Town of Sutton Selectmen Meeting Minutes

TOWN OF SUTTON

Sutton Conservation Commission

Draft Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Present: Henry Howell, Co-Chair; Don Davis; Barbara Hoffman; Jane Williamson; Debbie Lang; Amy Highstrom and Bonnie Hill.

Absent: Wally Baker, Chuck Bolduc. Amy sat in for Wally and Bonnie sat in for Chuck.

 

Call to order: Henry Howell called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. He welcomed Amy Highstrom to the SCC, and the commissioners all introduced themselves. He said he would like us to focus today on Dan’s strategic action plan, and on the town budget.

 

Previous Meeting’s Minutes: As there were no issues found with the minutes from the January 9th meeting, Debbie made a motion to approve them and Don seconded. The minutes were approved unanimously.

 

Financial Report:

Debbie said that the budget for 2019 shows the same levels of funding as the one for 2018, with the exception of Secretarial Services, which reflects a 3% COLA increase. She said that although it was not a problem that we had overrun our budget in two of the categories, the amounts in those categories for 2019 were not increased to reflect this, notably Dues and Conferences. Henry said he would like to have a financial report every month on the status of our three funds.

 

Correspondence:

  • Winter 2019 issue of the SRKG newsletter, with a list of winter hikes.
  • Handout about the NH Coverts Project. Henry highly recommends their training program, and said applications are due March 1st.
  • Winter 2019 issue of the ASLPT’s Chatter.
  • Letter from DES thanking the SCC for our comments regarding the wetlands rules changes. Barb was asked what is happening with this, and she said she thinks it will go before JLCAR in March or April.

Review of Wetland Applications and Issues:

  • A Complete Forestry Notification was received, File # 2019-00241, for N. Byfield, T/L# 6-191,244 and 6-308,154, Village Rd. Debbie said the ASLPT is keeping an eye on this, as some complaints have been received and are now being addressed.

 

Review of Intents to Cut and Logging Issues:

  • None

 

Old business

O’Neil Conservation Easement – Henry gave Amy some background on this. Barb had sent us all a copy of the latest draft of the easement document, and she said the town attorney, Laura Spector-Morgan, had some comments on it. The first was in section 13A (Discretionary Approvals and Amendments). She suggested the phrase “with notice to/consent of the Executory Interest Holder” be changed to read “with notice to and consent of the Executory Interest Holder”. The other point was whether we want both co-chairs to sign the agreement or only one. Henry said he would like both to sign. Don had a question about the possibility of a second easement, described in section 18. Barb made a motion that we propose to ASLPT that the language in 13A be changed to “notice to and consent of” and that, in the signature section, Dan Sundquist’s name be removed as SCC Chair and replaced with Henry Howell and Walter Baker as SCC Co-Chairs. Don seconded the motion and the vote was unanimously in favor. Barb will convey our changes to Andy Deegan.

 

Appointment: 7:00 – Dan Sundquist regarding the Updated Sutton Strategic Conservation Plan

 

Dan laid out the large printout of his map so we could all see it. He said we need to do some planning for how to get information about the plan out to the public, at multiple levels and for different audiences. He suggested a long term approach with some landowners in town. We can build a knowledge base of information containing map/lot numbers and contact info, and network around this, asking who knows whom. We can, in effect, become a little land trust, sending out mailings to people we think may be interested in conserving their land. He suggested scheduling time with the planning board to go over the map, so that they can use this information in their planning, and he offered to participate in the discussion. He offered to make a presentation at a public forum that we could advertise, and to which we could invite the BOS. We could issue invitations to key landowners in town. This needs to make a splash, and should be held after Memorial Day when the summer people are back in town. It would be good to follow this up with a workshop and presentation by Andy Deegan about how to do a conservation easement. We also need to consider doing education and outreach on the subject of conservation itself. He said Andy Deegan has handouts and materials about this. Debbie said the ASLPT is doing a presentation in Bradford, and maybe we could piggyback on it. Dan said we need to think in terms of membership development. In the near term, we should aim to have a couple of workshops in 2019. Someone asked about the ZBA, and he said maybe have one meeting and invite all of the town boards – BOS, ZBA, Elly, etc. Don suggested taking the map to the high school on Town Meeting day, as a little teaser for what is to come. Dan said he would provide a one-page cheat sheet for us to hand out. Dan said the Forest Society has a couple of current interests in property on the Warner line. He has not yet sent the map to SPNHF but plans to send it to Brian Hotz. He said there is another ASLPT project or two coming up, and he suggested meeting with Debbie Stanley and Andy Deegan to talk about the map, as this will help us in making decisions about where to spend our money. Amy asked about purchasing land that is currently for sale, and Dan said it is too expensive to do that these days. Instead, we need to focus on outreach and engagement, partnerships with bordering towns, and communication with other conservation commissions. Dan said in the longer term, we need to maintain our database of contacts for the valuable parcels, find ways to get to know people and work the social capital side with soft leads and little cocktail meetings, building rapport. Another piece of interesting data is which parcels are abutting land that is already conserved.

 

New business

Budget Meeting report – Debbie reported that the budget committee allocated $2300 for special projects in the SCC’s 2019 budget. In addition, there is $6000 allocated in a capital reserve fund for special projects, and $1000 for land purchases. The $2300 is only there this year in case the town votes down the capital reserve money. Debbie said that the budget committee chair is being very aggressive this year with capital reserves in general, increasing the total over last year’s level by over $200K. Don gave us an informative description of the five funds that the SCC interacts with:

  1. The Conservation Administration Fund is number 4611 in the town report. It was established by a vote of the town, and is assigned by the Budget Committee. Any leftover money goes into the General Fund.
  2. The Conservation Fund was established by RSA. In Sutton, the primary way that money comes into this fund is from LUCT, and the town of Sutton turns over 100% of the LUCT money to this fund. The SCC can spend this however we want, but spending it on land or easement acquisitions requires a hearing.
  3. The KHR fund. After the King Ridge ski area failed, people tried to raise money to start up another ski area but couldn’t get the land. This money was then split between SCC and the New London Outing Club. This money can only be spent on KHR, and has been used to meet mowing expenses.
  4. The Conservation Land Capital Reserve Fund. This fund came into existence through a vote at the 2005 Town Meeting, and can only be used for land acquisition. A Town Meeting vote is required to spend this money.
  5. A fifth fund, the Special Projects Expendable Fund, is currently being proposed. In spite of its name, the 2019 budget report does not explicitly say it is an expendable fund. In order to be able to use this money, we need it to be expendable, i.e. accessible through a request to the BOS. We cannot wait for a Town Meeting every time we want to buy lumber, for example. The proposed amount of this fund is $6000.

At this point Debbie resumed her report. She said prior to last year, the amount of our budget was always around $3232, and we did everything out of that money. Last year we were given $2300 in Special Projects money, and used it to buy lumber, etc. If the warrant article passes, we will have $8300 total in special projects money this year, but we will only have $1000 to conserve land. We are forbidden to use the other $6000 in capital reserve money for conserving land. Don said if we only receive $1000 per year to conserve land, we will never have enough money to do anything. He believes that what will happen next year is that the special projects account will be replenished, but if we want to replenish the land fund we will need to provide justification. This defeats the purpose of the Capital Reserve Fund. He said Wally is also concerned about this, and was going to talk to Elly about making a proposal to adjust the amounts. He also talked to Betsy Forsham, who said that the two capital reserve accounts should not be linked.

Adjournment: There being no further business, Barb made a motion to adjourn, and Debbie seconded. The meeting was adjourned at 8:36 PM.

Since Town Meeting is on March 13th, our next meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 6th, 2019, at 6:30 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Bonnie Hill, Secretary