Greenfield Conservation Commission
Meeting July 16, 2003
Attendees: Karen Day, Roger Lessard, Marilyn Fletcher & Ray Cilley.
Neal Brown from Sunset Lake brought in his application to rebuild a stone retaining wall on the lakefront. Karen had visited the site and felt that the project would be done “by the rules.” After everyone looked over the application, Karen signed it for the commission.
Neal Brown has also expressed an interest in joining the commission. We will talk about this at the next meeting.
We received a copy of a Standard Dredge & Fill application from NH Fish & Game for a stone ford to get access to 69 acres of a 126 acre property at Powder Mill Pond.
We discussed the problems with the railroad. The sequence of events went like this:
Karen was notified that some work had been done on the rail line near Slip Road and the marsh next to the tracks had been drained. Also brush and trees had been cleared adjacent to the tracks from School House Road to Russell Station Road and there was slash in the wetlands. DES was notified and Bill Thomas visited the site, took pictures and said that the railroad was in violation of the wetlands laws.
It was evident that the railroad was planning to bring their machine, the “brontosaurus”, down along Zephyr Lake to clear on both sides of the tracks. Karen called Gary Springs at DES who deals with the Shoreland Protection Act. He called Stuart Draper, owner of the Wilton Scenic Railroad and Peter Leishman of the Milford-Bennington Railroad who is in charge of the work being done on the rail line, and told them they could not clear cut next to the lake. They argued that they could because DOT/Rail told them they could. Gary met with DOT/Rail and they came to the conclusion that DES is in control here. Gary told Stuart and Peter that they had to wait until he came down to look at the shoreland to see how much they could cut. Later that week Stuart and Peter called the Commissioner, Gary’s boss, because they couldn’t get Gary easily on the phone and said that they needed to cut because they were bringing a train up here over the weekend. The Commissioner asked Gary to allow them to
do some cutting. Gary allowed them 8’ on each side of the track. They came and cut up to 12’ including trees that were over 6” which Gary had expressly told them they could not cut. The train never came that weekend.
Karen, Gary Springs (DES), Brian Lombard (DOT/Rail), Peter Leishman, and Bill Brooks met today to agree on what would be cut. They all agreed on 9’ on the lakeshore and between 10-12’ on the inland side of the tracks. Gary explicitly told them that no trees were to be cut until the policy was handed to them in writing. They could however do whatever limbing they wanted. Gary planned to have the policy written by July 22nd.
We discussed the number of subdivisions popping up around town. The growth that we have all feared had finally found Greenfield.
We discussed excavation on Slip Road. Ray thought that it bears watching. They may be getting close to the wetlands.
Marilyn told us that the Planning Board can adopt an open space conservation zoning plan now. They are allowed to adopt it now and have it in effect until next town meeting where it will be voted on whether to keep it.
We adjourned at 8pm.
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