Rahway Greenway meeting

On Thursday, March 4th, 2010, at 7:30 p.m., there will be a public meeting about the Rahway Greenway project.  Everyone is invited and we welcome your input.  This project is in the initial planning stages, so let us know your thoughts, hopes, and concerns.

Green Drinks at O'Reilly's 

On Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010, at 7:30 p.m., we met at O'Reilly's Bar and Grill on 2208 Millburn Avenue in Maplewood (right across from the Audi dealership).  

Matthew Morra, from Green Energy People, provided us with information on the latest local changes in residential solar funding. These changes will make solar much more affordable for Maplewood and South Orange residents.  We will be posting more details soon, so check back.

Green Drinks is a global effort that began over 30 years ago to help raise awareness of environmental issues, and now takes place in many cities around the world. It's a great chance to relax and network, talk about environmental issues, meet people, develop new ideas, and make new friends.  Everyone is welcome, so spread the word!  (No admission fee, cash bar)

Rahway Greenway meeting

On Friday, January 29, 2010, at 2:00 p.m., a public meeting was held at the Municipal Building, 574 Valley Street, Maplewood, New Jersey to discuss the Rahway River Corridor study.  The discussion was led by Robert Bratt, Acting Township Engineer, Jan Saltiel of Edgewater Design and Kerry Miller, Assistant Director of ANJEC.

Here is the Rahway River Corridor as it is today. 

Green Team Meets Again

The quarterly meeting of Maplewood's Green Team took place on Monday, January 11th, 2010 at Town Hall.  You can read all about it on Patch.  You can also read the meeting minutes here.  

Plastic Bag Recycling Program

Maplewood Memorial Library’s Hilton Branch Library and Fringe Hair Salon have teamed up to rescue plastic bags from landfills where they can take up to 1000 years to degrade.  Just drop off your clean, dry plastic grocery bags in the lovely bins located at Fringe (1874 Springfield Avenue) and Hilton Branch Library (1688 Springfield Avenue) from January through April 2010.  Sign up for our monthly workshops devoted to repurposing plastic bags. On January 21st, Kari from Kari’s Café will be leading a workshop making baskets out of “plarn” – yarn made from plastic bags. Register by phone or in-person at Hilton Branch: 973/762-1688.  (no crochet or knitting experience necessary) Ages 10 to adult.

Questions? Comments? Ideas?  Please call Betsy Wald, Branch Manager, Hilton Branch: 973/762-1688.

Tree-cycling

Recycling your tree is easy and free of charge.  Put your holiday trees out to the curb during the month of January and the Department of Public Works will pick them up to be mulched.  Plastic bags around trees allowed but they prefer them without.  You can also put out your wreaths and garlands.  Please remove all metal if possible from wreaths and garlands.  They will get picked up regardless, but can only be mulched if the metal is removed.

December Green Drinks

Tuesday, December 8th was the latest Green Drinks get-together.  

Dennis Percher, Chair of the South Mountain Conservancy, and Tricia Zimic, Board member, gave us a great introduction to the South Mountain Conservancy and its activities with emphasis on the $800K multi-year forest regeneration project with the County.  In October, the Conservancy and Essex County announced the completion of a unique planting program to accelerate the restoration of the forest in the South Mountain Reservation.  Through this aggressive initiative, 48,000 native plant species were reintroduced into the reservation to reverse destruction caused by the overbrowsing of deer.

Here is an excerpt from the evening.

Maplewood wins the Sustainable Jersey™ Leadership Award

Once again, Maplewood has been honored for its environmental leadership and accomplishments.  The first ever Sustainable Jersey™ awards luncheon took place at the New Jersey League of Municipalities Conference on Tuesday, November 17, 2009.  Maplewood was recognized as the municipality that contributes the most to the Sustainable Jersey program through demonstrated regional and statewide leadership.  

So far, 30 communities have been certified through the fledgling Sustainable Jersey program.  Sustainable Jersey is a certification program for municipalities in New Jersey that want to go green, control costs and save money, and take steps to sustain their quality of life over the long term.  Sustainable Jersey identifies concrete actions that municipalities can implement to become "certified" and be considered leaders on the path to sustainable community; provides clear guidance and tools to enable communities to make progress on each action; and provides access to grants, and identifies existing and new incentives for municipalities to make progress toward the actions.

DeHart Park Groundbreaking

On Saturday, November 14th, 2009, ground was broken for the renovation project for DeHart Park.  The project is expected to be completed in Fall of 2010.  The DeHart renovation was originally slated to involve artificial turf fields but when the project was put to a referendum in town, it was voted down.  It will now include organic grass in addition to other improvements.    More information about the project and its history is included here.

The first shovel honors went to the Town Council.  Pictured here from left to right are Jerry Ryan, Kathy Leventhal, Mayor Vic DeLuca, and Fred Profeta.  (Photo courtesy of Bob Dlugos)