Town of Sutton Selectmen Meeting Minutes

TOWN OF SUTTON

Sutton Conservation Commission

Draft Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Present: Dan Sundquist, Chair; Don Davis; Barbara Hoffman; Henry Howell; Jane Williamson; Debbie Lang; Chuck Bolduc and Bonnie Hill.

Others present: Aaron Wechsler, members of the Janovitz family, Rob O’Neil, Wally Baker, Ed Canane.

 

Call to order: Dan Sundquist called the meeting to order at 6:32 p.m.

 

Previous Meeting’s Minutes: As there were no issues found with the minutes from the October 10th meeting, Don made a motion to approve them and Debbie seconded. The minutes were approved unanimously.

 

Financial Report:

Correspondence:

  • Postcard notice from ASLPT regarding the Annual Meeting which took place on October 28th.
  • Invitation from ASLPT to its Holiday Party on Monday, December 3rd at 5:30. Cost: $75.
  • Letter from ALSPT asking SCC to renew its membership. This has been paid.
  • Letter from NH Lakes thanking SCC for renewing its membership for $100.
  • Letter from NHACC asking for membership renewal. This will be paid out of next year’s budget.
  • Notice of Approval of the SPNHF’s wetlands permit application from DES, dated 10/10/2018.

 Review of Wetland Applications and Issues:

  • Wetlands Permit Application 11/5/2018 for the Janovitz family, for a residential driveway, Eaton Grange Rd, T/L #1-248,391. Aaron Wechsler of Aspen Environmental Consultants LLC presented the plan. The driveway will follow an existing, overgrown woods road and will require crossing 2 intermittent stream channels. Culverts 48 inches in diameter by 20 feet in length will be used, along with retaining walls to prevent erosion. The total area impacted is 525 square feet. The property is in East Sutton on a class V road. There is an expired permit from 6 years ago. Chuck asked if there is a construction plan for erosion control and the answer was yes. Chuck made a motion for Dan to sign the wetlands application and Debbie seconded. The vote was unanimously in favor.

 

Review of Intents to Cut and Logging Issues:

  • None.

 

Old business

KLNA issues – Don and Jane attended a meeting of the NSIS last week, and there was a discussion of issues around Horse Beach and Kezar Lake. Some people from KLPA were also present. The group recommended that a letter be sent to the BOS asking them to start an ad-hoc committee to address some of these issues. The ad-hoc committee would include reps from NSIS, KLPA, and SCC, plus an at-large member from the general community, and someone from the select board. Henry asked if the state should be involved, and Don said not at this time. First they need to figure out what the issues are, then later get the state’s recommendations. Other state agencies may need to be involved, too, e.g. DOT, the Boat Patrol, Fish & Game. Henry said this was an excellent idea, and Chuck agreed. Henry asked what happens next. Don replied that the committee will meet and figure out what things can be dealt with through ordinances, and what needs to go before Town Meeting. Some issues can be handled by the BOS. The BOS will appoint people to the committee. Henry said he hoped they would appoint people who are willing to volunteer. Don said there are already people from each of the 3 groups who have expressed interest. Dan said this is a good start, and judging from conversations he’s had, many people would be interested in volunteering. He said Jane’s list of issues is a useful starting point. He sees periodic articles in the InterTown Record, letters to the editor, etc. Henry asked if we canned the parking plan with the 10 spaces, and Dan said yes, the SCC voted not to pursue it. Don drafted a letter to the BOS and handed out copies to the commission members. He asked if Dan would sign it, if it is OK with everyone, but said he hasn’t heard back from the NSIS or KLPA about the letter. Henry made a motion to have Dan sign the letter, Debbie seconded, and the vote was unanimously in favor. Don will tidy up the letter and meet with Dan to have it signed. Don brought in a 1907 postcard showing Horse Beach and passed it around. Wally Baker had a comment about Horse Beach. He has been driving by there a lot and thinks it looks terrible, with all the water pooled in the parking lot. He thinks it is unsafe, and said if safety is mentioned in the letter to the BOS they will be more likely to act. At the very least the parking lot should be upgraded. He said Newport has head-in parking on Route 10, which is a state road, and the speed limit is 25 MPH there, so this is a precedent we can follow. Chuck pointed out that in Boston there is diagonal parking which requires people to back in. This makes it safer to exit.

Public Hearing re: expending funds received from the Land Use Change Tax program in support of a conservation easement to be held by ASLPT on the property of Rob O’Neil at Map 02 Lot 466-487 on Jolly Farm Road. Dan announced that Barbara Hoffman would be running the meeting. Barbara called the session to order at about 7:05 PM. There were 2 members of the public in attendance. Barbara said that a notice had been posted in the Concord Monitor, at Town Hall and at the 2 post offices, and she read that notice aloud. She asked Dan to explain the issue at hand. Dan said that Rob O’Neil and Andy Deegan of ASLPT had talked about Rob’s wish to place a conservation easement on his land, and Rob wondered if the town could assist with the up-front costs associated with it, which included placing $5000 in a stewardship account and other outlays amounting to as much as $10,000. In return for this aid, the ASLPT and Rob O’Neil would grant an executory interest in the easement to the town. The SCC board thought this was a good idea and had voted unanimously in favor. The BOS has also approved it. Dan has worked with the town administrator and town counsel to get the details worked out. Barbara asked if anyone had any comments. Rob O’Neil said that he appreciates the SCC’s support on this. It looks like it won’t happen until next year because of scheduling the appraisal. Henry asked if we understood what the executory interest is and what the implications are. Dan explained that the ownership of the easement would transfer to the town if ASLPT went bankrupt and closed its doors. Seeing no other questions, Barbara asked for a motion, Debbie made a motion to adjourn the hearing and Don seconded. The hearing was adjourned around 7:15 PM.

New business

Ed CananeDan introduced Ed Canane, who has expressed a serious interest in conservation and is interest in joining the SCC. He has served as the Land Use Coordinator and on the Zoning Board of Adjustment.

Sutton Strategic Conservation Plan – Before the meeting, Dan completed a draft of the proposed plan, containing maps showing the occurrences of 20 different natural resource types within the town. He emailed the draft out to the commission along with a ballot for each member to rank the resources in personal priority order, using a Delphi process. Seven members voted, and at the meeting, Dan handed out a spreadsheet showing (anonymously) the voting results. Dan used the ranked resources as data layers in a GIS co-occurrence map, which he printed in large format and displayed at the meeting to show the shared vision. He asked the members to review the map and the spreadsheet and provide feedback on whether we were comfortable with the results. Henry commended Dan on the map and said it was going to be a wonderful asset for the future, and the other members concurred. Barbara said she would like to see the rivers and streams named on the map, and Don said he would like to see labels on the conserved parcels. Dan said that labels will be in the final version. Don said he thought the drinking water protection areas in the map did not match up with the text, and Dan said they will in the final version. Don said that we can use the map when we are thinking about laying out new trails, to avoid areas where there is a wildlife corridor. Dan said his map doesn’t explicitly show those, but the Quabbin-to-Cardigan data that he linked to in the strategic plan does show them. Chuck said it would be good to highlight the tax lots that are highly rated and adjacent to other conserved parcels. Dan said he will take some time before he leaves us to convert the map to show parcels. However, if we get an index of highly rated properties we should put it in the file cabinet and not publicize it, as such information is highly sensitive. He said he asked ASLPT for a copy of their strategic plan and they would not give it to him, for this same reason. Henry pointed out that Rob O’Neil’s lot is not highly rated, according to this map. Dan said that there are a couple of ways to conserve land. One approach is to get what comes in the door. The other is a more strategic approach, that is done in part by having conversations with ASLPT and local landowners. Henry asked, in the cases where the map shows a large, high priority parcel with only 1 or 2 owners, should we try to buy the land? Dan said we really need to partner with other organizations to negotiate the purchase of easements. The Forest Society, for example, may come to us and ask for money to help with a project. When we go to Town Meeting and try to get that money, this map will help us show why it is important. He wants to have the map ready by the end of the year, as ASLPT is interested in looking at it. He said we could get Andy Deegan to come to a meeting and talk to us about how to partner. Dan explained the use of a focal mean utility to smooth out the data and reduce complexity. Having done that, it is possible to transform the map by taking only a set of the highest ranking increments, to narrow the focus and show core strategic areas. Dan will do the parcel analysis and clean up the document.

NHACC reports – Jane, Barbara, Deb and Henry attended the annual conference and said it was good. Sherry Godlewski of DES gave a scary presentation on global warming, and Barb wondered if this would be good to offer as a program for the community. Henry attended a presentation about ATVs, and he said towns are struggling with this. It is a creeping issue that every town is going to be faced with. We need to be pro-active and try to nip problems in the bud by placing signage and blocking the entrance to the Bean Quarry. Don said he read that they are proposing to open up Hillsboro to ATV traffic. Dan said the steel gate from SPNHF has been paid for and will be here soon.

Budget issues – Dan went to a select board meeting with the chair of the budget committee and made the case for getting $9000 for special projects. He presented Henry’s itemized list and the selectmen were supportive of it. They want to set up an expendable capital reserve fund (CRF) to finance this. This means that SCC would have to go to the BOS to ask for money to be expended from the fund. Henry asked how long it would go on, and Dan answered, forever. Don asked if it would get replenished, and Dan said no, SCC would have to go back on a yearly or biennial basis and make a case for getting more money, using hard figures as in Henry’s list. We will no longer have a free-floating fund like our line item for special projects this year. This will lead to more transparency in how money is spent. Deb asked Dan if he could clear up some questions about our various funds. Dan said the large conservation fund is for land acquisition and associated expenses, but not things like mowing. The Land Use Change Tax money goes into the conservation fund but is governed by different rules and can be used however we want. Henry said that CRFs get approved at Town Meeting, and he expressed concern about someone at Town Meeting complaining about ours raising their taxes. Dan said there will be a collection of CRFs to be approved, and the budget chair will give an explanation of each one. Someone from SCC should also be ready to speak about it.

Multi-town Weatherization Initiative – Henry said there are 5 towns involved in this effort to help homeowners make their houses more energy-efficient. They would like to have someone from our commission attend a workshop and then go out to homeowners to help them fill out forms and find contractors, etc. Henry is very interested in weatherization but he is over-extended already. He asked if anyone was interested to please let him know. If no one from Sutton volunteers, Sutton will be dropped from the program. There is a couple in Sutton who may do it.

 

Signs for trails – Henry said there are lot of signs and plaques to be put up. There will be maps printed out in color on aluminum sheets that will be put in kiosks. He showed us pictures of two signs that he wants to have made. One includes the words “motorized vehicles prohibited except for snowmobiles, per order of the Sutton Selectmen. Hunting is permitted.” This one would be mounted at the junctions where ATVs are likely to enter, such as Maple Leaf, Hominy Pot, the Nickles trail at Rt 11, the Putnam trail, 3 places at Bean Quarry, Webb/Crowell, and the junction of Mountainside and the White Rabbit ski trail. Barb questioned whether we can say “per order of the selectmen”, and Dan advised Henry to check with Elly about the history of our town properties. Some members of the board thought it would be better to say “motorized wheeled vehicles prohibited” and leave the rest of the wording out. Don said he has a state sign with wording about multi-use trails that he will show Henry. Henry said some of our trails cross private property and he wants to make hikers aware of that through signage. He thinks landowners would be more amenable to having us show trails on our maps that cross their property if we had signs posted. Don said a woman contacted the Sutton Historical Society about some historical information she has regarding King Hill. This would give us something suitable to put on plaques.

Kiosk framing and assembly party – Henry has designed a kiosk, influenced by the one Don built at KHR, and he wants to have them installed at Webb/Crowell and Maple Leaf. His plan is to have the kiosks assembled and then dis-assembled and bundled into kits. These would then be installed in the spring. The work would be done at his place since he has all the tools. Bonnie and Don volunteered to help, and Barb said she has two neighbors who would be interested.

Dan’s waning reign – As the December meeting will be Dan’s last, he said we will need to settle at that time who will be the next chair or acting chair. Barb asked if we decide this or does the town, and the answer was, we do. Dan said he is willing to shadow the commission for a while to support the new chair.

Adjournment: There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:23 PM.

The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, December 12th, 2018, at 6:30 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Bonnie Hill, Secretary