##VIDEO ID:cqZEduR2XXE## [Music] visions of the chapter 131 section 40 of the general laws of the Commonwealth an act relative to the protection of the wetlands is most recently amended notice the time and place of this hearing was published in the neighborhood news fa neighborhood news on September 5th 2024 it was also posted in town clerk's office persons wishing to be heard will be called in the following order I'll just ask that anybody that has their cell phones with them please make sure they're on silent and um also remind you that this meeting is being audio and video recorded all right your first order of business no minutes no any meeting mail no meeting mail storm water continued public hearing storm water amn estate Holdings LLC 39 ke Road a storm water permit application has been filed by amn estate Holdings for property located at 39 ke road map 2 lot 16 12g 13B the applicant proposes to construct a six lot residential subdivision including 702 linear feet of roadway with a culdesac turnaround on-site sewage Disposal Systems and private Wells the applicant is rep represented by John Maran a filing cour plan name is drainage map Angelo Drive subdivision dated August 30th 2023 revised March 25th 2024 review of matters presented votes may be taken I'll entertain a motion to open the public hearing motion to open second all those in favor Mr Maran hi good evening John Martian from parland Corp I just quickly wanted to give the commission an update on where we are uh earlier today I submitted the revised report revised plans um for the subdivision um feel like we've addressed gf's comments um obviously the commission has had a chance to look at them JF hasn't had a chance to review them so um I just figured I'd give the board an update and uh I guess we' be seing continuing till probably early October yeah so our next meeting is what 26th 25th I believe 25th 25th and then the meeting after and then you filed an RDA as well I I look I got the email I looked through it I didn't look at anything I just saw that there was an ADA attached to it so the filing that'll be for the next filing deadline October 9th October 9th okay so October 9th we'll do both we'll do we'll do the peer riew um responses and um for October 9th Perfect all right so um is there a motion to continue this public hearing until October 9th still move second all those in favor I thank you thank you okay on to new business public hearing notice of intent Lake Street New Beford Reservoir Lakes 1 2 and 4 map 3 lot 13 map 4 lot 49 map 19 lot 32 SE file number 001 0595 a notice of intent was filed by James Kelly Town Administrator of aush for the property located at the new Reservoir Lakes 1 12 and 4 the applicant proposes the removal at the roof of invasive weed from areas of the New Bedford res Reservoir Lakes 12 and 4 located in a cushion it using an Eco Harvester the applicant is represented by Scott dagger Lake Street Improvement committee review of matters presented votes may be taken I'll entertain a motion to open the public hearing motion to open is there a second second all those in favor I Mr dagger the floor is yours thank you uh my name is Scott daget I am a member of the um Lake Street Improvement committee here in town along with Mr Gary Kaa and Mr jamus jamus gamage um first of all um we're citizens of the town uh we have a an interest in trying you know get these ponds cleaned up uh a lot of improvements have been made but uh one Improvement that we really want to get started is the removal of the invasive wheat species uh there in the pond um so part of the problems with these pawns is they've been mismanaged for decades um they're owned by the city in the Bedford uh to my knowledge uh doing some research I it's my belief that uh nothing has been done to manage uh the expansive invasive weed growth that we are experiencing in these ponds and it's not just Lake Street uh it's state uh there are numerous places uh Rivers streams lakes ponds that are being impacted by these weeds but Lake Street is our problem and we propose to take action to manage it and create a maintenance plan that will over a period of different FES uh will hopefully uh cut down and manage uh the weed growth keep it at uh manageable levels um so part of the problem is uh these weeds tend to grow really fast uh through uh phosphorus and nitrates they they tend to feed the weeds uh and the reason why these invasive weeds are such a problem is because they start overtaking the natural native weed that are in this ecosystem uh after a period of time they just tend to overgrow everything kill off all the existing weeds and sooner or later you end up with a pond that would look like Tom Davis Pond it would be a pond that would be converted from a body of water to a wetland or or or a marsh or something for out of that um the reason why invasive weeds are bad is because they hamper the growth of the natural weeds that are beneath it uh they block out the sunlight uh they create they can create some fish kills uh when they get to a point where uh the level of weed growth is so expansive um that it just tends to choke out any oxygen levels that are in the water so it's an unsightly mess it looks terrible I'm sure many of you have driven up and down Lake Street especially this time of year August you know it's really really bad and uh those of us in the uh Lake Street Improvement committee are looking to get something done uh this particular project early on last year we were thinking of using herbicides uh we decided against that um we had gotten some we had received some response from from local cranberry Growers and you know uh much to their concerns we listen realized that the use of herbicides would probably be a bad thing uh it could potentially impact residential Wells uh of all the abutters in the area and also affect your carber crop so if if they had uh any levels of any of the herbicides uh that would be detected during their Harvest uh it's my understanding that the U Ocean Spray uh would reject their crop and and these people would be out of money so uh we don't want to affect their crop uh we don't want to affect any uh neighboring Wells we don't want to bring any additional liability to the town so we sheld the herbicide use which we were going to go through uh Solitude Lake management So currently what we want to do we want to use an Eco Harvester uh cndd underwater out of New Town Connecticut uh I had spoken to Jeff cordisco he's one of the owners of the company back in August of last year ke and I did a walk through uh he was shocked at how badly impacted the pawns were and uh he had suggested that we you know an Eco Harvester would be a better alternative to herb side use uh Eco Harvesters have their pros and cons um it's less of an environmental impact uh as opposed to herbicides which could you know like I had mentioned before create uh much more ecological problems um and it could also help spread out some of the weeds somewhat because as the Ecco Harvester is pulling the weeds from the rout uh you may get some of the weeds that are broken up and and spread out a little bit and then the weeds will regrow over time but in the long run we think that using an Ecco Harvester is probably going to be much more beneficial to manage these ponds effectively um so Jeff had looked at the ponds U suggested that the Ecco Harvester would probably be the best option uh the way that that would work is an Eco Harvester is sort of like a small little barge or a little p boat got a series of two wheels in the front and what it does it takes weeds uh that are suspended to the uh top of the water these two wheels kind of rotate against each other and they pull the weeds onto a conveyor belt into a hopper and once he's got enough in the hopper uh he would then dispose of the Weeds on the the shoreline uh preferably at the boat ramp or someplace where we could be able to truck it off site after it's been dewatered and then once it's dewatered uh I believe uh D manard said that we would have permission to be able to store these at the town yard where people could use them for compost uh they're rich in nutrients so they they make excellent compost I believe um the town of Lakeville and Freetown I believe that's what they're doing when so CND d uh has been working at Long Pond for the last two years I believe and it's my understanding that they take those weeds and that's exactly what they do with them they use them for a compost uh anybody that wants it they can H it away uh so before you you have a a copy of the noce of intent this project is considered an ecological restoration project uh because we're trying to improve the conditions of the pond uh hopefully by managing these pawns we will make it uh much easier for people to enjoy the ponds uh make the E ecosystem more of a healthier ecosystem and uh hopefully you people in town will be able to you enjoy the ponds uh I I know myself I fish it a lot um and it it becomes more difficult the fish uh when the weeds are closer to the street uh people are out there fishing with bait and the beit just sits on top of the water and you people can't enjoy it uh eventually what will happen is these weeds will grow so much that uh people like the cranberry Growers will probably have a little bit more difficulty trying to pump water from the ponds because of the weed growth that may impede their pumps uh another thing that will happen eventually is uh you'll get biomass what biomass is for for those of you who don't know is these weeds grow and die in a cycle um in the summertime in August they're at their greatest growth then around Springtime uh excuse me around the fall to early winter they start to die off and when they die off they fall to the bottom so year after year as they die they just stack on top of each other almost forming uh if you will think of it in terms of dirt and eventually they will get to be so high that they will actually come and stop at the surface of the water um the small pond across the street from Tom Davis uh there's a couple areas of biomass there uh you might see geese or Ducks anytime sitting on top of it it looks like they're sitting on top of the water but they're not they're actually sitting on top of this island of biomass uh that is something that we hope to uh reduce and prevent um right now the two larger ponds are not necessarily at a point where biomass is a big problem but the smaller Pond across the street from Tom Davis Pond that pond is in really bad shape um there's at least two maybe three areas of biomass in that pond um I would say about 80 to 85% of that pond is impacted uh with mil foil and fan wart which are two of the more invasive species of weeds that are out there uh the two larger ponds they're more affected by fan wart bladder wart and um mil foil uh but because of their size and their depth uh they're not nearly as impacted as the smaller Pond is um dep plays a little bit of a role into it because the deeper water that you have these weeds need sunlight to grow like any other weed like any other uh vegetative plant uh if the water's deep enough the sunlight can't get to them so they don't grow nearly as much in deep water uh typically depths of four feet five feet or less you will see these areas of mil foil and fan War um so what I have here is I have a blowup of the maps that you currently have uh identifying the pawns by number and the other sheet uh which was created by Solitude uh a year or so ago uh shows the areas that are actually impacted vegetative growth in the pond um in the legend are the scientific names of the plants or the vegetative growth that's in the ponds I created a little spreadsheet for you so that you would be able to uh know the common name of those particular plants um see you can see in the diagram that the South Pond uh is impact Ed but not nearly as impacted as the North Pond and certainly not nearly as impacted as the small pond which is Pond number two Pond number two I believe y um so what we propose to do is hopefully next year uh in August and you probably ask yourselves why August why do I mention August a lot um that is when these invasive weeds are at their greatest growth uh so think of it in terms of a haircut when your hair gets long you get a haircut well when these weeds are at their greatest growth we want to take them and and remove them uh makes it easier for the Ecco Harvester to be able to grab them and it makes more of an impact uh removing the weights so like I had mentioned before you can see the uh the impact um on the colorcoded chart uh compared to the actual size of the ponds um so we're hopeful that we can get Jeff uh next year from CN uh in August to come out here and we would like to have him it'd be ideal if we could have him out here for two weeks um because he's current in August they tend to work over at Long Pond so it's beneficial for him to hit it in August after he's done his work at Long Pond just to come over to Lake Street and do what he's going to do there um it'd be nice to get him for 2 weeks like I said that way we can concentrate uh phase one what we would like to do is areas along the street along Lake Street um reason for that is Town's people that are driving up and down the street they'll see the Eco Harvester out there they'll know that the money that they voted in at town meeting is actually being used for what we intended for that some that action is finally being taken to you know remediate the weeds from these ponds so I'm hoping that uh we can get Jeff out there um do both sides of the street maybe if he's got time uh we can do an area of the small pond uh before that gets to be too much of a problem uh typically he can do about an acre a day um the last time which was last year uh I had gotten a quote from him that it would probably cost around $5,500 a day uh for one operator and one machine uh so that amounts to about one acre a day um for 5 days we're hoping maybe he can knock out five acres you know six acres maybe on each Pond which would be which would be great um and that's pretty much um what we propose to do excellent any questions comments concerns from the board anybody from the public questions comments concerns how much did you say it was going to cost so based on last year's based on last year's estimate it's about $55 million a day for one operator running one machine um I believe the removal of any of the weeds we could probably do it with our DPW Crews I don't know if Jeff factored in any of that in his estimates um which is something that I can discuss with Jeff later down the road uh that covered by aush on the Ved well that's going to be covered by the T of aush uh New Bedford has pretty much just given us their blessing to do what we feel we need to do to manage the pawns and take care of the pwns can uh we have a a 25e i I believe it's called a mutual order of understanding uh in which the city gives us permission to manage the ponds and do what we need to do but we need to keep them in the loop so whenever we get ready you know once this notice of attent has been been improved uh once the state has given us our blessing and the Conservation Commission has given us our you know our blessing we'll communicate with the city in the bord keep them above board so that they can't say that they don't know what going on um and we'll just go from there thank you Scot sorry no I just have a couple questions um if you if you guys got to come up just come up to the podium and state your name so we have it for the record camera you're on you're on camera right now simple question just for the minutes we need we need your name for the record great Brenda P look um two questions one was you said that it would grab the plants at the top of the surface how deep will it go down to grab the ones down below the water I call it tail I don't know what it is but will it grab that stuff way down too so what it necessarily does is it goes to a depth of about 18 in to about 2 ft and as it as these wheels are rotating it grabs whatever weeds are in that you know 2T depth and it pulls them almost like the oldfashioned where it pulls them up out I was just wondering how far down gra about 2T yeah about 2T but it'll pull it at the roof okay so at least scientifically that's how it's supposed to work second question um you say you can do like what five acres a day well do it for two weeks so so I believe they can do one acre sorry I I believe they can do about one acre a day uh that's what was initially told me told to me uh by Jeff um I can get more clarification on that later on down the road um but typically we're hoping that if we can get him for a 5 day stretch on both of the large ponds and maybe one or two days on the Little Pond it's going to be a series of phases there's no way that we're going to be able to tackle very biger the larger Pond P that would have been the benefit that would have been the benefit of using herbicides um that was the one plus uh because with herbicides you get a guy you you got a crew out there in a boat uh and and and they spread the herbicides and they hit the entire pond within a day right gotta but with the cranberry guy so yeah um but yeah now I was just curious how much you going to be able to do in like a year that's this is going to be like a 10 year oh it's it's going to be it's going to be a multi it's going to be a multi-year project we we I have to discuss with Jeff uh to find out from him how often we will be going over from start to finish um so um we we need to figure out how much of the pawns that we can actually hit within a certain amount of time and then figure out what that amount of time is where we have to go back and revisit what we initially started um because it's going to require continual maintenance um this is not a one and done where the weeds are going to get pulled and you can just wash your hands of it and leave it alone it will regrow my taxes are going up just the chair name Scot uh I I think uh we should also uh include in this um some kind of a budget what the money is where the money is going to come from I really think that's important that we cover this as well for this project and and let it be known to the public um how we're going to go hopefully go about this and and how we're going to try to obtain this money if this project was to move forward yeah so I'd like you to touch on that yeah so what we hope to do right now I believe the time the annual time meeting that we had back in 2020 and last year's annual time meeting meeting we were approved for $75,000 out of the CBC CBC money yeah yes um so we we have money in place well I know some of that money has been spent on other items other than the invasive weaves uh some of that money has been used for the improvements the boat ramp the lighting uh the parking areas the sidewalks the guardrails so there there's other improvements that that money has been used for other than the remediation of weeds uh I have been doing a little bit of research uh I'm going to get in touch with Bill npal anano from serid uh find out exactly how they're getting funding for um Long Pond uh see if we can you know get into trying to get some of that same funding that they have used uh there's also some other funding available I believe it's through um uh DCR I'm not 100% sure on that but uh I I believe that there are programs out there uh in which we can get some funding and grants um but right now whatever is left over in that budget is what we initially plan on using for phase one um then we'll revisit you know after phase one we'll revisit you know we'll we'll see how the results are whether you know they're acceptable or not and we'll go from there um but we will be looking into you know getting grants because we even though Lake Street is a beautiful natural resource and it's one of the only beautiful natural resources in town other than um the mil Pond over at The Sawmill um we hope uh that we can somehow get some funding from other sources and and not expect town payers uh excuse me taxpayers uh in town to uh to fund this right that's my concern is is to pass this burden on to the taxpayers of the town of aush um I mean in a perfect world I I would like to see the city in the bedord help out we all would up here and I mean they I I think we need to keep poking that bear be um I I just I H I personally have some fears about this project on the money aspect of this and passing that burden on to the to the taxpayers including myself of this town um this is a long-term project that's going to cost a lot of money it has the potential it does have potential I'm not stating it I mean I mean it's it's a it's a it's a benefit to the town to take care of this um because if we don't it's going to it's going to end up I wouldn't say an ecological disaster but it's going to it's going to impact the environment and be detrimental I think to to everybody lives in that area right I just feel that we need to exhaust every Avenue possible to go outside and get the funding for this project as I've stated instead of passing this on to the taxpayers of this community um I I know that there is criteria for DCR I don't think Lake Street will will be covered under the DCR um layout with what they have to meet their criteria um I I would like to see an action plan to exhaust all these Avenues to be able to secure the funding before we sell this to the public so to speak I would just say I I I sorry to interrupt I I mean from from a conservation standpoint you know we can't deny the plan because the funding that's not our jurisdiction I just want to clarify that like I wouldn't deny the project because they don't have the funding for I mean if they give us the plan and all that other stuff the the funding would have to go through town meeting and all that other stuff and that's where we can get on a pedestal say I I don't want to be a tax pay I don't want that coming out of you know the tax b m Mr chairman man Scott the other thing that I was just thinking about so when you're um saying we're going to put this on land right you guys have a plan to like how to dry it out you just can't put it up and let all the water run right back into the pond so is that plan being looked at like are you guys going to have to put hay bals and sick fil FRS and Waddles Waddles that I am not 100% certain because I'm not sure how the Conservation Commission is going to want to treat that um it's well it's a slope there well so if you got the water running out you're going to be letting the sand go back in there and um I mean yeah that you might be looking a little bit one second sorry you might you might be looking that in in in you know under a microscope just a little bit too much I don't think you're going to create a lot of unof from this stuffy watering not the sil I don't I don't the only thing I'm saying is it's something that when you when you guys are putting this together and come to us it should be hey we don't need it or yes we're going to need it and that's something that see a dredging it's not a dredging operation it's going to be in in the the only thing is I mean when you pull a weed in your garden when you pull a weed does dirt come up great and that's what I'm saying so when they pull this up it's not going to be a dry rooted plant you might end up with some dirt and everything else that's that's another thing too I was curious about the turbidity that you know that the bottom getting stirred up so that's what I'm saying it's just something we might have to look into something you can discuss with c and d with and all I'm saying is when you bring it to us if you already know that then it's not something that we're asking and you don't have the answer I think it's something that should be part of the package with c and d right well like Ryan had mentioned um turbidity you're going to get some turbidity you're not disturbing the bottom like you would be uh you know like he mentioned you're pulling a weed you pull a weed you know you're pulling it by the root you're going to get a little bit of disturbance uh especially when you're doing the uh lily pads so we we plan on cutting back the lily pads a little bit because uh like in this diagram here this is uh the south end of Lake number one and you can see you know the growth of the lily pads you can see the lily pad that's not the lake you can see the l lily pad grow here uh the lily pads tend to follow the other weeds uh if you notice the small pond uh back three years ago you didn't have nearly as many lily pads as there was the lily pads tend to follow the other emergent weeds that are there so they tend to grow out what we what we also want to do is not only control the invasive weeds but we also want to control the lily pads a little bit uh we want to uh you did uh we we we want to be able to cut them back a little bit as well uh and to do that from way that Jeff explained it to me is uh the hydro U the the um Eco Harvester will grab it by the root but the root of the lily pad is almost like a bulb um so what happens is it may not necessarily pull the lily pad out at that time but it creates enough of a disturbance where it actually pulls the route and then within a couple of days or so it will deroot itself if you will uh and actually float to the bottom and then Jeff will come in within the next few days and actually skim the top of the water to be able to remove any of those lily pads that's that that have been you know Disturbed um so like in this in this image here uh you know you can see the impact of the lily pads and almost guaranteed this is a long uh Lake Street here this would be the South Pond uh this would be the North Pond um and all along here is where that Eurasian or the uh variable mil foil is which is the really large culprit um I don't know if you've seen photographs of them I wish I had brought some diagrams but uh we commonly call it coony tail because it looks like a raccoon's tail um and it just gets really thick and it tends to follow along along or I should say the lily pads tend to follow along pretty much the edge of the weeds um some of the some of the cony tail or mil foil will actually venture out but typically it follows uh you know that area and then I have a few more photographs here um this is the this is the North End of Lake one so this is the North End of of the largest lake uh you can see now back around maybe 10 15 years ago uh this used to be all open water here now it's nothing but lily pads and underneath the lily pads is nothing but mil for uh this area gets choked out kayakers have a hard time getting in there uh people with trolling motors with their John boats have a hard time getting in there um I think you had mentioned it one time the large Roots you mentioned that on Saturday the uh the large roots that are probably a good 3 in across and you know they got scales that look like your thumbnail you know that that's up in this area here um that's something that we want to be able to manage we want to take care of it we want to be able to cut this back and remove all the bad weeds and and try to at least do our best to get it in a natural state sir you got a question yep go on up to the podium uh what really as far as piling the trash up is concerned if you have a large plastic top and the edge of it is in the water the only thing that's going to go back in the water is what came out of the water and it could be laid there for I don't know how long before it starts to smell but right uh like that we do that basically when we're harvesting cranberries with a trash trailer you put a top underneath so the water coming out of the trash Trail through the screens doesn't wash out or erode the edges of the bo that kind of good idea yeah so you know not to bore you with more photographs but this is the south end of Lake 2 this is looking South this is Lake Street here this would be Tom Davis Pond this is the South Pond uh where the uh the dam is the school's over here uh and this is uh the small pond that's across the street from Davis Pond uh if you've been out there recently you've driven by it the these photographs were taking I think about three maybe four years ago so if you drive out there and you look this is much worse now um it's more densely covered with lily pads and the mill foil that's in there is just out of control uh Jeff felt that this Pond is irredeemable he feels that it can't be managed I think he was mistaken with Tom Davis because in my I mean he's professional but in my opinion I think this Pond can be saved I don't think it's at a point where it's being Redemption um and again you know just just a few more photographs you can see this is this is the large pond um this is where whites would be the campgr and and you can see you could probably just barely see the difference in the color here well that's where the mil foil is so just because you see the edge of the lily pads the mil foil tends to creep out beyond that and eventually what'll happen is you'll get biomass in these areas and you're going to lose aquatic real estate if you will so another thing that we eventually have to have to consider uh down the road once we've started managing these pawns the other part of management is making sure this doesn't happen again um so we may have to look into how to control runoff uh how to control you know prevent control phosphorus and nitrates from getting in here because these plants feed on that stuff and they tend to they tend to outperform when when it comes to consuming nitrates and phosphorus compared to the other plants native plants and that's why their growth is so exponential right so you to locate the source yeah yeah whe whether it's you know whether the source failed septic systems or whether the source is fertilizers that are running off of people's Lawns or I don't even know along the edge of water right and and or I don't know if if sources come from cranberry bxs I do not know uh I don't know much about the cranberry industry so I wouldn't be able to tell you if if that's even a possibility but at some point we may have to look into preventative measures to stop this from happening again right so that would mean the introduction to some type of chemicals not necessarily we may we we may just want to make people aware of um the use of fertilizers uh you know if if they could reduce their fertilizer you know I'll talk you know talking about residences you know if they could reduce maybe their fertilizer use cut it in half you know not over fertilize their lungs um you know just just some basic common sensible practices uh from what I know there's only two cranberry Growers I believe that that are on the entire Pond uh from what I've read um it's a minor impact compared to all of the other impacts that could result from failed septic systems and run off from subdivisions and things like that Mr BR good uh how about the boats that are coming into the pond from other places how are you going to how you going to keep them from bringing it back in so so another thing that we would like to do um is signage um signage is only as effective as people are willing to follow it um you go to Long Pond there's signage out there you know please please remove your weeds um something very similar to that you know signage let people know that you know weeds that are on your trailer after you've launched your boat or on the back of your outboard or on your trolling motor clean your prop clean your prop clean your trailer I do it I fish the Little Pond you wouldn't believe the stuff that comes on my trailer I just pull it off and put it on the shoreline and that way it doesn't go from pond to Pond you know people wonder you know you get these smaller landlocked ponds that don't have a boat ramp and they're like well how does that stuff get in there people's paddles people's canoes little piece of it could be hanging on their kayak you think it's dry but it could float off and end up regrowing so signage is one method of making people aware again signage is only as effective as you know people willing to actually follow it but at least it's there and it'll remind people that you know to keep this resource in a in decent shape you know people have to do their part absolutely I got a question gu Rock mea away I live on the bond the guy that's maintaining uh long Pawn right now you said how long is he going to be over there doing whatever he does in August so they I believe they're in their second year okay um and I don't know the specifics I I know a typical ten it's good for 3 years I believe yes so he's going to be there at least another year uh I would imagine he's probably going to be there longer but all right so he hasn't gotten the whole Pond done over there on no no no they've only they've only done certain areas of the pond all right so if we're going to get him for 10 days at $5,500 a day that's 55 grand for the year if it takes us 10 years to clean all these pawns cuz there's a considerable amount of acreage if you start adding up everything around the Pawns you're looking at probably pretty close to a 10year plan so it's talking about half a million dollars to get all the weeds out of there um I'm all in favor of getting the weeds out of there and rejuvenating the ponds and letting everybody use them and everything and as far as like a half a million it might seem like a large number but we've wasted more than that Perry Hill Church for a prime example we spent just about that much re refurbishing that and we don't even use it so if we're going to use Lake Street I think we should try it and if after 3 years it doesn't seem like it's making a difference then take another action but I think you ought to try to do something than to do nothing thank you very agree very good ever I have just one question have you seen the document that this commission got from division marine fisheries yes dated August 27th and there issues in there that I would think could be on the committee's responsibilities to do the water testing and stuff not not the commission itself right so so that's I didn't know if you were aware of this yes so so I I I know about their toy restrictions time of year restrictions uh which wouldn't affect us because I believe the restrictions were uh April 1st and June 15 yes so we plan on doing this stuff in August when the weeds are at their greatest growth so the toy restrictions really wouldn't apply to us um um in reference to survey actually doing surveys and seeing how effective this is uh I can discuss that with Jeff uh find out what he normally does whether or not that's something that's within his scope of work if not uh I believe there's enough people between me and the other two gentlemen who were on the commission or on the committee that frequently fish those ponds we could with the you know with our own eyes you know I mean we may be a little you know impartial of what's going on but you know we may have a little bit of an interest there but you know we could see the results um I'm I'm certain that with the first phase being along the road uh anybody could actually walk up and down those roads and take a look and actually see a difference I I spoke with the agent for uh a little bit last night and he he actually brought up a good point about maybe reaching out to you Mass Dartmouth having a student that's doing a project or a study that that could be an option you know that's yeah I think that's a good idea um looking at the notice of intent in this letter you know I I I I like the project I I have no issues with the project at all um I see that you got you're waiting on comment from um natural heritage um meepa and Misa yeah and I I don't expect to be too much of a comment from natural heritage because there's a very small portion of the South Pond which is within natural heritage which is where the Earth and Dam is uh if I remember correctly I think it's some kind of a a muscle that's in the river Downstream okay um since we're not doing anything of like herbicides I don't believe any Downstream impact uh would exist yep um so but that's up to Natural Heritage to look into and decide and I didn't know I didn't know if they'd come back with something on Turtle turttle sweeps or um anything like that so so if there were any issues with turtles U because I had discussions with Jeff about that uh typically what they do uh and it I guess it's about as effective as it can be but the person who's running the machine will observe the belt as it's pulling the weeds and whatever turtles that they see they will you know physically gently put them back into their habitat um Jeff has told me that you know they've had a very good track record um in you know managing that um I don't believe I know some people have had reservations about potentially harming fish or fish kills uh it's my understanding that this will not impact any fish in the ponds at all because it it just doesn't get deep enough uh where you know you're not disturbing the bottom um you're not dredging you're not scraping the bottom you're just pulling these weeds at the RO right and I imagine they'd swim away if signs yeah typically you know anybody who's a fisherman knows if you're making a lot of noise or you know your boating they'll you know they'll tend to hide right I'm a Hunter I stomp through the woods deer on the outs away I get it yeah um so I guess yeah really that that was you know I just I know you're waiting until August I I before I guess my recommendation would be you know before we agree or you know disagree again I'm in I'm in favor of this I would like to see the comments come back from those agencies you know but we got we got the ball roll in here yeah that's understandable all Jo so um thanks I I mean this is obviously a remarkable ecological resource here in the town um I I think you kind of touched on this already but I think the uh comments from Department marine fisheries I think they had a couple on you know the specifics of a monitoring plan and I think this is an we're actually seeing a natural process I mean Wetland succession into a bog but we've accelerated it so I think um trying to get the weeds out uh and and and as you said the other piece is nitrogen and phosphorus whether you know it's go and you also mentioned we're seeing it everywhere down on the cape you know every place they're having problems with this and and it's can be Road run off it you know it's failed septic systems and I you know I I think in terms of it is going to be a long-term project trying to understand how to you know can we reduce those you know those inputs of nutrients and AR rest or verse the you know the um n nutrient enrichment of of these ponds and I think there may be funding in some of that through you know whether D or in terms of Grants um for the monitoring Environmental Protection Agency is ultimately responsible for you know uh while they want to tell you that they're not theyve delegated authority to the state they're ultimately and they'd probably be more than happy well I don't know if they'd be more than happy but it's a potential Source you know to get at some of the monitoring and uh the chairman and myself we talked a little bit and it's beyond the the commission's um you know role but or maybe not but you know there you know if you want to find somebody cheaply I hate to say this as a former grad student but you find a grad student or somebody that's looking for a research project and again you know that's it's not really um essential for you know the project to happen but just you know some ideas thrown out there and I guess one other observation um I had was in and I couldn't find it but I know there's the invasive species the mil foil or the coontail and the um the others but there were some um those are the invasives and then there was some uh reference to um nuisance species and I understand the the water lies you you know to they they're you know encroaching on the open water but and and maybe I I made this up but I thought there was um something in the proposal that addressed uh Cattails and and I and just I I think most you know people know or if they don't you know I mean that's a really important you know Wetland native Wetland plant for water foul you know Ducks geese w docks with that right and I think uh I think Cattails is something that we are are not planning on doing anything too um it's it's a hard job got a mix of stuff right and Cattails are typically a shoreline type plant you don't typically see them in the middle of a pond um if you see any it may be anywhere from 5 to 6 feet out from the shoreline um we don't plan on touching any of The Cattails uh as far as we're concerned we we don't consider the cat tails an invasive species yeah or I should say a critical invasive invasive species it's going to really impact the pong um I might have made that up in my mind think I read something no I don't I don't think you did I just I just saw it in it was under Solitude it said something about trimming The Cattails back but but yeah I I don't know if again uh as a as a guide I used what solitude put together last year um as possible you know maybe that particular phrase or that sentence you know could be a typo uh but we do not plan on doing anything to Cattails uh the Eco harer uh first of all wouldn't be able to grab them because Cattails are five six feet high in some areas uh again the Eco Harvester is only skimming the surface and affecting anything from the surface 18 in to about 24 in below the surface just grabbing the weeds so there's uh an Ecco Harvester I do not think would be effective at removing Cattails that's something that would probably be manually pulled and we do not propose that and I think in terms of managing this um you um sorry [Music] um um yeah um I kind of lost the the thread there but um yeah it's an important one and it was just a side note I kind of saw it somewhere and and um um I know you had a question but I had a couple more just just thought quick question that's all the regrowth r if they come in they clean it out how long before they got to come back and do it again is that 5 years 10 years well that that's something that that I have to discuss with people at Cindy um they are much more knowledgeable with those aspects than I am my trade is just civil engineering um and again that is something that I need to discuss with Jeff to find out how often they're going to have to come back and you know what we do in phase one phase two phase three maybe phase four and then back to phase one back to phase one we have to figure out never ending cycle let's just right and and there's and you you know based on based on the photo you know based on what you see here and I don't know if you people have seen the images but this color image is um the vegetative growth that's in the ls um you can see and and and not all of these are invasives uh some of these are all mixed in within the color categories that you see here um but it you know that it may take a process where you know it might take five or six phases before we go back back to what we did at Phase One and hit those areas but these ponds are so large um one of them being probably over 100 acres the other one being I believe it's maybe 65 acres so it's going to take some time before we can uh be able to manage the entire Pond and then go back to what we initially started uh again to answer your question I have to communicate with Jeff on that from cing the underwater get his thoughts as to when you know how how quickly these plants will regrow and then we have to revisit to beginning all over again how much of those vat how much lot I don't know I I know I know at one point I saw 98,000 because I looked it up on yeah well I mean that's that's a great question and um I believe last year 18 months ago I had a discussion with selectman uh gas bar uh because he posed the same question you did uh wouldn't it be nice if the town could acquire their own Ecco Harvester train somebody at DP you know at the DPW you know how to use it uh maybe maybe make a little side money on it or something by you know loaning it out to other municipalities um because we're not going to be using it all the time so you know that that may be something to look into where we can manage it ourselves instead of paying someone else to manage it for us uh it would save tax dollars and um you know it'd be something that I believe that DPW could probably manage on their own but my own person opinion I think I'd want that away from the DPW keep it away from that fund and do something else but I I do agree that we should look into purchase I mean you got to say right 75,000 is 13 days yeah that's you get out of 98,000 even if it was 150 it doesn't matter right so there's 26 days that we're going to pay for and we know this is going to be an ongoing thing forever right right I think we need to determine the Su the success of the process first because the question being asked about how often and how fast I think that's yet to be determined as well because what's what's the level of Nate and phosphorus and and the sources that are feeding into the system that's promoting the growth so again until you do a pre- survey with you know aerial photography or whatever the the process be and and look at it you know year to year then you'll know you'll have a better idea what what it's going to take to to manage the the the the whole place it's you know yeah we're kind of putting the cart right so you know it's a big test the first time they go there and that's and that's why I would like to do it along the street I I I know some people have an interest of you know hitting certain areas of Pawns I that makes total sense because that's going to be the easiest areas to map out and photograph and survey and look at year to year to year you know is been 3 years it's already you know blooming in is it 5 years and so on and it's an easy survey site that's what I'm saying right and it's easy to get the rid of the W right there I think just what you're referencing right now makes total sense M Mr barley had your hand up oh um how close to sure does they work and how much water is required for the thing to work I mean can they work in 3 ft of water I'm just um just wonder that's have you ever seen one work I I've only seen one work um on videos uh YouTube videos there's a half an hour YouTube video on Long fun them doing long F right really right so so so there's plenty of videos out there if if you uh if you Google uh CN underwater they have their own website uh you can observe photographs and videos and and actually see the process I know watching a video is not the same thing as seeing it in person um we wanted to try to get a demonstration last year um as as some of the conservation Comm members know uh but following certain guidelines we weren't allowed to do that which which is understandable because you know there are some risks involved it it's a boat you use gasoline to power the boat we wanted to make sure that you know certain restrictions were were in place and that everything was going to be followed to certain specifications um to answer your question I do not know 100% because I don't know if it's like a vhole boat or if it's like a John Boat with a flat bottom I don't know how much water it actually displaces um but I would have to say a reasonable off the top of my head a depth of 2 feet maybe 2 and 1/2 ft so the reason I'm asking is I need to keep them away from my suction box that goes out into the pond well I'm I'm pretty I'm pretty certain so so Jeff has done this type of work throughout the New England region um I'm sure it's not his first rodal when it comes to you know Farmers with their irrigation systems and cranberry Growers and so forth so I'm sure that if you know we can identify where couple of flags or something yeah even if you put a bean pole out there with a flag or something uh you know to Market so that we make sure that it doesn't get bumped or damaged or you know destroyed um you know we could even uh do a pre-treatment survey where you know if Jeff wants to go out there with a boat and Mark those off and we can ask him if he'd be willing to do that there are a few large Boulders about the size of a refrigerator yeah on my South property line they go right out a long waves out towards the original River on the other side there uh he might want to know those are we run again I can discuss that with him to find out what his protocol is when it comes to underwater obstructions like large rocks I know there's I know there's tree I know there's stumps in some of these ponds uh I'm I'm sure he's come into contact with these you know like any New England Pond a lot of these ponds are man-made you know they you know they put an earth and Dam at one end and these things just fill up there used to be fields at one time so I'm sure he's aware of these types of obstructions but I can find out more information if it's a flat bottom badge you might only be drawing like 6 in it's the wheel correct with the hopper fills you might have B and you might even get a little more I mean we've had 500 ton bodges you know that only draw 12 Ines right there's a reason why it's all about the displ displacement so if they get a flat bottom they might do better better than what we think you know so and and I don't know the specifics of but we'll find out you know when they get there yeah these Eco Harvesters but you know we we we can get all this you know again let's just get the process started to no toes in the water see the results you know if the results are favorable then we can go on to the next phase and you know we can go from there all right um oh so um not to put the cart in front of the horse because you're talking about phase one and um but just a couple other thoughts or observations I I know that the time of year restriction that DMF put in the letter is related to River Herring you know out wife and blue back and there's apparently eels up in there but they spent tons of money to reestablish a good access for you know the fish runs up upstream and I I kind of bring that up as another potential pot of money that's directly tied you know it's it's there in the lake and I know um last I saw the the runs were still down a little bit compared to something like the matap poiset river where they've got a pretty healthy run and I I I'm just thinking it's connected right down into the harbor and you want to poke New Bedford oh did I say that but um it I it's I and I know that National Marine fishery service Noah um they they funded um um River Herring restoration projects all over and it seems like you got the first piece of it but it's not done so you could you could pitch that and and so that's one idea and then I had just one other that almost ties to to the gentleman's comment about you know and and what we were talking about how deep or how close to shore uh just uh to be aware that and not that you're that that you would but uh any you know the shoreline you want to leave it as undisturbed as possible cuz it's keeping you know sedimentation out and you start disturbing stuff you'll get a couple extra invasive species you might and I'm I'm I'm sure I'm telling you things you've already thought about you know frag mes or purple Lo Strife which are real headaches in their own right so yeah yeah Friday night is Just is impossible to get rid of unless you hit it with salt water it doesn't like salt water right and and you and you've touched on um Herring run um with the Hamlet Street bridge now I know that's partially a roadway project uh and I I know there were issues with uh the time of year that they could actually do work because of the Herring uh were there any funds that were used uh relating to it's a state projects I don't know yeah that was all state yeah because I figured since he touched on you know looking into other resources for funding you know since uh Herring do run into Lake Street through you know up through the Krishna River and H Street and uh into Lake Street and Beyond um you know if there was any funding or sources that were involved with Hamlin Street U maybe we could dip into that so here's the big thing you already had the 75 grand available correct uh we have some I do not know the Bott okay I I do not know exactly what's left after all the improvements have been done uh I know we were approved for I think it was 32 or $35,000 last year when we were going to do the herbicide use so six days um so I'm sure we've got a little bit more than that but that's why I'm hoping we can get six days maybe seven days out of Jeff so well once you go do your first there and then things are going to tell us a lot right and then then we can say then we're going to have another year to really go after funding so if everything goes good August September you're going to go Heavy after funding and get people I mean we can probably get other people to startop looking and see what we can do together about we're all in for this project I think for the town and I even believe the people out here in the audience is all for this so if we get to the first phase and get in there and see what things do and see what things happen right now I think we get a lot of speculations you know like what we're going to do what's going to happen we're not going to know until we get the guy in there and say okay let's happen and then we'll go from there Jam as far as the Hamlin Street project goes the herring lift or fish lad whatever you want to call it yeah that was something was a cement structure that was put there probably in the 50s and fisheries and wildlife came in I want to say 15 years ago took the concrete structures out naturalized the river that was all fisheries and wildlife money that that came from fishing licenses hunting license is paid for it's some tax money I'm sure but uh the highway the high the the bridge is mass Highway Mass Highway intended on coming in ripping out that fishway and putting a new concrete one in which totally defeated the purpose of taking the concrete one out and when Mass fisheries and wildlife heard that that was going to happen they jumped all over it because they wanted to keep it as they put it natural which is they're doing a lot of that around the state they're taking a lot of old dams out all over the they two or three in pouth County I I know I know uh The Sawmill was an ecological restoration project uh they did a lot of improvements there with uh the fish ladder that's there and um the wetlands uh making it more biodivers if you will um hopefully you know I can get in touch well I I know we wanted to keep the Buzzard's Bay Coalition kind of at arms length um but you know maybe if I just kind of pick their brain a little bit find out how they obtain funding for you know a project like the uh the mil Pond uh you know maybe we can you know look at those Avenues as well yeah core faav aush at Land Trust would be a good good source of information with funding as well all this and and maybe so I believe there's some kind of a Cape Cod Commission for cranberry Growers or something to that effect maybe we can maybe get some assistance from them because the you know these two gentlemen here draw their water from you know I'm sure they have a permitted use to do so so they draw their water from uh Lake Street and uh you know maybe the the cap card cranberry collaborative crry yeah maybe we could you know look at them and see if they could give us some guidance uh you know if they can't you know if they're not able or you know if they don't normally give funding maybe they can give us guidance because I'm sure they themselves have probably run into a particular you know project like this so once we get this first phase done like Mr Suza had mentioned you know we can go full steam ahead and you know look at all different Avenues of try and get funding so that you know we don't have to keep taking money out of the preservation fund and right and uh fun so what do you what do you think um I I I'd like to continue this personally just to get the comments back from from the other state agencies you know who knows yeah that's you know that's pretty common practice um do you you think it'll be in two weeks or do you want to continue this for a month um so I'm not 100% sure how long it takes for natural heritage um you know to do their assessment and get back to us I'm not sure how long it takes for D to do their assessment and get back to us um I would look at your guidance for that um because I don't know what their timelines are I wouldn't need here's the other thing why don't he get a hold of us I mean we're not drudge until next August correct no I know but we we going to keep we got to keep the public hearing on you know on the radar we want to do two months no I mean I we could do we can just keep well keep it on the agenda right but we'll continue it until I don't what do you say the 9th is it was it October 9th is that was that on next yeah on already um this October 9th and 23rd October 23rd you want to do October 23rd continue with October 23rd we'll get an update six weeks right yeah we'll get an update make sure we hear back from all the other agencies I know Misa and mea take some time only from one two you can let it know yeah that sounds good that that way it gives you plenty of time riew any comments that come back gives me time yeah we can you to U excellent look into it now uh Gary do you have anything to add because I I've been long-winded I mean this is a passion of mine I've been at this since 2017 but this gentleman here actually lives on the pond so hi my my name is Gary COA um actually I see several of you live on the pond I also live on the pond I'm probably one of the new guys on the Block I've only been there about 23 years so that being said from the time I moved in I used to be able to fish right off my Shore uh that's impossible right now uh you cannot even bring a boat to my Shore right now because the weed level is actually out probably 80 ft I think everyone here who lives on the pond knows that that's what got me involved in this committee um that being said it comes down to this we need to do something and this is the first logical step uh funding's an issue we all know that we're all taxpayers we all know that um we want to do this as responsible as possible but also as cheap as possible without fact Den I have tax pay so that being that's what the committee's here for we just want to get this ball rolling and we're looking for everyone's help if they have any ideas or funding levels that's not what we're here for we're here just to give you an option on how we can start cleaning the ponds if this works then the fund begins of trying to find how we're going to pay for it uh we have some money get started and that's where we're at that's we're not trying to push anything down on anyone's throat this is a a responsible way of starting this project and I think um that's where we're at so thank you for your time and that's pretty much all have thank you yeah um so so that sounds good you guys are all on board with that yep all right um so I'll entertain a motion to continue this public hearing to October 23rd y so moved is there a second second all those in favor thank you very much Scott thank you than okay next item we have have an extension of an order of conditions Mark fris 301 Perry hle Road SE file number 001 0567 the request for extension of an order of conditions was filed file number 001 0558 for property located at 301 per Hill road map 8 Lots 25 25d 25e 25f the applicant proposes to improve approximately 68 ft of existing gravel roadway to construct approximately 525 ft of new gravel roadway and to construct stor water SWS and detention ponds and to fill and grade within the 100 foot buffer zone of vegetated wetland plan name is definitive subdivision plan known to be plan to be known as Perry Hill Estates in a cushion at Mass dated August 11th 2021 storm water operation and maintenance plan dated September 10th 2021 review of matter is presented votes may be taken Mr how you doing ladies and gentlemen uh I'm just here asking for an a small extension not much um everything that you basically read off is complete uh 99% of the project is complete uh some of you were out there last week and you saw it everything's complete everything is working fine the only thing that's not complete and I didn't get a chance to finish last year is a small replication area uh and and 90% of that is done it's just some trees that were actually out of stock last year and I couldn't couldn't buy them so I was going to buy them in PlayOn this fall uh but didn't want to be working in an area that you know I'm not supposed to be in so I'm just here asking for you know 6 months a year uh extension three days if you reason why I'm saying year is because I think through the bylaw you actually have to give it time to see if any invasive species take over Wetland so um I figure if it has 6 months or a year I won't need that to the project it's just to get an observation of of the replication area to make sure nothing invasive takes over that's it yep uh we conducted the site visit Saturday uh the site looks great all the I've been out there multiple times for multiple inspections of roof drain systems on some of the houses um been out there during rain events after rain events and everything seems to be functioning properly the site looks really good everything's um stabilized um yeah it looks looks really good thank you i' like to make a motion yeah do he extension give them plenty of time this way if anything dies or whatever you're not back here and you know what I mean it just gives you plenty of time to see what's happening let Mother Nature do its course you don't need the three the one probably will do it but if it don't then you're going to be back here right I think one do I'll second that okay there's a motion in a second all those in favor I very much thanks M okay discussion 550 Main Street final plan status review mad presented votes may be taken go ahead um this is from you yeah I just wanted to know where we stand with that I think the last time Bill went out there with the Meridian plan from naison the 550 does that need to be recorded do we need to get a new plan what are we are we still looking for okay I will call Bill Madden on that the it's been a long time since we've discussed it right um I think the last time that I talked to him he said he didn't think it needed an amend an amendment because it was you know minor grade improvements or whatever but I don't want to put words in Bill's mouth so I I'll call call Bill on that y just so we can finalize that and looks good letter for the file or whatever okay I I'll REO him for that yeah we haven't heard any complaints I haven't been out there I haven't I haven't taken a ride out there we haven't had no rain I haven't talked to Steve Campbell um but last I did hear it was significantly stabilized out there so yeah um like real grass was growing we wanted to stop in we end yeah we ended up going the other way and we didn't get in there we we were going to actually go in there and take a look but we didn't make it on oh there yeah yeah you know I didn't want to take a chance trying to get back through uh yeah good think getting stuck in the parade yeah or any of that okay no violations this week agent updates any agent updates Mark um I reached out to Jose Roman and I I had a list um put together a list or was given a list and then uh of regional engineering firms that would have a wetland scientist I shared that with uh Jose Mr Roman and uh he said he was going to reach out so uh I'm going to follow up with him I'm probably on Friday I'm going to be in all day Friday so try to do a bunch of housekeeping I saw that email I recommend all of those I think I want to say we compiled that was of Engineers that was for who we would use for like peer review or whatever so yeah that and I I guess I at least uh maybe some guidance from the commission at least in my mind and he asked this it's like do I need to delineate the entire my property and and at least in my mind it seems that well let's look at the effective area I I think that's what we agreed on yeah that's what that's what we we voted on all right I just all so I just want to make sure that I'm not I would say anything the the Border would it be east of his dwelling yeah we walk back in there a little bit Yeah inter supp we should set up we're trying to be as I agree on this made a mistake probably have it perimeter that you know it would Encompass you know right you know what I'm saying to yeah so get a good a good idea of of the layup right you know you know what I mean as far as I mean it's not like uh you know we just wanted to do 10 or 20 ft of no no no but like linear you know north to south the whole property line essentially behind his to find out where the wetlands are that's what I mean I don't think he has any idea no I don't think has any and and I have I was just thinking another thing about that he has horses what's he doing with his manure yeah that's a good point yeah that's a good question you can have the agent ask him about that I don't because I remember going to a couple of places like one on boss's Lane yeah if it does impact where the guy had a sealed rollof he only had one horse and that's howain this putting it went into contained a sealed SE roll off and take it off site was full no I get it yeah it's going to impact the uh that would impact the white land yeah absolutely then we went to that farm right Costas right right Costas yeah yeah trip away triip away yeah yep that was that was another new stor yesu right the they were looking to build right but I mean that's no I agree yeah the worst part about horse Manu too is that the seed goes out so if that gets into the water you're going to start planting everything that the horse eight along the edges that's why you don't use horse maneuver in a garden if you could ask ask that gentleman about um what's doing with the manure that's a good question uh I had um one one site that I went out and visited I'm going to try to um you know so for updates I'm you know I'm trying to get back out to sites if I've been out there to show back up again you know it's a one that um you know they didn't have the solitation barrier in place and I'm like you got to you got to get that in place they I don't think the work was been done yet but just so those are types of things other things I'm trying to Doc just remember MK you got a couple guys here that don't work and uh oh yeah if you ever need someone to go for a ride with you or whatever you want us to look at it with you please give us a call yeah and I and I appreciate it I appreciate folks stopping in it's a yeah whatever we can do as a team that's what it helps right we all work together thanks guys uh other business any other business I don't have anything future business next meeting of the Conservation Commission will be on September 25th 2024 meeting to be held at the town hall meeting room located at 122 Main Street Fish of mass I'll entertain a motion to adjourn motion to ajour Second all those in favor all right meeting ajour [Music] oh [Music] [Music]