Greenfield Conservation Commission Meeting
June 19, 2002
Overview of the events just before and since the May meeting:
May 13th: We met with the selectmen to discuss the road situation at their request at which time they asked us to set up a meeting with Earle Chase and Sandy Crystal to clarify the wetlands rules pertaining to culverts. Karen Day called Earle immediately to set up the date but was not given one immediately. Earle said he would get back to us with a date that they could both make it.
May 15th: We met on our usual evening. We received a letter from the selectmen that basically said that they couldn’t wait any longer to move ahead on the roads so Duffy Fox would be proceeding on the information he had. They also thanked us for our work and concern but they had to move ahead. We all felt that after all the work we had put into this situation, we needed some clarification on their decision. We decided to attend the next selectmen’s meeting on May 16th.
May 16th: We attended the selectmen’s meeting and asked for clarification on the letter they had sent to us. They explained their position being that the roads had to get repaired and they couldn’t wait any longer. We told them that we had done what they asked but that we were waiting for a date from Earle Chase They asked us about the status of the Standard Dredge and Fill Application. Karen Day said that it was almost finished but that she had been waiting for info from Duffy Fox and had just gotten it due to her email having gotten misplaced at the town offices. The selectmen asked us if we could identify the uplands culverts in the list of 83. We said we could have that done in a week.
May 20th: David Voymas and Karen Day inspected all 83 culverts that were on Duffy’s original Min. Impact Application. We felt that there were 27 out of the 83 that were uplands and 7 that we were unsure about. We decided that photographs should be taken of those sites that we were unsure of so that Earle Chase and Sandy Crystal could look at them when they came.
June 2nd: We monitored the Adams Easement with George Rainier acting as our plant expert. Peter and Andrea Wensburg graciously offered refreshments on their deck afterwards
June 5th: Earle Chase and Sandy Crystal gave us a presentation and discussion evening. Two selectmen, George Rainier and Conrad Dumas were in attendance as well as Duffy Fox. Sandy’s presentation was OK but vague. Earle was much more focussed. He gave us some good feedback. They suggested that the best way to identify the wetlands culverts was to get the services of a wetlands scientist. Duffy decided to contact one.
June 10th: David Voymas spend the better part of the day riding around with Duffy Fox discussing the roads and the problems he has to contend with. Duffy has already contacted a wetlands scientist to check the 83 culverts. The cost will be $1500. He will pay for it out of his budget this year but asks that the GCC cover any for next year.
Other business:
Marilyn asked if we knew what the wetlands set-back is in other towns. Greenfield doesn’t have one as far as she knows. We need to do some research into what other towns have and prepare a warrant article for next town meeting.
Karen mentioned that Diamond Swamp would be a good candidate for a Prime Wetland. We also discussed the wetlands around Yankee Farmer and down at Cornwell Road. We need to start thinking about a water protection zone for Greenfield.
Marilyn called Tom Adams about the Lay Lake Testing. He said that he will try to find time to do it.
We discussed Mulcahy’s development on Driscoll Rd. The road has been developed without permission from the town. The selectmen are dealing with this. David will ask the selectmen for a report on the status.
Ray told us that there is something leaking (they think) from the landfill into the small swamp next to American Steel. He plans on having the test wells checked to see how far it has gone.
We discussed what the next step is in working on the NRI. Karen said the hold up has been the maps. We had been working on getting some data for the assessors to update the town database before we finished the maps but this has been frustrating because it doesn’t seem like we are accomplishing much. Karen thought that it would be more productive to have a work bee where we go through the data-base and make sure that the lot is represented on our maps. One we do that, we can finish the maps and then update them when the assessors are done. We planned a work bee for July 18th at 7pm.
We talked about the signs for the town properties. Ray said that he would talk to Mike Borden about the Scouts doing the signs again making it clear that if they can’t do it, that’s fine but we need to know.
Logging permits: R7-19-1 Hyman/Curtis
R9-63 Sampson
Wetlands Mitigation Permit ?
Respectfully submitted
Acting scribe
Karen Day
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