South River Green Team

The Green Team Committee's Transparency and Open Government Task Force will hold a worksession meeting 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 1, 2018 at the Municipal Building, 48 Washington Street.  Agenda items will include: Reviewing the Open Public Meetings Act, Reviewing Open Public Records Act, Reviewing Sustainable Jersey action items, and any other matters.  A portion of the meeting will be open to public comment.  The public is invited to attend.

Now that we've survived the roast turkey and stuffing, everyone is turning their attention to shop the Thanksgiving and Black Friday sales.  Most of those purchases residents will be making this weekend are outside of our town or online. We on the Green Team believe in the power of our downtown, retail centers and local businesses as drivers of economic prosperity for South River people. Beginning with this year's Small Business Saturday  on Nov. 24, we're taking a challenge to replace $25 of our "out of town" spending with $25 of "in town" spending each week. Are you up for the challenge?  It's not as difficult as you might think.  You too, can make a big impact and shop small.  Join us this Saturday.

From our friends at NY/NJ Baykeeper, easy ways to cut styrofoam.  For more on the impacts of styrofoam on our waterways and environment, visit them here.

Part of the South River Green Team's work this year has been to look at ways of incorporating green infrastructure throughout the town.  We have had a number of discussions and brain storming about how to accomplish this.  New Jersey Future's Louise Wilson is at the forefront of green infrastructure advocacy and spoke recently to NJ101.5:   http://nj1015.com/rain-can-pollute-rivers-and-streams-but-nj-towns-can-do-something/

BOROUGH OF SOUTH RIVER GREEN TEAM COMMITTEE AGENDA November 17, 2018 -- Meeting at 48 Washington Street, 12 p.m. GREEN TEAM COMMITTEE MISSION The general purpose for the Green Team shall include but not be limited to:  Managing South River's participation in the Sustainable Jersey program; Encouraging the borough staff to pursue sustainable practices where possible and implement the Borough Council's environmental goals; At the recommendation of the Borough Council, work with the existing groups within the borough whose actions affect environmental issues so as to eliminate duplication and assure that important tasks are covered; Provide suggestions for further research and action by the Borough Council; At the direction of the Borough Council, provide advice and suggestions to the Borough Board of Adjustment and the Borough Historic Preservation Commission to assure that environmental issues are considered in their deliberations and action;  Manage and organize v

Since our inception in 2017, we've included young people in our committee meetings and within our subcommittees, including the Community Garden, Creative Team and others. While we believe building a greener, better and more sustainable community involves people of all ages, bringing young people into the process brings us a different perspective and it encourages them to become leaders in our town. In 2017, the borough administration began to host several local high school interns to work on special projects over the summer.   The Green Team and other boards benefitted by having interns assist in data gathering, research and social media planning. A spirit of volunteerism has empassioned our community youth to participate in Green Team sponsored clean-up events, Community Garden building, and planning murals for a pedestrian gateway downtown, among other things.  But, they want to do more. In April, we added two Junior Members to our main public body.  They have asked a lot

In compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act of the State of New Jersey this is to advise that, due to inclement weather, the Thursday, November 15, 2018 meeting of the Borough of South River Green Team Permanent Advisory Committee has been rescheduled to: DATE:  Saturday, November 17, 2018 TIME:   Noon LOCATION:  South River Municipal Building, 48 Washington St., South River, NJ 08882 PURPOSE:  Review of Sustainable Jersey Certification Application and any other matters which may come before the committee. Transmitted via email on November 15, 2018 to: Home News Tribune East Brunswick Sentinel NOTIFICATION AS REQUIRED BY LAW - PUBLICATION AT NEWSPAPER'S DISCRETION WITH NO CHARGE TO THE BOROUGH

New Jersey's blackout  on the use of nitrogen or phosphorus based fertilizer on home lawns is effect Nov. 15 through March 1.  A better way to fertilize your lawn is to cut it and leave it (or mulch your clippings.) 

BOROUGH OF SOUTH RIVER GREEN TEAM COMMITTEE AGENDA SUMMARY November 15, 2018 -- Meeting at 48 Washington Street, 7:45 p.m. GREEN TEAM COMMITTEE MISSION The general purpose for the Green Team shall include but not be limited to:  Managing South River's participation in the Sustainable Jersey program; Encouraging the borough staff to pursue sustainable practices where possible and implement the Borough Council's environmental goals; At the recommendation of the Borough Council, work with the existing groups within the borough whose actions affect environmental issues so as to eliminate duplication and assure that important tasks are covered; Provide suggestions for further research and action by the Borough Council; At the direction of the Borough Council, provide advice and suggestions to the Borough Board of Adjustment and the Borough Historic Preservation Commission to assure that environmental issues are considered in their deliberations and action;  Manage and org

In compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act of the State of New Jersey this is to advise that the following meeting of the Borough of South River Green Team Permanent Advisory Committee has been scheduled: DATE:  Thursday, November 15, 2018 TIME:   7:45 p.m. LOCATION:  South River Municipal Building, 48 Washington St., South River, NJ 08882 PURPOSE:  Review of Sustainable Jersey Certification Application and any other matters which may come before the committee. Be further advised the Wednesday, November 28, 2018 meeting of the Borough of South River Green Team Permanent Advisory Committee has been rescheduled to the following: DATE:  Thursday, November 29, 2018 TIME:   7:30 p.m. LOCATION:  South River Municipal Building, 48 Washington St., South River, NJ 08882 PURPOSE:  Review of Sustainable Jersey Certification Application and any other matters which may come before the committee. Transmitted via email on November 13, 2018 to: Home News Tribune

A new taskforce will examine local government transparency and openness in the borough. "The South River Green Team Committee created the 'Transparency and Open Government Taskforce' in October with the intent of examining whether the borough government and school district are open and transparent in conducting business," said Councilwoman Sandra Adelino, liaison to the Green Team. Are local and school government open about their discussions and actions?  Are citizens getting access to public information and documents with ease?  How can we encourage more public involvement in decision making? These are some of the questions the taskforce is expected to answer in the months ahead. To accomplish its fact-finding, the taskforce is seeking comments from the public about their experiences accessing information or dealing with public entities.   The public may e-mail comments to:   southrivergreenteam@gmail .com .  Please include whether your comment

We want to be as open and transparent about our committee as possible.  We will be posting documents along with information on items that we review or discuss.  Our public education and outreach efforts will also be documented here. Other social media outreach will be used, including Facebook and the official municipal website.  For the time being, most of our documents and communications will appear on this blog.  We will link this blog from our Facebook page.

GREEN TEAM COMMITTEE MISSION The general purpose for the Green Team shall include but not be limited to:  Managing South River's participation in the Sustainable Jersey program; Encouraging the borough staff to pursue sustainable practices where possible and implement the Borough Council's environmental goals; At the recommendation of the Borough Council, work with the existing groups within the borough whose actions affect environmental issues so as to eliminate duplication and assure that important tasks are covered; Provide suggestions for further research and action by the Borough Council; At the direction of the Borough Council, provide advice and suggestions to the Borough Board of Adjustment and the Borough Historic Preservation Commission to assure that environmental issues are considered in their deliberations and action;  Manage and organize various ad-hoc environmental groups within the borough; Solicit and evaluate environmental ideas and suggestions from the co