Greenfield Conservation Commission
Meeting Minutes
February 9, 2005
Attendees: Karen Day, Roger Lessard & Janet Romanelli
Absent: Ray Cilley, Karla Allen, and Neal Brown
Guest speaker: Jill Kuchinos of Hancock spoke about the Lake Host and Weed Watcher programs.
Notes on the programs
Lake Host: $3 from each boat registration in the state goes to this program, which is administered by the New Hampshire Lakes Association. Its aim is to stop the spread of exotic aquatic plants. Each landing in the state is eligible to apply for a $3,000 grant, which will be opening up in the next couple of weeks. In this same time frame, a decision will be made about matching funds; last year it was 50%. This means that there would have to be $1,500 in costs already spent on the landing to cover matching funds, and could include such items as cost for a portable toilet spent by the town, refuse removal, mileage driven by (but not reimbursed to) the Point Person, etc. A Point Person is usually a volunteer who administers a program for one or more landings in a town. The Point Person hires people for $9 - $10 per hour to be
Lake Hosts, who greet boaters at the landings, inform them about the program, and ask them to agree to a voluntary weed inspection. The DES has a 3-hour training program that they can show in Concord or they can bring it to the town. It is available each year through July. There were 61 landings in the program last year, and it doesn’t appear that there would be any shortage of funding.
Weed Watcher: A volunteer gets assigned a piece of shoreline and identifies potential exotic aquatic plants in a waterway. It could be one person or many.
Discussion: There are four water bodies in Greenfield that qualify - Zephyr Lake, Sunset Lake, Otter Lake and Powder Mill Pond. It was suggested that Neal might be a logical person to take on this program, in conjunction with possibly starting a lake association at Sunset. There are many good reasons for starting a lake association, from protecting a real estate investment to just plain conservation. Otter Lake has only Barbara C. Harris Camp and Greenfield State Park as owners, and perhaps the camp might like to take this on; Karen would contact someone there, as well as speaking to Molly Anfuso about the Rec Department’s involvement in the other ones. Recruiting Lake Hosts could be done by contacting a conservation club at ConVal or taking out an ad in the Ledger. Weed watching might be done by the
Scouts. The Extension or the DES can recommend some plants that can be used as a buffer between agricultural land and a lakeshore where the setback laws don’t apply. Jill wasn’t sure if the grant money for two landings could be pooled and spread proportionately between the two, say, if one is really busy and one isn’t.
Agenda Items
The Selectmen approved Janet’s appointment to the Commission. She has to be sworn in by Fran.
January’s meeting minutes were accepted as submitted.
The following items were discussed.
The Stevenson easement - Karen, Roger and Janet have voted in favor of the Commission helping out with the cost of putting a conservation easement on this property (which consists of wetlands behind 8 or 9 building lots on Blanchard Hill Road deeded to Sheldon Pennoyer), feeling that, since the Town benefits from it, the Town should contribute to the cost of the easement. (Mr. Stevenson will also be donating gravel and building a parking lot for the trail system). The total cost of putting the land in easement is approximately $3,000 (surveying and legal). Ray dissented by e-mail, and Karen will contact Neal for his vote. There will be a special meeting on February 23rd at which Dick Ober of the Monadnock Conservancy will formally present the project to the Commission and members of the Planning Board.
Some time ago, Karen was asked by one of the Selectmen to clarify who has control of the Conservation Fund. Janet said she would look in the state handbook to see what was said about how much control town governments have over Commission’s spending, and possibly contact Margery Swope. The statute she found is as follows:
TITLE III
TOWNS, CITIES, VILLAGE DISTRICTS, AND UNINCORPORATED PLACES
CHAPTER 36-A
CONSERVATION COMMISSIONS
Section 36-A:5
36-A:5 Appropriations Authorized. –
I. A town or city, having established a conservation commission as authorized by RSA 36-A:2, may appropriate money as deemed necessary for the purpose of this chapter. The whole or any part of money so appropriated in any year and any gifts of money received pursuant to RSA 36-A:4 may be placed in a conservation fund and allowed to accumulate from year to year. Money may be expended from said fund by the conservation commission for the purposes of this chapter without further approval of the town meeting.
II. The town treasurer, pursuant to RSA 41:29, shall have custody of all moneys in the conservation fund and shall pay out the same only upon order of the conservation commission. The disbursement of conservation funds shall be authorized by a majority of the conservation commission. Prior to the use of such funds for the purchase of any interest in real property, the conservation commission shall hold a public hearing with notice in accordance with RSA 675:7.]
Earth Day event - the Selectman are reluctant to waive the recycling fees; however, there was no vote. It has been done in the past. We could circumvent the problem of dirty recyclables by not recycling the roadside stuff, but it doesn’t seem right in light of the event; it was suggested we could have someone clean the items at the hose at the dump, but someone should make sure the water will be turned on. It is felt that people would not take unfair advantage of the cleanup day by cleaning out their garages and dumping their stuff by the side of the road. We need to discuss ways of distributing blue bags and posters. We will need to send an announcement to the Ledger and the Spirit, for which the deadline is March 1st. Janet called Denise Hopkins about coordinating with the two road sponsorships she’s involved with, but her call was not returned.
Aquifer Protection District project - Karen is hunting for a map to aid this project.
Donation of a tree or shrubs to the Historical Society - Sarah Timmons is working on a landscape plan. Ray will keep in touch with her through the winter and advise us of what we can do to help in the spring.
Update on Pin Oaks - Yankee Farmer will replace the unhealthy one originally donated.
New Business
There was a quick discussion about terms - we need to ascertain all the members’ terms.
There was a quick discussion about a timber cut for R3 Lot 1 (80 acres) that came out of the selectmen’s meeting - corner of Forest Rd. and Old Bennington Rd.
Mail
1) There was a “bill” from Contoocook and North Branch River Local Advisory Committee. It is actually a request for a contribution to the New Hampshire Rivers Management & Protection Program, for which each town on the Contoocook is supposed to be represented. We may consider this at the next meeting.
2) There also was a newsletter from the NHDES Drinking Water Source Protection Program, which Janet expressed an interest in reading.
Submitted by Janet Romanelli
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