May 18, 2005
Present: M. Dempsey, J. Stewart, T. Schaefer, J. Termini
7:33 pm meeting opened
ConCom Business - Neve-Morin
M. Dempsey made a motion that ConCom verify that we grant a one day waiver to our seasonal restriction to the Neve-Morin group to place a wooden shed within the buffer zone. T. Schaefer 2nd. 3 voted yes. 1 voted no. Motion passed.
ConCom Business - Mass Electric
Mass Electric requested Certificate of Compliance for work from last year. Needs a visit. Needs form filled out. T. Schaefer offered to visit.
ConCom Business - 66 Main Street
66 Main Street - looking for file. ConCom will issue an OOC based on minutes.
ConCom Business - Minutes
M. Dempsey made a motion that ConCom approve the minutes from May 4, 2005, with no changes. J. Termini 2nd. All in favor. Unanimous.
ConCom Business - Summer Hours
M. Dempsey made motion that we approve our summer hours for 2005 to be open Monday nights from 7:00 - 8:00 pm for signoffs; office hours Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00 am -1:00 pm; and hearing nights on July 20th and August 17th. J. Stewart 2nd. All in favor. Unanimous.
Wetlands Preservation Inc.- 8:00 pm - DID NOT SHOW UP FOR HEARING.
Highway Department
Present: Bob Arakelian/Hwy Dept., Kirk Elwell
Hearing opened at 8:30 pm. B. Arakelian said he’d like to obtain a yearly permit to maintain the culverts, instead of an OOC for one time because they (the beavers) keep plugging the culverts up. M. Dempsey said he’s not sure if ConCom can do that. B. Arakelian said either Andover or N. Andover is doing that. M. Dempsey said it’s good for 3 years, and then he could get an extension. B. Arakelian said 2 beavers in 9 years make 600 beavers. He said the one on Seven Star is plugged now. Kirk Elwell said he has spoken with DEP and Wetlands. He said they have a huge problem with draining the whole wetlands. He said they all have deep wells out there, and when they drained the wetlands, it went down one foot. A neighbor of his lost a well.
He said his well point is down to 200’ deep. B. Arakelian said when a well or septic system is in danger, he can get a permit to breach.
K. Elwell presented an option. In front of the culverts, he suggested putting in semi-circular coffer dam, keeping it out about 6‘. He said the beavers aren’t going to go to the culvert, they’re going to go to the steel ring. He said it can be made out of a steel plate or whatever you have. Basically it fools the beavers and you can maintain your culvert. J. Termini said it’s not inside our jurisdiction. K. Elwell disagreed, and said he spoke with DEP, Waterways, Richard Tomseik, the Associate General Counsel of DCR, and Fish and Game, and he said they’re peeved about water being drained. K. Elwell said, number one, you’re draining their wetland, number two, you’re allowing water to go downstream into the Parker River which
you don‘t know the quality of it. Now you’re releasing stagnant water into an active wildlife area down in the Parker River in the Crane’s Pond area. He said he doesn’t know if the town has some liability on that? B. Arakelian said he didn’t think so. He said the law is, if a well or septic system is in danger, the Board of Health has the authority to issue a permit to us to trap and kill the beavers, and then go to ConCom for breach permit. M. Dempsey said there’s no such thing as a breach permit. He said he could file an Notice of Intent to breach a dam. B. Arakelian asked M. Dempsey if he looked into that. M. Dempsey replied that he knows which permits the State tells ConCom they can issue. K. Elwell said the Board of Health can issue an emergency permit and notify the ConCom. He said there‘s a lot of conditions though on what is considered an immediate danger to a utility or a septic
system or access to somebody‘s property. T. Schaefer asked who makes that determination. B. Arakelian said the homeowner called him and said that their well failed, and it will cost them a lot of money for a new well, and the engineer that they had said it’s because the water backed up and the ground water is not circulating enough through the ground.
K. Elwell said the well points on Seven Star aren’t anywhere near the wetland level. That wetland level is leaching through a lot of material before it ever gets to a well point. He said the problem they may be having is that they’re getting a lot of draw-down. It’s pulling it down through their yard. There’s not a big cone with a residential well, it’s a tiny little draw-down.
K. Elwell asked how does it affect the one on Bear Hill? B. Arakelian said it’s affecting the road and the water is one foot from pavement. T. Schaefer said he’s concerned with exposing the town to liability. J. Termini said we need the science behind it. K. Elwell said you’re also draining someone else’s wetlands, it’s the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ wetland, it’s not yours. He said DEP said they could do road maintenance, but if the beaver‘s are clogging up the culverts, and when you release a beaver dam, you‘re releasing 5-6 million gallons of water, which you did on Bear Hill, and I did a calculation on that, you released 5 million gallons of water up there. The problem is, the law now with beavers is that the beavers
are back. He said you‘re not going to get rid of them. The Mass. law on beavers is that you go through the program to breach the dams and the conditions are spelled out in here (brought paperwork from website listed below) He said the Board of Health can issue a permit, but they have to issue a permit for what you do and each place. K. Elwell said he has a problem with the theory that “someone’s engineer said their well was failing because the Commonwealth of Mass’ wetlands is up a foot higher than it ever was.“ It only goes up about a foot with the beavers. J. Termini asked town counsel could look at law and also have an outside engineer comment and give opinion so we don’t put the town as risk. He said if the Board of Health has some jurisdiction here, they’re going to want to get involved. B. Arakelian said they have jurisdiction. M. Dempsey said they do over the beavers and the
dams, but they don’t have jurisdiction over the wetlands so we both have to work on it together. B. Arakelian said if it’s impeding on a road or well, he goes to the Health Agent and gets a permit to trap to kill. J. Termini asked if he (Health Agent) is qualified to do that? B. Arakelian said yes. K. Elwell, said if it’s public or private land you can, but number one, it’s not public land in our sense, it’ Groveland, it’s Commonwealth of Mass.
J. Termini asked K. Elwell to explain his option (the coffer dam). He said it will keep the beavers away from the culvert. K. Elwell drew diagram of idea. T. Schaefer there they day after they drained the culvert, there was still a whirlpool of water.
M. Dempsey asked B. Arakelian if he could you try this kind of thing (coffer dam) and did he think it made sense? B. Arakelian said he could try that. J. Termini asked how it was constructed? B. Arakelian said with heavy material like clay and rip rap. K. Elwell said clay would work. He said it isn’t high tech. B. Arakelian said maybe a 5 ft diameter manhole cut in half would work. B. Arakelian said he will file an NOI for Seven Star culvert and for work done on King St. M. Dempsey asked him to call Andover and/or North Andover to find out the info he mentioned. B. Arakelian said yes, and it was and article in the paper. M. Dempsey said if it’s a Conservation thing, he will talk to them and ask them how to do it. It may be something ConCom will
have to add to the bylaw.
M. Dempsey made motion close meeting at 9:10 pm. J. Termini 2nd. All in favor. Unanimous.
Respectfully submitted,
Lori Felch
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