Herring River Technical Committee APPROVED October 4, 2007 Meeting Minutes
Wellfleet Council on Aging Center, 1:00 P.M.
Members Present: Gordon Peabody, Gary Palmer, John Portnoy, Joel Fox, John Riehl, Stephen Spear, Tim Smith, Eric Derleth, Diane Murphy, Hillary Greenberg
Members Absent: Andy Koch, Jack Whalen, Carl Breivogel, Steve Block, and Robert Hubby
Also present: Ira Wood, Selectmen from Wellfleet, Jeff Hughes, Herring Warden from Wellflleet, Bob Kelly, member of Wellfleet Finance Committee, Mark Faherty from National Park Service Massachusetts Audubon at Wellfleet Bay, Talilla Schuster, Petra Mandakova and Nicole Friedenfield from Safe Harbor in Wellfleet.
Chair called meeting to order at 1:10 pm.
Tim Smith commented on modifying the language of draft minutes internally before sending a final draft of minutes to various individuals. The Chair agreed and appreciated Tim Smith’s opinion but stated that he felt the individuals who participated in meetings be allowed to expresses their opinions accurately in the meeting minutes. The Chair suggested that members uncomfortable with how their comments were worded should participate by responding to draft meeting minutes. Stephen Spear stated that he agreed with Tim Smith but also agreed with the Chair due to the sensitive nature of some topics and actions that needed to be taken. Stephen Spear & Tim Smith also suggested that in the future, draft copies of meeting minutes should only be sent to committee members. John Riehl agreed
with all commenting parties. Eric Derleth asked to make a correction on page 3 to change the word “disconcernment” to “concern.”
Motion to approve corrected minutes from Aug. 30th, 2007 meeting entertained by Joel Fox at 1:20 pm; John Portnoy seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously at 1:20 pm
Chair opened floor to public comments.
Jeff Hughes had a comment about the concern of low water & high water levels that could pose a problem for migration of herring. He provided committee members with a handout about the issue and potential solutions. The Chair thanked Mr. Hughes for work and stated that this topic would be an Agenda item at the next HRTC meeting.
John Portnoy stated that a second round of sediment sampling on aquaculture beds downstream of the dike was conducted on 30 September there was sampling done for sedimentation with students from Wellesley College (sp?). He also stated that Woods Hole Group was given a tour of the system and provided tidal data.
John Riehl stated that on Sat. Nov. 10th would be the State of Wellfleet Harbor at the Wellfleet Elementary School. Gordon Peabody will be a presenter at the seminar conference.
The Chair also presented a letter of appreciation to the HRTC secretary Megan Eckhardt. The Chair then also expressed thanks on behalf of the committee to employees of Safe Harbor: Tallila Schuster; Petra Mandakova & Nicole Friedenfield, for the support work they have provided for the HRTC.
The Chair also thanked John Portnoy, John Riehl, Stephen Spear, Bob Hubby & Eric Derleth for the additional work that they did on the CRP subcommittee. Tim Smith went over the newest draft CRP that was created using the draft CRP created by ENSR & the comments/corrections of the HRTC. Tim Smith color-coded the corrected document to reflected corrections made by various committee members; he stated that after John Riehl briefed the committee about the corrected executive summary. He also stated that he received helped from John Portnoy to create the revised executive summary.
Diane Murphy stated that she was impressed with the revisions made and praised everyone’s efforts. Eric Derleth commented about the effort that was put into it but also stated that there are still edits that need to be made (i.e. missing numbers, words, etc.). He stated that he feels comfortable that it can be eligible for a vote but stated that there needs to be additional changes. John Portnoy stated that he is fine with this draft of the CRP, but stated that if there are corrections, they should be done.
Gary Palmer stated he feels confident that he can present it to the Board of Selectmen in Truro & get approved. Joel Fox stated that overall its fine, but stated that there needs to be a mention about contaminated adult shellfish area(s) and their need for considering it a spawning sanctuary/source population. He feels that it should be entered into the current draft of the CRP on page 47/48 as a positive point. John Portnoy offered to include it as a correction to the newest draft of the CRP.
Stephen Spear stated that this draft is a vast improvement and feels comfort in including everyone’s comments in the document. Hillary Greenberg feels that the document is much improved and commends the efforts of all committee members involved in the correction process. The Chair stated that he is exceptionally happy with this current draft and finds minimal additional corrections.
The Chair called a brief recess at 2:00 pm. Meeting reconvened at 2:10 pm.
The Chair suggested a protocol for getting comments/corrections to Tim Smith for inclusion to the final draft. Tim Smith suggested that a physically written corrections/comments would be best. He suggested using an excel spreadsheet format that included page, paragraph, line, & comment so that way it’ll be easy to decipher. Tim Smith decided that he would field the corrections from committee members and make notes accordingly.
The Chair stated that there is a one-week deadline for submitting comment/corrections of the current draft CRP starting at midnight tonight. All submissions need to be faxed to Tim Smith no later than October 11th. Hillary Greenberg is to submit a map to Tim Smith regarding the shellfish grants at the recommendation by Joel Fox to replace diagram/picture 14 & possibly diagram/picture 17.
Chair entertained motion to approve current draft CRP (with grammatical/factual corrections included no later than midnight on Oct. 11, 2007). Joel Fox so moved at 3:08 pm; Motion seconded by John Portnoy. Motion passed unanimously at 3:08 pm.
The Chair called a brief recess at timeMinute9Hour153:09 pm. Meeting reconvened at 3:20 pm.
The Chair opened the floor for conversation about the cover page and the attributions of the document. John Portnoy suggested including the HRTC & ENSR as co-authors. John Riehl suggested that the cover page should say, “Submitted by HRTC” but have inside the document that it was “prepared by ENSR.”
All committee members present unanimously agreed that the ENSR logo located on the title page & in the header of each page needs to be eliminated. Also, the ENSR document number included needs to be eliminated from the CRP.
John Portnoy agreed with John Riehl’s suggestion of having the “submitted by the HRTC” but also suggested that “with technical support from ENSR” underneath. He also suggested removing ALL ENSR logos from the title page.
The committee agreed that the title page should read as follows:
Herring River Tidal Restoration Project
Conceptual Restoration Plan
Submitted by the Herring River Technical Committee, With technical support from ENSR October 4th, 2007
The committee also agreed that the quote by the Chair, Gordon Peabody, “A river shouldn’t kill its fish,” should be included at the top of the page of the executive summary. Tim Smith is to produce an acknowledgement page. John Portnoy also suggested changing the picture on the cover page to one more like that is located on the Herring River Restoration Project brochure.
The Chair then reviewed a protocol for incorporating all changes agreed upon for submission to ENSR for production of the final draft of CRP.
Stephen Spear also stated that before the money is spent to print & bind that final copy of the CRP, a galley should be sent to all committee members – either a digital or physical copy. Also the committee feels that ENSR should provide copy-editing before a galley is printed.
Chair entertained a motion from the Committee, directing the Chair to meet with ENSR to negotiate changes agreed upon by the committee for: adjustment made to the title page; acknowledgement page; final, Committee edited version of CRP. So moved by Joel Fox at 3:58 pm. Seconded by John Riehl. Motion passed unanimously 3:58 pm.
John Riehl also stated that the motion by the Committee allows the Chair to act on behalf of the HRTC if unanticipated changes/negotiations should occur.
The Chair reported on status of the MOU II. Response and approval by legal reviews of the MOU is positive. John Portnoy also stated that in a previous conversation with Gary Palmer that the Board of Selectmen in placeCityTruro may be ready to approve the MOU independently from the CRP.
The next meeting is going to be Tuesday Nov. 6th, 2007 at 1 pm at a space to be announced.
The Chair presented a Power Point slide presentation on some of the estuaries of placeSouth Western Australia, which normally close for up to three years at a time.
Chair entertained a motion to adjourn; So moved by Joel Fox at 4:55 pm; motion seconded by John Riehl. Motion passed unanimously at 4:55pm
Respectfully,
Megan Eckhardt
Herring River Technical Committee Secretary
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