MASHPEE CONSERVATION COMMISSION
Minutes of November 9, 2006
Public Hearings
Mashpee Town Hall Meeting Room 3
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Commissioners present: ~Jack Fitzsimmons, Chairman, Ralph Shaw, Vice Chairman, Len Pinaud, Clerk, Lloyd Allen, Jeffrey Cross, and John Rogers.
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Staff present:~ Steve Solbo, Agent, and Frances Wise, Board Secretary.
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Jack Fitzsimmons called the meeting to order at 6:55 p.m.
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Public Comment:~ None.
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Non-Hearing Agenda
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Old Business:~ None.
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New Business:~
1. South Cape Beach. Steve showed the members the photo of the parking lot that appeared in the Mashpee Enterprise and gave the background on the emergency certificate that he would be asking the members to ratify regarding repairing and maintaining the area of the parking lot that collapsed as necessary for public safety. The emergency certificate states that this work must be done by December 6th.
Steve will be attending the annual meeting of the Cape Cod and Islands Conservation Network next Thursday. The subject for this year’s meeting will be soft solutions, which subject Steve had proposed last year. Jim O’Connell, who was with the Coastal Management and is now with the Cooperative Extension, will also be attending, so Steve will be able to consult with him.
Jeff said he is opposed to soft solutions because they don’t work. Steve said that gabions are considered a soft solution and that’s the hardest soft solution we’re going to get. He’s going to clarify those problems next week.
Greg Taylor, Director of the DPW, said they are planning to put in the usual 1,000 tons of beach nourishment for the winter, plus an additional 700 tons of sand that was scoured away underneath the pavement. They will cut away the segment of the pavement that has collapsed and repave that area.
2. Approval of minutes for 10/12/06.
Motion made, seconded and unanimously carried to approve the minutes for the 10/12/06 meeting.
3. Carol Lopez, 0 Rear Quashnet Road. Steve said this .541-acre parcel is physically a wetland, and Ms. Lopez is asking if Conservation would like to buy it. Steve said it was assessed at $9,300. The land is not buildable, but it falls along the lines of what property we would accept as a donation. It was agreed that we would not pay for it, but Steve will tell her we would be happy if she wishes to donate it to us.
4. DEP’s new office in Hyannis. Len said that DEP will open a new office next week on Route 132 in Hyannis, and every section within DEP will be represented there – Wastewater Management, Administration of Watershed, Drinking Water Supply, Emergency Responses, and Wetlands. There will be a total of seven full-time staff members, including an administration staff. The purpose is to bring their resources closer to Cape Cod. If our staff needs files from Boston, there will be a courier system to bring it here. There’s a conference room there that can be used by Conservation because it’s public space.
5. Len attended an FS-1 Plume Clean Up Team meeting pertaining to the MMR Installation Restoration Program and reported on the following interesting discussions:
A. Fuel Spill-1 Groundwater Update. The treatment system is working very, very well and he gave the members a printed and verbal update on it.
B. Update on Ashumet Pond regarding phosphate treatment. Len said the data on the phosphate treatment in this pond that was done a few years ago is not as straight forward, but it does show that it’s working. The phosphorus decreased moderately with this treatment. The other thing the Air Force did was to install a geochemical barrier. They know where the discharge is. They used an innovative technology where iron mixes with the soil and the iron intercepts the phosphorus and keeps it from entering the pond. That is working very well. It stays trapped within the iron. They estimate that this will work for 20 years, but Len thinks that this estimate is conservative. They will not remove it – they’ll just leave it there.
C. The USGS and USFWS did an investigational survey on bottom feeders in Ashumet Pond and Johns Pond and found that they have tumors which are pre-cancerous, but if eaten, they won’t cause any health problems. They suspect PAH is the contaminant causing the tumors, and there were some storm drains from the aircraft landing strips that were dumped in years ago. However, the blood work they did on the fish indicated that some of the contaminants were more recent (within the past six months).
D. Len said that since our agendas are short lately, we may like to have Steve Hurley and Paul Baumann come and talk to us. Len thinks they would be glad to do so.
6. Possible new line of reporting at Town Hall. Steve said he attended a meeting where the discussion was about changing the line of reporting at Town Hall. Instead of the department heads reporting to the Town Manager, they would report to the head of a newly formed department called Regional Planning and Development. Steve said they were told that the Building Commissioner would become the head of this new department while still performing his present duties. Steve feels that with this format, his issues may not be represented to the Town Manager or Assistant Town Manager as forcefully as if he presented them himself. Jack agreed and said that the Town Manager and Assistant Town Manager can divide up the responsibilities – we don’t need another layer.
Hearing Agenda:
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7:00 p.m., Michael and Sharon Scirpoli, 68 Whippoorwill Circle (construct additions to existing house). Steve said that one of the proposed additions shown on the plan was in a resource area. Mr. Scirpoli said that addition is not going forward. Steve said in that case the other addition is fine. Accordingly, Mr. Scirpoli crossed out the addition in the resource area on the plan and initialed it.
Motion made, seconded and unanimously carried to approve this RDA.
7:03 p.m., David Hufnagel, 58 Monomoscoy Road West (continued from 10/26/06). Jack Landers-Cauley, representing the applicant, said the plan is the same except it’s in a larger scale, so the resource areas are clearly shown. Steve recommended approval.
Motion made, seconded and unanimously carried to approve this NOI.
7:06 p.m., Robert Murphy, 45 Little Neck Lane (replace failed septic system with a new Title V de-nitrification system). Dan Johnson represented the applicant and described the project. Steve recommended approval.
Motion made, seconded and unanimously carried to approve this RDA.
7:09 p.m., Beth and Stephen Israel, 69 Waterline South Drive (10’ by 20’ deck extension). Beth Israel described the plan. Steve said the extension is within the flood zone, but it has no impact on any of the other resource areas such as salt marsh and coastal bank, and he recommended approval.
Motion made, seconded and unanimously carried to approve this RDA.
Meeting adjourned at 7:55 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Frances Wise, Board Secretary
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