Chichester Conservation Commission
01/10/05 Meeting Minutes
7:00, Chichester Grange Hall
Present: Gwen Adams, Jeff Andrews, Gordon Jones, Bob Mann, Walter Sanborn, and Deb Soule
Also attending: Mike Marchand and Paul Adams
General Items
Minutes from last month were unanimously approved.
Noteworthy mail consisted of a notice of a wetland disturbance without a permit on Main Street and a letter from Gabe Gries of Fish and Game regarding the potential impact on aquatic life in Marsh Pond due to its recent lowering by breaching the beaver dam.
Paul Adams – Environmental Audit of the Suncook River Proposal
Paul presented a draft of his proposal to perform an environmental audit of the Suncook River watershed to see if the commission was interested in supporting it. The group will read the proposal and provide comments at the next commission meeting in February.
Designating Prime Wetlands
Jeff said the RFP was sent to ten area consultants after the last meeting. The deadline for submission is January 20th. The consultant selection committee (Bob, Jeff, Mike, and Gordon) will meet on January 26th to review the submittals and select the three best ones. A public hearing (and regular CCC meeting) will be held on February 7th to discuss the process and the desire to expend conservation fund monies to start the process by evaluating the wetlands in the southern end of town. Based on public response, on February 16th the consultants who submitted the top 3 submittals will be interviewed. All of these meetings will begin at 7:00.
Land Protection Subcommittee
No news to report.
Source Water Protection Education Efforts/Web Site
Deb will contact Fred Shaw to see if he is interested in helping to get the CCC’s information on the web.
Remaining 2004 CCC Goals Not Previously Discussed– Status
The remaining unfinished goals were reviewed to see what progress has been made:
2) Coordinating with the Planning Board on environmentally related rules.
Additional comments on the draft wetland ordinance were received at the January 6th public hearing. The subcommittee will meet again this week and then hold one more public hearing before the proposed ordinance goes to ballot in March.
7) Implementing the Sanborn Cray Conservation Area management plan.
This has been on hold due to the breach of the dam on Marsh Pond and the subsequent significant shrinking of the pond area. With no dam, there is less water and less interest in obtaining easements to provide better access to this area. The Selectmen have received a quote of $160,000 to rebuild the dam. A decision on whether to incur the expense and rebuild the dam has not been reached yet. In the meantime, Jeff motioned to pass the draft purchase and sales agreement to the Plummers for review. Bob amended the motion to include obtaining the Plummers’ contingencies and then getting legal review of the entire document. The motion carried unanimously.
New Goals for 2005
The group reviewed the list developed at the last meeting and added a few more. Then each goal was reviewed for priority and available support to accomplish it. The list was reduced to the following new goals (in no particular order) for 2005:
- Work on warrant articles to:
- Place conservation easements on the town forests (Spaulding and Carpenter);
- Establish a stewardship account; and
- Explore possibility of bonding for conservation land purchase.
- Blaze/paint property bounds on conservation easements
- Continue water quality monitoring of Marsh Pond.
- Seek funding to implement the Sanborn Cray management plan.
Although this was not included as a goal, Mike agreed to look into erecting new wood duck boxes.
The remaining goals from 2004 (designating prime wetlands, land protection, and source water protection education/web site development (now including a link to the wetland complaint form) will be continued in 2005.
Other
Bob circulated his draft of the CCC’s portion of the town report for review and comment.
A budget of $1000 for the CCC was requested. This money would support continued monitoring efforts of Marsh Pond, conference attendance fees by CCC members, public notice fees etc.
Meeting was adjourned at 9:05.
Upcoming Meetings
01/26 @ 7:00 PM at Town Hall – Meeting of selection committee for prime wetland designation submittals
02/07 @ 7:00 PM at Town Hall – Public hearing for prime wetland designation process and regular CCC meeting (rescheduled from February 14th).
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