meeting of the Sustainable Madison Advisory Committee (SMAC) was provided by transmitting a copy of the meeting notice to the Madison Eagle and Morris County Daily Record, posting a copy on the bulletin board at the main entrance of the Hartley Dodge Memorial, and filing a copy in the office of the Clerk. This notice 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 Angelique Devost, Resident/Regular Member Joan Maccari, Resident/Regular Member/Environmental Commission Liaison Rachel Ehrlich, Borough Council Liaison/Regular Member Mary Ellen Hennessy-Jones, Resident/Regular Member Marilyn Musielski, Resident/Regular Member Lisa Jordan, Resident/Regular Member Absent: Sarah Fischer, Board of Education liaison September minutes were approved. The Traction Line Tree Inventory was discussed. Bottle Hill Day was a success. The Friends of the Drew Forest group and Madison Councilwoman Rachel Ehrlich have received advocacy and leadership awards at the Annual ANJEC Congress. Rachel reported on council business: the Cook Ave parking lot is making progress, the lighting equipment has been purchased; field surveys for the pickleball court site have been requested – the pickleball court is a 2023 project; design and building of the accessible playground at Dodge Field is moving forward; new water-pressure monitoring sensors have been received; one of the bridges on the trails at Memorial Park needs repair. The DPW has been helping resident Jocelyn Calhoun replant the perennials from the Civic Center site to several locations including Niles Park and the train station. Ken O’Brien reported large collection of Styrofoam delivered to recycling vendor. Rachel also reported on the New Jersey Sustainable Municipal Alliance (NJSMA) meeting at the Community Arts Center that had a speaker on microgrids and Scott from Ciel Power talking about heat-pumps. Concerns were raised about the MRC accessible trail work and brush-clearing around the trails and prospective pickleball court location. Action Item: Mary Ellen will review presentations on the water-main breaks to better understand the use of the new sensors and then ask Bob Vogel for more information. The Sustainable Jersey comments on our August submissions will be available soon. All submitted actions have been approved except “Buy Renewable Power” and “Community Food Pantry”. Angelique discussed New Jersey Sustainable Business Registry, and satisfying the SJ action on that. A new Chamber web-page is available listing Madison’s three certified businesses. We reviewed SJ actions that are expiring soon. We need to further discuss several actions which we would like to do, but for which we have no lead person yet: • Community Visioning • Community Paper Shredding • Materials Reuse Program • Reusable Bag Education Program The SJ submission deadlines for 2023 are February 26, May 12 and July 27. The February date is earlier than in the past. The annual SJ luncheon is on Nov 15. Those wishing to go should speak up. The meeting was adjourned at 2:03 Rolling action items are as follows: Action Item: Peter Fried would like information on upcoming events in order to share information to the Madison Eagle. Jersey Green column volunteers needed for the coming year. The next SMAC meeting will be on November 15 at 1:00 P.M. The meeting was adjourned at 2:03 pm Minutes respectfully submitted by Peter Fried.