August 20, 2024 | Bonnie Hill Sutton Conservation Commission (SCC) DRAFT Meeting Minutes Wednesday, August 14, 2024 Present: Henry Howell, Chair; Chuck Bolduc; Don Davis; Lynn Wittman; Yvonne Howard; Jim Morris and Bonnie Hill. Absent: Debbie Lang; Joanna Murphy. Call to order: Henry Howell called the meeting to order at 6:30 pm. Special Thanks: For the record, Henry would like to express special thanks to the following people for their work on the two Volunteer Trail Days: Donna Catanzaro, Cathy Popkin, Yvonne Howard, Libby Howell and Bonnie Hill. He would also like to express special thanks to Lynn Wittman for the fabulous work she has done for Kezar Lake. Previous Meeting’s Minutes: The minutes from the last meeting on July 10th were unanimously approved. Financial Report: There were no expenditure in July. Henry said he will be submitting some invoices for trail maintenance materials that will come out of Special Projects. There is $3419 left in the admin budget. Here are the Bar Harbor Bank account balances as of the end of July: Conservation Fund: $227,578.78 (sum of all sub-accounts) Conservation Fund Unrestricted: $212,318.69 Sievert King Hill Gift: $15,156.04 Donation Holding Account: $104.05 Capital Reserve: $79,649.59 Non-Capital Reserve: $1,000.00 Our accounts have now all been moved to Bar Harbor Bank. Bonnie reported on behalf of Debbie that Debbie met with Bar Harbor Bank to discuss available account options. Town Treasurer Joanne Lord then told Debbie to stop communicating with the bank, as it is her responsibility as Treasurer to decide how to set up the bank accounts. Bonnie said that Joanne told her that if we would like to have our money put into a 12 month CD she can set that up for us, and there would be no penalty if we needed to withdraw money to make a land purchase. Chuck pointed out that the interest rate is considerably lower for the no-penalty CDs, and we definitely need liquidity. Henry said that having all of our money in a money market account is hard to take, and maybe we could put just part of it into a CD? We need to find out what the rates are at Bar Harbor Bank, and whether we can have just part of our money in a different asset class. Trail Maintenance and Development Trails Advisory Committee Report Update on the KHR donation system – Chuck said that since our donation account has been moved to a different bank, he will need to change this in Blackbaud. Jim said he would take care of this. Chuck said the account needs to support both incoming and outgoing transactions. Bonnie told him the new website administrator for the Town is Kristi Kisler. She only does website work on Fridays. Jim said he has some spare time this month and can help Chuck with this project. Chuck is hoping Kristi will be able to help with the back end coding for exchanging a security token with Blackbaud, but if not, it may be necessary to hire a professional to get this done. KHR Penacook Path culvert rebuild/replacement – Henry said he talked to Adam Hurst about this and Adam said that using two culverts side by side is an option to consider. Henry said that Anita Blakeman is knowledgeable about the wetlands regulations, and he read aloud the email message she sent him, in which she said the town would need to apply for a wetlands permit, and would most likely need an engineer to do the calculations needed to figure out the drainage and size the culvert. Someone asked if the Highway Department or the Conservation Commission is responsible for replacing the culvert, and Chuck said he thinks it would be our responsibility since it’s part of our conservation property and not a road, but that the Highway Department may be able to help Lynn said it looks like this project would qualify for a Moose Plate Grant, but as the deadline is fast approaching, that couldn’t happen this year. She’s hoping that Lynn Arnold of the Perkins Pond Protective Assoc. might help, as she is expert at grant writing. Chuck said he needs to talk to Ann Payeur of ASLPT to get advice and find out what it is that they would need to see in the way of permits, etc. He agrees that we need an engineer, and said we’re going to need multiple funding sources. Henry pointed out that the stream in question is a major feed into Lyon Brook, which is a major feed into Kezar Lake, and therefore is integral to the watershed. He wondered if the engineering study for this could be part of the Watershed Based Plan (WBP) for Kezar Lake. Lynn said she thought this could be true, that a firm like FB Environmental, one of the ones being considered for the WBP, has the kind of engineers that know how to do this. She said the snowmobile club could be asked to help with the in-kind donations. She asked Chuck if the culvert needs to be replaced right away. Chuck and Henry both said they would be reluctant to drive over it, but that it can wait. Chuck said he would try to talk to Ann by next week. Chainsaw authorization for volunteers – Henry sent out a notice to the 40 people on his volunteer list about a chainsaw workshop given by the NH Timber Owners Association on September 21st at Beaver Brook Association in Hollis. Report on Volunteer Work Days – Henry said we need to do more publicity and do it further in advance for these events, as the turnout was very small. In spite of that, a lot was accomplished. At Webb/Crowell, all the fallen trees that Henry cut up were cleared from the trail, lopping and clipping was done, and a new bridge was built over a gully. At KHR, the Putnam Trail, which was re-routed by the Kezar Lake Running Club, was cleaned up and smoothed out. The bridge was repaired, and the access to the bridge was made more gradual with a stone ramp. The trail is now intact from Felch Road all the way to KHR over the bridge. Review of Intents to Cut and Logging Issues NH DOT I-89 project, Sutton Rest Area, T/L# 5-703-110, 4 acres out of 22, John Brown & Sons, Inc loggers. This was done back in May but we just received the intent. Schnitzer Trust, Music Hill Rd, T/L# 06-068-417, 8 of 48 acres, Tim Wallace, forester. There is a conservation easement on this land, held by SPNHF. Wetlands Review Henry reported that at the Kezar Lake Protective Association (KLPA) annual picnic, Lynn Arnold from Perkins Pond handed out some good literature relevant to lake protection. He has ordered some of the chloride-free salt that she mentioned, and said that we should ask our local hardware stores to carry it. She also talked about pervious asphalt driveways, which look just like asphalt and can be plowed. Henry said that Kezar Lake is way ahead of the other lakes in town, and commended Lynn for the great brochure that the KLPA distributes. New Business Report from ASLPT Outreach Meeting – Bonnie went to this and reported that Dode Gladders had bad news about Beech Leaf Disease – it has spread widely in the last year. She said some of the concoms had interesting things going on. She asked about chainsaw classes and Dode said that SPNHF will be giving one September 26th and 27th, and NHTOA will be giving one on October 19th in Hollis at the landowner level. There was a legislative update that increases the amount of wood people can cut for personal use without filing an intent to cut. Old Business Dog waste at KHR’s Hominy Pot Trail and Penacook Path – Henry reminded us that at our last meeting we voted to expend up to $500 on dog waste management products. He has ordered a Mutt Mitt dispenser for $200 and 2000 bags, for a total of $319. We should have them by our next meeting. The dispenser will need to be attached to a metal post, set in concrete. There will be no trash container. People will need to maintain this by refilling the dispenser. Henry thought that Joanna had volunteered to help with this. As for the leashing issue, Hominy Pot Trail is the one most heavily used by dogs, so Henry suggested we have a leash requirement for Hominy Pot and maybe the Lyon Brook trail. Lynn suggested that the requirement be for dogs to be either leashed or under voice control. Chuck said there is already wording to this effect on the list of rules at the kiosk. It was decided that we will have an additional sign right at the parking lot, so people can go back to the car quickly to get the leash after reading the sign, if they can’t keep their dog under voice control. Henry said he will get the sign made. Update on Stockwell property donation – The Stockwells’ surveyor has raised his rate, and is now available. The cost is $5800 for plus or minus 20 acres, with all standard deed research and registry, field work, prints and mylar. It is a tricky subdivision, as there are no existing marks to go by. Rather than give the Stockwells money for the survey, Chuck suggested that we reimburse them after the land donation is finished, as we have in the past. He has concerns about spending taxpayers’ money on a private landowner’s survey without an agreement. Jim agreed that reimbursement at the end is the cleanest way to go. Lynn suggested that the money could be placed in escrow. Henry said this will not be the whole cost, as there will be legal fees and a stewardship fee. Bonnie asked about the additional acreage on the west side of the river that the Stockwells had discussed donating, and Henry said he would ask Rick about it. Henry made a motion that the SCC will set aside $10,000 in escrow to reimburse the incurred costs associated with obtaining a conservation easement and transferring fee ownership to the Town of Sutton of an approximately 20 acre parcel at Tax Map 4, lot 052,029, on Roby Road, by one year from now (August 14th, 2025). Chuck seconded the motion, and the vote was unanimously in favor. 5 year review of SCC Strategic Plan – Henry told Chuck that we have been looking at the data layers and having trouble finding the updated data, and finding maps that show how our data layers are the same or different from the ones in the 2018 plan. Chuck said we need to look at the dates that the data was recorded. For example, the NH Wildlife Action Plan (WAP) is being updated for 2025. Henry asked how we would find the updated data for Steep Slopes, and Chuck said to use NH Granit’s Data Viewer. He said when putting together data layers, we need to watch out for multiple inclusions. Wetlands data, for example, may be included within several other layers and will then be more heavily weighted. Chuck said once the layers are chosen, they get combined in a manner weighted by the votes. Henry asked how this tells us how much of our land has been conserved. Chuck said that with GIS software, you can turn layers on and off. So you can turn on the wetlands layer and the conserved lands layer, and run the calculations, and that will tell you the percentage of wetlands conserved. He said we are not in a time crunch for this, and can wait for the WAP to be updated. Henry said maybe we should table this until 2025. Property Reviews Update on Golf Course – This has been sold, but no one has heard any details about it. Other Properties – Chuck Bolduc made a motion that due to the sensitivity around property issues, the following discussion be conducted in a nonpublic session per RSA 91-A:3,II. The motion was seconded by Lynn Wittman. A roll call vote was taken, with the following commission members voting Aye: Chuck Bolduc, Henry Howell, Don Davis, Jim Morris, Yvonne Howard, Lynn Wittman and Bonnie Hill. There was no one opposed. A discussion was then held. Chuck made a motion that we exit the non-public session, and Lynn seconded. A roll call vote was taken, with the following commission members voting Aye: Henry Howell, Chuck Bolduc, Jim Morris, Don Davis, Bonnie Hill, Lynn Wittman, and Yvonne Howard. There was no one opposed. Publicity Possible SCC-sponsored community presentation – This was tabled for lack of time. Henry said some possibilities were having Andy Deegan of the ASLPT speak about How to Conserve Your Land., having a wildlife steward from NH Fish & Game speak, or asking Sy Montgomery to give a turtle talk. Correspondence Email from Anita Blakeman regarding chainsaw safety class offered by the NHTOA. She also wanted to make a correction to last month’s minutes, which stated that she said the Penacook Path is a Class VI road. She does not believe that it is. July e-news newsletter from NHACC with info about recent Supreme Court decisions with negative conservation impact, annual meeting & conference, photo contest, news from other concoms, several grant opportunities and training opportunities (easement monitoring, forest health, trail training). Email from Betsy Forsham letting us know that the encroachment agreement between the town and the then owners of the little white house adjacent to Russell Pond is in the Russell Pond folder in the SCC file cabinet. Letter from ASLPT asking SCC to become a business partner. We will discuss this next month. Chatter, newsletter of the ASLPT, Summer 2024 issue.. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 8:40 PM. Next Meeting: Wednesday, September 11, 2024, at 6:30 PM, at Sutton Town Hall. Respectfully submitted, Bonnie Hill, Secretary
