Conservation Commission
Minutes of January 13, 2010
Rich Haslip called the meeting to order at 7:02pm
Members present: Rich, Fred Huntress, John Crouch, Sue Ellis and a few minutes late Don Stover and John Laskey. Associate members Mark Prindall and Ulla Hanson. Selectman Larry Moreau and Town Manager Dana Lee.
Rich reviewed the minutes of 12-16-2009 for the TV audience. Don motion to accept with corrections. vote 5 yes. Sue abstained due to being absent.
Discussion of the warrant articles for the commission for Town Meeting. Dana said the attorney suggested it be generic, not specific to a certain land trust but more in the line of "to authorize the board of selectmen to grant a conservation easement on the designated map and lot numbers (no acreage amt to be mentioned) to a recognized, well established qualified land trust".
Dana explained prior to that article there will need to be one "to accept the Whittier land (that he donated to the town) to be included in the easement. John Crouch said he would help Fred with the wording of the legal descriptions.
Dana said he hopes to have the final warrant articles done by 3-2 but 3-16 at the latest.
Don said we need to attend the 1-19 selectmen meeting to have the selectmen assure the commission they will put the article on the warrant. Don stated he had heard concerns that if the selectmen didn't agree there needed to be time to get petitions signed to do it that way.
As many members as possible will attend that meeting.
Dana said at the 1-19 meeting he will ask the selectmen for money and permission to seek a legal opinion on the status of Bragdon Hill Rd. Sue asked him again to assure the commission he would do it then and he said he would. It is necessary to find its status prior to creating easements.
Fred presented the forest management plan he created. The conservation members were impressed and said it was laymen user friendly. Fred explained the plan briefly and said the forest inventory is very important and that only one parcel needs to be cut soon. He said there are 2 kinds of cutting. Improvement cutting which is thinning trees to enable better growth of remaining trees and that is usually pulpwood. vs. a log harvest which is taking the more valuable trees. He said forest management is both an art and a science. Science is what you learn in school and art is what you learn by working in the woods.
Discussion regarding draft of the open space plan Rich worked on. Don said and John Crouch agreed, this was Raymond's plan and much of it doesn't pertain to Poland. Don said he would like the commission to meet with the comprehensive plan committee and the Planning Board to discuss it. We need community agreement about what the priorities are. Don made a motion to hire Bob Faunce as a consultant. Rich seconded, Vote unanimous.
Dana is to send Bob the draft of our plan and ask him to review it and to see if he has any other plans that might serve Poland better.
Discussion about speaking with Poland Spring Bottling regarding a grant to Poland. Dana said he had not pursued it because nothing had been clear about how much to request. Don said we should approach them. Sue and John Crouch agreed to go with Dana to speak with them when he has a date.
Don mentioned his concern that being on TV had scared away some of the associate members. He urged people watching TV to call, or email members with feed back or ideas.
The members agreed to hold another forum in March, no date was set.
Fred said we need to contact voters prior to town meeting to urge their support on the warrant articles.
Town meeting is April 3.
Next meeting is Feb 10, 2010
Don motion to adjourn John L second. Vote unanimous
Respectfully submitted
Sue Ellis
Secretary/member
| 
