##VIDEO ID:uJmVHSs6l64## good evening my name is Bob Connors it's 6 pm and I'd like to call the January 21st meeting of the Newber Conservation Commission to order Mason can you read the remote open meeting law Preamble and take a roll call of the members present as a preliminary matter this is Mason farret conservation agent of the Newber Conservation Commission and I call the January 21st meeting to order and per permit me to confirm that all members are present and can hear me Members when I call your name please respond in the affirmative Mary rimmer here TJ Cony here Mick Brown Diane O'Brien yes Woody Knight yes Frank wet Camp yes and Bob coners yes good evening everyone this open meeting of the Newbury Conservation Commission is being conducted remotely consistent Governor Baker's executive order of March 12th 2020 due to the current state of emergency in the Commonwealth due to the outbreak of the covid-19 virus in order to mitigate the transmission of the covid-19 virus we've been advised and directed by the Commonwealth to suspend public Gatherings and as such the governor's order suspend the requ the requirement of open meeting law to have all meetings in a publicly accessible physical location further all members of public bodies are allowed and encouraged to participate remotely ensuring Public Access does not Ure public participation unless such participation is required by law this meeting will feature public comment for this meeting the new Conservation Commission is convening by Zoom conference as posted on the agenda of the Conservation Commission Section of the town's website identifying how the public may join please note that this meeting is being recorded and that attendees are participating by video conference applicants or their representatives may be called upon to speak Andor share information to the screen if aable on the Fly we're now turning to the first item on the agenda but before we do so permit me to cover some of the ground rules for Effective and clear conduct of our business and to ensure accurate meeting minutes the chair will introduce each speaker on the agenda and after they conclude the remarks the chair will go down the line of members inviting each by name to provide any comment questions or motions please hold until your name is called further please remember to mute your microphones and use earbuds or earphones with tablets and cell phones please remember to speak clearly and in a way that helps generate accurate meeting for any response please wait until the chair yields the floor to you and state your name before speaking board and committee members should be called upon in a firstname alphabetical order to ease the process after the board and committee members have spoken the chair will afford public comment as follows the chair will first seek questions through the chat function and when participant when participants are using this function please list your name address and then your question the chair will then seek questions for the public who wish to speak they'll be asked to identify their names addresses question and questions once the chair has a list of all public commentators they will call on each by name and afford three minutes for any comments finally each vote taken in this meeting will will be conducted by roll call vote okay thank you Mason want to welcome everyone from the public that are before the commission tonight all right first order of business is upcoming meeting dates our next meeting is going to be on February 4th and the second meeting of February will be on February 18th meeting Minutes review January 7th 2025 meeting minutes why don't we take a moment review those see if we have any comments Corrections or concerns okay hearing then I will entertain a motion to approve the meeting minutes for January 7th as written still move okay do we have a second second second DJ okay roll call all in favor Mary yes TJ hi Woody yes Diane yes Frank yes and Bob Conor though chers uh Mason Mick hasn't he hasn't appeared yet has he um I don't I don't see him okay all right uh we have a RDA request for determination of applicability for 13 plumbush Downs applicant would like to replace exist in deck and extend the deck out back and around the side of the property as you recall team the applicant had presented a site plan with the delineation uh shown Mason was going to do a site visit uh so why don't I leave it to you Mason where are we at on on this uh yeah so from my notes the only thing that we're were waiting on is for me to confirm the delineation um I was able to go out there on Thursday and review the Wetland Flags um everything looked good to me most of them were already on the existing fence line on the property um and I think those photos can be seen in the folder um the only one that was pretty much outside that was Wetland flag A7 um and that seemed like it was in the correct spot um it was kind of a high spot in the marsh um just outside of that existing fence line okay all right why don't I open this up to questions from the members I see sha Sheamus Quirk is on the line Sheamus do you want to add anything or do you want to answer questions as they arise and I maybe I'm confusing Sheamus on this one that's he's the's he's the applicant okay Sheamus you're on uh you're on mute if you have any comments you want to have okay Mary any questions sorry I was trying to figure out how to unmute myself there um no I don't have anything to add right now um just uh if anybody has any questions okay thank you Sheamus Mary any questions for Sheamus on this application I I see some new information included in the Dropbox that shows some uh some it looks like uh footings is that right footing detail from Goliath Tech yeah okay so we're I think we had those the last meeting too okay they were part of that that material that came in the day before yeah okay great uh I don't have any other comments thank you okay thank you Mary uh TJ any comments for Sheamus on this one no no comments thank you TJ Woody any comments a questions for Sheamus on this application no I don't have any comments or questions thank you both okay uh Diane any questions or comments for Sheamus not from last time thank you okay Frank any questions on this project no thanks okay I do not have any questions are there any raised hands from the public at this time okay do any members have a request for any additional information hearing thenone I will entertain a motion to issue a negative finding for 13 plumbush Downs who Moved second uh who who seconded that TJ okay we're back in sync TJ with Dian you know no one disturb it as long as you take the lead Diane okay roll call vote all in favor Mary yes TJ hi Woody yes Diane yes and Bob Connor's V yes Frank yes okay okay thank you Sheamus we'll see if we can get that determination out to you uh in the next few days okay thank you okay next matter is a request for determination of applicability 130 Northern Boulevard applicant wants to renovate the single family home by extending upward and adding a roof deck areas on the first floor will be deconstructed and the F will not increase once improvements are built so I see Mike Doyle Mike good evening hey good evening Bob okay so Mike why don't you just we reviewed your project at our last meeting yes it was just a we were trying to piece together what you were doing it kind of looked like you were removing making a smaller footprint but expanding the second floor area yes may I share my screen with you yeah that'd be great Mike if you could thank you uh can you guys see this yes okay great so on the left is the existing plan and um what we're doing as far as the building structure first is that we're actually reducing the footprint uh you can see on the lower right hand side there's an extension of the um of the the building it's like a little wraparound porch the front part of that is removed you can see on the right hand side is just the straight line across so uh we're actually reducing the uh footprint of the building itself and uh then what we're doing is if I don't know if you guys are familiar with this property but um it's it's not been tended to for for a while and it's it's you know it's non-compliant in in a lot of ways there's a a big vinyl fence that goes all the way around and um we're going to start by removing that and uh essentially if you take a look on the uh we're gonna add a a wood fence um if you look on the right hand side there's h two sections one of them is going to be on the the back left side and the other one is going to be on the back right side so essentially they're going to start at the back of the house and move um back toward the the uh the um the lot line and on the right side that one though will be only extended so far as we can to leave a little bit of an opening there um so that we don't disturb those those bushes that are in place there in the upper right hand side and then um essentially what we're looking to do is just to add the uh we're going to change the we want to change the location of the driveway the driveway is Crush shells and it's on the um the you can see it's on coming off of 41st Street and uh what we're going to do here is uh we're going to build a uh there's going to be a slider off of the back of the house and it'll lead to a uh a crushed stone uh patio just have some uh Cobblestone perimeters just to contain the stone and then uh the front the driveway will be re relocated to the front of the house the Lower leftand Side that is going to be again crust stone with um Cobblestone border and then there'll be a uh a walkway to the front door again Crush stone with uh or PE stone with a cobblestone uh border and then there's this one other area of uh P stone that we're going to use and it's going to be there's going to be two um propane tanks that are going to be located in the um left side of the house near near the back of the house and there just be a little uh walkway there uh pone and then everything that is oh and also around the front of the house and around the right side of the house we just like to have some a raised bed there for the planting of uh some flowers perennials or um you know whatever that choice might be and then the idea is to convert the rest of the property to beachgrass so you know we're trying to make this as uh compliant as uh as possible and um you know just beachgrass everywhere else where there's not something that's delineated in this shaded brown color so quick question uh Mike yeah on the do you have you have a calculation on the existing driveway um you're going to you're basically abandoning abandoning the driveway on the right side of your house that me I was down at your house and and saw this um usually what we what we do like Mike is this is a kind of a table showing what you have what you're giving up and I think it's easy enough to probably calculate yeah this um was done for me the site plan was done by Everett Chandler okay so I would just have to ask that of of Everett um is there a table you know what you table there yeah know yeah if you can expand on that that's exactly right let me just uh thanks Mary yeah if you can zoom in on that okay here you go can you see that table I need to expand it y just slide it over SL slide it over yeah hey sorry I'm trying oh what's going on here if you go to the bottom there's a there's a a lay bar line you can yeah I'm trying to trying to move that gray bar down the bottom slide that okay yeah I'm struggling to do that okay oh boy hang on a second let me go back out yeah I think that table is gonna give us the information that we're looking for can you see that yep I can okay good sorry I can't move that gray bar I don't know what's going on so looks like with the roadway the roadway Road was same yeah so it looks like he he kept it the same okay yeah 286 okay why don't I stop there and and Mary questions for Mike Doyle on this project um I I think I have to obstain actually Mike is a recent client of mine so hi Mike hey Mary project it's a small planet here on Plum Island yeah for sure okay uh TJ any questions for Mike tole on this RDA um well I'm just going through the MTH right now trying to get the Deltas on what they have and what they're going to be uh so the so when you see when I see Crush shells 560 square feet or whatever they're going down to zero that's all going to be plantings that's correct in the so so I'm sorry TJ there's one area here where uh you can see where the the driveway is I hope I I might have to zoom out of this okay um it's going to be primarily plantings but you can see there is a a a crestone patio that circular patio that's in the back that's in the that's in the area where the old uh driveway was yeah but that will be that would be picked up in under crushed stone that's correct Del for the crush Stone though so that's right yeah so that's going to be replicated in um other areas of the property the uh the seagrass right um so between the building and and some of the uh different stones that are going to go to plantings uh you're you're roughly about a thousand square feet to the good is yes is that correct that is correct okay yeah there's a lot of to be honest a lot of junk in there brick and all that kind of stuff which is um is all going to be there's only be plantings in those spots yeah okay uh that's good um just a quick question from a board point of view for the Cobblestone outli [Music] um do we allow that as as farest you know give and take for the other um the the the Delta of of giving back you know I I always view it as the net impact to the resource living out here being out here for 44 years uh there's always a varied opinion that they can become projectiles at at some point or another um I I live in a neighborhood that experienced well as do you do TJ and if these I I think what happens is there's a Viewpoint that if you're down on the Southshore in Marshfield they have these small cble rocks down in Marshfield and Hull on the beach and and during significant storms those actually can become projectiles um so I I personally don't have a problem with it but I'm good I'm good as well my my personal opinion TJ anything else no that's it yeah okay Woody any any questions for Mike on this one I was curious on the cobbles and that's been answered primarily and um the Second Story deck yes is um are they going it's going to be on puttings uh so if you if you look at the um Second Story deck if the if you look at the right um the image on the right that area on the right hand side is um it's currently a a wraparound porch so that's there's a u there's currently a foundation there and uh we're just going to build on the existing foundation so it's a it's a closed area currently and it's going to be closed um the first floor is going to be closed and then the decking is going to be uh on the second floor just sitting on on top of that okay thank you yeah I have I have no other questions Bob that's that's all I was curious for okay thank you witty Diane any questions for Mike Doyle on this application hey Mike um the the old driveway that's over there on the right you said that's crushed shell right now that's correct yeah so are you just going to be scraping that away and disposing of it so you're are you digging down or putting any sort of filtration or anything in there nothing like that just scraping away yeah just gonna rake it out and um and and then you know remove it from the property and then it's being over that now there's going to be the proposed PE stone patio yeah is that I'm sorry now we so is that what's going to be around the PE stone patio once you take out the um Crush shell is there going to be planting there uh Beach grass okay and where it says grass lawn that's already existing grass lawn on both of the plants it well no it's G to be um that we're g to be removing the uh whatever you what kind of grass you call that it's just uh I don't know what you call just a regular Fescue or whatever it might be and uh removing removing the lawn to add Beach gr that's correct well that's what what I didn't get CU it's on both plans it says grass lawn and then it says grass lawn so I wasn't sure I've been by there and I don't know if there is there grass lawn there now or are youing grass lawn no there is a grass lawn and and so uh you know I apologize for this is just that um Everett was trying to get everything done for me on time and and essentially it's it's just everywhere else that is not shaded is going to be uh Beach Grass okay so you're not planting any new grass lawn anywhere no no definitely not okay um okay you're not digging anything out it doesn't look like no and the raised planting what is what are they going to be raised with is that like Timbers or something well I mean we I'd like to raise them with the the the larger um cobblestones the uh okay that's what TJ was talking about then yeah you you turn them on their you know you turn them on their end and and so um it just I have them at my current house here and uh just gives a little bit of color around the around the foundation okay okay anything else d no okay if if anyone wants to Circle back just let me know right any questions for Mike Doyle on his proposal have we already addressed the um 50% value well you know what Frank I've got about six questions here which I wanted to go over at the end and one of them is kind of our protocol and getting that 5050 letter from uh the Building Commissioner on Mason um last time I I went to see Peter and he said that he was going to provide that letter to you yep I have that I have the uh letter from Peter so that is to go great thank you that's all okay so I just wanted to go back uh Mike on the fent you're proposing you have a solid vinyl fence now you're taking that all out is that that is correct yeah and the fence that you're proposing to put back in is is going to be new in a new location currently we have a 5050 rule on the fence it's got to be open 50% so y just want to be sure you're aware of that oh definitely yeah and it's going to be it's GNA be wood and it's G to be 5050 okay great now on your propane tanks what's the pathway from your well I I guess U these are against the house so your pathway is not going to be in the grade or in your yard correct okay and in your fire you're gonna have a fire pedal back there on your patio that's not the plan okay okay and the beach grass usually require a 12 by 12 grid patent I mean obviously ever will be able to to give you guidance on that and that's all the questions I have uh Mike does anyone else have a follow-up question or Mason do you have any questions you want answered no questions but I'll just add uh Peter had sent that letter out um saying that 130 Northern is entirely in zone X um so it's not subject so yeah it's not subject to that okay you know what to do put that in the drop boox momy and just so it's with this meeting I'll put it send it to me and I'll add it to this drop box yep we'll do okay any other questions Diane any anything else just quick where the new proposed PE Stone driveway is going that looks like it's going over current beach grass and some pavers so some pavers are coming out there and the beach grass is coming out but then you're replanting the beach grass elsewhere and back that is great in the front and and the back so um you know essentially every area that is is white is going we're planting Beach Grass throughout yeah my only concern was it says now that it's currently Beach Grass so I just didn't know if you're were adding Beach Grass anywhere or is it already there well if I look if you look at the table you'll see the that add or deduct it you know it's hard here uh Diane is his current driveway actually comes off of 41st Street yeah so what looks like the backyard uh you're coming straight in off of 40 41st Street and they're abandoning that except for that one little patio area and then coming in off a Northern Boulevard uh straight in okay and the tables building size is is is a reduction deck and stairs is a reduction uh you're removing 200 squ feet of brick expansion of PE Stone but you can add the brick removal or you know what that's probably the easiest way to exchange for the cobbles um yeah I I mean it's a net benefit to the resource when you add it all up but yep I'm good thank you okay are there any uh are there any raised hands in the public on there okay do members have a request uh for additional information at this time okay hearing none I will entertain a motion to issue a negative finding for 130 Northern Boulevard second well it's gonna be Diana TJ because they already keep it the same yep he messed it up you guys got to practice you got to practice this I'm I'm out a s know it's getting laate here on Paul Island okay I got ahead of myself we have such enthusiasm on this board yeah I just I I love your board itch to get no I'm serious that you guys have been terrific to work with you know Mason has been really great I mean uh you guys got a great team well we do the best we can okay roll call vote all in favor TJ hi uh Woody yes Diane yeah Frank yes and Bob Connor's spol yes okay thank you guys we'll see if we can get that out to you this week to get your get you going on your on your timeline thank you all very much bye Kelly bye I didn't even realize it was you until I zoomed in nice to see you again nice to see you as well all right bye bye bye dear okay uh next order business is a it's an RDA it's an application uh submitting and after the fact RDA for unpermitted work already completed on site drainage improvements adjacent to Wetland resource area and Associated groundwork and Grading were completed the addresses 333 to 32 Riverview driver Mason why don't you give us an update where we're add on this yeah um so if you guys remember from the last time we had a couple members out for a s sidewalk um to go check out the site there was some work done to improve some drainage issues that were happening on the property um in relation to the lackey's yard flooding um and we had requested that they come in for some after the fact permitting um to permit the work that was done um and so Mike D Roa is here to take over and uh okay Mike Go good evening and just give us your name and address and make your presentation if you will sure Mike D Roa D Roa environmental um I'm actually over at 151 Hay Street in Newbery um and uh we're helping um peddy and Russ with their their drainage thing here and filed and after the fact um RDA I'm going to share my screen if that's okay certainly I'll sort of go through where we are with this um essentially it's it's a jurisdictional question and um our position is the work was done as a buffer zone project but it was obviously unpermitted so this is after the fact RDA uh we're asking for a Nega -3 um work in the buffer zone but doesn't require an noi um essentially we're down on Riverview Drive um and what happens is the the drainage comes down the road this way and then also from this way and this is sort of the low spot um so historically it's created a drainage drainage problems um a large Wetland on the uh south side of the road drain uh through a culvert uh that was put it we did a lot of uh sort of uh forensic ecology on this uh looking through old records and aerial photos trying to put the story together but around 2001 DPW put a covert in here uh looked like it was prior to when they paved the whole street um so what it did was it just take took the water from from this Wetland area which drains to the north um and just dumped it on this lot um and it just sheep flowed over to a culvert that goes under a Farm Road and then flows onto the farm um and so what was happening every time it rained the rain would come down the road it would come across the street and just flood this whole area out um so when Russ and KY moved in uh Russ took it upon himself to sort of fix the situation and he first um see let me go through we did a timeline let me go through the timeline but essentially the jurisdictional uh piece ended this intermittent stream ended at the end of the Culvert and this was just buffer zone so the water just sheet flowed over this until it became channelized again uh through the Culvert so this whole lot would would flood and the neighborhood would flood too um let me scroll down into these pictures and I'll show you the timeline so this is 2001 and you can see where they they were started to pave the street over um and you can see right in here the um the uh saw cut for where the DPW put in the CT this is that Wetland to the South that drains North there's no evidence of a Channel or anything on this side uh it just sheep flowed over uh and then ended up through a culvert in this Farm Road into this Farm ditch here uh this is another shot 2003 again showing sort of a flooded condition all the way through to the ditch this is another one in 2017 you can see the the whole site just gets flooded so Russ was working um you know work to put in well this is his first step so he he connected up to the uh covert at the street and then dug a ditch back through and connected to the covert in the back uh by the farm so it allowed the water to flow and that was the primary purpose of this whole project then uh this last year he basically put a pipe put a big Culver here to catch the surface runoff and then ran the the cul pipe into the back so that was that's where we we ended up with where we are now so our position is that it was a buffer zone project uh probably would have been permitted under in RDA um and it relieved a lot of pressure and drainage issues from the neighborhood I think we have six or seven letters emails from Neighbors in support of the project and support of of what was done here so um so that's what we're asking the commission for is a neg -3 um and we can take any questions keny and Russell are on the the call as as well okay Mike thank you let me let me open this up to questions from the members uh Mary questions for Mike D roza on this application um yeah hi hi Mike um so yeah thanks for putting together this timeline um for us the I did a little bit of research myself with with just what was available from images on mass mapper and it appears to show that at least there are remnants of a channel that was you know before it was channelized but I it it's not clear enough to say that it was continuous from the Wetland on the south side of the street to the Wetland on the North side so um but then it was channelized whether by permit or it sounds like maybe that was done with the okay from um the previous conservation agent in 2018 at least that's what we were told on site that it was once it was channelized though um can doesn't it then become a stream isn't it now not a buffer zone project anymore when it's piped yeah so yeah that's the gr catch okay that's the catch yeah and so what they what they did and what Mary's what Mary's saying is that the intermittent stream ended here and then once Russ dug the ditch and made the connection he then extended the intermittent stream um and so created a resource area through the created a resource area and that's sort of the rub and I mean the commission has the discretion to to apply here um clearly they they should have come to the commission they should have filed a permit this is kind of what we're trying to resolve now and bring them back into compliance um but yeah Mary's point is well taken that once that channel was dug then technically this became an intermittent stream and resource area which has special meaning under the wellness protection act as you know so I can't disagree with that Mary I that's sort of why we ended up with the enforcement order because it was yeah you know how do we how do we practically handle this where there original the original digging of the channel seems to have been done without permit and now the burying of the channel is done without a permit right so right um you know is there mitigation that is needed in the scenario like this where you basically you know you have a resource that's been altered that's where I'm stuck um it seems to me that it needs to be handled like it was filled filling of an intermittent stream because that's really what it was but um understanding it still needs to flow it still needs to protect the property I understand the drainage issues um what I don't know is you know whether or not the flow of that pipe is is representative of what the flow in the channel would be if it's unrestricted flow there all that's bank that's altered right so I've said my piece I'm GNA pass it on to the rest of the members for for them to weigh in so Mike I mean Mary has made some good points what what's a concern for me is that when you reference that the town actually put the covet across the street and and really extending one side of this onto private property and there's no record of that being done and and then if in 2018 uh the the applicant went to the town and there was a determination by the agent that he he made a a field determination so it it just seemed it all starts out from a a series of errors that starts with the town actually put in a culet and without it having a elusive thought of what was going to happen and it's u i mean from from my perspective driving down there the I think the mitigation has been done that it's been replanted uh that it is it seems to be working and and I'm at I'm at the Viewpoint that it uh the town owns some responsibility here and it's kind of a comedy of errors that kind of fell on the shoulders of the property owner at this point to kind of figure out so I'm going to stop there and move on TJ what are your thoughts on this one Mar I'll Circle back too we'll we'll Circle back on so I think you just answered my question but the mitigation is working and it's it's doing what it's supposed to do now however we got there from a from a to z we we we're here and but it is working correct correct correct okay I agree with you bation yeah no the water runoff mitigation yeah what was done what was done TJ should have been done originally it's not causing any flooding to any other neighbors or anything like that when the town extended the Culver across the street they should have continued it to the next C because that was the goal uh and you know to to shed the water from the Wetland but anything else TJ no that's it Woody what are your thoughts on this one well it's been the topic of discussion the last few people that spoke is the c put in the covet and move the water from one side of the street to the other unless there were examples of extreme rain where was actually going over the road to get there so my question exactly which was kind of answered was the cit's causing the problem and as stated the covet should have been extended to get to where it is now so that's my only comment I don't have Diane what are your thoughts the good news is we've got Frank wet camp that lives right in this neighborhood that's going to give us he might have to a thumbs up it's going to be like the Coliseum is it improved the neighborhood or is it or has it not D what are your question I act I went on this we um on the site visit and I remember we were discussing this whole thing and it kind of became so do we make them take the whole thing out and then you're just back to a situ ation where it's just flooding and it's not really you know it's just flooding the area and not really flowing anywhere I guess except that's the whole point it flows naturally um or we were discussing what sort of mitigation could be done say if they are filling an intermittent stream what would we have required if we ever were to have approved that what sort of mitigation would have been required and I know we had discussed with the owners that they had you know there's a depression area and they wanted to put natural plantings in there and and they seem very willing to do whatever sort of mitigation would be required um to me it seemed like this was a benefit to the area um but it just became a question was you know was it going to be up to us to decide or did the town need to do something to fix what they had previously done I kind of was of the impression at the time of have them mitigate and leave it alone because it seems to be working pretty well right now it's an example of a one-dimensional solution where that you get the water from one side of the street and then worry about it later and again where the town put the celv in that it's a comedy of errors is what it is and the CET stopped working I mean it was all you know well nothing was maintained the pipe wasn't working any longer to do what it had been it rust was saying that basically both ends of the pipe just one end get crushed by a machine and the other end was full of silt but we're going to go to Frank weten Camp who is going to give us the day byday uh how Frank is this working in your neighborhood yes yes it is and I just want to note that they left an open resource area at the and that meets the farmland that's about a I what is it Russ about a 10x 10 or 15x 15 open um yeah a SW yeah exactly so it will hold like I said kind of acts as a resource holds holds water until it then goes over so yeah right uh but yeah this was a problem for a long time on the street with flooding especially in winter time when it flooded and froze created a real Pro real Hazard for cars driving up and down the street so I I would have to say that it's it's working and that it is a better situation than it has been in the past 36 years that I've lived here okay so mik Mike D Roa let me ask you a question uh you know you you you understand the predicament with we're we're in and from a mitigation standpoint and I'm I'm just kind of spitballing here oh there are some blueberry bushes or some other uh bushes that are native that can be added to this open swell area um that that make sure it stabilizes that a little Beyond been done ABS absolutely that it'd be a perfect spot for both shrub and herbaceous plantings there uh that were Wetland adapted and I did talk to KY and Russ about that and they're they're pretty open to that as well so um we could um put a planting plan together for you or give you a list tonight if you want to close this out tonight um whatever the commission would like to do um we're happy to uh accommodate that what would you propose for a number of bushes Michael I would propose I would propose blueberries and Winterberry and uh Elderberry the three berries um they're all Wetland adapted they would do really well in there uh we could also do some herbaceous um plantings as well some sof Rush wool grass what would the number be you would propose I would do probably um I would do five of each shrub so 15 shrubs and uh we could do one gallon containers of some of the herbaceous material probably about you know five of each okay I'm gonna Circle back with Mary Mary you've heard this uh I think this thing has kicked around when did this first come in Mason this has been probably a three or four month I think yeah yeah for pedy and rest well the irony is that in 2018 if they had piped it instead of channelized it then it would have been a buffer zone project so I'm inclined to take that into account um it it I I'm cautious about making sure that everyone understands this is a unique scenario and that we don't want to set precedent that streams can be buried in PIP you know in town that's not that's not allowed um this is a kind of a unique scenario on this particular lot um I do think that some mitigation plantings um should be included and maybe we um keep this open just for a submission of a of the planting plan um so that Mike has a little more time to to think about it I think I agree at the bottom of the Basin there some irises or some other you know Wetland plants it's it's pretty deep there um would probably be a good idea and whether or not there's an opportunity to expand that Basin a little bit more to get some more Bank back would be also um something to to think about those are those are my thoughts on it okay why don't we go around one more time TJ any further thoughts on your part um I I do agree with Mary about setting a precedent but I think in this particular circumstance you know where the town may have dropped the ball and not finished the celv properly then then then the the applicant wouldn't be in the position they were in to begin with so you know that has to come into consideration as well too so um I think the the planting plan is is a great idea and and and I'm and I'm good with that uh from there on out after that okay Woody any any further comments on this project I agree with DJ and Mary what they just said I have nothing further to add okay thank you Woody Diane any any comments you want to add to this no I mean the depression area was pretty large and we had discussed that they would put Plants and you know not let kids play there I guess and you know let it grow Mary's suggestion that they make it bigger I mean I wouldn't be against that just then they're digging more and kind of disrupting things more when it seems to have sort of settled down um I don't know if Mary would know better if that would help or hurt the situation dig it up again you know I think this is again as both Mary and Mike have said this is a a a unique situation and it falls within that gray area of how we can you know how we look at this but oh I just mean the depression area yeah yeah yeah you no I don't mean the whole thing no no no I I know exactly what you're saying okay anything else Dan no I'm good with it Frank any any final thoughts on this you've heard of the proposed planting I think I need to I think I should abstain I have a vested interest in this so I think I'm G to abstain are you related do you do business dealings together because that's the state law well I don't know if uh if you would say business dealings but um I have I I have no problem with what's been discussed as far as plantings I agree with Diane that may be disturbing it is going to do may do more harm than good but I'll leave that up to Mary who's the expert on this okay so what I'm going to suggest is that I think for me the mitigation is going to be the proposed plants um 15 shrubs in a pretty defined are area I think is I think it satisfies you know my you know whatever concerns I have I think bringing equipment back there at this point is a detriment to the area and the resource so I think we have to decide deal with what we have and I think the mitigation of plants uh makes sense this has been hanging around way too long you know from a on on our agenda and and I would suggest that we could make a finding tonight and it' be conditioned on a planting schedule being submitted to the agent for review prior to uh actual installation if the agent feels it needs to come back to the commission uh then it would be it would come back to the commission but I think with Mike this is not your first uh Wetland planting or vegetation no this is what we do I think I think Mason will will back us up so that that's my thought but uh so I I'm I'm I'm applicable to entertaining issuing a negative finding with the conditions I just described I'm throwing that I'm not making it as a motion I'm just throwing out there for food for thought so that we can and find some solution to this Diane what are your thoughts I'm not against what you're saying I was actually just thinking more about Frank and the fact if if he participated in the discussions can he now abstain from the vote or is it just due to his well that was the thing I didn't understand what the what the rules were um is it just because of under a conflict of interest training direct family members sometimes extended family members business partners and Mary yeah that's true but he can also voluntarily abstain just exactly not vote but he can still participate in the discussions and all that okay he can just vote present I mean he can do what he wants okay that's what I wanted to know he may not get anyone come to his house in Halloween to get candy but no and I agreed with I I agreed with what you said before that as far as just letting it lie negative determination but realizing that it's it we're not bound for the next case that comes I mean we do like to our precedence precedence but this is a weird case so every case that comes before us is unique there's no two cases alike and I don't know that the town in this case necessarily did anything wrong um right they they only put in culverts to the limit of the RightWay um that they they needed to Culver it in that location because at one time it was probably wet on both sides um so it was just it's just a a drainage it's a drainage question here so okay well why don't I do this I I will entertain a motion to issue a negative determination for 130 Northern Boulevard butong wrong place 30 Riverview oh excuse me 32 3 yeah 30 32 that's where I cut and paste I get caught every now and then okay so for 30-32 Riverview Drive um the following conditions that a planting schedule will be submitted to the agent there'll be a minimum of 15 shrubs uh incorporated into that planting schedule and the agent can determine if that's adequate or if he wants to kick it back to the commission for further review so move second so Woody and Diane all right further discussion before we vote um what do you think guys I guess we we have a motion in a [Music] second okay let's go to a roll call vote all in favor Mary yes TJ hi Woody yes Diane yes all right yes and B Conor votes yes well thank you guys you know what it's it's been quite a journey uh by getting Mike on board you know what it it it help helped us to come up with some solution that wasn't so much painful that it could have been thank you you so much moving on moving on to our next matter okay we have a number of enforcement orders uh they're all in compliance there was an update today on 108 Main Street uh the applicant's going to be coming before us likely on the February 4th meeting uh to discuss the enforcement order and to seek an extension subject to the tolling approved by the governor's office on the on the Riverview enforcement do we is that deleted now well no that's the very next one Mary that we can talk about oh okay so we have uh the Riverview uh Drive what I would do is why don't we wait for the 10-day appeal period And once it's submitted to D and the appeal period is expired uh we'll just we'll put this on the schedule to uh to eliminate this was a verbal anyway this wasn't in writing it was a verbal enforcement okay it so it wasn't all right so we really don't we want to put a a time frame on the um the RDA condition on the RDA that the plantings be done within certain time period so that we make sure that we track it yeah yeah okay well why don't we just we'll leave it a verbal for now there doesn't really require any action tonight yep and something tells me that the planting is going to take place the minute it's allowed because they're going to want to uh checking it out yeah they we've we've got our second agent right there a secret agent right across the street okay the uh the other enforcement order outstanding is 62 Middle Road we have a plan for that they're going to come back in in may we have no extension request we have no certificates of compliance request and we're going to move on to continued public hearing we we switched this up team because we're anticipating that the lock and dam removal was going to be a fairly substantial and lengthy uh meeting and we wanted to take care of some of these other things first us which should be relatively quick so D file number 0501 1436 286 high road to construct an addition to an existing single family dwelling with Associated utility expanded driveway with an 100 foot buffer to the Salt msh area Mason where are we out on this one uh nothing new right now Bill had reached or I had reached out to Bill earlier today um and he said that he'll be submitting revised plans before um the February 4th meeting okay uh so has he requested a continuous of the February 4th meeting yes he yes okay I will entertain a motion to continue this public hearing to the February 4th meeting at the applicant's request moved second okay so Diane and TJ okay roll call all in favor Mary yes TJ right Woody yes Diane yes Bob Connors Frank yes okay great next next matter is a continued public hearing D file number 0501 1441 55 pearon Drive Cricut Lane applicant is submitting a notice and intent for installing a subservice surage Disposal system and raising and constructing a single family home the project and proposed installation are located only in the buffer zone or Upland areas the proposed Lee field is 52 feet from the flag wetlands and complies with the state Title 5 requirements Mason can you provide us a we did have a site visit out there but can you provide us an update and overview uh yeah so we went out a site visit um to look at the site um pretty straightforward there's a wetland in the back that has been impacted by the subdivision that was in there so I had recommended um some extra erosion control precautions um before demolition starts um but besides that there's no updates okay is Ben is Ben on the call to answer questions or who's representing the applicant tonight not sure if they have anyone on okay well questions we had a we we did a site inspection and um it it seemed pretty cut forward it's a basically a split entry house uh the buffer zone it's clearly defined it's sorted yard lawn um and I really don't have any problems with this Mary you're you're upstanding on this one yes I am okay PJ any any questions on this one no no questions at Woody what are your thoughts on this one you at the site visit yeah I attended the site visit and I agree with the fact that it's pry cut cut and dry straight forward and that's all okay thank you witty Diane you were on the site visit um no not this one oh that's right you living in Medford bye no I don't have any problem with it though okay Frank yeah questions on this one no questions thank you Bob okay I don't have any questions are there any raised hands from the public at this time if you if you have a question just unmute give us your name and address and I will recognize you okay do any members have a request for any additional information plan Amendment or adding additional content uh to the notice of inent no if not I will entertain a motion to close the public hearing a move second TJ okay uh you know what at this time is usually when we talk about special conditions uh Mason what were your thoughts you had mentioned that you you wanted some additional erosion and and sediment control yeah I think just an additional sock or a silk fence at the back of the property where we see um kind of that that steep grade behind behind the sock you want to put it or yep yeah that'd be idea okay why don't you add that as a special condition the again the front yard has a driveway and most of the yard like you say is outside the buffer any any other special conditions we want to consider Woody anything else do you think we need on this uh no there was I know there was question with a couple dead trees there but other than that I don't have any comments okay so I would think we want to add the condition of uh preconstruction meeting with the agent flagging of any dead trees prior to cutting that there were substantial dead trees that were in the in the immediate area and that an as Bill plan be submitted prior to the issuance of a certificate of compliance and our usual conditions that we have does anyone have any questions or want to add anything else besides what I just mentioned okay uh I will entertain a motion uh to issue an order of conditions for 55 p and drive second PJ okay certainly including the special conditions and our usual conditions we just previously mentioned okay roll call all in favor TJ I Woody yes Diane yes right yes and Bob con is VZ okay moving on next matter uh D file number 0501 1442 lock and row dam removal um Gomez and salvin have submitted a notice of intent for an ecological restoration project off locken road the project evolves involves removing the Lock and Dam to restore fish runs and the major project elements include removal of the dam installation of stone scour protection for the I95 bridge and removal of a small existing wear upam Upstream project team and partners have completed all regulatory reviews and preparation Mason do you have any comments you want to add or I see Jill is ready to give us her presentation yeah I'll let her take the floor on this one okay Jill just identify yourself and and welcome sure thank you um chairman and members of the commission for having us um I'm Jill Griffiths with I'm a water resources engineer with Gomez and Sullivan engineers and we are helping um the town with this project so we we gave an informational presentation to the Commission in November on the 19th of November and then we had site visit um on December 12th so I have some slides prepared um some of it is a bit repetitive from the November presentation but I think there's a few members here that weren't present in November is that right is anybody here or is anybody here that wasn't here in November I just want to make sure we don't have any new members okay I thought there was someone but there may not have been someone at that your initial uh okay preliminary presentation so yeah I can kind of run through that again and I have a few extra slides added um to show some more detail on access and erosion and sedimentation controls and um and then I can go from there if you have any questions so I'll go ahead and share let me see if I can put it into presentation mode without issue do you still see the slide yes okay great all right um so we've been working on this project for a number of years um starting with a feasibility study around 2010 and other agencies have been involved prior to that even um we have a whole host of of people helping and collaborating on this project um you can see some nonprofit local organizations up here uh many of these folks are on the call as well and you'll um may hear from them later at the end but um so we've got some local nonprofits some state and federal agencies collaborating um and we're also coordinating with various um state agencies for the different infrastructure owned um by other entities such as I95 bridge and the USGS gauging station um so here is a map and some photos of some of the key features of the project so this is the Lin Road or Lin Mill Dam um which is located here and the Parker river flows from the the North to the southeast um down the page like this and is impounded by the dam here creating this impoundment which you can see where the river is wider um and then other key features um up in the upper end of the empowerment we have the I95 Bridge with kind of a double um Crossing there and then um the USGS Stream flow gauging station is located here and uh there's a structure associated with that um a a concrete a small lwh head concrete wear and abutments um that were actually part of a previous Road um most likely that is used for um gauging Stream flow so the main purpose of the project um it well I think that's my next slide actually um the purpose of the project um primarily is Improvement of migratory fish passage so diagram is fish and you can see some of the key Target species at the bottom of the slide there so both species of um River Herring and as well as American eel and S sea Lam prey um that is one of the primary goals the project will also result in other um improvements for ecological um processes such as sediment transport um water quality improvements and so forth um also it's just an aging and unsafe old Dam that is no longer being maintained and um and needs a number of repairs in order to bring it into compliance with Dam safety regulations um so this will eliminate that that um risk and liability and ongoing obligation for the town and ALS lastly it will reduce um Upstream flood levels and it will eliminate the risk of the dam potentially failing and causing um a flood wave to travel Downstream possibly damaging infrastructure this is a map showing um current fish habitat for for diis fish in the Parker River Watershed and the dots correspond to um different structures that may or may not pose obstacles to fish as you can see there's a number of other dams that do have effective fish passage um the Len Road Dam has a fish ladder but it's not very effective it it was it's never functioned very well and it's also just at the end of its useful life so rather than trying to completely rebuild a new fishway uh it's more economical and um ecologically beneficial to just remove the dam to get the fish through there um the I95 Bridge isn't currently much of an issue for fish um but once the dam is removed water levels will will be a little lower so we're just encour you know making sure that we have a low flow Channel through there for for lower flow periods that fish can continue to get through and then lastly the USGS gauge wear that lwh head um concrete Weir again isn't much of a barrier under most flows but once the dam is removed I'll just go back to the the photo here um the down this is the upper extent of the Len Dam impoundment so this tail water or the base of this Weir will have a lower water surface so it'll be a bigger jump that would pose a barrier to fish um under most flows so that's why we're proposing to remove that um and we have presented and um applied for this as an ecological restoration project um which is a part of the wetlands protection act um there's a number of criteria that we've demonstrated in the application how the project meets and uh one of those criteria is that it must further at least one interest of the wetlands protection act which um this project does meet a number of those I think on the next slide yeah I go into that a little more so protection of Fisheries obviously um it will greatly improve access and habitat for uh diagramas fish and then in turn um for other fish species and uh other other all types of species um uh throughout the ecosystem it will also improve wildlife habitat by restoring um natural um vegetated Wetland bordering vegetated wetlands and other flood plane and Upland habitats along the um riverine Corridor that was historically there before it was artificially impounded um lastly it will help or not lastly but it will help with pollution prevention by those um restored wetlands and flood Plains will be better at filtering um storm water runoff and infiltrating into the ground rather than the current impounded um water surface and then lastly the flood control and storm damage prevention as I mentioned it will lower Upstream water levels and reduce the risk of um Downstream flooding and here in this photo you can see the dam over topping during a flood event um this is the spillway which is the only part of the dam that is supposed to over top per Dam safety regulations but you can see it's over topping along the entire embankment so definitely not compliance there um so for the proposed project what we're proposing to do um again this kind of like three elements to the project um at three different sites so the removal of the dam itself will include removal of all concrete structures including the spillway the abutments a concrete retaining wall and a fish ladder a fish ladder um some grading of the sediment just to kind of create a pilot Channel within um the you know the formally impounded sediment and then the rest of the sediment which is not much and very clean that is impounded within the um Upstream of the dam will be permitted to for natural instream release so it can be allowed to transport Downstream naturally to replenish those sediment starved areas Downstream this is just a elevation view of the current Spillway so here is the spillway portion of the dam right here um and these are abutments so this is the abutment kind of on the bar side or River left um side of the dam here with some big boulders tying it in and then here's the concrete retaining wall which extends you know way out along this embankment all along the fish ladder here it goes off the page here so that would all be removed and then the pilot Channel as I mentioned would be um graded into the sediment with a proposed low flow Notch to ensure that fish are getting the depths they need at low flows and lastly Downstream of the SPO there's a couple of um what what's been referred to as fish we so here's the dam in the background these are these lwh head we built of stone and rocks um that were created to divert fish into the fish ladder which is shown right here um those will be removed as well um at the I95 Bridge site um as part of the feasibility study for the dam we and discovered that the I95 I95 bridge is currently experiencing scour um there's some steel struts that connect the two abutments some of them are already exposed and abutments are under um you know exposed deeper than they should be so there's an existing problem the dam removal could make it slightly um more likely to increase scour so we wanted to proactively address it as part of the project so we're working on do with DOT on that and the proposed plan is essentially to place um there's no rip wrap scour protection through the bridge there's only rip wrap at the wing walls So the plan is to essentially place it through the bridge um to prevent further uh scour of those abutments and here's what that would look like in sectional view you can see the proposed rip W placement again with a lowf flow channel for fish and infilled with fines to prevent kind of flow loss um at low flows and lastly at the USGS site um this is the existing concrete uh Weir this skinny band here and then there's kind of like a concrete apron Upstream of it and two Stone abutments and here it is in an elevation View and the plan is to essentially remove uh most of those structures but keep this Stone abutment um on this side because uh oh excuse me keep the one on the left River left um because that is near the little USGS gauging Hut or little building where they house their equipment we don't want any impacts to that so we're going to keep all this Bank in place and this Stone button it in place but we're going to remove this one to give the river more room as you can see it's really constrained right here um and it it's very hard to fit flood flows through there without increasing velocities and flood elevations so we're basically just going to remove that artificial fill and abutment and grade it back on that right bank so that's what's reflected here and then within the channel itself um will have a similar rip wrap scar protection um similar to the bridge to essentially create a riffle that will be passable by fish what size stone is sorry um I think this is um 18 inch D like the median size is 18 inch up to up to three foot Max and again that would be infilled with fines um to create a natural you know so that it's not very um essentially like big pieces of rip wrap like it'll be a uni form um material similar to the surrounding Channel um I was also going to mention so so Jill just just to kind of follow up in Mary's question the size of the stone on the rip wrap you're only showing two feet minimum cover so 18 inch to two foot Stone would seem would almost seem like six to 8 in rip wrap would be be used to create a two foot um the twoot cover is just over the base of the abutment we want to make sure that the the abutment that's going to remain has at least a twoot thickness covering the bottom of the footing for structural reasons um but the layer itself is actually 3 feet thick which it looks like the scale might be a little off there because it doesn't look like that let me just pull up the actual plan set yeah it's a three foot Li three foot thick layer of rip wrap and then the under layer here A 1 foot thick layer of um you know a granular filter layer uh like a a smaller um gravel to underlay the rip wrap but I I I think the question was what size is the rip wrap so the median size of the rip wrap is 18 inches so it's here uh D50 is 18 in and filled with the fines and so the d00 size is up to um 3 feet is the maximum size that the rip W would be and we have a specification for kind of the whole gradation if you want to see that I can pull it up yeah no no I just I just wanted to have Clarity on that it the scale looks here looks like it's more six eight inches but yeah I agree that this is the scale seems a little off because this is supposed to be 3ot thick so I can look into getting that revised sorry about that um the sizing is determined by the velocities in that area which are very high because even though we are opening it up it's still constricted area um so that's what's pushing for the higher um rip prop sizing and we also want it to M we want to maintain a relatively stable Channel crosssection because this will continue to be used by USGS for Stream flow gauging so we don't want to cross-section that that's morphing over time and you know eroding or or changing very much in its shape so that's part of why we're installing this um Channel protection here so that they can continue to use this location we did look at relocating the gauge um we had a site visit with usus and d and others and uh looked at various locations up and downstream along the river but an we couldn't find another suitable location so ultimately it was decided that it would be best to keep it at this location and just install this basically a constructed riffle any other questions on that for now okay I'll just um finish up I think I just have a couple more slides here so this just shows some of the AIS and erosion and sedimentation controls um at the two sites so this one is LIN Dam um the propos this is 38 l Road a residence and I'll show it over here on the Arrow image but it's the same left and right um so there's this is town-owned land this whole parcel here and it wraps around like this and follows down along to the dam um so this is an area that can be used for um potential staging it's kind of an open grassy area here um and then an axis Road a temporary Access Road would be built along an existing foot path and then further down it would actually follow the alignment of the fishway to minimize tree clearing so we would just be temporarily filling in the fishway and building the road right over it and then as the contractor is finishing up and kind of working their way off the property they would be removing the fishway and temporary access road as they go out um another potential staging area is here um there is an existing fence for this residential property that extends um along here you can kind of see it on the aerial imagery it extends across the town's property um I believe the town has been in correspondence with that owner to remove that section of fence so that will be done prior to construction and I'm happy to entertain questions as we go or come back to it whichever you prefer um but then oh go ahead do you want to you want to continue we'll just do questions at the end sure yeah okay so this is similar access and erosion and sentation controls at the Upstream site so one kind of set of access um measures for both the USGS reel removal and the bridge work um and they would be coming in from the 12 kentway Plaza area we've been working with the owners of that um property for Access and um this is kind of an existing gravel lot beyond the extent of the paved lot that some of that area could be used for potential staging an aess Road would need to be built down the slope um and then a lower you know there's a lower flat area that could potentially be used for staging if needed and then a ramp down to get into the river and then if you look over here from there we could use you know they could use swamp mats if needed to to Traverse the soft sediment after it's dewatered that's kind of the access there and then um these slides show the anticipated changes to the Wetland resources so in blue is the land underwater and water bodies in white is the bordering vegetated LS um in blue lined hatch is uh bordering land subject to flooding and then we've got our 100 foot bvw buffer and our 200 foot Riverfront area so that's existing resources and then this is what we anticipate um for a conversion uh after the dam is removed so you can see a narrowing of the land underwater and repl that we expect that that will um transition to additional bordering vegetated wetlands and then the buffers will change accordingly and then that uh just as a reminder um this this here you know indicates that under the wetlands protection act ecological restoration projects do allow for temporary or permanent loss or conversion of wetland resource areas um because it's achieves the greater net benefits of the the project uh this just shows that same information in numerical form and this is in the application as well so change to bank land underwater Etc um so essentially swapping the land underwater for anticipated gain in barding vegetated Wetland go back to that one more sure yep what's the um reduction in oh I see okay the riverfront area is going to be reduced okay because you're shrinking the channel size yeah EXA yep thanks uh these are some of the regulatory reviews that we've been undergoing um most everything now I believe everything has been filed um and is either under review or completed meepa has been completed um and uh yeah this is kind of where we're at with the notice of intent uh targeting Construction in summer and fall of 2025 so that's that's all I had for the main slides I'm happy to answer questions okay questions from the members Mary we're going to start with you Bob um Jill can you go back to that slide right before on that with the permits just um so you you need a separate water quality certificate for this the ecological restoration order of conditions won't serve as your water quality certificate under this right yep um because what are you triggering that dredge fill that's Dred okay yep okay and so you will need the waterways license addition of the um that's that's always required for any dredge dredge fill basically like re repositioning of sediment within the channel um we're still undergoing review for with them to determine whether a license is required or not um they may potentially require a license for the kind of the scour counter measures the rip wrap placement in the channel okay um but that they won't require license for the dam removal and we be notified Mason of both those 401 and 91 um filings if yeah the town is actually um so on the chapter 91 the town is a co- applicant with the with do because do owns the bridge so that's the part that might get licensed so do would be the license holder if that were the case oh okay all right and what about office of Dam safety do we have anything from them in in the file so they corresponded a number of years ago to determine that the dam is non-jurisdictional so we don't need to we don't need to get a permit from them okay and then you may have already said this but um sediment testing was that determine that wasn't needed because of we did sediment testing I actually have some slides on that I can um show okay so yeah here's the sediment sample site sites and we sampled in 2009 2010 and again in 2022 found similar results each time um basically it's it's fairly clean I don't know if you're familiar with these terms um threshold environmental um no sorry uh probable contion concentration yeah I thought it was I don't know anyway this this this one thank you susia um one of them these are related to ecological possible ecological concerns uh that's what it is threshold environmental concerns and probable environmental concerns I believe anyway um those are found everywhere and developed watersheds so those are not of great concern to DP um mostly what we're looking for is whether the sites in the empowerment are similar to reference levels um upstream and downstream of the impoundment which was the case here um so again we found some slight exceedances of those but no exceedances of the mass contingency plan which is more for human health concern okay yep and so that was contaminant testing and then we also did physical testing as well to determine quantities and depths and so forth we found about 1300 cubic yards um within the empowerment about 1,000 cubic yards that we expect May mobilize or shift over time after the damage is removed which is sounds like a lot but it's actually a relatively small amount a lot of other projects I work on you know have more like upwards of 10,000 cubic yards um and can you talk a little bit about the schedule when when you anticipate doing this work I know it's subject to obtaining permits but and how long duration you expect yep um so yeah it's subject to permits uh we're hoping to get the permits in the next few months here uh and go out to bid um this spring and construct starting um I believe July 1 would be the you know the earliest inwater work date and we expect it to take three to four months so are there um any you don't have any time of your restrictions from Heritage you're not in a priority habitat so yeah not the Heritage we do have um I believe we have time of your restrictions from DMF um let me just pull that up and double check because I get confused on the projects but basically we're close coordination with DMF um Joe from DMF is on this call and um you know we sorry I'm just trying to open um we we design these projects to be fish friendly so like during construction there will be a large diameter 3ft diameter bypass pipe for any out migrating juveniles um we you know we won't have any like long-term pumping of the whole river water or anything like that um so I believe it's April 1st to June 15 yes thank you there yep and then that's what I was just talking about with the downstream so if adequate Downstream passage is provided they would not likely recommend a fall time ofe restriction but they'll they'll want to see the final water control plan as presented by the contractor um to make that determination so you're going to try to do it essentially lowf flow time of year yep subject to condition um is there a is there a minim maximum water depth or anything that you would have to postpone work that would be up to the contractor that's up to their means and methods and they would prepare a water control plan for sub submittal for review by the owner and um engineer and we could certainly provide you with that and include you in that process if you want to see it um so they would provide a high flow contingency plan and typically yes they would determine a certain flow above which they would basically you know they would design their water controls to withstand a certain flood flow and above that point they would just stop work and you know their their measures would be designed to be stable but they wouldn't be working in the channel during a flood I would think that we definitely want to have uh sure participate in that water control plan um review okay sure and then um can you talk about uh the restoration and replanting as you as you back out sure um so the area the Upland area will be um loomed and seated for any Disturbed areas with a a native seed mix um which I believe is specified if it's not specified on the planet at least as native seed mix and we'll provide a specification um in the project manual but that would be any Disturbed Upland areas as far as the dewatered areas of the impoundment um we typically um see those revegetating we're the plan is to allow those to revegetate naturally from the Native seed bank that's present in the sediment um we've seen this on numerous dam removal projects throughout the Commonwealth and um it's very successful and it reduces the impact of having heavy equipment traversing around through soft sediment to to do plantings so um will there be a invasive species management plan yep so a draft plan is included in the application feel free to review and comment on that it's also being reviewed by D um and the Army Corps as part of their reviews and so we expect that to kind of you know be revised to address everyone's comments and we'll provide you with updates if they if they um have any comments um but yeah there's an invasive species monitoring plan in there um I believe it indicates that pre-construction we will remove um basically purple Lo Strife is the main species of of concern in the area and um we are committing to removing what we can um by basically cutting off the seed heads um or the flowers sorry I'm not the expert but Mason told me this is what we should do and uh bag them and then after construction you know there will be annual monitoring um and we would work with the Conservation Commission and alert um alert the town to any instances of new invasives and see how it should be handled okay and how long of duration after construct I what's your monitoring plan um it's proposed for two years I believe um which is the minimum required by the ecological restoration project um regulations that's it for me for now um Bob thank you okay I'll Circle back Mary uh TJ any any questions this is a lot to process and and one a very much so um no I'm just I'm still taking in Mary's question so I'm I'm good right now okay thank you TJ Woody uh any questions for Jill at this time yes uh where when the Project's complete do you do you suspect any I know we've had some wet seasons and we have dry seasons but anyways that being said do you suspect any um decrease in water table or any effect of the water table after this Project's complete um we don't expect a major change really no because the similar area will be flooded on in the the two-year um recurrence interval which is what what is one indicator of kind of groundwater levels um so we did an analysis of wells in the area um we have that in the feasibility report I can provide data if you'd like but we did not we determined that there would be no impact to the private Wells along the artment based on the depth those Wells and the the current water table and the anticipated change okay and um I that's it for now if I have another question I'll speak up okay okay Diane questions for Jill on this one no I did read it it's a very good presentation I wouldn't even know where to start um I there's no D comments yet but it seems like it was just filed recently so I'm sure you're expecting some de EP comments or are you probably and or go ahead Mary I don't no I just checked right now there's no comments right now yeah yeah that's what I was saying there's none now but I is this something we wouldn't be voting on this tonight or if there's no comments yet well I I think you know we'll get through our questions and then we'll have a discussion uh there may be uh some additional information we we may need to process or Jill may just have to point us in the right direction to review that but I think once we finish questions we can we can discuss you know next steps yeah I don't have any remember the public this is open to the public too we'll have public comment so it was a great great written presentation I Jill left no stone unturned whether it was 18 inches or 36 right [Music] literally anything else Dan in and no team just just jump in if you have an additional question don't wait for me to to ask Frank what thoughts do you have on this project I have no thoughts on this project I think it looks pretty um straightforward that it's going to improve the resource and uh I'll leave it up to Mary and the experts to do the rest great so Jill the only the only oh go ahead Mary oh I was just gonna say just to put it in context for some of some of the members that you know this ecological restoration notice of intent is a little bit different than a normal notice of intent it has to meet very specific parameters and you know there are there are parameters to be qualified for an ecological restoration project and there are specific parameters for dam removal projects um and there are like eight different criteria which we sort of ticked through um and in the information that was provided they address they are a through G with the how they meet each of the specific criteria for dam removal so ultimately the way this this um kind of project is is um works is it's very much front loaded the applicant has to do a lot of work ahead of time so that ultimately the commission just issues an a restoration order which has a boilerplate set of conditions for us um we don't have to think about special condition you know try to come up with all the special conditions that we think might apply to a project like this DS sees enough of these type of projects that they know they know the type of conditions that are required to over to make sure that the project is done without with minimal impact to the resource that said if there is anything you know unique to this project we we still can include some special conditions but it's essentially meant to be a standalone document so if you're overwhelmed the content of the information that's because the way that that this is been set up so that they have to they have to provide all that ahead of time they're not you know that looks like there there's significant um temporary impacts to Wetland resources and then permanent impacts as well because resources are being converted from one type to another from one type of from you we're eliminating some Bank resource and some uh land underwater resource and that's converting over to what's called bordering vegetated Wetland resource so ultimately and and the riverfront area will be reduced because the width of the river is going to be less um so there's a significant reduction in in some of the the resources Mary I have a question or Jill whomever um how will this impact Property Owners of budding this project in terms of buffer zones changes in buffer zones to their property yeah I mean theoretically the it would affect both the flood plane and the riverfront area boundaries uh long term so there could be an increased or decreased depending on where they are on the project site yeah yeah you can see here um so the riverfront area will decrease um in a few areas um like here uh is the main area that's kind of within a developed area um and but the the flood plane won't change all that much because it is kind of a narrow channel um there's not a huge flood plane here so that's not going to change a whole lot on any particular lots that are affecting people's houses or anything like that um but where there's bordering vegetated Wetland that extend beyond the bank if there was no if that was not an area well presumably that would have been an area that was flooded previously and so that would have been part of the river it's part of the BBW so there shouldn't be huge changes right it be interesting to look at someone had a particular property owner had a concern we could zoom in on that location yep yep definitely yeah I could prepare if if it's helpful I could prepare another version of this that Zooms in a little more and has adds tax parcels and usually you know what people are most concerned about is Downstream flooding impacts from eliminating a dam and so that's part of what had had to the hydrological analysis was part of the yep submission so yeah and just to reiterate that so there will be no change um Downstream of the dam as far as um flooding or river flow or anything like that um because this is not a flood controll Dam it's what's called a run River Dam so basically you know you have your Spillway and water is kind of just flowing over it so even if that Spillway goes away the same like water in equals water out whether that dam is there or not it's not it's not a big tall flood storage Dam that's building up over time and then controlling a release and are you removing the full vertical structure all the down okay y okay anything else Frank no that's all thank you so Jill I wanted to Circle back on on a couple of things sure what w he raised the good question uh as did Frank on impacts to Property Owners the bfield water district has a wellfield in that general area uh yeah it's Downstream yep what uh I I guess the the elevation of the dam and then the what the new elevation of water is going to be you're not anticipating any great impact on groundwater elevation nope um because again because that's Downstream um so the water levels aren't going to change Downstream and the um okay yep and I do have a figure here I think I can put my hands on it quickly um that shows that location yep okay so here's the dam and here's those um the water supply wells in this area here okay and we also looked at it from the perspective of sediment contamination and again found no impact um because those impoundment samples were uh as clean or cleaner than the downstream samples that were taken in this area okay I think the the other thing is uh to to Frank's Point as you change the dynamic of the river the resource area setbacks change as well it if I understood you correctly it sounded like they were going to be reduced on the River Front FR area slightly because the parameter the diameter of the river was shrinking um so I think is there any impact where that the jurisdiction is going to be expanded on private property that isn't currently there and um I don't believe just more for informational than yeah nope I don't think any jurisdiction would expand um because the bvw outer edge is staying the same so that buffer is staying the same and um like we said the riverfront area would reduce the bordering land subject to flooding would reduce which that's a little bit of a um you know kind of confusing way of stating it the bordering land subject of flooding Upstream of the dam is reducing in area meaning that not as much land will flood however there's a lot more room available to um accommodate flood storage so there's a lot more flood storage available in the proposed condition so um but yeah as far as the jurisdictional areas all of them would reduce on private property so again just some procedural questions on me there's a multitude of permits that you have to obtain uh and I'm assuming that they're all subject to the you know everyone you you've got 12 permits to obtain they're all conditioned upon that youve Sid every other local estate approval required so from from a local standpoint uh how does this work on the approvals of permits and and then how do we close out this project yeah no that's a great question and it's very nuanced and it's actually doesn't quite work within the way the regulations are currently written um so I think there's some proposed rule changes to address that but currently um it's like these the two D permits in the noi all go hand inand so technically you have to have an issued for 401 Water Quality certificate before you can issue your order of conditions um I think you can still vote and we could you know consult with others to confirm this but I think you can still vote to close the hearing if you'd like um and or you know indicate that it will be issued contingent on the water quality certification being issued um then the order of conditions has to be issued before chapter 91 can close out and issue their license actually both the 401 and the Order of conditions are required to close out chapter 91 um which is a little bit of a catch 22 because chapter 91 technically requires the um issued order of conditions to be submitted with their application um but you can't do that until you it's just like you can't do them all in the right order so but this is the best approach um basically that we you know that is being used currently by most projects so yes you would wait for the 401 Water Quality certification to be issued prior to issuing the the order conditions do you have an anticipated date of issuance on that um I believe I would say around February sometime in February but Susie I don't know if you have more Intel on that yeah I think this is Susie with mass de division oh yeah sorry I should introduce myself everyone I'm with the division of ecological restoration so we're um supporting this project and have been working with dill and the other project Partners to move it along um and last we heard from 41 I think they were hoping to issue it during in January um although we may not see it until February at this point we did already do a site visit um with them and we've gotten some kind of administrative requests from them that Jo's already responded to so it's sort of in their court and we're waiting for it um but yeah I would say February to be safe could is there a possibility that during the 401 review process there could be some minor plan amendments uh to satisfy the requirements of 401 I'm trying to think if they they have not asked for anything further I can't think of anything um but you know there's always that possibility so we can certainly you know keep it open and well my kind of my thought is is that if you're close to it it may be it may make sense to continue this to our February 4th meeting so that we don't close out the public hearing yeah and limit and add more confusion exactly yeah I think that makes sense and if we haven't heard from them by then would we just request a continuance to your second February yeah yeah no I think that and yep so does anyone else have any questions that again I think it's at this point the procedural aspect of it is is probably what I'm focusing on more than the the content because when I look at who's already looking at this uh it's above my pray my pay grade and certainly Mary has this all down down pth but we we rely heavily on on Mary's expertise and patience uh with the commission so why don't we do this I I think be because of the nature of this why don't we talk about what special conditions that we may want to entertain and and I'm thinking it's just going to be preconstruction meetings flagging of trees that are going to be are proposed to be cut or that are dead and and should be cut uh and things like that review staging areas where spoils are going to be stored as I recall that you were thinking the contractor was going to live load the spoils and just haul them out of there rather than try to store them on site yep okay so it seems to me it may make sense for us team to talk about the preconditions that we we want to incorporate uh and then we could consider continuing this to the February meeting to see whether 401 lands and then the only issue would be anything that would arise from the 401 if it changed you know any of the content of the docs that we've received does does that make sense yeah I I had I had some of those same proposed special conditions but also um some a requirement for some kind of weekly reporting to the commission during construction activities okay well Mary why don't you mat why don't we talk about we're going to get we're getting ahead of ahead of this a little bit but I think if if we discuss what conditions we want and we're in agreement then we leave it to one issue when it comes down right May and we can also maybe do that offline with some yeah I just want to mention um can you guys see this other form I'm sharing okay yeah the form 5A yeah so this is that's what I wanted to check you could review this yeah you could R this there yeah this is the boilerplate spe conditions that get issued with the restoration order of conditions okay um so yeah you could review this I need to leave the meeting Bob yes I need to leave the meeting okay yep TJ we have a quum thank you thank you okay TJ yeah yeah we'll review that and make sure that the special conditions don't are redundant with what's already in the boiler plate y okay okay so I think why don't we just do that we can do that offline Mar I think U we know typically what we wanna what we want for control and like you say it's probably already covered then maybe just to mine a couple of things so all right uh I will entertain unless anyone has any additional questions or comments they want to make I'll entertain a motion to continue this public caring to our February do we want to see if there's anyone in the public that wants to comment yeah no that's true too H do we have anyone from the public here who would like to comment I don't see anyone that doesn't have a professional ER I was gonna say Joe Eric Neil and Brian and Susie are part of the project team okay Eric has his hand up though you'd like to okay go ahead Eric yeah while we do does anyone in your team have would like to offer a comment why don't we do that sounds like Eric does yeah I couldn't resist this is Eric Hutchins from the Noah restoration Center I probably go back the farthest on this back to the late I think 1990s practically uh it's been around for a long time this is great um but what one comment I want to throw it was something that that Mary brought up about GE the possibility of weekly meetings I want to emphasize the weeklys contractor reports well just so you know we actually on almost all projects of this nature we have weekly meetings on site and sometimes they're every other week but almost every week which presents the project team which obviously would include the town of Newbury the opportunity to um because a lot of things you just don't know the damn removal a different Rock show something you didn't know about so they're they're really valuable um and there every week from beginning to end usually have the engineer there on-site inspector um probably be someone from De Noah DMF I mean a it'll change up depending where the project is but it is a Priceless opportunity probably the most valuable input on these projects takes place during construction to make sure that everything is going as planned and contingencies are in place to make sure that nothing gets out of hand so keep keep that in mind it's a and they're fun to be honest with you it's pretty unique to take down a dam that's been there for 200 years plus and learn about what's really underneath it based on your sampling thank you I think if we coordinated that so it landed on any day but Friday that our agent would certainly uh probably welcome the opportunity to to participate definitely okay anyone else from your team Jill that would like to add some comments or um I don't see any raised hands so I think we're good thank you they were just here to answer technical questions if needed and okay oh Brian maybe I don't know Brian this is your this is your okay he says no he's good okay everyone give a thumbs up that doesn't want to talk I guess EAS way to do this okay this let's just go over this again are there any raised hands from the public this time I didn't see anybody but doesn't mean we shouldn't double check okay Tim I think the collective uh consensus is that uh we should continue this public hearing to the February 4th meeting at the applicants request do we have a motion no moved second second okay so that's Diane and Woody okay uh roll call all in favor Mary yes uh Woody yes Diane yes Frank yes and Bob con is V cheers thank you everyone amazing presentation thank you lot to process and I think Mary's suggestion of reviewing the boiler plate is probably going to eliminate 90% of the questions of we won't have to revisit things place so okay thank you so much for your review and your great questions thank you all thanks everyone appreciate it thank you bye okay uh the the next matter we we have just a a general discussion I received a National Grid this was forwarded by Town administrator's office National Grid 21-day notification regarding RightWay herbicide applications this was sent to the board of Selectmen um I'm not sure what jurisdiction if any or it's just information only but Mary what are you what's your experience on this I'm trying to recall no I think they just have to notify if they're going to be in resource areas to do their um and I don't think there's anything that we need to respond to but I'll double check on that Mason did they do they did a me profiling didn't they on this um I I thought I saw that in the let me check um but I believe that that that was just sent out as um a notification and then also a request for the town to review um their maps in case anything had changed in regards to um private or public water supply okay I'm just yeah they we have a copy of the environmental monitor notice that was published so it's it's gone through Meep review so it's so from a jurisdictional standpoint is there anything that we we need to do it's in that this was put in the Dropbox too Mary okay I didn't I didn't focus on that one well you you know what it I think the damn this doesn't require any action on our part uh I want to say it's a do we know where it is well I think if we look at the the Meer review yeah it gives us the work will be performed okay that's the vegetation management well why don't we do this why don't we review there was I I uploaded what was to the town into the file why don't we just put this on our February 4th uh agenda for review Ju Just to add um there is a link um Mary you're talking about uh Maps there's a link um that has the list of towns um and on there Newber is on there with the map identifying the water supply and such that um they're trying to avoid impacting is this the the high power lines that are coming down by Highfield Road over there by the I over in or is it over in the long 95 there D remember the high top power lines that were backed up to the solar Soler thing yeah that was off of 90 what's the question again it's the same it's same Corridor goes from sorry I didn't interrupt goes from basically essentially the Newport train station all the way through across the highway pops out in downtown bfield and it does go right along the solar field kind of straight yeah there was an access road right there I remember there being a big access gate and that but and one that raises another question did they ever build the yellow brick bridge over there for access to that to the soul they had to right yeah but you know what we haven't we haven't gotten any weekly reports um what do you may know better than that actually I haven't heard anything I I asked no one had any answers and Mason hasn't heard anything about the solar field build that was a huge thing remember the huge crane the 50ft crane and oh 600 foot no 600 ton crane oh oh whatever it was it was big it's massive maybe we'll take a walk over there well why are we do this team you know what it's 8 o'clock um again this was an FYI why don't we take a look what's in the Dropbox and write down whatever questions you want to raise or if there's some information additional information you you you think we should obtain send it off to Mason and then he can you know he can send that off to whoever there's a 45 day comment period from the date of the letter which was December 9th so if we want to comment on the yearly operation plan through Newbury or you know based on updated Maps or anything like that then we would only have until whatever 45 days is from so the date the date it was received was December 16 is what it was stamped 16th okay yeah so the 16th of June yeah that I mean that just about gets us to uh February 4th well why don't we do this Mary why don't you take a look at it and why don't we all take a look at it worst case scenario if we have to call for a special meeting prior to the expiration date to offer comments uh we can I just wanted to get that on everyone's rad out screen and I think the Meer review comments if any okay all right uh anything else Mason that you wanted to add um I had gotten a notification from National Wildlife um with their final environmental site assessment for the lot at the pinkos um so they sent that over letting me know that the asbest has been removed um and they're you know kind of moving forward on the structures removal process um they have some erosions up in place but I just wanted to share that I'll be taking a look at the final environmental assessment um for pinkos I suggested to to Mason that they submit an RDA they they can the proposing work within our jurisdiction you have a federal Supremacy uh Clause that they can exercise but they've asked us for comments so the RDA would seem to be the proper as the introduction to the board for for comments and uh you will find out that they can probably just say thank you for your comments and do whatever they want but I think from an intake standpoint they've made a request for review and the RDA is the way to go they they may not file the RDA like you said um yeah House Council doesn't think to you yeah no again that's that's what they're asking us they've sent something to the commission for our consideration comments yeah yeah and you know what if it was anyone else thatd be coming as an RDA it's within jurisdiction but and I think that's about it okay last word what do you anything you want to you want to reminisce about your canoe trips down the Paka River before changes no but I've seen some of the habitat there today so okay Diane any any final words Mary how about you you have to be exhausted Mary you had a lot of heavy lifting here [Music] tonight Frank how about you any any final thoughts no thank you okay um Mason how about you nothing for me it's gonna do it for me okay I will ENT a motion to adjourn now moved do we have a second second okay so we're gonna do Diane and Mary roll call Mary kjy Diane yes thank you everyone it's 805 great thanks Bob thanks everyone thanks everyone