Sustainable Madison Advisory Committee

Sustainable Madison Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes July 16, 2024 Chairperson Kathi Caccavale called the meeting to order at 1:32 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 Lisa Jordan, Resident/Regular Member Mary Ellen Hennessy-Jones, Resident/Regular Member Pam Hogan, Resident/Regular Member Peter Fried, Resident/Regular Member Absent: Bob Landrigan, Borough Council Liaison/Regular Member David Duran, School Board Liaison Loretta Davidson, Resident/Regular Member Deanna Schmidt, MEC Liaison, Resident/Regular Member Guest: Sam Cohen, Borough of Madison intern We discussed the May minutes. The May, June and July minutes will be shared for approval next month. No report from the council liaison. No report from school board liaison. There is a day-long retreat for board members today. Report from the Madison Environmental Commission ● The MEC received an ANJEC grant for $1500 to remove invasive species at the intersection of Woodland and Loantaka. Update on Sustainable Jersey Green Infrastructure Grant - Pam ● We received the plans for the demonstration project at the library, which is being reviewed by the environmental commission and shade tree commission.  ● Rutgers invoiced $6500 and $3500 for their work on the green infrastructure project; these fees were covered by our Sustainable Jersey grant. ● Signage at the site was discussed. ● Matthew Leconey is assisting Dr. Chris Obropta and has provided the town with the design. There will be links online to the plan. We will need to coordinate with DPW re training, and coordinating with Rutgers. There will also be a presentation of the strategic plan to the town council. ● This action plan and strategic plan allow us to submit an updated impervious assessment. ● Action Item: when the link to the plan is active, it will be shared with the committee. Chair’s Report: Our Sustainable Jersey Actions were reviewed. Our next deadline is July 31. Climate Action Committee: ● Sam Cohen shared a spreadsheet that visualizes monthly electric use based on the square footage of each house in Madison, comparing individual electric use to average use (and upper and lower quartiles). ● The data set is one year behind. The application would be helpful to share online, so people can understand their electric consumption relative to other people in Madison. ● We were impressed with this useful application. Other Business: ● We discussed school solar. Peter is considering working on an article to submit for the North Jersey Green column, which runs in the Madison Eagle. Florham Park added solar to schools recently. ● A Sustainable Madison educational program on solar programs for schools is being put together - Peter is the lead coordinator. The program will probably be held in September. ● PSE&G has a benchmarking portal, and will link the data to the EPA databases, automating gas consumption data. This will improve access to this data moving forward. ● We discussed Bottle Hill Day (October 5) - there will be a Sustainable Madison and Climate Action table. ○ We also hope for several nearby booths for related groups. Peter will connect with Lisa Ellis. ● Action Item: Lisa will check back in August for the NJ plastics assessment (year 2), and will send links on reusable bag drop offs sites and Walmart/Target packageless-options to Kirsten and Bridget. ● Action Item: Deanna agreed to look up information on sprinkler ordinances by other towns and NJ law around water use. Updates on North Jersey Green - Peter Articles for the North Jersey Green column are requested on an ongoing basis. The next SMAC meeting will be on August 20 at 1:30 P.M. The meeting was adjourned at 2:39 P.M. Minutes respectfully submitted by Lisa Jordan.