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

Conservation Commission
Meeting Minutes of January 11,  2017

Present: Betsy Forsham, Chair; Don Davis; Henry Howell; Jane Williamson; Dan Sundquist, Wally Baker and Bonnie Hill, secretary.   Absent:  Ben Dobrowski, Chuck Bolduc, and Chris Ashton.  Jane sat in for Ben.

Call to order: Betsy Forsham called the meeting to order at 6:37 p.m.

Previous Meeting’s Minutes: A motion was made by Henry and seconded by Don to approve the minutes of December 14th, 2016. There were no issues found with the minutes, and they were approved.

Financial Report:
There were expenditures for secretarial services, for lumber for Henry’s KHR project, and for flagging. There is $916.78 in the town account, which is 28.37% of the budget.  As of December, the Conservation Account contained $105,567.42 and the King Hill Reservation account contained $6580.87, for a total of $112,148.29 in the Conservation Fund.

Correspondence:
* Letter of Support to Tracie Sales for Warner River Designation program sent to DES 12/28/16 with copy to Sam Durfee, Central NH Regional Planning Commission.
* Letter of thanks to Noel Eastman Excavating for donation of loam for rain garden at KRHS, 12/2016.
* Email from Ben Dobrowski explaining and apologizing for multiple SCC meeting absences.
* Email from Town of Sutton requesting SCC’s Town Report submission by 1/16/2017.
* Notice to SCC as an abutter to the Chinberg property (Map # 08-591-235): a public hearing will be held at 5:00 on 1/23 on request for a permit to build a cabin with access from Kings Hill Rd., a Class VI road.
* SRK Greenway December 2016 newsletter.
* Supply Lines with The Source, Winter 2016 newsletter of the NHDES Drinking Water and Groundwater Bureau, with a good article about drought preparation.
* Brochure from UNH Professional Development and Training describing 2017 classes in Land Surveying, Soil Science, Construction Management & Related Topics, with registration form.

Review of Wetland Applications and Issues:
* A copy of an inquiry was received regarding the cutting of trees on the shoreline of Kezar Lake. Betsy found out from Elly that the property owner had gotten the proper permit from the state, so there was no issue. Betsy suggested to Jane that when new people buy lakefront property, the KLPA might want to give them the DES fact sheet, Vegetation Maintenance within the Protected Shoreland.

Review of Intents to Cut and Logging Issues:
* Muster Field Farm, T/L #10-124,023, Harvey Rd., 20 of 50 acres.  Tim Wallace, forester.
* Muster Field Farm, T/L #9-909,051, Harvey Rd., 35 of 129 acres.  Tim Wallace, forester.
* Muster Field Farm, T/L #8-113,444, Harvey Rd., 15 of 74 acres.  Tim Wallace, forester.

Old Business
Replacement sign for Quarry Walk – Dan will make a small sign with his router that says “Quarry Walk”. Don suggests black letters on a natural wood background, with a polyurethane coating.

Morton Lot – Betsy asked for a vote approving a voluntary merger of the Morton lot with KHR, and all voted yes. She will verify that the taxes on the lot were abated, and then hand this off to the Planning Board.

New Business
Management plan for Kezar Lake Natural Area, sign, and public meeting– Dan gave Betsy a draft of the management plan, and she will review it. After he has incorporated her feedback, he will email it out to the members. Jane will see if she has any photos that can be added to it, and Don will check with someone he knows to see if he can get a drone photo of the aerial view. After some discussion, it was decided that late spring would be best for the public meeting, so that some of the summer people can attend. It is anticipated that the discussion will be quite lively.

Review draft of SCC’s contribution to the 2016 Town Report – The initial draft was emailed to the members and their feedback was incorporated. Jane moved that the draft be formally approved and Dan seconded. The vote was unanimous. Betsy will email the approved version to Elly. Henry and Jane have some photos that can be included, and they will email them to Elly as well.

SCC Properties and SRK Greenway Reports
Update on Henry’s work with KRHS students –The kids are currently building birdhouses for woodpeckers, chickadees and bluebirds, to place along the brook, and some are building wood duck boxes. This involves figuring out the specs for houses for the different species, as well as learning shop skills. They are learning to use a CAD program called SketchUp. Henry has other shop projects in mind, including a solar heater that fits in a south-facing double-hung window and uses convection. Bat houses are another possibility.

Bean Quarry –Dan went there to look at the old well and couldn’t find it. Some suggestions were offered by various members for ways to keep people and animals from falling into the well. Logs laid across the top, a steel grate, and a grid made up of PVC pipe filled with concrete and rebar (so it doesn’t rust) were some of them. This will be determined later.

Webb/Crowell – Betsy visited recently and was happy to report that Mike McManus had plowed the parking lot. She saw otter slides. She said a good project for the KRHS kids might be to build a platform near the end of the bridge, where there is some tricky footing. Some additional flagging has been put on the trails by persons unknown.

Settlers Oven – This is off Southfield Rd, on a quarter-acre town-owned lot with a deeded path to the oven. The SCC had decided not to place signage, as this is a delicate site and vandalism was feared. Don learned that a sign has been erected by the Dube family, on their land, and he showed us a picture of it. The sign is on Old Pound Rd. Betsy said maybe the Dubes should be made aware that this is a sensitive site.

Miscellaneous

ASLPT program – Don reported that ASLPT is planning to do a program (maybe two) on how to place a conservation easement on one’s property. He mentioned Nate Byfield as someone it might be interesting to interview, as he could speak about the issues involved in purchasing a conserved property.

County foresters – Don also reported that the county foresters are going to go to every town and get a list of town properties over 10 acres, to see how they are being managed for recreation, for forestry, etc. Tim Fleury will come to Sutton and have a face-to-face interview with members of SCC and get the list of town properties.

Hiking commission – Just as an FYI, Don reported that he got an email from Gerry Gold saying that the state has a hiking improvement commission. Don printed out some sets of minutes for people to see. There are issues of maintenance, dealing with landowners, etc.

Adjournment: There being no further business, a Motion was made by Don and seconded by Jane to adjourn the meeting at 8:07 p.m. The Motion was unanimously approved.

Respectfully submitted,

Bonnie Hill, Secretary