Environmental Advisory Committee

Agenda for the Environmental Committee Meeting Date: December 21, 2020 1. Opening – Chair Guderian “This meeting, which conforms with the OPEN PUBLIC MEETINGS LAW, CHAPTER 231, PUBLIC LAWS OF 1975, is a regular Environmental Committee meeting. Notices have been filed with our local official newspapers and posted on the Municipal Bulletin Board”. 2. Roll Call – Chair Guderian X Jeanne Guderian X Dave Brizzolara X Dritan Xhillari X Norel Blundo X Angel Nass X Boniface Kiamue X Councilman Chris Montana 3. Public Forum – 4. Passing of the Meeting Minutes Motion to pass meeting mijeannnutes from November approved 5. Council Liaison’s Report Chris: Taking two student positions and making them full time positions; will need to change the committee’s bylaws; talked about combining with Shade Tree; no student members for 2021 because of COVID. Norel: may not have to rewrite the bylaws if we are going to merge with Shade Tree Committee 6. New Business Committee Membership Attendance requirements, new member options; replace existing non-participating members; adding additional members (expanding total committee membership) – create new position(s). Student members – reach out to WWHS? Recycling Brochure Public Information Page Comingled recycling is often unusable because it is too dirty or contains the wrong materials. As a result, rather than being recycled into new materials, it winds up in a landfill. Only CLEAN #1, #2 and #5 plastics, aluminum and ‘tin’ (steel/ferrous) cans, glass bottles (all colors),and CLEAN paper and cardboard should be included in your comingled collection. Plastic ‘Film’ Bags (grocery bags, cereal/pasta bags, dry cleaning bags etc.) should NOT be included in comingled recycling. They are not comingle-able and it is often easier to landfill than sort it all out. Many grocery stores collect plastic film bags. If properly collected, plastic film bags are a useful recycled resource [add photo of TREX bench with caption if possible ‘Recycled plastic film bags are used by companies like TREX to create synthetic wood material for decking and outdoor furniture.) Broken window glass, mirrors, random assorted metal and plastic bits and pieces should be thrown out as garbage. Items so contaminated with food waste that they cannot be easily cleaned with a quick rinse be put with garbage (ie, not worth using a gallon of hot water to clean a dirty peanut butter plastic jar – just recycle the clean #5 lid) Many people, in their overzealousness to recycle everything, ironically, render their entire collection unusable. Dave: input given and likes the content of what is in there and thinks it’s informative. It may have to be bulleted though Norel: What does clean mean? We should give some guidance on what we mean by clean. Chris: Can we just ask Rick or Karen what the standard is from the county. What is the percent that doesn't make it into the landfill? Jeanne: doesn't think we need to get into the weeds on this. Will work this into a bulleted list and send it around by Wednesday Chris: it is a state requirement that we recycle; we need to start changing people’s ways and educating to make sure less goes into the landfill Jeanne: show people the products – the benches, the composite wood materials; can start by even just telling the public to not throw plastic bags into recycling ADDITIONAL TOPICS FOR BROCHURE IF SPACE PERMITS Stormwater Runoff Abatement The continued development of natural parcels means that less rainfall is absorbed into the ground, increasing runoff and exacerbating flood severity. Individual homeowners can help alleviate this by replacing grassy lawn areas with native plant beds. These also provide valuable ecological benefits for birds and pollinating insects and decreasing impervious surfaces such as driveways and walkways. If you are interested, there is a lot of information online under Pollinator Gardens. Remember, chemical contaminants such as oil, synthetic fertilizers, insecticides, weed killers and other household chemicals that run off with rainfall are not being magically washed away; they are flowing into your drinking water. Be careful with how you handle and use, and dispose of household chemicals. Renewable Resources (Dritan) Demonstrators – Meeting with owner of proposed 5 Dimes Brewery to discuss promoting renewable and other green initiatives in the business community. Solar for a borough building  Bank Building – In downtown Neenah, WI, they have these neat green lights atop the office buildings in the heart of downtown. Similar lights (solar and or wind powered by rooftop installation as demonstrators) would promote renewables and could become an iconic symbol of the “Hub of the Pascack Valley” Green, of course. (If I still had access to photoshop I could render it but you will need to use your imaginations) Dritan: we want to do something with renewable energy that doesn’t necessarily have to power a lot but just something to educate the public. Can start in just one location and Dritan is interested in talking to the Five Dimes owners. They are interested in meeting with the Environmental Committee . Chris: will set up a meeting with the owners and the architects to potentially work something into their design. May be able to also do something with Prohibition as they are looking to do a rooftop expansion. Owners are open minded and would likely be interested. Dritan: you can put a personal wind turbine on your house for a few hundred dollars and it is a great piece of educational value Dave: Can there be some type of incentive whether it be from PSEG or through the town? Dritan: it’s probably too small amount of power, this is really an educational thing and not a technical thing. Gives our town a forward thinking reputation and changes the perspective of others. What do we want to do with solar on town buildings? Do we need to advocate to the council or drive the process? Chris: we need to pick a borough building, discuss with the town engineer, bring a budget to the governing body and build the case to do the project. Cost benefit analysis on energy to figure out efficiency over the course of years and also as a means of education and good practice. Westvale Park concession stand might also present an opportunity. Need to start mapping this out going forward. Dritan and Chris to meet and begin the process. Kmart Site Development Consider environmental initiatives we would like to see included in the project. Discuss with Zoning Get some of this groundwork done prior to any announcement of the redevelopment we know is inevitable Nugent Park Preserve Reach out to scouting leaders to discuss Eagle/Gold Star projects previously discussed Site Prework – surveys, planning, permits, DPW aerate in spring Collaborate with Hillsdale to connect to adjoining lot (path is already there) Example of Girl Scout Gold projects, Congers Lake Walkway Interpretive Signs Chris: Talked to McCalister (scout leader) and another person about what can be done in the parks and we want them both to know that we are interested. Met with Gary Buckheister about location for a bocce court by old pistol range; still being remediated and potentially changing locations to Nugent Park Dave: it doesn’t meet the goal and purpose of Nugent, should be McKinley Park or another area. Might be harder to permit from a land use or zoning perspective Norel: what about Vorhees Park on Lafayette Chris: maybe upgrades like those were done at Brookside Park. Maybe can incorporate some of those renewable energy ideas that Dritan has. For Nugent how do we get the scouts to do their projects and get an end product close to what we planned? Jeanne: we have to meet with scout masters and we should do that at an upcoming meeting OTHER TOWN PARKS Bird sanctuary – More bird habitat less lawn (unless you count geese as your sanctuary – less lawn – fewer geese.) Reduce lawn area by allowing natural areas to encroach on existing grass. Add walking trail w loop end – similar material to Nugent Park– could be another Eagle/Gold opportunity. Westvale, Protect, expand and enhance existing wetland area. ‘Someday in the Future’ relocate the poorly positioned picnic pavilion. Home Natural Landscaping and Garden (Norel) How do we promote this. IF we ever have another ‘Westwood Day’ in the park event. Have a “Plant a Wildflower” give-away (seeds or plantings) of native plants. Educational poster for the Railroad Station Kiosk.? List some good native plants and what ‘exotics’ are Posters in the kiosk are a year out of date Norel: has reached out to Audubon but this would be difficult to do virtually; is it viable to do this? To take advantage of growing season, need to start laying the groundwork in February/March but we are going to still be in the Zoom world so this might be hard to do this year Chris: can we look to examples and reach out to the homeowners to ask what they did, where they did it and how they did it? Norel: can we use the library to put this out over Zoom? Can we potentially ask Audubon for help? But do we think this will work if we have to deliver this through this medium? Chris: maybe we can have someone from Audubon society show someone’s house as an example. EAC person could potentially be there as well Norel: it doesn’t have to be someone’s full front lawn, maybe only a small percent and promote the positives Chris: pick one of the orphan lots and use that as a pilot project Angel: Ask Gary Conchlin Chris: work with Audubon Society and DPW and develop one of these orphaned lots Dritan: potentially organize a tour in the spring; stop by these example properties with a member of the Audubon Society Chris to get us the inventory of orphaned lots