Town of Sutton Selectmen Meeting Minutes

TOWN OF SUTTON
Pillsbury Memorial Town Hall
93 Main Street Sutton Mills, NH
Sutton Mills, NH  03221

Sutton Conservation Commission

Draft Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, July11, 2018 

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

Absent: Dan Sundquist, Chair.

 

Members of the Public Present: Gary Dellert, Betsy Forsham.

 

Call to order: Don Davis chaired the meeting and called it to order at 6:37 p.m.

 

Previous Meeting’s Minutes: Jane had a correction to the minutes. In the sentence readingThere is an old road coming out from the Wadleigh parking lot that is blocked off now, and she is wondering whether Sutton residents with dogs could be allowed to park at Wadleigh and drive out that way.”, the word “drive” should be changed to “walk”. Deb made a motion to approve the minutes as amended and Henry seconded. The minutes were approved unanimously.

 

Financial Report:

As of June 30, the Conservation Account contained $119,392.90 and the King Hill Reservation account contained $5707.25, for a total of $125,100.15 in the Conservation Fund. A LUCT check was received for $2055 for M. Saunders of Chalk Pond Rd, T/L# 6-733,421.

 

Correspondence:

  • SRKG Coalition Newsletter, June 2018 issue.

Review of Wetland Applications and Issues:

  • Copy of Letter of Deficiency dated 6/11/2018 to G. and E. Manning from DES regarding wetlands violations. File #2018-01292, Nelson Hill Rd, T/L# 6-610,001.
  • Copy of Wetlands Permit for Heather Wells Trust. DES File #2018-01574, Park Ave, T/L# 8-347,155.
  • Copy of Wetlands Permit for J. Rogers. DES File #2018-00343, Birch Hill Rd, T/L# 1-576,410.
  • Wetlands Permit Application 6/21/2018 from G.Dellert to repair retaining wall, Camp Kemah Rd, T/L #2-485,102. Mr. Dellert was requesting expedited review of his application. He described the work to be done, which was well illustrated with drawings. The work will be done during the drawdown of Blaisdell Lake, which happens every 5 years, and the water will not be touched. The concrete wall will be replaced with gunite, and a silt fence barrier will be in place. Questions were asked by Deb, Henry, Chuck and Jane, and the answers from Mr. Dellert were that the work should take 2 to 3 weeks; yes, Fritz Pratt did a similar repair 10 or 15 years ago and it has held up well; yes, drain holes will be placed in the wall; and no, no trees will be cut down.
  • Wetlands Permit Application 6/27/2018 from S.Finkelstein for beach replenishment, Keyser St. T/L# 8-058,365. Pictures in the application showed that the area to be replenished is actually a contained area, with the sand kept from flowing into the lake by a rock wall. Sand can be replenished every 6 years. No one saw a problem with this.

 

Deb made a motion that both applications be approved, and Jane seconded it. The vote was unanimously in favor. Don signed the applications, and Mr. Dellert took his copies with him. Betsy noticed that the town clerk had mistakenly signed the applications before giving them to SCC to be signed. She wrote a note to the town clerk advising her on the proper procedure and attached it to the Finkelstein application, which was placed in the town clerk’s mailbox.

 

Review of Intents to Cut and Logging Issues:

  • Friel, T/L# 5-548,577 and 7-451,065, Kearsarge Valley Rd, 200 of 275 acres, John Whyte, logger.

 

Henry questioned why there was no forester listed. Betsy said Bud Nelson is overseeing the operation and is very knowledgeable. Don said Dave Gardner spoke to Bud about preserving the SRKG trail section, but he doesn’t know the outcome. Someone asked if Anita Blakeman could look at the cut and Betsy said that’s not what she does; she is the timber tax monitor and reviews timber harvests after they are completed to insure the Report of Cut submitted to the town is correct.  It is the Report which determines the timber tax collected by the town. Jane looked up John Whyte online and found that his operation does have a licensed forester. The website says that they are committed to being as environmentally sustainable as possible. Betsy got out the tax map for the area with the cut, and there is a large area of wetlands. She suggested that in cases like this we look at the DES website to see if a Wetlands Forestry Notification permit application was filed, since a temporary permit is required for wetlands crossings.

Old business

None.

New business

Review and discussion of Webb/Crowell conservation easement deed —Don invited Betsy to join us at the table for this discussion. She said she had given Andy some suggestions for changes to the deed but that he didn’t use them. She wanted to see a mention of the cellar hole and well at the top corner of the property, and the ruins of the historic mill site. She showed us a survey by Bristol Sweet showing the 76 acres of Webb/Crowell plus an outline of the additional properties and the Wells property which make up the 94 acres in the easement. The Wells property is the only one that hasn’t been surveyed, but this was thought to be unnecessary by ASLPT as it is surrounded by the other properties and by the marsh. Betsy drew our attention to the sections titled Reserved Rights of the Grantor and Affirmative Rights of Grantee, on pages 8 and 9. She said she wanted us to have the opportunity to weigh in on the allowed uses. Henry asked what recourse we have, and the answer was every recourse, as we can ask Andy Deegan to make changes/additions to this easement. Don said he wanted to see archeology mentioned in here. Chuck wanted us to allow such uses as mountain biking unless they prove to be detrimental, at which time we could post against them. Deb asked if people obey Posted signs, and Bonnie said no. Don said it looked to him as if ASLPT could come in and do something like build cross-country ski trails. Betsy said they would have to ask us first. Considerable time was spent comparing the language of sections 3a and 4b and discussing whether they seemed to be conflicting, or to invite confusion. Deb asked Betsy if she has seen an easement worded this way run into any problems, and Betsy said she wouldn’t have any way of knowing. Jane asked to remove snowmobiling from section 4b. Don said he didn’t want to lock out any uses. Chuck wanted to leave it as it is. Henry asked who has the right to future control – ASLPT or us? Betsy answered that we do. Barb asked to make a change to section 1H for the sake of grammatical consistency: replace the words “The availability of the Property for” with “To facilitate”. Barb asked if we have a forest management plan for the property, and Betsy answered that we do not need one unless we decide to do a timber harvest. Don said that someone on Eaton Grange Rd once asked if they could use our property for a log landing. He thought that section 2H would forbid this in future. The group discussed this and decided that was not the case. Betsy got out the easement for Maple Leaf and found the language that allowed for archeological activities. We can use this same language. It may be overkill, but at least it gets it in there. Someone asked about the removal of stone walls that are not archaeological, and Betsy found language in the easement that prohibits it. Henry made a motion that we adopt Barb’s wording change, and Chuck seconded. The vote was unanimous to accept. Jane made a motion to remove the word “snowmobiling” from section 4b, and Bonnie seconded. The vote was 2 to 3 against. A motion to add the archaeology section passed unanimously. Bonnie asked Betsy if she would convey the changes to Andy Deegan, and Betsy agreed to do it.

SCC Properties

Trail mowing at KHR—Don talked to Dave Carey about various options. Dave would like to mow earlier than usual, while it is dry. He would wait until the ground-nesting birds are fledged. Betsy brought up the big KHR binder and showed us the mowing information in there from years past. Trails 1 through 8 were last mowed in 2006. Because he mows for some of the property owners at the top of the hill, Dave is able to access the tops of our trails through that private property. Don said some options are to do the basic 10 hours, to go up to 15 hours, or to do a set dollar amount. The members agreed that Dave should just mow for whatever time it takes, since we missed last year, and we do have the money to cover this.

Mowing at Enroth—Don said that we can get this done for $25, by the abutter, Jerry Gagnon, who has done it in the past.

Miscellaneous

Don showed us a Valley Quest book from 2004 that was used by the 5th graders at Central School and involved discoveries in KHR.

Betsy said Doug Sweet has retired, but he can still make copies of plans and maps he has done of our properties if we want them, at least for a while.

Adjournment: There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:50 PM.

The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, August 8th, 2018, at 6:30 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Bonnie Hill, Secretary