20220407 - Green Ridgewood Meeting Minutes

Green Ridgewood Meeting Minutes 20220407

Held at The Stable

Attendance:

Green Ridgewood: Bob Upton, George Wolfson, Christine Amundsen, Yvone Nava, Beth Creller, David Refkin, Pam Perron (Village Council Liaison), Tessa Florida (Student Liaison).

Green Team: Justin Manger, Mike Faherty, Roman SanDoval, Krisha Anant (Student Liaison), Sofia Morino (Student Liaison),

Guests: Miles Luo (RHS), Virginia Daut.

1. Welcome/Introductions/Apologies

We opened the meeting by celebrating the occasion of meeting in person by members introducing themselves.

This is a Green Ridgewood meeting however Green Team members were invited and encouraged to attend.

2. Approve March Meeting Minutes

The March draft minutes had been distributed to members by e-mail on March 9th. Christine motioned to approve the minutes, seconded by Pam and passed unanimously.

3. Membership & Election of Officers

Bob suggested members consider offering themselves for election to positions of Vice Chair and Secretary and, in due course, Chair as he expects to leave Ridgewood later this year.

4. Communications:

Mike reiterated the understanding of the relationship between Green Ridgewood and Sustainable Ridgewood for clarification, essentially as reported in the March minutes.

5. Earth Day Fair and Daffodil Festival

With the 2022 Daffodil Festival & Earth Day Fair just 3 days away much of this meeting was devoted to reviewing the plans and assignments for the event, taking place in Memorial Park on Sunday April 10^th, 11am-2pm.

George, Pam and Bob have participated in the Village’s planning committee and reported on the overall plan for the day.

Justin is continuing to update our website with information about the main topics for the event which will be accessed using a QR code at the event. A different QR code will be used to access the survey developed by Krisha.

George has created the QR code displays for distribution throughout the event as well as signage promoting the sponsors.

a. Project 1,000 Acres – Mike reviewed plans for this exhibit.

b. EVs & Charging – Beth and Justin now expect eight EV passenger vehicles, all different, to be displayed at the event.

c. Schools – At the time of our meeting four schools had committed to exhibit at the event with hopefully more to come.

d. Green Ridgewood/Green Team Exhibit – David reviewed two resources for estimating residential carbon footprint, coolclimate.org and PSE&G, and will create information to display. We will also have information about the NJ Plastic Ban, EAGER (energy aggregation), Green Restaurants and the Sustainable Jersey program. Other talking points will be Ridgewood’s Tree Ordinance (learn more at the Shade Tree Commission table), EPS Recycling (visit Recycling Dept. and Foam Cycle exhibits), Anti-Idling Campaign, Adopt-A-Drain Program, Companion Animal Management Plan.

e. Justin proposed holding a quiz based on questions about sustainable actions in Ridgewood and awarding prizes of electric leaf blowers or a lawn mower. It was suggested and agreed that this could be conducted using “Cahoots”. Bob proposed and Beth seconded a motion to approve Green Ridgewood providing up to $600 for the purchase of 3 electric leaf blowers for this purpose. The motion was approved unanimously.

6. Planning Board

Bob reported that the Planning Board meeting on April 5^th, which had an agenda item “Phase 2 Master Plan- Public Meeting”, was very disappointing consisting merely of a review of section titles and announcement that the draft plan would be publicized the next day but then that was then postponed.

The Land Conservancy of NJ is writing the Open Space Plan for the Village which will be used to create that Element of the Master Plan. They will receive input for the plan at the Open Space Committee meeting on Thursday April 21^st which is open to the public.

7. Green Team Sub-Committee/Sustainable Jersey

Mike Sedon will be scheduling a separate Green Team meeting.

8. Sustainable Bergen Hub

a. There was no Hub meeting in March but Woodcliff Lake will host a meeting in April, date to be confirmed.

b. Plastics Sub-Committee met via Zoom on March 29^th. The meeting reviewed recent activities in different towns: EPS collections and recycling with much interest in Ridgewood’s program, TREX programs, NJ Plastic Ban implementation and rigid plastics recycling (interest in a visit to Westfield’s recycling center). Interest was expressed in restarting the Composting sub-committee.

c. No other sub-committee reports.

9. Green Acres/Scoping Hearing

It was noted that Rich Calbi and Topology Consultants made a presentation about this topic at the March 23^rd Village Council Special Public Meeting. Recording available on Swagit.

10. Updates

a. Tree Protection Ordinance – to be voted on at the April 13^th Council meeting.

b. Waste reduction/recycling efficiency – David will lead a group to explore this topic. Christine, Justin & Miles expressed interest previously. Bob will invite Sean Hamlin to meet with the group.

11. New Business

Pam provided several updates as follows:

- Ridgewood Water has been awarded a $2.8 million grant by the EPA for PFAS treatment.

- USDA will provide $200,000 and the Village will add $61,000 for clean-up of the HoHoKus Brook and Saddle River.

- An Eagle Scout has undertaken a project to plant native plants in two areas in Citizens Park.

- The Village Council will vote on the Flood Acquisition Plan at its April 13^th meeting.

- The Recycling Department will demonstrate the EPS (Styrofoam) densifier to the Council on April 20^th. If approved David and Bob asked to be invited to join them.

17. Next Joint Meeting will be Thursday May 5^th 2022 at 7:00 pm, at the Stable (outside with option to move inside if necessary).

Minutes submitted by: Bob Upton, April 19^th, 2022.