Agenda
[0:00]
Meeting Start
[1:45]
Approval of Minutes
[9:28]
Chairs Report
[10:46]
Correspondence
[10:56]
New Business
[13:05]
New Business
[14:32]
New Business
[29:43]
Committee Reports
[32:23]
Committee Reports
[33:15]
Committee Reports
[35:03]
Committee Reports
[40:22]
Committee Reports
[43:01]
Committee Reports
[43:58]
Committee Reports
[46:12]
Committee Reports
[46:22]
Committee Reports
[46:33]
Council Liaison Report
[52:54]
Land Manager Report
[1:02:51]
Administrative Business
[1:07:34]
Adjourn
Transcript
SOURCE TRANSCRIPT
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[0:03]
I had like to call the Dairy Conservation Commission
[0:05]
meeting to order, have everybody silence their cell phones
[0:10]
and we'll start the meeting off with a pledge of Allegiance.
[0:16]
R Pledge. Do the United States of America
[0:21]
to the Republic for which it stands. One Nation, nation,
[0:25]
Under God, IVIS, Liberty and Justice All.
[0:36]
Okay. The emergency exits are located in the back
[0:38]
of the room.
[0:40]
And to my right, if there's an emergency in the building,
[0:43]
please don't use the elevator.
[0:45]
Use the stairs. If you need help getting out
[0:48]
of the building, please ask one of the commissioners.
[0:53]
We'll start off with introduction of Comm Commissioners.
[0:56]
Starting to my right.
[0:58]
Christopher Morlock.
[1:00]
Cheryl Holbert, Jay Hildreth,
[1:03]
Rick Metz, Bob Spro. Linda Cony,
[1:07]
Eileen Chabo.
[1:09]
Pam Piero. Fal Cony, land Manager, Elizabeth Carver.
[1:14]
And I'm the chair Ricardo Bgo.
[1:17]
We also have our cons liaison. Mr.
[1:19]
Charles's Foot joining us tonight. And we're sharing Mike's.
[1:23]
That means we must have a pretty good group, right?
[1:26]
I don't think I ever remember sharing Mikes before Charlie.
[1:28]
That's, that's a first. It might be a first.
[1:30]
Yeah. Owen's getting a picture right now. It's good.
[1:35]
Document history.
[1:37]
First, the order of business on our agenda
[1:39]
today is the approval of minutes.
[1:40]
They were sent to you by our secretary, Jay.
[1:44]
And you also have a copy in front of you.
[1:46]
Is there any changes necessary
[1:48]
to those minutes showing Eileen? I have a,
[1:51]
I have a few comments.
[1:52]
Okay. Throughout the minutes,
[1:56]
like starting on page two, when it talks about,
[2:00]
I think it meant stewardship management
[2:02]
or like, there's no consistency with regards to the plan
[2:08]
for the conservation easement.
[2:10]
Because sometimes it says,
[2:11]
like on page two it says Stewart management plan,
[2:15]
on another page it says
[2:19]
Easement stewardship easement plan.
[2:22]
I think like a consistent name should be chosen
[2:25]
and then every time it's referred to,
[2:26]
it should be the same name.
[2:32]
So that's one thing. And then I had,
[2:38]
let's see,
[2:51]
oh, on page four, the second paragraph
[2:56]
where I talked about the wording in the easement,
[3:05]
it says, commissioner Chabot described the documents
[3:08]
where it read the land would be turned into
[3:11]
a wildlife management refuge.
[3:13]
What I really had said was that it seemed like
[3:17]
to me in reading the document,
[3:19]
that it was being turned into a wildlife management refuge.
[3:23]
The actual document did not read that way.
[3:25]
It just appeared to me like
[3:29]
that's all we were allowed to do was manage wildlife there.
[3:34]
So if that could be reworded, I'd appreciate it.
[3:45]
Anything else, Eileen? Nope, That's it. Thank you.
[3:47]
Okay. So on the first part of Eileen's suggestion,
[3:54]
are the minutes taken as spoken?
[3:58]
So those, when we were referring to that easement,
[4:02]
it was the way it was spoken.
[4:03]
So I'm not sure if that would warrant a,
[4:08]
a change to the minutes and I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll defer to,
[4:13]
I don't remember what I said. Rick.
[4:14]
Whatever was said is what's documented,
[4:16]
Right?
[4:17]
So, yeah. On your second
[4:17]
change, Eileen, I think you're right.
[4:19]
It's what you said. But I think when
[4:20]
I said it seemed like, You know Yeah, that was your,
[4:23]
I I was talking about you on your first suggestion when,
[4:25]
what was being referred to
[4:27]
as differently a number of times. Oh,
[4:29]
Then you, the plan. Yeah.
[4:31]
I think that's the way it was spoken. The second
[4:33]
One.
[4:34]
Okay. 'cause it's kind of confusing, you know,
[4:36]
when you start looking at, like,
[4:37]
there's several different pages
[4:39]
where it's referred to differently.
[4:41]
Yeah. But I think the minutes are, are capturing
[4:43]
what was actually said.
[4:44]
So, okay. That that's what the people said.
[4:46]
All on your second.
[4:47]
And, and if I, if I think that's,
[4:49]
am I understanding that right, Charlie? Yeah.
[4:51]
Right. You can't, I mean, you can't reassign
[4:53]
intent once something something's
[4:54]
Said once it's written on the second one
[4:56]
where it was actually your statement.
[4:58]
Yep. That may have been heard differently
[5:02]
than I think on that one.
[5:03]
We should probably make that adjustment, Jay, to the minutes
[5:08]
and have it reflect exactly what Eileen
[5:11]
what what Eileen said.
[5:12]
So Eileen, just for Jay, could you,
[5:14]
could you be specific exactly on what you said?
[5:18]
I remember what I said was in reading the easement
[5:22]
documents, it seemed to me as if the
[5:26]
only thing we were gonna be allowed
[5:28]
to do was have a wildlife management refuge there.
[5:32]
Because we weren't allowed any public access.
[5:35]
We weren't allowed any trails or any activities.
[5:40]
But that the state fish
[5:41]
and game we're going to monitor the wildlife there.
[5:45]
So,
[5:46]
So is there a specific sentence in the minutes
[5:49]
that, that we could change?
[5:50]
Okay. That I could, that I could give him? Yeah.
[5:51]
Okay. Sure. So he could change it.
[5:53]
'cause these have to be then, then ratified and sent.
[5:56]
Okay. You can say, commissioner Chabot described
[6:02]
in reading the documents
[6:05]
that it appeared the land would be turned into a
[6:08]
wildlife management refuge.
[6:13]
And without any, the rest of it is fine.
[6:15]
And without any educational opportunities there,
[6:18]
it would be less a loss for anyone
[6:21]
to realize any potential environmental awareness
[6:23]
or educational opportunities.
[6:25]
And the town is losing out in that, in that aspect.
[6:28]
So that part's fine.
[6:32]
We're gonna have the two secretaries just sort that out.
[6:35]
Yep. So we can make, make the necessary change.
[6:38]
No, I appreciate that. Thank you.
[6:48]
Yeah.
[6:54]
Yeah. Was my voice.
[6:56]
I can make sure scratchy
[7:00]
throat, huh?
[7:06]
Think I might have some
[7:17]
My coat. All good?
[7:20]
Yeah. Do, do you need any further clarification? Jay?
[7:23]
Do you have that? Do you think you got it?
[7:25]
I may talk to Eileen briefly after the meeting.
[7:28]
No, we, we need to do, do straight now. Yeah.
[7:30]
We gotta get it done now. Yeah.
[7:32]
Okay, Eileen, let's get it,
[7:34]
let's get it completely clear for Jay so we can, let's
[7:36]
Do it again.
[7:37]
Yeah. It's just a matter of a few words
[7:39]
To change that and just Yeah, that's And just the words,
[7:41]
just the actual words that need to be changed.
[7:42]
Yeah. Nothing, nothing else. Alright.
[7:45]
Instead of where it read Jay, you can say
[7:49]
it appeared like,
[7:53]
Okay.
[7:54]
Okay. It appeared like would be fine to just, okay.
[7:57]
Yep. Simple change.
[7:59]
Thank you for making that specific. Yep.
[8:01]
Okay. Great. All right.
[8:02]
Anyone else regarding the minutes? Mr. Metz?
[8:05]
Yeah. Under, under Commissioner Mets motion
[8:09]
to exit non-public meeting.
[8:11]
And then we go to move to seal.
[8:13]
The non-public meeting minutes. Should read indefinitely.
[8:16]
Thank you. Move
[8:18]
to seal the non-public min meeting minutes indefinitely.
[8:22]
Okay, let's, let's have the two secretaries sort that out.
[8:32]
Page nine. Yeah. Where he says,
[8:44]
That's all I have.
[8:45]
Mr. Chair.
[8:47]
So page nine at the bottom there. Yep.
[8:49]
Got it. Seal the minutes indefinitely.
[8:55]
Jay, you have that? Yes sir, I do. Okay.
[8:57]
Any other changes to the minutes? Okay.
[9:02]
Seeing none, but I'd like to detain a motion
[9:05]
to approve those minutes as amended.
[9:08]
Move to approve the minutes
[9:10]
of the March 16th, 2026 Conservation commission as amended.
[9:15]
We first by Mr. Metz. Second. Second by Eileen.
[9:20]
All those in favor say aye.
[9:22]
Aye. Opposed? Abstentions. Okay. Motion carries.
[9:27]
It's a lot of minutes on that meeting.
[9:32]
Chis report is our next order of business. We've been busy.
[9:37]
I feel like I'm kind of the quarterback.
[9:39]
I've become a quarterback of this committee now.
[9:41]
We have a lot of people working
[9:43]
behind the scenes between meeting.
[9:45]
I continue to talk to Beth at least once a week at length,
[9:50]
setting the direction of the commission, trying to organize
[9:55]
and highlight our goals.
[9:57]
And she's feeding back to me
[9:59]
and things that she's doing, she's doing
[10:02]
with the subcommittees.
[10:04]
So we're all systems go.
[10:06]
We are developing, we're in the middle of developing that.
[10:10]
I'll share once we have completely developed a scoring
[10:14]
procedure for the commission's goals.
[10:17]
We, we have a lot of balls in the air.
[10:19]
And just to make sure that we're doing the things that
[10:25]
make the most sense for our community
[10:28]
and for the goals of the commission.
[10:31]
Stay at the top of our list for, for goals
[10:34]
and the more ancillary stuff
[10:36]
that can be done when things are, we're not
[10:39]
so busy doing the, the most important stuff.
[10:43]
And that's all I have. Cheers.
[10:45]
As far as correspondence,
[10:46]
we did get a newsletter from South Views Conservation
[10:52]
for migrating marshes in a changing climate.
[10:54]
And I'll send that to my left.
[10:59]
Can look at it as we continue.
[11:01]
Our next order of business is Officer elections.
[11:03]
Before we get into that, are, are any
[11:06]
of the present officers opposed to maintaining their
[11:11]
position as officers of the commission?
[11:16]
Anyone in opposition? Seeing none.
[11:18]
I'm gonna entertain a motion by Mr. Metz.
[11:21]
Move to nominate Mr.
[11:23]
Ricardo Bazinga for another term as chair.
[11:27]
We have a first by Mr. Metz. Is there a second? Second.
[11:30]
Second. Second. Second. By Eileen. All those in.
[11:33]
Do we need a roll call on this one?
[11:34]
Yeah, let's, we'll start with a roll call.
[11:38]
Starting to my right. Chris is not seated. Yes,
[11:42]
Yes, Yes, yes.
[11:45]
Not seated. Yes. Yes.
[11:49]
And the chair votes. Yes.
[11:51]
I will make motion to nominate
[11:55]
Richard Metz as vice chair. And I need a second,
[12:00]
Second.
[12:01]
Second by Cheryl. So the first on the floor by myself,
[12:03]
second by Cheryl to make Mr.
[12:05]
Metz vice chair.
[12:06]
I'll take a roll call also on that one to my right.
[12:09]
Yes. Yes, yes, yes, Yes.
[12:15]
Yes. Chair votes. Yes. Mr.
[12:16]
Chair has been elected to vice chair for another term,
[12:21]
Move to appoint Eileen Chabot as treasurer.
[12:24]
I'll second. Yes.
[12:30]
Jay? Yes. Yes,
[12:34]
Yes, Yes.
[12:36]
Yes. Chair V. Yes.
[12:39]
Move to nominate Jay Hildreth as secretary.
[12:41]
I'll second. Yes. Yes, yes,
[12:47]
Yes, Yes.
[12:49]
Chair votes. Yes. And all your pay is tripled.
[12:52]
Everybody. Yeah. Everybody gets tripled.
[12:54]
Just saying. Alright.
[12:57]
Office officer elections are complete.
[13:00]
Our next elections will be,
[13:03]
election appointments will be that of our committees.
[13:08]
I'm gonna wrap 'em all up in one, but
[13:10]
before we continue with that, is there anybody
[13:12]
that would like to move off the chair of a committee?
[13:18]
I think the members we can move kind of at our,
[13:23]
without any approval, so is if, if any of the present chairs
[13:27]
of committees wanna relinquish that seat,
[13:31]
please let me know now.
[13:35]
Okay. Seeing none, I would like to make a motion
[13:39]
for the following chair, people
[13:42]
to chair these following commis com committees.
[13:45]
Personnel, Mr. Metz, TRC, myself,
[13:50]
land Acquisition Mr.
[13:51]
Metz, state Compliance. Eileen Public Outreach.
[13:56]
Cheryl Community Garden. Jay, land Maintenance.
[14:01]
Bob Reporting Compliance Val
[14:05]
and property management.
[14:06]
Myself. I need a second.
[14:10]
Second. So first
[14:11]
and second on the floor to,
[14:14]
for the chair people
[14:15]
of these committees. We'll start to my right.
[14:19]
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes,
[14:23]
Yes, Yes.
[14:24]
And chair votes. Yes. Alright. Committees are done.
[14:29]
Next order of minute. Next order
[14:31]
of business is an update on the Broadview annex.
[14:35]
The Jay supplied a pretty detailed
[14:40]
analysis of his,
[14:43]
I don't think you need to read it again, Jay.
[14:44]
We, we, we read the whole thing,
[14:45]
but maybe go over it as highlights.
[14:47]
And I'm sure you'll have some questions.
[14:49]
That's what I plan to, I'm only gonna
[14:50]
Take 10 minutes or less. Okay.
[14:52]
Yeah. Good. So Jay's gonna highlight his plan
[14:54]
and then didn, take any minutes that,
[14:57]
any questions that we may have.
[14:58]
Okay. Jay?
[15:00]
Yeah. This document was just intended to lay down
[15:03]
information and gather together new, new learnings
[15:08]
and help to merge together a, a plan.
[15:13]
And next steps. I'll just mention
[15:18]
that I did make an a, a inquiry with the Heritage
[15:24]
Commission in order to be able to describe a little bit more
[15:27]
what about what this property is
[15:29]
and what was it in the past.
[15:32]
It's a fairly unique piece of land.
[15:35]
It's had a lot of man manmade
[15:41]
additions, like giant stone walls that sur surround most
[15:44]
of the 3.4 acres.
[15:47]
So I want to get more information.
[15:49]
I haven't heard back from them.
[15:52]
And so the next steps,
[15:56]
I am trying, trying to create a development plan.
[15:59]
And this is the first draft of it.
[16:04]
And also, I wanted to review a
[16:09]
permitting process at a high level.
[16:11]
So I start, I just took down information
[16:15]
basically from different sources
[16:18]
and, you know, documented it for, for future use.
[16:23]
When we come to the point where we have
[16:24]
to decide are we going to do a permit or not?
[16:31]
There are exemptions to wetland permits that,
[16:36]
that are, could apply to our, this land.
[16:42]
The certain ones are that are exempt,
[16:47]
or if there are certain recreational activities
[16:51]
that are low impact, such as hiking, bird watching
[16:55]
that don't involve the construction of permanent structures
[16:57]
or alteration of the wetlands or surface waters.
[17:01]
So if we, it would probably be favorable to see that we have
[17:06]
to do less permitting,
[17:08]
but should not be daunted if we do have to,
[17:13]
again, I research that there is a, you know, a definite path
[17:18]
to doing, getting permits, different step-by steps.
[17:22]
And there is assistance from the state.
[17:30]
We,
[17:33]
According To E-M-V-W-T
[17:37]
3 0 9 0 2,
[17:39]
mowing is allowed under certain conditions that could come
[17:45]
to a great advantage
[17:47]
because the, they, the land wants to grow back
[17:52]
into Meadow, meadow and then into wood woodlands
[17:55]
and become very dense
[17:57]
and really hard to try to move in in there.
[18:03]
So we can do mowing
[18:06]
and, you know, in a, under the certain conditions that we
[18:12]
do not do it during, you know,
[18:15]
don't disturb the vegetation roots.
[18:17]
Which I can tell you that walking on there, there's a solid
[18:22]
pack of roots, very intertwined, very supportable.
[18:27]
I, I never found myself sinking into any kind of mud
[18:31]
or anything else that I've worked in there since the snow
[18:33]
melt the ground
[18:37]
should be dry enough to make an, to make the mowing passes
[18:42]
that and avoid ruts.
[18:43]
It's, the project shouldn't be
[18:49]
located in a bog
[18:50]
or designated prime wetland, which this is not.
[18:55]
And I, I'm not sure if there's any 100
[18:58]
foot buffer rule at all.
[19:01]
So I don't think so,
[19:03]
but I'm posing that as a question to, to be answered.
[19:14]
Yes. And I said that there's plenty
[19:15]
of consultation guidance from the state and specific steps,
[19:19]
and I have references to that should the time come.
[19:24]
Now with monitoring the three potential
[19:29]
vernal pools, I started to walk, walk on there
[19:32]
and made some just brief logs in this document
[19:36]
and taken photo images.
[19:41]
There's a very definite drainage system
[19:46]
that just was created by nature.
[19:49]
It goes from, from south to north down,
[19:54]
down slope goes into a culvert.
[19:57]
Then the culvert goes down alongside the road.
[20:01]
There's a culvert that there's downhill to the west.
[20:05]
I didn't see how far, where it goes on the western border.
[20:09]
But this has been established this probably for a long time
[20:14]
from this south to north
[20:20]
Channel, which is about six, six inches wide,
[20:23]
six inches deep, maybe a little less,
[20:25]
maybe five inches deep.
[20:28]
It diverges to the north west.
[20:32]
And then goes into the PVP one,
[20:35]
which is the pro is the most significant pool
[20:40]
that's on that property.
[20:42]
And I've, I've seen it going there about
[20:45]
four different Wednesdays.
[20:47]
I'm, I'm always choosing Wednesday to be consistent
[20:50]
that it goes up and down and, and
[20:54]
whenever there's been rain or more snow
[20:56]
or so, there is a fluctuation.
[20:59]
It's not all going down, down, down there.
[21:02]
It does vary with the rainfall.
[21:06]
I'm looking for signs of wildlife, you know, just,
[21:09]
I'm seeing a little bit of pond plants,
[21:13]
but no wildlife yet.
[21:16]
If you listen at night, you know, we know the established
[21:19]
pools and marshes are, are starting to get the spring pees
[21:23]
and, and, and small frogs.
[21:29]
So Valerie is going is I've been working with her
[21:33]
and we, she has ideas
[21:35]
because there are very many ways to do this
[21:42]
col assessment.
[21:45]
There are many organizations have their own forms and,
[21:51]
and guide guidebooks.
[21:53]
And there's different reasons to have them or not.
[21:57]
Valerie has something she's used all the time.
[21:59]
Basically, we'll be taking the same information.
[22:03]
I've just documented all the different organizations
[22:06]
that are, are
[22:08]
offering for different reasons.
[22:12]
And when we may study that further
[22:15]
and find that even though we've taken information,
[22:17]
filled it out on a form, there may be an advantage
[22:20]
to filling it out for another organization to get,
[22:25]
I was reading that there's some kind of
[22:30]
documentation statewide of vernal pools.
[22:33]
So you could apply just added
[22:37]
to the database for the state.
[22:42]
So the next thing I wanted to talk about was paths
[22:46]
to identify where paths should go.
[22:49]
And we, there are exemptions also for paths
[22:53]
that needing permits.
[22:55]
And we may have some, some of the
[22:59]
exceptions here, exemptions here that we could use.
[23:05]
I think that 90% of what we want to do
[23:08]
for PAs could be taken a taken by the, you know,
[23:13]
annual mowing, which would be probably in the fall.
[23:17]
We don't know whether we need more than once.
[23:21]
That would take care of most of the things there.
[23:23]
There may be a place for boardwalks, if you wanted
[23:26]
to do a path that goes a loop around, you'd have to
[23:29]
cross these six, six by six
[23:33]
channels three times to go around.
[23:38]
And again, we, we will have more information
[23:41]
as the season goes on.
[23:42]
There's, you know, there's nothing
[23:44]
to say yet about, about it.
[23:45]
It's premature. There's more, more information
[23:48]
required by observation.
[23:56]
So I asked the question about wildlife habitat
[24:01]
enhancement plan.
[24:03]
I came up with that myself and reading.
[24:07]
And also to factor in whether we determined that the, the
[24:12]
PVPs become actual vernal pools.
[24:14]
We simply have to follow the
[24:19]
New Hampshire's latest wildlife action plan.
[24:23]
It's everything we need.
[24:28]
It specifies it.
[24:30]
It's more biological biology of species of animals
[24:34]
that are present and their habitats
[24:39]
and how to encourage and enhance them.
[24:44]
So I have also almost done they,
[24:48]
so I'm considering a, a more passive approach versus
[24:54]
adding native species actually introducing
[24:58]
ourselves native species.
[25:00]
And again, I had mentioned that letting,
[25:04]
letting nature just grow, grow back the plants
[25:09]
is the majority of what has to be done.
[25:14]
Also though, we, the mowing in certain circumstances just
[25:19]
for the path use and also considering eliminating
[25:23]
and doing a survey and eliminating invasive plants,
[25:28]
that that can be fairly passive.
[25:31]
But the addition of native species
[25:34]
for diversity is more, more intensive.
[25:38]
And it has to be balanced with, you know, the, the benefit
[25:42]
for wildlife goals.
[25:45]
And again,
[25:47]
that will be seen in time and more study.
[25:53]
So I'm asking, I'm asking for approval
[25:56]
from the Conservation Commission to continue this pursuit.
[26:01]
I anticipate that this will merge itself into the
[26:07]
NH a's CCC Landscape Scale Management program.
[26:13]
And I did do recognize that that program
[26:19]
compliments very well the goals that I have, I've stipulated
[26:23]
for, for this piece of land.
[26:28]
So if you have any questions, you can ask me or just email
[26:33]
Any questions for Jay?
[26:35]
No.
[26:37]
I noticed in your report you recommended
[26:39]
that we discontinue allowing public works to,
[26:42]
or the cemetery crew to
[26:45]
store any leaves on the property. Is that
[26:48]
Yes, that happened fast.
[26:49]
That was the, the NRI that was performed
[26:54]
by Norman Du definitely was a strong
[26:57]
recommendation to not do that.
[26:59]
We do have, we do have that challenge with the gardening
[27:03]
community garden to try to see what we can do it.
[27:07]
I walked onto that pile of leaves, you know, sprayed
[27:11]
for ticks and yeah, it's very thick
[27:13]
and it already is chopped up, which is great
[27:17]
for incorporating it into, you know, into the garden.
[27:21]
But there is a very large volume
[27:24]
Something if, if we decide we're gonna disallow
[27:28]
that, we need to let them know.
[27:29]
I think we, I I think Beth
[27:31]
and I have that sorted out. Yeah, we
[27:32]
Have. Okay. We,
[27:34]
We've started to think about that.
[27:35]
Yeah, she can give it.
[27:36]
We wanna do it in your, in your report. Sure.
[27:39]
Talk about that. Sure. Yeah, I can talk about that.
[27:41]
That was the only question, Jay. Nice work. Jay.
[27:45]
It's a lot of work you're doing there. Yeah. Thank
[27:47]
You Jay.
[27:49]
So action items moving forward.
[27:50]
Jay, you have Val helping you, right?
[27:53]
Yeah. You need more help.
[27:55]
You need more help from the commission.
[27:57]
I wouldn't mind anyone coming
[27:58]
to take a walk. Eileen, come take a walk. I'd
[28:00]
Be happy to help.
[28:02]
I have a lot of knowledge of rental pools if you want.
[28:05]
Yeah. Want that kind of help? Yep.
[28:07]
Yeah. Let's, you know, definitely engage the rest
[28:10]
of the commission, get some help.
[28:12]
What would you, what would you say your next, like,
[28:14]
first your next two action items are on it?
[28:19]
Well, we're, we're doing the, the vernal pool studies
[28:23]
and we need to get familiar
[28:26]
with the hydrology, you know, on this land.
[28:30]
What, what goes on with these, these channels,
[28:35]
Ettes, whatever you want to call them.
[28:36]
You know, when I, I noticed they're very active
[28:39]
and flowing a lot and,
[28:40]
and they, the PVP two is at the
[28:46]
southern end of that, where that is so that even though
[28:49]
that happens to be under a, a shrub, the, the major part of
[28:54]
that PVP is under a shrub.
[28:58]
The big large shrubs.
[29:00]
It's interesting, the PVP three is also that way.
[29:04]
It's just, there's shrubs just growing up
[29:06]
out of pooling water. So
[29:08]
You're gonna continue to just continue to monitor it.
[29:12]
Charlie, is it Craig Durrett? That's the environmental.
[29:15]
Who's the environmental?
[29:18]
I believe he left. There's a, there's an, it's not Sam.
[29:22]
Sam's the engineer. I can see his face
[29:25]
'cause he's in the TRCs with us. Yeah.
[29:27]
Could you, could you get me his info?
[29:29]
And I'm gonna forward that info to you Jay.
[29:31]
There's a, there's a town.
[29:33]
Environmentalist. Environmentalist, okay.
[29:36]
That should probably be looped into, looped into this.
[29:39]
Great. Any other questions for Jay?
[29:43]
Alright, nice work Jay.
[29:47]
Alright, next we have our committee reports
[29:50]
and our first one is Jay again.
[29:52]
Jay taking the whole meeting.
[29:54]
Sure's on the, so
[29:59]
I, I had mentioned our last meeting,
[30:03]
a subcommittee meeting that we had
[30:06]
and some action items from that.
[30:09]
We are some actions items for me in particular.
[30:14]
And for Beth was to do a seed starting
[30:19]
video to be for Linda, to
[30:23]
Linda to film us.
[30:24]
And I think she was able to do that with Beth,
[30:27]
but I just ran outta time
[30:29]
and it was, I had to do it outdoors.
[30:31]
It was the best day. It was Wednesday
[30:33]
and she wasn't feeling well.
[30:35]
So I tried to have five hands and do it. I don't know.
[30:39]
We're, we're working on it. It'll be good. It'll be
[30:41]
Fine.
[30:42]
I hacked it up. But
[30:44]
Star It's good I get through.
[30:46]
But yeah, I just wanted to show planning onions
[30:49]
and planning leaks.
[30:51]
And I look forward to her merging those three videos.
[30:55]
And then I'm going to put it on the Facebook
[30:57]
and add some information about,
[31:00]
one thing is when do you start seedlings?
[31:03]
What's the, what's the guideline, the guidance on that,
[31:07]
you know, I was looking at some of the packages
[31:10]
and I, I had to like sit down
[31:12]
and really think it out here, line by line.
[31:14]
It was kind of complicated
[31:17]
because of course the last fall date is
[31:22]
in this, in our business on the gardening committee,
[31:25]
the last fall date is, it's not up to us what that is.
[31:31]
And but so much, so much is determined from that,
[31:36]
including when we plant our plant, our plants
[31:40]
to transplant them when we do the tilling
[31:44]
and when we start planting.
[31:47]
So I also posted to the Facebook, the soil tests
[31:50]
that I had taken and,
[31:52]
and described the recommendations for the gardens gardeners
[31:58]
and otherwise I,
[32:04]
we have our spring,
[32:06]
spring event starting 10:00 AM on the
[32:08]
Saturday after tilling.
[32:10]
We had mentioned that we're gonna also have our next
[32:13]
meeting, April 13th at 6:00 PM
[32:18]
at, and we're trying to meet in person destination India.
[32:22]
And that's it.
[32:24]
We also, Beth will update you on the
[32:28]
April 1st has come by
[32:30]
and that's the time to, for our gardeners to
[32:34]
send in their requests for a plot.
[32:37]
And I know that it was half full just a day or so ago,
[32:42]
but I, I look forward to hearing from Beth.
[32:45]
What that's what that is now
[32:49]
More than half full.
[32:51]
Thank you Jay. Personnel. Mr. Metz,
[32:54]
Mr.
[32:55]
Chairman, excuse me. One Joshua Brown is the
[32:57]
environmental coordinator for the town.
[32:59]
Okay, thank You. Josh.
[33:00]
Joshua Brown. Joshua Brown. Yeah.
[33:02]
He's the coordinator. So you wanna, you wanna,
[33:07]
Jay introduce yourself to him,
[33:08]
tell him what you're doing and sure.
[33:10]
Him in. Okay. Mr. Metz Purcell,
[33:15]
No updates on personnel.
[33:17]
They're both still here, so that's a good sign.
[33:19]
Thank you Mr. Metz. Public outreach. Cheryl?
[33:23]
Okay. I I really wanna thank Eileen and Linda
[33:26]
and Beth in my absence for such a productive meeting.
[33:29]
And we're meeting again this Thursday, coffee factory.
[33:33]
So there's a lot of talk about trail work events
[33:37]
and possible dates for those which we'll be confirming.
[33:40]
And the Margie Ives perhaps in July,
[33:44]
corn Cornelison in August.
[33:46]
Broadview, possibly two of them late January
[33:50]
and also September and Cole Marsh in October.
[33:54]
So as I said, we'll be meeting this Thursday
[33:57]
and if there's any input that the commission would like
[34:00]
to offer for that, we'll have
[34:02]
to solidify those dates sooner than later.
[34:05]
Eileen has offered to on earth for honor
[34:09]
of Earth Day on the 18th Coffee Factory to pass out bags
[34:13]
and gloves, which I think is awesome.
[34:16]
And there is also an idea of a, of a raffle floating around
[34:22]
free entry, any photos, also cleaning up in these
[34:26]
trial work events and with the possibility
[34:29]
of maybe a gift card from the commission
[34:32]
as, as an award for that.
[34:37]
Yeah. And as I said, our next meeting is Thursday, so,
[34:39]
so we have all of this.
[34:41]
I, I think just very like making progress
[34:44]
with some great ideas.
[34:45]
And now just a matter of nailing down the dates,
[34:49]
there'll be plenty, plenty to share
[34:52]
with the community about that.
[34:53]
And thank you too, Jay, for sharing about
[34:55]
the garden community garden.
[34:56]
That's super, super important. Thank you. Sure.
[35:01]
Thank you Cheryl. Mr. Metz, TC
[35:05]
I've got four TRCs to report on.
[35:07]
Beth, I'm trying to make sure that you get all the notices.
[35:10]
Thank you. I asked Caroline to try and forward 'em to you.
[35:12]
I noticed she didn't the last ones, so that's my fault.
[35:14]
But you got this. I'm gonna be there Friday. Okay. Yeah.
[35:18]
So the four listed one was Lane Road subdivision.
[35:24]
Ricky, can I just interrupt you for a second? Yep.
[35:25]
I'm not sure, does everybody know what A TRC is?
[35:28]
'cause we have some, yeah, I don't know if our
[35:30]
newest commission,
[35:31]
TRC is technical review committee where
[35:34]
the proposed project comes before all the department heads
[35:39]
and they iron out all the issues
[35:41]
before it goes to the planning board.
[35:43]
So the, the planning board doesn't have to go through
[35:49]
all the stuff the TRC does.
[35:50]
It's all done ahead of time. So,
[35:54]
and it's fire, it's public works, it's police, it's
[36:00]
environmental engineering, all those types of things
[36:03]
that would go into building a property out.
[36:07]
So that's what it is. And sometimes it requires more than
[36:10]
one, sometimes more than two TRCs to get the project
[36:15]
before the planning board.
[36:16]
There's certain criteria that if a plan meets
[36:20]
certain criteria, then it comes
[36:22]
before us a minor subdivision.
[36:25]
If it doesn't in involve wetlands doesn't come before us.
[36:28]
If it's a minor subdivision, which is three or less
[36:31]
and it involves wetland impact, it comes before us.
[36:34]
Before us. If it's for
[36:36]
and over, no matter whether it impacts wetlands
[36:38]
or not, it comes before us.
[36:40]
So there's certain rules that are applied
[36:43]
for a plan to come before us.
[36:45]
Thanks. Any questions? Thank you Mr. Metz.
[36:48]
Okay, the first is a Lane Road subdivision.
[36:51]
There's an existing house on the lot.
[36:54]
It's being done by McMaster Development.
[36:58]
There is wetlands on the property.
[37:00]
It's very deep in the property.
[37:02]
If they were building both houses,
[37:04]
I would have 'em come before us.
[37:05]
The one house is, has the most wetland on it,
[37:09]
but it's probably 300 feet away.
[37:13]
The, the reason it has to, it had to go with TRC is they're
[37:17]
subsized lots, two acre minimum on Lane Road.
[37:20]
So they're like 1.9 acres.
[37:22]
So in order to subdivide it,
[37:24]
and the house is probably, the proposed house is 150 feet,
[37:29]
almost 200 from any wetland impact.
[37:32]
So that was one, they were a little surprised
[37:35]
'cause I said it won't ha even though there's wetland
[37:37]
impact, potential wetland impact, it's far enough away.
[37:42]
There's no need to come before us.
[37:45]
Because I was assured
[37:47]
that McMaster Development does everything they can
[37:50]
to protect wetlands when they develop a property.
[37:52]
And that's coming from Lizo
[37:54]
and Mark LaRue who've been around town a long time.
[37:57]
So that's the reason that one didn't come before us.
[38:01]
The rest are, I believe the rest
[38:03]
are all commercial developments.
[38:05]
One is at 10 Manchester Road, it's a total tear down
[38:10]
and redevelopment.
[38:12]
Again, no wetlands impact.
[38:14]
I read the construction details
[38:17]
and they all fit in environmentally friendly.
[38:20]
They're all doing what they're supposed to be doing.
[38:22]
S so fences, so socks and drainage, all that kind of stuff.
[38:27]
So that one, there's no need to come before us.
[38:31]
The other was a small one at, at royalty.
[38:33]
They wanted permission to move some vacuums
[38:36]
because of the four A development that was,
[38:40]
is gonna be fixed with an internal, internal permits to,
[38:43]
to move their vacuums.
[38:46]
And unfortunately their vacuums are four months out,
[38:48]
so they didn't wanna buy 'em until they had permission.
[38:50]
So they're kind of behind the eight ball.
[38:54]
But I'm, I'm assuming they got permission from Carrie Owen.
[38:58]
And the last is 12 a street.
[39:03]
It's, it's Esri es
[39:07]
sy, I'm sorry, Epsy.
[39:08]
And they're a testing facility for
[39:13]
pressure washing tanks, things like that.
[39:15]
There's no manufacturing on site,
[39:17]
strictly a testing facility.
[39:20]
I questioned 'em on a few things as far as drainage.
[39:23]
They talked about expanding a building, whether their,
[39:28]
whether their internal drain on the property was big enough.
[39:31]
They said, yeah, it was sized for the whole roof.
[39:33]
'cause they're gonna take their drainage
[39:35]
and infiltrate it into the ground in the tank
[39:37]
and then run it to their back, which is, they've got a,
[39:42]
a fairly good sized drainage area in the back light,
[39:46]
almost like dairy plumbing built, that type of,
[39:48]
that type of drainage area.
[39:51]
So is it just, is it just solution like just
[39:53]
water or is it, is there
[39:54]
Good detergents going?
[39:55]
It's just, it's on the ground. It's roof, it's roof runoff.
[39:57]
There's no, oh, there's nothing in the,
[39:59]
nothing in the building that's gonna
[40:00]
be flushed down the drain. Everything. Turgen,
[40:02]
Gergens or Chemicals?
[40:03]
No, everything used for testing is reclaimed inside. Okay.
[40:06]
So there's no impact to our sewer system or,
[40:09]
or any chances of spillage outside.
[40:11]
There's no internal drains in the building.
[40:14]
So strictly a testing, a testing facility.
[40:19]
And that's it. And we have more coming up.
[40:22]
Thank you Mr. Metz. Next we have state compliance, Eileen.
[40:26]
Okay, there's some events coming up
[40:28]
that people might be interested in.
[40:31]
There is a an N-H-C-C-C sent this out.
[40:36]
Make your turtle sightings count.
[40:39]
It's on May 12th, 2026.
[40:41]
It's a Zoom event and it's at 5:30 PM
[40:45]
and it's going to be recorded.
[40:46]
So if you can't make it, then
[40:48]
you could maybe watch the recording later.
[40:52]
There is also an in-person event on turtles
[40:56]
land management practices for New Hampshire turtles.
[40:58]
That's on June 8th.
[40:59]
And that's gonna be held in Wall Pole, New Hampshire.
[41:02]
And if you want more information,
[41:04]
you could find it on the N-H-A-C-C web website, excuse me.
[41:09]
And you would need to go on there to register.
[41:10]
It's a free event. You would be able
[41:13]
to learn various habitat management practices.
[41:16]
They would show you on that property,
[41:19]
what they're doing with turtles.
[41:21]
And then also teach you how
[41:23]
to implement practices on your own property.
[41:27]
And it's sponsored by the Cheshire County
[41:28]
Conservation District.
[41:32]
Regarding rules, there's some public hearings coming up,
[41:36]
alteration of Terrain regulations.
[41:38]
There's a public hearing on April 17th from two
[41:42]
to three in Concord at the DES.
[41:45]
You could either attend in person
[41:47]
or you can attend online via Microsoft Teams.
[41:53]
And the point of contact is Edward McKenna.
[41:56]
His number is 6 0 3 2 7 1 1 0 2 3.
[42:02]
And there's also a public hearing coming up for those
[42:05]
who may be interested in what's happening
[42:08]
with the drinking water rules.
[42:09]
Environmental DW 300,
[42:13]
that's coming up on April 30th, 2020 26
[42:18]
from 10 to 11.
[42:20]
Also at DES at 29 Hazen Drive
[42:23]
in room 2 0 8 C.
[42:25]
Again, also for that hearing,
[42:28]
you also could attend either in person or online.
[42:33]
And that's all I have.
[42:35]
Excuse me, Eileen, could you repeat the date
[42:37]
of the alteration of Terrain?
[42:39]
Yep. Alteration of Terrain Public hearing is April 17th.
[42:42]
Okay, thank you. From two to 3:00 PM Yep.
[42:46]
And you can also submit written comments for that up
[42:50]
until Friday, April 24th, 2026 at 4:00 PM
[42:55]
They'll accept written comments if you want
[42:57]
to email your written comments.
[42:59]
Thank you Eileen. Yep. Property management.
[43:04]
We're working on two management challenges right now.
[43:09]
One is a potential encroachment on a conservation property
[43:15]
by a, a potential abutter that puts some signs up over the,
[43:20]
over the line between the conservation property
[43:22]
and the Abutters property.
[43:24]
So we're working with that gentleman and Beth
[43:29]
and I have come up with another, another way to try
[43:33]
to communicate with that person.
[43:36]
The second one is a hazardous tree removal.
[43:40]
Same thing abut property.
[43:43]
We have, we have some trees on the conservation property
[43:46]
that are jeopardizing the owner's property.
[43:49]
And Beth is quarterbacking some
[43:55]
appraisals on the cost of taking those trees down.
[43:59]
That's all we have on property management, land maintenance.
[44:03]
Mr. Sperl,
[44:06]
We're gonna get together again this Thursday
[44:11]
and start planning on getting out onto the trails and stuff.
[44:15]
Pretty much all the properties are
[44:17]
snow free other than a few, one
[44:19]
or two little pockets here and there.
[44:22]
Good time to get out. That's it.
[44:26]
Thank you. Bob. On land acquisition,
[44:28]
we still have two active projects.
[44:33]
I want some guidance on the larger apostle.
[44:37]
I've already sent out a communication
[44:39]
to the smaller apostle waiting to hear back,
[44:41]
but the larger apostle that some of the commissioners
[44:43]
are planning on walking, do we still wanna wait for
[44:48]
that walk or, or do you want Yes.
[44:50]
You don't want me to proceed with entering into
[44:52]
negotiations with that person?
[44:54]
We'd like to walk it. Yeah. All right.
[44:55]
So we just haven't been able to do it yet. Yeah, I get it.
[44:58]
All right. So we're gonna kick the can on that one.
[44:59]
Wait for some people
[45:01]
to walk the property and then bring that up.
[45:03]
And then the third thing we have is the town.
[45:07]
Anytime the town disposes of property that are taken
[45:11]
through various means, whether it be tax lien
[45:15]
or just property that they don't want to have,
[45:17]
they send us the list
[45:20]
and ask us if there's any conservation
[45:23]
value of those properties.
[45:24]
Now normally those properties are very small parcels that,
[45:30]
you know, in my 16 years,
[45:32]
I think there might have been one occasion where one
[45:34]
of those properties was appealing to us.
[45:36]
So we have the list and Beth
[45:39]
and I are gonna take a little dive on it, bring it
[45:41]
to the commission next meeting, share the list
[45:44]
with the commissioners and see if there's any appetite for
[45:50]
taking parcels.
[45:51]
They almost never meet our criteria for like lot size,
[45:55]
but it's always worth looking at the list.
[45:57]
If it's an a budding, if it's a budding and a and a
[46:00]
and a, an an existing property that we can kind of expand.
[46:03]
Alright. So we'll have that, we'll have that
[46:07]
for the commissioners next meeting.
[46:11]
Next we have reporting compliance. Val.
[46:13]
Oh, nothing new here.
[46:16]
We're gonna set up a committee meeting.
[46:17]
I have a scheduled email going out later,
[46:19]
but nothing new to report now.
[46:21]
Great. Still you off floor with net zero Task Force.
[46:24]
Oh yes. Last meeting was canceled,
[46:27]
so nothing new to report there.
[46:29]
Thank you Val. Mr. Foot? I, Mr.
[46:33]
Foot, my, my question to you is, is there,
[46:35]
are we a time sensitive on that property disposal stuff?
[46:38]
Does that take a little while to, to happen?
[46:42]
Those properties of the town needs to, like, they,
[46:44]
they put 'em in auction at some point eventually.
[46:46]
Does that take some time?
[46:48]
A little bit of time, yeah. Okay.
[46:51]
All right. I just got the email, so I don't know
[46:53]
how quickly that process takes.
[46:55]
Yeah, there's a little bit of a process to it. Okay,
[46:57]
Good.
[46:58]
All right. So we have a little time to examine it.
[46:59]
Alright, you on the floor, Mr. Mr. Foot?
[47:02]
Thank you. So as everyone knows,
[47:03]
we had an election last month
[47:05]
and we have two new counselors.
[47:07]
Well, one is a returning counselor.
[47:09]
Dave Mills is the counselor at Lodge.
[47:11]
He was filling a vacancy, he won the election.
[47:14]
So he's the lodge counselor.
[47:16]
Dan Haley is the district three counselor.
[47:19]
We have a new chair and that will be Aaron Spencer.
[47:22]
Jack Webb is the vice chair. And I'm the third inventory.
[47:28]
Tomorrow the town council is on the consents agenda
[47:31]
for the Ashley Drive.
[47:34]
And then that will have to have some public hearings
[47:37]
after that, couple meetings after that.
[47:39]
So probably within the next month
[47:41]
or so, whatever happens tomorrow.
[47:42]
I don't wanna speak for the
[47:43]
councils, I'm not sure what will happen.
[47:44]
But it is on the agenda tomorrow to be just taken up.
[47:49]
And then as we know,
[47:53]
earth Day is April 22nd
[47:55]
and the Pinkerton National Honor Society will be assisting
[48:00]
me at the cemetery, will be restarting the cemetery project.
[48:05]
For those who don't know, we go up there
[48:07]
and we take care of the veterans headstones,
[48:10]
we clean them up and whatnot.
[48:12]
And with Memorial Day coming up, it's a good opportunity.
[48:14]
So if anybody's around on April 23rd
[48:16]
and they want help, they're more than glad to come up.
[48:18]
And that'll be 23rd or 22nd,
[48:19]
23rd, Second.
[48:20]
So Earth Day's on 22nd, but Pinker
[48:22]
and they're doing the service project on the 23rd.
[48:24]
23rd. So I'll be up there all day with them.
[48:27]
So if anyone's available on the 23rd
[48:28]
and they'd like to come up, just reach out to me
[48:32]
probably from like 9:00 AM to like 3:00 PM ish.
[48:36]
And if any questions you can reach out to me prior to that.
[48:38]
And that's all I have. Thank you.
[48:43]
Charlie, are you remaining our liaison?
[48:46]
Yes. You stalk me for another year.
[48:48]
Oh, that's great. It's not a bad
[48:50]
Thing.
[48:52]
I'm sorry, Rick, How's your mapping
[48:53]
program going on up there?
[48:55]
Is that still in the
[48:57]
baby baby step stages or? Sure,
[49:00]
Yes.
[49:01]
It, it's, so Jim Ash,
[49:05]
he's a veteran from the VFW
[49:06]
who's been working a lot on that.
[49:07]
So he uncovered many more headstones
[49:12]
that weren't even documented with the town.
[49:14]
So we have well over a 1500 up at the cemetery.
[49:18]
Wow. So we, we are still working on the, on the process
[49:21]
of actually having it out.
[49:23]
Real interesting ones up there too.
[49:25]
Yeah. So for those who haven't been up there, it's very,
[49:28]
a lot of historical knowledge up there.
[49:30]
If you go up there and walk around the old section.
[49:33]
And then we do have, we lot of decorated veterans
[49:36]
that are interned up there.
[49:38]
So ands beautiful
[49:40]
to walk up there on a nice,
[49:42]
nice spring morning. Oh yeah. On
[49:43]
A nice day.
[49:44]
Yeah. It's, it's wonderful. Yeah.
[49:45]
So Charlie, on, on,
[49:49]
we've been level funded at about $5,000 a year
[49:52]
for our administrative account.
[49:55]
You, you know, we get money from different places,
[49:57]
but the one bit of money
[49:58]
that we get from the town is $5,000.
[50:02]
We're, we're, we're self-funded.
[50:04]
We're one of the few kind of groups in town that
[50:08]
that is self-funded.
[50:10]
But the town does give us $5,000 in admin money
[50:13]
that we use specifically for administrative services.
[50:17]
Our administrative services budget has ballooned with the
[50:23]
addition of our two employees.
[50:25]
What would be the best opportunity
[50:27]
and when would be the opportunity to, to petition the,
[50:32]
the town council to expand
[50:34]
or try to get some, try to get a,
[50:37]
an increase in those funds?
[50:41]
Well now we stopped the budget this week.
[50:43]
So we, we have our, actually wrote the dates down
[50:48]
April 9th, 16th, 21st and 23rd.
[50:51]
We're having our budget meetings.
[50:54]
And then we'll have the hearing at the end of the month
[50:57]
on all those, and we'll vote on that.
[51:00]
We, so those who don't know,
[51:01]
we have a tax cap on the town side of things, which is tied
[51:03]
to the CPI and the current CPI is 3.3%
[51:08]
and I know it's gonna be very tight.
[51:10]
For those who don't know, health insurance went up 27% this
[51:13]
past year and that,
[51:14]
that really decimated a lot of our funding.
[51:20]
I will talk to the account administrator tomorrow
[51:21]
and ask about that.
[51:24]
Do do any of the, the, any of those admin accounts
[51:27]
that other commissions,
[51:29]
'cause I know, I think every commission gets a little
[51:31]
bit of admin money, right?
[51:33]
Every committee like planning
[51:35]
and zoning, they, they, everyone gets a little,
[51:37]
a little amount of money, right?
[51:39]
Not everybody, I don't
[51:41]
Think.
[51:42]
No. The ones that do, do they have a CPI attached to it
[51:45]
or is it, is it just on a month annual
[51:48]
process? It's appropriate,
[51:50]
It's whatever is given to them.
[51:52]
Well, if you could, if you could bring that up
[51:55]
to leadership that, you know, our,
[51:56]
our administrative costs have gone up significantly with
[52:02]
an additional matching workload output.
[52:05]
I think our, our work output has gone up, you know,
[52:09]
a hundred fold from what it used to be.
[52:12]
So I don't, I don't think it's a stretch to try to ask for
[52:15]
an increase in those funds. Yeah,
[52:17]
I I'd have to look honestly, our, our, our budget books
[52:21]
about, Rick can attest to this about six inches thick,
[52:25]
like this thick and it's a lot to go.
[52:26]
That's why we break it up into different segments. Right.
[52:29]
We do it line by line and go through and whatnot.
[52:32]
So I, I'm,
[52:37]
if there was a, if there was any flexibility, we could try
[52:39]
to sneak it in, but I, I don't,
[52:40]
I don't really know what that looks like right now.
[52:42]
Okay. Without having gone through everything. So
[52:43]
Maybe, maybe let's start the conversation.
[52:45]
Yeah, I, I'll definitely, I'll definitely speak
[52:47]
with Mr. Fowler tomorrow. Yeah.
[52:48]
And I'm sure Mr. Metz would be happy
[52:50]
to come represent the commission and Sure.
[52:52]
Plead our case. Thank you Charlie.
[52:56]
Lisa May have some old All right.
[53:00]
Land manager report. Beth, you're up.
[53:02]
All right. So, yes, as Jay mentioned,
[53:06]
the community garden
[53:09]
registration opened on April 1st.
[53:12]
And as of today we've had 28 inquiries
[53:16]
and 35 of the 36 plots have been claimed.
[53:20]
Wow. However, we still have the two raised beds as well.
[53:23]
So the raised beds haven't been claimed.
[53:25]
So those are, those are out there as well.
[53:28]
And we've been able to use, as Jay mentioned,
[53:32]
the Facebook group for the private Facebook group
[53:35]
for community gardeners as a source of photos
[53:37]
for public outreach.
[53:39]
So that's been nice. And I did get in touch
[53:41]
with the same gentleman who tilled the gardens last year
[53:46]
and he is going to be able to help us with that.
[53:48]
Again, we haven't set a date
[53:50]
because last year it was very dependent on the weather.
[53:53]
So I just said, we're gonna keep an eye on the weather,
[53:55]
keep an eye on the soil
[53:57]
and I will call you when it's,
[54:00]
looks like it's ready to be done.
[54:03]
We also have a few sources of composted cow manure
[54:07]
that we can spread on the garden this year as well.
[54:12]
And I'll be coordinating with that gentleman
[54:16]
for public outreach.
[54:18]
We got two inquiries from citizens asking
[54:22]
how they can help with trash pickup for Earth Day.
[54:25]
And I know Eileen is coordinating that
[54:28]
and heading that off
[54:29]
with the kickoff event at the Coffee factory
[54:32]
April 18th as been mentioned.
[54:34]
So there was one mom who actually is,
[54:39]
she's her son, goes to the same school
[54:41]
that my son goes to, so I know her.
[54:43]
Yeah. And she's wants to take a group of kiddos out
[54:46]
to do some trash pickup.
[54:48]
And then there was also an inquiry from someone
[54:52]
who has a group of employees who they offer, you know,
[54:57]
they offer compensation for their employees to go out and,
[55:01]
and do trash pickups.
[55:02]
So there are two couple of groups there who are looking for,
[55:06]
for some trash pickup to do with the N-A-J-C-C initiative.
[55:11]
I had a meeting with Barbara, we've confirmed the date
[55:15]
for the bio blitz.
[55:17]
So that is going to be June 27th
[55:20]
and the time is still to be determined,
[55:23]
but it will be at Broadview.
[55:25]
So Saturday, June 27th at Broadview is our,
[55:29]
our bio blitz and Steven,
[55:33]
I forget his last name from Moose Wood Ecological, is going
[55:38]
to be there to show everybody how, you know,
[55:43]
show everybody how to identify the different species
[55:46]
and, you know, take, walk us
[55:48]
through the space with that lens.
[55:51]
And he's also offering through the grant
[55:55]
that the N-H-A-C-C has for this project.
[55:59]
They can offer an online training for commissioners
[56:03]
and also members of the public,
[56:04]
but primarily for commissioners.
[56:06]
They can offer a, a training on how to use iNaturalist
[56:10]
and they'll set up an account for us with iNaturalist.
[56:13]
It's actually like a webpage basically that will show,
[56:18]
you know, all the different species
[56:19]
that have been identified by anybody who is using
[56:23]
that account.
[56:24]
And it'll kind of consolidate it all in
[56:26]
one very nice neat place.
[56:28]
So we're still working out the details of what
[56:32]
that training will look like.
[56:34]
So expect an update that on that at the next meeting.
[56:39]
And we've been very busy
[56:42]
with the community wildfire protection plan.
[56:45]
So we did have a discussion panel the Wednesday
[56:49]
after our last meeting,
[56:51]
and that was televised went very well.
[56:54]
We have a landing page up for that project
[56:56]
as well on the town website.
[57:00]
So if you go to dairy nh.org
[57:04]
or.gov rather now
[57:06]
and go to the conservation commission page.
[57:10]
There is on the sidebar there on the green sidebar,
[57:14]
a landing page for the community wildfire protection plan
[57:17]
with some of the questions that participants asked
[57:22]
and some of the information
[57:23]
and resources that were mentioned in the presentation.
[57:26]
So that's on there. We had another field assessment this
[57:31]
past weekend at Coal Marsh
[57:33]
and found some really interesting fire
[57:36]
adapted communities there.
[57:38]
So a fire adapted community is a, a group of plants
[57:43]
that has evolved to
[57:46]
thrive within fire conditions.
[57:48]
So the fire will sweep through the landscape
[57:51]
and these plants can, you know, can thrive there.
[57:56]
And blueberries and huckleberries are two yummy plants that
[58:01]
are in, are considered a fire adapted species.
[58:05]
So that's exciting. So we found some huckleberry
[58:07]
and some pitch pine there,
[58:09]
some really interesting communities.
[58:13]
There is also a wildfire Community Preparedness day
[58:18]
on May 2nd.
[58:20]
And we, the committee is discussing having
[58:25]
an event or, or some kind of public outreach on
[58:28]
that May 2nd.
[58:29]
So basically that is one, it's, it's national.
[58:34]
So wildfire Community Preparedness Day is a,
[58:37]
a national effort to show people
[58:41]
what they can do on their properties
[58:43]
to help fortify your home from the potential of wildfire.
[58:49]
And then we can talk about the leaves at Broadview.
[58:52]
So I have met with Clint Havens in DPW about that.
[58:57]
We identified another possible location, which is
[59:01]
by the community gardens for those leaves.
[59:04]
And Eileen had reached out about wanting
[59:07]
to look at the location of that
[59:10]
and Jay, I believe also reached out wanting
[59:12]
to look at the location of that.
[59:13]
So now that it's spring Yeah, we can take a walk out there.
[59:17]
The snow is gone. Yeah. And look at, at that.
[59:20]
And he said that that location would work for a single year
[59:25]
as far as like the volume of leaves
[59:27]
and the volume of the space that's available.
[59:29]
So it would work for potentially at least this fall.
[59:33]
And so that we can kind
[59:34]
of kick the can down the road if we need to.
[59:36]
Right. And we also have some plans to try
[59:40]
to eat up those leaves as part of the community garden
[59:45]
to just utilize them so
[59:46]
that maybe we don't need a storage place more just like a
[59:49]
temporary storage until we actually use the leaves.
[59:51]
So we could try, try composting them. Right, right.
[59:54]
Think that's really Yeah. A good move. Yep.
[59:57]
Use And that is the end of my report.
[1:00:02]
The, the leaf thing. Beth, I just talked about that.
[1:00:06]
Okay, good. Hey, no, no laughing.
[1:00:11]
We were having a sidebar. I I know. I apologize.
[1:00:13]
We were talking, we were talking about money though, so
[1:00:19]
Derrick Kim, our meeting today,
[1:00:21]
you wanna talk about it? I'll do it. Oh
[1:00:23]
Sure. Yeah.
[1:00:23]
So we met with Owen. We met with Owen
[1:00:25]
before this meeting actually Owen came to us,
[1:00:32]
congratulated us on our success
[1:00:34]
and wants to be, wants to be more
[1:00:38]
involved in documenting our progress.
[1:00:41]
So we we're gonna have a standing meeting with Owen at our
[1:00:45]
and, and Ricky, you might have to take one
[1:00:47]
of these, some of these meetings.
[1:00:48]
So it's gonna be at six 30
[1:00:52]
at our first monthly meeting.
[1:00:54]
So whenever our first monthly meeting is,
[1:00:55]
we're gonna have a standing meeting at six 30 with Owen
[1:00:58]
and we're gonna, so we, we spent today highlighting May,
[1:01:03]
so projects that we're doing in May,
[1:01:05]
he's gonna be participating in the ones that we want
[1:01:08]
to highlight and getting them up
[1:01:12]
on, on dairy TV.
[1:01:13]
And then, you know, we can share 'em to our,
[1:01:15]
our Facebook site.
[1:01:19]
So that's exciting. I think that's exciting.
[1:01:21]
It's, you know, it's one of the things we need to do and,
[1:01:23]
and we'll talk about kind of prioritizing
[1:01:29]
some of the things that came up was informing the public the
[1:01:32]
benefits of conservation property gifts
[1:01:37]
or conservation property sales highlighting the advantage
[1:01:40]
of do of doing that to folks.
[1:01:43]
Other things we talked about is having a,
[1:01:47]
participating in a kind of virtual nature walk
[1:01:52]
at the conservation properties where he'll follow someone
[1:01:57]
through one of our conservation properties and,
[1:02:00]
and document some of the highlights of it
[1:02:01]
and then turn it into a production
[1:02:03]
that could, that could be used.
[1:02:04]
And I, I envision that production eventually landing into
[1:02:07]
some sort of virtual
[1:02:12]
space when we're talking, you know,
[1:02:14]
when we eventually at the end game when we,
[1:02:15]
when when you can go on our, our site
[1:02:18]
and choose coal marsh, that video will pop up
[1:02:22]
so people can get kind of an idea of what that is.
[1:02:24]
So it's kind of the base, the basis for that stuff.
[1:02:26]
So that's exciting. And we're gonna,
[1:02:29]
we're gonna be doing that every month.
[1:02:32]
And I wanna also commend Beth
[1:02:34]
and her tireless work between meetings.
[1:02:39]
You know, Beth is doing a lot, a real lot.
[1:02:41]
I can't, I can't even give up with her on the phone calls,
[1:02:44]
but we're, we're doing, doing the community's work
[1:02:48]
and I think it's, it's going really well.
[1:02:51]
I have nothing else for other business.
[1:02:52]
Any, any other commissioners have anything they want to add?
[1:02:55]
Suggestions, topics? It's good to see Val,
[1:02:59]
Mr. Chair.
[1:03:00]
Yes. I'm looking at the proposed meeting dates
[1:03:04]
and I think July 6th
[1:03:09]
maybe we want to kick that back to the 13th.
[1:03:12]
It's the July 4th. All encompassing weekend holiday.
[1:03:17]
Just my thought. It's up to you.
[1:03:20]
What was That? They're actually up to the commission.
[1:03:23]
That would be my suggestion.
[1:03:25]
As far as any other business changes.
[1:03:28]
What do people, I I I won't be, I wouldn't be here
[1:03:31]
for July 6th in in any event.
[1:03:34]
So how do, how do people feel about July?
[1:03:38]
I think, I think Rick's suggestion is pretty apropos.
[1:03:40]
Some people might not be around that weekend and week.
[1:03:46]
I'm just thinking. So the 13th I think
[1:03:47]
is a good suggestion.
[1:03:49]
We could, I mean we Or would
[1:03:54]
you just forego July?
[1:03:55]
Yeah, I mean, I think so I wouldn't be able to be at
[1:03:59]
probably any July meeting really.
[1:04:00]
Yeah. Just because July's a busy day, busy time of the,
[1:04:03]
this month, this year it's gonna be my
[1:04:05]
busiest month and a long time.
[1:04:07]
I would, I would not be opposed
[1:04:09]
to just not having a July meeting.
[1:04:13]
You know, if something came up
[1:04:14]
and we had to schedule something, then we could, we
[1:04:16]
Could, I was just gonna say, what about block out the 13th
[1:04:20]
but make it as, as needed.
[1:04:23]
As needed. Just so it blocked out.
[1:04:26]
People would have it on their calendar. And then,
[1:04:29]
Because I'll e either day I'm here.
[1:04:31]
I'm just thinking that for everybody else. Yeah.
[1:04:33]
The sixth is not convenient,
[1:04:35]
so I have no problem if we're gonna,
[1:04:37]
I I would have no problem with that suggestion.
[1:04:40]
Block it. Block it if we need it. Call it a week ahead of
[1:04:43]
Time.
[1:04:44]
It might be nice. Yeah, it might be nice to have
[1:04:44]
a meeting on the 13th.
[1:04:45]
Just, you know, I was just saying to Beth, you know, we,
[1:04:48]
we wanna keep our pulse on
[1:04:50]
that landscape management initiative
[1:04:51]
and there might be something to discuss.
[1:04:53]
Okay.
[1:04:55]
So am I here? We should just move it to the 13th.
[1:05:00]
I see head, I see head nodding, so
[1:05:02]
Yeah.
[1:05:03]
Yeah. Okay. All right. So we'll move the July 6th meeting
[1:05:05]
to July 13th.
[1:05:06]
Okay.
[1:05:11]
It's nice having those on there so
[1:05:13]
that we can talk about that ahead of time. Right.
[1:05:15]
Whose idea was that? That was a good idea.
[1:05:17]
Idea. That was your idea.
[1:05:25]
That's a good pickup, Rick.
[1:05:27]
'cause that's two days after the fourth.
[1:05:29]
So a lot of people, so
[1:05:30]
Then would we still meet with Owen if we, if we,
[1:05:35]
'cause that would be the first meeting of the month.
[1:05:38]
Yes. We can cross that bridge and we come to it.
[1:05:39]
That's three months away. So,
[1:05:41]
No, I think we should probably tell
[1:05:42]
because Owen was putting the first,
[1:05:44]
he was putting it in his
[1:05:45]
calendar as we were talking about it.
[1:05:46]
So why don't we,
[1:05:48]
Don't we, I have from, from the meeting that we had
[1:05:51]
with Owen earlier, I had a whole list of things
[1:05:54]
that I'm get dates and things that I'm getting to him.
[1:05:57]
So I'll include that with it.
[1:05:59]
Alright. While we're looking at those dates,
[1:06:01]
any other dates we need to talk about?
[1:06:05]
That was July 13th, right? July 13th, yeah. Yeah,
[1:06:08]
That's my anniversary.
[1:06:09]
Is it? Oh, that 9 21 is the
[1:06:12]
Anniversary.
[1:06:13]
The fourth. The fourth. I might not be here. Is that
[1:06:15]
May 4th?
[1:06:16]
Yeah.
[1:06:18]
Coming back from Dollywood?
[1:06:22]
No, not yet, huh? No,
[1:06:24]
No.
[1:06:25]
Just it is the May 4th.
[1:06:29]
I'm fine with the rest of those dates.
[1:06:31]
I'm just checking the fourth. Yeah,
[1:07:13]
yeah.
[1:07:14]
No, I'm, I'm good. I'm good. The fourth.
[1:07:16]
Okay. Okay,
[1:07:19]
so then the other one moving is seven six to seven.
[1:07:22]
13. 13. Okay. Okay. Anything else on other business? No
[1:07:26]
Sir.
[1:07:28]
No. Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion.
[1:07:33]
Move to adjourn. Second.
[1:07:36]
Okay. We have a motion by Mr. Metz, second by Cheryl.
[1:07:39]
All is in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? We're done.
[1:07:44]
Nice work.