December 18, 2018 | Bonnie Hill TOWN OF SUTTON Sutton Conservation Commission Draft Meeting Minutes Wednesday, December 12, 2018 Present: Dan Sundquist, Chair; Barbara Hoffman; Henry Howell; Jane Williamson; Debbie Lang; Chuck Bolduc and Bonnie Hill. Absent: Don Davis Others present: Wally Baker, Amy Heistrom. Call to order: Dan Sundquist called the meeting to order at 6:33 p.m. Previous Meeting’s Minutes: As there were no issues found with the minutes from the November 14th meeting, Henry made a motion to approve them and Debbie seconded. The minutes were approved unanimously. Financial Report: As of October 31st, there was $121,826.84 in the Conservation Fund and $5,725.11 in the KHR fund. The latter has since been decremented by $3,000 for mowing at KHR. Dan has spent some money on the printing of maps. He advised Henry to get his trail work materials expenses submitted before the end of the year, and said he should go directly to Elly with his receipts. Correspondence: Letter from FEMA dated 11/19/2018 regarding Risk Mapping, Assessment and Planning Discovery Meeting for the Contoocook Watershed on 12/12/2018. Dan attended this meeting and said that updating the floodplain maps for the Contoocook Watershed is a huge project. LIDAR technology allows much more accurate maps to be created than the ones currently in use. Private contractors do the imaging from an airplane. The certification of the new maps will take about 2 years. There are serious flood risk issues with many of the bridges and culverts in Sutton. Localities are feeding local flood data to the people in Boston, for processing. Dan is going to ask Don Davis for photos of the 1936 and 1938 floods, when the mill dams went out. There are 4 study areas in town. Dan will recommend to Elly that the new flood risk maps be put on the town website when they become official. Forest Notes, Autumn 2018 issue of the SPNHF’s magazine. Feature article on the future of high- and low-grade wood products in New England. Notice of Acceptance of Permit Application from DES, dated 11/19/2018 for T/L #1-248,391 on Eaton Grange Rd. Review of Wetland Applications and Issues: Wetlands Permit Application 12/6/2018 for the Blaisdell Lake Dock Owners Association, for retaining wall with infiltrator trench, 220-225 Route 114, T/L #2-704,486. Since this was not an expedited permit application it did not require signing by the SCC, but only by the Town Clerk. Review of Intents to Cut and Logging Issues: Carpenter-Deel, T/L# 9-678,026, Shaker Rd, 8 of 19.8 acres, Nicholas Rowe, logger. Bonnie pointed out that this lot is largely occupied by a pond. Dan suggested that we ask Elly to look into whether a wetlands permit was applied for, and that the 50-foot setbacks were respected. Old business Sutton Strategic Conservation Plan – Dan brought in a large-format print of the final version of the co-occurrence map. He had added labels to landscape features and had added, along the side, small maps of each data layer making up the finished map. He suggested that we keep it with the large plans in the main room at Town Hall. He had also printed out a large copy of the map with tax lot boundaries showing. This copy is to be filed securely downstairs. He suggested creating a strategy book or contact book with the aid of the map, to be used in prioritizing and cultivating new land conservation opportunities. He will present the map to the Planning Board at some point, and will send a PDF file of the co-occurrence map with the tax lot boundaries to the new chair. He is in the process of finishing up the conservation plan report that the map supports. He will send the new chair a working copy of the report that the commission can modify as it sees fit. He will send Henry a high resolution PDF or JPG file to be used for printing out the map on a large metal sign, for the trail kiosk. He also has smaller, page-sized maps that are blowups of the KHR and Webb/Crowell trail systems, and he will get those to Henry. Dan pointed out that the maps are not showing abandoned town roads as trails. Once the town declares a road to be abandoned, public access to it is lost, as the ownership of the land under the road reverts to the abutting property owners. Henry is hoping to make a booklet with trail maps similar in style to the SRKG book, with the trails named and highlighted. Dan said the town no longer has a license for GIS, so he can’t hand over the map files, but he will update them. He needs to get the trail names and locations from Henry. New business Parting words from Dan – Dan pointed out that the SCC chairman performs a lot of work behind the scenes. He gets phone calls from people who want to “negotiate” with the chair, and he refers these to Bonnie to be placed on the agenda for the full commission to address. He works a lot with Elly. The chair is responsible for writing an article for the Town Report, which is a historical document of what the SCC did over the course of the year. This is due on January 15th, 2019. This should include descriptions of Henry’s work on the trails, Dan’s maps, and relevant photos. He said someone from the SCC will need to attend Town Meeting and be available to answer questions about budget items, etc. In the future, when we want to expend money from the Capital Reserve Fund for large land protection projects, we will need to present that to Town Meeting in the form of a Warrant Article. He said Elly will be a big help with that. Barb asked whether there are meetings of the various CC chairs periodically, and Dan said the only ones he knows of are the roundtables that the ASLPT holds four times a year. Dan said there are two big file cabinets downstairs that are full of the history of the SCC. Since no one on the commission expressed an objection, Dan said he will give a copy of his conservation plan report to Brian Hotz, vice-president for land protection at the Forest Society, and to the ASLPT. Jane asked what about Amanda Stone of the Cooperative Extension, and Dan agreed. Barb asked how much time is generally spent with the budget committee. Dan said the chair needs to let the budget committee know what the budget is, especially if there are changes. This year he was able to go to the meeting with Henry’s spreadsheet of costed items, which was very helpful. There is time spent in exchanging emails. The chair also is responsible for facilitating meetings, keeping an eye on the right-to-know law, and running public hearings. He reiterated to us the importance of not having conversations outside our meetings with people who have projects in the works. He said he would serve as a consultant for us, and we can call him. He suggested the new chair spend half an hour with Elly, and then meet with Dan to take a look at the files downstairs. His resignation will be effective December 31st, so we can wait until the January meeting to decide on a new chair. Henry asked what the procedure is if someone wants to join the commission, and Dan said they need to send a letter to the Board of Selectmen. Barb presented Dan with a card of thanks, signed by the SCC members, who expressed appreciation for all of his hard work, especially on the Strategic Conservation Plan and maps. Dan then excused himself so that the members could discuss who would succeed him. Prospective members – Henry invited Wally and Amy to join us at the table. They have both expressed interest in joining the commission. Henry asked Amy about her interest in conservation, and she talked about going through the process of building a house, about landscaping with native plants, and about her interest in butterflies. She has given presentations on butterflies in various venues, and said she would be willing to give one under the auspices of the SCC. She is also very interested in Sutton history, and has documented cellar holes. Henry was glad to hear this, as he would like to create plaques for the cellar holes on our properties. He asked Amy and Wally to submit application letters to the BOS and to the SCC, and we will vote at the January meeting. The chair will then take the results of that vote to the BOS. Succession Plan – Henry does not feel he has enough time to be the chair for SCC, but he is willing to serve with someone else as co-chair, to share the load. Wally said he would be interested in serving as a co-chair. He does not do email, but can talk to people and perform other duties of the chair. In addition, Bonnie is willing to take over more of the clerical tasks such as filing to further reduce the chair’s workload. Some co-chairs take alternating months. Henry said he would do a lot of delegating, and one thing he would like to delegate is keeping track of the money. Debbie has a finance background and is willing to take that on. Henry said he and Wally will need to put together a list of everything that needs to be done. Barb suggested that everyone email the group what they are interested in doing. The commission will vote on the chair(s) at the January meeting. Adjournment: There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:14 PM. The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 9th, 2019, at 6:30 PM. Respectfully submitted, Bonnie Hill, Secretary