NORTH STONINGTON CONSERVATION COMMISSION
REGULAR MEETING at Room 121 High School
November 21, 2013 @ 6:00 pm
Minutes
Call to Order @ 6:00 pm
Present: Bob Fleury, Warren Speh, Pat Lewis, Mike Charnetski, Bill Ricker, Juliet Leeming
No minutes of August or September meeting as there was no quorum
2014 schedule of meetings reviewed. Keep the 4th Thursday @ 6pm with no meetings in August or December. Summary of 2013 CC activities sent by Ricker to BOF at their request.
Ongoing Business:
Update on Stillman Hill Preserve property: Ricker and Mark Tate GPS’ed the Stillman Hill Preserve open space (old Arbor Acres) to accurately determine the property borders. The entrance to the property off Wyassup Rd is a tangled mass of Greenbrier and zig-zags back to a cliff. To allow foot and horse traffic to enjoy the property, the southerly abutter, Peter Block, has verbally agreed the use of a 20’-30’ ROW around the cliff. Coordinates were identified and will be sent to Atty. Eppinger to draw up the legal agreement. First Selectman should be contacted regarding stone wall openings. Ricker to follow up.
Update on alternate position: A follow-up e-mail was sent to the First Selectman requesting BOS action on Mark Jaffen’s appointment so we may bring the CC to full ranks.
Additions and revisions to the PCRL:
• Currently the State is working toward a 21% open space preservation by 2016. NoSto has 8%
in permanent OS, 45% in temporary OS (including Pachaug Forest and 490 lands). CC felt to place a specific number was not prudent, but instead to specify land which continued to enhance our eastern and western greenway/wildlife corridors was more appropriate; the central corridor being essentially complete. Toward this goal, we discussed three additional properties to add to the proposed land use map. (see map for details) All three are along the Green Falls River corridor and provide connectivity to Pachaug Forest to the north and preserved properties to the south. Those three recommended additions will show on the map as 5, 6, &7 with following #’s each increased by 3.
• A northern parcel of Lake of Isles property is in a CE but was not earlier identified in the sub-committees development of folders to be monitored. That and several other private CE parcels will be reviewed by Fleury and Leeming this week.
• Three parcels in the western corridor were decided not to be added at this time due, in part, to ongoing issues in the area. As the PDRL is a “living document” future changes can and should be addressed at a later time.
• One parcel should be divided on the map to better identify the area wishing to be preserved: The Birkbeck corn field off Ryder Rd should only show the wetlands immediately adjacent to the Hewitt Farm property. The Brown holdings on Button Rd should wait for a pending court decision.
• Changes and additions to text following the public hearing were approved with modifications.
Community Calendars: “They’re in the mail.” The PTO has offered us space at no charge at their December 13th Holiday craft fair from 6-9 pm to sell calendars. Charnetski, Fleury and Ricker agreed to staff the booth. Speh will take 100 calendars to events he is associated with for sales. Ricker (Fleury) will distribute to town clerks office, library, Old Town Hall, Goodies & Wire Bean as soon as they arrive.
Open Space Grant: Notice shared by First Selectman must have properties immediately in mind to plan a cost sharing application. We are not ready and the January 14, 2014 date is too close for us to consider.
Meeting for December is cancelled in lieu of the holidays unless a critical issue surfaces.
Next meeting: January 23, 2014.
Adjourned @ 8:32 pm
Respectfully submitted,
Warren Speh, secretary pro tem
Post script: Election of officers was to be held at this November meeting. Failing to do so, we’ll plan to hold elections in January. Commissioners should consider their wishes.
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