Environmental Advisory Committee

Agenda for the Environmental Committee Meeting Date: September 20, 2021 1. Opening – Dave Brizzolara “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 – X Dave Brizzolara X Dritan Xhillari X Norel Blundo X Boniface Kiamue X Kathryn Cribbin X Councilman Chris Montana 3. Public Forum 4. Passing Meeting minutes – N/A no meeting minutes from July, no quorum 5. Council Liaison Report – New members update? i. Chris – sending a new list of 8 or 10 names; want to see if committee members know anyone; someone moving to Westwood who may be interested – a realtor who brings different perspective to Bergen County’s overdevelopment and flooding; would like to bring on more than just one additional; spoke with VP at the high school and the environmental club is starting up; Dritan’s son interested in joining as a student member; Tim coordinating with Bernadette Gettinger for troop 355 about meeting at our October 18 meeting; Gold and silver award projects for the girl scouts might interest other student members; would like to have WEAC talk to the environmental club. – Junior Friends program at the library for student members? Norel suggested last meeting to reach out September i. Norel – to follow up with Martha at the library with some written information ii. Chris – maybe we can go and present something to the Junior friends iii. Kate – can do a general handout 6. Trex Program – Restarted September 1 – New pickup rotation schedule? – Expensing scales for weighing and reporting – Process for reporting to Trex i. Norel – can we pass a motion to expense the scales? Can we also expense plastic bin liners? Once you weigh it you can just email Norel and she will  post it to Trex; after the first month we will begin the rotation of pick ups in October; when the plastic is picked up, we take it to stop and shop in Paramus or Ridgewood, Whole Foods, Kohls, Wegmans. Leave it next to the containers. ii. Dritan – we should put an announcement on bulletin board by the train station iii. Norel – can also add to social media; library is concerned about it spilling all over iv. Dave – need to pick it up during hours when the buildings are open v. Norel – we should have some sort of set schedule if possible 7. Invasive Species messaging on social media? – Norel - Spotted lanternfly are getting worse and worse around the state; been coming up from the south; alarm being raised to try and collect the egg sacs to destroy them; particular concern for agriculture – Kate – we could easily do something and get it out onto social media; we could use the Slack platform to communicate more; hard to post when we only communicate so sporadically. – Norel – so we could collaborate on content on the Slack platform and Kate could massage it into usable content for posting – Kate - this is an app to download; really could use this boost awareness for future town clean ups, environmental scavenger hunt, etc. 8. Environmental Scavenger Hunt – kick this back off now that school is back in session? – Norel – never heard back from Chris on the scavenger hunt; maybe we should put it off until next spring and promote it around Earth Day; it needs incentive and needs to be well thought out. 9. Community Garden – Update on the gopher issue? – Cathy Harrington needs more composting containers and/or garbage cans – Chris – should we be investing in a composting product? – Kate – they make small size containers for composting as well – Norel – big issue is that we don’t have enough people using and maintaining the compost at the community garden. – Dave – we could add some signage for composting at community garden – Norel – maybe someone can be appointed to teach or maintain the compost; what do they do with the grass clippings in town? People dump it at the recycling center – Chris – it’s actually very little volume of material; we send leaves to Northvale 10. Nugent Park – scout masters attending a meeting? – Chris – scout masters potentially coming to October 18 11. Open Discussion – Boniface – spoke to some people at the community softball game and was telling people about the community garden and raising awareness about the environmental committee; encouraged people to raise awareness through church – Kate – interest in doing the fall clean up – Dritan – need to do it before it gets too cold and before Halloween – weekend before Halloween – October 23 – Kate – we could send in a pre-cleanup article to the Pascack Press