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Environmental Minutes | June 1, 2022

TOWNSHIP OF MONROE

ENVIRONMENTAL COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES 

 June 1, 2022               

1. CALL TO ORDER- Chairwoman Karen Polidoro

Pledge to Flag

2. Sunshine Law- Read into the record

3. Roll Call – (Commissioners and Associates)

__ Karen Polidoro (Chair)

_X_ Renee Haider

_X_ Roger Dreyling

__ Ken Konya

_X_ Joe Slomian

__ Giada Schwam (Student Liaison)

__ Daria Ludas

__ Mihir Majmudar

_X_ John Riggs

__ Lucille di Pasquale

__ Surabhi Agarwal

_X_ Irene Goldberg

__ Theresa Zamorski (Seceretary)

Adoption of Minutes:  Karen moved to approve May 2022  minutes, Ken Konya accepted the motion, Mihir Majmudar second.  All in favor.       

4. Applications:

a. Speaker: No Applications- nothing to report

 b.The commission had the following concerns: Nothing to report

5. Committee Reports:

a. High School Student Liaison - Giada Schwam-

  • The MTHS Green Team: Through the Green Team’s hard work and dedication, it has acquired a $10,000 grant from the Sustainable Jersey Grants Program. This grant will be used to implement refillable water bottle stations throughout the high school. Installation plans are scheduled for the 2023-2024 school year. On May 23rd, Vedika Singh (Vice President). Mar Parker (EAC Advisor), and the (Secretary) attended the Sustainable Jersey Grant Recipient Ceremony at During the ceremony we posed for pictures, accepted the check, and networked with Sustainable Jersey and other recipient districts from around the state.
  • New Leadership Positions: Planning Team- 2 new members (trisha Goli & Vanshika Bangad) Action Team- 2 new members (Eshaan Gandhi, Jay Patel & Aaron Agcaoili) Documentation Team – 1 new member (Varshini Kommareddy & Priyanka Veera)
  • Executive Board-

Secretary: Yashvi Desai

Treasurer: Tarun Sriram

  • EAC Podcast- due to minimal benefits from the creation of the podcast, we will no longer continue this initiative.
  • Freshman Orientation- EAC was able to acquire a booth to showcase our club. We presented our past and ongoing initiatives and events and played some environmental trivia and presented facts about sustainability and climate chang

b. Trails and Bike Paths Committee- Coordinator Karen Polidoro -Sent a power point to the Monroe Township DPW to recreate the Rocky Brook Estates Trails & Bike path.

c. Storm Water & Streams Committee- Coordinator Joe Slomian-Nothing to report

d. Energy Committee – Coordinator Ken Konya- Nothing to report

e. Open Space- Coordinator John Riggs-No Status on Masterplan.

f. Education Committee Report- Coordinator Renee Haider –Karen Polidoro attended the Senior Awards program and presented the $500 Joe Harvie Scholarship to Emily Carey.

g. Sustainable New Jersey – Coordinator Renee Haider-Renee submitted Monroe’s Sustainable Jersey certification application for the first round of review. It included 27 action submissions for total 340 points. It is likely that all the actions submitted in the first round will not be approved. When the application is returned in early July, it will include comments from the reviewers regarding the additional information needed for each action to be approved. In the meantime, we should continue working on the additional actions we plan to complete this year. Renee Haider will be following up with the project leads to get a status report on their efforts and start accumulating the documentation needed to submit for these actions by August 28 second application deadline.  The green team will meet in July to review the comments provided on the initial action submissions and discuss how to obtain the additional documentation needed. 

  • The May 21st session on Composting Basics presented by representatives from the NJ Organics Recycling Foundation drew 26 people in person and 14 via zoom. We are in the process of trying to find presenters for a session on summer garden tips. The goal would be for expert gardeners to share summer garden care tips and answer audience questions.
  • The Library is doing a Farmers Market with various vendors on Thursday’s Starting June 30 to September 15th from 2:00PM until 7:00PM.

h. Green Fair Committee Report – Coordinator Mihir Majmundar-Green Fair is set for October 15, 2022. We are updating the flyer to save the date for the residents. We are still putting together the list of vendors; it is going to be more of an educational vendor list this year. Looking for some student volunteers to represent the EAC, we will have an EAC table set up and are thinking of doing a live demonstration.   Joe Slomian will start putting together the books to give out. 

 i. Planning Board – Nothing to report

 j. Old Business – New Business – Nothing to report

k. Open to Public –Comments- Daria Ludas from Jamesburg reports that they received permission to add 2 pollinator gardens in front of the schools.

l. Adjournment 8:32 pm MOTION: Joseph Slomian             Second: Lucille DiPasquale

 m. NEXT MEETING DATE: August 3rd, 2022