MINUTES
REGULAR MEETING
Tuesday, March 13, 2012, at 7:30 P.m.
Town Hall, 2nd Floor Conference Room
302 Main Street
Members Present
Robert Fish, Chairman
Jerry Brophy
Kimberley Gallagher
Walter Smith
Bruce Sherwin
Members Absent
Pat Ingellis
Land Use Department Staff Present
Sandy Prisloe, Environmental Planner
Kathleen Noyes, Recording Clerk
Approval of Minutes
MOTION to approve the minutes from the Conservation Commission’s Regular Meeting of January 10, 2012; MADE by J. Brophy; SECONDED by K. Gallagher; VOTED IN FAVOR: R. Fish, J. Brophy, K. Gallagher, W. Smith; OPPOSED: none; ABSTAINED: B. Sherwin.; APPROVED: 4-0-1.
MOTION to approve the minutes from the Conservation Commission’s Special Meeting of the Outreach Committee of January 17, 2012, February 7, 2012, February 21, 2012 and March 6, 2012 as presented; MADE by B. Sherwin; SECONDED by R. Fish; VOTED IN FAVOR: R. Fish, J. Brophy, B. Sherwin, W. Smith, K. Gallagher; OPPOSED: none; ABSTAINED: none; APPROVED: 5-0-0.
Commission Membership
R. Fish received an official resignation from Robert Siegelman. Two members of the public came to this evening’s meeting because they are interested in possibly joining the Conservation Commission.
R. Fish said he will be talking with Carl Fortuna to see who has shown an interest, and he suggested to the two men at tonight’s meeting that they contact the Selectmen’s office to apply for the vacancy.
Sustainable Saybrook Website Support
B. Sherwin updated Commissioners on the status of Sustainable Saybrook. He recently added a Facebook fan page to the web site, and he will be discussing the Google analytics data at the next Sustainable Saybrook meeting, which will be on Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at 8:00 A.M. He discussed the process for web site feedback. One person submitted a suggestion to the web site, and B. Sherwin forwarded the submission to the Old Saybrook High School’s facilities manager. Also, the group is preparing their next Constant Contact e-mail blast.
Regional Trailway Projects
R. Fish talked about connecting the Old Saybrook Trailway all the way to Cockaponsett. The northeastern corner of Westbrook was needed as part of the connection. R. Fish has talked with Tom O’Dell, Chairman of the Conservation Commission in Westbrook, and T. O’Dell said he would like to work to connect the trail through Westbrook.
S. Prisloe said aerial photography would be acquired this spring before the leaves come out. It’ll be very detailed 6- inch resolution imagery. It will be useful to look at what is happening with the land.
R. Fish asked Commissioners if they would like to pursue work on this project, and if so, he asked for volunteers.
B. Sherwin said he would be willing to walk the trail. J. Brophy and W. Smith said they would like to work on the project.
W. Smith asked who manages the trails in town. R. Fish said there is a MOU (memorandum of understanding) between the Old Saybrook Land Trust, the Conservation Commission and Parks & Recreation.
Water Resources Projects
R. Fish distributed copies of The Plan of Conservation and Development’s chapter entitled, “Conservation & Open Spaces”, and he explained that C. Nelson has asked the CC to work on the chapter entitled, “Water Resources.”
W. Smith recently met with C. Nelson and S. Prisloe about Water Resources projects, particularly storm-water management. He said the relationship between the CC and the Planning Commission has been under utilized. W. Smith was asked if he would be the point person from the CC to work on The Plan of Conservation and Development and to see how the CC can be most effective. The CC has a role in implementing and updating the plans and advocating for stronger implementation of storm-water management. W. Smith said he’d like to go over each item from a Conservation Commission standpoint to prioritize the items and to find out the status of each item. The Plan was originally written in 2003, and it was updated in 2006. W. Smith said he’d like to find out from the Planning Commission how much has been accomplished
on each of the items to date.
W. Smith worked on highlighting the items from the Water Resources section of The Plan of Conservation and Development that the CC should be working on, and he created a spread- sheet detailing this information. He will e-mail copies of this to the CC members.
There was some concern about sea level rise. R. Fish said C. Nelson has been working on this, and S. Prisloe added that the Planning Commission’s Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan addresses sea level rise. He also referred Commissioners to the section on Coastal Resilience, which is put out by the Nature Conservancy as a resource for this issue.
S. Prisloe asked about maintenance of the fishways. R. Fish said the DEEP usually handles this, and they report to the CC. B. Sherwin asked R. Fish to get information from the report for the Sustainable Saybrook’s web site Facebook page.
Other Projects
S. Prisloe encouraged Commissioners to attend the 2012 CT Land Conservation Conference which will be on Saturday, March 24, 2012 at Wesleyan University in Middletown. R. Fish said there is money in the CC budget to pay for Commissioners’ registration fees.
MOTION to adjourn the meeting at 8:25 p.m. until the next regularly scheduled meeting of the Conservation Commission which will be Tuesday, April 10, 2012, 7:30 p.m., Town Hall, 2nd Floor Conference Room, 302 Main Street; MADE by J. Brophy; SECONDED by K. Gallagher; VOTED IN FAVOR: R. Fish, J. Brophy, K. Gallagher, B. Sherwin, W. Smith; OPPOSED: none; ABSTAINED: none.; APPROVED: 5-0-0.
Respectfully Submitted,
Kathleen Noyes, Recording Clerk
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