Minutes of the Old Lyme Conservation Commission
June 7, 2006, 7:00 pm
Members: Ted Crosby (ex-officio representing Gateway Commission)
Eleanor Czarnowski
Taffy Holland
George James
David McCulloch
Agnes O’Connor
Marianne Pfeiffer
Tom Sherer
Mike Silberberg
Attending: Ted Crosby, Eleanor Czarnowski, Taffy Holland, David McCulloch, Agnes O’Connor, Marianne Pfeiffer, Tom Sherer,
Visitor: Paul Dean (applicant for membership in the Commission)
The group accepted the minutes from May 3, 2006.
Action Items from the April Minutes
Ellie sent the PRCD letter to zoning, and the letter to ZEO asking Old Lyme Country Club to fix the lighting
Ellie said George has sent articles about the lawn and gardening seminar to local newspapers and Lyme Light
Ellie said contacted Burnett’s Landscaping and White Gate Farms about the seminaradvertises organic landscaping and lawncare.
FMTM Plans
Ellie showed the group the new plans. The public hearing is over. The road has been changed. David said there is better drainage, with a grass/swale margin and check dams where the pitch is steep. Wetlands said the road should be salt free. Agnes asked “are we going to check up?” David said “No, we never check anything.” Chuckling….should we rephrase this?
David said George suggested they put in an open space buffer against the Schmidt property. ??? said a buffer around a development is standard, so we could ask for that. (Ted said he has been told that our planning is archaic.) David said we should push for the open space buffer. It should have public access. David will tell them that this is standard practice in other towns. Also there should be no clear cutting by the homeowners. Finally, some lots are over 4 acres, so they may be in danger of being subdivided.
There was more discussion of the road. There is no cul-de-sac at the end, and the group was concerned that sometime in the future they might try to join the road through the Schmidt property.
Conservation Commission will recommend:
plans to specify roads to be salt free
plans to specify a 50 foot public access buffer
homeowners’ deeds to specify no subdivision
homeowners’ deeds to specify no clear cutting
plans to specify that the FMTM road will not join the Schmidt property road
There is a Schmidt property site walk on Thursday, June 8, at 5:00.
Farmer’s Market
Marianne brought copies of her booklet. She had 200 copies printed (at 20 cents apiece) using a donation from Andrew Pfeiffer. She will have more printed. She will supply George with 100 copies for the Farmer’s Market on Saturday, June 10th..
Agnes said she will send notices to the garden clubs about the meeting. Ted said the booklet should go to every homeowner who abuts wetlands. Ellie said Landuse budget(???) could be used to print booklets, labels and mail out the bookletcould easily be printed. She said the Town should pay for mailing. Ted said Ellie can use the GIS site to generate a list of abutters.
Ellie offered to donate some money for printing. Agnes bought 25 copies for the garden clubs, and for some houses on the House and Garden tour. David bought 25 copies to bring to Janet and for distribution. Paul took some to distribute. Marianne put some in the Town Hall and will put some in the library. Taffy will ask her daughter to make a pdf for the Conservation Commission (and town?) website. Tom offered to make a pdf by scanning the booklet. Marianne will contact LymeLine about putting in a link to the pdf.
Ellie suggested putting some in the Essex Savings Bank and Coffees Market.
Coyote, Bobcan, Fishers
Ellie attended the DEP talk on coyote, bobcat, and fisher cats. They recommend supervising your pets and livestock when coyote are nearby. Bobcats are mostly in the NW corner of the state, and eat rabbits. Fishers are everywhere, and eat grew squirrel.
National Trails Day Hike
Ellie said National Trails Day was mostly a wash-out. Two people showed up. The mosquitoes were swarming at Champlain Northfinally drove everyone inside. Ted said we should promote bats and dragonflies.
AOB
Ellie received the final Open Space protocol from Diana
Long Island Sound license plate is open for proposals
Ted talked about the Bingham family donation to ??? for CT River ???
National Trails Day is June 3rd. OLCT and Conservation Commission have planned hikes and activities. Old Lyme Inn owner will provide drinks. Discussion of trimming the Barbizon Oak.
Ellie passed around the CREPRA newsletter and the 2006 hazardous waste pamphlet. Ted said to emphasize that there is a 25 dollar charge for each car-load, so people should combine materials. David mentioned the electronics recycling day.
Assignments
Ellie will send (to whom?)Planning the list of the commission’s recommendations for FMTM development.
Ellie will get on the selectmen’s agenda to present the 2005 Annual Report.
Ellie will contact Sophie Marsh to say we support them in their efforts to get the school buses to use biodiesel.
Ellie will give Ted a PDF file of the trails map booklet for the town and OCLT web sites.
After it is printed, Ellie will send copies of the 2005 Annual ReportTrail Booklet to the Financeall town Committees and the Selectmen’s Report, and try to get it into LymeLine too.
Marianne will give George 100 copies of her booklet and put some in the library elsewhere. She will contact LymeLine about the booklet.
Taffy will ask her daughter to make a pdf of Marianne’s booklet for several websites.
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